[h2] Little Tokyo, Lost Haven[/h2]

The police cruiser stopped a few dozen yards from Nicole, at the edge of the rubble that had been strewn over the street. The spotlight on the side had focused on the remains of the restaurant, but she was still washed over by the flashing blue and red from the light bar on the top. As the two officers of the peace exited the vehicle, guns drawn, another cruiser pulled up next to the first, and the angle it stopped at left her illuminated by the headlights. She briefly considered playing possum, but that had the chance of getting her in more trouble, so she opted instead for relaxing as much as she could in her little cage and waiting for someone to notice her. She kind of wished she cut bleed, enough to at least make her [i]look[/i] injured.

As more first responders began showing up, combing through the wreckage, they found the dead Chinese guy first, and there was a whole lot of activity suddenly. An interminably long time later (perhaps two minutes), one of the EMTs arriving on scene caught sight of her. The woman rushed over with a shout, and Nicole was now the centre of attention. The lady knelt down next to her head, staring at the bars for a second, though Nicky couldn't tell if she was analysing the situation for injuries or she was simply dumbfounded by the girl's situation. Either way, it passed quickly, and she turned to Nicky herself.

“Miss, can you hear me?” There was a bit of worry in the woman's voice, she thought, though it was mostly stoic professionalism. [i]Might appreciate that more if I was actually in dire need.[/i]

[color=azure]“Yeah, yeah, I can hear you fine.”[/color] [i]That[/i] got a facial response. She looked surprised.

“Miss, are you hurt? I can't see any blood. I'm going to check for a concussion, okay?”

[color=azure]“Whatever. I'm fine, just get me out of here.”[/color]

The woman looked taken aback, but recovered quickly. A flashlight was shone into Nicky's eyes, which she had to fight the urge to roll. As the light was pulled away, she saw a firefighter coming up with some sort of saw. [color=azure]“Oh, dude! Kick ass! Cut me out of this thing!”[/color]

Seven minutes later, two firefighters pulled the last bar away from her waist and she was free. They gripped her carefully to pull her up, but she shrugged them off and stood up herself. The medic, whose name she had learned was Tina as the lady had talked with her throughout the cutting process (or at least tried to. That thing was loud), had ceased looking surprised a few minutes ago. Now, what looked to be a detective was walking over, and Nicky was struck by how absolutely [i]clichéd[/i] the man looked. Long brown overcoat, fluttering in the breeze of these wee hours. Fedora. Pencil and pad held out as he talked to her. But this conversation was definitely not going to go the way he wanted.

“Okay, miss, can I get your name?” He looked at her as his pen touched the paper.

[color=azure]“Nope.”[/color] She crossed her arms.

“I'm sorry?”

Nicky snorted. [color=azure]“Yeah, probably. Look,”[/color] she gestured at the ruined building. [color=azure]“I was on the roof. There were some assholes speaking some crazy Asian language who came out of the building and then it blew up. End of statement.”[/color]

The detective stared hard at her. It made her itch. “You were on the roof.”

[color=azure]“Yup.”[/color]

“Can I ask what you were doing up there?”

Nicky sighed. [color=azure]“Scavenging for pigeon nests. What do you think?”[/color]

The man's voice went cold as he responded. “Miss, I think you had best drop the attitude and answer my questions truthfully.”

She glared at him. Her only temporary ally Tina had already walked away to the ambulance. [i]Alone again.[/i] [color=azure]“Look, man, I was trying to find a place to camp out the night, okay? I seriously do not know who those guys were.”[/color]

“Camping out? Are you homeless?”

[i]Ohhhhhh shit.[/i] [color=azure]“Uhhh. No? I like exploring and I was out too late to make it home before morning.”[/color] Nicole rubbed the back of her head and tried to meet the detective's eyes. She failed. And it was obvious from the way the man was scribbling away in his [i]stupid[/i] notebook that he hadn't bought it.

“Hmmm. Look, Miss, what's your name?” The man was almost [i]scowling[/i] now.

Nicky decided on brazen-ness and mock sighed, [color=azure]“Elizabeth Maxwell.”[/color]

[i]Did his eyes just narrow?[/i] “Alright, Miss Maxwell, until we can understand exactly what has transpired here tonight, I am afraid I am going to have to place you under arrest under suspicion of committing this act of terrorism.”

[color=azure]“WHAT!?”[/color]

[hr]

She stared out at the rubble strewn street from the back seat of the patrol car as the emergency crews kept at their work. It'd been nearly an hour since the bomb had gone off, and now Nicole's entire plan had been completely thrown into shambles. She had been [i]so careful[/i] about avoiding police and anyone else who might take her in and try to 'fix' her life. What no one was likely to understand was that her old life was [i]over[/i]. Everyone was dead, and now she would never join them, so she was left to try and stop evil like that from ever happening again, no matter the cost.

The earthquake, when it came, was so sudden that she had little time to even understand what was happening. One minute, she was idly twisting her wrists in the handcuffs, trying to figure out if she could pry them open or not, wondering at how uncomfortable the damn things were. The next minute the whole cruiser was shaking like a bouncy castle, and there was a horrible grinding noise coming from [i]everywhere[/i]. For a second, she thought she was being buried in rubble again, back to the Worst Day, and a scream bubbled forth unbidden from her throat.

It took her several minutes to realise that someone was shouting over her own continuing scream before she managed to stop. She had, in her terror, curled up on the back seat of the cruiser, hard plastic thing that it was, into the tightest ball she possibly could, arms still locked behind her by the cuffs. The words spoken to her started to finally filter through, and she recognised Tina the EMT's voice through the haze. “Hey! You're okay! It's over now! HEY!”

[color=azure]“Buhhh.”[/color] Nicky looked up. Concern was clearly all over the medic's face. [color=azure]“'m okay. Not hurt.”[/color]

Relief was evident. “Good. We're going to be [i]really[/i] busy now, but I've told the detective to go ahead and take you, okay? I put in my recommendation that you still need to get some x-rays, but he said you were fine and they'd do it later.” The lady reached into a pocket, pulling out a card and pen, scribbling something on it, and then put in in Nicky's front pocket on her vest. “If they refuse any sort of medical treatment, or you just need a friend, call me, okay? I don't know where your family is, but you've obviously been through something awful. If I can't come myself, I'll find someone else who can help.”

[i]What the hell?[/i] [color=azure]“Sure. Whatever.”[/color] Nicky sat up, stoic and stony-faced, and stared off through the front windscreen. Tina stared at her for a moment, sighed, and closed the door. Almost immediately after, the detective climbed into the car, and they were off in antagonistic silence.

[h2]LHPD Central Station[/h2]
[b]21:12[/b]

[i]I hate my life,[/i] Nicky thought to herself as she sat on the rough metal bench of the holding cell, back against the cold concrete bricks of the rear wall. She stared out through the bars into the nerve centre of the Lost Haven police department, currently in a panic as they tried to coordinate recovery efforts across the entire city. Apparently that hadn't just been a localised earthquake like she had thought. Uniforms were racing back and forth, and dispatchers were literally sweating. It looked like the entire force was here, though they [i]must[/i] have had other precincts. She idly wondered exactly what had happened, since even the walls here showed a few signs of damage, and the power flickered intermittently. 

She was brought out of her own mind by a rough shove on her shoulder and a growling voice that she hadn't heard, but had apparently been talking to her for a while. “Hey, you listening, bitch? I said that's [i]my[/i] spot!”

The holding cell was full of troublemakers, but this one, specifically, had eyed her from the moment she had been unceremoniously pushed through the cell door. The woman was huge, covered in tattoos and more than a bit homely. Scars on her face said she was probably a fighter, maybe a boxer. And she had apparently taken exception to Nicky's presence. Two smaller women who looked, if anything, [i]nastier[/i] than their boss stood behind her. The rest of the cell's population, perhaps a dozen or so, looked on with something like hunger, waiting for the beating to commence. Nicky sighed.

[color=azure]“I sat here. [i]Obviously[/i], it's [i]my[/i] spot.”[/color] She crossed her arms, staring up at the frankly mountainous woman. She might've been intimidated before she was cursed, but now it was almost funny. 

“What'd you say, bitch?” Nicky saw her fist bunch up. [i]Not a talker, then.[/i] She let herself fall as the swing came, letting the woman's fist slam into the wall instead of her face. Rotating on her hip, she lashed out with both feet as hard as she could and caught the woman in the thighs, shoving her back into her cohorts. One of whom pulled a knife from some hidden spot and rushed at her. Nicky was tempted to grab it, but decided to concentrate on the big one. She sat back up, gathered her feet under her, and launched herself at the fighter as she recovered her balance. She vaguely felt the pressure of the knife as it bit into her side, but she knew it didn't do anything and ignored it.

Within seconds she had ridden the woman back to the ground, knees on her chest, and was attempting, with gusto, to beat the back of her head through the concrete floor. She could hear cheers from the onlookers and shouts from the officers outside, but it all fell away as she lost herself, once again, in the fight. Several points of pressure impact hit her back, probably the knife again, but all of her focus was on taking down this bitch that had tried to punch her.

It took three officers to haul her off the woman as they poured into the cell. She grinned in grim satisfaction as she noted that her other two opponents were on the ground twitching, and the big one wasn't moving much except to try and cover her head from an opponent no longer attacking her. But her view was quickly cut off as she was dragged out of the holding area and brought into an interrogation room. The officers chained her new set of cuffs they placed on her to the table, and backed out warily, muttering to themselves. It took Nicole a minute to figure out why.

[i]Several[/i] wires were dangling from her clothes, like some sort of weird silly string. [i]Tasers[/i] she thought. [i]That's why those other two were twitching. Ha! Those don't work on me either, huh?[/i] Now she knew why the officers had been worried about her. She glared at the one-way window, more angry than before. [color=azure]“They started it!”[/color] she shouted, hauling at the cuffs uselessly. She might be tough, but she wasn't all that strong. [color=azure]“I was just defending myself!”[/color] There was no response.

[i]SHIT. Now they know I'm a meta, too. Sonofabitch. Think, Nicole! What the hell should you do?[/i] She rolled her eyes at herself. [i]Break out and run for it, obviously. Duh.[/i] They were probably contacting some sort of containment unit for freaks like her. [i]Oh shit, what if they think I'm a fuckin' villain!?[/i] She needed to handle this [i]now[/i]. And there was only one name she knew off the top of her head.

[color=azure]"Hey, HEY! SHITHEADS! I know you can hear me, motherfuckers! Get me Icon! I'm only gonna talk to a hero! You shits don't know your assholes from your fucking elbows!"[/color] She thrashed violently, managing only to tip over the chair she had been sat at, leaving her dangling from the cuffs and sprawled along the floor. The fighting spirit hadn't left her yet, and she was seeing red, now. How had life gotten this unfair? [color=azure]"ICON! I WANNA TALK TO THAT FUCKER!"[/color]