Cybil (2018) #projectsuper

Chapter 59: Friends In Strange Places

As it turns out, sleeping in the same room hadn't been an easy adjustment for anyone to make.

Everyone woke up in what could be described as a bad mood. Of course, that could have had something to do with the fact that they were awakened by people they didn't even know.

"...on. Wake up!"

The first thing James saw was a girl who looked like a spitting image of her Kara, excluding the fact that she had slightly darker hair (with a few highlights that seemed... Bluish?) compared to that sandy brown he remembered from the previous night.

"Huh... Yes?"

"Come on. You gotta get up, quick! We need to talk to you!"

"We?" James and Elena said, actually in unison.

"Yeah. You've already seen our mom. There's a reason she was so jumpy around you..."

"How did you know about that?" Ty asked, still yawning.

"Do you think that we wouldn't wonder what was up when..." She did a quick head count. "...four fairly random people suddenly are ushered in here. We listened in. Anyways, we're wasting time!"

"Hold up. We're not going anywhere."

The teen twitched nervously. "With all due respect, Miss, we need to move. We'll try and make this fast."

***

Everyone followed her frantic pace to the leftmost room where a familiar face was waiting for them.

"HI, guys." Winnie rushed out between heavy breaths.

"Hi... Are you okay?" James asked out of reflex more than anything.

"It's fine. Long story. Can't breathe without..." he tapped on the apparatus obscuring half of his face.

He looked out of breath, as if he had just run a marathon. In fact, he never carried himself any differently from what James could remember.

"He'll be fine," the girl assured. "The name's Marina, by the way."

"Okay. Why did you call us here?" James asked.

The boy and girl looked at each other. "We know about you, James McDougal."

The man's heart rate shot up as the eyebrows of his companions went up.

"How--"

"Your creation..." Winnie interjected. "...was on TV. You don't remember?"

He didn't, to tell the truth. Considering how invasive cameras had become even back then though, he wasn't exactly surprised that he'd been recorded like that.

"We have something to show you, anyway," Marina held out her hand and produced water seemingly out of thin air and condensed it into a floating ball of liquid above her cupped hands. "See."

Out of the group, Cybil seemed particularly surprised, not that everyone else wasn't. It occurred to him that she probably wasn't given any missions that got her in direct contact with anyone with powers.

Perhaps that had been because this kind of thing tended to stay confined to rumors and whispers instead of being publicly shown off. Perhaps it was Fuller engineering that, too.

He bet on the latter.

"You... You can do that?" The question came from his daughter.

Marina quickly made the water evaporate back into the air. "Well, it isn't perfect..."