Defenders of Shadow and Light: Ghost Thief

by Jason Levine

  Ruth looked worried about the idea.

  “Trust me. If there’s one thing I know, it’s how to avoid capture.”

  “Murray’s right. Unless you’re thinking of fighting those guys again,” Thomas added. “I definitely don’t recommend that.”

  “Fine,” Ruth sighed, “what’s the plan?”

  Murray glanced up the street ahead.

  “Pull in over there!”

  Chapter Ten: Heading Underground

  Thomas slowed the van until it shuttered to a halt behind a red sports car The three got out of the minivan. Though it was getting dark, there was still a decent amount of pedestrians walking up and down the sidewalk. Cars of every variety flowed down the street. Nobody took notice of three more people walking down the stairs to the subway system.

  Murray bought three tickets from a vending machine and they boarded the first car to arrive. Ruth and Thomas sat in a nearby seat while Murray gripped a handrail. He didn’t start to calm down until the train was well outside of the station.

  “So who were those guys?” Murray asked.

  Ruth looked at the crowds around them. Thankfully, their car was relatively empty. What few people there were with them were minding their own business–paying attention to their smartphones or books. An older gentleman in the corner had his face buried in a newspaper.

  “Agents of the Dark One,” Thomas replied.

  “Dark One?”

  “The majority of us go about our day as we usually do,” Ruth said. “Then, we wake up having lost some time. For some, it’s only minutes. For others, hours.”

  “One fellow awoke after having passed out for three days,” Thomas interjected.

  “Anyway, most of us don’t remember what happened during our lost time, but a few recall a mysterious glowing man.”

  “Your father?”

  “No,” Ruth said curtly.

  “This is a different glowing man,” Thomas said, jumping in as Ruth seemed to get upset. She clenched her hands into fists and, just for a moment, Murray could have sworn that they had begun to glow white.

  “Didn’t you have a similar experience?” said Ruth, calming down and letting her fists stop glowing.

  Murray thought back. He didn’t remember a glowing man, but there was that incident at the wall. The police had him cornered. Maybe the glowing man saved him, got him to the other side, and that’s why he couldn’t remember anything?

  “Something like that happened to me the night I got my powers,” Murray answered. “No glowing man. At least none I can recall, but I did wake up not able to remember how I got somewhere.” Murray decided to leave out certain details like the fact that he had stolen something, that the police had cornered him, and that he somehow evaded them and their bullets.

  “Chances are that’s when the Light One visited you,” Ruth said.

  “So this Light One just goes around granting people powers? Is it random? Is there a pattern? Why is he doing this?”

  “Nobody knows,” Ruth replied.

  “We do have some theories,” Thomas added. “But nothing concrete. My personal view is that he is a powered person like us whose ability is simply to grant other people abilities.”

  “Anyway,” Ruth continued, “In addition to the Light One, there is another… thing out there.”

  “Nobody knows where it came from,” Thomas said. “Few have seen it and lived. The ones that did described it as being impossibly black. As though it’s mere presence drew all of the light to it. For the longest time, the Dark One would hunt us down. That’s why we don’t gather in big groups. He can sense us when we do.”

  “Anything bigger than three and you risk him showing,” Ruth added. “Get six together and you might as well hang a ‘Welcome Dark One’ sign above you.”

  “So not many super-family gatherings.” Murray asked.

  “No,” Ruth said. “It would be suicide.”

  “Recently, though,” Thomas added, “about a year ago, the Dark One’s attacks stopped. After a few months, we begun to wonder if he has met his end somehow. We began to have hope that we could live our lives without fear of his pursuit.”

  “Then they showed up,” Ruth said.

  “We believe that the Dark One decided to spawn his own minions. Individuals like your friends from before. These creatures tend to be grotesque in appearance and they attack without provocation–carrying on the Dark One’s mission to destroy us all.”

  “I’m sure this is a lot to take in,” Ruth said. “This all must seem awfully weird.”

  “Weird? I can pass through walls like some sort of ghost. Ruth can shoot lasers from her fists. I was trained by a cyborg and we just fought a giant and a guy who turns his arms into knives. I think we left weird about ten miles back.”

  The conversation died down. For awhile, the only sounds on the train were the rattling of the cars along the tracks and the background murmur of a few passengers talking on their cell phones.

  “So where do we go now? What’s our next move?” Murray asked.

  “We need to contact Sean and ask him what to do,” Ruth responded.

  Murray and Ruth turned to Thomas, but he just stared off into space. Thomas’ eyes grew wide. Murray could tell that something was wrong. He looked at Ruth who looked extremely worried.

  “Not here,” Ruth said. “Not now.”

  “What’s going on,” whispered Murray.

  Ruth grabbed one of Thomas’ arms as the train came to a halt at a station.

  “Help me with him. We need to get out of here.”

  Murray grabbed Thomas’ other arm. Between the two of them, they managed to help Thomas to his feet. They pulled him forward, Thomas’ feet half walking-half dragging across the ground.

  “Quickly,” whispered Thomas. “Can’t hold much longer…”

  “What can’t he hold?” asked Murray as Ruth directed them towards a dark corner. “What’s happening?”

  “Thomas sees the future,” Ruth answered. “Most times, it’s innocuous stuff. He’ll see a few seconds ahead. Maybe a few hours at most. Right now, he’s about to see further ahead.”

  “How far?” Murray asked as they reached the corner.

  Ruth looked around and breathed a sigh of relief that the station was empty.

  “I don’t know. It’s different every time. Remember how I said Thomas’ gifts come in waves?”

  Murray nodded.

  “Well, usually they’re small waves, easily handled. This is the beginning of a tsunami.”

  Thomas’ eyes began to glow and his body started to shake. Murray and Ruth were barely able to hold him still. This was clearly a losing battle. Suddenly, a burst of white light came out of Thomas and knocked them to the ground.

  Murray got to his feet first and ran around Thomas to Ruth. He helped her to her feet and they stared at Thomas as the glow radiating out of him intensified. His arms lifted out to his sides. Thomas’ mouth opened. It was filled with the same white glow that surrounded him.

  Then, Thomas began to speak with an eerie voice that sounded like three Thomas’ were speaking at slightly different times:

  “Third Original,

  The Dark One bound.

  To protect the Earth,

  He must be found.

  The flickering light,

  Shall be endured.

  With darkness unleashed,

  The pact secured.

  Else freedom will end,

  The swarm will feed.

  Bridge shadow and light,

  The Dark One freed.”

  The glow around Thomas faded. His arms slowly lowered to his side. Thomas sank to the pavement and passed out.

  Ruth helped Thomas to his feet as he started to come back around. Murray felt like he was rooted to the spot. After all he’d seen in the last few days, this shouldn’t have fazed him. Still, the sight of Thomas glowing and reciting some sort of prophecy was freaking him out.

  “He needs water,” Ruth said.

&nbs
p; Murray ran to a nearby vending machine and used most of the money he had left on him to get a couple bottles of water. He brought them back and Thomas took a few big swigs before speaking.

  “What did I say this time?” Thomas asked as Ruth helped him to a bench.

  Ruth sat down next to him and pulled a pad of paper from her pocket. In all the excitement of Thomas’ show, Murray hadn’t even noticed Ruth take out the pad and pencil, much less write the whole thing down. Murray sat on the other side of Thomas as Ruth read the rhyme aloud.

  “This isn’t good,” Thomas said as Ruth finished.

  “So what does this all mean? Who’s the Third Original?” Murray asked.

  “That’s just the thing,” Ruth said. “There isn’t a third Original. There were only two. Sean and my father. All other people with powers came from either the Light One or Dark One.”

  “That we know of,” said Thomas.

  Murray felt the rumble of a train approaching.

  “Whoever this Third Original is,” Ruth said. “It sounds like the Dark One has him captured. We’ve got to find and free him.”

  “That ‘protect the Earth’ part sounds pretty ominous,” Murray added.

  The station rumbled more as the train got closer.

  “Darkness unleashed and a pact?” paraphrased Ruth.

  “Perhaps we need to work with the someone that the Dark One sired,” replied Thomas.

  “I don’t like the sound of that,” Ruth answered. “The Dark One is evil. So are the ones he’s spawned. We shouldn’t be working with them. We should be working to stop them.”

  Murray’s attention was diverted from the prophecy talk. He got off the bench and walked to the edge of the subway platform. He didn’t see any train lights in either direction, but he did feel the ground rumbling as if one were getting close. It would have need to be a big car, though.

  Murray stepped backwards in horror. Not a big train. A big man… a giant… Brawn was here.

  Chapter Eleven: The Return Of Edge And Brawn

  Murray ran back to Thomas and Ruth.

  “We’ve got to get out of here. Now!”

  “Don’t leave too quickly,” came an all too familiar screech of a voice.

  Thomas shuddered at the sound of it. Ruth shot up and clenched her fists tight. They began to glow. From out of the tunnel’s shadows, a huge figure emerged. Brawn slowed down as he approached the station. Edge ran out from behind the giant and leapt onto the platform. Brawn planted his large hands on the platform and easily cleared the three foot hurdle.

  “Oh my,” Thomas said, ducking behind Ruth.

  Ruth shot the beams from her hands, but Edge dodged them.

  “Not this time, Missy,” Edge said.

  He ducked left and right, swerving to avoid Ruth’s blasts. Murray wished they were anywhere but the dark corner right now. There was no escape route. They were trapped.

  Brawn thundered towards them. Ruth directed the beam from one hand at Brawn but he didn’t even slow down.

  “Now, now. You’ve tried this before, remember?” Edge taunted as Ruth directed a beam at him.

  Edge leapt in the air, over the beam, and stabbed one of his blade-hands into the ceiling. He hung there for a moment laughing.

  “Brawn’s not going to be stopped by your light show. Won’t do much to slow me down either.”

  The ground thundered as Brawn charged.

  “Move,” Ruth shouted as she darted out of the way.

  Thomas ran towards the tracks. Ruth headed towards the exit. Murray hesitated for a second before following Thomas. Brawn plowed face first into the wall. Chunks of concrete and wooden bench flew in all directions.

  “How can we beat them?” Murray asked Thomas.

  “Don’t know,” Thomas answered as he tried catching his breath. He obviously wasn’t in very good shape. Murray didn’t think he’d last long in a fight. Then again, if they didn’t figure out their opponents’ weaknesses soon, none of them would survive.

  “Can’t you see the future?” Murray asked.

  “Not yet,” said Thomas. “I’m running on fumes after what happened before.”

  Murray looked towards where Ruth had run. Edge had cut her off and was leaping out of the way while she tried to blast him. The ground began to rumble.

  “Look out,” Murray yelled.

  He pushed Thomas out of the way of Brawn’s charge and tried to head in the opposite direction. Murray almost escaped Brawn’s grasp, but the giant’s oversized fingers wrapped around Murray’s neck. Murray struggled to pry open the huge digits to free himself. Thomas tried hitting Brawn’s stomach but only succeeded in hurting his hand. Murray struggled to breathe as his throat was constricted.

  Brawn shook Murray and threw him towards a wall near Ruth. Murray quickly activated his mask and airflow with one hand while deactivating his watch’s power dampener with the other. He finished just in time and managed to ghost through the wall… or, rather, into the wall.

  Unlike previous ghostings, there was no room on the other side of this wall. It was solid. He tumbled end over end as he activated his thrusters and stabilized himself. As Murray headed back the way he thought he came from, he hoped against hope that he was going in the right direction. Without a sense of gravity or any visual cues, Murray couldn’t be sure just where he was headed. For all he knew, he was headed further into the wall or deep underground. If he headed in the wrong direction, he could be lost forever.

  “Not forever,” he told himself. “Just for the next fifteen minutes plus however long it takes you to suffocate.”

  Murray made a mental note to stop trying to reassure himself. He plowed ahead, but all he saw was blackness darker than anything he had ever seen before. Just as he began to suspect that he’d never find his way out, Murray’s head emerged from the solid wall.

  He set himself down on the ground, de-ghosted, and refilled his pack as he looked around. He was in a tunnel. He guessed that one way led back to the battle and the other way led away from the fight. Murray heard a booming sound and a flicker of light from around the bend to his left.

  “Left it is,” Murray said to nobody in particular as he ghosted and flew off down the tunnel.

  When Murray arrived, Ruth was fighting a losing battle against Edge. Her clothes were ripped. Her jacket lay fifteen feet away in tatters. Blood tricked down from cuts on her cheeks. Brawn and Thomas were nowhere in sight. Ruth let out another blast and hit Edge directly. Edge didn’t even budge.

  “Getting tired, love?” Edge taunted. “I could do this all day.”

  Ruth fired two more shots and Edge calmly walked up to her. She stopped firing and punched him in the face.

  “Well, that wasn’t smart. Was it?” Edge sneered as Ruth gripped her aching hand. “Why would you punch someone made of metal?”

  Edge didn’t notice as Murray glided onto the platform. Murray looked around for some way to help. He couldn’t fight as a ghost, that was for sure. Punching would hurt him more than it would hurt Edge. His staves were back in his apartment and there were no pipes around for him to use as weapons this time. The only thing that Murray could spot were some chunks of concrete from when Brawn slammed into the wall. Murray grabbed the largest chunk he could find. His arms could barely wrap around it.

  “I hope this works,” Murray thought to himself.

  He focused on becoming intangible and was able to ghost. Murray was pleasantly surprised that the concrete chunk ghosted as well. Not only did it turn intangible with him, but it felt like it weighed nearly nothing at all. Still, Murray felt a huge strain. He wasn’t sure how long he’d be able to keep this up before the chunk became solid again.

  Leaning forward, Murray silently rose into the air. He didn’t have a free hand to control his speed so it was slow going. He positioned himself over Edge, his back just barely passing through the station’s ceiling.

  Edge had Ruth on the ground. A gash on her arm was bleeding badly.

  “It’s ove
r, love. Your friends are gone. It’s time for you to give up. Don’t worry. My master won’t hurt you. In fact, someone with your talents would have an honored position in our organization.”

  Ruth glared up at Edge. She might be have been physically defeated, but her look made it clear that she wasn’t ready to give up just yet. Looking up, she caught sight of Murray hovering above. Ruth brought her leg up and kicked Edge three times in his shin. The clang from her kicks resounded through the remains of the station.

  “Again, love. Metal skin,” Edge said. “You’re not going to hurt me like that.”

  Though Edge seemed clueless, Murray understood what Ruth meant: “On three.”

  Murray counted to three in his head and then let go of the concrete. For a moment, he was afraid it might simply float, intangible. Then, it turned solid and fell. Ruth rolled out of the way. Just as Edge was about to pursue her, the concrete slammed onto Edge’s head. He crumpled to the ground and didn’t move. Most of his metal skin turned human, his blades transformed into normal human hands.

  Murray glided to back to the ground as quickly as he could while Ruth struggled to her feet.

  “Are you okay?” Murray asked as he de-ghosted. It was a stupid question, he knew. She was bleeding from multiple cuts and looked exhausted.

  “I’ll be fine,” she said, not taking her eyes off the motionless Edge lying on the ground.

  “Where’s Thomas?” Murray asked.

  “Brawn ran off with him right after you went through that wall.”

  Edge started to moan.

  “He’s waking up. We need to get out of here,” Murray said.

  “No,” Ruth replied, picking up the shreds of her torn jacket. She wrapped it tightly around her bleeding arm.

  “In case you hadn’t noticed, this guy’s pretty powerful. We were lucky to knock him out. If he wakes up, we won’t get another chance to escape.”

  “I’m not trying to escape, Murray. His friend took Thomas. I want him back.”

  “And how exactly are you going to get him to talk? He’ll probably cut you to pieces before telling you anything.”