Hemiplegia; paralysis of one half of the body. Paraplegia; paralysis of the legs and lower half of the body. However, neither of those seemed to be the case. I think the term quadriplegia would be much more appropriate here; paralysis of all four limbs. The word comes from the Greek word for "disabling of the nerves", which comes from the Greek word παρά (para), "beside, by" and λύσις (lysis), "losing". Paralysis is most commonly caused by damage in the nervous system, but it can also be caused by a stroke, cerebral palsy, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, etc. Paralysis is loss of muscle function.
Now, I may be over exaggerating just a tiny bit, but I'm going to use quadriplegia for my diagnosis. My world stopped, and try as I might, no part of my body could move except for my eyes. I couldn't stand, I couldn't shake off the pain from the hard landing, and I didn't even register the fact that I just teleported. In the back of my mind, I knew I needed to get out of there. These strangers basically kidnapped me (I guess I consented but still) and they have some kind of bullshit telepathy and teleportation abilities. How- Why was I trusting them?! I shouldn't have been there. I should have been running. I should have been trying to make it home, but I didn't want to... All I could do was sit there on the floor in a broken state, paralyzed... because holy shit the girl in front of me was beautiful.
I was always told that staring was rude, but I was captivated. She had extremely short, strawberry red hair, dazzling, vibrant blue eyes, and her face was covered in little freckles. Her outfit consisted of blue skinny jeans, a Harry Potter t-shirt and purple converse. She seemed to be about 5'9". She towered over my 4'11" stature, especially with me sitting down. Her mouth was bent upwards in a slight smirk, and I assumed it was because of my idiocy. I just sat there staring at her for who knows how long, but my breath hitched when I realized her face was only inches from mine. She was waving her hand in front of my face and calling out to me.
"Hello? Earth to Kylie?" Holy shit she's even cuter up close. It took me a moment, but I realized that her voice was the one talking to me before. "You with us, kid?"
"I... uh, yeah. Yeah I'm... I'm here," I replied slowly, shaking my head. She backed up as I stood. "But, uh... Where exactly is 'here'?"
"Welcome to... Peter, do we have a cool acronym for this place?" Peter looked up from a few files laying on a desk.
"I'm pretty sure we just call it the base," he said.
"Well that's lame. Let's see... B.A.S.E. Bad Ass Super Entities. Sound good?" The redhead smiled.
"No." He paused, continuing to dig through files. "How long are you going to push for an acronym?" Peter questioned, clearly annoyed with her antics.
"Until you all agree to one."
"I thought it was clever," I chimed in.
"Thank you! Finally, someone with some common sense," she exclaimed. I smiled. "Oh, where are my manners? I'm-"
"You don't have any," Peter interrupted jokingly. I don't know if he'll do that again; simply seeing this ginger's glare scared me enough to know never to piss her off. Peter abruptly stopped laughing and looked back down as his papers.
"As I was saying," she said, turning back to me. "Piper Green, at your service." Piper held out her hand for me to shake, and I returned the gesture.
"Kylie Wilson. Although, you probably knew that already," I replied. "For some reason..." I added nervously. Piper was about to say something before we heard shouting coming from the other room, along with someone laughing. With a raised eyebrow, I followed Piper into the room.
"How many times have I told you not to turn the team dog into Clifford?!" A female voice shouted.
"Why are you so against a big fluffy dog? We can all ride on him this way," another chimed in. My heart nearly stopped. We were in a room nearly the length of a football field. The ceiling was sixty feet tall, at least. What amazed me, however, was not the room, but the Caucasian Shepherd dog that still had to duck to fit into it. He let out a booming bark, and the walls and floors vibrated as if we were having an earthquake.
"We can't even get up there! He's big enough as it is!" The first girl yelled over his loud panting.
"Fine." The other girl flicked her hand, and there was a blinding flash of light. When my eyeballs weren't burning anymore, I looked around. The dog was now back to a standard size for his breed, but he was still bigger than I was.
"What the HELL was that?!"
"This is Boe, our dog," Piper said, laughing a bit at my reaction. "And the one wreaking havoc is Sophia." I took a moment to look at her. She had long blonde hair and sky blue eyes. She was pretty short, but still a few inches taller than me. Sophia had on a sporty outfit; black leggings, a dark blue sweatshirt, sneakers, and her hair was up in a high ponytail. She waved and smiled at me.
"C'mon, Boe, let's go outside," she called to the dog, who happily followed, wagging his tail. The girl who was previously yelling at Sophia sighed and shook her head, walking over to me. She was about Piper's height, but maybe an inch shorter. She had strawberry blonde hair that was a little bit longer than Piper's pixie cut.
"Amber Swander. And you are?"
"Kylie Wilson," I said, shaking Amber's hand.
"She's the new girl," Piper chimed in, nudging me.
"Yeah, about that... Will someone please explain what-" I stopped when someone cleared their throat behind me. Whirling around, I found myself face-to-face with a girl about 5'3" (so technically face-to-chin, I guess). She had shoulder-length bleach blonde hair that was darker in some places. Her eyes were a solid grey color. Interesting.
"Callie Hines," she stated as if I should have known that already. "I'm the director around here, or the "boss", if you will. I'm assuming you're Kylie?"
"Yes, but-"
"Let me just explain this in a quick and easy way that you'll understand." Callie paused. "We're an elite group of individuals with special abilities, or "superheroes" as most people call it," she said blatantly. "But I'm sure you've heard all of this before." I couldn't breathe. "One of the most infamous villains in the United States is currently after you, so we decided it was probably time to come and bring you to safety." I felt like I was going to pass out. "We have reason to believe that you also have abilities, right? So," she paused. "Are you ready to help us take him down?"
"No this... this isn't right. These things don't happen in real life. I've read books and watched movies but this isn't supposed to actually happen!" I was in hysterics. None of this made any sense. Real life doesn't work like a story. Superpowers don't exist. They're scientifically and physically impossible. I couldn't think, I couldn't speak, I couldn't move.
"Hey, uh... Callie," Piper spoke up. "She's kind of having a mental break down up there." She pointed to the side of her head. Callie sighed, looked at me, and spoke slowly.
"Kylie. Deep breaths."
"What do I do?" I asked.
"What do you mean?" Callie questioned in response.
"With this information," I responded. "My brain is having a hard enough time processing the telepathy and teleportation and the giant dog, and now I'm learning that I supposedly have a damn super villain on my ass. What am I supposed to do?"
"Well, it's obvious, isn't it? You fight back with us," Callie stated as if she were telling me how to solve one plus one. Piper glanced at me, painfully aware of how awkward this must've been for me. After a moment of awkward silence and staring, Callie spoke up again. "Right?" I took a deep breath.
"Well, here's the thing..."
