To yellow 14: Probably not a good move, but people don't always think logically when they're driven by a goal this important!
To armadas: That would be pretty wild! And we shall see what happens through "The Colossus Saga"…
Mira leaned against the bus terminal on the north side of Magé, watching as a block party started to get into full swing. It was almost lunchtime, and she had walked from one end of the city to the other twice already, looking for any hints at where the Bat might be, drawing confused looks from a shop owner who had been putting out his festival display. She frowned and broke off a piece of the pastel she had purchased from a vendor near the center of the town. Slipping the breading into her pocket for Paxx, she took a bite of the chicken filling. A small child was running down the sidewalk, chased by his harried-looking mother.
Still no indication of where the Bat could be.
"What do you think?" she finally asked Paxx, furrowing her brows in thought.
Paxx hummed and stuck her head out of Mira's purse, looking up at her with wide eyes. "I'm not sure," she admitted. "It's not like Bella's captor to not make a scene. Even when he's being subtle, there are still at least some hints of where he is."
"Yeah…" Mira frowned. It had been an unexplained purchase of rare art that had put her on the Bat's trail when he moved to Paris last year. Before that, she had tracked him down in Italy by tracing the trail of his latest Kiss back to the source. But the original target that time had been a case of domestic abuse so bad that the police had been called. When the responding officers had themselves come under the Kiss's effect, the violence had spread through the entire city in less than a week – retracing its steps had been as simple as reading the news. This illness, however, did not leave those same obvious hints for her to follow. Her eyes drifted up the street and settled on a sign. "Hey, Paxx… where would you take someone with a severe illness?"
Paxx twisted around to see where Mira was looking and nodded in realization. "You would take them to a hospital."
Mira nodded and walked briskly up the sidewalk, carefully avoiding a group of revelers, to reach the hospital entrance. A small number of people were entering and exiting at a brisk pace, and Mira merged into the crowd. Inside, a single nurse sat at the desk, handing out clipboards of paperwork to everyone who came in. She started handing one to Mira, but Mira laid it back down on the desk. "I'm actually looking for information," she told the woman, who looked up in surprise.
"Family?" the nurse asked. Mira shook her head. "I can't exactly give out any patient information."
"I'm not looking for anything about specific patients," Mira assured her. "I'm actually here from Hospital Federal in Rio. We have a group of patients whose illness we're trying to track down the source of. They all came from this area."
"Symptoms?"
"Fever, shortness of breath, cough…"
"That could describe just about anything…" The nurse furrowed her brows in thought. "But we've had a few of those cases come in recently," she allowed.
"All from Magé?"
"No…" She tapped her chin contemplatively. "No, the first came from Guapimirim – up north. José Rabello ran out of beds, so they sent a couple of their more serious cases down here." She cocked her head in confusion, staring at Mira. "We informed Federal…"
Mira grimaced. "You know how paperwork gets lost," she evaded, backing away, finding the exit in her peripheral vision. "Thank you for your help." Once outside she glanced down at Paxx, who pursed her lips.
"Do you think we should let the others know where we are?" asked the Kwami. "We have a lead now."
Mira frowned. "Maybe… but we could lose our lead if we wait. After all of this time, we can't let a lead slip away."
"You could tell them and let them follow at their own pace."
Mira let out a breath. "I mean, we've come this far…" She paused, torn. "I'll call them if we actually find him," she decided. Paxx shrugged. Ducking into the alleyway beside the hospital, Mira whispered her transformation phrase, sprouted her wings, and took to the air.
Moving carefully in the confined space, Hato Gozen gained altitude, hovering near the tops of the buildings to avoid attention and following side streets to get out of the town. Veering away from the road to stay out of sight, she pumped her wings, pushing herself faster as she flew north, shadowing the road north out of Magé. She could see a handful of vehicles coming from the north, wending their way toward Magé and the Carnival celebrations there. This had to be where the Bat was waiting – she could almost sense his presence. Her eyes narrowed in anticipation. The last time she and her mother had tracked him to Brazil, the illness he had corrupted had come from a small farming village not unlike this one – it had spread through the village and gained strength before expanding beyond there into the surrounding area and finally reaching Rio and São Paolo, which was how it had come to their attention. If she had understood the nurse correctly, he had followed the same process this time.
Dipping beneath the trees, Hato Gozen expertly avoided the low branches to land on the outskirts of Guapimirim, a small town surrounded by hills and forests. De-transforming just off the Estrada do Bananal, behind a church, she walked out into the small festival in the parking lot, mingling in with the crowd. A couple of people looked askance at her as she emerged, and she almost groaned: after a full year of becoming comfortable in Paris, she had forgotten almost every lesson her mother had taught her about blending into a new area. But it was too late for her to do anything about her clothes. She stopped at a cart with Carnival hats and sunglasses and bought herself a pair of sunglasses to hide her eyes. That would have to be enough: if she couldn't pass for a local, she would have to settle for being a tourist. Buying herself an espetinhos and a bottle of water, she slipped a bite into her purse for Paxx and made her way through the crowd, absorbing the conversations around her.
"I'm sorry to see that Enrique couldn't come with you. How is doing?"
"Oh, he's still getting over that fever from the other week, Padre. Complaining up a storm about missing the festival!"
"I suppose that means he's back to normal then!"
Curious, Mira slipped a little closer to the voices. A man who must have been the local priest was visiting with an older woman with grey hair.
"He's eager to get out to the park again, though I warned him to take it easy."
"I'm sorry to interrupt," Mira interjected. "But did you say your Enrique was sick?"
The woman nodded, "Oh, yes, you would've thought he was dying the way he complained! At first I told him it was just a cough – something he picked up at work from one of those tourists that's always getting into everything. But he said he was just standing by himself along the river when the coughing started. He's never had allergies before, though – and he's spent practically his whole life there!" She shrugged. "He's mostly over it, at least."
"Where does he work?"
"In the Parque," the woman explained. "Parque Nacional da Serra dos Órgãos," she clarified on seeing the confusion in Mira's face. "He's a ranger."
Mira furrowed her brows and leaned forward. "Where exactly was he when the sickness came on?"
The woman cocked her head in confusion. "Near the base of Nossa Senhora. But why do you ask?"
Mira paused. "Oh, just curious about the geography," she replied evasively, backing away. She could feel eyes on her from all around the parking lot as she quickly raced across the road and ducked into the tree line. She had made too much of a scene at the church… but she had found what she came for: Night Bat had to be in this park, and at some point he must have been near where the woman's husband first became sick. If he had allies in the village, then they would send him word, and he would disappear before she could reach him – time was of the essence. The moment she was sure that she was out of sight, she transformed and sprang into the air, sprouting her wings and propelling herself up to the level of the treetops. Catching an updraft, she climbed rapidly and put on a burst of speed. She could see the rough direction of the road leading out of town toward the park; a series of thin, tall mountains loomed ahead of her, their tops shrouded in mist. Hato Gozen drew her naginata and pulled down the small screen built into her handle. The closest of the mountains was labeled the Pedra Dedo de Nossa Senhora. That was her destination.
Hato Gozen landed near the base of the mountain, on the edge of a forest with a river winding through it. The Bat had to be nearby – or even if he wasn't, there had to be some trace. Her eyes darted across the terrain, looking for any telltale signs of human habitation. A couple of footsteps in the wet ground near the river drew her attention. Someone had been there, but on closer examination she realized they were several weeks old. "Where are you?" she murmured to herself quietly. "Gasi coruptie," she whispered. Her vision brightened markedly, and she turned quickly in all directions, hunting for the dark patch to show the traces of the Bat's work.
There was nothing.
"What?" Hato Gozen furrowed her brows. How could she have come all this way only to come up empty? "Where is he?! He was supposed to be here!" After all of this effort – not even a hint of the Kiss which had started this illness remained! With a groan of frustration, she raised her naginata above her head, extended the handle to full length, twirled, and stabbed it into the ground. Finally she dropped to sit in the soft grass beside it, her shoulders slumping.
The ground rumbled.
Hato Gozen looked up in surprise as a seam appeared in the earth beside the river and stretched out, running parallel to the river's course. She sprang to her feet as the ground trembled again, almost losing her balance. She had never witnessed an earthquake before – apart from those created by Tyran-X – but she had to imagine it would be something like this. The roar of earth shaking, all around her, the river churning as the streambed moved, the tops of the trees swaying in more than just simple wind. With a sharp crack as of a tree limb snapping, the earth rent apart, the soil on the edges of the seam crumbling and falling into the gaping chasm. Quickly she pulled her naginata from the ground and spun it around, planting the pommel on the ground and gripping it with both hands for balance. The shaking stopped briefly, but she wouldn't let herself relax.
ROAR!
Hato Gozen's heart stopped.
Two sets of claws burst out of the chasm, grappled for purchase in the loose soil, and tugged. The Beast tugged, tawny paws and legs following the claws, until suddenly the golden mane of a Lion rose out of the opening in the ground, its mouth already open and roaring its rage to the heavens. Before Hato Gozen even had time to think, the Lion had dragged itself from the ground and stood in the grass, its head almost on the same level as the treetops, shaking the loose dirt from its fur. The paws flexed as it reached out in a stretch. Finally it pulled back, drew in a deep breath, and let out another roar. The trees surrounding the small clearing directly in front of it bent.
The moment her heart started beating once more, Hato Gozen launched into the air, naginata held in front of herself in a defensive posture, wings pounding to give her altitude. The Lion finally turned to face her, its jaws open, legs coiled to spring. "Lumina alba!" she shouted desperately, clapping her hands and pumping her wings to push herself back, away from the monster. A brilliant white light engulfed the clearing. The Lion howled, clenching its eyes shut against the light. Blinded, the Lion jumped up and down, charging headlong into the forest. Trees uprooted and fell over, flying in all directions as it ran through them as though they weren't there.
Hato Gozen ducked and twisted to avoid the debris, slashing awkwardly with her naginata to knock the larger pieces out of her way. Her eyes widened. An enormous tree shot straight at her, and she pulled her wings in close, dropping from the air like a rock as the tree flew over her, missing her head by a hair. Less than a meter from the ground she spread her wings, barely catching herself above the forest floor, catching a draft and twisting around with her wings almost perpendicular to the ground to shoot the gap between two trees. The Lion roared again, pouncing at her. Hato Gozen dropped to the ground, braced her naginata in the gap beneath a tree's roots, and dove out of the way just as the Lion's paw slammed into the blade. The tree splintered. The Lion howled and turned on her, swiping at her again with its paw.
"Izbitura!" she cried, punching at the Lion with one fist. The concussive force of the spell struck the Lion full in the face, pushing it back away from her. It fell onto its side, growled, and dropped into a crouch. Hato Gozen threw out her hand toward the spot where her naginata had been, the tip all that remained visible above the ground, and soil flew in all directions as it returned to her hand. The naginata reached her moments before the Lion, and she pushed herself up into the air, narrowly avoiding the Lion's teeth.
She didn't notice the Lion swiping at her. Its paw caught her full in the chest, forcing all the air from her lungs. The impact hurtled her through the treetops and into the sky beyond. She caught a quick glimpse of the mountain looming in front of her and closed her eyes, covering her head with her arms.