"So Alycs - what can I do for you?" Peter's hushed voice broke the silence of midnight. "I'm pretty sure you and Estella both didn't just stop by for Greek food and a free AirBnb."

"Or to see the only guy in the universe who knows I can blip in and out like the dude from Jumper?"

The warm fog of the room vibrated with Peter's quiet laugh, yet remained unbroken as Ned snored on. "You know, if you just told the Captain you had that ability... he would've enlisted you without a second thought. No one on Mr. Stark's team would be able to stop you."

"Well." Alycs' voice held that teasing lilt to it, and in Estella's subconscious, she could almost picture the smirk on his face and the twinkle in his eyes. "You've got to play hard-to-get."

They were quiet for a second. Estella wondered if Peter was used to Alycs' jokes, and rolling his eyes - or maybe caught off-guard, and biting his tongue off to keep from laughing out loud. Maybe they were horseplaying like best friends, or comparing prowesses like brothers.

Estella could hear their voices, quietly lulling her to sleep. She thought she caught her name, once or twice, and something about the Speedster of the Sky - maybe a king or a captain? She could feel the abyss of sleep pull at her, and with a grateful sigh, she let it. All other sounds warped into a blanket, wrapping her within its cozy warmth, drowning her in the feathers of her sleeping bag on the couch of the Parker Residence.

*******

Pulsating, actually, like a glowing heart beating in the chest of some great, round entity.

"Trapped, are you?"

Feeling oddly forlorn, Estella extended her hand, trying to catch the light on her fingers, and a blurry shape caught her eye. She paused.

Something shimmered on the underside of her wrist.

10:42

We just want to make sure you'll be happy.

Happy? Is this what they called it?

Silence again – a dead receiver ringing in her ear. Empty, foreboding, lonely nothingness.

***

The bleariness of the morning light greeted Estella when she awoke, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand. Was it just her, or was her skin paler and ...peachier... than usual? Estella felt a foreboding sense of worry prick at her - her skin had been some shade of violet for as long as she could remember, and the absence of it just felt...odd. But surely it didn't mean much. She hadn't met another purple being so far; perhaps the change in colouring might even help her fit in.

Estella moved to free her legs from the tangle of her sheets and promptly fell off the couch with a yelp. Remembering the zipper on the side of the sleeping bag, she dragged it along her side until the navy-blue quilt opened up into a blanket. The teen then flopped back, lying on the ground for a while.

I had the strangest dream, she told the ceiling. I dreamt that it was 10:42.

She frowned.

I...think there was more to the dream than that, but...it's all I remember.

Looking to her right, she peered at Aunt May's coffee table. The wood grains reflected the morning daylight with its dark brown stain and polish, but if she concentrated, she could see a faint blue light pulse from within the table. Maybe there was a switch somewhere for holograms, Estella thought. Curious, she willed her hand to slowly disperse in density - first the fingertips, turning to jello, vapour, some gassy form - then the rest of her arm; swallowing her elbow, bicep, tricep, and shoulder. She sank her arm into the side of the table, feeling around, until her fingertips found a cool, flat object.

But no matter how much she prodded the object, Estella couldn't get the holoscreen to project - perhaps it was broken? A clink sounded from within the coffee table, and she caught the culprit with her free hand.

Well, it was definitely broken now.

"Estella, right?" Estella started, looking around. She quickly pulled her arm from the table, stuffing whatever poor screw she had just pinched off the table into her pocket and making a mental note to replace it later.

"Yeah, I'm here," She popped up from her spot on the floor, finding Peter dressed in a commercial tee and sweatpants a few sizes too big. Seeing him take in the bare couch and discarded sleeping bag, she hastily bundled up the poofy material in her arms and depositied it on its supposed surface. "I, um, rolled off the couch - which is completely fine, you have a lovely couch, I forgot I was in a sleeping bag, but it's not the sleeping bag's fault either-"

"I think what Stel means to say is 'thanks for letting us stay the night'," Alycs said, popping up beside Peter with a bemused smile on his face. Estella nodded quickly, hoping she could sink through the floor in embarrassment, then instantly wishing she hadn't when she sank to her knees through the floorboard. Peter chose that moment to yawn, and Estella quickly pulled herself out of the popcorn ceiling of the apartment beneath them. Alycs looked like he was about to turn blue from laughter.

*******

After a quick brunch, Estella, Alycs and Peter headed out into the streets of New York. Estella only vaguely understood what they were doing - something about needing to take a train because Alycs' jet was compromised, and Peter being a human ticket. For whom, she didn't really catch - they all sounded like a bunch of made-up jargon from comic books rather than the powerful, respected heroes Alycs and Peter said they were looking for. She hoped they wouldn't be as weapons-oriented like SHIELD, and when she voiced her concerns to Alycs, he replied, "SHIELD's just a bunch of curious, powerless jerks. These people are anomalies - like us."

She didn't know whether to be scared or relieved.

Estella trailed behind Peter as they boarded the train, Alycs taking up the rear of their little trio. The train itself was some sort of luxury, cushioned building-on-wheels - there was apparently a bed option as well, but the three of them stayed frugal with a seat-and-meal plan instead. It was cozy, she decided. A better home than the odd man with a love of Fridays and visions had recommended her, although she didn't really want to be one of those people who lived on a train forever. Tony's building was too new and unused to feel like home, but Peter's apartment was too small to accommodate all of them. Estella sighed and rested her head on her elbow, staring out the window as the train slowly crept out of the station.

She just wanted to go home.

"Hey Stel, do you want a pretzel?" Alycs' voice broke her from her reverie, and she raised her head slowly to look at him.

He was holding out a foil bag to her, so casually yet so hopeful with the ever-present spark in his bright blue eyes. Peter seemed to have stopped mid-conversation to munch on the snack, and when he saw Estella pause, he offered her an encouraging smile.

"It's really good," He assured her, before Alycs cut in.

"Wait until you get hot pretzels from Auntie Anne's, though - those are wicked."

Estella nodded half-heartedly, smiling as she dipped her hand in the bag for a handful of little twisted biscuit things, and keeping her smile as she watched the two boys banter and share opinions over the latest science tech and some celebrity marriage - practically everything going on in their lives. She felt a pang of something almost akin to guilt within her, and almost banged her head on the window upon her realization.

"You alright there, Stel?"

Estella looked up at the sound of Peter's voice, eyes wide. In her mind, she was reaching desperately for a sliver of light or information that only seemed to be floating away. It was as if she was underwater or something - every move she made only served to push that little particle further from her hands, leaving the water around her dark and murky. She shook the thought away, trying to focus on the present.

"-sorry, I get it if 'Stel' is a personal nickname, I didn't mean to trigger someth-" Peter was rambling, looking genuinely worried at Estella's frightened reaction.

"It's alright," Estella said quickly when she finally came to her senses, trying to communicate a genuine look of forgiveness with her eyes before looking down. When did she get a chicken salad? "I'm alright. Sorry for making you worry, I was just, um, thinking..."

"About?" Alycs prompted around a mouthful of food. He took a big bite out of his quesadilla, then froze at the same time as Peter.

"Something's not right." The oldest teen murmured, looking around. Estella followed his lead and lifted the corner of the blinds across her window - probably pulled down around sunset, though she hadn't really noticed at that time. It was almost completely dark outside, save for the headlights of the train and cabin lights of the passengers inside.

"We're slower than before," Alycs reported quietly, double-tapping a watch-like gadget on his wrist. "Heavier, too."

"We should go investigate," Estella suggested, mentally patting herself on the back for the selfless hero-esque thought. They had the powers to - at least, Alycs did - and that's what a good citizen with their powers would do, right?

"Good idea," Peter praised her, before pulling some sort of strange mask over his head. "You stay here."

"But I can help!" Estella protested, feeling Alycs' hand on her elbow. She had these powers for a reason, other than lab testing. She took out those aliens, didn't she?

"I- I'm melty!"

Trying to prove her point, she focused on her elbow slipping through Alycs' fingers, then reforming above his hand. She then looked at Peter pleadingly for validation. His mask stared back at her, helpless. He angled his face towards the younger boy, as if to say, your call.

"Fine, okay." Alycs relented, shaking his head of curls as he pulled his hood over his head. "But you follow our lead."

Estella only nodded eagerly in reply.

When they were sure no one was watching, Alycs pulled the three of them to the roof, instructing them all to stay low as not to be blown away by the wind. Estella dug her toes in, unprepared for the gust of wind that sent her hood flying back, nonetheless. Alycs looked like a string bean by how tightly he tied the strings around the front of his hoodie, and Peter looked professional as ever, shouldering a backpack over a sleek bodysuit.

"Two unauthorized cabooses are latched onto the back of the train," Peter called over the noise of train wheels rattling over rail tracks. "I'm going to go take a look. Polaris, get your radio up - you and Stargirl find a way to unlatch those cabooses."

"Roger that," Alycs responded, before pressing a metal object into Estella's arm. She quickly clasped onto it with both hands as not to drop it, then followed his movements as he clasped something onto his ear and began crawling over the roofs of the trains.

"Can you hear me?" The piece that resembled a clip-on earring buzzed on Estella's earlobe, and she almost lost her hold on the train top. "Press the surface to talk back, release to send the message. It's a short-distance tele-communicator."

Estella followed his instructions, trying to think up something witty in response. She settled with, "So you're Polaris?"

"Codenames," came a rather clipped reply. It wasn't really the right time, Estella decided, trying to console the small sting that bloomed in her chest. Still, it did hurt a little. She tried to focus instead on keeping her density just right to stick on the slick train surface.

"The first one is a black market weapons caboose," Peter reported, his line going silent for a few seconds before he sent another message. "The one in the very back has the agents - all armed."

The line crackled shortly afterwards. "Distract the agents; Stargirl and I will disengage the cabooses and obliterate the weaponry vault."

"Copy that."

Estella and Alycs clambered to the edge of the train and peered across at the violators on their rear. Some sort of a grappling hook connected the first of the two trains, and Estella wordlessly dropped down the side of the train at Alycs' direction to increase the density of the rope behind it. Something about the flexibility of the rope, or lack thereof, resulting in the connection breaking at the next turn - a reasoning along those lines.

A hand pressed into her forearm, Alycs looking at Estella with an unreadable expression on his face. Before Estella had a chance to try to decipher his silence, they were in the weapons vault - walls lined with rifles like a gun shop on wheels; wooden crates packed in the crammed space, likely filled with objects of similar destruction.

Estella shivered.

The room reflected with silver cartridges - magazines of bullets spread as wallpaper, visible only by her own violet glow. She flinched as she came face-to-face with a mask - a gas mask, to be exact, beside a crate with the skull-and-crossbones sign stamped all over it.

But the worst thing? The ceiling seemed to be closing in on her, made of some thick, strong metal - merciless as quicksand as it advanced towards her. Her arms felt like they were made of lead, but she tried lifting them nonetheless. The gas had to be solidified, the explosives needed to be neutralized, the people were counting on her. Alycs and Peter were counting on her.

Struggling, she forced her fingers to splay open. The glow of purple flickered weakly, but responded to her adamant command as she pushed for the power to complete her mission. Just like all heroes do, Estella reminded herself as she felt her willpower slipping. The darkness was cornering her now - was it just her, or was her light slowly snuffing out?

Estella sank to one knee. Just one more, she begged her body. Just one more explosive, and we're done here.

Just one...

The darkness swallowed her whole.

Rebooted 8/11/2019