she dreams of stars || Moonbeam

Moonbeam

It took two weeks for the media to finally release a report on Moonbeam. It wasn't for lack of visible exposure; she was far less than subtle in her appearances. It took a small, amateur news outlet to show pictures of her for the major outlets to say "fuck it, we're showing this anyway". It was the fact that they figured that nobody would believe them if they tried showing any of their footage.

"We assure you, these images are not a result of broken or malfunctioning equipment." Sophia Triss explained. "Many eyewitnesses also reported seeing the girl standing near them blurred, or with unusual reflections in the air nearby."

"It's true, completely true. Saw it with my two eyes... creepy as hell, I tell you. There she was standing there, completely blurry, like an out of focus picture." A banner at the bottom of the screen identified the man as "Micheal Johnson, Eyewitness".

"We'll show more of this highly unusual footage of the vigilante going by the name of Moonbeam as it comes in. Sophia Triss, for Channel 7 news, Toronto." The television was turned off shortly afterwards.

"Just when you think life couldn't get any more screwed up... huh." Jacob Blaire slunk back in his seat. "First that supposedly independant magnet chick... then the Alriani gang tries to make a presence here... and now some girl's been fighting gangs but the networks didn't show it for weeks because it looked kinda blurry?"

"Yeah. Sure is a screwed up world out there." Stephen Winters said to his roommate with a sigh.

"Yeah, right. Anyway, I'm gonna go to sleep, got a big test tommorow. Seeya later, kid." Jacob left to his bedroom.

"Good night, man." Stephen waved.

He went over to his computer, not bothering to bring it over to his previous seat.

"Let's see here... huh, I've got mail." Specifically, one message; and a rather cryptic one, at that. He read it, puzzled.

Dear Steve/Stephen Winters,

Don't think you'll be able to repent for your sins, Magnet. I'm sorry... I mean Polarity. Nothing will be able to redeem you, murderer. Ottawa will never forget your actions, and you will never be forgiven. Your time is soon.

Sincerely, Collateral Damage

"Well... what the fuck?" Stephen stared at the message on the screen. He hadn't been in Ottawa for a whole year, and could say with a great degree of certainty that the identity of Magnet was definitely left behind in Ottawa. "Bet he thinks he's clever..." And indeed, the person would have to be. That, or just good at making lucky guesses. It wasn't, however, luck that had caused the person to discover that much about Stephen.

***

Moonbeam was surrounded. Way to go, idiot. Now I'm screwed.

Being surrounded by an angry gang with guns pointed to her head, this was definitely an accurate analysis. No matter how oddly she appeared to the gang, blurry and reflecting in odd ways, there was absolutely no way of escaping that she could think of.

"C'mon... at least let me talk." She pleaded.

"Ooh... now Miss Moonbeam wants to talk!" There were around 20 gang members standing around her, one of which stood forward to talk. Although he wore the same colours; a patch on his sleeve seemed to indicate some type of importance. She wasn't versed well enough in gang dynamics to know what it actually meant, nor did she really care.

The sound of a helicopter was heard overhead. Of course, you won't know what this sounds like, but suffice to say, it makes a 20th century news helicopter seem quiet. The helicopters used by news agencies were salvaged from the war, since it was not exactly affordable to try to create new ones. The problem was, the specifications for those helicopters were classified during the war, and never were released publically, so the technicians who refurbished them didn't exactly know much about their design. In addition to just being loud as all hell, they had trouble maneuvering in general, were incredibly difficult to land properly, highly fuel inefficient, and had extremely uncomfortable seats. Needless to say, everyone nearby noticed.

"Oh look, spectators! Even more the marvelous!" The person who had step forward said with a laugh. "Well, let's make a good example of you... show the city what happens when you try to fuck with the Nightmare Crew!"

Faithful to Sophia Triss' promise to report on Moonbeam as stories relating to her developed, the newscasters in the helicopter were reporting live. Not too many people watched the news at 4 PM, but regardless, they had live coverage anyway, trying to make up for the fact that she had gone nearly unnoticed to the public for two weeks.

It was being described by Channel 7 as a 'standoff'. Stephen knew what that really meant from experience. It took 50 seconds to get into her suit; however, it only took 5 seconds to figure out where this 'standoff' was happening. Mostly because it wasn't too far from his apartment, and the fact that I wasn't kidding when I said those helicopters are loud. "Look... I'm sure I can be helpful. C'mon, look at how much I've done... I'm sure I can be helpful!" Moonbeam begged. She got herself into the whole mess by causing trouble for the gang, but as far as she was concerned, she was far too young to die.

However, she felt her time running out. She'd manage to stall for about 4 minutes, and the order to shoot didn't seem to be very far from now.

Stephen, now in full costume, crouched on the rooftop overlooking the entire scene, underneath the deafening whurr of the helicopter. From the little that she had seen of Moonbeam... it certainly seemed that she was doing good, and seeing a victory for the Nightmare Crew, or any other gang, for that matter, definitely wasn't right. Analysing the scene... she counted 14 normal looking gang members, four were wearing the old armour of the Magnet soldiers from the war, much like the one that Stephen was wearing now, plus a couple wearing some really funny looking hats, but didn't seem to be any different from the normal soldiers. Their infantry didn't seem to be too diverse.

She looked up at the helicopter, thinking as Moonbeam tried to prolong her own life for as long as she could. Then, she had a thought.

Stephen, with a single graceful motion, swung into helicopter, which had no doors to protect something like that from happening.

"Polarity!" A person with a camera shouted Stephen's costumed name, surprised.

"If you don't get out of this helicopter right fucking now, you will most likely die. Right now." Step-- I mean, Polarity, said flatly.

The man with the camera, having no particular interest in dying, jumped out onto the rooftop below, pulling another man out with him. They landed ackwardly, and neither of the two men would do anything but desk work for a few days afterwards because of their injuries, but that's not really important.

Polarity grabbed the pilot, "Out, now! Don't argue!" He started to say something, but reluctantly followed the order, being pulled out of the now empty helicopter by Polarity.

"What the fuck are you tryi--" The pilot asked, being cut off.

"Shut up." Polarity closed her eyes, focusing and gathering courage. She had plenty of practice not only in Ottawa, when she went under the name of Magnet, but in Toronto as Polarity, too.

She took a few steps back, then ran back towards the helicopter, sharply clinging to it as she neared the edge of the rooftop. Her momentum dragged the helicopter down, the helicopter aimed dangerously close to Moonbeam and the gang members surrounding her.

The giant looming helicopter entered all the gang members line of sight at pretty much the same time. I don't dare to repeat the obscenities shouted by pretty much everyone there, which were plentiful, considering that a helicopter was flying towards them and about to crash. Just metres away from hitting the armoured girl in the centre, Polarity jumped off the helicopter, pushing Moonbeam out of the way as she hit the ground. The only person who was possibly more shocked than most of the gang members, of whose circular formation and fallen into chaos, was the girl being saved, Moonbeam herself.

The last time that someone had ever tried something that stupid with a helicopter was during the war, and surprisingly enough, the helicopter had survived the crash. That wasn't nearly as surprising as the fact that the news helicopter had also survived, though, the rotors still spinning around, causing the previously well organised gang members to panic even more.

"You idiots!" The important looking gang member shouted amidst all the cursing, "Shoot her, dammit! Kill them both!"

They tried. One thing that Polarity had mastered quite effectively under the name of Magnet was not getting hit by lead bullets, so needless to say, none of them managed to hit her, as she ran off with Moonbeam in her arms. Ducking into the nearest alley, she ran off in an unusual pattern, quickly losing any pursuit that she might have had. After three minutes of running, she put the still quite surprised Moonbeam onto the ground.

"God... I... er, uh... thank you, for saving my life!" She stammered.

"You're wel-- holy shit..." Polarity responded, finally getting a good chance to look at the girl, dressed in heavy looking, helmetless, armour. "How old are you, kid? Twelve?"

Moonbeam glared, responding angrily, "I'm 13, dammit."

Polarity was surprised nonetheless. "Holy shit, kid, you're far too young to get caught up in this sort of thing..."

Of course, Stephen was only 14 when she donned the magnet soldier armour, and started her own fight against her city's gangs, but irony was completely lost on her at the moment.

"Never too young to make a difference." She quickly responded to what she interpretted as condescendance, calming herself quickly. "But thank you... that was amazing. I owe you one."

"Look, you--" Polarity started to say, but her audience had already turned around, and was exitting quite quickly. A blurry trail was left behind her as she ran. "...wow." Was all that she could say.

She returned back home, muttering something about life being completely screwed up.