Amber rifled through the newspaper again. Same story as usual, it seemed: one headline in block font yelling "Outsiders Raise Terror Again," with pictures of the carnage to buildings and all that... but nothing about where to start looking for them. Nobody had been able to identify any of these people that were doing this, much less take note of any features beyond body frame. And every time one of these incidents popped up, the actual damage was different; sometimes it was a gas station sliced into pieces, sometimes it was a bank burned to ashes, sometimes it was half-melted skyscraper windows from an explosion... It was if the people Amber were looking for weren't even human to begin with.
She sighed and tossed the newspaper into the garbage bin. She was starting from empty again, and with how much more frequently this was happening... she kicked a stray soda can on the ground, where it bounced off the brick walls of the alleyway before bouncing to a stop next to a storm drain. "No wonder everyone else didn't want to do anything about this..." she mumbled.
...No, that was wrong. She adjusted the red-and-white scarf around her wrist. "I've got to do it instead," she reminded herself, before taking a step forward. A short burst of flame formed at her heels as she jetted over a wire fence - she had to remind herself to use the Lumen Arts only lightly, or else she'd just end up scorching things around her like the people she was trying to investigate.
She found herself back onto a main street, though it was mostly empty despite it being midday. "Daybreak Square's just a walk away," Amber noted to herself aloud... that was the location mentioned in the newspaper. It would probably be surrounded by police, but it wouldn't hurt to visit the site herself...
Amber continued down the sidewalk, eventually coming across a large beach-side plaza, now completely emptied. Debris was strewn everywhere... upturned metal tables, chunks of concrete from nearby buildings, stray bits of paper. All of it surrounded by caution tape and police vans, but not a person in sight. It was if a hurricane hit the place. But, what kind of person would it take to do just that...? Multiple people? Or maybe it was a weapon or machine...?
Amber scratched her head... jumping to conclusions, as usual. She had to stop doing that, but she wasn't going anywhere with this. Why couldn't she just run into one of these outsiders and fight them until they promised not to do this sort of thing and leave? She knew it was only correct to first know everything she could about this situation, but still, it sucked that that was all she could do right now...
"Are you finally realizing how foolish this is?"
The air seemed to suddenly darken around Amber. Something about that voice... she whirled around, to see a small mote of flame. But unlike the red ones she conjured, this was a bright gold, almost a miniature sun in front of her, seemingly sucking the rest of the light out of the sky. And it was heading for her...!
"Wh- Hold on!" was all Amber could cry out, as she raised her arms in a feeble attempt to ward off the advancing flame...!
She sighed and tossed the newspaper into the garbage bin. She was starting from empty again, and with how much more frequently this was happening... she kicked a stray soda can on the ground, where it bounced off the brick walls of the alleyway before bouncing to a stop next to a storm drain. "No wonder everyone else didn't want to do anything about this..." she mumbled.
...No, that was wrong. She adjusted the red-and-white scarf around her wrist. "I've got to do it instead," she reminded herself, before taking a step forward. A short burst of flame formed at her heels as she jetted over a wire fence - she had to remind herself to use the Lumen Arts only lightly, or else she'd just end up scorching things around her like the people she was trying to investigate.
She found herself back onto a main street, though it was mostly empty despite it being midday. "Daybreak Square's just a walk away," Amber noted to herself aloud... that was the location mentioned in the newspaper. It would probably be surrounded by police, but it wouldn't hurt to visit the site herself...
Amber continued down the sidewalk, eventually coming across a large beach-side plaza, now completely emptied. Debris was strewn everywhere... upturned metal tables, chunks of concrete from nearby buildings, stray bits of paper. All of it surrounded by caution tape and police vans, but not a person in sight. It was if a hurricane hit the place. But, what kind of person would it take to do just that...? Multiple people? Or maybe it was a weapon or machine...?
Amber scratched her head... jumping to conclusions, as usual. She had to stop doing that, but she wasn't going anywhere with this. Why couldn't she just run into one of these outsiders and fight them until they promised not to do this sort of thing and leave? She knew it was only correct to first know everything she could about this situation, but still, it sucked that that was all she could do right now...
"Are you finally realizing how foolish this is?"
The air seemed to suddenly darken around Amber. Something about that voice... she whirled around, to see a small mote of flame. But unlike the red ones she conjured, this was a bright gold, almost a miniature sun in front of her, seemingly sucking the rest of the light out of the sky. And it was heading for her...!
"Wh- Hold on!" was all Amber could cry out, as she raised her arms in a feeble attempt to ward off the advancing flame...!