Seek {Superhero AU} - Ending 1

4: Remedy for Memory

NPOV

Track: Dark Paradise, Lana Del Rey

I have the advantage once night hits; my suit melds with the sky while Sunburst remains perfectly visible in all his bright yellow glory. I'm not sure why he went with yellow, aside from the fact that it matches his powers. Where is the practicality in never being able to sneak up on me? Also, since when does anyone like bright yellow enough to make a whole suit out of it? I swear the guy makes no sense.

I enjoy the quiet that I get from not having his incessant mouth up in the air with me. I have to hope he never figures out how to fly; it's my only tangible advantage over him, aside from the fact that he's usually pretty inefficient at his job. He has the police on his side, he has security systems on his side, he has more painful powers on his side, he has the whole fucking city on his side.

But the skies—they are on my side.

The secret to flight isn't anything too magnificent. Once I got my suit from Hecate, I figured it out pretty quickly. She had slipped me a comment about it when she gave me my suit: The soul soars at foreign sensations, Nico.

Turns out, foreign doesn't have to mean totally new, just not something everyday, either. For me, my 'foreign sensations' tend to be of the "happiness, joy, and excitement" genre. It's a little annoying to have to think happy thoughts every time I want to go anywhere. Some days it's harder to get off the ground than others.

For Sunburst? I don't know. Maybe he could fly if he tried something more doom-and-gloom. Has he tried self-loathing?

The clouds are calming. Down on the ground, constant anxiety looms over me; at any moment, someone could capture and imprison me. Up here, there's only me, the clouds for protection, and the endless stars above me. No threats, no danger, just safety and sky.

All good things must come to an end. I dive lower, searching the labyrinthine neighborhoods for the house I have so often watched. The victim this time is at a trial for the next several hours—he's an accountant, so he got called in to review some company's finances as a witness or something.

"Wait! Ghost King! Come down here right now!"

I startle at the sound and look down. Sunburst is sprinting on the ground; how did he know I was going to hit another house tonight? Whatever—not important. "Why should I?"

"Because I can't come up there, and I need to talk to you!"

"Well, I don't want to talk to you!" I mean, seriously. You'd think he thought he was my friend or something. Superheroes generally don't talk to their villain counterparts like this, do they? I don't exactly have a lot of experience outside of Sunburst.

"Why not?" I barely heard him; the wind had picked up and was now whistling numbingly in my ears. I picked up speed once I spotted the house I was aiming for. In the land of suburbs where all the houses look vaguely the same from a bird's eye view, I use the lawn decorations to keep track of which house belongs to my victim. This particular house has two pink lawn flamingos sticking near a squarish rock in its garden. I dipped forward.

"What are you—?" He saw the house I was going to and sprinted forward. I rolled my eyes. I dove down and landed perfectly in front of the house's door—but not before Sunburst just barely manages to make it to the door to block my way.

"Ghost King. Please, you've already broken into one house today. Do you really need to do more?" He's trying to give me his best puppy dog eyes, and there's something about the fact that he thought that would work that makes me actually laugh a little.