CLOAK	DAGGER

San Francisco – After the Darkforce “Storm”

Mobile networks sat in their head offices marvelling at how is it possible that they could locate a one person on the face of the planet with their hundreds of orbital satellites, but one city escaped their coverage and their monitoring. They were always looking down at us, informing the corporate big-wigs of our every movement, or our every text, spoken word, and internet page viewed, ready to be spammed and virally advertised to. However, this cloud of night that covered the city in a ball of darkness prevented them from their observations – and this worried them. Not because of the safety of their clientele, more because they might be being sold something they didn’t know about. After all, a city was a lot of money to lose.

A similar problem was going on with the gas and electrical companies. Their engineer’s couldn’t fathom why the electrical supplies were still intact. There had been no pipes breached, no electrical currents disrupted. For all intents and purposes, San Francisco was the same as always, but with zero power usage. It was as though it was disappearing before it made it into the city proper. The only thing that did manage to carry through was radio-waves. The Authorities were alerting the army, and the people of the city to what was a freak event. They had no idea what was going on. Scientists, physicists and even superhero historians were present to offer their views on things, everything from a Dark-Matter invasion from the edge of a black-hole manifest within the core of the city, to a sun-spot so big it blotted out San Francisco.

Only the super-hero historian had a good idea of what was going on. Something similar had happened once before to the New Warriors, when they fought Psionex, but his theory of a “Dark Force” Dimension and eruption into our world was met with mockery and ultimately ignored by the scientists and the news-readers.

However, he was the only one in the twenty-strong panel of “experts” who was right.

The Streets of San Francisco

Cloak was nowhere to be seen, although, that was hardly difficult given the current situation. His tendrils and the colouration of his clothes made it difficult to see him at night at the best of times, but when there was no light beyond her glowing fist, she found it very frustrating.

While he could see in perfect vision in the darkness, Dagger had to rely on something a little more rudimentary, and it was frustrating her. Her eyes weren’t bad by human standards; in fact they were probably better at processing the higher-wavelengths of light out there. She was less prone to blink at camera flashes, which was an aesthetic affliction she suffered with as a child. Her mother, not that she cared that much being a socialite, had many photos where her Tandy’s eyes had shut a millisecond before the flash had gone off, in anticipation.

Rubbing her eyes, Tandy wondered and hoped that one day she might be able to see in darkness as well as Ty. Sitting on a dustbin, she continued to rub her weary eyes, waiting for Cloak to return to her. He knew where she was.

She began to think about how he could see in the darkness. Whether his eyes were adapted to the opposite of light, whether Darkness had different intensities and wavelengths, the way light did.

She saw light differently as well, in almost peaks and troughs of intensity. The brighter the light, the higher the amount of ghostly spectres of the spectrum she could see moving from it, like a million point star rainbow. She smiled to herself, looking at her glowing fist.

Her light was different, her light burnt from her soul. It was the power of her life-force. It looked like normal light, but to her eyes, it was pure white. The spectral effects around the edges of her fist were replaced with brilliant, almost dazzling white. It was like staring at the face of the sun on a bright day—burning, pure intensity.

In a way, their abilities were similar to the paths their souls took, although she could never be sure as she didn’t know Ty well before they were caught in the drug experiment that turned them into…the way they were now. She was bright, and excitable and forward, and Ty was withdrawn and stoic and quiet. It was almost like their form fit their functions. Tandy paused, and smiled to herself. She wasn’t exactly renowned for her deep thoughts, she always imagined that she was something of a surface person, and that was alright with her. Her surface was deep enough to engage and interest people, without there having to be depths of intelligence and wit and guile those others had. She was just Tandy Bowen, part time dancer, and full time superhero.

As she stared into the distance, there was a moment of clarity, as the light from her fist began to die down, a moment of clarity that was almost like an epiphany of visual delight. As her eyes were beginning to adjust to the darkness, which was something that confused her very basic understanding of science.

She remembered that you could not see in the dark unless there was a tiny amount of light to see, and as far as she was aware, there wasn’t any. Why would the Darkforce allow light through itself, its enemy?

Then it dawned upon her. Perhaps it wasn’t the Darkforce at all; perhaps it was her eyes and her powers inventing a new way for her to be Dagger in this hostile environment. Perhaps she could see the darkness the way people could see light, like there were different wavelengths of dark as there were light, and normal humans were just unable to see it.

Tandy smiled to herself, a wide, bright smile. She could see everything now, the garbage on the ground, the street before her. Every tiny detail that she could see when there was light present was visible to her, and some that weren’t. Tiny fissures and cracks within buildings structures that would otherwise be invisible to the human eye. It was almost as though all the normally visible structures in light were dark, and everything within the darkness was white. Like it was inverted, but that was probably her brain trying to make sense of it all.

She smiled as Cloak began his course down the alleyway towards her.

“Tandy, it’s me. I’m coming back. I...”

“I know, Ty. I can see now,” Tandy interjected her voice excited and quick.

“What do you mean, you can see now? We’re in total darkness,” Ty responded, his voice laced with confusion.

Tandy’s smile become even wider, as she bounced down off the dustbin and pranced towards Ty, her hands behind her back. She planted a little kiss on his cheek, and pirouetted around him.

“I don’t know how, I don’t know why, but as soon as I let my own light die down, I could see everything. In fact, I can see even better than before,” She beamed, poking her head around his shoulder to look at him.

“You can see? Even in this darkness?” Cloak questioned.

“Yes, even better than before, Ty. I can see every little detail. I feel like a hawk!” She exclaimed, spinning in place.

“How? What does it look like?” Ty asked. His own vision was perfectly adapted for moving within the Darkforce, however, his vision was similar to that of normal humans. He took ambient light absorbed by the Darkforce and converted that into vision. Not that he knew how, it was just a passive ability.

“It just feels like I can see the opposite of everything. Like, the Dark bits are light and the light bits are darker than they should be,” She focused on Cloak, his folds were pure white, and his dark face and arms were as brilliant as the rest, while the lighter bits of his cloak, the navy blue and his white eyes were darker. Not completely black, but just a dark shade of bright.

Ty grunted, and let his cloak settle itself down, it’s tendrils reached out for Tandy, as she danced around him. He closed his eyes and waited for her to calm down, like a frustrated parent.

“Did you find anything?” Tandy asked, stopping eventually, and darting her head around to try and capture every detail.

“Yes,” Ty said his voice grim. Tandy stopped and waited for his response.

“Survivors.”

“Where did you find them again?” Tandy asked, flowing closely behind Ty. Even though she could see, it didn’t prevent the creepy feeling that was following them around. Everyone was scared of the dark at some point in their lives, rightly so.

You couldn’t see what was coming towards you.

“What are we going to do with them?” Tandy asked after a few minutes of silent walking. Ty stopped and turned to her.

“We’re going to lead them to safety. I can feel the force blocking everything coming into the City. It’s feeding off the electricity and all the other modern conventions that weren’t here when it first invaded Earth,” Ty said, a pleading look on his face, though Tandy couldn’t quite make out what the plea was for.

“What do you mean, last time?” Tandy asked, her neat brow knitting together in confusion.

Ty sighed, and turned around, continuing his brisk pace. For some reason the Darkforce around them made it impossible for him to teleport anyway. Perhaps it was because there was nothing within the Darkforce dimension any more. It was just an empty space? Or at least there were no longer guiding forces within its fabric.

“I do not know all the details, only the general idea of it. The Darkforce installs a sense of history and connection to me. I don’t know if that is true of all of its users,” He said, his voice becoming less like Ty’s and more of a dramatic deeper tone, as though someone were using his voice to speak to Tandy, but it was under Ty’s control.

It was an odd feeling for the pair of them.

“It invaded just after the first fall of Kulan Gath, and then again during when Limbo attempted to invade through the Savage Land. Neither time did it succeed. There was simply not enough energy to sustain it. The Darkforce itself requires raw energy to “survive”.” Ty continued, rounding a corner and glancing around for anything...untoward.

“It needs energy?” Tandy said, taking a moment to think. “Is that why you feed off the life energies within people, or from me?” Tandy asked. Ty nodded slowly. It wasn’t something he was proud of. He felt like a scavenger, a bottom feeder, something that should live under a log and be banished there for all of its charm and honour.

“Sometimes it can convert the life-light of people into that energy, but more often than not it requires something rawer. Like radio waves, or light, or electricity, something that can be used immediately.”

Tandy glanced around her, waving her hands in front of her, and a look of disgust on her face.

“Is it alive?”

“Not in any sense we could understand,” Ty said, looking back at her and pulling his hood down, “It’s alive in the sense that it has things living within it, but it is not alive the way we are,” Ty said, his voice changing back to his own.

“What was wrong with your voice?” Tandy asked, looking at the confused features of Ty.

“It’s almost as though the Darkforce was using me, Tandy. It’s like it just wanted to tell you that, and used me to do it,” Ty shuddered a little. Nothing anyone else would notice, except for Tandy. The tips of his cloak undulated gently, and one tendril reached up to comfort its master.

“We’re nearly there,” Ty said after a few short minutes. Rounding another corner and looking up at the large building before them.

“What are we going to do with them?” Tandy asked without knowing how many there were or their physical condition.

Ty opened the door to the apartment building, and pointed towards the distance.

“I can feel the edges of the Darkforce very clearly. There’s a definite break between the Darkforce and the outside world. They’re probably mounting a military effort out there,” Ty said with a slight grin. Tandy responded with a smile. He didn’t make jokes or show any overt signs of happiness very often, so it was important that she responded to him when he did, to try and coax more out of him.

“So, you seem like you have it all figured out, what’s the plan?” Tandy asked.

“We’re going to gather up and lead our friends towards the edge of the city. I’m going to create a solid Darkforce tunnel so they can walk to the end, and we’re going to find as many people as possible, and try and make all of this go back to the way it was,” Cloak said, defiant and confidence creeping into his voice. Tandy grinned, and bit her lip gently. She liked this side of Ty; it was a side that she didn’t get to see very often.

As the duo walked into the apartment building and up the stairs, Tandy's vision made out the forms of nearly fifty people. Huddled together like rats, parents held their children close, as they offered comforting words and gentle coo's to stop their children from weeping.

The Darkness scared everyone. It didn't matter about age, or wisdom. When a person is unable to see what they're doing, even in the middle of the day, it is a scary experience.

Tandy grabbed hold of one of Cloak's tendrils before he moved into the room, and pulled him towards her.

“This is awful, Ty. They're trapped here, they can't even move out of the Darkness. Why don't they have torches or matches or something? Surely someone where has a lighter?”

Ty shook his head and touched Tandy's shoulders with his fingertips.

“Light, conventional light, doesn't work here for some reason. Lighters, and torches and mobile phones don't give off any light. It's only you that seems to be able to do it,” Ty said, glancing over his shoulder with a worried look.

“Come on, we need to try and get them to safety.”

Tandy nodded, as Cloak walked into the room. His Tendril's leered into the air, as though he were going to prey on the first person he saw. Tandy likened it to the frill of the Lizard that spat on the fat guys face in Jurassic Park.

“I have returned,” Cloak said, in his most non-threatening voice. People still screamed and panicked. They had no idea of his arrival.

“I've brought Dagger with me as well; she should be able to light the way. We can get you to edge of the city, but we're going to need you to line up, and follow me and Dagger,” Ty instructed, the tendrils of his cloak reaching out and touching every member of the room.

“Hold on, and try to keep up,” Ty said, glancing over at Tandy. She lifted her hand into the air, as a brilliant spark of light ignited between her fingertips, illuminating the stairwell, and the front of the room for the first time in nearly a day.

“Don't look directly at it, Okay?” Tandy said, as she began to descend down the stairwell. Ty and the others followed. Soon they would march, slowly so the children aren't left behind, to the edge of the city, which wasn't far from the apartment.

The walk was slow, but they made it eventually. Children had cried, from fear and from fatigue, as they made their way to the edge of the city. Tandy didn't blame them. Anything could be out in the darkness of the city. Anyone could be lost. The duo didn't have any time to waste, but they couldn't save everyone. They wouldn't be able to save everyone.

Tandy thought of the people at the hospital suddenly, how there was no electricity and all those people in operations, and on life support would have been snuffed out as a result of this.

As a result of them...Ty might not have thought of that, but Tandy certainly had. They had blood on their hands now. Their incompetence had murdered people.

As they reached the edge of the city, Tandy and Ty stopped.

“What do we do now, Ty?” Tandy asked. It appeared as though the Darkness were thicker here, as though they were unable to pierce through it. Desperation highlighted Tandy's voice, as she tried to push her way through. The light barely made any difference

“This is where you step aside, Tandy,” Ty moved forwards, his cloak billowing outwards, gripping onto invisible purchase points within the darkness, pulling himself off the ground and into the air.

“Ty...” Tandy began, as he held up his hand. A beam of light, barely a centimetre big began to bore its way through the darkness, widening up to cast the entire grouping in its light. A few of the older generations stumbled backwards, as if over-come by the emotion and the intensity of it.

“Go...quickly!” The strain in Ty's voice was evident. He was pushing as hard as he could to try and keep the hole open. It was big enough for people to fit through now, if they crouched down low and kept moving. Tandy rushed over to the group and started trying to hurry people alone.

“Come on, he can't hold it for long. You need to get through to the outside!” Tandy began trying to force the people down the tunnel, and before long, they were all running down it, crouching low to avoid the thick blanket of darkness that hung over their heads.

As the last civilian ran through the gap, Tandy stood in silence, basking in the sunlight. It had been so long since she'd felt its touch. Over a day.

For someone who's entire life is light and dancing and frivolity, to be away from light for an extended time, and not just away from light, but to be in an environment where light just didn't exist, was something that caused her heart to feel heavy.

As Ty and Tandy moved away from the edge of the city, their minds both wandered. How many more people would they find? Was this a hollow victory? Saving the lives of a few dozen people, just to have a hundred of more die because of the Darkforce?

Tandy, in particular, took it harder than Ty. She wanted to save them all, and she had unrealistic expectations about herself, and Ty. While they flourished in challenging environments, they were unable to thrive in normalcy.

“Ty, what's this?” Tandy asked, crouching down and dipping her finger in the reflective surface of the liquid on the ground. He crouched down next to her and sniffed the air.

“It's blood, Tandy,” he answered, a hint of shock and concern to his voice.

“Blood? Where has it come from?” Tandy asked, looking up at Ty. He looked down at her.

“I would imagine someone who is dead now,” Ty pointed towards the smear that led across the ground. Someone had been murdered. Tandy got to her feet immediately, and followed the trail, with Ty coming in close behind her.

“Where is it leading?” Ty asked. Tandy shook her head.

“I don't know but it's in a straight line and smeared, like someone had been dragging a body,” Tandy glanced back at Ty, before turning her attention to the ground again.

“Tandy,” Ty said suddenly, as she glanced back towards him. He pointed further down the trail, where it stopped abruptly.

“I don't understand,” She said, glancing around the area, to see if there were some sign of the body, or where the murderer might have taken his victim.

“It just stops,” Ty said, the trail left a few drops of blood but seemed to end at a very defined point.

“Who could have done this?” Tandy asked, looking up at her partner.

“Perhaps, Tandy, we should be asking...what could have done this?” Ty answered, his voice low and sinister.

She shook her head and rubbed her scalp gently. She didn't understand, but they didn't have time to waist trying to sort this out. There were other people out there that needed to be saved.

“As much as it pains me to say it...” Tandy began. Ty held up his hand and nodded.

“I feel the same way,” He said, turning around slowly and offering a backwards glance for any other clues, “I fear that the person we're tracking may have expired at any rate.”

As the voices of Cloak and Dagger faded into the distance, the creature that hung to the lamppost above the end of the smear dropped its completed meal. Drained of all fluids, the desiccated man flopped to the ground, little more than dehydrated meat and bone.

With Darkforce hooks that allowed the creature, who had interlocking plates of Darkforce energy across its long and hard body, hung to the underside of the Lamp-Post, awaiting its next meal.

Opportunists never rest.

NEXT: More Dark Forces!