[hr][h1][color=fff200]Alice Barrett[/color][/h1][hr]
[i][u]Springtown[/u][/i]


“Stay down you piece of shit.”

The man’s chest slammed into the asphalt as Alice materialised on his back. She pulled his hands behind his back and zip tied them with a practised movement. He struggled futilely for a moment, complaining.

“You’re hurting me!”

Alice stood up, “yeah? And you weren’t going to hurt that couple?”

“They’re metas! Freaks!”

Alice grimaced, “probably could have picked up that I’m one of those freaks you don’t like.”

Another voice interrupted, “Agent! Sorry… you’re… faster than us…”

The cops weren’t particularly out of breath, they didn’t look like they’d really been running all that hard. If she’d still been in NYC she would have thought that it was simply because they knew she’d run him down easily. Here though, they didn’t look too happy that she’d caught up with the man who had gone after the mother with the furry child.

She read the perp his rights, then handed him over to the officers, after first making sure she knew his name and address so she could check up that he was processed correctly later. Things had been tense since the mall last week, since the market. Alice couldn’t entirely blame people. It was hard enough just be normal without having to worry about those people that weren’t, those people that could bend space or freeze a person solid with a thought. It terrified Alice, and she could do it herself.

In most situations it should have just been cops taking the man down, not a RAVEN agent. There was too much anti-metahuman sentiment on the streets however, and RAVEN was working flat-out to deal with the aftermath of last week’s events. She could only imagine how busy DOVE must be, dozens of people had spontaneously manifested abilities, and then subsequently lost control. Several of them were no killers, through no fault of their own, but Alice pitied them all the same.

It meant that they were now hated, and RAVEN was hated for not preventing it. She’d heard from DOVEs that more than a dozen metahumans had complained about losing their jobs since the riot in Greencrest. People were doing stupid things, she looked back in disgust at the man being shepherded into the squad car. For a moment she’d wanted to smash his face into the asphalt, but it would only have confirmed his view.

The world was becoming a darker, dirtier place by the minute; she only prayed that she could escape it still clean.


[hr][h1][color=92278f]Ellen Nile[/color][/h1][hr]
[i][u]Academy 61[/u][/i]


Ellen enjoyed school about as much as the next kid, although the next kid had his head on the desk beside her and she was pretty sure he was asleep. That was beyond her, once a week she could sleep, no more, and no less. It would sound like hell to anyone else, most people her age struggled just to get up in the morning, and an all-nighter would put them in an awful mood for the rest of the day. Not her, she was as bright and chipper after four all-nighters as anyone was after a full night of deep refreshing sleep. At least it meant she had escaped the caffeine addiction that seemed to be sweeping her class. Her altered brain chemistry meant that when she actually needed to sleep, no amount of drugs could keep her awake, or at least not caffeine.

She squinted at the board, it seemed unusually bright, and she toned down her perception a little, careful not to tone down the actual light in the room. Experimentation had absorbed most of her first day with her new ability, it frequently did with something like this. It wasn’t as easy as the physiology she’d had last week, that came with a whole parcel of instincts and movements sort of built in. This ability seemed a lot more complex than anything she’d had so far, and she knew she would never be able to understand all of it.

She’d screamed when she’d first opened her eyes, the enormous amount of input overwhelming sensory organs that might be evolved for it, but certainly weren’t prepared for it. She’d locked herself in her room for hours and painstakingly tuned out each frequency until she worked out which one was the normal one.

She hadn’t taken the drug.

It was concealed now at the bottom of a draw, wrapped in a jumper, away from prying eyes. Not that the Academy was in the habit of searching her rooms, but she felt like she shouldn’t discuss it. She didn’t know who the strange ceramic creature had been, and now thought of him as her mysterious benefactor, enjoying that thought a little. She needed to talk to someone about it though, and was pretty sure that he would not be the best candidate.

She pulled her phone out as she stepped out of class, pulling up a contact and heading towards a more private area so she could talk without someone else accidentally listening in. 

“Hi mom.”

“Hey honey, what’s up?”

Ellen tried to call her mom at least once or twice a week anyway, and had in fact called her yesterday. She could hardly be called clingy, and she didn’t really get homesick, just Academy sick, so another call so soon was out of character.

“Can you talk?”

“Sure, I’m on my break, you ok?”

Her mom sounded concerned, though not exactly worried, she knew Ellen could mostly look after herself. Even so, she was a mother, and a child doing something out of character would always be a cause for concern for a mother.

Ellen paused, already unsure of how to continue, [i]hey mom, some random stranger gave me a drug to control my power, I thought I might take it[/i].

“Do you think… maybe one day they might fix me?”

“Oh honey,” Her sigh on the other end of the line was faint, but audible, “you don’t need fixing, you’re amazing just as you are.”

“Thanks mom, but really… do you think it’ll ever become easier?”

“I don’t know hon, maybe, you know they’re always discovering new things, but you don’t need it. You know I love you no matter what right?”

“I know mom.”

The bell for next period began to ring.

“I gotta go.”

“Ok honey, I love you, I’ll talk to you later ok?”

“Sure, love you.”

“Love you too.”

Ellen hung up and began walking to her next lesson, though she kept her head down, composing an email.

[indent][pre]>_To: CindyGKeagan@Gmail.com
Hi agent Keagan, I think I need to have another meeting with you. Can I book something with you some time this week?

Ellen
[/pre][/indent]

She doubted that Agent Keagan would have any answers, but the vial freaked her out. She’d been tempted to take it straight away after she woke up, the light pouring into her eyes and leaving her barely able to move for the pain in her head. She’d put it back, but it kept creeping in, lurking at the back of her mind. It could be a chance to avoid situations like that, to avoid looking like a freak. She was afraid of that too. You’d have to be stupid not to notice what was going on in Baybridge. People hated metahumans, and looking different was a sure sign of that. She didn’t want to become an easy target for people like that. Worse still, she didn’t know what RAVEN or DOVE were doing about it, whatever it was didn’t seem to be enough.