Author's Note; if any of you know someone here who would be a good editor to read my stories before I post them, and pick out errors and such for me, please let me know. Also, I wanted to clarify this since it confused people. First, there is a reason why the character was able to stand, walk, and punch etc after being in a comma for 10 years. I did that on purpose, and you'll learn WHY she was able to do that in a few more chapters. Also with the Syndicate being resourceful and people thinking that her changing her appearance won't help, you'll learn more about that too, I did that on purpose as well. When we get there everything will click, I promise.
"You have to infiltrate the Syndicate, being what you are, you could easily get a job with them, they will hire you to most likely destroy contractors."
The words of rang through my head as if they were lyrics to an annoying song that I couldn't forget no matter how hard I tried. Regardless of how I felt about those words now, I was eternally grateful for them because after weeks of thinking about them I finally uncovered their meaning. Mustang was basically trying to tell me that there was no way to safely get in touch with the Syndicate, they had to find me, and the only way to do that is if I did something drastic enough to catch their attention. So, for the next couple of months I spent most of my time wandering the countless cities in Japan and reeking havoc for every contractor I managed to run into or stumble upon. Surprisingly enough finding contractors wasn't exactly hard, the only ones I seemed to run into were the ones that broadcasted their abilities in petty crimes and hate wars. I didn't enjoy killing them, but I didn't too much feel bad about it either, what had I become? The hatred I had for contractors went far beyond infiltrating the Syndicate, it was linked to my past somehow, but there was no for sure way for me to know until I got my hands on that data disk.
It occurred to me that I had the opportunity to start over and just be a normal girl, but roaming around from place to place without knowing who you really are wasn't something to be proud of and it definitely wasn't safe. If there was one thing I believed, it was that your past catches up to you, and I wanted to be prepared for all the darkness in mine. Running a hand through my dark blue hair I looked up to the starlit sky and smiled to myself wondering how many stars were still left up there? From my understanding, whenever there was a new star it meant a new contractor had discovered their powers, and when a star fell it meant a contractor had either lost their life or lost their powers. Throughout my nomadic existence, I had mowed down over 14 contractors, so did that mean 14 stars had disappeared or fallen? It was odd that I found this interesting but it also made sense that the Syndicate would design it this way. If they connected every contractor to the stars in the sky, they could easily tell when a contractor was born and when one was eliminated, so it was likely to suspect that they were fully aware of my killing spree. However, the thing that interested me more, was if I, myself was connected to a star. I know the doctor told me I wasn't a contractor but it was strange that as soon as I awoke and he assisted me within his diner, his diner was attacked and burned to the ground. Those people had to be the Syndicate, and they had to have known that I was awake and looking for answers.
Glancing over my left side I attempted to look both ways to cross the street when I was completely overtaken by a loud piercing sound that caused me to cover both my ears. I pulled my foot back immediately from the street and witnessed a blue sports car zooming past me with a large red siren attached to the top of it. Tilting my head to the side I watched the car slightly disappear into the distance wondering what it was headed toward. However, when more sirens were to be heard nearby I instantly assumed that they were after a contractor. Usually when there was simple and petty crimes happening there was a squad car, maybe two, but from what I could hear there were many squad cars following in the same path. A part of me wanted to follow in pursuit after them and find a way to get to the contractor first, but I'm sure people would notice me if I just randomly began sprinting off in the direction of all the police cars. Slipping my hands into my pockets I slowly made my way across the glistening street in front of me and headed down a slightly dark alley that was nearly hidden next to a restaurant. Calculating the distance of the siren noises and the clean straight direction ahead, I had a feeling that if I simply followed the alleyway I wouldn't have any trouble getting to the contractor that the police were chasing. The question was, could I get to him before they did?
Biting my bottom lip I pushed forward on my tip toes and began to slightly run in the darkness toward my target. I did seem to love a challenge, and I was quite sure that due to traffic, the police would be delayed by at least 6 minutes, which gave me enough time to get my message across to the contractor before they found him dead. Pulling together as much anger as I could I felt the energy in my hands burn again; the way it did on the first night of my awakening, and watched the clear like substance round itself into an oval like beacon. Jumping from the ground as quickly and as carefully as possible, I felt my foot come into contact with my newly sculpted object. The flat surface of it, made it easy for me to stand, or rather kneel upon without fear of falling, and the particles of the open air formed as a propellant, so I found myself basically surfing on air. This technique was beyond difficult to learn because one flicker of wind could throw me off my entire path and I could be rerouted in another direction. However, if I used the weight of my body in just the right way, I could direct the beacon beneath me to stay on the path that I laid out for it. After killing my first contractor I spent some of the remaining months trying to learn new ways to use my powers, but I wasn't very good at science so I never quite grasped the full extent of my gift. I will admit I still have a lot to learn, but at the moment I'm quite content with what I know how to do already. Placing my right hand on the surface and outside of the beacon I guided it up the side of a building so that I could stay as high to the sky as possible. Last thing I needed was to risk someone seeing me fly past them on my "invisible" surf board.
I felt my eyes searching frantically for anyone or anything out of the ordinary, desperate to find something interesting. For a moment I thought I had missed out on all the action because I couldn't see anything, but my heart began to pick up speed when I finally saw something, a man, running from rooftop to rooftop. I felt a frown migrate across my face when I saw 4 police men closing in on him, and I knew instantly that I couldn't get to him without being seen, nor would I have had any time to take him out. I was surprised when he threw his hands palm side up in defense and turned to face them slowly. I was fully aware that as a contractor he could have easily used whatever power he had to get away, but instead he was surrendering without a fight. Then it happened, slowly his body outlined itself in a thin blue light while a small but thick explosion gathered around him and then pushed itself towards the officers. The explosion took off a slight chunk from the top of the building, and the trajectory of the explosion looked as though it were aimed directly at the police officers which automatically informed me that it was caused by him. He was the contractor I was looking for, and little did he know his life was about to be over.
I witnessed him jump 3 more rooftops before he stopped and sat at the edge as if he were taking some kind of break. At this moment I decided it was time for me to take advantage of his small time of recuperation. Moving the beacon slowly in his direction, I rested it on the ground as carefully as possible trying not to make any sounds that would alarm him. Stepping off on my newly formed gadget, I watched as it disappeared into nothing as soon as my foot touched the rooftop. Lifting my eyes from the ground and resting them on him, I realized he was intently focused on something he desperately wanted from his coat pocket. I smiled to myself in accomplishment of the fact that I had successfully gotten this close to him without him knowing it. Observing him thoroughly I noticed that he was picking small flowers from his pocket, and shoving them into his mouth.
"So….that's your payment?" I asked in a voice of complete and utter disbelief. It was hard to believe that a man as big and supposedly threatening as him, was eating flowers. He turned to me quickly and gave me a look that I didn't quite understand. He looked at me the way a person would normally look at someone if they knew them somewhere before and was trying to figure out where.
"Eating pretty flowers?" I asked taking a few steps closer to him before stopping a few feet away.
"Who are you?" He asked curiously while his voice was full of cockiness. I smiled to myself and took a small step closer to him so that I was standing in the light. I didn't plan on saying anything else, I simply wanted to kill him and add him to my list.
"I see…..It's you….the one I've heard about. The Phantom." He answered looking me up and down as if he were displeased that I didn't live up to the name. I looked down at myself and shrugged; I was kind of tiny, but I was a girl after all, what did he expect?
"I'm sorry that I don't live up to the rumors." I answered raising a brow and putting an emphasis on the word 'rumors'. I honestly didn't know that rumors about the Phantom would spread so quickly. I hadn't killed that many contractors, just 14, soon to be 15. A part of me wanted to be flattered, but at the same time I was curious to what the rumors actually said. Did they imagine and describe me as some she-beast with a tail and large muscles, or worse, did they imagine me as a man? I found myself amused by this.
"Rumors? So it's not true that you go around killing contractors, your own kind?" He asked rather angrily.
I felt my anger rise again before looking him in that eye.
"Contractors are not my kind." I stated simply, hearing the anger in my voice that I made no attempt to conceal.
"Then what are you? Just a little girl?" He asked with a smirk that seemed to light up his entire face, a smirk that made me scared to know what it was he was thinking of doing. I tilted my head to the side; I could see this was going to be very interesting. He took a few steps toward me and I gathered my anger inside me again and this time I focused it around my body. He stopped moving on his own and stared at me curiously. Pulling the energy to my center, I let it build up and watched it scatter quickly from my being resulting in a cloudy mesh that shot towards him like a weapon. Watching him fly towards the end of the rails, I felt myself smile in accomplishment. He pushed himself up from the ground with his arms, and began to outline himself in that light again, like before with the police officers. I could feel my mind racing for a solution to stop him from blowing up anything around me, and only one thing came to mind. I watched the explosion build up around him and I pulled relentlessly at the light energy around me and managed to be engulfed by something. I had never tried this technique before and I quickly braced myself for the explosion that I didn't believe I was safe from. I stood up straight and waited for the 'boom' of it, but instead I simply watched the flames gather around me and blaze in an uproar. It took me a moment to realize that I wasn't being burned, nor was I hot in any sense of the word. Looking around, the flames curved around a bubble like structure that surrounded me, and exposed how large the energy around me really was. The large structure surrounding me truly reminded me of a bubble the way it seemed so delicate to touch, and it flowed like waves would in water, but it seemed so un-damageable.
When the flames finally dissipated I looked over to the contractor that stared at me in awe, but little did he know I was just as surprised as he was. Smirking, I looked away from him and lifted my finger to touch the top of the clear but slightly blue-ish structure that covered me, and watched it shriveled like a ripple would in water, and completely disappear.
"Tell me…" I paused walking closer to him slightly. "What do you know about the Syndicate?" I questioned. It seemed to be a long shot, but if he heard rumors about me, surely he had heard something if not anything about the Syndicate. He smiled at me and began coughing slightly, maybe he was in need of another flower.
"What do you want with them?" He asked curiously. The smile on his face when he asked caused me to kick him in the stomach. He knew something and before I left here he was going to tell me. Grabbing at his shirt collar I pushed him against the nearby rails and tightened my grip.
"What do you know?" I asked again.
"Scary organization, they have eyes and ears everywhere. Rumor is, they operate by word of mouth, and they have control of both contractors, and dolls." He spilled.
"Dolls?" I asked curiously. I had learned about contractors, so far I knew they were rational creatures, heartless, had no feelings, connected to stars, had abilities, and were usually very selfish. However, I had never really heard about dolls before.
"You have no idea what you're getting yourself into do ya kid?" He asked shoving me roughly. Backing away and catching my balance I looked up at him again and saw that he was preparing himself for another attack. Seriously? Wouldn't a rational person just run away? What would it benefit him to kill me?
I could see the explosion centering around him and I realized I could easily put up the shield to protect myself again, but I was running out of time, I needed to get rid of him now. Pulling up as much light around him as I could, I trapped him inside a ball of energy similar to the one I used to protect myself before, so that when he created the explosion, it never left his atmosphere. Containing his energy, the ball around him flexed and bulged out until everything inside it had been destroyed by the flames and the explosion that he created, including him.
"What a waste." I said to myself as the ball slowly dissipated into nothing.
"So you are the Phantom." A female voice spoke near me. I turned around to face the voice but there was no one there, just the endless distance of nothing but upcoming police sirens.
"I have to say I didn't believe it at first, so I watched you, and I have to say I am impressed." She continued. For a moment I didn't know if I should have been flattered or insulted.
"Who are you? What do you want?" I asked curiously.
"You want to know more about the Syndicate don't you? Then consider me your employer." I could hear the smile in her voice.
"Employer?" I questioned.
"The Syndicate finds your talent…..interesting. Seeing more of it is an absolute must." She finished. I turned my head to the sirens that sounded as though they stopped right in front of the building. I didn't have much time to question her, and I knew I couldn't let this opportunity go to waste. I turned around quickly when I heard a small thud on the ground next to my feet, and saw a stack of money covered with a band around it.
"Tomorrow, 8:30pm, inside Pinky's bar, we can discuss further actions that need to be taken. Wear something a little revealing; don't talk to anyone, wait to be approached, and no more killing until you've been directed to do so…." She paused for a moment and a small clicking sound was to be heard.
"You have less than 2 minutes. Go now." She demanded before a soft swish of wind was to be heard, and I had assumed that, that was the sound of her leaving. Bending down, I picked up the large bulge of cash and ran to the side of the rooftop. Jumping off the edge I pulled as much of the energy as I could to form another beacon to catch me midair, and carry me to the next destination. The problem was, I had no idea what the next destination was.
As soon as I got a good enough distance away from my previous location, I pulled the strap from around the money, and folded it into my pocket. Brushing my hair behind my ears I smiled widely and tried my best to look like all the other normal people on the street. Stretching out the band that was once around the money that rested in my pocket, I read the words neatly printed to the side of it.
"Something Black, and Something Blue." I tilted my head to the side and crumbled it into a ball. How did that help me? Did she want me to buy something black to wear? Was it some kind of joke? I gave up on trying to decipher it and ran a hand through my hair. It had been a long night, but I finally felt two steps closer to my goal. Tomorrow night, everything was going to change.