Spectrum Act 2, Chapter 2: Vigilant, Part 1

Anybody can be a monster

Act 2, Chapter 2: Vigilant, Part 1

It was a cold night in the town of Ravenglass, especially for spring. Gabriel was shivering some, even in his large dark brown coat he was still feeling the chill on his skin. He had a job to do, so he took a couple of deep breaths before reaching into a large duffel bag. “C'mon... C'mon...” He muttered to himself, sticking elbow deep into it before grabbing the two things he wanted by lacing them between his fingers. Pulling out a pair of binoculars and a small transceiver, he slipped it over his eyes with one hand, blinking a couple of times as he scanned the streets.

He scanned the cracked, pothole ridden roads and the knocked over street lamps, along with ruins of old cars that were scrapped for parts and left on cinder blocks instead of tires. He finally found what he was looking for, two men in dark blue coats and steel masks, blades strapped on their backs slowly walking out of the back alleyways, walking together as he observed them. His heart beating so hard that he had a very hard time keeping the binoculars steady enough to track them. He calmly spoke with each step, nowhere near loud enough for the two people 100 or so feet away from him to hear him. “One... Two... Three...” He counted, before turning to press the button on his receiver. “This channel secure, L?” He asked, the wind blowing at his hooded jacket, covering some of his face.

“Of course it is.” A male voice, slightly deeper than Gabriel's voice responded. “The channel we communicate on rotates every minute between over 270 different frequencies in a random order, It's actually pretty cool.” He added, clearly enjoying talking about some of the tech a little too much, a female voice, slightly fuzzy from being farther off than the two of them cut in. “Don't be a fool over trivial matters, L.” She reprimanded L quickly, before switching the subject, her voice was low and stern for a woman's, but it projected a very business like personality.

“G, do you have any information on our mark?” She asked Gabriel, Gabriel checked his binoculars one more time before responding. “This is my third scouting point, M. They're all moving to a central point near the edge of the city's slums.” He elaborated, making sure he spoke slowly and clearly enough for her to hear him though the fuzz. “That's about 5 miles off from my current location, my only guess as to why they would set up shop in the slums is because it's been long abaondoned. ” M deduced, sounding like she was pondering. “And I'm about 3 miles off.” L added, since he was finished gawking over how awesome walkie-talkies are.

“I don't actually know how far off I am. I don't think we'd be able to hit the place at the same time.” Gabriel admitted, he knew where the water treatment plant was but he never really bothered cross referencing maps or anything trivial like that. “We could meet at one place, discuss a plan and attack at the same time.” M thought aloud, she had quite an accent on her, it was more typical of people in western Rosewall, it reminded Gabriel of Robin's voice, since they lived in a similar area.

“I know a good place, there is an old grocery store just before the slums I checked like a week ago and they have a bunch of canned stuff we can eat!” L said with excitement, M sighing quietly as Gabriel slowly put away his Binoculars, closing the bag and hiking it back onto his shoulder. “Good luck getting there while we're still in the dark of night. Silent Fall's goons have been all over Ravenglass recently, it makes navigating a bloody pain.” M complained aloud, Gabriel sighed and slowly stepped over to pop open the door that lead to the staircase to head back down the building he climbed up, hand still on his receiver to speak. “Do you think we could tail them to wherever they're hiding from the store?” Gabriel asked, waiting for a response. “It's a good reconnaissance point, there are a lot of Silent Fall goons here, they'd need quite a big base of operations, and since it's the slums we can narrow it down.” M responded calmly, before changing the subject as Gabriel stopped, leaning on a railing.

“We'll meet at that grocery store near the slum border,” M ordered with a demanding voice, Gabriel slowly beginning to climb down the stairs and get to the bottom of the abandoned apartment complex, he popped the door open just enough to look out of it and check for anyone nearby, but it seemed clear. “I want radio silence for the next 30 minutes, after those 30 minutes I will be issuing a status report. Find a safe place to have a conversation within that time as you make your way, understood?” She asked for confirmation, there was a brief pause as Gabriel slowly pushed the door open. “Got it.” L replied, Gabriel hitting the talk button one more time before attempting to put it back in his bag.

“Well... What direction is the slums again?” Gabriel asked with an awkward chuckle, two audible sighs coming from both people on the other side of the radio line. “It's southwest of your current location, it's along the shore since it's a WATER TREATMENT PLANT! Go Southwest!” L bemoaned to Gabriel, Gabriel sighed himself and put away the radio into his back hastily, hiking his bag up over his shoulder.

He calmly stepped out onto the main road, walking past a couple of the buildings with no feeling of immediate threat, but just for safety's sake, he quietly dipped into an alleyway, the ground still riddled with puddles from the rain earlier today, even if the sky had cleared hours before. It was oddly peaceful in the silence, even if the silence is because of something pretty grim in nature. The city wasn't a big one, it covered a fairly big area but it was sparse unless you were downtown. His parents lived there for a couple of years and it was nice to leave the big city of Riverside to come back home and recharge here.

It was full of stores where all the people walking in knew the shopkeepers and the shopkeepers could call the customers by name, it was more of a family than a town at times especially during the holidays. You would often get your neighbors involved in birthday parties and even if you didn't have family, this place was just a good place to settle down. Gabriel wanted to come here with a girl one day to marry her and settle down since it was a pretty relaxed town, if they ever wanted their lives to be busy, he would be able to pick when it was busy instead of having that come to him.

At least, that was what he hoped. About 6 months ago, the city was attacked by a massive roaming pack of Riftfallen, they tend to congregate together into bigger and bigger groups if they go unchecked. The entire town was hit by a wave of them, thousands died or fled to the coast to hope to halt the attack. By the time Spectrum arrived, the damage was done, and it was more collecting the bodies than actually helping anyone. One of the biggest flaws of Spectrum was the fact they were more reactive than proactive, and if you were not in Rosewall or any other major operating cities, you had to sit on your thumbs to wait until they helped.

They had a police force, but due to the laws put in place by Rosewall's attempt to reduce violence after the fiefdoms collapsed post invasion by Astra, they weren't equipped to take down anything outside of a typical criminal, not a giant monster, and definitely not a pack of them. Monsters attacked Gabriel's sister, Karen while she was in her middle school. She died, and her parents called so he could attend her funeral. Not visiting her in the hospital, not giving her support, not saving her... Her funeral. Gabriel was heartbroken, he left home in one of his attempts to find his calling and be part of something bigger than himself, and his sister dies without even hearing a phone call from him.

The funeral was depressing, but what was even worse was the condition of the town, it was falling apart. People were abandoning it instead of rebuilding it because they realized that if they can't save themselves, or be saved, that being here was a death sentence.
His parents were one of the many people who migrated away from the city for greener pastures, they somewhat lost Gabriel's respect from that. He understood that maybe this wasn't the safest place to live, but he felt like it shouldn't be thrown aside like a lost cause and turning it into a ghost town. Some people stayed in hopes to rebuild and Gabriel, who was soul searching at the time volunteered to help with the rebuilding. But once again, because life is a pain in the ass, Silent Fall began to station here.

They scuttle about like vultures waiting for the husks of towns or companies to cry its shrill death rattle before coming in to pick up the pieces and bolster their own cause. They prey on the weak, not intending to harm them, but to use their vulnerability and bitterness to coerce them into joining their cause. It's a bit gross, especially if you manage to keep up on the radios and televisions on how they pretty much straight murder and rob from people.

It turned out that his house was in disrepair, he was forced to pack up and wander the city to see if he could find a place to live while he helps keep everything together. This is where he met Spera, A small group of people led by a young woman named Mia Thompson, Her and her group live in an abandoned hotel to sell stolen goods to passerby's to make enough money to both build up the hotel as a place to live, but to supply the people who decide to support Spera by stealing weapons from Silent Fall's encampments.

This was one of those runs, but this one was different, this was the first one Gabriel was involved in it, and he felt very nervous, even if he continued to just quietly walk through the alleyways with no opposition. He would look up to occasionally check the position of the moon to see if he was traveling the right way, since he didn't stash a compass on himself for this situation. He realized to actually go southwest, he would have to duck out of the alleyway. He calmly approached around the roadway to see if there were any members of Silent Fall patrolling the area.

There were about 2 people standing by a makeshift campfire, probably using some kerosene and cloth to make some warmth to stave off the bite of being in such a cold area in the middle of the night. He quietly began to step onto the sidewalk as it was the only other pathway, he guessed he would just have to stay quiet and out of line of sight to be able to slip past them. He quietly began to crouch down, leaning against a couple of the ruins of cars to maybe make himself more inconspicuous. He occasionally peaked back up to check if they were sitting still, when suddenly his receiver went off in his backpack. “It's been 30 minutes, where are you?” It rang out in the open air of the night, making it seam louder than it was.

Gabriel panicked, struggling to get his backpack off and pull the receiver out to turn it off, he was still pretty new to this and he wasn't sure of all the procedures Spera would have him do. The two Silent Fall members grabbed their blades, turning their head to his direction. “What was that?” One of them asked, sporting a full beard underneath his mask. The one who was clean shaven turned to the bearded one and shrugged his shoulders. “No clue, let's find out.” He replied, both of them getting up and slowly walking over to investigate. “G, please respond.” Mia spoke a second time to try and get him to report. Gabriel lost his mind, dropping the receiver onto the ground before picking it up and turning it off, putting it in his pocket and getting ready to run as a pair of hands grabbed onto his shoulders to yank him into standing up, a sword held at his throat.

“Ain't it a little past curfew, kiddo?” He said in a mocking tone to Gabriel, Gabriel began to struggle, but that just made the bearded man squeeze a little tighter. “What are you doing out here?” The other man asked, the moonlight reflecting from his brushed steel mask. Gabriel growled a bit before glaring at them. “None of your damn business.” He muttered out, the man not holding him punching him square in the stomach in response.
Gabriel groaned, bending forward as far as they let him until they wrenched on him. “I think it's our business now, kid.” He replied with a threat, Gabriel suddenly kicking one man square in the chest while simultaneously smashing his head into the chin of the bearded man. Using the shock to slip to the ground, his shoulders planting on the pavement. He quickly rolled and got back on his feet, the two men already about to give chase. Gabriel spun on his feet and broke out into a sprint, covering the ground with the two in tow. They ran at roughly the same speed, Gabriel dipping into another alleyway down the road. There was a dumpster along with some rusty pipes, boxes and various other trash. He grabbed a pipe and rolled behind the garbage can to wait. They both ran past, Gabriel shouting as he charged at them.

He clocked one with the pipe as hard as he could, sending him to the floor with a small amount of blood coming from a wound in the back of his head. This was the downside to using Pulse armor, you can only block something you know is going to hit you. The other man was not caught by surprise, so the trick could only work once. He swung at Gabriel with his blade, Gabriel hopping over it and tucking into a roll to grab the blade of the knocked out man. The man dashed using pulse with sudden speed, slicing Gabriel on the shoulder deep enough for him to wince in pain.

He slung the blade in his other arm, slashing at the man's chest, but it just got pushed away by his Pulse. He sighed some, grabbing the blade with both hands as the man lunged at him again, catching his blade with Gabriel's to a stalemate. The man had a couple inches and a couple dozen pounds to Gabriel, meaning he knew he would probably lose in a test of strength. Gabriel spun the blade in a circle, making a ringing sound as the blades swung together until the bearded man pushed off hard enough for Gabriel to step back to regain his footing.

He swung at the ground, Gabriel leaping back and dodging it with a handspring, before quickly using the momentum to leap in and quickly slash 3 times at his chest. They all bounced off, but blocking with pulse whittled down stamina, and the bearded Silent Fall member was starting to breath heavier and move more sluggishly. While he was tired as well, he at least had the advantage of being more athletic. He smashed his fist into Gabriel, while he blocked it as well, he still had to reel back from the momentum, the big man smashing his leg so hard against his sternum that he fell onto his back.

“Time's up!” The guy shouted, lifting his sword over his head in an attempt to smash it back down and kill Gabriel in one hit. Gabriel quickly lurched onto his shoulders, smashing his calf into the blade to knock it to the side, the sword cutting the same arm he got his shoulder injury with a quite nasty looking gash. He groaned in pain, the man pulling his blade and kicking him in the side and making him roll along the ground, shouting in pain.

He stood back up and rubbed his arm, giving a cough as the man charged at him once again, he quickly parried the strike and ducked behind him, smashing shoulder first into him and sending him careening onto his face. He quickly dove overtop of him, ripping off his mask and smashing his elbow into the back of his head over and over again until he was knocked out. He sighed and began to pant, standing back up and stumbling over to his bag to open it back up.

He pulled out some bandages along with his receiver. He grabbed the sleeve of his now torn, bloodstained coat and slowly began to roll it back. The gash on his arm was pretty nasty, but nothing extremely hindering. He grabbed his bandage in one hand and spun it along his arm, a red stain quickly forming as he tied it and cut it with his teeth before putting it in his bag. He walked between the two unconscious men and turned his radio back on. “I'm here guys, sorry about that... not turning off the radio made them catch me.” Gabriel stated, his breath still heavy as he slowly tried to recover.
“And how did you deal with them?” Mia asked, Gabriel grabbed his bag and hiked it back onto his shoulder as he leaned against the wall of the alleyway, when he was done with the conversation, he was intending to walk down it since conveniently it was going the same way he was preparing to go. “Both of them are out cold,” Gabriel started, the bag on his shoulders feeling much heavier. He decided to keep one of the blades, even though he didn't have a sheathe for it just yet.

“What is the status on you, M?” L asked, Mia pausing some from annoyance her response for Gabriel got cut off. “Well, I haven't caught on the attention of anything so far, I had a close call but it's been a pretty quiet night.” Mia responded quickly, waiting for L to ask any other questions before he cut in with his own status report. “I'm just outside of the store, actually.” L mentioned, Gabriel shaking his head some, before going down to check if both men were still knocked out. The aching in his shoulder wound was being stung by the cold night wind, but it was slowly fading as the bleeding stopped itself.

“Well good for you, I guess.” Mia said, not really too interested in that fact since only one of three people were at their destination before their actual destination, she cleared her throat some to address Gabriel directly. “G, Dispose of the two men you've come across and proceed to our objective.” Mia stated sternly, Gabriel feeling some confusion at the statement, blade still in his other hand. “Wait... Dispose?” He wondered aloud, Mia quickly confirming the statement. “Yes, kill them and move the bodies somewhere that's hard to notice.” She commanded, Gabriel's hair stood up on the back of his neck as he heard that, his confidence broken as he had to ask her why.

“Kill them? Why kill them? I dealt with the problem... As soon as they're up, I'll be a ghost.” Gabriel tried to justify, pacing the ground a bit as Mia grew somewhat incensed. “No, dispose of them Gabriel.” She spoke again with a stern order, her somewhat deep sounding accent coming through her anger. “Spera is a secret operation, as soon as Silent Fall know of our existence they will effectively take steps against us, halting our progress in rebuilding this damned town.” She ranted some, Gabriel frowning a bit as he looked at the two men. “If you let them live, they will report in with your interference and we may face retaliation.” She said, Gabriel furrowing his brow and looking at the floor, not saying anything.

“It's not like I revel in murder, Gabriel. I'm just making sure we're erring on the side of caution.” She said, hoping to convince him. He sighed and spoke quietly into the radio, not really having the energy to shout. “It feels wrong, it makes me think we're not any better than these people are.” Gabriel said, sitting down on the concrete and eyeing the short sword he put in his lap. There was another short pause before the radio made a static sound to indicate someone has pressed the button once again.

“When the rules we always use to dictate how the world works break down, when we truly have no one else to rely on... Humanity becomes a war.” Mia began to essentially start a tract, whenever she got passionate about something she would do these kinds of grandiose speeches hoping to justify her point by pretending to be an authority. “It's not anymore about your fellow man, this might contradict what you've learned in school that humanity is a social creature. When things go to shit, we will throw anyone else under the bus to get what we need.” She continued, Gabriel glaring at the radio some more as she continued.

“These men oppose us, these men oppress us, these men want to see everything we've built so far in the ruins of tragedy and they want to pull out their dicks and piss on our graves to just spite us. It's us or them, we adapt or we die, Gabriel. I've chosen us, these men have thrown away their humanity to prove an absolutely ignorant point by using violence to promote equality. ” She added, Gabriel standing up and tucking the blade gently under one of his arms.

“They've made their decision, they've chosen to become our enemies. And out in the streets of chaos, where rules are discarded and humanity goes back to it's brutal roots of man vs man to prove who is worthy of survival... Our enemies need to die so we may live. Kill them, Gabriel; or damn us all.” She finished and immediately shut her radio off, Gabriel slightly wiping a tear he felt forming in his eye. He paused, grabbing his blade and crouching down to hold it at the throat of the one without the beard. He felt his hands shake, he never really intentionally took a life before. The most he's ever done was squash a spider who got into his car... But those animals don't really think or show much emotion.

This was a person, he had a family, friends, and a goal in his life. He went down the wrong path, but everyone has a reason for it. Does he really have to harm someone to keep himself safe? But... If they get up, they will oust him and eventually Spera and all the remaining survivors of the town might get destroyed. Gabriel paused once again, taking a deep breath as he tried to fulfill the order... But he couldn't. He realized then and there that he wasn't the kind of person who could kill someone for his own gain... Some people might be able to, but he wasn't one of them. Yes, he might be a bad man, and yes he did attempt to attack Gabriel with a malefic intent, but Gabriel just didn't know if that means he should die.

He might be considered weak, or stupid, or using his heart over his head... But this respect for another life capable of feeling felt like it was the only string he could hold onto after his family left his life and his many failures afterward. Yet... Keeping him alive means this will cause more bloodshed. Keeping these two people alive could potentially cause another one hundred deaths. Women, children, elders, his friends, Lucas's little sister, Violet. All wiped out in a massive pointless act of revenge just because Gabriel couldn't muster the courage to do one morally reprehensible act.

It's for the best, it's the best chance they have for survival... But Gabriel realized then and there that he wasn't a killing man. He shouted, grabbing his stolen sword and threw it as hard as he could, bouncing off a wall and sliding along the concrete. “God damn it!” He screamed, looking at the ground to see the two bodies, before stomping away from them in his intended goal. “Yeah, it's kind of a shitty policy, G, but we all have to listen to it.” Lucas said, still thinking Gabriel is still in the middle of making a decision.

“Did you do it?” Mia asked Gabriel, hoping the pause was enough time to listen to orders. “....Yeah, I did.” Gabriel lied, he wanted to help Spera every way he can, but not if he has to become a monster. “Proceed as planned.” Mia stated, before turning off her receiver. Gabriel turned off his, sliding it back into the bag on his shoulder and he sighed quietly. He began to walk off to the store they promised to meet at as he thought quietly to himself.“Even if they do attack... I'll stop them my damn self,” He quietly muttered, rubbing his injured arm as he broke out into a run, not seeing anyone near by and trying to cover some more distance.

“Come what may.”

Spectrum: Act 1 recap

This chapter is to remind you guys (And me) of the current plot.

Spectrum Recap: Act 1

Maria Roth's parents were killed just after she got back home from school, when a Riftfallen Phoenix like creature burned down her home, she narrowly escaped with her life as she was placed in a hospital for the next 2 years to treat both her burns and the Ash Syndrome, a disease only people who get Ash, a magical artifact inside all Riftfallen inside of her bloodstream.

Maria; Who is now 15, gets out of the hospital and is sent to a boarding school, where she didn't make any friends, she heard of a school called Spectrum, a place where teenagers and adults can learn to combat the monsters themselves, since you have to be either a member of Spectrum or the Military to gain legal access to weapons, Maria joins for the sake of vengeance.

Her sister Sienna, a 5 year veteran at the school realizes that Maria is joining the academy and speaks to the higher ups to get her on her team, along with Maria's childhood friend and heiress to a large weapons manufacturing company, Lily Sterling, a somewhat tomboyish girl, Morgan Leland and a member of the house Goldshore, a remnant of the former collection of small fiefdoms that took up Rosewall before a counsel took over.

They hold a small fighting tournament using sword like weapons to gather information about how each one fares in physical combat, after losing two times in a row, Maria challenges Morgan to a fist fight instead, which the brash Morgan accepts wholeheartedly. Maria manages to win even with the size disadvantage thanks to a mixture of her recklessness and perseverance, but she pays the price and gets injured.

She wakes up to Lily in the hospital 3 days later, who helps her out of the hospital and lets them meet their sister team, a second team who will do missions the most often with them. This team had Jonah Delaney, a somewhat meek, but smart kid. Gabriel, who was friendly but also somewhat of a headcase, Erika Wolfe, who was friendly but quiet. And Florence Goldshore, Robin's younger brother and somewhat of a naive boy.

Sienna also introduces the other teams instructor, Ashley Willows; a woman missing one of her eyes. Thanks to Maria's injury, the exam was postponed a couple of days until she recovered from her head injury, but they are still able to get their weapons. Maria gets upset over her lack of funds and walks off after getting her weapon to go rest.

Morgan makes a quick detour to her old orphanage she grew up in, using some extra money Lily gave her to buy some food and donate it to them out of kindness. The kindly woman running the orphanage displays concern for her, but also notes her brother is seemingly missing. Morgan reassures her and leaves to go back to her dorm, where Robin tells her Maria is sleeping. Morgan complains to Robin after learning of her motivations that she was only in Spectrum to protect her brother, who seemed eager to go that she isn't motivated.

A week later, Maria has a nightmare and wakes up to realize that she was seeing a small apparition of a phoenix. This phoenix, named Gale, is a manifestation of a small amount of Ash from the phoenix after it partially possessed her as a last resort before it's defeat. It has somehow regained some aspects of his old personality and seems apologetic, Maria snaps and attacks it, partially destroying her room before storming off, where she finds Jonah. Jonah tells her to go eat to make herself feel better and she promptly agrees. She meets an Astrian named Cassandra and they get to know each other, sharing a sandwich before meeting up for her exam.

The exam is to retrieve a trophy hidden inside of a temple buried into a mountainside, they are given armbands that will extract them from the area if they're too wounded to continue. They get placed into pairs and everyone leaves in intervals of a couple minutes. Morgan and Lily, known to argue a bit about politics are paired together and it is nearly an hour of uncomfortable silence.

Morgan insults Lily over her inaction and the ethics of her father, Lily is insulted and it turns into a fight where Lily reveals that she was used to being bullied like this. Robin eventually shows up to stop the fight from getting any more violent, and Lily storms off wanting to quit. After leaving, Lily finds Maria, who convinces her to continue with her team instead.

Lily, Jonah and Maria are walking down the forest path before coming across a river, they attempt to cross it and are moderately successful until Jonah misses the rope and is carried downstream. Gabriel and Erika then arrive to come and help them, and they team up together to get to the temple. The sun sets and they are forced to camp for the night, Maria struggles to sleep and it awoken by the sound of Riftfallen wolves stalking the camp.

She warns the rest of her team and a skirmish ensues, everyone gets lightly wounded sans Maria, who's attempt at a gambit left her with a massive gaping wound in her arm that forces her vital warning to activate. This forces Maria to extract from the mission and leave the total group to 7. Lily gets a huge scar on one side of her face, but is still able to continue.

In the morning, they all arrive at the temple and head inside, they decide to split up in the labyrinthine temple to get each artifact, Robin and Lily leave together to discuss their lives and find it for themselves. They manage to get it, but it turns out that from the heavy rainfall the entire underground temple was really a sinkhole, and they were forced to hurry before it could collapse with them inside.

After waiting, everyone manages to get their relics and head back home safely.

Maria gets out of the hospital one night later, still quite wounded but able to walk, Sienna comes to meet her, but she's acting suspicious. Sienna asks Maria to come with her to Maria's dorm so they could discuss an issue together and Maria reluctantly accepts.

Sienna is worried about Maria's mental state, as her disposition is different from 2.5 years ago and it seems like she doesn't have a sense of personal safety, so she offers an ultimatum. Maria will leave Spectrum and go back to her school where she is safe, or Sienna will report her for mental issues and force her to leave instead. This upsets Maria, who then slaps Sienna and storms out of Spectrum in a rage presumably to rather quit than be kicked out.

Maria, now more calm and somber decides to visit said school to reminisce, before heading to her parents graves as she hasn't gone there before. Gale manifests and they discuss how his possession works, him revealing that since he technically possessed Maria, her being a living creature and possession being the main way Riftfallen tend to manifest, theoretically possible. Decides to tell her that he considers his lack of actions penance for him ruining her life.

Before returning to her boarding school, Maria decides to go look at her home one last time, even if it was rebuilt and repainted. She gets the feeling to explore the basement, since she's never been inside anymore. She finds the tattered remnants of her mother's scarf, and Ashley in a car who revealed that she's been following Maria at Sienna's request. Maria decided to go back to Spectrum under Ashley's team, instead of Sienna.
Lily also leaves Sienna's team to be with Maria, leaving them with Jonah and Gabriel, Maria's weapon is confiscated and she inherits Ashley's old weapon, named Sangris.

A couple of weeks later, Maria and her team decide to go eat lunch together, when Maria stops someone from bullying Cassandra. They have idle chat about school live and electives when Maria reveals that she's having some major money issues and doesn't want to rely on Lily for everything. Cassandra mentions they have an advanced cooking club that offers discounts and Maria gets psyched to join it.

Maria fails the cooking class horribly, so horribly she gets kicked out. Cassandra offers some condolence but Maria finds out a bout a club for people who like to fight, and as a boxing fan, Maria decides to join it. She finds Morgan as a member and a strange teacher named Sebastian Ritters manning the whole thing. The woman who was bullying Cassandra earlier said she was going to be there, so Maria challenged her to a fight as soon as she saw her.

The fight is vicious, but thanks to Maria's built in toughness and the anti-advice of Morgan, the fight ends in a draw and Maria gets to stay. Then thanks to Lily, she gets a pet cat, Snowy, along with a set of depressing and hypnotic cooking DVD's to watch to help her be more self sufficient.

Physical training begins and after 5 months of work, their training begins on using their weapons Pulse ability. Pulse being the main way to combat monsters, Gabriels sister dies in a Riftfallen attack, and is forced to leave Spectrum to be with them. Caleb, a childhood bully of Jonah joins the team in his stead and to Jonahs protests, and they continue their training after Morgan's team leaves.

Morgan gets a phone call just after training by her brother, Nick, to meet him outside of the school for a private conversation. Nick reveals to her that he was working for the Rosewall syndicate, but ended up being intimidated into joining a terrorist offbranch of the syndicate and was afraid to leave, saying that it'd be best for Morgan to consider him dead. Morgan gets upset as he walks off, but Lily encounters her and they make up for their spat over 5 months ago, Maria gets nachos.

A week later, Maria has her birthday just before the end of the year. After training, Maria heads back inside to find that her sister brought her a cake and wished to speak with her. We find out that both sides felt bad about the entire situation with Maria leaving the team, and also decide to try and make amends even if the situation was still rocky between the both of them, Lily gets Maria a cat sweater.

Morgan asks the head of Spectum, Chancellor Steele to consider assistance for saving Nick from being in the terrorist organization, Silent fall. But she is disappointed to find out that he only asks her to recuse herself and have him go to jail instead. They get an emergency signal and are requested to join their first mission.

They are briefed that while they aren't strong enough to wipe out the riftfallen in the area, that they could run evacuation on people who were currently trapped in a mall. They get on the helicopters and are deployed in the area. The mission goes smoothly until a mother reveals she left her son and husband in the mall, Maria decides to go get them.

The husband is dead, but thanks to her and Gale, they manage to get the boy to come with her after she finishes off some stragglers by herself. They are forced to sneak around the alleyways due to a resurgence in Riftfallen as Lily gives them a distress signal and requests for help, Maria too trapped to help her.
Lily attempts to stop a robbery of a store, only to find out that Maria couldn't come and she was vastly outnumbered. The leader of the robbers reveals that he is Wolf, the leader of Silent Fall. He explains his motivations and promptly knocks Lily out using his goons, and Lily is extracted from the mission. Maria encounters a huge group of monsters and tries to lure them to fight her in small groups while issuing a distress signal.

Help arrives and Maria and her team manage to get back to the extraction point with the boy safe, Maria goes to check on them before leaving herself.

3 days later, Caleb adopts a dog named Sasha and tells Maria to come see him and Jonah for a surprise later, Maria goes to pick Lily up from the hospital. Lily was disheartened by her lack of ability, and Maria is forced to attempt to give her some confidence. They head back to the dorm to a surprise party with drinks and ice cream, but are forced to sit at the kids table as a prank. Maria gets mad and leaves as Lily notices that Morgan is missing.

Morgan, later that night goes downtown to meet the leader of the syndicate, Stella Rousell. She explains that the leader of Silent Fall is a man named Elliot, and offers her a cell phone in exchange for her assistance in saving her brother, as Spectrum won't lift a finger for her. Morgan agrees before leaving to await her phone call to reveal what exactly she's going to do.

Spectrum #20: Fear, Part 4

Thanks for everyone who were patient enough to see me write 20 chapters of this.

Chapter 20: Fear, Part 4

Maria and Sam were ducking in and out of alleyways to avoid the sudden insurgence of monsters, as she wasn't sure she could take them on by herself with such massive amounts. She pressed her back against the corner of a wall, Sam mimicking her somewhat but more panicked as she peered around the corner, finding a Riftfallen rat the size of a dog looking around for food. She turned to the kid, putting her finger over her lips in a silent way of her usual telling him to shut the fuck up. He nodded as Maria quietly drew her blade.

She walked quietly, trying to avoid a fairly large pool of water formed by the recent rain dripping from a leaky gutter of an apartment. She spun the blade around in her hand, stabbing it in the back of the head with little fuss in one swift movement. She pulled her blade and lightly wiping it off on her sleeve. “Okay, we're good.” Maria said loudly enough so that Sam could hear. He came walking out behind the corner as Maria leaned up against one of the walls.

“How much farther is the shelter, anyway?” The kid complained, Maria tapping the interface to check a GPS mapped area of where they currently are. “It's about a mile, but since we've been dipping back and fourth like dumb asses I suspect we've been walking twice as much as that.” Maria answered, lightly scrolling back and forth to figure out the route. “You know you just called yourself a dumb ass, right?” He mentioned, Maria looking up as her eyes widened. “Holy shit, you're right.” She realized, before leaning down and pressing another button.

“HQ, Any word on Lily's condition?” Maria asked, one of the intel staff responded quickly in side of Cpt. Geralt's scanning room. “She was extracted and is currently in serious condition as of 3:47PM.” He replied, Maria sighing and turning off the broadcast for now. “Well... damn.” Maria muttered, checking the map one last time. “Unfortunately we have no choice but to head down the street. It's another 1000 feet until the shelter, but we're completely shot when it comes down to dipping through back roads unless you want to go rummaging through peoples houses as a shortcut.” Maria explained.

The kid scratched his chin and adjusted his baseball cap for his favorite professional wrestler. “And what's wrong with going through peoples houses?” Maria turned around, glaring at him with a wide eyed glare. “...Have you EVER GONE TO SCHOOL!? No one likes it when you break in to their house, kid.” Maria complained, bending down to get eye level with him.. which was only a couple of inches.

“Uhh... Fine. So why were we not on the road again?” He asked her, She walked around a dumpster and looked around the other side.. And it was currently packed with Riftfallen... While she could spend time counting all of them, that would be both 1; A massive waste of time. And 2; kind of keeping her from actually doing her job. “Well I was going to say 'so we don't get turned into paste on the road,' but we have no choice but to make a b-line for the shelter.” Maria replied, the kid peering around the corner as well and realizing that there was at least a couple dozen Riftfallen between them and where they're supposed to go.

“Are you out of your mind!? Why can't we just call in a helicopter?!” Sam complained to her but Maria sighed and turned to him once again. “Extraction points are for large groups of people to remove them as efficiently as possible, they aren't going to pick up a single Spectrum member and snot nosed kid... It isn't a taxi service.” Maria scolded, the kid sighing and looking at the floor. “So... Are we screwed?” He asked her out of the sense of fear that was washing over him. Maria growled and looked back around the corner at the Riftfallen.
“No.” Maria stated, slowly lifting her wrist up to her face to speak into it. “What do you mean?” He asked, Maria hitting another button to open her communicator. “All members of Solstice and all remaining members of Equinox... I need you guys here right damn now.” Maria spoke, before continuing. “Hell, EVERYONE IN THE VICINITY. There is a large mount of Riftfallen approaching the evacuation site and I need as many people as possible to help me cut a swath through them.” She announced, looking back at the kid before glancing up at the dumpster he was standing next to.

“This isn't an order, but if you don't want me to do my best ground beef impression, I suggest you help me the fuck out.” She finished, waiting for a reply. “You got it, Roth.” Erika replied, followed by Robin. “Me and Florence are going t-” She was cut off by her little brother yelling over her. “WE'RE GONNA SAVE YOU!” He shouted, Robin then sighing out of frustration. “I'll wake Caleb and we'll get there soon enough.” Jonah answered, before Maria turned to the kid and flipped open one of the doors to the dumpster.

“Get in.” Maria demanded, the kid looking at her like she is out of her damn mind. “...Why?” The kid asked, not sure he could come up with an insult for her from how out of nowhere this was. “I'm going to be fighting a bunch of shit that's going to murder you if you're ANYWHERE NEAR the action. You're gonna hide in here and only come out when either me or someone else says you can.” Maria explained, the kid still frowning a bit. “Are you sure?” He asked, Maria started to glare at him with annoyance. “Just get your scrawny ass in the dumpster already.” She snapped at him, he sighed and climbed into the dumpster which was luckily empty, though still quite putrid.

“Are you sure this is the only way I can be safe?” He asked, looking at the ground a bit and lightly stomping his foot. It was made of steel and gave a loud ringing sound. “Yeah, I'm pretty sure.” Maria said with some confidence, but he looked up at her with confusion once again. “So what are you going to go do?” He asked, not entirely sure of what hiding in a dumpster is supposed to help with. Maria reached up to grab the lid and look down at him. “Duck your head.” She stared, he was about to ask why, when suddenly he realized he should probably duck. Maria slamming the door shut on top of him and leaving him in complete darkness.

“Have fun in the dumpster, kid! I have to go stab some shit.” Maria said before walking into the street and visually counting all the monsters she saw in her head. While her combat training actually did help her fight the damn things, she wasn't sure how many she could actually take at once. She needs to think of something to make them come in waves so she can deal with them instead of being surrounded on all sides. She looked around her surroundings and found a rusted iron pipe resting on the side of the sidewalk near where some of the rain drains into the waterways beneath the streets. She grabs it and slowly walks away to a near by lamp post, lightly banging it and slowly getting louder.

This was her seeing how loud she could make the sound and lure some of the pack of creatures away by making the ones farther back or with worse hearing miss the sound. Four or five wolves perk their head and ears up and slowly come padding toward her, teeth bared as she grinned at them. “Come on, fuckers. It's playtime...” She said, trying to goad them closer to her as her other hand kept her sword pointed at them.

“A little more...” She said, banging a bit harder as one came lunging at her with a leap so high she was forced to look upward. She swiftly swung the pile and it smashed into it's head hard enough to kill it. “By the way, I hate dogs.” She said, drawing both her swords and launching herself as the small pack of beasts charged her all at once.

Jonah and Caleb were sitting outside of the shelter, he just got Maria's distress call and looked down at Caleb. Who was sitting up against the wall of the building, hugging his knees as he was taking a quick nap before the helicopter would have arrive to extract him and the rest of his team. “Uhh.. Caleb?” Jonah quietly said, bending his knees and looking at Caleb to see if he would notice him.

Caleb instantly planted his hands on the ground and jumped straight up onto his feet. “Yeah?” He asked, Jonah being shocked by his sudden awakening enough for him to shout and fall on his back. “AHH!” He shouted, Caleb crossing his hands and shaking his head. “What? I'm a light sleeper.” Caleb remarked, Jonah standing up and dusting off his shirt and pants. “Give a guy a fair warning first, jeeze...” He complained, but Caleb lightly patted him on the shoulder.

“Well, partner. Why wake me up?” He asked, Crossing his arms and looking around as he saw team Solstice currently looking at the both of them. “Maria needs help, we're going to give her a hand.” Jonah answered, Caleb scratching his head. “Did she sprain her ankle?” He wondered, completely confused as he barely saw a monster on his way there. Morgan walked up, patting her finger-less gloved hand on Jonahs shoulder as she walked up next to him. “Nah, it's a shit load of monsters. Let's go and kill stuff.” Morgan spoke flatly, with a slight grin. Caleb grinned as well and pumped his fist in response.

“Alright, let's move!” He shouted, Jonah drawing his sword and raising his shield as he broke out into a light run along with the 5 other rookie students. Caleb taking the lead with Morgan, Jonah following just behind with Erika, Florence and Robin. “Do you see them!?” Erika shouted, Morgan squinting a bit and seeing the big pile of monsters congregating just on the horizon. “Got an eye on them, T-minus one minute!” She shouted, drawing her huge sword from it's sheathe strapped to her back, holding it in both of her hands to one side as she ran.

They blitzed to Maria, when they got close enough they noticed that she was in the middle of the frey, slashing defensively at whatever attacks her, even if there was a massive amount of wolves surrounding her on all sides, she was putting all of her effort into dodging and just trying to slowly whittle the pack down, even if they were faster than her. One of them launched up and sliced at her, with Maria promptly dodging to one side and slashing it so it shot a geyser of black colored blood onto her visage.

Another minute later, Morgan charged pulse into her legs and launched herself over the entire pack of monsters to crash land on one just about to attack Maria, she pulled her blade out and slashed through a wave of small nearby wolves. “The cavalry has arrived!” Morgan shouted, turning her back to Maria to watch her flank. Maria panting a bit as she was starting to run out of gas. “Took you guys long enough, dick bags.” Maria complained, Leaping up and slashing a monster, though getting slashed across the chest hard enough to slice slightly into her armor.

“We like to make it dramatic.” Morgan replied, launching herself forward and clearing another swath of monsters with her claymore. Caleb's mace surrounded itself with fire as he dashed in shield first, swinging it and causing a massive fireball to blast and burn the small wolves to a cinder several yards away. “Only small fries? What a let down.” He commented, smashing one upside the head with a squelching ping sound, sending it flying as he blocked another one's attack just to parry it into Maria's abrupt stabbing. “Hey, it's one on like.. fifty!” She complained, at him as well, he just chuckled a bit as he continued to attack the Riftfallen left and right, clearly taking the most out for himself. “Well, I just wanted to point out that these were all juniors.”

He joked, before one caught him off guard, pouncing him to the ground and snarling at his face. Maria booted him off quickly and looked down at him with disdain. “Yeah... Whatever.” She remarked with a sigh, spinning and slashing another two approaching her. The battle continued on as they fought the huge pack off. Normally this would be much more difficult but luckily enough this hasn't developed into the usual powerful force packs these big normally become. After about 20 minutes of straight combat, all of them were wiped out, a blood soaked Maria lightly panting and slowly sheathing her blood caked swords back into the scabbards.

“Fuck... I didn't think we'd ever run out of them.” She sighed, Caleb putting his mace back into his holster as he walked up to her. Maria leaning down to put her hands on her knees and pant heavily. “Be glad this only took a while.” He commented, oddly more serious than he normally acts. Maria stood up and shook her head a bit. “What do you mean by that?” She asked, he just glared at her. “Don't act like what we just did is what all Spectrum fights... These guys were bottom of the barrel and I don't think any of you should feel confident.” He answered, Maria looking at the floor before scoffing a bit. “What a load.” She complained, but he shook his head at her and pointed the finger.

“The largest Riftfallen ever recorded was over 125 feet and required over 20 different teams to properly take down.” He answered, Maria's eyes opened wide at that, her arms slacking as she looked nearly shocked. “How the fuck do you fight that!?” She yelled, but he looked away for a second, before looking back at her and placing a hand on his hip. “Really damn carefully.” He answered, before cracking his knuckles and taking a stretch. Maria felt her confidence deflate a bit.. even if this was a big group of wolves... These were small fries? What did she even get herself into?

Then she realized she stuffed a kid into a dumpster nearly half an hour ago. “Shit.” She muttered to herself, dashing over the strewn bodies of the wolves slowly turning into smoke around her and making it into the back alleyway. Propping the lid up and looking at the kid as he squinted to adjust to the brightness of the light of the world after being put in a dank box for 30 minutes straight.

He looked at Maria, her face, arms, jacket and red scarf all drenched in a deep black, oil like blood. “What the hell happened to you?” He asked her, climbing out and lightly trying to get the circulation back into his tired legs from just sitting there for so long, something an active kid his age doesn't normally do. “I didn't think Riftfallen bled that much...” She answered, Closing the lid and crossing her arms as he looked around the corner. “Is it safe?” He asked, noticing all the slain monsters and 6 other Spectrum members sitting just beside them for a short rest.

“No shit it's safe, now lets get you to your mom already.” She said, patting him on the shoulder and bringing him out to the rest of the Spectrum members. “Who's the kid?” Morgan asked, looking at the ten year old kid walking next to Maria. “I uhh.. rescued him, kinda.” She kind of shrugged off that part, the kid looking up at her a bit as Morgan sighed. “Uhh... You know that KLP were probably going to rescue him, right?” She mentioned, Maria casually lifting her middle finger up at her.

“...Well the mother wanted me to go get him.” She mentioned, looking away from Morgan since she was feeling kind of stupid. “His dad died.” She added at the end of that, Morgan frowned a little and patted him on the shoulder. “Well... Shit.” Morgan sputtered out, looking down at him and lightly pushing him so they could walk to the shelter. “I'm sorry kid, losing a parent is always hard.” She said, walking with him, but the kid glared up at her somewhat. “I lost my parents before I was even 4 years old.” She answered, the kid's leer turned into a frown as the rest of the team quietly walked back to the helipad near the shelter where people were filtering in to be extracted. They walked beside Sienna and Ashley, who were awaiting their respective teams.
Sienna walked up to Maria and grabbed her in a tight hug, Maria struggling in her arms but realizing that she was too tired to break free, sighed and just lightly hugged her back instead. “I heard about what happened, Sis.” Sienna said, giving her a squeeze before letting go, Maria promptly taking a step back to avoid another hug. “Heh... I'm fine.” Maria replied with a light chuckle, rubbing the back of her head as Sienna inspected her thoroughly. “I don't think I've ever seen someone covered in so much blood.” Sienna commented, Maria was drenched in so much Riftfallen blood that the black pools predominantly coated her milky colored skin, it stained her hair, her scarf, her gloves, her boots and her jacket all at once.

“I kind of.. went overkill.” She responded, not really using any discretion about how messy the fight could get. “...Just promise me you'll shower after this.” Sienna demanded, Maria glaring up at her and huffing just a bit. “What are you, my mom?” Maria stated sardonically, Sienna breaking out into a chuckle at that as she pat her once again on her shoulder. “Even worse than a mother, you're my little Mary-Wary-kins.” She said, the last bit in a sarcastic sing-song tone to embarrass her just a bit.

“If you ever say that again, I'll bend your fingers so far back you'll be praising me for being able to itch your own damn forearms.” Maria growled out, but Sienna just chuckled again at her. “Sounds fun, Maria.” She shrugged the entire threat as a joke, as the helicopter descended in front of them both. “Look... You did great, Maria. I'm proud of you.” Sienna stated, placing her hands on Maria's shoulders and looking at her straight in her eyes. Maria just quietly looking back at her with no malice, but not sure what to say either.

“Keep up the good work, sis.” She said, before climbing back into the helicopter. Maria looked at the floor and crossed her arms over her own chest. “Thanks... I guess.” She muttered, before looking up at both teams Equinox and Solstice, standing just behind her. “Hell of a night, huh Roth?” Caleb said with a smile. Maria turned to him and quietly walked past him. “You could say that.” She answered, walking farther away from him. He turned around and raised his voice as her as she walked away. “Uhh... Where are you going?” He asked her, Maria turned back to him with a calm face as she stuffed her hands into her pockets. “Just need to check on something.” She responded, walking along the sidewal k and turning to the shelter.

She walked up the concrete steps and lightly pushed the blast proof glass doors aside. Slowly walking along the polished wood floor as she saw the near hundreds amount of evacuee's sitting in chairs awaiting their numbers to be drawn so they could go to a safer area via helicopter. She quietly looked around, scanning across the room until she found Sam, who was currently hugging her mother, face right in her stomach. She looked at the floor silently, getting ready to turn around when Gale once again showed up on her shoulder.

“Maria, You worked your butt off to help him... You could at least say hello.” He mentioned, Maria sighed and lightly began to walk toward them. “Fine, but it's gonna be awkward as shit.” She muttered, slowly walking up in front of the mother as she looked away from her kid and gently released her son. “Oh...You're the girl who went after my son.” She mentioned, the kid turning to her and smiling. “There's the girl that taught me all those new words!” He shouted, the mother slapping Maria in the face very firmly.

“What the hell!?” Maria shouted at her, the mother frowning at her indignantly. “That's for cursing in front of my child!” She claimed, before her expression softened and she looked up at Maria, who was currently rubbing her cheek in a bit of pain from the sudden slapping. “Thank you for bringing him back to me.” She said with a somber voice.

Maria frowned a little, reaching up to rub her arm as she tried to speak softly... But seriously, that slap to the face annoyed the shit out of her. “I'm sorry about your husband.” Maria muttered somewhat nervous to the mother's reaction. The mother frowned and wiped a hint of a tear that was forming in her eye. “If what Sam said was true... He died trying to protect him.” She replied, Looking down at Sam as he fiddled with his baseball cap.

“That's something only a father could do... Give up his life so no one could touch a hair on his son's head. I couldn't be mad at anyone, even if I will mourn him dearly...” She said, sighing a bit as she gently rubbed her son's shoulders. “I know... I just wanted to apologize I couldn't do more.” Maria closed her eyes, turning away before she started feeling any more emotions... She wasn't a big fan of getting sappy around other people. “Wait!” She shouted at Maria, making her stop in her tracks and turn her shoulder back to look at them.

“What's your name?” She asked suddenly, looking at her somewhat nervously. “I just want to know the name of the person who brought my son back.” She explained, Maria sighing and lightly raising her hand up to wave at them both. “The name's Maria Roth.” Maria answered, before spinning on a heel and beginning to walk away backwards from them and pointing an accusatory finger. “And you two better take care of yourselves, because I'll be annoyed as shit if I have to rescue you again!” She added to try and save some face before heading to the helicopter and returning back to her academy.

Spectrum #19: Fear, Part 3

This chapter might be a bit gruesome.

Chapter 19: Fear, Part 3

The owner of the factory was quietly sweeping the floor, while he did try and take some precautions for the monster invasion, he also realized that every hour he spent huddled up in fear was another hour he wasn't making enough money to pay both his workers and to feed his family. He swallowed the fear welling up in the back of his throat, and while he kept the doors locked he also left the front door sign to read 'Available.' His workers also came in to do some light inventory work behind the fairly large factory, just to make sure everything was in place.

He heard a firm knock at the front door of his storefront, the man in his 50's looked up at the door and noticed a man standing in front of it. He walked up to inspect through the thick glass door his appearance. He appeared to be in his mid or late 30's with long black hair to his shoulders, slicked back and combed so it wouldn't get in the way. He had a thick stubble on his face and bright blue eyes, looking at the old man with a calm expression. He wore a long blue leather coat over a black shirt and black dress pants, holding a cane in one hand, standing about average height for an adult.

The older man unlocked the door, pulling it open as the younger man looked at him with a calm expression. “Welcome sir, are you interested in buying some gardening equipment in bulk? We just received a new shipment of fertilizers. From natural, synthetic and pesticides... we have them all!” He added to the end, hoping to get the man interested in the variety. The younger man cleared his throat as he spoke with a soft, but clear voice.

“I run a small plantation just out of town, but the winter drought as of recent has made my plants malnourished. I needed something that could get my plants back to thriving as soon as the spring comes.” He explained, using his silvery cane to slowly walk inside, where the man locked the door behind him just for safety. The old man adjusted his glasses, thinking for a bit as the younger man leaned on the front desk as he spoke.

“Oh... If you want to get things up and running really fast.. I suggest an inorganic fertilizer, if you're one of those natural types it's not ideal, but it's pretty much the fastest thing you can do to get your crops back up and growing before the summer harvest starts.” He clarified, the man nodding quietly. “And I'm here to purchase in bulk, it's why I went to your factory instead of a general store.” He calmly explained himself.

“Is that why you had that big truck pulled out in front?” The older man asked, observing that a large unmarked truck was sitting in front of his store, blocking the street somewhat. “Essentially, yes.” The younger man replied. “So... You wish you purchase my wares. What's your name?” The older man asked, The younger man spun his cane quietly in his hands before catching it. “Jean, Jean Dupont.” He answered on cue, smiling at the older male as he turned around, slowly popping the door open. “Well, come to the back and pick your poison, we have plenty to pick from!” He said with a grin, glad business was starting to pick up.

“Do you have anything containing... nitrates?” Jean asked, walking quietly behind the man as he looked around on his many, many shelves. “Plenty of synthetic fertilizers have nitrates in them, heck, the ones in the back are quite potent.” He explained, Jean quietly walked behind him, nodding his head as he looked around the factory floor. There were rows and rows of bags ready to be shipped, along with a huge mixing machine to actually make the fertilizer. He gripped the tip of his cane and slowly began to twist it, the threading slowly spinning downward as he tried to make no noise. “And these are the ones you were talking about?” He asked, looking up at the huge rack they were walking toward.

“Yep, this is the one! Do you want to do the transaction by pocket or digitally?” He asked, walking up to the fertilizer and placing his hands on his hips. “What was your name?” Jean asked out of nowhere, the old man cocked his eyebrow, but thought nothing of it. “Thomas, Why do you as-” He got cut off, as a blade pierced through the back of his neck, bursting through his esophagus and throat as it shot out the front with a geyser of blood.

Jean slowly pulled the blade out as the man gripped his throat and a gasped rattle spurted from his mouth. Falling to the floor and looking up at Jean, slowly pulling a rag to wipe the blade of his now unsheathed cane of the fresh blood. “Unfortunately, Thomas... I'll need to reconsider how this transaction is going down.” He said, tossing the rag down to the floor, quietly watching him bleed to death as he reached into his coat. He pulled out a steel mask that was styled somewhat like a wolf's profile, strapping it to his head to obscure his face besides the eye-holes and his mouth.

“Have a nice day.” He quietly spoke to the dying man, turning around and reaching into his pocket to pull out a small radio. He held down the button, speaking to the person on the other side. “Are the other workers silenced?” He asked, keeping his mood very relaxed. The voice came in with the slight sound of static. “Yeah, Wolf. It was actually pretty easy.. I almost felt bad for them.” A voice answered that sounded somewhat like a rough voiced girl.

“Oh, I feel bad for them as well. They're just an unfortunate means to an end... They withheld from us and that unfortunately put us at a conflict. Everyone's a victim.” He explained, The windows being broke as several people stationed on top of the building slung down ropes, before bashing the factory windows in with Pulse enhanced kicks to the windows to head inside. Nearly 10 of them dropped to the floor from each window as they softly walked up to him.

“The fertilizer with the nitrates we need are stored in the southwest corner of this very shop. Grab as much as you can and be out in 10 minutes, Understood?” Wolfe ordered as he slowly screwed his cane back in to hide the blade, slowly turning around to walk away back to the entrance. “Yes sir!” the goons shouted, wearing their black masks and blue hooded jackets as they rushed over and grabbed the bags of fertilize and slinging them over their shoulders.

He walked out the front door, leaning against the wall as he quietly reached down to reach over to his coat pocket, pulling out a small locket and glancing down at it as his men came through the front door, carrying several bags of fertilizer per person, popping the back of the truck open and tossing them into the back.

Nearby, Lily was huddled up behind a car as she turned on her arm communicator to once again contact Maria. “It's been nearly 10 minutes since I've called you, why aren't you here yet...?” She asked Maria, but couldn't get any response for her on the other side, her channel was just a blank. Lily sighed, shaking her head and turning the channel back over to Jonah's and Caleb's. “Guys? Maria can't help, I need you guys!” She pleaded, looking at them as they began to stockpile their loot into the car, realizing that they would be gone before any help could even arrive.

“We'll come when we can, Lily! I just don't know how long 'we can' could be.” Jonah replied, currently dropping people off at the shelter roughly half a mile off. Normally that's a short distance.. but not when it's complete chaos. “I'm going in, it's now or never...” Lily muttered, Caleb chiming in with his own comment. “Don't do anything stupid, Lily... Stopping robbers just ain't our job.” This frustrated Lily, as she drew her long sword and sneaked up around the front of the van. She peered around one side of it, noticing it was about 2-3 guys.

One appeared to be their leader, taking a break as two of them loaded up a pile of bags from the ground. She took a deep breath and came out of hiding, pointing her blade at them both. “Halt!” She shouted, the three guys wearing their disguises just stared up at her, not reacting. “Can I help you, miss?” The leader, Wolf spoke. Leaning off the walk and not acting like she was much of a threat. “I saw what you were doing... You're robbing this place and killing the security amid the chaos of the invasion!” She accused, He looked up at her, giving a brief laugh. “Well... We were going to just rob it. But who knew the owner would have turned up at work today?” He explained, walking up to her, causing Lily to lower into a combat stance.

“He got in the way.” He added, before walking up to near arms length. “I'm here under jurisdiction of Spectrum... Cease this and I promise it won't be a fight.” She warned, but he quietly shook his head at her. “Not be a fight? You assumed there was going to be a fight?” He spoke in jest of her, which caused her to frown. She wanted to at least give them some kind of warning before she attacked... maybe they were the type to surrender.

“Are you daft? I'm not afraid of you, Miss Sterling... Even if you try to stop us, it's not going to be a fight.” He answered, This caused Lily to take a wild swing at him, though he wasn't close enough to actually get a proper slash in. Suddenly, from behind her two of the Silent Fall members grabbed her from behind. One of them grabbed her by the wrist of her sword arm and twisted it behind her back almost hard enough to break it. In pain, she dropped the blade.

The other one grabbed onto her torso and picked her up, slamming her into a wall after kicking away her sword. “H-how do you know my name!?” She shouted at him, the goon pinning her to the wall quickly grabbed a knife attached to the holster in her belt and lifted it to stab her in the throat. But with swift reaction, Wolf grabbed her hand. “Everyone knows who you are, Lily. You can only do so much to hide yourself when you're the heir to a massive fortune from a weapons monopoly.” He explained, Lily looking to the floor as the goon looked up to her boss.

“Why are you stopping me? You said 'No witnesses,' Right?” She asked, her voice slightly muffled by her mask as she talked. “The little thing attached to her arm will go off if there is too much trauma. It will also go off if it's forcibly removed.” He continued to explain, The girl slowly sliding the knife back into it's holster. “On top of that, if we killed a Sterling who is a Spectrum member... We'll have both the government AND the entourage for one of the most powerful men on the planet after us after we get worldwide media coverage. It just isn't worth all the trouble of being in the spotlight.” He said, patting her on the back lightly for doing as he said.

“Why are you doing this!?” Lily shouted at him, he just lightly swung his cane onto his shoulder. “Why should I tell you anything? You literally have no authority over me or what anyone at Silent Fall does.” He replied calmly with some confidence. “But hey... I guess I have enough time to amuse you. We're still filling the truck and I have about 6 minutes left before I must make my leave.” He said, amused just a bit at her struggling.

“I am Wolf. Silent Fall is the people of Rosewall's attempt to overthrow the fact our lives are in control by corporations and snooty trust fund bitches like you, who get to control everything we do even in dire times just because you happen to exploit a disaster to your own financial benefit.” He stated, his voice having the tinge of resentment as he began to address Lily directly. “Like me? I joined Spectrum to GET AWAY from my dad!” She yelled to try and convince him that he's not right about her. “And you think I care?” He replied bemused, slapping her with the back of his hand before pushing his lackey out of the way to hold her by the chin and look down at her.
“No one cares about what you're really like. You really haven't done enough to convince me that your petty argument is true. It's easy to talk about how humble you are when you have not a care in the world, ain't it?” He asked, keeping her pushed to the wall with his hands firmly grasped onto her shoulders. “We live in fear EVERY DAY and we're not even allowed to protect ourselves. We struggle with basic needs like having a house over our heads, and people get indignant at US when we get upset about it, like we don't know any better?” He began to rant at her, she quietly listened though she didn't really have any other choice. She couldn't overpower him without her sword, she's too light to win in a test of strength.

“No, and just because the Ash War took place doesn't mean that all of our society is stupid, we underestimated how dangerous the Riftfallen were... But no one will listen to us. This is why we've come to this point of desperation.” He admitted, Lily looking at the ground some. “This is going too far! I understand you're upset... I understand how all of you feel, but violence isn't going to get ANYONE to listen to you. All you're doing is damning the people of your cause to look like violent sociopaths who aren't worth getting any attention.” She argued, but he just lightly chuckled at that.

“You think we haven't tried passing petitions to parliament? The entire thing is a farce, bills get argued, revised constantly before getting shut down because someone bribed an official to veto it.” He complained, Glaring at the young adult. “We're the necessary evil. We're the final cry of a nation about to be crushed under the weight of control. Maybe from what we're doing the companies holding our government in their back pocket will understand just how desperate the less fortunate can be when it comes to these troubled times we live in.” He added, Lily struggled a bit more, but Wolf grabbed her by the collar to slightly lift her off her feet.

“If you really had such a noble cause, you'd disband RIGHT NOW. You can be good people who want to change how things work if it makes you so unhappy!” She pleaded, but he just lightly shook his head. “It's far too late, my friend. We're here so the people will never be ignored again.” He answered, snapping one of his fingers as two people grabbed on to her so he could promptly let go. “It appears we're running out of time. Fox, Bull, Make this a day to remember for her, okay?” He asked the two people grabbing onto Lily, one promptly kneeing her in the stomach so hard she lurched forward in pain.

The other one shoved her to the ground, leaning over her and starting to punch her hard in the face over and over again. The first one kicking her in the stomach, and since she didn't have her sword, she couldn't block it using Pulse. She gripped her stomach in pain as she was kicked over and over again. The sharp pain in her ribs growing more and more as it felt like her ribs were cracking. She felt her vision begin to blur as one of them woke her up quickly by gripping her long blonde hair in their hands, lifting her head a couple of feet off the ground.

She groaned in pain, as one pulled a blade and hacked at her hair, cutting her long white-gold locks and forcing her face to smash back in the ground, her roughly cut hair draping her face as smashing in the cement knocked her out cold. Her armlet began to ring and go off, signifying that she's taken enough damage to be considered for evacuation. Wolf turned around and walked back over to the duo as they looked at her unconscious body.

“Well that's unfortunate.” He stated, Looking at the now injured Lily laying on the ground, he reached up to grab onto one of their shoulders. “Let's get going before they arrive.” He stated, climbing into the truck and turning on the ignition as the 10 or so members of Silent Fall all headed inside the back of the truck, closing the double doors as they quickly sped off.
Lily's hand communicator began to pick up a signal from Maria as she finally spoke up. “Hey Lily, I'm sorry that I couldn't show up... Monster have begun to flood the streets, I had to dip into the back alleyways and it's been taking up a ton of my time.” She explained, though Lily couldn't even hear what she was saying. “Unfortunately it will be another 10 or 15 minutes before I could even show up anywhere near where I think you currently are. I hope you didn't do anything stupid.” She added, sounding a bit concerned.

“Lily? Where are you? Answer already!”  

Spectrum #18: Fear, Part 2

So 'Fear' is going to be 3-5 chapters long... Woops.

Chapter 18: Fear, Part 2

The doors to the helicopter as it arrived to it's destination. It was hovering just above the height of most of the buildings around the mall which would make it about 50 feet in the air. One of them was coiling up rope, latching it to a tie on near the floor and tossing it out the side, watching it unravel and just touch the ground. The other one was looking at the 8 students currently inside with him as he explained. “Those are what you should tell the citizens when you see them. Please try to keep them calm and rational so we don't cause any issues. Understood?” He asked, teams Solstice and Equinox both nodding their head in comprehension as he lowered the fourth rope to the ground. He stood up and got out of the way, pointing for each one to go one at a time.

“Go! Go! Go!” He shouted, As Erika, Morgan, Robin and Florence all grabbed onto one of the ropes and started to slide down them, out of the helicopter and onto the pavement below. Next to that helicopter, a second one with team KLP were descending at roughly the same time. They grabbed their weapons in hand and ran to the front doors of the massive mall facility and it's stone tile painted style and walls of glass panes, some shattered or cracked. Inside the helicopter, Team Solstice were currently hesitating.

“Uhh..” Lily stammered, trying to stall a bit as Caleb quickly wrapped the rope around one wrist and dove out of the helicopter with a gusto. “Awww yeah!” He shouted, his voice slowly fading out from under the rotor wash. Jonah sighed, lifting the rope in one hand and looking at it. “Well this isn't going to be fun.” He muttered, slowly getting on his knees and falling out of the chopper while grabbing the rope firmly. “OH GOD!!!” He shouted as he panicked, but he knew as soon as he would let go he would just be a splatter on the pavement, so he held on for his life as the friction through his fingers made it quite damn hot to hold the rope, hot enough that he let go about 5 feet from the ground and landed flat on his back.

“I'm scared, Maria..” Lily admitted, watching Caleb laugh at Jonah quietly as he tried to get up and dust himself off. Maria lightly punched him on the shoulder. “I don't know about you, but jumping out of a helicopter is probably going to be the least fucking crazy thing we're going to do today, might as well not be afraid about it.” Maria commented, Leaping out of the helicopter gripping the rope, she was wearing black gloves which took the brunt of the fiction, landing on her hands and knees at the last second as she let go.

“Great...” Lily sighed, Closing her eyes and leaping out of the helicopter gingerly. “AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” She shouted, but she was holding so tight she nearly slid down inches at a time, totaling about 3 minutes of sliding down a 50 foot rope with her eyes closed. She got off and looked around, her hands shaking as she realized Maria had her face right into her palms. “That was... Shameful.” Maria groaned with a muffled face, Lily sighing and walking past her out of embarrassment to the front door of the mall. “Sorry..” She squeaked, Maria sighing and walking up to the front door of the mall as Rodney looked at them sternly as they assembled in a rough group.

“Me and my team are going in, We will be sending people this way for you guys to evacuate... To make this quick, each separate into groups of two and quickly get them to the safe houses” He explained, nodding their head in response. And without reply, team KLP kick the door open and run in, Maria noticed that inside the door was pretty much full of rift fallen of various kinds that need to be wiped out before they could even get the civilians out of the huge mall. Maria turned back to her team and watched them as they quietly waited, after a while. People began to funnel out and group up near them as they tried to keep them calm enough to listen.

First was Jonah and Caleb, who took about 8 people before leaving. Next was Morgan and Erika, taking another 9 people with them as well. Robin and Florence left together which finally left Maria and Lily to get their own group of people. Eventually, about 6 people funneled in. Lily walked up to a man in his thirties and looked at him with a concerned look on her face. “Is that everyone?” She asked him simply, he looked back at the window and looked through the door. “I didn't see anyone else behind me.” He replied flatly.

Lily frowned and looked back at Maria, who currently had her hands on her hips as she observed the small group of men and women. “Should we keep waiting?” She asked, Maria looked at the floor with a frown as she quietly thought it over. “Honestly, we should just take who we have.” Maria answered, Lily frowning a little bit. “Well... okay.” She replied, but a woman in her 40's came up to grab Maria on the shoulder. “W-wait!” She shouted, Maria looking up at her and lightly grabbing her hand to pull it off her shoulder.

“My son! He ran off with my husband and promised him that they would get it out... Have you two seen a child along with a man in a black shirt, a beard and slicked back hair?” She asked, her voice shaky in the panic she was currently in. Lily shook her head to that as well. “I don't remember any little boys coming out of the mall...” She replied, The mother looking at the floor upset as she looked at the two Spectrum members, tears beginning to roll down her eyes.

Maria looked at the floor before reaching up to place a hand onto the woman's shoulder, looking her in the eyes with her red ones. “I'm going in to get him.” She answered abruptly, The woman looking up with a tearful smile of hope. Lily walked up to her and turned Maria toward her. “Wait! But I need you to come with me.. What if I'm under attack by a big pack of riftfallen?” She asked out of concern, But Maria slightly smiled at her, which was a very strange thing to see.

“You'll be fine, just don't do anything stupid. I'm gonna get that boy and his dad, it will only take a minute.” She answered, Lily nodding lightly as Maria tried to reassure her. “Just... Be careful, okay?” Lily asked, and Maria lightly poked her on the forehead. “When haven't I been careful?” Maria asked confidentially, before Lily quickly came up with some answered. “Well there was that one time yo-” Maria covered her mouth with one hand, frowning at her. “Nevermind.” She took back her previous statement once evidence came up to the contrary, as Lily quickly took a step away and signaled the 6 or so people to begin following her.

The woman shouted at Maria before she left. “They were on the second floor at an electronics store, last time I saw them! The boy's name is Sam!” She detailed, Maria turning back to the door and taking a deep breath as they left, Maria turned to the doors of the huge mall and lightly pushed them open. The mall was pretty huge and white on the inside. It had 3 layers of walkways stacked atop each other connected by currently non operating escalators.

Littering the floor in front of Maria was corpses of Riftfallen on the floor which was slowly turning into piles of ash, the black blood contrasting with the white and blue floor tiles. Having that much blood in one place gave off a pungent smell of rotting compost or something about as unpleasant. She looked up along the walkways and noticed that on the third floor, they were fighting some kind of huge scorpion creature. She could hear the sound of metal striking bone and the crackling rush of fire and electricity resonating through the massive open area. She quickly ran past the pile of corpses littering the floor and hopped over the small piece of plastic blocking one of the escalators from use. Once she got to the top, she began to scan the area, checking each store to see if there was an electronics shop. Unfortunately, there seemed to be more than one. This required her to search each one at a time.
Maria approached the first one quietly, gripping one of the blades strapped to her back as she pressed herself against a corner, leaning around the corner to find some blood stains on the ground along with knocked over headsets and cell phones from looters in a bustle to grab what they can before they leave. She ducked her head and quickly slipped into the store, using the aisles as covers as she looked around for the small boy she's supposed to look for. But the limited floor space of the mall made it so by the third aisle she found, she would have quickly ran out do space.

She sighed a mixture of relief and worry as she didn't have to get into a fight just yet, but still had to extend the search for the kid and his father in a pretty dangerous situation when every second counts. She quickly ran to the next store, only to realize that not only the cage was down on the front of the store, to not let anyone in. Ontop of that, 4 Riftfallen were preying over a body. It was pretty much mangled beyond recognition, it was actually pretty damn gross for Maria to see, even if she was desensitized to quite a bit of violence and gore. She dipped behind a guardrail protecting people from falling from the second floor and inspected the scene more thoroughly, hoping the fact she's indoors won't blow her scent downwind.

She couldn't recognize the man, but behind the gate was a small boy, hugging his own knees and crying while tucked underneath a desk. He had a blue and white shirt with his favorite superhero on it, short brown hair and a cut under one of his cheeks. The monsters seem to be mutated forms of large felines, possibly escaped from a zoo or a magic show that might have been in town when the invasion stuck. They had a jet black carapace coating their body, glowing red eyes and long saber like teeth with ridges nearly similar to some kind of serrated butchers knife. They were big too, each one looked nearly twice her size.

Maria quietly drew her blades, focusing the pulse into her legs, she lunged with a massive force into the fray of monsters, plunging both swords into one of their skulls before it realized what happened to kill it instantly in a massive geyser of black colored blood, Before launching in the air with a back flip to get away as the other three snapped their heads up at her nearly unnaturally when they get her attention. One sprung at her, claws out as it tried to slash at her. This caused Maria to flinch instinctively in shock and roll away. Maria tumbled off to one side, accidentally crashing into a potted plant and breaking it, coating herself in dirt.

She dusted herself off and grumbled before being forced on the back foot by the other two attacking her. One landed an attack that she blocked with her Pulse, while quickly dodging the other fast enough to slash at it, lobbing it's hand off in one clean shot. The tiger monster stumbled on it's severed leg as Maria spun one of her blades to jab it into the base of his neck like an ice pick to kill it as well.

She snapped back around to notice that they were on each side of her, when suddenly the one behind her sprouted jet black tendril like appendages, wrapping around her ankles and digging in deep enough to cut her if she wasn't wearing the specialized armor. But she still had her legs pinned down as they both pounced to bite her throat. She panicked and quickly dropped to her stomach, both flying over her, the one with the tendrils around her leg managed to leap OVER THE GUARDRAIL and send Maria plummeting down with him.

Before hitting the ground, she sliced the tendrils from her legs before smashing flat on her back from the 10 foot drop. It wasn't enough to badly injure her, but it still is never nice to fall off anything 10 feet height. She tried to catch her breath, but from her peripheral, the tiger attacked her once again. She panicked and quickly latched her hand on her blade, which conveniently enough was close enough to reach.

She rolled out of the way so it'd miss, but when it turned to swipe at her, she rolled to her feet and leaped on-top of it. It sprouted more tendrils, wrapping around her torso and forcing her close to it, as spikes began to spurt from it's shoulder blades, one of which slices Maria's face.
Maria growled and reached up to swiftly slice it's throat, then screamed to slice it again, again and again until she was only cutting bone.

The thrashing began to weaken until it collapsed, the tendrils slowly released her. She stood up, ran over to grab her other sword and make it back to the stairs, where the other tiger was watching her from the top of it. “Come get me...” Maria goaded it, knowing that it didn't even have the mental capacity to speak. It bared his teeth and leaped at her, Maria responding by leaping with equal force, cutting his head off with a quick spin and ducking it's own attack as she landed on the escalator... incorrectly.

She then proceeded to fall down every step of the escalator, bashing her head firmly against the metal and plastic railing used to normally block it off when it's closed. This caused a ringing all the way to Maria's teeth as her vision began to lose focus. “FUCK!” She groaned in pain, punching a wall as she stumbled back to her feet, panting softly as she climbed back up the escalator to get back where she was before.

She got back to the corpse of the man, now currently unoccupied by anyone trying to eat it. She frowned and turned to the closed gate, reaching up to grab the metal bars and speak loudly and clearly. “Sam?” She asked, with no response from the kid. “Hey! Sam!” She shouted instead, trying to get his attention. “I AM RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU, BRAT, JUST SAY IF YOU'RE SAM ALREADY!” She shouted at him, but the kid sniffled and curled up tighter into a ball as her yelling made him upset.

Gale commented on her shoulder for a quick remark. “Not good with kids I see, eh Maria?” Maria glared up at him with frustration. “Let's see you do better.” She complained, he just chirped indignantly at her. “I can't! I'm technically not real!” Maria sighed and shook her head. “Look, I'll try. If it doesn't work, I'll let you speak for me.” She answered, knowing that Gale could technically possess her at will even when usually he opts not to. “And you trust me enough to do that?” He asked inquisitively.

Maria sighed and nodded some, he dissipated as Maria sifted down to bend her legs, both hands grabbing lower on the bars. “Come out, I have candy!” She shouted at the kid, the kid sniffling and shouting back at her. “Strangers who give people candy are weird!” He cried back at her. Maria groaning and planting her face right in her palm. “Look, if you come with me, I won't punch you in the face.” She offered the preposition, which once again failed when he replied. “That doesn't sound helpful at all!” Maria stood back up and turned around. “Uhh... I suck with kids, okay?” She admitted quietly.

Gale responded briefly. “I promise this will be quick.” He answered, as Maria felt her body lose control, almost like she became paralyzed in her own mind. Her eyes began to brightly glow red as she turned around, looking down at the boy and speaking with a much quieter, friendly sounding voice. “I'm from Spectrum. Your mother told me to come find you, where's your dad?” He added, The kid wiping his eyes using his sleeves as he looked up at the odd glowing eyed girl.

“H-he closed the gate with me inside... And then the monsters got him... He's on the floor behind you.” He answered, Gale looking back at the mangled mess on the floor and frowning as he turned to face the boy again. “I'm really sorry, Sam.” He admitted, knowing about how loss feels. “Your mom is okay, Do you want to come see her?” He asked, The kid crawling out from under the desk and nodding his head. “Are the monsters gone?” He questioned Gale, as he stood up and looked at the corpses of the tigers.
They were slowly fading into ash on the ground, and he smiled and looked up at Sam to speak reassuringly. “Yeah.. It's safe, but we need to make haste or it'll not be safe again. Please open the gate?” Gale inquired, Sam pulled a key from his pockets and walked up to the gate and held it in front of it. “Uhh... You promise you won't punch me or give me weird candy?” He worried, Gale giving a gentle smile only he could muster even if it was plastered on Maria's bitter face. “Of course not.” He replied, the child opening the gate and climbing underneath it as Gale released control of Maria. The smile suddenly becoming Maria's sullen frown.

“Uhh... Let's get going, kid.” She said, standing up and gesturing him to follow her. He quietly followed her as she quietly helped him climb back over the broken escalators gates and head down them, slowly approaching the mall as the sounds of weapons clanging and growling could be heard in the background.

“I miss my dad...” The kid sniffled, Maria looking down at him as she put her hands in the pockets of her cargo pants, looking at the floor solemnly. “We all miss our parents when they go.” The kid looked up at her with a frown, punching her in the side of her abdomen. “Don't talk like you know! I saw him die in front of me!” He said frustrated at her, She didn't react, instead just staring quietly at him. “Kid, you and I are more alike than you think.” She answered without going into much detail. She got to the front door of the mall, pushing it open and waiting for the kid to walk though.

“And what's that supposed to mean?” He asked, confused as what she meant by her comparison. Maria just kept walking at a brief pace to get to the shelter as fast as she could without losing this kid by running away from him. “My parents are dead... A lot of parents are dead because of this. You better be lucky you still have your mother.” Maria lectured, the kid looking at the pavement as they began to head down the road Lily was going down earlier.

“Well.. How did you fight off those big tigers by yourself without getting hurt if my dad couldn't?” He asked her, trying to let go of his anger he had because no one showed up fast enough to save his dad. “I trained for this, members of Spectrum get tools so they can protect people.” She answered, but the kid just look puzzled at her. “Why Spectrum members? Why can't everyone be able to train to protect themselves?” He asked, but Maria just shrugged her shoulders.

“Apparently people used to... something went wrong. I kind of never sweat those details since they don't affect me.” She replied, but the kid punched her in the side again. “You shouldn't say that! If you work for the good guys, maybe you should think about things!” He tried to present an argument to her, though he was sound... he was also only 10 years old. “I guess, but we don't really know either way.” Maria replied, not entirely sure if she could even present an answer worth any value since well... She hated politics with a passion and citizen rights is a completely different study than stabbing monsters in the face.

Suddenly, the transmitter on Maria's arm began to ring. She held it in front of her mouth and pressed the button. On the other line was Lily, sounding somewhat distressed even if the audio was slightly distorted sounding. “Maria, you there?” Lily asked, Maria quickly replying by tapping a button to turn on the microphone built into it. “Yeah, I got the kid.” She added to her reply, Lily sighing of relief just a bit as she continued the situation report. “That's fantastic.” She replied, before clearing her throat a bit to tell Maria the real reason why she's signaling her.

“I've told the group to move on ahead to the shelter since they're close enough, but it seems we've encountered a big problem...” She mentioned, Maria inquisitively raising a brow.
“And that means...?” Maria asked, unsure and a bit concerned as to what she was trying to say. “There's a massive robbery taking place at a factory we were passing, not just the typical looter... These guys are wearing black robes and are all wearing masks.” She explained, Maria looked even more puzzled, glancing over to the kid who was watching her very curiously as they spoke. “So? Let the police or SWAT handle criminals, we're here for Riftfallen.” Maria replied, Lily sighing out of frustration. “I can't, They're attacking any civilians who have happened to witness them. I managed to slip the people from the mall by quietly enough... But as a Spectrum member I can't just sit by and watch innocent people get robbed on such a grand scale.” Lily explained to Maria to try and get her to see her point.

“And? Send in backup if it concerns you so much...” Maria shrugged off her complaints once again, as Lily made a squeakish growl noise. “You ARE my back up, YOU DULLARD! Everyone else is occupied and you're the closest to me, please come here and help me!” Lily protested, Maria sighing a bit and looking down at the kid once again. “I'll be there as soon as possible.” She answered, matter of fact-like.

“Thank you.” Lily said before Maria turned her own microphone off. “So what does that mean?” The boy asked Maria, she turned to face Sam as she began to walk off at a brisker speed. “We're going to be in for a long night.” Maria replied, taking off to go help Lily as soon as possible.“It's 3 PM.” He corrected her quickly, Maria looking at him incredulously as he said that.

“Shut up, Sam.”