Prologue - Cricket

Cricket ran through the dark alleyway, feet dancing over the ground effortlessly, propelling her around a sharp corner and further away from her pursuer. It had been a mistake to raid the Knights' territory, those vigilanteswere not just harmless gang members with a single cape. Kaiser was going to be pissed but the Empire was outgunned, for the first time in years.

She shook her head as she remembered the ambush. Those damned swords, passing effortlessly through the Empire's loyal. Stormtiger's eyes burning out as a blade pierced his heart. Hookwolf's retreat as his body was shorn with those impossible weapons, how were they to know the Knights had a tinker making weapons and armour?

And Cricket got the impression they were holding back.

She focused back on her escape, and paused at the end of the alley. A pulse of sonar showed no one nearby so she sprinted across the street, wishing the distance was shorter. She reached the pavement opposite just has she heard a shout. Turning as she neared the shop fronts brought a figure in gleaming black armour into view, it was holding one of those swords, a Knight. His face was covered by a stylised helm, but he had been at the fight earlier, which meant he recognised her.

Cricket hurled herself through the shop window, ignoring the glass slicing her flesh, she had to get out of sight. If she could close with one of them in a small space she had a chance at beating them. But out in the open they could maneuverer around her, it could be flight or some kind of weird mover ability but they just dashed through the air when attacking, jumps longer and faster than should be possible…it was why the ambush was over so quickly. The normal all crippled or dead, the capes chased off except for Stormtiger.

It was a massacre earlier, and she would find herself sharing their fate if she didn't keep moving.

The world suddenly shifted beneath her feet. Upwards was now ahead of her and she fell backwards, out the shop window and across the street. She felt herself moving in a perfect, horizontal line and sensed the edge of the alleyway before she clipped it, just managing to grab it.

She caught her breath as her arms were almost yanked out of her sockets, and looked around, grimacing in pain. She was dangling off a ledge…no. She was dangling off a wall, sideways. Downwards was down the alleyway for some reason, and the pavement was a wall next to her.

Cricket heard the heavy footsteps as she sensed the bulk of the armoured Knight.

"I suppose you're here to finish me off," she muttered.

The Knight spoke in smooth voice, "No, I'm here to take you back with us. We have questions." He gestured and gravity returned to normal, causing Cricket to fall to the pavement.

She tried to spring upwards, and draw her Kamas in one action. She couldn't, finding her body and clothes stuck to the ground everywhere they touched it. Cricket glanced up at him, glad he couldn't see her expression beneath her mask.

"You attacked us." His sword appeared in the palm of his hand, mist coalescing in the surrounding air. "This war will be on your heads." The man moved his sword beneath her chin, and she frantically pulled her head up away from it. She couldn't let it touch her. "We need you alive. For the interrogations, and carrying our message back to Kaiser."

"You-" She spluttered, "You will regret this."

He tilted his helm, "No, no we will not." The Knight drew his fist back and caught her in the side of the head, her mask hitting the ground. She didn't rise again. He nodded to himself and pulled out a phone whilst the sword vanished.

"Herald? I have Cricket, she's unconscious. Requesting transport. Understood, see you in an hour."

He pocketed the phone and threw the unconscious cape over his shoulder before moving back down the alley, out of sight of the road.