[center][h1]The Flickering Black Light[/h1][sub] 1 Day After Behir
Collaboration with: [@Regitnui] [@Old Amsterdam][/sub][/center]
Blacklight grinned triumphantly. He'd trailed his brother, he'd done his research. He'd had a date. Had the whole place to themselves. Then he'd picked up ingredients. Then they'd had another date.

He was going to take everything from his brother. Crush him like the big bug he was.

He just needed the perfect time to pounce, and everything would be his.

[hr]
Spectrum lazily stretched her legs and rolled over onto Dragon. She'd never felt this confident, this assured, this loved. It was as if she lived in her entire body for the first time, from the top of her head to the ends of her toes, all concentrated around two bright fires. Lying across him, she placed a deep, shameless kiss on his lips, enjoying the tingle traveling down her body just from that simple contact. If this was how Alex felt all the time, it was no wonder she was so much fun.

Dragon's eyes opened, and his hands came up to touch her waist. She gasped just at that, bending her legs at the knees as if he were a mattress for her. "Good morning, beautiful. Again." This time, Spectrum didn't respond. She just made a sound deep in her throat that sounded an awful lot like a cat purring. "I have an appointment today," he protested, turning her until he could sit up on the bed. She watched him get dressed, smiling and glowing red with the desire for him. When he sat down to put on his shoes, she wrapped her arms around him like she'd always wanted to do. "Spectrum..."

She made a face, but didn't correct him. "When will you be back?" She asked, the red on her skin fading as he got up. He still looked handsome and sexy and all of that, but she liked him more naked. 

"A hour," he said, bending down to kiss her before messing with his cuff-links. "Maybe less." He looked uncertain for a moment. "Are you going to stay or..."

"Yes," she said quickly, then went red for a different reason as she blushed. "I-I mean if you'll let me. If I'm allowed. If that's okay..." She was suddenly aware of herself again, and she wrapped herself up in the blanket, pulling it over her head.

Dragon gently tugged the duvet back from her head, and kissed her again. "There's some food in the fridge," he told her, "and I have a Playstation, a Switch and a DVD player in the TV cabinet. I'll see you later, if you want to wait for me." She nodded until her hair fell in front of her face, and he laughed in a way that made her grin too. He left, and when she walked to his balcony, she could see him hail a cab. Spectrum wanted to wave, but the morning air blew under the blanket and she ducked back inside, closing the door.

Blacklight cackled quietly as Dragon left the building, getting up from his perch on a rooftop across the street.

"Let's see who means the world to you, brother..." He muttered as he moved down the escape.

The simplest way would be through the front door, but that wouldn't achieve what he wanted. No, he would use the window.

But where would the woman be? In the bedroom? Kitchen? Knowing his brother she'd still be in the bedroom or bathroom, but he couldn't know for sure until he entered.

[i]"Bedroom,"[/i] he decided on impulse.

Moments later a whip smashed through the window with force, and Blacklight climbed through, grinning at the woman on the bed.

"Well, now, today is my lucky day," he practically purred. "Brother will learn horror that only I can teach him. Nothing personal, lady. Well, that's a lie. It's very personal."

Laughing, Blacklight slapped Roxana across the face with a whip, walking slowly closer. "I want you to scream, to cry, and to bleed. Not necessarily in that order. And when I'm done, you'll be broken. Brother will lose everything. And I will finally won against that arrogant ass."

Another whip swung out to wrap around her arms.

Spectrum had tossed on one of Dragon's button-up shirts and curled up on his side of the bed for a little nap when she heard the glass breaking. By the time she'd shaken herself out of her happy, sleepy funk, the intruder slapped her across the face from across the room. Blinking tears from her eyes, the tentacle wrapped around her arms gave her enough clues to identify him.

Blacklight. And he was Dragon's [i]brother[/i]? 

"Yes, I like that look," Blacklight sneered. "Now, dear, here's how this is going down. I'm going to break you. Physically. Mentally. Emotionally. The whole shebang. And then I'm going to ruin you for him forever after. So let's get started."

A whip collided with her face, hard enough to leave a welt and cause an audible [i]smack[/i] and moved her head to the side. He continued this as he walked closer, before digging a knee into the woman's gut.

"You are mine now. You are worthless, pathetic, insignificant. But you matter to him, so you'll do just for what I need to accomplish."

He took hold of her shoulder, fingers digging in relentlessly.

"The seed of my power will flourish, soon, and you shall bear the labor of my intentions."

His knee pushed in harder, twisting sightly.

Spectrum cried out as he started hitting her. It felt all the worse knowing this was the brother of the man who had spent an entire night doing anything but hurting her. As his fingers dug into her shoulder, a rage built in her. Who did he think he was, coming in here and ruining her happiness? Her skin flared green, and her fingers grabbed his leg with a strength impossible for a woman her size. 

"You." the movement started in her hips. "Fucking." Twisting from the waist, she threw him off her. "Bastard." She heard Dragon's shirt tear as her armour materialized to cover her, the bed-springs strained under the weight of Impact Green Spectrum. The light in the room swiftly shaded to Pulsar Red, and energy balls engulfed her arms up to the wrist. "I'm going to kill you!" She screamed, blasting him, and the entire exterior wall of the bedroom, into the street below.

Blacklight stood up slowly from the street, his face a mask of rage.

"YOU BITCH!" he screamed, sending whips at Spectrum's armored form. "You couldn't just take it like you were supposed to, could you? Now I have to kill you. I had a fucking [I]plan[/I], you whore!"

[hr]
It was a sudden thing. The day had started like any other - surprisingly after that whole debacle with Techster and his family, as nothing had come of it. There were no hints of anything particularly grand, no ominous signs or karmic indications of the day being more than it was. 

Just like the day her parents died.

She was going over her records - [i]Blacklight[/i] was spotted yesterday, igniting a grueling conflict between him and other heroes after enticing a Snapper to go on a rampage. Her blood boiled at the thought of not just what he had done, but also the fact that [i]she missed him[/i]. He was right there and she missed him!

But she wouldn't again. Blacklight thought he'd escaped - she didn't know why know one went after him, but she didn't care - but she had set Cheshire on him, to tail him from a distance. In the mean time, she prepared, looked for a proper time to strike. He was looking for something, [i]someone[/i]. Stalking Dragon Heart to an apartment. She didn't know or care why, but now was the time to act.

By the time she arrived at the scene, things had escalated. There was a woman there, presumably Dragon Heart's lover - Cheshire had heard enough of their conversation for Charlotte to surmise the rest - which was an unwelcome surprise. Another Epic, someone who might get in the way.

It didn't matter, she decided. The moment had arrived.

The moment Blacklight landed into the street, she leaped down from the building she was perched on, gun trained on his hysterical figure. Her eyes saw red and her blood boiled. She pulled the trigger without further preamble.

[i]"Die, damn you!"[/i] she screamed in her head.

Blacklight whirled at the sound of gunfire, narrowly avoiding a bullet to the head as it grazed his cheek. Two more grazed his right shoulder, barely a sliver away from penetration.

"Who the fuck are you?" He yelled, catching the figure in the air and throwing them into the wall of the building they'd jumped from. "Fucking Christ. Can't anyone just let me do what needs to be done?"

He huffed, am using a whip to push Spectrum back onto the building as he reared on the newcomer.

"I'll be nice and make your death quick, you dumb fuck."

[i]"Now."[/i]

A shot rang out from roughly 100 meters away, from a top an office building on the other side of town. Perched there was Aida, lying prone with a sniper to her chest, aiming directly at Blacklights torso.

Not even remotely expecting that to finish him, Looking-Glass was already moving before the shot was fired.

[i]"I've researched your capabilities for years,[/i] scum. [i]How you move, how you act. Getting into a melee with you is suicidal, so excuse me while I take potshots at you from a distance!"[/i] she screamed at him in her head, while retreating quickly into Dragon Hearts home, taking cover inside while tossing a stun grenade towards the maniac on the way in.

Blacklight avoided the bullet by sheer luck, having moved to flank Looking-Glass at just the right moment. The pavement five feet behind him exploded, and then a grenade appeared.

Blacklight punted the thing, it exploding halfway between the two of them and Blacklight's whips absorbing the bulk of the blast and energy.

"Cowards!" He yelled. "I will drain you into dust!"

Within seconds he was on the rooftop.

"Who are you?" Spectrum asked as the armoured hero landed on the bedroom floor. But Blacklight was getting away, and Mobile Blue let her catch up with him. "I'm not a whore, you jackass," she grabbed his shirt, throwing him back into the street, and following it up with another punch. "And I didn't say you could go."

Aida evacuated quickly, before Blacklight had reached the building. She was a good marksman, and could probably solo an army of normal people, but she was at a disadvantage against Epics, she was just as helpless, especially against Epics like Blacklight. It was only with White Knight on that Charlotte could keep up with him face-to-face; all she was supposed to do was provide supporting fire. Aida leaped towards the fire exit of an adjacent building, looking for a good place to snipe from.

As for Charlotte herself, she grit her teeth as Blacklight sped away. There was no way she was going to allow that.

Before she could act, however, the other Epic, presumably Dragon Heart's lover, recovered, and it was only know that Looking-Glass recognized her. Spectrum, a hero with an emphatic power suit. Well known and with an impressive track-record. Her current relationship with Dragon Heart aside, she was an impressive hero.

She was also beating down on Blacklight.

"Get away from him!" she warned. Melee was Blacklights bread and butter, where he could drain energy with the least amount of effort.

At the other hero's shout, Spectrum turned her head just long enough to get hit by Blacklight. She wasn't sure what with, but as she blinked her way back to full consciousness, her suit had already protected her with a forcefield. Spectrum flipped the forcefield on Blacklight, trapping him in a bubble. Maybe he could drain his way out of it, but that kept him off her.

Sure enough, Blacklight was out moments later, gearing up faster and faster from all the energy he was taking in.

He stepped towards Spectrum, cold anger in his eyes. Whips flew out en mass at the hero.

Spectrum threw up a shield around herself, getting thrown backwards. The light died away, and she sputtered into Mobile Blue, jumping back into the building. "What do we do, what do we do?"

"Go away!" Looking-Glass shouted, jumping out of the way. Blacklight was [i]hers[/i], and for all how her reputation preceded her, Spectrum was [i]in the way![/i] 

[i]"I'll kill you! I'll kill you!"[/i] 

Mentally raging, she trained her rifle once more on Blacklight, pressing the trigger, only to hear a damning [i]click[/i] of an empty magazine. With click of her lips, she tossed a smoke bomb between the two of them, retreating in the opposite direction of Spectrum. Aida, meanwhile, went back to harassing Blacklight with sniper-fire from afar.

Blacklight grunted, moving into the smoke to avoid the sniper fire. Casually he began walking towards the building with the two heroes.

"Lay down and die." He called out mockingly.

[i]"You took the words right out of my mouth, filth."[/i]

She had reloaded by now, and was in position for another offensive.

While Blacklight still waded through the smoke, Chesire pinpointed his position, and she rolled another grenade in front of him, while he still couldn't see, and afterwards began pelting bullets at his general direction to distract him.

"God. Damn. IT!" The smoke blew away a second after Dragon's voice echoed through the street. He held Blacklight up off his feet, then threw him to the ground, stomping on the villain's chest with all the energy he had. "YOU JUST HAD TO MESS WITH MY GIRLFRIEND!" He bellowed, Blacklight's ribs audibly cracking.

Spectrum stood from her crouch, leaning over to the other hero. "Did he just call me his girlfriend?"

[i]"Not the time,"[/i] she mentally snipped.

Blacklight coughed up blood, some of it spraying onto Dragon's face.

"You couldn't have had the decency to die all those years ago. You brought this upon yourself," he growled. "You pretend to be more than you are, when you don't even know the truth. You don't even know-"

This time, Dragon reached down and grabbed Blacklight by the chin, lifting him onto his feet. "That you're still that blood-covered child I pulled out of our burning bedroom? That you're still a pathetic, whiny, self-absorbed little shit that Mom and Dad would be ashamed of? That I have had it with your useless attempts to ruin my life?" Dragon was shaking his brother by the end of the tirade, with tears running down his face. "That despite everything I've tried to do, you're determined to make me hate you? Jace."

Blacklight spat in his brother's face.

He could feel it. It was time. Despite all his attempts.

"Neither of you know anything. You don't know what's coming. You all will fall. You will fail. You pathetic, worthless, waste of space. All of you. ALL OF YOU."

"And you talk too much," growled Looking-Glass. 

Before he could speak any further, Looking-Glass put a bullet through his shoulder, silencing him as he gasped in pain. She walked towards the downed villain, the presence of Dragon Heart and Spectrum mere afterthought. She glowered at him for a moment, though it wasn't visible through her helmet, before snorting derisively. 

"You couldn't have had the decency to die all those years ago," she echoed his voice mockingly. "You brought [i]this[/i] on [i]yourself[/i]."

She moved closer, next to a strangely impassive Dragon Heart, and took his silence as permission. Her gun trained on his head, ready to end it.

Before she pulled the trigger, her helmet flew back, acting much like a hoodie than any form of armor, revealing her young face. She wanted the last thing the piece of filth saw to be her face, and for him to know that [i]she[/i] did it.

Idly, she wondered what her face looked like now. Enraged, perhaps? Or maybe vindicated. Either would make sense, of course. After four years of nightmares and stalking the shadows, finally, she had him at her mercy -- how could she be anything but satisfied?

If she were more lucid, perhaps she would have felt the tears running unhindered down her face, echoing her own heartbreak just as Dragon Heart's did his. 

"[i]Why[/i]? Why did you do it?" she whispered, before shaking her head violently. His reasons didn't matter. Not now. Not anymore.

She swallowed a chunk of bile back, before she finally pulled the trigger, and putting a hole right at the center of Blacklight's head.

Finally, it was over.

Dragon stood impassive, tears running down his face but his expression of disappointed anger reminding Roxana of her father. Next to him, Looking-Glass teetered on the edge of a complete breakdown, her surprisingly young face already snotty and tearful. Spectrum herself was struck with indecision. Her heart hurt for Dragon, and she wanted to take him inside and hold him. On the other hand, Looking-Glass needed someone badly.

"Come here," she said, floating down from the shrinking gap in the wall and going to the pair. "Come here." She put her arm around Looking-Glass' shoulder, pressing the child's head into her chest. She embraced Dragon as well, letting his head fall onto her shoulder as she kissed his temple. "It's done. It's done," she repeated, feeling the adrenaline in her own system begin to wear off. "It's done."

Charlotte shuddered at the action, the intimacy of it all but unfamiliar to her now, yet she did not pull away, not immediately. Perhaps it was simply that she reverted to being a child, or perhaps it was that she no longer felt like trying to act like an adult, but in that moment, she didn't care for the reasons. She just accepted it, burying her head into Spectrum's chest regardless of how she appeared. 

And in a moment, she finally settled down, though she still felt herself shaking, with weakness perhaps, or relief. 

"T-thank you. Really. I-if you don't mind, I need to . . . I need to settle things," she murmured, uncharacteristically reticent. 

Blacklight was dead. She had . . . she had to tell her parents. She [i]needed[/i] to. It would never truly come full circle until she had told them.

Spectrum couldn't help a small smile as Dragon put one of his arms around her waist, but it was tainted with concern when she felt Looking-Glass begin to pull away. "Are you sure?" She didn't add a 'kid' or 'dear' to it. This kid just killed someone. She needed comfort, not patronizing. "You can come inside, with us, have hot chocolate or juice." She hoped it was alright with Dragon. It was his home, after all.

"I-" she was about to refuse. It wasn't that she didn't want to. After everything, a cup of hot chocolate, somewhere warm, somewhere [i]safe[/i] - but she didn't know how to say yes to something like that. Has it really been so long?

What stopped her from refusing, however, was the sight of Aida, coming down from the building she had been sniping on. She didn't have a face on, at the moment, but she could feel the expression she was making all the same. 

[i]"Just go, Mistress."[/i]

And slowly, Charlotte remembered how to accept a bit of kindness simply for what it was.

"-okay. Yeah, that sounds great. Please."

Spectrum opened her arms again, inviting Looking-Glass to hold onto her as they walked in.

She declined her offer, but nevertheless gave her a grateful nod. When things had calmed down somewhat, she figured there would be much to discuss. Come what may, however, an important chapter in her life, had come to an abrupt and chaotic close.