Sylvia Wayne "Wildcat"
Washington D.C.
December 31st, 2015
I was placed undercover at the Presidential New Year's Eve Ball as Colonel Wade Eiling's covert security detail. Since we had covert experience on the Team, the League sent us to protect him while discreetly investigating who is threatening his life. My guess was possible a group of militants that were against the United States and their military choices. Wally guessed someone that he burned a bridge with. The unidentified being behind the threats was sending messages to the Colonel on his private severs that he was going to be killed before the year is over. Now that it's New Year's Eve, this was the last chance the assailant was going to get, and we made it look like he had a relaxed security detail, as we were simply dressed as other party goers.
Wally was dressed in a black tux with a gold bowtie with me on his arm in a tight, gold evening gown. He kept saying I looked like some sort of movie star about to walk on the red carpet since my hair was done in those perfect movie star waves that reminded him of the 1920s. But I just felt weird, sure I was used to dressing like this, but for some reason, I just felt gross in the slightly too tight dress. Everyone kept commenting how beautiful I looked, I was clean and all dolled up, but I didn't feel right. But, I didn't let that get in the way of the mission. I just held my head high and continued to use my skills to listen for anything suspicious and smell the air for gunpowder, poisons, or explosives. Wally was the one keeping an eye out. He just acted like he was curious about the beautiful room we were in with an assortment of presidential paintings and works of art, when in reality he was watching out for suspicious characters. When I finally caught the scent of gunpowder and didn't trace it back to a secret service agent, I took Wally to the dance floor and had him dance with me around the room in hopes of tracking the scent without looking like a total idiot.
"You narrowing it down?" Wally whispered in my ear, acting like he was flirting. I let out a fake laugh and leaned close to his ear.
"Yeah, there's a few guys and like two girls. Some of them may just have residue on then, but I'm trying to sort who had the strongest scent… Man, I wish I had x-ray vision right about now," I joked to him as I kept it up. I finally sorted it down to two people, a man and a woman, both over by bar getting drinks. I stopped dancing.
"What is it?" He asked, and I nodded toward the male and female. Wally smiled and walked with my over to the bar. He ordered us drinks with the fake I.D.s that made us, Mr. and Mrs. Johnson. I looked over at the woman and decided to start a conversation with her, just so I could get closer for a better gist of why she smelled like gunpowder. Wally did the same to the man to stall him before I could get around to checking him out.
"Oh, my god, I love your dress!" I told her, looking at the shiny, forest green silk that caressed her body. I actually did like the dress, so it was easier than lying. The woman's lips stretched into a smile as she started looking at my dress.
"Thank you so much…?" She looked at me like she was waiting on a name. I put out my hand for her to shake.
"Nora. Nora Johnson," I told her without hesitation as she shook my hand.
"Nice, to meet you Nora. I'm Soraya. Soraya al-Sherif Abonami," She introduced herself. I finally realized who she was.
"Abonami? As in the famous pilot?" I had asked her, realizing where I knew her from. She had recently been given a series of medals and honors for her work piloting fighter jets and helicopters for black ops missions, reconnaissance missions, and rescue missions. I was starting to realize she only smelled like a lot of gun powder because she is still in active duty. She also had a scent of jet fuel. There was also a moment of extreme nausea where Sylvia had to hold her breath so she wouldn't aggravate her stomach with any other smells.
"Yes, I actually have to get back to the General, so have a good night," she smiled politely before leaving, it was the guy.
"Hi, honey. Wanna introduce me to your friend?" I asked Wally as I looked at the guy he was detaining, but then I realized it wasn't the same guy, and he was discreetly holding a gun against my boyfriend.
"Actually, sweetheart, why don't you go somewhere quiet to call your father, like you promised?" The second Wally uttered those words, I knew that it was time to act. Like you promised is our code. This was our guy. I recognized him too, he was dishonorably discharged upon the orders of one General Wade Eiling.
"Yeah, sweetie. Run along," the man told me, and I just sneered.
"Fat chance, sweetie." I pressed my comm in my ear, alerting the party security and setting off the silent alarm for outside reinforcements. Wally winked at me before using his superspeed to take the gun away from the man before it was even possible to react and pull the trigger.
"What in the hell…?" The man questioned the speed just before I moved to detain him. He hit me in the stomach unexpectedly and knocked the wind out of me. I panicked and extended my claws, slashing his tux. He threw of his jacket as I caught my breath.
"Quickly, check the perimeter to make sure he's not alone," I told Wally. He nodded and sped off to make a sweep. The man punched me in the face, hard. I touched my lip and found that it was bleeding.
"You're gonna regret that," I spat, my blood splattering a bit on him. I waited a second, watching him wipe the blood off of his face before I threw an undercut before a high kick to the side of his head. He fell against the side of the bar and that's when I caught this man's scent. I grabbed a batarang out from the strap on my thigh and chucked it, hitting the fire alarm.
"EVERYONE OUT!" I yelled as people started running for the doors. I clawed open his shirt and found that I was right. He had a bomb. "Really? Kill him with explosives? That'll kill you too, genius."
"A good captain always goes down with his ship," the ex-marine declared with a smile. In my peripherals I could see Eiling approaching with his security.
"Sir, I'm gonna need you to leave the premises. He has explosives and he intends to kill you with them." I lunged quickly to try and detain the ex-marine, but he just pressed his thumb down on the detonator. I froze and just locked eyes with the man.
"If I lift my finger of this trigger, we all die. Why don't you just leave, and let me kill the General? Less casualties," he tried to negotiate with me, but I wasn't having it.
"KID!" I called out. It felt like everything slowed down around me as I watched the ex-marine slowly pull his finger off the detonator. I started running for the hills as I saw Wally spreading Eiling away as the security detail ran. The bomb went off and I started to feel the heat catch up with me. The force knocked me off my feet, glass flying everywhere. Before I could hit the floor, Wally grabbed me and ran me outside. As soon as he let me stand up on my own, I immediately threw up in the bushes.
"Babe, you good?" He asked me.
"Yeah, totally fine…" I told him before lurching once again, vomiting behind the bush once again. "Totally fine," I promised as I reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a piece of gum and started chewing.
"You sure?" He double checked, putting his arm around me. I nodded and he just laughed. "Alright, I'm thinking you have a concussion, so I think we should take you to a hospital." I just started laughing.
"Fine, but make sure Eiling is fine-" I reached towards the general, but Wally just picked my up in his arms as I tripped. Ambulances and fire trucks started showing up as the building burned.
"Yeah, no. I think you need to see a paramedic," he laughed as he carried me to one of the open ambulances. We told the paramedic that I was just a little too close to the blast and that I might have a concussion. He said based on how close we said I was, the ambulance ended up taking me to the hospital. Wally and I were just sitting in a hospital room, waiting for results from blood work and a head scan to come back based on how close I was to the blast.
"So, what do you think you want for dinner? I think I'm gonna order us some food since we haven't eaten yet," Wally asked me, pulling out his phone. I thought for a second, then I had an immediate craving.
"Ooh, babe, get Potbelly's," I told him, grabbing his arm excitedly.
"Your favorite?" He smirked, typing things in of his phone to order online.
"You know me too well," I smirked. He knew how much I missed Potbelly's sandwiches since they don't have any stores down in Miami. The two of us were usually in class, finishing up our senior year in college and doing work with the League. We never had any time to exploit our zeta tube privileges, no matter how much we wanted to, we were always just too busy or too tired.
"It'll be here soon," he promised, pressing the order button in his phone. I smiled before feeling a wave of nausea wash over me once again. I hopped up out of the hospital bed and went right into the bathroom, throwing up whatever contents remained in my stomach. When i was finished, there was nothing left. I just pulled out the toothbrush and toothpaste that the nurse had given me and went to work. "You okay?" Wally asked.
"Fine, totally fine," I assured him before finishing brushing.
"You sure?" He asked, running my shoulder as I sat back down on the bed.
"Yes, babe, I'm fine."
"Alright, then maybe I'll go see the nurse and find out what's taking so long," Wally said before promptly leaving to room. I sat alone, thinking about what could be making me sick since I didn't think I had a concussion. I was starting to think that I was just getting the flu since I keep going through temperature shock with all the Zeta-ing everywhere. That was probably it. I had been sick on and off for a couple weeks, so maybe it was just finally kicking in. I was not excited to be sick, especially living in Florida.
"Hey, babe, the nurse will be here in a minute," Wally said as he came back in. I was starting to get nervous, squirming in my hospital gown and gift shop sweatpants. Just a few minutes later, a nurse in light pink scrubs came in with a cart of miscellaneous items and brought it right up to the beg with a smile.
"Hi, Mrs. Johnson," the nurse said, referring to my cover identity. "I was informed about your situation, and you don't have a concussion, but I do need to perform an ultrasound to make sure everything is alright. Just making sure there's no internal bleeding or compression." The nurse smiled as she lifted the hospital gown and put the cold gel on my stomach, starting the ultrasound.
"Jeez that's cold," I laughed, feeling her move the transducer around my abdomen. The nurse laughed.
"Yeah, I get that from most moms," the nurse joked. I froze, my eyebrows knitting in confusion. I could feel Wally looking at me.
"So… everything fine? No internal bleeding? I'm good to go home?" I asked her, now wanting to leave. I was starting to feel really uncomfortable and then nausea was coming back.
"I don't see anything immediate on the ultrasound, so your baby is in the clear but I'd like you to stay a bit longer so we can test the amniotic fluid for any anomalies from after the explosion," the nurse said and Wally and I both looked at each other, dead silent. This has to be some mistake. But then, we heard it, the soft but steady rhythm coming from the monitor. "Their heartbeat is strong so I don't think there are any problems, but you should really be careful and get a lot of bed rest just to make sure the little one doesn't get jostled around again while you recover-"
"Hold on a second," I stopped her. "I'm pregnant?" The room was silent all except for the heart best. But that stopped too when the nurse removed the transducer from my stomach.
"Miss, at this point, I thought you knew?" The nurse raised an eyebrow, looking back and forth between the two of us. "Mrs. Johnson, you're eleven weeks pregnant. The tests we ran confirmed it."
"She's eleven weeks pregnant?" Wally asked the nurse. I was just dumbfounded. She just smiled and pulled a picture out of the printing port of the ultrasound and handed it to him.
"I'll give the two of you some privacy," the nurse just smiled, walking out with the cart. I felt like an idiot, unable to look Wally in the eyes. I felt ridiculously stupid. I could feel his eyes on me. When I finally looked up, he had this look on his face that I had never seen before. I wasn't sure what he was going to do, but then he kissed me.
"I love you."