Cleaners — Vladimir Duran

A Rising Knight: Vol2, Iss6
There are those who make the mess and those who clean it up. These are the people who clean up after Vlad. The ones who hide the ripples of his existence and pay the price for protecting the world. This is the price they pay for trying to find a bit of justice in all the dirt. Next time Cleaners.

Excerpt

Yup, a good month. Then June came and that was the end of it.
One of the satellites picked up the usual particle traces and Lex was called out of dinner to go with Francis and follow up. It was the first time he was called away from the family for work in a month. They told him to quit apologizing and just go. Once in a while wasn't a big deal.

When Francis and he got to the alley where the trace was detected, Lex could tell that this was not their usual kind of follow up. The alley was torn up. Cracks spider webbing the walls and pavement, smooth sided gashes everywhere and a shiny layer of dust covering the whole scene.

While Francis took samples and recorded particle radiation levels, Lex looked the scene over.. He'd never seen anything exactly like this. No bullet holes or blood splatter. Still, eyes used to crime scenes could follow the story.

From the directionality of the damage he guessed two combatants. The gases radiated outward from a central point. They were probably from whatever had finished things. The dust was probably trace of some sort. He wasn't sure what made him think that a fight had gone down. It didn't look like any fight scene he had ever worked, but it had a certain feel to it. Not the first time he'd walked in too late for the show.

Then the kid started getting excited and that was the end of Lex's easy days. A second exotic particle. The kid nearly creamed his pants when he confirmed it back at the lab.