Cloak & Dagger

Tandy Bowen stood at the doorway of her mother’s mansion, a sight she had viewed so many times before. She looked around in uncertainty searching for a friendly face. All she could see were maids scattered around; No friendly faces no, kind words, no anything. Of course Tandy was used to this.
Tandy Bowen had grown up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, the daughter of a multimillionaire and his trophy supermodel wife. When she was young her father abandoned the family, and her mother was too busy with her career and social life to pay much attention to Tandy. Even her best friend forgot about her as soon as she went to college. All of this left Tandy feeling very alone.
Tyler Johnson had a very different background. Born and raised in the slums of south Boston, Massachusetts. He was born with a speech impediment; a terrible stutter which prevented him to say the words that could have saved his best friend’s life. Tyler found himself carrying all the blame. Tyler felt the hunger of emptiness, and found nothing to console his pain and agony in Boston.
Tyler Johnson walked with his head down facing the ground feeling lower than the earth beneath his feet. Suddenly Tyler heard the snickering of a young boy. He looked up thinking the boy was laughing at him. The child was not amused by Tyler, but by a small dog he was playing with. Tyler longed to feel amused again. He longed to feel anything but the sorrow he was facing. Tyler slowly lowered his head once again. Little did he know, this would be the last time he’d be doing so.
Tandy Bowen was tired of being ignored. She wanted something different in life than what she was living with. The lonely teenager boarded a bus and fled to New York.
Tyler Johnson’s emptiness could not be nourished in Boston. Tyler fled to New York with his head held higher than he ever imagined possible.
Shortly after arriving in New York, Tandy was exposed to a purse snatcher. Scared and alone she could do nothing but scream for help. She couldn’t let herself let go of the purse. She struggled for what seemed like ages, until her arms gave out. The bandit made off with the purse. Tandy raced after him as fast as she could. What seemed like hours of running came to an end when a boy who looked not older than Tandy had brought the purse snatcher to a halt. He took her purse from the thief and handed it back to Tandy. With a sigh of relief Tandy thanked the stranger. “Thank you so much! Is there anything I could do for you?” asked Tandy.
“N-no n-n-need. I j-j-just d-did w-w-w-what any oth-other p-p-person w-w-would do. B-but c-c-can you h-h-help me f-f-f-find sh-sh-shelter? I’m n-new.” Stuttered the stranger.
“I’m new too. My name’s Tandy. Tandy Bowen,” Answered Tandy.
“I’m T-tyler J-johns-s-son.” The two teenage runaways started talking, and before they knew it the two were fast friends.
As they were walking around and sightseeing, a strange man approached them. Before they could even attempt to stop the odd man, they were thrown into a bus headed for an unknown location. Tyler and Tandy were very frightened and didn’t know what to do. They were tied up in the back of a truck headed to what could be their doom. They felt hopeless and alone. Scared and sad. Suddenly the truck came to an abrupt stop. Confused, alone, horrified, and shaken. The two had arrived to what could mean their death. As they were let out of the truck and forced towards a door, nothing but horrid thoughts could go through their heads. They walked inside and were a little bit relieved.
Inside they saw other teens. They all looked about the same age as Tyler and Tandy. The others also looked confused. “Where are we? Why are we here?” Tandy asked a girl who was standing next to her. The girl shook her head. She was as confused as Tandy.
A few more minutes passed and a few more people were brought to the strange facility. All of them said to have been kidnapped and brought here with no clue as to what was going to happen next. Their captors were unknown, their location was unknown, and worst of all their futures were unknown. Tyler and Tandy stood in fear when suddenly a booming voice began to speak, “I am terribly sorry for the disturbance in your lives, but let me assure you, you were taken here for a very important reason, do not be alarmed but, you will be the first people in the universe to be injected with the a vaccination to prevent one of the most horrible diseases… cancer,” The second the man said cancer people started to speak. Tyler and Tandy felt alarmed yet in a sense relieved. “Please form a line against the wall nearest to the southern exit” people ran to the wall and stood in a very long and noisy line. Tyler and Tandy stood next to each other.
“This is really great. I wonder which cancer we’re curing. But either way it’ll be beneficial,” said Tandy excitedly. Tyler just nodded in agreement. “So where are you from?” asked Tandy.
“B-b-Boston, a-and you?” asked Tyler.
“ I’m from…” Tandy paused for a moment to think about her answer. If she said Shaker Heights, Ohio, Tyler might recognize her and her extremely famous family and take her for a spoiled rich girl. “ New Jersey.”
“C-cool, I-I-I’ve n-n-never b-been th-th-their,” said Tyler. “W-w-where d-did-d you g-go to s-s-school-l?” asked Tyler. Tandy couldn’t answer this one as the thought of her mother…
“No one can get a good education in the states.” Echoed her mother’s voice in her head.
“I go to public school.” She answered quickly. Tyler nodded his head knowingly.
The two teenagers stood in line for what seemed like hours. Exhausted and fearful Tandy’s turn had arrived. As a tall man injected her arm with a very large syringe, she felt very lightheaded and couldn’t think straight until finally she collapsed onto the nearest chair. Next it was Tyler’s turn. The antidote made him feel just like Tandy. He carefully dragged himself onto the chair next to Tandy’s. “I’m so tired I can barely speak,” Tandy said weakly. Tyler nodded his head in agreement. They looked around to see if the antidote had the same effect on everyone else. What they saw shocked them. Everybody except them was bouncing off the walls. Tandy, too exhausted to care shrugged her shoulders and slumped back into her seat. Without warning a loud explosion occurred. People simultaneously screamed at the noise, nothing was damaged but people froze as to be obeying the loud noise that seemed to be coming from a room no one seemed to have noticed. Tyler wagged his finger at Tandy motioning her to follow him. They slowly walked towards the strange door, eager looks on their faces.
“What if it malfunctions? We will be responsible for the deaths of thousands of more people!” yelled one man.
“It shall not. And even if it does, we shall develop another antidote,” said the same voice who had informed them that they would be vaccinated with the cure to cancer, “a better one. You all know who I am and I know it is possible. I am Simon Marshall! One of the worlds leading scientists! Do you not trust me?”
“Yeah, yeah I trust you. But the real question is what if they find out what the stuff they’re being injected with really is? Then we’ll be in dire jeopardy!” said another man.
“How will they ever know that this stuff,” whispered another man “is nothing but a cheap heroine substitute?” Tandy and Tyler slowly backed away from the door. Tandy opened her mouth to speak, but decided against it realizing there was nothing to say, and nothing to do. the damage had already been done. They could do nothing but look at each other, too frightened to speak. Tandy stood their wishing that this day was all a dream, that she had not just witnessed what she had, when suddenly -KABLAM!- there was another explosion, only much, much bigger than the last.
Everything was everywhere! There were brightly colored flames all around, pieces of everything were all over the place, and worst of all people. People were lying on the floor, dead. It wasn’t just a few people either, it was everybody.
Tyler grabbed Tandy’s hand and led her out of the extreme heat. He led her out of the flaming building. He led her out of the nightmarish place where they had experienced their worst day ever. “L-let’s g-g-go!” he shouted in an unbelievably loud voice.
When they ran out they saw the same men who were speaking earlier , they had survived the explosion, was it because they hadn’t taken the antidote? That wouldn’t make sense; Tyler and Tandy had taken in too! The men had hopped onto a similar van that had brought Tyler and Tandy their, only this one was much bigger. Quickly Tandy jumped onto the large truck and climbed into the, remarkably, open trunk. Without hesitation Tyler quickly followed her into the truck.
In the truck there was nothing but a raggedy old quilt. The two teenagers wrapped themselves in the old quilt and soon fell asleep.
Tyler woke up a while later; he wasn’t at all tired anymore. He just felt unbelievably empty. He had never felt this empty. It was oddly different, a feeling he hadn’t experienced before. When he stood up he looked down at the shock of his life! He had a large black hole in place of his stomach! Without thinking he stuck his hand near the darkness and it was enveloped by the hole! He pulled it out quickly and stared at it. It was the same as before. “Tandy Tan-” his eyes widened in disbelief, his stutter was nonexistent! Gone! Tandy slowly started to awaken.
“What?” she asked tiredly. As her eyes opened slowly she screamed, “What in the world is that?” she pointed at Tyler’s stomach, and out of her finger tip came a ray of light!
“OW! You shocked me- Oh my God you shocked me!” Tandy’s mouth dropped open.
“Your stutter is gone!” she yelled.
“I know, isn’t it amazing? You can shoot light daggers out of your finger tips, I have this black thing in place of my stomach, and my stutter is gone!” Tyler shouted.
“The heroine must’ve caused this! But here is one thing I cannot figure out, why us, why didn’t anyone else get these powers?” said Tandy.
“I don’t know, maybe it was something in our body chemistry that made us different, or it’s just pure dumb luck. Either way I don’t know what to think.”
“I completely agree with you. I think we should get revenge on Simon Marshal for doing this to us.” said Tandy enthusiastically.
“I don’t believe in revenge, but in this case, I’ll make an exception. But first I want to figure out what this thing does!” said Tyler as he pointed at his stomach.
“Tyler, I think you should quiet down because Simon Marshall and his men are in the front of this truck!” whispered Tandy. “And any way, I have to see something.” Before Tyler could ask what it was she wanted to see she was headed towards the black hole. She stood near it and as she inched closer, she was swallowed by the darkness!
Inside she saw nothing at first, but slowly images began to appear. She saw herself and her mother a few months back, “Tandy! Dancing is not a proper occupation!” shouted her mother.
“But it’s my dream! Normal people have jobs, mother!” Tandy shouted back. It was like watching one of her memories except very clear. She stared at herself in amazement.
“Oh, Tandy, you disappoint me so! You don’t need a job, let alone to be normal, you aren’t normal, you are a Bowen, you are part of one of the richest families in the United States! You shouldn’t concern yourself with problems you don’t have!” Tandy remembered this all too well as the moment her dreams were crushed, the moment she decided to run away, the moment she stopped caring. Tandy squirmed around searching for an exit until finally, she grabbed onto something and yanked herself out.
“Ow, that’s my chin!” shouted Tyler.
“Oh my, it seems you have some sort of dark dimension in their!” she exclained. Without a word Tyler grabbed a hold of the quilt and wrapped it around himself. “it looks like a cape.”
“A cloak,” Answered Tyler. “We will get back at Simon Marshall using these abilities he gave us,” he stated proudly.
“How are we going to do this?” she asked.
“I’m pretty sure it’s dark out by now, once this thing stops we attack,” He answered.
“But what if someone recognizes us? Wait! Wait, I know! We’ll use costumes! I have a dance suit I can wear under these clothes and you’ll use the quilt or cloak or whatever,” She said excitedly.
“Yeah, yeah that’ll work. I need to go practice somehow,” answered Tyler.
“Hey, I know!” said Tandy, “I’ll shoot into your cloak! Good target practice!” she said even more excitedly.
“Sure, go ahead.” Replied Tyler. Tandy pointed her fingers, thought about the light daggers, and out they came! One by one, two by two, even seven by seven! She could mentally control the speed and strength of the daggers!
Tyler felt a strange bond between the quilt, “Tandy is there something wrong with the cloak?” as her head turned her eyes widened in disbelief.
“The whole inside of your cloak, it’s another dimension! It sort of absorbed the cloak… it’s now the entry to your dimension!” Tyler looked down and saw that the hole had gotten a lot bigger. Tyler tried to pull off the cloak immediately. It didn’t work. He tried again and again, no luck.
“It won’t budge! I’m stuck to this thing for good!” shouted Tyler angrily.
“Put the hood on,” replied Tandy. Tyler did just that and he was in the dark empty dimension. It wasn’t empty for long, he saw a repeat of the scariest day of his life.
“Tyler! Go get help!” shouted his best friend who had just been shot. Tyler ran to get help, and when he arrived at the police office, he started to talk.
“M-m-m-my f-f-friend h-h-he…” he struggled to speak.
“Stop babbling! This is not a fun house! Get out punk!” shouted the man at the desk.
“B-b-b-but-“
“Get out!” roared the man, Tyler ran out to find his friend but when he returned he was dead. Tyler watched himself break into tears, and did the same thing again. He wanted to be anywhere but there. He imagined his home, his room perfectly, and when he lifted his hood, he was there. He was in his room. The cloak could teleport him places! He quickly put the hood back on and imagined himself back in the truck, and he was their.
“Where did you go? What was that all about?” asked Tandy angrily.
“I’m a teleporter!” Tandy expressed confusion, “I can-“
“Yeah, I know what it means but you can teleport places, anywhere?” asked Tandy.
“I teleported myself back home.” replied Tyler.
“That is so cool! You can teleport us to the front of the truck!” Tandy said happily.
“Great plan, let’s go now!” said Tyler. Tandy got into the oversized cloak, and a secong later they were facing Simon Marshal.
“Hey- who are you?” yelled Simon.
“Your worst nightmare,” said Tandy as she got out of the cloak wearing her dance suit. She wanted to shock him badly, punish him for all the agony and pain he had caused all those people. Out came the biggest light dagger she had ever produced! Simon Marshall was knocked unconscious and a man quickly came to his aid. Tandy jumped to the cloak and said, “Cloak and Dagger. Remember that name.” Tandy said beaming with pride.
That was the beginning of the rest of Tyler and Tandy’s lives. Over the months their powers increased. Tyler can now project his dark dimension letting it envelop anyone of anything he chooses. Tandy’s light daggers have been known to cure certain symptoms of drug addiction. Together Tyler and Tandy became Cloak and Dagger who grew to become two of the world’s greatest superheroes. They remain together forever due to the symbiotic nature of Cloak and Dagger’s powers. Their powers prevent them from ever going their separate ways. Dagger needs Cloak to get rid of any excess energy so she doesn’t overcharge. Cloak needs Dagger’s light daggers to satisfy the never ending hunger and emptiness created by his past and his extra dimensional void. Cloak and Dagger’s unbreakable bond is a symbol of the most amazing power of all, friendship.