The Bright

Scene: Rainy, October 26th - 27th.

Location: Chinatown

Two figures loom over the edge of the building silhouetted by the bright of Chinatown and Halcyon. Rain clattering around them. The bright slowly brings the colour alive on their costumes; a purple and yellow costume with floral inlay covers one of the figures leaving no skin or identifiable features bare. The other figure stands hands buried in the pockets of a black leather jacket seeking warmth. A cape that looks forged directly from stars billows behind the figure in the leather jacket.

“Are you sure you want to do this? Y’know this is not hero stuff… Breaking in like this” says the cloaked figure a morph mask hiding their facial features but not the worry in their muffled voice.

“Y’know it’s hero stuff to save someone isn’t it?” the purple figure says crouching down on the ledge.

 “Umm… Yeah…”

 “Sometimes the rules have to be bent”

“Alright…” the star-cloaked figure says before waving her hand star-shaped glyphs of various colours appearing in front of them before they disappear.

The view shifts panning around to see what they were looking at. Precinct 34 Police Department. The front door opens. ''Strong gust of wind must be a bad storm ''thinks the officer at the counter. Loud voices can be heard in the background as the door slowly shuts itself. Panning round the front desk, a slightly intoxicated Detective Franklin Chang is arguing with the police chief. His words slur as the two create most of the noise inside the office part of the police department. Papers slide off the desk of Chang as a key disappears from his desk. A few second later the click of a door labeled “Evidence Room” opening and closing cannot be heard over the yelling.

Inside the evidence room, the two now visible figures Celestial and Lavender search the room for the file. “Here it is” Lavender’s voice quivers with emotion. He slowly opens the file. Most of the text is redacted on her biography.

Legal Name: Zeze Flores

Aliases: “The Orixa”, “Spirit”

D.O.B: August 2<sup>nd</sup>, [redacted]

P.O.B: [Redacted], Ceará, Brazil

Residence: 1460 Alvarez St. Apt 150 [Note: Will be given alternative house pending end of investigation]

Appearance: Elderly woman, Black Latino, 5’10, 160, athletic build despite age.

Careers: Labor Historian, Super-heroine

Affiliation: Coal Workers’ Union, Steel Mills’ union, and Prisoners’ Union

The rest of the information is largely redacted and none of it has to do with her missing persons besides a brief description of the crime scene. Tommy is seen flicking through each sheet and begins to take pictures of the little available information with his phone.

“Did you get what you were coming for?” Celestial asks their voice deep masculine and slightly distorted.

“There’s… There is nothing in here” Lavender’s eyes turn to a name in the top right corner stating the officer in charge of the investigation. ''Tony Hoang… ''he thinks to himself.

“Actually, yeah I guess I got something…”'' ''Lavender says proceeding to take more pictures.

As Lavender finishes. Aria without a distorted voice whispers “Put it back, put it back.”

Lavender fumbles it back into the cabinet. The same star glyphs appear and the two of them disappear as two men enter the evidence room. One of them, a tall tanned man, turns to the other, a short man of Asian heritage with a narrow face and a buzzcut, and says in a deep voice:

“Hey, uh, Tony you guys check out that street for the case on Broadway?” He heads to a cabinet beside where Lavender and Celestial were moments ago looking through various files.

“Uh, y’know, man… the chief keeps giving me terrible cases. Y’know, like, I swear he just gives me dead end after dead end. You think you wanna take Broadway? Maybe switch somethings up?” comes Tony’s reply. His gaze locked on some newspaper clippings

“Nope, no thanks Tony.” The taller man says before turning from the cabinet drawer that he was looking through and heading towards a locker in the back of the evidence room with Tony in tow. They both do not hear the door open and shut over the creaking of the locker.

Moments later, Lavender and Celestial have returned to the rooftop.. Aria’s mask disappear with a magical flourish. She looks over at Tommy as he slips off his own mask.

“What’s up Tommy? You gotta have had somebody else you could ask for this? Why me?” Aria looks slightly irritated. “Did you expect me to do something they wouldn’t? You’ve got a team. Why are you hanging out here with me?”

 Tommy sighs. “I… I needed to talk to you. I trust you. I trust your discretion. That’s why I chose you. The rest of them, they’ll talk about it and I don’t want people to know… that yet.  I have already revealed a lot to them about my past and I am not ready to reveal more just yet.” He looks over towards the station away from Aria.

She speaks up after a moment of quiet. “So we hit pretty much a dead end tonight… like… your grams from what you’ve told me is a big tough hero those people disappear all the time. Like why are you so worried about this?”

“’Cause she’s old. She’s not one of the bigs anymore.” Tommy hesitates briefly before turning back towards Aria. “She is on the way out. And I can’t just let her be wasting away somewhere. She doesn’t deserve that. No one does.”

“You sure she’s not… like taking a super break? Off in some other dimension or something? Fighting with the league? Like maybe they needed her help?” Aria reassures.

“I don’t know. What, I do know is that she probably would’ve told us. She wouldn’t just leave our apartment and leave it trashed at that. Um… she’d not want us to worry.” Tommy sighs “I don’t know Aria and that’s what really scares me.”

Aria sighes. “Uh, y’know, I don’t really have much of relationship to speak of to compare… Umm closest thing I’ve got to family is not…” She looks down the emotion causing her to pause. “Closest thing I’ve got to family is a psychopath who is just hunting me for my powers. I am not going to lie she’s probably fine. If you’ve got a grandma who is as powerful as you say from what I know about powerful people it is better to just stay out of their way.”

“You really think that?”

“I mean… I don’t... Yeah! The big guns just get in our way. They use whatever they’ve got. They ignore small people like us. As soon as something more shiny comes along they’re going to run off. ” Aria replies.

“Grandma’s not like that. She’s focused on the small picture just as much as the big. Unless this is really important. Unless this is like world-ending shit, I don’t see why she’d leave in such a hurry.” Tommy says before sighing. “Why’d you agree to this?”

She tenses at that. “I don’t know just felt like I owed ya… I kind’ve bailed… I didn’t like how I left things last time. And you guys kinda helped me stop that killer, couple weeks back.” Aria replies trying to avoid the question.

“What did Thorne say?” Tommy replies with typical bluntness.

“Not going to lie, she doesn’t paint… did you guys really… were you guys really holding people like that? How are you okay with that?” She asks concern and nervousness painted across her face.

Lavender walks to the edge of the building sitting down on it and lets out a heavy breath before looking up at Aria. “Um… I thought it was for the greater good. That’s what I was told. That’s what everyone around me was saying. I don’t know”

“So next time for the greater good shows up like tonight? Are you still on that page? We broke into the police station for the greater good. What’s different? Now and then?” The tension in her voice growing.

Tommy’s eye look far away into the horizon. “Then… Then… I don’t want to hurt people. I try to avoid that. People don’t deserve to be put in cages or locked away is something that I’ve learned. And I am not going to be complicit in any of that anymore. I am not going to let people be locked and experimented on or whatever anymore. I am just not okay with that. That’s what has changed. I am not going to work with someone like that anymore… with an organization like that anymore.”

“Well at least we can agree on that.” She looks down at him. The rain starting to seep under their costumes “Look Tommy, I am still going to be around for hero work for a while but I am not sure I can keep up with you on this stuff. Not if it is going to be this kinda stuff. Not why I signed up for this gig”

“Yeah… This is a one-time thing. I didn’t want to do this. I am just really worried about this”

“This job is filled with worries Tommy. If we’re going to do it then we gotta do it the right way. I am going to hold you to that if you ask me out here again” Her gaze shifts back to the same horizon that Tommy is focused on.

“So, you still not want to talk to me over what I’ve done? Are you still my friend?”

“Let’s play it by ear, Tommy. I am not sure I can trust you, yet.”

“Fair.” Tommy smiles slightly and nods. “Y’know I guess this is just what I get. All those people that I took from families. I guess that’s what happens to me now.”

“I am not saying that I’m not going to help you”

“I understand. I am just saying. Maybe this is what happens when you do bad”

“I am not sure I believe in karma that way. If it worked that way all the bad shit that happened in my life, I’d have probably ran into a million dollars by now.”

“Who knows maybe you have?” Tommy jokes. Aria chuckles slightly.

“Maybe, maybe I’ll turn the corner tomorrow and there’ll just be a big sack of money waiting for me.”

“I mean… we probably went past a big stack of money somewhere in that evidence room.” Tommy’s smile grows into a grin as he says that.

“Tommy that’s not... god dang it.” Tommy laughs and Aria brushes her hair.

Tommy’s smile shrinks a little and he looks up at her. “I still want to be your friend. I don’t think we can be more than that until things have been figured out.”

“Definitely not right. Maybe some day” She replies.

“Maybe… Y’know if you ever need anything call me up.”

“Yep, I got your number. And as I said I’ll help you find your grams but no more breaking into police stations” She says looking down at him.

“Will do boss” Tommy replies slight smile on his face as he gives a nod.

“Catch you later, Tommy” Her mask returning as she steps back of the edge of the building disappearing into the dark alley below. Tommy looks out over the edge and pulls his phone out. Several notifications on are the screen. ''Several missed calls from Leo… Shit I guess I am late for family dinner better head there now. All these commitments. When is a teen superhero supposed to monologue?'' Tommy stands taking a moment to enjoy the bright of the city and then steps off the building one of his floral portals appearing beneath him that he disappears into.