Electric battles in the shadows. by Tathe1986 on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

Alexis Nightshade had always felt like the electricity that seethed underneath her skin could rip her apart. From a young age, power surges near her mother's rundown apartment were a common occurrence, and lights flickered in her presence. Her fiery red hair had earned her the nickname "wildfire," an amalgamation of admiration and fear from the kids in the neighborhood. But Alexis carried a darkness with her, an aching loneliness that could swallow the world whole.

Her parents had died in an industrial accident, leaving her with a secret heritage she would come to understand much later. They had been part of an underground league of protectors, with her father’s unique electrical powers passing down to her. Their deaths were no accident, but a targeted strike by an organization known as the Shadow Faction, keen on harvesting elemental powers for their own twisted ends.

It was a damp Friday night when the discovery happened. Alexis, then sixteen, was scrolling through old texts on her father's outdated laptop, the kind that sparked to life only in her hands. The encrypted journals and maps became clearer with her every touch. As her fingertips danced across the keys, she saw visions—images of her mother and father in blue and crimson suits, fighting nebulous adversaries in chequered dark alleys. She wasn't born broken; she was born powerful. Destiny and danger had been intertwined in her DNA since birth.

As Alexis reached her twenties, she honed her power. Her sleek, indigo suit was as much a part of her as the blood coursing through her veins. It protected her from the bolts she conjured, redirecting the currents’ unyielding chaos. Her social media accounts became transmitters of curated normalcy, snapshots of coffee dates and peaceful sunsets, masking the nights colored by electric blue battles.

One midnight, she stood atop the spire of the old clock tower, the city sprawled below her like a resting beast. Her phone vibrated with a single message from Conrad Steele, the ghostly mentor she had only spoken to through encrypted channels. "It's time. They're coming."

The night crackled with suspense, each second scorching through her nerves. She leaped from the tower, landing gracefully on the rooftop below. In the cold, sterile light of the moon, the very atmosphere buzzed.

Conrad emerged from the shadows. "Shadow Faction operatives are mobilizing. They're targeting the power grid at Sunrise Towers. They aim to plunge the city into darkness and harvest the chaos that follows."

"Harvest?" Alexis’s voice trembled with coiled rage. She had trained for this, but the thought of innocent lives thrown into torment made her spine stiffen like a live wire.

"Yes, their leader, Cyrus Vrax, uses the collected energy to amplify his own abilities. If unchecked, he could summon storms powerful enough to lay waste to the continent."

Without another word, Alexis whirled on her heel. Her boots crashed against the metal as she sprinted towards Sunrise Towers, each step echoing with growing determination. Sparks flew from her hands, illuminating her path like fiery memories. She knew she would encounter more than dark corridors; the tendrils of Cyrus’ influence had already begun unfurling in the city, manifesting as flickers of dread in the eyes of the public.

The auditorium in Sunrise Towers was a cavern of shadows, pulsating with the rhythm of machines rigged to harness fear and agony. Alexis stormed in like a tempest. The operatives were nothing more than silhouettes in the dark, but they stood no chance against the lightning she commanded. Bolts struck with surgical precision, a dance of destruction lit by incandescent, electric fury. Every step closer to Cyrus felt like walking through the eye of a brewing storm.

In the epicenter, Cyrus Vrax waited. His eyes gleamed with a feral hunger, drained lights reflected in his irises as he spoke, "Ah, the wildfire herself… I've been expecting you."

Their battle was a symphony of electric blue and ominous shadow, each stroke a testament to their clash of wills. Cyrus's storm was fierce, his tendrils of darkness coiling and crashing like waves upon her energy shield. Panting and exhausted, Alexis called upon the core of her being, tapping into a reservoir of pain and resolve, conjuring an electric maelstrom that hurled Cyrus into a state of disarray.

As his weakened form crumbled, the surge of electricity exploded away from them, snapping the cables and conduits that enslaved the tower. Lights flickered back to life, a rising dawn of hope.

Alexis stood over him, her flame-bright hair wild and untamed. Conrad appeared silently behind her, hand resting gently on her shoulder. They exchanged a solemn nod. Tonight, the city had been saved from plunging into darkness, but the battle against the Shadow Faction was far from over.

“Ready to continue the fight?” Conrad asked.

A fiery determination burned in her eyes. “Always.”

And so, with hearts beating in electrifying rhythm, the wildfire and her steadfast mentor disappeared into the looming dawn, the city's fate resting once more in the hands of its unseen guardian.