//------------------------------// // Knight of Nights // Story: The Wraith // by Therisinghero //------------------------------// Newport falls,  Emergency Dispatch Center! June 21st, 2018 1:30AM A lone dispatcher, was sleeping in his office chair. It had been a slow day in the call center and there wasn't much to do other than stare at a computer screen, then the phone rang. Which resulted in him jerk up from the noise, and rub the sleep from his eyes. Then lazily with a push of a button, he answered the call. “Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?” asked the half awake dispatcher. This better not be a prank call. the dispatcher thought. On the other end of the line was a  female, who was desperately trying to form words to the dispatcher. “Ma'am, calm down. Tell me what's going on.” the dispatcher said. Trying to ease the female on the other end of the call. “Get the cops here right now, my friends are being held hostage here at the dock!” said the female trying her hardest to keep calm, it was easy to tell she was very upset from the shallow breaths she was taking followed by her crying over the phone. “Alright ma’am, I have a squad car in route to you! Can you tell me how this happened?” asked the now alert dispatcher trying to buy time to keep the female calm, while police were on their way! “Attention, all patrol units we have a code 207 over at the newport falls harbor, the reported person has informed us that the hostages are being held in warehouse thirteen. Swat and aerial units are in route. Any other units available identify and respond code three,” sounded a police scanner.  A dark figure stood at the top of a building listening in on the police chatter. “Ise, are you getting this?”said the figure.  “Yes I’ve heard every word, I have pulled up some surveillance footage of a stolen coca cola truck that drove into warehouse thirteen earlier. I also have info on the caller. Her name is Rebecca Stern, she says she managed to escape her captors from the truck.” “Unless that's what they want us to think.” Ise said over the two way radio. “What do you mean?” The figure inquired. “That warehouse is owned by Debra Warren.” “The Debra Warren, the one who founded and Has been the face of NWO ever since?” “The same!” “Isn't she serving a life sentence in federal prison?” “Yeah well, who’s to say she didn't lend the key to someone in the group.” “Does rebecca stern have any ties that we know of?” “No, her rap sheet is clean, but they could have let her escape so she could call the cops though, something doesn't seem right, till I know more were kind of in the dark.” “Ok, she mentioned her friends are being held captive. Any idea who they may be?” asked the figure. “Give me a sec, I am checking her social media profile right now,” said an annoyed Ise over the two way radio. “She currently has two friends on her social media profile, who also happen to be the captives. One is a Samantha Rodriguez, she is the daughter of a rich family known here in Newport. This could be a plot to squeeze money from her parents but again I am unsure. The second friend is a Sarah Smith. Not much is on here other than she lives with her parents and is listed as middle class; so she could be collateral damage.”  “Ok, can you send the Night Wing over here?” asked the figure. “How far are the police out from warehouse thirteen?”  “The police are five minutes out, but you should be able to beat them there in two minutes,” Ise explained over the radio. Several police and swat vehicles had surrounded the warehouse’s perimeter, but unknown to them, the figure had already made his way inside while monitoring the police chatter. “Swat is in position, ready on command!” shouted an officer. “Hold position no one moves until we get the negotiator over here,” commanded the police captain.“ The two hostages are Samantha Rodriguez, and Sarah Smith their parents have been notified and are on their way here, they want the release of Debra in exchange for the girls!”  “Alright guys, cops are here, if they do not respond to our demands within the hour, we blow them away, until debra walks away a free woman no one will stand in our way!” said one of the masked gunmen as he looked outside the blinds with one foot on the crate labeled explosives. “What should we do about swat Irvin? They're out there too!” said Miller. “Miller, Tyrone, and I will guard the doors! The moment they make a move on any of the doors, open fire with your rifles. All of us have armor piercing rounds, so quit worrying!” Irvin pointed a thumb behind him. “Cooper over there will watch the girls to make sure our insurance stays where it needs to. Were not going till they release Debra!” Unaware to the four gunmen, the dark figure soaked in every word of the conversation. In order to keep from alerting the four gunmen, the figure resorted to contacting Ise via a small communication device on his right arm. “You get all that Ise?” typed the figure. “Yes I did! This has to be the sorriest excuse for a trade I have ever heard!” replied Ise. “Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve heard desperation this bad but, anyway!” The Figure typed again. “Run a background check on all those names see what comes up on law enforcement databases.” the figure typed. “Sure thing give me a moment and….. Got it! Here's what we have. The leader’s full name is  Irvin Ivanov; demolitions expert, did work with the mexican drug cartel back in the day and then out of nowhere you see his face next to Debra, Irvin is also known to have a short fuse but is even more dangerous when he has a gun in his hand, here's a note on his file. ‘the more angry he gets the more accurate his shots are.’ he's also wanted out of michigan for murder.” “Here’s the second name, Miller Fuchs was in the army for a year but was dishonorably discharged for reasons not listed, but his name pops up again for arms dealing and later being a scout for the NWO’s tactician for future attacks.” “Tyrone Lopez our third guy was a prominent gang member here, he was affiliated with the Rileys but was in the wind once their gang was taken out because of you, all the gang members except Tyrone are in jail and there is still an active warrant for his arrest here.” “Lastly Cooper, I can't find any ties to the NWO...wait, hang on  a sec???” “Whats up?” the figure typed. “Cooper Heinz has a missing persons report out of Houston Texas, his brother filed it. He was last seen with a friend of his and get this, Tyrone no last name.”Ise finished “Hmmm, aright.” the figure replied. “What should my plan of attack be?” Typed the figure. “Well, looking at your optical feed on my computer, it seems to me your best bet is to go for the gunman guarding the girls in that secluded room over there. Knocking him out should be easy, if you can keep the girls calm and quiet.”  “Your second target should be the lone gunman guarding the garage door to the right of the building. It would be best to attack from behind to avoid him alerting the other two gunmen. My weapon of choice would be that Knockout gas container on your belt. Grab him by his mouth and put him to sleep, and keep it quiet! We don’t want any unnecessary attention…” The last two will be tricky; I would advise against going in guns blazing, so the best way for this to work is those taser charges you have equipped on your belt! and that should take care of things,” typed Ise. “Ok here I go, wish me luck!” typed the figure. Samantha and Sarah sat back to back tied up in a small room, both of them were equally Petrified and crying. Neither of them could talk due to their mouths being taped shut. The masked man with the gun was just adding onto their fear as both of them thought they were not going to make it out. It was at that moment the front door opened. However, when the door was fully opened, no one stood there... Both the girls and Cooper were confused. Cooper went to investigate the door to see if maybe the wind blew it open.  As Cooper walked outside the room something black fell from above, knocking him to the ground effectively knocking the wind out of him. Before he could realize what was going on, his vision went black.  Both the girls looked at each other before their eyes turned to the black figure. He was dragging the body of one of the gunmen.  The Figure then took out  what looked like a zip tie and tied the man to a pipe that came out of the floor and went into the wall. The figure then turned his attention to the girls. The figure bent down on his knees and proceeded to remove the tape from the mouths of the hostages.  both of them were apprehensive at first until he began to speak. “I need you girls to stay calm. You will be out of this shortly just keep quiet so you don't alert the guards!” said the figure. Both girls looked at each other before nodding, and then the figure left the room and closed the door behind him. Miller stood behind the garage door, the paranoia keeping him alert! The entire warehouse was surrounded by swat trucks, police cars, and helicopters. The red and blue lights were flashing from the windows. Miller’s mind was plagued with several ‘what if’ scenarios. How Irvin said all would be fine kept echoing through his head.  Miller was starting to doubt that any of them were going to make it out at all. Even with the aid of the explosives. Even if they somehow managed to escape those news stories he had seen that shadow like figure stopping crimes, didn’t help calm his mind in the slightest. He remembered a man on the news explaining how he was being mugged at gunpoint. Miller’s memory went back to that night on the couch watching tv.  “Well I was walking home from work when that punk over there pulled a gun on me. As I handed him my wallet, he cocked the gun. I thought that was going to be it for me, till this black thing came out of nowhere and stopped him.”  The man said to the reporter. the media was all over the story as more eyewitnesses described similar situations. It was strange to see such astounding events happen night after night. They were even calling the vigilante, The Wraith. When Miller was in the military he was very good at paying attention to details no matter how big or small they were, and that news report was no different! He knew something may go wrong with Irvins plan, though there wasn't much he could do about that if his nickname was anything to go by . “I wont be called a fuck up anymore, they’ll see!” He said under his breath. Miller had a gut feeling that something was not right at that moment, but before he could turn around something from behind grabbed him and his gun. He tried to warn the others by yelling but something over his mouth prevented him from doing so. Then came a hissing sound that he couldn't identify where the source was. For whatever reason, Miller began to feel tired, he tried to fight it. However, it was no use as the feeling became more and more welcoming, until he let it take over him. The Wraith grabbed his gun and gently placed it on the ground away from the man he had knocked out. The Wraith grabbed another zip tie from his belt and grabbed each hand and placed them behind his back zip tied him and then gently laid him on the floor. Irvin and Tyrone stood across from each other periodically looking out a window to see if any of the cops outside were making any moves. “Hey Irvin?” Tyrone called. “What is it Tyrone?” Asked Irvin. “Why are the cops taking so long to call us? They should have done something by now.” Tyrone Inquired. “I don’t know Tyrone, but stay alert! They may try to pull something...” Irvin said  “Go over to Cooper to untie one of the girls to bring over here, we want the police to know we're not fucking around here!”  Commanded an annoyed Irvin. “Right aw-” Tyrone said as something impacted him. “Tyrone wh-” Irvin said as something impacted him as well. “The hell is this?” Tyrone said as he tried to examine what hit him. Right at that moment both men felt a surge of pain envelope them and out of instinct both men pulled the triggers of their automatic rifles and several bullets flew in the air, making holes in the ceiling. A car pulls up to the police blockade around warehouse thirteen. The car door opens and out steps a man in uniform with a badge on his chest. The man proceeds to make his way over to the police captain.   “Where the hell have you been?!?” Demanded the Police Captain. “I’m sorry but I blew a tire on the way here, the damn road had a pothole that rendered my car imobile till I could get it fixed!” Explained the police negotiator.    At that exact moment several gunshots rang out, the police captain grabbed the negotiator and ducked under his car for cover. “SHOTS FIRED, REPEAT SHOTS FIRED, SWAT MOVE IN!” The police captain screamed into his radio. Swat did as they were told as they busted down the door guns and shields drawn, to their surprise 3 men laid on the ground all of them zip tied, their weapons were laying off to the side in a pile. Swat move in further to a small room as they opened the door the two hostages sat there unharmed while another man slouched over zip tied to a pipe. The Wraith stood a good few blocks away, watching the cops haul out the 4 gunmen from the warehouse. A good two hours had passed and it was about time he wrapped up before sunrise. “Ise, anything else going on before I wrap up for the night?” the wraith said into his two way radio. ‘I’ve got nothing but what you stopped over any of the local police chatter, I guess we can call it a-” before Ise could finish a loud noise came from his laptop stopping him entirely from his thought. “This alert is being issued by The National Weather Service,  a tornado warning is in effect for the city of Newport Falls. An F5 tornado is expected to form over the center of the city. All residents are required to take shelter immediately from the storm. this alert has been issued by The National Weather Service.” said the voice out of Ise’s computer. About ten seconds later the storm sirens could be heard around the city. “Where the hell did this come from!? This city is nowhere near capable of supporting a tornado, especially one of that magnitude!” said Ise clearly confused. “Are you for real?” Asked the Wraith. “Absolutely! This came out of nowhere, it just appeared from the north wickedly quick and now is heading this way, scientifically this should not be possible!” Ise was starting to get a bit worried. “Alright, get you and your family to a shelter or if at all else make your way to the cavern you should be safe there, looks like I’m gonna be pulling over time today.” said the Wraith. “But what about you?” inquired Ise. “I’ll keep in contact with you, don't worry.” replied the wraith. “Stay safe out there!” said Ise. “I will do my best!” the wraith assured to Ise over the radio. The wind began to pick up lots of people were running about trying to seek shelter. Local police departments were allowing people to seek shelter as well as other places, such as churches, and people who had a storm shelter built to withstand a hurricane!  Hail began to fall from the sky indicating a tornado was nearby and about to form. The Wraith stood atop a building keeping watch over an area that was doing its best to get all its residents to shelter.  More wind began to pick up and a mixture of hail and rain fell from the sky with the wind howling the way it was, no one should have been outside at all. “Ise, you there?” the wraith called over his radio. “Yeah, I’m here how you doing out there?” asked Ise, a clear sense of worry in his voice . “I’m doing as well as I can, have you and your family made it to a shelter?” asked the wraith. “Yes, I am at my neighbors, they have an underground storm shelter, we'll ride it out.” replied Ise. “Good everyone is...” Before the wraith could finish, he was interrupted by the sound of screaming. “Sorry Ise someone needs my help, gotta go!” said the Wraith ending the transmission. “Where is that screaming coming from” he asked himself. It was then he noticed a small girl holding onto the base of a tree at the Newport park. “MOMMY WHERE ARE YOU, MOMMY!?!” the little girl was clearly frightened and crying as she held onto the tree waiting for her mother to come and get her. Another voice pierced the storm this one was in utter panic. A middle age woman was screaming her lungs out to what seemed to be the little girl across the street. However the woman appeared to be, being held back by someone. “JESSICA HOLD ON, MOMMY IS COMING” yelled what appeared to be the mother. “M’am you can't go out there, it's too dangerous! That tornado could hit us at any second I will try and get one of my-” the police sergeant was interrupted by one of the lower ranks, he was a bit annoyed but that all changed when that officer yelled to him. “Sergeant, look it’s that masked vigilante from the news!” the officer pointing behind the police sergeant. The police sergeant looked outside and saw the wraith was hanging from what looked like a rope. It wasn't till the police sergeant got a better look outside that the wraith appeared to be hanging from what looked like a military aircraft. It was at this point after someone mentioned the wraith a good few people came to the front of the building some with their phones out to record what was going on.   The Wraith could be seen angling himself towards the little girl reaching out his hand to grab her. The little girl looked hesitant at first but after what looked like he was trying to convince  her she grabbed his hand and held on to him. The aircraft carefully began to maneuver itself towards the police station. The wraith was right up on the front of the police station, the police sergeant opened the door to let them in. The mother was waiting anxiously as the Wraith dropped the little girl off at the station. “Oh, god bless you sir!” The mother said tears running down her cheek  The police sergeant leaned his hand out but the wraith refused his offer. “I’ll be fine but you guys need to get underground right now that tornado will strike at any second” said the wraith. As if the storm was listening to him a funnel began to form down from the clouds. The Wraith saw it and immediately grappled up to his aircraft. As he entered he began to push a few buttons and the aircraft changed from its VTOL mode to horizontal flight mode, and he began to fly away but this storm had other ideas. This storm did something that defied everything in meteorology. The tornado began to curve and bend in the direction of the aircraft. “What The Hell is going on!?” Yelled the Wraith as he began to battle the tornado sucking the Night Wing into its funnel. The Wraith tried with all his might and turned on the afterburners to pull away from the tornado, but the tornado’s winds intensified. No matter what the Wraith did the aircraft inched closer and closer to the tornado's funnel until it engulfed the aircraft. Once the plane was gone the storm ceased its activity and broke up entirely revealing a sunny blue sky. Moments Later The Wraith came too, he felt around his surroundings and realized he was still in his aircraft's cockpit, only it was dark. This was an unusual circumstance since the cockpit had interior lights that should have kicked in by now. It was then he remembered the storm and the tornado that sucked him inside. It could be possible that the plane was struck by lightning and it knocked the power off or worst case scenario the circuits were fried. He wouldn't know until he exited the plane so he reached around the cockpit until he felt a familiar lever. It was the emergency release lever. Pulling it towards himself the canopy opened and he exited the plane.   As he exited a stray drop of water fell in front of him and hit the ground, and the sound echoed around him. “Where the hell am I?” The wraith asked himself He decided to turn his night vision on. He felt around the grooves of his mask till he felt a faint button on his right side. When the night vision was activated he found that he was in a cave. Looking around he saw he could go in two directions but it was hard to tell which direction was the way out and which one was deeper into the cave. There was one way he could determine which way was the right way, in his aircraft’s storage was a device meant for mapping caves such as this. He turned off his night vision and  pulled out a small flashlight from his belt and made his way over to his plane. He flashed the light around the cockpit until he found it and grabbed it. This device was a sonic sound wave mapper and what it did was shoot sound waves around an enclosed area. When it would do that the sound waves would bounce back to the device and map that area however far it was. The wraith aimed the device in the direction his plane was facing. There is a downside to using this device, if there were any bats in this cave they would go in a sense, ‘batty’ no pun intended.  The wraith pushed a button and fired off the device. After about ten minutes later the results came back. The device indicate the cave went on further in that direction. The Wraith turned around and then fired off the device again and after another ten minutes the result came back that the cave opened up in that direction. With that said the wraith left a tracking beacon in the cockpit of his aircraft for him to come back to. It would be easier to fix his aircraft once he knew where he was. About half a mile later the wraith came to the end of the cave. He could see several trees from the base of the cave opening too far off into the distance. He looked above and he could see a giant arch right above him seeming to be holding up something above,curious he grabbed his grapple gun and fired above him. Once the hook latched onto a part of the arch he activated the lift function on his gun. before he made it to the top of the so called arch the Wraith took a second look and realized that it wasn’t just an arch at all it was a structure holding something big above it. As soon as he made it to the top he could make out some buildings and what looked like a castle but there seemed to be a wall that surrounded it, again that was no issue all he had to do was grapple and get over it.  When he made it over he dropped into an alleyway he still had no idea where he was but he knew once he found a building tall enough he could get a general idea. Once he found a building that suited his needs he again fired his grapple gun and had it pull him up. Once he made it to the top he was stunned to say the least. What ever happened in that storm began to raise more questions than answers. He decided to try his radio to see if he could get Ise to help him out. “Ise, it's the wraith, you there? He said expecting to hear back. Nothing but static greeted him. He decided to try again. “Isaac come in, I could really use your help right now!” He said starting to get worried. Something was up and he knew it, so he decided to look around more. The city was barren and come to think of it, rather old looking like medieval style old. This was confusing as hell to him but he noticed the castle up ahead and that castle had lights on. He decided to make his way over there because lights had to mean life was there. Jumping from building to building, he began to see a group of silhouettes moving into the castle. However as he made it close enough to make out better details. Utter confusion hit him like a brick, those silhouettes were… “Horses???” he said in confusion These were not your run of the mill type horses, many of them had what looked like clothes on some were wearing tuxedos others were wearing dresses. Then came the kicker! “Hello there, Spring Breeze would you know where I could find  princess Celestia and Luna this fine evening?” said one of the horses he assumed was male with a blue mustache and mane. This had to be some sort of a dream either that or the worst coma he had ever been through. He was stunned maybe even flabbergasted, he brought himself back from shock and decided to look around to see if he could learn anything while he was out of sight. Fleur De Lis was walking through the crowded ballroom saying hello to a few of her friends and a couple of fans of her modeling career. However right now she just wanted to be alone, after finding out her coltfriend Solar Flare had cheated on her. She just wanted to have time to herself to clear her mind of him. A tear ran down her face as she tried to keep her thoughts off of him but was failing to do so. She couldn’t help but feel that this was somehow her fault. A white unicorn with a yellow mane began to approach Fleur. “Still crying over that colt friend of yours?” said blue blood With a smug smile on his face. “Go away...” said fleur her head facing away from blue blood “Aw, come on fleur, you know you always have me!” blue blood said smugly.  “I’d rather live alone than to be with you, and you know that.” fleur said a tad annoyed this was not the best time for this, or would it ever be! Fleur was not very fond of the many nobles that tried to woo her and blue blood was at the top of the list. Not only did he start rumors of them having a relationship to any news hounds that were desperate for a story whether it be true or false; he started sending her grotesque letters in the mail which she would later burn in her fireplace. She tried to get him to stop with these antics but he continued. While fleur was lost in thought blue blood began to lose his cool. “Fleur are you even listening to me, FLEUR” said an irate blue blood. “LISTEN TO ME WHEN I TALK YOU BITCH!” Blue blood said raising his hoof towards Fleur about to strike her . However before blue blood could hit Fleur something grabbed his hoof. “Why don't you leave the lady alone...” said a voice from behind blue blood. “Yeah and who's gonna ma….” blue blood froze as he saw a dark figure behind him. Fleur was snapped out of thought by blue bloods change of tone, from anger to fear. She turned around to see a Bipedal being have a hold of one of blue bloods hooves. She looked at it almost in awe while still in confusion and slight fearfulness. “What in Celestia's name are you?” said a bewildered blue blood. “It matters not what I am.” said the figure. “what matters is where you’re going!” it finished. “Going?” Asked Blue Blood. “what do you mean by thaaaaaa...” before Blue blood could even finish that sentence he felt himself being hoisted up in the air. When the feeling subsided, blue blood looked down and he began to panic until he passed out. “Are you ok ma’am?” the figure asked. Fleur was bewildered the tall being looked at her with its white glowing eyes but asked if she was ok she didn't know if she could trust it but she tried. She hesitated to respond to it but managed to get a few words out. “Yesss, I’m fine” she felt herself trembling at it. “Do not be afraid, I am not here to hurt you.” said the figure.  Fleur eased up a bit working up the courage to ask him… “What is your name?” she asked. The figure walked in her direction, Fleur moved aside. It stopped at the guardrail and pulled a strange object from its side, pointing to a ledge a small explosion came from the object. “I am The Wraith!” it said before it jumped off the balcony and swung away. A speechless fleur looked at where that figure was, then had her eyes look at the passed out blue blood hanging from a ledge. “Serves you right!” Fleur said under her breath. After Fleur left the Balcony, Looking back at where the figure was, she could feel a sense of dread creeping up her back, thinking about what it could do, also curious to its nature why did it help her? Walking back into the crowd wearing a face of displeasure and worry, not usually settled on her face a few members of the crowd, came up to greet her out of concern then from around the corner a press pony stood there interested in what was going on! “Fleur are you alright?” asked one friend. “What happened?” asked another. The press pony was puzzled at the look Fleur had, almost as if she saw a ghost or something. Moving out to the balcony he looked around nothing stood out. Until he decided to look up, there he could see blue blood swinging gently from a ledge. First he took a photo of blue blood then proceeded to move towards Fleur to get her story (maybe get paid extra if the story was good)  “Fleur would you mind telling me what happened on the balcony?” The press pony inquired eagerness present in his voice. Fleur was very unsure of what to do for this situation. She looked at her friends who were currently trying to help ease her. “Well… here's what I recall” Fleur started  The wraith stood on top of a building closely keeping an eye on the balcony where he was. Using his binocular vision, he could see two horses in armor of which resembled roman empire design, trying to release the rich prick from the wire he hooked him to. He thought to himself, this went on for long enough, he pushed a button on his right arm and made the hook device release the horse from its grasp and deposited it to the soldier's grasp. Which also awoke the rich horse with a less than manly scream which surprisingly he could hear from where he was. The sun was starting to peak over the horizon. This was usually when the wraith would pack up and head home for the night till sundown came again. But since he was no longer in Newport he was going to have to seek shelter somewhere else, and that somewhere else was going to have to be  the cave he woke up in. He needed to make a game plan to better figure out where he was. The wraith backtracked his way to the cave he woke up in. After climbing down the mountain and walking a half mile back to his jet. The wraith opened the canopy of the jet and made himself comfortable, his eyes began to feel heavy till he decided to fall asleep.  Unbeknownst to the Wraith a voice from his childhood, Began to call his name.  James………..