Tiger Lady

Training Season

Camp Lookout, April 10th, 2025

Bria and Arthur arrived on an orange bus at the campsite. The night was dark and eerie. The large oak tree stood tall, with its branches reaching out over the night sky. The wooden cabins could be seen across from the tree, giving a nice view of a beautiful motherly tree. The camp house had its lights on, greeting guests in. Arthur handed Bria some kind of mutant toxin in a syringe and said, "Bria, I want you to have this."

"What is it?" Bria was shocked, thinking Arthur was selling him drugs. "As a kid in school I was taught to say no to drugs."

"This is no mere drug." Arthur explained. "This is a super soldier serum designed to give you powers that I will run through with you so you can learn how to use them and control them." Arthur was about to poke the needle in Bria's arm.

"Hold still, this will hurt more if you move." Arthur held Bria's arm steady and stuck the needle in it, letting the green slime mix with Bria's DNA. Her DNA was enhanced and her molecules were rearranged, giving her powers like none she had seen before. She dashed at a quick speed.

"We need to train you on your powers." Arthur instructed. The training session began.

"First off, the dash." Arthur held a stopwatch in his hand. "Dash and hit the tree within ten seconds." Bria gasped.

"Ten seconds?" Bria complained. "That's not enough time!"

"Nonsense." Arthur replied. "With the dash, you can strike the tree in record time!" He hit the stopwatch and it took Bria 21 seconds, and she missed the tree.

"Let's try this again." Arthur sighed. "Hit the tree." Bria tried again, but she could not steer, so she fell flat, taking 18 seconds.

"Again!" Bria dashed again, but went the wrong way.

"Look, I keep dashing, but I cannot steer!" Bria freaked out.

"That is because you do not focus on the tree." Arthur explained. "Keep your mind on the task right now, because what's right now is most important, well right now. Bria tried to focus on the tree, but she was still traumatized by her aunt, uncle and her parents dying.

"I am trying to focus, but I am traumatized by my parents and my aunt and uncle dying!" Bria was panicking.

"It is ok to grieve, but it is not ok to dwell on loss." Arthur explained. "What's gone is gone, and there's not much you could have done about it." Bria began to calm down. "Let your thoughts flow down the stream and exit your mind, so you can focus on the tree." Bria closed her eyes.

"Take deep breaths." Bria breathed in and out. Inside her mind, she thought of her parents, aunt and uncle dying one last time. The thought bubbles flowed down the stream of her mind. They exited her ear and flew away in the stars. Her eyes began to glow bright blue, ready to face the tree head on.

"I'm ready!" She said, charging at the tree and hitting it, sending a bird's nest falling down.

"Oh, I am sorry, baby birds!" She felt sad for destroying the baby birds' home. "I didn't mean to destroy your home!" She gathered up the twigs from the baby birds' nest and carried them around. The mother bird started charging at her. She ran from the mother bird, screaming for dear life. She ran up the tree, jumping off, landing on the roof of the house, using the roof as a ramp, and landing near an old cabin with a Confederate flag on it. Inside was a mutant hunter with a shotgun.

"Who dares disturb my property!" The old hunter yelled. He shot at Bria. "Get off my property!" He shot and killed the mother bird. His body started heating up. He grabbed the nest and burned the twigs. The baby birds escaped. When his body cooled down, the baby birds bit his neck, causing him to bleed. He then disintegrated into dust. Bria went inside the empty cabin. There was no furniture except a chair and some tools on the wall. Bria ripped down the Confederate flag, used it as a blanket, took apart the chair with the saw and hammer on the wall, and combined the wood chunks with the twigs to form a new nest for the baby birds. An owl came to the nest, acting as a guardian for the new baby birds.

"Now you have a roof over your heads!" The baby birds sat happily in the wood chunk and twig nest on a Confederate flag now serving as a blanket. Arthur came to the scene of the incident and slowly clapped.

"Bravo!" Arthur was proud of Bria.

"What did I do?" Bria wondered why Arthur was clapping.

"You have the stuff!" Arthur told Bria. The mother bird was killed, and she could not be brought back, but her love was reborn in the form of new love, the love of a guardian owl."

"And?" Bria looked puzzled.

"Your family cannot be brought back, but it will be reborn in the form of a new family, a family of friends who care about you."

"When will I meet them?" Bria asked.

"You already have met one member and he's me." Zuri was still on the bus, trying to get cell service.

"Damn it, there's no cell service here!" Zuri cried. "My followers are probably missing me by now!"

"And you still have your cousin!" Arthur smiled.

"Hey cousin, how about we take the bus into the city of Chattanooga and go bowling or something!" Bria proposed.

"Did you quote that from a video game?" Zuri asked.

"I put it in my own words." Bria answered. "Come on, let's get the ball rolling, get it?" Zuri laughed. They drove the van to the nearest bowling alley in Chattanooga.