Question Tink: Summer of Fun (Complete)

Late May, 2007

“Mom do I really have to go to school today. I really feel like crap,” Teri said, scratching her chest which was really itchy, and trying not to cough up a lung. Everything seemed really far away, and not quite real.

“Yes,” her mom said. “You're father and I both have to get to work, if you want to keep eating.”

“I'm fifteen, I can stay home by myself. Believe me I won't have a party, I'll be lucky if I survive the day,” she pleaded. A coughing fit caused her limp brown hair to fall over her eyes.

“You're just coughing, I'll give you some cough syrup and you'll survive. I'm not letting you stay home all day watching cartoons. Now come out here and have some breakfast,” her mom said with absolutely no sympathy.

Trudging to the kitchen, Teri felt an enormous sneeze rising up. Before she could even cover her mouth, it ripped through her throat. It actually felt like she'd been punched in the face, her entire body felt strange, and sticky. There was a thump behind here.

“I think I need a tissue,” she said, looking at her sticky hand that was covered in red.

“AAAAHHHHHH!” her mother screamed turning white.

“It's not that bad, Mom,” Teri said. Then she realized her entire arm was dripping red. “Oh. I think I should go to a hospital.”

Her mother kept screaming, and she heard her dad come running down the stairs. Turning around, she stopped suddenly. Something was wrong, her legs hadn't moved, and everything seemed so much bigger than before. Looking down, she screamed as loudly as her mother.

The floor was far below her, but that wasn't the worst part. She, was far below her. She looked at her plain, but pretty face surrounded by light brown curls. Glassy eyes stared at her, while her tongue hung out of her mouth, purple and swollen. Worst of all her chest and night gown had a deep hole, surrounded by dark, red blood, right where her heart should be.

Her father took one look at the scene, the obviously dead body of his daughter, a blood covered figure that stood all of six inches tall screeching like a bat, flying over her, and came to an obvious conclusion. Bellowing with rage arms swinging wildly, he charged the monster.

Teri's eardrums hurt from all the noise. Seeing her father who was larger than a giant running at her, looking ready to kill, she somehow flew to the other side of the room a strange pulling sensation all along her back and chest. Not knowing what she was doing she ended up hitting the back of the couch nose first.

A book sailed past her, slamming into the wall hard enough to knock the clock to the ground.

“MOM! DAD! It's me Teri!” she yelled in a squeaky voice, jumping up and taking to the air again as a vase hit the spot she'd been standing in half a second later.

A lamp came within inches of hitting her, the wind of its passage sent her spinning through the air. With no idea how to consciously fly, she hit the ground and bounced along the carpet. It should have hurt, but she didn't even have a bruise. Her father came running, his slippered feet stomping the ground.

She bolted, jumping in enormous leaps helped by pale blue wings that she now saw were attached to her back, heading for the open window. Fingertips larger than her head grazed her feet and then she was in the air, spreading her wings and gliding away. Tiny tears fell to the ground, unnoticed by her father and mother who leaned out the window cursing her.

**

Teri looked at herself in the small pool where she had washed off her own blood. Her butterfly like wings wrapped themselves around her keeping the cool wind off her wet skin. The wings that stretched from her shoulders to her tailbone, weren't really from a butterfly, they felt more like bat wings. She could feel blood pulsing through them, they were covered in pale blue peach fuzz, were warm to the touch and moved bonelessly.

The wings were weird enough that she kind of blocked them out, she could freak out over them later. Instead she focused on her body and face, which at the moment was half hidden by a vast amount of purple hair that with only a bit of effort would make Cousin It jealous.

Her formerly plain round face, was totally different. Gone were her round cheeks, that her boyfriend, Todd liked to kiss, instead her cheeks were almost hollow, her cheekbones and chin pointed with a sharp eagle like nose. Her now oversized eyes, glowed a soft blue that matched her wings. Her skin was a dusky orange, not really a colour she remembered ever seeing on a human. Her breasts were large and very firm. Poking them let her know they were almost pure muscle, more like a birds breast than human, although they kept just enough definition, if she found a boy her size, he'd fall in love with her tits immediately. With her long limbs, compared to her tiny body at least, and fingers that ended in actual claws, she didn't really look human anymore.

Angrily she slapped the water. What had happened to her? She knew about mutants, but they didn't turn into little fairies. And no one in her family was a mutant either. Her thoughts started going back to her body lying dead on the floor. Hastily, almost in a panic she blocked out the image. She was starving, food was more important. Then she needed to find somewhere to stay until she figured out what to do next.

Taking flight was easy enough, she just had to jump really high and let the wind take her, then if she didn't think too much she could glide clumsily through the sky. With no better idea of where to go, she flew to the local GK Grocery Store. Slipping in through an open door on the hot spring day was easy enough, she just ran in behind a worker throwing out some trash and ran behind some shelves before anyone saw her.

She'd never been in the back of the store before, but it was just a matter of walking and ducking to find the produce section. A box of apples was waiting to be put out, jumping up she grabbed the smallest one and ran with under a shelf before anyone noticed. Being small was good for one thing at least. Ripping away the skin she hungrily crunched down on the fruit, eating almost half of it before she was satisfied.

Teri tried to shake her hands clean, but the sticky juice just wouldn't come off. Slinking through the pallets, shelves and boxes, she found some soft toilet paper, ripping open the bag with her claws, it was pretty easy to pull out a roll and drag it back behind a shelf in the produce section. Somehow it wasn't unbalanced despite being bigger than she was.

Wiping herself off as best she could, Teri ripped up a quarter of the roll and made herself a bed. After everything that had happened she was emotionally and physically exhausted. Dimly she heard some workers talking about rats, but sleep overcame her before she could really learn anything.

**

Squeaking woke her up.

The room was flat looking and there was no colour only grey, black or white and blurry, rubbing her eyes she tried to see properly, but it didn't help. The entire building was quiet, except for the sound of something tapping erratically, like claws on cement, and a persistent squeaking that seemed to be coming closer.

Teri huddled in her makeshift bed, shaking with fear. Her sobs turned to a shriek when a rat appeared from the darkness. It jerked back at the noise, twitching its nose. Cautiously it advanced again, the squeaking becoming louder and longer. Between squeaks it gave off little hisses.

“Go away! Shoo!” she screamed at it, which seemed to confuse the animal.

Grabbing the brown apple, she threw it at the rat, hitting it in the head and sending it sprawling. The rat got to its feet and scurried away as fast as it possibly could, leaving Teri crying in relief.

Sleep wasn't about to come back after seeing the rat. She listened carefully for people, she wanted help, but she realized there was no way anyone would help her now, she was a freak of nature, it was best to stay out of sight until she could think of something. After a long wait with no sound, she slipped out of her hiding spot, she needed food, water, and clothes.

Flying awkwardly she found a box of jerky. It wasn't something she'd normally eat, but she knew she couldn't survive off of eating fruit forever. Taking a piece as big as she was, she headed into the shopping part of the store, specifically looking for the small toy section. It was weird walking through the store at night and naked. She kept thinking that someone was watching her, that the police would come and arrest her. Even with her wings covering her, she blushed with shame.

The knock off barbie dolls were higher up where young girls could see them. An easy jump got her on the same shelf. The dolls were a little taller then she was, but their clothes seemed too tight. A careful look for the baggiest clothes possible. Ripping open one doll with a gold dress, she quickly slid on the uncomfortably scratchy material. She tore some stitching sliding it over her waist, and the threads around the shoulders snapped when she put her arms in the sleeves, but it just fit. She left the back open for her wings, which was good since there was no way she was going to close the velcro with her large chest.

Feeling uncomfortable but at least clothed, she began wandering the aisles without much clue what she was looking for. She needed somewhere safer to stay, where she wouldn't be seen by people or attacked by rats again. She needed to find better clothes. She needed somewhere to keep food for the day. Finally she needed to find some way to talk to people that wouldn't get her squashed.

It was close to dawn when she looked up and realized that some of the roof tiles weren't exactly sealed. Flying upwards she found the loosest tile and slid inside. It was dusty, but there was no way anyone would look for her up there.

She spent the next hour stealing dish towels, oven mitts, tissue paper, and packs of ready to eat food, especially granola bars in her new hideaway. By the time the first workers arrived she was sleeping peacefully in an oven mitt sleeping bag, on a pile of clothes.

**

“What in the world is that?” Marcus, the daytime manager of Gering, Nebraska's only GK Grocery Store asked, as he watched the security video. They'd discovered numerous cases of theft that morning, and he'd gone to the tapes expecting to see some idiot teenager taking it to the man by stealing from his job. Instead there was something like a bat flying around taking things apparently at random.

He tried to think of what it could be, when his eyes turned to the newspaper he'd planned on reading during his lunch break. The headline screamed about the murder of a local teenage girl who had something eat its way out of her chest. Having skimmed it, he knew that the monster was small, flew, and was probably very strong having battered its way through the girls rib cage from the inside.

He was dialing the MCO ten seconds later.

“MCO Omaha Office, how can I help you?” a woman asked.

“I think there's a dangerous mutant hiding in my grocery store,” he whispered, eyeing the ceiling warily.

“You think? What has happened?”

“I'm reviewing the security videos from last night, and things have been stolen. Doll clothes, granola bars, some fruit, jerky, dish clothes and oven mitts, I saw them go into the ceiling.”

There was a long pause. “I'm sorry, they flew into your ceiling?”

“YES!” he shouted. “Something grabbed them and up they went. Send your agents here, I think it might be the thing that ripped out a girls heart yesterday!”

“Have you seen anything else?”

“Well no. But you can't be too careful with mutants, they're crazy!”

“Please calm down sir, what is your name?”

“Marcus Kovar.”

Hold please,” the woman said, switching him over to some pop song. After ten minutes the music stopped. “Sorry for making you wait sir. I've talked to my supervisor and he said that the incident you are referring to is not mutant related and is not in our jurisdiction. Please contact your local police to deal with the thefts.”

Marcus could hear laughter in the background as the woman hung up on him. Slamming the phone down he huddled in his chair, expecting some horrible creature to break through the ceiling at any moment and impregnate him before he could blink. When his mouth and other body cavities weren't invaded, he picked up the phone and dialed 911, demanding they send the swat team over immediately to deal with the dangerous mutant.

Twenty minutes later a single police cruiser came rolling leisurely into the parking lot. An older officer strolled inside looking at his notepad. Marcus ran over to him. “This is it?! We have a dangerous situation here!”

“Of course, Mr. Kovak,” the officer said in a bored voice. “I'm certain this is as dangerous as when your dog ran away and you claimed it eaten by your neighbours secret mutant child. The strange lights in your backyard, caused by the mutant witch who lives at the end of the street. When you had a car accident and blamed it on mind control. The-”

“I have video proof this time!”

That got the officers attention. “Alright, lets see it.”

They headed to the office, where Marcus had left the video tape from the ancient surveillance he insisted on using to save money, in the equally old VCR. “Now watch this!” he said pressing play.

The screen stayed blank. The officer sighed and looked over his notes again, as Marcus tried to get the machine working. Finally he ejected the tape, only to discover there was no tape in the machine.

“It was right here!” he cried, as the officer walked out of the office shaking his head. “The mutant must have stolen it!”

“Sure, Marcus. When you have some proof tell us. Now my wife wants me home at a decent hour tonight and I need to pick up some groceries. So if you can find this magical tape before I'm done shopping I'll be happy to watch it.”

The proud manager of GK Grocery Store watched in horror as his last hope walked away, looking at a notepad, asking himself why they needed kale and if it was even food.

**

Teri, wiped her brow from the safety of the ceiling. She gave a silent thank you that the manager was so loud and that they hadn't gone digital. Flying away with the video tape, she wondered what she should do with it.

**

First Week

Teri sat on a small pin cushion in her box apartment, sewing a handkerchief into an open back dress. She never thought the home ec course her mom insisted she take would have ever been useful, but the sewing was proving useful now. The skirts and dresses she was making wouldn't win any awards, or be worn in the light of day, but they were a heck of a lot more comfortable than doll clothes. Holding the needle which was as long as her arm, she artfully threaded it on the first try, and went to work. Her claws were better than scissors at cutting the fabric and thread, which saved her having to learn how to handle scissors as big as she was.

An Ipod she'd stolen earlier played some music for entertainment, it wasn't as good as tv, but beggars couldn't be choosers. Dish clothes lined the cardboard floor, a large pile of them made up her bed in the corner. A couple of small romance novels made up her couch, she was slowly reading them while she waited for the night when she could go and have some fun. A small hole in the box led to her pantry full of candy, dried fruit, jerky, cookies, granola bars and more. The lack of lights didn't matter much, she could see in the dark now, even if it lacked colour.

The only thing she was missing was a bathroom. She had a little raised box with a doll chair inside that she had cut the seat out of, and cardboard taped around the legs to do her business. It was a ways from her apartment, so she didn't worry too much about the smell. Hand sanitizer was kept just outside the outhouse to keep clean.

She hoped the deli staff would clean the sinks properly before they went home. With all the dust just outside her door, keeping clean was a pain, and she liked to take baths every night, but the sink last night had been full of grease. Now she could feel the dust filling her pores despite using a wet wipe to clean herself off.

The PA system went off, telling customers the store was closing. She tried to sit still, the staff would be around for at least another hour cleaning up and things. Marcus the manager, would do a final check making sure all the security cameras were working and with a last nervous look around would flee for the safety of his car. Then she could go out and get stuff done.

Glancing at a watch that acted as her clock, she counted down the minutes.

After a long, excruciating wait it was time. With a whoop of glee, she turned off the Ipod, and ran outside, she went halfway across the floor ceiling before lifting a tile to get out. Flying through the air she went to each of the cameras, pulling out the wires, so she could go about her business in peace. Flying in the fairly still air of the grocery store was easy, and with all the practice she'd gotten into over the last week she was quite proud of her skill, especially since she'd never had a flying lesson in her life.

Teri was about to go looking for a new book to read when she heard clanking and banging from the back of the store. Swooping through the air, she landed on a tall pile of pallets to see what was happening. Five men in coveralls that proclaimed 'Sid's Extermination Company' came in with large boxes.

Over the next two hours, the men surveyed the store looking in all the corners, nooks and crannies, as well as lifting the tiles of the ceiling sending beams of light through the dusty air looking for signs of pests. The youngest one, started getting a little too close to Teri's new home for her comfort.

As he pushed the ladder in place, she crept over to the heavy ladder on silent feet. Just as he was about to put his foot on it, she grabbed one of the four legs and heaved. The ladder went over with a crash, just missing the shelves on either side of it. The others came running over as Teri hid behind some jars of discount peanut butter.

Five minutes later, after a vicious tongue lashing by his boss, and bad jokes from his coworkers the young man was setting up the ladder again. This time he didn't let go of the ladder before climbing up. Not wanting to hurt him, Teri flew up and grabbed a hold of his belt, his flashlight was clipped to his side, in easy reach leaving his hands free to climb up safely. Her claws made short work of the nylon cord holding it on, and she flew away at high speed dragging it behind her.

A minute later cursing could be heard clear across the store.

Teri tried not to laugh too loudly.

Fifteen minutes later the boss was climbing up the ladder, grumbling about incompetence and how hard it was to get good help these days. Teri was already waiting halfway up the ladder making sure her glowing eyes were damped down. As the large bellied man went past, she reached out and slashed his belt in half. His tools slowly started to droop, and then they hit the floor with a resounding crash. As all eyes focused on the tools, Teri flew to the ground.

The exterminators went off to regroup and discuss strategy.

Teri went and set off the fire alarm.

When the fire engines arrived, they found five very wet, confused and angry men. Teri decided that a night at home was called for and went back to her sewing.

**

Second Week

Marcus was eating lunch at the local cafe with his friend Fred, a pet shop manager who's store was just a few doors down from the grocery store.

“I'll tell you Marcus, I ain't never heard of anything like it. Someone broke in last night and stole a cage full of mice, along with enough mouse food and woodchips to last two months. I could understand wanting to steal one of the parrots or something expensive but mice? It doesn't make any sense,” Fred exclaimed utterly baffled.

Marcus just nodded sagely, several things that had confused him that morning suddenly clicked into place, mostly revolving around why his employees and customers had been complaining about animals squeaking all morning.

**

Teri walked before her subjects wearing her best dress, and a skewer she had cut down to be a swagger stick.

“Mice! For too long we have been burdened by the the overbearing weight of humans. Just because they are big, strong, and have thumbs, we of the small persuasion have been forced to hide in the corners of the world living off of their scraps, hiding in their shadows. I say enough is enough! Today is the start of our revolution. Today is the day they will speak about forever in history! It is the day when we say NO MORE! Who is with-” she stopped in shock. “Lucille! Byron! That is hardly appropriate behaviour for the eve of the revolution! Come on stop that! There are kids watching! Don't you have any shame!”

The mice ignored their glorious leader

**

Third Week

Marcus didn't look like his usual well groomed self. There was a bit of a manic look in his eyes as he stared at the ceiling and a his lip twitched randomly, and the thick leather gloves were something he would never wear normally. After the store was closed for the day, he went to his mini van and opened the back, taking two carriers that growled and rocked as he carried them at arms length. The mice that were being controlled by the evil mutant were squeaking horribly, they probably knew death was coming for them.

“Ten exterminators, couldn't do it. The MCO is laughing at me. The police ignore me. I'll show them. I'll save this store, this town! I'll be a HERO! I'LL SHOW THEM ALL NOT TO DOUBT ME!” he shouted.

Placing the two cats he'd been assured were pure, unadulterated evil on the floor, he carefully unlocked the carriers and opened them just a crack. The growling stopped, he saw the glint of ivory white fangs in the shadows, without another glance he ran for his office, cackling with glee.

As he closed the door it sounded like a pack of lions had escaped, a buzz saw like yowl came through the door and the squeaking became louder.

He watched from the video cameras as the cats ran into the ceiling. Tiles fell, a cat fell to the floor, seconds later it was jumping back up, its hissing could be heard over the banging. Marcus tried to follow the fight but it was moving so quickly now tiles, mice and cats were falling all over the store.

Finally there was silence.

Marcus crept out of his office, an insane smile on his face. There was no squeaking, no flying monsters, no laughter. He'd won. HE'D WON!!!!

Then the squeaking started again, louder then a ever. A cat yowled. He heard a tiny voice whoop with glee. Terrified mice dropped on his head.

He had just enough time to jump out of the way before one of the cats came leaping down, it had a pencil in its mouth with strings tied to both ends. A tiny girl on its back, was waving a sparkly pink doll hat in her hand.

“Come back you traitors! Obey your general! Tonight we conquered the cats! TOMORROW THE WORLD!” the evil mutant shouted kicking the cat to make it move faster.

Marcus ran for his life.
**

Week 4

Marcus was at his wits end, no exterminators would answer his call. Head office was furious with him over the damages, thefts and bad publicity. No one would help him. It was time for drastic measures. He opened the phone book and looked up a number he thought he would never call. There it was in black and white, a picture of a female cat person holding a giant mouse, under the words 'Mouser Extermination Agency. When it's too big for normal exterminators it's time to call an imbued. ** I also do children's parties.'

With a heavy heart he dialed the number.

“Hello, Mouser Extermination Agency and Child Entertainer, I'll remove your pest and entertain your kids, how can I help you?” a chirpy voice practically shouted.

“Um, hello. Is it true you're imbued and not a... a mutant?” Marcus asked.

“I'm 100% mutant gene free. I just look odd thanks to a power gem I got. I even have the MCO card proving it,” she assured him.

“Alright. I need your help. I have a mutant and a cat in the ceiling of my store. I've tried everything but they won't go away and no one is willing to help.” He started to sob. “You've got to help me!”

Her voice became even chirpier if that was possible. “Oh yeah, you're the crazy guy they interviewed on the news two weeks ago. Man, it's about time you called. I can be there tonight, just be ready to sign my contract and I expect to be paid half in advance.”

“DONE! Just get this thing away from me!”

**

Marcus waited nervously after the employees left. He could hear the surviving cat and its new owner prowling the store. The mutant didn't even try to hide herself anymore, she flaunted her powers riding the cat like a horse and wearing a mouse skin dress.

A beat up pickup truck pulled to a stop in front of the store. He rushed out to greet Mouser who was like her hand drawn picture a cat woman, with pitch black fur. If you looked past the ears, cat eyes, fure and tail she was extremely shapely, especially in the skin tight spandex suit she was wearing.

“Marcus, it's a pleasure to meet you!” she squealed. “Where's the pest?”

“Right in there, you can hear it rampaging through my store right now. What do I have to sign?” he asked.

“Just sign this contract agreeing to pay half up front and the rest upon removal of the pest from your store. And this one.” she said holding the papers in the shadows where it was hard to read.

He signed both of them, then stopped. “What was the second one for?”

“Removing all liability for damages and injuries that might occur during the removal of the pest. Don't worry I'm a complete professional,” she assured him.

With a bad feeling growing rapidly stronger, Marcus opened the door and let the Mouser in. Sitting on the bike rack outside his store he began to cry.

**

Teri rode Tigger through her territory. Her subjects had abandoned her, but she was the queen of all she surveyed, at least at night. She munched on a strawberry, letting the juice run down her chin and onto the dress she had specially made from the traitor Lucille. It was the least that little coward deserved after not defending her general from the cats.

Tigger began to yowl, his ears went back.

Jumping from his back, Teri took to the air ready to defend herself. A woman in a skin tight suit and a weird mask walked through the store. They had sent a hero after her? Well she would just have to send her packing like she had sent the exterminators.

Landing on shelf she picked up a can of tomatoes and lobbed it at the invader. It probably wouldn't hurt a superhero but it was merely the opening shot.

Mouser caught it without even looking. “Oh, the pretty butterfly wants to play!” she squealed with delight.

Teri shrieked as the woman jumped towards her, landing on a shelf sending the contents flying. She flew towards the shadows ducking below shelves to stay out of sight. The woman jumped along on all fours, acting as if it was a stroll in the park, even as boxes, cans and bottles fell with every leap.

“Come back pretty butterfly! You're so pretty, I just want to hug you, and kiss you, and pet you, I'll feed you and take good care of you!”

Flying straight up, Teri headed for the safety of the ceiling, breaking the tile with the force of her entrance. The cat woman followed, somehow running on the thin metal beams that held the tile in place.

Teri circled around and flew right at Mouser. Her tiny fists didn't look like much, but they had a lot of muscle behind them, and they were were so small it was like being hit by a very hard, blunt nail. Mouser yowled in pain as she was sent crashing through the tiles, landing on a display of paper towels. That would have been great for Teri, except that the woman managed to catch her and they both landed together.

“Now I've got you my pretty little butterfly,” Mouser shouted.

“No you don't!” Teri shouted, biting a furry finger. The hand opened up and she took off as fast as her tiny wings would take her.

“Ouch! Come back here butterfly!”

Teri finally managed to get out of sight of the exterminator and paused to come up with a strategy. The woman was just one aisle over, and there was no way she could take her in a fight. Looking at the shelf she got a nasty idea. Spitting on her hands she began to lift it.

She heard Mouser scream as the entire shelf started to tip over. There was a huge crash, and hundreds of glass jars shattered. The next shelf over began to fall as well, and the next, and the next, and the next.

Mouser who had managed to jump out of the way and landed beside Teri looked at the mess, and scratched her head. “Man, I'm so glad I had him sign the non-suing agreement.”

“Wow! I didn't think it would do that,” Teri said flying up for a better look.

They both turned to look at each other. Teri gave a little eep and flew away at top speed as Mouser frantically tried to grab her.

They raced all around the store throwing anything they thought would help at each other. Teri sent Mouser flying into the ice cream by coating the floor in cooking oil. And Mouser momentarily went airborne when she trapped Teri in a table clothe and the girl tried to fly away before ripping her way out. Teri was coated in salt, in a desperate attempt to force her out of the air, while Mouser got a face full of crushed chili peppers to the face.

Marcus who was outside, couldn't bear to look at his store, as he kissed his career goodbye.

Teri was getting desperate. She was tired, hungry, and the many small cuts on her hurt like the devil from the salt that covered her. Hiding in the pet food aisle, one of the last ones that wasn't destroyed, she looked around for anything that might help. Her eyes lit up when she saw salvation.

**

Mouser could smell the pest, despite the chili pepper that permeated her fur and nose. This job was her big payday and she was earning every last penny. Stalking on all fours, she had her eyes wide open looking for any trace of the pretty butterfly, it was so close she could practically taste it.

The pretty butterfly appeared right in front of her, it was holding a can of something in its tiny hands. Before she could make out what it was, the butterfly had ripped open the can and splashed her in the face with some kind of powder. As soon as the stuff entered her nose, she began to purr.

Catnip!

With the last second of intelligent thought she caught the pretty butterfly in her hands, then she was lost in a catnip high.

**

“Oooohhhhh pretty butterfly!” the cat woman moaned, rubbing Teri against her face.

“Let me go you filthy creature!' Teri raged.

It did no good, the cat woman had her in an iron grip and was licking her. Teri screamed as the freak of nature began pressing her against its chest and its other hand went between its legs. There was more moaning, but it was far less intelligible.

“Think happy thoughts! Think happy thoughts!” she told herself trying to shut off her senses.

**

Marcus turned around for the first time in hours when the door finally opened. Mouser came strolling out, a very happy grin on her face. She was holding a pale, shaking girl who was about six inches tall, in one hand.

“Please get this maniac away from me! She's crazy! Call the MCO! Call anyone, just get me away from her!” the mutant squeaked.

“Hey buddy!” Mouser said, patting him on the shoulder with her free hand, which felt a little sticky. “I got the pest. I'll be billing your credit card first thing in the morning. And I'm really, really sorry about your store. But that's why you signed the no sue me contract. It's been a REAL pleasure!”

Marcus just nodded, unable to speak. Falling to his knees, he wondered if he would be able to get a job as a bag boy after head office heard what happened.

**

Teri sat awkwardly in the passenger seat of Mousers pickup truck, looking like a little, winged Amazonian warrior doll, who had just fought a vicious battle with an insane chef in a well stocked kitchen. Country music was playing loudly, while Mouser yowled along quite happily.

“Uh, Mouser,” she said as loudly as possible trying to be heard over a brokenhearted cowboy.

The cat woman hit pause, 'What's up my pretty little butterfly?”

Wiping some peanut butter off of her knees, Teri said some of the hardest words for a teenager to say to an adult. “I'm sorry that I beat you up.”

“What, this?!” Mouser said, waving at her torn suit, covered in vegetable oil, pickles, dried pasta and coated in herbs. “This is nothing. A couple of bruises, getting soaked in oil, and coming off of a catnip bender, this was like a normal date for me.” She got a thoughtful look in her golden yellow eyes. “A tame one.”

“Uh...”

The catlike face turned to her, interest in her eyes. “So how old are you?”

“FIFTEEN!”

“When's your birthday?”

“NEXT YEAR!”

“Shucks.”

The music went back on, something Teri was extremely grateful for.

**

“Do you mind washing up in the kitchen sink? I think the shower would be a little too big for you,” Mouser said, stripping out of her costume as soon as the front door was closed revealing a bikini clad models body. Somehow the woman didn't sound tired even after driving for seven hours to get to Omaha.

“Yeah, no problem,” Teri answered looking around the one room apartment. There wasn't any furniture, just lots of pillows, thick rugs and scratching posts. Pictures of Mouser in various poses, several of
them nude but not showing anything except her butt lined the walls. A 40 inch flat screen tv hung from the wall, a small cabinet beneath it had a top of the line DVD player. “Do you have any doll clothes? I kind of left everything back in the grocery store.”

“Sorry. I'll give you a wash cloth you can cut a hole in the middle for your head and wear it like a dress until we go shopping tomorrow,” she looked out the window at the rising sun, “today.”

“Thanks.” Without another word they both went to wash up.

Since she didn't have fur, Teri was finished long before Mouser, and took a bit of time cutting a proper hole in the red washcloth she'd been given. Cleaning her mouse fur dress took longer, but with a healthy dollop of dish soap most of the stains came off. Hanging it up to dry over the faucet, she jumped to the floor and found a small comfy pillow in the corner of the room. Curling up to sleep she didn't hear Mouser come back or feel the hand towel draped over her.

**

They both woke up to giant robots fighting equally large demons as people ran in terror.

Teri instinctively dived for cover under the pillows since her wings were covered up. Mouser just rolled over, stretching every part of her body in ways that would send most people to the hospital. “Oh Mega Rider Space Demons From Outer Space! It's Thursday.”

“That's your alarm clock?” Teri asked, peeking at the tv from the safety of her pillow.

“Yeah! No better way to start the day. Do you want chocolate coated sugar bombs with extra sugar, fish sticks, refried noodles and mice, rat soup, reheated chicken balls, or some chocolate protein bars?”

“Protein bar please,” she replied as she put on her mouse skin dress, not sure how comfortable she'd be eating mouse or rat.

As they ate breakfast in the afternoon, while watching badly translated Japanese cartoons Teri tried to remember what it was like being with people, after four weeks all alone with nothing to do except read once the Ipod ran out of power, she'd gone a bit stir crazy. Finally she worked up the courage to ask what had been on her mind for a while.

“Mouser, what am I going to do?”

Holding up her fingers, Mouser started counting down. “First clothes. Then food. Then powers testing. Then an MID. Then we figure out what next.”

“An MID? Isn't that for mutants?” she asked, recalling the few episodes from Tales of the MCO she'd watched.

“Yeah.”

“So why do I need one?”

“Did you always look like that, butterfly?” Mouser asked, speaking slowly.

Teri blushed. “Well, no not until four weeks ago.”

Nodding sagely, the woman said, “Ergo, you, my pretty little butterfly, are a mutant. Unless you got some pretty stones like I did, that gave you some messed up dreams and changed you into a fairy.”

“Oh. So... what do we do about clothes?”

“Leave that up to aunty Mouser. I have it all under control.”

Teri suddenly became very worried at the Cheshire cat grin that showed off every one of Mousers teeth.

**

Riding on Mousers shoulder, trying to look as doll like as possible, Teri wondered why they were going into a store called Anime Collectors Hut. Posters for cartoons covered the windows blocking out all possible natural light.

Stepping inside, several pale teenage males, dressed in black, turned on them. A girl who was dressed in short shorts, a top that only barely covered her small chest, with cat ears and a tail squealed and ran up to give Mouser a full body hug. Teri took flight with a yelp of fear.

“OH!!! Mouser, you got a fairy! Is she yours?” the girl shrieked.

“That's Butterfly, and she's not anyones, she's a person just like you, Sasha.”

“Actually it's Teri,” she called down from the light fixture. No one paid attention to her, focusing their admiration on her wings, her appearance, and her lack of panties.

“Is she going to model with you?” one of the guys asked, his tongue practically hanging out.

Mouser scratched her chin and twitched her ears in interest. “I don't know, I just met her last night. Right now I'm looking to expand her wardrobe.”

A normal looking man came out from the back of the shop. “Mouser! It's great to see you. I have the photo session already for you on Monday. Your fans will love it. We've already doubled hits on the site with the promise of more.”

“Oh, goody! Thank you Peter! I need a new truck!” Mouser shouted, clapping her hands and jumping up and down, which got admiring smiles and leers since she was in a short sundress. “But for now I need some clothes for my friend. Come on down Butterfly.”

“It's Teri,” she said, flying down, to ooh's, ahh's and the clicking of camera phones.

“Oh wow! She's amazing,” Peter said, leaning in close to get a better look. “I have just the thing.”

He ran to the back of the shop and came back a few minutes later with several boxes. “These aren't the real collectors items, but they're nice clothes, with real cotton, lace, buttons and zippers.”

Teri looked at the dolls inside, they were close to her size, some bigger a few smaller, wearing a weird mix of poofy dresses, skin tight jeans and t-shirts, trench coats, jean jackets, business suits, hot shorts and more. Looking up at the enormous faces around her, suddenly feeling extremely self conscious, Teri said the only thing she could think of. “What the hell?”

“Welcome to Otaku!” Mouser shouted.

**

Mouser, Sasha and Teri were allowed into the back where they would have some privacy, and they got to work seeing what would fit her and what wouldn't. The shirts and coats proved to be a problem because of her wings. Sasha grabbed a tiny sewing kit from her backpack and proceeded to cut slits in the back, hemming the sides. While that was going on, Teri was putting on pants, shorts and even underwear.

She posed in front of an ornate silver hand mirror getting a really good look at her body for the first time. The curves were nice, her butt was perfectly proportioned and she was stacked for the first time in her life. If only she wasn't the size of a hand.

A bra was impossible, even though some of the dolls had actual working bras for some bizarre reason they couldn't be modified for her wings. Fortunately her breasts were almost solid muscle so there wouldn't be any jiggling, and she was so small no one would be able to see if she was cold or not without a magnifying glass.

Out of fifteen dolls, she got two pairs of pants, three dresses, hot pink short shorts, a skirt, four shirts and two jackets, a jean jacket and a trench coat, along with six pairs of panties. She managed to get two cloth slippers which weren't perfect but would help keep her feet clean.

“These are awesome!” she said, admiring the brown bell bottom trousers she had on.

“Yes they are. And it only comes to nine hundred dollars! That's a real deal,” Mouser told her.

She fell on her butt. “N-n-nine hundred dollars! I don't have any money!”

“Well we can't give them back, they're out of the box, and they've been cut up. I could give you a loan, but I'm not sure what you can do to pay me back.”

The room was windowless, the only way out was closed as well, keeping her from her first idea of running like hell. Sasha seemed to realize her concern.

“I know what you can do,” the girl said. “You can model with Mouser. You'll be so awesome, all her fans will love you!”

“Modeling?” Teri squeaked.

Mouser picked them both up in a group hug. “That is an awesome idea! You'll even have a bit of money left over at the end of the month!”

Five minutes later, Teri was officially a model and set up for a shoot on Monday with the largest American anime fan website.

**

The next stop was lunch, or supper for most other people. Mouser took her to a restaurant she went to all the time, and while Teri got a lot of odd looks, the patrons were used to Mouser and didn't panic when they saw her.

“You know, Butterfly, you'd be great working childrens parties. We could get you a little princess outfit, and you could be the fairy princess. We'll be the best entertainers in the city, in the state!” Mouser shouted, knocking her glass of milk over as she threw her hands wide.

“I don't think so. And it's Teri.”

“Come on, you need a job.”

“I'm fifteen, I need to go back to school,” Teri said.

“You'll be stepped on your first day back, Butterfly,” the woman insisted. “Go get a GED like I did and lets start making cash!”

Teri felt her chin start to quiver, her eyes got big and watery. “B-b-but I want to go to school!” she cried, the tears pouring out like rain.

“Hey, stop that. You don't have to cry! Look we have ice cream! Please stop crying! How can someone so small be so loud?! OK! OK! OK! I'll see about getting you back to school! Just PLEASE stop crying!”

Sniffing, she looked up at her temporary caregiver with big puppy dog eyes. “You promise?”

“Promise. Just no more tears!”

“OK!” Teri said, grabbing the tiny desert spoon and digging into the pile of chocolate ice cream that was as big as she was.

Mouser sighed, realizing she'd been had. “Hey Butterfly, got a question for ya. Where do you put all of that food you eat?”

**

“Where are we going now?” Teri asked.

“Well the MCO is closed for the night, so we're going to see about getting you some schooling. You're probably SOL for finishing the term this year, even if we could get your old grades and stuff, but I know some people we can talk to about how to go to school after the summer,” Mouser said.

“And who are these guys?” carefully not thinking about her old life.

“The Lincoln Freedom Squad! We're on a first name basis,” she said proudly.

Teri sank down in her seat, hiding her face in her hair. She knew all about the C-list Freedom Squad. They did a lot of anti-bullying stuff, made appearances at charities and special events, and the last time they'd fought a super villain, they'd ended up in the hospital for weeks. The fight had lasted all of five minutes and the video could be seen all over the net, under the title curb stomp, embarrassing, how not to be a hero and other less flattering names. It seemed very appropriate that Mouser would know them.

“We're here!'

They got out of the truck and entered a plain two story office building that proudly proclaimed itself as the headquarters of the LFS.

Mouser went right on in, with Teri flying behind, Glow Worm the leader of the LFS stopped smiling and let out a long suffering sigh when he saw them. “Mouser, if this is about your last application to join, the answer is still no.”

“I'm not here about that Glowy, I've got a friend who has some problems. This is Butterfly, a new mutant and she needs to go to finish her education, before she's willing to become my partner,” Mouser explained.

“My name is Teri, and what's this about being partners?” Teri tried to say.

“Oh, that's different. Hello Butterfly, when did you manifest and how old are you?” GW asked.

“Actually I'm Teri, not butterfly. And I manifested about four weeks ago, I turned fifteen last month.”

He typed some stuff into his computer. “Alright, how did you manage to meet up with Mouser?”

“I was living in a grocery store, since my parents think I died and I'm an evil monster because I sneezed myself out of my own chest. They finally hired Mouser to remove me last night, and after we kind of broke the store she caught me and decided I could live with her for a while,” she explained.

His eyes went wide. “Sneezed out of your chest?”

“Yeah, I was feeling sick, coughing and sneezing a lot, and then I had a huge sneeze and it felt like I'd gotten punched in the face. Next thing I knew, Mom was screaming, I was looking down at my dead body, and I was covered in blood and bits of bone. It was kind of messy.”

His cheeks bulged out like he was trying not to throw up. Finally he gave up, bent under the desk and noisily vomited up his supper into a waste basket. His head still down, Glow Worm groped along the top of the desk for some tissue, a minute or two later, looking pale but calm, he reappeared. “Ok, Butterfly, that is definitely a new one. Do you have any ID?”

“No. I had to fly away in a hurry when my parents tried to squash me, I didn't have time to get anything, not even clothes. It was a little embarrassing.”

“Uh huh. Are the poltergeist of Gering, GK?”

She blinked surprised that her story had gotten out. “I guess so. I didn't really have tv or anything to listen to, but I'm from Gering and I was in a GK Grocery Store.”

“We offered to go in and take a look, but the manager screamed 'MUTANTS!' and slammed the phone down,” GW said with a chuckle. “Alright, since you're fifteen, with no ID, and manifested, you need an MID. And if you have somewhere to stay for the summer we can send you off to Whateley for school in September.”

“Whateley?” Mouser and I both asked at the same time.

He nodded. “It's a highschool for mutants. They'll train you in your powers, give you a great education and help set you up with everything you need to survive.”

“How come I never heard about the school?!” Mouser whined.

“Because you got your rocks two years ago, after graduating college. You aren't exactly the student they're looking for,” the hero explained slowly.

“Humph! Mutants get all the luck!”

Glow Worm rubbed his temples, clearly fighting a headache. “Anyways, Butterfly, you get your MID as soon as possible, and then you can come back here we'll help you fill out your forms and send them off. Considering your situation, I think they'll accept you as a scholarship student so it won't cost you fortune.”

“Thanks.” Teri looked over at Mouser who was clearly off in her own little world and had wandered away to look longingly at the door that said 'employees only', muttering angrily to herself. “Um, could I possibly stay with you guys for the summer?”

He looked at Mouser as well, and whispered, “No, Butterfly. Sorry, but she'd probably come around even more often if we did that. You're free to visit without her though.”

“Thanks anyways,” she sighed.

**

The next morning they woke up early, for them, just before noon. After a quick breakfast of chocolate covered sugar bombs, they went to the MCO office.

The small building didn't look like much, even with the bullet proof glass doors. Mouser walked right in and smiled a big toothy grin at the man behind the desk. “HI! Is Mr. Hill working today?”

“Yes, Mouser. He's in and he's free. Would you like me to send him out, or do you want to go to his office?” the man said with a weary voice.

“Well, since I have a friend who needs to get tested and an MID, can he come out here?”

A minute later, an older man in a good suit, with a big smile on his face came out. “Mouser, if it isn't my favourite non mutant,” he said, with a touch too much emphasis on non mutant. “What would you like to talk about today?”

“My friend Butterfly, here,” she waved at Teri who was sitting on her shoulder wearing short shorts, slippers and a t-shirt, “needs an MID. Can you get your people doing that, while we... talk?” she asked, licking her small muzzle with a long and very flexible tongue.

“Certainly!” Mr. Hill practically shouted. Turning to the man at the desk, “Jones, get David up here, we need some power testing, and an MID for Butterfly. I want this done properly and with no mistakes. While thats going on, I'll be in my office discussing things with Mouser. It's always good to have some information on mutants from our eyes on the ground. So if anything that isn't a code red comes up tell Murphy to deal with it.”

“Of course sir.”

Teri was told to wait, while the two adults headed off to... 'talk'.

Ten minutes later, a bored looking man came out and looked around the room. “Um, Jones, where is the mutant?” he asked.

“I'm right here,” Teri said, flying up to him.

“Uh, right. Why do I get the strange ones?” he asked the air. “Come with me please Butterfly.”

“It's Teri,” she said as quickly as possible, but unfortunately she only spoke to his backside. Sighing, she followed along.

They came to a large gymnasium like room. David sat down at a computer and started working. “What can you do?”

“I can fly. I seem to be really strong, I heal quickly, and I can see in the dark,” she said.

“Ok, lets see how fast you can fly.”

She did a few loops around the room, and was told she could fly at about 40 miles an hour.

Next up was weightlifting. She was too small to reach the metal bar lying down, or even standing up. David ran around the building for ten minutes grabbing phone books, training manuals and magazines until she could actually reach the bar. Then she started lifting it. At first she couldn't move it enough to actually register, David did somethings and the two inches she could move the thing was caught by the computer. A bit of pumping later and she reached four hundred pounds.

David upped the weight to 401 pounds.

The bar came down, squashing Teri, so only her wings, and legs could be seen. David hit the emergency off switch, and the bar was pushed away. “Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!” Teri yelled, rubbing her breasts which seemed a little flatter then they had been a minute ago.

Some quick testing, showed that she had a PK field focused on her hands only, which could hold up to four hundred pounds but no more. It also spread out to cover up to three feet of anything she was holding.

The next test went almost as well.

“NO WAY! SCREW OFF! GO TO HELL!” Teri yelled.

“But we need to see how your regeneration works,” David complained, holding a device with blades as long as Teri's arm.

“How about I grab a sword and see how you like being cut with that thing. No way, no how!” she stated in no uncertain terms holding a pencil up like a pole arm to keep him back.

They compromised, getting a magnifying glass and the finest needle they had. David muttered about how poor the findings would be, Teri screamed as something just a little smaller than her pinky finger was jabbed into her arm so hard it hit the bone. It was healed up ten minutes later.

Devisor and gadgeteering went much better.

“I'm not touching that stuff.”

David took two ibuprofen before asking the obvious question. “Why not?”

“I have one pair of shorts and four shirts, and I'm nine hundred bucks in the hole,” she said. “Do you know how hard it is to get grease out of clothing. If I touch any of that, I'll probably have to get up to my armpits in it, and my clothes will be ruined. Not touching it and you can't make me.”

“So you really don't want to make a machine or anything?”

“No. If you want me to make some clothes, I can. I had to make my own dresses, but this junk, not a chance.”

“Ok, Devisor and gadgeteer are a zero. Good to know.”

**

David watched the strange little girl running on the treadmill, then looked at the tennis ball in his hand. He felt almost bad about the next test, she probably didn't have any danger sense, and it didn't seem very fair to drop something almost as big as she was on top of her.

He rubbed his sore head, his day had started off really, really well.

David dropped the ball on her head.

The next five minutes of listening to her yell at him as she picked her self up from the floor made his head hurt more, but it was totally worth it.

**

Teri stood in the strange room looking at the bare walls. “Uh David, what's going on?”

“Just an agility test, you may want to start flying now,” he said through the intercom.

She took the air. “Why”

He didn't answer, instead a volleyball whipped by so quickly she was sent tumbling through the air by the draft. The next three minutes became a dangerous ballet of zooming balls, and a cursing fairy who zipped around the room barely avoiding the dangerous projectiles. She almost made it to the four minute mark, when a ball caught her in the back.

She and the ball hit the wall. The ball fell while she seemed permanently attached spread eagle to the wall for several seconds, before she slowly peeled off and thanks to her spread wings floated to the floor.

When the door finally opened, releasing her, she looked David straight in the eye, “I HATE YOU!”

**

After the battery of tests was done, Teri and David went to a machine where the MID was going to be printed. “Ok, Butterfly, do you have a costume to protect your identity?”

She looked at her tiny body and large wings. “Does it really make a difference if people can see my face?”

He had the decency to blush. “No I guess not. Please stand right there while I take your picture.”

This caused some problems as the camera wouldn't go down far enough to take her picture and it couldn't be tilted. Finally she stood in his hand while he held her at the proper level.

“Ok, now for your codename,” he said mostly to himself. “Butterfly.”

She jumped him. Holding him by the nostrils, her feet planted firmly on his chin, she glared at him from less than an inch away. “MY NAME IS NOT BUTTERFLY! If I need a codename, lets go with Tink. It's a hell of a lot better.”

“Ok. Pleash let 'o of m'.”

She flew to his shoulder and watched carefully as he typed in her code name. Satisfied, she patted his ear and flew back to her chair to wait while the machine did its thing.

It was finally done, and David handed her the MID, which was as big as her body. “Um, where am I suppose to carry this?”

“That's your problem, not mine. But you should keep it on you at all times, and you definitely need it if you want to travel by plane.” He smiled cheerfully, “Have a great day.”

She watched as he did a jig out of the room.

Mouser came out a few minutes later, fixing her dress, and looking very happy as she fixed her makeup. “All done Butterfly?”

“Yeah. Can you keep this in your purse until I figure out some way to hold it,” she asked handing over her MID.

“Sure thing. Now lets take off, I need food and I feel like a cigarette.”

**

Jones watched the mutant and the cat girl leave. His boss was there was well watching the woman with a tired grin on his face.

“Sir, I know its' not my place, but aren't you fraternizing with the enemy?”

“She's not a mutant. It's perfectly acceptable,” he said sternly. “And once you go cat you don't go back.”

**

It was the middle of summer and the production crew of Little Movies, was looking over their options for their first online film, Fantasy Gamers.

“Special effects are killing us, practically all our budget is going into making the monsters that look like cardboard cutouts, or crappy monsters from the '60's,” Tim said.

“Can we get a bit more money with some more endorsements?” Sarah asked looking over the budget.

Tim shook his head. “Not a chance. We're lucky we got as much as we did.”

“What is the worst scene for us?” the Paul asked.

“The goblins are no problem. We have enough green make up for all of them. The necromancer... works, but I don't want to see what happens once we get all the energy flashing around. Unicorn, skeletons, and orcs could use some work, but I think we can manage it. The flying monkey scene is the killer, everything we've got makes Wizard of Oz look like cutting edge graphics,” Tim complained.

Sarah threw the budget down in frustration. “Can we just cut the scene?”

“No way,” Paul insisted. “As the director I say we NEED that scene to really show the heroes what they're up against. We have to have it and it has to look good.”

“Do they need to be monkeys?” Arthur asked, looking up from his laptop.

“Well no,” Paul admitted. “But they need to be monstrous and they have to fly.”

Arthur flipped the laptop around, showing photo's of a small fairy wearing a mouse skin posing with a cat woman. “Can we make them a horde of blood thirsty fairies?”

“She's real?” Sarah asked.

“Oh yeah. She's done a bunch of photo shoots since the middle of May for anime and fantasy websites, and I saw her at an anime convention two weeks ago,” Arthur explained.

“Wait, wait, wait. You want us to use a mutant?” Tim asked. “The actors union will hate us.”

Arthur shrugged. “Have we signed a contract with them? Are we planning on using them in the future? I thought this was all about forging a new way to make movies in the digital age. We are on the cutting edge and not letting anything stop us. Who cares what some stuck up bigots say? I don't. They want to blacklist us, great, lets us it. Lets tell H1 what we're doing so that they spread our films name all around the country. We'll have people clicking on our site and going to Youtube, watching our movie just to see why people are calling us the devils. You can't buy that type of publicity.”

They thought about his proposal for a minute. They knew Arthur's sister was a mutant, so it wasn't exactly an unbiased reason to use a mutant, but it made sense.

“Screw it,” Paul said, “let's do it. Can we find any other ugly mutants who can be movie monsters?”

**

Teri looked around the movie set nervously. She thought she'd been prepared for it but this seemed at least an order of magnitude greater. She wasn't getting paid nearly as much for her work either, only two hundred bucks for two days worth of work, but meals were free, and she could use it in her portfolio.

Amazingly she found she liked being in front of the camera. People stared at her, but it was for a good reason, not because she was so strange looking, or a GSD case as Glow Worm explained to her. And the compliments she got from fans outweighed the negative ones from bigots.

Mouser was with her of course, acting as her guardian and agent. But mostly the woman just wanted to see what a movie set was like, and if she could score with any handsome actors or beautiful actresses.

The director walked up, he looked young, despite his rapidly thinning brown hair. “Alright, Butterfly, I love the mouse dresses you brought, they're perfect for the scene. Now you are a bloodthirsty, evil fairy, who wants to stab the hero and his companions with your poison spear. You HATE them. You WANT them to DIE! Can you do that?”

“Yeah sure,” she said.

“Great. Now remember when you don't actually want to hit them, just make it look good, and try not to get hit by their swords. You're a regenerator right?”

“Um, yeah.”

“Great! Let's get to work!”

She looked at her fake spear made out of balsa wood and modeling clay, then the prop weapons the other actors had, which were real metal, or hard plastic. “Wings don't fail me now,” she whispered.

Flying into position, she waited for her moment. The director made sure everything was in place, once satisfied he yelled action.

She flew down her mouth open in a silent yell, her spear in front of her. Dodging past the swinging swords like they'd done in the hour of rehearsals earlier, she struck with her spear, making sure the hero had enough time to dodge. The other actors were flinching and swinging their swords as if there was a horde of fairies attacking them.

A dulled blade came within an inch of striking her face, and she veered straight up. Spinning in midair, she dived back down, trying to look as blood thirsty as possible. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the director smiling, as the love interest screamed in pain and fell to the ground clutching her arm, which broke a blood bag coating her arm in red liquid.

The second of inattention proved her undoing and a sword caught her in the side. She went flying, as the director yelled to keep going.

Landing in some bushes, she laid on her back, “I'm alright,” she gasped. “I'm alright.”

**

“That was excellent work, Butterfly!” the director said, as she took a drink from her thimble of water.

“I hope so, my ribs still hurt. And my names Teri,” she said.

The director kept talking. “So now we need some close ups of you. Like you are now, and with make up.”

Teri listened as he explained what she had to do. She wondered if she should have demanded danger pay.

**

She glared at the camera, with her blood smeared face. Her white mouse dress was covered in easily
cleaned grease and dirt, and she was holding a spear that was three times as long as she was this time.

“Action!” the director shouted.

Screaming loudly, she flew through the air, with the green screen at her back, swinging her spear and jabbing at imaginary enemies. This went on for three minutes, when a foam hammer hit her in the back sending her to a padded mat on the ground.

**

“Action!”

Her skin and hair were pitch black, they simply made her roll around in some black makeup, naked, and then had her put on her dress. She did her flying routine using a long, wicked looking plastic dagger from a toy set.

She flinched when the flat of a sword, padded on the side where the camera couldn't see it, caught her in the face.

“You flinched too soon, Butterfly! Get back in position.”

“Ow!”

**

“Action!”

With a blue hand print on her face, Teri screamed evil sounding gibberish at the camera, spinning like a top through the air with a small axe. She made sure not to look at the large hand that swatted her off screen, into the waiting pillow held by an assistant.

At least that was the plan. He hit her a little too soon, and she went flying into a table covered in drinks for the crew.

Spitting out a mix of lemonade, herbal tea, soda and water, she laid there trying to ignore the pain. It wasn't too bad actually, it only hurt when she breathed. “There has to be a better way to make a living.”

“Great work Butterfly. You're going to make Fantasy Gamers famous. And we'll keep you in mind for our next movie, Fantasy Gamers: The Return!” the director raved.

“Yeah. I'll definitely think about it,” Teri said from her car seat. She was clutching her little coin purse which was clipped to a little bracelet on her wrist, and held her MID, bank card and the check for two hundred dollars. She had definitely earned the cash after everything she had done. Even with regeneration she felt battered. “Let me know when the films released, I'll make sure all my friends watch it.”

With a final good bye, Mouser put the truck into gear and took off. “That was so much fun!” she exclaimed.

“Yeah, it was interesting. I just wish they didn't ask me to die twenty times.”

“Well that didn't look like fun, but behind the scenes was definitely where the fun was,” Mouser began to purr, probably remembering the after work party.

Teri edged away from the woman a little. Laying down on the seat she went to sleep, she deserved it after the beating she'd taken.

**

“Wake up Butterfly! Time to work!” Mouser said.

“What?” Teri asked still half asleep in the car seat.

The woman gave her a toothy grin. “While you were asleep I got a call, apparently there is a huge rat problem and only I, meaning we, can take care of it. Don't worry I packed your uniform and weapons when we left.”

Bowing her head in resignation, Teri went to the back seat and unlocked the little box under the seat. Putting her coin purse and clothes on one side of the box, she put on the specially made padded suit that had a weave of metal wires on the outside, with an aluminum backpack attached to protect her wings, a tiny helmet, and short spear just a bit longer than her arm.

Jumping to the window, Mouser put Teri in her shoulder and walked towards the old decrepit house that looked perfect for a horror movie. “We're killing rats here?”

“Yep. They're paying us double for a rush job.”

“I need a raise.”

“Hey,” Mouser protested, “I'm getting you all those modeling jobs. You're lucky I'm not charging you room and board.”

“Isn't this child labour? I thought that was against the law,” Teri complained.

“Just think of it as helping pad out your resume. What other teenage girl can say she was a model, an actress, a child entertainer and an exterminator? Now big smile for the client, and remember if the rat looks healthy, try not to mangle it too much. I want to make my special goulash this week.”

“Yeah. I think I'll just order pizza and Chinese food for the next few days.”

The door was opened by an old man as they stepped onto the porch. “Thank you for coming so quickly. I wouldn't have called, except that the rats have started to nibble at my collection of antique books.”

“We're happy to help, sir. If you can show us to where you've seen them, we can get started right away, as soon as you sign these papers,” Mouser said.

A few minutes later they were in the library, which was immaculate compared to the rest of the old house. Teri saw the rat hole immediately. With a sigh she jumped down and got on with her job of flushing out the rat, while Mouser set up traps, and spread her scent around the house. When most rats got a whiff of her odour, they usually hightailed it away from large cat. Teri was mostly there to show a couple of trapped rats, or carcasses to the home owner so they thought they were getting their moneys worth.

“Here rat. Here rat, rat, rat,” she called out softly, looking around with her night vision. She really couldn't wait to enter Whateley so she'd never have to think about being an exterminator ever again.

There was scratching from up ahead. Holding her spear in front of her, she edged forward, scuffling her feet so that the thing would hear her. Rats were territorial, and while they wouldn't usually fight to the death, if she could get it posturing, she could take it out with a quick stab to the heart.

The rat came towards her. It was large, but not the largest one she'd ever seen. Then she saw its human like face and hands. “Oh boy!”

The rat thing ran towards her, she took off running, following the string she'd been unrolling as she went along.

**

Mouser was looking around the library, putting a few traps beside the gnawed books, and looking for less obvious holes. There were some really strange statues and pictures that looked ancient, and made her eyes water a bit. When she looked really closely at them, she saw strange rat like things, mushroom like insects, fish men and more, that almost seemed to be moving whenever she blinked. Her stomach rumbled, “I need to pick up some tuna fish on the way home.” An obscenely ugly, eldritch tentacled statue stroked her arm only to become motionless when she looked at it. “And calamari would be nice to. I wonder what breaded rat and calamari would taste like?”

As she admired the decor, wondering how anyone could concentrate with so many things that reminded her of food, her ears twitched. She stopped breathing and listened intently. The sound of high pitched screaming and cursing came from the wall. Frowning, Mouser decided she had to talk to her young ward about what was appropriate language while on a job.

Going to the hole, she waited claws at the ready. Butterfly came out at a dead run that would have impressed an Olympic runner, right on her tail was the ugliest rat she'd ever seen. With a smooth, easy gesture, she caught the thing, snapped its spine and was about ready to dig in for a snack, when she saw its face.

“Wow, this thing is more messed up then the frog monster I dealt with last year. Great job Butterfly. Did you hear any others while you were in there?” she asked.

“No!” the girl squeaked. “I think I need the bathroom. And a shower. And some clean armour.”

She sniffed the air. “Woof, what have you been eating, girl? Don't worry I have some wet wipes and a bottle of water in the truck.”

They walked into the living room where the old man was reading a book with a lot of weird squiggles in it. She thought it might be Greek. “Mr. Winkler, we got the problem rat. I've set up some traps around your books in case it has any partners, but I couldn't smell any more, and my partner didn't see anything except this one in the wall.”

“Y-y-you killed it?” the man said, staring at the rat with tears in his eyes.

“Yeah, you said we could. If you wanted us to capture it alive, we could have but it was a lot easier this way.”

“You were able to see it and stay sane?”

“Well my partner got a little freaked, but she wears mouse fur dresses that she makes herself and she's fast on her feet. As for me, well, if I got scared by a little rat, I'd have to hand in my whiskers.”

“No gibbering, unnatural feelings, a need to fill the void in your soul with darkness? Nothing?” he asked almost desperately.

“Well my partner voided something, which is why she's not sitting on my shoulder, but she'll be fine. And I'm feeling a need to fill the void in my stomach, those pictures of yours made me hungry. I'd have eaten already but this rat doesn't look healthy,” she admitted.

“Can we please go now? I really want to change my pants!” Butterfly shouted.

“Just a moment sir.” Mouser bent down and took the backpack off of her assistants back, so she could fly into the truck. “You know where the wet wipes are, I left the window rolled down a little for you. Now let me finish discussing things please.”

Turning back to the client, she gave him her best grin. “So, I'll just drop by in a week if the traps don't catch any rats to pick them up. If you have any further problems don't hesitate to phone, repeat customers get a discount. Do you want to keep the rat, or shall I? I'm thinking of having it mounted.”

“I'll keep him. He... he deserves it,” the man said, he started to cry softly when he took the rat from her.

“I understand completely. If you want I can give you a good recipe for rat goulash, its an old family recipe,” she offered.

The old man didn't seem to hear her, he was too busy cooing over the rat. Shrugging her shoulders, she let herself out without another word, since they'd already been paid.

“Well Butterfly,” she said once they were back on the road, “that went really well. I think you deserve a party.”

“Really!”

“Yep. I got a call while you were playing actress, we have a six year old girls birthday party tomorrow. They're paying top dollar for-” she slammed on the brakes, and jumped out before the car had stopped moving. “HEY! What did I say about flying out of a moving vehicle!”

**

Teri looked at the crowd of children who were looking at her and Mouser with awe, their hands already twitching ready to grab her and feel her hair, play with her wings and throw her in the air to see her fly.

Smoothing her ornate pink princess dress, trying her hardest to smile, she whispered in Mousers ear, “I really hate you right now.”

Mouser did a little dance, making the bells of her jester costume jingle to keep her answer from being overheard. “Just keep smiling and think of the money.”

Taking flight she headed over to the birthday girl, alighting on her shoulder and giving the astonished girl a kiss on the cheek. “Happy Birthday!”

She never saw the boy who grabbed her from behind and threw her high into the air.

**

Teri closed her suitcase, which was actually a jewelry roll that her clothes fit into almost perfectly. A small MP3 player was crammed into one of the compartments, and while it was longer then she was, it was easy enough to move. Her coin purse was attached to her wrist as usual. She'd said goodbye to Glow Worm and the LFS the day before at a little party, and now she was ready to head off to school.

It felt strange leaving the place she had called home for the last three months. Even if Mouser could be insane and infuriating, she had been a big help. The crazy woman had helped her get a fair amount of spending money for school, and making her so busy she didn't have time to worry or get sad. She wasn't sure if she should strangle the woman or hug her.

“So are you ready to go?” Mouser asked.

“Yep. I want to thank you for everything you've done. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't caught me,” Teri said, looking at her feet, fighting to hold back the tears.

“Aw! How sweet!” Mouser swept her up in a hug, “I'll miss you to! But I'll be there for Parents Day! And we don't have to say good bye yet, Butterfly.”

Teri tried to push herself up, so she could breathe. Finally she could talk without a mouthful of fur. “What? The plane leaves in five hours, we need to get going.”

“Didn't I tell you? The plane said you could only go if you traveled in a carrier like a cat because of your size. I won't let anyone treat you like that. I'm going to drive you to Boston, you can get on the train there!”

“WHAT!”

“It will only take about a day of driving to get there. And you were going to stay at a hotel in Boston overnight before getting on the train anyways, so we can get there on time. It will be easy.”

Teri grabbed Mouser by the throat.

“Silly Butterfly, you can't strangle me, your hands are way too sm-!”

**

They stopped on the outskirts of Lincoln to fill up on gas and snacks. Mouser wasn't saying much, and headed straight for the slushee machine to help ease the swelling on her throat. Teri, waited in the truck while the attendant filled it up and washed the windows.

She hopped to the dashboard, to get a better look at the worker, he seemed a little old to be doing the job. He walked right past her at first, and took the pump out. She jumped onto the open window and waved at him. “Hi Marcus. Do you remember me? I'm really sorry about what happened at the grocery store. I didn't mean to cause any problems.”

“It's, it's, it's you!” he stammered, turning white

“Yeah. I hope you're doing ok,” she said.

At that moment, Mouser came out. She saw Marcus and ran over waving the bag of snacks and drinks at him. “Marcus! I'm so happy to see you! How have you been?!”

He didn't answer, instead he screamed, wet his pants and ran away far faster than seemed possible.

“Was it something I said?” Mouser asked, watching him go.

“Is he a mutant? I don't think normal people can run that fast,” Teri asked, amazed at how easily Marcus dodged around cars, while still screaming.

**

They pulled into the Boston train station barely on time the next morning. The formerly blue pick up truck was black with burns and soot, the side mirrors were hastily taped back on, the windshield was cracked, and black smoke rose from the engine, a couple of empty parachute bags were still strapped to the roof.

“We made it alive. That has to count for something,” Mouser said, scratching a patch of burned fur.

“I thought we agreed to never talk about it,” Teri said, stripping out of her torn, oily and smoke stained clothes now that they had safely arrived.

“I said I was sorry!”

“Don't say anything. I just want to get to the train safely and give you a hug for all the help you gave me, BEFORE this road trip.” She put her damaged clothes on the seat, and slipped on a pair of tight shorts with a pretty blue dress going on top of them. “Please burn these clothes when you get the chance,” she said.

“Sure thing. Now lets get you on the train.”

“Yes, lets,” she said, combing the knots out of her hair. “And remember, only speak when spoken to, and not everyone likes your sense of humour.”

“Yes, yes. And you remember anything you can walk away from is a win.”

Teri grabbed her things and flew out the window, circling patiently while Mouser locked the truck up, which took longer then normal when the door threatened to fall off. Landing on the furry shoulder they made their way through the station, flashing her ticket and ignoring the onlookers. Mouser went all the way to the train with her. It was already boarding, but they had another minute or two.

Teri gave the cat woman a hug. “Try to make it back home safely, please. I really do want to see you on parents day.”

“Don't worry,” Mouser said, starting to sob, “I've still got five or six lives. You take care of yourself and don't let them push you around just because your small.”

“I won't.”

With a final hug she flew onto the train much to the shock and surprise of her fellow passengers.