Chapter 2 The Lone Wolf

The mayor and his company rushed out to the hall, accompanied by the sound of crashing glass. Even the skeletal Mr. Wulfric emerged, his cane at the ready, as they heard the sound of breaking glass. Weapons drawn, they prepared to frighten a young boy in a ninja costume.

"Oops. Sorry," the boy said.

The group breathed a sigh of relief when they discovered that it was just a small boy, dressed up for Halloween. He had been trying to bring a snack to Sarah.

"I'll clean it up, I promise," the boy said. "I was only trying to bring a snack to Sarah."

Mr. Wulfric and the mayor chuckled at the sight, while their secretary, Sophia, glared at the broken vanilla milkshake splattered all over the floor. She shouted at the top of her lungs, "HOW MANY TIMES MUST I TELL YOU TO WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING? IF YOU CAN'T THEN AT THE VERY LEAST DO NOT TOUCH THE GLASS. Plastics are far better for clumsy

oafs." She then mumbled.

The boy was frightened by her outburst, his hands beginning to shake in fear.

"Sophia!!" her boss shouted. "How dare you call him that!" he said sarcastically.

Sophia jumped at the sound of his voice and apologized. "Oh, no, no, no. I didn't mean... I am sorry, Maroo. Look, I just bought those dishes and now they're broken. Please in the future get the plastic ones, okay? Now come here."

Sophia hugged the boy before beginning to clean up the mess herself.

"Go and make another," she instructed, much to Mr. Wulfric's amusement.

The boy nodded and headed back to the kitchen.

Still amused, Mr. Wulfric set his cane down. "And with that, I do believe our business has come to an end," he said, glancing at Miss Shaw. "And your parenting skills are top-notch, by the way," he added with a wink.

The sarcastic gesture only made Sophia's brow lower in annoyance.

"Parenting skills?" muttered the mayor. "Wonder how my goddaughter is doing..."

...

In a room that resembled a science lab, a young adult woman, surrounded by vials and beakers of boiling liquids and strange ingredients, looked like a mad scientist. She opened a freezer and pulled out several more cold, colorful liquids, eyeing the green one carefully before taking a sample with a needle syringe and walking back to her microscope. She sat down, put on a pair of safety glasses, and carefully let out a drop of the liquid onto a glass plate before viewing it.

Suddenly, the door flew open. "Sarah, I'm back!" her friend exclaimed.

The sudden noise caused her to jump, and she dropped the entire vial of the substance. The vial smashed apart, and its contents splattered onto the table, quickly catching smoke as it made contact with the wood of the desk. "Maroo!" she yelled as the substance began burning into the material.

She quickly grabbed a glass beaker from the nearby shelf and caught the substance as it dropped from the hole it had burned. "Oh, sorry," he said, looking a bit queasy. "Uh, is that acid?" he asked.

Sarah shrugged. "It wasn't supposed to be, but it does seem to have acid-like qualities." She rolled over to her computer, removed her safety glasses, and typed into the screen: "Vile number fourteen, acid-like qualities, extremely dangerous if not lethal. Attempt five thousand, five hundred, sixty-eight. Failure."

"Oh gee, I'm sorry, uh, I have a shake for you, though," he said, nervously smiling. She looked over at him, unamused, and reluctantly took the shake. Sipping quietly, she stared at the computer, thinking. "Is there any way I can help you with this?" the boy asked nervously, but she shook her head.

At that, Maroo just sat down on the bed in the corner of the room, planning not to make another sound. However, he soon jumped at the sound of a strange noise. "Umm, did you hear that?" he asked nervously. Sarah shook her head without looking away from her research.

He decided to investigate and stuck his head out the window. It was too dark to see anything at first, but then something moved in the darkness. Curiosity getting the better of him, he leaned closer out the window to get a better look.

Something flew out of the dark, towards him, causing him to scream. "Ahhhh!!!" At the sound of his distress, Sarah looked up in worry, only to see him being dragged out of the window. Narrowing her eyes, she shrugged, believing him to be faking and likely standing on the ledge of the building. "Okay, I get it. It's almost Halloween. What have you been attacked by this time?" she groaned unamused.

As she looked out the window, she was surprised to see something actually carrying him away into the air. Though she couldn't make out what it was, she didn't hesitate for a second. She quickly jumped from the window to her large chest by her bed.

She threw around her science novels and tossed out her junior chemistry set before finding what she was looking for: a belt with a net launcher on one side and a gun on the other. After snapping on the belt, she grabbed her black hoodie, concealing her weapons before grabbing a dark purple skeleton mask.

"Well, at least it's Halloween," she muttered as her brown eyes shifted to glowing snake-like pupils with slits in shape. She ran out the door.

…

Sarah jogged through the streets until she reached an old, musty building on the south side of town. She quickly pulled out her phone and double-checked her friend's location. "It's a good thing phones have trackers now," she thought, confirming Maroo was indeed here.

Once she was certain, she drew out her net launcher in preparation for what she was about to face. Just then, she heard the whoosh of a large wing above her, forcing her to take cover underneath a nearby tree. Looking up, she saw the figure of another large creature landing on the roof. "Oh great, another mutant," she groaned in annoyance.

A scream came from inside the building, and Sarah yelled out in panic, "Maroo!" Forgetting about the mutant on the roof, she ran over to the building, passing an old dilapidated sign that read "Orphanage".

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

…

The building itself could only be described as creepy. Despite this, Sarah looked around, and at first, couldn't see anything. However, as her eyes began to glow green, the dark turned into day. "Yuck, this place is a mess," she thought, as her ears picked up the sound of rats and spiders crawling up the walls. "Great, I'll need a can of bug spray when I'm done," she thought wryly.

Her witty remark was interrupted by another yell coming from upstairs. With that, she took off.

…

"Uhh, no, no, please don't hurt me, or eat me, I promise you I eat a lot of fast food and my blood won't taste that good!" Maroo shrank back like a scared puppy, cornering himself.

The creature that captured him remained hidden in the shadows, with only its glowing green eyes visible. Yet, there was no anger in them; instead, curiosity and excitement seemed to emanate from the gaze.

Releasing this tension, the boy's confusion was apparent on his face as he nervously uttered, "Uhh, hello?" The creature, however, kept its eyes fixed on him, begging to sniff his scent in the air. It acted less like a monster with a mission to kill and more like a curious animal trying to figure out what was going on.

At first, Maroo could only sit and beg for mercy. Now, he wondered what on earth this thing wanted with him. After another moment, he decided to stand up and approach it. "Uh, hey, my name is Maroo," he said still cautious of the creature but gaining more confidence with each passing second.

“Help me,”

it cried in small a female voice, sounding afraid, and hurt.

"Help you? Help you with what..."

Just then, the door burst open, followed by a wire net, that encased her, in response she hissed, like an angry cat.

"Wait, wait it's..."

"It's okay, I just saved you." Sarah shrugged, putting away the net launchers and pulling out another gun raising it to the one in the net, taking careful aim.

"Wait, Sarah..."

"Help you? Help you with what..."

Just then, the door burst open, followed by a wire net that encased her. In response, she hissed like an angry cat.

"Wait, wait it's..."

"It's okay, I just saved you." Sarah shrugged, putting away the net launchers and pulling out another gun, raising it to the one in the net and taking careful aim.

"Wait, Sarah..."

"You can thank me later; it's just a tranquilizer. No need to worry. He's just going to take a nice little nap." But just before she could pull the trigger, something smashed through the window, knocking Sarah to the ground. The other creature from the roof held Sarah with a tight grip on her neck. With its leg, it made sure to kick the tranquilizer gun out of her hand, causing a groan of pain from Sarah's throat.

"No one's going to hurt my friend!" snarled the angry creature as it spread its large dark wings. While the others were distracted by the creature in the net breaking free and taking flight, smashing through the wall and into the streets below.

What was thought to be bat wings at first glance in the dark turned out to be black feathered, iridescent wings in the full moonlight. As the creature took to the skies, a few feathers fell landing neatly on the ground.

"NO wait, SKY! Wait," yelled the other mutant, taking off after her. It was clear by her voice that it was another girl.

Sarah leaped to her feet and ran after the two, only stopping because unlike them she couldn't fly. She watched as the two disappeared into the distance for a moment before sighing in defeat as a feather fell neatly before her.

Now she needed to investigate. Sarah knelt down examining the feathers carefully as she picked one up. At first glance, one might assume it was just a pretty crow feather; but turning it from one way to another proved that to be wrong. Its iridescent sheen shifted colors against its dark black frame, looking like a galaxy in the night sky.

“What kind of-”

"That creature, she... she is just like you," shouted Maroo as he caught her by the hoodie.

"And so was the other girl; I don't know what's going on, but I have to stop them both before someone gets hurt," Sarah replied as she took out the syringe from the gun and then injected it into her own arm.

"That one creature... the one that attacked me... She asked for my help like she was scared," he stammered in both shock and excitement.

"She's no monster; that's for sure," Sarah replied as she finished whatever she was doing and took out her phone.

"And what exactly are you doing?" Maroo asked as he crossed his arms in annoyance.

"Research... The one girl had a soccer uniform on for..." She quickly scoured the internet for the school insignia.

"Aha... Huh." She froze for a second. "Ca... Casper College."

"Wait. The same school you want to go to?"

In disbelief Sarah continued, "Casper College is on the north side of town, just up the mountain roads, near the pristine and wealthy side of the city." Sarah started typing as she continued, "Casper College is one of the hardest schools in the world to get into. I barely passed the entrance exams."

"The mutation disease, are there any similarities between mutants?" Maroo asked curiously.

"Yes, I'm afraid," she sighed in exhaustion, before taking off her mask. "We all have some type of uncontrollable rage that, if not carefully managed, can lead to insanity."

"What are you doing now?" Maroo asked, looking over her shoulder.

"Looking up student profiles," Sarah replied, her eyes scanning the screen.

"You're hacking in with your phone?" Maroo asked, his voice full of surprise.

"Technically no," Sarah said with a smirk. "I mean, I could spend days fighting endless firewalls or I could use the mayor's passwords and clearance codes. It's so much easier when your godfather is the mayor of the town. You can do anything with a cell phone these days."

Maroo slapped himself in the face. "Of course," he said, rolling his eyes.

Sarah ignored his comment and continued to answer his questions. "While it isn't a cure, I found some medications that can help calm people down. That's what's inside my darts; I'm not going to hurt her."

Maroo looked over and read the page. "Rachel Maverick, daughter of Ray Maverick, a top pilot in the Air Force. Age 20 from Gravity Falls, got into Casper on sports scholarships for..."

Sarah scrolled down the page. "Huh, looks like all of the sports scholarships were given out," Maroo muttered.

"When not in sports, she's studying to be a pilot like her dad in the military," Sarah said, her eyes scanning the screen.

She went over the file again. "Hmmm, looks like she didn't enter alone. She had a childhood friend who came from the same town," she clicked on another personnel file.

Maroo gasped. "The monster that kidnapped me."

Sarah nodded with a frown. "Sky Oaks, Age 21... Nothing much to tell. She was studying to be a vet. She got in on her scholarships for her singing talents." Sarah looked at her photo. Sky had a nervous smile and covered half her face with her hair, letting out only one sky blue eye.

Maroo gasped again. "She's quite pretty," he said.

Sarah nodded in agreement but clicked away from the photo. "Casper College is technically not in session, but many students still attend summer and winter classes to get ahead. However, these two haven't attended class for a month. People thought they just went home for winter break and didn't think twice about their disappearance."

"Somehow..." Sarah put away her phone. "In the last month, they've been mutated like the others."

Sarah sighed and put her phone away. She closed her eyes and when she reopened them, they were a bright glowing green with slit pupils.

"So are you, Spector," Maroo smiled.

Sarah rolled her eyes at the name and put the mask back on. "This isn't some superhero comic, Maroo; I'm no superhero."

"Says the girl trying to make a time machine," snorted Maroo.

Besides, you're a superhero; you're Spector," Maroo said with sparkles of childhood wonder in his eyes.

"No, too dangerous," Sarah told him with a chill to her voice. Her skeleton mask gave no such emotion to her true thoughts.

"Make sure you get home ok!" she yelled as she took off running.

"But, uh ok Sure thing," He said, feeling let down by her answer