The Brave and the Bold: Doctor Light and Sunburst

Blades of Darkness

by CSyphrett

The two women walked off the plane, one slightly behind the other. They had similar builds and faces. They were almost close enough to be sisters. They had made flights to San Francisco from other cities and deplaned at Tokyo International.

The one woman, Kimiyo Hoshi, had been working in Coast City and had been treated badly by Arthur Light and a wizard in a microverse. The Justice League had freed her, and she had concluded her project for Ferris Air as fast as she could. She had excepted several other jobs using her expertise in physics and astronomy to help complete what would be a new breed of orbiting telescopes.

She was returning to her home, finally, when she heard of a strange story that Sunburst had returned from death. She knew that was impossible. She had attended the funeral service herself. It had been one of many in the aftermath of the Crisis.

The other woman had been conducting business in Washington, and felt cheated. She had wanted her brother dead, but the Baron’s agent had merely turned him over to the police for charges. She would not be satisfied until her brother was dead.

***

He was looked coldly through the bars of his cell door. They had placed in the cramped area after the hole in his hand had been treated by the prison doctors. The flesh on both sides of his hand were sewn shut, the ligaments burned by the intense beam.

One more thing to put on the head of the resurrected Sunburst.

Still the simpletons who guarded him did not know the full extent of his abilities. He waited quietly in his cell for his chance, agreeing with his attorney without listening to the man’s babbling.

The swords of Morimoto were separated from him by only a few feet. One stray movement of the blades, and chaos would reign.

***

Takeo Sato sat up, throwing aside the sheet that covered him. He ignored the blackened area on his chest where the shadow demon had gripped his heart during the Crisis. Instead he went to the door, wondering what had happened to his clothes.

He looked around until he found a set of lockers behind a fence. Personal effects was written in white paint on a sign on the locked gate to the enclosure.

Sato gripped the lock in his hand, summoning his solar energy up. The lock melted quietly as he waited. He still felt weak after his ordeal. He let the melted metal drip to the floor, as he stepped inside the area. A brief search netted him his costume. He quickly put it on, and walked away.

The signs leading to the exit beckoned him. He still couldn’t fly, but at least he would walk out of the morgue under his own power.

How many could claim that?

***

He had been behind bars for little more than eight hours, when the guards came to take him to the court. If there was enough evidence, he would be held for another judge to hear his case in a day or so.

He waited patiently for the guard to open the cell door. He hobbled along in the leg and arm manacles he was kept in as he was escorted to the court room.

Maybe his lawyer could have them removed if he had no super powers without the swords of Morimoto.

Still he would be lucky to have a lawyer at this preliminary trial.

He listened impassively as the charges were read out for the judge. He already knew what they were. He pleaded not guilty, and was led back to his cell after a lawyer was appointed to him.

Nothing to do but wait until he went to trial.

At least Sunburst had been finished by the battle on the roof top.

Without him, the State’s case was incredibly weak.

***

Kimiyo Hoshi went through Customs and then took her baggage home. She freshened up, changing into the silver costume she had made her own. A light platform extended from her hands carried her to the morgue at the Tokyo Criminal Lab.

She needed to know if Takeo was really alive.

Heroes beat death all the time. It was possible that he had been buried alive, and dug himself out much later. That could be an explanation. Maybe someone had decided to use Sunburst’s identity as some kind of tribute. The earth seemingly bloomed with new heroes and villains since the Crisis.

In any case, she was going to see for herself if Takeo had taken up his career again without telling anyone he was alive.

***

Takeo Sato found his bundle of clothes and put them on over his costume. He felt better since he was out in the sun again. It was like standing in a refreshing rain.

Had he changed so much?

He noticed a piece of light lance through the sky. He watched it head for the morgue, knowing it could only be one person. He wasn’t ready to face Kimiyo yet.

He walked on, hands in his pockets.

Maybe a trip to the country was in order.

Takeo smiled slightly. If he hurried he could catch the express out of the city. He could devote time to think about his situation when he reached his destination. He needed a place with nothing to distract him from trying to decide what his life should be now that he had some of it back.

***

She walked into the station, looking around in disgust. These low born commoners should be bowing to her, but now she needed their permission to see her brother.

She put on a mask of pleasantness, and signed her signature on the necessary paperwork. The officer led her to her brother in his cell. He didn’t bother to look up when she stood at the bars.

“I see you are one step from where you belong,” she said.

“We’ll see how long I am here,” he said, head bowed. “Then you will see the price of unpleasantness.”

“You will never get out of here,” the sister said. “I am glad Baron Winters’ agent didn’t kill you now. You belong in a cage.”

“The illustrious Baron Winters and his Night Force,” the pale man said. “That would explain Sunburst quite neatly. How much did it cost you to raise the dead, sister?”

“That doesn’t matter, does it?,” said the woman. “You’re in here, and I will possess the swords of Morimoto. I just wanted you to know.”

“You think so?,” he said, smiling slightly. “I will soon be gone from this place, and then I will be at your doorstep to revenge myself on you.”

“I doubt it, brother,” she said. “If you can’t deal with a dead man, I don’t think you can deal with me.”

“We’ll see,” he said waving her away from his cell. “We’ll see shortly.”

***

Dr. Light was not happy.

She stood at the door to the morgue, and listened as an attendant tried to explain they had lost Takeo’s body. She wanted to shred the man into tatters with her energy beam. He tried to hide his discomfort at her anger, keeping away from her warily.

Takeo Sato had walked away without anyone seeing when, or how, he had left.

The doctor walked out of the morgue, trying to think where Takeo would go.

She flew to the grave site, deep in thought. She had talked with Takeo several times after the death of Supergirl. The talks had been for her. She could not think of anything he had said that would give her a clue to where he could have gone.

She remembered when she and the Rising Sun had stood side by side at the funeral and watched the priests perform the ceremony.

Dr. Light studied the portrait of Sunburst, racking her brain.

***

Takeo Sato found the path from his childhood. The bullet train track cut through the countryside from the station in Tokyo. He had walked from the nearby station, through the small town that led to the seashore, and then towards the trees that bordered the highway leading toward Osaka. There he had found his path.

He had first learned to fly here, as well as to shoot the energy beams that had earned him his name. He had thought it wonderful to be better than everyone else then.

His meeting with Superboy, later to be Superman, had taught him a more valuable lesson in self-knowledge.

Sato climbed up the shallow incline, enjoying the effort it took to walk. He felt stronger, but knew at any time he could lose consciousness, and fall back into a coma.

Something was giving him a form of life, but apparently it had limits on how much it would let him push his body in its new condition.

***

Dr. Light took flight over Tokyo, carried by a circle of light into the air. Night had fallen, draping the city eerily in conflict with the lights from the cityscape. She headed for her own home at a moderate pace.

She hoped that some kind of inspiration would come to her, but realized that she might have to look into the background of Japan’s former hero. She was still half-certain that the attendants had made a terrible mistake identifying the body.

She didn’t want to think about the fact that the corpse had decided to leave on its own accord. That was something to be denied with logic and rationality.

“Were things ever that simple?” she asked herself as she bathed and readied to go to bed. It had been a long trip, and she needed to rest before she could force herself to chase this copycat down.

Maybe someone she had met in the hero community like Katana could help her figure out what was going on. It was a course she detested, but seemed necessary in the light of events.

She dowsed the light and lay awake for a long time thinking before sleep claimed her.

***

He stood away from the barred door when the bailiffs arrived to take to the courtroom above. He tried to be patient as his manacles were put in place around his arms and legs. This was the start of his trial, and he mustn’t be late.

The bailiffs marched him out of the cell block, to an elevator. They rode up to the proper floor silently. He hobbled forward patiently.

Soon he would teach these oafs a lesson, he thought.

He paused in his walk when he saw his sister outside the court room. She seemed happy to see him in chains. He nodded to her civilly as he passed.

No need to start anything before he was ready, he thought.

He walked to his spot behind the defense table. The swords of Morimoto were brought in, marked as evidence for his trial. He kept himself in check as he looked at them.

He felt he could seize his weapons and demonstrate their effectiveness on the people in the courtroom, and in the city beyond.

Patience, he told himself. Patience.

***

Kimiyo Hoshi awoke, still troubled but determined to get to the bottom of the mystery she had found upon her return home. She went about her morning absolutions, dressing in her spare costume as she prepared to take on the new day.

Across the country, Takeo Sato did the same as best that he could. Stream water splashed on his face awoke a need to move on from his refuge. The sun shone down brightly, restoring him in a way he had not imagined possible. Time to head back to Tokyo, he decided, and straighten out the mess that his renewed life threatened to become.

The former owner of the swords of Morimoto walked calmly to the first day of his trial. He took his place, counseling patience to himself. It was almost time to start settling scores.

The swords were brought forward, marked as evidence for the prosecution. They were laid on the table in front of the assemblage in the courtroom.

He smiled thinly, just feet away from the most important things in the world.

He hoped his sister enjoyed the show.

He saw his chance when the prosecutor picked up the katana to show the court, and identify it for the record. He stared at the sword as the man circled to show it to the court. The air ripped thinly, spilling its black blood on the nearby people as the man turned. Some fell on the attorney, rotting his flesh where it touched.

He screamed, dropping the blade into the floor point first.

The brother laughed as he rolled over the table, chains jangling against the wooden top. He landed on his feet, pulling the blade from the floor as bailiffs ran forward to keep him away from the thing he held in his hands.

He cut the air, spilling the acidic substance across the men’s legs. They dropped to the floor with shocked screams as he cut the chains loose from his body. Police officers tried to take aim as he grabbed the other sword from the table. The audience had surged to their feet, inadvertently shielding the swordsman.

He sliced the air and stepped into the blackness.

***

Dr. Light flew over downtown Tokyo, trying to think of a way to catch up to the false Sunburst. She paused, spotting small police cars converge on the main courthouse. She descended to ground level.

“What’s going on?,” she asked a bystander fleeing the building.

“The swords of Morimoto were taken by that crazy man on trial,” the pale woman said, fearfully pointing back to the courthouse.

“Thank you,” Dr. Light said.

The woman watched the new heroine float forward to offer assistance in recapturing her brother. She smiled as she made her way through the crowd toward the train station. She had to return to the family home before her brother arrived.

Her father was alone, and unable to defend himself against her sibling.

She didn’t notice the man who followed her to the station, boarding the train after her. He kept his pale face and dark eyes averted as he took a place at the end of her car. His clothes seemed made for a larger man, but he had rolled up the cuffs of his pants and shirt to help him blend in with the other commuters.

He wondered when the headless body would be discovered.

The two riders got off their station, the man avoiding his sister’s notice as he well as he could. He used one of his swords to keep one step ahead of her.

Both were unaware of another man who joined their party as they went about their business. He had gotten off a train going the other way when he had seen the swordsman at the window of the other train. He had thought he had been mistaken at first. Now he knew he had been right.

Takeo Sato followed the lady at a distance, wondering why she looked so familiar to him. He felt he had seen that pale face before. A picture, or some kind of film maybe.

She was as famous as he used to be, he thought.

He just couldn’t remember where he had seen that face. He did know it had something to do with the weather somehow.

Something to do with snow.

The strange parade ascended out of the town, heading into some foothills that led into picturesque mountains. Sato kept his distance, aware that his intrusion could be discovered and he would lose this chance to find out what was going on.

A house in a wooden fence sprang out from behind a grove of trees. Small stones lined the path leading to the house’s squat front porch. A pole holding a pennant over the grassy lawn swayed slightly in the small breeze that had begun to dog the walkers.

***

Dr. Light waited on Inspector Hiro to play the tape from the cell block. The inspector had made it clear that it was his show, and if she didn’t like it she could go home and stew. Kimiyo held her sharp tongue in check as he placed the tape in a VCR.

She gasped when she saw the only visitor the swordsman had seen while incarcerated. It was the woman from outside the courthouse.

“Do you know her?” Inspector Hiro asked.

“I saw her outside the courthouse when I arrived,” the doctor admitted.

“She has never been identified, but we call her the Snow Woman,” said Hiro. “She can generate extreme cold. Plus she has helpers she calls oni.”

“I have heard of her,” said Kimiyo, rubbing her chin. “She battled Rising Sun at the technology expo a few years ago.”

“She also tried to help kill the Global Guardians and Superman,” said Hiro. “I wonder what she wanted with our prisoner?”

“She wanted to gloat,” said Dr. Light. “Too bad there is no sound on this, but I am sure that’s why she was here. She wanted to gloat about his arrest, and she didn’t like it when he escaped.”

“Allies or enemies?” Hiro asked, watching the tape thoughtfully.

“Enemies,” decided Kimiyo. “If we find one, we will find the other. Any ideas where to start looking?”

“Yes,” said the inspector. “I do.”

***

Takeo Sato looked at the darkened house. The lady went up to the door, a pale ghost in the waning light of the day. He knew that his enemy was around, watching the place as he was.

He knew he only had two choices now.

He could go and introduce himself and ask questions about the swordsman and his interest in the woman. That didn’t seem bright to him.

The other choice was to wait and be ready for something to happen.

That didn’t seem a good solution to him either.

The man’s ability to teleport through that rotten blackness he called allowed him access to the house which Sato could only match if he was prepared to blast his way inside.

Sato was prepared to do that, but only with cause.

Something shifted in the shadowy light. It was big, furry white, with ram-like horns. It moved, vanishing in the shadow cast by the porch’s eaves. It seemed to freeze in place, becoming invisible.

Still its appearance on the scene told the hero enough about the woman he had followed from the train.

He cursed himself for not recognizing the Snow Woman.

Rising Sun’s enemy had appeared on the national news several times threatening the country.

***

Sato changed, placing his normal clothes in a bundle under some bushes. He pulled his mask down over his face with a frown. He wondered when the swordsman would strike and how.

He was not disappointed as the shrouding darkness took on shape and substance and cut the oni guard down before it could react to the intrusion. The swordsman sliced his way through the door easily.

Sato waited before he approached the broken wood. After all there could be more oni lurking in the trees. He stepped inside the house slowly. He was feeling a moment of dread.

What was he getting himself into, he wondered as he followed the sound of cutting from beyond the paper walls on the inside of the house.

Who was he helping here?

These two, or himself and the mystery of his return.

They stood at the bedside of an old man, one to each side. The man was wired to monitors to prolong his already long life. Sato stood at the door, unnoticed by the threesome.

“So sister, we finally have a chance to talk without a partition between us,” he said, quietly.

“What do you want?” the Snow Woman asked. “I believe that our business can be taken outside away from Father.”

“Do you now?” the Swordsman asked, raising one of his swords.

“Don’t,” cried his sister, raising her hand, summoning cold to her side.

A bolt of fire cut across the room drawing their attention to the door.

“I agree with the lady,” said Sunburst. “Let’s take this outside.”

The two of them smiled at the hero.

“Let’s,” said the swordsman, sending a wave of darkness across the room.

Sunburst leaped in the air, heading for a nearby window. He burst through the glass with a laugh.

“Let’s,” the siblings heard mockingly.

“This isn’t over between us,” the Snow Woman warned her brother.

“It will be,” said the Swordsman, stepping into dark air.

Sunburst hovered above the house. He felt his energy dropping, knew he had to seize the offensive against his two foes. He should not have issued a challenge until the sun had risen.

Now it was time to pay the price for his mistake.

The Swordsman appeared, hurling blackness at the hero. Sunburst let the fluid kill the trees as it fell back to earth. He circled, wary of the Snow Woman’s allies and ice powers.

Beams of cold swept through the sky, trying to catch Sunburst off-guard. He looped over it, firing a blast at the Swordsman to keep the man off-balance. The man leaped out of the way, creating a shield from the substance he unleashed.

Sato frowned, trying to come up with a tactic that would work against these two with his dwindling reserve of power.

Sunburst headed straight up. He summoned all of his remaining power into his hands as he accelerated straight down. His hands glowed as he took aim at the house.

“Father!” shouted the Snow Woman, creating a shield in front of the place.

Sunburst unleashed a narrow beam, shattering the shield, throwing dirt and grass from the ground. The blast wrapped around the villainess, knocking the woman against the wall of the intact building. She slipped down, eyes rolling back in her head.

The Swordsman created a hole to throw himself against the hero. Both men went down. The brother leaped to his feet first, swinging both blades up to strike. Sato took aim, releasing his energy all at once into his opponent. Smoke filled the air as something snapped inside Sunburst’s chest.

Sato dragged himself to the base of a tree, light leaking from his chest. He closed his eyes, feeling tired and worn down. He felt a cold chill as everything went black once more.

Later, when Dr. Light arrived, she found the Snow Woman still laying against the house. The swords of Morimoto stuck in the ground point first, their bearer laying between them, pale in death as he was in life. Sunburst lay against a tree, a hole melted in his chest.

Dr. Light gritted her teeth and held back tears. She would be able to cry later. Now she still had a job to do until Inspector Hiro and his men arrived to take over for her.

Epilogue

“Here you go, Guvner,” said the blond man, smoking a cigarette, holding out a cylindrical device. It hummed in his hand, and he was glad to give it up. “I brought it back before the coppers could find it. Fair messy business, too, cutting it out of Sunburst’s chest.”

“I imagine,” said the man in white quietly. He put the thing on his desk gently. “You’re free to go, Constantine.”

“So we’re even,” said John Constantine. “I don’t owe you another thing for saving my life.”

“You’ll have to talk to my accountant,” said Baron Winters, waving at the leopard that watched them by the burning fire. “After all how important is a life in the grand scheme of reality and so forth. I’ll give you a call if I need to use you again.”

“Don’t push on me, Winters,” said Constantine. “I have a life, you know.”

“You should have thought about that before you decided to barter what you owe to me,” said Winters coldly. “Merlin will see you out. Good day, lout.”

Baron Winters picked up the engine and walked from the office.

“I know my way,” Constantine said to the big cat. “What I don’t know is what you see in that cantankerous bottom feeder.”

The cat snuffled slightly.

“Better you than me,” Constantine said, stepping across the threshold into the real world, thankful not to be a pawn in a game where no one knows who’s moving the pieces.

He would never lead a night force no matter what he owed.