Darknight-Focused 3rd Person POV

[Third person P.O.V. detected]

[Darknight focus detected]

Darknight, Darkling, Dove, and Jay sneak out of the S.O.S. building. They don’t need to, but they don’t want anyone to know where they’re going.

“Hurry up,” Darknight insisted, herding the rest of them into the woods.

“It’s 7:10,” Jay protested.

“I know. We have three minutes,” he replied, frustrated. She should have figured it out by now. Sighing, Darknight entered the woods, with the rest of the group in tow. They’d get it eventually. Deep in the woods, Darknight stopped suddenly. This is the place. Peri was nowhere to be seen, but she’d be there. Two minutes. One. Zero.

Peri stepped out of the trees with a crooked smile on her face. “Wow, I’m surprised you figured it out.”

“They didn’t,” Darknight corrected, gesturing to a confused Darkling, Dove, and Jay. “Anyway, what are we here for?” He looked around the small clearing. It seemed familiar somehow, but Darknight couldn’t worry about that now. “What did you want to tell us?”

“I convinced Swift to help me stop the leader of S.W.O.R.D’s plans,” Peri replied. “She’s probably getting others to jump on the bandwagon as we speak.”

“Yes, but what is your plan?” Dove asked, suspicious. “Do you even have a plan?”

“No.”

“το ήξερα,” Darknight muttered in Greek. Why does she call us here if she doesn’t have a plan? That’s kind of stupid.

“We’re winging it.” Peri’s smile cracked even wider. Then she shot up into the sky.

“Winging it. HA!” Dove laughed, then he grew his own wings and flew up to follow his sister. Darknight watched them a moment. Just like their mother. Then he gathered his darkness and rose up into the air. Darkling did the same, bringing Jay with him. Pretty soon, they were all in the air. As quickly as she had shot up into the sky, Peri power-flew toward the S.W.O.R.D base and stooped towards the entrance. A whole group of heroes, young and old, veteran and new, were gathered there.

“Wow, nice turnout,” Darknight pointed out.

“I think they're staring at you,” Dove snickered. Darknight noticed that many of the young heroes were, in fact, watching him. He pulled his hood over his head, feeling a bit self-conscious. Jay smirked at that. All of them stepped up onto a DIY stage that some of the adults had put up for them.

“Heroes young and heroes old, welcome to the first official meeting of the-- ya know what, let's just get to the point,” Peri sighed. Darknight smiled. She looked about prepared as he was, which meant not at all.

Max stepped up. “S.W.O.R.D was founded to aid all people and the common good--”

“Then why is Darknight here?” A voice interrupted from the crowd.

“That’s my dad you’re talking about,” Peri replied lightly, looking around for the offending hero. The crowd gasped. “I’m sure you already knew that.” Darknight heard whispers of “What?” and “Is this a joke?” from the crowd.

“Everyone, calm down!” a new voice called out. It was Swift. “The leader or S.W.O.R.D killed the Eagle.” More murmurs erupted throughout the crowd. Darknight saw many of them were looking at him now, more than before.

“The Eagle was killed because slight suspicions she had ties with Darknight,” Spar piped up. “Even though he hadn’t really started his villain career.”

“Objection!” Darkling shouted, making everyone laugh. “Darknight started his villain career the day he was born!” More laughs.

“Anyway,” Max continued, annoyed, “Darknight didn’t kill the new S.W.O.R.D leader after Greg Linn died.”

“It was S.W.O.R.D’s current leader,” Peri said. “Think about it. Swift showed you the doc about his proposal for the future. He wants to mindwipe potential heroes and make an army to take out every evil organization.”

“That sounds better than you think it is, though,” a new voice said. It was gravelly and low. A few people gasped.

“Everyone’s broken,” Wilson continued. “The only thing that makes us good or evil is how we deal with our brokenness. These ‘villains’ didn’t know how to deal with their brokenness, so they did bad things. Darknight’s done some pretty stupid things because he’s broken.”

“Hey!” Darknight protested. “Also, I thought you couldn’t speak English.” How annoying, he thought.

“Ko ko m kyang,” Wilson replied. [Burmese for I don’t]

“Wait, what? Then how is everyone… well, me at least, understanding you as if you are speaking English? You guys can understand him, right?” Darknight asks the crowd.

“The first part, yeah,” a teenage hero replied. “Not the Burmese part though.”

Wilson beamed in satisfaction.

“Well? Are you going to explain? Because I’m a bit riled up now and if we don’t do something soon, I might injure you,” Darknight warned. Everyone noticed the knife under his cloak.

Peri waved him off dismissively. “You guys in?”

There was a long pause. Darknight tapped his foot impatiently, but finally, Swift slowly stood up. “I’m in.” After that, there was a flurry of movement as others stood up and joined the growing group.

“Wonderful! Let’s get going then,” Darknight said when the whole group was on their feet. “Because I need to kill something.” He pauses. “Don’t get in my way,” he adds as an afterthought.

Peri stopped him. “I think the battle’s coming to us.” She was glancing around nervously, tilting her head back and forth. Darknight looked around too, but he couldn’t see anything. Dove cocked his head.

“Shut it!” He told the crowd, who immediately quieted. He turned one way, then the other, like he’d heard something. Then he sprouted his wings and launched into the air. Pulling out his dagger, he slashed at something in a high window. A figure lunged back from the window with a cry of surprise, then pain as the dagger found its mark. Dove grabbed the figure and flung him out the window. Peri had unsheathed her macesaber and was watching the front door tensely. “Any moment now…” she was muttering. Most of the crowd had brought weapons with them and were now ready for a fight.

Darknight watched the official as he fell from the window. He stretched out a hand and stopped him before he hit the ground. The official soon found himself covered in tendrils of darkness that began to consume him. The official cried out again as the tendrils consumed him. Then the mass of blackness fell away and the official was gone. “That was exhilarating,” Darknight commented as Dove landed beside him.

“Here it comes!” Peri shouted. Suddenly a throng of officials burst out the door.

“CHARGE!” Dove yelled, and the rebellious heroes ran to meet the officials in the middle of the courtyard. Bloody chaos ensued.

Peri and the rest of the Dirthawkers had disappeared around a corner of the building. Where are they going? Darknight wondered, but soon he was swept up in the tide of battle, and couldn’t worry about it. Instead, he reveled at the power of sheer force of will as the heroes slowly overcame the larger number of armed officials.