Stone_Tiefling

After Ella left her, Tallia was at a loss for what to do. None of the food looked particularly appetizing, but she was fairly hungry, so she took a few crackers and some dip and sat back down near a wall far from the door, so she could watch people coming in. She paid close attention to the first few to enter, mostly girls, trying to remember their appearance and her initial thoughts on seeing them. She was usually pretty good about estimating people from the get-go. She watched and listened as various people held "icebreaker" conversations, introducing themselves and talking about why they had come to the clinic.

As more and more people entered the room, she started to get a little uncomfortable. She had not been exposed to very many strangers in her recent past, and while she could handle meeting one or two new people at a time, being bombarded by so many people at a time was starting to make her feel nervous. Even without them coming to talk to her, being around them all at once was almost more than she could take. She started to wish more and more that she could activate her stealth, to just dissappear and sneak out of the room. Surely no one would notice. She then considered just getting up and leaving. She could sneak up to her new room and maybe take a shower to help her relax.

Then an even more sinister thought entered her mind. Maybe she shouldn't be here at the clinic. Maybe she should just go back to her unit. Maybe they hadn't noticed that she was missing, and she could get right back in without any problems. Sure, that's what she would do, just go back, pretend that nothing had ever happened.

But something had happened. How could she have forgotten? Of course she couldn't go back. Even if nothing had happened, they would certainly want their tech back, and she had already surrendered all of it to Mr. Henry. That alone would be enough to get her killed. No, she couldn't go back. Ever.

Lost in her anxiety and thought, she didn't notice when someone had come up to her, she hardly noticed that the person was standing next to her, and if they said anything, she didn't hear them. When she finally snapped out of it, they were looking down at her expectantly.

[ QUOTE ]
Hello and welcome to this…er, um….meeting thing. This is Ella,” he said and motioned to the girl beside him. “My name’s Ian and I’m here to help out anyone that needs me.

[/ QUOTE ]

Tallia walked forward, toward the two. Oh? what do people need help with around here? She thought, but she appreciated the offer; It had been a long time since anyone had offered to help her do anything. When she reached the pair, she felt suddenly uncomfortable. Not only had she not been in any sort of social situation for over a year, but she had had basically no conatact with any male, except a few assassination and kidnapping targets. She had really forgotten how to deal with the sort of scenario that she now found herself in. She tried to hide her mental agitation as she held out her hand.

"I'm Tallia..." She said. She again decided not to divulge her last name, and though she tried not to let her voice trail off uncomfortably, she knew it had.

Ian took his hand off of his head and shook her hand.

"Hi" Ella said. Tallia looked at her, releasing Ian's hand and turning toward the girl. The look on her face, one of complete innocence, filled Tallia with a sense of endearment. Though she certainly didn't know the girl, she automatically liked her. Closer now, Tallia could tell that the girl was a little older than she'd thought at first, but the way she sat in the chair, and the way she was smiling, made her look a lot younger. The stark-white skin had thrown her off as well.

As she studied the girl and boy, a small blue creature came skating in the room, apparently not subject to such petty laws of physics as friction. The tiny thing glanced at Tallia, and without a word slid over to the table with the food, which Tallia then
noticed for the first time. She glanced over from where she was standing, and found that, for institutional food, it looked delicious. It had been a long time indeed since she had gotten to choose her own meal, when she wanted it and as much as she wanted. She'd been living on too-small rations for a very long time.

Tallia approached the closed front gates of the picturesque Warhawk clinic carefully. She was not used to spending so much time outside in the open, especially without the benefit of her tactical group. She constantly checked over her shoulder, making sure that she wasn't being followed, but she knew that if she was, she probably wouldn't know it until the blade struck. Her thermal goggles would probably let her see anyone cloaked nearby, but she had been caught unaware several times in the past, and though cloaked herself, her old "colleagues" had the same equipment.

She sat on the ground by a large rock about 100 feet away from the gate, facing away from it. She was mostly hidden from the clinic, and she could see out over the nearby hills and, farther away, the outskirts of Paragon City. She reactivated her thermal scanning goggles and waited, looking for any signs of being followed. She thought she might be being a little paranoid, but she knew better than most how certain mercenaries worked.

She waited for fifteen minutes and was about to get up when she saw two heat signatures walking toward her. She was momentarily afraid, but when she switched back to normal vision, she found it was just two teenagers, hand in hand, taking a walk in the park on a sunny afternoon. Once the two had followed the path out of her sight, she stood up and made her way to the gates. Taking a deep breath, she switched off her stealth suit.

She had of course hoped that her sudden appearance at the gate would go essentially unnoticed, but she couldn't risk becoming visible farther away. Unfortunately for her, the security detail at the gate did notice when she appeared from nowhere, and didn't seem to take kindly to such actions.

"Stop! Stay where you are!" Came a male voice. He could obviously see that she was very well armed. He probably didn't know exactly how well, however. "Show your Hero Registration!"

Tallia didn't have a hero registration, so instead of pretending to, she raised her hands above her head and said, "I don't have one, I'm more of a mercenary." She smiled to herself, but the small mask she wore hid that. "I've come to talk to Mr. Henry."

"Is he expecting you?" The man asked. The urgency and aggression was gone from his voice, but Tallia elected to keep her hands up. The faster she got within the perimeter, the safer she would be.

"Heh, I doubt it." She replied. "Can I come in? I think it would be easier to speak face-to-face."

"You can come in, but you'll have to surrender your weapons."

Tallia switched on her thermal goggles again and took one last look around, hoping against hope that the fact that she didn't see anything meant that there actually wasn't anything to see. Satisfied, she stepped through the now open gate.

When the gate had shut behind her, she found herself surrounded by three men, two of whom had firearms pointed at her. She suppressed a laugh, knowing that she could easily have taken all three down within seconds.

The man in the center, directly in front of her, looked her up and down. For a moment he just stood and looked her over, but finally, he must have noticed some small detail that gave her away, because his facial expression flickered from a steely neutral to afraid and back. He quickly pulled out his own weapon and levelled it at her head. At that moment, Tallia really wished that the stealth suit that she had been issued was not quite so identifiable as belonging to the Knives of Artemis sisterhood.

"Get on the ground, now!" The man yelled. She immediately complied, and waited patiently while the man stripped all of her weapons, or at least, all of the ones he could find. He also removed her tactical belts and all of the pouches that he could. He also took her thermal imaging goggles and her mask. Before she was allowed to stand, the man snapped a large, glowing bracelet onto her left wrist. Finally, when the man was satisfied that she was (mostly) harmless, she was dragged to her feet. Stripped of all her defenses, and unable to use her stealth suit or thermal goggles, she felt quite helpless, a feeling she'd not endured for a long, long time.

"Come with us, and don't try anything." The lead man grumbled. He nodded his head slightly, and the other two men holstered their weapons and stepped forward, each grasping one of her upper arms. The lead man turned and started walking across the grassy hills toward the largest and nearest building. Tallia followed, half walking, half dragged.

Tallia had to sit in a small, windowless room for several minutes, under guard, while she waited for the security chief to come and speak to her. She had assumed that getting in would be a little unpleasent, and so far, everything had been exactly as she had expected. After what seemed like an hour, the door finally opened and an athletic man stepped through dismissing the two guards with a wave of his hand. Once the door had closed, he sat in a chair accross the table from her and crossed his arms over his chest.

"My name is Jacob Roberts, the captain of security here at the clinic." He said. "Who are you, and what exactly are you doing here?"

"I'm Tallia." She said. She couldn't bring herself to give her last name. "And I've come to see Mr. Henry. I think that my life is probably in danger, and I'm seeking asylum." She tried to inject a sense of imminence into her voice.

The two went back and forth for a short while, Tallia explaining her situation, Captain Roberts explaining his. In the end, they came to a compromise. Captain Roberts stood and walked to the door, he motioned for Tallia to follow. As they walked past the two guards, who had been stationed right outside the door of her little room, she winked and smiled, beaming arrogance.

The pair did not have to walk far before they came to the office of the director. A brass and crimson plaque on the left side of the door read "Gregory Henry". Roberts knocked once, but they were apparently expected, because a voice from within immediately said, "Come on in, Jacob." The security captain opened the door and ushered Tallia into the large, comfortable office. When Tallia got a look at Mr. Henry, she got a strange feeling, another one she hadn't felt in good long time. She realized that, although she did not know the man at all, she already trusted him completely- it was like he radiated an aura of confidence and trust. Novel as it was, she found that she liked the feeling.

"Tallia, have a seat." Gregory said. "Captain Roberts here has explained the situation, and I think that we can come up with something that everyone will be happy with." He leaned forward, putting his elbows on his massive desk and resting his chin on his interlaced fingers. "Here are our conditions: First and foremost, I need you to turn over the rest of your weapons. I assure you they will be held safely for you."

Reluctantly, she unclipped the tiny, hidden crossbow from her right wrist and unfastened the small pouch of darts from near her elbow. She placed both items on the desk.

"And if you want us to remove the glowie, I'll need all of your power packs, too." He added. Without hesitating this time, she reached back and pulled a small clasp near the back of her neck, releasing the two small capacitors into her hand. She placed them next to her crossbow. "Thank you, Tallia." Gregory said. He took the items from his desk and set them on the floor to his right, she noticed that he also had her sword, her stun- and web grenades, the bags of caltrops and all of her shuriken. He also had her goggles.

"Now, while you are here, I expect you to act appropriately. I don't know much about you or your group myself, but I have read some reports about what you have been implicated in. I want you to know that if, at any time, Captain Roberts or myself feels that you are not here for the reasons you've given, you <b>will</b> be transported to Ziggursky. You will therefore be under surveillance until we are convinced. I believe in giving everyone a second chance, but in some cases, a person gets just one."

"Understood." Tallia replied. She kept her expression serious, but she was overjoyed at the chance to get away from her past. She didn't even feel regret over having practically neutered herself, giving up all of her weapons and all of her gadgets.

"Finally, you'll be required to take several "re-integration" classes, to help you get back into society successfully. As the need arises, you may also be required to take others as Captain Roberts or myself sees fit."

Tallia just nodded, happy to submit to any requirements either man may have. She saw it as a fair exchange for her freedom.

"Okay. In that case, here is a keycard for your room, located in the other building, fourth floor, lakeside. And your timing is great, because we are having a "meet and greet" for a lot of the new admissions. They are upstairs, just follow the signs." He stood up and offered his hand to Tallia. She also stood and took the offered hand gracefully. He reached forward with his other hand and unlocked the cuff from her wrist.

"Thank you, sir." She said. "I won't disappoint you." She turned and left the office, giving a curt nod to the security captain on her way out. After just a few minutes wandering the halls, feeling naked without her things, she found the right door, wide open. She stepped through the doorway and saw a large sign that said, "Welcome Heroes!" which she found highly ironic. Below the sign, in the middle of the room, were two people, a young boy with a stick and a ghost-white girl, looking at him. She figured they were probably 8 years younger than she, putting them at about 16, but it was awfully hard to tell with teenagers, and she had seen so few in the past few years. She watched them for a moment from the doorway, waiting for one of them to notice her.

Mallory was sitting through yet another boring lecture on EM fields in her midlevel physics class, daydreaming about her new fields. She already knew pretty much everything the instructor was saying, and had only written three lines of notes on the pad she'd brought. She'd long ago given up on bringing the little tape recorder to class, finding the lectures to be pretty useless.

After looking at her watch for the hundredth time since the class had started, the little beeper thing that Physiks had given her went off. Mallory had been in such a rush that morning that she'd forgotten to turn it on vibrate. The beeping was surprisingly loud.

The instructor stopped speaking and everyone in the large auditorium turned to look in her direction. She fumbled around in her bag until she found the beeper and saw the message.

To:MALLORYS
RE: LAB DAMAGE RPT FINAL

PLS XMIT TO CFEYNMAN VIA EML STAT, CC MAKAVELL,
LGWEN, AGT_ROSELYN, KPARKER. THX, U R DOING GRT! :-)

KPARKER

When she'd finished reading the message, Mallory looked back up and saw the hundreds of eyes focused on her and turned a violent shade of red.

"Sorry everyone... I uh... forgot I had it." She managed a meek smile as she stood up and walked out of the room. Once she'd gotten back out into the hallway, she pulled the beeper out again and typed a reply. She almost walked back into the classroom, but she decided that she would probably be okay if she skipped this lecture, and she DID just tell Ms. Parker that she'd get started on it now.

In the end, Mallory did decide to skip the rest of her lecture. She went and found a computer and, using the method Ms. Parker had shown her to open a secure shell into the Physiks servers. She quickly accessed the report she'd been looking over earlier that morning. She opened up her new email account and wrote a summary of what was on the report and sent it to all of the people Ms. Parker had listed. When that was finished, Mallory looked at her watch again and saw that it had only been about half an hour since she'd recieved the first message. It was also still an hour until lunch.

Mallory pulled out her beeper again and typed in a quick message to Ms. Parker.

To:KPARKER
RE: LUNCH
GTNG HNGRY. LNCH TGTHR? WHR? RDY N 1 HR.
MALLORYS

In the mean time, she had another class... or she could do homework...

Mallory awoke to a slight breeze. As she slowly regained consciousness, she could feel herself swaying slowly from side to side. It was very relaxing, and she was reluctant to open her eyes. She was very comfortable. When she did open her eyes, she was no longer comfortable.

The first thing she saw was Ms. Parker. That made her feel good. The second thing she saw was the bluish glow of the war walls behind Ms. Parker. The familiarity of them also made her feel good. The third thing she saw was the fact that she could see the top of the war walls, but not the bottom. This is when she realized that she was flying, or at least being flown. She nearly jumped out of her skin, and indeed out of Ms. Parker's arms at that realization.

"We're flying!" Mallory exclaimed, half in wonder, half in fear.

"Yes, we are. Just stay calm. We're almost home. Trust me, you're safe now." Ms. Parker replied.

Mallory, though still afraid, tried to relax. It was getting dark, the sun sinking behind some hills to the west. The Valor Bridge was sillhouetted in front of the orange glow at the horizon.

"Ms. Parker, could we stop by my apartment? I'd like to let Kate know that I'm okay. Also, there are some things there that I'd like to pick up." Mallory asked, scanning the skyline for her apartment building.

"Of course." Ms. Parker stopped moving forward and slowed to a hover. "Where do you live?"

Mallory couldn't see her building, which wasn't surprising since she wasn't completely sure where Physiks was in relation to her home, and she hadn't been awake to know where they'd flown so far. "I'm... not really sure. It's in the eastern part of Steel Canyon. Just two blocks from the statue in Blyde Square."

"Oh, okay." They started off in another direction. "That's not too far from where I live. Only a mile or so." Ms. Parker said after a moment of thought. "Should be right over here."

Several minutes later, they arrived at the massive apartment building. Ms. Parker offered to take her up to the fire escape window, but Mallory preferred to take the door. When Ms. Parker set her back on the ground in front of the door, Mallory was surprised to find out that her leg didn't hurt at all. She hadn't noticed it in the waning light, but the large bruise midway down her calf was going down too. Very quickly. It wasn't sore, either.

Mallory raced up the stairs to her room on the third floor. She didn't knock as she pulled the key from her pocket and let herself in. When she opened her door, she was surprised to see Kate sitting on the couch in a bathrobe, watching TV and eating a microwave dinner.

Kate looked up and said, "Hey, how was your day?" As though nothing were amiss.

"Um... it was... okay. First day at work, you know. What about you? Did you just get out of the shower?"

Kate's smile flickered for a moment. She'd hid her abilities from Mallory since day one. "Yeah. I went out earlier and got a little dirty. I decided to take a bath. You weren't here when I got out, so I figured I'd go ahead and eat something. If I'd have known you'd be back so soon, I'd have waited and we could have cooked together."

"Don't worry about it." Mallory replied. A moment later, she added, "Hey. I guess that I'm going to go stay at a friend's house tonight. I'll be in class tomorrow, so don't worry about that, but I've got a... project... that I'm going to work on."

Kate nodded. "Okay, but be careful. You know how this city gets after dark. In fact, do you want me to walk over there with you? It'd be no problem."

"No thanks. I've got a ride. Anyway, then you'd have to make the walk twice, and like you said, this is a dangerous city."

Kate seemed satisfied, so Mallory went into her room and started collecting the things she'd need. She got two sets of clothing, unsure of how long Ms. Parker would want her to stay. She also got all of her school books. As she was about to walk back into the living room, she decided to take her bow. She'd been a fan of archery since her Freshman P.E. class in high school. Now, she hoped that all that practice would come in handy if she got into trouble like she had today.

Kate stopped her on her way out the front door, asking about the bow. Mallory, never good at lying, made up a story about going to practice after classes the next day. Kate gave her a sidelong glance at the excuse, but didn't say anything about it.

When she got back out on the sidewalk, she found Ms. Parker talking to a guy. Mallory didn't catch any of the conversation, but as she watched, the man disappeared into thin air.

"What was that?" Mallory asked as she came to Ms. Parker.

"Oh, nothing. It was nobody." Kashaye decided not to tell Mallory that she had just been the target of a rather pathetic mugging attempt. Really, these guys should think about what they were doing.

"But he just... disappeared..." Mallory said, slightly skeptically.

"Um... yeah. I guess he can teleport." Kashaye replied slowly, with a shrug.

Mallory didn't like the answer, but decided not to push it farther.

"Oh, you have a bow?" Ms. Parker asked.

"Yeah, I figured I might need it, if people expect me to be a heroine."

"That great!" Ms. Parker replied. "Lady Gwen is quite good with the bow. I"ll bet she'll give you lessons or pointers... if you want, of course."

Mallory was getting pretty tired, and gave only a nod in reply.

"Well, are you ready?" Ms. Parker asked. Mallory nodded again, and Ms. Parker picked her up as before and they started their flight back to her apartment. Though still slightly scared, Mallory looked around at the scenery, having never seen it from above like this. It was just a few minutes before the two landed on Ms. Parker's balcony. The lights inside were off, but the sliding glass door was unlocked. When they went in, Ms. Parker turned on the lights and said, "Make yourself at home, dear. There are only two bedrooms, but we have a cot, or there's the couch. The bathroom is through here," Ms. Parker pointed down the hall, "and you are welcome to anything in the kitchen. I regret to say it, but there's not much in there right now. Gwen and I have been pretty busy lately, and we haven't done much shopping."

Mallory heard everything Ms. Parker said, but she was suddenly hit with a wave of exhaustion. The events of the day were really starting to weigh on her now, and she was barely able to make it to the bathroom to change and back to the couch before she fell asleep. She forgot to set an alarm clock or to let Ms. Parker know that she had classes tomorrow, or what time they were. She didn't even get a blanket. She just fell asleep where she lay.

The battle was over. Or at least, it was moving somewhere else. Mallory had watched from the rooftop, helping where she could and when she had the energy, but it wasn't long until she decided that she would be more useful somewhere else. Though her leg was still broken, Lady Gwenivere's healing magic had done wonders, and Mallory could almost put weight on the fracture. It would obviously still need to be set, but it didn't hurt too bad at the moment, and the swelling was starting to go down a little bit. She was also pretty sure that Heroes had access to better medical facilities than civilians, and she was pretty sure that after what had happened just today she met the requirements for being a Heroine.

Once she had gotten off of the roof of the building and was back on the now deserted street, she started working her way slowly back to the Physiks building. When she arrived, almost an hour later, Physiks was somewhat disorganized. There were fewer people there now, and almost no soldiers. It looked like the ones that were still there were the ones that had either been slightly wounded in the battle or had survived it but had missed the ride to wherever the battle went. Mallory was looking around for someone she recognized when Lady Gwenivere came up.

" Mallory! We're glad you got back. Are you okay?" Gwen was looking at her bluish-purple leg.

"I'm... okay. I guess... Is everyone else okay?" Mallory suddenly felt a wave of discomfort. That battle was pretty vicious.

"Yes, everyone made it back here fine. Right now, some people from Legion are talking to Ms. Feynman and Shay. Probably explaining what they were doing today." Gwen gave a slight smirk. "They've been in there for a little while now, I'm sure they'll be done soon."

"Okay. I'm just going to sit over here in this chair then." Mallory motioned toward one of the many chairs in the lobby. "Will you tell them I'm down here when they get done?"

"Sure." Gwen smiled and said something into a walkie-talkie device. She then said to Mallory, "Okay, they know you're down here. Until they get back, if you need anything, just let me know. I'll be right over there." Gwen smiled and pointed at the hastily set up security station near the door.

"Okay, thanks a lot." Mallory sat down and started thinking about what had happened. She was very excited about having powers, of course, but she was unsure if she'd be able to do what she did today ever again. She was TIRED. It wasn't long before she had drifted into a light sleep.

Mallory felt herself moving. Her eyes were still closed and she was still very asleep, but her brain sensed movement as the two heroines that had been assigned to protect her were carrying her to a safer spot. They carried her over to an elevator that had roof access and leaned her up against the wall facing away from the battle. It was much quieter there, and they could get up on top of the small structure to keep an eye over everything else that was happening.

"You watch her first. I'll go up there." Mallory heard vaguely.

"Fine... but if something happens, tell me, she'll be fine here and we could help." Electricity and static discharges started crackling around her fists as she thought about the upcoming battle. Mallory didn't see this, of course.

The first woman started to climb quickly and gingerly up to the top of the elevator housing.

Just two or three minutes later, a piercing scream was heard coming from the general direction of the battle. The heroine on watch jumped down without alerting the other and started running across the roof. Vivica heard the scream too, however, and dashed around the corner and sprinted to catch up with her sg-mate. Mallory was left alone for a moment, but she too had heard the scream and it had roused her out of her sleep.

It took a good 90 seconds of being awake before she was able to open her eyes. She tried to stand up, but her muscles wouldn't respond. She felt more tired than she ever had before, but her little rest had gone a long way toward restoring her. Even her leg didn't hurt as much as it had been.

After another few minutes sitting, Mallory was finally able to stand up. She couldn't put too much weight on her right leg, and she still felt pretty sore in the abdomen, but she was able to hobble along the rooftop toward the sounds of battle on the ground below and in the air ahead. When she finally arrived, she was horrified by the battle going on in front of her. It was somewhat difficult to tell the difference between the scattered Legion forces and the seemingly overwhelming Crey forces, but the Heroines were easy to pick out, darting from group to group, helping wherever they were needed.

As she watched, Crey seemed to be gaining the upper hand through sheer numbers. The Heroes, while rarely defeated, were starting to thin out here and there, and the scattered Legion forces, though they were awesome fighters, were getting overwhelmed. Mallory was torn... she wanted to help save the day, but she was terribly frightened of what could happen to her if she tried to get into it.

On the sidewalk so far below her, she saw three soldiers closing on what looked like a Hero, but was dressed entirely in blue and yellow, with a helmet in the same colors that completely covered his head. It looked like the soldiers, who Mallory thought to be Crey, were going to be able to take down the Hero. She suddenly felt anger growing at the soldiers. Wishing very much that she could do something to help the lone fighter, she looked down at the soldiers and willed them to stop fighting. As she watched, a thin blue haze formed around the group. ((Detention Field)) The soldiers, completely enveloped within the sphere, stopped fighting and just stared out at the Paragon Protect as it rested and jumped away to fight another group.

Mallory continued to watch the battle, too tired to do anything else. She was able to help out the occasional heroine with her defence, but other than that, she could only watch. As the battle started to swing slowly into Crey's favor, Mallory heard a distant rumble coming from the southeast, but was unable to place the sound.

Ms. Parker, dressed in her Soul Train outfit, came to a stop on top of the roof that Lady Gwenivere had deposited the group. She was rallying her SG. The noise, and hearing her voice again, stirred Mallory back into consciousness. The pain was still in her leg, which looked worse then ever, but her headache was gone and the pain in her abdomen was bearable.

When she'd finished rallying her friends, Soul Train walked over to Mallory and gave her a hug. After a few words, Soul Train stood back up.

Mallory was shocked by what Soul Train had just said to her. She... believed in her. Mallory had only known this woman for a few hours, and had made several mistakes right in front of her, but she had just said that she believed in her abilities. And this was coming from a hero! Mallory felt amazing! No one had ever had so much confidence in her. To have someone care that much and trust her so fully raised her own confidence higher than it'd ever been.

In her head, the new emotion set off some more pulses in her head that Mallory would never understand. While fear or stress had caused the personal sheild to materialize, the deep trust that had been shown caused another effect. While Mallory was looking at Soul Train with so much admiration, a barely visible bluish sphere appeared around her. At first, Mallory was afraid that she'd done something to hurt Soul Train, or something otherwise detrimental. But Soul Train was excited.

"Look what you've done! I'm so proud of you!" And jumped away.

Hoping that what she'd done had been good, she started trying to replicate the effect on others. At first she was having trouble, but after the first two or three heroes, it became easier and more natural with each person.

Most jumped away before she could do anything, but Mallory was able to affect Soul Train, Lady Gwen, Ms. Feynman, Eddy, and several others. With the exertion she'd put on her body trying to protect so many people caused her to fall unconscious again... a much deeper sleep than several minutes ago.

(( Woo! Powers! ))

(( I sure HOPE we aren't done... I don't even have POWERS yet! ))

Cold...

Mallory slowly returned to consciousness. The first thing she felt was the chill in the lab. Then she felt the pain. She still couldn't hear very well, but she didn't really notice. As her vision cleared up and was once again made blurry by tears, she saw only two people standing up, both of whom were hurredly moving about, although Mallory couldn't tell what they were doing.

Her body, reacting to the pain of being nearly crushed, went into a minor siezure. This went on for a moment until one of the figures came over to her and did a short chant. Almost at once, most of the pain went away. Sore muscles and a few minor cuts and bruises quickly faded. Her stomach also stopped burning and she could breathe a little easier. The pain in the lower right area of her abdomen also lessed, but persisted. When the spell was over, she felt a stab of pain in her right leg.

Still sobbing softly, she slowly pulled herself up against a wall and sat up. She couldn't feel her right foot at all, and her leg was swelling and turning purple about 6 inches above her ankle. She was also developing a massive headache.

Still unable to hear and barely able to see, Mallory watched drousily as the two blurry figures moved slowly about the room. Near her, she could see two others who she recognized even through her dulled senses.

She tried to yell out, "Ms. Parker, are you okay?!" but her jaw wasn't working very well and she only managed to get through "Ms. Pa..." before pain forced her to stop. She tried to crawl forward to make sure everything was okay, but found that with her now useless right leg, she couldn't make any progress. Instead, she lay back down on the ground and succumbed to the powerful urge to sleep.

Inside the miraculously undamaged pouch hanging from the left side of her waist, a small green LED started flashing.

(( Wow... a lot can happen while you are at work... ))

Mallory was finally starting to get a hang of the twisting corridors of the Physiks lab building. Ms. Parker had finally given her a tour of the lab faciliites and had gone through, in detail, exactly what her responsibilities would be. Just an hour later, they had begun their tests. Mallory was fairly incompetent with a computer, but she did have basic skills, and she caught on to the commands and directions she was supposed to give the computer to make it do this or do that. Ms. Parker had even shown her what to do in the unlikely case of an emergency.

The first several tests had gone exacly according to plan. Mallory was to stand behind some special glass and instruct the computer to basically destroy a car. At first, she was terribly frightened by the prospect of crashing a car indoors, but after the first few runs, she was becoming more and more confident about herself and what she was doing. That was to change, however.

A woman and a boy, the same two she'd seen in the lobby earlier, came into the lab after one of the more spectacular runs. Ms. Parker introduced Ms. Feynman, who in turn introduced Eddy, a boy who had come to her trying to sell some inventions. Mallory thought that this kid looked familiar, but she couldn't quite place him, and quickly gave up trying.

After a demonstration of the new fields that Ms. Parker had been working on, Eddy said that he had some inventions that he wanted to show off. While he was putting on a set of armor that he had made, he caused a minor glitch in one of the sensitive apparatus that was crammed into the room. Immediately, safety protocalls went into effect and sealed the lab. There were alarms, but Ms. Parker was calm as she instructed Mallory to check for problems and to clear the error. At first, Mallory had forgotten what to do, but after only a second of thinking, she typed in the correct command. Unfortunately, the suit of armor that Eddy was wearing was now coated in the same field they'd been putting on the cars, and none of the usual methods could clear it. Mallory assumed that this probably had something to do with the fact that he had bumped into the generator and the field wasn't calibrated anymore.

Ms. Parker was working on a solution to the problem when several of Martel's soldiers busted into the lab, taking cover behind anything they could find and levelling their (frighteningly large) weapons at Eddy. Some jumped down behind the console Mallory was using and pulled her to the ground. One said, "Stay down, we'll handle that... thing." Mallory hardly understood his whisper through his heavy accent.

Mallory was practically shaking in fear now, more because of the sheer number of guns in the room now than anything else. She willed the protective effect that had saved her from the car and the robot to come back on, but try as she might, she couldn't get it to happen.

It was at that point that the man who had told her to stay down levelled his gun at the armored figure and took a test-shot. The bullet, deflected by the kinetic shield that was attached to the armor, ricocheted at an odd angle, and tore a large gash into one of the sensors mounted on a far wall. The sound of the shot, so close and personal, made Mallory jump to her feat and dive behind another piece of machinery. It was at this point that her shield DID come up.

After the first shot, more and more of the men tried the effectiveness of their own weapons. Soon enough, there was a firestorm of lead flying throughout the laboratory, causing sensitive machinery throughout to be literally ripped to shreds. Mallory was crouched up in a corner between the wall and a large piece of equipment, her hands to her ears, trying to block out some part of the tremendous sound echoing through the room. She was crying now, and every time a stray bullet came to a stop mere inches from her body, she let out another cry of fear and ducked a little bit lower. By the time the shooting had stopped, she could see through some sections of the equipment she had hoped would provide cover. Still afraid that more bullets would sail through the air, she did not get up, and continued crying silently. The ringing in her ears was so loud that she did not hear Ms. Parker screaming into the radio.

The machinery behind which Mallory was crouched had taken more bullets than most of the surrounding area. As such, its stability was severely weakened. Before Mallory had gotten up, it started to tilt backward very slowly, with a low creaking sound that was barely audible, even less so because of the ring still plaguing Mallory's ears. By the time she noticed that the large chuck of metal was falling toward her, it was far too late to jump out of the way. Her "shield" was still in place, however, and the debris came to rest directly above her head.

The gluons which composed Mallory's protective layer had undergone a lot of stress during the shooting. In all, 10 bullets had been stopped completely, and countless more had been deflected. Unfortunately, after such a stress test, the continued force of so much metal resting on the "surface" of the shield was enough to destroy the spherical structure, forcing the particles back out of this universe.

The metal, of course, collapsed.

(( This is just a lead in for another person who would like to join us. She'll take over after this post. ))

Agent Martel had just gotten back to the Physiks building. He was still more than a little angry about Ms. Parker running away like that, but he was cooling off. As he marched through the Lobby, one of his ranking officers strode up to him purposefully.

"Sir, we've checked out the apartment of Mallory Swanson." His voice faltered a moment. "And we've encountered some... resistance."

"What, Crey is there? Already?" Martel asked, almost incredulously. " How could they have gotten there before we did?"

"No sir, it isn't Crey. We couldn't figure out who it was at first, but it seems that Ms. Swanson's roomate, Katie Larson, may actually be powered. Or at least very well trained."

"Trained? What is she doing?" Martel asked, his voice rising.

"Well sir, it seems that she's had a few Martial Arts lessons. When the three men arrived at the apartment, they unlocked the door and went in. She was in her room reading, but as soon as she knew we were there, she came out kicking. She knocked two of them unconscious and the third barely got out of the room. The girl is also fairly strong. She was able to drag the dazed bodies of those men to the door. Now she's barricaded herself in the apartment and is holding the two men hostage."

"WHAT?" Martel yelled. "How the hell was she able to do that? Those men are trained in Martial Arts too!"

"Well sir, she snuck up on them, and she was very fast. That is why we think she may be powered. Honestly, the one man was lucky to get out. He tried to reason with the girl, but she refused and has called the police."

"Call off those policemen. The last thing we need is that interaction. Then get Mallory and tell her to call her roommate and tell her what is going on. I want that apartment swept and put under surveillance today." Martel was fuming.

The soldier hurried off to find Mallory and to complete his orders.

Several minutes of searching both the computer desk and the rest of the office led to Mallory finding a small piece of hardware and a booklet entitled "Energy Signature Log Pack." There was a picture of the device, which looked like a walkman, on the front cover. Since Ms. Parker had still not returned, she opened up the instruction manual and started reading.

Operation of the hardware was pretty simple. She only had to put it into a little pouch which hung from her belt. It automatically read her energy signature and stored what happened into a small memory module. Every few hours, she'd need to connect the device to a computer using the USB cable that was attached and save the contents of the module into a file on the computer. She could look at a graph of the readings from there, and even type in notes that explained what she was doing at various times. The manual was pretty clear, surprisingly easy to read for such a technical document.

By the time Mallory had finished reading the manual, Ms. Parker was still not back. She went back to the computer, which came on as she sat down, and started exploring some files that she had access to (which wasn't very many). She was surprised to find that the computer had solitaire. She wasn't very good at solitaire, but it passed the time.

Mallory entered the building and, not remembering when Ms. Parker's workstation was, took a seat in one of the chairs in the waiting area in the lobby. While she was sitting there, a young man, about her age, came into the lobby and starting talking to a woman on a cell phone. She hung up and listened to him, nodding occasionally. Mallory didn't even notice the man who approached her while she was watching this.

"Excuse me, but what is your business here? You walked in but didn't speak to the receptionist." The man was one of Martel's men, dressed in a combat uniform. He had a European accent, but Mallory couldn't place it exactly.

"Oh, sorry. I work here and I'm waiting for Ms. Parker." She showed him her ID. "Do you know where she is?"

"No, but I can find out." He pulled out his radio and turned away from Mallory. She didn't hear exactly what he said, but she did hear her name spoken. A minute later, he turned back toward her.

"Ms. Parker had to handle some things out on the street and will be back in a few minutes. She wants you to go up to her lab and start working on a 'telemetry log.' If you need directions, I can take you there. Also, I am to stay with you, and make sure you are kept safe."

Mallory stood up and allowed herself to be led through the hallways back to the workstation. She had no idea how to download a telemetry log, nor what a telemetry log was. Waiting in the office was better than in the lobby though. She felt so self-conscious with all of the military people walking around.

When they arrived a few minutes later, the man opened the door for her but stayed outside in the hallway. Mallory walked around to the desk and sat in the chair. When she did, the screensaver turned off and revealed a login screen. She typed her name, but was at a loss for the password. After a rew minutes, she noticed the little card reader sitting next to the keyboard. When she scanned her ID, a row of asterisks appeared in the password field and the computer started logging in. Now she was at the desktop, but didn't know where to go from there, so she leaned back in the chair and waited for Ms. Parker to return.

Mallory was stranded in a part of Steel Canyon that she had neven been in. The gangs, which seemed to be everywhere, looked much meaner and tougher than the ones that hung out around her appartment. She really wished that someone was still around. Even the patrons of the deli seemed to be looking at her. She started to sneak into the alley, just hoping she'd be able to outrun anything that came her way.

She remembered that Physiks was a block away, but she had been paying so much attention to the people that Martel was pointing out that she couldn't quite remember the way back. She wished she were as good at detection as he had been.

After several minutes wandering carefully through the alleys, she found a ladder which lead up to the top of one of the shorter buildings in the area. She started to climb it when she heard the telltale sound of helicopter rotors. At first this didn't register, but then she remembered the helicopters that had been flying around outside of Physiks. "I must be getting close," she thought to herself, "Maybe I'll be able to see the building or the helicopters from up top." When she reached the top and climbed off of the ladder, she found that her pants and shirt, practically the only ones that were nice enough to look for a job in, were terribly dirty. They were covered in dirt and oil, and Mallory figured that they'd probably never be clean again. Plus, they were all clingy with static.

"With static?" She thought to herself, how could they get that way from climbing up a ladder? Anyway, the helicopters were getting closer now, coming from behind her. She turned so she'd be able to figure out which way Physiks was. As loud as the sound of helicopters was, she still couldn't see them, and assumed they must be behind some building. She started walking around the rooftop, trying to catch a glimpse of the aircraft.

As she walked around the edge of the roof, the sound got even louder. Excited now, she sped up. Directly ahead of her, there was an air conditioning duct ahead, almost as high as her head. She figured she'd climb up it for a better view. On the other side of the duct was a nasty surprise for Mallory. Just as she cleared the edge, she noticed that the helicopter sound was not, in fact, from a helicopter... at least not a traditional one. She was not standing just two feet away from a small, flying robot which appeared to be wrenching metal from the duct and other things on the roof. Then the worst part... it turned its mechanical head and looked right into her eyes.

Mallory jumped down from the duct and sprinted across the rooftop. She could clearly hear the robot following her, which prompted her to add just that much more speed. Unfortunately, the end of the rooftop was just in front of her. She took a quick glance around and decided that she had only two options... stop, and hope the robot didn't actually want to attack her, or... she could jump off the rooftop and down to the ground. She felt that both options led to her getting hurt, but if she jumped and then couldn't run, the robot would still get her. It could fly, after all.

She practically dove to the ground, trying to stop in time to avoid the edge. As she did, she turned to look at how close her persuer was. As afraid as she had been before, now she was terrified. It was a mere 10 feet away, hovering. She didn't know how a robot could have such a malevolent look in it's eyes, but just looking at it was enough to make her want to cry.

For the third time that day, Mallory's emotions were enough to "pull the trigger" of whatever was in her mind. Just as before, molecules and atoms all around her suddenly found themselves torn apart. Energy was converted into mass, and there was a thin, spherical, invisible film of gluons surrounding her body. The robot held out its hand and a bolt of electricy arced across the narrow distance between the robot and Mallory. Mallory cringed, trying to prepare for a severe electrocution and probably some burns, but the energy discharged a couple of feet from her face.

When she finally opened her eyes, the robot was gone, apparently understanding that it couldn't hurt her. With that, it had just gone back to its other objectives. Mallory was again alone and afraid. She did not understand what had happened with the robot, but she had an inkling that it had something to do with the car and the plate. She felt so confused!

After sitting on the rooftop for another few minutes, she heard more helicopter-robots and again felt fear. She looked around, trying to locate the source, but was unable. As it got louder and louder, she got more and more scared. She moved back to the ladder, went down, and started running down the alley away from the 'robots' (She didn't know that they were the helicopters that Martel had sent). Eventually, she broke out into the street. Miraculously, the Physiks building was just a hundred feet away. She sprinted over there and walked through the door, flashing her new ID to the guards stationed there.

Mallory was still inside when the girl rammed into Ms. Parker, and at the first flash of powers going off, she decided to stay there. She didn't really see what happened outside through the frosted glass of the door, but there was some cursing, flashes of light, and then the blur that looked like Ms. Parker was surrounded by a strange aura of light. Then she jumped REALLY high. Mallory stepped outside try to keep up with where she went, but she dissappeared behind a building after her first leap. The soldiers around her quickly pulled out needles and injected themselves with the contents. Mallory watched in almost horror as nearly all of them collapsed to the ground, twitching. She started to move toward them, to try to help, but by the time she had asked, "Hey, are you guys okay?" They were already getting up. Martel sprinted off, very quickly, in the direction Ms. Parker had gone. The others went in different directions, to bring together whatever forces they needed. It seemed every single one of the soldiers that were charged with protecting Ms. Parker and Mallory had left...

Mallory sat back down, embarrassed, and considered Martel's question. She was still wary of he and his 'army,' but from the way everyone was talking, the people at Crey were more than a little bit worse. Anyway, Mallory had just witnessed Ms. Parker transfer some of her most private documents over to this man. Mallory had only known Ms. Parker for an hour or so, but already she trusted her and assumed that she would not do anything stupid enough to get either of them killed. So she decided to go ahead and trust Martel, just not as fully as Ms. Parker had. (She didn't want to think about being a "lab monkey").

"I uh... I live in an apartment with a girl I met at school. It's a couple of blocks... um... that way, I think." She pointed in the direction she thought was east. "I live with a girl named Katie Larson. We both go to PCU." Mallory paused, then made a realization. "Do you think... could these Crey people have done something to my apartment?" Again, she was starting to get a little frantic. "Should I s... st... stay away from there?"

"Relax, Mallory, you don't have to worry. We're going to take good care of you." Ms. Parker said. "I'm sure that Martel here is going to make sure you are okay." Mallory didn't see it, but Kashaye shot him a brief "You'd better..." look.

Mallory tensed up a little bit when Martel passed a real gun over the table to Ms. Parker. At this point, she was a little bit afraid. It seemed she'd just stepped right into the dangerous worlds of heroism and corporate rivalry... both at the same time. Then Martel looked at Mallory and spoke up.

"What about the girl? Is she vital? Does Crey want her as well?"

At this, Mallory felt a little bit indignant. They were talking about her, in front of her. But Ms. Parker replied before Mallory could say anything. It was a good thing, too. Mallory had just about lost it. Unfortunately, this is when her "powers" manifested themselves again. With her anger, she again forced atoms apart in a sphere, albeit this time it was not around her, but around her hand (her wrist was undamaged). After the gluons had generated, they reacted to the forces of the atoms in her arm and were forced away from them... The small ball pushed away from her at a pretty good speed, hitting Martel's nearly empty plate and pushing it off of the table. Mallory didn't notice any of this, of course, though she did see the plate move, seemingly on its own. This, of course upset her already fragile mindset and she jumped up out of the booth. "What was that!" She practically yelled. It didn't seem that either of the other two had noticed the plate, and just as she jumped up, Ms. Parker asked if Mallory had any family that had every worked for Crey.

She didn't know for sure of anyone, but then, she didn't know where her father had been working either. She knew he was a scientist, but not where. " I'm not really sure... mabye. My dad worked at some labs around here 20 years ago, when he was alive, but I don't know where. My mom doesn't like to talk about it. His name was Arthur Anderson... does that help?"

(( Jeesh... you guys are going back and forth pretty fast. Sorry I haven't jumped in for a while, been taking care of homework all day ))

Mallory didn't like this "Agent Martel" person, but since Ms. Parker seemed to, she figured it must be alright. Anyway, the exchange between the two of them had been pretty funny. The thing that worried Mallory most though was the number of people that seemed to be watching the three of them. She was happy that Martel could pick them out so easily, and that his troops seemed so well trained. On the other hand, she figured it probably wouldn't take too long for those Crey people to associate her with Ms. Parker and Physiks Tech.

The walk to the deli was uneventful, although when they arrived, Martel stepped in quickly and then came back out. He then opened the door for the two women. Mallory followed Ms. Parker in and they all sat at a table to one side. Ms. Parker offered to pay, (which was handy... Mallory didn't have any money) but Mallory decided to only get a little bowl of soup. She was still a little shaken up and didn't know how well her stomach would take something like a reuben on rye.

Near the end of the meal, Ms. Parker took out her PDA and started passing some very private information over. Pretty much everything in her life. Ms. Parker quite obviously trusted this man far beyond normal friendliness. Then she turned to Mallory and as if reading her mind, said, "No. Mallory. This is NOT what I would consider a normal day for a lab researcher, or a superheroine. But... very little has been normal since the lab accident bestowed me with super abilities. So if you have abilities as well... brace yourself. It's not all heroic poses."

(( I am going to post again immediately, but there have been several posts while I am writing this. I just want you guys to know I am here and keeping up with things))

Mallory had been standing against one wall of the lobby to the building as Ms. Parker had what seemed like an argument with a man in a combat uniform with a red beret. After showing the man something on a piece of paper she had printed out, Ms. Parker came back over to where Mallory was standing and asked, " Mallory... the first thing I need you to do for me is to pose for an ID picture. Do you have time to do this now, or should we work out a schedule for you? I understand that today has been a bit... hectic... but I can do it at my workstation, and it will take about two minutes."

Mallory was feeling a little uncomfortable due to the men running around everywhere, and she barely managed a shy nod in answer. She figured that with all of the soldiers around, constantly asking for identification, she'd be better off if she had an official ID that said she could be here. She shuddered at the thought of what these people would do to anyone the found with unauthorized access.

"Alright, lets go up to my office and we'll get you set up." Ms. Parker said. She started to walk down a hallway and Mallory hurried to keep up. The two ventured deeper into the building, taking a winding path that Mallory felt she'd never be able to remember. Throughout the walk, Ms. Parker was pointing out some of the things that they were passing and giving a general explanation of what exactly she did.

When they finally arrived, Mallory asked, "What are all of these military men doing here? No one seems to be happy to see them."

"They say that they are here to protect us and this building from whatever caused those explosions outside." Ms. Parker replied, "I was kind of surprised that Ms. Feynman allowed it, but... you know."

Mallory didn't really know, but she didn't like the situation. "Who is Ms. Feynman?" She continued.

"She's the boss. She runs Physiks Technologies. I think she's related to Richard Feynman, but I haven't asked." She looked down. "Here, I've got the camera set up. If you'll just stand against that wall, we'll get your picture and then we're almost done."

Mallory did as she was instructed and stood against the wall. Ms. Parker looked down at her screen and said, "Okay, one... two..." Mallory smiled, "three" There was a flash and a click. Ms. Parker turned her screen a little bit and said, "Here it is. Do you like it or do you want me to take another one?" Mallory looked at the picture and decided that it could be better.

"Can we take another one? And do you have a mirror I could use for a minute?"

"Sure, just a second." Ms. Parker looked through her drawers and found a small hand mirror, which she passed to Mallory. After a minute of fixing her hair and checking her teeth, Mallory said that she was ready for the picture. She moved back to where she'd been standing before, waited for the count, and smiled.

After a minute or two of work, Ms. Parker put on some gloves and produced a credit-card sized piece of plastic which had Mallory's picure on it, some numbers, and a magnetic strip. "When you touch this, it becomes yours," Ms. Parker began. "It reads your..." she paused. "Well, after you touch it, no one else can use it."

Mallory took it, and swiped it through a little electronic reader that Ms. Parker produced.

"Okay, you're ready. Now you can open rooms that you have access to and you should be able to get by the new armed guard." Mallory looked down at her new ID. Now, she was official.

Ms. Parker seemed like such a nice person. Mallory was starting to feel really bad about almost hitting her. When she had explained the situation and the options, Mallory realized that maybe this place was not so bad after all.

So she had a decision to make. She felt less skeptical now that she had been offered a way out, and at the mention of a job, she had started to get excited. Then when the number $500 came out, she had to struggle to keep her composure. Five hundred dollars per week was... $26,000 a year! She hadn't even made that much up to this point in her whole life! But that is what she'd be paid as a freelancer. Who knew what a full job could earn her! She glanced at both forms, and put the freelance contract to the side. After all, Ms. Parker had not been wrong when she'd said that this job would be a step up from fast food.

"I think that I'd like to take the assistant's job. But I'm a little worried. I have school to keep up with and stuff." She said as she started filling out the application, answering demographic questions. "And I'm still a little uncomfortable with these 'powers' you say I've got. Are you sure that what you want to do won't hurt or anything?"

Kashaye replied quickly and confidently. "No, it won't hurt at all. Like I said, I only want to monitor some things."

Mallory, who was already excited about the job offer (Working with scientists and heroes every day!) was, at this point, hooked. She quickly finished filling out all of the fields and handed the slip of paper back to Ms. Parker.

"And you say that you think that I might be a hero too?"
Mallory was practically overcome with excitement.

As the door opened, Mallory lost her nerve. She knew the whole time that she wouldn't be able to actually hit anyone, and telling herself constantly that she would do it wasn't enough to change that. As the door opened, she kind of froze. She was still holding the wheel when Ms. Parker walked through the newly opened door.

"Oh, Hello" She said as she walked through the door, back in her civillian clothing. Mallory quickly hid her "weapon" and tried not to let the redness show up in her cheeks. Judging by the things that Ms. Parker was carrying, Mallory had been mistaken.

"Um... Hi." She responded. She moved back to the chair, which was now sitting lopsided.

"Here, I thought you might be thirsty." Kashaye said as she put the water down on the desk. Next to it, she placed the granola. "And if you're hungry..."

Mallory took the water and drank a glass. Then she unwrapped a granola bar. She hadn't realized that she was hungry, but the food was delicious.

"Er... sorry about... you know, the whole castor thing. I just got... a little worried." Mallory said between bites. Then she realized that she still wasn't quite sure that she wasn't in danger or anything. Her facial expression changed from embarrassment to concern again and she asked, "What are you going to do to me?"

Mallory was just about in tears by the time she had arrived back at the door to Physiks. The woman who had introduced herself as Kashaye Parker had been speaking softly and reassuringly, but Mallory was still a little jumpy. She was pretty sure that whatever had happened with the car earlier, it hadn't been her fault, even though Ms. Parker said that she probably had powers. She reasoned that since she couldn't feel herself doing anything, how could she possibly have stopped a car?

Once inside, Mallory did as she was instructed and sat down in the small room, probably an office, that she had been shown by Ms. Parker. After asking if she needed anything, Kashaye excused herself, promising that she'd be back shortly. At first it had been nice to get off the street and away from the chaos that was happening outside on the sidewalk, but now, she'd been sitting alone in the room for several minutes, and she was starting to worry a little bit. The old saying, "Don't take a ride from a stranger" was starting to echo through her mind.

But a hero isn't a stranger, right?

But what if Ms. Parker wasn't actually a hero? Then again, why would anyone go to such elaborate measures just to catch her?

Lots of horrible images were starting to run through Mallory's head. Every time she tried to figure out how her situation was going to end, she always came up with the same conclusion... that she was probably in danger. She resolved to get out of the building safely, so for the second time in 10 minutes, she started to tense up again.

She took in her surroundings briefly. There was no window and one door. Nothing in the room that she could use to defend herself in case she ran into trouble. She stood up and looked at the chair, which had wheels so it could roll. After a minute or two of prying, she was able to pull one of the casters off of one of the legs. Clutching it in her left hand, ready to swing it at anyone who tried to keep her from leaving, shw started walking resolutely toward the door.

It was locked.

She briefly considered trying to ram it down with her shoulder, but she was pretty small, and the door looked like it was made of solid oak. She tried to think of something to do when she heard someone on the other side try to turn the handle. She jumped to the side of the door, ready to hit whoever came through it.

She heard the lock mechanism turn and the doorknob twisted.

(( Sorry for the delay, I didn't know that the forums were working again. I couldn't log in for the longest time. ))

Mallory was now afraid for her life. She had just begun running away from the car when she was rocked by an enormous explosion just yards behind her, the blast wave of air pushing her forward and almost causing her to lose her balance. She risked a glance backward, but the scene of destruction that met her eyes forced her to focus forward again and pour on every ounce of speed that she had.

When she got to the end of the block, she looked around briefly and turned left. When she could no longer see or hear the fireball behind her, she slowed down a little bit, but did not stop. She didn't plan on stopping until she was back home and in her bed. Then came a surprise.

There was a fairly bright flash, only 10 feet in front of her. She almost tripped over her own legs as she tried to stop soon enough to avoid hitting the woman who appeared at the core of the light, hovering a couple of feet off of the ground. When the aura had faded, and Mallory had come to a stop, in awe of what had appeared before her, the woman looked around and unceremoniously dropped to the ground. Mallory was speechless... so she just stared.

Soon enough, the woman stood up, extending a hand.
"Hi. You don't know me, but... my name's Kashaye Parker.. and ... I could really use your help with something."

Mallory had never been so close to a hero, much less expected one to ever take an interest in her. She was lost in admiration and failed to answer the statement or take the hand. It was then that she became aware of the uncomfortable silence that was building. Finally, she replied.

"Um... hi... I'm er... ah... Mal- Mallory." She finally stammered. She hated herself for stuttering in front of a Hero like that, but given the current sitution and what she had just been through, it was understandable. "Did you say... you need... my help?" When she said it, it sort of hit her that a real, live, actual hero had just asked her for help with something... probably something official!

Ms. Parker was looking rather expectantly at Mallory, and replied "Yes... will you come with me? It's only right over there." and pointed back the way they had come.

Mallory was a little skeptical that a hero could possibly benefit from anything she could do, but she decided to come along anyway. They walked slowly back to the building, mainly due to the fact that there were already helicopters and a few policemen at the scene of the explosion. Mallory had never seen helicopters like them, and they certainly didn't look like news helicopters, but people were rapelling down from them. There was a small crowd gathering in the street, and the more police sirens were audible in the distance.

A hundred feet from the building, Mallory finally got up the courage to ask the question that burned in her mind. She tried not to let fear or concern trace into her speech as she asked,
"So... what is it that you want me to do?"

Jim was very angry. His car, while by no means new, was still a nice car worth a lot of money. He had insurance, sure, but he definately not going to be paying for this. As soon as his car stopped moving and the airbag deflated, he saw the girl lying on the street in front of him. His first thought was "Oh, no! I've killed her!" But since his car was damaged, had practically bounced off her, and she was still in one piece, he quickly figured out that she must have powers. He was now determined to have that hero pay for the damage she'd caused. Practically in a rage, he tried to open his door, but it was jammed, so he started climbing out his side window, which had shattered away.

Mallory was only out for a few seconds. She opened her eyes and saw only a large, blue smear that was the sky. Her vision was quite blurry, but it cleared up when she wiped away the tears. She stood up slowly, testing her muscles to see if they still worked, but finding her rear to be a little sore. Then she noticed the car that had 'hit' her. Thoughts of heroism were farthest from her mind when she saw a very angry man climbing out of the mangled wreck. As she turned to walk away from the scene, hoping that no one had seen her, the front door to the lab opened, prompting her to take off as fast as she could run with her badly bruised muscles. She thought she heard someone chasing her, but most of her sensations were lost to the confusion raging through her brain.