by Addar Norton
Maddie Tains Chambers stood on the TLC Building in Brisbane, Australia, looking out towards the river and onto the next bank, where they were starting to build the site for World Expo 88. They said it would put Brisbane on the map for world events, but of course that would also bring out the worst in people who wanted to make a statement.
Bloody hell, what am I doing here? she thought. During the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Australia didn’t fare too well in it; people were lost or dead, and huge parts of cities disappeared. Sydney would never be the same again — they had to rebuild the Opera House nearly from the ground up — but that was in the past.
Maddie looked down on the city. From here she could see most of the city’s business district; the TLC Building wasn’t the tallest, but it would do for now. Her father was in a meeting, and she’d been left to amuse herself. Suddenly she heard a police siren, and she quickly spotted a car racing through the streets with the police following close behind.
“Well, it’s now or never,” she said. Standing on the ledge, she stepped off. Predictably enough, she fell fast as gravity took hold of her, but less predictably she suddenly stopped her downward plunge in midair, her long blonde hair falling around her, and her jeans and T-shirt transmuting into a tight-fitting costume of green and gold, even as a mask also formed around her face. She heard yelling and screaming from people below her, who had assumed her to be making an attempt at suicide, but a hush came over the crowd when she stopped falling and changed her appearance.
Maddie gave her shocked audience just another moment to gawk at her before she spun in midair and flew off at high speed after the speeding cars.
“Well, that is one way to make an entrance for Austar,” she said with a grin as she raced off.