AN: Okay, so I was originally only going to post 6 and 7… ahem. But I’m super proud of how 8, 9, 10 turned out and want to show them off. I’ll try to get them all edited and out tonight.
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Lightning flickered briefly, illuminating the dim rooftops. A golden radiance spilled across the roof, but the light from the center of the city was about it. Even the street lamps, which should’ve been active with how heavy the storm above was, were out. It went beyond a mere brownout to true darkness.
”What’s going on?” Quinn stepped out of the vehicle and into the rain. Instead of splattering against her, the rain simply flowed around like she was covered in an invisible barrier.
”Um.” I dropped my vi-rifle into its sling, and pulled out my phone to check. “A CE-2003 was spotted in the southwest of Silverport. All power in the area’s been cut off until it’s dealt with.”
”Damn.” Quinn waved a hand, and a large ball of water floated in front of her. “2003… that’s Lamentus? You have a radiant glowstick?”
”Electrick, actually. Close though—Lamentus is CE-2004.” Thank the Pyre we weren’t dealing with one of those. I pulled my bag off, and dug around it for the glowstick. Though they were expensive, they were a favorite of Quinn’s, so I usually had several. “Catch.”
She easily caught the glowstick, and ripped open the bag with her teeth. “Who’s going after the Electrick, then?”
”Doesn’t say.” I refreshed the page, but it remained empty. After a few moments, a different file automatically popped open with the information I needed. My expression immediately soured. “Oh… your favorite.”
”Let me guess.” She cracked the glowstick. Immediately, pale golden light spilled out across the roof. It wasn’t quite like the sun, but it did make my eyes sting. “Guardian Coldfront?”
”Got it in one.” I slid my phone back into my pocket, and stepped out of the AV. I pressed the button of the walkie-talkie hooked up to my hip. “Clear to go, Raptor-Six.”
”Roger.” The AV’s back hatch shut, and the flying vehicle slowly took off from the roof. My rain cover instantly vanished, and exposed me to the chilly water. “Good hunting, Tidebreak.”
Quinn was too busy to pay any attention to the pilot. She tossed the glowstick into a ball of water. The water shifted and adjusted, perfectly diffusing the glow over a massive area like a micro moon. She thrust her hand up, and the ball shot into the sky to light up the surrounding area.
“Civies still in the area?” Quinn grabbed at the straps of her ballistic vest, and looked back at me. “Oh, sorry.”
The rain falling on my head abruptly parted, and the moisture that’d begun to seep into my clothes scattered. In an instant, I was perfectly dry once more. More importantly, my tail didn’t feel like a waterlogged mess anymore.
“All good.” I stretched a hand up and wiped off my helmet’s camera just in case. “Being a little wet won’t hurt.”
“That’s what she said.” Quinn didn’t even miss a beat.
”Really?” I rolled my eyes. She really hadn’t changed since the academy—actaully, I take that back. She was even worse back then. Time in the field made her at least a bit more serious while we were out. “Eyes up. Sounds like PKs on the stairs.”
“Showtime.” She sighed. A blue glow of light erupted over her head, and a halo of dark blue light appeared. It was abstract and two-dimensional, just like all Awoken. Their halos were a mark just as much as an empowerment tool to strengthen their abilities and bodies.
Quinn’s was made up of two bright rings suspended just over her head. Between the two rings, soft light moved around like a slow moving ocean tide. A glowing pool of light, appearing like water, filled the inner ring and flowed with a lazy rhythm.
A few moments later, the door out onto the roof swung open. Three Peacekeepers in heavy ballistic armor spilled out onto the roof. They had the truly heavy-duty stuff on, complete with neckguards, full limb padding, and riot helmets. It made my lightweight vest look like a joke. Flashlights strapped to their shoulders spilled across the roof.
The one in the center, the only one armed with a vi-rifle instead of a standard assault rifle, stepped forward to greet us. His eyes instantly locked onto Quinn, and flicked up to her halo. “Figured you’d be up here. Guardian…”
“Tidebreak.” Quinn crossed her arms. “Is the area still secure? Or did another gang manage to sneak in while we were on the way?”
“Secured, Guardian.” The man’s lips twitched, and he glanced at me. He immediately snapped back onto Tidebreak like I wasn’t worth the effort. He motioned back toward the door. “Sergeant Helms… I’ve come to lead the way.”
”Lead on. The sooner we find this guy, the better.” Quinn nodded to me, and moved toward the man. I followed right after, with the two other Peacekeepers following just behind me.
”It’s not a pretty scene.” Sergeant Helms said as soon as we all entered the apartment building, and began working our way down.
”It rarely ever is.” She flicked a finger, and the man’s flashlight abruptly cut off. It snapped back on a moment later, though this time diffused the light over the entire hall instead of just lighting up a section. The halo did give off some light, yes, but it wasn’t enough to walk by.
Sergeant Helms’ stride paused for a moment, and he shook his head. “Neat trick.”
“Mmm…” She hummed softly.
The rest of the walk was silent all the way down to street-level. We exited out of the building, and the sergeant led us to an alley right next door. Glow sticks had been tossed around the area, and lit up the grisly scene.
I smelled it long before I saw it, but even that couldn’t prepare me for just how much gore was spread around the alley. My nose twitched in disgust. And this was after it’d been raining quite heavily on the entire area. It must’ve been a true bloodbath just after the slaughter first happened.
I stopped just shy of a corpse, and wrapped my tail up so it wouldn’t drag across the filthy ground. It was one of several headless ones that’d been left to rot in the alley. All of them had similar clothing and tattoos, and most had various bats and pipes laying next to them like they’d gone down fighting. ”This should be the gang.”
“Identities are still being run.” Sergeant Helms stopped at the mouth of the alley behind us, and didn’t walk in. “It's a bit hard to identify them without heads.”
“One sec.” Quinn stepped up just beside me. A beat later, light flashed from above like a spotlight had been directed onto us. A small lens of water redirected part of her moon’s light down onto us.
”Well, that makes it easier.” I turned back to Helms and the two PK. “You guys check this out already?”
”I didn’t step a single foot in there.” Helms shook his head sharply. “No telling if there was a trap left behind or something.”
Aka, he was a raging coward. He didn’t smell of blood, so I figured it was something like that. I shook my head, and crouched down next to a dead woman. Her neck ended in a gory mess of a stump. It wasn’t just her head missing. It appeared her entire spine had been ripped out too.
”You do your thing.” My fearless Guardian took a step back with a slightly pale face. She could handle all sorts of monsters without flinching, but corpses still got to her. “I’ll… chat with the PK. See if they know anything more.”
“Sure, sure.” I waved back toward her, and leaned a bit closer. The woman had a metal arm and a spiked bat. I recognized the model of the bionic limb. She was nowhere near as much of a threat as a true Beyonder, but she probably wouldn’t have gone down easily either.
The rest of them were similarly armed, for that matter. We were dealing with at least a tier-two calamity of some kind. My gut instinct said it was Skulltaker, but the missing spine indicated some other kind of skull-obsessed freak.
I sniffed lightly, and tried to pick apart the scent trails. They were partly washed away by the rain and smothered by blood, but there were at least eight semi-fresh ones. Only seven corpses, though…
Okay, one walked out. Survivor? No, not likely. Not with this level of a massacre. Maybe whoever it was became the new host for our mysterious calamity if this was what I thought it was?
I shuffled over to a dead man, and checked his injuries too. He’d been slashed across the stomach by something incredibly sharp. He still had his spine, but his head was likewise gone. I sat back on my heels, and checked the rest of them. Probably not a Skulltaker? Besides, if it was one, the death toll would’ve spiked significantly. They weren’t known for being quiet.
All eight scent trails were roughly the same too, like they were a group. Maybe… I glanced back at the woman. If the calamity was a Skullker, then they were masters of mimicking and ambushing. Maybe it killed the woman long before, and puppeteered her corpse around. Finally, it saw its chance and ambushed the rest of the group here.
I looked around the area for bone fragments. They were displaced by massive trauma and the rainwater, but I found several scattered around the area. Not a Skulltaker, then. Otherwise, it would’ve, well, taken their skulls instead of just shattering them.
Skullkers were usually weaker in combat, and stronger in other aspects. No way just one of them would’ve managed to take out an entire group like this without an issue. Not at tier-one, anyway. Maybe not even at tier-two. Did it already reach its third evolution? Just how long had this thing been in the city?
I stood up, and backed away from the scene toward Quinn. “Got it. There’s a high likelihood we’re dealing with a CE-5009, Skullker. Tier-two, at least. Maybe tier-three.”
“Shit.” Quinn pushed off the wall, and waved at Sergeant Helms. Her halo pulsed vibrantly. “I need you to seal the entire surrounding area—Reyna?”
Based on how old the corpses were—“Five block radius.”
”Right, you heard her. Five block radius.” Quinn pulled her phone out, and put in a call while backing out into the street. I guess unsurprisingly since the PK declared martial law, the streets right around here were totally empty. “I’ll report back.”
”Think it’s still in the area?” Sergeant Helms lifted his walkie-talkie, though looked back toward me doubtfully.
I did a bit of research on the way out here over everything that’d have a particular interest in heads, so I was quite caught up on the subject. “Skullkers usually don’t move far after feasting. It should still be right around here.”
The man sighed, and lifted his walkie-talkie back up while walking away. “This is Sergeant Helms—”
“Reyna,” Quinn called for me. She’d already finished her phone call. “What’s the plan to find this thing?”
”… let’s check the basement first.” Hopefully, there’d be more clues to help us find the calamity before it could kill anyone else. If not—well, I had some tricks up my sleeves to hunt it down.
”Right, it’s that one.” Quinn pointed across the street, and glanced back toward Sergeant Helms. He was in the middle of a rather heated discussion with someone on the other side of the radio. “They’ll catch up.”
“Roger.” I let her take the lead, and followed right behind her with my vi-rifle held at a low-ready. It wouldn’t surprise me if this thing took a chance to ambush us before we could fully hem it in. I’d rather be prepared should such a thing happen.
Light flickered from an open apartment door on the first floor of the building, and a kid sat there holding a flickering candle. His eyes lit up when they landed on Quinn, and he shot to his feet with the candle tightly clutched in his hands. His voice was childish with a slight tremble to it, “w-who’s there?”
”Hello! I’m Guardian Tidebreak.” Quinn forced a smile to her face and side-eyed me. Her question was clear even if she didn’t ask. Got him?
“A guardian?!” He jumped so quickly to his feet that it looked like he’d drop the candle. The flame flickered and bobbed around erratically.
”Whoa!” My tail shot straight, and I stepped forward to steady his hand. “Careful there.”
“Sowwy…” He sheepishly cupped the candle in two hands. His eyes never left Quinn as she continued down into the basement. “So cool.”
I seriously didn’t like kids. I was terrible with them. They were fragile little disasters that I never knew what to do with. Seriously, even just one strongly worded sentence could make them cry. Not to mention someone like me definitely shouldn’t be around them.
I softened my voice, and I crouched down in front of him. At the same time, I flicked on the safety of my vi-rifle and swiveled it around my hip so it was further away from him. “Hey there, kiddo. What’s your name?”
”Tommy!” His eyes snapped back to me. “Are you a Guardian too?!”
”Um, no. I’m a Canary.” I turned off my light so it wouldn’t blind the kid. “I’m… like a Guardian’s helper. Are your parents home?”
His excitement immediately dropped back into fear, and his grip tightened on the candle. “Nuh-uh. They’re at work…”
”Right.” ‘Course they were. “Did you light the candle yourself?”
”Mom and dad told me not to play with fire. The neighbor uncle gave it to me. His daughter’s crying was scaring me.” He held up a candle proudly. His eyes jumped to just behind me, and widened. “Woah! Is that a real tail!? It’s so fluffy!”
At least someone came to check on him… I glanced down the hall, and noticed shadows flickering under a few doors. The silver streaked limb wrapped around me, and batted the floor lightly just in front of him. “Have you never seen an Apex?”
”Um… I think there’s a lizard at school.” His eyes brightened, and he reached out a hand. He paused right after the initial motion though, and glanced up at me with puppy-eyes. “Can I touch it?”
“Fine.” I usually hated it when people touched my tail, but if it helped him stay calm, then whatever. “Can you help me out, Tommy? Can you go inside and lock the door?”
”B-but it’s scawy in there.” His hand tightened ever so slightly on my fur. He glanced over his shoulder to the apartment. “And how are mom and dad s’posed to find our home without the lights?”
”The lights will be back on in just a bit.” I tried to smile reassuringly.
His eyes filled with suspicion, and he glanced back out into the dark hallway. ”How do you know?”
Because we’re about to go murder the calamity responsible for it. “Because if they don’t, Tidebreak’s going to yell really loud at the power until it comes back.”
“O-okay.” The kid backed up into the apartment. He was hesitant though, and kept looking back toward me.
I recognized the fear in his eyes. It wasn’t of the dark, but of being alone. I couldn’t do much about that, but I also couldn’t stick around here much longer. I dug through my bag and pulled out a cheap action figure of Tidebreak. “Do you want to be our deputy, Tommy?”
”De-pu-ty?” He sounded the word out, and accepted the action figure in his small hand. “What’s that?”
”Like me! We help Guardians.” Close enough, anyway. His parents could probably explain it later. “Right, Tidebreak and I need to keep this place safe. Can you help?”
“Yes!” He backed away with a resolute expression, and hugged the action figure to his chest. He lifted the candle slightly higher as if to ward off any scary monsters lurking in the dark. “I’ll keep it safe.”
”Good.” I stood up and backed away from the door. A moment later, he closed the door and the lock softly clicked. That was one problem solved for now. Hopefully the calamity would be just as easily taken care of.