Periodic

Chapter 1

Friday. The last day of the week. The day that everyone waits for, but then lasts way too long. At least that was Kate's experience with Friday. Lunch lasted forever, with each minute feeling like hours.

"So," she said, her mouth half full of whatever the cafeteria had set on her plate, "How're your grades coming along?" Kate's dark brown hair was having an unusually bad day and she wished she had spent more time combing it this morning. Luckily, almost no one had noticed the lack of care yet. Besides her first period teacher, of course, who was more observant than she wished he was.

Jack groaned. "I'm barely passing 90% of my classes. The only good grade I have is in World Studies, and I don't even like that class! I don't think I've done a single homework assignment and I still have an 84%!" He exclaimed. His head fell onto the table, and Kate noticed that he looked like he didn't get much sleep last night. Jack's hair was a scrawny mess and his outfit looked like it was chosen in the dark. Kate stifled a laugh, thinking about how rushed he must've been when missing the idea that yellow and red don't go together very well.

"Interesting. I've got straight A's, just in case you were interested," Kate punched his arm lightly, smiling at his look of dismay. Jack groaned again and his phone went off with a cheerful notification tone.

"Huh." He said, lifting his head off the table. After checking his phone, Jack's eyes widened. In a sudden state of panic, he stood up quickly and looked around, "I've got to go... Use the bathroom or something like that." Leaving the lunchroom without saying another word, Kate deduced that he was too tired to even make up an excuse for his sudden departure.

Rolling her eyes, Kate pulled out her phone, as it had buzzed with a notification as well. However, her phone was on silent, so it only sent off some vibrations in her pocket. Reading the notification, she leaves the lunchroom as quickly as possible, making up an excuse about forgetting her chemistry textbook in her locker. Speed walking in the opposite direction (as to not draw unwanted attention to herself), she bounded up the stairs to the second floor. Turning to her left, Kate snuck into the closed women's restroom, shutting the first stall door behind her quietly. The second-floor girl's bathroom had been closed for years, with no one really doing much about it. The school's budget could barely keep up with supplying Kleenex for the second half of the year, much less repairing an entire bathroom that was trashed by a fight in years past. Kate used this to her advantage and made it her personal changing room. Complete with an extra change of clothes, a first aid kit, and a police scanner, it fits all of her... more specialized needs. It was maybe the one good thing that came out of Greenstone High's dwindling budget.

A few minutes later, she emerged from the stall, dressed in the black and white spandex she had haphazardly sewn together a couple of years ago. Despite being surprisingly sturdy, it took forever to put on. Her stylistic choices weren't great for emergency scenarios. She had been trying to get an upgrade for a year now, but her after-school job didn't exactly pay.

Opening up the bathroom window, Kate glanced downwards to make sure there weren't any students ditching class that would notice her departure. Climbing onto the outer edge of the building, she grabbed the footholds she had carved out previously and started to climb. When she reached the top floor, being careful to dodge any windows with students inside, Kate stopped for a minute.

The city was beautiful this time of the year, as all of the trees were beginning to bloom. Greenstone High was in the heart of Greenstone City, surrounded by residential buildings and independently owned shops. There was a park across the street, used mostly by one of the district's elementary schools. It seemed there was a class outside currently, as there were about thirty children slipping down slides and jumping off swings. Her favorite spot was just next door- Jeorge's Malt Shop. The red and white awning signified the ideal placement of kitty corner to the High School. She had friends who would spend hours there, spending $30 a night on shakes and fries.

Greenstone City was known for being just that- Green. The city council took great pride in it's recycling programs, as well as the several citizen volunteer community gardens. On every corner, you could find a patch of ripe tomatoes, a patch of lavender, or a vine of grapes. The general public took as much pride in their plants and garden patches as their children.

Taking a deep breath, Kate ended her moment of reflection, plunging off the side of the High School. The twenty to thirty feet of space between the buildings wasn't exactly difficult for her to cross, but it did take a moment of concentration.

As she braced for impact, she rolled forward and grabbed the burner phone out of her back pocket. Loaded with definitely illegal extensions and scanners, Kate kept it on her person at all times. She was able to create it with the help of a tech-savvy friend, who only programmed enough so that he wouldn't ask questions. It stored information concerning threats, hacked camera feeds, as well as a select few phone numbers for allies she know she could trust.

Pulling up the map feature, she marked the building in question and continued her path towards whatever required her intervention. It looked as if she would be heading deeper into the city, where she would end up being bothered by pigeons and people alike.

When she spotted the burning building a few miles away, Kate bit her lip and started hopping across the taller rooftops. When she arrived at the scene, it was a disaster.

There were several cars that were burning, as was the apartment building Kate noticed beforehand. People were running around, screaming into phones, or just screaming in general. Kate just shook her head. It seemed the firefighters and police on the scene were too busy trying to quell the ever-growing fire to care much about the people who were out of immediate danger.

Climbing down the side of an adjacent office building, Kate dropped to the ground once she was confident she could make a safe landing. Crowd control was necessary if the enhanced were showing up, although it was embarrassing that she had to do it herself. "Listen up!" She shouted, perching herself on top of a parked police car. "You all need to back the hell up! Depending on how long this building has been burning, an explosion is imminent! Not to mention the chain reaction cars would create! Please establish a three block perimeter, or face the consequences yourself."

Amazingly enough, the crowd listened to her. The screaming didn't really stop, but those who were inching closer to the fire had stopped. It was a win in Kate's book, and despite the sudden attention, she turned back towards the building. Scanning the possible entrances, she calculated which would be the best for someone of her weight and size. She didn't want to trigger the collapse of the apartment- at least not yet.

Looking around once more, Kate then plunged into the burning building, leaving the firemen and the crowd behind her. A brief cheer sounded before she was immediately covered in soot.

Smoke instantly engulfed her and Kate began coughing. Heat singed the parts of her skin that weren't covered by her suit, and she frantically patted them out with her leather gloves. Fires were just about her least favorite disaster (right up next to floods), but Kate still forged forward into the flames. Personal preferences couldn't really hinder the task at hand.

The screams of a little boy (or what sounded like one) grabbed Kate's attention as she ran further into the building. Ducking through a burnt doorframe, the scream sounded again, closer this time. She snapped her head around, trying to peek through the smoke for the source of the screams. Rounding a corner, Kate found it, as well as much more than she was bargaining for.