A/N: …*is hiding under table*

So. Um. It's been four months. That's a long time. Let me start by saying that I am not dead. Close, though. It's been a really crappy time at my house, and for reasons ranging from stress to almost constant familial disagreements to an exponential increase in the severity of my insomnia, I have not felt up to writing anything. However, that is only this last month. Before that, my previous outline fell through, none of my other ideas were working, and I could not work with any oneshot prompts to save my life. Now, thanks to the tireless efforts of the kind Bookworm Gal, I have a working outline. I am still working on it, and will either have something in the next few weeks, or second semester, after college applications are done. (Seriously, when you come to it, if you have not already, start those early. They suck.)

Anywho, I really really really wanted to keep writing, so instead, I decided to rewrite the monstrosity that is my first draft of And Then There Were Seven. (As I write this, I have not decided if I will name it something else or not, so if I do, that is what this is.) I had to reread that to do this. I cringed. I'm doing it so I never have to do that again, and so no one else will ever have to read that again. I don't think I'll delete the original, but just know that this is the main one now.

So, now for something actually relevant to the work. For those who have read the first one, know that I will probably change some things, add some things. You are safe not reading this if you don't want to, you won't miss anything that big; just some bigger details and things that, in retrospect, make no sense, will be changed. Otherwise, it will be the same story. If I finish my outline and start my next one before this one is finished, this one will get shelved for later, because, again, I do still have the other one that people can read. I figure you all reading this will want something new more than this, but this is what I've got. So, I hope you all enjoy and aren't too mad at me for my long-delayed return.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Loonatics Unleashed, and make no profit from this.

Zadavia had never expected to take on so many jobs while living on Earth; in fact, she had expected to hide somewhere on the planet where her brother couldn't find her and exist quietly, under the radar. However, despite her best efforts, she had still been found, and the meteor sent, and she could not, in good conscience, ignore the harm that her presence brought to an innocent planet. Physical harm, however, had not been the focus of the problem.

She had seen firsthand what kind of damage too much power could do when unregulated, the damage its misuse could do; therefore, she did her best to ensure that those who gained power from the resulting radiation would use it well. Some, naturally, were more inclined to use their new abilities for their own purposes. Others, though, listened to her, and trusted her enough to follow her lead in forming a team to defend the rest of their planet from the ill-effects of spontaneous bursts of power.

Only a small percentage of the local population had been affected; however, she knew that the effects of the meteor, while concentrated near its point of impact, would spread far and wide, though exponentially decrease in concentration with increased distance. Nevertheless, others would be affected, with varying degree of ability, in places much further away; some would immediately notice a difference, while others' abilities would remain latent until necessity sparked their activation. The decreasing effect would ensure that only a handful of the world's population outside of Acmetropolis would be affected, leaving less for her to seek out; the distance, on the other hand, meant that she had a lot of seeking to do. Seeing as she was needed in Acmetropolis, she used numerous other channels to keep watch for anyone of extraordinary ability, like the six Loonatics she had already assembled.

The meteor had hit more than two years ago, and Zadavia had yet to find anyone strong enough to be a potential ally, or threat. That's not to say she found no one who developed any special abilities; she had compiled a list of dozens of people throughout the world who now had some powers. Compared to the Loonatics, though, they were less comparable to potential weapons and more to highly skilled carnival acts. Every so often, she would receive word of someone who was a potential candidate for recruitment- or, at least, a good talk on the ethics of super powers- and every time, she would find that the individuals in question should not have been of much notice. Needless to say, her contacts had a habit of over exaggerating.

However, the email she had just received caught her attention. It was severely lacking in details compared to earlier reports, but the ones that were there warranted investigation. The contents of the email consisted of a first name, an ability, a location, and some base information; hearsay, no less. The information, though, was interesting…especially considering the questionable location…

Zadavia interlocked her fingers, drawing them up to tap at her lips thoughtfully, thinking of the correct way to approach this.

xoxoxoxox

The sun awakened her as it finally cleared the top of the neighboring building, streaming in and landing on her face. Growling in annoyance, she rolled over, burying her face into the old, worn couch cushions, but nature's alarm clock could only go ignored for so long. Eventually, she rolled over with a huff, twisting and sitting up so as to land on her feet, tiredly rubbing her eyes before running her fingers through her unevenly bobbed black hair. She couldn't really keep it any other way; she had to cut it herself, and cleaning was always an issue when you had no water. Or electricity. But she had her own means of getting the latter.

Once she felt awake enough, she stood up and crossed the room, grabbing her ratty, red messenger bag off of a side table and digging around inside of it. It contained all of her worldly possessions; half of a comb; a cheap, pink, plastic, compact mirror, which was both dirty and chipped; an old, worn photograph, better maintained than anything else in the sack; a Swiss army knife, which had yet to see any use (save from the previous owner she pickpocketed it from,) but it was still a good idea to carry it; and a small food stash, from which he removed a browning banana. Opening the bag more to peer inside around her meager belongings, she found that she had reached the bottom of her food supply. Rolling her eyes in annoyance, she pulled the bag over her shoulder, adding "Get Food" to her mental list of things to do today as she quickly ate. It was a short list, but there was nothing she hated more than doing errands; errands meant work.

Walking up to the far wall, she covered her eyes from the intruding sunlight, looking down at the ground four stories below. Her area, as one could easily guess, was a very poor one; contractors cutting corners were one of a laundry list of problems, and not very high up on said list, either. Until, of course, the buildings stood for over a decade; then they may have well have been a house of cards. Her "house" had made it onto the ever-growing Condemned list about two years before the meteor, when for no reason in particular, the apartment building's foundation snapped in half like a Kit-Kat bar. The residents were immediately pushed out, and a few days later, half the building came crashing down. The other half, however, showed no signs of deterioration; it was perfectly sound as a stable half-building. However, because of numerous laws, the city still declared it unlivable and condemned a week after the collapse. She had moved in two days later, picking out an apartment lacking a fourth wall purely for the view, and one where the previous residents had left too fast to take all of their furniture.

That had been a few years ago, and she still figured she had at least five years left of time there; that is, based on how quickly the city worked to do anything productive in that district and based on the remaining stability in the first half of the building. She probably wouldn't actually be able to stay in one place for that long…

But, these were thoughts for another day. For now, she had to decide how to get down.

She had three options. There were stairs, which were boring, but worked. There was enough rebar and piping sticking out of the broken wall for her to take a jungle-gym-esque way out, but that required a lot more effort than she was willing to give so early in the morning. This left option three.

Concentrating on herself for a moment, she let the usual sensation spread, feeling as though her limbs were "falling asleep" and spreading. Then, the floor fell out from beneath her, and she stopped it just in time to land neatly on the floor of the third-floor apartment below. Only, the ceiling was still intact; it was she who had done the falling, passing through the solid object as though it was air. Repeating the process twice more, she casually walked out the remnants of the fourth wall of the first floor, climbing over the rubble of the other half of the building before walking down the street into the dirty city.

A/N: So, I'm not going to even bother trying to predict when chapters are coming out anymore. Whoever said senior year was the easiest lied. It's just going to be out when it's out.

So, I've been gone for a long, long time, and I'm worried I've gotten rusty. Reviews would be much appreciated so I can get back on my game.