The Ghost (LOT Reader X Leonard Snart)

Chaos

Who knows how much time had passed after the bombing. When I opened my eyes it was dark and everything hurt for a short time. My head was spinning and as far as I could tell my eyes were blurred.

A ringing sound occurred in my ears. I tried to stay calm. "Hello?" I said hoarse and coughing. Because of my action my close stay filled with dust so I had to cough even more. I stayed lying down. I gave myself the time to heal. It took some time, time that I could use better but that was not there.

While I kept my breathing under control I felt my injuries heal. It gave a burning and tingling feeling. I remained calmly until I knew for certain that I was healed.

Now that I could think and function normally again, I tried to look for a way out. It was very quiet in my environment. I tried to locate a heartbeat but I could not find one.

With everything that I had in me, I pushed the debris away from me to be released. Once free, I sat up and looked around me. The temple we were in was completely destroyed, there was nothing left of it. Everything was leveled with the ground. I crawled up and stood on the stones. Looking around me, I searched for survivors. At first I couldn't see anything but I heard cries of distress enough.

Looking for the origin of the cries I searched for Rip and Sara. At the same time I searched for the stone. It was a green oval stone, the size of a tennis ball. He was not to be missed once you saw him.

The first one I found was Sara, she lay deeper under the debris than I did. With the help of my telekinesis I freed her. After circumstances she looked good, she had some broken bones here and there, but nothing I couldn't heal. When she was completely liberated and lying beside me on a flat stone, I healed her injuries. She was against it at first, but she hadn't nothing to say about it. If she wanted to win this war against Vandal, she would have to work at full strength and not with three broken ribs and a dislocated shoulder.

Sarah stretched out after I had healed her. "How can you do this? Heal people, telekinesis." She looked at me quizzically. Even though I had just rescued her, she still didn't trust me. She was watching me. "Does it matter?" I answered her question. "Yes, actually, it does." She stood before me. Made herself wide in the hope that she could overpower me if necessary. "It doesn't matter, I saved your life. Be happy, I could have left you." I walked past her and continued my search for Rip. I didn't dare to shout in case Vandal and his men were around.

After five minutes of walking around we heard rustling behind us. We turned around in combat. Ready to attack we were stunned. Rip stood before us without any injuries. "Rip?" Sara asked. "Hi, yes, I got out of there before the roof collapsed." He explained. But I didn't bought it at all. How could he escape while we were being buried? "But of course." Was my answer.

The three of us looked for the stone and for answers. We couldn't find the stone, nor the answers. I came to the conclusion that we also had people in the village. Without a statement, I teleported to the village.

Here, too, tents had been destroyed and streets were in ruins. Through the rubble the other Legends fought against the men of Vandal. Everyone fought to protect the villagers. There were villagers who were schooling behind a few bushes. I was not the only one who had the villagers in sight. Two of Vandal's men went all that way. I ran to the two and used my telekinesis to throw two rocks at them. I hit the two on their heads but not hard enough that they went knock-out.

With their weapons ready they shot at me. As fast as I could, I avoided the bullets. I grabbed one man by the wrist and dived under it so that I could place his arm on his back. With a plop I dislocated his shoulder and slapped him in the neck, knocking him out. The second man struggled to reload his magazine, which came to me as a benefit. I took the man's handgun and struck it against his head.

Both men were now lying unconscious on the floor. The villager sat together against each other. "I'm here to help." I held up my hands and made sure I talked quietly. One of the women who were there recognized me. "It's all right, we can trust her." The woman spoke to the group. She nodded and followed me to a safer place.

In the meantime, Rip and Sara had also fed together with the other Legends and exchanged information. I added myself as soon as I had time. Juan was in no fields or roads to be seen. He would be busy with more important matters. I had ordered him to defend the village.

I joined the Legends. Rip was the one who introduced me. ''Legends, this is the Ghost. She's here to help us." I saluted quickly and looked around the group. I tried not to focus my attention too much on the two criminals because I could not attract any uninvited attention. Even though I tried to avoid that attention, they were just looking for it. "Don't I know from anything?" Leonard asked extra slowly than usual. Mick looked at me better now. ''Yes, now that you say so.'' He muttered. "Sorry gentlemen, but I've never seen you before." I let them know. They had to remember nothing of our days, I would have taken care of that. Their memories were well stored. For now, they bought my lie and shook it away from them. With a little sigh of relief, we made a plan.

We agreed that Vandal probably had the stone. But why should he still be in this time? That could only mean that he didn't know how to harness the stone or that he didn't even know what the stone was capable of.

The stone did not belong in his possession, someone with a heart and soul of pure gold or pure evil could get hold of the stone. Vandal was exactly the person with a heart and soul of pure evil. Occasionally I thought about whether I could master the power of the stone, but I also had my dark sides that the stone could catch up too quickly.

The plan was not the best plan in the world, but at least it was something. A small group stayed behind with the villagers and the strongest of us went looking for Vandal.

The acquaintance was not official and I didn't remember all the names when Rip mentioned everyone. Sara, firestorm, a young lad who was on fire, and rip went with me and the rest stayed behind to bring the villagers to safety. I wondered if it was a good idea to leave Leonard and Mick behind but take them to the bigger fight and expose them to a stone that is worth a lot in the wrong hands didn't seem like a good idea either. I had confidence in Rip's leadership. He took them for a reason on the ship and for the mission he had. Whatever the reason, he thought about it.

We continued our way further into the village. We actually followed the men of Vandal, where they came from, that's where we were going. Vandal had put up a camp just outside the village. So he could keep an eye on everything, we assumed that the biggest tent was his. There he was most likely to study the stone.

We creep around the camp with a bow through the woods. We had the advantage in our hands. Vandal didn't know that we were still alive, he had hoped that we had passed by the attack on the temple.

Vandal didn't have many men walking around in his camp. Most of them were creating rampage in the village. We needed a distraction to get everyone who was still at the camp away. Sara volunteered herself. I could not have agreed with her more. If anyone with a good distraction could come she was. I might have done it too, but the stone was my responsibility.

Sara walked from the forest to the inside and did her thing, she lured the men away from the camp. When the last man was gone, Rip, Firestrom, and I ran to the big tent.

Without hesitation, we walked in. Firestorm kept his hands ready to fire. Rip kept his rifle ready and I had confidence in my powers. As expected, Vandal was sitting at a desk with the stone in front of him. He looked up from the stone and was not surprised to see us. "You have survived, I see." He spoke calmly. ''Sorry we thought about it differently. I don't want to die quite yet." I took a good look. He looked different than the last time I saw him, he looked better and younger.

He put his fingertips together and looked at me. "If I can't kill you, I'll kill someone who can die." I didn't like the grin on his face. I had a suspicious suspicion of what he was planning. "While you were trying to defend the stone I found a brave warrior." He got up and walked to a curtain and pulled him away, behind the curtain was Juan bound and gagged. I stepped forward but Rip stopped me before I did something stupid.

Juan looked at me with sadness in his eyes. "What did you do to him?!" I pulled back my arm from Rip who had still a grip on it. "What he deserved." He pulled Juan on his shoulder to his feet. He came to his feet with difficulty. His face filled with pain. "Say goodbye to your friend." Before I knew what he was doing, Vandal pulled a knife from his belt to make an end at Juan's life.