Astra suddenly appeared back on the beanbags almost as soon as she took a glance at the steam-engine dogs. A shiver ran down her spine at the thought what those things could do, nevertheless the idea of how they ended up like that. Gatsdia looked at her, then walked over and looked out of the back window while sighing.
"Astra, I know that you're new to this, but if Steam-K9's scare you then I'm afraid you'll see way worse. Trust me, I'd know," Gatsdia said in a gentle almost motherly tone.
Astra raised an eyebrow, 'If this isn't bad then I'm starting to regret voluntarily joining these people.' She thought as she looked at the others, who seemed as relaxed as Gatsdia.
Gatsdia smiled as she gestured for Astra to come closer to the window. She slowly approached it, jumping at every bark that could be heard. She inevitably reached the window and panicked even harder when she saw D' Azzaro fighting the dogs.
"Gats-" Gatsdia cut her off as she preemptively responded to Astra's question, "Because he wasn't the one driving. He just holds the maps, but since this is a straight road he doesn't need to be there. Also, because I already know you're going to ask, he can get back into the passenger's seat with the flip of a coin. It'll be fine."
'It'll be fine? We're already like 89 meters away from him what if were out of his range? Not just that but he only got one of the three dogs, how are these statistics fine?' Astra thought rolling her eyes skeptically.
Then almost as if responding to her skepticism the butterfly-like symbol on her hand shined brightly, blinding everyone for a couple of seconds. When they all opened their eyes the void resemblant outline of the butterfly symbol had spread up to her elbow. The blinding white being replaced with a light icy-blue color, little specs coming out of the butterfly symbol that went up her elbow then disappeared.
Moreau shrugged, "Well would you look at that, guess it's time to put your powers to the test." He said while opening the window and adding, "Either jump out or try to shoot something out of your hand."
Astra blinked a couple times, wondering what group of psychopaths she'd joined as she picked the clear-cut choice of trying to shoot something out of her hand.
Focusing on her hand while taking in deep breaths, she tried to gently have something come out of it. After a couple of seconds, a butterfly that seemed slightly frozen, with two chains of ice flowing behind its wings came out of her hand. This butterfly proceeded to gently fly lower and land on the nose of the Steam-K9's on the left before blowing up into a large cloud of icy mist that froze the right legs of the one on the right. Getting the hungry dogs off their tail.
Astra had to blink a couple of times again, 'Stealth bomber butterflies?' She thought as she looked at her hand.
Gatsdia looked at her almost as if she recognized her ability from somewhere, then she smiled. She put her hand on Astra's shoulder, "You'll do great things kid."
***
After a couple of minutes, D' Azzaro was back in the vehicle, and they'd reached their destination. Which was a large police station-like building on the outside and was like an office job on the inside for a while until they reached the third floor, where it started to look like a police station again. They went up to the top floor, where they found themselves face to face with a gray-haired girl with small black wings on the sides of her head instead of ears wearing a tan business vest, white button up shirt, tan business skirt, and a red tie.
"Well then, I'm guessing we have a new employee. Am I right? Who am I kidding I know I am. Here to give her the test?" The girl said in a friendly tone before clearing her throat, "Oh, sorry for my rudeness hon', my names Karara. I know, it's weird but I personally like it."
'Karara? Sounds funny. Karara, Karara, Karara,' Astra shook her head dismissing her thoughts. "Nice to meet you, I'm..." She paused and looked at Gatsdia, who nodded with a small smile, "I'm Astra. I hope we can get along."
Karara smiled and responded, "I really hope we can. Especially after this little test." She walked up to Astra and tapped her forehead.
A sudden dizziness washed over her, and she fell backwards into Gatsdias arms before losing consciousness.
Suddenly she felt as though she had a great fever while lying in a couch, fatigued by this fever, she moaned and got comfortable while facing the back of the couch, not bothering to inspect her surroundings.
Hearing a knock on the door and the sound of it opening, she sluggishly turned around and looked at the unexpected visitor, her fever blinding her from anything surrounding them. It was a young girl with black hair and green eyes in a maid dress.
The girl took a look at her and said, "Have you come down with a fever?"
Astra simply nodded and sat up inspecting her surroundings, the room was small with a yellow wallpaper that was lifted in the corners, the room barely having enough space for a bed with some drawers and a closet at its feet, a small hazelnut coffee table in front of the sofa.
"Would you like some soup and tea?" She asked.
"Yeah, but who are you?" Astra responded.
The girl frowned, "Oh dear your fever must truly be terrible if you forgot my name. I'm Nat-" The rest of her words came in through one ear and out of the other as Astra had already finished figuring out where she was. Truth being, she wasn't even sure if it was possible for her to be here as she found herself in her favorite book, Crime and Punishment.