Union

thirty four

NOVEMBER 1ST

0028 EST

Lightning cleaved the smoldering night sky in two just as the Union arrived at City Hall. Bristol cast a wary eye up at the gathering storm. The rumbles of impending thunder seemed to send her heart out of its typical rhythm. It felt as if this night just kept getting worse, some evil plan wrought by the Shadow Web to ensure the destruction of all things good and right and just in the world.

Bristol frowned. First, an army of zombies and now a powerful storm. What was next?

"Bristol." She turned to find Tristan watching her carefully, understanding in his electric blue eyes. "We need to move."

Thunder shook the heavens again, only this time Bristol could feel the storm in her bones, the way she had that fateful night. She had been forever changed on a night much like this, torn apart by lightning and reborn from the frothy waves to the sounds of a storm. It was almost poetic that now, when the fate of the city depended on her and her friends, another storm was brewing above them.

The lightning seemed to strike Bristol again for the bolts of energy that flew through her as she joined her friends. She wouldn't be afraid any longer, not when there was so much at stake.

"Are we sure Liv's here?" CJ asked. "What if--"

Tristan cut him off with a sharp look. "What if what?"

CJ visibly resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "What if Rune moved her or something? The signal is only worth so much, and we don't even have that anymore."

Tristan set his jaw, glaring at City Hall before them as if willing Liv to materialize from its stone walls. Eyes still locked on the front verandas, Tristan barked out, "Avi, scan. Please," he added as an afterthought.

"Scan complete," Avi chimed almost immediately. Bristol shook her head to herself; where would they be without her? "There are two heat signatures coming from the top floor of city hall, both augmented."

"That's gotta be Liv and Rune," Bristol said, glancing at Tristan. The tension behind his eyes seemed to fade, but Bristol knew it would take a lot more than just statistics to calm him down.

But then Avi frowned. "Hold on..."

"What?" Tristan asked. "What is it?"

The green glow before Avi's eyes died down as she glanced at the glass front doors of City Hall, virtually made of obsidian in the growing dark of the storm. "Something's going on in there." She shook her head, eyes beginning to glow again as she received information. "My scan is showing me a group of about thirty-two individuals, eight of which appear to be hostiles."

"Hostiles?" CJ echoed. "Great."

"They're holding weapons, they've gathered the other individuals into a center group..." Avi's eyes ceased glowing, and her expression was one that Bristol felt in the pit of her soul. "It's a hostage situation, and they're running out of time."

The air seemed to be sucked from Bristol's lungs as the first drops of rain began to fall from the storm-clouds overhead. Her friends stood before her wearing matching expressions of uncertainty.

Rune would make it this hard for them to reach Liv, but a hostage situation? This wasn't anything they'd dealt with before, and Bristol feared that if they engaged and saved the hostages, Rune would surely whisk Liv somewhere else. Their chase would continue until all of Brightbay was destroyed.

But they had no choice. Innocent people were at risk. Liv was alive, they knew as much; she'd just have to stay that way until they could reach her.