Specter

Chapter 53 (Day 4) (Finale): Sibling Saviors

We last read Chapter 52, in which King Ryker reveals Doc's passing to Ollie whilst the former is forlornly reminiscing within the medical ward of the Obsidian Sanctum. Though Ollie initially doesn't take it well, the good king is quick to console him and suggest that they begin working to train more doctors—using special lesson tapes which Doc had pre-recorded prior to his death—while also pointing out that there will be no public funeral due to Doc's detractors; instead, Doc will be privately cremated and his ashes will be scattered to the ocean. Ollie and Ryker then proceed to resolve to continue the good parts of Doc's legacy by first creating flyers to advertise a job opening for anyone interested in pursuing medicine.....while also starting the plans to build a proper hospital within the Citadel as well.

Shortly after Ollie leaves, though, Moody a.k.a. Specter literally drops in and visits King Ryker, to which the latter informs the former that he has a job for her; a group of conspirators are seeking to blow up the large and wide bridge connecting the Rusted Citadel's island city to the mainland.....a bridge that would take years to repair if destroyed. Specter is almost too happy to quickly accept the assignment, and first heads to the highest balcony of the Obsidian Sanctum to see if she can't spot them from far off. She indeed can, and promises that she's coming for them before leaping off the balcony and springing into action.

This time, we bear witness to two close-knit siblings performing tandem rescues across the globe, and end Specter's story once again for the time being.....

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-Rusted Citadel Bridge, Rusted Citadel, Asia-

On the bridge connecting the Rusted Citadel's island to the rest of the nearby landmass, a gang of conspirators were hustling and bustling along the length of said bridge, meticulously placing sticks of dynamite in strategically-picked areas where the bridge was thought to be at its weakest, structurally speaking. Of note, four batches of dynamite—with fifteen sticks in each batch—were on each of the bridge's five support pillars below, while several more open crates of explosives were on the actual bridge itself. None were active yet.....but the way they would be detonated was extremely dangerous, completely needless, and reckless all at the same time.

For one thing, the explosives themselves were highly unstable; they would explode if shaken or pressurized too much, if triggered by an external detonator, or if their fuses were lit by an outside flame source. And for another, as fortified as the bridge was, its support beams were the highest-priority targets, as they were the only things keeping the bridge itself propped up. Thus, the conspirators had placed explosives on the bridge itself solely out of spite; they would've easily accomplished their mission without them.

Now, only one more batch needed to be put into place on the last beam before everything would be ready for detonation, and the grunts—all wearing fatigues with black balaclavas covering nearly the entirety of their heads—were busy trying to find the perfect batch to use.

The first of many then found a good one with a nice, long fuse in one of the crates.

"Hey, guys! I found one!" he called to his colleagues. "Catch!"

He tossed the batch to a second co-conspirator, who neatly caught it in his grasp.

"Got it!" he replied back to the first one. Then, he handed it off to a third one. "Here you go!"

The process repeated in what looked like a "chain" of conspirators handing the batch to each other, with the item getting closer and closer to the end of the bridge with each handoff.