When the bus arrived, Eva chose a seat in the back and pulled down the shade on the window. At least she would have be able to recuperate during the ride!

After all the other passengers had settled in, her shoulders slumped; it should be safe to relax for a little while. It wasn't likely that a DMA agent had boarded the bus just to look for the Gifted. She breathed a sigh of relief and decided to use this time to figure out where she would go after the hotel.

That was when a bearded man near the front stood up and pulled a gun out of his pocket. The sunglasses he wore partially obscured his face.

"Okay, here's what's going to happen. Driver, you just keep driving. Each of you passengers is going to give me every cent you have, without trying anything funny, then I'll collect all the day's bus fares, we'll drive to a location I have in mind, and I'll leave you all unharmed. If anyone makes a single move you're all dead."

 Eva froze, and the others around her seemed similarly stunned. The man approached the nearest passenger and demanded all of his money.

The truth was, Eva had a fairly lot of cash with her. She could replace it in a couple of days, but if she lost it all now, she wouldn't have anywhere to stay. That would leave her out on the streets at night with the DMA hunting for her kind. She couldn't let that happen.

Slowly, she pushed her backpack under the seat in front of her and crouched. In that small space, there was little light - it was dark enough for her to blend into the shadow. 

"What the hell are you doing back there?" called the man.

Eva bit back a curse. She hadn't expected the hijacker to be paying as close attention as he had been! As he hurried back to her hiding place, she knew she had only one choice. 

A hand of shadow darted out of her hiding place, slapping the gun free from the hijacker's hands as he drew near. The gun landed on Eva's seat as the hand dissipated due to the light streaming in through the other passenger's windows. Frantically, she grabbed for it. It felt heavy in her hands; she had never shot anyone before. That was about to change.

With a sudden bang, a bullet pierced the robber's chest and his body slumped over.

All eyes were upon her. 

"Damn it," she muttered, retrieving her backpack and running to the front of the bus. Everyone here knew what she was now. The DMA would be after her within minutes. She needed to put some distance between herself and all of the witnesses.

"Stop the bus, [i]now[/i]," she yelled, and the driver complied, a panicked expression on his face. Before the bus had even come to a full halt, even jumped out of it, gun stashed in her pockets, and darted into the first alleyway she could find as quickly as she could while the sun was on her. She needed a hiding place, somewhere dark. Hopefully, no one on the bus had noticed her blend into the shadows. If they had, and they told the DMA about her ability, she didn't want to think about how screwed she would be.