Heart ofthe Beholden.

 

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Author's Note: This is another story in my Hyperverse. I managed to actually get it finished despite my computer :) ~Amethyst.
 

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I was sitting in a bathroom stall at Metropolis Mall crying my eyes out and wondering just how things had come to this. Life had just thrown me another big curve ball and it looked like the big umpire in the sky was trying to decide if I had struck out or could walk to first base. The voice outside the stall didn’t help. “Hey, are you okay in there?”

Oh crap, she must have followed me, what do I do? I thought frantically. I knew I shouldn’t have been surprised since one of her powers was to sense and track other mutants, but hearing her voice only made things worse.

She waited a moment and when it was clear that I wasn’t answering she asked, “I’m Kat, do you need to talk about whatever you’re crying about? Is it about a boy or is because you’re a mutant? Did you just activate? Look, there’s nobody else in here and I’m a mutant too, so maybe I can help you.”

I couldn’t speak, even if I did have a clue what to say I don’t think I could have. The tears wouldn’t stop, I was sobbing, and I couldn’t stop thinking about how she would never want me like this. Our relationship had been complex enough as it was already. I had been willing to try to see past that enough to tell her that I liked her as more than a friend but now with this stupid new body she would never believe I was me, much less be interested in me.

I think maybe I should start at the beginning, after all isn’t that where most stories usually start? For me it only began a few days ago but the whole situation between me and Kat started about three months before that with my best friend Kevin Lewis. Kevin and I were what you would call friends of circumstance. We had met at the start of high school and being of African descent we both kind of stood out, so we started hanging out and decided to stick it out together. Anyone will tell you that Vancouver is one big cultural stew, there’s as many Asians as there are Caucasians and plenty of people from the Middle East and India too. Whoever was making the stew had apparently decided to go easy on the pepper though because there just weren’t that many of us around of the darker persuasion.

The pair of us were the only two in our school, so as I said, we started hanging out and we just clicked. We did everything together and the only time we didn’t spend together was when I was working after school and he went to visit his mom at her workplace. I always thought that a bit strange since I thought his mom was an accountant who worked from home. She had a second job though and I only found out what it was because it was that which screwed up Kevin’s whole life.

His mom is a Hyper and was a founding member of Canada’s premiere super hero team, the Sentries, based right here in Vancouver. His mother’s codename was Makeshift and she was a metamorph, what most people would call a shape shifter. Well as you can probably guess Kevin had the H Chromosome too and on that day three months ago he was there when the Foul Four attacked the Sentries in their own base. The stress of a Hyper battle raging around him caused Kevin’s own abilities to activate. His abilities were to copy another mutant’s powers and to sense and track other mutants and he accidentally used his copy ability for the first time on his mother’s teammate Wildthing.

For those of you who don’t follow the super hero set, Wildthing is sort of a cat woman. She’s primarily human but she has a lot of feline features: Cat ears, a long tail, a short muzzle with fangs and a kitty nose, whiskers, claws on her toes and fingers, sandy colored fur, and amber eyes with slit pupils. Kevin also apparently had a not-so-secret crush on her. Anyway since her form is part and parcel of her abilities, his own abilities tried copying that too. Having copied the powers and form of someone with such huge physiological differences and someone who he essentially thought was perfect caused his still developing Archetype to choose that as his new form.

So Kevin ended up as a younger copy of Wildthing right down to the gender. The only physical difference was that Kevin’s eyes were green instead of amber and his fur and the hair on his head was black. He, now she, found that in addition to Wildthing’s enhanced physical abilities and senses he could also detect other mutants and could still copy their abilities. Now the only way he could appear as his old self was by copying his mother’s metamorphic abilities.

Kevin and his Mom told me about what happened but swore me to secrecy. I would have kept it secret regardless since I felt it must be humiliating for poor Kevin to be trapped in the body of a girl, and not just any girl but a near duplicate of the cat-girl he was crushing on. What made it even worse for him was that she now saw him as a sort of little sister and had absolutely on romantic interest in my friend at all. Kevin’s mom changed his name to Katrina and wanted to send him off to this school for Hypers run by a former teammate of hers, but Katrina wanted to try to finish the school year here with his friends first.

So for the past three months Kat has been borrowing her mom’s abilities so she could go to school as Kevin for the rest of the year. We still hung out all the time but we mostly did it at her house so she could be herself for a while. Her mom and her little sister Tara had been helping her to adapt to her new gender, and even her dad was really supportive, but she really needed the time being herself to properly adjust. Spending so much of her school days as Kevin couldn’t have been easy and I often wondered why she put up with it when she could go to a school with others like herself. I was her only real friend here and I would have understood if she had left. Since she had decided to stay I decided to do my best to be there for her as she adjusted to her new self even though I knew next to nothing about Hypers. I learned as much as I could so I could understand better what she was going through and be the supportive friend she needed.

Spending so much time with her as Kat over the past few months, as both of us discovered just who Kat was, brought us even closer than before. I began to realize that I was starting to like her as much more than a friend and as much as I tried to bury that feeling it kept showing itself. I didn’t want to act on it because she had enough problems during those first few months as a girl. Adjusting to the new gender and all that came with it was hard for her and she had only recently gotten over the disappointment of having her crush tell her that she saw her as a little sister. I didn’t need to add to her problems or open old wounds by throwing my own feelings for her into the mix.

Now my life, it started to turn upside down three days ago on the night of February 11th while I was talking to Kat on the phone. “I can’t believe you’re going to miss the next few days of school,” I said with a sigh. “I’m going to be so bored with you gone.”

“I know, but it will be nice to be able to be myself for a while,” she replied with a sigh. “Mom normally wouldn’t let me do this, but a group of hikers went missing during that avalanche near Whistler and two of them are mutants. Normal tracking methods won’t work and looking normally will be like finding a needle in a haystack so she’s hoping that if I can detect the two mutants then we’ll have a better chance of finding the whole group, or at least narrow down the search area. The search and rescue helicopter should be here soon to pick us up.”

I let out a sigh of my own. “Good luck finding them, if anyone can do it it’s you. So if you’re back in time do you still want to do something for Singles Awareness Day?” It was a tradition with us that on Valentine’s Day we would do something together if we were single, usually go to the Metropolis Mall in Burnaby by sky train and make fun of all the lovey-dovey couples. Sure we were probably jealous and it was kind of a lame thing to do, but it was a tradition.

“Sure,” she replied with a laugh. “I need to get a few things at the mall anyway. If I’m back by then I’ll meet you at the usual spot at five o’clock. If I don’t think I’m going to make it I’ll call or text you. I gotta get going, our ride is here.”

“Sounds good Kat, I lo… I’ll see you when you get back.” I disconnected the call and sighed. Dammit, this was getting out of hand; I almost said that I loved her. Stupid! I couldn’t take it anymore, I was going to have to tell her soon or ask her on a real date or something or my head would probably explode. Would I be repeating Kevin’s mistake with Wildthing by doing that? I mean the circumstances were pretty similar, I was crushing on a cat-girl now too and she probably only saw me as a friend or a brother. At least I wasn’t a girl or a mutant or I’d never have the nerve to even think about it, that would be way too similar and I I wouldn’t want to bring back any bad memories for Kat, not when she was finally getting over the rejection.

Well, she had been sort of forced to tell Wildthing how she felt because of how she turned into a younger copy of her. I was at least still me and male. That raised the question though, was Kat even interested in guys or did she still like girls? If I asked her out how stupid would I look by not being sure about her orientation? Certain things she said led me to believe that she was bisexual now but It’s not like we regularly discussed it, in fact until she adjusted to her new self it was a topic that we both tried to actively avoid. Just thinking about all of this was starting to make my head spin.

I took a deep breath and tried to put my thoughts in order. I needed to get this off my chest and I needed a plan so I wouldn’t look stupid doing it or hurt the girl I loved. I wasn’t sure if it was just a crush or if my feelings of friendship toward her had evolved into more as I saw her becoming more comfortable with who she was while remaining my good friend. One thing I was sure about was that I did love her and sooner or later those feelings were going to come out. It was probably best that I at least be in control of the how and the when.

So it was time for a plan. Maybe something when we meet up on Valentine’s Day? Then it came to me. I could buy her some chocolates and a stuffed cat and maybe some flowers and offer to take her out for dinner and a movie. And if she didn’t react well I could just point to the stuffed animal and say I was just ‘kitten around’. She might like that. She had developed a sort of perverse sense of humor about her new form, which was one of the reasons she let people close to her call her Kat or Kitty. In fact her new favorite thing to say when I was at a loss for words was ‘Cat got your tongue?’ With a plan in my mind I eventually got some sleep.

School the next day was insanely boring without Kevin/Kat to hang out with. I ate my lunch alone and left school as soon as it was over for the day. I’m not really into the whole after school activities and despite many requests, I had never played on any school sports teams. My mom always says that if we give into stereotypes we let society control us and I sort of agree with her there. I hate it when people think that just because I’m six foot four and black with an athletic build that I want to play for the NBA or something. Don’t get me wrong, I like playing sports, I just don’t want to base my life on it because it’s what other people expect.

To a lot of people if you’re black you’re either going to be a professional athlete or a gang banger and that’s just racist. Mindless bigotry just pisses me off, so I don’t give in to it. My Dad is a dentist and a damn good one and both my parents are hoping that I’ll go down a similar route. You would think that victims of bigotry would be above it, but I’ve heard my parents both say some pretty horrible things about white folks when they’re not around, just because they’re white. It’s so stupid. I’ve heard them say nasty things about Asians and Hypers too, which is why they aren’t in on ‘Kevin’s’ secret. I love my parents, but I do not want to turn out like them when I grow up.

All kinds of people, including my parents, justify bigotry against mutants by saying that they are unpredictable and dangerous, but aren’t all humans? My mom hates Asians, mostly because her dad died in Vietnam when she was a baby and her mom raised her to hate them. Some of us minority people try to justify bigotry against whites by calling it 'reverse racism' when they see it, but bigotry is still wrong no matter what reason you try to package it in. Sadly it’s kind of like grandma’s fruitcake at Christmas, nobody ever wants to be on the receiving end, and they’re almost always ready to give it to someone else the first chance they get. If the goal is for everyone to be equals than we need to look past our differences and see each other as people first, not bitch about somebody being racist and then throwing your own brand of racism back at them. True equality doesn’t work like that.

Anyway, instead of after school sports, I headed to my part time job. I helped fix cars at Larry’s Auto for a couple hours after school on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, for fifty dollars a day. It was a pretty good gig actually, Larry paid me cash so that it was off the books, and he even offered to help me to find and repair a good vehicle of my own when I’m old enough to drive next year. So far I had over two thousand dollars saved up in my bank account and was hoping to be able to afford something decent when I could drive.

The hundred and fifty I made this week wouldn’t be going to the bank though; it was all going to go toward Valentine’s Day and Kat. I took the sky train to the mall after I was done work, had a quick meal at the food court, and spent some time looking through the stores. I was hoping to follow a cat theme for the stuffed animal and the chocolates just so I could pull the ‘just kitten’ card if she reacted badly. After some looking I found a stuffed white kitten with big pleading eyes holding a big red heart with ‘You are purrrfect, please be my Valentine’ written on it. I also found a box of cat shaped dark chocolate truffles that I thought she might like.

As I stood in line at the checkout I stared at the pair of items in my hands. I felt so ridiculous. I felt nervous too. What would I do if she reacted badly and I had to say it was all a joke? What would I do if she didn’t? Could we even be in a relationship without it becoming horribly awkward? I shoved those thoughts aside as I gave the pair of items to the cashier. I knew I needed to at least try or else this would just continue eating me up inside.

The cashier, a pretty blonde in her early twenties, smiled at me as she scanned the bar codes. “These are cute, is your girlfriend a cat lover?”

Cat lover… I tried not to think about the other possible meaning of those words given my situation. I shrugged it off and said, “Yeah she’s referred to herself once or twice as the crazy cat-lady. She’s not my girlfriend but, I’m uh… kind of hoping.”

She gave me another smile. “You’re so sweet, I’m sure she’ll be happy to have such a sweet and cute guy as a boyfriend. That’ll be $58.62 please.” I handed her a trio of twenties and she quickly sorted out my change to hand to me before putting the receipt in the bag and handing that to me as well. “Good luck, I hope she says yes.”

“Thanks,” I said as I gave her a nervous smile back and turned to leave with my purchases. On my way home I thought about how I was going to hide this from my parents. If I showed interest in a girl they were going to want to meet her, or at least know more about her, and somehow I doubted that they would be receptive to her being a very obvious mutant. With a sigh I decided that I would have to cross that bridge when I came to it. It was a good thing that I didn’t dwell over it or I would have been nervous as hell when I got home.

As it was I tried to slip quietly to my room, calling out that I was home as I passed the kitchen where my parents were both talking about their day over coffee. “How was your day James?” my dad asked. “You’re home a little late, were you hanging out with Kevin again?”

“No he had to go out of town for a few days, I went to go get some things at the mall,” I explained. I wasn’t the type to lie to my parents but I wasn’t above being vague when it was necessary.

“You went out and spent some of your hard earned money huh?” Dad said with a grin. “And here I thought you were pinching every penny for a car. Hopefully it’s not another video game; you spend too much time on those as it is.”

I shook my head, “No, it’s a gift for someone. I really should go upstairs and get my homework done before bed.” I knew that was a mistake as soon as I said it. While I was the type to study and do my homework, it still made it look like I was trying to cut the conversation short, which I was.

“A gift? And so close to Valentine’s Day too,” my mother said with a predatory grin. “This gift wouldn’t happen to be for a girl would it?”

I face palmed. “Uh yeah Mom, there’s a girl I’m kind of interested in so I’m going to try to ask her out on Valentine’s Day.”

“Does this girl have a name?” she prodded.

“Her name is Kat, I uhhh… sort of met her through Kevin. I don’t know if she’s interested in me or not, but I thought I’d try anyway.”

“Good for you son,” my father said as he got up and gave me a slap on the back. “I’m sure you’ll do fine but don’t wait until V Day or someone might ask her out before you. You make sure to ask her when you see her next, or better yet call her and ask. Fortune favors the bold James, that’s how I won your mother’s heart.”

They started getting all mushy and kissing at that point so I took that as I good time to make my retreat. “If you two are going to start making out I’m going to go do my homework and think about calling Kat.” I fled upstairs to my room before they could argue, put the shopping bag in my closet, and settled into getting my homework done. I had no intention of calling Kat tonight, despite what I had told my parents. She was likely still busy helping with the rescue effort and even if I weren’t nervous about asking her out it wasn’t the time or place to bother her with it.

The next morning I slept in and awoke with a sense of dread hanging over me. Valentine’s Day and the moment of truth were fast approaching and I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was going to go horribly wrong. I woke up so late that I didn’t even have time for my morning exercises. I took a quick shower and barely had time for breakfast before I had to leave for school. School was boring until the first period after lunch. We had a substitute teacher for Science and he planned to show us how to make distilled water. Mr. Lawson had a beaker filled with water set up over a hot plate that was stoppered shut with a tube running from it to a second stoppered beaker on the other end of the lab table which sat in a cooler filled with ice.

“How exciting,” my lab partner said with a groan. “He’s going to make water into water. Couldn’t he show us something interesting, like how to make smoke bombs or something?” My lab partner Nick was a skinny kid with short brown hair and glasses and he was stuck in a wheelchair due to a childhood accident. I had gotten to know him during our lab time and while he wasn’t a close friend he was a good guy and usually pretty fun to work with. He had some sort of obsession with ninjas though, which had probably prompted the smoke bomb comment.

“Yeah, I hope the experiment is more interesting than his description of it. If not wake me if something interesting happens,” I retorted with a chuckle. I was trying to steer him away from the eventual conversation about how badass ninjas were and how female ninjas would be awesome, so long as they dressed sexy. I liked the guy but he beat the subject of girl ninjas to death. It was always the same conversation when the topic came up just like my mom when she was in the mood to be a bigot.

“You might as well catch some Zs now then, I’ve seen this one done before and it’s even more boring than he makes it sound.” I placed my head in my hands and let my mind drift as Mr. Lawson began the experiment. I must have actually fallen asleep because I was dreaming of sexy girl ninjas thanks to Nick, I thought I even heard explosions and alarms. The next thing I knew I being shaken. “Dude wake up!” Nick said in a panicked voice. Holy shit, was that the fire alarm? I looked up and other students were rushing to the door and Mr. Lawson looked like he had no idea what the emergency procedures were.

“What the fuck?” I asked in confusion. I didn’t see anything burning, but I thought that I could smell smoke or something.

“I think something blew up in the lab next to us,” he explained in a rush. “There was a loud bang and then the fire alarms started going off. I think I smell smoke too, we need to get out of here!”

I nodded and stood up. Mr. Lawson was trying to get people organized but they were panicking and not listening, a bunch had already run off. Then I realized that we were on the second floor and the elevators don’t run when the fire alarm is going. How the hell was Nick going to get out of here? Suddenly there were people rushing back into the room. “There’s fire in the hallway!” someone shouted.

This just kept getting better and better. What the hell could we do now? Despite the adrenaline from our current situation I was still trying to shake off my dreams so my mind wasn’t working at full capacity. Including us and the teacher there were nine people in the room and with the smoke billowing into the room it was beginning to look like a choice between burning alive or jumping out a second storey window. I didn’t really care for either of those options and I was beginning to feel really scared. I thought that the fire must have been getting closer too, because I felt this rush of heat running through me while cold shivers ran down my spine. I needed a way to get myself and these others out of danger and outside to the meeting area.

If I could find a way to get Nick and I out and come back for the others, I thought as I gripped Nick’s wheelchair and the rush of heat was joined by a surge of pain through my whole body. Suddenly all that heat and pain was gone and there was a rush of air around me. I blinked my eyes not quite believing what I was seeing. Nick and I were outside at the emergency meeting area with the students from other classes. Nick was staring at me and whispered, “Who are you?” I looked at him confused; we had been lab partners since the start of the semester. Seeing my confusion he quickly said, “Forget it, whoever you are you just got me out of there. Can you go back for James and the others?”

James? But I was standing right here. How did I get us out anyway? I was just thinking of wanting to get us to the meeting area and poof we here. Maybe if I think about wanting to go back to the lab. I felt the air rush around me once again and I was back in the lab. The people inside hadn’t seemed to notice me and I started to move toward them only to find that my jeans and boxer shorts were pooled around my feet on the floor. That was both very strange and very embarrassing. I was still wearing my shirt and socks but it looked like both were way too big for me; the shirt was hanging off me like a tent and I was more than a little bothered by the two distinctive bumps that I saw there.

I tried to shake it off and focus on the current emergency. The smoke in the room was getting thick and I didn’t think it would be a good idea to wait around much longer. I stepped out of my pants and boxers since my over-sized t-shirt hanging to my knees covered everything well enough for now, took my wallet and cell phone from the pants and put them in my backpack with my keys. Then I rushed over to the panicked and coughing students and teacher and said, “I can get you all out of here but I think you need to hold on to me.” They looked at me in disbelief but all of them were too scared to think about it too much. I was offering to rescue them so they all grabbed hold and held on tight.

I thought about outside at the meeting area again and how much I wanted to be there and felt the air rush around us. When we arrived outside I felt so weak that I could barely stand, but we were all there. Maybe taking seven people with me at once was a bad idea. It took me a moment to catch my second wind and I left my stunned classmates and substitute teacher behind as I made my way through the crowd to where I had last seen the principal. Dammit, I was used to being taller than most people and now I was the same size if not a bit shorter than the girls in my class. I couldn’t push my way through the crowd as easily either due to my reduced stature.

“Dammit, I need to find out if anyone else is missing; I need to get to the principal,” I muttered. The rush of air hit again and I was standing near the school about ten feet from the man in question. I again ignored all the strangeness as I approached him and asked, “I just brought out Mr. Lawson and eight of his science class students, do you know if anyone else is still inside?” Usually during fire drills the teachers check off all their students that make it outside against those present for class that day and submit it to the principal.

“The fire department is handing it Miss…” he began as he looked at me. “I don’t recognize you, are you a student here?”

Miss? I had a feeling that once things settled down enough for me to really think that I wasn’t going to like where this was going. The Principal was useless, I would have to do a room by room search if I wanted to save anyone still inside. I thought about my math classroom which was on the second floor but the opposite side of the school and willed myself there. There was nobody inside so I started down the hallway looking into rooms and calling out through the smoke as I got closer to where the firemen were heading toward the blaze.

Somebody grabbed me by the shoulder and I turned to see one of the firefighters. “You can’t be in here Miss; I’ll take you outside where it’s safe.”

“Don’t worry about me, I can get out fine on my own, is there anyone else inside here? I umm… think I’m some sort of teleporter so I can help get people out safely,” I replied.

He shook his head. “You’re not dressed for this and I doubt you’re fireproof. We’ll take it from here. If you try going in and rescuing people dressed like that, Hyper or not, you’ll just end up getting hurt. Let us do our job, get outside where it’s safe, make sure you’re checked off on the list, and go home.”

I knew he was right; I would only be in their way like this. I popped back outside to where Mr. Lawson and my classmates were gathered. It looked like everyone else in the class had managed to make it out safely but Mr. Lawson was asking, “Has anyone seen James Grant?” I raised my hand as I walked toward him. “I brought him out before I came back for you. He uhhh… wasn’t feeling himself so I took him to a doctor I know.” I couldn’t very well tell them that I was James, so a white lie was in order.

“Thank you Miss, you’re a real hero. I thought all you Hypers liked wearing costumes when doing this sort of thing though,” he replied as he looked at my state of dress.

“It was ummm… laundry day. I should get going,” I replied before teleporting to the first safe place I could think of, my bedroom.

For nearly an hour I laid on my bed curled up in a ball as I thought about what had just happened. I was a Hyper, I had saved all those people and most disturbing of all three people had called me ‘Miss’. How much had I changed? Was I completely female? Just how much of James remained? The only good things about this were that I had saved lives and it had gotten my mind off Kat for a while. I suddenly sat bolt upright as the thought hit me. “Kat! Oh shit, what is she going to think of this?” I muttered. Would she be interested in me as a girl if I really was one? I didn’t even know if she would have been interested in me as a guy though so not much had really changed there. But me turning into a girl and then admitting my feelings for her… what if it hit too close to home? What if it made any relationship we had, even our friendship, super awkward?

With a sigh I got out of bed, I had messed it up quite a bit when I suddenly moved but I didn’t really care, I had more important things to think about at the moment. “I guess I had better see what the damage is.” I made my way to the bathroom, turned on the light, and looked into the mirror above the sink. What I saw there was stunning in more ways than one. First, I was actually stunning, as in very pretty. I was stunned by just how different I was, there was nothing of James there at all.

In the place of the six foot four, athletic African boy was a small and skinny white chick. Well my skin was light enough to be pure white but my features looked more Asian if you took the time to look, or a mix of that and white. I had lost probably a full foot or so in height and even under all the grime from the smoke in the school I could tell I was really pale. I was also really thin from the looks of it, but I could see some definite curves under my baggy shirt and I definitely had some good muscle tone going so at least I was in good shape.

I had a pretty and very feminine face with Asian features, thin eyebrows, a cute little nose and a smallish mouth and jaw with pouty lips. My slanted eyes were a vibrant pale blue color and seemed large in my face, and both my hair and my eyebrows were white as snow, just like my skin. I looked like some sort of blue-eyed Japanese albino girl. My hair looked to be about seven inches long and it was all standing straight up in complete defiance of gravity. I tried several times to get it to fall flat but it just kept on popping back up and giving gravity the finger.

Forget not being interested in me like this, I was pretty sure Kat would never believe it was me in the first place. “What the hell do I do now?” I queried the girl in the mirror after washing up a bit. “Nobody is ever going to see this and believe that it’s James Grant. First things first I guess,” I muttered, “I have some basic needs to take care of.” I really had to take a piss and as much as I wasn’t looking forward to it, the need was becoming steadily more insistent.

I quickly felt beneath my shirt hem as the area in question and discovered a feminine slit in place of what had once been there. Given my other changes it wasn’t much of a surprise but it was a big blow to my ego. Nevertheless I sat on the toilet and went about my business. It felt a bit different and it took a moment before I was relaxed enough to let it flow but at least the sense of relief was the same when the task was done. I almost broke down and cried afterwards at the very intimate and personal act of wiping myself down there, it was a big neon sign pointing to just how much I had changed, but I sternly reminded myself that now was not the time, I had other things to figure out.

Back in my bedroom I began to search for something that would fit me. There was nothing in my current clothing that came even close though, so I headed down to the basement to look through some of the boxes that my mom kept telling my dad to take to goodwill and he kept ‘forgetting’. I found some of the things from when I was thirteen, before I began my first major growth spurt, and retrieved a pair of sweat pants, some worn sneakers that were a bit big, and a t-shirt that would work until I could get something better. I took my prizes upstairs and headed to my room to get changed and think of an explanation before my mom got home from her job at the bakery in an hour.

It would seem that my luck was holding, and it was still bad. I had just finished taking my oversized shirt off when I heard the front door being closed and my mom calling out, “James? Are you home? Someone called and told me there was a fire at your school and I wanted to make sure you were okay.” She was home an hour early and I wasn’t sure what to do so of course I did the stupidest thing possible, I froze. My bedroom door was wide open when Mom came to my room and I could just imagine how bad this looked to her: A stark naked girl in her son’s bedroom, a messed up bed, and clothes strewn all over the place… yeah not a good combination for me.

Her eyes went wide and I blurted out, “Uhhh… Mom, this is not what it looks like.”

From the looks of if she didn’t catch the ‘Mom’ part of that statement; she looked fit to be tied. “I think it’s exactly what it looks like. Some skinny ass white bitch is naked in my son’s room. James! Where the hell are you?! You get your ass out here now and explain yourself!” She looked around my room and checked in the bathroom before leveling a glare at me. “Kat, or whatever the hell your name is, you have exactly five minutes to get your ass dressed and out of my house before I call the cops. And I had better not see you around my son again or I will put your freak ass six feet underground!”

“But...” I tried to explain as I stepped into the hall.

“Four minutes bitch!” she interrupted me. “James if you’re here you better have a damn good explanation for this!” I had never seen my mom this angry or hateful before. She moved forward to push me and I instinctively teleported back a few steps just inside my room. I think we both were a bit confused by that and the wisps of black smoke that were all that was left to indicate where I had been standing a moment before. The rage and the hatred covering her features intensified. I think my hair could have probably been excused by bleach and a lot of hairspray but there was no missing the teleportation. She knew I was a mutant for sure now and she looked ready to carry through on the threat she just made.

I slammed my bedroom door shut and locked it as a thought hit me. I was an obvious mutant who was a mix of Asian and white, I was everything that my parents had ever shown intolerance toward. It shocked me, but not enough to make me stay there; it would have been crazy to do that. I made haste to put on the clothes that I had retrieved earlier and throw my cell phone, wallet, and the gifts I had gotten Kat into my backpack after I upended it to release the previous contents. Mom was banging hard against the door the whole time, trying to break her way into the room, and I didn’t even take the time to see if there was anything else I might want to bring with me before teleporting out of there.

I appeared in the food court at Metropolis mall. With it being Thursday and just after the other schools would be getting out, there weren’t many people there at the moment and most of the ones who were there weren’t looking in my direction. I made my way over to the Burger King and ordered a Whopper combo. I was both tired and starving and I was pretty sure that my form changing like it had was responsible for that state. I was shaking as I paid for the order so I figured that shock might be setting in too. It didn’t matter though because I needed to eat something badly and at the moment it was the only of my problems I could do anything about.

“Are you okay Miss?” the lady who took my order asked.

I shook my head, but I tried to reassure both her and myself that I would be fine. “I’ve had a rough day and I need to eat something really bad. I think I’ll be okay once I do that.”

“Okay. It’ll be ready in a few minutes.” She paused a minute, looking me over in concern before she added, “We don’t normally do this but why don’t you go have a seat over there and start on your drink and I’ll bring the rest out to you when it’s ready.”

I nodded tiredly and glanced at her name tag. “Thanks Jennifer, I really appreciate that.” Then I took my Pepsi over to one of the nearby tables and took a sip before flopping down into a seat.

I didn’t have to wait long before Jennifer came and placed my order on the table. “Here you go, Miss.” She had an extra soda with her and asked. “Do you mind if I join you? I told my boss I was taking my break.”

I shrugged as I shoved a few fries in my mouth. Once I had chewed and swallowed I said, “Thanks for bringing this out. You can sit down of you want to, but I doubt that I’ll be very good company.”

“You’re welcome, you looked like you were about to fall over, you still do.” She looked away for a brief moment and I took as big a bite of my burger as I could with my tiny mouth. “Look, I know this isn’t any of my business but did you run away from home or something? You’re a little early for the school rush, obviously starving, and you look exhausted and a bit ragged.”

“Ragged?” I asked before taking another bite.

“Most girls your age as pretty as you would be wearing make-up when they go to the mall,” she explained. “You’re not, you look like you just threw on the first clothes you could find, and you smell like smoke. You also look like you’re a Hyper. Are you in some kind of trouble?”

I shook my head as a swallowed a few more fries and washed them down with my drink. “No… yes… I don’t really know. There was a fire at my school and in the mayhem I activated. I got my classmates out but my appearance has really changed so no one recognizes me and none of my old clothes fit anymore. My mom freaked out when she saw me at the house and I think she may have tried to kill me if I hadn’t escaped, so I ended up here.”

Jennifer looked a bit confused. “I don’t know much about Hypers but how could people not recognize you? I thought you all just got weird features sometimes and cool powers. Surely you can’t have changed that much.”

I wasn’t about to tell her that I was male before my change, that was just too embarrassing, so I sighed and said, “I thought so too, but this morning I was black.” I shoved some more fries in my mouth to both keep it too busy to say anything else and to fill the void in my stomach.

Her eyes widened, “Damn, that’s some change.”

I swallowed my fries and muttered, “You don’t know the half of it. I have a good friend who’s a mutant though and she should be able to help me out if I can contact her, she’s been through a similar change and her mom is great. Once I’m done eating I’ll probably see about getting a change of clothes or two and look for a hotel to stay in tonight so I can freak out in relative safety. I have some money saved up for a car so hopefully it won’t be too much of a problem.”

“I don’t know if a hotel will rent to someone as young as you look, you’re what fourteen?” she said in a concerned tone.

“Fifteen,” I clarified, “Not that I could prove it with my current ID. I see your point though; I might have to see if I can figure something else out.”

“I’d offer to let you sleep at my place but I don’t have the room. If you can’t get a room come back and find me. I’m still here for a few hours and maybe I can help you find other options,” she suggested.

I stared at her as I finished by burger. “You’d do that for me? But you don’t even know me.”

“You need help, and helping you find a women’s shelter or someplace to stay tonight isn’t that big a deal,” she said with a shrug.

I finished the last of my fries and washed them down with the last of the Pepsi. “Thanks for your help, I guess I should let you get back to work and maybe I’ll see you later. If I don’t then I found a place and I’m sleeping.”

She nodded, “Okay, maybe we’ll see each other again sometime. I hope everything works out for you.”

Shopping for clothes was easy. I went to the girls section of Sears and put clothes against the appropriate area of my body to see if they would fit okay and found two pairs of relatively plain cotton panties (if you call pastel pink and blue plain), two pairs of ankle socks, a pair of running shoes, two longish t-shirts, a windbreaker, and a couple pairs of leggings. My breasts felt large to me but not overly so and I didn’t think I was ready to even consider a bra. Still, I was trying to get practical clothes that looked somewhat normal without being too girly. None of it was all that expensive and it was easily paid for with my bank card. They even allowed me to change into one of the outfits and the shoes and windbreaker in one of their change rooms once I had paid.

With that done and my old clothes and the other new purchases in a shopping bag I withdrew some money from an ATM and left for the Holiday Inn that was adjacent to the mall. I took a deep breath to prepare myself and walked straight up to the front desk to smile at the clerk who was probably playing solitaire on his computer terminal for all the attention he was paying. “Hello, I’d like to rent a room for the night please.”

“Certainly Miss,” he started to say before he got a look at me and frowned. “I’m sorry Miss but we don’t rent rooms to…”

“Mutants?” I suggested, knowing full well that he had been going to say ‘minors’. “Am I to understand that your hotel discriminates against mutants who are perfectly capable of paying for even one of your finer suites?”

He sputtered at that. “We don’t discriminate; it’s just against company policy to rent rooms to m…”

“Mutants,” I said interrupting him again. “That is a discriminatory policy. I would like to speak with your manager please.”

“Fine, just a moment please,” he replied as he picked up a phone. Dammit, he was calling my bluff. Maybe I could find a nice park bench to sleep on. He was speaking with someone on the phone and a few minutes later a well-dressed auburn-haired woman came out an approached me.

“Hello, I’m Penny, the manager. I understand there’s a bit of a problem,” she said with a smile giving me a curious look.

“Yes, I want to rent a room and I’ve been told that you don’t rent to my kind,” I pointed out.

“Your kind being minors of course,” she said catching my double meaning, She sniffed the air and then her eyes widened. “Do you smell smoke?”

I shrugged as I coolly responded, “That would be me. I was kind of in a fire earlier today and I’m eager to wash the smell off and get some sleep, which was the whole point of renting a room.”

“You’re Wisp,” she said in sudden realization.

“Come again?” I asked in confusion.

“You’re Wisp, the Hyper from the news that saved nine people from a school fire and went back in to see if anyone else needed saving. You look just like the description,” she told me.

“I don’t recall ever calling myself that, but yeah, I moved some people in that school to safety,” I admitted. “It was really no big deal; it must be a slow news day.”

“But you’re a hero, those people owe you their lives,” she insisted. Then she took a quick look around before saying. “I’m not sure why you need a place to stay but I’ll let you have one of our executive suites tonight for the price of an economy room. I wish I could give it to you for free but I’m already breaking company policy by agreeing to rent to a minor.”

“Are you serious?” I asked in shock.

“Absolutely! You deserve it after saving those people. I wonder if I might ask something of you though…” she asked uncertainly.

“You can ask,” I agreed, still a bit shocked.

“Could I get a picture with you?” she asked. “I won’t use it for anything commercial or anything, I’d just like something to show my daughter. Something that shows I met you and that there really are heroes out there that she can look up to.”

I’m no hero,” I corrected her. “I was just in the right place at the right time to do the right thing. But sure, if it means that much to you I don’t mind. If you can print out a copy I can sign it for her too if you like. I’m just grateful I don’t have to sleep on the street tonight.”

She had the front desk clerk charge the room to Jane Smith and I paid for it in cash while she went to fetch her digital camera from her office. Once she returned she gave me a room key and had the front desk lackey take a picture of the two of us together. Then she showed me to my room herself and showed me where everything was. It was a pretty nice room with all the amenities; coffee service, mini-fridge, microwave, and a king sized bed that I couldn’t wait to sleep in. I was left to get settled in while she went to her office to print out a copy of the photo of us. I was checking out the bathroom and thinking about a shower when a knock at the door signaled Penny’s return. “Come in,” I called out as I came out of the bathroom.

She showed me the photo and then before I signed it for her daughter Amanda, she made sure I saw her delete the photo from the camera’s memory so I could be sure this was the only copy. She didn’t have to do that, it was a nice gesture on top of everything she had already done for me. I signed the photo, “To Amanda. Heroes have heroes too; your mom is my hero. Be as proud of her as she is of you, Wisp.”

Penny started tearing up when she read it and was profuse with her thanks. I just answered, “It’s the least I could do, I’ve had a pretty rough day and you didn’t have to help me but you did. I hope Amanda realizes what a great mom she has.” That got me thinking about my own mom and how she had reacted to me. I don’t know how but I managed to hold back the tears until she left the room.

It was then that the floodgates opened. I curled up on the bed and cried for I don’t know how long. I had lost my gender, my racial identity, my family, and probably my chances with Kat as well. Strangely it was the last of these that seemed to hurt me the most. I couldn’t possibly ask her out now. Even if she believed that I was James, I would just be a huge reminder of everything she had gone through herself and it wouldn’t be fair of me to subject her to that, not when she was just starting to move on with her life.

I fell asleep for a while and I had the worst dreams. It was actually the same dream over and over with different endings. I had taken Kat to a nice restaurant for dinner and told her how I felt about her and not one of the dreams ended with me getting the girl. Usually I was laughed at or humiliated in some way and in a few Kat ended up hating me and moving away to that school. I knew in my mind that Kat wasn’t that kind of person, but my subconscious didn’t seem to get it. I looked at the clock as I got into a sitting position. It was almost ten thirty pm, I had been asleep over five hours, and I was starting to get hungry again.

I called a pizza place and ordered a small pepperoni and two cans of Pepsi to be delivered to my room. The room had a large television so I thought I would try to see what the news was saying. It was probably just a fluff piece on the local news because there was nothing else worth reporting. I flipped through the news channels trying to filter through sports scores and the over/under on the stock market but there was nothing interesting so I turned the channel to CTV to wait for the eleven o’clock news.

Half an hour later I leaned back on the bed to enjoy my dinner and watch the news. I had put a towel over my head, pretending to be drying my hair when the pizza guy showed up. I didn’t need anyone else recognizing me since even local news could give me a lot more attention than a mutant really wants without a mask and costume. I had finished the first slice of my pizza and was taking a long pull on my Pepsi when the anchorwoman began her evening spiel. I wasn’t expecting to see anything on me until later in the program, if at all, so I was unprepared when the Anchorwoman said, “Tonight’s top story: A young Hyper went into a burning school today and saved the lives of nine people. Annie Kwan was on the scene earlier today.”

Pepsi sprayed out of my mouth and I started coughing as the scene on the TV switched to my school, where an Asian reporter was standing beside Nick in his wheelchair. “Nick Wallace was the first student to be pulled from a room on the second floor where eight students and a teacher were trapped by the fire. Please tell us how you escaped from the flaming death trap?”

Nick seemed a bit nervous in front of the camera and I could see him swallow nervously. “We were all sure we were going to die in there and suddenly I was outside at the meeting area. I asked who she was but I think she might be new in the hero business and hadn’t chosen a name yet because she looked confused. She wasn’t even in costume, just some big black dress or something. Then as soon as she was sure I was safe she disappeared in a puff of smoke like some kind of ninja and came back out with all the others from the room. She even took my lab partner to a doctor.”

“Could you describe her for our viewers?” the reporter asked.

Nick nodded and tried to describe me. “She was maybe five foot four, slender and she looked like she was Asian, but she was really pale and had these light blue eyes and this white hair that sort of stood right up.”

There were other interviews too: Mr. Lawson, the principal, a girl from my science class, and even the fireman I had talked to. Then the reporter was back on the screen, “Nobody knows who this mystery hero is or where she came from but the people she saved are calling her Wisp. Whoever or wherever she is, we’re glad to have people like her out there. The cause of the fire is still under investigation and the school will be closed for the next week while officials assess the damage.”

“Holy shit… good press for a Hyper, and it’s about me,” I said in a whisper as I stared at the screen.

The Anchorwoman was on the screen again with a picture of the Whistler avalanche. “In related news a hiking group missing for nearly two days since the Avalanche near Whistler was found today thanks to the abilities of another young local Hyper who worked with search and rescue to locate two of the group. The others in the group were found nearby and while some are suffering from frostbite and hypothermia, all are alive and in good spirits since being found earlier this evening. The young hero Copycat declined our request for an interview, saying only that it was a team effort and that she was glad they were all still alive.”

I turned off the news and ate another slice of pizza as I thought about what I had just seen. It looked like Kat was finished and would be able to make our ‘date’ tomorrow. I was kind of hoping she would have to miss it since it would give me time to plan how to explain things to her. Now not only was she coming back but I was all over the news and it happened at our school so it was sure to catch Kat’s attention and fire up her curiosity. I looked at my phone and decided to face the music. There were over twenty voice mails, mostly angry ones from my parents and one from Kat saying that she would be back in time to meet up tomorrow.

I wasn’t ready to actually talk to her so I sent a text. Her mom wouldn’t like her talking on the phone this late anyway, so at least I wouldn’t have to explain why my voice sounded like a girl’s. -I heard things went well in Whistler.-

-Yeah, spending the night here but should be back tomorrow morning. I heard things were exciting at school today too,- was her reply.

-No school for a week is pretty exciting :)- I answered smoothly.

-I was talking about the fire and the Hyper that showed up. Did u c her?- I just knew she’d be curious about this.

-I think I got a better look at her than anyone,- I answered after a look down at my body.

-My mom thinks she just activated, maybe because of the fire. Probably one of our classmates, did u recognize her?-

-I never saw her before today.- I could have told her the truth right then and there but I was worried about how she would react. -Maybe she doesn’t look like she used to.-

-Possible. Maybe we’ll see her around- she suggested before asking, -We still on for tomorrow? I was thinking we could meet at lunch since there’s no school.-

-Sure, I need to ask u something anyway.- I sent back uncertainly. I knew I needed to get this over with but I was still really nervous about her finding out that I was the girl from the school. How would she react to that?

-Ask me now.- was her reply.

-I don’t want to go into too much detail over text, it would take too long.- I texted uncertainly.

-Sum up then- she prodded.

I groaned and wondered how much I could say without outright telling her that I was a girl now or lying to her. I needed to tell her about my actual situation in person, over the phone would be wrong, but I needed to assuage her curiosity as well. -Mom is on the warpath and I need a place to stay. She came home early and found a naked white girl in my room.-

-Do u have a death wish? First thing u r going to do when we meet tomorrow is tell me the whole story. R u in a safe place?-

-There’s plenty to tell,- I admitted. –I’m in a hotel tonight. Going to sleep now. It’s been a long day. Good night.-

-Good night,- she sent back and I closed the phone. Now I was even more nervous about tomorrow. I quickly finished my meal, took care of the pre-bed bathroom activities, got undressed and curled up under the blankets to sleep.

I woke up at five thirty in the morning and seeing as I still had at least an hour before breakfast service began I decided to go through my morning workout. Since I wasn’t really into sports I usually worked out in the mornings before school if I woke up early enough, and I figured that I should probably try to see what my new limits were. The results were not what I was expecting at all. I was able to do twice the push-ups and scrunches that I could before, and while I didn’t seem to be as strong as I used to be, I was pretty sure that my balance, agility, and speed had improved. I was also freakishly flexible. I could do a full split and pull off yoga positions that I had never even come close to getting right before. Hell, I could even do a hand stand on one hand without losing my balance.

Whatever else my mutation had done to me I was now in the best shape of my life. I was still in shock over it all as I stepped into the shower after my workout. The shower was a completely different kind of shock. I had been putting this off, not wanting to get too intimate with my new body but I smelled like smoke and sweat and I was going to be seeing Kat today so I didn’t want to offend her sensitive nose. I resigned myself to getting to know my new body and tried to take a sort of mental inventory of how it was like as I washed it.

I was slender with good muscle tone, my hips weren’t overly large, but just what I figured that they should be on a girl my size and narrowed into a slim waist with a flat tummy and nice abs. My breasts were not large enough to really get in my way a lot but they weren’t tiny either, they were perky and suited my frame nicely, so I thought they were probably average sized. I had narrow shoulders and a slender neck and my skin was so soft to the touch. My legs were shapely and a little long for my height I thought, and led to a firm and nicely rounded ass. All in all I had a pretty nice body, but I would have appreciated it more if it was on somebody else.

I tried not to spend very long washing my breasts or between my legs. They were extremely sensitive and the feelings generated made me feel like a bit too excited. I think what bothered me most though was that I felt like washing this body was no big deal, it was my body. Part of the reason I had been putting this off was because I had expected to feel like a pervert or a voyeur doing it. I had been male all my life so washing my new female body should feel different and wrong, but no, it was like an everyday thing. While I was having a huge mental problem thinking that this should be wrong, my body and instincts didn’t seem to be on the same page. It creeped me out a bit to be honest.

So that was the whole problem. My body and physical reactions to it felt perfectly fine, it was my still male mentality that seemed to be the only issue; in fact I was starting to think it might be easier to just go with the flow and relax about being a girl. Had my mutation messed with my mind too? The big things that were on my mind were not related to my body at all. I was concerned how this would affect my future, especially my relationship with Kat. I was worried that she would never be interested in me like this and that pursuing it could cost me her friendship. And I was upset about how my mom had reacted, she hadn’t even given me a chance to explain, she didn’t even know who I was, and now I seemed to embody everything she hated.

The thoughts kept cycling around in my mind as I finished washing my body and started in on my hair with the shampoo and conditioner provided by the hotel. I had never had long hair before, but I had heard Kat bitch several times about how hard it and her fur were to care for. Finally I toweled myself dry and went to work on drying my hair. Even when wet it stood straight up, which made it a real pain in the ass to wash. What was with that? Once I had finished I stepped into the bathrobe the hotel provided and brushed my teeth with the complimentary toothbrush and toothpaste. Then I went to get dressed, pack my things, have breakfast and check out.

It was near lunch time and I was back at the mall, nervously clutching my backpack and wondering if I should just run before Kat could see me. It’s not like she would recognize me after all. I had made an effort to pass as normal, well normal for my new body by human standards anyway. My hair was the biggest problem and at first I tried tying it back in a ponytail to make it look more normal, but the damn ponytail just stood straight up in the air. Finally I bought a pink and white Vancouver Canucks ball cap (don’t judge me, it was on sale and I wanted to blend in) at a store in the mall and put it on, making sure it was tight as could be so my hair wouldn’t try anything funny.

I saw her approaching our meeting spot from the mall entrance using one of the normal girl forms she used when we weren’t in school and she copied her mom’s powers to fit in. This wasn’t uncommon for her during our trips to the mall since she preferred using a female form so she could feel more like herself. It helped while she was shopping too since except for the tail and fur she kept her dimensions pretty much the same. This form pretty much looked like a sister to her former male self. Dark skin with deep brown eyes and long black hair in Caribbean style braids. The hair looked like it took hours to get done but I knew she cheated and used shape shifting.

Suddenly she stopped and took a look around as a look of concentration passed over her face. Her head turned and suddenly our eyes locked. Does she realize who I am or something? No wait, that’s probably her mutant detection power, I thought. I probably should have approached her then but would she believe me? That’s when all the stress and uncertainty of the last few days decided to catch up with me and I turned and ran as fast as I could. So there you have it, now I’m in the bathroom stall crying my eyes out, too scared to tell Kat how I feel about her, much less who I really was and what had happened to me.

“Calm down okay?” she tried to reassure me. “Like I said, my name is Kat and I’m a Hyper too. What’s your name?”

Oh shit, I didn’t have a girl’s name picked out and I couldn’t go around dressed in normal clothes calling myself Wisp. Up until now it hadn’t seemed too important and at the moment I was too terrified to tell her that I was really James. Maybe something similar? I tried to think of something but I just couldn’t say any of the names that popped into my head, all that came out of my mouth was, “Ehmmm… ahhh…”

Kat didn’t seem to catch my uncertainty, or more likely she thought that I was nervous about telling her my name. “It’ll be okay Emma, getting powers and such is really scary at first but I know some people who can help. Come on out so we can talk, I’m supposed to be meeting a friend for lunch but I’ll call him and tell him I’ll be late.”

It was quiet for a moment and then to my horror my phone rang. It’s time to face the music, I thought as my very distinctive ring tone for Kat played. It was kind of corny, but Kat, with her warped sense of humor about her change, had insisted that my ringtone for her be something cat related. I had given in and chosen ‘What’s New Pussycat’ by Tom Jones. I just let it ring as I stepped out of the stall wiping my eyes, there was no hiding it now.

Kat narrowed her eyes at me as she sniffed the air. She was in her own form now so her senses were heightened. “Who are you and why do you have James’ phone and backpack? His scent is all over it.” Then her eyes widened as realization hit her. “You’re the one from our school, Wisp… and you must be the naked girl from James’ room too. Has he been helping you or something?”

I couldn’t look at her; I just focused my gaze on the floor as I shook my head. “I… wanted to tell you last night, but it’s awkward enough like this… I just couldn’t do it over text, not when you told me about your change in person.”

Finally she seemed to put all the little clues together and asked in a hushed whisper, “James?”

I nodded slowly, still unable to look at her. “Not anymore… I guess you can keep calling me Emma when we’re in public; it’s as good a name as any.”

Kat sighed and I heard her mutter, “Damn, if it hadn’t have happened to me too I wouldn’t have believed it…” She grabbed my hand and I could see it shifting to a more human looking version as she started pulling me toward the door. “Come on, let’s go to the food court so we can talk and I can call my mom. We really need to figure out what to do about this.”

She dragged me to the food court where we ordered from one of the Chinese places. The woman at the counter gave me a strange look but she didn’t say anything, she just took our orders and served us before moving on to the next customer. While I started eating I tried my best to ignore the conversation Kat was having with her mom. Finally she hung up and sighed. “So, what’s the verdict?” I asked.

“Mom says we’re going to need to talk to your parents at some point and explain things. If things don’t go well you can stay with us. Right now she wants us to get you some necessities and meet her at home so we can go have Rune take a look at you, she’s a doctor and she also has some spells that might help figure out the nature of your abilities. Have you noticed anything so far?”

I swallowed the sip of soda I had just taken and shrugged. “Aside from being in the best shape of my life and the whole teleporting thing, no I haven’t. But maybe this Rune can tell me why my hair insists on defying gravity, and why I look like this.”

“Archetypes are usually related to powers or what you’re thinking at the time, so what were you thinking about? Has your parents’ intolerance been getting to you again? That might explain the whole white/Asian thing. You’ve been rebelling against it for as long as I’ve known you, so maybe this is a reflection of that,” she suggested.

“Yeah that has been on my mind a lot lately,” I admitted.

“Okay, then what about when your change began? What were you thinking about then?”

I sighed. “I just wanted to get myself and the others out of there but I wasn’t thinking clearly. I fell asleep in class and I was having trouble shaking the dreams I had.”

“Do you remember what you were dreaming about?” she prodded.

I nodded and rolled my eyes at the thought. “Nick was going to start another discussion on sexy girl ninjas. I used the tired excuse to get out of it, but the thought must have gotten stuck in my mind so of course I had to dream about them. That’s probably why I’m stuck as a girl and in such good shape.”

Kat nodded in agreement. “It’s pretty likely. At least that gives us some ideas of what to look for.” Then she sighed, “This is so not the conversation I was preparing myself for today.”

I looked at her sad and confused expression and somehow managed to ask, “What conversation were you planning on having?”

She reached out and took my hand, “I feel kind of horrible about it given what happened to me with Wildthing, especially after how supportive you’ve been since my change. You’re my best friend, other than my family you’re the only person who really gets me, and you’ve stuck by me through the worst time in my life. I spent half my time in Whistler dreading today. You’ve been acting kind of weird the past month though, kind of like I did with Wildthing so I thought you might have a crush on me. I wanted to talk about it before things between us got out of hand.”

“I…” I began to try to explain but she held up her hand for me to stop.

“I care for you a lot,” she went on. “I might even love you, hell for the past few weeks I even tried to make myself attracted to you, but guys just don’t do it for me. I know I shouldn’t be doing this to you now. I know how hard the adjustment you have to make is, but because I care for you I needed to be honest about it. I… think I understand why Wildthing told me how she did. You need to move on and adjust to your new life not hold on to who you used to be. I’ll be here to support you because you’ve done the same for me but things are going to be complicated enough for you without throwing our feelings into it.”

“Our feelings?” I asked nervously.

“Your new form is really pretty and I’m attracted to girls… and it’s you in there,” she explained with a sad look on her face. “But you need to adjust to the new you and being a mutant, and it would be selfish of me to try to pursue anything while you’re going through that. You didn’t want to burden me with your feelings so I need to give you the same space. I’m not saying nothing can happen between us, but I think we need to give you time to figure out who you want to be first.”

She was probably right, but for the first time in days I was actually feeling something like hope. “I guess you’re right, maybe it’s best to wait.”

She nodded. “So for now I’ll be your supportive best friend, just like you were for me. So the first thing on the agenda is to get you some more clothes and some gear to exercise in, Mom and the others will want to try and figure out your physical abilities.”

The first place we went to was a store geared toward teen fashion called Belle Boutique. Kat insisted that I get properly measured there so we could get clothes that fit me properly. It turned out that I was a 32C bra size with a twenty-five inch waist and thirty four inch hips. Using those measurements we bought some tops and jeans that would fit properly. Kat also insisted on one skirt to get me used to the idea. Then we bought some bras and panties. She insisted I needed a bra for support and made sure I got matching sets.

I think she was enjoying playing dress up with me because she insisted I try all of it on to make sure it fit properly. She mentioned something about different brands measuring things differently. We finished it off by going to the department store for some socks, and workout gear including something she called yoga pants, a sports bra, and a form fitting sleeveless top. While we were there we also got me some ladies deodorant, a toothbrush, and some other necessities in case I had to stay with Kat’s family for a while. When the shopping was finished I waited until I was sure nobody was looking and teleported us to Kat’s bedroom.

“Sweet! We are going to save so much money on public transit that way,” Kat said with a grin when we arrived. “Just leave the bags on my bed and you can get changed into the exercise gear.” I nodded and did so, taking off my hat to put with them. My hair immediately popped up, causing my friend to giggle. I tried to ignore it and looked through the bags for the mentioned items and had my shirt half off before I noticed that Kat was still in the room. It was her low whistle that attracted my attention. “Damn that’s some nice tats you’ve got, the black really stands out against your pale skin.”

“Tats? I asked in confusion. “What tats?”

“The ones on your back, didn’t you notice them?”

I rolled my eyes. “Of course I didn’t, how often do I see my own back? You’re not pulling my leg are you?”

She shook her head. “Nope, there are tats there and they cover over half of your back. They’re all black and they’re kind of hard to miss. They’re going to get noticed if you’re in the locker room or the beach or something. The biggest one is a girl who kinda looks like you in some sort of skimpy ninja outfit, but there’s smaller ones too of ninja-like weapons in a circle around her. There’s a pair of crossed katana below her, some sais crossed above her and a pattern of throwing stars and kunai to either side. Look in the mirror if you don’t believe me.”

I approached the vanity across from her bed and turned my back to it while looking over my shoulder. She was right; the tats were there and they were really noticeable. “Damn, like I don’t look weird enough already,” I grumbled as I took my exercise clothes and left to change in the bathroom.

Once I was changed we went downstairs where Kat’s mom, Makeshift, was waiting to take us to the Sentries headquarters to see what they could make of me. First Rune took me into the medical bay and examined me thoroughly. She was a licensed medical doctor and her powers were magic based so she used both skill sets to try to see what made me tick. I was apparently a very healthy fifteen year old girl with the double X chromosomes and everything. I shuddered at the thought when she told me I could probably expect my first period sometime during the next few weeks.

She was very interested in my hair and the tattoos and ran all sorts of magical scans on them. She finally determined that I was an EM or energy manipulator. I was some sort of gateway for some form of energy source from another dimension. Whatever it was, the energy had similarities to magic, and Rune felt that my hair refusing to obey gravity was a side effect of channeling that energy. She also thought that I had some built in sense of spacial awareness to keep me from teleporting inside solid objects and that when I teleported I was actually using the energy to pull myself through the dimension the energy comes from as a shortcut from point A to point B.

As for the tattoos, she thought that they were some sort of physical manifestation of the energy I tap into, like when a magic user needs a physical object as a focus for a spell. She had me focus my mind on each particular tattoo to see what they might do. Each of the weapon tats summoned a weapon of the same type as the tat in question, made up of some sort of black metal we couldn’t identify. Rune thought it might be the energy I used emulating solid matter. It looked like metal and felt like metal and the weapons all had very sharp edges, but it was like nothing she had ever seen before, even in magically created objects.

The ninja girl was sort of a built in costume. When I focused on it my clothes vanished and I was wearing the outfit that the girl in the tat wore: It was sort of like a black one piece strapless bathing suit with built in support for my breasts that sort of pushed them up and showed off a generous amount of cleavage and a dark silver sash wrapped tightly around my waist with the ends tied in a big bow at my back. On my arms I wore fingerless elbow length fishnet gloves and though my feet bore practical combat boots I also had thigh high fishnet stockings to match the gloves. There was a ninja mask covering the lower part of my face, but I didn’t really see the point of it since my pale skin, blue eyes, and gravity defying white hair would pretty much be a dead giveaway as to my identity.

Just like the weapons we couldn’t determine what the costume was made of. It was probably the energy mimicking matter again and Rune was having trouble sensing anything about it. She couldn’t even seem to sense it or me magically while it was there. Finally she got frustrated and tried medical scans and even things like infrared. There was nothing though, it was like the costume was giving off some sort of interference. The base’s video cameras and motion detectors couldn’t even seem to sense me. I was still visible to the naked eye, everyone could see me just fine, but I seemed to be stealth to any kind of electronic or magical detection. She theorized that the costume was actually some form of complex stealth ‘spell’. Sound seemed to be effected too as even when I spoke loudly the others only heard a whisper and not even Wildthing or Kat could hear my footsteps. Ironically, I could hear them even better than usual.

Finally after two hours of testing she handed me over to Makeshift, Wildthing, and Edge who would test my physical capabilities and we spent until dinnertime doing just that. Edge had super speed and strength and some sort of magical sword and was well versed in martial arts. While I wasn’t some sort of instant martial arts master like I had been half expecting, I was ambidextrous, and did have very good reflexes, hand-eye coordination, body memory, and a natural talent for learning physical skills. Any martial arts would have to come through using those gifts and studying, but between my reflexes, teleportation and other physical gifts I was able to mount a good defense when sparring with Edge. As for my physical fitness, I wasn’t quite in the enhanced human range but I was comparable to an Olympic gymnast or martial artist.

Given my skillset, going toe to toe with powerful Hypers would be a bad idea; I still have regular human weaknesses and bones that break. However I could probably take one on if I used my gifts to my advantage, using teleportation and martial arts to keep them off balance while I wore them down. By the time we finished so I could eat something I was getting concerned though. My abilities all seemed to be geared toward sneaking, getting into places I shouldn’t, and hurting or killing people. What kind of person did that make me? When I did discover who I was would Kat even want me?

I was brooding about it as I returned Kat and I to her bedroom and changed out of my new workout clothes. When they had me un-summon my costume after the testing I had been half afraid I would end up naked but apparently when I wear the costume it shifts whatever clothes I’m wearing to that other dimension until I’m done. I was changing into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt when Kat mentioned that we forgot to get me some pajamas for bed. Since we had to do that and her Mom and Dad were taking Kat’s sister Tara to ballet practice, we decided to have Kat copy her mom’s powers before they left so that we could hit the mall again for dinner and my pajamas. It was open until nine so we figured that we should have plenty of time.

I was quiet during dinner and Kat noticed it. Finally she asked, “What’s wrong? Are you feeling overwhelmed by being a girl now?”

I shook my head sadly as I responded, “I kind of wish that was the problem. I know in my head that this should feel wrong to me, but it’s my body and it feels like my body, even though I know it wasn’t a few days ago. I think the change might have messed with my mind.”

She nodded and turned my words back at me. “And I kind of wish I had that problem when I first changed. I’ve been trying to see this all as a big joke but it’s only been recently that I could actually look in the mirror and realize that it’s me there. I’m even starting to like what I see there and feel comfortable with it. It was really hard for those first two months though. I tried not bothering you with it but I had a bit of a mental breakdown when I had my first ‘monthly visitor’.”

“Let me guess,” I replied as I reached across the table to squeeze her hand, “That was when you were sick with the flu for four days. I was wondering if it was somehow related to your change”

“Yeah, that was it,” she admitted. “You were already there for me for everything else so I didn’t want to bother you with my ‘girl problems’. But if being a girl isn’t what’s bothering you so much, what is?”

“All my powers and abilities seem to be geared toward killing, harming, or moving without detection. I’m just wondering what kind of person that makes me,” I said after some thought.

“A ninja? Seriously, you were dreaming about ninjas, what other kinds of powers could you expect to get?” she said pointing out the obvious. “Our powers don’t define who we are as people, our actions do, and you went into a fire to save people once you got those powers. You could have just stayed there outside, nice and safe, but you didn’t, you went back. That took courage and a lot of caring.”

“It was the right thing to do,” I argued. “And I’m a coward; I couldn’t even tell you how I felt about you.”

“Why couldn’t you tell me?” she asked.

“I wasn’t sure how you’d react, I was afraid it would hurt you, or reopen old wounds,” I admitted as I looked down at my half eaten slice of pizza.

“You were thinking of me. That’s my whole point, you’re always thinking of others. And you could have just given in to your parent’s bigotry but you stood by me when you found out I was a Hyper and supported me through the worst time of my life. You’re always trying to be a better person, that’s the kind of person you are, and it’s one of the things I really love about you.” She seemed to realize what she said and quickly went back to eating her own pizza.

We were both quiet after that, we quickly finished our meals and headed toward the department store that we had gone to earlier and I wanted to stop by the bank on the way. It was there, while I was using the ATM that we heard gunshots. I turned to Kat, “Did those come from inside the bank?”

She shook her head, “No I think they came from around the corner.”

We both turned around the corner to see people running from a jewellery store. We moved carefully along the wall and stopped to peek through the windows of the jewellery store. There were four men wearing ski masks holding guns and pointing them at a pair of customers and two saleswomen. There was also a fifth man, who looked to be the one in charge, dressed in a silver costume and mask. “That one is a mutant, Category three I think,” Kat said pointing to him.

“Yeah the costume kind of makes it obvious,” I retorted. “Any clue what his powers are?”

She shook her head, “My powers don’t work like that I can only detect mutants and make a ballpark guess on their power levels. I could copy his powers but I would need to know what they are to use them and I’d have to give up the shape shifting. I can only copy one mutant’s powers at a time.”

“Any ideas on how to handle this?” I asked. She had far more experience with Hypers and crime fighting than I did, even if most of it was stories from her mom.

“Do you think you can teleport the hostages out quick enough so that none of them get hurt? Once they’re out of the way we can take on the robbers without worrying about them,” she suggested.

I shook my head as I thought about it. “I could take out maybe two before they noticed something was up. Maybe if you copied my powers we could get them all out.”

“That might work,” she admitted. “Is there anything I need to know about how your powers work?”

“Just think of where you want to be or what you want to summon and it happens,” I responded before adding, “I think that the location has to be somewhere nearby, that I can see, or a place I’ve been before though.”

She nodded thoughtfully. “Let’s assume the same limits work for me then. I’ll get the two saleswomen and you grab the customers and we’ll leave them by the bank around the corner.” As I nodded in agreement a focused expression passed over her face and I had to stifle a laugh as all her fur and her long hair stood straight up. I summoned my costume to hide the smile I was wearing but I don’t think it helped much. It was a good thing she was a short haired kitty or she wouldn’t be able to see. “Yes, I’m sure I look hilarious,” she grumbled as she looked into my eyes. “Let’s get this over with.”

I teleported inside beside the first hostage customer and grabbed his wrist, immediately teleporting him to outside of the bank. They were still wondering what happened when I grabbed the other customer, a slender blonde, and absconded with her as well. Kat had had similar success and we cautioned the people we saved to wait where it was safe while we took care of their little pest problem. Then it was back inside where I appeared behind one of the gunmen who were all looking around frantically. “You boys lose something?” I asked in the throaty whisper this form seemed to turn all my speech into.

Then while everyone’s attention was on me Kat barreled into the man in the silver costume who had been floating jewellery into a bag, catching him off guard and turning all attention to her. Katana, I thought, summoning the weapon as I teleported away from where the goons had their guns pointed and slashed down at one of the men’s gun. I has only meant to knock it out of his hand but I sliced the barrel clean off. Holy crap this thing is sharp, I’m going to have to be really careful if I use these against a person.

While the man was still staring at his circumcised weapon I brought my elbow up under his chin, hard. One down, three to go. I quickly teleported to each man to relieve them of their weapons. I didn’t want to chance any of them reacting quick enough to shoot me or Kat so weapons were my first priority. My black katana made short work of the guns and soon I was randomly teleporting from one to another delivering punches and kicks to their least protected areas. It went a little like this: Punch to the face. *poof* Kick a knee from behind. *poof* Knee to the groin. *poof* Blow to the back of the head. *poof* And so on until all four of them were on the ground either unconscious or groaning in pain.

When I looked up from my handiwork Kat was using her agility to dodge all manner of metal projectiles. Apparently this guy had some sort of magnetic powers. And he was using the ability to hurl anything metallic and heavy or sharp at her to keep her from beating the stuffing out of him. He already had a bleeding nose and it looked like he was going to have a nasty split lip too. Kat had just leaped to avoid a trio of metal blades from from impaling her but a fourth one caught her in the shoulder causing her to yelp in pain as she hit the floor.

He was about to send another volley at her and I wondered where he was getting those blades from when I noticed that they were forming from his costume. He was wearing a metal costume and he could not only move metal, he could shape it. Before he could launch the next volley at Kat I teleported in, punched him square in the jaw, and teleported ten feet behind him. “You forgot all about me, I feel so insulted.” He turned around and tried launching the blades at me but I kept teleporting out of the way.

“Stop that!” he yelled.

“You shouldn’t throw sharp pointy things at people; maybe I should show you how it feels.” I summoned a handful of throwing stars.

“You fool, I am Lodestone, the master of metal!” he sneered as he looked at my weapons.

“These aren’t exactly metal,” I retorted as I threw a star at him, trying to aim far enough to his left to miss if he didn’t do what I was hoping he would. A soon as he realized that he couldn’t control the thrown star he used more metal from his costume to erect a metal shield which the star imbedded itself in. All of his attention as on me now so he didn’t see Kat walking up behind him, not until she wound up with her good arm and hit him hard enough to send him flying five feet through the air before he hit the ground unconscious.

Of course that was when the cops decided to show up. We left them to deal with Lodestone and his cronies while I un-summoned my weapons and teleported Kat to the medical bay at the Sentinel’s headquarters. She looked to be in a lot of pain and I was worried sick by the growing red stain on the shoulder of her shirt.

I was waiting in Rune’s office, nervously clutching my backpack. The magic user had been about to leave for the night when I showed up with a bloody Kat and explained what happened. She had told me to wait while she worked on Kat and I had been waiting for over half an hour, though it seemed like an eternity. Finally she emerged with a smile. “Don’t look so worried kiddo, Kat’s fine. I removed the metal stitched the wound, and cast one of my more potent healing spells on it. She didn’t lose much blood and she’ll be fine with a good night’s sleep and a few days for the healing magic to do its work.”

I breathed a sigh of relief, “Thank God.” I was so worried I was going to lose her there. “Can I see her?”

“Sure you can Emma; she’s awake and waiting for you. You can take her home to rest when you’re ready, she’ll be more comfortable there.” She patted me on the shoulder, as she turned to leave. “You two did a good job tonight; just try to be more careful in the future.”

I went into the examination room and as soon as the door opened Kat looked up at me and tried to reassure me with a smile. “Don’t look so worried, I’ve been through worse than this.”

“I… was worried I might lose you,” I admitted with teary eyes as I sat on the bed beside her. “I’ve been worried about it ever since you left for Whistler. First I thought I’d lose you if I tried telling you how I felt, then when I was changed I was worried I’d lose you because of it. And today I was worried I’d lose you because of who I might become. I can handle losing my parents if it comes to that and I can handle being a girl since there’s no other choice. The only thing I’ve been worried about this whole time is losing you. You said I need time to figure out who I am now, and I know a lot has changed for me, but there is one thing that hasn’t changed and will never change no matter who I decide I am. I love you.” I took the shopping bag out of the backpack and put it in her lap.

She returned my teary look with one of her own. “Oh Ja… Emma… I can’t… I…” she opened the bag to look inside and pulled out the stuffed cat. She stared at the cat and the heart it was holding and the silence became almost painful as I watched the tears run down her cheeks.

“There’s some cat shaped truffles too, and I wanted to get you flowers but things got kind of crazy…” I trailed off, looking away not sure what to say, not sure what she would say.

“I love you too,” she finally said, taking my hand. Then as I turned to face her, she pulled me toward her and kissed me.