Blood Obsidian

Issue 40

As the footage rolled again, she looked, instead, across to the image of Rayna. She glared at the man, holding that busted chair in her hands and Caitlyn couldn't blame her. AlleyGator had taken her, smashed through windows and walls with her, climbed an office building and was about to do who-knew-what to her. If Kyle was wrong about the words he saw on the man's lips. Otherwise, why would the monster want Rayna? Did he recognise who she was? Did he grab her by random chance?

Caitlyn gave a shiver as she took a closer look at Rayna's face. There was a girl she didn't want to get on the wrong side of. She looked furious, but, strangely, also a little detached from the entire situation. Cold. Shock could explain that. Caitlyn knew well how emotions played tricks while adrenaline pumped through the body.

"I believe you. I can't read his lips, but he's certainly saying something. Poor guy. I should have ..." She wasn't here to dredge up her mistakes. She wouldn't do it again, that was for certain. "I can't believe you dragged me up here just for this."

"No. I dragged you up here to see this." He clicked his fingers again and nothing happened, until he turned the wheelchair around to glare at drone Dewey. He turned back to Caitlyn, smiling. "Like I need an excuse to drag you up here. You love it, just like everyone does. Space, the final ... ah, here we go."

The scene changed once Dewey got its robotic ass in gear and Caitlyn didn't recognise it. It looked like an office. A very well appointed office. It was also a practically perfect representation, free of the blemishes that mired the previous scene. A single device recorded this, not a collage of different medias and formats. Caitlyn moved around, even managing to look out of the 'window' on the projection.

"Okay, this is impressive. No joke." She moved around the heavy, expensive looking desk, her fingers passing through the image of the high-backed leather chair. "Am I supposed to recognise it?"

"You're supposed to break into it." Kyle grinned. "It's Raymond Alden's office."

-+-

The King's Field apartment of Mary Carter ...

Mary fussed. Caitlyn hadn't returned her calls, or her texts. After what had happened the night before, she worried even more than usual about the girl. Lately, Caitlyn had managed to find herself in the middle of so many catastrophes, Mary had begun to think danger had taken a shine to her niece and the girl had not even appeared to care.

First the school, and the incident with Black Staff and Doctor Blood. Then with Caitlyn's professor becoming that monster. That awful man with the chain and the concrete and now that alligator monster. If Mary didn't know better, she'd think Caitlyn had sought out these dangers. Not to mention her more mundane problems at school. And Caitlyn hadn't said anything, but Mary knew things weren't going well between Caitlyn and Alaina.

Mary worried and even catching up with her daily soap operas did nothing to alleviate her concerns. With a mug of hot cocoa clasped in her hands, she frowned at the tv, the drama within the fictional hospital failing to take her mind off the only family she had left.

Still, Mary was engrossed enough that she didn't see the faint glowing blink in the top corner of the room. She had no idea that the glowing thing had been there for days.

-+-

Alaina Allen's home ...

Alaina couldn't concentrate on her homework. It just didn't feel the same without panicked video calls to Caitlyn, asking her best friend's advice on ... well, pretty much every subject. She could hear her parents, arguing over the too-high volume of the tv. They would be no help at all, even if they did realise she existed.

She supposed she could call Rayna. She seemed almost as smart as Caitlyn, but in a very different way, but Rayna had backed off over the last few days. Ever since that incident downtown, where that monster had grabbed her and Caitlyn had swooped in, as Blood Obsidian, to save the day. Alaina had almost chewed her nails to the bone while watching that story unfold over social media. She missed her best friend.

Her pen tapped against the page as she screwed up her forehead, trying to understand words and numbers that had blurred into a mess of black and white on the screen of her laptop. Behind her, in the furthest, darkest corner of the room, a dim light blinked, as though some tiny, mythical creature watched over her. She had no idea it was there.

-+-

NHPD shooting range ...

Chief Watson made the pistol safe, removing the clip and checking the chamber before laying it down and pressing the button to draw the target toward him. Something was bugging him and he didn't know what. The whirr of the motor gave a lazy accompaniment to his thoughts as the target came close enough for him to see his terrible grouping. He had never made such bad shots when he smoked.

Attaching a new target sheet, he crumpled up the evidence of his lax practicing and then pressed the other button, sending the target whirring back down the range, flapping and flipping as it went. Once at the end, Watson took a piece of gum out of the blister pack, tossing it into his mouth before lifting his pistol once again.

It wasn't only the smoking, or lack of it, that soured his aim. He was worried for the kid. He hadn't said anything because he had no proof, but he felt certain the rash of super-villains that had hit the city were targeted at her. At Blood Obsidian. Why, he couldn't say, but he couldn't simply tell her it was his gut that told him she was in danger.

He popped a fresh clip into the pistol, chambered a round and made certain his ear defenders were secure before he started to shoot. Even as he raised the pistol, he couldn't see the dim, red blinking light that had followed him for days. He knew it was there, but he didn't want to draw attention to the fact he knew. Not yet, at least.

-+-

"I can't break into Raymond Alden's office!" She walked straight through the projection of the table to stand in front of Kyle. "I just can't."

"Why not?" He winced as he raised both hands, though his injured arm only twitched upward.

"Because it's illegal? Because it's immoral? Because it's guarded by one of the most intense security systems I have ever seen? And ... and ..." She furrowed her forehead. There was another really good reason, but she didn't want to admit it. "And it's illegal. I know I already said that, but I think it needs to be said twice to make it really clear that it is, in fact, illegal!"

"You're right. Ald-Tech does have some of the most sophisticated security on the planet and that includes cybersecurity. I need direct access to the servers to prove my theory." He spun the wheelchair around, switching the scene back to AlleyGator. "All those mini-drone feeds fed back to Ald-Tech. I think you can prove that if you break in and hack those servers. The proof is in there. Proof that Raymond Alden is Fiend and you need to trust me and find it."

There it was. The other really good reason. If she did find proof that Alden was Fiend, that could only lead to a confrontation. He was Rayna's father, had offered, and taken away, the internship. He ran the company that had overseen the death of Uncle Richard. If Alden was Fiend, Caitlyn would have a lot to process.

But, most importantly, she had faced Fiend twice, and failed. She wasn't certain she could survive a third encounter.