Veil of Shadows

Chapter 15. Death of A Hero

Blaze watched helplessly as her friend's breath grew fast and shallow. She did the only thing she thought would help. Looking back on it, she realized it was completely useless at the time. "HERO SQUAD! GET OVER HERE!" She screamed.

Within thirty seconds all of the Hero Squad were clustered around the unconscious and almost-dead Ranger. But in the Ender hybrid's eyes...there was no fear. There was only calm. Blaze could have sworn there was a sparkle of amusement there as well.

Ranger grinned. "For your sakes, don't worry about me." She whispered.

Wolf was on the verge of a panick attack, but she knew that wouldn't help. Somehow, she managed to remain relatively calm. "Get bandages and water, now!" She ordered, and Olivia took off running for the nearest river.

Patch ran back to the camp, turning the place upside-down searching for the first aid pack. "Where is it...where is it...WHERE IS IT?" She muttered, and scattered the supplies around the ground, trying to find the pack.

Toxic had begun performing CPR, but it wasn't really helping. At all. Ranger had gone completely unresponsive now, and Toxic couldn't detect a heartbeat. Slowly, she moved away from Ranger's body.

Blaze held a hand over Ranger's mouth, but couldn't feel any breath. Dave pushed his way through with the bandages Patch had finally managed to find. He spread them across Ranger's chest, but it made no difference.

No heartbeat...no breath...

Everyone stepped back from Ranger's body. For what reason, they didn't know...just to show her respect. They all lowered their heads. Ranger couldn't be alive...there was no hope. Now they would mourn the death of a hero.

"BOO!" Ranger yelled.

Everyone jumped a foot in the air, and Wolf let out a most undignified raptor screech. While they all tried to stop their hearts from beating out of their chests, Ranger was rolling around on the ground, dying of laughter.

"Your faces...your faces!" She managed to gasp out between laughs. "I'm an Ender Hybrid, remember? I don't need to breathe, and I don't need a heart to live!" She explained, still laughing.

Ranger finally managed to stop her laugh attack and stood up, only to be sent sprawling back on the ground by a rather forceful punch from Blaze. "WE THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!" The blaze hybrid shouted.

"No duh, Sherlock. I think I could figure that out by the fact that you were all on the verge of having panick attacks." Ranger said, then winced. "Just because I don't need a heart to live doesn't mean this is painless."

Then she turned to look at Wolf. "Somehow I don't think water would have helped my case." She stated, grinning. Wolf remembered back to the order she had given. "Whoops."

Ranger shook her head and said "So. Enough of that. Who attacked Blaze?" All eyes turned to Blaze. She replied "She said her name was Wraith, wither hybrid."

"Not too bad." Wolf commented.

"Also a master assassin." Blaze added. Ranger replied, her gaze unblinking "Well, that makes two of us." Wolf looked at Ranger oddly. She remembered the dream talk she had with Shadow.

"So, what do you think we should do about Wraith?" Dave asked slowly, breaking the tension in the air. Ranger said "We wait. Obviously, Blaze was her target, and as long as we stay together, we should be alright."

A murmur of assent echoed from the Hero Squad. It was a reasonable idea. "Then we should probably get back to sleep. This time we'll set a watch." Wolf suggested. Olivia volunteered for the first watch, and Wolf assigned Toxic to be the supervisor, as Olivia was technically still an apprentice.

Blaze nodded approval. "I prefer to not almost die again."

Ranger raised an eyebrow. "Well, that makes two of us."