Question The Micro-Scenes thread

Everheart

Patrolling the campus Sam noticed a liquid dripping right into the sewers from the lamppost above.

Analysis: motor oil, 5w-30.

Peeking her curiosity she looked up to find 2 large cocoons of pink silk ribbons, one tied to the lamppost the other to a nearby tree, chuckling Sam thought "well at least whomever Peeper and Greasy tried their antics on, made sure that they didn't cause an oil spill,"

"So, have you met this inviso-girl Jack keeps talking about? Every time he mentions her I keep wondering if my bud's hooked up with Harvey the Pooka or something, and to be honest I would have thought that would be more up Bugs' alley. It's been weirding me out all week." Jericho gave a look of frustration towards his oldest friend.

Sandra, distracted by some unusual magical currents nearby, snapped out of her reverie after a moment. "Huh, you mean Dina? Of course I've met her, she's my new roommate, came in around the third week of September. Yeah, she's... something else. It's not really invisibility, more like a Somebody Else's Problem phenomenon where people don't notice her. I'd call it Plateau Eyes but I think you and Phase would be the only ones to get the ref. Anyway, I would have thought you'd have run into her by now. Her main power is Devising, so you may have run into her in the lab and not even noticed. Literally."

"Holy shit, she's real? And she's cool with Razor and all, and not in some overly creepy way?" Joe's protective tendencies came to the fore as he expressed his concern for his saurian teammate.

"Oh, it's a creepy way, sort of, but she's so socially stunted that on her it comes across as adorable. She's into dinosaurs in a tremendous, obsessive way, but... I just sort of feel for her, I guess."

"You do, or Ryan does?", replied Joe, with a knowing look.

Diamondback's eyes dropped for a moment before she answered. "Got me. Yeah, my 'other half' finds her really nice, and... uhm, one night, when he was in the driver's seat, he, uh, took the initiative..."

"And she didn't freak out on you?"

With a sigh, Sandra continued, "She muttered something about wanting to 'continue the experiment', so, no?"

"..."

"I'm not sure if I should be more worried that Jack'll be pissed at me for it, or that he might be really turned on by it..."

"TMI!"

Nate had his suitcase beside him, as did most people in Crystal Hall, not that there were very many, most people had already headed home for the summer with the appropriate amount of tears, hugs and promises to phone and write. The underdogs were doing their own goodbye thing, the ones who were left at any rate.

“You really should apologize to her before you leave,” Lucille said, looking across Crystal Hall at Pristine who was talking to some girls in front of the salad bar. Nate noticed that her hair was cut to about shoulder length and curled, which was a new look for her.

“She got a good grade, why should I apologize. I'm the one who got a C for reckless endangerment!” Nate exclaimed, letting out a little toot at the injustice of it all. He'd taken down the supervillain and the rest of the mooks, but did that count for anything? Of course not.

Anna piped up, “She spent three hours in the shower, and burned all the fabric on her costume. She was really upset about it, I heard it cost her a couple of thousand dollars.”

“Oh come on it wasn't that bad. She's was just overreacting. My clothes came clean after two rounds in the wash.”

Lucille gave him a hard look. “She cut her hair because of your gas explosion. You're lucky she hasn't decided to hold a grudge. Now be a gentleman and apologize.”

“Yes, Mom,” he said, rolling his eyes. Letting out a fart to help air himself out before talking to his combat final partner he slouched and dragged his feet along to meet his destiny.

Pristine saw him coming, she and her friends glared at him like he was Peeper. “What do you want?” she asked.

“I'm sorry about the combat final,” he muttered.

“Fine,” she said, turning away.

“What, that's it?”

“What more do you want?” she asked, her voice taking a dangerous tone that Nate was totally oblivious to.

“Well, you did get a B+, I just got a C. It couldn't have been that bad for you.”

Pristine flicked back a stray lock of hair, so she could give him a truly evil eye. “ I smelled for two days, I had to borrow special soap from Solange to get it off of my skin. My hair, that I haven't cut except to thin out since I was seven, was hopeless and I had to cut off half of it. My suit was destroyed, do you have any idea how much that cost? I am not a bully and I don't like holding grudges. So I will ignore you, and do my VERY best to avoid you. But give me one reason, just one, next term, and I will take your gas grenade shove it into your mouth and set it off. Now leave me alone.”

Nate very wisely backed away very slowly, as if he were facing a wild bear that really wanted to rip his face off. On second thought, the bear would probably be safer. Spinning on his heels he bolted for the safety of his friends.

OK, now I'm really pissed off at Gunny and Sensei Ito. I mean, I was pissed already because they didn't let me fight in the Combat Final with the other Grunts, I mean, I could understand the whole thing about me only being here a few months and not really trained for team ops yet (but that didn't stop Kayda, what's up with that), but this was just nasty of them! I sooo wanted to give'em a piece of mind over that CF down there!

I guess it was kinda obvious that I was angry, I mean even without empathic powers like Nikki has, because she was saying something to me about it but I was in no mood to listen. After fuming for a few minutes (142 sec came up on my HUD) I shot to my feet, looking to run downstairs and ask them what the hell that was all about.

... only to find Admiral Everheart standing right in my path.

"Whisper, I've been asked to escort you to the JROTC debriefing. I imagine you have a lot of questions about the final, so we wanted to make sure you got the answers you needed. Understood?"

I sort of worked my jaw for a bit before my head figured out that I should be nodding right then. Numbly, I just followed along behind her, my brain not quite catching up with the rest of me yet. I guess they knew exactly what they were doing...

4 October 2007
Fixers' Patio

I was just coming up to speak to Jadis as Nacht was finishing saying, "...so now Sunny wants me to go to this thing in Chicago next week. She's got it so that I'll be going with Mrs. Carson, for some reason, but she won't say what it's all about."

"Could it be for the memorial in honor of the hundredth birthday of the original Champion?" I interjected.

Kate, Lindsay, and Jadis all look at me oddly for a moment, but Jadis picks up on it after a moment. She replies, "Oh, of course. They both knew Holbrook, didn't they? I guess I should have thought of that myself."

"More than knew, actually. Coulson and Holbrook were engaged to be married the year he died. Apparently it was something of a minor scandal at the time, given the disparities in their public social standings. Of course, all that was overshadowed when her secret identity was revealed, but that wasn't unless a few years later."

Nacht gives me and Jadis a look of utter shock, something I wouldn't have thought possible from what I'd seen of her before. "What? You mean you knew who Sunburst really is, and never told me?"

Now it was Jadis' turn to look surprised. "I thought you already knew! Her real name has been public information for over fifty years. You mean to tell me you never even looked her up?"

"I... you know, that's a really good point. It never even occurred to me somehow."

"There's some speculation about that, actually," I said, glad to see Nacht a bit calmer again. "Her talent for getting people to go along with her ideas and to avoid public scrutiny has been noted to border on the uncanny. It may well be connected to the Dynamorph she hosts, or some other power she's developed over the years."

With a sigh, Nacht gave me a look that seemed to say, 'well that makes sense', then asked, "Fine then. What do you know about her?"

With a smirk, I start reciting as much as I could recall of the briefing I had gotten on her a few years earlier. "Sonia Jeanette Coulson, born 1924. Daughter of John Masters Coulson and Mary Susannah Kane-Coulson, heir to both the Coulson and Kane newspaper families, though she only received a small part of Charles Foster Kane's estate. Engaged to Henry Holbrook, a radio station manager, on New Year's Eve 1952, but never married as Holbrook, the original Champion, was killed in battle before their wedding. Revealed publicly to be the superheroine Sunburst two years later. While not much is known about her powers, she is known to be a Dynahost, having been subjected to an illicit experiment in binding Dynamorphs artificially by the science villain Doctor Sagittarius in September 1946. Sunburst was a founding member of the Chicago Crusaders in 1948, and later moved to Los Angeles in December 1975 to help establish the California Crusaders team."

"Show off..." Nacht spat with a... well, on her it was a pout, though most people wouldn't notice. Is it a bad thing that I am getting to know her that well?

"Woohoo! What a rush!" The blond bombshell piloting the VTOL jet had a grin from ear to ear as she powered down the engines and popped the canopy. Jumping out of the aircraft she slid down and ran over to hug the immaculately dressed woman in the business-suit, wearing pants instead of a skirt, waiting for them.

Following her out was a dark haired woman, who most people would say was completely expressionless. Of course the business-suited woman gave her face the barest of glances before she moved closer and started minutely examining the third woman to exit the jet.

Scowling at the intense study, the third woman growled, "We're all fine Trevor, nobody is the least little bit hurt." With a silent nod the business woman stepped aside and turned to examine the jet instead. "And the plane's fine too Trevor," she continued rolling her eyes. "Sunburst just decided to play slalom with the towers on approach again to let off a little steam."

Frowning the business woman looked at the one referring to her as Trevor, a black suited woman in what was obviously a supersuit styled like a devil. "You were going more then fifty percent over the optimal approach velocity. You were varying from the optimal approach vector by both plus and minus fifteen degrees. When I received no answer on the comms I rushed here to prioritise the emergency."

"Yes Trevor, we all know you worry that we'll get hurt from one of the toys you provide us, but there was no emergency."

"Please stop calling me Trevor, Jadis. My name is Ayla," the woman requested with a sigh politely addressing the black suited woman.

Turning back to them, the blank-faced black-haired girl snarked, "And if you wore a dress or a skirt occasionally she might someday call you that. Might," she snarked giving the business-suited girl a stare that somehow radiated amusement while keeping a completely blank face.

Growling, Jadis fixed the black-haired girl with a death glare, Ayla merely raised her eyebrow at her in amusement before turning to the blond bombshell. "May I ask why you made such an ... energetic approach?"

"Oh, you know, just letting off a little steam," she waved her fingers airily at Ayla. Raising an eyebrow Ayla continued to calmly study her. "Oh Ayla, you old stick in the mud! Can't a mother giver her daughter a harmless little bit of excitement as an early birthday present?"

Ayla blinked and glanced at the clock, "Of course," she said seeing the time was past midnight. Ayla turned to the black haired girl. "Happy birthday Nacht, many happy returns," she offered formally with a little bow.

Also glancing towards the clock the blond smiled and walked up putting an arm around Ayla's shoulder. Quickly dragging her forward to Nacht, she engulfing her in an arm too before Nacht could slip away. "Come on! The night is young and my daughter is celebrating her birthday! Time for a party! Let's crash Ayla's study, there's an aged single malt whiskey in there that I've been dying to find a good excuse to crack."

"That's there for ..." Ayla tried to interject as she was pulled along.

"Yes, yes. We all know it's there to drown yourself in when one of us bites the bullet or something vulgar like that!" the blond drawled with rolling eyes. "Let's enjoy it now instead," she enthused. "That way you'll have something to remember of us when you crack whatever it is you buy to replace it. Live girl! We can worry about death when we're in our coffins! It'll come soon enough for all of us, no need to worry it here early. And did I mention the party?"

As I read over the list of styles Ms. Chandler teaches, I was seriously impressed. "I've gotta say, if she really has studied all these styles then she's every bit as... huh?"

"What? Oh, that." said the guy with the Brit accent (not sure where in the UK, but British anyway). "Yeah, I thought she was taking the piss when I saw that, too. Turns out that really is the name of a style, sort of based on Jujitsu."

"Yeah, I know that, it's Russian, right? But... that just sounds..."

"I'm pretty sure that's exactly the reaction she wants to get."

"Actually," a feminine voice called out, "I initially learned sambo in my Sophomore year of high school to cheese off this More-African-than-thou jerk who called himself N'Dizi." Chaka-sensei said as she walked toward us. "Funniest part is that the one I got the most use out of it against was The Purifier... and I made sure she knew it."

If Only

June 24, 2009, MCO National HQ, Board of Directors Meeting Room

Director von der Geest looked around the room, "What in the hell just happened?"

Most of the room tried to hide their faces, by 'looking' for facts, Deputy Director Loman spoke up, "Somehow the US Government just passed a Law severely curtailing our operations in the US."

"'Severely curtailing?' Severely curtailing would be requiring us to wait for a request from LEO's. Our operations have been completely gutted, can you explain what happened?"

Director of US Operations Cranfield addressed the situation. "Sir, I've done my best to track the situation, but I am unsure where it got out of control."

"Well, don't just sit there, explain away."

"In February of 2007, a mutant manifested in New Mexico. For some unknown reason, she was sent to be tested at DARPA's new testing facilities. After an alleged attack by H1! members, Agent Lainer was shown an MMID with the Codename Whisper..." (Read Whisper)

"That summer Agent Lainer received information that 'Whisper' would be attending a party in Arlington, VA hosted by a Mrs. Granston. Agent Lainer led an Assault Team to take Whisper into custody only to be thwarted by Mrs. Granston, her husband Admiral Granston, and several other adults thought to be members of the US Navy and Air Force."

Director von der Geest stared at him, "Just how did one woman, and some presumably unarmed military personnel stop an MCO Assault Team?"

"Um, I've seen the video Agent Lainer recorded, and I'm not entirely sure. I'll send everyone a copy of the video.

"As part of the aftermath, Mrs. Granston, along with many other high ranking Officer's wives started hounding their Congressmen and Senators. When elements of the Military, Police, DPA, FBI, and a bunch of other 'Three Letter Agencies" began supporting them during Congressional Hearings the Legislation started rolling. Testimony from families of mutants we disappeared, and that damned Ayla Goodkind about her experiences didn't help. Nor did testimony from Captain Patriot, and other so called heroes."

Director von der Geest looked over at the one man in the room not part of the Board of Directors, "So now we are stuck with this Legislation. We can post two, unarmed agents at each International Airline Terminal, and all they can do is verify that the MID being carried belongs to the Mutant carrying it. Well Mr. Goodkind what are you going to do about this?"

Louis Geintz screamed and dropped his connection to Gunnery Sergeant Oscar C. Bardu and slammed back down onto the seat behind him as he shook his head and tried to again gather his wits. Blinking slowly he watched Bardu shivering and moaning and pulling at his restraints in the hospital bed before him.

"Louis!" Shaking his head again, Louis turned to the female doctor calling out his name. "Louis what did you find? Why is he so disturbed?"

Louis shuddered and closed his eyes, before opening them and reguarding those gathered around the bed. "You don't want to know. Believe me, you really don't want to know."

Glaring at him, barely keeping her sparks under control, Oscar Bardu's 'God-daughter' growled at him. Turning horror stricken eyes to her Louis begged, "Caitlin please, believe me. You of all people do not want to know!" he shuddered. "Suffice to say, it involves Wondercute, a seriously catchy tune, and Jade with two guns and a happy manic grin."

Wide eyed, stumbling back in horror, Caitlin fumbled to Bardu's bed, reaching out a hand to clasp his shoulder in comfort.

Turning to Doctor Tennant Louis begged, "Doctor! Whatever meds you have him on, change them! And for God's sake, find some music as different from J-Pop as you can, and pump it loud and fast in here as soon as possible."

More loosing control, then fading away, Louis disapeared leaving nothing behind but the sound of a song he had been almost unconsciously humming since he pulled out of Bardu's fevered mind. A song they now realised Bardu was also humming over and over and over again.

Thanks to Dpragon and this thread:
http://whateleyacademy.net/index.php/forum/the-quad/730-saw-this-and-had-a-jade-moment

Prairie Sun, in her civilian identity, looked out the passenger side window with growing fear, wishingthat she was somewhere else. Steve just grinned and patted her glove covered hand gently. “Nervous?”

“No,” she said firmly. “I'm not nervous, we're just going to go in, ask some questions and get out. It'll be easy.”

“Liar.”

She cracked her knuckles as if she was getting ready to punch something. “I'm a hero. I've talked to and argued with five premiers and two prime ministers. I've faced lawyers. Defeated super villains and rampaging robots. I've fought Dr. Diabolical to a standstill.”

“Actually he kicked our asses,” he helpfully reminded her.

She ignored the peanut gallery. “I am not letting myself turn and run away from something that will help Estelle.”

He waved at the door of the borrowed car. “After you.”

“Yes. Let's go,” she said, not moving.

Her husband laughed, gave her a light tap that felt like a shove and got out of the car. With her heart beating hard she followed him across the street into the gay bookstore. She was thankful for the sunglasses which hid her eyes, and kept anyone from seeing her looking around as if something was going to bite her.

A young woman wearing slacks and a baby blue sweater walked up to them as they stood there wondering where they'd find the books they'd need. “Can I help you?” she asked.

Steve smiled and stepped back, letting her take the lead. She promised herself she would hurt him later. “Yes. We need... um, our son is, well...”

“He came out of the closet?” the woman asked.

Looking at her husband for support she saw he was looking at a book with great interest. Oh yes, she was going to hurt him a lot. “Not quite. H-he wants to be become a girl.”

“Oh,” the woman said, nodding in understanding. “And you want some books that might help.”

“Yes,” she said in relief. “We're supporting him, her. She's getting help. We just need some books and maybe some advice on where to look. We've... looked online, and some of the sites have been, well,” she bit her lip and blushed at some of the things she'd seen and the stories.

That got a pat on the arm. “OK. We have a few books that can help you out.”

“Thank you,” she said very gratefully. “Um what about other things? We're going to get her on hormone therapy. And... we're going to help her adjust before they start. So she'll need...” Evelyn motioned at her own breasts and hips, not quite able to get it out. "Padding?"

“I understand. We don't sell anything like that here, but if you give me a few minutes to text a friend I can get you some websites that should have those things.”

“Great. Thank you!”

I was walking down the street on my own, it was the first time I'd done that in three months. The dark glasses made it difficult to see, but that was good it helped me focus on the now. Walking the coin over my knuckles as I walked helped to, it let me think that things were somewhat random.

A man and a woman were walking towards me, they were talking tensely, almost vibrating with anger, 80% chance they'd start screaming before they made it home, 45% chance she'd hit him with something, 8% chance he'd punch her.

I looked away, telling myself it wasn't my business. A car raced down the road, considering the time 67% chance he was late for work, only 4% chance he'd beat the red light, 93.4% chance he'd run it. If he did, 38% chance he'd cause a car accident.

The brakes squealed and he stopped just in time, a truck crossed in front of him honking madly.

Looking at my feet, I wondered not for the first time if I should cut out my eyes. The answer came to me immediately, 100% chance my mutation would compensate somehow and I'd still know the odds of anything I heard or felt, only I'd be blind to. I supposed I could make myself deaf at the same time, but at that point it would be better to just grab the pills and end everything.

A bug, I didn't know what kind thanks to the dark glasses casting everything into shadows, walked along the sidewalk in front of me. 87% chance it would make it across the sidewalk safely. I did an odd step and hop, squishing it.

As I was recovering my balance, I bumped into someone, he was big and smelled bad, reeking of sweat, smoke and alcohol. Since I was only fourteen, weighing a little over 47kg soaking wet, this was not good, my best chance was that he wouldn't want to bother a small girl in broad daylight. The coin danced in my fingers as I looked up at the man, my eyes barely level with his chest. There was a 76% chance of getting away with only some insults.

“Watch where you're going you fucking idiot,” he snarled.

“Sorry,” I said, trying to look at him as my attention was drawn in a dozen different directions. Too many things were happening and I'd lost my focus, 46% chance a person would come out of the corner store in the next minute. 34% chance the bird flying overhead would land to eat the bagel on the street. 89% chance of rain. The coin moved faster as I desperately tried to focus on what was in front of me.

“Yeah right, are you high?” he said. 52% chance of getting away with only insults, 23% chance and rising I'd be pushed, grabbed or shoved.

“N-no, I'm just- I'm just,” I was just having sensory overload thanks to my powers. The chance of violence reached 52%.

He felt his pocket. “You bitch, you picked my pocket! Where's my wallet?”

67% chance he lost his wallet earlier and decided to blame me. “I don't have it. I haven't done anything. I'm just-” 24% chance of someone helping me if I shouted. 58% chance they'd call police and not help me. 87% chance they'd take pictures and videos, posting them on the internet later. “I'm just going to the mall to- to buy some clothes with friends.”

He yanked the glasses off my face. “Likely story. Look me in the eye and tell me that again.”

The chance of violence was now 78%. 89% chance I'd be late to meet my friends, 23% chance a taxi would come by in the next ten minutes. 76% chance the next passerby would be a woman, 68% chance they'd be a senior. I look up at him, he jerked back seeing my eyes, the right a brilliant blue, the left a pretty green. It's natural, I've had eyes like that since birth, but it's rare enough that people panic and think I'm a mutant, only now I really am. “I'm just going,” 93% chance Mom would call the police if I told her about this, “to see my friends,” 84% chance I'd buy a blue top today if I made it to the mall, “to buy clothes.” 14% chance I'd buy a pink top.

95% chance he'd punch me. 30% chance for me to escape unhurt. If he punched me, 63% chance someone would help me. I flip my coin, changing the odds, 40% chance I'd escape unhurt. Still not good enough, a second flip, my fingers become warm, 60% chance and rising.

“You're a goddamn mutant!” he shouted.

“What?! I'm not!” 61% chance of escaping.

He grabbed my shirt, 81% chance it would rip if he did it again, shoving me into a wall. An old man started coming towards us, 87% chance he'd die by the end of the year. Chance of escaping, 66%. “You're a mutant. You think you're better than me? Think you can steal my wallet, and get away with it because you have powers you freak!” he screamed in my face.

If he got my wallet, 92% chance he'd spend it all within an hour on beer.

“Leave me alone! I didn't take anything!” I screamed back.

The old man was a few feet away. 73% chance of getting away. “You leave her alone, you hear me?” he said pointing his finger at the man.

The man took a hand off of me, he still had an iron like grip on my shoulder. 80% chance, if I acted immediately.

I couldn't have done it four months ago, I wasn't fast enough, coordinated enough, or strong enough, now I was. Grabbing the old mans cane, I wrenched it from his hand, pulling him off balance, my fingers burned as I shifted the numbers so he didn't fall and get hurt. Through flashes of pain that encompassed my brain, I brought the handle of the cane up into my attackers throat as hard as I could. It caught him off guard and he started gagging, letting me go. I snapped the cane in half bringing it down on his back, again I made probability my bitch. As he fell, he hit his head on the sidewalk with a painful thud, 95% chance he'd be conscious again in two minutes.

People were yelling at me, and I was fighting a major headache, I wanted to put ice on my fingers and without my sunglasses, I was seeing the odds for almost everything. The most important one, was that if I stuck around there was a 100% chance I'd be talking to the police and the MCO, not good. Grabbing my sunglasses, I took off running, cursing my Bit which had decided I should have such distinctive white hair.

Someone tried to stop me. Grabbing his hat I shifted the odds once more, increasing my chance of getting away. My head was going to kill me by the time I was done.

Dodging down a side street, I put as much distance between me and everyone else as I could. My powers helpfully told me that there was a 98.6% chance of being late to meet my friends.

I'll make a man out of you 1

My name is Amy Lin and I used to hate gym class. It wasn't that I was un-athletic, okay I was but that wasn't the reason, it wasn't the fact that partners had already formed before I even realized people were partnering up, it wasn't even fear of being picked last for a team. It was the constant reminder of how slow I was developing.

All of the other girls had clearly started puberty. They were growing tall, getting curves,and drawing the eyes of boys among other unpleasant things. I on the other hand was constantly being mistaken for some of the smaller boys. If I hadn't started growing my hair out people might not even notice I was a girl half the time, let alone a teenager.

So the worst day of my life so far would start with PE. I was just hanging off to the side with some of the other kids who were always picked last. We all knew that none of us would never be the captain of a team. If any of us were picked to be captain, we would leave the rest of us to the the wolves. It's not like we were friends. Getting picked last was embarrassing but so was losing.

One of the boys, Carter, was a little late. That wasn't unusual, if he took to long then one of the teachers would send someone to look for him in the halls. Everyone knew what they were really doing, checking the lockers to make sure that he wasn't in them. I didn't like Carter all that much, but that wouldn't stop me from volunteering to go look for him, anything to get out of gym.

Unfortunately Carter showed up before the teachers decided it was worth looking into. He was a little off though, nervous. Then he started threatening the bullies, telling them to back off. That didn't make much sense considering how much bigger they were than him.

Then all of the odd behaviour came together when he pulled the gun.

So what did I do? Did I grab the gun from his hand and disable him? Did I talk him down and get him help? Did I stop the bullets with super powers I don't have?

No, I screamed. Did you really expect anything else from me? I was the smallest weakest girl in class. Sure I could have tried to talk him down but when an inexperienced gun user pulls out a gun and points it in your general direction what would you do?

Carter wasn't the steadiest person when it came to nerves either. So when I screamed he shot me. Not on purpose or anything but by reflexively pulling the trigger.

You'll note I was a bit vague on all of the details before, yeah that's because it's hard to remember things that happened before I got shot that day. Being shot tends to be the highlight of my memories for the school year really. Not highlight as in good, highlight as in most remembered. Sorry I'm rambling, I'll get back to the story.

I felt the bullet impact, then I felt the world explode. I was on the ground, but it was weird. I had no idea where any of my body was. I could move my hands but they felt clumsy, and like they were coming out of my chest.

Then everyone started yelling. I couldn't hear them all that well though. It was like they were under water.

"Ahhhhh!"

"She's a mutant!"

"Someone call the MCO!"

Wait who was the mutant. Were they talking about me? Well I did just survive a gunshot… if I survived that means I'm not dead. I should get out of here.

I tried to move but my body felt like molasses. It didn't help that I couldn't figure out where my limbs were. I eventually started to. Crawl forward bit by bit.

I could see Carter in front of me, it gave me a goal to work towards. Then I realized I could see in all directions, weird. Trying to see everything gave me a headache so I just focused on Carter again. He was kneeling on the ground, crying and apologizing begging them not to hurt him. That's what I thought at least.

When I got closer to him he started chanting, "No, no, no…," over and over again. When he pulled the gun up from the ground I realized he wasn't begging the bullies not to hurt him, he was begging me not to hurt him.

I don't blame him for thinking I want revenge. Heck now I wouldn't mind getting some revenge, but at the time it was the furthest thing from my mind. I was only worried about escaping. I didn't pay much attention to mutants but I did know two things. One life sucked for mutants in rural areas because of H1. Two mutants who got involved with the MCO disappeared. Both of those things were bad for me.

When he aimed the gun at me all I could think about was the amount of pain I went through the first time he shot me. Oh I didn't describe it? Maybe that's because our language doesn't have expressive enough swear words for feeling an object explode through your chest.
Anyways I did not want to go through that again. I panicked and tried to jump away. Not like with my legs or anything, I just threw my entire body in one direction. Surprisingly I moved, not only that I moved quickly. I didn't give it a second thought or a glance behind. I just used my momentum and kept 'running,' fleeing the school and the life I used to know.

Sorry this one only makes sense if you have read musical character creation

Smell of rebellion

"A peaceful protest against legislation allowing mutants to run for municipal offices turned into a riot after a key supporter was accused of being a mutant…"

Kzzzt.

"Humanity first is reeling after dozens were injured at a community barbecue when a fight started over…"

Kzzzt.

"A church was burned down after Humanity first, or H1ers as they are sometimes called, accused it of granting sanctuary to a mutant…"

Kzzzt.

"Humanity First store clerk was arrested after physically assaulting a group of teenagers claiming them to be freaks of nature…"

Kzzzt.

"The world was shocked today as a hockey game turned into a riot on the ice. The fairly violent sportsmen were not the cause however. It was started when some of the audience attacked a group of teenagers and others came to their aid. Although details are vague apparently Humanity first community leaders instigated the attack…"

Kzzzt.

"The humanity first store front has been closed down a second time this month this time for a new reason. Instead of the store clerk attacking teenagers this one was attacking everyone claiming he had to 'stop the green most lady'…"

Kzzzt.

"The tag line 'Mutant threat or menace' is now being replaced by 'Humanity first should come last" as the organization has started fight after fight over the past month. Just this morning another report came in of them attacking…"

Kzzzt.

"The famously peaceful organization Humanity First is in danger of losing its reputation after multiple members and groups have been arrested for starting riots over the last two months. Normally any violent protests would be explicitly denounced by the grassroots organization, or otherwise be unassociated with them even if the protests had members going to it. Now the organization has attacked multiple people and caused enough riots that their PR team can't keep up with what is going on…"

Kzzzt.

This time instead of cutting to a new clip the tv was just turned off. The police officers were looking at me as if there was some significance to the recently aborted clip show.

"Miss Jenkins correct me if I am wrong but you were at all of these events were you not?"

"Most of them officer. I know I was at some of the protests but I wasn't at the church. I nearly got trampled to death at the hockey game. As for the store, I work there," I told him honestly.

They squirmed in their chairs as they tried to find a way to accuse me. I just sat there and smiled, they had nothing on me. There was nothing to have on me. My father was a lawyer for H1 of course I had been to those places, I was helping with the protests. I followed the law to the letter, I had nothing to be afraid of.

Admittedly the coincidences were starting to pile up but that could just mean some mutant cursed me to get back at my dad. No big deal.

"We'd like to test you for meta-gene."

Before I could even say a word both my father and the lawyer he hired for the interview started with the same argument, "the meta-gene means nothing, it only gives the potential for being a mutant."

I just sat it out as they argued. I tried not to focus on how hot it was in the interrogation room. It might not be so bad if I was sitting next to two people who seemed to be radiating heat, or I wasn't in my Sunday best including a scarf. It got to the point where I decided enough was enough and I took off the scarf. Sure the ensemble wasn't as complete or modest as before, and mama would kill me for taking it off in front of strangers but it was hot in here.

After taking off the scarf on of the police officers was surreptitiously keeping his eyes away from me. It wasn't like there was much to look at, both because the outfit was modest and because there wasn't much to cover up, but it still creeped me out. Unfortunately dad noticed this as well and started at him for looking at his daughter like that, calling him all sorts of names.

Then the words got harsher. The police got angry. Eventually someone through the first punch and I was caught in the middle of it all yet again.

Miss Powerful made sure her mask was in place to protect her secret identity, it was only a black ski mask from when she and her family had gone up to New York state to go skiing with some family friends, but it was the best she could do. In the Miami heat, even though it was five in the morning, it felt too hot.

Putting on an old black t-shirt, and her mothers gardening gloves to keep her hands clean she crept out of the house, a big smile on her face. Going over to her Dad's car, she rubbed her hands together, did some simple stretches and knelt down like her older brother had taught her. Gripping the edge of the car, she lifted it up, feeling around for a hard part, she let go with one hand and shifted her grip. It was like she was lifting an awkward cardboard box for all the trouble it gave her.

With a bit of manoeuvring she managed to get herself under the car and lifted it up above her head. “I can do it!” she squealed. Now to see what she could really do.

Walking out onto the deserted street of the Miami suburbs, she began to jog with the car above her head.

**

“Hello,” the woman said sleepily into the phone, looking blearily at the bedside clock.

“Um, I'm sorry to bother you Eve, but... I think I saw your car running down the street.”

“What? Is this some kind of prank, Wendy?”

“I hope so. But I just saw your car being carried by someone... running down the street. Should I call the police? I don't want a mutant fight here.”

“I'll deal with it Wendy, thanks,” she said completely awake and spitting mad.

**

Miss Powerful's phone rang. Stopping, she kept hold of the car with one hand and pulled out her phone looking at it nervously. “Hey, Mom. Guess what I can do!”

“GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW! YOU'RE GROUNDED FOR THE NEXT YEAR! IF YOU'VE DAMAGED THE CAR IT'S COMING OUT OF YOUR ALLOWANCE UNTIL YOU'RE TWENTY!” her mother screamed at her.

Spinning on her heels, the budding superhero dashed back home, as her mother kept up a steady stream of threats.

Miss Powerful walked through the halls of her junior high, bobbing up and down in time with her music. It was almost her thirteenth birthday and she was feeling great. She was going to be getting her MID soon, and then she could join up with the Miami Crusaders. She still had the lightning bolt pen the greatest superhero in the world Lightning Strike had given her last year when the hero and her team had visited the school. She could be the brawn to her lightning.

Maybe she could even learn how to fly. Or get a cool jetpack that would let her zip around the sky like a hummingbird. THAT WOULD BE SO COOL!!!!!

“Hey give that back!”

She stopped and looked behind her, Toby was running after two bullies had stolen his bag and were throwing the books, pens and papers on the ground as they jogged away.

Looking around, Miss Powerful saw that there weren't any teachers around, but there were too many students watching everything for her to use her powers openly. Even though she was a really cool mutant, she had to keep her secret identity. She didn't want her future supervillain nemesis finding out about her family because she exposed herself at school.

The two bullies were too busy laughing at Toby to pay attention to where they were going. Bobbing even more to the music, she waited until they were just in front of her and did a little dance step putting herself right in there way. As they tripped over her, she let herself fall with a squawk, elbowing them lightly and jabbing her fingers into their side. Not hard, at least not hard for her.

They started crying in pain.

“HEY! Get off of me you losers,” she shouted, pretending she was too weak to out from under them.

Some classmates helped her get out from under the two bullies who were holding their sides sniffling in pain. Everyone started jeering at them, while Toby got his bag back, and Miss Powerful, smiling secretly to herself limped away promising to go to the nurses office.

“Miss Powerful 1. Bullies 0,” she whispered to herself as soon as she was out of sight. With a big smile she began dancing towards class again.

Miss Powerful looked at the treadmill which was a twisted wreck. A croquet ball rolled to a stop by her foot. The MCO stared at her, gaping like a fish. “Y-y-you broke it!”

“Sorry, you surprised me,” she said, dry washing her hands and biting her lip. “Please don't tell my Mom, I'm already grounded for the year.”

This is a rough, snapshot of a story based on my "mutant that turns into a proper dragon egg" concept in the bad ideas thread. very much incomplete, haven't decided if he's an Avatar or an exemplar, The parents MAY be based off of my parents a little, but this isn't an author avatar I don't think, as Ben isn't a Gadgeteer or anything in this iteration. All names have been changed from those that they may be loosely based off of.

Ben, 5'4" fairly athletic, average teenage boy.
mid July,

Ben gets out of bed, slowly, cursing the sun for denying him sleep, steps on the hardwood floor and slips, "Woah what the?" he notices something off, what appears to a medium gray eggshell with vein marks on each heel attached by what appear to be membrane material and strong cartilage, panicked he cries "Mom!""Dad!"

"What is it? You know I hate when you shout through closed doors" That was Mom, unlike my Dad, my sisters and I, she can't hear a conversation in normal talking voice from across the house, while in a closed room.
"not the time now Mom, I need help, I think I'm a mutant" trying to get up, grabbing a blanket to tie around my waste seeing how thats all my newfound lack of balance will allow, stumbling a few times catching my self on my desk and cabinets, I make my way to my bedroom door. open it and sit down on the basket outside my room.
"you couldn't even get dressed?"
"Mom, I could barely walk" kicking a foot out, pointing at my heel.
"Well Ben, I never thought I'd have to teach you how to walk in heels"
"MOOM!"
"I'm serious, it looks like thats how you are going to have to walk, and you need new shoes, as it looks like all you'll be able to wear are flip flops."
that earned a groan, Ben hated flipflops.
"Its better then stepping on a rusty nail or something"
Dad came up, with a familiar red metal cylinder, the household fire extinguisher. and a slight smirk.
"DAD!"
"We don't know what your powers are, so until we do, I want you to keep this around at all times"
"...I'll think about it"
"Well don't burn the house down!"
Wow, who knew that old joke would become so literal? that got me laughing, then there was a brief flash of heat and light, fortunately I wasn't facing anything too close, we learned 2 things, 1 I breath fire, 2 our smoke detector is definitely out of juice, I was practically right under it.
Grabbing the fire extinguisher with by eyes wide in shock and a blush of embarrassment I ask "can you get the crutches too?"

---

Late July

By this time, the shell pieces have formed near every major joint, and there were patrusions jetting out from his lower back slightly with the beginnings of a larger shell piece, looking in the mirror, Ben noticed something his hips were definitely wider, the family was noticing some less masculine traits, a more dainty appearance in his arms and legs, the fact that his facial hair stopped growing was alarming, seeing how before a full beard was a week without shaving was the first alarm, this made his body look almost undeniably female.

Clothing wise, Ben was down to "kilts" and strapless tops, namely those that exposed his now slender mid drift, be it by luck or cruel design, the shell pieces around his feet now functioned almost entirely as high heels, so the flipfops were no longer needed.

Despite protests in order to be presentable, all of Ben's body hair was shaved off the previous week when it was decided that there was no way Ben could pass as male, especially with his Wardrobe difficulties.

"Ben, I know this is hard for you, but we have an appointment to get to."
Powers testing, with a nearby hero group, even before I mutated we didn't trust the MCO, no matter how much they sugar coat it, they are a fear driven organization, and the fact that almost the entirety of their numbers are baseline, has always made my family doubt their supposed professionalism, and a critical look at "Tales of the MCO" doesn't help matters.

---
[skip powers testing most undecided, the important parts are the codename "Dragon Egg" and the Whateley admission forms,]

Going through the admissions forms, Ben got to a certain question

'As a result of your mutation is your body becoming ____?'

• 
  more masculine
• more feminine
• neither
• other

Its common enough that they have a CHECKBOX for it?



end chapter 1

Gunny watched in horror as the spectre of death approached him.

It had all been fine a minute ago, they had been setting up for a sim. Nothing to extreme, for senior finals anyway.

The she walked in. The sim techs were surprised but friendly everyone loved her. Then she touched one of them and they died. They just had a heart attack out of nowhere.

People were freaked out for a second, but they thought it was a coincidence until she did it again.

Most of the techs ran away at this point but some tried to slow her advance by charging her. They died just as the others did. Nothing could stop her.

"What do you want?"

"Oh I'm not here for what I want, I'm here for what you wanted. Because you wanted this, right? You wanted me to stop being bubbly and cheery and start taking things seriously. So I have, I decided to take out the biggest threat to my friends that I have available. That's what you've always asked for isn't it? For me to take things seriously? For me to not mess up your sims or ask for insane things like unicorns."

Jade pulled out a knife and pointed it at him. He could easily have gotten it from her, even defended himself with it, but it wouldn't do him much good. Her regeneration and pain tolerance were ridiculous.

"Of course I could go back to being the silly 10 year old everyone expects me to be," she snapped her fingers and everyone who had died suddenly came back to life. Not immediately got up, but they started breathing and got up shakily.

Giggling like a mad woman she skipped towards the door, nary a care in the world. When she reached the door she said, "Oh and you can keep the knife."

He didn't even realize he had lost track of it. He looked around and saw it stuck to the wall, inside a carving of Hello Kitty. When had she gotten a chance to do that?

Sam was worried when she went looking for Jade. All things considered she was the least stable of anyone in Wondercute.

Surprisingly she found her in her room. Working frantically on something. Yelling at the other members of team Kimba as they buzzed in and out of the room.

As soon as she was noticed Shroud rushed her, "you couldn't have done this sooner? Or saved it for next year? Broken them more easily? Anything!"

"What…?"

"Jade had all of these plans for how to deal with the first loss. She knew this was coming! She was prepared for dealing an unexpected or even forced loss but this? All of that is out the window. You destroyed the team and now we have less than 2 weeks to fix it!"

"Um…"

"If you're not here to help then leave. You're going to get in the way," Shroud said as Jade rushed out the door with a stack of papers.

Apparently things were well in hand here.

Ch 2,

Early August, a week and a half after powers testing.

Ben was now 5'2", his shell pieces have gained a slight blue hue, which Ben was thankful for, because its easier to find clothes that match blue than it is to find some that match steal gray... not that he'd ever admit that.
Ben looked down and sighed well we knew these two mounds were coming, at least I don't have to pee sitting down yet his eyes shifted to a package he dreaded opening, his mom had the foresight to order it online, and it sure saves on the hassle of trying to find a clothing store friendly to obvious mutants.

There's something about a formfitting devisor bra that automatically displays the size of the last wearer, that bugs me, if that wasn't enough, the results were automatically sent to mom's phone and mine, with mine allowing me to "visually increase the size" with an app, whomever made it is a pervert, the app has an enforced tutorial for when you first wear it, and goes through certain "special features" that I hope weren't advertised when these things were ordered

Of course, the tutorial HAD a skip button for THOSE special features, but Ben didn't realize that until he got to the "locator function" basically you can call for a clean one with your phone, and you can call your phone with whatever one you're wearing...

Ok that's useful, embarrassing, but useful... Still say the devisor who made these is a pervert

"Ben! You know you got to finish filling out those forms soon" that was Dad
"Yeah almost done"

The reality was, the forms were filled out days ago, there was just one thing left blank, his name, Ben was no fool he didn't look like a "Ben" anymore, not even remotely, and it was almost to the point were there would be no signs of him ever having been male.

"Dad?"
"Yeah kiddo?"
"Truthfully I filled out everything but the name days ago..."
"Ahh having trouble thinking of a new name still?"
"Yeah but its not that, its that I'm afraid to think of one, I chose a gender neutral codename because I know a masculine one wouldn't fit, but look at me, I can't even wear unisex clothing anymore, I have boobs, and its only a matter of time before...." I cry, hugging Dad, careful not to hug too hard.
"shhh its okay, a name is just a name, a label so that people can identify you, but it doesn't define you. You will always be you, no matter what name you go by."
That calmed me down... "Stupid girl hormones, they wont even let me hyper analyze things like I used to or stay calm while doing it." that earned a chuckle, I reflexively looked away to laugh as well, thankfully I practiced holding in my laugh most of my life.
I started thinking, I wanted one that sounded somewhat similar so I could get used to it more easily, but I am not moving to a gender neutral name, just wouldn't feel right, "Beatrice, Betty for short"
"huh?"
"my new name, it didn't feel right picking a gender neutral name, that would be like going from one boy's name to another, so its Betty"
"Ben, Betty, that's going to take some getting used to, you sure about that name? its distinctly feminine..."
"Yeah I'm sure, I mean its just a name right? And that one sounds... nice, I'm going to have to get used to it too though."

With that, the forms were sent in, the acceptance letter came a week later, in that time, Dad had already been looking up and booking rooms at mutant friendly hotels, it took a lot of digging, but and it would be a 2 night trip, it would be 1 night, but they're afraid I might accidentally breath fire in my sleep, it hasn't happened yet, but better safe than sorry, that and we don't want to attract attention at the rest areas. Of course after hearing that I finally picked a new name, Mom took that as the go ahead to give a crash course on everything from makeup to what I have to look forward to every month after "Little Ben" makes his exit. not to mention her delight in introducing me to my new portable storage (non)options, otherwise known as the purse, I mean I get that I can't exactly wear a backpack with that shell thing in the way, but why not, say a utility belt?

"Beatrice?" it still feels funny being called that,
"Yes Mom"
"I know this is a lot for you, but the fact in the matter is all this is going to be important, no one is going to look at you as Ben the boy anymore, but as Betty the girl, and that's going to mean you are expected to follow a lot of new social rules...."

late August

Betty was still 5'2" but that wasn't saying much considering how she has to stand, she put on her devisor bra, even as she noticed the beginnings of an all too familiar body feature, on her phone was a notification, "C-cup" she stood shocked, only a few weeks ago she was an A... and not long before that, she didn't have them at all!.

"Betty! Its time to go"

I got in the van, my seat was leaning back to make room for my back shell thing, the reason taking a plane was not an option, that and because even getting there 4hrs early, airport security, in conjunction with the MCO would cause me to miss my flight, I mean its kinda hard to hide my back, let alone my other features that scream "mutant" I'd be held up just by people saying i did something because they want to ruin my day.

The first day was uneventful, we passed by an outlet mall that Mom would have loved to take me to, I guess that is one thing I can thank my unique appearance for, even as a guy that particular outlet center was a required stop anytime we were in the area.

We got to the hotel early, and checked in, the hotel clerk looked at me and said
"Why aren't you a pretty GSD case."
"Uhm, thanks?" that got me nervous and uneasy, I didn't know how to feel about the word 'pretty'
"Ah a changeling I take it?"
"Uhm changeling?"
"someone who finds themselves going to a different set of bathrooms after their mutation"
"yeah"
"you have a lot to adjust to, but you'll get through it"

With that we asked where a friendly place to get dinner was, it wasn't the best, but they offered lots of variety and large portions, I was strangely hungry, our waiter asked if I was an energizer, to which dad thankfully said "No. Betty here is still changing quite a bit."

We made it back to the hotel, and I slept like a rock, when I woke up, not only was there shell covering my breasts as a sort of "uniboob" but as I found out in the shower, my testes had receded, I got out of the shower and even in my bath robe, my parents could tell something was wrong,
"what is it?"
"what's wrong honey?"
even the state I was in, I could respond with a touch of humor,
"You know how people tell others to grow a pair, well I just did the opposite, and I think the rest is going tomorrow "

This of course was not the best course of action, as through the rest of Pennsylvania and half of New York, it was either "the talk" or female hygiene review or pop quiz on social regulations.

We got to the hotel, and we found I was right the next morning, strangely I didn't feel as bad about it as I thought I was going to, of course since manifesting, I have found that practically EVERY morning brings about new surprises, and low and behold, my feet were covered in scales light blue, sparkling scales. We hit the road and made it to Dunwich a few hours later, which is when I learned that I wasn't expected to arrive until tomorrow, and it didn't take a genius to figure out that the town outside of the mutant school would be largely friendly towards mutants, or let alone what that meant as it relates to the reason for our early arrival...

"Beatrice" I've had that name less than a month and it gets me to stand at attention..
"Yes mom"
"As I was saying, your wardrobe is horridly small for a young lady like yourself, and while your options are still rather limited, we've scheduled an appointment with a local seamstress that works closely with the school,"
I was doomed.

end chapter 2

“Happy birthday, Grandpa!” Miss Powerful said, giving the old man a big, rib cracking hug.

<Oh! You've gotten strong, little flower. I think you're almost as strong as your brothers,> he complained in Spanish, pushing her back a little to protect his ribs which felt like they'd been put through a trash compactor.

<Why don't you use English?> she asked in the same language.

<I'm an old man, I should be allowed to use my native language.>

She rolled her eyes. “You moved here when you were two years old, Grandpa.”

He gave a big laugh, rubbing her long curly hair. “I just wanted to make sure you could still speak it. Your mother says you always have your nose in Shakespeare and math books with your cousin, little flower. Go find your grandmother, she wants to show you her roses.”

Standing on her tiptoes she gave him a kiss on the cheek and ran off to where her grandmother was sitting watching the festivities with a large smile.

“Grandma!” she shouted, being a bit more careful with her hug. “Grandpa said you wanted to show me your roses.”

“I do, the new rainbow rare roses are just starting to blossom. You'll love how they look,” the old woman said. “But first can you get my cane, some of the little ones were playing with it and it somehow got under the picnic table.”

“Sure Grandma,” she said.

Running over to the picnic table she saw it was right in the middle of it. Rather than getting on her hands and knees, she grabbed the steel bar holding it together, lifted it up above her head, knelt down to grab the cane and stood back up, ready to put the table back down. Then she realized that everything had suddenly gone quiet. Looking around she saw her Dad slapping his forehead, and her Mom rubbing her temples as if fighting off a headache, everyone else was watching her in shock.

Very carefully putting the table back down, she shuffled her feet for a moment before saying, “OH LOOK! Chocolate cake!” Grabbing a slice, she walked over to her grandmother, gave her the cane and began eating as if nothing had happened.

“Lead the way, Grandma! I can't wait to see those roses.”

“But Mom,” Rose pleaded, “I'm a mutant. I need to get some special training if I'm going to get this stupid power under control.”

“You're not a mutant,” her mother replied. “You're eyes haven't changed colour, you still look exactly the same. Everyone knows that at the very least mutants eyes change when they manifest. You've simply gotten your grandfathers talent with machines. You should be happy and not worry yourself about this mutant nonsense.”

“I looked at my broken lamp yesterday and spent an hour working on it. It works again and uses half the energy. I didn't even know how to check the energy level until I was digging through Dad's toolbox.”

“Rose, you're not a mutant! Now drop it or you're grounded.”

She started to say something, not sure what it would be, but stopped and took a deep breath. Stomping out of the room, she headed for her computer. If her parents wouldn't face facts, she would. Typing in 'Missouri super heroes' she began looking for ones who might be able to help her.

"Hey Jay-Arm! Can your demon talk?" Lindsey asked the mage-devisor.

Nephandus looked rather embarrassed. "Well, sort of..."

"What do you mean, 'sort of'?" Jadis asked as she looked up from her book.

"Um... you see-"

"Onomatopoeia!" "Onomatopoeia!" the little demon suddenly squealed.



I apologize for the story, but enough stories referred to the demon as Nephandus' pokemon that this just popped into my head and I couldn't get rid of it. So now I'm inflicting it on all of you.

Nimbus frowns at the sound of Son Gokayla's voice calling for him. He marks his place in the book he's been reading, then poofs into the shape of a small yellowish cloud that quickly flies off toward Master Ito's island. He pauses only briefly for Gokayla to hop on, and then they're off, blazing a yellow trail through the sky toward the egg-like headquarters of Capsule Corp. Gokayla leaps to the ground outside, and Nimbus flies back to his home to resume his reading of 88 Laws the IRS Doesn't Want You to Know About.

Meanwhile, Bunny has come out to greet her old friend Gokayla with a friendly hug. Prince Valensuera sulks out after her and gives his old rival Gokayla a curt nod. "Where have you been?" demands Bunny.

"Oh, you know," says Gokayla, his hand scratching the back of his spiky black hair. "Just saving the financial world." His cheerful expression grows serious. "Actually, that's why I'm here. There's this new fiend out there, and he's pretty strong. I'm going to need some help on this one." He looks meaningfully at Valensuera.

Valensuera scowls. "Do it yourself, Kindkarot."

Bunny turns on her husband. "Now you be nice! Weren't you just complaining this morning that you never get to hang out with Gokayla anymore?"

Valensuera looks down and to the side. "Was not," he mumbles.

"Oh yes you were! Now you go over there and help him save the world again!"

Valensuera rolls his eyes and stalks over toward Gokayla, who smiles.

"Good, good!" says Gokayla. "Buuuut, I don't think you're going to be strong enough for this either."

"WHAT!" shouts Valensuera angrily, completely offended.

"But it's okay! I've learned this special financial trick from the Metamorans that will let us merge our assets! We'll become more powerful than we've ever imagined!"

Valensuera spits. "I'm not merging my assets with you. Go ask Razorbaccolo. I'm sure he'd love to."

"But Valensueraaaaa," Gokayla whines, "he's not wealthy enough! It has to be somebody roughly as powerful as me. You're the only one who's managed to keep up."

"Fine!" Valensuera shouts. "I'll do it! Anything to stop your mewling! Now how do we do this... merger thing?"

"Great. Okay, it's easy. We just have to do this dance..." Gokayla mimes out the motions, ending by pointing both fingers out and swinging his arms over his head to the side. "And when we get to here, our fingers touch and we'll fuse!"

Valensuera looks completely appalled. After a few moments, he turns on his heel and starts marching back into the pastel-colored building. "Forget it, Kindkarot. The market can crash."

Bunny steps in front of him angrily. "Valensuera, you jerk! What about our retirement fund? And what about little Thumper? Did you think about that? You have to help Gokayla save the financial world!"

Veins bulge and teeth nearly shatter, but Valensuera turns slowly around and stalks back to Gokayla's side. Biting off the words, he says "Let's just do it already."

"Yes!" says Gokayla in relief. "I knew you'd come through!"

They act out a practice run, and then go through the dance for real, syncing their acumen and chanting, "Fuuuuusioooonnnnnn.... ka-ching!"

There is a flash of light, and suddenly where Gokayla and Valensuera had stood there is a new androgynous-faced entity wearing a small black vest with enormous orange trim that is barely decent over its bare and heavily ripped yet slightly feminine chest. Bunny stares appreciatively while this new being flexes its muscles and examines its new body. It looks up and speaks to her in a strangely resonating voice. "Check my holdings. They'll be listed under Gokaylensuera now."

Bunny pulls a PDA out of a belt pouch and consults it for a moment, then gasps and lets it slide through her fingers to clatter onto the walkway. "I've never seen so many zeros," she says in a quiet, awestruck voice.

Gokaylensuera smirks. "Sounds about right. Hang tight while I go break some deals over Majin Foob's head." A jingling aura of gold flares around Gokaylensuera, then he flies away so quickly that he almost appears to have vanished. Bunny goes back inside to make backups of the security footage; between the blackmail potential and her prurient interest, she feels like she's just won the jackpot. After all, you know what they say about compound interest.

---

Elsewhere, high up on Kayda's Lookout, Mr. Jobejobe tends to the Spiderpalms planted in the plaza. Their legs twitch in pleasure as the warm breeze rustles through their bristly hairs. A slight widening of Mr. Jobejobe's eyes marks the moment he senses the incoming wealth that has been blazing across the sky and has now sloped upwards until nearly vertical, rising in an exponential growth toward the stratospheric Lookout. He heaves a sigh, then sets down the watering can full of the blood-like nutrient slurry the Spiderpalms require. No doubt it is Son Gokayla he senses approaching, having discovered and used yet another promising investment to multiply his funds with.

Mr. Jobejobe doesn't bother to notify Kayda, who will have sensed Gokayla's approach even earlier than he did. Instead, he makes his way into the kitchens and emerges a moment later pushing a cart bearing a heap of his finest cuisine. As he backs away to a safe distance, he frowns. Something is different about Gokayla's financial profile.

His confusion is resolved when Gokaylensuera lands in the plaza and zeroes in on the cart. "Hey, is this Rothe Haggis?"

Mr. Jobejobe nods with a fake smile while the fused being begins inhaling the meal he'd spent hours cooking before sealing it in a stasis chamber for the next time there were visitors. Gokayla had always been a little uncivilized, if well-meaning, and the addition of Velansuera has only made him more rude. Mr. Jobejobe considers ejecting him from the Lookout, but hesitates when he hears Kayda's soft footsteps approaching.

Meanwhile, Gokaylensuera has finished consuming a feast that should have been enough to fill a dozen hungry traders. "That was great!" he says enthusiastically. "Was that lichen I tasted in the Rothe Haggis? Nice touch, and the Spicy Cave Cricket Stew was great. Just the right amount of mushroom. You have to share the recipe with Charge-Charge and Bunny so they can make it for us. And that souffle! I don't think I've ever- we've ever? Um. It was amazing! I want more! How long-"

The thumping of Kayda's heavy staff against the floor interrupts Gokaylensuera's rambling. "You intend to buy out Majin Foob?"

"Of course," he replies with a confident smirk. "With my assets, he doesn't have a chance! Just tell me where he's hiding and I'll end this in time for seconds."

Kayda gazes at him with a grim expression. "Why isn't Razorbaccolo with you? You shouldn't do this alone."

Gokaylensuera scoffs. "I've got this."

Kayda shakes her head. "Poor risk management. The odds are-"

"Razorbaccolo would just slow me down, and time is money. There's no problem."

Kayda sighs. "At least visit Karson and Hartforobe on your way back down. They've got a fresh batch of Securities Beans."

---

Back at Master Ito's island, Charge-Charge is cooking dinner while Glowhan does his homework. Nominally, anyway. In actuality, Glowhan is daydreaming about becoming a powerful Super Salesman like his father. He's not blind, after all. Ever since Diz he's been noticing hints of his hidden potential. He'd given N'Zappa a nasty surprise, and even Freyza had noticed Glowhan's high credit score. But would his mom listen? No! Earlier he was trading stock tips with Tienyo and Jadtzu when she'd caught him and made him return to his studies. He missed the days of training with Razorbaccolo before Valensuera showed up. Just the two of them, out in the wilderness practicing economic warfare. Those were the days. Except for the part about his dad being bankrupt and all, but hey, it had only been a temporary thing until they could collect the seven Banker Balls and wish for a bailout. "I miss you, Razorbaccolo..." Glowhan mutters.

"Speak of the dinosaur..." says a synthesized voice from behind Glowhan.

"Razorbaccolo!" Glowhan jumps up and gives his grinning mentor a big hug.

Charge-Charge turns around and glares at the former enemy now awkwardly returning her son's hug. Buyouts could make life so confusing! She shakes her head and sighs. "What brings you here, Razorbaccolo? Are you looking for Gokayla? He just flew off..."

"I know. I'm here for everyone else. I've sensed a new threat, and it's going to take all of our acumen to handle."

"Well, it's going to have to wait. Glowhan has homework to finish, and then we've got dinner to eat."

"Charge-Charge, this is more important than-"

"Nothing is more important than a good education!" she says with a sharp gesture. "Especially if he wants to be a Super Salesman!"

While they argue, Glowhan slips through the window to find Tienyo, Jadtzu, Chourillin, Yamchaka, and Master Ito waiting outside. "Hurry now," Master Ito says. "You all get away while she's distracted. I'll go rescue Razorbaccolo from Charge-Charge. A good well-placed squeeze should do it! Now go!"

---

Majin Foob dances around the former home of a pair of tax evaders. They were not good people, but they became good candies. Majin Foob likes candies. Hard candy, unlike fiat money like the Zeni, is real and has real, innate, lasting value. It's a physical thing that can be traded, held, buried, eaten. Zeni is just letters on a page or bits in a computer. Paper and computers are not tasty enough for Majin Foob, no sir! Majin Foob will convert the financial world from Zeni onto a proper hard candy system and save the day! Whee!

Half a dozen shadows approach, and Majin Foob frowns. "What is this?" shrills his voice. "Foob no like shadows!" Majin Foob tries to turn the shadows into candy, but they only make shadow candies, and Majin Foob can't eat those. The great gelatinous creature looks up and sees the many traders hovering around him, financial profiles glowing brightly. "Oh, Foob sees. You come to take candy from Foob! Foob no likes this! Foob turns you into candy and makes the world taste good!"

Gokaylensuera prepares to deliver Majin Foob a final warning, but then his blood runs cold. Dancing in the air before him are the candy forms of Chef Peter, Chef Marcel, and Chef André, from the Capsule Corp. kitchens.

---

Ayla wakes up with a start, his bed soaked with sweat. "It... it was only a dream," he mutters in relief.

"What did you say, baby?" asks a familiar voice to his left.

Ayla turns and finds himself face to face with Emil Hammond, who is naked but for a pimp hat and a huge gold dollar-sign necklace.

---

Ayla wakes up with a start, his bed soaked with sweat. He says nothing, stares at the bottom of the upper bunk for a full thirty seconds barely daring to breath, and then turns.

There's nothing there. But something isn't right. He turns to the other side. Hippolyta is glaring at him from behind a pair of Groucho glasses.

Ayla sighs. "This is going to be one of those nights, isn't it."

"Of course," replies the top bunk as it develops a mouth and starts slowly eating hamburger helper while Hippy forces Ayla to watch.

Mimeo casually walked up behind the anime girl who had the most delightful powers. She had been easy to spot with her spiky blue grey hair, it was unfortunate she wasn't with her friends, but her powers alone would be enough to complete his robbery.

As soon as he was in reach he punched her in the kidney, he could already feel the regeneration that would kick in as soon as he hit her.

The girl collapsed the instant his fist touched her. Clothes and fake skin hit the sidewalk and for a crucial few seconds he stood there in shock. At that exact same time, a tiny birdlike figure shot out of the wig, grabbed a hold of him, ripped a hole in his shirt, right around his shoulder, shoved its hands inside to touch his skin and grinned like a child at Christmas.

“HI MIMEO!” the fairy like girl with purple hair and wings squealed excitedly.

He was grabbing the girl trying to pry her off even as he took off running from the obvious ambush. She didn't come off, somehow she was stuck to his skin, and from the way she was smiling his tight grip wasn't causing her the slightest bit of trouble. He couldn't get more than a tingling of the power she obviously had, since she wasn't fighting him, so she had to be using a PFG of some kind.

“My name's Tink. After all of this is done can I get your autograph? You're a villain which isn't cool, but you don't kill people so you're not too bad.”

“What are you doing?” he demanded.

“Well you see,” the girl said still hanging on, smiling as if she was on an amusement ride, “we learned that you were going after Team Kimba. And the school doesn't like people messing with us students. So you became our school project.”

“What?” he asked, giggling a little in disbelief.

“Well the devisors made a really good glue that's on my gloves and your skin so you can't pull me off. The gadgeteers gave me a PFG and a metal frame so you can't rip me apart pulling me off, or pull my joints from their sockets. Eldritch and Tennyo are flying overhead with a .50 calibre sniper rifle ready to take your head off if you look like you'll really hurt me, I have a radio that lets them listen into everything we're saying. Eldritch really wants to shoot you for hurting students, but she was overruled.”

Mimeo began scanning the sky, another fit of giggling overcame him at the insanity of the situation.

“Oh you can't see them silly. Pejuta gave them some really cool charms that make them invisible, you can't even hear them. Pretty neat huh?!”

“Yeah, sure,” he said, putting on speed, biting back another laugh.

“We had Shroud pretend to be Tennyo, knowing you'd probably want to go after her first, and with her powers I could hide in her hair waiting to get close enough to get a hold of you. Generator created a really neat delivery system for our trap, and Mobius made a special bag to hold everything.”

Another laugh overcame him, this was getting more and more ridiculous. “Delivery system?” He pulled on her again, but the glue wasn't letting go, and it had to have spread out, it felt like he was trying to rip all the skin off his arm, shoulder and half his chest.

“Yeah. There was talk about putting it into a bomb but they thought you would run away too quickly to get a big enough dose. So they needed someone who was, and I quote, 'fast, brave, tough, and absolutely crazy,' to pull it off. Someone else added stupid, but that definitely isn't me.”

Mimeo had to stop running as a great belly laugh caused him to bend over grasping his knees. Gasping for air, he found he couldn't stop laughing.

“So I volunteered. And since I started talking, you've been getting a steady dose of something that Jobe whipped up for self defence. She had to strengthen it for you, but it's working great isn't it?” she asked, yelling to be heard over his laughing.

He managed to wheeze out “J-Jobe?” as spots rose in his eyes.

“Yeah a bio-devisor. She's creepy, and she's going to be the Empress of Karadonia eventually. I heard she used to be a boy, but she had an accident and turned herself into a drow. I wanted to ask her to join my modeling club, but I was overruled by practically everyone.”

Fallling to his knees, laughing so hard it hurt, Mimeo just wanted the girl to shut up.

“So yeah, don't worry you'll just black out soon. After that happens the virus in your sinuses will start to die from lack of oxygen. By the time you wake up we'll have you wrapped up nice and tight and ready to be sent off to prison. And I'll be getting extra credit, and I can say that TINK THE FAIRY QUEEN, defeated Mimeo. Do you think that will look good on my resume when I try out for the Crusaders?”

She looked over at Mimeo, who was unconscious on the ground, still giggling lightly. “Aw, I don't think I'll get my autograph now,” she whined. Speaking to the radio, she said, “OK, guys he's down. Come on out and arrest him. And can I get some solvent? My nose is SO itchy!”

Teri checked her mail box on the way back from class. She'd let it slip a bit considering all the congratulations she'd gotten for going hand to hand with Mimeo, even though she hadn't really done that much and had never been in any real danger. Still she basked in the attention, since she had been the one to pull it off.

There wasn't much, a letter and some pictures from Mouser, some junkmail saying she might already be a winner, and right at the back was a large brown envelope. Curious she rushed back to her room and tore it open.

A large picture of a superhero group fighting against Mimeo slid out, in the corner of it was written, 'To Tink. Here's the autograph you wanted. When you apply for the Crusaders get them to call me as a reference. Mimeo.'

Teri's wild scream of joy could be heard in Dunwich.

2018

Teri took a sip from a straw that disappered into her belt, as her fallen teammate tried to crawl away from the recently escaped Mimeo.

"Mimeo, it's been a while," she said calmly.

"I'm getting on in years, breaking out of prison isn't as easy as it used to be," the villain replied. "So I figured I'd get some regeneration to take the edge off my advanced years. I see my reference helped you."

She took another sip from the straw before nodding, grinning broadly. "Yes it did thanks. Do you really want to fight, or can I just arrest you now?"

"You don't have any tricks this time, fairy girl. I've got what I wanted so I'm feeling generous, you can run away and save yourself a beating," he replied the grey fading rapidly from his hair.

Giggling Teri took a final big sip from the straw. "Actually I do have a little trick that just finished working."

"Oh?"

Her grin became inhumanly large, her eyes began to glow. "I just drank about a litre of devisor caffiene that would make an elephant stay awake for a week. And it's starting to kick in. Last chance."

Mimeo watched with interest as the fairy started vibrating. "This will be fun," was all he said as he threw himself at her.

There was a small sonic boom as the two collided in midair.

Marni leaned forward in the beanbag chair, her nimble fingers making a cornrow in her friends blonde hair. “Tell me if it tugs anymore than this, Rachael,” she said.

“I thought cornrows were suppose to be really tight?”

“Naw. If you make it too tight, you just end up pulling the hair out by the roots. Trust me, I learned all about it from my aunt who does this for a living,” she said. “Anyone else want it?” she asked the four other girls who were sitting around the basement rec room, eating popcorn, drinking pop and watching a movie.

“We're good Mar. Take it easy and relax,” one of them said. “You don't have to be like your parents and always doing something.”

“I just like doing stuff with my hands,” she protested. “This stuff is so easy I could do it in my sleep. I think I have a few times when my brothers woke me up before dawn wanting to look cool.”

Laughing they got back to the important things, watching the movie and gossiping.

**

The hot California sun was just peeking in the basement windows when Marni woke up needing to go pee. Stepping nimbly over the sleeping bags she headed for the bathroom to do her business. As she sat there, she remembered how she had helped her fathers construction crew renovate it four months ago. She'd just done fetch and carry jobs and helped keep track of inventory, but as her father told her, it would be good experience for later in life. She'd just been happy to get the paycheck.

Finishing up, she quietly opened the door, hoping to get at least another hour of sleep. Rachael was doing a pee dance just outside, before Marni could say good morning her friend stopped dead and stared.

“What?” she asked confused.

“Y-y-your eyes,” Rachael squeaked.

She spun, staring at herself in the mirror. Her iris's were brilliant orange. “Oh crap,” she whispered.

Marni didn't notice the sound of feet running up the stairs.

Turning on the band saw, Rose watched the blade spin while her mind showed her how the gears and motor inside the machine worked. Six months ago she wouldn't have cared, even now she didn't get much of a thrill out of machines, but it was the only way to make her brain calm down and she was learning to like it.

Right now she was just making some pieces for a template of her newest project, which if her brain was telling her correctly would be a bracer that could fit under her shirt and expand into something like a shield. She'd actually found the design on the internet, and her brain had decided to improve it, making it smaller, faster and stronger. Why her brain thought she needed it, she didn't know but it was easier to just go with it. If she ignored it, she'd just start dreaming about the stupid thing until something else caught her attention.

With the basic shape ready, she went back to her table and halted with a groan. Her blueprints were covered in red paint, beside it was written 'Mutant'. Looking around the shop, she saw that everyone was looking away from her, and the shop teacher was conveniently in his office. Sighing, she went to get some paper towels, she didn't need the blueprints anyways, they were just there to seem normal.

**

The next day, Rose made sure to talk with some of her friends close to a Todd's locker, he was the biggest jerk in shop class and most likely the one who had destroyed her blueprints. She watched him out of the corner of her eye as he opened his locker. Once it was fully opened there was a large bang that had every student yelling and ducking, Rose included, it had been louder than she thought.

Turning to face everyone, the boy looked absolutely stunned, everything from his chest down was covered in pink, glittery paint.

Rose was the first to laugh, but she was quickly joined by others, glad to see the jerk get his comeuppance.

23 May 2016
Kochi, Kerala, India

Chandi was checking the positioning of her webcam when the notice came in that the connections for the meeting - heavily encrypted and carefully secured by both technological and magical means - were ready, and a quick check of the windows showed that both Nikki and Hikaru were already speaking privately. She smiled to herself; she knew that Amatarasu would be there, of course - she was the one who requested the meeting, after all - but being free to talk to the newest of the Divine Voices was comforting. When she had first emerged and been selected as a Paladin, Chandi had felt intimidated by the senior Voices, though she knew that most of them were only a few years older than she was. It was comforting to have a peer close to her own age in the group.

She ought to talk to Judicator in private after this was over, she thought. Athena was the closest in temperament to her own Patroness - aside from Thoth, but Nasir was a brat whose habits were entirely at odds with his stature - even if her martial demeanor stood in contrast to Saraswati's placid tone. Savadha had been hesitant to approach the older Voice privately at first, as she was only a Paladin, whereas Elizabeth was an Incarnation, but that reserve had melted since.

And wise it was of you to get past that, Saraswati's voice in Chandi's head gently added.

As more Voices came on the screen, Chandi was surprised to see that Bui Hao had joined them. How did she - she alway though of Guan Yin's Avatar as female, though it wasn't quite accurate - get away from the Iron Dragon's guards long enough to set this up? What affect was this going to have on this debate? Chandi shook her head in confusion. She could see that Miyet, Pejuta, and Carmilla were just as confused, and Fey was fuming, while Majestic seemed even more unbearably smug than usual. Did Hera have something to do with it?

Then the eldest of the Voices - in mortal years, at any rate, though of the Divines, the Queen of the West predated even the Sumerian goddess - spoke up, and everyone hushed as Elizabeth Carson's voice rang through their speakers. Few outside of this group knew that since 2009, her codename was more than a mere affectation; even most of the male Voices were unaware of her role as Ishtar's Paladin, and the Goddesses gathered in this discussion felt that was for the best. There was a reason why the likes of Imperious and Thunderbolt weren't included in these talks.

"Damn it, Toni, no! I won't have time to ask Hao about his great-great-whatever-grandfather!", she continued to fume as she cut off the phone call, furious that her former roommate was being so rude.

Nikki had no idea how Chaka had found out that Luminous was related to some legendary martial artist named Huang Feihong (or something like that), but pestering her fellow Voice about someone he/she seemed to know almost nothing about was the last thing she had time for when there was a major international incident going on, especially since she wasn't sure just what June had done to arrange for Hao to speak to them at all.

June 12th, 2006

Alex was falling.

Well, he was dreaming that he was falling. He was falling back first. He willed himself to turn over. He could see what looked like a stained glass window approaching.

He landed.

The path of the Servant of the Tao is a difficult one. You will face many trials, but you will not face them with an empty palm

Select what will fill your palm from the proffered items

Alex wondered where the voice was coming from. He saw three pedestals. He approached the first pedestal. On it was a Chinese style jian

The Blade
The way of the Fighter
The power to fight all who oppose
The power to slaughter all who stand against

Will you take the Blade?

Alex put down the sword and approached the second pedestal. On it were what looked like a set of rosary beads

The Rosary
The way of the Mystic
The power to heal all who require
The power to destroy all who deserve

Will you take the Rosary?

Alex again put the item back on the pedestal, then went to the final pedestal. On it was what looked like a set of bells

The Bells
The way of the Protector
The power to warn of danger
The power to announce bloodshed

Will you take the Bells?

Alex put down the bells and thought on what he should take. He decided on the jian. The small spiel about the blade played through his head again, but this time he did not put down the blade.

Very well. For the path taken, there must always be a path forsworn.

Select which of the remaining items you will close your fist to.

Alex approached the rosary

The Rosary
The Way of the Mystic
Forswearing this path will make the learning of the secret arts harder, but make you hardier to the secret art being used against you.

Will you forswear the Rosary?

Alex put down the beads and picked up the Bells

The Bells
The Way of the Protector
Forswearing this path will make blows hit harder, but will aid in blows not landing on you as often.

Will you forswear the Bells?

Alex put down the bells and thought on the choice. He approached the Bells. Again, the new spiel played. Alex did not put down the bells.

Very Well

The stained glass floor shattered. Alex fell again. The new window that Alex fell towards looked like an cherub and an imp intertwined

As a Servant of the Tao, you walk not the path of Light or Dark, but of Twilight. you will face adversity from both sides.

Defeat your foes

With those words, imps and cherubs appeared. Alex somehow knew how to use the sword in his hand. Before he knew it, all had fallen but him.

Very well

The glass shattered beneath Alex again. Alex fell towards another glass floor, this one had what looked like a white girl with glasses, twin ponytails and a winged black panther.

The Servant of the Tao walks alone in their service. Be not mistaken, though you walk this path alone, your path intertwines with those connected to you. Walking this path will bring your destined beloved to the walker.

The glass shattered. Alex fell for the last time, the black void turning a cool blue and the final glass floor had what looked like a Chinese girl and a green sword on it.

Walking this path will change the walker in order to walk the path more easily. Much will be taken, but much will be given in return. The Path has chosen the Walker, but does the Walker choose the Path?

June 13th, 2006

When Alex woke up, he was faced with a wall of light blue text boxes, like out of a video game :

You recover 100% of your HP and MP and are cured of all negative status conditions from having slept well!

Quest: "Dive to the Heart" Completed!

+100 EXP​

+Destiny's Wave

Level UP!

Alex could also feel a pressure from something that lay on top of his covers. After swipping away the text boxes, he saw that it was a cloth-covered box.

"What is this?!"

A new light blue text box appeared around the box.

Carrying Container for Destiny's Wave.

Contents:
1x Destiny's Wave

Description:

A wooden box made to hold Destiny's Wave. It is warded to keep anyone from detecting Destiny's Wave.

“All right Miss Powerful,” her Dad said using her codename so she'd get used to hearing it, “when the MCO asks you for your name, what do you tell them?”

“I'm Miss Powerful, future protector of all that's good in the world.”

“And if they ask for my name or your mothers?”

“My parents are dead, because evil aliens blew up my home planet. I'm actually Princess Powerful, and as the last survivor of my species, it's my job to bring peace, love and happiness to my adopted homeworld. So if you want know my parents name, it will require massive reconstructive surgery on your tongue, teeth and throat to get the right pitch.”

Her father banged his head on the table a few times. “No. Keep it simple.”

“Fine. I'm Miss Powerful and my parents are Mr. and Mrs. Powerful, you can find us in the Yellow Pages.”

“Good.”

"But Liz, we need time to study her! This could be the evidence we need to prove the melder hypothesis!"

With a sour look, Carson replied, "Don't worry, Filbert, you'll have plenty of time for that later. Right now, she needs more time to adjust to this, and you poking at her isn't going help her. Just because a student's power is rare" - so rare that they had never proven that the sole individual to possess it before, her long-lost friend Harry Holbrook, was in a different category from other Avatars - "doesn't mean we can ride roughshod over her psychological well-being."

Dr. Quintain started to protest, but the headmistress stood firm. "I know, we need to study the power to be certain that it isn't a danger to anyone. But that can wait. Right now, Miss Sholes is in Dr. Bellows' hands until we can be certain she's stable enough to do anything with."

As Dr. Quintain dejectedly left, she shook her head at his single-minded focus. How did he expect a child who had only just started responding after months in a nearly catatonic state, one so prejudiced against mutants that she had to be kept on a continuous suicide watch, to be able or willing to help him with his research?

“Do your parents know your here?” the grey clad hero asked.

“No,” Rose answered, looking nervously at the crowded restaurant that was apparently ignoring the presence of Kansas City's only full time superhero, Mind Over Matter. “They're on a little vacation, so I had the house to myself this weekend.”

She saw the disapproving look in the hero's eyes.

“It's not like I wanted to lie to them, or take a two hour ride on the Greyhound to get here. I don't have a job yet, so I'm broke now. Its just that they don't believe that I'm a mutant,” she insisted. “Even after fixing Dad's car so that the radiator won't leak, while improving the motor, and getting rid of the squeak in the shocks, not to mention everything else I've done for the last two months they keep saying I'm just talented. I hate grease! If it wasn't for my stupid brain giving me all these plans and ideas I wouldn't be doing any of this.”

He motioned for her to calm down, before taking a bite of his salad. “From your emails, it sounds like your a gadgeteer. Have you noticed anything else, getting stronger, eating more, strange sensations?”

“No. I almost wish I did, than I might be able to convince my parents that I need some help. A couple of kids at my school are calling me a mutant already because I decided to take shop class and I'm doing all sorts of things without anyone teaching me how to use the tools.”

“Are you being bullied?”

She shook her head. “No more than most kids who aren't quite normal.”

Mind Over Matter took a hand size object out of his belt, it looked something like a flashlight. He placed it and a small pocket tool kit in front of her. “Here's a test to see if your a mutant. This is broken, I'd like you to look it over and fix it. If you could tell me what it is, it would also help.”

“Will it explode?”

“No it's completely harmless.”

Her mind got to work, and wanting to finally prove she was a mutant Rose helped it along as much as she could.

Fifteen minutes later, she pressed a button making a small red dot appeared on the table. “It's a laser pointer, but it has something added to it. I don't know what it is, something to do with noise I think, my brain started to hurt when I tried to think about it more.”

“It's a sonic devise, that uses the laser pointer to act as a targeting system.” She gasped at the thought of fooling around with a devise, she'd heard in the news that they were dangerous. The hero gave a small laugh. “Don't worry I took the power pack out of the devise, I wouldn't want you accidentally making someone soil their pants. So you are a gadgeteer at least. Do you think it would help if I went to meet your parents and talked to them? I wouldn't tell them that you came here, just that we talked by email and the phone.”

“You'd do that for me? Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Rose stopped thanking him as a possible problem appeared. “You'd come to my house dressed like that?” pointing at his costume.

“Don't worry, no one will notice me. It's why we're being ignored now, I'm making people think we're none of their business. Who says TV can't teach you anything.”

“I hate you! This is all your fault.”

Marni sat on the couch clutching her knees, fighting back the tears as her ten year old brother cried with blood and snot running down his face.

“Matthew, don't say that to your sister. This isn't her fault,” their mother said, using a warm washcloth to clean up some of the blood from the cuts. “Who did this?”

“Some guys,” he muttered.

“Which guys? Were they your classmates, teenagers?”

Matthew didn't answer, choosing to glare at his mutant sister.

Marni managed to walk calmly from the room, heading for her one safe place since everything had happened. As she opened her door, her arm muscles twitched and the door slammed open with a screech from the hinges and a crack of wood. Her father came running, still holding the phone that had Matthew's principal on the other end.

“What happened?!” he asked, staring at the door hanging from her hand.

“I-I-I just... I just opened the door,” she said. The door slipped to the floor with a thud, as she was left suddenly feeling weak and very hungry.

She felt him catch her as she fainted.

“Minion! I have a brilliant idea!” Greasy looked up from his homework to eye Peeper warily. Few times when that phrase had been said last year did it end well. “I know just what we can give the ladies! And all we need is one of the 3d printers, your fake skin, and a scan of my junk. Oh and some of those small water proof cameras we tried putting in the showers last year!”

Greasy sighed and hung his head.

"Greasy are you pondering what I am pondering?"

"I think so Peeper, but where are we going to get hot pants for all the girls?"

"That's not what I was... Greasy you're brilliant!"

Alice stood on the mat for the first day of sparring in Basic Martial Arts. Her opponent leered at her, eyeing her breasts in a way that made her skin craw.

"Hajime!" the sensei shouted.

He grappled her right away, using his superior weight and muscle mass to shove her backwards and out of the circle, making sure to grope her breast before letting go.

Seething she made her way back into position. "You touch me like that again, I'll make sure you regret it," she warned.

"Yeah right," he sneered.

"Hajime!"

Again he came right at her, but this time she was able to duck out of the way. He still managed to grab her gi, yanking her back towards him. She felt his hand squeeze her breast as his other hand moved towards her butt.

Concentrating she made her body shift. Porcupine quills rose from her chest spearing his hand before he knew what was happening. He jumped back screaming, holding his hand which was peppered with the sharp barbed quills.

"I warned you," she said.

The sensei came running over, the tiny little man did not look happy. Oh well, she thought, better to get some detention than have to worry about little perverts. Looking at the holes in her gi and sports bra, she made little claws pop out of her skin catching the fabric and closing it up.

I just realized that I never reposted this. It was originally a stand-alone fanfic, "The Fortunate One". I was planning on expanding on Serendipity's story later but I never got back to it (story of my life...). It fits well enough as a micro-scene as it is.

My name is Elizabeth Sharon Black, or at least that's the name I use now. When I was little, my parents called me Tom, but I never liked that name; every since I was a little girl I knew I am a girl, and lucky for me, my parents actually figured I meant it because they've let me be a girl since I was around six or so, all the time. They even got my name legally changed, which is something you normally can't do until you're, like, eighteen or something.

Mom says I'm a Two-Spirit, which always sounded wrong to me, 'cause I feel like I am all girl no matter what my body is like, and anyway I am pretty sure our people didn't really have the idea of Two-Spirit the way some of the other tribes did. I really don't know, though, because even though I am full-blooded Navajo, I don't really know much about our people's history.

Anyway, I never really fit the stereotype of the Native American except in my looks. My name sounds like it could be anyone, and I've never been on a reservation even once, and my parents make a good living so I guess we're what you'd call middle class; and while Daddy is a jeweler, which sorta fits the stereotype, Mom is a dentist and has her own practice here in Austin. I've never had any real trouble for being Native American, except from a couple of jerks in school. I've gotten a lot more grief from people about being trans, though most folks don't know I am not quite a girl in my body so even that hasn't been a big deal most of the time.

Like I said, I've been really lucky. Or at least I have been up 'til now. Still kinda am, if you ask me. The thing about being a mutant has been more trouble for me this past couple months than all the rest of it combined.

I actually was sort of hoping I would be a mutant, though I knew a lot of people didn't like them. I guess I was hoping to be lucky and turn into a real girl, like they say some mutants do. I know it's really rare but I figured I've been doing well so far maybe my luck will hold. And it did! I've been getting more girly almost by the day, and the doctors think I'll be all girl in about a year. They did say that I'd have to have an operation on my hips at some point to make sure they grow right, but other than that, yay! But I guess I'm getting ahead of myself.

I knew I might be a mutant for about a year now, when we started talking to some doctors about my transitioning to a female body. It turns out that I have the Mutant Meta-Gene Complex, which is weird because no one else in my family has it, and we checked to make sure my parents really were my parents and everything. So I guess I actually am a mutant in the technical sense, but what's weird about that is that the Mutant Meta-Gene Complex is, well, complex, so it's not like it should be able to just appear like that, and I have it in both sets of chromosomes, which they tell me should be impossible. But apparently the MMGC is weird like that; it just sort of started popping up in folks out of the blue, and always shows up as a whole thing, not bits and pieces, so it's like this big mystery how that can be happening.

But I didn't really figure I'd be a mutant in the super-powerful sense until the day my eyes turned blue. And I don't mean like ordinary blue eyes; they are this glowing electric blue, so blue that it is really surprising to most people. I got lucky again, though; my parents had flown me to see a specialist in a place called Berlin in New Hampshire about this new scan thing that they wanted to test, because it was supposed to be able to pick up gender differences in the structure of the brain. And it's funny, because my eyes changed like the same day I was supposed to get scanned, but the really funny thing was, the scanner turns out to be a devise, and the devisor who came up with it had to be there to make it work. And guess what? She was only a couple of years older than me! And she was a trans-girl too!

Uh oh, that was supposed to be a secret. Sorry.

Her name was Elaine and she was some kind of kid genius, even before manifesting as a mutant, so she was able to come up with this devise that could tell if someone was male or female in their head and I was one of the first it was getting tested on. From what she said, she'd used some devise to make herself a girl, except it was actually someone else's machine and she wasn't able to copy it so far, but she kept talking about how bio-transformation was going to be the next big thing in technology and how she was hoping that the brain scanner would pass something called the 'Devisor test', which I guess means that even though it's weird science it's not so weird that someone else can't make something that's sort of like it. She's trying to get funding for mass production if it passed that test, and even says she has some friends who are really rich who might be able to help her but she hasn't been able to convince them yet.

Anyway, she and this creepy Dr Gellmar were all set to run the scan on me when I came in with my eyes all blue like that. They kind of argued about whether or not they should go ahead with the test, and if my mutation would screw it up some how. Eventually they decided to go ahead and do it anyway. They found out I was a girl in my head, which I could have told you, but it's really nice that I could now say that it really was true 'cause I had the brain scan to prove it.

But what's best of all is that Elaine says that there's a whole school for mutants just around there, and she's a student there herself, and she thinks I can get in to it in September!

So it's been about two months, and not much has happened except that I'm becoming more and more like a girl like I wanted to, and I'm even a pretty at that, but I'm really excited 'cause the school has accepted me into the Junior High program for this year. I still haven't really figured out what my powers are yet, but I know I'm a lot stronger and and run faster than I used to, but that's it so far. I even feel a bit smarter, which is weird. They say they'll figure it out in 'powers testing' which doesn't sound like fun but I'm still eager about it since then I'll know what I can do.

I can't wait to find out.

Miss Powerful walked along the beach enjoying the smell of the sea. Her cousin would be there soon, the high school being further away than the junior high school, so for the next ten minutes or so it was just her and the beautiful weather.

Up ahead she saw a girl who looked like she was maybe ten years old crying, while an older woman stood beside her dialing on a phone. A broken pet carrier sat at the base of a palm tree. Looking up, Miss Powerful saw a cute cat sitting at the top of the palm tree.

“This looks like a job for Miss Powerful.”

Walking over, she smiled brightly. “Hi, is that your cat in the tree?” she asked the little girl.

“Y-yeah. Kit's carrier fell and broke open, and now he doesn't want to come down!” the girl sobbed, as her mother turned back to the road looking for help while talking to someone on her phone.

“I can get her for you.”

Without pausing, she grabbed the tree, digging her fingers into the wood just enough to get a good purchase, and began climbing, thankful that she was wearing shorts instead of a skirt. Some people were shouting at her to get down, but she was up the tree so quickly they couldn't do anything. The cat looked at her, wide eyed in fear.

“Come here, Kit,” she said softly, holding her hand out. “Come on, Kit. I'm Miss Powerful, I'm a superhero here to rescue you.

The frond the cat was sitting on began to sink down. In a panic, the cat launched itself at her, landing right on her face. Miss Powerful suddenly getting a face full of claws, fur and scared cat, shouted and jerked back, right out of the tree.

Hitting the ground twenty feet below, she realized she wasn't hurt, but even being super tough didn't stop the wind from being knocked out of her.

Reaching up, she pulled the cat off of her face and placed it in the waiting arms of the girl.

“I saved your cat,” Miss Powerful said.

Getting up she noticed people were taking out cameras, some were already recording her, they were all looking at her with wide eyes.

“Oh boy.” She bolted away, shouting over her shoulder, “Gottago! Getabettercarrierforyourcat!”

Dr. DNA eyed the applicant for Paramount's defense forces. While he'd been glad at first that his benefactor had come up with the idea to offer those interested in service custom bodies but a few of the requests had confused the hell out of him. Like the one in front of him. “I'm sorry, did you just say you wanted to be a Ripper like the ones Johnny who created? I have never heard of a species called the Ripper. And why have I never heard of this man if he is so far ahead of me in my own field of study?”

“They're from a movie, doc. Those Roos where so cool bouncing around in that armor...” the applicant gushed with a grin.

“Thank you, we'll get back to you about phase two of selection.” Martin Aschner sighed and reached for his head ache medicine. It felt like it was going to be a long day. He turned to the Lynx Catamount man working on a tablet next to him. Jonathan had been trained as an army shrink was there to evaluate the applicants on a psychological level while Martin was evaluating their requested new forms. “Jonathan, please show him out and tell the next applicant we're ready for them.”

~*~

“Oh good show whot whot! I say, it is jolly good of you to offer to make my life long dream come true whot.”

“And that dream is...”

“to create the first all hare Ranger Patrol! Hares are superior fighting beasts, whot! You won't need to make any more of those mangy catamounts,” Jonathan let out a soft growl the Brit ignored. “I say, are you making any badgers?”

~*~

“You want to be a platypus-girl why?” Martin asked cocking an eyebrow at the young woman across from him.

“Um... well... They're cute?”

~*~

“Can my fur be naturally neon green?”

Martin blanched. “Er, no, not naturally. It will be fully dye-able though.”

“Ok, I guess that is better then nothing.”

~*~

“Explain to me again what you want. I am not familiar with a Chakat...”

~*~

“I'm sorry, but I am not currently working on reptilian hybrids at the moment, let alone ones that replace the legs with a serpent tail. Why don't you talk to my former class mate Conner Curtis. It isn't an organic form, but he is working on a cybernetic tail like that. If I do tackle the reptile genome in the near future I will get back to you.”

~*~

“Can I have a gold mane and a horn?”

Jonathan leaned over and said in hushed tones to Martin “She wants to be a unicorn, doctor.”

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” DNA whispered back.

~*~

“No, I am not doing amphibian related research.”

“But we wanna be...”

“Frog...”

“And Toad!”

“Next applicant please, Jonathan.”

~*~

“All right, I can do an avian hybrid, but you will loose the use of your hands as you will have wings...”

“That's fine, I figured that might be the case.”

“Also miss, you 'll have feathers all over your body, a beak, and have a body of a prepubescent so you're light enough to actually fly.”

“I'll look like a little kid? Never mind then.”

~*~

“no, I can not make you an invulnerable lion man. My process does not grant super powers, and I do not recommend undergoing it then using another devisor's machine to add powers. Very messy results. Best way to do it is a PFG after the transformation.”

~*~
“Yes I can give you a gorilla like form, but I cannot give you telepathic abilities.”

“Can I be huge and purple then? Or maybe a chimp with wings?”

“... Next.”

~*~

“I do not work on insects genetics.”

~*~

“I wanna have pink fur!”

“You may dye your fur any color you want after the conversion...”

“But I want naturally pink fur! I'm gonna sue if I can't get what I want!”

~*~

“I suppose I could create a Minotaur like form...”

“Can I have four breasts so I have something like an udder?”

“...”

“Doctor?”

~*~

“I can do horse hybrids yes, here let me show you...”

“Ewww, I don't want that! I wanted to be a centaur! I'm out of here!”

~*~

“I'm good with that horse man look, but can you make my coat pure white and make my hooves look silver? Oh and give me blue eyes?”

Jonathan frowned and accessed the internet, as the white horse with blue eyes and silver hooves reminded him of something he'd read in grade school...

~*~

“An echidna? That is an unusual request.”

“well I wanna be able to make my own monsters...”

~*~

“At this time I am only making one species hybrids, so I can not give you a manticore or a chimera.”

~*~

“A prong horn? I had not considered doing anything in the antelope or deer families. Let me look into it and get back to you.”

~*~

“No, I'm sorry I am not doing duck or mice people.”

“Why not?”

“I do not want to deal with the legacy of Walt Disney.”

~*~

“I can do wolverine, but I will not give you metal bones or claws.”

~*~

“Ok, Shire in gray, white or lighter gray mane. Anything else?”

“Yeah can I get cybernetic arms and legs?”

“... Not unless you suffer sever injury that require their replacement.”

~*~

“You want to be a prairie dog? Why do I get the feeling I'm missing a reference?”

~*~

“No skunks!”

~*~

“I could probably do a Tasmanian wolf form... let me look into acquiring some samples of their genome. If it proves viable I will get back to you for phase two.”

~*~

“I do not want to deal with whoever currently owns the Loony Toons brand, so no I can not do a Tasmanian Devil form for you. And it wouldn't include any spinning powers any way. Jonathan, would you please go into the waiting room and put in those Wild Kratts DVDs into the entertainment system? Maybe it will help those out there understand what I have accomplished if it is put into terms children can understand and in a medium designed to entertain children.”

Check your local listings for Wild Kratts on PBS. It is an interesting and educational show designed to get kids interested in animals and nature. I'm over 30 but I still try and catch episodes when I remember it's on. For some reason I see Dr. DNA as a fan.

John walked into his devisor friend's workshop, and looked down as a small creature ran up to him. From its front legs to its rear it looked like a normal cat, but beyond that...

"Hi, Sam! Do you think that you'll be able to get Tatianna's animal replicator working properly?"

The devisor shook their head. "I don't thing so, John. I managed to turn it on, but I simply can't make heads or tails of it."

“I'm sorry that Rose wasted your time, sir. She is not a mutant despite her fantasies, and we do not need any help in raising her.”

“But Dad!” Rose started to plead.

Mind Over Matter waved at her to quiet down. “Mr. Edwards, I realize that this can't be easy for you considering all the anti-mutant propaganda, but there is a very high probability that your daughter is a gadgeteer. While that is one of the easier mutant abilities to deal with, there are still problems such as Diedrick's Syndrome and internal GSD to worry about. Getting her tested by the MCO along with a full physical and psychiatric assessment by a mutant specialist is in her best interest. I can give you the contact information for a doctor in Chicago, if she can publish any interesting results she'll only charge for her time.”

“My daughter is NOT a mutant,” her mother didn't quite shout.

“Rose is already being called a mutant at school. If something happens and the MCO is called in, having her unregistered could cause some serious problems for her. And if she tries to travel by plane without an MID, she will be arrested.”

“Rose, go to your room right now,” her father ordered.

She looked around the room, Mind Over Matter was watching her parents, who were glaring at her. With as much dignity as she could muster, she left the room.

An hour later she heard the hero leave.

Her phone buzzed. She didn't know the number, but opened the message anyways. 'Rose, this is Mind Over Matter. Keep this number. If there's an emergency call me immediately.'

23 May 2027
Parsonage, Tsiolkovsky division, Luna
Before the meeting in Braunstadt, I made a stopover to meeting an old friend, Dr. Elaine Cody, for lunch to discuss the funding of an improved FTL drive she was working on. While she and those working with had made great strides in recent years, this latest breakthrough was important for it's reduction of the energy needed, making it suitable for cross interstellar distances and not just interplanetary ones. If the newly organized Solar Protectorate could begin building its own starships, rather than relying on second-hand merchant vessels purchased at hideous expense from the Cordirans or the Mekh, it would go a long way to securing Humanity's future.

As I walked up to greet her, I noticed a look of disgust cross her face. She was looking out the window, but I hadn't seen that part of the avenue so I had no idea what it was that had her so upset.

"What's the matter, Doc?" I gently prodded.

"Ayla!" she gasped, startled out of her thoughts. For a moment, I thought her fur was starting to appear, but I wasn't sure. "Ah, Ah was just, well, look." She pointed to a building across the street.

It was large, even by Lunar standards, almost half way to the inner dome. It was well appointed, if rather garish. The sign read, Dianetics Celebrity Center.

I shook my head at the sight of it. "Well, if nothing else, you can't say they don't have audacity. Especially if they chose to put it here of all places. Given the history between Hubbard and Jack Parsons, that has to have been deliberate."

Of all the tricks the Red Monks taught me, the one I never really got the hang of was how not to get bored when doing the same thing day after day. While I am not much for being hands-on lately - that part of what I told that fake reporter kid was true - I still get the itch to do something from time to time. Sure, I had some fun tweaking Betsy's nose a few months ago, while delivering a message to that chump Jennings, but it just whet my appetite for a bit of action.

So when I found that one of my burn identities - jeez, how can anyone fall for something as cheesy as 'Dr. Carter Hall of the Anthropology Museum of Nieu Feithera', maybe I should just use 'Professor Henry Jones, Jr.' next time and see if anyone notices - was getting email. When I checked into it, I found that it was an invitation to the 19th World Symposium on Applied Advanced Technologies - better known as the quadrennial Science Heroes Convention.

I chuckled a bit at that. I had snuck into earlier WSAATs under a varieties of disguises, and had a hell of a lot of fun at them - not only could I give the high forehead crowd a bunch of reasons to chase their own tails, but the convention itself was a blast. You'd never guess from the lab coats and smug grimaces, but some of those guys really can party hard. Which is why I always kept a miniature video camera on my lapel while there...

Ah, what the hell, it sounds like a good way to blow off some steam and make them look like fools a bit more. I looked over the guest of honor list a bit to see what I can think up. OK, let's see, Dr Amazing - well, of course Messing would be there - Dr. Frank Hardy, Jr. (a criminologist, huh, that apple didn't fall far from the tree), Dr. Banzai, Professor Doch, Dr. Germahn (kind of stretching the word 'hero' again, I see), Professor Quartermane (wait, that kook is still around? He's got to be older than I am! Maybe my idea that he was in bed with the White Brothers wasn't so far off after all), Doctor Bruce David Signe (oh, yeah, that's Jenny Wilde's kid from when she was married to Terrence Triskel, musta taken his stepfather's name; according to reports from my agents at Whateley, he inherited both his Mom's gadgeteering and his Dad's alchemy as well as being an Ex-6, but he's a dricker and rager, that's got potential for my plans), Dr. Osterman (yeah, nasty accident a while back, could be something for me to work with), hey, Dick and Rose Wilde, did the black sheeps of the family decided to trade their trenchcoats and wands for labcoats and test tubes? Oh, I guess not, they're heading a roundtable with cousin Bruce on "The Intersection of Magic and Technology", whatever that means (I'm sure that Susan Wilde is thrilled with the twins about that).

Hehehe, this is going to be fun...

“I'm sorry sir, you are not allowed to watch the testing,” the MCO agent said.

Marni watched as her Dad took on a role he really didn't like playing the scary black man. Two decades of working construction, even after he formed his own construction company, made him intimidating to almost anyone. And in his best suit, he looked like someone who could give a person a very bad day physically or otherwise.

“I know what my daughters rights are,” he growled, pushing his way into the MCO agents personal space. “If you do not let me go inside with my daughter, so I can watch every second of the testing, I will call my senator and he will talk to you about overstepping your jurisdiction. And before you think I'm bluffing, I have him on speed dial because my crew is renovating his summer home right now.”

There was a tense couple of seconds before the agent backed away. “Very well, sir. If you could both come this way.”

**

Marni came out of the MCO change room, nursing a black eye that came from collapsing after using her powers for over five minutes straight and hitting a table on the way down. Her Dad met her in the hallway, flanked by two MCO agents.

“I didn't think my daughter would be stronger and faster than me, I'm not sure how to feel about that,” he teased.

“For a couple of minutes, then I want to eat a horse and take a breather,” she griped.

“At least you shouldn't break anymore doors now that you know how to start and stop it. What's your superhero name?”

She'd been thinking about that same question for the last two days, ever since her parents had set her up for the testing. Even now she wasn't sure about it. “Power Up.”

“Your mom will like it. Nothing embarrassing there and it makes sense. When do you sign up for superhero classes?”

“You want me to become a superhero?” she asked, a little surprised.

“If you want. It would be a nice feather in your cap. But as long as you don't become a supervillain I've got your back.”

Throwing her arm around him, she leaned in close as they headed for the car. She hadn't been to school for a week, and her brothers were getting bullied about her being a mutant, but she suddenly thought that everything would turn out OK. Smiling, she prepared herself to see the world.

Samantha Hubbard looked around the small shop. It wasn't much but it was hers, at least it was hers once she paid off the loans to the bank, her parents, and her friends. Going to the door she flipped the 'closed' sign around.
“Simply Exquisite Jewellers is now open,” she told herself happily.
It was still too early to expect customers, so she went to her work table where some of her jewellers equipment rested. Pulling out her sketchbook, she looked at the design a client had sent her earlier that week. It looked like a simple silver ring, but the faint lines that wrapped around the band like a snake would be tricky. That suited her, it was that kind of detailed work was exactly the challenge she loved.
Pulling a silver band from the safe, she began going over every step in her head.

Unknown to her, an email arrived asking if she could do a very detailed job with a special cats eye gem.

A man wearing a ski mask with a pot leaf design across the face swept through the sliding doors of the Berlin grocery store waving a gym bag. His right hand had somehow been replaced by a bong, and his cape was in the shape of the same leaf on his mask. “I am Dr High! Fill this bag with all the munchies an uh... cash.” as he waved his 'hand' around the store began to fill with the distinctive smell of pot smoke.

The cashier exchanged looks with Mrs Carson, who shrugged. “Don't look at me, he's not a Whateley grad.”

the world dissolved to white as the super villain's timer ran out and the world went black.

“hello Bounty Hunter, your team failed to achieve your objective and the human race died.” the automated voice stated as John lifted his helmet's face plate. He looked down as he heard metal creaking and he saw that he had crushed the arm rest in his anger. Phasing free of the connections to his suit he flew through the wall and hovered over the blonde still in that chair.

“what the hell was that Kira!? You could have won the sim for us! All you had to do was fly that damn device out of the atmosphere!! But NOOOOOO you just started yapping away!! It's a damn sim! You didn't have to save good bye to anyone and everyone until time ran out! You have never been out of the atmo so how did you know you wouldn't come back or your powers won't work?” the leader of the 2016 Grunts railed at their newest recruit, his shape shifting slipping, a long blue skeletal tail forcing the snaps loose, as something started chewing the fabric over his torso.

“But the testers I went to...”

“Where hacks!! The Whateley testers say you're an energizer with pk traits, not a PDP!! And even if you where there have been telekinetics in space before who could fly around just fine! And you have super lung capacity! I know you can hold your breath for hours! That and your invulnerability would have allowed you to survive long enough for someone to mount a rescue op!”

New York- November 2006

Imp looked up from her paper as Pinball wandered into the Black Mask. The energizer wasn't in costume, and was instead looking spiffy in a pant suit. “Hey yah Pin, what's with the suit?”

“Oh the secret identity was called for jury duty, and well...”

“No, no I get it. I do the same. Say, do you have any family in Cincinnati?”

“None that I can think of, why?”

“There's some bouncing brat up there giving SPECTRUM and their new kid side kick a headache. Calls herself Madcap, and... it reads almost like she's a cross between the two of us, just without either of our style.” Imp replied showing Pin the article.

Her new coloured contacts made her eyes itchy, but Marni tried to ignore it. Everyone knew she was a mutant, there was no reason to emphasize it by showing her orange iris's. Putting her books and the pile of homework her parents had gotten from her teachers into her bag, she added a box of energy bars on top of it. She was eating a lot more than usual and if she used her powers, not that she wanted to, she'd need them to refresh herself.

Heading out the door she started the short walk to school. Rachael met her halfway there.

“Hey,” Marni said.

“Hey, yourself,” Rachael said.

They walked in silence for a minute, getting odd looks from some of the other students and a few adults.

“I'm sorry that I let everyone know you're a mutant. I just wanted to tell my parents, and accidentally woke everyone else up.”

“I know,” she said. “How's everything at school?”

“They've got a bet going that you're going to look like a monster at the end of the month.”

Marni looked up at the sky, begging for strength. “Well I'm not. I'm going to keep looking just like me, at least according to the MCO.”

“You went to the MCO? That's the other bet, the MCO is going to arrest you before the end of the term.”

“I got my powers tested, and an MID. They weren't too bad, a lot like dealing with Principal Snyder. A big stick up their ass, but as long as you shut up and nod at the right parts, not too bad.”

“That's good. That's really good.”

“Heads up scum!” a boy shouted from across the street.

Instinctively activating her powers, everything seemed to move in slow motion. She could hear and see so many things, from the buzzing of insects to the beating of Rachael's heart, she could even see the sweat on the boys face who had yelled at her, it was almost confusing. She watched the basketball, judging the speed, spin, and knew that it was going to hit her head, almost casually she raised her hands, caught it and in one smooth motion sent it rocketing down the street at least a block away to land in a garbage can, knocking it over.

Time returned to normal, her stomach growled. Taking her bag off, desperate to get an energy bar, she noticed that everyone was staring open mouthed in shock.

“Crap,” she said, realizing that there was no way she was going to be treated normally now.

Uganda's Sign: If you turn in a report with a dozen misspellings, "I was too close to Uganda. " will not be accepted as an excuse. There is no "bleed" effect. Unless you are writing near Uganda herself, your writing will not be affected. The next person to blame her because they are too lazy to proofread will be assigned to be her scribe for a week.

Edna

The Headmistress was tapping her foot when we walked in.

"What are we going to do with you two? You do realize the interesting conundrum you present, While Mitchel can still take some remote studies, that doesn't qualify as a full load you know."

"We know" both of us said simultaneously, the lab boys still haven't adapted that sim neural interface yet, but I smiled as we hadn't lost our touch.

"And I understand you want to take your PE courses as one student in a sense?"

"You do know you two are going to get strange looks when they realise that you Edna are WEARING your brother Mitchel right?"

"Yes, however I get the feeling this isn't all you called us down for is it, Miss Carson?" I heard from the speaker on my collar.

"No it isn't, You are in a delicate situation Mitchel, it is unclear how stable your new form is, if you will survive long or destabilize, for lack of a better term, which is why you both are going to see Dr Bellows regularly, starting today, the Mile High Defenders have informed me that you have yet to come to terms with what happened to your parents, and now with this uncertain situation it is imperative that you do."

I tried to speak, but was interrupted "don't try and deny it, you need this, both of you."

The Mile High Defenders are based out of Denver, but they have satellite groups all over Colorado, we ran to the one who's HQ (hidden in plain sight at their visitor's center) is right across from the Hotel Denver in Aspen. our home was in a nearby town, but it was still quite the hike...

"I know I have brought up painful memories, but it is necessary, I also have to inform you Edna that your outburst in Ballroom Dancing has placed you on the watch list, and security is going to put your and your brother's weapons in safe keeping, I don't think there's much of a risk anymore but we still have to."

I was in shock until Mitchel responded for me, "Thank you we understand, personally I would be surprised if the watch wasn't put in place, and as painful as it may be, it's time we came to terms with that day, I no longer have Diedrick's so we don't have an excuse to avoid the topic, even if I did, I'm already limp"

While I had a plan to write a full story with this, I figure it is safer to put it here in case I never get any further with it.

23 Sept 2007
Crystal Hall

I was humming along with my iPod, which had cued up an old Moody Blues song about a former self of mine. Alas, poor Timmy, he was a great host: so placid, so intelligent, so inspiring, such a tremendous pain in the arse for the Powers That Be. Oh, I would have preferred a female host, as always, but just as with my current form, he was worth the sacrifice. I mused on how much he loved Switzerland, which was where I had been most of this past summer. Life was indeed good.

As I walked through the food lines, I noticed that Cytherea's latest conquest - some brainless piece of beefcake whose name I never caught, useful only for sex and bussing food trays - had finally got hip to her shit, and stormed out leaving her with no one to clean up after her. Typical, really. She left the Euro-Promotional League's table to go sit with the rest of the New Olympians, with an air of someone who was a best mildly amused with what had just happened.

With a smile, I recalled how I had sandbagged her into my own bed, convincing her that I was just a nervous underclassman who was thrilled that she was giving me the time of day in exchange for some help on a Chemistry exam. I chuckled at the thought that she hadn't realized that I was the one who had played her, nor that by the end of that year I had done the same thing - bedroom antics and all - with every other New Olympian except Knick-Knack, Judicator, and Feral. The only one who had caught on to what I was doing was Athena, and I had Elizabeth over a barrel so she kept mum about it.

I sat down next to the Jobester and watched for a bit. As I ate, I decided that the time had come to put my next gambit into motion, a play I had been planning out for the last two years, ever since I noticed some of my old... colleagues... were already at Whateley when I arrived, back when I was a lowly sub-fish.

After a bit of banter with Jads and Lindsey, I excused myself and made my way back to the fruit stands, picking the items I would need for this particular game. I ran my free hand through my hair - I wanted it to be good and messy for this one - then teleported two of the Golden Delicious apples I had picked up in front of Imperious and Majestic. In quick succession, two more appeared before Cytherea and Knick-Knack, a fifth in front of Tracer, and for a finale I dumped a container of apple sauce right onto Counterpoint's head followed by flipping him off with a hand hovering in front of his face.

The look on their faces was quite satisfying.

As a bevy of irate deities jumped to their feet and started glaring towards the Seeds table, I teleported into the empty chair across from Chris. It took them a moment to realize I was there, and they were pretty pissed. Things was going like clockwork, so I gave them a bit of a wave before I spoke.

"So, did you miss me?"

(Miss Powerful's stories have been out of order, because it's not as important as with the other stories, but from here on out they'll be in order. You should be able to figure out where they go without much trouble.)

February, 2006

“Lightning Strike, I'm your biggest fan! Can you sign my book!” Miss Powerful shouted, holding up a limited edition History of the Miami Crusaders.

The superhero gave her a brilliant smile, her neon yellow hair gave off a brilliant glow that seemed to light up the school gymnasium. “Definitely. What's your name?”

“Could you call me by my superhero name? It's Miss Powerful,” she whispered.

That got a radiant smile. “So Miss Powerful, do you want to become a hero one day?”

She nodded madly. “I'm only eleven years old so I haven't manifested yet, but I can't wait to become a mutant and then I can join the Crusaders! I'm exercising a lot to, and my brothers are teaching me how to fight. I really want to join up because you guys are all so cool!”

Lightning Strike laughed, and patted her shoulder. “Keep up that attitude and you'll go far. But remember you have to be an adult to join the Crusaders, and you need to do well in school. What are your grades like?”

“I'm at the top in most of my classes. My cousin is a freshman in high school and she lets me do some of her homework with her. Is it true that you got a math degree. I'm not very good at math. I'm really good at English though. I've already read Taming of The Shrew, with my cousin's help. I liked some of the word play, but the guys in it were jerks! I'd have punched them if they tried doing that to me.”

“Instead of punching them, you should get help. Fighting is only good as a last resort, even I don't like fighting,” the hero said. “I did get a PhD in physics. You'd be amazed at how it helps me in my superhero career, letting me plan where my lightning bolts will hit, how to fly, and where and how hard to throw a villain so he can't hurt anyone when he lands. But English is great to. We always need someone who can speak nicely for the crowd, and knows how to write things down so people understand how we're helping them. Everything can be useful, it just depends on how you use it.”

The hero pulled out a pen that looked a little like a lightning bolt and glowed as she wrote in the book. Handing the book back, she gave her the pen as well. “Keep it, Miss Powerful. It's not often I meet one of my future partners,” she said, giving her a hug.

She staggered away dumbly, a huge smile on her face. Looking at the book she read, 'To my friend, Miss Powerful! You'll be one of the great superheroes one day. Your future partner, Lightning Strike!'

“Best day ever!” she murmured to herself.

After lunch, I had an office session for Dr. Marley, but as soon as it was finished I raced off for the Fixer's Patio to see if I could find Jadis. Fortunately, she was already there. I wasn't surprised that she still seemed shaken by what had happened in the Crystall Hall today; I knew I was.

Looking up at me, she gave me a wry smile."I was hoping you'd want to talk, Trev. Before you ask, no, I had no idea about any of that. Cheese has always played it close to the vest, kind of obvious why, now, but trust me, I was almost as surprised as you must have been."

"Almost?"

She gava dramatic sigh, and went on, "Victor loves dropping hints about things, almost as if he has Nigma's Syndrome or something. Once I saw the apples, a lot of his comments started falling into place."

"Oh."

"Yeah. But the scary part? Eris has worshippers, probably more than even Athena at this point, and while most Discordians aren't very serious about it, even as a joke their veneration of her might be enough to count. If I am not mistaken, Cheese may well be more powerful than Imperious right now."

I goggled at the implications of that, but then remembered something the two of us discussed before. "That... might not be entirely a bad thing, though. It depends on the extent to which the relationship affects the god in question."

"The impact can be fairly significant, actually," came Sara's voice from off to the side. "Do the two of you mind if I join you? While I missed that bit of theatre at lunch today, when I heard about it I was certain that you two would want to discuss it, and I could use some intelligent conversation myself."

Rose rode to school on her new electric bike. She'd seen her neighbour riding one the other week, and her brain liked it so much she'd gone on the internet to see how it worked. She'd made a few tweaks to make it smaller and prettier, and had it running two days later.

“Cool bike, Rose,” her friend said.

“Thanks.”

“Did... did you build it yourself?”

“Yeah. I got the design of the net.”

Her friend looked at the bike nervously. “It's kind of weird how you're suddenly building all kinds of things.”

“My Dad is always getting me to help around the house, because my hands can get into places his can't. I'm just doing things that interest me now,” she lied. “Do you want me to make your bike like this? It only costs about fifty bucks for the parts. Thirty if don't mind it being ugly.”

The nervousness went away. “REALLY? How fast does it go?”

They started talking about everything she could do to improve the bike as they walked to class.

“Who knows the answer to question one?” Mrs. Sanchez, the history teacher asked.

Marni raised her hand. She always loved history, and while she'd been getting weird looks all day, she was happy to slip into the joys of the class.

“Anyone?” Mrs. Sanchez asked again.

She raised her hand higher.

“Yes, Troy, what do you think?” she asked pointing at a boy on the other side of the classroom.

Lowering her hand, Marni figured the teacher just wanted to let others answer, she did that sometimes.

“What about question 2?”

Raising her hand again, Mrs. Sanchez chose another student, again, and again, and again.

“Question 6?”

Marni didn't bother raising her hand, the teacher hadn't even looked at her once.

When the bell rang, she got her things and went to speak to the teacher. Mrs. Sanchez saw Marni coming, and practically grabbed another student, asking a question about his homework. Watching in stunned disbelief, Marni saw them separate almost as soon as they were in the hallway, and her favourite teacher rushed off casting nervous looks over her shoulder.

“Hey Dad, I made the car run on kitchen oil, new or used, and it now gets 30mpg in town, and 38mpg on the highway,” Rose told her dad. Her eyes were ringed with black circles, not only from grease, but because she'd been working on it for the entire three day weekend, with practically no sleep. Her hands were thick with grease and oil, despite having cleaned them off outside.

“Thanks princess. But why didn't you ask me first?” he asked.

“My mutation wasn't letting me sleep, so I decided to just get it done. And you and Mom were gone all weekend, so I figured it was the best time.”

“Oh, OK.”

“So, since no other normal fifteen year old girl that I've heard about could do this in a weekend, with no training except for half a term in shop class, do you think maybe, possibly, I'm not normal?”

“No.”

“If I promise to rewire the house and lower our electricity bill by 40%, could you take me to the MCO to get tested to prove that I'm normal. Because a lot of kids at school are calling me a mutant.”

“No.”

“JESUS CHRIST!” she shouted, storming out of the room to go have a long shower and sleep for the rest of the day.

Crack!

Miss Powerful looked at her phone which hung from her finger like a strange ring. “Uh, what happened?” she asked herself.

Holding her hand up, she bent her apparently unhurt finger, turning more of the plastic into powder. Giving it a tug, the phone split in two as if it were paper. Looking around her room to see if anyone was watching, she crushed the phone between her palms, there was a crunch, and powder mixed with some thin pieces of plastic fell to the floor.

“Cool!” she whispered to herself.

Grabbing her wooden bed frame, accidentally leaving fingerprints in the wood, she lifted it up. She had to spread her legs to keep her balance, but it felt like she was lifting a pillow.

“I'm a mutant!” she shouted, jumping up and down, denting the wall with the bed that she'd forgotten she was holding.

Putting the bed back down, she carefully made her way to the kitchen, thankful that her parents were outside.

Alone in the kitchen, she picked up the phone and very carefully dialed a number she had memorized a year ago.

“Hello, Miami Crusaders, how can I help you?” a man asked.

“HI! I'm a mutant. I talked to Lightning Strike last year, and I can lift my bed with one hand, and she told me that I could be a hero if I turned into a mutant. So now that I'm a mutant, and I put my finger right through my phone and it didn't hurt! So how can I sign up to become a Crusader because I'll do such a good job!” She stopped to gasp for breath.

“All right, thanks for calling, miss. I need to ask you some questions. First do you have an MID?” the person asked.

“No. I just did it. My eyes haven't even changed colour, at least they were still the same colour when I was brushing my teeth. I thought most mutants had their eyes change colour. I was hoping to get really cool eyes, like electric blue, or fiery red. Maybe even pink. Pink is my favourite colour. Do you think my hair will change colour now. Because that would be cool!”

“Calm down, miss. Have you told your parents?”

“No. My parents don't know yet. It just happened, I was about to call my cousin, and my finger went right through my phone like it was tinfoil!”

“Do you think your parents will hurt you if you tell them you're a mutant?”

“No way! My parents are really great. One time I got some pink paint and started to paint the -”

“That's enough. Now listen carefully, tell your parents what happened and tell them you need to get your powers tested. The MCO in Miami is a good place to go. Just make sure your parents call ahead for an appointment, and be sure to visit our website. It has a section about the MCO, what they're allowed to ask and do, as well as other important information. You and you're parents should read it very carefully tonight and make sure you understand everything,” he stressed.

“And then I can join the Miami Crusaders?”

“You can contact us and we'll see about having you and your parents come by for a visit where a member can tell you about your options.”

She jumped up and down with delight, leaving a dent in the ceiling with her head, not that she noticed. “Can it PLEASE be Lightning Strike?!”

“We'll try, but no promises.”

“OK! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!” she squealed, hanging up.

Running outside she shouted, “Mom you won't believe what happened!”

“Mr. Kendall, you can't just back out of the project. We've torn apart your living room, getting someone new in will set you back by at least a week, and there is no legal reason to break the contract,” Marni's dad said into the phone.

There was a lot of half understood mumbling from the other end.

“Money isn't a problem you paid me half upfront. I can wait for the rest, I know you're good for it.”

More mumbling.

Her dad's voice became tense up, trembling with barely controlled rage. “My daughter is of no concern to you. If you want to break the contract, I'll see you court.”

From her room down the hallway Marni listened with her powers. Lying on her bed, her muscles vibrate with unused energy, she could feel the faint breeze from under the door, the cotton sheet tickled her bare legs. Her eyes were closed, trying to focus only on listening. It was as if she was in the same room as they were. She could even hear the squeak of her mothers chair as she shifted to type something onto her laptop.

“The Kendall contract is dead?” she asked needlessly.

He grunted.

“We've lost two contracts now, and at least five potentials. We're going to have to tighten our belts, but we can keep everything going for at least a year, that should be long enough to let every thing settle down.”

“Damn fools. Just as bad as the damn KKK,” her dad growled. “Don't you have a book club to go to?”

“I dropped out. They decided to read some anti-mutant propaganda book.”

Relaxing her muscles, Marni's senses dulled back to normal. Opening her eyes, she saw her brother glaring at her from the door, an ugly bruise on his chin.

"What do you want?" she asked.

He didn't answer, just walked away.

Closing the door she put a pillow over her face and cried at what she was putting her family through.

A.N.: This is a deleted scene from a non-Whateley medieval fantasy story I'm working on. This snippet kicks in a few minutes after the protagonist has discovered she has a magic sense, and she's now trying it out while hovering, after noticing that trying to hover seemed to enhance the sense.


Yes, that definitely increased my range, and I could feel those "threads" shooting out of me again. They were my magic. I was throwing it out of myself, and then somehow it curved around, changed, and reached down to pull me and anything around me up. And now I realized that the sense of "upness" that I'd discovered before was just another part of this, because now I could sense even more lines, these ones coming up out of the ground and reaching past me until I couldn't sense them anymore. I could see how my own lines came down parallel to those ones. If I tried to move sideways, they leaned, angling so that they pulled me sideways. And I could feel how that tilt related to my surroundings! This was going to make steering so much easier. I grinned, and then I giggled as I felt the spindly lines of my face curve with my lips. I could feel my whole body. It was really weird. It was like... like if you were wearing really scratchy clothes that you weren't used to, so that you noticed every movement. I hadn't noticed at first because it had been so weak, but the more this new sense came into focus...

I could feel my own heart. Not very well. I was just a bunch of these lines, like everything else was. Inside me the lines were very tangled, but the tangles were connected to each other in ways I vaguely recognized as organs from the diagrams Deacon Woodson had shown us, even if I didn't remember what they all were. But there was one big knot of these lines in my chest that I could feel throbbing in time with my heart. Because it was my heart, obviously.

Feeling your own organs is very distracting, once you realize you can do it. I started to feel queasy, and I could feel as my body reacted to the queasiness, which did not help matters. I opened my eyes and landed before I could make myself sick. I needed to let my magic rest more anyway.

It took a minute for my eyes to adjust; I'd had them closed for a pretty good while. The breeze and the comforting sight of mottled sunlight dancing through the forest's canopy helped me relax. It was a beautiful day. How could it be so beautiful after such a terrible night?

As unhappy thoughts started clawing their way into my mind, I decided that being able to feel my own guts wasn't so bad after all. It was distracting, but I wanted to be distracted. And now that I thought about it, I could still feel them. With my eyes open. I cursed under my breath. I knew, in a sort of cold, detached way, that I would eventually get over being exiled from Vinebrook. It would always hurt, but I would be able to face it and move on. The distracting and slightly disgusting ability to feel semi-digested food worming its way through my insides was welcome right now, but it wouldn't be needed forever. Unfortunately, it seemed that I was only getting better and better at sensing it. What was next? Feeling all the bugs?

"Shit." I could feel all the bugs. Tiny little bundles of lines crawling about on the ground, buzzing through the air, crawling over my skin and in my hair. "Shit shit shit shit shit!" I stood up and started brushing the seven ants off my legs and then shaking the two flies out of my hair. But bugs were everywhere. I'd always known bugs were everywhere. That's just part of life. But I hadn't had to feel them all.

I paused. I couldn't feel them. Well, I hadn't felt them, when I was flailing about having a tantrum. Now that I'd paused, I could feel them again. I started walking and the sensations blurred until they were almost gone. I couldn't make out little details like bugs. I could barely make out trees. I closed my eyes and everything came back into focus, more or less. I opened them and the distraction of sight combined with the shifting caused by movement washed the bulk of it away.

I knew it wouldn't last. I just kept getting better at this. Eventually I'd be able to feel everything while walking with my eyes wide open. I sighed. May as well start getting used to it. Maybe after a while I'd just stop noticing, like my other senses did with my own scent or the feel of my clothes. People don't notice the mundane. The sooner this insanity became mundane, the sooner I could stop noticing it.

Noelle glanced over at where Jordan was lurking, a huge grin on her twin's face was she waited for Noelle to pay off the combat final bet they'd made; sister with the worst grade had to alter herself as the winner saw fit and go out in public that way. Noelle had been hoping that Jordan would collect while the school year was still on going, maybe making her go to the Mountaineer's Prom (well they had, but Jordan made clear that it wasn't her reward), but her twin had saved it until summer break and their family hit the Florida beaches. Jordan had first altered Noelle to look like a teenage Scarlett Johansson
and then added her own touches such as purple hair and a wardrobe change.

Gulping Noelle wandered into the small beach side clothing stand, trying to project a confidence she just wasn't feeling as she browsed wearing a tiny swim suit top and nothing else. After five minutes she began to relax as it seemed most of the other shoppers hadn't noticed her lack of bottoms...

“Excuse me miss, but I have to ask you to...”

Noelle turned and gave the shop owner a nervous smile. “Yes?”

The man's mouth moved soundlessly as he looked her up and down, raising a blush on Noelle's cheeks before he let out a whimper. “Mutant!” he blurted pointing to her featureless crotch.

“Nope, sorry, cyborg. I needed a full body conversion, but between the cost to travel to Japan to have it done and everything else... I couldn't afford the anatomically correct body. I do normally wear bottoms, but some how I lost them in the water, so here I am trying to replace them...”

Morgan Wasser stood on the side walk outside Shuster Hall, a late arrival to the 2007-2008 Whateley school year. She'd been to see the headmistress already and now all she was doing was waiting for her tour guide and to be show her cottage.

A girl wearing a buck skin dress hurried up with a grin on her face. “Hi, are you Morgan? I'm Kay...”

Morgan's spirit shuddered and she 'voged' out, revealing the shape of the beast that lived within her. Kay came to a screeching halt, a wicked looking knife appearing in her hand as a large bison also appeared from thin air.

“Mishibijiw.” the girl spat dropping into a combat crouch as the bison scuffed the ground, his head down.

Morgan's spirit, who she called Missy, bristled, shifting her past the oddly colored cat girl stage that was their usual shared form, and allowing the copper spines along their back and tail stood on end as their claws flexed. She could feel the curved horns jutting from the side of their head. “Ptesanwi.” she felt Missy snarly though their shared lips. “We seek to do you no harm, but if you banish us from the one we have chosen or try to steal our spines...”

The girl, Ptesawi, and the bison blinked and exchanged looks for a few moments. The large hairy beast raised his wide nose and sniffed the air. “They do not carry the dark one's taint as the one you encountered last year did.” The bison said in English, though he still gave us the stink eye. “Though why a water panther would bond to one not of the Nations...”

“I chose to bond with this one for my own reasons.” Missy replied as the pair shifted back to their human form. Morgan shook their head and took control of their mouth. “Missy saved me when a European spirit that had been preying on children tried to take me. Her bonding with me was unexpected, but we find we suit each other despite my lack of native blood.”

“So you've got superpowers now, cuz.”

“Yep! It happened yesterday." Miss Powerful told her slightly older cousin. “Isn't it awesome! I can lift Mom's car!”

Her cousin looked a little bummed out, and began playing with her colourful patchwork skirt. “I didn't think my little cousin would able to beat up supervillains. What am I going to do?”

“Ah don't be like that. You're still super cool. Now that I'm Miss Powerful, I'm going to need a sidekick. You want the job? Just think Miss Powerful and -” she stopped suddenly. “We're going to need a cool name for you.”

“If you call me Alfred, Robin, or Olsen, I'll find a way to kill you. Just so there's no misunderstandings or anything,” her cousin said.

“How about... Rainbow Girl!”

“Yeah... NO!”

“Fun Time Girl!”

“Don't make me hurt you. And if you ever call me that, I WILL hurt you.”

“Girl Wonder!”

“No.”

“Princess Heroic! You used to use that name all the time.”

“When we were children. How about I be the brains behind the operation?”

“Oh, then I can call you Q or Professor! Terrific!”

Domoviye wrote: “So you've got superpowers now, cuz.”


“When we were children. How about I be the brains behind the operation?”

“Oh, then I can call you Q or Professor! Terrific!”

How about Professor Sunshine?

“Hey Michelle, what's going on?” Samantha asked, propping the phone between her head and shoulder so she could keep reading the email, a bowl of cheap instant noodles was open and long since cold on the side of the desk.

“Missing you Sam. You haven't been down in over three months. The only way I knew you were still alive was the last bank transfer you sent me. Thanks for that, it helped pay for my new car.”

“I'm sorry, I miss you to but I'm so busy with everything and business is going really well. I made up matching necklaces and bracelets for a bride and all five of her brides maids, and I had to do a white gold tiara for the bride.”

“Jesus! You must be rolling in it.”

“I wish,” Samantha groaned. “That paid off my parents, you and the other girls, and a teeny, tiny, insignificant part of the bank. The only meat I've eaten for months has been hot dogs. Chicken hot dogs. I'm tempted to set up a few mouse traps for meat that isn't processed garbage.”

“Yuck! I'll send you a couple of steaks for your birthday. Any hope that you'll get real food soon?”

“Yeah, I've been talking with this really weird guy on the net.”

“What have I told you about talking to strange men on the net? Don't you remember Francois?”

“Ugh, don't remind me,” she groaned. “Anyways, he's got this really hideous gem he wants to put on a choker. But it has to be done in a certain way, and he keeps changing the design. If he emailed me more than three times a month, and didn't promise to pay three quarters upfront as soon as we decide on a design, I'd have dropped him long ago.”

“How much money are we talking about?”

“I could buy a new car with the advance.”

Mind Over Matter sipped his coffee, he wasn't in Kansas City or on patrol, so he wearing jeans and a t-shirt, his winter coat by his side, while his powers made everyone ignore the table. Rose sat across from him, her fingers moved rapidly fixing a few little gadgets that needed a tune up.

“How are your parents?” he asked.

“It's ridiculous. I keep trying to do bigger and bigger things, and nothing. I took a design off the net for an automated lawn mower and created robot that would plow the driveway and sidewalk whenever there's more than 1 inch of snow. And what happens, they say good work. Nothing else! I threatened to create a gadget that would cut power to every appliance in the house whenever I left, unless they took me for powers testing. Do you know what they said?” she asked.

“Not a chance.”

“Exactly. Do you know where I can find someone to give me a third eye or something?”

He leaned in using his power to put out a calming aura, nothing that would do much more than a bit of incense and relaxing music. “You're doing a good job of keeping a handle on things. You're dealing with the bullies and your friends, not getting into trouble, and haven't caused any accidents. Who cares if your parents are in denial. As long as you keep doing what you're doing, when you're a bit older and have your own car you can come to Kansas city and get your MID with no hassles.”

She slumped down. “I just keep thinking something is going to happen and they're going to arrest me and throw away the key. I was thinking the only thing I'd ever have to worry about would be speeding tickets when I got old enough to buy a car, and maybe getting a little drunk and having my parents find out. Now I've got to watch out for all kinds of stuff, and my parents are just making it worse.”

“It's not that bad, Rose. Once you leave for college you'll be able to fly under the radar, get a job as an engineer or something, make millions of dollars and you can do whatever you want.”

“I know. I just wish I could get some more support. It's tough sometimes feeling so different and having my parents refuse to see it,” she muttered.

“So Kayda, what are you planning on doing for Halloween?” Punch asked as she hung up her own costume in the closet.

Kayda let out a sigh. “Yeah I do, but it wasn't my idea. Clover was reading Tatanka Tall Tales the other week. He was working in private sessions with the Three...” she shook her head. “You'll have to wait and see, they want it to be a surprise. I'm just worried that this will blow up in my face.”

~
October 31st

Kayda gingerly stepped into the auditorium, ducking under the door's header, Tatanka right beside her. She felt weird wearing the blue jeans and red flannel shirt, not to mention the fact that the Three Little Witches had worked out a spell that replicated the effects of size warping. She would have settled for a glamour that made her look taller, but no that wasn't good enough. At least she was armed, though it was not the tomahawk she preferred but a heavy headed chopping ax.

“so who are you supposed to be?” Jimmy T, or so the name badge said as Angela Lansbury certainly didn't look like Jimmy T, asked looking up at Kayda.

“Babe the big blue bison and his human Paula Bunyan.” A larger then he'd ever grown Tanaka rumbled, his fur colored Smurf blue, a smirk on his muzzle.

“OK, this really is hideous,” Samantha said looking at the ugly brown, cracked and distorted cats eye. The flaws in the centre of the cats eye made her think it was winking at her.

She seriously considered sending the thing back to the client. In the year it had taken to seal the deal, going through twenty different designs in the process, she was out of debt, even if she was still only up to regularly eating hot dogs, actual pork instead of chicken ones. So she didn't need the money desperately. But how the client talked about the project had intrigued her. The fact that her fridge was full of real food and she could afford to buy a car that wasn't threatening to fall apart if she sneezed too hard on it was another reason to do the job quickly and move on.

Sighing, she put the cats eye in the special safe that had been installed the day before as per instructions. “Way too much work for a single ugly stone. And a choker? Dear god, what woman would want that thing around her neck.”

Rachael gave her a silent apology before rushing away. Marni didn't blame her, it wasn't safe to be around her anymore. No one was stupid enough to attack her, but that didn't stop them from harassing her friends, or pulling pranks. Her locker, which was already covered in anti-mutant graffiti that the school was refusing to paint over after having to do it ten times already, was now ripped open. Even better red paint was splashed inside, covering her books, her windbreaker and her gym clothes.

She knew from previous experience that the school would never find the person who did it.

Walking towards the office to report the vandalism, everyone got out of her way. She had never felt so alone.

Simon DeVille, a name as good as any other that he used, dropped onto a much abused stool at his favorite pub, that was close to the home office, thankful to be back in London if only for a brief while. While he reveled in the complexity of juggling the various identities he wore, doing Covington missions where the pits. The rumors of what that identity could do was hard to live up to even for him, and he had his criminal past to fall back on. He had no idea how the Honorable Lords who went into the game managed to pull it off. Ok so technically he was an Honorable Lord now, but Simon didn't think of himself in that way as he con man who's long game left him comfortably in the upper crust of society before the War. In his mind he was still just an orphan who was good at manipulating people, who thrilled at taking bigger and better risks with a goal in mind.

A pint landed with a thump in front of him. “Simon, good to see you are still among the living. First is on the house.”

Simon looked up and flashed the man a tired grin. “Mac! I'd heard you managed to get out on a medical.”

“Mostly. They got me teaching what I can to a mix of Irregulars and Gents. You know the noble type won't last more then a week in the field if they didn't get the easy assignments. No offense meant to you.” Mac hastily added.

“None taken. You where saying?”

“Anyway as payment the office authorized one of those Mad types they got working to counter the Nazi's weird shit fit me with a new leg. Works a treat even if it is a bit to heavy, clumsy, and maintenance intensive for use in the field. Still I can walk again, so I ain't complaining.” the former spy replied slapping his right leg which reverberated with a metallic clang. Simon leaned over the bar to goggle at the appendage.

“Motion powered, bronze clock-working and steel plating...” Mac said tapping it again. “hurt like hell when he attached it to my stump.”

“I'll bet.” Simon replied sipping the pint then grimacing at the taste. “this horse piss?”

“Sorry. Supplies been a bit low, else I wouldn't be serving it. Most of the good stuff I had stashed got liberated for the high muckety types in the army. Said that the likes of us didn't deserve to drink it.”

Simon stood slowly a grimace on his face. “Really? Men who come back from the field with a need to steady their nerves after sneaking in and out of occupied territory don't deserve a good drink? I think not. Now tell me, who might know where they are storing the barrels and bottles? And how many of the crew are in town?”

12 September 2007

OK, so no one here was entirely sure how Cyberkitty got to be the new club president, but no one in the room - or conferencing through a monitor - could argue that she was the best coder and cracker in the room, bar none. Well, that, and she was a lot cuter than Tinkertrain or Wunderkind. Still, if it bothered any of the upperclassmen, they didn't say anything.

"OK, let's start the first session of the year for the '133t," Paige said assertively, "Let's start by talking about the club name."

Wirewalker sighed, loudly and deliberately. "Not this crap again..."

"I mean it! Come on, "133t"? That may have been cool in Ms. Hartford's day, but now it just makes us sound like dorks."

"We are dorks," interjected Maze from his monitor.

"Yeah, but no one's gonna take us seriously with such a stupid name," said Ringo, though it wasn't as if Paige needed defending. The name is dorky.

"So what do you have in mind?" I added.

"I think we should go back to the original name. Get in touch with the club's roots, right?"

"Double-You-Tee-Eff? You think '133t is dorky, but you want to use 'International Brotherhood of Magicians'?"

Yeah, Tink said it exactly like that. What an idiot. No wonder she and Flashbang always get caught at shit.

"I thought it was 'Insidious Black Magic'," said Wirewalker, looking up at the picture of the club's founder and first faculty advisor, Alan Kotok .

Legend says - and with these old-time hackers it's all legends - that Dr. Alexander lured Mr. Kotok (now Dr. Kotok, no wait, he died last year, right?), the school's first computer science teacher/system administrator, away from DEC in 1967 with a promise to buy and support no less than four (whoopie) of the brand-new PDP-10 mainframes, hot-shit machines that Kotok had a hand in designing so I guess it was kind of stroking his ego. As one of the founding fathers of hackerdom, he must have thought that helping the students back then form a club like the TMRC back at MIT was the best way to keep the spirit alive. Apparently, Kotok thought that the "Insidious Black Magicians" gag was funny (I.B.M., get it? lame...), but not everyone agreed so it kind of went by a few different names over the years.

On the gripping hand, though, he did manage to get Whateley one of the first ARPAnet nodes just before his sabbatical here ended, and the first that wasn't a major university or consultancy, so the school was ahead of things almost from the start. Go us.

I came back out of my reverie to find that the motion had passed. Oh, crap...

3 March 1983
Montréal–Dorval Airport

As the setbelt sign turned off and the other passengers started getting their carry-on luggage, Raul reached into his pocket to get his sunglasses. The unfairness of it all came back to Raul as he put his sunglasses back on, turning away from the aisle so others couldn't see the unnatural indigo of his eyes.

He knew he was a mutant, all the kids in his school knew about it, but didn't seem to have any actual powers. And now, just days after he learned about it, he was on his way to grandpere Raul's funeral. Once again, he wondered if it was the news that his grandson was a mutant that had caused his heart attack. He knew it wasn't true, but the fact that his grandfather had died just around the same time that he noticed his eyes had changed, over a two hundred kilometers apart, shook him to the core, though it did occur to him that if he'd been properly at home in Manitoba when it happened, the distance would have been even greater.

His father hadn't been able to get out of his parlimentary duties, something to do with Dr. Diabolik's recent raid on Winnapeg - at least it didn't spill into the suburbs, he thought, he'd be crushed if anything happened to his home - and his mother was already in Mercier because of Grandpa Raul's illness, so he was flying alone for the first time. He could hear the mix of English and the somewhat less familiar French bubbling around him, but he wasn't interested in listening in. However, it reminded him that he'd better start getting used to speaking in French again; grandmere never much approved of speaking English (or Portuguese, for that matter, as she always took grandfather to task when his childhood habits arose), and he suspected she didn't approve of his father, either. The fact that he had risen to be an MP - a minor back-seat MP, but still - only seemed to make her more suspicious of him. He felt a bit self-conscious of his poor speaking skills, especially given the way his Parisian-born French teacher would berate him for his Quebecois accent and 'colonial habits of speech', but he guiltily hoped that grandma was too distraught to notice this time.

As he walked down the gangway, he could see his mother and grandmother at the end of the hallway. He walked briskly towards them, giving Ma a hug and a kiss before doing the same to his grandmother.

But then, as he embraced her, his head began to swim, and a cold chill overcame him. He backed in horror, and in English said, "Grandmother, your, in your chest, there's..." he shook violently, and pointed towards the small ball of... something he could somehow feel over her heart.

"Speak properly, child," she retorted in French, "What are you talking about?"

Mastering himself, he answered in the same language, "There's... when I touched you, I could feel, there's some, some kind of, you need to see a doctor immediately! I could feel it, it's a lump, right there..."

His mother and grandmother stared at him in confusion just before he passed out.

Candler Mansion, Atlanta, Georgia
17 April 1983

Bo Candler tugged nervously at the bow tie his mother had made him wear for church that morning, peeking around the corner before surreptitiously opening the door to his late grandfather's study to sneak in. He hated the way he was expected to dress, almost as much as he hated the awful name Beauregard Mason Candler, but he couldn't admit that to his Ma, no matter what. He had been feeling strange for weeks, both physically and emotionally, but he never told anyone about it because he was ashamed of how he was thinking and feeling.

After all, family honor was at stake.

He idly wondered if he was a fairy. That would be bad; he knew that no one had spoken to his uncle Raymond for years after he'd left for San Francisco, no one went to his funeral last January, no one even spoke his name. Bo knew that he had died of something terrible, but no one wanted to say what; he could only guess that it was that new Gay disease, AIDS, which was always on the news lately, but no one wanted to talk about it.

Or maybe he was a mutant, like Asa and Sophie. That would be almost as bad, but at least they hadn't been kicked out of the family like Ray was. His older siblings did have to go to some school in the North, way off in New Hampshire, but at least they weren't treated like strangers. Asa was even working for Coca-Cola as a chemist, the first member of the family to work for the company that the family fortune was built on in three generations, and spoke excitedly about designing new soft drinks for them.

Closing the door behind him, he started scanning the old library shelves for the book he wanted. Finally, he found the book he wanted, an old leather-bound printing of Hamlet from the turn of the century.

His mother was in love with Shakespeare, and in love with her new videocassette player, too. Last night, she had cajoled him and Sophie (home for a break) into watching an older film version of the play, the one with Sr Laurence Olivier in it. Sophie didn't sit still through it, like usual, preferring to speed off somewhere, but much to his surprise, Bo found it fascinating. The part that really stuck out was the character of Hamlet's girlfriend, Ofeeya or something like that (he had missed the credits at the beginning so he wasn't sure how it was spelled). Opening the book, he quickly read through it, not realizing how fast he was going, until he got to the third scene, where Laertes (another strange name) was preparing to leave. There he saw it: Ophelia.

His heart quickened, remembering how strange the name seemed, even stranger than Beauregard, but it was such a pretty name, too. If he were a girl, he'd want a name that pretty.

He pushed the thought aside. There were some things you didn't dare admit to wishing for, not even to yourself.

Remembering how sad the story was in the film, he started crying for the poor, waifish girl torn apart by her love of her brother and her betrothed, driven to madness and suicide. He wiped away his tears and returned to reading, eager to see how the story really went.

Berne, Switzerland
11 November 1953

"Please don't take this personally, Simon. Or perhaps I should call you Sean Causewell?"

What was left of my hair bristled at hearing my original name for the first time in decades. "I don't know, should I call you Shlomo?"

Sidney seemed just as put out by his own given name, shifting the pistol in his hand. "I'd rather you didn't. I expect you know why I am here, then."

"I'm guessing it's the connection we've cultivated with the Gehlenapparat. Can't say I blame you for it, I wasn't too comfortable getting in bed with a bunch of ex-Nazis but I could hardly afford to pass up an opportunity, wot?"

"Actually, it has to do more with the likes of The Network. Surely you can see the trouble that's causing people." Despite the chatty amiability of the conversation, I couldn't help but worry about the long-dead man, now somehow returned to youthfulness, who was here in my own office to assassinate me. I resigned myself to the fact that he was just that much better than I was, especially now in my old age. Reilly had been my own mentor once, after all, and seeing how he was somehow younger than he was even in 1915, I knew I didn't stand a chance.

Oddly, the thought that it was Armistice Day came to mind. I guess some wars never do end.

"Sorry old chap, much as I would like to talk over old times, I really do need to get on with this. You've built a rather impressive system here, and while certain... interests I am party to applaud your work, MI-6 has asked my group to send a message to the people who support you. As much as they would have preferred to smash your school to the ground, I am afraid that this the most we can do right now. Goodbye, Simon." With that, he leveled the gun at my head and fired.

“Hi Rose, how are you doing?” Mind Over Matter called from down the the street..

“Pretty good, but uh, why are you here? And who's the lady in the silver dress?” Rose asked as she jogged over to the costumed hero. She was so used to Mind's powers keeping them unnoticed she didn't worry that they were talking in the middle of the busy street.

“This is Witch Mabel, she's helping me out with a possible mutant criminal. Mabel, this is Rose, the girl I told you about.”

“Hello, Rose. You've made a very good impression on Mind,” the woman said, smiling pleasantly her chubby cheeks were bright red in the cold.

Rose knew she'd seen the hero before, there weren't many chubby, older women who looked almost ready to be a grandmother acting as a hero. Then it clicked. “Hey I know you, you and your team got your asses kicked- Uh... I mean... it's nice to meet you.”

Mind hit his forehead with his palm, while Mabel turned even redder as she said, “It's a pleasure to meet you to. My team and I aren't very martially oriented, but we do try our best.”

“Yeah, I've heard you guys have a great anti-bullying program. Uh, I've got to get going now, lunch break is almost over for school and I don't want to be late for math class. Good luck with everything, it was really nice meeting you Witch Mabel,” Rose said hurriedly.

As she headed back to school, she shook her head in embarrassment. “Good going Rose, insult the second hero you've ever met.” Still she had to admit it really wasn't her fault, Witch Mabel and her team were most often seen on Youtube under the title 'curb stomped', 'humiliated' and 'how not to be a hero'.

“Ready?” Miss Powerful asked her cousin.

“Are you sure no will come in here?”

“Yes I'm sure. I asked the gym teacher really nicely to let me use it after school. Although I may have accidentally signed myself up for the end of year talent show. You're suppose to be teaching me how to dance,” she said.

“You and I only know ballroom dancing, do you have a partner?” her cousin asked.

“Yeah, not really. That could be a problem,” Miss Powerful admitted. “Anyways, I figured this was a great place to practice some things and I wanted you here to see just how cool this is.”

“And to watch the door right?”

“Would you be so kind?” she asked, giving her best puppy dog impression.

“What are best friends for?”

She hugged her fourteen year old cousin, careful to control her strength so that she didn't break any ribs or leave bruises. “Thank you! Now I think I might be able to fly, watch me.”

Going to the middle of the gym, she did some stretches, then with a look of concentration ran five steps and jumped. Her cousin watched in amazement as she went ten feet into the air and landed almost thirty feet away.

“ISN'T THAT COOL!!!!”

“Wow!”

“OK I'm going to try to reach the other end of the gym now.” Closing her eyes, she tried to visualize herself flying. She thought it would be a lot like swimming, only drier. Filling her lungs with air, she ran as fast as she could and threw herself into the sky. Looking down she saw the ground far below, at which point her every instinct screamed that she was going to fall and break every bone in her body. Her stomach began to churn.

On the ground her cousin screamed and ran, barely escaping the foul smelling mess that hit the ground, followed a second later by Miss Powerful.

“OW!” Miss Powerful said, holding her head which she had cleverly used to help soften her landing.

“Are you alive?” Her cousin called from the door of the gym office.

“Yes. Ow.”

“OK. I'll get a mop, while you hit the showers.”

“Ow. Can you help me up?” Miss Powerful asked, holding up a dripping hand.

“Um....” the older girl said looking carefully at the foul smelling muck covering the budding superhero. “No. You're super tough now, you'll survive.”

“Traitor! You're no longer my sidekick!”

OK, this is an older non-WA story - not exactly fanfic, but whatever - that I had started about 11 years ago and just rediscovered. I thought some of you might enjoy the fragment I managed to write.

Sue for Peace
by Schol-R-LEA;2
2005:07:07

I was coming back from a Mysterious Informant gig - I did it up right, the whole Deep Throat schtick in the underground garage, keeping my face hidden in shadow and everything - and once I was sure I wasn't being tailed, I did a Scene Change into some more comfortable clothes and decided to take a walk around Lake Merritt before going home. Near the corner of 20th, however, I happened to notice a young girl with long, radiant black hair and a glowingly smooth pale complexion. She wore red and gold robes and an expression of innocent bewilderment. Now, this wasn't that unusual in Oakland, especially the Oakland in my home Ficton; but the sheer perfection of her appearance set off warning bells in my head. If she's not a Mary Sue, I thought, then I'll eat my fedora. Somewhere along the line, I had wandered into another Author's story.

OK, that's not to big a deal, really. As an Authorial Avatar myself - a Marty Stu, to you real-world folks - I had no place complaining about other chara's business, and while I don't come and go quite as easily as some of my Author's charas, I figured there had to be some way back to my own Fandom. Still, there seemed something out of place about the kid.

Suddenly it clicked: the robes were from Hogwarts, the school in the Harry Potter Ficton. Whoever this kid was, she was a long way from home, and I couldn't help but wonder what kind of story would have a teenage witch from Great Britain wandering a major city in Northern California. A bad one, was the obvious answer that leapt to mind. However, rather than risk interfering in a Plot (I'm willing to give the writer the benefit of the doubt, here), I decided to do what I do best - skulk around on the edges of things and watch events unfold.

“Rose, we're going to California for your aunts wedding at the end of November,” her mom said excitedly. “We'll have to take you out of school for a week, but your grades are so good now it won't matter.”

“We're driving right?” Rose asked.

“Drive all the way there!” her mother exclaimed. “Are you kidding. We'll take a plane.”

“But Mom, I can't take a plane. Everyone knows that I'm a mutant, if the MCO finds out I could be arrested.”

The smile dropped from her mom's face. “It's been over a year now, why are you still going on about that foolish fantasy? You are perfectly ordinary.”

“YEAH RIGHT!” she shouted. “That's why we haven't had to replace a single thing in this house since I manifested! Why I can fix some of Mind's gadgets without even knowing what they are until I'm opening them up!"

“We TOLD you not to talk to that man!”

“He's the only person I can talk to! He at least listens to me!”

“GO TO YOUR ROOM RIGHT NOW!”

“I'm NOT getting on that plane until the MCO says if I'm a mutant or not! I won't go to jail because you're too stupid to see what's right in front of you!” she screamed.

“YOU ARE NOT A MUTANT! YOU WILL COME TO THE WEDDING! AND THERE IS NO CHANCE YOU'LL GO TO THE MCO!”

“GO TO HELL!” she screamed, running out of the house.

And poof her mother was gone.

She ran through the dark forest. Sniffing the air, her ears twitched, the prey and the enemy was close. So close. Opening her mouth, she tasted the scent, a mix of blood, death and meat. Her stomach rumbled. That was good a hungry hunter was the best.

Climbing into a tree, using the low branches to help, avoiding any claw marks that the prey would notice she moved like a shadow. Symbols written in white covered her torso, glowing dimly in the moonlight, making her unnatural body appear even more unearthly.

A man wearing the iron studded leather armour of his people appeared, holding an iron sword at the ready. Trophies that smelled of blood hung from his waist. More men followed him, spears, axes, and knives, each covered in blood, runes and talisman ready to kill. They were looking for her village, to steal, rape and slaughter, like they had done to the neighbouring villages.

They were looking along the ground, watching for traps and ambushes, they didn't look upwards.

With a roar she pounced on them, claws extended for the kill.

Samantha woke up snarling, tasting blood in her mouth, her heart racing.

Taking a drink from the glass of water on the nightstand, she wiped the sweat from her brow. Something cool touched her skin. Looking at her hand, she saw the ugly cats eye pressed so tightly into her palm it looked like it was part of her skin.

“Again,” she moaned in disbelief. She was going to have to handcuff herself to the bed if this kept up. Grumbling, wondering if she could just send the cursed thing back, she made her way down to her store several floors below, typed in multiple codes and used several keys to open the inside door, and placed the thing in its safe.

“Now stay there!” she ordered the stone, while the light made it seem to wink mockingly at her.

The bell signalling the end of lunch went off. Marni watched as everyone who was eating under the trees went inside. At the furthest end of the school grounds she just sat there, not moving.

She didn't know why she went to class anymore. Everyone ignored her, she took notes, did her homework and read the textbook, with no one talking to her, looking at her, or even bullying her. She thought that she might be able to run around naked and no one would say anything.

Her mom had dropped out of or was dropped from everyone of her groups. Dad had gotten into a couple of fights when he went to the bar with his few remaining friends. Their business was losing money, Mom was usually up half the night trying to make the numbers work to keep things going, while her Dad tried to find jobs outside of the county where they didn't know she was a mutant. Her brother was in fights almost every day.

She looked out over the town she called home. Had called home, it didn't want her anymore.

No one was outside now. Even the teacher who made sure everyone headed inside had taken one look at her and walked away.

Marni made up her mind. Emptying her bag of everything except the energy bars and her phone she headed for the nearest bank machine. She'd take her money and leave.

It would be better for everyone.

Open Whateley-style!
Whateley-style!

Ninja teams show up while we're in our pajamas
Cocky bastards, kick their asses, Pumpkin we will jam 'em
And as they flee across our campus, right then we will pluck 'em
Like a banjo up from Georgia!

With prehensile hair
Check my pulse and my blood pressure, with prehensile hair
Copy notes on your clipboard now with prehensile hair
Hook me up to anesthetics with prehensile hair
Lush prehensile hair

I'm oooon a table innnnside a room in Doyle, hey!
A room in Doyle, hey!
I'm oooon a table innnnside a room in Doyle, hey!
A room in Doyle, hey!

With a magic sword they start to operate -ate -ate -ate -a-a-a-a-a-a-a
Open Whateley-style!

Whateley-style!
Op- op- op- op- Open Whateley-style!
Whateley-style!
Op- op- op- op- Open Whateley-style!

Ehhhh, get my surgery!
Op- op- op- op- Open Whateley-style!
Ehhhh, appendectomy!
Op- op- op- op- Eh- Eh- Eh- Eh- Eh- Eh-

A blind kid struts his stuff upon the mats of Ito's dojo
If he wasn't wearing robot suit, those threads he's got would blind ya
Got hit by girl with cartoon hair, one-fifty miles per hour
Could have died, but, now he'll date her!

Yellow dinosaur
From the outback of Australia, yellow dinosaur
Plays guitar loud in the basement, yellow dinosaur
Robo-voice like Stephen Hawking, yellow dinosaur
Yellow dinosaur

I'm aaaat a table innnnside the Crystal Hall, hey!
The Crystal Hall, hey!
I'm aaaat a table innnnside the Crystal Hall, hey!
The Crystal Hall, hey!

Aim my raygun at this jar of PBJ J J J JJJJJJJJJJJJ
Open Whateley-style!

Whateley-style!
Op- op- op- op- Open Whateley-style!
Whateley-style!
Op- op- op- op- Open Whateley-style!

Ehhhh, want my marmalade!
Op- op- op- op- Open Whateley-style!
Ehhhh, it's chokecherry made!
Op- op- op- op- Eh- Eh- Eh- Eh- Eh- Eh-

Tatanka comes, there's tea for everyone
Baby baby, 'round the fire we all nom nom
Bison crumbs, steak sauce on our thumbs
Baby baby, 'round the fire we all nom nom

You know what I'm saying?

Open Whateley-style!
Eh- Eh- Eh- Eh- Eh- Eh-

Ehhhh, try this barbecue!
Op- op- op- op- Open Whateley-style!
Ehhhh, open wide and chew!
Op- op- op- op- Eh- Eh- Eh- Eh- Eh- Eh-
Open Whateley-style!

“How long until we reach L.A.?” Marni asked the trucker.

“A few more hours,” he responded. “So you really have your brother waiting there for you?”

“Yeah. He told me to visit him if our mom got too much to handle.”

“It's nice to have family. Do you need a pit stop?” he asked, pulling into a deserted little rest area.

“Nah, I'm good. But don't worry about me, take all the time you need,” she said, shifting her dark sunglasses to scratch her nose.

They both undid their seatbelts, and while the trucker climbed into the little bed that was behind the seats to grab something she slouched down in her seat trying to think of what she would do once she hit LA. She'd run away without really thinking things through and she'd managed to hitch a ride an hour ago. There hadn't been much thought involved except to help her family in the only way she could.

She screamed as large hands grabbed her under the arms and dragged her out of the seat into the back of the cab.

“Stay quiet girl,” the trucker said, in what might have been a soothing voice. “We're going to have a bit of fun, and then I'll drive you anywhere you want. If you want, you can stay with me as long as you like. I'll make sure you're safe and cared for.

“LET ME GO!” she shouted.

“The first time is always a bit rough. Just l-”

She flexed her muscles and slapped him across the face. She could have punched him, her dad had taught her how, but that would have killed him. The slap was enough to knock him off of her. He hit the side of the cab, his cheek an ugly red, rapidly turning green and blue from a bruise, he stared at her in shock and pain, spitting out teeth and blood.

Powering down, she was just as shocked. She'd hurt him with her powers. The MCO was going to come after her now. They'd call her a supervillain and the Knights of Purity would hunt her down. They'd kill her. She had to get away.

“GIVE ME YOUR MONEY!” she shouted, her mind working in overdrive.

“Wha'?” he slurred.

“YOU'RE MONEY! ALL OF IT! AND YOUR PHONE!”

He threw his wallet and phone at her, trying not to get too close. She took the cash out, broke the phone, grabbed her things and jumped out. She hopped back in a second later, grabbed the keys from the ignition and threw them as far as she could. Flexing her muscles, she began running. She just had to run for a few minutes and then she could try to get another ride. It would take him a while to get a hold of the police. She just needed to get a ride before they came looking for her.

Biting back tears she left a trail of dust behind her.

“But Mind I don't want to go to jail,” Rose said into the phone.

“Rose, you don't look different from a baseline. While people in your hometown know you're a mutant, no one else does. Just bring a good book and no tools, you'll be fine,” the hero replied.

She knew Mind Over Matter was right, but she was terrified that something would go wrong and she'd end up in jail for life. Or disappear like she'd heard had happened to other mutant kids. “But what if something goes wrong?” she asked.

There was a long pause. “You're really scared about this?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“I'll phone the MCO here in Kansas City to set up a powers testing appointment. It will probably be on a weekday, do you think you can get out of school without your parents knowing?”

“Yeah,” she said. “I thought it might be useful, so I learned how to forge their signatures.”

There was another, longer, pause. “All right than, I'll make the arrangements.”

“What was that Wendy?” Samantha asked her part time sales clerk.

“It's closing time. I'm going to lock up and take off,” the college student said.

“What? But it's only four o'clock... isn't it?”

“It's six thirty. You said something about doing work in the back and asked if I wanted anything for supper, you haven't left your office since then.”

“Oh god! I'm so sorry, I meant to pick you up something but this project got the better of me,” she said.

“No problem, I got a bite to eat before coming to work. Those little blue quartz rings are doing well, I sold five of them to a group of high school girls, I think they're becoming a local trend.”

She was stalking something through a field of grass. The prey was straight ahead, too busy with its kill to notice her. She silently purred in pleasure.

The blood of the antelope filled her nostrils. Leaping out of the grass she saw the man with his back towards her. He spun inhumanly fast on his heels knocking her out of the air with his spear. Dropping it, he pounced on top of her before she could regain her feet. They rolled along the ground, roaring and cursing.

Finally she was on top of him, straddling his waist. Bending down she kissed him. A purr of pleasure was shared between them. His fingers traced the brands that had been burned onto her body.

“SAM!” Wendy shouted, snapping her fingers. “You spaced out for a moment. Are you OK?”

“Yeah, yeah, I am. Sorry. Too much work. Have a nice night. Do you come in tomorrow?”

“Yeah it's payday tomorrow, remember?”

“Right, right, right, I remember. I remember. Have a nice night. I have to get back to work.”

With a worried backwards glance Wendy went to finish closing up. Samantha went back to her office/workroom which was covered in half drawn designs, uneaten bags of fast food, and pictures of other times and places.

Sitting down she took her tools and with glazed eyes went to work.

Bardue bellowed in his usual subtle style, “TEAM KIMBA! You have ten minutes ONLY to cross roughly six miles of unknown terrain and attack a hilltop fortress with unknown defenses! There is a baseline opponent in the castle you MUST stop before the ten minutes are up! You may use any level of force necessary to stop said opponent before he launches nuclear missiles from U.S. silos thousands of miles away! DO YOU UNDERSTAND!?!”

A voice blared from the loudspeakers in the cubicles, “Team Kimba, you’re all ready to go. Please close sim helmets and begin. You’ll have exactly ten minutes from the second you appear in the sim.”

Lancer looked around, the terrain was a bit different from last time, but that was to be expected. He looked at Tennyo and Generator and said, "Just like we planned. Go!"

Tennyo took off straight up rotating so she could get a view of everything around her. It wouldn't surprise her that their target was behind them.

Generator reached into her purse and pulled out a bolt wrapped in several pieces of nanowire. They were her longest pieces, well suited to her purposes. She tossed the bolt to Lancer, and looked up at Tennyo.

Lancer caught the bolt and looked up at Tennyo, when he could make out which way she was pointing he whispered, "Hold on," and threw the bolt at the mountain he couldn't see.

Jann, Jasmine, Julie, and Jamie held on to the bolt as Lancer threw it. Screams of delight would have been heard if they had speaker disks.As soon as they saw the mountain, Jann began steering at it, she didn't have much time, fortunately Lancer's aim wasn't that far off.

The bolt impacted the mountain unnoticed and the J-Team let it go and began looking for the terrorist. It didn't take them long to find the control room. They surveyed the room from up near the ceiling, Jann pointing out targets for fellow selfs. A few moments later technicians at computer workstations, and the leader found themselves subjected to nearly invisibles garrotes.

“Hello Generator,” the overly-cheerful computer voice said. “Welcome back. It is Thursday, February, 1st, 2007. It is now 10:31 am. Your team is the victor.”

Gunny Bardue looked at Sam and said, "What the HELL just happened there?"

Sam paused as she ran what she had watched again. As she was about to tell Gunny her theory, an angry Caitlin stomped in.

"Damn that Generator," Catlin groused. "She sent in some nanowire and garroted me and some of my minions."

Have you ever wished you had a nicer house? One with a cheery fireplace, cushy furniture, and plenty of space to accommodate all your friends and family? Well, stop wishing and apply today for Princess Jobe's Home Serum, and we will make the home of your dreams your new reality.

July 2022
Dreamspace of the Ptesanwi

Kayda shook her head. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. Let me find the others so we can break the news." The teenage girl seated on the log next to her nodded in agreement. She was clad in a traditional buckskin dress, a feather dangling from her braided hair. As the shaman stood up, her wife emerged from a nearby teepee, carrying a rock and several gourd cups. The two embraced before Kayda strode into the moonlit night.

Over the next few minutes, several figures emerged from the darkness. June Franks was the first to arrive. As she stepped into the light of the campfire, the seated girl stood up to embraced the figure. June was the first to speak. "Brenda! I didn't know you could dreamwalk. Kayda said you had news for us."

The girl nodded. "I didn't know until tonight either. How long does it usually take for sis to find everyone?"

"Depends on whether people are dreaming. Kayda knows our dreamspaces well. She's been visiting them since before you were born."

The conversation was interrupted when a familiar pair of arms wrapped around June's waist from behind. "Hey there love. I came as quick as I could."

Brenda was the first to respond. "Hey dad! Quite the place Kayda has here."

Pete dropped a kiss on his wife's cheek before releasing her. "It really is. In a way, it's almost a second home.“

Deborah spoke from her place by the fire. "I wonder what Danny and Whinape are up to tonight? If I'm lucky, I'll have time to heat the water before they get here."

June quirked an eyebrow at the statement. "How are your essence gathering exercises going? Kayda has mentioned the amount of concentration they require."

Deborah shrugged. "I don't feel like I'm making any progress, but supposedly I am. I doubt I'll ever light my well, but the tea just tastes better when I make it the same way she does."

Brenda narrowed her eyes as she stared across the fire. "Essence gathering is all mental, right? Your belief in the power of our traditional medicine is solid, particularly for one not of the nations."

"It's hard to doubt the power when it has saved your life on more than one occasion."

"It stands to reason that if you believe in the power of this type of magic, your belief will make it easier for you to practice it."

The idle conversation ended shortly after Deborah moved the stone from the edge of the fire into a large gourd. A familiar voice called out, "Honey, I'm home!" In a slightly strained tone. A moment later, Danny slinked through the ring of teepees, followed by his sister and Wihanape in her bipedal form.

As they settled next to the fire, Kayda gave her lifemate a hug and an approving nod. She stared into the flickering flames for a long moment before sighing. "I can't think of a delicate way to put this, so I might as well be direct. We have a new family member, and it wouldn't be fair to Brenda to make her do the introductions. Come on out here."

A few moments later, a small four-legged creature slipped out from a teepee. It crawled to logs surrounding the fire before shifting. The dark-furred form with white stripes on its muzzle flowed upright, taking a short, stocky and definitely masculine form.

As the other family members blinked in surprise, Kayda spoke. "Everyone, this is Brenda's new spirit, Hoka. Hoka, meet June and Pete, our mother and father, and our two-spirit brother Danny."

June and Pete looked at each other before turning to stare at their eldest daughter's doppelganger. Wakan Tanka sighed and calmly gazed back at the pair. “We’ve been through this before. Would you prefer that her spirit be one of the People’s, or risk the chance of one of our enemies getting her first? I tried to find as compatible a spirit as I could. It’s not my fault that Brenda is a tomboy.”

June sighed. “I know. I’m just feeling like I’m some kind of a cosmic cat toy with all of my children’s manifestations.”

Wihanape snorted at the comment. “Don’t look at me. You have the blood of the shamen in you, and you're the one who wished about the gender of your children. It's not my fault you can't manage your essence."

As the spirits and parents talked, Danny and Kayda moved to hug their sister. Brenda was the first to speak. "What happens now?"

Kayda responded to the question. "That depends. Do you want to become a male or do you want to try to stay female? I was forced to transition thanks to my BIT, while Danny and Wihanape reached an accommodation.”

Danny interrupted. “In your heart, you know what you want. But what your heart desires and what your mind desires may not be the same thing. Further, you may not be able to get what you desire. When you manifest Hoka, you will manifest as a male, just as I manifest as a female when I manifest Wihanape. The question is the gender you assume when you aren't manifesting."

Brenda looked between her siblings. "But I like being a girl."

Danny chuckled before turning serious. "Don't knock being male until you've tried it. That said, you probably need to take care if you manifest around that time of the month. The first time it happened to me I was stuck for a week and I had to endure two exams in Doyle. That was the last time I joked about certain female issues."

Kayda added, "If you stay female, Danny's experience can give us some idea of what will probably happen. When you are not manifesting your spirit, you will probably be a rather butch female. Naturally, when you shift to your hybrid or full form, you'll be male. If you happen to be manifested when your period would have hit, you'll be stuck for the duration. While you won't have to deal with the cramping and such, you will have to deal with the fur and using the men's room."

Danny followed up on the remarks. "Something else to be aware of with an animal spirit is that you'll have that time of the year, not just that time of the month. Not fun, on either side of the fence."
Brenda furrowed her eyebrows. "How do we know if I'll change or not?"

Her sister fielded the question. "Powers testing to start. If you have a BIT, you'll probably be looking at the battle of the sexes from the other side of the fence. If not, the next major factor is how well your hollow matches your spirit. If your hollow is large enough, you can remain unchanged except when you manifest. Otherwise, you will either have to adapt or consider a more drastic option."

At this comment, her brother chimed in with, “Trust me, you don't want to fight the integration if your hollow is to small. The headaches were so bad I almost wished I was dead at times.”

Brenda frowned. "Why can't I manifest as a female badger?"

Danny hugged his sister and responded. "While some spirits have fluid genders, ours do not. The only other option is for you to separate from Hoka, an experience that will be painful for both of you. It will also be dangerous, as you don't know what sort of spirit will move into your hollow."

After a moment of silence, Deborah interrupted. "Perhaps a cup of tea would help calm everyone's nerves?"

"Kayda! What happened to you?"

"Well, you know how I said I was going through some changes and growth?"

"I thought you meant you were growing as a person!"

"Well, that too. But see, the thing is, I've got two spirits."

"Um, duh? I'm well aware that you're winkte."

"No, I mean two spirits. Ptesanwi, obviously... and also Tatanka."

"...Oh. Right. Well, I guess that explains it."

"Mmm hmm."

"Well, that's kind of- hey, is that a bird in your hair?"

"Yeah, that's Pteyahpaya. Isn't he cute?"

"Is he like a pet?"

"More like a mooch, really. He's been tagging along with me ever since my fur came in, and he, um, he..."

"Hey, speak up, you're kinda mumbling there."

"He keeps the bugs off, okay?"

"How's that work? Does he have a magic ultrasonic birdsong that repels them?"

"No, um, it's more like... he eats them?"

"Oh, that makes more- wait. So he doesn't actually repel them? So that means you've got bugs on you?"

"No! Only when I go outside, and Pteyah eats them before they build up too much."

"Don't they sell bug repellent at Whateley?"

"Yeah, but it's really bad for the environment."

"So you use a bird."

"So I use a bird. Look, it's traditional, okay?"

"No, Kayda. It is not okay. You have a bird on your head, and I'm pretty sure I just saw him eat something."

"Can we drop this?"

"Oh, hey, you know what I just realized?"

"...Do I even want to know?"

"Well, you've got white fur and a bird friend... just like Snoopy!"

"Snoopy is a dog."

"Beagle, bison, tomayto, tomahto."

"Yeah, I'm done with this conversation. Goodbye."

"Bye-bye Woodstock!~"

Rose walked towards the MCO office in Kansas City. Her parents thought she was at school, and her school thought she was out for a doctors appointment. Only Mind Over Matter and the MCO knew she was coming.

She wished she could have taken her car, she'd been fixing an old Beetle for over a month and it was almost perfect now, but it was still two weeks before she could take her driving test. So it was up to the bus and her feet to get where she was going. Looking at the message she'd gotten just over half an hour ago at the bus station again, she tried not to sigh in disappointment. 'Sorry Rose, business came up. The MCO is expecting you. I'll be their soon. Remember what I told you, no names, no details of your life. They're OK guys, but NOT your friends.'

Oh yeah, he knew how to make her feel calm.

The modest office building that didn't have any outward sign of who owned it, lay just ahead of her. Pausing to tie her shoe beside a grimy old mail box, she gritted her teeth, she needed the MID, she could do this, she forced herself to keep going. She couldn't risk getting on the plane like a regular person.

She heard a noise behind her. It was the last thing she noticed before a sharp pain ran through her body knocking her out cold.

July 2022
Dreamspace of the Ptesanwi
As Danny and Kayda tried to help their sister come to terms with her manifestation, their parents and spirits continued to talk. June snorted herself at Wihanape's comment. "What do you mean, manage my essence. I'm not a mage. I don't know the first thing about magic."

Wakan Tanka calmly responded. "How do you know you aren't a mage? Just because you haven't been taught doesn't mean you aren't one. If I'm not mistaken, you have the metagene complex, and both your mother and daughter are shamen. Have you ever tried to practice our arts?"

The expression on the elder Mrs. Frank's face shifted from mild annoyance to introspective throught. "You have a point. I guess I was just never interested in it. A belief in modern medicine and all that jazz. Perhaps... Perhaps I should go through power testing with Brenda."

Deborah spoke up from her place by the fire. "I'll call you in the morning to set up a time."

Pete shook his head slowly. "You really are serious, aren't you. I keep expecting a punchline to drop, but there doesn't seem to be one in the offering."

Wakan Tanka nodded in agreement. "Quite serious. It would be folly to try to imply that there was another avatar in your family when there wasn't, as such jokes have the potential to backfire quite easily. Such is the peril of being a supernatural entity."

After a moment of thought, Hoka chimed in, reminding the others that he was present. "Remember, finding an avatar to fill a hollow isn't a matter of calling up Avatars-R-Us and ordering a spirit out of a catalog. For an avatar to match their host, they need to similar personalities and temperaments, in addition to being the right size and shape for their host. If we were trying to play a trick on you, Hehaka, Mato or Mica would have been here rather than myself. Had things worked out differently, Hnaska might have been selected, but they already have a host."

Deborah looked down at the now steaming water and began the process of filling the individual gourds. After they were full, she took a moment to clear her thoughts and proceeded with the familiar ritual for making tea. As she finished, a brief flicker of light danced through the cups. She blinked, and then sighed a moment later. "I suppose I should sit in with the two of you when you see Vanity Girl. I see piles of paperwork in my future."

Marni looked at her phone. It was shut off so her parents couldn't call her. She sat huddled in a doorway in LA, having gotten a ride with some college kids who were too stoned to ask questions and too mellow to mess with her.

She thought about going to a drop in centre or something. She'd feel safer, but she couldn't do that, they'd call her parents and the MCO.

Turning on her phone, she saw that there were over fifty messages from her parents, and even more missed calls. She didn't read them, just sent a quick message. 'I'm OK. Sorry.'

Turning it off, she began crying and tried to sleep.

(Sorry folks - this one is a bit darker than the other recent scenes. I've put it in spoiler tags, just in case.)

The crystal was beautiful.

She stared at the choker sitting in the open safe. It was made of black silk. A special type of silver that the client had specially ordered, which felt like nothing she had ever worked with before, surrounded the crystal. The same silver created paper thin silver strands that ran over the silk like spiderwebs, until the fabric was almost hidden. When she'd made the design she had thought it would be virtually impossible to create, but the silver flowed like water under her tools, taking shape almost before she touched it.

She knew the silvery symbols well, she had seen them in her dreams every night. They were part of the creature that ran like the wind, killing, hunting, making love, throwing everything it had into every second of existence.

It was a masterpiece.

Despite the explicit orders not to take any photographs, she had rented a top quality camera the day before and taken some pictures of it. She might never show them to a person, but she had to have them, to remember the beauty that she had created.

Her hands reached out to take it. To put it on. The cats eye looked at her longingly.

Samantha slammed the safe shut and practically threw herself out of the room to get away from it. Running a hand through her greasy hair, she went to her computer to see if the client had responded to her email.

Nothing.

Her eyes went back to the workroom. Just putting it on once would be OK, she told herself.

She was walking towards the choker again.

She turned and ran from the shop, only stopping long enough to lock the doors and set the security system. Five minutes later she was in her apartment taking a shower for the first time in a month. Stripping off her clothes she was amazed to see her ribs sticking out through her skin.

(Rose's story is almost complete for now, and I can't resist, the next three days will see a new part put up.)

Mind Over Matter walked through the Kansas City police station silently cursing himself. No one had gotten a clear picture of what happened to Rose, and she'd been missing for hours. A door opened and he saw the local MCO director come out of a detectives office.

“Stimson,” he shouted, “I thought you were one of the good ones. Where the hell is she?”

“Don't you dare accuse me of hurting a child, Mind,” the director snapped. “The Kansas City MCO office is one of the cleanest in the country. We've turned over all of our surveillance video from the outside of the building and the lobby to the police, she never came within spitting distance of my building.”

Mind suddenly found himself spun around and standing face to face with Rose's father. “What were you thinking, telling my daughter to come here by herself?” Mr. Edwards demanded, almost in a rage.

Mind glared right back at him. “I was keeping her from being arrested. When you go on your trip next week, if she doesn't have an MID she will be thrown into jail and charged. If you had opened your eyes and admitted she was a mutant you could have come with her.”

That did nothing to calm the situation down. “You were suppose to meet her at the bus station, why didn't you?” Mr. Edwards snarled.

“I was stopping a gang fight. I thought she'd be safe going to the MCO on her own,” he said, his shoulders slumping.

Mr. Edwards sent him to the ground with a right hook to the jaw. “YOU BASTARD! THIS IS YOUR FAULT!” he screamed, kicking him in the stomach.

It took four officers to get the enraged father off the dazed and bloody hero. He was still screaming for his daughter as they dragged him away.

Waking up strapped a chair, Rose saw a balding, grey haired man desperately moving a joystick and mashing buttons as the room shook and an explosion blossomed on a massive screen.

“Oh, you're awake little girl. Sorry, sorry, no time for introductions or telling you about my brilliant plan. I'm trying to keep us alive right now. I'll talk to you soon,” he said, not looking away from the screen.

“What?!”

There wasn't time to say anything else, he pressed a button and the chair she was strapped to shot into a large tube. Lights and electricity began flashing around her. She took a few seconds to take in the devise, the purpose of it filling her mind, her whimper of fear turned into a shriek of terror.

“It's time to wake up now,” a kindly voice said, giving her a gentle nudge.

She opened her eyes for the first time in her life. She felt herself smiling as she took in the pretty flowers, grass and bushes that surrounded her. It looked like the perfect place to play all day long. “Where am I?” she asked softly, her voice full of wonder at the beautiful roses and wildflowers that surrounded her.

“You're in my garden. Do... do you like it?” the voice asked nervously.

Looking up at the speaker, she saw a handsome, grey haired man wearing lovely clothes. She knew instantly he was a nice man who would look after her and give her lots of things to play with. Jumping up she kissed his large nose.

“I LOVE IT!!! What's my name?” she asked, knowing that the nice man would be able to tell her.

“Your name is Rose Blossom, and this is your home. I know you'll be very happy here,” he told her.

“Oh thank you! You're SO nice!” Rose Blossom squealed with joy, kissing the nice man on the nose again. A tiny voice in the back of her mind was screaming at her, telling her this was wrong, but it grew fainter by the second, until there was only peace and serenity. Everything was perfect, and she couldn't imagine being anywhere else.

“Now Rose Blossom, lets go make the world a better place.”

"Finally it has happened," says Keitaro in an awestruck voice, gazing at the vast open space alongside his two friends. "Finally Whateley has reciprocated."

"Yes," intones Souta. "And far more so than we ever could have expected. That they should show their respect for us on such a scale... I am moved to tears."

They ponder the openness for some time before Takako breaks the silence. "Do... do you think perhaps they might have gone a bit too far? Fujisan is not only important to Yama Dojo. Fujisan is important to all of Japan."

Souta nods. "We must travel to Whateley and recover Fujisan. And then, perhaps, we should bring home a certain canyon to demonstrate the true greatness of our respect, because surely our past efforts must look like insults compared to this."

The three friends take one last look and then compose themselves. There is much to be done.

(Blame Bek for giving me this idea.)

Crystal Hall reverberated as the sonic divisor sang ""Kill the Wabbit" in perfect pitch with a full back up choir, and the iconic cartoon was shown in thirty foot tall 3D behind him.

Tia sat at the underdogs table, growing steadily paler, until with an ear shattering scream she ran into and through the nearest crystal panel, leaving a girl shaped hole behind her.

She was last seen running through Dunwich still screaming.

Thursday, 27 September 2007 - After Breakfast
Dr. Bellow's office

Dr. Bellows looked at the two Poe roommates as they walked in in good spirits. After a moment, he gave a slight nod. "How are you doing Danny?"

The teenager shrugged. "Well enough, I suppose. I woke up last night from a nightmare, only for Hank to have to break the news to me that it wasn't."

"Did you wake up again during the night?"

"No."

"And this morning?"

"I've been too busy with the morning routine to think about what happened."

"I see. How about yourself Hank?"

"A bit bleary from being woken up. When Danny recounted the events, he didn't seem to be blocking anything out. He also didn't seem to be on the verge of going catatonic. His reaction seemed to be one of introspection."

"Why don't you head on to class. Do me a favor and schedule an appointment for yourself in the next week or so. You're part of Danny's support network, and I need to make certain you're holding up."

"Will do." As the PK brick took his leave, Dr. Bellows turned his attention to the avatar. "So. What emotions are running through your head about what happened?"

Danny was quiet for a long moment. "Shock. Surprise, mostly. I don't particularly feel violated, if that makes any sense. Like it was something that I needed to do. I haven't interacted with Paige much, so..."

Dr. Bellows interrupted. "Paige?"

"When I woke up last night, I found a text message from her on my phone." Danny pulled out his phone and looked on it for a minute. "Odd. I can't find it. It implied that she had pounced me and that she wanted me to take her next time."

"If you can't find it, you're never going to. Paige has a way with computers."

Danny shook his head. "At the moment, Whinape is loudly purring in my head at the thought."

"What scared you the most about the experience?"

Danny pondered the question. "I think the most nerve wracking thing about our encounter was the possibility of being stuck in my manifested form until I bore a litter of kittens."

Dr. Bellows tilted his head. "I assume that you aren't on any kind of female contraceptive."

"To be honest, I never thought about it. It's not something a guy needs after all."

"But you manifest as a female. And from the way you've been taking, it sounds like you are capable of becoming pregnant."

"So Whinapae claims."

"Is birth control something that you would like to look into?"

"I suppose it is."

"Ok. We'll stop by Doyle before you head off to second period."

"Do they even have something for gender shifters?"

"I don't know. If they don't, they will probably start you on the pill. Once we know what the side effects are and how you need to take it for it to be effective, we'll probably consider an implant so you don't need to remember to take the pills."

"Seems reasonable."

"Another question for you. You don't have to answer, but it might help understand your feelings. I will assume that you masturbate on a semi-regular basis." Seeing a tentative nod, he continued. "Have you ever done so while manifested?"

Danny blushed and fuzzed out before shaking his head, still too embarrassed to speak. Dr. Bellows continued, "Lets set up an appointment for Monday. Your homework before then is to take some time when you won't be interrupted and try doing so in both of your manifested forms. Just do everyone a favor and try to be downwind from Hawthorne when you do. The last thing we want is a repeat of last night."

"Ow! Be more careful!"

"Sorry. And keep your voice down." Paige shuffles to the left, her head craned back in an awkward attempt to see what she's doing well enough to avoid banging Danny into any more shelves. "How about now?"

"Yeah, I think I can reach it." He leans forward slightly and tries not to extend his hind claws into Paige's shoulders as he gropes around on the high shelf for the spare key to a certain locked cabinet down the hall. "Got it." But as he's withdrawing his hand from the shelf, the jar of pickles perched precariously near the edge catches his attention. The urge strikes, and before he can stop himself he's batted it off the shelf to shatter against the hard tile floor.

"Dammit, Danny!" Paige hisses.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" He scrambles down off Paige and the two crouch near the door, listening carefully. "There's nobody out there, we're clear."

Paige shakes her head. "Security's coming."

"But I don't hear anything, and you aren't even changed yet, so how could-"

"There was a sensor that picked up that jar crashing and tipped them off."

"How do you-"

"Just trust me, we need to move."

They scurry quickly down the hall and around the corner, then duck into a supply room. Danny unlocks the cabinet and retrieves a sealed, opaque bag. "Is this the stuff you needed? Nepeta cataria?"

"Yessss." She slips the bag into a pocket while Danny closes the cabinet. His ears twitch when they step back into the hallway. "Told you," she whispers as they hurry to the other exit.

A few minutes later they're crouching behind a juniper bush outside. "Well, that was easy; I don't see why you needed my help. What is that stuff, anyway?"

"Oh, that wasn't the only thing I needed your help with. As for this..." She pulls out the pouch tears it open, tipping a couple leaves into her palm. "Nepeta cataria."

Danny sniffs. "Herbs, huh? Those smell way better than they should. What are they for? Some kind of magic tea like my sister's always making?" He sniffs again. "They don't smell weird like the ones she uses."

Paige grins as black fur starts bursting out of her skin. "Oh no, this is way better than tea. But that's not a bad idea. Maybe next time." She raises the leaves to Danny's mouth and he eats them before he can stop himself.

"Hey! Why did... oh wow, these are good." He starts purring and reaches for the bag, but Paige holds it away from him and takes some for herself first.

Neither of them hear the bush giggle as it watches the N. cataria take hold of them. With this knowledge, Juniper is certain she'll be able to entice Danny to join her new and improved Wondercute! One way... or another.

Threads hopped out of her custom police car and wished, not for the first time, that she had one of the cool super powers that let her arrive on the scene of a crime in style, like flying out of the sky to pummel evil doers, teleporting in with a puff of smoke, or stomping up in a suit of power armour. Too bad for her, the best she could manage was swinging on threads and trying to jump from building to building. That had gotten her a lot of lame spider man jokes when she had first started, and in Winnipeg it was slower than taking a car in all but the worst traffic.

She heard barking and some gunshots coming from inside the warehouse, where the 911 call had originated. While comics and TV said it should be abandoned, the building was in good shape with state of the art security, that probably meant it was owned by a gang and she was about to step into the middle of a turf war.

Her day just kept getting better and better.

Telekinetically grabbing the specially made steel wire from her pack, she sent it up to the roof, tying it neatly around a ventilation exhaust fan that she could sense through the wire. With a thought the wire coiled itself back up pulling her upwards to gracefully summersault onto the roof thanks to her exemplar 3 grace. Going to the door she disturbed a flock of pigeons who were sleeping peacefully in the warm summer night.

A kick to the door and she was inside, looking down at a scene of pure chaos. Over a dozen big scarred dogs were attacking a group of men who were shooting at them, clubbing them and trying to hold them back as they were being bitten and clawed by a horde of mice and rats. Some of them were shooting at a teenage girl wearing a mask who was cowering behind an overturned table.

The gunmen and the dogs were the biggest threat. Judging from the small ring nearby that was stained with blood, the animals were trained for illegal dog fights, that made them almost as dangerous as the gunmen. A dozen wires shot out encircling each dog, tying their legs and muzzles, before snapping off and encircling the next animal or gunman. In seconds the fighting was over. The free wires then joined together creating a net sweeping most of the rodents up. The few that escaped ran for the sheltering darkness.

"Now where is that girl?" She asked herself seeing that the mutant had run for it as soon as she showed herself.

"Come out with your hands up! This is special constable Threads of the RCMP. If you run or fight, you will be charged with illegal use of paranormal powers against a police officer," she shouted. If this was just a new mutant, it might scare her into surrendering. It was well known that newly manifested mutants could usually get off with a slap on the wrist if they surrendered, but using their powers against a registered hero or officer and they were looking at major jail time.

The sound of running feet was answer enough. Jumping down she ran after the kid, sending her wires ahead of her. She sensed her running for a side entrance, and retracted the wires that were too far away to help, the rest zeroed in on the girl.

And then the rats came, jumping on the wires, gnawing at them, trying to force them down by weight and numbers. Throwing them off let the girl hit the door at a run and keep going. Cursing Threads put on speed, and was out the same door less than twenty seconds later. The girl couldn't be an exemplar or energizer, she was running flat out and still hadn't cleared the wide loading area. That would make things easier at least.

Putting on a burst of speed, her wires spreading out from her back like a storm of tentacles, she was ready for the take down. Then something wet and sticky landed on her face. Screaming in disgust, she was suddenly doused in pigeon poop as a huge flock flew over her voiding everything they had right on her head.

She fell on her butt, unable to keep her footing in the disgusting mess, sputtering, humiliated, and needing a long bath, she watched the girl escape through a veil of dripping muck.

Spoilers for I Think We're Not in Kansas Anymore pt 2!

The shop was returning to normal. Samantha was remembering to shower and eat, she'd actually regained two pounds after a week of ravenous eating. Her workroom was tidied up, and she had given Wendy a raise for keeping everything going so well for a month.

Her eyes went back to the safe. “No,” she told herself. “It's your clients not yours. Just leave it alone.”

Checking her emails, she saw her increasingly desperate messages to the client practically begging him to send someone for the choker were still unanswered.

“Gotta keep busy,” she said, consciously NOT looking at the safe.

Grabbing a cloth she went to clean the display stands.

As the group walks down the tunnel to see for themselves about this supposed fragility, a strange tune ululates out of Ty West's pocket. While he fishes out a cellphone with a confused expression, the rest stop and gape at him as though he's been replaced by an alien. That Ty West would permit such an interruption during important business, let alone answer it, is unthinkable. Yet, it is clearly happening. This must be the worst sort of emergency.

He frowns deeply as he listens to the caller, then returns the phone to his pocket. "I am terribly sorry for that, but there has been a disaster. I'm afraid I must go. My planet needs me."

Mrs. Carson puts a hand on his shoulder before he can leave. "Ty-"

"Half of them have already been slaughtered, Liz. This is more important than authorizing the funds to shore up a tunnel."

"Of course. What I was going to say is that you're not alone. Let me help."

Lord Paramount steps forward and clears his throat. "I believe I may be of assistance as well? You provided me with aid a few years ago in the Komodo-Dodo incident, and I insist on repaying the favor."

"I want to come as well," says Quintain. "This could be a once in a lifetime chance to study the-"

Paulson speaks at the same time. "Count me in; I've always wanted to-"

"Fine!" roars Tywyswyr, his human illusion discarded. "There isn't time for this!" He snaps his fingers and a swirling blue vortex appears in the wall. "This leads to my ship. Any of you may follow or stay as you will, but decide swiftly. I will launch within the minute."

As Tywyswyr, Carson, Paramount, Quintain, and Paulson plow through the portal, the remaining humans look at each other for a long moment before they give a collective shrug and rush after them, eager to see the Sthri homeworld and provide what help they can.

"I have gathered you here today - "

" - because one of us is the murderer!" chorused the group of young girls. They grinned at Jade, and Pern let out a cheep.

Jade continued steadily, grinning at the interruption. "It's a new year, so it's time to rush new members! Anyone meet any good prospects?"

Bunny smiled. "Danny!"

"Who's Danny?" the non-Poesies asked. Bunny's smile broadened. "He's only the most adorable freshman on campus. Let me tell you about him..."

As Bunny waxed effusive, Jade added Danny's name, and a few others to a nearby whiteboard.

Anna looked up. "I saw Lizzie coming in off the bus with that giant pink stuffed dog. She's definitely a good choice. But are you sure about-"

Jade nodded. "I'm sure. That girl needs more joy in her life. Ayla was telling us about something that happened a few months ago, and it clicked. It will take some work though."

The members of the club conferred and agreed. And there was a gleeful light in their eyes as they got down to the serious business of bringing Katrina Tvardovski, code named "Nacht", into Wondercute.

As the headmistress and her motley group of trustees, researchers, and security walk down the cordoned off tunnel to examine the suspicious fractures in the tunnels, they hear a humming coming from what should be an empty lab. Carson holds up her hand to stop and jerks her head toward the door of the lab. Forsythe nods and gestures to his security officers, directing them to draw their weapons and take up station outside. On his signal they pile through the door. "Freeze! You are trespassing in an unauthorized area! Put your hands on your head and step away from the devise!"

This is followed by a loud zapping sound and a bunch of flashing lights as a ray ricochets out of the room and through the hall, accompanied by assorted screams from several of those present. This is terminated moments later by a small explosion and a nervous "oops."

The smells of ozone and smoke fill the lab as the devisor within staves off panic, pulls out her phone, and dials. "Hey, so how do you feel about eloping and taking that long world-tour honeymoon we've been talking about? Like, right now? Or even better, yesterday?"

"Whoa, what's the rush? I thought we decided to do that next summer after we graduate?"

"Yeah... but I think doing it now would be best, because I kinda screwed up here and I think we need to get far, far away for a while. Maybe for always."

"What are you talking about? Whatever you did can't be that bad. I'm sure that-"

"Honey! I shrunk the trustees!"

"...I hear Madagascar is nice this time of year?"

Star League Jr. Aftermath

June 15th, 2007 Early Evening

Ashley squeezed Hank's hand as they walked towards the conference room Star League's HQ.

Hank asked her, "Are you sure you want me to come along?"

She nodded, "At least for the AAR, we might ask you to leave after that, before we start talking about it with our parents. Are you alright with that?"

"Yeah, but I'm not sure why you want me along at all."

She smiled up at him, "Because you know Jade, Bunny, and Molly. You even know Anna better than I do."

"I've met Anna. I carried her and her squirrels around. I've talked to her a couple times when she came to see Ayla, or Bunny and Jade. I wouldn't say that I know her."

The five teens entered the conference room and glanced at the members of Star League. Tabby Cat started to get up, but Falcon put a hand on her thigh and stopped her. He looked at his daughter and her friends, "You wanted to talk to us officially?"

"Um..." Lily started then looked at her friends who all nodded. "I'm not sure if officially is the right word. What we need is some advice, really badly. I mean we..." Her voice dropped off as Hank squeezed her hand.

The adults all got very curious looks on their faces, the same kids that eight months earlier were so cocksure of themselves were now asking for advice. Falcon cleared his throat and asked, "So what's the problem, and is Hank involved?"

"Hank's not involved, but he has background information that should be helpful." She looked at her boyfriend, "Hank can tell them about Wondercute?"

Linebacker snorted, "Wondercute?"

Hank let out a sigh, and explained about Wondercute. He finished up, "So really it's just a bunch of girls that want to have fun, and goof around in the sims. Oh and defend cuteness."

Falcon coughed, "Defend cuteness?"

"That's what they say. Anyway, Ja... er Generator, who is one of my Team Kimba teammates learned a lot in the Winter Term Team Tactics course, and to be honest her craziness and off the wall tactics drive Gunny Bardue nuts."

Dredz laughed, "I thought he was going to have a heart attack a couple of times during class."

Hank continued, "Since they formed they have been, well why don't we just watch some of their sims."

They spent the next 45 minutes watching sim matches that Wondercute bounced through, driving their opponents nuts. Once everyone had recovered from laughing at Wondercute's antics. Falcon asked, "So what's the problem?"

Lily sighed, "Gunny Bardue wanted to teach them a lesson and picked us to do it. They were given a "Crash" Combat Final. We were told who we were facing, and what the scenario was two days before the Final. Then Gunny and Admiral Everheart helped us set them up. Here just watch the Final."

Tabby noted that none of the kids were watching the monitor, Lily had her head buried in Hank's shoulder. The others either had the heads buried in their hands or were staring at the ceiling. She stared at the monitor wondering what could have been so bad.

When Phoenixfire cut Superchick's arm off, someone let out a "Fuck!" Magma looked over at her daughter, and she could just make out the tears flowing down her cheeks.

The scream Dredz let out, was followed by a whimper by the real Dredz. At the end, all the parents were busy hugging their kids, while Hank sat there not sure what he should do.

After all the hugging and consoling, Falcon looked over the kids, "So what exactly is the problem?"

Lily looked at her friends again, "Several problems. The biggest is that none of Wondercute is talking to each other."

Hank cut in, "That's not entirely true. Bugs, Generator, and Gateway are. Well sort of, mostly they were crying together." He looked at the adults, "Bugs and Generator have been friends since day one, and Gateway has been friends with them since October. Gateway roomed with Dragonrider, and she says that Dragonrider barely says anything to her. Aquerna is hiding from the others, and Superchick spent most of Finals week with Dr. Bellows or Dr. Markham."

Lily gave Hank a squeeze, "The problem with the lesson that Gunny wanted to teach them, was that it wasn't needed yet. Bugs, Generator and Gateway already know the truth about the real world. They were all there at Ayla's party. I protected Bugs and a couple others, but well Bugs and Fey are real close and Fey was almost killed. Gateway was part of the fight, and was almost killed herself, plus Bladedancer came within minutes of dying if Generator hadn't saved her. Generator was injured herself."

"Aquerna probably doesn't need it either. Ayla talks about her every so often, and I've met her a few times. She's an underdog, whose family has all but disowned her, and she was the dumpy girl everyone picked on. She was at the restaurant too. Or so I've heard. So she probably knows the real world is a scary place."

"What about the other two" Red Archer asked. At the somewhat blank looks from the kids she continued, "Don't you know anything about them?"

Hank looked at the others, "Not really. Dragonrider sometimes eats with the rest of Wondercute, but the rest of the time. I-I'm not sure. I kind of remember seeing her around, but not who she is hanging around with. Superchick, she, well she hangs around with the Bad Seeds. I don't think she is one, she has a real superhero mad on going. But she rooms with Jadis Diabolik, and she seems like she really likes Jobe and the Drow contingent."

"Drow?" someone asked?

"Uh, dark elves from D&D. There are four of them. Jobe Wilkins made them, well himself and three others. Superchick is probably the only that really needed the lesson, but probably not until she was on a real team."

Falcon looked at his teammates, then at the kids, "So is there anything else?" They all shook their heads. "So what do want from us?"

All of Star League Jr. started talking at once, before they stopped and Psymod took the lead. "We need to fix the problem, and we need advice how to do it."

Magma snorted, "Why should you fix it?"

Psymod blinked a couple of times, "We broke it. We didn't mean to, but it's our fault. So we should fix it, or least help get it fixed."

"Good answer. Unfortunately you really can't fix it." Over the protests, Tabby Cat continued, "You can't. You can't fix people's emotions. What you can do is help. And now we will give you some suggestions of things to do..."

July 2022 - Morning
The Franks Family Farm, South Dakota

A bleery eyed Brenda wandered into the kitchen, following the scent of fresh coffee. June and Pete were seated at the kitchen table. Pete was the first to speak. "Well, that was an interesting dreamwalk last night."

Brenda gave a wry look at the comment. "Nothing like going to sleep and having an eventful night."

June took a sip from her mug, then queried "What's it like having a spirit?"

"Ask again this time next month, and I'll let you know. Right now, I'm still getting used to the idea that I have someone else in my head."

"I get that. I think I'm still getting over the shock of having another child who's an avatar."

Pete nodded his agreement. "Me too. When were you going to call Deborah?"

"I thought I'd wait until 9 or so. That will give us time to take care of the day's chores."

"Think you'll make it back tonight?"

"I'd be surprised. Probably easier on the sanity if we overnight in Sioux Falls."

Brenda chimed in on the conversation with, "Once we have a time, I'll call the Drakes and see if Luke would be able to help out. I know he'll be excited to hear that I manifested."

Pete chuckled. "Not to mention his parents."

His daughter conceded the point. "Them too."

Several hours later, the morning chores had been taken care of. While Pete checked over the crop sprayer, Brenda commandeered the kitchen phone. Two rings later, and she was talking with her best friend. Luke Drake was a year younger, and the two had practically grown up together. His parents had learned the farming business from hers. Eight years ago, one of their neighbors passed away unexpectedly. The resulting estate sale gave his parents the chance to start a farm of their own.

"What's the word?" Asked Luke.

"Icimani." was the unexpected response.

It took Luke a moment to remember the translation. "Oh? When are you headed out?"

"In a couple hours."

"Talk about short notice! What's the rush?"

"Powers testing in Sioux Falls."

"Congratulations. What'd you get?"

"His name is Hoka."

"So, you're an avatar? Anything else? Wait a minute. His name?"

"Yes, not that I've noticed, and yes. It seems I got stuck with the family curse."

"Family curse?"

"It started with my brother Brendan. You know her as Kayda."

"Kayda was a boy?"

"Yep. Apparently she had a rather traumatic manifestation. She never goes into details, but apparently she transitioned in a week."

"That's rather fast."

"Quite. Next up was my brother Danny. He managed to stay male, but he manifests as a female."

"And you seem set to do the same?"

"Well, in reverse, but yes. Is your mom or dad available? Dad wants to borrow you until Mon and I get back."

"One moment. I think mom is in the barn."

A couple minutes later, Sue picked up the phone. "Brenda?"

"Good morning Sue. How are you today?"

"I am well. Luke says that you're going to Sioux Falls for power testing?"

"I am."

"Congratulations."

"Thanks. Might we be able to borrow Luke tonight? Mom and I expect to be gone overnight, and dad could use the help."

"I think we can spare his talents. You don't feel up to making the trip solo?"

"I probably could, but mom was talking about getting tested herself."

"She manifested too?"

"We don't know. Wihanape speaks as if it may be the case."

"I see. Please let us know what your cards say."

Marni sat watching people pass by, she had a cup in front of her and a little sign saying 'Thrown out of my home, please help', in front of it. She had a couple of hundred dollars stashed inside her bra, but she knew that wouldn't last long. Any money she could get would help. So far, she looked pitiful enough to have gotten twenty bucks.

A young guy came up leering at her. He did a quick check to make sure no one was too close to them, and knelt down beside her. “I'll give you a fifty bucks to come with me. I've got a crib just a few blocks away.”

She cringed at the thought, he wasn't the first one to make the offer that day. “Fuck off, pervert! Like I'd want to see your skinny ass,” she said loudly. The first guy hadn't left her alone until she started swearing at him when he touched her. She was a fast learner.

“Hey, bitch! I'm just trying to be polite, you don't have to harsh me.”

“Just get the hell away from me.”

People were starting to pay attention to them. That wasn't good. She didn't want to risk the police coming along. Grabbing her cup, she tried to walk away. The perv grabbed her shoulder.

“Where are you going, we're not done talking.”

“Yes, we are,” she said, trying to pull away. She really didn't want to use her powers but the guy was looming over her, and his grip was starting to hurt.

Two hands grabbed the perv, yanking him back and sent him flying to the ground. “Dagger, go find some meth head to screw, that's the only type you'll have a chance with,” the new guy said. He turned to Marni. “Names Tyson, you OK?”

She looked him over. He was dressed in worn out clothes that were a bit too tight, showing off his chiselled body. He had a shaved head and his hands were scarred, but he didn't look like a jerk. “I'm fine, thanks.”

“You look new, you want some help?”

“Nah, I'm good.”

“All right. If you need a place to sleep, come by Sue's Diner, just down the street around nine. Me and some friends will be there. You can talk, you like us, we like you, we hang.”

“Just talking?” she asked.

“Just talking.”

“I might see you,” she said walking away.

Samantha sat in front of the safe, unmoving.

Two months and no response from the cats eye client. Was he going to come back? Had he died? Did he want the stone back? Samantha impatiently wondered what was going to happen.

She was sitting in front of the safe, much like a cat watching a mouse hole. The dreams were still coming to her every night. At least now that she wasn't touching it all the time, she wasn't hallucinating, but the dreams were better than the dull life she lived.

In the dreams she was powerful. She was a huntress. A thing of beauty and passion. Not the boring business woman, who didn't have a boyfriend, couldn't do anything with her ugly dishwater blonde hair, had cheeks that were too red, and a nose that was too big.

If she had the stone for herself, she could be different. She could be special. She could be amazing.

Her eyes barely blinked as she watched the safe.

“Now remember, just act smooth. Slip your hand in like its suppose to be there, grab the first thing you can and slide out,” Tyson said.

Marni nodded, feeling sick to her stomach. Walking up behind Latisha, one of Tyson's friends, she flexed and sensed everything around her. Focusing on her hand, she felt the tiny hairs on the back of her hand brush against the side of the purse. Ever so slowly she moved her fingers moving in time with the bouncing purse, listening to the steady breathing of the homeless girl, watching all around her to make sure no one was paying attention. Her fingertips brushed against a wallet, taking hold of it, she slid it out never once disturbing the purse.

Relaxing, she slid the wallet into her pocket, feeling a little sorry as the dull world returned.

Latisha stopped walking, spinning around to give her a disgusted look. “What the hell are you doing, girl? Are you too scared to even try?”

Tyson hid a smile. “Check your purse.”

Snorting she opened up her bag, a second later her jaw dropped. “How the hell did you do that?! I didn't even feel a thing!”

Marni, forced herself to smile. “I'm just that good,” she said.

“Tomorrow you, Latisha and I can go downtown to get some cash,” Tyson said. “I'll watch your backs.”

**

Late that night, curled up on a thin and dirty mattress with a sheet tossed over her in an abandoned house that was so old and broken down only the lowest of the low would live there, listening to Latisha and two other girls snoring quietly,

Marni stifled a sob. “I'm sorry, Daddy,” she whispered.

Sabawaelnu, the premier hero of the Canadian Maritimes, flew onto the stage on a pillar of water, spraying the front several rows of the crowd in warm seawater. She forced herself to smile at the crowd, it was expected, she was important for uniting the community and making everyone feel good about themselves as they went through their useless lives, wasting her time, making her work so hard to keep them safe. Useless scum.

Raising her arms, water surged into the sky, with a thought she twisted it around, creating dancing rings, circles, ships and more. The crowd cheered as she acted like a trained monkey for their entertainment. She took a tiny bit of pleasure in splashing them, not enough to anger them, just a little joke for the audience.

Her eyes fell on two teenagers near the back. Twins, a boy and a girl who were nearly identical, they were walking away from a group of teenagers, scowling at her, making sure she knew that they held her in nothing but contempt. The smile faltered.

Water erupted around her, hiding her rage until she could regain control. It formed into a mermaid like creature the Sabawaelnu, her namesake from Mi'kmak legends. With a watery roar it soared over the crowd leaving a trail of mist until exploded just above the hateful teens. The soaked audience roared in surprise.

Flicking her wrist, the soaked onlookers were left only a little damp, the water rising off of them in tiny raindrops falling into the sky. There was a massive applause.

She gave them a real smile, as she watched the two soaked children storm off, dripping wet as if they'd just climbed out of the Atlantic.

She'd deal with them later.

Teri woke up bright and early in Poe cottage, having spent the night having a sleep over with Splits and Ruth. Splits roommate had gone home for the weekend it was seen as the perfect chance for the three friends to do some teenage bonding. It had taken a bit of persuading, but since she'd already been sworn to secrecy over some things she'd already seen, Mrs. Horton had agreed after some pleading.

Splits rolled over on her bed, "Good morning Teri. You're off to have a shower?"

"Yeah, I smell like popcorn and pizza or I'd wait to have a bath back in Whitman."

"You remember your promise about not telling anyone about our showers?"

Teri rolled her eyes. "Yes, honestly how many secrets do you Poesies have? Do you need a secret handshake to use the kitchen?"

Splits just smiled. "You'll understand when you try the shower."

Shrugging, Teri grabbed her washcloth embroidered with roses and her tiny bag of toiletries and flew out of the room. A few of the early risers were surprised to see the six inch tall fairy fly past, but she was a common enough sight that they just smiled and said good morning, or moaned a greeting.

In the bathroom Teri had to admit it looked nice, but she didn't see what the big deal was, it was just some pretty tiles. Wrapping her hair up in seran wrap to keep it dry, she stripped and flew into the shower only to stop in confusion. There were a lot more knobs and dials than she was used to.

Turning on the shower, she got herself cleaned up quickly, making sure to wash her wings extra well since they were spattered with melted popcorn butter. With that done her curiosity got he better of her. She twisted one of the knobs.

A jet of water hit her in the chest slamming her against the wall. Sputtering and choking, she managed to get out of the line of fire and half blind flew to the knobs. She grabbed what she thought was the right one and turned it all the way off. Five streams of perfumed water hit her from all sides. Desperately she began hitting dials and knobs and levers, trying to find some escape.

**

Splits looked up tiredly as the door slammed open. Teri hovered in the air, bruised, soaking wet, her hair a wild dripping mess, and her wings were crinkled. "What on earth happened to you?"

Teri spit out a mouthful of water before speaking. "Your shower tried to kill me."

He woke up, excited. Today was the day, he knew it! He had checked the entire building, and the only bugs he had found were those that his parents had put in his luggage to spy on him. He worked tediously to remove the bugs without him coming in sight of the cameras, and constrained his laughter. It would be bad if he was caught now, before he could do it. He crushed every bug, even the ones he was sure were only fakes.

When he was done he removed the second bottom he had installed in his suitcase. He looked around before he pulled the second bottom out, and then ordered a shower kit. He quietly went to the shower, and put a sign on the shower doors saying: "Do not disturb, high need of privacy." He signed it, with two signatures and locked the shower door. He washed his hair, which turned from white to ash blonde as he washed out the coloring. He got out a brush and brushed his hair until it was long and straight, reaching to his middle.

"It is a wonder what a simple change of style can do for how a person looks." He said as he looked into the mirror. He grabbed a towel, looked out of the shower. When he saw noone, he ran towards his room and quickly went in it. There he took some items from the hidden part of his suitcase and layed them on his bed. He put them on and ordered a mirror, a tall, standing mirror. He looked into it and saw himself. His parents would be enraged if they saw him like this, dressed like a girl... As she was.

She saw herself, dressed as a girl as she had dreamed she would one day look like. She loved the chance that she had been given by her parents, even if they thought they had done everything to stop her. She was Marie, Marie Rosethorn, and she was free of her parents' grasp, they couldn't control her anymore, and couldn't force her to act like a boy anymore. Wolfgang would be no more, no matter what abuse her parents put her through, she would survive.

"Be careful of plucking this rose, it has its thorns!" She giggled. She loved that she was allowed to giggle. Now to make the changes to get her to be assigned to a proper dorm.