Ravela had to hand it to Agent Buster; he rained an impressive barrage of fists down on her. She was rag-dolling against the pavement, blocking his fists while pinned under a man who brought a lot of force with him.
The weak shielding she put up against him continuously was broken. It was hard to mount a proper counter-offensive while still struggling for air, but Ravela managed to push him up for a moment, allowing her to kick the pavement at an angle that slid her out from the enraged-looking man.
Agent Buster slowly refocused on her. Ravela, for her part, got off the ground. Getting trapped beneath that man was a dangerous failure on her part. If he landed one haymaker on her, she might get knocked out. Her throbbing forearms were a testament to his undeniable strength.
Her ego was bruised, and demanded that she pay Agent Buster back in kind. Ravela stretched her neck and slowly closed her hands.
“Agent Buster, you could have killed someone with your reckless action. I’d call your actions here downright unprofessional.” Ravela said, sidestepping the lunging agent. She was confused about his sudden heated aggression.
“Tut, tut, Agent Buster. I must admit I expected you to be more reasonable after your encounter with Becca.” Ravela started walking backward toward the hospital.
The man seemed to calm down a bit, but Ravela could see in his eyes that it was only so he could be more controlled while gunning for her life.
“What business do you have here? Who are you people working for?” Agent Buster asked while moving in to give him the knuckle side of his speech.
Ravela was no longer lying on the floor solely, stuck to defense, and eager to show him some of her thoughts. Undercutting his defense, she used her strength in an ill-moderated fashion to give Agent Buster a liver hook that the man would enjoy for at least four days. ‘You’re a big man. You can take it, right?’
Agent Buster took that hit like a champ and adapted swimmingly to her. She was intrigued.
“You surely know personnel with talent is hard to come by, and when we learn of such a unique sprout and bloom, we feel obligated to reach out.” Ravela started spinning a random yarn. Throwing the man a hook with some bait on it, misdirecting them into thinking the situation was bigger than they knew.
She retreated from the man, making her way closer to the hospital. “Why do I even bother trying to get back in? Becca and the others can reach out. I feel I’d do better keeping you away from the building.”
Agent Buster’s attention flickered up to the hole in the third floor. Ravela smiled as she saw the thoughts flashing over his face: More operatives than Becca and this man?
The worried expression was unexpected, but she didn’t mind.
“Hey! Your dance partner,” It was Ravel’s turn to attack, “is right here, friend!”
The man had a full head in height on her and wasn’t slow on his feet. Ravela pushed him away from the hospital into the street. Taking the fight to the park didn’t seem like a bad idea.
She didn’t expect Agent Buster to just charge straight at her. Ravela was tackled off her feet again, and they were now charging their way back into the hospital. The man knew to use his strength properly.
Ravela lifted both hands above her head just before they reached the main entrance, bringing them down in a combined slam on Agent Buster’s upper back right between the shoulder blades, leading him to stumble and falter. The moment Ravela’s feet touched the ground, she put proper pressure and planted Agent Buster face-first into the ground through the man’s own momentum.
Picking the struggling man by his pants and suit collar, Ravela threw him with a good measure of enthusiasm in the general direction of the main road and the park.
And how well Agent Buster flew through the air. Ravela watched him vanish in the tree line. She frowned when she looked on as he landed on his feet further in on the open grass. Ravela knew she had to go after him quickly, so she jumped into the park as well.
This time around, she wasn’t out during the dead of night. Onlookers were gathering, and the still-arriving police were splitting up between the hospital and the spectacle waiting to happen between Agent Buster and herself. It didn’t exactly help that she wasn’t after some local gangsters but a federal officer.
Ravela touched down near Agent Buster gracefully. But something had changed while she had made the jump over the trees. Before stood a man in a red and golden costume she had seen once before.
“No way.” Ravela clapped her hands together, recognizing the man. “Oh, we know you after all. If only you changed your clothing sooner. Who knew we had already been acquainted.” She paused and looked down at her scrubs and white coat. “Well, how did you change? Is that your secret superpower?” Ravela was intrigued enough that she forgot for a moment that they were fighting.
Agent Buster, however, didn’t answer her question. The late afternoon sun made the statue in the middle of the park cast its shadow like a dividing line between them. For a moment, the noise around them stopped entirely. The chatter of the bystanders seized, and even the breeze seemingly paused.
Then, a click and a flash to their right from the statue distracted her. There, taking her picture, stood Atla Jaest, but this time not how she wanted to be photographed. From the corner of her eye, she saw Agent Buster move. Reacting purely on instinct, she managed to dodge the sucker punch.
“Ohohoh, that’s low, Buster!” Ravela said, committing fully to the fight. She wanted to know what Agent Buster was made of. “This is a much more public event than I had planned, but don’t mind if I do.”
“Man! Don’t you ever shut up?” Agent Buster held his guard like a boxer and threw his punches straight. Ravela was much more slippery and not as straightforward. The open terrain forced her into this much more primitive clash.
The onlookers seemed oblivious to the danger they were in. Agent Buster, for his part, was very skilled and maneuvered her with her back to the base of the statue. She wasn’t shy about fighting close to the ropes.
Waiting for the right opportunity, she turned their positions around a moment before her back touched the concrete foundation. Then Ravela had her turn to punch a man with nowhere to go.
Concrete splinters started to fly as she started getting into her punches. Agent Buster dodged them masterfully, and just when she thought they had found a rhythm, she saw a knee aiming for her crotch. In the nick of time, Ravela brought up her own knee, turning her hip simultaneously to divert the cheap shot and locking her arms in a clinch with Agent Buster.
“You ought to have some class, Agent,” Ravela said, glaring while pushing on the man, holding him in a deadlock. “I mean, if you teach people like this,” Ravela shook her head. “I shudder to think what will become of them.”
Ravela grunted at the effort it took to match Agent Buster’s considerable strength. “Will you make the invisible kid an assassin? Better let him go with me, eh? I’d make a proper gentleman out of him yet.”
Agent Buster, for the first time since his costume change, addressed her with a reasonable response. “How do you know about that kid?”
Ravela gave him a grin. She hoped to look effortless and superior but feared looking scarred by exerted effort. “Oh, please. We know about all of them. The flower girl, the smoking boy. Even the walking icicle. You didn’t think we all just arrived today, did you?” She was starting to get too much enjoyment about leading the man on. “I mean, I know about some you haven’t even spotted, Agent Buster. What a shame it is that you missed them. If only you knew the talent slipping through your fingers.”
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As they were struggling in a deadlock against the statue, Ravela noticed Atla Jaest’s head peaking around the corner.
‘Well, maybe I said too much.’
She chose this moment to push herself off of Agent Buster, and with a flip and a jump, she gained some distance between the two of them.
“Please, don’t misunderstand. Our intentions here were pure.” Ravela held her hands out to the sides.
Agent Buster stepped away from the crumbling base of the statue and kept the conversation going. “Sure, but pure what?”
Ravela laughed at the man’s pickiness at her words. As she heard herself laugh, she suddenly stopped realizing that she sounded like a villain while laughing. ‘Do I laugh weird?!’
The sudden distraction had her shake her head. “If I were a villain, Agent Delemere wouldn’t have lived through stepping into the elevator and blowing my cover. I still wonder what gave me away.”
Agent Buster looked at him with a flat expression. “You realize your face was in the paper recently, yes?”
She stopped. “Oh right, that happened. Oh well, no harm, no foul.”
Ravela’s eyes flickered over to Atla again. “I think it’s high time I take my leave.” The moment she finished the sentence, she took off running for the crowd that had gathered. She was prepared to jump over them, but there, in the first row of the crowd, a familiar face looked straight at her.
‘Why can’t teenagers ever do as they’re told?!’ Instead of jumping, Ravela ran right toward Laena.
The crowd parted in a hurry as she came at the speed of a moving car. Laena, too, gave way, but Ravela felt the teenager’s gaze locked on her. As she passed by Laena, she noticed the stretched-out leg trying to trip her up.
‘So you want to play with the grown-ups!?’ Ravela looked the teenager straight in the eyes. “Interesting,” she said while simply jumping over her leg and out of the park. That should be enough to scare the girl from doing something this brazen again.
Agent Buster was already hot on her heels, and she had no time to waste. Ravela first rid herself of the white doctor’s coat and quickly ran toward the nearest mall she knew.
She had two rings that wouldn’t grant her any cover and only one shot at successfully switching to Ramiel Roice. First, she needs clothes to switch into. Different shoes would be nice too.
Shopping while getting run down by a man ‘her own size’ wasn’t what she’d consider ideal conditions.
Ravela started jumping greater distances rapidly approaching the mall. She could hear Agent Buster hot on her heels, touching down after long jumps on the pavement.
Agent Buster was catching up, and Ravela couldn’t let that just happen. She desperately needed more distance between them, so naturally, Ravela started cheating.
First, a car swerved out of the lane by her invisible hand, hitting the landing agent just a tad. Sweeping his feet to the side made his contact with the road anything but pleasant. The man rolled as best he could, coming to his feet as Ravela gained distance from him.
She laughed as he pushed and shoved against cars, stabilizing his pursuit. Luck was also a skill. It was truly a shame that in a game against Ravela, nothing was as certain as her opponent's missteps and hiccups.
On his next jump, a cyclist lost control of his bike, and Agent Buster had to roll and dive to dodge to avoid flattening the man in his landing zone.
Ravela shamelessly gloated at her pursuer's ‘misfortunes’.
She passed a huge stall full of helium balloons all tied together in a big, tangly cloud and almost came to a full stop.
Tearing the thin line that held all the balloons to the stall, Ravela still held on to hide her next prank. She saw Agent Buster regain his running speed, and as he jumped, Ravela pushed the big ball of balloons right into Agent Buster. This time, she left him no time to dodge, and the poor agent instantly suffered a humiliating struggle.
Beset on all sides by cartoon balloons, Agent Buster finally had to pause his chase for the moment. Ravela kept running and jumping, but her breath was picking up an audible wheeze, and somehow, she couldn’t stop her facial muscles from forming a huge grin. She felt so childish; she felt so alive. Ravela didn’t know why this mischief caused her heart to beat in such a heart rhythm.
She reached the mall and entered it like a cannonball. Barreling through the corridors, she found a clothing store and quickly picked out a few pieces that were Ramiel’s size.
A shopkeeper came running, yelling at her and getting right in her face when she vaulted over the counter and up a bag to throw the clothes into.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing, Mr.!?”
Ravela stopped and looked at the woman. Ignoring the woman, she grabbed a bag and vaulted right back over the counter. Looking back, she promised herself that she’d pay for the clothes later.
Running down the mall’s splendid rows of shops, she sought to put a great distance between herself and Agent Buster. Then she’d simply switch, leaving Agent Buster in the dust.
She ran past a store she had visited once before. The suits in the display windows got her to a full stop. For a second, she thought about ridding herself of the scrubs. But her better judgment told her that she wouldn’t need another disguise for Michael. What she needed now was an empty space and enough time to quickly make the change to Ramiel.
A rumble went through the mall. Her pursuer was not far behind. She started running toward the parking garage. Squandering another headstart out of showmanship was out of the question.
The moment she entered the parking garage, Ravela checked her surroundings. Satisfied at the sight of empty cars and deserted concrete halls, she wasted no time and helped herself out of her clothes behind one of the many pillars. After retrieving the rings from the left pocket, she threw the scrubs to the floor with little regard.
Out of the shopping bag floated the jeans, a simple white shirt, and a simple dark brown belt she took from the shop. She took off her shoes with the help of her abilities while pulling the shirt over her head. Ravela was fast and had the needed dexterity that an observer wouldn’t describe the scene as looking clumsy or frantic, as she felt quite elegant while changing, graceful even. At the same time, her heart beat agitatedly in her chest as she was trying to look out for Agent Buster. Her boots flew back onto her feet as she jumped up once.
Ramiel’s ring went on her left middle finger a split second after she had taken off Michael’s ring. She smiled as she stashed Becca’s and Michael’s rings in her left pocket.
Walking to the edge of the platform, Ravela vaulted over the rail and slipped silently to the floor below. She walked without haste back into the mall, whistling a happy tune as she mixed with the masses. Drifting along with the crowd, she made her escape from the mall.
The slow return to the hospital gave her time to evaluate her approach.
‘Decidedly disastrous. But if I get the intel in the end, it will not be a total failure. But those agents were something. I can’t afford to run into them without a good plan from now on.’ She concluded with a sigh. From then on, her moves would have to be planned out far better, and she needed an upgrade in her wardrobe if she had to face other supers like the Bomber or Agent Buster.
She got to her car and observed the police and FBI running all over. In her mind, there was no doubt that all the nurses and doctors would undergo a background check before the day ended.
Circling the building, Ravela reached a spot across the fire escape door behind which, stashed under the stairs, still lay her recruit clothes and wallet. Taking a long breath, she reached out from the other side of the street to spring open the fire escape. Pulling the bag out of the open door and having it fly up high and to the park behind her.
The bag landed in some bushes and was retrieved by her moments later.
She considered leaving the files in the elevator for the night and retrieving them in the morning. However, she had underestimated the agents before. If she left them there overnight, there was the not-so-small chance that they’d be able to collect enough files from deducing that the most interesting pages were missing. From there, it was just too easy to retrace ‘Becca’s steps’ and find the files.
With another deep sigh, Ravela shouldered the bag with her clothes and slowly walked to the hospital's main entrance after putting the few pages of the first five patients she already had on her from the bag into the glove compartment of her car.
It was time for Ravela to visit a police officer who would be happy to see her. She felt moderately guilty for using her visit to a man she’d saved the day before to recover her stolen goods. Then again, it wasn’t like she had put him in the hospital bed for that reason.
She was confronted at the door by police officers. They looked through her bag, and Ravela was glad she had not forgotten about the few pages she had already lifted from the hospital before her adventure with Agent Buster and his many colleagues.
“Listen, recruit. The hospital isn’t taking visitors right now. There’s been an incident. You understand, right?”
Ravela nodded. “I do, but this is probably the only time I can visit the officer I saved yesterday. Just wanted to make sure he is recovering as his partner said.”
The two officers exchanged looks. “That was you? Well, any friend of Officer Jin is a friend of ours, of course. A future colleague of ours at the 4th, like yourself especially.”
Ravela laughed and joined the joke. “Well, that is if the 6th and 11th don’t come and steal me.”
The officer who had stood by so far scoffed at that, “What?! As if, buddy, you follow me. I’ll do you a favor here and escort you. There is no other way you’d get in here tonight. You remember that when the Captains of the 6th and 11th come looking for you.”
Ravela smiled and gave the man a wink. ‘Oh don’t you worry, friend. There’s no way I’d forget this favor.’
She followed the officer into the hospital and stuck to him. Keeping her fingers crossed, she hoped for an elevator ride.
As luck would have it, the officer stopped by the elevator, pressed the button, and leaned on the wall.
“It’s good of you to check in on our man,” the officer said.
She smiled politely. “Well, I couldn’t pick some chocolate up for him as a get-well gift after the academy, but I guess a friendly face is something.”
“I think you’re in for a nice surprise once you’re done with the training. Civilians might forget who saved them, but not police officers, never us. You just made some friends before getting into uniform. Many people will wait on their radios, itching, for the day they get to pay you back for that, especially when you save a guy two days from retiring. All officers love that kind of lucky charm. Wouldn’t be surprised if you got the radio call sign guardian angel or something once you’re in the force. You’ll see.”
“I’m looking forward to all the guys looking out for me once I am the new guy. That will certainly be appreciated.” Ravela affirmed her hopefulness.
With a pling, the elevator doors opened. The officer motioned for her to go in first. As the doors closed, he turned his eyes to the front and asked casually, “So, how’s the academy treating you? Doing well so far?”
Ravela looked at the ceiling tiles and absentmindedly responded. “Oh yes. Broke the academy record on the driving course today.”
“HA! Good one, recruit. I bet you did it on the first try, too.”
She smiled and didn’t respond. With her ability, she felt for the papers she had stashed in the space between the tiles and the elevator’s top latch. She picked it up and waited until the elevator door opened, and the officer started walking. Opening her bag quickly, the papers flew noiselessly, folding neatly under the clothes.
While the doors slowly closed, the tile slipped back into place as though it had never been opened.