Shadows of Arkwright
Knights of the Night

Edged Welcome

Shockwaves of anxiety rippled through the woman as each click of her heels echoed through the darkened parking lot. The fennec passed a glance at one of the multitude of lamp posts that dotted the area and frowned at what she could make out looked like the only maintenance they had was whenever they were first installed. It was a small comfort that the parking lot was very spacious and there were not a lot of cars parked there so unless any potential muggers felt like making a mad dash across the lot, she really had nothing to worry about. This was made doubly true by the presence of the burly security guard that was sitting at the desk. The bear was actually so big that the woman could tell from here that the uniform didn’t fit him properly.

“Cutting corners to save money in all the wrong places”, the woman said as she shook her head slightly, “Can’t wait to see what the hospital looked like.”

The woman had almost made her way to the door when a group of men emerged out of the shadows that cloaked the side of the building. Their movements of the group were of a fluidity and purpose fitting only of a pack that had done this dozens of time and were well versed in all the intricacies of each step of the dance and knew from spying at the lone fennec that she would make a grand partner for the night.

“Let’s see that toll money ma’am.”

The one who spoke, a slightly built dingo, approached the woman but stopped when she took a step back. The smile he gave made the fennec’s stomach do flip flops which was not helped by the others in the group forming a circle around her.

“Toll”, the woman said as she looked over to the entrance of the apartments and her heart sank when she saw the guard reading a magazine, “What toll?”

“Thought I’ve never seen you before”, the dingo said, “Long story short darling, the Redland Scorpions run this part of the town and everybody who lives here has gotta pay up.”

There was a shuffling behind her that caused the woman to spin around to come face to face with a leather clad gorilla that caused her to back pedal so fast that she rapidly lost her balance and toppled over.

“People who pay generally live very happily here”, the gorilla said, “You don’t want to be unhappy do you?”

The woman’s mind was racing as she slowly got to her feet in an attempt to not show any fear while trying to keep an eye on the group. There were seven of them in total and all wore clothing that helped them blend into the night with the exception a red bandana with a grey scorpion on the front. She figured they only wore that when they were shaking down someone or causing other forms of trouble. Her heart sank a bit when she saw that the security guard was currently reading a magazine while passing a glance at the monitors. Ether the monitors were not connected to a camera that monitored the parking lot or the group and her were not in any of the camera’s views. So much for feeling protected. It was then that an idea came to her; she figured that the glass was sound proof, but she was willing to bet that she could get the guard’s attention with a noise. She reached for her purse and began to silently pray that this plan worked.

“How much is the toll”, the fennec said as she began to rummage through her purse and quickly found the items she was looking and gathered them together while she appeared to search more and more franticly.

“Well, we’re nothing if not reasonable”, the dingo said, “Normally the toll would be around two hundred dollars, but since you probably don’t have that much we can setup a payment plan.”

The fennec woman began to toss odds and ends out of her purse, explaining that she couldn’t quite get to her wallet. She had haphazardly tossed out a few more objects when she figured that the thugs were used to the pattern by that point and clutched the metal compact mirror that she came to in her hand before she flung it at the glass doors.

The men snapped back at the sudden movement of the woman and cringed when they heard the unmistakable sound of the glass doors being struck. Some of the men looked around the lot for any signs of movement from the shadows and relaxed a bit when they found none.

The fennec smiled when she saw the security guard drop the magazine he was reading and looked out to see what was happening followed by relief when the guard quickly made his way outside and to the group.

“Alright people”, the bear said as he folded his arms over his chest that seemed to strain the fabric further, “may I ask what is going on here?”

The woman stood up more erect at the presence of the assistance and was about to answer when she was shocked that the dingo answered for her and she was even more shocked that he told the security guard the truth.

“Just a quick toll that needs to be paid by this lady”, the Dingo said.

“Really”, the guard said and turned to the confused woman, “Is that true miss?”

The fennec snapped out of her trance and quickly made her way out of the circle and behind the guard. She constantly had rolled her eyes at the whole, ‘damsel in distress’, thing that the media liked to portray about women in this situation, but the cold hard truth of the matter was that she did feel a lot safer standing next to a man that looked like he could bench press a train.

“These thugs tried to extort money from me”, the woman said, “I don’t know how long this has been going on but I think that they’ve also been extorting money from other people in the building as well based on how they were talking.”

The women watched the group as the guard looked them up and down. She was starting to wonder what was taking so long; she never had any police training herself, but she was fairly confident that the man would have shooed them away or knocked the one that got ballsy around causing the rest to scatter. The gang did have them outnumbered but the bear could count as three people. The only two things that were certain about the situation was that she didn’t want to be out here with the gang regardless of the protection and the police still needed to be called.

The woman dug into her purse and grabbed her phone before dialing 911. She was expecting that the gang would just turn tail and run when they saw what was happening as trying to stop her would mean going through a uniform clad brick wall. What she was not expecting was the burly arm of the guard start to savagely constrict her neck. The feeling of fear, panic and betrayal perforated her body as she gasped for air that could not be taken in and the only sound that could be heard was her phone hitting the ground.

“I told you guys to do this further away from here didn’t I”, the bear said in a hushed tone seething with anger as his hand clamped around the fennec’s mouth so he could loosen his grip on her neck just enough so she could breathe again.

The dingo slapped his head and growled through his teeth.

“Yeah”, the dingo said and flipped his hand out to the bear, “And you could have just chased us away being the big damn hero and keeping your cover!”

The bear’s grip tightened around the women’s mouth and neck causing her to thrash as her lungs tried in vain to push any sound they could muster through the man’s thick fingers. Her ears were on the verge of popping and tears finally flowed through tightly shut eyelids.

“Whatever”, the bear said as he lifted the women up, “Unlike you, I clean up my mistakes.”

Chills ran up and down the woman’s spin at the bear’s worlds and her struggles were infused with a new found vigour as she felt her neck being twisted. Her neck muscles struggled in a vain attempt to counteract the man’s unyielding strength and her fear fueled strikes against the man proved to be in vein and getting weaker by the second. Tears streamed down her face and her chest convulsed with silent sobs as the tension in her neck reached its climax.

“Stop”, the gorilla said as he walked up to the bear and was met with confusion from the others but the bear stopped none the less, “I have a better idea.”

The grumbling the bear made told both the gorilla and the fennec that he was listening but that the man had better not be wasting his time. The fennec’s eyes darted around the darkness for any sign that there would be salvation and her heart sank lower with every unrewarded glance. The pit of her stomach dropped when the thugs started to laugh quietly and her body found new vigor when she saw the gorilla popping the cap off of a syringe loaded with a clear liquid.

“Hold still now”, the gorilla said as he clutched one of the women’s flailing arms and began to feel for a vein, “It’ll all be over within a moment.”

The man’s calm voice saturated the women’s already terrified body with dread as she helplessly watched through blurry vision as the needle was effortlessly drove into the skin and the contents was delivered into her bloodstream. Her excited heartrate know began her worst enemy as the pump efficiently circulated the substance through her body.

“Should feel honoured”, the dingo said as he walked over to an adjacent handicap signpost and leaned with his back against it as the gorilla took out a Kleenex and folded it into a tight square single handed and pressed it against the women’s arm as the syringe was removed, “One of our top selling drugs that we gave you a sample of.”

The fennec froze at these words and her body started to burn at the mere thought of this revelation. She slowly shook her head as she looked at the dingo and teared up again as the man nodded as he lit up a cigarette and took a long hit from it.

“So the way I see it”, the dingo said, “Ether good luck with the rest of your withdraw ridden life or you do what we say and we in turn take care of your new monkey on your back.”

The woman’s legs wobbled as the bear released her from his iron grip and crumpled to the ground as all but the very last miniscule drops of fight drained out of her. She tried to think of something to say, to do, that would help her in this situation but her mind had started to betray her with thoughts of listening to the thugs and doing what they said. Even the familiar feeling of her phone that her fingers caressed over felt cold and dead; a lifeline severed long rotted away.

“So”, the dingo said as he took a moment to enjoy the flavour of his latest hit, “What’s it going to be?”

The woman’s body tensed and quaked form feelings of both rage and helplessness as she looked at the dingo with a mixture of both anger and sorrow.

“You can’t do this!”

The man let out a sigh at the line that he heard countless times in one form or another; it was really starting to get annoying. Still, he figured it would be good for a laugh to humour her.

“And just who is going to stop us?”

A sharp clanging sound directly behind his head made him jolt forward only to be savagely pulled back as the unyielding strength of metal rapidly encircled his throat and pinned his head to the sign. Wild chokes quickly gave way to pained screams as the dingo accidentally sucked in the cancer stick in his hurry to regain his composer and only managed to belittle it even more as he spitted out the unused tobacco and scorching embers that his lack of saliva made even more of a heinous task.

The woman and thugs stared dumbfounded by the turn of events; the costumed person stepping into view snapping them out of their stupor

“Sorry”, the costumed woman said as she leered at the restrained man, “Was that rhetorical?”

From what the woman could see, the newcomer was clad in what she could only describe as, “military style biker armour”, coloured in glossy black, royal blue and purple. While the woman would be difficult to spot in the dark if she wanted it that way, she could just as easily let the people know that she was coming. Her facemask consisting of a polymer domino mask modified with nose and cheek guards as well as armour over her ears that gave them protection but still complete freedom of movement. Her all black utility belt synced perfectly with her ghostly movements as if the belt and the armour were one and the same.

“Alright”, the newcomer said with her hands on her belt as she stared into the bear’s eyes with deadlock intensity and resolve, “Let the woman go.”

The bear responded with a death grip around the women’s neck that made her flail like snared fish.

“One more step and I’ll…”

The woman once again found herself on deaths door and her life flashed before her eyes as the pain shooting through her neck told her that she was about to be invited in; openly starting to cry as a brilliant white light dazzled her eyes. She was told that this might be what you see at death, but no one bothered to mention the ear splitting bang and the ringing in your ears that accompanied it. She squeezed her eyes shut as she felt herself tumbling to the ground only to be abruptly stopped and lifted up into the air. The shrill of wind whipping through her hair and whistling in her ears and the next thought that crossed her mind was, ‘Short trip to the next world.’

The fennec slowly opened her eyes and wiped the blur form them as she felt herself being lowered onto a cold, hard surface. Screams and curses of panic and confusion began to fill her ears and she became fully alert when she realized that she was on the outcropping over the front entrance of the apartment complex.

“What’s your name?”

The woman looked up to see her saviour kneeling down beside her and opening up a pack that instantly filled her nose with the scent of alcohol. Her arm was gently eased over and the woman began to compress the area with the saturated cotton swab where the needle had entered. The fennec winched a bit as the liquid indicated that, ‘it was working’, and began to find her voice.

“Rebeca”, the woman said as the other woman checked to see if the area had bruised.

“Ok Rebeca”, the woman said as she stood up and placed the used swab in a drop pouch attached to her thigh, “I need you to stay here for a few while I make sure the crowd is entertained before the headliners arrive.”

“Huh”, the fennec said as got into a more comfortable sitting position.

“The Police”, the woman said as she made her way to the edge and noticed that the thugs were starting to reorient themselves from the flash bag and the smoke was being taken away by a sudden breeze thanks to a storm that was coming, ”Not really a fan of them myself but my great, great granddad had all their albums.”

The armoured woman leapt off the edge and landed in front of the bear that had just cleared the dazzle from his eyes and began to stare daggers at the woman.

“Now then; one more step”, the woman said as she placed her left foot forward, “and you’ll what?”

The woman’s ear flicked as the wind disbursed from the bear’s fist while shooting in with a leopard first that gouged into the man’s armpit and obliterated whatever was left of the arm’s fighting ability with a simultaneous chop to the crook of the man’s arm. She spared a glance at the man’s face that was now twisting in pain as she rapidly hooked her right leg and crashed her heel into the back of his knee and tore away whatever balance the man had left with an elbow shot slamming into the man’s head smiling at the feeling of the man’s jaw tearing out of joint. Armoured fingers savagely dug into the man’s neck as the woman rapidly pressed down sending the man crashing into the ground. For the moment, silence was the only thing the Vigil heard.

“Okay then” the woman said as she scanned the group for any sudden moments, “How about you all?”

The group were flummoxed by the night’s sudden turn of events as the easy target was now a Vigil who went by the name Remedial staring them down. Their bewilderment was soon replaced with annoyance as they thought that they could move into the neighbourhood without running into such problems as their info said that no Vigil patrolled this part of town. Someone was really going to pay for being wrong.

Rebeca looked silent and still at the sight before her and clutched the edge of the outcropping in anticipation to how this turn of events was about to play out. She had heard about the Vigils from the media but she had never seen one in person. This was also the last situation that she wanted to see one in person and the absolute last time that you wanted one to not be around so thank goodness for small miracles. The twinge in her arm reminded her that she was not out of the woods yet; she could see the light from the entrance behind her. She wrapped her arms around herself from the sudden chill that short through her. Whether this was from the retched fluid flowing in her or from the air she didn’t know and didn’t know if she wanted to know. What she did know with absolute certainty was that she was hopping with every fiber of her being that that she would see that gorilla injured enough to be in need of a feeding tube for the rest of his miserable life.

Waiting for the opponent to make the first move was a stupid tactic that went against everything that her trainers had taught her. ‘There is always a chance the opponent’s move will be unpredictable’, they continue to say and they always continued to prove. Still, these were the new kids on the block in the ‘Feral Syndicate’, and she did want to see if they would be a big problem or they would fall by the wayside like so many other branches did.

The largest of the group, or rather the largest one that could currently stand, a mastiff by the looks of him, slowly stepped forward while being accompanied by a slender cheetah. Remedial didn’t know if the cheetah stepping forward was from the courage gained from the much larger man or that he didn’t want to be shown up but the point here was that two had regained some composure and the other four might soon follow.

“You seem pretty confident for someone still outnumbered”, the mastiff said as he sneered before indicating to the woman’s belt, “You haven’t even got out one of those weapons people talk so much about.”

“It’s funny you think I would waste my time using a weapon towards you.”

The mastiff seemed to brush off the insult as he slowly began to advance faster on the woman who took up a defensive stance as the cheetah soon followed suit.

Remedial gave the cheetah even further attention when he started to reach behind his back. Whether it was a gun or a distraction, the woman was not going to wait for ether to come into fruition.

The two men began to quicken their pace towards the Vigil only to stop abruptly when she cocked her hips rapidly to the side and her right arm flew back and her left arm shot forward just as quickly. The unmistakable gleam of metal in the Vigils hand told the man to brace themselves to move out of the way as soon as she threw the knife. This worked to the Vigil’s advantage as a sharp pain in the Mastiff’s right eye and cheetah’s right elbow jerked their bodies back as the Vigil rapidly propelled herself forward.

Rebeca watched the woman barrel towards the two men and a surge ran through her when a third man charged out from behind the two welding a large wrench over his head. She watched as the two rapidly closed in on each other; the women seemingly unconcerned with this new event as she took out something from her belt that was soon revealed to be a retractable fighting stick that the woman reared back in preparation to strike. The thought of the woman engaging the newcomer in melee was quickly sullied when the women snapped her arm forward slightly out of reach of the man. This did not mean that man was in any less danger as he stumbled out of the way of the oncoming blade before rapidly losing his balance and crashed to the ground.

“Maybe after you get a right foot”, Remedial said as her stick rapidly telescoped into a pole vault in which she used for its proper function and shocked all present by catapulting herself into the air before it retracted back to its more portable, kubotan length, “Otherwise there are much better people I can dance with.”

The armed man screamed in both surprise and frustration as he looked on helplessly as the women vaulted out of his reach but was soon silenced by shock and awe as bird like wings jetted out of the woman’s back and she was using them to glide away from the trio. The wings, adorned in the same colour and style of the woman’s already impressive attire, were not real but acted more like the wings of a glider and the woman was doing a marvelous display of such a fact as she soared above the group.

There were many moments that made being a Vigil worth the danger and the trouble and Remedial was making sure to milk this one of all that it was worth.

“Hey bitch, get down here”, the wrench wielding skunk said as he scrambled to his feet, “I thought you said that you weren’t going to use…”

The man was cut off as the sudden force of women’s collapsible staff shot out in the blink of an eye and pushed him down into the pavement with the woman retracting her wings and straddling over him soon after. The thug’s eyes bulged out in sheer surprise and shock as he continued to mouth words that would not be heard.

“I didn’t say that, first of all”, Remedial said as she looked down at the whizzing man, “Secondly…”

Remedial quickly leaned back as the mastiff attempted to grab a hold of her and snarled at his prize of empty space which quickly turned into pain as the elusive target countered by wrenching his closest arm forward causing the man to stumble forward and practically ran right into her upward chop that connected firmly with his jaw. The man’s cries were hastily cut short as Remedial’s fingers dug into the mastiff’s throat and quickly pulled him to her and into a crushing reverse headlock/arm crank that the woman mercifully cut short after a muffled crunch was heard through the man’s jacket and the woman finished the job with a rapid blow to his collar bone before letting him fall on top of his downed friend.

“…I find the fact that you actually took your enemy’s word both sad and shameful.”

Only the cheetah was left as the other three had made a hasty retreat. Didn’t really matter as she got what she needed from the gorilla for now and the other two looked like just some extra muscle and didn’t do a good job of providing that so the cartel could have them back for all she cared. Still, she wished that the cheetah’s actions didn’t have her reveal so much of her hand so early; even though catching all of these bozos was not the man priority at the time, the fact the cheetah probably just having a bad itch costed her ridding the Ferals of eight members instead of five.

“Well”, Remedial said as she spared a glance at the devastation that she had caused before returning her full attention to the cheetah, “You must be feeling pretty lucky.”

Remedial noticed that the cheetah actually did reach for something behind his back; a set of knuckle dusters that he had long since put on after a quick retrieval from the ground. She sort of wished that the retracted knife that struck him was thrown harder. Tennis elbow was found to be a much better softening blow than just tickling the funny bone.

“Really now”, Remedial said, “A big guy like you need’s something like that to take my down”, her smiled broadening across her face, “Parents must be proud.”

Remedial got into a stance of her own and responded in kind until the cheetah was an inch from his striking distance. Remedial was slightly above average height a five foot eleven but him, while not gigantic, easily was the tallest of the group at probably six foot four and lanky with hard muscles. The only reason that she was able to tell this was the fact that his navy blue hoodie was down and exposed his thick neck that strained as he began to flex his fingers that made his knuckles sound off with a sharp crack.

“Alright girly”, the man said in a low, calm voice, “Let’s…”

The cheetah shot out with his follow up hand to the woman’s face in which she instinctively tried to block only to be met with empty air as the hand shot back to put more power into the kick that Remedial was barely ready for as she brought her other arm down and let her armoured hand to bash down onto the offending leg’s knee and used the momentum to help propel her to her side as she rapidly stepped into her attacking range and counted with a powerful side kick that the man nimbly dodged and got into Remedial’s left flank and shot in with an elbow towards her face. Remedial savagely deflected the attack upward and shot in with her left arm in an attempt to deliver a brutal elbow to the man’s exposed arm pit. This plan was foiled by the man’s torso shifting in such a way that Remedial would have to settle with a blow to the man’s peck before quickly rolling out of the way of the attempted kick to the back of her head. This turned out to work out more in Remedial’s favour that she anticipated as she caught
a brief glance at the man’s planted foot giving a very telling technique of using the ball of ones foot to help propel the kick; she now knew at least one of the martial arts this guy was familiar with was Muay Thai; or maybe Muay Boran.

“Dance”, Remedial said as she took some things from her belt and propelled one of them towards the man. Whether the cheetah knew what that thing was or not was unknown but he leapt awkwardly away from the object as it narrowly missed his feet and smacked into the pavement before erupting into a thick cloud of smoke.

Remedial kept up the momentum by quickly clicking the other grenade she had in hand to life. Her grenades, dubbed, ‘senban’, due to the shape of them resembling that of the type of shuriken was activated by a simple press down and then upward before letting the button snap back its original place and then launching the flash grenade shuriken style in the direction of where she was the most confident the thug was. This turned quickly into a moot point as the cheetah erupted from the calm wall of smoke into a vicious flying knee aimed to give Remedial a quick and cheap facial. This was effortlessly dodged with a quick forward roll and Remedial counted with another trick up her sleeve.

“Ok buddy”, Remedial thought as she reached for one of her rearward pouches and clicked it open, “Enjoy your trip.”

The sound of rapid tapping on the pavement like hail falling from the sky echoed through the night as the contents of one of the back pouches scattered across the path of the oncoming thug. The cheetah’s attempted at a graceful landing was torn from him as the twenty sided die like objects rolled under his descending foot and he was smashed into the ground before tumbling from the force of the jump with the final being savagely halted by the front bumper of a car.

Pain flowing thought the cheetah’s body tightened in is chest and finally exploded out of his mouth in a rage filled scream as he scrambled to his feet and quickly faced his opponent who to his shock and agitation was mere feet from him and ready to launch another attack that was surly meant to finish this engagement. This was something that he was more than willing to respond in kind to.

Remedial quickened her pace as the cheetah began to struggle to his feet, using the car hood as leverage. The distance had all but closed completely when the cheetah surprised her slightly by suddenly flipping onto the car hood. The cheetah unleashed a flurry of low kicks aimed at her head that she blocked with her vambraces before he quickly tried a crushing hammer fist to her head that she quickly snatched and used the remaining momentum to power a devastating shoulder throw.

The man screamed as his attack was not only parried but used against him as he once again crashed against the pavement that blasted his lungs empty and silenced his cries. Spasms rippled through the man’s back as he scrambled to his feet and ignored the pain through rage and determination alone. Hot breath hissed through clenched teeth as the cheetah once again was in a fighting stance with a body that struggled to keep his composure; his once impressive presence now hindered by the constant convolutions and blurring vision.

“Give up”, Remedial said as she approached as one would an injured animal while her voice commanding, “and I can…”

The cheetah rapidly closed the distance and shot in with a last ditch Muay Thai kick at Remedial’s head. He was denied the satisfaction or striking substance and was given more pain as the Vigil’s palm heel slammed upward into the side of the man’s knee.

“…guarantee…”, the Vigil said as she rapidly closed into the man that was torn between defending himself and keeping his now compromised balance before both choices were flung off the table with one rapid hammer fist to his groin.

“…your…”, the Vigil continued even though the man’s attention to her words was questionable as she performed a rapid crush kick to the man’s balancing leg that didn’t stop until it crashed onto the ground. The man tried to break his fall but the Vigil was quick to deny him that privilege with a savage tug on his freshly captured attacking leg as she quickly knelt to the ground.

Pain shot through the cheetah’s system like a river of fire as his face’s descent was abruptly stopped by the unyielding pavement as his leg mashed against the Vigil’s own. The feeling of tearing ligaments and splintering bone scraping against sockets was too much for him to bear and the man slipped into blissful unconsciousness as gravity and the Vigil’s upper weight and thigh made quick work of the man’s knee joint.

“…safety”, Remedial said as the cheetah lay motionless on the ground. She sighed as she kept her guard up while checking for a pulse and examining the man’s face to find that his nose and jaw had been broken in the fall but found that the man still had a strong pulse and retrieved a domino sized device that she clicked the long sides of it that caused a nylon tether to slither out of the ends.

“Pretty sure you’re not going anywhere without crutches for a while”, Remedial said to the fallen cheetah as she slipped the man’s wrists into the restrains and found that the man’s elbows and forearms had taken a beating form the fall as well, “but let’s make sure you’re presentable for the police’s arrival.”

The nylon tightened as Remedial pressed down on the two face ends of the restrainer separating them into two pieces and turning them into zip tie cases stopping when she thought it was secure enough before standing up finished with that job and began to retrieve one of her knives off the ground.

Remedial’s ears twitched as she heard the faint sound of shuffling and her eyes darted to the two fallen thugs were she noticed the mad plumber was trying to be cheeky and slowly get out from under the larger man. Ether he never had the strength or that blow she gave him made what little he had gone to shit and she was soon laughing at the special. This caught the man’s attention and he looked up as she walked up to them.

“Have to laugh at you”, Remedial said.

Before the man could do anything to rebuttal, Remedial reached down and grabbed both men by the shirts and pulled them into a sitting position before she let the Mastiff fall back down as she continued to lift the other man into the air and looked him dead in the eye.

“Else I would start crying for you”, she continued in a more firm tone and smiled when the man slowly put his trembling hands up. She quickly restrained him before moving on to his friend.

The Mastiff groined as his arm was popped back into its socket before being cuffed. He was in and out of it thanks to the brachial stun followed by the neck and arm crank; he couldn’t fight back even if he wanted to.

Remedial passed a glance at the awning and saw that Rebeca was still safe if not still shaken form the experience. She smiled up at the woman and waved.

“Just going to be a few more seconds then…”

Two arms grabbed her in a choke hold and started to savagely thrash her neck; a quick view of the lack of a body in front of the door told Remedial who it was. The woman slammed her body into the man while she violently jerked the choking arm down before she quickly shifted her weight and slithered out of his grasp. Remedial quickly demonstrated that she wasn’t done as she roughly cranked the offending arm upward behind his back and struck him with a simultaneous knee to the chest and an elbow to the back of the head before falling on top of him with a hard knee right where his neck ended and his back began.

“…we can talk without interruption”, Remedial said over the pain filled howls of the bear as she restrained him.

The Vigil got up and slowly made her way over to the dingo that had witnessed the devastation brought about by the approaching women. The man and woman’s eyes locked and Remedial took a relaxed position.

“So the way I see it”, Remedial said as she mimicked the motion of taking out a cigarette in the form of one of her two retractable fighting sticks and, ‘lighting’, it, “you can ether come along quietly and under your own power or you have someone else whip your ass for months on end.”

The two remained deadlocked in their stare for what seemed liked minutes before Remedial finished.

“So”, the Remedial said as she took a long drag of the, ‘cigarette’, and enjoyed the satire before the fighting stick shot out and slammed into the metal sign under the man’s legs as the woman blew out the pretend smoke and keeping her act up with the skill of a seasoned stage performer, “What’s it going to be?”

Whether it was from a cornered animal response or the gang mentality of not looking like the coward, the dingo’s stones decided to drop at that particular second.

“You think you can stop us”, the dingo said as she started to violently try to pull off his restraint, “That this little loss means that much?!”

Remedial retracted and put away the staff and slowly walked up to the trashing canine.

“The name Redland Scorpions and all the groups of the Syndicate are going to be synonymous with the head of this city.”

The dingo yelped when his heads was clutched in a steel grip and he was rocketed to the ground wincing from both the grip and the shrill scraping of the metal. His back muscles convulsed as the shock of the drop erupted up his body before his head was twisted up to look at the woman.

“Well we’re going to be the hand”, Remedial said as she stared with absolute resolve into the man’s eyes, “And the hand is going to make the head go wherever we want it to go.”

Remedial jerked the man’s head downward before she put his arms behind his back and restrained him so she could take the chain bola off. She grumbled as the man’s actions had all but locked the hooks for the chain almost permanently into place but she finally got it off and put it back into its holder.

Rebeca watched as the Vigil began to search each one of them for weapons and any items of interest in front of each of the men that it was retrieved from. Some things like cell phones and the like she paid particular interest in but other than looking through some numbers and names, Rebeca really didn’t see Remedial doing much. She also wasn’t really paying that close attention as she was distracted going over the scene of the dingo and Remedial that made her smile. She was confused about the Vigil’s use of, ‘we’, when she talked to him but she chalked it up as her working in a team or that some of the Vigils around here formed a temporary league of sorts to combat this syndicate. It could even mean that she was working closely with the police to combat this threat.

“Do you want help down”, Remedial said as she held her arms up for Rebeca, “or do you fancy just leaping down?”

The fennec snapped out of her head and looked down at the Vigil before slowly easing over the ledge and crawling off the awning. Her body shook as an inch of her body slid further from close to far away ground made all the more harrowing by the fact that she was starting to lose her grip. The heaviest thing that she had lifted in the past years had been a textbook and the furthest she had walked was from her car to the university and her luck with parking spaces was starting to bit her in the ass.

“Don’t worry”, Remedial said as she encircled her arms around the fennec’s legs so that she could still slide through but could enclose them completely in an instant, “I’ve got you.”

“Yeah I…”, was all Rebeca got out before friction forsaken her entirely and gravity sent her tumbling to the earth and was rescued once again by the Vigil’s arms. She took a moment to catch her breath before finishing, “…know.”

Rebeca breathed a sigh that helped accelerate her relief that the ordeal was over with before a tingling sensation in her arm shot up her adrenalin again. The realization that the toxin had been in her for who knows how long and she was not anywhere near proper medical attention ripped what little strength she had managed to hold onto from the ordeal and she once again crumpled to the ground. This time however, there were two comforting arms holding onto her.

Remedial was about to speak but was cut off as Rebeca ripped herself from her arms and ran over to the retrained dingo and clasped her hands as tightly as she could around his throat and shook him violently. Her screams of anger echoed through the night as she demanded to know what was now inside her and she barely gave the man a chance to speak before violently interrogating him again. The Vigil placed firm hands on the woman’s arms before she pulled the woman away.

“Ok, stop”, Remedial said as she wrapped one arm around the woman’s waist and arm while holding out the one that got injected, “We’re going to find out.”

Remedial let the women go as the anger in her seemed to subside but she did expect what was left of it to be turned on her. She was not disappointed.

“And just how prey tell you purpose we do that”, Rebeca said as she spun around and got into the woman’s face, “Show me one of your Vigil techniques that is so much better then what I was doing.”

Rebeca barely got a chance to finish her sentence before Remedial placed something in her hands that looked like a heavily modified PDA.

“Hold that”, Remedial said as she fished into her right drop pouch again and pulled out a long, thin plastic packet that the woman would latter learn contains a long cotton swab that she quickly used to swab the inside of the syringe that she had nicked from the gorilla, “And turn it on for me would you?”

The fennec looked at the device for a second trying to piece together what the woman was doing but doing something to help her was probably better than asking questions and the woman obliged her request and she squinted a bit as the screen flashed to life and showed a screen that looked like part of a paper that the doctor gives you for lab work. There were some thigs on the spreadsheet that she had never seen before but she didn’t have time to figure out what they were as the tapping on the ground from the syringe being discarded once again caught her attention before the PDA was snatched away from her and Remedial popped open a bottom slot, swabbing the contents of the cotton onto a grid portion, closing it again and getting rid of the swab in her left drop pouch.

“And the winner is”, Remedial said as she pushed in some commands and waited a few seconds of the data to compile.

Rebeca started to fidget as the Vigil stared intently at the screen. Time seemed to stop as the verdict seemed to be withheld from her as Remedial slowly made eye contact.

“Saline”, Remedial said letting the words sink in before continuing, “My guess is that they give you a placebo so they could get you hooked on the real thing.”

The fennec was silent at this. Waves of cold fire flowed through her carrying with them the full weight and meaning of the hypothesis that she was given that mixed and mated with the feelings from the, ‘drug’, that flowed through her.

Remedial got Rebeca’s attention and told her that she was going to check on some things at the entrance of the apartment to which the fennec simply nodded and repeated the action when asked if she would be alright staying out here as the police were on their way.

The inside of the entrance was deathly quiet only broken by the woman’s footfalls; not surprising in the least due to what had been going on just outside. The experience of going from one extreme to another was chilling none the less.

“Horus”, Remedial said as she made a quick scan of the area before going to the security desk and looking at the CCTV feeds, “You read?”

“Loud and clear, Remedial”, a female voice said, “waiting for your go.”

Remedial pulled out a small retractable USB cord and ducked under the desk. Her hands moved gingery through a field of wires before she found the one that interested her and proceeded to unhook it before quickly replacing it with her own. Crawling out from under the desk, she stuck the pilfered object into the belt pouch that contained the one she had and smiled at the screen saying that the camera/monitor connection was found.

“All systems go Horus”, Remedial said as she stared up at the black dome but frowned when she looked back at the monitor and saw two blacked out camera boxes. She turned back to the dome and began to wave, “Please tell me you can see me.”

“Sorry”, the lady said grumbling, “The camera looking at the parking lot doesn’t show anything ether.”

“Then I guess Tom one and two are going to be working overtime”, Remedial said, “And they haven’t picked up any backup for those gang members?”

“The camera feed for the UAV’s are showing things as all quiet”, Horus said, “Might want to hurry up with the investigation as the police would probably get testy enough with what you did with that syringe.”

The woman just grumbled at the woman’s accusation but knew that it was true; now that she had fiddled with the device, the police could no longer use it as evidence as it had been, ‘tampered with’, as they say and would get thrown out of court if the lawyers brought it forward. She also knew that a picture was worth a thousand words and that Horus had been keeping an eye on things through Tom One and Two so they can send the recording to the police station and even the most inept law firm would have a rock solid case against the thugs. Water under the bridge regardless and Remedial continued the investigation.

Remedial checked around the desk in an attempted to find any clues that the bear left. She didn’t know what she expected to find, but it was better to search around and find nothing than not and leave something that could be vital. Finding nothing there, she hopped over the desk and made her way to the lounge area to see if she if her luck would change. The team suspected that the Redland Scorpions had been trying to set up bases around this section of the city to stake their claim to fame in the underworld but every other branch had set up shop in the more seeder side of things. Ether this group was really brazen or there was a very big backer for them.

“Whoa”, Horus said with enough volume for Remedial to go cross eyed for a split second, “Nice one!”

Remedial flexed her jaw and shook her head as the shock of the sudden outburst subsided and silence once again filled her ears.

“Horus”, Remedial said, her tone giving way to her shock and annoyance, “We had better have won the lottery.”

“Nope”, she said through her laughter, “But that woman you rescued defiantly rang the bell.”

Remedial cleared her head for a brief moment and began to focus. She felt the electrons in her brain start to rapidly fire as the cerebrius technology of her suit sensed her thought and an interface visible only to her appeared before her with a screen showing a live camera feed of an aerial view of the parking lot and one specifically of Rebeca and the bound thugs. Remedial gave a mental command for what happened out there a minute ago and a separate screen popped up showing the desired footage. She had to stifle a laugh as she watched Rebeca make her way slowly over to the dingo before trying her hardest in high heels to make a field goal that made the punk whither in pain before slumping to the ground and remained motionless as the woman walked away.

“And”, Remedial began still trying to hold in her laughter, “no sign of any backup coming to save these idiots?”

“None and I…”, Horus said before she noticed something, “That’s odd.”

Remedial looked around the screen and quickly scanned every inch in hopes to find what Horus was looking at and quickly act upon it. Her eyes continued to dart around the screen and coming back to Rebeca to make sure that she was safe before repeating the process. By that time she was through and could tell you exactly were the each pattern of rust was formed on every car and light post she had found nothing out of the ordinary and waited for the woman to explain herself.

“Hey Remedial”, the woman said, “Can you take a close look at that camera dome in the lobby”, she continued before adding, “I want to check something.”

The woman slowly made her way over to the onyx dome and began to peruse over the structure. She furrowed her brow and began to wonder what Horus was getting at but soon came to a realization and took out her multi tool as it was not what she saw but what she didn’t see that was the problem: The dome didn’t have a reflective finish and the blank screens on the blacked out monitors didn’t have the words, ‘NO SIGNAL’, on them. She looked around for any prying eyes before she placed her foot on the wall and hoisted herself up to where the camera was.

“How far back can you check the camera feed”, Remedial asked as she began to twist off the vanity plate for the camera housing and reviled the skeletal structure underneath.

“From what I see”, Horus said, “we only got about a month’s worth and the two cameras were apparently down for longer than that.”

“How long before the cops get here”, Remedial said as she began to unscrew the dome, “I want to get the names of every security guard that works here.”

“Just a few more minutes”, she said as Remedial popped the dome off and looked directly into the now unobscured camera, “Hello there.”

Remedial smiled at this and replaced the dome and vanity cover before hopping off the wall and making her way back over to the desk and sitting down in front of the computer. This was going to be quick and dirty as even though that bear hand already logged in, she was sure that something that she was looking for had extra security to it. She just had to hope that she was wrong and that the person who had this set up was a very trusting individual.

Her prayers were not answered.

It is said that your senses are heightened when you are waiting for something to happen and the sirens coming in the distance was something that Remedial was just waiting for. There was not time for her to use Horus’s computer know how to get what she wanted and even one of her back door keys would take too long to set up and get in form the sound of things outside. She cursed under her breath before quickly making her way out of the building.

Rebeca watched as the sirens drew closer and jumped when Remedial was once again by her side. She looked at the Vigil for a second as she gave her a thumbs up before she returned the gesture before a rumbling sound in the distance grabbed both of their attention as thunder heralded the coming storm. The woman turned their attention once again back towards each other and Remedial pawed at the neckline of her suit and pulled out a hood over her head.

“Can you handle things form here”, Remedial said as she tugged with the hood insuring the fit was secure, “Sorry for the stereotypical, ‘Save and Run’, but it’s very true with Vigils and the police in this city.”

Rebeca looked around at the tied up thugs before her attention was drawn to the familiar blue and red lights quickly approaching before she turned back to her savior and silently nodded. She barely completed the action before Remedial turned and began to make her exit the scene the same way she had entered. She had just passed the sign before Rebeca finally spoke up.

“Remedial”, she said and gripped her arm as the Vigil turned back to her, “Thank you.”

Remedial smiled and gave her a thumbs up again before stepping into the shadows as the police lights began to bath the lot in their pulsing glow. Her final words were giving both in welcome and in warning.

“Welcome to Arkwright.”