Chapter Text
My name is Vara Gnosis, and I don’t know who I am. I know I’m different, and I will find the truth. I will write my story in this journal, and hopefully by the end of this book I will have discovered all I need to know.
The Sun rays filtering through the grimy window slid across my eyes. Taking a deep breath of air clogged with the stench of the warehouse I slowly opened them, holding on to the peace of the darkness; the sound of the bay lapping at the dock just outside a gentle drumming rhythm heralded new and old problems. My stomach rumbled its usual morning rant as I stood and stretched. Dismantling my nest was simple matter of taking down the tarp and rolling it around my sleeping bag. Attaching the bundle to the top of my rucksack I paused to take one last look around the spot between the crates, I didn’t want to forget anything.
The next patrol was due any minute so I left through the back, easing my way between piles of rusted junk and slipping quietly out into the narrow alley on the other side of the building, and ran right into a gang-banger for the Midtown Rabid Dogs. He was dealing to a kid, maybe fourteen, and he just looked at me like I was a hooker fresh off the corner. Just then, right on schedule, a pair of cops walked around the corner of the warehouse.
“HEY STOP, POLICE!” They shouted, I ran. If they caught me I was dead. Being caught meant being sent back. Back to a father who beat me for breathing and had other means of punishment for everything else; back to a shack in the foothills of the Siskiyou Mountains. Locked up like a dog in a cage. I looked back; one was chasing me and the other the dealer. I looked back in time to see a wood fence blocking the alley. Praying, to who I don’t know, I jumped and grabbed the top of the fence. I threw my body into a back-flip and somersaulted over to land on my feet. I dashed down the other side of the alley and out into the street, turned left and went down the stairs into the subway. I jumped the toll station; homeless means broke, and made it into a train heading downtown. Leaving the industrial section, I slumped against the grab bar and closed my eyes.
----------------------Six Years Ago----------------------------
WHAP! WHAP! WHAP! The strap bit into my backside.
“Are you going to try that again Vara?”
“No Dad, please stop. I won’t run no more.” I cried.
WHAP!WHAP!WHAP!
Hours later in the darkness my drying tears making my shirt stiff, I huddled in the cell that was the only thing I ever knew, ankle manacle chaffing. Voices drifted through the air vent.
“I can’t keep the brat forever. They’ll find her and I’ll be as good as dead.” Said my father.
“Just a little longer, we need to lure the Princess into the trap; after that we’ll be by to take her.” The other voice replied.
"It's been six months, and the brat has escaped twice already. The kid is inventive."
"Soon she will be one of us and Wonder Woman will be dead. The city and then the world will be ours, and not even the gods can stop us!"
------------------------Present Day------------------------------
The train lurched to a stop and I opened my eyes, the scroll sign above the door read financial district. I readjusted my gear and walked out of the train, wary of the lack of cops. I let the crowd swell around me as I made my way to street level.
The Sun had peaked over the skyscrapers and the bustle of the sidewalk was in full swing when I surfaced. My stomach rumbled again and I scanned for other street-people. Seeing none I staked out the entrance to an alley that I had used a couple of days ago, grabbed a piece of cardboard out of the dumpster and wrote: Hungry, please help on it. Sitting down just inside the alley, so I wouldn’t get stepped on and could run if needed, I dug a cracked-plastic red bowl and placed it in front of me.
Most people just walk by and throw whatever change is in their pockets, but today a woman in a suit stopped in front of me. She pulled a piece of paper out of her brief case and put it on the bowl.
“When you’re ready for a job,” she said. I took the application and nodded, and she walked on. I sat there for another few hours and raked in about twenty bucks. I was picking up my stuff, and was about to go get a sandwich, when a rumbling began. The ground began to heave and buck. People froze at first and then a woman screamed and everyone began to run. As I stood there, unsure what to do, I heard crying. I looked over and saw a small child standing next to a woman lying on the ground half buried under a pile of bricks. I ran over and checked her pulse. At first I couldn’t feel anything, but then I felt it.
“Hang on kid, I’m gonna get your mom out of here.” I began shifting the rubble. The ground began to buck and shake again so I grabbed the boy, pulled him under me as I leaned over his mother. More bricks and debris fell. When the ground finished shaking I let him up and went back to freeing the woman. As I cleared the last of the bricks, another aftershock began. A woman, wearing red, white, and blue, came down from the sky and lifted the boy, his mother, and myself and then the ground was gone from under my feet; the buildings and people getting smaller, harder to see through the smoke and dust.