Naomi rested her head against the wall.
She had no idea it was going to be this hard. The aching, the bruising. She’d already used her resurrection failsafe twice and left her city without a protector for months.
But she came back. She always comes back.
Below her, some hapless victim had been chased into a blind alley. Nothing unusual there… Except this was the tenth time this had happened in 5 days.
All over the city, pointless muggings had been ending in murders.
She idly slipped through the settings on her goggles – heat showed the group of people below, low-light gave her a pretty good idea of their features and weapons. For a laugh she slipped to magic.
“Shit.” The area lit up. But not the criminals. It was the ground.
Something was wrong.
“Please. Please don’t hurt me.”
“Here we go,” she thought.
It’s always the same:
The victim pleads. Offers some money.
“Take my money, just…don’t hurt me.”
They laugh.
“Money? What do you say boys, shall we leave him?”
She reached into her belt and pulled out a set of throwing spikes and a grapnel. Pushing from the wall (“Invis. Hover”) she floated down over the gang.
“How about…we don’t!” The gang leader laughed, dagger hand raised.
Naomi grabbed his wrist, twisted and pulled. His scream hid the snap.
Landing silently, she threw her spikes. Each found their aim – not the criminals, the spikes being too small to drop anyone, but bare skin. The poison coating the spikes would have her targets hallucinating in three (she swung the grapnel), two (aimed it at the last man standing; the one going for the cowering victim. The one far braver than he should be), one (It caught his cheek).
The howls of his mates started right on time, but he kept going. Right up until he felt the grapnel’s first tear. His steps faltered, and Naomi pulled, ripping a hole in his face as the hook pulled through. She grinned, knowing it was wrong but not caring.
Arms outstretched she hit both the dazzle and the silence as she threw back her cape and appeared before them – dark and terrible.
She saw the mouths moving, but heard nothing as she put them down, one by one. Elbow to jaw; fist to temple, incapacitating them without breaking…well, too much.
When it was over she bound them, before turning to the victim. She checked him for damage (none). She also gave him the once over with her magic lenses but he seemed to just be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
She suggested that he run before firing a flare to alert the city guards. Once she was sure they were on the way, she took to the air.
Once she was high enough she slipped her lenses to Magical Detection, and drew a sharp breath. Written across the city was a massive symbol. It’s many arms ended with a set of circles. And each one was centered on the recent crime scenes.
If she was right, then these weren’t simple muggings – they were sacrifices.
