This City Never Sleeps At Night

2 - Night In The City

Persephone was not exactly a normal girl. She was homeschooled, sure, but plenty of girls were homeschooled(As far as she knew). She was an Avian, but again, that was fairly common. She was also adopted. She figured that part out even before her parents told her. Still, not that significant.

She painted her wings, threw knives and trained, and had energy powers. No, NOT electricity. if she had electricity powers, she would SAY that she had electricity powers. Whatever. A bit uncommon now, but still believable.

She was the child of two stay-at-home former villains-turned-vigilantes who faked their deaths and lived in a giant house that ran partially underground and connected to their old villain lair and training center. That's where it got weird.

"Oooooh, Persephoneeeee..." The voice came from down the hallway. "Come out, come out, whereeeeeever you areeeee!"

Persephone was hiding on the ceiling, holding onto a metal pipe jutting out of the wall and through to the other side. After all, up was the direction people seldom forgot to check. As the footsteps came closer, her grip tightened. Once the person was directly under her, she dropped from the ceiling.

"Wh- AGHH!" Jack yelped as she landed nearly on top of him, almost knocking him to the ground. "SEPH! You nearly gave me a heart attack!" He let out a small laugh and paused to catch his breath. "Were you there the whole time? I walked through here, like, twice!"

Persephone laughed and stood up from where she had landed in a crouching position to brace her fall. "Yep. Missed me both times!" 

"Did you find her yet?" The call echoed through the house. 

"I got her!" Jack called back with a slight laugh, grabbing Persephone and picking her up before heading in the direction of the living room. 

Persephone squawked indignantly and scrambled to get free, one of her sage green wings smacking her dad in the face. Curse him and his vigilante strength! A bit of the olive green pigment she'd been using flaked off. So she had missed a spot...

Once they entered the living room, she was thrown onto the couch, wings unfurling partway in midair. 

"Good toss," Came a voice from the kitchen's doorway. Niki was standing there, spoon in hand and arms crossed across her chest. "If you'd come out earlier, maybe your ice cream wouldn't have melted."

Persephone snorted. "It's just ice cream. It's not even my favorite flavor-"

"I'll eat it," Jack put in, moving towards the kitchen. Oh, no he did not!

Persephone scrambled to enter the kitchen before him, one of her wings smacking against the doorway in the process. "No one touches my ice cream soup!"

Niki chuckled. "Well, that's one way to get her in here."

"I can hear you, you know." Persephone said, picking the bowl up. She grabbed a mug from the cabinet and poured the remains of the toffee ice cream into it, because drinking ice cream out of a bowl was apparently not socially acceptable(But drinking it out of a mug was? What?).

"Icarus was at the café again," She said conversationally. Jack chuckled. "Cool, cool, did he get an iced tea and a donut?" It was pretty obvious they didn't believe her.

"No," She emphasized. "He works there. He's the barista – The one with the big gray wings."

Niki raised an eyebrow. "Icarus has red wings, Seph, you know this-" 

"He paints them. I saw some of the gray come off; his wings are really red."

Jack hesitated. "Are you sure? This could just be a normal guy who paints his wings...And besides, Icarus is older..."

Persephone took out her phone and went to her audio recordings. She hit play on the first one, and the barista's voice came out of the speaker. She then stopped the recording and played another one; a recording of Icarus's voice. She watched as Jack closed his mouth and Niki's eyebrows shot up.

"Well, I'll be damned..." She muttered, crossing her arms. "Maybe you were right, Sephone."

Persephone fluffed her wings up proudly, crossing her arms. "Well I REALLY hate to say 'I told you so', but, you know... I told you so."

Jack chuckled. "You're a smart one, Persephone. Thanks for the information."

Persephone stood up, pocketing her phone. "Alright, I'm going to go meet up with Wilbur. I'll be back by twelve."

"Stay safe," Niki called. "Don't forget your jacket!"

"Ha, sorry, can't hear you, love you, bye!" Persephone called, slipping out the front door.

Jack laughed and sat down on the couch. "What are we going to do with that girl..."

Persephone was walking down the street, about ten minutes away from where she and Will usually rendevouxed when she got a text. She pulled out her phone, opening the message. It was from Wilbur.

'Sorry, can't come tonight. Urgent shit came up.'

Persephone rolled her eyes in fake annoyance and texted back, 'Yeah, whatever. Tomorrow?'

'Sure, see you then.'

Persephone slid her phone back into her pocket and sighed, opening her wings to fly. She jumped into the air and landed on the top of one of the buildings.

Niki and Jack wouldn't be expecting her back for another two hours or so, so she could just watch the city for a while. She dangled her legs over the edge of the building, leaned back on her hands, and looked over the structures of varied heights...

She heard a thud behind her and turned her head so quickly she nearly got whiplash. Somnus was crouched on the rooftop. He was the number three hero in the city...

He had a black sash that covered his eyes. They glowed pale yellow, casting two eerie, bioluminescent dots to be present where his eyes would normally be. His hero outfit wasn't anything too fancy, just a brown leather trench coat, two black gloves with holes on the palms, slate gray pants, and brown combat boots.

Persephone watched him warily as he stood up, looking down at her. It was somewhat unnerving; the yellow glow staring directly at her green eyes. She curled her wings into herself, standing up as well.

Somnus spoke in a relatively deep yet accented voice. "What are you doing out?"

Persephone was about to respond before an out-of-view voice called from a higher rooftop; "Somnus! Come on!" 

Somnus flinched. "Coming!" He yelled in a somewhat nervous tone. He sounded a bit familiar...She couldn't place it. 

Somnus glanced back at her before levitating up to the taller rooftop. His powers were phantom-like; he was able to levitate for short periods of time and his singing would lull opponents into a calm, relaxed, sleepy state.

Persephone dropped off of the roof and spread her wings, beginning to fly home. She didn't have to look back to tell that Somnus was watching her every move.

Chapter 2 pog!

Word count: 1,111 (NICE)

Have a great dayyyy!

-ITCFWI