The sirens wailed, filling her ears with a sharp screech. They rang with a pounding sensation. A group of shaded figures stood at the top of the smoking skyscraper. A tall, burly figure shoved a smaller person closer to the edge, pointing a gun at their head. 

Pressure suffocated Celia, and she had to take deep breaths to remain conscious. She knew she had to act fast, or everything would fall before her eyes, and it would be because of her. But she couldn't make herself move, she couldn't will her body to take a hesitant step forward, into the smoke, into the fire, into the darkness.

It would be seconds before the person was dangled over the edge of the building on a rope and the villains had retreated back to their headquarters. But now was the chance to stop them- now was the chance to catch them once and for all.

Celia forced all of her energy, her rage, her passion, and her fear into her legs and she took a running leap off the edge of the building, using her telekinesis to remain airborne as she hurtled through the sky.

A sharp thud knocked the breath out of her as she smashed into the side of the skyscraper. She forced herself to look down at the crowds of people gathered below the building. A scream resounded as Celia slid farther down the building. 

She took a deep breath and forced her telekinesis to carry her to the surface of the tower, where she spotted two hooded figures and a man with an alarming mask on his face in a jet black body suit and combat boots. 

"Well, well, well..." the man rasped. "Ivory Wing, is it?"

Celia nodded and took a step forward, which was her first mistake. The man shot a bolt of electricity straight at Celia's chest and she tumbled backwards, her head hitting the concrete beneath her with a bang.

The electric current rippled through her veins and she willed her charred body to stand up. Raising her hand, she ripped a giant slab of concrete from the building and hurled it towards the man, but he held out his hand and the slab stopped in midair, just inches in front of his face. A news helicopter circled around them with a camera pointed out the window.

"Ivory Wing facing off against a new supervillain!" Celia briefly heard.

Celia backed away from the man, taking a sidelong glance at the captives hunched together, leaning hopelessly on the rail. "Let them go, and nobody gets hurt."

Celia immediately scolded herself for trying to reason with a villain. It was the WORST thing to do in a situation like hers. But Celia couldn't bring herself to throw the man and his gang off the building, which is exactly what her father would want her to do. 

She couldn't.

She just simply couldn't.

But as another bolt of lightning whizzed past her head, she found herself lunging into an opportunity. She jumped onto the man, pulling him over the rail of the skyscraper, and he was so taken by surprise that he didn't fight it. He relaxed in her arms, as if he thought it would be his last fall, and he wanted to enjoy the last few moments of his plummeting life. Literally.

Celia's plan wasn't to crash them both into the ground and splatter them into Celia-and-villain pancakes, put rather to put the man into a state of shock and then pull them up with her telekinesis and fly the man to the nearest police office, where he would have no other choice than to surrender.

But of course her plan backfired, and when she desperately tried to pull them up with her telekinesis she found that the man was too heavy even for her powers, and even though her attempt slowed them down a little bit, when they hit the ground, Celia felt her tolerance shatter into a thousand pieces, and she barely managed to stifle a scream as an agonizing pain erupted within her. 

She rolled over on her side and moaned in pain, but whispered to a bystander to call the police before she felt her consciousness begin to slip away. "Don't let him escape." 

And then everything turned black.

When she awoke again, she was laying in a hospital bed, hooked up to an IV. She heard a steady beep in the background. Her arm was wrapped tightly in a cast, and we she moved it, she couldn't help but flinch at the pain.

The TV was on, and it was playing a boring show, so being bored and all, Celia reached for the remote and flicked to the news channel where it was playing a recap of her "epic" save.

"Ivory Wing, a young superhero, (rumors have it she's only 15) has pulled off a remarkable rescue! Tackling the leader of a supervillain squad off of a 20 foot building and falling into the street, she managed to keep herself and the villain alive! Police rushed to the top of the building where, unfortunately, the other villains had escaped, but the captives were safe and unscathed! Ivory Wing is currently in the hospital with a snapped femur and a broken arm. Thanks to Ivory Wing for saving us once again!" 

Celia flicked off the TV, feeling confident in herself, and layed her head down on the pillow to take a nap. 

The next few days were a blur, nurses poking and prodding and fans surrounding the hospital trying to locate where Ivory Wing was staying. They had no success due to the protective nurses leading the crazed fans away from her room. They had even posted two security officers right outside her door to keep intruders out. 

Her family and close friends were the only ones allowed in the room due to privacy issues, but they didn't bother to show up. After all, her parent's main focus was being superheros. As a superhero family, they weren't very close.

The only visitors she got were two of her friends from school, (which she rarely had time for) Nathan and Alice. Being a superhero was a difficult occupation, and not one that she would've chosen, that is, if she had the choice in the first place.

"Why did you do it?" 

"Do what?" Celia replied.

"You know, tackle a guy off the roof of, like, a one-hundred story building," Alice retorted, fidgeting with a fashion magazine in the corner of the hospital room.

"It was 20 stories."

"So not the point," Alice snarked.

"What Alice is trying to say is, we don't know why you did it. We know you don't like to hurt people." Nathan explained.

The truth was that Celia had no idea why she did it herself. And that's what she should have said, but instead, "I had no choice."

"Of course you did, Celia, and if anything had gone differently, that man could have died!" 

"You wouldn't understand," Celia sighed.

"Oh, yeah?" Nathan said. "Try us."

Celia opened her mouth to fire back a reply but nothing came out. Thankfully, she was saved from the awkwardness when the nurse came in to check on her.

That night, Celia dreamed of having a normal life. But she couldn't imagine what it would be like. Because she had never experienced it. And she never would.