Somewhere across the city, in a windowless room on the fifth floor of the Audio Light Corporation Building, a woman sat alone deep in thought. She was young, very young, in fact many would regard her as still a child – even though she was only encroaching upon her eighteenth year, there was a firm set to her face alone that led away any allegations about her age. Her elbows and hands formed a rigid triangle over her desk, and she was painfully aware of her own breathing as she glared at her computer monitor in the hopes that she could unread her last message. Her plastic framed glasses were rectangles of white as she leaned forward and clicked onto the local news station.

There had been a fire in the forest on the other side of town, bigger and faster moving than anything should have been able to burn at the current time of year. The pictures flashed one after another. First a helicopter night view, followed by video footage of the smoldering trees that still glowed red with embers. The new casters claimed the destruction to be from an unattended campfire left by some local teens; but she knew better.

The burst looked like an explosion; the scorch marks on the earth were too neat.

With a forced sigh, she braced her shoes against the floor and pushed back in her office chair before rising to turn on the lights. In the corner of the room, tacked up to a large cork board, was a detailed map of New Lacklan City, stretching over the three districts and some of the neighboring counties. With a frown, she turned to her clear dry-erase board and selected a red marker before moving back to the map to mark a circle around the most recent burning location.

She took a step back and swept her medium length dark hair over her shoulder. She glared at the map and seven red angrily circles glared right back. Those were only the ones she knew about, only the ones she had stumbled upon by accident. What were the odds? How many more could there be?

Her eyes wandered to the clock on the wall. It read 6: 17 am in blaring red font. It reminded her of an exit sign, small and dark but calling for attention. She slammed her hand against the light switch and dropped back into the office chair. Even in the darkness, the seven red circles were burned into her mind, burned and charred like the land they were found on.

She was the only one who could see it. With her prototype, she was the only one who even had an idea that something was wrong; that there may have been a little more danger under the din of city chaos. Callous thoughts raked like claws across her mind, and her frown sank deeper. There was a darkness plaguing her city, darker than the shadow just beyond the reach of the exit sign. And it was spreading, like fire, like wind, like rumors that shouldn't be spread.

The young woman adjusted her glasses with one hand before copying all her files onto a flash drive. Thermal scans, data collections, news and police reports she shouldn't have been able to access. In spite of everything, the corner of her mouth pulled up into a confident smirk. The entire world was online nowadays, and the internet was her playground.

Once the files were copied over, she quickly wiped the computer of her activities; pulled out her personal WIFI stick, and sat back in her chair, flipping the drive in and out of its case as she rested her eyes.

Her gaze wandered to the clock again; her teeth sank into her bottom lip. She still had her day job.

The chair rolled loudly as she pushed it back and pulled a black briefcase out from under her desk. It was slim, padded with leather and had latches the clicked smoothly when she punched in the operating code. There was even a secret compartment on the inside right ledge of the lid where she could hide her flash drive. It was completely and utterly unnecessary, but she loved it all the same. She paid no attention to the contents of the briefcase as she closed the lid; what were the data visors to her but her own genius means to an end?

With the case firmly locked, she took a step back to focus her attention to the scarf around her neck. She pushed her hair down into the back of her shirt and set to work wrapping the dark scarf over her head, being careful as she pinned it at the neck and at the top. The long end hung draped over one shoulder and the rest was carefully wrapped over her head and neck so not to show any of her hair.

She grabbed the briefcase in one hand, shut off the computer in the other, and sighed as she donned a long overcoat. She grabbed a pair of sunglasses from the bowl on the way out and slipped them onto her face even though she didn't need them.

As she left the dark office behind her, she pulled a cellular phone out of her coat pocket and hit the name at the top of her contact list. The dial barely had to ring once before the person on the other end picked up. The young woman didn't wait for greetings. "We're doing this now. Meet me at the high school. Dress to move."

A/N

Third place winner, up top! 

Shorter chapter today, but I refused to update until I finished writing the next big arch, and now that I did, we shall come back to our regular updates! Get ready to see more dragons...actually you probably won't like what you see. Things are about to get a lot more interesting.

Who is this? You remember, check the cast list and comment below. What role will she play?