magnetic ◊ criminal minds

xxxix.

xxxix. the longest night
( season six, episode one )

LOS Angeles' current traffic was horrible. Impossible to navigate through. To even think about getting the traffic lights going again, Lyra needed to get to the electrical power plant. The only other hope to get the city-wide power back on was for it to be done without her help, and she did not have her money on that happening.

It had at least half an hour by the time they were finally able to get through traffic and to the power plant. It was blocked by high electric fences.

"How are you going to get in there?" Rossi asked.

Lyra gave him a deadpanned look. "Doesn't the car have built-in bolt cutters?" she signed. Rossi stared back at her. "I'm kidding." she walked right up to the fence and, using her powers to augment her physical strength, simply broke the chain that kept the place blocked off. She gestured for Rossi to follow.

"Remind me not to challenge you to an arm wrestling match," he joked dryly, checking his phone to see if there was any service yet. There was not.

"Now, whatever happens, do not touch me unless you're sure it's safe. And do not bring me to a hospital," Lyra signed.

"Until I'm sure it's safe?"

"Until I'm not glowing blue. You'll know." With that, she turned and placed both her palms against the main generator. She started to glow blue as she generated electricity. She was uncertain how well this would work - she was just one person, powering an entire city. Even if she was an Omega level mutant, she still relied on energy. While her ability to generate electricity, as well as her sheer power, separated her from other mutants with electricity-based mutations, she was still only capable of so much. She had only tested so many of her limits.

Lyra could usually draw on other sources of electricity without any problem. But if she had to power the entire city of LA for the entire night... she did not know what to expect the outcome to be.

Slowly, the city regained power. Rossi was quick to try his phone again, trying to contact either Reid, Morgan or Hotch.

Powering the entire city of LA was not an easy task. Not in theory and certainly not in practice. It was exhausting, generating all that electricity. When she was formulating attacks, using this electricity on herself or a few others, that was as easy as breathing. Even powering an entire building, even one as big as Stryker's lab, for example, that was still easy. An entire city, especially one as big as Los Angeles? That was a lot, almost too much.

Like anything else, it took practice to use mutations. That was why, when mutations first develop, usually in the teenaged years, destruction and accidents usually ensue. It was like riding a bike, only a bit more complicated. Lyra had never practice powering an entire city, which made this all the more tiring.

"Did you find them?" Rossi asked when he got Hotch on the line. Morgan had not answered.

"Spicer's sister is gone," Hotch stated.

"And Morgan and Spicer?"

"Apartment manager says no one's been in or out since the power went down," Prentiss said.

"Is Lyra okay?" Hotch inquired.

Rossi glanced over to Lyra. "For now," he replied.

"Morgan said they were coming here, right?" Kurzbard said to Hotch and Prentiss.

"And he was a lot closer than any of us," Hotch confirmed.

"Something must have changed," Prentiss said.