Bridging the Gap

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Story is part of the

The glass table rattled as Leona thumped her head against it in defeat and her green hair flowed out over the various text books strewn about.

"I give up, you win this round Biology my worthy enemy," she said in her best super villain voice, which drew a few chuckles from the other patrons at the sidewalk cafe she'd chosen for her study session.

"Why can't Mr. Kearney give longer deadlines...tomorrow morning my butt."

As she sat back up and took a sip of coffee, and ran her hands through her head in frustration when the area shook and a dull rumble pulsed through the street, rattling windows and setting off car alarms.

"Probably a truck or something," she muttered as she put her nose back in her book.

After several minutes, another rumble shook the ground, this one a bit more violent followed by the shriek of emergency vehicle sirens that sped past the cafe at breakneck speed.

With a frown of concern crossing her features, Leona jogged towards the disturbance, navigating a sea of slack jawed and stunned pedestrians.

When she caught her first glimpse of the bay the scene made her breath catch in her throat, the new overpass meant to connect downtown to the suburbs had been hit by....something a bomb an exploding tanker, Leona didn't know.

What she saw was that one of the cylindrical support pillars as all but gone and she could see the bared reinforced steel barely holding the west half up. At the far end of the damaged structure, she could see portions had already collapsed and there were rescue workers and some of the lesser known heroes working to help the injured and trapped.

A sharp groan came from the support and the metal began to slowly bough and warp and it was easy to see that those stranded and trapped would have little chance if she didn't act.

A knot of nervousness and worry twisted her stomach, what if she failed, what if she made things worse? The powers she now wielded she had about as much experience with them as child did with a bike with training wheels.

 

She mulled the worrying thoughts in her mind, but the suspended roadway began to crack and crumble as the support lost more of its integrity and the crash of an abandoned SUV as it slid and flipped over the concrete barrier pushed her courage to the forefront.

With an audible swallow she began to run towards the bridge, her pendant shimmering with an ivory light and her body expanding and her clothes shredding off her body accompanied with an annoyed whine from Leona as she rushed forward.

The sound of her shoes tearing from her feet with audible pops and the shred of her socks and then the feel of her now bare feet digging deep gouges in the asphalt as she continued her charge forward and a golden, crystalline bikini took form over her body, shin guards and bracers followed as she reached the damaged bridge just as the road it supported gave.

The next few moments were a blur for Leona, she remembered seeing the asphalt and steal construction sloughing and falling like ice from a polar cap, those still trapped screaming, as they slid towards the unyielding concrete below, a flash of light and then seeing her arm in the midst of the crumbling bridge now held by a shaky lattice of crystal and light, those trapped on the fractured rubble stunned, frightened and unsure of what to do.

She stared for a moment, wondering what to do next, or how she even did what she did.

"Um...I'm not really good at this," she said as she held out a shaky, free hand the size of small bus towards the cowering people.

None of them dared move, fear on their faces.

"Come on, please....I don't think I can hold this for too long," she shouted, frustration clear in her now shaky voice as the strain of holding things where they were was beginning to tax her stamina, another groan of the bridge helped prompt the survivors overcome their fears and they started to make their way to the outstretched hand.

Leona let out a giggle that betrayed the seriousness of the scene, the feel of many tiny feet and hands on her palm was new and something she never thought would happen in a million years and it probably wouldn't be the last given how hectic a day in Angel Falls could be.

She was a living elevator, a handful of people would be lowered by her shaky hand, Leona's felt her teeth grind back and forth as she struggled to maintain the crystalline patch work as another handful was ready to go, it felt like an eternity to her but finally the last handful of endangered citizens was lowered to the ground to the waiting EMTs and just in time.

Leona suddenly felt herself get lightheaded and the ground come up fast, both from her rapidly dwindling mass and the fact she felt herself black out.

The last thing she remembered was hearing the crumbling remains of the bridge as it crashed down.

-----

Leona sat up with a sharp yelp, her head colliding with an EMT who'd been giving her fire-fighter covered form CPR. The poor guy recoiled with a gasp and the poor girl had sense enough to cover her bared breasts with her hands and at the same time mention and apology to the poor guy.

"D..did everyone get out," her voice was timid and her cheeks

were slowly turning a lovely shade of red as she saw spectators staring at her, mother's covered the eyes of their children and she was sure more than one cell phone was taking pictures or recording a video for YouTube or worse X-Tube later.

The EMT rubbed his nose with a wince, hands to his nose with a hissing intact of air.

"Yeah, you got the last few, would've been bad had you not shown up," he said through his hands.

Leona let out a sigh as her legs came under her and a few cheers came from the crowd made her a bit more self-conscious and she pulled the coat closer to her body.

"How long was I out?"

"About twenty minutes, it's about six now," the EMT said as he started to blush as well.

Leona jumped up and dashed off towards the cafe she's started at, the coat floating away to land on the helpful EMT's head, "Oh damn it Kearny's assignment!"

As she ran off a firefighter walked by and removed the coat from his fellow civil servants head.

"Well shit, the carpet matches the curtains on that one."

The X-tube videos and pictures hit sixty thousand views that evening.