Harlow woke up on the side of the road. When she checked her phone, the time was 7:06AM, so about 5-6 hours after she almost died. She sat up and stretched until she felt a sharp pain in her sides. She hissed, then checked her arm. It was wrapped up shoddily with her jacket, but was still very much bleeding. And she still had a bullet in it. 

“Oh yeah…” she droned out, wiping her face with her right hand instead. The sun was just rising in the sky now, with cars slowly inching up and down the highway she found herself parked beside. She snapped to attention. “Why am i on the highway?” She got out of her car and began furiously checking for dents, scuffs, or scrapes that would allude to her crashing due to blood loss. She hadn’t even remembered getting on the highway.  

It took Harlow, not exaggerating, 15 minutes to realize that she made her life easier some 2 yrs ago by buying an electric car. And with her hands on the wheel, and the ability to influence and speak to machinery, she must have made the car stop before she could crash and get herself killed. She chuckled. Then stopped immediately because of how sore she was. “Jeebus, that sucks….” She wheezed out and got back in her car, starting it. She could just turn around and give her statement on last night to the citadel. But she wanted to shower. And eat. And clean up her wounds and scrapes. And maybe remove the bullet in her shoulder. No, yeah definitely that last one.

Harlow arrived back to her apartment and almost every single piece of modern machinery greeted her when she did. She had the normal electronics that didn’t move, yes, like the 

TV and the microwave. But she also had lots extra pieces of tech that she’d gotten from the science division for helping out so much. She had a universal remote panel that controlled the lighting in her apartment, the sounds coming from her TV and the radio she had, the temperature of her room, etc. She also had light projections running through her walls that projected images of flowers and bunnies, cute things like that that made her home feel nice. Every piece of tech in her home came to life when she walked into the room, and greeted her happily with beeps and boops as she began talking off her coat and shoes. That’s when she noticed the blood.

 And she squealed when she saw herself in the living room mirror. She looked like a mess. Like a demon that crawled its way out of hell. She winced at the tangled mess of her normally maintained white wavy hair, which was now every which way and somewhat covered in blood. Her jacket, her favorite frog jacket, that she wore out last night was now hurriedly wrapped around her left arm and shoulder, now also covered in blood. 

Almost every single piece of her clothing was covered in blood. She hadn’t thought she bled that much, but was now looking at herself covered in dirt and blood. She walked directly into her bathroom and didn’t leave for what had to have been 2 hours. 

And she didn’t notice her phone ringing for 2 hours. 

Or even noticed when her doorbell rang for about 10 minutes, before the door opened on its own. The phone-slash-alarm rang in the bathroom as Harlow was finishing up with her hair. “Pretty sure it’s a work-day. Who could possibly need to speak with me now?” She asked. A small part of her had figured it was Dr. Gizzard, who more often than not came knocking on her door when she made a new discovery about the meta-physiology. But she knew that wasn’t the case. Plus, the alarm was alerting her that someone was already in the house.

She quickly leapt out of the shower and put on her clothes. Her wet hair cringed to her face but it was too late to do something about it. She stepped eagerly out into the living room hall, and saw three figures standing around and speaking to each other in hushed tones. 

“Maybe we should have waited? She’s probably not even home?” One said, unsure and timid, like they would rather wait in the hall. 

“Why would we wait? And what does it matter if she was?” Another hissed, clearly a little on edge. The first one seemed to tiptoe and jump around the others’ comments. But it was clear to Harlow that neither knew what they were doing. Or at least, why they were doing it.  Plus, they sounded familiar to Harlow at least.

She stepped out from the hallway, less cautious than before. “Reina?” Harlow asked. She didn’t even think about slipping up on superhero names before, but was actually surprised they came in. “Lorin…and Maggie?? What are you guys doing?” She asked folding her arms. 

Reina, Lorin, and Maggie were all the civilian names of some of her co-workers, that is to say, other superheroes working with the Citadel. Reina , the timid one from before, was the hero known as Beckon, the summoner. Lorin, able to use force fields as the superhero Blockade who was definitely the on-edge one, and finally Maggie or Miss Magia, the sorceress. Maggie hadn’t said anything before, but waved shyly.  Not only were they her coworkers, but they were her friends. People she’d talk to all the time. And obviously people who could get into her apartment without her knowing.

“D-did you use your key? I was in the shower!!” She exclaimed, then gestured at herself rapidly, pointing in between her now fresh clothes and her wet hair. All three superheroes seemed to shy away from her yelling. Harlow walked over to get closer to them and noticed they all seemed…uneasy.

“What? What’s wrong?” She looked between the three of them, then again to the one who would talk easiest. “Maggie, what going on? Why’re you all here?” Maggie nervously scratched her hat with her wand, a twisted branch with white lilies sprouting out of it. 

“Um, have you watched the news? About what happened at the Citadel?” She asked. Harlow felt her heart pause for a moment, but then quickly recovered. 

“The…news? No, I haven’t watched it. But, you’re talking about what happened with… Dr. Gizzard?” She hesitated to finished talking. But all three women seemed to perk up at the name. Lorin immediately stepped closer to Harlow. 

“So you already know? Why we’re here then?” She asked. Harlow pursed her lips. She wasn’t really sure how those were related. She could guess though.

“No? Do you need my statement? I’m more than happy to get it for you. I just needed to shower and i would’ve gone back to the base anyways.” She walked past them to the door where her shoes were. She hesitated to grab her bloody sneakers, instead opting for some more comfortable slip-ons.  “Did you find him? Did you ask Dr. Beauregard about it?” She asked, finishing up with her shoes and now having the same problem as she thought about which jacket to grab. There was a silence though. Harlow turned back around to her friends and noticed they were all still being very distanced. Blockade looked angrier than before, and she spoke out first.

“Dr. Beauregard? What does he have to do with this?!” She asked, balling up her fists. Harlow tilted her head, but nodded. 

“Yeah? Have you not talked to him yet?” She tried to step back towards her friends, and found herself unable to move forward. “What the…? Hey!” She placed her hand on the force field now surrounding her. “Lorin, what the hell?” She banged on the forcefield a couple of times. Lorin, now one hand up in front of her to “hold” the force field up, was glaring directly at Harlow. 

“Why’re you acting so calm?”She asked, “You’re the one—“ Maggie put her hand on Lorin’s shoulder to stop her. 

“Hold up! We don’t even know the full story yet? She was willing to walk back with us, why would you she do that?” She stressed. “And we don’t know what Harlow even knows or doesn’t know, right?” Harlow look snapped from Lorin to Maggie. 

“Wait, what are you talking about? Is this about yesterday?” She slapped her hands against the barrier. “And why did you put bubble me, Blockade?” Harlow asked, a little more pointed than she’d like. She already knew what they were trying to say though, she just hoped she was wrong. 

“You think I killed Dr. Gizzard!?” She yelled, backing away from forcefield’s walls. “Me? You think i would do something like that? I- I was, I mean she was—“ Harlow didn’t even know what to say first. “I triggered the damn alarm this morning!! Why would i do that if i killed someone?” She took a deep breath because even with her little power nap earlier she was still tired.   None of her colleagues seemed to have an answer for her. “Lorin, put the force field down.” She wasn’t mean with how she said it, but given the look on her face after she said it it must not have been said nicely. 

Lorin kept her glare on Harlow. “Or what? You’ll break out? Try and kill me too?” She posed the question like i couldn’t. Harlow thought, but didn’t say it aloud. “I think I like our chances better if you’re in there, thanks.” Harlow scoffed. 

“You’re chances? I haven’t killed anyone nor will i start, thanks.” She looked over to Maggie. “Guess you’re leading the group right now? Think i could be released from the fucking prison, I already said I was going with you.” Maggie lowered her arms and bit her lip. She was nervous still. Harlow couldn’t believe this. There was all the evidence in the world to her innocence. Did they really believe that she would do that?

“Miss Magia. I have already agreed to go with you guys.” Harlow said again calmer. “ Can I be let out of the force field? Please?” Maggie closed her eyes and took a breath. “Well, this would probably make everyone feel better if you stayed in…?” She drawled out the last few words but Harlow was still mad. 

“Everyone would not feel better? I didn’t kill anybody!!” She exclaimed. She wanted to scream, but felt that wouldn’t be productive. “So what, No one came to the Citadel after i trigger the alarm? No one saw Dr. Beauregard?? OR even watched the cameras on the building? Ugh” She groaned, pulling one hand up to massage her forehead. Lorin stepped forward, pushing against Maggie’s back. 

“You could probably doctor the footage if you wanted to!” Lorin said, slightly increasing pressure of the force field. Harlow groaned again, now feeling the field against her own back. She watched Maggie try and fail to calm Lorin down. 

Reina spoke up behind them. “Well, it’s not that i don’t believe you. But wouldn’t it be nicer to bring you with us like this in case you did? Rather than let you freely walk around. I mean, look at your apartment.” She gestured to the multitude of lights and tech around them. Harlow now focused on Reina. Sure, from an unbiased perspective that sounded safe. But these were her friends. She knew them. She’s known them since they were all teens. 

“What’re gonna do, push the force field to Citadel? She can’t exactly move these.”  She gestured to the field, then snapped her attention back to Maggie. “Or is that what you two were for? To make sure that I was ready for transport?” She couldn’t argue the logistics. Maybe she shouldn’t have ran. But what if she hadn’t? Where would she be? 

No one answered her. At least not verbally. Miss Magia created a cart, or maybe she brought a cart from somewhere else? A small, personal transport-type thing. Then Beckon summoned two, dog-deer hybrids and attached them to the cart. She had hoped they had a better plan for when she left the building. Or this would be a long ride. 

The long ride, at least out of Harlow’s apartment, was torture. Because carts are not comfortable. They weren’t comfortable in the past, and they were not comfortable right now as Harlow was being dragged in an energy bubble down every flight of stairs they could find. She figured they were playing with her, but their expressions never changed so they were actually just being assholes. 

When they finally found themselves outside of her apartment building, Harlow felt her heart drop when she saw no hide nor hair of other transportation. “You’re not dragging me through the streets are you?” She asked, a whine barely hiding in her voice. Maggie placed her hand over her heart. “Oh god no! I brought us here” She waved her wand, sparks and stars flying off of it as she did. “And that’s how I’ll bring us back” She smirked. Harlow wasn’t sure if she should feel better or worse with that revelation.

Before she could even make a snarky reply, Miss Magia flew into the air. Harlow looked around, the Blockade and Beckon, and both looked very surprised. But not in a good way. Harlow looked up at Miss Magia and raised an eyebrow. “You flew here?” She asked. Both Beckon and Blockade looked up, and before they could say or do anything, they also flew into the air. 

“Sorry ladies, but mind if i take over transporting the prisoner?” A voice above them rang out. She looked up to the three heroes floating above her. This wasn’t on purpose was it? She looked over to see a woman floating in front of her coworkers. She had her hands out posed in front of her, and she glowed. Like, her hair literally glowed like the universe with stars forming at the ends. Harlow started to move, but remembered the barrier surrounding her. 

The floating woman smiled at her, then looked back at the other heroes. Her smile faded, but her eyes glowed a bright blue before she threw her hand back and slung it away from from her and in the three heroes followed the motions of her hands. They then flew, away from Harlow’s apartment, straight across town. Harlow watched in awe until the three of them disappeared from view. Chuckling, the floating woman landed in front of Harlow. She placed a singular hand on the barrier which was now fading. 

“What have you got yourself into now, honey?”