Myrtle Gardner - Wallƒlower
First day of October
Myrtle slowly and cautiously made her way down the fire escape, taking great care to avoid unlocked windows and areas of light. She crept downward with her eyes darting to and fro, her heart racing faster and faster.
The girl's heart skipped a beat as she jumped to the dumpster below. Wings fluttered nearby, sending Myrtle scurrying into the shadows with her dark cape wrapped tightly around her. But a minute passed, then two, and nobody came to investigate. The coast was clear.
After taking a breath to calm herself, Myrtle came out from behind the dumpster. She brushed herself down, clenched her fists, and darted off toward one of Manchester's most notorious night-time destinations: Glow Bar.
Glow Bar was a nightclub and bar where people would stay late into the night, getting high and drunk, cause fights and riot, then parade shouting down the street after getting kicked out. It was a hub for gang and drug activity, a place known to get violent on more than one occasion. Truly a bane to the police department.
But no Parahumans were known to hang out there--not yet, anyway. Her first mission would be to watch out for villains and prevent people from getting out of hand. Muggings, fights, rapes. Can't get much easier than that, right?
Myrtle snuck around to a dark corner of the building and looked up at the sheer wall. With no way up, she would have to make one. She reached into one of her belt pouches, grabbed a few seeds, and tossed them to the ground. Trembling, she closed her eyes to concentrate.
You can do this, Myrtle assured herself. The seeds shuddered at first, then shot up like a biting snake. They weaved back and forth, forming a lattice with one another, growing larger and taller until it reached up and over the roof. It was almost silent but for the faint slither of moving vines.
Watching over her shoulder, Myrtle made her way up the wisteria vines. She quietly hopped off onto the roof and went to find a good vantage point with a view of the entrance. For what felt like hours Myrtle watched the street below, looking for signs of trouble. But she was anxious and had trouble focusing. Somebody could sneak up behind her. Growing plants was great and all, but not being able to make them disappear after--that complicated things.
When Myrtle was just about to give up for the night, Myrtle saw something suspicious. An attractive lady in a tight, sparkly red dress, probably in her thirties, left the bar in a huff and went into the dark parking lot. A gruff man in a leather jacket and a yellow-stained shirt was following behind her. While the woman was struggling with her keys, he came behind her and put his hand over her mouth. She tried to scream and pull away, but he gripped her in his arms and forcibly dragged her toward a fenced area.
For a moment Myrtle was frozen in her boots. Something bad was about to happen and all she could do was stare helplessly and listen to the sounds of the victim's futile struggle and muffled screams. But something deep insider her was pushing, urging her into action. It was time to be a hero!
Myrtle leaped from the building, willing her vines to catch her and ease her fall. She got entangled a bit, stumbled, but kept going with no time to spare. The girl grabbed a handful of seeds, and upon reaching the fence she kicked the door open, threw the seeds in, expecting the worst.
The man held her roughly against one wall of the fence, a knife in one hand, and the other groping her exposed breast. Tears streamed down her face and her make-up ran, and her hair was a tangled mess. There was a large dumpster in the fenced area with them, and the air was thick with the smell of rotting garbage, shit, and piss.
"What the hell are you staring at?
Freak!," the man scowled. "Get lost!"
Fighting the urge to vomit from stress or stench, Myrtle willed one vine to whack the knife out of the man's hand, while another wound up around his legs. The lady pushed him, causing the man to fall to the ground, the knife clacking a distance away a moment later. He reached for the knife, but a thorny vine quickly grew to stop him and restrict his movement. The man yelled in protest, cursing nonstop, and Myrtle just made the vine wind tighter.
"You... you saved me," the woman breathed, after getting herself together. Her chest had been covered back up. Myrtle bent down and picked up the lady's dropped purse and its contents. "Thank you," the pretty lady smiled weakly. She pulled out a tissue and dabbed her eyes.
"Oh.. um, it was nothing. I just want to help people," Myrtle told her honestly, with her heart soaring and her back a bit straighter.
"Are you okay?" the girl hero asked, concerned.
The woman lit a cigarette, put it in her mouth, and took a long drag. "I'm not sure I'm okay. But I will be, thanks to you. What's your name, honey?" she asked, breathing out the smoke.
Myrtle hesitated, choking a bit on the smoke. She never did come up with a good code name. She looked at the man struggling, swearing, and groaning on the ground. With a little concentration, a vine grew towards them and blossomed into a beautiful, but delicate pink rose. Myrtle clipped a bit off with her knife, pocketed the knife, then held out the rose. The lady dropped her cigarette and crushed it.
"Um... you can call me Wallflower" she decided at last, as she handed her the rose.
"Can you call the police?" The woman nodded. And with that,
Wallflower scurried off into the night.
