The rain was pouring hard outside. It took a moment for Scythe's eyes to adjust to the light, despite the world being fairly dim, with clouds covering the sky and borderline torrential rain spitting down.
There was a powerbox somewhere. Scythe faintly remembered the bump of dirt it must have been buried under, but by now grass and weeds had overgrown on the dark hill and it was getting too muddy and dark to see anyway.
Scythe scowled. This is why she preferred her other hidden base. While Scythe Base Two was considerably hotter and sand got everywhere, at least it was dry.
She trudged around for a good few minutes before the side of her boot hit something. Mud fell away to reveal a small metal box half-submerged in the ground.
"Ah, there she is," Scythe dug the dirt out the best she could and pried the box open with the fingers of her cyborg arm. The small door creaked open, but the sound was muffled by the ominous boom of thunder above. Lighting must have struck the powerbox and killed all the lights.
It took a while--Scythe wasn't too smart with this sort of stuff--but eventually the tiny light in the corner was blinking again and the ground below hummed as the lights in the base switched back on. Scythe nodded in satisfaction and made back toward the hatch.
A weird noise wafted from behind a suspicious-looking shrub.
Scythe pretended to ignore it, but she cast a curious sidelong glance. Someone found her base? Well, it only took a good few years, she thought, snorting. Must be some detective hotshot lookin' to make a quick buck.
She sidled over to the shrub, whistling nonchalantly, before pouncing forward, drawing out her scythe and ripping the plant right out of the ground.
Lying on his side, shivering violently in the rain, was some kind of demon with stark, spiky blue horns and a suit with a rip down the arm. He had his other arm over his face, and he seemed asleep... though Scythe wasn't sure how someone could sleep in a puddle under a wet bush with more rain coming down all the time.
"Oi." Scythe nudged him with her foot, but not too hard. "Oi, get up. Yer gonna freeze."
Lightning flashed, giving her a brief glimpse of who she was looking at. The man was definitely asleep--he was breathing, from what she could tell--but dark red blotches smudged his clothes. Something blue and powdery dusted his hands, and his face was bleeding heavily. A huge bruise swelled on the side of his head.
Scythe's mouth twitched. It was tempting to find out more about this man, but, no, she was a criminal. And he seemed like he was going to die anyway. What was the point of dragging a cold body into her base and staining her floor?
The man rolled over, shifting uncomfortably. The blue dust glittered with a weird light, catching sun rays that weren't there. Scythe crouched down and lightly dabbed a finger on his hand, inspecting the dust that stuck to her finger. Tiny pricks of warmth pulsed where the dust had been as it shimmered and faded away.
Scythe's eyes widened in brief recognition. "Nah... that can't be it. He can't be..."
She tried again, this time pressing the dust onto a scratch on her wrist. She watched, eyes wide as marbles, as the scratch shrunk and eventually disappeared completely.
All right... maybe it wouldn't hurt to bring him in and ask him a few questions.
YOU ARE READING
Phighting: TAKEOVER!
ActionScythe hasn't got the prettiest job. As one of the most wanted Phighters in the Inphinity, she's been busy fending off competing criminals and at the same time trying to grow her own base. But some of her Phighters are disappearing. A man has shown...
