I've decided to change Lilly's name to Lily because my wife is teasing my mercilessly about it being misspelled. No respect for artistic license these days. It's sad really. But no, I hadn't intended for her name to be a strange spelling, I apparently just don't know how to spell. I'm going back and changing the first chapter (the only chapter it has actually appeared in), as well as future chapters.
Also, I was hoping to get more writing done this week than I did, but life had its own ideas.
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The good news was that the rather painful burn I received hadn't caused any permanent damage and there were procedures in place so that a cape (especially one that had helped apprehend a criminal) could get medical care without revealing her identity. The bad news was that when I left the hospital, there was no way that dad wouldn't notice my tardiness or the way I favored my entire right side. The procedure was made somewhat more difficult by the fact that I hadn't really chosen a name for myself. Finally, I settled on a temporary name of Grab-Bag. There was no way I was keeping it permanently, but then again I also figured it wasn't taken.
I was just getting ready to sign myself out of the PRT hospital when uncle Jason as Myrddin strode in, his robe looking a bit worse for the wear. Despite my very cunning disguise of the dark purple shirt wrapped around my head in a "ninja mask", he recognized me immediately. I could see the frustration and relief warring on the part of his face I could see, but he simply stopped in front of me without saying anything. Looking over my shoulder to the sign-out sheet, he glanced at me and calmly spoke. "May I speak to you in private for a moment, Grab-Bag?"
Why did he want to talk here, exactly? And what was there to talk about? A bit confused, I simply nodded, hoping that any onlookers would take whatever strange body language I was presenting as the overwhelmed excitement of a fan. Instead of leading my anywhere, however, uncle Myrddin raised his ever-present staff held vertically with both hands and simply intoned "Solitude" in a deep voice, before bringing it down again and striking the ground with the staff's butt. The click of his staff seemed loud in the sudden silence produced, and the color drained away from the world around me. I could still get a feel of where everything and everyone was, but when I turned my gaze to the nearest person, they appeared hazy and as I attempted to focus on them I began to feel nauseous.
I didn't have much time to marvel at the strange shadow-world we had entered into as uncle Jason flung off his cowl scowling at me. "What the hell were you doing out there Lily? Trying to get yourself killed?"
Recoiling in surprise at the anger in his voice, I had to make a defense, "What? No! I was trying to help. I wasn't even going to fight but Voltaic grabbed me and was taking me somewhere and he said he wanted me alive so I had to..."
"Voltaic's dead." uncle Jason said. "You stabbed him in the kidney and he died from the trauma before the ambulance even arrived."
"Okay, so he was a villain and he was threatening...my life...and..." and what? That made it okay to just end somebody's life? What if he was somebody's husband, or their brother? He was certainly somebody's son, but what if he was also a father? I had just ended another human beings life.
Being told you killed somebody? It does something to you.
Sure, everybody talks about the theoretical situations. "If you could kill Jack Slash before he got his powers, would you do it?" And of course everybody says yes. But they didn't know that the real emphasis of the question should be on the "you". Could I kill? The answer was unequivocally 'yes' now. I was a killer.
I looked up to uncle Jason and realized that I hadn't even noticed my vision blurring or the tears falling, his power had blurred the surroundings enough that it hadn't been obvious. Wiping my eyes with the heel of my hand I asked "Did Echolocate make it?" My voice came out as a pitiful desperate squeak. Please. Echolocate had to make it. There had to have been some good out of this.
With my vision cleared, I noticed that uncle Jason's countenance had softened considerably. "Yeah Guera, she made it." He said, closing the distance between us and putting a hand on my shoulder. "Still recovering, but she's alive."
I nodded and wiped at my eyes again. After taking several moments and a few deep breaths, I shakily asked "So, um. What now?"
"Well, the PRT wants a statement. A record of what happened now will keep you from any future legal ramifications." His eyes took on a harder cast again as he removed his hand from my shoulder to get a better look at me. "Lily, did Voltaic say anything about where he was going? Who he was working with? What the hell he was even doing out there?" He asked, his voice growing louder by the end. I could see the frustration on his face.
"Uh, no? He just threatened me and said that I was more useful alive than dead." I responded, my worry rising with his frustration. "Why?"
His jaw tightened before he answered, "because this wasn't a lone incident. The whole city was effectively under attack and we had half of our wards out on a training exercise with Boston. There were at least a dozen villains out there causing havoc and nobody is sure why. Even worse, we didn't even know most of these guys were friendly with each other." He exhaled loudly before continuing, "but that's not for you to worry about. We need to get you home to your father. Lets go take that statement."
My father. Crap. The city was a warzone, and I had been missing for the last several hours. He was going to be worried sick. Oh man that wouldn't be a good setup to tell him I'm a cape and could he please sign these papers?
Uncle Jason had just donned his cowl and looked like he was preparing his staff to return us to the real world when I stopped him. "Wait!" I said. "Have you talked to dad yet? What'd you tell him?"
Smiling with a half-grin on his face, he responded "I told him the truth."
Just as I blanched, he chuckled and continued "You got caught in a fight between two capes and managed to get out with only a burn on your leg. I also told him you would call him."
"Thanks. I will," I said. He finished his flourish and the noise of the world came crashing back in. I could tell that more than a few people were startled by our sudden...whatever it was we had done. Had we disappeared from the world, or had we only become hazy to them like they had to me? What about the floor we had been standing on? Right now, it wasn't important.
A small part of my mind was hoping for another chance to fly with the great and powerful wizard Myrddin. There really was nothing like it. Unfortunately, he led me to a marked PRT vehicle and got into the drivers seat. I must say, if I had ever pictured Myrddin driving a vehicle, it would have certainly been a chariot or simply riding a horse. I never envisioned him behind the wheel of a modern automobile. I couldn't help but start to giggle.
"Well." He said with only a smirk, "glad you're feeling better."
As he put the car into drive, I unbagged my phone. As it connected to the local cell tower missed call notifications and text messages began to pop up from my father. My heart ached with what I must've put him through. I guess I needed to keep it in an actual pocket so that it could stay connected to the network. Holding up the phone to uncle Myrddin to indicate what I was doing, I called my father.
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After uncle Myrddin had taken me to the PRT building again to give my statement about what had transpired we took one of several tunnels with a tram. After that, although Myrddin and 'Grab-Bag' entered the PRT building, Lily and her uncle Jason inconspicuously exited a gym and took the bus back to our apartment building. As the elevator doors opened to my floor, I spontaneously gave uncle Jason a hug. "Thanks. For everything."
He just rustled me hair. "Of course Guera," he said with a smile.
I exited the elevator and made my way to our door, but I stopped before opening it and took a deep breath. Even before I saw him, I knew that I wouldn't talk to dad tonight. I needed to, but the part of me that thought I had been through enough for one day won out. That, and the conversation just promised to be unpleasant for me. I could barely even think about laying all of that on my father, but I had to do it if I wanted to become a hero.
Turning the knob, I entered our living room. Despite having to use his hands to control his wheels to do so, he still managed to spin around from his desk and rush over to me for a hug. "Oh thank God you're alright," he said, "I was worried sick about you." I leaned down and wrapped my arms around him to return the embrace. "Don't do that to me honey. Please, I need you here. I need you with me."
"I know dad." I conceded, "I'll try to be more careful. I'm sorry."
"It's okay honey. I'm just glad you're alright." He said, stroking my hair. Finally he pulled away and wheeled himself into the next room to picked up his cell phone. "Why didn't you answer your phone? I tried calling you."
"Oh, uh, I think it was still on silent for school, and everything was happening so fast and I just forgot to even look at it until I called you." I answered.
He nodded his understanding. "Well, like I said, I'm just glad you're alright. How about I order us some pizza. I think we've both had enough stress today that neither of us needs to be cooking!" I could tell he was fighting to stay above the cold black waters of desperation that sometimes took him. I went to him and gave him another hug, doing my best to help him fight back the darkness.
Well, pizza sounded great after the day I had, and so dad called Tiny Tony's and we didn't even have to go and pick it up. While we were waiting on the pizza I went and got changed in my room. I unbagged the shirt, hoodie, and pants that had made up my costume into the hamper, then changed into a clean set of pajamas (giant T-shirt and fuzzy pants). Thinking about what I had in my grab-bag (No way I was going by that for my hero name, but I was certainly willing to call my extradimensional space that), I resolved to come equipped with more choices in the future. Basically my only power was being prepared, so the least I could do is to accommodate it. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot in my room that I wanted. Could I use Tools? Yes. Weapons? Sure. Protective gear? The best you've got. Hair ties or a giant stuffed rabbit? Probably not.
When the pizza arrived, my father's nerves had finally started to settle, and so had mine. I could actually enjoy the time watching a silly sitcom with him instead of mentally and physically biting my fingernails to the quick. That evening, I discovered that there's nothing quite like a life-and-death experience to give you an appreciation for the mundane joys you can have in life.
