Chapter Twenty Eight: Welcome Party

The train had pulled into a tunnel and was finally reaching its destination. 

Darkness filled the cars as they pulled into the dilapidated tunnel system, any comprehensive effort at maintenance long since abandoned by the denizens of the city. The New Moon Aether railways didn't need maintenance, since they restored themselves on nights with a new moon, but all other aspects of the tunnel were constantly on the verge of collapsing altogether.

As the doors to the car opened, Ronin saw two young girls chasing a boy down the tunnels, screaming gibberish about food. They chased him down a side hallway when a loud roar boomed and the three children were all sent flying into a wall opposite of the entrance to that hallway.

What followed could have only been a Rat type deviant, its body massive and crackling as though lightning ran through its body. Ronin shook his head sadly and began to walk for the exit when Azue grabbed his coat sleeve and asked, "Do you intend to let those children die?"

 He looked back at the children, the rat getting closer to them and saw that one of them was moving, though the other two seemed to be perfectly still.

Getting the feeling Azue would cause a scene if he did, he tapped his V.U.I. and pulled out one of his personally designed weapons, a rifle that gathered Aether from the air, converted it into energy, and focused it on a single point at the end of the barrel, firing the accumulated Aether energy at the user's target.

Aiming at the child, intending to put her out of her misery, Ronin didn't get the chance to fire the gun.

The light around the massive rat suddenly dimmed and darkened, forming into what seemed to be jaws more than double the size of the creature. Snapping down loudly, the rat was ripped in half, the electricity that seemed to be coursing through its body suddenly racing along the body of a previously invisible creature that was hiding in plain sight.

Unable to make out what kind of animal this new deviant was, Ronin started to cautiously make his way toward the children, since it seemed this deviant only preyed on other deviants and completely ignored the human children.

As he got closer, the creature faded into the darkness and the lights slowly flickered back to life, allowing him to now see there was a slight distortion in the air where the creature was breathing.

Keeping the rifle handy, just in case, he knelt down and checked the children's bodies, sighing as his suspicions were proven true.

Two of them, the boy and what seemed to be the younger girl, had died, most likely when they hit the wall after being struck by the rat. The second girl was alive...but only just. Waving Scalpel, who had left the train shortly after Azue, over, Ronin pointed to the still living girl and mouthed, "She's still alive."

As she walked over, Ronin cleared some of the rubble away and tapped his inventory, setting it to create the customized stretcher he and Scalpel had designed.

He'd intended it for post-mission recovery, so it was designed to be moved as carefully as possible, floating over the ground to avoid jostling its patient.

Scalpel carefully moved the girl to the stretcher and tapped some buttons on the datapad built into the side. There was a moment of silence and it sparked to life, floating up and gently bobbing in the air, making the girl moan at the unfamiliar sensation.

Tapping a few more buttons, the stretcher ran an initial check with its internal sensors and Scalpel looked at Ronin and said, "It doesn't look good."

Frowning a bit, Ronin asked, "What's the word?"

Scalpel responded, her gaze moving between the distortion in the air and the datapad, "There's a lot of damage to her organs...definitely more than a few broken ribs."

He nodded and said, "I guess we'll see if there's a clinic or emergency room we can drop her off at nearby...you go ahead."

As Scalpel left, Ronin saw that the distortion in the air had disappeared, moving silently to its next prey, he assumed, happy he hadn't had to fight it.

As Ronin and his team left, the distortion began to flicker again, making clicking sounds that could only be the sounds of agitation.

Long thin strings attached to sharpened hooks glimmered in the limited lighting and removed themselves from the invisible creature and it turned and ran, leaving the remnants of its meal untouched as a quiet, high pitched giggle broke the silence in the tunnel.

The train began to move again, crushing the rat corpse and the giggle was drowned out by the train running on the tracks.