The Bronze Bear's Story

As John reached the front doors of the apartment building he quickly began walking down the sidewalk, trying to walk slow enough to not look suspicious and at the same time fast enough that he could get home before the nightly news was over. As he walked at his brisk pace his eyes couldn’t help but notice the sun's burning shape slowly fading off in the horizon as the dying rays cast an amber glow across the various sky scrapers and tenement buildings within his view. It was actually quite beautiful. If he hadn’t been so lost in thought and focused on the scenery he might have noticed the figure in black atop the roof of the large building directly adjacent to Screams apartment, probably not though-it seemed as if none of the dozens of people walking the busy sidewalks had noticed him.

Vincent Doran, also known as the Midnight Masher among the papers, sat high atop the streets on the roof of the slightly upscale apartments adjacent to where the man known as 'Scream' made his home. He had been following the mans exploits over the past year and he had to admit that he was rather effective and the fact that the man hadn’t stopped patrolling the streets over the past years made him greatly respect the man. Although he had been following the mans hero career for years it hadn’t been until the last week he had physically begun to watch the man, he needed to make a final decision on whether or not to invite him to be apart of the team he had been putting together the past month.

As he thought of the word 'team' a scowl spread under his masked face, thoughts of his old team flooding his mind. Back in the day he had been apart of the only real Super Hero group that resided within Kansas City, they stupidly had referred to themselves as the 'Super Seven'. Despite the dumb group name they had been some of the best men and women Vince had known in his life and as a group they had decided to continue to fight crime and serve the public. These days however the entire team, save for Vince himself, were dead and buried, hunted like common criminals at the passing of the 28th by the newly formed Cape Killers.

Over the years Vince had gone from protecting citizens from crime to protecting meta's from their own government. In the old days when he had been part of a team he fought with nothing more then his fists and a shield along with the occasional use of his powers but now when he'd stalk the streets at night he was damn near a walking armory. His huge arsenal contained just about everything, from the two .45 caliber pistols strapped to each leg and the sub machine gun tucked into his belt to the large caliber rifle strapped across his back and a medium sized curved blade attached to his lower right leg. He also carried his old signature black shield but used it far less these days. Over the past ten years the amount of cape killers that had died at his hands was rumored to be in the triple digits and Vince felt no remorse over a single one, there was a reason he had earned the title of 2nd most wanted meta in Kansas City Missouri.

Kneeling atop the roof in his kevlar looking black armor that covered nearly every inch of him he grasped a pair of binoculars in his hands. Putting the large black binoculars up to his eyes he continued to peer across the street into Screams apartment, not that he could really see anything but he was determined to find out who the newcomer was he had brought home-over the week he'd been following Scream he never once had seen someone else follow him into his apartment, and he knew the best way to find answers was to be patient.

John could hear his cell phone ringing through the old wooden door that lead to his bedroom, like most days he had forgotten the damned electronic device at home. He had been sitting on his comfy looking couch with his eyes glued too his ten inch tv watching the news when the ringing began, and just as he had stood up to go retrieve the blasted ringing thing Natalias picture finally popped up on the television screen with a banner beneath reading 'Breaking news!'. It was for this reason John simply let his phone ring, forcing whoever had been calling him into his almost empty voice mail box.

Paying attention as the news caster spoke John let out an audible laugh when the man started off the segment by saying that the young woman was 'extremely armed and dangerous', a vibe that John himself had not picked up on at all in his brief meeting with Natalia. He then went on to speak about just how she and another unknown meta along with the infamous 'Scream' had torn apart a local gas station and terrorized a whole city block, he also finished with a number panning across the bottom of the screen saying that if anyone had any information on the suspects they should call the number presented beneath him. John joked to himself saying in his mind that he would do his very best to not dial said number.

It was about that same time that the news segment had finished and was being followed up by the next days weather that John stood up to go to his room. He had decided on the way over to his home that he would pack a bag and finally leave the country, a thought he had constantly toyed with in his mind over the years but could never bring himself to do, but now he felt he had little choice-at least that’s what his paranoid side kept telling him. It had taken him about thirty minutes to pack everything worth taking in his room, quickly shoving everything into the large green duffle bag he had used many times before throughout his life. Finishing packing everything up in his room he went to go exit his room, deciding there were a few items also worth taking with him out in the living room. As he turned the door knob with one hand he also checked his phone with the other, a seemingly random number having been plastered onto the small screen. He was just in the process of dialing the number to hear the message the unknown caller had left him when he walked back into his living room, a man completely adorned in black armor staring at him with folded arms.

“Hello Bronze, you yellow bellied bear.”

John awoke the next morning from the sunlight streaming through his window, he had left the curtains pulled back the night before and now most of his bed was illuminated by the warming sun. Opening his eyes to the glaring light had made John want to vomit however, which he then proceeded to do over the side of his bed onto the clean wooden floor of his bedroom. Of course before he threw up he made sure to rip off the old brown leather mask he'd had on his face when he'd passed out.

To say last night had been strange was an understatement: not only had he met Natalia and Aaron fought with some cape killers and then lost his job but on top of all that he returned to his house to gather up some belongings when he met yet another hero. This one however had been lying in wait inside Johns apartment, the man donned in his complete costume while carrying enough guns to make a soldier blush. From the kevlar armor like costume to the large round shield clutched in the mans left hand John had immediately recognized the man as Midnight Masher-he appeared so often in the news that John assumed most anyone would recognize him, but why was he here in Johns apartment? More importantly, how did he know that John was the Bronze Bear?

To say the least his brief meeting with Midnight had been somewhat confrontational. Things had started off civil enough, Midnight simply stating, not asking but stating, that Bronze had been in Screams apartment. “Uhm...yeah, I guess?” John had responded slightly nervous, noticing the strange monotonous almost robotic tone of voice Midnight had.

“Let me say this bluntly, stay away from Scream. He's going to be joining me and my team, a team for real heroes, not cowards so scared they wont even wear their masks anymore.” That had left John slightly speechless, and before he knew it Midnight was gone leaving John slightly dumbfounded and alone. A few minutes had passed and John found himself digging through his kitchen cabinets, finding what he was looking for he returned to his couch with a half full bottle of whiskey which he immediately uncorked and began drinking in an attempt to drown out the thoughts that Midnight had stirred up in his heads, thoughts that were often there but simply pushed into the farthest parts of his mind.

After vomiting up his liquid courage from the previous night John was a bit confused as to exactly how he had gotten into his old costume, having drank to the point of blacking out last night he must have drunkenly 'suited up' at some point in the night. As he stood up, his head aching and his throat dry, he looked in the large stand up mirror in the corner of his room. Seeing himself in his old costume felt right, no, something was missing. He put the tight leather mask back on. Now he felt right.

Picking his phone back up off the night stand he returned Screams call.

Aaron woke up the next day with a splitting headache. As he got up from his bed, he tried to remember everything about last night, but after his shower, it was all a bit hazy. He figured these new frequent headaches had something to do with it. Then again, he did over exert himself a yesterday. It wasn't a common practice of his to grab a helicopter and spin it with his bare hands and tired him out quite a bit.

After grabbing a cup of water, he noticed Natalia still asleep on the couch. Thinking back, he remembered he hadn't made or eaten anything for dinner. His stomach grumbled in agreement, so he decided to head out and grab something to eat before Natalia woke up. He changed into some clean clothes, grabbed the cell phone and keys from the table in front of Natalia, and quietly went out the door, locking it behind him.

Walking around, he found a place a few blocks away that was good enough. He bough two coffees and some bagels. He figured this was enough, but also bough an apple just in case. He walked back home, sipping his warm coffee, his headache now gone. With each step, his whole body felt warm from the drink.

As he reached the door of his building, his phone rang. He checked the caller ID and he recognized the number as John's. He answered it, quickly.

"Hey, John. We need to talk about something. This guy calling himself the Midnight Masher broke into my apartment last night. You know anything about him?"

Listening to Scream talk it was obvious to John that he hadn't been the only one visited by Midnight. "Well you might or might not be shocked about this man but he paid me a a visit last night too. And I wouldn't say I know to much about him but I do have quite a few newspaper articles on the guy." He paused for a second as he walked around his apartment, quickly realizing how awkward that might have sounded. "I, uh, collect news on heroes." He quickly added in an attempt to explain, he then also made a mental note to himself to take all of Screams news articles from the dark leather notebook-he didn't want to come off as some weird fan boy or something. "If you want man I can bring what I've got on him over later today, just gotta give me some time to rest up I have a...huge fuckin headache." As he spoke into the phone his voice was slightly muffled, having been speaking through the old leather mask the entire time.

Walking into his living room he flipped the middle cushion up on his beige colored couch, revealing a sleek black looking leather notebook which he quickly picked up.

"If you want man I can bring what I've got on him over later today, just gotta give me some time to rest up I have a...huge fuckin headache." Aaron heard John say over the phone. The sound was muffled slightly which was definitely odd, but Aaron just took it as sleepiness. He was interested by the fact that this mysterious man had known both John's and Aaron's identities
somehow.

"Yeah, definitely bring what you've got. We're gonna need all the help we can get." Aaron said as he walked up to his apartment and entered it, breakfast in hand and balancing his phone on his shoulder as he placed the bag and two cups on the kitchen table. "Get here when you can. The sooner we figure out what this guy's deal is, the sooner we can come up with a plan." Aaron continued, sitting at the table and taking a sip from his cup of coffee. "I'll talk to you when get here. Bye." Aaron hung up the phone as he thought he heard a stirring come from the couch. He figured it was Natalia waking up and even if she wasn't up already, Aaron thought she should be. So he walked over to the couch and placed her coffee in front of her.

"Natalia, wake up." he said, trying not to sound too rude as he knew he hated being woken up by someone else. "I bought breakfast."