AN: Yeah, a preview for another of the stories I'm planning on posting come summer break - I'M GOING CRAZY NOT HAVING ENOUGH TIME TO WRITE AS MUCH AS I WANT! So, here you all are! I see the first part starting about four months from when the series starts, for the timeline. And before anyone complains about Bloom being OC at first...she's a civilian at the moment. With no knowledge of her magic. Don't be too harsh, as some of the characters in the show would absolutely freak a regular person out. Especially in Bloom's circumstances. Anyway, enjoy! Please review! PS. Have a title for the story, but I'd welcome any suggestions. P.P.S. If anyone could point me in the direction of some useable cover images, I'd be extremely grateful - I can't draw to save my life, so making my own is out of the question.
Bloom sits down for dinner, and Mike asks "So, how was school?"
"You know, the usual. My painting for art class is almost done, the teacher says she's going to enter it in the annual contest under my name again."
Vanessa gives her a one-armed hug, and says "Sweetie, that's great! Anything else?"
"Aced a quiz in English. Pass the fruit, please. Got some homework for math done already. And we're doing something cool in Science tomorrow - teacher's words, not mine."
Mike raises an eyebrow, and asks "No explanation?"
"Nope. Which, knowing him, means it'll be cool. This one time, he breathed in helium and said 'peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers' in this insanely high voice, it was so funny!"
They all start laughing, and Bloom's just about to eat a strawberry off her fork when suddenly she gets a very bad feeling. Right before the door gets blown in - literally blown in, right off its hinges.
A bunch of men in black uniforms she doesn't recognize storm in, along with one guy wearing a hockey mask saying "We've located the target. Secure it, at once!" They drop a few grenade-looking objects to the ground, and they spray out a gas that makes Bloom start coughing and nearly choking on the overpowering smell - and that's the last thing she knows, as when she's trying to get by her father she gets hit on the base of her skull with something hard.
When Bloom wakes up, her head hurts and she feels the ground moving under her - where is she?
She sits up with a groan, then her eyes snap open when she hears a very unfamiliar voice say "Holy shit! She's awake!"
"Tranq her! Knock her out! Just get her unconscious again!"
The next thing she knows, she's being clubbed over the head once more - exactly where she was hit the first time, to make matters all the worse.
When she next comes to, she can hear the sounds of some utterly bizarre chanting starting up - when she sits up and opens her eyes, she's met with the scariest sight of her entire life.
Five total strangers, all dressed like they're going to the freakiest costume party ever, are standing around her with serious expressions. And then, the one with the horns on his head grabs her wrist - considering the memories that come rushing back to her, she does the only thing she can think of. She starts screaming her lungs out - and she's got a good set in her, she's been told.
Because, not only is she freaking out - it's possible she's in the middle of a mental breakdown and these people are actually a bunch of doctors and she's just hallucinating from whatever they have her on - this guy's very touch hurts. Not just the fact that he's got a good grip and nails that are way too long, she swears it's like in Harry Potter 1 in the dungeon under Hogwarts - Voldemort couldn't touch Harry, thanks to Lily's protection. Bloom imagines this feels similar - or, possibly, how Harry felt at the end of book four when Voldemort could touch him.
She feels her chest start burning from the inside - somehow, it doesn't hurt - so, she lets the feeling loose. Forces it out, actually. That's the last thing she knows before blacking out.
When she next wakes up, she feels…oddly light. Like gravity isn't really weighing her down anymore.
When she looks around, she gets the scare of her life - and, considering the last few things she can remember, that's saying quite a lot. Herself. She literally sees herself - she's not looking in a mirror, this is the most literal out-of-body experience she's ever heard of.
Her body is floating a good foot off the table she was lying on, surrounded by a massive…glowing…dragon! It's big, its see-through, and it's circling her body nonstop.
She's just about to reach out towards herself - her body, this is going to take a lot of getting used to - when suddenly the door opens. A man with brown hair says "Project FM is in here, Psimon. We've been, as of yet, unable to break through the shield or awaken her - it's entirely possible she has to be the one to drop it."
A new voice - soft, accented, and oh-so-creepy says "I take it this is where I come in, Desmond?"
"Indeed. She's still comatose, so you shouldn't have any trouble getting in or dealing with any resistance."
Bloom sees this…Simon walk in, and immediately runs the opposite direction as fast as she can - he had no skull! She could see straight to his brain!
It's only about ten minutes later that she realizes she's running straight through walls.
Dubbilex watches as Psimon leaves, having been entirely unsuccessful in awakening the girl known as Bloom Peters - rather, Project FM, as Desmond insists on referring to the girl as - and heads back down to the lower levels of Cadmus. Only to pick up on a mental disturbance in the area.
When he gets to the right area, he finds there's apparently been a heat breach in the room the Superboy clone is being grown in.
Oh gods. Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods. I want to wake up for real, I want to go home, I want to see my parents again - I WANT TO STOP BEING A GHOST! CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?!
Dubbilex looks around to make sure nobody is watching, and activates his psychic powers. Bloom Peters?
Who are you? What are you? Where are we? You know I'm here? I want to go home!
Dubbilex has to make himself push away her utter terror, and mentally says Calm down. I will do all I can to help you, but it will take time to do so. Time in which you cannot be discovered.
Promise? You'll help me?
Yes, Bloom. But you must be patient. And you must stop generating all this heat, else you'll be discovered for sure.
Bloom takes to following Desmond around - he seems to be the one in charge, and he knows about her body. Says that whatever it is her powers can do, they're keeping her alive while she's apparently brain-dead but very much alive - of course her body isn't giving off any brain waves, her consciousness is currently at the other end of the room!
She is an unknown witness to several meetings between Desmond and seven screens he calls 'the Board of Directors' - all of whom give Bloom the creeps in a major way - and the third screen constantly gets updates about Cadmus' projects. A Project FM that she realizes refers to her, and a Project Kr. When she goes to investigate that one…it's a clone. Of Superman.
Oh. My. God. What the heck world have I been dragged into?!
She also learns about a Project Blockbuster, but she's got no idea what that does - it's a blue mixture of chemicals, but she hasn't found any tests on it or anything. She does, however, hear Desmond and screens three and six discussing what they could bond it with.
What feels like forever to her later, after she's discovered that she has to keep her metaphorical cool at all times or else things start going crazy, Dubbilex tells her to be ready as he's setting a plan in motion soon.
She sticks to following Desmond around, and then the alarm sounds - apparently, there's been a security breach. Something about a fire, Desmond hears. Bloom snickers, and says "I'm stuck as a ghost that nobody can hear, 'cept for Dubbilex and he only hears my thoughts, and your worried about a fire? You should be worried about just how much I know about all your plans. About the real Cadmus."
The guy in the mask, who doesn't seem that bad at all when he's not being controlled by his little shoulder-gnome, says "Sir, we've got the intruders captured. Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad."
Desmond goes pale, and Bloom's jaw all but goes through the floor. "The League's protégés?! They're here? Ohmygosh, that's incredible! Where are they?!"
It's all too easy to forget that nobody can hear her actual voice.
Desmond says "I must speak with the Board of Directors about this."
They tell him to…clone them?! She immediately follows him to where they're being held, and gets furious when he orders Superboy back to his pod - it's when he says Superboy isn't a 'real' boy that she loses her cool. And, this time, she doesn't care what happens!
AN: Yeah, it ends in the middle of the first episode. I'm going to have to wait on posting it and my HTTYD crossovers until Summer Break - unfortunately. This, however, didn't take too long to write.
Spoilers for this one-shot preview:
1. Bloom's in Cadmus, magic fully-active.
2. She knows about the Justice League and their Proteges, they're honestly on the news all the time in the series so it'd be hard not to know about them.
3. She's got absolutely no control over her magic.
4. She was kidnapped from her home, presumably to be controlled and used by the Light or her magic stolen.
5. That plan went really wrong. And they can't reverse what happened.
Any guesses as to who took her? Or who was standing around her when she woke up in Cadmus and freaked out completely? Two of them should be fairly easy, and the other four are associated with the second. ;)