Question Battery part 1

Friday December 29, 2006

It was winter break during my freshman year and I was excited to have fun with my pals Ramon and Tyler. We had been neighbors since my family moved here nearly 6 years ago. Thanks to them I was able to enter a new school and already have 2 friends. This winter break we had planned to have the ultimate snowball fight. After Christmas we spent the rest of the first week of winter break making perfectly round snowballs. They were possible thanks to G-Mart selling plastic snowball makers for 3 dollars. We had made three snow forts and a 2 foot tall pile of snowballs for each one. It was supposed to be the best snowball fight ever but I caught the flu.

After eating my breakfast and walking back to my room with my personal box of tissues I received a call from my bud Ramon. “Sorry dude. I got the flu and I'm not gonna be able to go with you and Tyler to the field.” The “field” was what we had decided to call the really wide open space behind Tyler’s house. Unlike Tyler's back yard, ours were fenced off and made it hard to have snowball fights.

“Aww man that sucks!” He wasn't a quiet kid and only knew how to speak at the volumes of loud and louder. He and Tyler had all the same interests as me like anime, manga, superheroes, TV shows, and video games. “How long until you're better?”

“My mom says I'll be better by next week so we can at least use the last week of winter vacation for a big fight.”

“True. It's not like we haven't been having fun while building our forts and we already had a bunch of mini snowball fights.” He was right. I had built my fort and called it Fort Unstoppable. In my opinion it had thicker walls and was taller than either of the one's built by Ramon and Tyler. We probably could have already had our big snowball fight if we hadn’t constantly wasted our snowball supply throughout the week. Then again what kid could resist a perfect pile of snowballs for long.

“We can always play GEO.” I made the suggestion hoping to get some company.

“Kev, I told you I have to play GEO on the absolute lowest settings and at that point it looks like I'm playing a playstation one. Besides my connection is laggy.” I had seen him play GEO before and his description was pretty accurate. Not all of us had an older sister who was in the tech business and let their sibling test drive some powerful computers before they went on the market. Tyler was better off computer wise but had very limited hours he could play.

“Yeah, that's true. Well how about you invite Aaron and Emily. They are practically part of our crew.” I had invited them to hang out with us several times and we all hit it off pretty well. I originally invited them to hang out because they were the only other kids in the neighborhood that went to our school.

“Dude that's a great idea!” His volume was at louder again and man was that annoying. “We can have them cover for you since you're as big as two people!”

That hit a sore spot for me. I didn't show it in my voice at all. On the inside it hurt quite a bit. I was a pretty big kid. I was 225 pounds when I entered middle school and pretty much maintained that even as I grew a few inches before my freshman year. We went to the doctors at the suggestion of the school and I discovered I had a slower metabolism than most kids my age. My mother took the initiative to get me eating healthier and doing sports. It worked but I was still a pretty big dude. At the beginning of the semester all the students in gym class took the fitness physical. I did pretty good. In fact during the mile I got just under nine minutes. The gym teacher even told me that if I lost all that weight I should go for track. He explained that all my fat was like someone wearing weights to go running. That made me feel better about myself. It didn't stop the occasional teasing because I never once let it show that it bothered me. After a while other kids give up on teasing me once they think it doesn't do anything to me.

“Heck yeah bro! Fort Unstoppable has plenty of space for both of them to fit and whoop your buts in style.” I remembered that Fort Unstoppable was the only fort with decorations in the form of a makeshift flag and sharp rocks sticking out the front of it.

“Hah! I doubt it! I bet your fort already crumbled overnight.” Ramon was always the cocky one of our little group. I just rolled my eyes and said my goodbye after hanging up. A minute later Tyler called and it was more or less the same conversation.

When I got off the phone my mom was waiting for me with a remedy that would help me feel better much quicker. She did not fit the average description of a hispanic woman in her early forties. She was a natural honey blonde, which always threw people off and her blue eyes didn't help either. My sister and I were the same way. It always gave us a kick when we would be bad mouthed by our fellow latinos in Spanish. They would always be surprised when we shot back with our own verbal martial arts. My mother was beautiful and kind of tall for a lady which intimidated quite a few people. My sister was the spitting image of my mother except she was just a couple inches shorter at 5’11”. I was only 5’5” and had plenty of time to grow. My mother and sister assured me that my body would even out once I finished growing.

I never really believed my mother when she made her concoctions for me and even my sister felt the same way. Yet we both still drank whatever she made. These little eccentricities made our mother quite special. She still held onto her mexican culture despite immigrating to Lincoln Nebraska. I always wondered why she didn't head to Florida or California where we had some relatives. It didn't matter much since I liked dealing with all the different kinds of weather.

“Asi mero mijo.” I finished the foul tasting elixir and my mom congratulated me on finishing it in one chug. I gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. She went back to the living room to watch whatever movie the Spanish channels decided to play this weekend. I couldn't watch them at all. The Spanish dubs just irritate me. It's always the same voices and they don't have the same soul that the original actors put in their characters.

When I got back to my room I booted up the PC and logged into GEO. On GEO I had three characters I used. I had two characters that were the same level as Tyler’s and Ramon’s characters. Then I had one character that I played as all the time. She was Lilith. She was a level 58 sorceress and was pretty powerful in aerial combat, my specialty. Even in dungeons I would just have her shrink down and still fly around. While shrunken down her evasion was increased and her spells were still at the same strength. GEO had an amazing aerial combat system and I took full advantage of it. Besides being very good at maneuvering in the game, there is another reason I play that way. My love of wanting to fly. Not wanting to fly a plane. I meant real flying. I wanted to be a power suit operator. It was the closest thing to getting superpowers and was actually possible.

I could become the pilot of a flying power suit if I joined either the military or the Knights of Purity. I was leaning towards the Knight because after a little research I discovered they had a little better power suits thanks to the Goodkinds. I really wanted to fly and thought of it as my goal in life. I didn't mind risking my life taking on some rampaging mutant. As long as I could do it flying I could die happy. I was always obsessed with wanting to fly because it was always apparent in all the media I absorbed. In the cartoons and anime I watch, the main characters are usually able to fly around. I see that as the ultimate freedom. Flying means no longer being limited by forwards, backwards, left, and right. Flying gives you up and down as well. Actually it only gives you down once your up. The point is flying equals freedom and I want that freedom.

I spent the day playing GEO as Lilith and enjoyed the extra attention I got playing as a chick. I originally made her at the suggestion of my sister. She said I would be accepted into groups more and probably receive free stuff from people. She wasn't wrong. What helped me the most was the built in voice changer for the mic. The feature was made so your voice could match your character. To every other player I was a chick and somehow I was able to pull it off by copying the way my sister spoke. I would have been very embarrassed if anyone but my sister ever found out about Lilith. Luckily my mother respected our privacy and let me have a locked door as long as I kept my room tidy.

Around ten I bid farewell to the group I had been adventuring with and went to sleep. That night I had the most realistic dream. I was floating in space with full control of my movement. My surroundings were a bit different than our solar system. There was still a sun a lot like the one that our blue earth revolved around. I was able to fly around the sun pretty quickly. It had me thinking that I must have been going thousands of miles per hour to do that. I saw four planets orbiting around the sun. They looked a bit similar to Mars and Saturn. I wanted to get closer to see them but it didn't happen. Instead I was drawn to the sun. It felt like a magnetic pull that made me get closer to the sun. I kept feeling warmer and warmer as I got closer. The funny thing was that although I could feel myself getting getting closer, it stayed the same distance away from me. The warmth had grown and instead of it becoming an overwhelming heat it felt more secure and welcoming. After a while longer I stopped feeling the soothing warmth increase and I could feel the sun had actually been shrinking. It was right in front of me at the size of a softball. Then I felt an extreme sense of danger from behind me. I ignored the little sun and tried my best to get away from the area. Before I could get very far I felt an extreme pain in the back of my neck. At that moment the warmth I had gained disappeared. In its place was an unimaginable pain. That pain caused me to wake up.

Saturday December 30, 2006

According to the digital alarm clock on my dresser it was two in the morning. I moaned slightly and tried my best to go back to bed. As I lay there I contemplated what the dream had meant. The Greek story of Icarus flying close to the sun and getting burned came to mind. I shoved the dream, or nightmare towards the end, to the back of my mind. It wasn't the first time I had had a dream go nightmare and it likely wasn't the last time. Just two months ago I had dreamed a game store opened up in our neighborhood. In the dream I had bought a lot of new games. On my way home a floating yellow-green dog head had bitten my hand off and continued biting on the stump. I had woken up that night completely immobilized by fear. That dream was way weirder than the one I had just experienced.

After a few minutes I realized I had been sweating profusely in my bed. My sheets were not soaked but they did feel a little damp. I wondered if my mother had turned up the heater again. The thermostat was right outside my door to my mother’s chagrin. I never did lose the dial wars as my sister had taken to calling our fights over the house temperature. All i had to do was open my door to see the digital thermostat and to my surprise it was still at 70°F. That was odd to me since I could only ever remember sweating that much when my mother had raised it to 75°.

I went back into my room and let my sheets air out a bit. As I was doing that I realized I was no longer sleepy at all. I figured my sleep schedule was ruined. Since it was winter break I didn't care care too much and went back to playing GEO. I played until it was 8 am and went to take a shower. For some reason the hot water wasn't working the best. It wasn't the first time I had taken a lukewarm shower, so it didn't bother me much. On my way out of the shower noticed myself in the mirror. Something seemed to be off about my torso. It looked a bit blank. Then it hit me. My stretch marks were gone. I thought I was dreaming because I had seen other kids that were as big as me without their shirts on. Those kids also had stretch marks but they were not the deep red I had. It was always embarrassing when it was summer and I wore a white tee in the swimming pool. My mother told me applying cocoa butter would help them go away and I listened to her. I just never got results until that moment.

I felt better about myself and decided to see how far I was until I reached my temporary target weight. I pulled out the scale that was in the bathroom closet and stepped on it. I was pleased that I had gotten three pounds closer. Deep down I knew it was just water weight. It didn't stop me from getting a self esteem boost. After another lukewarm shower I headed to my room and got changed. Then I headed to the dining room table and had the “healthy” version of honey nut goodie o’s for breakfast. It was slightly bland but I'd I included it as part of my health diet I could lose 7 pounds in a month according to the box. I knew that was a lie. What I knew wasn't a lie were the nutrition facts. I followed them religiously to make sure I didn't go over 2 thousand a day.. So far it had worked and I was only a few pounds from no longer being considered morbidly obese.

After eating finishing my cereal I made sure to wash bowl and spoon. Those little things made my mother very happy and when she's happy she doesn't bother me with much. When I entered my room I went back to playing GEO. I played for a few hours until my headset, keyboard, and mouse stopped working at the same time. I watched helplessly as my character was shot down from the sky. Her passive were strong enough to protect her from most attacks but her flying magic had been dispelled. With no way to recast it she took massive falling damage. I was saddened to see my queen of the skies fall. What made things worse were some of the rude comments from players I had heard in region chat. Most of them were probably just envious of my talent in aerial combat. It was understandable since there were certain areas only a talented flier like myself could reach.

I stopped caring about my loss rather quickly and moved on to finding out what was actually wrong with my computer. I unplugged the mouse and found both the usb cable of the mouse and the desktops USB port were burned out. It was the same for my headset and keyboard. I wasn’t as tech savvy as my sister Maria. Even but I could tell still tell they were fried thanks to the burn marks in the USB ports. I left my room with burned out devices in hand and headed to my sister’s room in the basement. My sister had finished college a year ago and had gotten her dream job working at NEXT. She made enough money to live on her own but lived with us to help mom with the bills. At least that was what she told everyone. In secret she had told me she was saving up to build our mother a house in mexico so she could retire in her home country. I admired my sister for that and always wondered how I would be able to help my mom later in life. I knocked on her door and was rewarded with a “Come in” from my sister.

“Sis my computer fried my headset, keyboard, and mouse.” She was only wearing sweats and her hair was done up in a bun. She still managed to look somewhat professional with her designer glasses and the way she carried herself. She got away from her desktop and walked over to me. When I handed her the devices she examined them carefully and looked back at me.

“What were you doing when this happened.” She didn’t look accusingly at me. The main reason I even had the pc in my room was to stress test it. Playing GEO for hours on end was a good way to do so.

“I was playing GEO since I have nothing else to do.” She nodded her head in understanding. Wordlessly we traveled back up to my room. My sister was a very quiet person when she was around her family and the complete opposite when around company. I had seen her go from a relaxed and calm sister to a bubbly, talkative, and very handsy airhead countless times. It was kind of creepy the first couple times. It was almost as if she was possessed by another person.

When we arrived to my room my sister sniffed the air a couple times. “Your room smells different. Did you use a new deodorizer or something?” She looked at me without a change in expression.

“No I think it’s just the sweat from my sheets. I woke up at 2 drenched in sweat and couldn’t get back to sleep.” She nodded at my response and got on her knees to examine the desktop’s USB ports.

“Wow. These are pretty burned out. The mobo was probably putting out too much power to the USB ports. The odds of that happening are pretty slim.” She was very calm about it all and proceeded to unplug all the cables from the desktop computer. She then wordlessly took it down to her room and came back with a gaming laptop still in it’s box. “This should hold you over for a bit.” She left me in my room with the new toy after I gave her my thanks.

The next hour was spent updating the laptop’s OS and drivers. After that I had to install GEO which didn’t take long thanks to Maria having upgraded our speed to the “business” level. In no time I was playing GEO albeit at a diminished capacity. I didn’t have my headset and had to use some earbuds from my mp3 player. I still had an extra mouse and was glad it was a USB one because it would have been hell to use the touchpad instead of a mouse. I logged in but was unable to speak to anyone but I could still hear them. I was glad the games UI showed I had no mic connected. Players understood something was wrong and patiently waited for me to type messages and the like.

A few hours later it was time for lunch. My mother had made us some chili rellenos that were baked instead of fried in oil. It was way healthier and to be honest I liked them more that way. Too much oil always did annoy me. I’d be damned if I didn’t get good flavor in my lunch with my limited calorie intake. I had volunteered to wash the plates for everyone since my sister had let me use a new laptop and my mother made a very diet accommodating meal for me.

“Mijo did you lose some weight?” My mother and sister hadn’t gotten up after eating.

“I sweated a bunch last night so it’s probably just water weight.” I answered them. Then I remembered about my stretch marks. “But my stretch marks finally went away!” I told them excitedly and turned around to show them by stretching open my tee’s collar.

“Oh wow your skin looks so smooth and soft. Did you finally start using cocoa butter like I told you to?” She looked at me like I had insulted her by not taking her suggestion to heart.

“No mom. It just finally worked I’ve been doing it for a long time.”

“Uh huh ok mijo. Whatever you say.” My mother didn’t believe me and my sister was just smirking. I went back to washing the dishes and they both finally left me alone. When I was done I went back to my room to play some more GEO.

After four hours of GEO the laptop started to feel kind of warm under my hands. Then I noticed something I should have sooner. The power adapter the laptop had come with was spitting out smoke. The power adapter itself had a little fan inside that pulled in cold air to keep it cool while being used for gaming. Seeing it spit out smoke meant that the laptop was probably pulling in too much electricity. I quickly quit GEO and turned the Laptop off. I should have known that I would have bad luck the week I had to stay indoors. At the time I thought the laptop overheating was my fault. It was because laptops were notorious for needing replacement power adapters. With gaming laptops it was even more common.

I headed back to my sister’s room and she was getting ready to head out. I could tell because she was dressed to hang out with her girlfriends. I didn’t like seeing my sister dressed so provocatively but that was just my inner protective brother coming out. She knew martial arts and at nearly six feet she was probably ok with her girlfriends. It still didn’t stop me from worrying about her. “Umm sis do you have another power adapter for the laptop? The one it came with started to spit out smoke.”

“Wow that was fast.” She went into a corner of her room that had a wire shelf with all sorts of plastic bins. She didn’t need to search for long. She had found a spare power adapter and handed it to me. “I should really get the guys at NEXT to hire you as a stress tester or get them to stop sending me duds.”

“Yeah that would be so awesome and I wouldn’t mind some extra cash.” I chuckled then thanked my sis before returning to my room. I plugged in the new power adapter and noticed it was a heavy duty 300 watt model. The laptop had already cooled down and I was playing again.

Half an hour later I heard my sister turn on her Jeep and leave the driveway. I had mixed feelings about her going out and having a good time with her gal pals. I knew what they did and I remember her coming home drunk once. It was not a good experience for her and our mother made it worse. She spent most of the morning giving her a speech about how she could have been taken advantage of and gotten pregnant. I heard most of the conversation and found out that’s how my sister was born.

It didn’t create a rift between us because she was an “accident” while I was planned. She wasn’t petty like that. We didn’t know who my sister’s father was and mine had died in an accident when I was only a few months old. He died thanks to the faulty brakes in my mother’s new beetle he had bought for her. He had driven it off the lot and while driving home, the brakes didn’t respond and he ran a red light. He was involved in a 3 car pile up and died after the impact from a pick up. That was what we read in the newspaper clipping we had found in a photo album our mother kept in her room. Neither of us knew our fathers so we could relate very well. We still had our mother and cherished her.

It was only 6 pm when she left. I played a couple hours when I noticed the power adapter was letting out smoke like the last one. Before I could do anything the brick started to melt. I quickly unplugged the laptop and set it down on my bed. I then unplugged the power adapter from the wall socket. I was a little mad that the brick of the power adapter had fused to the desk where it was laying. The melted plastic would be a pain to remove from the wood but I was glad nothing had happened to the laptop. Or so I thought.

The laptop had turned off on its own. I pushed the power button and nothing happened. I closed the laptop and flipped it over. The battery was cool to the touch. I thought that meant it was not charging. It would explain the power adapter overheating. The power adapters must have been trying to charge and power the laptop simultaneously. At least that's what my 14 year old brain was telling me at that moment.

I was dismayed at not being able to play GEO while I was sick with the flu. I playing GEO had helped me ignore most of my symptoms. With it gone I'd be pretty bored. Most of the other video games I owned, I had beaten long ago. I played GEO because of all the content that never left me feeling bored. With it gone and no working computer of my own, I was left with not much to do. I had a few anime dvds but I had lost interest in them after watching them with Ramon and Tyler so many times.

I had only one option left. I went to my bookshelf and got on my knees to reach the bottom shelf. I had the first four Harry Potter books in hardcover, a bible, a box set of Tolkien’s Hobbit and the lord of the rings trilogy, and a bunch of manga. I had read the Harry Potter books and the mangas many times before. I wasn't about to sit down and read the bible, so I grabbed the Hobbit. My sister had gotten me the box set about a couple years ago after we saw the movies. I tried reading them once and found them a little difficult. Hopefully my second attempt would be easier.

I knew The Hobbit was a prequel to the movies, so I started with that one. I sat in my comfy computer chair and began to read. I wasn't surprised when I was able to stay awake and follow along. I had matured a lot since I last tried to read the books. To my surprise, the book was great. I was deeply engrossed in the story when I heard my sister park in the driveway. Personally I thought she was a bit early. When I turned to check my digital alarm clock, my eyes opened wide. It was already two in the morning. Time had flown by in an instant. Yet I didn't feel tired or hungry. Even my eyes felt normal after reading for more than 6 hours straight. I only felt slight discomfort from being sick. Then I had another realization. I had been awake for 24 hours.

To be honest it wasn't a lot of time. The average person is awake for around 16 to 18 hours. Making 24 not seem like a whole lot. To me it was. I had never stayed up so long. I figured I must have gotten insomnia as a symptom of the flu. Since I believed I had insomnia, I wanted to make good use of my extra time. I quickly took the laptop and power adapter down to my sister's room. I hoped she wouldn't get mad at me for bothering her as soon as she arrived home.

I practically ran downstairs hoping I would be able to log in to GEO again. I knocked on her door and my sister quickly opened it. I blushed when I noticed she was only wearing her underwear. I lived in a house with two beautiful women and every once in a while a situation similar to this one would occur. I was always bothered by it. It wasn't just because they were family. It was because when I compared them to the average woman they were at least 9 out of 10. Sure, my mother was in her forties but she was still quite the looker. When I compare myself to others it's the opposite. I saw myself as ugly because of my body. It didn't help that I had started to get acne a month ago which made my gm face that much more unappealing.

My sister wasn't bothered at all and just stared at me and waited for me to say something that was important enough for me to bother her this late. I averted my eyes and began explaining to her the situation with the laptop and my lack of sleep while averting my eyes. My sister noticed and put a robe on. It helped me explain better and soon she was looking for another laptop.

“This is an older model but can still play GEO at high settings. Kev I know you feel awake but it’s because your sick. Try your best to fall asleep otherwise you're gonna crash and that could make you sick for longer. You wouldn't want to be sick for the rest of your winter break would you?” Her last sentence had scared me more than anything. I was already getting bored and losing out on the last week of winter break with my friends would end me.

I told my sister good night and went back to my room with a “new to me” laptop. I was originally going to get the laptop updated and GEO installed. Instead, I chose to attempt to fall asleep. I spent near half an hour switching between my two favorite sleeping positions. Eventually sleep did come for me.

Sunday December 31, 2006

I had the same dream from the night before. I knew what was coming, so I tried my best to move around differently. It did not help one bit and I experienced everything the exact same way again. The pleasant warmth being replaced by pain hit me hard once again and I woke up. I didn't like that I had had a repeat dream. It was the first time I could remember having one and it felt like a bad omen to me.

The only good news I got upon waking up was that I had slept 8 hours like a normal kid. The bad news was I had sweated a lot. My sheets were soaked as if I had peed the bed. My bed kind of smelled like I had done so too. It was odd to be sure, because I had never sweated so much in my life before. Even when I had run a mile in the burning hot sun, I didn't sweat so much. I wondered if it because of the weird dream I had mixed with having the flu. I wanted to check the internet and see if extreme sweating was a symptom of the flu. Then I remembered my computer situation. I also thought about how reliant I was on the internet and it scared me a little.

I was in a situation I didn't like. I had to get my sheets washed and to be honest I didn't really know how to use the washer. I had always been told to load the dryer, throw in some fabric softener sheets, and set it to 70 minutes. I didn't even fold the clothes or bring them to my room. My mom would fold them and leave them in a neat pile for me on the bed. II realized that I actually had it pretty good in the house. I felt ashamed that my mom would have to deal with my excessively sweaty sheets. I decided I would put my sheets to wash on my own.

A few minutes later I had removed all the sheets from my bed, including the pillow cases, and had bundled all of it into the fitted sheet for easy carrying. My nasty sweat had made the bundle at least five pounds heavier. My bed had a wet spot the size of a person. Before I left, I fished out the oscillating fan in my closet and plugged it in. I made a few adjustments and it was soon aimed at the large wet spot. I hoped to god it would dry soon before anyone noticed. If anyone were to come into my room, they would think I had peed the bed. The smell wasn’t exactly pleasant, so there was no way they would believe me when I told them it was sweat. Luckily no one was awake at the time and I made it to the laundry room in the basement. My sister was not likely to wake up anytime soon. When she went out late and had nothing to do the next day, she could stay in bed for 12 or more hours easy. I unfurled the soggy wad of bedding and tossed them into the empty washer one at a time. I read the jug of the laundry detergent and followed the directions on it. For my bedding it would take the small cup that was attached to the lid. I poured it and shut the washer. The washer actually had a setting for bedding. I pushed it and the washer started pouring water in like it was supposed to. Using the washer didn’t seem to be too difficult.

I left the laundry room and heard my stomach growl. I realized I had skipped a meal the night before. My mother didn’t even yell for me to come eat like she normally did. I headed back upstairs to the kitchen and opened the fridge. My mom had made the night before. Even though it wasn’t her authentic mexican cooking, I still liked it. I served myself a small portion in a ceramic bowl and heated it up in the microwave.

When I took the bowl out of the microwave, I realized I had forgotten to use oven mitts. I was surprised when the bowl was barely warm. In my hands I could clearly see steam coming off my food after being in the microwave for two minutes. I didn’t know what was going on. I set the bowl down in front of me and lightly touched one of the steaming meatballs. It wasn’t hot to the touch. It actually stopped steaming and felt more like it was slightly above room temperature. I was a little confused and tried to touch another meatball only to meet the same results. I stuck my finger in the spaghetti as well and was met with more of the same. My growling stomach decided for me that I wanted food. I ate the lukewarm spaghetti and could only conclude that the microwave was busted and the steam I had seen was a hallucination. I washed my bowl and fork once I was done.

I knew I wasn’t really full with the small meal and could already hear my stomach yearning for more. I didn’t give in and headed back up to my room. The laptop was sitting at my desk. Inches away from the laptop was the burn mark left by the second power adapter. I hoped that the third computer Maria had left in my possession would not crap out on me. I had left the computer plugged in before I fell asleep. There was a solid blue light instead of the orange charging light above the miniscule battery symbol. It looked good to me, so I turned it on. Thirty minutes and two restarts later the laptop was updated and was already downloading the files for GEO. I had been reading the Hobbit while the computer updated and decided to take a shower while GEO finished.

When I entered the bathroom I was a little surprised by my appearance in the mirror. I looked a little thinner. My chubby cheeks and round face seemed to have shed a bit of fat. I felt a little joy as I stared at my face. I knew I had sweated a lot but I never thought it would actually make a visible improvement like the one I was staring at. Then I noticed my eyes. They didn’t look good. The whites of my eyes had gotten a little cloudy, almost grey. Something else looked different about my blue eyes. I couldn’t tell what it was though. All I knew was that it was not a good thing, so I decided to tell my mother once I took a shower and got dressed. While I was taking a shower, I noticed my hair was starting to hit eyes when it got wet. I thought nothing much about it. Mainly because it had been a little over a month since I had my last haircut. The rest of my body looked thinner too. It wasn’t just my face that had sweated off some fat. I was by no means skinny but I was closer to looking “normal”. I didn’t want to look like a toothpick, only like everyone else at least. Being known as the fat kid in class had hurt me so many times. Seeing myself in the mirror was starting to make me feel a little better about myself. I wanted facts though. I stepped on the scale while I was naked and looked past little Kev to see I was at 205 pounds. I wanted to celebrate, but I knew losing that much weight was unhealthy.

I left the bathroom and got changed in my room. My dbz t-shirt felt slightly loose and that brought me light smile. I wondered if being sick at home all of winter break and unhealthily losing a lot of weight would be such a bad thing. After I got changed, I noticed GEO was at 100%. I hit play and was rewarded with the standard opening cinematics and then the login screen. I typed in my login information and soon I was playing GEO again. I only checked my messages and left responses for those worried about my abrupt disappearance mid game. I left my computer and headed to my mom’s room. I knocked and was rewarded with a “Come in.” from my mother.

“Mom, I think I got a lot sicker since yesterday.”

“Dime que te paso.” She ordered me to tell her what had happened as she lay in her bed watching the television play jurassic park in spanish. The dub was horrible and I was glad I had the real one in my room..

“My eyes are starting to look a little cloudy and I sweated a lot yesterday and today.” I explained to her quickly, mainly because of the god awful dubbing.

“I will call doctora to make an appointment for you.” With that she lowered the volume on the television and picked up the phone on her bedside table.

“Thanks Mom!” I told her in a chipper voice and left her room. She only nodded her head as I left.

I went back to my room and started playing GEO again. An hour in I noticed something very odd. The power adapter behind the laptop was starting to glow yellow. “Holy crap!” I almost shouted as I unplugged the adapter from its port and pushed myself away from the desk. I then covered my head with my arms and tried to make myself as small as possible. I thought it was gonna explode. I waited about a minute when I noticed nothing was happening. I slowly turned my head back towards the little black brick that was the power adapter. I got an eye opener at that moment. I could see the yellow glow of the brick through my arms. What’s more I could see a thin yellow glow flowing into the computer from it and a slightly thicker one flowing to the wall outlet. When my eyes followed the outlet, I could see the same yellow glow travel throughout the house and even out to the street.

At that moment I knew I was screwed. I was becoming a mutant. I was pretty much a dead man. Lincoln was not a mutant friendly city. Ramon, Tyler, and I were actually junior members of Humanity First!, which was a huge organization dedicated to putting humans first and foremost. There was a lot of hate towards mutants, but that wasn’t the aspect I liked. I was a part of H1 because they helped a lot of regular people put their lives back together after mutant attacks. I had seen firsthand what mutants could do.

Tyler’s mother had been killed by a mutant supervillain when he was trying to escape from a bank robbery. Tyler’s mom had taken us to a hobby shop for some Gundam Model Kits. We had parked in a parking garage and when he had left it, the mutant supervillain swatted Tyler’s Mom like a fly. She was sent flying into the wall of a brick building. She had died instantly in front of our eyes. Tyler received therapy and support all because of H1. I was moved by that side of H1 and joined as a junior member. It didn’t take Ramon long to do the same after a squad of the Knights of Purity gave the neighborhood a visit. They actually gave the three of us KOP power suit action figures. Mine was sitting on the bookshelf next to some of the Gundams Models I had built.

I stared back at the figure and wondered if it’s real life counterpart would be hunting me down if the KOPs found out I was a mutant. I wondered if turning myself in to the MCO was an option. They were the organization in charge of handling mutants. I also remembered the rumors in school about kids getting kidnapped by the MCO when they become mutants.

Moment’s later my mother came into my room still wearing her pajamas. “Mijo, I made a cita with your doctora. Este Wednesday at 3 we will go see her.” She then noticed the body sized damp spot on my bed. “Aye, no. Did you pee the bed mijo?” I was about to say something when I noticed she was glowing slightly green. I blinked a few times and the glow didn’t fade when I closed my eyes. Through my eyelids I could still see the yellow glow from the laptop charger and the green glow from my mother. While I was looking around with my new type of eyesight, my mother had reached my bed to take a sniff. She didn’t retreat in disgust. “That is too much sweat. I hope Doctora Anderson can give you good medicine.” She ignored me on her way out.

I was scared at my new ability to see things differently. I hoped and prayed to god that my altered eyesight was the only change I would experience. Then I recalled a bit of training I had received as a junior H1 member. They had told our age group specifically what to look out for in case a kid was turning into a mutant. The simplest detail to notice was a change in eye color. That had happened to me or I was just getting sicker. Another thing is a change in hair color or body shape. They warned us that if a kid’s body suddenly changed too drastically, they could be a mutant. At the time I thought that was kind of stupid because of well documented occurrences in young humans called puberty and growth spurts.

I thought I understood what my sudden weight loss indicated. I may have been becoming something called an exemplar. An exemplar is like a normal person, but with their stats bumped up way higher than normal. They also looked very attractive. Exemplars also looked very attractive. When a person became an exemplar they would slowly but drastically change. A part of me wondered how handsome I would look when I grew up. I was a little ashamed of my thought process, but I knew I had to accept reality. If I was going to become a mutant I hoped to God I would at least get something good out of it.

I wanted to go back to playing GEO, but I found the yellow glows from everywhere and the green glows from my mother and sister very annoying. The laptop itself had been glowing as well but the power adapter was no longer glowing at all. I wondered what the connection was for a bit. I ended up looking up towards the ceiling because it was the place with least amount of glowing lines. There was only one and it led to my ceiling fan/light combo. With the light off it was almost as thin as a fishing line. I could actually ignore it. Then I had an idea, a very uncomfortable idea. I decided to read my book while holding it up above my head. I was able to do so for nearly an hour without tiring.

It was another sign that I was becoming an exemplar. I remember just a few weeks ago trying to play my pokemon game on my DS. The DS was not as heavy as the book and I was only able to play for ten minutes before my arms got tired. It meant I was getting stronger. Tried to lift the heaviest thing in the room, my dresser. I couldn't lift it. I could push it a little like normal, but couldn't outright lift it up. I did notice that I wasn't tired after straining myself. I wasn't even breathing harder than normal.

I wondered if maybe I had just gotten increased stamina or something similar. Then it hit me. I was most likely a regenerator. It made sense. I had seen scare videos of different levels of regenerators recovering from the same wound. One of them even cut of his arm and it grew back while he was explaining how his lifestyle had changed thanks to being a high level regenerator. He explained how his self healing wasn’t infinite and his body could even end up eating itself. What was more scary was the arm he had cut off had tried to regrow another him, but ran out of food to do it and began eating itself. The videos started off easy to stomach, but eventually led to some disfigured creatures that had eaten some blood from a regenerator. The videos were meant to both educate and scare regular folks. At the time I was pretty freaked out.

Now I wondered if I was like the guy in the video. It scared and delighted me. If I could literally cut off a part of myself and my body would regrow it using my fat cells, I would be normal sized in no time at all. The first parts of the videos did a simple test. It was usually just a small cut about a centimeter long. For the weaker regenerators it took about a couple minute for the cut to heal. For the stronger ones it took seconds. I went to my hobby box, which I used for my gundam models, and got out a hobby knife with a fresh blade.

I went to the bathroom sink and locked the door. Then I slowly made a one centimeter cut on my pinky finger. It didn’t hurt much, but I was still bleeding. I waited for a few minutes for it to stop bleeding. I had no such luck. Then I realized how stupid the idea was. If I had been a regenerator, why did I still have the flu? Regenerators were supposedly immune to almost all forms of sicknesses.

After cleaning the cut and putting a bandage on it, I went back to my room and stared at the ceiling. I was a bit lost at my predicament. I would likely be found out at the doctor's appointment and the glows were getting so annoying. I could take the initiative and call the MCO. Surely all the stories of kids getting kidnapped were just school rumors.

I wondered if maybe I should reach out to the local superhero trio. They didn't have a team name but they often worked together. The one who appeared to be the leader was called the White Arcanist and was basically just a wizard who always wore white robes and the like. There was also Power Tank, who was just a guy in a very powerful tank looking power suit that reminded me of a Warhammer 40k Dreadnought. The last guy called himself the Crimson Blade. He was a dyna morph that flew around in red and black armor while swinging around an oversized blood red sword. A friend had explained to me that a dynamorph was basically a person with a permanent reverse kryptonite inside them.

From what I remember about them, they protected the city from bad guys and mutants pretty well. Another thing I remembered was they loved the attention they got and used it to sell their merchandise. White Arcanist had an upscale clothing line that actually looked pretty classy. Power Tank had transforming toys that could interlock to make a bigger robot alongside a television series featuring the toys. Crimson Blade had a bunch of action figures that had a high amount of articulation. I even heard from my sister that it was common for college students majoring in art to buy them for poses.

I thought about all the interviews I had seen with the three heroes. In the interviews they always thought about the safety of everyone and didn't really bad mouth mutants. I felt like I might be able to trust them if I ever really needed help.

I went back onto the laptop and was rewarded with a slightly yellow tinged screen. I could still s I had put two and two together at that point. I could see electricity as yellow glows and living beings as green glows. I had even seen a squirrel outside my window outlined in the green aura. It confirmed my theory.

Then I noticed a lightly glowing large yellow cube coming from downstairs near where my mother was. I got off my chair and headed downstairs slowly. As I went down the stairs I could hear my mom listening to a mexican radio station in the kitchen. It didn’t take long for me figure out what the glow was.

My mother had decided to preheat the oven and it turned out to be the yellow glow. She noticed me enter the kitchen and looked up in surprise from the mixing bowl she had been giving her full attention to. “Mijo te ves bien flaco.” She commented on my weight loss with maternal pride when we both realized something. I had showered a few hours ago and had somehow lost more weight since then. My mother narrowed her eyes and looked me over. She had stopped mixing the bowl and walked towards the sink. After washing her hands she approached me with one eyebrow arched. She tilted my head upwards and looked into my eyes. Then a look of worry appeared on her face. “I'm sorry mijo, but you need to stay home today.” She then pulled me into a hug and squeezed me hard. “I know you wanted to see your friend Juan and watch cartoons all night while we play Loteria.”

I was a bit confused about what she was talking about. Then it hit me. The only time my mom and sister play loteria, also known as mexican bingo, is on new year's eve. I somehow forgot that new years came after christmas. We usually head over to the Gonzalez household for new years and celebrate. They have a decent sized extended family and an enormous house. They invite us because we are basically alone. There are other Torres families in Lincoln, but we aren't related. Torres is a pretty common last name.

At the new years parties, the adults get drunk, play music, and play some party games. The little kids stay in the living room watching Disney movies. The older kids, namely Juan and I, hang out in his room playing video games or watching anime from his dvd collection. As far as I could tell, it's the same thing white people do except we have different food and forms of entertainment. We still watch the ball drop and in the morning, we regret the amount of food or alcohol that was consumed.

“Yeah Mom, it sucks.” I didn't know what else to say. I thought about telling her how I was seeing the yellow and green glows. I wondered if she would react negatively. To be honest, she was actually pretty racist. She spoke badly of Whites, Asians, Blacks, and especially Central Americans. It embarrassed me to high hell the way she spoke about my friend's parents after she finished speaking to them. Even when we went to the supermarket, she would spend half the time criticizing everyone in spanish and the rest of the time shopping. She was my mom though so I couldn't do much but ignore most of her comments and love her. I couldn’t imagine how she would react if she found out I was a mutant. A lot of folks in H1! think mutants are a different race altogether. My mom wasn’t a member but she tended to agree with some of their ideals.

“I'll leave you some of my conchas, so you don't get too skinny.” She tickled my stomach a little. I absolutely loved the conchas she made. They were basically sweet buns with a dry crumbly frosting on top. “Or do you want Burger King?” I only ever had fast food once or twice a month and was tempted to get a number 2 king size. I lost out to temptation and nodded my head up and down. She soon went over to her purse and grabbed a ten dollar bill and yelled for my sister to take me to BK.

I was allowed to step outside, but on one condition. I was forced to get bundled up by my sister. She had a bit of fun putting a bunch of layers on me while I squirmed in protest. I normally I only wore a hoodie, snow boots, and some gloves. My sister had forced upon me a scarf, real winter coat, stocking cap, earmuffs and even some thermal underwear I didn't know I had. I was already sweating buckets when I stepped outside. I wanted to get mad at her but she was bundled up similarly and was taking me to get a rarely enjoyable treat thanks to my metabolism. That made me wonder if It was my metabolism that was being affected alongside my eyesight. That would explain the weight loss. Then I remembered the stretch marks fading away. They made me feel like I was leaning towards being an exemplar.

The drive to BK was pretty interesting. Besides my sister glowing green and her Jeep glowing yellow everywhere heat and electricity flowed, I saw many more glows on the road. From what I could tell, I could see heat/electricity sources and people about a hundred feet in any direction through solid matter objects m. It gave me a sort of x ray vision that only worked for people, animals, heat, and electricity.

After we left the residential area I noticed three new colors. The first color was red and it only seemed to come from people. It was not anywhere near as common as the green, but I only saw it coming from people. I would say one in thirty people glowed red.

The second color I saw was blue. The blue glow came from both objects, people, and even the air. The blue glows in the air were like azure streams flowing through the air. From what I could tell they didn’t seem to have a beginning or an end. Sometimes they did intersect and created a stronger glow where they intersected. When the blue aura came from people it seemed to be mixed a little with the green aura as well. I never saw a person covered solely in the blue aura. The objects, on the other hand, were always covered entirely in blue. The objects themselves were usually close to the blue streams and ranged from inconspicuous clocks to elaborate little statues that looked kind of scary.

The last and rarest color was a reddish purple. I only saw one person glowing purple and they were sitting at the base of a tree. I also noticed the tree itself had a weak blue aura and as soon as I was paying attention to the tree and the purple glowing person, the blue aura from the tree stopped. The outline of the violet glowing person turned to look my way and cocked their head slightly as my sister’s jeep drove further into town. I waved and I saw the person's outline do the same. I was a little surprised that the person enthusiastically waved back at me, but my instincts had told me they were friendly. I wanted to jump out of Maria’s jeep and find out what the different colored glows meant. I especially wanted to get close to the purple glowing person.

We arrived at the drive through and my sister lowered her window to speak to the box speaker. I was incredibly pleased because I was way too warm. I didn't say anything because it was her vehicle and I was raised not to complain about a driver’s radio preference or temperature settings. Besides, she was likely to raise the temp just to watch me suffer a bit. Her vehicle, her territory. The heat was bearable but I could feel myself starting to sweat a bit.

My sister already knew what I wanted, so I just patiently waited while my food was ready. She didn't order anything because of all the food that would be available at the Gonzalez house. When I finally got my food and drink, I noticed the bag glowing yellow when it passed from the employee to my sister’s hands. When it arrived in my hands, the glow dimmed and eventually went away altogether. When I stuck my hand into the fast food bag, I was saddened. The fries were vaguely warm and the oversized burger was as well. I groaned internally as I chewed a fry. I began to think that my ability had something to do with siphoning heat. It did explain the heat draining from my spaghetti in the morning. I wondered if I would never have a hot meal again.

My sister noticed my mood didn't change for the better upon tasting something so salty and greasy. She knew I loved fast food but had refrained from eating it often thanks to my diet.

“What's wrong Kev? Did they not salt them?” She knew me well, having raised me more than my mother. I didn’t want her finding out that the heat had been drained from my burger. I was a little paranoid at her discovering my secret. Knowing my sister might want to try a fry, I pinched the bag closed. I hoped that would be enough from her wanting a fry.

“Nah sis, I was just thinking about how I won't be able to go with you to the Gonzalez’s. Juan has a pretty big anime collection and I wanted to watch some of them.” I had come up with a good excuse but it hadn't stopped my blood from running cold for a few seconds.

“Sorry about that Kev. You know how protective mom gets when we’re sick. willing to abandon you at homeHer letting you come out to get food was already a lot for her.” We had left the drive through and were already home.

“Yeah can’t wait to eat my whopper and fries. It’s probably not as good as the pozole and other good stuff at the Gonzalez’s house.” I remembered my favorite food from the last time we headed over.

“No doubt. I only ate some cereal in the morning so, I can save my appetite for later.” I nodded my head at her excellent thinking. I did the same last year as well. The rest of the drive was quiet. I liked that my sister didn’t play any music while driving. It meant she was more focused on the road and let me think. It also let me see all the different glows. We drove back the same way we came and I looked for the purple glowing person. The person was gone though. I really wanted to know more about that person. Why were they the only person glowing purple. I was also curious about the blues and reds, but the purple glowing person was more interesting to me for some reason.

The rest of the way home was uneventful. My sister soon parked her jeep in our driveway and we got out. When I stepped out I noticed that my clothes were very wet. I hadn’t really noticed until I finally started moving and the cold air hit me. I was lucky to have so many layers on. Otherwise I would have almost frozen. The last I checked, it was around 5 degrees fahrenheit.

Once we got inside, I gave my mom a kiss on the cheek. Then I told her to have a good time at the party because I would probably be asleep when they left. She kissed me back and then I quickly went up to my room with my meal and drink. I set the food down next to the glowing yellow llaptop and began removing the layers and accessories. I wasn’t surprised when I found my clothes were drenched in sweat. Everytime I removed a layer, they hit my floorboards with a loud squelch. When I was down to my boxer briefs, I could that I was a lot lighter and felt pretty good. I could also tell that I was no longer as sick as I had been. I still felt a bit woozy but it was nothing compared to when I first got sick.

Since I knew I had lost weight and I need to put on some dry clothes, I went to the bathroom. In the bathroom mirror I saw that I had indeed lost more weight I was only in my boxer briefs, so I could see almost everything. My muffin top and belly had shrunk a bit. I raised my arms and saw that my underarm fat was no longer sagging as much. My legs looked only slightly narrower. The only thing that didn’t lose fat was my chest. Whenever I ran my fellow students snickered behind my back as my moobs flopped around like crazy. When I told my sister, she didn’t make fun of me. Instead she got really mad and bought me a few compression shirts for young men with the same problem. The shirts helped a lot, but they couldn’t completely prevent them from moving around.

What was more weird was that my areolas had gotten wider. Originally they were as small as a nickle. They had grown to be a bit bigger than a quarter and even my nipples seem to have gotten bigger. I didn’t think much about it and instead put on some clean clothes. When I removed my underwear, I noticed little Kev was a bit smaller. I was still a little cold and decided to blame it on the weather. I had seen little Kev and his two palls look much smaller before after being outside for a long time. After putting on some clean clothes I looked into the mirror again. My hair was matted down and sweaty thanks to the stocking cap I had on earlier. I got a dry washcloth and used it to dry my hair a bit. In the morning my hair was almost touching my eyes. It had grown since then to just past them. I also noticed my hair was getting lighter at the roots. My honey blonde hair was being replaced with platinum blonde. It bothered me a little because I would stand out even more when people saw me.

The scale was already out and I decided to step on it. I had lost almost fifteen pounds since I last weighed myself in the morning. I wondered what had triggered so much weight loss. I looked down at the finger I had cut earlier. The bandage was still on it, so I removed it. The cut was gone. I got excited and decided, like an idiot, to cut my finger again. I cleaned the cut and but a bandage on it like earlier. I almost repeated the process again with each of my fingers when I realized that if I did have some sort of regen ability, I would quickly lose a lot of weight. Normally I would be all too happy to lose a lot of weight. As a mutant, it would give me away too quickly. I would probably have to dye my hair to its old color as well.

I had a lot to think about if I wanted to not be found out as a mutant. Even at school there was a lot of anti mutant propaganda that I myself only passively supported. I like the unity it brought, but that unity was brought about by hate. Hate that would likely be directed at me if my fellow classmates found out my secret. That hate was mostly brought about by fear of dangerous criminals that happened to be criminals. Those bad apples made regular people think mutants were all dangerous. From what I could tell, I wasn’t really dangerous. I could turn a hot meal lukewarm. That wasn’t dangerous. Then my eyes bulged open.

I had made another connection. My burger and fries were warm and glowing yellow. I drained them of their heat and the yellow glow faded. Electricity and heat both produced yellow glows. Could I drain electricity too? I left the bathroom and went back to my room. The laptop was displaying the default screensaver with a slightly yellow tint to the display. The power adapter was glowing yellow, but not as strongly as earlier. I could see some of the components in the laptop were glowing. The cpu was the strongest followed by the two small ram sticks. I placed my hand on the mouse and left clicked once to get rid of the screensaver. I began paying more attention to the laptops components as I set my left hand on the keyboard. All the components began to glow more vibrantly and even the power adapter did the same.

I unplugged the power adapter and watched as, over 5 minutes of me using it, the laptop battery went from full to empty. I couldn’t help but groan. I understood what had happened to the other two computers. I had been draining them of electricity. I understood my mutant ability a little more. I was able to siphon away heat and electricity. I wondered if that also meant body heat from other people. I have read many comics and lots of different tv shows to know that if I could take energy it had to go somewhere. I did the stupidest thing I could think of. I aimed my hands forward and tried to shoot out electricity or heat. Luckily, nothing happened. That didn’t stop me though. I kept trying for another half hour before hearing my stomach growl. I had forgotten about my food.

It didn’t take long for me to finish the room temperature food. I felt better and continued aiming my hands everywhere while trying to shoot something from my hands. I even tried copying Goku from dragon ball z. Still nothing happened. I wondered if I was just a big energy sponge and not much else.

I wanted to use the internet and find out more about mutants. I would have to go through a lot of computers If I wanted to find out anything good. Then I came up with a good idea. I plugged the power adapter back in and began typing using pencils instead of my fingers. I sparingly used the mouse because the moment I touched it, the usb port started to glow a little brighter. I didn’t have to use it much to search the net thanks to the tab key. It was truly amazing how much I could do with just the keyboard.

I spent the next four hours scouring the internet for information about mutant exemplars and powers related to electricity and heat. I learned it was possible I was either an energizer or maybe a warper, but the information was so vague. If felt like all the online forums and sites were devoid of any solid information about mutants. Almost as if someone had gone through the internet and taken away all the real information and only left some general knowledge the media had given out to the public.

It didn’t take long for me to give up and just read some manga online. I would have loved to play GEO but that would be impossible without full keyboard and mouse control. I heard my mother and sister say their goodbyes at my door. I responded back with a “Be safe.” and they left in my sister’s jeep shortly after.

When they finally left, I checked my mattress and was grateful it was finally dry. That was when I remembered my bedding was still in the washer. I ran to the laundry room and, to my surprise, it was all done and folded. I took my bedding, as well as an extra comforter, back up to my room. I put the bedding back on my bed, but I used the extra comforter as a sponge for any sweat that would accumulate in the night.

I felt kind of lonely and tried to call my friends but the phone didn’t seem to be working in my hands, so I gave up on that. I decided to read some more comics online while enjoying a few of my mother’s conchas. I figured I could eat more because I was rapidly losing weight. When the new year came I only joined in on the countdown and watched from my window as someone in the distance had lighted up some fireworks. I went back to reading for another hour until I decided to get some sleep.

Monday January 1, 2007

I was having another dream very similar to the one where I got close to the sun. There was a lot more planets and I could see that one of them was blue like earth. I hovered closer and could see that the planet had clouds, oceans, and continents. I wanted to take a closer look, but I was attracted to the sun. It was different from the sun in my previous dream. It was more radiant and I could feel its warmth much more readily than I had in the previous dream. Instinctually I moved closer to the sun. Just like in my last dream, the sun shrunk as I got closer to it. I was filled with warmth as it shrunk and it made me expect the sharp pain at the back of my neck. It didn’t come as I expected. Instead I felt a sense of something approaching me from behind.

My head turned and I was surprised to see an enormous bio-luminescent spaceship firing up two glowing energy cannons that took up about half of the ship. At least I assumed that’s what it was. I wasn’t scared and actually got closer to the ship. As I approached, the ship fired the two cannons and I only felt a subtle warmth come from the blasts that engulfed me. I got closer to the ship, but it’s bio-luminescence faded as soon as I got close enough to make out the finer details of the ship. The small sun I had left behind gave off enough light to see most of the ship. It was unique to say the least. It seemed almost alive moments ago but now it was just a very smooth and aerodynamic spaceship. It looked quite similar to a variety of organic spaceship designs I had seen online.

My instincts told me it was a living ship and I had killed it. I had drained it of its life energy, but I wanted to see it alive again. The cerulean lines that swirled all over the surface of the ship were very pretty and I really wanted to see them again. I hovered very close to the ship again and place my palm on it. My hand was a bit different though. It was shining blindingly white and I could barely make out that it was a hand. It looked like it was made of pure energy and my instincts told me I was right. Then something unexpected happened.

To the right of where my palm rested on the ship, a large slit opened up. Out crawled 2 humanoid shaped beings in black and green armor. I didn’t feel any fear from seeing them. I felt only curiosity. I took my palm off of the ship and gave the 2 beings my full attention. Then one of them tossed a small tennis ball shaped object at me. I only stared at it for a short while before it started to glow bright blue. I reached for it and held it in my white energy hands. It was smooth and didn’t give me much warmth. As soon as the little orb faded, the two figures tossed me another one. I let go of the first orb and grabbed the new one. I drained it and was tossed another. They repeated this a few more times before I noticed one of the armored beings was gone. Before I knew what was happening I felt a sharp pain in my neck. I was only able to see my hands go from being made of pure white energy to semi normal ones albeit much more slender than I was used to.

When I woke up from the overly realistic dream, I was covered in sweat again. I had a feeling the dream I just had as well as the other one from yesterday were related to my becoming a mutant. I looked over to my slightly yellow glowing digital alarm clock and was disappointed to see it was five in the morning. I looked around the house and could see my sister was in her room passed out while my mom was nowhere to be seen. It wasn’t the first time my mother had gone out and not returned home. It was nice to know my mom was out with someone. My sister and I always hoped she would find someone special.

My morning was ruined immediately thanks to Tyler’s father and stepmom's green bodies doing the do. I knew what sex was and had seen some porn before. I wasn’t all that into watching it yet and instead focused on playing GEO or reading comics. I was starting to not like my ability to see the different glows. I was really wishing I had a way to turn it off and was glad that I could at least close my eyes to turn it off.

I would have liked to go online and do my usual routine, but the laptop was in the direction of Tyler’s home. I could have brought the laptop to my bed, but it was damp. I didn’t want to risk draining it with my ability or getting any water near it. I took all the bedding off my bed and was glad to see the comforter had helped greatly. My mattress was only slightly damp compared to the extra comforter. I was really hoping I could find a way to stop from sweating so much. I even wondered where the water had come from. With the amount of sweat I was producing, I should be quite dehydrated. It didn’t take long for Tyler’s parents to finish their business and I was back online.

After a couple of hours of online reading, I decided to take a shower. Before I hoped in, I took a good look in the mirror. I was once again a lot thinner, but that didn’t concern me. My eyes had changed from being relatively normal to being navy blue throughout. Neither of my eyes had an iris or a pupil. They were just pure blue. There was no way to hide my eyes besides sunglasses.

My mother and sister were going to find out about my eyes in no time. I didn’t know how they would react. My mother being the way she was, would probably get freaked out. I didn’t know to what extent, but I hoped she would still love me. It’s not like I was gay and coming out of the closet. Homosexuality was another thing she hated. She even told us once, if we ever turned gay, she would kick us out of the house. I had nothing against gay people but it kind of irked me that she hated another type of minority. Our family was a minority and I understood we blended in to the white community. The way she acted was like she thought we were better than everyone else because of that. She never said anything aloud while in the presence of company, but when it was just my sister or me she unloaded big time. She was still my mom, so I never spoke against her way of thinking, no matter how messed up it was.

I wanted to tell them. Kind of like ripping off the bandage in one quick go. Which reminded me of my literal bandage. I took it off and was not surprised to see the wound was fully healed. Not even a scar was present. I did notice my skin was just a little paler and had even cleared up some more. Small scars I had collected over the years had faded away leaving behind a soft clear skin that would make any girl envious.

I also wanted to run away, but I had nowhere to run to. Thanks to my mom, we were hundreds of miles away from relatives. My father’s family was only in southern Mexico, so they were a no go as well. I only had 58 dollars to my name at the moment. I had no doubt that I wouldn't get far.

I sighed mentally and hopped in the shower. I understood that the shower was not warm thanks to my ability. While showering I noticed my hair was longer and seemed to be thicker at the roots. My hair had always been fairly thin and short. Becoming a mutant was changing me in a lot of ways. I was losing weight incredibly fast, my hair was different, my skin looked nicer, I was healing way faster, my eyes had changed, my ability to see glows or auras, and the ability to drain heat and electricity. I was basically harmless unless someone was on life support. I was pretty sure H1! did not see me that way. My blue eyes would probably incite a lynch mob or get me shot.

As I scrubbed myself with my red bath sponge, I noticed my body was way more sensitive. My chest was particularly sensitive, especially my nipples. Little Kev was also a bit sensitive, but he didn't rise to attention like I expected. My skin felt softer in general. I didn't know what to think of the situation. All I knew was that my body was changing and I hoped it would stop soon.

When I got out of the shower, I quickly dried myself and looked into the mirror again. I ignored my odd eyes and examining my body. I was a bit more compact compared to yesterday and I liked it. I looked pretty normal except a few spots like my butt, chest and hips. They still had quite a bit of fat on them, but it wasn't all wrinkly and nasty like it had been a few days ago. My body looked pretty smooth and I was really starting to feel better about myself. Then I saw little Kev in the mirror. He was a lot smaller than I remembered. I had never felt self conscious about my size below the belt until that moment. I decided to ignore that change and went back to looking at my face.

I could tell the person in front of me was me, but I had a few changes that seemed familiar. It took me a minute but then I realized why. I was starting to look a little more like my mom and sister. My face was a bit rounder, like my father’s and I even had his laugh lines and eyebrows. They had changed more to look like my mother and sister’s features. I was starting to look a little more feminine. I didn't mind too much if people began seeing me as a pretty boy. I knew lots of girls who gushed over them. I didn't know any that gushed over mutant pretty boys though.

The roots of my hair had changed to a platinum blonde, which was a big difference from the honey gold blonde I naturally was. The platinum blonde part of my hair was already an inch and a half long and I would need a cut much sooner. Yesterday it was slightly noticeable but that had changed overnight. My mother and sister would find out I had become a mutant the moment they saw my eyes or hair. I hoped my mother wouldn’t do anything drastic.

As I was thinking of how my mother react to my change, I noticed her green aura in the corner of my eye. I could tell she was dropped off because of another green aura, that appeared to sitting in a car, waved her goodbye. She walked slowly towards the house and I watched her with trepidation before I ran into my room to get changed. I got changed as quickly as I could and watched my mother’s aura walk up the stairs towards her room. She was about to enter her room when she decided to turn around and head to my room. I was scared of how she would react, but I steeled myself and stood in front of the door. I was gonna get it over with.

When my mother opened the looked at me and blinked a few times. Then she squinted real hard at my eyes. Her hands then reached up to touch my face. She then stroked my hair for a moment before she began crying. I started to cry too. Ever since I had started to change, I felt like my life was over. I wouldn't be able to go to normal school or hang out with my friends anymore. My life was not over exactly but it could end if I made a mistake. With H1! members being everywhere and the MCO being very unfriendly to mutants, I didn't feel very safe.

“Que vamos hacer?” She pulled me into a tight hug and I could, for once, feel external warmth again. Then the warmth slowed. I could see my mother’s green aura had lessened considerably. She flopped down weakly as I let go of her as fast as I could. She looked up at me with a very tired look on her face. “Mijo que me hiciste?” She asked weakly and was confused about what was going on. I kind of knew what had just happened. I had either drained some of her body heat or another form of energy she had.

“Get your sister to help me to my room. I'm very tired.” I walked passed her body and quickly ran to my sister's room.

“Maria! Mom needs your help!” I shouted and knocked at her door. It didn't take long for her to put on a robe and open the door. She didn't see my eyes and only ran up the stairs with me behind her.

“Where is she?” My sister asked as we reached the top of the stairs.

“She collapsed in my room after she gave me a hug. I think I drained her a little.” She turned to look at me and her eyes bulged when she noticed my eyes. Then she looked down at the rest of me and did a double take.

“Holy shit! You’re a mutant!” She shouted and then her expression turned gloomy. “We can talk about you later.” Soon we were in my room and I watched as my sister dragged my unconscious mother to her room down the hallway. All I could do was open the door and apologize about what I had done. My mother’s green aura was still visible but it wasn't as strong as my sister’s aura. It worried me greatly. I stared at my mother’s form for a minute while my sister alternated between my mother and I. Then she started snoring like she usually did. I let out a sigh of relief and my sister did the same.

“You’re eyes are pretty cool though.” Maria told me after I explained to her everything that had been happening to me. We had relocated to the dining room to eat something and she had sat through my explanation of my changes. She never looked at me any differently. I could see that she still saw me as her little brother, Kevin. “Should we call 911? I mean she just looked very tired and passed out.” Maria was a little worried about mom, but I looked up in the direction of where she was sleeping. Her green aura was almost back to normal.

“Her green aura is almost back to normal. I think that means she’s okay. We both know she only snores that loud when she’s getting some good sleep.” I assured my sister as best I could and she nodded in agreement. “Sis, I don’t know what I should do now. I’m really scared.” I told her the truth.

“Well we need to contact a mutant-friendly MCO agent to get you your MID.” I was surprised by her answer. I didn’t know that there existed a mutant friendly MCO agent or what an MID was. I looked at her with a confused look on my face. She understood me all to well. “An MID is a Mutant Identification card. It displays your powers, affiliations, and some other details. As hard as it is to believe, mutant-friendly MCO agents do exist. In fact there are even mutant MCO agents. An MID is required for leaving the country, using airlines, and a whole bunch of other things.” I looked at her skeptically for a moment. “I dated a mutant once.” She looked at the floor sheepishly.

“In Lincoln?” I asked. The large amounts of H1! members and strict control via the MCO made it hard for mutants to live normal lives let alone even want to stay in town. I couldn’t imagine my sister being able to date a mutant in town, unless they looked super normal. Then I recalled some of the guys she dated. All the of them looked like they could have been models, but were kinda douchey. It didn't surprise me that those relationships didn't last longer than a couple months.

“You and mom never met him before.” Somehow she knew I was thinking about her past boyfriends and it had me thinking she might be a mutant with mind reading abilities. “He's this black guy from work named Shawn.” My eyebrows rose a little because I understood how my mother would react to my sister dating anyone who didn't look like us. She would likely have a fit of some kind and her racist side would pop out. Personally, I didn't care who my sister dated as long as they treated her well. “He told me he was a mutant after we dated a month and was real happy when I told him it didn't bother me. Then we broke up after four months because he had to relocate to another branch of NEXT thanks to his mom getting real sick. The only doctors in the country that could help her were near the branch he relocated too. We both knew a long distance relationship was not for us so we broke up.” I could tell she was a little sad about the break up. Four months was the longest I’d heard she was with anyone. For all I knew, this Shawn guy could have been my future brother in law.

“So why didn't you leave with him?” I had my suspicions why, but I wanted to hear her reason.

“Well, there weren't any good positions available to me if I did decided to relocate. Also I couldn't leave you and mom behind.” It was a noble sacrifice that I appreciated. I wanted to get up and give her a hug, but I didn't want to knock her out like I had my mom. “Anyways he was born and manifested here in Lincoln. He explained to me how he was picked up by a mutant MCO agent and had his powers tested. After a long day of testing he got an MID and was shipped off to an expensive private school. He didn't say much about the school except that it was very accommodating to his mutant condition. I'll give him a call in a bit. In the meantime there's something else I gotta say that you're probably not gonna like.” She was fiddling around with her fingers and looking around the room a bit.

“What? Did you already call the MCO or something?” I was worried she may have jumped the gun on calling the MCO just because of her ex.

“No! Nothing like that. It's just. Umm. You are starting to look a lot like a girl.” She squeaked the last part out. I knew what she was talking about. I had already gone over my appearance in my mind.

“Yeah but I’m probably gonna end up looking like some pretty boy. I should probably get a haircut. The longer hair isn't really helping huh.” She looked down at my chest and then into my eyes. She repeated the motion a couple times before shaking her head.

“I’m thinking you’re in denial. You know what. Wait here and I'll show you some stuff on my laptop.” She got up and headed downstairs to her room. I watched her aura the whole time and couldn't help but think how awesome that aspect of my ability was. Sure, it made dealing with electronics a pain. The plus side was I could see the glowing outline of anyone within a hundred or so feet. The only glows or auras I could put meaning to were the yellow ones. They meant heat and or electricity. The blue, red, green, and purple glows were still unknown to me.

When my sister came back, she spent about ten minutes showing me the difference between male gynecomastia and real developing breasts on a girl. It kind of freaked me out. We even went to the bathroom and took off my shirt to compare my chest to that of the pictures. She then showed me pictures of fatty tissue redistribution on young women. I was mortified when I realized I was going through the same changes as a girl my age would be during puberty. My sister insisted on seeing my privates. I didn't resist. When she saw them, she didn't laugh at me. I could tell she wanted to give me a hug to console me a little and we both knew she couldn't.

I was a little freaked out and wanted to break down crying. The evidence on the computer was pretty damn convincing. If I was turning into a girl, my life would be way different than I expected. I honestly thought I would take after my dad. In the photos my mother had of him around the house, he was huge. He was at least six foot six and had a very manly full beard. From the pictures I could also tell he worked out thanks to how large his arms and pecs were. I was really hoping I would take after him. Now I was probably gonna take after my mother or sister with a splash of mutant.

“I'll contact Shawn to get the phone number of that friendly MCO agent.” I only nodded my head in agreement as she left me in the bathroom staring at my changing body. I really wanted to cry.

My eyes were about to water up when I closed them and realized I could still see. Not only could I still see, but I no longer saw the glows and auras. I looked into the mirror and was surprised to see my regular eyes were back. I had just a smidgen of hope that maybe I could still look normal. I probably wouldn't be a normal boy but maybe I could be a normal looking girl with hidden mutant abilities. Then I opened my eyes wider and saw an eyelid that looked like my old eyes open to reveal my solid navy blue eyes. I blinked and saw the eyelid come down and back up again. When it came down I could no longer see the glows and auras. I no longer felt like crying and was now fully invested in making my eyes appear normal. I closed my eyes and instead of opening them, I tried to close them again. I was rewarded with my normal eyelid coming down. I thought it was amazing and felt a bit of normalcy return to me.

So far I couldn't touch people because I would run the risk of knocking them out from draining them. In my opinion, that was way too similar to Rogue, from the x men movie, for my liking. I could also drain electricity and heat from objects I touched. That was different from her. I could also see different colored auras from people and some objects. The weirdest of all was my body being changed. From playing GEO I could tell there were some perks to being a girl. I still wished I could have just stayed as a guy. I had also read a few mangas where a character changes gender and they were pretty funny. I tried my best to make light of my situation. ‘It could be worse’ I thought to myself. Then I remembered how I was just on the verge of crying. I never had such drastic mood changes before. My mother and sister on the other hand had them every once in a while. I wondered if that was part of being a girl.

I messed around with my eyes for a while and found out that my second eyelid would always move with the center of my real eyes. It was great. I could, for the most part, go out in public. I just looked like I girl who still had a lot of baby fat. I wondered how much weight I would lose by the time I finished changing. Would I look good or just kind of meh. I was really hoping I would at least look cute. I could tell I would at least have a pretty face.

Eventually my sister came back and I surprised her with my old eyes. “What happened to your eyes?” Then I opened my second eyelid and she stepped back. “Now that is a neat trick.”

“I know right. It means I can go out in public.” I paused for a second when I realized something. “Maybe I can even go back to school but with a different identity.”

My sister rubbed the bottom of her chin for a moment and thought about what I had said. “You know, that doesn't sound impossible. Shawn said the MCO agent who picked him up could help with that. When the agent picked him up, he told him that he had helped a kid who had changed from a girl to a boy a few years prior.” I was relieved when I heard that. It meant my situation wasn't unique. It also gave me hope that I could sort of start a new life. Almost like starting a new character in GEO but transferring all my items and levels to it. It sounded like fun. I wasn't really losing my friends. I just had to befriend them again and make some new memories with them. I was starting to think that everything would be ok.

“The MCO agent who helped Shawn out is named Agent Vasquez. Shawn gave me his number and extension. I was gonna give him a call, but I wanted to make sure it's what you want.”

“Do you trust Shawn?” I asked her knowing that at least he trusted her enough to reveal his secret.

“He trusted me with his biggest secret, so of course I trust him.”

“Then let's do it.”

“Shouldn't we wait for mom to wake up? She is your parent and I’m not sure I qualify as your legal guardian.”

“Good point. So what should we do in the meantime?” We didn't even know if our mother had gotten any sleep since last night. Which meant she could be out for the rest of the day or just a few hours.

“Well how about we play a board game?” We hadn't played a board game together in a long time and board games didn't usually involve electricity.

“That sounds like a great Idea sis.”

“Alright then. I will go get a game that will keep us occupied for a while. I think the kitchen table should be big enough for Talisman.”

“Talisman?” I hadn't heard of the game before.

“Oh you’re in for a treat. I have a third edition copy of the game, but there are rumors of a fourth edition coming out later in the year.” We then relocated to the kitchen and my sister went to her room to grab the game. The game turned out to be a very fun and long. We spent a few hours on the first game and for the next game we actually added one of the expansions. It was the first time I had even heard of a board game having expansions and it didn't disappoint. It was not a difficult game to learn and offered a lot of replay value.

While we played, Maria decided to order a couple of pizzas in order to test something out. She told me to try to eat as much as possible. It turned out I could eat both pizzas no problem. She later explained to me that Shawn had told her that I may be an energizer thanks to my drastic weight loss and would need a lot of food. It made sense to me so I decided to change my diet. I was secretly excited to be able to eat whatever I wanted.

When it started to get dark again, our mother finally woke up. She was in a great mood. She had come down the stairs singing one of Selena’s hit songs and wasn't half bad. When she saw the kitchen table covered almost entirely in the talisman board game, she didn't even get mad. Even her green aura was a lot more vibrant than it had been before I drained it.

“How are you feeling Mom?” Maria was the first to ask.

“My espalda doesn't hurt anymore!” She gestured to her back. “I feel like I took a 2 week vacation and didn't do anything but relax.” She poured herself some orange juice and chugged it down in one gulp. I was relieved to see her so lively. I had thought that maybe she had been permanently hurt or something.

“I thought I hurt you mom.” A few tears had escaped my eyes and I could tell she wanted to give me a hug.

“Nada me paso. I'm okay.” She gave me a reassuring smile and I wiped away my tears. “I thought your eyes were more blue?” She had noticed my eyes looked normal and I chuckled as I switched between my real and normal looking eyes. Her eyes bugged out while Maria giggled at her reaction.

“I can look normal again and maybe even go to school too.” My mother nodded her head, but then she shook her head slightly.

“If you touch someone, que vas hacer? They will fall like me and everyone will know my pretty boy is a mutant.” I had almost forgotten about that little detail. I didn't even know if I had to be directly touching someone in order to drain them. What if I only needed a few inches to do so. We had assigned seats in lunch which meant I would be rubbing elbows with someone all the time. I wondered if the school my sister mentioned could accommodate me. There was also that pretty boy she mentioned. Maria had noticed it as well and her mouth was scrunched up like she wanted to tell her something.

We put the game away and Maria explained to my mom how my body was changing. She even had me get naked to show her my various changes. I was thoroughly embarrassed at the time. My mother’s mood slowly deteriorated while Maria showed her my changes and the comparisons on her laptop, Eventually she gave me a look of disgust and left the house in her SUV.

I felt terrible about her reaction. She was okay with me manifesting, but not my body changing gender. I felt like crap. I was glad that my sister had my back, but it hurt so much that my mother did not.

My sister offered me some words of encouragement as I walked up the stairs towards my room. She had told me that she would be calling Agent Vasquez. I didn't feel like responding. I just entered my room and flopped onto my partially dried bed to pass out.

MCO Office Lincoln, Nebraska Branch

“Yes mam, I'll be able to help your younger sibling get registered as a mutant and into a different school where their needs will be taken care of.” The MCO agent spoke to Maria with a calm voice and reassured her of her sibling’s safety for several minutes. “Yes I'll take care of your sibling like I took care of that gravity manipulating Shawn. We'll be over around 5:30 PM tomorrow with a discreet escort to pick up you and your sibling. Yes, you’re welcome. Have a nice day.” The smile on the MCO agent’s face was genuine.

Ever since Agent Vasquez had gone down in the line of fire, his partner, Agent Mueller, had taken his place. In the year since he had taken the Agent’s place, he had used Vasquez’s name to capture a handful of mutants. Not many in the MCO batted an eye because of an internal hatred towards the fallen agent. Many agents actually congratulated him on using the contacts for the greater good of Humanity. Luckily he was with Agent Vasquez when he had assisted the mutant boy Shawn after he had manifested many years back. It would lead to another successful capture of a freshly manifested mutant. He made made a few calls in preparation for the capture the mutant. The kid would disappear like the many others that manifested in their “pure” city.

Tuesday January 2, 2007

I had another dream.. It wasn’t as interesting as the other ones. I was floating through space towards a specific star. As I floated, I felt a felt a very strong pull coming from that star. Instinctively I knew that the pull was what allowed me to travel through space towards it. I didn’t know how fast I was going through space nor how long I had been doing so, but it felt like a long time.

When I awoke I was glad I wasn’t awakened by being hurt in my dream. The previous dreams were actually interesting and I could see how the one with the ship had been affected by my manifesting as a mutant. The dream I just had was boring and didn’t mean much to me. It was actually weird that I even remembered them in the first place. Normally I couldn’t even remember some of my dreams let alone 4 in a row. It was also really weird that I had remembered them in such detail.

I didn’t have to check my alarm clock to know that I had slept for a long time. The sun was already out and I guessed it was around 9. I flipped around and found out I was right on the money. It read 9:06 AM. It meant that I had slept over fifteen hours and my mother’s reaction really messed me up. I looked around and, thanks to my ability, I knew she hadn’t returned. I could see my friends in their houses passed out and knew from past experiences that they could sleep in until 12. I was actually alone in the house. Maria had gone to work and I didn’t know where my mom was. I didn’t have to go to the bathroom to know I had changed more overnight.

My hair had grown much longer and I couldn’t see any of my old hair. It had been replaced by the silvery color I had begun to see over the past few days. I found it odd because the day before, the last few inches of it were still my old hair color. After looking over my pillow and down at my shirt, I found out what had happened. My old hair had fallen away from my new hair. I was now a lot more aware of the constant pull of my hair on my scalp. It was a new experience for me and It wasn’t really unwelcome. I had occasionally wondered how it would be to have long hair.

The rest of my body changed like Maria had figured. She wasn’t a doctor, but had made the right guess. Most of the fat from my body had disappeared and there seemed to only be some left around my new breasts, hips, and rear. I spent a few minutes touching my breasts and enjoying the new sensations. My rear was also nice to touch. It would have been nicer not to be on the receiving end though. I pulled my underwear’s waistband forward to see that little Kev had been reduced to a nub and his two pals had vacated the premise. It didn’t really bother me as much as it should have. What did bother me, was my mother’s reaction to my body.

I knew how my mother felt about homosexuality, other races, and anyone that was different in her eyes. She was always very vocal about her thoughts towards them when it was just her, Maria, and me. I guessed that in her eyes I was a “sexual deviant”. If I liked girls, that would make me a lesbian. If for, some strange reason, I ended up liking guys, then that would make me gay. My mother's comments about transsexuals were pretty awful as well. I wondered if she saw me as one of them. It would explain her reaction.

I spent the rest of the morning eating enough breakfast cereal for 8 people and doing my laundry. Eventually I took a shower and was delighted to see that I looked like an attractive young lady that had already gone through the late stages of puberty. At least that's what I assumed if I used my sister’s quick research as a reference. All I needed was hair in all the weird places and terrible acne. Then I would be just like any other girl. I did recall my past experience with the bit of acne I had just before my mutation. I hoped that it had been permanently taken care of.

I stood in front of the mirror admiring my new body for a few minutes longer than I should have. I wasn't a ten, but more of a seven or maybe an eight. I used to see myself as a three thanks to my extra weight. It still wasn't all gone. Some of it had been redistributed rather well across my body. When I hopped on the scale, I saw I was down to 130 pounds. It was a bittersweet moment. I was glad I was losing weight, but the trade off was I had become a girl and a mutant all at once.

My ability made it so I couldn't touch people without draining them of their aura, which may only knock them out or something worse. On the plus side I could see auras through solid objects almost like a limited form of x ray vision. I found it weird that I couldn't see my own aura or glow. In the dream with the ship my hand had been shining brightly. Yet in the real word my hands looked normal. It made me believe that the dreams I had were just a fabrication of my subconscious.

Deep down I had hoped my dreams had meant something. In a world where superheroes fly around and wizards could cast fireball spells, anything was possible. At least that's what I thought. I was a mutant who could see auras and possibly drain them. I couldn't think of how useful I would be as a superhero, unless the bad guys only threw fire and electricity or were dumb enough to let me get a hold of them. As far as I could tell, I hadn't gotten physically stronger. What I did notice was my lack of flu symptoms. The day before they were almost gone. When I awoke they had left me completely and I felt like a whole new person literally and figuratively

When I went back to my room to change, I found out my clothes didn't really suit my changed body. My jeans were loose and my shirts were a little too big. Even my underwear felt a little rough on my skin. Which reminded me that I would have to get a bra someday. All my current clothes felt wrong. I was half tempted to go into my sister's room and find some better fitting clothes. That thought process ended quickly because I didn't feel comfortable wearing someone else's clothes. Besides she was almost a foot taller than me and her breasts were way bigger than mine.

Maria would get off work and be home around five, so I had plenty of time to do nothing. I didn't know when my mother would be back or how she would react to my continued change. I spent a few hours on the laptop reading while simultaneously practicing my eyelid control. I had discovered a couple things during that time. I could keep my secondary eyelid closed and my primary eyelid open indefinitely. My eyes never watered while I had my second eyelid closed. Which meant I could win any staring contest. The other thing I learned was that just because I couldn't see auras and glows, didn't mean I could no longer absorb them. I was secretly hoping my second eyelid would prevent me from draining auras and glows.

While I was switching between my special sight and normal vision, I noticed there was a van parked in front of my house. I knew it was a van thanks to some of the wiring inside giving it the shape of a van. It also had 5 people inside with green auras. One of them was the driver and three looked to be sitting against the wall. The last one was sitting in front of a computer and was typing away. If it hadn't been parked in front of my house, I wouldn’t have noticed it at all. I also wouldn’t have gone to my window to see there was another van down the block that looked exactly the same. The second van was too far away to see with my special sight, but I wasn’t stupid enough to think they didn’t have the same contents. I also had a bad feeling that these guys weren’t gonna be friendly.

Then a single black station wagon pulled into our driveway. I could see his green aura from where I was and watched as he calmly got out of the vehicle and walked up to my doorstep. I was able to see he had a small electrical object attached to his waist and a thin yellow glow traveling from it up to his ear. I heard the doorbell ring and I didn’t know what to do. The guys in the van in front of my house didn’t seem to be getting up. Their aura's outline made them look kind of bored. One of the guys seemed to be shaking his head to a tune while another looked to be reading something. I didn’t know if these guys were MCO, H1!, or even just undercover cops stationed around the neighborhood for some reason.

I used my special sight to look at Tyler’s house, he was inside his room playing video games and it kind of pissed me off that he hadn’t called me all weekend. I looked at the other side of my house and found Ramon was doing the same in front of his television. I wanted to be mad at them for not even checking up on me, but I hadn’t noticed them go towards Tyler’s backyard either. I held a small bit of hope that they were waiting for me to get better before we could have our snowball fight.

I went to my room and quickly put on some jeans, sock, my shoes, and my warmest hoodie. I had a feeling I would be going outside soon. I debated on whether to open the door for the guy because it could have just been a cop trying to warn the neighborhood of something or even a salesman. My decision was made when the guys in front of my house decided to exit the van and head to the back door of the house. I also saw five more guys enter my special sight’s range from the direction of the second van and the house was soon surrounded.

I was scared to say the least. I guessed that Agent Vasquez was not as nice as Shawn had told my sister. I could see one of the guys at the back door had been picking the lock and was finally successful. I locked my door and hid in my closet trying my best to not make a noise. I was able to see all their actions from my closet and was not surprised to see them searching the house for me. They all appeared to have a one handed firearm pointed ahead of them wherever they went. The firearm had a small bright yellow glow in what I assumed was the handle. I wondered if it was a taser and if it would affect me.

After they thoroughly checked the basement and ground floor, they moved on to the second floor where I was. My mother’s room was closest to them and they searched it quickly. When they reached my room, they kicked the door open after finding it locked. I probably could have opened the window to make it look like I had escaped, but it was too late. I saw them approach my closet and open it. In front of me was now an angry looking man with salt and pepper hair pointing a taser gun at me. I could also see at the side of his right thigh a real handgun in a holster. I put my hands up while he yelled at me. “Get out slowly genefreak!”

I complied and he backed away as I slowly got out of my closet. “Please don’t shoot me.” I mumbled as fear overtook me. I wasn’t afraid of their tasers but the real handgun scared the crap out of me. This guy and the guys behind him weren’t wearing MCO uniforms and they all had an extra firearm of some kind besides the taser they all pointed at me. These guys were likely H1! which meant one of my biggest fears had come true. If I made one wrong move they would switch to their real weapons. It was already weird that they even had tasers in the first place. While I stood there, almost ready to piss my pants, one last guy entered the room. He was wearing an official blue MCO uniform, and looked like he would fit in at the Gonzalez new years party. He also looked very pleased to see me..

“Don’t worry gentlemen, his sister told us he’s only a low level exemplar with a bit of enhanced vision.” He smiled smugly as he got closer to me. My sister hadn't told him about my draining ability, so I knew my sister hadn't betrayed me. I noticed that some of the armed men had a look of disgust appear on their face when the agent said “he”. It added a touch of humiliation to my fear. Then the agent decided to put his hand on my shoulder. “Let’s get go..” He only had his hand on my shoulder for a few seconds, but it was enough to see his green aura diminish greatly. He didn’t even have a chance to finish his words before he fell over.

“What did you do to him!” The salt and pepper haired man yelled at me and fired his taser. The other guys did the same and I was soon covered in painful taser barbs. I didn’t get shocked and instead only felt a slight warmth enter my body from where they barbs pierced my skin. I went down to my knees with my head between my hands and kept muttering “sorry” over and over until I felt a blunt object slam into the side of my head knocking me out cold.

I woke up a while later and I was in some sort of cell. I didn’t sweat anywhere near as much as I expected which would have been great if I hadn’t been captured by the MCO and their associates. The areas where I had been tasered were almost healed. It looked like I had super slow regeneration. It may not have been as fast as some of the videos, but it was something. The bed I was on consisted of a thin mattress, a single sheet, and a pillow. The toilet was only a few feet away, but was a lot cleaner than I expected. The walls and floor were made out of stainless steel panels. The heavy steel door had a small window and a horizontal slot for food. Thanks to my sight I was able to see the electricity in the walls, the guard that was sitting in his chair about 50 feet away from my cell door, and a lot of people moving around up above me.

I spent a good while curled up in the fetal position wondering what was going to happen to me. I had been “disappeared” like all the rumors had suggested happened to mutant kids. My sister had called the MCO, hoping to get me some help. It backfired terribly. My mom probably didn't even see me as her child anymore. I was crestfallen at my situation, but I was still alive.

I used my sight to get a better understanding of my surroundings. I didn’t see an electronic lock on the door that I could drain. I wondered if that would cause it to stay locked or make it open. Even then would my ability even work through metal? The only thing electrical in the cell was a small light that illuminated the room. I looked around some more and was surprised. I was not expecting to see words being written in a blue glow at the very edge of my sight far above me. The writing was awful and barely legible, but it gave me an ounce of hope when I noticed it was being written by the person with the purple aura. Stay strong. Don't give them any info about your abilities. I’ll get you away from them soon. I couldn't believe my eyes. Whoever that person was, they knew how my power worked and were going to help me.

The person with the purple aura must have come in contact with my sister to know how my ability worked. It would explain how they knew to use the blue glow to contact me. I still didn't know what the blue glow was but they obviously did. I hoped they would explain it to me. If they were the same person that I had seen on the way to BK, then it wouldn't be hard to believe they had been watching me for a long time. They would likely be a lot better for my well being than the MCO or H1!, so I couldn’t wait to see them help me out of this crappy situation.

I laid on my bed and relaxed while watching the goings on of the MCO. Up above me I was able to see at least 9 people on the floor above me and and a slightly increasing number the farther up I looked. Most of them were green while only a couple of them were red. I saw a few small objects that radiated a blue aura, but they were very faint. I studied the people above me for hours and it looked like they were just a bunch of office workers. On my level there was only one person, whom I assumed was a guard. I could also see the electrical wiring throughout the area. Below me was empty so I didn't bother looking too long at the floor.

I was starting to get hungry and was about to start trying to get the guards attention when I noticed he started to move. He brought up a small object to his head and finally got up off his chair. He then grabbed something of the wall and held it with both hands. From the way he grabbed it, I figured it was a stick of some kind. A minute later I was able to see 3 more men coming down an elevator. Two of those men’s hands were similarly holding something in both their hands like the guard. The last guy didn't have anything in his hands and was behind the other two.

When they arrived at the floor I was on, the guard gave the men a nod and started heading towards my cell. The three men followed the guard to my cell. When the guard opened the door, I was greeted by three men in full body armor carrying six foot long catchpoles. I felt insulted that they were using the same tools that would be used to catch stray animals. It did make sense though. With those catchpoles they wouldn’t be affected by my ability. The fourth guy wasn’t carrying a catchpole. He was a balding man with crooked nose and was wearing a blue MCO uniform. He had a look of disgust on his face when he looked at my solid blue eyes. “Well genefreak, we need to know what you did to some of my agent and our associates.”

I had changed to a sitting position on the bed and looked in their direction but hadn’t yet responded. I also wondered if they would even know which of the them I was looking at. With no pupil or other discerning feature to tell where the middle of my eye was, nobody would be able to tell where I was looking. In fact they might even think I was blind or something. I had faith in my mysterious new ally and decided to mess with these agents. “Sorry I don’t know what happened. I turned blind when I manifested. I have good hearing though.” I grinned a little and turned my head a little, so my ear was positioned towards them.

“That may be so, but I have agents and associates that have entered comas after they touched you.” Comas? That was a lot worse than what happened to my mother. I wondered if holding my mother for a second longer would have made her fall into a coma instead of just knocking her out. The man had quietly taken one of the other men’s catchpoles and was waving it around my head. I couldn’t help but follow it with my eyes. I managed to keep my head perfectly still while he almost poked me with the catchpole. He pulled it back and continued to speak. “If you refuse to help us, we will be forced to transport you to another facility that specializes in various forms of interrogation.”

That did scare me. I didn’t like the idea of being tortured. It wasn’t like I had a lot of information either. I could tell them that their associates would probably wake up eventually like my mom, but my purple ally said not to give them any information about my powers. I stuck to it. “Sorry Sir, I don’t know anything. I haven’t even been able to leave my house since I manifested.” I tried my best to sound like a scared little girl and ended up making one of the armored MCO agents lower his catchpole a little.

The agent glared at me and spoke up “, I guess we’ll just relocate you to our interrogation facility. Get the genefreak loaded up into the armored transport. I’ll give Power Tank a call so he can be on escort duty. I want to see this abomination on I-80 within the hour.” I was a little pissed that one of the city’s heroes was on call for the MCO. I was also very frightened about already being moved. Then my stomach decided to growl loudly. I was pretty sure they heard me, but only one guy looked at my belly.

“You guys have anything for me to eat?” I asked pitifully. The agents just snorted with disgust and walked closer. The agent that had lowered his catchpole a little was the first to wrap the loop around my neck. I tried my best to act surprised and didn’t resist much. I had a feeling he would be a little more sympathetic towards me. He probably had a kid my age or something. I was right and he only tugged me slightly towards him and he didn't tighten it very much. The other two were a bit rougher with me. I was thankful they didn’t tie my hands up or something. It would have probably resulted in a loss of more men when the catchpoles would be enough. The guy who had been the guard led the way to the elevator. I assumed he didn't like being on mutant guard duty. Once they pulled me to the elevator I was able to see that we were on floor b5, which I assumed was the lowest floor of the building. The elevator only had an up button.

When the elevator door opened, I was surprised to see it was about ten feet by ten feet. It was much larger than I expected. It worked to their advantage as they pushed me into a corner. I suddenly realized how sensitive my new breasts were. I was able to slowly rotate so my back was to the corner. “Put the hood on it, those eyes are disgusting.” The unarmed MCO agent told them. The guy who was being a slight bit nicer was the one to reach into one of his side pockets. The “hood” was really just a black cloth sack with a drawstring. In a matter of seconds, the man had placed it over my head and pulled the drawstring firmly around my neck it was nowhere near as bad as that catchpole wiring around my neck but it was still uncomfortable. I had debated on grabbing ahold of the guy when he had gotten close and was glad I didn’t because they would have probably done worse to me.

I could still see their auras which was nice. The hood did render my normal sight completely useless. The agent pushed the button for the floor we were headed to and I carried on in silence. While I was in the hood I was able to see what floor we were on thanks to the elevator having a light board indicate the current floor. It glowed yellow instead of the usual red and I found that pretty cool. Eventually we stopped at the ground level and got off.

As I held my eyes open to examine my surroundings, my eyelashes were starting to get irritated. I wanted to continue seeing my surrounding through the hood but I started to feel pain at the roots of my eyelashes. I decided to close them for a while until I really needed to see.

I was forced to walk for another minute before we stopped and I could hear various people talking but the hood had padding that made it hard to hear. I could make out the sounds of some people high fiving each other close to me. After a minute we continued walking for a little while longer. While they marched me to some new location, I decided to try something new with my eyes. With my eyes shut, I tried to open my second eyelid. To my surprise it worked. I could see auras through my primary eyelid. With my secondary sight restored I was able to make out some things again. At the same time I also felt a rush of cold air hit me from a change of environment.

What I saw was not good. Ahead of me were two large vehicles that had motors a size bigger than the ones I had seen in other vehicles. They were likely the armored transport that would be carrying me to their torture facility. Beside those monsters was an enormous tank like vehicle with a single red glowing person inside. The other vehicles only had yellow glows around the engine, exhaust, radiator, and few other small areas. The “tank” had yellow glows flowing throughout its entire body to the point where it almost looked like a blueprint. It even had its bright yellow power core in exactly the same spot as its toy counterpart. I knew it was Power Tank’s transforming power armor. It was shaped in its standard configuration that resembled a Dreadnought. It looked bulky, slow, and powerful. Everyone in town knew its other two configurations. The agile mode had a very advanced propulsion system in its back and smaller ones around the body for maneuverability. From the videos I had seen, It could fly around at high speeds and maneuver very well. It also had an immobile form that was more like a turret that could reconfigure a lot of its components to make a powerful laser cannon. Power Tank was known for being able to change modes quickly in order to adapt to the situation. It didn't help that he was always upgrading his armor with better weapons and defensive capabilities. It allowed him to produce a new toy every year that was cooler than the previous model. Which would fund more upgrades and continue the cycle.

I was pushed towards the back of one of the two large vehicles. “Climb up genefreak!” one of my captors had yelled loud enough for me to hear him clearly. I waved my hands in front of me until I felt the ice cold steel of the armored transport. It took me a few seconds to get good enough footing to attempt to climb on. Before I could climb in on my own, I was assisted painfully by the catchpoles. I was practically choked by them when their owners got into the back of the vehicle behind me.

Once they were all aboard, they sat down and I tried to do the same. They didn't let me. I was left standing in the back of the truck with three catchpoles tightening around my neck and a hood that muffled my senses. I was glad that at least my face was warm and I had decided earlier to put on a hoodie. I watched my surrounding and saw the second armored transport had been loaded up with eight MCO agents likely in the same armor as my three captors. After a few minutes of waiting and hearing my jailers talk to each other about useless stuff, the armored transport I was in had started to move. I lurched forward a little and the agents made a slight noise of discomfort at being pushed back a little with the catchpoles. I, on the other hand, started choking and grabbing at my neck to loosen the catchpoles. Two of the guards kept their catchpoles tight around my neck while the bottom most one loosened. “At least let the fucking kid breath guys. We need her alive for testing at the facility.” They did loosen them a little and I was able to breathe better.

“Thank you.” I told them between my wheezing. I slumped down to the ground and did something I hadn't done since I had started gaining weight. I pulled my knees up to my chest and hugged them. I also started sobbing at my treatment. I even forgot about my purple ally for a while.

My surroundings soon changed. I was able to see people walking on what I thought was the sidewalk and in front of me, which was the back of the vehicle, Power Tank was following behind in his agile mode with the second transport behind him. Every once in a while I'd see the aura of a small person point at him. It was probably a kid and I couldn't help but think about how that kid would react if I told him I was once in his shoes staring at Power Tank admiring his cool power armor.

After five minutes of moving through what I had figured was slow downtown traffic. I had been able to tell where we were at thanks to some of the shops having fluorescent lighting shaped like the name of their businesses. We eventually got on interstate 80 and headed west. After a few minutes, a couple more armored transports had begun driving next to us. Each of them had a couple men wearing power armor in the back. I could tell they were wearing power armor because of the glowing power packs and the glowing wires covering each of the green auras. Each of the vehicles also had a driver and a guy that was going back and forth between the passenger and the back area with the power armors. Based on the outlines of the wiring I guessed they were from the Knights of Purity.

I was terrified. I couldn’t stop shaking and the hood was starting to make me feel claustrophobic. Then I saw something that brought me hope. My purple ally flying up above Power Tank with a set of the most beautiful azure wings I had ever seen. The wings were made up of hundreds of ornate runes and symbols all flowing outward to make the two impressive wings. They looked to be about 5 times as long as my purple ally was tall. She waved at me and I waved back.

That got the attention of my jailers and they all tightened the noose on their catchpoles. “What was that! Why are you waving?” They yelled at me and choked me which caused me to tightly shut both my eyelids. A few seconds later the catchpoles went limp and fell way from my neck, loop and all.. In front of me my three captors had somehow fallen unconscious. After reopening my second eyelid, I could see their auras were still green and stable except a blue symbol was on their foreheads. Then I noticed my purple ally was standing right on top of the armored truck, right above where my captors lay unconscious. A magic circle appeared under her purple form and she slowly hovered down to stand in front of me.

From her purple aura she looked to be a little over five feet tall. Her waist was tiny and it helped define her figure well. “Karina, let me get that off your head.” my purple ally chirped. I cocked my head to the side thinking that this girl had the wrong person. Then she vanished from my sight. I sat stock still for a second wondering where she had gone too. Then I felt small delicate hands rip apart a small lock that would have kept me from removing the hood. I tried to stay away from my mistaken savior when I heard her speak again “Please tell me you didn't decide on Lilith, your GEO character’s name. The name is a bit pretentious, don't you think?”

“What?” I didn't know what else to say. The girl was touching me while not being drained and she had somehow vanished from my special sight. I wasn't dumb enough to not understand those two things were directly related. This girl was also not mistaken about who I was and she had indeed come to save me. Only my sister knew about Lilith, my female GEO character. It was likely she had met Maria and was then pointed in the right direction. What I didn't know was why she was saving me or calling me Karina. The name wasn’t bad and I did look more like a Karina than I did a Kevin.

When the girl took off my hood I was surprised to see a young girl about my age. She was wearing a skin tight black bodysuit that covered every inch of her body save for her head. Her suit had many thin silvery runes embedded all over it that made her look elegant. The suit even covered her hands and feet seamlessly just like many comic book superhero costumes. I didn’t even see a utility belt or any sort of item on her person. What I didn't expect was how beautiful she was. She looked like she would easily mature into a gorgeous women in a few years. She was a brunette with beautiful sculpted features that gave her an elfin appearance. She even had pointed ears that were proudly displayed thanks to her ponytail. Her eyes were a tiny bit bigger than I was used to, but I was drawn to the violet pools inside them for longer than I expected.

I stared for a few seconds until I noticed her right gloved hand was doing a countdown. She smiled when I noticed. “Good to see that you start to absorb my glamour after only 5 seconds. My name is Rika and I hope we can be best friends again.” The very chipper girl took out her hand and I took it. She shook my hand and brought me up to my feet easily. “I’m really sorry. I should have gone straight to your house and warned you about what was gonna happen, but I was caught up doing a very important job.” She had a genuine look of concern all over her face.

“Okay.” I wasn’t sure what a glamour was and this hyperactive girl was claiming to have been my best friend at some point in my life. I couldn’t remember any best friends besides Ramon and Tyler. “Do I know you?”

“Nope.” she answered flatly and gave me a mischievous grin. “You’ve only ever seen me in passing when your sister drove you somewhere and when I left you a note.” My eyebrows told her how I felt about her statement. “I’ll try to explain to you who I am once we’re safe. For now let me just go cripple this traitor to mutant kind.” A smooth shiny black helmet that matched her suit with similar silvery runes appeared on her head and she stepped back from me. Her purple glow returned and she turned around to face the rear of the vehicle. She stuck out her hands and the azure wings rapidly came into existence one exquisite rune at a time. The wings looked smaller but somehow I knew they were the same ones, only reshaped. “No touchy!” I heard her shout as I was about to reach out to touch one. I saw that the wings were translucent and decided to check them with my normal sight. It turned out I could only see them with my special eyesight. I really wanted to know how she knew about my ability. I was hoping she was a friend of Shawn or Maria. Something in my gut was telling me she was neither.

Rika’s whole purple aura flared red for a split second and I could see a sword with a blue aura appear in her hand. The sword itself was segmented and I noticed the sword had hundreds of tiny little runes all over it. Although she was holding the sword hilt forward, the segmented blade was all drooped down to the floor. I saw a flare of blue aura, only this time it burst from her hand into the sword. The sword instantly straightened itself and in a split second, Rike sliced both doors from their hinges. I found it odd that no one had noticed her until then. All around me, the MCO and KOPs had nee driving along like everything was as it should be. When the doors fell off, they hit Power Tank head on, which probably didn’t matter because of the forcefield he used as a battering ram while in his Agile Mode.

Based on how everyone was starting to move , I could tell they finally knew something was going on. All four power armors from the KOP were already getting ready to deploy. Even the driver of the armored transport I was in was reacting, which caused the vehicle to sway a little. The agents that had been my captors moments ago, were still at the edge of the transport and were slowly getting closer to falling out thanks to the rough movement. Rika noticed and grabbed the closest one. She lifted him up like he didn’t weigh anything at all. She was probably a high level exemplar.

I had noticed Power Tank was getting ready to fire a weapon thanks to my sight, but had stopped upon seeing Rika hold the unconscious agent over the back edge of the vehicle. What surprised me more was how she tossed the agent up into the air above Power Tank. She rapidly did the same to the two other agents and I was surprised at Power Tank’s quick actions. He had rose up high to meet each agent and had caught them using a net gun and an anti-gravity gun. It looked like he had decided to set them down on top of the second transport.

When Power Tank dropped off the agents, the power armor KOPs launched themselves at the vehicle I was in and Rika flew after Power Tank. I wasn't able to do anything as I felt the vehicle loose complete control and begin to roll over. The back end of the transport had crumpled inwards, sealing me inside as the vehicle rolled once and came to a stop sideways. I had been rattled around the back and gotten up close and personal with the steely interior of armored transport. It hurt like hell and I realized it was the first time I had been in an auto accident. It was quick and painful with quite a bit of damage to me and the vehicle.

I was sore all over my body, but could still see that only one of the KOPs stayed behind to examine the vehicle. I could see his aura, about fifty feet above me, pointing his mechanical arm across the vehicle I was in. The KOP stopped while it was over me and then he slowly descended. When he landed, I could see his aura approach the back and try to pry it open. It took him about a minute to get it open enough for him to try and make it inside. I was feeling pain all around my torso and even my thighs. I hadn't broken a bone before but imagined I just had. I felt utterly weak and defenseless, and could only watch as the power armored KOP stepped closer to me.

“The MCO wants you alive as a guinea pig, but that shit’s a waste of time. All I have to do is ram your head into the wall a couple times, and it will look like you died in transit.” He had spoken to me through a distorted speaker and was inches away from me. Then he picked me up by my head. It was incredible painful and I could feel the fingers digging into the sides of my head as well as my spine being pulled by my body's weight. “Nighty night genefreak!” It only took a couple seconds for my ability to drain his power armor. The arm that held me up glowed bright yellow for a second and the power pack dimmed almost as quickly. I fell away from his grasp and was glad my power was so quick in draining his armor. After draining it, I felt better. The pain he'd been reduced greatly but my head still felt like it was in the vice like grip of the power armor. I wondered if I had some sort of regeneration that was triggered by draining.

I laid at the feet of the frozen power armor and could see the pilot panicking to get out. His green aura kept trying to move but he was stuck inside. I didn't doubt that I had drained all the power from his main power pack as well as the small reserve pack for getting out when in these kinds of situations. Of course, I wasn't safe yet. There were still the two armored transports that had been carrying the power armors and one filled with MCO agents. Both had parked behind the wrecked transport I was in and had turned some bright spot lights on to its rear. The wreck was perpendicular to the highway so the light didn't illuminate the inside much. I didn't want to get out of the vague safety provided to me by the damaged vehicle, so I stayed put next to the panicking KOP. I closed my primary eyelid to better focus my special sight and scope out my surroundings.

It turned out that I didn't have to worry much. My driver was knocked out. I could tell, because his green aura was still as lively as the KOP next to me. I thought about trying to put my hand on a spot the shortest distance from the armor and the pilot. I wondered if I could drain him just enough to recover a little more. That was only if my ability did work that way. I thought better of it when I remembered how the agent from earlier had told me about the comas his fellow agent and associates entered.

The other KOPs auras were looking in the other direction. They appeared to be shooting at where Power Tank had dropped off the unconscious agents. I didn't risk getting out and stayed put. I heard loud explosions and gunfire for a few minutes before it die down. Ahead of me, the KOPs gave up and began getting into their vehicles. Rika hovered into my sight’s range next to one of the transports. Her purple aura flared red and blue symbols appeared on the foreheads of the driver and his passenger. They looked to be the same as the ones that appeared on my captors. Just like them, they passed out. The other transport had only been able to turn on their vehicle when Rika’s wings propelled her next to it. Her aura flared red again and the last two KOPs were somehow incapacitated by the blue symbols appearing on their foreheads.

Rika’s wings vanished from my sight and as did her aura. It wasn't exactly silent thanks to the westbound traffic still going a long as normal. I was pretty sure the traffic behind us had been halted because of our little incident. I was still able to hear Rika’s footsteps through the loud ambient noises. “You okay in there?” Her voice was pleasant and not one bit out of breath. When she came into view, I was perplexed how she had managed to look completely unscathed. Her figure hugging suit had remained untouched. Her helmet was at her side similarly unaffected by battle. She had just fought against the KOP power armors and Power Tank, who had a near perfect record against supervillain mutants. She could have just done whatever she had to the other agents for quick results, but she did say she was going to cripple Power Tank.


“I think I broke something, but I felt a little better after draining this guy's power pack.” I started to get up and she once again helped me.

“No problem. Just siphon away everything in here.” As soon as she finished pulling me up, a small weathered hardcover book had appeared in her hand. It was only slightly bigger than a pocket bible, but it had a very strong and vibrant blue aura. I took it from her hand and was shocked to see the book crumble away to dust once it's aura had faded. I felt the pain leave my body and was glad I know longer had to deal with it.
I was left wondering more about my power. I had only held the little book for a couple seconds and had drained it of its powerful aura. My ability was scaring me. What would happen the next time I touched someone besides Rika. She must have been able to read my mind because she pulled me in close for a hug. I felt tears coming and let them flow. “Don't worry, I'll show you how to control your power so you don't hurt anyone.” She was only a few inches shorter than me, but I was the one who felt small and weak.

I stayed in her embrace for a while before I finally said something. “What do I do now?” I asked her.

“Well we need to get you somewhere safe to recuperate. Then I can explain to you who I am and how I know about you. Before that, I need you to change into this. I removed myself from her and she was holding up a suit that was similar to her own. I tried my best to hide my embarrassment at the thought of wearing something so revealing. On her body it looked great but seeing myself in something like that was too much for me.

“I can't put that on! It's way too embarrassing!” I exclaimed and pointed to my head.

“You have to get use to it sooner or later. Besides, you're nothing but skin and bones right now. You won't be showing much and no one will see you in it. When we fly away you're loose clothes are likely to flail around and expose your body to the cold. You won't get sick or die, but frostbite is still painful.” I looked down at myself only to realize how right she was about my body. The clothes I had on were baggy and loose even at my chest. I pulled down my sleeve to see my arm and was horrified at the sight. I was as able to clearly see the outline of my bones as well as a few tendons, but hardly any muscle. I pulled my shirt up and was able to see my ribs as well as some of my intestines. My legs were just like my arms and left me wondering how I was able to stand with hardly any muscle to support my skeletal system. “The longer we wait, the worse you're gonna get.” She pushed.

“Fine.” I finally said. Rika knew a lot more about my changes and wasn't surprised to see my emaciated form. The quicker I left with her, the better off I would be. At least that's what I hoped. I began removing my clothing and wondered why I wasn't feeling the bite of the cold air anymore.

“It's part of your mutation. Once you've fully mutated, heat and cold won't affect you as it once had.” I stared at her in disbelief as I removed my hoodie and jeans. “No I can't read your mind, but I can read the fluctuations of your aura via my mage sight.” My mouth was agape after hearing her words. I wondered if mage sight was what I had. “Stop wasting time and get naked. It's not something I haven't seen before.” She admonished me.

“Right. Sorry.” I took off my shirt as well and was only left in my sagging boxer briefs. I was about to take the suit from her hands when she pulled it out of my reach.

“Everything.” My eyes opened in horror. I hadn't been completely naked in front of anyone since I was 6 years old. The thought of getting completely naked in front of the attractive girl embarrassed me to no end, but she was right. We were both girls. She was here to save me and I was wasting time being embarrassed about my new body. I made up my mind to stop being a baby about the situation. I quickly pulled down my underwear and Rika was already unzipping the suit.

I stepped into the suit and Rika expertly seated my feet where they belonged. The suit had built in footwear the gave me a low heel. It was only a couple inches and didn't bother my balance much. For a moment I wondered if I would be wearing even higher heels in the future. I pushed the thought to the edge of my mind and helped Rika put the rest of the suit on me. The suit’s interior was very soft and comfortable. It felt very nice as Rika slid it up my body, especially over my new girl parts. When Rika finished zipping it all the way up, I was left in a firm embrace that didn't limit me in any way. The gloves that encased my fingers didn't limit their mobility at all and even had a textured grip where it was necessary. I didn’t know the material that the suit was made of but it was smooth, stretchy, and felt very sturdy.

The silvery runes that covered the suit’s surface were glowing slightly when I looked down at my figure. Then I saw Rika’s purple aura come to life and flare red again. Two helmets had materialized in her hands. She handed me one and put on the other. I turned the helmet around in my hand and looked inside to see it had a lot of silvery runes inside. I tried to put it on but found my hair kept getting in the way. Rika noticed and a brush materialized in her had as her aura flashed red. She turned me around and brushed my hair for only a minute before she let it go and I could tell it was in a ponytail just like her own hair. Then the helmet vanished from my hands and reappeared on my head.

“Can you hear me?” Rika’s voice came from both sides of my head very clearly and not to loud. It was almost as if her mouth was right next to my ear.

“Yeah I can hear you.” I responded.

“Good. I made your suit with magic runes that will suppress your powers. Which means while you wear it you won't be able to drain anyone. While you wear it I'll be able to fly around while carrying you. The helmets will allow us to communicate from any distance.”
“Cool.” She then picked me up like a bride and stepped out of the trashed vehicle. Seconds later her wings appeared behind her back and I was able to see them up close. The magical runes that made up the wings were beautiful and had a three dimensional shape that put others to shame. I had seen the White Arcanist make magic circles and runes while facing villains on TV, but they looked simple compared to the masterpieces that made up Rika’s wings. “Your wings are so beautiful.”

“They should be. Their creator spent a quite a few years making them perfect. Of course I helped a bit.” She leapt into the sky and the wings extended to their full wingspan. We rose higher and higher for a few minutes. I was able to see traffic backed up for miles thanks to all the headlights. Eventually we were almost a mile up and her wings shrunk down to a few feet wide. “Don't worry I won't let go.” She gripped me tightly and we were pushed forward at an unbelievable speed. I felt the wind hit my body fiercely, but I couldn't hear a sound. “Mach 1.” Rika uttered the words nonchalantly as I saw a visible burst of air that happened when breaking the sound barrier.

“What the hell!” I was shocked at how fast she was able to move. I tried to think of any superheroes who could move that fast. I could only think of a few and they relied on advanced technology. “No way we’re going that fast.” I turned my head with some difficulty, to see the ground below me moving at a pace I thought impossible. I wa able to see faint glows turn into streaks as we zipped along. It was a nice sight and I was also able to see that the azure streams I had noticed in the city went very far in all directions. They were the same blue as Rika’s wings and I wondered if they were made of the same or similar stuff.

“Would you believe me If I said I could go Mach 3 if I wasn’t carrying you?” I still couldn't believe her even as I she increased her speed.

“That's impossible!”

“Well It's magic so impossible is relative. Besides I can't fly like this forever. I can maintain my current speed for half an hour tops and Mach 3 for maybe a minute. Luckily my safe house is only a few minutes away in Omaha.” Omaha was the other big city in Nebraska and was right next council bluffs, Iowa. I had gone to Omaha a couple times to visit some of my mother’s friends and it was like Lincoln in a lot of ways. I also heard it was a lot more mutant friendly than Lincoln.

“I haven't been there in a while.”

“We won't be long. We’ll just recover for a day or two then we can get a move on to our real destination.” She was starting to get excited.

“Which is?”

“Whateley Academy, it's a very special school for mutants and it's a lot safer for you there than it is being out here.” Maria had told me that Shawn, her ex, had mentioned a school that would cater to the needs of mutants. I wondered if they were the same. Then I recalled the x men and their school for gifted children.

“Does this school have a danger room?” I asked with a bit of sarcasm.

“Several. And even simulators that will make playing video games a joke.” She had answered me without a hint of return sarcasm. A school for mutants like myself sounded like it would be a great place. The danger rooms meant we would actually be trained in our powers. I was starting to get excited when I felt Rika slowing down.

“We’re here.” I looked around and saw we were in front of an abandoned gas station. We were in a developing business district that had many empty plots of land. There were many signs indicating what business would be built soon. Rika set me down and I realized I didn't get get a head rush of any sort and wondered why. “The helmet and the suit have magical runes that prevent you from feeling nausea, dizziness, and even inertia when traveling high speeds.”

“That seems handy. Why don't you sell these to the air force?” Rika was ahead of me opening the door to the abandoned building. I was also feeling very embarrassed at being outside. It was dark but I could see the runes in my suit reflecting light when a car drove by. I expected them to honk at me or slow down but it was as if they didn't see me.

“I don't think our air force would approve of this uniform. Now come inside.” I took off my helmet after seeing her do so and followed her inside. Once I stepped inside I was shown an entirely new area. From the outside, I could see an old counter and some empty shelves. On the inside there was a single steel door that had a fancy hand scanner. Rika walked up to it and unzipped her suit. She pulled at the collar and then at her gloved hand. Soon her right arm and chest were free. She was turned away from me and I only saw a bit of her bare back, but I still blushed at knowing she was as naked as I was in the suit. After placing her bate hand on the scanner, she typed a code in on a pad that appeared right above the scanner.

The door opened and it revealed stairs that went downwards. Rika put her hand back in its place and zipped up the suit. She then went down the stairs and I followed behind her. It was the first time walking around in heels and it wasn't terrible. I almost lost my balance a few times. Rika went down the stairs quickly and waited for me. I almost wanted to have Rika carry me down the stairs instead, but my pride wouldn't allow it. Besides, I would have to learn to walk in heels sooner or later. My thought process was starting to piss me off. I was being a little too accepting of becoming a mutant girl. By the time I got to the last set of steps, I had gotten a lot better at walking in heels and it left me feeling betrayed.

When I stepped off the last step, Rika turned around and walked towards the opening. I followed her and tried my best to mimic the way she walked. We entered a huge room that looked more like a lounge room. There was an enormous tv that dominated the leftmost wall. In front of it was a wide variety of sofas and recliners with a few coffee tables amongst them. In the back of the room I saw what appeared to be a planning room that looked very much at home in a villains hideout. It had a large table with built on monitors and a center console that would likely have a hologram pop up or something. Behind the table were a ton of screens that were currently off. To the right was a huge kitchen area with a dining table for 4. In the kitchen I saw a corridor that had a small sign indicating Barracks and Restrooms.

“Welcome to Rent A Lair Unit 348.” Rika had spread her hands out to indicate the room.

“Are you serious?” I was very skeptical.

“Yep. The father of one of the kids at school is an ex villain that's in the lair business. He gave me a student discount and even waived the deposit when I mentioned I was gonna use it to rescue a friend that was gonna manifest soon.” She started heading into the kitchen and I followed her. What she had said was eye opening. There was actually a business in renting lairs to villains. When I stopped to think about it, it made plenty of sense despite the absurdity of it. What she had said after was even more alarming to me. She knew I was going to manifest and would need help. I had been thinking she might be from the future at that point. It was a train of thought that was a slippery slope to some strange possibilities with my new anatomy that I didn’t want to think about.