Wraith

Simple Beginnings Chapter Four

Chapter Four

So it was that Wraith found herself entering the sewers with Tuttle the following night. The stench was overpowering at first and she gagged almost continually for the first ten minutes, but eventually she was able to follow the silent User inside. The patrol was uneventful and, thankful when the night was over, Wraith hurried home to wash all the stink out of her costume before her family returned. She also took a long luxurious bath and hoped that that would be enough to get rid of the smell.

Over the next couple of months Wraith methodically patrolled districts over almost half of the city, but she found it hard to last out the entire night when nothing happened. One evening near the end of summer she was patrolling the North Warehouse district with Flayme - a woman dressed completely in red who had a mass of hennaed hair and wore a simple eyes-and-nose mask. Suddenly Wraith heard a distant cry and stopped short. Flayme, a User who steadily patrolled her district in much the same way as the Captain, took a few more paces before she noticed the absence of her companion and turned. Wraith was standing motionless with her head cocked to one side, listening intently. That cry had sounded almost familiar.

Then she remembered where and when she had last heard that voice and shot away. Heedless of safety, she seemed to flow up the wall of the nearest building and sped into a blur over the rooftops. Left behind, Flayme gaped and examined the wall. The Captain had told her of the new User's invulnerability and combat skills, but now it seemed evident that she had a few other talents too. There were no obvious handholds in the surface of the wall and, aware that there was some sort of trouble, she hurried to a fire escape in a side alley and followed in the direction that Wraith had gone.

The grey-clad User sped over the rooftops, dashed through the districts and jumped over streets and roads as if they didn't exist. She hardly noticed what she was doing; all her determination was focused on getting to the source of the sound she had heard.

Patrolling Memory Lane on his own, the Captain felt someone pass him in a rush of wind and thought he heard the word 'trouble' on the breeze. He recognized Wraith's voice and followed at once, breaking into a run as he saw the glow of melting rock up ahead.

Wraith had burst into the police station just as the bricks began to grow warm. Sergeant Harris was backed up against a wall, menaced by two young men in identical costumes. Around them more identical figures led out the freed prisoners, including the three that she and the Captain had captured twice. The bricks were growing hotter by the second and Wraith lost no time. Flowing through the startled figures, she hit as many as she could with incapacitating blows on her way to stand protectively in front of the Sergeant.

Several of the figures that she had hit crumpled in on themselves and disappeared, but the rest laughed at her in eerie unison and crowded in. This time when Wraith struck out at them, the identical figures were ready and blocked her blows before countering with their own moves. With her instinctive combat skills, she would have been an even match for most of them, but when she had to protect Harris against so many she was nearly helpless. Then just a few seconds later they drew away and left, locking the door behind them. Inside the station bricks were beginning to run together. Wraith didn't feel the effects of the heat yet, but Sergeant Harris was struggling to breathe. With no time to escape, she did the only thing she could think of to shelter him from the heat.

The Captain arrived less than a minute later but already the building was destroyed. He stared in dismay at the remains of the police station. Neither Wraith nor Harris was present and he could only hope that his friends had got out. With no sign of them however, he feared that they had been trapped inside. When Flayme eventually panted up to join him, the brick still glowed, but it was starting to cool. "What happened?" She started to ask.