Wraith

Simple Beginnings Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Unsure of how to begin, Wraith walked silently at the Captain's side for a few minutes. Then he noticed her and, turning to face her, broke the silence. "Wraith, do you remember those jewelry thieves?"

She glanced involuntarily at his arm and nodded. "Of course, why?"

The Captain started walking again, heading down to street level and paying little heed to his surroundings. "Someone broke into the Memory Lane jail this afternoon and let them loose. Sergeant Harris told me the news when I went to check on them this evening."

That was the last thing Wraith had been expecting to hear. "But, how?"

The Captain shook his head grimly. "I'm not sure. I think you're all right since you're a novice at this - there are ways of telling - and I would vouch for Flayme, Donner, Tuttle and Volcano; but I'm starting to wonder if one or more of us Users is an Abuser!"

Wraith stopped, stunned. The Captain turned to nod at her, emphasizing his point. That movement saved his life. A large knife, almost a machete, slashed out of an alley at his head. The Captain's reflexes were commendably quick and he spun away as four figures leaped out at them. One was dressed completely in white, including his full head mask, but the others were the vague shapes that Wraith remembered from the jewelry store. That was all that she had time to notice before she was swept into the action; reflexes and martial knowledge that she didn't know she possessed coming into play.

The Captain was also well able to fend for himself, but the three figures exhibited a previously un-displayed combat prowess, and the fourth figure was fast - almost too fast to land blows on. Wraith decided to concentrate on him when it became apparent that she moved faster than the Captain, and ignored the others. The figure in white turned out to lack backbone. He blocked several of her blows, but found himself increasingly hard-pressed. Suddenly he turned and ran, showing an amazing turn of speed. Wraith knew that she couldn't compete and let the Abuser go, although she believed that Hank the Mystery Hunk would have been able to run him down.

Instead Wraith turned back to the battle and, showing her own respectable pace, arrived in time to prevent the largest of the Captain's opponents from using his machete. Everything at that point was a blur to Wraith, where she was fighting more out of instinct and reflex than carefully thought out tactics; so she wasn't sure how it happened but the machete ended up with a large dent in its blade. The man who had been using it was unconscious moments later and the other two soon followed. Then events suddenly slowed back down to normal and Wraith sat abruptly as her legs refused to hold her any more.

The Captain retrieved some rope from one of his thigh pockets and once again they tied up the three men. Then he unzipped the other pocket and pulled out his first aid supplies. He turned to Wraith and spoke gently. "Let me see your hand."

"My hand?" Wraith was confused, but held out both anyway. "There's nothing wrong with my hands."

The Captain looked at her unmarred gloves in some surprise. "No, there isn't. But I thought I saw_" His voice trailed off as his eyes went blank behind the mask. Seconds later he refocused on Wraith. "I did see. You used your hand to block the blade when that man tried to cut my arm off." Simultaneously they turned to look at the machete where it lay on the ground with a big dent in it.

Wraith swallowed hard. It was one thing to hope for and guess at talents and abilities, but another entirely to see irrefutable evidence of them after so long as a Normal. "Did I do that?"

"So it seems." The Captain nodded as she began to undo the old bandage on his left arm. The wound had reopened during the fight and now Wraith cleaned it out once more and redressed it. As she did she considered that at least now she knew, once and for all, that she was a User. Where exactly her talents lay, she wasn't certain; although she appeared to have a certain measure of invulnerability and a bit of speed, but it would be the experience of a lifetime finding out.