Chapter 2: Her Powers

I have powers... no... I must be crazy... hallucination is more likely than teleportation... People don't teleport... it is just one of those things that doesn't happen. It just doesn't... I don't need to think about this! I have classes to prepare for! A bright future full of glamour and travel and eating at the finest restaurants! … oh reality... where hath thou gone? Thou hast recently left me! ... Nagia plops on her bed and buries herself in blankets.

"Nagia! Breakfast!"

I didn't sleep! I didn't sleep a wink! And I have a test today... Wah! She turns over and buries her face…. Why? She begins to punch her pillow. "Why oh why oh why..."

Finally, she brings herself out of bed. As she does, she looks over at her dresser and sees a golden metalic oval with a pink heart. She picks it up and inspects it, also noticing her red wrists.

"Nagia!" her mom calls from downstairs, "Your pancakes are getting cold!"

"Coming!" she yells as she slips the gold piece in her pocket. She races to the bathroom and tightly wraps her arms in bandages before throwing on a baggy long-sleeved shirt over her clothes.

She frowns at her arms. They really didn't have to tie me up so rough... She sighs, knowing her arms are the evidence of the reality of the strange experience. She heads down the hall. If only she didn't teleport! Now I have no idea WHAT to tell the police... They will just think I'm a total nutcase... she knew! She knew I couldn't have them thinking I've gone mad... Ugh!

She descends the stairs, somehow comforted by the smell of her mom's slightly-burnt flapjacks.

After school, Nagia avoids the library, and drives to the park. The day was your average quiet fall day, too typical to be the day following a teleporting masked woman in a taxi.

Nagia sits on a bench and finds herself and a couple of children playing in their driveway across the street to be the only ones around. She leans back and lets her head hang over the top of the bench, staring at the stars and letting the sun bathe her face in hot light. She felt dead. Exhausted, beaten from the test, and mentally pooped from replaying yesterday evening. She'd tried a bazillion ways to convince herself that a taxi could not just disappear, but every time she began to believe it never happened, all she had to do was look at her wrists to believe in the whole situation once again.

On an ever shortening fuse, Nagia sits down on a swing and begins to pump her legs. Higher and higher she goes, imagining her day as if yesterday had never happened. Imagining that she wouldn't have been distracted at gym and cost her side the game. Imagining that she wouldn't have used the word, "teleportacion" instead of "transportacion" in Spanish and saved her a mound of embarrassment. She would have eaten her lunch and thereby wouldn't feel so blah right now...

She wanted to tell someone about the experience, but who? Who would believe she wasn't hallucinating once she tells them she was kidnapped by a masked woman at a public library? She felt trapped, and for the first time in her life, wished she had spent more time cultivating friendships and talking with her family than becoming valedictorian.

She gets off the swing and walks restlessly back to the bench. She stands in front of it, staring at her bookbag for only a moment before she gives her cheeks a good, hard slap. This is the life I have put so much energy to achieving, and I will not let it all go to waste! Powers or no powers. Masked woman or no masked woman.

Just as she reaches out to snatch the bag, she hears a loud thud. She spins around to see three big men surrounding a smaller guy wearing raggedy clothes and appearing homeless, who lay on the ground, clutching his side. Anger wells up in Nagia, but she grabs her bag, and hides behind the nearest tree, afraid she'll be seen and beaten too.

From there, she hears yelling, but can't make out the words. Nagia grabs her cellphone, dials 9-1-1, and reports the problem as she watches the man get beaten over and over.

The call ends just as she sees the man make a break for it. He's fast for someone who was just beaten, but he is quickly overtaken. He struggles against two of the men while the other looks around. His eyes set on a metal pipe.

No! Oh please... let me have powers! Let her be right! The biggest guy picks up the pipe and starts walking towards the group. Please! I want the power to help him!

Her pocket begins to glow. She pulls out the golden piece. Instinctively, she puts it over her heart and yells, "Mew Mew Strawberry! Me-ta-mo-ri-fo-sis!" In an instant, she feels her body strengthen, her eyesight sharpen, and her energy multiply. She watches the golden piece move in front of her and attach to her neck.

She dashes over to the beaten man. The three bullies look at her for a moment, then bust into laughter. She catches her reflection in the metal pipe.

Pink frilly dress! Long black tail! Cat ears! And my hair is pink! THIS is what she meant by "I have powers"! This isn't right! … This is not cool...

She looks down to see the injured man staring at her, not knowing how to take his "savior".

She looks over to two of the bullies who are laughing so hard they seem to be losing their balance. The one with the pipe walks over, unamused. He smacks them both, and stands in front of Nagia.

"Who the h- do you think you are?" He grabs her by the collar.

"Let me go." She says, mustering up fake dignity. Nagia, you are a superhero... you still count as a superhero... Why don't I ever just study at home?... "And leave this man alone!"

He pulls her closer, "You should stay out of business that has nothing to do with you."

"I don't like how you are treating him." Nagia responded, indignant. Now I've done it...Ctrl Z! "I will tell you one more time. Let. Him. Go."

"No." He pushes her to the side, and winds up his pipe. He motions to the other goons, "Hold her back. We'll have this pretty little p- pay his loan if he can't." He winds up his pipe. The homeless man cowers, covering his bruised side.

Nagia pushes the lackeys away as if they weighed nothing and stops the pipe with her left hand before it reaches him. She then punches the leader in the face with her right, sending him reeling back in shock. He shields his face, and his nose begins to bleed through his fingers. "You b-! Kill her!"

Nagia freezes for a second, shocked at her strength. She quickly snaps out of it as the men race toward her. She leaps up seamlessly, more confident in her abilities, and saults over them, giving them swift knockout kicks to the head before landing gracefully on her feet. For a moment, she stares at the leader to see if he will also attack. He stares back, still bleeding for a few seconds before Nagia moves to tend to the injured man. The man thanks her and asks her to help him up.

Just as she gets him to his feet, Nagia hears a click behind her. She turns around just in time to see a gun fly from the leader's hands next to her feet. He screams as he clutches his bleeding hand. Not far from the gun lay an arrow. Nagia looks around, but sees no one.

Just then, the police and ambulance arrive. The medics take him to a gurney, not without a few odd glances at her outfit, which Nagia tries unsuccessfully to ignore. Red as a beet, she quickly answers a few questions about what transpired, and excuses herself when questions about her identity come into play. She leaps off tree to tree pulling her book bag as the three men are taken by the police.

Yay! I saved a homeless dude! … but... in a pink frilly dress... cool points... 0... She continues racing for a few miles, more so from embarrassment than to throw the police off her trail. Finally, she stops in an alley. She leans against a brick wall, and sits on the ground to wallow in shame.

"Ha! You're the Mew Ichigo? Kinda weak to be our leader... but, brave. I'll give you that," said a voice around the corner.

"Are you the one who shot the arrow?" Nagia responds while slowly turning her head, to ashamed to care.

A Caucasian girl wearing a black jumpsuit with a blue scarf, belt, and ribbons, a giant bluebird's tail and hair in two buns, and the same golden piece around her neck comes into view, hand outstretched. "You can call me Minto."