Origin Stories [5/7] - Lost - Kate/Kevin/Sawyer
Title: Origin Stories [5/7]
Pairing: Kate/Kevin/Sawyer (and combinations thereof)
Word Count: 2681
Rating: PG-13
A/N: Superhero!AU. Thank you to babylon_pride for betaing.
Previously: Part One :: Part Two :: Part Three :: Part Four
Summary: By day, Kevin Callis is an unnoticeable police officer, up-holding the law and too committed to his job to hold down a relationship; by night, The Captain emerges to help where the law can't. When he becomes entangled in the plot of a pair of supervillains, the line between his two identities begins to blur.
He looked down and stared at his knees, listening as the speaker talked about new missions and congratulated them on their teamwork. He was starting to wonder if maybe it was time for him to hang up his cape. Maybe he was past it by this point - maybe this world, this career, wasn't for him any more.
He flexed his hand, looking at the crinkles in the black leather gloves he wore: had to stop any fingerprints from being left behind, didn't he? Just a precaution.
His attention wavered and swirled around the room, and time crawled at a snail's pace. His head bobbed back up suddenly when the meeting seemed to be drawing to an end.
"That's all for this month, folks." The Great White Hunter clapped his hands together, a sound loud enough to wake anyone who hadn't been paying enough attention. "We'll be back in here on the last Thursday of next month. Don't forget - I'll see you then."
Slow chatter took hold while people got to their feet and milled restlessly as they prepared to leave. Kevin sat forward and looked around; a few others appeared to be staying behind as well. Not just him. An after-meeting. He couldn't help but frown and wonder what this was going to be all about. Whatever it was, he had the uncomfortable feeling that he wasn't going to like it too much.
That didn't matter, though. Before long a prickling silence fell over their shoulders. The majority of capes had left - six people remained, including Rock God, the Hunter, and the girl that had been captured by Sawyer and Monica at the same time as him.
Rock God cleared his throat, covering his mouth with his fist for a second, before he determinedly said, "We're going to get them, you know."
"Hmm?" Kevin asked.
"The lot of us have been tracking down Lightning Strike and Snake Tongue ever since they took you. It's been hard, but... We think we've got them. Got them for real this time, I mean." He looked over to the Hunter, deferring to a higher authority within the ground.
"I got in touch with the Scotsman," he explained. "He said he'd had a flash: we know where they're going to attack next, when they're going to do it, how..."
"And this time we'll be there to stop them," Rock God said, grinning. "We thought we'd ask you two if you wanted to be in on it. Jesus, you've earned it."
"You're askin' if we want revenge?" Kevin asked - and he knew what the correct answer to that was. It was yes, no further questions required. Rage should have stirred through his veins; a mindless desire for vengeance; or at the very least a noble need to get the pair of them off the streets. They were dangerous. They were a menace to society. Who knew what they'd do next?
And, most importantly, no one had seen Scalpel Man since Kevin and the other kidnapees had been found. He'd disappeared from the face of the Earth, no longer rushing around town to rescue hapless civilians.
Kevin clenched his hands into fists then released them, trying to imagine what would happen if he confronted the pair - he couldn't see it. He had no idea what it'd be like to be in their presence again. He looked up, aware of the other heroes in the room awaiting his response. Sitting beside him, the other prisoner didn't seem any more willing than him to speak up.
"I'm not too sure, actually. Dunno how that would go," Kevin said eventually.
"Mate, this is your chance to get them off the street. To finally get your bloody own back."
"I'm not big on vengeance."
"They are villains," Rock God stated.
Aren't we all? Kevin thought, before banishing those words away with a world-weary sigh. "I'll think about it," he promised. "That's all I can say for now."
"You've got three days," the Great White Hunter announced, watching him as if he could see so much more than he'd ever let on. It made Kevin's skin itch with the need to get out of there. "Three days; that's it."
Kevin nodded. "If I'm coming, I'll meet you guys back here on the third day."
Even if he didn't come along, he realised, they were going after Sawyer and Monica; this was bigger than him, bigger than any of those people that the two villains had abducted. With that action, they'd declared war on the superhero community: something like that couldn't go unchallenged or others might get it into their heads, might start to think that attacking heroes directly was a good idea.
World didn't work like that. Couldn't be allowed to work like that, could it?
Kevin cleared his throat. "I've got a lot of stuff to do tonight," he said, though all that evening held for him tonight was going home to sag in front of the television. He didn't feel that he had the energy or the drive to propel him out into the sky to fight crime. Not tonight. "I'd best be off."
"I'll come with you," the female ex-prisoner said, getting to her feet. She'd remained carefully neutral during the meeting, her lips tightly closed. The top half of her face was covered with a black mask which contrasted with her long blonde hair as it fell over her shoulders. Kevin didn't recognise her: couldn't list her name, power, reputation, anything.
He nodded and they left together without talking, leaving the core group of heroes behind to make plans and discuss strategies. On the way out, their silence was carefully considered and Kevin's lips tingled with the need to say something - anything, really.
He held the door open for her once they reached it, stepping out into the cold night air that nipped at his skin maliciously. She stood on the sidewalk with him, looking up at the stars: he wondered where in the house she had been during their long imprisonment. She must have been so close to him, going through exactly the same thing as he had been.
Not exactly, he reminded himself, thinking of the force of Sawyer's power twisting his own desires and remembering the taste of Monica's lips.
The woman looked towards him. "I'm Juliet," she said. Her voice, now that he finally heard it, was nice. Soothing. Calm. "What's your name?"
And he shouldn't have told her. Should've known better than to even think about it - but he didn't. He smiled at her, dimples appearing in his cheeks, and said, "I'm Kevin."
Didn't really tell each other much, after all. Just their first names. That was nothing, but... It meant something. It all meant something, didn't it?
"So what's your reason?" Juliet asked him. She looked up at him, seeming a lot taller than Kevin thought she was. He was used to his height allowing him to walk tall in the crowd, but Juliet didn't seem like the kind of woman to let anybody tower over her.
"My reason for what?"
She looked at him for a few moments, allowing his conscience to itch and burn like there was a rash spreading there. She blinked her blue eyes eventually, breaking that spell. "The reason you don't want to go after them."
He shuffled awkwardly on the sidewalk as they walked together, and reminded himself that he could take to the sky at any moment. There was no way that she would be able to follow him; it was an always-open escape from this conversation. He wasn't trapped.
"They held us prisoner for weeks," he said. "You're tellin' me it's weird that I'm not in a real hurry to meet up with them again?"
"You're a superhero, Kevin," Juliet said, with a smile that was so knowing that it bordered upon condescending. "Of course it's weird."
True enough, he supposed. They were known for thinking with their fists. Looking away from her, he surveyed the area and wondered what he was supposed to tell her: what did she want from him?
"I'll be there," he stated, a snap decision that he told himself he didn't have to follow through with. "I'll just... I'll be there."
She took another pause to stop and watch him. There were so many things he should have asked her, so many questions about her experiences and how she'd been treated and... God, so much. Too much. There was no way of knowing where on Earth to start with this kinda thing.
Slowly, she nodded her head. "I'll see you there then."
Both of them out for revenge. Kevin looked up to the dark night sky after saying goodbye to her, and after kicking his foot against the ground he lifted into the air - upwards and away from this confusing mess. He didn't know what he was doing any more; only that it was getting harder and harder to make the decisions that he needed to.
*
He didn't know why he was doing it, exactly. Just to prove a point, maybe - just to show that he could, that he wasn't scared, that nothing was holding him back. Whatever the reason, he was leaning against the outside wall of the town hall three days later, waiting. Kevin's strong arms were folded across his broad chest - the first one there, he couldn't help hoping that perhaps nobody else would turn up. Fingers crossed, right?
Looking back and forth along the hot, dry road, it soon became clear that that hope was ill founded. He could see a collection of four heroes walking towards him, capes waving like flags in the breeze. In the middle of the ordinary street, they looked odd to him now. Out of place. They never had before. Since being trapped down in that basement, Kevin felt like his entire worldview had been knocked out of joint. Nothing seemed quite right any more.
Blinking, he pushed himself forward from the wall and steeled himself on what was to come. "Nice to see you made it," he said.
"Were you worried we wouldn't?" Rock God challenged, with his telltale grin coming to his face, unhindered by the mask that covered only his eyes. "Wouldn't miss this for the world, Captain."
Kevin twitched a smile of his own, one that felt hideously insincere, and looked around the place. "D'you know who else is supposed to be coming?"
"I guess the Great White Hunter'll be turning up any second now with his massive collection of knives," Rock God said, somewhat disdainfully. Weapons. They were generally frowned upon in this community. It was viewed as unsporting, but Kevin supposed that it was okay for them to suggest something like that when they had their superpowers fuelling them. The Hunter had nothing of the sort. "And Sunshine, she said she'd come along if she could."
"Sunshine..." Kevin frowned as he tried to place her. There were so many heroes these days that it was almost impossible to keep track. "She's foreign, ain't she?"
"Yeah. Asian. Korean or something, fuck if I know."
"And she's coming all the way over here," Kevin asked, "for two small-time crooks?"
"They kidnapped heroes, mate," Rock God answered. "That's not 'small-time' any more. That's war."
Kevin didn't like the tone in his voice, and as he looked around the group he wasn't too sure if he liked what he saw in their expressions. He was right; this wasn't about him or the other prisoners at all. "We're just gonna hand them over to the police, right?" he checked, slow and careful. "Let the authorities handle it?"
Rock God snorted. "Yeah, 'cos they've done such a fantastic job of that so far, haven't they?"
Kevin felt an uncomfortable shiver work its way down his spine. He'd seen the press branding them vigilantes before; he'd never shared the sentiment before now. They had their place in society, he'd thought.
Now, though...
"You alright?" Rock God checked. "Not having any second thoughts, are you?"
"I sure hope not," the Hunter said, appearing silently at their side. For a non-powered individual, he was better at creeping around than would ever be expected. "I'd hate to have you miss out on something this important."
Kevin's smile cracked awkwardly. "Don't plan on going anywhere," he said.
The pair nodded and it looked like everything was underway: there was a bank heist planned, apparently. Just a few streets over. All they had to do was show up at the right time and they'd be able to stop the pair from hurting anybody else - and they'd be able to find out what had happened to Scalpel Man as well. Kevin told himself that that was the most important thing here: that had to be the reason why everyone was so hyped up about this. Protecting their own, right? Saving the day - it was what heroes did best.
They weren't exactly subtle as they walked along the road to their destination; it was a hard damn thing to get a group of superheroes to blend in with their surroundings. Capes and masks and swaggers weren't the norm on quiet streets. No one talked. No one had anything to say to each other. Flung together by a common goal and shared fate... There was nothing else here to link them to each other but that.
Kevin shivered. Juliet hadn't turned up, he noticed. He was here to prove a point to nobody at all.
They paused when they reached the corner and the small group stared out at the bank across the road. It wasn't a grand-looking place - wasn't a big centre. Out near the suburbs, that was all. A little local place. Sawyer and Monica were nothing big at all. The police should've been taking care of this, damn it.
Kevin's eyes lingered on the doors. No one was coming in or out. He couldn't see movement inside; nobody was near the windows.
The Hunter was giving orders, telling everyone their role. "I'll take the back," Kevin said, interrupting. "If they try to escape, I can stop them."
A pause lasting an eternity gaped before the Hunter nodded to allow that: screwing up the plan, probably. Shifting himself out of the place designed for him. Kevin needed to be out of the main thrust of the action, though. He couldn't handle being in the midst of all of this.
"Good luck, everyone," the Hunter said; it sounded as if he was smiling behind his mask, but there was really no way of being sure. Full-face... The heroes wearing those masks always managed to creep Kevin out.
The group scattered. Kevin peeled off from everyone else to move around the large building, heading down a sunlit alleyway that took him to the car park at the bank. The staff's cars were situated there. Little else. After glancing around, he took a seat against the short wall that ringed the area and tried his best not to think about what was happening inside.
He couldn't hear anything.
He couldn't hear anything.
Was that a good sign? A bad one? God, he didn't know, and he wished that he didn't care. Not caring would be so much easier - and so much more rational - that sitting here trying desperately to work out what was happening in that place. It didn't matter, not to him. Shouldn't have.
His arms crossed his chest and held their positions there firmly. The light breeze was calm and the sun shining down was peaceful. He couldn't appreciate the tranquillity, not even as he eyed up the door that led out of the back of the building. It looked like it was a fire escape, not used too often at all. They wouldn't come this way - he had to cross his fingers and hope they didn't.
He should have realised, of course, that fate really liked to screw around with guys like him.
Part Six
Pairing: Kate/Kevin/Sawyer (and combinations thereof)
Word Count: 2681
Rating: PG-13
A/N: Superhero!AU. Thank you to babylon_pride for betaing.
Previously: Part One :: Part Two :: Part Three :: Part Four
Summary: By day, Kevin Callis is an unnoticeable police officer, up-holding the law and too committed to his job to hold down a relationship; by night, The Captain emerges to help where the law can't. When he becomes entangled in the plot of a pair of supervillains, the line between his two identities begins to blur.
He looked down and stared at his knees, listening as the speaker talked about new missions and congratulated them on their teamwork. He was starting to wonder if maybe it was time for him to hang up his cape. Maybe he was past it by this point - maybe this world, this career, wasn't for him any more.
He flexed his hand, looking at the crinkles in the black leather gloves he wore: had to stop any fingerprints from being left behind, didn't he? Just a precaution.
His attention wavered and swirled around the room, and time crawled at a snail's pace. His head bobbed back up suddenly when the meeting seemed to be drawing to an end.
"That's all for this month, folks." The Great White Hunter clapped his hands together, a sound loud enough to wake anyone who hadn't been paying enough attention. "We'll be back in here on the last Thursday of next month. Don't forget - I'll see you then."
Slow chatter took hold while people got to their feet and milled restlessly as they prepared to leave. Kevin sat forward and looked around; a few others appeared to be staying behind as well. Not just him. An after-meeting. He couldn't help but frown and wonder what this was going to be all about. Whatever it was, he had the uncomfortable feeling that he wasn't going to like it too much.
That didn't matter, though. Before long a prickling silence fell over their shoulders. The majority of capes had left - six people remained, including Rock God, the Hunter, and the girl that had been captured by Sawyer and Monica at the same time as him.
Rock God cleared his throat, covering his mouth with his fist for a second, before he determinedly said, "We're going to get them, you know."
"Hmm?" Kevin asked.
"The lot of us have been tracking down Lightning Strike and Snake Tongue ever since they took you. It's been hard, but... We think we've got them. Got them for real this time, I mean." He looked over to the Hunter, deferring to a higher authority within the ground.
"I got in touch with the Scotsman," he explained. "He said he'd had a flash: we know where they're going to attack next, when they're going to do it, how..."
"And this time we'll be there to stop them," Rock God said, grinning. "We thought we'd ask you two if you wanted to be in on it. Jesus, you've earned it."
"You're askin' if we want revenge?" Kevin asked - and he knew what the correct answer to that was. It was yes, no further questions required. Rage should have stirred through his veins; a mindless desire for vengeance; or at the very least a noble need to get the pair of them off the streets. They were dangerous. They were a menace to society. Who knew what they'd do next?
And, most importantly, no one had seen Scalpel Man since Kevin and the other kidnapees had been found. He'd disappeared from the face of the Earth, no longer rushing around town to rescue hapless civilians.
Kevin clenched his hands into fists then released them, trying to imagine what would happen if he confronted the pair - he couldn't see it. He had no idea what it'd be like to be in their presence again. He looked up, aware of the other heroes in the room awaiting his response. Sitting beside him, the other prisoner didn't seem any more willing than him to speak up.
"I'm not too sure, actually. Dunno how that would go," Kevin said eventually.
"Mate, this is your chance to get them off the street. To finally get your bloody own back."
"I'm not big on vengeance."
"They are villains," Rock God stated.
Aren't we all? Kevin thought, before banishing those words away with a world-weary sigh. "I'll think about it," he promised. "That's all I can say for now."
"You've got three days," the Great White Hunter announced, watching him as if he could see so much more than he'd ever let on. It made Kevin's skin itch with the need to get out of there. "Three days; that's it."
Kevin nodded. "If I'm coming, I'll meet you guys back here on the third day."
Even if he didn't come along, he realised, they were going after Sawyer and Monica; this was bigger than him, bigger than any of those people that the two villains had abducted. With that action, they'd declared war on the superhero community: something like that couldn't go unchallenged or others might get it into their heads, might start to think that attacking heroes directly was a good idea.
World didn't work like that. Couldn't be allowed to work like that, could it?
Kevin cleared his throat. "I've got a lot of stuff to do tonight," he said, though all that evening held for him tonight was going home to sag in front of the television. He didn't feel that he had the energy or the drive to propel him out into the sky to fight crime. Not tonight. "I'd best be off."
"I'll come with you," the female ex-prisoner said, getting to her feet. She'd remained carefully neutral during the meeting, her lips tightly closed. The top half of her face was covered with a black mask which contrasted with her long blonde hair as it fell over her shoulders. Kevin didn't recognise her: couldn't list her name, power, reputation, anything.
He nodded and they left together without talking, leaving the core group of heroes behind to make plans and discuss strategies. On the way out, their silence was carefully considered and Kevin's lips tingled with the need to say something - anything, really.
He held the door open for her once they reached it, stepping out into the cold night air that nipped at his skin maliciously. She stood on the sidewalk with him, looking up at the stars: he wondered where in the house she had been during their long imprisonment. She must have been so close to him, going through exactly the same thing as he had been.
Not exactly, he reminded himself, thinking of the force of Sawyer's power twisting his own desires and remembering the taste of Monica's lips.
The woman looked towards him. "I'm Juliet," she said. Her voice, now that he finally heard it, was nice. Soothing. Calm. "What's your name?"
And he shouldn't have told her. Should've known better than to even think about it - but he didn't. He smiled at her, dimples appearing in his cheeks, and said, "I'm Kevin."
Didn't really tell each other much, after all. Just their first names. That was nothing, but... It meant something. It all meant something, didn't it?
"So what's your reason?" Juliet asked him. She looked up at him, seeming a lot taller than Kevin thought she was. He was used to his height allowing him to walk tall in the crowd, but Juliet didn't seem like the kind of woman to let anybody tower over her.
"My reason for what?"
She looked at him for a few moments, allowing his conscience to itch and burn like there was a rash spreading there. She blinked her blue eyes eventually, breaking that spell. "The reason you don't want to go after them."
He shuffled awkwardly on the sidewalk as they walked together, and reminded himself that he could take to the sky at any moment. There was no way that she would be able to follow him; it was an always-open escape from this conversation. He wasn't trapped.
"They held us prisoner for weeks," he said. "You're tellin' me it's weird that I'm not in a real hurry to meet up with them again?"
"You're a superhero, Kevin," Juliet said, with a smile that was so knowing that it bordered upon condescending. "Of course it's weird."
True enough, he supposed. They were known for thinking with their fists. Looking away from her, he surveyed the area and wondered what he was supposed to tell her: what did she want from him?
"I'll be there," he stated, a snap decision that he told himself he didn't have to follow through with. "I'll just... I'll be there."
She took another pause to stop and watch him. There were so many things he should have asked her, so many questions about her experiences and how she'd been treated and... God, so much. Too much. There was no way of knowing where on Earth to start with this kinda thing.
Slowly, she nodded her head. "I'll see you there then."
Both of them out for revenge. Kevin looked up to the dark night sky after saying goodbye to her, and after kicking his foot against the ground he lifted into the air - upwards and away from this confusing mess. He didn't know what he was doing any more; only that it was getting harder and harder to make the decisions that he needed to.
*
He didn't know why he was doing it, exactly. Just to prove a point, maybe - just to show that he could, that he wasn't scared, that nothing was holding him back. Whatever the reason, he was leaning against the outside wall of the town hall three days later, waiting. Kevin's strong arms were folded across his broad chest - the first one there, he couldn't help hoping that perhaps nobody else would turn up. Fingers crossed, right?
Looking back and forth along the hot, dry road, it soon became clear that that hope was ill founded. He could see a collection of four heroes walking towards him, capes waving like flags in the breeze. In the middle of the ordinary street, they looked odd to him now. Out of place. They never had before. Since being trapped down in that basement, Kevin felt like his entire worldview had been knocked out of joint. Nothing seemed quite right any more.
Blinking, he pushed himself forward from the wall and steeled himself on what was to come. "Nice to see you made it," he said.
"Were you worried we wouldn't?" Rock God challenged, with his telltale grin coming to his face, unhindered by the mask that covered only his eyes. "Wouldn't miss this for the world, Captain."
Kevin twitched a smile of his own, one that felt hideously insincere, and looked around the place. "D'you know who else is supposed to be coming?"
"I guess the Great White Hunter'll be turning up any second now with his massive collection of knives," Rock God said, somewhat disdainfully. Weapons. They were generally frowned upon in this community. It was viewed as unsporting, but Kevin supposed that it was okay for them to suggest something like that when they had their superpowers fuelling them. The Hunter had nothing of the sort. "And Sunshine, she said she'd come along if she could."
"Sunshine..." Kevin frowned as he tried to place her. There were so many heroes these days that it was almost impossible to keep track. "She's foreign, ain't she?"
"Yeah. Asian. Korean or something, fuck if I know."
"And she's coming all the way over here," Kevin asked, "for two small-time crooks?"
"They kidnapped heroes, mate," Rock God answered. "That's not 'small-time' any more. That's war."
Kevin didn't like the tone in his voice, and as he looked around the group he wasn't too sure if he liked what he saw in their expressions. He was right; this wasn't about him or the other prisoners at all. "We're just gonna hand them over to the police, right?" he checked, slow and careful. "Let the authorities handle it?"
Rock God snorted. "Yeah, 'cos they've done such a fantastic job of that so far, haven't they?"
Kevin felt an uncomfortable shiver work its way down his spine. He'd seen the press branding them vigilantes before; he'd never shared the sentiment before now. They had their place in society, he'd thought.
Now, though...
"You alright?" Rock God checked. "Not having any second thoughts, are you?"
"I sure hope not," the Hunter said, appearing silently at their side. For a non-powered individual, he was better at creeping around than would ever be expected. "I'd hate to have you miss out on something this important."
Kevin's smile cracked awkwardly. "Don't plan on going anywhere," he said.
The pair nodded and it looked like everything was underway: there was a bank heist planned, apparently. Just a few streets over. All they had to do was show up at the right time and they'd be able to stop the pair from hurting anybody else - and they'd be able to find out what had happened to Scalpel Man as well. Kevin told himself that that was the most important thing here: that had to be the reason why everyone was so hyped up about this. Protecting their own, right? Saving the day - it was what heroes did best.
They weren't exactly subtle as they walked along the road to their destination; it was a hard damn thing to get a group of superheroes to blend in with their surroundings. Capes and masks and swaggers weren't the norm on quiet streets. No one talked. No one had anything to say to each other. Flung together by a common goal and shared fate... There was nothing else here to link them to each other but that.
Kevin shivered. Juliet hadn't turned up, he noticed. He was here to prove a point to nobody at all.
They paused when they reached the corner and the small group stared out at the bank across the road. It wasn't a grand-looking place - wasn't a big centre. Out near the suburbs, that was all. A little local place. Sawyer and Monica were nothing big at all. The police should've been taking care of this, damn it.
Kevin's eyes lingered on the doors. No one was coming in or out. He couldn't see movement inside; nobody was near the windows.
The Hunter was giving orders, telling everyone their role. "I'll take the back," Kevin said, interrupting. "If they try to escape, I can stop them."
A pause lasting an eternity gaped before the Hunter nodded to allow that: screwing up the plan, probably. Shifting himself out of the place designed for him. Kevin needed to be out of the main thrust of the action, though. He couldn't handle being in the midst of all of this.
"Good luck, everyone," the Hunter said; it sounded as if he was smiling behind his mask, but there was really no way of being sure. Full-face... The heroes wearing those masks always managed to creep Kevin out.
The group scattered. Kevin peeled off from everyone else to move around the large building, heading down a sunlit alleyway that took him to the car park at the bank. The staff's cars were situated there. Little else. After glancing around, he took a seat against the short wall that ringed the area and tried his best not to think about what was happening inside.
He couldn't hear anything.
He couldn't hear anything.
Was that a good sign? A bad one? God, he didn't know, and he wished that he didn't care. Not caring would be so much easier - and so much more rational - that sitting here trying desperately to work out what was happening in that place. It didn't matter, not to him. Shouldn't have.
His arms crossed his chest and held their positions there firmly. The light breeze was calm and the sun shining down was peaceful. He couldn't appreciate the tranquillity, not even as he eyed up the door that led out of the back of the building. It looked like it was a fire escape, not used too often at all. They wouldn't come this way - he had to cross his fingers and hope they didn't.
He should have realised, of course, that fate really liked to screw around with guys like him.
Part Six