AN: Special Thanks goes to The Story's Shadow and Rushstar 32 for writing sections of this chapter. Well this is one of the final chapters for Journey Of The Vixen. Next chapter will either be a buildup to the climax, or the climax itself. Either way, I hope to see you all there. Unto the show my good friends.
-One Day Later-
"With every Secret Warrior I capture, I instill fear in their very soul." Wraith informed his master in a satisfied tone.
"As I have said before Wraith, a cornered animal is most dangerous. Be warned, while you are instilling fear, it only takes a single spark of courage to ignite the fires of hope." Imperious warned his general through his holographic projector.
"Then I will quickly extinguish those fires with my next attack–"
"You have a plan of attack already?" Imperious questioned in a tone that indicated he was impressed.
"My plan is already in motion master. While I have wounded the Secret Warriors in battle, per your orders I have not killed them, but that order does not extend to who I'm involving with my plan." Wraith said proudly as two of his un-dead looking minions walked into frame of the holographic projector, dragging someone along the hard stone floor. The minions then pulled the sack off of her head to reveal a young African-American girl, possible no older than Riri herself...
-Later-
Vixen, Daisy, and Riri where racing through one of the abandoned parts of the city.
"OK, Riri. What's this about?" Daisy asked.
"I got a message from Wraith. It wasn't signed, but I know it's him. I need you two with me. Any of us going to meet him alone is too dangerous. You two need to stay hidden," Riri answered.
"About what?" Daisy asked.
"Something personal," Riri answered.
"What did it say?" Vixen asked.
"Ms. Williams: Natalie is with me. You remember her, the friend that you lost contact with when you created your armor. Tragic, it would be more so if she died right here. If you want to save both her and your friendship, meet me tonight. Alone," Riri revealed.
They soon came to a building.
"This is the place. Get hidden," Riri said, then went inside.
In the middle of the building stood Wraith. He looked around the building, as if bored. He then smiled.
"Wraith!" Riri shouted.
"Thank you for showing up," Wraith said.
"Where is she?!" Riri screeched.
"Oh, and here I thought we were going to have a civil talk," Wraith chuckled.
"What have you done with her?!" Riri yelled.
"Tsk, Tsk. And here I thought you were the level headed one of your group," Wraith mocked.
"I'll level your head somewhere else if you don't tell me where she is!" Riri hissed.
"You haven't seen her for some time? Yes? I'm surprised you'd react in such a way as this. My, what would she say?" Wraith said.
"Where is she?!" Riri yelled again.
"So much has happened since you last saw her...and so much is yet to happen, maybe it's good that I took her," Wraith said.
"Where...is...SHE?!" Riri screamed.
Wraith chuckled. He lifted one hand and a rip in space appeared before them. A swirling blue energy surrounded the visual of someone.
"She's still alive, just with some...minor injuries," Wraith said.
"LET HER GO!" Riri screamed.
"Why would I do that? I have all the cards, if my must say so. You have nothing. Nothing to bargain with for her release," Wraith replied.
"This isn't a negotiation! Give her back!" Riri said.
"You must feel so helpless. Unable to help another friend. I've taken so much of your team, one by one. Each one didn't stand a chance against me despite their powers and weapons. Natalie, she was just a mouse in a tiger's paw," Wraith chuckled.
"You bastard," Riri mumbled with a hiss.
"And here you are...only able to scream your horror...how many more of your friends will I take with you unable to stop me?" Wraith chuckled.
"Unable to stop you?!" Riri screeched instantly.
"That's right, you can't do anything," Wraith chuckled.
"I'll tell you what I can do... this!" Riri hissed as she raised a repulser at Wraith and fired a shot that shot right by the left side of his face within inches. However much to Riri's surprise, he didn't even flinch.
"You heroes and heroines are to predictable." Wraith said with a smug smirk on his skeletal face. "Lesson one..." Wraith said as suddenly an arrow implanted itself into Riri's right shoulder, and even though it didn't pierce her armor, it still make her look down in shock. "Never fire a warning shot." Wraith said smoothly.
"You fired one as well, dumb-ass!" Riri hissed as she easily pulled the arrow from her shoulder.
"Be that as it may, that's going to be your only warning shot. You'd better behave, or poor little Natalie's parents are going to have to bury their daughter, and I'll make sure they know her blood is on your hands." Wraith said in a sadistic tone, and that made Riri flinch and her face contort to that of rage under her face-plate. Instead of letting her rage consume her, Riri quickly thought of a way to try and get into Wraith's head, and possibly exploit his sadistic sense of pride.
"I never pegged you for a coward." Riri sneered at Wraith as she opened her face-plate so Wraith could see her sneer. "You said to come alone, and yet you brought, I'm guessing several bodyguards. What kind of a warrior fights with bodyguards?" Riri laughed at her un-dead looking enemy. Much to her surprise though, Wraith began to laugh, and she didn't like that.
"Yet I expected... oh wait, that's right, I instructed you to come alone, and yet you brought Ms. Johnson and Ms. Starlight with you–"
"What are you talking about?" Riri feigned innocence in an attempt to buy herself time. In response Wraith extended his hand and pressed a button on his holographic projector and showed two blinking red dots in on the rooftop opposite of the building that Riri and Wraith currently found themselves in.
"Lesson two: never try and deceive me. I'm always one step ahead!" Wraith hissed as he waved his hand and in a flash of purple light, Natalie suddenly appeared on the cold hard floor.
"Natalie!" Riri cried out, causing Natalie to look up and see her former best friend.
"Riri?" Natalie began in a confused tone as she suddenly found herself in the middle of an abandoned building, with an evil un-dead looking monster right next to her, and her former best friend a slight distance in front of her. "What's going on, where am I?!" Natalie asked Riri in a panicked tone.
"Now Ms. Williams, tell Daisy and Vixen to show themselves, or else..." Wraith ordered as he unsheathed his black bladed battle sword, forced Natalie into a kneeling position, and raised his sword.
"Stop!" a new voice called out as Daisy and Vixen entered into the room through the entrance that Riri had entered from.
"This is low, even for you Wraith!" Vixen hissed in disgust.
"Why thank you Vixen. Although I hate to sound cliche, I have to no choice but to say, you ain't seen nothing yet." Wraith said smoothly as he pointed at Vixen and Daisy and suddenly arrows began screaming through the air towards their targets. Vixen quickly grabbed Daisy and dove to the side as arrows implanted themselves where they had been standing.
"Bastard!" Riri roared as she closed her face-plate, pulled out her enchanted Naginata and lunched at Wraith. Wraith responded by easily parrying her blade with his sword.
"Pitiful!" Wraith hissed as he shoved Riri backwards caused her to stumble a bit. "I'll make this interesting." Wraith mused as he suddenly threw his sword to the ground and made a taunting hand gesture at Riri. With a roar Riri got airborne and flew at Wraith with her blessed weapon...
"They've got us pinned!" Daisy said as she and Vixen stayed behind their cover. Every time they tried to poke their heads out, an arrow had forced them to get back behind cover.
"Can't just let Riri fight Wraith alone, we've got to do something!" Vixen hissed. "I'll give you cover, you help Riri." Vixen said as she pulled out a compacted bow out of her backpack, jumped out of cover, notched an arrow and opened fire blindly as to where she thought the archer was. The hidden archer fired another shot, to which Vixen caught with her bare hands.
Daisy however had taken advantage of Vixen's plan and had joined Riri in battle with the aid of her blessed Katana.
"Two against one, I'll gladly take these odds." Wraith mused as he found himself caught in the middle of an attack from Daisy's Katana and Riri's Naginata, to which he teleported out of the way, causing the two blessed weapons to interlock for a few seconds. That delay in the battle was enough time for Wraith to teleport behind Daisy and deliver a kick to the back of her knee.
"Bitch!" Daisy hissed as the pain spread up her leg as it buckled on her causing her to fall to the ground.
"Look who's talking." Wraith mused as he planted his foot into Daisy's throat, only for Wraith to suddenly be pushed backwards by a repulser blast from Riri. Riri then quickly helped Daisy to her feet, and they both took up combat stances.
"Lesson three: cause and effect." Wraith mused evilly as he picked back up his sword and before anyone could do anything he ran his sword right through Natalie's back and out her stomach, causing the younger girl to suddenly start choking on her own blood which began pouring out of her mouth.
"NO!" Riri roared in shock and anger as she suddenly threw her weapon to the ground and flew top speed at Wraith, she had only two things on her mind, vengeance and killing Wraith with her bare hands. However just as she was about to reach him he suddenly pulled out a strange looking device from inside his belt and threw it at Riri. His aim was true as suddenly an electric net exploded into the air and wrapped itself around Riri. The young teenager screamed in pain as the enchanted electricity flowed through her body as he eyes rolled into the back of her head as she dropped to the floor unconscious.
"Another piece of the puzzle is in place." Wraith laughed evilly as he looked up and saw Daisy trying to stop Natalie from dying by using her S.H.I.E.L.D. first aide training, while Vixen was still exchanging arrows with his archer. After he grabbed the unconscious Riri by her throat, a purple flash of light later, and both Wraith and his archer vanished, leaving only Daisy, Vixen and a dying Natalie behind.
"Damn!" Vixen cursed as she suddenly realized that Wraith had escaped with Riri. However there was little time to focus on that as Vixen ran up to Daisy, who as doing her best to keep Natalie alive.
"What did Wraith do?" Vixen asked as she took a knee next to Daisy.
"Ran her through with his sword–"
"That's not good. That sword his enchanted, it's dark magic will kill her within minutes if she doesn't drown in her own blood first." Vixen said in a low voice as she tried to think of something to save the younger girls life. Suddenly she knew what she had to do...
To Be Continued...
