Specter

Chapter 3 (Night 1): The First Step Is Forgiveness

We last read Chapter 2, in which Specter talks with T.J. regarding the Rusted Citadel's new education system outside of his house following their successful and decisive attack on Captain Brownrig and his forces. Specter attempts to ask T.J. about his schooling and inquires as to whether he's doing well.....but T.J. reveals that, for the moment, he's stopped going to school since he's on the spectrum and none of his instructors have bothered to accommodate him with regard to it. He argues that since the education system doesn't account for people like him, then there's no reason for him to participate in it; something that breaks Specter's heart. Distraught, the ghostly superheroine resolves to do better and promises T.J. that he can always talk to her or King Ryker on the matter.....but first, she tells him that she has something else to take care of.

This time, we follow Specter once more as she welcomes a familiar visitor to the Rusted Citadel and helps her with some unfinished business.....

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-Rusted Citadel Airspace, Asia-

In the skies above the massive island housing the Rusted Citadel, a huge familiar-looking vessel was en route to the city. It was none other than the airship belonging to Dr. Duncan Drevis, who was the former leader of the Crimson Skulls, a current member of the Paragons, and Moody a.k.a. Specter's former boss before she relocated to the Rusted Citadel and began working for King Ryker after the rebellion.

However, Duncan himself was not on the airship in question. Instead, his older sister Monica Drevis a.k.a. Voltara was in the pilot's chair instead, casually leaning back in the seat and allowing the craft's autopilot feature to work its magic.

Voltara was a young woman with immense electrokinetic superpowers, and she presented as having straight black hair and skin that was practically a translucent shade of blue, with visible electricity coursing through her. Her costume consisted of a fitted black short-sleeved inner shirt, a red long-sleeved leather jacket tossed over it, a black skirt that ended above her knee, a pair of black tights that concealed her skin while still generously emphasizing her legs, black flats, and a black belt snugly wrapped around her waist that had a silver V-shaped buckle directly in its center.

She was a superheroine who had first been transformed into an enhanced individual following a freak accident at Lifeline Industries, the business that her younger brother Duncan had started as a way of making amends for his time leading the Crimson Skulls. One thing led to another, and now she was one of the eight Paragons, a team of enhanced individuals brought together by their founder Giorgio Carlisle and his organization, the Global Defense Council.....or the GDC for short.

Voltara and Specter had worked together twice in the past; to bring down the Avian Wing Brothel in 2019 and to liberate the Rusted Citadel from the Iron Kingpin in 2021. She was looking forward to getting to see her old friend once again, but right now—while she waited for the airship to land at the entrance to the wide bridge connecting the Rusted Citadel's island to the mainland—she was seeking to start a FaceTime call with her younger brother, Dr. Duncan Drevis.

"Hello, brother," she said to her phone screen the moment Duncan picked up. Her voice carried an air of deep concern to it. "How are you holding up?"

Duncan was still back in Mercury Heights, New York, sitting idly at his "work from home" desk in his apartment with his assistant, The Crawler, already asleep in a different room.

"Hey, sis....." Duncan greeted in a sad and morose tone. "It's not going great. People still can't get over their hate for me after what happened."