"Sir, this is Agent Hill. There's been a live package received in port three. What should we do with it?"
Turning from his stationary view of two dozen computers, a tall cloaked man pressed his fingers to the comm in his ear.
"Tranquilize it." He instructed, then hesitated. "We'll figure things out from there. Can you identify the package?"
There was a pause, before Agent Hill responded, "It's a young girl - she looks uninjured, but a fall from that height should have killed her. Should we bring her in?"
"Your call, Agent Hill." The man answered, and although his voice was nonchalant, his interest was definitely piqued.
"Alycs, do you copy? Prepare a room for a possible super."
A brief silence, then the comm responded playfully. "No please?"
"Alycs."
The boy on the other line huffed before replying, "Fine."
*******
In her fall-induced haze, Estella saw a group of people walk towards her with a stretcher. Who are you? She wanted to yell, but her voice wouldn't obey.
She felt them reach down to pick up her body, and in her fear Estella began to liquidise. The shouts of shock and surprise faded away as Estella slipped through the gravel, sinking like water through rocks.
Unlike her fall from the sky, Estella's fall to the floor below her was a lot more painful and she was certain she at least fractured her wrist. Maybe broke a limb or two, too.
A bout of dizziness ensued this thought, and Estella only had time to groan weakly as a pounding migraine attacked her skull, forcing her eyes shut.
Behind closed eyelids, Estella felt the presence of another person as they picked her up and carried her to another surface, flat and cool against her back. She willed herself to liquidise again, but found she had no power. In her panic, pain and exhaustion, Estella fainted.
***
White. Bright. Blurred faces, indistinct voices, numb hands.
Estella floated in and out of consciousness, often hearing a boy's voice argue heatedly with a female's. After a while, the argument died down and Estella could hear the boy huff. Either in annoyance or anger, she couldn't tell.
She cracked her eyes open slightly, just in time to see a needle touch her wrist. Estella tensed, but the needle was gone as soon as it was there, replaced with the sound of a male groaning. The boy barked out a laugh, and then Estella was being wheeled away on what she presumed to be a gurney.
A wave of tiredness washed over her again, and Estella let herself fall unconscious.
When Estella finally came to, she found herself alone in a dark room. For a fleeting moment, she panicked, scrambling to a sitting position, and filling the room with an unearthly violet glow.
Then the door opened, and the lights flicked on.
A boy appeared in the doorway, one hand balancing a plastic tray and the other a glass of water.
"Careful with using your abilities." He advised without so much as a glance up as he set his tray down and began rearranging the items on its surface.
Finally realizing he was talking to her, Estella blinked. "Pardon?"
"We already know you hold power." The boy replied, raising his head, and displaying a set of storm-blue eyes beneath his fringe of curly brunette hair. "And, as all powerful agencies go, they'd want to harness your power for their benefit."
Estella wrinkled her nose slightly at this. If not for the utter seriousness in which he spoke his words, she would have thought he was just trying to trick her, or tease her in some twisted sense.
"Who are you?" Estella asked, her voice coming out slightly accusing. The boy inclined his head at her, as if bemused.
"Alycastrum." He answered, lifting a hand for her to shake. "Most people just call me Alycs."
Estella blinked, wondering how she was supposed to reach his hand, when suddenly his form flickered, reappearing inches away from her face. Shrieking, she lifted a hand and slapped him across the face.
"Ow..." Alycs winced, rubbing his cheek. "You good?"
"You're too close!" Estella squeaked, stumbling to get away from him.
"What, you can't do that too?" He asked, taking a step back just as quickly.
Estella gave him a frightened look. "What...what do you mean?" She asked.
Alycs waved aside the question, trying to make the most of his time as his tone turned urgent. "What's your name?"
"Estella?" Her voice pitched into a question unintentionally as an unfamiliar woman decked out in navy strode into the room, causing Alycs to spin around.
"What are you doing, Alycs?" The stranger asked, her voice stern and professional.
"Uh, just checking up on the-"
Alycs never got to finish his sentence as he was interrupted by a high-pitched yelp, followed by the unmistakable click of a safety lock switching off a gun.
The tall, bald one-eyed newcomer only had time to gape in surprise before his weapon flashed violet, and dissolved into a dark puddle of acidic gloop in his hands.
Shouting as the corrosive liquids seeped into his palms, the man sprang backwards in horror. The woman grabbed a glass of water from the table and doused his hands, working to remove the acid.
"Bad move," Alycs murmured over his shoulder to Estella, pointing out her glowing fingers. Eyes widening, she held her hands out in front of her and tried to force them out of their purple state.
A clatter sounded moments later as the gun reformed on the ground, shattered to a handful of deformed metal pieces across the floor. The noise startled the two adults slightly as they looked up from the reddened gashes on the man's hands.
The man then straightened, his face contorting into the most intimidating glare he could manage with one eye.
"Alycs, get out."
Alycs crossed his arms defiantly, shifting slightly on one foot. "That's the furthest I'll go." He said, refusing to budge. The woman at the door rolled her eyes, but made no other move to kick him out. Estella briefly wondered why - the two adults seemed to be in a position of high authority and power, and Alycs so easily saying 'no' could get him in trouble.
But there was that way he carried himself, even to those taller and older than him - like he owned the place...
"Who are you?" The eye-patch man asked gruffly, snapping Estella from her thoughts. She shivered internally at his tone - an equal mix of frightening and dangerous.
But it was not his intimidation nor his eyepatch that freaked Estella out the most.
It was the desperate twinkle of greed that set her off.