Today was interesting. Amanda was supposed to interview for a new job at George Ford Elementary. Kindergarten teacher of course. When she got there she was told the position was already filled. They needed a sub for a second grade class. They asked her to take it for the day. She did because they were kids in need.
It turned out today was a second grade field trip day. To the zoo. The school gave Amanda nothing just put her in the classroom. She looked around and found a class seating chart. When she took roll call based on that she found two kids in the room who didn't belong to the class. One was from the other second grade and one was a fifth grader who wanted to go on the trip. Amanda met the fifth grade teacher because of that kid. Then she searched until she found the stack of permission slips parents had signed for the trip, thankfully, because one child's parents had specifically stated on the slip he could NOT go because his grades are bad. Amanda wrote a note to the principle saying she didn't know what she was supposed to do with him, folded it, and had the him take it to the principal's office. Finally she had the class get their lunches and line up in two lines at the door. The two kids who fought over who cut who in line she put next to each other. One in one line and one in the other so that way they were both even. She made the lines the same length then told the kids the person they were standing next to was their buddy for the day and they always had to stay together. Then everyone got on the bus. The other second grade class got on a different bus.
One of the kid's legal guardian (we think she's his older sister like how Amanda and I are) knows the class pretty well and offered to join the trip as a chaperone. Amanda accepted because otherwise she would have been the only adult in charge of 24 children.
On the way to the zoo they ended up in the middle of an attack by a super big and super strong villain named Bane (I heard them call him that on tv). Bane grabbed the bus Amanda and her kids were on, putting his hand through the hood and engine. Two members of the local superhero group called the Outsiders showed up just then. He pushed the bus away, which had the same effect as throwing it except it stayed on the ground the whole time.
Amanda called Wind to keep the bus upright and slow it down safely. The other chaperone fell out the front window as the bus moved. Amanda was telling the children to stay seated and keep their heads down and was concentrating on Wind so much she didn't see the woman soon enough to catch her. After the bus stopped Amanda checked the attacker was away. The she went through and checked every child. Lots of the windows had broken. There was glass everywhere. When she was sure they were all temporarily okay she told them to take their buddy's hand and get off the bus. She stood outside the bus's door and counted to make sure everyone got off and directed them to a Wayne State University building near them that had a lobby but was around the corner from where Bane was.
Bunches of people were around watching the super fight down the road. Some stopped and wanted to help when they saw the children. Inside Amanda tended the worst of the children's injuries. Mostly there were cuts and bruises. When done as much as she could she checked and saw the fight was still going on. She told the children to stay together, that she was going to get a first aid kit. She had the bus driver and a few of the people who offered to help stay and watch the children for a few minutes. Amanda ran up the stairs in the building, grabbing a hooded sweatshirt and sunglasses from a gift shop and putting them on as she went to hide herself. She went to the roof and watched for a minute. She didn't do anything at first to reveal herself. She only called Wind to keep Bane from being able to go anywhere. When he picked up a car to throw it she had Wind take the car safely away as he let go of it. Once sure the Outsiders were not able to handle the attacker themselves, she generated Chain Lightning to put him down. Between her and some little Japanese man who pulled out with a martial arts blade the villain was cut down.
Amanda turned to go back to her students when Starburst (one of the Outsiders) flew up to thank her. She was careful not to let him see her face but he wouldn't leave her alone until she said she had other things she had to take care of right then. She went back into the building. She put the shirt and glasses back on her way down and icked up a first aid kit.
Back with the children she tended the small injuries. Then she had them all sit in a circle. First they played duck-duck-goose. For the next few hours they all played games, ate lunch, took a short nap time, drew, and played more games. Amanda dealt with the police while the children ate. She refused to let the police take the children anywhere which she was able to do because she was legally responsible for the children right then. When the police brought up the children needed medical attention she still refused to let them take the children and told them if they wanted any more paramedics besides herself to look at the children they would have to come to the kids. She also had the police talk to the media present to put on tv the message that the GFE 2nd grade class were all safe and for their parents to come to the WSU building to pick them up. The police left one officer to watch over her and the children but none did anything against Amanda's wishes.
As parents came Amanda made each sign that they picked up their child. The woman who has come as a chaperone showed up not too long after the fight was over. Amanda went to tend to her. Amanda was surprised to find the woman had only bruises. She took her younger brother home.
The little Japanese man showed up also to check on the children. Amanda saw he was bleeding. When she tended to him she diagnosed him with three broken ribs. Against his protests of not wanted to go to a hospital she rounded up a couple WSU medical students and turned him over to them to take up to the hospital.
The children seemed to have a good day for the most part. Two had to wait much longer than the rest for their parents. Waiting got hard for them. Amanda held them on her lap and told them stories and sang to them. After one of the two was picked up the other curled up in her arms and fell asleep. Finally that child was picked up too.
Tigress (another one of the Outsiders) showed up during the day to check on the children. She let them ride on her and played a while too. After all the children were gone she spoke to Amanda in private. She thanked Amanda for the help. She told Amanda she knew it was Amanda who had been on the roof because she could smell a faint lingering smell of lighting on Amanda's clothes. She asked Amanda to show up for a meeting with the Outsiders tomorrow to talk about possibly joining the team.
The policeman checked on Amanda making sure she had a way home. There was a musician who had been there for a couple hours passing out CDs and playing for the children who offered to take Amanda back to the school where her car was. The school was in the direction the musician was going. Amanda went with her and the man who helped pack up the musician and drove the van. Amanda was so tired from the day she fell asleep.
At the school they woke Amanda up and dropped her off. She remembered she had left her purse in the classroom. On her way to get it the principal came out to meet her. He said an emergency meeting of the school board had been called due to the events of the day. She turned over the list of signatures of parents having picked up their children. He talked about the parents seeing everything on the new and extenuating circumstances and such things. From the way he spoke it sounded like the school was going to ask her not to come back. Then he suddenly asked if she would take the second grade class permanently. The school board wants her. The parents want her. He told her to take tomorrow off and start on Monday.
She came home tonight very wiped out. All she said to me before going to bed was she got the job and she's got a meeting tomorrow. That must mean she's thinking about joining the Outsiders. I can't wait to see what happens!
We're not sure what the results of the meeting mean. Amanda showed up on time at the location she was told. It is on Bell Island. She wore her Gaia outfit. She met two other "recruits" there, the little Japanese man who is named Caz, and the musician who is named Raven. The three of them were given a partial tour of Outsiders headquarters. They were told some of what the group does and what their responsibilities to the group would be if they joined. Patrol shift, monitor duty shift, and training with the team. The three were accepted on a trail basis. They were each given a communication device so the group could contact them Amanda took the one embedded in a necklace. She's not sure if she wants to join. They haven't really given her reason to, nothing that matters to us and her purpose.
The Outsiders called today. We think they want an answer about if Amanda will join.
We were right. Raven gave Amanda some sort of speech on joining. It wasn't until an odd member of the Outsiders named The Unknown spoke to her that they gave her any reason to join. He was quick to find out Amanda's protective of children streak. He told her that if she didn't join that could mean sometime when a child needed help if they were already dealing with something else they'd be one less member and so might not be able to send anyone. He also told her that if she did join then she would have better means to know when there was a child who needed help. She agreed to join.
While there she planted three seeds in the monitor room to start helping Earth in that location. Raven asked what kind of music they liked so she could play to them during the times she was on monitor duty. Which is often because she doesn't have to sleep much.
Also while there an issue came up that the Outsiders went to deal with. A mutant with powers Very similar to Amanda's except his come from a genetic mutation and are on if not beyond the scale of Metha. He has been stolen from where he was being kept in confinement. He was kept in a status field in a secure location in Detroit because he had killed a bunch of people in a fit of anger. He was being confined in status until his trial so he could be conditioned to stand trial without hurting anyone else. His keeper was a mutant with telepathic abilities. She was using them to calm him and try to find a way to keep him under control when he was taken out of status.
Starburst sent a handful of others to start some plan. Then he took Amanda/Gaia with him. They visited the place the mutant had been held. The idea was to see if Amanda could figure out how to track him. She thought it might be like if she had to track herself. Which she had never done before so she wasn't sure if she could.
At the location the keeper told Amanda and Starburst that the mutant was dangerous if not contained because he always reacted in anger when he went to a place where Earth was hurt or sick and his anger caused big destructive effects. Amanda demanded to know why the mutant wasn't simply taken to a place on Earth that was still clean and healthy where the mutant would be happy. That way no one would have to worry about him snapping. The keeper said that this country won't let him go without legally answering for his crimes.
Amanda asked to see his containment area. They saw that his status chamber had been completely removed. Probably to take the mutant without having to take him out of status and so not have to face his powers. Amanda was very surprised to find the place immediately around where the mutant had been kept was completely clean, pure, Earth was perfectly cleansed healthy. She loved the feeling, of course. After she enjoyed the environment for a while she started looking for... anything. She reached out to the plants his keepers had placed around him for help in figuring out what he was like. They responded stronger than she expected. At first it was overwhelming, almost painful. She covered her ears and closed her eyes tightly to block out all other inputs. She acclimated to the sensations the plants were sending her to make out what they were trying to tell her.
They told her the mutant and his keeper spent a lot of time together. He and the plants liked when she visited. Amanda felt the shift in their feelings whenever the keeper left. It was like sadness. Once there was a time when Earth below him felt pain. He got angry and everyone around hurt with him and Earth. Amanda felt the pain too and had to scream. That passed. Then there was a time when things got very confusing. There was lots of pain and fear and anger. Strangers had come. The mutant's only concern was for his keeper's safety. The strangers fought and took the mutant away. The mutant didn't know if his keeper was okay. The plants couldn't tell Amanda any more after that.
As Amanda came out of her contact with the plants she began to hear Starburst yelling her name. It sounded quiet at first but quickly it sounded like he was right next to her. Suddenly she heard several crashes from all around. She opened her eyes but was blinded by the sudden light at first. Then she realized there was an arm around her waist. As her eyes adjusted she saw she was in the air being held by Starburst and Starburst had the keeper surrounded by a protective force field. She looked around and saw everything in the room was out of place as if tossed around. A lot of the items were broken as if dropped from a height.
Amanda immediately began setting back up the plants in their proper locations. She spoke as she worked. She told Starburst and the keeper that the mutant had not been completely unconscious during his time in status. When Amanda looked up at the keeper she had to hold back the feelings she had received from the plants that the mutant felt for the keeper. Amanda promised she would help as best she could find the mutant and bring him home. The keeper was genuinely worried. It seems the keeper and her charge have developed a bond beyond friendship with each other. Amanda felt completely fine about the mutant being forced to stay at that location. He had purified it so he could live there. And he had someone there too.
Starburst asked Amanda if she thought she could track the mutant. Amanda felt she had enough of a sense of him that she could if she was close enough. Starburst told Amanda they had to get back to the rest of the Outsiders. Amanda didn't want to leave the healthy area of course. Starburst made her. She felt sick for a while afterwards as she adjusted back to living with the normal level of pollution that is standard around here.
After Starburst and Amanda left she told him more of what she had learned. She told him the mutant was going to be Pissed if he woke up. She said she didn't think they would have to worry about the kidnappers if the mutant woke up before he was found because he'd likely kill them without a second thought. She said she could only think of two ways they could possibly calm him enough to keep him from using his powers blindly when they found him. One was to let him know the woman is alright and safe. Starburst seemed surprised at that. Amanda told him about how the mutant and the plants felt about the keeper. That they liked her and they missed her whenever she left. Amanda also told him she believed when he used his powers as they had been told he did that he was not acting to intentionally hurt anyone but that he was simply reacting to Earth's pain by trying to cleanse and heal Earth in that location.
When they got back to Outsiders headquarters The Unknown told everyone he had gotten a lot of information and had set up a trap for Havoc Six which is the group that stole the mutant.
While the group waited for the time of the trap some groups members went to do other things and some others arrived. One of the members that showed up was someone called Twink. He had a holy water bowl from a church and a poor box next to it and was dropping coins into the box while listening to the sound. He explained he was trying to hear the pleasing noise but it didn't sound quite right. Amanda explained to him as best she could the process of donating money to people who needed it, not like them, and when he felt good doing that was when the noise of the money sounded pleasing.
Starburst used the computer to do some things. He wanted Amanda to use it too. He had it create a 3-D holographic image of the Earth and asked Amanda to use that to find the mutant. Of course she looked at him like he was crazy. She informed him that the image wasn't Earth. At his look she told him she couldn't use that or the computer. The image wasn't real. The computer isn't natural.
Starburst seemed unhappy she couldn't just know where the mutant was now. Amanda said there wasn't a way for her to do that but there might be another way. She left them without telling them anything more and came home. She asked me if I had felt any other bond, anyone else like her except stronger. I haven't. Nothing odd or new or anything. She explained to me he's a mutant. So while his powers are like hers they don't come from the same place. But she said he's on the same level as Metha. That is a very scary thought. Earth revoked powers on that level for a reason. We all know the story and the lesson. She told me not to worry because he only acts to do right by Earth. We shall see.
After helping me finish washing dishes she went back to the group. She told them the other way didn't work. Starburst thanked her for trying. Suddenly she had an idea of another way to possibly find him. She asked Starburst if the computer had sensors, scanners of strong a kind. Both he and a woman replied yes. The woman startled Amanda because Amanda couldn't feel her existence. She was about to be okay with what she assumed was another holographic projection by the computer when the woman actually touched Twink and was able to affect his hair. Starburst said the woman was a high powered light projection. Her name is F.A.L. Amanda couldn't deal with the existence of someone who didn't exist. She went to her seedlings in the control room. She found the light had been changed over the pot to be perfect for the plants. She grounded herself by helping them start to grow. They responded as usual, happy, eagerly in a place that needed them, and sending back warmth to Amanda. She didn't let them grow too much, only about an inch above soil level. After she was centered and the seedlings were satiated she turned around to see Twink's head floating over her shoulder. That scared Amanda for a moment. But it was the shock of the surprise that scared her. After she got over that she was okay with Twink being able to separate pieces of himself. It explained the leg she had seen under the table earlier. She had to assure everyone she was fine. She understood his power. Beyond that he actually existed and she could feel that as with any other living creature, so she had no problem with him. He said he was happy because she had deep roots and he didn't want to upset someone with deep roots.
She went back to Starburst and the computer, ignoring F.A.L. She said her idea was to have the computer scan over the Earth and track pollution levels. If there were any places where the levels dropped too quickly to be natural that was likely where the mutant was. She believes the mutant is not free because if he was he would return to the place he cleansed and where his keeper was.
Twink wanted to test his other power on Amanda. A dry run. He has the ability to move from one place to another instantly. He can take others with him sometimes. He was worried it might have side effects on Amanda. She agreed to test it. There were no problems. To Amanda it didn't even feel like she had left. She was in one place and then she was in another. The change of location didn't bother her either. Apparently most people get at least a bit disoriented by the experience. Twink really liked that Amanda wasn't bothered at all.
The time to go after Havoc Six came. The idea was they were contracted for a hit on a man with mob connections. The Outsiders would wait for Havoc Six to go after the man, stop them, which would make Havoc Six retreat, and then the Outsiders could follow them back to wherever their current headquarters were. Things went mostly according to plan. There was a man who wasn't part of either team that just happened to be around when everything happened. He flushed out one of Havoc Six. Then Twink took everyone inside the building to where the member who was going for the kill was. When she saw the outsiders she vaulted over them and out a window where another teammate of hers was waiting to take her away.
Tigress pounced on the flier. She drew blood but was shaken off. Amanda wasn't expecting Tigress to jump out the twelve story window after them so she couldn't catch Tigress. Instead she had called Wind to catch the two enemies, keep them from being able to fly or go anywhere. Then suddenly she felt two small impacts and lots of pain. She looked down to see she was shot in the right shoulder and the left hip as she sank to the ground. She didn't quite give in to unconsciousness but she couldn't do anything for a moment either.
Suddenly she heard a child scream. Then she realized she was hearing a bunch of people scream and looked out the broken window to see a bus go by really fast. She fought against the pain to flew over to see the bus so she could call Wind to catch the bus before it hit the ground. She saw Twink had already caught it and the people were getting out. The members of Havoc Six were gone. She flew down to a grassy spot under a tree to rest. She asked over the group communicator if the team was following Havoc Six as was the plan. She was about to ask Earth to help remove the two bullets from her when Tigress as a Siamese cat showed up and somehow healed her slightly. The healing pushed the bullets out. The Tigress left with Twink and two others to follow Havoc Six. Starburst came over to her and asked if she was okay. She said no. He picked her up before she could finish her protest. Surprisingly he felt warm and exactly like the Sun's rays hitting Earth. He took her to the group's military jet. The computer woman was there also. She ran some tingling feeling scans on Amanda. Then she turned on some device that was around the bed Starburst had put Amanda on. The feeling Amanda got was just like when she helps plants grow but in reverse. After a few minutes she felt better. But she is still pretty hurt. She can sit up now and move around okay but she's still in pain.
Tigress and the others were able to follow Havoc Six and get the information from them the Outsiders were looking for. Starburst and Amanda followed a short while behind. They ended up in one of the bad parts of the Rouge river area. He asked Amanda to cover the jet's presence. She had them fly over the river and created Fog along the way. Then they waited for Tigress and the others. They had to do so with the door open in case being quick became important. In that area even just breathing the air is enough to make Amanda cough and queasy. She asked Wind to keep the air from moving into the jet. F.A.L. took a great liking to Amanda for that. Havoc Six told Tigress the last known location of the mutant. They gave latitude and longitude coordinates that correspond to Area 51. Amanda informed the team that was the location. She's not at all pleased about that. The government has, or had, the mutant is a bad thing. Just before the team left Amanda brought in Rain to clean out some of the air in the area. Unfortunately things are so bad there it won't last.
Amanda is starting to take this issue very personally. She feels this mutant is a kindred spirit. She's worried about him. And about Earth. She has no idea how Earth reacts to him or thinks about him. This mutant can do... I'm not sure Amanda cares much about that right now. She wants to find him and help him. I think she feels it like she feels her responsibility to Earth.
This could go very bad.