I figure since I’m going to be launching Anna: Volume 3 this fall, I figured I could post Volume 2 here before that.
The second Volume will follow Anna as she deals with the fallout of her victory over Ravenger as well as how the city rebuilds itself from his invasion as well as the arrival of a girl who had been missing for two years and how she, Ravenger and a new threat are intertwined.
##Chapter 1: Into the Silent Night
Somewhere north of Alberta, Washington.
She rubbed her hands together as she paced around the six-by-six room, blue energy crackling between them as she pressed them. The girl’s long black hair was messy and wore a dirty gray gown that reached down to her feet, almost sweeping the floor around her.
Down the hallway she heard the sound of a guard’s feet coming towards her cell. She took a deep breath as he rapped on her door.
“Prisoner 091000, up against the wall,” the guard barked from outside the cell.
She did as she had been told every day since she had been taken here and faced the far wall and put her hands behind her head. The guard unlocked the door and swung it open before stepping inside and placing a tray of food on the floor.
As soon as he finished setting it down, she spun around and thrust her hands forward, blue energy shooting out and striking the guard. The energy threw him out of the room and into the concrete wall behind him, knocking him unconscious.
Wasting no time, she got up and ran over to the guard and pulled the keys out of his hand and ran down the hallway. She turned a corner and came to a glass door that led into a stairwell. The girl shoved the key into the lock and was onto the stairs in the blink of an eye.
Suddenly the lights turned red and sirens blared in her ears. Looking down the stairwell she saw dozens of guards running up towards her. Seeing no other way, she was forced to ascend to the roof. She came to the door for floor twenty and was about to enter when she saw several guards coming for her on the other side and began to climb the stairs again, higher and higher.
The door to the roof suddenly burst open and the girl ran out as she heard shouts coming from behind her. Using her abilities, she launched herself up onto one of the buildings on top of the roof as the guards burst out and saw her running across. They unholstered their guns and opened fire on her as she ducked down under the bullets before jumping off the other side of the building and running towards the other roof entrance.
“Stop! Or we will kill you!” they yelled as they continued their chase.
As she ran for the door, bullets whizzed past her, a few actually grazing her. In pain, she thrust her hand backwards and a wave of blue energy flew out and dissolved the bullets they made contact.
She threw open the door and ran back down into the building down the stairwell and onto floor twenty. Using the keys she had stolen from the guard who brought her her food, she unlocked it and ran down the hallway. Behind her she heard the guards storming down the stairs towards her.
The girl turned down another corridor and found a door in the middle of the hallway and quickly unlocked it and ran in before closing it again and locking it. Hearing their footsteps coming closer again, she used her powers to summon a chair from across the room and brought it to her and used it to barricade the door from the inside. It wouldn’t hold for long, but she didn’t need it for long.
She turned around and saw that the room’s far wall had a window that led directly to the outside.
Perfect.
Behind her she heard the door being unlocked and guards yelling as they couldn’t open the door because of the chair, but it was already loosening from its position and they would swarm in at any minute.
“Open this door! You’re not getting away!”
Taking a deep breath, she thrust her hands forward and the window shattered as the energy struck it and a breeze filled the room and blew her hair and gown around. She stepped to the end of the room and suddenly ran forward as the chair flew away from the door.
They flooded into the room just in time to see the girl dive out the shattered window.
As she fell through the air towards the ground, she felt the sense of freedom fill her. For the first time in three years, she was finally out of that horrible prison cell and she was free, even if she was now falling to the ground. She was still free.
Finally.
Using her strange abilities, she suspended herself in midair a few feet from the ground before she let herself hit the ground feet first.
She looked around and saw dozens of guards running towards her. The girl quickly bolted across the yard as bullets flew by. She was approaching a tall steel fence which was topped by barbed wire. Glancing behind herself, she thrust her hands downwards and energy blasted from her palms before she was launched into the air and well over the fence.
The girl landed and rolled to a stop, her messy gown getting torn as she rolled, but she didn’t care. She got up and ripped off the section below her knees, exposing her bare lower legs which were scraped, bruised and dirty.
Then she bolted for the woods that lay beyond the compound. She had never run so fast in her entire life. She only wished she had run this fast when she had first been abducted by these… monsters.
The woman crashed through the edge of the forest and into the road minutes later, her bare legs bearing new scratches and blood running down them.
Not that she cared. She looked up and down the road and knew that they were going to be coming down it any minute looking for her. She had to move.
Running across the road she looked over the railing and saw that it went right off a cliff. It led down into some more woods and then the woods gave way into a city.
Her city.
Suddenly down the road to her right she saw several armored vehicles speed down the highway towards her, their lights shining upon the girl.
Without hesitation, she leaped over the railing and fell down the cliff. As she neared the ground she readied her hands and they glowed with energy before she stopped herself feet from the ground with her strange ability.
Looking back up she saw the shine of the vehicle’s headlights going out over the edge while several of the guards looked down. Quickly she ran into the forest and disappeared from their sight.
Free.
She eventually made it into the city. As she walked through the streets, she felt the cold concrete under her bare feet. Passing them, people laughed or stared at her attire, but stopped when they noticed her scrapped and bruised legs.
“Are you okay, my dear?” one man asked as he stopped her.
“Yeah I’m fine,” she answered, shrugging him off.
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely.”
She quickly moved past the man and walked on. The girl walked for several blocks before she was pulled into an alleyway as she passed it. She was thrown against a wall and saw that her attackers were three men with either bats or knives.
“Hey, a pretty girl like you shouldn’t be out here at night,” the lead one said. “Something might happen to you.”
Suddenly he thrust forward with his knife but she moved out of the way and used her powers to bend his arm, snapping it. He keeled over in pain while his comrades swung at her with their bats but she blocked with her abilities and kicked one in the stomach with her foot.
She grabbed one of their bats and swung it around and struck one of them in the face with it, knocking him to the ground with blood running from his cheek and mouth. The girl then swung it upwards and hit the other under the chin with it, launching him up and back down onto the street, unconscious.
The lead one got back up and lunged at her with his knife again but she spun out of the way and used her powers to slam him into the brick wall, knocking him out cold.
The girl looked around at her handiwork before swooping down and snatching his knife and examining it. It was a six-itch blade and was very sharp and had been polished recently. She looked around before running off down the alleyway.
She eventually made it to the rural area of the city of Alberta. It was where her family had resided for so many years, so many generations. Her family was one of the wealthiest in the state. Yet all that was stripped away two years ago.
The girl stopped dead in her tracks as she saw the gate to the estate forty feet ahead of her. The house was shrouded in the shadow of night, but she could see the shattered windows and broken walls. She wiped a tear from her eye before she walked forward.
She came up to the gates, which swung slightly in the breeze. The woman looked up at the family emblem at the top of the steel gateway before pushing them aside and walking up the driveway to her former home.
The girl reached the front door, which was opened ajar. She peered into the crack and saw only darkness. Taking a deep breath, she placed her hand on the large door and pushed. With a loud creak, it swung open inwards. The glow of the moon above cast an eerie light into the house beyond.
Inhaling through her nose, she stepped into the house. The living room was a mess, just as it had been for the past two years. Lamps were throw down and broken, chairs lay upturned and tables on their sides. Glass littered the ornate carpet that was spread across the room.
Quickly moving through the house, wiping yet more tears from her eyes, she ran up the stairs and into a hallway with six doors lining it. She ran down it and came to a room near the end. The door had been busted open and the latch shattered, still on the floor of her room.
She walked into the room and headed for her closet, pulled it open and pulling out a pair of boots, a jacket and a black baseball cap. The girl slipped her feet into the boots, which still fit, but just barely, threw the jacket on, which also just barely fit and put the hat on her head.
The rest of the clothes in her closet she had outgrown, so she was going to have to buy new ones. Leaving her room, she crossed the hall into her mother and father’s. Ignoring the bullet holes in the walls, she went over to the bed, and using her powers, pushed it aside. Underneath was a panel in the floor.
Kneeling down, she grabbed a small handle on it and pulled it up to reveal a small compartment with a black duffel bag in it. She picked it up put it onto the floor. She quickly opened it and looked inside to see several bundles of money. Satisfied, she grabbed it and slung it over her shoulder before she ran out of the room, down the hallway, descending the stairs and out through the front door.
The girl ran towards the gates, not looking back at the home that had housed her since birth.
As she stood in the shower of the motel room, the dirt and blood that had caked her skin for two years ran down the drain and away forever. She cleaned her hair and straightened it back to the way it had once been.
After she had retrieved the duffel bag she went to the nearest Top Discount and bought six new dresses, new boots, a few jackets and hoodies, new underwear and several pairs of leggings. She had caught a few people staring at her stained gown but they looked away as soon as they saw that she had noticed them.
Not that she cared too much. She would be staring too.
The girl turned the knob and the water stopped as she stepped out of the shower and dried herself before putting on some of her new clothes, which consisted of a black dress, leggings, and a black hoodie.
Now dressed, she went into the main room and sat down on the bed cross-legged and pulled out a bag of chips she had bought also at the store. After having taken a few handfuls out, she grabbed a remote that had been sitting on her nightstand and switched on the television.
It came to life on a news station where a news anchor was reporting on breaking news coming from New Hampton.
“The situation in New Hampton seems to have reached it’s climax as both the terrorist Ravenger and the vigilante Anna Brail are both in custody’”
Suddenly it cut to a shot of a woman with long black and brown hair in a black dress with a green jacket being brought into a squad car before it took off into the silent night.
The girl’s eyes widened as the news anchor continued.
“Both are reportedly Supers. Ravenger seems to be able to generate electricity while Anna Brail can control air. No official statement has been given by the police just yet as they continue to sort out the situation now that the Mayor is dead.”
She set down her chips and got up from the bed and grabbed a pair of her shoes and put them on before grabbing the keys to her room and heading out the door and down the steps to the office below.
“How far is New Hampton from here?” she asked the manager and she came in the door.
He looked up in surprise before straightening himself. “About three hours or so, ma’am. But even then the bridges are collapsed and the tunnels are blocked. You couldn’t get in unless you went through the mountains.”
“I need to get there.”
“Why? It’s just stopped being a war zone there. What’s so important that a girl like you needs to get there?”
She smiled. “Anna Brail.”
The door that had been shut for the past twenty minutes suddenly opened before the deputy district attorney walked in. He closed the door before turning back towards her and slapping a file on the table.
“Anna Brail,” he said, his voice cold. “Or Breeze, as they call you.”
“Please don’t call me that,” the woman hand-cuffed to the table interjected.
He ignored her. “You know, for supposedly the great defender of this city, I’m disappointed.”
“I mean, I only defeated Ravenger so I guess I can see why you feel that way,” she replied.
“You think you’re funny, don’t you? Well I don’t.”
“What do you want? You’ve already arrested me.”
“Well, since you haven’t invoked your right to counsel, I can question you.”
“Fine. I don’t need Alex right now anyway.”
“Good,” he said, smiling. The deputy district attorney walked over to the chair opposite Anna and sat down, pulling the file over to him and looking through it.
“So, you’ve actually been tried as a vigilante once already, but you weaseled out of it due to your lawyer Alex Nolan. And then there was no activity for nearly four years until early this year when the mysterious ‘Breeze’ began showing up.
“And then, after that massive warehouse explosion you caused, Ravenger, the terrorist that not only killed our Mayor, united all the gangs in the city by killing their bosses and nearly destroyed the entirety of New Hampton, but is also a Super, shows up.
“And then the incident at the Daily Post happens, and several eyewitnesses say that Ravenger had a special interest in you and actually wanted to take you with him, but you managed to get away before being knocked unconscious.”
“Yeah but I still beat him. The city is safe because of me,” she said.
He looked up from the file. “Is it though? Most of the gangs are still in the underbelly of the city. Sure, we got a lot of them, but they’re still out there. And Ravenger could’ve been the beginning of a bigger plan.”
Anna let out a laugh. “Are you serious? You think that lunatic was actually working for someone?”
“Perhaps.”
“He almost killed me like, I don’t know, ten or eleven times now. I know he’s not working with anyone else.”
“Are you sure?” he leaned closer.
“Positive,” she stayed planted.
Suddenly the door to the room burst open again and Alex Nolan appeared in the doorway.
“Alex?” Anna gasped.
“What are you doing here?” the deputy district attorney stood up.
“I’m here for my client, obviously,” he said walked over to Anna and setting his briefcase on the table.
“Are you okay?” Alex asked her.
“Yeah I’m fine.”
“Why are you here? She hasn’t invoked yet.”
“Oh yeah. I invoke my right to counsel,” Anna smiled.
“Bye James,” Alex said, gesturing towards the door.
The deputy district attorney’s face contorted with anger before he picked up the file and stormed out of the room.
He turned back to the woman. “Are you sure you’re okay, Anna?”
“Yes, Alex, I’m perfectly fine,” she assured him. “But what about Nicole, Matthew and my dad? What about Ravenger? Did I kill him?”
“Nicole and your dad are safe. Matthew is with the Chief. Ravenger is contained for the moment.”
“So what now?”
Alex let out a sigh. “Well, I assume our friend wants to try you, and this time it’s not going to be as easy as it was before.”
“But you can get me out of it, can’t you?”
“I may have an edge, but I’m not sure,” he stroked his chin.
“What is it?”
“Well, the fact that you did the save the city. Sure, it was illegal, but you saved the city from a terrorist. They’d have to give you something for that.”
“You’d think so,” she slumped back in her chair as much as she could.
“At the most you’ll get a sentence of three years,” Alex said. “But hopefully I’ll be able to get you to walk free.”
Suddenly the door opened and the deputy district attorney came back in.
“Alright that’s it. You’re going to answer some questions for me, Anna Brail.”
“At least she has her lawyer here, James,” Alex smiled.
“Very well,” he said before pulling up another chair and setting it next to Anna, gesturing for Alex to sit in it.
Anna’s attorney nodded and got up and went to the other chair, James sitting across from them.
“So, how long have you had your… abilities?”
“Don’t answer that,” Alex said.
“Yes you will.”
“No she won’t.”
“Alex,” James said, looking over his spectacles. “Work with me here.”
“Not if you’re trying to put my client behind bars. You know the drill.”
Anna weighed in. “Why don’t I need to answer the question?”
“Because that’s personal information and you don’t need to give him it.”
James slammed his hand down on the table. “Yes she does!”
“No, she doesn’t.”
“Alex, you are undermining the justice system! She needs to be tried for her crimes and I cannot prosecute her without these details!”
“Yes you can.”
“I cannot, and will not!”
“Well, if you won’t prosecute her without how long she’s had her powers,” Alex smiled. “Then I guess you can let her go.”
“Outrageous!”
“It’s unconstitutional to put someone in prison without a fair trial, James,” Alex began packing his things.
“No,” Anna said suddenly.
“What?” the two men said in surprise.
“No. I want this trial.”
Alex leaned down next to Anna. “No you don’t.”
She looked back at him, her eyes defiant. “Yes, I do. I deserve it.”
He stared at her.
“Alex, please.”
The man let out a long sigh. “Fine.”
“Thank you.”
She turned back to the district attorney. “My powers manifested themselves about three years after my birth, and mastered them when I was eleven.”
“How were your powers created?”
Anna shrugged.
“Okay, now-,” suddenly there was a knock on the door and an officer opened it and came in.
“Deputy district attorney Ryan, I’m sorry to interrupt, but Ravenger has arrived.”
“Wait, he’s here?” Anna asked, straightening up.
“Yes, but perfectly contained,” the officer replied.
“Uh, alright then,” James said, standing up and collecting his things. “We’ll pick this up at another time, miss Brai.”
“I’ll be here,” she responded.
A small smile went across his face before he left with the officer. After he had gone Alex turned to her again.
“Why do you want to go through with this trial?”
“Because I deserve it.”
“No you don’t. You’re a hero.”
“But I do. I killed all those people in the warehouse. I let Ravenger take control of the gangs. I let the Mayor get killed…”
“Those weren’t your fault-.”
“But they were!” she snapped. “If I had been faster, better, I could’ve stopped all this before it ever started. I’m a failure.”
“No, you’re not.”
“We’ll see about that.”
“It seems kind of funny,” Nicole said as they drove down the road. “It seems we just escaped the Police Station and now we’re going back.”
“Yeah it does,” Mark replied, looking out the window. “But this time the city is safe.”
“Thanks to Anna,” she smiled.
“Thanks to Anna,” he nodded.
“I hope she’s doing okay,” Nicole said.
Mark put his arm around her shoulder. “I’m sure she’s fine. Alex is probably there already.”
“There’s going to be another trial, isn’t there?”
“Probably.”
“I doubt she’ll be able to get out of this one,” Nicole sighed.
“Perhaps, but Alex is a fine lawyer.”
“Perhaps.”
A few minutes later they came to a stop at the Police Station and were brought in by the officer that had driven them there. Once inside it was improved over the last time they had been there, but was still a mess. Glass and paper shreds littered the floor, bullet holes lined the walls, and blood was stained on the ground.
The officer sat them down on a bench and then left to assist with the booking of all the gangsters that they had arrested.
“You know, even though Anna defeated Ravenger and the gangs are scattered again,” Nicole said. “I can’t shake the feeling that this is all only the beginning.”
“The beginning of what?” Mark turned to the woman.
“The end.”
“I hope you’re comfortable,” he said as he entered the room.
“You… will… all die…” Ravenger ask through the breathing mask he was wearing.
The Chief laughed. “We all will one way, but not by your hand.”
The terrorist snarled. “I am the rightful ruler of this city! You will all bow down before me!”
“No, we won’t,” Chief John Dillon said before approaching the cage. “You’re a criminal, and we let those rot in a cell for the rest of their lives.”
Suddenly there was a flash of light followed by screaming, but it wasn’t coming from anyone outside the cage. Ravenger slumped forward as the last flickers of electricity faded from his body.
“I was hoping that would happen,” he laughed again.
“What… did you do?!” he struggled to yell.
“We’ve been working on this baby for the past month,” Dillon said, walking around the large metal cage. It was like the compartment of a small car, with several panels of glass so they could see him, but they were too thick for him to break through.
Ravenger himself was strapped to a chair, his arms, legs, and torso held by large metallic clamps.
“You see, it’s designed so that when you discharge your powers, it feeds it back into you,” the Chief stopped back in front of the terrorist. “Neat, huh?”
“No prison can hold me… I will kill you all!”
“Yeah I don’t think so,” Matthew Weaver said as he watched form afar.
“Why don’t you come closer so we can find out?” Ravenger’s eyes blazed with rage.
“Enough,” Dillon snapped. “Now down to business so I don’t have to look at your scarred face any longer.
“So, now that you’ve been defeated, your army has snaked back into the underbelly of the city from which they came. It seems that your whole empire came tumbling down as soon as you were taken out, which leads me to question if you were a pawn in somebody else’s game. But whose?”
The terrorist leaned forward as much as his restraints would allow. “No one.”
“You see, I’ve been a police officer for about forty years now, and I’ve seen gangs come and go, rise and fall, but almost none have fallen as easily as yours.”
Ravenger said nothing.
The Chief smiled. “I thought so.”
He turned and began walking away past the armed guards.
“When you’re ready to talk, let me know.”
Dillon joined Matthew and the two as walked through the door before it slid shut behind them. As they walked down the corridor, Matthew couldn’t shake the feeling that the terrorist was working for someone else.
“Chief, you don’t really think Ravenger was working for someone else, do you?”
“What? I don’t know for sure, but it would make sense. You don’t just go out and decide to take over a city without any real motivation.”
“He said that him being betrayed was his motive, and that he’s done this to several other cities but failed.”
The Chief waved his hand. “That’s a lie. Sure, he was probably betrayed, but he would need real motivation to do all this. Unless he’s just really, really butthurt. Then we’ll need a therapist.”
Somewhere north of Alberta, Washington.
“What is it?” he said as the guard entered the room.
“Sir, prisoner 091000 has escaped the facility.”
He turned around quickly, his eyes blazing. “How? How did you let that happen?!”
“Sir, she had… abilities,” the guard replied, taking a step back.
“What do you mean by ‘abilities’?”
“She had energy-based telekinetic powers. She must’ve developed them from the experiments.”
The man chuckled. “It worked? It actually worked? I thought that oaf was the only one!”
“What do you want us to do next, sir? Find her?”
“Yes, she cannot be let to roam free, but,” he turned back to the window. “Begin Phase Two.”
The guard nodded. “Yes sir!”
He then turned and left the room, leaving him alone again.
The man looked out over the woodland that surrounded the compound. “Everything is falling into place…”
Chapter 2 on the Anna Wiki: