M.I.A

*Britney stepped from the doorway of the building that housed her tiny efficiency apartment and glancing both ways, started down the sidewalk towards the park. It was a beautiful fall day in New York City, a Saturday when she could do as she pleased. Despite her freedom, she had a nagging feeling lately. Something had been telling her that she must travel south, back to Washington DC to see her friend, the Master, again. Though each time she had met him he had seemed oddly disappointed for some reason. This time she had run out of excess money, The plane trips back and forth each month had taken large chunks out of her meager income, and she had forgotten to ask him for more. Although her friend, the Master, had helped to restore some of her memories, there were critical parts that were missing. For instance, she had remembered faces, and some names, but not the last names. She remembered some things...enough to know that the buzzing in her head that was becoming increasingly disruptive to her life was the result of an implant...but not why it was there, or even that she could use it. She felt increasingly confused and uncertain, wondering if all her memories were nothing more than hallucinations. But something in her said that those people....some of them really had existed...and some still did.*

*She turned onto a well worn pathway into Central Park...turning her steps towards the Cloisters, a favorite museum she was particularly fond of, not for the kind or amount of things it held, but for the atmosphere around the castle like structure. After a short walk, she took a seat overlooking the Hudson River, her mind returning to the problem of returning to the Nations Capital from her new home in New York City. When the Master left her with a wad if money, she had returned to New York because the few clear memories she had said she had lived there, once. She hoped that she had known all those people in her memory, hoped that she had known them HERE, but all her searching had come up with nothing. Meanwhile she had found a much better job as an office assistant and a second job, teaching martial arts, which had also served to keep her in shape, her senses and reflexes sharpened. But neither had helped to increase her savings enough for monthly trips south and back by airplane...Of course she could take a bus. But she hated the idea of being confined for the long hours a bus trip would take*

*She knew something was wrong with her The headaches and static had become much worse lately, serving to confuse her more than what was normal even for her. And they were not going away, in fact they were getting worse. Also there were times when she found something she simply did not know how to do, especially things to do with technology. It was very puzzling for she did remember that at some point in her life, she had known how to do it before. The truth was, there were still great gaping holes in her memory, and she didn't think it was because she had simply forgotten them. Something else was wrong. *

*She frowned as she again disregarded the idea of going to a clinic to see what was wrong. She knew what they would tell her. That she had a piece of metal in her skull, and that there was nothing they could do for the damage already done, and ...(she read between the lines) especially with out health insurance. She signed and allowed her head to tilt back to look up at the leaves of the trees above her, delighting in the flash of sunlight through them. Suddenly there was the crackle of static and the worse headache of her life hit her. She moaned and lifted her hands to her head, believing she was about to die when she heard voices...distinct voices in her head* NO! ...Leave me alone! *She cried, closed her eyes, nearly blacking out in shock and then curled up on the bench with a whimper*