With Great Power…
"When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful."
-Malala Yousafzai
Prologue
You were born to do great things. Never forget that.
Dark wheels burned upon a dark road in the dead of a dark night. Headlights cut through the blackness a few feet ahead. No other vehicles existed on the road as if purely to let this one pass uncontended. The vehicle itself, a limousine, was like any other, nothing made it stand out from any others filtering through the streets, yet it still had the capacity to make heads turn and eyes stare. A limo's a limo, whichever way you look at it.
Three figures occupied the vehicle: the driver, a passenger, and their pet. The straight faced, suited man behind the steering wheel is not our focus here. He was paid to transport the client to whichever destination they demanded, nothing more. He never questioned it, nor did he have a reason to; he wasn't paid handsomely to do so.
In the backseat, the passenger gazed out as the horizon beyond the window blurred against the black, starlit sky. The hills and dips waved like the high tide, threatening to swallow them into the deep, dark abyss. The stars above glistened like a thousand eyes from heaven, gazing upon the world as it turned. Everything was silent, both inside and out. This was one of those rare moments where the passenger could think, without constant jabbering in the ear. The phones, all five of them, lay docked on a centre table, flanking a bucket filled with ice and a half-empty bottle of champagne. Silent, just the way the passenger liked it. Each cell phone was a different model, a different colour, and even contracted to different providers. The passenger could afford it, no problem — heck, the passenger could buy a hundred more if they wished.
You were born to do great things.
The figure reached down and stroked the dog that lay on the seat beside — the most adorable pet to ever exist, at least, in the passenger's eyes anyway. She snored peacefully in her specially designed seat, secured in place by the seatbelt. This was a pet that was not an accessory, but someone whom the owner adored. The heavenly white fur was untouched by the smear of makeup or the entanglement of jewellery; her beauty came naturally. All she needed was a regular wash, shampoo, and she was all set.
Back to the passenger, life could not be summed up in a single word. It could be anything and everything, and yet still be nothing. In the past, life for this one individual had been uneventful and monotonous. Now, life for this one was strenuous. Most of their time these days was spent sitting, whether it be in the backs of limousines, first-class on airplanes, dinner with the captain on cruise ships, or before straight edged suits-and-ties, possibly flocked by cameras, possibly not. It was actually more sitting than the previous life, which was within the confines of a six-by-six office cubicle.
This one could be considered a celebrity, but only in the loosest sense of the term. Sure, they had the money, the business, the resources, the connections, the pitch, and the achievements to be considered as such, but lacked the lifestyle employed by so many others. Gossip magazines dazzled their readers — the sheep thirsty for drivel — with photos of the rich and famous, boozing at three in the morning, sunbathing on the beaches of Barcelona; this one was never in them. However, more and more people were beginning to take notice to this one mysterious person, who rose up from seemingly nowhere, but carried wings forged from brilliance… and possibly a little luck. This celebrity succeeded where all others failed, the source of their accomplishment unknown.
You were born to do great things. Mommy and Daddy spewed those words like river rapids, and the passenger was once a stone's throw away from disregarding them as wishful thinking. Turned out, those words became true, just not in the way originally imagined.
Life had just been trip after trip after trip, visiting places across the world. One day, business discussions in Beijing; the next, lunch in Paris; followed by interviews in Sydney the day thereafter. Every place held something, but just like life, they also held nothing. Everywhere felt like a dead-end, a brief pause before time returned. It was like the passenger hoped and searched for one specific thing, but found it nowhere.
The passenger/celebrity/entrepreneur's dark eyes caught white letters from outside the window – illuminated by the headlights – as they passed by.
Welcome to Downtown City
Finely shaped fingernails slipped through the pages of a nearby file and opened it up, and the same dark eyes skimmed through a montage of images and paragraphs. What wonders awaited them in this particular city?
The Zoo: it had gorillas and tigers and lions and snakes and elephants and… this one needed no explanation.
Largest Ever Pet Shop. The picture that showed the store in its grand scale came accompanied by a photo of the owner: a white-haired, middle-aged man. In the same shot stood two girls, twins who looked like the human equivalent of the yin yang. Just by looking into their eyes, those glazed over, bored eyes, the passenger did not have high hopes for those two.
Terriers and Tiaras. Apparently, a competition for dogs was somehow bested by a hedgehog in a skirt. Let's not dwell on that.
The Pawza Hotel: a hotel for pets. Downtown City sure did cater well to their furry friends. There were both interior and exterior shots of the place, before and after the rejuvenation. It had been recently used as the venue for…
The Pet Fest: a charity event for endangered species, which took place only two weeks ago. It included stalls, activities, even live performances — one by the Soul Patches. There was a picture of the individual who started it being crowned the Special Ambassador to the Endangered Animals Fund. This individual, a teenage girl with brown hair and blue eyes, had ties to another pet store named Littlest Pet Shop.
But wait, there was more. Littlest Pet Shop, according to the records, teetered on the edge of closure around the exact time as that same girl moved into the apartment above. Apparently, it was her idea of pet fashion that stopped the shop from shutting its doors forever. She just happened to be the right person at the right place at the right time. The person in the limo was unable to break their pupils away from the collage, interest had bested them. The girl went on to almost start a nest hat craze, star in a commercial for Littlest Pet Shop, and even place first in the Pet Fashion Expo.
"Anyone who harbours such success with animals are either extremely lucky or are hiding something." The figure smiled an intrigued smile, tapping against the teen's left cheek. "Perhaps you were born to do great things too… Blythe."