:Arabella:

            The room I was in was dark.

            I mean, seriously. That was all I could tell. I felt as if my body was floating on air. I didn't feel if it was hot or cold, or whether I was on a bed or upside down.

            It was very disorienting.

            What I could tell was that I may or may not have been experiencing some sort of variation of sea sickness, but to the max.

            Back when my mother was still alive, we'd went to a vacation to the beach and took a ride in a small boat. I couldn't even fully remember the experience, just the feeling of the waves rocking the boat back and forth, making me nauseous. That's how I kind of felt right now.

            I knew that I had gone through one of Janus's portals, that much was obvious. I'd heard an eye witness account that traveling through Janus's portals leaves the weak stomached nauseous and sick, so that's why I must've felt so weird.

            When I saw Golden Eagle and Janus show up on the roof, I'd felt hopeful. Maybe Nemesis had released them because he was finally getting me. Maybe I was being saved.

            I should've known by then that I was in no way that lucky.

            In fact, I should've expected Nemesis to make such a big scene. He was one for the dramatic effect.

            They tried to force me back through Janus's portal, but I was having second thoughts. Who knew if he was even going to stay true to his word and let these supers go?

            Then they forced me through the portal and the next thing I remember was waking up in this dark room with my senses all mashed around.

            I saw a figure walk into the room, but turned away because of the harsh light coming from outside of the room. My eyes weren't adjusted to the difference of lighting.

            The figure touched my arm and I felt the light headedness and weightless feeling leave me. My senses sharpened and I took a deep breath.

            The figure turned out to be a super. He was wearing white spandex, his eyes rimmed with red.

            I resisted the urge to flinch away or scream, to which the super probably wouldn't have responded being brainwashed and all.

            I briefly remember him as being a super from New York, The Doctor.

            Now, that might not have sounded like a cool super, but he had healing powers. He could heal anyone by just one touch and then reverse it. If you had a broken arm? He'd fix it, but instead of having to take on the pain himself like some classic comic heroes, he could turn it out on someone else. For instance, super villains would suddenly feel the pain of that broken arm they just gave a random citizen.

            All in all, he'd been one of Lacey's favorite heroes outside of The Marvel or Golden Eagle.

            I didn't know he'd been among the supers kidnapped by Nemesis, but I was at least a little glad he was here. He did, after all, heal me.

            He walked out into the hallway and gestured for me to follow.

            I sat up slowly, preparing for the rush of blood going to my head, but it never came. I got out of the bed feeling great, better than I'd ever felt.

            Then I took it upon myself to study where I was.

            It was like I stepped into a dream. The room was the same kind that I'd wanted since I was little. Posters of my favorite bands and musicals lined the walls. A bookcase full of every book I could imagine took up a whole wall. I was glad to see that there was a special section dedicated to comic books as well.

            The bed was huge, blue satin sheets and a dark blue canopy. Extra pillows were laid out, much more than any normal teenage girl would've needed, but I always liked the extra fluff.

            Nemesis must've known me almost too well. How did he know everything about me? He even knew that I liked the cheesy Nicolas Sparks novels, not even Lacey knew that.

            I had to say, the creepy guy did his homework like the dedicated stalker he is.

            My only problem was that he planned for me to come all along. The room suggested that he expected me to stay long enough to get comfortable.

            I wasn't okay with that.

            I followed The Doctor out of the room and through the hallway. We didn't walk far until we reached a large room about the size of an indoor football field.

            Computers lined one wall, all showing gibberish. If Lacey were here, she'd understand the words and numbers flying across the screens.

            The other wall to the opposite side was what I thought was a big window, though big black curtains were drawn to hide what they showed. They gave the room an even gloomier feel.

            Then, right in front of me, I saw Nemesis. He was sitting comfortably behind a desk, not a care in the world.

            Being able to afford a place like this meant that Nemesis didn't want to get money from the whole ordeal of kidnapping me. A ransom for the mayor's daughter would be high.

            But if money wasn't the motive, what was?

            I've watched enough criminal shows to know that bad people did bad things for a multitude of reasons. Most were crazy or delusional or both.

            There was no way in hell that this guy wasn't at least one of those.

            (Maybe, with my luck, he'd be both)

            "I'm glad to see you awake, Arabella. When you fainted after going through the portal I was so worried. It's good to see that you're okay."

            Now the anonymous creepy guy thought cared for me. Great.

            "Why me?"

            Nemesis didn't hear me. "What was that?"

            "Why were you willing to kidnap me? Why did you give me super speed? Why did you choose me out of the millions of residents in Empire City? Why am I so special?"

            He pondered my questions for a minute.

            "Did you not want super speed?"

            I sighed in frustration. "That wasn't my question."

            He ignored my answer and stared at me blankly through that dark hood.

            I sighed again. "Look, I know you hate all the supers with a burning passion, so why on earth would you make me one? I thought you liked me."

            He faltered. "Why, Arabella, I thought it was obvious. I may not like those heroes in spandex, but I knew that you did. All those comic books you liked to read, I knew it was because you wanted to be one. So, I let your dream come true. Though you'll probably be the only super left after my plan goes through."

            How he knew about my comic books I'd never know, but I had more interesting matters at hand. He planned to get rid of the supers. But how?

            I decided to go for the direct approach. "Why would I be the only super? Are you going to kill them all or something?"

            I knew that there was no way that he could kill every super on the planet. More supers would just keep being created and more would take their place. Besides, tracking down every super in the world was almost impossible.

            "Something like that." He pondered. "But I won't be the one pulling the trigger. Society will do it for me."

            Great, now he was raving again. The ranting of a lunatic were not to be trusted. Society loved supers, why would they kill them?

            "Okay . . . but why find me now? Why not after I got injected with your serum or while I was in Iris City?"

            "Well, that's a long story." He straightened up in his chair and started to fidget with his hands nervously. He reminded me of someone I knew who also did that.

            "The serum could only be activated in your veins by some sort of outside stimulus. A sudden rush of adrenaline that would cause the dormant serum to bind to your DNA. For instance, almost being mugged and afraid for your life in an alleyway."

            "What? You sent those three goons after me?!" I was yelling, I couldn't help it. He sent the three creepy guys who'd given me cat calls almost every night at the diner and never left a good tip.

            "Now, understand where I'm coming from. My plan was almost in motion and I needed you to develop your powers. Anyways, the memory loss was the only thing that was unexpected, but I was grateful for it. You forgot all about the identities of those two boys for a while. I knew that you might start remembering when you got your powers back."

            I had to control my rage. Nemesis had stolen from me some of my life and he was acting like it was nothing.

            "What about Lacey's father? Why kill him?" I was pretty sure that I already knew the answer, but I needed to make sure.

            "Oh, you mean Smith? I wanted him to help me, but he refused. Something about being a bad influence to his kids. He was no use to me, so I eliminated him."

            He said it with such nonchalance that I was sickened. This was a man who could order a life to be taken away and never cry a tear over it. He didn't have remorse and he couldn't be reasoned with.

            This was the man who ordered Chase's plane to be shot down, just to kill his father for refusing to join him. He was the man who killed Venom, even though she was already in police custody. Who killed Lacey's father because he wouldn't bend to his will.

            "So you did all this for what? You want to eliminate all the supers, so how does this all connect to that?"

            He flipped his pen in the air and gave me what I assumed was a cold hard stare from under his hood. "Someday you'll understand why I did what I did, but for now the explanation is simple. Smith, the old mayor and your friend's father, I hired him to kill all the scientists who worked on the serum that I used on you so they couldn't replicate it. Of course, I'm sure you already knew this. But there was one technicality. Maybe that's why I decided to ultimately have Smith murdered for his incompetence that day.

            "He murdered your mother, Melinda Jones, even though I ordered her to be left alive."

            "Why didn't you want him to kill my mother? Not that I'm complaining."

            "You see," he said, "I was in love with your mother."

            I almost choked on my breath. "You do realize that she was married, right?"

            I guess I should've expected the answer that followed. In fact, I think deep down I had come to the conclusion already, but I'd been too naive to accept it.

            "Arabella, she was my wife. And I'm your father." He took off his hood and I was faced with the image of my father.

            Now, I wasn't talking about The Avenger, my biological father. I was talking about Andrew Jones, the man who raised me from diapers. I was talking about the guy who protected the city from people like him as police chief for most of his years. I was talking about the freaking mayor of our good city.

            My hand started to vibrate with nervous energy and I felt a sudden need for oxygen. My brain was going fuzzy and my lungs constricted.

            I was having a panic attack.

            The Doctor stepped forward and touched my shoulder. Soon I could breathe again and my brain was clear.

            But the feeling of hopelessness was still there. My father was a criminal mastermind.

            How does one deal with these emotions? Well, I took them as anger and aimed it at my father. I charged at possibly the most dangerous man in the city.