AN: Wow, three reviews already? Thanks for the good feedback everyone, glad to see you're enjoying this :D So here's the second chapter, still not my best writing but it's better than nothing. Don't forget to tell me what you thought of this :)


Chapter Two

Music blared in the background as Alice concentrated on her reflection. She was sitting in front of the mirror as she always did every morning. Not that it did her any good, but she enjoyed trying.

Her dark brown hair fell over her shoulders, leaving little chances of styling it. Besides, she didn't know much about styling to begin with. She pushed her dark, black rimmed glasses up to the bridge of her nose and sighed.

"This is as good as it gets," she muttered.

She looked around her room to see that Nikki had not returned from the day before. The sudden fear that her friend had been hurt returned. A knot had formed in her stomach that night, telling her that Nikki was indeed not returning.

I should have gone with her, Alice thought as she stood up. Maybe she wouldn't be lost in the city, or worse.

Alice closed her eyes and tried to breath deeply as she thought of the worse possible event that could have happened. So many things went wrong in the city. All she wanted to do was wash the bad things away so no one got hurt. But the reminder that it didn't always end like that kept haunting her.

"Would you turn that crap down?" Alice flinched when she heard Jenna shouting from across the hall. Jenna was a shorter girl, around four feet and nine inches at best. Her dirty blond hair made her an easy target to the nasty blond jokes that kept coming up around dinner and lunch. But she rarely let the jokes get to her.

"It's Casting Crowns, everyone should love them!" Dana shouted back.

Alice rolled her eyes and smirked as she creaked open her door. Sure enough she heard a song from their newest album blaring. Dana loved Christian Rock music, and hoped every night that someone would come to adopt her.

"I don't care if it's God Himself singing, turn that down!" Jenna nearly screamed the words when Dana turned up the volume.

By now Alice's head was pounding as she tried to calm herself down. She wasn't too fond of conflicts, even if they were just minor ones. She barely noticed the lights in her room flickering as she struggled to keep calm.

Dana and Jenna were arguing, shouting above the blasting music once again. This time Alice found no escape from the loud noise. Nikki was usually the one who comforted her. And no one downstairs seemed to hear them either.

The throbbing in her head seemed to last for minutes. Alice tried pacing around the room, even throwing pillows over her ears to block the noise. By the time she couldn't take it the lights were dimming, and even the music was beginning to fade. Alice blinked in surprise when she heard a loud curse from across the hall.

"What's going on with this thing?" Seconds later the sound of a fist banging on plastic echoed through the wood-floored hall.

"What the hell's going on?" Alice jumped to her feet when she heard Greg shouting from downstairs. "The power's out!"

"Did someone blow a circuit?" Jack, one of the few boys staying in the building, slowly opened his door.

"Something like that wouldn't have effected the whole building," Jenna muttered.

Lights, turn back on, Alice thought desperately as she began to calm down. As if her thoughts had summoned them, the lights suddenly turned on as quickly as they turned off.

Alice looked around warily as she saw what just happened.

How in the world did that happen? she wondered.

Her thoughts began to churn with anxiety as she walked down towards the kitchen. Thankfully all of the power in the building had been restored. Greg was in the living space watching TV, ignoring the music that blared above once more.

She grabbed a piece of bread from one of the drawers and made quick work of it. Despite the hunger that gnawed at her stomach she held back on how much she ate. Rationing was important in the orphanage. She had learned that the hard way when she was younger.

"I'm going out," she announced when she headed for the door.

Greg barely noticed her announcement as he was watching a football game. Alice rolled her eyes and walked down the porch.

It was cold out, and crisp orange leaves whirled past as a breeze picked up. A shiver ran down her spine as she made her way to the park. It was one of the few places she and Nikki could go without an adult being with them. She had a feeling the park was the last place Nikki and her friends would have gone.

Alice ignored the people wandering past as they went on to their jobs or daily business. She rarely spoke to strangers, especially when she was alone. They often took advantage of younger kids, and she had no doubt she looked vulnerable.

She tried to ignore the stares they gave her. One woman in particular was walking a dog when she passed by. The look of shock the woman had given her sent goosebumps down her arms. Alice looked away and forced hid the blush that was beginning to form.

I wish they wouldn't stare, she thought as she made her way to the park. She was used to it in school, but out on the streets most people just ignored her.

When she reached the fence she half-hoped to see Nikki sitting on one of the benches or swinging on the swings. To her disappointment she saw no familiar faces. She recognized a few of the kids from her school and made a point to avoid them.

"Are you looking for someone?" Alice flinched when someone joined her. She barely looked up to see that it was a woman with long dark red hair.

"Uh... just a friend," she muttered. "I was hoping she'd be here."

She looked around warily, making sure that her eyes didn't make any mistakes. Nikki and her friends must have gone somewhere dangerous. That was the only reasonable explanation Alice had for her friend's disappearance.

"How long has your friend been missing?" The woman's question caught Alice by surprise. She looked up in time to see that the woman wasn't making any eye contact. She was looking everywhere but the girl.

"Since last night, but she usually does things like this," Alice lied.

"Thanks." Alice raised an eyebrow in surprise when the woman began walking away.

Shortly after Alice had a nagging feeling there was more to their conversation than she wanted to understand.

With a sigh of frustration she left the park and decided to return to the orphanage. At least there she could somewhat concentrate on where to find her missing friend. Nikki was the only person in the orphanage who actually cared about her. If it were her missing Nikki would have gone all out to find her.

Just as Alice reached the door she felt something slam in her back. She let out a yelp of surprise when she saw Greg standing behind her, eyes narrowed into tiny slits.

"Where the hell were you?" he demanded in an icy tone.

"I told you I was going out!" Her teeth ground together as she tried to avoid the scathing look he gave her.

"You know the rules, everyone tells me where they are going," he hissed.

"I did tell you," Alice repeated herself. "If you actually turned down the volume you'd hear me," she added under her breath.

Greg glared at her and grabbed her shirt by the scruff. Alice struggled to keep calm when he held her up in a threatening manor.

"I'm the owner of this orphanage, and I do what I want," he snarled. "If you can't comply to those rules than I'm more than willing to send you to the delinquent's class."

Alice's eyes widened in horror at the thought of leaving the only place she had ever lived in. He had that kind of power over everyone in the building. She knew there was no point in arguing, not when her life was on the line.

"I'm sorry," she whimpered.

"Yeah right, all you kids are the same little brats taking advantage of this dump." It took Alice a few seconds to realize that he was drunk.

She stared at him in disbelief before she closed her eyes and thought of any chance to escape. Sandy would have never allowed this to happen. His wife was the only one sensible enough not to bring alcohol in the building.

"Just leave me alone!" Her voice barely rose above a whisper when he refused to leave. She was beginning to wonder where everyone else was, than realized they had probably locked themselves in their rooms to avoid him.

As soon as her eyes opened Alice wished she never did. To her horror and surprise the lights were flickering on and off again. She glared at Greg and felt hatred course through her. The man was still glaring at her as if nothing was happening.

Minutes seemed to pass before the urge of electricity began to reveal itself. Alice stared at her glowing hands in shock. Her shock nearly resulted in a heart attack when a bolt of energy swept towards Greg. The impact of the bolt sent him flying across the room into one of the chairs, but luckily it didn't kill him.

How did I do that? Alice stared at her hands in surprise when the glowing disappeared. The lights had stopped flickering too.

"What just happened?" Alice looked towards the stairs to see Jack and a few other boys staring at the room in horror. Greg was slumped over one of the toppled chairs, still unconscious.

"He was drunk," she explained in a shaky voice. "He must have passed out."

"Thank God, I thought the guy would never shut up," Alex, one of the four boys, grumbled.

Alice breathed a sigh of relief as more of the kids went down to see what had happened. None of them seemed to suspect that she was the cause of his so called accident. And she hoped it stayed that way. Hopefully Greg wouldn't know or remember what had happened to him when he woke up.

. . .

Natasha watched as the girl walked away from the park. The girl was terribly thin, to the point of starvation. She had seen children like the girl before, but something about the girl was strangely familiar.

"Director Fury?" She phoned in on the Director of SHIELD, hoping to catch Fury while she had the chance.

She was on a mission to find the whereabouts of the missing children. In just one month four children had gone missing. It was a strange case, since the crimes that happened in this city were usually shootouts or gang related.

"Agent Romanoff." Director Fury's reply was blunt and to the point as usual.

"Has there been any unusual activities with the local high school?" She knew the question sounded odd, but if there were fights breaking out maybe the kid had something to with it.

"As far as I know there haven't been. But there's an orphanage not far from where you are. There's been a few blackouts in the building in the past couple of days." Fury's words sent thrills of alarm down Natasha's spine.

Blackouts could be anything, she reminded herself.

"So what do you want me to do? I've already got this mission," she said warily.

"I'm sending Hawkeye over to give you assistance," Fury replied. "If all goes well you'll find the source of the blackouts and the missing children."

Natasha's eyes narrowed at the thought of having a teammate. Fury knew how well they worked together; sending Iron Man or Captain America would only lead to fangirls chasing them all day. It was better to blend in than stand out in a busy city.

Looks like we'll be getting some alone time after all.


AN: Yes, she has powers. And no, I will not explain where she got them from until later on. Hope I'm not moving through this too quickly...