Wraith

Simple Beginnings Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

"He needs support." She said to Flayme. "In a moment, someone is going to get upset enough at what he said to attack him." The other woman looked at her in surprise, but got to her feet and followed when Wraith moved to stand by the Captain. Donner and Tuttle weren't far behind. Just as they reached the Captain, Wraith's prediction came true. A blast of white light shot at him from the eyes of an angry User, but Wraith's lightning reflexes moved her into the way and it seemed to be absorbed by her grey cloak.

"Stop!" Donner's voice was as loud and as piercing as one of his sonic beams. It startled the Users into momentary calm and he used the opportunity to speak. "The Captain speaks the truth. If the Chairman had not attacked me I wouldn't have believed it myself; but he did and only together were we able to defeat his forces." The door at the end of the hall opened and interrupted him.

Standing there, smiling unpleasantly, was the Chairman. He was flanked on one side by Adamant and Volcano, and on the other by Hank the Mystery Hunk and a User that most did not recognize. Wraith and the others with her however, realized that this must be Snake in a new guise. Behind them were three more figures covered from head to toe in black.

The Chairman's suave voice cut into the sudden silence with carefully judged words. "I see that the Captain has told you his side of the story. Now let me tell you the truth. It is true that there are Abusers among us, but to my sorrow it is the Captain and his friends who have abandoned our ways. I have been getting reports of his doings for some months, but alas it wasn't until he attacked me last night that I finally believed them. He and his companions overpowered me and took me to Warbeck, true, but fortunately I have friends there who knew that I would never do the things that I have been accused of. They released me and when I found that the Eckerts had also been set upon and taken to Warbeck, I had them freed too."

There were many in the audience who counted the Captain a friend, but the Chairman had been their leader for so long that as he spoke their hearts turned against the Captain and they believed the Chairman. Even Tuttle, Donner and Flayme had brief doubts and wondered if they had been fooled, but then they remembered all that had happened the previous night and their belief in the Captain was strengthened.

The Chairman continued remorselessly. "Tell me, Users, what do we do with Abusers?"

The answering roar was full of the mindless violence of a mob. "We fight them."

 Against the noise Wraith spoke to her friends. "I've got a bad feeling about this. Grab my arms." She held them out. Donner and Flayme took them without hesitation. Tuttle shuddered and would have refused, but he and the Captain glanced at the crowd, looked at each other, and decided it was wiser to obey. The moment Wraith felt them take hold she leaped upward.

Tuttle and the Captain realized the problem just in time and smashed the ceiling away as they crashed into it. Behind and below them half a dozen attacks centred on the spot where the small group had been standing. Then Users poured out of the building from all exits and chased after them. Wraith sped across the city as her passengers held on tightly, but everywhere she turned Hank the Mystery Hunk found them and alerted the horde of Users.

In one of these brief breaks the Captain caught his breath for long enough to speak. "Something's wrong. When the Chairman was speaking, even I thought that he might be telling the truth." The others shared a look.

"So did we," Tuttle volunteered.

Wraith shook her head. "I didn't, but I wasn't really listening to him, I was watching the crowd. They all seemed mesmerised."

The Captain frowned as Wraith spotted Hank the Mystery Hunk approaching and jumped them away to another resting spot. When he could speak again he asked Donner. "Does Snake have any mental powers?"