Chapter One

"A Busy Lunch Break"

Expressway Overpass, 10 miles outside of downtown Capitol City, left turn lane, approximately 11am…

Miles Thomas put his head down on the steering wheel of his semi-truck cab and groaned. While making a left turn after getting off of the expressway now below him, he'd somehow managed to miscalculate the turn so badly that his rig had become stuck. With impatient traffic close behind him while angry motorists passed by on the passenger side, he couldn't even maneuver the vehicle to get himself out of it.

An experienced CDL driver, he couldn't believe he'd made an error this egregious. Certainly, he was tired from driving all night and through this morning, but such was the life of a long distance truck driver and since he'd been doing it for years, he'd gotten used to it. But this had never happened to him before, so he wasn't sure what to do and had been debating calling the police for help.

Of course, he'd hesitated because that would certainly mean a citation and could endanger his job with the trucking company he worked for. Then again, someone had probably already alerted the authorities about his current predicament, because the honking horns had stopped suddenly a few moments ago, and he'd put his head down to wait for an officer to approach the vehicle.

That was when he heard someone knocking on his door. Startled, he lifted his head and moved to look out the window- he hadn't heard any sirens and he saw no police cruiser in his forward view. He was surprised to find only a teenage girl standing outside, waving up at him and indicating he should roll down his window. As he did so, she inexplicably rose up to eye level with him, folding her arms over her chest. She wore a costume of some sort- a nearly form-fitting white t-shirt emblazoned with a diamond-shaped crest centered on the chest with a yellow background overlaid with a red, roughly S-shaped symbol through it, a yellow utility belt holding up a denim skirt that stopped at a nearly suggestive two inches above her knees. On her feet were red boots that looked as if they'd been purchased at the local mall. Her blonde hair was shoulder length- a white cloth headband kept her locks from obscuring her vision- she had crystalline blue eyes, and flashed an easy smile. The red cape attached at her shoulders billowed out behind her in the wind along with her hair. She was very pretty, with soft features and wholesome good looks to go along with her clearly muscular but lithe frame.

"Hi," she said in a warm and friendly tone, her voice oozing self-confidence. "Do you need a hand?" She gestured toward the trailer. Miles frowned, uncertain of what the girl might be getting at. She couldn't have been more than sixteen years old- she was just a kid. What could she do? Behind her, he could see the stunned faces of commuters who'd exited their vehicles and still others taking pictures or recording video of the incident on their cell phones.

Miles had no idea how to respond to her, so he blurted the first thing that came to his mind.

"Shouldn't you be in school?" he asked. The girl laughed.

"I think," she replied, reaching out and giving his shoulder a playful squeeze, "that you have bigger problems right now than worrying about why I'm not at school."

She was right about that. "Well, what can you do?" he asked.

"I'll show you." She somehow dropped slowly to the ground and waited for him as he unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the truck. He was surprised to find her to be of average height- maybe five feet six inches without the boots- and he wondered again how in the world she'd managed to come face to face with him while he was in the truck. She wasn't tall enough to do it standing on the running board he used to get in and out.

She gestured for him to follow her as people continued watching, recording, and photographing them. The truck's trailer was wedged on the corner, and he was lucky he hadn't broken anything and sent pieces of concrete tumbling down to the busy freeway below to cause even more traffic havoc. The two cars closest to his rear had occupants- a man and two women, respectively- who'd come out of their vehicles to get a better look at the strangely costumed girl. For her part, the girl seemed either not to notice or not to care that everyone had taken such an interest in her. She put her hands on her hips and appeared to size up the situation when they stopped at the rear of the trailer.

Turning to the two women, she said, "Can you move your car, just a bit?" They exchanged a look, but one of the women got in, put the vehicle into reverse, and backed away. Then the girl did something impossible: she walked up to the trailer and picked it up. The action took little effort judging from her expression. She simply lifted it as a normal person might move a folding chair- as all of the onlookers gasped, pointed, and generally reacted with awe- moved a couple of steps over, and set it down.

She wiped her hands together as she came back over to a stunned Miles.

"That ought to take care of it," she said, satisfied.

"Thanks," he managed, still unable to believe what he'd just seen.

She seemed to notice everyone watching her for the first time and waved to them, smiling again. But her eyes quickly took on a faraway look and her expression flattened, almost as though she were listening intently to something. Then she snapped back to reality and smiled at him again.

"No problem," she said. "Enjoy the rest of your day, sir. And I promise I'm not missing any classes. We're on lunch break right now." She winked then rose straight up into the air, away from the scene, angling toward the city as she climbed higher into the sky at a quick pace while all of the watching commuters gasped in collective awe, once again, and a few of them even fainted. Miles still didn't believe it. As he made his way back to the cab of his truck, he shook his head, wondering what sort of drugs the kids were doing these days that could give them that kind of strength and the ability to defy gravity.

Crazy teenagers, he thought. What will they come up with next?

*

Stonebriar Research Facility exterior, on the outskirts of Capitol City, approximately 11:15am…

Captain Carl Edwards stood outside of the 300 section of the Stonebriar Research Facility, looking up at the roof and shaking his head. Thick black smoke and hot orange flames licked out of the windows on every floor.

This place is toast, he thought. He wondered what he would be able to do about the scientists and workers trapped on the roof, not to mention whoever might still be trapped in the building. Poor bastards. He just didn't have enough information or equipment.

Ralph Stantz came up to his side, looking up. "Do you want the bad news, first, boss?" he asked. "Or do you want the worse news?"

Carl sighed. "What's the bad news?"

"The truck that has the ladder we need was involved in a major accident on its way here," Ralph explained.

Carl turned to him. "What's the worse news?"

Ralph grimaced. "We're starting to lose water pressure, and if the fire keeps burning like this, there are chemicals in the building that are very dangerous when inhaled."

"What are you saying, Ralph?"

"We probably won't be able to put out the fire for another hour, at least. We can't help the people on the roof, if anyone's trapped inside they're done for, and when the chemicals in there get hot enough, the place will not only blow up, it will send all of that dangerous stuff out in a deadly cloud of smoke, and the wind will carry it right into the city."

Carl shook his head and turned back to the building. When he'd first started this job, the sight of all of those people up there- at least fifteen of them- would have broken his heart. They were all going to die. But he'd seen enough people die during his career that it didn't affect him that way anymore. Still, it was sad.

"What do you suggest, Ralph?" he asked.

"Pray," Ralph replied. "We need some kind of divine intervention."

"I don't know about divine intervention," a voice announced, "but maybe I can help."

They both turned when an awed gasp went through the gathered mass of news reporters in the periphery of the scene, and Carl looked up to see the strangest thing coming out of the sky- a teenaged girl, a red cape billowing out around her as she came down, facing him.

He stared at the girl, shocked. "Where did you come from?"

She gave him a wry smile. "That is a good question. But I think there are bigger problems to deal with right now than where I come from." She indicated the building. Carl gave her a quick once-over- she wore a homemade costume, and kept her hair out of her face with a white head band. He would have guessed her age to be sixteen or seventeen at most. He wondered what she was doing here.

"Get this kid out of here Ralph," he said, turning back to the building.

"Yes, sir," Ralph replied, reaching for the girl's arm. But she simply rose straight up into the air and hovered over them, out of his reach.

Now she had Carl's full attention. "Are you flying?" he asked, incredulous.

"Yes," she said. "Look, I'll get those people down from there. You just make sure you guys are ready to deal with smoke inhalation victims." She turned in the air and flew up to the roof.

Carl and Ralph exchanged a look. "What is she going to do?" Ralph asked. "Fly them down one at a time?"

"I don't know." Carl watched with interest. The girl landed on the roof and trotted over to one of the rectangular smokestacks reaching into the sky that dotted it. She then trotted over to the edge of the roof and looked at the ground. She turned back to the smokestack, and marched over to it. The panicked people on the roof stayed where they were- huddled, away from the flames and smoke, watching her, the same as everyone else who'd seen her descend from the sky.

The girl had put her hands on her hips and was staring at the smokestack when her eyes seemed to glow and the air in her sightline shimmered, something burning through the structure. It began to fall over when it had been completely severed. A collective gasp went through those gathered when the girl caught it, carried it over to the edge of the roof, and laid it down, creating a nearly perfect walkway for the people to evactuate.

She started waving the survivors over, yelling, "Come on! Let's go, let's go! Everybody, go down, take it one step at a time!" Only when the last one had made it to the ground safely did the girl step away from the edge of the roof and turn toward the fire. She put her hands on her hips again and took a deep breath, then simply blew the flames out. She disappeared in a flash and suddenly, on each floor- descending- flames began to go out in puffs of smoke, and within a half minute, all of the fire had been put out.

Carl and Ralph exchanged a look. "What the hell is going on?" Carl asked. "Who is this kid?"

Ralph shook his head. "Beats me." The girl emerged from the building completely unscathed, wiping her hands together as she strutted toward Carl and Ralph. They both just stared at her; neither knew what to say.

"Everybody made it out," she reported. "There were no bodies inside and all of the survivors who didn't make it out through the lower floor fire exits made it up on the roof." She looked back at the building. "It's a good thing I showed up when I did. Some of the chemicals I saw in there are pretty dangerous when inhaled, and if they'd exploded…" She shook her head and chuckled, "Well, I could have handled it, but it would have been a lot messier and you'd probably have some casualties on your hands. But I got here in time, so no worries."

"Thanks," Carl said, glancing at Ralph because he couldn't think of anything else to say.

She smiled. "You don't have to thank me, I'm happy to help out. We're all part of the same team as far as I'm concerned."

"What's your name?" Ralph blurted.

She raised an eyebrow when she looked at him. "Girl," she answered, and rose into the air. "Have a great day!" she added, waving at them before she rolled over up in the sky and headed away from the city at speed.

They waved back as she flew away.

Carl took off his hat. "I need a drink," he said, staring after her as she continued moving away from them, now just a dot high in the sky. "What do you think of that?"

Ralph shrugged, still looking after her. "If the city hires her, we're out of a job."