Hailey Storm
Now

I listened as Anne explained her plan.  I was not in love with it; it was risky and dangerous, and the people who were most in danger were people I cared about.

I wanted to like it- I liked Anne well enough in her persona as Network- but her scheme seemed like the sort of thing that could only be dreamed up under the influence of a head injury and strong narcotics.

“How is this a good plan?”  Apparently I was not the only one who remained unconvinced.  Both of the brothers looked troubled, but, as usual, Evin was the one to give voice to his concerns.

“We need to regain the initiative,” Network answered promptly.  “We’ve been on the defensive in every single encounter with Magnum Opus and she’s thoroughly trounced us.”

She ticked off the instances on her hand.

“First, she one-punched Apollo into unconsciousness.

“The second time we encountered her, she trashed your home, threw you all around like rag dolls, and escaped with a portion of Apollo’s blood- for what purpose, we don’t know.  I also note that was the only time-” she paused for emphasis- “the only time that she was so much as scratched.

“Pyrite saw her later that same night, we think, and she’d laid into a couple cops- again, without receiving an injury or even being slowed down.

“When she attacked last night, she brought friends.  This represents an escalation, by the way- up until last night, she’s managed to pound us all flat entirely without support.”

She drew in a breath, refocusing herself.  “Like I said, we need to regain the initiative.  Ever since our first encounter, Magnum Opus has demonstrated that she is powerful, uninhibited, and aggressive.  If we wait for her next move, her next attack could be the escalation that turns these encounters lethal.”

“I’m with you so far,” I said, “but I’m still not understanding how all this means that we should walk into the lion’s den and offer her our throats.  Why not just teleport her away?”

“Apart from the fact that she’s already demonstrated that she can counter magic?” Anne asked, arching her eyebrows.

I shrugged.  “Sure, if she’s ready for it,” I shot back, “but she didn’t stop us last time.”

Network paused.  “That’s true,” she admitted slowly, “I may be totally off on this, but I get the sense that she really doesn’t have any powers until she sees them, which could work out to be an advantage for us.  Does that fit with the facts?”

I grimaced.  “Not entirely.  When she shut me down, she used magic-”

“But you’d already used magic,” Anne reminded me.

I nodded.  “Sure, but magic is about more than just power; it’s about skill, too.  She not only copied my powers-” I guess that facility with magic could be called a power; I wasn’t comfortable with it, but- “she had to copy my skills as well.”

“I could do that,” Pyrite noted absently.  I looked at him disbelievingly.  “Well, not exactly- I mean, I don’t know if I could ever do the real bibbity-bobbity stuff,” he admitted, “but I could learn the skills in pretty much nothing flat, given adequate research materials.  Who says Moe couldn’t do the same?  Or that she didn’t just copy my powers and extrapolate from there?”

“I think we’re straying,” Anne put in.  We turned back towards her.  “Let’s assume, for the moment, that we somehow did manage to teleport her away.  If we did that to you, Hailey, would that stop you?”

I snorted.  “It wouldn’t even slow me down.  I could teleport right back- oh, I get it.”  It was obvious when she put it that way.

“What if I just- I dunno- teleported her into a star, or something?”  Evin looked sick, so I went on rapidly.  “Look, if she’s as all-powerful as all that, we don’t really have a choice, do we?”

“No,” Luke said.  His voice was low and I almost didn’t hear him.  I turned to object, but he held up a hand.  “Look,” he said, “they’ve got my sister- don’t you dare think I don’t care about that- but we can’t go in planning to kill them.  We’re better than that.”

“But we’re not so good we won’t risk a little girl?” I shot back.

Sophia touched my arm.  “If we’re doing this,” she said, “I’m watching Sadie.  I’ll kill anyone who tries to hurt her.”  She looked at me.  “You know I can,” she added and I nodded my assent.

“I don’t think we have much choice,” Anne admitted, “and I don’t think we have much time…”

*****

Hailey Storm
Then

The first time I consciously channeled magic through my body, still untutored, unpracticed, and uninitiated, I sought to do something simple- something I thought would be fun and pretty and not too taxing.  I created a flower.

Understand- I did not summon a flower from elsewhere; I made the flower out of the primal energy and proto-matter that exists in a potential state just beyond the fringes of reality.  I toyed with the raw, unfettered power of creation- and it nearly destroyed me.

I think, if the spell had failed, I might have given up right then.  The thing is, it didn’t fail- although I wasn’t really aware of it at the time.  The energy the spell demanded was torn directly from my own life force and, upon completion of the spell, when I released the lines of energy and force, my battered soul and weary body collapsed.  I slept for two days solid on the floor of my room; I didn’t get up for food or drink or even to move to a more comfortable resting place.

Eventually, I managed to break out from my lethargy and I dragged myself into the kitchen.  I found the ice cream in the freezer and devoured nearly half-a-gallon in a single sitting.  The combination of sugar and protein roused me- or, perhaps it was the indigestion- and I finally managed to pull myself together.

Dragging myself back into my room, I nearly crushed my creation.  I hadn’t seen it until just then.  Growing out of the center of my room’s floor was a delicate flower.  The leaves looked vaguely reminiscent of a rose, wide and tapering to a point, with serrations along the edge while the stem was thin and tall, with sharp spindles that broke away as it climbed, promising to lacerate an incautious hand.  The blossom, though- that was like nothing I’d ever seen before.  The outer edges of the petals were a deep, royal purple that faded to a thunderous gray as they approached the stem.  The very middle of the blossom was black, but tiny threads of golden-yellow, like lightning, seemed to spark out from the ebon center, usually terminating within the gray portions of the petals, although occasionally reaching further.

“Stormblossom,” I whispered.  I was young and, quite frankly, in awe of what I had done; I wasn’t thinking of a great name to be handed down through the ages- although, to be honest, the flower did look a bit like the heart of some violent, dangerous tempest.

It’s funny.  It’s been years, but that flower- that graceful, fragile, beautiful bloom- has proved remarkably tough.  It’s lasted through bad relationships, rough moves, and my own intervals of poverty, and I still have it.  Later, after I’d rested and transferred my eponymous bloom into a hastily purchased clay pot, I settled down and carefully read over my Grandfather’s notes.  I discovered how truly dangerous- many would have said impossible- an act of creation is.  I also learned that there were things I could have done- and would certainly need to do in the future- to protect myself.

Having established beyond a doubt that magic was real- and that I could wield it- I created my phylactery.

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"So, Lady Quantum," says I, "how good a botanist are you?"

Obviously, I like to give my artists challenges.  Lady Quantum had to design the flower from bits and pieces of images, brush in details, and then merge everything in photoshop- not an easy or reasonable task, but, then, I simply adore giving her the opportunity to be awesome.

This part of the story- more of Hailey's background- was a lot of fun to write, and I loved getting the opportunity to develop a bit of her history in more detail.

This picture- and all the artwork for Shooting stars- is brought to you by the amazingly talented and lovely .

Shooting Stars is an epic tale (okay, maybe that's pushing it, but I've always wanted to call something I wrote an epic) taking place in  and will feature characters by , , and an appearance of Esau by .

Network, Pyrite, Apollo, Will-O-Wisp (mentioned), Magnum Opus (mentioned) all belong to .

Hailey Storm belongs to .

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