Location Warehouse 34 (The Den)

This is an in-universe location thread.
Nat’s laughter pealed through the warehouse. He couldn’t help himself, first spurred by Todd’s ever increasing happiness and bubbled over with the addition of Sam’s buoyant insertion and offer of help. His head was thrown back, hand on his gut as the humor overtook him, laughing so hard tears came to his eyes well before he was sobered enough to wipe them away. He wasn’t even concerned with how oddly the adults might have been looking at him in that moment, he was too overcome.



”I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he said as he leaned onto one knee, wiping his eyes as he sucked in deep, calming breaths. ”It’s just… you’re both so experienced and yet.” Nat stifled a surge of more chuckles as he straightened. ”I would be more than happy to accept your help, Sam. I’ve only ever ridden a few dirt bikes when I was younger, so this will he new for me too.” Nat’s smile was still charged with what had caused his fit of laughter, and he cleared his throat to try and dislodge the remnants of it.



”But I don’t plan on getting my motorcycle license, or using my bike at all except as the Wolf. It may be a small doubt, but if I end up going to court for what we do here…” Nat motioned around the Den and the smile faded a touch. ”Well it could only help my case if the Wolf is seen zipping through the city on a bike that Nathaniel Amagiri couldn’t possibly be able to ride, right? Our justice system is based on the premise of reasonable doubt, after all.” Nat inclined his head, something of a respectful bow or some other acquiescence.



”I definitely want to learn how to ride properly and safely, but I don’t see any reason to make it legal when we are already committing far worse crimes.” The last giggle erupted before he could stop it. ”But it is awesome that you are both such upstanding, responsible adults.” Was he making fun of them, his mentor and a senior vigilante? Definitely, though it was clearly in good humor.
 
Todd looked up when Nat started to laugh. The kid clearly got a kick out of the two adults deciding to help him out. He smiled, too, the kid’s humor easily infecting him, although now his smile was more controlled, a little more relaxed. Not as tight, not as many teeth.

“Yes, we’ll add unlicensed driving of an unregistered vehicle to the list of crimes if you get caught.” He stepped away from the bikes specifically to ruffle the little twerp’s hair, still laughing. Then he sighed, and looked at Sam, more seriously. “A Class M license is a good idea for me, at least. I’ll be riding as myself, and I could use a Pennsylvania ID anyway now that I’ve got a permanent address. I’m still using my Ohio one. I figured I wasn’t going to change it until it expired, since I wasn’t planning to stick around, but…”

But, same as the idea of getting his PI license, he suddenly had roots. Ties to people that held him in place like tethers to a dock. It’d been the same case in Columbus. All it took was one person to make him stay. All it took was losing that person– no. No, ‘losing’ was too generous to himself. He’d destroyed the last tether. Cut it… cut her down, with his own two hands. Columbus.

Then it hit him like a ton of bricks. Sam was from Columbus. Sam was a vigilante, from Columbus. Who’d come from Columbus in the last few months. There was no way Sam didn’t know about Summer Kelley, about the disappearance of a teenage vigilante named Breeze. If she asked Todd about Breeze –

He’d have to lie to her. That simple. And that was only if it ever came up. And God forbid Nat ever dug that deep. Even if he didn’t connect the dots, that’d be the last nail in the coffin for his opinion of Cryptid. And, eventually, Todd.

He needed to change focus. It’d only been a second since he’d trailed off, and he hoped his face hadn’t betrayed too much. He smiled brightly again, maybe with a few too many teeth.

“Guess it’s hard to bring up when I’ve got two good reasons to stick around here in the room with me, right?”
 
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Sam smiled at Nat as he laughed, unbothered. One of her eyebrows was raised, but she gave a small chuckle herself. His laughter was contagious. When he accepted her offer– when both of them did– it made a small bubble of happiness rise in Sam’s chest. She liked being useful to others. She liked being able to provide them with things, being able to do things for them like giving them motorcycle lessons.

Then, Todd spoke, and she paused. He had an Ohio license? But he had told her he had only passed through the state, through Columbus on his way from Billings to Pittsburgh. She furrowed her brow and couldn’t help the words as they slipped out. “You have an Ohio license, Todd? But you said you didn’t stay there long… Nevermind. I'm just glad you feel you have reasons to stick around. I'm going to go sit back down, I didn't mean to interrupt your nerdy moments.”

She smiled in a teasing way, took the few steps toward Todd that closed the distance, jumped up on her toes, and kissed his jawline. It wasn’t long, just a brush of her lips against his skin. Just enough to convey that she wasn’t upset about what was now bothering her. She stopped at the couch, crossing her arms, leaning against the arm of it, and watched.

There could be many reasons why he hadn’t told her the truth about being in Ohio for so long. There could be many reasons. Many reasons. She thought back to her first conversation with him. He hadn’t said anything then that denied being in Ohio for a while, so it had never pinged as being a lie. But now, now she wondered how much of what he had originally told her had been carefully curated truth.​
 
Nat’s laughter was met with grins, and though he had half expected a lecture from his mentor Todd seemed to agree that it was a small crime to add to a list of worse. He playfully batted at Todd’s hand as he tousled his hair, a grin to match his mentor’s showing he was being just as playful with his swat.



”That is so sweet,” Nat said in response to Todd’s words, or perhaps Sam’s display of affection. Despite what he said, though, the teen made a retching sound through his smile and cradled his stomach in mock sickness. ”You really should switch your license over, though. Between your job, your girlfriend, and your protégé I don’t think you’re going to be pulling up roots any time soon, and I would hate to have to bail you out of jail.” He would, of course. No matter what happened Todd had secured a special place with Nat. If he needed bail the boy would provide it with no questions asked. He would have done a lot more for him if the man would allow it, but Todd had a strange sense of independence that cropped up any time money became the subject.



”I have one more surprise for you, Todd, though you might be interested in this one as well.” Nat motioned for the adults to follow him as he walked over to the storage container. ”I finally got it open, and did a little work inside for good measure.” Before opening the door, hinges silent despite their supposed state of disrepair before, Nat gestured to Sam amiably.



”I know you said you wanted me to fix your hammer to show you what I can do, but this might work even better than that.” The door swung wide, as did Nat’s hand in a sweeping, grandiose gesture. ”Welcome to the Arsenal.”



Inside was remarkably clean, free of both dirt and dust as though Nat had spent an untold amount of time shining the interior to a mirror polish. Along the walls of the container were racks of weaponry, all types of swords and spears, clubs and knives and other assorted metal blades. Opposite the weapons Nat had displayed darts and projectiles of varying size and potency, meticulously laid out and organized immaculately. In the center two more sheets covered vaguely humanoid shapes, though Nat didn’t move toward the new mysteries immediately.



”I made all of this myself, you see.” It was clear he was speaking to Sam, demonstrating the detail he was capable of with the things he had already done. Todd would probably notice the absence of the steel beams that had littered the Den on the day they had met, and now had his answer to where the metal had gone. ”I can fix your hammer, don’t get me wrong, but I also have some hammers you might like better.” He had made them with Phoenix in mind, several of them bird themed with wings or beaks for decoration. ”Oh, I need the card back for a second too, if you don’t mind.”
 
Todd had noticed the disappearance of the steel beams in the warehouse, but he hadn’t expected… this. Then again, it fit in with the kid’s comic-book superhero vibe, so he shouldn’t be surprised. He actually wasn’t surprised, or at least, that wasn’t what held his attention with the shipping container. It was the amount of work that had clearly gone into it, the organization, the attention to detail. Sure, Nat could be a hotheaded kid. That sometimes made it hard to forget how meticulous he was, how detail-oriented.

He whistled low as he stepped in, leaving Nat and Sam in the doorway. He stepped past the rows of knives and blades and projectiles, investigator’s eyes lighting on the engraved steel blades and examining the details Nat had carved in, probably with his powers. He only paused when he came to a section of the wall that had a few pairs of clawed knucklebracers hanging.

Bagh nakh weren’t common weapons, but like much of Nat’s preferred arsenal, they were Asian in origin. Indian, specifically, rather than his usual Japanese. Tiger Claws in the wolf’s den. And Todd knew exactly where Nat had seen them before, why they probably clung to Nat’s memory. He knew it was a terrible idea, but he couldn’t help himself as he reached up and pulled a pair off the wall and slipped them on, flexing his fingers around them like they were ordinary knucklebracers. He turned them into the light so he could see the designs along the individual blades.

He used a few experimental punches – boxing punches, which Nat would know was his preferred method of self-defense – to gauge the weight of the claws. It meant bearing them very differently from how he wore them in the field. Which was for the very best.

His little weight-test would also hide how he was listening in to the conversation between Nat and Sam at the entrance of the storage unit.
 

Sam shrugged and joined the boys by the door of the storage container. When the door opened, her eyebrows went high. That was a lot of weaponry. She looked around the container and nodded slowly to herself. “That will do.”

Before she stepped anywhere near the entrance, she pulled out her wallet and flipped it open. From within one of the pockets for the cards, she pulled out the card engraved with the fiery bird she had taken her name from. She looked at it for a moment and then happily handed it over to Nat with a small smile.

She stepped into the Arsenal and started looking around. She spotted some kunai, a favorite weapon of Alice’s. She spotted a set of knives, each beautifully engraved with elaborate patterns. And then she saw the hammers. Sam turned an appreciative eye over them. She lifted the first one up and turned it over in her hands. Too light. She turned the next one over in her hands and lifted it with one hand, off to the side. Too heavy for one-handed use, not with accuracy.

She went through the series of hammers before she finally found one that was almost what she was looking for. Double-sided, weighing in the upper twenty-something pounds, and with a longer handle than any of the others. She lifted it in her hands and twirled it, passed it back and forth between them, caught it, and spun with it. It was the perfect weight, the perfect length, and it was perfectly balanced. There was just one problem.

“Nat, can you make one side of this… spiked? Like, for example, a meat tenderizer? You know, pyramid head spikes?” She walked toward him with the hammer. Already, she could feel it, like it was an extension of her own arm in the way that she could move with it. It was made entirely of steel, based on the weight, and that meant she wouldn’t be able to melt it or damage it that easily. Now, if Nat was just willing to make this one slight adjustment…​
 
For a moment Nat held the card in his hand, attention rapt to Todd as he perused the collection of steel weaponry. He lingered here and there, for the briefest of moments admiring the katakana or swirling patterns Nat had added on a whim to this blade or that. He didn’t realize he would feel so proud to have such things noticed, but every breath Todd took to appreciate Nat’s creativity curled the boy’s smile ever higher.



Until his mentor paused, wholly and fully, at the claws that served as a reminder. The patterns down the blades were like falling liquid, like blood on the tiger’s paw after a kill. It was slightly disturbing to Nat to see Todd pick them up with a glint in his eye; to see him strike at the air with his boxer’s jabs with shining steel between his fingers. It wasn’t that Todd’s movements reminded Nat of the last person he had seen with such weapons. The blades themselves were tainted with the memory, and Todd was becoming sullied by his attraction to them.



Nat shook the card in hand for a moment, slowly as if he were developing a Polaroid. His smiled had slipped as he tried to shake the foreboding feeling those claws had dug into him. Sam had gone straight to the hammers, more intentional than Todd had been attracted to the claws but with an echo of the same fervor. Nat found the feeling of pride wasn’t restricted to his mentor’s keen eye, and as she faultlessly selected one of the hammers he had specifically made to fit her stature the smile started to creep its way into the corners of his lips.



He took the hammer from her hands with barely a glance toward Todd’s practice, his discomfort less than a whisper in his expression. ”Like… a meat tenderizer?” Nat slipped the card back into Sam’s hand as he took the weapon fully, a slight furrow to his brow. ”I mean, yeah, but…” He still had that ill feeling, that something was off. ”I mean it’s deadly enough without it.” Was that the problem?



Nat set the hammer down, hand resting on its head as he balanced it on the butt of the handle. Sam was experienced, and her old hammer may have been simple but was no less deadly for it. Yet he had seen her use it so efficiently that even direct blows to the head hadn’t killed anyone. If she thought that the spikes would be more effective then he would trust her judgement. He would respect her experience.



”Watch this.”



The jovial grin had returned, and the metal beneath Nat’s hand began to ripple like the surface of a lake during a storm. Slowly Nat lifted his fingers one by one, with each digit pushing the hammer into a spin beneath his remaining fingers. By the time only his index finger remained touching the head of the hammer it was spinning wildly, the ripples upon its surface blurred with its velocity so that it was practically a silver blob.



Suddenly Nat’s other hand slapped down on one side of the hammer, driving its momentum down and the handle suddenly upward to smack into his waiting palm. It still spun in his hand as he hefted it into the other, the patterns originally etched into the head and haft coming into focus as it slid to a stop. The ripples slowed, and the hammer sported spikes upon the flat of one head nearly a quarter inch tall. In the center, where the smooth and the spiked head met, a stylized phoenix reflective of the one he had inscribed on the card was stamped prominently.



”Something like this?”
 

Sam accepted the card from Nat in exchange for the hammer. She slipped it quickly back into her wallet after a quick glance at it. She’d look at it properly when she had more time, and examine the changes that he had made. For now, she watched as he worked the hammer over in his hands, spinning it effortlessly. His excitement was contagious, and Sam found herself smiling as he finished.

The hammer now had the spiked side she’d been hoping for. When she took it back, she nodded and hummed appreciatively. She took a few steps back from Nat and spun it in her hands, twirling it like a baton, tossing it in the air, and catching it. She did a quick spin and then brought the spiked side down straight into the bottom of the shipping container they stood in. It clanged loudly, and when she lifted it up, there were dents in the perfect shape of the spikes, outlined by the square head of the main head. She gave a feral smile to Nat and in an excited voice she declared, “That’s perfect. That will break through stronger armor and shatter ballistics body armor without any trouble. This will work, kid. Good job.”

She chanced a glance toward Todd, watching him move with the claws like he didn’t use them almost every night. She almost wanted to laugh. It was cute. She turned her attention back to Nat and gave a nod to the rest of the artillery. “You’ve done some great work here. This is one of the best-balanced hammers I’ve held in a long time.”​
 
Sam’s test against the container rang loudly in Nat’s ears, but did nothing to diminish the wide grin on his face despite his slight wince. At her praise a rosy tinge brought warmth to his cheeks, and he rubbed at the back of his neck with a slightly nervous chuckle. He had meant to show off, sure, but Sam’s approval of his work elicited a disproportionate level of satisfaction that was unfamiliar.

”Really, it’s just my power.” He followed Sam’s glance toward Todd, a twinge of unease bringing his color to normal almost immediately. He tried to shake the discomfort the bagh nakh brought him in his mentor’s hands as he called out to him with a wave.

”Todd, come here! I’ve saved the best for last!” With a wide and dramatic swing of his arms he gestured to the sheet covered lumps nearby. Even though he could spend the rest of the night showing Sam and Todd all of his creations he couldn’t contain his excitement any longer.
 
Todd couldn’t help the glow of pride he felt listening to the conversation between Sammy and his protege. For a second – just a second – the distraction lent itself to a smoother combo of swipes and strikes. Then he caught himself, exhaled, and looked back just in time to see Nat wave. He smiled back, and slipped the claws from his fingers to hang them back up. The blood design wasn’t lost to him – nor was the balance, neat and comfortable. Or the fact that his claws were also steel.

More reasons to keep his identities far separated around Nat.

Shouldn’t be too hard, as long as he kept up the slightly hunched posture, as long as he stayed relaxed. He was just Todd to Nat. Almost human, avoiding fights. Not someone who’d be familiar with Indian claws or the kind of damage Sammy could inflict with that hammer.

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” he laughed. His hands went into his pockets as he stopped by the sheets, prepared for Nat’s last bit of showmanship for the evening, the question clear in his eyes for the overeager teen to answer when the time was right to get to it.
 
Nat’s hand was already holding the edge of the fabric by the time Todd made had replaced the claws and joined him. He was likely to destroy those things as soon as Todd left, replace them with something less disturbing. The unease had only dissipated by the time his mentor shoved his hands into his pockets with an expectant look, still nagging at him as though the Cryptid could appear from any shadow.

The fact that a sketch of that mask was on the other side of a thin sheet of metal from where the claws didn’t make it any better. His smile slid onto his face easily, though, laced with mischief as he dramatically grabbed the sheet with his other hand.

”I hope you’re ready for this.”

He didn’t wait for a reply before tearing the sheet away, revealing the armor he had designed both for himself and for Todd. It was clear they were made from the same materials, though Nat’s mask sat above the one with deep blacks and bold reds. The other, presumably Todd’s, seemed a bit small, perhaps half of the size of the Wolf Armor with muted greys and a powder blue that outlined the thickest portions around the chest and back. Wire frames held them in shape, mannequins clearly made using Nat’s ability.

Nat’s grin grew wider as he gave Todd a moment to consider the size of the armor, but spoke after a few seconds to explain what he had created.

”Both suits are made of kevlar plates with steel interwoven into the fabric with the help of my power. The result leaves us with half the weight and thickness with the same effect stopping power of medium to higher grade ballistic armor.” Nat motioned to Todd’s armor as he stepped closer to point out details.

”I know it looks like I made this for a twelve year old, but if you look between the joints you will see that I have an elasticized fabric that will not only stretch and move with you in your current form, but should account for any shifting you may do and still protect your vital organs well enough.” Nat hadn’t actually seen just how far Todd could alter his appearance, but he had worked under the premise that his power was limited to an average range of human dimensions.

Nat touched the base of the wire mannequin and it rippled, widening and lengthening each wire to demonstrate the flexibility of the suit, pushing it out to Todd’s current size and further to nearly twice that before Nat brought it back to its original shape.

”And yes, before you even say anything. I am well aware of the implication here. I wouldn’t call it a full concession, but I can’t keep learning from you and ignoring your experience at the same time.”
 
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Todd was distracted for a second by the unease from Nat. It was hard to miss, in the mostly-still warehouse, but he didn’t let it show. No flare of the nostrils, no pause in his movements. Just a little note made in the back of his mind.

But, in other words, he wasn’t ready for what the sheets hid.

The armor was actual superhero stuff. The Den, the Arsenal – even the Wolf himself were all just trappings, sure. But as far as Todd could tell, as he stepped up and ran his hand along the cold metal of the light-colored suit, these were real deal supersuits. Armored for close combat and small rounds, flexible for mobility. Some small part, some scrap of the Todd – of the Nick who’d heard Green Day and decided to become St. Jimmy’s devil, was close to bursting with glee.

Without his noticing, the smile – bare-toothed and sharp – had come back. There was glitter in his blue eyes, cold as moonlight on a frozen lake.

The armor was superhero stuff in other ways, too, though. It showed Nat’s growth over the last few months. The amount of clear thinking, mixed with the motor skills and control of his abilities, needed to craft something like this, and of this quality? Those were what brought that smile from something excited to something proud. He was proud of the kid, of his progress.

He could almost forget that the armor could stop him, if he ever needed to defend himself from Nat. Never quite – survival was ingrained too deeply into his soul. He also knew he’d never have the chance to use this for his own good, as Cryptid. But it would give him openings. Openings to actually work alongside Nat, to show him field work, to be in fights without the kid seeing his healing at work. He’d have to rely on his lies, on camouflage, and on Sam’s help.

But it wasn’t all lies. That was the part that mattered. There was enough truth, enough genuine appreciation, that the lies would get lost in the glow of pride.

“Nat, this is incredible.” Almost the same words as before. But where ‘awesome’ indicated gratitude, ‘incredible’ added a level of sincerity – a weight that reflected the pride in Todd’s eyes when he looked back at the kid and made himself stop smiling like a fool. “We’ll… work together with this, later on, but for now, this is– you put a lot of time and work into these, didn’t you? And you didn’t have to do one for me, but having one that lets me do what I do best…”

He sighed a little, letting the tension go, letting the smile fade, and before the kid thought he was too serious, he reached out and ruffled Nat’s hair. This wasn’t the time for advice or fancy words. That wasn’t right – that wasn’t them.

“Thanks, Cub Scout. You’re the man.”
 

Sam had spent another minute testing out the hammer. She’d given it a few twirls, tossed it around, and gotten herself to using it. It was perfectly balanced, just like she had told Nat. It was going to come in handy against any kind of body armor, or whatever God existed forbid, other metas. She’d met enough that could take a hit now that she felt the need to be better prepared.

Outside the container– the Armory– she could faintly feel Nat and Todd’s steps. When they stopped moving, she walked to the entrance and stuck her head out. After Nat unveiled the suits, she stepped completely out and leaned up against the container. She watched as Todd broke into a bright smile, and she smiled softly as she watched them. This was their moment, and she didn’t want to interrupt. Nat had made them something special. They didn’t need to know that she was watching them.

She tugged at the collar of her own suit, hidden as it was beneath the mock neck of her knit shirt. The collar of the shirt was just high enough to conceal it, but not high enough to prevent her from accessing it. The tug was thoughtful, not nervous. As she thought, she shifted the bag on her shoulder. Inside of it were still the broken pieces of her old hammer, which she had broken by superheating it and then cracking it over a steel beam. She turned back to one of the shelves where the hammers had been and took her backpack off.

While they talked, she emptied the pieces onto the shelf. She looked at the handle, wrapped in tape long since melted into the handle of the mostly metal hammer. The handle was wooden and charred almost to an unusable degree. Maybe Nat could use the metal to make something else. It was while she laid out the pieces that she thought.

Inside her backpack were the hoodie and leather jacket she wore over her suit, as well as the extra black Gore-tex pants she wore when she was planning on going into an actual fire. She paused, looking down at them, the pieces of her old, trusted hammer stored. Maybe… maybe she didn’t need the hoodie anymore? She’d stopped killing people. She had no plans to ever again, with the exception of Slate. Maybe she could earn back the right to wear the suit in public, fully visible. Maybe she could be known again.

She could never be Wildcat again. That wasn’t who she was anymore. But maybe Phoenix could be known. Maybe she could be a symbol of justice and protection the way Wildcat used to be. Maybe she could earn that honor.

With a small, sad smile, she put her backpack back over her shoulder and started back out of the container. She approached the guys just as they seemed to be wrapping up and nodded appreciatively. They really were good suits. She gave Nat a pat on the shoulder before taking her place at Todd’s side. She hesitantly reached for his hand, still worried about overwhelming him with how much she wanted to touch him.

“These are really good, Nat. Good job. All of this is really impressive. It’s clear you put a lot of time into this, kid.” When Sam said the word kid, it came out with warmth. It was clear it was a term of endearment and not one of dismissiveness. She genuinely believed that he would be able to do good in the world and that he would be an amazing vigilante. Maybe he’d even be a superhero one day, if they were ever legally allowed to operate. If anyone could do it, it would be Nat.​
 
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