Keira X White Owl: Of Owls and Angels (chapter 1)
By atfirstdawn

*Mature content warning
*© Keira Morrison/atfirstdawn
*©White0wlsuperheroine


You know those days where you’re just expecting something to happen, and you sit around waiting for it but then nothing happens at all and you feel like you’ve wasted a day?

Well, this was nothing like that…

It was almost as if the world was finally ready for a change, as if we had all woken up that morning sensing that something was going to happen. Of course, I have lots of days like that, being a superhero will do that to you; there is always the threat of a bomb or the kidnapping of an important daughter or an elaborate bank robbery to fund a doomsday machine and so on and so forth… but this was different. This was the day that the Final Prophecy came true.

From my high-rise apartment window I saw it all; I saw the clear night sky tear and rip apart, I saw the sun and the surrounding clear blue skies of another time hang over my city, framed by a fiery corona, a hole torn in the fabric of time and space leading to who knew where or when. And then I saw a masked woman with tanned skin, dressed in white falling from the unnatural hole in the sky…

With my Wonder costume still on my back after a long day of crime fighting, I jumped from my apartment window and flew towards the woman who had fallen from the anomaly. It took me no time at all to reach her and no effort to catch her during her free-fall; she was unconscious and unmoving in my arms as I flew across the waves to a location safer than my apartment.

Touching down within a dense shore-side forest, I laid the masked woman in white on the floor as I opened the hatch to a hidden bomb shelter, it was over 700 years old but it still did its job. I’ll admit that I was excited; my mind was already racing with the possibilities of who she was, what she could do, if she had any connection to the Final Prophecy and what it would all mean if she did.

With so many questions running through my mind, I did what anyone would have done with an unconscious masked woman who had fallen out of the day-lit sky at night; I gagged her and tied her to a bed.

The bomb shelter hidden within the shore-side forest was like my home away from home (and personal hording space). Whenever I’d confiscate a powerful weapon from a super villain or manage to struggle free from any perilous situation (usually involving ropes, chains and all manner of playful-yet-nasty gags) I’d bring them here, it had turned into quite an impressive armoury over the years but I hadn’t used any of it and nor did I intend to, all I wanted was to keep the dangerous toys that I had collected out of the reach of children; namely a host of super villains and the country’s government.
The bed was a permanent fixture though, a sturdy titanium frame built into the floor, kind of perfect for binding a mysterious unconscious masked woman to, the diamond shackles for her wrists and ankles helped too (I remember the last time I wore those, man what a day), while the gag I had used was just a simple and hopefully comfortable ball gag.

I did feel a little cruel, she wasn’t going to like me when she woke up, but I also didn’t want her to wake up and kick my ass just for being there…  

As she lay there bound, gagged and unconscious on the bed, I checked her body for any wounds that may have needed tending to. Physically she was fine, no superficial or internal damage (the internal damage checked for with the help of a fancy scanning gizmo). Really, there was nothing out of the ordinary about her, aside from the obvious. She was pretty too, as far as I could tell without taking off her mask (and the ball gag), she also looked like a veteran, her body was toned in all the right places in all the right ways and she still looked youthful despite being somewhat older than me...

Time passed slowly, I wanted to wake her up but knew that doing so wouldn’t be wise. Instead I passed the time by crouching down beside the bed and staring at her costume, trying to figure out which of the old gods she could be. Many heroes in the days of the gods had had animal motifs; panthers, wolves, canaries and hawks but she didn’t seem to fit with any of them, all I could really discern from her costume was a possible bird motif, she had the cape and her mask seemed to be streamlined for flying and aerial manoeuvres… but I wasn’t sure…

At that point in time I was too lost within my little reverie to realise that the masked woman in white had opened her eyes and was staring at me with a very angry expression.
I did a double take, shrieked and fell backwards, exiting her sight for just a moment while I picked myself back up.

“Oh, yay. You’re awake!” I said with a smile while righting myself from my fall “I’m so pleased to meet you! I’m Wonder Keira, well, today I am but sometimes I might be Super Keira or even Miss Keira. I know you’re not supposed to use your real identity in your super identity but I-”

“-Mphh! Mrrrnmm! Rmph nnnmmm!”

“Oh, I’m sorry! Don’t worry I’ll untie you! I don’t know what I was thinking! How could I tie up one of the old gods!? I’m so stupid, please forgive me, I didn’t mean to I just didn’t want you- oh my god now I’m straddling you, I’m sorry! I don’t mean anything by it please don’t hurt me when I untie you….”

As the last diamond shackle fell open from around the masked woman’s wrist I suddenly felt a vice-like grip around my throat and the sudden impact of the bomb shelter’s ceiling at my back of which she had pinned me to. (Score one for strength and the power of flight).

“Mrrph Mm--…Mmrrrr.“ Mumbled the masked woman as she realised and ripped away her gag “Who are you, where am I and how did I get here?!”  She barked in a vicious tone as her vice-like hand gripped my throat tighter.

“I… I dunno. You fell though… the sky and then I brought you here…! … I’m a… friend!!”

“Friend?! Do friends tie each other up and hold each other prisoner?! How could you possibly be a friend of mine?”

“Be… because…” with a swift kick I sent the masked woman to the far end of the bomb shelter while I fell on to the not-so-soft bed beneath me “… because I wasn’t going to hurt you!” I said as I picked myself up and caught my breath.

Standing up from the bed, I walked in to the centre of the room and faced the masked woman in white. I didn’t want to hurt her and if she chose to fight me I knew I probably wouldn’t win but I needed to show her that I meant no harm. I stood in the middle of the bomb shelter and waited for her to make the first move…

“… My name is White Owl.” She said after a tense moment’s silence.

“And I’m Wonder Keira, well, someti-”

“-You’re Keira, I know, I got that… So, trying again then; where am I?

“Umm… I think for you it’s a case of when…”  

White Owl looked at me with a half-blank-half-confused expression. I now had a story to tell and I didn’t know most of it…