The grit of deteriorated concrete crumbled beneath his feet. Colorful lights flashed from atop the vehicle at the far end of the alley as the pair of uniformed men flicked their flashlights at the scene. An unnamed vigilante, the reports said. There had been incidents for a while, but until now there had only been recordings of her voice. Visual reports were vague, inconsistent. Now the department finally had a photograph, but. . .

"There's only one thing I don't get. Why was she dressed as Sonic?" Asked the younger of the officers present.

". . .Who?" Asked the older one, sipping his aromatic coffee.

"You know, the video game character th-oh never mind. The point is, what's with the cheap Halloween costume?"

"Eric, I'd say you have more important questions to ask. Like how they keep getting away or why they never seem to have a consistent way of terrorizing criminals."

"Oh, um. . .right, right. Well considering what happened here, maybe the reason we haven't gotten a good look at them is because they wear costumes as their gimmick? Maybe that's why their methods keeps changing, they might be adjusting it to match each costume they put on."

The older officer merely grunted. Eric knew what he said wasn't really going to help that much, but the truth is it was his opinion that the vigilante only got away because the department was as inefficient as any other. She was only human, there was a perfectly valid explanation for all of this. . .except maybe the costume. They just needed to get her into questioning first.

"Look, I'm going to go check that corner between buildings over there, alright?" Eric said. "Sometimes she leaves a calling card."

He slowly wandered over, the beam of his flashlight illuminating the dust in the musty air. The only reason they'd been able to ID half of the places she'd hit in the first place was because she'd left a marking behind to claim them. When he entered the even narrower alley, he carefully ran the beam of his flashlight, looking for the symbol she'd left before. Sure enough, looking at the narrow space between buildings he saw what he was looking for. A crude circle, scraped into the wall with a couple of lines scratched through it. But this time there was something else below it, two letters etching out a simple message.

". . .Hi?" Eric read out, confused.

"Hi to you too." Called out a voice from behind him.

He whirled around. There blocking the path where he came in was the costumed figure, leaning against the building as casually as possible.

"You know, I see you around these parts a lot." She said. "Just another poor soul who thinks he can actually do something in the department. Admittedly you're more grounded than the rest, but. . ." She paused for a moment. "You could do better than this. Not that you'd believe m-"

Eric tackled the woman to the ground mid-monologue, causing her to yelp in surprise.

"You're under arrest. You do know that, right?" Eric said, grabbing his handcuffs.

She muttered something muffled under her breath. As he reached to fasten the cuffs to her, one of her arms suddenly yanked free, ripping them out of his hands and tossing them too far away to reach without letting her go. She attempted to toss him off, but his body weight kept her pinned to the ground long enough to hold her back down.

"Alright, I get it, maybe you're not in much of a talking mood." She said. "But you don't really have any options."

"What are you talking about? All I have to do is call over my partner."

"Him? If he were coming he would have been here already, we weren't quiet I tied him down before I went over here. He's not doing anything. Not that you'd want his help if you knew what he's really done. He's a small fish in a big dirty sea of corruption, but his fins are just as dirty as the rest of them."

"Look, even assuming you aren't pulling my chain, and you almost certainly are, what is even the point of telling me all of this?" Eric asked.

"There's still hope for you, to be honest. If I asked you to join me that'd just sound ominous, but the least I can do is ask you this: Open your eyes. Wake up. You're one of the few rays of light in this dark city, one of the few hopes of it shining across it once again. Once you realize that, maybe there will be just a little more hope to this place."

"Right. . .and I'm getting this from a person who looks like they're about ready to go Trick or Treating?"

"Hey, the outfit's a pretty good strategy. I'm no Batman, I can own up to that, but it gets people to lower their guard. Now. . .what are you planning on doing exactly? You can't pin me down forever, sooner or later you have to let go. You can't get up, I'll break free. So. . ."

Eric thought for a moment in silence. The shadow of twilight hung over the hidden corner of the city like a blanket, the echo of cars being the dominant sound of the evening. As much as he hated to admit it, she was right. He would have had backup by now with the noise they'd made. But there was one thing he could do. . .

He reached his hand forward. Instantly she tossed him off, but before he fell away he managed to latch on to her mask. If she was going to get away, the least he could do was get a good look at her face. Have something to judge her identity off of. As she pulled herself up, the force managed to pull him up with her.

"Easy there. This is one rabbit hole you might not want to go down, Neo." She said.

"Really now?" Eric said. "You really think there's something under there I don't want to see?"

Eric yanked the cheap Halloween mask off of her head as quickly as he could. Still clutching weakly at her with one hand, he reached to pull up his flashlight and shine it at her with the other, hoping to get a better look in the darkness. And looking into the face of the most mysterious vigilante the city had known, he saw. . .

". . .What."

Her eyes. What was wrong with her eyes.

He wanted to say this was another layer to the costume, but when he shone the light on them they narrowed like cat eyes. The vibrant green almost shimmered as she struggled to look directly at him through the light.

She smirked, a set of fangs faintly gleaming out from her mouth.

"There's a lot of things you don't understand." She said, eyes suddenly shifting to a deep, highly unnatural red. In a mere instant like this he could hardly tell, but it almost seemed as though her body language had completely changed. "But what can I say? Welcome to Wonderland."

She suddenly latched onto him, gripping him like an emotionless bear hug. He could feel himself beginning to lift off the ground. . .