"Come on, you know who Erebus is" Rosaline said.
"Rosaline-"
"Let's look at this objectively" Rosaline said, following Victoria down the corridor. "Things we know about Erebus: he is evil, he is mysterious, and he has no remorse about killing people. Things we know about Dominic: he is evil, he is mysterious, and he has no remorse about killing people".
"Rosaline stop. If I didn't listen to you yesterday, or the day before that, or the day before that, what makes think I'm going to listen to you now?"
"But Vicky I-"
"No. I've had enough" Victoria's expression was stern. "Now we're going to go into this room, and you are not going to breathe a word about Dominic. Understood?"
Rosaline nodded, because it was the only thing you could do when Victoria used that voice. Victoria's face turned grim.
"They've deprioritized the search for Adelaide" Victoria said.
"I don't understand" Rosaline said. Though she understood perfectly. They were mere pawns in the AIA's game. If one was knocked out, what does it matter? Plenty more where that came from.
"Looking for Adelaide won't be their main focus, if it ever was" Victoria said.
"No. I don't understand why they don't seem to care one of their best agents could be dead or worse" Rosaline exasperated.
"They haven't stopped looking. They're just focussing on stopping Erebus" Victoria said.
"Has it occurred to anyone that Erebus could have something to do with Adelaide's disappearance?" Rosaline said. "Think about it. Erebus's followers sabotage our investigation, try to kill us and one of our team goes missing. Coincidence?"
Victoria was silent, as if she might be seriously considering Rosaline's idea for once. Nicholas bursts in the door looking panicked.
"Two more cities have been attacked. They're headed towards New Bethshire" Nicholas spluttered.
"Well then we need to get there first" Victoria said. "Rosaline, find the others and tell them we're going to the capital city".
Rosaline ran as quickly as she could to the receptionist who gave her all the room numbers. Luckily she had been training with the AIA for years, and even before then she had to be fast to be a thief, so running up stairs was hardly a challenge.
The first stop was the gym. It was packed today. There were many people learning how to fight off the monsters that plagued their country. Something they should never have had to learn. It wasn't their job.
"Everyone. We're going to New Bethshire. Enchanters have to go to the weapons room. We've to prepare for beasts" Rosaline shouted.
"Who authorised this decision?" Maxwell said after he jumped off the balance beam into a perfect land.
"I don't know, Victoria said-"
"Victoria is not in charge" Maxwell said.
"Neither are you" Rosaline said crossing her arms and tapping her foot impatiently.
"Then why wasn't a meeting called?" Cecelia piped up.
"I don't know, we don't have time"
Some of the agents start to move off the apparatus and towards the door, but Maxwell held up his hand.
"No one is going anywhere".
An anger flared up inside Rosaline's chest. She wanted to jerk Maxwell's head round until it snapped. Unfortunately that was not an option.
"You know what this is? You can't stand the thought of taking orders from someone else. Well you better get used to it because you're not going to be in charge anytime soon" Rosaline said.
If Rosaline had expected to get any reaction, she was disappointed. He just looked bored.
"Is there a problem here?" Victoria said, walking in the gym.
"It seems you want us to get ready for a battle in New Bethshire" Maxwell said.
"That's right. We have reason to believe the next attack will be in the capital city" Victoria said, matching Maxwell self-important tone.
"How can you be so sure? What if it's all a ruse?" Maxwell suggested.
It was the first time Rosaline had seen Victoria truly dumbfounded. It was rare for someone to question Victoria's authority, and if they did, they were immediately stuck down by Victoria. To her credit, she recovered quickly.
"The more time we spend arguing, the more danger we put New Bethshire in. MOVE IT" Victoria said.
Victoria hardly ever raised her voice but when she did, it sent a tremor of terror through Rosaline. It was the kind of shout that prompted an entire room to move.
The agents were fast at getting ready. The Enchanters were fast at infusing the weapons with magic. The cars were fast in getting to New Bethshire. But they weren't fast enough. People were fleeing from their homes, buildings were alight, and bloodcurdling beasts from nightmares prowled the streets. The agents had to get out the cars as they would never get through the riot.
"We're too late" Penelope said in an anguished cry.
The Falcons hopped out the car and ran up the backstreets making their way to the city centre. On the way there the car had nearly been stampeded on. From the sight of the city centre, Rosaline almost wish they had been. Everyone who hadn't escaped in time had been slaughtered it seemed. Bodies and blood filled the streets. Penelope bent over and vomited. Rosaline felt sick herself. All those years in the AIA could never prepare for this...dead people everywhere. Men, woman, children...
"I've never seen imps do this much damage" Nicholas said.
"Neither have I" Rosaline admitted.
Rosaline's confession didn't seem to boost the morale of the group. It was one thing for an agent to never have seen this much damage. It was another to have one of the Warrior Queens admit it.
"It wasn't imps that did this" Victoria said, quietly, her voice shaking.
It wasn't what Victoria said that worried Rosaline. It was the fear in her voice.
"Come on. The city is being evacuated to Scotiatown. It's our job to make sure the beasts don't get there first" Maxwell said, and walked ahead through the puddles of blood like he didn't even notice them.
Maxwell was brave, Rosaline had to give him that. The city was dead and more silent than the dead. All the people that were still alive had hurried out of the city centre. That's why Rosaline got such a fright when a Big Cat pouched from the shadows. It was leopard-like with enormous tusks. Rosaline hated when beasts looked like animals. It made them harder to kill. This particular one was charged with electricity. When Rosaline, noticed, she screamed:
"It's a lightning cat"
To everyone's surprise, it was Penelope who acted first, shooting it with her flame gun. Nicholas then descended on the creature. The others, whose weapons were infused with ice, thunder or water, which would do no good against this particular creature. After a few hits from Nicholas the creature was dead. Rosaline longed to be the one that killed it but seeing the lightening pulse through it struck terror within the depth of her. Why couldn't she be fearless like Adelaide?
"Well done" Victoria said to Penelope.
And she meant it. It was just another kill for Nicholas, but for Penelope it symbolised more.
"I don't know what happened. I was just so scared" Penelope said.
"Use that fear to your advantage, kid" Nicholas said. "There's plenty more of them out there".
Nicholas's prediction was correct. As the Falcons pursued the city centre, they encountered more nightmarish creatures. Lupines with razor sharp claws, Anacondas with deadly poise venom and even flying Cyclopes. They were bigger than the beasts the agents normally encounter, but Rosaline wasn't worried until they came to a Giant Land Worm. Rosaline had never seen a real life Giant Worm, but she knew where it got its name. It was the size of a house. She'd also read someone where that it can engulf anything in its path. Luckily, other agents had joined the Falcons, including Maxwell and his comrades.
"It's huge! How are we going to fight it?" Nicholas said.
He looked like he wanted to run as far away as possible. Rosaline herself felt the urge to let her feet take her away.
"Remember the dark ring the criminals created in the prison? We need to recreate that with fire" Victoria said.
"Are you sure it will work?" Rosaline said.
Rosaline had never seen Victoria so frightened. She was visibly shaking and her face was wet. It was hard to tell if it was tears or sweat.
"I hope" she said.
Some agents ran forward and tried to encircle the creature, but this ended in most of the agents being swept away by its tale.
"It's no use. It knows what we're trying to do" Rosaline screamed.
"Nonsense" Victoria spat.
"We just need to weaken it. Make sure it stays still" Nicholas said.
"We could freeze it" Penelope suggested.
"That could work" Rosaline said.
Penelope pushed through the crowd of people and tripped in the chaos. She lay right in front of the giant worm, most likely scared out of her mind. Rosaline knew she herself would be.
"Penelope" Rosaline shouted.
An Enchanter, who must've realised what was going on, broke into a run, bizarrely with his hands out stretched. Rosaline looked over to Penelope and saw bright white dome forming around her.
"No don't" Victoria said, pushing the young Enchanter to the ground.
Why would Victoria try and stop the person from putting a protection spell on Penelope?
"Can't you see what's happening?" Victoria asked.
Evidently, no one could. Everyone matched Rosaline's bewildered expression. White ice formed around Penelope. Other Enchanters who realised what she was doing, joined Penelope on the ground. Soon a sheet of ice had covered the giant worm.
"She did it" Rosaline breathed. And she wasn't the only one to breathe a sigh of relief.
But their triumph was short lived. A crack appeared on the icy sculpture. A crack that grew and threatened to destroy them all. The monster struggled, and soon the ice gave way and shattered. Rosaline couldn't believe it. The spell didn't work. She looked away as the shower of ice rained on her. Rosaline could only hope others shielded their eyes in time.
Do you think Rosaline is right about Erebus? Don't forgot to like/comment if you like what you read.