In My Blood

Prologue

October 28, 1984

The streets of the Pittsburgh were quiet, occasionally having noise when a car or two drove by to go back to their homes. It was late, almost midnight, and the smell of fall and coming winter had begun to fill Pennsylvania. No one suspected that the parked van outside a bank meant trouble... at least, not until the alarm began to ring loudly inside the dark building.

Five figures clad in dark clothes and costume masks ran hurriedly out the front door, a bag filled halfway with cash held tightly in the hands of the last member. "Let's go, come on!" a male voice from the group ordered, but it wasn't the voice of a leader. Merely a worried follower scared about how the sound of a police siren was growing closer and closer. The van doors were thrown open, and the five entered, allowing the driver to take a wide u-turn and speed off before the police car could crash into them.

"Oh, shit, shit, shit," the driver cursed, peeling off her mask and letting her dark hair fall on her shoulders. "Scan me, Turner!" Another member pulled off her mask from the back of the van, squeezing her green eyes shut as she concentrated. A sickly-colored bruise began to form on her shoulder, hidden by her sleeved shirt and ratty brown hair.

"Male, 'headed down, Poplar, toward Main,'" she relayed, repeating the information she had just read from the officer's brain. Her eyes flared open, and she rubbed her hand against the black smeared makeup on her face as if trying to scratch an itch. "What's the plan, Kali?"

"Most definitely to not get caught," the male from earlier answered nervously in Kali's place. His own mask was off, revealing the strange line of tattoos on his forehead as he peered through the back window. "Get 'em off of us, Mick!"

"I'm working on it!" the driver snapped, slamming her foot further on the accelerator. "Kali!"

"The alley," the girl in the passenger seat pointed out, authority clear as day in her voice. Her dark black hair had been pulled back into a greasy ponytail, and a ring of black eyeshadow circled her eyes. "To your right."

"Okay," Mick panted, and everyone in the van braced themselves as she jerked the wheel to the side to make the street. One member, mask still on, almost went flying into the other side as wheels screeched against the asphalt. From the honking noises the police car emitted, it was safe to say that they didn't make the quick turn. "Shit! Shit! Shit!" The driver's cursing grew louder as she swerved to avoid hitting the cars driving in the opposite direction. Mick ended up hitting a stack of boxes, causing one of the members to laugh in glee. Turner merely shook her head, placing a hand on where the bruise had formed. A lump was starting to appear.

"Son of a bitch!" another male member cursed, taking the other's spot at the window. "We got more!" Sure enough, the one police car that had been trailing behind them had turned into five.

"'Headed down Seventh,'" Turner repeated, trying not to cry out as her injury became worse from the use of her powers. Her eyes had a white aura to them, illuminating her small space in the back of the van. They had just turned on another street.

"Do something, Kali. Do something!"

"Next right," Kali told Mick. "There's a tunnel. Take it." Mick nodded fiercely, following the girl's instructions. Kali shut her eyes, raising her arm slowly, closing her fingers into a fist. It was quiet in the van as everyone waited for her to mutter one powerful word:

"Boom."

Turner glanced over just in time, still reading the officers's minds and allowing herself to see exactly what they saw... the tunnel collapsing between the van and their cars. It made her jump from the loud noise, separating her from their thoughts and allowing herself to see the truth. The tunnel hadn't caved in; it was only a figment of their imaginations The group cheered in delight, and Kali rubbed the soft flow of blood from her nose with the back of her wrist. Turner groaned as she again became aware of the pain in her shoulder.

"It's getting worse," she muttered to herself, wincing as the bumps of the road caused her hand to hit the injury a few times before she moved her arm away. "I need Rachel." It was a name that the girl mentioned almost daily. The two had been close until an event had occurred in her old town that caused her to leave and search for the group she now called her family. "Rachel would know what to do."

"Then why didn't you bring her with you?" Kali questioned, turning around in her seat to look at the girl. "If she's like us, this would have been the best place for her."

"Rachel would never leave Hawkins after discovering what she could do," Turner shook her head. She bounced as the van hit a dip in the road. "I know her; she'd wait until she fully understood what's she's capable of before leaving her old man behind."

"You never told her you found out who her mother is?" Kali questioned, almost scoffing in disbelief. "That everything she thought about herself is a lie?"

"I can't do that to her; she's the sister I never had when I grew up in that godforsaken town," Anya shook her head. "Besides, I didn't have to lead her directly. I just had to set a few clues up to get her started on the right path."