DAWNBREAK

Chapter 2: The Opaque Ones.

Light can travel the length of space between our Sun and to our planet in about eight minutes. However, to me, nothing ever came quicker than a Monday morning after a relaxing weekend. My alarm rung. Five minutes away from half eight, compensating my bad habit of hitting the snooze button, which has gotten me into trouble on countless occasions. By 9:15, I was outside my apartment complex, situated just outside of Central, ready to take on the day. Eleanor was sat on the sidewalk on her holo-phone waiting. She spun round when she heard the door close behind me and glared in disapproval.

"You're late... Again." , she said, as she stood up, putting her phone back into her pocket.

"Early morning Hero patrols were never really my thing" , I replied, as I stretched the grogginess out of my head. "Shall we?".

The general public usually assume that hero work is filled with grand feats of heroism, like something you'd see in the movies, but this wasn't usually the case. Ever since the recent spike in random and unconnected human casualties, the OCPD called upon the Alliance to bolster the security and safety of the public. Now, every morning we had to report to the mission office at the Great Hall, where they would allocate heroes to oversee a section of the city. Eleanor and I made our way to a nearby station and caught the Belt straight to the Great Hall to report in for duty.

The Great Hall seemed busier than usual; a huge crowd were amassed inside the Mission Office looking up at the Holo-screen which stood high in the centre. It seemed like all the 11 major guilds were present, The Sagittarian's were nowhere to be seen. I pushed through the crowd, with Eleanor trailing close behind, to get a better look at the screen. As I did, we passed the looks of concern and whispering until reaching the front. There, I saw few of the members of the Pisces Guild, consoling their Vice President Ophelia Lightyear. I looked back at Eleanor in confusion, to which she shrugged her shoulders in response. I looked up and quietly read the priority mission presented to us on the screen.

"Urgent", I begun, "The current status of, Pisces' leader Nova Lightyear and Leo's leader, Sir Leo Starborn the Third, is unknown. Last known visual contact; Great Hall, 5pm. Last Location pinged; Messierdilly Circus at 6:32pm before going dark on the radar."

Ophelia and Nova Lightyear came from a family line of Doctors and Surgeons. The use of light photons in medicine in the past couple decades increased in popularity as the technology improved. Essentially using light waves to weave wounds and heal damaged cells with precision, Light surgery had an important role during the battle of nightfall 15 years ago - surmounting its reputation in hero work and society ever since. The Pisces Guild, primarily filled with first responders and light medics, work hard in being cooperative with the State Health Service, especially when Heroes are needed. Then, we have the Leo Guild. Funded, ran and led by the Starborn family for 4 generations, the Leo Guild pride lies within their access to an unlimited amounts of resources and wealth to help carry out with their Hero Work. Starborn Industries is a huge business conglomerate, ranging from Finance, Private health and arms dealership, all controlled by Leo Starborn's father, Sol Starborn. The wealthiest man in Brightannia. Equipped with highest end of light weapons and armoury, Leo Starborn was a figurehead of justice and heroism in the public eye. For them to both just go missing on a Friday evening was completely outside of their character.

I turned to Eleanor who's face went from a look of confusion to someone who had just seen a ghost. She, like many others, was one of Leo's biggest supporters. There was no surprise that the recent news came to a shock to her.

"Um, are you okay?", I tried to sound as empathetic as possible.

'I'm... I'm good", She whispered, hesitantly, "I think I just need a moment."