Chapter 17 - Quartz Town

Quartz Town always wanted to be one of the big cities, but it's past would never allow it. Prior to the incident it was a hive of scum and villainy, otherwise known to it's residents as "Villain City".

After a while though, enough was enough for the rest of Aincar. Tensions were high following the status quo change, and one of their brilliant superheroes becoming a mass murderer in the eyes of the people and these same people were fed up. Why should they be the ones to suffer through all of this. The heroes step in and supposedly save the day, but that was never the case. Their ethics told them they couldn't finish the job, like so many of their citizens wanted them to , and they let villains go into the system and repeat the cycle. It had become a game to them.

In the years prior to the incident nobody in the wider world cared one way or the other what happened to this place, but it all changed with the incident. The new world order stepped in and shut it down. Over time every villain was found and given a choice. Be arrested and serve a life sentence with no hope of seeing the outside world or death.

Some people deemed this a dictatorship when the hunters moved in and made Quartz Town their primary base of operations, but they saw it as a necessary evil, and over time the atrocities were forgotten, and it started to become a bustling city with unlimited protection from the hunters.

Two of which were Roth and Kort, two hunters that in the days prior had failed to apprehend the former "Super" known as Sheerforce, and his currently unknown daughter. Their boss had given them an ultimatum. Find them within a month, or lose their powers. They had no resources. No backup. It was just them and their car.

"He didn't really mean that did he?" Kort is sat in the passenger seat of his and Roth's shared cruiser, looking out of the window towards the closest street corner and he focuses in on the man rounding the corner.

The man puts a finger to his ear and talks, "He really did Kort, we're on our own. Sort of."

"What are you trying to do anyway?"

"As you know, this isn't the first time this has happened to me. Last time I made it through by the skin of my teeth. After that I made sure that if it ever happened again, I would be better prepared."

Roth is still in his hunter issued burgundy and black suit, paired with a pair of black leather gloves, and some dark sunglasses folded up, and hooked onto the neck of his shirt. It has been years since he had some form of hair on top of his head, but on a hot day like today, he still feels the need to brush away his phantom hair. Quartz Town is where Roth was born. As a child he always believed he was the only hero in a world of villains, but that didn't last long. He can still feel the pain of his decades old wound on his chest from the days when he played hero.

He waits for the clock to hit 10:59am, and pulls a panel off the wall behind him, and waits for the 60 second timer to pass. This was just one of the layers of security he had added to the secure lockbox, the other being that it can only be accessed at 11:00am on the dot every day.

It was so important for Roth and Kort to have access to this lockbox, as it stored a backup PC drive with all his office files stored within, including the full profiles of Matthew Walker, and his daughter. He leans forward and pushes his green eyes towards a sensor, and lets a red beam of light scan the top of them.

As the clock hits 11:00am, the panel springs open to reveal a tablet hooked up to a hard drive. He takes the tablet and heads back towards the car. Sitting in the drivers seat, he passes the tablet to Kort, and Kort's robotic hand glistens in the sun as he takes it from him.

Kort is significantly younger than Roth, he is one of the few hunters that voluntarily got into the program. He couldn't have been much older than 15 when the incident took place, but that didn't matter, the day his powers came in, he turned himself in. He didn't want to be one of, them, as he put it, so he was offered a choice that not many others receive. Rot or join the Hunters.

From his current position it's clear which option he took.

"So what did we do all this for? You forget your tablet or something?"

"That, Kort, has all of our files on Sheerforce and his daughter. As well as some other useful information."

"How the hell did you get this?"

Kort places the tablet in the lap of his hunter issued navy and black suit, and his brown hair falls down from the swept back hairstyle he usually wears it in, and covers his eyes. Kort's eyes in particular were a special phenomenon. Some "Supers" had been known to fuse further with their powers, in a way that impacts their body. His manifested in yellow eyes to match the lightning that flows through him.

"You really have everything don't you Roth. God there's even some of my private files in here. That's a real breach of privacy you know"

"Like you care Kort. Now study it. Learn everything there is to know about the two of them. We've got a long trip ahead and not much time."

"Where are we going? Do you have a lead already?"

"Sort of, but we need to stop off with someone further into Quartz Town first."

Roth starts the engine and puts in a location to his satellite navigation system; Quartz Maximum Security Penitentiary.