Bernadette liked Atlanta. It was warm and sunny, and the palm trees made the air smell different. She sat on the bench basking, star-shaped sunglasses blocking the light from her eyes. She checked her watch, and groaned petulently.
Ozzy had said he'd be back by noon, for lunch. It was nearing one-thirty. Her stomach was grumbling due to the fact she hadn't eaten anything since this morning save for the last gas station banana Ozzy had bought two days ago. Dotty knew she wasn't supposed to stray far from the motel, but if there was a store just a couple blocks away where she could steal something. She craned her neck down the street, but the best she could find was fast food. It was easier to steal from stores than restaurants but it was still doable. Especially with her powers.
Ozzy, where are you?
Dotty started down the street, her sketchers lighting up with every step.
Jade had followed the girl from the motel. The little thing couldn’t be even ten years old, judging by her soft face. She had seen her leave the motel room, the one where she’d had intel on the young man they were looking for staying in. Curiosity had outweighed anything else, and she had followed her, down the stairs and out the lobby when the attendant wasn’t looking.
She was curious. None of their intel said he was old enough to be a father. Was she a kid sister? But wasn’t he supposed to have fairly tanned skin? This girl was pale as snow. Though they shared curly black hair, she didn’t have the piercing and haunting blue eyes that were described to Jade. Either way, the girl was very interesting. She’d follow her for the afternoon, at a distance, and see what her deal was before she made any moves.
After all, despite her age, if she was a meta like him, she was dangerous.
So Jade reached into her purse and pulled out her beanie and sunglasses, covering the majority of her cloud of hair and her startlingly green eyes. There wasn’t any other way to blend into the environment, but at least her clothes were picked to be forgettable. A black button-down and a pair of brown slacks, even when well-fitted like hers, were forgettable. The child hopefully wouldn’t be paying enough attention to her.
Dotty kept walking, waiting until she found a spot between two buildings, and took cover there. There were no adults watching or people who would notice her here. She focused for a second and started the stopwatch she wore around her wrist- and became invisible.
Dotty hadn’t yet learned to silence herself, or alter her smell. Ozzy promised to help her learn all that. But for right now she had five minutes before the illusion wore off. She always promised Ozzy she’d be careful.
She entered the cafe and quickly found the kitchen, careful to avoid the workers and costumers, and dippped into the kitchen. Dotty grabbed a sandwich and a bottle of juice, and even took advantage of a loose wallet in the line cooks pocket, and took that too. Ozzy couldn’t complain she found money. She dropped the wallet, no cashless, by the door where it could be found.
Dotty left the cafe and let the illusion drop in the same concealed space and started back to the motel.
Jade had almost lost her and surely would have if it weren’t for the fact she could still see the girl as she moved. A small smile broke out on her face as she watched the girl dip into a restaurant, completely invisible. But of course, that didn’t mean her atoms disappeared. They were still in the shape of her, buzzing away as she moved. So Jade stopped, taking a seat at one of the tables outside the small Americana place the girl had picked and waited.
Sure enough, the girl dipped back out, and she stood from her seat, following her from a distance. She went straight around the building the girl had ducked in and started walking in her direction again. She walked right up to the girl, placing herself between her and the motel. She dropped down, putting her hands on her knees and squatting in front of the girl as she cut her off.
“Hey! You Nick Oscar’s sister? I’m his friend Jade. He asked me to pick you up. I saw you leave the motel and I’ve been trying to find you since. He said he won’t be making it back until really late, so he asked me to come pick you up and make sure you get lunch and dinner today! But I see you already got lunch yourself.”
The lie flowed easily and gently from her lips. Smooth and unbroken, in a way that sounded so much like truth that it might as well have been. She smiled at the girl, with an unthreatening and cheerful grin. Sure, kidnapping a kid hadn’t been high on her agenda for the day, but maybe this would give them the kind of leverage they needed against this kid.
Bernadette regarded the woman with suspicion, and raised a brow. Ozzy didn't really have friends, certainly none he mentioned. Even if she had only been with him a short time. It also didn't explain why he didn't tell her someone would be coming to get her.
She harmlessly stuff her hands in the pockets of her shorts, feeling for her pocket knife. She didn't think that Jade would hurt her, but it made her feel big, especially with the way the woman was crouching down to eye level. Plus, she had...abilities. A way to protect herself no one else had. It made her fearless in the face of these things.
But the woman was nice. Maybe it was the way Jade talked, or the softness of her smile, or the fact so few people had a voice that pretty sounding Ozzy's voice was like sandpaper. There was somthing about her, that made Dotty want to trust her. It could have been as simple as the prospect of a proper dinner.
But Dotty wasn't wholly naive. "He didn't tell me someone was coming."
] “He’s forgetful like that sometimes, isn’t he? But I swear, he sent me to come pick you up. Something urgent came up, and he doesn’t know when he’ll be back today.” Jade kept a cheerful smile as she fiddled with something in her pockets, removing her key ring. She absently played with the keys and the musical note charm that hung from them. There were eight distinct keys, each of which was color-coded near the ring and then had a painted pattern trimming the rest of the key. The music note hanging off was large, a treble clef.
She kept her eyes on the girl’s the entire time. She blinked softly in between statements, keeping herself natural. Jade was one of the best liars in the entirety of Slate, the new and budding organization that she worked for. Obsidian often used her to extract information from people who weren’t cooperating. With her big green eyes and her looks, people rarely realized they were being tricked. Not until it was too late.
But that wasn’t the reason she’d been sent after Nick Oscar. No, that had to do entirely with her abilities. Manipulating and destroying matter, especially in the quantities she could, was considered a dangerous power. And they felt she could handle anything that came her way. Right now, though, her other skill was coming in clutch.
“Say, he didn’t actually tell me your name. Another example of him being forgetful, right?” She laughed, a soft and slightly deeper laugh. Her voice was melodic. It lilted and twanged ever so slightly.
"If you don't even know my name, how do you know I'm the right kid?" Dotty said, sassing back instantly. She had little regard for the authority adults claimed to have. But the doubt had already crawled into her mind and nested there. Ozzy hadn't come back yet...maybe he had forgotten about her. Did he send a friend to her, without even telling Jade her name?
Ozzy was paranoid, but forgetful...
"I don't have a phone or I would try calling...sometimes he calls the hotel..." Dotty said, trying to wrap her mind around the situation. Ozzy rarely did anything without a reason, and was usually good about telling her things. This was unusual. Even if she hadn't known him horribly long, she hated to admit how attached to him she had become. "And uh...my names Bernadette. People call me Dot."
“Bernadette. Well, Dot, I can tell just from that attitude. You’re definitely Nick’s sister. Only his sister would have that much spunk.” She laughed and tipped her head to the side, cocking it like a puppy might. The kid was sharp, but Jade knew she could dance around any questions she might have. And she knew all about the kid’s secret, which meant she wouldn’t be caught by surprise.
Maybe she could use that to her advantage.
She looked carefully around them, then turned to the kid with a strange twinkle in her eyes. “What if I tell you he told me all about how special you are? Would you believe me then? Because he told me a bit about you, just in case I had a hard time finding you.”
She let her bright smile fall into something friendly and natural, something easy. The more at ease she seemed, the more likely the girl was to trust her and believe what she was saying. It was all about body language and tone. Deceiving people was a lot easier than most people assumed it was. You just had to practice it.
Jades answer gave Dotty pause. Ozzy had told this woman she was a meta, what she could do? It was something he had always cautioned her about. Probably from his own issues with what he was able to do. Dot widened her eyes, wondering if Jade knew what Ozzy was.
Dot shifted uncomfortably, and looked at the woman, feeling small, but defiant nonetheless, “I still want to call him…”
She couldn’t help her next question, immensely curious,“Are you special too?”
Jade smiled at Dot. She lifted her hand and flicked her wrist. A series of things happened. First, a stream of water shot from her hand up into the air. It froze, mid-air, still extending from her palm. Then, she cupped her hand and it dissolved into sand in her palm. The sand then dissolved into nothing, returning to the air she had originally manipulated.
She dropped her hand and started to speak again in that almost sing-song voice, “I am. I can change matter itself. I can’t do anything too big, because it’s complicated, but I can do roughly three feet worth of matter, in a cube. It’s very useful. I can make things from nothing. I can also destroy things.”
She paused for a second and thought. Then, she pulled out a flip phone from her coat pocket, flipping it open so she could see the number pad. “Of course we can call him. Why don’t you tell me his number and I’ll give him a call? How does that sound?”
Dotty watched with awe, her eyes never leaving the pretty lady as the elements shifted and changed through the woman’s fingers. It was incredible, and mesemorizing, and quite close to what Dotty could do, but real. Physical. Tangible. Changing reality to fit what they wanted.
“That’s so cool!”
Dotty blurted it out before she could stop herself, and was slightly embarrassed. She often thought she was more mature than that.
Jade pulled out a phone after, reasonably agreeing to Bernadette’s request. That alone made Dot feel…safer. The woman wasn’t exactly trying to avoid rectifying the situation. Dotty gave her the number. “-8972…Is it ringing?” She listened as best she could to the other end, waiting for Ozzy to pick up with his annoyingly deep and gruff voice.
Silence.
Dottys heart dropped an inch in her chest. “Try again. He should answer. He knows it’s me.”
