[Nicholas Acker Villin]

Acker had received an interesting item in his mail that morning. A movie ticket to a discontinued movie, but with the current date. There was a handwritten message with the ticket which basically specified place/time and that it came from someone interested in hiring Acker. He had met clients at odd places before, especially clients who wanted to unofficially hire him for whatever reason. Usually the reason being a job that required secrecy.

Acker felt a spark of excitement when he found the door to the movie theatre open and stepped inside into the dark building. It was the unknown, he was captivated by the unknown, he wanted to discover its secrets. The unknown didn't scare him, quite the opposite. His dogs walked inside with him. Zeus and Apollo were Dobermans, they looked like and behaved like real dogs even though they were robotic machines.

There had to be someone in the building already, just leaving the door open couldn't have been an option considering that anyone could have entered. Although, it made sense that the building was engulfed in darkness considering the late hour, lights would have drawn unwanted attention.

Acker willed his power and the lenses of his black glasses changed type of vision, from normal to night vision. When Acker had bought the glasses they had been just common glasses, but Acker had altered them. He could see now, his dogs too, sure normal dogs didn't have night vision, but the Lads weren't natural.

First and foremost, Acker had something important to do. He walked upstairs with the dogs and went to the section that sold popcorns and other unhealthy snacks. The area had been cleaned, but he knew where the popcorn was kept. He didn't care if there wasn't going to be a movie or even if the chat with the client was going to be short, popcorn was a must.

There was a door behind the counter with the words staff-only written on it. Acker climbed over the counter and opened the door using his power. The door needed an employee card in order to open, so Acker used his power on the card-reader. He got in and grabbed the popcorn, well, the kernels. Acker watched the kernels pop, his hands under his chin. He twirled his fingers while waiting for the popcorn. Sure, the client was probably waiting for him, but they would wait if it was important, otherwise they would have waisted Acker's time anyway.

Acker poured the popcorn in one of those large popcorn cups. He walked forward to climb over the counter again, but then suddenly walked back and entered the staff room again, he was holding a cold bottle of coke when he came out, he poured the coke into a coke cup and closed it with a lid then stabbed the lid with a straw. The staff room locked automatically behind him.

He didn't care if the employees would find out that someone had taken some popcorn and coke, after all his power had made sure that the security cameras wouldn't work and he left money behind for what he had taken. Well, actually he left more than due. He had put out a 50 bill from his wallet without even looking.

Acker put down the popcorn and coke on the counter then climbed over. Afterwards, he checked the ticket for the room number. He grabbed the popcorn and coke again then walked into a room with a giant number 5 on the door. The chairs in the room were all empty as excepted because there couldn't be any movie goers considering that the movie theatre was supposed to be closed.

Acker remembered that his chair number was in the middle of the raw. Acker sat and took a sip of coke while waiting for the this mysterious client. There was nothing on the screen yet and only a led under the big screen was on, that light was always on because it was illuminating the emergency exit.

Zeus and Apollo were sitting on the chairs at his sides, but they would move if the client decided to show up. Acker let out a little chuckle, he found it amusing for some reason that he was drinking coke and eating popcorn in an empty and dark movie theatre room while watching nothing.

Noah St Cloud

//Okay so, I imagined that the client is Blackstorm, basically Blackstorm had to make sure that Acker would come so they faked to be a client to lure him into the movie theatre, instead of a client Noah shows up, I hope it's okay!//

[Noah St Cloud]

Noah was so bored. He was meant to be recruiting Acker for Blackstorm but the man was taking his time, leaving Noah to sit in the dark in some random theatre room. He groaned loudly, banging his head back against the seat like a teenager being told to clean his bedroom. God, mom, it’s not like the guests will see it. Maybe he should call Rotty – ah, no, Rotty was probably at his legal job. Besides, from what he knew about the Villin, Acker and Rotty weren’t two people Noah could imagine being compatible.

He took out his phone and switched the torch on, using it to look around. Maybe he’d spot Acker hiding behind some chairs, waiting to jump out… No such luck. He did, however, spy the projection booth at the back of the room.

Getting in wasn’t too hard. He jumped up, his fingers finding the ledge, and pulled himself up and through the (thankfully open) window. The room was small, containing a couple of computers, chairs, a whole wall of USB flash drives, and some movie posters. He switched on the closest computer. No password necessary (that was convenient) and the cinema’s database of movies was right there.

As he switched his torch off and put his phone away, he heard the doors to the theatre room opening. Finally. Acker was showing his face after all. Well, Noah supposed he should pick something to entertain them while they talked.

He scrolled through the list. Blade Runner… Donnie Darko… Jurassic Park… Oh, sweet: Paddington 2.

After following some instructions on a sticky note, Noah was able to get the movie running on the big screen. He turned the volume down a bit for the sake of secrecy but, really, he was sure no one would be coming by at this hour.

The door to the projection booth was locked so he hopped out the window he came in through. The movie illuminated the room, allowing Noah to locate Acker in the seat Blackstorm had assigned on the ticket. How polite.

The presence of Acker’s canine companions was less polite, but Noah was happy to let it slide. He didn’t hate animals; they just usually didn’t like him. He strolled down to Acker’s row and flopped down in a seat a couple of spaces away. Taking his eyes off the opening scene, he greeted Acker with his usual sleepy smile and inclined his head to the man’s large cup of popcorn, his voice taking on a tone of playful affront as he asked, “You didn’t get any for me?”



((Nicholas Acker Villin Feel free to have Acker scan Noah with his glasses :3 Nothing Blackstorm-related should pop up; Noah is just an unemployed orphan lmao))

[Nicholas Acker Villin]

The dogs weren't bothered by Noah's presence, probably a sign that they weren't animals "You can come closer, they don't bite..." Acker popped a popcorn into his mouth "...unless I tell them to" he winked while the dogs climbed down the seats to give Noah some space "It's big enough for two" Acker put the popcorn cup on the sit next to him so that Noah could reach for it if he wanted to.

Then, Acker's attention was caught by the movie "Mhhh!" he was taking a sip of coke "My cousin wants me to see this movie with him" Acker had a lot of cousins. He was still wearing his glasses while watching the screen, his hand reached inside the cup and ate a mouthful of popcorn. The hand he was using to eat the popcorn with was bare, but the other was gloved.

"So..." Acker turned his head towards Noah "...what do you need my services for?" his glasses scanned Noah's face, apparently he was an unemployed orphan "You must know already that my services aren't cheap" after all Noah had contacted him "How do you plan to pay for them? Or are you here as a proxy?" meaning that the client wasn't really Noah, but someone else. Acker was implying that he knew Noah was unemployed, or so it seemed based on local records.

Noah St Cloud

//thank you for that i didn't have to ask : D//

[Noah St Cloud]

Acker was kind enough to place the popcorn between them. “Thanks,” Noah grinned, taking the opportunity to chuck a handful of it into his mouth. He stretched out, putting his feet up on the headrest of the chair in front of him.

Acker’s initial response to the movie choice caused Noah’s expression to shift into one of faux concern. “Oh damn, do you want me to change it? Wouldn’t want you to miss out on quality cousin-bonding time.” Honestly, Noah didn’t care. From Acker’s reaction it seemed he didn’t really care either, which was a relief because as much as Noah enjoyed testing his parkour skills, it would be annoying to climb back into the projection booth simply to swap the movie over and then come all the way back.

He waved off Acker’s questions, though didn’t escape his notice that the other man implied he knew about Noah’s apparent unemployment. He must have done some research, except there was no way he could have known Noah specifically would be the one meeting him there, so he must have uncovered that information on the spot. Knowing his affinity for technology, Noah could imagine Acker was connected to official government databases that would contain his passport, employment status, etcetera, but being able to find him before Noah could give his full legal name meant that his face must have been scanned. Was Acker connected to cameras in the cinema? Or could it be his glasses were not as ordinary as they seemed? It was certainly strange for him to be wearing them in a dimly-lit place.

“Aw don’t worry about my financials – inheritance is a booming business these days, didn’t you know? Besides, money can’t be your only motivator; you’ve got so much already. I think what you really want is a challenge.” Noah decided to get right to it. Usually when recruiting he would make more of an effort to befriend his target, to understand their motivations and see how he could shape them into his favour. 

“While we don’t have a specific task for you at this precise moment, we thought we’d extend an olive branch of sorts… See how you’re feeling about the current state of affairs… We’ll have many opportunities for you to act and not to act.” Although Noah didn’t try to emphasise it, the ‘not to act’ was probably more important. Acker was talented, yes, and would be a valuable asset when he chose to accept (and he would accept eventually, they always did). But if he wasn’t an asset for Blackstorm, he was a nuisance. “Meaning, if your clients offer you a job that would be annoying to us, we’ll pay you double what they offer to not do it for them. Or if that sounds boring, we can offer alternative tasks. Tasks that might stir up a bit of chaos for those clients.” Noah paused, and pointed at Acker’s drink. “Can I get a sip of that?”


Nicholas Acker Villin

[Nicholas Acker Villin]

Acker had to follow basic decency when dealing with a client even if sometimes he just wanted to be selfish. So, sharing the popcorn it was. Even though in reality he would have wanted to keep the popcorn all for himself while making some childish expressions. A part of him missed his assistant not being there because Acker would have done that with him after the meeting with the client, just to take it out of his system.

All it took was a glance to feel that unpleasant familiar sensation that came with sycophancy. It didn't take much to recognised it because Acker himself was phony too sometimes, and also because of all the experience dealing with two-faced sycophants at functions.

Acker had a thought "Inheritance? Why didn't the scan pick up on that?" inheritances left a public paper trail that the scan could easily follow, but this time it didn't. Perhaps the inheritance wasn't so public or legal. He didn't say anything when Noah mentioned that someone like Acker was there for the challenge. It was true, but he his mind was still trying to find a solution on why the glasses hadn't scanned the inheritance thing, so he didn't say anything.

"Could be a lie, or not" he thought just before Noah started talking again. He threw a popcorn into his mouth when Noah started using the plural pronoun "Ah! You are a proxy!" indeed he had been right about that. The client was offering an olive branch? This was starting to get interesting. The olive branch offer implied that Acker had dealt with the client before and not on friendly terms. His mind started listing the possibilities.

Acker started noisily munching the popcorn when Noah seemed to imply that this client wanted to tell Acker what he could do or not. The aggressive munching was a sign of his irritation. What kind of client would think that ordering Acker around was an olive branch he would accept? The irritation just kept growing higher and higher the more Noah negotiated.

Even that nonchalant confident attitude was getting on Acker's nerves "Let me get this straight, Proxy" that was how he was calling Noah "This client wants to oversee what jobs I can or cannot do? And that's the olive branch?!" the dogs raised their heads when their owner started laughing. It was a heartfelt laugh. It sounded similar to those villain laughs, hard to say if he was doing it on purpose or not.

Finally the laugh subdued, but he had to bite his lower lip to not laugh again when the drink was mentioned. Noah wanted to drink from the same drink he was drinking? Nope "Boundaries" Acker imagined that it would have been hard for his assistant to keep a straight face if he had been there to hear that bit about boundaries considering the way Acker treated him.

Acker took a deliberate long sip from his drink and put it back in the chair's drink holder away from Noah. Then he became suddenly serious after putting the drink down "Is this all you have got, kid?" he was looking at the screen "Hope not because otherwise you have wasted each other's time and my time is more valuable than yours" Acker wasn't really looking at the movie, he was trying to contain his anger and irritation.

The dogs raised their heads again.

Noah St Cloud

[Noah St Cloud]

Ah damnit, spoiled rich man didn’t like that. See, this was why Noah liked to do his own reconnaissance and approach an individual at a time of his choosing, rather than having a meeting arranged for him by Blackstorm in some quiet cinema theatre. They were too hasty sometimes (and so dramatic; this had felt like a drug deal before Noah had managed to switch the movie on), yet remained frustratingly slow in terms of progressing with their core mission.

Though he didn’t show it, Noah was a little surprised at how quick to anger Acker was. Even though the inventor was laughing, Noah knew full well that it was derisive and the ‘proxy’ nickname was supposed to be an insult. He didn’t care about that (words were just words; if anyone wanted to get a rise out of Noah, they would be sorely disappointed by his lack of reaction to verbal barbs), but he did pout a little at Acker’s refusal to share his drink. What a shame. The popcorn was a bit dry.

However, he hummed in agreement at Acker’s observation of the importance of their time. It was true! Noah had nothing but time, and as far as developing advances in technology went, it was blatantly obvious who the winner would be. Acker probably had serious things he could be working on, whereas Noah would simply be woodcarving for fun or going out to find someone to take home.

From the corner of his eye, he noticed the way the dogs raised their heads. Noah imagined at least one of them would get a sharp kick to their face in the near future if this meeting went south.

“Obviously they can’t control you – Jesus, do you think they’d still be in touch with me if there were severe consequences for misbehaving?” He shook his head, remembering Acker didn’t know Noah nor his misdeeds – and likely didn’t care, either. “They simply want the chance to offer alternative options for one – maybe two – possible jobs that could come your way. The type of jobs that are detrimental to gifted people such as yourself. And of course, there’s a few completely separate missions for you.”

“We also have some gifted that could help with your experiments,” he added as an afterthought. By experiments, Noah was referring to Acker’s known work with robotics, but he unwittingly implied Blackstorm knew about and would willingly give up gifted for the unethical studies Acker conducted in secret. Had Noah known about those studies, he’d probably still make the offer of access to gifted subjects and be very intrigued to know what Acker had discovered so far. Noah himself was a bit of an experimentalist. Perhaps not in a particularly scientific way, but in the general sense that he liked to run tests that involved powered individuals.


Nicholas Acker Villin

[Nicholas Acker Villin]

The movie didn't really fit the atmosphere right now which could have been funny in itself, but Acker wasn't in the mood for funny. He had to look away and observe Noah instead. Mh. The kid seemed completely unperturbed, usually people reacted in a certain way at his trademark bursts, positively or negatively, but Noah didn't react at all. Good quality for a negotiator, Acker had to admit that.

Acker's brown eyes kept observing the other man while slowly putting popcorn in his own mouth, like one popcorn at a time. A miniscule point in his brain briefly worried about their hands accidentally touching, didn't want that to happen. Another miniscule part of his brain wondered if Noah would make their hands touch on purpose just to put the older man on edge. Acker almost chuckled at the thought, but managed to keep a stoic expression, although it looked like a cartoonish stoic expression.

The mad scientist noticed that Noah was agreeing with the wasting time part, as a response Acker took a sip of coke. However, his attention was driven to the Lads when they rose their heads again, their eras up. Acker squinted his eyes wondering why the dogs were behaving that way. Usually, it was because they were hearing something. Acker wanted to hear what they were hearing, however he couldn't put his earbuds on or use his phone to connect to the Lads' hearing units right now.

Unbeknown to the humans, the robotic dogs were hearing a couple of teenagers entering the building. They were giggling and kissing. They had decided to explore the cinema building, after all when would a chance like this ever present itself again? Because it had been pure chance. They were passing by and had noticed the door open.

The two teenagers went upstairs and one signalled to the other to be quiet because there were voices coming from one of the theatres. Stealthily, the two teenagers made their way at the theatre's door and pushed it a little to hear better.

Acker rolled his eyes "The carrot before the stick approach I see..." it was about sweetening the deal with the offer of providing the mad scientist with Gifted guinea pigs. But, no. The answer was no. Acker let silence befall between them for awhile, pretending to think the offer over. He even took a long sip of coke. He made a refreshing noise with his mouth after the sip, a sardonic noise made after sipping a tasteful beverage.

"I don't just do it for the thrill or the challenge" the mad scientist was serious "I do it for science, for knowledge" in the name of science and all that "Science shouldn't be hindered by morals or any organisation" very specific there "I cannot accept, but thank you for offering" the last part was sarcastic "Thank you for wasting my time" hint of anger and frustration in Acker's voice.

The two teenagers were recording the meeting with their smartphones with the intention of posting the video on the internet. They didn't really understand what the two men were talking about because they were unaware of Gifted. However, they were sure that the video could still get some clicks.

The two teenagers had made a huge mistake.

Acker's power sensed the presence of the smartphones and connected to them like a leech to blood. The Lads also raised their heads again towards the door. Acker turned his head towards the door too, his power on alert waiting for instructions. Acker used the glasses to zoom and a sinister smile started forming under his Poirot's moustache.

The teenagers took a step back when they noticed the older man looking at the door.

"We've become actors it seems because we've got an audience" Acker kept looking at the door "Two smartphones, two people" or one person with two smartphones.

Noah St Cloud

//the teenagers are NPC so feel free to play them if you want to! : D//

[Noah St Cloud]

Acker rejected the offer. Unsurprising, but not what Noah wanted to hear. Still, he retained his smile and was prepared to push the matter further – at least, until the presence of company was mentioned. His stare followed Acker’s to the young couple by the doorway. For the first time since the start of their encounter, Noah’s laidback countenance shifted.

“That’s a shame, I thought our first date was going well,” he muttered. He was still joking around, but the good humour had vanished from his tone. He stood up, speaking quietly so their uninvited guests wouldn’t overhear. “There’s one more thing I need to talk to you about, but… jam the phone lines, would ya?” He wasn’t entirely sure Acker’s powers worked like that, yet he didn’t see the harm in asking. He doubted either of them wanted the rascals to call the police.

He approached the kids, smiling widely. He expected them to run, and for a moment it looked like they were considering it; the girl even took another step back. But they traded glances and grins and stood their ground. They were cocky, showing off for each other.

“Hey, kids!” Noah called as he got closer. Enthusiastic; amicable. “Are you livestreaming?”

The boy snickered, raising his phone up to get a better recording of Noah’s face. “No, but it’s gonna go on my Insta story.”

Noah beamed. “Ha! Great!”

He pulled the glock from the back of his waistband and shot the phone.

It exploded in the boy’s hand. Glass and metal shattered into pieces and dug deep into his fingers and palms. The bullet sailed through, scraping the side of the boy’s head before thudding into the door behind him. The girl shrieked, instinctively ducking down and covering her head before she turned tail and bolted out the exit. The boy dropped to his knees, staring at his hand in mute horror. He seemed to be missing a finger. Blood streamed down the side of his face and dripped off his jaw. It was only a surface wound, but the head tended to bleed a lot.

There were peaceful routes Noah could have taken. He could have pointed out to the teenagers that they weren’t allowed in the cinema either, so posting their videos would only incriminate themselves. But he was already a little miffed that Acker had refused him (he had seen this coming, but oh no, it didn’t matter what Noah thought – Blackstorm just had to have the science man on board) and, fun fact about Noah: he hated kids.

Despite the slight ringing in his ears from the loud blast of the gun, Noah sighed happily, glancing over his shoulder to shoot a warm smile at Acker. “Kids. Aren’t they the worst?”

He swept past the boy into the hallway. Without the phone as evidence, the teenager was inconsequential. His shock in addition to the fact Noah had been backlit by the movie probably meant he wouldn’t be able to give a good description to the police either. Acker could do what he wanted with him; of the two, he was a lot more recognisable than Noah.

The girl, however, would have to be chased down. He needed that phone, and her echoing footsteps told him exactly where she was headed.


((Nicholas Acker Villin
Teenagers: *exist*
Noah:
))

[Nicholas Acker Villin]

This wasn’t the mad scientist’s first rodeo “Ahead of you” the power jammed communications, no calls in or out.

There were security cameras all over the place in the building, the power had deactivated them, but now they were on again, although they were not recording or sending the data to any database, it was closed circuit to the big screen, Acker had made sure of that by using his power.

The teenagers gasped when they saw themselves on the big screen “Great movie choice! This date of ours is already improving” Acker ironically stated between mouthful of popcorns. He was sitting on the chair, his legs crossed in a comfortable position, one hand around the the coke cup.

The glasses scanned the teenagers' faces. He needed to know who they were in case their families could steer some trouble. But no, they were no one important.

Acker took a sip of coke while observing Noah interacting with the younger kids. He smirked seeing Noah being so amicable and the teenagers cocking it up to impress each other. Acker’s power knew that the kids weren’t livestreaming before they even answered.

Popcorns fell from his wide-open mouth in surprise. Not shock, just surprise. Noah had shot the phone. Acker had to move his hand above the Lads’ heads to order them to stand down because after hearing the shots the dogs had initiated the let’s-kick-ass mode. Oh yeah this ‘date’ was going great, surely it wasn’t boring.

Acker put the other glove on while slowly chewing just in case the situation escalated even more and he needed to defend himself. The dogs were still on alert, ready to defend their owner.

The footage on the big screen split in two. One side showed the boy, the other side showed the girl running away. The boy was bleeding. Oh, Acker was enjoying this. He wasn’t feeling worried for the kids, they were in the way and they tried to expose him. They deserved this, they had brought this on themselves. The teenagers had made Noah and Acker their enemies, it was the consequences of their own actions.

Acker saw Noah looking back and smiling that warm smile of his. The mad scientist couldn’t help but smile back and rose the coke cup in an agreeing gesture to Noah’s statement “Hear! Hear!” however Acker wasn’t smiling at the statement, but at Noah’s peculiar behaviour. The mad scientist could relate to that type of behaviour.

Noah left the mouse with the cat when he left the room. The boy was crying and looking at his own face in the big screen. Acker had been facing the screen all this time, but the boy probably had seen Acker’s face while recording with his phone before.

The mad scientist stood up while adjusting his coat in an elegant motion then turned around and started walking towards the boy like a death march. Like a wolf approaching its prey.

The boy tried to put some distance between himself and the tall sinister man, but to no avail because Acker kept approaching. There was a distinct contrast between Acker’s nonchalant walk and the boy’s frantic retreat. Acker’s hands were in his pockets, the dogs weren’t even there. The boy kept slipping.

They stepped out of the theatre room.

The boy started pleading, begging for his life. Tears mixed with blood. Acker didn’t feel any sympathy, the boy was an obstacle and Acer overcame obstacles. He kept repeating himself that the boy had brought this upon himself, the Villin part of him needed to.

It was almost poetic. The boy needed to be dealt with because Acker was recognisable for being a Villin, but the Villin part of himself also needed to be powered down or would have interfered with what needed to be done.

Acker’s mind was analysing the situation, he had to kill the boy, but it couldn’t be connected to him. Electricity wasn’t an option because it could be connected to his taser. Couldn’t even step on the boy’s throat until breaking his Adam’s apple because of the imprint of his own shoe.

The Lads were out of the equation too because their teeth’s imprint could be connected to Acker’s dogs.

Acker looked up at the centre of the ceiling where a skylight was, a round moon could be seen, the pale moonlight shined through the glass “Boy” the boy had a small nervous hiccup that cut through the crying “Have you ever danced with the Devil in the pale moonlight?” that was what Nicholson’s Joker asked to his victims before killing them.

Acker knew that the boy didn’t understand the reference because he got confused instead of terrified. The type of terror that only came when facing certain death.

Acker suddenly lunged towards the boy and grabbed his wrists. Acker was towering over the teenager, way taller and stronger.

Acker wanted to put some music on, but it would have alerted outside attention. Instead he just forced the teenager to dance. Acker forced the boy to spin around towards a specific direction.

There was an open balcony facing the floor below. The boy hit the balcony’s handrail with his back when Acker let go of him during the spin, the impact made the boy lose balance.

The girl was below, she was running towards the exit. Suddenly, she heard a scream and looked up “NO!” she yelled at what she was witnessing. The boy fell from the balcony and hit the floor below.

Acker was upstairs, observing his handiwork from up the balcony. The boy was bleeding even more now due to the broken skull caused by the fall. Nothing on the victim’s body could be connected to Acker, it looked like the boy had accidentally fallen off the balcony.

The ironic thing was that the phones had been wiped clean, no evidence of the footage was present thanks to Acker’s power. But, he didn’t say anything to Noah because the kids needed to be dealt with.

Noah St Cloud

//*Acker seal of approval*

//

[Noah St Cloud]

Noah was quickly gaining on the fleeing teen. She had a head start but his legs were longer – plus there was the small distraction of her boyfriend falling to his death. Stopping cost her precious seconds. She turned to run again but it was too late; he tackled her to the ground mere metres away from the building’s exit.

Predictably, she started screeching.

“Hey! Hey, shh! I’ll let you go in a minute but you gotta be quiet or I’ll hurt you, sweetheart,” he said quickly. Her shouts petered out into hiccups and she stopped struggling. Thankfully, it seemed she had enough braincells to know when to cooperate.

Tucking his gun back into his waistband, he reached over to grab her phone after sparing a quick glance up at the balcony. Huh. He knew Acker had to be somewhat shady to get involved with unethical hacking, but murdering people? He hadn’t known he up for that sort of thing. It was good, since it meant Noah’s reckless behaviour wouldn’t scare him away, but it was also very bad because, well, Acker was up for killing people. In any sort of relationship, Noah preferred to be the one with the dubious morals. His favourite type of person would be hesitantly accepting of his behaviours and appalled at the idea of committing them themselves; it was safer that way, less room for backstabbing.

His knee pressed on the girl’s back, keeping her held down as he sat up and flicked through her phone. Photos, Instagram, Snapchat… Try as he might, he couldn’t find a single video or image of Acker or himself anywhere. That was bad. Had Acker been able to wipe the phone already? Ugh. Noah had been way too impulsive – he needn’t have left his theatre seat! Acker could’ve handled the situation in seconds without him having to lift a finger.

Pulling his gun out had made it messy as well. Though his only intention had been to destroy the phone, the bullet had clipped the boy's head and undoubtedly left some blood in the theatre room. Would there be enough time to clean up before the theatre opened? Noah always kept some hydrogen peroxide in his car for situations just like this, but he'd have to hope the bullet mark in the door would go unnoticed. The body was an issue too, though there was potential for it to be seen as an accident, which was certainly preferable as he didn’t particularly want to enlist Rotty’s help so soon after the last corpse. He didn't want to build that sort of reputation.

The girl hiccupped again, bringing Noah back to the matter at hand. Despite what it might look like, he didn’t enjoy killing people. There was no fun in it. No dignity. He loved a fight or a chase because there were stakes – a chance to lose. Killing her while she was captive... felt a bit pathetic. 

He decided to give her a chance. “Hey, do you know who either of us are?”

“No!”

Noah sighed. Why did he bother? “Of course you’d say that.” Sure, she could be telling the truth. He believed she didn’t know him, but what if she saw him in the street someday just minding his business, and decided to point fingers? Like, 'hey that's that guy who shot my boyfriend and traumatised me!' That could be a problem. A total buzzkill. Plus, Acker was pretty identifiable (Noah blamed the moustache and the glasses) so even if she wasn’t aware of the Villin family right now, all it would take was one news article with pictures. Surely Blackstorm would want him to protect the potential asset. He dropped the phone.

“Sorry. It’s nothing personal.” He put one hand under her chin and the other on the back of her head, then snapped her neck. Clean and quick. No fanfare.  

He stood up, hands on his hips and lips pressed into a fine line as he looked up at the balcony for his accomplice. “Hey! Do your dogs eat bodies?” he called. His tone was casual, as if he was asking Acker what kind of ice cream flavour he liked. “Or uh, do you think if I threw missy over the balcony with her guy, that would look like an accident as well?” Couldn't hurt to get a second opinion.


Nicholas Acker Villin

[Nicholas Acker Villin]

Acker was observing from up above like a judge. He regretted leaving the popcorn behind. Oh mental note: get rid of popcorn and coke. No DNA evidence please.

Then his eyes fell on the dead boy. The pool of blood getting wider and wider around his head. You know how the abyss looks back? The boy couldn’t look back, but the impact of what Acker had done did. He kept telling himself that it had been necessary. But, the Villin inside of him kept poking at the conscience he tried to keep buried.

Then Noah’s stupid question snapped Villin away from the abyss.

For a millisecond, Acker feared that Noah was gonna let the girl go in which case the mad scientist would have had to deal with her. Annoying. However, Noah killed her. Clean and precise like a machine which was a compliment coming from Acker.

Acker felt proud of his design when Noah seemed to believe that the dogs were real “It’s not on their diet” the bodies couldn’t be connected to them anyway “I hope that weapon of yours is not registered or custom-made” they could just leave the bodies there, although making bodies disappear was always the better option. However, Acker wasn’t going to use his manpower to deal with this “Ask your employer” he sardonically suggested. Although, he was also serious.

Noah was a proxy and he knew about his power, so Acker had figured that the kid’s employer knew about Acker’s power. There were very few who knew about it, he could count them on one hand, or one finger. Besides Hunters, but they wouldn’t try to hire him. Acker wanted to witness how Noah’s employer would deal with a situation like this.

Acker stared at Noah for a moment trying to decipher if the kid was kidding “No, you snapped her neck in a very precise way, snapped neck caused by fall would be messier and cannot fake it over your handiwork because the coroner can differentiate the fractures” so accidental fall wouldn’t cut it. Also, Noah wasn’t wearing gloves so the kid had to deal with cleaning his fingerprints off the crime scene. At least they didn’t have to worry about any technological evidence, like video footage or anything like that.

Witnessing Noah’s murderous side left a tingly excitement in the mad scientist’s chest like electricity. A sane man would have been scared, would have tried to keep as much distance as possible from Noah, but instead Acker felt more connected to the other man as if they were on the same inside joke that only they knew.

The dogs did eat, but not for nourishment. Acker used his power to give the Lads an order: get rid of any DNA evidence. Acker’s DNA evidence because the Lads didn’t have any Noah’s DNA to match. The Lads diligently started eating the popcorn and the popcorn cup. Meanwhile, Acker went back to the theatre room and finished drinking the coke in two quick gulps, there hadn’t been that much left. Then gave the coke cup and straw to one of the Lads.

The Lads worked efficiently and after a few minutes there was nothing left. The dogs’ tongue didn’t release any saliva, but instead the tongue could analyse whatever it touched, sure it had limitations, but it could match Acker’s DNA. Apollo had even found a hair belonging to Acker and ate that too. The Lads kept sniffing and analysing around the cinema where Acker had been.

The mad scientist walked back to Noah wondering how he was going to fix the situation. Noah was the negotiator, there to convince Acker to join "You invited me to this date: impress me" he pointed at the scene to indicate that he was talking about fixing the scene.

Noah St Cloud

[Noah St Cloud]

“Ye of little faith,” Noah sighed. Of course his gun wasn’t registered, he wasn’t born yesterday.

Acker’s snide suggestion made it clear he wouldn’t be cleaning up the mess, which Noah supposed was fair since he’d been the one to instigate it. There was a lingering bitterness that Acker hadn’t told him he’d already used his gift nor tried to stop Noah from being reckless, but then again, how was Acker to know what he would do?

Acker stared down at him from the balcony. “No, you snapped her neck in a very precise way, snapped neck caused by fall would be messier and cannot fake it over your handiwork because the coroner can differentiate the fractures.”

“I was just being conversational.” Noah grinned, ignoring the latter comments in favour of Acker’s indirect praise of his technique being precise. “But yeah, you’re damn right I did. Thank you for noticing!”

Noah moved away from the girl to crouch by the boy’s body, careful not to step in the pool of blood lest he leave any footprints. The lad’s head was caved in. He was pretty sure a coroner wouldn’t be able to tell he’d been clipped by a bullet first, but it was impossible to know for sure. Sometimes Noah wished he’d gone to medical school instead.

He glanced up and stood again as Acker approached. “Impress you? Aw jeez, doc, do ya want a lap dance that bad?” he teased, wriggling his eyebrows at him suggestively. He hoped it made Acker uncomfortable; a small bit of payback for refusing to help clean up. “I know it’s tempting but c’mon, there’s a time and place…” He looked pointedly down at the two corpses.

Still, he couldn’t leave the crime scene as it was. He clasped his hands together. “Well, we’ve got at least one detective in our pocket so obviously we’ll get them on the case. The story will go like this: young couple sneaks out to theatre, boy gets a bit handsy, girl accidentally pushes him off balcony, panics when she realises he’s dead, goes on the run.” He shrugged. “If the bullet mark is found, the story will change to: girl gives a warning shot first. There, it’s an open and shut case. Easy.”

He made his way over to the concession stand and grabbed some napkins from the front before hopping over the counter. He was sure the staff would keep some extra cleaning supplies somewhere, though he only needed bin liners. Using the napkins to ensure he didn’t leave fingerprints, he started looking through the various cupboards. 

“Hundreds of people come here, I doubt they’ll find my fingerprints any more interesting than others,” he mused in regard to any prints he may have left elsewhere in the movie theatre. It could be considered odd for a Villin to go to there, but Noah was a regular citizen and there was no way police would waste time and resources cataloguing every print they found in a public place. He paused. What were the odds of them checking the projection booth for fingerprints? Yet he waved off that train of thought as quickly as it came. “It’s fine, I’m not in any database anyway.” Besides, even if those prints were found, he could ask any Blackstorm agent in the police to destroy the evidence or simply say he snuck in to see a movie some other night. Trespassing was a minor offence compared to homicide.

His eyes alighted on a roll of (thankfully opaque black) bin liners. “Obviously the girl will have to disappear.” He took the roll from the cupboard and shot Acker a triumphant smirk as he wiggled it in the air for him to see. He closed the cupboard and hopped back over the counter. “Don’t you worry about that part.” Noah had a couple of options, and he didn’t want to share either of them with Acker in case the Villin decided to try blackmailing him or grew a conscience some day and decided to expose what happened that night. He hummed thoughtfully. “I think I’m gonna leave the blood in the showing room because a panicked girl on the run wouldn’t clean that up.”

He crouched beside the girl again and rolled her on her side. He folded her knees to her chest and tucked her head in before putting her in a bin liner, being extra careful as he slid it under and around her to ensure it didn't split. He repeated this process with three more bin liners, not trusting one to be enough to hold her weight when he inevitably had to move her into his car trunk. 


Nicholas Acker Villin

[Nicholas Acker Villin]

Acker snickered at Noah thanking for the indirect praise “I don’t have any sugar cubes with me, I apologise” sugar cubes were fed to horses as a positive reinforcement, so that comment was a joke about rewarding Noah with a treat for the clean kill like a dog trainer would reward their dog after successfully performing a command.

The abyss crept in Acker’s subconscious again when Noah approached the boy’s body. It felt like the puddle of blood around the boy’s head was getting closer and closer, as if Acker’s eyes were zooming on it. He felt his heart getting warmer. A heart shaped by his family’s love. The Villin in him was trying to open the door to his conscience, but the mad scientist got distracted by Noah.

Acker jolted as if he had been stung when his attention got caught by Noah’s comment. Even though it might look like the comment had affected him, in reality the abyss was responsible. However, Acker would rather Noah believe that his comment had made him uncomfortable instead of the boy’s murder. Apollo approached his owner and Acker started petting the dog’s head.

“You need money that bad? I have some dollar bills” the doc joked referencing the stereotype about tipping strip/lap dancers with one dollar bills. Then Acker’s tone got darker “There is a time and place for murder too” a jab toward Noah’s heated temper that had put them both in this situation.

“Oh really, a detective? And your employer wants a mad scientist too? What is this? A theme park?” Acker’s nonchalant reaction to Noah revealing that his employer had a detective in their pocket. Then, the doc let out a sigh and rested his head on his left hand massaging his temples “So, you wiped your fingerprints from the projection booth? Only staff is allowed there, so your fingerprints would stand out among the others” even if Noah had indeed been cautious, better mention it now than being sorry later. Acker had said his piece at the same time Noah was thinking about the projection booth, but it was just a coincidence as if they were in synchrony.

“A ghost in the machine” Acker whispered about Noah not being in any database, that explained why there wasn’t that much info on Noah. Curiouser curiouser.

Even though it was rare for Acker to visit the cinema, it wasn’t odd for the other Villins to enjoy movies at the cinema. The other Villins interacted with the town and its citizens, they didn’t think of themselves as better than the others. In fact, they had friends from any social status. Two of Acker’s cousins had visited the cinema just the day before with some non-rich regular friends. This was his family, Acker was another story. After all, he had a home cinema room in his own manor, so there was no need to visit the public cinema.

“Obviously” Acker repeated sarcastically, he was observing Noah as if he was a teacher grading Noah’s work. He observed Noah going back to the ground floor. A part of him felt the urge to look at the murdered boy again to let Villin open the door to his conscience. But, the mad scientist forced himself to keep his gaze on Noah.

No one else was around, the night outside was silent. Unexpected pests should not bother them anymore tonight at least.

Noah St Cloud

[Noah St Cloud]

(CW: brief summaries of different methods to cover a murder)

“Obviously,” Noah repeated, smiling despite Acker’s mockery. He thought about asking the other man for help in lifting the body, but seeing how the scientist seemed content to sit back and watch during the rest of Noah’s process, he assumed he would receive the same answer he got when he’d asked to have a sip of Acker’s drink. He fished his keys from his trouser pocket and unlocked his car, seeing its headlights briefly flash in response through the theatre entrance windows. Then he got into position beside the body, bending at the knees as he mentally reminded himself to lift with his legs and core rather than his back.

“Right.” He rubbed his hands together and quirked an eyebrow at Acker. “Heave-ho.”

He scooped the body bag up and straightened up again with a quiet huff. The weight was unpleasant (he’d never been a devoted fan of deadlifting; it wasn't his style), but far less strain than it would be if he were transporting a grown man. In hindsight, he could have saved some of his strength by rolling her closer to the door before he’d wrapped her up. Ah well. He’d grin and bear it. Once certain the outside world was quiet and empty, he twisted sideways to push the door open with his shoulder.

His car was close, already facing away from the building because he didn't want to mess around with reversing when the meeting was over. He placed his load down on the concrete and popped open the trunk, where he was greeted by various spray bottles and cleaning supplies. He pushed them to the sides, clearing room for his new passenger, then lifted her in. As long as he didn't get pulled over for speeding, no one except him would be checking the trunk anytime soon.

He closed it and pulled his keys out again to re-lock his car. He spun the key ring around his finger with a considering hum as he turned back into the movie theatre. He’d have to remove her teeth and burn off her fingerprints, make her body harder to identify if she were ever found. Yet he didn’t want to go all ‘Dexter’ on the girl, cutting her up. Too much time and effort and mess for his tastes. The most likely solution was to bury her, deep in the woods far from any beaten trail. Maybe take her out of state. Getting her there might be a pain but then he could find an animal corpse and bury it a few feet above the girl so, in the unlikely event cadaver dogs found the site and started digging there, the police would find the animal remains first and think that was all there was.

Alternatively, dissolving the body could be a fun change. He’d never tried that before and was a little interested in how it would work. But then he’d have to investigate where he could acquire the necessary chemicals and there’d still be ‘human soup’ to handle afterwards. He’d once met a guy with an acid spewing gift who might have been willing to help, but Noah would have to track him down and who knows if he’d be able to create enough acid to dissolve the body. He’d probably also want to know why Noah needed so much. Not good. The fewer people involved, the better.

“Phew, it’s a good thing I’ve been hitting the gym.” Noah beamed, wiping his brow with an exaggerated sigh as he sauntered over to Acker. He lightly slapped the back of his hand against the scientist’s arm. “I’ll be taking those dollar bills of yours now – y’know, because you enjoyed the show so much.” He’d felt Acker’s stare on him, sensed he was being appraised. Would it be too much to hope Acker had changed his mind about joining Blackstorm? It would be some nice good news to balance out the damper provided by their impromptu murder session.

Noah cocked his head, curious and non-accusing. “Speaking of, you don’t seem massively fazed by any of this. Is this sort of thing a regular occurrence between your charity events and uni lectures?”


Nicholas Acker Villin

[Nicholas Acker Villin]

Frankly, if he had been alone he would have ordered his robots to take care of this, they were more efficient and didn't make mistakes. However, Watching Noah taking care of things was amusing. Suddenly, Acker looked down when his phone buzzed, he fetched it and checked the notification. He had been listening in the police radio for awhile now, in fact for years, it was very useful when you your business wasn't exactly legal. Well, his robotic business was perfectly legal, but other aspects weren't, like experimenting on Gifted. He really needed to know how being a Gifted worked for science and himself.

"Police are coming he warned Noah, didn't know exactly how they knew, but there were night workers around the Cinema sometimes for various reasons. No matter. The only thing that mattered was that they had only a few minutes. Killing police officers wasn't a smart move, they were very tribal meaning that the police would search for the culprit non-stop which would make everything bothersome.

It wasn't that odd that the police would come to check things out considering that teens tended to visit the cinema during the night. One time the cinema had opened to broken beer bottles and a ransacked pantry after an unauthorised night festivity. Acker checked with his dogs that every trace of his presence had been licked off the scene, he would have taken care of Noah too, but the dogs didn't have any DNA sample of his to match.

"Well, it seems we have to keep things short: I'm not joining whatever you want me to join" he shrugged "Sorry, I'm not a joiner" he wasn't really apologising of course. However, he had the feeling that Noah wasn't going to take a no for an answer, but the negotiator didn't have much time to convince Acker, perhaps blackmail was the only option available at this point, like warning the mad scientist that if he doesn't join and do Blackstorm's bidding then they would reveal the fact that Acker was a Gifted.

It was dangerous to blackmail Acker, he tended to retaliate, but desperate times called for desperate measures after all, so it would be understandable if Noah blackmailed him.

Acker sarcastically checked Noah's body out by looking up and down "I can see that" Acker joked about Noah's gym comment, a joke on Noah's athletic body, trying to make fun of something as positive as that. The Lads raised their heads on alert when Noah slapped their owner's arm "Dance for me first" Acker jokingly replied to the bills comment "Mh? I don't know what you are talking about" the mad scientist winked, thankfully no piece of technology could record what was happening thanks to Acker's power, so there could be no evidence of what was said/done in this meeting.

Noah St Cloud