The spillway outside the Vim Slums was a harsh contrast to the polished perfection of Yunirith City. While more maintained than most other cities it was still rough compared to the rest of Yunirith. Here, the concrete was stained and scarred, the air hung heavy with the smell of damp earth and the distant, metallic tang of the city's underbelly. The low afternoon sun cast long shadows, painting the scene in hues of rust and deepening crimson.
A young woman, her emerald eyes sharp and focused, stood tracing deep, blood-stained claw marks that marred the wall of a massive drain tunnel. She wasn't just observing; she was analyzing. Harley's gaze flicked over the details: the way the blood had pooled on the edges of the gouges but not within, the lack of any trace of keratin or tissue where the claws had scraped. A shiver ran through her, a cold primal chill that twisted her lips into a faint, unsettling smile. These weren't the marks of a struggling animal. These were precise, deliberate, carved with almost casual power. The owner of these claws, whatever it was, had torn through the enhanced concrete of the city's most vital infrastructure with little to no effort. Aside from the blood the claw marks were clean, too clean. The power and speed required to create marks like these in this concrete were on another level. Harley focused her aura into a single finger and struck the wall beside the claw marks. Smoke blasted from the point of impact, the sound cracking like a gunshot, sharp and immediate. Smoked billowed off the spot and when it cleared Harley furrowed her brow in a grimace. Looking over her own strike it was jagged and rough, even enhanced with Aura her strike was not clean, and she was by no means weak. She looked at her finger seeing the chips in her nail and then back to her mark seeing the flecks of her nail in the rough gash in the wall.
"Possibly a Class B, no maybe even a Class A threat," she murmured, her voice barely audible above the rush of water pouring into the spillway. The tunnels beyond were a labyrinth, a hidden network that ran the entirety of Yunirith City – and now, something had taken up residence. The thought of what could move through those tunnels, what could breach the city's defenses with such ease... it was terrifying. A smile again spread across her lips.
Her hand traced the length of one particularly deep gouge, the concrete smooth and strangely warm to the touch. The clean water that constantly gushed from the drain had washed away any trace of the attack, but these marks remained, etched into the structure as if carved into bone. It was unnatural, unsettling. At the same time it was a huge clue to the missing persons case. The implications on the other hand were not pleasant.
"Lady Harley, the Enforcer Captain is asking for you, ma'am." Harley turned with a fluid grace that belied her playful demeanor, her gaze landing on the group of men gathered a few yards away. The captain, a broad-shouldered man with a stern face and meticulously trimmed grey hair and stubble, stood at the center, his posture radiating authority. He wore his uniform well, all white trimmed with black and gold, signature colors of the Enforcers, a scarf draped over his left shoulder showing his station as a captain, and his weapons, a side arm and a mace strapped to either hip. He looked like he'd stepped out of an old action holo-film, the kind she used to watch with Tase and Nico. Beside him stood a few grim-faced investigators, their expressions tight with worry. They were also dressed similarly without scarves, but still had side arms. All of them had swords on their hips. And standing just beside her was the speaker, Marty, a trainee from the Skyflock Aura Academy assigned to shadow her by Dez. Looking him over, she couldn't help but notice how young and earnest he looked. His brown hair was neatly combed, his green eyes wide with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension. He was still learning the ropes, fresh out of the academy, and this assignment was meant to give him some field experience. An internship, basically.
A mischievous glint sparked in Harley's emerald eyes, intrusive thoughts flooding fourth. It would be so easy to tease him, to play a few harmless tricks. Fluster his demeanor. But Dez's warnings echoed in her mind, along with the even more terrifying image of Fay's wrath. She shuddered, pushing the thought to the back of her mind.
Patting Marty's shoulder in a gesture that was almost condescendingly friendly, she turned away from the claw marks, "Thanks, Hatchling." She skipped gleefully toward the captain, her boots clicking against the damp concrete, the sound echoing in the wide, open space.
Marty blinked, his green eyes flashing with annoyance. "I'm Marty!" he exclaimed, but Harley was already halfway to the captain, her attention fully focused on the investigation.
Tano, the captain, sighed heavily as she approached. "Lady Harley, I understand your eagerness to investigate the disappearances, but this is something for us street-level Enforcers and the Hunters Guild if necessary. Someone of your caliber is a bit… overqualified. Let us handle this."
Harley giggled, her emerald eyes dancing with a playful challenge. "Captain Tano." Then, in a blink, she was gone. One moment she was there, the next, only a faint shimmer lingered in the air where she had stood. Tano startled, his head snapping around, his eyes scanning the spillway with a mixture of confusion and irritation. His investigators and lieutenants were just as baffled at her ability to simply disappear.
From directly behind him, so close he could feel the shift in air, Harley's voice whispered. "I think I'm making your job easier here, Captain. Isn't it reassuring to have someone with my… unique perspective on this case?" She tapped his shoulder lightly from behind, walking around him as he tracked her with his eyes. Tano grunted, a muscle ticking in his jaw.
"With all due respect, Lady Harley, and I mean this with the utmost respect. You are just doing this to get out of the paperwork that has piled up due to the extended leave of all the other members. Lady Dez, and Lady Trina are the ones who have been managing it up till now. You need to-" Harley cut him off, her playful tone vanishing. She reached out and gently placed a gloved hand over his mouth, her eyes fixed on the darkness of the drain. A subtle wave of her aura washed over him, a silent command for stillness.
The air around the drain seemed deathly silent, the sound of the rushing water the only prevalent sound, but underneath it something else, a faint, unsettling whisper reached her ears, a sound too low for the others to perceive.
The captain's eyes widened slightly behind her hand, his own aura flaring in response to her warning. He made a subtle hand signal, his investigators and lieutenants following suit, their movements precise and silent, weapons drawn but held at the ready. Tano eyed the drain intently, his focus sharpening with his own aura, though he still couldn't detect whatever had caught Harley's attention. He might understand that Lady Harley was here to escape boring duty, but he wasn't foolish enough to think she would act this seriously as a joke. Something in her gaze, in the way she held herself, screamed danger. Harley stopped just before the drain's edge, her posture rigid, every muscle coiled. The playful light had vanished from her emerald eyes, replaced by a focused intensity that made even Tano take a wary step back.
"Captain," her voice was deadly soft, barely audible above the rushing water. "How many have gone missing again?"
Tano swallowed hard, his own voice a hushed whisper. "Sixty-two."
Harley glanced back at him, her expression grim. "Post guards at every drainage exit. Elite units. With military-grade equipment."
Tano nodded sharply, turning on his heels and barking out orders with crisp authority. The Enforcers moved with practiced efficiency, their earlier hesitation replaced by the urgency of the situation. Harley gazed intently into the darkness of the drain, she stifled a short giggle, shaky, uneasy.
"Lady Harley, what is so funny?" Marty chimed in, his voice a nervous squeak.
Harley shook her head, forcing a light tone. "Not a damn thing, Hatchling. I just…cope with fear through joy." Her voice cracked a little with the force tone.
Marty looked down the drain tunnel, his face paling in the dim light. "Fear?" he whispered. "Someone as powerful as you..." His voice trailed off, questioning everything he thought he knew.
Harley glanced at him seeing his turmoil, and thumbed away from the drain, putting distance between herself and the ominous opening. Marty followed obediently, his gaze fixed on her with a mixture of confusion and awe. After gaining some distance, she stopped, her feet turning to face his on the damp concrete.
"I'm going to give you possibly the most important lesson you will ever get in life." Her voice was low and serious, all traces of playfulness gone. "Fear is a tool, even for someone as powerful as me, or even Lady Fay, or Lord Nico. Fear keeps you alive, Hatchling. Fearlessness is foolishness. Don't cower behind it, act in spit of it, accept it. Its a deep natural instinct that keeps you humble." She reached out and pinched his nose gently, a hint of a smile returning to her lips. "Now, let's go and visit the Hunters Guild headquarters. Bring the car around. I'm going to take a scan of the claw marks to give the Guild an accurate depiction when we get there." Marty nodded, his expression a mixture of confusion and newfound respect, and headed off to grab the car.
Harley walked back to the edge of the drainage tunnel, the darkness within it seeming to swallow the remaining light. A gust of wind whipped through the spillway, carrying the scent of damp earth and something else, something metallic and faintly acrid, that made her nose twitch. She suppressed a shiver, the smile on her face fading as a prickle of unease crawled up her spine. From her belt, she unclipped a sleek, circular device, no larger than her palm. It hummed softly as she activated it, a narrow beam of emerald light slicing out from its rim. She moved with practiced precision, tracing the device along the length of each claw mark, her movements slow and deliberate. The device clicked and whirred, its green light pulsing as it analyzed the concrete, the lingering traces of blood, and the very air around the gouges. As she finished the final scan, a shadow fell over the spillway. The wind intensified, swirling around her in a frenzy, and a low whine filled the air. Harley glanced up, her eyes widening slightly. The car, a sleek black vehicle with its turbines glowing a menacing red, swooped in overhead, its landing jets kicking up spray as it touched down several feet behind her in the shallow water flow. A sense of wrongness prickled at the back of Harley's neck. It wasn't the car, nor the sudden gust of wind. It was something else, something subtle yet undeniable. She stepped away from the drainage tunnel, her movements unnaturally slow, her senses screaming at her to run. She risked a quick glance back at the gaping darkness, and for a fleeting instant, she thought she saw two points of crimson light staring back. Then they were gone. Harley's breath hitched in her throat. Her expression hardened, eyes sharp, piercing into the darkness as she open the door entering the back seat of the vehicle, her intensity only draining away as the air softened around his trading the acrid air of the spillway for the warm comfort of her car.