The life monitors Jesseca was connected to beeped faintly as they tracked her vitals while she lay unconscious in the bed in the medical observation room of Sue’s super group base. Though she lay motionless in the bed, Jesseca’s mind was anything but relaxed.

“Where am I?” Jesseca thought as she looked around at the empty streets of Atlas Park. Walking down the street Jesseca took in the desolate emptiness of the city. The buildings were a mess, as was everything within view. The once bustling hub of Paragon City was now a ravaged and deserted mess. Shattered windows and crumbling structures now held reign as Jesseca surveyed her surroundings.

“What the heck happened here?” Jesseca asked herself quietly.

“Hello Jesseca.” came a Jamaican woman’s accent from somewhere in the city. To Jesseca it sounded as if the woman was standing right next to her, but she saw no one when she looked around.

“Who’s there?” Jesseca asked, her fists charged and ready with energy for any coming attacks.

“There’s no need for that, I didn’t bring you here to fight with you.” the Jamaican woman said.

“Where is “here”?” Jesseca asked as she walked toward the city hall pavilion of Atlas Park. Jesseca’s mouth hung open in astonishment as she saw the once regal statue of Atlas that adorned the plaza crumbled and destroyed in front of her. “Oh my God!” she gasped.

“This is Atlas Park. At least, this is what it will look like if you lose the battle against Hannah and the Circle of Thorns.” the woman said.

Jesseca heard the click of a woman’s high heels on the street behind her and turned around. Walking toward her was a tall, slender African American woman. The woman wore a purple ceremonial looking gown, her hair was done up in an elegant bun, and her dangling earrings jangled pleasantly like tiny wind chimes. “I am Azuria. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you Diapered Dandy.” she said with a pleasant smile.

“Nice to meet you Azuria. Now how did I get here?” Jesseca asked, returning the woman’s smile and quickly changing back to seriousness.

“This is a possible future for Paragon City. The Portal Corporation is able to manifest gateways to any possible future just by providing the system with the parameters you desire. I specified that I wanted to come to Atlas Park after Hannah and the Circle of Thorns defeated you, and here we are.” she explained.

“But how did I get here?” Jesseca resubmitted her question, emphasizing that she wanted to know specifically about herself and not Azuria.

“You’re not here. You’re in a coma across town from me. I brought your spirit here, like a dream if you will.” Azuria said. “I brought you here to convey to you the severity of the situation, and get you to wake up.” she said.

“This is kind of my first real coma, how do I wake up from it?” Jesseca asked with a puzzled look on her face.

“You have to find the cause of the coma. It’s not a matter of physical weakness, a coma is caused by great spiritual turmoil. Find the cause and work through it and the coma will end.” Azuria explained.

Jesseca frowned. “Big mystery doc, the turmoil is coming from Hannah being evil! Gee that was a brain buster.” Jesseca shouted angrily at Azuria.

“If that’s the case, then why are you still here?” Azuria asked.

“I guess it’s not just that, I mean Hannah was like a mother to me. Whenever I was with her I felt safe and secure and now she’s so cold and hurtful.” Jesseca said.

Azuria nodded. “Keep going, you’re almost there.” she encouraged.

“I felt the same way when my mother died, nothing made sense to me and I just kind of collapsed into myself.” Jesseca said as she started crying. “I want my mommy back.” she wailed and hugged Azuria, burying her face into the taller woman as she sobbed.

“Jesseca, I’m sorry, but there is no happy ending in this for you. As with many heroes, the triumph over evil will come at a price. For you, winning the fight against Hannah means losing her forever. This is why you are so vital to this fight, your choice to sacrifice your own happiness and give Hannah up again will give you the power to be the only one that can triumph over this evil. However if you falter in your choice, then the city as you see it now will become reality.” Azuria said.

“Why me?” Jesseca asked as she looked up through puffy red eyes at Azuria.

“Unfortunately, I can’t tell you. But rest assured, you’re destined for great things. This is a hurdle in your path to becoming one of the greatest heroes in Paragon’s history. But that’s a story for another time, for now you must wake up my dear.” Azuria said.

Jesseca began to feel dizzy, and collapsed suddenly as she blacked out.

Jesseca’s eyes opened slowly, the room was dark, she could hear hospital monitors beeping next to her. Sitting up slowly her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she saw that she was in a hospital room of some sort. Jesseca began to feel nervous and frightened as she looked around the foreign room for signs that she was not alone.

Sue saw Jesseca sitting up in bed on one of the monitors in the meeting room and ran to Jesseca’s room. “Thank goodness you’re ok!” Sue said with a smile as she entered the room and turned the light on and went to the bedside, wrapping her arms around Jesseca as she hugged the girl tightly.

Jesseca began to cry, causing Sue to pull away from her. “What’s wrong?” Sue asked.

Jesseca looked at Sue for a moment blankly, “Whewe’s my mommy?” she asked with a toddler like speech before putting her thumb in her mouth to calm herself.

Sue looked at Jessica worriedly before she hit the call button by the bed. “Knight, Severe, come to the infirmary now, something is wrong with Jesseca.” she shouted into the panel while she looked at Jesseca innocently sucking her thumb.