At a place called Joe’s Cafe, he holds the door open for her and then walks up to the barista. He gestures for Melissa to go ahead and order. “I’ll pay for your drink if that’s okay with you.”
Finishing up her email, she tucks her phone back into her pocket, thanking him before stepping through the door and over towards the counter. "Thanks, but no thanks, I can pay for a coffee." Looking at the barista she orders a coffee and pays her the money before stepping to the side to let Keaghan order.
It must be different for each person. [He shrugs, pushing his hands into his pockets. Glancing at the people walking past he grins, leaning forward slightly and lowering his voice.] What do you want to be able to do?
[She turns to watch the people walking past them, not reacting like she was thinking about which superhero she would want to randomly come into effect] I'm not sure, I just want something that I can actually use. If I get something that means I have to stand in the background the whole time I'll be pissed.
"That was the plan." Pulling her phone out of her pocket, she typed in her passcode and went back to her unfinished email, following him down the sidewalk towards the coffee shop. "I'll be done with this in a minute."
"Well, we got injected and we’re still standing here breathing so it looks like you might not have to lose it at all. Unless they pull the same stunt again at the next creepy back-alley rendezvous," Piper felt kind of bad for insulting the individuals that she received her serum injection from but a small part of her felt like she had the right to complain. They were asking a lot of her. They were asking her to change her life. “Hopefully when we all get our powers, they’ll understand that we have something to say.”
"Yeah, but if they don't, we're not the ones that would get annoyed, some of the others seemed pissed off at the whole thing the other day." Melissa ran a hand through her hair, letting out yet another sigh. "Monday is definitely going to be interesting though, that's for sure."
He nods and looks at the people who are squeezing around them. “Are you busy right now? Do you want to maybe get coffee or something?”
She followed his line of sight when he looked up, also noticing the other people trying to get around them and moves over to the side. She turned back to look at him again, staying silent for a moment. "Yeah, sure. Though I need to finish up that email you interrupted earlier."
[Alec stops as well, moving closer to the edge of the sidewalk so people can still get past.] Tingly. [he wiggles his fingers.] And pins and needles, but that might not have to do with it.
[Melissa follows him to the side, crossing her arms over her chest] No, I've just had some soreness and a bit of pain in my hands and fingers, but other then that I haven't had any pins and needles. [She let out a sigh] It's only about twelve hours since the injection so it might still be mild effects, but I have no idea.
Even though Piper would have worded her sentiments a little differently, she couldn’t help but agree with Melissa. “I know we are supposed to limit the amount of information we share with one another, but—” Continuing to walk down the street, Piper’s thumb found the wedding band that she still wore and began to spin it around her finger. “When my husband took the serum, he didn’t experience any undesired side effects except for a few headaches. So, we might be in the clear. I just wish we got more answers than questions, you know?”
Melissa looked over Piper when she started talking, deciding not to say anything when she was told that the photo was of her husband and instead nods her head. "My brother had the headaches too, though his made him sweat more then normal." Melissa clicked her tongue before nodding again. "Oh I definitely know, if either of them ignored me or skirted another my questions one more time that night, i think I would've lost it."
The early morning sunlight had woken Melissa up, causing her to groggily look around before grabbing her pillow and stuffing it over her face. The young woman had always been a morning person, but today she just didn't feel...right, though whatever it was that was throwing her body out of balance, she wasn't able to place. After a few minutes, she pulled the pillow away and slowly pushed herself up, frowning as she realized the soreness of her arm and brought a hand to rest over the small wound that the injection had left behind, feeling a small throb underneath her fingers.
She made her way into her living room, her bare feet padding along the hardwood flooring as she crossed the room to head towards her bathroom to find her bottle of aspirin. Once the bottle was returned to it's rightful spot two pills lighter, Melissa made her way back into the previous room, her eyes automatically focusing on the picture of her brother that she had resting on the mantle.
She almost wished she could go back, to the day he had told her about the serum and the happy, joyous rant that went on and on about how this would be a change, the start of a better life that didn't include them struggling to get by every week. She'd take that over how she was now - closed off and alone, any day of her life. Her brother had saved countless lives in Metro, had defended everyone in it with everything he had so that no one would go through the same kind of pain that they had as kids, and finally everyone else was able to see how much of a superhero her brother could really be. Though despite all of the amazing and selfless acts, his repayment was a bullet through the skull, and a sister that was all alone in an apartment that did nothing but make her heart ache. Yet, the fact that he was gone only pushed her forward, her desire to take these powers that were injected into her bloodstream to avenge him only grew until she couldn't think about anything else. Melissa wanted to make the A.M.P pay for what they did to her life, to the lives of all the other people she had encountered at the warehouse.
She was so lost in her thoughts and emotions that she didn't realize the soreness that had started in her forearm had expanded to the rest of her arm, to her shoulder, and had started to slowly drip throughout her body. It hit her skull first, pulling her out of her brain, and making it nearly impossible to focus on anything else. Fighting against the now tingling pain in her arm, she put her hand up to cover her forehead, slowly making her way towards the sofa, her body falling down heavily onto the cushion as she tried to breathe through the pain.
It reached her stomach next, causing her to curl into herself, leaning forward and gripping onto the wood of the table in front of her. Her eyes squeezed shut as a small hiss made it's way out of her. For a moment, she thought she would have to try and make a run for the bathroom, though it would be nearly impossible since her legs had become numb. Almost as soon as the thought ran through her brain, the nauseous feeling passed, the awful sensation flowing out of her and leaving what felt like a cold sensation in it's place.
The pain started to recede, slowly at first and then almost all at once, the same cold feeling spreading through her body until it reached the small hole in her arm the injection had felt behind. As her eyes reopened, Melissa felt herself shaking, her mind jumping to the conclusion that it really wasn't the serum after all, that it was something that was killing her in her own home to make it seem like a freak accident. Her body was too cold for there to be any other conclusion, and the hairs on her arms stuck up in the worst case of goosebumps she's ever had in her life. In a matter of minutes, Melissa felt like she had just spent days in the Antarctic and no means of fire to thaw her frostbitten body.
However, the pain stayed in her hands, intensifying as the seconds ticked by and making her feel like they were encased in a block of solid ice that she just couldn't shatter. Though it felt like an eternity, the pain started to fade, not as quickly as the rest of her body, but just into a dull throb similar to how this had all started. She stared at her hands that were still clenched on the wood of her table, twitching each finger to make sure that the pain wouldn't flare up on her again in a matter of seconds.
Her heart thumped in her chest, each beat seeming to become louder and louder in her ears as she pulled her hands away from the wood. She did a double take, an then a triple take, her eyes widening into perfect circles and her mouth dropping open in a shocked, silent scream in her throat as she stared at the frosty marks on the dark staining that made up her handprints. Whatever it was that had happened to her body in the last twenty-four hours, there was definitely no going back now.
Piper sighed. She had been hoping that at least someone from the group had begun to experience something like they all had been promised. “Just some real inconveniently placed dizzy spells,” She walked alongside Melissa as she spoke. “I really don’t know what to expect though.” She thought about telling Melissa who was on the photograph that she had clutched to so dearly from last night but, remembering Estelle’s warning of keeping personal information to a minimum, Piper decided against it.
Melissa crossed her arms over her chest as they walked down the sidewalk, feeling her body shiver slightly but just passed it off as a cool breeze that had brushed past them. "Everything about it still has me on the edge honestly." She brought a hand up to move her hair out of her face, letting out a small sigh. "I just thought about what my brother would do, so we better not get screwed over in the end or I'm going to have to kick someones ass." She knew that she had to be careful about what information she had given out, but the older man had already made her announce that face on her picture to everyone in the warehouse the day before, and decided that trying to keep the identity of her picture was pointless.
"Yeah, I’m sore too. And I think it’s screwing with my eye sight. But there haven’t been any interesting results. What if this actually was a giant hoax?"
"Your eyesight? Mine's been perfectly fine, though my fingers feel a bit off too." Melissa sighed. "If this is all a hoax then we're screwed, it's as simple as that. All we can do is be cautious and not do anything stupid that will end up getting us mind-wiped or worse."
[Alec snaps his phone shut, sliding it back into his pocket. He grins at her while they walk.] Actually, I haven’t had any caffeine today. Just a smoothie. How’re you? Zapped anyone to pieces yet?
[Melissa pressed her lips together into a tight line as she looked at him] Somehow that just makes everything worse. [her eyebrows furrowed at his question, stopping in her tracks and turning to face him fully] What? No, I haven't, my arms just a bit sore. What about you?
She glanced down at her arm for a second. "Besides a bit of soreness, I'm still feeling the same." She looked at him for a second, her eyes flashing towards his arm as well. "Why? Have you felt anything?"
Walking down the sidewalk, Piper recognized the girl that was coming towards her from the other night. She stopped and watched the brunette continue to come towards her, typing away on her phone. “Hey,” She spoke up, signaling to the girl to look up when she had gotten closer. “I see that we’ve both survived our first night post-injection.”
Finishing up her email, she quickly sent it before looking up, recognizing the girl as one of the only ones that didn't seem to irritate her in some way at the warehouse. "I feel like I should be at least a little bit surprised that I'm bumping into at least one of you." She tucked her phone into her pocket, walking the rest of the way to the other girl before walking beside her. "Yup, and so far, nothing super has come out of it. What about you?"
[Alec has his eyes on his phone as well as he walks, although his screen just shows one of the games that came with his flip phone. He bumps her arm by accident as he passes her and loses his game, turning around to apologize. As soon as he recognizes her he stops and changes direction so he’s walking with her instead.] Hey.
[Melissa tightens her grip on her phone as someone bumps into her arm, luckily not sending the email prematurely. She looks over the person who hit her, her eyes hardening, but instead just looks forward again, bringing her free hand to rub her temple] Out of all of them, I run into the one high on caffeine. [she let out a small sigh] Hi.
Keaghan walks right by her and then does a double-take. He turns and jogs after her and when he catches up, he sticks and arm out in front of her to stop her. “You were at the warehouse yesterday.”
Stopping short when she saw an arm appears in front of her, she locked her phone before looking up at the guy, letting out a sigh when she recognized him. "I should've known I'd happen to bump into one of you. But yes, I was, and you were the first one to step up."
