[center][i][b]Maddy Fen Ming
Pacific Point International Airport
One Month Later[/b][/i][/center]
[hr]

Maddy Fen Ming's move to Pacific Point had been eventful to say the least. Actually eventful may have been a poor choice of words. Moving to a new city thanks to your prodigious scientific achievements was eventful. At this point, Maddy's life was just plain weird, and if getting caught in a biker gang shootout and taking a bullet to the ribcage hadn't convinced her that her life was weird, her newfound ability to grow and shrink certainly had.

Superpowers didn't make things any easier of course, considering she made this discovery at the same time that a violent anti-superhero terrorist group started destroying cities from orbit. Aleks and Terra had been super supportive and helpful of course, but despite her first stint as a superhero going well enough, Maddy still felt so wound up she would have spun right into the ground.

Her lab at the Silver River Institute being connected to the aforementioned terrorists, ultimately, was both the final straw and the perfect excuse to get away. Her and nearly everyone she knew there, including Aleks and Terra, loudly quit in protest, and Maddy used the following month of unemployment to de-stress, hang out with her friends, catch up on some shows and her own art commissions, and of course spending a week or two in Hong Kong to reorient and spend some time with her family. The end result was that a different girl stepped off the plane in Pacific Point International Airport then the one that boarded a few weeks earlier, standing a little taller, looking a little healthier, and feeling like she had rekindled that spark of optimism she carried into Pacific Point when she first arrived here.

In short, Maddy felt good. And at this point the only thing she had to worry about was losing her luggage again.

[color=DarkGreen]"...I swear if its been diverted to Lost Haven again I'm going to flip,"[/color] Maddy grumbled into her phone, tapping her foot impatiently.

"The ability of airports to lose luggage is legendary," Lee Ming said on the other end of the call. "Your mother still hasn't forgiven EVA Air for sending her suits to the Middle East. What does she like to say again? 'It takes a special brand of incompetence to mistake Afghanistan for Taiwan'."

[color=DarkGreen]"Yeah that definitely sounds like mum,"[/color] Maddy laughed, pushing her glasses back up her nose and spotting a familiar polka-dotted suitcase. [color=DarkGreen]"Oh good, they didn't lose it after all. I'm amazed."[/color]

"Astounded even."

[color=DarkGreen]"Mmm, quite,"[/color] Maddy said seriously before breaking out into laughter along with her dad before yanking the suitcase off of the belt. [color=DarkGreen]"Alright, I better get going, my ride should be here by now. Give my best to mum and Ian."[/color]

"Will do. Good to see you again, sweetheart. Keep it touch!"

[color=DarkGreen]"I will, dad. [i]Zài jiàn![/i]"[/color]

"[i]Zài jiàn![/i]"

Stowing her phone in her pocket again, Maddy extended the handle on her bag and rolled past the security checkpoint into the lobby. The crowd waiting at this point was a proper crowd, with quite a few people holding signs for returning family members or off-duty soldiers coming home. With a mixture of amusement and annoyance, Maddy easily spotted a familiar face holding up a similar sign: "CLOD".

[color=DarkGreen]"I thought you were joking about that,"[/color] Maddy said as Terra Vespa grinned mischievously at her. [color=DarkGreen]"Thanks for telling the entire airport I'm a clod."[/color]

"Well, you came over didn't you?" Terra argued, still grinning as she held open the door for her. 

Maddy blinked before shrugging her shoulders. [color=DarkGreen]"Got me there. Don't think that gets you out of owing me a Jumbo Burger though."[/color]

"I was thinking I'd get you a regular one and you can go tiny instead," Terra said in a quiet, conspiratorial tone.

[color=DarkGreen]"You're hilarious,"[/color] Maddy said, rolling her eyes as she stashed her suitcase in the trunk of the car.

"I try," Terra said, piling into the car with her friend. "Speaking of which, I think I found a place where we could work now that Silver River kicked the can, if you're interested. You remember that SPARK thing they announced a while ago?"