1 Chapter One

Rrrruushhh!!

Rrrruushhh!!

The sound of roller skates rushing across a black and white tile floor was barely tuned out by the loud 80s music blaring out of the jukebox. A waitress clad in a bright blue uniform and white sailor hat came rolling up to a table of three.

"One double burger, one mini meal, one sloppy joe, three chili cheese fries, one order of onion rings, two cherry sodas, and one strawberry milkshake," The brunette waitress smacked her gum and looked up from her order slip at the table. "that's correct?" She asked them. "That's correct." Said one of the customers sitting at the table. The waitress set down the large serving platter she was holding, placing each of the items on the table.

"Thank you.. Ana?" The first customer asked, looking at her nametag.

The waitress, Ana or Analise McGregor, nodded, sending a wink to the table. She skated off, after putting the platter under arm, rolling to the main counter of the 80s themed diner, stopping at one table who was paying their bill.

Ana felt the layer of sweat on her forehead getting thicker and her breath getting thinner as she skated around the diner. Her feet and back ached from being the only waitress on the floor for the past three hours. While she skated around the diner, the faint sound of the local news segment began to meld with sound of the jukebox, making her migraine even worse.

Of course it's the busiest we've ever been in months is the night we've got the shortest amount of staff! Ana thought to herself as she skated to the counter.

"Reports of damage in the city is at an all-time high with more small businesses being targeted and more civilians in danger, thanks to the infamous super villains, as social media calls them, wreaking havoc amongst our streets, police once again powerless against the super enhanced creatures.."

"Here you go Tony," Ana said loudly to drown out the blaring news segment, placing the customer's credit card and bill on the counter, sliding it over to a tall dark-haired man behind a register, who was sweating slightly. "Busy night tonight eh, Ana?" He asked her, taking the card. Ana let out a frustrated grumble, leaning back and bending back over against the counter, putting an arm over her head. "Damn Betty for not showing up to her shift anymore!" Ana groaned. Tony let out a breathy laugh, but as Ana turned around to look at him, she saw the exhausted look in his eyes.

"She just had a baby Ana, give her a break…" Tony trailed off.

"Yeah, I know, but she told all of us she had someone who could replace her!" Ana exclaimed, taking the credit card as Tony handed it back to her. Tony sighed. "Technically she did, buuut she said she couldn't start the day Betty needed a break and I gave her the benefit of the doubt…" Ana huffed. "There you go again, such a pushover sometimes. What sob story did you get this time?" She raised her eyebrows at him as he rolled his eyes. Tony pointed to the area of customers. "Go. You still have somebody's credit card." He tried to act annoyed, but Ana saw the small smile threatening to break out onto his face.

Ana gave him a small smile of her own, slightly relived of her earlier tension, taking the credit card and skated off.

--

"Thank you, come again!" Ana called, waving off the last customers of the night.

She shut the glass door, turning around and holding onto the long handle bar, letting out a long sigh as she leaned down to let some of the pressure out of her back.

"Hell, finally."

Ana turned to see her two other staff members, Stephanie Bregadi and Mike Rodrigues; the two kitchen staff, exit the kitchen. Stephanie was stretching her back after letting out her statement of relief, and Mike was walking behind her, eyes closed and dragging his feet along the floor, shoulders drooped. "There's leftovers for dinner in the kitchen.." Mike slurred, nearly collapsing in an empty booth.

Ana and Tony brought the leftover food out onto the table Mike had collapsed at, Stephanie now sitting on the opposite side of him, her head resting on the table.

"Dinner's served guys." Tony said, nudging Mike slightly to sit down.

Ana flopped down into the leather booth, stretching her legs out and slipping her feet out of her roller skates, sighing in relief.

D'you think we should hire more people?" Stephanie asked, dipping a fry in some ketchup. Tony sighed, folding his arms after tossing a tatter tot in his mouth, sighing in thought. "I mean, of course, I talked to the owners yesterday… I'm really just waiting for Betty to let me know about her situation, especially because her replacement didn't show up."

"Oh please, Betty's been unreliable since day one, she'll just come in with yet another sob story about how we should feel bad for her. Just make her position available already this is ridiculous." Stephanie huffed, rolling her eyes.

"We're definitely going to need more employees if we're going to be busy like this again, especially with summer break coming up." Mike drawled, swaying slightly in his seat as he felt around an empty plate for more nachos with his eyes closed. Ana nodded in agreement, taking a sip of her strawberry fizzy soda. "Plus I can't keep missing my evening classes.." She reminded them.

"So it's settled then, you'll talk to the owners and open more positions?" Stephanie asked Tony, clapping her hands together in excitement. Tony sighed, "Yeah, yeah, fine."

Ana giggled silently at their antics, watching Mike's head dip occasionally as he attempted to stay awake. Their bosses were an elderly couple that had been running the diner for over five years after they moved from Washington to Maryland, where the diner was currently located.

Ana had only met them a few times but they seemed nice enough, even if they could never remember her name.

"If you guys are done let's go ahead and get this place cleaned up, get out of here." Tony said, snapping Ana out of her slight trance. Tony stood up after this, telling the others he was going to count the money in the register, and soon after he did the others began to clean up as well. Stephanie and Mike went back into the kitchen, and Ana got a broom and mop and began cleaning the diner floor.

The crew worked in silence, aside from the jukebox that was still playing slow tunes, until Ana heard Stephanie and Mike leave the kitchen, talking to each other with Tony occasionally cutting in. Ana finished wiping down the tables and put away her cleaning supplies in a back room next to the diner bathroom, accidentally knocking over a box in the process.

Ana quickly turned around in a panic to look at the box, holding her breath for the inevitable shatter of glass.. which never came.

She let out a sigh of relief, walking a bit closer to the box in curiosity to see if there was even anything in it. The room was dark, making it difficult for Ana to make out the darker writing on the box, and since her arms were full of cleaning supplies and Ana was too tired to care about the seemingly empty box, then with a final glance at it; Ana placed the cleaning supplies on a shelf towards the corner of the room, walking out without another thought towards the box.

"I'm just saying you could act a bit more like your age Mike-" "I'm tired Stephanie give me a break for once!"

"Hey Ana! You done with everything?" Tony asked tuning out whatever argument the other two were having behind him. "Yeah." Ana yawned, grabbing her backpack from behind the diner counter, putting her uniforms sailor hat inside it. "Finally," Tony muttered, pulling on his sweater, then grabbing his car keys as well as tossing Ana another set of keys.

"You go ahead and lock up after these two knuckleheads finally get out and I'll give you a ride home." Tony told Ana, ignoring Mike and Stephanie's loud protests at the name behind him.

"Sure," Ana smiled at him, catching the keys also ignoring Mike and Stephanie.

--

Mike rolled down the large metal awning while Ana, Tony, and Stephanie stood off to the side.

Tony put out his cigarette as Mike took the keys from Ana, quickly locking up the store and tossing the key ring back to Tony. Stephanie stretched with her hands on her lower back letting out a grunt before saying to the others; "See you losers on Tuesday right?"

Ana nodded, waving at Stephanie and Mike, who left together to walk a bus stop that was about ten minutes away from the diner, then turned back to Tony who was doing something on his phone. "Ready?" She asked as she walked over to him. "Yeah just give me a minute.." Tony trailed off. "I'm sending a message to the owners.. Inventory and opening new positions."

After a few minutes of standing the empty parking lot, Ana staring out into the city skyline, looking at the various different shops and buildings surrounding the diner, Tony turned off his phone and put it in his pocket. "Alright," Tony sighed "Let's go."

--

Tony and Ana walked through their apartment lobby, a relatively large room of white walls and red accents, furniture, and a dark mahogany receptionist table. The receptionist, a man in his mid-thirties, waved at Tony and Ana, chuckling at their drained forms sulking through the room. "Rough night?" He asked them. "Something like that." Ana mumbled as the two of them continued dragging their feet to the elevator and nearly collapsed against the wall, Tony stumbling as he attempted to press the button to their floor. Neither of them said anything as the elevator went up to the fourth floor, the faint scent of lemon told the two of them that it had just been cleaned.

A soft ding and the familiar sound of the elevator doors opening woke Ana up from her slumber as she followed Tony out of the elevator, pulling her keys out of her bag and looking for her door. She saw the golden number 216 on the white door, and drug her feet along the fluffy red carpet that she often wanted to fall asleep on, especially now, and walked up to the door, bumping her forehead on it as se struggled with her keys.

She heard Tony chuckle behind her and felt herself be slowly pulled away from the door by her shoulders. She fell back into his torso, Tony towered over her with his six-foot frame as compared to Ana's four foot eleven frame, her vision bleary as she tried to find the correct key. Once she found the right one, she stuck the key in the door, letting out a breath as she turned the knob, pushing it open.

She turned back to Tony, who was smirking at her with a raised eyebrow but he had dark circles around his eyes, his light brown skin was pale, and he was swaying a bit on his feet as he swirled his own keys around his finger. "Get some sleep Ana," He told her "or else college is gonna kick your ass tomorrow, I've only seen your assignments once but I can tell microbiology looks like shit." Ana snorted, then rubbed her hand over her face as she swayed forward. She let out a low groan. "You just reminded me of a report I have to finish." She gazed at him underneath her hand.

Tony grimaced and patted her shoulder reassuringly.

"Remember us when you're a huge scientist making a difference in the world." Tony told her. Ana snorted and punched his stomach with little to no effort. "That's if college doesn't kill me first." Tony ruffled her hair with a soft chuckle and gave her a tired wave as he walked to his own apartment. Ana stared after him as he left, blinking herself out of a trance after he disappeared around a corner, and turned into her own apartment.

When Ana entered her apartment, she grabbed her backpack and laptop, dragging them to her soft black couch, setting them all down on her coffee table. She had a report due on the study of food spoilage, and another assignment in her French class, which she was starting to regret taking.

In order to fill in the silence of her apartment, Ana turned on her television which was mounted on the wall across from her, begrudgingly switching to the news channel, not because she genuinely liked what they had to offer, but because of a large threat that was currently looming over the state of Maryland like a sinister cloud.

"-still no sign of the three missing people; Georgia Burkley, Robert Anderson, or Trina McDaniel, the families as well as the communities suspect there is no longer an ongoing investigation as we have had no updates from local authorities regarding the case, and the families tell us they will be taking matters into their own hands." "Thank you Linda, I'm here at the crime scene yet again of the disappearance of Robert Anderson, and there is a small memorial site on the grounds-"

Ana sighed as she watched the news segment, pulling open her laptop and opening up her report file, looking at the time, sighing again at how tired she was at nine thirty in the evening, then opening her browser to do some last-minute research. Just as she was about to click on the search bar an article towards the bottom of the page caught her attention.

Zalic confronted by SWAT in Salisbury, Maryland on Thursday Morning, Eight Dead, Sixteen Injured.

Ana's breath caught in her throat as she clicked on the headline, suddenly more awake now than she had been earlier. Ana lived in Easton City, which was just barely an hour away from Salisbury Maryland.

'There's no way..' Ana thought to herself.

The whole city was on edge a few months ago due to a supposed sighting, but after nothing came of it all went back to normal, except….

Dr. Margret Hammer, also known by her alias, Zalic, a geneticist located in Maryland has been pursued by police for sixteen months following allegations against the scientist for unethical experimentation on animals and interns at her department. The geneticist made history with a breakthrough in the field creating a DNA altering gene that adapts and changes the hosts body to enhance their strongest gene/trait to super human levels.

Dr. Margret told The Eclipse, a news publication dedicated to advancements in modern science and technology; that she had big plans for the discovery, which caused a mix of excitement, concern, and criticism from the general public. Some were excited for the advance, welcoming a new age of super humans, others were understandably fearful of what would happen if the government were to use this advancement on the police or military, and some critical that this advancement would be sold to the highest bidder and rich celebrities to further control the public narrative.

But something that was an underlying fear for everyone, was that all three would be fulfilled, but with Dr. Margret to be in complete control of who got the doses, and what happened to them after words.

The first sign that Dr. Margret's discovery made a turn for the worst with the appearance of a new generation of terrorism, Zalic's first successful human transformation, 'Twister', a 'super' with the power of wind manipulation. Twister, whose identity is currently unknown, put fear into the hearts of the people of Maryland and ultimately the world with her acts of assault and horror.

Just yesterday, Zalic was confronted by police after getting word from witnesses that she was in the city of Salisbury, spotted at the same spot witnesses reported a struggle on the night of the kidnapping of Robert Anderson.

"-at the same spot witnesses reported a struggle on the night of the kidnapping of Robert Anderson."

Ana let out a cold breath as she stared at her tv screen.

She looked back down to the article on her laptop then back up to the news segment. Ana, much like the majority of people, was afraid that Zalic would use her new discovery for evil, and were absolutely horrified when they were proven right. She was terrified when Twister first appeared, she hid in her apartment for weeks, her classes had been cancelled, the whole state of Maryland was practically shut down. Next came the robberies, the assaults, the destruction, and eventually three disappearances turned kidnappings pushed fear further into people's hearts.

And then there was silence.

Twister disappeared, but another villain proclaimed as Electrina took her place, proving to be more vile and cruel than Twister ever could be. More and more villains came forward seeming to create a new age of super human soldiers that Zalic had complete control of, and as anyone could imagine, the government made efforts to step in, but by the time they did Zalic had become a super herself, thus resulting in a new wave of terrorism, and most recently, the eight dead police officers.

Ana ran a hand through her hair as she watched the news anchors talk, but didn't seem to process any of what they were saying. She put her cold, clammy, shaky hand over her mouth as some of her darkest fears from the earliest points in the news came rushing back into her.

She was terrified Zalic or her cronies would attack her school, her home, her work… or even her family.

She ran both her hands through her hair, the noise of the tv slowly coming back to her as the channel moved on to the next segment. She leaned back into the couch, closing her eyes and only then feeling how rapidly her heart was beating, feeling it in her whole chest and her shoulders.

Ana took a few deep breaths to calm herself before closing out of the article, and opening a new tab, continuing her research paper with the faint sound of a celebrity interview segment in the background, the pit of fear in her stomach still present in the back of her mind.