[A/N]: The first goal of the week is 200 Power Stones for 2 bonus chapters. If you're enjoying the story, drop a stone, leave a comment, and show some love.
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CNN Studio, Atlanta
Rachel Morrison had been a news anchor for fifteen years. She'd covered wars, disasters, political upheavals. She prided herself on maintaining composure under pressure, on delivering the news with professional detachment no matter how horrific the story.
But today tested every ounce of that training.
"This is Rachel Morrison reporting live from CNN headquarters where we've been tracking what can only be described as a global catastrophe." Her voice stayed steady despite the tremor in her hands. "Sentinel robots, originally designed for mutant containment, have gone rogue worldwide. Current estimates put the death toll in the thousands and rising. Military forces from multiple nations are responding, but these machines appear to be adapting to conventional weaponry at an alarming rate."
Behind her, the newsroom buzzed with controlled chaos. Producers shouted coordinates, and tech crews worked frantically to maintain satellite feeds from dozens of locations. Every screen showed the same nightmare from different angles. Cities under siege, heroes fighting desperately, civilians running for their lives.
Rachel's earpiece crackled. "Rachel, we're getting reports of something else. Unconfirmed sightings of golden lights descending across multiple cities. Can you..."
Suddenly, the wall exploded.
The reinforced concrete and steel that protected the CNN headquarters literally exploded inward as three Sentinels tore through the building's exterior like tissue paper.
The studio erupted into pandemonium.
"Get down!" someone screamed.
Rachel dove behind her desk on pure instinct. Her heart hammered against her ribs while debris rained down around her. She could hear the Sentinels moving, their heavy footfalls shaking the floor, their optical sensors sweeping the room with that distinctive red glow.
"MUTANT SIGNATURES DETECTED. TERMINATE ALL PERSONNEL."
'We don't even have mutants here!' The thought flashed through Rachel's mind with bitter irony. These things were malfunctioning, seeing threats that didn't exist, killing anyone in their path.
She looked up. Saw her cameraman, Marcus, still at his post. The crazy bastard was still filming, capturing everything, even as death machines advanced on their position.
A Sentinel raised its weapon arm. Energy coiled, building to a killing blast.
Rachel's body moved without permission. She threw herself in front of Marcus, arms spread wide like that would somehow stop an energy weapon designed to punch through tank armor.
'I'm going to die on live television. Mom and Dad are going to watch me get vaporized. Oh God!'
Unexpectedly, a golden light materialized before her eyes.
A single mote, warm and bright, drifting down through the hole in the ceiling like a snowflake that refused to melt.
Then a voice spoke.
"Rachel Morrison. Your courage moves me. Will you accept what I offer? The strength to protect those who depend on you?"
Rachel's mind couldn't process what was happening. The world didn't work like this. Light didn't talk, but seeing the past events, this might as well be the new normal.
But Marcus was behind her. Her crew was scattered across the studio, hiding behind desks and equipment. And three murder robots were about to turn this place into a slaughterhouse.
"Yes!" The word tore from her throat. "Whatever you are, whatever this is, yes! Just let me save them!"
The golden mote surged forward.
Warmth flooded through Rachel's body, like diving into sunlight made liquid, overwhelming her every nerve ending, which sang with sudden awareness as power rushed through her veins, her muscles, and her bones, restructuring everything at a fundamental level.
Her professional blazer and pencil skirt dissolved into golden light. Reformed around her body as something else entirely. A suit that gleamed like captured sunshine, form-fitting but protective, with a cape that billowed despite the lack of wind.
She could feel it coursing through her. Enhanced strength that made her muscles hum with potential. Enhanced speed that made the world seem to move in slow motion. And most incredibly, the ability to fly, the knowledge of flight sitting in her mind like she'd always known how, like walking or breathing.
[Image Here]
Her body moved without permission.
Rachel shot forward faster than she thought. Her fist, encased in golden light, connected with the lead Sentinel's chest plate. The impact sent shockwaves up her arm but the robot flew backward, crashed through the wall it had entered from, tumbled out into the Atlanta skyline.
"Oh Shit," Rachel breathed. Her voice came out different, resonating with power she didn't understand. "Did I just do that?"
The other two Sentinels came at her from different angles, weapon arms charging.
Rachel's danger sense, she had danger sense now, pinged warnings across her consciousness. She twisted aside, but one blast caught her shoulder.
The golden suit hardened instantly. The energy dispersed harmlessly across the surface like water hitting diamond.
Rachel laughed. The sound was half-hysteria and half-exhilaration. "You're gonna have to do better than that!"
She moved. Her body knew what to do even though her mind was still catching up. Flight carried her between the Sentinels faster than their adaptive systems could track. Her fists found weak points with impossible precision. As metal crumpled under her assault and circuits died.
In thirty seconds, both robots were scrap.
Rachel hovered in the middle of her destroyed studio, chest heaving with the golden cape flowing behind her. Around the room, her crew emerged from hiding, staring at her with expressions that mixed terror and awe in equal measure.
Marcus still had his camera running.
"Marcus?" Rachel's voice came out shaky despite the power coursing through her. "Please tell me you got that."
Marcus's grin was manic. "Every second. This is still broadcasting, Rach. Live feed. The whole world just watched you turn into a flying bricl and wreck three Sentinels like it was nothing."
The realization hit Rachel like cold water. She looked down at the golden suit and her hands that had just punched through military-grade adaptive plating.
"I'm on TV," she said slowly. "I just became a superhero on live television. My mom is watching this. Oh God, my mom is definitely watching this."
Then the golden light began pulling away.
She felt it draining from her body like sand through a sieve. The suit dissolved into motes that drifted upward. Her enhanced senses faded back to normal human and strength left her muscles, replaced by ordinary news anchor weakness.
In seconds, Golden Rachel was just Rachel again. Standing in her destroyed studio in her normal clothes, exhausted and confused and somehow disappointed by the loss.
All this was too much, and finally her legs gave out.
Marcus caught her before she hit the floor. "Easy, easy. I got you."
"The power," Rachel whispered. Her voice cracked with emotion she couldn't quite name. "It's gone. I had it and now..."
"You saved us," Marcus said firmly. His camera was still rolling, capturing this moment too. "That's what matters. You saved every person in this building."
Rachel looked around the studio. At her alive crew, the destroyed Sentinels and the hole in the wall where Atlanta's skyline was visible, smoke rising from dozens of impact points across the city.
"Marcus, are we still live?"
"Never stopped."
Rachel took a deep breath. Straightened her spine despite the exhaustion, and found her professional voice even though her hands trembled.
"This is Rachel Morrison, still reporting from CNN headquarters." She looked directly into the camera. Into the eyes of millions watching worldwide. "What you just witnessed... I don't fully understand it myself. Some kind of power was granted to me. Temporarily. Just long enough to save my colleagues and stop those Sentinels."
She paused, collecting her thoughts.
"I'm not a mutant. I'm not enhanced. I'm just a reporter who happened to be in the wrong place at the right time. Or maybe the right place. I don't know. But what I do know is this: if a golden light offers you power to save someone, take it. Whatever this is, whoever or whatever is granting these abilities, they're giving ordinary people the chance to be extraordinary when it matters most."
Her voice strengthened with conviction.
"The Sentinels are attacking worldwide. Heroes are fighting back. But today, I learned something important. You don't need to be born with powers or bitten by radioactive animals or hit by cosmic radiation. Sometimes, you just need the courage to act when someone needs help. And maybe, just maybe, you'll find you have more strength than you ever imagined."
Rachel's professional mask slipped as tears built in her eyes.
"I felt what it was like to be powerful. To be able to protect people. And even though it's gone now, even though I'm just me again... I'll never forget it. I'll never forget what it felt like to save lives."
She looked at Marcus, then back at the camera.
"This is Rachel Morrison, reminding everyone watching: be brave. Be kind. And if you get the chance to be a hero, even for just a moment, don't waste it."
The feed cut to commercials.
Rachel collapsed into Marcus's arms, shaking with adrenaline crash and emotion and the overwhelming weight of what had just happened.
But the damage was done.
The broadcast had gone worldwide. Millions had watched an ordinary news anchor become a golden-suited hero, save her crew, destroy three Sentinels, and then return to being just a woman.
The footage went viral instantly.
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