Your name is Jade Harley, and there's been a little something wrong ever since you came to this new universe.
You remember when you used to hero. It was such a wonderful time, donning that outfit and feeling sharp as ever. You remember the sound your boots made as you walked out down the streets, or the way you could float up, or how your fingers glowed green when you were actually able to shrink matter and move things with your own will, without any effort. Honestly, you miss it -- you miss the faint tingling in your fingers and working alongside your friends and helping everyone out. It's truly been heartbreaking, not seeing the real figures that used to be in front of you, now only faint images at the back of your mind.
All of them -- they used to be there with you, there for you, there working with you.
But not anymore.
However, things just aren't the same without being able to hero.
Admittedly, you sometimes put on your old outfit and look at yourself in the mirror. Sometimes, it's empowering and you actually can feel like you can do some damage. Well, with your guns -- but those aren't really something you like to pull from under your bed for people in the city to see. On the other hand, you can't do anything with your powers, considering the lack of the GREEN SUN being around to help out with that. The remaining shards embedded in your own body that gave you your powers are the only things left, and they aren't even strong enough to even lift anything bigger than an apple or to float anything more than two inches from the ground.
But you --
Your name is Jade Harley, and you're good with science and determined to get back on your feet as a hero.
You remember your grandfather and all he stood for as a hero. You remember the fact that he would risk his own life and experiment with things, if needed. After all, all that science-y knowledge you picked up from him had to be put to good use somehow or another, right?
Which is exactly what you were doing.
You'd been studying things -- so many things. How to create artificial substances that wouldn't be harmful to the human body, how to null things so they could be injected into one's bloodstream without any or very few harmful side-affects. There were studies that involved you experimenting with small amounts of chemicals that turned various colours -- some smoked, some coagulated, some did very strange things that you weren't even able to describe. All of this was done in the makeshift lab you managed to set up in the corner of your bedroom, secretly attempting to create something you needed --
Something you thought would work --
Something that might beworth it, in the long run.
Because god, what you wouldn't do to be able to fly and do things that you used to do, when you were back in the city, right upside John and Dave and Rose. Those moments where you four as a team would successfully beat someone or something and go back to John's Dad's bakery, where there would always be fresh slices of the best cake sitting there. It was like your own personal dog treat, and you ate it up with such fondness, snow white ears perked up and the brightest smile on your face because you were blessed with such beautiful friends and such a happy life. Until Jack got closer and tore everything away from you -- before you had to run, to get away, to go into this strange land where you were nothing but a street rat working your way up to an apartment and clothes and food with three jobs and no sleep until you were able to cut it down to two that you really enjoyed and could actually work with.
But this thing -- this concoction that you were making and testing out --
It was artificial GREEN SUN.
You were sure it would be successful. It had to be. There was no other way it could go wrong, it's own shade of green so impeccably close to that of the real thing, from what you remembered, blinding to your eyes with an image that was burned at the back of your mind, white hot and searing until it exploded, those pieces entering you and staying locked within and giving you that canine sense that took so long to get used to, that fearful puppy dog look upon your face for weeks.
But this had to work. Of course, you'd test it inside and at home -- alone -- so you, yourself, would know all the consequences that may come with it. So you could know what it feels like, how long it lasts, what all you can do, if you need to up the dosage, etc.
So you started out simple, a sterile needle inserted into a sterile bottle full of the shockingly green liquid that looked eerily like it had come out of a horror film or something as equally cheesy. No, this was no Frankenstein story or superhero film, it just happened to look like it.
You never really were a big fan of needles, but you dealt with it as you slid it past the skin in your thighs. One to each, you thought -- that'd be enough to deal with and do something, right? It was like a simple shot, free of sting besides the slight prick of cool metal that made your ears flatten back against your skull. You just disposed of them properly as you waited for the effects to take over or to see if anything felt strange.
In which, it didn't.
Things felt totally normal, besides that slight boost of power nudging at the back of your mind. Goodness, do you remember that feel as it took over you, eyes sliding shut for a moment toreallyfeel it before jotting down in your journal that it took 3.41 minutes to fully feel it and sink in.
Then you tried it --
You tried lifting something bigger and it moved without much more than a flick of your wrist. Maybe you shouldn't have been so eager to move the toaster because it just whacked into the side of the fridge before clattering to the floor and spilling crumbs everywhere. Gosh, you were really out of practice.
Flying, on the other hand, wasn't as bad as moving and shrinking/enlarging objects. It was more simple, touching the ceiling, perching on random places that you normally wouldn't have even attempted to crawl up on. It made you feel empowered, watching the clock to see how long this all lasted.
You sat and focused for ages, for days, for weeks, practicing moving and resizing objects and flying and even attempting to do things outdoors because you finally felt the urge to go out. You were confident with everything, and you loved it. It brought that smile back to your face that had been gone forweeks.
And being as comfortable as you were --
Even if that clock said 31.45 minutes were all you had --
You promised yourself that next time someone needed help, that a hero needed to be there, you would do it.
And you would do it with style and finish within that time frame.
