Disclaimer: I don't own. You don't sue.

"Jesus. She's gonna die."

Fei shook her head, staring up at the sky near the Times Square Ball, where a windstorm was trapping and tumbling a small form around with its fast and furious gusts.

"She won't die," Fei said, randomly grabbing at the cameras around her neck.

The young man beside her glanced away for a moment from the bizarre scene to give her a disbelieving look. "Every bone in her body is going to break. And even if by some miracle that doesn't kill her," he added, looking up again, "the head trauma will."

Fei brought the Leica to her eye. "Well, the Angel crashed into our building and managed to fly away in one piece. That girl may have the same kind of—luck—going for her."

She looked through and focused the lens all the way out, trying to follow the spinning girl inside the tornado. Fei took several shots.

"You work for the Times?" asked the guy.

"No. The Bugle."

"What, you're supposed to cover the balldrop?"

"Something like that," Fei muttered, focusing her lens on the others in the air, taking several close-up shots of each of the three before panning out to include all four. She was refocusing, getting ready to snap some more, when she nearly dropped her camera.

The girl had just stopped spinning.

Despite the tornado that was growing even faster and larger, the small form inside had stilled, crouching itself into a ball in the center of the storm.

"Shit," Fei whispered, swallowing and wishing she could fly too, pluck the girl out, and take her to the nearest hospital. She saw the Angel fly himself and the visored boy nearer the storm and the girl. The boy turned his head, shouting something to the woman.

Meanwhile, the girl started to glow.

A myriad of white-blue-green grew out from her form, expanding, filling the tornado, filling the sky. It was brighter than the New Year's Ball.

"The Ball," Fei said in sudden remembrance. "The Ball!"

The Ball was dropping.

But nobody on the Square was counting down, not a single voice following along with the panoramic screen flashing the numbers, 4…3…2…1…

For the first time since 1907, no one in the crowd gathered around Times Square seemed to give a damn about the New Year. The panoramic screens flashed its greeting, fireworks shot up, confetti rained down, and people suddenly started shouting, but they were shouting with their gazes fixed above the ball.

They weren't celebrating. They were screaming in fear.

Fei looked back up and saw just in time the expanding light hit their building. She was just throwing her hands up as it came when she felt something knock her down to the floor and rest heavily atop her. The light washed over her body in one quick instant, leaving darkness in its place.

Fei lay on her side, tingling, feeling almost weightless.

"Wow," she breathed. Was she dead? But people wouldn't be asking themselves if they were dead if they were really dead. In all her musings of the afterlife, the one constant was that being dead precluded thought processing.

And feeling. Right now, she was still feeling the same heavy something on top her.

She moved a hand out, poking.

"Argh! Hey!"

Fei squinted, patting carefully at the general form on top. "We're not dead," she said.

"No."

"Then let's get up."

"Yeah."

They helped each other stand. Fei blinked in the blackness of the room, moving back to the window to look out.

The crowd below was in complete disarray, some people still huddled on the ground, others scattering for escape. And the panoramic screens, the building lights, the streetlamps—total dark.

New York had blacked out.

Only the girl was still giving off a glow. She had straightened from her crouched position—now her hands and feet were stretched out. The windstorm around her had disappeared, maybe chased away by the light that continued to surround her, diminished in size but not in brightness. 

Fei reached for her camera, brought it up, aimed it in the general direction of the girl, and didn't bother to focus as she pushed the button.

A moment later the circle of light burst, incredible brightness streaking straight into the sky. Fei wondered if astronomers or satellites orbiting the earth would be able to take pictures of the light streaming into outer space.

That'd make a hell of a shot, a detached part of her mind noted, even as she felt the impact of the explosion shake their building, shattering more windows.

The panoramic screen crumpled. Billboards followed suit.

Grabbing on to the ledge, Fei watched the Angel and the visored boy smash into the panoramic screen as the woman slammed into a building across from them. All three started to freefall. But the Angel soon caught himself, shaking his head clear. He dove for the boy. 

Fei watched in horror as the woman continued to drop. "No!" she cried, leaning out of the window as the woman neared the ground.

A figure sprang up into the air and caught the falling woman just before impact.

Fei sighed hugely in relief.

"Are you crazy?" She felt hands pulling her back inside.

She looked back at the guy. "She didn't die."

"Yeah, and you almost did. What, you thought you could jump out the window and grow some wings yourself?"

Fei didn't answer, instead turning back to the girl. She was still in the air, but now her eyes had opened, gold, eerie, and aware. She was blinking as she looked around.

"Watch out!" came a shout beside Fei's ear, just as she heard a sudden creak followed by a long, low groan. She looked across to find the panoramic screen breaking away, falling from its perch. The Angel and the boy were right beneath it. They looked up and started to dodge, but they'd caught it too late. They were moving too slow.

"No, no, no," Fei whispered.

A crimson beam of light shot out, pushing the screen up into the sky. Looking down, Fei traced the light's source to the boy. He stared up with his fingers on his visors, pouring red from his eyes, moving the screen higher and further away.

Moments later the screen stopped its ascent, slowly righting itself against the pulsating beam.

Fei stared blankly.

"She's got it," the guy beside her said in wonder.

Fei turned to see the girl with her hands held out. She flew towards the Angel and the boy, her gold eyes flashing brightly in her small face. Fei's fingers found their way to the cameras, ready to bring one up. When she felt a hand staying hers, she looked up to find the guy shaking his head slowly.

"Just watch."