TW: Being held captive, bombs, brief mention of murder, brief mention of guns, thunderstorm, being electrocuted, amnesia, small panic, brief implication of a deadname, jumping out of a window, devastation from a bomb, a few swear variations

I was surprised to find myself chained to a wall. I looked around, my first instinct being to escape. My hands, feet, and torso all had metal bars around them, and I felt like a target on one of those spinning wheels. In front of me were three armed guards. I called out to them. "Hello?" All three immediately pointed their guns at me. I tried to put my hands in the air, although it was kind of hard with the whole chained up thing.

The first one spoke in an oddly charming voice, giving me the chills. "Do not try to escape, Charger" she spat.

I furrowed my brow. "Charger? Who's 'Charger'?" I asked the person. 

The second one laughed, sounding much like a hyena. "Who's Charger?" she said mockingly. 

The third one didn't say anything, instead, she got out her radio and said in a raspy tone, "We're ready"

At this point I was kind of starting to panic. I tried to calm myself down, and something came to my mind.

"In for three, hold for three, out for three. Imagine a triangle. Each part is one side. Then keep making those triangles until you're calm."

I wasn't sure where it had come from, but it sounded like good enough advice, and pretty soon, I felt better.

At that moment, a girl walked in. I blinked a few times, trying to take her in. She was short, maybe 5'7, and had fair skin, and freckles. Her bright red hair had flowers mixed throughout it, and she had some sort of mask made of daisies. Her dress seemed to be literally made of assorted flora, and it came to her elbows and knees. She was also wearing some scuffed up silver high-tops, and they shimmered in the light.

She looked up at me with an odd expression, part hatred, part confusion, and part something else I couldn't place. I decided to make the first move. "What do you want with me?" 

The girl responded, and I smiled, her voice being as sweet as honey. "No Charger, what do you want with me?" 

I frowned. "There it is again, 'Charger'. Why does everyone keep calling me that? It certainly can't be my name, my name is..." I trailed off. "Well, I'm not sure right now, but I doubt it's not something as insane as Charger!"

The third guard went over to her, and the two started a whisper conversation. After a few minutes, the guards left the room. I was left alone with the girl. "You really don't know?" 

"I guess not," I replied. "What should I know?" 

She sighed. "It's... complicated."

We stood there— or at least she did— in silence. "What's your name?" I finally asked her. 

She chuckled. "Something." 

I smirked. "Something? Almost as odd as Charger." She frowned, but got a strange look on her face, as if she was having some sort of internal conflict. Suddenly, plants rose out of the ground. This was odd, there didn't seem to be anywhere they could have come from, and it was even more crazy for them to grow so fast. They made their way into my chains, and I fell from the wall with a thud. She held out her hand, and I took it.

 "You can call me Florita."

I smiled. "A pretty name for a pretty girl." She blushed, then gasped. 

"Wha- what's that on your arm?" I looked at it. It was pretty smudged, but I could make out the first two letters. 

"Vi." Something clicked. "That's my name, or at least part of it." 

Florita smiled. "Nice to meet you, Vi."

A tendril snaked over to one end of the dungeon, picked something up, and brought it back to where we were standing. It seemed to offer the pile of things to me. I picked them up, and discovered they were clothes. "Your current clothes seem to be a bit, uh, weathered." I looked down at myself. I was currently wearing an incredibly torn... spandex jumpsuit?

She turned around, and I put the new clothes on. I did a little "Ta-da!" and the girl's face lit up. She held out a hand mirror that she had gotten from another plant tendril, and I used it to look at myself.

I was a bit taller than her, maybe 5'9. I had pale skin and brown eyes. My brown hair was in a bob and had indigo streaks in it. I was now wearing a lilac shirt with a dark purple geometric pattern, and light blue jeans. To finish it off, I had black boots that cut off just below my knees.

"One last thing." She held out a pair of purple gloves with a lightning bolt on the back. I put them on hesitantly. "Why..?" I asked. 

"Just trust me."

For about the third time in three minutes, we stood there in silence. But instead of one of us breaking it, our stomachs did. She looked around, as if she was going to tell me a secret. "I can get out of here, and we can get some lunch." she whispered. 

I smiled. "That would be great!" She was just about to walk out the front door, when I heard something. I pulled her back.

"What was that for?" she asked. I rolled my eyes, it seemed obvious. 

"Someone's coming up the stairs. Since I was chained up, and that you were whispering, I'm probably not supposed to leave. Anyways, the third screw from the top of that window and the second screw from the bottom are loose. If I can unscrew them, I can pry open the window, and you can make a ladder out of those plants. You do control them right?" 

She looked at me, awestruck. "If not, I can jump out." I walked over to the window. "If I curl myself up at a 47 degree angle after three and a quarter seconds of falling, I'll land without hurting myself.*"

She blinked. "Yes, I control them. But how do you know all this?" 

I shrugged. "I'm not exactly sure." She didn't protest though, so I went through with the plan.

When we got onto the ground, she grabbed my hand, and led me through what I thought was a city. I couldn't really get a good look at my surroundings, so I stopped, and Florita stopped with me.

"What— who—" I looked around. It looked like someone had dropped a bomb on the city. There was rubble and smoke everywhere. Despair seemed to radiate off of it. Florita sighed sadly. 

"That's a story for another time." We kept going.

Finally, we reached the back door of some place. Florita knocked in an odd pattern, and a girl that looked just like her, but a few years older, opened the door. The new girl smiled, then her expression turned to terror as she saw me. Florita made some hand symbols that I assumed to be sign language, and the girl's expression softened. "This is my older sister, Sky. She runs this restaurant, and we can eat here in the back." Florita said. 

"Thank you," I said, and Florita translated it into sign— at least it seemed that way.

The kitchen was small, but there was space for us to sit. Sky handed us some pre-made sandwiches, and we chomped away. I gasped, Sky could cook! After we finished, I turned to Florita. "So... do you know who I am?" 

"I, uh," she stammered. 

"Answer truthfully." I said, glaring at her.

She sighed. "Kind of. But I can't tell you."

"What?" I yelled. 

"I need you to trust me. I can't tell you." I was about to yell some more, but then I noticed her expression, as if it pained her not to tell me. 

I let out a soft, "Ok," and we kept talking.

✺✺✺

As I sat back in my cell— for that's what it was— I thought about Florita's reaction. I wasn't sure when she would tell me, so I decided to take this into my own hands. I re-opened the window, and jumped out, hoping I wouldn't splat. When I didn't, I smirked. I remembered seeing a public records office just five minutes away, so I made my way over there.

When I reached it, I knocked on the door. A twenty-something year old woman with purple hair greeted me. "Hi! What can I do for you today?" 

I took a deep breath. "I'd like to see all birth certificates from seventeen to nineteen years ago."

"Alrighty!" She said, and led me through the building.

 I frowned. "Uh, why are you taking me to the records?" 

She looked at me quizzically. "Because you asked?"

"But isn't this illegal?" 

She laughed. "Of course! But it's easier on the plot to do it this way so..."

I blinked. "Plot?" She didn't respond, and kept going.

After about five minutes, we got to a filing cabinet. She looked through it, and pulled out a large stack. "Here ya go! Let me know when you're done." I looked down at the stack, a few hundred pieces of papers. It was kind of weird, recording lives on paper sheets but I needed to find mine.

After an hour I found it. I blinked, looking at it. It felt wrong, but I knew it was mine. I sighed, and went over to the woman. "Where did this person live?" 

She grabbed a piece of paper off of her printer, and pointed to a red dot on it. "Here. And take this map." 

"How did you know I wanted a map?" I asked, curious as to where this woman got her info. 

She made some jazz hands, and replied the same as before, "Plot!" Then, with a pop, she was gone.

This was odd, but I didn't have time for this. I looked at the map, it would be about a thirty minute walk to the house— my house.

✺✺✺

I knocked on the door first, I didn't know if I still had family living there. But no one answered, kind of like I expected. I opened the door, finding it unlocked. The kitchen and living rooms were covered in dust, but something drew me down the hall. I felt like I had walked this exact route a million times. At the end of the hall was a room. It felt important somehow...

...But it was the bathroom. The room next to it though, seemed much more promising. There wasn't much there, just a few books, a viola case, and a scanner on the desk. I smirked. I went over to the desk, and put my hand on the thing. A monotone voice came out of nowhere. "Charger- Identified." The floor started to sink down, with me on it. Something about this felt normal, so I didn't freak out.

When the floor stopped, I stepped off of the platform, and it rose back up. I looked around. The place was dark, but familiar. It almost seemed like home.

But before I could check out the area, alarms started sounding. Nothing was blinking on the large monitor screen in front of me, so I wasn't sure where it came from. My question was answered quickly though, when twelve guards and Florita appeared here. I focused on her expression. She looked angry... and scared. "Back away from the device, Charger." she said.

"Wha—" Five guards went over and grabbed me. 

Florita looked down. "I thought you had changed. I thought you were telling the truth!" She started crying. I struggled against the guards, and I slipped out of their grasp.

I ran over to her, and put my hands on her shoulders. "Florita, what are you talking about?" 

Tears still running down her face, she ran over to a tarp. She pulled it down, revealing a machine with a glass ball in the middle and four metal rods surrounding it. "Remember?"

And I did.

✺✺✺

I finished up my adjustments to my machine, humming my evil theme under my breath as I went. Suddenly, the door flew open. I smirked. "Florita! How good to see you," I greeted my arch-nemesis. 

"Charger." she said, in a tone just as nasty. 

I chuckled. "Have you come to stop me?" 

Florita sighed. "No, I'm just here for a spot of tea— what do you think I'm here for?"

"Ah yes. Anyways, behold!" I ripped the tarp off of the machine. "The Lightning-Bomb 3000! Soon, this baby will destroy the Steropolis area, and like a phoenix, New Chargaina will rise from the ashes!" 

"Nice metaphor," noted Florita. 

"Thanks," I said. "I was actually going to name the city Phoenix, but some random place in Arizona had already taken it."

Florita looked me in the eyes. "Please, don't do this." 

I laughed. "There is nothing you could say to stop me."

"Alright, Viola." 

I faltered. "Wha-What?" 

She gave me a soft smile. "I did some digging, your preferred name is Viola, correct?" 

"Y-yes." I stammered out. "Why would you even look for that?"

"You know, I was told to kill you on sight the day of our second fight. But I didn't. I couldn't. I've always tried to give you the chance to turn to good— and I had a reason. I don't want to fight you. I want you to be on my side. And heck, you'll probably kill me for saying this, but I love you Viola."

"I love you Viola." The words swirled around in my head. "I love you Viola." "I love you Viola." I realized why I couldn't kill her. "I love you to—" I was interrupted by my AI, Di's warning. 

"Three minutes towards explosion."

"Crap." I muttered under my breath. "Florita, get out of here." 

She looked at me. "Um, as a superhero, that kind of defeats my purpose. No." 

"FLORITA, GET THE FRICK OUT OF HERE!" I yelled. She looked startled, so I tried again. "This thing was supposed to go off right here. I was supposed to jump out and start heading to a safe spot to hide from the damage. And I can try to stop this, don't worry." Florita blinked, and started to run. "At least one thing is safe," I said to myself, and stepped outside.

Because it was called the Lightning-Bomb 3000, it was supposed to storm the city with lightning. I could try and stop it, obviously, I didn't have weather powers for nothing. I tried pushing the bolts into the clouds, and it worked, but it was a slow task. I suddenly thought of something. I could at least redirect some of the bolts in my direction, so the city wouldn't be annihilated.

I saw five or six rise up, and I tried to prepare myself for when they crashed down on me. I took a deep breath, heard a CRACK! and felt everything fade to black.

✺✺✺

"Yes." I said in a small voice. "I remember now." Florita blinked, and walked over to me. I smiled, and put my hands in hers. "I remember what happened." 

"The whole part?" she asked, her voice full of hope and pleading. "

The whole part." I leaned in closer. "May I?" I whispered.

 "Yes."

As I kissed her, her costume melted away, and she became Emerald. According to the guards, she was just wearing a black T-Shirt, a green shirt with suspender straps, and brown leggings.

But I didn't care whether she was the superhero Florita or a plain girl, Emerald. As long as we were together.

*Those are just numbers I made up, don't jump out of a window!!

Thanks for reading!

Lol, funny thing is, this is my second 1st person amnesia short story. (Remember Transportation?) And again, it's about 2.6k words.

Please comment on any spelling or grammar mistakes that I made, as well as your general feedback. I want to make my writing better!

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Have a great day/night!

-Pencil