September 6, 2016

Northern New York State, Forested Area

Midnight

The deal went down in the middle of a disused bridge, far from prying eyes and ears. It was before the time that hunting Mutants was encouraged by the government, so secrecy was necessary. From one end of the bridge came Hawk and his team. Of course, Hawk wasn’t his real name. Not were the rest of his team named Falcon, Vulture, Raven, and Eagle. Bit I digress.

From the other end of the bridge came the ones who hired Hawk and his team. Since they had decided to keep their identities confidential, we must continue to refer to them as “they”. They were paying Hawk and his team a hundred thousand dollars, twice their usual fee. Their leader stepped forward, and Hawk matched the movement. A folder was passed from hirers to the hired.

“The details of the hit, along with one half of your payment, are in this envelope. You will receive the other half once the job is done. The target is a fifteen-year-old, beta-level female mutant, and her non-mutant parents. We want the girl unharmed, but subdued. Tranquilizer her. Kill the parents. Leave no witnesses. Make it look like an hate crime“

Hawk took the envelope, nodding. Both groups of men turned and retreated off of the bridge.

~<~<~<~>~>~>~

September 10, 2016

Northern New York State, Middle-Class Neighborhood

2200 hours

The team moved in swiftly. The past four days had been for training, analyzing blueprints, planning every aspect of the hit. Everyone had their role, and they worked flawlessly as a team. Hawk was the leader, and his specialty was shooting. He had grown up hunting, and rarely missed a shot. He preferred using revolvers to take out his prey, though a rifle or shotgun would work in a pinch.

Eagle was the muscle. He usually relied on his physical strength to win in a fight, never on weapons. Before turning to murder, he had been a prizefighter. The only weapon that he had ever been seen using was a Bowie knife, and the victim hadn’t been recognizable afterwards.

Falcon was the getaway man. He had never actually participated in a hit, staying outside with the initial getaway vehicle. It was Falcons job to get them from the scene to the second, third, and fourth vehicle swap points, then back to their base. Fast.

Raven was the tech guy. He could rig a bomb out of nearly anything, and was the one who made sure phone lines were cut, alarms were disabled, and trace evidence was disposed of, usually in a blazing inferno.

Lastly, there was Vulture. Vulture was the one who made sure any bodies were properly disposed of. So far, no one had found the bodies from the sixteen other hits that the group had done.

They moved on the house quickly, Vulture and Raven taking the back door, Hawk and Eagle taking the front. The house was silent as the grave, three occupants sleeping peacefully. A streak of black shadow darted off the couch, running under Ravens feet.

“Fucking cat!”

Raven whisper-yelled, nearly tripping over the meddling animal. The cat hadn’t been in the plans, so it must have been a new addition to the family. No matter. The men met in living room, which looked like a photo out of a furniture catalog. The whole house screamed “perfect American family”.

They quickly made their way upstairs, to the door at the end of the hall. The master bedroom. It was open a crack, so Hawk just nudged it open further with his elbow. The parents were snoring peacefully in each other’s arms, framed in moonlight streaming in through the window. Vulture pulled the curtains shut, plunging the room into semi-darkness.

Hawk flicked the lights on, and with the speed only parents seem to possess, Garrett and Callisto Morningstar snapped awake.

“Who the hell are you and how did you get into my house?!”

Garrett shouted. His wife looked frozen in fear. They both must know what was happening. It was only a matter of time before the little girl asleep in the next room attracted some unwanted attention.

“Calm down. We don’t plan to hurt you. We’re only here for the girl. Someone has paid very good money for her. “

Of course, the part about not wanting to hurt them was a lie. Hawk always opened with that on family hits. Part of him, the part that still gave a damn about killing innocent people and kidnapping children, wanted to see if the parents were the kind of sick bastards who would sell out their own child. Not that it mattered. Either way, Garrett and Callisto Morningstars would end up with a bullet through the brain.

Callisto had the balls to get out of bed, and try to get to the door, screaming

“LUCI! RUN! GET OUT OF HERE!”

Without even looking, Hawk put a billet through the back of her head. She tripped, and landed face first on the hallway carpet. By now, Garrett was screaming his wife name, over and over again, and Eagle had to hold him down to keep him from bolting like his wife, and Raven ties his hands together with a piece of twine.

The plan was coming undone. The wife had attempted to warn the child, and it may be too late to get to her. But for now, the husband was contained, and wouldn’t be too much of a threat until the child was taken care of. The plan would have to change a bit. Instead of killing the parents, grabbing the child, and torching the house, they would have to grab the kid first. The husband would be left to the flames.

Leaving the other three with Garrett, Hawk got to the hall, finding the girls room. The door had a poster from some tv show on it, and a handwritten sign saying “Luciana + Salem”. Salem must be that devil-cat that had nearly tripped Raven.

He pushed open the door, seeing a typical teenagers room. A bed sat on one wall, flanked by twin nightstands with lamps. A desk faced the window, covered in the clutter that plagued so many teenage dwelling places. Hawks looked to the window...and locked eyes on the girl, perched on the windowsill. She looked terrified, and rightly so. And an instant after Hawk saw her, she was gone, having jumped out the second story window of her house.

Hawk rushed forward, uttering curses, his tranq gun ready. But it was too late. The girl had spread her wings and flown up, up, out of his sight and line of fire. There was nothing more he could do. Hawk and his team pulled out, leaving Garrett tied up in his own home, with a short-fuse firebomb about to go off.

And leaving young Luciana Morningstar homeless and an orphan.

No one would ever catch the men who killed her family. No one even tried.