Nothing Worth Saving (closed for BlackWingedOne)

[Gothic Shujin]

When you hear the term hero, you usually think of one thing. A man or woman performing extraordinary deeds in the face of adversity for the common good, while putting his/her own safety in jeopardy. If your a comic book geek, or maybe just a person with a slightly more fantastic point of view, you may see something more visceral, a man or woman clothed head to toe in a tight spanex suit, brightly colored and with a special anagram or symbol of their alter ego persona. These themes are quite common, but sometimes entirely removed from reality...

I'm a hero. Or at least... I was one.

I'd say "superhero" but the word just rubs me the wrong way... its really hard enough to be saving the city from one impending doom from week to week without having to carry around the moniker of superhero. Just thank me and let me live in peace... and we'll call it even.

Anyway, I'm getting off topic. I WAS a hero, back when this city needed them. I was never into the group thing... there were enough of those, and being a solitary practitioner was just fine by me. When one is anti-social, you thank whatever you believe in that there is a moron in a brightly colored suit, mouthing off to some news crew about what he and his multicolored rainbow compatriots did. If i cared about getting my thunder stolen i might of said something the many times it happened... but as i said... i liked it that way.

See, i fit in. You'd never see me coming and you sure as hell wouldn't see me going. And not in the way you read about, with a grand but mysterious exit. No. When i say unseen... i mean just that. But i didn't do this for the acclaim, or the gifts, or the ass (though that would of been nice), I did it for different reasons.

So here we are, years after this once cesspool of a city has needed anyone with powers like mine, and I'm seeing a shrink for manic depression. Go figure.

Its one thing to be doing something you believe in, and not getting credit for it, but its an entirely different beast, to be doing nothing... to be feeling worthless, and having the memory of that sense of achievement to cling to.

........................................

Tyr closes the book hes been frantically writing in for the past ten minutes and places it beneath the waistline of his pants, under his coat yet over his shirt. Most people have a gun here... but he had no need for those.

The streets were a lot safer at night than they had been in a long time, it was something he was indifferent about, unable to share the enthusiasm of the rest of the city's denizens.



Having spent a great deal of his life sacrificing himself for everyone else, it was hypocritical of him to now despise the serenity of others when he was one of the only ones suffering....

Tyr stuck his hands in his pants pockets and let the chilling night air blow through his raven black hair. He walked the same blocks once run by gang members and crime bosses, not in fear... but longing.

Eventually he came across the memorial of a hero he remembered. It was a pathetic excuse for a tribute, but built after the city was clean, and with the quickly fading memory of the blood paid for that peace.

He stood there, staring at it. The man's noble hand reaching to the heavens, reaching towards a future that had forgotten him. Reaching towards...

Nothing.

There was nothing left to save... and nothing worth saving.

Tyr heard footsteps and turned around.

[BlackWingedOne]

Alyssa had been walking, her head down, her blood red hair hanging in waves around her face. Ear buds in her ears, hard rock music pounding through her brain. She was on her way home from the bar she tended at nights, her long coat covering the skimpy excuse for a uniform they used at Stone, the club she worked at.

She moved through the streets with grace that almost seemed unnatural. She could have been dancing down the street to the casual bystander. She could have traveled by rooftops if she wished, her increased agility making it easy for her to make the long leaps without having to worry about falling. But, sometimes the sidewalks were a nice change from flying. Even with her abilities, and strength, there was no use for her in this safe world. It was either live a normal life or join the circus and Alyssa wasn't about to join the circus.

With her head bowed, and music blaring, she hadn't seen the man in front of her until it was too late, she barreled head first into a well muscled chest. If she had been a normal person, the impact would have sent her tumbling onto her back on the sidewalk. She pulled away a bit, and reached up, pulling her ear bud out.

"Sorry Sir, I didn't see you there." She smiled sweetly at him.

[Gothic Shujin]

Before he had time to react, he was torn from his self hating and met by a shorter, lovely young woman. She walked right into him and Tyr noticed the subtlety of how much control of her own balance she had.

She apologized politely and he attempted to smile warmly at her...

"Its quite alright.... my fault... I wasn't paying attention."

Beneath her coat he could see the contours of her body quite well, there was very little to disguise them. Her crimson hair was at the mercy of the wind and from behind it he was struck by how attractive she was.

He began to open his mouth to spit out an often recited speech about being on the streets at night, before he realized that such a warning was no longer viable.

He pulled his hands out of his pockets, the air instantly becoming a few degrees cooler, and tugged his coat tighter around himself for warmth.

He regarded the young woman for a few moments before turning back to the statue. The small silver, skeletal hands which served as shoulder adornments glinting in the moonlight.

[BlackWingedOne]

The stranger smiled at her, and Alyssa was thankful for it. She wondered idly if anyone was mean in this town anymore. She followed his dark gaze to the monument before them. With a sigh she shook her head, "He was a great man, always made people laugh." She spoke with a hint of nostalgia, though she looked too young to remember the hero in question.

"Too bad there's no use for real heroes anymore." She shrugged and turned, her back to the stranger as she popped her headphone back in and waltzed down the street once more.

[Gothic Shujin]

It was an ironic thing to say. Something Tyr agreed with wholeheartedly.

"Yes it IS too bad."

He had known the man, but not well enough to ever carry on more than a mundane conversation with him. Perhaps some of that levity she referred to could be useful at a time like this. Perhaps not.

He watched her leave over his shoulder, something tugging at his senses, as if she was either familiar or important somehow. He dismissed it as paranoia, took one more look a the statue and then fled the lonely spectacle of past glory for a darkened alley way.

Perhaps something or someone would reach out for him, grabbing him like the old days, gimme your money, or some such shit like that.

Who was Tyr kidding? You would be hard pressed to find a fucken jay-walker in this town.

Although it was late there were tons of bars open. He avoided all of them, instead entering a small coffee house just outside the village. It had some often embarrassing live music playing on a ridiculously small stage, but the coffee was great.

He ended his night there... slinking off to his apartment a few blocks away. In the morning he had a meeting with his therapist... or his the rapist, as he liked to call her.

He always liked to get there on time. When you are a hero... time is of the essence and being punctual is a habit you just can't seem to break.

[BlackWingedOne]

Alyssa smiled with the thought of the strangers words. Once she was out of sight, she scaled a nearby building and soon was leaping from one rooftop to the next. She got home quick enough and was in bed before the sun came up. She smiled to herself as she woke.

She had a wonderfully horrible idea.

She would bring back the need for heroes....but she would do it so they would be sad to capture her. A modern day robin hood is what she would be. She moved around her apartment, soon working on a new costume, she was going to need a mask....

[Gothic Shujin]

"While i understand what you are saying Mr. Yrtlien, I think the ultimate and underlined issue here is your unwillingness to let go. Your current longing is only a most recent desire in a history of dependency. Dependency designed to keep you in a state of unhappiness since you hate yourself so much. I think, and i think you'd agree with me if you just think about it... that your focus should not be ways to cope with the situation as it is... but to begin to see a new value in yourself and what your life still has to offer... and by that i mean yourself AND others... since you are very much the martyr and the caregiver at heart."

Tyr's vision was fixed on the crude adaption of "The creation of Adam" hung on the wall behind Dr. Gaunnin. He had heard everything the doctor was saying but only in the the way you hear the music of your headphones when your doing something else... once you've heard it a million times before. Its fun to listen to, and you can even sing alone, but its just background music, it doesn't solve the problem or grant you any more insight except in that emotional way that may inspire you to find such knowledge for yourself.

Apparently he was supposed to say something here...

"Yes doctor... of course. And how should I do that?"

"Well," his therapist began "... that is really up to you... you see... "

Tyr looked around the immaculate office, a float an ocean of boredom and seeking a life preserver... or even a piece of wood drift to cling to. He noticed a paper on a table and glanced at the headline.

He stood up, nearly leaping for the newsprint... a shadowy image of himself still sitting down for a few seconds. Ultimately it was absorbed into him, as it caught up with his celerity. By then he was holding the paper.

It went unnoticed to the Psychologist.

"Mr. Yrtlien? Is there a problem?"

Tyr grinned.

"No Doc," he began... a new-found confidence in his voice which was more audible "... I've just realized that your right... and I think i need to get started right away."

He left the paper fall to the floor before leaving the sterile smelling shrink lounge for the secretary office outside of it. He pressed a button for the elevator and tried to hide his excitement.

He would have to hurry if he was to be the first to find her.

[BlackWingedOne]

"Hmmm...names...names..." Alyssa mused to herself after she had taken off her makeshift costume and settled at him. She had robbed a well known mobster and given the money to a local teen shelter who was going to be foreclosed on by the city.

Of course, the mobster had lived to tell the police about it, he played innocent, but he was the one having the shelter closed to expand his casino. No one saw it as a crime for this man to expand his casino, so no one had been informed of the injustice.


"Robin' da hood?" she mused to herself, looking at the materials she had in her closet she could make a costume out of. An old halloween costume caught her eye, with a smile, she put it on. Cocking the hat to the side, she pulled on a matching green mask.

Looking at herself in the mirror, she smiled before taking it off and dressing for work, she would enjoy work more then usual now. She would find the people committing those social crimes and right them. It wasn't long until she was waltzing down the street once more, moving towards Stone.

[Gothic Shujin]

The trail had gone cold earlier that day.

It was easy enough to rekindle a relationship with one of his old contacts in the police department. Some things... such as corruption, never change. But what he found was rather disappointing.

This was more of a borderline vigilante than a criminal.

They were already giving her a nickname in the tabloids and in the paper, but so far he seemed to be the only one looking to bring her to... well... justice. He hated using that word too... it was purely fantasy, and something that could only be defined separately and within each person judging.

He sat there, his legs dangling over the side of a high-rise apt. complex in the projects, not too far off where the mobster's property had been hit. He wasn't in his coat tonight... and even tho the air was cold enough for one to see his breath, it didn't bother Tyr. Cold had stopped affecting his body since he was a child.

A great many things did.

He thought he saw something suddenly out of his peripherals. Springing up and dashing across the top of the building, lit only by a dim cascading of moonlight... he leaped from one structure to another... closing his eyes and letting a dark energy surround him. He'd of never made the jump himself... he wasn't agile, or acrobatic... but the force he manipulated didn't need him to be.

Nothing.

He sat down. Legs crossed like a child pouting.

Pulling out the newspaper, the recent one containing a single snip of her from the back... fleeing a scene, he admired her form. She was expectation to him. She was hope. It was all he had in his life, and he was wishing the incident wasn't an isolated thing.

He had chosen a tight pair of black jeans and his old suit up shirt... a tight form fitting long sleeved dark custom job he had made bearing a simple red upside-down Ahnk on the front. A tiny bit flashy... yes... but not horrendous. Not like some others. Besides, it went with his boots. He shook his head, the long pony tail he wore beginning to dampen.

Rain.

It started falling in large drops and sweeping waves from a once cloudless night sky.

The gloom fit his mood.

He waited.

[BlackWingedOne]

Her time at Stone was short. She made enough in tips for the week and she moved out onto the street. With her coat on, she scanned the newspaper, seeing herself in it, she smirked. There were a good amount of people who she could bring to justice, where to start? She yawned as she looked up, seeing a figure perched on the side of a building. She smirked, wondering if it was the same man she had met the other night.

Moving, she scaled a nearby building and walked along the narrow outcropping, her heels clicking against the bricks. She could feel the rain falling on her and she smiled, being a few buildings away from the man now, she pulled off her coat, letting it fall before kicking off her heels and breaking into a run. With a leap, and a flip in mid air, she was closer to him. She smiled as she stepped off the next building, leaping gracefully as she had before.

"Hows it going?" she asked as she came closer and sat beside him, letting the rain plaster her already skimpy clothes to her skin.

[Gothic Shujin]

She startled him.

He flinched, Embarrassingly so, and turned around to meet familiar eyes. It was an attractive girl, her clothes wet and slippery... holding tightly to her voluptuous form. Her shapely hips caught his eye first, next her ample breasts held tightly together yet still nearly bursting out of their prison.

Once he realized he was gawking he realized it was the girl form the street the other day. She had headphones then...

Shoes too...

He swung his legs back over the roof. His black jeans now soaked and dripping, making his legs feel pounds heavier. He stood up and again turned his sights on her.

"Its... going. What are you doing up here? Its raining, and late." He wanted to ask her how the hell she snuck up on him, or why he didn't hear her coming. But those were questions he felt would be better answered if he directed them in a mirror.

Surely in his "downtime" he had lost his touch.

It was hard for him to look at her, she was quite the vision. Dripping wet yes, but also dripping sex. She almost looked like a stripper... or how you'd imagine a stripper would look when she wasn't swinging from a pole.

He turned his attention to the street and rooftops while still keeping his companion in his peripherals. The vigilante might of passed Tyr and with this exciting distraction he would never of known it.

[BlackWingedOne]

Alyssa smiled at him, it seemed she had surprised him and here she thought he was at least gifted with better senses then that. She wondered how she must have looked, dripping wet and scantily clad from work but she chuckled softly at his gawking. If it didn't happen on a daily basis at Stone, she would have been flattered. He didn't look to bad either, with his clothing clinging to him, his well muscled chest defined by the wet fabric clinging to it.

"I was on my way home from work, and I saw you. I thought I would say hello with you up here all by your lonesome. But, I'll leave you alone if you like." she offered as she moved to the edge of the building, walking along the thin ledge on her tip toes. "Did you hear about the chick who robbed Vinny?" she asked nonchalantly, knowing he would know the name of the mobster.

[Gothic Shujin]

Watching her leave, his eyes again fell to her form. Her ass was sublime, each perfectly rounded cheek shifting slightly side to side as she walked.

He paused, mentally, in that way one does when the gears are turning.

"I did," he began " do you... know Mr. Taglilucchi somehow? I assume he has his usual goons turning over the usual rocks trying to find out what he can about her."

He folded his arms, still scanning the rooftops, mainly to cover the red symbol on his chest. He hadn't thought anyone would be up here, let alone anyone who would join him.

It's not like she would recognize it.

Again... being a pariah had its advantages.

[BlackWingedOne]

Alyssa gave a noncommittal shrug of her shoulders. "I'm pretty sure everyone in this town knows who he is." She offered as she spun on her heel and ran along the edge back to where he was seated. "His goons are, they came into Stone for a drink tonight after getting no leads." She looked up at the sky, the rain pouring down, flowing in a small stream between her breasts.


She smiled and looked at him. "So, are you going to brood on the rooftop all night? Or would you care to escort a helpless girl home in a bad neighborhood?" she laughed softly at her joke. Not waiting for his response, she turned once more and ran along the ledge of the rooftop, before making a big leap onto the next building, there she smiled at him, beckoning him to follow her with a crooked finger.

[Gothic Shujin]

"True enough but most people don't refer to him by first name," it was a jab at her association with him, but he let the issue drop. This wasn't an interrogation, not officially anyway... although nothing Tyr did was official in anyone's eyes but his.

He considered what she had said about Stone, a club near to where he had first met her. It made sense, her body, her knowledge of Taglilucchi, where he found her that first night...

"I did consider it... ," he said with discerning expression... " but in light of this... " he chose his next word carefully "... woman prowling around the city at night, I think bringing you home is an excellent idea. You shouldn't be up here anyway."

He witnessed her jump and nodded inwardly to himself.

Yes it all made sense now.

"Think I'll take the stairs."

[BlackWingedOne]

Alyssa laughed as he said he would take the stairs. "Oh come on," she shouted across to him. "You can make it, it really isn't that far." She balanced on the edge of the other building and crooked her finger at him once more. She wanted to see if he would do it.

With a wicked grin, her hands went up to her chest, tugging at the already low cut edges of her shirt. "I'll give you a show if you do it." She teased, bending slightly to give him a nice view of her ample cleavage.

[Gothic Shujin]

He stopped at the top of the descending stairwell, the door leading to the roof ajar. His mouth would of been open as well if not for some restraint.

Her tits were plump and inviting, hanging there as an offer from this girl whom he was beginning to desire. Even when he knew he shouldn't.

"I'll make you a deal," he replied... " If i can get over there, without jumping... or going back downstairs, without using rope or a pole vault... or any such tool..."

He closed the door to the building's top floor.

"You have to have coffee with."

It was a much staler proposition, to what he WANTED to say, but this matter called for a delicate trapping. Not lust. He licked his lips, it was all he could do to express his craving.

Tyr slowly walked to the edge... his boots patting in the wet puddles.

He stared at her, with his head cocked slightly to one side, and from behind some of his dark hair, which he had loosened.

"Deal?"

[BlackWingedOne]

Alyssa smiled, she knew she had gotten him. When he countered her offer, she smiled. "Deal, as long as it's at my place so I can change into dry clothes." She put both arms out, beckoning him to come across. He said he could do it without jumping, this she had to see.

"Come and get me..." she taunted.

[Gothic Shujin]

If he wasn't right, not that she couldn't just keep up this little ruse, he would of only revealed himself to one stranger. Not a total loss, considering what he'd gain otherwise. What harm would be in that.... who would she tell?

He began to step forward before his rationale got the better of him by answering that question...

He smiled at her playfulness, she reminded him of a heroine he knew back in the day. Theme was something like a cat... a kitty, some such sexiness and extremely outgoing.

Tyr took a step forward, and then another. He shut his eyes...

The dark energy surged from his hands at first, enveloping his forearms and crackling and whipping around his chest like electric snakes. It next flooded from his shut eyes and his mind, cascading over the rest of his body till a thick cloud of darkness was holding him about two feet over the rooftop.

He remembered the fist time he discovered his "abnormality" he remembered what it did to his friends... another session for the doc. years later.

He tried to focus, the source of the power sputtering... causing him to loose some height. Once he was over the perimeter wall of the next roof, and then hovering again two feet over the floor of it... he gently let his mind relax and the now violet tinged darkness subside.

His landing was quiet.

So was the roof.

He smiled attempting to stare at her, his eyes now open. The ripples of energy however had caused some hair to fall in front of his vision again, so with a hand he combed it back so he might see her reaction and her lovely form once more.

"So how do you like your coffee?"

[BlackWingedOne]

Alyssa watched in awe as the man seemed to hover above the building, making his way slowly but surely over to the building she was on. She smiled and chuckled as he landed without a sound beside her. "Mmm, light and sweet..." she said with a wink as she took off, flipping backwards and soon leaping gracefully onto the next building. It wouldn't take long for them to get to her apartment, in fact, with one more leap, Alyssa was scaling down a fire escape and propping her window open. Silently, she waited for him to catch up.

[Gothic Shujin]

She was not shocked, but yet it seemed pleasantly surprised at what he could do. This mingled with the fact that she in no way hid her natural prowess and obvious supernatural agility... confirmed it.

It was her.

If not there are two gorgeous women flipping around rooftops in the middle of the night. It would be too coincidental. He'd be too naive to think that there was another, which had nothing to do with the vigilante acts as of late.

No it was her, he was sure of it. As sure as he knew that SHE knew he was looking for her.

During his mental dissection of it all she eluded him... over the building and across another, until she disappeared down the side.

His display was mainly for show, but truth be told he had no use for his powers as of late... he was in a word...

Rusty.

But he wouldn't let her get away, and even as a part of him knew she wasn't trying to, he still felt an urgency... a duty synonymous with his past dedication.

Tyr stretched his arms to his sides and raised his head slightly... soon he was encased in the dark energy he commanded since he was young, it shot him across the rooftop like a threatening specter, of violet and black... he levitated over where she vanished only to find her halfway inside an open window.

He lowered to hover just beyond the fire escape as she ducked in.

He raised a brow, placing an arm on the iron railing and dispelling his powers. He hopped the metal bar with a youth's eagerness and knelt down to pop his head inside the apartment.

"I...," he started as he surveyed the room "... know a great coffee shop. You know, you didn't have to make it yourself."

[BlackWingedOne]

She heard his voice and smiled, "Why pay for coffee when I make it just the way I like it?" she ventured, already in her bedroom and stripping out of her wet clothes and pulling on a short silk robe, tying the sash around her hips. She pulled out a fluffy towel and threw it in his direction.

"How do you like your coffee?" she asked as she pulled out her french press coffee machine and began to heat a kettle of water on the stove.

[Gothic Shujin]

He was tempted to stand close enough to her bathroom door to watch her change, but he had at least that much self control, and didn't.

He looked around, finding something, totally unlike what he expected. It didn't really look unlike his own room, she liked some of the same bands, and had some of the same things.

He caught the towel and began drying his hair, an air of comfort attempting to wash over him but years of mistrust fought that back. He stood there... not sitting while he would of loved to and examined her silk skin beneath the alluring robe she wore.

His eyes scanned over the shape of her ass, which he could see, highlighted beneath the soft robe. She started a pot and before she could turn around Tyr found himself approaching her.

"Why are you doing this?," he said flatly, his eyes discerning and his hands ready to react.

[BlackWingedOne]

Alyssa was surprised to hear the air of suspicion. "I'm being friendly..." she offered without turning around and pouring his mug of coffee. She could feel him close, she turned, looking at him, "You intrigue me, I want to get to know you better, and plus you're fun to play with." she laughed softly.

[Gothic Shujin]

He couldn't help but blush and even through his smile he had a concern in his eyes.

"That's not what I meant." He was close enough to smell her hair but didn't, he peered over her shoulder to see her pouring a cup.

Tyr stepped away and placed his hand on the wall... leaning in and looking out the the window.

"What do you get from robbing a mob boss?"