Gaia sits alone in a recreation room.She clicks a remote and channel surfs the television. Shestops on a fashion show and sits back into her chair.Sam sticks his head in the door and calls to her.“There you are. We were looking all over for you.” he says.Gaia blows on her wet nails and she looks up at him.“Been here all morning, what’s the panic?” she replies.“You’re late for training” Sam says. Looking less thanimpressed.“It’s all training with you. I’ll be up in a while.” she saysas she examines her perfectly painted nails.“I wish you would take this team more seriously.” Sam says ashe leaves.Gaia mimics his voice “I wish you would take this team moreseriously.” she says.“Boys.” she mutters to herself.She continues to watch the latest fashions on the televisionscreen and looks down at her outfit.“I really, really need some new clothes.” she mutters toherself.She looks across the room at the wall mounted surveillancecamera and smiles to herself.Gaia stands and walks towards the door of the room, steppingunder the camera and out of it’s line of sight.She walks into a narrow hallway and notices two cameras oneither side of the wall.Gaia places a hand on one side of the wall and the plasterbegins to warp into a bubble. The bubble quickly travels upand pushes one of the cameras into the ceiling tile.“Oops a daisy.” she laughs.She steps under the line of sight of the other camera andinto an elevator.The elevator opens on the ground floor of the New Olympusheadquarters.She strolls towards a security guards desk and places bothhands on it. The large marble desk shakes and the guardscoffee lands on his lap.He leaps back in pain and Gaia walks right out the frontdoor.She walks into the street and takes a deep breathe as shesmiles to herself.“I love the smell of freedom.” she says as she crosses thestreet.Gaia walks through a massive shopping mall. The mall isfilled with people shopping and hanging out.Gaia looks very pleased with herself as she strolls along,soaking in the atmosphere.Clothes shops. Music shops. Salons. She spins around, armsoutstretched. Gaia has found her home.“Gaby?” a girl calls out.She spins around and looks straight at Sally and Joyce. Bothseverally overdressed for a day at the mall.“Sally...Joyce?” she replies looking both shocked andembarrassed.“Is that you girl?” Sally asks as she runs over to Gaia.“In the flesh.” she replies.“But we heard you had moved to Canada or some other foreignplace like that?” Joyce replies.“No I’ve been around. Just busy is all.” Gaia replies.The girls all share air kisses.Sally steps back and looks at Gaia’s clothes.“Now what are we wearing?” Sally asks.“Just shut up and don’t ever.” Gaia replies. Her accentstarting to change along with her choice of words.“Now this we have to fix.” Joyce replies, as she steps backto examine Gaia’s clothes.The three girls laugh and joke as they walk towards a largeclothing store.The three sit outside a coffee shop. Gaia now dressed in anexpensive black Prada outfit.“I owe you for this...for everything. Things have like beenso strange of late. It’s nice to be with friends again.” Gaiasays.Joyce looks at her watch.“It’s getting so late...see you girls later.” she says.The girls air kiss once more and Joyce leaves.Sally finishes her coffee and stands.“Come on, I have this great little store to show you.” shesays.Gaia and Sally walk down a run down street.“Isn’t this like a little down market for you?” Gaia asks.“For sure.” Sally replies. “But if you want bargains, youhave to wander off the beaten...ya know? Sally replies.Gaia and Sally walk down a now empty street and quicklynotice two teen boys ahead of them. The boys are walkingtowards them.The two girls immediately become uncomfortable and turn inthe other direction.They stop as they see two more approaching from the otherdirection.Sally drags Gaia down an alley and they try to open a door.But the door is locked.Gaia looks around for an escape route, a ladder too far fromthe ground. A fence too high to climb. They are trapped,cornered.They look back up the alley, as the group of four boys walktowards them.“Well, Well, Well.” one of the boys shouts.John dressed in jeans and a hoodie leads the other three boysin the girl’s direction.“No one told me they ordered takeout?” he laughs.Gaia looks for an escape. Looks for someone to help. They arein trouble.Gaia reaches for her cell phone. No signal.Sally routes through her bag for her and drops it, spillingthe contents onto the ground.Another of the boys, Paul, takes a knife from his pocket andflicks it open and closed several times.“What’s the matter? Daddy not coming to rescue his littleprincesses?” Paul asks.Gaia and Sally walks backwards and into a wall. They aretrapped.The four teenage boys walk slowly towards them.“Cute little things aren’t they?” one of the boys shouts.“Please just let us go...I” she says.“Remember you’re in our part of town now, little rich girl.So we decide when you leave...if you leave” John shouts.One of the other boys howls like a dog.“You don’t want to do this” Gaia replies.“Oh I do like a girl with attitude.” John says.Gaia clenches both fists and then opens her hands. The groundbelow her feet starts to crack and vibrate.She looks up at the four boys with an intense expression onher face.“Don’t say I didn’t warn you” she says.The ground in front of Gaia cracks open and rips towards thefour boys.They dive to avoid being sucked into the trench.Gaia raises both hands and the rest of the alleyway is suckedinto the mini earthquake.The walls of the adjoining building start to shake and crack.Bricks and mortar fall into the crater that was once thealley.The building to their right collapses inwards onto itself.Sally screams.John falls into the cracked ground and screams, as Paul grabshis hand and pulls him up.The boys stagger back down the alleyway as Gaia lowers herhands.The ground raises back up.“You still want to play?” she smiles.None of the boys answer, just run away as quickly as theirlegs will carry them.Gaia looks at her right hand and notices she has broken anail.“Dammit” she says.Still smiling she looks up at a shocked Sally.“So those...those stories were true? Our neighborhood, thepolice at our house, the questions. At first we thought itwas just an earthquake then the stories. People said youcaused it. That’s why they took you away. Because you weredifferent...because you were dangerous.” Sally screams.Gaia’s memories take her back to that day when she caused anearthquake.Her neighborhood lies in ruins. Rescue helicopters flyoverhead. Police and ambulances parked everywhere as rescuersshift through remains of houses for survivors.The damage appears to spread out for miles.Gaia stares up at her father who looks at her with tears inhis eyes.“Daddy....I...” she says.He just looks at his daughter and repeats the same sentence.“What did you do? What did you do?” He asks, his voicetrembling.Gaia snaps out of her memory. Her fathers voice still ringingin her ears.“It wasn’t my fault. I couldn’t control it then...I can now.” Gaia replies.“Control what? What are you? You destroyed our homes. Peoplewere hurt...lost everything because of you!” Sally replies.Sally runs from the alley.“What are you doing, I thought we were friends?” Gaia shoutsat Sally.“That was a long time ago girl” Sally replies.“You’re a freek. Nothing more.” Sally shouts as waves for ataxi.“Stay away from me. I never want to see you again.” Sallyshouts.Gaia looks at the car as Sally gets in and it speeds away.A tear rolls down her face.“But I didn’t mean to...” she replies.Back in the recreation room, Gaia sits in the same chairwatching the television. Now dressed in her old clothes.She flicks on a news station.A female newscaster stands in front of a fire engine andpolice cars at the scene of an unknown event.“Experts are still unsure about the source of this seismicevent which is believed to have measured a very dangerous 6.5on the Richter scale.” the newscaster says.Sam opens the door to the recreation room.Gaia leaps to her feet.“But have no explanation as to why the quakes damage wascontained to a single area of this down town...” thenewscaster continues.Gaia clicks the remote and the TV goes off.“What was that?” Sam asks.“Oh. Nothing...just old news.” Gaia replies.She throws down the remote.“Team training?” she asks.“Yeah are you going to make this session?” Sam asks.“You know me. All about the team.” she smiles.Sam tilts his head and looks at her.“Since when?” He asks.“Well. I figured it was time I got more involved. Starttaking this thing a bit more seriously...” she says.Sam smiles and opens the door wider for her.“Besides I’m starting to think that maybe I belong here.” shereplies.She steps through the door.“Glad to have you back on board.” Sam replies as he followsher into the hallway.The end.
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