[Indefinite Hiatus] Law And EMBER

Prologue

"Seraphina, I've got a new assignment for you."

The woman in question, Seraphina, turned around to look at her boss standing behind her, his amber eyes almost glaring at her. Yet, she could still make out a slight hint of worry in them.

"There was a recent attack on another new vigilante near Kovoro Mall, which did a good chunk of damage to the surrounding area. Unfortunately, we were unable to find the body. Please take your team and check it out. Report back when you find the vigilante. I'll be informing the emergency services right now."

"Yes sir."

"His name is UV-Ray, by the way."

She sighed. He almost always forgot to mention the victim's name. 

"Yes, sir."

She motioned to the people sitting at the desks, and they immediately got up and out of their seats, and ran towards the locker room. In two minutes her team was ready, decked out in their uniforms, and Seraphina walked towards the door.

"Come on everyone!", she yelled, and they all ran along to her side, their footsteps almost rhythmic. They raced towards their van, and everyone began pushing and shoving each other into the van before they heard a disappointed sigh behind them.

"Guys", the magenta-haired woman said, clipping her hair extensions up to the back of her head, so that it didn't fall on her shoulders. "Did you already forget your training?"

The team giggled, one of them stifling a laugh. "Sorry Seraphina", Evie said, still giggling. "We got a bit too carried away."

They quickly boarded the van one by one, and Sera got in at the last. She motioned to the driver waiting at the wheel. "Hey Gerand, we got to go to Kovoro Mall."

The driver chuckled. "Sure thing, Missus."

And he abruptly started the car, and without giving the people in the back time to recover from the sudden jerk, he sped off towards the mall area.

----- 

"Here we go Missus, we're at Kovoro Mall."

"Thank you Gerand." Seraphina got out the van, and everyone else followed. It had grown darker than before by then, and it got hard to see anything. Everyone brought out their flashlights, and waved them around the area, checking for any signs of the vigilante.

"Evie? Could you check ahead please?"

"Yup!"

She sped ahead, now with both her palms emitting light. It was pretty useful to have someone with a light ability on the team.

Everyone followed her closely, and then heard her gasp. "I found him!", she yelled, worry in her voice. "Oh god, he's badly hurt!"

They all raced to the spot and stared at the sight before them in shock. The hero, UV-Ray, was lying under a pile of rubble, his eyes still open, but with a dull glaze over them. His wounds seemed pretty deep, but it wasn't until one of the team members used their ability to lift the rock over his body that they saw what exactly got him in the first place.

"B-Burns?!", Towen almost yelled, dropping the rock to the side. "Why would he have burns on his body if he's under this pile of rubble?!" Seraphina was also taken aback at the sight of the lifeless body. And then her gaze fell on the vigilante's stomach.

"Guys...", she said, pointing to the vigilante's abdomen. "Doesn't this look familiar?" Everyone looked at the strange symbol she was pointing to, and Evie focused her illumination on the spot. 

It was a wound in the shape of a flame, a sign Seraphina wished that she never had to see again.

EMBER..... and here I was hoping I was just paranoid about them.

Towen then put his ear to the vigilante's chest, and after a few seconds, rose up to look at the rest of the team. He shook his head. "He's not breathing. At least, I don't feel he is. Wren, can you check?"

Wren made her way to the body, and activating her ability, bent down to the vigilante. "Nope, I can't feel any internal movements in his body. He's gone. We were too late to arrive at the scene."

At that moment, they saw a white van arrive at the scene, and the medic team that Seraphina's boss had called exited the van and ran towards them, reeling along a stretcher. Towen helped them get rid of enough rubble to safely pick up UV-Ray's body, and then after positioning it safely on the stretcher, they reeled it back to the van.

"Was he breathing when you arrived?", one of the medics asked them, and Wren shook her head. "No. I even activated my ability to check, just to be sure, and I couldn't detect any internal movements. No heartbeat, no lung activity, and no pulse either."

The medic sighed. "You know, this is the third murder in the last 2 months. And whenever we arrived, the person was already dead." 

"Did they have the same scars as this young man?", asked Seraphina, and the medic nodded. "Is there anything off about these murders, from what you've seen?"

"Yeah. All of the bodies that were brought to us had burns, but they'd be found in the river, or under piles of rubble, like with this body. This is the first time I've seen that scar though."

Seraphina quickly whipped out her notepad and jotted it down, and Evie peeped over her shoulder, taking notice of the action. "Still on the EMBER thing, Seraphina?", she whispered. "Yeah", she said, and turned to the medic again. "One last question, were all the bodies with these circumstances surrounding their murder, vigilantes?"

The medic shrugged, much to the woman's confusion. "Yeah, but why do you need to know that?"

"Just precautions. Our job IS to prevent crime after all." She smiled, and waved her hand. The medic turned back to walk towards the ambulance, and the team watched them drive off into the night, back towards the hospital. Then they went back to their van too.

Seraphina went back to her thoughts as Gerand started the van again. So this isn't anything new huh? she pondered. Two more vigilantes have fallen victim to this kind of attack before. But no one's that concerned about it because for them, EMBER is gone. For them, it's just another murder, another day of crime. They think with enough clues, they'll catch the murderer, and then they just need to put them on trial and decide the punishment.

When in reality, EMBER is still here; it's just gotten better at hiding itself, and it's grown more cunning than before.

 Bonus:

- Towen: Strength, 2.4

- Wren: Detection, 3.9

- Evie: Illumination, 1.9

~~~~~

Helooo, so here's the prologue lol. Now you gotta wait for the next chapters lol

Hope y'all enjoyed it. Ik it's shorter than my usual writeups but that's because I didn't want to throw in too much info at the beginning of the story itself. It's kinda supposed to introduce you to their world, tho I don't think I did much world-building here lol

anyways catch y'all next time! Pls vote and comment on ze chapters

- SereneMoondancer