🎶🎵 "Believer" – Imagine dragons
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Sirens screamed.
Not the distant, ignorable kind.
The loud, suffocating kind that made your heartbeat sync with panic whether you liked it or not.
Police cars lined the street in layers, red and blue lights cutting through the evening like warning signals no one intended to ignore. Barricades were up. Civilians pushed back. Phones raised.
Because of course they were.
If the world was ending, humanity would livestream it.
At the center of it all stood the bank.
Or what was left of its front entrance.
The doors were gone. Not broken... gone. Torn clean off their hinges like someone had gotten bored of the concept of doors.
Inside....
Something moved.
Heavy.
Slow.
Intentional.
A crash echoed from within, followed by a scream.
"Status?" a sharp voice cut through the chaos.
Inspector Elena Reyes stepped forward, heels clicking against concrete like she wasn't surrounded by the worst kind of problem imaginable.
An officer turned to her, visibly tense. "Still inside. We tried engaging but..."
A loud bang interrupted him.
Something slammed against the interior wall hard enough to dent it outward.
"…bullets aren't doing anything," he finished, a little late.
Reyes exhaled slowly, eyes fixed on the building.
"Description."
"Humanoid," the officer said. "Roughly two meters tall. Exoskeleton looks like… like a cockroach, ma'am."
Reyes didn't react.
She'd learned not to.
Weeks ago, that description would've sounded insane.
Now?
It barely made the top ten.
"Strength?"
"Enough to flip a patrol car."
"Durability?"
"…We unloaded a full magazine. It didn't even slow it down."
Another crash.
Closer this time.
Reyes nodded once.
"Evacuation radius?"
"Three blocks. Civilians are clear."
"Good."
A pause.
Then....
The air shifted.
Subtle.
Wrong.
Like the world had just… blinked.
Reyes' gaze flicked to the side.
Not because she heard something.
Because she felt something.
A thin plume of black smoke curled upward from the pavement a few meters away, twisting unnaturally, like it wasn't sure it wanted to obey physics today.
The officers noticed it next.
"Uh—ma'am…?"
The smoke thickened.
Darkened.
Then....
Someone stepped out of it.
No flash.
No explosion.
Just… there.
Tall. Lean. Dressed head-to-toe in black baggy hoodie, dark pants, gloves. A mask covered his face, the hood casting shadows that seemed just a little too deep to be normal.
For a second, no one spoke.
Then one officer muttered, "No way…"
Reyes didn't look surprised.
Just tired.
"You're late," she said.
The figure tilted his head slightly.
"…I like to make an entrance," he replied.
His voice was smooth. Casual.
Like they weren't standing in front of a superpowered nightmare.
A few officers exchanged looks.
Reyes crossed her arms. "This isn't a show."
"Everything's a show," he said lightly. "You just don't always sell tickets."
A pause.
Then she sighed.
"Shadow Crawler."
There it was.
The name.
Given by the media. Eaten up by the public.
The figure....Shadow Crawler....let out a quiet breath, like he was disappointed.
"You know," he said, "I was really hoping that wouldn't stick."
"It stuck."
"Of course it did," he muttered. "Sounds like something a twelve-year-old came up with."
Despite herself, one officer snorted.
Reyes ignored it.
"We've got a situation," she said.
"I noticed," he replied, glancing toward the bank. "Big, loud, and breaking things. Subtlety clearly isn't its strong suit."
"It's not yours either."
"Wow," he nodded. "And here I thought we had something special."
Reyes stepped closer, lowering her voice slightly.
"Listen carefully. The target is highly durable. Bullets are ineffective. Strength is beyond baseline mutations. It's been inside for...."
A deafening roar erupted from within the bank.
Something slammed into the entrance, briefly visible....
A massive, chitin-covered arm.
Then it disappeared back inside.
Silence followed.
Heavy.
Tense.
Shadow Crawler glanced at the doorway.
"…Yeah," he said. "I think I've got the general idea."
He started walking forward.
Reyes grabbed his arm.
Fast.
Firm.
"Wait."
He looked down at her hand.
Then at her.
Then back at her hand.
"…This is the part," he said slowly, "where you give me a motivational speech, isn't it?"
"No," she said flatly. "This is the part where you don't rush in without understanding what you're dealing with."
He considered that.
For about half a second.
"…Counterpoint," he said, "I rush in anyway."
"Shadow Crawler...."
"Relax," he cut in, gently pulling his arm free. "I'll be fine."
"That's not the point."
He paused.
Then glanced back at her.
Even through the mask, she got the feeling he was smiling.
"Inspector," he said, voice softer now, but still carrying that same irritating ease, "if I wait until I fully understand every insane thing happening in this new world…"
A beat.
"…I'm never going to move."
Reyes held his gaze.
Then exhaled.
"…It doesn't feel pain the same way we do," she said quickly. "Head, joints...those might be weak points. Might. And it reacts aggressively to sudden movement."
He nodded once.
"See?" he said. "That wasn't so hard."
She didn't smile.
"Don't die."
He paused.
Then...
"…I'll do my best to disappoint you."
And with that....
He stepped forward.
Right into the shadow cast by the broken entrance.
And vanished.
Inside the bank...
Darkness stretched.
Twisted.
Welcomed him.
A pair of glowing, burning eyes snapped open in the distance.
And something inhuman growled.
Silas Noir smiled beneath his mask.
"Alright," he murmured.
"Let's see what you've got
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📖 Quote
"Fortune favors the bold."
— Virgil