By
Morpheus
Austin grew up surrounded by the strange and chaotic inventions of his mad scientist mother, so by the time he was fifteen, he was sure that nothing could surprise him anymore. However, when his own powers start to manifest, he discovers just how mistaken he was. This story takes place in the Whateley Universe.
By
Morpheus
Austin grew up surrounded by the strange and chaotic inventions of his mad scientist mother, so by the time he was fifteen, he was sure that nothing could surprise him anymore. However, when his own powers start to manifest, he discovers just how mistaken he was. This story takes place in the Whateley Universe.
http://www.crystalhall.org/index.html
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Portland Oregon, July 21st, 2007
I smiled happily at the heavenly chocolate aroma that filed the air, courtesy of the cup of hot chocolate that sat before me. This wasn’t the cheap hot chocolate where you dump a package of powder into a cup and then pour in hot water, or even the kind where you mix Hershey’s syrup in with steamed milk. No, this was real hot chocolate, made with good quality chocolate shavings, milk, and a couple other things including a vanilla bean.
Normally, I wouldn’t be interested in having hot chocolate in the middle of the summer, but this stuff was pretty good, and I didn’t just think that because I’d made it myself. I took a long sip, savoring the rich creamy flavor and thinking it went great with my smoked gouda and prosciutto grilled cheese sandwich.
I absently wished that Mom was there to have lunch with me, but unfortunately, she still hadn’t come back from the neighborhood association meeting. Personally, I thought that was a complete waste of a Saturday morning, but Mom didn’t want to take the chance that they’d sneak in another change to the rules without her knowing.
I was just finishing up when Mom returned home, bursting into the house and exclaiming, “I’m gonna kill that bitch…”
After taking another sip of my hot chocolate, I finally looked at Mom and casually asked, “Alice Bonner again?”
“Of course,” Mom responded with a somewhat manic look in her eyes. “She filed a complaint against me…said my hedges needed to be trimmed.”
“So we’ll trim the hedges,” I responded, knowing that it wouldn’t do any good. Being calm and reasonable never did any good with my mom when she was like this. Unfortunately, Alice Bonner, the nosey old woman who lived at the end of our cul-de-sac, had a knack of pushing Mom’s buttons. “You shouldn’t let her get to you.”
“I’ll get her for this,” Mom continued her rant, going further and further into a full blown Diedricks episode.
“Or you could just trim the hedges,” I reminded her again, taking a final sip from my cup and finishing off the hot chocolate. I looked at my empty cup, then told Mom, “I have your lunch on the counter…”
“I’ll disintegrate her,” Mom continued manically, once again lost in her own little world. “No…better yet…I’ll make a shrink ray and shrink her to the size of a flea. I’ll put her in a box, put that box inside another box, and then I’ll mail it to myself. And when it arrives…I’ll smash it with a hammer…”
“That’s it,” I commented as I began to clean the table. “No more Disney movies for you. They give you bad ideas.”
Mom ignored me and let out a maniacal laugh, which made her sound like a mad scientist. Then again, that was pretty appropriate because she actually was a mad scientist. Mom was a devisor, a mutant with the ability to invent just about anything she could imagine, no matter how outrageous. Unfortunately, as sometimes happened with people who had that kind of power, she also had Diedricks Syndrome, a disease that put the ‘mad’ in mad scientist.
Mere seconds later, Mom rushed to the secret passage that led down to her hidden lab. I just shook my head, knowing full well that she was going to build a shrink ray so she could do exactly what she’d just threatened. But in spite of that, I wasn’t the least bit concerned.
This wasn’t the first time I’d seen Mom come up with some insane plan and then rush to the lab in order to make it happen, nor was it even the tenth. This kind of thing happened every couple weeks, but in spite of that, Mom had never followed through with any of those plans. I knew from experience that by the time Mom finished her shrink ray, she’ll have calmed down and forgotten the whole thing.
I finished cleaning up, knowing that Mom would be too distracted to eat lunch now. Then once I was done, I poked my head into the door of her lab and called out, “I’m going to work.” Of course, she probably hadn’t heard me, but at least I’d told her.
A minute later, I left the house to go to work, which was right across the street. Since I was only fifteen years old, and that by less than a month, I was too young to get any kind of real job. However, I had come to an arrangement with my neighbor, Mrs. Lawrence.
After ringing Mrs. Lawrence’s doorbell, I had to wait less than half a minute before the door opened and revealed my neighbor. Mrs. Lawrence was a middle-aged black woman who was a little on the stocky side. And as usual, she was wearing a brightly colored dress, this time in a flower pattern.
“Austin Maguire,” she greeted me with a chuckle. “You’re early…as usual.”
“I try,” I admitted with a grin, not wanting to do anything that would get me fired from this job.
Mrs. Lawrence owned her own catering business, which she operated out of her own home. Sometimes, she needed a little extra help getting all the food ready, and since she couldn’t afford to hire a real assistant, she gave me the job instead. Most of the time, she paid me in cooking lessons and food, along with a little cash under the table.
“So, what are you making today?” I asked her curiously.
“Well, I made some panna cotta this morning,” she told me with a grin, making me groan in disappointment at missing that. I’d helped her make flan before and had wanted to try panna cotta too since it was pretty similar. “I was just about to start the risotto…”
Mrs. Lawrence gave me a brief description of what we would be doing, and a minute later, I began gathering up ingredients. I got the bag of arborio rice from the pantry and some of her homemade stock from the fridge, along with a few other things, then we went to work.
Normally, rice is a pretty simple thing to cook, but doing it the Italian way was a little more complicated, and after tasting the results, I decided it was well worth the extra effort. However, we didn’t stop there. We waited for the risotto to cool, then began making risotto balls that would be breaded and deep fried.
“I’ll put the final touches on these right before serving them,” Mrs. Lawrence told me, looking pleased with the results.
Of course, this wasn’t the only thing that Mrs. Lawrence was making for her clients, and I helped her with the other dishes as well. While we worked, she told me a bit about what she was doing with the food and why, giving me advice that I tried hard to remember.
Mrs. Lawrence was the one who’d introduced me to good food and the idea that I could actually make it myself. Mom was a decent cook, when she bothered to cook. But more often than not, she got so caught up in whatever project she was working on that she completely forgot about meals, leaving me on my own. I’d gotten a bit tired of grilled cheese sandwiches and canned soup, so when I found out that Mrs. Lawrence ran a catering business, I asked her for a few recipes and she’d offered me both lessons and a job.
Once everything was prepared, we packed it up so Mrs. Lawrence could take it to her clients for their big dinner party. Sometimes, she joked that she’d have to start taking me with in order to help her set things up and then cleanup afterwards, but so far that hadn’t happened.
Of course, we didn’t pack all the food up. Mrs. Lawrence put enough aside for me to take home for dinner, much to my delight. It was always fun eating dinner when I’d helped to make it. It was just too bad that Mom would probably be too caught up in her latest invention to bother eating.
Before I went home, Mrs. Lawrence abruptly asked me, “Did I tell you that Herschel just found out he’s getting promoted?”
“He’s in the Air Force, isn’t he?” I asked her, knowing full well that he was.
“He sure is,” she told me proudly. “He’s a crew chief on one of those big planes…”
I nodded at that, remembering the last time her son had been home for a visit. It had been just a month ago, and though I’d seen him before then, that had actually been the first time the two of us had officially met.
“So, Austin,” she asked me with a chuckle. “Have you thought about what you’re doing to do for a living once you’re older?”
I hesitated a moment, feeling a little self-conscious as I admitted, “Well, this is pretty fun, so I was thinking of maybe being a chef.”
Mrs. Lawrence grinned in approval. “Culinary school isn’t cheap,” she told me. “I’d start saving up now if you can. You might consider getting the military to pay for your schooling too.”
I nodded at that, though I knew full well that there was no point making plans for the future quite yet. After all, I still had a long time before I had to make any real decisions about what I was going to do. And then there was the fact that my mom was a mutant, which meant that I had a pretty good chance of being one too. If I was, then I had no idea how that would influence my future.
We talked for just a little longer, then I returned home with several containers of food. Dinner was taken care of for tonight, which was a good thing because Mom would probably be too busy to even think about it.
After setting the food out on the counter, I went down to Mom’s lab to check on her, hesitating just a moment at the door. Even at the best of times, going into Mom’s lab could be a bit risky, but it was always worse when she was in the middle of working on something.
Mom never used me as a guinea pig…at least not intentionally, but she did tend to get a little overenthusiastic about showing off her new inventions. And then there was simply the fact that when you’re dealing with reality bending devises, there were a lot of things that could go wrong.
When I was ten years old, one of Mom’s devises had exploded and accidentally turned me into a girl, something Mom had taken full advantage of in order to do a little mother/daughter bonding. I’d spent an entire week as Amy, which is what I would have been named if I’d been born a girl, before Mom found a way to change me back to normal. Admittedly, now that it was long since done and over with, I actually had some fond memories of my time as a girl.
“I just hope I don’t get hit with a shrink ray again,” I mused as I stepped into the lab.
After spending a couple hours being only six inches tall, it had worn off without any permanent effects, except for leaving me with a faint phobia of cats. I shudder faintly, knowing that I’d never look at our neighbor’s cat the same way again. When you’re the size of a doll, cute little Muffin might as well have been a man-eating monster.
I glanced over the lab, immediately seeing Mom sitting at one of her three work stations. Her back was turned to me, so I saw her shoulder-length red hair and little else.
“I’m back,” I called out as I approached.
Mom didn’t look up from what she was doing, so I just stood there and watched as she assembled her latest shrink ray. I absently thought that it was a good thing she started from scratch each time, otherwise she could have grabbed one of her other two shrink rays from the armory and gone straight over to Mrs. Bonner’s house.
“Dinner’s ready whenever you feel like eating,” I told her, setting a cup of coffee on the corner of her work table. I knew from long experience that coffee and energy drinks were about the only thing she’d consume while she was working. “Don’t work too hard.”
Mom paused, then glanced at me and asked, “Did you say something?” But before I could answer, she was back to work, already forgetting I was there.
Once I was finished making sure that Mom was doing all right, I went back upstairs and ate my dinner. I didn’t particularly like eating alone, preferring the nights when Mom ate with me, but I was used to this.
“At least this time,” I mused to myself, “she isn’t building a killer robot.”
Mom had started at least three killer robots during her Diedricks episodes, but so far, she’d yet to complete a single one. She always worked herself to exhaustion, then after collapsing and taking a nap, she’d wake up clear headed and would then abandon the project.
“Like we need any more half-finished robots in the basement,” I said with a shake of my head. “Then again, maybe if she’d make one to vacuum the floors or clean up her lab…” And then remembering what triggered her latest episode, I added, “Or one to trim the hedges…”
In spite of eating alone, I enjoyed every bite of my dinner. The meatballs were delicious, and I especially enjoyed the panna cotta I had for dessert. It was just a little plain compared to crème brulee, which had a crunchy sugar shell, but I still ate every bite and would have happily gone back for seconds.
When I was finished eating, I cleaned up and then sat down to play a little GEO…Good and Evil Online, a popular game that my friend Kara had recently gotten me into. It was a fun game, though it would probably take a bit more time and dedication than I was willing to invest if I wanted to really get anywhere with it.
Kara had been willing to invest that time, and as such, she had a high level thief character. After talking me into trying it out, she’d started a new sorceress in order to level with me. Unfortunately, I knew that I wouldn’t be seeing her online tonight. She was still off in Boston, visiting her grandma who didn’t have internet access. I knew that because Kara had complained about the lack of internet access quite a bit before she’d gone.
I logged onto my warden, then grinned when I saw that someone had mailed me an quest offer. It was a basic quest, one to go to and kill a few critters, collect some things they’d drop, and then bring them to the person who’d offered me the question in exchange for a reward. What made me grin though wasn’t the quest itself, but the fact that it had come from Kara’s thief character.
“I guess she managed to get on after all,” I mused, though I was still disappointed to see that she wasn’t logged in right then.
With that, I paused to glance in the direction of Mom’s lab, wondering if I should check on her again and make sure she was staying out of trouble. But after a few seconds of consideration, I shrugged and turned my attention back to the game.
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Portland Oregon, July 22nd, 2007
I stood in front of the bathroom sink, splashing cold water on my face to help me wake up. Truthfully, I would have much rather just stayed in bed, but I doubted that would have done any good. For some reason, I’d had a hard time sleeping last night, and instead, I’d done a lot of tossing and turning.
When I was done washing my hands and splashing my face, I looked up into the mirror and frowned slightly. I wasn’t bad looking, and in fact, I knew I looked pretty good. I had light brown hair and the kind of face that girls seemed to like. And according to my mom, I looked a great deal like my dad, though I didn’t think of that as a compliment.
“The bastard,” I muttered with a shake of my head.
My dad wasn’t in the picture, nor had he been since before I was born. Mom always said he was a handsome devil, but I had to take her word for that since I’d never met the guy, nor did I have any intention of ever doing so. As far as I knew, he was still in prison, which was where he belonged.
Since my mom was a mutant, it would have been easy to assume my dad was as well and that he was some kind of dangerous super villain. But the truth was, my dad was just a normal run of the mill scumbag. He’d been a con-artist who’d come up with the bright idea of seducing a brilliant devisor, then stealing all her devises and selling them on the black market. That plan probably would have worked better if it wasn’t for the fact that half of my mom’s devises wouldn’t work at all for anyone besides her.
During the scam, Mom ended up getting pregnant with me, which made my dad’s betrayal and real motivations even worse once she found out. Ever since then, Mom had a hard time trusting most guys, and I couldn’t remember her ever going on a single date. But fortunately for me, she never resented me for how I came into being, and she’d always made an effort of showing that she loved me, regardless of who my dad was.
“Poor Mom,” I mused, knowing that even though she’d deny it, she was a little lonely. She’d never admit it to me, but I suspected she needed a little romance and adult companionship.
When I was done in the bathroom, I went to the kitchen for breakfast. In spite of drooling over the thought of French toast or a nice omelet, I was always too lazy to actually cook anything in the morning. So after thinking about the breakfast I wished I had, I settled down with a big bowl of Captain Crunch instead. Sure, a bowl full of sugar might not be a gourmet breakfast, but I thought it was still pretty tasty.
I continued thinking about Mom as I ate, or at least, I worried about her while I ate. Sure, she had me and her best friend Beth, but she needed more than just us. I wondered if maybe I should sign her up for one of those online dating sites.
As soon as I finished eating, I went to go check on Mom. I didn’t bother going to her bedroom, knowing that after she’d started a new project, I’d find her in her lab instead. Whenever she really got caught up in something, she tended to work until she finished it or collapsed from exhaustion. That was the reason I’d put a cot down in her lab, so she’d have a place to sleep while she was working.
“Like going to her room is such a long trip,” I muttered with a roll of my eyes. I was just thankful she’d built a bathroom down in the lab or I probably would have had to put a bucket down there too.
When I reached the basement, I found Mom curled up on the cot, snoring away like I’d expected. She’d even forgotten to take her glasses off when she’d gone to bed, which was nothing new. I smiled at the sight of her sleeping, then grabbed a blanket and gently spread it over her so she’d stay warm.
Now that I’d made sure Mom was all right, it was time to see how much of a mess she’d created this time. I rolled my eyes as I looked over her cluttered work station, thinking that sometimes she was like a little kid who couldn’t be bothered cleaning up after themselves.
In the middle of the desk, there was a large weapon that looked like a death ray, at least at first glance. I knew from experience that Mom’s death rays tended to have a somewhat different look to them. No, this was a shrink ray, or at least I assumed it was.
After looking the shrink ray over for several seconds, I went to a drawer and pulled out a baggage tag, the kind you used on your luggage before going through an airport. I quickly wrote ‘shrink ray’ on it as well as the date, then tied it to the new weapon. A minute later, I carried it to the section of the armory that was reserved for her untested weapons.
“I just wish she’d build a safety on these things,” I muttered, being very careful not to touch the trigger. I definitely didn’t want a repeat of the freeze ray incident from a couple months ago.
Once the shrink ray was safely put away, I walked around the lab, looking things over again. My eyes settled on a large machine in one corner, which reminded me a little of a Star Trek transporter. This was my favorite invention in the entire lab, the Universal Reset Devise, or the URD as we usually called it.
Mom invented the URD after I’d been turned into a girl, and it was what she’d used to change me back to normal. It was specifically designed to undo the effects of her devises, or at least to undo the ones that could change a human body. Not only had the URD turned me back into a boy, it had also changed me back to normal after that unfortunate incident last year with that age regression machine.
“At least she got that whole rejuvenation thing out of her system,” I said with a sigh.
I shuddered at the memory of having been turned into a toddler, even if it had only been for a day. Mom had gotten so caught up in being a teenager again that she’d procrastinated about changing us back to normal until then. Even now, she looked ten years younger than when she’d started, something that I knew was no accidental side-effect.
I turned my attention away from the URD and began to clean up some of the mess she’d left during this latest invention binge. The last thing I wanted was for someone to trip over some of this clutter and cause yet another accident.
When I got to the work benches, I let out a sigh of exasperation. All three of her main stations were covered with clutter and spare parts. There was a half-assembled rail gun at one of them as well as something that looked like a robot arm on another.
“And to think,” I mused, glancing to where Mom was still sleeping, “she used to get after me for not cleaning up my Legos.”
As I began cleaning up the benches, or at least neatening them up a little since I didn’t want to risk misplacing some of Mom’s parts, my eyes settled on something. It was a small piece of the rail gun, a magnetic field generator if I remembered what Mom had said when she was talking about it.
I began to absently play with the magnetic field generator as I looked over the other desks and scattered leftover parts. Suddenly, I had an idea which made me pause to look everything over again. Some of these scattered parts looked like they might actually go together, and not just the ones from a single project.
I gathered up some of these parts and began playing around with them, not really having anything in mind other than to see if they’d snap together. In a way, it was like being a kid again and playing with my Legos, just putting pieces together to see what I’d get. At first, I was just goofing off, but before I realized it, I was completely engrossed in what I was doing.
Just as I’d finished soldering the final connection and was in the process of snapping the outer casing together, I finally noticed that Mom was standing a short distance behind me, watching without saying a word. I’d been so caught up in what I was doing that I hadn’t even noticed her until that moment. I suddenly felt embarrassed to have been caught playing around in her lab and wondered just how long she’d been there.
“I’m sorry,” I apologized self-consciously, knowing that I was never supposed to play around in Mom’s lab. That was one of the lessons I’d learned the hard way when I was younger. “I was just cleaning up and…”
Mom didn’t look upset by the fact that I’d been playing around with her tools and parts, and instead, she was staring at what I’d been working on with a look of curiosity. “What did you make?” she asked me.
Now that I was finished, the thing I’d been playing around with looked like a silver metal sphere about the size of a baseball. However, there was a clear plastic button on the side that was flat with the surface, which I pushed. A moment later, the button lit up and a humming sound came from inside the sphere. Then when I let go of it, the metal sphere remained where it was, floating in the air.
“I’m not really sure,” I told Mom, watching the floating metal sphere with a faint sense of excitement. “I just put together some of your spare parts and got this.”
“Part of the magnetic field generator from my rail gun,” she mused thoughtfully as she continued staring at the sphere. “And you used the outer casing from one of my grenade launcher projectiles… When you put it all together, you get something that uses electromagnetic fields to float…”
I nodded at that, relieved that Mom wasn’t mad at me for goofing off in her lab, though I probably shouldn’t have been surprised. I was usually the one telling her to be more careful and then going and cleaning up after her while she ran to the next project. Sometimes, it almost felt like I was the adult in the house, though this was a clear reminder that I wasn’t.
“Do you realize what you’ve done?” Mom asked, staring at me with an excited look on her face.
“I made a new toy?” I asked cautiously.
“You made a DEVISE,” she exclaimed, nearly jumping with excitement.
I gave Mom a skeptical look, then pointed out, “If it’s a devise, it’s only because it’s made with your devise parts…”
Mom just laughed at that, then she shook her head and grabbed me by the shoulders. “The only thing you used that might count as a devise was from the magnetic field generator, and that was only a part of a devise. It was never designed for something like this, but you made it work. YOU made this devise.”
I stared at Mom for a moment, feeling a mixture of surprise, skepticism, and excitement run through me all at once. All I could say in response was, “Really?”
“You’re a devisor,” she blurted out proudly, then grabbed me in a surprise hug. When she let go a few seconds later, she laughed in delight and announced, “I’ve got to tell Beth…”
Mom rushed out of her lab to go tell her friend about this, leaving me there, feeling stunned and a little confused. I stared at the floating metal sphere, and in spite of what Mom said, I still had a hard time believing that I was really responsible for it. After all, Mom was the devisor in the family and I had used her parts.
After a minute of just staring at the floating sphere, I pushed the button and turned it off. It once again fell under the influence of gravity and dropped right onto the table. I was tempted to turn it on and play with it some more, but then I remembered what I’d been doing before I started playing with that thing. I looked over the mess, which had only grown worse due to my goofing around. Then with a groan, I went back to work cleaning things up, trying hard to ignore a faint voice in the back of my head which suggested another one of those leftover parts could be used to make something cool.
When I was finished cleaning up in the lab, I went back upstairs, only to realize that it was early afternoon and that I’d spent a lot longer working on that gizmo than I’d realized. That realization made me pause to reconsider my doubts about actually being a devisor. I’d gotten so caught up in what I was building that I’d completely lost track of time, just like Mom did when she was making one of her devises.
“Just great,” I said with a sigh, rubbing my temples and hoping the headache I felt coming would go away.
I’d always known there was a very good chance that I’d be a mutant, but I’d never really expected to end up as a devisor like Mom, at least not since I was a kid. From what I understood, the children of mutants didn’t usually have the same powers as their parents, but usually isn’t the same thing as always. While growing up, I’d often fantasized about being able to build things the way my mom could, but now that I was older, I had mixed feelings about being a devisor.
While growing up, I’d seen Mom build a lot of incredible machines, most of which could have come right out of some kind of science fiction movie. Because of that, I had a very healthy respect for just how powerful and versatile a devisor could be, though I also understood all the problems and complications that seemed to come with that ability as well. For one thing, Mom tended to have the whole ‘absent-minded professor’ thing going, where she could be absolutely brilliant, but got so focused on what she was making that she tended to miss everything else. Unfortunately, this tended to be a fairly common problem among devisors and gadgeteers as the nature of their powers seemed to demand an almost obsessive focus and dedication in order to make the most of them. And then of course, there was Diedricks Syndrome.
Mom had suffered from Diedricks Syndrome since she was my age, and it had caused a lot of problems for her during her life. It caused her to go into wild and insane rants, which scared most people away from her and made it impossible for her to hold any kind of normal job. It also resulted in her going into building binges, which put a lot of stress on her body and wasn’t good for her health. I worried that one day she’d push herself too far and would end up hospitalized because of it.
In spite of the problems her Diedricks caused, I knew full well that my mom was lucky it wasn’t worse. If things had been just a little different… If she’d actually been able to carry through on any of her insane threats instead of getting distracted by new inventions… I shuddered at the thought of the damage she could do, but then began to chuckle as I imagined her being a villain. It was very hard to imagine, even when she was in one of her full out rants.
Being a devisor didn’t mean that I was automatically going to get Diedricks as well, only that I had a higher risk for that particular illness. However, the fact that my mom had it probably increased my chance of having it even more, and that worried me. I REALLY hoped that I never had to deal with that particular issue.
I wanted to talk to Mom a little more about what I’d built in the lab, but as soon as she saw me, she broke into a broad grin. “I’m so happy you’re a devisor,” she exclaimed, looking only a little less excited than she’d been downstairs. “I can’t wait to see what you make next.”
“About that,” I started carefully.
However, Mom said, “I’d love to talk to you about this more, but I’m afraid I have to go to work…”
When Mom said she was going to work, it meant one of two things. It meant that she was either going to go into the basement to work on one of her inventions, or she was going to go out and do maintenance on one of the devises that she leased to other people. Since Mom was a devisor rather than a gadgeteer, no one could duplicate any of her inventions, but she’d still found a way to make money off them. She sometimes leased or even sold devises to other people, though that meant she had to go and maintain them every couple weeks or they’d stop working. Not surprisingly, she actually made some good money this way.
“Let’s see,” I mused, trying to remember what she’d fixed up last week. If I remembered right, she’d done some work on the fire neutralizing ray that she’d made for the fire department as well as some personal security devises for a couple of her wealthier clients. “Are you going to the police station?”
“That’s one of my stops,” she agreed. “The captain called and said that the force field cage I made for them is starting to go wonky, so they’re afraid it might not hold if they need to lock up any powered prisoners.”
I nodded at that, then pointed out, “You said one of your stops.”
“Well,” she added before giving me a cheerful grin, “I need to pick up some more parts and supplies if I’m going to be sharing my lab with another devisor.” Then before I could think of a good response to that, she was out the door.
“I still think you’re getting a little ahead of yourself,” I said, though it was already too late.
Then with a shrug, I looked around and tried to decide what I should do now. I thought about playing a little GEO, but I wasn’t really in the mood for that at the moment. I briefly considered going over to see if Mrs. Lawrence needed a hand with anything, but then remembered that it was Sunday and she never took jobs on Sundays. As she’d once told me, the only cooking she’d do on Sunday was for her family or her church. I wasn’t sure how she stayed in business with that rule, but she seemed to be doing fine so I’d never asked.
Since I couldn’t think of anything else I was in the mood for to entertain myself, I went back to the lab and retrieved the devise I’d made. I figured, I’d spent several hours working on it so I might as well see what it could do. And as I played around with it, tossing it from one hand to another and even across the room, I got a better idea of how it worked, or at least how well it floated. It didn’t do anything besides that, but that alone was pretty cool. It was enough to make me wonder what else I might be able to make.
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Portland Oregon, July 23rd, 2007
I was in a pretty good mood as I left Mrs. Lawrence’s house with twenty bucks in my pocket and an arm full of food. I’d spent most of the morning helping her prepare lunch for a big catering job, and as payment, she’d not only given me some of what we made, but a little spending cash as well. I just hoped that Mom liked gumbo and shrimp po’ boys, because that was what we were having for lunch.
I went to the dining room and set the food on the table, only to let out an exasperated sigh at the sight of a ray gun that had been left out there. I picked the ray gun up and rolled my eyes, wishing that Mom would be a little more responsible with her toys. It just wasn’t safe leaving things like this scattered around the house.
With a shake of my head, I wondered what would have happened if I’d had one of my friends over and they saw something like that sitting out. I could just imagine some of them thinking it was some kind of toy and playing with it, only to blow a hole through the wall…or even worse…through me. “It’s no wonder I can’t ever have any friends over.”
A minute later, I went down to the lab where I found Mom busy at work. This time, she wasn’t completely distracted because she looked up at me when I entered. Without saying a word, I just held up the ray gun and made a show of taking it to the armory, though I didn’t actually say a word. Apparently, I didn’t need to because Mom looked just a little embarrassed.
“I’ve got lunch,” I told her just before going back upstairs.
Before I could sit down and eat, my phone began ringing. I would have just ignored it, but when I glanced at the display and saw that it was Kara, I grinned and picked up.
“Hey Austin,” she greeted me in a cheerful voice. “Guess what?”
“You manifested as a mutant and now you have tentacles?” I responded with a smirk.
Kara laughed at that. “No, but I don’t think I’d mind the tentacles if the power I got was cool enough.”
“Cool powers can make up for a lot,” I agreed. Then after several seconds, I added, “But it would have to be REALLY cool to make up for tentacles.”
Kara let out a sigh, then said, “I hope that if I do turn out to be a mutant, that I get the same powers as Aunt Beth. I mean, being able to bench press a tank would be awesome…”
“Definitely,” I responded with a grin, nodding my head in agreement even though she wouldn’t be able to see it. I hesitated a moment, then admitted, “But I think I might already have manifested…. Maybe.”
Kara was silent for several seconds, then she asked, “Maybe? Don’t you know if you’ve manifested or not?”
I frowned as I considered how to answer that. “Well,” I finally answered, “Mom thinks I’ve manifested as a devisor, but I’m still not certain…”
“This I’ve got to hear,” Kara said.
I chuckled at that, then explained, “Yesterday, I was goofing around in my mom’s lab and I made something. Mom got real excited about it, but the thing is, I used parts from some of her devises. So, maybe I really did make a devise, but maybe it just worked because I used those parts.”
“Well, that’s easy to fix,” Kara told me with an exasperated voice. “Just go build another devise. If it works, you’re a devisor. If it doesn’t, then the last time was a fluke.”
“I already thought of that,” I told her with a sigh, glancing towards Mom’s lab. She still hadn’t come up, so I explained, “If it turns out I’m not really a devisor… Well, my mom was really excited and…”
“And you don’t want to disappoint her,” Kara finished for me. “Yeah, I can understand that. But the way I figure it, the sooner you know for sure the better.”
“You’ve got a point,” I agreed. Then I remembered the way this conversation had started and said, “But I believe you have something to share too…other than not having tentacles.”
Kara laughed at that, then told me, “I’m in Chicago right now and I’ll be getting on my connecting flight in just a bit. I’ll be back in Portland tonight.”
I grinned, looking forward to seeing Kara again. The last couple weeks had been boring without her, especially since she was the only friend I had who I could be honest with. I’d never had many friends, and Kara was the only one who’d ever actually been to my house. She knew all about my mom being a mutant, which was no surprise since her Aunt Beth was my mom’s best friend. In fact, Beth was the one who’d introduced me and Kara back when we’d both been kids.
“So, Boston is getting a little too boring for you?” I teased, knowing quite well that she’d been bored out of her mind there. Her grandma was apparently a fairly strict woman, but even worse than that from Kara’s point of view, she wasn’t big on technology. According to Kara, her grandma didn’t have either cable TV or internet access.
“You have no idea,” Kara said with a clear note of exasperation. “I swear, my dad sends me there every summer just so I’ll appreciate him more.”
Though I couldn’t see Kara through the phone, I could clearly picture the look on her face as she rolled her eyes. The two of us had known each other a long time, so I’d seen the expression often enough to have it imprinted on my mind.
“Anyway,” Kara continued. “I was thinking we could go see a movie tomorrow. I’ve been wanting to check out that new Transformers one.”
“Maybe,” I responded half-heartedly, my reluctance having more to do with the movie than the company.
Science fiction had never really been my thing, probably because there wasn’t enough fiction in it. It was hard to get excited about robots or ray guns when I could see that kind of stuff anytime I wanted. After all, there were about a dozen death rays of one sort or another downstairs, and that wasn’t even including the shrink rays, anti-gravity gun, or the freeze ray. And as for robots, Mom had played around with those as well. She even had one that would have changed back and forth between a robot and some kind of flying drone form, though she’d never bothered to actually finish it.
“How about Harry Potter?” I suggested. I’d never seen real magic before, so that kind of thing still interested me. “The new one just came out.”
Kara was more of a well-rounded geek than I was, enjoying science fiction and fantasy both, so she quickly agreed, “Sure. That’s another one I’ve wanted to see. I just suggested Transformers because it’s been in the theater longer.”
We continued talking for another minute, until our conversation was interrupted by the sound of the doorbell ringing. I glanced out the window and then grinned. “Gotta go,” I told Kara. “Your aunt is at the door.”
“Tell her hi for me,” Kara said before hanging up.
I hurried to answer the door, then momentarily stared up at the statuesque woman who stood on the other side. No matter how many times I saw Beth, she never failed to look impressive. She was six-foot-four, with the kind of sexy and athletic build that you might expect out of a comic book amazon. And on top of that, she was wearing a pair of stiletto heels that added even more height to her already imposing size.
“Hey Austin,” Beth greeted me with a grin before giving me a hug that would have made any of my male friends jealous. However, I was used to her hugs and had grown up thinking of her as my aunt. “Is Liz in?”
“She’s still in her lab,” I answered with a grin. “I called Mom up for lunch about fifteen minutes ago, but…” I paused at that and shrugged.
Beth just chuckled at that, not at all surprised since she knew Mom so well. The two of them had been best friends for a long time, ever since they’d been roommates in high school. In fact, Mom had even moved to Oregon after that whole thing with my dad, just so she could be closer to Beth.
“We’ve got some lunch ready,” I told her cheerfully, pretty sure we had enough gumbo, or at least hoping we did. Beth was an exemplar, but there were times when she ate almost like she was an energizer.
Once I went back and lured Mom out of her lab, the three of us sat in the dining room to eat lunch. Fortunately, Mrs. Lawrence had been pretty generous with the food today because Beth really liked the gumbo.
“And you helped make this?” Beth asked me, looking impressed.
I grinned at that, feeling rather proud of myself, even if Mrs. Lawrence had actually done most of the work. “I made the corn bread and put the po’ boys together.” I’d also helped in smaller ways with some of the other dishes she’d made, like making the remoulade sauce for the po’ boys and slicing bananas for the banana foster pie. I just wished that she’d had enough of that to spare some for us, though at least she’d given me the recipe.
“Next Saturday,” I stated proudly, “she’s going to be catering for a wedding and she asked me to come along and help.”
“That’s great,” Mom agreed, giving me a smile. “Any idea what leftovers I can expect?”
I laughed, having wondered the same thing when I first heard about this. “I don’t know, but Mrs. Lawrence said it will be a French menu, so I’m really looking forward to it.”
After we finished talking about the food, Mom gave Beth a curious look and said, “I heard you had a bit of excitement last night.”
“That’s one way of putting it,” Beth responded with a chuckle.
“Why?” I asked curiously. “What happened?”
Beth chuckled again, then gave me a smug look. “A couple of low level villains decided that since there isn’t a large super hero presence in the area, that they should move on in. Bad idea.”
I nodded at that, knowing that as one of the few super heroes in the area, Beth must have taken great delight in showing these villains that they were greatly mistaken if they thought Portland easy pickings. Unlike New York or Chicago, Portland didn’t have very many heroes or villains, and it was relatively quiet and peaceful as far as super powered activity went. Occasionally, some villain came into the area, thinking that they’d be able to operate without any real opposition, but Beth and the others always proved them wrong.
“Admittedly, they were fairly strong,” Beth told us cheerfully. “For a few minutes, I almost thought I’d have to call one of the teams in Seattle for backup…just in case. But, I managed to take them down…even if that flyer was a real pain in the butt.”
Mom and I both nodded in understanding, knowing that Beth always had a problem with flyers or anyone else who could keep out of her reach. Beth was an exemplar 3, which was what gave her that impressive body and made her even stronger than she looked. However, her exemplar strength was pretty low level as far as enhanced strength went. Her real power was that she was a PK brick. She could create psychokinetic shell around herself which made her extremely strong and tough. And when her shell was active, it altered her appearance and made her look like she was made of white marble. Because of her build and that living statue look, she used the quite accurate code name of Statuesque.
Mom had briefly tried being a super hero, just so she could be Beth’s partner, though it hadn’t worked out. Mom hadn’t liked being in that kind of danger, nor had she dealt well with the stress it caused. After going into a Diedricks rant in the middle of trying to stop a bank robber, she’d hung up her tights for good. Now, the closest Mom got to the super hero game was getting stories from Beth and occasionally making weapons for the local heroes.
“Too bad you couldn’t use one of Mom’s shrink rays,” I joked. “Imagine being able to shrink the bad guys and store them in a shoe box.”
“That would be fun,” Beth agreed with a chuckle.
A lot of my mom’s weapons would have been pretty effective against the bad guys, and she probably could have made a fortune just selling them to the local police. However, there was one small problem with that. Most of my mom’s most impressive devises only worked in her immediate presence, while the ones that did work for other people stopped doing so after just a couple weeks at most. My dad hadn’t realized that when he’d stolen the weapons from her armory, and he’d learned this the hard way when they didn’t work for people he sold them to.
“Speaking of devises,” Mom started with a grin. “I told you about the one Austin made…”
“You mentioned it on the phone,” Beth responded wryly. “About a dozen times.”
“Well, go get it,” Mom urged me.
With a shrug, I got up and then went to grab the metal sphere from where I’d left it in my room. I brought it back and activated it, then pulled my hand away and watched as it just floated above the kitchen table. It wasn’t very impressive compared to anything my mom made, and though I was the one who put it together, I still wasn’t certain that I was the one who actually made it work.
“Very nice,” Beth told me, though I could tell she was saying that to be polite rather than because she was impressed.
“Now, I want to see what else you can make,” Mom told me enthusiastically.
“I’m still not convinced that I’m a devisor,” I admitted. “I mean, I used your parts…”
Mom rolled her eyes and said, “We’ve already been over this…”
“Why don’t you try to make something else?” Beth asked me with an amused expression. “If you make another devise, you’ll know for sure.”
“Kara said the same thing,” I responded with a sigh, knowing that they were right.
After a little more urging from Mom, I went down to her lab while she and Beth followed me. I wasn’t sure what they were expecting since even if I was a devisor, I wouldn’t be able to just snap my fingers and make something. That sphere had taken me a couple hours, and that was while using some parts Mom had already made. If they were going to watch me until I actually built something, they’d probably be waiting for quite awhile.
I looked over the work desks and the various bins of parts, trying to see if anything jumped out at me. Yesterday, while I’d been cleaning up after making the sphere, a few ideas had been coming to me, but now I didn’t have anything. Mom just stood there with an expectant look on her face and I felt myself growing frustrated.
“This isn’t working,” I finally blurted out, glaring at a shelf full of parts in annoyance.
Suddenly, half the parts on the shelf flew off and onto the floor, even though I’d never touched them. I blinked in surprise, and when I stared at the newly created mess, my first though was that it was going to be a pain to clean up. My second though was the realization that I had somehow caused it.
“I don’t think that’s a devisor ability,” I joked weakly, turning to look at Mom who was staring at me in surprise.
“Maybe some form of psychokinesis,” Beth commented thoughtfully. “But there are a lot of abilities that can cause something like that…”
Mom nodded agreement, suggesting, “Concussion or force projecting, magic, an avatar spirit…”
“There’s only one way to know for sure,” Beth said, giving me a reassuring smile. “We’re just going to have to do a little testing…”
“But,” I started to protest, not sure that I liked that particular smile.
“You can’t deny that you were responsible that time,” Mom told me with a sigh. “So whatever your powers are, it’s pretty obvious that you have manifested.”
“I don’t know,” I responded with a faint smirk. “It wouldn’t be the first time one of your devises has unexpected side effects.” Mom snorted at that, which made Beth and I laugh in response. I noticed that Mom didn’t argue on that point.
Then I looked over the mess again and frowned, knowing that they were both right. When all the parts went flying, I’d actually felt an odd pressure in my head, so there was no doubt that I’d done it. And of course, I was going to have to test my new abilities to figure out exactly what they were and how they worked. However, what annoyed me about it all was the certainty that Beth’s idea of testing would result in an even larger mess, which I’d be stuck cleaning up.
Mom and Beth launched into a conversation with each other where they discussed how to test my new abilities, while I was left feeling like they’d almost forgotten I was even there. I listened carefully, thinking that some of their suggestions made sense, though some of them also sounded insane.
“No, you’re not going to cut me to see if I heal,” I insisted, and a minute later, I had to add, “And no, I’m not going to jump off the roof just to see if I can fly. Are you crazy?”
Mom set a few random items on one of the otherwise cleaned work benches, cheerfully announcing, “This reminds me of my own power testing…”
“Those were the days,” Beth responded with a chuckle. “There was that ridiculous growth spurt that made me constantly outgrow all my clothes, being self-conscious about my changing body, and of course, having my PK shell turn on unexpectedly and accidentally breaking almost everything I touched because of it.” She rolled her eyes. “You couldn’t pay me enough to go back.”
“And then there were your mood swings,” Mom added with a smirk.
Beth rolled her eyes and responded, “You try dealing with exemplar level hormones. Trust me, they put normal hormones to shame.”
Mom nodded at then, then pointed out, “And back then, you always had Steel Wing chasing after you. I was so jealous because he never even noticed me.”
“Let me tell you,” Beth told her in an almost conspiratorial tone. “He might have been called Steel Wing, but other parts were more like a wet noodle.”
I rolled my eyes at that, deciding that I didn’t need to hear that kind of talk, at least not from them. “About this testing…”
“Of course,” Beth responded, looking down at me with an amused look. It was always annoying when she did that, especially when she was wearing high heels. She always towered over me and made me feel like I was still a little kid.
“I want you to do the same thing you did a minute ago,” Mom told me as she gestured to the parts she’d set up. “Try to move these parts again.” She paused for a moment, looking over her work station and adding, “And try not to break anything.”
I gave her a wry look, knowing that if she really didn’t want me to break anything, we should have been doing this somewhere else. However, it was obvious that both Mom and Beth were eager and impatient to find out more about my new power, so that hadn’t even entered their minds.
“Just don’t expect me to clean up the mess,” I warned them, though I knew I’d probably be stuck with it anyway. Mom was so bad at cleaning up after herself that if it wasn’t for me, she’d probably end up being a hoarder.
I focused on the things Mom had set out, thinking about how frustrated I’d felt when I’d send them flying previously. I gave a mental push, and I the parts were sent flying backwards. After repeating this several times, Mom and Beth had me to try to pull them towards me instead, and I was able to do this just as easily. Almost in spite of myself, I was actually started to get excited. I had a power…a real power.
“This is definitely looking like some kind of psychokinetic ability,” Beth told me. “Now, try imagining an invisible hand picking something up.”
“Telekinesis,” I said in understanding while Beth nodded.
I did as Beth suggested, focusing on a single spare part and trying to lift it up into the air. It took me half a minute to figure it out, but when I did, the part lifted up into the air. I kept concentrating and moved it over to the other side of the table before letting go. It dropped back to the table, earning me a faint glare from Mom, who was probably afraid I’d broken the part. However, if it hadn’t already been ruined after falling off the shelf, that much smaller drop wasn’t likely to do much.
“So,” I commented, trying to act as though it was no big deal. “I guess I’m a telekinetic.”
“Which brings up the question of your devise,” Beth said, looking almost apologetic. “It’s possible that the only reason it floats is that you think it should float…”
“What do you mean?” I ask, though the answer came to me a moment later.
“You might be subconsciously using your powers to move it,” Beth explained.
I nodded in understanding while Mom just looked disappointed. “Well,” Mom said after a moment, giving me a weak smile. “We don’t know that’s what happened. You still might be a devisor.”
“Maybe,” I responded, though I wasn’t sure I believed it.
Of course, when I had been making that thing yesterday, I’d gotten completely caught up in it, just like Mom did when she built her devises. And the fact was, whenever I’d turned it on, I hadn’t noticed that feeling of pressure in my head that I felt when using my new telekinesis. After thinking about this for several minutes, I grew increasingly skeptical of Beth’s explanation. I couldn’t believe that I was subconsciously using a telekinetic power that I hadn’t even known I had, at least not for that.
While I was lost in thought, Mom and Beth were busy talking about a bunch of other power testing again, but I’d had enough of it for the moment. While they were distracted, I took the opportunity to sneak out of the lab, before they could get back to the idea of testing whether or not I could fly or heal from injuries.
A few minutes later, I was in the kitchen, cleaning up from lunch and doing dishes. However, my thoughts kept going back to this new power I had, and I grinned at the thought. I was a mutant and I had powers. I’d always known there was a good chance I’d end up as a mutant, especially since the genes involved were supposed to be passed down through the mother, and the truth was, I’d always worried about it a bit. The idea of being a mutant was scary, not just because I’d be different than most other people, but because it often came with problems like burnout, GSD, and Diedricks Syndrome, none of which I wanted to deal with. But now, I KNEW I was a mutant, which meant no more having to wait and see. And of course, I even had a cool power.
“Just wait until Kara finds out,” I thought aloud, knowing that she’d be jealous.
Kara had told me on numerous occasions that she wanted powers so she could become a hero like her aunt, but I knew the odds of being a mutant weren’t in her favor. Sure, her aunt was a mutant so it did run in her family, but both of her parents were normal baselines. And even if both of her parents had been mutants, there still wouldn’t have been any guarantee.
“I just hope she’s not too jealous,” I mused, suddenly worried about that.
I was so distracted by these thoughts that I wasn’t paying enough attention and dropped a glass, which hit the edge of the sink and shattered. A shard of glass hit the side of my hand and I let out a yelp as it cut me.
“Just great,” I complained, grabbing a paper towel to soak up the blood until I could get a band-aid on it. Fortunately, the cut didn’t look too bad.
Just then, I could somehow feel Mom and Beth coming up from the lab. I turned around and watched them come into the kitchen to check on me, a little surprised by the fact that I’d known they were there. Was this just a good guess or a part of my new powers? I was definitely going to need some real power testing, not just the stuff Mom and Beth were throwing together on their own.
“What happened?” Mom gasped when she saw me holding the paper towel to my hand.
“I cut myself,” I answered with a shrug. Then I joked, “I guess this proves I’m not invulnerable and don’t have regeneration.”
“Both good powers to have,” Beth responded with a faint smile.
With that, Beth shimmered slightly and her entire body instantly turned into white marble, though her clothes remained unchanged. I knew that when she was on duty, her professional hero costume was made of a tight spandex type of material, which was close enough to her skin that it would get covered in her PK shell and appear to be made of marble as well. Without saying a word, Beth began picking up the pieces of glass with her bare hands, not worried in the least about getting cut.
“Thanks,” I told her before heading to the bathroom take care of my cut.
--------------------
Portland Oregon, July 24, 2007
I awoke to the most annoying sound in the world blaring from my alarm clock. I used to have a tendency to sleep in a little too late, so I found something that was guaranteed to get me up without hitting the snooze alarm once. When my alarm went off, it played a song from Brass Monkey, an absolutely horrible band that Kara couldn’t get enough of for some reason. As soon as I heard that, I jumped out of bed and hurried to the other side of the room so I could turn off the noise.
“Beth must have turned the sound up,” I complained, remembering the last time she’d done that to me just because she knew how much I hated that particular alarm. But when checked the volume, it was at the normal level. I was a little confused at that because the music…if it could be called that…was a lot louder than normal. Then to confuse me further, I caught the scent of bacon, just as clear as if I was standing in the kitchen. “At least I wake up to something that smells good.”
I threw on a T-shirt and some shorts, then went to the bathroom to do my business. While I was doing that, I took the band-aid off my hand, figuring I probably didn’t need it anymore. But once I removed the band-aid, I was startled to realize that there was no sign of my cut. I hesitantly ran a finger over that spot, only to confirm what my eyes already told me.
“I healed,” I said, thinking back to the new powers I’d discovered yesterday. I hadn’t healed immediately, and had seen no signs of healing faster than normal at the time I’d gone to bed. But now, my cut was completely gone, as though it had never even been there. “I definitely need to see about power testing.”
When I was done, I washed my hands and then splashed cold water on my face. That obnoxious noise had already woken me up, but a little cold water could only help. However, as I looked up into the mirror above the sink, I noticed something else odd. However, I’d already had enough surprises this morning, so instead of gasping in disbelief as I might have done otherwise, I just calmly stared at my reflection instead.
My eyes had changed. I’d heard that changes in eye and hair color were some of the most common visible signs of going through a mutation, but I’d never seen it myself. Mom’s mutation hadn’t changed her body in any visible way, while Beth’s had changed pretty much everything except her eye and hair color. My eyes had been green, about the only visible thing I’d inherited from Mom, but now, they were purple.
After staring at my eyes for about half a minute, I turned away and went to the kitchen for breakfast. Mom was there, with a plate full of bacon in front of her and a bowl full of pancake mix. I smiled at the sight since Mom always made pretty decent pancakes. Not as good as what I could make, but I wasn’t about to tell her that.
“Good morning,” I said, helping myself to a slice of bacon.
I sat down at the table, not saying a word about my new eye color. I wanted to see how long it would take her to notice on her own, though I doubted she would. Though I loved my mom, she tended to be pretty oblivious to anything that didn’t involve one of her devises.
Once the pancakes and eggs were ready, Mom and I ate breakfast and talked about my new powers as well as how I’d have to get them tested. We’d already talked about this yesterday, though she did bring up one new subject…school.
“Now that you’ve manifested,” Mom told me as she ate, “I don’t think you should go back to your old school in the fall.”
I merely nodded, having expected this topic to come up sooner or late. “Whateley,” I stated, remembering the numerous times Mom and Beth had talked about this private school for mutants where they’d first met. Because of that, I’d always assumed that if I did manifest, I’d end up going there as well.
“Are you psychic?” Mom teased me, before chuckling. “Oh, that’s right…you are.”
I rolled my eyes at that, then said, “Speaking of which…”
I concentrated on the plate of bacon that was sitting on the other side of Mom and tried to use my powers to bring it to me. I’d practiced a few times last night and was able to move small objects pretty easily, but this time was different. The plate didn’t move at all. I couldn’t even feel that pressure in my head that I felt every time I’d used my telekinesis.
“It’s not working,” I said, feeling a little worried.
“That’s why you need to practice,” Mom pointed out.
I continued trying to move the plate and even my fork, but there was still nothing. Whatever power I had yesterday seemed to have vanished without a trace. It suddenly struck me as quite annoying that I appeared to have lost my telekinesis but gained purple eyes instead. That was hardly a fair exchange.
My telekinesis wasn’t working anymore, but I did notice a few other oddities which caught my attention. At any other time, I probably would have overlooked these as being my imagination, but not when I’d just manifested mutant abilities and didn’t understand what they were.
When I’d woken up, my alarm had sounded a lot louder than it should, and Mom was talking in a somewhat higher volume without seeming to realize it. I’d smelled the cooking bacon all the way from my bedroom, and while sitting in the kitchen, I’d smelled the eggs and pancakes much more than I should have been able to, not to mention the fact that I could even smell my mom. And then there was my sense of taste, which like my hearing and sense of smell, seemed to be stronger. Every bite of food just seemed much more potent and I was getting flavors that I normally would have missed. I had little doubt that my senses had become sharper.
Then there was the fact that my entire body felt a little off for some reason. There wasn’t any one thing that I could point to as wrong, but overall, I just felt that something was different. As I thought about it, I realized that I felt a bit more energized and alive. That was the only way I could think to describe it.
“I need to get some real power testing,” I told Mom as I ate. “And I guess I’ll need an MID too…”
I frowned as I thought about getting an MID…a Mutant Identification card. What it meant was that I’d end up in some MCO database that kept track of my powers and what they’d need to watch out for if they ever decided I was a threat. As far as I was concerned, it was a massive invasion of privacy, but I could understand the reasoning for MIDs as well. Whether you liked the idea of MIDs or not, they were a fact of life for all mutants, whether they were heroes, villains, or fell somewhere in-between.
“You’ll need a codename,” Mom said thoughtfully, which I thought was pretty ironic, coming from her.
Every mutant had an official codename that was recorded on their MID, one that was supposedly used to protect their privacy. However, I had absolutely no idea what my mom’s was. I’d asked her countless times, but she always refused to tell me. I’d tried sneaking a look at her MID, but she hid it and I hadn’t been able to find where. And finally, I’d even asked Beth, who only burst out laughing and then told me that Mom would kill her if she said anything.
“Have you thought about a codename?” Mom asked me.
“Not yet,” I lied.
The truth was, I’d been thinking about possible codenames ever since I was a kid and first learned I might one day get powers. However, as I’d eventually come to realize, it was completely pointless to try deciding on a codename until I understood what kind of power I had.
“We should probably take care of the testing as soon as possible,” Mom said with a thoughtful look. “I think the closest decent facility is in Olympia, so I’ll give them a call and see if I can make an appointment.”
I nodded at that, then pointed out, “I had some plans for today, but now I’m not sure if they’re a good idea…” At Mom’s curious look, I explained, “Mrs. Lawrence is making desserts and I wanted to get over there early enough to help.” Of course, Mrs. Lawrence had told me that she could manage that fine on her own, but helping her out was not only a good way to learn how she did it, it was also a great way to get samples. “And then Kara was coming over so we could go see Harry Potter.”
“You’re probably right,” she agreed with a faint shake of her head. “Until you have a better grasp on your powers, you’ll need to be pretty careful. And as much as I like Mrs. Lawrence and the food she sends home with you, I’m not sure how she’ll react to your eyes.”
I was a little startled at Mom’s comment about my eyes since I hadn’t thought she’d notice them. It was just a reminder that as scatterbrained as Mom often was, she could also be pretty observant at times.
“At least Kara can come over here and visit,” Mom assured me with an amused smile. “It’s been awhile since you’ve seen her…”
“A couple weeks,” I agreed, thinking that they’d been a couple of boring weeks at that.
“Which reminds me,” Mom continued, grinning even more. “When are you going to ask her out?”
“I’m not,” I responded after several awkward seconds of silence. Kara and I had been best friends for a long time and neither of us wanted to mess that up by dating each other. And of course, there was the small matter of my not being her type, something she’d made clear to me about a year ago when I’d considered asking her out. “We’re just friends.”
Mom gave me a skeptical look but seemed willing to change the subject. We went back to talking about my powers, and about the fact that we still weren’t even certain what they were.
“At first, it looked like I might be a devisor,” I said thoughtfully. “Then we proved I was a telekinetic, which was pretty cool. But now, that doesn’t work at all but my senses seem to be a LOT better.” I paused for a moment as I remembered one other thing, then held up my hand to show the lack of an injury. “And my cut healed.”
“It is…confusing,” Mom agreed with a thoughtful look. I saw her eyes sort of glaze over with a familiar expression and she mused, “Perhaps a power testing devise that scans your biological processes and bioelectric aura to determine the nature of your powers…”
I rolled my eyes at that and took another piece of bacon, knowing that I’d have to stop Mom soon or she’d rush down to the lab in order to build this devise. Though it sounded pretty cool, I suspected it would take her weeks to make something like that, and that would be a little too late for me. Instead, I needed to get her focused on something of a little more immediate use.
“Maybe more of the power testing we did yesterday,” I suggested, hoping I wasn’t making a mistake. “It won’t be the professional kind of testing, but at least it might help me narrow things down a bit more.” Then before Mom could get overly excited, I quickly added, “And I’m not jumping off the roof to see if I can fly.”
Once I had Mom’s attention redirected in a somewhat more productive direction, we went back to her lab while she set up some more materials for testing, muttering the entire time about her own power testing from about twenty years earlier. I was pretty sure that testing methods had changed since then, but I wasn’t about to complain. After all, I didn’t need the latest technology to get a general idea of what my powers could do.
“We’re going to start off with something I know the most about,” she said, gesturing to the work stations where she’d set up a bunch of random parts and a few completed machines.
I immediately saw what Mom was trying to do with this test, and I didn’t blame her. She wanted to check for devisor and gadgeteer abilities, in a way that was a little more controlled than just telling me to build something else. I went to the first table and stared at a small machine that was sitting on it, which was some kind of testing tool. She wanted me to figure out how to use it or disassemble it, so I fiddled around with it for a few minutes but didn’t get any bursts of insight or understanding. Then I moved to some random parts to try figuring out something to do with them, but I didn’t have a clue. The same thing happened with a second and third pile of random parts.
“Wait a minute,” I blurted out after looking over the third pile of parts.
“You’ve got something?” Mom asked with a note of excitement.
I turned and gave her a flat look, then gestured at the parts. “These are the same parts I used to make that thing…” I pointed to the sphere I’d built, which Mom currently had floating right in front of her. She just smirked, proving that she’d done it intentionally. She’d provided the same parts just to see if I could build another one. However, when I looked them over, I didn’t feel any inspiration. I could sort of remember how I’d put most of them together, but something was clearly missing, and I didn’t mean in the parts.
In spite of the fact that I’d built a devise the other day, these tests didn’t reveal any devisor or gadgeteer abilities. This definitely seemed to confirm my doubts about being the one to make the devise actually work, and I couldn’t help but feeling disappointed at that. In spite of having a higher risk for Diedricks, I’d always thought devisors had awesome abilities. After all, I’d seen Mom build things that most people could only imagine. And though Mom was trying to hide it, I could see her disappointment as well.
After this, Mom and I went to her test chamber, a section of her lab that was separated from the rest. Physically, the test chamber was beneath the back yard, taking up about half the space while the armory took up the other half. The room itself was about fifteen yards wide and twenty yards deep, with the walls, ceiling, and floors all being covered with white ceramic plates that somehow channeled a force field effect to make them mostly indestructible. This was where Mom tested most of her inventions…when she was in her right mind. When she wasn’t, she’d been known to test them in the living room.
As I looked over the test chamber, I thought that we probably should have tested my powers here yesterday. It would have made a lot more sense than testing unknown powers in a lab full of sensitive equipment, and apparently Mom thought the same thing since we were here now.
We started off doing the same exercises as yesterday, with me trying to push, pull, and generally move small objects without actually touching them. Yesterday, it had been pretty easy, but now I couldn’t do it at all. There wasn’t even the slightest indication that I actually had the power to do something like that anymore.
“I could do this just fine yesterday,” I said with growing frustration.
“It’s okay,” Mom told me with a reassuring smile. “Just take a deep breath and relax. We’ll figure this out.”
I just stared at Mom, fully aware of the irony of her telling me to relax. I almost wished that she’d go off on one of her ‘world domination’ rants so I could go back to being the calm and reasonable one. As it was, my world was in serious jeopardy of no longer making sense.
The next stage of testing seemed to consist of me doing a lot of stuff that Mom seemed to be coming up with off the top of her head. I tried shooting energy blasts, willing things to catch on fire, willing myself to teleport across the room, and even jumping in the air and trying to fly…which was much better than jumping off the roof. None of it did any good. By the time we were done, I half expected Mom to ask me to do the chicken dance since that would have made about as much sense as some of the other things she had me do.
Once we gave up on these tests, Mom gave me a curious look and said, “You said that your senses are sharper and that your cut healed from yesterday…” She gave me an apologetic look and said, “I’m not sure how to test your senses, but…”
“I am NOT going to let you cut me just to see if I’ll heal,” I protested, shuddering at the idea.
I wasn’t sure how, but ten minutes later, Mom had talked me into letting her give me a small cut on my finger, though the promise of gelato may have had something to do with it. After everything else that had been going on, I wasn’t even surprised to see the cut heal right before my eyes, even though it hadn’t done that yesterday.
“Okay,” Mom said, looking a little confused. “You have regeneration.”
“Nice,” I responded. Most of the time, regeneration wasn’t considered a very flashy power, but it was definitely a practical one. Being able to quickly heal from any injury was a power I could appreciate. “But I didn’t have it yesterday.”
Mom nodded at that, giving me a curious look. The way my powers seemed to keep changing was confusing her just as much as it was me. It would be nice to know for sure just what my powers were, but that was what this testing was for.
Fifteen minutes later, I discovered another oddity, that I was stronger than normal. We’d tested my strength by having me pick up various objects around the lab and moving to heavier and heavier ones. After I picked up a crate containing parts, which weighed about four hundred pounds, I decided to stop. I was obviously stronger than normal, but I also had to strain a bit with the crate, which indicated I was getting near my limit.
“You don’t seem to be using any PK,” Mom told me afterwards, “which means this looks like legitimate strength. Between that and your senses, that suggests you might be an exemplar.”
I merely nodded at that, having guessed that much myself. Any exemplar above a level one was stronger than a normal person, and they tended to have other enhanced physical or mental abilities as well, which could include sharper senses. Just from the amount of weight I’d lifted, I guessed that if I really was an exemplar, it would probably be about a level three.
“If you’re an exemplar,” Mom continued with a smile, “you’ll want to talk to Beth about it. She can give you a better idea of what to expect.”
“What next?” I asked, wondering what else we could test.
“I can’t think of anything else we can test here,” Mom admitted. “Not without specialized equipment.”
“I wonder,” I mused aloud, thinking about my powers and how they seemed to keep changing. “By the time I actually get tested for my MID, will I still be an exemplar or will it be something else?”
“Who knows,” Mom responded with a shrug. “When I first manifested, I spent a month thinking I was a gadgeteer.”
“That’s an easy mistake to make,” I responded with a chuckle.
At first glance, devisors and gadgeteers appeared to be the same thing since both power sets were all about making things. However, the way those powers worked were completely different. Gadgeteers had a psychic ability that let them instinctively understand technology while devisors actually bent the laws of physics to make their inventions work.
Since we were done with the testing, I went back upstairs, still not satisfied with what I’d learned. Sure, I knew what powers I had at the moment, but that wouldn’t do any good if they changed again.
“I wonder if I might be an avatar,” I mused.
Avatars hosted spirits that could give them different powers, so they could be kind of unpredictable. I hadn’t heard any voices in my head or seen anything that suggested I might be hosting a spirit, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t. That just meant I really needed better power testing.
Mom and I had killed the entire morning and it was getting time for lunch. Because of that, I went to the kitchen and began making something to eat, thinking that this would also be a good way to take my mind off this whole situation.
Lunch consisted of a chevre, prosciutto, and apple panini, which was absolutely delicious. Mom took several bites, then just stared at me and shook her head.
“Where in the world did you learn to cook like this?” she asked me. “You sure didn’t learn from me.”
“The Food Network,” I responded with a broad grin.
We were still eating when the doorbell began ringing. I got up to answer it, only to find Kara standing there.
“About time,” she teased me as she rushed into the house. “Do you know how long I was waiting out there?”
“Ten seconds?” I responded.
I just stared at Kara, glad to see her again. She was a very pretty girl, though she nearly always played it down, dressing in a combination of tomboy and geek fashion, with her brunette hair usually pulled back in a ponytail. At the moment, she was wearing a t-shirt with the GEO logo on the front.
“Hey, Austin,” Kara said, giving me a quick hug and a smile.
“How was your trip back?” I asked her, walking back to the kitchen so I could finish eating.
Kara looked at my half-eaten lunch, then plopped herself down at the kitchen table and helped herself to one of the cookies that I’d set out for dessert. She took several bites before seeming to remember that I’d been talking to her.
“It was all right,” she finally responded. “But I sat next to this fat guy for the flight to Chicago and he kept giving me these weird looks.” She shuddered and added, “You know, the ones that say I’m a creepy old man and I’m checking you out.”
“And how was Boston?” Mom asked her politely.
“Boring,” Kara answered with a note of exasperation. However, she quickly grinned and added, “Well, I did get to see Lamplighter flying overhead, but that was about it. I mean, I heard Boston had several really big super hero fights last year, but if anything happened while I was there, I completely missed it.”
“That’s a good thing,” I pointed out, thinking about how easy it would be to get hurt just by being near one of those fights. When people are shooting laser beams from their eyes or throwing cars around, it wasn’t safe to be anywhere nearby.
Kara gave me a skeptical look, then asked, “So, how’ve you been doing on that quest I sent you?”
It took me a moment to realize she was talking about GEO. “I haven’t had much time to play over the last couple days,” I pointed out with a faint smile. “I’ve been a little…distracted.”
Kara nodded and mused, “We’ll have to set an event to get our lowbie toons leveled a little… Maybe we can set something up during the next AA meeting…”
“AA meeting?” Mom asked, giving Kara a curious look.
“Altaholics Anonymous,” Kara answered proudly. “It’s my guild in GEO.”
“I’ve about that game,” Mom said with a thoughtful look. “Rumor has it the game server may be a devise…”
“Well, it is pretty awesome,” Kara exclaimed, her eyes gleaming with excitement.
Kara looked like she was about to launch into a detailed explanation of how the game worked, which I knew would be pretty boring for anyone who wasn’t into online games. Because of that, I decided to take pity on Mom and cut Kara off with the statement, “You don’t want to know.”
Kara gave me a look that indicated that I’d just ruined her fun. “That reminds me,” she said, giving me a curious look. “You said something on the phone about being a mutant…”
“Yeah,” I responded with a sigh, gesturing to my eyes, which were the only visible indication of my mutation. They were subtle enough that it would be pretty easy to miss the odd color.
“What’s your power?” she blurted out eagerly.
“That’s the question,” Mom muttered. Then she paused with a distant look on her face and continued, “A power testing devise could answer it a little better too…”
As Mom got up and wandered towards her lab entrance with a distracted look, Kara encouraged me. “Well?”
“Well,” I answered, trying to decide how to explain. “Today, I seem to be an exemplar and a regenerator…with enhanced senses.”
“Nice,” Kara responded, only to pause and give me a curious look. “Today?”
“Yesterday I had psychic powers,” I explained with a sigh. “I had telekinesis and I think I might have had some kind of esper thing too because I could sort of tell when Mom or Beth were nearby without having to look. But when I woke up this morning, it was all gone.”
“Well, that sucks,” Kara told me with a frown. “But being an exemplar isn’t bad. I mean, you might end up turning into a real stud…if you’re lucky.”
“Maybe,” I agreed, feeling a little happier at that reminder.
Not only did exemplars have the enhanced physical abilities, most of them also had enhanced looks too. Female exemplars could end up looking like super models, or like Beth, while guys could end up with the stereotypical musclebound super hero physique. Of course, it could also result in you looking like some kind of freak, but lots of mutants had that problem without being exemplars.
“I’m still not even sure I’m an exemplar,” I told her with a shrug. “That just fits with my being stronger and having better senses.” Then I frowned and added, “And as if this wasn’t already confusing enough, the other day I seemed to be a devisor too.”
Kara stared me for a moment with a thoughtful look on her face. Then her eyes widened in excitement and she blurted out, “Maybe you’re a power mimic.”
I nodded at that since it did make sense. Power mimics usually copied other people’s powers, which could have explained why my abilities appeared to keep changing.
“Maybe you copied your Mom’s devisor power,” Kara suggested with a grin. “And maybe you copied Aunt Beth’s exemplar power…”
“Except I didn’t seem to have these exemplar type powers until today,” I thought aloud, “And I don’t think she even has the enhanced senses thing.” I shrugged at that and added, “And I have no idea where I could have picked up the psychic power from…except for Mrs. Lawrence, and as far as I know, she isn’t a mutant.”
Kara just grinned at that. “Well, maybe she is a mutant but she’s keeping it secret.”
It was hard to argue with that one. Though there were a few problems with the idea of my being a power mimic, that was about the best explanation I had so far. I just might have to go back down to the lab and see if I could copy Mom’s powers. That should prove whether or not I was a mimic.
Kara and I sat there and continued to talk, alternating between talking about her time in Boston, about her latest achievement in GEO, and of course, about my new powers. She wanted to know all about them and was clearly both jealous and excited.
Eventually, I got up and went down to Mom’s lab so I could get the floating sphere I’d built. Kara wanted to see it for herself, and admittedly, I really wanted to show it off. Mom was already busy at work, looking completely oblivious to everything else.
“Hey Mom,” I called out to get her attention. “Kara and I are going out to rob a bank.”
“That’s nice dear,” Mom responded automatically, not even bothering to look in my direction.
“And we’re going to take one of your disintegrators so we can get through the bank vault,” I added.
“That’s nice dear,” she responded absently. “Have fun…”
I just stood there and watched my mom with a faint shake of my head. Then after several seconds, I tried to see if I could copy her powers and become a devisor again. I concentrated on taking her powers, trying to will it to happen. However, I didn’t feel any different and nothing seemed to have changed.
“There goes that idea,” I mused to myself as I went back upstairs. Of course, my little attempt didn’t actually rule anything out just yet.
When I got back upstairs, I activated my devise and gave it a gentle push so it slowly floated across the room to Kara. She caught it with a grin and promptly began to play with it.
“This is kind of cool,” she told me. “What else can it do besides float?”
“Well,” I responded with a faint smirk. “If you push that button and turn it off…it can also fall.”
Kara grinned back at me. “Wow, this thing is loaded with extra features.”
“And just wait till the next patch,” I joked. “It’s so cool, I just might have to nerf it so it’s not so OP.”
We continued joking about my devise and my new powers for a little longer, with Kara making several suggestions that I should give her a demonstration of my new abilities. However, picking the couch up wasn’t all that impressive and I wasn’t about to cut myself again just so she could watch me heal.
“Powers are cool,” Kara finally told me, “but I think we should turn our attention to something more important.” She gave a dramatic pause before adding, “He who must not be named…”
That clear reminder that we were supposed to go see the new Harry Potter movie only made me let out a sigh. “I shouldn’t go,” I reluctantly told her. “It probably isn’t safe for me to go out in public like that until I get a better idea of how my powers work.”
“Don’t be such a pansy,” she said with a roll of her eyes.
I let out an exasperated sigh and asked, “What if my powers change again and I suddenly set things on fire?”
“That would be totally hot,” she joked, though I could see I’d made my point. “I guess we wouldn’t want someone calling the MCO on you.”
“No,” I agreed. “That wouldn’t be a good thing.”
“Or worse yet,” Kara continued with a smirk. “Aunt Beth. Can you imagine, she gets called in to deal with a super villain and finds you there…”
“I’d never live it down,” I agreed with a shake of my head.
Just then, I suddenly felt warm and dizzy. I staggered, grabbing Kara to keep from falling over as it quickly grew even worse. It was like having the flu hit me all at once with no build-up or warning.
“Are you okay?” Kara asked, giving me a worried look.
“I don’t know,” I responded, feeling weak and shaky. My muscles were starting to hurt and my mouth suddenly felt dry. “I’m thirsty…”
“Austin,” Kara started, putting her hand on my forehead and then blurting out, “Holy shit… You’re burning up…”
“Burning up,” I started weakly, though a moment later, Kara and I simultaneously gasped, “Burnout…”
Burnout was a serious problem that a lot of mutants had to deal with, especially ones who were in the process of manifesting or had only recently done so. It often meant that their bodies were having a hard time adjusting to their powers, which could easily lead to hospitalization or even death.
I was hit with a surge of pain that shot through my entire body, making me scream and then drop to the floor. I hurt so much that I was only vaguely aware of Kara, calling my name and freaking out. Then everything turned dark.
When I regained my senses, I was still on the floor and I still hurt like hell. However, I didn’t feel nearly as hot as I had before. In fact, I actually felt cold…really cold. Then I looked up and saw Mom standing there with a freeze ray in her hand. I absently noted that half the living room was covered with ice, which would be a real pain to clean up, when I slipped back into darkness.
Part 2
Portland Oregon, July 25, 2007
I awoke to the sound of loud talking, though I couldn’t make out what the voices were saying, at least not at first. But as I listened, the voices slowly became clear and I even recognized one of them.
“Your patient is under my protection,” Beth stated in a firm tone, the kind that she usually used when she demanded a criminal surrender. “And I will be very upset if the MCO makes an appearance.”
“We’re professionals,” a man’s gruff voice responded, sounding offended. “We don’t make a habit of reporting every patient…”
They continued talking, but I only half listened in. My thoughts were sluggish at first, but I was quickly putting things together and remembering what had happened. I’d suddenly gotten sick and had gone into burnout, or at least I assumed that was what it was. It certainly fit with a lot of the symptoms that I’d heard about. And then when I opened my eyes and saw a white tiled ceiling above me, I knew I was in a hospital.
I didn’t bother sitting up or trying to move, at least not right away. I’d heard some horror stories from Mom and Beth about what could happen with burnout, so I focused mostly on trying to see how I felt. In spite of what had happened, I didn’t feel the least bit sick or hurt. I could feel my fingers and toes without issue, and from what I could tell, I still had the same number of them. But at the same time, I could tell that something was different, even if I couldn’t tell what it was. I was nervous, and admittedly, even afraid. However, I’d learned a long time ago that freaking out never solved anything.
I coughed and finally started to sit up, only to notice Beth coming into the room. Or more accurately, it was Statuesque who stepped into the hospital room since she had her powers active and looked like a living statue. She was even wearing her professional costume, the skin-tight spandex which blended into her marble appearance so most people wouldn’t even notice it was there.
“You’re awake,” she said with a faint smile, giving me a look that seemed to be equal parts worry and relief. “How are you feeling?”
“Not bad,” I answered carefully.
Beth nodded at that, then gave a quick glance towards the door. She went over and shut the door, then locked it to make sure we wouldn’t be interrupted. Only then did her body shimmer for a second and the marble appearance vanished. Even her costume returned to its normal color of white with dark blue trim.
“Where’s Mom?” I asked, a little surprised that Beth had been the one waiting for me instead of her.
Beth gave a weak chuckle, then said, “She got frustrated at one of the doctors and then raced home, saying something about turning the hospital into a glacier.”
“So she’s building a new freeze ray,” I mused, hoping she didn’t make too big of a mess.
Beth nodded at that. “I sent Kara with her to keep her out of trouble.”
“To keep which one out of trouble?” I joked, earning a chuckle in response. After half-a-minute of uncomfortable silence, I quietly asked, “How bad?”
Beth hesitated a moment, and I could almost see her trying to decide whether or not to lie to me. “It was pretty bad,” she finally admitted. “If Liz hadn’t lowered your body temperature almost immediately, you probably wouldn’t even have made it to the hospital.”
I frowned as I absorbed that, remembering the glimpse of Mom standing above me with the freeze ray. “Mom saved my life.”
Beth merely nodded at that, looking a little grim. “After arriving at the hospital, your telekinesis flared up and made it difficult to treat you. Later, you seem to have manifested another ability, because you destroyed all the monitors they had connected to you.” She gestured to some pieces of equipment that were pushed back to the far side of the room. It was only then that I noticed that I had an IV stuck into my arm, but no other equipment near me.
“Another ability,” I repeated with a frown.
“The doctors and nurses were…concerned,” Beth said carefully, which explained the conversation I’d overheard. She was afraid that I’d scared the doctors enough to call the MCO on me. “Your regeneration appears to have gone,” she continued with a sigh. “The doctors took some blood samples, but you haven’t been healing any faster than normal.”
I didn’t say anything as I considered this, trying hard not to think about all the worries and fears that were threatening to overwhelm me. Instead, I tool slow deep breaths, trying to remain calm so I could think things through.
I finally asked, “How long have I been here?”
“Only since yesterday,” Beth assured me. “The doctor says you recovered unbelievably fast, that you sort of just…snapped out of it.”
“The regeneration,” I thought aloud.
However, Beth shook her head. “The regeneration seems to have vanished before this and hasn’t come back. At least not according to the doctor.” She paused at that, giving me a worried look that told me there was something else, something she hadn’t told me yet.
“What is it?” I asked, trying not to show how worried that was making me.
“I have good news and bad news,” Beth told me with a sympathetic look. That alone was enough to make me clench my fists tightly while trying to brace myself for the worst. “The bad news is that you’ve developed severe GSD. You’ll probably never be able to go out in public again.”
“WHAT?” I blurted out in shock. I’d known that I felt different…wrong…but I hadn’t thought it was that bad. I gulped, taking several deep breaths before sarcastically asking, “And what the hell is the good news?”
“That I exaggerated about the GSD,” Beth admitted with a pained expression. “I just wanted to put things in perspective.”
I stared at Beth for a moment, feeling just a little better because of that, but not by much. After all, she hadn’t said that she’d lied about my having GSD, only that she’d exaggerated. I felt a cold knot of dread, though I merely frowned and tried to think things through. However I’d changed, it couldn’t have been that severe or I would have noticed it already.
I started to sit the rest of the way up, but Beth put a firm hand on my chest and said, “Don’t get up.” She looked to the IV that was still stuck in my arm. I stared at it for a moment, suddenly realizing that it could have been painful if I’d tried climbing out of bed with that thing still plugged in. And then I wondered if I had a catheter too... “Stay here. I’ll get you a mirror.”
I nodded at that, and as she changed back to Statuesque and left the room, I sat up and looked down at myself. I was wearing a hospital gown and was covered with sheets, but I still couldn’t notice anything too obvious. From the way she was going to get a mirror, that suggested it was something about my face. Or maybe my hair.
“Maybe I’m bald,” I said, reaching up to feel my head and being relieved when I felt hair. However, it took me several seconds before I realized that I was feeling too much hair. My hair had definitely grown longer.
When Beth came back a minute later, she was holding a hand mirror. She locked the door again, then turned off her PK field so she looked normal. This was obviously her way of trying to reassure and comfort me, by not coming across as quite so intimidating. However, being as tall as she was, even her normal appearance could be at least a little intimidating.
“Your mother should be the one here for this,” Beth said apologetically.
I just nodded, having long since accepted the fact that my mom wouldn’t always be present for important events. For my thirteenth birthday, she spent the entire day in her lab, building a new death ray instead of taking me to the beach like she’d promised. I’d spent more than a couple Christmas mornings by myself, with Mom being too distracted to even think about Christmas presents. I wasn’t exactly happy about the obsessive way she got caught up in her work, but I’d gotten used to it a long time ago.
Beth handed me the mirror without further comment and I hesitated only a moment before looking into it. My first reaction was actually a sense of relief that I hadn’t turned into a hideous monster like Beth had first suggested. Then again, that seems to have been her point with that whole stunt. I still looked like me, just a softer and prettier version. I looked like a girl with purple eyes and shoulder-length brown hair.
Without saying a word, I looked down at my body again, imagining what was hidden beneath the bed covers and hospital gown. Was it only my face that had changed, or my entire body? But even though I was curious, I certainly wasn’t about to check myself out in front of Beth. Still, I couldn’t resist poking at my chest, which felt a bit soft and puffy beneath the hospital gown.
“Austin,” Beth started a little awkwardly.
“I think Amy might be more appropriate,” I told her, remembering the name I’d used for a full week back when I’d been ten years old. It seemed that it was time to pull the old name out of storage and dust it off.
Beth stared at me in surprise. “You’re taking this a little better than I expected.”
“It’s not like this is the first time I’ve been turned into a girl,” I reminded her.
Then I even smiled, feeling relieved since this definitely wasn’t anywhere near the worst that I’d imagined. And though I didn’t say so aloud, I also knew that Mom’s URD could change me back to normal once I got home. Until then, I could handle being a girl again.
Beth shook her head faintly and then chuckled. “I guess that for you, this isn’t anything new.”
“Not really,” I agreed with a weak grin.
Beth and I talked for a little longer before she turned back to her Statuesque form and went to find the doctor. A short time after that, I had a quick checkup and was able to get the IV pulled out of my arm.
The nurse who removed the IV was obviously very nervous about being near me, something which was made clear by the fact that she refused to look me in the eyes. She didn’t say a word to me either, just doing her job quickly and professionally, then slipping out of the room as soon as she could.
Once I was free from the IV, I slipped out of bed and hurried to the small bathroom. Of course, I had to take a pee, but just as importantly, I wanted to see just how much of a girl I really was.
It had been almost five years since the last time I’d been a girl, but I still remembered how to do my business. After I quickly verified that little Austin was gone, I sat down on the toilet and did my business, carefully wiping myself afterwards. It may have been a long time since I’d had these parts, but some things never changed.
“But this is different,” I mused as I poked at my puffy chest, which clearly had a pair of small breasts. I was a bit smaller than Kara, for which I was thankful. If I’d been bigger than her, I never would have heard the end of it. “I didn’t have these the last time.”
I was a girl with boobs and a vaj. However, this wasn’t actually the strangest thing that had ever happened to me and I didn’t want to make a big deal about it. Honestly, I was a little more concerned with my powers and how they worked.
“Well, I did seem to be an exemplar,” I mused as I washed my hands and returned to the hospital room. “I guess that could explain this…”
Since I’d always known that I might be a mutant, I’d done a lot of research on the different types of powers, and I’d asked Beth a lot of questions about hers. The exemplar power was one of the most common, and at first glance, it seemed a great power with no downsides. However, Beth had assured me that there were definitely downsides and risks, though they were often overshadowed by the possible benefits.
According to Beth, every exemplar has a BIT…a Body Image Template. Apparently, a BIT is some sort of blueprint that determines everything about an exemplar’s looks and abilities. I had absolutely no idea where this blueprint was located, but from what Beth had said, even the experts weren’t sure.
There were different theories about how an exemplar’s BIT was formed, but most experts seemed to think that it was at least influenced by the subconscious. Frequently, exemplars would transform so they looked like their own ideal selves, though sometimes the results could be the opposite, or even appear completely random.
If that theory was correct, and Beth strongly believed it was, then that could definitely explain why I’d become a girl. I’d never wanted to be a girl, and even though I hadn’t minded my brief time on the other side of the gender fence, it wasn’t something I would have chosen to do again. However, I was well aware of the fact that every positive role model in my life had been female. Mom, Beth, Mrs. Lawrence, and even my fourth grade teacher Ms. Allen. And when you add the fact that my best friend was a girl as well, I could see my subconscious mind taking note of that.
“It’s just a theory,” I reminded myself, knowing that I still wasn’t even sure if I was an exemplar. A lot of things fit, but with as screwy as my powers had been so far, I didn’t want to jump the gun.
“Are you doing all right?” Beth asked me again, perhaps being afraid that actually doing my business as a girl would have been enough to shock me into freaking out.
“Just fine,” I responded with a roll of my eye. “But I’ve got this overwhelming urge to go out shopping…”
Beth just stared at me for a moment before she started to laugh. Then she teased, “I just might have to take you up on that.”
After this, Beth continued to stay with me, making sure she was in her powered-up form whenever anyone else could see her. The doctor and nurses were obviously uncomfortable at her presence, though whether it was because of her intimidating appearance or the fact that she was a super hero, I wasn’t sure. What I did know was that she would have drawn a lot less attention if she’d been powered down and in civilian clothes, so I was sure she was doing this on purpose, probably to make a statement about how I was under her protection. Then again, that was pretty much what I’d overheard her telling the doctor.
Once Beth was sure that I really was all right, she told me, “I don’t want to scare you, but you need to know how lucky you are.” She had a dark look on her face as she added, “A lot of mutants who go through burnout…” Then she paused, shaking her head sadly.
“I know,” I told her, remembering what she’d already told me. If Mom hadn’t reached me with that freeze ray when she had, I might not have survived long enough to get treated in the hospital. I’ve heard stories about how bad burnouts could be, mostly from Mom and Beth.
“A lot of mutants don’t survive it,” Beth told me with a sad smile. “When I was your age, Liz and I had a good friend who pushed her powers too far and went into burnout. She didn’t make it.” She paused at that and shook her head sadly. “And I know someone else who survived it, but was left…damaged.”
“Damaged?” I asked, not liking the way she’d said that.
Beth nodded again, then explained, “She came out of it with severe GSD and her powers were screwed up. She was never able to really get control of them again after that.”
“You know,” I told her with a raised eyebrow and a flat tone, “That’s a great way to reassure me that everything is fine.”
“I don’t want to scare you,” Beth told me with a sigh. “I just want you to understand the situation. The doctor said you just snapped out of your burnout, and that other than the obvious changes, you seem to be in good health. However, there is a chance your powers may have been damaged.”
“Like they weren’t already?” I asked, thinking about the way my powers kept coming and going.
That reminded me of the fact that I didn’t know what powers I had at the moment. Beth said that my regeneration was gone, and since my senses seemed normal and I didn’t feel that burst of extra vitality, I guessed all those exemplar related powers were gone. I looked across the room and tried to move a small piece of equipment without touching it, but nothing happened.
Since this wasn’t a conversation that either of us was happy to have, we stopped talking about burnout and how it might have screwed with my powers, and instead we began talking about Whateley Academy, the school for mutants. Mom and Beth had both told me a bit about it before, but this time was different. Since I was now confirmed as being a mutant, this time it looked like I was actually going to go there myself. That encouraged her to go into more details about what I could expect while I listened even more closely.
“Dickinson was a great cottage,” Beth told me with a grin. “You wouldn’t believe how much fun your mother and I had there…”
I nodded at that, remembering that they’d mentioned Dickinson before, saying that it had been an all girls’ dorm. I glanced down at myself, suddenly realizing that if I wasn’t able to change back to normal, then I might very well end up there myself. However, I quickly assured myself that with Mom’s URD, I’d be back to my normal gender in no time…though maybe I’d wait a week or so first. After all, this was a rare opportunity and it might be a shame to waste it.
It was early evening when Mom finally arrived, which caught me by surprise since I’d expected her to still be working on her new freeze ray. However, she came into my hospital room with a worried look and froze, staring at me with her eyes going wide. “Austin?”
“More or less,” I responded just a little self-consciously. “But it looks like I’m Amy again.”
“Amy,” she said, as if testing the name. It had been a few years since she’d called me that. She nodded faintly, then gave me a weak smile and joked, “Welcome back.”
“You thought he…she might be an exemplar,” Beth pointed out as an explanation for my physical changes. She looked a little uncomfortable, which was a funny expression on someone who looked like a living statue.
“So you’re Amy now,” Kara said as she came into the room behind Mom. She gave me a curious look, as if trying to decide what to think about my being a girl. Maybe she was just trying to decide if I was prettier than her or not. She finally shrugged and said, “I remember the last time you were Amy. It was kind of fun having another girl around.”
“It was interesting,” I admitted with a grin of my own, which seemed to throw her just a little.
Kara gave me a curious look, then asked, “Aren’t you freaking out? I mean, I know I’d totally freak out if I suddenly turned into a guy…”
“I did that the last time,” I responded with a shrug. “I guess I got it out of my system then. This is a little weird, but no weirder than anything else.”
“I’m glad to see you’re handling this so well,” Mom told me, though she still looked a little worried.
“It’s not like freaking out would fix this,” I pointed out wryly. I’d seen enough of Mom’s accidents to know that panicking never solved anything.
“So,” Kara asked me just a little awkwardly. “What powers do you have this time?”
I hesitated a moment before shrugging. “I’m not sure,” I responded, gesturing to the machines that were sitting in the corner, the ones that I’d apparently ruined while they were hooked up to me. “But I think I might be a devisor again because I keep thinking that I could use those to make something cool…”
“Anything specific?” Mom asked with a gleam in her eyes.
I just shrugged at that, not sure how to explain what I was feeling. It was a lot like when I’d made the sphere in Mom’s lab. All I’d done was look at some of the parts and I just KNEW I could make something with them, though I didn’t really know what it was until I was about finished. I was getting the same kind of thing from the machines, a feeling that I could make something, though I didn’t know what.
“Well, I’ve got to get going,” Beth said, giving Mom a quick hug.
“Goodbye Statuesque,” Kara teased her aunt, who was still in her powered-up state.
“Thanks,” I told her, knowing that she probably had a lot of other things she could have been doing besides watching after me all day.
Once Beth was gone, Kara turned to me and looked me over once again before teasing, “I’m definitely going to have to take you out shopping.”
“That’ll be great,” I exclaimed, deciding to mess with her in return. “I can’t wait to try on some bikinis… Oh, and I’ll need a makeover…”
Kara’s eyes widened with worry as she realized I might actually take her up on her offer, which meant that she’d have to go too. Unlike the female stereotype, Kara wasn’t exactly big on either shopping or makeup. She was a bit of a tomboy and prided herself on being a geek and avoiding that kind of thing. Of course, Kara was quite pretty, but she never really went out of her way to play it up.
Mom burst out laughing and said, “Actually, that might be fun.” I glanced at her, suddenly getting just a little worried myself.
“Actually,” I said carefully, gesturing down at myself. “When can I get out of here and go home?”
Mom hurried off to find a doctor to answer that question while I just sat there on the edge of my hospital bed, feeling self-conscious. Being a girl wasn’t so bad, but being dressed in a hospital gown at the same time was a little much. In fact, I would have preferred to wear a dress rather than this thing, and if Mom had her way, I just might end up wearing one anyway. The last time I’d been Amy, she’d taken full advantage of the opportunity to have me dress like a girl and I didn’t expect this time to be any different.
“Wow, you really are a girl,” Kara exclaimed, staring at my chest. My breasts definitely weren’t very large, maybe a large A cup size at most, but they were still a bit noticeable through the hospital gown.
“That’s what the plumbing indicates,” I responded wryly.
“This is so weird,” Kara said, suddenly poking my soft and squishy chest.
“Hey, watch it,” I snapped, only to have her giggle. “If you suddenly turned into a guy, how would you like it if I grabbed your crotch to prove it was real?”
Kara hesitated a moment, then grinned. “Actually, that might be kind of interesting.”
I just shook my head and muttered, “Pervert.” That just made her giggle again.
“You still look like you,” Kara told me, looking a little more serious. “Mostly. I guess you look like your twin sister would.”
“You’re acting like you’ve never seen me as a girl before,” I told her with a sigh.
Kara rolled her eyes at that. “Yeah, but that was years ago…and you didn’t have these then.” She went as if to poke my breasts again, making me quickly cup them in protection, much to her obvious amusement.
We continued talking for another ten minutes, mostly with Kara asking me what I thought about being a girl and then suggesting things we could do together. However, she also made a point of asking me about my powers again.
“Your mom and I brought clothes for you to wear home,” Kara finally told me, gesturing to the bag that she’d left near the door.
“Let me guess,” I responded thoughtfully. “You brought me a dress or a skirt.”
“How’d you know?” Kara gasped, giving me a suspicious look. “Are you psychic again?”
I just snorted at that. “No. That’s just what I would have done in your place.”
It was then that Mom returned to the room, looking annoyed. “The doctor said you’ve made an unbelievable recovery,” she said carefully, “but that you should stay overnight for observation, just in case.”
I frowned at that, not happy about having to stay overnight when I felt perfectly fine. However, this was one of those ‘better safe than sorry’ things, so I wasn’t about to argue about it. Not since it was only one night.
“I guess I’ll have to wait till tomorrow to change back,” I told Mom with a shrug.
“Oh yeah,” Kara exclaimed in realization. “The URD. No wonder you weren’t worried about being a girl…”
Mom stared at me for a moment with an odd look on her face, then she gave an obviously forced smile. “About that…”
I didn’t like the look on my mom’s face so gave her a suspicious look. “You didn’t cannibalize the URD for parts, did you?”
“No,” she responded just a little defensively. “It still works, just…maybe not for you.”
Now that was a reaction I really didn’t like. I frowned slightly, then gave Mom a flat look and asked, “What do you mean?”
Mom hesitated a moment, a clear indication that I wasn’t going to like the answer. “I designed the URD to undo the effects of my devises…to return your body to a normal state. But this time, your changes aren’t due to one of my devises. This was caused by your own powers…by your own body. I don’t think it will work for you this time…especially not if you’re an exemplar. Not if you have a BIT.”
I just sat there for a minute, thinking about what she’d just told me and trying to make sense of it. I was about to argue that her URD had always changed me back to normal before when all of the pieces suddenly snapped into place and I understood what she meant.
“Your URD changes people back to normal,” I said carefully, looking at Mom and taking a deep breath. “But for an exemplar, normal is whatever their BIT says it is.” Mom just nodded at that.
“But what if he…she isn’t an exemplar?” Kara asked, looking just a little worried. “I mean, I didn’t think you knew for sure yet…”
“Then something else with my powers is probably causing this,” I stated with a sigh. “And changing back to a guy probably won’t make that go away either.”
“I have no idea how you’d react to my URD,” Mom told me with a sad smile. “But I really don’t think it would change you back.”
We were all silent for half a minute, then Kara quietly asked, “What if this is a side effect from the last time he was a girl?”
Mom just stared at me with a look of surprise and then of growing horror. “It might be,” she admitted, her voice shaking slightly. “That might have influenced your BIT…”
“I hope not,” I responded with a forced smile, thinking about all the other devises I’d been exposed to over the years. I shuddered at the thought of turning into a six inch toddler as well.
“Austin…,” Mom started, looking more than a little teary-eyed. “Amy… I’m so sorry…”
I gave her a hug then gently told her, “It’ll be fine. We don’t know I turned into a girl because of that.” It was a little strange to be comforting Mom and trying to make her feel better when I was the one who’d been turned into a girl.
A short time later, once Mom had relaxed a little, Kara gave me a weak smile and said, “I guess you’re probably going to need that shopping trip after all. I mean, you’re going to need some new clothes…”
“Yeah,” I agreed with a sigh, thinking that at least I hadn’t bought any back-to-school clothes yet. It really would have been annoying if I’d bought those new clothes and couldn’t even use them. Then I smirked at Kara and warned her, “But you’re coming with me.”
We talked for a bit longer before the nurse came in and said that visiting hours were over and Mom and Kara had to leave. They said goodbye, with Mom promising to come pick me up again first thing in the morning. I was looking forward to that for a number of reasons, including the fact that hospital food stunk and I didn’t want to eat any more than I had to.
Once they were gone and I was left alone with my thoughts, I got comfortable on my hospital bed and let out a sigh. I was a girl and it looked like I might end up being one for the rest of my life. It was still a bit to absorb, but I didn’t bother crying about it or demanding ‘why me?’ It was what it was, and whether I could change back to being a guy or not, whining and throwing a hissy fit wouldn’t make any difference.
I thought about the last time I was a girl and smiled faintly as I remembered that after I’d gotten over my initial shock and embarrassment, I’d actually had a lot of fun. Though I certainly hadn’t wanted to become a girl again, I figured that even if I got stuck this way, at least it was something I could learn to live with.
--------------------
Portland Oregon, July 26th, 2007
I woke up in the earliest hours of the morning to a strange feeling that something was wrong…that I was in danger. I immediately sat up in bed and looked around the dark and empty room, but I didn’t see any signs of what had woken me up or why I felt like this. Maybe it had been a bad dream or maybe Beth’s behavior had just made me a little paranoid. Whatever it was, that sense of foreboding remained.
As I climbed out of bed, I finally heard voices on the other side of the door, coming from the hospital hallway. They were quiet voices, but I was able to recognize one. It was a woman, one of the nurses who’d been checking on me yesterday but who wouldn’t even look me in the eye.
“She’s in here,” the nurse said, her voice sounding nervous. “The mutant you were asking for… I made sure her mother didn’t try to stay with her overnight.”
“Tell him what you told me,” a man’s voice said.
“She came in with severe burnout,” the nurse answered after several seconds. “While we were trying to treat her, she used her powers…” Her voice was shaky and she sounded a little afraid, which made me suddenly feel lousy since I was the one she seemed to be afraid of. “At first things started moving on their own… Then things suddenly changed and she started glowing and the monitors blew up…”
“Go on,” the man encouraged her to continue.
“That hero Statuesque was here guarding her all day,” the nurse continued, “so she must think the girl is important. And I overheard Statuesque and the mother talking about how her powers keep changing to completely different ones.” There was another pause. “You told me to call you if I saw any odd mutant activity, so…”
“This is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for,” the man assured her, sounding pleased. “And here’s the finder’s fee I promised.”
“Very interesting,” a new voice said, a different man. “If her powers actually do keep changing, then she might be of use in our research.”
“I thought that was the case when my contact told me about her,” the first man said. “That’s why I contacted you about this. Of course, I expect my own finder’s fee as well.”
“Of course,” the second man responded.
“I have contacts in a number of hospitals,” the first man said, sounding a little smug. “Sometimes these leads can be quite profitable, as you know from our previous arrangements.”
“Agreed,” the second man said. “Now to the matter of collecting the girl…”
At this point, I was looking around my hospital room, trying to find a way to escape. I glanced to the window and immediately discounted that. Not only was I too high off the ground to try getting out that way, but the window didn’t open either. Then I glanced to the bathroom, thinking that I could lock myself in until help arrived.
Before I could move, the door opened and two men entered. It was hard to see them clearly since the room was dark and most of the light was coming from the window or the hallway, but I could make out enough. The first one was dressed in a suit and was leaning on a cane. I probably wouldn’t have paid attention to him in most places, except for the fact that he was wearing some kind of hood over his head. However, the second man immediately caught my attention.
The second man looked to be about my mom’s age, with dark hair that was just starting to gray. He was wearing a suit of dark blue and gray lightweight armor, which looked high tech enough that it might even be power armor. The armor included a monocle which covered one eye and it was covered with various small devises. However, what caught my attention the most was the fact that he was holding some kind of ray gun.
Both men seemed surprised to find me up and near the door rather than sleeping the bed, so I took advantage of that momentary distraction to try running past them. However, there wasn’t much room between them and the door and they lunged for me. I yelled in surprise and the man with the cane was knocked back, though I hadn’t actually touched him.
“Telekinesis,” I whispered, realizing that my power had returned. Or at least, that particular power appeared to have returned.
“Don’t move, girl,” the armored man commanded, pointing the ray gun straight at me. I did as he said, having seen the effects of too many ray guns to risk finding out what this one did first-hand.
“You’re a devisor,” I said, my eyes locked on his weapon.
“I am a SCIENTIST,” he snapped, obviously offended. “Not one of those pretenders. I use real science…not that pseudo-science nonsense…”
I stared at him, suddenly very afraid that I’d made him angry enough to shoot me. However, he didn’t pull the trigger, though he did glare at me as though he was thinking about it.
“Gadgeteer?” I asked hesitantly, knowing that from his reaction, he could probably also be a baseline scientist. However, with how high tech his equipment looked, I was guessing he was a gadgeteer. Mom told me that there was a bit of rivalry between gadgeteers and devisors over the way their powers worked. According to her, there was a bit of jealousy over the fact that devisors could make things that gadgeteers could only dream of, while gadgeteers could actually take their work to the patent office.
“Correct,” the man responded, a clear note of pride in his voice. “I am Archimedes.” He said his name as though I should recognize it, and unfortunately I did.
Several months ago, Beth had warned Mom that someone called Archimedes had been seen in the area and told her to be careful. From what I’d overheard of the conversation, Archimedes was a high level gadgeteer who made a hobby of hunting down devisors, apparently to prove that gadgeteers were superior to devisors. And it seemed he also had some kind of ability to stabilize the laws of physics, which according to Beth, interfered with magic users and warpers…and made devises simply not work at all.
“I came here personally because you said a devisor might be guarding the child,” Archimedes told the masked man, sounding almost disappointed.
“The girl’s mother,” the masked man answered. “My contact said that she overheard the girl’s mother talking about her devises with Statuesque. And it seems the girl is supposed to be a devisor too.”
Archimedes gave me a cold look at that, as though I’d done something to offend him. Then again, from what I’d heard from Beth and Mom talking, it seemed that just being a devisor was probably enough to do that. I gulped, staring at the ray gun that was still pointed at me and wondering what it did. Perhaps it said something about my life that when I had a gun pointed at me, my first thought was to wonder what kind of a gun it was.
“What do you want?” I asked, keeping my voice calm. Considering the fact that I had a weapon pointed right at me, I thought I did quite a good job.
Yesterday, Beth had spent the entire day here, both guarding me and making sure I was all right. She’d even been in her Statuesque identity, which I’d thought was probably going a bit too far. At the time, it had seemed a bit paranoid to me, but right then, I really wished she was still there.
“Shut up and get moving,” the masked man said, using his cane to gesture for me to start walking down the hall.
I had no idea what these men wanted me for, and that scared me just as much as the fact that they had a weapon pointed at me. Lack of knowledge led to my imagination trying to supply the answers, and I had a very good imagination. At that moment, it was probably a little too good. However, in spite of the fact that I was terrified, I knew that it wouldn’t do any good to panic. If anything, that would make things even worse.
“We’d better hurry in case any guards show up,” the masked man told Archimedes.
“That won’t be an issue,” Archimedes responded. “I’ve cut all camera footage and am jamming any communications. At the same time, the police will be getting false alarms from several local banks.”
I frowned, definitely not happy about the revelation that I was on my own. I’d been hoping that if I dragged my feet enough, security guards would show up and at least give me a chance to get away. Now it looked like I was on my own, and I didn’t have a lot of resources. As it was, the only reason I even had shorts and a t-shirt instead of that flimsy hospital gown was because Mom and Kara had brought them. But then I remembered that I did have one resource, though it was one I still wasn’t even very sure of. My power.
My telekinetic abilities seemed to be back, so I braced myself and tried using them on the gun that Archimedes was pointing at me. The gun suddenly went flying from his hand, though my control wasn’t quite good enough to bring it to me. Because of that, I let the gun clatter to the ground while I tore off running down the hallway as fast as I could.
“HELP,” I yelled loudly, hoping a security guard, doctor, or even a little old lady with an oversized handbag would hear me and come to help.
It shocked me that an armed guy in what looked like power armor was able to walk through the hospital unchallenged, not to mention the other guy who was wearing a mask. Archimedes said he’d taken care of the security and communications, so I absently wondered if he’d caused this as well. However, I was too distracted with running for my life to worry about it too much at the moment.
I hadn’t gone far when something hit me from behind, sending me flying face first onto the floor. My whole body hurt, but I was desperate to get away. I scrambled to get back to my feet, but before I could do so, the masked man caught up with me.
“You’re not getting away,” the masked man snarled, grabbing my wrist in a painfully tight grip and then slapping me across the face.
Suddenly, I heard, “I’m not losing this paycheck,” though the words hadn’t been spoken aloud. I heard those words directly in my head, which stunned me enough that I stopped fighting long enough for Archimedes to catch up.
“Let me go,” I demanded, kicking the masked man’s leg, the one I’d noticed him limping on and favoring with the cane. He let out a yelp of pain, and while he was distracted, I focused on his cane and reached out with my power. The cane suddenly flew out of his hand and smacked into Archimedes, who merely looked annoyed.
“Enough,” Archimedes exclaimed, holding out another ray gun and pulling the trigger.
My entire body burst into pain and I collapsed like a rag doll. My muscles kept twitching and jerking, though I had almost no control of them. It suddenly reminded me of the time Kara had tested her new taser out on me, and I certainly hadn’t enjoyed that experience either.
“This one had better be worth the time, money, and effort I’m investing,” Archimedes warned the masked man.
“They said her powers kept changing,” the masked man responded with a shrug. “I don’t know if she’ll suit your purposes, but that is the kind of thing you said you were looking for.”
“Agreed,” Archimedes stated.
I glared up at the two of them, trying to gather my concentration enough to use my power again. However, before I could do so, Archimedes pointed his gun at me again and everything suddenly went black.
--------------------
July 26th, 2007
I slowly paced back and forth across the small room I was locked in, counting the white floor tiles in order to distract myself from how scared and frustrated I was. I’d woken up here about two hours ago, though I had no idea how long it had been since I’d actually been kidnapped from the hospital. From the fact that my stomach was grumbling, but without being too instant, I guessed it hadn’t been more than a day.
My prison didn’t really look much like I would have expected of such a thing, though admittedly, my experience with prison cells was pretty limited. Between the white tiled floors, off yellow walls, and the hospital bed in the corner, it reminded me quite a bit of my hospital room. Of course, it was about half the size, had no windows at all, and the small private bathroom was missing a door…which made it a little less than private.
When I’d woken up, still wearing the shorts and t-shirt I’d gone to bed in, I’d been extremely relieved that they’d left my clothes on. However, my imagination was playing overtime with what those two guys could have done to me while I was asleep. At the moment, I was very aware of the fact that I was now a girl, and I had no idea how long I’d been completely helpless and at their mercy.
I paused from my pacing and reached up to touch the metal collar that was firmly locked around my neck. It had been there when I woke up, and though I’d fiddled with it a little, it had been firmly locked in place and wouldn’t come off. I wasn’t sure what its purpose was, only that it wasn’t good for me.
For most of my life, I’ve experienced things that most of my classmates could only dream of. I got to shoot ray guns, go on a test flight with a jet pack, and I frequently ate dinner with a super hero. I’ve been shrunk, youthened, girlified, and have had more close calls with doomsday weapons than most adult super heroes. But in spite of everything that I’ve seen and done, getting kidnapped by strange men for an unknown purpose was an entirely new experience, and though I was doing my best to remain calm, I was terrified and on the verge of freaking out.
“Stay calm,” I muttered under my breath, repeating it over and over like a mantra.
I tried to comfort myself by saying it was only a matter of time before Mom or Beth managed to rescue me, but admittedly, I couldn’t imagine how they’d actually find where I was when I didn’t even know that myself. Realistically, I couldn’t expect them to come anytime soon. At the moment, I’d have to rely on myself, which wasn’t exactly good news. Sure, I had powers, they were extremely unreliable, coming and going without much sense.
After waking up, I’d tried to see what powers I had, quickly verifying that my telekinesis was gone again. My senses were normal and I didn’t feel the sense of vitality that came with my strength, so I was sure that my regeneration abilities had flown the coop too. If I did have any powers at the moment, I had absolutely no idea what they were, so all I could do was watch and wait, hoping that I’d find an opportunity to escape or at least call for help.
For the first time since I’d awoken in this room, the door opened and a man stepped in. He wasn’t one of the men who’d grabbed me at the hospital, or at least, I knew he wasn’t Archimedes and from his build, I was pretty sure he hadn’t been the masked man either. This man looked to be in his late fifties or early sixties, with thinning white hair, a large nose, and a very skinny build. He was dressed in rumpled clothes which were covered with a white labcoat.
The man in the labcoat didn’t say anything, so I glanced to the petite woman who was standing behind him. I probably wouldn’t have noticed the pretty blonde if it hadn’t been for the red spandex costume she was wearing…or the fact that she had the same body language as Beth. She didn’t look like much, but she practically radiated an aura of confidence which convinced me she was more than she appeared. From the way she was standing at the door and watching me, I had a feeling that she was the guard.
“Who are you?” I finally demanded, trying to keep the fear out of my voice but not succeeding quite as well as I would have liked. “Why am I here?”
The man smiled faintly, as though he’d won some kind of point by making me speak first. “I am Doctor Smith,” he said.
“Is your first name John?” I asked with a snort, guessing that he probably wasn’t going to give his real name to someone he’d helped kidnap.
“If you want it to be,” he responded with a chuckle, confirming my suspicion. “But my name isn’t what’s important right now. It’s why my associates brought you here.”
“Because you have a thing for underage girls?” I joked weakly, though I seriously doubted that was the case, or at least I hoped it wasn’t.
Instead of looking offended like I might have expected, Dr. Smith gave me an indulgent smile. “I’m afraid that you’re a little young for my tastes,” Dr. Smith responded almost pleasantly. “The reason we’ve requested your presence is that we need your assistance with our work.”
“Requested?” I asked wryly. “That’s funny. I don’t remember anyone asking.”
“I am a scientist,” Dr. Smith continued as though I hadn’t interrupted him. “I have spent much of my life studying mutant powers, trying to determine how they are formed and what exactly dictates the nature of the power. As of late, I have turned my attention to those with variable powers…primarily power mimics…as the key to finding these answers.”
“So, you want to study me,” I said with a cold knot in my stomach. Archimedes and the masked man had said something about being interested in me because of the way my powers kept changing. “Archimedes and that other guy work for you.” I stared at Dr. Smith, finding it strange that he was the big bad guy when he looked more like a friendly grandpa.
“Oh no,” Dr. Smith answered me in a pleasant tone. “Archimedes is my partner. He’s quite the brilliant fellow. He provides the specialized testing equipment that we require while I provide the medical experience.”
I gulped, then cautiously asked, “And is this the part where you say you’re going to dissect me?”
I looked from Dr. Smith to the woman at the door, trying to gauge whether or not I could run past her. However, she was watching me with a cold gaze that would make it very hard to catch her by surprise. Somehow, I didn’t think that sneaking past her was going to be a good option either.
“Certainly not,” Dr. Smith responded with a chuckle. “That would be quite a waste. Instead, we’ll connect you to a set of sensor devises and then test your powers. It should be relatively painless for you.”
“Relatively?” I repeated, not feeling much better about this.
“Oh, it won’t be that bad,” Dr. Smith assured me, thought that didn’t exactly make me a convert to his cause. “But rest assured, it will be in your best interest to cooperate. If you do, you’ll be treated well, and when I’m finished, you’ll be released with the knowledge that you assisted in a great breakthrough.”
I stared at Dr. Smith, knowing that I couldn’t trust him. He might come across as a friendly old man, but I wasn’t about to forget the fact that he was behind my kidnapping. I suspected that even if I did cooperate, I still might not walk out of here.
“If you don’t cooperate,” the blonde woman said, answering the question before I could even ask it, “I’ll beat the crap out of you and drag you through the tests anyway…”
I gulped at that, realizing that they were playing good cop/bad cop, or perhaps more accurately, good bad guy/bad bad guy. The woman was small and didn’t look very threatening, but I had no doubt that she could follow through on her threat.
“There’s no need for such threats,” Dr. Smith said, giving me a smile and adding, “Is there?”
“No,” I answered, not sure what else I could say.
Dr. Smith nodded in satisfaction at that. “Good. Besides, we have no need for such violent threats as long as you’re wearing that collar…” I instinctively reached for it while he continued, “It contains a tracking device as well as a small explosive device that can be triggered by remote. I’m certain it won’t be necessary.”
With that, Dr. Smith gave me another friendly smile, which was really at odds with what he’d just said. Then he turned and left the room, leaving me with the woman. She looked me over, obviously not impressed. In fact, I had a feeling that she was thinking about all the ways she could hurt me.
“Here,” the woman said, tossing me a bundle of cloth. “You’ll have this on in fifteen minutes if you want to eat. If you don’t, well…” She paused to give me a cold smile before turning and leaving, closing the door behind her.
I waited several seconds, then went to check the door. It was locked, just like I figured it would be. However, I had to try since I would have felt like an idiot if it turned out to be unlocked and I hadn’t taken advantage of it.
After muttering a few profanities under my breath, I turned my attention to the bundle of red cloth that that the woman had given me. It was a piece of clothing, something of a cross between a one piece spandex outfit and a jumpsuit. There were odd metal plates about the size of a quarter all over it, inside and out and I could feel wires embedded in the fabric.
I’ve been around high tech equipment for my entire life, so it only took me a few seconds to realize that this had to be some kind of sensor suit. Dr. Smith said that he wanted to hook me up to some sensors, and it appeared that this was how he was going to do it.
For several seconds, I considered playing stubborn and refusing to put this on, but then decided against it. While it might sooth my pride for a few minutes, I couldn’t see any advantage in antagonizing my kidnappers just yet. In fact, it would probably make things even worse for me.
“I guess I’ll have to play along,” I said with a sigh, really wishing I had one of Mom’s disintegrator guns. But as satisfying as the idea of shooting my way out of here was, it wasn’t very realistic.
After putting the suit on, I didn’t have to wait long before the door opened and the blonde woman returned. She looked me over with an expression that made me keep my distance, in spite of the fact that she had a tray of food. “You’ve got fifteen minutes,” she said as she set the tray down and left.
The food didn’t look all that appetizing, consisting of a sandwich, an apple, a yogurt squeeze tube, and a can of diet cola. I looked over my meal and let out an exasperated sigh, thinking that I’d learned to cook just so I wouldn’t have to eat like this again. However, I was hungrier than I’d realized so I ate up without any complaint.
A short time later, the blonde woman came and retrieved me, leading me out of the room and down a hallway to large lab. In some ways, it was a little like Mom’s lab, but there were fewer machines and random parts. Instead, the machines that were there looked like a mixture of medical devises and high tech exercise machines.
Dr. Smith was there waiting and he looked me over before nodding faintly to the blonde. “From what I understand,” Dr. Smith told me, “you’ve just survived a severe burnout, so by all accounts you should remain in treatment for the next week and under observation for a month.”
“Then I guess you need to take me back,” I responded flatly. I glared at Dr. Smith, wondering what kind of person would kidnap someone right out of the hospital. That just wasn’t right.
“Needless to say,” Dr. Smith said with a chuckle, “that won’t be happening. You seem to have recovered from your ordeal with remarkable speed and effectiveness…” He stared at me with an intense look in his eyes which told me just how interested he was by that fact. “I’ll start the testing light for now…just to be on the cautious side.”
To start with, Dr. Smith wanted to take some blood samples, check my vision and hearing, and do a number of other tests that weren’t too difficult. I bit my tongue and did as he asked, not seeing any other options at the moment, not with that blonde guard staying nearby. I didn’t even know what powers she had, but I had a feeling that I didn’t want to find out.
“Tell me, what do you know of your powers?” Dr. Smith asked me. His voice was friendly, though his eyes were rather intense.
“Not much,” I reluctantly admitted. “Every time I think I know what my powers are, they change…” That seemed to excite him just a little more.
“Tell me more,” he insisted. “Tell me what powers you’ve demonstrated so far…”
I didn’t want to tell Dr. Smith any more than I had to, but at the moment, I didn’t really have much to share and I had to give him something. I could have made a few things up, but I wasn’t sure how much the nurse at the hospital had overheard and passed on.
“The first time, it looked like I was a devisor,” I reluctantly admitted. “But it was only the one time and I’m not sure it was me… I’ve had telekinesis…” I paused at that, neglecting to mention that I may have had other psychic abilities at the same time. “And I had regeneration for awhile…”
“And now?” he asked intently.
I shrugged at that. “Nothing that I know of.”
“Debra,” Dr. Smith abruptly told the blonde. “I believe our recruiter may have given us what we need. We’ll need more testing to be certain, but he may just have earned the bonus we promised.”
The blonde…Debra nodded. “Archimedes will be happy. He was getting pretty impatient with looking for a good subject.”
“Ah yes,” Dr. Smith said with a chuckle. “He dislikes being taken away from his devisor hunting hobby without reason. This should satisfy him.”
Just then, a cell phone started ringing. Debra pulled the phone from a pouch on her belt and commented, “Speak of the devil…”
While Debra began talking on the phone, her attention wasn’t on me. I saw my opportunity and immediately started running for the door as fast as I could, wanting to put as much distance between us as possible. Maybe I could find another phone to call home with.
However, I’d barely reached the door when I suddenly felt a burst of pain shooting through my neck and all down my body. I screamed, or at least tried to since my throat seemed frozen, and dropped to the floor.
“I thought we had an understanding,” Dr. Smith said with a sigh, coming over and shaking his head with a disappointed look. “Quite a pity, but as you’ve undoubtedly noticed, your collar also includes a motivation enhancer.”
The pain stopped, though I was still shaken and feeling tender. I glared up at Dr. Smith, feeling sick from his mock sympathy. “You sick bastard,” I spat out, though he didn’t seem to mind.
Debra watched me with a cold look, then spoke into the phone, “The brat just tried her first run, a little later than I expected. It looks like I owe you a hundred.”
“Now that you’ve had your break,” Dr. Smith announced cheerfully, “it’s time to get back to work. Now get over here so I’m not forced to provide motivation…”
--------------------
July 28th, 2007
I stared down at my lunch, absently poking at the semi-edible food substitute that covered the tray. Technically, it was supposed to be microwave mac and cheese, but it had the taste and texture of mush. Fortunately, the apple they gave me was still good and at least I had a can of pop to wash down the nasty pasta.
“When I get out of here,” I said, starting off as I’d done several times over the last couple days. This time, I finished the statement, “I’m going to make my own mac and cheese…with real cheese...no…three cheeses…and pancetta.”
But in spite of how nasty my lunch was, I ate every bite. Not only was I hungry, but I didn’t know if my kidnappers would pull something like not giving me dinner. They’d already given me a couple of ‘motivational encouragements’ with the shock device built into my collar. I REALLY hated that damn thing.
I looked around my room, scowling intently as I did so and trying to think of a way to escape. Unfortunately, I’d been here for two days and hadn’t had any luck at all. The one time I had tried to run, I’d gotten a nasty shock for my effort, so for now I was being good and cooperating until I could find another opportunity.
Of course, I was cooperating for another reason as well…at least for the moment. So far, the only thing Dr. Smith was doing was performing power testing on me, which I needed anyway. Sure, he was using me as a guinea pig for whatever he was working on, but I was trying to use this as an opportunity to learn more about my powers and how they worked. Since I was stuck here anyway, I might as well get something out of it.
The other day, it had been early evening by the time I woke up, so Dr. Smith didn’t have a lot of time to test me then. What testing he had done had mostly been the kind of thing that would just be part of a very detailed physical. Blood samples had been taken, my hearing and vision had been checked, and he’d hooked me up to some kind of MRI machine. The real power testing hadn’t begun until yesterday morning, after I’d woken up with my exemplar abilities restored.
Yesterday had been a long day, with Debra waking me up at the crack of dawn, feeding me some Cheerios and a banana, then half-dragging me back to the lab for more testing. It had started off much like the night before, with blood samples and an MRI scan, but soon the testing had actually become similar to what Mom and Beth had done for me. However, Dr. Smith actually seemed a bit more professional about it, using high tech machines and scanners to determine if my body was having any reactions to the tests that just weren’t visible.
Since I was curious about my own powers, I cooperated a little more than I might have done otherwise. I didn’t complain when he made me run on a treadmill until I could barely breathe, or when he’d thrown me into a room that shot tennis balls at me. However, his method of testing my regeneration was little more than torture and included cutting off a tiny piece of one finger, putting another finger over a flame, and then putting a drop of acid on my skin. It hurt like hell, but he’d had me strapped down so I couldn’t yank myself free or escape. But as horrible as Dr. Smith’s methods were, by the time I’d gone to bed, I had a much better understanding of my abilities, or at least of the ones I had yesterday.
Yesterday, Dr. Smith had pronounced me an exemplar 3 and a regenerator 3. Along with my strength, stamina, and reflexes, my senses had also been boosted. They weren’t strong enough for me to have radar or track someone down by their scent like a bloodhound, but they were at about the maximum levels for a human…or perhaps just a little higher. It wasn’t until afterwards that I realized I should have held back on my senses, pretending that they weren’t quite as sharp as they were so I’d at least have some advantage later on.
This morning, Dr. Smith had started off going through almost the exact same tests, though this time the results were quite a bit different. All of my physical abilities from yesterday were gone, though it looked like I had another new ability instead. This time, it seemed like I might be an energizer, though we hadn’t done any of the energizer testing yet. That was scheduled for this afternoon, after I finished eating lunch. That was also one of the reasons I made sure to eat every bite, because I’d heard energizers sometimes required a lot of calories to fuel their powers.
As soon as I finished eating, I looked around the room again, this time trying to use my new power, which I still didn’t understand at all. I could see a strange glow through the air, almost like a cloud that was thicker and brighter in some places than in others. The glow was strongest near the lights and power outlets, and I could sort of see areas of it running along the walls. Considering where the glow was strongest, my guess was that I was seeing electricity or something.
After blinking my eyes, my vision was back to normal, though I could still sort of feel the glow from around me, almost like a tickle on my skin. It was a weird sensation, sort of like having built up static cling. I just let out a sigh, feeling annoyed and frustrated by how hard it was to get any sense of what my powers actually were. Every time I started to get a handle on them, they suddenly changed on me, and the only thing that seemed consistent was that they always seemed to do it while I was asleep.
A minute later, my lunch break officially ended when Debra opened the door and announced, “Playtime’s over, Sunshine.”
I got up, not bothering to argue or drag my feet. I’d tried that yesterday and got a nasty zap from my collar for the effort. I suspected that Debra was just hoping I’d give her an excuse to do it again, because she almost looked disappointed when I came with her without any problems.
Dr. Smith was waiting for me in the lab, looking happy to see me. He even gave me a friendly smile and politely asked, “How was your lunch?”
“Fine,” I responded with a forced smile, having found that he was easier to deal with as long as I played along. As long as I pretended that he was a nice person, he was more likely to act like one. After all, he still had Debra to play the heavy.
“Good, good,” Dr. Smith responded cheerfully. “Now, we already know that you seem sensitive to electromagnetic energy, so let’s see how far that extends and just what you can do with it.”
Dr. Smith had me step into a weird machine, which reminded me of an MRI machine that I had to stand up in. There was all sorts of noise and humming from the machine while I could feel that static feeling moving around my body. I shifted my vision a little and allowed myself to see the glow, which was moving around the machine, coming from the side like a flashlight. The static sensation was definitely strongest wherever that glowing beam was pointed.
When I climbed out of the machine about ten minutes later, Dr. Smith was typing away on a computer and grinning happily. I wasn’t sure what he’d found in the test that made him so excited, nor was I sure it was good news for me. Debra stood back, watching me with a careful glare while Archimedes had arrived and was looking over the lab with a look of vague impatience.
“Your spectrum generator works wonderfully,” Dr. Smith told Archimedes. “As is your sensor suit. Her body is showing a clear response to concentrations of the electromagnetic spectrum, confirming her current state as an energizer…”
Archimedes nodded faintly, then responded, “The report from yesterday was that you confirmed her as an exemplar…”
“Your BIT detector confirmed she had a BIT,” Dr. Smith assured him with a smile. “Today, she’s lost all of the physical properties of being an exemplar, yet your BIT detector confirms that she still has one. It’s as if she went from being an exemplar three to being perhaps an exemplar one.”
I blinked in surprise at that since Dr. Smith had confirmed I was an exemplar, but he hadn’t said anything about detecting a BIT, nor had he said anything about my still having one this morning. Then I wondered what it meant, that I had a BIT but no apparent exemplar abilities. Was my being an exemplar somehow…on hold?
“Then her powers actually have been changing,” Archimedes said, a clear note of interest in his voice. “Does this confirm that she’s a power mimic like we suspected?”
“Her powers are indeed changing,” Dr. Smith answered him thoughtfully. “But I don’t think she’s a mimic. For one thing, she’s demonstrated exemplar and energizer traits, though she hasn’t been near donors with those abilities since we’ve taken her into custody. In addition, she’s been near both you and Debra but hasn’t shown any indication of copying your powers.”
I stood back, remaining quiet and hoping that they didn’t notice me so that they’d continue talking. I was learning quite a bit from listening in on their conversation, and not only the fact that I still had a BIT. Dr. Smith had pointed out that I hadn’t copied the powers of Debra or Archimedes, but he hadn’t included himself as a possible donor. That suggested that he didn’t have powers…that he was a baseline.
It had always seemed to me that most of the researchers who were on the cutting edge of scientific research were gadgeteers or devisors, people who had an advantage that baseline scientists didn’t. However, my perspective on that might have been skewed a bit from the fact that my mom was a devisor. After all, Dr. Amazing, who was a famous super hero and one of the most brilliant scientists on the planet, was well known as being a baseline human.
“Do you have anything that would allow us to read her BIT?” Dr. Smith asked Archimedes with a thoughtful look. “That could help explain the nature of her powers…”
Archimedes scowled at that, then shook his head, “If we understood the nature of a BIT enough to accurately read it, we would probably already have the answers we are looking for. However, I do have something that I’ve been working on that should at least give us a…glimpse. Hopefully it will be enough to prove useful.”
“Good,” Dr. Smith said with a smile. “Very good.” Then he gave Archimedes a knowing look and added, “I don’t think she’s a power mimic, but I do have a theory...though I’ll wait until I have more evidence before presenting it.”
“Understandable,” Archimedes agreed with a thoughtful nod.
After this, Archimedes left and Dr. Smith turned his attention back to me. “Now then,” he mused, giving me an almost friendly smile, “Where were we?”
A minute later, Dr. Smith had me in another room, repeating some of the exercises he’d had me do yesterday. These were very similar to some of the ones Mom had made me do while testing to see if I could somehow generate or manipulate some form of energy.
“You are sensitive to ambient electromagnetic energy,” Dr. Smith told me in a professional tone. “We need to see if you can do more than just sense it…”
It didn’t take long at all before we discovered the answer to that question. I was able to reach out and somehow pull some of this ambient energy to me, drawing it around my body. With some effort, I could gather enough around me that I actually started glowing, first to my odd new vision and then to my normal vision.
I had mixed emotions about this new power, feeling excited to have it, curious about what exactly I could do with it, and frustrated since I was giving Dr. Smith and Archimedes exactly what they wanted. However, I still didn’t have much choice, not with this bomb around my neck. At the moment, all I could do was continue playing along until I found an opportunity, learning whatever I could about my own powers in the process.
I had to keep my mind from wandering and focus on what I was doing. I took the energy that was building around me and pushed it away. There was a burst of light as the energy was pushed out in all directions. Static tickled my skin.
“You ionized the air,” Dr. Smith said with a smile. “Now again…with more energy.”
I repeated the process, trying to draw in more energy, gathering it around my body so that I began to glow with a visible blue light. But as soon as I tried pushing it away from my body, it immediately dispersed. I tried this several more times, trying to push the energy in a specific direction to see if I could form an energy blast, but it kept dispersing in every direction at once.
“Maybe if I concentrate it more,” I mused to myself, trying to gather the energy one more time.
This time, I held my hands out in front of me, about a foot apart with my palms facing each other. I pulled in the energy again, but this time I tried focusing on gathering it there instead of around my entire body. To my delight, it was actually working. A glowing blue ball formed between my hands.
“Ah, I see,” Dr. Smith commented from a short distance away, from where he was hiding behind a blast shield. “You’ve gathered the ambient electromagnetic energy and concentrated it all into a single spot. That should be more useful.”
“Maybe,” I responded grimly, trying to hide my bitterness. It helped to pretend that instead of being my kidnapper, he was just a normal power tester.
Next, I tried projecting the ball of energy, wondering if I could shoot it out like a weapon. At the moment, any weapon would be useful. The ball of energy didn’t respond to my will and go shooting forward like I’d hoped, and when I tried throwing it, the energy immediately began dissipating. The ball only went a couple feet before it vanished entirely.
By this point, I was starting to feel tired and sore. I had a feeling that I’d been pushing this new ability too far, something which Dr. Smith confirmed when he called out, “Your vital signs are unstable…”
“No shit,” I muttered, already feeling hot and dizzy.
“Your body temperature is rising,” Dr. Smith exclaimed, actually sounding worried.
I staggered and dropped to the ground, feeling a surge of pain rush through my body. I was feeling hot…as though I was in the process of burning up. Of course, I recognized the symptoms since I’d already been through this once before, and though I’d survived the last time, it still scared the shit out of me.
“Not again,” I whispered before I collapsed completely.
--------------------
July 30th, 2007
I awoke to an overwhelming sense of deja-vu. Once again, I was in a hospital bed and staring up at the tiled ceiling above me. I immediately remembered that I’d gone through another burnout, which meant that the fact I was still alive merely proved I was luckier than I had any right to be. Most mutants didn’t survive one burnout much less two of them. Of course, I’d gone through burnout twice, which could be considered evidence of just how unlucky I was.
It took me a moment to realize that I wasn’t alone, that there were two other people in the room with me. I glanced over and saw Dr. Smith and Archimedes, who were busy looking over some charts and talking to each other, so they hadn’t even noticed I was awake. I took advantage of that to pretend that I was still out of it so I could listen in on their conversation.
“This is a waste,” Archimedes stated in annoyance. “We went through the trouble of recruiting the girl and she’s spent the last two days in bed…”
“It should have been expected,” Dr. Smith pointed with a sigh. “After all, you did retrieve her from her hospital bed, before she’d had a chance to recover from her last burnout. Admittedly, much of this is my own fault for pushing her too far before she’d fully recovered.”
“What’s done is done,” Archimedes told him. “The question is, is the girl still of any use to us?”
“Indeed she is,” Dr. Smith responded with a chuckle. “She’s even more useful than I’d previously suspected. It turns out that this burnout is an unexpected blessing, especially since your sensor suit was able to track much of what was happening with her body.”
I glanced over at them again while trying to be subtle about it, noticing that Archimedes was scowling. “I’m surprised that any of the data was useful, considering that she destroyed half the sensors right before the burnout occurred.”
“True,” Dr. Smith agreed. “But enough of the sensors survived to give us what we need. In fact, this burnout gave me the evidence I needed to confirm my theory about how her powers work.”
“And what have you determined?” Archimedes asked him, sounding curious.
“The girl isn’t a power mimic as we first suspected,” Dr. Smith explained excitedly. He was nearly bouncing with joy, which really made me want to jump up and punch him. However, I remained where I was, continuing to play possum.
Archimedes nodded at that. “Then what is she?”
Dr. Smith stood up straighter, looking quite proud of himself as he announced, “She’s a shifter.”
“A shifter?” Archimedes asked, sounding a little skeptical. “Her appearance has altered somewhat during this burnout, but I suspect that is due to her BIT rather than any shifter traits…”
“Oh, she is a shifter,” Dr. Smith assured him with a chuckle. “She has several distinct alternate forms, each with its own powers and abilities. The reason we hadn’t noticed this before now is that each of her forms looks identical.”
There was a long pause before Archimedes stated, “So, for all intents and purposes, she’s a power shifter.”
I was listening very carefully to this, and it was all I could do not physically react. Ever since I’d manifested, my powers had been screwy and appeared to make no sense at all. I’d go to bed with one set of powers and wake up the next morning with a different one. Now I knew why.
“Each time her burnout approached a critical level,” Dr. Smith continued his explanation, creeping me out by how excited he was over this, “her body shifted to another form…to another mode…and reversed the damage. She would have died at four different points during this burnout if her own powers hadn’t saved her.”
“And the sensors recorded these shifts?” Archimedes asked, still sounding interested.
Dr. Smith chuckled. “Indeed. And after removing her damaged sensor suit, the replacement sensors continued to record these shifts. Each of her alternate modes may appear identical to the naked eye, but there are significant differences…subtle adaptations for whatever power each mode possesses.”
There were a long silence before Archimedes asked, “How many modes has she displayed?”
“Five distinct modes, so far,” Dr. Smith answered him. “So far, I know what three of these modes are capable of and have indications of what the fourth is. The fifth remains an unknown.”
“I dislike unknowns,” Archimedes responded grimly. “Still, I see what you mean about this burnout being to our advantage. It would have forced multiple mode changes, letting us scan the shifts…”
“Precisely,” Dr. Smith agreed. “Without the burnout, it may have been another week before I was able to gather as much data. As it is, this confirms that she’s even more useful to our goals than we previously believed.”
There was another long pause while Archimedes considered this information. He looked at me, but I remained motionless, pretending that I was still asleep. He didn’t seem to notice anything to indicate otherwise because he turned his attention back to Dr. Smith.
“Very interesting,” Archimedes finally admitted, smiling with a look of satisfaction that made me want to gulp nervously. “We can analyze the subtle differences in her modes and use them to determine the specific biological markers for each power. She is the key…the Rosetta Stone we require to translate the biological deviations which create mutant abilities…”
“And once we understand these biological deviations,” Dr. Smith continued for him with a chuckle, “we can induce them in others.”
Dr. Smith and Archimedes continued to talk, getting more technical as they did so. Before long, I couldn’t really follow what they were saying, though I’d already grasped the basics. They’d told me previously that their research was all about figuring out how mutants developed specific powers, and I’d been a bit suspicious about that at the time. But now it seemed that their real goal was to use that knowledge to create powers.
As I continued listening to their conversation, I had to fight back the urge to snort or make some kind of response. The idea of being able to give specific powers to people sounded pretty cool in theory, but I was skeptical that they’d be able to pull something like that off without a devisor to help them out. After all, that plan sounded like something that would need some reality tweaking in order to get it to work. Then again, I wasn’t a scientist or a gadgeteer, so these guys might be capable of a lot more than I knew.
“At least this test subject is more useful than the last three,” Archimedes said, looking at me again with a deep scowl. “I despise wasting so many resources to acquire a subject, only to have to dispose of them so quickly.”
“They weren’t a complete waste,” Dr. Smith assured him as the two of them started for the door. “The dissections provided some useful data…”
Once the two of them were gone, I slowly sat up in bed, still feeling stunned from everything I’d overheard. That was a lot to absorb, but I knew that I’d have to do it quickly and silently. Though I still had a lot of questions, I didn’t dare ask them…at least not aloud. I didn’t want my kidnappers to know just how much I’d learned.
“So I’m some kind of shifter,” I mused, then bit my tongue just in case they were listening in on me somehow.
Dr. Smith and Archimedes had said something about my body changing again, so I braced myself for whatever I would find as I began looking myself over. I was naked in bed, not even covered with a sheet this time. However, I did have a bunch of suction cup type sensor disks stuck all over my body as well as an IV stick into my arm. I glanced to the bag of clear fluid, suspecting that it was probably just the same saline solution that they’d given me in the real hospital. This brief glance over my body didn’t reveal any further changes than what I’d already gone through, though admittedly, my breasts did seem a little bigger.
I bit my lip to keep from making any noise, then I carefully pulled the IV needle from my arm, letting out a sigh of relief when that was done. Then I climbed out of bed and began removing the sensors, dropping them absently onto the floor and not caring if I made a mess. Unlike with Mom’s lab, I wouldn’t be the one who was stuck cleaning it up.
A minute later, I stood up on the floor and stretched, thinking that it felt good to move again. Apparently I’d been in that bed for two days, so this was definitely overdue. I then looked my body over again, deciding that my breasts definitely looked a little bigger. Instead of looking like an A cup, I thought that I had to be about a B cup. The rest of my figure seemed to have improved just a little bit as well.
I went to the bathroom to relieve myself, wondering if I’d ever get used to having to sit down to pee. It wasn’t uncomfortable or much of a problem, but it was a frequent reminder of how my body had changed. I still wasn’t happy about my new gender, but it wasn’t worth complaining about, especially not when half the world’s population had the same kind of anatomy.
Then as I washed my hands, I looked into the small mirror above the sink and frowned. I finally noticed the rest of the changes that Dr. Smith and Archimedes had mentioned. My hair had grown longer again, by about four inches, and it had changed color. My hair was now purple, matching the new color of my eyes that I still hadn’t gotten used to. On top of that, and my slightly increased curves, my face also looked a little softer and prettier.
“Okay,” I said with a resigned sigh, knowing that it could have been much worse.
The hair and eye color could have been signs of GSD, and if they were, then it was very minor GSD indeed. That was much better than having a pig snout or tentacles growing from my face. Of course, my changes were obviously the result of my BIT, and they probably would have happened on their own anyway. My burnout probably just sped up the process, and I still wasn’t even sure if this was the finished product. Some exemplars could make supermodels and porn stars look plain in comparison, and by those standards, I fell pretty short.
“But I’m only a part time exemplar,” I reminded myself. I still had a BIT, but that was because I was really a shifter…and like exemplars, shifters had BITS. I’d completely forgotten all about that bit of trivia until Dr. Smith had said I was a shifter. “A shifter who doesn’t change shape.”
I’ve heard of shifters who could alter their form and gain other abilities, usually physical abilities like animal senses, powerful muscles, and bulletproof skin, but until now, I’d never heard of one who could change their powers but still looked the same. I had no reason to doubt Dr. Smith’s claims about how my power really worked, especially when they fit with the weird ways my powers kept changing. I wondered if I was the only one, though I doubted it.
“I wonder if I’ll change any more,” I mused as I looked over my new reflection. Perhaps it said something about my life that I felt more curiosity about that than dread.
Then it dawned on me that my first burnout had run its course overnight, but my second one had taken much longer. But in spite of that, my body had changed a great deal during my first one and only a small amount the second time. Did that mean the first one was enough to nearly make me match my BIT while the second one only finished of what was left? If that was the case, then my transformation really was finished. I was surprised to actually feel a tiny bit disappointed at that since I’d begun to wonder what it would be like being hotter than any of the girls I’d ever had a crush on. I was very pretty…maybe even beautiful…but I wasn’t built like a stripper.
“Thank God for small favors,” I said, looking down at myself with a wry smile and shaking my head. “I have a feeling that carrying a pair of whoppers around would get pretty old before long.”
I left the bathroom a minute later, trying to decide what I was going to do next. I had a much better understanding of my powers than when I’d been kidnapped, but I still didn’t know how to get out of here. I looked at the concrete wall and wished I had one of Mom’s weapons. All it would take is one disintegrator and I’d be able to walk right on out.
“Mom always has the best toys,” I thought aloud.
My mom was a pretty versatile inventor, though she’d always specialized in weapons of one form or another. According to Beth, back when she was my age, Mom focused on things that went BOOM…with as big a boom as possible. Eventually, she decided to work with weapons that had more focus and fine control, leading to the large arsenal of death rays, plasma blasters, and disintigrators that we had stashed in the armory. It was only in the last ten to fifteen years that she started working with the more unusual weapons, things like the freeze ray, shrink ray, or anti-gravity grenade.
“But Mom isn’t here,” I reminded myself, knowing that I’d have to figure something out on my own.
I frowned, suddenly feeling worried about Mom. Without me around to keep an eye on her, there was no telling what kind of trouble she’d get herself in. For all I knew, she might end up working herself into a coma, or even worse, tripping over some clutter in her lab and dropping an antimatter cannon. If nothing else, I was going to have to get home just so I could make sure Mom was okay.
I looked around the room, trying to think of something, anything that I might be able to do. I’d done this numerous times since I’d been kidnapped, though this time I saw something new. The sensor suit that I’d been wearing when I went through my burnout was sitting in the corner, where it looked to have been casually tossed after being cut off me.
“Let’s see,” I mused, bending over to look at the ruined suit. The whole thing was cut up and some of the sensor pads were blackened, apparently having been damaged when I’d been trying out my energizer power. Suddenly, I realized that I might be able to use some of these parts.
I began tearing out some of the sensors and wires, fully aware that my devisor power was back and revved up. At the moment, I felt the same way I had while building that sphere in Mom’s lab, not being completely sure of what I was doing, only being certain that I could get the parts to work together.
Before long, I’d scavenged what parts I could from the sensor suit, though I didn’t have enough to really make anything useful. I was disappointed but still confident in my ability to make something, as long as I could get a few more things. Until then, I hid the parts and hoped that no one noticed what I’d done.
A new sensor suit had been left folded up in the corner, and since I didn’t have anything else to wear, I put it on. I wasn’t thrilled with continuing to help them with their experiments, but I couldn’t do anything to let them know what I was planning.
Before long, I heard some voices coming from the door so I went over and listened in, expecting Dr. Smith or Debra to come bursting in at any moment. However, after listening for a few seconds, I realized that Debra was talking with someone. It took me a few seconds to recognize the other voice as coming from the masked man who’d helped kidnap me.
“I hear this little freak is just what they needed,” the masked man said, sounding pleased. “It seems that I may end up earning the promised bonus after all.”
“Do you have a problem with mutants?” Debra demanded in a sharp tone. “Is that why you do this?”
The masked man just laughed. “No, I don’t have anything against your kind. In fact, I like mutants. You’re profitable.”
“Of course,” Debra said. “Money.” She didn’t sound impressed.
“And you have a different motivation?” the masked man asked, sounding just a little skeptical.
There was a long pause, then Debra answered, “My daughter… I brought her to a specialist to determine what powers she’ll manifest when she gets older…and he told me she’s a baseline. She didn’t inherit enough of my meta-gene complex to be a mutant.” Debra sounded bitter at that.
After several seconds, the masked man responded, his words sounding as though they were carefully chosen. “Being a baseline myself, I completely understand the challenges of being without power in world that is filled with mutants.”
“You understand nothing,” Debra told him, her voice filled with contempt. “I refuse to stand by as she’s bypassed by evolution. I won’t let her be left behind as one of the powerless. They’ve promised me that once they succeed, Carrie will be one of the first to get enhanced.”
“It looks like I might have to renegotiate my bonus,” the masked man told her. “That does sound like quite the opportunity.”
Their conversation ended at that point, so I didn’t know if they were still outside the door or not. Considering the fact that Debra had been staying close to me the entire time, I suspected she might still be out there in case I tried acting up. But in spite of that, I still tried the door, verifying it was indeed locked.
An hour later, Dr. Smith returned to the room, taking one look at me and seeming surprised that I was up and dressed. “I’m glad to see you’re doing so well after your ordeal,” he told me, actually sounding concerned. But in spite of his friendly act, I wasn’t falling for it.
“Can I get something to eat?” I asked, trying to keep my own voice polite as well when all I really wanted to do was shove him out of the way and make a run for it. However, Debra was still standing at the door, watching me as though expecting me to do just that. “I’m really hungry…”
“Of course,” Dr. Smith told me with a smile. “But before then, I’d like to perform a quick test…to confirm that you’re as healthy as you appear.”
Dr. Smith led me from the room, with Debra joining us as we went back to the lab. He put me in some new machine, which I was sure had nothing to do with verifying my health. Or if it did, I suspected it would only be a small part of what he was doing.
While we were doing this, Archimedes and the masked man came into the room, talking as they did so. I heard them before I saw them, or at least, I heard the masked man.
“After what you told me about the girl,” the masked man was saying, “I had my contact at the hospital get a little more information on her. According to the nurse, the girl was actually male when she arrived at the hospital…”
Dr. Smith gave me a look of surprise and exclaimed, “You never said anything about such a drastic change…”
“You never asked,” I answered, acting as though it was no big deal and that I wasn’t the least bit embarrassed about being a girl. Debra was staring at me in surprise too, though I pretended that I didn’t notice.
For a moment, a dark look flashed through Dr. Smith’s eyes, then he just chuckled and said, “I imagine you were a little distracted.”
The masked man continued talking, almost as though I wasn’t even there. “I also found out her mother is an old…acquaintance…”
That got my attention and I immediately moved to get a better look at the masked man. He was wearing nice suit, just like he’d been wearing at the hospital when he’d kidnapped me, and he was leaning on a cane. But most important, he wasn’t wearing a mask so I had a clear view of his face. The no longer masked man was in his mid to late forties, with the kind of good looks that were reminiscent of George Clooney.
“That bitch is responsible for my lovely cane,” he continued, leaning down and patting his knee with a scowl. Then he paused, finally noticing that I was staring at him.
Though I’d never seen this man before, I already knew exactly who he was. If his comments about my mom hadn’t been enough of a clue, his face alone probably would have convinced me. After all, it was an older version of the face I was used to seeing in the mirror.
“I always wondered if I’d ever get to meet you,” I announced in a cold flat tone that seemed to surprise him. Then I glared at him and sneered, “Hello, Daddy.”
August 1st, 2007
“Another day in paradise,” I muttered from where I sat on the floor of my prison cell. Sure, it was probably a bit more comfortable than most prison cells, but that didn’t change what it was.
At the moment, I was on the floor with my legs spread apart, leaning forward against one leg to stretch and then shifting over and doing the same to my other leg. I spent about five minutes stretching this way, getting a better feel for my new body, which was noticeably more flexible than my old one. I’d performed this stretching routine yesterday morning as well and found that it helped me to feel like I had a little bit of control, at least for a few minutes.
While I stretched, my thoughts turned back to the events of the other day, when I’d not only woken up from my latest burnout, but also learned a great deal of surprising information. Of course, the true nature of my powers was one such surprise, though the fact that my biological father was one of my kidnappers was an even bigger one.
Dr. Smith still hadn’t told me anything about the real nature of my powers, at least not directly, but I’ve been listening in and paying attention. I was making a point of trying to learn as much from my kidnappers as possible since the more I knew, the better off I’d be when it came to escaping. The big trick was to make them think that I’d given up and was going along with them until they let me go. I was pretty sure that was never going to happen.
Dr. Smith and Archimedes were pretty interested in my powers and how I was able to shift from having one power set to another. Of course, they were more interested in using that information to duplicate it, to intentionally give specific powers to people. From what I’d heard from Debra, they planned on giving powers to baseline humans, but they might not have been completely honest with her. I still didn’t know why they wanted to do this, whether it was so everyone could have powers and be considered equal that way, or more likely, if they just planned on selling powers. The truth was, I didn’t care about their motives, only what they planned to do with me.
It was strange to realize that every night while I was asleep, my body changed shape and I never even would have realized it if it hadn’t been for my eavesdropping. Apparently, this mode change even took care of any injuries I had, such as the small bruises and cuts caused by my power testing, leaving me to wake up with a fresh new body. That was one of the reasons I’d started this morning stretching, so I could sort of break in my new body.
I shook my head, knowing just how lucky I was that my body did reset whenever I changed modes. If it hadn’t been for that, then I probably would have died during my first burnout, much less surviving my second one as well. Being able to wake up the next morning with a fresh body, without any of the injuries I’d gone to bed with, wasn’t quite as impressive as regeneration, but it came close. In some cases, like with my burnout, it might even be better.
Then my thoughts turned to my dad, Walter Hanson…aka Thomas Charles…aka Asshole. While I’d been growing up, Mom had told me all about him, largely as a warning about the kind of person I didn’t want to become. After hearing about the man who’d seduced, manipulated, and betrayed my mom, I’d never had any interest at all in actually meeting him. Of course, I’d imagined that meeting on numerous occasions anyway, but the real thing hadn’t been anything like I’d envisioned. The real meeting had been…anticlimactic.
After I’d called him, “Daddy,” I’d expected some kind of big reaction, perhaps even a show of horror and regret over his part in kidnapping me. Instead, he gave me a look of surprise, then merely sneered and said, “You aren’t any kid of mine.” And with that, he’d calmly walked away, not even bothering to look at me again. I knew he was still hanging around the building, but I hadn’t seen him again since.
“Mom was right,” I muttered with a snort of disgust. “He really is an asshole.”
When I finished with my stretching, I stood up and brushed off the sensor suit which I was still wearing. Dr. Smith insisted that I wear it at all times, except when I was taking care of my personal business. He even insisted that I wear the suit while sleeping so he could track my nighttime shifts, not that he actually told me his reasons. I just grimaced in annoyance since after a couple days, it was starting to get a bit gross. Unfortunately, I doubted this thing was as easy to clean as just throwing it in the washer.
I went to the small bathroom and stripped off the sensor suit, relieved to get it off, even if it wasn’t for very long. I did my business on the toilet, then turned my attention to the rest of my personal business, cleaning up as much as I could. I hadn’t had a shower since I arrived at this place so I’d been forced to make due with sponge baths from the sink. Fortunately, they’d thought to provide me with soap, shampoo, a wash rag, and a towel. Though I’d washed up last night before bed, sleeping in the sensor suit made me feel dirty again, not that washing would do much good since I’d just be putting the thing back on in a few minutes. But at least I’d feel clean for a minute or two.
A short time later, I was once again dressed and waiting for Debra or Dr. Smith to come get me. I’d already seen my guard this morning, when she’d come into the room, pounded on the door, and yelled for me to get my lazy butt out of bed. Then she’d slammed the door, once again locking me inside. I knew that before long, she’d be back with breakfast, and after that I’d go for another round of testing. I didn’t really see much point to testing me today since Dr. Smith had already tested this particular power set.
At the moment, I was in my psychic mode, with what Dr. Smith called my level 2 telekinetic powers. My telekinesis definitely wasn’t on the strong side, and I seemed to be limited to twenty pounds with a ten yard maximum range, though I did have one advantage he didn’t seem to know about. I wasn’t just a telekinetic…I was a package deal psychic. My other psychic abilities were pretty weak and I hadn’t been able to really test them without letting Dr. Smith know of their existence, but I hoped they could be useful.
I closed my eyes and listened to the esper sense that I’d discovered the first time I had this ability. I could ‘feel’ Debra just outside the door, but that was about the limit of what I could sense. I could tell when other people were close, and in the hospital, the same sense had warned me when I was in danger. However, this aspect of my power didn’t seem to do much more than give me that small boost to my awareness of my surroundings.
Of course, the limited abilities I had at the moment were much more useful than the ones I’d had yesterday. Yesterday, I’d discovered what powers came with that mysterious fifth mode of mine, though I’d spent half the day thinking that I didn’t have any. We’d gone through all the power testing steps AGAIN, and I hadn’t shown any signs of possessing any abilities at all. However, that all changed when we looked over a collection of random junk that Dr. Smith had called ‘mystic objects’. I’d already looked over the book, figurine, magician’s hat, and crystal ball during my previous testing, but yesterday was different. That time, they’d all glowed.
“You’re sensitive to magical energies,” Dr. Smith had announced in delight, only to admit a minute later that he didn’t know anything about magic and had no idea about how to test me further. After going through the entire power testing scenario again yesterday, the only thing I’d walked away with was Dr. Smith’s guess that I was a low level magic user, or that I at least had a low level ability to tap into raw magic energy.
“Not that it does much good when I don’t know how to actually use magic,” I muttered in annoyance. From what I understood, this was like having access to a power outlet when I didn’t have anything to plug into it. “Now if only Hagrid would come and whisk me away to magic school.”
The other day, I’d heard Dr. Smith say that he’d detected five distinct modes that I kept shifting between, and so far he seemed to be right. I seemed to have five separate sets of powers that I alternated between at random, though none of them were particularly strong. My first mode was the exemplar one that came with several enhanced physical abilities, and then there was my current mode which included few psychic tricks. Both of those could be useful for my escape, along with the energizer one…assuming I could learn to actually control it. My devisor and magical power sets had the potential to be useful, but they required either materials or training, both of which were currently in short supply.
Since I was paying attention, I knew Debra was coming, right before she opened the door. As usual, she set my plate of food on the floor, announced, “You’ve got fifteen minutes,” and then left again.
“My favorite,” I said with a roll of my eyes as I looked over my breakfast. “Cheerios.”
When Debra came for me again a short time later, I was a little slow getting up and going to the door. For a moment, I thought she was going to give me another zap of ‘motivation’ from the collar, something that I’d avoided for a couple days, but instead she just grabbed my arm to give me a light push. Considering the fact that she obviously didn’t like me, it was fairly gentle. I probably wouldn’t even have a bruise from it. Probably.
But as Debra grabbed hold of me, I felt something in my head and heard her thoughts, “I almost feel sorry for this girl, but it’s her or Carrie…and I pick Carrie every time.”
I was a little surprised by what I heard, though not by the fact that I heard it. I’d already discovered that a part of my current power set was that I could hear people’s surface thoughts, as long as I was actually touching them. I’d discovered this the first time during my kidnapping, when my asshole father had grabbed hold of me, and I’d experienced it again briefly a few days back when I’d come into contact with Dr. Smith during our testing. However, I was careful not to show any reaction to what I’d heard since I didn’t want any of my kidnappers to know that I was holding back.
I arrived at main testing room to find Dr. Smith and Archimedes in the middle of a conversation. Archimedes looked angry, and to my surprise, it seemed to be directed at his partner.
“Your BIT detector was able to confirm the presence of a BIT,” Dr. Smith told Archimedes, trying to calm him down with a gentle and friendly tone. “But as you know, your BIT scanner isn’t fully functional yet. I know this offends your scientific sensibilities, and admittedly, it does mine to a degree as well. However, I feel that I had little choice…”
“You know how complicated the issue of a BIT is,” Archimedes stated, sounding a little defensive. “Our understanding is…incomplete. Even my technology falls short, but I’m certain that with a little more research…”
“I’m certain that you’ll be the first to patent the technology for a working BIT scanner,” Dr. Smith assured him with a gentle smile. “But the truth is, we don’t have the time to wait…which is why I acquired that devise. As distasteful as it may be to resort to using a devise, this is our most efficient option at the moment.”
Archimedes scowled at that and shook his head. “Devises are…unreliable. Any results you obtain from this devise would be questionable at best.”
“Perhaps,” Dr. Smith agreed with a chuckle. “But if nothing else, it may indicate a direction where we should focus further research.”
Archimedes didn’t anything more to that, though he did glare to an odd piece of equipment that had been added to the lab. It looked something like a high tech chair that was connected to a bunch of wires, circuit boards, and blinking lights. Then he snorted before abruptly turning and walking away, much to my relief. Archimedes made me very uncomfortable, but at least he was honest about his contempt for me, unlike Dr. Smith.
Once Archimedes was gone, Dr. Smith turned to me with a smile and said, “Good morning, my dear. I hope you slept well.”
“Fine,” I answered, not bothering to point out that I would have slept much better without the sensor suit or the bomb strapped to my neck.
“Good good,” he responded. “Since our sensors indicate that you currently have your telekinetic powers active, our normal power testing won’t be necessary. However, I do have some new tests that you can help me with.”
“I’m always happy to help,” I told him with a sigh. Then I reached out and touched his hand before asking, “How much more do we have to do before I can go home?”
I was already pretty certain that he had no intention of letting me go home, in spite of what he’d said the first time we met. However, I wanted him to think that I still believed him, and more than that, I wanted to confirm my suspicions.
“Maybe another week at most,” Dr. Smith assured me, giving me a friendly smile as he lied.
Since I was touching Dr. Smith, I was able to hear his surface thoughts, and it was all I could do not to yank my hand back when he thought, “I’ll have everything I need from normal testing within a month, then I’ll move to the dissection stage…”
“Good,” I told him with a forced smile of my own, trying hard not to show my fear.
A minute later, I climbed into the odd looking chair, the BIT scanning devise that Dr. Smith had somehow acquired. I watched the doctor, thinking that after hearing his thoughts, he was even scarier than before. And oddly enough, after listening in on Debra, I was just a little less frightened of her. After all, she was humane enough that she actually seemed to feel some sympathy, even though she wasn’t going to act on it.
Dr. Smith had me sit in the chair for about ten minutes, then he ran a few other tests on me. When he was done with this, he looked over the results, frowning thoughtfully and glancing back at me. Then he finally mused, “This could be problematic…”
“What?” I asked, feeling a little worried. I had to remind myself that just because something was a problem for him, that didn’t mean it was for me. In fact, it just might be good news.
“Unfortunately, Archimedes was correct,” Dr. Smith explained with a thoughtful look. “Devises are inherently unstable and unreliable, and this one certainly isn’t easy to make sense of. It doesn’t help that no one truly understands what a BIT is…even those who claim expertise.” He gave me a curious look while I tried to remain calm and patient, waiting for him to get to the point. “If I’m reading this correctly, it seems that your BIT may be damaged.”
I froze at that, feeling a cold chill run down my spine. For an exemplar, their BIT was a blueprint for their entire body and even some of their powers, and I was pretty sure the same thing was true for shifters. If there was something wrong my BIT, then there was no telling what that could do to my body.
“I wonder how this relates to your alternating powers,” Dr. Smith mused aloud, seeming to be talking to himself more than me. “Or your burnouts…”
Those words made me gulp as I considered all the consequences that could come from having a damaged BIT. With a damaged BIT, there would be a high risk for GSD, so I could very well end up looking like some kind of hideous monster, something that was so bad that death might be preferable. My powers could go wild, spinning out of control so that I become a danger to myself and everyone around me. And of course, a damaged BIT could easily lead to burnout and death.
As I considered these possibilities, I thought about how my body had already changed, how my powers kept shifting on their own, and how I’ve already gone through two burnouts and came extremely close to dying in both. How much of this had been caused by a damaged BIT?
“And just when I thought I was getting a handle on this,” I mused, taking a deep breath and trying to stay calm. After all, freaking out about this wouldn’t fix my BIT, if it really was damaged. Even Dr. Smith, who’d just run the tests, didn’t seem completely certain of that. My best bet was to have Mom and Beth talk to some of their friends. They both had a lot of contacts in the mutant community, and surely one of them would know enough about BITs to verify if mine was really damaged or not.
I turned my attention back to Dr. Smith, who was running through the data again with a look of annoyance. He obviously wasn’t happy with the idea of my BIT being damaged either, though he had a completely different reason. My guess was that he was afraid of how this would affect his research and the likelihood of being able figure out how I was able to take on different powers.
Dr. Smith ran me through a few more tests, keeping me occupied until it was about time for lunch. At that time, Debra led me back to my room, just as she usually did. I went along without causing any problems, trying not to think too much about my BIT. After all, I had other things to focus on, ones that were of a little more immediate importance. In fact, I had to focus nearly every bit of concentration I possessed on one thing in particular, though it was all I could do not to grin until I was back in my room with the door locked behind me.
“Got it,” I quietly exclaimed, chuckling evilly to myself as I looked up towards the ceiling. Floating near the ceiling was Debra’s cell phone, which I’d snatched with my telekinesis and had snuck into the room right above our heads. “Come to Papa…Mama.”
The moment I had the cell phone in my hand, I dialed home, hoping that Mom would actually answer. Mom never heard the phone ringing when she was in her lab, and especially not when she was in one of her obsessive building phases… After several rings, I was about to try Beth when Mom suddenly picked up, with, “Hello?”
“Mom,” I blurted out in relief.
“Austin?” Mom exclaimed.
“Amy,” I corrected her with a sigh, realizing even as I said it that I probably shouldn’t waste time making a big deal about my name.
“Where are you?” she demanded, her voice filled with worry. “The nurse at the hospital said that you freaked out and ran off… What were you thinking? I’ve been so worried…”
“WHAT?” I gasped, hardly able to believe what I was hearing, or at least that Mom would believe it. “I didn’t run off…I was kidnapped. The nurse was in on it…”
This time it was Mom’s turn to blurt out, “What?”
“It was Archimedes,” I explained quickly, knowing that she’d recognize the name. I heard a gasp from the other end and knew that she got how serious this was. “He’s working with some guy who calls himself Doctor Smith, but I know that’s not his real name. I think he’s a baseline scientist and they’re trying to experiment on me…” I paused at that, suddenly realizing that I was starting to ramble.
“Amy,” Mom said, her voice shaking. “Where are you?”
I took a deep breath, then admitted, “I don’t know.” My voice shook from the emotion as I continued, “I’ve been locked up in this building since they took me and they never said where we are…” Then I paused again, biting my lip for a moment before adding, “And there’s more…”
“Archimedes,” Mom whispered, sounding more than a little worried.
“Archimedes was one of the guys who grabbed me from the hospital,” I explained quietly, feeling a knot forming in my stomach as I thought about how she’d handle what I was about to say next. “My dad was the other.”
“WHAT?” Mom demanded, her voice suddenly being filled with shock and anger. I could easily picture her expression.
“It was him,” I told her grimly. “He has a limp and a cane…”
“The BASTARD,” Mom snarled furiously. “I knew I should have just disintegrated him. But no, I had to get fancy with a concussion grenade…”
I grimaced, recognizing that tone of voice and knowing exactly where it would lead. “Mom,” I said in my best calm and reasonable voice, hoping that I still had time to get her back on track.
“But he won’t get away from me again,” she continued to vent. “This time, I’m going to stick a rocket up his ass and launch him into the stratosphere…”
“MOM,” I repeated a little more firmly. “I need you to focus…”
“No,” she exclaimed in the manic tone that indicated that she’d slipped into a full blown Diedricks episode. “I’ll build fireworks into the rocket so he’ll explode in a brilliant display…a warning for anyone who’s even thinking of crossing me…”
“Don’t drick out on me now,” I ordered, though I knew that I was already too late. Mom had already left the phone, not even bothering to hang up. “Damn.”
Since Mom was out of commission for however it long it took to build a butt rocket, I hung up and made another call. This time I called Beth, but I only got her voicemail. Still, I left her a message, explaining what was going on, though I doubted it would do much good when I didn’t even know where I was.
“Maybe Kara,” I muttered, thinking maybe that I should let her know that I was all right. However, I didn’t know what to say, not at the moment. Beth would let her know I was alive, but when I did call Kara, I’d prefer it if it was to tell her I was free.
I stared at the phone for several seconds, annoyed at the fact that I’d completely missed a major flaw in my plan. Sure, being able to call out was great, but the fact that I didn’t know where I was sort of limited how useful that was. Of course, Beth might get some of her super hero contacts to track the phone call, but I didn’t know how long that would take, nor could I count on it happening at all.
Debra would notice her missing phone before long, and I doubted that it would take more than a few minutes after that before they searched my room and found it. That would definitely be a problem, especially considering what else I’d been up to. I had been hoping that I could wait for my rescuers to come to me, but now it looked like I was going to have to go with my riskier plan B. I’d been hoping to save that one for when I was an exemplar again and would be better suited to physical activity, but it seemed that I didn’t have much choice. I’d have to take my opening now while I still had it.
I took a minute to mentally prepare myself, then I turned my attention to the ceiling tiles, or at least to one specific one. The last time I’d given that tile my attention had been two days ago, and then I’d had to stand on the bed to reach it. This time, I had my telekinesis to make it easier. With my power du-jour, I moved the tile aside and retrieved the small object that I’d hidden up there.
The devise was an odd looking thing about the size of my fist, made from recycled parts from the sensor suit as well as a few small items I’d palmed while Dr. Smith had me out for testing. I’d build the devise that night before bed, and then hid it until it was the right time to use it.
“Please work,” I told the small devise, and then on a whim, I gave it a gentle little kiss. I figure that since I’m a girl now, maybe I can tap into some of that girl luck they used when kissing dice in casinos. Or did they blow on the dice? I wasn’t really sure since I’d never actually been in a casino.
I held the devise up to the collar around my neck and pushed the button. An instant later, I felt a hum through the collar, right before the latch popped open. I didn’t waste any time in tossing the collar as far away from myself as possible.
“It looks like my collar unlock-o-matic works,” I joked, feeling pretty giddy about this. I actually made a devise that worked…on purpose.
I looked at the door to the room and frowned, wishing I could use my devise to unlock that as well. However, it was designed to unlock the magnetic lock in the collar, not the old fashioned key lock from the door. But the truth was, that would have been convenient, but it wasn’t necessary.
I rubbed at my neck, which felt much better without that horrible collar I’d been wearing for the last week. And though I’d like to toss the sensor suit as well, that wasn’t really an option at the moment, not when I didn’t have anything else to wear. However, I made a mental note to take care of that as soon as I reasonably could.
“But first things first,” I mused, looking back up to the tiled ceiling.
When I’d been hiding my devise up in the tiles, I’d taken a brief look and saw that the crawlspace extended beyond the walls. It was obvious that this room hadn’t been originally built to hold people prisoner, because instead of trying to get through the locked door, I merely had to go up into the crawlspace and I could climb right on over it. However, I’d been hoping to hold off on that until I was a bit more athletic, and I still had to get past Debra who’d hear any noise I made while trying this.
Though it wasn’t easy, I forced myself to be patient and wait, just as I’d been doing for the last two days. I stretched out my esper senses again, this time no longer feeling Debra on the other side of the door. I smiled faintly at that. Since I was locked up in the room and had the collar around my neck, there was no need for her to guard my door constantly, and I knew that she’d frequently wander off to take care of other things. This meant that it was time to act.
I quickly pushed the bed into a corner and used it to help me climb up into the crawlspace. I had to grab some pipes and metal supports that had been hidden by the tiles, using them to pull myself up and support me so I didn’t fall back down. After all, the ceiling tiles wouldn’t be able to support even a fraction of my weight, so I didn’t even try. I knew that I made a bit of noise while I was doing this, which was why I’d waited until Debra was away. Still, I had to hurry before she came back.
Just a minute later, I dropped down through the ceiling tiles into the next room over, one that looked like it was being used as a storage room for medical supplies. I looked around nervously, using my esper senses as much as my eyes and letting out a relief when I saw there was no one coming.
The door to this room wasn’t locked, so I stuck my head out, and once I saw it was clear, I hurried down the hall. After a minute, I heard Dr. Smith and Archimedes having a conversation, but instead of stopping to listen in on them, I changed direction and made a wide detour. It didn’t take me long to find the exit of the building, and as I rushed out, I had an immense sense of relief.
Once I was outside, I looked at a nearly empty parking lot, then at the building I’d just escaped from. To my surprise, it wasn’t some warehouse or old abandoned building, but instead looked like some kind of professional office that was well taken care of. There was even a sign that said, ‘Harris Medical Supplies.’
I still wasn’t sure of exactly where I was, but this gave a big clue. I hurried away from the building as quickly as I could, trying to avoid being seen. Only then did I use the phone to make another call, not even bothering with my mom since I knew she’d be caught up in her lab. Instead, I called Beth and left another message on her voicemail.
Next, I needed to get even more distance between these guys and myself, and of course, find some real clothes to wear. I should probably find the cops as well, but I wasn’t sure how seriously I’d be taken by them, being a mutant and dressed in this weird outfit. For all I knew, they might decide I was a threat and report me to the MCO. I didn’t want to risk that.
However, before I could get any further, I suddenly began to feel hot and achy, symptoms that I was more than familiar with after going through two burnouts. I felt a surge of fear as I realized that it was happening again. I was going through another burnout.
Even as I felt worse and worse, I realized just how bad it would be this time. The first time, I’d probably survived only because Mom had been there with a freeze ray to keep my body temperature down, and the second time, Dr. Smith had been on hand with medical attention...at least enough to keep me stable until my own powers reset my body and reversed the damage. But this, I didn’t have either of those things.
I curled up on the ground in pain, hurting too much to move. I felt as though I was going to burst into flames at any moment, but that didn’t happen. And though I expected to lose consciousness again, this time I didn’t.
Just when I thought I couldn’t take any more, something changed and the pain receded, though it didn’t go away. Instead, it continued increasing again until it was back to the previous levels.
“Here she is,” a familiar voice called out.
I looked over and saw Debra coming towards me with a pissed of look on her face. With every step, the concrete ground beneath her cracked and her feet sank, giving me the first real clue as to what her powers might be, though I was still hurting too much to really care.
“You selfish little bitch,” Debra exclaimed with an angry snarl. “Do you realize what you almost cost me?”
“At ease,” Dr. Smith told Debra, though he gave me a cold and angry look before he dropped down and began examining me. “Our subject is going through another burnout. If it wasn’t for the sensor suit warning me of her vital signs…”
While Dr. Smith was looking me over, my pain and fever faded away, but I was pretty sure that it had nothing to do with his treatment. Instead, it seemed that my power had taken care of the burnout before it got as bad as the last two times, though I still felt like crap.
Dr. Smith looked at a computer tablet, then at me before observing, “The burnout appears to have already run its course.” Then he gave me a flat look and said, “You’re quite fortunate that this was merely a…micro-burnout. I believe that term is accurate.”
“Somehow, I don’t feel lucky,” I responded bitterly, silently cursing the fact that this burnout had cut short my escape.
I felt a moment of hope as I realized that my escape might not be completely over. I tried using my telekinesis to knock Debra off balance, only to discover that power was gone. I mentally tried going through my powers to determine which one I had, but I didn’t sense anything. That meant I was either a devisor again, or had that magical sensitivity, neither of which would do me any good.
“Take her back inside,” Dr. Smith told Debra. “And there’s no need to be gentle.”
“My pleasure,” Debra responded, glaring at me before grabbing my arm and yanking me to my feet. There was a sharp pain from my arm and I cried out as it broke. She didn’t seem to care though as she just picked me up and tossed me over her shoulder, then carried me back inside.
--------------------
August 2nd, 2007
I was more than tired of Dr. Smith’s lab and all the testing he kept putting me through. Now that we knew what my different powers were, he’d shifted away from power testing and kept going a lot of other things instead. That meant, I kept going into several full-body MRI type machines, and of course, he kept taking blood samples.
At the moment, I was sitting on a stool and waiting for him to decide what he wanted to do next. It was all I could do not to tug at the collar, which was once again locked firmly around my neck. Of course, the collar was pretty minor compared to the fact that whenever they left me alone, they now chained me to something as well. I’d spent the entire night chained to the bed, unable to even get up to take a piss until Debra checked on me this morning.
I kept thinking about my escape attempt and just how close I’d come to making it. If it hadn’t been for my going into a burnout, I would have been home free. But not only had that burnout stopped me dead, it had also warned my kidnapers that something was wrong.
Debra was standing a short distance away, watching me with a cold glare. She was the one who broke my arm yesterday, but she was acting as though I was the one who’d hurt her. I was just glad that with the way my shifting power worked, I woke up this morning with my arm fully healed.
Dad came into the lab, though he made an obvious effort to not even look in my direction. Though he firmly denied that he was my father, and he’d carefully avoided me ever since, I still made him uncomfortable. I wasn’t sure if it was the idea of kidnapping his own kid that made him avoid me, or if it was just the idea of even having a kid. What I did know was that once I had a chance, I was going to make him pay for what he’d done to me…and to Mom.
“Bad news,” my dad told Dr. Smith with a deep scowl and a shake of his head. “That power mimic I had a line on… She ended up on the bad side of some Humanity First. Apparently, they put a bullet through her head.”
“Most unfortunate,” Dr. Smith told him with a frown. “And the man with the varying powers?”
“It turns out he’s some kind of magic user,” my dad explained with a sigh. “All the different powers are really just different magic effects.”
“A pity,” Dr. Smith said, glancing to me and musing, “It seems our little volunteer is still our best chance to succeed.”
I scowled at his calling me a ‘volunteer,’ but I bit my tongue and didn’t say anything. The last thing I needed was another zap from the collar, already having received several of them since my escape attempt.
“Unfortunately,” Dr. Smith continued, talking to my dad and appearing to ignore me. “She appears to have a damaged BIT, and from what I can determine, it’s causing subtle flaws in her various modes…ones which have resulted in the multiple burnouts. I fear that this taints the readings we have on her so far. If we try duplicating her powers, there’s a large chance we may duplicate the flaws, resulting in unstable powers with a high risk of burnout.”
“And that certainly wouldn’t be good for business,” Dad mused, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “At least she keeps bouncing back from the burnouts pretty quickly…”
Dr. Smith nodded at that before responding, “For now. With the damage to her BIT, it may only be a matter of time before one of her shifts results in a fatal flaw, or triggers a burnout that she’s unable to recover from.”
That news hit me like a physical blow, though I tried not to show it. Instead, I clenched my hands into tight fists and bit my tongue, knowing that I’d learn more by staying silent and continuing to listen. So far, that strategy had been working pretty well for keeping me informed.
My dad glanced towards me, and for a brief moment, I thought that I actually saw a look of sympathy on his face, though he quickly looked away and covered it up. “So basically,” he asked Dr. Smith with a frown, “every time she shifts powers…it’s like playing Russian roulette?”
Dr. Smith hesitated a moment before answering, “That’s a crude way of describing the situation...but an apt simile.”
“Damn,” Dad muttered with a shake of his head, making a clear effort not to look at me again. “I’ll keep looking for possible replacements.”
As soon as Dad was gone, Dr. Smith turned back to me, giving me a friendly smile, “Now then, you’re quite the fortunate girl. My research may be just the thing you need to fix your little…issue.”
“I hope so,” I said, though I knew full well that Dr. Smith wouldn’t be able to do anything at all for me. It was already pretty clear that he didn’t know much about how a BIT worked, and he certainly wouldn’t be able to fix one that was damaged. In fact, I didn’t know if there was anyone in the world who was capable of doing that.
Dr. Smith put me through several more tests, this time with just a little more urgency. I suspected that he was trying to get as much out of me as possible before I self-destructed. I continued to cooperate, just as I’d done before my escape attempt. After all, I wanted them to lower their guard again so I might find another opportunity.
Eventually, my dad came back, announcing, “Hey Debra…you were saying you lost your phone?”
“Yesterday,” she responded with a scowl.
My dad held up her phone and said, “I found it outside, near where you guys found her…” He gestured to me and then handed the phone to Debra.
Debra seemed surprised at that but didn’t hesitate to look at her phone. After several seconds, her eyes went wide. She suddenly glared at me and exclaimed, “You tricky bitch…”
“What?” Dr. Smith demanded, holding up a hand to stop Debra, who’d begun walking towards me.
“She must have swiped my phone before she ran,” Debra spat out, giving me an angry look. “There are a couple outbound calls from yesterday…and I don’t recognize the numbers.”
Dr. Smith suddenly snapped around to glare at me with a similar expression to the one Debra possessed. “Who did you call?”
“The Ghostbusters,” I responded, only to get a zap from my collar that caused me to drop to the floor in a series of painful spasms.
“Who did you call?” Dr. Smith demanded again.
“The exterminator,” I answered with a grimace of pain. “This place is full of rats…”
Debra came towards me, and for a moment I thought she was going to kick me while I was on the floor. However, Dr. Smith stopped her. “We might be compromised,” he told her with barely contained anger. “We need to move our operation immediately.”
“I’ll let Archimedes know,” my dad announced before he hurried away.
“Bring her,” Dr. Smith told Debra, gesturing to me. “And don’t hurt her too much. It’ll be easier to transport her if she’s not too injured.”
“Lucky for you,” Debra told me, grabbing my arm and pulling me to my feet, this time doing it without actually breaking my arm. “But if you even think about trying something else…”
“We grab just the essentials and leave now,” Dr. Smith announced. “You and Archimedes can come back for everything else later…assuming it’s safe.”
Twenty minutes later, we stepped out of the building and started into the parking lot. Archimedes and my dad had already filled a van up with whatever they could in that short time, and there was another car with a loaded trunk. I was actually impressed at how much they’d managed to grab in that short time, though most it seemed to consist of various computers, hard drives, and tissue samples.
“I’m afraid that you’re going to regret this inconvenience,” Dr. Smith told me, no longer playing nice. “You’re fortunate that we still need you alive and in one piece…”
“Yeah, but she heals up pretty quick,” Debra reminded him, giving me an evil smirk. “Even when she doesn’t have regen.” The look she gave me contained a promise of great pain in my future. I gulped.
Suddenly, the air was filled with a strange humming sound, one that I’d heard before, though it had been a couple years. Then there was a flash of light from the van, followed by a loud BOOM. A moment later, I saw that the van was gone, replaced with a small crater which contained a twisted metal sphere…which was all that was left of the van.
“My research,” Dr. Smith exclaimed in shock and horror.
“What the hell was that?” my dad demanded as he looked around frantically.
“A singularity bomb,” I answered with an evil grin.
Several years ago, Mom had taken me to a test range to show off some of her more destructive weapons, especially the oldest ones that she no longer used. At the time, she’d been cleaning out the back of her armory in order to make room for new additions. I remembered her singularity bombs because they were so unique. They momentarily created an artificial singularity, which generated such a sudden and powerful gravitational pull that it caused an implosion.
“A singularity bomb?” Debra demanded, suddenly looking more than a little worried.
The humming sound started again, and a moment later, the car suddenly imploded the same way the van had. The car and everything inside sucked together, forming a dense ball in the middle of the crater.
“My research,” Dr. Smith cried out, dropping to his knees and looking as though he was about to burst into tears. “All my test results and samples…”
“It looks like my mom is here to pick me up,” I said with a grin, seeing a look of fear flash through my dad’s eyes.
“I only know one person who uses singularity bombs,” Debra exclaimed, looking around frantically. Then she suddenly glared at my dad and demanded, “Why didn’t you tell me who her mother was? Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
“Control yourself,” Archimedes ordered Debra with a note of contempt in his voice. “Whoever her mother is, she’s just a devisor.”
“True,” a familiar voice called out. “But I’m not.”
With that, Beth stepped into view, or more accurately, Statuesque did. Beth was fully powered-up and in her costume, looking pissed and more than a little intimidating. I immediately let out a sigh of relief when I saw her.
“Statuesque,” Debra stated with a sneer, giving me the feeling that there was some history there.
“Dense,” Beth snarled. “I heard you went into the villain game after graduation, but I never thought you’d go for kidnapping kids…”
“My name is DenSITY,” Debra snapped back angrily. “Not Dense…”
“As far as I’m concerned, Debra,” Mom’s voice called out, “your name is dead meat…”
With that, Mom stepped into view, joining Beth. I stared at her in surprise since she was wearing the outfit that she’d worn during her brief career as a super hero. She had a dark blue jumpsuit, which I knew was made of fireproof and impact resistant materials, and it was covered with straps and pouches, all of which contained various weapons. She even had a large rail gun strapped to her back. And to top it off, she was wearing the goggles which served as a mask.
Debra glared at Mom and spat out, “If it isn’t Boob Job.”
“That’s BOOM Job,” Mom responded angrily. “With an M.” Then she turned her attention to my dad, giving him a cold look that should have made him turn and run. “I’ll deal with you in a few minutes…”
“I’d run if I were you,” I told my dad cheerfully. “When I talked to her yesterday, she said she was planning on strapping a rocket to your ass and launching you into space.”
“Enough of this posturing,” Archimedes stated, glancing to Debra. “I’ll deal with the devisor. You handle the hero.”
“Gladly,” Debra responded, giving a nervous glance at my mom before she started walking towards Beth. As she started walking, the concrete began to crack under each footstep and her feet began sinking into the ground.
“This has been a long time coming,” Beth told Debra.
“Come on, you overgrown bitch,” Debra responded, right before the larger woman punched her. Debra went flying back, and when she came to a stop, the concrete cracked beneath her and she sank a little into the ground. She got back to her feet, seeming unharmed, which showed just how tough she was if she could take a hit like that from Beth.
“Are you all right Au…Amy?” Mom asked me, giving me a worried look while still keeping an eye on Archimedes.
“Just fine,” I responded wryly. “It’s not like I have a bomb around my neck or anything.”
I started backing away, only to have Dr. Smith glare at me. “Don’t move, child.” He held up his hand, revealing the small remote he had that triggered my collar. Though he didn’t give me a zap, the threat was there.
Without warning, Mom swung her freeze ray at Archimedes and pulled the trigger, though nothing happened. Archimedes just stood there with a smug look, not flinching in the least. Of course, not only was Archimedes a gadgeteer, but he also had his other ability, the one that he could use to stop any devises near him from working.
“No devise will work against me,” Archimedes stated arrogantly. “Science is far superior to that unreliable nonsense you devisors build.”
“Don’t underestimate Boob Job,” Debra called out to him, not taking her eyes off Beth. “I wouldn’t be surprised if that crazy bitch has a nuke on her somewhere…”
“That’s Boom Job,” Mom snapped, pulling out a shrink ray and trying to shoot Debra with that, though this weapon didn’t work anymore than the freeze ray had. “I wish I’d never picked that codename…”
“I guess that explains why Mom never told me what her codename is,” I mused, watching Archimedes carefully.
Though I was trying to act calm, I was worried about my mom. Sure, Mom had some pretty powerful weapons, but that didn’t do any good when none of them worked. And unfortunately, Archimedes didn’t have that problem since all of his weapons would still work.
I glanced over to Beth, who was dealing with Debra. Though Beth towered over Debra by more than a foot, the smaller woman was definitely holding her own. They were trading punches and kicks, though Debra’s feet kept sinking into the ground, showing just how heavy she’d become.
Then I looked back at Archimedes, who pulled out his high tech weapon and calmly stated, “Now I’ll demonstrate just how inferior devisors are…again.”
“Leave her alone,” I snarled, pissed that he’d dare threaten my mom. However, Archimedes didn’t even look at me.
I glanced to Dr. Smith and my dad, both of whom were standing back, confident that Archimedes and Debra had everything under control. Dr. Smith still had the small remote held in his hand, ready to use it the moment I caused any trouble. I scowled, knowing full well that even if Mom and Beth were able to beat Debra and Archimedes, he’d just use me as a hostage. There was no way I was going to let Archimedes hurt my mom, nor let myself be used as a hostage.
I took a deep breath and then shifted my vision so I could see the glow that marked electromagnetic energy around me. There was definitely a strong glow running through Archimedes’ armor and weapons, giving a clear indication that he was indeed wearing power armor.
“Do you really think I’m afraid of you?” Mom asked Archimedes, giving him a cold glare. “I came to get my daughter back, and that is exactly what I’m going to do…”
“I respect your tenacity,” Archimedes said as he raised his weapon. “It’s unfortunate that you’ve wasted your life with that pseudo-scientific drivel…”
While they were trading barbs, I’d already begun using my energizer abilities, pulling as much energy towards me as I could. I focused all the gathered energy into my hands, hoping I could get enough to do something useful. Then Dr. Smith finally noticed what I was doing and he tried activating the collar to give me a zap, but my power absorbed the shock and transferred the energy to my hands along with everything else I was gathering.
“Cease,” Dr. Smith started to command, though I completely ignored him.
Since I’d already learned during testing that I couldn’t throw this ball of concentrated energy, I leapt at Archimedes instead. I slammed the glowing blue ball right into his back and suddenly sparks exploded from his armor, and a moment later, he dropped to his knees. At the same time, he dropped his weapon and began to shake as though having some kind of seizure. I just jumped back, amazed that my attack had that kind of effect.
“A focused EMP,” Archimedes gasped. “My armor took the brunt of the attack… You destroyed it.” He turned to glare up at me, looking pissed…and in pain. “You’ll pay for that, child…”
“No, she won’t,” Mom stated in a hard tone, suddenly pointing a gun right at Archimedes’ forehead.
“Devises don’t work near me,” he smugly reminded her.
However, Mom just smirked faintly, cocked the gun and stated, “This isn’t a devise.” I stared at the weapon, realizing that it definitely wasn’t one of her high tech ray guns. It was an ordinary looking handgun. “Amy warned me you’d be here, so I came prepared.”
Dr. Smith and my dad both started to back up, though Mom immediately pointed the gun towards them and snapped, “Don’t move. You both have a LOT to answer for…”
I looked back and forth between the three people my mom had just taken prisoner, and then I looked at Beth, who was in the middle of body-slamming Debra to the ground. The ground shattered and the smaller women sank a bit, but then she started getting back up.
“I’ll just have to increase my density a little more,” Debra said, suddenly sinking a little further.
“I know,” Beth responded with a snort. “The more you increase your density, the stronger and tougher you become. But I also remember that if you get too dense, the ground can’t support you anymore and you just sink right into it. I think you’re at about your limits.”
Debra stood up, but she was sunk into the ground up to her knees, which was clearly making it difficult for her to move. Because of that, she couldn’t maneuver fast enough as Beth started to kick her until she finally surrendered.
“The reinforcements I called for should be here any time,” Beth told Mom.
“Reinforcements?” I asked, nervously glancing at Archimedes, who no longer seemed to be much of a threat. I’d fried his armor and Mom had a gun pointed right at his head, which seemed to have removed any fight he had left.
“We were holding back and waiting for them to arrive,” Mom told me with a faint smile, “but then we saw you all trying to leave… We weren’t about to let you leave here with them.”
“I don’t even know where here is,” I responded with a shrug, looking around and trying to place the area.
“They brought you north…to Tacoma,” Beth called out, grabbing Debra and marching her towards us. “Don’t even think of trying to run, Dense….”
“Density,” Debra snapped, then muttered, “Why in the world did I ever pick that codename?” Mom gave her a sympathetic look and nodded in understanding.
“Lizzy,” my dad started, giving her a charming smile and practically radiating a slick confidence.
“Don’t Lizzy me,” Mom snapped, giving him a glare that made him pause and gulp nervously. “You lied to me…stole my weapons and…” Then she paused, suddenly looking even more pissed, “You kidnaped my daughter…”
My dad gulped nervously, then his smile reappeared, obviously forced. He glanced to me and stated, “She said I was her father…”
“No, you’re not her father,” Mom said, catching me by surprise since I’d been so sure. But then she continued, “You don’t deserve to be called that. You’re just the sperm donor…”
For a moment, my dad looked at me again, this time more steadily than before. I suddenly realized that until now, he hadn’t really believed he was my father. Until now, it had probably been easy for him to just deny that it, though my mom had made that almost impossible.
“What are you going to do with him?” I asked Mom, knowing just how much he’d hurt her with his manipulation and betrayal. Even if he hadn’t kidnapped me, I still would have had a major grudge against him just for that alone.
“I’m going to shrink him to the size of a mouse,” Mom stated, making my dad flinch with a look of worry. “Then I’m going to make him swim in a public toilet…”
“Nasty,” I commented.
“And THEN,” Mom finished with a familiar note of finality in her voice, “I’m going to mail him to Abu Dhabi…”
I raised an eyebrow at that, then said, “I thought you were going to stick a rocket up his butt and launch him into space…”
“I changed my mind,” Mom responded, much to my surprise. Whenever she was caught up in one of these Diedricks fueled rants, she never responded or listened to reason. Then she looked at me, and I was startled to realize that her expression was angry but still clear. For once, this wasn’t her Diedricks speaking, though I didn’t know if that made her latest threats more or less frightening.
While Mom was distracted, Archimedes made his move. I saw him reaching for his belt, but before I could warn Mom, there was a blinding flash of light. I instinctively covered my eyes, but it was already too late.
“No,” Mom cried out before she let out a loud gasp of pain.
“A simple chemical reaction,” Archimedes stated, his voice once again filled with its usual arrogance. “Completely unaffected by the EMP.”
I tore my hands away from my eyes, and everything was a bit blurry, but I could make out enough to see that Archimedes had taken the gun away from my mom and was now pointing it at her. I snarled and immediately began gathering more energy for another attack, not knowing what else I could do.
Without warning, Archimedes swung the gun at me and pulled the trigger. There was an explosion of pain in my stomach and I fell back with a scream. I hit the ground and grabbed my stomach, feeling blood all over my hands.
“NO,” Mom yelled, her expression going from worry to mania in an instant. She grabbed one of the weapons from her belt and immediately tried shooting Archimedes with it, but nothing happened.
“Foolish devisor,” Archimedes said with a sneer as he turned his weapon back towards Mom.
However, a loud voice yelled out, “Drop the weapon immediately.”
Though I was hurting like hell, I was still aware enough to look around and see that we were surrounded by more than a dozen men, most of whom were wearing MCO uniforms, though several of them were in powder blue suits of power armor.
“Oh shit,” I whispered, realizing that the MCO had arrived. We’d just gone from the frying pan to the fire.
Before I realized it, Archimedes was on the ground with his hands being tied behind his back while an MCO agent bent over him, saying, “You have the right to remain silent…”
“By the book,” another MCO agent called out. “We don’t want their lawyers getting them off on a technicality.” Then this agent came over and I got a better look at him. He was a stern faced man with dark hair that was turning gray. He took one look at me, then demanded of one of his men, “What are you waiting for? She needs medical attention.”
A woman in an MCO uniform bent over me and began checking my wound, though it was getting hard to focus on much of anything. I looked at Mom, terrified that the MCO would arrest her too, but that wasn’t happening, though Beth was trying to calm her down and keep her under control.
“She just manifested and hasn’t had time to get her MID yet,” Beth was explaining, giving me a worried look but not seeming bothered by the MCO agents that surrounded us. It was only then that I realized these were the reinforcements they’d been talking about.
“My power,” I whispered, not having the strength for anything more than that. I was trying to explain that they just had to keep me alive long enough for my powers to shift to another mode, and then my body should heal itself, but my voice wasn’t working right. And then as I started to lose consciousness, my last thoughts were, “Not again.”
--------------------
Tacoma Washington, August 3rd, 2007
One hospital room was much like another, though after the events of the last week and a half, I was beginning to think of myself as something of an expert. This particular hospital room was nicer than the one Dr. Smith had locked me up in, but not quite as nice as the one in Portland.
All in all, I was sick and tired of hospital rooms and eager to just get back home to my own bed. I’d woken up a few hours ago, perfectly fine and healthy, with no sign of ever having been shot, but the doctors wanted to keep me here for a bit longer just to be safe.
“Will you stop pacing?” Mom asked me with an exasperated sigh. “With the way you keep walking back and forth, you’re making me itch to go build a treadmill to harness the energy.”
I stopped my pacing and gave Mom a curious look, trying to decide if she was serious or not. With my mom, you couldn’t always be sure. She’d once joked about finding a way to get me out of bed more quickly in the mornings, and when I came home from school, I found that she’d rigged my bed to give me an electrical shock ten seconds after my alarm went off. Needless to say, I’d quickly dismantled that one.
“I just want to go home,” I told her with a sigh. Unfortunately, the doctor was talking about keeping me there overnight, and I remembered quite well what had happened the last time a doctor wanted to keep me overnight for observation.
“I know,” Mom said, coming over and giving me a hug. She pulled back and gave me a worried look, then promised, “You’ll sleep in your own bed tonight.” Then she hesitated a moment before asking, “How are you feeling?” It wasn’t the first time she’d asked that question since I woke up here, or even the fifth.
After hesitating a moment, I shrugged and answered, “I feel fine.” I ran a hand through my purple hair, feeling a bit self-conscious about it. Mom hadn’t said a word about my newer physical changes, but I was definitely aware of them, especially of my larger breast size. “It a bit weird, but I’ll adjust.”
Mom nodded at that and admitted, “When you got shot…” She paused, her eyes tearing up. “I…I lost it.”
I nodded, knowing that she’d gone into a Diedrick’s episode right afterwards. If Beth hadn’t been there to keep her under control, there was no telling what she would have done, especially with the MCO there. I shuddered at the thought of how close Mom had come to being arrested by the MCO.
“You have no idea how worried I’ve been,” Mom told me, grabbing me for another hug. “First you go through a burnout, then you disappear from the hospital, and now this…”
“How do you think I feel?” I asked her wryly. “I’ve only been a mutant for two weeks and I’ve already been through three burnouts, a kidnapping, and I’ve been shot. If I’d known that being a mutant would be this exhausting, I would have just skipped the whole thing.”
Mom chuckled at that, then pointed out, “I never told you that being a mutant would be easy.”
I nodded at that, thinking about the nature of my powers, and more specifically, the way my BIT was supposed to be damaged. I scowled, having a severe dislike of Dr. Smith and his methods, but I had to admit that he seemed to know what he was talking about. If he was right, then there was a very good chance that I could expect more burnouts in the future, and possibly worse.
Though I’d told Mom a little bit about the power testing and the real nature of my powers, I hadn’t said anything about my damaged BIT. I didn’t want to make her worry any more, at least not yet. I figured that I’d wait till we were at home before bringing up the subject. After all, if I said anything right then, I’d probably end up stuck in the hospital for another week of testing.
Just then, there was a knock on the door, which was already open. I looked over and saw Beth coming in, or at least, I saw Statuesque entering. She was powered up and in costume, and a moment later, I saw why. There was a man in an MCO uniform right behind her.
“It’s okay,” Beth quickly assured me when she saw me give the MCO agent a nervous look. “He’s just here to ask you some questions and have you fill out some paperwork.”
“Paperwork?” I asked in surprise.
“Archimedes and Density are in custody for your kidnapping,” the MCO agent explained with a grim expression. “Among other crimes. I need a full interview for my investigation, and I’ll need an official statement.” He hesitated a moment, then added, “And there is the small matter of your MID…”
I glanced at Beth, who just gave me a reassuring smile. “I explained how you just manifested and haven’t had time to get one.”
“I’m issuing you a temporary waiver,” the MCO agent explained calmly. “You won’t be allowed on an aircraft, but it should suffice should anyone in the MCO question your current status. Of course, you will be expected to get power testing and an MID as soon as possible.”
“Within the week,” Mom promised him, looking relieved.
“But I already had power testing,” I protested with a shudder. “Every day I was with them…”
The MCO agent nodded at that, not seeming to really care. “Archimedes indicated that under questioning, but I believe all notes and records from that testing were destroyed during your rescue.”
Mom bit her lip and looked just a little embarrassed. Those singularity bombs certainly had been impressive to watch, but unfortunately, they were now coming back to bite me in the butt. If nothing else, at least Dr. Smith and Archimedes would be even more upset by the loss.
I spent about an hour answering questions for the guy from the MCO, as well as filling out paperwork. When he finally announced we were done and left, I let out a long sigh of relief.
“I was afraid he was going to arrest me or something,” I admitted to Mom and Beth.
“I’ve worked with the Seattle field office a couple times,” Beth assured me with a chuckle. “Trust me, that guy might have a bit of a stick up his ass, but I’ve dealt with much worse.”
With that, Beth went and closed the door to the hospital room, then she shimmered and changed back to her normal appearance. Before I had a chance to say anything else, she came over and gave me a hug.
“You had everyone worried,” Beth told me with a smile. “Kara was running around Portland, trying to find you. She wanted to put up missing person posters, but we didn’t have any pictures of your new face…or your newer one.”
“I don’t look that much different,” I protested, only to earn a look of amusement.
“So,” Beth said, giving me a curious look. “You’re a power shifter?”
“It looks like it,” I responded with a shrug. I’d already told Mom about that, and I’d repeated it a little for the MCO agent when I was trying to explain why those guys had been interested in me. “It looks like I’ve got five different power modes I shift between.”
“So you can switch powers at will,” she commented, looking impressed.
I just shook my head at that, then admitted, “I wish.” I frowned for a moment, trying to think about how to explain it. “So far, it just happens when I’m asleep…or going through a burnout or something.” I shuddered faintly as the memories.
“And what powers do you have right now?” Mom asked me curiously.
“I think I’ve got some kind of wizard power right now,” I explained, having tested out my abilities shortly after I’d woken up. “But I don’t know the first thing about magic, so it doesn’t do me any good…”
Beth gave me a thoughtful look before saying, “I’ve got a friend in Seattle who knows a lot about magic, so I’ll ask if she can take a look at you.”
“Thanks,” I said, not looking forward to more power testing, though it would be nice to know more about this magic ability I had. I couldn’t help but thinking about Harry Potter and wondering if I’d be able to do those kinds of spells. That would be great, and Kara would be really jealous.
“Magic,” Mom commented with a sigh, shaking her head faintly and giving me a skeptical look. I knew that she wasn’t a bit fan of that ‘mumbo jumbo’ as I’d heard her call it before, but she wasn’t nearly as bad about magic as Archimedes was about devisors. “I just don’t understand that stuff…”
“I’m sure they don’t understand your devises either,” I assured her with a faint smile.
“Hell,” Beth said with a roll of her eyes. “Most of the time, I don’t understand those devises.”
I chuckled at that, knowing exactly what she meant. I’d lived with Mom for my entire life, and I’d seen countless odd devises that could do almost anything imaginable, but I still had a hard time believing that most of them could actually work. After all, shrink rays and singularity bombs didn’t make any logical sense…which was why she was a devisor and not a gadgeteer.
“That reminds me,” I said, thinking about how that MCO agent said that they had Archimedes and Debra in custody. “What about Doctor Smith and my dad?”
Beth’s grin immediately turned into a scowl, letting me know that she didn’t have good news for me. I took a deep breath and tried to avoid jumping to conclusions as I waited for her to answer my question.
“Your Doctor Smith escaped during the confusion,” Beth admitted with a look of anger.
Mom gave me an almost evil grin as she added, “So did your deadbeat father.” Then she absently patted the side of her purse, sending a faint chill down my spine.
Before I could ask Mom any questions, Beth told me, “Doctor Smith… His real name is Jacob Harris. Apparently, he used to work for Goodkind Research, but got fired because he was more interested in creating mutant powers than curing them.”
“Figures,” I responded with a scowl.
“When Archimedes made his move,” Beth continued apologetically, “Harris used the distraction to run. The police are looking for him, as are a few of my friends.” I stared at her, being pretty sure that those friends wore spandex.
I scowled, angry that Dr. Smith…Dr. Harris had managed to get away after what he’d done to me. However, I knew that Beth wasn’t going to just let him walk away without doing everything she could.
“When you get him,” I told Beth, giving her a forced smile. “You don’t need to be gentle.”
“I won’t,” she promised.
“I’m going to talk to the doctor about getting you out of here,” Mom said, giving me a hug and then another odd look before she hurried out of the room.
It was just Beth and I in the room, though I wasn’t really sure what to say. She took care of that by saying, “You know, Kara is going to be over to visit the moment you get back home.”
I nodded at that, having a lot to tell her. I definitely wanted to show off my new powers, and admittedly, get her advice on a few things. Now that it seemed I was going be permanently stuck as a girl, I was going to need some help adjusting. Sure, I’d been a girl before, but I’d only been ten years old at the time and it had only been for a week. Being a teenage girl full time was probably going to be a bit more involved.
“At least I’ll be able to show off my new powers,” I mused aloud, knowing that Kara would definitely be impressed. I also knew that it wouldn’t be long before she insisted I show her what I could do.
I thought about my current powers, which I understood less than any of my other abilities. Dr. Smith…Harris said that I had magical sensitivity, but he didn’t know how to test for magical abilities. Because of that, my current power set was still a bit of a mystery.
“Let’s see,” I mused, trying to think of what I could do to test my magic. I held my hand out towards the hospital bed, wishing I had a magic wand and announcing, “Accio pillow…” When nothing happened, I said, “Well, that was disappointing.”
“What are you trying to do?” Beth asked me curiously.
“Trying to figure out this magic thing,” I explained self-consciously. “I mean, I can sort of feel some sort of energy out there…a little like when I’m an energizer. I wonder…”
With that, I concentrated on trying to pull some of this energy towards me, the same way I did the ambient electromagnetic energy when I was in my energizer mode. Some of the energy did start coming towards me, but it was slower and a lot more difficult. In a way, it was sort of like trying to drink a really thick milkshake through a straw. I could drink it, but it took a lot of sucking to really get anything.
Once I thought I’d gathered enough of what I thought was magical energy, I gestured to the hospital bed again, focused on the pillow and announced, “Wingardium Leviosa…”
I tried pushing out with the magical energy, willing to the pillow to start levitating. However, there was a sort of explosion of energy, and a moment later, there was an ugly green toad the size of a cat, sitting on the floor in front of me. I stared down at the thing in shock and confusion, absently noting that it actually had pink butterfly wings on its back.
Suddenly, the toad began hopping around the room, slamming up against the wall with a thud, then bouncing towards the door. Beth jumped into its path, and instead of hopping the other direction, the toad jumped at her, head butting her in the gut before being knocked back to the ground. Then it leapt at me, hitting me and knocking me down.
“What in the world…?” I started, staring at the large toad and wondering what I’d done.
Just then, Mom came back into the room, only to shriek as the toad jumped right at her. A moment later, she pulled a ray gun from her purse and shot at the thing, missing the toad and creating a charred spot on the floor.
“Watch out,” Beth warned, gesturing to the toad. “I think it’s a hobgoblin…”
“Like the ones Sister Wyrd used to make in Dickinson?” Mom asked with a look of surprise.
“I think so,” Beth responded, looking at me and scowling. “Amy created it while trying to do a spell…”
Before I could ask what a hobgoblin was, the toad jumped through the door while Mom raced after it into the hallway, firing several more shots with her death ray before exclaiming, “I got it…”
“And after that,” Beth pointed out wryly, “I don’t think we’ll be welcome in the hospital anymore.”
I stared at the charred spot on the floor, then thought about what damage Mom might have done in the hallway. I shook my head, then asked, “What was that?”
“If you’re a mage,” Beth told me with an exasperated look, “then that was probably a hobgoblin.” At my blank look, she explained, “I’ve seen magic users make them by accident when their spells went wrong.”
“Oh no,” Mom exclaimed, staring at me with a wide-eyed look of horror. “You mean we’ll have more of those things around the house? I thought I’d never have to deal with mage screw-ups once I left Whateley…”
Before I could say anything, Beth just smirked and said, “I seem to remember you making more than a few screw-ups with your devises… Do I need to remind you about the antimatter incident…?
“Um…no,” Mom said, blushing bright red.
Beth just smirked and told me, “Remember, just because you can build something, that doesn’t mean you should.”
“It wasn’t my fault,” Mom protested, which told me that I REALLY wanted to hear the full story of this one.
A few seconds later, a doctor and several nurses came bursting into the room, making it quite clear that we were invited to check out and leave the hospital as soon as possible. I just glanced at Mom and chuckled, knowing that I should be bothered by her overzealous handling of that hobgoblin thing, but it was getting me out of the hospital sooner than the doctors had indicated, so I wasn’t about to complain.
While we were being politely but quickly ushered out of the hospital, Mom announced, “Oh, I have an errand to run on the way home…”
“An errand?” I asked curiously.
“Nothing to worry about,” Mom responded, giving me an evil grin as absently patted the side of her purse. “Just a quick stop at the post office.”
--------------------
Portland Oregon, August 12th, 2007
I closed my eyes and smiled as I savored the mouth-watering scents that filled the air. Of course, there was the smell of fresh cooked breakfast sausage, but there was also the scent of cinnamon and nutmeg from the freshly made French toast. I looked over the sheet of French toast that I’d just pulled out of the oven, then sprinkled some toasted almonds and powdered sugar over each slice. Perfect.
“That smells delicious,” Beth announced from the table, where she sat with Mom and Kara.
“Now can we eat?” Kara asked with a grin. “You’ve been torturing me with that smell for hours…”
It had been a week and a half since I’d been rescued from my kidnappers and I still felt like celebrating both my freedom and the opportunity to eat real food again, so I’d invited Beth and Kara over for Sunday brunch. I spent half the morning preparing the food, or at least it felt like it was that long, though it would be well worth the time and effort.
I knew that Mrs. Lawrence would approve of the meal, especially since she was the one who taught me to cook French toast this way. This wasn’t one of the things that she usually fixed for her catering business, but she’d shown me how to make this just the other day after I’d asked her what she recommended for a good brunch meal.
Mrs. Lawrence had always been nice to me, and after giving me a job and teaching me how to cook, I thought she deserved to know what was going on. After all, I’d suddenly stopped coming to work, and Mom said that she’d been pretty worried about me after I’d disappeared, so I told her all about my being a mutant. She’d been a bit shocked at the fact that I was now a girl, but she got over it pretty quickly. And to my relief, she even tried to treat me the same way she always had before.
I gave everyone a fresh cup of hot chocolate, then I began plating the food, feeling quite proud of my achievement. When I got to my mom, I gave her a disapproving look and reminded her, “No death rays at the table.” I picked the weapon from where she’d set it while she gave me a chagrinned look.
“It’s not a death ray,” she muttered self-consciously. “At least not for anything but vegetation.”
I stared at the odd looking weapon for a moment, then said, “So this is responsible for Mrs. Bonner’s yard…”
Mom just sat there, trying to look innocent while Kara asked, “What do you mean?”
“Don’t think I didn’t notice the way all her hedges and roses were all dead,” I said, giving Mom a flat look. “Wouldn’t it just have been easier to trim our hedges?”
“That’s not the point,” Mom complained while Kara just burst out laughing.
“If I didn’t know you two,” Kara teased, “I’d have a hard time guessing which one was the mother…”
Beth burst out laughing next, adding, “She does have a point.”
I frowned, suddenly feeling self-conscious about my new gender. Most of the time, it wasn’t really that big of a deal, but every once in awhile I suddenly remembered that everyone else was going to be looking at me and treating me differently than how they used to. Strangely enough, I was more concerned by how other people would look at me than I was about things like the idea of having a period or the possibility of getting pregnant. Admittedly, both of those did make me squirm just a little when I thought of them, but they were facts of life I’d have to deal with.
“In spite of the new packaging,” I reminded Kara, “I’m still the same person inside.”
“I know,” she responded, not looking the least bit sorry. “The truth is, I’ve always kind of thought of you as being one of the girls.”
“Do you want to eat or not?” I asked her, though I was grinning as I did so.
“I don’t mean that in a bad way,” Kara told me defensively. Then she grinned and added, “But someday, you’re going to make someone a great wife…” Mom and Beth both started laughing.
Once I sat down to eat, I looked at Mom and thought about the way she’d come charging in to rescue me from my kidnappers. I felt a surge of pride at that, especially when I remembered the look on Archimedes’ face when she pulled a normal gun on him. Mom was nothing, if not full of surprises.
“So,” I said, giving Mom a mischievious grin as I remembered a question that I’ve been dying to ask her. “What was that they called you? Boob Job?”
“Boom Job,” Mom snapped, letting out a sigh while Beth just burst out laughing. “My codename is Boom Job.”
“She was so oblivious,” Beth told me, trying to keep from laughing long enough to talk. “She had her codename for almost a year before she finally realized that everyone was calling her Boob Job behind her back…”
Mom gave Beth a mock glare and asked, “Do I have to tell them about that time you got drunk on devisor booze?”
“Tell us,” Kara blurted out eagerly.
Beth just grinned and continued her story. “Instead of changing her codename, she just told everyone to start calling her BJ for short…”
“You didn’t?” I gasped, hardly able to believe anyone could be that oblivious. Then again, this was my mom we were talking about.
“Oh yeah,” Beth responded with a chuckle. “It took awhile for that one to sink in too…”
“Why didn’t you just change your codename?” I asked with a shake of my head. Then again, it was probably the same reason she didn’t just trim our hedges.
“Did you tell Kara your new codename?” Mom abruptly asked me, obviously trying to change the subject.
“Not yet,” I answered.
A few days ago, Beth had taken me to Seattle so some of her friends could perform my power testing for me. However, after less than a day, they’d given up, deciding that with the nature of my powers, it would take far too long to test me properly. After all, I’d be tested again once I got to Whateley Academy, so for now I’d just been given a preliminary MID that gave an even more basic overview of my powers than normal.
“Is it Dice?” Kara asked me with a grin. “I mean, every time you change powers, it’s like rolling the dice.”
“Close,” Mom told her with a chuckle.
“Maybe if I had six powers instead of just five,” I responded with a shrug. “Besides, Dice would make me sound like I should be a gambler.”
“True,” Beth agreed.
I frowned for a moment, wondering if I should pull out my temporary MID to show her. “I picked Roulette.”
“Roulette?” Kara repeated with a thoughtful look.
“Yeah, I don’t have nearly as many powers as a roulette wheel,” I said, knowing that Kara would point out that flaw in the name. “But it sounds a lot better than Dice.”
“I like it,” Beth told me, giving me an approving look.
I nodded, not mentioning the other reason I’d picked that specific name. Dr. Smith…Harris had said that with my damaged BIT, every time I switched modes, it was like playing Russian roulette. However, Mom was staring at me with a grim look that told me she’d caught the reference.
It hadn’t been easy to tell my mom about my damaged BIT, or what it meant for my powers and health. She’d been shocked and horrified at the news, especially after I went through another micro burnout in front of her. Afterwards, she started to blame herself, thinking that my BIT had been damaged because of all the times I’d been exposed to her devices. The truth was, she might be right about that, though I didn’t blame her.
“Are you okay?” Mom asked, giving me a worried look.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” I responded wryly.
Admittedly, I was worried about the fact that my own power might end up killing me, but the truth was, it was a possibility…not a certainty. I’d grown up around death rays and doomsday weapons, so I was used to being surrounded by danger. Just because something MIGHT happen, that didn’t mean it would, so there was no use worrying about it. At least, that was what I kept telling myself, though I still wasn’t sure I actually believed it.
“I did find something out from that testing,” I told Kara, trying to distract myself from thoughts about my damaged BIT. “I went to it in wizard mode, so I was able to find out that I’m either a high wiz two or a low wiz three.”
My magical power levels weren’t really all that impressive, and I wasn’t going to be throwing fireballs around anytime soon. The fact that I only had magic one or two days a week would limit me even further. However, Witchling, the woman who’d done my magic testing, said that with a little education and preparation, I should be able to cast spells and store them for later use. That way, as with my devises, I’d be able to get some use of the power even when I wasn’t in that mode.
“It doesn’t do me a lot of good at the moment,” I admitted with a shrug. “But Witchling gave me a beginner’s book on magic theory and a quick lesson on basic principles. She said she’ll try giving me another lesson before I go to Whateley, but I probably won’t be able to really do much until I get some classes there.”
“Still, you’ll be able to do magic,” Kara pointed out, pausing to take a bite of her breakfast. “And you’ve got those other powers too.” There was a clear note of envy in her voice, then she mused, “I can’t wait until I manifest.”
I frowned slightly, not bothering to point out that the odds were actually against her being a mutant. Sure, she had a mutant in her family, but neither of her parents were mutants. She might end up being a mutant, but I certainly wouldn’t count on it. Still, I didn’t want to burst her bubble since I knew she really wanted to have powers of her own so she could go into the hero business like Beth.
“I wonder what powers I’ll get,” she thought aloud. “Maybe I’ll turn into an exemplar babe…”
“What?” I asked with a look of mock innocence. “You mean you aren’t already?”
“Oooh, you’re really going for the bonus points,” she said with a grin, looking inordinately pleased by that.
“Just be careful what you wish for,” Beth warned Kara. “If you do manifest, you might end up with a power you’d rather not have…”
“Or GSD,” Kara agreed with a sigh, though from the look she gave me, I knew she was thinking about the issues I had with my powers, just like I was.
For the rest of breakfast, we talked about my different power modes, avoiding the subject of my damaged BIT and what it could mean for me. I was glad to avoid that particular subject since it was easier to just not think about it.
Once we were done eating, Kara and I went back to my room. I let out a faint sigh as we passed through the living room, which was missing half the furniture. After Mom had used a freeze ray in there to save my life, she’d left everything coated with ice. The ice had melted but she’d been so caught up with my burnout and disappearance that she hadn’t thought to clean it up.
When I’d returned home, I’d been horrified to find just how messy the house was. Not only had the living room been left a ruin, but Mom’s lab had been filled with clutter as well. As a result, I spent a whole day just cleaning Mom’s lab and hauling ruined furniture out of the house. We still needed to buy new furniture and carpeting for the living room.
“Nasty,” Kara commented. I thought of the mildew in the couch cushions and nodded agreement. However, since everything had been destroyed while Mom had been trying to save my life, I couldn’t exactly complain.
As soon as we were in my room, Kara looked around with an expression of amusement. Her eyes went to the girl clothes that were spread out on my bed. Unfortunately, none of my old clothes fit anymore, so I’d been forced to do a little shopping. She picked up a bra and smirked at me without saying a word.
“What?” I asked defensively, suddenly feeling quite aware of the way bra straps were currently stretched across my shoulders. “It’s not like you’re not wearing one too…”
Kara just burst out laughing, then gave me a broad grin. “You’re cute when you blush.” I blushed even brighter at that, which only made her laugh again. Still grinning at me, she teased, “I bet it must have been fun putting it on for the first time. It must have been embarrassing having to ask your mom for help with it…”
“I didn’t need to ask anyone for help,” I pointed out, trying to maintain what little dignity I could. “Compared to the harness for that jet pack my mom had me test for her, this thing was a piece of cake…”
Kara nodded at that and mused, “Whatever happened to that jet pack anyway?”
“Mom is leasing it out to some rich adrenaline junkie,” I answered with a shrug. “Personally, I think he’s using it to play super hero.”
“And what about you?” Kara asked me excitedly. “Have you invented anything new?”
“Not really,” I admitted with a shake of my head. Then I thought of my first devise, which was currently down in the lab. “I did upgrade my floating sphere. “I modified it so that it can follow me around now.”
“Why?” Kara asked me with a blank look.
I just chuckled at that. “Why not?”
Kara stared at me for a moment and then burst out laughing again. “Oh yeah, you’re definitely a devisor… You’ll be building death rays and killer robots in no time at all.”
“Not likely,” I admitted, feeling a little self-conscious. “Mom is a high level devisor…but I’m not. I’m on the lower end of the devisor spectrum. I mean, all these different powers I keep switching between are basically just side effects of my main powers…shifting.”
“Side effects or not,” Kara told me with a grin, “they’re totally awesome.”
I laughed at that since the powers were pretty cool, even if they did keep changing around like that every time I went to sleep. It was just too bad they also came with some pretty nasty side effects, though I was trying hard not to think about those. Being a girl was awkward, but I could live with that. However, the damaged BIT and the burnouts…
Kara seemed to sense my mood shifting because she grabbed my hand and insisted, “Don’t worry. Everything is going to work out fine. I’m sure Aunt Beth or your mom will figure something out.”
“Thanks,” I responded, noticing that Kara was still staring at me with an odd expression. “What? Do I have something on my face?” I used my hand to wipe around my mouth, wondering if I’d been a little messier with breakfast than I’d realized.
“You know,” Kara finally said, giving me a faint smile, “I was really worried when you disappeared like that. I mean, everyone kind of thought that you must have finally freaked out about being a girl and a mutant so ran away…but I knew better. I knew there was no way you’d run away like that.”
I wasn’t sure what to say to that, and before I could come up with something, Kara grabbed me in a tight hug. I was a bit surprised by that, though I certainly didn’t have a problem with it either. I hugged her back, enjoying having her body pressed up against my own, but also feeling just a little naughty for some of the things that were starting to creep into my head. But then, almost as if reacting to my thoughts, Kara surprised me again by kissing me on my lips.
“Wow,” I said once Kara pulled away. She’d definitely caught me off guard with that one.
For a brief moment, I expected Kara to say, “Gotcha,” but instead, she stared at me, blushing brightly as she did so. “You’re really pretty,” she finally blurted out, clearly embarrassed.
As I stared at Kara in stunned silence, several pieces snapped together in my head. About a year earlier, she’d told me that I wasn’t her type, and at the time, she’d suggested that she was really more into jocks and bad boys. However, I realized now that I’ve never actually seen her dating those kinds of boys…or any boys at all. And with the way she was looking at me now, it was clear that she now considered me to be her type.
“You know,” I told her with a faint smile, “ever since I changed…I prefer boys.” Kara gasped at that, and before she could actually say anything, I said, “Gotcha.”
Kara’s eyes flashed and she punched me in the arm. “You asshole…”
“Hey,” I responded, rubbing at my arm where she hit me. “I bruise more easily now…”
“Well, you deserve it,” she insisted, sticking her tongue out at me.
I nodded at that, agreeing, “Probably.” Then I stared at her again, not really sure what to say. After all, Kara had been my best friend for a long time, and when I’d suggested we try dating, she’d cut me off with the, ‘you’re not my type’ line, which had felt a bit insulting at the time. “So…why didn’t you tell me you liked girls?”
“I thought I just did,” she muttered self-consciously.
I’ve spent my entire life surrounded by ray guns, doomsday weapons, and strange inventions that most people would never believe really existed outside of science fiction, and for me, all that stuff was old-hat and nothing to get excited over. However, in spite of my vast experience dealing with miraculous devises, I had almost no experience at all when it came to dealing with girls…or at least not when it came to romantic relationships with them. Suddenly being transformed into one myself hadn’t really given me any great understanding either.
“I’m…a little surprised,” I admitted awkwardly.
Kara stared at me, looking a lot less confident than she usually came off as being. “Do you even like me?”
“Of course I do,” I blurted out in surprise. “I always have…” Kara gave me a look of surprise while I gulped, feeling as though I had a knot in my stomach. “It’s just…I knew I wasn’t your type and that you weren’t into me like that…so I guess I’m just used to trying not to think about you like that either.”
“So, I think you’re pretty and you think I’m pretty,” Kara said with a nervous grin. “So, what do we do now?”
“Well,” I responded, feeling my heart race. “I am a devisor today, so how about we experiment…?”
“Oooooh, good line,” Kara teased me.
Kara and I started kissing again, which was nice and awkward at the same time. After all, we’d been friends for a long time and we were both a little nervous about trying to change anything. And though I’d imagined kissing her more than a few times, the real experience was definitely a little different. I was thinking about what it would be like to go further, and I suspected that she was as well, but neither of us was ready to try anything more than the kissing…especially not when Mom and Beth were both in the house. Eventually, we went back to talking, though we kept holding hands, giving each other appreciative looks, and blushing furiously. But between discussing GEO, my new powers, and what it had been like being held prisoner, we kissed a few more times as well.
The two of us had been in my room for about two hours when there was a knock on the door, followed by Beth’s voice asking, “Are you two decent?”
“Define decent,” Kara joked in response.
Beth opened the door and came into my room, pausing to look at us. She smirked faintly and said, “Amy, you have some lipstick on your cheek…” I immediately went to wipe it off, only to remember that Kara wasn’t wearing lipstick. Beth burst out laughing at that while Kara and I both turned bright red. “I had a feeling you two would get together after…” She paused to look at me, making it clear that she meant after my transformation.
“You knew?” Kara blurted out in surprise.
“That you liked girls?” Beth responded with a look of amusement. “Ever since the last time you stayed the weekend with me. The next time you look at some of those websites on someone else’s computer…you really should clean the history when you’re done.”
“Oh God,” Kara exclaimed with a mortified look on her face before turning bright red again and then covering her face with her hands.
Beth just grinned, then turned to me. I wasn’t quite as embarrassed as Kara, but I still wanted to crawl under my bed to hide. “Amy, you’re going to be leaving for Whateley in just a couple weeks, so Liz and I were talking…”
“Why do I have a bad feeling about that?” I responded wryly.
“Because you’re a smart girl?” Kara joked.
“Before you leave,” Beth continued with a faint smirk, “we decided that we wanted to give you the full experience.” Her smirk deepened just a little as she added, “So we’ve scheduled a full day at the spa tomorrow for all four of us.”
“Yes,” Kara exclaimed, jumping to her feet with a grin. I gave her a look of surprise since Kara wasn’t usually into girly girl stuff like spa trips. “What?” she asked defensively. “So I like getting a massage…”
“I didn’t say anything,” I protested.
“You’re going to enjoy getting a massage,” Beth told me with a chuckle. “And the rest of the works as well. It’s going to be a wonderful girl’s day out.”
Once Beth was gone, Kara gasped, “That was so embarrassing…”
I nodded agreement, knowing that the whole spa thing would probably be even worse. However, it was all part of the girl experience that Mom was trying to share with me, so I wasn’t going to complain. In fact, now that I was thinking about it, I was actually a bit curious about what it would be like. As a boy, I never would have been caught dead in a place like a spa, but as a girl, I might very well end up enjoying it.
“Since you’re going to do the whole girly girl thing,” Kara teased me, “maybe we should go all out. A nice makeover…a sexy dress…and heels. Definitely heels…”
“You don’t wear high heels,” I pointed out with a faint smile, “so why should I?”
“Oh sure,” she responded with a roll of her eyes. “Use reason.” Then after a few seconds, she grinned again and suggested, “How about this…? I’ll wear some heels if you do…”
I looked Kara over, thinking that it would definitely be nice to see her all dressed up for once. “Tempting,” I told her with a grin. “Maybe after I get a little more used to being a girl.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” she promised, giving me an obviously appreciative look and then a rather passionate kiss, one that sent sparks straight to my new parts.
As I sat there with Kara, I was still amazed by this sudden and unexpected change to our relationship. Then again, my entire life had been filled with surprises over the last few weeks, some of them good and some of them bad.
It would have been easy to focus on the bad things, such as the fact that my body had changed without warning and I’d turned into a girl. There was the unpredictable and random seeming nature of my powers and how they kept changing on me, making it difficult to really get a handle on any one power. And of course, there was my damaged BIT and the fact that it might very well end up killing me one day.
My thoughts turned to Dr. Smith…Harris, who’d been obsessed with my powers and how they might help him unlock the mystery of mutant abilities. I had no idea if they could actually do that or not, though he seemed pretty certain. Unfortunately, he’d slipped away from the MCO and escaped during the confusion of my rescue, and he was still out there. I had no idea if he’d just go into hiding and disappear, or if he might end up coming after me again someday. As long as he was out there, I would have to keep looking over my shoulder…just in case.
But in spite of the bad, there were a number of good things to have come out of the last couple weeks as well. The most immediately noticeable was my relationship with Kara, who’d been my best friend for a long time. And even though I’d imagined taking that friendship further over the last couple years, I’d never seriously thought it could happen until now.
My powers kept changing, but there were positives in that as well. Being a devisor brought me closer to my mom and helped me to understand her a little better. I’d always dreamed about having magic, and now I’ll be able to learn how to cast real spells. Enhanced strength and healing, moving objects just by willing it, and even being able to form balls of energy in my hand were all really cool too. Most mutants were stuck with just one type of power, but I could actually use a variety of different abilities.
Being a mutant may have added a lot of complications to my life, but I tried to think of those as just being challenges to make things more interesting. Sure, Dr. Harris might come after me again…but he might not. And there was no way to know for certain if my damaged BIT might eventually kill me, merely the theory of an obsessed scientist.
I’ve spent my entire life with someone who altered the laws of physics on a daily basis, and I’ve seen unbelievable things happen nearly as often. Failsafes failed, accidents happened, and sometimes even the impossible could happen. If there was one thing that I’ve learned from my mom, it was that there were no guarantees in life. All you could do was make your choices, spin the wheel, and then wait to see where things landed.
With that, I took Kara’s hand in mine, looked her right in the eyes, then asked, “So, what were those websites that Beth was talking about?” Kara just punched me in the arm, though it was quickly followed up with another kiss.
The End…for now