Ravela and the other recruits were once again standing in the lobby of the police academy. It was early Monday morning and she was wondering if the goings on in the city would affect the academy's operation.
She got her answer when Instructor Harmond came out as usual.
“Good morning, recruits. Form up.” He simply called out while coming down the main stairs.
Looking up at the gallery, she found that quite a few instructors from the active force were missing, not just the two assisting instructors working with Harmond.
“Today, we will deviate from normal operation. We will take a tour through the city and inspect what crime is doing to your homes and neighbors, recruits.” Instructor Harmond looked grim. Ravela couldn’t imagine the chaos the police department was in after the weekend. The man wasn’t pacing around like he usually did either, this was too serious to him for theatrics. He would show them the city how he saw it.
“The instructors will take five groups each through the city. We will all converge on the clock at 11 am at City Hall. I want you to soak in everything you hear and see until we meet there.” He walked through the central dividing corridor between the recruits. “Groups one, eight, ten, twelve, and fifteen come with me. The other instructors will pick their groups. On me, recruits!”
Ravela fell in behind Instructor Harmond, wondering what a man who, for all she knew, called Pliada City his home and grew up here would show his recruits. They jogged on the sidewalk further into the city, passing people in the busy morning rush to work. In opposition to the weekend, the entire town was buzzing, as though the gang war or the Bomber knew such things as the regular work week.
Her mind began to wander. What exactly did she know of the Bomber? Not much was the disappointing conclusion she reached after a while. The Bomber was European by the exposed skin she had seen, but he was not Swaddy. Of that much she was certain. She thought back trying to remember even a glimpse of a tattoo, and she was sure his hands and forearms were entirely unmarked, as were the part of his neck. His ability to make use of his superstrength spoke of good self-control. So he had powers for a long time or was well-versed in the exploration of his body's abilities.
They turned onto a packed street with every meter parked tight with trucks and pickup trucks full of construction materials. By the looks of the buildings this used to be a fancy shopping location with broad sidewalks paired with lovely little trees. Now on either side of the street, burned-out storefronts spread down the full length of the road. Only a third had been spared from destruction, and some had no construction workers entering. Ravela pushed off the pondering for later and took in the view the instructor wanted them to.
These were all livelihoods, some owners were ruined, and some even died. He saw a burly and heavyset man in front of an unburned pub. His shop survived but the bruising on his forearms and face looked a dark shade of violet. A small price to pay to have broken windows instead of a torched ruin. The man suddenly stopped in the middle of the conversation with some handyman, who was probably there to fix his windows, locking eyes with Ravela. She was impressed with the acute awareness the man had for being watched. She gave him a grim nod.
The African barkeep with his curly salt and pepper hair furrowed his brows a bit then gave her an almost begrudging nod back. As he did, his afro haircut bopped with his nod, supporting his gesture somewhat. It seemed the police weren’t popular in this street, but they weren’t completely closed off to shows of genuine sympathy. Ravela wondered whether this lack of popularity is a new development after last Friday.
Then the jogging group was already past the pub, and their instructor stopped when they reached the end of the street.
“Most of you who didn’t grow up in Pliada probably don’t know this street. This district was the nicest place around. The locals kept it that way since this town was built.” Instructor Harmond gestured down the road. “The river is so close when the ships got unloaded you could hear the crews holler, back when this city ended on this very corner. When this was nothing more than a new settlement and the town ended behind these houses at a palisade.”
Instructor Harmond pointed at a burned-out black hole in a small building that was wedged between two broader buildings. “That was a bakery, it’s been here as a stall for ages. The same family ran it since we didn’t know what central heating was. It survived a civil war in which this city got encircled twice and was conquered twice. When after two hundred years a fire temporarily shut it down, that family went back to the tradition of selling their goods from a stall on the sidewalk. Then they reopened just in time for the First World War to send their two sons to fight for liberty. When neither of them made it home their daughter took over the business, as a different daughter already once before had done. Her son was eighteen when the second world war started. Just young enough to enlist. When he came back he did so just in time for his mother’s passing, and the bakery stayed open. Until last Saturday, when criminals ran through the streets of this city and threw incendiaries into many shops. It was 3 am and the owner and his family were just teaching their teenage daughter their craft. This house doesn’t have a backdoor. It was constructed with its back to the palisade and the owners kept it that way.” Instructor Harmond looked at the sky before he continued, “And for 268 years that was not a problem. That bakery was as old as this city, it was older than this country. Not war, not famine, nor accidents brought it to ruin, but crime did in one night what the devil could not do in over two hundred years. There is a lesson to be learned here. Think about that while we run to our next stop.”
The long speech had intrigued Ravela as the history of one little bakery seemed so rooted in the land, but by its conclusion, she felt burning shame. If she had done more after the confrontation in the factory, she could have stopped this from occurring. Looking back over her shoulder, Ravela saw Jocul and Alan running while also having their heads turned back to the ruined bakery. Bakers at the Gates was gone. Palisade Row would never be the same again. Ravela turned her head, if she hadn’t run home after one short encounter, could she have saved that family?
Shame was not an emotion she usually felt for things she hadn’t done, but she had a feeling there would be a few more such stops and none of them would make her feel better about her choice to go home early that night.
They ran past more burned-out car wrecks, police tape covering corners guarded by only one officer who looked like he felt a bit lost with his task.
Stopping at a burger joint, Instructor Harmond turned around.
“A big plaza, isn’t it?” The man said, gesturing over the open space with small trees and a huge playground on it. “Yeah, look at the sorry sucker walking around the crime scene tape there. That’s you if you make it to the end of the academy. That man has probably been walking that perimeter since midnight. His relief officer or detectives to take on the case probably won’t make it here before noon.”
He spread his arm to encompass the entire plaza. “Coincidentally, there happen to be five such scenes on this plaza. We’re going to do them a favor because if we don’t do it no one will. I will buy them each a burger, some fries, and a coffee. Your job is to find the crime scene and officers as a group and bring them their miserable early morning lunch before it is cold. Pick a recruit amongst yourselves who gets to go inside and pick up the order with me. Make it quick, the first to get out will have the easiest time finding a crime scene.”
Harmond didn’t wait for them and was already inside by the time the recruits started appointing their representative. Group one picked Donna Jade who was last in the shop of all the other groups. Ravela watched as the first two groups came out at the same time and their groups raced to the crime scene on the other side of the street. She didn’t like the recklessness they displayed and had doubts that the officer would appreciate them causing an accident he had to watch as well.
Ravela scanned the visible places for other scenes. Spotting fluttering tape at two more locations. There had to be two more scenes, but from her point, she couldn’t see them.
Donna came out last with their care package. By that time all the visible crime scenes were already taken care of, and it was safe to assume that the last remaining crime scene had to be on the other side of the plaza.
“Let’s go, we probably don’t have long before Instructor Harmond leads the entire group to us still searching for the last officer,” Jocul said, hurrying them to avoid the ridicule.
They began fanning out a bit searching for a crime scene without a group of recruits on it. After crossing the plaza in viewing distance from each other none of them had seen another crime scene.
“But there is a fifth crime scene here. There has to be, right?” Kahli insisted after they linked up all the was on the other side.
Ravela let her gaze wander once more, in her memory she rechecked the alleyways between the houses. She was about to say that there was none when she remembered a fire staircase in one of the alleyways. She snapped her fingers in a moment of realization.
“Not down here, there isn’t.” She declared. Her four fellow recruits looked at her question marks on their faces. Ravela started walking back to the alley where she remembered the fire staircase. “There were some stairs to one of those roofs.”
The group hurried after Ravela. “No way! They wouldn’t post an officer outside alone on an entire roof, would they?” Kahli said in disbelief.
“Why not?” Donna shot back. “If the crime scene is on the roof, so the officer is watching it. Where else would he be?”
Ravela rounded the corner before the rest of the group, narrowing her eyes at the pulled-up ladder. Looking over her shoulder, she made sure she had enough time and then used her telekinesis to release the latch holding the ladder up.
“Oh good,” She said smiling. “The ladder’s down. This will make it a whole lot easier. ”
Ravela grinned, certain that she was on the right trail here. The others came around the corner spotting the staircase.
“Hey, worst case, Ramiel’s wrong and we get a proper view of the plaza and spot the actual crime scene. Best case, he’s right and we get the job done. Let’s get going,” Kahli remarked, ever the people person.
“Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence there, Kahli,” Ravela just glossed right over the snark. She wasn’t the drag in this group, and she wouldn’t have the least impressive recruit pulling her leg irk her this much.
They climbed the ladder passing on the coffee cup and paper bag to Alan, who climbed the ladder first. After the ladder, the journey up the stairs went well, and when Ravela, the last of the group, finally got to see the rooftop, she cracked a big smile.
Crime scene tape in black and yellow marking the spot as the winning ticket. An officer in a thick coat, a hat, and ear muffs stood around miserably. He was rubbing his hands together, and only one of them was gloved.
When he spotted group one coming up the fire staircase the officer called out to them a bit confused. “Hey, what are you doing up here? This is a crime scene.”
As they got closer the confusion dispersed somewhat. “Oh, recruits? What is a group of recruits doing out here?”
Jocul decided to take over the conversation for the group. “Yes, Instructor Harmond is leading us through the town as a sort of lecture. Speaking of which,” He pointed back at Donna who stepped up and offered the man his sad breakfast. “that is from our instructor, with his best wishes.”
The eyes of the freezing and miserable man lit up at the sight of something warm. “Instructor Harmond, huh? He always has the back of us poor saps. Thank you, hold on to that for a moment.” The officer said putting up one of his hands with the index finger pointing up in a ‘Please, wait’ manner.
From his pocket, he pulled one key. “Let’s take this inside the staircase for a bit. Would one of you mind keeping an eye on the scene for a while? No touching, no entering, and if someone comes up the way you came up you knock on the door twice. My nose feels so numb, I’ve been standing here all night. The wind up here is seriously mean.”
He said all this while unlocking the door. The members looked at each other and Ravela rolled her eyes. None of the others wanted to stand outside on the roof.
Ravela decided to bite the bitter fruit to avoid a scuffle. “I’ll keep an eye on it, you four go inside. Just don’t forget about me on the way down.”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
The officer nodded appreciating the sacrifice. “Good man, but remember: no playing behind the tape, and if anyone comes up here over those stairs you knock on that door twice.” He demonstrated the doubled-knock on the door before ushering the four recruits with his breakfast inside.
As the door closed Ravela was alone on the roof. She walked over to the edge of the roof looking over the plaza. From up here, the world didn’t seem askew, Ravela thought, but the fluttering crime tape reminded her that even up here the world was not in balance.
Closing her eyes for a moment calming herself, Ravela considered doing something a bit daring. There was nobody here. This was the highest roof far and wide, and it was as safe as she could ever be while not in her yet-to-build hideout. Ravela stepped away from the edge and leaned against the door leading to the stairs inside the house.
If someone came up the fire stairs she would hear them long before they got to look over the edge.
Ravela took off her ring. And just like that the wind breezed over her skin, her actual skin. Breathing fresh air as herself, not as a human. Ravela sighed in relief, she didn’t quite understand the reluctance she felt with wearing the rings recently. She wished to breathe freely in a safe environment, as her true self. If not possible outside, at least not paranoidly looking over her shoulder at home would be nice.
The wind’s cold caresses felt like a loving touch to Ravela.
She started humming while leaning against the fire door. Her strange voice reverberated with her humming. The tune was one she had used before without the slightest clue where it came from. It certainly was not a melody she picked up while falling through the dimensions. Ravela was sure she knew it very well, but as she was now, there was no point in trying to figure this particular curiosity out.
After a while, she felt someone push against the door. Ravela put Ramiel’s ring back on her left hand before stepping away from the door.
“Recruit Roice, enough of the twiddling your thumbs out here!” Instructor Harmond said while pushing the now unblocked door open, revealing all the other recruits further down the stairs looking pretty winded.
“Congratulations on finding the last crime scene. Thanks to you, only the other groups had to run up the stairs. Now, we’re moving on. If you’d be so good to rejoin your group, Recruit Roice.” He kept the momentum of his barrage going. “Alright, recruits, time to run back down. We’ve got another stop we need to take before we reach the grand finale of the day.”
He then just turned and made his way back down the stairs in a slow jog. The other recruits groaned Ravela linked up with her group taking the spot and the end of their column this time.
When she passed the police officer on his way back out to guard the crime scene the man gave her a quick pat on the shoulder paired with a warm smile and an appreciating nod.
That lifted Ravela’s spirit immensely. A huge smile formed on her face. She liked being valued and appreciated, and she had not the slightest clue why just this little show of approval meant so much to her, and for once she wasn’t the least bit curious about the particular reason why she appreciated that simple gesture so much.
Their instructor led them back down the stairs and through the city. His pace now was slower than before. To Ravela, it seemed like he was trying to match a schedule, and group one finding the last crime scene without him leading all the recruits there had messed with his timing.
Ravela recognized his way to make up the gap in time smooth and discreet.
After worming their way through the streets that were just minor detours on their way straight to their goal, Instructor Harmond stopped across the street from a police precinct.
“Recruits, this is the 11th Precinct. They’ve been in the thick of everything you saw today, so far. This building became a battlefield, but not in the way you might think. Follow me inside and you’ll learn something about the profession you have chosen.”
At the main entrance of the precinct, two officers were standing guard of sorts and, what Ravela identified as the precinct’s commanding officer, a Commander.
It was obvious to Ravela that they’d been expected. She assumed a captain of a department or maybe an Inspector will be waiting for them, but not the head of an entire precinct making time for some recruits.
The man shook hands with Harmond and both had big smiles on their faces, though Ravela saw the hints of stress on the Commander’s face.
“This here is Commander Carter, the man who was my mentor when I was still a recruit.”
Ravela had the slightest smile on her face. Now it made sense. These two probably didn’t get a lot of time to reconnect with how busy they were. Any excuse to meet had to be more than welcome, even the more serious ones. She understood the notion well, though wasn’t quite sure why she understood it so well. A smiling little girl sharing Ravela's face flashed through her mind and just for a second a lump formed in her throat.
She shook off the tinge she felt and focused on the instructor once again. He was currently exchanging pleasantries with the Commander and Ravela let her eyes wander for a bit. The two officers standing on the sidewalk weren’t exactly standing guard in the manner she expected. They were leisurely standing around talking while casually scanning up and down the street.
“Alright, we’re heading inside, recruits. The commander was so kind to have the officers who were on the scene at the time be here to relay the events to you in detail.”
The groups followed the two men inside.
----------------------------------------
Kane Lordan sat on the curb outside of his favorite bar. Life comes at you fast when you have to feed two kids and a wife with a propensity for spending money to lift her spirits.
He sat there a moment longer, hands covering his face. There was no use in just sitting around. Kane needed a new perspective, a different job quickly. His daughter couldn’t suffer because of him getting fired from the job he had for twenty years.
One beer he had said to himself. Just one beer and a few hours to get his head clear. Some time to come up with a plan that would lead to his family not losing the recently bought house.
Getting off the ground, Kane reached into his pocket. He dug in his pocket once. Confusion spread as his empty hand reached once more into his empty pocket.
He rushed back into the bar to his spot—no key on the table, and none on the floor. Kane got a bit dizzy standing back up. “Damnit,” he cursed out loud.
He hurried to his car and just like he feared there in the ignition was his key, locked in. Dangling with the little rabbit's foot on it that his daughter had gifted him. A feeling bubbled up inside of him and with a primal scream he punched the window of his car.
Kane watched almost as if in third-person as his fist flew toward the glass, and he couldn’t believe what he had done in a moment of frustration. He expected the pain to rush through his arm as his fist made contact. The confusion he felt as his knuckles passed through the glass without making contact didn’t help his beer-hampered balance as the motion of his punch pulled him forward with it.
“Wha-” He managed to stammer as he simply fell through the car door plopping onto the driver’s seat. His mind didn’t understand what exactly was going on. Looking back at the door his legs were just sticking through the car door.
Gasping and from one moment to the other sober he pulled his legs inside. His heart pumped so quickly he could feel his pulse in his throat and ears.
“There’s no way this just happened. No way. That is not possible. It just isn’t.”
He turned the rear mirror on himself. Kane’s eyes looked wild and crazed. Sweat ran down his forehead and temples. Grabbing onto the steering wheel hard he began to breathe in and out. He had to calm down. This situation required a clear mind and a truly sober mind.
Kane would just sit there for a while, hoping that he wouldn’t fall through the floor the next moment. Sitting was good, sitting was safe.
----------------------------------------
Ravela jogged behind the rest of her group once again. She had fallen back to soak in more impressions from a spot at the end of the line.
They had visited a precinct that had been attacked during the night from Friday to Saturday and the officers had given them a vivid account of how and why it happened. They had sheltered two Carthaginian gangsters that had run into the precinct while a roaming band of Swaddy hunted them.
She wasn’t sure, but some officers seemed to boast a bit or exaggerated their contributions to resolving the situation.
They were currently running past the city’s iconic Safehouse. Ravela guessed their next stop would be City Hall as it was nearing 11 o’clock.
A billboard caught her eye. ‘The Mysteries of Rome’
Ravela stumbled which led to her falling behind the rest of the group.
She looked back up at the billboard. From the fourth of July, the wandering expo would stop by for the entire month in Pliada City. It would be in Pliada’s Liberty Museum.
Brought to Pliade City by Ito Industries and Dr. Himiko Ito. Ravela felt her eyes twitch. Hurrying to catch up with the rest of the group before her slacking caught the attention of her fellow recruits or worse the ire of the instructor.
Her mind was now focused on the expo Dr. Ito was planning.
They made their way toward City Hall just as Ravela had speculated, and she pushed the museum expo to the back of her mind, banishing it as just a coincidence that was better ignored than bothered about.
“Recruits! Welcome to the City Hall, the seat of your local government. Usually, you’d have to chase me here with a pitchfork. I despise the bureaucrats in here meddling with the lives of citizens telling good police officers to bother people about benign things that are not a harm to anybody. They would use an entire precinct to enforce some weird tree code they came up with if not for our fine commander curbing their ambitious designs. No grudge is too petty in this building, and life is simply too short to waste your life in this madhouse.” He put one hand up pointing his index finger to the skies above. “Today, I make an exception in the name of your precious futures. I make this sacrifice so that you can have a front-row seat. What you will witness here today should be a lesson, warning, and constant reminder about the kind of snakery you will be subjected to daily IF you make it into a uniform. So, listen well on this fine day, and see if the devil himself can make you forget what you saw and heard with your own eyes and ears.”
Ravela spotted other groups of recruits gathering outside the stairs leading up to city hall. There was a podium there placed between the pillars before the main entrance. The podium stood close to the main door but just far enough away to allow anyone to walk comfortably behind it without disturbing a statement given to the press.
Speaking of which, there were a lot of reporters and photographers and even some news cameras installed.
Group One gathered behind their instructor. Donna leaned back and whispered. “The instructor seems to have a chip on his shoulder. I wonder who’s giving an interview here today.”
Alan’s expression remained completely neutral. Jocul and Kahli didn’t seem to want to join the speculation. Ravela reluctantly picked up Donna's conversation hook. ”Maybe he has a problem with the mayor,” She joined Donna’s speculation with a reasonable theory.
Ravela refocused her attention on the main entrance, as the doors abruptly swung open. From it emerged the man she knew to be the mayor of Pliada City accompanied by a very unpleasant sight.
Morbolfr Krone walked out, and his entire personality appeared fake. There was no sign of the man she had met in the graveyard in Gradjia. He looked far removed from the bold warrior she met just a few days ago in a burning and crumbling factory. He looked like a model citizen, bar the heavy tattoos on his face and hands. Ravela almost bought the serious expression and the aggrieved look on his face.
The mayor stepped to the podium first, and the reporters gathered like liquid sucked in by a sponge, pushing through between the recruits in a hurry. They had little interest in walking around. There was a living to be made, after all.
“Good morning, everyone. I see my message has reached everybody well. I am here today to address the recent wave of crime and vigilantism that is haunting our city.” The Mayor said, and Ravela’s eyes shot over to Instructor Harmond barely able to keep the sneer off his face or the wrinkles from his nose. Glancing at Morbolfr Krone the man was an exemplar of a poker face. The mayor may as well be reading out prime numbers judging by his expression.
“There has been an unprecedented escalation of violence throughout this weekend. Our citizens are in an uproar. Rightfully, I might add. Attacks on places of work, destruction of generations of hard labor, and overall there is just one man we should blame for this. We traced these terror attacks back to one man with special abilities.” The mayor was wagging his finger, and he was sweating like he was giving this interview mid-summer. Pearls of sweat gathered over his brows, while he continued. “This individual attacked industrial workers on the docks, the warehouses, and now even over the river in the industrial zone. This individual is highly dangerous and by all gathered accounts a hardened killer. I invited a friend of mine, Morbolfr Krone, here with me. We sat down during the weekend after these horrific events. Both of us are shaken to our cores at the events that cascaded from that…madman’s targeted attack on the Swaddy community.”
The mayor waved Morbolfr closer and put his arm around his shoulder.
“Mr. Krone would like to address the situation as well. I think in the name of peace among our communities it is important that we hear from him here.”
Morbolfr Krone smiled politely, and the difference in personalities and demeanor he displayed made Ravela’s skin crawl. It was psychotic.
The blonde man held out his hands as the mayor retreated from the podium without answering the questions the reporters threw his way. It only took a moment for the gestures to calm the reporters down enough for Morbolfr to start speaking.
“Imagine, if you would, organizing a family gathering. The young people in your family are having a good time, and your grandparents are taking a shift at your family-owned business. While you and your family reconnect, you learn that a crazy man with powers is attacking the very factory your grandparents and parents are working in your stead. You rush over there and find your business burning and your grandparents dead or severely injured.”
Morbolfr paused. “My people had this happen to them over the entirety of the last week. When it was happening to the young nobody said a thing. We expected police to do their jobs and catch the lunatic that ran rampant in our midst, but last Friday night when we stood in front of the burned remains of our grandparents and parents the Swaddy community in laps of sanity lashed out at the city.” He made calming hand motions as reporters tried to jump in with questions.
“I realize this is neither a good reason nor a valid excuse for what some of the people in my community did in response. But when their police and prosecutor seem just too willing to ignore crime when it is committed against a community they consider undesirables. This is not my America! This isn’t the America of the fine citizens of this city. There is a madman out there striking indiscriminately at working folk and the elderly. How long till a child goes from an innocent bystander into a victim statistic? That man running through this city with his powers, blowing up what he thinks are his enemies, will sooner rather than later cause the death of even those not from my community. And he will not flinch at that either. He will accept them as casualties of his mad crusade.”
Ravela marveled at how this man weaved his mobsters and footsoldiers into victims. He was now using the citizens' proverbial children as human shields to get the citizenry on his side. She respected the craftiness but found the deed itself disgusting.
“But that man is not alone. There was another superpowered man at the scene of Friday’s attack. We don’t know what his intentions were, but we do know that he helped the madman. That man actively hindered the rescue of wounded people, and I would see both men brought to justice! This is why I offer up a bounty for these men’s arrests. 50,000 dollars for a tip that leads to the arrest of either of these men.”
Those words got a reaction from the reporters and normal onlookers alike. A murmur went through the crowd.
Ravela agreed with the crowd, that was a substantial amount of money offered. At the same time, Ravela was relieved to not hear Safora flying around in the factory mentioned by the mobster.
Her not getting mentioned meant that she hadn’t been noticed, which was a small miracle in itself, or wasn’t perceived as a threat by the mafia. Either of these options was good enough for Ravela at the moment.
Morbolfrs eyes wandered through the crowd. As he answered some questions from reporters his eyes wandered over the police recruits and Ravela locked eyes with him.
Recognition flashed through his eyes and for the first time in this entire interview, his mask slipped. A mischievous glint appeared in his eyes as a huge smile spread over his face. “I see there are recruits from the police academy here. The future of our Pliada City Police Department is all gathered here. What a fine sight, and even some familiar faces among them.” He stepped away from the podium and started walking her way.
Ravela’s eyes narrowed. ‘Oh, you bastard! Don’t you dare come here! I should make you trip down those damn stairs right now.’ Ravela fought the urge to use her powers to avoid Morbolfr pulling her into his schemes. In her moment of self-control, he had already skipped down the four stairs and made his way toward Instructor Harmond.
“Inspector, uh, apologies, Instructor Harmond, so good to see you again. Educating a new, brighter generation, I see. Yet, not the man I came to see. Ramiel, there you are,” He said, slipping past the instructor and the other recruits. “so glad to see you again. I thought we lost sight of each other and just when I began to worry. Here you are, Ramiel Roice.”
Reporters gathered with cameras, and the other recruits formed a cauldron for them. Morbolfr Krone smiled broadly. “I would like to introduce you all to a certified hero.”
Ravela turned her head trying to figure out what Morbolfr was thinking.
The man stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Ravela, smiling at the cameras. He reached out his open hand to her and whispered to the side. “Welcome to Pliada City. Now smile for the camera.”
Ravela’s eyes narrowed as she shook the man’s hand. After she let go, Morbolfr reached his arm around her by the shoulder pulling her close. She fought the urge to throw the man around like a rag doll.
“On this note, I’d like to announce that I will be running for District Attorney this summer. Vote for Morbolfr Krone to have justice and peace returned to Pliada city.” He proclaimed with a booming voice while cameras flashed.
Ravela’s baffled expression seemed to amuse Morbolfr tremendously.
‘You son of a bitch! I should have made you trip down those stairs!’ Ravela thought. Looking at her fellow recruits and instructor, Ravela noticed that none of them looked at her as they did moments before.