Volume 1

***Volume 1*** is the first installment in the *Anna* storyline.

This volume introduces Anna, Nicole, Matthew and Ravenger, a terrorist who attempts to take over the city of New Hampton from its rotten underbelly. Anna attempts to stop him, but it proves harder than she originally thought.

Chapters were released starting on September 28, 2016 and concluding on January 26, 2017.

## Story

### Chapter 1: Breeze

Her ears were ringing, dust was floating through the air. Time seemed to have slowed for her, like something out of a movie. It had only been like two minutes since she attacked these punks and everything had gone to trash really fast.

She shot a gust of air at one of the gangsters, blasting them onto their back. The woman ran and slid between two more and knocked them off their feet. She flipped back up and blasted air at more of them, knocking them down.

Suddenly a gangster came up behind her with a shotgun and aimed it at her. She heard the click and turned as the shotgun fired.

Alright. Let's start from the beginning.

Sixteen hours earlier, May 18th 2017.

She had just gotten through her morning routine: drag herself out of bed, get her clothes out for the day, take a shower, put on her clothes and have breakfast. She then left her apartment, went downstairs and into the parking garage and got into her car and drove to work.

Now it was time for the crazy to kick in.

She parked her car in her normal spot at the Daily Post, near the side of the building. Her hand took the key out of the ignition and grabbed her messenger bag and she got out of the car. She walked in the front door and straight to the elevator and down to the basement.

As the doors opened, she was met with the face of her manager, Thomas.

“Good morning, Anna.” He said slightly creepily. He seemed to have quite the crush on her.

“Thomas, how did you know it was me coming down?” She asked, coming out of the elevator and walking towards her cubicle.

He walked with her. “Because you come down at 7:30 every morning, Anna. You haven't missed a beat.”

“But why do you have to meet me here?”

“Because you're one of the my top employees. It seems customary that I greet you.”

“I think you just have a crush on me.”

Thomas chuckled awkwardly. “Pssssh. Have a crush on you? Are you serious?” He said before he stopped and realized what he just said.

Anna shot him one of the most offended looks she could muster, but it was really funny. “*What* did you just say to me?”

“Nothing, I just said you're pretty.”

“That's not what I heard.”

His eyes darted back and forth. He then gulped. “Well, I guess I should be going. Nice work, Anna.” He quickly ran off in another direction towards his office.

After he was gone, Anna let out a laugh. Thomas both annoyed her and creeped her out. He has been through three marriages, and they all didn't last very long.

She made her way to her cubicle and set her bag down and then plopped herself in her chair. Anna booted up her computer and saw that she had a few new emails. One from Nicole's mother and one from her friend Abby.

The third, however, was from Kato, her eyes on the street. She looked around to make sure no one was looking and opened the email. It read:

*The gang is loading their equipment tonight at 9:43 at the warehouse on Jones Street. If you stop this, it could be a major hit to the gang and eventually cripple them.*

*Thank you for doing what you do, Anna Brail.*

*-Kato.*

She smiled. This was the email she had been waiting for. The chance to take down the Cold Steel. She put her hands on the keyboard and typed up a response:

*Thank you for doing this. Your family will be avenged.*

*-Anna.*

As the day progressed on, she had to go upstairs twice to fix someone's computer, but she also got a few calls saying that their computer wouldn't start, but it ended up being that they had unplugged their computer the night before.

Thomas didn't try to talk to her again after what had happened earlier.

At around 12:00, Nicole Weaver, her best friend, came down from Floor 2 for lunch.

“Hey Anna.” She said as she approached her friend.

“Hey Nicole.” Anna got up and hugged her.

“What's new on the streets?” Brail asked.

“We've reported on a few murders around the city. Probably the gangs again,” she said sadly. “I wish someone would take them down.”

“I could.” Anna said.

Nicole sighed. “Let's go out to lunch.”

They sat in the outside area at the local Subway.

“Alright, let's just get down to point here: I know you want to go after the gangs. I know you're going after them.” Nicole said.

“I haven't done that kind of thing for years, you know that.”

“And you know why? Because you nearly got killed the last time.”

“Nearly.” Anna took a sip of her soda.

“Yeah but it could've been worse. Don't pull your luck. Leave the chasing down the bad guys to the Police. It's their job.”

“Yeah but sometimes they need help. That's why the government gets involved.”

“But being a vigilante is also illegal, Anna,” Nicole said. “People can get killed that way. Remember Delta and Striker?”

Anna laughed. “Yeah but Delta and Striker were complete losers.”

“But they still died.” Nicole pressed.

“But I'm not some half-baked vigilante,” Anna argued. “I'm not *even* a vigilante.”

“A vigilante is someone who plays the role of a cop by themselves without legal authority.”

“Are you sure?” Anna smiled. Nicole didn't return it.

“I needed to know as much about what you were being tried for back in 2013,” Nicole shot back. “So of course I know what a vigilante is.”

“I'm sorry, Nicole.” Anna apologized.

“I am too. Just don't get back into this superhero thing.” Nicole said. She reached over and held Anna's hand.

“I just don't want to lose my best friend.”

“I don't either, Nicole.” Anna responded.

Finally. It was the end of the day.

She quickly packed up her things and left the office. It was 5:34, so she still had nearly five hours left until she was going to try and take down the gangsters.

Anna went out into her car and drove back to her apartment. She ate some dinner, which was some Mac N' Cheese, practiced her fighting style and watched two episodes of The Legend of Korra.

At about 8:32, she changed out of her work clothes, which was a blue flowered dress and a jacket; took a shower and changed to her 'vigilante' clothes, which consisted of a black dress, with a skirt shorter than her other one, tights, her normal long boots, a dark green jacket and fingerless gloves.

As she came out of her room the door opened and she readied to defend herself when she saw that it was Nicole who had walked in. Nicole looked almost disgusted to see Anna in those clothes.

“Really? Even after you said you weren't doing this anymore, you were lying to my face?” Nicole said.

“Nicole, what are you doing here?” Anna questioned, kind of embarrassed to be caught in the act by her best friend.

“I came to check on you. Our talk earlier got me worried. And I guess I was right.”

“Nicole, I can't just step back from the fight. I can't.”

“Why not?”

“Because I think this is what God is calling me to do.”

“You really think this is your calling in this life? To beat up thugs? I don't think God encourages violence,” Nicole said. “Hasn't going to Church for twenty-two years taught you that?”

“I'm not beating up thugs, I'm bringing balance to this city.”

“But you've left a trail of them in this city, so I assume you are.”

“The Lord moves in mysterious ways.”

“I know he does, but violence is never the answer.” Nicole responded. “If you want to help this city, bring the Gospel to them, be the light in the dark. Shine the light of Jesus.”

“I am being a light, by destroying the dark.” Anna said. She walked over a chair where her messenger bag laid. She picked it up and swung it over her shoulder. Anna walked over to the window and opened it.

“Where are you going?” Nicole began to walk towards her.

“To go shine some more light.” Anna said. She suddenly climbed out the window and jumped. As she fell she bent the air around her to soften her fall. She jumped from ledge to ledge, each landing softer than the last.

Nicole ran over and saw Anna descending and sighed.

Anna ran down the street towards the address that Kato had given her. She watched her back in case she was being followed. She wasn't.

Jones street was a few blocks ahead of her, and the warehouse in question was a very old one, probably from 1990 or something. It had been abandoned in 2000 and was the ideal place for smuggling, whether it be weapons or drugs.

She had beaten up a few thugs in there before, but not a full gang at once.

Maybe Nicole was right, that this would kill her. But she couldn't back down, she had to press on. This was her calling.

She walked past the sign on Jones, meaning that she was now close to her destination. She came to the entrance of an alleyway. Anna looked down it and saw a garage door.

*This was it.*

She ran down the alley to the door. The woman inspected it but found no way to open it. She was about to airbend it open when she heard a truck approaching the alleyway. She quickly jumped up, airbending herself onto a ledge above the door.

A large truck came down the alley below her. One of the men inside hit a button and the door opened. As the truck went into the warehouse, she jumped on its back, using her power to reduce the noise she made when she did.

Inside the warehouse was several trucks, gangsters and crates. Most of the thugs had fully-loaded assault rifles, standing guard against any intruders, like herself. She quickly airbent herself up onto one of the supports on the roof.

The truck drove a little more before stopping. Several gangsters came over and opened the back and began to unload the crates within. Anna squinted to see what was written on them. She nearly gasped when she read them: *Ammunition*, *Grenades* and *Explosives*.

The gangsters then began to talk to one another, although barely audible, she could pick up the gist of it.

“*How many more crates are coming?*” One asked.

“*This is the last truckload.*” Said another.

“*Now to put it all on the other trucks.*” Replied another.

“*All this crap going to do a lot of harm. I love harm.*”

This was it. This was why she was there. To stop these thugs, and above all, save lives.

She was above two guards, watching for anything out of the ordinary. Anna took a deep breath and readied herself. After a few moments, she struck.

Anna dropped from her perch and landed between the two guards. They turned as she dropped and she blasted air at one of them, launching him into one of the walls, a large clang ringing out through the warehouse.

“Shoot.” Anna said.

The other guard shot at her but missed, giving her the opportunity to jump at him and punch him in the jaw. She then blasted him backwards into a few crates of ammunition.

But that was the least of her victories. The clang had brought the attention of everyone in the warehouse. As soon as they saw Brail, they all readied their guns, all trained on her.

“Hey you, girl! What're you doing here!?” One of them shouted to her.

Anna smiled a brief “Uh, hi...” sort-of-smile before blasting air at them. They moved out of the way of it and began to fire on the female. She jumped behind several crates of ammo and worse of all, explosives. Several of the gangsters, too focused on trying to kill her, continued firing at the woman.

“HOLD YOUR FIRE!” Presumably the lead one shouted to other gangsters. “You're going to blow us all to Kingdom Come!”

“Not you guys.” Anna muttered.

The thugs began to converge on her, and she knew she had to move. She bent the air around her to shoot herself across the warehouse. The gangsters were caught by surprise by this and quickly began to shoot at her again. Bullets whizzed past her, just barely missing her.

She landed and blasted air at a few of the gangsters, knocking them to the ground and into crates. The other thugs turned and began to fire on her again. Anna ducked out of the way of the bullets behind a truck, not wanting to get shot tonight.

One of the gang members ran over to one of the crates of grenades and opened it. He pulled out one of the explosive devices and readied to throw it. Another grabbed his arm.

“What are you doing?! You could kill us!”

“No, I'm going to take care of the problem.”

He pulled out the pin and threw it to where Anna was hiding. The grenade dropped to the ground with a clang, the clip snapped off. Anna turned and saw it.

“Crap.”

She blasted herself out of the way just as the grenade went off. It exploded with great force, knocking her back. The blast destroyed dozens of crates and knocked the truck on its side. Several of the gangsters were blasted backwards, and a few were killed on impact.

Anna hit the ground, but not hard enough to do any damage. After she recovered herself, she tried to look around but all she could see was dust. Her ears were ringing, and time seemed to slow down for her.

But then a gangster came into view, looking for her, and she took this opportunity to strike. She shot a gust of air at him, knocking him on his back.

Anna ran and slid between two more and knocked them off their feet. She flipped back up and blasted air at more of them, knocking them down.

But suddenly a gangster came up behind her with a shotgun and aimed it at her. She heard the click and turned as the shotgun fired. She used her power to try and get out of the way, and she almost did, but a few of the shotgun's spray hit her arm, going through.

Anna screamed in agony and held her arm. She quickly blasted air at the gangster, knocking him across the warehouse. Blood was streaming from the three wounds. She sat down against a few crates and held her arm, trying to get over the pain.

It didn't work.

She looked around her area, tears running from her eyes. She saw a role of medical bandage and quickly grabbed it. Anna shook as she rolled it around her arm, and each pass hurt. The woman fully covered her injury, but blood was still coming out and it still hurt.

But she needed to stop these gangsters before they got out of her with their weapons. She decided to just suck up the pain and walk it off. Anna stood up and saw a few more gangsters in the dust. She narrowed her eyes and directed all her rage at them.

They didn't notice her running at them before it was too late. She punched one in the face, and kicked another in the gut. She then blasted them away with air.

Suddenly the garage doors opened. She turned and saw gangsters opening them, trying to get all the dust out.

They turned and saw her and raised their guns and fired at her again.

“I'm getting sick of this.” Anna said.

She jumped out of the way, landing on her hands. She winched as the shock went through her arms, hitting her wounds. The woman rolled across the stone floor. Bullets whizzed past her again. She stood up and blasted air, knocking several more gangsters on their backs.

“Who is this girl?!” One of the gangsters said.

“I don't know, but she has powers like in comic books!”

He looked at his ally. “You nerd.”

The dust had almost cleared, but their gun's barrels were overheating, creating steam in the air.

“We can't keep shooting like this! Our guns are going to melt!”

Anna looked forward and saw a dead gangster lying by some crates of explosives. Beside him was an assault rifle. Then it hit her.

“This is going to be fun.”

After a moment's hesitation, she jumped forward and grabbed the gun. Bullets whizzed past her again. She rolled behind some crates that were next to the door and took cover. Anna cocked the gun and readied it. She stood up and fired at the gangsters. They ducked behind their owns crates to avoid the gunfire.

“Taste of your own medicine.” Anna said to herself.

After she had gotten all of them to be ducking down, she looked around and found what she was looking for: an open crate of grenades.

She aimed her gun at one of the explosive canisters, the scope right on it. The gangsters began to get back up as she squeezed the trigger. The lead one realized what she was doing when it was too late. The bullet shot out from the barrel and flew through the air at the grenades. It hit the top and took the cap clean off.

“GET DOWN!” The lead one yelled.

Suddenly the grenade exploded, blasting several gangsters forward. The blast activated more grenades and the explosives. Anna turned and ran just as they exploded, a massive fireball exploding from the warehouse. She jumped out the door and onto the street.

She looked back as the explosion got bigger and bigger. A blast of fire came at her and she used her power to launch herself onto the roof of the building next to the warehouse. She landed on the gravel, her arms absorbing the shock.

“Argh!” She screamed in pain.

Suddenly the entire warehouse exploded, a massive blast of fire shooting up, destroying the walls and ceiling. She covered herself as a huge wall of flame shot up in front of her. The blast was seen and heard across the city, the flame able to be seen miles away. The blast easily went six stories into the air before retreating back down.

After she was sure it was gone, Anna got up and walked over to the ledge, which bore scorch marks, holding her injured arm. The warehouse had almost been completely obliterated, fires burning all over. Several buildings had been damaged from the blast. The bodies of gangsters littered the area, most dead, but some were still alive, but just barely. She covered her mouth at the sight.

“This isn't what I wanted...”

Suddenly she heard sirens coming down the street. She ran over to the side and saw several squad cars, fire trucks, and ambulances approaching fast towards the seen. Several civilians had come out of their homes to see what was going on.

Full of guilt, she ran from the scene, using her power to jump from building to building.

*This isn't what I wanted.*

The outskirts of New Hampton.

The mysterious figure walked down the center of the road. Behind him was darkness, ahead of him, however, was light so bright it blocked out the stars. The city of New Hampton was a large city, not as big as New York, but still large.

His long, dark trench coat was kicked back every time he stepped forward. The rifle on his back bounced with every step.

Another thing was off about this figure, but it wasn’t his dress choice, but it was his breathing. His breathing was very strange, like it was coming through a filter. This was because he wore a mask across his mouth. The mask was like a gas mask, only a little different.

He suddenly stopped in his tracks and stared at the city.

“I have great plans for you, New Hampton.” He said in a very filtered voice.

“All you need to do is accept them.”

He continued to walk on into the night.

### Chapter 2: Fall

She had managed to make her way back to her apartment after the battle, and when she crawled through the window, she fell down on her couch and fell right asleep.

She awoke half an hour before she had to get to work, and jumped off the couch, took a shower, washing all the dirt and dust off of herself, re-bandaging her wound, got dressed and headed out the door.

Anna rolled into work around 8:00 in the morning, about thirty minutes late. She hurried into the building and downstairs where Thomas came up to her as soon as he spotted her.

“You’re late,” he said. “Why?”

“Up late last night.”

“Drinking?”

“Heck no. I haven’t had a drop in my life.”

“Come on, Anna, you can be honest with me.” Thomas pressed.

“I don’t!” Anna said. “Now let me get to work.”

She pushed past him and went to her cubicle. Anna set down her stuff and sat herself down before Nicole came up to her with a newspaper in hand. She slapped it down on her desk.

“Outside. Now.” Nicole said.

They got up, Anna taking the news paper and walked upstairs and into a small sitting area. Nicole closed the door behind her and after making sure no one else was there, she turned towards Anna.

“This was you, wasn’t it?” Nicole demanded.

Anna held up the paper and read it over. The headline read: ‘DOZENS OF GANGSTERS KILLED IN WAREHOUSE EXPLOSION.’ “Wow you got this in the paper really fast. Guess you’re trying to beat the internet.”

“Don’t ignore me, Anna,” Nicole said, obviously holding back a lot of rage. “You did this. They’re calling you Breeze.”

Anna dropped the paper back down on a table. “Breeze? What kind of name is that? My powers aren’t like a breeze, they’re like a whirlwind type of thing.”

“That’s not the point. You killed these men.”

“All I did was shoot a gun.”

“A bullet can go a long way.”

“Okay it may or may not have hit a crate of grenades-.”

“So you did cause the explosion! You did kill those gangsters!” Nicole pointed at her, almost yelling.

“Does it really matter?” Anna asked. “They were going to Hell anyway.”

“It does! You killed people!” Nicole yelled.

Anna looked around quickly to see if anyone had heard her and now was looking. “Nicole, be quiet! You don’t want to attract a crowd.”

“You’re going to attract a crowd if you keep this up!” Nicole shot back.

“Nicole, I need to do this. This is something that needs to be done.”

“It needs to be done, yes, but not by you!” Nicole said. “You’re going to get yourself killed, and you’re going to end up on the bad side of God on Judgment Day.”

“Are you going to preach to me again, Nicole?”

“I don’t need to. You already know what I’m going to say.”

“Nicole, please, let me do this.”

Nicole sighed. “I know I can’t stop you with words, but if you kill anyone else, I’m going to call the police.”

“You wouldn’t.” Anna dared.

“I would.”

Nicole crossed her arms and huffed, walking back inside, not looking back at her lifelong friend as she disappeared into the office. After she was gone, a tear ran down her cheek and fell onto the pavement.

Night had fallen on the city of New Hampton.

He walked out of the storage building, which was much smaller than the warehouse that was blown up, flanked by one of his guards.

“Another warehouse taken by the police? How is this possible?” He asked, mostly to himself because he guard was not allowed to talk to him except for the occasional ‘yes sir’ or ‘of course, sir’, otherwise he’d be shot.

They walked out to the black car that was waiting behind the abandoned building, where the driver was sitting behind the steering wheel, ready for his boss to arrive.

“We’ll figure it out tomorrow,” he said. “I need to get some sleep.”

“Yes sir.” The guard said, opening the door for his boss.

The head of the Cold Steel gang climbed into the car and sat down and took a deep breath. This vigilante, which was reported to be a girl with superpowers, kept putting a lot of stress on him as she dismantled his plans for the city.

As the guard made his way around to the passenger side, a mysterious figure walked up behind him. He didn’t notice until it was too late.

The figure grabbed the guard by the throat and lifted him off his feet violently. He whipped him around and threw him again the car door, his head shattering the glass. He fell to the ground, dead.

The driver pulled out a gun and pointed it out the window to shoot, but couldn’t see the attacker. The boss had his gun ready and was pressed up against the far car door. But before they could shoot him, he had disappeared into the shadows.

“Where is he?” The boss asked.

Suddenly electricity sparked outside the car before a bolt of blue energy shot into the driver’s seat, electrocuting him. The boss instantly started firing his gun at random, shattering the glass of the backseat car door in a frantic attempt to hit his attacker.

Suddenly, the window shattered behind him as a hand came through it. It grabbed onto his jacket and pulled him out through the window with violent force. He was then throw across the concrete, his gun bouncing away.

After he recovered himself, he turned over and looked up as a tall, dark figure approached him. He crawled away in fright. The figure followed him, his heavy, almost robotic breathing coming from his mouth.

“Who are you?” He asked.

The figure didn’t answer.

“TELL ME!” He shouted.

“I am the cure.” He said in a deep, filtered voice.

“The cure to what?”

“To the sickness in this city.”

The being swept down extremely fast for his weight, grabbing the gang boss by the throat. He picked him up off the ground, three feet above the concrete. The man tried to get out of his attacker’s grip, but it was no use, as it only got tighter.

“What… do you… want…?”

“Like I said; I want to cure this city.” Suddenly bolts of electricity began to go through him. He screamed in pain as it got more intense.

Only a few saw the flash of blue light, and heard the scream of a dying man.

This job never got easier.

As he walked into the crime scene, two medics carted an unconscious gangster past him to an ambulance, his clothes burnt.

Heading towards him, his partner Claire Darrel came up to him. She was wearing a pair of jeans and a brown jacket. Her brown hair was let down to shoulder-length today and her blue eyes were bright. He himself was wearing jeans and a leather jacket, his black hair combed back.

“About time you showed up, Matthew.” Claire smiled.

“What happened here?” Matthew Weaver asked his partner.

“From what we can tell,” they walked to a black car where several officers were investigating the scene. “The leader of the Cold Steel gang, Darren Mason was being escorted back to their headquarters when they were attacked by one huge guy.”

Three of the four windows were smashed of the car, except for the driver’s. There were several burn marks within the car and bullet casings. Beside the backseat was something covered by a tarp. As they approached an officer stooped down and pull the tarp off, revealing the severely burnt body of what once was Darren Mason.

Matthew covered his mouth at the sight while Claire turned away for a moment before returning to the body, trying to hold down vomit.

“What in the world happened to him?” Matthew asked.

“Forensics says that he must’ve been electrocuted with the voltage that a bolt of lightning has.”

“How is that possible? Did it storm at all last night?”

“Not even a spark,” Claire said. “Whatever attacked these guys is something supernatural.”

“A Super?” Matthew asked her.

“Possibly. Although we don’t know of any anywhere in the world that can conduct electricity like this.”

“But we only know of like, six, so there could be more.” He stood up and began to walk away. Claire followed him.

“So where do we want to start?” She asked.

“I don’t know. I’ll have to try my contact.”

“Ah yes, your mysterious contact that you won’t tell me about.” Claire stopped and crossed her arms, smiling.

“That’s classified.” He smiled.

“Well see if she knows anything.” Claire responded.

“I will.” Matthew said as he left the scene.

Usually after a crappy day at work, the next day was also crappy.

And so it was.

The elevator stopped on her floor of the apartment building and she stepped out, worn down by the day. She readjusted her messenger bag and walked down the corridor. She turned a corner down to where her apartment was when she saw a man standing by the door, looking down at his phone, waiting.

She smiled. “Hello, Matthew.”

He looked up at her. “Hey Anna.”

She walked up to the door past her, unlocking it and going in. Matthew followed her, as this was her way of inviting him in. She set down her bag on her kitchen table and turned to face Matthew, crossing her arms.

“So, what do you want?” she asked. “I know you don’t visit me without a real reason.”

“Alright, first off, just because we’re not dating anymore- and we haven’t since you were in High School, doesn’t mean I can’t come over to your place to talk. We’re still friends, Anna.”

“And second is that I’m working on a case and need your help.”

“What? You need my help to solve a murder or a robbery or something?”

“It’s a murder, but it’s right up your alley.” He pulled out a file from his coat and handed it to her. She took it reluctantly, her eyes switching between him and the folder.

Anna opened it and flipped through it. Inside were several pictures of a crime scene and documents involving an attack on a gang leader. In several of the pictures was what used to be a body, only burned to a crisp. She covered her mouth at the sight of it.

“What did this to him?”

“We don’t know. They speculate lightning.”

“Did this happen last night?” She flipped through the folder.

“Yeah.”

“Then it couldn’t be lightning. There was no storm last night.”

“That’s what Claire said.” Matthew said.

“Ah yes. How is Claire? Is she well?” Anna interrupted herself.

“Yeah she’s doing fine.”

“Anyway, so it couldn’t have been lightning, and I don’t think someone could’ve used artificial means to do this… so… oh my…” She has a suddenly revelation. “You think it’s a Super, don’t you? That’s why you brought it to me, isn’t it?”

“Yes, Anna. The cause is obviously supernatural.” Matthew replied. “And we’re hoping that the one survivor of the attack will come around soon and can give us a description of the guy.”

“So what do you want me to do? Look into it?” Anna closed the file and gave it back to him, but he pushed it back. “This is your copy. Don’t tell anyone about it.” Matthew said.

“Not even your sister?” Anna smiled.

“Nicole’s already furious at you. I don’t think you telling her about you going on an ‘illegal’ investigation is going to make her happier with you.”

After a few moments of silence, Matthew got up and started walking towards the door.

“Anyway I gotta go.” He opened the door. “It was nice seeing you, Anna.” He turned to her.

“You too, Matthew.” Anna smiled again.

He smiled back and went out the door, closing it behind him. She sat down at her table and opened the file again.

“I don’t think I want to meet this guy.” She mumbled to herself.

Night.

Anna was thankful that she was able to get all the dirt out of her outfit, but it didn’t stop it from looking ratty. The tip of the skirt was wearing out, her leggings were torn, her jacket was also giving away. The only things that remained constant were her boots.

Anyway, she was already working on a new design, maybe her ‘official’ outfit. After all, she was basically a vigilante at this point, so she needed a real suit. Until then, however, she would just wear variations of this one.

She was suddenly interrupted by the sound of electricity crackling underneath her. Anna looked down from her perch and saw flashes of blue coming from an alley. She quickly readied to jump, taking a deep breath. Then she jumped off her perch and used her power to soften her fall.

Anna landed on the concrete below, looking around for the source of the noise. She then heard someone scream from around a corner and saw the light again.

She mentally prepared herself as she ran forward, streaks of air trailing behind her. The woman turned a corner and saw a car, similar to the one in the case, at the end of the alley. Next to it were two unconscious, possibly dead, gangsters laying on the ground.

Above them was a tall, dark figure. He wore a long jacket and breathing device on his mouth. In his hand was presumably the leader of whatever gang this was. Small sparks of electricity ran through him, which seemed to come from his attacker’s bare hand.

The attacker then turned his head towards her, having noticed her the second she came in. His eyes were the darkest she’d ever seen in her life.

“I’ll get to you in a moment, my dear.” He said in an extremely filtered voice because of the mask.

Suddenly he gripped tighter on the gangster and she was blinded on by a flash of blue light.

### Chapter 3: The Enemy

Anna covered her eyes as the blue light burned her retinas. The sound of electricity and screaming overloaded her ears. After a few moments, the light disappeared, and so did the screaming. She opened her eyes and saw the figure drop the gangster to the pavement, only he was now burned to a crisp. His charred body hit the ground and several small pieces of him fell off, still orange.

“You… you kill him… Why? Why would you do this? Who even are you?” Anna had a hard time breathing after seeing a man getting killed right in front of her.

The figure turned towards her, his breathing filtered by his mask. “He was a sickness, and I am the cure.”

“He might’ve been wrong in his life choices, but that doesn’t mean you have to kill him!” Anna yelled.

“But, my dear, have you not killed several gangsters? Like in that explosion?” He titled his head.

“How… how do you know about that?” She took a step back, shocked.

“It doesn’t take that much to figure it out,” he said. “You just need to know that there is a vigilante running around taking down gangsters and she seems to have power over air. And you just showed that when you came down.”

“You heard me?”

“My senses are more in tune than anyone’s, Anna Brail.”

“How do you know my name?”

“I research every city I intend to cure. I’m surprised no one else has figured this out, except for Nicole and Matthew Weaver, of course. They’ve known since Middle School level, since you were all Homeschooled, am I right?”

“Alright that’s really creepy, but you stay away from them! They have nothing to do with this!” Anna took a step forward, air swirling around her hands.

“If it is a fight you’re looking for, my dear, then it is a fight you shall get.” He put one foot back, coming into a fighting stance. Electricity crackled around his hands.

“Who are you?”

“I am the cure.”

“Oh that helps.” Anna said sarcastically.

“Indeed it does.” He said.

He stepped forward and shot a bolt of lightning at her. She quickly jumped out of the way, the lightning exploding where she had been standing. Anna rolled across the ground and shot blasts of air at the being, but he dodged them with almost expert skill. He shot another bolt of lightning at her, but she flipped out of the way.

“You’re pretty good, for a girl.” He remarked.

“Man and I thought you were so polite earlier,” Anna said, almost sarcastic. “You just had to poison it with sexism.”

She punched forward, air blasting from her fists. The figure got knocked back by them, but quickly shot another bolt of electricity at her. The bolt hit her, blasting her back, covering her in lightning. She screamed as it surged through her, burning her.

Anna flew into a wall and fell to the ground. Smoke rose from her now burnt clothes. The lightning had rendered her unconscious. The being began walking towards her, lightning still crackling in his hands. As he approached, she slowly began to regain consciousness.

She looked around, her vision blurred. Above her was the figure, walking towards her slowly. Anna quickly snapped out of her daze and flipped up, using her power to jump over him. She rolled across the blacktop towards the car where one of the guards was laying unconscious, a gun next to him.

The man was turning around, ready to fire another bolt of lightning at her. Seeing no other choice, she took a deep breath and grabbed the gun.

She quickly stood up and pointed the gun at the man. He was starting to thrust his hand forward to blast electricity at her when she pulled the trigger.

The gunshot rung out throughout the alley. After she fired, time seemed to slow down for her. It was like she could see the bullet fly through the air at him, the air being parted by it. Lightning crackled in his hand as the projectile soared at him.

Suddenly the bullet made contact with him, hitting him in the forehead, dead center. He fell backwards, lightning shooting from his hand and hitting above Anna, who ducked from the sparks. The man fell to the ground, a bullet in his head.

Anna covered her mouth and dropped the gun. Even though she had intentionally shot him, she didn’t mean to… kill him…

She fell to the ground and covered her face in her knees, starting to cry. Suddenly she heard some groaning from in front of her and looked up to see the man rising up slowly. He put his hand to his forehead and produced the bullet, flattened.

Anna quickly stood up and readied to fight him again when she heard sirens approaching. She quickly blasted air at the man, knocking him back again and used her powers to jump up to the rooftops away from the police. When she landed she took a deep breath as she thought she was safe.

Or not.

Suddenly a helicopter came up behind her and she turned to be met with a blinding light. Not ready for the police to know who she was, she quickly ran off.

“Surrender yourself!” A police officer said into a loudspeaker.

The helicopter then began to chase her across the rooftops. She used her powers to make herself run faster, desperate to get away.

“Stop! You are under arrest! You have the right to remain silent-whoa!” The officer said as she jumped off the building and down into another alleyway.

The helicopter flew over the alley to try and catch her again, but she was nowhere to be seen. They looked down from the air for a few minutes before turning away, thinking that she had run off. After they had left, Anna came out from behind a dumpster, some trash on her dress.

She inspected it before sighing. “I guess I was going to have to toss it anyway...” she said, noting the burn marks and the tears.

Anna ran down the alley, it being time to go home.

She was extremely thankful that the next day was Saturday, because she slept in until Ten O’Clock in the morning. It would’ve felt amazing had she not have been burned and bruised.

Anna slowly got out of bed, each one of her wounds hurting. She stumbled over to her bathroom and took a shower, and changed into a dress. She loved dresses.

The woman then ate some breakfast and looked at her ruined outfit that was just lying on the floor. After she had gotten home she rid herself of it and put on some pajamas. After she was done with her cereal, she bunched up the clothes and tossed them in the trash.

“Nicole wouldn’t be pleased if she saw this.” She said to herself.

She then spent most of the day browsing the forums, watching RWBY and Korra and reading. At the end of the day she went into her room and looked through her closest for a new outfit. She found a new black dress, where the skirt went down to her knees this time, and found a dark green jacket.

“Perfect.” She smiled.

Anna laid them out on a chair in her bedroom and stepped back to admire it. She smiled again before going to bed. Tomorrow was Sunday, and she needed to get up early for Church.

Church had gone on like it usually did. They did the announcements, apparently Karen and Dillon were pregnant, again. She guessed it was time for their annual baby. They sang songs, some of her favorites, like In Christ Alone, 10,000 Reasons and You Are My Vision.

The message was good, very moving. Afterward she didn’t stick around very long, wanting to get home. As she walked out to her car, Nicole came up to her.

“Why’re you leaving so soon?” She asked, crossing her arms.

“Things to do people to see.” Anna said, unlocking her car.

“This is Church. You’re supposed to see people, but instead you’re taking off before you can actually interact with people. What’s wrong?”

“I’m just busy.”

“Does it have anything to do with the gang members they found dead in an alley? And a girl in a green jacket running from the scene?” Nicole stepped forward.

“I didn’t kill them! It was some titan with powers!”

“What? There’s another powered person in New Hampton?” Nicole said skeptically.

“He electrocuted me!” Anna protested, showing her the burn marks on her arms.

Nicole grabbed her arms, trying not to hurt Anna. She gasped at it. “How are you not dead?”

“Must’ve not been exposed to it long enough, because he fried the gangsters extra crispy.”

“That’s not even funny.” Nicole said, dropping Anna’s arms.

“I know it isn’t. That’s why I fought the guy.”

“I thought you were done with this vigilante stuff?”

“Yeah I did say that but...”

“But you kept doing it.” Nicole crossed her arms again.

“Well, Matthew asked me to...”

“What?! My brother asked you to risk your life?”

“Yes he did. He needed help on a case-.”

“That’s idiotic! And why is he having you do things for him? Are you two dating again?”

“No! Of course not! But I’m good with powered people. Mainly because I am one.”

“I don’t want you doing this anymore. I don’t care who asks you, don’t do it.”

“Not even the Lord?” Anna crossed her arms.

“I can’t deal with you right now,” Nicole said, walking away. “See you tomorrow.”

“That could’ve gone better.” Anna muttered to herself before getting in her car and driving away.

They had all gathered as requested.

But who requested them to gather?

That was the question running through everyone’s mind there. All of them had their finger by the trigger of their guns, ready for any attack.

The four major gangs of New Hampton had all been summoned to this random warehouse on the west side of the city. They all felt uncomfortable, not only because they were rival gangs, but because that “Breeze” had blown up an entire warehouse of the Cold Steel gang. So yeah, they were tense.

Suddenly the door to the warehouse opened and a tall, dark figure walked in carrying a large suitcase. All the gangsters quickly lifted their guns and pointed it at the figure. He chuckled at the sight, raising his hands slightly to show that he was not a threat. At least, not yet.

“Easy there. I come in peace.” He smiled through his mask.

“Who are you?” One of the members of the Cold Steel asked.

“Well, to make it short; I’m your new leader.”

A few of the gangsters let out a laugh, but most of them were just confused at this statement. The being looked around at their confusion and smiled. He walked over to a table set up in the middle of the warehouse and set his briefcase down, clicking the locks and opening it to reveal several items within: a ring with a black diamond on it, a cigarette case with a strange insignia, a solid gold lighter and a silver gun.

To anyone outside these gangs, they would just be interesting objects, but to them, they were so much more.

All these items being here meant war.

Everyone in the warehouse raised their weapons and pointed them at the figure, all of them ready to fire.

“How did you get these?” One of them asked.

“I took them, of course.”

“How did you?” Ask another.

“I took them off your bosses burnt bodies.”

“You’re the guy who killed our bosses?!” One of the gangsters, a man with a suit and square glasses asked, holding his gun up. “You’re the freak who fried them?”

“In the flesh.” He moved his arms in a ‘here I am’ fashion.

“I’ll… I’ll kill you!” The man said.

“I’d like to see you try.” The man smiled.

Suddenly a gangster ran at him with a knife in hand, but the man blocked it and redirected the blow so it went into another gangster. The man picked up the briefcase, closing it as it came up, and used it to block a bullet that came for his head. He swung around and struck another gangster in the head with it, knocking them out.

Another gang member began to fire upon him, but he used his thick briefcase as a shield and ran forward, using it to launch the gangster across the warehouse with his brute strength.

The gangs began to swarm him, a few bullets piercing him. He roared before dropping the briefcase entirely.

“ENOUGH!!!” He roared.

Electricity suddenly sparked in his hands before he shot a massive bolt that struck several of the gangsters, either burning them or just knocking them out, but nonetheless they were electrocuted. The lights in the warehouse seemed to darken as the lightning cast everything in a flickering blue glow.

He suddenly stopped, the last bolts of energy discharging from his body. Instead of anger, the gang members were utterly terrified at this show of supernatural power.

“You’re… You’re one of them… A Super...” the man with the square glasses stuttered.

The man relaxed. “Yes, and with this power we can finally conquer this city, together.” He walked around the gangsters, all of them taking a step back as he approached. “Together we can overthrow the government and finally have our way, but what I propose means that there must not be separate gangs, but one. Will you join me?”

After several moments of silence, the man with the square glasses stepped forth and shook the figure’s hand.

“And what do I call you?” He asked through his mask.

“Marco, sir. And what do I call you, boss?” The man asked.

“Call me Ravenger.” He smiled behind his respirator.

One by one, the gang members joined the being known as Ravenger, until none were left.

“Today marks the end of your separate gangs, and the beginning of our empire!” He said proudly, his voice echoing throughout the building.

She read over the case files again, and again, and again. Each time she didn’t get used to seeing the mangled bodies of the mob bosses.

Eventually Anna had enough of it and tossed them under her bed again. She changed out of her dress and into some pajamas and crawled into her bed.

It was a good while before she actually managed to fall asleep because the images of the bodies were still running through her head, and even when she did fall asleep, she had dreams about them. And dreams about her fight with that man...

It was cold.

She looked around and saw someone lying on the ground. She quickly ran over to him and checked if he was alive. He was not. Anna gasped as she fell backwards, but instead of hitting solid earth she was falling through the air.

She looked around as she fell towards the city of New Hampton below her. In desperation, she tried to use her powers to slow herself down, but it was useless this far up. She could only flail around as she plummeted to her death.

Anna closed her eyes and waited for the end to come.

But suddenly she feel the rush of wind around her cease and found herself standing on the rooftop of a building the midst of the city. Twenty feet in front of her was Nicole, a cut on her head with blood streaming out, and a gun in her hand, pointed to the edge of the roof.

“Nicole...” Anna began.

Suddenly a bolt of lightning shot forward and hit Nicole blasting her backwards.

“No!” Anna began to run forward before she herself was covered in blue energy. She screamed as she was launched across the roof and hit a wall. She slowly got up and looked to see the man approaching her, lightning crackling in his hands.

“I am the cure.” He smiled behind his respirator.

The last thing she saw was blue light.

She lurched upright in her bed, breathing heavily and sweat covering her. Anna stared forward at her sheets wide-eyed and utterly terrified. No matter how hard she tried, she could not calm herself down. The images of her dream still ran through her mind and shook her to the core.

It was a good half-hour before she laid back down, and a full hour before she fell back asleep.

“Lord comfort me please...” she had said silently the whole time.

### Chapter 4: Riot

It was a rough night. And even worse was the fact that she had to get to work in about an hour.

She crawled out of bed and took a shower. As she stood in the water, she could not help but think about that dream. It wasn’t often that she remembered her dreams, and she hadn’t had one this jarring since… since she had that dream about her mother…

Anna rolled into work around 7:32, which is close enough. She walked in, wearing a black dress with purple flowers, took the stairs this time to avoid Thomas, and went to her cubicle and sat down, looking around for Thomas.

“Take that sucker...” she muttered to herself.

Suddenly she heard something behind her. “Hey Anna!”

She jumped out of her chair and stood up and spun around fast, banging into her desk. In front of her was Thomas, leaning over the wall of her cubicle, a stupid smile across his face.

“Thomas! What the heck! You nearly gave me a heart attack!” Anna yelled at him, turning several heads in the office towards them.

“What’s wrong, Anna? I just wanted to say hi-.”

“You don’t sneak up on someone to say hi! You’re going to kill someone!”

“I don’t think scaring someone is going to kill them-.”

“Man do you take everything I say literally or what? I was exaggerating because you scared the living daylights out of me!”

“I was just saying hi-.”

“Well now I’m saying bye!” Anna snapped. “Go! Leave!” She pointed to the far end of the room while standing up and approaching the man before he ran off at the sight of her coming at him.

He didn’t look back.

After that she fell down in her chair and held her head in her hands, trying to calm herself down. Usually she didn’t let her emotions get the best of her like this, but with the dream and everything that had been happening, she broke.

Her coworkers were still looking at her in confusion before going back to work, still looking to her every few seconds.

After a few minutes, Anna calmed down and booted up her computer, taking deep breaths. She thought she was fine until something overtook her like a flood and she quickly got up and ran to the bathroom, causing her coworkers to look at her again.

“What’s wrong with her?” One asked.

“Pregnant, probably.” Another said.

She emerged from the bathroom thirty minutes later, feeling like utter trash. Anna made her way over to her desk, using several parts as the office to steady herself, earning more looks from her coworkers. She fell into her chair and opened a drawer and pulled out a bottle of ibuprofen and took two with a bottle of water to ease the throbbing pain in her head.

As the day progressed, she tried to get as much work done as she could under her current condition, but it was hard. At lunch Nicole came down to get her.

“Hey Anna it’s time for-,” Nicole said before she saw what Anna looked like. “Oh my gosh, Anna, are you okay?”

“I feel like trash but other than that I’m fine.” Anna said sickly.

“What happened?” Nicole said, kneeling down next to her friend.

“I don’t know but I just feel really, really bad.”

“Are you sick?”

“I… I don’t think so...”

“Let’s go outside for some fresh air.”

The two made their way over to the elevator, Nicole steadying Anna as she had almost fallen over three times on their journey. When in the elevator, Anna fell against the wall, using the railing around the inside to brace herself.

They went up to the first floor and into the courtyard, where Anna quickly fell into one of the chairs.

“What’s going on?” Nicole said, pulling up a seat next to Anna.

“I… I had a dream last night,” she said weakly.

“A dream? What was it about?”

“I was in a back ally at night, where there was a body. I ran over to him… but he was dead. And then I was falling towards the city, and I couldn’t do anything. Then… then...” Anna couldn’t bring herself to tell her.

“What was it?” Nicole asked, a look of worry on her face.

“I landed on a rooftop, and you were there… with a cut on your head and gun in hand,” she said. “And then you got struck by a bolt of lightning. I ran to help you but I got hit too.”

“Was it from a storm?”

“No, it was from that… that monster. Before I woke up, he told me that he was the ‘cure’.”

“That’s… that’s… well...” Nicole was obviously as shocked by it by Anna. “But why are you so sick looking?”

“Stress, probably.” Anna guessed.

“You should take the rest of the day off. Thomas will understand.”

“I can’t...”

“I highly doubt you’re going to get any work done in this state, so go home, get some rest.”

“Thanks Nicole,” Anna smiled.

The two got up and hugged.

“I’ll go get your bag.” Nicole said.

“No you don’t have to...”

“I will.” Nicole said.

“Sir, we are ready.”

The dark figure turned his head slightly at the sudden, unannounced arrival of Marco, his second in command. Usually, he didn’t like being sneaked up upon, but then he realized that having someone shifty like him would actually be useful.

Useful until Marco decides to try and slit his throat.

Try.

“Good. I will be there momentarily.”

“Yes sir.” Marco said, before turning away and leaving the room.

“Let’s have ourselves a riot.”

As soon as she got into her apartment, she fell into her bed, not bothering to change or anything. As soon as she hit the pillow, she was out cold.

She was fine until she was awoken but several crashes and shouting outside her apartment in the streets below. Anna got herself out of bed, feeling better, actually, and walked over to the window to see that it was night, and that there were dozens of people in the streets below.

At first she figured they were protesters, but as they kept moving, she saw that several of them had large assault rifles and grenades.

The gangsters then pulled the pins from their grenades and threw them into random buildings. They crashed through windows and a few seconds later exploded, small balls of fire coming from the buildings.

Suddenly she heard something crash through the glass next to her and turned to see a grenade spinning to a halt on her carpet.

Acting solely on instinct, she used her power to create a ball of air around the grenade and threw it back out the broken window, and just in time because as soon as it went out the window, it exploded. The shockwave shattered Anna’s remaining windows and threw her across her bedroom, several bits of glass cutting her and her dress.

Once she recovered, she looked and saw all the tears in her dress.

“Crap.” She muttered to herself.

Suddenly she heard shouting and gun shots coming from the stairwell outside her apartment. Cracking her neck, she ran forth and out her front door, making sure it was locked, and ran for the stairwell.

Arriving, Anna saw several gangsters coming up the steps, assault rifles in hand.

“This is just what I needed today.” Anna said sarcastically.

Without a moment’s hesitation, she ran down the stairs. One of the gangsters looked up and saw her coming down. He aimed his gun at her and opened fire. Using her ability, she dodged the bullets and jumped down, landing on the gangster, knocking him out cold.

The others around him turned on a dime and trained their weapons, assault rifles and pistols at the female. She smiled at this sight and again used her air powers to jump above them as they shot, causing them to all shoot each other either in the shoulder or the chest.

She landed as they all toppled to the ground, unconscious.

“Hm.” Anna smiled.

Several more gangsters saw her and began to open fire on the woman. Again using her powers, she flipped into the air and shot a strong wind at them, knocking them into each other. She landed beside them and hook-kicked one in the face, punched another in the gut, side-kicked one in the shin, and punched another in the nose, breaking it.

“Gross!” She exclaimed at the sound of his nose snapping.

Anna brushed off the blood on an unconscious gangster’s clothes and moved on. She jumped over the railing and landed on another gangster below, bringing him to the ground under her own weight (not that she weighted that much). She faintly heard him grunt, but with all the chaos inside and outside, it was near-impossible to hear anything.

That would prove to aid her, though, as she could then attack without them noticing her until it was too late. She launched two gangsters off the stairs and down onto more of their comrades, knocking them out as well.

“Can this be over now?” Anna said aloud, but her voice was drowned out by the ruckus outside.

“It’s gotten worse!” Claire said as she strode into the room.

“What? How can it get worse?” Matthew asked, looking up from his computer.

“I don’t know but it just has,” she said, coming over to him. “We gotta go.”

“Alright,” Matthew stood up and put on his jacket, holstering his gun and grabbing his badge in the process.

“You’ll need more than that,” Nicole said, walking towards the armory.

“Great...”

Ten minutes later they were both walking out to their car, with three S.W.A.T. trucks behind it, waiting to go. They got into the car and Matt started up the engines.

“Let’s go.” Claire smiled.

They drove off with the sirens blaring, the S.W.A.T. team following close behind. As they navigated through the wreckage left over by the riot, they could hear the ruckus.

“Where are they now?” Matthew said as he drove around a broken car.

Claire looked down at her phone. “York Street.”

“That’s where Anna lives.” Matthew said.

“Wait, Anna Brail? That’s where she lives?” his partner turned her head.

“Yeah. We have to get there, now.”

“Well we were going there anyway.” Claire put her phone away.

Matthew stepped on it.

She had made her way down into the lobby and was now pushing the remaining gangsters out and back into the street. Exploding out of the twin glass doors, Anna came into the street and looked around at all the chaos.

A gangster swung a bat at her but she ducked under it and blasted him away into the crowd. She spun around and side-kicked another in the gut, sending him to the ground. Anna kicked another in the knee, probably breaking it but she didn’t have time to know for sure because she spun around again and hammer-fisted another in the temple.

Suddenly at the far end of the street several S.W.A.T. vehicles following an unmarked vehicle burst through the ground, sirens blaring and lights flashing brightly.

“About time, Matthew.” Anna smiled.

Several of them turned and ran at the arrival of the police, but a few, in Anna’s opinion, idiots, stayed and tried to shoot down the armored vehicles but were mowed down. The six S.W.A.T. vehicles came to a halt and suddenly several heavily-armed officer came pouring out the backs of the vehicles and began pointing their guns at the gangsters and yelled at them to stand down.

But they weren’t ready to back down and charged the officers, but were quickly shot down and fell onto the concrete. The gunfire was enough to push them back and the remaining gangsters ran.

The unmarked vehicle’s doors swung open and two people came out holding rifles, and Anna recognized them instantly: Matthew and Claire Darrel.

As soon as she got out, Claire quickly took down a gangster and brought him face first to the ground, slapping a silver pair of handcuffs on him. Ten feet away Matthew did the same.

Anna looked up and saw a gangster running towards her. Readying herself, she shot a sharp blast of air at him, flipping him onto his back. She quickly then ran over and knocked him out with her boot.

The rest of the gangsters were retreating to whatever hole they had come from. Anna turned and saw Matthew look up at her and nod. She returned it and turned away from the site, running back into her apartment building. She ran up the stairs, kicking another mobster in the face, knocking him out again.

Anna arrived at her apartment and quickly went in, locking the door behind her. She untied her boots, her limbs aching. She then pulled her ruined dress over her head and threw it in the trash. The woman then walked into her room, keeping away from the windows and put on some pajamas and brushed the glass from her bed and drew the curtains and fell into bed.

As soon as she hit the pillow, she fell into sleep once more.

They had failed.

But he had expected that.

After all, they were scum.

He turned from the warehouse window and walked across the dark room, his filtered breathing echoing throughout. Marco watched him from a corner, unsure of what to do now that he had told him that the plan had failed.

“Sir, what’s our next move?” he asked hesitantly.

Ravenger stopped at a table and looked over a map that was illuminated by the sole light in the room. His hand traced over it, going up and down the streets.

“We need ammunition,” he said through his respirator.

“And where are we going to get it, boss?” Marco asked, walking up to the table, slightly hesitant.

“One of the police warehouses, of course.” He looked up at his lieutenant.

Marco nodded. “I’ll get the troops ready.”

Suddenly a gangster came into the room, panting. Both Marco and Ravenger turned towards him.

“What is it?” Ravenger asked.

“I got away from the police after they dispersed the riot,” he breathed.

“So,” Ravenger cocked a gun. “I should kill you for deserting your fellow comrades?”

“No! I have information for you!” He held up his hands.

“What is this information?” Ravenger asked, growing impatient.

“There was a girl who attacked us, took down a bunch of our men.”

“A girl took down several of our men?” He sighed. “Looks like we have quite a few bodies to drop in the bay...”

“No,” he cried. “She… she had powers!”

“Powers?”

“It was like she controlled the air.”

Ravenger set the gun down. “The girl I fought a few nights ago. Yes she is powered like me. She is increasingly growing more of a problem for us.”

“Are we still going to get the ammunition?” Marco asked.

“Yes. And the next time we see our dear friend, we’re going to end her.” He said grimly.

### Chapter 5: Caught in the Crossfire

Anna was awoken by the ringing of her phone. She rolled over and picked up the phone to see who was calling and was surprised to see the name “Alex Nolan” on the screen, her lawyer.

She instantly unlocked her phone to take the call, taking note that the time was 6:32 and held the phone to her ear.

“Anna. There’s something I need to talk to you about.”

“Good morning to you too,” she said tiredly. “What is it, Alex?”

“That riot last night. It was on your street. Was there any damage to your apartment?”

She turned her head towards her shattered windows. “Yeah.”

“Alright. That means you have grounds to sue these thugs for property damage,” he said through the phone.

“I don’t want to bring them to court!” Anna said, getting off her bed, avoiding the shattered glass on the floor and went over to her closest and pulled out her clothes for the day.

“Yeah but they caused damage to your home!”

“My insurance will cover it.”

“Did you happen to inflict the damage?”

“If you mean I threw the grenade out of my apartment and it exploded next to my window, then yes.”

“Anna...”

“Hey I wouldn’t even be here if I hadn’t!”

“Alright. Anna I need to meet with you later after work.” Alex said.

“When?”

“Let’s try 6:00 at my Firm.”

“Alright. I’ll be there.”

“You better.” Was the last thing he said before he hung up.

She set down the phone on her nightstand and sighed before grabbing her clothes and heading into the bathroom. She emerged twenty minutes later in the sleeveless dress, which was red in color with several zig-zag designs on it which were brown and orange in color. She was also wearing a pair of tights with her boots.

Anna then grabbed her broom and dust tray and swept up all the shattered glass she could find and dumped it in the trash along with her ruined dress from yesterday.

“That’s unfortunate.” She muttered to herself.

At 7:03, she grabbed her messenger bag and went down to the parking garage and went out the back way as the police had blocked off the main exit.

She rolled into work around 7:33 and found that the place was buzzing with activity because of last night’s riot. Every TV in the place was showing new reports of the riot, from helicopter shots to ground angles.

“Hope I’m not in any of those...” Anna muttered to herself as she descended down the stairs.

The IT Department was no different than the lobby. Only here several videos and news articles littered the screens of her co-workers.

She got to her desk and set down her bag beside her computer. Anna logged in and saw that her work email had eight new messages, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out what they were all from. She sighed and scrolled through the messages and saw that she had one from Nicole, one from Matthew, one from Kato, one from Alex. She got to the bottom and was ready to scroll back up when one caught her eye.

Anna looked closer and quickly went back, gasping. The message was sent by someone she thought she’d never have to see again: Mark Brail.

After a few moments, she opened the email hesitantly. She did not know what to expect from her father as it had been four years since they had last spoken.

The email opened and all that was contained within was one sentence: Are you okay?

To anyone else, this would be an extremely vague question. But since it was her father, she knew exactly what he meant.

She put her hands on the keyboard and typed up a response: I am. What do you want?

Anna pushed away from her desk and took a deep breath. Out of all the times he could of heard about what she had done, why did he pick this one riot to email her?

As she went on with her day, she occasionally checked her inbox to see if her father had responded, but he hadn’t. He was still working all day, so she didn’t expect a response until either later today or tomorrow morning-.

There was a sudden bleep from her phone as an email came in. She quickly opened her inbox on her computer and saw “Mark Brail” on the address of the email at the top of the list. She opened it and read:

Is it too much to ask if my daughter is safe? Just because you’re not living at home anymore and that you’ve cut off contact with me doesn’t mean I stopped loving you, my dear. You are my pride and joy, and the only I have left since your brother and your mother… you know...

Although she always tried to show bitterness with anything to do with her father these days, this message stung her right in the heart. She could feel tears in her eyes before she quickly wiped them away. Her lip quivered, almost in response to her attempt to not cry.

She blew her nose before closing the window and grabbing her phone, plugging in her ear buds and turning on Lauren Daigle.

Anna could not reply to that email right now. She couldn’t.

Instead, she went back to work and put it off until later.

When 5:00 dawned, she still had not replied to her father’s email. And she had to meet Alex in an hour. As her co-workers bid her farewell, to which she tried her best to reply and not sound stressed, she decided that it would be better to wait until tomorrow to respond.

She left work and went out to the car, cranking up the radio and pulling out. She had not seen Nicole the entire day, probably because of all the news she had to report and write on about the riot.

Anna drove down the freeway for about thirty minutes before coming off and then drove through the city. At around 5:49 she rolled into the parking of lot Cromwell Norfolk Nolan. She got out of the car and walked to the front door. She walked up to the front desk and the receptionist recognized her instantly.

“Hey Anna,” she said.

“Hey Alice,” Anna replied.

“Alex is ready for you.” Alice gestured to one of the frosted doors, which read “Alex Nolan”.

Anna smiled and headed for the door. Knocking on the tainted glass before entering, she came into the familiar room of Alex’s office. It was fifteen-by-fifteen, the two walls on of the sides of the doors were covered in bookcases, most shelves with books, while a few had pictures and whatnot. On the wall behind the desk were Alex’s degrees, showing that he went to law school and was a certified lawyer. In front of the desk were two comfortable chairs.

Alex glances up from the papers he was looking at at her arrival. “Anna, you’re early, which I guess is normal. Sit down.” He gestured to one of the chairs.

Anna took it and set her bag down beside and crossed her legs. “So, what’s up?”

“Nicole told me you were back in the vigilante business.”

“Why are you talking to Nicole?”

“That’s not important right now. Is it true?”

Anna sighed. “Yes, it is.”

“Anna… you can’t keep doing this-.”

“You know what?” Anna said, standing up. “I’m sick of people telling me to stop doing what I’m doing. I’m helping people!”

“By blowing up an entire warehouse of people?” Alex also taking a stand.

“If that’s what it takes!” Anna slammed her fist on the desk. “This is what I’m supposed to do and no one’s going to stop me!”

“Anna, you’re going to get yourself killed!”

“And that’s my choice if I want to do this! And you can’t stop me.” In one swift motion, Anna snatched up her messenger bag and stormed out of his office and towards the front door.

“Anna! Anna!” He called after her, coming to the door of his office, but by the time he got there, the front door was already swinging closed.

Alice looked from the front door to Alex, confused. “So I take it it didn’t go so well?”

Alex sighed to himself. “No, not at all.”

She was so angry she hadn’t even taken off her boots when she laid down on her bed.

How could everyone keep trying to keep her from doing good? Why did everyone keep telling her it was dangerous and that she was going to get killed? She had been doing this since 2013, even her own mother approved of it, even if it was slightly hesitantly. The only one who actually believed in her and approved of her doings was Matthew. Through thick and thin he had believed in her. Why had they even broken up all those years ago?

Anna was interrupted by the sound of police cars rushing through her street. She got up and came to her blown out windows and drew back the curtains and saw several squad cars rush through the street.

“What’s it this time?” She muttered to herself.

She went into her living room and turned on the TV and switched it to the news channel. On it displayed a helicopter’s view of a warehouse where several police cars surrounded the outside while the actual officers were taking cover behind their vehicles and shooting into the warehouse’s door.

Then it switched to a news anchor.

“*The developing situation at the police warehouse has escalated. A large party of gang members from, as it appears, every gang in New Hampton are engaging the police in a massive shootout over police ammunition. The seemingly combined forces of the gangs appears to be the result of the deaths of the heads of every gang in the city over the past few weeks. More on this developing situation is next.*”

Anna turned off the TV and turned around. That man… that figure who had killed the gang leader, and almost her with electricity… had his plan been all along to unite the gangs under his rule?

She didn’t have time to think about it, she had to get down there. Running into her room, she changed into her vigilante outfit and ran out onto the catwalk outside her living room and went to the roof.

*Let’s hope they don’t get away before I get there.* Anna thought to herself.

A bullet whizzed over her head as she crawled towards her partner.

“How’re you doing, Matt?” She asked conversationally.

Matthew ducked under several bullets. “I could be better. You?”

“They nicked off a bit of my hair, so I need to kill someone.”

“Easy Claire. The Chief wouldn’t like that.” Matthew smiled.

“He never does.” She smiled back.

Another spray of bullets went over their heads and they ducked down. As soon as they had cleared, they both stood up and shot into the warehouse, where they heard the satisfying combination of a yell and then a thud.

Suddenly a machine gun opened fire on them and they ducked as all the windows on the squad cars around them shattered, raining glass down on them.

“Argh!” Claire yelled as a shard of glass cut her arm. She quickly clutched the wound, blood streaming from between her fingers.

“Claire!” Matthew ran over to her, grabbing a bandage from his pocket and giving it to her. She quickly began to wrap it around her fast-bleeding wound.

“Do you always keep bandages in your coat?” Claire let out a weak smile.

“With Anna, you never know.” He muttered to himself.

They both ducked as more pulled flew over them.

She could hear the gunfire as she approached. Using her powers, she jumped another gap between buildings and rolled across the gravel before continuing her run, air swirling behind her.

Matthew and Claire were probably already there, fighting them off. Hopefully they weren’t… she didn’t dare think it. Matthew and Claire were survivors, no matter what.

Eventually Anna came to the edge of a building where she heard gunfire and saw the eerie glow of fire. She looked over the battle scene and saw several officers on the ground, either dead or wounded. The same was true for the gangsters, and there seemed to be more dead on the gangster’s side.

Jumping onto the ledge, she propelled herself forward and landed on the building’s roof. She skidded to a halt in the gravel, scraping her knee.

“Darn.” She muttered to herself, looking at her scrapped knee.

Getting back up, she found an air duct on the roof and opened it, it’s squealing noise completely drowned out by the battle below her. Looking down into the dark, she climbed over the side and disappeared.

Movies always depicted going down things like this like going down a slide. It’s not at all. She grunted and muffled her yells of pain with her hand as she descended down the duct.

Finally she came into the bottom one, which rested right above where the gangsters were. She had to get down on her belly and crawl across the vent, trying not to make a sound even though it didn’t matter because every noise she made was ought to be drowned out by the gunfire.

She came to an opening and looked down. Below her the gangsters were taking cover behind several crates while firing at the cops outside. Suddenly a bullet went straight through one of the gangster’s head, killing him instantly. She covered her mouth at the sight, muffling a scream.

All this for what? A bunch of metal? Nothing was worth this. Nothing except Christ alone, the only true cause to die for. That’s what she had been taught since she was little, and that’s what she believed in her heart to this day.

Gathering herself again, Anna took a deep breath and slipped through the vent. She knocked out the grate and fell down next to the gangster, taking cover behind the ammunition. One of the others noticed her arrival and yelled to his comrades, but she couldn’t make out what he said.

Suddenly several of them ceased fired on the police outside and began to fire upon her. Fast as lightning she flipped over the crates and took refuge and was now caught in the crossfire. Wood splintered and rained down upon her as bullets impacted with it. There was so much dust and debris in the air that it was almost like it was snowing.

When an opening came she shot a gust of air at one of the gangsters, launching him backwards. A bullet whizzed past her head, cutting off a strand of hair as it passed. She shot another gust towards where the bullet had come from and heard the satisfying thud of a gangster hitting the ground.

From amidst the chaos she heard “It’s the girl!”.

She looked up and saw a gangster pointing right at her and yelling to someone farther back in the warehouse. Suddenly the gangster got shot in the shoulder and fell down. From the dark behind him a tall figure emerged, and Anna’s already-rapid-beating heart skipped a few at the sight of him.

It was him.

And he had caught sight of her, too.

“The girl! Retreat, now!” He called to his forces.

There were several confused looks, but the continued barrage of bullets caused them to comply faster than they normally would with his commands and quickly packed up shop, making their way to the back door. Most of them made it but a few got hit by the lead and fell to the ground.

They got out of the backdoor and Anna knew she only had seconds before the police came through here after them and found her and everything she had worked for was compromised. Nicole would be questioned, Matthew, Alex, even her father.

She had to move.

Gathering a deep breath, she ran forward after the gangsters, the flying debris her cover. Anna burst out the back door and looked to see several cops lying on the ground, most of them appears alive, thank God, but a few had, unfortunately, passed on.

Down the back road were the red rear-end lights of a van. Using her ability, she ran forward, bending the air around her so she moved faster, and faster, and faster…

But making herself more aerodynamic didn’t get her to where she wanted, which was the backdoor of the last van. So instead she stopped, skidding to a halt at the tip of a thirty-foot gap and widening gap between herself and the van.

Stepping back wards into a horse-stance, she shot her arm upwards and created a large gust of wind to come up underneath the van and launch it into the air, flipping it on it’s roof, the windows shattering under the pressure.

Bending the air around herself again, she sped forward past the-now-smoking vehicle and towards the next one. Now she could see that there had been five in total, but now there were only four. As she approached, the doors flew open to reveal a tall, shadow figure at the back.

Her heart skipped a few beats again as she saw blue energy crackle as he moved his arms. Suddenly a bolt of pure electricity shot forward at her as it had once before in the alley a few days ago.

Acting purely on instinct, she stopped her bending and used the momentum of her suddenly halt to launch herself into a flip and went right over the lightning. She hit the ground and rolled over her shoulder, coming to a halt on her back in the middle of the back road.

Anna got up, her limbs aching and her hair full of dust and looked at the now-fast-disappearing red dots that were the van’s rear lights.

Behind her sirens blared as the police approached. At least she had stopped one of the vans, but the other two got away, now with several hundred pounds worth of ammunition.

Using her power again, she launched herself into the air and used the walls of the alleyway to get up to the top of a building, and just in time as the police sped past, the red and blue of their lights blinding her slightly.

Rolling onto her back and breathing heavily, she decided that as soon as she got home, she was done until next week at the earliest.

“The girl!” he slammed his fist on one of the crates that they had taken out of the van as soon as they pulled into their warehouse. “She has proven more of a problem than I thought she would! I underestimated her as a misguided underling.”

“What is she, sir?” Marco asked.

“Someone with abilities like me, only with control over air and seems to be a fairly skilled fighter. Probably a second or third degree black belt.”

“She’s that vigilante that blew up that warehouse, isn’t she?” Marco asked.

“Yes. I highly doubt that there are two unless she had a daughter when she was thirteen years old.”

Marco let out a small chuckle before cutting it off. “So what now, boss?”

“She took one of our vans and took back a few crates of our ammunition. We must take Anna Brail down.”

“How do you know her name?”

“I did my research on this city before I entered, remember? I made the connection that this ‘Breeze’ and Anna are one and the same.”

“So do you know where she lives?”

“No I could not find that, unfortunately. She’s a fairly secretive person. But I do know where she earns her living.”

“Where, sir?”

“The Daily Post,” he smiled behind his respirator. “And we strike on Monday.”

“I’ll get the men preparing.” Marco said, walking away.

“Good,” Ravenger now said to the empty room. “Anna Brail, you will fall and I will truly rule this city.”

Anna was so glad that her new dress hadn’t been ruined in the fight except for a coating of dust, but that would go away with a good washing.

Anna had now put on pajamas and was now lying under her sheets, quickly drifting off to sleep, but as she fell into the open arms of the night, she couldn’t help but think about the day’s events…

She was walking into work like any other morning of the week, but something was different: everyone she passed was looking at her, staring at her.

As she walked into the elevator, she caught a glimpse of all those eyes on her as the doors closed shut. Anna leaned against the railing inside the elevator and caught her breath. Her heart was pounding and sweat was forming on her brow.

The elevator dinged and the doors opened and every eye in the room was on her, like everyone had known that it was her who was coming down.

Uncomfortably she walked to her desk, taking sideways glances at all the staring eyes. She sat down at her desk and saw that on her screen was a mug shot of a girl with long black and brown hair, green eyes, a dark green jacket and a black dress; her.

She frantically looked around the office and saw that everyone had surrounded her cubicle, staring at her. She didn’t remember being found out, and if she had been arrested why was she here?

Suddenly a voice came from what seemed to be all around her; Nicole’s voice. “I told you it wouldn’t end well. But you didn’t listen. You never listen, Anna. Never.”

Anna looked around for her best friend, but couldn’t see her anywhere. Then another voice came. “Anna, you were always a fantastic girl, but you’ve taken it too far. This is your due.” Matthew said.

“What…?”

The next voice made her jump: “You were always a good girl, Anna, and your mother loved you, and I love you, but this is what has come of your actions.” Her father said.

“Dad…?”

Suddenly everything went dark around her, leaving her in pure blackness. Then she was blinded by a flash of bight blue light, and then there was nothing…

Anna shot upwards in bed, sweat dripping from her face, her air wet. She was breathing heavily and her heart was leaping against her chest. She was gripping the sheets tight, her knuckles white.

“No… no… please… no...” She muttered, and muttered for the next hour.

It would take her another two to get back to sleep, and even then her dreams were filled with darkness. Never before had she felt so alone… and so guilty.

### Chapter 6: The Daily Post

She was thankful for the weekend. Thankful for the rest. It had seemed that the gangs also had taken a break for the weekend, which was odd but at least it gave her time to relax. She was going to have her windows replaced later that day, because the window company had her measurements from the apartment’s specs.

Anna was reading the third volume of Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children when the doorbell rang. She set the book down and walked over to the door, looking through the peep-window and saw Matthew standing there. She threw open the door before Matthew grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her against the wall, slamming the door shut.

“What are you doing?! Let me go!” She tried to struggle against his grip, but failed.

“You can’t keep doing that! You could’ve gotten killed!” He shouted at her.

Anna saw the look in his eyes; a look she knew all too well.

“I had to, it’s my job-!”

“No it’s not! Nicole was right, you shouldn’t be involved with this. You should leave it to me and the police force.”

“I’ve been doing good! When their leader saw me he ran screaming. And I got one of the vans captured by you guys, didn’t I?” Her green eyes became defiant.

“Sure, you get lucky, but what happens when that luck runs out?”

“I was kinda planning on that it wouldn’t.”

“So you’re gambling with your own life, and others. You’re just as reckless as you were when we were dating...”

“Oh now you have to bring that up. Good going Matthew,” she pretended to clap her hands as a symbol of sarcasm. “You just can’t let go of the fact that we had a thing briefly,”

“That’s not it, Anna! I care about you, Nicole cares about you! Heck, even your father cares about you!”

Anna put one foot forward and pointed her index finger up at Matthew, who was several inches taller than her. “Don’t. You. Dare. Mention. Him.”

“He’s your father, Anna. You wouldn’t be here without him.” He put his hand on hers.

“I don’t care. He wasn’t there for me when mom died,”

“He tried reaching out to you in the months after you left him, though, when you were with that loser John.”

Anna laughed. “Oh yeah, trying to make amends after he wasn’t there when my mother got killed. And what’s up with you bringing up things that I honestly don’t care about anymore?”

“I know I’m not going to win this argument with you, so I’m just going to leave you with this: think what it might do to those around you if you died while doing this.”

And with that, Matthew turned and went out the door, closing it behind him. Anna leaned against the table in her kitchen, letting his words sink in. As she did, a small tear fell down her face.

She wasn’t feeling very enthusiastic about work Monday morning so she put on a simple black dress where the skirt went down to mid-thigh with a hoodie and wore leggings that went up to a little bit above her knee, leaving the space between her skirt and the leggings exposed. Instead of wearing her normal boots, she put on a different pair of boots that went up to her ankle and had a little bit of a heel.

Swinging her messenger bag over her shoulder she walked into work where the Daily Post was again buzzing, now about the gunfight just mere days before.

Instead of waiting for the elevator, she took the staircase down to the IT Department. What Matthew had said on Saturday had really shaken her, so much that she had had a very hard time concentrating in Church Sunday morning.

She went through the door and into the office and straight for her cubicle. Another reason she was doing this too was because of her dream. It seemed like her life was suddenly beginning to fall apart from the inside out.

Sitting down she booted up her computer and logged on to see that she had still not responded to her father’s email. She had intended to do it over the weekend, but had forgotten to. Now there was another email from him, this one dated Saturday.

Hesitantly, she opened it.

*Matthew told me about what you did on Friday. I know you mean well, Anna, but you’re going to get yourself killed. I know you’ve been bitter towards me ever since we lost your mother and brother four years ago, and I understand that. I wasn’t the father I should’ve been. But now I’m here and I can’t bear to lose you too.*

*You’re all I have left, sweetheart, and I want you to live out your life, meet the man God has willed to you, and enjoy a long and happy life with your family whole, one that was taken from both of us that day.*

*Love you always. - Dad.*

Even though she had tried to be completely bitter towards her father for the past four years, this email had broken her heart open wide. Tears began to stream down her face and she quickly grabbed a tissue to wipe them away.

After she had collected herself again, she went to type up a response but was cut short by the ding of the elevator. An old habit, she looked up to see who was coming down.

The moment the doors slid away she nearly had a heart attack. Walking out of the elevator were seven figures, the lead one wearing a black attire completely by a black jacket that went to his mid-thigh and wearing a respirator, was the new leader of every gang in the city.

All but the mysterious figure wielded an assault rifle and now were pointing them at the either screaming or shocked employees of the Daily Post.

“If you would all please stand up, I would like to make this as easy as possible.” He said in his heavily filtered voice, and when he said it, Anna couldn’t help shake the feeling that it was directed at her.

Reluctantly, Anna stood up and raised both hands along with a few other of her coworkers. The man seemed to smile behind his mask before grabbing a phone-sized device from his pocket and holding it up.

“And one more thing.” He clicked the device and suddenly all the monitors in the room shut off in a spark, and her phone which was lying on her desk gave a small zap before going dead.

*EMP*. she thought. *Of course, can’t have us calling for help. Sometimes I wish Matthew and I had gotten married and were soul-mates so we could read each others’ thoughts.*

“Everyone against the wall,” he gestured to the one at the far end of room. “A nice straight line would be appreciated.”

Hesitantly, Anna and her coworkers went over to the wall, most of them showing how scared they were. One woman even tripped which caused one of the gangsters to run over and grab her by the hair and yanked her up hard and threw her against the wall, yelling that if she did it again, she would stay down.

Inside her head fear blended with hatred, the hatred slowly winning over the fear. She flexed her hands, small currents of air beginning to circle around them.

“Let me introduce myself,” the man said, and again she couldn’t shake the feeling that he was talking directly to her. “I am Ravenger, and I am the cure to this city’s rotten underbelly.”

“So how does taking over every gang in the city and taking us hostage do that?” Anna stepped forward, her rage boiling inside her.

Ravenger chuckled. “I see we have a brave spirit! And what would your name be?” She however, knew that he had recognized her from their fight.

“Anna Brail.” She said proudly anyway.

“You seem like a very intelligent person, my dear. I wouldn’t want to splatter your brains across the wall there.” He gestured to the wall behind her.

“What do you want here, scum?” Anna said, defiance blazing in her eyes.

“My men have already secured the upper levels, and I need to send a message out to everyone in the city.”

“Then why are you down here as opposed to upstairs?”

“Because when we make the transmission you will see it down here and cut the feed and send out a distress signal. Plus I wanted to get to know you better.”

“Why do you want to know us better? We’re just IT Techs. Thomas isn’t even one, he’s just a creep.” Anna’s lips made the smallest of smiles as she heard Thomas say ‘hey’.

“I’ve always had an interest in computers, ever since I was a boy.”

“I honestly can’t imagine you as a child.” Anna said.

“And that’s a good thing,” Ravenger smiled behind his mask. “Now it’s time to work.”

He came over and grabbed Anna’s collar, tugging her towards the elevator. All the while she struggled against his grip. “Take the others into there,” he pointed to a door at the end of the room. “It’s a conference room. If anyone moves, feel free to… remove them.”

The other gangsters smiled as they began to lead the terrified workers into the conference room while Ravenger dragged Anna into the elevator, who was still struggling against his grip. He hit the button for the third floor, where the night show was made and broadcasted.

As soon as the doors closed she unleashed a large gust of wind that propelled them both backwards into the wall, shaking the whole elevator. The lights flickered slightly on impact, and as Ravenger let Anna fall forward she saw that there was a large dent where they had hit. Before he could pull out a gun or blast electricity at her, she had in one swift motion hit the emergency stop and with both hands, shot a massive blast of wind at him, knocking him into the wall again.

This impact was much larger and cataclysmic, the dent now showing the outside of the elevator. A bell rang at the emergency stop and she heard the cables clanking above because of the impact.

While he recovered himself, Anna took the opportunity to blast the emergency hatch off and used her powers to rocket up through it. She landed on the top of the elevator and looked up to see the cables swinging. Below her she heard Ravenger call out.

“Come on, little girl, don’t do this. Come back down.”

“Yeah no.”

Readying herself, she leaped up and used a gust of air from her feet to launch herself up the elevator shaft. Jumping from wall to wall, she landed on the door for the first floor and wrenched her fingers in between to pry it open.

Suddenly below her Ravenger appeared through the emergency escape and shot a bolt of lightning into the shaft. She had to press hard against the door to avoid being electrocuted. The electricity, however, turned out to work in her favor, as it electrocuted the doors and caused them to open, through which she quickly slipped out as the elevator began to move upwards again.

The lobby, as she expected, was filled with gangsters. They all turned at her arrival and as they raised their guns to fire upon her, she ran forward at the one nearest to her, punched him in the face and spun him around as the gangsters opened fire, using him as a Human shield.

She threw the dead gangster forward and blasted air at another, launching him across the lobby and into a glass divider. Anna rolled across the floor avoiding more gunfire before tripping another. She flipped over the gangster and grabbed his assault rifle. Cocking it she shot one gangster in the shoulder, another in the knee, and one in the arm.

Anna spun around and struck one in the head with the barrel of her gun before blasting him away with air. She dodged more gunfire from another and shot him in the kneecap before kicking him in the face, her heel catching his nose.

She stopped in the middle of the lobby and looked around at her handiwork. They were all unconscious, some more injured than others, to be honest.

Shrugging, she made for the front desk she heard something stir behind her. Turning around she saw one gangster on his side, a grenade clutched in his fists, fingers around the pin.

“See you in the fire, girl.” He smiled, before pulling the pin.

“NO!” Anna screamed.

The gangster threw the grenade at her and she jumped behind the desk. The grenade fell ten feet from the desk and a second later exploded. The blast destroyed the desk and hurtled Anna again the wall, knocking her out cold. Every window in the lobby was shattered due to the shockwave and glass rained everywhere. The building was shaken to it’s roots and caused dust to fall on everyone.

Then the panic began.

“Matthew we’ve got a dozen calls saying that the Daily Post has been bombed and there’s a hostage situation.” Claire ran up to Matthew.

“What?!” He said, almost dropping his coffee.

“Yeah. First there was the bombing and then they realized that there were armed men on the upper floors with hostages. Reports also say that that Super is there as well.”

“Anna...”

“We gotta go.” Claire said, grabbing his hand and dragging him towards the armory.

Anna…

Her head was buzzing and her ears were ringing. Her limbs ached and her chest pounded. She looked around as her vision slowly came back into focus to see Nicole kneeling beside her, holding her arm.

“Nicole…?” Anna mumbled.

“Yeah it’s me,” Nicole whispered. “Keep your voice down.”

“What’s… what’s going on?” Anna slowly sat up, her vision almost completely in focus again.

“Ah, I see you’re awake.” Said a familiar voice.

She looked up to see Ravenger walking towards her, hands behind his back. “I was worried you’d expired.”

“I wish I had.” Muttered Anna.

“Now, down to business,” Ravenger said, turning away and facing the several gangsters who were holding Anna and Nicole’s coworkers hostage. It looked like they had taken everyone from the upper levels and the lobby and held them here. “Set up the cameras, for I need to make a broadcast to the entire city.”

No one moved.

“You are the camera people, right?” Ravenger held up his arms. “So you should be familiar with how to use it and set it up, correct?”

There were a few nervous glances. The gang leader lost his temper.

“NOW! Or I start dropping bodies!” He yelled in his heavily filtered voice.

Almost everyone jumped up to their feet and hastily began setting up the studio, the gangsters watching them closely. In a matter of moments, the studio was set up and ready to use.

“Excellent, excellent!” Ravenger said, stepping forward onto the studio floor. “Now ready for a broadcast.”

They went to their computers and began to set up a broadcast. Anna’s brow knotted a little more, a plan already forming in her head. Nicole seemed to read her thoughts as she leaned closer again.

“Anna, don’t. You’re going to get us all killed,” she whispered.

“Then what am I supposed to do?” Anna hissed. “I can’t let him put out that broadcast!”

“I’m sure that explosion caught the attention of someone who called the police. Matthew will be on his way.”

And as if on cue, they heard the faint sound of sirens coming down the road towards the building, a lot of them. Every head in the office turned except Ravenger’s towards the windows, a few gangsters walking over to it to look down.

“Sir, we have half the police force down there.” Said one gangster.

“And we have the place secured for the most part,” he glanced at Anna. “See to it that we don’t let any of them in.”

The gangster nodded and ran towards the elevator and disappeared behind the silver doors. Suddenly, taking advantage of the distraction, a man hit one gangster in the back of the neck with a stapler, leaving a metal band in his neck. The gangster dropped, but not before the man had grabbed his gun and was now pointing it at every gangster he saw.

“Alright this ends here! You’re all going to surrender and go down to the cops. You’re all going to rot in prison for the rest of your lives!” the man yelled.

“Can I marry him?” Anna smiled.

“Shut up! He’s going to get himself killed!” Nicole gasped.

Ravenger chuckled. “So brave. Yet so unwise.” Suddenly a flash of blue light blinded them, which was followed by a scream and then a thud.

The light faded and they saw the man on the floor, spasming uncontrollably before going limp, never to move again. Every woman in the office screamed and every man yelled at Ravenger, before the terrorist sent another bolt of electricity out, this time it just hitting the ceiling.

“If I meet anymore resistance, I will drop more bodies,” he said. “Now, let’s start this broadcast...”

The first thing he saw when they pulled up was the shattered glass that littered the ground around the outside of the building. The next was that the lobby was completely destroyed, all the windows blow out, hence the glass.

The next was that he saw movement within the destruction, probably gangsters. The next thing was a flash of blue light from the second floor accompanied by muffled screams.

“What the heck do you think is going on in there?” Claire asked, getting out of the car.

“I don’t know, but it’s obviously not good at all.” Matthew replied.

“Not at all.”

The Police Negotiator was standing under a tent looking at a laptop which showed a layout of the building. Matthew and Claire walked up to him.

“Jason, nice to see you again.” Matthew greeted him.

“Hey.” Claire nodded. She had never really liked him, and Matthew knew it.

“Matthew. Claire,” he nodded to both of them.

“So,” Matthew rubbed his hands together. “What’s the plan?”

“Yeah,” Claire cracked her knuckles. “How’re we going to take them down?”

“Well, first we’re going to make contact with them; try and get to know them, Maybe try and make a deal.”

“I’ve heard about this guy, sir, I don’t think you’ll be able to break a deal with him.”

“And what have you heard of him?” Jason put his hands on his hips, Matthew and Claire reflected in his sunglasses.

“That he’s the one who killed every gang leader in the city and has taken control for himself by force. That he’s the one who engineered both the riot and the attack on the warehouse. He’s responsible for the deaths of dozens.”

“Everyone has a soft spot, detective.”

“Not this one,” Claire said, putting her brown hair in a ponytail. “He’s rock solid.”

“I’ll still try to-.” He was cut off by the sudden arrival of another officer.

“Sir! A broadcast is being transmitted from the Daily Post!”

Everyone turned towards him as he set down another laptop that was streaming from the Daily Post’s website. On the screen was the masked face of the new leader of every gang in the city.

“That’s him.” Claire muttered as they watched.

“Citizens of New Hampton. You may know me. You may not. I am Ravenger, the leader of this city’s gangs. How I became leader of every gang in the city? That is a story for another time. Now I have a message for all of you,, especially for the police, the government officials, and you, mister mayor.

“And my message is this: clear out. Take your wives, your children, your grandchildren, your parents, your brothers, your sisters, your girlfriends, your affairs. Take it all and run. I’d wish to avoid any more bloodshed because this city is mine.

“Any resistance will be met with opposition, and you will be mowed down. Nobody can stop us,” he seemed to glance to the left of the camera for a moment before returning. “I will own this city and it will be my kingdom. Any of you who wish to join us will be free to stay, but you must pledge your loyalty to me and follow all my rules, otherwise you will be… removed.” There was some muffled laughter from somewhere off-screen.

“You have four weeks until we rise up from the rotten underbelly of this city and take hold. You have until then to pack up and clear out, or, things will get ugly. Farewell.”

The screen suddenly went black without any warning, their reflections visible in the dead-space.

“So that’s his plan? To take over the city?” Claire turned to Matthew.

“If he really means the four weeks, and I think he does, we have to take him down before then, or it’ll be a bloodbath.”

“Alright. Time to leave,” Ravenger said, calling to all the gangsters. The large group walked towards the elevators and all got in before the leader stopped and looked down at Anna. He grabbed her arm and pulled her up roughly, the woman resisting all the way. “And you’re coming with me, my dear.”

“Heck no!” Anna said, hitting his rock solid hand, but it proved fruitless. She resisted a strong urge to use her powers again on him.

“Why do you want her?!” Nicole said, standing up to help her friend.

“I have my reasons, Nicole Weaver, and I would rather not like to spill your blood.” Ravenger held up his hand, lightning crackling around it.

Looking from his hand to Anna, who gave a subtle nod, she backed away and sat down on a chair, crossing her arms and legs.

“Good girl.” Ravenger dragged Anna into the elevator and they descended. They stopped at the open doors on the first floor, which had been blown out in the explosion, and Ravenger called to the gangsters there.

“Pack up. We’re leaving!”

The gangsters nodded and headed for the elevator when someone on a loudspeaker called out to them.

“Hello in there! I am Jason Negata, negotiator for the New Hampon police! I would like to speak with you!”

Ravenger bowed his head and shook it. “They never learn.” He walked out of the elevator and into the center of the lobby. He looked out and saw the police force, and the negotiator.

“No.” He said loudly before electricity began to circle around him. Suddenly he shot his hand forward and lightning blasted out from his finger tips and hit one of the police cars. On impact it exploded and flew several feet in the air before crashing back down.

Ravenger smiled and then went back to the elevator and they descended as S.W.A.T. officers and regular officers alike began to flood the building.

At the bottom they got out of the elevator and the gang leader dragged Anna along with them, despite her protests. He shot the elevator with lightning, causing the lights to flicker and then die, making it useless.

“Let me go! You’re not getting out of this!”

“Oh but I will.”

Suddenly they heard a distant thud.

“And that would be the S.W.A.T. officers blowing down the back exit,” Anna smirked.

“They will be no problem.” Ravenger said, putting his hand in his coat and pulling out a small cylinder-like device. Pressing a button on it, several feet of cord shot out of it and landed on the ground. Ravenger gripped it tight and suddenly electricity ran through the cord, causing it to glow bright blue.

“Enough with this.” Anna muttered and she shot a massive blast of air at the figure, knocking him backwards and causing him to lose his grip on her arm.

She fell backwards and rolled behind a desk to avoid gunfire. When she had the chance, she shot multiple blasts of air at the gangsters, knocking them down and probably out.

Ravenger had gotten back up, and apparently deciding that she wasn’t worth it, he and the remaining gangsters ran for the exit. However, when they got there, they were met with gunfire from the S.W.A.T. officers.

“Hey! I didn’t say you could leave!” Anna stood up, air swirling around her.

The gang leader turned around and smiled through his mask before reaching his other hand inside his coat and drawing another device, which also shot out several lengths of cord before being filled with crackling electricity.

“You want a fight? You have one, little girl.” The two stood in the walkway between the cubicles, both with their elemental powers surrounding them. Suddenly they ran at each other, their powers streaking behind them.

Anna was the first to attack, sending a gust of air at Ravenger but he dodged and whipped his weapons at her, which she flipped over and landed on a desk, sending another blast of air at him, knocking him back. He recovered and swung his whips down on her, but she jumped out of the way and he cut clear through the desk, leaving it in smoking halves.

She kicked forward, sending a blast of air at his shoulder and knocked him off balance. Anna took the opportunity to strike Ravenger in the back with her boot, making sure to drive her heel into it. In a sudden fit of rage, he swung around and upwards with his weapon. Anna tried getting out of the way, but the whip made contact with her shoulder and a sent several painful bolts electricity through her, leaving a burn on her skin.

Anna fell to the ground, covering her burned should with her hand and yelling with pain. Ravenger stepped over her and looked down, smiling. Painfully, she shot another gust of air at him, but he dodged it and swung his whip forward. The cord wrapped around her neck and somehow lifted her into the air off her feet.

The electricity wasn’t as painful as before, but she assumed he was waiting until he was done with his monologue for that.

“I can control where the cords go by controlling the electricity that goes through them, bending them to my will,” he explained in a gloating sort of way. “Electricity: a giver of life, and a taker.

“This is your last day, Anna Brail, and you did fight valiantly, but your efforts were in vain, for I shall rule this city and it will be my kingdom. Too bad you will not be there to see it rise.”

Suddenly the electricity got a little more intense, burning the skin around her neck. The pain increased, and she screamed.

Suddenly a gunshot rung out and she was dropped to the floor, the pain ceasing suddenly. Her vision was blurring in and out of focus again and she began to drift towards unconsciousness.

She saw several S.W.A.T. officers run into the room and fire at Ravenger. The bullets hit him and knocked him back further and further, blood spilling everywhere. He stumbled backwards and fell into a desk. Suddenly he brought out a grenade and pulled the pin and threw it to the middle of the room. The officers ducked, one running over to Anna and covered her with their body.

Ravenger darted out of the room, and she knew that she only had seconds until that grenade went off and killed everyone there, even her coworkers who were still in the other room. Calling upon all the strength she could muster she pushed the officer off of her and flipped up using her power. She looked at the grenade and created a ball of air around it.

Just as she did that, the grenade went off. What would have been a loud crack and shockwave was absorbed into her shield, and what was to be the fireball was quickly snuffed out by the lack of air.

After she was sure the danger was gone, she dropped the shield and with a groan fell to the floor and into the unconsciousness.

*And the black enveloped her once more.*

### Chapter 7: Remembrances

She didn’t know where she was.

The last thing she remembered was protecting the S.W.A.T. officers from the grenade and then… and then this.

Oh.

She had fallen unconscious.

Had the officers made the connection that she stopped the fireball? Probably. So now they knew of her powers. She had compromised herself and probably Matthew and Nicole as well. Although, not saving them would have been worse, since she would have been dead and so would they.

Now the question: would they keep their mouths shut?

Her mind didn’t seem to want to ponder these questions further and now she was falling through her memories. Years and years back, it had been so long since she last thought about these things…

July 21st, 2001.

The sky was filled with puffy white clouds, the sun slowly making its way towards the horizon.

He closed the door to his car and was walking up to the front door when a little girl with long brown and black hair and was wearing a flowery dress came running up to him.

“Daddy! Daddy! Come see what mommy taught me to do!” the little girl smiled brightly and grabbed her father by the hand and brought him to the background through the gate, where his wife was waiting for them, holding their baby boy.

“Hi Mark!” His wife smiled as bright as her daughter.

“Hey Rose!” He said in returning, giving her a kiss.

Their daughter tugged at the helm of his shirt. “Daddy!”

“Yes. Right. Anna, show me what you can do.”

Anna clapped her hands together in composed herself, putting her right foot forward and aiming her hand at a nearby bush that appears to have been in a hurricane. She drew her open hand back before thrusting it forward again, a gust of air flying from her hand and striking the bush, rustling it.

The girl laughed and turned to her parents, who were smiling.

“Whoa, Anna! That was great! You’re almost as good as your mother!” Mark exclaimed, scooping the giggling girl into her arms.

Rose came up to them and stroked the hair out of Anna’s face. “She’ll be a light someday, a light in the dark.” She said to her husband in a whisper only he could hear.

“I know she will.” He replied as Rose’s head rested on his shoulder.

June 9th, 2002, the Brail house.

“Anna, come here sweetie!” Rose called from the living room.

“Okay mommy!” The girl put down her crayon and paper and got up and ran into the hallway and into the living room, where four people she had never seen before stood.

“Anna, this is Mr. and Mrs. Weaver, and their kids, Nicole and Matthew,” Mark said, gesturing the family.

“It’s nice to meet you, Anna. You’re very pretty,” Mrs. Weaver smiled.

Nicole came over to Anna and held out her hand, which Anna took, slightly hesitantly. “It’s nice to meet you too, Anna.” The blond girl smiled brightly.

Anna smiled back. “Same.”

“That’s my brother Matthew,” Nicole said, gesturing to her brother. “He’s old.” She added in a whisper, causing Anna to giggle. Matthew rolled his eyes, seeming to know what his sister had said.

November 23rd, 2006, the Weaver house.

“So Nicole, you’re coming to my house to celebrate my mom’s birthday, right?” Anna asked as they swung in the Weaver’s backyard.

“Of course, Anna! We’ve been friends for four years. I wouldn’t miss it!” Nicole said, jumping off the swing.

“You’re a good friend, Nicole.” Anna said, following her off the swing.

“You’re a better one Anna.”

The two hugged before turning back towards the house.

“So, what’s Matthew been up to?” Anna asked as they walked.

“High School stuff, really. He’s getting ready for college in 2008.”

“What does he want to study?”

“He wants to be a police detective,” Nicole said, shrugging. “He’s wanted to be one for as long as I can remember, so I guess he’s wanted to be one since before I was born.”

“I guess if you can stay passionate about something longer than two people’s lifetimes, you can be sure that’s what you’re meant to do.”

“Like God wants him to be a detective?”

“Yeah,” Anna said. “God probably wants him to help people.”

“To spread the love of Christ,”

“I want to spread the love of Christ farther than the farthest lands.”

“That is what the Great Commission is,”

“I know. I want to live it out and bring light to the dark.”

August 9th, 2007.

They were walking home from the park after playing with a few friends. They were worn out and tired and wanted to go to sleep.

“I’m done for today, Nicole.” Anna said wearily.

“Same.” Nicole replied.

They turned the corner and were met with three figures. They brandished bats and were taller than the two girls.

“What do you want, Darren?” Anna asked.

“Two pretty girls will do.” He smirked.

Anna and Nicole exchanged glances.

“We don’t know any that would be your type.”

He laughed. “You know what I mean, Anna.”

“Go away, Darren.” Nicole crossed her arms.

“That’s too bad, then.” He lifted his bat a swung at her head. But suddenly the bat flew backwards at him and hit him in the head hard. He felt to the ground, completely knocked out.

Everyone’s gaze fell on Anna, who had her hands out and the air around them seemed to be… moving. Both of Darren’s other friends looked at each other for a moment before raising their bats and swung them at the dark-haired girl.

She thrust both hands forward and twin gusts of air shot out of each of them. The blasts hit the two square in the chest and sent them flying backwards. They landed in the street and were knocked out. Anna looked around and saw that a few adults had seen what had happened and she grabbed Nicole by the arm and she pulled her down the street.

After a few blocks Nicole broke away and looked Anna in the eyes.

“What. Was. That?”

Anna looked around before pushing Nicole into an alleyway. “Okay. Mom and Dad didn’t want me to show anyone, but,” he thrust her hand forward at a nearby trashcan and a gust of air shot out of her palm and hit the can, knocking it over with a clatter. “I’m a Super, and my power is the ability to control air.”

“That’s incredible! Why didn’t you parents want you to tell anyone?” Nicole said, looking from the fallen trashcan to her friend.

“For my own safety,” she said.

“Does anyone else in your family have powers? Like Andrew?”

“My mom has the same powers as me. This ability is passed from the parent to their firstborn and has been for centuries.”

“Wicked.” Nicole said.

“I know,” Anna smiled. “Now let’s get out of here before Darren finds us.”

The two ran out of the alleyway and into the sun.

January 25th, 2012, a few blocks away from the Brail house.

They finally broke apart.

They were both breathing heavier than usual. She stroked her hair back behind her ear; he rubbed the back of his head.

“Well that was...” he began.

“Great.” She finished for him, smiling.

“So…” Matthew said. “What now?”

“We go out for dinner?” Anna titled her head.

“Sure. Where?”

“I don’t know. you’re the guy in this relationship. You pick.”

“Uh… I’ll text you about it, okay? I gotta go.” Matthew said, making for the door.

“Wait!” Anna said, running up to him and giving him a quick kiss on the lips. He smiled and she did the same before he departed through the door. She bit her lip and smiled, before spinning around, her skirt and hair twirling and she departed as well.

December 6th, 2012, Matthew’s place of work.

“Anna! You can’t keep doing this!”

“Can’t keep doing what?” She crossed her arms.

“You know very well what I mean!” Matthew yelled. “Do your parents now you’re going out as a vigilante?”

“Of course they don’t. They wouldn’t approve in a million years.” Anna said.

“Then why do you keep doing it?”

“Because I have to help people! It’s my duty!”

“No it’s not!” He grabbed her shoulders.

“Let go of me!” She struggled against him.

“You’re going to get killed!” He gripped tighter.

“Let. Go!” She unleashed a massive gust of air from her hands and blasted Matthew across the room, where he landed on a desk and smashed it.

He recovered and looked up to see his girlfriend (probably ex-girlfriend now), rage on her face, fists clenched, and air swirling around her, a storm brewing. Her hair whipped in the wind and flew everywhere.

Matthew got up and held out his hand to block the wind whipping his face and tried to walk towards Anna, but found that it was increasingly difficult to approach her.

“Anna! You have the stop!” He yelled over the rushing wind.

“No! I won’t stop! I need to do this!” She yelled, her very voice seeming to come from the wind.

Objects around the room began to be carried away by the intensity of her wind, a literal tornado beginning to form in the room. A chair knocked into him and sent him flying around across the room and into a wall, leaving a huge dent in it. He slumped to the ground unconscious.

Suddenly the door burst open and Nicole came in, only to be pushed back out by the whirling wind. From the outside she could see the destruction, Mark unconscious on the side and her friend creating a tornado within the room.

“Anna! Stop! You’re going to destroy the building!” She yelled over the cyclone.

Anna’s green eyes turned towards her and realization flooded her. She saw the destruction, the raging winds, the unconscious form of Mark laying on the ground. She gasped and the winds disappeared instantly, everything that had been swept up clattering to the ground.

The woman fell to her knees and began crying, tears pouring from her eyes. Nicole ran over to her friend and comforted her.

“I’m… so… sorry… Nicole...” she wept.

“I know you are, Anna, I know you are.” Nicole said, tears beginning to fall down her face as well.

March 23rd, 2013.

She was sitting in room, curtains drawn, her desk lap on, her laptop open. She had taken to sitting in her room browsing the internet and doing her schoolwork, not making much contact outside other than shower, breakfast, lunch, dinner and supplies. The incident with Matthew had really shaken her, and she figured that if she rarely left her room, she’d be less tempted to leave the house.

This, however, had begun to work against her, as he father had grown tired of her daughter being locked up in her room most of the days for the few months, and consistently tried to get her out of the house. A few arguments in the family had broken out over the matter, between herself and her father, and between her mother and her father. Her mother argued that Anna needed to get over the breakup with Matthew in her own way, but her dad argued that it wasn’t healthy for her.

A few times Rose almost conceded to her husband and nearly agreed before ending the argument before she could. Anna didn’t care what her father thought, or her mother, or anyone. This was her punishment, she thought, confinement. She had nearly killed Matthew and wrecked his work.

Suddenly there was a knock on her bedroom door and her father’s voice came from the outside. “Anna, come out here, now.”

She ignored him. He had done this several times before, a weak attempt to get her out. She wouldn’t budge.

However, the next thing he said jolted her out of her ignorance. “The police are here.”

She nearly fell out of her seat at the words. Why were they here? Had they found out she was the one who trashed Matthew’s work? Quickly she got up and unbolted the door, throwing open the door and saw her father standing there, face grave. She knew he wasn’t faking it.

Anna turned on her heel and walked into the living room, where he mother sat in one of the chairs, across from her were two police officers standing above the couch.

“Anna...” Rose began.

“What is it? What do you want?” Anna cut across her to the officers.

“Anna Brail, you are under arrest for assault, property damage and breaking and entering.” One of the officers said, a black male in his late thirties said, pulling out a pair of handcuffs and walking over to her.

She took a step back. “What?! That’s absurd!”

“We have several eyewitnesses, ma’am.” His partner said, a white male around the same age.

She was about to fight the officer with the handcuffs but her conscious told her better. Reluctantly, she put her hands behind her back for the officer to cuff and he did, all the while reading her her rights.

“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you by the State.”

As the officers walked her out of the house towards the squad car, she looked back and saw her entire family at the doorway; her brother Andrew looking fearfully at his sister, her mother’s face a similar expression, leaning against the door frame to keep herself up and hand on her chest, and her father standing behind them, whom she swore had tears brimming in his eyes.

The other officer opened the back door to the squad car and the first lead her into the compartment, ducking her head under the roof to get in. She sat down and looked out before the door slammed shut and her view was filtered by a window and black bars.

As the car began to drive away, she watched as her family did the same, following her down the road before they turned a corner and were gone.

April 10th, 2013.

The sound of the gavel rung out through the courtroom like gunfire, bringing complete and utter silence to the room.

“This court is now in session,” the Judge said.

“Case 1019, the people verses Anna Brail.” The Bailiff announced to the courtroom, handing the Judge a file. He took it and flipped through it, reading it over.

“The Prosecution may give their opening statement.”

“Gladly, your Honor,” the Prosecutor stood up from the left-hand table, a man in his early forties, brown hair slowly turning gray, his skin fair and slightly aged, and wearing a sharp blue suit.

“As we all know, the job of crime fighting is that of the police officers of our city, a risky job that might cost them their lives, but they do it anyway, because it it is the right thing to do,” he said, walking in front of the jury. “This job is theirs and theirs alone. Yet, some foolishly take it upon themselves to do it themselves, dispensing justice their own way, often violating basic Human rights, such as a fair trial.

“Anna Brail is one such individual. She impeded a police operation and decided to go and fight the Cold Steel gang, while a noble cause, cost New Hampton taxpayers hundreds of dollars in wasted police resources. And this is not the first account of her acts of dispensing her own justice. There are several accounts of her assaulting alleged criminals, with no real evidence if they were or not.

“She is what we would call a vigilante,” he turned towards Anna, who had been sinking into her chair on the right-hand table his entire opening statement. “Which is illegal in almost all fifty states, including Washington, and has been since the revelation of empowered people. Although there is no evidence that she is such an individual,” -Anna and Rose sent up silent praises of thanks- “The law applies to all. And she has broken this law among others. Therefore I recommend she be treated as a criminal, because she had broken the law numerous and times, and that is after what a criminal is. That is all, your Honor.”

“Thank you, District Attorney Wells,” the Judge said as Wells nodded and sat down, a grin across his face. “Mr. Nolan, you may give your defense.”

“Thank you, your Honor,” Alex Nolan said, standing up and straightening his tie. He was a man in his mid-twenties and had black hair, his light skin a lot younger than Wells’.

“That was a very good opening speech, Mr. Wells,” he said, walking past his table, in which Wells gave an slightly awkward nod of thanks. “And I’m glad you laid out for us in the field of law what a criminal is,” to this mainly laughs burst out throughout the courtroom, but were quickly silenced by the Judge’s stern glare.

“But you do make being a vigilante out to be much worse than it actually is. Usually, a vigilante is a concerned citizen who perhaps wants to keep police officers safe by putting themselves in harm’s way as opposed to the officers’ lives. Or perhaps they don’t agree with the work done by the police department against crime and want to punish criminals outside the confines of the law, which I agree is questionable, but a lot of these criminals are murderers, rapists and abusers.

“However, I find a flaw with the whole accusation that Miss Brail is a vigilante,” several puzzled looks appeared across the courtroom. “In all the cases of vigilantism that I studied while preparing for this trial, I noticed that all those accused were men, save for a few masculine women or were a Super, who had had years of combat training and were very strong or were in fact a Super.

“And as you can see,” he gestured to Anna. “Miss Brail is not a man, nor masculine, and as far as we know, not a Super,” Nicole, Matthew, Rose and Anna shifted uncomfortably in their seats, but no one seemed to notice. “And she is hardly of age for such a thing. How old are you, Miss Brail?”

“Eighteen.” She said.

“Eighteen years old,” he turned back to the Jury. “Years younger than any of the vigilantes I saw, and she is also barely an adult. Surely a child is not capable of such a thing?”

He turned and saw Wells’ face.

“That is all, your Honor.” He smirked before returning to his seat beside Anna.

“I’d like to call the first witness to the stand,” Wells’ stood up again, gulping slightly.

The rest was a blur.

“Has the Jury reached a verdict?” the Judge asked after the Jury had taken their seats again save for the one holding the paper.

“We have, your Honor,” a woman said, who was in her twenties with long black hair. “We have found the accused…” there was a moment of suspense that seemed to last for hours. “Not guilty, your Honor.”

There was an uproar of applause and celebration, Anna and Alex both jumping up and hugged, tears streaking from Anna’s eyes.

“Case closed,” the Judge struck his gavel again.

He then got up and left while Wells’ buried his face in his hands. Anna left to hug Nicole, Matthew, Rose, Mark and Andrew while Alex walked over to Wells’ and held out his hand.

“Good work, Wells.”

Wells looked up and reached out his own hand shook Alex’s. “You’re a darn good lawyer, Alex.”

“I know.” He smiled.

He turned back and saw Anna smiling at him, in which he returned.

July 23rd, 2013, 2:42 PM.

She had never thought that today would be one she dreaded above all. She didn’t think that she would see this as the darkest day of her life that morning.

It had started out like any other day: she got up, picked out her clothes, a black dress with green flowers where the skirt reached down to her knees, took a shower, at breakfast, and browsed the forums.

That’s where she was when it happened. She was reading an article on the forthcoming Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D. when she heard the spine-chilling crash just outside her house, which was followed by the screams of the neighbors and then yells of her father to get down to the front yard.

Anna had nearly throw her laptop as she ran out of her room and almost jumped over the table to run out the front door and out into the yard to see… to see…

The car had caught fire.

Her father had pulled one from the wreckage: her brother. He lay still, bruised, burned and unconscious. Mark was trying to pull someone else from the fire, but couldn’t. The flames seared him, sending him backwards.

Anna ran forward and shot a massive wind at the fire, extinguishing most of them, but a few were still ablaze.

“Mom!” She yelled, but nothing within the car moved. Suddenly the fire spread to the engine and the gas tank. Mark got up and grabbed his daughter by the shoulders and dragged her to the ground several feet from the car, where she fought back.

“Let me go! That’s mom!” She yelled.

Suddenly the car exploded in a massive fireball, going several stories into the sky. The shockwave knocked them backwards across the lawn, debris falling down upon them. After the fire cleared the car was completely destroyed, anyone inside surely dead.

Mom…

August 18th, 2013.

“Anna. Please don’t go. Anna!”

“I’ve already made my decision, dad. I’m going.”

“Yeah but can’t you stay in town for college? Not go to some other city for it?” Her father pleaded.

“You weren’t there for me when mom died, and now it’s cost you. Goodbye, dad.” She ducked into the car and started the engine, and then pulled out off the driveway and into the road, disappearing from sight around the bend.

Anna wasn’t there to see it, but she had a feeling that a tear ran down her father’s cheek as she left. She didn’t care, he deserved to be hurt, just as he had done to her. He hadn’t been there for her after Rose died. He had detached himself from the outside world after her funeral and basically left Anna on her own.

Only had he taken interest in his daughter when she decided to go to college at Salem University, which was about a hundred miles south of New Hampton. They had a really good computer program there, and honestly, she needed to get away from this city for a while.

The plan had been, of course, to go to New Hampton University, but then her mom died and everything fell through.

Nicole was also going to this University, so that helped. It would be good having someone she knew there.

Good...

It had all blown up.

They had been so happy. Every date they had gone on had ended happily. She and John had been together for a few months now, having started dating about a month after term started. They had gone to a few dinners and a few movies and a few strolls around the campus.

How had it gone so wrong?

“I’m sick of your excuses to why you can’t go on dates!”

“I told you! I have church!”

“I’m sick of that excuse! You always give that excuse!”

“But it’s true! I have church to go to!”

“Your Religion is always getting in the way of our relationship! You need to choose one or the other, Anna!”

“What? You’re making me choose either you or God because I go to church three times a week?” Anna was shocked. “You selfish scum!”

“How dare you!” He yelled. “I’ve had enough of you!”

He suddenly ran forward and swung at her, but she ducked under it and swung at him herself, but he moved out the way and struck her in the gut. She doubled over and he kicked her backwards onto a nearby table. He got on top of her and wrapped his hands around her neck and began to squeeze.

She tried to struggle but he was too strong, her breathes ragged and growing increasingly further apart. Her skin was beginning to turn blue as she became closer and closer to death.

Having no other options, and in an act of desperation, she unleashed a massive blast of air that launched John across the room and through a wall into the hallway outside.

She fell to the floor and gasped from breath, letting it fill her lungs, her natural color returning. Anna looked up and saw the unconscious form of John in the hallway surrounded by debris of the broken wall.

Before anyone could investigate, she got up and ran all the way to her dorm and slammed the door shut, falling against it and to the floor. She buried her face in her hands and began to sob, every breath still tinged with pain.

She remembered the door bursting open and then a few figures streaming into the room before everything went black again.

Anna then heard the sound of something being poured like water, but the smell told her otherwise. Her vision came into focus and she looked up to see a figure with a container of gasoline pouring it all over her room. She was held by two of the other figures by her arms, the feeling in them beginning to disappear. She was also on her knees.

“Who… who are you?” that was all she could manage. Her full consciousness was still coming around.

The figure stopped and turned, and the sight brought her right around in an instant: John.

“Nice to see you’re awake, Anna.” He smiled, continuing to pour the gas.

“What are you doing?” She said, trying to struggle against the thugs’ strong grips.

“You Christians say that a flame burns bright inside you, well, I’m going to show you a real flame. Up close and personal.”

He emptied the container and dropped it to the ground, it bouncing as it hit the ground before clattering to a stop, a hollow sound coming from it. Then he reached into his jacket and pulled out something small and silver: a lighter.

John flipped it open and an orange flame ignited, small and contained; the only harm it could cause is if you touched it.

“Let’s see your Almighty God save you now.” He smiled darkly before dropping the lighter.

It hit one of the streams of gas and ignited. Fire shot across the trail nearly as fast as a car. Her room was quickly illuminated in an orange glow. Smoke began to fill the air and made it hard to breath.

“Enough with this.” Anna muttered. She flipped up and caused the two thugs holding her to lose their footing. She took advantage of this punched one in the nose and blasted another way with a gust of air, sending them into the fire. She then kicked the other in the knee and broke it, causing them to fall to the ground.

John had pulled out a collapsible baton and swung it at Anna, but she dodged, and filled with rage thrust her hand forward shot a gust of wind with the strength of a tornado at him. The blast launched him across the room and through the window, shattered glass flying everywhere.

Quickly she called upon her power again and sucked all the air from the room, extinguishing the flames in an instant. She then restored the air and ran to her cellphone. She picked it up and dialed 911.

“Hello what is the state of your emergency?” the operator asked.

“There’s been a fire in my apartment at the University in room 203. Some people tried to kill me.”

“Where are the attackers now, ma’am?”

“I managed to knock them out but they won’t be out long.”

“Alright ma’am. Stay put. I’m going to need your name.”

“Anna Brail.”

“Okay. I’ve dispatched a unit to your area.”

“Thank you. Thank you.” Anna said before hanging up the phone. She put it in her sweater pocket and walked over to the window and looked out to see John’s unconscious form on the ground below. She was only on the second story, so she doubted he was dead, but he had at least a few broken bones.

Anna looked at the damage around her room, which was just several burns. Why had this happened? Why would this happen? She then saw that her Bible had been scorched a little she picked it up and brushed it off. She opened it and it fell to Psalm 27. It read:

“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall.
Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, I yet will be confident.”

*I yet will be confident.*

That was the last thing she remembered before she saw Nicole’s face next to her.

### Chapter 8: In Christ Alone

“Nicole?” She said weakly.

Her life-long friend looked up and nearly jumped out of her seat.

“Anna!” She exclaimed, hugging her.

“Owowowowowowow!” Anna yelled as Nicole pushed on her bruises.

“Oh I’m so sorry!” She said, standing up and holding her hands. “How are you?”

“How long have I been out?” Anna ignored her question.

“Two days. Ravenger really did a number on you. You’ve got burns and bruises all over the place, and a broken rib.”

“Yeah I can feel that.” Anna winced.

“You were mumbling in your sleep a few times, and you did seem like you were having a nightmare too. What was wrong?”

“Probably just a bad dream,” Anna lied, not wanting to tell Nicole about the recollections.

“Alright. I’m going to go get the doctor so then we can discuss on when you can get out of here.” Nicole smiled before going tot he door. She turned and waved and disappeared.

“Yeah...” Anna said to herself.

A few minutes Nicole returned, a doctor following her. He was a man in his fifties with graying hair and spectacles. He was holding and clipboard and smiling.

“It’s good to see you awake and alert, Miss Brail,” he smiled. “How do you feel?”

“Sore.” Anna said.

“Ah that’s to be expected. You were battered quite a bit.”

“What exactly did he all do to me?” Anna asked.

“Well, for starters, he burned you around the neck and along your arms and chest, he broke two of your ribs, your knees will need to be bandaged for a few weeks because your skin was burned off there and will need time to heal.”

“Sounds like I’m pretty messed up, doc,” Anna groaned.

“Well, you should consider yourself lucky, Miss Brail; any other person would probably have been killed by this. Which reminds me,”he flipped through several of his papers. “We did find something odd about your DNA.”

Anna gulped. “What about my DNA?”

“There were just some irregularities in the code, nothing major, just a few things that we doctors think shouldn’t normally be there.”

“Is it anything to worry about?”

“No, perhaps some sort of extra DNA from your father or your mother, but you should be fine.”

“So when can I leave?”

“Probably within the next day or so, and when you do, you should take it easy for a while.” He said before turning and leaving.

“I’m so sorry, Anna, I forgot that your powers were embedded in your DNA!” Nicole apologized.

“It’s okay. I forget about it a lot too.”

“Is there anything I can get you, like from your apartment or anything?”

“Maybe my Miss Peregrine’s book?”

“Sure. I’ll get you another dress too because your clothes were scorched by Ravenger.”

“Darn,” Anan said. “I liked that outfit.”

About a day later.

“UGH it’s so good to be out of that bed! That’s like the worst.” Anna said as they walked out of the hospital.

“You gave us a real scare, Anna.” Nicole said.

“What do you mean? Who did I scare?”

“Everyone. Everyone was scared that you were going to die.” Nicole replied.

“Really? You all thought of me like that? How sweet!” Anna smiled brightly.

“And they’re going to be overjoyed to see you up and about again.” Nicole said as they got in the car.

No one wanted to enter the room.

“HOW COULD SHE DEFEAT ME AGAIN?! HOW?!” He kicked a chair across the room, banging into the wall. “SHE IS JUST A GIRL! I AM SUPERIOR IN EVERY WAY! HOW COULD SHE?!”

“Sir, please, calm down-.” That was also Marco could say before he was throw across the room too, hitting the ground and slumping to the floor in an unconscious heap.

“The next time I meet her, I’ll kill her! She will no longer stand in my way, no longer will she oppose me!”

He stormed out of the room, blowing the door opening and scaring to death the several gangsters who had been listening outside.

“Good, you’re here, because I need you,” Ravenger looked around at the group. “I need to you track Anna Brail and learn her routes, her activities, the times she gets up and the times she goes to sleep. I need the times she practices her style and goes shopping. I need it all! Now!”

“Yes sir!” The gangsters said before turning away into the large room of the warehouse to plan.

“Anna Brail *will* die by my hand. She will.”

Since the Daily Post was going to be shut down for repairs for the next month or so, Anna had a lot more time on her hands. Although, income was going to be a problem, since most resources were being used to fix the damage.

So, she picked up a shift at the local Top Discount. It didn’t pay much, but at least she got the employee discount, which helped with her new dresses and food.

Although she quickly she began to hate her new job and her coworkers. They were lazy, arrogant, and just downright mean to her. Usually she just kept to herself when she was stocking shelves and whatnot, but there was the occasional customer who couldn’t find something that they had passed a hundred times before.

At the end of the day she was spent and usually she would drop her stuff in her living room and sat on her bed and pulled off her boots and then fell backwards into her pillows before falling right asleep.

Her dreams were often a bizarre mix of everything she had experienced in the past several days. And then she would wake up shaken, and then the rest of the day was tainted.

Everyday.

She didn’t work weekends, though, so that made it better. And with the gangs seemingly disappearing into the underbellies of the city after their defeat at the Daily Post, but she knew they were not down forever. Ravenger had given the city a deadline, one month, and the deadline was approaching fast, and she highly doubted that the city was going to get turned over, so it was going to be a bloodbath.

So she had to take down Ravenger before then to spare the lives of innocents. Despite having survived death by him and his actions four times now, she knew that defeating him was no easy task. He was strong, powerful, and persistent.

And thus, she had been hitting the gym regularly to work on, practice her skills and ready herself for her next encounter with Ravenger, because it was coming soon. Although she was slightly limited because of her legs and her ribs, but she worked on it.

When the Sunday two weeks before the deadline rolled around, she got up, took a shower, got dressed in a bright flowered dress which skirt went down to her knees, and with sleeves that went down to her elbow and wore tights with her regular boots.

She rolled into the Church parking lot about forty minutes before service started, but she didn’t really care. Spending more time with the Lord was always a good thing.

Anna walked in the front doors and saw that the Pastor, Pastor Ted, was walking by, getting ready for today’s sermon. He saw Anna walk in and smiled.

“Anna, you’re early today,” he said, looking at his watch.

She returned the smile. “Yeah, I just thought I’d spend a little more time with God today.”

His smile broadened. “Excellent, excellent.” He said before walking away to his office.

The woman looked around before entering the sanctuary where two of the worship leaders were arguing about something with the music.

“She’s not here, and she has the best voice out of the three of us!” One of the said.

“So what? One of us just does the solo!” The other said.

“Yeah but it won’t be half as good without her!”

“So?”

Anna walked up to them. “What’s going on?”

“Our lead isn’t here and she has to do a big solo during the service!”

“One of us could just do it!”

“Remember the last time one of us tried to do a solo? It was horrible!”

“I could do it.” Anna said.

They both turned towards her. “What?”

“I could do the solo if it’s such a problem. I’ve been told I have a pretty good singing voice.”

“Show us.”

“*When You don’t move the mountains I’m needing You to move. When You don’t part the waters I wish I could walk through. When You don’t give the answers as I cry out to You, I will trust, I will trust, I will trust in You.*” She sang beautifully.

“That’s… that’s really good, Anna.” One of the two said, awed.

“I guess that settles it,” the other said. “You’re doing the solo. Come and practice. Hopefully we can get it done before service starts…”

Nicole was a little mad that she could not see Anna anywhere in the church.

She had gone every time before, but now she was nowhere in sight. Had something happened? Or, had she lost her faith?

No, it couldn’t be that. If Anna thought that God was telling her to do what she did, then she wouldn’t lose her faith.

Halfway through the service, the offertory was given, and one of the two worship leaders came out with a microphone.

“This morning’s offertory song is sung by Anna Brail. Enjoy.” She said before walking away.

Nicole’s eyes shot straight for the stage as her best friend walked out to a microphone a stand in front of her, looking around at the crowd. Anna had always had stage fright, but if she had any now, she wasn’t showing it.

The band started the instrumental and Anna began to sing:

“*In Christ Alone, my hope is found. He is my Light, my Strength, my Song.*

*This Cornerstone, this solid ground.*

*Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.*

*What heights of love, what depths of peace.*

*When fears and stilled, when strivings cease.*

*My Comforter, my All in All.*

*Here in the Love of Christ I stand.*

*Woah.*

*There in the ground, His body lay.*

*Light of the World by darkness slain.*

*Then bursting forth, in Glorious Day, oh up from the grave He rose again.*

*And as He stands in victory, sin’s curse has lost it’s grip on me, for I am His, and He is mine.*

*Bought with the precious blood of Christ.*

*Woah.*

*No guilt in life, no fear in death.*

*This is the Power of Christ in me.*

*From life’s first cry, to final breath.*

*Jesus commands my destiny.*

*No power of Hell, no scheme of man, can ever pluck me from His hand.*

*‘Till He returns, or calls me home.*

*Here in the Power of Christ I’ll stand.*

*I’ll stand.*”

She took a deep breath after she was done and looked around at the congregation, who were all staring at her. After a few seconds of silence, they all stood up and burst into applause. She smiled shyly as they continued. Even the band behind her was clapping.

*I’ll stand.*

“Comeoncomeoncomeon.” She hit the steering wheel before laying her head on it.

“What’s wrong, Anna?” Nicole walked up to her car.

“I think it may be dead.”

“And it’s about time too. That car’s nearly twenty years old.”

“I guess. But it’s just that this was… this was...” The words seemed to have gotten stuck in her throat. Tears began to form in her eyes.

“Your mom’s car?” Nicole finished, tears also in hers.

“Yeah.”

“I’ll drive you home, Anna.” Nicole held out her hand. Anna took it and Nicole helped her out of the car, Anna winching in pain slightly from her injuries. Anna locked her car and they walked over to Nicole’s, where she helped her friend into the passenger seat. Nicole closed the door and walked over to the driver’s side and stooped in.

“I’ll have someone tow it later,” Anna said as they drove away from the church and onto a country road, the sun getting covered up by the clouds.

“Yeah,” Nicole said. “That song was beautiful, by the way.”

“Thanks, Nicole.”

“You know, you always had stage fright when we were growing up, so did you overcome it or what?”

“Oh I was scared to death, but I just pushed past it.”

“Good for you.” Nicole said.

She turned her head back to the road when suddenly something shot through the glass and hit her in the chest. Suddenly she was covered in electricity and screaming. Her body jerked around and she spun the steering wheel one-hundred-and-eighty degrees to the left. Anna tried to grab it but it was already too late. The wheels tried to turn the way she wanted them, but it the turn had been too fast and impossible, and the vehicle flipped into the air.

The car landed on it’s roof and slid across the pavement, sparks flying everywhere as metal met rock. They came to a screeching stop, smoke beginning to leak from the car.

Anna groaned as she came around again, blood trickling from the side of her head. Her vision came into focus and she saw out her shattered window the tall, dark form of Ravenger slowly approaching the car, sniper rifle in hand.

She looked over to Nicole, who was knocked out next to her, blood coming from her forehead and nose. She was still breathing, though, so at least she was alive.

Anna could hear Ravenger’s heavy footsteps getting closer, and closer. She took a deep breath, knowing she was going to have no other choice but to fight him.

He walked up to the door, his feet inches from her face now that the glass had been shattered on her window. She heard him grab onto the door and knew he was going to rip it off.

He pulled it off and as soon as he did, she unleashed a massive gust of air at the door. It launched right into Ravenger and he flew backwards across the street. Using her power, she blasted herself out of the car, flipping in midair and landing on her feet again. She blasted another powerful gust of air at the terrorist and launched him even further backwards.

Ravenger landed on his feet and skidded to a halt, dropping the car door on the pavement.

He chuckled through his respirator. “You’re full of surprises, aren’t you?”

“What do you want from me!” Anna said, her fury boiling over.

“Your power is being wasted, Anna Brail,” he said. “Your potential is being throw away doing what you’re doing.”

“Oh so now you’re going to start with that now too?” Anna groaned. “I’m sick of people telling me to stop using my powers!”

“I don’t want you to stop using your powers, my dear,” they began circling each other. “I want you to use them for what you’re supposed to be doing.”

“I am using them for what I’m supposed to be doing,” Anna said. “Which is stopping criminals like you, powers or not.”

Ravenger let out a filtered laugh. “You’re not meant to fight street punks, Anna Brail, you’re meant to change the whole world.”

She was shocked. “What do you mean? How can I change the whole world?”

“It is not time for you to know,” he said. “You will find your destiny in due time.”

“Tell me!” Anna shouted, her voice amplified by her powers. “Now!”

“It is not your time, Anna. And it’s not my place to tell you.”

“If it’s my destiny to change the world, why do you keep trying to kill me?”

“Because I don’t want you to fulfill your destiny, my dear.” And with that he thrust his hand forward and a bolt of lightning shot out with a crack right at Anna.

She reacted almost instantly, and aided by her powers, she jumped out of the way. The bolt hit the road behind where she had been standing, leaving a large burn mark. The woman retaliated by firing a massive gust of air at her attacker. He moved out of the way and it missed him. Ravenger then fired another bolt of electricity at her.

Anna flipped out of the way, but when it impacted with the ground it broke part of it off. Some rubble shot up and hit Anna like bullets, except they didn’t pierce her skin, but they hurt.

She fell to the ground off the side of the road and rolled down through the tall grass into the ditch. Her vision blurred in and out of focus as her head began to spin from the impact. The woman heard large booted footsteps coming towards her from the road.

Anna willed herself to come back into full focus and took a deep breath. As soon as she heard Ravenger’s foot crunch into the gravel, she sprung into action. She flipped up and blasted another gust of air at the terrorist, launching him backwards. He bounced across the road and came to a halt, getting back up, his respirator askew, his breathing becoming ragged and rasp, like he was choking.

Before she could do anything, she heard sirens coming down the road. She turned and saw an ambulance, a firetruck and a squad car coming down the road. She raised her hand to flag them down and turned her head again to see Ravenger running into the field, disappearing from sight.

“How’d they know what happened?” Anna asked herself aloud.

“I called them.” She turned to see Nicole limping towards her, her hand over her head, and now Nicole had a large streak of red in her blonde hair now. Anna ran over to her and supported her as she began to lose her balance.

The vehicles came to a halt and the paramedics came and took Nicole from Anna and led her to the ambulance to treat her wounds. An officer came up to her.

“Are you alright, ma’am?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Anna said. “I’m fine.”

He took her by the shoulders and lead her to his squad car and set her down on the passenger seat and put a blanket around her shoulders. Usually she would shrug this off, but it actually made her feel secure and comforted.

Anna looked up to the sky and saw that the sun was beginning to peek through the clouds again, casting its light down upon her.

Then she knew that it was a reminder, a sign. A sign that He was always there. And always would be, no matter what, through the darkness and the light. She smiled and closed her eyes.

*I know You are, my Lord.*

### Chapter 9: Into the Darkness

The police made them file a report on the crash and what happened. Of course they had to lie, it was all they could do. Saying that Ravenger had attacked them would only raise more questions, like why he had targeted them, how had they escaped him, and how had they defeated him?

Lying would keep them safe… for now.

They had needed to take Nicole to the hospital to stitch her wound close, which was bleeding out. Matthew had come and made sure that they were both okay and safe now. Without thinking, she told him exactly what happened.

Although she had been expecting him to be mad, he was greatly relieved that Anna had been able to defeat him once again.

“I’m just happy you’re both alive,” he said.

“I am too,” Anna muttered.

They had gotten Anna’s car working again, which was good because she was going to have to drive Nicole around until she got a new car.

The deadline still grew steadily closer, and by this point only a few families had left the city, following Ravenger’s instructions. Anna couldn’t blame them. Ravenger was extremely imposing and utterly terrifying. If she didn’t have a duty, she’d probably leave, too.

But she did have a duty, a purpose; her duty was to stop Ravenger and save her city. She knew, however, that whenever she defeated him, it might be her last fight, and her last day on Earth.

She didn’t usually think about that, though. Anna wanted to think that she would win, that she would be victorious over him and defeat him once and for all.

Anna rode the elevator of her apartment building all the way to her floor. When the doors opened she stepped out and turned down the hall to where her apartment was and nearly dropped her bag when she saw who was standing next to her door. He looked up at her arrival and smiled.

“Hello, Anna.”

“Dad? What on Earth on you doing here?” She asked, still shocked.

“Matthew told me you had been attacked and I wanted to see if my little girl was okay,” her father, Mark Brail, walked towards her.

“I’m not your little girl anymore, dad. I’m nearly twenty-three,” Anna said, her annoyance growing more. “And I’ve been attacked a few times now, and you haven’t rushed into the main city for that.”

He came over and held her hand, and she allowed it, for now. “I’m glad you’re safe.” He noticed the mark on her temple and brushed it, but she moved away.

“Anna I know you’re still angry with me because I shut myself away after your mother died, and I’m truly sorry for that. It’s just that… that she was the love of my life, and losing her… losing her broke me.”

“Yeah I noticed,” Anna scoffed. “What do you really want?”

He sighed. “I want to help you.”

“Help me with what?”

“Defeating Ravenger.”

Anna almost laughed. “Well, unless you gained powers or something I don’t think you’d be much of a challenge for him.”

“Defeating someone is not all about the fighting, Anna,” he said. “Your mother and I have been trying to teach you that all your life.”

Anna rolled her eyes and stuck her key in the lock, turning it and opening the door. She quickly went in and tried to shut her father out, but he was too fast for her.

“I didn’t say you could come in.”

“I’m your father. You can’t tell me where I can and can’t go.”

Anna sighed and held her forehead in her hand. “Ah yes. I see we’re back to when I was ten to seventeen. Great.”

“Anna...”

“Dad if you want to help me; stay out of my way. Well out of my way.”

“That’s not why I’m here.”

“I honestly don’t care,” Anna crossed her arms. “I really, truly don’t.”

“Well that’s unfortunate,” he said, turning away.

Anna also turned away and suddenly a huge amount of pain shot through her body and she screamed before her vision blurred and her legs gave way.

She hit her wooden floor with a thud and when she rolled over to see Ravenger standing above her, bloodied knife in hand.

“I am the cure,” he said before everything went dark.

She shot upright in bed, clutching her sheets and sweat drenching her hair and face. She realized that it had been a dream mixed with reality. Her father had shown up at her doorstep, they had had that exchange, but it ended in him leaving, not Ravenger appearing and stabbing her in the back.

“What the heck…?”

Suddenly her phone rang next to her on the bedstand and the sudden noise piercing through the silence made her jump. She looked to she her phone lighting up and playing the sound of Lauren Daigle’s “How Can It Be”. She sighed and picked up the phone to see that it was Matthew calling.

Anna unlocked it and held it up to her ear. “Matthew you do know that it’s like one o’clock in the morning, right?”

“Anna I have something for you to see. Meet me at the location I’m going to text you at two o’clock.” He said over the phone.

“What is it?” Anna looked towards her wardrobe, mentally picking out a dress.

“It’s better if you just come and see. See you then.” And without any further words, he hung up.

She pulled her phone away from her ear and frowned at it. “Rude.”

Reluctantly, she dragged herself out of bed, took a quick shower and put on a dark-red dress with a leather jacket. She didn’t know what Matthew wanted her for, so she couldn’t wear her vigilante outfit. Although she couldn’t help but notice that this outfit was basically her vigilante one but with different colors.

So, she put on a few bracelets and rings to get rid of the resemblance.

After she was done getting dressed and her hair straight she picked up her phone and car keys and headed out the door and down into the parking garage and got into her car and pulled out her phone and saw that there was a text from Matthew.

“1963 Salem Street.”

She looked up the location in the city on her phone and set her GPS to that location, which was on the boarder of New Hampton, roared her engine into life, and drove off into the night.

Despite it being past midnight, the city of New Hampton was as bright as could be. There were people working night shifts, out in bars, or just people awake. It also helped keep crime down, or so she was told.

After about twenty-minutes worth of driving, she made it to her destination, which was a small, abandoned street on the outer edge of the city. She pulled up to a house that had the fading letters ‘1963’ on the mail box. In front of her car was Matthew’s, and behind it was another, which was odd.

She looked to the lawn and saw Matthew and two other figures standing there: Nicole and her father.

“Nonononononono,” Anna said as she pulled the keys from the ignition and got out of the car, storming towards them. “Why are they here, Matthew? What is this?”

“Calm down, Anna, I invited them to come too,” Matthew replied.

“Why?”

“Because we’re the only ones who know of your powers,” her father said.

“Yeah I’m slowly starting to regret telling you all that,” Anna muttered.

“You couldn’t have hid them from me, Anna,” her father said, stepping forward, having heard her. “I knew you since the moment when you were born, my dear, and the moment your powers manifested.”

“And you told us of your free will,” Nicole crossed her arms.

“Technically I showed you but sure.”

“It doesn’t matter now,” Matthew snapped. “I brought you all here for a reason.”

“And what reason would that be, Matt?” Anna crossed her arms and leaned on her back leg.

“I want to show you the home of Ravenger.”

The silence that engulfed them after Matthew said this sentence was unlike any silence that had been there before that night. The home of Ravenger? How could it be? How could he have found this?

“...What?” Anna said in utter disbelief. “How did you even find this?”

“Found some reports of seeing a dark, ‘demonic’ figure stalking through this street. Nobody else thought it could be Ravenger, but I figured it’d be worth a shot.”

“That’s quite a shot, Matthew,” Anna said, frowning.

“I agree with Anna, Matt,” Nicole replied. “That’s very much a stretch.”

“It’s better than nothing, you two,” Mark Brail said, stepping between them, bringing silence to both of them.

“Uh… thank you… Mark…” Matthew stuttered, surprised by this.

“No problem. Now let’s go,” he turned and walked towards the house.

Hesitantly, the three others walked across the lawn. The grass was long, crunchy and long-since dead, having had no one to take care of it.

“Guess Ravenger doesn’t know basic lawn maintenance,” Nicole said, trying to break the silence.

“He only knows how to kill people,” Anna muttered.

They came onto the porch and found that it was as good in condition as the lawn; the boards were rotted and a few of them had fallen into the dirt below the deck. A single rocking chair was on its side and was rotting as well.

The windows were boarded up and the paint on the siding had either faded away or had peeled up and fallen to the ground. They looked to the front door, which was a set of two: a screen door and a solid wooden one. The screen door hung open and swung in the wind, occasionally slamming into the siding, causing the paint that wasn’t on the ground to fall like snow.

Matthew tugged on the doorknob and found that it was locked well.

“I’ll have to kick it down,” he said, stepping back.

Anna rolled her eyes and stepped in front of the door. She raised both her hands in front of her and stepped one foot forward, thrusting her hands forward and sending a massive gust of air at the door. The air impacted and blasted the door off its hinges and into the house beyond.

“That works too,” he said as they walked into the house.

Matthew and Mark ignited torches while Anna and Nicole used the flashlights on their phones. The four of them walked around the house, looking for anything from Ravenger.

The house itself was pretty bare: a few chairs, a desk and a few sets of empty shelves. It was also filthy and was falling apart.

“I guess he didn’t keep nick-knacks,” Anna said aloud.

“Guys, over here!” Matthew called from the kitchen.

They dropped what they were doing and ran into the kitchen. This room was as much a mess as the rest of the house, only now a lot of the drawers were thrown onto the floor and the cabinets were hanging off their hinges.

What Matthew was looking, however, was a door that presumably led down into the basement.

“Oh great, a basement,” Anna sighed.

“There appears to be nothing of value up here,” Mark said, walking towards the door. “So this is our only option.”

His daughter was about to argue, but she thought better of it.

*Of course it is,* she thought to herself.

Without further hesitation, her father grabbed the door knob and opened the entrance into the darkness. They shone their lights down the passage to reveal a narrow staircase going down probably twelve feet. Dust fluttered through the air, illuminated by their torches.

“Let’s get to it then,” Nicole said.

“We’ll have to go down one at a time,” Matthew said, un-holstering his firearm and holding it up with his flashlight next to it. “I’ll lead the way.”

“Why didn’t you bring that out before?” Anna looked from him to the gun to him again.

“Because you were leading the charge last time,” he smiled.

She returned it, and then he began his descent down into the shadows. Anna followed, then Nicole, with Mark covering the rear. With each step they set foot on there was an eerie creak let out. Now with all four of them going down it sounded like several souls crying for help.

They reached the bottom and shone their flashlights around, their light cutting through the shadows. There were several work benches scattered around the room, with various tools and scrapes of wood lying either on them or on the floor.

“At this point I highly doubt he even lived here,” Nicole said, looking around. “I mean, there wasn’t even a bed upstairs. So why would have this place?”

Mark and Matthew nodded their agreement, but Anna was brushing along one of the walls.

“What is it, Anna?” Mark asked his daughter.

“A current,” Anna muttered.

They all walked over to her. “A current? How?” Matthew asked.

“I don’t know but...” She placed her hand on a spot in the stone and pushed. Suddenly a section of the wall slid inwards into darkness accompanied by several grinding and scratching noises.

The wall slid to about six feet away from them, leaving a four-foot thick barrier and two feet for them to squeeze through. Matthew walked forward, followed by Mark, then by Anna and then Nicole. They squeezed through the gap and into the other side.

“How did Ravenger even manage to fit through here?” Anna thought aloud.

“Maybe he works out,” Nicole said.

Anna found a light switch and flicked it. Suddenly several LED lights They came into a room that was almost like another world from the house behind them. This room was clean, had shining steel tables lining the walls, all littered with either maps, papers, or various weapons. There were also shelves above every table, snaking around the walls. Atop of them were even more weapons.

On a table situated directly in line with the door was a small laptop. Seeing as this was their field of expertise, Anna and Mark walked over to the laptop. They both butted shoulders as they tried to sit down in the chair in front of the laptop.

“What are you doing?” Anna asked her father.

“Going to hack into it. You?” he replied in response.

“I was going to hack it,”

“Anna I taught you everything you know. Just because you studied it at Salem doesn’t mean you know what you’re doing.”

“You know I do this for money, right?” Anna titled her head, her hair dangling down.

“As do I.”

Matthew rubbed his eyes and sighed. “Just hack the laptop.”

She and her father both exchanged looks before they opened the laptop together. To their surprise it was unlocked, the desktop screen the first thing to show.

“That’s… weird...” Anna stroked her hair back.

“So either he doesn’t know what a lockscreen is or he wants us to find this,” Mark said.

“Well he is running Windows 8, so...”

Her father opened the library directory and went to “documents”. There was barely anything in there. Three documents labeled “Untitled”, “Untitled (2)” and “Untitled (3).”

“Guess he doesn’t know how to name these things,” Anna muttered.

There was, however, one video. They all gathered around the laptop as Anna clicked on the video.

The file opened and showed a video of Ravenger looking into the camera, the very room they were in behind him.

“Hello, Anna Brail. If you are watching this that means you have found my fall house,” they looked at each other confused, and Ravenger seemed to smile at them. “Yes, this house was never a base of operations for me. Too exposed.

“However, I figured if I spread the story around that I did have one, then you would eventually show up here. Glad I told the right people. Thank you, Matthew,” he seemed to look right at him.

“Anyway, I’d love to keep talking, but you’re out of time. Goodbye, Anna Brail.”

Suddenly the picture cut and suddenly revealed a countdown timer, coming down from twenty seconds.

“Everybody out, now!” Matthew yelled.

None of them hesitated for a moment and bolted up the stairs single-file. Despite the fact they were now in the living room it seemed the countdown clock was imbedded in their brains, ticking down to their deaths…

Five.

They approached the front door.

Four.

Anna blasted the door open with her elemental abilities.

Three.

They ran across the deck, the boards falling away at their weight.

Two.

They dove into the dirt.

One.

Suddenly they were surrounded by a rushing wind.

Boom.

The entire house exploded in a massive fireball, going high and wide across the area, illuminating the darkness of night in a fiery orange. The sound clapped throughout the city like thunder. Debris fell everywhere in the street, all flaming.

Eventually the fires receded and everything was still, except for a swirling ball of air in front of where the house used to be. The ball slowed down before it broke apart and faded away, four figures standing where it had been, one with her arms out-stretched. She lowered them and they all looked towards the flaming wreck.

“He must be really desperate to kill you, Anna,” Nicole said.

“No kidding,” she muttered.

“You’re going to have to tell me why he hates you so much, Anna,” her father stepped up to her.

Matthew looked down the road. “We should get moving. They’ll be on us soon.”

They all nodded and headed towards the cars. Anna was about to duck into her car when her father opened the side door.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Coming with you,” he said.

“Yeah that’s not happening, dad.”

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t want you to.”

“I’m your father, Anna.”

“You’re just going to keep pushing that, aren’t you?” she looked him dead in the eyes.

“Until you decide to get it in your head! You’re not getting it that I care for you and I don’t want you to get yourself killed!”

Matthew and Nicole were watching from his car, looking at the scene.

Finally Anna caved. “Get in.”

“Thank you,” Mark said before ducking into the car. Matthew and Nicole exchanged looks of gratitude before ducking into his car and both cars started their engines before driving off into the night.

They had found the house. About time.

He had seen the flames rocket into the air. Half the city had. They would think that it was a terror attack, but really, it was just to get rid of some pests.

Of course, he didn’t actually know if Anna and her friends were dead, and he didn’t have time to check himself. They were almost ready for the invasion, and nothing was going to stop them.

“Sir we have confirmed detonation on the decoy house,” Marco said, walking into the room.

“I know, I saw it go up in flames,” he said, still staring out the window.

“We don’t know if the girl’s dead, though. The cops are combing the place, but we’ll find out if they recover a body.”

“I want to know as soon as they find one, Marco.”

“Yes sir,” the man said before turning and walking out of the room again.

“Nothing will stop me, not even you, Anna Brail, if you’re still out there,” he said through his respirator. “You’re already too late.”

### Chapter 10: The Desperate Hours

Two days since the explosion. Two days until the deadline.

The Mayor had said that they would not abandon the city, because they negotiate with terrorists, and the governor had supported this decision. However, if you wanted to leave the city for your safety and the safety of your family, that was fine.

They were also waiting for military support, due to arrive tomorrow, just in time for the invasion. She was staying, of course, and so were Nicole, Matthew and her father, even though she dreaded it.

The day was coming soon.

Anna had upped her patrol of the city to nearly every day to keep tabs on the gang activity. She added a hood to her outfit by wearing a gray hoodie under jacket, just to keep herself hidden. Honestly she didn’t know why she hadn’t done this before.

Now she was truly a shadow in the night.

Preparations continued as she walked down the street. Extra locks were put on doors, windows were boarded up, and mail slots were blocked.

She herself had added a few more locks to her door and balcony, and had added grates in front of her windows. She didn’t want to have to have them replaced once again.

The police had upped their daily patrols of the city as well. You couldn’t walk down the street without one passing you.

She arrived at her apartment building and went through the doors into the lobby. As she came in a family of four that lived a few doors down from hers were hurrying out with several bags packed. Anna turned and watched them leave, the father grabbing the youngest child’s hand, assuring her that everything would be alright.

Anna turned back and walked into the elevator and pressed floor four, leaning against the wall as it began to ascend. She inhaled and exhaled deeply. The world was going mad. Absolutely mad.

Why did Ravenger want this city so much? He said he wanted it to be his kingdom, and he acted like it was his birth right to have a kingdom. Why?

The elevator dinged as she reached her floor and she stepped out and began walking to her apartment, pulling out her keychain as she went. She reached her door and unlocked the several bolts she had installed the day previous. She didn’t want anyone breaking in if her building was raided.

Anna stepped into her apartment and locked the door again behind her. She then threw her keys onto her kitchen table and took a seat, holding her head between her hands. She was sick of it, sick of it all. Constantly being attacked, either by Ravenger or his goons, and almost dying every time. She was done with it.

But the job wasn’t finished. Ravenger wasn’t gone. She wouldn’t stop, couldn’t stop, until he was defeated. And even if it cost her her life, she would get it done.

She was suddenly startled by a rapping on her door. Anna jerked up and looked at her white wooden door and got up and walked over to it, looking through the peephole to see Nicole standing there.

Relieved, Anna unlocked the door and opened it to let Nicole in. After she got in, she looked Anna in the eyes.

“We have a problem,” she said, her expression a cross between worried and terrified.

“What? What is it?” Anna asked, her expression taking a worried appearance.

Nicole went walked over to Anna’s living room and grabbed the TV remote and switched it on to New Hampton 7, the bigger news station than the Daily Post and current replacement. The screen showed a destroyed bridge, a massive chasm in the middle, leaving an expanse that was uncrossable.

A female news caster voiced over the scene. “The four major bridges connecting New Hampton to the outside world have been destroyed in a massive explosion, presumably by terrorists, cutting off the military reinforcements due tomorrow. This also cuts off anyone from leaving the city, trapping everyone inside.”

“Couldn’t they just go through the mountain passages?” Anna turned to Nicole, who glanced at her and then back to the TV, and she followed.

“The mountain tunnels have also caved it, but there is suspected to foul play involved. Now that there is no way in or out of the city, stay locked in your homes as the invasion begins tomorrow, and do not leave until the situation is handled.”

“This is insane! First he wants everyone to leave the city and then he locks us all in!” Anna responded to the news

“The Mayor saying that they would not leave probably pushed this,” Nicole said.

“So what do we do now?” Anna turned to her life-long friend.

“I… don’t know,” Nicole sat down in one of Anna’s chairs, and her friend sat on the couch. “Matthew said he isn’t going to be able to leave the police station now. I’ve locked my door up as well, and your father...”

“What about my dad?”

“He offered you and I residence at his house until this all blows over.”

Anna laughed loudly. “He must be going crazy if he thinks I’d stay at his house.”

“Well I’m going,” Nicole crossed her legs.

“This isn’t like when we were kids, Nicole!” Anna snapped. “We’re not having a sleepover. There’s going to be a war!”

“And in wars you take shelter! And your father is offering that shelter!” Nicole stood up, quickly followed by Anna.

“I don’t need to take shelter! I need to stand up and fight this lunatic before it’s too late!”

“Why are you always like this, Anna? Why do you always have to argue with everyone?”

Anna seemed to lose her words at this. “I… uh… I…”

Nicole chuckled. “You don’t know. So why do you do it?”

“Is the Police force ready for the invasion now that we’re not getting military support?”

“They’re as ready as they can be, sir.”

“Good, because we’re all going to be dead if they’re not.”

“Yes sir.”

“Make sure everyone is in their homes tonight as well. I don’t want any civilian casualties.”

“Of course, mister Mayor,” he said before falling back from the security detail and going his own way, two of the guards following him as he did.

The Mayor and his guards entered the doors to his office and he took his seat behind his desk, slumping into his chair and holding his forehead in his hand. It felt as though the weight of the world was upon his shoulders.

“Are you alright, mister Mayor?” one of his advisers asked.

“I’m fine,” he tried his best to smile.

“Okay, sir.”

“Any news of Ravenger?” the Mayor asked his advisers.

“None yet, sir,” one, a woman with brown hair tied into a pony-tail said.

“And what of the vigilante, ‘Breeze’?”

“She has been spotted occasionally, but she must use the cover of night for her movements,” she answered again.

“She’ll resurface for the invasion, I know it,” he folded his fingers.

“Don’t we want to catch the vigilante, sir?” another of his advisers, a man in his forties with square glasses asked.

“No,” the Mayor said firmly. “If we’re going to win this, we need all the help we can get.”

“Of course, mister Mayor,” he said.

“Is the building fully ready for the invasion?”

“Of course it is, sir,” the woman said again.

“Then let’s get ready for an invasion,” he said grimly.

“Today is the day, gentlemen,” he addressed them assembled. “Today is the day we take this city and make it our kingdom.”

“Yes sir!” the assembled cried out together, except for one, a boy, no older than nineteen. He just stood there, not saying anything.

Unfortunately, Ravenger noticed. “What is the problem, son? Do you not wish to be part of this kingdom?”

“This just... isn’t what I signed up for,” he said shyly.

Marco sighed and closed his eyes.

“I will take that as a no, then,” Ravenger said before lowered his head. Suddenly he looked up again and his arm followed, a pistol clutched in his hand. The shot rang out and suddenly the boy fell to the ground, dead.

“There will be no hesitation in my kingdom!” he yelled to the others. “No reluctance, no questioning of my orders!”

“Yes sir!” the cry came out stronger than it did the last time.

“If we are to rule, then we must work together under my rule. As Abraham Lincoln once said ‘a house divided against itself cannot stand’. That is what will happen to us if we do not follow through with my plans.”

“Yes sir!”

“We will bring this city to its knees.”

“I can’t go to my dad’s, anyway,” Anna said, walking around her apartment. “I have to stay here to defend the city.”

“No you don’t. You’ve given this city more than your fair-share,” Nicole replied. “You nearly died defending this city, and you don’t owe it anymore.”

“I haven’t given it enough yet,” Anna looked her friend in the eye.

“What will be enough, Anna? How much more blood are you willing to give?”

“All of it.”

“What has this city done for you that you’d give away your life for it?”

“It’s given me a purpose,” Anna said.

“Anna there’s bound to be more to your life than fighting some lunatic! You were given your powers for a reason!”

“And this is the reason, Nicole! This is why God gave me these powers!”

“No. You’re destined for something great, and it’s not this. It can’t be.”

“Well that’s all I’m seeing right now.”

“You’re so-,” Nicole began when there was a knock on the door. They both looked at each other and then walked to the door, Nicole looking through the peephole. She suddenly unlocked her door and swung it open, despite Anna’s protests to reveal Mark Brail standing there.

“Hello Mr. Brail!” Nicole said, giving him a hug.

“Hello Nicole!” he returned it. Anna said nothing during this.

“I thought I was going to meet you at your house?”

“Well I knew you were going to have a hard time convincing Anna to come with you,” he looked at his daughter over his spectacles. “Isn’t that right, sweetheart?”

Anna just stood there with her arms crossed. “Yeah.”

“So, what’s wrong, my dear?”

“I have to protect this city. I have no other choice.”

“I was just telling her that she didn’t need to,” Nicole said.

“Well, actually, Anna might be right,” this took both Anna and Nicole by surprise.

“What?” they both said.

“Your mother always believed you were meant to save the city. So do I.”

“Wait wait wait,” Anna closed her eyes, shook her head and waved her arm in front of her. “The other day you were saying that you didn’t approve of what I was doing. Now you’re approving of it?”

“I’m not approving of it, but it’s what your mother would want. She knew you were destined for something great. And here it is.”

“So, after all these years, you’re agreeing with mom?”

“I guess so.”

“Oh my, it really is the endtimes,” Nicole sighed.

Anna was about to respond when they were all distracted by something on the news.

“’This just in: we have a received an anonymous tip that the mysterious vigilante known as ‘Breeze’ is Anna Brail, a computer technician at the Daily Post. It has not been confirmed that she is the vigilante, but she has been charged as a vigilante in the past but was relieved of those charges. The police are currently investigating her as we speak.’”

“That-,” Anna began but was cut off by her father.

“You need to get out of here right now,” he said, grabbing her and bringing her towards the doors that led out onto the balcony while Nicole ran into Anna’s bedroom.

“What? No!” she protested. “I need to talk my way out of this.”

“If you want to save the city, you can’t do it from behind bars. You have to go.”

“Your dad’s right, Anna,” Nicole said, returning and carrying a black bag. “And you’re going to need this.”

She handed her the bag and Anna unzipped it to see her vigilante clothes in it.

“Thank you, Nicole,” Anna said, tears forming in her eyes.

“Now go!” Nicole pointed towards the doors.

The black-haired girl nodded and unlocked her door and swung it open and went out onto the balcony. She looked over the railing to see three cop cars parked outside the building, several cops running in through the lobby doors below.

Anna looked up and saw the next floor up’s balcony and used her powers to propel herself upwards and caught onto it and used it to continue going upwards. She grabbed onto the sixth floor’s, and then the seventh’s, and then…

She landed on the gravel-covered roof and rolled across it. Anna came to a halt and slowly got up, her limbs acing.

“I hope I never have to do that again,” she winced, holding her side.

Anna slowly walked over to the side of the roof and found the catwalk. She jumped down and landed on the highest level and began walking down. This was down the alleyway on the side of the building where she could make her escape. She also had to change somewhere along the way.

The bottom ladder of the catwalk had fallen off years ago which left a fifteen-foot drop. She braced herself and jumped down, bending the air around her to make a cushion. Anna got up, looked up and down the alley, and disappeared into the darkness.

“Anna Brail? This is the NHPD, open up!” the voice on the other side of the door said before continuing to pound on her door.

Mark and Nicole looked at each other uneasily before Mark went over to the door and opened it before several officers flooded in and pinned him and blond-haired girl to the ground. She struggled against them, and so did Mark.

“What the heck are you doing?” Nicole screamed as they wrestled handcuffs onto her and Mark.

“You are under arrest for aiding the criminal Anna Brail,” the officer said, finally getting the handcuffs around her wrists.

“We just came to her apartment to wait for her! We didn’t know she was a criminal until now!” Nicole protested.

“How’d you get in?” the officer asked.

“We had a key, obviously,” Mark said.

“Identify yourselves,” he ordered.

“I’m Nicole Weaver and he’s-” she looked at him and he nodded. “-Mark Brail.”

“Are you related to Anna Brail in any way?” the officer asked the man being pinned down by another.

“I’m her father obviously,” he said with a large hint of snark.

“Take these two down to the station for questioning,” he said too two officers, who nodded. “The rest of us will search the apartment.”

“You can’t do any of this without a warrant, you know,” Nicole yelled as they dragged them towards the door.

The officer produced a document from his coat pocket and a smirk appeared on his face. “Is this what you’re looking for?”

Nicole snarled as they were dragged out the door.

She stuck to the alleyways, having pulled her black hoodie out of her bag and put it on, keeping the hood up. Admittedly that did make her look a little more suspicious, but it also hid her. It had its ups and downs, really.

Anna quickly crossed the street just before another police car drove past. Since they didn’t find her at her apartment, they were probably sweeping the city for her. They had also probably arrested her father and Nicole, which she felt bad about, actually. They had used themselves as a distraction so she could get away. Anna didn’t know how to repay them.

Suddenly she heard something click behind her and a voice after it.

“Hands up. Now!” the voice barked.

*Darn,* she thought.

Anna did as she was told and raised her hands above her head.

“Now turn around,” the voice said.

Mumbling under her breath, she turned around, keeping her face shrouded in the shadow of her hood. Standing before her, gun in hand, was a police officer. He was probably about twenty-five or so.

“Show me your face!” he said, sweating beading on his forehead.

Letting out a deep sigh, she lifted her head and revealed her face to the light. The officer’s grip on his gun tightened significantly once she did so. His hands were also trembling as they tightened.

“Anna Brail… you are under arrest. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided to you by the state...”

“Yeah…” she said. “Been there done that. And I’m sorry.”

“Sorry about what?” the officer’s hands began to tremble more.

“This.”

She thrust her hands forward and sent a massive gust of air at the officer. It hit him, knocking his hat off and sending him flying backwards across the alley. He soared into one of the walls and into some trashbags and rolled onto the ground, knocked out and his gun falling several feet from him.

Anna came over to him and leaned over the officer. “I’m so sorry. I know you were just doing your job.”

She stood up, looked up and down the alleyway, and ran into the setting darkness once more.

“Everything is ready, sir,” Marco said, coming up next to the dark figure.

“Good,” he replied through his respirator. “I will be there in a moment.”

“Ye sir,” Marco said before turning and leaving the room again.

“At long last,” Ravenger said now that he was alone. “I will have the kingdom that was stolen from me. I will be the rightful ruler that I am meant to be. They will see that it was their mistake that they cast me out all those years ago. All those years ago...”

He left the table and walked towards the doorway. He stepped into the threshold and turned back towards the room and switched off the light switch, plunging the room fell into darkness.

Ravenger entered the main room of the warehouse, which was massive and filled with men, crates, tables with various weapons on them and several armored vehicles. All the men turned to look at him as he stepped into the warehouse, all at attention.

“When I was boy, oh, it’s been so long now, I don’t remember anymore. I grew up in a small country on the continent of Asia, somewhere near Russia where I was the prince to the kingdom along with my brother. I was the heir to the throne and was to take it was my father… passed.

“I was about to take the throne when my very family turned on me and cast me out of the kingdom and took the throne for themselves. I was forced to wander the world for the rest of my life, training, and eventually, having this done to myself.”

Lightning began to crackle in his hand before disappearing.

“Although, it did have it’s side-affects,” he indicated his respirator.

“But it was all in hope of regaining my kingdom. But I realized that I could build my own kingdom, and I set throughout the great land of America for a kingdom, but they all failed, until I arrived here.

“Today, my friends, we will build my kingdom, and we will rule the way we want to rule, without anyone oppressing us or standing in our way.”

There was an uproar of applause and cheers from the assembled. He smiled behind his mask.

“Now, let’s go build our kingdom.”

### Chapter 11: Set the World on Fire

The last flickers of light disappeared over the horizon, the darkness surrounding the city of New Hampton. The only thing keeping the shadows at bay was the light coming from within the city.

All was silent except for the occasional hum of a police car’s engine as it drove by. Everyone was locked in their homes, lights out.

It was tonight. The night of the invasion.

Obviously they hadn’t met Ravenger’s demands, and why would they? They didn’t surrender to terrorists.

They did take the threat literally, however, and requested that the United States Military came to assist them in their fight. Earlier that day, however, the bridges to the city were destroyed, cutting them off.

Now they were on their own against this terrorist, and they didn’t know if they were going to be able to stop him.

She had managed to find a place to change out of her purple dress and into her vigilante clothes, and just in time for the invasion. Probably.

It was soon, and she had to be ready for it.

Anna jumped from roof-top to roof-top, running across them aided by her elemental powers. She had to get to the Capitol building, because that was the mostly likely place for them to attack if they wanted to take over the city.

*She just hoped she could get there in time.*

Suddenly she skidded to a halt on one of the rooftops at the sound of gunfire in the street below. She ducked down against the ledge and looked over to see dozens of gangsters running down the street, guns in hand and several firing off shots.

But the main attraction of the sight was a large armored vehicle with a sentry on the top, armed and ready.

On the other end of the street several squad cars skidded to a halt, a few dozen officers jumping out of the vehicles the second they stopped and pointed their guns at the gangsters.

“Stop and drop your weapons, now!” a voice boomed out from a megaphone, whom she instantly recognized as Jason Negata, the negotiator from the Daily Post incident.

But the gangsters continued on at the police, with no sign of stopping.

“Stop!” He yelled before a bullet hit him in the shoulder and tossed him to the ground.

That was all the motive the officers needed to open fire on their attackers. Bullets were suddenly flying through the air in both directions, both sides taking hits, but that wouldn’t stop them. A gangster began to operate the sentry on top of the armored vehicle and opened fire on the officers. Bullets caused sparks as they hit the pavement in an attempt to kill the officers.

She flipped up her hood and readied to jump down to assist the officers when she was knocked to the ground from behind. Anna hit the gravel and rolled over to see a man in a black suit and glasses standing over her, gun in hand.

“Why, hello dear,” he smirked.

“Who are you?” Anna asked, staring down the barrel of the gun.

“The person who’s going to kill you, of course.”

“Yeah no.”

She kicked upwards and sent him across the roof with a gust of air. He landed on the gravel and rolled to a stop. The man got back up as Anna ran at him and knocked him back down again. The impact caused his gun to go off and the bullet tore through the air and grazed the woman’s arm.

“Argh!” she screamed in pain.

She flipped in the air and thrust her hands forward and unleashed a massive gust of wind at the man and sent him flying off the roof and down the alley into a dumpster, knocking him out.

Unfortunately, some of the gangsters had noticed what was happening and began firing upon her, where she ducked behind the ledge as the bullets hit the concrete.

She quickly crawled out of the way as the bullets began to chip away at her hiding space. In a daring move she ran forward as bullets flew around her and jumped off into the street on the other side.

Anna cushioned her fall with her powers and looked around to see more gangsters coming down the street.

“How many of these guys are there?” she muttered to herself before running across the street into an alley.

The alley was a maze and she hoped she could lose them, but they were hot on her heels. She ducked around a corner and caught her breath, closing her eyes and listening. They had entered the alley and were now slowly searching for her.

“Come on out, little girl...” she heard one say before he cocked his gun.

They were just down the alleyway now. She could hear their every step, every breath. Anna inhaled and exhaled, her eyes still shut.

She exhaled, opened her eyes, and moved.

Anna turned around the corner and looked her attackers dead in the eyes, which all jumped at her sudden arrival. A streetlamp hung overhead, illuminating them all in an orange glow. She counted that there were about eight of them, which wouldn’t be terribly difficult to take. But they all had guns, so that would be an issue.

“Hey fellas. What’s happening?” she tried to smile.

They all raised their guns on her and opened fire. She shot up into the air and they tried to follow her but the woman was too fast for them and landed in the midst of them and quickly knocked most of their guns from their hands.

One threw his fist out at her but she dodged and pushed him into another gangster, sending them into a wall. She kicked one in the knee and heard a loud *crack* as she did so. He fell to the ground wailing in pain.

Anna shot a gust of air at one and threw him down the alleyway. One suddenly grabbed her from behind and threw her into one of the walls. She fell to the ground, her head spinning and her vision blurring.

They then began to kick her, leaving red marks wherever they hit. She covered her face with her hands and they paid the price.

“How do you like us now?!” one of them said, not even trying to cover his smugness.

Gathering her strength, she thrust her hands out in a wide-swept-motion an unleashed a massive gust of air and send them flying into the opposite wall where they actually left dents in the brick.

Anna flipped up and held her wounds, bruises sure to appear later. Suddenly two of the attackers got up and charged at her. She managed to get out of the way of one but the other grabbed onto her and began to drag her down, but she flipped him over on his back and launched him high into the air with her powers and sent him crashing back down again, knocking him out cold.

The other had grabbed one of the guns laying on the ground and aimed it at the girl. She turned around just as he pulled the trigger and opened fire. She jumped out of the way as the bullets flew over her and realized that she was going to get hit unless she did something.

She threw her hand out and controlled the air inside the barrel, blocking it from coming out and pushed it back in. Suddenly the gun exploded in the gangster’s face and he fell to the ground, his face dark and bleeding.

Anna looked around at her handiwork and quickly flipped her hood back up and disappeared into the shadows.

He thought the station was crazy before the invasion.

Matthew Weaver was nearly knocked over as he ran over to his sister Nicole and Mark Brail as they were being brought into the station by a sergeant. They were handcuffed and Nicole looked scared as all heck.

“What’s going on here, sergeant?” Matthew asked, looking from his sister and Anna’s father to the officer.

“They’re involved with Brail and are suspects in her crimes,” the officer said proudly.

“Do you even know who this is?” Matthew pointed to Nicole.

“She said her name was Nicole Weaver.”

“And do you know my name?”

“Well you’re a detective. So… uh?”

“I’m Mathew Weaver. This is my sister,” he said, his rage slowly boiling over.

He smiled. “Well then, that’d be quite the scandal.”

Suddenly Matthew snapped and grabbed the officer by the lapel and pinned him against the wall, causing all the commotion in the place to stop as everyone turned to look at them.

“Nicole is not a criminal! Mark is not a criminal! Anna Brail is not a criminal!” he yelled, the sergeant looking in fear.

“Detective!” a loud voice of authority rung out through the station.

Matthew looked over his shoulder to see the Chief of Police walking towards them. He was an aged man, at least sixty years old, with graying hair, thick spectacles, and fair, wrinkling skin.

“What are you doing?! We are at war outside and we need to focus on stopping that instead of fighting each other!” he came up to them.

“Yes… yes sir… I’m sorry...” Matthew said, letting the officer go. He was turning to walk away when the sergeant slung his hand and struck him in the face, knocking him to the ground. Nicole then kicked him in the back of the leg, making his knee buckle. He quickly recovered and slapped her in the face, knocking her also to the floor.

The chief, out of nowhere, suddenly slammed his fist into the sergeant’s face, a loud snapping sound erupting before he fell away, his noise deformed and bleeding.

“Put him in lockup,” he said to a nearby officer, and she quickly slapped a pair of handcuffs on him and she and another officer dragged the sergeant towards the holding cells.

“Detective, you say that this woman is your sister?” the Chief then asked Matthew as he helped Nicole up.

“Yes sir,” he replied as he set her down on a bench.

“Do you know if she’s innocent?”

“Absolutely.”

The man let out a loud sigh. “I’ve always trusted your judgment, Matthew. And this man is also innocent?”

“Yes.”

“Get the handcuffs off them,” he said. “But we’ll be keeping an eye on them, and we’ll be keeping hold on the Brail girl’s apartment until all this insanity is sorted out.”

“Yes sir,” Matthew said before pulling out a key and unlocked Nicole and Mark’s handcuffs, taking them off and storing them in his belt. They rubbed their wrists in relief.

“Alright. All of you,” the Chief turned to the assembled. “Several shootouts have already occurred between officers and members of the various gangs. Now both sides have taken casualties, and we need to get out there before there is anymore blood shed. Is that clear?”

“Yes sir!” resounded from all officers in the room.

“Come on, Matthew,” the Chief said. “You’re riding with me.”

“It’s complete chaos out there,” the Mayor muttered to himself as he overlooked the chaos from his office window.

“Sir, we have to go,” one of his advisers, a woman, said. “Now.”

“Of course,” the Mayor said before turning away and followed his aid out of the room. They got into the elevator surrounded by several armed guards and officers. The elevator descended down towards the lobby, the gentle hum of the machine putting them all on edge.

They finally stopped on the lobby and quickly ran out.

“The car is waiting just outside, sir!” one of the officers said.

The Mayor looked out through the lobby windows and saw something massive speeding towards them. “Uh, what’s that?”

They all stopped and looked to the large armored vehicle speeding towards them as it opened fire.

“Open fire!” one of the officers yelled before dozens of bullets whizzed over his head.

The sentry on top of the was blazing like it had caught fire as bullets flew from it. The windows of the squad cars shattered on impact and glass fragments flew all over the place.

One of the officers looked up and saw that the vehicle had no intention of stopping at the barricade of squad cars.

“Get out of the way!” he yelled to his colleagues.

They all managed to jump out of the way before the armored vehicle slammed through the squad cars, a massive fireball exploding on impact. The vehicle disappeared into the flames briefly before reemerging on the other side, fire streaking behind it.

It rolled up the steps of the capitol before coming to a halt on the second flight. Suddenly the back doors flew open and several armed figures poured out, followed by a tall dark being wielding a strange rifle-like weapon.

The officers recovered themselves and pointed their guns at the attackers and opened fire. A few gangsters were hit and fell to the ground dead, but Ravenger unleashed a massive bolt of lightning and it struck between all the officers, blasting them away where they fell to the ground and were knocked unconscious.

“Come on, we have to meet the Mayor,” Ravenger said before turning away towards the building, his soldiers following.

Inside the Mayor and his guards got up and saw the group coming towards the front doors. Instantly the security guards and officers unholstered their weapons and pointed them at the group on the other side of the glass.

“He’s here,” the Mayor muttered under his breath.

Two of the gangsters opened the doors and the dark form of Ravenger stepped through, his long trench coat jumping behind him as his legs hit it. The other gangsters came in after him, their guns pointed at the group.

The guards and officers didn’t tell the gangsters to drop their weapons or surrender and just opened fire on them. Several fell before the gangsters reacted and began to unleash bullets upon them. The Mayor and his aid ducked down as his entire security force fell to the floor dead.

The gunfire died away and the Mayor uncovered his head to see the various dead bodies that littered the floor around him. Blood stood in puddles on the marble. He looked up and saw Ravenger stalking towards him.

The Mayor looked over and saw a gun laying loose on the ground. He dove for it but was suddenly blasted with lightning, being thrown across the lobby and rolling to a stop in a puddle of blood.

His aid picked up the gun and pointed it at Ravenger and shot him several times in the chest, but it did nothing except punch holes in his clothes.

He looked down and chuckled. “Sorry, little girl.”

Ravenger held up a gun and fired a single shot, and a second later his aid fell to the ground, blood beginning to pool around her dead, lifeless body.

“You monster,” the Mayor spat. “You absolute monster.”

“It is an honor, mister mayor,” Ravenger smiled behind his respirator.

She peeked out from the alleyway’s opening, looking both ways before running out into the abandoned street. Several cars lay either flipped over or crashed into something else, fires blazing from several of them.

Anna ran around several shards of glass lying on the ground, not wanting to make a lot of noise. She knew there were still gangsters in the area, and cops as well, and she didn’t want to be caught by either party. The difference between the two was that one would arrest her, and the other would kill her on the spot.

Suddenly one of the warehouses ahead of her exploded before several gangsters came out from the flames, firing after them. About half a dozen officers emerged after them returning fire, their clothes scorched from the blast.

Making sure her hood was up, she ran forward, jumped over one of the crashed cars and landed in a front stance and thrust her hands forward and a massive wind shot out and knocked the gangsters off their feet.

The officers took advantage of this and shot the gangsters, either wounding or killing them. They then turned to the hooded figure.

She totally expected going to have to fight her way out of it, but instead they nodded and went to check on the wounded gangsters.

Anna turned around to leave when another explosion rung out a few streets over. And then another, and another.

“He’s set the world on fire,” Anna muttered to himself.

Suddenly the officer’s radios buzzed on and a voice came through the other side. “The capitol building has been attacked! Officers, security and civilians down. Mayor captured. Converge on capitol!”

The officers looked from each other to the gangsters and ran off down the street. Anna watched them go and then launched herself onto the roof of one of the buildings that lined the street and ran across it towards the capitol.

“It had always been my dream to stand in this room, on top of the city,” Ravenger said as he walked around the Mayor’s office as he was held at gunpoint in one of the chairs.

“And how many cities have you tried this on?” the Mayor sneered.

“Too many. People are… resistant,” he said.

“Gee, I wonder why,” the Mayor said sarcastically.

“New Hampton was a challenge, yes,” Ravenger ignored him. “But the challenge only amplifies its worth.”

“Alright, so you captured me. Now what?”

“You declare your loyalty to me and step down as mayor of this city.”

“You must be joking!” the Mayor laughed.

Ravenger quickly picked him up by the neck a few feet from the ground and held up his other hand, electricity crackling within. “Oh, but you will.”

He turned to the gangsters in the room, the Mayor still dangling in his hand.

“Get a broadcast ready.”

They drove around another flaming car in the middle of the road, its windows burst and paint chipping away.

“City’s going to heck, isn’t it, Chief?” Matthew said as they drove past it.

“It sure is indeed, Detective.”

Suddenly the radio buzzed into life and Matthew quickly picked it up. “Yes, what is it?”

“*A broadcast is going out from city hall. I’ll patch you through,*” the officer on the other side said.

“Alright, thank you, officer.”

The radio cut out and then cut back in, they heard something like electricity crackling on the other side. Suddenly the unmistakeable deep voice of Ravenger came through.

“*Good evening, citizens of New Hampton. You know me as Ravenger, but now you will only acknowledge as your king.*”

In the New Hampton Police Station, Nicole, Mark and the remaining officers watched the terrorist’s address on one of the television screens. As they watched, Nicole pulled out her phone and quickly texted something.

Across the city a figure wearing a hood and a dress skidded to a halt on a rooftop as her phone buzzed in her pocket. She pulled it out and lit up the screen to see that she had a new message.

Anna opened it and saw that it was a text from Nicole.

*Find a TV. Now.*

She rolled her eyes. “That’s very specific,” she said sarcastically.

Another text came in, almost like a response to what she had just said.

*Ravenger’s taken city hall. He’s making a broadcast.*

Anna quickly shoved her phone back into her pocket and looked down into the street and saw a television shop with all it’s TVs on in the front.

She quickly jumped off the roof and used her abilities to soften her fall and she quickly ran across the street to the shop and saw Ravenger standing in the Mayor’s office with the Mayor himself held in his hand, electricity crackling around him.

“*...and Franklin Wilkes here, your* honorable *Mayor, has handed the city over to me. I’m glad he did, because I really didn’t want to shed anymore blood to finally get my throne. You see, back when I was a boy, I was destined for a kingdom of my very own. But, I was betrayed and thrown out. So I wandered the world, learning different customs and disciplines, but always dreaming of my kingdom.*

“*Now, your city of New Hampton will finally become my kingdom. At long last I will have my birthright. But first, I need you to hear your Mayor hand your fair city over to me and for the Police Officers to stand down. Mister Mayor?*” Ravenger turned his head towards his captive.

At first Mayor Wilkes said nothing, but then the terrorist’s grip seemed to tighten and electricity shot through the man’s body and caused him to shake.

“*I han-hand over the city of New Hampton-ton to Ravenger. I order all officers to stand down.*” he struggled to say.

Ravenger seemed to smile behind his mask and loosened his grip and the Mayor dropped to the ground, gasping.

“*Now, welcome to my kingdom, citizens of New Hampton. My reign begins now.*”

Suddenly the feed cut out and the screens went black.

A boiling rage overtook and Anna punched to her left and unleashed a massive gust of wind from her fist and launched a nearby overturned car into the air and then it crashed back onto the ground and the windows shattered.

“No… no… I failed… he won...” she muttered to herself as she felt to her knees on the pavement.

*But it’s not over yet.*

*You can still stop him. You can still defeat him.*

She looked up and saw the moon shining down upon her and got up and looked down the street, where she could make out city hall in the distance.

Taking a deep breath, she ran forward, air trailing behind her, and readied for her final confrontation with Ravenger.

### Chapter 12: Worth it All

“I’d like to congratulate you, mister Mayor,” Ravenger said as he approached the crippled form of Mayor Franklin Wilkes on the floor. “You’ve done a mighty service to my kingdom.”

“You… you’re a monster… they’ll never follow you. They’ll fight against you, even if I can’t...”

Ravenger let out a laugh. “Oh, they will, especially Anna Brail.”

“I always knew that girl was good. You just used her as a pawn in your game.”

“That is true, but it was totally worth it,” he smiled.

“I really hope she beats you,” Wilkes spat.

The dark figure stood up. “Oh, we’ll see about that.”

He then walked out of the room, leaving the Mayor on the ground with three guns trained on him.

“What do we do now, Chief?” Matthew asked as the broadcast cut out.

“Well, I, for one, am not standing down,” the chief said sternly. “How about you?”

“Never.”

“Good. Despite now breaking the law, I don’t really care. Ravenger needs to go down.”

“I can agree with you on that, Chief,” Matthew said in response.

Suddenly the Chief slammed on the breaks and they skidded to a halt. They looked ahead of them and saw several gangsters blocking off the road and pointing their assault rifles at the two officers. The Chief and Detective pulled out their guns and readied them.

One of them, presumably the leader, walked over to them and tapped on the Chief of Police’s window, telling them to roll it down. He obliged.

“So,” the gangster began. “What’re you doing here?”

“Do you want a lie or the truth?” the Chief said, staring into the gangster’s eyes.

“Oh, you’re a funny one!” he laughed to his comrades. “I don’t like funny cops.”

“And I don’t like gangsters.”

“Anyway,” he cut to the chase. “You do know that you guys are supposed to surrender to us now that the new king is in charge now, right?”

“Oh, I guess we missed the memo,” the Chief responded, and Matthew saw his grip on the gun tighten.

“Well, we’re going to have to take you into custody, as we are the new law enforcement in this city,” the gangster lifted his gun again.

“We’re sorry, but that’s not going to happen,” the Chief said.

Suddenly he raised his gun and a shot rang out from the car and the gangster fell to the ground, a hole in his stomach. The other gangsters reacted instantly and opened fire on the car. Matthew ducked down as bullets pelted the windshield, several cracks appearing in the reinforced glass. The Chief didn’t hesitate for a second, quickly rolling up his window he took the wheel and sped forward at the gangsters.

The gangsters didn’t have enough to react and several of them were hit by the squad car and thrown over onto the pavement. One’s body hit the windshield and shattered it as the bullets had weakened it. The broken glass flew at the two and cut them a few times. The gangster rolled over the car and fell onto the street behind them.

“That was a gutsy move, Chief,” Matthew said, shocked, looking back. “I dig.”

“Hopefully it’s not our last one,” the Chief replied, dodging around another abandoned car in the street.

“I think Anna got the message,” Nicole said, getting up from her chair and beginning to walk, Mark following.

“So now what? What is she going to do?”

“Well, knowing Anna, she’s going to go and fight Ravenger again.”

“I guess that’s my girl,” Mark smiled.

“Although I never admit it to her, she is very capable of this. She saved those S.W.A.T. officers in the Daily Post, so I have faith in her,” Nicole said.

“Hopefully she can overcome him and save this city.”

“Me too.”

A voice came from behind them. “Hey! Where are you two going?”

They turned around and saw an officer coming towards them.

“Oh, just going for a walk. You know how it is,” Mark improvised.

“Well the Chief wants you to stay within our sight at all times. Understood?”

“Crystal-clear, sir,” Nicole slid her phone into her pocket.

“Alright. Come back this way now,” he directed them towards the main room. They nodded and fell in line in front of the officer as they walked.

Suddenly the windows shattered as bullets sprayed in from the outside. They instantly dove to the ground and Mark covered Nicole’s head as glass rained down upon them. The officer also managed to get down, but not before a bullet grazed his shoulder.

The bullets hit the station’s walls and the paper on the desks, sending fragments of them into the air as well, creating complete and utter chaos in the station.

The attack suddenly stopped and they heard shouts from both inside the station and outside. Gangsters then burst into the station and opened fire on the assembled officers. They ducked down under cover and then returned fire.

Nicole and Mark got up but still ducked down and ran towards the back door of the building. They weren’t going to survive this fight unless they got out of it.

But as they approached the door it opened and five gangsters poured in and raised their weapons on them.

“Where do you think you two are going?” presumably the lead one smiled.

Suddenly a bullet went through his chest and he fell to the ground. The officer from earlier had gotten up and shot him. He shot again and hit another, but his luck quickly ran out and the rest opened fire, killing him instantly.

Nicole and Mark had dove to the floor, but Mark quickly grabbed the dead gangster’s gun and fell on his back and opened fire on them. They fell backwards as the bullets sprayed them, slumping against the wall.

He and Nicole quickly got up and ran out the door into the city, keeping to the shadows. They eventually took refuge behind a couple of dumpsters, breathing heavily.

“I… I killed those people...” Mark said to himself.

But Nicole comforted him. “It was either them or us, and they had their chance. Plus they killed that officer. You did what you had to.”

“Did I, though?” Mark looked at her. “Did I really have to do that?”

Nicole couldn’t find anything to respond to him with, so she just subverted the conversation. “Let’s get moving.”

Mark sighed and then they disappeared into the night.

“We have taken control of the New Hampton police station, sir,” a gangster reported to Ravenger as he looked out the window over the city.

“Excellent,” he responded through his respirator.

“Although there are still officers unaccounted for.”

“That is to be expected. They’re willing to lay down their lives for their city,” he said calmly. “Unfortunately the city is no longer theirs.”

“What do you want us to do, sir?” the man asked.

“Round up any remaining officers and take them into our custody,” the king of the city said. “They cannot get in our way.”

“Yes sir,” the gangster turned to leave.

“One more thing.”

“Anything, sir,” he stopped at the door.

“Find Marco for me.”

“Of course, sir.”

She dove behind an abandoned car as bullets began to bombard her. Anna covered her head as glass rained down on her and bullets flew over her head. She was pinned down and didn’t know what to do. Either she made a run for it, possibly getting shot along the way, or she stayed and was eventually shot to death.

Either way she got a bullet put in her.

Anna quickly decided that she’d rather make a run for it instead of dying a sitting duck. She got up on her knee and prepared to run as fast as she could, aided by her elemental powers.

But suddenly she heard more gunfire coming from down the street directed at the gangsters. They tried changing targets but were quickly shot down and their gunfire died away before the new did as well.

She hesitantly uncovered her head and peeked up over the car to see six S.W.A.T. officers lead by a woman dressed in jeans, a white shirt and a bullet-proof vest over a brown leather jacket. Her brown hair was a mess and her face sweaty from the fighting. The group of seven then began to approach her.

The woman then suddenly stopped at the sight of her. “Anna?”

Anna stood up and pulled off her hood. “Claire?”

Claire ran over to the dark-haired woman. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah I’m fine.”

“Well I guess you are the vigilante that’s been attacking the gangs for the past few months.”

“You’re not going to arrest me, are you?” Anna’s face filled with worry.

“I do have orders,” Claire said gravely.

“Really?”

“Nah,” she relieved the girl. “We’re at war. Screw arrest orders.”

“So what now?” Anna asked, pulling the hair out of her face in relief.

“Were you heading for city hall?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, that’s where we’re going, too,” Claire cocked her gun. “So let’s go.”

“Yes ma’am,” Anna smiled as they began walking towards the capitol, all eight of them.

As they walked down the street the monorail came rushing down the track towards them. As she watched it go, she saw within several officers with their hands behind their backs and gangsters with guns pointed at them.

“They’ve got officers on the monorail!” Anna exclaimed, pointing up at the train.

“Oh my...” Claire said.

Anna suddenly realized what she must do. “You guys go onto the capitol. I’ll rescue them.”

“Are you sure?” Claire asked, sounding worried.

“I can handle it. You said it yourself,” the dark-haired girl smiled.

“Alright,” the brown-haired woman conceded. “Be careful.”

“I will.”

And with that Anna walked away from the group and looked up at the train. She crouched down and air began to swirl around her. Suddenly she sprung up and a massive gust of air unleashed from under her feet.

She flew up as the monorail passed by. She hit the roof of the train and nearly bounced off but she managed to use her powers to slow herself and grab onto a metal. Anna had, however, made quite the noise as she hit the metal roof and it had surely been heard inside the vehicle.

Looking up, she saw a hatch on top of the compartment and crawled over to it, despite the rushing wind. The door was locked, of course, but that didn’t stop her. Using all her strength and power, it unleashed a blast of air on it and the lock snapped and the door swung open violently, almost hitting her in the face.

Blasting herself forward, she swung around and down into the train in the middle of the captured officers and their captors, who were all shocked to see her.

She also realized her hood had come off. “Hi...” she tried to smile.

They all raised their guns and pointed them at her.

“Well, guess I can justify doing this,” in a blur of motion she thrust her fist forward and sent a gust of air at one of the gangsters, hitting him in the face and knocking him to the ground. She spun around and kicked one in the gut as the officers ducked down to get out of the way.

As Anna fought the gangsters, one of the officers scrambled over to the first one she fell and found a pair of keys in his pocket. He quickly unlocked his handcuffs and tossed them to one of the other officers, who did the same and passed it on. The officer then grabbed the rifle left by the fallen gangster and cocked it.

Anna had fallen five of eight of the gangsters when one struck her in her back with the butt of their gun and pointed their gun to shoot and kill her when a bullet struck him in the chest and killed him instantly, his limp body falling to the ground. The other two moved to react when they were bombarded with bullets and fell to the floor, dead as well.

The next thing the girl knew she was being helped up into a seat and attended to by one of the officers.

“Are you okay, miss Brail?” she heard him ask.

“I’m… uh… what happened…?” she said, still dazed.

“You were struck in the back with the butt of a gun.”

She finally regained her senses. “I think I’m fine, yeah.”

Anna looked around at the surrounding officers, now all free.

“Thanks for saving me,” she said, getting to her feet and holding her head.

“I think you’re the one who should be receiving the thanks, miss Brail,” the officer who had saved her the first time said, stepping forward. “We wouldn’t be free without you. You’re very brave.”

“Thank you, officer.”

“Now I think we have a capitol to get to,” he said.

Several of the officers nodded to each other and walked over to door where the engineer sat. On the count of three, Anna watched them throw open the sliding door and reach in and grab whoever was controlling the train and throw him out into the compartment, pointing their guns down at him. He was one of Ravenger’s army and held his hands up in surrender.

One of the police ran past the others and took control of the train and they began to slow to a halt as they approached a station.

They stopped and the doors slid open and Anna was the first out, followed by several officers. She turned back and looked at them.

“Go on,” one of them said. “We’ll be right behind you.”

She smiled before running off towards the ever-closer city hall.

“You’re honestly the most insane person I’ve ever had the displeasure of meeting,” Mayor Wilkes spat as Ravenger walked into the room.

“I doubt it, mister Mayor,” Ravenger said.

“What do you want now? Me to tell the President what to do?”

“No,” the terrorist said. “I need you to unlock your computer.”

“Don’t you have some tech guy that could hack in?”

“We do, but your firewalls are more complicated that we originally thought,” he said.

The Mayor of New Hampton laughed. “The new ‘king’, or whatever in the name of sanity you’re calling yourself, is defeated by a computer password,” he smirked. “That’d ought to go in the history books.”

Ravenger lost his patience and grabbed Wilkes by the collar, dragging him up. “Enough with your words. Just unlock the computer.”

He dragged the Mayor into his former office and threw him into the chair. Wilkes corrected himself and reluctantly turned to the computer and put his hands on the keyboard. The log in screen appeared and he glanced up at Ravenger who was staring down at him with his dark eyes. He looked back to the computer and typed in the fifteen digit password.

“That’s some password,” a gangster behind him said. “Never thought it could be that.”

“I am the Mayor of this city, you idiot. Of course I’d have a long password,” Wilkes spat.

Suddenly a bolt of lightning struck him. After it had vanished he fell back in his chair.

“Nobody speaks to my soldiers that way,” he yelled. “*Nobody.*”

Wilkes simply stared at him with intense hatred.

“Take him back to the room,” Ravenger said to two of the gangsters.

They nodded and grabbed the stunned Mayor by his arm and lifted him out of the chair and dragged him towards the door. Ravenger passed them and went to the computer, beginning to look through its files.

Wilkes looked to one of the gangsters dragging him away and saw that he had a few grenades strapped to his belt. His eyes narrowed and he looked down.

“It must be done.” he muttered to himself.

In one swift move, he broke their hold on him, punched one in the face and stripped the other of the explosives off his back and pulled out the pin, still holding the clip down.

Everyone pointed their guns at him and Ravenger stood up, electricity crackling in his palms.

“Shoot me and I drop this, and then you all die. Come anywhere near me, and we all die. Understood?” Wilkes yelled. “This ends here.”

“You know there is no way out of this for you, mister Mayor,” Ravenger said through his mask.

“I know,” Wilkes replied.

No time to lose.

She leaped over the burning car, aided by her powers, hit the ground and rolled, and continued her run. Anna could see the capitol coming closer and closer as she approached. Ahead of her several gangsters spotted her as she ran towards them. On instinct they raised their guns to fire upon her, but she was too fast for them and sped past them, a slipstream trailing behind her picking up and knocking the gangsters onto the ground, unconscious.

Anna smiled at the result but it was short-lived, as ahead of her on the stairs of city hall were several more gangsters with their guns raised and aimed at her. There was even two of the armed vehicles with their turrets pointed her way.

“Great,” she muttered.

The gangsters opened fire on her and she dodged them as best she could, but one grazed her leg, shoulder and wrist. Ignoring the intense pain, she jumped forward, spun around, taking control of the huge slipstream behind her and in one motion, landed facing the gangsters and thrust her hands forward, sending the massive current of air at them.

The huge gust hit and sent them flying backwards and a few went through the windows of city hall. The turrets continued to fire upon her, but she flipped in midair, dodging their bullets, landing and swinging her arms upwards.

Two columns of air suddenly shot upwards under the armored vehicles and set them flying into the air before crashing back down.

Anna stood up and rubbed her upper arms in pain. “I need to work out more,” she said, holding her torso now.

She cracked her neck and ran up the steps past the unconscious gangsters and into the main lobby of the building. Naturally, gangsters had been stationed there, and several of them were already knocked out from their comrades soaring through the windows. The woman had barely just made it into the building when she was once more bombarded with bullets.

Anna dropped down and swept her foot like she was tripping someone and sent a wave of air out and knocked a few of the gangsters onto the ground. She then flipped back up and punched forward, throwing more down.

She ran up to one, punched him in the stomach and then as he doubled-over, uppercut him in the jaw, knocking him out. To her left another lifted his gun and opened fire upon her. Using her powers, she jumped into the air over the bullets and sent a gust of air at him, knocking him flat on his back. She landed and kicked him in the face, knocking him out.

Seeing that all were now unconscious, she turned towards the elevator and ran up to it. Anna slammed the button and suddenly it dinged and the doors slid open.

“He must’ve been more confident in his security force,” she remarked.

She ran into the elevator and hit the top floor, where the Mayor’s office was, and Ravenger. Anna watched as the doors closed and she ascended.

As the numbers above the door got greater and greater, she leaned against the back of the elevator, breathing deeply. There were most definitely more gangsters there, and she was going to have to fight them to get to Ravenger, but her energy had almost all been spent in the various fights she had fought that night.

She prayed she would have enough to save her city, or she would die and New Hampton would be lost.

Then the elevator dinged again and she readied herself as the doors opened. Outside were what she counted as eight gangsters, who all turned as the elevator opened. They weren’t ready as Anna sped out of the doors at an incredible speed.

First, she kicked one in the knee, bringing him down in pain, then she spun around and struck another in the side of the head with her fist, knocking him out cold. The others raised their guns and opened fire on her but she rolled under their bullets and she struck one in the stomach, punched another in the nose, and kicked one between the legs.

One fired off a shot that grazed her shoulder and she held it in pain briefly before launching a gust of air at him and sending him flying onto a desk and then onto the floor, unconscious.

Suddenly one struck her in the back with their gun and she fell forward before catching herself on her hands and flipped over, sending another gust of air and launching him through a wall.

The woman recovered herself and kicked the last one as he tried to grab his gun. Looking towards the double white doors at the end of the room, she walked towards them, ready to face the monster she had failed to defeat before.

She was going to stop him, once and for all.

Suddenly there was a loud noise and then everything went orange and white and she felt the sensation of falling before hitting something hard and then there was the darkness.

As the smoke cleared, there lay a woman clad in a burnt and torn black dress and a destroyed dark green jacket, rubble in her black and brown hair.

Anna Brail lay there, unmoving.

### Chapter 13: Anna Brail

“You don’t want to do this, Mayor Wilkes,” Ravenger said sternly.

“If it means saving my city from you, then it’s worth it all,” the Mayor replied, his hand still firmly around the clip of the grenade.

“You’d kill yourself to save your city?”

“Yes.”

“Then what if I killed you to save my kingdom?” lightning crackled in the terrorist’s hands again.

“Then this bomb would go off and we’d all die anyway. I thought I explained this? And I thought you were smarter.”

“You’re right,” Ravenger bowed his head. Suddenly he moved to thrust his hand forward, but the Mayor had seen it coming and let his grip on the clip slacken. The small metal piece that had been keeping them from death flew through the air and hit the carpet, bouncing to a stop. A bolt of lightning unleashed from Ravenger’s hand the clip fell.

“Worth it all,” Wilkes said as electricity flew towards him.

Then the grenade exploded and a massive fiery blast went out and consumed them all. The windows shattered and the doors flew away into the room beyond them.

Across the city the blast was heard and seen as the Mayor’s office exploded. Gangsters and Police officers stopped what they had been doing and immediately ran to converge on city hall.

“Do you think your girl Anna had something to do with that?” the Chief asked as they spun around towards the capitol.

“I wouldn’t know,” Matthew said.

The sun was rising on the horizon as he stepped out onto the balcony. The sky was a brilliant mixture of purple and blue, with hints of red here and there.

Behind him his brother walked up next to him.

“Alexander, you’re up early,” he said, looking at the sunrise.

“Peter, so are you. What is it?” Alexander responded.

“Father is dying, and you are next in line for the throne. Are you ready for it?”

“I have been raised for this, and so have you, brother,” Alexander gripped his brother’s shoulder, who put his hand on his.

“I know, brother,” Peter said.

Suddenly a servant came rushing onto the balcony, sweating.

“Princes... your father... he only has moments,” the servant said.

The two brothers looked at each other before running past the servant, who followed them down the corridors of the palace and into their father’s room. The old man lay in the bed, several nurses and doctors standing by him, operating the various medical devices attached to him. Beside him in the bed was his wife and the boys’ mother. Tears streaked down her cheeks as she held her dying husband’s hand.

The two men ran up to the bed and looked down at their dying father.

“Papa,” Alexander said, kneeling down to his father.

“Alexander,” he said a ragged breath before coughing. “I don’t have much longer… and I have so much to tell you...”

“Don’t worry, father, it is okay,” the boy tried to comfort his dying father.

“But it is not,” he barely said. “You are to take control of this kingdom… this land… once I… once I...”

“You don’t have to say it, papa.”

“But… I do...” he wheezed. “You… will make many… many enemies as king… Some may be… be close to you…”

“I will not be overtaken, father,” Alexander assured the dying man.

“I know… but you must beware of them… whoever they may be...”

Suddenly a steady beeping that had be present in the room the entire time suddenly became one singular noise before go silent entirely. He looked to his father whose eyes were closed and he was unmoving.

“I will, father,” he said silently before being led out of the room by a few of the nurses.

He left, now king.

“What is it, mother?” Alexander asked as he entered the throne room.

Suddenly the door slammed shut behind him as his brother pushed it closed. He noticed that Peter had a sheath with two swords on his back.

“What are you doing, Peter?” he said before turning to the woman standing by his throne. “Mother?”

“You’re not fit to be king, brother,” Peter said, unsheathing one of his blades. “But I am.”

“The throne is my birthright!” he yelled. “Tell him, mother.”

“I’m the one who told him that you were unfit, my boy,” she said, her small lips curving into a smile. “And it is time for you to go.”

“You will kill your king?!” Alexander roared looking to both of them. “You will both be executed for your betrayal!”

“Only one will die here today, brother,” Peter said, lifting his blade.

Suddenly he ran at his brother and slashed down, but Alexander got out of the way and struck him in the back. As he fell forward he grabbed the second sword from the sheath and held it up. Peter recovered himself and swung around, moving his blade in a sweeping motion. Alexander blocked it and threw it out of the way and swung downwards at his brother, but this time Peter moved out of the way.

Peter swung at him and Alexander flipped out of the way, pushing off his arms and landing on his feet again, holding his sword up, the light reflecting off the silver blade. He then swung at his brother but he flipped over the blade and came back down, swiping at him again.

Alexander bent backwards to dodge the blade before flipping over and slashing at Peter. The blade sliced his brother’s arm, leaving a cut that blood began to drip out of the wound.

He looked down at it and snarled. “You will die for that.”

“I am your king. You are the one who will die,” Alexander said, flicking the blood off the blade.

Suddenly Peter charged at his brother and didn’t have enough time to retaliate so he just fell back out of the way. However, his brother took advantage of this and swung around and kicked Alexander in the chest. The impact sent him toppling towards one of the high windows of the throne room with no control over where he was going.

“NO!” he yelled as he fell into one of the windows and it shattered. After that he was falling through the air down the side of the castle towards the ground.

And then everything was black.

When he awoke he heard sirens all around him, accompanied by gunfire and yelling. He then opened his eyes and saw that the office around him was destroyed and in flames. He also saw that everyone around him was dead, killed in the explosion.

Ravenger tried to get up, but found that his entire body was in pain. That wasn’t normal. That wasn’t supposed to happen. They promised that it would be immune to pain. Obviously they were wrong.

To much pain, he forced himself off the scorched floor of the room and stood up amongst the flames, looking around at the destruction.

“What a waste,” he muttered through his respirator.

He looked out the destroyed wall and saw below a shootout behind the New Hampton Police and his army. And he saw that his men were losing.

“I’ve had enough with this city. It does not deserve to exist on the face of this planet any longer.”

Ravenger turned away and walked through the burning doorway and into the next room. As he entered the room, he noticed the bodies of his men, which was to be expected since the blast was so strong, but there was something odd about the way they were laying.

And then he saw her. He saw Anna Brail laying in the center of the room, unconscious and covered in rubble. Slowly she began to stir and she looked up at him. The sight of him apparently jolted her out of her daze.

“Ravenger...” she said.

“Yes, it is I,” he replied darkly. “And it is time for you to die, once and for all.”

Suddenly he unleashed a bolt of electricity on her and she barely jumped out of the way before it struck. Anna flipped out of the way and unleashed a blast of air at him. Ravenger was pushed back before retaliating and firing another bolt at her.

She ducked out of the way and it hit the elevator, covering the doors in blue lightning. Anna punched forward rapidly, blasts of air firing from them.

Ravenger tried to dodge them, but they were too fast for him and struck him, knocking him backwards. He fell back into the office and looked out the wall.

“Enough with this. You will just have to watch as the world burns,” he said to the girl before running at the wall and jumping.

“No you don’t!” she yelled, running to the wall.

But when she got there he was already in one of the armored vehicles and driving away. She was about to jump down and go after him when the elevator dinged and she turned back to see several gangsters come out, holding guns.

“Hey!” one of them yelled as they saw her.

Seeing no other choice, she used her powers to launch herself from the window and onto another building, falling and rolling to a painful halt on the gravel.

Anna recovered and went to dust herself off but found that her clothes were completely torn and scorched.

She sighed. “I think it’s time.”

The woman got up and began to run across the rooftops.

The car skidded to a halt a mere twenty feet from the fighting. The two men inside readied their guns and exited the vehicle. As soon as they left they began firing on the gangsters in the crowd. They felled several of them before they were fired upon in response.

“Whatever happened up there,” Matthew yelled, ducking under gunfire. “It caused all hell to break loose!”

“Hopefully we can live long enough to see it end,” the Chief of Police said grimly.

They got up and returned fire, felling a few more gangsters. Three officers made their way over to them.

“Chief,” one of them, a sergeant, said.

“What’s the scoop, Sergeant?” the Chief asked.

“I don’t know,” he replied. “Everyone just kind of converged on the explosion, sir.”

“Do we know what caused it,” Matthew returned fire before looking to him.

“We don’t know for sure but it was probably a hand grenade.”

The Chief reloaded. “Do we have any word on the Mayor yet?”

“No, and we haven’t been able to get in there yet,” the boy said before returning fire. “We’ll have to sort this mess out to get in there.”

One of the other officers butted in. “There was one of those armored trucks that just left.”

“Really? What was in it?” Matthew asked.

“I don’t know, but I would guess Ravenger.”

“How would he survive the explosion?” the sergeant asked.

“He has his ways,” Matthew muttered.

They emerged from the dark alleyway and looked around cautiously, Mark holding his gun at the ready.

“See anything?” Nicole asked from behind him.

“No,” he replied. “Let’s go.”

The two ran out from their hiding spot and across the street into another alleyway. They ran down it and turned a corner and took refuge behind two dumpsters.

“I hate having to hide like this,” the blond-haired woman said, looking for anyone who would want to attack them.

“So do I.”

“Do you think Anna’s okay?” Nicole said suddenly.

He turned to the girl in surprise. “We both know the answer to that question.”

“Yeah, but it’ll help my nerves if you answered.”

“Well, my little girl is a fighter and a survivor. Always has been, always will be,” Mark said, putting his arm around her. “She’ll survive. I’m sure of it.”

Suddenly a vehicle sped past the alleyway’s entrance, a black armored vehicle. Without warning, Nicole quickly got up and ran to see where it was going.

“Nicole!” Mark called after her before getting up to join her.

They looked out after the vehicle and saw it skid to a halt in front of one of the tallest buildings in New Hampton: FuturTech. There were three other cars in front of it with several guards at the ready. They watched as suddenly the doors opened and Ravenger climbed out followed by more gangsters. The others came to receive them. The terrorist’s clothes looked very burnt and destroyed. He seemed very angry and distressed.

Nicole quickly grabbed her cellphone from her pocket and scrolled through her contacts and found Anna’s number and dialed it.

She landed on her balcony with a loud thud. Wasting no time, she pulled out her keys and unlocked the door and went into the apartment. The police had abandoned it once the city had begun being attacked, which was good for her.

Anna rushed into her bedroom and flung open her closet doors. Pushing aside her various dresses and shirts, she reached for a small panel at the back and pulled it off, tossing it behind her. Inside was a small compartment with what appeared several folded pieces of clothes.

Taking them with care, she brought them out of the closet and laid them on her bed.

“Alright,” she said, removing her phone and taking off her destroyed jacket and tossing it to the ground. “Let’s do this.”

Minutes later she had discarded her dress and put on a pair of leggings, another black dress, only higher quality than her previous ones, a dark green leather jacket, also higher quality that went down to about three inches below her hips complete with a hood. She also wore a waist clincher with green strings (mainly for decoration), a pair of black fingerless gloves and her boots.

She looked over her new appearance.

“If they’re calling me a vigilante, might as well have a costume,” she said to herself.

Anna walked out of the room and back onto the balcony. She looked over her city before unleashing a massive blast of air underneath her feet, launching her into the air. She landed across the street on another rooftop and went to the edge, looking over the wider city.

“Where are you, Ravenger...”

Suddenly her phone rang and she pulled it out of her pocket to see that it was Nicole calling. She pressed ‘talk’ and held it up to her ear.

“Nicole? Are you okay? Where’s my dad?”

“We’re both fine, Anna,” Nicole said, sounding relieved. “Where are you?”

“Across the street from my apartment looking out for Ravenger’s vehicle,” Anna replied. “He got away after the Mayor’s office exploded.”

“The Mayor’s office exploded? Are you okay?”

“Yeah I’m fine. My clothes got torched but we’re good now.”

“Well his clothes looked pretty blazed too.”

“Wait, you saw him?” Anna said, shocked.

“I’m looking at him. In front of FuturTech.”

“Why would he go there?” Anna pondered aloud.

“I don’t know but you’d better over here quick if you want to stop him. He looks pretty angry right now.”

“Alright. I’m on it,” Anna said. “Stay safe.”

“We will.”

“And,” the woman began, seeming to have trouble with saying what was on her mind.

“What is it, Anna?” Nicole asked on the other side.

“Tell my dad I love him.”

“Goodbye, Anna,” Nicole said.

“Bye.”

She hung up the phone and stuffed it back in her pocket.

Anna looked up and took a deep breath. “Ravenger, here I come.”

“This city is done. No longer will it defy me!” the terrorist said, ascending the steps of the building followed by three gangsters.

“Are we activating plan B, sir?” one asked.

“Yes. And I want to watch this city burn,” his deep voice boomed.

“I shall notify all the troops,” he said.

“Don’t bother,” Ravenger waved him. “They deserve to burn.”

“Yes… yes sir...” he said, falling back, obviously troubled.

Ravenger entered the building and walked through the lobby, which was also secured by more gangsters. It was a large room complete with a sitting area, chandeliers and a reception desk. He walked up to one.

“How are the prisoners doing?” the terrorist asked.

“They’re staying quiet mostly,” the gangster responded. “What do you want done with them?”

“Nothing right now,” Ravenger said. “I’ll deal with them later.”

“Yes sir,” he replied.

The dark figure turned and walked towards the elevator at the end of the large lobby. He pressed one of the buttons and it dinged. The doors opened and he stepped in followed by the two gangsters. Ravenger pressed another one of the buttons, one for the highest floor and the doors closed.

“If I can’t have my kingdom, then it’ll burn,” he said to himself.

They had managed to round up all the gangsters in front of city hall, putting them under arrest. They had to start using zip-ties when they ran out of handcuffs to use. But they had made due. After that was handled, they had checked the City Hall and found several more gangsters, unconscious.

“Looks like Anna’s been through here,” Matthew said going through the lobby.

“That’s not our priority right now,” the Chief said. “We need to find the Mayor.”

“Yes sir,” Matthew replied.

They got into the elevator and began ascending. Their guns were at the ready for anything that could be up there. The doors opened and they saw three gangsters standing amongst the ashes of the office. They turned at their arrival and raised their guns but the police were too fast for them and flooded out and surrounded them.

“Drop your weapons, now!” the Chief yelled. “Or I will shoot!”

Seeing that they were not going to win a gunfight against the police, they dropped their guns to the ground and raised their hands above their head.

“Good choice,” the Chief said.

The three S.W.A.T. officers that were with them ran forward and tied the gangster’s hands together and forced them to their knees against a wall, where one of the officers kept an eye on them. The others found the unconscious gangsters under the rubble and tied them up as well.

Matthew, the Chief and a few other officers made their way forward to the smoking office ahead and entered through the blown-down doors. They looked around and found nothing but the remains of dead gangsters.

“What do you think happened, Chief?” Matthew asked.

“I think the Mayor’s dead,” he said grimly.

Silence.

“What now?” Matthew broke it.

“We catch this scum.”

Suddenly Matthew’s phone rang and he picked it up and held it to his ear.

“Hello?”

“Matthew it’s me,” Nicole said on the other side.

“Nicole? Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Look, I know where Ravenger is and I need you to come help Anna take down his soldiers.”

“Where are you?”

“By FuturTech. I think Ravenger has control over the building and is going to use it for something big.”

“Alright, we’ll be right over. Stay put.”

“I will.”

He hung up the phone.

“What is it, Detective?” the Chief asked.

“I know where Ravenger is,” Matthew smiled.

Anna crouched down on the building opposite to FuturTech, peeking over the ledge. Below she saw several gangsters and few armored vehicles guarding the entrance. She wasn’t going to be able to take them all at once, and she wouldn’t be able to draw them out.

Then she realized that if she could enough of a running start, she could launch herself across the way to the building, but that would attract the attention of the gangsters and they would swarm her. She needed a distraction, but she couldn’t think of what.

Suddenly she heard sirens coming down the street, dozens of them. Both she and the gangsters turned towards the sound and saw at least three dozen squad cars driving towards their location.

Below she heard one of the gangsters exclaim “I thought we had the station under control?”

The cars skidded to a halt and dozens of officers poured out and pointed their weapons at the gangsters, who returned the favor.

Seeing this as the distraction she needed, Anna ran across the rooftop to the farthest side and turned back towards FuturTech. She took a deep breath and she readied to run.

Sprinting forward, the gravel kicked up behind her as she ran, but she wasn’t concerned about anything else at the moment. She jumped, her foot landing on the ledge and then she kicked off, a massive blast of air launching her off and through the air. Below her everyone was too distracted to notice her fly silently through the air. As she neared the building she realized that she was going to hit the glass.

Drawing her hands back, she then thrust them forward, sending a blast of air at the window. It shattered on impact and flew through the opening and into the building.

She hit the floor and rolled to a stop. Anna got up and dusted herself off before looking around. Anna was in some sort of laboratory, and from the looks of it they were working on prosthetics. The lights were dimmed and the various robotics limbs were merely shapes in the shadows, creating a very disturbing environment.

“I wonder if they intentionally made it this creepy.” she muttered as she headed towards the door.

Anna opened the door and came into a large room with several doors lining the walls. Also were two guards who raised their weapons at her arrival.

“Just my luck, huh,” she muttered.

She thrust her hands forward and sent a gust of air at them and knocking them to the ground. Cracking her knuckles, she turned and ran towards the line of three elevators. The middle one had the up arrow illuminated, and it didn’t take a genius to guess that that was Ravenger.

Anna ran over to one of the others and hit the up button and waited as the doors opened and she ran in. She looked over the long panel of buttons and hit the one for the top of the building, seeing as that is where Ravenger was probably going to go.

As the doors closed she leaned back against the wall.

“I feel I’m always riding elevators to meet Ravenger these days,” she said to herself as she ascended.

“Oh good. Matthew brought the whole force,” Nicole said as they looked out from behind a dumpster at the police force.

“Looks like they retook the police station,” Mark replied.

Suddenly they heard a voice behind him. “Who are you two?”

They swung around to see an officer standing there with his gun drawn. The two raised their hands and Mark set down the gun.

“I’m Mark Brail and this is Nicole Weaver,” the older man identified them.

“What are you doing over here?” he asked. “And why do you have that gun?”

“I got it from a gangster as we escaped the police station.”

“You were at the police station. Why?”

“Because we were arrested for being in Anna Brail’s apartment,” Mark titled his head down.

“So you’re criminals?” the officer’s gun was raised a little higher.

“No, the Chief let us go,” Nicole butted in.

“Why’d he do that?”

“Um...” she looked out at the massive standoff down the street. “I wouldn’t know.”

“Well, I’m putting you under arrest again,” he said, pulling out a pair of handcuffs.

Nicole sighed. “Is this really necessary? There’s a massive standoff over there with a terrorist’s army.”

“And for all I know, you could be part of them,” he stepped closer to them.

“Seriously? I’m a twenty-two-year-old girl wearing jeans and a blue jacket and he’s a fifty-six-year-old man wearing square glasses.”

“I don’t care, you’re coming in.”

Suddenly gunfire rang out down the street and they all turned as gunfire began to be exchanged between the two groups, but the gangsters were very much outnumbered and quickly taken over by the police force.

The officer turned back to them and held the handcuffs up.

“Now, you’re under arrest. I assume you know your rights?”

Mark sighed heavily. “Of all the police officers I’ve met, you’re just… the most stubborn.”

“Insulting a police officer. Great way to go.”

Suddenly there was another voice.

“Nicole? Mark? What’re you doing here?” Matthew walked into the alleyway.

“Matthew!” Nicole ran forward past the officer and gave her brother a huge hug.

“Are you okay?”

“Never better. Except for this guy,” she indicated the officer staring in shock at them.

“What seems to be the problem, officer?” the detective asked him.

“I thought they were gangsters,” he said.

“Well, they were hiding in an alleyway, but she’s my sister and he’s a friend.”

“Yes sir,” the officer put his handcuffs and gun back onto his belt.

Mark looked to Matthew. “So what’s happening, detective?”

“We have the situation pretty much on control down here, but up in the building is another story.”

“And Anna’s most likely up there,” Nicole said.

“Probably,” the man nodded.

“So what do we do, mister Brail?” Matthew asked.

“I say we don’t send anyone up into the building until we have a sign from Anna.”

He stroked his chin. “The Chief wants to send people up. You’d have to work it out with him.”

“Let’s go, then.”

Together they walked over to the where the Chief was standing, under a tent they had set up while the gangsters were escorted away, arms behind their backs. The Chief of Police turned at their arrival.

“Mister Brail, miss Weaver, nice to see that you survived the police station.”

“How is that, by the way?” Nicole asked.

“We managed to retake it, but we lost several good officers along the way.”

“Sir,” Matthew said. “Anna Brail is most likely up in the building going to fight off Ravenger and possibly finish him, and mister Brail here wants us to keep out until his daughter has… done her job.”

The Chief looked down for a second before looking back up. “I’m sorry, sir, but that’s not possible. I have reason to believe that the staff of FuturTech is still alive, and we can’t risk their safety.”

“At least give her half an hour.”

“I’ll give her fifteen minutes, and then we’re going to the upper levels,” the Chief said.

“Thank you, sir,” Mark Brail replied gratefully.

Matthew nodded and led Mark and Nicole over to a parked squad car and sat them down.

“Are you sure you two are okay?”

“Yeah I’m fine,” Nicole smiled.

“I just hope Anna’s okay,” the old man said, looking up at the building.

“Me too,” Matthew nodded.

The elevator came to a stop on the topmost floor and the doors slid open into darkness. As they stepped out a motion-sensor activated and illuminated a hallway with several doors shooting off to the sides. At the end was a gray door with the words “ROOF ACCESS” written on it in black letters.

The three of them were walking towards the door when suddenly an elevator dinged behind them and they watched as the doors slid open to reveal a girl dressed in a black dress and a green jacket. She walked out into the hallway and faced them, her green eyes narrowed.

Ravenger’s rage boiled over. “I’ve had enough with you, Anna Brail.”

He pulled out two cylinders from his coat and pressed a button on each of them and several lengths of cord flew out and crackled with energy.

“I could same the same about you, Ravenger,” she said, air swirling in her hands. “It’s time you leave my city.”

“Over my dead body, little girl.”

“If that’s how it has to be, then so be it,” she whispered.

Suddenly she thrust her hand forward and a blast of air flew out. Ravenger cut through it with his whip but the blast hit the other guards and knocked them to the ground, rendering them unconscious. The tall figure ran forward, his weapons dragging across the walls, leaving a smoking trail on each side. The girl did the same, air streaking behind her.

He swung downwards and she rolled underneath the whip as it exploded the floor where she had been standing. When behind him she blasted a gust of air at him and knocked him off balance. He swung around and she ducked as it went over her head and grazed the wall again.

She slammed her foot into his knee and made him buckled over in pain.

“I see you can get hurt now,” she remarked, coming back into a defensive position.

“Not for long, little girl,” he said through his respirator. “You will be dead by the time it gets restored.”

He swung at her again but she managed to kick the weapon from his hand as it flew across the hallway and too a stop.

Ravenger roared in anger and grabbed Anna by the throat and slammed her through out of the wooden doors into a conference room of sorts. As she groaned from being smashed through the door, he brought her down onto the table, leaving a massive Anna-sized dent in the wood. She yelled in pain on impact.

He brought his fist up while holding her by the throat with his other hand, it crackling with energy.

“Goodbye, little Anna Brail,” he said proudly.

His hand glowed brightly.

“It has not been a pleasure.”

In a streak of lightning, he brought his hand down on the woman. The second his fist impacted there was a massive glare of light, illuminating the entire room in white.

The light faded and Ravenger’s eyes were filled with fear at what was before him. The woman was holding his hand just inches away from her, air swirling around it as lightning crackled. Groaning, she pushed it off of her and a massive blast of air was unleashed and sent Ravenger flying through the doorway and into the hallway, slamming against the wall.

He recovered as Anna got up from the table holding her stomach as she looked at the terrorist.

“Enough with this,” he said to himself and ran off down the hallway.

She ran out after him in pain and saw him turn around before a bolt of electricity flew from his hand and struck her in the chest and sent her flying across the hall and falling to the floor in an unmoving heap.

“I will deal with you later. I have a city to watch burn,” Ravenger said before exiting through the door.

A few moments later she slowly got up and looked at her dress, which was barely damaged from the lightning due to the new material she had used for it.

“Well then,” she muttered. “At least that’s working.”

“Alright that’s it,” the Chief broke. “That’s long enough.”

“Give her a little more time, Chief,” Matthew pleaded.

“No, that’s enough, my men are going in.”

Matthew knew he could not win this battle. “Yes sir.”

“Good. They’ll be in there in two minutes,” the Chief walked away from them without saying another word.

Mark put his hand on his shoulder. “You tried your best.”

“Thank you,” Matthew nodded before turning around. “Are you okay, Nicole?”

But she was not there. The two men looked around frantically for the woman but she was nowhere in sight.

“Nicole?” Matthew called, but only got noise in response.

“I think I know where she went,” Mark said grimly.

“Where? Where did my sister go?”

The man pointed to the tall building.

“She’ll get herself killed!” Matthew said, before trying to run towards the building but Mark caught his jacket.

“This is her decision. Whatever happens because of it is her fault.”

“But… she’s my sister… it’ll be my fault...”

“Anna was a sister once,” the man said. “And her brother was stripped away from her along with her mother. The woman who gave birth to her. But it wasn’t her fault.”

“She acts like it was her fault.”

“That’s what we do as Humans, I suppose, place the blame on ourselves. But we shouldn’t.”

There was silence between the two men.

“Plus Anna’s up there so I guess it’ll be fine.”

“New Hampton you are a blemish on this Earth, and I am here to wipe you away,” he said as he overlooked the city.

“I tried to make you pure, make you righteous on the face of this planet, but you rejected me, you embraced your filthy ways, and you no longer serve any purpose and must be… cleansed.”

“Who made you judge, jury and executioner?” a voice from behind him came.

He turned around to see Anna Brail standing there, his grip tightening at the sight of her.

“How? I thought I had knocked you unconscious?”

“Yeah I made a few upgrades from the other times we fought, Ravenger,” she gestured to her clothes.

“What do you want? You are beneath me now.”

“You haven’t answered my question.”

“I made myself judge and jury and executioner because I am the only worthy of those.”

“No, you’re not,” Anna stepped forward. “And you never will be. You’re no god.”

Ravenger laughed. “You’re right. But that doesn’t mean I can’t act like one.”

He ignited his whips again and snapped one at the girl. She flipped out of the way and blasted air at him. The terrorist was pushed back before cracking his whip at her again, a sound like thunder echoing. Anna jumped out of the way as the whip hit the floor behind her, exploding it.

She rolled across the roof a punched another current of air at him. He spun out of the way and cracked his whip again. The woman flipped backwards and drew her arm back to launch another gust of air at him, but a bolt of electricity hit her in the chest and sent her flying into the small building on top of the roof that they had emerged from.

“I see you’ve improved your outfit. More durable against my electricity,” Ravenger said as he approached her, putting his whips back in his jacket. “Unfortunately your skin isn’t as resistant, my dear.”

He picked her up by her throat. She tried to struggle, but he sent electricity through her body and made her painfully stiff. Anna could feel her neck being burnt by his hand as he gripped her throat.

“Usually I don’t like to get my hands dirty. But I’m going to make an exception for you,” he said through his respirator as he walked them over to the edge of the building.

They reached the very edge and he held the girl over the edge, hundreds of feet between them and the ground. She managed to take a look as the wind whipped her hair around and saw the dozens of police cars below.

“End of the line, Anna Brail,” Ravenger smiled. “Say your prayers before you perish.”

Suddenly a gunshot rung out and a bullet flew through the monster’s shoulder, blood trailing as the bullet left his body.

Furious, the terrorist turned around while still holding the girl over the edge to see another girl, one with blond hair and wearing a pair of jeans and a blue jacket. In her hands was a black pistol, the end smoking.

“You? Nicole Weaver? You dare fire upon me?” the man spat.

“I thought it was obvious?”

“Nicole...” Anna struggled to say as electricity crackled around her body. “What… what… are you… doing?”

“Saving you,” the woman smiled. “Sorry.”

“You will die!” Ravenger yelled before thrusting his hand forward. A bolt of lightning flew out and Nicole barely jumped out of the way before it struck where she was standing.

She hit the gravel face-first and rolled over and shot another bullet at Ravenger, blood trickling down her temple. The bullet hit Ravenger in the chest and he stepped back. Anna struggled again.

“ENOUGH!” there was a massive flash of blue light before Nicole was sent flying across the roof and fell to an unconscious heap twenty feet away.

Suddenly she realized that this was her dream, that dream all those weeks ago that had shaken her to the core. She had seen Nicole on this roof, and she had seen herself held above the city. But that meant that she would lose this battle… that she would die…

She would not let that happen.

“NO!” Anna yelled.

Anna shot her hands behind her and sent a massive gust of air out from her palms, launching her forward. She rammed into the terrorist and they both tumbled across the gravel. The woman flipped up as Ravenger recovered and reached for his whips, but she sliced upwards and a narrow stream of air struck his arms and sent the whips flying away.

He looked up as a blast of air struck him in the face and sent him flying across the roof. Ravenger tumbled to a halt, his mask askew. She smiled as he fumbled with it, but she didn’t let him. Anna launched a gust of air and it struck his respirator and sent it flying across the roof, well out of his reach. The terrorist held his throat as he gasped for air, desperately trying to crawl towards his mask.

The woman walked towards her opponent as he was dying on the ground, looking over his body. She began to make motions with her hands and he was lifted onto his knees as a ball of air appeared around his head. His wheezing got worse.

“For all the lives you’ve taken, for all the homes you’ve destroyed,” Anna said as she continued to suffocate him. “Death will be the only just sentence for you.”

Behind her Nicole came around and looked up to see what her friend was doing.

“Anna!” Nicole yelled, horrified. “Stop!”

But she ignored her.

“For your crimes, you will surely die,” she said as he breathed his final gasps of breath.

Suddenly the ball disappeared and he fell to the ground, wheezing heavily.

“But I want to hear you talk first.”

She stepped back, spun around, gathering as much air as she could. Anna looked back to Ravenger, her eyes narrowed, and stepped forward, thrusting her hands out. A massive blast of air rushed forward and caught the man. The blast was so strong it threw him across the roof and he crashed through the ledge and fell.

Anna ran over as he crashed into the concrete, every officer jumping backwards as chunks of rock flew upwards.

She then moved to go check on Nicole when the door to the roof burst open and several S.W.A.T. officers flooded out and surrounded the woman, guns trained on her.

“Hands behind your head! Now!” one of them barked.

Accepting defeat, she did as she was told and placed her hands behind her head. One of the officers came over and pulled out a pair of hand cuffs and slapped them on her wrists, putting her arms behind her back before grabbing her arm. Another came over and grabbed her other arm and they escorted her towards the door.

She looked back and saw that two were helping Nicole, who was staring at her life-long friend as she was dragged away.

The trip downstairs was all a blur to her as she tuned completely out. She was sure Ravenger wasn’t dead, his powers had probably kicked in again. As they descended she had heard them read her her rights, and she distractedly accepted them.

She didn’t come back around until they were coming through a crowd of officers who were looking at her as they walked by. Time seemed to slow down as she looked around at the faces of the officers as they stared at her. Some were happy that she was caught, most were expressionless, and some were saddened by her arrest.

The press had also arrived and were taking pictures and video of her arrest from across the street.

They opened the door to a squad car and she ducked into the back seat before the door was slammed behind her. Anna looked out the barred windows at the assembled crowd watching her.

Among them she saw Matthew, whose face was saddened, her father, who just looked into his daughter’s eyes, and she saw Nicole, who had been brought down in one of the other elevators and was holding a rag to her bleeding head as a paramedic tended to her wounds. The three stood there, staring at her.

Anna looked down from the window at her lap before the squad car’s engine roared into the life and they drove off into the silent night.

He had just taken another swig of his drink when suddenly the TV lit up with a special news report. The man looked up as they showed a black and brown haired girl in a black dress and a green jacket being escorted into the back of a squad car before it drove off out of sight.

As he clenched his glass the drink began to boil and the glass began to crack before it exploded and a flaming liquid spilled across the counter as everyone else fell backwards and the bartender ran to grab the fire extinguisher to put out the massive flames.

All the while the man simply sat and stared at the television, his eyes wide.

“Anna.”

## Characters

* Anna Brail
* Nicole Weaver
* Matthew Weaver
* Ravager
* Claire Darrel
* Mark Brail
* Franklin Wilkes
* John Dillon
* Alex Nolan
* John Arwin
* Rose Brail
* Andrew Brail
* Marco
* Thomas
* Several police officers
* Several gangsters

## Trivia

* This is Invader39's first full-fledged non-BIONICLE story.
* There are several instances of Invader39 referencing things in his own life throughout the story, something he could not do in his BIONICLE storyline.
* The titles of chapters 8, 11 and 12 are taken from the songs *In Christ Alone* by Keith and Kristyn Getty, *Set the World on Fire* by Britt Nicole and *Worth It All* by Meredith Andrews, respectively.