[center][i]-The Morning After Hound Sattelite Attack-[/i][/center]
[hr]

Maddy's heart pounded in her chest as she ran through the alleyway. Shadows leapt out at her, faceless men with arms outstretched grabbed at her as she dodged left and right, turning down an endless maze of alleyways. A loud angry buzzing got closer and closer before Maddy realized it was the roar of a motorcycle engine ripping by. There was a loud bang as Maddy clutched her chest, falling through a glass barrel into a sea of green. She tried to pull herself free, but the liquid sucked her down. She tried to scream, and something gently pressed into her chest.

Maddy twitched slightly, still feeling like she was in a fog. She tried to open her eyes, only for the daylight to blind her. As her eyes adjusted and the world around her became coherent, something in front of her mewed softly. Opening her eyes fully, she looked back as Kaiser continued kneading her chest with his paws.

[color=DarkGreen]"H-hey buddy," [/color]she said softly, untangling an arm from her blankets to scratch the cat behind the ears. [color=DarkGreen]"Thanks for the wake up. Was having a bad dream..."[/color]

Taking a moment to look around as Kaiser purred softly, Maddy soon gleaned that she was back in her apartment again. Instead of being in her bedroom though, someone had set her up on the sofa with a warm blanket. She also realized with a start that the big TV she played her console games on was plugged into a laptop she didn't recognize and was playing Steven Universe at a low volume.

"Oh, hey. Glad to see you're up."

Maddy sat up with a start at the unfamiliar voice from behind her. It belonged to a woman around her age with shoulder length blonde hair and square glasses, currently in the process of tugging off a pair of oven mitts. Maybe it was because she just woke up, but Maddy couldn't help but feel she heard her somewhere before.

"Didn't mean to scare you," the woman apologized. "I don't suppose you remember me from last night, you were pretty...er...out of it."

The awkward avoidance in the woman's voice confused Maddy before the memory of what happened hit her like a brick wall. Maddy had indeed been out of it, so long as you read 'out of it' as 'reduced to a quivering blubbering wreck on the floor of a stranger's car'. Feeling her face burn red with embarrassment and humiliation, she quickly averted her eyes from the woman, trying to busy herself by scratching Kaiser behind the ears again. She barely noticed the woman vanishing into the kitchen and reappearing with a plate overflowing with muffins.

"Here, have some breakfast," the woman said sympathetically. "Banana bread muffins, I made them myself. Don't worry, I used my own ingredients," she added with a chuckle. Maddy's stomach growled angry as the admittedly delicious scent of the muffins hit her, and against her better judgement she reached out and grabbed one to munch on.

[color=DarkGreen]"This are quite tasty, actually."[/color]

"Thanks, uh, Madeline," the woman said, grabbing her own muffin and biting a chunk off.

[color=DarkGreen]"Maddy is fine, Maddy Fen Ming. You were Terra, right?"[/color]

"Terra Vespa," Terra stated. "I'm studying and working with Aleks, if you don't know."

[color=DarkGreen]"Where is he anyway? He's missing out on the muffins,"[/color] Maddy asked, looking around the room curiously.

"He was out getting news and some emergency supplies. We didn't want to leave you alone here, I hope you don't mind us spending the night."

[color=DarkGreen]"No no, it's fine. Thank you though."[/color]

"Sure thing."

Maddy and Terra made short work of the muffins and mostly spent the rest of the morning relaxing, watching shows on the laptop and occasionally chatting about video games and other minutia. Despite the Hound attacks and the humiliation of the previous night still weighing heavily on her mind, Maddy managed to move somewhat past the whole ugly mess, and was even starting to feel like the day was going to be pretty good considering the circumstances, up until-

"So...how long have you been able to change your size?"

Maddy felt her heart freeze solid and slam into her windpipe as Terra asked the innocent question.

"You were shrinking and growing in your sleep a little bit," Terra went on as Maddy wished with all her heart that she could just melt into the floorboards and stay there for a while. "I don't know if you told Aleks yet, so I covered for you, don't worry." 

[color=DarkGreen]"Worry!?!"[/color] Maddy blurted out. [color=DarkGreen]"I...who...you...AAAGH!"[/color]

Terra bit her lip uncomfortably as Maddy slipped off the couch and squeezed her face into a throw pillow, trying hard not to throw up the banana bread muffins she just enjoyed. The poor size-changed never felt more like a jenga tower in her life as her anxiety over her powers being discovered collapsed into the mire of her worry about the Hounds attack and humiliation from the mental breakdown, the end result being every bit of her wanting to run screaming out the door and jump in the nearest body of water.

"Sorry..." Terra said meekly. "I didn't know how to broach the subject and I was thinking...well, look." Maddy felt a hand gently tap her shoulder, and she glanced up to see...herself. The other Maddy gave a weak smile as the real Maddy stared in disbelief at her seemingly perfect doppelganger. 

[color=DarkGreen]"T-Terra? You're a-"[/color]

"A metahuman, yes," the other Maddy said in her voice. Closing her eyes in concentration, the other Maddy's hair and features shimmered, shifting in shape and color until Terra sat in front of Maddy again, replacing the glasses on her face as her features solidified and returned to normal. "You should see me do impressions sometime."

They both laughed at themselves in spite of the circumstances, Maddy's anxiety having been tempered somewhat by the surprise of seeing someone change their shape right in front of her.

"But yeah...sorry if I scared you at all. I just figured you'd want to know you were doing that, in case someone else saw you."

[color=DarkGreen]"I appreciate it, thank you,"[/color] Maddy said. [color=DarkGreen]"How long were you a...metahuman, out of curiosity? I only found out about mine recently."
[/color]

"I found out when my hair started changing color in high school," Terra said. "If you want, I can share with you some techniques I have to help me keep my form solid, might help you with your size thing."

[color=DarkGreen]
"That'd be great, actually,"[/color] Maddy said, getting somewhat unsteadily to her feet. [color=DarkGreen]"Don't want to accidentally pop out of my clothes in front of someone, that'd be pretty bad."[/color]

"Shame they don't have a fabric that grows with you like in the comics," Terra laughed before spotting a conspiratorial grin from Maddy. "No...you actually have a magic fabric like that?"

[color=DarkGreen]"Better yet, I [i]invented[/i] it."[/color]

"Get out!"

[hr]

"Hey guys, I'm back!" Aleks called out as he shouldered open the front door and stepped into Maddy's apartment with an armful of groceries and other supplies. "I think Bernie's price gouged me but I managed to get all the essential-"

Aleks yelped slightly as he tripped over a wire trailing across the floor. To his surprise, he found the culprit to belong to one of the hordes of gaming consoles now scattered haphazardly across the floor in front of the TV, each with a pair of controllers in a messy but vaguely organized arrangement as well as a small pile of game casings and cartridges. Aleks wondered what bomb had dropped in the room and where the girls had gone to before he spotted a hastily written note sitting prominently on the end table complete with several smiley faces and hearts doodled around the edges.

[i]Hey Aleks, going to get some lunch. See you in a bit!
-Ter and Mads[/i]