Chapter 7: Prey

Sophia:

The worst thing about being on the hunt was the waiting. The cold and the rain cared little for the lack of insulation in her costume, the blaring sirens of PRT vehicles even less so. Thankfully, none of them seemed like they would be much of an annoyance to her tonight, but that didn't mean she enjoyed hiding on a decrepit rooftop and watching some goons run around like headless chickens until they could finally give her something useful. They loitered around uselessly in front of a sketchy warehouse, too occupied with getting high off their own supply to care for much else. They were rats in every sense of the world, disgusting little pests hiding out in dark ditches, infecting everything around them like a disease.

Shadow Stalker brought her crossbow to eye level, boredom and temptation urging her finger to press against the trigger. Those ugly green and red scarfs did make for good target practice, though she doubted she would miss even from this distance. Still, after a moment of debilitation, she lowered the crossbow back to her side with a grunt. As inclined as she was to nail those assholes to the wall, taking out some random gang members was weak sauce. It was the kind of thing that would've left her with a grin on her face for a good day or two back when she started but after dozens of such captures under her belt, it would make for a pretty underwhelming night. No, she settled on waiting for now. There were bigger fish in the pond.

A notification rang out on her phone. Stalker hurried to silence it, cursing herself for forgetting to do so earlier. As for the message itself, she didn't bother reading it. There was only one person who would contact her at this hour, even though that woman should know better than to bother her during 'work'. Instead, she brought her attention back to her soon-to-be victims, trying to pick out anything that might give her a clue about their operation. They were definitely speaking English, but from this distance, she couldn't make out much, and from what she could, it was mostly random babble. One of them was puffing his chest about a bike he recently bought, while another was loudly describing in unnecessary detail what he did with some girl last night. Stalker resolved herself to aim a little lower when shooting at the last guy.

After what seemed like an eternity, and several severely taxing exercises of restraint, something finally seemed to happen. A couple of unmarked vans approached the warehousing, blinking three times in what she assumed was some secret code between them. All the gangsters present jolted to their feet in an explosion of commotion, everybody trampling over each other in an ecstatic hurry, yelling and moving out of the way as the rusty doors of the building began to open. Stalker took this as her cue. She cast one final glance around her, checking for anything that may seem out of place. Nothing. It seemed like she wouldn't be competing with anyone over her prey tonight. A shame.

She leapt into the air, entering her shadow state the instant her left booth stopped making contact with the gravel underneath. The change was instantaneous. Her lungs automatically stopped taking in air and her heart stopped beating. She was suddenly hyperaware of the most minute changes in the atmosphere, of the imperceptible temperature difference in the air around her. She was still, utterly and completely in a way no human body could manage. Like a corpse, yet more alive than she had ever felt.

Carried by the momentum of her previous movement, jumping several dozen feet between rooftops was almost effortless; gravity had no hold on her any longer. She was but a speck in the dark, starless night sky of the city, a blurry outline floating through the dull grey buildings like a vengeful spirit. She couldn't actually fly like that pity party that was New Wave, but she couldn't imagine soaring through the air could get more liberating than that.

She arrived at the warehouse rooftop but didn't stop there, continuing her arching fall until she reached the interior's tiled floor. She bent her knees, ignoring the shudder of her body as her heart restarted and her bloodstream jerked back in motion. She quickly scanned the perimeter around her, checking if anybody had noticed her intrusion. The lack of knives and guns pointed her way was a good sign, the lack of any duffle bags full of money and loot was not. From what she gathered from the outside, the warehouse itself wasn't that big. At worst, she'd have to check three of four rooms before she'd find something.

She phased through the nearest wall, taking by surprise one of the guards as she slammed him with the back of her crossbow before he had any time to react. He fell to the ground with a soft thud. The other one present, an Asian girl with bleached hair and trashy clothes, stared confusedly at his limp body for a moment before her mind could properly process the situation. She made to scream; the dangerous glint of her cross-bolt gave her pause. With an unceremonious thud, she joined her friend in the blissful realm of sleep. They weren't worth wasting precious ammo on.

Shadow Stalker hurried her search. She wasn't afraid of the gangsters here, she could squash all of the shitstains here like the bugs they were, but if they loaded up their cargo before she got to it it would make the whole ordeal more difficult. There were always more losers and bottom feeders spat out by the city from which the gangs could recruit. If she really wanted to make them bleed she needed to strike where it hurt: their money.

Evading the Christmas-themed thugs was a breeze; even if everybody knew of the existence of capes, somebody popping out of a concrete wall wasn't a worry most people had. Room after room went by in a flash, every one of them more frustratingly empty than the last. She knew that the ABB's operations weren't on the level of something like the Empire, but even still, this place was far too big to be just a minor stash house.

It all came down to the large room in the back. Two people were manning the entrance, which was a promising sign. She elected to ignore the big double doors entirely, simply walking through a wall around the corner. Only darkness greeted her on the other side. Without any windows for ambient light to come from the outside, she was stuck blindly searching with her hands against the wall until she found the goddamn light switch.

The lights flickered on with a slight buzz. Sophia froze in place.

There was a man in the middle of the room, standing in a kneeling position under what looked like a dusty old gym mattress. If not for the rhythmic movement of his chest, he could have passed for a statue. A sinister leer was etched into his blood-red mask as if to mock her specifically. Paired with the sharp twin horns rising from its forehead, the implication was clear.

The demon of the ABB made no move to get up, simply tilting his head to stare at her.

"You are not the one I was expecting." His voice held no real infection aside from a slight accent.

There was no time to think. Stalker jumped to the side, rolling onto the ground as a knife now hovered over where her throat should have been. She aimed two shots at the second Oni Lee that was now behind her, not bothering to check if they hit and instead sprinting for the edge of the room.

She had to get out of there as fast as possible. Oni Lee was probably the only villain in the city with better mobility than her, and she didn't want to end up as that psychopath's latest victim. Her feet carried her with as much speed as she could muster, constantly changing between her normal and Breaker state for maximum output until she exited the warehouse into the open street. Immediately she was noticed by the mooks outside, who started shouting and opening fire. The shots passed harmlessly through her semi-solid body, but she couldn't afford to waste time retailing. Not with a murderous cape on her trail.

She didn't need to look behind her to see if she managed to shake him off. The periodical cracking sound coming ever so closer with every iteration, like shattering glass, was an ominous announcer. She didn't bother with anything like a direction, all she needed was to cover as much ground as possible to shake the insane teleporter off. Every time he popped into existence she turned Shadow, evading the incoming blow and running through a building to create more distance. After a couple of times of that exact pattern repeating she noticed he was always slower to follow her after she vanished from his field of vision. 'A Line of sight restriction of his power?' she thought. 'I can use this. As long as no power lines are running through the walls, I have the advantage in enclosed spaces.' If she phased her shots from behind cover, there was only a matter of time before he made a mistake, before he gave her a gap to scurry away into an alleyway's obscurity.

As soon as the plan formed in her head, Oni Lee emerged once again, to the left this time. Stalker instinctively dodged away, but this time no knife rushed at her. Instead, in his hand he held one of the grenades stashed to his belt, the pin undone. She only had time to widen her eyes behind her makeshift hockey mask before the explosion came, a deafening blast blowing her away. She came out unscathed, but the force of the detonation carried her weightless body high into the air in a random direction.

Grateful for her power slowing down her descent to a manageable level, Stalker brought her body into the material world just before landing, rolling around over a patch of grass and dirt until her momentum came to a stop. The spinning landscape around her began to return to normal as her dizziness subdued, she was soon able to make out that she landed it in the middle of a park. She couldn't remember any place like this around the docks, so it was most likely that she was already out of ABB territory. Still, she better hurry back up to her warehouse before anything else...

"Done already? And here I was, generously giving you the spotlight for the evening. I had pretty high expectations, you know!"

A wispy bolt shot towards the origin of the voice. The girl in question cocked her head to the side as the empowered strike harmlessly wheezed past her into the night.

"A bit jumpy, are we? Well, I guess that's my fault. You're still 'on the job' as to speak."

The girl was standing on a large tree branch a good 10 feet off the ground, leisurely swinging her feet over the edge like it was the most natural thing in the world. A pair of large, silky wings sprouted from her back, their intense blue complementing the white and cerulean colour scheme of her costume. She wore no mask.

"You...you're that new Ward that joined up!" She pointed a finger towards the girl. The other hand was still clamping over her weapon's trigger. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Ward!? Where?" Her head swung from side to side in an obviously exaggerated manner. "I don't see any here. You must've hit your head pretty hard when you fell."

The redhead flashed her a pearly smile. "As for what I'm doing, I already told you. I was watching your performance."

Stalker tightened the grip on her crossbow. Who does this bitch think she is?

"Listen here, you..."

"Ap ap ap!" The girl put her hand forward to cut her off "No time for that now, the dragon's mutt is picked up on your trail. Do you want another shot at him, or can I take this one?"

No sooner than she said that, Oni Lee's body soundlessly emerged from behind a tree behind them. Stalker hurried to recharge her ammo, her mind already running at 100 miles per hour thinking up and dismissing all possible escape routes. The man really was like a trained dog, stubbornly refusing to let go once he bit into something. A direct confrontation might be her best bet right now, as long she could make Miss Loose Screws over there to back her up. She didn't keep up much with the news on the heroes Girl's Scouts division, but if she could sit over there all smug and relaxed like that, she at least had to know how to handle herself in a fight.

The man didn't instantly lash out at her as he did before. His movements were slow, and borderline mechanical in execution. He brought forward his hand until the tip of his knife was pointing at her head, all the while his crimson mask was facing towards Butterfly Girl, who hadn't bothered to move from her spot.

"The Dragon had no quarrel with the Heroes' young apprentices. Relinquish her life to me now, and you may leave as you please."

"You're not much of a ladies' man, are you?" In response, the girl took off one of her gloves and proceeded to closely examine her nails. "I've been butchering your men for a good while now, what's a girl gotta do to receive some attention from you people?"

Stalker's jaw dropped, even the threat of Oni Lee fading to the back of her mind for a good second. "Wait." She said. "You mean you are the one who..."

A powerful gust of wind furiously blew by, strong enough that she was forced to dig her boots further into the ground to not be blown away by its sheer pressure. When her mind managed to catch up with the flow of events, Butterfly Girl's ivory hand was buried elbow-deep in Ony Lee's guts. The man didn't have a chance to react, his outstretched arm still facing her direction. The knife dropped from his hand, vanishing into a pile of white ash along with the rest of his body.

The redhead let out a deep growl, so guttural Stalker couldn't believe it came from such a slender and delicate throat. There was no trace of the bright cheerful girl from a moment ago. Her posture had changed entirely; her features were sharper, more pronounced, yet no less graceful. Sophia could see flames dancing behind those misty, narrowed eyes.

A predator who'd caught onto the scent of blood.

Her wings unfurrowed to their true length, an ocean of colour under the streetlight's poor lustre, and with a single elegant flap, she was launched far into the air at speeds Stalker's eyes strained to follow. In the blink of an eye she vanished from view, an explosion ringing out a fair distance away like a cry of battle. She hurried to follow, guided only by the pseudo-suicide bomber's trail of destruction.

The fight quickly abandoned the confines of the small park and extended onto the rooftops of nearby buildings. Most of them were only a couple of floors tall in this area, so Stalker had little trouble following the two of them, though keeping them both in her peripheral proved to be quite challenging. There was never a moment of pause, only constant unending movement and speed. In a second Oni Lee hanged onto the rails of a fire escape, in the next the ladder was bent to pieces by a pair of thin arms as the demon teleported on top of a car's roof. Instantaneous movement versus outrageous speed. Neither of them looked like they were planning on pulling the brakes any time soon, but in Stalker's mind, the outcome was already decided. Their roles had been made clear: the cat and the mouse. The hunter and the hunted. As those wings flapped in the air like a spectre of death, it was clear that the demon's time was numbered.

Still, Stalker refused to just stand around with her crossbow in hand like an idiot. She fell on her stomach, closing her left eye while her right struggled to lock onto the Asian-themed red mask. She couldn't keep up with their pace, so her only chance was to anticipate. So she bid her time, her breath slowing down as her body went through the familiar motions. Slowly. In and out. In and out.

There. Just before he was about to get skewered by Butterfly Girl's plunge, his head had looked to his right. She thought she could see some weird glimmer in the air enveloping him, but that wasn't important right now. Stalker didn't wait for him to appear, she simply fired. Her shots arched through the air, impaling into the glass window of a nearby shop. All safe for one, who took the Oni right in the shoulder. Not a debilitating wound, but that fraction of a second where he was distracted spelt his doom. Butterfly loomed just above him, so natural as if she'd always been there. Her smile showed teeth.

Something soared through the air before hitting the ground with a meaty plop. It took Stalker a second to recognize that it was an arm.

Clearly not satiated with just that, the girl reached with her other hand, intent on finishing the job. Oni Lee frantically fiddled with the bandolier on his side, his fingers plagued by the dreaded infection of panic. From where she stood, Stalker couldn't tell exactly what he was doing, but the ensuing gigantic explosion made it pretty easy to take a guess. He must've set off every explosive on his person.

Even with her mask, Stalker had to shield her eyes from the ensuing dust and debris. Every car alarm on the street started panically blaring up at full volume, as if there was a chance a single person in a mile radius hadn't been shaken from the impact. When the smoke cleared out, it took a good half of the nearby building away with it.

Stalker slowly approached the sight of the wreck, trying to see if she could make out any sign of a person amidst the soot and rubble. She needn't have bothered, Butterfly Girl softly landed next to her a second later, not a hair out of place. Aside from the splurts of blood staining her spandex costume, which was probably not her own. The Ward seemed to take notice of them as well.

"This is gonna be a pain to wash up." She groaned. "The machine can't get it out properly, I'll have to do it by hand. Good thing they made me spare, it'd be kinda awkward to walk in like this tomorrow."

Stalker could relate to that; she had had her share of clothing ruined for that exact reason, and she didn't even have those fancy stain-resistant materials the pros used for their costumes. Still, that was hardly the most pressing issue at the moment.

"What are you doing?" she asked, gesturing towards the wreckage. "He's gonna get away if you waste time like this."

"It'd be too much of a pain to chase him down now." She sighed. "With all those explosions he let out, the Protectorate is probably on its way already."

For her part, Stalker couldn't help but stare at her incredulously. That's it? She could've all but tasted the bloodlust pouring out of the girl when she was fighting Oni Lee, but now she was fine with backing off just like that?

"He's seen your face." She pointed out. The butterfly chick laughed.

"Then that makes two of us." She said, and Stalker noticed that in her hand she was holding onto the ABB cape's mask. With a casual flex of her fingers, the leering demon shattered into pieces. "Besides," she grinned, rolling something between her now free fingers. Stalker could see something sparkling, like a purplish dust of glitter. "I doubt he's gonna remember for much longer. I don't think he inhaled enough to forget my appearance completely, but it should've been enough to muddle my face. I doubt he'd recognize me if we were run past each other in civvies tomorrow. As long as I hide these beauties, of course."

'Stranger' Sophia's mind screamed. She took a tentative step backwards, much to the amusement of the redhead. She'd been busying herself with caressing her wings.

"Relax," she said. "I don't plan on doing anything. Using my powers on you would ruin the whole recruitment pitch thing, don't you think?"

"Recruitment?" Stalker asked sceptically. "For what?"

The girl had the gall to give her a weird look. "For the Wards, of course."

"I thought you weren't a Ward."

"I don't recall saying that."

If it wasn't for the hockey mask, she would have pinched to the top of her nose by now. Her respect for this weirdo kept growing and shrinking at an astounding speed.

"Why are you even a Ward? If you can do things like that," there was no need to elaborate on what 'that' was, "why do you let the PRT leash you and parade you around like pretty window dressing? If you didn't have to deal with all their bullshit, you could spend more time doing stuff that actually matters as... what did they call you again?"

"Stop! Don't say it, please!" she cringed. " I don't wanna hear that horrible nickname they gave me ever again."

"I'm leaving," Stalker said, not even bothering to pretend to hide her annoyance anymore.

The redhead grabbed her by the wrist. It was a tender touch, like that of an old friend, but Stalker knew she could have crushed her bones with as much ease as squishing a grape. She snarled, phasing her hand free. The girl didn't seem the least bothered by that.

"You talk about making a difference, but I doubt there'd be any people who'll still even remember your name a year from now. How long until you run into somebody out of your league again, and there's nobody to bail you out again? In a month from now on, you'll probably turn from vigilante into a statistic heroes use to persuade independents to join."

Stalker's hand curled into a fist, acid gathering in her throat, ready to spill it onto the cutesy bitch in front of her. Still, she held her tongue. She had no ground to stand on, and she knew it.

"I think you've got the whole thing wrong," Butterfly Girl continued. "You think that becoming a Ward will shackle you, force you to play by their rules. It's the opposite. Smile in front of the camera for a bit, pretend to be a nice little teammate and in exchange, you can gain so much more. I can show you heights you couldn't even begin to imagine."

"You?" Stalker asked eyebrow raised even though nobody could see. "Not the PRT."

The girl's smile threatened to split her face.

"I heard about how you operate and wanted to see it for myself. I like you, and I think the Protectorate will do as a cozy place for now. After I' 'm done sweeping up the Asian trash, I think I'll take it all for myself. Then we'll be able to run things as we please."

"Yeah right." Stalker snorted. It was incredible how she could casually say stuff like this with a straight face. She looked about her age, she doubted the Protectorate was gonna name a 15-year-old their new leader.

"Is that so hard to believe?" she rebutted. "At the end of the day, they're just a bunch of arrogant humans, putting on their silly little costumes and thinking themselves above the rest of the flock. So desperate in need of a shepherd, but that's neither here nor now." Her gaze was now so intense Sophia had to stop herself from flinching. "Point is, I've seen what true power looks like, and I know what it takes to take it. I'll be the one standing at the helm, whether they'll be too blind to see that is not my problem. Care to join me on that ship, Miss Shadow Stalker?"

Sophia didn't realize that people could speak with such earnest certainty, as if the act of making it real was but a formality. Sophia had a pretty good grasp of the hierarchy of the world, better than most of those idiots stuck in the illusion of a working system, but even she wouldn't so flippantly put herself on the top without a second thought. But the girl had strength, the rotting arm of Oni Lee bleeding on the pavement was proof enough. Back during the fight, she'd pegged her as a predator, but that label didn't seem to fit. She existed outside the confines of the prey and predator game, she was something more. And loathe as she did to admit it, she was curious to figure out what that was.

Her decision was made, there was no point in beating around the bush like a weakling. So she didn't hesitate as she pulled down her hood and undid the clasps of her masks.

"Sophia Hess." There was a glint of satisfaction in the redhead's eyes.

"Emma Barnes." Emma shook her hand, only for it to turn into a grip as the revving of an engine got ever closer to them. Sophia most certainly did not let out a yelp as the two of them launched into the sky without warning, their silhouettes quickly disappearing from sight as they passed over a curtain of clouds into the clear night sky. As soon as they were in the clear, Emma helped her adjust to a more comfortable grip.

The initial burst of speed soon evolved into a pleasant drifting as they peacefully floated over a sea of white, the sparkling of a billion stars above them. Sophia had to admit she had been wrong. There was something more liberating than using her power.

AN: Random manga recommendation. Read Dragon and Chameleon, it's about a famous mangaka who body switched with one of his assistants and now, as a newbie to the scene, he has to create a series that can rival his own masterpiece. It's a really fun series, and the two main characters are really well-written. The art is probably where it shines the most though, some panels just hit different. It's pretty short too, I think it only has 20 chapters or something like that.