Going On a Jog

"Going out jogging Taylor? You really do love the early mornings, huh. I respect that."

"Beats having to lie awake waiting for everyone else." Taylor said, a bit humorous and a bit bitter. Revel had been one of the hard-asses Taylor dealt with when she joined the Protectorate, but grew to respect over time. Revel, for her part, became protective of Taylor like she was one of her own, and when Taylor graduated, Revel was the one who personally told her how proud she was to have been her old leader.

Well, technically speaking, Revel was still Taylor's leader here in Chicago. After all, she knew this city like the back of her hand and had the experience to show for it. Sometimes Taylor felt constricted by essentially being Revel's second in command, but once the heroine had explained that she was essentially grooming Taylor for the leadership position to smooth over any political wrinkles, Taylor could swallow some leftover pride.

It bothered her still, but she could understand why Revel was doing it.

Taylor finished up her stretches, feeling her thin muscles warm up as she touched her toes and popped her back.

She'd dressed herself in her normal attire; loose blue tank-top and a new white exercise bra. Small, of course, but she knew she didn't have to worry about people looking at her chest anyways. It had been a gift from Theo and Cuff, and while she didn't like that it was literally a single band of cloth over her tiny breasts, she would feel bad turning down any present.

Even without it, people might think I'm a guy, Taylor thought with bitter humor.

Her blue-white shorts were the loose ones she'd been meaning to change for a year now, but kept putting off for various reasons. The waistband had to be tied extra tight around her narrow hips from over-use. She had forgotten to wash the spats she used normally, but she felt that the plain-white panties she'd used yesterday on her day off would be good enough. Not flattering on her pasty flat butt, but she didn't care to impress on a jog anyways.

Still, with the new material on her chest, she thought it was better to keep today's workout light and short.

"Be careful out there," Revel continued, making herself some coffee in the breakroom. "Construction is still going on around the street and we've had a few people coming in for photo-shoots of the power effect left there, though not this early before. Nothing dangerous as far as we can tell, but we've heard concerning reports of incidents."

"I'll be fine. Bugs will keep me out of their sight. Be back in thirty or so."

"Mhm," Revel said, already lost in the aroma of caffeine.

Taylor saluted sarcastically and took off on her jog.

Minutes passed by without incident. A few early morning drivers that she had to wait for while crossing the street, but nothing crazy. She was feeling the mark on the terrain though; it had only been ten minutes, but navigating the rubble and upturned sidewalks was already working up a sweat for her.

Taylor had to admit, feeling the cool air through her tank top and on her slightly exposed belly was worth the embarrassing workout bra.

It didn't take long before she came across the power effect, stopping around the barricade set up by the PRT, where the nearby security cameras would pick her up. It was a shimmer of energy, like a cloud of rainbows trapped in a vortex. There was no wind from the suction that she could feel on her skin or by her bugs, but she could see how slight bits of debris and grass would be plucked up into the vortex before vanishing.

A result of a power clash between Revel and some jackass named Drain-Pipe, who could absorb kinetic energy from his surroundings and toss it like timed pipe-bombs, destroying non-living matter in the process. No one had been hurt in the scuffle, but DP had escaped and Revel was left guarding a very annoying power effect.

Taylor shook her head. Powers were weird.

She began to jog around the perimeter, nearly completing the half circle when she felt a tug on her top and shorts. For a moment she thought she accidently caught on the barricade, but a glance backwards showed that her clothing was being pulled by thin air.

Toward the vortex.

Oh no.

Taylor struggled and strained against the ****, even trying to use her bugs to block whatever signal was catching her clothing. No dice. She could make some headway with her tank top, only for the shorts to throw her off her game. She could make headway with the shorts only for the top to get in her way.

She realized with growing fear that she had three options:

• Removing her top to focus solely on her shorts

• Removing her shorts to focus on her top

• Keep both on and keep fighting, hoping that she can break free... or be pulled in

This can' t be happening!