Gaseous Girl and the Winds of Time 4: Flashbacks
She's a flying brick with the power to control one of the fundamental states of matter, but no one takes her seriously. That's about to change.
Previously, our heroine had just been resurrected by her cousin Gregory only to discover that her own mother no longer recognized her. What could this mean? She’s about to find out…
Whatever had erased Pamela Percy from the timeline had just wiped her as well. Worse, this was the second time. Pamela was an interesting problem. Madeleine's situation? This was a pattern. Somehow, people were getting erased from time. Madeleine decided not to think about the fact that she still existed even though she technically hadn't been born. This was why she hated time things.
Her first task, though, was to find shelter. Being resurrected had tired her out considerably. Her room wasn't an option. Her room didn't exist anymore. This gave Madeleine a jolt. Her cat didn't exist anymore. She had saved her cat from a supervillain's attempt to level Las Vegas with the Kaboominator. She had also, incidentally, saved Las Vegas. Some other superhero would’ve saved the city for sure in this brave new Madeleine-less timeline, it was Vegas after all, but Madeleine didn’t think anyone would’ve saved her cat. She closed her eyes for a moment. She couldn't think of her cat. She had to get herself back in the timeline first.
Madeleine thought of her friends, but then she realized that would be pointless. If her mom didn't know she existed, her friends wouldn't know her either. So she decided to get a motel room. She would rest that night, then in the morning set out to find answers.
An hour later, she landed in the parking lot of a little dive on the outskirts of the city. The "Vacancy" sign blinked a dull orange at her. Madeleine stepped into the dingy office and asked for a room. "Sure," the manager said. "60 bucks."
Madeleine checked her pockets. She didn't have a debit card. She didn't have cash. "Oh, crap," she said. Then she looked back at the manager. "Look, here's the deal. I haven't been born. This is new for me. Problem is, since I don't exist, my bank account doesn't exist either. Also my savings, my piggy bank stash, my coupon for two free gas station hot dogs. Those are sketchy anyway, no loss there, but still. I've got nothing. But once I get born again, so to speak, I can pay you. I don't suppose..."
The manager was not agreeable to her suggestion. Two minutes later, she was out in the parking lot again. Her stomach rumbled. Madeleine wondered how that worked. If she had never been born, had she ever really eaten? At any rate, how could she eat now? Food cost money. She had none. That was a problem.
She wondered if the George Bailey approach would work. Madeleine shrugged, and dropped to her knees in the parking lot. "God?" she asked tentatively. "Er, dear Father in heaven? It’s been a while, I know. I mean, it’s been ages since I went to Mass, okay? The last time it was two years ago, Christmas. Then the Villainous Vicar attacked, and I accidentally torched a nativity scene. Sorry about that. More to the point... I would like to live again. Okay? Please? Can I live again?"
There was a short pause. Nothing happened. Then she heard sirens howling in the distance. They seemed to be growing louder. That meant a fire, or a chase, or possibly a supervillain. "Hold that thought," she said to the heavens.
She took a minute to check if her powers still work. Fire leapt from her fingers. “Good enough,” Madeleine said, and then took a short run and blasted away into the sky. Timeline problems or not, Gaseous Girl had work to do.
As she flew, she couldn’t help flashing back over her life. Madeleine wondered how much was left now that she was out of it, so to speak. Was Lizzie Dern still around, for example? It had been years since she’d thought of Lizzie, but Lizzie had been there the first time Madeleine had powered up.
It had happened at a school dance. Madeleine had been sixteen then, and had hoped her relationship with her then-boyfriend would last. Then Lizzie had made her play. Lizzie was a year older and a magazine model, Madeleine… wasn’t.
Inevitably, Madeleine wound up standing alone in a doorway, staring out at the falling snow. Then she saw Lizzie and her former date headed towards his car. She pushed the door open, just in time to hear bits of their laughing conversation. She caught the word mistletoe, and guessed the context quickly. Then she got mad. Real mad.
The police never found out who turned Ben Wizowsky’s nice new car into molten slag. They blamed the town’s local supervillain, the Mutant Crested Squirrel. It wasn’t the squirrel.
Meanwhile, once she’d calmed down and realized just what exactly she had done and could do, Madeleine had decided to go the secret hero route. She was surprisingly good at it, considering the explosive nature of her powers; she had performed 17 heroic rescues, averted 32 crimes of middling severity, and saved the planet from collapsing into an alternate hell-dimension before people finally noticed her.
She'd been asked to be a bridesmaid at her friend Barbara’s wedding. Barb had chosen purple for her bridesmaid's dresses. Madeleine wasn't wildly fond of purple, but there were worse colors, so she made her peace with it. She dutifully marched down the aisle, took her place up front, and tried not to yawn as Barbara and what's his face promised to love and cherish, to have and to hold, in sickness and health, etc.
Of course, the Owl Bandit would pick that moment to attack. Why he decided to rob a wedding reception no one would ever know. But rob it he did, or tried to. He stormed into the reception hall, waved around his Owl Death Ray, and demanded that everyone get down right now, or else. Then he launched into what seemed a prepared speech about Society, and the Economy, and Systemic Problems, and several other grievances, the solution to which involved everyone there handing over their money and valuables to him.
Madeleine thought quickly. There were six different ways she could take out the Owl Bandit, but all of them involved going public. If she only had a mask or something she could make a stab at preserving her real identity, but she didn't have one. Normally she carried a mask in her pocket just in case, but her fancy purple bridesmaid's dress didn't have a pocket. Granted, Barbara would not have expected her bridesmaids to cavort around in their dresses saving the world, but come on. What was she supposed to do?
There was only one solution. With a sigh, Madeleine carefully tore a strip of cloth from the dress. Two tiny flame bursts got her a pair of eye holes. Wincing as she thought of losing her damage deposit, she wrapped the strip of cloth around her face. She had miscalculated. The right hole wasn't anywhere near her right eye, so half her field of vision was swallowed up by purple cloth. It couldn't be helped. Madeleine leaped to her feet, fire rippling from her hands. She had, at least, prepared her first line. "Back off, Owl Bandit, or know the fiery fury of justice!"
It had sounded ringing and heroic when she'd practiced. Now, in the reception hall, with people looking on, it sounded stupid. Madeleine wished she could do it over, but she didn't have time. "Who the heck are you?" the Owl Bandit said in mild bemusement.
She had forgotten this part. She hadn't picked a name yet. Then the Owl Bandit mooted the point. "Whoever you are, prepare to eat death ray!" He promptly fired it at her. The blast knocked her right through the wedding cake. The cake was irretrievably destroyed. Madeleine, fortunately, wasn't. She bounded up and burped fire at the Owl Bandit, knocking him into the sound system. He wasn't a flying brick like her, so the impact put him nicely down for the count. Madeleine had a second line prepared, a ringing declamation about how evil never triumphs over good, but she gave it up with a sigh. Instead, she leaped over the maid of honor, ran through the reception hall's main doors, and soared away into the sky.
She never could explain to the bridal shop how her dress had been ripped up and scorched so badly. "There was an accident with the unity candle," she tried, and left it at that. She still had to pay through the nose for the damage. And so began her heroic career as Gaseous Girl.