Issue 2 - A Man called Siphon

Rosa Troya moved through the security door and hustled toward the elevator as quickly as she could, her thick black hair in waves and tangles.  She hadn't spent enough time on it this morning to look presentable, but she had a new client coming in this morning, a time before she'd normally be in.  

As she reached for the button, a slender man, probably about her age or a little younger, pressed the up button.  Looking up, her eyes met his for a moment, before he looked away somewhat shyly.  He was a well dressed young man, a nice clean-cut appearance.  For an instant, the thought passed through Rosa's head: I hope this isn't my client; he's got date potential.  She shook the thought off.  Now was not the time for romance.

"Sorry," the man said apologetically.  

"No, no problem.  Thanks for hitting my button."  Great.  That sounded like a cheesy come-on.  Looking down, Rosa shook her head and smirked a little.  The man chuckled with her.

Turning, he met her eyes as they waited for the door to open.  It wasn't a tall building, but the elevator seemed perpetually to take far longer than it should to traverse a few floors.  

"Mason.  My name's Mason Simms."  He held out his hand in a friendly manner.  Rosa took it.  

"Rosa Troya.  DOCTOR Rosa Troya," she corrected herself.  Just to let him know, if he was her client, that she was the psychologist.  He'd be more likely to recognize her name if she added her title.  

"Psychologist?" he asked.  Her heart deflated a little.  

"Yes, that's me," she admitted.  "You've heard of me?"

"No," Mason said.  He nodded his head to the office directory posted next to the elevator.

"Oh, yeah," Rosa said, smiling what she thought must be a really silly grin.  "Forget about that thing sometimes."

Finally, the elevator dinged, and the doors opened.  Mason hung back and waited from Rosa, so finally she scooted in and he followed just as the doors closed. 

"Floor?" Mason asked.

"Four."

"Yeah, me too."  Mason hit the appropriate floor, and the elevator was off.  The trip up was as slow as down, and when the car finally arrived on the proper floor, the doors refused to open.  

"Great," Rosa lamented.  "Are we stuck in here?"  She tried pressing the open button several times to no avail.  Suddenly, something slammed against the door, hard enough to make a triangular shaped indentation. The slam startled both her and Mason, but not as much as the gun shots that followed.  Both instinctively moved back from the door.  

"What the hell?" Mason asked, looking nervously at Rosa.  Before she could comment, the door began to wedge open; outside was an old man in attire suited better to the early 1900's than to the modern world.  His eyes glowed with a red light.

"That is NOT a good sign," Mason said to Rosa, unsure of what to do.  He had no chance to respond further. 

The man waved his hand and muttered "Sleep," and Rosa watched in surprise as Mason dropped to the ground.  She was also feeling sleepy, but she had a trick up her sleeve that she hoped would get her out of it, as well as help her figure out what was going on.  

Closing her eyes and concentrating, Rosa's form began to spark, and finally burst into a raging human lightning bolt in blue.  

Warpcharge looked over at the old man, waiting for him to make the next move.  Her trick had worked; her electric form was not subject to whatever had effected Mason.  "Well?" she asked the strange rescuer-turned hypnotist.  But before he could answer, more gunshots in the hall outside slammed into him, knocking the man back from the elevator doors.  

Warpcharge used another trick she'd learned in the past few days.  By manipulating static energy, she'd learned to push or lift physical objects at range.  She used this power now to force the elevator doors open the rest of the way, and strode into the hall. 

"Aw, come ON!" the officer behind her, a young African American woman, moaned.  "Another freak?"

Rosa turned to reassure the officer.  She turned very slowly.  "It's alright, I'm on your side."  

"That's great, lady, but I don't see no badge.  Stand down while I cuff him!"  

Rosa looked back at the man in anachronistic clothing; he didn't look quite ready to be cuffed.  As if to reinforce that fact, the man lifted his arm toward the officer and voiced the word "Siphon!"  A reddish glow began to flow visibly between the officer and the man, and the officer began convulsing as a result of whatever was being done to her.  Her gun fell to the ground beside her, unheeded.  

"That's it, pana!"  Warpcharge threw a bolt of energy, as light as she could at first, at the officer's mysterious attacker.  He stopped the drain on the woman, but it did not seem to incapacitate him.  Warpcharge was unfamiliar with how these blasts effected people, and figured it was better safe than sorry.  However, she was definitely sorry now.

The mysterious old man raised his hand and threw a sort of purple blast at Warpcharge, and she flew back into the hallway wall.  The hero saw spots before her eyes and her head began to swim.  

Okay, you want to play? Rosa thought.  Let's try something a little stronger.  Rosa had trouble raising her arm to aim the bolt, but at this range, she'd learned she could project the energy from her eyes as well.  Rosa let loose with her most powerful shot, sending the old man flying back down the hallway.  Turning, she saw the officer struggling to her feet, weapon in hand.  

"Freeze, both of you!" the woman shouted, but the strain in her voice was obvious.  

Turning back to her opponent, Rosa was shocked as she watched him run down the hall and hurl himself through a plate-glass window.

Rosa flew down the hall after her opponent.  The officer, whose name was Green, according to her name tag, dropped her gun to her side, realizing she wasn't really sure enough about the electric woman to be comfortable firing at her.  Dammit, she thought.  

Warpcharge thought something very similar as she flew out into the Chicago sky.  Searching left to right, she saw no sign of the attacker, only a flock of birds.  Realizing Warpcharge was probably no longer needed, she swooped back down to the grounds of her building and used her static powers to carry a bag from her car to the bush she was hiding behind.  Rosa's clothing had been disintegrated by the transformation into Warpcharge.  Fortunately, the young hero had experienced this before, and anticipated it by preparing a change of clothes.  

A few minutes later, Rosa, wearing a similar suit to the one she'd been wearing when she met Mason, ran onto the 4th floor to see Officer Green talking to Mason Simms.  The two looked over as the stairwell door opened. Mason was visibly relieved.  

"Thank heavens! I thought he'd taken you!" Mason said as Rosa approached.  

"He, um, no.  You fell asleep but then there was this electric woman that came in through the elevator's emergency exit.  She flew me out, and I told her to go back for you but she never did."  Rosa did her best to avoid non-verbal clues to give away her lies.  Officer Green might have studied such details.

"Your glowing friend got caught up in a weird firefight between me and the Siphon guy," Officer Green said, gesturing through the broken window.  "Both of them went out that way."

Siphon. Rosa mulled the name over in her mind. It was a good a name as any, she supposed.  

Looking at her watch, she realized her new client was about to arrive.  I'd better catch him downstairs and see if he wants to reschedule or meet somewhere else.  I'm guessing the police will have this floor locked down for a while, my office included.  Rosa turned to leave.

"Hey, we need to get your statement," Officer Green called out.  

"Can you have someone take it in the lobby?  I'm waiting for a client," Rosa paused by the stairwell door.  Green nodded.  Rosa turned, but was stopped again, this time by Mason.  

"Can I call you?" he asked.  

Well, Rosa thought, this might have potential.  She walked out the door and shouted back "Call my office!"

Issue 1 - One Day in Chicago

Rosa rushed out of her office building in Lincoln Park, holding a pilfered newspaper over her head to avoid drenching her thick black waves of hair.  The 30-something Latina (Ecuadorian, to be precise) was wearing a smart skirt suit and a pair of Manolos she'd rather not test against whatever chemicals were in Chicagoland rain these days.  Fortunately, the psychologist's car was parked streetside just a block down.  

As Rosa opened the door to her Prius, a thunderclap made her jump.  Looking up into the sky, she noticed the dark clouds had rolled in quickly from the Southwest.  Ah, Spring in Chicago, she sighed internally as she started her car and pulled into the early afternoon traffic on Halsted.  Making her way to Clark, she turned north and headed toward her place off Montrose.  Traffic was miserably slow, and the rain wasn't helping.  Helplessly, Rosa Troya watch from inside her car as the rainstorm turned into a full-blown thunderstorm.  

"Great," Rosa said out loud.  At home, Leonardo would be losing his fool mind with the thunder.  Last time, she'd lost a couch this way.  Rosa knew it was useless to lay on her horn in frustration, but she did so anyway.  Cathartic, she reminded herself.  As the stoplight went out for good, Rosa dropped her head, as if to say "really, world?"  She reached over in her seat and grabbed her phone, checking e-mail and social media.  That's when the car behind her hit her, doing about 30.  The noise of screaching metal filled the air outside, and people in traffic and buildings nearby looked excitedly to see the latest incident.    

Since Rosa had her wheel prepared to turn, her car slammed right into a lamp post, which cracked and dropped onto the hood and roof of her car.  The phone flew to the floor.  "Aye," Rosa uttered, pain shooting through her shoulders and chest from the accident.  Unbuckling her seatbelt, she reached the door handle and pulled.  Rosa didn't notice the static causing her hair to separate as she stepped out of the car.  All she knew is she was angry, and planned to give the idiot who'd hit her a piece of her mind.  

As (bad) luck would have it, at that same instant, a particularly strong lightning discharge was coalescing to strike the very light post that had just fallen on Rosa's car.  As Rosa put her foot on the ground, the events of the day conspired against the successful psychologist, and a lightning strike hit the already electrified hood of her car.  The shock sent Rosa through the air and across the street, her feet slamming on the hoods of parked cars before she landed against the side of a building.  

Fortunately for Rosa, she had a peculiar genetic history.  As the electricity discharged from her body, her cells, rather than burn, changed.  A cool blue glow surrounded her for a brief instant, the rain sizzling against her.  

An instant later, Rosa awoke, and wondered if anyone got the plates on the bus that hit her. Then she remembered it had been a truck, not a bus, and it was still sitting there. Standing, she began to march toward the truck...and that's when she realized everyone was staring at her.  Looking down, Rosa saw that not only was her skin still glowing in a fluctuating blue light, she was walking across the air three feet off the ground. 

Acting more on instinct than anything, Rosa thought back to the days she hadn't been a respected psychologist and businesswoman, when some people prefered to judge her based on what she looked like, not what she knew or what she could do.  Swooping into her car, Rosa, still electrified, put her Prius into reverse and maneuvered around the light post, quickly throwing the car into drive and flooring it down the sidewalk of an east-west street, away from the scene of the accident.  

Fortunately, the driver of the truck that had rear-ended her was not about to call the police, and she'd managed to avoid causing damage to any other vehicles.  Her adrenaline supercharged, Rosa didn't stop the car until she was well away from the scene.  Only then did she pull over and relax.  Assessing the situation, Rosa came to two immediate perceptions.  First, she was still glowing blue, static sparks flying from her skin.  Second, she'd basically melted all the internal plastic in the front seat of her Prius.  

Getting out of the car, Rosa heard the rain sizzle against her.  Occasionally, another small bolt of electricity would arc toward her, but the small lightning bolts felt like the soft touch of a child.  Rosa's feet were on the ground now, though she found it easy to levitate a few inches over the pavement if she wanted.  Moving in any direction required similar concentration.  

Her mind raced.  What was going on?  This was like an action movie or something.  Looking side to side, she saw the side street around her deserted.  Sighing with relief, Rosa tried to put events into perspective.  Okay, she thought.  I've just fled the scene of an accident, but I didn't cause it.  I've probably committed a couple misdemeanors.  Hopefully, no one near the scene had their phones on record.  I might be in the clear, and if I'm lucky no one identified me.  

Wait, another side of Rosa's mind brought its own opinion.  Why do you even care?  You need a hospital!  If you'd just stayed there, the ambulance would have picked you up by now, you wouldn't have any chance of having a warrant, and you'd likely be fine tomorrow!  

No, Rosa countered in her own mind.  Even if that were so, it's too late now.  She had very little moral wrong in the situation, and at this point taking punishment for being hit by a truck and turned into a freak seemed pointless.  Besides, she considered.  If no one knew who she was, maybe...maybe she could keep it that way.  And just maybe, her conscience spoke to her, she could do some good.  After all, most people couldn't do...this!

With that, a bolt of power flew from Rosa's arm, and slamming into a nearby garbage can, sending it flying into the yard behind.  Looking down at her hand, Rosa realized she could extend the electicity to variable distances, from a few inches all the way to across the street.  And then there was the flying.

Slowly, Rosa rose into the air.  She found she was afraid to go much higher than 10 feet or so above the street, but she instinctively knew she could if she wanted.  Realizing she needed some time to consider the situation, and also that the inside of her car wouldn't take her driving all the way home, Rosa fly off down the street toward her condo.  The sensation was amazing.