Super Quake

A Funny Thing Happened on The Way to The Alien Crash Site

First step to going undercover. Change your appearance. Remove every possible visual indicator that you were ever once the person you've always been. For Skye that was changing out her combat boots and leather jacket for a cardigan and converse shoes. After a trip to the hair salon, she was no longer sporting her full brunette look, now with hair dyed partially blonde, longer now with extensions. The final touch was a pair of black frame glasses.

Looking in the mirror, putting on green contact lenses, Skye would have preferred the alternative rock chick look. Black hair, jean jacket, beanie, and trashy eye shadow. But a person like Amanda Waller would know all that. Her preferences, her habits, which side of the bed she liked to sleep on. So, Skye needed to be unpredictable.

Blinking a couple times, she got used to the contact lenses and took a step back, admiring her created persona.

"Corey Sutter," she said deciding her new name. "Librarian, extraordinaire."

Walking out of the gas station bathroom, Skye purchased a few cold coffees for the ice chest in her van and a pack of Twizzlers for a snack. She was nearly out of the city now, her destination: The Nevada Desert. But then a smooth going day just had to go south, fast.

Just as Skye was about to walk out the door, two men muscled their way in. Her instinct told her they weren't here for her. Overcast eyes looking past her, dirty clothes, and one was armed but hiding it poorly.

"Why don't you stay inside, sweetie. We won't be long," said the first guy, blocking her exit.

The second guy, the one with the gun, shuffled past the first and made his way to the cashier.

A robbery, Skye deduced.

First Guy was eyeing her up and down with a sick smile. He said nothing and didn't move an inch.

"You're in my way," Skye said trying not to look at what was happening with the cashier.

"Am I?" he said while the robber with the gun was leaning over the register and quietly threatening the clerk.

The armed robber was whispering but... the words rang loud in Skye's ears.

"—the money in a bag or I will shoot you. Now."

Skye knew where the only security camera was in the gas station. The very back and directly behind the register. She hadn't once fully faced it, keeping her head down the entire time. Turning to help meant revealing herself. It meant being seen on camera keeping her head down in a not-so-subtle way and there was nothing more obvious than a wanted fugitive avoiding cameras.

"Please, it's all I have..." said the store clerk.

Skye gritted her teeth. Just give him the money, she internally pleaded. It wasn't the honorable thing to do but it was the safest.

"Please. Just go," said the clerk.

And Skye heard the click of a revolver.

"So, what's a pretty thing like—" the first robber tried to say, before Skye suddenly kneed him in the groin and then sent a quick elbow hit to his jaw knocking him out. The armed robber turned, eyes going wide in alarm, and swung his arm out while holding his gun.

He was about to shoot, and Skye was about to roll forward, ducking under the line of fire like her training taught her to.

But it was like time froze.

And she had all the time in the world.

In an instant she closed the distance between her and the gunman, grabbing and yanking the revolver from his grip and knocking him out with her free hand. The cashier jumped in fright but before he could turn to look at Skye, she was already hurrying out the door.

Skye's heart was pounding.

Getting into her van Skye tossed the gun she took onto her passenger seat and did a double take. The gun was dented. Grabbing the gun again, Skye held it in her hand, her fingers perfectly fitting into the dents. Dropping the gun back onto the seat, Skye peeled out of the gas station parking lot and floored it down the road.

"What the hell is happening to me?" she whispered, looking at her rearview mirror at the reflection of shrinking gas station behind her.

It was when she realized she was pushing 90 for nearly an hour, that Skye forced herself to calm her nerves and ease off the pedal. Checking her GPS, Skye had just finished driving through Kansas City and was in the thick of Kansas State. She had only 16 hours of driving to go.

Around her was nothing but cornfields and flat land for miles. Despite not needing a break, Skye found herself pulling over. In the rearview mirror she could see the rising sun. Its orange glow bleeding out into the fading night sky. Turning off her van and getting out, Skye climbed to the roof of the van to get a better view of the sunrise.

Something was different. She could feel it in her bones. And when the new day began it was like Skye was seeing the sun for the first time.

She could feel its warmth and radiance with every fiber of her being. It was like she could breathe again for the first time in her life.

Closing her eyes, she focused on the feeling. That buzzing under her skin, that boundless energy brimming at her fingertips... and she felt weightless to the world. Untethered to its problems. Unbound to its gravity. And when she opened her eyes, she was flying three feet above her van.

Skye gasped softly, looking down and kicking her feet. She was fully suspended in the air, and it was blowing her mind. There was an almost a delirious smile at the fact that she was flying. No, she thought. Hovering, more like.

Skye willed herself forward and as soon as she passed over her van, she began to softly descend onto the ground. Her feet touched the dirt and the pebbles around her shifted half an inch away as she landed.

Staring ahead at the cornfield in front of her, Skye started to walk into it. She had all this energy coursing through her, and she needed to burn it off. She had to. It felt almost overwhelming. Her slow walk turned into a run and within seconds she was reaching a full sprint, hardly out of breath. But it felt like she was running at a fraction of her top speed. She could go faster.

Pushing her legs faster, willing them faster, she poured every ounce of strength she didn't know she had into her run and tore through the corn field, blasting forward at a blinding speed!

Her shoes became smoke in her wake, and she left a wide line of destroyed cornhusks as she blitzed through them. In an instant she was running out of the field into open land where a river was in front of her, she was coming onto it too fast, but she reacted just in time and jumped!

The ground cracked as she jumped off it and soared straight into the air, into the sky. For a moment of pure bliss, it felt like she could touch the clouds. Then she started to descend, and that bliss turned into rapid concern as she crashed into the ground, dirt and rubble rushing past her as her body drilled into the earth.

Climbing out of the Skye-sized-hole she created, the former ARGUS agent clawed back onto the ground and laid flat on her back.

"That sucked," she muttered.