Elsa's pick-up
The woman's hands shook as she gently put down the paper on her teatable. They had deemed her good enough to take care of a child?!
She took a look around her small apartment, crammed with stuff and keep-sakes that should've been thrown out ages ago - they said she got a new house, right? Of course, this whole thing seemed unbelievable, but there was always a chance it WAS real.. and besides, they hadn't asked for her bank account password or anything yet.
And wasn't it kind of exciting to take care of a child? The woman's nose wrinkled as she realized that her subconcious was trying to persuade her to say yes. Sighing lightly she picked up the phone and dialled the number..
"My name is Karen Smith, hello?"
as soon as they asked for her passwords, she'd hang up.
It was now several days after the rampaging creatures of Raleigh and, as usual, Charles was sitting in his office. Still surrounded by stacks of files; probably even more so than before the entire fiasco. All the paperwork was such a bother. He grunted and with a sudden lash of the arm swept everything on the floor.
"Ah, that's much better." Standing up, he limped to one of the file cabinets on the side of the room to find the necessairy files. As he limped back to the desk, he opened the file.
"Elsa Larson, 11 years... Hmm..." Rather absentmindedly, he scratched his chin and jotted down a few notes. "Guardian response sent out this morning, no reply yet." He cast an anxious look towards the red phone in the corner as if willing it to ring.
He leaned back in his chair and fiddled a bit with his pen. The sounds of construction still reached his office. The headquarters had been an absolute mess. As he leaned back in his chair, his thought strayed back to that particular day. Hour, actually. The entire thing had only lasted several hours.
Charles was currently leaning backwards on his chair so much he was in danger of falling over. He paid it no mind as his thoughts strayed back to the events that had happened several days ago.
Now it just so happens that bad things happen to you when you're distracted; and this was no exception. Being so distracted, he was completely caught off guard when the phone rang; causing him to lose his balance and fall backwards out of the chair.
Letting out a curse, he quicly sat up. Damn. That had been unprofessional. Standing up, he rubbed his head. "That's going to be a damn bump." He kicked the chair in frustration, hurting his toe in the process. As he kept on cursing, he could vaguely make out the last of the words. "....I'll do it then. Bye."
Now limping with both legs, he wobbled back towards the desk and pressed a button on his phone. "Charles here. Send out the secondary letter in the Larson case."
He let out a grunt as he sat back on his chair. This was so not his day.
--
As the messenger approached the house of Karen Smith, he decided to deliver this letter in a more unusual way. He grinned mischieviously as he grabbed a brick out of the yard, tied the letter on it and threw it straight through the window.
"Bwhaha, I'm so good." His eyes lit up red as he vanished in a puff of red smoke...
The secret letter
It had been a normal morning thus far, not counting the letter. (Karen was by now convinced that it was a spook, to set her off. Truly, no-one who meant stuff like that seriously sent a letter. It just weren't very professional, now, was it?)
This was, perhaps, the reason that it came as a rather large surprise when a brick came flying through Ms Smith's window. <********!" was said Ms Smith's reaction to the brick on her (now ruined) table. Glaring at it, Karen considered throwing it out again. And hopefully hitting someone, especially the someone who had THROWN it in the first place.
Taking a few meditative breaths, the blonde closed her eyes. Perhaps, if she ignored it, it would all just go away - the spook letter, the brick, the ruined table and the shards of glass littering her floor.
It didn't, as she found out when opening her eyes again. Yup, still there. So there it hurt.
This was about the time Karen noticed the letter tied to the brick.
Her eyebrow gave a small twitch.
She sighed.
And resigned herself to her inevitable curiosity.
Mouthing the words as she read, the woman was amazed. So this was how they played, eh? But at least they gave her an address. She'd turn up, and demand them to explain (and preferably pay for her window and table, too).
---
As she secured her bike, the woman surmised that the building looked ordinary enough. If she was lucky, well..
As she rang the doorbell, Karen Smith wondered what she'd done to deserve this. Really.
Disturbed, the woman sitting in the first room looked up. Who in their right minds would ring the doorbell when the door was open? Sighing, she got up and made her way to the door.
"Yes?" she was rather annoyed.
Oh, this was not boding well. She was being polite (EVEN after all she had been through!) and this woman just snapped at her.
Straightening her back, Karen tried to look intimidating. It had always worked back in third grade..
"Excuse me?! First you, you, PEOPLE send some kind of spook letter to me, and don't even have the decency to take the phone yourself, oh no, throw a brick through my window, and then you act all high and mighty!" she stopped to take a small breath, "well, curb this, I'm just here to get the money to pay for my ruined table AND window!"
Ha, that'd show them.
The woman raised a single eyebrow. "So you received your letters then. Good." She turned and walked back to the desk, expecting the woman standing by the door to follow her. "Close the door please." She opened a drawer in the desk and a perfectly manicured hand reached in to take out a visitors pass.
Smirking at the disgruntled woman standing there she tossed the pass towards her. "There you go. Now, just go through this door and keep on going until you reach a hall. You'll be assisted by someone else there."
She sat back down behind her desk, pressed a button, causing the door behind her to slide open and went back to work.
Dumbfounded, Karen followed the woman's orders, too caught up in her surprise and inner conflict to protest.
"But.. what about my window.. and my table..?" but her legs were already leading her through the door.
The woman didn't acknowledge Karen's words at all and instead just reached to press the button to close the door.
Jumping a bit when the door closed behind her, Karen teetered. Well, it DID seem quite.. serious, now.
Carefully edging her way down the corridor, she tried to ignore the guards. It weren't going too well, but she seemed to have reached the end of said corridor.
Yay..?
Karen nestled into the couch a bit more - at least SOMETHING was right in the world.
"So.. you were serious when you said I'm to adopt a child..?"
Charles sat down on the edge of the couch and smiled at the woman sitting there. "Yes, I was. Right as we speak, children from all over the world are developing their powers and those that seek evil are rising. It is only a matter of time before an all-out war breaks out. This is why we seek out the children and place them with guardians to provide adequate training."
His face had taken on a grave look. "Only a few days ago, a mere boy managed to destroy most of the headquarters. You can see we are still rebuilding." His eyes strayed to several painters on the left before focusing back on Karen. "And this worries me greatly. If we can not hold our own against a mere ten year old, then how will we hold up to adult Villains with great control over their powers?"
He shook his head sadly, "This is why it is of the utmost importance these children are trained!" He smiled again. "Is there anything else you would like to know?"
Her brow wrinkled, "But how can you expect normal people to train these children? We have no experience!"
Quite frankly, it seemed like a huge miscalculation on the Agency's part, to Karen - the poor children wouldn't be able to control their powers because some smart-a** agency thought they'd be tra�d sufficiently by normal, un-power people.
He chuckled at the woman's shock. "You don't have to worry. The Agency will provide you with absolutely everything you need. If you need help with the training, training officers will be provided. What we need now is the dedication of a parental figure. One that does not scorn them for who they are." He paused.
"These children... they need to know that they are loved." He gave her a sad look, "We have many of them that were rejected by their parents, just because they were different. Our research on you has proven you to be quite openminded and perfectly capable of taking care of a child. Even though you yourself might not see that yet."
He smiled a weary smile at her.
"Oh.." she felt pity for the children, her latent mother instincts showing themselves, "I.. I can do that. I can love her."
She would, she was sure of that. She'd do her best, too. But it wouldn't be easy..
Charles smiled "I'm very glad about that. Is there anything you'd like to ask? Because Elsa should be arriving soon."
He stood up but changed his mind again and picked out a few items out of his pocket. "Here you've got a creditcard with no limit, for everything you need, my phonenumber, available 24/7 and a keyring. The keyring contains a key to your new appartment and a new car. All of your belongings have already been transferred to the appartment."
"Shall we go now?" Charles walked slowly towards one of the doors. Reaching it, he looked back at Karen, waiting for her to follow.
"Well, umm.. what's she like?" Karen reckoned that'd be a nice thing to know, among others, "What's her background? Does she have any family?"
Taking the items in a daze, the woman followed Charles to the door.
"Thank you, mr... Charles.." she smiled faintly, a bit too overwhelmed to manage being polite.
Charles grimaced a bit "Well... she's very scared. Terrified actually and we haven't really been able to calm her. Her powers seem to terrify her even more than we did. She's got quite a bit of control already and managed to summon up a few decent illusions." He looked a bit apolegetic towards the guardian. "But I'll leave the rest up to you to find out. It's best if you just got to know her. If she really doesn't open up to you, just give me a call and I'll have the file sent to you."
"Not a problem at all." Charles grinned and went through the door. "Be sure to keep up with me, this place is horror to get lost in."
They crossed corridors and took random left and right turns, all the while passing painters and carpenters. The smell of constuction and fresh paint still hangs into the air. Finally, Charles stops in front of a door. "This is it." he nods, "I will introduce you two and then give you two some privacy to get to know each other."
He softly opened the door and moved inside the room. "Elsa? This is Karen Smith. She will take care of you. You don't have to be afraid." He smiled warmly at the girl before turning to the guardian. "Karen, this is Elsa Larson." He seemed to melt away in the shadows before sofly slipping from the room.
"Sure. I'll get to know her the good ol' fashioned way.." though she WAS a bit unsure about the whole powers-thing.
Karen peeked into the room, taking in the fetus position of the girl, Elsa.
They were here again, the weird man and.. this one was new. Whimpering slightly, she tried to curl in even more.
So she didn't have to be afraid, eh? They'd lock her up, she just KNEW it, and.. what was she doing?
Meanwhile, Karen had inched into the room and had knelt in front of the scared girl.
"Hello, I'm Karen - I'm going to be taking care of you from now on," her voice shook a little, it was a rather terrifying prospect. Taking care of a child, and without any real introduction to the girl, too.
"I promise I won't harm you..?" at least not on purpose.
She wouldn't..? Perhaps she WAS different; to Elsa she seemed to radiating a certain amount of.. motherlyness. Elsa's mother had never really been there a lot, but the girl hadn't missed having a mother since she was 5. But all of the sudden, she really, really needed her mother.
And this woman seemed to be the closest thing to a mother she'd ever get.
"Omph!" to say that Karen was shocked when the little girl launched herself at the woman was an understatement.
"Shh, shh," petting the girl's hair, the woman laid her cheek on top of Elsa's head, "shh, my dear, shh."
Clinging to the woman - Karen? -, Elsa reveled in the warmth of her new guardian. This was nice, actually.
The two just sat there, woman comforting child.
Awaiting patiently outside the door, Charles checked his watch. It had been almost eight minutes and he hadn't heard a thing. That was usually a good sign.
After almost ten minutes he decided this should be enough. If they needed more time they could do so at their new appartment.
Bracing himself for whatever sight might follow he slightly opened the door and stuck his head in. He smiled as he looked at the two. "Hey there, are you two ready to move into your new appartment?"
"What do you say, Elsa?" Karen smiled at the girl still in her arms, waiting for an answer.
Nodding slightly, Elsa latched on tighter to her guardian. NOTHING would make her let go, short of the apocalypse itself.
Hoisting up the girl (she WAS rather thin, Karen noted concernedly), she turned and smiled at Charles.
"I think we're ready."
"Excellent. I'm glad." While they had been talking, a guard had appeared outside of the door. Charles turned to him, "please take them to the exit."
Charles turned towards Karen and Elsa. "Well, good luck to the both of you. I have faith in you Karen, and of course in you, Elsa." He gave the girl a pat on the back before he turned and vanished in the maze of corridors.
The guard shrugged and beckoned. "This way please." And he too turned corridor after corridor. When they finally arrived at a different exit, there was a black car with tinted glass awaiting for them. "G'luck." The guard gave a nod before retreating back into the building and leaving the woman child standing by the car. To start a new life.
Opening the door of the passenger seat, Karen carefully sat Elsa (who had fallen asleep sometime around the fourth corridor) down and buckled her in.
"So, this is it.." the woman sighed, before closing the door and walking to the other side of the car.
Now, to find their new home and get to know her charge better..
