Birth Of Midnight

Her first night on the job, Rebecca already saves lives!

"Rebecca Clarke?" called the policewoman behind the desk, Rebecca stood up and raised her hand reflexively, before blushing and lowering it quickly.

"Y-yes, that's me," she said as she jogged over to the reception desk. "I was called for the identifications of those men who kidnapped me and robbed the bank?" she whispered to the middle aged lady behind the counter.

She smiled kindly and also spoke in a hushed tone "Yes, third room to the right in the corridor to the left, an officer should be waiting. Are you sure you're up to this? we can postpone it if you need more time."

Rebecca shook her head. She had to face this someday, and acting overly suspicious might be, well, suspicious. She made her way down the corridor and knocked on the door.

"Yes, come in," a male voice sounded, it was a calming voice, it had a... calming, reassuring tone she could appreciate. Rebecca opened the door and found herself in a rather dark room, she shivered, it was too small, the policemen greeted her, though she wasn't really paying attention, he then started closing the door.

"No! no keep it open!" Rebecca yelled, pushing against the door with all her might, knocking the officer into the wall behind the door.

"Miss Clarke would you stop crushing me!" the man said as he pushed back, Rebecca fell to the ground and the door swung shut. She instinctively curled into a ball, covering her head with her arms, shivering and sniffling. "Miss Clarke? what the hell is going on?"

"Let me out let me out let me out!" Rebecca mumbled in between fear-choked sobs, rocking back and forth like a child.

"What is wrong with you?" the man growled as he grabbed her, trying to force her to stand. Rebecca screamed in fear, kicking at the bent over man, hitting him on the nose. The door opened and several officers flooded the room, pulling their bleeding colleague away from Rebecca; it took several seconds before someone recognized the symptoms of claustrophobia, and Rebecca was quickly taken into the break room.



"So, Miss Clarke, I'll introduce myself: my name is Jack Kennedy, or Officer Kennedy if you'd prefer," said the officer while lightly touching his nose, it had finally stopped bleeding, Rebecca sat on the other side of the table with a foam cup of tea and a red puffy eyes, she hadn't stopped crying for several minutes. "I'd like to apologize, I didn't realize you suffered from claustrophobia."

Rebecca shakes her head "Sorry for kicking-" she started before she was interrupted.

"Nevermind Miss Clarke, nevermind," Officer Kennedy said "now, we still have to do the lineup, but seeing how you reacted to the room I think we might have to be creative"

Rebecca shook her head "No, just- if you can leave the door open, I'll be fine," she said, hoping she would be.

He nodded. "If at any time you feel things going wrong, just run out of the room, okay?" he said, before jokingly continuing "And without kicking me again please?"

Rebecca finished her tea and nodded lightly. She then followed Kennedy to the small dark room again. She took a few deep breaths and sat herself in the chair provided "I'm ready," she said softly.

One by one the men came in, dressed in the same clothes the robbers had worn. Naturally they where hard to differentiate between. Rebecca shook her head "I can't tell the difference," she said softly, noticing a quiver in her voice.

"I can have them yell lines, if I recall correctly your testimony states you heard at least three of them speak yes?"

Rebecca nodded. The men, one by one, yelled "You, smalltits!" The fourth man caused Rebecca to cringe; Kennedy didn't need more. The next lineup came in. "Open your mouth," they called one by one. The third voice was familiar, Rebecca was about to start crying.

"Two more to go; if you want, we can take a break." Officer Kennedy said, to which Rebecca shook her head.

The third lineup had no one recognizable, no matter what line they had them say or yell. The fourth lineup, "Hold still, b***h!" caused Rebecca to start crying. Kennedy sent the men away and patted her on the back. "Good job Miss Clarke, I think we got them now."



Back at home Rebecca poured herself a cup of coffee and descended into her cellar again. After some work she had improved her visor's durability considerably, and had waterproofed it too, though she hoped that was a useless feature. The lockpick was a grand success too, hiding two in the heels of both boots and one in her belt, made of titanium and containing a miniature sensor which scanned the lock; if the lock was in Rebecca's database, picking it open would be a lot easier. She had also ordered several different locks from the internet to practice on, and besides that she had done some work on her rifle too, the visor link was still wonky but she had succeeded in making it compatible with her other ammunition types. A final check of her tracker program, which she had integrated into her computer, told her nothing was wrong. So she finalized the link to her phone and left the cellar. Happy with her progress Rebecca began to cook up dinner. Cutting up an onion, tomato and some bacon, she fried them in a pan before cracking two eggs in them. She ate her omelette with some bread while watching the news, nothing happening, nothing worth going out for.

Rebecca spent her week training herself in the art of lockpicking, going as far as to order handcuffs blindfolds and ballgags from bondage webshops and cuffing herself up. At first she was stuck for an hour before having to use the key, but on her third day of nonstop training she managed to free herself in under six minutes. The gag still bothered her, she used it to keep the training realistic, to try and find ways to escape using her mouth; she had found none so far, and her main problem was getting to her lockpick. She had started developing a latex glove to remedy this, with escape oriented gear hidden in nearly invisible pouches.



After a week of training Rebecca felt more and more that she should don her outfit again and fight crime, perhaps she could begin by going after muggers? She knew the shopping district near the harbor was notorious for that kind of petty theft, Rebecca watched the sunset from her window and sighed. "If I don't start now, I'll keep postponing forever," she told herself.

She descended again into her cellar, stripped down to her cotton bra and panties, then rubbed herself with lubricant. First she put on the chest armor, thick rubber to protect her torso. Over that the skintight latex, then the rubber boots. She pulled the buckles tight and fastened them, then pulled the belt around her waist. A final check of her ammo and she was ready. She took the metal visor and slid it over her head.

‘Initializing,’ came the green text of the HUD as the edge of her sight filled itself with information: right bottom corner of her view held a minimap, top left to right had her remaining bombs and ammunition, bottom left was systems and monitoring. Touching the visor's ear she initialized the augmented hearing and initiated the tap into the police radio "All systems online,” the mechanical voice said in her ear. “Engaging safety lock. Warning: visor will deliver high intensity electroshocks upon touch, do not remove suit while operational." Rebecca nodded: all systems where operational. She flexed and posed a bit to get used to the latex and then left through her back door.



The harbor district. Even after sunset various shops and takeouts where still full of customers. Rebecca moved primarily through the alleys which honeycombed this part of the city. She knew she was unseen here, a fact her targets used to ambush their victims. Rebecca heard struggling, up ahead, rounding a corner she found a young man struggling with an older woman, he was after her purse, he pulled a knife to threaten her.

"Put it down," Rebecca said. Not the shy, scared girl she used to be, her voice heavy with confidence and purpose.

"Who tha f**k're you?" the man asked, his voice positively dripping in some street slang, he smiled, letting the woman go "That a nice getup hun, you gon’ entertain me?" he continued, licking his lips as he lifted the knife, ready to stab Rebecca if she resisted.

"I hate robbers," Rebecca said. "But sexual innuendos? I was going to just beat you up, but you made me angry." Rebecca drew one of her handguns and aimed it at the mugger, who dropped the knife in shock "Relax. It's non-lethal. Hun." She fired an Impact round onto his kneecap.

The mugger screamed in pain: it didn't quite break his leg, but it would leave him with a nasty swollen knee. Her next round found his stomach, leaving him gasping for air. Rebecca holstered her gun and aproached; a swift boot to the chest sent him flying a small distance, Rebecca opened a pouch in her belt and retrieved what looked like a threeway ziptie: using two of the strips she bound his wrists together, with the third she tied him to the handle of the nearby dumpster.

"The f**k ya doing b***h?" he yelled as Rebecca accessed her holo-pad, sending a call to the police.

She grabbed the young mugger by his hair. "I'm going to scrub your kind of the streets," she hissed before swiping his legs away from under his body, then, as she returned her foot to the ground she kicked his knife away with the same motion. "Be a dear and tell the police they're welcome," she said before turning and walking away. Rebecca's heart was pounding like crazy, what an adrenaline rush! she had to catch her breath, somewhere in the back of her mind a voice asked if the rush came from beating down an inferior opponent, or from saving that lady, but she hushed it; she was doing good work, maybe her methods weren't the most peaceful, but the end justifies the means.

Tapping into the police radio she heard the dispatch to her location, and she knew her work there was done.

The night was yet young, and Rebecca had a craving for more. She did however, run into a snag of sorts: she didn't find any other muggers or thieves. As she wandered, she slowly but surely got closer to the centre of the city, where the rich lived in rooftop penthouses. This area was known for it's relative safety: the only thieves here where overcharging hotels owners.

Rebecca was about to call off her first night as a proper crimefighting vigilante when she happened upon the scene of an overly extravagant birthday party, the daughter of some wealthy businessman celebrating her, according to the large banner above the hotel's door, nineteenth birthday. The girl herself had just arrived on the red carpet, posing in a dress that could be re-used once daddy arranged her financially beneficial marriage. Rebecca was sure the girl had something skimpy prepared underneath once the guests had had enough alcohol to start dancing. The limousine that had dropped the little princess off had just left when a large hummer smashed through the waiting cars: a door opened, tires screeched, and without even stopping it had driven past the red carpet. Problem was, the birthday girl was gone too.

Rebecca shot into action about two seconds before the rest of the crowd did: pulling her gun, swapping the ammo to a newly developed tracking dart, and firing wildly into the direction of the car; stationary targets was one thing, but she didn't yet trust her markswomanship to hit a speeding vehicle on her first shot. A few quick taps on her holo-pad brought up a full scale map of the city; of her six darts, two had hit the car, and she saw it speeding towards the harbor. She just hoped it was a kidnapping and not some gang killing her off to punish daddy for not cooperating: a kidnapping she could help with, if they dumped her into the bay she'd never arrive on time.



Rebecca found herself back in the harbor district, her visor had directed her towards some old offices near the docks; the hummer was parked there, and the lights were on at the top floor. She made a  quick tap on her holo-pad and with a soft click the buckle of her belt popped out and folded open into a grappling hook. She had about twenty-five meters of titanium cable, and judging by the height of the building it'd be just enough. She mounted the grappling hook on one of her guns and shot it upwards: the hook found something to attach to and Rebecca began to pull herself up using her belt. Once she passed the window she used her visor's amplified hearing to listen in.

"You guys got the girl?" a man asked.

"Yeah boss, we got the brat hogtied in the next room," came the reply.

"About ready to send her daddy the ransom video," said a second goon.

"Good, once you're done you pour her some cement shoes and dump her in the sea," their boss said. "And don't worry if he doesn't pay: we're sending a message, the money is a bonus"

Rebecca's eyes widened. She had to act fast.

Climbing onto the roof she looked for a way in, the air ducts were a no go for her, but the fire escape was a viable option. Climbing down she found a broken window on the same floor the girl was on and swiftly entered, activating her visor's heat vision to confirm the amount of people and their location: judging by the heat signatures the boss was leaving and only the two goons where still there, in the same room as the girl, the room next door no less!

Rebecca snuck towards the door, peeking in: both men were armed, and she didn't dare do anything, fearing the girl would get shot. She lay there on the ground, scared, a black leather blindfold covered her eyes, a black ballgag was forced between her teeth, leaving her drooling, steel cuffs bound her wrists and ankles, and a short chain connected both pairs of cuffs, leaving her in an uncomfortable hogtie. Soon her situation improved, as one of the kidnappers undid the cuffs and removed the gag and blindfold. As soon as the girl began begging for her release he shoved his handgun in her mouth "You be quiet or I'll blow your brains out!" he hissed.

She nodded. Tears streaming down her eyes, she was roughly pushed in a chair and given a piece of paper "Read it out once the camera starts rolling,” the goon ordered. “One word that's not on there and I'll shoot you in the knee!"

Once the camera was on he pointed the gun at her, gesturing to the paper "M-my name is Ruby Robins" she stuttered "if I am e-ever to be seen... seen alive again-" she broke down crying and a gunshot sounded. Rebecca reaches for her gun, but the bullet had landed near Ruby's feet, Ruby, now crying hysterically, sobbed her last few lines in mortal terror "A-a ransom of t-ten million Euros h-has to be left in the e-east subway station!"

One of the goons took a jerrycan and approaches "If we have any suspicion the police are there, if anyone seems to follow us. . ." he said, pouring gasoline over his hostage. "We burn her alive."

Ruby fainted out of pure terror and the camera was switched off. Ruby's hands were tied with rope, wrists crossed behind her back, rope cinched around her torso above and below her breasts, and the ballgag was shoved back into her mouth.

A bucket of wet cement was prepared for her while the video was sent to her father, a wet splash sounded when Ruby's feet were buried in the gray mixture.

A quick internet search told Rebecca she had to get Ruby out of the bucket before she suffers from cement burn, but how? If she called the police the sirens would get Ruby killed; if she storms in she could get hit by a stray bullet; if she waits, Ruby drowns. Rebecca has no options, what can she do?

A steel dolly was taken and with some effort Ruby and her bucket where pushed onto it; it seemed the cement was of the quick drying type. Rebecca snuck back to the fire escape, climbing all the way down to the droppable ladder before jumping off. Half a minute later Ruby, now conscious again, was wheeled past by the two men; both had their guns holstered, this was her chance. As they stood near the waters’ edge one of the crooks groped Ruby's breasts. "Any last words princess Robins?" he said as he and his buddy prepared to tilt the dolly to send a struggling Ruby on her trip down.

"Have you any?" Rebecca asked, both her guns aimed for the two men. She squeezed the triggers, supercharging the air for a double thunderclap. Just as her own guns fired the spears of lightning, the faster of the two criminals fired his own gun; Rebecca fell, a stinging pain in her right breast, then a scream sounded, followed by a splash. Rebecca jumped up, clutching her breast; the armored chest piece had done its job, the bullet hadn't penetrated into her body, still hurt though. But none of that mattered: she ran past the unconscious criminals and jumped into the water.

Ruby was nowhere to be seen, the water was pitch black. Rebecca toggled her heat vision, praying Ruby wouldn't cool down too fast in the freezing water, she noticed Ruby's heat signature and swam towards her, Ruby was struggling hard, but the cement block kept her anchored firmly, Rebecca had little time, but how could she pull Ruby up? She pulled out her gun and set it to Impacts: the idea was desperate, but so was the situation. Ruby was already slowing her struggles, exhaling involuntarily as her lungs demanded air She fired, again, and again, eventually the cement block fractured, bits and chunks falling off. Ruby was unconscious by then, Rebecca pulled the girl up.

Finding a ladder to climb up wasn't too hard, Rebecca took the gag out of Ruby's mouth and checked her pulse and breathing, a faint pulse, but no breathing, tilting Ruby's head back, Rebecca began resuscitating the young blonde, after a few heart pounding minutes Ruby coughed weakly.

Rebecca activated her knuckle dusters and began breaking away the last bits of concrete hoping to limit, or maybe even prevent, any lasting damage caused by cement burn, only when Rebecca finished untying the shivering girl did she notice the people, a group of ten or so, who had gathered, no doubt due to the gunshots. In the distance she could hear police sirens and her HUD told her both the police and an ambulance where on the way.

"Hey, who are you?" a young man asked, filming her with his smartphone, something the whole crowd did now.

"I... I am-" Rebecca said with some hesitation, before falling silent. Who was she? She needed a name. As she pondered, the clock in her HUD sprang to 0:00 "Midnight," she mumbled.

"What?" asked the young man "what did you say?"

Rebecca smiled "Midnight," she said loud, clear and confident. "I am Midnight, and this city is now under my protection!"

The deafening silence was only broken by Rebecca's own pounding heart, she kind of made it official just now, no way back. Behind the crowd a police car and ambulance came to a stop, Rebecca smiled "The girl needs medical aid, I resuscitated her, but her feet have been dipped in cement," she called to the paramedics. "You'll need to take care of that." she turned to leave, but as expected, the police tried to stop her.

"Hey, you, hands up!" they called, Rebecca recognized the voice of officer Kennedy.

She smiled. "Sorry officer, no can do." She dropped a few black marbles. The gas grenades burst open and Rebecca ran for it. The officers didn't fire, perhaps only now noticing Ruby, or for another reason. Either way, Rebecca had survived her first night as a vigilante, and had herself an alter ego now.

Author's Note

Rebecca's journey to heroine-hood continues, her first day on the job and she has saved a life! as Rebecca revels in the glorious adrenaline rush, the police disapprove of her.

No doubt Rebecca has made enemies now, but will she find allies?