TRACK AROUND FITNESS CENTER

Harpy was running, he wasn’t sure at what or whom. He just liked to run. It made him feel alive and unihibited by his problems. He didn’t take kindly to being disturbed--especially by two bumbling officers.

“And that would be you’re seventh lap, wouldn’t it Soloman Harpy.” Officer Wave, it said on his badge.

“Officer Wave, I think you know speeders don’t really take kindly to people telling them not to be quick. And who’s this, your hired gun? ”

“No. This is my superior, Chief Hiro Obi”

Obi smiled thinly. “We’re here to ask you some questions. We’re all friends here. Nothing to hide.”

Harpy turned suspiciously. “Questions. Nothing good ever comes of people digging around my past.”

Stu sighed. “We just want to ask about Dura.”

Harpy’s shoulder’s relaxed. “Emmie’s kid? She was a sweet kid.”

“Why did you run after you called the police? We traced the call to you.” Obi remarked.

“Ain’t nothing good come out of you flops snooping around here.”

Stu wasn’t convinced. “You were a rising hero in training.. Why did you quit?”

“Same reason you quit. The big ones want to keep all the glory for themselves. I’m neither part god or metahuman. My ma wasn’t nobody special and my dad was something you keep locked up. You get tired of working four times harder and no one caring. Dura and me were cut from the same cloth. That’s why I have bunnies on my shoes. Poor kid was always playing by herself on the playground because her mother got no talent. Sometimes I would stop by and give her the pizza people forgot they ordered. But when I came to visit them, the lock on their door was broken. Since there was no reason to knock I went inside, but when I got to Dura’s bedroom there was no one there.”

Stu exchanged glances with Obi. “No one there?”

=//=

SKY CITY MEDICAL CENTER

Back here again, Alia thought to herself as she entered Emmie’s room. There was a black duffel packed with some civilian clothes. The closet was ajar with empty hangers.

Emmie smiled when she saw Alia. “The doctors said they’re going to take me to a place where there will be people to help me. I don’t remember why I need help.”

Alia touched her shoulder reassuringly. “I think I understand why you were crying during Watership Down. You couldn’t stop Marks. You felt alone so you did the only thing you could do.”

Emmie turned to Alia. “What did I do?”

=//=

FEORS APARTMENT

Emmie was back in her apartment, two days before. She heard the door rattling again and got off the bed. She picked up Dura and backed toward’s the window.

“Mom, please don’t be scarred.”

Emmie calmed Dura and touched her hair. She patted her head and then stilled as she heard the heavy steps of someone coming into the house. She looked at the door and thought about Confundo Marks--a monster she couldn’t beat. She felt the window behind her. Maybe, she thought, I can take us out of the equation altogether. I can keep her safe.

Then she felt the switch in her that she’d kept dormant in her for so long and she jumped, crashing through the glass.