she dreams of stars || Higher Up

Higher Up

"Okay, this is the way it works." Polarity explained, her voice full of sarcasm, and a grin beneath her mask. "I know you're a good distance up on your gang's chain of command.... I want to know who your superiors are, and where I can find them. If you don't... well, it might be painful for you."

Staring right down at her, was a member of the 'Hunters Pack', a large gang that was in control of a large part of the East end of Toronto, an area which encompassed Polarity's high school. A tattoo on his left arm revealed that he was a high ranking member; so did the colours of the bandana around his neck, which Polarity was holding him in the air by.

"You little bitch..." The man cursed at her, trying to break free of her grip. "I ain't telling you nothing!"

Her response was a simple punch to the gut with her metal gloves. While they were smaller and lighter than the ones that she wore originally under the name of Magnet, they still hurt. A lot. The man winced in pain, but said nothing, spitting on her.

"No... wrong answer!" She responded, her tone becoming more angry. She threw him against the alley's nearby dumpster, slamming him into it with a great deal of force. The defiant gang member then recieved a swift kick. He doubled over in pain.

"Would you care for some more? Trust me, I have no moral opposition to hurting someone who terrorizes my city; I'm not going to stop if you don't tell me." She said, glaring at the man in pain. Before, maybe when she just started as Magnet, she might not have been so vicious... but after having lived in Toronto, and seen how worse it was, because of the gangs... she left behind any sympathy she might have had for the gang members who ruled the streets, back in Ottawa.

"No... I..." The man stammered, still winded from being slammed against the dumpster, now barely starting to recover, "I-I... 'll tell..."

Finally, some progress! She thought to herself. This wasn't her first attempt to extract information on this level of higher ups, and finally she'd met some success... she was getting tired of leaving these lieutenants in bloody messes, and leaving without any useful information.

"I'm listening." She said, crossing her arms, a grin of satisfaction widening on her face.

***

"Damn it!" Stephen kicked the door angrily, but with no luck. It was locked, and not budging open.

"It's out of order, kid." A janitor walking by informed Stephen. "You can use the washroom on the second floor, though."

Stephen did not normally use this washroom, on account of the second floor being used for Grade 9s. There was a rather significant degree of segregation between the different ages, so he didn't venture on the second floor if he could avoid it. Oh well; it was a long enough walk home, and he had no intention of going straight home anyway, so away he went.

Nothing interesting came of his using it, by the way. The only thing interesting was when he left, and noticed several girls standing by what he assumed were their open lockers, talking.

Now, this alone, is not very interesting. It's about as mundane as the usage of the room that Stephen was exciting, and under normal circumstances, this would not be even remotely worthy of even a second glance. However, there was something that wasn't quite usual going on there that negated all that. Or at least, it looked like it.

The second glance confirmed that there was indeed something unusual going on; after all, it's not entirely often that you notice that one of the girls in the hallway looked identical to Moonbeam. The third and fourth glances confirmed that this was indeed the girl that Stephen had saved (as Polarity, of course).

Just as Stephen was starting to connect the dots mentally, the girl waved, walking away from her friends.

"Seeya, Arianna!" One of her friends said with a wave.

Stephen exited down the hallway, in the same direction, walking metres in front of the younger girl. Hopefully, she was going straight down the stairway at the end of the hall. Which would make sense, since there wasn't really any other exit that was easily accessible that way. He glanced over his shoulder as he went down the stairs, his theory being confirmed by her continuing to walk behind him. As he exited the school, he headed down the street. However, she did not continue to head in the same direction, instead walking up to a motorcycle that had been parked in front of a small building, right next to the school.

"So, Moonbeam rides a bike..." Stephen said to himself, taking note of its location, walking away as the girl rode off.

***

The next day hadn't gone much differently for Arianna, so far, and she was performing the same routine that Stephen had observed the previous day.

As Arianna placed her hands on the handles of her motorcycle, the motorbike scanning her handprint, confirming her as the owner of it and turning the engine on, it occurred to her that she was being watched. She looked up; sure enough, as she had caught in the corner of her eye, was a person standing on a nearby rooftop. As the woman jumped off, sliding down a nearby street light's pole, she realized that it was the vigilante, Polarity.

"You should be more careful." Polarity warned her. "You see those gang members across the street?" Arianna looked, noticing two suspicious looking men, wearing uniforms. She nodded. "They were looking to take your bike. You shouldn't park it in such plain view."

Now, you must understand, a motorcycle is quite an expensive thing to have. Barely anyone could afford a large automobile; in Ottawa, maybe, but Toronto was far worse off. A motorcycle was a sign of luxury and wealth. So naturally, stealing one could yield a rather large monetary reward.

"I... it'll shock anyone who touches the handlebars that isn't me. Security features." Arianna stammered in response. "I certainly wouldn't want to get in trouble..."

Polarity laughed. "Don't play games with me, Moonbeam. I recognise you." Indeed, she did; Moonbeam didn't wear a mask when Polarity saw her, so she recognised her face when she saw her, inside her own school. So Polarity took advantage of knowing what Moonbeam looked like, and set out in wait for her.

"Alright, fine, you've got me." Arianna said with a sigh, admitting herself. "I don't really care how you figured it out; just what the hell do you want?"

"How would you like to help take out an important member of the Hunters?" She proposed, leaning closer to Arianna.

"Oh... so it's you that I've been hearing all about on the news, brutally attacking members of the Hunters Pack?" She asked, putting the pieces together. The stories on the TV news explained about how the members had been injured, but no gang member had yet admitted who had attacked them. "And furthermore... just what exactly are you suggesting?"

"The one and only, dear Moonbeam. As for what I'm suggesting... well, it sounds like you know about my 'research'... I think I've managed to find out where an important meeting place for higher ups in the Hunters Pack might be. If I really wanted to, I'm sure I can go it alone, but then I remembered you, and thought you might want the experience." In actuality, she was more worried about Moonbeam after first meeting her; and she wanted to make sure that she could at least keep her eye on her, after figuring out who she really was.

"Alright. Meet me in front of the park near Danforth and Donlands, then; I need to get my armour and weapons on." And with that, the 13 year old girl sped off on her motorcycle.

It took a few minutes for Polarity to arrive in front of the park. As she arrived, she noticed the blurry outline of Moonbeam, in her full armour, standing nearby. The motorcycle that stood behind her had changed from its original colour, to some unidentifiably light colour, the bike illuminated brightly.

She hopped onto the bike, signalling for Polarity to follow. She did.

"Okay, Moonbeam, we're heading to the Island ferry docks. Specifically, the LRT beneath." Polarity instructed. "You know where that is, right?"

"Yeah." She started the motorcycle, and drove off, turning southward at her first chance. "Please tell me this isn't as fucked up as it seems."

"Oh, it's far more fucked up than it seems. You just haven't realized it yet." Polarity said with a smile under her mask. Not that it mattered, since Moonbeam was rather occupied with driving to notice, even if there wasn't a mask. Polarity tried to look away from Moonbeam and her bike, since they were just as bright and blurry as before. "While we're asking questions, what the hell is up with you and that blur? You're giving me a damn headache."

Moonbeam laughed. "Now now... you think I'm going to tell you? My secret." Polarity suspected that it was an ability engineered in the war, and that one of her parents was one of the engineered soldiers, much like Polarity's father was, but other than that, she didn't have a bloody clue. She'd never read about any soldier like that in her history textbooks.

The rest of the ride was rather quiet, as they sped along the nearly deserted streets. Finally, they neared the location that Polarity had mentioned.

"You know the streetcar tracks that lead into the underground LRT? Follow them down." Polarity ordered. Moonbeam said nothing as she followed the instruction, and the tracks.

Now, the Light Rapid Transit station hadn't been used for many years, and in actuality, it wasn't much more than an underground streetcar stop. Not that it mattered; the streetcars hadn't been running for many years, but most of the tracks remained, although in deteriorating condition. She drove down, the sound of the engine echoing through the tunnel, the tunnel ahead of them being dimly lit by her headlights. They drove past a fire, set up in a steel barrel, several people in ragged clothes communing around it. They passed by several more groups like this; the small pathway had been filled with a good number of those far less fortunate than either of the two, that couldn't even afford an apartment like Stephen had.

As they drove on in the darkness, Polarity realized that Moonbeam wasn't nearly as blurry as she had been outside. He made a mental note of that.

Eventually, they reached the platform. In the past, the station was quite dark, cold, and even its early deterioration, gave off a depressing aura; and that was when the city was doing well. Now, the only thing keeping any light in the station at all were the dim fires, scarcely fueled and providing little of either heat or light. As she arrived at the platform, in contrast, it suddenly being brightly lit with her motorcycle's headlights, Polarity noticed a large cloud of smoke rising from a broken wall, metres away from where the platform ended on the other side.

She paused.

"Wait here... that's not right. You see all the other fires?" She asked Moonbeam.

"Yeah. They were all small and dim."

"Right. Not big enough to make that much smoke. That's just weird... probably nothing, but I'm going to check it out." Polarity motioned for Moonbeam to stay, and hopped off the motorcycle, running towards where the smoke was coming from.

When she got there, it was quite evident that it was indeed coming from the wall, which had been damaged incredibly, enough room for a person to easily fit through.

"Polarity?" A deep, male voice was heard, coming from inside the hole. As she stared through her visor, she realized that there was an outline of a person inside the giant cloud of smoke. "Unless you want to walk into a trap, I suggest you get your vigilante ass inside here, right now."

"Who the hell are you?" She demanded of whatever person was inside.

"A Hunter."

That caught her attention.

***

Moonbeam squinted at Polarity disappearing into the smokey hole in the wall. What the hell is she doing? She thought to herself. I didn't get dragged out here to wait around...

However, her wait was not as uninteresting as she would have thought.

You're probably wondering what happened that would make this wait interesting. Well, for Moonbeam, it was probably the sound of a gunshot firing from the darkness, denting her breastplate as it hit. Although she wasn't as seriously injured as if, say, she wasn't wearing any armour, it still hurt enough, and knocked her back a bit.

She quickly sprung into action, knocking her motorcycle's kickstand down, then shoving it, facing in the direction of the platform's stairs upwards, the headlights illuminating her attackers clearly enough to show around five men with guns, wearing gang uniforms, three on the stairs and two standing on an escalator that hadn't been in operation for many years.

She rushed towards them, turning into a bright blurr in the light of her motorcycle's lights. She went up the escalator in massive leaps, giving the closest one a quick punch to the gut, then grabbing him, smashing the other gang member sharing the escalator with his injured body. The only response she got was grunts of pain, and gun shots from the remaining three. She jumped over the edge of the escalator, leaping towards the three, kicking one of them over as she landed, ever gracefully.

One of them shot at her, despite the fact that she was a blurr in front of them, it managed to hit her, the bullet deflecting off the armour on her shoulder.

"You stupid son of a..." She lunged at him, smashing him with both her fists clenched, knocking him down the stairs. His blood, quickly staining his clothes, shone brightly in the illumination of the motorcycle lights.

"No... no... this isn't what was supposed to happen!" The remaining man shouted, firing his gun at her. No bullet, or even a bang was heard; only a click, informing him that he needed to reload. Not that his modern gun was at all difficult to reload, you just needed to put a new clip in-- but he'd been already been kicked over, and thrown into a wall, nearly immediately after attempting to fire on her.

"Well... that sure went well..." She sarcastically muttered to herself, walking back down the stairs, leaving the five injured gunmen behind her.

***

"You came here looking for information about the higher ups in the Hunters?" The man asked Polarity, already knowing the answer.

"That's right. How'd you know?" She snapped at him, demanding to know.

"Because the Hunters ain't stupid. This damned station... we don't normally have anything set up here. It's a trap. And you fell into it pretty damn nicely." He sighed. "And now you're wondering why I'm telling you, right?"

"You're god damned right I am." Polarity said, adding with sarcasm, "Excuse me for being less than trusting."

"I'm just sick of working for these sons of bitches. But I'm a fucking lieutenant; if I try to leave, I'm dead." He raised his hand, making a gun with his fingers, putting it to his head for emphasis. "But I ain't gonna let someone let you fall into an ambush. You know, I do have a conscience... I'd rather be able to sleep easy at night."

"And you think that telling me about some ambush is going to set all the shit that you've probably done, right?" She scathingly responded.

"Hell no. I'm offering you inside information... I've got a high level position in the Hunters, I can help you. A lot. And right now, there's nothing that I'd like better than for you to kick every ass in the damn gang, just so I can get the hell out."

Polarity paused. She'd come looking for higher ups in the gang... what better than this man's proposition? She didn't believe him entirely... but what did she have to lose?

"...alright." She said, reluctantly.

"Well, gimme a fucking phone number, or electronic address, or something, so I can find you." He told her, relieved that she had accepted.

She stopped again. What could she give him? There was no damn way that she could give her phone number... she did have a couple electronic mail addresses, though. And she was pretty sure that she had managed to keep them disconnected enough to be untracable... after all, after leaving Ottawa, she was damned sure to keep secrecy high on her list of priorities. There was at least one that would be safe to give...

She told it to him.

***

Moonbeam noticed Polarity running towards her.

"Hey, Moonbeam... might want to be careful. It's an ambush--" She cut off as she noticed the bloody bodies of the gang members.

"Yeah, no shit, really? Thanks for the heads up." Was Moonbeam's heavily sarcastic response. She forced a grin. "Can we get the hell out of here now?"

"Please do. I got what I need."

"And what would that be?" Moonbeam asked, as she mounted her motorcycle.

"A contact. A high level one, too; just what I need." She got on, behind Moonbeam. "I'm going to make this damn gang crumble."

"Good to hear." She responded, almost weakly; the adrenalin rush wearing off after the fight, making her realize that she was rather exhausted.

"Hey... can I ask you a question?"

"Go ahead." She said, driving off.

"What the hell is with you and that blurring, anyway? What is that?"

She grinned, weakly. "No way. I've got to keep some things a secret, you know..."

Girl, you've got no idea how well I know. Polarity thought to herself, as they drove off.