Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Hey you're not my only ally either!" Crystal Isis screamed. She walked over to her holding cell.
"Besides, what kind of hero would I be if I let every single hero friend of mine be locked in jail?!" she looked over at Eagle Eye and winked.

"Don't worry Wall Shadow, I'll find some way to get you out of here. Also, I'm sorry for deserting you." she said to her, telepathically.

Something was up. Austin had figured out that a long time ago. He had pieces, but not all of them, because as much as his mind raced, he couldn't put them together. He was never offered a phone call, or read rights, or anything really. That meant the cops were either stupid, or dirty. He would assume it was dirty.

Another thing had been bothering him, though. The security tapes at the DWHAM would have revealed that Stone originally had the artifact. Austin was positive that the cops must have reviewed those by now. Not all of them could be dirty, right? So that meant that the tapes must have been tampered with. That meant somebody else was out there to bring him down. He had a good idea that the Politician was tied in here somewhere...or at least Stone. It was also fairly obvious that clean cops would have recognized Austin for who he was and never come after him in the first place. That meant that the one playing dirty probably was in a position of power.

With little interest in Wall Shadow's conversation, Austin sunk as far as he could into his holding cell, trying to tie all of it together. He was positive that he wouldn't like what he found, but he had to be getting somewhere.

<<
"Do it. Just... do it. They won't listen to a word in your defense, so get out of here..." Maria admitted to Isis, trying to convince her to get out before she was arrested too.

She further dismissed the conversation by walking back to the bench in the holding cell and sitting down to think again.

Those officers are so corrupt, it's amazing. They haven't given us phone calls, or done anything more than shove us unceremoniously into these cells. It's like they're waiting for something, a signal... but I don't have time to dwell on it, this sucks too much already.

<
Maria did not see Isis mouth these words. She had already slid further back on the bench in the cell, making only the square of painted cinderblock outside of the door visible.

Outside of a small window that they put in the cell, barely large enough to stick a hand out of, even without the clichéd bars, the sky was turning from its earlier blue to an orange, red, and yellow mix. The sun was setting. Her family was probably freaking out, even calling her cell phone. Maria wondered if a bag outside of the old radio station was ringing futilely, her cell phone playing its little melody of a ringtone, with no one to answer, her family on the other end, wondering whether she would hurry up and answer her cell phone.

Maybe her parents would think it was Wall Shadow business. In a way, they were right, but that didn't help her thought process. Until those corrupt morons who called themselves police decided that she and Eagle Eye were NOT the criminals, Maria was stuck there in a dingy holding cell.

First Channel Q, now this... I'm beginning to WANT normality... and that's pretty bad...

<<
Maria heard just the faintest bit of the conversation, but most of it was unintelligible. Sure enough, it was her phone ringing, not Lyra's. Maybe she found my bag or something...

Straining to hear from the bench in the holding cell, regardless of how close it was to the building's wall, she heard snatches of Lyra's end of the conversation. Something about her, a week, and then something about a lie...

She couldn't really piece together the conversation parts at all, but she figured that Lyra'd gotten her out of some trouble for the moment. She'd also have to explain everything when she got out of that mess, her family was bound to hear about her arrest sooner or later, but at least she didn't have to worry about her parents absolutely freaking out just yet.

While sitting there on the bench in the cell, her mind drifted, as it had a few times earlier that day, to that morning. She didn't know whether Mom had already woken up and just heard a footstep, a voice, something, and came to check, but she was afraid that on the carpeted stairs, her footsteps were muffled. That left the TV and Gatta's joking retort to get off the stage as causes.

Her thought process dazed by the fact that she was in jail, perhaps, or just because it had been a long day already, Maria boiled her thoughts down to one solution: Gatta was the one who had unintentionally led her parents to discover her secret. Luckily, this had worked out for now, there was no possible excuse for how long she would be gone otherwise, but she had not planned on the open but forced confession that had occurred. She had been planning to tell her parents later on, perhaps that exact day, but then she wouldn't have gotten into this mess, she would've gone home after helping Lyra and Toshimi find the kittens. She wouldn't have gotten involved with Eagle Eye and Stone's interrogation earlier... she wouldn't have gone to this building, much less this holding cell, at all. So, by the power of association, Gatta was the reason she was imprisoned; Eagle Eye would be here alone. Although she felt for the guy, she wasn't too crazy about being in a dingy holding cell.

Maria felt a wave of irritation at her sister, planning to tell her off, maybe more, at the first possible moment. However, before she ended up both in jail and stressed further, she decided to plan later and just wait now. There was nothing she could do, she was trapped like a mouse in this cell.

It was a mistake to think all of this would go fast. Maybe it was, but either way, every second dragged out to Austin. Time made him dreary. His own fear was slowly evaporating. He was thinking hard...to the point that he could think no more. And soon he sat up against the wall of his holding cell, his mouth hanging open stupidly, spaced out and staring into nothing.

Finally, the world spun away and Austin had fallen asleep.

Crystal Isis yawned and leaned against the tree, letting one leg hang free on the branch. Her cell began to ring and she decided to answer it.
"Hello?" she said, tiredly.
"Hey Lyra, where are you?"
"I'm at the Criminal Justice and Hospital place. Why? What happened at home?"
"Well, there's this creepy chick here saying she's gonna live here a few days. She said her name is Kassie Maitland."
Kassie's there? She arrived sooner than I thought."
"Lyra! Did you plan something behind my back?!"
"No, Kassie's my friend from Culpeper. Remeber when I went there for school my Freshmen year?"
"Oh yeah. I remember you telling me about her in your emails."
"Yeah she just moved here with her sisters. She just needs a place to stay until she gets moved in."
"You could have told me first."
"I told you two weeks ago."
"You did?"
"Yeah. When you signed up to go to Culpeper as an exchange student this year. When do you leave for that anyway."
"I'm not to sure. I think in like 2 weeks or something. Its after school starts there."
"Either way, its not that long. Anyway, tell Kassie I'll be back in like an hour or two. Crystal Isis stuff and yes she knows I'm Isis."
"She does?"
"Yeah I told her in Culpeper. Well actually she caught me in Isis form."
"What were you doing?"
"Singing a song in italian and a line in it happened to be "Desidero essere uno con acqua, potere entrare in un fiume. Appena il pensiero lo incita a desiderare congelare, come ghiaccio. Per essere una parte di un oceano, nuotare con i delfini ed essere con le spiagge." while singing I transormed and she happened to be with me. It was when we were rehearsing for a variety show. I hate the one line in italian that makes me transform. I took yoga as a club and she told me to say "To be one with water" in italian during a session."
"What did you do? Also whats the name of that song?"
"I said it in French. Also the name of the song is "Ragazza del mare" or in English, "Girl of The Sea" its from the Opera "Sogno di Atlantian". We went to see it for her birthday. We also saw Wicked on Broadway."
"Jeese, lucky! I so wanted to see Wicked! Also let me guess the name of the opera was Atlantian Song?"
"No it was Atlantian Dream. Also I know you want to see Wicked! Thats why I told you to sign up to be an exchange student this year! Their going to be performing Wicked in DC!"
"They are! Really?! Now I can't wait! How much are tickets!"
"I ordered them online. I having them sent to Rachel since you'll have them when you get there!"
"Oh my god! Thank you Lyra!!"
"No problem, consider it an early birthday gift."
"Ok, thanks Lyra! I'll talk to you later! Bye!"
"Bye Toshimi." Lyra hung up and slipped the phone in her pocket. She yawned once more before drifting off to sleep in the tree.


(Kassie is just a plot change for Lyra. She's no more than an NPC. Also I fugured Kassie would be a great person to take the place of Toshimi since she's gonna be an exchnge student this year.(I'm not going to be an exchange student in case you got that idea.) So yeah, who wants to be stuck in an apartment with four cats all alone for an entire school year!)