“Are you sure?” She didn’t know why she asked that, of course he was sure. He would not have been ringing otherwise.

“Of course Terri, I wouldn’t be ringing otherwise,” was the expected response down the phone. Terri cringed.

“Sorry, I’m not doubting you. You know that,” she paused but then carried on to the move the conversation on. “So Little Orewood City? That’s only five miles out of Chicago. Can you do that thingy with the traffic signals?”

“Thingy? Sure, not a problem. I’ll just use my abilities and do that thingy for you." Terri cringed again. She didn’t mean to belittle his strengths. She was better than that.

He’d been able to do that for her before, clearing her access out of a city by changing the lights to red so that she had a clear route out.

She cleared the call and book-marked her page in Wills’ Mineral Processing Technology and laid it on her coffee table. Boots on, then jacket, she closed her apartment door and took the lift to the parking lot.

Terri never got tired of the thrill she got every time the elevator doors opened and she saw in front of her, her trademark customised bronze Jeep Wrangler, with its 38 inch tyres. That thrill second best only to the feeling she got when accelerating in it. Terri pulled out and off the ramp onto the street.

“Lucas, I’m on the road now. Work your magic please!”

“They’re all red, you’re clear to proceed,” came back the response instantly. Terri engaged the boosters and tore down West Roosevelt in no time. The lights reverted to green in perfect timing as she passed, the road ahead remaining clear until she was out of Chicago.

“Are you ready for the low down then?” Lucas asked, his voice coming through the sound system.

“Yes please. Tell me where Mr Patricks has been.”

“So he pinged in L.O.C, now ten minutes and forty two.. three seconds ago. On Jackson Avenue. I’d head there first.”

“Yup, I’m on there now,” Terri reported.

“You’ll have to lend me that car one day. That thing is a beast.”

“Was that the last sighting of him? Any idea where he headed?”

“Admittedly, he has managed to evade CCTV for the time being. Look out for his white box. It’s that that he is in,” explained Lucas.

“My eyes are peeled.”

It was a typically wet, grey and windy day. The drizzle was fine and the pedestrians that lined the sidewalk had an array of umbrellas up to protect themselves. Terri had slowed down to a the speed of everyone else, taking the time to check the parking lots and side streets along Jackson Avenue.

“No sign off Jackson, Lucas,” updated Terri.

“Ok, well I think I now have the box truck parked on Hatton Banks, Downtown.”

“Right, I’ll just turn it around here…. Don’t mind me guys…” Terri did a sharp U-turn, cutting the other lanes to head back the way she came.

The traffic Downtown was naturally heavier and a little more stop-start due to the lights at each block. Terri sat at an intersection and was in poll position to leave first when the light changed.

“I should have asked you to play with the lights here,” Terri mused, drumming her fingers impatiently on the wheel.

“I can’t have you getting used to the easy life all the time,” he joked. Terri rolled her eyes and smiled.

The lights changed but ahead of her, on the other side of the intersection and in the lane of traffic coming towards her, a person fell right onto a secure money transfer van that was parked up. The noise of the impact was mighty and of crashing metal both from the roof of the truck and the chassis as it was squashed into the road.

“Terri, what was that?” Lucas asked, obviously hearing it over the phone line.

Shock came over Terri. A suicide jumper maybe? Her brain adjusted to what she saw and she was soon over that shock as the fallen figure remained stood and was smashing his way through the front windscreen.

“Lucas, we’re on. Roll the GRAB Team on my location!”

Pedestrians were fleeing and people were abandoning their cars. All very predictable behaviour but at least it would clear the area of people who might otherwise get harmed.

Terri jumped from her truck and hit the ground running. Wearing her reddish hair up, a simple white tee shirt under a black leather jacket and well fitted stone coloured trousers, she looked just like a regular member of the public. But she was no normal member of the public.

The guards inside the truck had already evacuated and had started shooting at the robber, but Terri knew that that wasn’t going to cut it. This robber was Leonard Patricks, aka The Anvil Man. Criminal half wit with a penchant for things that don’t belong to him and the ability to allow his body to possess the strength and durability of dense, heavy metal whilst maintaining his human form and appearance. He is also able to switch his own mass between incredibly heavy and back to his regular squishy human fourteen stone weight.

Against him though, Terri’s own strengths will come into play, showing how much of a match she is for The Anvil Man. For Terri Turlingston is known as Sediment Terri, a fitting identity for a woman with rock hard invulnerability, changing her own molecular structure to have the strength and density of rock, and the ability to disperse and ‘crumble’ to avoid attacks.

Back in the action, she confidently ran across the intersection. At a reasonable distance away she slowed and ducked into a crouch, slamming both of her fists onto the wet tarmac. Snaking cracks shot towards the truck that The Anvil Man was a top of, hammering and tearing at the roof. The cracks reached the van and as if at one with Terri’s mind, the ground erupted, sending the truck itself flying up into the air and then back down landing on its roof. The Anvil Man with it. He was laid on the ground for a split second before getting back up and registering the appearance of his nemesis.

Terri and Patricks ran at each other to the atmospheric soundtrack of distant sirens approaching, not one of them showing signs of hesitation or slowing down. Metal vs Rock.

At extreme close quarters, Anvil went for a grab, Terri dodged, getting behind him. The trick was to try and get Metal Man at a point where his mass was reverted to vulnerable, normal human. And he of course was aiming to inflict a metallic clobber whilst Terri was in her human structure.

In their scrap, no one had the particular upper hand, rock on metal not doing a great deal of harm. That was until Terri commanded the earth below Anvil’s left leg to erupt up in a column a metre long, making him completely lose his balance. He hit the ground hard.

Terri heard something from Lucas through her earpiece about the GRAB Team arriving, which she could see herself. There were officers pitched up on roofs and vehicles blocking the roads at the intersections.

The Anvil Man got up again and was ready to face off with Terri once again.

Patricks took the first blow.

“Good to see you again Mr Patricks,” Terri punched.

“Likewise Ms Turlingston. I trust you’re keeping well?” He went for a roundhouse kick which caught Terri in the hip.

“Oh you know, as best one can juggling work and this.”

"Quit yabbering and get on with it," Lucas interrupted over the earpiece, but Terri ignored him.

“What is it this time?” Terri asked, jerking her head at the upturned truck. “Not money again?”

“No, I’m branching out. That van had some of the finest renaissance art in it headed for Chicago.”

“Oh well I’m glad I got to stop you in time, Lenny!” Terri went for an uppercut jab which Leonard wasn’t ready for and his head went back, knocking him off balance and staggering back. Terri made space between the two of them and motioned for the ground below him to open up enough for him to be ankle deep below the surface. Before he could react, the ground filled in again, rooting Patricks to the spot, his feet swallowed up in the road. No matter how dense and heavy he made himself, he was unable to lift his feet free. Instead, he flailed his arms pathetically as he swayed about.

This was the cue for the GRAB Team to come in and apprehend the wannabe art thief. Armed officers in tactical vests and colours approached. The GRAB Team, affectionately and jokingly referred to by those in the business as ‘The Getting Rid of America’s Badguys Team’ were wearing and using specially designed kit to effectively counter Leonard’s enhancements. Their vests were lined with electrically charged materials that would deliver a decent amount of voltage should they be punched with a metallic force. Additionally, instead of using bullets, they used weapons capable of firing pellets that on contact released nitric acid.

Now that Leonard was grounded, literally, an officer was able to attach a device around his neck which emitted a near silent frequency designed to disrupt the wearers’ nervous system from utilising its strengths. Immediately after, two other officers placed him into handcuffs to prevent him removing the collar.

“Technically Terri, I didn’t actually steal anything,” Leonard sniped.

“Well no, that’s because I’m so good at what I do,” she shot back, tying her hair back up. “Ready boys?” she asked the officers who gave her a nod back.

Terri stamped at the ground, causing it to crack in a perfect circle a metre in diameter around Leonard. Another team of officers arrived on vehicles capable of extracting Leonard and his little earth island he was fixed into, and he was then loaded onto another GRAB vehicle especially adapted for the occasion. This would transport him to a special part of a prison for special people, like Leonard Patricks.

***

“…But enough of my day Ferris, how was Brazil?” Terri had returned home ten minutes ago and was on the phone to her recent new love interest. She was sprawled out on her sofa, hair free and feet raised up on the coffee table.

“It was hot and in a bit of a mess really.”

“Yes, I heard. Lucas had been monitoring them hadn’t he, or something, and he was saying how he had known nothing like them.”

“Quite. Even Brad and I were a bit nervous heading there without much backup. But they seemed friendly enough; wary, but friendly. We got them back to your facility and left them with the Sec’ for a debrief.”

“I’m glad it worked out well. There’s a meeting tomorrow which we have all been summonsed to- has an invite been extended your way too?”

“Yeah, I will be, then Brad and I will be going to Europe to fill in the rest of the G7 in on the matter.”

“So we’ll only have time for a quick kiss?”

“The quickest of kisses only!” Ferris teased, chuckling down the phone. Terri pouted and curled her hair around her finger playfully. She really liked Ferris and was excited about where their relationship could be going.

Ferris was an Enhanced from Canada going by the name, ‘Two Tone’. They had known each other for a while professionally when Canada and the US had to work together, but the dynamic between them soon evolved over time.

He was also a member of the infamous G7 team. Each country in the seven was represented by an Enhanced and it was their job to collaborate and work together when the threat level demanded it. Terri had been trying for years to be America’s G7 representative and was initially furious to lose out to the then new blood that was Brad Jacobs-Brown.

“Well, I’ll be very excited to see you waving the maple leaf at the meeting tomorrow. What an honour for you.”

“Oh yeah,” Ferris sarcastically groaned, “I get to sit around the grown up table. A dream come true!”

After laughing, Terri checked the time. “I suppose I better go and get on. Don’t want to miss me on the news later!”

“Goodness, no you wouldn’t want that. Enjoy your evening, darling.”

“You too hun, see you tomorrow.” Terri ended the call and put the phone down. After a beat she heaved herself off the sofa, a big, gooey grin across her face.

We stay with Terri for Sediment Terri #2 in 'Terri's Rock Formation'...

where we learn more about her past and the events that formed her into who she is now.