Steps

Step 18.3 Despair in the South

Leah awoke in pain, so much pain. She couldn't quite open her eyes all the way, but that was a lesser issue it seemed. Her nose burned, her arm burned, and something about her face just felt wrong. Things started coming back to her, slowly at first, then like a rushing tide. The trembling, the orange and green man, getting hit in the face, Hartley, the green smoke. Had she not been in such a world of pain, she would have sat straight up.

The ground she lay on was hard. Cold and hard. Slowly running her fingertips across it, she tried to take in as much of the world as she could, eyes be damned. There was the soft hum of a computer, hard clicks of agitated typing, and cars whizzing by in the distance. And...scampering. Scampering? Definitely little feet scampering around her. What in the world was going on?

"I see you moving." An annoyed voice came from her left. Leah let out a breath of pain as she tried to open her eyes again. A huff, the popping of knees, then soft footsteps approaching her. Leah winced as she felt hands graze the sides of her face. Something was yanked from the back of her head, pulling some of her hair with it.

"Ow!" Leah hissed. Her hand flew up to the back of her head as light flooded into her left eye. The right one still remained dark as she winced. "What the fuck!?"

"Calm down, I didn't hurt you," the voice snapped back.

"You ripped out my hair!"

"What, Cisquito doesn't like his partners kinky?"

Cisquito? Cisco? Leah struggled to open her left eye again to take in whoever had it out for her hair. That sounded familiar...Cisquito...But from where? Ugh, her brain was not working at all. As her vision came to, she began to be able to make out a very familiar frown above her.

"Hartley?"

"No, Thor. Of course it's me, stupid. I saved you from Mirror Master, remember? Or did you hit your head too hard when you fell over?"

"YOU THREW A SMOKE BOMB AT ME."

"Nice little aerosol mix, right? Works really well." Hartley offered a hand to pull her up into a sitting position.

"NO, IT'S NOT NICE!" Leah sighed as she took his hand and sat up. The world turned and her vision blurred a little bit as she adjusted to being upright again. Where was she? Inside...somewhere...the room was dark and dirty. She looked toward the windows on her left and saw a sliver of sunlight cascading over the neighboring buildings. So, she was in the heart of downtown it looked like. The adjacent building had the right age and character and judging by the old fireplace across the room, so did this one. So, downtown Central City. Or at least she hoped Central City. "Where are we? Why am I here?"

"Where we are isn't important. I need your help."

"What?"

"I need. Your help. What, are you deaf too?" Hartley moved his hands quickly, holding a thumb up and cupping his fist with the other hand. The gesture made no sense to her.

"No! I-" She caught on her words, thinking before speaking again, tone wary. "Why do you need my help?"

He paused for a moment and took a deep breath. "My...sister..."

"Your...sister?" She repeated his words, trying to understand.

"Don't taunt me," he huffed.

"I'm not taunting you! It was a question!"

Hartley turned on his heel and walked back to the computer...laptop she saw now. A laptop on a cardboard box with two folding chairs. What was this place?