A large THUMP could be heard followed by the quick shuffling footsteps of someone trying to get out of view in a hurry, slamming the door rather unsubtly as they made their way out. Carla stepped back over to see who is was but had just missed them, she peered at her desk which shed only left a short while ago and was greeted by the new sight of a stack-load of papers with a hastily scrawled post-it note on top; Please type up amendments before the end of the day, cheers toots.
An annoyed frown spread over her face. It was always like this, shed get up for five minutes to get herself a cup of tea and would come back to double the work that shed left behind, she could swear that the people in this office just did it for the look on her face when she got back. As the only secretary to a small company in Steel Canyon she knew a lot of her work would be hectic and thankless, but she never expected a new job in a place like this. Skyswood Ltd rented the 15th floor in one of the smaller buildings in the area and was a lot different to her old job, for one her older office wasnt surrounded by windows where the sun could mock you suffering underneath a pile of deadlines, staples, and those huge bulldog clips her colleagues once chased her around the office with on her first day initiation.
Carla Jones, an uninteresting bookworm with a life ranging from average to mind-numbingly boring. Never got out much, never got that much attention, never had anything to do lately.
Hey hunnie, dont wanna catch a scowl like dat on you. You gonna have some private words with Marty?
Correction. She was an uninteresting bookworm with a skirt.
Give it up Eddie. She told him off and sat back down at her desk, making herself smile instead of battering him with Martys paperwork Shouldnt you be out at a client or something?
Of course he shouldnt, Skyswood dealt with small legal claims which rarely involved dropping by peoples houses but that never stopped her colleagues from ducking out and using the excuse.
Too busy lookin at that new do youve got there, quite suits you Carla. Long hair and glasses, you lookin pretty fresh. Eddie shot back, admiring her dark skin and long brown locks
Oh dear god dont start the relationship line again. she sighed in her head
How come you aint been picked up yet, huh?
I think I might take an early lunch. Carla ignored him and locked her computer
Heh heh, well if youre gonna play hard to get. He spoke, crossing his legs on his desk and striking a relaxed pose in his chair I aint gonna be here when youre gone, we gotta special case that needs a personal touch and I dont know how long I might be. Might meet you for a drink later though if youre workin another late one.
Thanks. She lied But I think I might take my work home with me in that case.
Putting on her uniform blue jacket she head off outside into the city with a wolf whistle from Eddie as she left the office, some people might have found that flattering but when you had to put up with an office full of Eddies for as long as Carla had you got tired of that act very quickly, especially considering that half the guys there had wives. Stepping into the lift she pressed the button for the ground floor and thought about how she could kill the next hour and still manage to get Martys papers done on time.
Stepping outside it was a glorious day in Steel Canyon and she found herself taking off her jacket again and wrapping it around her arm, feeling slightly down at the fact that shed have to spend a day like this cooped up in room until the late hours. Carla stuck mostly to the same path on her breaks, as even though it was a nice view this area was ridden with muggings and gun crime. Shed one time found herself at the other end of a rifle owned by a member of the notorious Skulz gang and ended up losing the entire contents of her handbag, typically the very next day the same thing happened to her only luckily a nearby Hero was able to intercept in time. She chuckled at the memory of the white-mask wearing criminal not having time to shoot and being greeting with a punch that sent him flying over the fence and onto the road below, it was a little bit overkill she thought and lucky for the gang member that there was no traffic nearby otherwise he probably wouldnt have made it to his jail cell, but at the same time he had threatened to kill her so the moment of sympathy didnt last very long.
Still, twice bitten. As the petit secretary made her way to her usual sandwich store she happened across a new building en route, looking at what it was she allowed herself a little jump of joy and ran inside.
A new bookshop, perfect! she thought
It had been a long time since shed read a good fantasy novel and her heart almost skipped a beat when she saw the huge assortment inside. She could have easily have spent the rest of her day in here looking at the blurb of the different kinds on show but the urgency of her work loomed over her so she limited herself to just one bookshelf. Scanning through the different spines of the set she sighed at the fact that shed actually read them all, as well as the other fact that shed read that many books in just over a year. No wonder people always called her a nerd at school.
Carla was determined, shed been working too hard and far too long to deprive herself of this opportunity and wasnt going to leave this place until she found a book that leapt out at her so she went over to the unmanned counter and waited for an assistant.
I wonder if they need a secretary here? she murmured out loud
Crossing her arms she waited a while longer but after fifteen minutes no one had turned up. She looked behind the counter to see if maybe a part-time worker was hiding from her but no one was about, however she spied a door that was slightly open behind one of the bookshelves near the till.
Hello? she called out
No answer. Carla looked at her watch, she had twenty minutes to buy a book, grab some lunch and head back into the office. That wasnt going to happen.
Hello? she said again
Still nothing. Had she not been so pressed for time she probably would have waited around more but unfortunately Marty had a nasty side to him when his deadlines were missed, Carla found the courage to lift up part of the counter and walk behind to the door. She knocked on it and called again but there was still no answer so she opened it, getting ready to take on the act of a confused costumer when the store owner would undoubtedly yell at her for walking on the forbidden turf of the employees, but inside she found just an empty break-out room. A television had been left on and there were a couple of sofas and a vending machine, but the people were nowhere to be seen. This felt like a plot of a murder mystery, Carla felt like she was going to find a dead body and then be arrested for doing it just like in that programme she saw earlier on in the week so quickly left and shut the door behind her. As she stepped back she kicked one of the books that had fallen from the top of the shelf in front of her onto the floor.
The scene was turning more and more like the show shed seen before but the book had such a strange marking on it Carla couldnt resist picking it up. It wasnt too thick, but it had a heavy black cover on it marked with lots of swirling silver patterns and a large 4-like symbol in the centre. It was entitled The Teachings of Grey. Carla was intrigued. She looked around quickly to see if there still no one about and quickly flicked through some pages as it had no description on the back giving an idea of its story.
Ahla, thiatus
Dremnahmorrd? This isnt Elvish
she read, trying to place the language until she turned to a page which was in English text Now that you have grasped the essence of the winds you may further yourself by delving deeper into that essence
Is this a magic book?
Walking and reading she went to the other side of the counter and stopped for a moment to examine the book further.
Thats one heck of an angry cloud. she thought as she looked at an illustration showing a dark cloud spewing bolts of lightning into an army of monsters
Excuse me. A voice piped up snapping Carla out of her trail of thought
Closing the book Carla saw an older woman standing in front of her tutting disapprovingly.
Were closed for lunch, how did you get in? she told her
I The front door. It wasnt locked or anything and I couldnt see a
She quickly glanced over to the double doors and saw a sign hanging up at eye level on one side of them, proudly displaying Come in, were open! back at her, which meant that she must have completely ignored the fact that it read Closed on the other side. She could feel her cheeks turning a rosy red colour as she was struck with embarrassment.
I am so sorry! I didnt realise, please. She apologised to the owner I was just looking for a fantasy novel and thought Id take a look.
Coming in here in our first week and stealing? Oh no madam I know your type, you are being reported! the woman made her way back to the counter which Carla had neglected to close
No! Im really sorry! Carla begged I just happened to pick this up off the floor, I didnt see the sign and the door was open already, its just a misunderstanding.
She protested at the shopkeeper who ignored until she was at the other end of the counter. The woman paused before picking up the phone, her hand was grasped around the receiver and her gaze remained fixed at the number pad, Carla saw a quick flash of a smirk on her face.
Double. She uttered
Pardon?
Ill let you off the hook if you buy that book youre holding for $90.
Youve got to be kidding me! No! Carla yelled, infuriated that this shopkeeper was trying to make a profit out of her in this situation
Are you sure? Because from where Im standing it looks like you broke into my shop and went into the room that clearly states Employees only, and after you couldnt open the cashier decided to take a rather valuable book instead. The deceitful wench obviously read too many crime novels Carla thought, shed already had her story worked out Im this close to calling the cops.
Carla was stumped, outraged and completely caught out at the outgoingness of this seemingly harmless old woman. She took a look at the door behind the bookshelf again and saw the sign but it was on a tiny plaque, she really needed to get her glasses checked out. How could she have been so stupid?
Well? spoke the shopkeeper, getting Carla even more flustered and panicked
Fine. She replied, begrudgingly handing over her credit card before she had time to think
Thank you for your patronage. The old lady smiled as she ran Carlas card through the machine
Despicable old hag. Carla thought as she tapped in her pin and completed the transaction, maybe if this owner had been the victim of a murder mystery it wouldnt have been so bad after all
Grabbing her card and the book she stormed out of the shop and checked for the time, she had five minutes to get back in the office or else shed no doubt be reported to Marty. No wait, she had five minutes to get back, check that her card hadnt been cloned and then get yelled at by Marty. Cursing blindly in her head she rushed back in the office in her killer high heels. At least Eddie wouldnt be around to make this day even worse.
Last night had been a late one and Carla had put the last of Martys changes through at about half nine, the man didnt even turn up after dumping that workload on her and she was so tired when she got in shed fallen asleep on the sofa before her soup had finished microwaving. The alarm on her phone let out an annoying plinkety-plonkety tone that grew louder every second and she stirred in her T-shirt whacking the floor a couple of times before eventually hitting her mobile and shutting it up. At half six in the morning Carla Jones woke up in her apartment in Galaxy City, exhausted but alert, and screamed the entire block down when she realised it was Saturday.
Still annoyed about her incident at the bookshop and completely ravenous she wasnt in the best of moods. Her cheap soup had developed a horrible film and was quickly binned as she got herself some breakfast, she sat down at the table and started to read the book thatd been forced on her whilst she wolfed down her cereal.
Carla had read a fair number of fantasy books in her time, but never anything like this. In fact this book wasnt a fantasy one at all, just like she thought when she was in the shop these paragraphs she was reading were trying to teach her about how to use magic, namely how to control the weather. Carla paused for a moment whilst reading as she thought about how funny it would be if trying to study from this book actually paid off, before she wouldve just dismissed this sort of this with rooted scepticism but ever since moving to Paragon City shed learnt that just about anything could happen here. Finishing her cereal she sat back down on the sofa and went over the chapter on how to create lightning storms, figuring that it might come in handy one day if she could do with a power cut in the office. Half of her didnt think this would work as shed never tried any kind of witchcraft before, the other half was more preoccupied with how she could get back at that old lady that made her by the book in the first place, possibly giving her an electric handshake if she managed to pull it off.
A couple of hours passed as Carla got more and more engrossed in the words, trying the spells out every so often with no results and laughing at herself each time.
Gosh, if I only I could see myself doing this. She giggled
She readied herself to try and make a little cloud appear outside of her window but just as she was about to give it another go the phone rang and threw her concentration. Putting the book down on the coffee table she stretched across the sofa and picked up the receiver.
Hel
Carla, Marty here. Those papers I asked you to do, where are they? she was interrupted
No hi how are you?, no thanks for staying late yesterday, just straight to the point as usual, Carla sighed. Come to think about it how did he get this number? She only gave him her mobile number in case of emergency and was sure shed never given out her home details.
I left them on your desk last night. She told him
Are you sure?
Positive, I was the last one out yesterday and I locked up. She spoke, confused as to why he was asking her all this on a weekend morning
Right okay, well cheers for doin that darl. Marty was uncharacteristically appreciative Ill check them out when Im at the office, take care of yourself.
The phone made a monotonous tone as he hung on her. Carla wondered why hed even phoned if he hadnt been at the office yet, and why on the weekend? Didnt slave drivers need to take a break?
Carla took at look at the time and got dressed, it was far too nice a day to be stuck indoors so she thought about heading to the nice little stretch of green in Steel Canyon just by the entrance to Perez Park. She took the book with her, if she could actually figure out how to do any of the tricks in it then maybe she would be safe enough to enter the park itself if she was lucky.
I thought I might also pick up a pen. It's unfinished as yet but hopefully uploading it will be the little kick I need to type the last bits up. I hope you like it
This is the story of how my Defender, Strike Thunder, became the lovely little alt that she is.
Please excuse any typos and grammar mistakes, I try to proof-read my writing but I always seem to miss the most obvious ones