Whateley Academy, Tuesday early morning, Nov 27th, 2007
A dark figure entirely black as tar, climbing Melville Cottage's walls like that and having long, black tendrils. Just what is this, a mutant with a very unusual body or a supernatural threat? Two boys asleep and he goes to work on one, taking the poor boy out through the window while he is unable to scream or make any noise to wake his roommate for help. This feels like the start of a horror movie, yikes.
Now at Whitman Cottage as an alarm clock goes off, Porcelain having to deal with Bethany hating how she breaks the porcelain-like shell every time she moves, good grief. The personality of one of the bitchy cheerleaders from a high school movie, poor Porcelain having to room with her. Hehe, love that Porcelain sleeps on top of her covers to annoy her roommate, Bethany deserves it.
Ooo, Porcelain is immune to Bethany's power of projective empathy. And Bethany is a bigger bitch than I thought before, using that power to become the most popular girl at her school, manipulating students and teachers, ugh.
Though few people were aware of the fact, Porcelain’s outer shell acted as armor against psychic intrusion. As long as she was surrounded by her shell, no one could read her mind…or influence it.
Now that is a very handy power to have at Whateley.
One of her greatest fears was that her shell would become stronger and that one day she would be unable to break it at all.If that ever happened, she might become trapped and helpless within her own shell…until she inevitably starved to death.
Good lord, that is one hell of a fear to live with. Not needing to shower but wishing to, poor girl. Her power is something I wouldn't wish on anyone, the poor girl can't even feel contact with others or the air on her skin.
There was an intricately carved wooden jewelry box, though only a few pieces of jewelry rested inside of it. Porcelain had little need for jewelry, but the box and trinkets it contained had once belonged to her mother.
A deep sadness filled her heart as she thought of her mother, who had always been so kind and gentle.She had been the only one who truly understood Porcelain and had accepted her for who she really was. But unfortunately, her mother had been killed years ago, murdered by one of her father’s enemies.
Just how does her father have enemies, is he is a superhero or something else? Plus to lose her mother at such a young age, Bethany better leave the jewelry box and its contents alone.
*eyes bug out* She has an enemy who is hunting her and planning to kill her, whoa, didn't expect that.
But in spite of all of the protections offered by the school, Porcelain held no illusions that it would be enough deter him indefinitely.Because of that, she’d been keeping a low profile, making sure that what he saw of her would reinforce his opinions of her being weak and easy prey.Let him underestimate her. Let him think she was helpless.Let him lose any sense of urgency in coming after her, because it would only buy her more time…time to build her strength and prepare.
You have me curious as to who this male hunting her is.
Watching and observing, which two groups is she watching, my memory isn't that great. A letter from her father with a wax seal with her father's crest, just what kind of family does Porcelain come from!?! And Bethany is digger a deeper hole with every word out of her mouth, few friends to call on when she needs it at this rate. Porcelain figurines she makes with her power, now that is awesome. Aww, no wonder she doesn't sell them, too bad they don't last too long.
Bethany destroying the figurines just to mess with Porcelain, that is just sadistic. Hanging out with the Underdogs to project an image of helplessness, Porcelain is very calculating. Interesting how Fixx came to use that codename and learn its history at Whateley. Porcelain finding Fixx's traits endearing, please let them become a couple, please.
I pity anyone who messes with an Underdog, you might just inspire them to dig down and find a new way to use their powers or push themselves to new limits. Aquerna a legend among the Underdogs, after that combat final I wouldn't wish to mess with her. Sylver, ouch, burnout reducing her from a class five telekinetic to barely able to lift anything heavier than a soda can. Ugh, the Cape Squad drifting away from her out of pity after the burnout, they need to learn just because your power isn't that strong doesn't prevent you from being a hero.
Gravmax hogtied and buck naked in the courtyard, so he was the victim of the shadow monster, I want to know who did it so I can thank them now. Fixx asking to walk her to class, I really want Porcelain and him to be a couple more than ever now. Dana trying to get them all to practice together as a training team, even Porcelain agrees them have the making of an effective team, highly unorthodox for sure, but effective.
“I don’t know why they even allow your kind in school,” Starbright commented with a smirk.“I mean, we shouldn’t have to deal with you freaks and your GSD.”
Starbright needs to be knocked down hard already. Pushing Porcelain for daring to talk back to her, then horrified that she might have severely injured Porcelain, Starbright needs counseling for her temper. At least Starbright has made some other students see how horrible she is.
Moving towards a table at the Crystal Hall with potential allies, only to be grabbed by Stoppable, that creep needs to learn to keep his hands to himself. And stopped thanks to Absinthe making him hallucination fireworks, nice. Dana and Jinx, Collin having an obvious interest in Absinthe, oh boy. Ack! Lost the envelope thanks to Stoppable, this could go bad in so many ways.
Late morning now and at the Crystal Hall, the Bad Seeds at their usual table waiting for the rest of their members to show up. Nephandus, just who is the girl he is watching, I pity any girl who draws his attention. Nacht, Jadis, and Jobe all at the table doing their own things, Jobe complaining about an experiment being confiscated by security.
Jadis looked up at that and wryly pointed out, “Besides the fact that you could have unleashed a fungal infection that might have destroyed the entire campus, and potentially, even the entire world.”
Okay, Jobe shouldn't be allowed to do any experiments without constant monitoring.
Lindsay is here, yay! And she found the lost envelope, which Jadis opens, uh oh. A letter of introduction to them, well this gets more interesting.
“I strongly recommend my daughter Isabelle be considered for membership in the Bad Seeds.She has been trained since childhood to follow in my footsteps, so her skills should be of value to your group.”Then she paused before adding, “It’s signed The Widowmaker.”
Her father is an assassin from the Syndicate! No wonder his enemies went after his wife, good grief growing up in that environment. No women or children though, so he has a code of honor at least. *eyes bug out* Porcelain is a changeling as well, didn't see that coming. And now they think it is a practical joke, well that complicates things.
Afternoon now with Porcelain in her final class of the day, Powers Lab. A porcelain figure that looks exactly like her, her control over her power is very impressive. Mrs. Bohn seems like a good teacher to have. Taking pride in her work, glad to see Porcelain happy with her creations so much. And her observation of the other students, learning about them, their powers, etc., I wonder what she has noticed about certain students others have overlooked.
Collin can stick himself to things now, wallcrawling even if slower than Spider-Man is a good ability to have, nice application of his power. Ah, hadn't gone to the Bad Seeds as she wants to keep a low profile, very good reason. She learned all that about the various members of the Bad Seeds by observing them, the Secret Squirrels could learn something about recon from Porcelain.
All these secrets she is keeping from everyone, no student even knows her real name is Isabelle DeLuca, good name. The Masterminds, yeah, I think approaching them about joining might not be the best idea right now for Porcelain. Pity from someone, just what Porcelain doesn't want. Yikes! Don't call her a poor thing, forming a porcelain knife on reflex out of anger, Porcelain can be very scary.
Aww, she thinks of them as real friends, so nice she can admit that to herself. Freshmen from Poe Cottage, plus Collin, Fixx, and herself, a nice group to have your back.
“We don’t have a training team,” Gwen reminded everyone with an exasperated look.“We only had a one-time thing…”
Dana gave a look of mock horror and exclaimed, “You mean you just thought that was a one-night stand?No wonder you didn’t call me afterwards…”Jinx and Collin burst out laughing while Porcelain chuckled faintly.
Bwahaha, Dana knows how to get a laugh. Observations about Dana and Jinx, even knows they have a romantic relationship, hope no one else has noticed this who could cause trouble. Observations about Gwen now, even some mental criticizing about being more subtle with her illusions.
Observations about Collin now, how he learned to just treat her like the person she is. Plus how some of the GSD cases are trying to make her resent and hate the 'pretties', oh brother. Cookies from Fixx's mom and even made some snickerdoodles since they are Porcelain's favorite, he's fallen hard for her.
Breaking the shell to eat, she actually does it in front of her friends to eat one of the cookies, it seems like part of her mask is starting to break and she likes Fixx more than she is admitting. Aww, not wishing to give away how much control she has over her shell to eat without breaking it. Gwen telling the ideas she came up with for dealing with Centurion, too bad with the truce we won't get to see them, sure they would have been creative.
Fixx walking Porcelain back to Whitman Cottage, the sense is killing me! Fixx can tell she is worried lately, now that is someone who knows you better than you think, Porcelain.
“The real world doesn’t work that way,” Porcelain snapped in frustration.“Things don’t work out fine just because you hope they do.Maybe you’d know that if…”
Ouch, anger, and frustration can make you say things you immediately regret. All that, plus living with being treated with pity and contempt, most teens would have vented sooner.
Fixx continued to stare at her for a moment before nodding.“You know,” he told her with an uncharacteristic seriousness, “I’m not optimistic because I’ve never had anything bad happen to me.I look on the bright side of things because I choose to…because its better than the alternative.”
When he started talking about his sister Carolynn, I knew it was going to be serious.
“One day,” Fixx continued quietly, only giving a faint nod to Porcelain’s comment, “Carolynn got sick.Cancer.I knew that it was bad…that it would kill her, but she insisted she was going to beat it and get better.But she didn’t get better.She got worse.She wasted away right in front of my eyes, but the entire time, she kept smiling.She kept insisting that everything was going to work out all right.And after she died…I’d never imagined that being right could feel so horrible.”
Cancer, why did it have to be cancer, I lost a dear friend to that years ago. Losing his younger sister to it, Fixx being so optimistic despite that shows a strength I never knew he had. A stint in juvie, guess it took time for him to develop his current attitude.
Fixx actually chuckled at that.“Yeah, and then they put me to work in my apartment building…helping fix all the stuff I vandalized.That’s how I first got into fixing things…and where I found out I had a talent for it.”Then he looked her in the eyes, or at least he tried to since Porcelain knew that he couldn’t see her real eyes.“But around that time, I realized that Carolynn would be disgusted at what I was doing.She spent months in that bed…sick and wasting away…but every day she laughed and smiled.She was dying…but she still looked on the bright side and found hope.I finally realized that I’d rather look on the bright side and be happy…even if I was wrong…than be miserable but right.”
Dang it, you made me cry reading that. Fixx and his sister are both amazing.
Porcelain considers her shell the solution to her problems, interesting. Aww, afraid he would want nothing to do with her if she told him everything, Fixx isn't like that. MATD, says her body was born deformed but the MATD fixed her body, she was a transsexual even before the shell changed her.
And revealing she control her shell like that to Fixx, now that is true trust.
Just then, Porcelain froze as she noticed a purple glow from the corner of her eyes.A cold hard knot formed in her chest as she slowly looked up, staring at the sky above her.It was now black as tar, though large streaks of purple energy shot all along the dark surface.She didn’t need to look around to know what she’d see, but she did so anyways.This effect wasn’t just above her, it was all around.A large section of the Whateley ground was now covered by a strange dome, while she and Fixx were trapped within.
A strange dome covering a large section of Whateley and her enemy is her own brother, don't tell me he sees her changing genders as a betrayal or she needs to die for it.
Porcelain taking in all the details about the dome, Fixx refusing to leave her when she says to go and hide. Just how powerful is her brother? Great, coward brought henchmen with body armor and energy rifles with him. Killzone, her brother goes by Killzone, how 90s can you get? The guy lets his guard around Porcelain and keeps an eye on Fixx, well, he's dead. Stabbed in the stomach with porcelain fingers turned into long sharp claws, kicked in the legs, and bound his hands in solid porcelain manacles, badass. And gagged as well, never going to look at Porcelain the same again.
Porcelain having to tell Fixx everything now, about her father, what Stoppable prevented earlier that day.
“My older brother and I were trained since childhood to follow in our father’s footsteps,” Porcelain explained, earning yet another look of surprise from Fixx.“For reasons I will not go into, my brother believes me to be a shame upon our family’s honor and he does not want me to sully our father’s legacy.Because of this, he has sworn to end my life.”
Let me guess, all because she is a transsexual and now a changeling, sickening.
Okay, what her father has decided, that is seriously messed up.
She looked at Fixx, then explained, “My brother has taken the name Killzone and is a high level warper and moderate level energizer.He is a strong teleporter, which is how he came to Whateley, and he can create a powerful warp field.”She gestured to the dome above them.
“I don’t understand,” Fixx responded.
“The warp field is impenetrable from either direction,” Porcelain told him grimly.“It blocks all communications in or out, including mystic and psionic.And it even blocks teleportation.This is his usual tactic, teleporting near a target, isolating them with his warp field so they can neither escape nor get reinforcements, then he attacks with overwhelming force.The fact that he is holding back so far is a large show of constraint on his part. Ever since manifesting his powers, he has largely forgotten how to be subtle.”
No wonder he chose the codename Killzone, it is perfect for that power and his mode of operation.
Bwahaha, red shirts, Fixx does need to get Porcelain to watch some Star Trek with him. Fixx in a janitor's closet, good lord, Killzone might not make it out of this alive himself. A firecracker going off like a grenade, that warper ability of Fixx's is one the most dangerous I've seen in the hands of someone like him. Orders to take her alive so Killzone can kill Porcelain himself if he can't face her himself he is a true coward.
Great, surrounded and made to drop their weapons, brother is there, wonder what he looks like? An armor similar to his mercenaries, a look of contempt at Porcelain, how they used to be so close and now this, *sigh* Killzone thinks Fixx took down Murphy, his underestimating Porcelain will be his end.
Oh, he is planning on killing any witnesses, with psychics involved and magic he is a fool to think they won't figure out who did this and end him. Yup, calling Porcelain a disgusting freak all for being trans and a changeling, twisted creep. Her mother knew about her being trans and loved her, their father doesn't think he is a disgrace and is trying to understand, macho idiot brother needs to learn to accept things.
Talk of legacy and bloodline, crap like that has twisted too many for too long in human history. *eyes bug out again* Porcelain pulled off the mask like that and created sharp ridges along the shell over her body, dang. The shell came off, don't tell me she has just been acting as the shell can't be turned off this whole time, talk about major level deception.
Instead of looking like a bone white porcelain doll, she presented a lithe and feminine figure that was entirely black as tar.
She is the one who did that to Gravmax, she has kept this level of power hidden this whole time, the guys in the testing lab are going to have a lot of work to do retesting her now.
Using tendrils to grab the weapons from the mercenaries closest to them, tosing Murphy in the way of fire then his charred body at her attacker, she is ruthless when fighting for her life.
Without her outer shell to obstruct her, she was fast and graceful, delighting in the ease of movement she currently enjoyed.
Killzone watching her with interest now, gauge your opponent before committing to action, it can sometimes backfire if you take too long though.
Climbs up a building wall, grabs the merc following her with a tendril and breaks his neck before dropping him. Porcelain not holding anything back now, in a fight for her very life against her own brother. When we first met her I never would have seen any of this coming. Porcelain scimitar style swords in each hand, can she get any more badass. An intricate mask on her face, porcelain armor on her shoulders, forearms, and knees, she has full control over it and more. Porcelain blades on the tips of each tendril, dang, brutal.
All the remaining mercenaries killed in mere seconds, Porcelain is now one of the most deadly students at school, yikes. Aww, caring for Fixx and not thinking she could stay away from him if she had to do it again, so cute. And Killzone admits Porcelain always was the sneaky one, hiding all those abilities so well.
Purple lightning from the dome and Porcelain having to dodge over and over, that dome is worse than first advertised. Catches Killzone with a tendril covered in porcelain shards, cutting into him like a saw blade and it gets hit by a lighning bolt as she is retracting it, at least it doesn't cause her any pain. And now he will take her seriously, uh oh.
Amplified teleportation while in the dome, great, a tough opponent made worse. And he flees, taking the bodies of his men with him, intending to deal with Porcelain another time, darn it. And he actually had pride while looking at her before he left, interesting family dynamic.
Porcelain worried Fixx will have a look of horror while looking at her.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Fixx asked.She looked up and was surprised to see him grinning.“Why didn’t you tell me you were such a bad ass?”
Killed half a dozen men right in front of him and Fixx isn't afraid of her, he is perfect for her. And removing evidence of her involvement before fleeing to a nearby building, good, I doubt without footage anyone would believe what they tell.
Evening now and in an empty classroom with Fixx, at least they have time to talk things out.
Fixx stared at her for a moment before saying, “If I had someone like that trying to kill me, I’d probably play things close to the vest too.”
Darn, Killzone is going to get away with it since there is no evidence, no missing or dead students, no evidence he was even here. And Porcelain not wishing to answer certain questions, shoot. Sparked Killzone's interest, at least Fixx didn't get into the janitor's closet otherwise he might have sparked his interest as well.
“In my family, we do not make promises lightly,” Porcelain carefully explained, having learned since coming to Whateley that most people did not take their promises as seriously as her family did.They made casual promises and then broke them with the same casual ease, something she had a hard time believing.“Once we give our word, it is a matter of pride and honor to keep it.Twenty years ago, my father promised my mother that he would never kill a woman or child…and he has kept that word ever since, even when it meant failing a contract or being captured.My brother has sworn to kill me, and even if he should come to regret having made that promise, he WILL keep it.”
That is one messed up family, promises where it means you have to kill someone you care about but can't break are seriously f'd up. See, even Porcelain doesn't dispute it when Fixx says her family is messed up.
Fixx confusing Porcelain with a Princess Bride quote, nice.
Fixx let out a sigh and said, “So you never really needed my help with Stoppable…”
Porcelain reached out for his hand, taking it in hers and quietly telling him, “I needed you more than I know how to tell you.”
And Fixx realizes Porcelain is the one who jumped Gravmax, wondered how long that would take him. Gunther, I see why he goes by Fixx, too many cruel kids who would taunt him with that. Isabelle needs to smile more.
An outer and inner shell, the inner shell like Venom, knew someone would make that comparison.
Porcelain was silent for a moment, having wondered the same thing herself.“There is no longer any reason to keep my full powers hidden,” she thought aloud, “though there are advantages to being underestimated…However, I would still prefer to avoid the social stigma that would come once my father’s identity is known.”
I just hope someone in the Bad Seeds doesn't figure it out and try to blackmail her, though I don't think even Nephandus would pull that stunt. Fixx bound and determined to help out Isabelle no matter what, please let this lead to them dating.
Your friends, those who treat you like a person, can be your greatest allies in times of need. Aww, afraid of losing her true friends if they think she was manipulating them all along. Removing both her outer and inner shell to show Fixx what she looks like, dang.
She had shoulder length black hair, dark eyes, and smooth skin that hadn’t seen sunlight since her powers manifested, yet still had the natural color of a rich tan.
“You’re beautiful,” Fixx blurted out, almost sounding surprised. “Are you an exemplar too?”
Not an exemplar, Fixx is just smitten. Yes! They kissed, thank you!
Whateley Academy, Wednesday late afternoon, Nov 28th, 2007
The Bad Seeds going to their secret clubhouse, Fairy Girl bugging Jobe about making a Sidhe conversion formula, that girl is nuts!
“Not to mention that Fey would kill you,” Nacht commented, almost without expression or tone.
And I'm not sure Carson would punish Fey if Jobe did make such a formula and killed him over it, there are some things you don't do. Porcelain already at the clubhouse waiting for them, guess her dad told her where it was.
Porcelain didn’t respond to the threat and merely said, “I had a letter of introduction that I’d intended to deliver personally, but it seems to have fallen into your hands anyway.”She tapped the familiar envelope that she’d last seen a few days earlier but had found again shortly after entering the lair.“I am Porcelain…and my father is the Widowmaker.”
Jobe sneered and that and stared, “Widowmaker doesn’t have a daughter…”
“Neither does Gizmatic,” she responded with a faint smile.“Yet here we are.”
She is so good at comebacks, nice to see Jobe put in his place so quickly.
However, Jadis continued to watch Porcelain suspiciously, then reminded the others, “She somehow got past our security. I don’t think she’s quite as helpless as she seems.”
Jadis has a very good point, I wonder how long before they figure out her secrets as well. And Porcelain has drawn Jadis' curiosity, it will be interesting to see how she gather information on Porcelain.
This story started off so slowly, showing Porcelain and her abusive roommate Bethany, how weak she was. And it started revealing secrets, who her father was, Jobe basically letting it slip she was a changeling, all the secrets she felt she couldn't tell her friends and how she has been observing everyone, classmates, friends, foes, probably even the teachers and security.
The biggest shock was finding out her foe was her own brother, how messed up her family is, that she is the individual who attacked Gravmax at the beginning of the story. Seeing her go all bad ass on the mercenaries and then even facing her brother, forcing him to flee for now. Learning she has two shells and what she looks like underneath them all, I love how Fixx is just so amazed at what she did and then what he says when he sees her without the shells. Them kissing, I hope this means they are officially a couple now, so cute together.
You really shocked us with this story, someone who seemed so harmless and weak doing it to hide from a foe out to kill them and secretly a bad ass with greater control over her shells than she revealed before. I can't wait to read more I just wonder how much about Porcelain that Mrs. Carson actually knows and just hasn't revealed yet, since she seems to know almost everything going on at Whateley Academy. with Porcelain, Fixx, and everyone else in the future.
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