by Addar Norton
Maddie Tains Chambers stood on the rooftop of the TLC Building in Brisbane, her eyes scanning the river that glimmered like a silver snake winding through the city. Across the water, construction crews busily worked at the site of the upcoming World Expo 88, a flashy affair that promised to put Brisbane on the global map. However, with all that glitz came a fair share of troublemakers, and Maddie couldn’t help but wonder what kind of chaos lurked just around the corner.
Bloody hell, what am I doing here? she thought, the wind whipping her long blonde hair around like a wild creature. Memories of the Crisis on Infinite Earths still haunted her. Australia had taken a beating; people had been lost, and cities had crumbled. Sydney would never quite be the same again; they had to rebuild the Opera House nearly from the ground up, for crying out loud. But that was all in the past, right?
Leaning over the edge, she took in the view. The TLC Building wasn’t the tallest in the city, but it offered a decent vantage point. Her father was stuck in a meeting, leaving her to entertain herself. Suddenly, the wail of a police siren sliced through the air like a hot knife through butter.
“Oi, what’s this then?” Maddie squinted down at the street. A police car was hot on the tail of a speeding vehicle, tires screeching like a banshee. “Well, it’s now or never,” she declared, her heart racing faster than the cars below.
With a cheeky grin, she stepped off the ledge. Gravity took hold, and she plummeted like a stone. Just as panic threatened to set in, she halted in midair, her hair swirling around her like a golden halo. In a flash, her jeans and T-shirt morphed into a skintight costume of green and gold, a mask forming around her face as if it had always been meant to be there.
The crowd below erupted into chaos, people screaming and pointing, convinced they were witnessing a tragic leap. But as she hovered there, defying gravity, a hush fell over them. Maddie took a moment to let the astonished faces soak in the spectacle before she spun in midair, adrenaline pumping through her veins.
“Now that’s one way to make an entrance for Austar!” she shouted, her voice ringing out with a mix of mischief and excitement. With a burst of speed, she shot off after the speeding cars, the thrill of the chase igniting her spirit.
“Catch me if you can, you dodgy blokes!” she laughed, the wind whipping past her as she raced into the heart of the action, ready to show Brisbane that she was here to stay — and she wasn’t about to let a little crime ruin her day.