CHAPTER 4

Charley didn't even ask why the girl thought she had powers. She just ran. She didn't know why, but the thought of being unordinarily extraordinary was too much. She ran and ran and ran. After running through the mess of this hell for about 10 minutes, Charley cleared her head. Holy crap, she was going fast. And not normal fast like Usain Bolt. She going at maybe 100 kilometres per hour. She tripped on something on the ground and hit the ground hard. Sitting up, Charley pushed herself to the nearby wall. Tears were forming in her eyes. What had happened? Why was she like this? She just wanted to be normal! All she had wanted was to make a difference in the world by helping animals, and now she was stuck in a dump with super speed.

Wait, the girl had something about a flash, whatever he was. She said that he took down people like her, but maybe if she showed him that she didn't have bad intentions, he'd be able to help her.

'I gotta find a way out of here', she murmured, looking around. She was surrounded by tall buildings, maybe 15 metres tall. If she could somehow find a way up onto them, she could find a way out. There was a window sill maybe 5 metres up, but there was no way she could make it… right? If she had powers, maybe she could somehow get herself up there in one jump?

Stretching her legs, bouncing around on the spot, building momentum, she prepared to jump. And…!

Opening her eyes, she realised she had missed the sill completely. Dread overwhelmed her in a heartbeat as she prepared for her descent. And it came, but ended sooner than she expected. Looking around, she realised she was on top of the building. But that… what, she probed in her mind, how the fricking heck did I jump that? Looking back down the side of the building, Charley saw that there was nothing there that could've helped her with her ascent. If this was what she could do when she wasn't really aware or trying, imagine what she could do when she was pouring her heart and soul into her powers. A small part of her mind was saying to run the other way, pretend she was normal, but the rest of her was screaming 'go for it'! A smirk found its way onto her face, and she contracted every muscle in her leg before SPRING, she pushed off with all her might. Wind rushed past her face, and adrenaline flowed through her body. Reaching the climax of the jump, Charley looked down and realised she was a lot higher than she wanted to be. Dread sank in as she made her descent, and a scream erupted from her throat. This was it, there was no way she was going to survive a 30 metre fall. She braced for impact…

And it came, but instead of a bone-crunching smash against the pavement, she was slammed from the side by a chest. A strong, masculine chest. As fast as her descant began, she was as quickly zoomed to the ground and safely put down. Opening her eyes after the worst 6-second-ordeal of her life, she saw the chest of her saviour. It was a deep red, with a lightning bolt stretching across the middle. Looking up, she saw a man with a cowl pulled over his face, covering every part of his face but his eyes and mouth. As creepy as it was, she eyed off the rest of his body. He was fairly lanky, but strong arms, legs and pecs were visible thanks to the tightly fitting suit. Looking back to his face, she noticed a visible scowl on his face.

She took a feeble step back, not knowing what to say. A thank you was probably appropriate, but what, just say 'oh, thanks for saving my life, see you later'! Nope.

The costumed man decided to speak first, saying, 'What now, so sick of crime you decided to just end your life? I thought you were smarter than that, cat-girl.'

Charley took another step back, though this time out of shock.

'Um, okay, thanks for saving me and all that but what are you talking about? Seriously, cannot one person say something that makes sense…?'

The man gave her a look of confusion, then shook his head and argued, 'I'm not dumb either, you know. I know what you've done. You're going to be punished for it too.'

'Look, I don't know how to convince you that I mean no harm. I'm up for anything: DNA sample, lie detector test, whatever, just let me show you that I'm not a criminal or whatever everyone thinks I am.'

He stood there for minute, before sighing, shaking his head and looking back to her.

'Fine, I'll take you with me, but everything that happens after we reach our destination has to be under my terms, and if you resist, you'll go somewhere where you have no hope of escape, got it?' he pointed out, rather reluctantly.

A tight smile spread across Charley's face. As he picked her up bridle-style, and pressed her comfortably firm against his chest, a shock of familiarity raced along her right side, pressed up to the man's chest. She knew this person, whoever this man was.

Honestly, Charley had been a bit confused as to why he had picked her up to take her to their destination; car would've been much easier. That was until she realised that the man was a speedster, and far beyond her new-found abilities. She had maybe reached 100 kilometres per hour, this man was easily reaching 1000 kilometres per hour. It was so ridiculously fast, she could swear she could feel air particles in front of her breaking. She was surprised she hadn't evaporated or ceased to exist. Physics meant that she should be burning up, that the air around her should be burning up. Clearly this person, whoever he was, defied the laws of Physics. Man, he's that full of himself that science doesn't even apply to him, Charley thought with an inward chuckle. As quick as they set out, he set her down. They appeared to be in some kind of lab. The man glanced around with an air of pride or… something in his gaze. He looked the doorway that they must've just come through, and then muttered something about Crisco and a breach before glancing back to Charley.

'Until the rest of my team gets here, I'll take you to a temporary cell. You can wait there for a few hours before we have a discussion. You'll find an item in there to keep you entertained, but you'll find it won't be any use for your powers. Walk with me now, I'll take you down there', he stated, in a rather manner-of-factly way.

/

They walked through the huge building, not exchanging a word. Charley took in her surroundings; there wasn't much. Occasionally, there'd be a room with very advanced looking technology and equipment, but most of the time, it was just a slowly spiralling corridor. After a two-minute walk, they arrived at what appeared to be an elevator. When Charley saw what level they were on, she had to do a double take. Glancing up at the man, she saw he was looking down at her with amusement written clearly on his face. The whole walk here, she had been in baffle at the marvellous facility.

'Kay, quick question; why on earth do you need 600 levels?! What is this place? Not even Queen Consolidated has that many!' Charley squealed, unable to take the silence anymore.

The man just laughed, before saying, 'Well firstly, Q.C is now Palmer Technologies. Secondly, this is a very high tech facility based on physics… oh, and tracking and bringing down meta-humans. Welcome to S.T.A.R Labs.'