<hr/><div class="floatleft">(https://f2.toyhou.se/file/f2-toyhou-se/images/55160425_8wSRqlHJT4Reurt.png)<br/><div align="center">Art by Anna Simpson (https://www.twitter.com/annasimpsonart)</div></div><strong>Name:</strong>Amber Powers<br/><strong>Pronouns:</strong>She/Her<br/><strong>Location:</strong>Yellow Brick Road, Seattle, Washington<br/><strong>Date &amp; Time:</strong>March 24, 2014<br/><strong>Tagging:</strong>Open<br/><strong>Hero Points:</strong>1/1<br/><hr/>It was good to finally have a day off. Between her studies and Basketball practice, she's hardly had any time for herself.  Unfortunately, "Herself" currently includes the folks back home and abroad.  There were birthdays and stuff to acknowledge, and Amber was hoping to find the means to do so in Emerald Cities famed Yellow Brick Row.  Because she sure as Hell wasn't going to do that cooped up in her dorm room on her computer.  Not on a day like this, at least.<br/><br/>She might have better luck if half the stores here weren't coffee shops.  Between all the Starbases, Arcadia Roasters, and Mud Houses, Amber was almost convinced she was walking in circles.  Fortunately, there was plenty of other kinds of shops to look at, but God damn it if these people didn't love their coffee.<br/><br/>Amber was dressed in her usual style.  Jeans, t-shirt, Letterman jacket.  She was staring into the window of an electronics store, paper cup half-full of coffee in one hand, when the sounds of irate traffic and panicked civilians drew her attention to a nearby intersection.  Just in time to catch a glimpse of a white delivery truck explode into flames.  She quickly downed the rest of her coffee and tossed it into a garbage can several feet away, the cup arching gracefully through the air over the heads of a few people as Amber started to jog towards the incident.<br/><br/>Neither got very far.  The cup was blown off-course by the shock wave and Amber staggered to a stop.  Her arms raise to cover her face instinctively, but it was too late to protect her ears.  A low tone drowned out all other noises, leaving Amber with a slight feeling of disorientation.  She lowered her arms and beheld the chaos before her.  The wreckage up ahead spewed crackling smoke skyward, lightning dancing among the plumes like a billowing thunderhead.  It wrapped around and through the clouds like cobwebs in a forgotten tomb shroud a long-dead tyrant.<br/><br/><br/>Amber was suddenly acutely aware of the number of phones and cameras fixed on the event.  She helped a fallen pedestrian nearby to their feet and urged them away before galloping towards the storm.  With practically each step, she was grabbing an amateur photographer to jolt them from their reverie, shouting at them evacuate even as she herself closed in.<br/><br/>Then, like a massive boot, the thunderhead dropped.  The storm became an avalanche, flooding the streets and walkways with its acrid smoke.  She tackled the civilian she had just grabbed, forcing them to the ground and shielding them with her body as the cloud washed over them.<br/><br/>Trying to describe what Amber sensed of the lightning still permeating the chaos would be like trying to describe color to a blind man, or sound to the deaf.  Even in Amber's own family, the ability was rare.  She had her own words for it, as obtuse as wine-taster jargon.  It was plain to see how it differed from natural lightning, but few could appreciate the difference as Amber could.  It had the facade, but not the sway.  It was too poised, thick like treacle in her veins.  It should be snap, its heat fresh with each flicker. Instead it roiled in a way that made her nauseous.<br/><br/>She opened her eyes to a world of gray.  Everything was covered in ash and soot, not to mention considerable assorted debris.  That is to say, everything she could see through the fading fog.  The air hurt to breath from the dirt it was infused with.  And that foul electricity lingered like a stench, crackling languidly around her.<br/><br/>She helped the person she tackled to their feet.  "Go on, get out of here.  And try not to touch anything."  She honestly had a bad feeling about how that dust glittered.<br/><br/>Amber looked around, the electricity in the air giving her an uneasy feeling.  She almost activated her electric aura in response.  A challenge?  A threat?  But she thought better of it.  No need to repeat the Battle Royale incident.  She didn't want anyone to think she had the slightest chance of being involved in this disaster.<br/><br/>People lay in the street around her.  Some in worse shape than others.  She immediately set about checking on the people around her.  Helping them to stand, examining injuries.  It wasn't long before she heard a cry from a nearby pile of debris and started digging.<br/>