As You Are Now

Waze felt like she was floating. Her eyes fluttered open to darkness. Her mind was foggy, she couldn't seem to quite place what was going on. Where was she? What was she doing? She felt like she had something urgent she needed to do but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Waze stood up and looked around, her body feeling light. The more she looked around, the more the world lit up around her in shades of blue and purple. There were stars all around her. Suddenly, she heard a voice behind her and spun around to meet it.

"Dear Waze." Waze turned to see a glowing figure in front of her. She couldn't quite make out the features, couldn't even tell if the voice was male or female. "We meet again." Waze took a step back for a moment a scrunched her face in concentration. Who was this...? Suddenly, everything came flying back to her. That's right, she was currently in the middle of a fight with Egar, from Ebony. And losing, too. And this was the god that had given her her powers.

"I need to go! I need to beat Egar or..."

"Why must you beat him? What motivates you?" The god asked. Waze turned to face her head on.

"Well, I mean for a lot of reasons. I need to save all the girls that are already here, and all the girls that will be kidnapped in the future. My friends are working hard right now, and if I don't beat him they could be in a lot of danger. Plus, if I win he'll give me more information on Ebony and then I have a better chance of actually taking them down." Waze clenched her fists. "In other words, I really need to win this fight."

"You said not a word of your own well being." The god gave Waze what Waze thought might be a smile.

"Oh... yeah that too, I guess. I don't know, the other stuff just seems more important." Waze shrugged. It was a true that her own safety came last on the list of importance.

"You want to beat him. Very much, it seems."

"Yeah..." Waze sort of felt like they were going in circles. Wasn't that already established?

"As you are now, you won't be able to do that." Waze stiffened at the god's words.

"I have to try. If I don't..."

"I said 'as you are now', dear child. You have the drive. The power you need is there. You just must reach out a bit further." Waze stared at the god confused. Reach out a bit further? She felt like she had been reaching this entire time. Waze steeled her expression. Apparently not enough.

"Thank you. I will win."

"Good luck, child." The god faded away and Waze felt herself fall back into darkness. Now she could vaguely feel herself crumpled on the ground; someone's voice spoke out, distant and far away.

Waze shut her eyes tight and searched for the power. For the light. She thought about her friends. About the girls. About Cassidy. About Katie and Yuka. About everyone else. About Alec. She had to do this. She saw a faint light in the distance. Waze reached out and grabbed it, clenching her fist tight around the light. She felt it rush through her body, and suddenly, she was energized again. Her body felt light and healed, and as she rose from the ground her vision was clear and focused.

Waze looked up to see Egar staring at Waze with fear and disbelief in his eyes.

"W-what the hell..." Egar took a wobbly step backwards. Waze didn't stop to question him, instead she dashed forward. Waze planted her feet firmly in front of Egar, and slammed her fist upwards into his face. She had moved so quickly he hadn't had time to block, or even process that she was coming. Waze quickly brought her fist down and her leg up, slamming it into his side. As she moved, she could see that her entire body was engulfed in the blue flames. With every hit she landed on him, his body crumpled further and further.

Waze was easily dodging his hits, too. They all looked so slow to her, and she didn't know if it was her power or if he had merely slowed down do to the flurry of hits he was taking from Waze. Probably both.

Waze took a step back and looked at Egar. He was toppling on his feet, barely standing. He was battered and bruised all over, his face bleeding badly. Waze shrugged her shoulders a bit and hopped around to test her own condition. She felt great, though that could probably be attributed to the blue engulfing her. Waze decided to go in for the final hit.

Waze turned slightly to the side and flung her leg up into a front kick. It connected with his face, and he fell to the ground. Waze looked down and nudged him with her foot. She had knocked him out. That wasn't exactly what she had planned to do, but it would work.

Waze walked over to the curtains by the window and used a knife she found on Egar's dresser to slash down the decorative cord. She walked over and lugged Egar up onto the bed, tightly bounding him with the rope. She took a step back to admire her handy work before putting her finger to her ear. Waze pushed the button on her earpiece that would allow her teammates to hear her.

~"Hey everyone, I beat Egar."

~"Nice!"

~"I knew you could do it!"

~"Good going."

There were a variety of congratulations from her friends over the radio, and Waze could hear many of them were out of breath from the fighting.

~"Ok, I'll call the police now. They can take care of it from here." Alec's voice echoed through Waze's ear.

~"Are they even gonna come? I mean, it's kind of an outlandish claim to just call them out to an abandoned casino claiming we took down Ebony," Waze said.

~"Don't worry, I know a guy." Waze could hear Alec grinning from the other end of the phone.