Question The Misfits.

The Misfits


Prologue
—————

Concord, New Hampshire
December 29th, 2007


Jenna was in love. She had never felt like this before, and it was all thanks to Will. While she and Will had grown up neighbors and friends, there was always that problem between them. She had been aware of her attraction to him from the first day they had met, but Will couldn’t reciprocate those feelings. He wasn’t mean about it or cruel, and he understood. Having been bigger and more athletic, Will had protected her and kept her safe, defending her from those unkind and cruel kids that would try to harass and bully the smaller child. That Will had always been there meant a lot. And that last weekend, when Will had confessed his attraction had been perfect.

They had gone to the pond and after skating, they returned to his house. Sitting on the couch, drinking apple cider and talking and laughing, it was like it always had been. Two friends enjoying each other’s company. Then Will got up his nerve and kissed her on the cheek suddenly. She had been so shocked that she hadn’t time to pull away. Instead, she turned to him and kissed him back. Will nervously smiled and confessed that he was attracted to her, and that he had always been her friend, but now he felt it was possible to be more. He asked her to be his girlfriend, and she eagerly agreed. They cuddled on the couch for a while more, and with his parents out late, they nervously went upstairs together. To be honest with herself, Jenna admitted it was awkward and clumsy the first time, but then it got better, much better, and while not what she had fantasized about all those years, it was perfect in its own way.


Letting the towel drop to the floor, Jenna looked at herself in the full length mirror. She smiled as she looked at herself. She had to admit that she had never noticed other girls all that much, but now that she had reason to compare herself to them, she was quite attractive. Her narrow waist and curvy hips and full, generous bottom were the envy of all the girls in school. Sitting down at her desk, she took out her make-up mirror and looked at her face, Her big, expressive brown eyes looked back at her. She put on a minimal touch of eyeshadow, her lashes were long and thick, and she didn’t need mascara. The freckles across her rosy cheeks and the bridge of her petite nose stuck out and gave her that all-american down home girl attractiveness. She licked her pouty lips and applied some gloss. Getting up, she swayed as she walked to the closet. Before this summer, there had not been that level of confidence. Everything was done in such a way to not draw attention.

Jenna looked through the clothes in her closet, most of them were new, since nothing from before that summer fit. She pulled on the black lacy panties and decided on some tight jeans that emphasized her gifts. There was a slight frown as she put on the training bra. She had felt self-conscious about her breasts while Will was caressing her and touching her. They were small. And while her nipples and areola were growing and developing, her breasts themselves were just two small buds on her chest. He had reassured her that she was still sexy to him, and the attention he had paid to them had helped drive her into her first orgasm. Still… She knew that girls compared themselves to each other, and there was competition. Now that she was dating the school’s star athlete, she would be under that much more scrutiny. Sighing, she put on a black tee that said ‘superstar’ across the chest, and tossed on her pink and grey hoodie over it. A pair of cute low-cut pink sneakers completed the ensemble.

She walked down the stairs, and into the kitchen. Dad was hidden behind the paper. Mom had already left for work. She was working morning shift in the ER, as nursing supervisor. Jenna pulled out a bagel and cream cheese from the fridge. Sitting down across from her Dad, she waited for the bagel to finish toasting.

“Daddy, I’m going out in a bit. Just going to hook up with some of the kids in my class, and maybe go skating.”, she said, as she got up and grabbed her bagel.

The paper shuffled a little. “That’s nice dear, just remember what we told you.”

Jenna sighed as she spread the cream cheese. “I know Daddy, we go through this every day. If anyone mentions James, I have to act sad and wish that I had been able to get back from boarding school for the funeral. We’ve been through this a thousand times. Why don’t you trust me?”

The paper folded up, and was placed on the table, revealing Dad’s face. He was a kindly man, and Jenna realized how much of James she saw in that face. “I’m sorry Jenna”, he said with an emphasis on her name. “I know this is rough for you. But nobody can know what happened. It was bad enough when they found out James was gay. If it hadn’t been for Will Jennings, who knows what could have happened? How much worse it could have been?”

Jenna began to cry. “Why do you do that? Why do you always talk like I’m not right here? It’s always ‘James this’ or ‘James that’, I’m right here Daddy! I’m not dead! I’m still me, I’m just Jenna now. Why can’t you treat me as me, and not some alien that stole his place?” Leaving the bagel untouched, Jenna sprinted to the coatrack and grabbed her coat. Before her Dad could react, she was gone, having bolted out the door, and run down the street.

Jenna was still running, head down, when she hit someone, and fell back. Looking up, it was Will. He bent down and took her hand, and helped her up.
She turned and launched herself at him, hugging him and crying into his chest. looking at her, Will comforted her, putting his arms around her. He dug in his pockets and pulled out his bandanna. Jenna tok the bandanna and began to wipe the tears from her face. Will put his arm around her and lead her down the street. They walked until they got to the neighborhood diner. Taking a secluded booth towards the back, they sat down. Will ordered some pancakes and scrambled eggs and bacon, while Jenna went for the french toast and some orange juice.

After the waitress left, Will leaned closer. “What’s wrong?”, he asked.

Jenna sighed and replied in a quiet voice. “ It’s… Dad. He’s still talking about me as if I’m a different person. Why can’t he treat me like I’m me? I didn’t die. I’m still here.”

Will poked at his plate thoughtfully before answering. “It’s not easy on him. And in a way, you are a new person, even if you are still you. I mean it took me a long time to come to grips with it, myself. I was always your friend, and I when you confessed to me that you were gay, and that you had feelings for me, it was difficult. I couldn’t reciprocate, I didn’t know how to react. But then I told myself that you were still my friend, that shy kid that I stuck up for all those years. Was it hard for you to come out to your parents? I can only imagine. But they still loved you all the same. I think it was hard on them. They didn’t know how to deal with you being gay, and suddenly just when they were coming to grips with that, you find out that you are a mutant, and you turn into a girl. For fourteen years, they had a son. But now they suddenly have a teenage daughter. I can’t even imagine that happening to me, as a parent.”

Jenna sighed and nodded before Will continued, “I mean I had enough of a hard time wrapping my head around it. You were my best friend, and even if I couldn’t love you like you wanted, I loved you like a little brother… but then you go and turn into a girl on me, an extremely hot girl, I might add… and you tell me you still love me. I didn’t know how to deal with that. That’s why I was so distant at first. It took a lot of thought and contemplation and soul searching…”

Jenna meekly looked down, and then over at Will. “ And?”

Will smiled. “And then I realized that I loved you too.”

Jenna laughed and leaned over the table to give him a kiss. “And here everyone thinks you are just a dumb jock…”

Will laughed and kissed her back. “Speaking of, I have to get going. We have a practice this afternoon last one before the big New Year’s hoops tournament. I’ll call you when I am done, okay?”

Will paid the bill, and Helped Jenna out of the booth. He escorted her to the door, outside, he gave her a kiss, before turning towards the direction of the school. Jenna felt a lot better. She needed to get home, and she would apologize to Daddy, and try to make things up to him. Turning, she walked down the street. She passed an alleyway, and heard a whimpering sound, like a hurt dog. Cautiously, she entered and looked around. Seeing nothing, she turned back to leave. She never even saw the fatal blow.

Misfits
Chapter 1
—————

The office of Elizabeth Carson

Whateley Academy
December 31st, 2007


Liz Carson sat at her desk, looking over the documents she had received from her connections in the MCO. It paid to have lived a long life in public service as a hero, the connections that one made over all that time was invaluable. Of course, in this case, it also didn’t hurt to have the daughter of a high ranking MCO officer attending school at Whateley, either. The documents she was looking at were labelled “top secret” and “for MCO eyes only”, which would normally turn some heads. Liz had been careful in her acquisition of these articles, to not draw attention to her sources. When Alicia Thacker had told her about the incident in Louisiana, with a “friend down home”, Liz would have shrugged it off, but she knew Alicia was a smart girl.

Liz frowned and picked up the phone and called over to Doyle. “Ophelia, I have a problem, a rather large one. I’m going to need your help.” on a scale of 1-10, I would rate this at about a 12. I am sending over a bunch of files. I need you to assemble your best forensics experts.”

On the other end of the conversation, Ophelia Tenent puzzled over the request. “Pathologists?”, she asked.

Liz Carson responded, No, I’m sending over some MCO files I received. I need you to look over the coroner’s reports on them, it may be nothing, but it could possibly be a threat to the students. If you need to, I’ve talked to Amelia about loaning you her resources, Everheart might also be helpful. I leave this in your hands, It’s vital that we find out what is going on.”

Ophelia hung up and sighed, things were never easy, not at Whateley. Her moment of introspection was broken when the security guard came to the lab and dropped off no fewer than 77 autopsy reports. This was going to take a while, she mused.

—————

That same day.

Bill Mathis sat at the gate check-in station, bemused as his fiancee drove up to the gates. He smiled and checked her ID, and those of the person in the passenger seat.

“Everything looks like it is in order.”, he jokingly stated, as he handed back the papers. “Take care ladies, I’ll see you when I get home tonight.”, he said, smiling.

Renata smiled and rolled up the window, they drove up to Schuster Hall, but it seemed that Liz Carson was busy and couldn’t be disturbed. Undaunted, Renata and Essylt headed over to Doyle. Most of the students were away from the campus for holiday vacation, so it was not surprising that there was at best a skeleton staff. After waiting for a short while, A nurse ushered the women into an exam room. Essyt held Siobhan, who was out like a light. The little one stirred in her blanket and continued to doze. Having unswaddled the little one, and gotten her out of her winter wrappings, The new mother held her little girl as her guardian sat by their side. After 20 minutes, and a score of apologies, Ophelia Tenent came into the room. The exam woke Siobhan up, and she began to cry. Discretely pretending to need to talk, the two older women left the room, allowing some privacy for Essylt to feed the baby.

A few minutes later Renata and Ophelia returned to the room. Siobhan was given a complete check-up. After being declared healthy, it was Essylt’s turn. Renata took Siobhan out of the room, as Essylt changed into the usual hospital gown. Ophelia helped her up onto the examination table. She was nervous, but Essylt summoned up her courage and put her feet up in the stirrups. The tools fortunately were warm, and there was minimal discomfort. Examining the girl, Ophelia would not have been able to tell that she had delivered a child recently, or ever, for that matter. A suite of x-rays and scans were performed, showing the girl to be in peak health. Except for the fact she was still nursing, Essylt’s body was back to her pre-pregnancy shape. Ophelia consulted the initial records that had been sent from Minnesota to her latest set. The girl was fine, and could be cleared for most physical activities.

“Now Miss Baker-Smith, I have done a full examination, and you are in excellent shape for a girl who just gave birth 10 days ago. If I didn’t know better, I would not be able to tell. You have excellent recuperative abilities, no doubt aided by your Sidhe physiology. I will of course insist on routine check-ups for you both, simply due to the fact that there are no known records of Sidhe childbirth. Up until now, Sidhe appearances have been through human mutants manifesting into Sidhe. I am aware that you were discovered with no memory, so It’s not certain, but you may have been a human who manifested yourself.”

Essylt bit her lip and shivered. she had never really given much thought to who she might have been before she made her new self, but now that thought bothered her. She had also learned enough during her time around mom, and during the kidnapping ordeal that she knew she might never know more about who she had been. People could change genders, ages, ethnicities. She could have been literally anyone. Thanking Dr. Tenent for her time, Essylt stepped out of the room, and smiled at Renata, who was rocking Siobhan gently to sleep. Carefully taking the baby back, the two walked out of Doyle, and returned to the car. Carefully fastening the baby into her carseat, they drove around the outskirts of the campus before arriving at the teacher’s village. The house was a pleasant looking blue two-story house with white trim. It was perfectly non-descript, looking like typical rustic turn of the 20th century houses that could be found in any city in America. Pulling up to the garage, Renata triggered the garage door opener and they drove in.

Having parked, Renata triggered the garage door with the remote, closing it. “Well, we’re here. Your new home. Welcome home to both of you!”

Essylt teared up. Carefully unfastening her from the car seat, Essylt picked up Siobhan and walked up to the door. The garage was attached to the house by a breeze way, which contained the laundry area, and a small 3/4 bath with a shower. Walking through the open doorway from the breeze way, Essylt came into the kitchen, it was done up in a rustic New England motif, with lots of wood and stone, mostly browns and reds, accented with chrome appliances. Sitting under the butcher block/counter were two bowls. Roger wasn’t to be seen, however. The women walked through the open dining room and living room area. Off the dining room, there were French doors, leading out to a deck off the back of the house. The living room area had a large stone covered fireplace that took up nearly the entire wall, the mantle place was decorated with various pewter works. Rounding a corner, they came into the foyer. There was the front door, and a door off to the side that led to Bill’s study. The staircase was here, leading up to the second floor. At the top of the stairs was her bathroom, to the left was the master bedroom, which had its own master bath. To the right of the bathroom were two rooms.

Renata smiled, and gestured to the room closest to the bathroom. "That one is your room, and the nursery is the room next to it." Essylt walked into the nursery and looked around. The walls were painted a light green, with yellow accents. A white crib sat against one wall, while across from it sat a rocking chair. A mobile of gold and silver stars hung over the crib. Essylt looked up at the ceiling, it was painted like the night sky, with more gold and silver stars. There were a few other pieces of furniture in the room, a dresser for baby clothes, a toy box. a changing table with built in drawers for supplies. Essylt felt the tears flowing down her face. She sat in the rocking chair for a moment and gently rocked while Siobhan continued to sleep.
After a while, Essylt put the baby down for her nap, and went to check out her own room.

Opening the door, she was overwhelmed. The walls were a muted green, with more yellow accents and highlights. the first thing she noticed was the bed, with the emerald green pillowcases and matching comforter. A desk sat by the window, allowing her a view of the backyard, and the woods beyond. There was an oak dresser with mirror, and matching nightstands on either side of the bed. Hung around the room were framed pictures of various beautiful nature settings. On the desk, next to her computer and the small TV, sat a framed picture of her and Mom, from the trip to Valleyfair.

Essylt was feeling emotional, but she was also tired. After Renata left her alone, She changed out of her clothes and put on a nice pair of pajamas. She was preparing to lay down, when she heard a snuffling at the door. Getting up, Essylt opened the door, and Roger came in. She closed the door but not all the way, just in case he wanted back out while she napped. She laid down in earnest this time, and heard sniffing and a quiet whine. Essylt giggled and helped the small dog onto the bed, and they both promptly went to sleep.

Misfits
Chapter 2
—————

Poe Cottage foyer

Whateley Academy
January 6th, 2008

Jade ran down the stairs as fast as she could, her pink boots practically a blur. Leaping from the bottom of the stairs, she intended to land in the arms of her beloved Stephen. In all actuality, she ended up sitting on his chest, after she bowled him over. Apologizing profusely, she helped him up. Thuban looked at the diminutive girl, appreciating her enthusiasm. Jade dusted herself off and spun around.

“Do you like my new outfit?”, she asked. “Billie got it for me.” Stephen looked at her, the pink snow boots with the white trim at the top contrasted with the black tights she had on. The pink jacket matched to the pink skirt perfectly.

“As always, you look beautiful”, he stated. Jade pressed close and gave him a long, deep kiss. Turning, the two lovebirds left Poe.

Sitting on the couches in the corner, Aggie Smith sat, unnoticed. She had seen the whole thing. It wasn’t fair. Her mutation had made her pretty, and then taken it all away. She ran her fingers self-consciously through the fur on her head. Girls like Jade were lucky, they had what they wanted. Sure, she looked a little young, but she didn’t have the problems that Aggie did. Christmas had been a painful experience. The whole time her dad had been treating her like a boy. She had screamed at him. Just because she had a foot long penis and testicles the size of tennis balls didn’t mean she was a boy. Dad didn’t understand how hard it was for her, and Mom could only cry as she avoided Aggie.

Worst of all was going to the mall with her old friends. They kept trying to treat her like the old Aggie. She explained that she couldn’t wear tight skirts over and over, to no avail. They were insistent on getting her to lose the baggy pants and dresses. She ended up slinking behind the group, her long skirt and hoodie hiding her appearance. Then she saw him. Steve Bradshaw, the guy she had had a crush on for the longest time. He had gotten taller over the past year and a half. She blushed as she saw him. She felt the stirring. Not now, she thought. Making a quick retreat, she went and hid in the bathroom, hiding in the stall, waiting for the unwelcome erection to go away.

Shaking off those memories, she began to cry, none of her old friends could understand, or help. Why did Dad have to get that stupid job in Japan? Things would have been better if he had just stayed home. When her mutation first began, she had grown more beautiful, her exemplar nature giving her a soft, delicate feminine look, ample curves, and model-good looks. Her eyes had been emerald green, and her beautiful red hair was the envy of all her friends. Then things had started to go wrong. Dad was offered that job at the embassy in Japan. There she encountered the spirit that chose to bond with her.

The nightmares were the first sign of the problem, vivid, terrifying, visceral and often sexual. She would have flashes of running on all fours, tracking down a rat or rabbit or other small prey and tearing it apart in her teeth, shaking it until it died. Those dreams would wake her up screaming and the urge to vomit was overwhelming. Other times she was not herself, she was a large canid, on the hunt for a mate. She would find the scent of one of her kind, on the night air. She would approach, and after snarling and snapping, she would grab the female’s neck and mount her, pushing into her. She awoke from those dreams covered in sweat and other bodily fluids, breathing hard.

As the days progressed, she stayed home from school. She was sick. Her body ached, she had headaches, and she slept less. Her mother commented on the black circles that were forming around her eyes. She ate less, but was gaining weight. When it was noticed that she was losing height, she was checked into the hospital. Eventually, an expert in mutant physiology discovered that she was undergoing GSD from the influence of a spirit that was too large for her hallow. Aggie was checked out of the hospital when the changes seemed to be slowing down. However, the worst parts of her change were, in fact, yet to begin. Aggie felt discomfort and pain in her abdomen and she was rushed back to the hospital. Her x-rays revealed that her ovaries were deformed and swollen. A biopsy was taken, and it was revealed that they were changing into testes. Over the course of the next month, her hair began to fall out, replaced by fur. Her palms, fingertips and the bottoms of her feet developed pads, her nails thickened into claws. Her vision changed, as her eyes took on the function and appearance of a canid eye. Most disturbing to her though was the growth of the tail and the changes in her genitals. At first her clitoris felt sensitive, as it began to change and enlarge. At the same time, her vaginal opening decreased in size, until it sealed up completely.

Aggie had to be restrained during her change, she had become increasingly depressed, and one day she sank her new, enlarged canine teeth into her wrist, trying to commit suicide. Her efforts failed, as she rapidly healed, and the scars disappeared after a few days.

Shaking off her depressed state, Aggie dragged herself from the couch and reluctantly decided to head over to the cafeteria to get something to eat. School was due to resume on Monday, and the rest of the group would surely be on campus. She was glad to have friends, and the fact that her friends all had their own problems in a way helped. She wasn’t the only one to suffer, they had formed a support group out of mutual need. She sighed, things wouldn’t be the same though. Lucy was no longer with them. Donnie was gone. She sighed and trudged out the door. The academy grounds seemed empty, looking around, She couldn’t see any other students around. Just as well. The saying that misery loves company might be true, but her brand of personal misery would drive anyone into depression. Head down, she sighed and began to trudge towards Crystal Hall. Looking up, she saw someone in the distance. It looked like Fey, but why would Nikki be walking a dog?

Curious, Aggie veered from her planned course and headed towards where she thought she saw Fey.

Misfits
Chapter 3
—————

The office of Dr. Ophelia Tenent

Whateley Academy
January 6th, 2008


Ophelia sighed and looked through the case files spread on her desk. With the help of Admiral Everheart and Alicia Thacker, She had managed to eliminate alligators and wild hogs as the likely culprits in 6 of the mutilations that had happened in the southeastern states. Rearranging the stacks, she concentrated on sorting them geographically. That would be of considerable help when Elaine Nalley and Danny Franks came in.

—————

Essylt was out for a leisurely walk with Roger. Siobhan had been fussy the night before, and Renata had offered to watch her while Essylt got out and got some air. She had decided to walk the campus, and familiarize herself with the school. She was a little intimidated. She would be starting classes Monday. She looked around at the snow. She remembered vaguely having been buried in snow. That was a hazy memory, one of her first. She shuddered, then thought of more pleasant things. Like Roger. He was happily digging and tunneling through the snow, doing typical puppy things.

She heard somewhere behind her, someone yelling “Fae!”, but that didn’t alarm her much. Back on her visit here, she had met a couple of Sidhe students, so she knew that there were more of her kind around. It didn’t really register to her that the person meant her. She did, however, hear someone running up from behind. She turned and noticed a girl bundled up in a bulky thick snow jacket, and long dress. The girl stopped about 5 feet away, and put her hands on her knees, breathing hard.

The girl mumbled from under her scarf and large knit ski cap. “My mistake, I thought you were Fey.”

Essylt looked at her uncertainly. “I am fae”, she replied, confused.

The girl continued to catch her breath, “No, sorry, I meant Fey!”

Essylt looked at her confused. “I assure you I am fae, see? Look.” With that Essylt pulled down the hood that had been partially over her head, revealing her pointed ears.

The girl looked at her. “I’m sorry for the confusion, I meant one of the other students, her codename is Fey.”

Essylt nodded, suddenly figuring out the reason for the confusion. “And I look like this girl?”, she asked.

The other girl nodded and approached closer. “I’m sorry for the confusion. My name is Aggie, but everyone calls me Tanuki.”

Essylt looked down at the mittened hand being offered. She shook it and smiled. “My name is Essylt, though everyone usually just calls me Essy. Oh, and my codename is Eire. You look kind of cold. I need to take Roger here back home, but I’d like to talk more. I just arrived recently and don’t know anyone yet. How about we meet in the cafeteria in, say half an hour? I’ll spring for the cocoa.”

Aggie looked as though she was pondering the offer, and then she nodded. “It’s a deal, I’ll meet you there!”

—————

Aggie arrived in the cafeteria, and looked around. While she didn’t see Essylt, she did see something that concerned her even more. Peeper was hiding behind a pillar, looking towards a table in the corner. She glanced over at the table, and saw what Peeper was looking at. It was Essylt, she was sitting in a remote corner of the cafeteria, holding something against her chest. Whatever she was doing, it intrigued Peeper greatly. Reason enough to interrupt him.

Feeling her hand on his shoulder, he turned around and squealed, upset at what he saw before him. “T..Tanuki, um… I didn’t expect to see you here.. I mean I didn’t see anything… that is I didn’t look. I um…”

Aggie cut him off. “Enough, I know I disgust you, I disgust myself. But that’s not what I’m here to talk to you about. That girl you were spying on? Leave her alone. I’m warning you. You do anything to her, and trust me, you will be seeing a lot more of me. You remember that. Because I will delight in thinking up new spells and charms to make your voyeuristic life a living Hell.”

Leaving Peeper to run from the vicinity at all due haste, Aggie approached. Essylt was sitting there, her hoodie unzipped, She was holding a bundle of blankets that Aggie realized to her great confusion was, in fact, a baby.

Essylt looked up, as she heard someone clearing their throat. In front of her stood a girl, she was shorter than Essylt, well under 5 foot. She had dark circles around her eyes. She looked at her hair, which seemed to be more like brown and black mottled fur. The bulky jacket hid her physique, but she seemed to be on the pudgy side. Essylt looked her in the eyes, which were dark, and lacking visible whites.

“Forgive me, I didn’t recognize you out of your mummy wrappings.”, Essylt said in a giggly voice.

Aggie sat down opposite from The Sidhe girl, unsure of what exactly was going on. Essylt smiled as she fussed with the little bundle of blankets.

“I’m sorry to surprise you like this, but when I got back to the house, I found out that my guardians were planning on going out. So I brought Siobhan with, because I couldn’t just leave you hanging. Could you hold her? I’ll get our drinks.”, Essylt said as she stealthily fixed her bra and shirt.

Unsure of what exactly was going on, Aggie accepted the little bundle. She mumbled her choice of drinks, and watched as the redhead went off to get them. Curious, Aggie looked down at the bundle she had been given. Wrapped in the blankets was a tiny jumpsuit-clad baby. She looked at her, the unmistakable pointed ears, marking her as sidhe. She looked at the baby, small wisps of strawberry blonde hair covered her head, and her eyes were a light blue, with small flecks of green.

Aggie was startled back to attention when Essylt returned. She presented the avatar with a cup of caramel macchiato and sat down, blowing on her hot apple cider.

“That looks good.”, Essylt commented. “I’ve never had coffee before, by the time I learned to appreciate good food, I was already pregnant, and couldn’t try it.”

Aggie tilted her head, questioningly, which got a laugh from Essylt. After explaining about her discovery by the horrible man that had pimped her out, and the long process of knitting together her own psyche, she smiled and shrugged. Aggie wondered at that, how strong this girl had to be to forge herself from practically nothing. Compared to that, she was unremarkable. She could see that Essylt had picked up on her body language, and so she explained her own situation. It was hard, and Aggie started to cry. Putting down her drink, Essylt walked over and gave her a gentle hug.

“I know it’s hard. My adopted mother is an avatar. Her spirit unintentionally destroyed her chance at ever having kids. But she’s happy now. She has me, and this little poop factory, and she loves us both unconditionally. It’s getting late, and Siobhan should be changed and put down for her nap. But if you ever want to talk, here is my cell number.”

Essylt took out a pen and on a small scrap of napkin, she wrote down the number. Aggie took it, and carefully handed Siobhan back to her mother. Bundling back up in her ‘I’m from Florida’ heavy winter wear, Aggie turned and waved as she trudged out of Crystal Hall. Maybe things weren’t so bad, afterall.

—————
Up on the top level of the dining area, a pair of eyes had been watching the exchange. Eyes that showed fear and recognition. As both girls left the building, Nikki Reilly turned back to her plate, the sense of dread having all but eliminated her hunger.

Misfits
Chapter 4
—————

The office of Elizabeth Carson
Whateley Academy
January 7th, 2008

Ophelia Tenent looked around the table at those gathered before her, she nodded towards Sam Everheart and Amelia Hartford. Standing up, the doctor passed reports to each of the people in attendance.

Ophelia addressed the gathered individuals. “After conducting a thorough examination of the data presented to me by Headmistress Carson, Admiral Everheart, and Dr. Hartford, I was able to make several conclusions about these attacks. I have ruled out any and all natural predators found in the areas of the murders. I am categorizing them as such, and not accidents, or wild animal attacks. There is a distinct pattern in the slash marks that do not match any known predatory species in North America. Furthermore, after consulting with my colleagues in the mystical Arts department, I have eliminated most of the known species of spirits, demons, and monsters that would be possible of committing such mass murder.” Nodding to Everheart, Tenant sat down, and the Admiral stood.

Her hands behind her back, Sam Everheart looked around the table, before beginning her portion of the presentation. “In studying the cases, I analyzed the dates and locations of the murders. The first case, Henri Larouche, occurred in southern Louisiana. The next cases were a pair of runaways, Tiffany Brooks and Robert Hawkins, found near Little Rock, Arkansas. They were killed 5 days later. From there the trail turned northwest, and the number of attacks increased, as did the frequency. Multiple cases occurred in Oklahoma, Colorado, and Wyoming. There was a couple day pause in the murders, then cases appeared in Montana, followed by North Dakota and Minnesota. At this point, I believe the perpetrators crossed the border, into Ontario.” Everheart paused to allow the others at the table to digest the information.

Sam Everheart continued her report. “From there the trail appears to move east through Ontario. It is believed that the perpetrators crossed back into the United States at Niagara Falls, as the next reported case occurred near Buffalo, NY.”

Imp shifted in her chair, uneasy at that news. Reverend Englund stroked his chin, contemplating the news, clearly drawing his own conclusions.

“The trail continues across New York state, and then crossed into Massachusetts, two weeks ago. on the 29th, a young mutant girl was found in Concord.” Sam Everheart sat down and folded her hands together and looked down, sadly.

Liz Carson stood up and addressed those assembled. “It’s painfully obvious that whatever is killing these children is on it’s way here.” Looking over at Chief Delarose, she continued. “I will want security on heightened alert. All scheduled vacation and leave is rescinded. Franklin, I want patrols increased, but I do not want to panic the students. Do everything you can to keep it from looking obvious.”

The Chief nodded his understanding, as Carson continued. “I do not want to panic these kids. At the same time though, I don’t want the school to turn into some sort of hunting ground. Whomever is doing this, is clearly powerful. You don’t kill nearly 80 mutants without some of them putting up a fight. Chief, alert whichever student auxiliary members you feel necessary, but remind them that this is not for public consumption. Reverend, that goes for your team, as well.”

Reverend Englund nodded, and closed his eyes, muttering a brief prayer. Carson glanced over to Hartford, who nodded silently. She knew the unspoken request. Check with the Syndicate, see if anything has come down the pipeline about an attack on the school.

Liz Carson looked at everyone assembled, and in her commanding business voice, she simply said, “Dismissed!”

—————

She walked up to the airlock, and punched in the key-code. Stepping inside, a scan determined that nothing had entered with her. Removing her mask, the girl stripped out of her clothing, placing it into the decontamination bin. The drawer slid closed and beeped, signaling that they had been scanned and found clean of contaminants. Next, she stretched and slowly undid the fastenings at her throat, and reached for the seal to her protective suit. Pulling the skin-tight material from her body, she stepped out of it. It too went into a bin, which scanned for biological hitchhikers. Having been found clean, that bin also beeped. The girl that stood there naked, stretched. She entered the code for the second airlock, and once that opened, she had access to the room.

Looking at the sparse white walls, and the minimal furnishings, she sighed. She turned to the full-length mirror that hung on the closet door. Her blonde hair limply clung to her head and face, covered in sweat. If anyone were to see her at that moment, even sweaty as she was, they would say her looks put the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Betty Paige, or Jayne Mansfield to shame. At 6 foot tall, she was pale, looking like a marble statue of perfection come to life. Anyone that saw her would claim that Aphrodite herself had come down to earth, and that internationally known models would crawl over broken glass naked just to look half as beautiful as her. Instead, Angela Mayfield shrugged, and walked into the adjoined bathroom and took a lengthy shower.

She sighed. It had been good to go home, but it had broken her heart. Becca was getting so big. But she cried whenever Angela was around. In the end Angela had hidden up in her room for the majority of her vacation. After stepping out of the shower and drying off, Angela walked across the room. Locating her robe, she lay down for a while and cried. Eventually, having run out of tears, Angela reached over to the nightstand, and drew out her small protective night-goggles. Putting them on, she activated the sun lamps that were affixed to her ceiling, and drifted off to sleep.

Misfits
Chapter 5
—————

The woods overlooking
Whateley Academy
January 7th, 2008

The Alpha sat and looked down into the low lands below, off towards the hunting ground. It wouldn’t be long. He wanted to hunt now, but the Master had commanded him to wait. He strained against the implant in his neck. If he were to bolt down into the grounds, he might find a straggler or an isolated individual that he could take down. But Master would be displeased, and would turn on the pain. He would wait, if he had to. The rest of the pack would be here soon, and then the hunt would begin.

—————

Essylt was having, all in all, a crappy day. Siobhan had gotten her up early. Not so early that there was time to go back to bed and catch some more sleep, but not late enough that it wouldn’t matter she had gotten up early. Then there was the trip to Doyle. Just the thing first thing in the morning, Siobhan’s first set of inoculations. She was a good baby for her first round of Hep B shots, much better than her mother. Because of the unusual circumstances of Essylt’s life since her discovery in March, she had not gotten the immunizations, a fact that was complicated by her pregnancy. Dr. Tenent had done a complete exam on both her and Siobhan, and concluded that Essylt getting her catch-up vaccinations shouldn’t cause any troubles or prevent her from breast-feeding. A couple dozen shots later, and the understanding that boosters would be forthcoming in the following year, and Essylt was sprung from the torture chamber that was Doyle.

That was not the end of the torture, no indeed. To her horror, Essylt found out that she needed powers testing. Granted, due to circumstances, the fun of getting smacked in the face with tennis balls had to be bypassed the first time she had her tests. This time she was not so fortunate. She was run through the complete series of tests, someone had it out for her. Looking at what she thought was the dis-assembled remnants of a toaster, she wondered what she was doing here. Resigned to her fate, she stacked the pieces into a pile and announced to all the world that she had made a piece of modern sculpture. The testers were not amused, and if the treadmill seemed slightly faster than it should, nobody let on. Surely it was against the Geneva Convention to force a lactating girl overly laden with milk to run and jump and dodge this much, while wearing a completely non-supportive testing suit. After what seemed like hours, Essylt crawled.. yes, literally crawled, to the changing room.

A brief respite was granted, so that she could unburden herself, while simultaneously nourishing her child. Sadly, the respite was all too short.

—————

Amelia Hartford sat at her desk, her no-nonsense serious face plastered on for all to see. Looking up from the reports and documents she was compiling, her head turned slowly left, and right. Making sure nobody was watching, she let a brief crack in her cast-iron serious bitch-face facade show, as she looked at her young temporary companion.

“Who’s a cute little baby? Who’s a cute little baby? You are! You are!”, she cooed. Clearing her throat, she resumed her serious face, wiped a little spit-up off her guest’s chin, put her back in the stroller, and got back to her work.

—————

Doyle, again. The gash across the back of Essylt’s neck had already healed, thanks to her own magic, but Dr. Tenent was adamant that she still have it looked at. Sam Everheart was talking to Ito and Tolman outside. It had been Ito’s idea to have the two new girls demonstrate their martial arts knowledge in a sparring match. It had been made VERY clear to both Emerald and Eire that no weapons were to be used. Emerald had objected, since her training was strictly in fencing, and would not help her in this test. Her objections were heard, but over-ruled, as the instructors wanted to see what skills she had, for placement in BMA. Essylt had taken the advantage to demonstrate her knowledge of mixed Irish fighting. Starting in a typical Dornálaíocht stance, she dodged and blocked her opponent’s clumsy swipes, landing several blows to the face. Emerald was pissed, and lashed out again, with no better results. Essylt decided to switch strategies, leaning into Speachóireacht-style shin kicks. Knocking Emerald to the floor, she moved in and adapted a strategy utilizing Coraíocht wrestling techniques to gain leverage and pin her helpless opponent. Emerald tapped out angrily, and when Essylt had stepped out of the ring and turned away, she used her powers to manifest a green crystalline shard, about the length of a softball bat. Essylt heard Ito shout, and turned, but not quite in time to prevent the sharp stone from slicing the back of her neck.

Essylt looked at the floor, as she held her hand over the cut. She applied her essence to a healing spell. The thing that got her attention though was her braid. She had been growing out her hair, ever since she could remember. it had been almost down to her waist, now it was cruelly hacked off, and laying on the ground. She began to cry hysterically, and Tolman had to walk the distraught girl to Doyle.

—————

Patricia Halsey watched as the elf-girl was escorted out. She let out a snort of contempt. She would, no doubt get in trouble for this, but Daddy’s lawyers could deal with it if need be. She suspected though that the most that might come from it is a slap on the wrist. The little elf bitch had embarrassed her, that couldn’t be tolerated. Worse yet, she had hit her face, her beautiful face. That …bitch. Something about her just made her seethe with anger. Just the thought of her made her mad, it was below her station to feel such petty emotion over someone who was not of her refined status, but that lowly elf had one-upped her, and must pay.

—————

Essylt dragged herself from Doyle, over to Schuster Hall. Walking into the offices, Essylt stopped briefly to gather Siobhan up. She arrived at Mrs. Hawkins' door looking slightly disheveled, a sleeping baby bundled in blankets held to her chest in one hand. The other hand was feeling through her awkwardly lopped-off hair. Mrs. Hawkins looked at her and rolled her eyes, before scolding her about her appearance. Essylt had to apologize profusely, and explain the horrendous day she was having. Little did Essylt know, but her day would not be getting easier. After repeated attempts to get her advisor to understand, she finally got through to her that she wasn’t an avatar, and did not need Avatars class. Likewise, she had to explain that she did not need survival, and that Ito-Sensei had approved her for to skip Basic Marital Arts and take Special Topics- Martial Arts. Why the insistence on her taking underwater combat, aside from the fact her guardian taught it, was beyond her. Two whole hours later, Essylt finally had a suitable course schedule. Stopping off at Ms Hartford’s desk, she politely thanked her for watching Siobhan, and apologized for the fact that they were still interviewing nannies. Essylt dragged herself home. She walked in, handed Siobhan to Bill, and promptly collapsed onto the couch, instantly falling asleep.

Misfits
Chapter 6
—————

Northeastern Lodge Motel
Near Dunwich, New Hampshire
January 11th, 2008

Robert Hawkins sat in his room, waiting for the call. He had the alpha sedated and caged in the trailer. He needed the others to arrive. It had seemingly been a miracle that Humanity First had gotten a hold of these weapons. He opened his wallet, and looked at the picture inside. He remembered why he was doing this. After Robert Jr. had become that… thing, he had distanced himself from Betty, who had the gall to call that freak their child. They had separated, and Robert had stopped considering himself Robert Senior. That mutie was not his, could not be his. Betty had to have cheated. No Genefreak could come from his blood.

Robert paused, and watched the laptop. The alpha was restless, it sniffed and pawed at the interior of the steel trailer. It could detect a mutant, and nearby. Edging close to the window, he could see more of the dark SUVs pulling in, The others had arrived. They would make their statement, the intel that their benefactor had provided claimed the boarding school was a haven for the filthy monsters. Probably had other deviants there. More freaks that changed sexes, there might even be gays and homos there. He could hardly wait.

—————

Tricia sat at the diner, thoughtfully snacking on a fry. The others would be there soon, and then the fun would begin. It had been a busy week, and they hadn’t yet gotten to meet up before now. She smiled and waved at Aggie, when she walked in.

Aggie smiled and waved back. She slid into the booth, pulling her hood up, to cover her features. “So, ‘Slide… how was vacation for you?”

Backslide sighed. “I didn’t go home, too many bad memories. I just sorta headed to Boston and bummed around. I heard from Angie, she can’t make it tonight.”

A little while later, Jordan Owens walked in and sat down. She ran her fingers through her hair, brushing some melting snow from her strawberry blonde locks. She put a backpack down beside her, and looked the menu over. After a while, their order came, and they dug in.

“So, I met the new girl the other day.”, Aggie commented. “She seems really nice. It’s kinda of spooky, how much she looks like Fey, but she’s totally different. Not as hot-headed. She seems, kind of innocent really. She was out walking a dog. We went and talked for a while, and she brought her daughter.”

Jordan choked, and her Pepsi went down wrong. After a coughing fit, she managed to get out her surprised stutter. ”D…daughter?”

“Yeah, she had her just before Christmas. Her guardian is the new aquatics instructor, so she lives over in the Faculty Village.”, Aggie replied, as she absent-mindedly poked at her reuben.

The conversation, as it inevitably does with teenage girls, turned to boys and clothes and music. They gathered up their belongings, and headed towards the theater. The snow had picked up and the streets were fairly empty. They had more than enough time to watch a movie, and get in some shopping before the bus back to the school was scheduled to arrive.

—————

The Alpha smelled that there was prey in the area. Most of the “not prey” was sealed away in their strange caves. He slunk down the alley, towards the group of prey that was approaching. Letting out a low growl, and edging forward, he saw them. There were three, it would be an easy kill, if he took them by surprise. The Alpha leapt at the unsuspecting prey, targeting the closest one.

—————

Aggie’s sharp hearing picked it up before she saw it, and she dodged to the side, pushing Fidget out of the way. The three girls looked on stunned as some sort of creature stood in front of them. It looked like something out of an H.R. Geiger painting, a surreal fusion of feline and alien. It was maybe 6 foot, with a tail at least that long. If it had skin, you couldn’t tell. It was a mass of bone and sinew, it’s muscles flexing and straining visibly. The head was elongated, with a maw full of razor-sharp teeth. the head was covered in what appeared to be a bone-like plate, with a collared fringe protecting the neck. Large horns protruded over the eyes, giving it a slight ceratopsian look. The creature reared up on its hind legs, exposing its underside, which was covered in more plate-like material. Knobby protrusions showed along the spine.

The girls formed a protective circle, backs to each other. The creature paced around them, circling and sniffing the air. Letting out a cry that sounded like nothing alive on this planet, the creature circled them more. Backslide had pushed out her repulsion field, but the creature was straining against it. The huge claws, bigger than railroad spikes were dug into the ground, and its armored hide seemed to shrug off her push. Tanuki dug through her fanny pack, for her spell-charms, but she had packed light, and was not carrying many. Fidget was digging into her own pack. She had brought her prototype BB rail gun, but the pellets were bouncing off the tough hide of the creature. It stopped and turned to sniff at the air, and called out again. This time replies came from all around.

Two more of the creatures appeared from opposite alleyways, boxing them in. They were larger than the first, easily over 8 foot long. The frill at the back of the head was much less prominent. These creatures lacked the horns of the other, but the increased size and bulk made it appear much more intimidating. Unable to turn in time, Backslide screamed as one of the new arrivals suddenly leapt at Fidget. Her pellet gun had proven unsuccessful, and she had stopped to try to increase the penetration power, using spare parts from her pack. It was the right idea, but it had left her exposed and vulnerable.

Misfits
Chapter 7
—————
Near the intersection of Addison Street and First Avenue.
Dunwich, New Hampshire
January 11th, 2008

Fidget screamed as the creature leapt at her, sure she was done for. She fully expected to die, so when the fire hydrant slammed into it, and knocked it aside, she said a little prayer of thanks, and looked around. Standing at the site of the hydrant’s former location was a blonde woman in a blue winter coat and jeans. She seemed to be directing the water, as it shot in a stream, pinning the creature to a wall. Behind her stood another woman, this one was wearing a green parka with a faux fur trimmed hood, and grey sweatpants.

The blonde woman yelled out. “Fall back on my position!”

The students used the opportunity caused by the sudden appearance of the two, to strategically retreat and group with the new arrivals. They formed a circle, and pressed the numerical advantage. The girl in the green parka, pulled her hood down, revealing red hair and fae ears. Aggie gasped with recognition at seeing Essylt. She opened her mouth and began to speak, when she was cut off by the blonde.

“Codenames!”, she barked. “I’m Lake, this is Eire. I know who you are, Tanuki, Backslide, and Fidget. We have to contain these things, and keep them from escaping.”

Eire took the opportunity to look over at the creature that was pinned against the wall by the improvised water cannon. Her eyes glowed and a distant rumbling could be heard, the sound grew louder,and lightning arced through the clouds, a bolt flashed down, causing the girls to instinctively look away. When it hit, it struck the wet terror and electricity arced from puddle to puddle. One creature was down, and the other two circled cautiously. The smaller of the two backed behind the larger, and called. In the distance, more cries could be heard.

Lake looked up. Backslide had shifted from offensive, releasing her push on the creature, and had changed to a defensive posture. Her push-field spread out as a protective barrier, no longer allowing them to get closer.

“What do we have offensively?”, the teacher inquired. A quick inventory was done. Tanuki had 2 dozen pre-prepared spell slips, mostly containing fire, ice, and explosives. Backslide was carrying her 9MM CZ75, and had a clip of armor-piercing rounds. Fidget’s ball-bearing rail-gun was half disassembled, additionally, she had a mish-mash of electronic components, a broken cell phone and three button batteries. Lake convinced the reluctant Backslide to hand her weapon over to Fidget.

Three more hunters appeared, the larger ones probed Backslide’s field, slamming into it. She could feel the feedback of them hitting her field, like a stinging recoil. All the while, the Alpha slunk along behind them, observing the prey. Eire closed her eyes and concentrated. The cold of the night had kept most people inside, which was good. Reaching out with her magic, she caused the winds to pick up, swirling the fresh snow around them. It obscured the predator's vision, while inside the protective range, the girls could still see their movements. Lake and Eire combined their abilities, Using her control over water molecules, Lake would fashion water jets from the still gushing broken hydrant, while Eire would flash freeze them in mid-air into dangerous ice projectiles. She guided them at their targets. A bigger hunter shielded the Alpha with its body, taking the ice spears through the protective plating that covered it. It was staggered, but still in the fight, with no serious wounds. The one that had been electrocuted earlier had not moved, it appeared that it was, indeed, dead.

Three more of the hunters arrived, and Lake shuddered. Things could turn quickly. They were facing an unknown foe, with no idea of how many potential re-enforcements they had. The temperature was against them. Eire could lessen the impact of the weather, but it was still cold. The temperature was hovering in the low single digits. Worse yet, someone, somehow was blocking their cell phones. In the middle of town, there should not be ‘no service available’, yet nobody could get any bars on their phones.

Reprioritizing, Lake shifted Fidget’s focus, instead of augmenting the meager weapons they had, she prioritized getting a call in to Whateley. Lake had Fidget hand over the 9MM to Tanuki, and looked at the girl with a sad expression.

“We are running out of options. I need Backslide to keep up her push-barrier as long as she can. Fidget is trying to get a message through to the school. Eire and I can provide you coverage, but we don’t know your spell tags, or how they work. I’ve read your file. you are an Exemplar 3, correct?”, Lake solemnly asked.

Tanuki, nodded sadly.

“I would do this if I could, I would never ask a student to take a risk I was not prepared to take myself, but between the armor-piercing bullets, your spells, and the damage these creatures have already taken, if you can use your agility and dexterity to get in close, you might be able to deal sufficient damage to them. We will cover you as best as we are able.”

Tanuki gulped and nodded slowly. “I… I understand.”

Taking a moment to hug her first, Fidget wished her friend good luck. Tanuki darted up to the edge of the field. The barrier’s limit could be seen, as the snow that was falling actually deflected away. Darting past the edge of her protection, Aggie did a backflip over the dead hunter. She landed and rolled. There were now 7 of the larger predators, more having just arrived. She leapt up and planted a paw on the back of the closest one, pivoting and aiming a shot underneath the protective frill, hitting the neck. With that opening, she stuffed a seal into the small wound, and rebounded off. When the spell detonated a few seconds later, the ice spell sent shards of ice deep into it’s neck, severing it’s spinal cord, and tearing open the esophagus. One down.

Lake directed the improvised water cannon towards the other predators, with her ability to control water molecules, she was able to keep the water from freezing, if she wished, and she could increase the pressure. One of the beasts had not been able to jump clear in time, and was pinned down by the water. She relaxed her control over the molecules, allowing them to slow down and expand as they lost heat. With a nod over at her ward, she turned the responsibility for that one over to Eire. The creature’s armor was cold and hard from the deluge of freezing water, so when the young Sidhe girl rapidly warmed it with her fire spells, the ensuing thermal shock literally tore the beast’s own armored carapace apart. It lay there bleeding and dying, unable to move.

The creatures divided their attention. Three of the large predators continued shoving and slamming against the effect of the push field. Backslide wiped the blood from her nose, as she fought against the violent feedback. A quick glance at Fidget saw the girl sitting in the snow, her hands were blue from the cold. She couldn’t perform such intricate and delicate work with her gloves on. Her resolve spurred by the efforts of the youngest member of the Misfits, Backslide turned again and redoubled her effort to repel the beasts. Lake and Eire were unleashing all they could against the monsters. Jets of water struck them, ice rained down on them. They dodged ball lightning that hurtled from the sky at them.

Tanuki used her small stature to evade the three monsters that pursued her. She managed to get close to one, and slide under it, but she found the underbelly was as armored as the back was. Alone, her spells weren’t strong enough to take one of the goliaths down, but if she hit a sensitive spot with the armor-piercing rounds, that could weaken it just enough for it to work. The problem was that she was running out of ammo. Placing an explosive spell below the creature, she slid out from under it, and leapt onto its back. While she distracted it, the spell activated, caving in the ground underneath it. As the creature fell into the sinkhole, it managed to roll slightly and lash out with its tail. Tanuki was stunned as the tail hit her mid-air, causing her to fall with it into the massive hole. The creature had landed awkwardly, landing on its head, and breaking its neck, but that was no consolation for her. Her own landing had been just as bad, and she cried out in pain as she tried unsuccessfully to stand. Her right leg gave out. It was clearly broken. Worse, looking down at her from above was the smaller predator, the one that had been skulking around, observing.

Misfits
Chapter 8
—————
Near the intersection of Addison Street and First Avenue.
Dunwich, New Hampshire
January 11th, 2008

Backslide wiped the blood from her face, as she pushed out with her powers, keeping the beasts at bay. She saw the small one circling the sinkhole that had been created by the explosion.

Looking over towards the sidhe mage, she implored her to do more. “Can’t you just strike them down? Hit them all with lightning bolts or something?”

Eire looked back towards her briefly, then responded. “Elemental magic of that magnitude isn’t easy. Especially weather magic. You can ask the elements to do things, you can guide them, and ask for them to lend you their powers… but even though I am probably strong enough to just take them and use them as my own, I won’t do that. For one, I would risk angering the elementals, and I do not want them as enemies. There would be dangerous repercussions later on. In the old days, a queen of the ancient courts would have had the power to do so, and not have any fear of reprisals.” Essylt shuddered at the thought, knowing one queen in particular that would have had the power and temperament to do such a thing. “Furthermore, I would risk upsetting the balance of the elements. If I tried such a thing, I could very well, mess up the weather patterns and cause them to go out of control. That could potentially plunge the entire East Coast into the most severe blizzard it’s ever seen.”

Backslide swallowed hard, thinking about the power the mage girl must have. Beside Essylt, Lake smiled, the training she had done back in Minnesota with Starfield had done her good. Assessing the students, Lake looked around her. Backslide had dropped down to one knee, kneeling in the snow, as the blood continued to trickle from her nose. Her hands were shaking as she held them out. The reverb of the feedback was numbing them. She surely didn’t have much more in her. Sparing a glance towards Fidget, the girl was also on her knees. Various tools and electronics were spread out on top of her pack. Her hands were blue and jittery, the cold was getting to her as well. Eire was still up and active, moving around inside the field, calling forth smaller spells, trying to keep the hunters from testing the field.

The large hunters were all concentrating on the prey that was keeping itself out of reach, but the alpha was circling the pit where the one that was outside the barrier had fallen. It was wary, cautious. The prey in the pit was dangerous. In all the kills and all the fights up to that point, the masters had been near by, and they had caught their prey by surprise, with minimal effort. Only once had they even encountered a situation where there was more than one target. Those two were taken down quickly, as they had been weak and sick. Hesitantly, the alpha jumped down into the deep hole, where the prey was on the ground behind the body of the fallen pack member.

Seeing the small one dive into the hole, Lake knew something had to be done. Looking over at Eire, the two communicated with just eye-contact and a nod. Using the still gushing water main as a distraction, Lake coated the ground outside the protected zone. With the winds and cold, it rapidly turned into glaze ice. the larger hunters dug in their claws, maintaining footing, at the loss of even more mobility. Suddenly out from the swirling snow, a figure leapt. Wielding a pair of foot long icicles, Eire jumped onto the roof of a nearby car.

The alpha turned as it heard the cry, the figure jumping into the pit. He lashed out at it, missing as the smaller target skillfully dodged. He let out a cry as one of the icicles found the soft tissue of his shoulder. Shifting position, the alpha stood on its back legs, the arm immobile. Eire took note as muscles and bones shifted slightly as it assumed a semi-bipedal stance. She had hurt it, and it was cautious now. Backing around, keeping her eyes on it as she faced it, she maneuvered to where Tanuki was.

“Get on my back!”, she shouted. Tanuki looked at her questioningly, but Aggie did as she was told. It was fortunate that Essylt was strong enough to hold the weight of the avatar girl. With push-off, she jumped from the corpse of the fallen beast, and landed back at street-level. She could hear the smaller creature scrambling at the sides of the pit, trying to get up. The other hunters sniffed the air, and turned towards them. Taking advantage of the glazed ice, Eire backed up and ran towards the now advancing monsters. It was difficult, with the weight of the 140 pound girl on her back, but she managed to build up enough speed. Just before she reached the monsters, she dove into a feet-first slide, carrying them both under the charging brutes, and back to the limit of the push field. With lightning fast reflexes, Backslide lowered her field, then raised it again, the girls were once again on the inside.

With Tanuki recovered, the larger monsters turned again, and went back to hammering the field. Backslide collapsed to both knees, her power just about spent. As she looked at everyone, she said a silent apology, and passed out.

—————

Tanuki woke up staring at the ceiling. She tried to sit up, but suddenly she heard the voice of Ophelia Tenent, telling her to lay back down and to take it easy.

—————

Renata Hughes, tired from the ordeal sat out in the waiting room. It was so ridiculous, she just had to laugh. The only reason that she had Essylt had been there in the first place was that the school store was out of Roger’s favorite kibble. Fortune seemed to work like that around Essylt, yet nobody could say for sure if the girl had some sort of subtle warper power, or if there were more to it. When asked, Essylt would always laugh and chalk it up to ‘the luck of the Irish’.

It had been close. Fidget had managed to get the jury-rigged phone to send a weak morse-code message to Whateley, just prior to Backslide’s passing out. When Lady Astarte herself came flying down from the sky with a half-dozen different flying students and teachers, it was just in the nick of time. Renata recalled seeing them tear into the beasts, the girl with the blue hair and energy sword in particular was something to see. After the battle was over, and ARC had arrived to take possession of several of the dead creatures, it was discovered that the small one had somehow managed to escape.

—————

The home of Elizabeth Carson

Whateley Academy
January 13th, 2008

Liz reclined on her sofa, taking a break from the hassles of running the school. It was Sunday, and she could rest. ARC was handling the clean-up in Dunwich, and a cover-story about bears coming into town to scrounge during the snowstorm seemed to appease most of the citizenry, while a second story about a snowplow hitting the hydrant and flooding the road, causing a pavement blow-out seemed to placate the rest. Ms. Hughes had acquitted herself excellently in leading the girls. Tanuki was treated for her broken leg, and was released that morning. Fidget and Backslide were suffering from minor frostbite and exposure, and would be released later in the afternoon.

When the phone rang, she sighed and got up, walking over. Amelia Hartford was not one to call if it wasn’t important, so when she instructed Liz to log into her e-mail, a sense of dread hit the School’s headmistress. That dread turned to excitement, as she read over the analysis of the creatures. Dr. Tenant had been thorough, and the notes added by Jobe Wilkins and the other bio-devisors were equally promising.

Pausing, Liz called Hartford back and said only one thing. “Call ARC. Tell them it’s a priority. We need their analysis of the data, and we also need the brain!”

Misfits
Chapter 9
—————
Crystal Hall
Whateley Academy
January 14th, 2008


Nikki sat and dejectedly poked at her salad. Paul was fighting off a cold, and was still in bed. Bunny had been called in with the other bio-devisors into some top secret hush-hush matter, and wasn’t around. Rumor was that there had been some sort of incident in town on Friday, and that Tennyo had even been involved, but when Nikki asked Billie, she was told that Billie wasn’t allowed to talk about it.

Sighing, Nikki turned and watched the goings on over at the Wondercute table. Even for them, they were very animated. Jade was waving her arms around, and Anna was gesturing. Molly kept looking back and forth between the two. Nikki was watching so intently that she didn’t notice Ayla approach.

“I would ask you a penny for them, but you would turn that on me, surely”, he said.

Nikki blushed. “I’m sorry, what?”, she said flustered.

Ayla turned and looked at her with an inscrutable expression. “A penny for your thoughts.”

Nikki nodded her head over towards the protectors of cute. “ Just wondering what got into them.”

Ayla looked over. “If I were to guess, I would say it’s likely related to the fact that Anna ran into your doppelgänger this morning, while she was out walking her dog, probably pretty good odds that she also had her daughter with her, the way they are carrying on.”

Nikki chewed on her lower lip as she thought. “What do you know about her? I know you have to have a file on her by now.”

Ayla chewed his fillet mignon thoughtfully, admiring the flavors. “I have been compiling a dossier on her, true, but I was warned personally by the Headmistress to tread carefully in matters concerning her, and to… and I quote… ‘Tell Ms. Reilly that if she wants info on this girl, go talk to her personally’, sorry, but that is all I’m permitted to say."

Nikki got up and in a huff, gathered up her tray. Walking away from the Kimba table, she headed over to where Wondercute was ensconced.

In a total lack of any subtlety, Nikki sat down. “So… Jade, girls. What’s going on? You seem excited.”

Jade looked uneasily at her food, while Molly pretended to be fascinated by her spaghetti. Misty focused her attention on Pern, while Lindsay took to staring up at nothing in particular. Anna didn’t seem to notice, however that her teammates seemed intent on not discussing the new sidhe girl with Nikki. In her usual Anna exuberance, Anna began to talk a mile a minute.

“Oh gosh! I met the new girl today, you know the elf girl, like you. She even looks like you, I mean she has short hair, and grey eyes. Of course her hair was longer, like yours, but then that other new girl hacked it all off. How mean is that? I mean, if I had such lovely long hair, I'd be upset. If I had long hair, I wonder how Jerry would react. Do you think he would like it? Oh yes, sorry. I was talking about the new girl, wasn’t I? Anyhow, she looks like you, I said that, didn’t I? But she’s a lot nicer... um, I mean not that you are mean or anything, but she’s not as self-important. Oops, I don’t mean that as a bad thing. I’m sorry. She’s just not so regal and um… um... not haughty, I don’t mean you are haughty. No, anything but. She’s just so polite and nice. And her baby! Soooo cute. Those tiny little pointy ears and that precious little face. Oh, and she has this cute puppy too. I wonder how she got to have a dog. Do you think it’s a familiar, like how Clover has Buttons? I know all the squirrels here are my friends, but I think it’d be fun to have a pet. What do you think?”

Nikki sat there, unsure of how to respond. She opened her mouth, then closed it, then opened it again, before finally closing it and rubbing her temples.

“I.. I think I need to go to the infirmary, I’m starting to get a headache. I’ll see you guys later.” With that, Nikki got up and left the cafeteria, forgetting even to bus her tray.

Everyone turned and looked at Anna, who sat there oblivious. “What?”, she asked. Sighing, they all shook their heads and the topic of discussion turned to what garish thing Jericho would be wearing today.

—————

Nikki had left Doyle with some extra-strength headache medicine. She was looking at the ground, thus she didn’t see Wyatt Cody until she bumped into him.

Stopping to offer Nikki a hand up, he looked at her. “Something up Nikki?”

Nikki sighed. “It’s… It’s just this new sidhe girl on campus. Everyone says she’s practically my twin. And Aquerna was gushing about how great she is, and how haughty and unapproachable I am. I’ve been trying be better, It’s not all my fault! Aung influenced that in me. How do I fight it? It was part of me. She was me, in many ways. I know almost nothing about this girl. I’ve seen her around, at a distance, but it seems everyone likes her more than me. Add to that, she has a daughter. I don’t know of any other sidhe births. I’m afraid someone might see this girl as some sort of Messiah. I almost fell into that trap, and it nearly killed Hank!”

Wyatt sighed, and hugged the much smaller girl. “Listen to me Nikki. Don’t beat yourself up about this. You can only be the best you that you can be. You are not a bad person. Remember when Absinthe got here? You two started out rocky, but look at you now, you are good friends. Just find her and approach her. Just be Nikki Reilly, ordinary girl. When she meets that Nikki, I’m sure she will like her.”

Nikki smiled and hugged the great big bear of a man. ”You’re right. Thanks Wyatt, I needed that.” With a smile, Nikki walked off towards Poe, unaware of the doubts that she had planted.

Silently and unheard, the Kodiak pondered and frowned before speaking to nobody. “Not her… surely, it can’t be her. I pray that I’m wrong.”

Misfits
Chapter 10

—————
The office of Dr. Langley Paulson
Whateley Academy
January 15th, 2008

Dr. Paulson looked over the assembled group of faculty and students that were present. He thoughtfully rubbed his fingers through his hair. Pressing a button on his computer, a three-dimensional image of a brain appeared, floating over the desk.

“This is why I have called you here today. We have an urgent problem on our hands, one that will require all of our skills. Due to the unique properties of this particular brain, we are afforded an opportunity, a very rare one. After consulting with the Mystical and Psychic Arts departments, we believe that the best solution to our problems concerning this brain lay with finding a technological method for getting what we want.” The doctor clasped his hands behind his back, for dramatic effect.

Bunny Cormick smiled and raised her hand, having already guessed what they were going to do, based on her limited assistance in another project over at Doyle. “What exactly are we supposed to do?”

Dr Paulson turned his head towards her and smiled. “It’s really quite simple. We are going to hack this brain.”

—————
A long time ago.

Aunghadhail paced around the grand table, The enemy was advancing on her troops, and barring a miracle they would have to fall back. She dismissed her guards, sending them out to join the troops. Better for them to have a swift death, rather than waiting. She looked over at her trusted advisor, the only one that remained.

“Kodiak, my old friend. It seems the twilight is nigh. There are none who could answer the summons now, all our allies are spent.”

“Such is our fate, it seems. Yet there might be hope as yet. Not all of those that would fight with us are lost. I pray, send a messenger to the Verdant Isle. They might yet fight with us.”

The Queen of the West scoffed. “Such a time has passed. Once, she might have lent us aid at our need, but I fear that my actions long ago have doomed us. No, though she be of my kin, the Emerald Lands will never respond. We are lost, and all the world will suffer for that long ago folly.”

—————
The Grove
Whateley Academy
January 15th, 2008

Essylt walked amongst the trees and looked around. The wind was warm and comforting, in stark contrast to the cold of the main campus. Laughing, she watched as Roger romped through the brush, playing with the sprites and pixies that had come to investigate the new arrivals. She laughed as they petted him, and sat on his back. When they rode him like a pony, she began to giggle. She felt something come into the grove, the hair on the back of her neck stood up, and a chill crept down her spine.

“You shouldn’t be here, the Grove doesn’t accept visitors easily”, said a voice from behind her.

Essylt turned and lowered her hood, as she did. Nikki gulped and with great uncertainty managed to speak. “Oh… it’s… It’s you.”

Essylt let out a low whistle and Roger came running over, and stood at her side. Reaching under her jacket, Essylt unstrapped her cudgels, and took a defensive posture. “Why should I believe one who holds the power of the Queen of the West? I have heard of you, and I have done my own investigations. You are dangerous. I can feel it. Every instinct and every thought tells me to kill you here and now!”

Nikki backed up and knelt down on one knee. “I… I don’t know you, though it seems as though we might have met in another time, another place, as others. I can calm your fears. The Queen of the West shall never rise again. Aunghadhail, Queen of the Burning Oak is dead. Her spirit having fallen in the rescue of a couple of our fellow students. I am just Nikki, Nikki Reilly I have no desire to hurt you, nor to cause you or your daughter any problems.”

Essylt scowled and charged. “ You know! You know about her!”, she screamed. She reared back with her left arm, preparing to strike. The blow never came. Nikki sat there, head down. still on one knee.

“I can’t hit someone that won’t defend themselves. Go away. I don’t want to be near you!”, Essylt howled.

Dejectedly, Nikki got up and turned away, her head bowed and shoulders slumped. Essylt sat, crying. Only the reassuring nudges from Roger to cheer her up.

—————

Nikki shambled her way back to Poe Cottage. It didn’t take an empath of Nikki’s caliber to see she was hurting. From across the lobby, Gwen saw her fellow sidhe was hurting. She came over and gave Nikki a hug. She guided Nikki to a couch and got her to open up about what had happened. When the pixies she had sent to make cocoa returned with the cup, she gave it to the distressed girl. It was then that Gwen decided she would find out about this new girl and try to help Nikki.

Misfits
Chapter 11

—————
Doyle Medical Center
Whateley Academy
January 19th, 2008


Jordan was really quite embarrassed. She hand’t seen the gopher hole, due to the snow cover. And of course, it was her luck in that she would be the one to find it. Still, once the doctor popped the dislocated ankle back into proper position, her healing would make it better. After biting down and stifling a scream, she was better. She was prescribed some exemplar pain reliever, and sent on her way. It was really quite embarrassing. Angie had carried her to the med center, and was waiting outside for her. she knew she would end up getting a piggyback ride back to Whitman. On the way out, they noticed activity down an adjacent corridor. There was a room down at the end of it with security posted on either side, and doctors and nurses were rushing in and out. They didn’t have long to ponder though, as they were ushered out quickly.

—————

Having rested for a while, Jordan was getting antsy. She looked over at the mess that constituted Trisha’s half of the room and sighed. It was a total mess. Jordan shook a little and fought off the minor drick-out she felt coming on. She locked her fingers together and rocked back and forth. Compared to some people’s Deidrick’s episodes, hers were thankfully less violent. When she had first been diagnosed, She had taken the opportunity to read up on her illness. She was thankful that hers manifested in the way it did. Different people reacted in different ways. Some got terribly violent, while others would have uncontrollable laughing or crying fits, while some even became suicidal.

Trish walked in, and saw that Jordan was rocking back and forth, looking at the mess that constituted her half of the room. She dropped her bags and walked over to her roommate, and wrapped her in a big hug.

“Oh Jordan, I’m so sorry. I’ll clean the room up immediately. I’m sorry! How about later, after I finish we get the gang together and do something?”

Jordan nodded and rocked back and forth. if she had dropped a small screw or a microchip, it would be hard to find it if it landed over in the mess. That’s why she kept her side of the room pristine. She had a mild form of OCD, when it came to cleanliness and her workspace. Unfortunately, since she often worked in the room, she associated it as being a workspace. Seeing a bra haphazardly slung over a lamp, and litter everywhere made it hard.

After what seemed like an eternity, Trisha had cleaned her side of the room, and Jordan was okay. She unclasped her hands, and got up. She walked over to Trish and gave her a big hug. Trish smiled at the younger girl and got out her phone.

After a few calls were made, Trish spoke up. “Okay, we are meeting the gang over at the Cafeteria, c’mon and get ready.”

—————

A short while later the Misfits were all assembled at the Cafeteria, at their usual table. Tanuki was focusing on her rice bowl, making quick work of it with her chopsticks. Jordan watched, curious about how much influence the spirit had on Aggie, even when it came to small things like using chopsticks instead of a fork, and picking Asian foods. She tried not to stare when Angela opened a small port on her mask and inserted the straw from her milkshake. Jordan knew that Angie had her food delivered to her room in sterile containers, due to her situation, but it still must be awfully lonely to have to eat alone like that. In contrast, Trisha was wolfing down her fries. They all sat around talking, when someone approached. Looking up, at Essylt, Jordan smiled.

Essylt looked around nervously, before sitting down carefully. “Thank you for inviting me. I haven’t had much time to make many friends here yet.”

Essylt’s gaze settled nervously on the tall girl in the skintight latex. it covered her skin completely, from what Essylt could see. She assumed that under the girl’s jacket and skirt her body was covered in the same material. She stared and inched slightly towards Backslide. She had just watched Star Wars the night before, and the girl’s rebreather was making that menacing Darth Vader hiss.

Angie looked over noticing that the sidhe girl was carrying a small bundle. In a muffled, but pleasant voice she said, “Hello, I’m Angela. Otherwise known as Motherload. Don’t mind the suit, my mutant power requires that I have to wear this for my safety.”

Essylt smiled at her. “Hi, I’m Essylt, but my codename is Eire. This little pooper is Siobhan”, she said, indicating the bundle she was clutching close to her.

Angela sighed. “I have a little girl myself. Her name is Becky. Because of my mutant power though I really can’t hold her without my suit.”

Essylt looked her over, and pondered for a second. Sure, she looked menacing, but Angela seemed okay. “Would you like to hold her, while I go get some food?”, she inquired.

Angela was glad that they couldn’t see that she had tears running down her cheek. She nodded rapidly. Taking the sleeping girl out of the bundle of blankets, she looked at her, and wondered how her own little one was doing.

When Essylt returned, the girls started talking about the usual things, like boys, clothes, music. Essylt was out of the loop on a lot of the pop culture discussion, but when the subject of boys and sex came up, she reduced the others to awkward blushing giggle-monsters.

After a quick vote, Essylt was added to the roster of the Misfits, for which she thanked the others profusely. It was settled, and Trisha, as acting leader, would file the required forms with Hartford on Monday. After handing Siobhan back to Essylt, the girls explained to her that there was one more thing they needed to do. In solemn silence, they left Crystal Hall, and followed the path down to the Garden of Remembrance. There, the told Essylt all about Donnie and Lucy Jensen, and what had happened to them.

—————
Doyle Medical Center
Later that day.

She opened her eyes, it was difficult, and everything was blurry. She could hear people talking, but it was muffled. Her body wouldn’t move, and all she could do was blink. A vague blur stepped into her field of view. “Awg uu Ulrite? Duu uu need neythin? Ken uu heer me?” She could almost make out the words, but it was as if she was underwater. She tried to open her mouth to speak, but that’s when she realized there was something in it. She realized it was a breathing tube. She was on a ventilator. Her brain felt foggy. More than that, it felt alien, and strange. This wasn’t her brain, this was a different brain. She wanted to get up and run away. She couldn’t move, and even if she could, there had to be restraints. How did she get here? She tried to think back, but all she could remember was pain, intense pain. And then death. Was she dead? If she was dead, why did she feel alive? Closing her eyes, a single tear slowly trickled down Lucy Jensen’s cheek.

Misfits
Chapter 12

—————
Doyle Medical Center
Whateley Academy
January 21st, 2008

Everyone had heard that Lucy was miraculously back from the dead, and recovering in Doyle. The past couple days had been hectic. Lucy’s Dad had been notified, but was unable to come back. He expressed his thanks to Liz Carson in a long, phone call, during which the usually stoic man had burst into tears a couple of times, prompting Liz to tell him about her own losses, and the return of her daughter, Shelley.

Jordan Owens ran into the room and hugged the girl sitting in the bed. She wiped a tear from her cheek. Her friend was alive. She looked mostly okay, her hair was just a slight purplish fuzz. But it was still Lucy. It was Lucy in every way that mattered. She cried some more as she hugged her friend. Lucy hugged her back, her own eyes watering. Aggie and Angie came in next, and more hugs were exchanged. Trisha came in last, and gave Lucy yet another hug.

It was Angie that spoke first. “So, when will they be letting you out of here?”, she asked as her mask made it’s usual hissing sounds. Everyone looked at Lucy. She struggled to sit up, and required some help up form her friends.

She spoke, but it was slow and halting. “I shtill need to get oothed to my new body. Tho many changes. I’m not yhet fully in control, and some things fill off.”

Trisha cocked her head. “Really? Like what?”

Lucy sighed. “Kidneys! I have new kidneys. I don’t like the color!”

The rest of the group looked at her skeptically, and let that pass. They all gathered around her, trying to make her comfortable.

“So, what’s ben going on thince I went to the great beyond?”

The girls explained all the new courses they were taking, and all the gossip around the school. Trisha mentioned the fight, and They all gave their points of view. Angie sat back and listened along. When they got to Essylt, and her joining the team, Angie noticed the look of discomfort on Lucy’s face. She went over and in her usual motherly way, she hugged her and made her know she wasn’t being replaced.

—————
Elsewhen…

She walked around the room, taking in its pure opulence. Passing the mirror, she looked at her reflection. Her hair was long and red, full of curls that framed her face. Her steel grey eyes stood out in stark contrast. Nervously, she adjusted the green and silver tiara that graced her head. Gathering her courage, she turned and entered the large ornately carved doors.

She looked at the throne room, with its long red carpet, and intricate murals. Proceeding down the carpet to the throne, she stopped before it and knelt down on one knee, as a sign of respect to the occupant.

“M’lady”, she said in reverence. “You have requested my presence? What can I do for thee?”

The older woman on the throne looked down at the younger girl. “Rise, my niece, there is no need for such formality. I have called you here to talk to you about a matter of some great importance.”

“What can I do for you, Auntie?”, the girl inquired. That she had been summoned here from her lands had great meaning. Something was going on, and she would likely factor into it.

“Child, I have called you here because I ask a great boon. The war with the Bastard on the Eastern front goes well at the moment, but I have great need of your aid. I would ask thee to loan me your armies, so that we can drive a spear through his legions, and cripple his forces. I ask that you do this.”

The girl bit her lip in thought before replying. “This is no small favor you ask Auntie, My own lands are assailed as well. The fell creatures came and killed my mother, as you well know. Nay, I can not lend you such aid. The verdant lands must not fall, and to loan you what you may need would surely cause the downfall of my kingdom.”

The queen rose up from her throne to look at her guest. “You talk of defending your lands? If the Bastard were to win, we all surely would perish! I ask you again, lend me your troops, so that we might take the war to him!”

Looking up at her aunt, the younger queen spoke. “I see nothing but folly in such a plan. the enemy is for now contained. But to throw troops and precious resources into such a gambit would surely turn the winds of war to ill, I beg you, my aunt. Do not do such a thing, and do not request this of me!”

The elder queen looked down upon the younger with anger. “Enough! If you will not willingly lend me what I need, I have the power and authority to take it! I banish thee from the Court, and strip you of all ranks and privileges here. I will wage my raid, with or without your forces. But I will not forget this. You are branded a traitor! No allies will you find here any longer, no aid shall come to your defense now. you are no longer family! I curse your name! Begone Ériu, and never darken my doorstep again!”

With that said, the younger queen lowered her head and in a soft voice spoke her final words to the Queen of the West. “If such is your will, I pray that should darkness come to your door, you will not need the aid of the verdant lands, for no aid will you find there.”

—————


Essylt awoke with a start. She was breathing hard and sweat was tricking down her face. She pondered the strange dream, but had no answers. Sitting there alone, she hugged her knees and rocked back and forth as she cried.

Misfits
Chapter 13

—————
Schuster Hall
Whateley Academy
January 22nd, 2008


Essylt walked down the corridor, munching on the cookies she had made in home economics class. They were still warm and gooey, with chocolate chips and M&Ms in them. She was feeling a lot better, the dream had startled her, but her session with Dr. Bellows had helped immensely. She thought that she should save some for the girls, and some for her family. Hmm… Family. It was such an odd thing to her, how quickly she was fitting in with Bill and Renata. They loved her dearly. Of course Essylt loved them, not as much as Mom, of course, but she was happy. Sadly, that happiness wouldn’t last.

As she rounded the corner and approached the long hallway where her locker was, she noticed them. Plastered over the walls, the lockers, and every conceivable surface were pictures of her. Written over the pictures in green marker was the word “whore”. Essylt dropped her bag and stood there. She didn’t hear it when Toni came up behind her.

“Damn, that’s messed up!”, Chaka said. Essylt was too busy crying to notice the other girl had her fists clenched, and was ready to find out who did this and beat them up. Looking up, Essylt grabbed Toni and clung to her, crying into her shoulder. Settling down from her enraged state, Toni hugged the poor girl. Seeing Nikki on the opposite side of the hallway, Toni gave her a non-verbal sign to make herself scarce, and to go look for one of Essylt’s friends.

Thus when Jordan and Angie arrived, they found Essylt still clinging to Toni. Angie gave a silent nod of thanks to Toni, and pried the tearful sidhe girl from her. Jordan and Angie hugged her while they escorted her to her locker. Sam Everheart was there, and the area surrounding it was cordoned off with police tape. The locker door was smashed open, and the word slut had been carved into it, not just scratched in, but ripped completely through the metal.

Sam called Essylt over, and nodded as she approached the cordon. Stepping past the tape barrier, she hesitantly approached.

“Now Essylt, I need you to verify if anything is damaged or missing, or out of place. Nobody has touched the locker since it was discovered.”

Essylt swallowed hard and unlocked the battered door, which immediately fell off the hinges. She gasped and started to cry as condoms started falling out, not just one or two, but hundreds. Sweeping those aside, she looked in. The laptop she had been assigned was completely smashed, and a squeak toy she had intended on giving Roger was ripped to shreds. A sweater had been torn apart and partially unravelled. It was what she saw on the floor of the locker that made her lose it. A picture of Siobhan lay there, with the words "Bastard Child” written on them in that same green marker. The assembled onlookers startled when there was a loud rumble of thunder coming from outside.

Unseen, at the end of the hall, two girls stood, watching in trepidation. Turning to Nikki, Gwen nodded and spoke. “You’re right, she is strong... and if someone is provoking her, we need to help her.”

Nikki frowned. “It goes beyond that. There is some connection to her that we both have. If… If.. Aunghadhail were still with me, she would know. I feel though that if she were, it might just cause us more troubles.”

Gwen Wylann turned back towards Nikki, understanding all too well that past-life problems with Aunghadhail could create issues and problems in the here and now. Sighing and giving Nikki a supportive embrace, the two turned and walked down an adjacent corridor.

Sam called Bill Mathis, who had been off-duty. He hurriedly scooped up Siobhan, and brought her over to Schuster. Seeing her precious little one seemed to calm Essylt down, as the ominous thunder ceased, and the grey cloud cover dispersed. Bill escorted Essylt home, notifying Amanda Tolman that Essylt was being excused from class.

—————

Outside Amanda Tolman’s office, Laird Hall.
Whateley Academy
Same Day

She listened in with delight. Having learned that the girl who had upstaged her that day was from the same city had made her furious. Eden Prairie was the Beverly Hills of Minnesota, where the upper-class lived. It was posh and had stores and luxuries that catered to the nouveau riche, and learning that some cheap little skank like her had been living there made her feel dirty. She would drive this girl away, Daddy’s investigators had dug up all sorts of dirt on the elf-girl. Who cared if her adopted mother was a hero? There were ways to get rid of her. It would be dangerous though. The girl had seemingly fallen into a group of friends. She would need to proceed with caution. She couldn’t get rid of all of them by herself.

Patty turned and almost walked into someone. She angrily pivoted on her heel and was about to berate the girl she had bumped into for being in her way, but she looked at her. She was stunning, Taller than Patty, perhaps 5’9” - 5’10” or so, with raven black hair and eyes that shown bright like blue sapphire. She was well developed in all the right ways, Patty noted.

“Excuse me, I am sorry. I didn’t mean to bump into you. forgive my clumsiness.” The other girl smiled as she spoke. Her voice was melodic and soothing.

Patty curtsied gracefully. “I’m sorry. It was all my fault. I’m Emerald. But you can call my Patricia.”

The other girl smiled. “They call me Duplicity, but I think I would rather you call me Stephanie.”

The two girls talked for a bit, before going their separate ways. The wheels in Patty’s mind started to turn, and a plan was forming.

Misfits
Chapter 14

—————
The Quad
Whateley Academy
January 23rd, 2008

Stefan DeWitt-Hollingsworth strolled around the Quad, looking around. Not for the first time since he enrolled, he wondered what he was doing there. Nearby, a student that looked rather like a dinosaur was chasing around a boy that had antlers. As he walked, he saw other wondrous things. The school flag had a green border, and the more… unique students were out and about. Brushing a little snow off a bench, he sat and watched in amusement as a rather unusual game of tug of war was going on. On one side, a girl with bright copper hair stood, pulling against a group of 5 students on the other side. Besides the fact that it was one-on-five, the other interesting thing about the situation was the “rope” being used. It was the girls’ hair, which was a braid of at least 20 foot long. After watching the girl win, Stefan got up and went back to his dorm.

With a sigh, he walked up the stairs. Nobody really noticed him, as he passed through the lobby. His dorm was full of the movers and shakers, heirs to family fortunes, and in some cases, royal heirs. Throwing his books on the floor, he dove onto the bed. He was enrolled in a school for powered people. He was exposed to people with amazing powers. People that would have to dress down to look like super-models. He wasn’t ugly, by any means. Standing about 5’7”, he wasn’t overly muscular, but he was in shape. He brushed his brown hair out of his face, and closed his hazel eyes. Why had Mom and Dad sent him here? Why was he here? He didn’t understand. He had no powers. Why had the school accepted him? He thought about it for a while, before drifting off to sleep.

—————
Melville Cottage
Whateley Academy
Same day

Patty sat on the couch in the common area of the lobby, feeling the opulence around her. the couch was fine leather, and very comfortable. She looked around, noticing that She-Beast was in the room, keeping an eye on everything. She knew of the reputation of the cottage fixer, both that her father was a super-villain, and that she had her hands in all sorts of deals. After a while, She watched as Jadis Diabolik got up and left. Shortly after, the person she had been waiting for arrived. She waved over to Duplicity, beckoning her to sit.

“I’m glad you showed. I wasn’t sure.”, Patty said, as she offered her guest some of the coffee she had brought. Stephanie took it graciously, reaching over and sipping it in a refined manner. Patty was firmly heterosexual, but even so, she couldn’t help but notice that every movement and gesture Stephanie made oozed sensuality and sexuality. Patty swallowed hard.

“So, you had a question?” Stephanie asked, again her voice dripping with sensuality. Patty crossed her legs, ignoring the feeling of wetness between her legs, and the hardness of her nipples.

“I have someone that I need to get my revenge against.”, Patty said in a furious voice. “The bitch embarrassed me, and needs to suffer.”

Stephanie raised an eyebrow as she sipped her coffee. “I can help you there. But you said she had friends? We’ll need more people, if we plan to do this.”

Patty nodded, then smiled. “Why are you willing to help me?” she inquired. “I barely know you, and you are willing to do this.”

Stephanie shrugged it off. “Being good is boring, All the good people live their lives, like little sheep. You and I aren’t sheep, we are wolves. It’s our place to cull the herd. We are leaders, not followers. I’ll help you, but in exchange I will ask a favor for you at some time.”

The girls sat and talked, observing their surroundings, and plotting their strategy.

—————
Deep in the forest
Near Whateley Academy
Same day

The Alpha huddled in the cave, nursing his wounds. The prey had hurt him, and though he had healed a lot, he was still weak. Hunting small creatures to survive had helped. The gashes in his flank were nearly healed. Shambling out of the cave, he crawled through the underbrush. A large moose was walking through the clearing, he was down-wind, and he hadn’t been detected. He crept ever closer, anticipating the kill. Leaping out, he landed on the moose, singing talons and fangs into its back. The moose wailed and cried, panic spread through it. Shaking and twisting, it threw the hunter off and bounded away. The hunter slunk off, back to the cave, to lick its wounds. It would find easier targets, and feed. It would get healthy and find the prey once again, and this time the outcome would be different.

Misfits
Chapter 15

—————
Crystal Hall
Whateley Academy
January 25th, 2008

Patty walked uncertainly into the hall. the note that Stephanie had left her was enigmatic, but the instructions were clear. As Patty looked around the hall, she saw a boy that fit the description in the letter. This was the boy that Stephanie wanted her to get close to and seduce. The wheels turned in her head, why she was to do this, she couldn’t fathom, but the boy wasn’t bad looking, and she hadn’t gotten any action since she had arrived at the school. If she could toy with this one and have Stephanie owe her one, why not?

Approaching the boy, she looked him over more closely. He wasn’t an exemplar, but he wasn’t unattractive. She could do this.

“Hi, is this seat taken?”, she asked in her best innocent voice. The boy looked at her, stunned. That a girl would approach him, in this place was unfathomable to him. He wasn’t ugly, but with guys like Lancer around that could lift a car, or guys that could appear on the cover of any magazine they chose, he never thought that any girl here would give him the time of day.

“No, feel free.”, he said. She sat down. She was pretty, with brilliant emerald eyes, and long strawberry blonde hair. Her dress showed off that she had a nice figure. She wasn’t overly curvaceous, like many of the girls in the school, but she was very slender and fit. He couldn’t help though to notice that she had a nice butt, when she sat down.

“Hi, I’m Patricia, though I suppose you can call me Patty, or even Emerald. Everyone does.” She said, in a soft, gentle voice.

“Um, Hi. I’m Stefan. I don’t have a codename though. I actually don’t know why I’m here. I don’t actually have any powers. Nobody really notices me here. I don’t even know how I got into the school.”, Stefan said in a somewhat sad tone.

Patty reached over and put her hand on his. “I’m sure there is a reason you were accepted here. I heard that there is a girl here who doesn’t have any powers, but she was accepted because she’s a super math genius. I also heard that Loophole, you know here, right? She was accepted here before her powers fully manifested. So maybe you are here for some similar reason. Don’t be too upset.”

Patty closed her hand into a fist, and then opened it. In her palm was a small emerald crystal. “Take this, as a token of our meeting. I look forward to seeing you again. I have to get to class.” With a smile, she took out a small piece of paper and a pen and wrote down her name and phone number. She stood up, moved closer to Stefan, and gave him a kiss on the cheek before leaving.

Stefan sat there puzzled. Had that really happened?

—————
Meanwhile
The Quad
Whateley Academy

Lucy Jensen was lost in her thoughts, she barely acknowledged that Jordan was alongside her. She was looking down at the ground, and did not notice Bloodwolf until she bumped into him. She fell down and was looking up at him, as he loomed over her.

“You might have had the sympathy of the whole school because you died. But now that you are back among the living, you are fair game.”, He growled at her in a deep guttural voice.

Jordan jumped backwards, reaching for her BB pistol, She carried a few rounds of mithril shot, but not enough to take him down. Unfortunately that was when Maggot grabbed her arm. Her screams, as Maggot burned away the skin on her wrist snapped Lucy to full attention. She lunged at Maggot, but was intercepted by Killstench. The girls were outnumbered and things were dire. Out of the corner of her eye, Jordan saw Willie and Necro moving to encircle them and prevent their escape.

Bloodwolf swung at Lucy, knocking her back to the ground. as Jordan struggled, she continued to scream as Necro had joined Maggot. With them both using their powers, she was in bad shape. It was then that Lucy looked up at Bloodwolf. She wiped the blood from her mouth onto the back of her palm. She was furious. Lucy muttered something inaudible to the others and then lashed out. Catching Killstench by surprise, she leapt at him, her eyes narrowing. She didn’t feel any pain or even awareness as the changes began. Snarling at him, she knocked him down with a shoulder to the midsection. She knelt down, sitting over his chest, pinning his arms to the ground with her shins. She punched at him ferociously, the spikes that had formed on her left knuckles tearing into the skin on his face. He looked up, into her face, and was scared. the left side had turned a dull grey. Her mouth was open, and the canine teeth on her left side had elongated. She knocked him cold, and sprung up, snarling.

Bloodwolf looked at her in fear. He had tangled with her before, she was an exemplar, and had incredible healing, but this was all new. He looked her in the eyes, the left one had turned black, only the violet of her iris was visible. the entire left side of her body seemed to have changed. her skin was a cold black grey, she had armored plate covering her forearm. Looking at her hands, the elongated fingers ending in razor sharp claws. Her clothes had largely given up their feeble attempt to cover the newly changed portions of her anatomy. She lashed out with the long tail that had sprouted, and knocked back Necro and Maggot. Jordan lay there, clutching her arm. The flesh had melted off, exposing damaged muscle and bone.

With a leap she would have never been capable of before, Lucy jumped up, and flipped over Bloodwolf, landing behind him. She swept his legs out from under him with her tail, and turned towards him, with murderous intent clearly in her eyes.

Jordan crawled over, she was weak, but she could not stand to see her friend this way. She knew the look in Lucy’s eyes, and knew that she would surely kill Bloodwolf. Lucy didn’t care, Everyone was her enemy. With a hiss, she pounced towards Jordan, her claws out.

“Kill you… KILL YOU ALL!”, the creature that was Lucy Jensen raged. With her murderous intent fixed on those before her, she never saw the blast from Lady Astarte.

Misfits
Chapter 16
—————
Doyle Medical Complex
Whateley Academy
January 25th, 2008


“What the HELL did you do to this girl?”, Elizabeth Carson said in a demanding voice. She stood with her arms crossed over her chest, glowering at Jobe Wilkins, the assembled medical devisors, and the physicians that were assembled. On the metal slab before them, Lucy Jensen lay shackled and unconscious. Looking at the girl as she lay there restrained and naked, one would shudder. On the right side of her body, she looked entirely normal, but starting at roughly the mid-point of her body the skin started to turn a pallid grey color. The left side of her head was bald, a small stubby horn erupting from her scalp. Her eyes were closed, but had the left one been open, one would have noticed the pitch black of her sclera. Her mouth was open, and the large fang-like canine teeth on the left side were on display.

Liz Carson looked away and sighed before looking back at the girl. On various places on the left side of her body some sort of flexible plating had grown, covering more vulnerable areas, like her clavicle, shoulder, forearm, shin, thigh, ribs, kidney, breast, and stomach. Her fingers had elongated on her hand, to about one and a half times the size of ones on the other hand. her nails were hardened, and narrowed into sharp points. Liz Carson swallowed hard, upon noticing that the girl’s left ear was missing, replaced by a hardened shell. Continuing to look at Lucy, she noticed the talons on her feet, including the pronounced one on her big toe, it was curved and reminded Liz of a velociraptor. The whip-like tail was restrained, strapped down at various points along the nearly 6 foot length.

Liz Carson looked at Ophelia Tenent nervously ran her fingers through her hair… or was it the hair running itself around her fingers? She sighed and cleared her throat.

Caduceus, taking the cue looked at her and spoke. “Right now we have her on enough animal tranquilizer to keep a 170 ton blue whale sedated for a week. Given her regen level though, she will probably burn that out of her system after 48 hours. After that, I’m hesitant to dose her again.” Looking over at Jobe Wilkins, she nodded in that ‘speak now’ manner.

Jobe nervously swallowed before speaking. ”In my um… haste to study um… her more closely, I may have overlooked some resequencing that might have been done. I know, It’s shocking that someone as brilliant as I would make a mistake. I… that is… we… might have a workaround for this though. It seems as though the increased aggression and anti-mutant conditioning was very clumsily added to the resequencing protocols. I can engineer a viral pathogen that attacks these artificial modifications, eliminating them.” Jobe looked up at the Headmistress with a grin, but upon seeing her scowl, she wilted and slunk behind Ophelia.

Dr. Alfred Bellows stepped forward. “While that is good news, I recommend caution, therapy, and close examination by Louis Geintz.”

As if on cue, the image of a man in a suit and bowler appeared before them. “I have already begun casual examination, but the unique nature of Miss. Jensen’s neural make-up makes in-depth probing difficult. I would request that for any in-depth probing, that Miranda Mahren, Nikki Reilly, and Dale Townsend assist me.”

It was then that Liz Carson spoke up. “In the interim, provided that the ‘treatment’ is successful, I would suggest she be added …for the time being… to the UV watch, and be accompanied at all times by a security contingent, of no less than 3 members of security. I will make arrangements with Chief Delarose. You all have your assignments… dismissed.” With that, Liz left the room, so nobody could see her shed a tear.

—————

Melville Cottage
Whateley Academy
That night

Stephanie DeWitt-Hollingsworth lay across her bed in a sultry position. She moaned slightly, as she pictured the little twit in her mind. Patricia Halsey was her pawn, thanks to the pheromones Stephanie released. She smiled as she thought of the impudent girl. One such as her had thought to use her as a pawn? She was a queen. She would gain satisfaction from steering the poor girl towards Stefan, and whatever made him happy, made her happy. The very thought of it made her aroused. Stripping off her nightie, Stephanie began to indulge herself in self-gratification.

—————

The Quad
Whateley Academy
January 26th, 2008

Essylt walked along the pathway, idly letting Roger stop to examine various spots. She was glad for the day off, She was doing well in her classes, Introduction to the Mystical Arts was almost too easy for her. The hard part of going to class was dodging Fey. She knew that her almost-identical ‘twin’ was on the fast track in the department, already being a teacher’s assistant. Essylt came to a bench. she brushed off the snow, and sat down. With her tights on, she needn’t worry about the wrought iron. Petting the bench, Essylt laughed when Roger jumped up and sat next to her.

She looked up and saw Absinthe approaching, and waved her over. “Hello Essylt, enjoying the day?” Gwen asked.

“Oh yes, I’m a bit exhausted, this past week has been tiring”, she replied. Gwen nodded at that.

“I can imagine, Nikki says that you’ve been going the long way around after Intro. Trying to avoid her?”, Gwen asked, already knowing the answer.

“She’s the vessel of Aunhadhail, the Queen of the West. I have reasons to hate her, though I don’t know why.”, Essylt mumbled the last part quietly.

Gwen sighed and hugged Essylt, even as Roger leaned in and licked the redhead on the cheek. “When I first got here, I had reasons to fear her too. I had dreams of a past ancestor, one that was exiled by the Queen, long ago. I was like you were. But I was encouraged to talk to her. It is true that Nikki held the spirit of Aunghadhail, and was heir to the title of Queen. But Aunghadhail is gone.”

Gwen took Essylt’s hand, and through her powers, understood the truth of what was said. Gwen related to her the story told to her by Nikki and others of the mission to save the tormented souls of Skybolt and Cavalier, and how Aunghadhail fell nobly, allowing everyone to escape.

Essylt cried as Gwen relayed the details of Nikki sadly wandering the campus, asking everyone if they had seen or heard of any sign of Aunghadhail. It saddened her, the description of the once-strong girl having succumb to sorrow. Gwen went on to tell her about Nikki’s struggles with the legacy of the departed queen, and the negative impact she had had on the girl. In her own way, Nikki was as much a victim of Aunghadhail as anyone else. Wiping her tears away, she hugged Gwen and said her goodbyes, leading Roger back home. One thought did creep through her head, she would have to find Nikki and apologize.

Misfits
Chapter 17
—————
Doyle Medical Complex
Whateley Academy
January 27th, 2008

His duty was to walk the happy one and the tiny, oft stinky one to their destination, and he would do it. Walking his people, he stopped and sniffed the air. Something wasn’t right. This was his territory, and someone else had marked it. Examining the scent carefully, he knew who it was. The rude one with the wolf spirit. That didn’t matter to him, he was the undisputed alpha around here, he had cowed the avatar before, chasing him off. If he had to, he would do it again. Leading his people to the building, he patiently allowed the happy one with the pointy ears to pick him up. The little one was sleeping in a harness the bigger one wore, and not stinky (for once). His people tried to clean it up, but his superior nose could always tell. He allowed himself to be carried in. The nice human with the long hair came to meet them, and she gave him a pat on the head, and a biscuit. She was nice, he loved the biscuits he got when they visited.

They went into a private room, and the long-haired person took out one of those poking things, He didn’t like the poking things. He hoped it wasn’t for him. He was relieved when it turned out it wasn’t, but he still watched nervously. The tiny one was poked, and it made a lot of noise. He knew there was a good reason for this, because his people would never let anyone get hurt for no reason. Still, it was his job to protect them, even the stinky one. He reassured the small one, licking its cheek, which made it gurgle and laugh. The long-haired one smiled and told him he was a good boy, which made him very happy.

—————

Melville Cottage
Whateley Academy
That same day

Patty sat at the desk, watching as Stephanie lounged on the bed. They had agreed to meet, because plans needed to be made, and allies secured. Looking at Stephanie, Patty wondered. Everything about her seemed to exude sex, the way she reclined, the casual way her v-neck revealed her cleavage, the way the curve of her hip was accentuated by her position.

“So, I’ve been wondering. You set me up with that Stefan guy, but why? Is he your brother?”, Patty asked. “I mean, why go through all that trouble? He is kind of cute, and sweet. And I do need a good lay, but what’s the deal?”

Stephanie looked at Patty, as she sat at her desk. She was very cute, wearing long thigh-high socks, and a short plaid skirt. She had on a green sweater that accentuated her eyes.

“While we were growing up, he was the golden child, but our parents were afraid of me. I was the pariah, the one they were afraid of. Still, he did things for me that he never knew he even did, things that allowed me to be safe, things that protected me. I owe him. I just want him to be happy. Have you ever had someone like that, someone that could keep you safe and make you feel protected? I will ask one thing of you in that regard, please don’t talk to him about me, it’ll only bring back painful memories, ones he’s better off without.”

Patty thought about that. Other than Daddy’s money, she didn’t need much. Still, it must be great to have someone that you could rely on. Maybe Stephanie was that person?

“We need to plan. I have to show up that elfgirl bitch. She hurt me and embarrassed me.”, Patty was scowling, her fists clenched.

Stephanie straightened up, and looked over at Patty. “We must be careful, I did a little digging, With the right connections, or the right palms greased, you can get a lot of information here. I read up on her. Consensus is that after Fey, she may be the second most powerful magic-user at the school. I would proceed with caution. Your little stunt with the picture of her daughter was not smart. She is on guard, and any attempt to get to her through her daughter would bring down her wrath, not to mention that of the faculty, her guardians, her teammates, and in all likelihood, the entire sidhe community here at the school. In addition, that’s not counting wildcards like Wondercute, Team Kimba, and the Outcasts, in essence, anyone that might sympathize with her.”

Patty swallowed hard, she had not considered that.

Stephanie continued. “The next issue is that you and I can’t hope to defeat them alone. She has fallen in with the group calling themselves the Misfits. Individually, they might not be formidable, but their chemistry makes them dangerous. We should recruit to counter each one. The two most dangerous ones… Motherload and Host… should be our first priorities. I’m sure you have heard all the fuss about Host, apparently she died, and the staff conspired to bring her back somehow. My research is that she is a mid-level exemplar, but she has regen that rivals Tennyo, add to that some sort of resistance to telepathy. She will be difficult to take down. We need someone that can either keep her incapacitated or contained. Motherload is a high-level exemplar. A level 6, She might be the fourth or fifth strongest student at Whateley, and she has fairly high level regen, herself. Her weakness is that she needs to wear a containment suit. I haven’t been able to discover the reason why, but if it is something we can use, I will let you know.”


Patty was impressed. Stephanie had done her homework, and she knew what they needed to do. Perhaps this was the smartest thing she had done, recruiting her. “So, the first thing we need to do is find people that can help us against The elfbitch, the muscle, and the cannon fodder. Once we find them, we need to either convince them to help, or manipulate the situation and build an enmity there.”

Stephanie nodded. “I think we should start there. But first, if I remember correctly, you have a date tonight. I think you should go get ready”. Getting up, Stephanie walked Patty to the door and showed her out. Returning to the bed, she lay down and smiled a wicked smile. “Perfect”, she said.

Misfits
Chapter 18
—————
Isadora’s Coffeehouse
Dunwich, New Hampshire
January 27th, 2008


“So, tell me a little about yourself.”, Patty looked Stefan in the eyes, batting her lashes. Ok, so he was kinda cute. This wasn’t the worst payment she could think of for services rendered.

Stefan sipped at his tea nervously, he was still amazed that such a pretty girl had asked him out. “Not much to tell, really. I grew up in a pretty normal upper class community in Connecticut. My mother and father doted on me. I have a sister, but we don’t really get along. Mother and father didn’t treat her all that nicely. I guess it was because I was the ‘male heir’, destined to carry on the family name, and they figured she would just be married off to maintain status. I think that might be why she ran away.”

Patty bit her lip. “I see, that must be tough. I don’t have any brothers or sisters. I grew up in a wealthy suburb of Minneapolis, Daddy is an investment banker and Mother was a minor celebrity there growing up. I do admit I am kind of spoiled, but when you get used to the finer things in life... who wouldn’t be, I guess? I was the most popular girl in my school, then I manifested around Halloween, and they shipped me here. I’m not sure if it was more because they were ashamed or scared.”

Stefan laughed. “To be honest, I’m not sure what I’m doing here. I don’t have any powers. I know there is a girl in the math department that doesn’t, but she’s some sort of mega-math genius. Then there’s that Chinese girl, the one with all the special tutors and instructors, I hear she’s not a mutant either. But I don’t know why I was accepted here. There’s nothing really special about me.”

Patty leaned over, across the table. She took his hand, and held it. As she looked across the table, Stefan tried his best not to look down her cleavage. Her green sweater was unbuttoned , and the tee underneath sagged sufficiently to grant that opportunity.

“You seem special to me”, she said with a smile. They held hands for a while, before getting up to go. Stefan paid the check, and they walked out into the street. Patty wrapped her arms around herself, the winter cold chilling her a little. She was used to it, from the winters back home, but cold is cold, all the same. Stefan seemed to take notice, and he pulled her closer, wrapping an arm around her shoulder as they walked. The two of them spent the day browsing the little antiques stores and handcraft stores that lined the main street.

While Stefan was distracted looking over beadworks at a store, Patty slipped off. She noticed a pocket chain, the perfect size for a pocket watch. After a few minutes, the chain was wrapped up in gift wrapping, ready to present to Stefan later. She licked her lips, imagining going down on him. This task could be a lot of fun, she thought.

—————

The Quad
Whateley Academy
That same afternoon

Trisha sat alone on the bench, deep in thought. The day before she had gotten the call from home. Paula Freidberg had gotten out of juvenile corrections and had disappeared. She had tried to put the incident out of her mind. Dad had told her it wasn’t her fault. Still, if she hadn’t gone out with David, he’d still be alive right now. She sighed and looked around. Things were quite normal for the Quad. The green flag was flying, and the Sun was out. Despite the cold, that brought students out of the cottages. Trisha watched the back and forth as Razorback and Metro took turns in chasing each other. A group of devisors and gadgeteers was squaring off against a group of mages in a snowball fight. The mages took an early lead with the hastily crafted ice shields, but the tides were turning with the reveal of several snowball bazookas and what looked like the illegitimate lovechild of an ATV and a tank.

The mages rallied, as a snow elemental in the form of a giant snowman advanced on the techies. The elemental was taking a pounding, as icicle missiles tore through it. Suddenly a portal opened up directly over the technology students, dumping snow all over them.

Trisha laughed hysterically as Fidget stood and shook the snow off herself and screamed at the other team. “Foul! No fair having Gateway portal snow over us!”

Both sides began to laugh, and a truce was called. The fight ended, in favor of coffee and cocoa at Crystal Hall.

—————

Melville Cottage
Whateley Academy
That night

Patty lay against the warm body of her lover. She listened quietly to Stefan’s breathing as he lay there. She moved closer, pressing up against him, her breasts against his side. She spooned in closer. Yes, this bargain was something she could definitely live with. Turning, she kissed his cheek. She smiled, as she looked at the emerald crystal she had given him the first time they had met, sitting over on his desk. It looked beautiful on the silver fob. She quietly got up and dressed. She snuck a glance out of the door, nobody was around. Quietly, Patty snuck down the hall, and out of the men’s wing. As she headed for her own room, she passed Stephanie’s room. She briefly considered stopping to tell her accomplice about the date, but that could wait until tomorrow.

Misfits
Chapter 19
—————
Doyle Medical Center
Whateley Academy
January 28th, 2008


“As you know, a part of the deal to let you two stay here is that you must attend these sessions. I understand your reluctance to talk about your past, but remember that I am here to help you.” Dr. Bellows Looked over at the young woman sitting across from him. She clearly was an exemplar, her almost too perfect features stood out, her pale skin, accented by her raven hair.

“Dr. Bellows, I know you mean well, but there are just some things I am not comfortable talking about.”, Stephanie ran her fingers through her hair, trying to look seductive.

The Doctor smiled. “I understand, I also understand you’re trying to influence me with your power. I have had patients with abilities like yours before, it’s not going to work.”

Stephanie shifted in her seat, dropping her sultry facade. “Oh, in that case… Let’s drop the pretenses. I am allowed to attend here, as is Stefan, provided I behave. Is that it?”

Dr. Bellows nodded. He took a sip of his coffee, and then put the mug down. “While I am here to help you, keep in mind that your adherence to the rules and conduct code are required.” Pulling a file out of a drawer, he dropped it onto the desk.

“This is the file on you provided by the school counsellor at your prior school.” He shook his head as she attempted to reach for it.

Picking it up he flipped it open and began to read. “The patient clearly exhibits antisocial tendencies, and displays borderline sociopathic behavior. She is unable to form bonds with others, except in cases where she feels a beneficial opportunity to manipulate them. Additionally, the patient rates highly on the hyper-sexuality disorder scale, using her mutant powers to get what she wants. In short, I recommend careful monitoring and removal from a normal school environment.”

Putting down the folder, he looked over at Stephanie. She shifted in her chair, assuming her sexual persona, leaning with her cleavage accentuated by her position. When Dr. Bellows cleared his throat, she realized, and shifted back to sitting in a more plain manner.

“You surely must realize that isn’t true. I am not some cold unfeeling monster! I do have someone I care about!” she shouted, her voice cracking.

“Yes, let’s talk about Stefan, and your feelings towards him.” Dr. Bellows said in a fairly neutral voice.

“I would rather not.”, Stephanie said. As she did, her body language took on a defensive position, curling up and drawing her arms and legs in. She sat in the chair, her arms and wrapped around her knees.

The Doctor frowned and looked over the edge of his desk at the girl. “While for the moment I agree with the faculty decision to keep him unaware of your presence, if things continue as they are now, I may re-access that opinion, maybe even going so far as to schedule a joint session where you both are to be present.”

Stephanie looked at the doctor and tears began to stream down her face. “Y.. you wouldn’t. If he knew, it’d destroy him. He can’t know about me, he just can’t.”

Dr. Bellows offered her a tissue, and a bottle of water. “Don’t worry, that is a last resort. If you work with me, I’m sure it won’t come to that. The fact that you care for him, is perhaps a sign that you are not too far gone. There might be hope for you. Hope that you can find happiness, and live a normal life.”

—————

Kirby Hall
Whateley Academy
That same afternoon

Essylt stumbled around in a fog. She had woken up to the cramps, and she was feeling irritable. Siobhan was over a month old, and when her first period hadn’t come, she was under the assumption that it just wouldn’t come at all. She had clearly been wrong. Leaning against the hallway wall, she felt like she couldn’t move. That’s where Nikki found her.

“Hello. Essylt, right?” Nikki said, cautiously. She had heard from Gwen about their meeting. But still, after the encounter in the Grove, she thought it to be cautious.

Nikki looked over her The young girl. At this close, she really could see the resemblance. Essylt might be a little taller, and a little bustier, but it was there. “Cramps?”, she asked.

Essylt nodded feebly, allowing Nikki to help her up. “We need to get you to Doyle. Is this your first?”

Essylt nodded, blushing.

Nikki smiled and laughed. “You are taking it a lot better than I did. If you ask around Poe, I’m sure you’ll hear the story of the ‘great flood’ … I kind of panicked. There … may have been a little thunderstorm on the Freshman floor.”

Essylt giggled and laughed, Then she felt the pain and sunk down again.

Eventually, they two arrived at Doyle, Nikki helping to hold her up. Essylt gave her a hug, and a smile and told her that she would be fine from there. With that Nikki gave her a hug before heading back to class.

—————

Whitman Cottage
Whateley Academy
Later that afternoon

Trisha came back to her room, exhausted. BMA had been grueling. She was convinced that Ito was a bastard. Four on one was not fair, especially since he didn’t let her use her powers in ‘force bubble’ mode. She had won, but by the slimmest of margins. She was looking forward to the shower. Her muscles ached. Arriving at her room, she opened the door. Jordan was on the bed, in a ball. She was having a major episode. She was spasming and twitching, shaking so hard that she almost seemed to be having a seizure. Trisha moved some papers aside, and sat next to her, trying to get through to her, trying to get her to calm down. It was no use. Frantically, Trisha called out for help.

The paramedics arrived shortly afterwards, she was moved to a gurney, and taken to the ambulance. The ambulance sped off in the direction of Doyle. Trisha stayed behind, gathering up a bag for Jordan. While Trisha worked on gathering the overnight bag, Mrs. Savage looked at the file folder that had been lying on the bed. With a concerned look, she began reading it.

“My God…”, she said as she read it. It was an old police report from somewhere in Minnesota. She read through, realizing what it was. It was the case report on Jordan’s mother’s death.

Misfits
Chapter 20
—————
Crystal Hall
Whateley Academy
January 29th, 2008


Trish sat and made cooing noises at the baby in her arms. She looked around the table, as everyone else sat thinking. Jordan was in Doyle, under sedation. She had had a major ‘drick-out, and was under a suicide watch. Dr.Tenent was watching her rather closely, with assistance from Fubar and Dr. Bellows. She sighed and handed over Siobhan to Aggie. She had to admit, babies were powerful therapeutic tools. She felt slightly better after holding the baby. After Siobhan had made the rounds and ended up back with Essy, they got down to talking about what had happened.

Essylt cradled Siobhan, who let out a contented burp and made a face. “I called mom last night. She was shocked that Jordan was here, and that she hadn’t been told any of the information in the report. After her father took Jordan and her sister away, Mom never thought she would see them again. Jordan had just been born shortly before her mother was committed. Her older sister, Emily, apparently never knew the true details either. Mom wanted to fly out, but I convinced her that it might be too soon.”

Trish nodded. They would be there for her, when she woke up, and it would be hard, but they all would be there. In the mean time, there was another group member that needed help, and she would get it. With that unspoken resolve, they got up as one unit, and left. From the middle floor, a figure silently watched them as they left. A fist clenched tightly.

—————
The Quad
Whateley Academy
A short time later

Lucy slunk around the Quad, her tail curled around her waist. The large hoodie hid her grotesque features, to a small degree. She hissed, the badge around her arm bothered her. She was dangerous now, a rager. But yet, she struggled in her head with alien thoughts and notions. An instinct had been born inside her, irrational, cold. Cruel. She hated mutants, but she was a mutant. She hated herself, but she didn’t want to hate. She edged over to a bench and sat down, crying.

She could hear the others approaching, with her now heightened hearing, she smelled the anti-sceptic smell that Angie’s rebreather gave off. The somewhat musty smell of Aggie’s scent. She could tell one of them was on their period, and that they had a baby with that needed changing. UGH… stupid senses.

Essylt sad down next to her, ignoring the potential danger. “Hello, we haven’t really met. I was sorta adopted by your friends while you were… away. My name is Essylt. I hear you are from Minnesota, too. I’m from St. Paul, I think. But my adopted mom lives in Golden Valley now. Where are you from?”

Lucy mumbled some.. “Nisswa. I’m sorry. I want to be alone. Please let me be, I don’t want company. I want to be ALONE! Afterall, I’m a freak and I’m dangerous. I could kill you, and your baby, and something inside would revel in it. Now please, leave me be!”

Essylt looked at the others, they were behind her, providing support, but keeping a respectful distance. It had been decided that Essylt would try to reach her first, since she had no pre-conceptions about the ‘old’ Lucy. She bit her lip and handed Siobhan off to Angie. “Could you do me a favor? She needs changing.”

Angie took the baby, and the offered diaper bag and headed off to find a bathroom. Once she was gone, Essylt leaned in, closer to the moping girl. She observed her attempts to hide. “I know you are confused.”, Essylt said calmly.

When Lucy looked at her, she continued. “I’m a touch telepath, but sometimes around really strong emotions, I can feel a little bit of seepage when I’m really close.”

Lucy drew back and began to cry. Essylt came closer, and hugged her. “ I know you are scared of the changes, I can feel it. but if you are willing, I want to try something. Close your eyes. I’m going to take your hand. Don’t be afraid.”

Behind them, Trish tensed, at the ready to push back Lucy. Aggie reached into her fanny pack, pulling a couple of explosive spells out, just in case. Essylt looked over and shook her head, and they eased up a little.

—————
Lucy Jensen’s Dreamspace
Elsewhere
Then

Lucy looked around, in wonder. the elf girl had brought them to a quiet place, it was a small floating rock, situated in the middle of nothing. all about them, the stars shone, and shooting stars flew past. The elf was sitting in the middle of the flat, floating stone. “A little bare”, she said.

To Lucy it seemed like hours passed. The strange girl walked her around the inside of her mind.

“I built myself up from fragments of other people’s psyches. From essentially a blank slate, into a whole person. So when I say I know a little bit about the workings of the mind, I’m not just talking. I don’t have any sort of degree, or medical training, but I know I can help you.”

A fire appeared before them. Lucy hesitantly sat down in front of the campfire. Essylt took her hand, she felt calmness and serenity.

“This is your dream space. My mother taught me about them. If you ask Pejuta, I’m sure she could tell you even more about dream spaces than I could. But this is your refuge. Those thoughts aren’t you. I know you through the others' thoughts and stories. What is being forced on you is from your body, it is not part of your soul. There is a quote …’Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter’… ignore the false thoughts. Find your center. relax and concentrate on what is the true you.”

Lucy took a deep breath and thought about her truth.

—————

The Quad
Whateley Academy
One second later

Lucy opened her eyes, and pulled back her hood. She felt the alien features melting away, reforming and becoming her once more. Essylt looked at her and smiled.

“Welcome back to yourself”, she said. “You are not cured, you will struggle with the thing inside you, but know now that you can control it. In time, you may even learn to use it to your benefit.” With that said, Essylt got up and took her hand, before the rest of the misfits ran over and buried Lucy in hugs.

Misfits
Chapter 21
—————
The Range
Whateley Academy
January 30th, 2008

She fought the tremors in her hands as she sighted the target. Squeezing the trigger, her shot went wide and struck the lower right edge. The rage was there. Someone had intentionally attempted to cause her to melt down. At the moment, she was fighting the feeling, she would not ‘drick out. Taking deep breaths, Jordan focused and aimed again, this time striking dead center. She was satisfied when the explosive round hit center mass, more so when it went through the solid steel target and took a foot deep hole out of the wall behind it.

—————

The Forest
Near Whateley Academy
That same day

He slinked through the under brush, stalking the prey. It smelled off, dangerous. He slunk up behind. Whatever it was, it was no longer alive, yet it was not dead. He would be wary of this thing. It was heading towards the prey’s area. He had scouted the perimeter of that large area before. There were signs of a lot of prey. He could not hunt there, there were too many. He would be killed for sure. Whatever this thing was, it was dangerous, and he could not let it alone, it might pose a threat to him.

For its part, the thing that had once been the old bear took no notice of that which followed it, If it had, it surely would have attacked. Instead the carcass shambled along, vile blackness oozing from it, large black boils popping, the foliage rotting and dying wherever the ichor landed. Shambling towards the ancient grove, it encountered other creatures like itself, the remnants of other wildlife that had been perverted by the darkness. They grouped together, and headed for the grove, the magic there drawing the rotting husks towards it.

It was then that the Alpha struck. Leaping down from a mighty tree, it landed square on the shambling voodoo-bear, tearing into it with claws and horns and spines. He was careful to not bite into it, he could sense the corruption, and knew it was dangerous. The smaller accompanying shamblers attacked, their blows reflected by his scale armor. Rending and tearing he managed to rip the right arm from the creature. It fell to the ground, and began to dissolve, tainting the ground. The plants there died and withered. A creature that was once a feral cat charged and tried a leaping attack, it was easily destroyed with a whip of his powerful tail. The creature exploded into a puddle of black ooze. One of the creatures was down, but he was still outnumbered, and things could get dangerous.

—————

Somewhere in the Grove
Whateley Academy
around that same time

Essylt sat in the clearing, the grass tickling her bare feet. The sun shown down on her. She rested, her clothes bundled up beside her. Uneasy, Gwen looked over at her, then shifted her attention to Nikki, who was also naked.

Nikki opened an eye, and looked over. “Gwen, it’s going to be alright, just close your eyes and feel the warmth. Let go of your thoughts, and just take in the essence.” Nodding, Absinthe did so. Her eyes shut. Still, it was hard not to look, the near-identical Sidhe girls on either side of her.

For her part, Essylt let her attention drift from the here and now. In her mind’s eye, she could see something. A vision, perhaps? it was blurry, as if she were looking through a camera lens. She allowed her mind to focus on that moment, and the image grew clearer. She saw herself… wait, no, it wasn’t her. She saw her likeness surrounded by fire. paying attention to the details, she noted that the one who looked like her was wearing leathers, black with green trim and ornamentation. She bore a mithril circlet, ornamented with a large emerald at the forehead. At her right hip was an empty quiver. She had an ornate scimitar in her left hand, and at her feet a broken bow.

She swung the staff, at what, Essylt could not see. There were bodies strewn about around her, Sidhe warriors that had fallen in battle. Shadows loomed at the edges of the fire. The look-alike was cursing, as blood ran from a gash on her forehead. Essylt noticed her right arm was limp at her side, and her wrist was turned in an unnatural position. Between ragged gasps of air, the warrior Sidhe mumbled something, it was in the old tongue. Instinctively she knew what the doomed girl was saying. She was cursing the name of Aunghadhail, Queen of the West. Essylt watched helplessly as the weakened warrior cried her last defiant cry. Through the fire and the smoke, a dark figure approached, one she could not see. As the warrior queen defiantly charged her unknown assailant, Essylt gasped and sprung upright, her eyes wide open. The lingering memory of the adversary’s hand penetrating the queen’s chest, and ripping out her still-beating heart still replaying itself before her eyes.

Thus it was that she saw the death of Éiru, Queen of the Verdant Lands.

—————

Nearby, just outside the Grove
Near Whateley Academy
That moment

The Alpha was holding his own, the things that had been the deer, the cat, and the hawk had been dispatched, but more trouble had arrived. More of the Voodoo creatures had appeared. He recognized the moose that he had fought not long ago, it was now a blackened mass of slime and swirling evil. He would surely be killed if he stayed, but retreat was impossible. The creatures approached, ready to attack. Suddenly the air was filled with a scream, the scream of someone in a state of pure terror.

A little bonus Essylt pic!

Misfits
Chapter 22
—————
The Grove
Near Whateley Academy
January 30th, 2008

Gwen was slumped against the tree in abject terror. The creature in front of her had once been a bear, but was only vaguely recognizable as one. She sat there, helpless. Nikki was calling to her, urging her to fight, but the picture of Vauldrene’s death was haunting her mind. Essylt was standing in front of her, cudgels in hand. The ground was covered in black ichor. A large portion of the monster’s skull was caved in, and black ooze dripped down from the open cranium.

Fey had managed to climb onto the Moose monster’s back, and was somehow staying on as she hacked at it with Malachim’s Feather. It was weakening. Nikki looked around, taking in the situation. Surely Koehnes had reached the school by now. When the Voodoo monstrosities had burst into the clearing, the three Sidhe girls had just enough time to get dressed hurriedly. Fey had sent Koehnes off towards the school to get help, aided by the large hare that had volunteered to give her a ride.

Essylt stood in front of the helpless and traumatized Absinthe, holding her cudgels. “Nikki, what’s going on? It’s like she can’t hear us.”

Fey had downed the beast, and had summoned fire to burn all traces of the nightmare creature. “Her ancestor, Vauldrene, was mutilated and later killed by a demonic bear. I think she’s having some sort of PTSD!”

Essylt nodded sadly, moments earlier she had had a vision of her prior incarnation’s own demise.

Nearby, the Alpha watched. He had followed the dangerous creatures when they had heard the scream. They had turned from the battle with the Alpha and had entered the woods. The Alpha could feel intense energies flowing through this area, and had entered only cautiously. Upon seeing three prey battling the monsters, he had decided to wait, see how things would turn out.

—————

Schuster Hall
Whateley Academy
A few minutes later

Amelia Hartford looked perplexed as the diminutive Brownie burst through the doors. Koehnes ran up and jumped onto her desk, waving her hands. She looked at the small irritation, and tried to shoo it away. When that failed to work, she took off her glasses and used her patented ‘bitch face’.

“I know that you serve Miss Reilly, on the wishes of Aunghadhail, but you have no official business here. Do not interrupt the administrative function of this school, or I’ll teach you a lesson on how far one can punt a Brownie.”, Amelia said in a stern manner.

Koehnes looked her in the face and glared. “My Lady and her friends are in danger! They have been attacked in the Grove by Mythos monsters. I was sent to get help, you arrogant wench!”

Hartford immediately got to work, summoning all the available people she could that could handle dealing with class X entities. Unfortunately, Liz Carson and several of the very people she needed were unavailable, having left campus for various reasons.

—————

The Grove
Near Whateley Academy
15 minutes later

As loathe as he was to the idea of helping the prey, the Alpha waded into the battle, tearing into the bear-monster. Rationalizing that if the prey weakened the monsters, and the monsters weakened the pery, he would be all that better off.


Fey turned at the sight of the new arrival, a long sinuous creature that looked for all the world like a mix of triceratops, panther, and xenomorph, from the Alien movies. Seeing it was tearing into the mythos monsters, she relaxed a little. Essylt recognized it, and was more cautious. Staying in front of Gwen, Essylt let fly with fireballs, hitting more of the small monsters. Seeing several squirrels amongst the various demonic creatures, her mind briefly flashed to Aquerna, and how upsetting this would be for her.

The enemies encroached, seemingly more and more arriving. Soon the sidhe and the Alpha were backed against trees, pinned down by the numbers of enemies. It was at that moment when a loud war cry pierced the silence. Essylt turned and saw two arrows fly through the air, hitting two ichor-covered ravens that were preparing to dive upon them. Her gaze met that of Pejuta, who was storming forward and firing arrows from the back of Tatanka. From the right, a flash broke from the underbrush, signaling Razorback’s arrival. He quickly turned and knocked down several monstrosities that had possibly been elk or deer at one point.

Pejuta turned and signaled to the others. “We got here as soon as Hartford relayed Koehnes’ message. Jericho and Eldritch are on their way.”

With renewed optimism, the sidhe girls redoubled their efforts, as Absinthe shakily stood and drew Needle from her belt. The warriors tore into the Mythos creatures, and the Alpha kept up the pressure on the flanks, aided by Razorback in keeping them contained.

The sky flashed with lightning, and thunder rolled through the winter air. When Jericho and Eldritch arrived not more than 5 minutes later, the Mythos creatures had been completely destroyed. They began triage, treating the minor wounds and scrapes.

Looking over at the Alpha, where it lay unconscious, Eldritch pointed a thumb in his direction. “What do we do about that?”, she asked.

Essylt scowled. “Bring it with us, I remember it from the fight in Dunwich. It needs to be dealt with!”

Hefting the unconscious mutant-hunter over her shoulder, Eldritch carried it out of the Grove, as the others wearily followed her and Jericho.

—————

Hawthorne Cottage
Whateley Academy
That moment

Lucy Jensen tossed and turned uneasily in her sleep, nightmares filling her mind. Suddenly she bolted upright, sensing a presence not far away. When she sensed it, she screamed and clawed at her bed, in her panic. The claws on her left fingers and toes tearing through her mattress.

Misfits
Chapter 23
—————

Melville Cottage
Whateley Academy
February 1st, 2008

Stephanie sat on the couch, looking through the dossiers of all the current students at Whateley. Getting this information was expensive, but it would help her greatly. She had already weeded out the students that would be sympathetic to the group calling themselves the ‘Misfits’, and was working on determining those that would not be of use for other reasons. She looked at the file on Exquisite, and crossed her off the list.

“Too busy with her own vendettas”, she mused quietly. Realizing she had said it aloud, she glanced around. The only other student in the common area was a dark-looking girl, one that seemed as if she were playing the role of Wednesday Addams, or another similarly creepy little girl. Upon deciding the other girl hadn’t heard, Steph went back to her work, even as Jadis Diabolik walked into the room and joined the creepy looking girl.

Stephanie opened the next folder on her laptop, when she noticed a drop of blood splash on the screen. Realizing quickly that it came from her nose, Stephanie quickly closed her laptop and ran up the stairs, drawing attention from the others that roamed the halls. She had to get to the room and then she would be okay. She had taken her medicine, but it was too soon, the dosage was supposed to keep this from happening this quickly. She was supposed to have more time. She reached the door and clumsily keyed the security code and entered. Tossing the laptop on the bed, she ran to the dresser to get her medication.

—————

Hawthorne Cottage
Same day


Angela sat in her sterile room, basking under the sunlamps that were affixed to the ceiling. She was developing a rash and sensitivity to her containment suit, Even with her high regeneration and exemplar body, she still developed hives. Cantrell had submitted a high-priority request to the devisor labs for a possible solution, but so far, the only option had been a clunky spacesuit-like garment that fit loosely and was bulky and clumsy.

Angela sighed, going a little stir-crazy from the forced isolation. She picked up the video phone connection and talked to Puppet for a bit, then took a shower. Looking in the mirror, she still reckoned that she looked good. Anyone else that would have seen her would have said that she looked like a goddess, even with the red welts that covered her body. Sighing, Angela turned on some music and sat, pondering drastic solutions... and not for the first time. Jobe Wilkins had approached her once about the Drow serum, and she had threatened to punt her into the next county, but more and more such an option was looking like her only way out. She needed to be able to touch people, to have a normal life, and to hold her little girl.

————

Elsewhere in Hawthorne Cottage
around the same time

Lucy Jensen was restless, she had felt the psychic impression enter the area that previous night. It dug at her psyche, clawing and digging, like a mental itch that couldn’t be reached. She around the room, back and forth many times. She had to see what it was. Gathering her courage, she bolted through the door, and was halfway to the tunnels before she even realized that Cantrell had greeted her.

She burst into Doyle with a commotion, startling the doctors and nurses that happened to be walking in the reception area. Something was calling to her. Seeing the security guards stationed at the stairwell, she slipped past them, and went down the stairwell. She reached the high security ward. Lucy stopped, seeing that the Wild Pack had been assigned to guard the entry. She slipped silently behind Mindbird, who did not notice her. Lucy could quiet her thoughts, when needed. Poor Dale hadn’t seen it coming, when the chop to the back of her neck landed. She slumped to the floor. Thunderfox managed to spot her, for all the good that did. A second later both of them were on the floor, unconscious. Lucy slunk down the corridor, stopping at an observation window.

Looking in, she saw the creature in the room, but looking at it, she recognized the features that mirrored the changes that she had gone through. Taking a moment, Lucy willed the manifestation of those powers, and her tail once again appeared, and the left side of her body was covered in the grey skin, armor plating, and inhuman features of a Mutant-hunter. There were two guards in front of the door. They had not seen her, and they too were quickly rendered unconscious. Entering the room, she crept forward.

The Alpha looked at her and did not attack, nor did it retreat. It sat quietly as she approached. Lucy came ever closer. She reached out and stroked the smooth armored dome of it’s head and said one word before collapsing to her knees and embracing it. “Donnie”, she said, her eyes full of tears.

Misfits
Chapter 24
—————

The Office of Elizabeth Carson
Whateley Academy
February 1st, 2008


“What in the name of all that’s holy were you possibly thinking?”, the Headmistress of Whateley Academy bellowed at the student before her.

For her part, Lucy Jensen sat there, trying her best not to be cowed by the aura of the older woman. She didn’t entirely succeed. “I… I’m sorry Mrs. Carson, I really wasn’t thinking. I felt Donnie’s presence, and my instincts just sort of overrode my common sense. I could feel him, and his fear and confusion.”

Liz Carson looked sympathetically at the girl sitting before her. “Okay, I can understand your actions, but I don’t condone them, not by any means. You broke into an area that was being guarded for a reason. We don’t know what was done to your brother. The mental re-programming done to him turned him into a monster, one thats entire purpose is to hunt and kill mutants. You, yourself have had a taste of this programming. It is encoded into the DNA that was used to stabilize your condition. I know you have control now, but admit it, you feel the urges…. don’t you?”

Lucy ducked her head, and tears began flowing down her cheeks. Liz Carson Continued to look at her sympathetically.

“Now, ordinarily I would find some suitably appropriate punishment for you, but I can see that you are sorry for your actions. Plus, I think that the testing you will be undertaking for your NEW MID card will be more than enough torture, wouldn’t you agree?”, the blonde woman said in a soft voice.

Lucy nodded silently.

As she turned to leave, the headmistress called out to her. ”Oh, and one more thing, I think that you might want to steer clear of Miss Townsend and Miss Ritter for a few days.”

Lucy turned and left, knowing she had escaped with a slap on the wrist, instead of a boot to the rear.


—————

Whitman Cottage
Whateley Academy
That same day

Trish sat on her bed, looking at the picture on the desk. It was a reminder of the past, days that had been happy. Her introspection was interrupted by a knock on the door. She put the picture down, and went to open the door.

Trish smiled at the girl that stood before her. ”Oh, hey Foxfire, what can I do for you?”, she asked.

The mage smiled, “Oh, nothing really. Mrs Savage sent me to let you know that you have a visitor.”

With the message delivered, Foxfire departed, her familiar slinking off behind her. Trish closed the door, and went down to the foyer, where she was surprised to see Essylt sitting in a chair, chatting with Miyet.

Essylt looked up and saw Trish. It was not hard to notice when she entered the room. The unintentional twisting of the girl’s codename was very apt. Essylt looked over at her friend, smiling at her. Trish was a good 4 inches taller than the sidhe girl, with a complexion that could be best described as pale and creamy. Her hair was a dark chestnut brown, and her pale features made both it and her dark brown eyes stand out. The girl’s most obvious trait, however was her shapely figure, the same one that earned her the nickname “Backside”. Essylt finished her conversation with the cat-girl and stood up, greeting Trish as she did.

Essylt walked over and gave her a hug. Everyone in the training group had come to learn that the young sidhe was a very huggy individual.

“Erm, Hi Essy, what are you doing here? I wasn’t supposed to meet you or anything, was I?”, Trish asked, a little confused.

The redheaded mage smiled. “Oh, no I just thought that I’d come over. I finished my classes for the day, and Jade owed me a favor, so she’s babysitting.”

Trish looked at her friend warily. “How did you get that big a favor out of Jade? I know she babysits for the Amazing Three sometimes, and I hear that her sitting services are really in demand.”

Essylt laughed, and in a laughing tone replied. “Well, you see… Jade was planning a prank for Nikki… I don’t know all the details, exactly… but she saw me at a distance, and due to the similarity in appearance, I soon ended up covered in whipped cream in the middle of the Quad. So now Jade owes me a rather lot of babysitting hours.”

The two girls had a hearty laugh and then headed up to Trish’s room. Essylt sat on Jordan’s empty bed. For the moment the young girl was still staying in Doyle, for psychiatric observation. Essylt looked around, Trish’s side of the room was something of a mess, in stark contrast to the pristine condition of Jordan’s half.

Essylt saw the picture that Trish had been looking at earlier. She picked it up and looked at it. It was a picture of a large, muscular black man, with a shaved head and goatee. He had his arm around the shoulder of a young girl. She was related, obviously. She had his same chocolate brown skin. Her face reflected his features, most notably the eyes.

Essylt Looked up at her friend. “Who’s this girl? She looks very pretty.”

Trish blushed, her pale cheeks turning a shade of pinkish red. “That’s me and my Dad.”

Misfits
Chapter 25
—————

Melville Cottage
Whateley Academy
February 1st, 2008

Stefan awoke to find himself laying in blood. Wiping at his face, he determined it was his own. Peeling himself off the floor, he staggered to the mirror. The realization that this wasn’t his room floated through his head, but the voice in the back of his head dismissed it. Going over to the dressing table, he pulled some wet wipes out and began wiping the dry blood away. He barely thought about it as he stepped out of the panties that had been the only thing he had on. rummaging through the dresser, he located a large white teeshirt and some plain shorts that were a little snug, but would do, at least until he got back to his room. The nagging voice in the back of his mind told him to check the hallway. He did so, and seeing nobody about, promptly made his way back to his room, on the boy’s side of the floor. After punching in his code in the electronic lock, he walked in. removing the smallish clothing, he slipped into more comfortable casual clothes. With a big yawn, tiredness overcame him, and he frell asleep.

An hour later, Stefan woke up. He didn’t remember the unusual circumstances of that morning. Whistling, he grabbed his shower kit and headed off, thinking about stopping to see Patty later.

—————

Whitman Cottage
Whateley Academy
That same day

"Whoo, aren’t we all a mess?”, Essylt laughed. “I don’t remember anything about before I manifested, and had to rebuild myself from psychic scraps. Jordan got saddled with Deidrick’s, the poor thing. Aggie has to deal with what her spirit did to her gender. Angie can’t touch anyone. and here we thought you were the normal, well-adjusted one.”

Trish grinned. “Yeah, it was bad. I grew up in a poor section of Cleveland. Mom had left soon after I was born, but Dad loved me and worked his hardest to give me everything I needed. Sure, I got some comments from the other kids in my neighborhood about having a white girl name. I mean Patricia Patterson isn’t exactly Shaniqua Brown, you know…? But I had friends and family in the ‘hood, and I never got into trouble.”

Trish got up and walked over to the mini-fridge and got out a couple of flavored waters, offering one to Essylt.

After sitting back down, Trish continued her story. “Everything was going along pretty well until about a year and a half ago. I noticed these spots on my back where the skin color was slightly lighter than the rest of my skin. Dad took me to see a dermatologist, but they couldn’t find a cause. They thought it might be dietary, so they put me on a special diet. That didn’t seem to do anything for my skin problem. Then the pain started. My internal organs and skeleton started to change, I know that people call me backside when they think I can’t hear, and I don’t mind it, but it was about a couple months after I first noticed the spots that I started getting that um… feature.” Essylt laughed and Trish joined in.

After the giggles stopped, Trish continued the story. “ Back then I was best friends with Paula Friedberg. She was the Queen of the neighborhood. Despite her father’s Jewish name, she was the most stereotypical -*snaps fingers* girlfriend , oh no you di’n’t- hood girl you could ever possibly meet. She dated all the thug-boys from the neighborhood, had the extensions, super-long fake nails, everything you see in the rap videos. Even though I was the hard-working, b-average, hard working good girl, and she was queen of the hood, we got along. When I started to get the um… booty… she was even more my friend. It was strange, but it made sense in her mind, I guess. black sista pride, I guess?”

Stopping for a moment to drink some of the orange water, she got up and pulled out a picture. Essylt recognized the girl from the previous picture, and could see the beginning of the shapely girl in front of her starting to emerge. Next to her was a girl that was somewhat overweight, packed into booty shorts, and a top that didn’t just give her a muffin-top, no it gave her the whole bakery. She had long braids, obviously extensions, her nails were at least 3 inches, and hot pink.

After about six months after I had noticed the first light patches, they started to get worse. I was starting to get thm on my arms and legs and in places I couldn’t cover with clothing. They were no longer just lighter shades of brown, they were all-out caucasian skin color. At first I could cover them up with make-up, but that got harder and harder. Eventually the changes started to increase in intensity. I had all sorts of aches and pains, as my facial features started to change. Dad took me to see several specialists, and most were baffled. Then we found one that diagnosed it as the onset of mutation.

Dad took me out for ice cream afterwards. He was my rock, and he loved me. He told me that no matter what I ended up looking like, he would always love me.”

Stopping to wipe a tear from her eye, Trish smiled.

“So over a matter of months, the changes sped up. my features became lighter and more delicate, I started losing my hair. Before it had been rather thick and black and curly, but when it grew back in, it was softer and straight and auburn. During this period, Paula started to look at me oddly, and she distanced herself from me. It took in all total about 9 months to fully look as I do now. I had painful spells where my bone structure changed, muscles and tendons tightened and shifted, my boobs got a little smaller.

When I finished changing, I decided to accept it and tried to still just be myself. I stopped trying to cover up with make-up and wigs. Paula wasn’t having it. She organized my former friends against me, saying that I was a ‘traitor to my race’, and that I was no longer a ‘sista’. It was around then that the harassment began. I would show up to my locker at school, and open it to have saltine crackers spill out. I got threatening letters calling me ‘honkey’ and ‘whitey’. It all came to a head one day. I was walking along the side of the street to school. Paula was behind me, keeping her distance. A semi truck was coming down the street in the opposite direction. That’s when Paula ran up and pushed me out into the street. She yelled ‘Die, traitor!’ as she did it. I fell in the path of the truck, and would have been killed, except that’s when my powers first manifested. I instinctively put my hands out to shield myself, and in doing so, I ended up caving in the front of the truck with my field, and stopping it. Of course Paula saw it all, and called the MCO on me. I was taken in and would have likely ‘vanished’ mysteriously, if my dad hand’t alerted the Lake Erie Sentinels. They managed to turn their lawyers on the local office, and got me out. They also told Dad about Whateley, and set up a scholarship for me. That’s how I got here.”

After Trish finished her story, she started to sniffle, and the famous 'Essy hugs of comfort' soon began.

Misfits
Chapter 26
—————

Somewhere in the Andes Mountains.
Date Unknown.


Hector Ramirez looked at the seismograph uncertainly, There had been several smaller quakes in the past few days, and he was worried. This high in the mountains, a major quake could cause all sorts of issues. Repair teams were already working on the base power systems, fortifying them, and checking that back-up power was available. Should a major quake occur, they needed power to maintain vital functions. There were a thousand captive mutants in suspended animation, and even if a handful escaped, it would be dangerous. Requests had been sent for additional security staff and power frames, but the earliest they would arrive would be nearly a week late.

---

Melville Cottage
Whateley Academy
February 2nd, 2008

Angela felt a strange feeling at the base of her skull. She was antsy, she knew that. She was going stir-crazy, Jericho was working on a new suit for her, one that wouldn't trigger allergic reactions, but it was slow going. She felt she needed to leave, she was slowly going insane, cooped up in her isolation room. Absent-mindedly, she scratched at the phantom itch, her hand touching something that couldn't be there.

---

The Andes.
Date Unknown.

Dr. Walthers looked at the monitors. He was so close. His backers had plunged enough money into this project to wipe out the debts of several third-world countries many times over, and they expected results. It had been hardest to get the psychiatric profiles of the staff and students of Whateley. Programming the simulators had been difficult, but now the experiment was paying dividends. He could run scenarios and get realistic responses from the Artificial Intelligence that mimicked the known subjects. With this, his unconscious subjects could be run through whatever scenario was needed, and real-time data could be extracted.

---

The Quad
Whateley Academy
February 2nd, 2008

Essylt sat on the bench, watching the snow fall. she stopped to scratch an itch at the back of her neck, She hadn't touched the iron of the bench, but something was irritating her skin. She thought about running to the clinic to get it looked at, but she decided to walk home. Siobhan would be cranky after her nap, and would surely want to be fed. She would put some lotion on it, and go tomorrow if it still itched.

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The Andes
Date unknown

Alarms were blaring and red emergency lights were flashing. There had been a quake, it registered 8.0 on the richter scale. The facility walls had been damaged, and the resulting avalanches had caused the straining walls to buckle. The power fluctuated, and the back-up generators kicked in, sputtered, and then failed. The petrol tanks had been punctured when the avalanche had hit the outer walls. With power down, the stasis pods were programmed to revive the occupants. There were nearly a thousand mutants reviving all over the base. The staff and security had managed to take out a about a hundred, but they were sorely outmatched and outnumbered. General retreat was sounded, and the self-destruct systems were activated. Dr. Walthers hopped onboard the last remaining helicopter, watching in satisfaction as the buildings in the compound one-by-one exploded into bright fireballs.

In the confusion, many of the prisoners started attacking each other, while others teamed up to try to get out. With a final loud boom, the petrol tanks themselves, went up. Although they were not full, they caused sufficient destruction to kill many of the remaining mutants.

---

Nearby.

There was an eerie silence as smoke wafted from the ruins of the top-secret facility. Suddenly a hand burst out through the snow. A blonde girl dug her way out slowly. Looking around, she took stock of the situation. With a sigh, the shivering girl brushed aside some stray blonde hair that had fallen in front of her eyes. She had to get out of here. She didn't know where she was, or how she had gotten here, but LeAnna was determined she would get back to her Dad.

---

To be continued in "The Survivors".