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Lyger stood out on the ledge of the Wright Building and looked out over the city as a torrential downpour washed over the city. There was something about the rain that he found soothing, almost therapeutic, in fact. It was almost as if the heavens had opened up and just washed away everything that was wrong in the city. 

[i][b]Almost.[/b][/i]

Crown Ridge was a bad place. Nothing would ever be able to scrub all of that filth away. No amount of rain could cleanse it, and no amount of fighting would ever be able to set it right. He knew that, and it ate away at him. He found himself wondering if it was even worth it, the constant struggle, the fight for the city. Then he thought about all of the good people in Crown Ridge, the people who had no way out, the people who tried to live a good life for themselves and their families. Those people were the reason that he fought. 

These were the people who were hurt by criminals and terrorists like the Hounds of Humanity. Although the Hounds claimed that their fight was with the meta humans and other non-normals, they had victimized anyone that got in their way, and summed it all up as collateral damage in not only a war of attrition, but a war for the very survival of the human race. However, it was all a farce. The Hounds of Humanity couldn’t care less about protecting the normal people of the world, they just needed an excuse for murder, and the rise in the meta human, as well as supernatural populations gave them just that.  They hid behind bigotry in order to spread as much hate and fear as they could. 

They were also well organized. They had laid the perfect trap for him, and he walked right into it. If it hadn’t have been for Icon’s interjection, he wouldn’t have walked away from that confrontation in one peace, and if he was to be completely honest with himself, he wouldn’t have walked away at all. Neither Icon nor he knew exactly what the Hounds’ endgame was, but both heroes knew that they needed to be there to make sure that it didn’t happen. 

As Lyger contemplated everything that had happened, he suddenly realized that he wasn’t alone. He glanced around the rooftop, but didn’t see anyone. However, he knew that he wasn’t imagining it; he could hear someone slowly creeping up on him. 

Then he saw it. Or rather, it was what he didn’t see. He looked on as he saw the puddles on the roof disturbed by invisible feet. He watched as the pounding rain battered against something, or someone who didn’t appear to be there.

“You might as well show yourself, I know you’re there.” Lyger said, his modulated voice sounding more intimidating than he had intended. After several beats, something began to take shape from nothingness. At first he didn’t know what he looked like, but soon the figure of a young woman who looked to be in her early to mid twenties began to appear before his eyes. She was a pretty girl, though with just a quick glance Lyger could tell that something was troubling her, and he had a pretty good idea of what that was.

“They came for you too, didn’t they?” Lyger said, more as a statement than a question.

“Yeah. They stormed the shop where I work. They just started shooting. They almost got me. They almost killed my customer. If I didn’t get us out of there, they would have.” She said with a mixture of fear and anger in her voice. “I saw you after I got her to safety. I recognized you from TV, I saw how you helped in the Pax Metahumana crisis.” 

“So you followed me.” Lyger said, slightly embarrassed that he had slipped up and allowed himself to be tracked. “Who are you?”

“My name’s Chrissy, Chrissy Jones. I thought you could help.” 

“I’m on it. You should lay low, don’t get yourself involved in this mess.” Lyger said.

“These monsters have to be stopped.”

“And they will be. It’s being worked on.” Lyger told her.

“I want to help, I have to do something.” She said.

“Stay out of it. Leave it to the people who handle these types of things.” Lyger insisted.

“I can’t promise that. Sometimes everyone has to take a stand.” She said with a touch of defiance in her tone.

“It’s your funeral.” Lyger said as he turned away from the young woman and fired a grapnel line into one of the nearby buildings before diving from the roof and vanishing into the night.