Eternal Elements: Chapter 5

May 6 2010 11:02 PM USA: New York

The heavy spring rain that had lasted most throughout the day had decorated the backstreet of New York City with big puddles of water. The splashing noises from the puddles made the masked criminal dressed in black easy to follow through the darkness. The criminal looked over his shoulder every other second. He passed a corner and grinned, he was sure he had shaken off that dumb cop. No women was able to keep up with him. Little did he know that he was being chased from the rooftops.

Eve looked like Cat Woman as she jumped from rooftop to rooftop like a agile cat, barely making a sound. She didn’t let this petty thief out of her sight for even a moment. Her green eyes were locked onto him like a tracking device. A static noise was coming from her radio, but she ignored it. Holding her gun in both hands it was a little difficult to respond anyway. It wouldn’t have to wait much longer, this chase was as good as over.
She knew all to well which direction the masked criminal was heading. These backstreets were unfortunately like her second home. She took a shortcut and jumped over a chimney like she was a hurdle runner. She hopped to a lower rooftop and jumped forward over a balcony with her knees extended.

Without even knowing what hit him Eve landed with her knees on his shoulders, causing him to lose his balance. He was running so fast that he couldn’t stop in time. Eve enjoyed the sight of the criminal spinning around before slamming against several trash cans and disappearing out of sight. Confidently and without even being out of breath she walked up to him, with her gun pointed forward.

“You have the right to remain silent,” Eve said routinely.

The thief wasn’t going to surrender that easily, he threw a garbage back at Eve and jumped at her with a small pocket knife “You’re gonna be the silent one bit-“

Eve easily avoided the garbage back and kicked the knife out of his hand in one smooth motion before he could even finish his threat.
Unfazed she walked up to him and pointed her gun at his forehead. “Who’s the bit-“

But Eve couldn’t finish her sentence either.
A human blob dressed in a police uniform came waddling around the corner, soaked in sweat. Without the crumbs of a donut in his bushy moustache she barely recognised her smelly partner Henry.

“-Eve, not so… fast,” he said out of breath.

“Eve couldn’t hide a smile. “Thank you for having my back, wouldn’t have been able to do it without you.”

He gazed at her ebony skin and well toned arms and legs like a starving dog. Although he probably looked like that after cleaning out an all you can eat buffet as well. “Well, it’s such a nice back to watch.”

Eve rolled her eyes. “Where were you watching it from then, Brooklyn?”

Henry looked dumbfounded for a second, until he realised she had insulted him. “Listen, we can’t all be obsessed loners with no life. I’m nearing my pension, I have to think of my health.”

Eve looked at his belt buckle that was about to burst. “You are so right, forgive me. I mean, we can’t all be middle aged fat assed short legged sexist pigs either, now can we?” she said while handcuffing the petty thief, who had been too scared to utter another word.

“Why you!” His swollen ‘about to have a heart-attack’ face turned even redder. “I don’t have to take this kind of crap from some rookie, you stupid bit-“

“Your momma!” Eve said as she flipped him the finger.

She walked up to a sewer entrance “Anyway, I got another call while I was chasing him, so I can’t stay for small talk. I’m sure you don’t mind doing the paperwork.”

Henry watched Eve enter the nearby sewer entrance. “Last time I try to be friendly to that stuck up bitch.“

May 6 2010 11:23 PM USA: New York

“Oh lord.” Eve would have clenched her nose if she could have, unfortunately one hand was holding the filthy sewer ladder she was descending while she carried her gun in her other hand.

The smell down here reminded her of her partner Henry, but even he didn’t smell that bad.
As soon as she reached the wet floor bottom she grabbed her attached flashlight from her protective vest and turned it on. The sewers looked just like you would expect them to. Stinky, badly lit, wet and small, with a million different maze like tunnels.
She couldn’t help but wonder how on earth they could get a distress call coming from the sewers.

She cautiously started to walk around, but couldn’t hear any call for help. All she could hear was water dripping and noises coming from far away pipes and rodents. At any fork she would hug a corner before she would jump out with her gun at the ready. After some more tense corner jumping she was starting to feel worried, what if she was too late? After a few more minutes of going from one polluted dead end to the next that turned into annoyed. What if this was all a sick prank? Wouldn’t be the first time.

Eve tried to call the station for directions, but she couldn’t get a signal, which was odd. Just when she was about to head to the surface again to try and reach the station she heard a sound. And it wasn’t coming from a nearby rat.

Immediately all of her senses tensed up, every next step she took was very meticulous and well planned out. Although she seemed reckless to her colleagues, she was in fact just light years ahead of them. Her skills and natural instincts took over as soon as there was even a hint of danger. In a way she really was Cat Woman.

The noise was coming from a nearby set of pipes, it sounded like a voice, but only scratched, as if the voice that spoke hadn’t been talking for a very long time. It could be a call for help, it sounded terrified and pleating, but Eve couldn’t understand it. It didn’t appear to be English, but that didn’t matter to her, all that mattered was that someone needed her, that’s all she needed to know.

Eve walked up to the sets of pipes and noticed how it was colder and darker here. If she didn’t know any better she would think that the batteries from her flashlight were nearly empty. The darkness seemed different here somehow, more like it was eating away every source of light. That, of course was ridiculous, she ignored it and the cold chill running down her spine. The voice spoke more frequently now, sounding more desperate by every passing second. Eve resisted the urge to call out, she couldn’t just assume and rush ahead. No, she had to be careful.
By now the light from her flashlight was already shining past the pipes, someone knew she was there, but still, the voice didn’t sound any different. It didn’t call out louder, it didn’t sound relieved. Maybe that person wasn’t alone.

There were two ways around this set of pipes Eve noticed, if there was an assailant she would get the drop on whoever it was. She carefully placed her flashlight on a nearby pipe at the exact same height of her hands, so it looked like she was still standing at the same spot. Eve walked into the darkness with her gun aimed in front of her. Making as little sound as possible she walked up to the corner. She could see the faint light from her flashlight at the other side of the corner.

She took a deep breath and jumped out of the darkness ready for anything. But anything wasn’t there, nothing was there to be more exact.
It wasn’t easy to surprise her, but Eve was taken aback by this for a second. She quickly picked up her flashlight and searched the pipes, but there wasn’t anything there that could have produced the sounds she had heard.

She turned around and saw that she was standing in front of a huge sealed round bulkhead door, it was yet another dead end.

“What the?” Eve’s shoulders eased up, she couldn’t explain it, but in her world of justice no explanation was necessary.

She was just about to turn back when another voice spoke, but this one wasn’t distorted, but clear and forceful: “I was wondering how long it would take you to get here.”

Eve quickly turned around and pointed her gun at the nearby set of pipes.
A woman floating in mid-air was now basking in the light of her flashlight. The woman was barely wearing anything at all, just a few silk like threads that strategically covered her most intimate parts. Her long hair looked like it was covered by a layer of purple crayon and was constantly blowing in the wind, when there wasn’t even any wind to speak of.

“Freeze!” Eve sounded as fierce as always, not at all as if she was looking at someone who was floating before her and had somehow snuck up on her.

The mysterious woman caressed her voluptuous curves and licked her lips. “I’m not moving, and I haven’t broken any laws… yet.”

Eve didn’t even do so much as blink. “Where you the one that called for help?”

“Oh, I did call for you alright, but it wasn’t for help. You’re free to cry out for help yourself now,” she said mockingly.

Eve wasn’t impressed, she was armed and could take a lost playboy bunny even with one… two arms tied to her back “What do you want?”

“Oh, I’m not even going to bother explaining anything to you, you’ll be dead within the minute.” The mysterious woman snapped her fingers and Eve was smashed against the dirty floor.

It came about so fast that Eve couldn’t even process what had happened, one second she was standing up, the next she felt like someone had kicked the air out of her entire body. She looked up and saw her gun was hanging still in the air.

The mysterious woman floated up to it. “These things are never useful, dear.” She pointed at the gun and it disintegrated.

Eve coughed up some blood and tried to stand up, but before she could do anything she was slammed against the pipes. She screamed as she felt her shoulder dislocate. With the greatest effort she was able to face the woman, who was now hovering above the bulkhead door.

“Don’t worry, I don’t play with my prey, it will all be over soon.” She turned her hands like she was opening a valve.

At the same time the sealed bulkhead door started to unlock itself. Eve took a shocked deep breath as she saw the door being slammed back by gallons of water being released from behind it.
The force from the sewer water crashing over her was immense, she was pressed back against the wall, unable to move. If the pressure wouldn’t kill her, she would surely drown within seconds.

With the greatest effort she opened her eyes and saw the mysterious woman through the rippling water surface floating above the bulkhead door.
She didn’t know what was going on, she didn’t know what she could do, but somehow her body knew. Like always her instincts took over, it was as if her body had a mind of its own. She saw how her hands started to push against the water, the enormous endless wave immediately lost its power.

The water moved back towards the bulkhead door, were it looked like an invisible force was acting as a door; holding the water back, like it was a living form.
Eve didn’t know how, not why, but definitely knew she had to keep doing what she was doing right now. Her body felt like it ten times heavier than before, while her head was light as a feather. She wouldn’t be able to control the water for long.

The mysterious woman floated up to Eve with a smile on her face. “Well, this is interesting, I wasn’t informed you had some control over your powers. This should increase my bounty on you considerably.”

Eve could no longer control it, and she knew she didn’t have to. Her hands fell beside her body, languorous and exhausted.
The mysterious woman stopped smiling, Eve was no longer controlling the water. It came rushing back, but this time she was in the line of ‘water’ as well.

“Damn!” She formed a cross in front of her face with her hands and a small purple energy shield appeared in front of her.

Eve felt her legs give out, she dropped to the ground and watched as the woman in front of her shielded herself from the water.
Even though she was barely conscious she had never felt so awake. Her whole world didn’t make any sense anymore, and yet, she had never felt more certain of something than right now. She was controlling the water!
Just as she realised that she stood some kind of chance the water stared to lose its power. The passageway was almost empty, there was no more water left to control.

With a husky grunt the mysterious woman pressed the last waves of water away from her. She took a deep breath and turned her attention back to Eve, who’s body was drained from all power.

She tossed her purple hair over her shoulders. “That was quite impressive, and also precisely the reason why I don’t play with my prey. There is always something-“

She was blasted away by a purple energy beam and spun against the dirty floor.

“-Or someone,” said another mysterious man dressed in all black, that stepped out of the darkness.

Eve tried to pick herself up by pushing her back up against the wall. “Oh, not another one.”

He reached out his hand. “Don’t worry, I’m here to help you.”

A floating woman, energy shields and blasts, controlling water, needing help from a man. All these things would have seemed like science fiction to her fifteen minutes ago. Somehow nothing made sense anymore.

The woman brushed herself off and the dirty water dissolved from her minuscule outfit. “Neo, it that how you say hello to an old friend?”

“No Subuccus, that’s how I say goodbye,” Neo said cold hearted.

Subuccus seemed to be thinking about her options for a second before she shrugged. “Fine, go ahead and save her, her bounty isn’t worth the effort.”

“What bounty?” Neo looked at her inquiringly.

Subuccus looked like she smiled for a second. “Wouldn’t you like to know. I’m sorry, but the ask and answer portion is over.” She snapped her fingers and disappeared in a cloud of what looked like stardust.

Neo didn’t know if he should be relieved or not that she backed away this time, but he had other things on his mind.

He turned his attentions to Eve, but she wasn’t there anymore. “Oh great… this is just great.”

May 6 2010 11:58 PM USA: New York

Eve could barely hold on to the slippery ladder leading outside, onto the dark New York streets. Every part of her body was aching and she felt so nauseous that she wished she could just throw up.

Without exactly knowing how, she found her way back to her police car that she had parked somewhere in the area where she had chased that petty criminal before. She pulled herself in the car and slammed the door shut; threw her radio on the backseat -that had been going off like crazy ever since she had left the sewers- and rested her head on the steering wheel, trying to keep her body from shaking. But it wasn’t her body she wanted to control, it was her mind that had been screaming at her non stop ever since she had escaped the sewers.

She had some sort of power over water, power… over water. “Just listen to yourself, you sound insane!” she said out loud.

She looked in her rear view mirror expecting to see a stranger, it was still her own face looking back. It was unrecognisable to her though, she had never seen fear in her own eyes before.
She wasn’t sure why, was it because her whole world suddenly was upside down, or that she had nearly died, or the fact that for the first time in her life she ran away from something.

She slammed her fists against the dashboard, that was ridiculous, she could face and deal with anything. Doubts kept forcing themselves up, could she really? Her way of dealing was slapping handcuffs around people that didn’t abide the law. This was unfamiliar territory to her.

She leaned back in her seat and sighed. “I only know what I need to know.”

Out of the corner of her eyes she suddenly saw a shadow approaching, her weak and tired body reacted as fast as ever. In an instant she pulled out a small gun that was strapped around her ankle and pointed it in front of her.

The man dressed in black stepped out of the shadows with his hands above his head. “Don’t shoot!”

“We’ll see about that,” Eve said sounding as robust as usual, even though her body was still trembling.

Neo approached the car as laid back as possible. “I can help you, and answer all your questions.”

Eve held her gun at the ready. “Okay, I have a question. Who the fuck are you?”

Neo smiled. “Can’t say that’s the first time I’ve heard that these last few days.”