Chapter One
Location: Upper West End, London
A hazy day continued to reign over the city, with complete greyness concealing the entire sky. A blustery ambience filled the very air, complete with the distant droning of cars, vans, and lorries. When many of London's streets would be busy and crowded to an extent, one particular area remained mostly sparse for the moment. Walking along the pavement alone was a young black-haired teenage girl with straight chin-length sidelocks and blunt bangs just above her azure-blue eyes, Stephanie Kim. She wore a simple black-and-white-striped T-shirt, crimson-red jeans, and black slip-on shoes.
She had already walked quite a while away from a nearby school that she had no choice but to attend to five days a week. Nonetheless, as Stephanie shifted the straps of her schoolbag on her shoulders, she exhaled a slow warm breath of relief now she was able to begin the weekend as usual and always, and without any homework to boot. However, as she kept on strolling, her ears caught a distant yet deep booming sound that set off so many alerts in both her mind and her gut.
Stephanie immediately came to a halt and quickly looked around for any hint or source of such a strange and sudden sound, perhaps an attack was going on, or even a conflict between those superheroes and supervillains she had been hearing of. And yet, so far, nothing seemed to have changed in any major way and she could notice, for now. But as the ringing of the explosive boom gradually faded away, another even more alien sound started to fade in. An odd and eerie hissing, faint and indeterminable at first, but soon, as it grew somewhat louder, Stephanie could pick up where exactly it was coming from.
Right up ahead, the direction of which where Stephanie was initially walking up to, a growing misty cloud of greenish-blue appeared from seemingly nowhere, already enveloping the buildings and streetlights, as it started heading Stephanie's way. With widened eyes and slightly gaped lips, she was frozen stiff and hesitant before almost instantly turning tail and fleeing the opposite way. Her breath drew fast and her heart thumped faster, Stephanie sprinted as much as she could, briefly remembering the PE lessons at school, the one thing she actually enjoyed the most while being there.
But even still, even as fast as she could possibly go, the cloudy mist somehow remained faster, slowly but certainly and inevitably catching up to her. Just as she dared to spare at least a quick glance behind to see how far or close the incoming fog would be from her, Stephanie ended up tripping down on the pavement and landing with a harsh thud. Grunting and groaning, she eased up to her knees and grasped her freshly scraped elbows.
Just then, before she could even get a chance to get up properly to her feet and make haste again, the mist had finally caught up to the girl, completely surrounding her and and being incidentally inhaled into her very breath. From the moment such haze made their way into her, a change was already about to occur from within, a change not only to her body but also her fate and possibly her destiny.
Before long, the mist had cleared away and carried on, continuing to spread forth through the rest of city. There, right where Stephanie Kim had once laid, kneeled, and nearly stood, in her place, was a green chrysalis, slightly pulsing and glistening, and next to it was the dropped schoolbag. Within the cocoon itself, through its almost see-through surface, was the floating foetal position of a human girl.
To be continued...