Young Writers Society

Chapter Five: A Matter of Morality

Ebony Glaceous stood in front of the mirror in her bathroom, staring at herself. Her hazel-brown eyes were locked on themselves in the reflection. Her mangy, brunette hair falling over her shoulders and curling around her eyes. Her pale pink lips pressed into a thin line of concentration. Above her, a light flickered, as if it was trying to keep itself on. Ebony’s chest rose and fell with increasing speed, like she was using up her energy by just staring at her reflection. Her fingers curled into fists on the sink. The light above her suddenly went out, sending Ebony into darkness. She dropped eye contact with herself and slumped against the sink, her breath coming out ragged and heavy.
“Getting better.” She muttered to herself and walked into her bedroom. None of her lights were on. She smirked and waved her hand. Instantly, all the lights turned on. She smiled wider. A soft knock came from her window. Ebony crossed her room and opened her window. Darka crawled in and winced at the intense light.

“Hey” she said.
“You’re late.” Ebony replied, sliding the window shut.
“Yeah, sorry. We lost track of time.”
“Well, where are we meeting tonight?”
“South Aswalle, 45th on Skeelter.”
“Ok, just give me a minute.”
Ebony waved her arms, causing all the light in the room to go out and move toward her. Ebony crouched down, the light surrounded her, and her Alchemist form, Lyra, stood.

Lyra and Darka walked back to the window, slid it open, and disappeared through it. Once outside, Lyra pulled out a small, luminous flute and blew one long, low note. A few seconds later, the almost silent sound of hooves on the asphalt road reached their ears. Out of the midnight mist came a Pegasus, a white winged horse with a silver horn. Lyra petted the creature and climbed onto a gold saddle on its back, in between its giant wings.
“Easy Thaana. Fly towards South Aswalle and see if you can spot Gul Kaden.” Lyra commanded. Thaana whinnied softly. She opened her great wings and took to the sky. Darka clicked her fingers twice and an enormous bat, easily big enough to carry two people, flew towards her. Darka jumped onto its back,
“Follow Lyra and Thaana, Pitche.” She said, patting the bat on the head. The bat screeched and followed the rapidly disappearing figures of Thaana and Lyra.

Lyra and Darka flew towards South Aswalle, swooping low over the over-crowded sidewalks, much to the delight of onlookers and passersby. Lyra let out a pearly laugh as people yelled in delight at the sight of her, and then screamed in terror when Darka and Pitche came into view. Darka simply rolled her eyes and ordered Pitche to fly higher. As Skeelter St came into view, Lyra and Darka began to slow down. Darka whistled and Blair appeared on the rooftop of a building close to the bay. Lyra flew over to him and jumped from Thaana’s back to the rooftop. Darka followed suit.
“What do we have Blair? Another robber HQ?”
“No. This time it’s a new criminal association called the Underdogs of the Underworld. They have taken hostages.”
“Great name. Where are the others?” Darka asked, glancing behind her as if she expected them to be standing there.
“Felicity is one of the hostages, she is in her human form, and Jason, Leona and James are trying to get in from the back in their Alchemist forms. Natalia has gone off to get Damon, and we are here to get the hostages out.”
Darka glanced at Lyra, who rolled her eyes,
“Great.”

Blair walked towards an old, rusted door, which was hanging from its hinges. A sign, which once would’ve been a bright shining brass color, lay at the foot of the door, completely unreadable. Blair picked up the sign and threw it over to the side of the door. It landed with a clatter on the concrete floor. The three of them winced at the loud noise. Darka glared at Blair,
“Nice one genius. Now they’ll probably send someone up here to check what that was and our covers blown.”
Blair’s shoulders hunched up near his ears,
“Well, there is always the chance they won’t send someone up.” He attempted sheepishly. Darka was about to reply when the light of a torch fell on the door, and heavy footsteps started on the stairs. Darka shot Blair an I’m-gonna-murder-you-later look and jumped into the shadows created by the door. Lyra hid on the left hand side of the door, and Blair hid on the right. Seconds later, a man hobbled out the crooked door. He was limping on his left leg, he was missing a finger from his right hand, and he squinted as if he had trouble seeing in front of him.
“Who’s there?” He called in a gravelly voice, “I know you’re out there. You can’t hide! Better show yourselves now, before I hurt you.” Lyra rolled her eyes and stepped out of her hiding place. She wolf-whistled at the man, who turned around. The man was a bit surprised to see a girl of about 16, dressed from head-to-toe in white, with a small orb in her hand. Before the man could react, Lyra lashed out with a back flip and kicked him in the gut, knocking any air he had out of him. He keeled over and Lyra brought the orb in her hand down on his head, knocking him unconscious. Blair and Darka came out of their hiding places and crowded around the man.

“Nice job. Now we can get in.” Darka applauded, shooting Blair a sideways I’m-still-gonna-kill-you look. Blair shrugged it off and went back to the door. He climbed over the door and started down the stairs. The others followed him. Their animalistic reflexes kept them from making any sudden noises as they made their way down the spiraling metal staircase. As they neared an entranceway, several voices came through the door.
“–asking you for the last time. Are you or are you not the Fire Alchemist, Fira?” A male voice asked with a hint of restrained anger. Another voice answered, and Lyra bit her hand to keep herself from crying out.
“I told you, I am not Fira, and I don’t know what you are talking about!” Felicity said, pain filling every word. Someone inside the room sighed and the sound of something heavy being dragged across the room. Darka dematerialized into shadow and moved into the shadows which lined the door. She peeked into the room and recoiled in shock. Lyra peered in and stifled a gasp. Felicity was keeling over, tied to a chair, with blood dripping in a solid line from her nose. Several men were standing in a semicircle around her; one of them was holding his head in one of his hands, with the other resting on his hip. Felicity raised her eyes and spotted Lyra. She winked and made a minute movement towards the man. Lyra nodded back and motioned towards Blair. Blair inhaled sharply and walked into the room.

For a moment, it seemed that no one noticed him, but they suddenly spotted him and gasps of terror and shock filled the tiny room.

“Yeah, I get that reaction a lot.” Blair said. A small, athletically built woman pulled out a 9mm pistol and pointed at his chest.
“I get that reaction a lot too.” Blair said, without even looking at the woman and waved his hand, causing her to slam against the opposite wall and the gun to fly out the door, where an invisible Darka caught it. The other men began pulling out crowbars and baseball bats and advancing on Blair.
“Guys, you can come out of hiding now.” Blair said and Darka and Lyra darted through the door and stood on either side of him. Darka cracked her knuckles and Lyra began reloading the gun. Felicity, who was still tied the chair, smirked and began to rotate her hand underneath the ropes. Very slowly, they began to slide off her wrists. When one of her hands were free, she punched the closest man to her, undid the other wrist and ran, screaming, for the door. As she passed Blair, Darka and Lyra, she winked at them and whispered,
“Fira will be back in a moment, save some grunts for her!”
She ran out the door and up the stairs. The man who was questioning her yelled at two men standing in a corner.
“After her!”

They ran out the door after Felicity, just to turn around and run back into the room, followed by a giant fireball which coiled and warped like a snake. Following the fire came a girl. She had red hair which cascaded down her back like a river of lava. Her eyes were a bright gold color in which the reflections of the fire danced merrily. She was wearing an orange midriff top which was covered with what looked like red scales and her short, mid-thigh skirt flowed when she walked. Her black leggings completed her outfit.
“Never fear, Fira’s here!” She jeered happily.
“Snake! Run!” One of the men screamed and bolted for the door. Fira swung her arm, causing the fire snake to turn and land on top of the man, cooking him in an instant. Fira pointed at the other man, who froze like a deer in the headlights of a truck. The snake turned away from its first kill and moved in for its second. Just at that moment, the woman who had pointed her gun at Blair rammed into Fira, causing her to lose control of the snake, which turned back into normal fire, which then fell to the ground, relatively harmless. The two women fought, one grabbing for the others hair, the other scratching with impossibly long nails. Darka and Lyra paused and after a second’s hesitation, joined in the fight. Blair stood by, not making any move to get to the male leader, or to split up the catfight.

It was, eventually, the leader who broke it up.
“Roxanne!”
The woman who had started the fight looked up at her leader.
“You will have all the time in the world to fight them, but right now is not a good option.” He said, and Roxanne immediately released Lyra, whom she had in a headlock, and moved to stand on the right side of her leader. Fira, Lyra and Darka gathered themselves together and stood in a line beside Blair. Fira had five long scratches down her cheek, her blood dripping onto the floor. Darka had a broken nose which was bleeding profusely. Lyra seemed relatively unharmed; she was holding a clump of bronze hair. The man assessed the damage Roxanne did to them and then said,
“Until we meet again.”
He threw something at the ground and suddenly the room was full of black smoke.
“Smoke bombs? Why weren’t we told this guy is a fucking ninja?” Fira coughed as the room began to clear. Suddenly, all the smoke disappeared and blew out the door. Standing in the door was Aero the Air Alchemist, Serenity the Spirit Alchemist and Murko the Mind Alchemist.
“Shit what happened in here?” Aero asked, looking from the dead bodies lying beneath their feet to the blood dripping from Fira and Darka. Fira just shook her head. Blair stated the most obvious question,
“Did you find any hostages?”
Murko frowned,
“As far as I was aware, you were supposed to be looking for hostages.”
Serenity butted in before Fira could start abusing Murko,
“We found the hostages all right. Every single one dead. Men. Women. Even the little baby hostages are dead.”
They all lapsed into a lulled silence. Lyra was the first to move.
“Let’s go. This place is too depressing.” She walked past the others, up to the roof, and climbed onto Thaana’s back. Darka climbed onto Pitche, Blair climbed onto his animal, a big, red bear by the name of Kollome. Aero climbed onto the back of Gul Kaden, and Serenity held hands with her partner, a humanoid Siren called Melody. Murko was the last to greet his partner, a white panther named Challah. Thanna, Pitche, Gul Kaden and Melody took to the sky and Challah and Kollome slinked down the side of the building. Up in the clouds, Lyra began thinking about all the people they killed. Some of those men might have had families, children.
“Thanna, take me back.” Thanna whinnied, but obliged, turning back toward the building. Murko, who was running across the rooftops underneath the others, saw Thanna turn back and stopped. He looked from Lyra’s back to the rapidly disappearing silhouettes of the others.

“Challah,” he said, “Follow Lyra and Thanna, but keep out of sight.” Challah growled and started silently tailgating the white Pegasus. As Thanna approached the decrepit building they just left, Murko became increasingly confused.
“Lyra what are you doing?” He muttered as Lyra jumped onto the rooftop and disappeared into the building. Challah climbed up to the rooftop and Murko climbed off and followed Lyra down the stairs. He stuck his head around the door and found Lyra kneeling down in front of the body of a man which she had killed just less than thirty minutes ago. Murko knelt down beside her and looked at what she was holding. It was a photo of the man with a woman with black hair and two little girls sitting on his lap. Lyra flipped the photo over and looked at the writing on the back. My eternal love, Miranda, two months before the birth of Jace, and my two angles, Chloe and Alice. I will love them forever more. Lyra began to cry.
“This was in his breast pocket, right where I shot him.” She whispered, “Why is it so hard?” Murko sat down next to her and wrapped her in his arms.
“Oh, honey, none of this is easy. We just have to deal with it.” He said.
“Deal with it? After what we just did?” Lyra became angry. “What gives us the right to decide who deserves to live and who doesn’t? What makes us so special?” She got up to leave, but Murko caught her hand. He stood up and looked her directly in the eye.
“He killed innocent people Lyra. When people do that, all morality goes out the door. If we start doubting ourselves, justice will fall.” He stood so close to Lyra, he could feel her breath on his bare chest. Lyra’s hot tears dripped from her cheek and landed on Murko’s chest.
“I’m sorry.” She sobbed, “I just have a strong sense of morals about these things.” She was about to continue when she was stopped short by Murko’s lips pressed firmly pressed against hers. She was startled for a moment, but then relaxed into Murko’s open arms. They stood interlocked for a few precious minutes before Murko pulled away.
“Better?” He asked, a small smile playing on his lips.
“Better.”
“C’mon we better get going before the others wonder where we are.” They walked out onto the roof, Lyra climbing onto Thanna and flying in the clouds, Murko climbing onto Challah and running through backstreets and along rooftops, and started towards their homes.