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Sentinel noticed that 'Ghoul' tensed up slightly at his appearance. That was understandable. He was like a wounded animal, and Sentinel could be a possible predator. It was only natural that he was paranoid. So Sentinel got straight to the point. "I saw your work in the alleyway earlier tonight; good work. I wasn't able to catch up with the shadow-girl that helped you out, but since you weren't as... mobile as she was, I decided to follow you and the detective here." Sighing, Sentinel divulged a fact that he wouldn't normally tell people. "I'll be straight with the both of you; I have to special powers. All you see here is flashy gadgets and new technology. So that means I can't do the hero thing alone. I already had a close call earlier..." the wounds on his torso and shoulder still throbbed, "and I guess... well... I'm offering my services to the both of you. You need anything, I'm there."

Sentinel was impressed with the man's keen observation skills. Well, he was the chief detective after all. The young hero needed to stay on his toes for else he might say something wrong that would make him look like an idiot... if he didn't look like one already. First, Sentinel addressed what Oual had explained about Violet. Yes, he had figured out most of her speech, but there seemed to be something wrong with her internal perception of the things around her. Good thing they were at a hospital. "Violet... well... didn't necessarily attack the man. She merely looked at him, and he dropped to the ground. Bam." Sentinel would have snapped his fingers, but his gloves prevented it.

Now it was time for Sentinel to explain himself. Great. "I'm not hiding from either of you, just from them," Sentinel jerked his thumb backwards at the various passing doctors and nurses who were taking notice of the six foot hooded figure standing in the middle of the hallway. Paranoid people would start to think that he was the Angel of Death, roaming the halls for its next victim. "Also, I hid from you before because I guessed that instead of striking up a conversation, 'Ghoul' needed medical attention. Plus... I needed to see if I could trust the both of you." Sentinel didn't do the whole 'shadow soldier' thing for looks; he never liked to show himself. Ever. Stealth and darkness were his best friends; kept him from being shot.

Trust. Oual needed that from the blue-garbed hero. But how could Sentinel earn Delmor's finest's trust? Wait a minute. The museum incident from earlier. That would have been caught on tape or something, right? Security cameras? "The Museum of Really Rather Recent Stuff," Sentinel stated. "There was a robbery there a few hours ago. I was there to stop it. The security footage should be available if you ask for it." Hopefully that would earn some trust. They were all on the good side, right? Good guys fighting evil? Well, Sentinel viewed himself more as the anti-hero, but the world always needed one, right?

Previous

Violet watched Oual's and Anthony's reactions to her new friend. She was hardly a brilliant detective, but even she could sense the heavy distrust that hung in the air between them. Why were they being so mean to Mr. Shadyface? He was scary, but he was Violet's friend, after all.

But, since Violet was not an active participant in this conversation, she lost interest in keeping up with it. Normally, she would react to being ignored by making herself the center of attention again, but she was once again becoming aware of where she was. Violet hated this place. She hated the white walls and the smell of sterility and the quiet, level voices of the blandly-clad nurses and doctors who roamed the halls. And the beeping. That quiet, almost imperceptible, constant beep that was largely ignorable until you noticed it. And, once noticed, it was impossible to ignore.

Violet clung tighter to Oual's arm. There was something hauntingly familiar about this place. And Violet wanted nothing more than to leave it behind.

Sentinel sighed to himself. It seemed that these men didn't want help at all. Maybe stalking them wasn't the best idea. What was he going to do though? Walk up to them on the street in the middle of the night? Yeah, that'd get him a nice kick in the groin or maybe a bullet to the chest. Meeting them in daylight was a huge no-no; Sentinel never did his 'hero thing' during the day for fear of being exposed. There were many other, probably better, options he could have chosen, but this was the one he stuck with. What a lousy superhero, Sentinel thought about himself, can't even talk to other heroes properly.

He took the note that the detective scribbled down for him. Placing it an empty compartment on his belt, Sentinel felt anger seep through his veins. Just like a bureaucrat in an office; 'Sorry, I can't be bothered with you right now. I have bigger and more important things to do than talk to a lowlife like you.' That seemed to be the tone of most cops around Delmor; they were the 'real' crime fighters, and didn't take kindly to ordinary people taking up the battle. They liked it when super-powered people came to the rescue though. Everyone liked Superman. No one liked Batman. The young hero guessed that's what it had to be for the time being, maybe for the rest of his career. And he didn't have a problem with that; he liked working alone. It just would have been nice to get some help once in awhile.

"My name is Sentinel," the man grumbled, already reaching under his cloak towards his iPhone. "And you won't have to worry about contacting me. We'll see each other soon enough." With that, he activated his cloaking device and began to silently walk away. The last statement he gave wasn't for style; he knew that cell phone numbers and various electronics could be traced. Also, the number probably wouldn't have been used anyways, just shoved in some desk in an unused drawer. As he was walking out of the large automatic sliding doors, Sentinel checked the time on his iPhone. Yeah, he had enough time to do one more thing.

"I'll confront him later," Anthony muttered to Oual as Sentinel disappeared and walked away, "He's fresh to this and is just eager to help." Anthony knew he was also fairly new to the hero stuff but in the past couple of weeks he'd been in a fiery apartment building, suffered several burns, fallen three or four stories onto a mattress, broken a few ribs and been shot. It wasn't a dynamite beginning to his career but he felt that these experiences gave him a leg up on the Sentinel.

"Perhaps you and Violet have some catching up to do?" Anthony said noticing the young girl that was with them. She screwed with his head really bad. I mean his head was already pretty screwy to begin with since he talked to his hallucinations and took advice from them but this girl... She was different certainly but potentially dangerous to Anthony as well. "This conversation is far from over. Perhaps we can meet somewhere either tonight or tomorrow... Somewhere safe. I'll be in contact with you through odd measures... Don't know if I trust cell phones or gadgets... too easy to track." He felt every nerve of his body protest to what he was about to consider doing but he ignored it and strode on with a ball of anxiety growing in his stomach.

"I'll check my data bases, you search your end," He said rather monotone, "See if you can't find anyone for this little project of ours. You know where to find me, but I'm sure you won't have to look. I'm going after Sentinel, I don't trust him... He's too-" He let that last sentence drop and never picked it up. He didn't know what it was he didn't like about Sentinel.

"You don't like him because you share too much in common with him," A Zen Buddhist Monk said to him from his perch on a medical counter where he appeared to be meditating, "You carry much contempt for him because perhaps you are afraid of what you'll find in him: a strong ally."

Anthony smirked, "Shut up. You don't even exist."

The monk laughed, "exist or not I know you will think about what I said." Anthony paused for a second to consider this, "And why do you say that?"

The monk smiled, "Because I'm just an extension of your subconsciousness, I know everything your thinking." The monk laughed and was pleased to see how much this frustrated Anthony. He realized he had been speaking aloud and muttered to Oual, "Later... I'll explain that later."

Previous

Violet sniffled, slowly running out of steam as the "rain" began to peter out around her.

"I wanna go to a place that is noplace," she said. "Except he finds me when I go noplace, so maybe I should go someplace that is not here or where he is."

Just then, a loud ringing began emanating from Violet's backpack.

"There are birdies in my bookbag!" Violet squealed, her previous sadness forgotten with this new excitement as she pulled the bag off her back and began rummaging through it. "I hope they're those birdies that can say people things and think in color instead of words and I can teach them to hide in the secret safe places and whisper love songs to people..."

Violet paused her rant as she pulled out the source of the sound. It was a cellphone, and it's presence confused her. She certainly wouldn't have put something like that in there.

"This isn't a birdie," Violet said, pouting in disappointment as she cast the ringing, vibrating thing over toward Oual. The name on the front of the phone said "Melanie".

<<

The phone flew towards Oual. He caught it instinctively and checked the caller ID. Melanie. The name registered in his mind and he thought for a minute. Ms. Carter! He smiled at Violet reassuringly and promised, “Don’t worry, I know what to do.” He was glad she had calmed down.

He pressed a button and raised the phone to his ear. “Hello, Ms. Carter. This is Chief Detective Ames Oual. If I had known Violet had a phone with her, I would have called sooner. She was just brought in here by a man who found her wandering through Delmor. I am glad you called. Violet won’t let me take her home. What would you like me to do?”

Oual knew that Violet was afraid of her father, and he was very eager to meet him. Somehow, Ms. Carter’s call had shifted his focus entirely onto his investigation of Violet.