Volume 2

Volume 2 is the second installment in the Anna storyline.

The second Volume will follow Anna as she deals with the fallout of her victory over Ravenger as well as how the city rebuilds itself from his invasion as well as the arrival of a girl who had been missing for two years and how she, Ravenger and a new threat are intertwined.

Chapters began releasing on December 6, 2017 and concluded on March 7, 2018.

Chapter 1: Into the Silent Night
Somewhere north of Alberta, Washington.

She rubbed her hands together as she paced around the six-by-six room, blue energy crackling between them as she pressed them. The girl’s long black hair was messy and wore a dirty gray gown that reached down to her feet, almost sweeping the floor around her.

Down the hallway she heard the sound of a guard’s feet coming towards her cell. She took a deep breath as he rapped on her door.

“Prisoner 091000, up against the wall,” the guard barked from outside the cell.

She did as she had been told every day since she had been taken here and faced the far wall and put her hands behind her head. The guard unlocked the door and swung it open before stepping inside and placing a tray of food on the floor.

As soon as he finished setting it down, she spun around and thrust her hands forward, blue energy shooting out and striking the guard. The energy threw him out of the room and into the concrete wall behind him, knocking him unconscious.

Wasting no time, she got up and ran over to the guard and pulled the keys out of his hand and ran down the hallway. She turned a corner and came to a glass door that led into a stairwell. The girl shoved the key into the lock and was onto the stairs in the blink of an eye.

Suddenly the lights turned red and sirens blared in her ears. Looking down the stairwell she saw dozens of guards running up towards her. Seeing no other way, she was forced to ascend to the roof. She came to the door for floor twenty and was about to enter when she saw several guards coming for her on the other side and began to climb the stairs again, higher and higher.

The door to the roof suddenly burst open and the girl ran out as she heard shouts coming from behind her. Using her abilities, she launched herself up onto one of the buildings on top of the roof as the guards burst out and saw her running across. They unholstered their guns and opened fire on her as she ducked down under the bullets before jumping off the other side of the building and running towards the other roof entrance.

“Stop! Or we will kill you!” they yelled as they continued their chase.

As she ran for the door, bullets whizzed past her, a few actually grazing her. In pain, she thrust her hand backwards and a wave of blue energy flew out and dissolved the bullets they made contact.

She threw open the door and ran back down into the building down the stairwell and onto floor twenty. Using the keys she had stolen from the guard who brought her her food, she unlocked it and ran down the hallway. Behind her she heard the guards storming down the stairs towards her.

The girl turned down another corridor and found a door in the middle of the hallway and quickly unlocked it and ran in before closing it again and locking it. Hearing their footsteps coming closer again, she used her powers to summon a chair from across the room and brought it to her and used it to barricade the door from the inside. It wouldn’t hold for long, but she didn’t need it for long.

She turned around and saw that the room’s far wall had a window that led directly to the outside.

Perfect.

Behind her she heard the door being unlocked and guards yelling as they couldn’t open the door because of the chair, but it was already loosening from its position and they would swarm in at any minute.

“Open this door! You’re not getting away!”

Taking a deep breath, she thrust her hands forward and the window shattered as the energy struck it and a breeze filled the room and blew her hair and gown around. She stepped to the end of the room and suddenly ran forward as the chair flew away from the door.

They flooded into the room just in time to see the girl dive out the shattered window.

As she fell through the air towards the ground, she felt the sense of freedom fill her. For the first time in three years, she was finally out of that horrible prison cell and she was free, even if she was now falling to the ground. She was still free.

Finally.

Using her strange abilities, she suspended herself in midair a few feet from the ground before she let herself hit the ground feet first.

She looked around and saw dozens of guards running towards her. The girl quickly bolted across the yard as bullets flew by. She was approaching a tall steel fence which was topped by barbed wire. Glancing behind herself, she thrust her hands downwards and energy blasted from her palms before she was launched into the air and well over the fence.

The girl landed and rolled to a stop, her messy gown getting torn as she rolled, but she didn’t care. She got up and ripped off the section below her knees, exposing her bare lower legs which were scraped, bruised and dirty.

Then she bolted for the woods that lay beyond the compound. She had never run so fast in her entire life. She only wished she had run this fast when she had first been abducted by these… monsters.

The woman crashed through the edge of the forest and into the road minutes later, her bare legs bearing new scratches and blood running down them.

Not that she cared. She looked up and down the road and knew that they were going to be coming down it any minute looking for her. She had to move.

Running across the road she looked over the railing and saw that it went right off a cliff. It led down into some more woods and then the woods gave way into a city.

Her city.

Suddenly down the road to her right she saw several armored vehicles speed down the highway towards her, their lights shining upon the girl.

Without hesitation, she leaped over the railing and fell down the cliff. As she neared the ground she readied her hands and they glowed with energy before she stopped herself feet from the ground with her strange ability.

Looking back up she saw the shine of the vehicle’s headlights going out over the edge while several of the guards looked down. Quickly she ran into the forest and disappeared from their sight.

Free.

She eventually made it into the city. As she walked through the streets, she felt the cold concrete under her bare feet. Passing them, people laughed or stared at her attire, but stopped when they noticed her scrapped and bruised legs.

“Are you okay, my dear?” one man asked as he stopped her.

“Yeah I’m fine,” she answered, shrugging him off.

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.”

She quickly moved past the man and walked on. The girl walked for several blocks before she was pulled into an alleyway as she passed it. She was thrown against a wall and saw that her attackers were three men with either bats or knives.

“Hey, a pretty girl like you shouldn’t be out here at night,” the lead one said. “Something might happen to you.”

Suddenly he thrust forward with his knife but she moved out of the way and used her powers to bend his arm, snapping it. He keeled over in pain while his comrades swung at her with their bats but she blocked with her abilities and kicked one in the stomach with her foot.

She grabbed one of their bats and swung it around and struck one of them in the face with it, knocking him to the ground with blood running from his cheek and mouth. The girl then swung it upwards and hit the other under the chin with it, launching him up and back down onto the street, unconscious.

The lead one got back up and lunged at her with his knife again but she spun out of the way and used her powers to slam him into the brick wall, knocking him out cold.

The girl looked around at her handiwork before swooping down and snatching his knife and examining it. It was a six-itch blade and was very sharp and had been polished recently. She looked around before running off down the alleyway.

She eventually made it to the rural area of the city of Alberta. It was where her family had resided for so many years, so many generations. Her family was one of the wealthiest in the state. Yet all that was stripped away two years ago.

The girl stopped dead in her tracks as she saw the gate to the estate forty feet ahead of her. The house was shrouded in the shadow of night, but she could see the shattered windows and broken walls. She wiped a tear from her eye before she walked forward.

She came up to the gates, which swung slightly in the breeze. The woman looked up at the family emblem at the top of the steel gateway before pushing them aside and walking up the driveway to her former home.

The girl reached the front door, which was opened ajar. She peered into the crack and saw only darkness. Taking a deep breath, she placed her hand on the large door and pushed. With a loud creak, it swung open inwards. The glow of the moon above cast an eerie light into the house beyond.

Inhaling through her nose, she stepped into the house. The living room was a mess, just as it had been for the past two years. Lamps were throw down and broken, chairs lay upturned and tables on their sides. Glass littered the ornate carpet that was spread across the room.

Quickly moving through the house, wiping yet more tears from her eyes, she ran up the stairs and into a hallway with six doors lining it. She ran down it and came to a room near the end. The door had been busted open and the latch shattered, still on the floor of her room.

She walked into the room and headed for her closet, pulled it open and pulling out a pair of boots, a jacket and a black baseball cap. The girl slipped her feet into the boots, which still fit, but just barely, threw the jacket on, which also just barely fit and put the hat on her head.

The rest of the clothes in her closet she had outgrown, so she was going to have to buy new ones. Leaving her room, she crossed the hall into her mother and father’s. Ignoring the bullet holes in the walls, she went over to the bed, and using her powers, pushed it aside. Underneath was a panel in the floor.

Kneeling down, she grabbed a small handle on it and pulled it up to reveal a small compartment with a black duffel bag in it. She picked it up put it onto the floor. She quickly opened it and looked inside to see several bundles of money. Satisfied, she grabbed it and slung it over her shoulder before she ran out of the room, down the hallway, descending the stairs and out through the front door.

The girl ran towards the gates, not looking back at the home that had housed her since birth.

As she stood in the shower of the motel room, the dirt and blood that had caked her skin for two years ran down the drain and away forever. She cleaned her hair and straightened it back to the way it had once been.

After she had retrieved the duffel bag she went to the nearest Top Discount and bought six new dresses, new boots, a few jackets and hoodies, new underwear and several pairs of leggings. She had caught a few people staring at her stained gown but they looked away as soon as they saw that she had noticed them.

Not that she cared too much. She would be staring too.

The girl turned the knob and the water stopped as she stepped out of the shower and dried herself before putting on some of her new clothes, which consisted of a black dress, leggings, and a black hoodie.

Now dressed, she went into the main room and sat down on the bed cross-legged and pulled out a bag of chips she had bought also at the store. After having taken a few handfuls out, she grabbed a remote that had been sitting on her nightstand and switched on the television.

It came to life on a news station where a news anchor was reporting on breaking news coming from New Hampton.

“The situation in New Hampton seems to have reached it’s climax as both the terrorist Ravenger and the vigilante Anna Brail are both in custody.”

Suddenly it cut to a shot of a woman with long black and brown hair in a black dress with a green jacket being brought into a squad car before it took off into the silent night.

The girl’s eyes widened as the news anchor continued.

“''Both are reportedly Supers. Ravenger seems to be able to generate electricity while Anna Brail can control air. No official statement has been given by the police just yet as they continue to sort out the situation now that the Mayor is dead.''”

She set down her chips and got up from the bed and grabbed a pair of her shoes and put them on before grabbing the keys to her room and heading out the door and down the steps to the office below.

“How far is New Hampton from here?” she asked the manager and she came in the door.

He looked up in surprise before straightening himself. “About three hours or so, ma’am. But even then the bridges are collapsed and the tunnels are blocked. You couldn’t get in unless you went through the mountains.”

“I need to get there.”

“Why? It’s just stopped being a war zone there. What’s so important that a girl like you needs to get there?”

She smiled. “Anna Brail.”

The door that had been shut for the past twenty minutes suddenly opened before the deputy district attorney walked in. He closed the door before turning back towards her and slapping a file on the table.

“Anna Brail,” he said, his voice cold. “Or Breeze, as they call you.”

“Please don’t call me that,” the woman hand-cuffed to the table interjected.

He ignored her. “You know, for supposedly the great defender of this city, I’m disappointed.”

“I mean, I only defeated Ravenger so I guess I can see why you feel that way,” she replied.

“You think you’re funny, don’t you? Well I don’t.”

“What do you want? You’ve already arrested me.”

“Well, since you haven’t invoked your right to counsel, I can question you.”

“Fine. I don’t need Alex right now anyway.”

“Good,” he said, smiling. The deputy district attorney walked over to the chair opposite Anna and sat down, pulling the file over to him and looking through it.

“So, you’ve actually been tried as a vigilante once already, but you weaseled out of it due to your lawyer Alex Nolan. And then there was no activity for nearly four years until early this year when the mysterious ‘Breeze’ began showing up.

“And then, after that massive warehouse explosion you caused, Ravenger, the terrorist that not only killed our Mayor, united all the gangs in the city by killing their bosses and nearly destroyed the entirety of New Hampton, but is also a Super, shows up.

“And then the incident at the Daily Post happens, and several eyewitnesses say that Ravenger had a special interest in you and actually wanted to take you with him, but you managed to get away before being knocked unconscious.”

“Yeah but I still beat him. The city is safe because of me,” she said.

He looked up from the file. “Is it though? Most of the gangs are still in the underbelly of the city. Sure, we got a lot of them, but they’re still out there. And Ravenger could’ve been the beginning of a bigger plan.”

Anna let out a laugh. “Are you serious? You think that lunatic was actually working for someone?”

“Perhaps.”

“He almost killed me like, I don’t know, ten or eleven times now. I know he’s not working with anyone else.”

“Are you sure?” he leaned closer.

“Positive,” she stayed planted.

Suddenly the door to the room burst open again and Alex Nolan appeared in the doorway.

“Alex?” Anna gasped.

“What are you doing here?” the deputy district attorney stood up.

“I’m here for my client, obviously,” he said walked over to Anna and setting his briefcase on the table.

“Are you okay?” Alex asked her.

“Yeah I’m fine.”

“Why are you here? She hasn’t invoked yet.”

“Oh yeah. I invoke my right to counsel,” Anna smiled.

“Bye James,” Alex said, gesturing towards the door.

The deputy district attorney’s face contorted with anger before he picked up the file and stormed out of the room.

He turned back to the woman. “Are you sure you’re okay, Anna?”

“Yes, Alex, I’m perfectly fine,” she assured him. “But what about Nicole, Matthew and my dad? What about Ravenger? Did I kill him?”

“Nicole and your dad are safe. Matthew is with the Chief. Ravenger is contained for the moment.”

“So what now?”

Alex let out a sigh. “Well, I assume our friend wants to try you, and this time it’s not going to be as easy as it was before.”

“But you can get me out of it, can’t you?”

“I may have an edge, but I’m not sure,” he stroked his chin.

“What is it?”

“Well, the fact that you did the save the city. Sure, it was illegal, but you saved the city from a terrorist. They’d have to give you something for that.”

“You’d think so,” she slumped back in her chair as much as she could.

“At the most you’ll get a sentence of three years,” Alex said. “But hopefully I’ll be able to get you to walk free.”

Suddenly the door opened and the deputy district attorney came back in.

“Alright that’s it. You’re going to answer some questions for me, Anna Brail.”

“At least she has her lawyer here, James,” Alex smiled.

“Very well,” he said before pulling up another chair and setting it next to Anna, gesturing for Alex to sit in it.

Anna’s attorney nodded and got up and went to the other chair, James sitting across from them.

“So, how long have you had your… abilities?”

“Don’t answer that,” Alex said.

“Yes you will.”

“No she won’t.”

“Alex,” James said, looking over his spectacles. “Work with me here.”

“Not if you’re trying to put my client behind bars. You know the drill.”

Anna weighed in. “Why don’t I need to answer the question?”

“Because that’s personal information and you don’t need to give him it.”

James slammed his hand down on the table. “Yes she does!”

“No, she doesn’t.”

“Alex, you are undermining the justice system! She needs to be tried for her crimes and I cannot prosecute her without these details!”

“Yes you can.”

“I cannot, and will not!”

“Well, if you won’t prosecute her without how long she’s had her powers,” Alex smiled. “Then I guess you can let her go.”

“Outrageous!”

“It’s unconstitutional to put someone in prison without a fair trial, James,” Alex began packing his things.

“No,” Anna said suddenly.

“What?” the two men said in surprise.

“No. I want this trial.”

Alex leaned down next to Anna. “No you don’t.”

She looked back at him, her eyes defiant. “Yes, I do. I deserve it.”

He stared at her.

“Alex, please.”

The man let out a long sigh. “Fine.”

“Thank you.”

She turned back to the district attorney. “My powers manifested themselves about three years after my birth, and mastered them when I was eleven.”

“How were your powers created?”

Anna shrugged.

“Okay, now-,” suddenly there was a knock on the door and an officer opened it and came in.

“Deputy district attorney Ryan, I’m sorry to interrupt, but Ravenger has arrived.”

“Wait, he’s here?” Anna asked, straightening up.

“Yes, but perfectly contained,” the officer replied.

“Uh, alright then,” James said, standing up and collecting his things. “We’ll pick this up at another time, miss Brai.”

“I’ll be here,” she responded.

A small smile went across his face before he left with the officer. After he had gone Alex turned to her again.

“Why do you want to go through with this trial?”

“Because I deserve it.”

“No you don’t. You’re a hero.”

“But I do. I killed all those people in the warehouse. I let Ravenger take control of the gangs. I let the Mayor get killed...”

“Those weren’t your fault-.”

“But they were!” she snapped. “If I had been faster, better, I could’ve stopped all this before it ever started. I’m a failure.”

“No, you’re not.”

“We’ll see about that.”

“It seems kind of funny,” Nicole said as they drove down the road. “It seems we just escaped the Police Station and now we’re going back.”

“Yeah it does,” Mark replied, looking out the window. “But this time the city is safe.”

“Thanks to Anna,” she smiled.

“Thanks to Anna,” he nodded.

“I hope she’s doing okay,” Nicole said.

Mark put his arm around her shoulder. “I’m sure she’s fine. Alex is probably there already.”

“There’s going to be another trial, isn’t there?”

“Probably.”

“I doubt she’ll be able to get out of this one,” Nicole sighed.

“Perhaps, but Alex is a fine lawyer.”

“Perhaps.”

A few minutes later they came to a stop at the Police Station and were brought in by the officer that had driven them there. Once inside it was improved over the last time they had been there, but was still a mess. Glass and paper shreds littered the floor, bullet holes lined the walls, and blood was stained on the ground.

The officer sat them down on a bench and then left to assist with the booking of all the gangsters that they had arrested.

“You know, even though Anna defeated Ravenger and the gangs are scattered again,” Nicole said. “I can’t shake the feeling that this is all only the beginning.”

“The beginning of what?” Mark turned to the woman.

“The end.”

“I hope you’re comfortable,” he said as he entered the room.

“You… will… all die…” Ravenger ask through the breathing mask he was wearing.

The Chief laughed. “We all will one way, but not by your hand.”

The terrorist snarled. “I am the rightful ruler of this city! You will all bow down before me!”

“No, we won’t,” Chief John Dillon said before approaching the cage. “You’re a criminal, and we let those rot in a cell for the rest of their lives.”

Suddenly there was a flash of light followed by screaming, but it wasn’t coming from anyone outside the cage. Ravenger slumped forward as the last flickers of electricity faded from his body.

“I was hoping that would happen,” he laughed again.

“What… did you do?!” he struggled to yell.

“We’ve been working on this baby for the past month,” Dillon said, walking around the large metal cage. It was like the compartment of a small car, with several panels of glass so they could see him, but they were too thick for him to break through.

Ravenger himself was strapped to a chair, his arms, legs, and torso held by large metallic clamps.

“You see, it’s designed so that when you discharge your powers, it feeds it back into you,” the Chief stopped back in front of the terrorist. “Neat, huh?”

“No prison can hold me… I will kill you all!”

“Yeah I don’t think so,” Matthew Weaver said as he watched form afar.

“Why don’t you come closer so we can find out?” Ravenger’s eyes blazed with rage.

“Enough,” Dillon snapped. “Now down to business so I don’t have to look at your scarred face any longer.

“So, now that you’ve been defeated, your army has snaked back into the underbelly of the city from which they came. It seems that your whole empire came tumbling down as soon as you were taken out, which leads me to question if you were a pawn in somebody else’s game. But whose?”

The terrorist leaned forward as much as his restraints would allow. “No one.”

“You see, I’ve been a police officer for about forty years now, and I’ve seen gangs come and go, rise and fall, but almost none have fallen as easily as yours.”

Ravenger said nothing.

The Chief smiled. “I thought so.”

He turned and began walking away past the armed guards.

“When you’re ready to talk, let me know.”

Dillon joined Matthew and the two as walked through the door before it slid shut behind them. As they walked down the corridor, Matthew couldn’t shake the feeling that the terrorist was working for someone else.

“Chief, you don’t really think Ravenger was working for someone else, do you?”

“What? I don’t know for sure, but it would make sense. You don’t just go out and decide to take over a city without any real motivation.”

“He said that him being betrayed was his motive, and that he’s done this to several other cities but failed.”

The Chief waved his hand. “That’s a lie. Sure, he was probably betrayed, but he would need real motivation to do all this. Unless he’s just really, really butthurt. Then we’ll need a therapist.”

Somewhere north of Alberta, Washington.

“What is it?” he said as the guard entered the room.

“Sir, prisoner 091000 has escaped the facility.”

He turned around quickly, his eyes blazing. “How? How did you let that happen?!”

“Sir, she had… abilities,” the guard replied, taking a step back.

“What do you mean by ‘abilities’?”

“She had energy-based telekinetic powers. She must’ve developed them from the experiments.”

The man chuckled. “It worked? It actually worked? I thought that oaf was the only one!”

“What do you want us to do next, sir? Find her?”

“Yes, she cannot be let to roam free, but,” he turned back to the window. “Begin Phase Two.”

The guard nodded. “Yes sir!”

He then turned and left the room, leaving him alone again.

The man looked out over the woodland that surrounded the compound. “Everything is falling into place...”

Chapter 2: Trial by Fire
“Anna,” he said as he stepped into the room. “It’s time.”

She wiped the tears out of her eyes and nodded before standing up and walking past her attorney. The two walked through a corridor as three officers followed them to a large set of double oak doors. The two looked at each other before he pushed open the doors and they entered the courtroom.

As soon as she stepped in the room, she was blinded by the flash of cameras and deafened by almost everyone in the court talking to her at once. Alex noticed that she was being overwhelmed and quickly escorted her to their table on the other side of the divider.

The two sat down and Alex began to unpack the things from his briefcase while Anna held her head in her hands. A tear fell from between her hands and onto the skirt of her black dress. She had been so sure of her punishment, but now she was scared of it. What had she done? Why did she blame herself for doing her job? She had known it had been her God-given duty, and she was neglecting it in favor of punishment.

“All rise for the Honorable Judge Roberts,” the Bailiff suddenly yelled.

As quickly as she could, she and everyone else in the room stood up and silenced themselves as the Judge walked up to the bench.

“You may be seated,” he said.

Everyone sat down again as he struck the gavel.

“This court is now in session.”

“Case 2123: the People verses Anna Brail,” the Bailiff read before handing the folder to the Judge, who looked it over.

Judge Roberts looked up to Anna on his right.

“And how does the Defendant plead?”

Anna and Alex stood up. “Not guilty, your Honor,”

“Alright. The Prosecution may give their opening statements.”

Deputy district attorney John Ryan smiled before standing up. “Thank you, your Honor.”

He walked out from behind the table and to the center of the court. “Well, first off, I would like to acknowledge that we’ve had quite the times recently,” he looked around at the assembled. “A terrorist, an invasion, a dead mayor, and just utter chaos, but here we are today.”

“Are you going somewhere with this, deputy district attorney?” the Judge said, a slight undertone of annoyance in his voice, which made Anna grin before she hid it.

“Yes, your Honor,” Ryan replied, slightly irritated but he continued. “Anyway, the police force eventually overtook Ravenger’s army and had the situation almost under control except for the arrest of the terrorist himself.

“But, Anna Brail took it upon herself to bring Ravenger to justice, even though it is not her place to do so. She is what we call a vigilante, which is illegal in all fifty states because of powered people. And Anna Brail is one such individual.”

He turned to the girl. “Would you mind demonstrating your abilities for us, miss Brail?”

She looked to Alex who nodded and she held out her hand and blew a piece of paper off the table in front of them, causing everyone to gasp.

Ryan smiled. “Thank you, miss Brail.”

He turned back to the Jury. “So as you see, miss Brail is in clear violation of the Supers Act, which prohibits them from dispensing vigilante justice. And she has been doing such acts for the past two months, which include, but are not limited to the warehouse explosion, various assaults and impeding of the police.

“Therefore, she must be considered a criminal, no matter how many dresses she decides to wear to cover it up. Thank you.”

Judge Roberts nodded before Ryan returned to his chair.

“Mister Nolan, you may give your defense,” the Judge then turned to Alex.

“Yes sir,” he said before standing up and walking to where the district attorney had been.

“Did you write that down beforehand, deputy district attorney Ryan? Because that was some speech.”

Ryan nodded an awkward thanks.

“But as I am miss Brail’s attorney, I will have to defend her.

“Sure, it is true that she has been acting as a vigilante for the past few months, which is illegal due to the Supers Act, but she is the only one who could actually combat Ravenger, who as you said, mister Ryan, not only killed our Mayor but caused mass chaos throughout the entire city. And without miss Brail, we’d be under the rule of a terrorist.

“Yes, despite breaking the law, she saved us all and has done a whole lot of good for our city, and I say that she must not be punished for her actions but congratulated as a hero. But of course,” he turned to the jury. “That is up to you. Thank you.”

He nodded to the Judge who returned it and took his seat next to Anna again.

Deputy district attorney Ryan stood up again. “I’d like to call the first witness to the stand.”

A moment later a man in an orange jumpsuit and chains was escorted in by two guards. Alex quickly stood up.

“Objection your Honor,” he said. “This man is a member of the Cold Steel gang and is not a reliable witness.”

“Yes, mister Nolan,” the Judge said before turning to the deputy district attorney. “Why do you bring in this gang member?”

“Mister Grant is a witness to miss Brail’s crimes and deserves to have his voice heard.”

“Not if he’s a criminal,” Anna muttered.

Judge Roberts sighed before nodding. The Bailiff pulled out a Bible and held it up for the gang member. The man reluctantly placed his hand upon its surface.

“Do you swear to tell the truth, whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God?”

“Sure.”

He was then escorted to the stand and sat down. Ryan then came up to him.

“Hello. What is your name?”

“Don James Grant,” the man replied.

“Mister Grant, do you know that woman over there,” he pointed to Anna, who sunk into her chair slightly.

“Yes I do.”

“And how do you know miss Brail?”

“She attacked my comrades and I,” Don said through his missing teeth.

“Did you provoke her to attack? Like did you attack her?”

“No I did not.”

“So she just attacked you for no reason?”

“Yes sir.”

“Thank you mister Grant,” Ryan said before returning to his table. Alex then stood up and walked over to the stand.

“Hello mister Grant. Can I call you Don?” he leaned on the wood.

Don shrugged.

“Alright I’m going to call you Don,” Alex smiled. “So you say that my client attacked you unprovoked?”

He nodded.

“May I ask, what you were doing at the time?”

Don hesitated.

“Well?”

Still no answer.

“Answer the question, mister Grant. And remember that you are still under oath,” the Judge said sharply.

“Escorting police officers to Ravenger,” he finally spoke.

Alex turned to the deputy district attorney. “If you’re going to bring in a criminal witness, mister Ryan, you ought to try a bit harder.”

“I’d have to agree, mister Ryan. Your next witness better be of more substance or you will most definitely lose this case.”

Alex returned to his seat while Don Grant was escorted out of the courtroom. John Ryan stood up again and straightened his tie before speaking again.

“I’d like to call the next witness to the stand.”

Anna leaned over to Alex and whispered in his ear. “I hope this one’s worse than the last one.”

A moment later an older woman was escorted into the courtroom where the Bailiff came up to her with the Bible.

“Place your hand on the Bible, ma’am,” he said.

She nodded and placed her hand upon the book and raised her other hand.

“Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God?”

“I do.”

The woman was then led to the stand and took her seat. Ryan walked out from behind the table again and over to her.

“Can you give the court your full birth name?”

“Jane Alexandra Grey.”

“Miss Grey, do you know the Defendant?” the district attorney asked.

“Yes, I do.”

“How do you know miss Brail?”

“She was at the warehouse explosion.”

Anna shifted uncomfortably in her seat as Ryan smiled.

“Do you know if she’s the one who caused the explosion?” the man asked, leaning on the stand.

“I don’t know,” the woman said. “But I saw her jump onto the roof next to the building just before the blast.”

“So would you assume that miss Brail is the one who caused the explosion?”

“She very well might have.”

“Did the explosion cause any damage to your home or any of your personal property?”

“Well it did set fire to the outside of my home, but-.”

“Thank you that is all, miss Grey,” Ryan said before turning to the Jury.

“Ladies and gentlemen of the Jury, there is much compelling evidence that Anna Brail is not only an assaulter, but also a murderer. This is just one bit of evidence of her crimes.”

“But-.”

“And clearly she is also guilty of property damage.”

“I don’t care what her crimes are!” Jane suddenly burst out, causing every head to snap in her direction.

“Those… those monsters killed my husband two years ago! They murdered him when he was simply coming home from work! He wasn’t a criminal, he wasn’t bad, he was just trying to support me! I would let her cause damage to my house ten thousand times over if it meant subduing those animals!”

Slowly she calmed down and held her hands in her hands and wept. The entire courtroom was silent except for her sobbing.

Judge Roberts turned to Alex.

“Do you want to question the witness, mister Nolan?”

He merely shook his head.

The Judge nodded and leaned to the Bailiff. “Miss Grey can be escorted for the stand now.”

The Bailiff nodded his head and went over to the crying woman and helped her down from the stand and brought her over to the guards that had brought her in and they escorted her out of the room while Ryan took his seat again.

“We’ll break for lunch and reconvene at one,” Judge Roberts said before striking the gavel again.

“It’s like district attorney Ryan isn’t even trying,” Nicole said as they stood in the hallway.

“I’ve known John for a long time,” Alex stroked his chin. “And he’s never been a terribly competent lawyer, but this is below the bar for him.”

“How did he even get appointed as a deputy district attorney?” Matthew asked.

“Charm,” Mark replied.

Alex nodded.

“Well if he keeps pulling out witnesses that don’t help his cause, then I’m going to win, right?” Anna asked, leaning against the wall.

“If it keeps going this way, yes, but this seems too easy,” Alex responded.

“Unless,” Mark said.

“What?” everyone asked.

“Unless he’s just a pawn in somebody else’s game.”

“But who’s?” Alex inquired.

“I don’t know yet,” Mark replied. “But something just feels off about all of this.”

The gavel struck.

“This court is now back in session,” Judge Roberts said as everybody sat back down.

He turned to deputy district attorney Ryan. “I hope you have a better witness this time, district attorney.”

“I do, your Honor,” Ryan said, standing up and straightening his tie.

“I’d like to call Anna Brail to the stand.”

Anna looked up suddenly and around before Alex nodded. Reluctantly, she stood up and walked over to the Bailiff, who was holding the Bible again. She placed one hand upon the leather cover and raised her other.

“Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?”

“So help me God,” Anna replied.

She was led to the stand and sat down before John Ryan approached her.

“Miss Brail,” he smiled, but she knew it was just to charm her. “If you don’t mind me asking, how old are you?”

“Objection this is not relevant information to the case,” Alex stood up.

“Sustained. Mister Ryan, if you would care to share why this is relevant information?” Judge Roberts asked.

“I want to know how old miss Brail is because she seems pretty young to be acting as a vigilante.”

The Judge sighed. “Very well.”

“So, miss Brail, how old are you?”

“Almost twenty-three,” she replied reluctantly.

“So you’re twenty-two, and you’re a vigilante. Aren’t you a little young for that?”

“I saw a need and decided to meet it.”

“And that need was to break the clearly-established Supers law?”

“If it was necessary,” she said.

“Huh,” Ryan replied. “Did that include killing all those gangsters?”

“That wasn’t supposed to happen,” she leaned forward.

“So what was supposed to happen, miss Brail?”

“I wanted them to be disabled. I didn’t want them dead-.”

“But you did, didn’t you? Deep down inside?” the deputy district attorney said. “That’s why used shot that crate of grenades?”

“Objection!” Alex shot up again. “There is no proof of this.”

“Sustained. Deputy district attorney Ryan I am warning you that if you keep this up, I will be forced to declare a mistrial and you will probably be replaced with someone more competent.”

“Yes, your Honor,” Ryan bowed his head. “Of course.”

He turned back to the woman in front of him. “Miss Brail, several times in the past few months you have impeding police operations, such as the incident at the ammunition warehouse and at the Daily Post, and even during the Ravenger invasion.”

“How did I impede the Police at the Daily Post?” Anna raised an eyebrow.

“I’m the one asking the questions here.”

“Answer the question,” the Judge looked over his spectacles at the district attorney.

“Very well. You caused the situation to escalate with your actions while the police were trying to save the hostages.”

“I weakened Ravenger and saved several S.W.A.T. officers from getting blown away.”

“Ah yes, the mysterious explosion in the IT department that left nobody injured except a few gangsters who had been knocked out before the blast. That was you?”

“As Ravenger escaped he threw a grenade into the room and I knew that I had to act otherwise we’d all die.”

“You used your powers to stop the explosion?” Ryan’s eyebrow raised.

“Yep.”

“That’s pretty heroic for someone so young.”

“It’s my calling,” Anna shrugged.

“Your calling?”

“My God-given calling, deputy district attorney.”

“Ah so you’re a Christian?” Ryan leaned on the stand.

“Through the flood and the fire.”

“And do you think God approves of your actions?”

“Objection!”

“District attorney Ryan. Final warning.”

“I have no further questions,” Ryan said, returning to his desk where one of his colleagues was looking questioningly at him as he sat down.

“Mister Nolan, do you have any questions you would like to ask miss Brail?”

“Yes, your Honor,” Alex got up and walked over to the girl.

“So, miss Brail,” he smiled. “Do you like doing what you’re doing?”

“No, but I know it needs to be done,” she replied.

“Could you elaborate? What drives you? What makes you go out and save people?”

Anna took a deep breath. “There’s so much crime in this world, so much darkness. Every day more people either die or get hurt. There’s too much wrong to just stand by and do nothing. When I realized I could do this,” she created a small whirlwind in her hand. “It was no question what I would do with my life. Even from when I was a little girl, I knew I had to be the light in the dark.”

“Thank you, miss Brail. That is all,” Alex said before going back to the table.

Judge Roberts turned to Anna. “You are excused.”

She nodded. “Yes, your Honor.”

The woman got up and walked over and took her seat next to Alex again, who patted her on the back.

“I believe you’ve heard enough?” Roberts looked to the Jury, who nodded.

“Alright then, we are in recess until the Jury has reached a verdict.”

And with that, he struck the gavel again, and the clock began.

“You’ll be okay, Anna,” Nicole said, putting her hand on her friend’s shoulder. “They have to rule in your favor.”

“But what if they side with Ryan?”

“Nobody in their right mind would side with them, sweetheart,” Mark replied. “He was less coherent than a spider-monkey.”

“Let’s hope the Jury thinks that,” Anna muttered.

Suddenly they heard the bell ring and they all looked at each other before getting up. Mark hugged his daughter.

“You’ll be fine, my dear.”

Anna couldn’t respond, but a tear slipped down her cheek.

They made their way back into the courtroom and they all took their seats. To the right of them the Jury came out through a backdoor and took their seats again. Judge Roberts nodded at them and struck the gavel again.

“This court is now back in session,” he said. “Has the Jury reached a verdict?”

“They have, your Honor,” the one closest to him said, standing up and holding a piece of paper.

He nodded to the two tables and the four stood up.

“The Jury finds the Defendant…”

As he paused it seemed an eternity passed them by.

“...Not guilty, your Honor. But will be prohibited from further acts of vigilantism.”

There was an uproar of applause and cheering as everyone got up and Anna and Alex hugged before she turned and hugged Nicole, Matthew and Mark. On the other side Ryan buried his face in his hands as his colleague looked at him worriedly.

“Are you okay, John?” she asked, putting her hand on his shoulder, but he quickly and angrily swatted it away. She held in pain as her face was flooded with fear.

“Of course of I’m fine!” he yelled at her before collecting his stuff and storming off. Alex and Anna saw this and quickly went over to her.

“What happened?” Alex said, kneeling down beside her as she wept into her hands.

“Are you okay?” Anna asked, kneeling down on her other side.

“Something’s wrong with him,” she finally replied, her sobs becoming increasingly far apart. “He’s never been like this.”

Anna and Alex looked at each other.

He was practically running to his vehicle, mumbling to himself.

“They’re going to get me… I have to go… I’m ruined…”

John Ryan reached his black car and fumbled in his pocket for his keys when they clattered to the floor. He reached down for them when a voice suddenly came from the darkness behind him. The man swung around and saw another man in a motorized wheelchair coming towards him.

“District attorney Ryan,” the man said, peering over his spectacles with his fingers interlocked. “I thought you said you had this case ‘in the bag’.”

“I told you this would not be an easy case to win!” Ryan argued.

“No, you did not.”

“We can wait to ding her on another of her vigilante acts.”

“Unfortunately for you, you will not live long enough to see that happen.”

Suddenly something moved out of the corner of Ryan’s eye before there were two sharp wisps before he fell against his car, blood streaking down behind him.

Deputy district attorney John Ryan looked up to see a large man above him with a pistol in hand, smoke coming from the silencer at the end.

“Please...”

The gun went off again and he went slack, looking down at the ground of the parking garage with dead eyes.

“Our work here is done,” the man in the wheelchair said as they went off into the darkness, leaving the man against the car, red pooling around him.

Chapter 3: Inferno
“So how does it feel?” Nicole asked as they walked down the street.

“How does what feel?” Anna replied.

“Being free? How does it feel?”

“Great,” Anna said, wiping the hair out of her face. “It was dreadful.”

They turned a corner and saw that Anna’s apartment building come into view. At the entrance was a crowd of reporters and Anna quickly pulled Nicole into a nearby alleyway, nearly spilling her friend’s coffee.

“What’s the problem, Anna?” Nicole asked, looking out from the alley.

“Reporters,” Anna replied. “They’ve been trying to get an interview ever since I got released.”

“How do you even live like this?”

“I barely do,” Anna said. “That’s why I’m planning on moving.”

“Move? Where?”

“Somewhere else in the city. I need it big enough to hold clients.”

“Why do you want clients?”

“Because I want to open a private detective agency.”

Nicole almost laughed. “A private detective agency? Are you serious?”

“Dead serious.”

Nicole could tell that there was no humor or sarcasm in her friend’s voice.

“You’re serious? Why?”

“Well, there’s not much else I can do to get money now. I can’t go back to the Daily Post, I can’t go back to Top Discount and I doubt I can go anywhere else besides the government. This is the only way.”

She leaned against the brick wall. “Yeah but that career leads you to be hired by less than reputable people for less than respectable things.”

“I can just turn them down, you know.”

“Yeah but this is a risky business, Anna. I’m worried for you.”

“I’ll be fine, Nicole,” Anna smiled. “I promise.”

It had been a long few weeks.

She had had to take several buses from Alberta down through the State of Washington towards New Hampton, and even then the city was still cut off from the outside world, and the only way to get in was through the mountains, which were dangerous.

The bus came to a stop just outside the city. This was as far as it could go towards New Hampton before it turned off to the west. She grabbed her bags and walked off the bus. As she stepped off, the bus driver called after her.

“Are you going to be okay, ma’am?”

“Yes I will. How far is New Hampton from here?” the dark-haired girl turned back towards him.

“A few hundred miles, probably. Why? You wanna go there?” he raised an eyebrow.

“Something like that.”

“The tunnels and bridges are all collapsed. There’s no way you’d get in.”

“I need to get into the city,” she insisted.

“The only way you’re getting in is through the mountains, and that’s suicide at best.”

“It’s worth it.”

She then turned to leave when he called after her again.

“Hey, you seem like a nice girl. Be careful.”

“I will.”

And with that, she walked off down the road towards New Hampton as the bus turned towards a better place.

She put the final item she could into the box before closing it up and with straining effort, picked it up and brought it over to the stack of boxes. After she set it down she wiped her brow and stretched her back before sitting on the couch for a few minutes.

Anna was almost done preparing to move. She already had a property on the other side of New Hampton set up. She didn’t know if she could get a business license anytime soon, though, because the government was kind of at a standstill while the interim Mayor was getting adjusted to office. There was already one ready to run, but it would be several months before there was actually an election.

The woman reached over and grabbed the remote for her TV and flipped on the television. The screen came to the news which, to her surprise, showed Matthew.

“So far we don’t have any suspects, but we are still investigating.”

The screen then cut to a female news anchor in the studio.

“That was New Hampton Detective Matthew Weaver, giving a statement on the discovery of deputy district attorney John Ryan’s corpse in the parking complex of the courthouse this morning. Preliminary reports suggest that he has been dead for the past week, just after the Anna Brail trial.”

Suddenly her phone rang and she grabbed it to see that Alex was calling. She picked up and held it to her ear.

“Do you see what’s on the news?” he asked from the other side.

“Yeah I just saw. They say it happened right after my trial?”

“Seems reasonable.”

“Who do you think killed him?”

“I wouldn’t know, but so far it’s looking like a professional hit.”

“Why would someone want him dead?”

“I wouldn’t know, unless he didn’t deliver on a promise of putting you behind bars.”

“What do you mean?” Anna asked, standing up.

“I mean that someone was threatening him to put you in jail,” Alex replied. “Could explain why he was so sloppy during your trial. Pressure.”

“And he payed for it with his life,” Anna said.

“Exactly.”

“But why? Why go through out that trouble to get me in jail?”

“I don’t know, but I suggest you’d better be on your guard. From the looks of it, they’re far from done.”

“Sir,” the tall man walked into the room. “They’ve discovered deputy district attorney Ryan, sir.”

The man in the wheelchair chuckled. “About time, too.”

“And what about the girl?” the man asked.

“What about her?”

“It’s just that, we haven’t had any success in locating her, sir.”

The man sighed. “Keep looking, then. We must find her. We need her and Anna Brail for phase two.”

“Yes sir,” the other man said before walking out of the room.

Alone again, he continued looking out over the city of New Hampton. Night was beginning to fall again, the horizon turning red and purple. The lights in the city below had flared into life and was the only illumination in his dark office.

It hadn’t been too long ago that this building had been hijacked and his employees taken hostage. Of course they hadn’t been harmed and they were expendable. But he did need the revenue from the technologies they developed.

He turned away from the window and rolled over to his desk. Clapping his hands twice, the lights of his office flared into life, illuminating various pieces of artwork and relics displayed around the room.

The man activated his computer and it booted up to show a blue screen with several details in the wallpaper. On top of the screen were several files, two in particular labeled Jessica Sapphire and Anna Brail.

Bringing the cursor up, he clicked on Anna Brail’s which opened to reveal several documents and pictures. The pictures were either of a woman with black and brown hair in a dress walking in the street or blurry pictures of a woman in a black dress, green jacket and black and brown hair.

On of the documents was a news article from the Daily Post published that day, written by Albert Clarkson, which read: Anna Brail Revealed As The Vigilante “Breeze”.

Scrolling down, he read snippets of the article.

“''In a shocking turn of events after Ravenger’s fall, the Daily Post’s very own Anna Brail has been revealed as the vigilante ‘Breeze’, who has for the past few months been cleaning up the streets, taking down operations run by the major gangs of this city. The most notable of these is the warehouse explosion near the end of May.''”

“''Now, Anna Brail is the one responsible for Ravenger’s downfall. In a battle on top of the FuturTech building, miss Brail managed to launch the terrorist off the building to his defeat. He has since been taken into Police custody. Moments later Anna Brail too, was arrested. Reports say that her lawyer, Alex Nolan was called in an hour or two after she had been taken into custody.''”

“''A trial for miss Brail was then held three weeks after she was arrested, on July 28. During the trial it got fairly heated and somewhat confusing, as it seemed that deputy district attorney John Ryan didn’t know what he was doing. A week after the trial, the district attorney’s body was found by his car in the parking garage next to the courthouse. It is suspected he was murdered just after the trial occurred. The culprit is currently unknown.''”

He then opened the file labeled “Jessica Sapphire”. Opening it, it revealed a mugshot of a young woman whose face was cut and dirtied. A snippet of a news article was included in the file.

“''A tragedy at the Sapphire residence in the city of Alberta Washington has left the city shaken to its very core. Wilson and Diana Sapphire, along with four of their children, were found dead in their home on May 30, 2015 after their house was seemingly raided. Their daughter, Jessica Sapphire, is currently missing. It is suspected the attackers took her when they raided the house and murdered the rest of her family. The search for the missing girl is currently ongoing.''”

“Jessica… Jessica… you are one of my most successful experiments. How could you betray me so?”

He turned his head and looked out over the city of New Hampton once more.

“We will see each other again, don’t worry.”

She was walking out of the store with a bag of food when the man came up to her. He was wearing a pair of jeans, a gray shirt and a brown jacket. His hair was dark and a bit messy.

“What do you want?” Anna asked as she stopped.

The man held out his hand. “Albert Clarkson.”

Reluctantly, she took it and shook.

“Anna Brail.”

“Yeah I know,” he said, rubbing his head. “I’m from the Daily Post and-.”

“No,” Anna cut him off before walking away, him quickly following.

“Alright, I know you don’t like or want an interview, mainly because the media keeps twisting your story, but the Daily Post isn’t.”

“And why not?”

“Well, for starters, you used to work for us, and let’s be honest you saved a bunch of people during that hostage situation.”

“Oh yeah, why didn’t I see you there?”

“I’ve been out of town for a few months and only came back in just before the whole invasion started.”

“Lucky you survived, huh?” Anna said sarcastically.

Albert chuckled. “Nicole told me you liked to use sarcasm.”

The woman stopped. “You know Nicole?”

“Uh… yeah? I work at the Daily Post, remember? Of course I know her.”

“Right,” Anna said, brushing the hair out of her face. “And what else did Nicole tell you about me?”

“That you can be blunt, rude and just downright stubborn.”

Anna muttered. “That’s typical.”

“But she also said that you’re determined and know what you do is right.”

“She really said that?”

“Yep.”

“I didn’t think-.”

She was suddenly cut off by a familiar voice, a too familiar voice.

“Hello, Anna.”

Anna turned her head to her right and dropped the bag in her hand.

“...John?”

A man twenty-three years old was standing ten feet away from them, his orange eyes glowing.

“Long-time, no-see, huh?”

“That’s because I left you. You’re a psychopath. Why’d they let you out of prison?”

“Anna, what’s going on?” Albert asked, looking from her to the man.

“Get back, Albert.”

“I see you got a new boyfriend in these past four years.”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Anna said, her knuckles whitening.

“Yeah I’m not her boyfriend, whoever you are,” Albert replied.

“I don’t care,” John said. “That’s not why I’m here.”

Anna’s eyes flashed with anger. “Then why are you here, John?”

He chuckled to himself. “To end you, over course.”

Suddenly he thrust his fists forward and a massive blast of fire soared at them. In the blink of an eye, Anna knocked Albert out of the way and thrust her hand at the wave of fire flying at her. A blast of air came from her hand and struck the fire head-on, creating a tunnel of fire around her.

Quickly the fire disappeared and John jumped at her. She flipped out of the way and launched gusts of air at him. He dodged them and returned fire, balls of flame flying at her. The woman ducked under them and sent a slice of air at him, knocking him backwards.

John recovered himself and flipped in midair, a trail of flame coming from his foot. Anna used her powers to sever the streak and unleashed a cyclone at him. He was knocked backwards but caught himself and flipped back up, sending another blast of fire at the woman.

This one took her by surprise and knocked her off-balance. Taking advantage, he uppercut her, blasting her with fire and then spinning around kicking her in the stomach, launching her across the parking lot, tumbling across the pavement and then to a halt, battered and bruised.

The man chuckled as he approached the nearly unconscious woman on the ground, fire circling his hands.

“This is my revenge, Anna. Revenge for crippling me for three years and ruining my life,” he spat. “You know? After what happened, no one would even come near me. How am I supposed to get a girlfriend if no one comes near me? How do I get married?

“I’ve always wanted to get married, you know? I thought you were the one, the one who would finally marry me. But no, you were just another who wouldn’t commit!”

He came up to the woman on the ground and raised one of his hands above, fire swirling brightly.

“Goodbye, Anna. It hasn’t been a pleasure.”

Suddenly something swung through the air and struck the man in the back of the head. As soon as it did, he fell to the ground next to Anna, unconscious.

Behind where he had been standing Albert lowered the silver bat before dropping it and running over to Anna.

“Anna?” he shook her gently. “Are you okay? Anna?”

She looked at him with half-opened eyes and a dazed expression. “Albert…?”

That was all she said before she fell into the black.

Albert quickly pulled out his phone and dialed 911 and held it up to his ear.

“Yes? Hello, this is Albert Clarkson. I need an ambulance at the Top Discount. Anna Brail was attacked and she needs medical attention.”

He looked down at the unconscious woman in his arms.

“Stay with me, Anna.”

Nicole, Matthew and Mark nearly ran out of the elevator as soon as the doors parted. They ran down the corridor and were stopped by a nurse.

“Who are you three?” she stood in their way.

“Where’s Anna Brail?” Mark asked, urgency in his voice.

“Who are you?” she repeated.

Matthew pulled out his badge and showed it to the nurse. “I’m detective Matthew Weaver. This is my sister Nicole and Anna’s father Mark.”

“Okay. I’m sorry, I have to make sure everyone who comes in is identified,” the nurse said, relieved. “Miss Brail is this way.”

Together, the four of them walked through the corridors and came to the entrance to a room guarded by two officers, who tensed at their arrival.

“At ease, gentlemen,” Matthew showed them his badge.

They nodded and let the nurse lead them into the room. Inside they saw the woman laying unconsciously on the bed while a man in a brown jacket held her hands sat beside her. At their arrival he let it go and stood up.

“Albert?” Nicole said as soon as she saw him.

“Hey Nicole.”

“Who are you?” Mark nearly demanded, walking up to the man.

But Nicole stopped him. “It’s okay, Mark, he’s a co-worker of mine.”

Mark was put slightly at ease, but not much. “And what exactly were you doing with my daughter?”

“I wanted to get an interview with her. Get her side of the story.”

“Oh so you’re a reporter?”

“Yes sir.”

Mark then moved past him and sat down next to the woman under the covers and held her hand.

“What happened?”

“Well, we were walking through the parking lot when this crazy dude came out of nowhere and attacked us.”

“With a knife? A gun?” Nicole inquired.

“No,” Albert said. “Fire.”

“What, a blowtorch or something?” Matthew asked.

“No, like he made the fire with his bare hands.”

“Another Super? How?” Nicole looked around.

“Do you know his name?” Mark questioned.

“Anna said his name was John.”

Mark’s face darkened. “Oh no.”

“What is it, Mark?” Matthew asked.

“John was Anna’s boyfriend the first year she was at Salem University. He’s the reason she came back home.”

“Did he have powers then?” Albert’s eyes widened.

“I don’t think so, but he did try to burn Anna alive.”

“Charming,” Nicole said sarcastically.

“Where is he now?” Mark stood up, his daughter’s hand still in his.

“Our number of Supers just keeps piling up,” the Chief said as he came into the room. He came up to the bars and looked down on the man sitting in the cell.

“Who are you?”

“What does it matter to you?” John spat.

Chief Dillon pulled up a chair and sat down. “Well, you attacked Anna Brail, a Super, and you are also a Super, so it matters to me what your name is.”

“John Arwin,” the man finally said.

Dillon nodded to one of the officers standing by, who left the room after returning the nod. The Chief then turned back to the man in front of him.

“Well, nice to have a name to go with the face,” he smiled. “Now, why did you attack miss Brail?”

“Because she nearly killed me.”

“Are you a gangster?”

“No, of course not, stupid.”

Dillon leaned forward. “Then how did she almost kill you?”

“It was four years ago at Salem University. She and I were together, but her religion kept interrupting our relationship and she broke it off. We then had a fight and she threw me out the window, where I broke both my legs and my arm.”

“Did you have powers then?” the Chief asked.

“No, they must’ve have developed after my injury,” John replied.

“Well,” Dillon said, getting up and looking at his watch. “We’re going to pick this up again another time. And I’ll bring Anna after she’s healed.”

“You know something bigger’s coming, right?” John called after him.

“Like what?” the Chief turned back.

“The beginning of the end.”

Dillon looked at him for a minute before leaving the room, the door shutting behind him.

Chapter 4: Burning Lights
Anna…

Anna…

You have to get up, sweetheart…

Get up…

She sat bolt-upright in bed, scaring the two people at her side.

“Anna!” Nicole exclaimed, hugging the woman who was looking around confused.

“Nicole?” she said, finally hugging her back. “What happened?”

“You don’t remember?” Nicole replied.

Anna rubbed her head. “I remember… being in the parking lot… and then… John.”

“Yeah that psycho,” the man said, Albert.

“Albert?” Anna asked. “What are you doing here?”

“Keeping Nicole company while she keeps you company,” the man replied.

“That’s… sweet?”

“Thanks,” Albert nodded.

“So like, when can I go?” Anna asked.

“Uh… I think the doctor said… uh?” she turned to Albert.

“I think he said after he examined you after you woke up.”

“Well, where’s the doctor? I want to go.”

Albert stood up. “I can go find him. Don’t go away,” he smiled at Anna, who smiled back.

The man then left the room, leaving Nicole and Anna alone. The blonde-haired girl turned to her friend.

“You like him, don’t you.”

“What? I barely know him,” Anna said at once.

“Yeah but I feel something between you two.”

“Well there is nothing.”

“We’ll see.”

Suddenly Albert came back in with a man in a white coat behind him, who’s face brightened as soon as he saw that Anna was awake and alert.

“Ah, miss Brail. Glad to see that you’re finally awake. How do you feel?”

“I hurt pretty much everywhere,” Anna replied, holding her stomach.

The doctor chuckled. “Yes, that’s to be expected. You have bruising all over your body.”

“How long until I can go?”

“I’ll need to do an examination, and if you pass, then you can go.”

“Of course,” Anna nodded her head.

An hour later they were coming down the elevator and out the front door of the hospital. Nicole had brought a fresh dress from Anna’s apartment to change into once she was discharged from the hospital. They came into the parking lot and arrived at Nicole’s car. They got in, with Anna in the backseat and Albert and Nicole in the front.

“Hey thanks for saving me, Albert,” Anna said, leaning into the front seat.

“No problem, Anna,” he replied.

Neither one noticed Nicole smiling at this.

She had made it.

Finally.

It had been a good three weeks of going from bus to bus to get to New Hampton, and even then she couldn’t be taken directly into the city, as it had been sealed off by the mysterious Ravenger.

She now stood in front of the entrance to one of the tunnels to the city, a pile of rocks protruding from the opening. Easily several hundred tons of stone filled the entire tunnel through the mountains, and would take months to clear out.

Jessica walked up to the boulders and placed her hand on one. She could feel all the different textures and layers within each boulder. The girl closed her eyes and concentrated.

Suddenly blue energy arched from her hand and covered the rocks, glowing brighter, and brighter before the light concealed both the girl and the tunnel entrance.

Then there was a massive blast of sound and a gust of wind before the energy disappeared and the girl fell to the ground, out of breath.

She then looked up from the ground at her handiwork. All the rubble throughout the entire tunnel had been vaporized.

Jessica smiled to herself. “Shouldn’t have given me powers, old man.”

Picking up her bag again, she walked off down the tunnel.

“So how are you feeling today, Ravenger?” Chief Dillon asked as he entered the room.

“If you value your life,” the defeated terrorist said. “You will release me.”

Dillon chuckled. “Yeah that won’t be happening.”

“And why not?”

“Do I need to go through the list again?”

Ravenger said nothing.

The Chief smiled. “Thought so.”

The terrorist sighed. “Why are you here?”

“Because I want you to tell me who you work for.”

“I’ve told; I don’t work for anyone.”

“We both know that’s a lie, Ravenger,” the Chief approached the containment cell. “Now talk.”

Suddenly an officer came in panting, obviously having ran here. Dillon turned at his arrival.

“What is it, officer?”

“A tunnel’s been cleared,” the officer gasped.

“Thanks for giving me a ride back to my apartment, you guys,” Anna said, stepping out of the car.

“No problem,” Nicole replied.

The three walked across the parking garage towards the door that led into the staircase. While they were crossing, Nicole’s phone buzzed and she pulled it out to look at it before stopping, like she was stuck in place. The other two stopped as well and looked at her.

“What’s wrong, Nicole?” Anna asked.

“We have to get to your apartment. Now,” Nicole said.

Together, the three of them rushed up the stairs until they were on Anna’s floor and ran to her apartment where she quickly unlocked her door and they ran in and Nicole flipped on her friend’s TV to a breaking news report.

“''Again, we are getting confirmed reports that one of the tunnels through the mountains that had been sealed off during the Ravenger invasion has been reopened by an unknown force. Reports say that not only are the rocks gone, but it seems that they had been turned to dust. A Super is suspected to have destroyed the rock.''”

“Another Super in New Hampton?” Anna almost laughed. “This is getting ridiculous.”

“More on the developing situation next.”

“We have to find whoever did that, like right now,” the woman turned to her two friends.

Nicole was about to respond when there was a raping on the door, causing the three to look at each other when Anna went to the door and looked through the peephole to see a black-haired girl standing there.

“It’s a… girl.”

She looked back at Nicole and Albert, who shrugged. Anna rolled her eyes and pulled open the door. The girl was dressed in all-black; a black dress, black leggings and a black hoodie. She was also carrying a large duffel bag and her blue eyes seemed to light up when she saw Anna standing there.

“I’ve been looking for you,” she said, smiling.

“Okay this needs to stop,” Claire Darrel groaned as she walked up next to her partner, Matthew Weaver.

“What needs to stop?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“All this stuff with Supers. One destroys the tunnels and another fixes them. Can’t they just leave this stuff alone?”

He chuckled. “You know if Anna left this stuff alone, the city would be a lot deeper trouble.”

“Yeah I know but this is getting ridiculous.”

“Yes it is.”

An officer came up to them.

“Sir, ma’am, you’re not going to believe this,” the officer said, before turning back towards the tunnel, Matthew and Claire following.

They walked into the mountain where the officer knelt down and picked up a hand-full of dust in his hand.

“Now watch this,” he said.

He then threw the dust up into the air when suddenly there were several sparks of blue following the dust as it fell.

“What the heck?” Claire explained, taking a step back.

“Must be residue from whatever Super did this,” the officer said, turning back to his two superiors.

“That seemed similar to what Ravenger’s able to do. Electricity-based, I mean,” Matthew said.

“My thoughts exactly, sir.”

Claire smiled at Matthew. “Maybe it’s time to call up Anna.”

“Maybe,” Matthew replied, pulling out his phone. “Good work, officer.”

The man nodded. “Thanks, sir.”

The two then turned and walked out of the tunnel as Matthew typed something into his phone. Claire bumped into him slightly.

“So how are you and Anna getting on?”

“What do you mean?” Matthew said, looking at his partner confused.

“I mean are you back together yet? Tell me tell me tell me.”

“No we’re not back together. I doubt we ever will.”

“Oh come on. You know you will eventually.”

Matthew shook his head. “Nah. I’m sure she’ll find another man who’s perfect for her.”

“Who are you?” Albert asked, stepping forward towards the girl.

“The name’s Jessica Sapphire,” the black-haired girl replied, setting down her duffel bag.

Nicole shook her head. “Wait, Sapphire? Jessica Sapphire? The girl that went missing two years ago from Alberta?”

“That’s me.”

“Where have you been all this time?” Nicole asked, obviously startled.

“Held captive,” she shrugged.

“You said you’ve been looking for me. Why?” Anna interrupted.

“Because you’re the only one who can help me.”

“With what?”

“This,” the girl held her hand out and blue energy swirled around in her palm.

The other three gasped and took a step back.

“You’re… a Super?” Anna asked.

“You tell me.”

“Wait, are you the one who cleared out the tunnel?” Albert questioned.

“Yep.”

“Why’d you do that?” Nicole asked.

“Because I needed to find Anna Brail,” Jessica said, looking to Anna.

“How can I help you with your powers?”

“Because you defeated one of my captor’s creations.”

Anna gasped. “Ravenger?”

She nodded. “My captors like to experiment with powers. That’s how I got this,” light flickered in her hand again.

“Is that why you were kidnapped?” Nicole raised an eyebrow. “Because they wanted to experiment on you?”

“They must’ve somehow found some sort of enhanced DNA in my blood.”

“And they killed your family for that?” Albert asked.

Jessica looked down sadly. Anna put her hand on the girl’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry.”

Suddenly the girl hugged Anna.

“Thank you.”

“Sir, you’re not going to like this,” the man said as he entered the room.

He sighed. “Oh joy, another one.”

The man came over to the desk and placed a phone face-down on the glass desk and ring of light surrounded it before projecting an image of a girl with black hair dressed in a black dress and hoodie walking on the street with a large duffel bag on her shoulder.

“That’s her,” the man in the wheelchair said. “She’s in New Hampton.”

“What do you want us to do, sir?”

He stroked his chin. “Find her and bring her to me. But do not be seen doing so. No one can find out what we really do here.”

The man nodded before turning to leave when the other man called after him.

“And if you happen to find Anna Brail,” he smiled. “Don’t hesitate to take her as well.”

He smirked. “Yes sir.”

Fire.

Fire had always been a part of his life.

His parents had died in a house fire when he was four years old. His father had saved him first and laid him out on the lawn before running back in to get his mother.

Neither of them came out.

Then he went to live with his grandparents, on his mother’s side, of course. Both his grandparent’s on his father’s side were dead.

He hated every minute of being with them. They usually kept him inside and hired a private tutor to school him. He never knew why.

Then when he was fourteen they decided to let him go to public school like any normal kid, and he instantly became friends with a few other kids, of course they were followers, seeing him as superior to him. They were essentially his bodyguards throughout high school and into college.

And then she came along. That brown and black haired girl he fell head over heels for. And she him. But as quickly as things had fallen into place, they shattered apart. Her religious views kept her from doing the things he wanted to do with her, and her to do for him. And they fought, where she revealed her true nature as a Super.

Then he realized he had to end her. The abomination that she was.

He then attempted to kill her while she slept. He and his associates tried to burn her and her apartment, make it look like an accident, but instead she bested them all with her abilities and threw John out of her window and broke his back in seven places.

When he got out of the hospital several weeks later, he was also expelled from Salem University and then arrested and was in prison for three years. Then he was released and he vowed that the next time he ran into that dark haired girl, he would end her.

Then he developed powers.

One day he got into a street fight with a few scums from a bar and was forced to fight them. However they quickly overwhelmed him and he thought that they were going to kill him when suddenly fire became to spew from his hands. With no control, he incinerated the four and left only their ashes that blew away in the wind.

After that fight it stopped before it happened again, and again, and again. How had he become a Super? He didn’t know. Maybe it was in his genetic code and just latent.

Suddenly he was shaken from his thoughts when the prison door opened and the Chief walked in followed by two guards and a man in a gray suit carrying a briefcase.

“Mister Arwin,” Dillon said. “As you are in the United States of America, you have the right to an attorney, and since you cannot afford an attorney, one is being appointed to you by the State of Washington.”

“Joy,” John replied sarcastically.

“Well, hello, mister Arwin,” the lawyer said, walking up to the four-inch thick glass that separated them. “I’m Marcus Jonson. I’ll be your lawyer for the upcoming court case.”

“Yeah I figured that much,” the man in the cell scoffed.

The man chuckled nervously. “Well, anyway we’ll need to discuss your stance in the case and how you can win.”

“That Brail girl deserved what she got,” he said. “Payback for nearly killing me four years ago.”

“She almost killed you?”

“Yeah, back in late 2013. Threw me out a window.”

“Well, that’s-.”

The Chief interrupted them. “You provoked her, didn’t you.”

John said nothing, causing the Chief to smile.

“Anyway, I’ll leave you two to it,” Dillon said, walking towards the door again. “Got to deal with the new Super in town.”

Watching the door swing close, Marcus pulled up a chair that was against the wall and sat down, opening his briefcase and sorting through it.

“What did he mean, ‘new Super’?” John asked, leaning forward.

The lawyer looked up. “What? Oh yes. Someone cleared out the tunnels into the city, probably a Super. Which reminds me, how did you get into the city?”

“How do you think I got this?” he smiled, pulling back a tuff of his hair to reveal a bloody cut.

“Why didn’t you tell anyone about that?”

“Didn’t want to.”

“So you went through the mountains? That’s suicide.”

“Yet here I am.”

Silence.

Marcus collected himself again. “Anyway, we must prepare you for the trial.”

As the lawyer went through his documents, John quietly chuckled to himself before mumbling.

“Oh, there’s not going to be a trial.”

Chapter 5: Eternal Flame
“So… these people, they experimented on you based on some latent gene in you and they unlocked it to give you powers?” Anna asked, pacing the room while the girl sat on her couch.

“Yep,” Jessica replied.

“And obviously they’re criminals,” she said, stopping across from her. “Because Human experimentation is illegal, especially because of us Supers.”

“Who even are they?” Nicole asked, sitting down next to the girl.

“I don’t know. It’s not like they put logos all over the building,” she replied. “But I do know one of the men who experimented on me. An old guy in a wheelchair.”

Albert almost laughed. “An old guy in a wheelchair? Better check the retirement homes. The hospitals. The streets. There’s hundreds of them in New Hampton alone. And where did you say you came from?”

“Alberta.”

“Even better. Another city entirely!”

“Albert,” Anna said sternly. “We’re trying to help her.”

“I know, I know,” Albert replied, standing up and walking over to her, looking down at her as he was several inches taller than her.

“But it’s going to be nearly impossible to find this guy, especially if they’re hiding out.”

“They’re ready for you, Professor,” the man said as he walked in the room.

The old man wheeled around to face him before nodding. “Yes. Thank you.”

The guard nodded before leaving, the old man following in his chair. The man stood aside as the one in the wheelchair rolled past towards the elevator, four more guards flanking him as he went. The doors to the lift opened and they all boarded. One of the guards pressed the button for floor thirty-six, just three floors below them.

Just a few weeks earlier this building has been taken over by Ravenger during his invasion, and from the roof he had planned to watch the city burn. But then that girl, Anna Brail, had chased him down and threw him off the building, and she ended his reign of terror right then and there.

The elevator came to a stop on the thirty-sixth floor and the five went out through a large area and turned off through a thick wooden door and into a conference room, where several people were sitting and waiting for him.

As soon as he entered the room they all stood up as he wheeled himself to his place at the head of the table.

“You can be seated,” he said to the collective. “This isn’t a courtroom.”

The group laughed before taking their seats. The man smiled before putting his arms on the table.

“As you all know, three weeks ago we were invaded and taken over by that lunatic Ravenger,” he began. “Luckily, and thankfully, that vigilante Anna Brail saved us, and the entire city. But, what happens when she retires? Or worse? Who will protect us when she’s gone?”

“The Police?” one man said.

“True true,” the man nodded. “But I’m thinking about more threats like Ravenger. While the Police did a good job, Anna Brail is the one who ultimately defeated him.”

“So what do you propose, Professor Williams?” a woman asked.

“I propose we make our own Supers.”

This was met with a collective gasp from the people in the room.

He smiled. “Yeah, I figured you’d say that.”

“But sir,” the woman spoke again. “Human experimentation is illegal.”

“Yes, of course it is. But it’s not really experimentation-.”

“What are you talking about? Of course it’s experimentation!” one man said, standing up.

“Now calm down-.”

“No! This is insane! You know what, mister Williams?” the man shot back. “I’ve been fed up with your questionable business practices for years now, but this is it. I’m done. Consider this my resignation.”

Suddenly he spat at the man in the wheelchair and storm out of the room past the guards, who had their hands on their gun holsters.

“What?” he almost laughed. “Are you going to shoot me?”

The guards just stared at him.

“That’s what I thought.”

And with that he stormed off and into one of the elevators and disappeared from sight, while all the others in the room stared after him. Looking to one of the guards, Williams nodded and the guard nodded back before leaving the room as well.

“Well,” he said, trying to get their attention back. “As I was saying, it’s not exactly experimentation because we’re going to prove the science in a lab before we use it on a person.”

“But that’s still experimentation,” another man said.

“I like to think of it as a moral gray-area.”

“If the authorities find out about this, and they will, they will have your head,” one of the women replied.

“Then we’ll make sure we stay in that gray-area,” the man smiled.

As he walked down the hall to his daughter’s apartment, he heard voices coming from the room. Coming up to the door, he heard them more clearly, four distinct voices. Maybe Matthew was there also. But he noticed that three of the voices were female while one was male.

Raising his eyebrow, he raised his hand to the door and knocked on it. Immediately the talking stopped before he heard footsteps coming over before the door swung open to reveal his daughter standing there.

“Dad,” she said.

“Anna,” he smiled.

“Who is that?” a voice called from within.

Mark raised an eyebrow again and looked in to see a black-haired girl sitting on the couch looking at him with Nicole and Albert behind her.

“Who’s she?” he asked, looking at the girl.

“That’s Jessica Sapphire,” Anna said. “She’s the one who opened the tunnel.”

Mark’s expression became one of surprise. “That was you?”

Anna looked up and down the hallway. “You’d best come inside, dad.”

“I’d better,” he agreed, before stepping inside, his daughter closing the door behind him.

“Hello again, mister Brail,” Albert waved to the man, who merely nodded back. Anna joined him and he leaned over.

“Is your dad okay?”

“I think he doesn’t like you yet,” she whispered back.

“Why not?” he asked.

She smiled. “Because he thinks you have a crush on me.”

He straightened back up as his face went red, and the girl let out a chuckle.

“Exactly.”

“What are you doing here?” Mark asked, sitting down next to Jessica.

“Looking for her,” she said, looking to Anna.

“Why are you looking for my daughter?”

“Because she’s the only one who can help me with this,” Jessica flexed her hand and blue energy crackled around it, causing the man to gasp.

“Another Super in this city?”

“Yep,” Nicole said.

“This is way more than just coincidence,” Mark stood up, walking around Anna’s living room. “First Ravenger, then that John scum, and then Jessica here.”

He stopped and looked at the four. “Something is happening here.”

Anna laughed. “Okay, let me get you a tinfoil hat, dad-.”

“No I’m serious,” he snapped. “Your mother was always worried more Supers would be turning up after you were born.”

“After I was born? Why? Why would she think that?”

He sighed. “Your mother never shared the complete history of her and your abilities, but she did tell me that they date back a least a thousand years.”

“A thousand years?” she created a ball of air in her hand. “This has been passed down for thousands of years?”

“Not within the same bloodline, but yes.”

Anna held her head. “That’s… insane.”

“What else did she say?” Nicole asked.

“She said that there were others, others like her who had control over an element.”

“What others?” Jessica inquired.

“Water. Earth,” he let out a sigh. “And Fire.”

Anna, Nicole and Albert let out a collective gasp.

“Oh my gosh,” the black and brown haired girl said. “John?”

He nodded. “Most likely.”

“So how come this is the first I’m hearing about this?”

“Because your mother wanted to wait until you were older to tell you-.”

“Well that worked out great,” she said sarcastically.

“Anna,” he said sternly. “This is serious. Something is coming. Something deadly.”

“Like what?” Nicole asked.

Mark shook his head. “I don’t know. Rose didn’t even know.”

“Alright,” Anna said. “Aside from making me paranoid, how does this actually help me?”

“You just need to be ready, my dear.”

Anna wasn’t answering his calls. That either meant she had lost her phone or something had happened. And usually with that woman, it was that something had happened.

He stopped his car in the garage and got out and walked, maybe a little too quickly, towards the elevator. Pressing the button as he walked in, he ascended upwards, unsure of what he was going to find when he arrived.

Stopping on her floor, he almost jogged out of the elevator and down the hallway to Anna’s door. As soon as he reached it, he pounded on it.

“Anna? Are you okay? Anna?” he called, nearly yelling.

Suddenly the door opened, Anna startled by his pounding and shouting.

“What the heck is wrong with you?” she said, pulling him inside and shutting the door.

“You weren’t answering your phone, and I thought something had happened to you.”

She smiled. “Come on, Matthew. You know me better than that.”

Returning the grin, he looked around at the other people in her apartment, taking note that the individuals included Nicole, Mark, Albert and a black-haired girl who stood up at his arrival.

“Hey Matthew,” Nicole waved shyly.

“Hey sis,” he smiled before turning to the girl who had her fists clenched.

“Who are you?” she demanded, her blue eyes boring into his.

“I’m Matthew Weaver. I’m with the New Hampton Police,” he pulled out his wallet and handed it to her, showing her his badge and identification.

“Alright,” she handed it back to him. “You don’t know who you can trust these days.”

He put his wallet back in his pocket. “Now, who are you?”

“I’m Jessica Sapphire,” she said. “I’m the one who opened the tunnel.”

“Jessica Sapphire? The girl who was abducted two years ago? How did you get powers?” astonishment filled his voice.

“They experimented on me… unlocking some latent gene or something,” she was obviously uncomfortable talking about this.

“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” Anna comforted her.

She suddenly hugged her again, surprising them all. Anna saw Matthew’s expression and smiled awkwardly.

“Yeah she does this a lot.”

“So,” Albert said, breaking the awkward moment. “What do we do now?”

“Well I’m sure the acting Mayor’s going to want to meet miss Sapphire here,” Matthew replied.

“Why?” the girl’s expression suddenly turned scared.

“Because you cleared out that tunnel. You’ve opened the city back up to the outside world.”

“It’ll be fine,” Nicole assured her.

“If you say so...” Jessica said, still unsure.

He had always thought that Professor Williams was an amoral man, but kept quiet, mainly because the job he had was a well-paying one, but this, this was insane. Human experimentation was outlawed with the adoption of the Supers Act nearly a decade ago.

The man pulled out his car keys as he approached the silver vehicle in the nearly-abandoned part of the parking garage and clicked the button, the lights flashing as his door unlocked. He pressed it again and all the doors of the car unlocked and he opened the driver’s side backdoor and threw his briefcase in and slammed the door closed.

Cursing under his breath, he pulled open his door and ducked into the driver’s seat before pulling the door closed again. Fastening his seat belt and shoving the key into the ignition, the engine roared into life. Throwing it into reverse, the car backed out of its spot and he began to drive out of the parking garage.

He assumed his profile had been terminated, but it would be fine. He didn’t have a family to support, so only he would suffer, and he wouldn’t suffer for long, because he was sure he would get a new job soon.

“Williams will see-,” the man said before he was cut off by a new voice.

“He will see what, mister Anderson?”

The man jerked his head around to see a buff figure clad in all black with a shaved head and stubble, a gun in his hand pointed which at Anderson’s head.

“How the heck did you-.”

“Eyes on the road. You don’t want to get us both killed,” the man said, gesturing to the road with his firearm.

Reluctantly, Anderson turned back to the wheel, sweat beginning to form on his brow.

“How did you get in my car?”

The man chuckled. “This isn’t my first rodeo, mister Anderson.”

“What do you want?” he turned down another street.

“Well, you’re a threat, and it’s my job to eliminate those.”

“How am I threat?”

“Well, you did just speak out against the Professor, and we can’t have you doing that now, can we?”

The man almost chuckled. “And you’re afraid I’ll ruin him that way? By speaking?”

“No,” the other man said. “By digging deeper.”

Anderson laughed. “At least I was right about him being a corrupt old man. Just wait until the truth gets out.”

“Oh, but the truth won’t be getting out until it’s too late.”

“Until what’s too late?”

“The end of the beginning.”

And then the gun went off.

There was no margin for error.

No place for weakness.

Corruption was a cancer, and what did you do with cancer if you could? Cut it out and throw it away. Not let it fester and bring everyone down.

That’s why Anderson had to be removed from the equation. He was too much of a threat to his cause. They could not let him find out more about what FuturTech was really doing.

The meeting had started on an uneasy note and ended on a slightly stronger one. Of course they were still unsure of his new desires, who wouldn’t? Despite him convincing him he was not up to evil intentions, it most likely lingered at the back of everyone’s minds.

As the door closed behind him, the Professor rolled over to his desk. Activating his computer, he closed the blinds in the room, submerging himself in darkness.

Now that he was secure, he entered a password into his computer before a wall of files appeared on the screen. Scrolling until he found one marked ‘Supers’, he clicked it where it brought him to another list of files.

The names on the files included, but were not limited to: Anna Brail, Jessica Sapphire, Ravenger, the ‘Master of Water’, John Arwin and ‘Project Omega’.

Scrolling past the ‘Master of Water’, the Professor clicked on John Arwin’s file. As he clicked on it, several files and pictured popped up, showing a man in his early twenties dressed in a red coat and jeans with shaggy black hair. The most peculiar part about him, however, were his orange eyes.

“So, Mister Arwin,” the man said to himself. “You can control fire.”

He pressed escape and scrolled over to the file marked Project Omega.

“You’ll be a fine addition to the Project.”

Time was not on his side.

His lawyer was due any minute, and the plastic wall that separated him from them wasn’t soft enough for him to punch through. They hadn’t used metal bars because he could easily melt or reach through those, and they hadn’t used glass because he would’ve shattered it very quickly, so plastic seemed the most logical choice.

But if there was one lesson he learned from gaining these powers: it was that everything burns.

The clock continued to tick on towards three, meaning he didn’t have much more time before he got busted. Just a little more…

Suddenly he heard someone coming towards the room and quickly removed his hand from the plastic as it began to cool down, the orange fading away. Moments later the door opened and Marcus Johnson walked through the door. John just stood there, staring.

“Mister Arwin,” he smiled. “How are you today.”

The man’s fist clenched, slowing turning orange. His eyes did not waver, however.

“Are you okay?” the lawyer got closer.

Suddenly John thrust his hand forward and ball of fire shot out and struck the plastic. As soon as the flaming projectile made contact with the already-fragile material, it shattered into a million pieces and flew outwards at the lawyer.

In an instant shards struck his chest, arms, legs and throat. He grabbed his neck as blood poured out. John wasted no time and ran forward, his hands on fire. He grabbed the lawyer by the throat, both a good and very painful thing, as the flames cauterized the slash but was also burning his skin.

“A word of advice, mister Johnson,” the man said, holding him against the wall as his neck smoked.

“Don’t represent the psychotic ones.”

He squeezed harder before the man’s body fell to the ground followed by another round object, which rolled to a stop beside the corpse.

Turning towards the door, he estimated that there were several guards outside, and he wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to take them all on, but it wasn’t like he had anything to lose.

Suddenly the door opened and three guards came in and pointed their guns at him, taking in the sight.

“On your knees!” the lead officer barked. “Now!”

“How about no?”

Suddenly the man swung around with his leg as a trail of fire followed, spinning outwards at the guards. They all ducked down to dodge the flaming streak heading towards them, granting enough time for John to run forward and strike the first one in the face with his hand, followed by kicking another in the chest and grabbing one of their batons and striking the last in the head.

No time to lose, he ran out of the room and into the hallway where several officers were coming down the corridor to meet him.

“This’ll be fun,” the man smiled to himself before running forward, fire trailing behind him.

Chapter 6: From Shadows
“Anna, who chose you to drive?” Albert said as they walked out of the elevator.

“I did,” she replied, unlocking her vehicle.

“Why?”

“Because it’s my apartment building and I’m the one with my keys out,” she said, ducking into her black car.

“I’m just going to go with Matthew,” he joined the other man as he walked to his navy-blue Police-issued vehicle.

“Okay,” Anna shrugged.

Albert shook his head as the rest of them ducked into her vehicle: Mark in front, Nicole behind Anna and Jessica behind Mark.

Matthew nodded to the dark-haired woman as he pulled out, when she soon followed. Turning out of the parking garage, they drove down the street towards the capital.

“Is the acting Mayor nice?” Jessica asked, looking towards Anna.

“I wouldn’t know. I haven’t met her.”

“Why not?” the girl inquired. “Didn’t you save the city or something?”

“Yes but I think she just has a lot on her plate at the moment, you know with rebuilding the city and all. And dealing with the fallout of the invasion and the previous Mayor’s death.”

“Did you know the previous Mayor?” Jessica asked.

“No,” she said, an undertone of sadness in her voice. “But I was there when he died. I just wish I had been able to save him.”

“You did the best you could, Anna,” Nicole tried to comfort her.

“Did I, though?” she said suddenly. “Did I really do all I could do?”

After that was silence.

The enclosed space made it difficult for both parties to fight, but that didn’t stop the man from firing blasts of flame at the guards approaching him. Nonetheless, there was not much the guards could do about blocking the balls of fire striking them.

One guard drew a baton and struck John from behind, causing him to fall forward. As he went forward, a man in front of him struck him in the face, sending him back towards the other officer. While he was going back he thrust his hands forward and blasted fire at the one in front of him. The fire sent him back and he flipped in midair and landed on the other officer, knocking him out.

A moment later a gunshot rung out and pain shot through his shoulder as blood trailed out with the bullet. He stumbled forward before swinging around to see an officer with his gun pointed at him, barrel smoking.

“You shouldn’t have done that.”

“Oh you think?” he said before firing off another round.

The bullet pierced his leg and caused him to buckle under his own weight. The other officers had begun to come around and quickly surrounded him. They quickly slapped a pair of handcuffs on his wrists, which caused him to smile.

“You know these won’t keep me, right?”

“We know,” the officer who had shot him said.

Suddenly a fist came from his left and he fell into darkness.

“How much longer?” Jessica asked.

Anna chuckled. “Man you really want to meet the Mayor.”

“Because there’s something I need to tell her.”

“Like what?” Nicole inquired.

Jessica took a deep breath. “About the people who kept me locked up. I learned at least one thing during my time in captivity about them. They’re in a position of trust here.”

“Who?” Mark turned around to look at her.

Suddenly in front of them a silver car sped through the intersection and struck Matthew’s vehicle in the side and caused it to spin out. Anna slammed on her breaks, lurching them forward as they skidded to a halt.

As they recovered, Anna saw the backseat door of the other car swing open and figure stumble out and begin to run from the scene. In the front seat was a man leaning against his seat, his face bloodied. Then she saw the bullet hole in his forehead.

“No way...”

Unbuckling from her seat and throwing open the door, she ran out of the car, ignoring the calls of her passengers as she ran after the man.

It wasn’t long before he noticed that he had a tail on him and quickly pulled out a firearm and began to shoot at the girl. Using her abilities, she flipped out of the way and blasted a gust of air at the man, knocking him off balance.

However, an instant later he recovered himself and continued his run, much to the surprise of his pursuer. She saw him turn down an alleyway and quickly followed him.

As she ran after him, he fired another bullet at her, and it the enclosed space there was almost nowhere to duck to avoid it. She did the best she could and tried moving out of the way, and somehow managed to dodge them. One bullet grazed the brick wall to her right, leaving a carving in it.

Moments later they burst into an open area between buildings. Now that there was no further enclosure, the man opened fire on the girl as she came into the area. She barely had time to flip out of the way as bullet whizzed at her. As she came back down, the gun suddenly ran out of ammo.

But he had been prepared for this and as he disengaged the first magazine, he slapped another one in its place and continued to fire.

A moment later a bullet grazed her side, causing her to keel over in pain. But pain was not a luxury she could afford, as she saw the man suddenly run up to her and swing at her with the gun. Anna barely ducked out of the way as the butt of the gun flew past her.

Recovering herself she stretched out her hand to try and send a gust of air at him but he quickly struck her arm with his firearm, an intense pain shooting through her wrist.

Just managing to jump out of the way as he swung at her face with his weapon, she kicked forward, blasting him with air across the alley. He landed and fired at her again. She flipped out of the way and sent slashes of air at him. The man demonstrated his own athletic abilities by jumping over her attack and fire another round of bullets at her.

She shot a blast of air at him and managed to knock the firearm out of his hand. Now that he was at a disadvantage, Anna smiled and ran at the man. But before she could reach him, he reached behind his back and quickly pulled out what looked like a sword handle. And as suddenly as it appeared a blade was extended from it and swinging towards the girl.

Using a gust of air to propel herself away as the sword passed by her. She landed and tried to blast air at the man but he was quickly on top of her and swinging his blade down. Anna flipped out of the way as the sword came at her again.

“A freaking sword?” she panted as she landed again before he lunged at her.

He swung at her again and she jumped over it but he suddenly kicked her in the stomach and sent her flying into a wall. She fell to the ground as her world spun around her and her vision blurred. He approached her and readied his blade, ready to end her.

“You’ve messed with the wrong forces, Anna Brail,” the man said. “And now you’re going to pay the price.”

Suddenly his sword flew from his hand and clattered to the ground some feet away. He looked over to the entrance to the alley to see a girl with black hair in a black dress, black leggings and a black hoodie with her hand outstretched, glowing with energy. Behind her was another girl with blonde hair and wearing blue jeans, a blue shirt and a white jacket.

“Jessica,” the man gasped.

“You,” Jessica replied.

In an instant he darted towards one of the walls of the alley and jumped at one of the walls, landing and kicking off of it to the wall to his left, then kicking off of that one and then landing on the next one, repeating the action again and landing on the roof above and out of sight.

Jessica attempted to fire blasts of energy, but he was gone before she could get a hit on him. As soon as he vanished they both rushed over to Anna and helped her up.

“Anna, are you okay?” Nicole asked.

The girl held her head. “My head’s spinning and my side hurts but otherwise I’m fine.”

Jessica looked at Anna’s side and gasped. “You’ve been shot!”

“It’s just a flesh wound,” she responded recently. “I’ve had plenty of those over the past few months.”

The two women helped their friend up and assisted her out of the alleyway when two officers came in.

“What happened here?” one of the officers asked.

“That man killed the driver of the car that crashed into Detective Weaver and fled. I pursued and we fought. He got away,” Anna replied, undertones of pain in her voice.

“And who are you three?” the other officer asked.

“I’m Nicole Weaver,” the blonde-haired girl said. “This is Anna Brail and Jessica Sapphire.”

The two officers looked at each other.

“You’ll need to come with us,” the first one said.

Anna nodded and her two companions followed the police through the maze of alleys they had come from and out onto the street where three more police cars and an ambulance were now parked. As they approached Albert came towards them.

“Anna!” the two men called at the sight of her.

“Hey,” she replied weakly.

Albert replaced Jessica in supporting her. “Are you okay?”

“I will be.”

They walked her back to an ambulance and sat her down as a paramedic began to tend to her wounds. Albert sat down next to her.

“What happened?”

“I fought with the guy who killed the driver of that car,” she indicated the car that had crashed into him and Matthew. “He had a gun and grazed me a few times, but I managed to get it out of his hand. And then he drew a collapsible sword.”

“A freaking sword?” he gasped.

She nodded. “Like a ninja. Which I guess would explain his choice of attire, his combat skills, and the way he got out of the alley.”

“How did he?”

“He jumped.”

Albert rubbed his stubble. “This guy really is a ninja.”

“Usually I would say that’s impossible but after everything that’s happened recently,” she took a deep breath. “Anything is possible.”

“I mean you do have superpowers,” he smiled.

She chuckled. “Yeah I guess you’re right.”

“What are you going to do now?”

“I guess I’m going to have to get patched up before the cops ask me some questions. Technically I broke the agreement,” she winced a little as the medic tended to the gash in her side.

Then Jessica came up to them.

“I’m so sorry for this,” she said.

Anna was confused. “What do you mean?”

“I should have been straight with you from the beginning.”

“Straight with me about what?”

The girl’s face turned grim. “I know that man.”

She suddenly remembered. “And he remembered you.”

Jessica nodded.

“Who was he?”

“I don’t know his name, but he was at the compound I was kept in.”

Her and Albert’s eyes widened. “What was he doing in New Hampton?” she asked.

“Probably looking for me.”

“How would they even know you were here?” Albert interjected.

She shook her head. “I don’t know. Maybe they embedded a tracker when they were torturing me? Maybe one of their informants saw me. Anything’s possible.”

“Then we need to be watching our backs,” Anna said.

“You mean I need to be watching my back.”

Anna looked at her with her green eyes, suddenly serious. “No. We’re in this together now. Until the end.”

“Thank you,” Jessica replied, hugging her again.

He was awoken by the sound of an older man’s voice echoing through the chamber.

“Mister Arwin,” the man in the wheelchair said as he peered over his glasses.

John looked around his prison, which, unbeknownst to him, was identical to the one that held Ravenger.

“Who… who are you,” Arwin asked, blinking his eyes heavily to get them in focus.

“Marcus Williams,” the old man replied, a twinkle in his brown eyes. “But you can call me the Professor.”

He chuckled. “What? Did you come up with that one yourself?”

The Professor smiled. “One does not spend as much time in my field as I have without eventually being referred to as that.”

“I think they just call you that because you’re old.”

“Perhaps.”

The man in the cage looked at the man in the wheelchair with his orange eyes. “What field? Science I’m assuming, but which branch of science?”

“I’m a Biologist. I study living organisms, such as plants, animals, people. But I specialize in DNA.”

“So what do you want with me?” John asked.

“Well, if my theory is correct, you and Anna Brail have your powers encoded in your DNA, and is able to be passed on to your offspring. If you have one, of course.”

“So what? You want to experiment on me?”

“Precisely. And the young Brail girl.”

John nearly laughed. “The cops would never let you do that.”

“Well, it just so happens that I happen to be very good friends with the Interim Mayor of this city,” the Professor leaned forward in his wheelchair. “I’m sure she’d make Chief Dillon handed you over into my custody.”

“I won’t let you get away with this!” he tried to break free of his restraints.

Williams smiled again. “But mister Arwin, I already have.”

He then pulled out a small remote-like device and held it up as John looked at it. The Professor smiled before pressing a button. Suddenly blazing pain shot through his body as he was electrocuted by the cage that held him. He screamed while the blue light covered him before it disappeared and he slumped in his restraints, unconscious.

“We’ll talk again soon, mister Arwin,” the Professor smiled as he looked over his spectacles.

“Miss Brail?” the man said, entering the room.

“Yes?” she looked up at him.

The man sat down across from her, putting a file down in front of himself. “I’m Deputy District Attorney Ronald Nathanson.”

He was a man in his forties wearing a very dark gray suit and a white shirt with a blue tie. He had brown hair which was slowly turning silver and blue eyes.

“What do you want?” Anna asked.

He opened his file. “Well for starters, do you want a lawyer? Mister Nolan, isn’t it?”

“I don’t need Alex right now.”

“Are you sure, ma’am?”

“Yeah I don’t need-,” she was cut off as the door opened and Alex Nolan came through.

“Anna stop talking,” he said, hastily sitting down next to her.

She was confused. “Alex? What are you doing here? I didn’t call you.”

“You’re right, but Nicole did.”

“I’m fine, Alex.”

“No. You’re only going to make this worse,” he insisted.

She slumped in her chair. “Fine.”

“Alright,” her attorney said. He looked at the Deputy District Attorney. “Charges?”

The man looked over his files. “Well, now that you’re here, mister Nolan, we can begin. Before noon today, around Eleven O’Clock, Anna Brail was involved in a car accident which turned out to be a murder. The suspect fled the scene and miss Brail chased after him down and alleyway and fought with him until he managed to escape.”

“So what’s the problem here, Ronald?” Alex raised an eyebrow.

“This is a clear violation of the special order placed upon Anna at her trial which stated that she is no longer permitted to act as a vigilante in any medium.”

“Well, let’s say if my client hadn’t chased after your suspect; we wouldn’t have the faintest clue what he looked like and any idea what kind of man he is.”

Nathanson chuckled. “That would be true, if miss Brail can even remember what the man looked like.”

Alex looked at her. “Can you?”

“I could try,” she replied.

He looked back to the DDA. “Do you have a sketch artist on hand?”

“...And he had a scar along his right temple, leading almost to his scalp.”

The sketch artist finished drawing and flipped the pad around so Anna could look it over. What she saw was a nearly perfect rendering of the man whom she had fought with. He had a shaved head, a low stubble, broad jawline, a slightly crooked nose, dark brown eyes and the scar.

“Wow. You did a good job,” she exclaimed.

“Is that him, miss Brail?” the sketch artist looked over her glasses impatiently.

“Oh, yes, that’s him.”

She smiled. “Thank you.”

The artist got up and torn the page from her pad and handed it to Ronald Nathanson before leaving the room.

Ronald looked over the picture. “So this is the guy?”

“That’s what I just said,” Anna replied, causing her lawyer to chuckle under his breath.

“Any idea to who he is?”

“All I know is that he’s extremely agile and knows how to fight. For lack of a better word I’d call him a ninja.”

Nathanson looked up from the sketch. “A ninja?”

“That’s the best way I can describe him,” Anna replied.

“I can’t tell the police that they’re looking for a ‘ninja’!” he put down the picture.

Alex chimed in. “You don’t have to. Just say you’re looking for this man,” he indicated the sketch. “And tell them that he’s highly trained in martial arts and is to be considered extremely dangerous.”

The Deputy District Attorney considered it for a moment. “That could work.”

“Alright,” Alex smiled. “Now you can go do that while I speak to my client.”

“Uh… okay then,” Ronald began gathering up all his things before heading towards the door. He looked to Anna. “I’ll be back.”

“I’ll be here.”

He left the room and they listened as they heard his footsteps die away down the hall. Alex turned to the girl.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah I’m fine. They patched me up and Nicole got me some new clothes.”

Alex sighed. “You know I never really approved of your… profession, Anna. But now that people know who you are and you have been strictly forbidden from continuing vigilante work, why would you continue to do it?”

“The guy was getting away-.”

“Yeah but you nearly died. Sure you got a description of him, but that’s it. You know next to nothing about him.”

She smiled. “Well he knows Jessica Sapphire.”

Chapter 7: In the Blood
“I wonder how Anna’s doing,” Albert said, slumped in his chair.

“Well Alex is in there now so he’ll be able to talk some sense into her,” Nicole turned around and began her pace anew.

“Is Alex an old friend?” he asked.

“He defended her in her first trial, and he’s been there for her ever since.”

“You know,” Albert began. “Despite the way she acts, Anna has a lot of people looking out for her.”

Nicole stopped and smiled. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell her all along, but she’s just so stubborn!”

“Why is she so stubborn?” Albert asked.

She sighed. “Anna has a very, and I mean very strong sense of duty. When she sees a need, she has to go out and meet it. It’s just who she is.”

“It’s somewhat admirable, you know.”

Nicole nodded. “I know. She’s my best friend, though, and I’d hate to see her get hurt.”

Albert chuckled before standing up and meeting her. “I mean, she’s taken on Ravenger multiple times and survived, and she’s fought who knows how many battles and she’s still here. She’s definitely capable of looking after herself.”

“I know, Albert,” she sat down, him following. “But I’m just afraid that one of these battles, she’s going to get hurt, and she’d be gone forever.”

“Speaking of whom,” Jessica said, pointing across the room to where Anna and Alex were coming through a doorway towards them.

“Anna!” Nicole exclaimed, giving her a hug. “Are you okay? What happened?”

“I’m fine,” she replied. “The DDA let me go.”

“Excellent,” she clapped her hands together.

Jessica came over. “So what now?”

“Well, the police are looking for the guy Anna described was the attacker,” Alex said. “Now, are you Jessica Sapphire?”

“Yep,” she replied. “What do you want?”

“I’ve studied your case thoroughly. Every case file, every report, every photograph. The only thing I haven’t done is gone to the house. I assumed you’ve been there since you came back, correct?”

She nodded. “I had to get something.”

“Money?” Alex raised an eyebrow.

“How else did you think I was going to get clothes and food?”

“Of course,” the lawyer said. “Why did you come to New Hampton?”

“For her,” Jessica pointed to Anna.

Alex looked between the two. “Her? Why?”

“Because she’s the only one who can help me.”

He struggled against his restraints. “Let me out of here!”

“You’re a terrorist,” Chief Dillon approached with his arms crossed. “Legally, I can’t let you out.”

Ravenger laughed. “Keeping me in an electrified container seems to be against my human rights.”

“Well,” he pulled up a chair. “Due to the Supers Act and the PATRIOT Act, your human rights are null and void. Plus, I doubt there’s really any human left in you to have rights.”

He snarled and attempted to fire electricity from his fingertips, but as had happened so many times before, it was just channeled through the machinery of his prison and back into him, causing him to scream in pain before going slump. A moment later he wearily looked up at the Chief.

“I never get tired of watching you do that,” he chuckled.

Ravenger looked at him with dark eyes. “Soon our positions are going to be reversed, Chief.”

“You really believe that?” he leaned forward a bit. “You’re going to be in that cell until the day you die.”

“Now don’t be threatening our guests, Chief,” said a new voice.

They both looked to see Marcus Williams rolling into the room with four guards with him. Dillon got up.

“What’s this?” he asked, his eyes narrowing.

“I’m taking our friend Ravenger here,” he nodded to the figure in the compartment. “And mister Arwin as well.”

The Chief almost chuckled. “You can’t be serious?”

No smile appeared on the Professor’s lips. “I am.”

“And what gives you the right?” his hand drifted over his firearm.

He pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket and unfolded it and handed it to the Chief, who looked it over.

“A signed order from the Mayor herself,” he now smiled smugly.

Dillon sighed and handed the sheet back to the Professor. “Just one thing, before you take them.”

Williams looked at him. “And what is it?”

“What do you plan to do with them?”

“Oh,” his eyes twinkled. “I think you know.”

The Chief of Police stared at him before moving out of the way as the men went over to the containment unit and pressed several buttons on a console before four wheels pushed their way out from underneath.

“What are you doing?!” Ravenger yelled as they carted him out of the room. “What are you going to do with me?!”

Dillon could only watch as the door closed behind them.

“You think FuturTech is the one who captured you?” Alex said, not hiding the disbelief in his voice.

“Not think,” Jessica insisted. “I know that they’re the ones who killed my family.”

He shook his head. “And why would they kill your entire family just for you?”

She held out her hands as energy crackled around them. “Because of this.”

“Because you’re a Super?” he stared as the light faded.

“Or that I had the potential to gain powers, yes.”

Anna came into the conversation. “And you said they, assuming it is FuturTech, experimented on you, right?”

Jessica nodded. “They unlocked it somehow.”

“That’s horrible,” she held her neck.

“So what do you propose we do now?” Alex asked the dark-haired girl. “We can’t exactly show up to the Mayor and say that FuturTech is evil. She’s practically in bed with them already.”

“Yeah you’re going to need more proof of that,” Albert said.

Suddenly the door opened and Mark and Matthew came running in.

“Anna!” they both called as they arrived.

“Are you alright?” her father asked her.

“Yeah I’m fine, I’m fine,” she replied.

“What happened?” Matthew looked at the assembled group.

Anna took a deep breath. “Well… I gave a description of the guy to the DDA and now we’re discussing how evil FuturTech is.”

“Which DDA did you have?”

“Ronald Nathanson,” Alex replied for her.

“Oh, yeah. Him. What a piece of work he is.”

“So what now?” Mark asked, growing impatient.

Jessica came back in. “I still need to inform of the Mayor of what FuturTech is up to.”

“And like I said before,” Alex said. “That’ll be hard. They’ve probably bought her out by now.”

“I have heard rumors,” Matthew stroked his chin. “Dillon doesn’t like her. Or trust her.”

“But she’s the only one who can actually do something about the Professor!”

Anna looked at her. “No, she’s not.”

The girl stared at her. “What do you mean?”

“I can do something about him.”

Nicole grabbed Anna’s arm. “We can do something about him.”

“No offense, Nicole,” the emerald-eyed girl said. “But last I checked, I’m the only one here, well,” she glanced at Jessica. “I and her are the only ones who have abilities.”

“Doesn’t mean we can’t fight,” Matthew replied.

Alex looked at all of them. “You’re all nuts.”

“Well, if it goes south,” Anna turned to him. “You can defend us in court. Depending if we’re still alive, of course.”

“Oh, you reassure me tremendously,” he said sarcastically.

He then pulled out his phone and looked at it before stuffing it back in his pocket.

“Alright,” he looked up at them. “I’ve got to go. Don’t do anything rash.”

And with that, the attorney picked up his briefcase and strode out of the room and out of the police station. The remaining six of them stood gathered still.

“He’s right, you know,” Anna said. “It’s not going to be easy convincing the Mayor that FuturTech is doing illegal experimentation.”

“But they have to be stopped! I’m not the only one who they were experimenting on!”

Suddenly Matthew’s phone buzzed and he pulled it out.

“The Chief wants to meet with Anna and I,” he looked at the brown-haired girl. “We have to go. Now.”

Moments later she and Matthew were on the highest level of the police station, which was where the Chief of Police’s office was located. They stepped out of the elevator and walked down the hallway, passing officers glancing at them, particularly at Anna.

Eventually they came to a door with a small plate reading: “JOHN DILLON. CHIEF OF POLICE.”

He glanced at Anna before knocking on the door. As soon as he hit the last time a voice from inside welcomed them in.

“Come on in, Matthew.”

The detective opened the door and let Anna in first before following and closing the door behind himself.

Chief Dillon was sitting at his desk with his tie loosened and his feet up.

“Ah, miss Brail,” he said, not even subtly making himself presentable.

“You wanted us, Chief?” Matthew put his hands behind his back.

“Indeed,” he nodded. “Sit down.”

Together, the two of them sat down in the two chairs in front of Dillon’s desk. He sighed.

“As you may know,” he looked at his detective. “And you may as well, miss Brail, that FuturTech has been given oversight over the New Hampton Police Department, and particularly access to our Super guests. Our friend Mayor Alexandra Jacobs is to thank for that.

“Now, just today, and this is strictly confidential,” he looked over his glasses at them.

“Of course,” they both replied, nodding.

“Well, both Ravenger and your friend John Arwin were taken by Marcus Williams, better known as the Professor, for who knows what. I have Claire Darrel watching from afar, but I don’t think it’ll do much good.”

Anna looked at him with her green eyes. “Well, if you don’t mind, Chief, I have an idea.”

He looked at her with a little surprise on his face. “Oh really? What is it?”

“They’ve been taken for experimentation.”

Dillon got his feet off the desk and sat up, looking her square in the face. “And what makes you say that?”

“Because I’ve got someone with firsthand experience downstairs.”

Minutes later Jessica was up in Dillon’s office, escorted by two other officers, and she was obviously uneasy.

“It’s okay, Jessica,” Anna said to her.

The Chief stood up. “Incredible. You really are her.”

“Yeah I guess I found you guys,” she shrugged.

Anna looked between them. “Yeah let’s get to the point. Jessica?”

She stared at her with her blue eyes before taking a deep breath. “They took me from my home… They uh… they...”

Suddenly her eyes rolled upwards as she lost her balance and fell backwards. Matthew and one of the other officers quickly caught her before she hit the ground and they brought her over to a couch in the Chief’s office and laid her down.

“Is she okay?” Dillon asked, pouring a glass of water and setting it on the coffee table.

“Yeah,” Matthew said. “I think she’s fainted.”

“Talking about the attack must’ve triggered some kind of PTSD,” Anna put a pillow under the girl’s head.

“Do you want me to get a doctor up here to look at her?” Dillon asked.

“No, she’s fine,” Anna replied. “We’ll just have to wait until she wakes up again.”

The Chief sat down in one of the chairs in the room and sighed. “Well, considering how fast things are beginning to move, by the time she wakes up things may already be too late.”

She had begun following the convoy soon after it had left the station’s grounds and was now roughly two thirds of a mile behind them. Keeping her distance was key, or otherwise it all would be for nothing.

They had left the city fairly quickly and were now heading upstate north of Alberta. To where exactly, she didn’t know, but she had a pretty good guess. While FuturTech may be stationed in New Hampton, they had dozens of satellite compounds across the state of Washington and in a few others. What they were for, no one really knew. All that was known was that they were there for testing.

And considering that both Ravenger and John Arwin were now being escorted in a large convoy out of the city by FuturTech, it was very likely that they were going to one of these ‘research facilities’.

Up ahead the vehicles turned onto a new road, one less-maintained and traveled than the one they were coming off of. When she arrived at the turn, she saw that it led to a dense forest.

“What are you doing?” she muttered to herself as she stopped on the corner.

Reaching into her pocket she pulled out her phone and took a picture of the forest and the convoy disappearing into it.

Deciding that pursuing them into the forest was not the best course of action without backup, she put the car back into drive and swung around, driving back towards New Hampton.

It was several hours after he was knocked out that John Arwin managed to regain consciousness. As he did, he found that his head hurt severely. He also found that he was shaking slightly, like he was in a car. Looking around, he wasn’t far off the mark, as it looked like he was in some kind of truck, several guards surround him.

He heard a laughing from his left. “Ah, at long last, he awakens.”

John managed to crane his neck to see that next to his portable cell was an identical one with a large dark figure in it, a breathing apparatus attached to his face.

“Who the heck are you?”

“My name is Ravenger, rightful king of New Hampton.”

He chuckled. “’Ravenger’? Don’t you mean ‘Ravager’?”

“No,” the figure replied, not amused. “’Ravenger’ is the title of the warrior king of my people, passed down from father to son. My father was Ravenger, and now I am.”

“Thanks for the lecture, but why are you here?” John rolled his eyes.

“Anna Brail.”

His orange eyes widened. “Anna Brail? What did she do to you?”

“I attempted to take over the city and she stood in my way. And then she did this to me,” he gestured to his breather.

“She made you need a breather?”

“No,” he stared at him with his cold eyes. “She destroyed the one I had and made me need this… primitive contraption.”

The truck shook as they drove over rough ground and they could each feel the tremors throughout their bodies. John looked at one of the guards which were standing by his cell.

“Hey, where are you taking us?”

“You’ll find out soon enough,” the guard replied, no emotion in his tone.

“Well you’re a load of help,” John muttered.

“Not supposed to be, freak,” the guard said again, having heard his remark.

“They’ll be taking us to a research facility,” Ravenger replied. “Going to find out what makes us tick. Find the secrets in the blood.”

John turned his head as much as he could again. “What do you mean?”

“Super’s abilities are coded into our DNA, you infidel,” the figure said. “They most likely what to cut us open and find out what DNA our powers are made of and copy them.”

“Why would they do that?”

“Power. I’m surprised no one has killed you yet. You’re incredibly slow.”

“Power? What kind of power?”

Ravenger sighed. “The power to make their own Supers, fool! The power to do whatever they want to maintain peace and order!”

“So they want to make their own soldiers using our DNA? And what happens to us?”

“I’m assuming we get thrown out. Spare parts, and all.”

John’s heart began to pound a little harder at this revelation and sweat began to drip down his brow as he felt them come to a stop.

“You were seen very clearly by the Brail girl,” the Professor yelled at the man in black standing across the desk. “You’ve put everything in jeopardy!”

“I understand, sir.”

“She’s even described you to the police and now they’ve got an APB out on you!”

“Yes, sir.”

He rolled around so he was right in front of the man. “All our work here could end because of you.”

“Understood, sir.”

“However,” he shifted tones just as one would shift the gear on a car. “The fact that the Sapphire girl is not only in New Hampton but working with the Breeze girl is intriguing news.”

“What do you want me to do, sir?”

The Professor took a breath. “We’ll have to advance onto Phase Two.”

“But Phase Two does not have the proper components yet, does it, sir?”

He smiled and pointed to the window. The man turned to it and saw a convoy with a large truck pull through the gates. This caused a smile to spread across his face.

“Now it is,” the Professor said. “And you need to get ready.”

“Will it hurt, sir?” he said, hesitantly.

“Excruciatingly,” the old man looked over his spectacles.

The man gulped. “For the glory.”

“For the glory.”

He nodded before walking out of the room, leaving the man in the wheelchair alone again. The Professor looked out the window as the two containers holding Ravenger and John Arwin were lowered to the ground and carted towards the complex.

“The end draws closer, then,” he chuckled to himself as he watched them draw nearer.

Chapter 8: Shadows in the Glass
She had never realized how hard it was to keep rational control of yourself when you were this excited. After seeing the convoy disappear into the forest, she had swung her car around and nearly flew back to New Hampton, ignoring the fifty-five mile-per-hour speed limit signs.

Only had she slowed down when she had arrived back in the city, not wanting to cause an accident by speeding through a red light.

It was unbearable. Finally, something to get FuturTech on after all these years. Finally, time to avenge her brother’s death.

Her older brother had worked for FuturTech six years prior, back during her time at the Police Academy. It was a well-paying job, well enough to support both him and his wife and for them to start planning for their first child.

However, something happened. She had gotten a text from him late on March 23, 2011, reading ‘I’m sorry’. She replied back asking what he meant, but she never heard from him again.

Her brother had vanished, and no one knew what had happened to him.

She and her sister-in-law were still in contact, but she had not been the same since his disappearance. Taking down FuturTech would bring some peace to their family, and some closure.

Claire wiped a tear from her eye as she drew near the Police Station.

It was an hour before she came back around.

“Jessica?” she heard someone ask.

The black-haired girl looked around and saw that Anna, Matthew, the Chief of Police, Mark, Nicole and Albert were around her.

“What… what happened?” she wondered, slowly getting up.

“You fainted,” Anna replied, handing her a glass of water.

She took a gulp from the cup. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. What you went through was obviously traumatic,” Nicole said.

“Yeah. But… you guys need to know what happened.”

“If you’re ready and willing,” the Chief said.

Jessica took a deep breath and set the glass down, closing her eyes. A moment later she opened them again and looked at the assembled.

“It was two years ago, at my home in Alberta...”

August 22, 2015.

The day had started out just like any other.

She had gotten up, taken a shower, gotten dressed, eaten breakfast and watched TV. Her mom had nagged her about getting ready for her last year of high school, to which she had responded that she’d do it later.

Later. A word she had regretted saying every day since.

They had dinner later in the day. Nothing special. Her family was rich, but they barely lived like it except for the house they had, which was huge. That night they had simple spaghetti, which she supposed wasn’t bad, but it was hardly a last meal.

It started at 8:07. They were sitting down to watch a movie when they heard something crash at the door. Her father had run to see what had happened when the gunfire started.

“Dad!” she called before the armed men burst into the room.

“Go!” her eldest brother had told her siblings and mother as he ran at the attackers.

So they ran, even as they heard the gunfire and a thud on the floor. She, her mother, her younger brother and two sisters had managed to run into a connecting room and lock the door, staying as still as possible.

It was then they found them, and there was nothing she could do but run as her family was executed behind her. Running to the basement, she had crashed down the stairs and was running to the door to the outside when she saw more men moving towards the house. Hearing the door she had come in through open behind her, she didn’t have much time.

Having had no other options, she ducked under a nearby table with a large cloth draping over it, hiding her from sight. She had made herself into a ball as she heard the sliding glass door open and several footsteps come into the room from both sides.

She had tried to keep her breathing down, but her heart was racing, forcing her to cover her mouth with her hand to muffle her breath.

Outside she heard no movement when suddenly a hand came through the veil and grabbed her arm. She screamed as she was tugged out hard and thrown onto the floor. Her head struck the floor and her vision blurred as pain shot through her entire body.

As the darkness enclosed on her, she saw several figures standing above her before everything fell into the shadows.

Her next memory was of having the sensation of moving as she saw long, white stripes of light pass above her body. She tried looking around and saw that she was being carted down a long hallway on a gurney and that she was strapped down. Her shoes, leggings, dress and jacket were gone and replaced by a simple gray gown that went to her feet.

“Where… am… I…?” she had asked as she looked up again and saw a man in a gray uniform above her, pushing the gurney.

“Silence,” he had commanded.

“My family...”

“Is dead. Now quiet, girl.”

“What…?” she said weakly.

“I said silence!” he struck her across the face with the palm of his hand.

Tears began to form in her eyes before they jerked to a halt outside a steel door. The guard walked over and swung the door open. Two more guards appeared, dressed in the same attire and began undoing her bonds.

As soon as she was free, two grabbed her arms while the third grabbed her legs and hoisted her off the gurney. She tried fighting out of it, but she was too weak. They threw her onto the bed and quickly vacated the room and closed the door, despite her objections.

“Please...”

She crawled, weakly, off the bed and onto the floor and across the room to the door and began banging on it.

“Let me out…!”

Then the darkness enveloped her again.

She had been dragged out of bed suddenly and without warning. They had burst into her room and swarmed around her. The men dragged her down the corridor, kicking and screaming. They brought her to a large room and strapped her down to a large chair before attaching several cords to her. Leaving her there, a large light appeared above her, nearly blinding the girl.

“Ah, miss Sapphire,” a voice had suddenly surrounded her.

“Who are you? Where am I?”

“You may call me the Professor,” the voice had said.

“As to where you are, I’m afraid I cannot disclose that information.”

“Please… let me go.”

He had laughed. It was a mocking laugh. “Well, my dear, if we did that, then the killing of your entire family would’ve been for nothing.”

The memories came flooding back to her again. “You killed them. Why?”

“To get to you, of course.”

“...But kill them?”

“It was a clean end.”

She had struggled against the bonds that held her there. “When I find you, I will kill you.”

He had laughed again. “No. No you will not.”

Suddenly pain had shot through her entire body. She screamed in pain as energy surrounded her, electricity burning her.

“It went on like that for two years,” she finished, wiping a tear from her eye. “Sometimes it was different. I can still feel the current.”

They all sat in silence, wide-eyed and staring at her.

“I… don’t know what to say,” Anna said.

“What did they do to you?” Mark asked. “What was the point of the torture?”

“Probably this,” Jessica created a glimmer of energy in her right hand.

“They were trying to give you superpowers?” Dillon raised an eyebrow.

She nodded. “I don’t know how or why they chose me, but I think it had something to do with my DNA.”

“Your DNA?” Albert asked.

“Of course!” Anna stood up. “Most Supers’ powers are encoded into their DNA. Mine is, and I bet yours is too.”

“But how would they find that out? And why would they kill your whole family?” the Chief questioned.

“That’s a question I’ve been asking for two years, Chief,” she looked at him.

“Nonetheless,” Nicole said. “The Professor is the head of FuturTech, and if he was preforming illegal experimentation on Jessica, and who knows who else, then we have to take him down.”

Just at that moment Claire Darrel burst into the room.

“Claire?” Matthew looked surprised.

“Detective Darrel,” the Chief looked up at her. “Please tell me you know where they’re taking them.”

“I do, sir. They’ve headed north. Past Alberta.”

The Chief looked at Jessica. “Where did you come from?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “But it was surrounded by a forest.”

“That’s about what I saw.”

Dillon sighed. “Well, even if they aren’t the same complex, we have to find out whatever is going on there and put an immediate stop to it.”

“You’re talking war on FuturTech?” said Matthew uncertainly. “Are you sure?”

“If they are preforming illegal Human experimentation,” the Chief glanced at Jessica. “Then it is our duty to stop them.”

“But if they’re in Alberta, they’re out of our jurisdiction.”

“I know the Chief of the Alberta Police Department. He can help us.”

Matthew sighed. “I hope you’re right about this, Chief.”

“I am. And I don’t want you second-guessing me again.”

“Yes sir.”

Behind him the phone on his desk rang and they all looked at it. He turned and grabbed it off the machine and held it to his ear.

“Chief Dillon.”

There was a moment of silence as the person on the other end spoke.

“Yes, Madam Mayor.”

They all looked at each other, worry on all their faces.

“Of course. I’ll be right over.”

He hung up the line and placed it back down. The Chief leaned against the desk and stroked his chin before looking back up at them.

“The Mayor wants to meet with miss Sapphire and miss Brail,” he said finally.

“Well I wanted to meet her anyway,” Jessica stood up.

“But you know why you can’t bring up how evil FuturTech is,” Anna looked at her.

She rolled her eyes. “Do you think she knows all about how they tortured me for two years?”

“I don’t know, but nonetheless she probably won’t too easily swayed to turn on the Professor,” Dillon said.

“And why’s that?”

He exhaled deeply. “Well, I don’t know how public this is, but the Professor is the Mayor’s father.”

Just how shocking this information was to them was apparent on their expressions.

“Yeah. And that’s why we can’t let her know what we know,” the Chief concluded.

“So what do we do?” Jessica asked.

“Right now, we go and meet the Mayor. Come on.”

He walked to the door before turning around and looking at everyone in the room.

“After this, we will bring FuturTech down.”

Ravenger screamed.

He had not been known to scream. The former king found it a sign of weakness, a sign of being lesser to cry out in pain. Only once before had he screamed in his life. During the experiment that gave him his abilities and cursed him with his respirator had he cried out.

The burning stopped as suddenly as it had come and he gasped as he was free from the pain.

“What… are you… doing to me?” he called out. Ravenger couldn’t see around the room due to the massive overhead light nearly blinding him.

“Isn’t it familiar?” a voice replied back. “Don’t you remember this from before?”

“Tell me who you are!”

The voice chuckled. “You know who we are, Ravenger. How do you think you got your powers?”

It suddenly made sense in his mind. “You?”

“Us.”

“Why are you doing this to me? You’ve already given me powers!”

He chuckled again. “How can you settle with what you already possess when you can have so much more?”

Ravenger tried peering into the darkness. “What do you mean?”

“I mean you are destined for greatness, o’ high king.”

“Greatness? Of what?”

“A new age. The dawn of a new morning. When all things now ends and a new life begins.”

He rolled his eyes. “Enough with the poetry and get to the point.”

“What if I told you that you could vanquish your enemies?”

“I can already vanquish my enemies.”

“Then why are you here?”

These words struck Ravenger and he clenched his fists tightly, electricity crackling in his palms.

The unseen man chuckled once more. “I see that struck a nerve.”

Sighing, the king looked down for several moments before looking back up.

“Tell me more about this new age.”

John Arwin was having a completely different experience.

They had taken several samples of his blood and then strapped some kind of collar around his neck. Then they threw him in a six-by-six cell, crashing against the hard wall before they left and locked the door.

He rose up off the floor, fire burning in his eyes.

“You’re going to regret that.”

Clenching his fist, his knuckles glowed orange as steam began to rise off of them. Furiously, he threw a flaming punch at the door when intense pain shot through his body as blue light cover him. He screamed in pain before falling to the ground, the flame that had been on his hand disappearing.

Slowly recovering from the shock, he got up and fell onto the bed, pain still coursing through his body. Recovering himself, he stumbled over to the door and began pounding on it.

“Come on, let me out!” he yelled through the steel barrier.

John continued to slam his fists on the door but to no avail. As his hands turned red from all the pounding, he eventually gave up and collapsed back onto the bed.

What was this place? Why was he here? He assumed it was some kind of research complex, because they had the equipment to preform all kinds of medical procedures and they had taken several samples of his blood.

But why was he in a cell with a collar around his neck, like some animal?

Part of his strength restored, he got up again and went over to the door. He looked down at his hand as it began to glow orange. There was a small tingling in his neck as the collar sensed the activating of his power. Ignoring it, he pressed his palm against the metal.

Moments later the area around his hand was also glowing orange as he felt his hand begin to sink into door. Smiling, he continued on, slowly burning his way through the barrier. In a few minutes he would have a hole big enough to slip his arm through and set himself free. He just hoped that a guard or someone didn’t come and foil his plans.

He was nearly through when suddenly he was covered by burning blue electricity. Screaming, he fell away from the door and to the ground, his nerves on fire from the shock.

As the pain subsided, the door opened and three figures entered; two standing and one in a wheelchair. The two standing had guns in their gloved hands.

“Ah mister Arwin,” the Professor said. “You’re not getting off the hook that easily.”

“What… did you do…?” he tried to find the strength to get up off the floor, but couldn’t.

“There’s a sensor on the last layer of the door that you tripped and thus activated your collar,” he smiled. “But nonetheless that was very clever. Very clever indeed.”

“Let me out.”

The old man laughed. “No. I’m afraid that’s not going to happen. You have a purpose to fulfill.”

John spat on the ground. “Oh yeah? And what’s that?”

“To create greatness,” he said.

“And what greatness is that?”

“All will be revealed in due time,” the Professor spun around in his wheelchair and began riding out of the room as the guards came to him and grabbed him.

“However, right now, you will be moved to a new cell where you cannot inflict any more damage.”

They dragged him out of the cell and followed the Professor, as John tried to fight against them.

“NO! Let me go! I demand you let me go or I will kill you all!”

“I doubt that, mister Arwin,” the Professor said.

Suddenly pain shot through his body as the blue light covered him again. He screamed before his vision blurred and he fell into the darkness.

“Take mister Arwin to the special cell. We can’t have him pose a threat to our work here,” Professor Williams said as the man went limp.

“Yes sir,” the guards replied in unison as they dragged John down another hallway.

The Professor continued on down the corridor alone, lost in thought. His work was all that ever mattered to him, the only thing that mattered. He had not time for romance or children or religion or anything of the sort. Science was all that there was, is, and ever will be. Concepts of a higher being, such as God, or the delusion of an Afterlife were for the weak.

He knew he was doing what he was meant for, and the only thing anyone should be meant for.

That said, he did admit that he had a daughter, but she was just an accident, a mistake. A product of a short-lived romance. It was a moment of weakness. Nonetheless she was a useful asset to have, no matter how much she believed he truly loved her.

Reaching the door to his office, he entered the code into the keypad on his armrest and the door slid open and he rode into the dark room.

Pressing another button on his chair, the lights suddenly flared into life, illuminating his office. The Professor drove over to his desk and activated his computer, entering his password. Going to the directory he had used so many times, he opened two files marked August 22, 2015.

He smiled to himself. Two years ago they had captured Jessica Sapphire from her home, killing her family in the process. While it may have been brutal, it had to be done. He couldn’t have them going around and looking for her. Sure, it was done for the first two months after he disappearance, but like they always do, they had declared her dead, and they were in the clear.

But now that she had escaped from them, and was now in contact with the Brail girl, their mission was in jeopardy. They had to be quick with their experimentation on Ravenger and John Arwin to complete the Project in time, because he knew it was only a matter of time before they found out where they were and came to stop them.

The Professor rested his chin on his hands as he examined the file, a long sigh issuing from his mouth as the possibilities of the future threatened to crush him.

And he hated it.

Chapter 9: Over and Over Again
Minutes after they had left Chief Dillon’s office they were driving to the other side of City Plaza in a large SUV. Shortly they arrived at City Hall and were greeted by several security officers, who ushered them inside.

Anna noticed that they had mostly repaired the building since July, which was impressive, considering the extent of the damage. She had even see lights on in the Mayor’s office. The last time she had been in there there had been no lights. She assumed the new Mayor was probably higher maintenance than she was.

They were led into the elevator and were quickly ascending to the top floor. She took a deep breath. When she had been here last, she was riding this up to try and save Mayor Wilkes from Ravenger. Of course that didn’t work out and he died, but he weakened the brute just enough for her to be able to defeat him.

Yet he lost his life, just because she hadn’t been quick enough.

There was a ding as the elevator came to a halt and the doors slid open. The group was headed by a security officer who brought them through the rows of desks towards a large set of white doors. As they walked, Anna was amazed by how quickly they had repaired this place. Not only had she inflict damage by fighting eight gangsters there, but also when Mayor Wilkes’ grenade went off.

Reaching the double doors, the security officer knocked on the door and a female voice came from inside.

“Yes?”

“The Chief and company here to see you, madam Mayor.”

“Ah, let them in.”

The officer nodded and opened the set of doors, leading them inside. Now here Anna was completely surprised. The office, which had been utterly destroyed by the blast, was completely repaired. The walls were replaced and there was no sign to tell that there had been an explosion here, or that several people had died there.

Behind the desk a brown-haired woman stood up, her smile broad and blue eyes bright.

“I’ve been waiting to meet you,” she said to Anna and Jessica. “I’m Alexandra Jacobs. I’m the interim Mayor of New Hampton.”

“It’s good to meet you, your Honor,” Anna replied, seeing that Jessica obviously wasn’t.

Anna looked around the room. “I see you fixed this place up fast.”

“Oh you like it?” Alexandra followed her gaze. “A very generous donation from FuturTech to the city to fix up town hall.”

Jessica shook slightly.

The Mayor looked to Albert, Nicole, Mark, Matthew and Claire before turning to Dillon.

“Who are these people?”

The Chief sighed. “This is Albert, Nicole, Mark, Matthew and Claire,” he gestured to each of them as he read off their names. “Albert and Nicole work for the Daily Post; Matthew and Claire are two of my detectives. And Mark is Anna’s father.”

“Huh,” she looked at Mark. “It’s good to see a father taking an interest in their daughter’s life.”

“Yeah,” Anna replied, slightly uncomfortably. “Anyway, why did you want to meet Jessica and I?”

Alexandra smiled. “Ah yes. Well,” she sat down at her desk. “I wanted to meet you, miss Brail, because you single-handedly saved the city.”

“Well, not single-handedly. I had a lot of help,” she corrected.

“Either way, it was quite impressive.”

She then looked to Jessica. “And I wanted to meet you because you’ve been missing for the past two years. Tell me, what happened to you?”

Anna saw that Jessica’s fists were clenched and she could swear that there was a blue glow slipping from the small gap between her fingers and thumbs.

“I...” she began, her voice shaking with rage. “I...”

But Matthew quickly jumped in. “She was kidnapped by a group of rogue scientists and held captive while they experimented on her. We’re still trying to figure out their identity.”

She narrowed her eyes slightly. “I see. What they experiment on you for? Abilities?”

“Yes,” her nails dug into her palms.

The Mayor leaned forward, locking her fingers together. “And did they work?”

Anna could tell that she was about to show her her abilities in a very physical way and, just as Matthew had done moments ago, jumped to her rescue.

“No. No they didn’t. Not that we know of, anyway,” she added at the end.

“Then tell me,” the Mayor said. “How did you get into the city?”

Jessica was obviously didn’t know what to say to lie to her, probably because she wanted to start trying to convince her of how evil FuturTech was.

“...The tunnels,” she replied.

“You know,” Alexandra stood up. “A Super cleared away that rubble. One from outside the city, desperately wanting to get in. I do wonder who it could have been. Do you have any idea?”

“No, ma’am.”

She eyed her suspiciously.

“Alright. I’d like I word in private to the Chief here,” she said to the others. “You can wait outside.”

Together, everyone except Dillon left the room, the doors closing behind them.

Once they were alone, she turned sharply on the Chief of Police.

“What is going on? Why are they lying to me?”

He tried to keep a straight face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, ma’am.”

“Oh cut the crap, John,” she turned hostile. “You know exactly what’s going on. Remember, I am your superior, and I can have your job.”

“Yes, madam Mayor.”

“Now, tell me what is going on.”

But she had played into his hand. “Honestly, I don’t know, ma’am.”

Alexandra stared at him with a piercing glare, before looking away. “Fine. You’re dismissed. But we’ll talk later.”

He nodded. “Yes, madam Mayor.”

And with that, he quickly opened the door and left the room, leaving her alone. Chief Dillon came out to the others who were looking at him.

“Let’s go.”

The group of eight walked back through the rows of desks and back to the elevator, several gazes following them as the doors closed. No one spoke as the lift descended and as they walked out through the lobby and out onto the steps back to the SUV.

They piled in and the Chief began driving them back to the Police Station.

“I think you guys need some acting lessons,” he said finally.

Anna looked up at him. “I mean, it’s kind of hard to make up on the spot when it’s already obvious she knows we’re hiding something,” she glanced at Jessica, who was looking at her hands.

“Well, either way, we haven’t got much time. The window is about to close.”

“So, what’s the play, Chief?” Claire asked.

“Yeah,” Matthew joined. “What’s your work-around with the Mayor breathing down your neck now?”

He sighed. “When we get back to the station I’ll put together the S.W.A.T. team. Strictly off-the-books, of course.”

“What do you want us to do in the meantime?” Mark inquired.

“You civilians can go back to your residences. We won’t be ready until tomorrow. Get some sleep, take a shower. Whatever.”

They pulled to a stop in the parking lot.

“But I stand by what I said,” he turned to look at them. “FuturTech will fall.”

Finally, she heard someone pick up the other end.

“''Hello? Who is this?''”

“Hey dad,” she said.

“''Alexandra. Sweetheart. What is it?''”

The Mayor’s tone turned urgent. “They’re onto you.”

“''Who? Who are onto us?''”

“Chief Dillon, that Brail girl, and Sapphire.”

There was a gasp on the other side. “Sapphire is there?”

“She was in my office.”

“And you say the Brail girl was there as well?”

Alexandra nodded, even though her father couldn’t see her. “Yes.”

She heard a long sigh. “Where are they now?”

“I don’t know, but I’m assuming Dillon sent them back to their apartments.”

“''We know where Brail’s residence is. We’ll take care of her.''”

“Also dad,” Alexandra said. “I think Dillon is planning a hit on your compound.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, like he knows where we are.”

But she wasn’t joking. “He might. Just be careful.”

“I will.”

“I love you, you know.”

“Me too, darling.”

There was a click as the line went dead. She placed it back down on the receiver and crossed her arms, looking out the window towards the Police station.

“Alright,” Anna said as they walked into her apartment. “You can have my bed while I have the couch.”

“Uh, Anna?” Jessica asked, pulling at her sleeve.

The brunette girl turned to look at her. “Yeah?”

“Thanks for letting me stay here,” she replied.

Anna smiled. “You’re welcome,” she glanced at all the packages surrounding her apartment. “I’m sorry about all the boxes, though. Haven’t had the time to move them out yet.”

“You’re moving?”

“Across town. To get away from all the reporters.”

Jessica looked at the boxes that surrounded her. “When are you going move?”

“Probably when all this blows over.”

The black-haired girl looked up at her with her sapphire eyes. “Will it blow over?”

Anna sighed and came over and held her hands. “Of course it will. We will bring FuturTech down and they won’t hurt you ever again.”

She wiped a tear from her eye with her sleeve.

“I think I’ll turn in for the night.”

“That,” Anna smiled. “Is a great idea.”

Jessica returned the smile before walking towards the bedroom. She crossed the threshold and grabbed the door, having one last look at Anna before she closed it. Anna looked at the closed door before casting her green eyes at the ground, uncertainty on her face.

Deciding it was best if she went to sleep as well, she made sure the doors and windows were locked, and turning off the lights, she laid down on her couch and drifted off into the dark…

“So you and Anna worked together very well today,” Nicole smiled as she and Albert stepped out of the police car and walked towards their own.

He chuckled. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing, nothing,” she looked down.

“Wait,” he suddenly realized. “You think that I like Anna?”

“Oh? No no. It’s just that… you’re so cute together!” she laughed.

Albert blushed a little. “I wouldn’t know about that.”

“Come on, Albert,” Nicole popped him in the arm. “At least give Anna a shot. A know she’s as sarcastic and blunt as they come, but underneath she’s a very sweet girl.”

He glanced at her as they reached their cars. “I’ll keep that in mind the next time I need a date.”

“Well, don’t let her hear that, or she may blow you across the room.”

“You know she would,” he chuckled.

“Alright,” Nicole opened her door. “See you tomorrow, Albert.”

“See you tomorrow, Nicole.”

They both got in their cars and drove out of Anna’s parking garage, going their separate ways. As he drove, Albert couldn’t help feel a warm feeling in his chest as he thought about Anna, and what Nicole had said.

Her dreams, that had been a mixture of things from the previous day and from times past, were thrown away as she heard her front door burst open. Anna shot bolt-upright on the couch as she saw through the darkness three figures, dim light glinting off rifles in their hands.

“What the heck?” she managed to say before she was blinded by a flashlight coming from a gun that was now pointed at her head.

She quickly, aided by her powers, launched off the couch and landed between the three men. They spun to meet her but she shot three successive gusts of air at their backs, knocking them forward. One spun around and swung his gun at her, but she ducked out of the way and blasted him across the room. She struck one in the knee with her boot before striking him in the face with her fist.

From the side she was picked up and throw across her kitchen counter and crashed onto the tiled floor. She groaned as she tried to get up but she was suddenly dragged across the floor back into the living room.

Above her the three men had recovered themselves and were now pointing their gun down at her.

Desperately, she called out. “Jessica!”

The door to the bedroom burst open and she appeared wide-eyed and confused. The armed men turned and pointed their guns at her, light shining in her eyes. A second later their guns went off. Light flared from the barrels of their guns as bullet casings rained down before they abruptly stopped.

Anna managed, almost not daring, to look at Jessica, and her mouth fell open. The girl was standing with her hand out, blue energy shimmering around it as roughly four dozen bullets suspended in midair in front of her. She could tell that pure rage filled Jessica’s face, her hand trembling slightly. The men’s faces, however, were filled with utter terror.

Pulling her hand back, she suddenly thrust it forward. The wall of bullets shot away from her and directly at the men. Anna covered her head as the ammo returned to its owners in the worst way possible. The bullets tore through their attackers and pelted the wall behind them.

The three men went limp and fell to the ground around Anna, blood pouring from their wounds. She got up as Jessica let go, covering her mouth.

“Oh my gosh… oh my gosh…” Anna said, her breathing heavy and ragged as panic bled into her voice.

“What?” Jessica asked, her voice still holding undertones of anger.

“You… you killed them all!”

“So?” the black-haired girl was looking at her as if she had merely killed an ant. “They were here to kill us, and I killed them first.”

Anna turned on her. “But… they needed justice! Not death!”

“For what they did to me, and others,” Jessica said bitterly. “This is much more merciful than what they deserved.”

“How do you know these men work for the Professor?”

“Because they were there when I was taken two years ago.”

The woman fell silent before recomposing herself.

“I need to call Matthew...”

She began moving for her phone when Jessica stepped forward, her blue eyes glowing.

“No.”

Anna looked up at her, shocked. “What? What do you mean, ‘no’?”

“The police will only slow me down,” she replied. “I know what I need to do to end this, once and for all.”

The brunette looked at Jessica with what could only be described as fear. “What are you planning to do?”

“If the Mayor is covering for her father’s crimes,” she said darkly. “Then she must be punished.”

“Oh,” Anna threw her arms up. “So now you’re playing God?”

Suddenly she was thrown into a chair and held there by an invisible force. Jessica came up to her, bearing down on her with his sapphire eyes.

“They’re the ones playing God!” she screamed as the lights flickered on before turning off again.

Anna was then picked up and thrown across the room, crashing into a wall and slumping to the ground, her vision blurring as she slipped into unconsciousness.

Seeing that she was now knocked out, Jessica turned and walked over the three men’s bodies and out the door, going down the hall. She called the elevator and stepped in, her blazing eyes filled with blind rage.

“Any word from our team?” the Professor asked the man as he entered the room.

“No sir,” the man replied. “In fact, their signals have gone dead completely.”

Williams let out a deep breath as he put his hands on his mouth.

“Do you want us to send another team to recover them?”

“No,” he waved them off. “Sapphire has most likely disposed of them. We’ll have to move on.”

“To what, sir?”

He straightened his glasses. “The Mayor has informed me that the New Hampton Police Department is planning a raid on our facility and we need to be ready for it.”

“How did they find us, sir?” the man inquired.

“They must’ve had a tail on one of our convoys. No matter, they’ll all be dead by the end of this anyway.”

“Yes sir,” the man nodded and left the room, leaving the Professor alone again.

Sighing, he pressed several keys on his digital keyboard before the bookshelf behind him slid upwards into the ceiling and away from sight.

Displayed in a glass case was a large metal exoskeleton, various lights and wires running through its frame. He looked at it with a look of pride on his face, like one would if their child had won the science fair.

“Soon, everything will fall into place,” he said to it, as if the suit was alive and sentient.

He hit the same keys again and the bookcase descended again, hiding his creation from sight once more. Propelling his wheelchair forward, he went towards the door and opened it with his controls, heading down the corridor.

“You’ve given me an ultimatum, miss Brail,” he muttered to himself.

The Professor turned the corner and approached a large set of metal doors. He smiled as he heard screaming coming from within.

“Because you will surely lose.”

“We’re almost ready, Chief,” the female officer came up to him as he was surveying the map that Claire had made of the facility’s location.

He turned to look at her. “Thank you, officer.”

She nodded and turned away, going back to the other S.W.A.T. officers who were readying weapons and gear, preparing for battle.

“Do you really think we’ll be able to take this place?” Claire said, turning away from her map to look at her Chief. “From what Jessica said it seems it’s pretty high-security.”

John Dillon stroked his chin. “I don’t know. But we have to try. It’s our job to bring justice to these people.”

“Yeah but it looks like we’re preparing for a full military operation here,” Matthew looked back at the S.W.A.T. officers.

“For all we know this is a military operation, Detective Weaver,” Dillon said sternly. “We can’t go into somewhere we know nothing about grossly under-prepared.”

“Yes sir,” Matthew nodded, an undertone of uncertainty in his voice.

The Chief nodded and walked away, Claire following, but not before casting one last glance at her partner. He returned it before turning away and looked around the room, sighing as he did.

It was promising to be a long night.

Chapter 10: Press On
Reckless, blind rage boiled inside of her as she marched towards City Hall. Her eyes glowed with energy as a similar light glimmered in her palms.

As she approached, several officers who were stationed on the steps spotted her and drew their weapons, pointing them at her.

“Halt!” the lead one, a lieutenant, yelled. “Stop right there, miss!”

But Jessica ignored his warnings and continued on. He strained a little as he obviously did not want to open fire on her unless he absolutely had to.

“Miss, I’m warning you, stop right now! Halt-!” he called again when suddenly he was blasted backwards, crashing into the steps further up.

An instant later the remaining officers, about a dozen, opened fire. In response she raised her hands as a field of energy appeared in front of her. The bullets struck the shield and dissolved into less than dust. Jessica continued her march as more and more ammunition pelted her force field to no avail.

Suddenly she thrust he hands forward and the energy exploded outwards, striking them all and launching them in random directions onto the concrete, rendering them unconscious.

Walking past their incapacitated bodies as she ascended the stairs, she swung her hand upwards which blasted the double glass doors wide open and strolled forth. Inside several more officers pointed their guns at her and, without hesitation, opened fire. She quickly raised her right hand again and the force field reappeared, melting the hot lead into nothing.

Using her left hand she unleashed a wave of energy, blasting them backwards in a manner similar to the officers behind her. They struck the marble floor and were also knocked into unconsciousness.

Now with a direct path to the elevator, she once again used her abilities and pushed open the two silver doors and walked inside. Forcing them closed, she closed her eyes and reached out, grabbing hold of the lift itself and pushing it upwards, and with grinding effort, ascended.

The elevator ground to a halt and she forced open the doors once more. Outside were a dozen security officers with guns trained directly on her. She didn’t have enough time to activate her powers when they opened fire and she dove to one of the sides of the compartment as bullets pelted the elevator.

Taking a deep breath, she rubbed her hands together and pulled them apart as a field of energy appeared between them. Quickly she moved to the doorway and put the shield in front of her, the bullets striking it and dissolving into dust.

Crying with rage, she thrust her hands forward and a massive wave of sheer power ripped through the room, blasting the guards back as tables were swept away and shattered.

As the destruction subsided, she strode forth, pure rage coursing through her veins as her eyes glimmered while energy crackled in her hands. Approaching the double white doors that led into the Mayor’s office, she threw her hand forward and a burst of energy shot forward and struck them, blasting them off their hinges as they flew into the room.

The moment the doors crashed to the ground several shots rang out from the office. She jumped out of the way but a slug still struck her in the arm, blood trailing out of her wound as she fell. Jessica hit the ground as pain now surged through her body, crimson pouring from her arm.

Holding the gun that had shot her, the head of the security walked towards her, a look of smug on his face.

“You thought you could just waltz in here and assassinate the Mayor of New Hampton?” he mocked. “Well you were wrong, little girl-.”

Suddenly he was blasted across the room and crashed through the large round window, falling to the pavement below, blood pooling around him. Alexandra looked down at the corpse before turning towards Jessica, who was now rising, and a look of utter horror appeared on her face. The black-haired girl smiled.

“Good,” she said. “I see I’ve caught your attention.”

“You idiot,” the Mayor spat. “You cannot expect to possibly get away with this!”

“Just like how your father expects to get away with what he’s doing?”

Alexandra stared at her with a cold look.

“Don’t. You. Dare.”

The girl let out a hollow laugh. “Oh but I do. After all that that man has done to me, I want to see him burn.”

“You will not talk about my father like that!” Alexandra yelled.

“That man is a monster! You know what they all call him? ‘The Professor’. It’s incredibly accurate,” her eyes glowed with energy.

“He is a scientist,” Alexandra said. “What happened to you was a necessary sacrifice for the sake of discovery-.”

Suddenly the Mayor’s desk flipped upwards and crashed into one of the bookshelves that lined the room. The woman jumped back a ways.

“You call torture a necessary sacrifice?” Jessica yelled before pausing and taking a deep breath. “I guess it’s like they say: like father like daughter.”

“So what are you going to do?” Alexandra spread her arms out. “Kill me? Torture me? Get revenge on all the horrible things my father did to you through me?”

The black-haired girl chuckled a dry, cold chuckle. “No. I’m going to hurt him in the most painful way possible: I’m going to take away his family.”

The Mayor’s eyes widened with terror as she began backing against the wall next to the broken glass window.

“If you kill me you’re no better than him or Ravenger! He killed the last Mayor, you know,” Alexandra said, panic bleeding into her voice. “If you kill me you’re just the same as him, and you’ll end up the same!”

Jessica held out her hand, energy shimmering in her palm. “I don’t know if you could tell, madam Mayor, but I don’t give a damn what happens to me anymore.”

“Sir!” the officer ran towards Chief Dillon as he was loading his weapon.

“What is it, Sargent?” he looked up.

“We have officers down at City Hall! Sir, I think it’s being attacked.”

Dillon quickly strode over to the window and looked across city plaza where he could see the several police officers lying on the ground.

He turned to the room of S.W.A.T. officers. “Alright, current plan scrapped. We have to get to City Hall, now!”

There was a rush as they all filed out of the room, guns armed and ready as they reached the garage and jumped into several large vehicles, sirens blaring as they raced towards the building on the other side of the plaza.

Coming to a halt, they all jumped out and saw that every officer on the steps was completely incapacitated.

“What happened to them?” Matthew asked, checking one’s pulse.

“Oh my gosh,” Claire exclaimed as she saw a man in a gray suit lying on his back, staring off into the distance blankly as blood stood in a pool around him.

“The head of security,” Dillon said. “Which could only mean...”

He looked up at the round window, which was shattered, the glass laying around the body. Inside the Mayor’s office he could see blue light flickering.

“Crap,” he drew his gun. “We have to get up there now.”

“What is it, Chief?” Matthew inquired as they ran up the steps.

“Jessica’s attacking the Mayor,” he replied while they ran past the unconscious officers in the lobby.

“I thought she was Anna?” Claire asked, pressing the button to call the elevator.

“So did I,” Dillon said. “But things have obviously changed.”

The doors to the elevator pulled open and several of them piled in, ten of them to be precise, including Matthew, Claire and Dillon. They pressed the button and began to ascend to the top floor. Making sure that all their equipment was ready for whatever may be awaiting them outside the doors, they watched as the numbers climbed towards their destination.

Finally, there was a ding as the doors moved out of the way. Their first sight was the absolute destruction of the area outside of the Mayor’s office. Desks and chairs were completely broken while various officers littered the floor in various places.

Beyond where the doors to her Honor’s office were blown off, they could see a girl in a black skirt and hoodie holding Alexandra Jacobs in the air with a ring of energy around her neck as Jessica held her hand out.

“Jessica Sapphire!” the Chief yelled as he raised his gun at her, moving forward with the nine other officers behind him.

She looked over her shoulder, her eyes glowing blue as obvious rage and hate filled them.

“Go away,” she said. “You don’t need to be here.”

“Put her down, now!” he commanded, ignoring her previous statement.

“I said go away, or you’ll end up like that man down there.”

He paused halfway across the room, everyone else doing the same. “Is that a threat, miss Sapphire?”

“Leave.”

“Let her go, then, and we’ll go,” he moved forward again, his gun trained on her.

“Not until she had suffered everything her father has done to me.”

The grip on his gun tightened. “Jessica, if you do this, then you’re no better than him! You become the very thing you hate! Do you really want that?”

“I don’t matter anymore. My life is over. Anything can happen to me after I take revenge on the Professor and everyone he loves.”

Suddenly Alexandra began gagging as the energy circling her neck tightened.

“Don’t kill her!” Dillon yelled, his finger closed around the trigger.

Jessica’s eyes flashed. “Well you’re too late, then.”

There was suddenly two loud bangs as a gun went off and the girl fell forward, with her right shoulder leading the way, two fresh holes in the fabric. Alexandra was released from the telekinetic grip as Jessica toppled to the ground, the Mayor falling to the floor beside her.

Dillon rushed over and helped the woman up, looking at the blood coming from the girl’s two wounds on the floor. He then looked to the officers and saw that Matthew’s gun was smoking as he lowered it and came over.

“Good work, Detective Weaver,” the Chief nodded.

“Thank you, sir.”

He sighed and looked at Jessica. “Stop the bleeding and then arrest her. Put her in one of the FuturTech cells.”

“Yes sir,” Matthew replied as he pulled out his radio.

While the Chief helped Alexandra into one of the remaining chairs in her office, she looked at him with cold eyes. “Make sure she rots in prison.”

Dillon hesitated before replying.

“Yes ma’am.”

When he got home, Albert decided he’d catch up on the news before he went to bed. He took his jacket off, kicked his shoes away, and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and dropped down on his couch across from his television.

As he flipped it on, a breaking news story appeared on his screen, showing City Hall, where he had been with the others mere hours ago. The footage showed several police cars and ambulances surrounding the steps to the building, various officers and medics helping up fallen Police.

Albert quickly turned up the volume to hear the male news anchor commenting on the scene.

“''We’re here at City Hall where a major attack was carried out by what’s being reported as a Super with advanced telekinetic abilities, having disabled more than three dozen officers and security agents as well as killing head of security, Darren Adams. The Super has been said to have been after Mayor Alexandra Jacobs, for reasons currently unknown.''”

There was a sudden bustle behind him as cameras began to flash wildly and he turned around to look.

“''Alright. We’ve got several officers coming out- and it looks like they have someone in custody.''”

The camera zoomed in on the group coming out of the building and he nearly dropped the remote as he saw that they were escorting Jessica Sapphire down the steps, her left arm bandaged as well as her right shoulder. Around her wrists were a glowing pair of handcuffs.

“Oh my- is that, Jessica Sapphire?” the news anchor gasped, seeming to forget he was on live television.

He looked back at the camera and composed himself. “''It seems that this attack was carried out by Jessica Sapphire, a girl from Alberta whose family was killed while she went missing two years ago. Now she’s resurfaced, and personally I don’t think this is how anyone pictured her return.''”

Albert stood up and turned off the television and grabbed his phone, he quickly scrolled through his contacts where he found Anna’s number. Dialing it, he held it to his ear as he waited for her to pick up.

“''You’ve reached Anna Brail’s phone. I’m not here right now, so if you could leave a message I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.''”

Frustrated, he hung up and found Nicole in his contacts and dialed her. Holding it to his ear, he listened as the line rang on the other end.

“''Hello? Albert? What is it? Did you see that thing on the news? Have you heard from Anna?''” her voice came as she picked up.

“No that’s what I was calling you about,” he said. “I got no response when I called her.”

There was a panic in Nicole’s voice. “''I couldn’t get to her either. Do you think something’s happened? Did Jessica do something to her?''”

“I don’t know, but we need to get over to her apartment as soon as possible.”

The woman at the other end took a deep breath before exhaling. “''Alright. I’ll meet you there.''”

“See you in a few minutes.”

Albert hung up and quickly put his shoes back on and threw his jacket over his shoulders. He grabbed his keys and ran out the door, closing and locking it as he went.

As he descended the steps to the parking garage, he couldn’t help but continue to think about Anna, and what had possibly happened to her. Had she and Jessica had some kind of fight about the Mayor and she overpowered Anna and stormed to City Hall? Or had something else happened? Or was it a mix of both?

He could only wonder as he pulled from his parking spot and drove off into the night.

Without killing anyone on their way over, Nicole and Albert arrived back at Anna’s apartment building at nearly the same time, quickly getting out of their cars and running towards the stairs. They finally arrived at her floor and ran down the hallway where they saw that the door was hanging open. Glancing at each other, they sprinted into the room.

Inside by the door were the bodies of three armored men, blood pooling around them. Specking the wall were dozens of bullet holes, most ringed by blood. Nicole covered her mouth before she looked across the room.

“Anna!” she cried before she bolted towards the unconscious girl lying on the floor against the far wall, a sizable dent above her body.

Albert joined her as they both lifted Anna up and onto the couch, Nicole checking her pulse.

“She’s still alive,” she said, relieved. “But she’s out cold.”

The man glanced at the corpses by the door. “I guess it doesn’t take a detective to find out what happened here.”

“These men must’ve come for Anna and Jessica and they fought back against them and Jessica used whatever her power is to send their bullets back at them, and then Anna panicked and Jessica threw her against the wall.”

“Probably. Although, Anna’s killed, hasn’t she? That warehouse back in May?”

Nicole sighed. “She’s become more adverse to it since her fight with Ravenger on top of FuturTech’s tower.”

Suddenly the brunette girl stirred before sitting bolt-upright, startling the two sitting by her.

“What happened? Where’s Jessica? What’s going on?”

“Anna, calm down! You’re okay!” Nicole grabbed her hands.

“I don’t feel alright,” the woman rubbed her back painfully.

“You were thrown against a wall,” Albert chimed in.

She looked at him with a dull expression. “Yeah, thanks for that.”

“As for Jessica,” Nicole said. “She’s been arrested for assaulting the Mayor and dozens of police officers. She also killed the head of security.”

Anna hesitated for a moment. “I know it was her idea to take down FuturTech, but this is not what I had in mind.”

“I don’t think it’s what anyone had in mind,” she shook her head.

“So what do we do now?” Albert asked, helping Anna as she got up.

A voice suddenly came from the door. “What we were going to do before, only without police backup.”

They turned to see Claire and Matthew standing in the doorway before they walked into the apartment, crouching beside the bodies and examining them.

“How did this happen?” Matthew asked, looking up at the bullet holes in the wall.

“Jessica happened,” Anna rubbed her head.

Claire stood up. “She seems to have been doing that a lot lately.”

“What are they going to do to her?” Albert inquired.

“They’re going to incarcerate her, question her and most likely sentence her to life imprisonment; the death penalty at the most extreme.”

“She didn’t know what she was doing,” Anna said.

“I’m sorry Anna but she still did it, and she will be held accountable, now that she has four counts of murder on her hands,” Claire put her hands in her pockets. “But these three can definitely be counted as self-defense.”

Albert sighed. “So we’re going to wherever that place is? Alone?”

Matthew looked at Nicole and Albert. “We can’t bring civilians into this. You’re untrained and un-experienced.”

“I know how to use a gun, Matt,” he replied.

“And I can figure it out,” Nicole nodded.

The detective looked at his sister. “Nicole, you can’t-.”

But she cut him off. “I’m an adult, Matthew. If I think I can handle it, and if I choose to go on an extremely dangerous mission, then that’s my choice and my choice alone.”

They stared at each other for a few seconds before Matthew let out a long sigh.

“Fine. But I want to stay close by you.”

She smiled. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“Alright,” the female detective clapped her hands together. “We’d best get moving now.”

“You’re not leaving without me.”

They turned to see Mark Brail standing in the doorway before he looked at the three bodies at the ground.

“Jessica did this, didn’t she?”

All of them nodded their affirmation.

“And you’re okay, Anna?” he looked at his daughter.

“Yeah,” she replied.

He then turned to Matthew and Claire. “You do know this mission is suicide.”

“Yes sir,” Matthew admitted.

Mark nodded. “Then let’s go.”

“Sir, Jessica Sapphire attacked the Capital of New Hampton,” the man strode into the room.

The Professor swung around in his wheelchair. “What? Is the Mayor okay?” an undertone of panic was evident in his voice.

“Yes sir. Several officers were injured and the head of the security was killed, but the police subdued the Sapphire girl before she could seriously harm the Mayor.”

He breathed a sigh of relief. “Where is Jessica now?”

“She’s in New Hampton Police custody. What do you want us to do?”

Marcus Williams turned towards the assassin laying on the table with several nurses and doctors around him, tubes filled with strange liquid all over his body.

“Leave her there for now. We have everything we need. The Project is almost complete.”

The man nodded before leaving the room.

“How long until he is done and ready?” the Professor asked.

A doctor turned towards him. “At least another three hours until he is done. I don’t know how long it’ll take him to recover. His body has to accept these new genes in him.”

“I want to be notified as soon as he is ready. The Project is too important to fail now.”

“Yes sir.”

The Professor smiled as energy crackled within the man’s palms.

“I don’t care what her reasons behind the attack are!” Alexandra yelled. “All I know is that that girl will never see the outside of a jail cell again!”

“And I agree with you, madam Mayor, but you have to understand what she’s been through-,” Dillon tried to reason with her before she cut him off.

“Oh, you believe that crap she was saying about my father being responsible for her years of torture?” she gave a cold laugh. “Give me a break, Dillon.”

He took a deep breath. “Let’s be reasonable, Alexandra.”

“Yes, let’s do be reasonable; let’s put her on death row.”

“Alexandra, you’re being a bit rash-.”

“No I’m not,” she swiftly approached him. “She attacked dozens of officers, killed my head of security and nearly executed me. She deserves to die.”

“Again, you don’t know what she’s been through.”

“I honestly don’t care,” she stared at him with cold, merciless, eyes. “I want her dead.”

And with that, she turned and left the room, slamming the door behind her. He sat down and rubbed his eyes.

“With that attitude, madam Mayor, you’re no better than Jessica herself.”

Chapter 11: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
“So,” Anna asked as they walked down the stairs, swinging her green jacket over her shoulders. “What are we going to do about the three bodies in my apartment?”

“Before we leave we’ll call them in. We can explain what happened once we’re done,” Claire replied.

“If we can,” she muttered as they approached the black SUV parked next to their cars.

Claire walked to the driver’s door and opened it before ducking in. Anna and Nicole exchanged shrugged as they ducked into the middle section of the vehicle. Albert and Mark climbed into the back row. Matthew took shotgun.

“Alright,” the female detective said. “If anyone wants to get off, now’s the time. Because once we’re there, there’s no turning back.”

There was silence for a beat.

“We’re going to see this through to the end,” Anna spoke up. “You can count on me.”

“And me,” Nicole added.

“Me as well,” Mark said.

“Count me in,” Albert nodded.

A thin smile appeared on Claire’s face.

“Then let’s get to it.”

Starting the engine, she put the car in reverse, pulled out, and drove off into the city, towards their destination. No one knew what awaited them, and they couldn’t possibly be ready for whatever was going to come their way, but they could be sure to fight until the end, even to the bitter end.

“Miss Sapphire,” Chief Dillon walked into the room, the door closing behind him.

She looked up at him, anger in her eyes. “You have no idea what you’re doing.”

“Actually, I do,” he sat down in the chair across from the cage.

“Oh? And what’s that?” she bore down on him with her glare. “Chief?”

He peered over his glasses at her. “You assaulted dozens of officers. You killed the Mayor’s head of security and you tried to kill her. I think I know what I’m doing.”

“She’s involved in all this!” Jessica leaned forward as much as she could. “Her father is the head of the very people who did this to me!”

Faint energy crackled in her hands as she strained against the electric current generated by her cage began to tingle.

“Murder is never the answer, Jessica.”

Her expression was cold, and her tone was even more so. “Tell that to her.”

“You can do that yourself. In court.”

Suddenly the door behind him slid open and the Mayor, escorted by four armed guards. Jessica’s eyes widened while the Chief spun around.

“Madam Mayor,” he said, the surprise radiating through his voice. “Shouldn’t you be in the hospital?”

“No,” she replied sternly. “I’m right where I need to be.”

He hesitated for a moment. “Yes, ma’am.”

The Chief then stepped aside as the Mayor strode past him, trailed by her security detail. Alexandra came directly to the face of the glass that separated her from Jessica, staring into the girl’s blue eyes. Rage burned within both.

“So,” the Mayor said. “You thought you could assassinate me?”

“Ravenger killed the last Mayor,” Jessica replied. “Couldn’t be too hard.”

“Well, you were wrong,” Alexandra retorted. “You were stopped.”

“Unfortunately.”

Chief Dillon pulled at his collar slightly.

The Mayor narrowed her eyes. “You’re just a little psychopath, aren’t you?”

“Takes one to know one.”

Enraged, Alexandra slammed her fist on the thick glass, the sound echoing through the room. There was a flash of blue light as Jessica screamed in pain. The electricity disappeared as the girl slumped forward. The Mayor laughed hysterically.

“I was wondering if that would work,” she mocked. “You have quite a short fuse, don’t you?”

Weakly, Jessica looked up at her, her eyes glowing.

“One way or another, madam Mayor, you will suffer for all that you and your family has done.”

A smile appeared on her face. “Too bad that’ll be long, long after you’ve received the death penalty.”

“What?”

“You attacked City Hall, and that is by definition an act of terrorism, and you attacked me, several officers, and killed my head of security. They’re going to have no problem sentencing you to death.”

Jessica only looked at her while she turned away and walked past her detail, them following in her wake. The Chief watched as she left and with one last glance at Jessica, he left after the Mayor, leaving the girl alone.

Anna leaned up to the front seat. “How far away is it?”

Claire glanced back at her. “A few hours. If you guys want some shut-eye, then now’s the time for it.”

“I got enough of that when Jessica threw me into the wall,” the girl rubbed her side, wincing.

“Telekinesis is a fun power, huh?” Albert smiled.

She looked back at him. “To use, I bet. Not to be used with.”

“How do you think she got her powers?” Nicole asked. “I mean, I know she got them from FuturTech’s experiments, but how?”

“I wouldn’t know,” Anna replied. “I don’t even know how I got my powers other than they were passed on from my mother to me.”

“Your mother also inherited them from her mother,” Mark said from the backseat. “She doesn’t know how her mother got them, but I don’t think it was in the same way you did.”

Anna turned around to face him. “Why not?”

“Because your mother always implied that she developed her powers when she was around your age, before she married your grandfather.”

“Maybe she was a late bloomer?” Albert suggested.

“Or it’s not entirely hereditary,” Anna said.

“So how would it pass from person to person?” the journalist asked.

She shrugged. “Magic, maybe?”

He laughed a little. “Magic? You can’t be serious?”

“Personally it would make a lot more sense that way,” Mark said.

“Ditto,” Nicole replied.

“Same,” Matthew chimed in.

“That would explain a lot,” Claire nodded.

Albert was looking at all of them. “Seriously?”

She shook her head. “I’m not a scientist, Albert, but that is something that has made more sense to me than anything else in the past few months.”

“So, since your powers can go to different people by some magic,” Claire said. “Is it possible that others have a similar ability to you?”

“We believe that John developed his fire abilities the same way.”

Matthew turned around in his seat. “What? He’s one of the special Supers? That scumbag?”

“I mean there is the saying ‘great power comes with great responsibility’ and I know for a fact that John isn’t the least bit responsible,” Anna replied.

“And if there’s two of you, there’s probably more,” Nicole said.

“Probably. But what would their abilities be?”

Albert shrugged. “Maybe, if this is all true, it’s still more elemental-based? Like you have air and he has fire?”

“Maybe,” she stroked her chin.

He had been drifting in and out of consciousness ever since they had finished their experiments on him. His whole body ached as he felt an intense pain in his left arm. Weakly, John looked around a familiar six-by-six cell, his vision blurring as his eyes passed around the room.

Slowly, he tried to raise himself off the bed and sat up, his head spinning as he did. He looked down at his left arm and saw a large bandage over his cubital fossa, a small dot of red in the center of it.

“They… took blood?” he said to himself, slightly dazed.

Rubbing his eyes, John slowly rose to his feet, knees slightly wobbling. Stumbling across the room, he fell against the door, slamming his fists against it once more.

“I know what you did!” he yelled as loud as he could. “Let me out before I kill you all!”

As he expected, there was no reply on the other side of the door.

Irritated, he grasped the collar around his neck and pulled, but he could tell that it wasn’t going to give way. After a moment he suddenly perked up. Taking a deep breath, he looked at the tips of his fingers as they began to glow orange.

He reached again to his inhibitor and pinched it. As he did he felt a tingling as the collar began to send electricity through his body. Slowly, his fingers began to sink into the device as smoke rose from it. A moment later his fingers cut through the collar, sparks flying as they met.

Smiling, John pulled the device from his neck and threw it to the ground, stomping on it with his foot. Rubbing his hands together, he watched as flames began to swirl around them.

Walking to the other side of the room, he stretched out his hands, glowing burning orange. A second later twin jets of fire shot out from his palms, both striking the door with intense force. Slowly, the flames began to eat away at the metal, molten pieces dripping to the ground.

Moments later there was a flash of blue light inside the fire before the flames broke through the door. Letting go, the jets ceased before he walked towards the fresh hole. Reaching his arm through the breach, he grasped the handle and pulled it open.

“I guess they don’t lock it from the outside,” he chuckled.

Crossing the threshold, John looked up and down the hallway, deciding which way to go. Finally reaching a decision, the man walked to his right, flames crackling in his hands.

“I’m coming for you, Professor.”

Ravenger was taking a different approach to his escape attempt.

The brute was bashing against the cell door with his bare hands, his knuckles already running with blood which was spread across the metal and dripping onto the floor. On the bright side, he had made a few large dents into the barrier.

After a few more swings he stumbled back from the door and looked at his bloodied knuckles.

“You cannot keep me in here like some animal! I am a king!” he roared at the steel door.

Fury crashing through him like a storm on the sea, the titan charged at the door, smashing his shoulder into it. On impact he made a sizable dent, one as big as his shoulder.

Smiling behind his mask, he readied to charge at the door again when it suddenly opened. As the door swung out of the way, he saw the figure of John Arwin standing there.

“You?”

“Me,” the man replied.

“How did you get out of your cell?” Ravenger inquired.

“I melted my collar,” he gestured to his neck. “The rest was easy.”

The terrorist was looking at him before John shot a small blast of fire at his neck and struck the collar, breaking the link. Ravenger looked down at it before pulling off the severed circle and looking at it, before dropping it to the ground.

“See? Easy.”

Electricity crackled in the titan’s hand as he smiled, before extinguishing it and looking at his companion.

“I know we haven’t known each other for very long,” he said. “But would you care to kill that old man with me?”

A broad grin appeared across the man’s face. “I thought you’d never ask.”

Together, the two enhanced individuals set off down the corridor, revenge boiling in their veins.

Claire estimated they were about an hour from the facility when suddenly they heard sirens and saw flashing lights behind them.

“Crap,” the detective looked at the car in the rear view mirror.

“You’re going to have to pull over, Claire,” Matthew said.

Sighing, the woman signaled and pulled off the road, coming to a stop. A moment later the law enforcement vehicle behind them came to a stop also, its lights still shining through their back window.

“This should be easy,” Albert leaned forward. “You guys are cops. This guy’s probably a Sheriff or something. You should be able to straighten it out.”

“We’ll see,” Mark said.

Moments later, a James Country Sheriff appeared at the window.

“License and registration, please.”

Claire and Matthew held up their badges, which he looked surprised to see. “You’re New Hampton police?”

“Yes. And there’s something that we’ve got to do that really can’t be delayed.”

He wiped his brow. “Well, you were pushing eighty in a fifty-five, and technically you don’t have any jurisdiction here...”

“Please. From one law enforcement official to another,” she pleaded.

“Uh, I’ll be right back,” he said before walking back to his car.

“Great,” Claire threw up her hands. “Now he’s gonna call it in and Dillon’s going to be calling us back.”

“And we’ll have to,” Matthew replied. “Unless we want to lose our jobs.”

“So we’ll have come all this way for nothing?” Nicole asked.

“It looks that way,” her brother said.

But his partner wasn’t ready to give up that easily.

“No,” she said, causing everyone to look at her.

“No?” Matthew repeated.

“No. FuturTech has caused too much damage, too much pain. It must fall. We’ve come too far to stop now.”

“Claire,” he put his hand on her shoulder. “If you do this, our jobs are as good as gone.”

“I don’t care about my job anymore!” she snapped. “The Sapphires are dead because of FuturTech. Deputy DA Ryan is dead. My brother is dead. Who knows who else is dead because of those monsters? No, Matthew. It ends today.”

There was silence in the car before Anna spoke up.

“Like I said back at my apartment, I’m in.”

“Same,” the others said.

“Alright. Let’s do some law breaking.”

“Yeah, I’ve got two detectives here from the New Hampton Police Department,” the Sheriff said into his radio. “Matthew Weaver and Claire Darrel. They were going eighty in a fifty-five, but say that they’ve got something important to do.”

He listened to his commanding officer at the other end.

“Yes sir. I’ll bring them down to the station. I will be there in twenty minutes.”

The Sheriff’s Deputy placed the radio back in his own car and began to walk back to the other car when suddenly the New Hampton vehicle sped forward, rocks kicking up as it drove away. Eyes wide, he ran after the car.

“Hey! Hey!” he yelled as the vehicle disappeared down the road.

Stopping and catching his breath, he looked back at his own car.

“I am so fired.”

Quickly, he ran back to his car and started the engine, turning on his sirens as he sped off down the road after the New Hampton Police vehicle.

Back in his office, Chief Dillon buried his face in his hands. Alexandra was breathing down his neck and was probably going to have his job after the fiasco with Jessica.

That girl. He knew she had been through hell and back. He knew that she was hurting. Who wouldn’t after seeing their whole family slaughtered for no good reason? Dillon understood her motives, but didn’t approve of her actions.

Breaking the silence, the phone on his desk began to ring. Picking it up, he put it against his ear.

“Chief Dillon. What is it?”

“Lieutenant Michaels, sir. A James County Sheriff pulled over detectives Matthew Weaver and Claire Darrel just a little while ago,” the officer at the end of the line said.

“What?” he nearly knocked his chair over as he stood up.

“''They were speeding so naturally he pulled them over. When he asked for ID they showed him their badges and he called it in, at which point they took off. The Sheriff was in pursuit but he lost them.''”

Dillon raised an eyebrow. “How did he lose them?”

“His car broke down, Chief.”

He stopped and took a deep breath before responding.

“You said they were in James County?”

“Yes, heading for Alberta.”

“I know where they’re going. Thank you, Lieutenant.”

“No problem, Chief.”

John Dillon set down the receiver and walked across his office. Claire and Matthew, and most likely Anna Brail, were going to the facility that Jessica had told them about. Walking out of the room, he stepped into the elevator and rode down to the holding cells.

Arriving, he walked past an officer who greeted him and walked to the end of the corridor where the familiar mechanical door slid open. Walking in, he strode past two guards who nodded as he entered. The Chief approached the containment unit where Jessica Sapphire glared up at him.

“Back so soon?” she spat. “What is it?”

“Anna and two of my detectives, and probably more, are on their way to that facility.”

Her eyes widened. “What?”

“Yes. And they’re going to die if I can’t get reinforcements to them. All because of you.”

Her expression turned dark. “They’re the ones who decided to take their own path.”

Suddenly he slammed his fist against the glass, causing her, and the guards, to jump.

“You’re the one who set them on this path! Now, if they die because of that, I will personally see to that you don’t see another sunrise as long as you live!”

“Just make it easier and kill me,” Jessica’s eyes glowed.

A cold smile appeared across his lips.

“No. You’re not getting the easy way out. No matter what Alexandra says.”

Then, at that moment, a voice came over the loudspeaker, causing all four people in the room to look up in alarm.

“You know, Chief, talking about people behind their backs is never a nice thing.”

Sliding open, the door moved out of the way as Interim Mayor Alexandra Jacobs walked through, speaker in hand and security detail trailing behind.

“John, John, John. What are you doing?”

“Uh...” he began awkwardly. “Nothing, ma’am.”

She gave a cold laugh. “Do not lie to me, or losing your job will be the least of your concerns.”

“With all due respect, madam Mayor, is that a threat?”

“You’d better believe it.”

Casually, he rested his hand on his gun.

“I don’t take kindly to threats, even when they are from the Mayor. Especially when I’m being threatened in my own police station.”

Behind her detail, the guards readied their weapons.

She smiled. “You know, Dillon, I don’t really care.”

In the blink of an eye she pulled a black gun from her jacket pocket and pointed it at the Chief, which was responded to with the guns of both Dillon and the guards being pointed at the group from City Hall.

“You know, Alexandra,” the Chief of Police said. “Neither do I.”

“Sir, John Arwin and Ravenger have escaped their containment cells!” the man rushed into the lab.

The Professor’s chair turned sharply. “What?”

“Yes sir. Our guards are currently combating them but we’re no match for them.”

Williams turned to the scientist at the console in front of the stasis tube.

“How long until he is ready?”

“I don’t know… maybe half an hour?” he shrugged.

In the distance they heard gunfire and the crackle of lightning.

“You’ll have to make it ten minutes, doctor.”

The man gulped before nodding. “Yes sir.”

The doctor began furiously working on the console. Inside the stasis tube, a gray gas began descending on the man inside, a moment later he began to stir. The Professor smiled broadly as he watched electricity crackle in the man’s hands again, sparking brightly.

“Soon, no one will stand to oppose use.”

Chapter 12: Punished
Having lost the Sheriff’s Deputy on the southern outskirts of the city, they were now closing in on the northern edge of Alberta. Soon, they would be entering the woodland lands where the FuturTech facility was, and where they would end this, once and for all.

What they would find there, they had no idea. What was waiting for them inside that building, they could only find out.

Whether they would survive or not, they would never be sure until they did.

“How much ammunition did you bring, Claire?” Albert asked.

“I’m hoping enough,” she replied.

“I hope so too,” he said.

“Well,” Anna turned around to face him. “If all else fails, I could just make a storm and blow them all away.”

Matthew frowned. “This is not the time for jokes, Anna.”

“No I’m dead serious. I’m ready to blow that facility off the face of the Earth.”

“Do you even have that much power?” Nicole asked.

“I think I do,” she answered affirmatively.

There was a beat of silence before Claire spoke up.

“Well, if you have to, use it.”

Anna nodded and looked to the others.

She took a deep breath. “You know,” the girl began. “You guys mean the world to me.”

“So do you,” Nicole said.

“You know what you mean to me,” Mark replied, smiling.

Matthew looked back at her front shotgun. “And me.”

Her face rushed with heat as she blushed.

“Thank you, guys.”

“Alright,” Claire said as the city of Alberta faded behind them. “We’re nearly there. Everyone get ready.”

Silence fell on the inside of the vehicle as they began to mentally prepare themselves for what was to come, however futile that may prove to be. All they knew for sure was that the end was near, the end for what, they didn’t know. Either the end for the Professor and his schemes or their own.

The road ahead was dark, but they knew their future was even more so.

The two guards flew backwards as they were caught in the explosion of fire, crashing to the ground. John unleashed a jet of fire at two more of the men, consuming them in flame.

To his left Ravenger thrust his hand forward as bolts of lightning left his fingertips, electrocuting the guards who were caught in it. He laughed darkly through his breathing apparatus as he grabbed one man by the throat and threw him with brute force against the wall.

“Where are we going?” John asked as he engulfed another guard in flame.

“To kill that lunatic Williams and then burn this forsaken place to the ground,” Ravenger answered as an intense bolt of lightning flew from his hand, killing three men instantly.

The man smiled. “Burning is my specialty.”

“Then let’s get to it.”

Blasting their way down the corridor, leaving destruction in their wake, they turned down another hallway one to be confronted by a dozen armed guards standing in front of a large door, guns raised.

“I presume that’s where your Professor is?” Ravenger asked, lightning crackling in his hands.

The guards said nothing and instead cocked their guns.

Chuckling, the terrorist smiled behind his mask. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

Together, John and Ravenger thrust their hands forward, a wave of fire and lightning rushing towards the soldiers. Bullets flew through the air as they frantically discharged their rifles in a blind attempt to kill their attackers as the flames and electricity consumed them, their screams echoing as they died.

As the remnants of their attacks subsided, the two Supers strode past the bodies that littered the floor around them and came to the door at the end of the hallway. A biometric lock rested on the right-hand side, displaying the outline of a human hand.

“Do you think we could just shock it?” John asked, examining it.

“That would probably fry it, you idiot,” Ravenger replied, annoyed.

“Well, then how do you think we should open it?”

He reached down and grabbed one of the dead guards by the arm and dragging him over to the scanner, placed his hand on the glass surface. Squeezing slightly, the body jolted as he sent a current of electricity through the hand. The device accepted the print and the door began to unlock.

“How did you do that?”

“The biometric scanners are designed to detect the small electric current generated by your body, and by sending a shock through the body, I was able to gain the same effect.”

“Clever.”

Finally, the door finished its unlocking sequence and slid open. Summoning their respective abilities in their palms, the two watched as the door opened to reveal a dark lab with glowing red lights within. Looking at each other, they slowly began moving in through the open gate, their senses alert.

Stepping into the dark, they saw no one around. Using his elemental ability, John created a ball of fire in his palm and shone it around, casting a flickering orange glow on the room. They saw lab equipment and it appeared as if whoever had been here left in a hurry.

John chuckled. “I guess they fled.”

But Ravenger was looking around. “No...”

Suddenly he was struck in the back by a blast of fire, causing him to stumble forwards. John’s eyes widened as he saw a shirtless man with a shaved head and stubble standing in the doorway, his hand outstretched with fire circling in his palm

“How did you do that?”

The man smiled. “You didn’t think all those experiments were just of the heck of it, did you?”

“You mean-?”

In his other hand lightning crackled, causing John’s eyes to widen even further.

“How is that even possible?” he gasped, stepping back.

The man chuckled. “It’s all just genetics, you know. It’s easy when you know what you’re doing.”

“But why? Why do this?”

A new voice joined the conversation. “For order, mister Arwin.”

John turned to see the Professor rolling towards him, a broad smile on his face.

“Order? What order?”

“World order, of course!” he said with glee. “With Supers that are under the control of government, peace can be maintained better than ever before!”

The man was bewildered. “So what? You want to genetically engineer Supers to be soldiers?”

“That’s the idea,” the man in the doorway said.

“Now, mister Jameson,” the Professor looked to the man. “If you would dispose of mister Arwin here. We shouldn’t be needing him anymore.”

“What? No!” John yelled, stretching out his hands, fire circling in his palms.

“Mister Arwin, please,” Professor Williams sighed. “Don’t make this harder for yourself.”

“You will not kill me!”

Jameson chuckled. “Well, that’s unfortunate.”

And in a flash of blue light, John fell to the ground, the dark enveloping him.

Slowly, they turned onto the dirt road towards the wall of trees Claire had seen the day prior. Ahead they could see the massive forest coming into view, the leaves glinting in the moonlight.

Dimming her lights, the car drove down the dirt road into the unknown, everything else slipping away behind them as they rode into the dark forest beyond. Outside the shadow forms of the trees passed by, like ghosts in the night.

They drove through the trees for a while before Claire decided to pull off the road, coming to a stop. Together, all six of them stepped out of the car and gathered around the back. Opening the back door, they saw several firearms and rifles loaded in the back of the vehicle, just waiting to be used.

“Dang,” Albert exclaimed. “Where’d you get all this?”

“The taxpayers, you dolt,” Claire sighed, reaching down and pulling out a rifle and a few clips. “This is all police-issue.”

“Neat,” he said, picking up a shotgun. “I could use this.”

“Just make sure you can,” Mark picked up a handgun and four clips. “And don’t shoot any of us.”

Albert was affronted. “Do you really have that little faith in me?”

“Yep.”

“Well,” he replied, slightly taken aback. “At least you’re honest.”

“Alright,” Claire said. “We haven’t got much time to lose, so let’s get going.”

Nicole and Anna grabbed guns, and then, reluctantly, the six began to trudge through the forest. They didn’t know what exactly they were looking for, but they knew it was a large compound and probably heavily guarded, so it couldn’t be too hard to find.

“If we just follow this road,” Matthew said. “We should come right upon it.”

“So what’s the game plan with this?” Anna asked. “Just go in guns blazing?”

“Well, we really want to try in get in there stealthily,” Claire replied. “But if it comes down to it, then yes.”

“What will we accomplish by going in their stealthily?” Mark inquired.

Matthew looked back at him. “Arresting the Professor is our most preferable course of action. Hopefully taking him out of the mix will we cause his forces to tumble, because I’m assuming most of them aren’t doing this by choice.”

Anna’s father nodded. “Glad the police force hasn’t become something less since I retired.”

The group continued on through the dark, their senses alert, nearly jumping at every movement in the shadows.

After a while, Anna groaned.

“How far into the forest is this place?”

Suddenly, as if to answer her question, they saw a light in the distance.

“I guess there,” Albert replied.

Moving slowly down the road they found that it led large clearing in the middle of the woods, where stood a building, twenty to twenty-five stories tall. Around the outside was a tall barbed-wire fence and several large lights illuminating the compound. Along the fence were several crates and boxes. The group moved behind the cover of the treeline and bushes, examining the complex.

“That looks like a secret lab if I ever saw one,” Anna said.

“It’s also a military fortress,” Claire replied. “They’ve got sentries all around it.”

“So,” Mark asked. “What’s the plan?”

“I think when we get through the fence, we go around the outskirts behind those crates,” she pointed to the large containers which accompanied the chain-link barrier. “Then we’ll try to penetrate the base itself, find the Professor, and arrest him, as stated earlier.”

“The plan sounds simple,” Nicole said. “But is going to be really hard.”

“Probably,” Albert nodded.

“Just make sure you stay out of sight and as quiet as a mouse,” Mark replied.

Suddenly a voice came from behind them. “Yeah, you’ve already failed at that.”

They swung around to see four armed men standing behind them, guns ready to fire.

“Weapons on the ground,” the lead one barked. “Now!”

Hesitantly, the six of them put their weapons on the ground before rising back up and putting their hands in the air.

“Who are you six?” the man asked, his gun panning from one to the other. “What are you doing out here in the dead of night?”

Looking at each other, Anna spoke up.

“We’re from New Hampton. Jessica Sapphire told us what you’ve been doing up here,” she said. “She told us of the monstrosities that have been committed and we’ve come to put a stop to it, once and for all.”

“’Monstrosities’?” he nearly laughed. “What are you talking about, girl?”

“You don’t talk to my daughter like that!” Mark yelled, enraged.

“Silence!” the man pointed his gun at his head. “Do that again and I’ll have to put a bullet between those glasses!”

“Dad, please,” Anna said to him, and he backed down.

She turned back to their captors. “The experiments the Professor is doing on humans in there. I know he took John Arwin and Ravenger and probably did the same to them as he did to Jessica. It’s illegal and evil and needs to be stopped.”

“Is that all you’ve got? That’s ridiculous. And you’re not going to do anything other than come with us.”

Anna sighed. “I guess we’re just going to have to do it this way.”

Thrusting her hand forward, a wave of air shot from her palm and struck the four men in the blink of an eye, blasting them threw the trees into the dark.

“Nice,” Claire smiled, picking up her gun again, as did the others. “Now let’s go.”

They were about to move out from behind the trees when suddenly an alarm began to scream from the complex behind them. Several spotlights focused on them as they looked to each other frantically.

“Well,” Matthew said. “Guess there goes the stealth approach.”

Dozens of soldiers suddenly appeared on the ground of the complex and began swarming towards them, guns locked and loaded. Readying their own weapons, the group looked at each other.

“Good luck,” Anna said.

“Good luck,” each of the others replied to each other.

Together, the six rushed out from behind the treeline, their weapons ready as air trailed behind Anna. Thrusting her hands forward, the gates were blasted open. As soon as they were, bullets began to fly towards them from the complex guards.

Diving behind boxes and crates, Anna, Nicole and Albert to the right while Matthew, Claire and Mark to left, the group covered their heads and debris rained down on them. Finding an opening, Matthew, Claire and Mark returned fire, Mark managing to strike one of the soldiers, knocking him to the ground.

“I can’t get a shot!” Albert yelled as he covered Nicole and Anna’s heads from debris.

“Then find one!” Claire replied, felling two more guards.

Closing her eyes, Anna took a deep breath before opening them again. Using her abilities, to launched herself over the crate they were hiding behind and landed behind a larger container.

“Anna!” Albert called as she jumped.

Thrusting her hand out from behind her refuge, a gust of air sent half a dozen soldiers crashing to the ground before she ran out into the crossfire. Calling upon her powers, she used a shield of air to deflect dozens of projectiles flying at her.

Running at a group of five, she shot up from a spout of air and landed behind them, sending them face-first into the ground with a whirlwind. As another wave of bullets flew at her, she dropped behind a box as wood splinters fell all around the girl.

To her right a soldier dropped to the ground as a bullet from her father struck him the soldier.

“Anna!” he yelled. “Do it!”

Nodding, she looked at her hands as wind began to swirl in her palms. Holding her hands together, she watched as a ball of condensed air formed between them. Taking another deep breath, she stood up and looked at the soldiers.

“Get down!” Mark said to others as he saw his daughter stand up. “Now!”

As the men saw her, she yelled under the strain of the now violent whirlwind spinning in her hands. Unable to take anymore, she let go. As she did, the ball of air exploded outwards with devastating force.

Crates shattered as boxes and containers flipped in the air. Guns broke in two as their owners were sent flying, crashing to the ground with enough force to knock them out cold.

Falling to the ground, Anna could barely hold herself up as her muscles ached.

Running over to her, Albert and Nicole helped her up while Mark, Matthew and Claire gathered around them.

“That was amazing, Anna!” Nicole said.

“Terrific work, my dear,” Mark smiled. “I knew you could do it.”

Claire looked at the girl’s handiwork. “Alright. We probably don’t have long before more soldiers show up.”

Anna nodded before pushing Albert and Nicole off.

“I can manage.”

“Well then,” the detective said. “Let’s go.”

The six ran off towards the building, the light at the end drawing nearer.

“They’ve gotten past our front defenses, sir,” the man came into the room as the lights flashed red above their heads.

“Anna Brail is too late. The end is near,” the Professor said.

He looked to the man. “Leave me.”

Hesitantly, the man nodded before ducking out of the room. The Professor turned towards the bookshelf. Rolling over to his keyboard, he punched keys in before the shelf slid upwards into the ceiling, revealing the exoskeleton again.

“It’s time, my dear.”

Pressing another key, the glass slid apart as the suit turned around. Hitting another button, the skeleton suddenly jumped before the case and onto him, strapping around his feet, legs, torso, arms and fingers.

Smiling, he pushed himself off his chair and stood up, looking around.

“It’s been so long since I last walked,” he said to himself as he strode around his office, a soft mechanical hiss heard with each step.

The joints of the suit glowed blue, which he admired as he stopped in the middle of the room.

“Out of all the things I’ve created, you are the most beautiful.”

Again, the door to his office slid open and he turned around to see Jameson standing there.

“What are you orders, sir?” he asked.

The Professor walked up to him. “When miss Brail makes it up here, and I know she will, I want you to set Ravenger and mister Arwin on her.”

“Sir? Shouldn’t I fight her-?”

“Yes, you will, but only after she has defeated those two, and then she will be too weak to fight you and you will surely win.”

He was confused. “But I was made for this. I have the powers of five different Supers. Surely I do not need her to be weakened before the fight? I nearly defeated her before.”

The old man sighed. “You are not ready for her in this state. She may look meek, but she is one of the strongest fighters you’ll ever encounter. Bide your time, and take her out at her most vulnerable.”

Jameson hesitated before nodding and leaving the room, the door closing behind him. Striding over to a table by the window, the Professor looked out over the guards lying unconsciously on the ground. Looking down, he picked up one of the glasses sitting on the table and examined it before crushing it in his hand, aided by his exosuit.

Smiling, he turned and left the room himself, leaving his wheelchair behind as he walked into battle.

“You know, Alexandra, I’m not really sure how you think this is going to go,” Dillon said, his gun still trained on the Mayor, while hers was still trained on him.

“Well, you’re going to hand that girl over to me, or I’ll blow your brains out.”

“…Where in that event both you and your men will be arrested, or, if you fight back, be shot and everything comes to an end for you.”

The Mayor narrowed her eyes. “Your officers would really kill me?”

“If you kill their Chief, then they sure as hell will,” he retorted.

She smiled. “You’re willing to die?”

“I am,” he replied. “But are you?”

Alexandra hesitated for a moment.

“No.”

“Then make the smart choice and lay down your weapon, madam Mayor. Don’t make this worse for yourself than it already is.”

She strengthened her grip on the weapon. “But you’re trying to tear apart my father’s life work. You’re trying to destroy everything!”

“Has it ever occurred to you that he’s doing something wrong? Are you so blindly devoted to your father that you’ve become numb to everything else?”

Rage bled into the Mayor’s face. “How… dare... you...”

“Alexandra, please-.”

Chief Dillon was cut off by the sound of the gun firing. A spinning projectile of hot lead struck him in the shoulder, causing him to fall backwards. As he fell, he struck the controls of the containment unit, unlocking the cell.

When the Mayor’s gun fired, her two guards were about to do the same, but the officers at the door were too fast and quickly dispatched them, their bodies falling to the floor.

The two officers quickly trained their weapons on the Mayor.

“Drop your weapon! Now!” one barked.

She looked at them. “Do you really think I’ll believe that you’ll shoot me?”

They didn’t waver.

“On the ground,” the officer said. “Now! Or we will shoot you!”

Alexandra smiled when suddenly the door to the containment unit flew open and the Mayor was blasted across the room, crashing into the door and sliding to the ground as it opened behind her unconscious form.

Swinging around, the officers saw Jessica Sapphire standing in front of her containment cell with her arm outstretched.

To her left, Chief Dillon slowly got up, holding his shoulder.

“Sir!” one of the officers said, running to help his Chief up while the other held his gun on the girl.

“At ease, gentlemen,” Dillon said, bracing himself again the containment unit as the officers stood down. “Although you’ll probably want to restrain the Mayor.”

Nodding, the one who had helped him up ran over and placed a pair of handcuffs on the interim Mayor.

The Chief then turned to Jessica.

“Well done, miss Sapphire. I guess you were right all along.”

“I knew I was,” she replied plainly.

“Of course your method before wasn’t acceptable.”

She sighed. “I need to get to the others.”

“Indeed, my dear, but I feel it’ll be too late by the time we get there.”

“That’s not a problem for me.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Alberta is hours away. How do you expect to get there in time to help them?”

“My powers,” Jessica’s hand glimmered. “They can do more than just pick up objects.”

Putting her hands together, a ball of energy formed as her entire body began to glow.

“I’ll see you on the other side,” she looked at the Chief before there was a flash of light and she was gone.

“What just happened?” one of the officers asked.

“I think,” Chief Dillon said. “That miss Sapphire is going to help our comrades in Alberta.”

The trio looked at the spot where the girl had been standing just moments ago.

“Let’s hope that she can get there in time.”

Chapter 13: I May Fall
Grabbing one of the guards’ key cards, the group progressed towards the large metal double doors into the compound. Anna was now recovered and their weapons were at the ready. Claire nodded as she swiped the card on the reader. It flashed green before the doors unlocked and slid open.

At once they were met with the sound of gunfire before they threw themselves to either side of the door, bullets flying out of the opening and striking the walls, sparks raining to the ground.

Anna stretched her hand in front of her before suddenly pulling it back. This action was followed by a stream of wind rushing past them into the double doors. They listened as the shooting stopped and heard the yells of the men as they were thrown to the ground.

Rushing in, the group ran past the unconscious guards on the ground and down the corridor. Lining the walls were several steel doors, presumably leading to labs or, more likely, cells. Above them lights flashed red as they turned a corner. Skidding to a halt, they were met with six men with guns aimed at them.

“Fire!” the lead one yelled.

But before any of them could get a shot off, Anna thrust her hands forward and blasted them to the floor in a gust of air. Behind them were a set of double doors; an elevator.

As they approached the lift, the doors opened and a dozen guards rushed out and pointed their guns at them.

“In here!” Mark yelled, opening one of the doors.

An instant later bullets began flying at them, and they barely jumped into the room before being struck. Bullets struck the open metal door as Claire and Matthew returned fire from behind the steel barrier.

Getting up, Anna saw that the room they were in was a six-by-six concrete cell with a bed against the wall.

“Jessica...”

Claire turned to her from the doorway. “Anna!”

Rushing over, she glanced out before quickly pulling her head back as a bullet struck the metal.

“Getting a clean shot is going to be hard!” she yelled over the gunfire.

“Well, we don’t have many other options!” Matthew replied, dodging a bullet himself.

Nodding, she took a deep breath looked down the corridor back the way they had come. Stretching her hand out again, she pulled the air and threw her hand towards the men firing at them. And just as before, a gust of wind rushed past them and struck the guards, their guns clattered to the ground before they themselves did the same.

Running out from their cover, the group wasted no time and bolted straight for the elevator. Piling in, Claire swiped the key card on the console and hit the button for the top floor.

“I’m assuming he’ll be at the top,” she shrugged as the doors closed.

“That’s a good deduction,” Albert replied.

The elevator shook as they ascended, lights passing on the outside. Watching as the numbers increased as they moved upwards, they all tightened their grips on their weapons as the end drew nearer.

He was the first to wake up. Slowly, Ravenger pushed himself off the floor and onto his feet. The titan leaned against the wall for support why his vision came back into focus. Looking around, he saw that he was in one of the stone hallways of the building, which was lined with doors again, only that most of these had glass windows. Another thing he noticed was that he was not alone.

The man who had traveled here with him was lying unconsciously on the floor beside where Ravenger had found himself. Stumbling over to him, he shook him.

“Wake up. We need to get moving.”

Slowly, John stirred before opening his eyes and pushing himself up.

“Where are we?” John asked, using the wall to the support himself as well.

“I don’t know,” Ravenger replied, looking around the corridor again. “But I think that will help.”

He pointed down the hallway to a set of double doors; the doors to an elevator. Glancing at each other, the two made their way for the lift. Coming to a console on the wall, John pressed the button for the bottom floor, which lit up when he did so.

“Is getting out of here really that easy?”

Ravenger grunted before the elevator dinged. Stepping back in anticipation, they watched the doors slid open.

The elevator came to an abrupt halt on the fourth floor, stories before their intended destination. The group looked at each other in confusion as the door parted. Anna’s heart nearly stopped as she saw two figures she had imagined never to see again appear on the other side.

“John? Ravenger?” she gasped, and the shocked expressions on their faces seemed to portray that they hadn’t expected her either.

“Anna?” John exclaimed.

“Brail,” Ravenger said darkly, lightning crackling in his palms.

Thrusting her hands forward, she blasted the two down the corridor, both skidding to a halt. She turned to her friends.

“I’ll handle these two. Go get the Professor.”

Her father looked at her, as well as Albert and Nicole.

“It’s okay. I’ll be fine.”

Eventually, all three nodded as Anna stepped out and the doors closed behind her. She watched the last glimpses of the their faces, especially her father’s and Albert’s before turning to Ravenger and John. Air swirled in her palms as they recovered themselves.

The titan snarled. “I don’t know what you’re doing here, girl, but I can assure you that you’re not leaving here alive.”

“Yeah? And how did it work out the last time you said something like that, ‘my dear’?” she smiled.

John chuckled. “Unfortunately for you, there’s two of us, and we both know you’re not that powerful.”

She raised her fists and put her left foot back. “Do you want to test that theory out, John?”

Flames exploded in his hands while bolts of electricity shot from Ravenger’s palms.

“Gladly.”

Anna cracked her neck.

“Then what’re we waiting for?”

Punching forward, blasts of fire shot from John’s fists. She expertly jumped out of the way before Ravenger launched a bolt of lightning at her. Barely managing to dodge the streak of electricity, she landed and sent a gust of wind at the two. It pushed them both back but they quickly recovered and ran at her.

John was the first to reach her and, with flaming fists, swung at her. She ducked under it and struck him hard in the gut, making him double over before she swept his left leg out from underneath him, sending him crashing to the ground.

His attack was quickly succeeded by Ravenger’s. He swung at her head with his right hand, and as with John, she ducked under his fist but brought up his left hand from underneath and grabbed her by the throat, picking her up. Her feet flailed as she tried to get back to solid ground.

The terrorist laughed. “This feels very familiar, my dear.”

“But this won’t. For you, anyway,” he smiled.

Swinging her around, he threw her into one of the doors. She crashed through into a laboratory, sliding across the floor before being stopped by a table.

Every part of her body hurt as her vision blurred. Anna could feel what was probably a piece of glass lodged in her arm. Weakly, she reached over to pull it out of herself when she was suddenly picked up again and held above the floor. She saw that it was once again Ravenger holding her, joined by John, who had fire burning his hands.

“That’s not nearly what it’s like to be thrown from a skyscraper,” the titan said. “That was fun to do, though.”

“You’re a lunatic,” she replied weakly.

“Oh no,” he shook his head. “I’m a king. And I’m a vengeful king. I also put faith in a principal which I believe originates from your own religion.”

John winced slightly.

“I think the phrase was ‘An eye for an eye?’”

The man to his right suddenly perked up before smiling broadly.

“How do you think about a trip to the roof?”

And then she slipped into the darkness once again.

“It’s just a flesh wound!” the Chief pushed the medic away who was, in his opinion, overreacting to the gunshot in his shoulder.

“With all due respect, sir,” she said, approaching him again. “We need to make sure that wound doesn’t become infected.”

Dillon sighed before nodding. “Fine. You win.”

As she began tending to his wound again, the Assistant Chief of Operations appeared in the doorway and walked over to the Chief.

“Are you okay, John?”

“Not bad, but not great either.”

“Well, we’ve got the Mayor locked in the nicest cell we could fine, which as you know is the only one where the mattress doesn’t have piss stains. Still smells that way, though.”

Chief Dillon chuckled. “Good work, Will.”

“No problem, sir.”

Assistant Chief William Burrows looked around the room and at the bloodstains on the floor.

“What caused her to do this?”

“It’s amazing what someone will do to protect their family.”

“That is very true.”

There was a moment of silence between the two as the medic continued to tend to his gunshot wound.

“So what’s our next move, Chief?”

Dillon looked down before looking back up at his second-in-command. “Detectives Matthew Weaver and Claire Darrel have gone with Anna Brail and I’m assuming others to the supposed FuturTech facility north of Alberta.”

“Unsanctioned and without backup?”

“It would appear so.”

William ran his hand through his hair. “Do we even know where it is?”

“Yes. Detective Darrel left us her map to it.”

“So what do you want me to do? Call in Commander Raydor?”

“Please. She’s the best choice for this operation and we need to get moving now. Alberta’s a long ways away and we need to get up there to at least avenge them, if it comes to that.”

The Assistant Chief nodded. “Yes sir.”

He turned on his heel and walked out of the room, pulling out his cellphone as he did. Dillon turned to the medic.

“I suppose this means I’m going to be stuck on desk duty for a while?”

“Oh yeah,” she said, bandaging the wound.

The Chief sighed. “Great.”

“What in the name of sanity were they thinking?” she asked as they walked down the corridor. “Going in without backup and without direct orders? If I were still in I.A. they would be kissing their badges goodbye if they came back.”

“I understand, Sharon,” Chief William replied. “And believe me there will be consequences, but right now our officers need help and they’ve got civilians with them.”

Her shoes squeaked as she came to a sudden halt. “Are you serious? They brought civilians with them?”

“...Yes.”

She rubbed her forehead. “I’m sorry Chief, but I really hope these two get fired after SOB goes in and rescues them.”

“Again I will see to it that there are consequences,” Chief Burrows said as they began walking again.

“Good,” Commander Raydor nodded, pulling out her phone. “SOB will be ready to mobilize in ten minutes.”

“Thank you, Commander,” William nodded as he turned and left.

She watched him go before dialing a number on the phone and holding it up to her ear.

“Yes, Lieutenant Marks. We need to mobilize a squad as soon as possible. Officers are in distress north of Alberta. Yes, thank you.”

Putting the phone back in her pocket, she walked off down the corridor before coming to a wall of elevators. She pressed the button for floor thirteen and stepped in. Watching the doors close, she let out a deep breath, noting that it was going to be a rough morning.

They watched as the numbers above the elevator door climbed higher and higher towards the top floor. The group didn’t know what awaited them there, but they all knew it was their duty to bring this ‘Professor’ to justice, no matter the cost.

The numbers above the double doors came to a stop at floor fifteen. Readying their weapons, the doors slid open and they moved to take cover, but found that there was no need to. Looking out into the corridor, they saw that no one was present, not a sign of life at all.

Cautiously, the five moved out of the elevator, looking around everywhere for any sign of an attacker.

“Where is everybody?” Nicole asked, holding her gun at the ready. “Shouldn’t there be guards attempting to brutally murder us. You know, like on all the other floors.”

“I don’t know,” Claire replied. “Something doesn’t feel right.”

“Something is definitely off,” Mark replied, looking around.

“That,” a new voice said. “Is very true.”

They turned around to see an older man who was wearing several pieces of glowing metal armor, which went around his body, arms and legs. He was also smiling at them.

“The Professor, I presume?” Albert stepped forward.

“At long last,” Claire said, the grip she had on her gun tightening. “The man who killed my brother.”

He smiled. “So you’re the nosey one’s sister. I’ve been looking forward to meeting you.”

She narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean, ‘nosey one’?”

“Oh, your brother was meddling in things that he shouldn’t, and I was forced to kill him. Well, have him killed.”

Claire shook with rage, and Matthew put a hand on her shoulder.

“So you really are the monster that Jessica says you are?” Mark asked.

The Professor smiled again. “Well, discovery requires experimentation.”

Pointing her gun at him, she put her finger over the trigger.

“How dare you. How dare you think you’re somehow above it all for the sake of science. My brother had a wife. Jessica had a family. How many other people will you kill to get what you want?”

“As many as necessary, detective Darrel.”

“Well, in that case,” Matthew said. “You’re under arrest for murder in the first degree, conspiracy to commit murder, kidnapping-.”

He was cut off by the old man’s laughter. “You really think you are going to actually arrest me?”

“Considering that our only options here are to arrest you or kill you, then yeah, we do,” Claire replied.

Another broad smile spread across his face. “I have another option: I kill all five of you.”

“With what?” Albert asked. “You’re unarmed.”

The Professor laughed again.

“I think this guy’s fallen off his wagon,” Nicole remarked.

Suddenly the man became a blur and in the next moment they were all crashing to the ground. The Professor reappeared above them.

“Neat, isn’t it?” he examined his exoskeletal arm. “The latest in FuturTech technology. This exoskeleton enhances, agility, speed and strength, which is perfect for feeble bodied men such as myself.”

“So you’ve become the machines you build,” Mark slowly got up, wincing.

“If you look at it that way, then yes, I have.”

An instant later they were pushed to the ground again as the Professor became a blur once more. Reappearing, the Professor reached down and grabbed Nicole by the throat, lifting her off the floor.

“You let go of her!” Matthew yelled, pointing his gun at the old man.

“I wouldn’t do that, detective,” he said, tightening his grip on the girl. “She might just break.”

Matthew and the others stood up, pointing their weapons at the man. “If you don’t put her down, I might just break you.”

“That’s where your wrong,” the Professor replied. “My work is of the gods, yours is of man.”

“We come for justice, you work for gain,” Mark said. “From where I’m standing, our work is of God, your work is of man.”

Rage filled his face.

“Then you must die!”

Dropping Nicole to the ground, the Professor swung at Mark with inhuman speed. Barely ducking out of the way, Matthew, Claire and Albert opened fire on the man. Bullets clanged off his exoskeletal armor before suddenly their guns stopped working. They looked at them weapons confused.

The Professor stood up laughing, holding a device in his hand.

“It’s useless. The walls of this corridor are now emitting a frequency which causes the gunpowder in your bullets to solidify as long as they’re within the barrier, rendering your weapons ineffective.”

Albert cracked his knuckles. “I guess there’s always our fists.”

The old man smiled and flexed his hand, a mechanical hissing heard from each finger.

“Oh yes. There is always our fists.”

As Anna woke, she saw that dawn was breaking, the starry sky being chased away by various shades of pink and blue.

Looking down, she saw that Ravenger was once again holding her by the neck, and that she was suspended over the ledge of the building, the solid ground fifteen stories below her. She tried to struggle but it proved futile.

Ravenger chuckled. “Good. You’re awake. That means we can begin.”

“Begin what?” she said weakly. “You’re just going to drop me.”

“That is true, miss Brail, we are going to drop you. But first we’re going to make it hurt.”

John appeared from behind the titan. “Because just falling is too light a sentence for you.”

“Indeed,” Ravenger agreed. “You must atone for your sins.”

“Who gave you the right to play God?”

“I did.”

She could feel the familiar tingle as currents of electricity began to come through Ravenger’s hand and into her body. Closing her eyes, she braced for excruciating pain she was about to be dealt when suddenly she felt a bright light on her eyelids before she hit the ground.

Weakly, she pushed herself up and looked around to see that she was now behind Ravenger and John, behind them by several paces. Swinging around, they looked at her with with shocked faces before looking up from her to something apparently standing next to her.

Looking herself, she saw that Jessica Sapphire was standing next to her, just the same as she had been several hours previously. She looked down at Anna.

“Jessica?” the woman on the ground weakly asked. “How are you here?”

“I teleported. Chief Dillon let me out,” she answered, looking back at Ravenger and John.

“Teleported?” Anna repeated. “Why is that not surprising?”

“Who are you, girl?” Ravenger asked, electricity crackling in his hands.

Her eyes glowed. “I’m Jessica Sapphire. And I’m the one who’s going to defeat you.”

Ravenger let out a very familiar filtered laugh. “You fool! I am a king! An insolent girl like you cannot possibly defeat me!”

Jessica held up her hands, sapphire energy swirling around her fingers.

“Wanna bet?”

Enraged, the titan thrust his hand forward and a bolt of lightning shot from his finger tips directly at the girl. As it approached her, she struck it with the back of her hand. In a flash of light, it redirected away from her and off into the breaking dawn.

Ravenger stared at her.

“How did you-?”

He was suddenly picked off his feet and thrown across the rooftop by Jessica, using her telekinetic abilities. Turning away from Anna, she ran off after the titan. Anna got up and looked at John, a burning hatred in her eyes, enough to match his own fire.

“I see your friend left you all alone with me,” John taunted. “Maybe when she comes back she can stop me from turning your corpse to ash.”

Anna chuckled. “Don’t flatter yourself. You’ve always been the easy one.”

Punching his hands forward, balls of fire flew at her. Calling upon her own abilities, she flipped out of the way before unleashing her own barrage of attacks. He managed to dodge a few of them before he was struck by three of her gusts of wind, knocking him backwards.

“Trying to throw me out of a building again, Anna?” he asked.

“No,” she replied. “I’m trying to throw you off a building. Big difference.”

Flames igniting in his hands again, he charged at her. She moved out of the way as he brought a streak of fire down on her. Landing a blow to his jaw, he stumbled away before kicking a blast of fire at her. Bending backwards as the flames sailed over her, she was suddenly thrown to the ground as John swept her legs out from under her.

She tried to get up when he brought his foot down on her stomach, causing her to cry out in pain.

“Oh no, I don’t think so,” John said, fire burning in his eyes. “You’re not going to be able to do that, my dear. This is how it has to be.”

He pressed down harder, his foot sinking deeper into her midsection as tears formed in her eyes. She looked up at him as they streaked down her face into her hair. He created a ball of flame in his hand and held it up.

“Goodbye, Anna. It hasn’t been a pleasure.”

Dodging another bolt of lightning, Jessica charged at Ravenger. She sent a wave of energy at him which pushed him back across the roof. Enraged, he unleashed another bolt of electricity. This one went straight for her, but she blocked it with her hand as she skidded to a halt, it disappearing in a flash of light.

“How are you doing this?!” he yelled through his respirator. “This isn’t possible!”

“You,” she said, energy crackling in her hands. “Of all people, should know that nothing is impossible.”

Thrusting her hand forward, a bolt of lightning shot forth and struck Ravenger in the chest knocking him backwards.

“Witch!” he cried as he charged at her.

He came upon her in an instant, and grabbing her by the throat, tossed her across the rooftop. She hit the ground and rolled to a stop, her body aching as she struggled to get up. By the time she managed to crawl to her knees, he was there and kicked in her in the stomach, sending her to the ground again.

“You may be able to counter my powers, but you cannot counter my strength, girl.”

Tears running from her eyes, she thrust her hand forward again and Ravenger was launched backwards. This gave her enough time to get back up and conjure a ball of energy between her palms. He got up himself and stared at her.

“Do you really think that’ll be enough to defeat me?”

Smiling, she unleashed the ball, which exploded at him with the force of a cannon and submerged him in a blinding light. Squinting through the glare, her expression dropped as she saw the titan emerge from the light, electricity crackling in his hands.

“Peasant! I am no mere human. I am a king! I am sovereign! You cannot defeat me! I am above you!”

Bolts of lightning began to shoot from his form, striking parts of the rooftop and leaving black burn marks, rocks flying everywhere. An instant later he began to rise up, the bolts of lightning seemingly carrying him up. She watched as he ascended, his eyes glowing.

“I am a god! You are nothing! History will pass and you will be nothing but dust, while I will be remembered as the king of all!” his voice boomed.

Across the way both John and Anna watched as the terrorist outstretched his hand at Jessica, bright light crackling at the tip. Anna tried to free herself, but she was too weak. She had taken too many hits and now she could only watch.

“Farewell, my dear. I will remember you as the first martyr of many to come.”

Pulling his hand back, charged with volts of electrical energy, he thrust it forward, a massive blast of light shining from it.

As the light cleared, it became apparent that something was very wrong. Instead of having shot from the titan’s finger tips, the energy still ran up and down his arm as it shook, like it was being held there by some unseen force.

He looked down at the girl who was standing there with her hand outstretched, eyes blazing. Slowly, she closed her hand and the energy receded back in Ravenger as he cried out in pain. His entire body shook as blue lights danced under his skin, several small holes appearing as he screamed.

Her own hand shaking, Jessica held her grip firm. John saw what was happening, and so did Anna. He stepped off of her and began to charge at the black-haired girl when he blasted from behind by a gust of air, crashing face-first into the ground and being knocked out.

Looking to the girl, Anna saw that her face was strained as Ravenger’s being glowed brightly.

Suddenly, in a booming cry of pain, his entire body exploded in a blast of light, electricity flying in every direction, illuminating the area more than the rising sun itself. As soon as Ravenger exploded, Jessica fell to the ground in a slump. Mustering all her strength, she ran over to the girl and saw that she had merely fallen unconscious.

Looking around, she saw half of the titan’s mask lying on the rooftop, charred and fragmented. She breathed a sigh of relief. At long last, he was gone. At long last, Ravenger was dead.

“Well, you’ve got to admit,” someone suddenly said. “That sure was impressive.”

Swinging around, she saw the voice belonged to a man standing over John’s unconscious form, shirtless with strange designs on his body.

Her eyes widened as she realized who it was.

“You,” Anna gasped. “You work for FuturTech?”

“Of course I do, you stupid girl,” the bald man from the alleyway said. “Who else would I work for?”

She stood up. “So what? You’re the Professor’s assassin?”

“I was. But now I’m so much more.”

Anna raised an eyebrow. “Oh? And what’s that?”

He held up his left hand and a flame appeared in it. Her eyes widened even more as he held up his right hand and electricity crackled in it.

“How-?”

“The tides are changing, Anna Brail,” he said, reaching to his back and pulling out two sword grips.

“And you’re about to be swept away, like footprints on the shore.”

Below in the corridor, things were not going as they planned. Due to the Professor’s body being covered in metal, and his punches extremely deadly, they were mainly left to simply duck and dodge his attacks.

Albert barely got out of the way as the Professor’s enhanced arm swung at him, the fist missing and striking the wall, a chunk of stone being scraped out. He stood up and looked at the dent.

“Great way to scrape up the building.”

“You think quipping will somehow distract me, but really it’s how you’re distracting yourself from you eventual end,” the Professor replied.

“Marcus, please,” Mark said, stretching his hand out a little ways in front of him. “This is madness! You have to stop this before it’s too late!”

He laughed dryly. “No, I don’t think so. I am trying to make a better world. You all are trying to tear it down. No, I will not stop.”

“Then whatever happens,” he said, pulling out his gun again and holding it by the barrel. “You can’t say we didn’t give you a chance to step away.”

“It’s amusing that you think that you’ll get out of this alive,” the Professor said.

The man was about to advance on them again when suddenly a wave of energy passed through the corridor, the lights flickering before going out as well as Marcus Williams crying out as the lights on his exoskeleton went out and he fell to the ground.

At the same time they all felt their guns’ weights become slightly lighter, just enough for them to notice.

Realizing what had happened, they drew their weapons and quickly surrounded the old man as emergency lights lit up down the corridor, illuminating them in a red glow.

“Now, Professor, you’re under arrest,” Claire smiled.

“Electric wave,” he muttered. “Just a few seconds...”

“What are you talking about?” Nicole asked when suddenly his suit lit back up and in the blink of an eye he struck the ground. The floor trembled, knocking them off balance, giving the Professor enough time to become a blur of motion and disappear to the end of the corridor, something in his hand.

“See you in hell,” he smiled before pulling something off it and throwing it.

Claire, Matthew and Mark instantly realized what it was.

“Grenade!” they yelled.

As it flew towards the ground, the ground all turned and ran back down the corridor towards the elevator. The explosive device hit the floor and bounced again before clattering to a halt. The doors to the elevator opened and they dove in when the grenade exploded behind them, sending a shockwave which knocked them to the floor of the elevator.

Several moments later, they uncovered themselves and slowly stood up. The red lights were now flickering as the hallway was filled with dust and debris, pieces of stone, and glass from the lab doors. Moving out of the elevator, they saw that the place where the grenade had went off was completely destroyed, effectively cutting them off from the Professor.

“No,” Claire said, holding head. “Nonononono no! We almost had him! We almost had that monster! How could he get away?! No!” she slammed her fists on the wall.

Matthew grabbed her arm. “Claire, we gotta go.”

Wiping a tear out of her, she nodded and followed as they moved back towards the elevator when the doors closed and they heard it descend, the numbers decreasing at the same time.

“Someone’s called it,” Mark said.

“Crap,” Albert replied, cocking his gun.

“We’re not going to be able to fight out our way out of this one,” Claire suddenly said, looking to one of the doors.

“Then what do you propose we do?” he asked, turning to face her.

“One of these labs has to adjoin with one of the doors over there,” she pointed across the chasm.

Albert raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure about that?”

“My brother took me to the FuturTech tower. They all had adjoining labs. And since this is a FuturTech building, I’m assuming some of the designs are the same,” she looked to the numbers above the elevator, which were now rising.

Matthew nodded. “It’s worth a shot! We haven’t got much time until we’re brutally murdered!”

“Alright,” he conceded. “Let’s go.”

They ran to the two doors that were closest to the chasm on either side, both their windows blown out and doors damaged. Struggling to open them, Matthew and Albert managed to break them open and they looked inside.

Each had the walls that backed again the hallway destroyed and the floor was giving way. The right side one didn’t adjoin to a lab on the other side, but the left side did, the door on the other side just visible through the smoke.

“There it is!” Nicole said delightedly.

“Go!” Mark yelled as they heard the elevator approaching again.

Running into lab, the floor trembled slightly underneath them. Quickly but softly, they moved to the chasm in the floor, which was smaller than the one outside but one they still had to jump. Albert, Matthew and Mark jumped over followed by Nicole and Claire, whom Albert and Matthew caught, respectively.

Opening the other door, they poured out into the hallway when they heard the elevator ding on the other side of the chasm. Looking back, they saw at least a dozen soldiers pour out. A moment later they spotted them and opened fire. Diving around the corner, they took shelter as bullets scrapped the stone wall.

“We’re not going to be able to fight them!” Mark said. “We’ve gotta move!”

Nodding, the group ran down the corridor. Behind them, the soldiers saw that the lab door was open and went into it, crossing the chasm in the floor and going to the other side. An instant later they were on the tail of the group, the gap between them closing quickly.

“Stop!” the lead one yelled as they saw the group running away.

As the hallway came to an intersection, they curved to the left, the direction the Professor having gone lost to them. Now they were simply running for this lives.

Behind them they could hear the echo of the guard’s footsteps and yelling as they chased after them.

“Where are we going?” Nicole asked, panting slightly.

“There has to be another elevator or even a stairwell somewhere,” Claire replied. “Either way, we need to find it.”

Pressing on, they continued to run deeper into the compound.

“Please, don’t do this,” Anna stretched out her hand. “Nobody’s making you do this.”

Suddenly razor sharp blades unfolded from the sword handles, making her eyes widen in fear.

“That’s right,” he smiled. “Nobody is making me do this.”

Her heart began to beat a little faster. “But why? Why do this? Why be a pawn in somebody else’s game?”

“Because after everything’s done, I will be heralded as a hero, a saint.”

“Seriously? You’re doing all this just be viewed as some kind of savior?” she almost laughed. “That’s insane.”

He smiled. “But isn’t that why you do what you do, miss Brail?”

She looked at him. “What? What do you mean ‘isn’t that why you do what you do’?”

“I mean isn’t that why you go out at night and save people? Why you’re here right now? To be viewed as a hero? To get the glory?”

Anna stepped forward. “I do what I do to help people. I don’t seek recognition.”

Tilting his head back, he let out a loud laugh, which echoed through the morning.

“Nobody believes that,” he looked at her. “Not even yourself.”

“What do you want?” she asked, air swirling in her hands.

“To kill you, of course.”

His swords were surrounded in blue energy before he charged at her. An instant later she was forced to flip out of the way as he swung his twin blades at her, electricity trailing through the air. Landing, she punched forward, sending gusts of air in his direction. However, instead of dodging them, he brushed them away, redirecting to his left and right.

She was at a loss for words. “How-?”

“You’ve left quite a few blood samples around New Hampton, my dear,” he said, creating a swirl of air around one of blades idly. “Good things the hospitals are so generous when it comes to FuturTech.”

“My powers… You have my powers?” she gasped.

“Along with the abilities to control water and some of her abilities,” he gestured to Jessica, who still laid on the ground.

“Water? Where did you get that?”

“The Master of Water, of course,” he replied, his tone implying that it was common knowledge.

She titled her head to the side. “Master of Water? What’s that?”

His narrowed narrowed slightly. “It’s just how you’re the Master of Air. Surely you’re aware of this?”

“Aware of what?”

“You don’t know about the Prophecy?” he looked down to his left.

Anna threw her arms out in frustration. “What are you talking about?!”

The man smiled. “I guess you’ll never know.”

Swinging his swords forward, streaks of fire flew at her. Jumping over one, she blasted the other with air, dissipating it. This attack was swiftly followed by him slicing at her stomach with his blade, forcing her to curve her body to avoid be cut in half.

He kicked his foot forward, blasting her with a gust of air. Being pushed back by a force she so usually controlled felt like betrayal, but she didn’t have time to worry about it, as the man came at her again with his dual blades, slicing within an inch of her face as she barely moved out of the way.

Electrifying his blades again, he thrust them forward, lightning arching towards her. She dove to the ground as they crackled above her. This, however, proved to be a mistake, because when she had landed on the ground, he immediately struck her with his foot, throwing her onto her back. She groaned in pain before she brought his sword down on her.

With almost no strength left, she rolled out of the way and kicked up in the direction of her attack, blasting him with an unexpected gust of wind. He stumbled backwards before regaining his composure, but it provided just enough time for Anna to get back on her feet and hurl several blasts of wind at the assassin.

Managing to either redirect or dodge most of them, he unleashed a massive blast of fire at her. Thrusting both hands forward, she parted the flames, creating a tunnel of fire around her, much like what had happened during her and John’s fight several days before.

The man, however, charged right into the tunnel with her as the fire dissipated, swinging his blades at her again. She almost jumped clear of the attack, but one of the blades sliced her across the stomach, causing her to cry in pain as she fell tot the ground.

But she had no time to suffer, as he was back on her in a matter of second. Flipping up, she winced slightly as she sent gusts of air in his direction, one of which hit him directly in the face, knocking him off balance.

Seizing the opportunity, she shot intense blasts of air at his two swords. He managed to keep hold of his right one, but the left one flew out of his hand and into the air. Running forward, she caught the blade and spun around, leveling at the man.

“Now the playing field’s a little more even,” she said, the blade glinting the light of the rising sun.

He laughed. “Do you even know how to use that?”

Anna shrugged. “I think I can figure it out.”

Readying both their weapons, the two charged at each other.

Rushing into his office, he didn’t even wait until the door was fully closed before he had pulled out a large bag and began cramming objects into it; books, tools, various nick-nacks that meant nothing to anyone but himself. Reaching into a drawer on his desk, he pulled a black gun and shoved it into the sack.

Everything had gone horribly (and he meant horribly), awry. Everything he had built here was crumbling down around him. His only hope was that Jameson would be able to kill both Anna Brail and Jessica Sapphire, maybe even John Arwin. Leaving loose ends was always a downfall.

He assumed that Ravenger was already dead. He speculated that his death is what caused that electromagnetic wave that had disabled the lights and his suit momentarily. It was no bother. That psychopath was a failed experiment and he was probably going to kill him anyway.

Deeming that filling the bag to the brim was enough, he swung it over his shoulder, helped by his enhanced strength, and walked across the room. Going to a bookcase, he placed his hand on a glass cube and turned it, a mechanical clicking beginning as he did so. A moment later the bookcase to his left slid open and revealed a passageway.

Quickly, he walked through it, the door closing behind him. He turned a corner in the narrow corridor and came to a door and pushed it open. The doorway led out onto a large outside pad, just below the roof with a black helicopter at the end.

Smiling, the Professor began to walk towards it. From the cockpit a man waved to him before pressing a few buttons on the inside, the propellers beginning to spin.

Before long, he would be off to another FuturTech facility before he disappeared entirely.

As he vision came back, she heard the clanging of swords behind her. Weakly, she rolled over to see Anna, sword in hand, fighting a bald and shirtless man with an identical weapon. Her eyes widened as she saw the man hurl balls of fire at the woman with his swords before doing the same with electricity and gusts of air.

She suddenly realized that this was the Professor’s endgame: an artificial Super who could be a soldier for whatever government wanted one.

Weakly, she stood up as energy swirled in her hands, ready to take down the man when she heard the sound of a helicopter behind her. Turning, her eyes narrowed, knowing who it was.

“No you don’t, old man,” she muttered before running off in the direction of the sound.

She came to the edge of the roof and looked down to see the large pad with the black helicopter in the middle, its propellers spinning rapidly. And walking towards it was the Professor himself, some kind of exoskeleton encasing him.

Her eyes blazing, she leaped down, landing behind the old man. He couldn’t hear her over the roaring blades of the helicopter. She outstretched her hand, energy crackling in her palm. A second later the inside of the aerial vehicle sparked before exploding violently, sending the Professor stumbling backwards.

“You’re not getting away that easily,” she said.

Looking up, his eyes met hers.

“Jessica Sapphire… I thought I wouldn’t be seeing you again when you fled this very facility. But I see that you’re back.”

“I thought I wouldn’t be back either, but times change,” her eyes continued to glow blue.

His eyes narrowed. “You tried to kill my daughter.”

“Who tried to kill me. And don’t act like you care about morals. Or your daughter,” she spat. “You and I both know that you only care about science.”

The Professor smiled. “You’re right. And it seems that you don’t care much for morals either.”

“Don’t lecture me.”

“I’m serious,” he said, getting to his feet. “You killed that security officer at City Hall. You tried to kill Alexandra. You just killed that pilot,” he pointed to the flaming wreckage. “And now you’re going to kill me, I’m assuming?”

She nodded.

Marcus Williams laughed. “Well then, this is an interesting position we’ve found ourselves in, then. A monster and a monster, standing off, neither one with the moral high ground.”

Jessica leveled her hand again, light flickering between her fingers. “I don’t need the moral high ground, Professor. You’ve already given me enough high ground.”

“Please, think about what you’re doing,” he said, a hint of desperation in his voice. “You don’t have to continue on this path.”

“But this is all my path has led me to!” she yelled. “The path you set me on two years ago when you killed my family! And for what? To give me abilities?”

“My dear,” he took a step forward. “Giving you abilities is only a small part of a bigger portrait.”

She cocked her head, much in the same way as Anna had on the roof. “What are you talking about?”

He sighed. “There are forces at work you cannot possibly understand, you naive girl. Not even I fully grasp it. But I do know that something is coming, and Anna, John and whoever else with elemental abilities such as theirs are going to bring it. Something that will bring an end to everything.”

The Professor reached his hand out towards her. “You and I, we can stop it. Together, we can save the world.”

The girl looked at it.

“I’m sorry, but the end of the world sounds a whole lot better than letting you live.”

Putting his head down, he sighed again. “If that’s your choice...”

In a blur of motion, he reached into his bag and pulled out the gun and pointed at her.

“Goodbye, my dear.”

Smiling he pulled the trigger as Jessica’s hand flashed. An instant later his gun exploded towards him, splattering him in hot gunpowder and shrapnel. He screamed as it dug into his skin all over his body, blood pouring from the various wounds as he held his face, his hands dripping red.

Clenching her fist, his suit sparked before the lights went out. Dropping to the ground, blood splattering on the floor as his glasses fell and shattered. Barely able to see, he looked up at her, hate raging in his eyes.

“I don’t regret killing your family.”

Jessica stared at him. “I know you don’t.”

Leveling her hand at him again, it with energy as he was picked up off the ground, the two locking eyes one last time before suddenly flying into the flaming wreckage of the helicopter. She heard the Professor scream in agony as his flesh burned off when the vehicle suddenly exploded again, fire shooting into the sky.

She stood there, breathing, a huge weight disappearing off her shoulders. Finally, her family was avenged. Finally, it was over.

Behind her someone started clapping. She turned around to see a man, strikingly similar in appearance to Alexandra Jacobs, walking towards him, the same kind of smile the Professor always had.

“Well,” he said. “Glad that’s done.”

Jessica raised her hand at him. “Who are you?”

“My name is Ezra Jacobs,” the man replied, putting his hands behind his back. “My sister is Alexandra Jacobs and that man you just threw into the fire was my father.”

Her eyes widened when he smiled again.

“Oh, but don’t worry. I don’t care that you killed that old man. All he did was get my mother pregnant. I had no regard for him. Or for my sister,” he said. “The only thing I’m interested in is fulfilling the Prophecy.”

“What is this Prophecy you people keep talking about?!” she asked, frustrated.

“In due time,” he smiled when suddenly she felt something sharp in her shoulder. Looking down, she saw that there was a dart in her arms when he vision began blurring. She looked up at the man before she fell to the ground, the dark engulfing her.

Above her, the man was joined by two others, dressed in black.

“Take her,” Ezra Jacobs ordered, smiling at the girl on the ground as the light reflected in his glasses.

They had seen both explosions, which, while not putting an end to their fight, seemed to enrage the man even more so. Parrying his sword, she swung at his torso when he in turn blocked it and pushed it away, swiping at her head. She ducked under it before being blasted away by a gust of wind.

Anna skidded to a halt, her blade held in front of her. She looked at up the man.

“Please!” she yelled. “I think I know what that explosion was, and I know you know too. I understand what you’re feeling right now, but now you’re free! The Professor’s dead! You don’t have to be his monster anymore!”

“You just don’t get it, do you, girl?” he said. “The Professor didn’t force me to do anything. I wanted this done to me. I chose this, no matter what you think.”

This was followed by a wave of fire trailing from his swords as he flipped in the air, the flames coming right for her. She herself jumped out of the way before a bolt of lightning struck her as she landed, throwing her backwards as she screamed in pain. She crashed to the ground, her sword laying a few feet away.

As the pain subsided, she heard him laughing as he approached her.

“I thought you would be more of a challenge, miss Brail,” the man said. “But honestly I’m disappointed. You’re weak.”

“Oh yeah?” she muttered when she kicked her leg up, blasting the man with air and sending him skidding backwards.

Taking advantage of his distraction, she quickly grabbed her blade and flipped up, holding it at the ready once again.

“Try me.”

Bringing her blade down on him, he barely had time to block it with his own, sparks flying on impact. Their swords scrapped together, slowly digging into each other. She kicked her leg up, striking him in the middle. He keeled over slightly, just enough for her to swing her blade and slice him across the stomach, just as he had done to her before.

He looked up at her with hate in his eyes.

“You’re going to regret that, girl,” he said.

“We’ll see,” she held the sword up again.

The man smiled as he wiped his brow of sweat, looking at it. Suddenly he thrust his hand forward as liquid flew from his body at an incredibly high velocity. She ducked out of the way as fast as she could, a few strands of her hair being cut by the fluid.

“So that’s what that’s like,” she glared at him.

Suddenly he charged at her again and swung his blade at her. She blocked it, pushing his away before he came back with one to the head. Anna moved out of the way as it swung past her. She came back with her own blow to the back, which he blocked and pushed away himself. The woman lunged at him, forcing him to move out of the way before he swiped at her again.

Flipping out of the way, she landed and was quickly forced to go on the defensive as he rapidly swung at her, from left to right to left, Anna barely being able to keep up. An instant later he changed attacks and swung from underneath. She brought the sword down to block it but hit it too quickly for her and knocked the sword upwards, causing her to lose her grip and the blade to fly into the air, clattering several feet away.

He then blasted her with air, sending her to the ground. Adrenaline pumping through her body, air swirled around her as she spun upwards, moving her arms to thrust her hands upwards when-.

A sharp, intense, unbearable pain shot through her body like a bullet. The air she had conjured flew outwards from her as she stood, unable to move. Shaking, she looked the smiling man in the eye, before looking down.

The assassin’s sword was impaled in her stomach, blood already dampening the area of her clothes around the hilt of the blade.

Anna looked back up at him when he put his hand on her chest and pushed her away, pulling the sword out as she fell.

She hit the ground, hard, as she felt the life leaking out of her onto the gravel, the dawn sun reflected in the blood pooling around the woman. Weakly, with her vision blurring, looked up at the man. He walked around her, flicking the blade to clean it of the crimson fluid, smiling as he looked at her dying form.

“I told you you’d regret it.”

Holding the blade up, ready to finish the job, the sword sparked with blue electricity, its trails burning onto her eyes.

“I feel it’s poetic to kill you this way, seeing as Ravenger never could.”

Tears streaking from her eyes and into her hair as the man continued to smile.

“Goodbye, miss Brail.”

Running down the corridor, the shouts of men and the thunder of footsteps behind them, they came to a door at the end of the hallway.

Throwing the door open, they found that it led onto a stairwell. Quickly, they ran into it, descending the metal steps when they heard yelling underneath them. Looking down, they saw dozens of soldiers coming up the stairs towards them.

“Crap,” Albert said, holding his gun ready.

Mark looked up the stairs. “The roof. It’s the only way left.”

Looking between down, the door and up, Matthew nodded. “To the roof it is.”

As they ascended, Nicole asked the obvious question. “How is going higher going to help us in getting the heck out of here?”

“Maybe it won’t,” Claire replied. “This could be the end of the line.”

She saw her shocked face.

“Hey,” she said. “You’re the ones who wanted to come on this mission.”

Arriving at the top of the stairs, they pushed up the door and ran out onto the roof, where they were blinded by the light of the rising sun. Claire reached into her pocket and pulled out a grenade.

Albert looked at it. “Why didn’t you use that before?”

“I was trying to save it.”

Pulling the clip, she tossed it back through the door and closed it. They covered their ears as they listened to it explode, followed by the soldier’s yelling.

“Well, if this is the end,” Nicole said, leaning again the door and looking at the sky. “At least we get to go out with a view.”

But something had caught Matthew’s attention. “What the heck-?”

Across the rooftop were two people, a man and a woman, one standing shirtless with a sword and one lying on the ground with a crimson substance pooled around her.

“Anna!” he, Mark, Nicole, Claire and Albert yelled as they ran forward guns pointed in the direction of the man.

“I’ll remember you one I stand atop the world-,” Jameson said as he was about to bring the sword down when he was distracted by several voices yelling accompanied by several footsteps.

Looking up, he saw five figures running towards them with guns. The light faded from his sword as one, a man in black jeans, a blue shirt, a leather jacket and black hair skidded to a halt, his handgun ready.

“What-?” he asked when the man’s gun went off and a bullet flew through the air, striking Jameson in the head, a hole right between his eyes.

Falling backwards, blood pooled around his head as the group surrounded the woman on the floor, who was now unconscious.

Mark cradled her head as Claire and Matthew looked at the wound, Albert and Nicole holding her hands. Coming around slightly, she weakly opened her eyes.

“Dad…?”

“Yes sweetie, I’m here” he father said, tears forming in his eyes.

She looked at him before her head went slack again.

“Anna...”

Anna…

In the distance she heard sirens coming closer, and closer.

And then everything went white.

...I’m so proud of you…

...Sweetie, you’ve done so well…

...I wish I had more time with you…

The next thing she heard was a steady beeping. Slowly, the darkness faded to white before she saw something ahead of her coming into focus. As the image sharpened, she realized that she was in a hospital room, and that she was not alone. Looking to her left and right, she saw Nicole, Albert and her father sitting beside her.

“So...” she said weakly, grabbing their attention. “I’m not dead.”

They all smiled at her.

“No,” Nicole was overjoyed. “You’re not.”

“Well that’s nice,” she winced slightly.

“Yeah but you’re going to need to take some time to heal,” Mark said.

Albert chuckled. “You know, with being impaled and all.”

A thin smile ran across her lips as she looked around the room.

“Where am I?”

“St. Peter’s back in New Hampton,” her father replied. “You’ve been unconscious for a week.”

“Are Matthew and Claire still alive?”

“Yeah,” Nicole nodded. “They’re held up at the police station. Matthew thinks they’re going to either get suspended or fired.”

Anna propped herself up a little. “I figured they’d get in trouble somehow. Mainly because they broke the rules.”

“The Professor is dead and his facility has been taken, though,” Albert said. “We won.”

“And John and Alexandra and in jail,” Mark added.

His daughter’s eyes suddenly widened. “Wait, where’s Jessica?”

The three of them looked at each other.

“I… don’t know,” Nicole said. “She just kind of, vanished.”

“We think she ran away,” Albert stroking his chin.

“I just hope she’s okay,” Anna looked down.

Somewhere else, Jessica Sapphire lay in darkness. She was wearing a gray gown, not dissimilar to the one she had wore while the Professor held her in captivity.

A moment later she stirred, pushing herself up and looked around, she found that she was in an eight-by-eight cell, her eyes widening in the dark. Holding her hand up to create a ball of energy in her hand, pain suddenly shot through her body as the collar around her neck electrocuted her.

Falling to the ground, she looked up, panic filling her blue eyes.

“No...” she mumbled. “No… no...”

“NO!” Jessica screamed through the dark. “NO! YOU CAN’T KEEP ME HERE! NOT AGAIN!”

Unfortunately, no one could hear her scream.

Characters

 * Anna Brail
 * Nicole Weaver
 * Matthew Weaver
 * Jessica Sapphire
 * Ravenger
 * Mark Brail
 * Albert Clarkson
 * Alex Nolan
 * John Dillon
 * Claire Darrel
 * John Arwin
 * Marcus Williams
 * Alexandra Jacobs
 * Sharon Raydor
 * William Burrows
 * Jameson
 * Ezra Jacobs
 * John Ryan
 * Ronald Nathanson

Trivia

 * The first chapter takes place during and directly after the finale of Volume 1.
 * This Volume is intended to have a deeper story and more intense feeling to it.