Issue
Synopsis:
Issue #4:
After
the craziness of what had just happened, Nocturne decides to investigate
the battle area again to make sure the police didn’t overlook
anything. The only thing he
finds are small traces of residual Darkforce.
Being an expert in different types of radiation and energy, with
Darkforce being his specialty, Nocturne takes a few samples for further
testing and heads home. Instead
of resting as soon as he gets home, Nocturne decides to test the
Darkforce for any type of particular energy signatures.
The Darkforce’s signature doesn’t seem to match any of the
signatures he’s encountered before, so he documents it well and files
it away. Nocturne also
inputs and updates battle data on everyone he’s encountered and
updates his journal before finally heading off to bed.
The
next night, Nocturne goes out and works the streets for information.
As Nocturne is observing and becoming more familiar with the
movements of the street, he notices a scrawny Hispanic guy who seems to
have his hand in quite a few pies.
Realizing that this guy seems to have a knack for being at the
right place at the right time, Nocturne figures this guy might be a good
guy to lean on for information. He
follows the man by rooftop until he heads into an alley.
While the scrawny man is in the alley, Nocturne drops a
Shadowline from the roof and ensnares the man as he walks into it. As he begins to scream, Nocturne covers his mouth with
another Shadowline and swiftly lifts him to the top of the building.
Nocturne quickly searches him for weapons and finds a gun.
Nocturne smugly asks if he has a license for this gun as he takes
the man’s wallet. He
discovers the man’s name is Eddie Chavez by looking at his driver’s
license. He also notices
that Eddie seems to have an unusual amount of business cards.
Nocturne asks Eddie what he knows about any new drug players in
town. Eddie, frightened out
of his wits, tells Nocturne he’s heard of a man who calls himself
Midnight. According to
Eddie, Midnight is trying to make a small name for himself. Nocturne asks if Midnight is only trying to make a his mark,
then who is running the big operations.
Eddie tells him the Kingpin is the big player in New York, but as
Nocturne begins to ask more about the Kingpin, Eddie tells him that he
honestly doesn’t know any more about him - know one does. Nocturne lets Eddie know that he’s his new informant and
gives him $500 for the information.
Eddie sees the money and suddenly opens up, informing Nocturne
that he’s pretty sure that Midnight, while only having very few deals
going on, is making multi-million dollar deals.
Eddie also tells Nocturne that he knows the name of one of those
buyers - Mr. Smith. Nocturne asks Eddie how he could contact the Kingpin
to let him know of Midnights dealings.
Eddie doesn’t know how to get a hold of the Kingpin, but
suggests that if a few of his deals got busted, the Kingpin would
investigate. Nocturne,
having no further questions, thanks Eddie and lets him go.
Not
having too much information to go on, Nocturne heads home to do a little
research and discovers that a large international trading company named
Smith Trading has recently set up an office in lower Manhattan.
Ironically enough, it is owned by a Mr. Smith.
Nocturne finds it more than suspicious the he can't find any kind
of personal information on this Mr. Smith, including his first name!
The
following night, Nocturne scopes out the Smith Trading building,
noticing the door and the security cameras on the roof.
Cloaking himself in darkness, Nocturne heads over to the door,
pops it open with one of his Shadowstaves, and stealthily descends into
the building. He begins
searching for Mr. Smith’s office and after investigating a few floors,
stops suddenly as he hears voices coming from one of the main offices.
Nocturne hides and tries to listen in to the conversation, but as
soon as he does, everything goes quiet.
Nocturne moves around the corner to see a business man
(presumably Mr. Smith), his bodyguard, Midnight, and Scanner!
Realizing that Scanner must have detected him, Nocturne changes
his strategy and yells to the group that he has a message for them from
the Kingpin. As he is doing
so, Nocturne notices that someone is creeping up behind him. Moving to avoid Freeze-Frame’s attack, Nocturne ensnares
him with a Shadowline and hurls him into the group.
Midnight calmly swats Freeze-Frame aside with his Darkforce and
informs everyone that Nocturne was not sent by the Kingpin. Nocturne shoots his Shadowlines at Midnight’s feet.
Midnight creates a Darkforce shield in front of him to deflect
the Shadowlines, but Nocturne maneuvers the Shadowlines around the
shield and they begin to entangle Midnight.
While Nocturne is distracted, Mr. Smith grabs his bodyguard and
flies out the window while Scanner ducks into a cubicle to hide.
Nocturne continues to send his Shadowlines up Midnight’s body
in an attempt to wrap him up completely.
Midnight counters his attack by creating Darkforce armor around
himself, destroying the Shadowlines completely.
Nocturne then has Midnight’s own shadow attack him, causing him
to stumble back. Midnight
regains his composure, tells Nocturne that the Kingpin does not employ
heroes, and hurls a Darkforce missile at him. As Nocturne dodges the attack, Freeze-Frame regains his
senses and Midnight’s cell phone rings.
Freeze-Frame goes after Nocturne as Midnight calmly answers his
cell phone. While Nocturne
is defending himself against Freeze-Frame, he listens in on Midnight’s
conversation and deducts that Midnight is talking to his father, the
Darklord. As Nocturne knocks Freeze-Frame out of the way to continue
fighting Midnight one-on-one, a helicopter shines a light through a
busted out window and Lightstar flies in.
Lightstar begins taunting everyone and tells them that everyone is going down, he doesn’t care who they are. Midnight, noticing Lighstar’s appearance, teleports himself and his entourage away - leaving only Lightstar and Nocturne. Lightstar, not realizing that Nocturne is one of the good guys, begins trash-talking him. Nocturne remember seeing Lightstar on television and offers to let him in on the big drug bust. He even tells Lightstar that he can take all the credit on this one. Lightstar thinks for a moment, and says he could use a new sidekick...