[Darkvision]

  [Object mimic—

  Evantra rapidly activated her skills and watched as the familiar figure she had glimpsed at the construction site appeared in her vision. Dark, blue skin rendered grayscale by her [darkvision], she could still clearly make out its distinctive features – a sharp nose, paired with pointed ears that rose on either side of its head. It held a submachine gun in its grip, and its blue eyes seemed to shine in the darkness. Seeing the creature up close, she realised that it looked feminine, if the features of its body were anything to go by, assuming that Veilcreatures shared elements of human anatomy.

  Evantra stood stock still, watching as the creature’s gaze passed right over her.

  Wait a minute… why can’t it see me?

  I didn’t manage to get [object mimicry] off in time.

  Is it…

  She realised that she had never toggled off the [ritual of concealment] since activating it when she chased Guinevere into the construction site. The ritual was still active, which meant—

  The creature has cybernetic implants.

  Optics?

  Unless there's another function of the ritual I'm not grasping.

  The creature walked gingerly into the bathroom, examining every stall closely, before letting out a flurry of unfamiliar words. She watched it briefly flutter its wings in frustration before exiting the restroom. Evantra waited for a split-second with bated breath before rushing forwards to catch the door just as it began to swing shut. She slipped through the gap, silently trailing it.

  The figure continued to speak with sharp, biting syllables. It turned to face the station, tilting its head to regard the escalators leading towards the platforms. After a moment of consideration, it made a sharp gesture and started towards the stairs leading into the streets above.

  “Evantra? You alright?”

  *Tap*

  Evantra heard Noelle let out a small sigh of relief. Her eyes lingered on the stairs as the creature ascended, before she eventually headed towards the escalators.

  ***

  Evantra sat on the edge of the train platform, gingerly lowering herself and hopping down onto the tracks. Locating the tunnel heading east with Noelle's assistance, she walked through the dark, winding passage at a slight jog, taking care to mask her footsteps.

  Fortunately, it seemed as if most of the Veilcreatures were content to roam the surface.

  Going down here was a good id—

  “Hey Evantra? I’ve been thinking… it may not be a good thing to proceed into the tunnels if you haven’t found any Veilcreatures. It could just mean that they’re staying out of the territory of a more dangerous creature. Evantra?”

  Evantra’s eyes narrowed as she began to sense something at the edge of her hearing.

  “Noelle, I think I know why there aren’t any Veilcreatures down here,” she whispered under her breath, rapidly scanning the tunnel’s walls.

  “W-why? Are you al—”

  The noise gradually began to grow louder, emanating from the tunnel beyond. The sound of wheels grinding against rails – which would ordinarily have been a normal thing to hear in any train station in the capital cities. The only problem was that none of the trains were meant to be operational in the ruins of LA. Evantra surged forwards towards a door adjacent to the train tracks. Driven by her inertia and bodyweight, she slammed the door open in the nick of time.

  Her heart thundered in her chest as she watched the train rush past her. The lights in its cabin flickered within, and its momentum sent a rush of wind hurtling over her with its passage. She whipped her head in the other direction, watching as it continued on its path through the tunnels.

  ***

  “Evantra, are you insane? You want to keep pushing forwards?”

  “Noelle… you explained it to me yourself. Poltergeists are only as powerful as the equipment that they have on hand. Well… for the most part. This one seems to be a fan of trains,” Evantra whispered. She watched as another train rushed past the maintenance room adjacent to the tunnel in which she had entered.

  “Don’t trivialise this, Evantra. It’s a ghost.”

  Evantra stared down at her trembling hands. Evantra’s hands curled into fists, fingernails cutting into her palm to the point that she could see the skin above her knuckles pale, tightening against her bone.

  That’s exactly why I need to do this.

  “It must be on the weaker side. And its presence seems to be keeping the Veilcreatures away. I only have to make it to the next stop.”

  “Snap out of it! If it takes offense to your presence…”

  “There’s a prowler up there and… some other creature I spotted.”

  “This is a GHOST, Evantra—”

  “I’ll tell you when I’m back. Look, I’ll be careful. The trains are confined to the rails, and unless there are security systems or sentry guns in the metro that I’m unaware of… I don’t think it will pose that much of a threat. It’s better than braving the streets above, filled with enough teethlings, elementals and prowlers to turn me into paste, Noelle.”

  The silence between them drew on, and every fibre in Evantra’s body was screaming at her to accede to the other girl’s advice. To go right back up the way that she came up the stairs, and to brave the Veilcreatures above. To obey the instincts that were screaming at her to leave. The hairs standing on the top of her forearms, how her skin crawled like she was being suffocated by a million spiders. How the beat of her heart echoed in her ears, dominating her attention.

  She knew that Noelle was right.

  However risky it would be to brave the Veilcreatures above, it was a fool’s errand to brave a ghost in her current state. For one, she didn't know what tech the poltergeist had control over. Returning to the surface was the safest option. Even with the Gadai Oiche prowling above, and teethlings swarms that could turn a wyvern into paste. Leaving the metro and returning to the surface was also exactly what she wanted to do.

  I will not be controlled by you again.

  You will not have my fear.

  “No, snap out of th—”

  Noelle’s voice cut off.

  All Evantra could hear in its place was the sound of crackling static. The sound droned on, and Noelle’s voice didn’t return. Evantra felt herself unconsciously tense up, searching the static for the slightest signs of the girl’s voice.

  “Noelle? Noelle?”

  Evantra felt her heartbeat race, and the stillness of the station around her turned eerie.

  Which was when she realised that the sounds of the trains racing past her with regularity had disappeared.

  She was all alone, in the still dark.

  It’s onto me.

  Adrenaline and terror twisted through Evantra’s veins as dread began to build in her. She felt the urge to hyperventilate, the room around her closing in on her. As she blinked, she thought she saw the hint of a familiar pale, grey hand that had appeared in her dream in the corner of her vision.

  Snap out of it.

  Evantra shot upwards from where she was crouched, peeking out of the maintenance room. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a convenient passage she could pass down through the tunnel to avoid the oncoming trains. The maintenance room was immediately adjacent to the track, and without access to the passages beyond the walls of the tunnel, there was only one path she could take to her destination.

  Stepping onto the tracks and ensuring there were no oncoming trains in either direction, Evantra sprinted forwards, heedless of the racket she was creating. She panted as the muscles in her thighs burned, Guinevere’s training coming in handy.

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  As soon as I hear a train, I’m going to—

  Evantra flinched as her earbuds exploded into a high-pitched whine. She stumbled, her foot catching onto one of the track rails, causing her to tumble to the ground. She groaned, wincing as the volume of the sound only increased, screeching directly into her eardrums unimpeded. The earpieces came away bloody, and Evantra gritted her teeth, realising that her hearing was coloured by a constant, high-pitched ringing.

  My eardrums burst. It can control my tech as well.

  Of course it can. Snap out of it and think, Evantra.

  Evantra rapidly unhooked her bag, realising that she had tech on her person, that the ghost would have the ability to possess. She hurried to review her equipment, realising with relief just why the usage of smart weapons had taken such a drastic plunge in popularity amongst Ghostslayers.

  Her breath caught.

  The pad.

  She rushed to extract the pad that Caliburn had equipped her with from her backpack. Evantra withdrew her Nagantra and put a bullet into the screen, tossing it aside before stumbling to her feet and continuing on her way.

  Her hands were still trembling.

  GET IT TOGETHER.

  Her eyes widened in horror when she felt the ground beneath her begin to rumble.

  Why didn’t I hear—

  That’s right, my hearing’s shot.

  Evantra raised her head in search of the telltale lights of the trains she had seen, but could find nothing shining across the wall ahead of her. She turned and lurched to the side, right before a train from behind her rushed through where she had been standing a second ago. Unlike the trains she had glimpsed previously, the lights on this one were turned off.

  It sabotaged my earbuds to get rid of my hearing. Then it reversed the train on the rail I was standing on, so it would surprise me from behind. It did so after establishing a convention of trains on those rails running in a single direction. It also shut off all of the interior lights so I wouldn’t get any visual warnings that it was coming my way.

  Evantra felt a chill run through her at how easily the poltergeist had gained mastery of the tech in its domain, turning it against her. As the train rushed past her, Evantra frowned when she heard a muffled screech barely perceptible through bloody ears as the train’s brakes activated.

  The train passing by her began to slow. There were still countless carriages trailing behind it.

  Why would it—

  No.

  Evantra’s eyes widened as she felt the ground beneath rumble to a greater degree.

  There’s another train. It’s boxing me in, so I’ll have nowhere to run.

  Whipping around, Evantra’s eyes latched onto a carriage with open doors. Gritting her teeth, her gaze whipping back around in the direction of the oncoming train, she braced herself, crouching down and coiling her body into a spring.

  Right as the carriage arrived, she leapt for the open doorway. Evantra sailed into the carriage. Even slowing as it was, the train’s speed was far too fast for her to estimate, and her legs clipped the open doorway. The rubber surface covering the door’s edges had worn away with time, and the edge of the doorway rammed into her thigh, making her gasp in pain.

  Evantra felt her [ritual of concealment] drop, as agony suffused her body.

  A fracture. At worst, it's broken.

  Evantra struggled to climb to her feet, feeling intense flashes of pain whenever she attempted to place weight on the leg. Inching over to the side of the train, Evantra pulled herself upright with the help of one of the train seats. Just as she did, she watched the open doors that she had assumed her jammed, clamped shut.

  Don’t tell me it was expecting me to jump in here all along.

  Was it trying to trap me?

  Evantra watched the blank LED displays inside the carriage flicker. In the inky depths of the black screen was something just beyond her perception. It seemed like a trick of darkness and light, like something was shifting within.

  Getting closer.

  Raising her Nagantra, Evantra sent a burst of rounds into the flickering LED displays of her carriage, gritting her teeth and reloading, trying to focus through the pain. Even as she watched the displays shatter one after another, she caught a glimpse of the flickering continuing in the carriages beyond hers.

  In all of them.

  I need to get out of here.

  NOW.

  Evantra turned to the carriage window, sending another hail of bullets into it, causing it to shatter. The sudden removal of the glass pane coupled with the train’s momentum sent a rush of wind hurtling over her. Evantra gritted her teeth, limping onto the seats and climbing on top of them.

  She waited.

  The moment it reached the next platform, Evantra threw herself from the moving train, slamming into the ground and rolling, as her momentum carried her a short distance. Almost every inch of her body was aflame in pain, and she realised that it hurt to breathe.

  I must have broken a rib. Or three.

  Glancing at the area around her, horror welled in her gut as she watched the screens across the platform flicker as they had in the carriage.

  A hazy, white mass shifted within them, inching closer to her.

  Evantra plunged her hand into a pouch to retrieve a stim that had survived the tumble. She jammed it into the side of her leg, providing her with a momentary surge of relief and anaesthetic that allowed her to rise to her feet. There was no way anything short of Panacea’s mid to upper market offerings could heal broken bones. At best, she needed to ignore the pain flooding her receptors, even if it temporarily worsened her injuries. She limped towards the stairwell, ascending the stairs as quickly as she could before the flash of relief disappeared, and left her with the consequences of her physical exertion. She activated [clot acceleration], but gritted her teeth when the skill failed to take, just as she expected.

  Reaching the top of the stairwell, Evantra limped to the entrance of the station. She watched as one of the maintenance doors burst open, and a cleaning bot rushed towards her. Evantra raised her Nagantra and sent a hail of bullets tearing through its metallic surface. The lights across its surface blinked out, and it trailed off to the side, slamming into a wall as her bullets destroyed its internal components.

  The consequences of her exertion began to catch up to her the moment she reached the stairwell leading upwards to the street. Each step brought tears to her eyes, which were only renewed with her rapid breaths, which evoked pain in her ribcage. She groaned, slowly and agonizingly proceeding upwards until she reached the final step. Evantra blinked through the pain, which brought tears to her eyes, casting one final glance back towards the station lobby.

  She failed to detect any signs of the ghost.

  Evantra gritted her teeth as she stepped out onto the street, eyes scanning the rubble around her for Veilcreatures. As she continued east with a quick glance towards her compass, she let out a small sigh of relief when the military checkpoint came into view. Evantra stumbled forwards and let out a soft sigh of relief when military floodlights alighted on her.

  She had made it back.