Cloak & DaggerLocation: Somewhere in Upstate New York
Time: Dusk
As Tandy Bowen walked along the dirt road, she kept her head down examining the clothes she had chosen, a pair of white tennis shoes with an atypical blue jeans, white shirt combination and a deerskin jacket with tufts of fur sticking out of the various seams with had a heavy wool hood attached. Her and Linc had been forced to ditch their old life and figured it'd be best to buy sensible things for their type of lifestyle now. The larger boy behind her had a pair of black hiking boots reaching up to his ankle which was stuffed with the heavy gray cargo pants that sagged around his rather frail form. He opted for a heavy black leather jacket on top a blue-gray hoodie and much like Tandy kept his eyes cast down towards the road silently. The land was been held in a freezing downpour for a while now and by the looks of the sky it had to have been almost two days as the sun was clearly beginning its descent allowing the clouds to become an even darker shade of grey.
"We should probably set up another camp Lincoln." she called behind her, barely able to identify what seemed like a grunt in agreement. She stopped in her tracks and looked around feeling the water soaking into her socks some more. The trees around them made it impossible to see anything and she was clueless where to set up a camp, luckily Lincoln was a little smarter and at least knew where not to put one. She turned to face him and saw his frame already shuffling through the hedges that lined the lonely track people called a road.
Lincoln walked ahead of the pair heading up the hill which lined the road, his grandfather had told him a few things about building a house as the man was a seasoned carpenter uneducated formally and unable to read or write. The man had other talents, he could do any kind of math in his head and was able to eye within centimeters of something. He would often take Lincoln with him on his jobs, showing him a little of carpentry and general wisdom. Lincoln had only been a small child during his grandfather's final years but the man's words always rung in his ears. Walking up the hill where the ground began to get steep he mumbled to himself something his grandfather mentioned
"The house at the top of the hill has a leaky roof and one at the bottom got a flooded basement, always." Lincoln marched up more pondering the phrase trying to make sense of it. Mid-way up the hill he found a large formation of rocks stacking together to form a small out cove, almost like a cave which allowed a bit of the soil to retain its shape leaving a small flat section of land in front of the cave's mouth. Smiling to himself as the rain only got worse he dropped the toothy grin quickly before turning back to Tandy.
"You still got the bottle of Tiki torch fluid stuff in your bag?" she nodded and unhooked one loop from she shoulder of the bag, fumbling with it as the pair came up to their new campsite.
Lincoln had grabbed a branch and used it as a broom to sweep out the little cave which was full of dirt and branches, which managed to stay dry in the torrential downpour. Using the highly flammable fluid and the dry branches they were able to start a large enough fire directly in the protection of the rocks at the front of their cave heating up the place nicely. The two sat inside the out cove and watched from the cover as the area fell into pitch blackness.
"So what's the actual plan? Do you have one or when you convinced me of being heroes did you just believe it would pan out." his voice held a bit of an edge, contempt.
Tandy's eyes narrowed a bit and she spoke with nothing but confidence as always
"Nah, I got a plan. We're gonna start small but get big fast. We're going somewhere nobody has and we're gonna fix it." Lincoln dropped his hood for the first time trying to think of where they were going before he gave up and raised an eyebrow at her.
"Detroit." She smiled looking over to him warmly,
"Now stop being a dick and let's just sleep early so we can continue on, alright?" Lincoln rolled his eyes and laid down away from her using his bag as a pillow allowing the large fire to warm him. Quickly his eyes closed and he was out, always one to find sleep easily having grown up in New York's ghetto where the loud noises of people in the night could keep another awake.
The next morning Tandy woke up first, watching the charred remains on their fire be blown across the muddy ground before them. The rain seemed to stop sometime in the night giving her a small bit of hope. She soon awoke Lincoln and the two shared a quiet breakfast of granola bars and jerky. When the pair began to set up for their departure, Lincoln stopped and looked at Tandy before speaking with the same quiet voice he always had
"We really going to Detroit? I heard ever since people began this kinda.. stuff things got even worse. Are you sure this is a good idea?" Tandy didn't bother to face him when she answered
"Look you don't have to come, if you think its that bad don't go. But if you wanna go, let's go." Without anymore, she walked off down the hill and continued northwest towards what she figured would be the next destination for them, Niagara Falls. It was situated somewhere between Detroit and New York, she knew that but she didn't know where. Tandy figured by the time she got close enough to it, the people promoting the place would point her right to them and from there she could find a taxi or ferry to get to Detroit.
As they continued their long trek, Tandy was often left with long periods of time between their small conversations to think and attempt to form some plan for when they get there. All too often she forgot Linc was only sixteen, the kid didn't even graduate high school compared to Tandy who was already nineteen although still young she managed to graduate school and set up a life. She looked over her shoulder at the boy, he was taller than most grown men and had a build to match but his face showed his true age as did his attitude. He walked with his pants slightly baggy and his feet shuffling occasionally scuffing the ground with the sole of his shoe because he walked so lax.
"Stop that." Tandy said firmly once she heard him do it again, causing Lincoln to stop confused and look up from the ground. For the first time in a while he actually seemed to look her in the eyes.
"What did I do?" he pleaded with his eyes as he spoke, causing Tandy to break eye contact and speak softer
"Just stop walking that way, pick up your feet when you walk." She paused for a moment, regaining her confidence and locking his eyes once more
"And pull your damn pants up, you're not some hood-rat punk anymore." She turned and continued to walk, listening to the sound of Lincoln adjusting his pants causing a brief smile to form.
They continued to walk some more before the first sign appeared ahead reading "
50 Miles till Niagara Falls". Tandy pointed towards it and called behind her
"That's where we're going first. We can stay there for a night and then try to find a boat or train maybe to help us get there. You okay with that?" Lincoln remained quiet, causing Tandy to look over her shoulder and speak once more
"What's wrong?""I just dunno about this Detroit thing, I heard some really bad shi- stuff with it." he knew Tandy hated cursing unless it was absolutely necessary, she often called it barbaric to abuse such harsh words for very mediocre things.
"Most of these super-bad-evil-power guys seem to thrive in locations where heroes already have established. Detroit's scene has nobody I know of. I mean maybe they got a few small timers but.." he paused for a moment stopping as they walked.
"I just dunno, you know?"Tandy stopped as well but didn't bother to face him, she just looked up and saw the clouds had gathered overhead. They must've only been in the eye of the storm she figured before replying.
"Yeah well all I know is that city has some of the highest crime rates and nobody seems to care, well I do. Don't you think it's a bit strange we both had these powers? You don't find it like possible at all this could be fate?" "I guess." Linc sighed, he wasn't one to think of destiny or fate or God, none of that stuff. All he did was continue to trudge forward ahead of Tandy for once, soon it would be time for them to set up camp for some rest and then by the next night hopefully they would be in Niagara falls.