Fam Away From Home

The Woman Who Fell to Earth

Nebula hated her first name. But her mother was from the Gemini Coven, so stars were a part of her heritage. And they were bound to most aspects of her life. Except here. Halfway across the world, the brunette who called herself Astra stood on a Sheffield "tube" as the English called it, texting her mother to complain about her name. If the 17-year-old was to add Saltzman to her surname, she wanted to change the former two to something less celestial. She loved stars as much as the next witch, but she didn't want to be weighed down, bound by that shitty name.

Being told the request would be considered, Astra put the phone away. She had a Bluetooth earbud in one ear and looked about the carriage. Off to the left was an older couple. The woman was basically crawling on top of her hubby. She smirked at their closeness and the woman called over, "Can't keep his hands off me, love." 

Laughing softly, Astra went to looking out the window. Not a moment later, the train came to a sudden halt. Astra was knocked into the seat in front of her. As she stood, the lights went out.  She converged with the couple, touching the man's shoulder gently. "You okay?" she asked. 

The woman had her hands on his shoulders, concerned as well. 

The man nodded. He turned to his wife. "You all right, love?" he asked. 

The woman nodded. "Think so, yeah. What just happened?" 

"What can stop a train that fast?" the brunette asked, walking up the aisle. 

"Where you going?" the older gentleman demanded. Astra thought he might've been talking to her, but he got a response from someone else. 

"Just having a look," his wife insisted. 

Astra kept walking up the aisle, facing the door to the next carriage. "Good idea," she called back. "But be careful," she warned. 

She was shouting something out the window when a loud click resounded in the carriage. 

Astra looked around, alarmed, before lunging forward. She fiddled with the handle of the door, but found it was stuck. "Locked," she breathed to herself. "Awesome." She hovered her hand over the handle, mumbling, "Dissero." The handle glowed and she pulled again. Nothing. "Deadlocked. Damnit!" she hissed to herself. Louder, she called, "Is now a bad time to mention that I hate small spaces?" in a grumble.

The woman stuck her head back in the carriage. "The doors just locked. We're shut in," she told them. 

Astra looked around the compartment. "Okay. Deep breaths. Nobody panic. I'm Astrea. Call me Astra; it saves time." She turned back to look down the train. A tentacled ball lit up with sparking electricity and she faced the couple. "There's something coming to our carriage so we're all just gonna make our way to the back. Everyone, stay behind me, okay?" she ordered very calmly. They all shuffled to the back. She held her arms out to keep them back. 

The woman was on the telephone fast as hell for a woman her age. "Ryan, love. Our train's stopped between Hathersage and Grindleford, and something really weird's going on," she went to keep explaining, but her reception cut out. "I've lost service!" she cried. 

"That's okay. There's little chance your grandson would have made it here in time anyway." Astra stayed calm. Though her heart was pounding, she took measured breaths the way her mother taught her. 

"How'd you know-" Her question was cut off by the door being slammed off its hinges. 

The brunette teen looked about the carriage for any sort of weapon against what looked like pure technology. Astra doubted there would be any magic in it at all. She hated when that happened. 

A flashback sent a hallucination of her will-be step-father snapping at her. "You can't let humans know what you are!" 

"I won't let them die!" she would retort just as harshly. He liked binding Nebula with rules. But Astra hated to be told what to do. A trait, she learned, she gained from her father.