The day improved when Maggie clocked in like normal and found a note on her locker from Igneous stating, 'Out for the day. Man the counter. Don't screw up.' It was a pleasant surprise to say the least. Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, she took the assignment and rolled with it.

However, running the counter felt like prison compared to her usual tasks, which often included tinkering. This left her with relatively nothing to do except wait on customers. But with the weather being as nice as it was and no big shipments due for the rest of the week. She doubted they'd have many patrons stop in. This would leave her with plenty of time to do some much needed research. But the chance never came as the doorbell chimed.

"Welcome to Innovoir, New Haven's first and fastest technology repair shop. How may I be of service?" She regurgitated the mandatory greeting not bothering to look up from the search engine.

"Yes, we're looking for someone." A sinisterly smooth voice responded, sending a shiver down her spine.

Cautiously, the blonde's gaze tilted upward and fell upon two identically dressed men. They wore bespoke black suits and aviators. Normally, Maggie wouldn't have paid much mind to new customers even as eclectic as this pair. Considering New Haven was home to a bonanza of people, each with their own colorful flair. However, these men didn't fit the status quo.

"And who might that be?" She dared to inquire, her stomach sinking when she noticed the same black SUV from before parked outside the storefront.

Simultaneously, the men removed their sunglasses before the taller of the two smiled down at her, "You, Miss Knight."

"Me?" She blinked, her mind frozen yet racing all at the same time as she attempted to put the pieces together.

"Yes, you," The smaller confirmed as his dark eyes surveying the store with a disinterested look, "We wanted to introduce ourselves formally."

The woman folded her arms over her chest, "Go on."

"My name is Hugo Dupont," The tall, slender one introduced himself before gesturing to his stalkier companion, "And this is my associate, Clark Fisher. We've been sent by Kronos to-"

Finally, the last puzzle piece fell into place as a smirk toyed on Maggie's lips, "Thanks, Agent Coulson, but no thanks. I work alone."

The men shared a blank look before raising their eyebrows at her, so she elaborated, "What? Haven't taken in the epic, yet overly saturated saga that is the MCU? Superhero movies were all the rage back in the day. Because that's what this feels like to me."

"Well, Miss Knight, unlike your movies, our offer isn't make believe." Fisher remarked as he examined the dirt underneath his nails as if he'd rather be somewhere else.

Maggie rolled her eyes, "Cool, but my answer hasn't changed. Again, no thanks. Now, if you don't have any tech in need of repair, you may show yourselves out the door. I've got better things to do."

They merely shared a quiet chuckle before Dupont continued, "We are offering you a chance to be a part something which could dramatically reshape society. You could work for something greater than yourself. A chance to get out of this dead-end job and see the world?"

"As tempting as that sounds, the answer's still 'no'." Maggie turned away from them to head back towards storage. Refusing to be manipulated into joining some weird activist club.

"But why settle?" The statement stopped her in her tracks. 

Was she really settling for this? Was that the summary of her life up until this point? Had all she has ever done was settle?

"We will respect your wishes for now, Miss. Knight. But please do reconsider our offer. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity." Fisher suggested as the pair turned away from the counter and headed towards the door leave Innovoir, "We'll be in touch."

With a slack jaw, Maggie watched the two men exit and climb into the black SUV. But not before they both turned to wave at her. Then the SUV sped off down the street and away from view. 

The store remained silent as Maggie remained frozen in place. Her gaze trained on the empty spot where the SUV had been parked as her mind attempted to process the exchange. She was so caught up in all the what ifs and thoughts, she barely noticed anything around her. That was until a familiar hand clasped her on the shoulder and pulled her back into reality.

Suddenly, the store buzzed back to life as if it had been muted as she turned to look at her friend from across the room. Reggie offered her a concerned smile and asked, "Umm... What just happened?" 

Biting her lip, the woman felt torn. She wanted to tell him the truth, but she feared if she did, he might get dragged into whatever mess might end up being. 

"I'm not entirely sure."

"Should we tell Iggy when he gets back?" He inquired, shoving his hands into the pockets on his jorts.

Maggie shook her head, "No, I have a feeling if they extend another invitation to me, they won't do it here."

Reggie frowned, "Should we call the police or something then? 'Cause if those two guys are stalking you, you could end up dead or worse."

"Or worse? What's worse than being dead?" The blonde raised a brow towards her friend.

"Dunno, just sounded like something someone in a movie might say." He shrugged as he ushered them back into the break room.

"This isn't a movie, Reg," Maggie sighed as she turned on the tap and filled up a plastic cup, "We- I have to proceed with caution. It could be nothing. New Haven isn't running short on fanatics. I'd rather wait it out than make a big deal out of nothing."

"Suit yourself. If you end up taken, don't come crying to me." He laughed.

Maggie shook her head before taking a sip from her cup, "Trust me, I won't."

...

Three days later, Maggie found herself awarded with a day off and Maggie was thankful for extra shut-eye. Her powers had been on the fritz, keeping her up all night. She hated that she was being forced to miss work. She was too poor and needed the money. Igneous knew it too. He, often, held it over her head. But it couldn't be helped. She'd worked over fifty hours in the last two weeks each and hadn't seen a day off since the day her powers emerged.

The forgotten melody of an age-old pop song floats across the dusty air of a pitch dark room. The only source of light is a thin sliver of illumination peeking out from between two old and dusty blackout curtains which cuts the nearly empty room in half as the line of light falls upon an old mattress in the center of the room, piled high with blankets and pillows. A groan and the shift of a body from underneath a knot of fabrics and a slender hand emerges and falls onto the blaring alarm clock, halting the noise. The hand retreats, pulling blankets over a tangled, rat's nest of blonde hair as the body turns back towards the window. A soft snore trickled out and the person slips back asleep.

Not five minutes later, a different song filled the room only for the cycle to repeat itself. This particular routine had been going on for almost an hour, as per every morning. Some people have a harder time waking up that others. Beep! Beep! Beep! Another alarms trilled in the room next door. This disruption from the pattern caused a flustered, bleary eyed woman to emerge from beneath the sea of cloth. 

Looking around the room, she attempts to rub the sleep from her face. She pounds on the wall behind her head and collapses back into the bed. The sound of commotion in the other room doesn't allow her to return to her dreams. Footfalls racing around the room spoil the peacefulness of her state of rest. There's no going back to sleep now. So with a strangled noise, she urges her body back into a sitting position and swings her legs over the edge of the mattress.

"Maggie?! What are you still doing here?" The surprised voice of her cohabitant and friend fills the empty room. The blank look on Maggie's face is equally two parts hungover and three parts confused. A dark haired woman bursts into the room, "Didn't you say you had inventory duty today?"

The body under the mass of blankets rolled over and blue-green blinked away the sleep from their lids as they foggily appraised the other woman. An awkward silence settled into the room as both parties waited for the other to speak. Only neither bothered and Maggie's face collapsed back into her pillow.

Della had attempted to rouse her, but Maggie chose to ignore her friend. She didn't really want to endanger anyone even the slightest electrical current present could cause her to shock someone on days when her powers decided not to work. Instead, she curled up into a ball beneath her mess of blankets and pretended to be asleep even though she had been awake for most of the previous night.

"Mags, ya okay?" The brunette inquired as she attempted to pry the blankets away from the blonde. 

Maggie groaned and pulled the blankets over her head, "Not going in today. Iggy gave me the day off."

"Alright, well, have fun," Della's voice faded away as the dark haired woman backed out of the bedroom as quickly as possible. 

Maggie waited until the doorknob clicked behind her roommate before she slumped back into her pillows with a groan. She pulled on her hair as she stared up at the moldy ceiling above, "Why is this happening to me?"

...

Maggie spent most of that morning and afternoon wallowing about the apartment. It was hard to do something constructive when her mind was everywhere, but nowhere at the same time. That was until an idea hit her out of left field. Well, it was more of an impulse really. But Maggie didn't care how it came to her just that it seemed like the perfect thing to take her mind off her troubles.

Pulling out an ancient analog computer she'd brought home from work when no one had come along to claim it. It was one of the few remnants of the previous world. It was a godsend that it was compatible with her landlord's cheapo ethernet. Forging on, she fiddled with the device until it powered on. The machine took a few minutes to boot up, it's fans whirling from the effort. A blue login page appeared in place of the vacant, black screen prompting Maggie to enter in the password.

Nimble fingers traveled over the dusty keys as she typed in a string of letters and numbers only she would know. The screen faded to black as it loaded the home screen. Once again, taking several long minutes to summon the correct codes. Maggie waited as patiently as she possibly could and had almost decided to reboot the whole system when her home page finally appeared before her.

The young woman didn't have any real aim or intent when she got on the opened the internet explorer. But, little did she know it was about to take her for a ride. As she began to type in the city's url, that's when the crazy train went off the rails at a left hand turn and shipped up her right to the center of the funny farm. 

A flash of blue light surrounded her field of vision as she was absorbed into the media she was trying to consume. Chunks of data streamed past her along with images and videos. Various articles popped up so fast she couldn't process what was going on. Overhead was an interconnected web of lines and code sped eternally into the unknown. It was then Maggie realized that she was literally surfing the internet. She glanced down at her hands, which had taken on a digital form. Just faintly could she make out the lines of 0s and 1s that now made up her appearance.

Blinking, she took a moment to admire the beauty of it and how peaceful she felt. There was a sense of sheer reverence that she was capable of entering the digital realm. She was probably the first one to ever see the internet in this way. She'd be willing to bet all the credits she'd ever made on it.

The notion of being the first person to ever to do something excited her. Maggie never thought she'd be a pioneer at anything but this was perfectly fine with her. So she decided to plunge further along, jumping from one stream of data to another with ease. Somehow her zappy, teleporty powers also transferred into this and that definitely wasn't a bad thing. But before she could submerge herself any further she felt something pulling her backwards.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

The jarring interruption from the outside world snapped Maggie's conscious back into her body. The shift left her reeling. Groaning, she collapsed forward and cradled her head in her hands. Attempting to shake off the sudden whiplash-like feeling from her person. It took her a few moments for her body to adjust back to the physical world and for her to realize where she was. Blinking, she glanced around at her surroundings to find herself back in her living room like nothing had happened. The blonde then glanced down at her hands and examined them with wonder. She was tempted to plunge back into the interwebs and explore her new ability further when a knock came from the front door. 

Freezing in place, she waited and listened, hoping whoever it was would give up and go away. But the noise persisted. Once more the pounding sound echoed through the quietness of the room. Groaning, Maggie rose from her seat and crossed the room. Peeking through the peephole, she couldn't help but roll her eyes at who she found standing on the other side.

Dupont and Fisher. That's who. And boy, did they ever look thrilled to be waiting for her. Maggie noted that the pair were dressed similarly to her first encounter with them. It made her wonder if they owned anything other than black business suits and aviator sunglasses.

Understandably, she didn't answer when they knocked a fourth time. Instead, she allowed them to continue knocking as she crept down the hallway towards the storage closet door. Pulling it open, she rummaged through the junk contained with until she found the item she was searching for. A broken extension cord would take care of her 'problem' nicely. She smirked as she plugged one end into the outlet near the front door. Then, carefully wrapped the rest of the cord around her wrist. She tensed momentarily as electricity began to hum through her body before relaxing when she realized it wasn't any harm to her. However, it would harm Dupont and Fisher. Perhaps it would warn them to leave her alone.

Returning the front door, Maggie threw open the barrier between herself and them. To this day, she would always remember the startled looks on their faces when she did. Not allowing them to act anything further, she grabbed both the men by the lapels of their suit coats and dispelled all the electrical energy surging through her body. The men began to sputter and shake, their faces twisting in agony as their bodies quaked under the foreign charge coursing through their systems.

But Maggie wasn't going to turn them loose, instead she held onto them tighter as they screamed in pain. She didn't let go until their bodies had collapsed and their flesh was fried. She wanted them dead. She wanted this to end. Maybe then these Kronos people would finally get the message.

...

Clean up afterwards took awhile to sort out. But eventually, Maggie was able to get their bodies down the garbage disposal before she ran into anyone. She couldn't afford another incident to leak out into the rumor wheel. Even if she'd meant it this time. What they didn't know wouldn't hurt them and as far as Maggie was concerned, those creeps wouldn't be missed by anyone.

Dusting off her hands, Maggie slunk back into her apartment and locked the door behind her. With a sigh, she leaned back against the solidity of the door and allowed all the anxiety and tension to leave her body. Breathing, deeply and calming, she waited until her heartbeat began to even out before she pushed herself up and away from the door.

A few steps later, she found herself pouring herself a drink. Vodka, it wasn't her favorite, but it'd take the rest of the edge off. She didn't hesitate to toss back the shot of clear liquid. Cringing as the alcohol burned against the back of her throat. Once the pain subsided, she set the glass down on the countertop and made her way towards the bathroom.

Pulling the shower curtain open, she turned the hot water on. Then, she turned away to examine herself in the mirror as the room began to steam up. Who was this person staring back at her in the reflection? There was something off about them. It took the blonde a few moments to recognize the person was herself. Bowing her head, Maggie took a moment to pray for her humanity. What was left of it, at least. Once she'd finished her silent plea, she discarded her clothing on the tiled floor, and then, hopped into the shower and allowed her mind to drift away as the boiling water cascaded down her skin.

...

"Mags, I'm home."

Della's voice called out as she entered the apartment, returning from her shift at the medical center.

Maggie, now reclining in a fresh band tee and cotton shorts, looked up from the random magazine she'd been reading. She looked over her dark complected friend for a moment or two before continuing to thumb through the glossy pages.

The sound of footsteps retreating down the hall, followed by the door to Della's room opening and shutting, allowed Maggie time to collect her thoughts. But not long enough to fully settle as Della reemerged from her room and seemed to notice Maggie's change in demeanor as she settled into the adjacent couch. 

"You're awfully bright eyed and bushy tailed this afternoon."

Maggie regarded her roommate and shrugged, "Yeah... Had to take care of something. Glad I got it out of the way."

"Great!" Della chirped, clapping her hands together, "Wanna meet up with Lou and hit up Zephyr?"

The petite blonde pondered the offer for a moment or two. It had been awhile since she'd had a girls night with anyone besides Della... and the possibility of Zephyr having some new product was tempting. If she was being honest with herself, she didn't feel much like anything at all. But she knew her friends had been worried about her with everything that'd gone on, so she knew she had to make an appearance at some point.

"Let's just meet Lou. I'm not really up to dealing with Zephyr." The blonde decided. 

"Fantastic! We were really hoping you'd come this time. Even if we don't go to Zeph's Lou and I were hoping you'd say, 'yes'. She should be downstairs by now. I told her you were in a mood." Della informed her friend as Maggie threw on a light jacket and grabbed a pair of old converse.

...

On the way down, Della began to chatter about her day at work. Maggie pretended to listen but she didn't really care. Trauma, accidents, overdoses, murders, and babies were what her friend, an ER nurse at the local med center, lived for. It might've been exciting for Della but eventually the stories began to blur together. Different names, same stories. Everything was interchangeable. It was a face of life. Everyone who lived had been born. Death came for everyone at some point. Everything else in between those two events was life. It was all part of the natural cycle. Maggie knew Della saw it all the time, but she could use a night without the horror stories of injured kids, seekers, and body bags. 

By the time they got downstairs, Maggie breathed a sigh of relief when she saw a familiar face framed with mousy brown hair waiting for them. The woman's green eyes sparkled as she turned to them and waved. Maggie waved back before embracing her. Eloise, Reggie's sister, held a similar mindset to Maggie about Della's stories. They'd be able to change the topic together and find something more interesting to talk about.

"Lou Lou! Look who's all better!" Della announced not only to their friend but also the entire lobby. 

Several sets of eyes to fall upon the group of young woman. Far too many for Maggie to be comfortable with. Too many noisy people who knew about the incident. All Maggie could do was glare. She wasn't going to give them anything else to gossip about.Eloise frowned when Della made a spectacle of the blonde. She was similar in appearance to her brother, obviously more feminine. But her demeanor was different. Where Reggie was single minded and had a go-with-the-flow type personality, Eloise was more reserved, nervous, and scatterbrained. She was this flighty little bird, but she was the brains in the Marsden family.

"Where's Reggie?" Maggie asked her slightly older friend when they finally approached her. 

Eloise rolled her eyes and shrugged, "Him and Talon decided to have a bro's night."

"How pathetic," Maggie joked, "Donnie's is open tonight, yeah?"

"Heck yeah! It's a two dollar Marg night!" Eloise confirmed. 

"Well, what are we standing around here for?" Maggie suggested and ushered her friends out the door of the apartment building.

"Let's get fucked up!" Della cheered as she latched onto the other women's arms and pulled them down the street.

Normally, Maggie wouldn't be very thrilled to be 'manhandled'. But after the stressful few weeks she's had, she gladly allowed herself to be thrown into the fun. She needed a strong drink and a chance to let loose. Letting loose never hurt anyone, right?