I Live In A World Made Of Cardboard

And so it went that Clementine just hung out around the hospital while Shane found himself a nice quiet room that wasn't being used and he took himself a nice relaxing one hundred ten minute nap before his phone alarm went off and he woke up. He was a little groggy at first and his body initially wanted him to go back to sleep but he was able to wake himself back up and pull himself up to turn off the alarm. Shane performed a few breathing exercises and stretches and then he patted his face and splashed some water on his face to finish waking up. He still wasn't at a hundred percent of course but he felt a hell of a lot better. He was maybe around 30-45%. An argument could be made for 51% if you stretched it a bit. But regardless he was feeling a lot better. At least well enough to make it home. "You know? I think I should thank that kid when I see her again. I needed that compliment today. Someone seriously asked for my autograph. My autograph? Can you believe that?" He laughed. "Oh I am going to be riding this days." Shane dried his face off and tossed the roll and walked out of the room to get some food.

After relieving himself in the Men's room and washing his hands he walked downstairs with a fresh pep in his step and he got himself a late dinner at the Subway with a drink and he took the time to enjoy himself until he finally finished and cleaned his hands and mouth with a napkin followed by using a sanitizer on his hands. Feeling recharged he got a drink to go and clocked himself out of the hospital, waving goodbye and blowing kisses to his friends and co-workers with a big smile on his face as he moonwalked out the door to the amusement of everyone in the lobby.

Be polite, be courteous, be prepared, be professional, but always leave them with a smile.

Clementine peeked over the edge of the roof. There he was! "Alright, go time. Just follow behind him in the air at a safe distance and make sure he gets home safe. That's all I have to do. Quick clean and simple. Time to be a hero." She jumped off the roof and flew into the rainy skies covered in her raincoat looking down on the city like a Guardian Angel.

Shen got into his car and drove away with the headlights on and the windshield wipers hard at work.

For the first half of his trip he was feeling good. Really good. The road was hazardous with this weather but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle so long as he obeyed the rules of the road and drove carefully. But slowly the tempting sensation of sleep began to creep up on him once more. No matter how hard he focused or fought her he could feel sleep's cold embrace pulling him down. He downed a large gulp of his drink and pushed on.

Doctor Shane Spellman was not having a good night. He'd been working himself to the bone at Silver Boulder Community Hospital lately, working quadruple shifts while running on coffee, micronaps and willpower. Shane wasn't going to complain of course, he'd saved a lot of lives in surgeries but he was running on fumes now. He needed to get home and catch up on his sleep. He'd seen the results of death by overwork far too often after all. He needed to get home. He just needed to get home and recharge his batteries. Unfortunately the odds were stacked against him here. Even with the heavy metal music blaring to keep him awake, the wipers going full tilt and the energy shot in his system he still felt like he was drifting in and out of consciousness. Even with the headlights cutting through the sheet of rain pouring down on the sleek wet roads the world was a blur with random images floating aimlessly around in his vision. This wasn't just rain either it was a downpour as heavy as anything he'd ever seen! It was like he was driving through a waterfall! The drops struck the already wet sidewalk, pitting the surface like they were bullets from above. The day had been simply dark and overcast, but in seconds it became a wall of water. The whole world simply felt low resolution, a bad quality movie and he began slapping himself to stay awake.

"Come on man! Come on! Fight! You can do this! Stay awake! You can do this! Stay awake! Stay awake! Stay awake!"

After smacking himself back awake, he focused on his driving and navigated the winding rode. Just when he was relaxing in his seat again he noticed two bright yellow lights shining through the rear windshield of his car and coming in fast! "Oh what now?"

The vehicle behind him bumped into his car and rattled him. "GAH! Dammit! What the hell is your problem?!" He yelled back at it.


Clementine Kane had been watching over him from the sky and while the car drifted and swerved a bit he was able to always regain control of his car. It looked like he'd be just fine from here. All she had to do was keep watching over him and everything would be okay. Unfortunately she had been so focused on the simple task of watching over the car she forgot to watch the clouds above her. It makes sense after all. She hadn't flown during storms before and obviously nothing had hurt before so she could be forgiven for being a bit cocky. That was when Mother Nature decided to slap her down with reality. Lightning jagged across the night sky ripping the once peaceful sky like paper.

“Lightning never strikes the same place twice” is a common phrase you’ve probably heard before, often used to reassure someone that whatever bad thing has happened, it won’t happen again. It can even be used when something good happens, such as winning the lottery, but the underlying truth remains. What are the odds that something extremely unlikely, such as a lightning strike, will happen more than once? After all, a thunderstorm travels across an area. So after lightning strikes one place, it’s probably safe from another strike. In reality, lightning can and will strike the same place twice, whether it be during the same storm or even centuries later.

When we see a lightning strike, we’re witnessing the discharge of electricity that has built up in a cloud, which is so strong that it breaks through the ionized air. This creates a stepped leader, or the lightning bolt, that travels downward until it reaches the ground. It is an incredibly quick process that takes only about 30 milliseconds. And right after lightning strikes, it reverberates in quick succession. So, essentially, multiple strikes can happen at the same place in this short period of time. Technically, the lightning is already striking more than once. Even during the same thunderstorm, there is nothing stopping a lightning bolt from striking the same place it had struck previously, even if it was as little as a few seconds earlier or as much as centuries later.

For the record, Roy Sullivan was only struck by seven lightning bolts over the course of his life over a period of time. The odds of which are 4.15 in 100,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000.

Our dear rookie superheroine meanwhile was struck multiple times in the back by multiple lightning bolts and had a profound appropriate reaction to this event as she crashed landed on the road.

"QwErTyUiOpAsDfGhJkLzXcVbNm!"


The driver obviously couldn't hear him but kept coming regardless, bumping into his car a second time and then a third time!

"I gotta get the hell out of here! This guy's fucking crazy!" He dared to speed up his car to get away from this lunatic only for the other driver to speed up with him! His tires drove through the rain slicked streets and splashed through the water.

She shook off the fall and rubbed the back of her head. "Uuuunnngggh...what just hit me? L-lightning?" She coughed and pulled herself. "Ohhhh eeeeee ooowwwch! Ow. Ow. OW! Ow....ow? OW?!" She asked in amazement. "Ow?! I-is...is...this is what pain feels like?" Clementine asked herself in amazement. It was like fireballs had exploded against her back. Her entire back. From the top of her spine to the bottom. An incredible seething searing pain that was running all over her back. "Yeah...I-I think this is definitely what pain feels like...wow. I mean...wow. It's something alright. How do people deal with this?"

Strangely enough, the pain was already fading.

"WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM? SERIOUSLY?!" Shane cried out as he went into a wide turn only for the driver to speed up further, ram into his car and push it forward and off the road and off the cliff!

Clementine snapped back to reality as gravity took hold of Shane's car. The waterfall of raindrops slowed to a crawl and Clementine hauled ass tearing through the sheets of rain without hesitation or care for them. She reached the cliff and looked down to see the car hanging there frozen in free fall from her perspective. "Hold on Shane, I'm coming." She jumped off of the cliff and she flew down to the car and looked inside. Shane's face was frozen in fear his hands raised up. She clenched her fists. To see a man like this, a good, honest man who dedicated his life to helping people, to the point of pushing his body to the breaking point so long as he could save the lives of others, to see his face frozen in fear and screaming for his life because of some jerkface driver made her blood boil.

She flew down beneath the car and she slowed herself to match its decent while holding her hands up. The car slammed down on her hands but she held it up above her head easily and flew back up to the cliff with the car held over her head and she set it back down against a wall. She looked in on Shane as he slowly came to the realization that he wasn't falling anymore and smiled. He'd be okay. Maybe freaked out for a bit or in need of a hospital stay himself but he would be fine.

The jerkface driver who nearly killed him however was going to have to be punished though. She patted the car on the roof and zipped away.


Bobby Jack was an alcoholic. Years of alcohol abuse had left his cheeks rosy and his mind dull-witted. He knew drying out would be a painful process and he had no intention of ever going through it. He was determined to stay drunk until he died. He never had a sober day if he could help it. He did everything drunk. He drove, shopped and went to work drunk. He never had less than four full bottles of Gin and a case of beer in the house. That was his emergency rations and he immediately went shopping if he reached that level. It was breaking him down but he didn't care. It kept his mind cluttered. It kept him from thinking about her. About Thelma. About her leaving him. About the mistakes he'd made. About the fire. He sniffled and grabbed the bottle of Imperial Torrid Vision Beer from the cupholder and chugged it until the memory went away. The burn scars on his hands under his gloves were enough of a reminder already. He didn't need those memories popping up all the damn time on top of them. What little he could see outside was hazy and shaky. He threw the bottle down and wiped the frothy liquid from his bearded chin. Not even caring. He simply pressed on the gas pedal. He wasn't even sure what he was doing out here at night. He probably just wanted to clear his head at first and somehow ended up out here. It didn't matter. The rain didn't matter. The storm didn't matter. The thunder didn't matter. None of it mattered. He simply pressed on. Pedal to the medal. He just wanted to drive and drive until he outran his own thoughts and figured out where the hell he was going.

Bobby kept going until he felt his truck bump into something and jolted out of his thoughts. "WHAT THE HELL? HEY! WHO HTE HELL ARE YOU? HEY! GET AOFF THE ROAD DAMMIT! WHAT ARE YOU TKRYING TO DRO HUH?!"

He shouted and pressed on the pedal, hitting the smaller car in front of him and pushing it forward. "Hey! Hey! Get off the road!" He yelled at him and did it again. The smaller car sped up to try and get away and were he in his right mind, Bobby would never have done anything, but he was drunk off his ass and in a fowl mood already so he just laughed and sped up to chase after him.

"WheEr yOu gNiOoG HuH? wHeRe yCoUsE SgOinG?" He giggled and chased after him. "Whhhyyy yOu rUnNiNg hUh? WhErHe yOu gOiEnG ThElMa? OdN'T Gooooo!" His truck swerved in the rainy night as he chased after the tiny little clown car until he rammed into it with his truck and ran it off the cliff road. "Serves you right." He muttered.


Clementine caught up to the truck and sped in front of it and stared it down. "Toro." She smirked and allowed the speeding truck to smash into her. The booming cacophony of metal breaking, bending and being smashed echoed around her but Clementine didn't even budge. The truck lurched forward before slamming itself back on the ground. She walked back out of the torn up front of the truck and brushed her raincoat off.

"Okay. Noted. I am not entirely electricity proof but I am in fact truck proof. Good to know."



There was a crashing of thunder overhead and something darted in front of his truck. Bobby screamed as his truck collided with something heavy. The metal of his truck crumpled and snapped as it impacted this hard and solid object in front of it. The steel, aluminum, fiberglass and carbon fiber mix of the hood of his truck was crushed inwards by whatever it had crashed into. The tires squealed and the truck titled upward and then came back down. Bobby Jack was left shaking back and forth in his seat while he screamed at the top of his lungs.

"AAAAAH! AAAAAH! AAAAAH! AAAAAH! AAAAAH! AAAAAH! AAAAAH! AAAAAH! AAAAAH! AAAAAH! AAAAAH! AAAAAH! WHAT THE FUCK? WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK?!"

The truck settled down on the ground but he didn't notice and only continued to scream.

A moment later he felt the truck impossibly slide sideways across the ground until it was backed firmly against a cliff wall. He tried to slam down on the gas pedal but his truck wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. The lights were out and he couldn't see what was happening either!

"HEEEEELLLP! HEEEEEEELLLP! SOMEBODY! SOMEBODY HELP MEEEEEEE! AAAAAAAAAHHHHGGH!"

Bobby Jack screamed into the stormy night. Even through the thundering downpour he could swear he heard something cutting into the side of his truck. The battered drunken man hesitantly reached over to the door and he slowly pushed it open and leaned out. He was immediately blasted in the face with a barrage of water droplets and freezing wind. He screamed again and struggled to get his bearings, drunkenly flailing around in the dark. In the middle of all of his struggles however, he looked to the side and in a flash of lightning he saw something that should've been impossible.

Perhaps it was because he was drunk and rattled from the impact of the crash but he could've sworn he saw a ghost in a raincoat. It was only for a moment however before the light faded.

Something dented the roof of his truck and he shrieked and slammed the door shut. He looked up at it and he saw a heavy dent inwards from the roof of his truck.

He heard a quiet giggle at the door and screamed again.


By the time the paramedics arrived Bobby Jack was huddled in the fetal position in his wreck of a truck.


Along with the rest of the catastrophic damage to his truck, they also found something utterly bizarre.

The Greek Letters χῖ and ϰ carved into the side of truck.


Clementine watched over them as Shane and the drunk were taken out of their vehicles and loaded into ambulances before they were driven to the hospital. She breathed a sigh of relief. They would be okay. She'd recovered as well. While Clementine was sure she would need to get her back checked out later of course but she felt fine. Whatever pain was still lingering in her from the lightning strikes was fading away. Clementine wasn't quite sure what the story was with that but to be fair she'd never been hurt before so this was definitely uncharted waters for her.

"Lets see...a typical lightning bolt bridges a potential difference of several hundred million volts at 5,000-20,000 amps. Potentially 200,000. Hard to tell how powerful the volts I got shocked with were individually but considering I was soaked and flying and got shocked multiple times...man even lowballing it to four bolts, that's potentially one billion two hundred million volts and one hundred twenty thousand amps or even more." She looked herself over again. "Huh. I wonder if I survived due to luck or if I'm just that tough...oh well. Either way, I should find some shelter lest I get zapped again." She noted and flew away into the city to find something to stand under until the storm passed.