Author's Note:This is the fifteenth story in my Legacy Universe though like the others it is a stand alone story which can be read alone. However, I would recommend reading the Infiltrator before reading this one as it provides some useful background information.

It was a dark night with only a sliver of moon to light the way which was perfectly fine by me. As far as I was concerned, the darker it was out the better. In fact I silently cursed the damn street lights for taking away the nice dark shadows. In my profession it paid to work in the dark as often as possible.

I scowled in impatient annoyance, scratching my cheek which was rough with stubble since I hadn't shaved in two days. Maybe tomorrow. Then I glared at my current 'partner' Scuff...the source of my annoyance.

"You sure there's no one there?" I demanded of Scuff, who only nodded a little too energetically. The man was skinny...too skinny. And he was jittery as Hell which kept getting on my nerves. But what could you expect from a damn meth head?

"No way man," Scuff assured me, though he wasn't really very reassuring. "I mean, yeah, I'm sure. I swear Caleb, I checked."

I nodded at that and turned my attention back to the reason I was here in the damn suburbs in the middle of the fucking night. It was a house much like any other, though there were a few things about it which drew my attention. Specifically the old lady who owned it had up and croaked last week and her family was holding an estate sale tomorrow. That meant the house was completely and totally empty, but her shit was still there.

"C'mon," I told Scuff, going to the back of the house where it was darker and we were less likely to be spotted by nosey neighbors. "Keep a look out..."

With that I held a small blanket I'd brought against a window to muffle the sound and then broke it with a rock. I quickly climbed inside while Scuff followed close behind. We'd worked together a couple times before so we knew the routine. Look for cash, jewelry, and other shit that might sell quick and get out as fast as possible.

"You take the downstairs," I told Scuff, "I'll go check upstairs."

"Sure thing Caleb," Scuff nodded. I paused to eye him in the dark for a moment, knowing that this was simple but still not trusting him to not fuck it up. Then with a sigh I turned and hurried to the stairs, knowing that it was too late to regret bringing him in on this.

The house was dark inside, and though I liked it dark outside it was a pain in the ass while I was trying to actually work inside. Unfortunately I knew I couldn't turn on the damn lights or some nosy neighbor might get suspicious. Instead I had to rely on a flashlight and avoid aiming it anywhere near a window.

I went straight for the bedroom, knowing that was where most chicks kept their jewelry...even the old ones. I just hoped she didn't have a safe or something. I quickly found a bedroom as well as a jewelry box. I didn't even bother checking to see what was in it before I just dumped its contents into the backpack I'd brought with.

Ten minutes after breaking the window I was ready to go. If I stuck around and kept looking I could probably find more valuable stuff, like where she'd probably hidden her cash and best jewelry. But I'd already been busted once by the cops and had no intention of getting caught again. I figured the best way to avoid that was to just get in and get out fast. Getting too greedy would only get me caught.

Unfortunately Scuff didn't share my views. While I was getting ready to leave the idiot was digging through the old ladies medicine cabinet for drugs to either use or sell. Probably to use. I hated working with addicts though sometimes there was no choice. I needed someone to watch my back and to help haul the shit out.

"C'mon," I hissed at him, "hurry the fuck up or I'll leave you..." Of course I didn't really want to leave him behind. Normally I wouldn't care if the meth head got stuck behind bars, but if he got caught here he'd immediately blab to the cops about my involvement and I sure as Hell didn't want that. "Get your ass moving..."

It took three more minutes to get Scuff going and out the door. Every minute we were delayed because of him only made me all the more annoyed. If I got caught because of him I swore I was gonna kick his ass from here to next Friday...and then I'd throw in the weekend for good measure.

Once Scuff and I finally got clear I let out a sigh of relief. Scuff just shook his head. "Man, we shoulda stayed... Did you see that TV...?"

"Yeah," I nodded, "but how the Hell would we have gotten it out? Carry it out the front door where all the neighbors could see us?"

Scuff grumbled and complained, but I just ignored him. Instead I focused on looking at our take and then splitting it up. Of course I made sure to give myself just a little more than I gave him, though I did leave him with some of the flashier jewelry, so he'd think he was getting the better end of the deal. Meth heads could be pretty damn paranoid at times, though admittedly Scuff seemed to be having one of his better nights.

"So," Scuff said with a sly grin as he grabbed his share, "got anything else planned soon? I could use the cash..."

"Can't we all?" I muttered. "No... Nothing now... But I hear Rico might be looking for some guys..."

"Cool," Scuff nodded, then turned and hurried away much to my relief. I was glad to have him out of my hair. He might be useful at times, but I couldn't stand the bastard.

Once Scuff and I went our separate ways, I went straight back to my apartment. It was a small shit hole with rats and roaches, but it was all mine. At least it was my place as long as I paid that asshole landlord on time. And after tonight, I'd probably have enough rent money to let me keep it for another month.

"Home shitty home," I sighed as I came through the door, tossing the bags with my take from the night into the corner. I'd take the stuff to a fence tomorrow.

Then I locked my door behind me, using the chain and the dead-bolt as well, to make sure it was damn good and locked. I wasn't the type to appreciate the irony of someone busting into my place to rob me.

A minute later I was in the bathroom taking a piss, thinking about my take tonight and wondering why I'd brought Scuff. Of course I knew the answer. He might be a dumb ass meth head...but he did have a car. Someday I was gonna have to get myself another one of those.

I quickly finished my business, then washed my hands at the sink, glancing up at my reflection in the mirror above it as I did so. I looked the same as always with shaggy dark blonde hair that was nearly brown and with several days worth of unshaven stubble. It was a young man's face, since I was 22 years old and I'd been told I would be handsome if I bothered cleaning up. And though it couldn't be seen from the mirror, I was 6 foot 1 and pretty lean.

My name is Caleb Brooks, and it should be pretty obvious from my activities tonight that I wasn't exactly a law abiding citizen. I wasn't a cheap thug though. I didn't mug old ladies or knock over convenient stores. Of course I certainly wasn't a bank robber or master thief either. Instead I just robbed places when no one was home. There was no violence and much less risk.

My life hasn't always been like this, though sometimes it was hard to remember ever having been much different. Back when I was a kid, I had a normal family with parents who believed in honesty and hard work. However that life ended the day my mom died. My dad started drinking after this. That resulted in him losing his job and turning even more to the booze. Well, one thing led to another and here I am today. What can I say? Life sucks, but it's better than the alternative.

When I got back to my living room, I sat down on my beat up old couch and reached under it for my stash of weed. I definitely needed to kick back and relax a bit so this was exactly what I needed. The only thing to make this better would be to get laid as well as stoned. Unfortunately my last girlfriend not only left me a couple months ago, but the bitch also ran off with my car and all my cash.

It didn't take too long before I was feeling nice and mellow, thanks to some pretty good weed. For the moment at least I was able to forget all about the people I owed money to and the job I was planning tomorrow night. For now, all I had to do was sit back and chill.

I crouched down in the darkness and I surveyed the area before me, doing my best to ignore the damp cold. I glanced up to the faint sliver of moon before taking a deep breath. It was time.

"Now," I muttered, springing into motion.

Seconds later I was scrambling up and over a chain link fence with the ease that only comes from a lot of practice. Fortunately this particular section of fence was in pretty bad shape and all the barb wire which surrounded the rest of it had long since fallen away. It only took me moments more to get clear of the fence and into the self storage lot on the other side.

This was an old self storage lot with all of the units being like little garages. They each had a pair of double doors facing the drive path for easy car access and each set of doors was locked with a padlock. Newer self storage places had built in locks which were much harder to break. These things could be taken care of with a good pair of bolt cutters...which I just happened to have with me.

I wasn't looking for just any self storage unit though. I had it on good authority that most of the newer ones had actual alarm systems wired in, though the oldest section of units were given very little security attention beyond the barb wired fence. It was for one of these that I was going...a very specific one.

A 'friend' of mine happened to work at this place and told me about the lack of security in the older section as well as about this particular unit. All he wanted in exchange was half of whatever I happened to get.

Apparently this particular unit had a bit of a reputation among the employees of this place, because the rent on it had been paid automatically on the first of the month for the last fifteen years. Yet during all that time, no one had ever been seen actually going to the unit. And then a couple months ago the payments abruptly ceased. Now the company who owned the self storage were going to put the contents of that unit up for auction next week.

"I hope this is worth it," I muttered, hating to waste my time on such an unsure thing. My 'friend' had no idea what the contents of the unit actually were, though apparently the employees all thought it was valuable artwork.

It only took me a moment to cut through the padlock and then I was in. I stepped into the storage unit and pulled out my flashlight for a little extra light. I wouldn't use it in the open where the light would give me away, but inside the storage unit was another matter entirely.

I took a long slow look around the room and blinked in surprise and even a bit of confusion. I wasn't quite sure what all this was yet, but I didn't think it was artwork. There were several large old chests and foot lockers. There was what looked like a guillotine. And there were various odds and ends from a pair of matching iron maidens to what looked like a lumberjack saw.

"What the fuck?" I scowled, wondering what kind of crazy person must have left this shit here.

However I wasn't about to just give up on finding a worthwhile score just yet. I began looking around more closely, opening up some of the chests and taking a look inside. There were a lot of clothes, but there were also some posters. Posters showing a picture of a female stage magician called the Astonishing Anabelle.

"A magician," I snorted. That's what this stuff was. It was a room full of magic tricks.

Normally I had a rule about keeping my jobs to under ten minutes if possible, though I was making an exception here. There wasn't all that much chance of someone coming by and catching me this time, not like in a house with neighbors who might notice something.

I didn't exactly take my time searching through all this crap, but I did take a bit longer than I normally would have. All I was finding were flashy clothes and old stuff for magic tricks. That might have been worth something to a magician, but it was completely worthless to me.

For a brief moment I actually thought I'd found a box of jewelry and began getting excited...until I took a closer look and saw that it was all just costume jewelry. It looked gaudy and expensive at first glance, but it was just cheap junk that wasn't worth crap. A fence would have to be both blind and stupid to even give me five bucks for it all.

But then I found something of interest. I was about to give up and leave empty handed, when I noticed the iron maiden was actually locked shut with a padlock. I quickly cut it open and took a look inside... just in case. It had all the spikes on the inside just like they were known for, but it also had something else inside. It was a staff.

The staff was just a little more than 5 feet tall and the light from my flash light gleamed off it revealing a golden surface. The whole staff looked as though it were made of solid gold...the real stuff and not the fake stuff they used in costume jewelry. However after the disappointment of the costume jewelry I wasn't about to get my hopes up this time.

I reached inside the iron maiden to grab the staff, being very careful not to brush my hands against the sharp looking metal spikes. As I pulled the staff out, I let out a faint sigh of disappointment. If this had been real gold the staff would have been heavier than this... WAY heavier. This felt more like it was made of plastic or aluminum with just a thin coat of gold coating over the top just for looks.

"Fuck," I exclaimed in annoyance.

Then I turned my attention to the gem on the head of the staff. It was perfectly smooth and round, about the size of a golf ball and looked dark until I held the flashlight up to it and saw that it actually looked purple in color. It could be amethyst, but I had no idea. The gold metal staff itself looked to like a single piece with the gold metal seeming to have been melted up with thin bits of the gold coming up and wrapping around the purple gem and holding it firmly in place.

Three other gems decorated the staff as well. The round purple one sat at the very head of the staff, but the other three were on the side, sitting at different distances from the top, though all were within 8 inches of the purple one. They were small ovals a little less than an inch across as well, though they all looked like different gems. One was green and looked like an emerald, one was white and sparkly like an opal, and the last was a deep red like a ruby.

I scratched all three of these gems with my fingernail, proving that they weren't plastic, though I couldn't verify whether they were actually genuine or not...especially with just a flashlight for light. I'd need better light to check this thing out though it looked like it was probably the most valuable thing in the whole fucking place.

"It looks like this is it," I spat out angrily. "Damn."

"I couldn't believe that I was actually busting in for what could probably turn out to be nothing, while my 'partner' was nowhere to be seen. Of course that was why he'd brought me in, rather than just cutting the lock himself. He wanted to make sure he had an alibi for tonight, while I took care of this. But it still pissed me off that he'd get half while I did all the work.

"Half of nothing is still nothing," I reminded myself.

Of course, even if the gems on the staff did turn out to be the real thing, there was no reason I actually had to tell my 'partner'. But then again, I reminded myself that there was one reason. There could be an anonymous tip about this break in to the cops. Sometimes it really paid to let your partner think they were getting the better end of the deal, though I could worry about that once I found out if this was worth shit or not.

Since this staff seemed to be the only thing of even any potential worth that I was going to find, I decided it was time to go. I'd already overstayed my welcome and my normal time limits. I quickly wrapped the staff up with some of the clothing I'd found, since it wouldn't do to be seen running around with something like this, then I left the storage room and ran for the fence with the staff firmly in hand.

When I reached the other side of the chain link fence I looked around nervously, afraid that someone else might have seen me. Then I saw a shadow passing over the sliver of moon and my heart nearly jumped into my throat. It might be a bat...or it might be one of THEM.

Cops were a pain in the ass that everyone who worked outside the law knew to look out for. There were the crooked cops who would look the other way if you properly greased some palms. There were the overzealous ones who took it personally if you broke the law on their watch and who wouldn't hesitate to beat the crap out of you to 'teach you a lesson'. And then there was the extremely rare straight and narrow cop who followed every rule to the letter. Once you knew what kind of cop you were dealing with you had an idea of what to expect.

I didn't like cops, but I could deal with them. Super heroes on the other hand scared the shit out of me. Those people weren't exactly normal, so who the Hell knew how they thought. I mean, some schmuck suddenly develops powers and then he immediately puts on some sort of spandex fetish gear that no one in their right mind would ever wear in public, then he goes out and starts 'fighting crime' regardless of the fact that he's got no fucking idea what he's doing or any real reason to stick his nose in other people's business.

Truth be told, I think most of those developed costume freaks got their powers and then go on some sort of mega power trip. I mean, it's not about doing good deeds regardless what crap they try telling you. It's about showing off how powerful they are now and trying to convince themselves that they're really a good person who deserves the power.

I know a guy who likes to go out beating up on bums, not because he hates bums, but just because he can. It gives him a feeling of power and control. The bums can't fight back and since they're just bums the cops don't really care. A lot of these so called heroes remind me of that kind of bully, though they choose criminals instead of bums. We don't have the power to fight back and just because we are criminals the cops just don't care.

I know another guy who got caught doing a little breaking and entering a couple months back by some super chick. She knocked half his teeth out and broke his jaw in two places with a single punch. A cop might get in trouble for using excessive force, but not super bitch. And since they wear those costumes and masks they can do whatever they want without having to face the consequences.

It kind of scared me to think that someone with the power to throw cars around might someday come after me. It just didn't seem fair. I mean, someone with super powers against a normal guy like me... The very thought nearly made me fill my pants which was why I was glancing around nervously just in case one of THEM was around.

"Just a damn bat," I sighed in relief a moment later when no one flew down from the sky to jump me. With those super freaks you never knew when one might be flying right over your head or spying on you with X ray vision or something.

I felt disgusted with myself for acting like such a chicken shit with just the vague possibility of a developed being around. I shook my head and continued heading home as fast as I could, trying of course not too be seen.

The moment I got back to the shit hole I called a home, I locked the door behind me and let out a sigh of relief. Now that I was back where it was safe I could relax and get a better look at the staff I'd found.

"You'd damn well better be worth something," I told the staff in annoyance. Especially after all I'd been through tonight. And besides, I could really use the cast.

I'd already fenced the stuff from last night and only got a fraction of what it was actually worth for my effort. However it was enough to finish paying my rent this month, though still not enough to pay the guys I owe 'protection' money to. The staff might not be solid gold like I'd wish, but I still hoped it was worth something.

I absently tossed the staff onto my couch then went to grab a cold beer from the fridge. After gulping down about half the can I returned my attention to the little keepsake I'd found. It certainly looked like real gold and if I hadn't picked it up and felt how light it actually was I might make the mistake of thinking it was solid. Too damn bad it wasn't. If it was solid gold I'd be a rich bastard right about now.

Now that I had more light available than in the storage room I took the opportunity to get a better look at the gems. I rubbed the apparent ruby with my shirt to clean it off a bit and then held it up to the light. It gleamed with a deep rich red that made me lick my lips in greed. I was no gem expert, but I was reasonably sure that this was indeed a real ruby. I quickly polished the apparent emerald and opal to similar effects. They all looked like the real thing to me.

After admiring the three smaller gems for a minute I finally turned my attention to the larger purple one on the head. I wasn't sure what kind of value amethyst or whatever it was might actually have, but I was crossing my fingers as I began to clean and polish it with my shirt.

It was then that something strange started to happen. The purple crystal actually began to glow. It was faint at first, but quickly grew brighter. Suddenly the whole damn staff was yanked from my hands and flung itself into the air. The staff stopped a short distance away from me, standing straight up in the air. The bottom of the staff was a couple inches off the ground and absolutely nothing seemed to be holding it there.

"Holy shit," I blurted out as I jumped to my feet, not sure what the Hell was going on.

The purple gem on the staff continued to glow and then I began to glow as well. A strange glow formed around my body and then I felt an even stranger sensation rush through my body. This lasted only for a moment before it went away along with the glow...but I now felt extremely odd. My whole body felt wrong.

I looked down at myself and let out a gasp of shock. "What the fuck?" I was wearing completely different clothes...a violet suit of some sort in fact.

But more importantly, I had two large bulges pushing out from my chest. I immediately grabbed at the two protrusions, only to discover that they sure as Hell felt like part of my body and not some sort of fake padding. And at the same time, I noticed my hands had changed as well. They looked like girl hands with long painted fingernails.

"WHAT THE FUCK?" I demanded again, this time with a strong note of panic.

I quickly looked back at the staff again only to notice a ghostly image was forming beside it. It looked like an old woman, though I could see straight through her. Suddenly I remembered the old stories of rubbing the magic lamp and having a genie pop out.

"Are you a genie?" I demanded, unsure of what else to say.

The ghostly old woman just stared at me for a moment before sue burst out laughing. "No," she told me with look of amusement, "but you are."

Then the ghostly old woman gestured and the world suddenly exploded around me. I felt a strange tearing inside me and then everything vanished around me, only to be replaced by a violet haze. That quickly faded away and I saw that I was now standing in a strange room where the floor and walls were all made of the same purple crystal as was in the staff.

"Where the Hell am I?" I demanded, noticing from my voice and a quickly look down that I was back to my normal self. "What the fuck are you?"

I looked around and saw that the room was completely round and had absolutely no doors or windows. There wasn't even any furniture. The entire room was completely empty, except for me and the ghostly old woman who no longer looked ghostly at all. She now looked like normal flesh and blood.

"I want some damn answers," I told her, getting angry to keep control over my growing fear and confusion.

"That is precisely what I am here for," the old woman told me with a faint smile. "To start with, I am a ghost. And since I am a ghost I see no reason why I should continue looking like I did when I died."

With that the old woman began to shimmer. A moment later she looked quite a bit different. She now looked like a very pretty blonde girl in her twenties and was wearing an old fashioned outfit...one which probably would have been considered sexy and revealing...back in the 60's.

"As I said," the now attractive young woman said as she turned around to show off her new body, "I am your guide. I am here to answer your questions about the staff and give you the benefit of my knowledge and experience. This," she gestured to the room around us, "is a place within the staff where I brought you so we can chat."

I just stared at her for a moment with my jaw dropped open. This just didn't seem possible. I grimaced and shook my head, then demanded, "So what the Hell is going on?"

The woman just stared at me for a moment before saying, "You've never heard of the Staff of Isis." It was a statement and not a question. "You truly have no idea of what you've gotten yourself into..." She shook her head and gave an exasperated sigh. "That's going to make this more difficult."

I just crossed my arms. "So tell me already."

"I will," she assured me, "just be patient please. To start with, my name is...was Margarette. However I am better known by my professional name..."

Suddenly she was engulfed in a dramatic puff of smoke and when it cleared she'd transformed again. She looked like a completely different woman now, though even more beautiful. She now had raven black hair and was wearing a violet tuxedo which came with a matching top hat.

"The Astonishing Anabelle," she exclaimed, taking off her top hat and bowing in a dramatic swoop. I recognized her now. This was the woman on all the posters I'd found in the storage locker. "You've heard of me?"

"Sort of," I responded meekly.

The Astonishing Anabelle just grinned at my comment, though I doubt she'd be doing so if she knew about the fact that I'd just robbed her. For some reason that kind of thing tends to make people a bit unhappy with you.

"Let's start with the basics," Anabelle said thoughtfully, "the staff you found is a very powerful magic item known as the Staff of Isis." Then almost to herself she continued, "But honestly, I don't think the goddess Isis has anything to do with it. I just think one of the previous owners slapped the name on it, thinking that it sounded impressive."

"Okay, so I found a magic staff," I snorted sarcastically, trying to hide my confusion. "How much is the damn thing worth?"

"It's priceless," Anabelle said, giving me a bit of a glare. "It has the power to perform miracles. The power to grant wishes."

"So it can give me three wishes," I said thoughtfully, not quite ready to laugh her off after seeing the weirdness going on so far. "Just like a genie..."

"Three wishes...a day," Anabelle corrected with a smile. Then as I stared at her in disbelief, she continued, "Once it's awakened and active it can perform great magic three times before it goes dormant and has to rest. It's very powerful and very versatile, effectively granting your wishes...though it does have a lot of limits. One of these is that the more power you use during these three times, the longer it has to rest before you can use it again. If you do three small things it may be ready to use again later that day. If you do three big things it may take days...sometimes even a couple weeks after some really big uses. But most of the time it's ready for use again less than a day later."

"Since you seem so fond of the genie analogy," Anabelle said, sitting back into a chair that hadn't been there a moment before, "let me explain it another way. You can think of the Staff of Isis as a magic genie lamp. Just because you have a magic lamp that doesn't mean you can make your wishes right away. First you have to rub the lamp to summon the genie. Only then can you actually make your wishes. But imagine that in this case, once you summon the genie he can't go back into his lamp until you've made your three wishes. Until you do, he'll just follow you everywhere. Then once you make your wishes he goes back into the lamp to rest. But this genie gets tired from granting your wishes. If you wished for something small he doesn't get too tired and will be ready to come grant more wishes before long. But if you wished for some big things he gets exhausted and needs to rest for a lot longer."

"You're pulling my fucking leg," I gasped.

Anabelle frowned, "Please don't keep using profanity around me. It's quite rude. And no...I'm not joking."

"So I just rub this staff and you pop out to give me three wishes," I snorted, eying her suspiciously, "I thought you said you weren't a genie."

"I'm not," she let out a sigh of exasperation. "I'm just a ghost now. The genie explanation was just an analogy...though a good one. You could also think of the staff as being like a gun." Suddenly an old fashioned revolver appeared in her hand, though she didn't point it at me. Instead she opened it up to show me that it was empty. "You can't shoot it until it's loaded first. Then you have to make sure the bullet is in the chamber and it's cocked. Now you get three shots before you have to stop, reload and do the whole thing all over again."

"If you're really looking for a genie," Anabelle told me with a faint chuckle, "the closest thing it has is you."

"Me?" I blinked in confusion.

"Perhaps I should explain," Anabelle said, shifting position in her chair. A lit cigarette suddenly appeared in her hand and she took a drag. "When someone awakens the staff...when they activate it for the first time after the death of its previous owner...which was me by the way..." Anabelle gestured at herself and continued, "Then they become the new owner. They become bonded to the staff until their death...and beyond." She gave me a steady look. "This means that you are now the owner of the staff and the only one who can use it until you die. When you do eventually die, your soul will be trapped in the staff just as mine is and then it will be your turn to act as a guide for the next owner."

"So I'm the only one who can use it?" I frowned, feeling a bit overwhelmed by all this.

"Until you die and someone else takes it," Anabelle pointed out, not seeming bothered at all by that. Then again, she was dead herself, so I wouldn't imagine her being too worried about someone else eventually dying too.

"So how do I use it?" I scratched my chin thoughtfully. "Do I just grab it and make a wish?"

"If you like," Anabelle shrugged, taking another drag from her cigarette. "But there's not really any need for that. You don't actually have to say anything to use it. All you have to do is touch the staff and think about what you want it to do and then give it a mental command to do it. It takes a conscious order so it won't go off accidentally." Then she paused for a moment, giving me a conspiratorial wink. "In fact it's better if you don't make any wishes aloud. It's a lot more dramatic if you don't tell your audience what you're going to do before you do it."

"The staff is very powerful and very versatile," Anabelle stated thoughtfully. "If the staff can do what you tell it then it will," Anabelle continued, "but there are a lot of things it can't do, though I'm not really sure why."

"There is something else you must know," Anabelle told me, pausing for moment and looking as though she was trying to figure out just how to explain this 'something else'. "There is another catch to using the staff. A rather important one."

"What's that?" I narrowed my eyes and looked at her suspiciously. I was half expecting her to say I'd have to give up my soul or give her my first kid.

"You saw how your body was transformed when you awoke the staff?" Anabelle said carefully, looking at me with an expression of near amusement.

I stared at her for a moment and gulped. I definitely remembered the weird way my body seemed to have changed, though since I was suddenly back to normal when I came here I just thought I must have been imagining it. "I kind of thought it was just in my mind."

"No," Anabelle chuckled, "this is all in your mind." She gestured to the room around me, then continued, "That was real." At my blank look she explained, "I only brought your mind to this place. Your body is still out in the real world...and still transformed to look very much like this." She gestured down at herself.

"What?" I gasped. "What the fuck? How...?"

"What did I say about profanity?" Anabelle asked me with a raised eyebrow. Then she assured me, "Don't worry. The transformation is only temporary."

"Temporary," I muttered with a faint sigh of relief.

"Whenever you awaken the staff," Anabelle told me, "whenever you activate it so it can be used...it changes you. It will transform you into that form and effectively turn you into your own genie. But once you've used the power all three times the staff goes dormant again and it will turn you back to normal. At least until the next time you awake it."

"I don't fully understand the reason for this transformation," Anabelle admitted, "though I have heard several stories and theories. But needless to say, whenever you use the staff you'll be changed until you're through. This was true for me and those who owned the staff before me as well."

"Just great," I grimaced, feeling overwhelmed by everything that Anabelle was telling me. It just didn't seem possible though I had no reason to doubt her. That only made this even harder to accept. "Okay," I scowled, "I think I've got it. Can I go now?"

Just then I suddenly realized that I could sort of feel the way back out of this room. It was almost like I could feel an invisible rope connecting back outside...back to my real body if what Anabelle said was right. It was then that I somehow understood I could have left this room at any time. All I had to do was really want to leave.

"Wait," Anabelle exclaimed, "I still have more to tell you... A lot more..."

But it was too late as I'd already tugged the mental rope that would pull me out of this place. My senses once again blurred into a purple haze and I could feel myself being pulled out of this place and back to my real self.

The last thing I heard as I was leaving though was Anabelle's voice coming as though from a great distance, calling out, "You'll be back..."

Just like that I was suddenly back in my own living room and back in my own body, even if it wasn't exactly my body at the moment. I immediately felt the wrongness of my body and looked down to see that I had tits and a violet outfit. In fact it was a violet tuxedo that even had the tails. I couldn't help but notice that it was the same outfit that Anabelle had just been wearing.

"Oh shit," I exclaimed, remembering what Anabelle had said about being changed into a form very similar to hers.

I normally would have panicked at finding myself suddenly being changed into a chick like this, and in fact, I damn near was before I was so abruptly pulled into the talk with Anabelle. But she had not only warned me about this, but had assured me it was only temporary.

"She said I'd change back when I made my wishes," I reminded myself nervously.

Still, it was a bit unnerving to be standing there with a completely changed body no matter how fucking temporary it might be. I took several deep breaths to calm myself down and then looked at the staff. It was no longer glowing or even floating in mid air. Instead it was just laying across the floor as though it was nothing more than an ordinary walking stick

"I can't believe how fucking weird everything suddenly got," I grimaced.

I looked down at myself for a moment and then shook my head in disbelief. I could feel long hair brushing my shoulders as I did so. Then, taking another deep breath, I started walking across my living room, going well around the staff. I wasn't quite ready to deal with that thing just yet. Hell, I damn near shit my pants after what happened the last time I touched it.

It was just a little strange walking since my entire sense of balance had been thrown off by my changed body. The high heels on the shoes I was now wearing didn't help either. I was just glad that they weren't 6 inch stilettos or something.

I carefully made my way to the bathroom so I could check out what I looked like in the mirror. I was a bit freaked out over suddenly changing like this, but since I knew it was only temporary I could also feel curious. I wanted to know exactly what I looked like now.

I just stood and stared at my reflection for a full minute or so before I finally gasped, "Damn..."

Anabelle hadn't been kidding when she said the staff would change me to look a lot like her. For one thing, I had the exact same violet tuxedo she'd been wearing as the Astonishing Anabelle, minus the top hat. And even without the same clothes I'd still look a Hell of a lot like her.

The woman in the mirror looked like Anabelle's sister...albeit a sexier sister. Anabelle herself was quite beautiful, but I now looked just a little more so. I was pretty sure I was a few inches taller than her though it's hard to be certain. What I was certain of though was that I was definitely bustier. Anabelle was probably a large B cup or a small C, while I had to be a DD cup. And even though we had these noticeable differences, the similarities between us were far stronger.

"Holy shit," I whispered, reaching a hand up to feel my face. I could hardly believe this hot chick was really me. I just continued starting at my reflection, looking right into my own silvery gray eyes. "Unbelievable..."

I probably spent about fifteen minutes just staring at myself in the mirror and making faces at myself. It was just so unreal to see this woman mimicking my every move. There was something just completely dreamlike about the experience.

Once I was done with checking myself out in the mirror, I reached between my legs and gave a gentle squeeze. I knew I wouldn't feel my familiar equipment there, but it was still strange to find it empty. I was tempted to reach down inside my pants and really get a feel, but I wasn't ready for something like that yet. The idea was just kind of creepy. So I stood there cupping my new breasts instead.

"Too bad my last girlfriend wasn't built like this," I muttered. "The bitch..."

Now that I'd at least looked my transformed body over a bit, I was ready to try out the staff. I had no reason to doubt what Anabelle told me, but I wanted to see for myself. I just had to see if I could get some real magic miracles from the thing.

I felt a mixture of nervousness and excitement as I bent down to pick up the staff. It might not be doing anything flashing at the moment but as soon as I touched it again I had no doubt that it was far more than it appeared. I could feel a warm tingling from it...a strange sense of it being alive and charged. I certainly hadn't felt anything like this when I'd touched it before.

"So this is what it's like when it's awake," I whispered in near awe. This was a whole different experience than touching it while it was dormant.

It was then that I noticed several other subtle clues as to the staff's current status. All four gems now seemed to have a very faint glow from deep within and even the gold metal itself somehow seemed brighter. These were pretty small things overall, but the whole staff somehow looked all the more impressive because of it.

"What should I use it for first?" I wondered aloud. I'd sometimes thought about what I'd do if I ever won the lottery but not really what I'd wish for if I ever found a genie lamp.

I paused to think about what I should possibly wish for and the answer that immediately came to me was money. I could wish for lots and lots of money. I grinned greedily at the idea.

"I wish I had a big pile of cash," I ordered the staff.

The moment those words left my mouth I could feel the power beginning to flow from the staff. The purple gem atop it glowed faintly and then there was a burst of light from my coffee table. A second later I saw a large pile of cash sitting right there on my coffee table exactly like I'd imagined it.

"Holy shit," I blurted out, "it fucking works..."

I jumped in delight, though the jiggle from my chest shocked me back to a more calm attitude. Still I couldn't help but feeling excited as I stared at the pile of cash in front of me. In fact I licked my lips in greed and imagined what I could buy with it all.

"First thing I'm going to do is pay off the assholes," I thought aloud, "this should take care of that protection money they want..." I sure as Hell didn't need another beating like the last time I was late paying them.

Then I went over to dig through the money, wondering how much I had here. I hadn't specified how much I wanted, though that didn't seem to have really mattered. There were stacks of twenties all wrapped up like you see in the movies and all of them dumped into a nice pile. I guessed I had a couple thousand here, which was pretty good for not saying how much I really wanted.

"I can ask for more next time," I shrugged.

I was flipping through one stack of twenties when I finally noticed something odd. I tore the wrapper off and looked at all the bills, my eyes going wide as I did. They were...blurry. Jackson's portrait was a little blurry as were all the details. The serial numbers were even more messed up and weren't even all numbers. There was a blurry question mark and even a smiley face among them instead.

"What the hell?" I demanded, feeling almost betrayed. I glared at the staff in my hand, but it offered no answers. Or at least if I wanted answers I would have to talk to Anabelle again and I had no idea how to do that nor any real desire to do so again at the moment.

I glared at the money, muttering a constant stream of profanities under my breath as I tore off all several more stacks and saw they were all about the same. These bills felt like real money and looked real from a short distance, but certainly didn't stand up to a closer look. It was fucking counterfeit.

"Shit," I spat out knowing that I could never spend this crap.

Someone would have to be drunk or half blind to take these bills and then there were the consequences if I got caught. I wasn't talking about being charged for passing off counterfeit money...or even for counterfeiting myself. If I gave this to the wrong person I could end up dead.

"Waste of a fucking wish," I grimaced, reminding myself that even if I wasted all three uses I could still get more tomorrow. However I had no intention of wasting the next two.

Since the staff apparently didn't seem to like creating money, maybe I should try something else. I thought about it for a moment and decided the perfect next use. If I couldn't summon money I could spent, I could use it to get the next best thing. Something I could turn into money.

"I wish," I started, then paused as I remembered what Anabelle told me. I didn't actually have to say my wish aloud. So with that I closed my eyes and concentrated on what I wanted and then mentally ordered the staff to give it to me. A moment later I felt the power flowing from the staff again.

When I opened my eyes I saw that my second wish had been granted as well and apparently a whole lot better than the first. There was now a small pile on the floor in front of me. Watches, rings, necklaces and bracelets...everything I'd asked for. I picked up a ring and stared it in delight. It looked like real gold and that looked like a real diamond set in it.

"Yes," I grinned, feeling much happier with how this one had worked out.

I looked over all the jewelry, mentally adding up how much I could get from a fence. This was a Hell of a lot easier than busting into a house and just hoping I could find something. The staff got me the same results faster, easier, and with less risk.

Once I was done with the jewelry I looked at the staff again. This thing was pretty damn impressive, even if it couldn't get money right. Then I noticed something... Two of the gems on the side were no longer glowing. They'd gone as dull and normal as they'd been when the staff was still dormant. It was counting how many times it had been used, or at least that was my guess. I'd know for sure if the last gem went dull after I used the staff again.

Since I had one more wish left I decided to use it to get something I'd been wanting for a long time. I closed my eyes and pictured what I wanted then ordered the staff to give it to me. Then I opened my eyes again and looked.

"Yes," I exclaimed with a broad grin.

Hanging from my wall was a very nice sized plasma screen TV. I've been wanting one of those for a long time and the only reason I hadn't taken one from one of the houses I robbed was that it would have been a pain in the ass getting away with something so large, but now I had one and thanks to this staff I could get anything else I wanted as well. Why wish for cash when I could simply wish for whatever I'd spend it on?

I looked back at the staff and sure enough the third gem had gone dull as well. In fact the whole thing was now starting to lose its luster. The purple gem was still glowing a bit, but not as bright. It was slowly fading out now that it had been used all three times.

Of course there was one final piece of business that I was concerned with. I looked down at myself, but I was still a girl. I still had fucking tits on my chest. Anabelle told me that I'd change back once I'd made all three wishes, but I was still a fucking chick.

"Why am I still like this?" I demanded angrily. I tossed the staff onto the couch and then tore off my violet tuxedo jacket. I tossed it to the side and then grabbed my chest through my shirt, feeling almost nauseous. "Why the fuck haven't I changed back?"

I grabbed my chest and then my crotch before glaring at the staff. I stared at it for a moment, wondering how I could get it to change me back when I realized I could sense something. I could still feel the staff...could feel the power from it just like I could when it was in my hand. However I could feel the power slowly fading away. I could feel the staff slowly going dormant again.

"Change me back," I ordered the staff, though there was no reaction.

Then I focused my attention to the way I could feel the staff, the way I could feel it losing power. Anabelle had said I'd change back after I used it three times...but she hadn't said how soon. Maybe it would take a few minutes.

I grumbled and cursed, getting more and more worried as the minutes ticked by. I went and looked at myself in the mirror again, feeling a creeping edge of panic at still having that face and body.

Just as I was beginning to lose hope I suddenly felt the same rush of energy flow through me as when the staff had changed me. It coincided with the same moment the staff finally lost the rest of its energy and went dormant again. I gasped in surprise and then laughed in delight as I was transformed back into my old male self. All it took was waiting fifteen minutes after my last wish. Fifteen minutes which had seemed like a LOT longer.

"I'm me again," I exclaimed in relief.

I just stood there for a minute saving the sensation of being a guy again. The weight was gone from my chest and my dick was right back where it belonged. Even my clothes had returned to normal. I was definitely back to normal.

After a few minutes I hesitantly went back to the staff. It now looked like normal gold and jewels again, with no sign of the magic power that filled it. I was very cautious as I bent over to pick it up again, half afraid that it would activate and change me again. No such thing happened, though when I touched it I could still feel the power deep inside...sleeping...resting...recharging.

"I can't wait to try you again," I said after a few minutes. I grinned, my mind already swirling with ideas about what I could do with it next time. "I can't wait..."

I scowled as I adjusted my jacket against the chill in the air and then looked up into the sky. It was still light, but wouldn't be for much longer. The sun was setting quickly and it wouldn't be long until it was dark enough to really give me privacy.

"Good," I muttered, thinking that this gave me enough light to still see though it was late enough that I was unlikely to be interrupted.

At the moment I was in a city park, in the middle of clearing surrounded by trees. I'd always thought such parks to be a huge waste of time before, though right now it was exactly what I needed. This would give me enough space to really try out what the Staff of Isis could do without having to risk blowing up my room.

I glared at he staff in my hand, feeling the tingle of power from within it. It was fully charged and ready to go...as it had been since yesterday. However, after things had worked out the first time I'd used it, I'd been holding off a little.

My first three wishes on the thing hadn't gone quite as well as I'd first thought, a fact I figured out quite soon after I'd changed back to normal. First, I found that I might have had a nice flat screen TV...but it wouldn't even turn on. It was just as much a fake as the cash I'd first wished for. But that was beside the point as an hour after I wished for all the stuff it all just vanished, leaving me with nothing for my three wishes.

"I got nothing from you," I told the staff, wondering if Anabelle could hear me from within.

I carefully looked around to make sure there was no one there. I was all alone in this clearing and might even have been the only one in the park at the moment for all I knew. That was perfect, since I didn't want anyone else around for this.

"Okay," I muttered, "How do I wake you up again...?"

Since rubbing the purple gem on top of the staff seemed to work the last time I tried that again. The similarity to rubbing a genie lamp to summon the genie wasn't at all lost on me. The effects were almost immediate as the purple gem began to glow and I could feel the power inside flaring to life.

My entire body was suddenly enveloped in a golden glowing aura and I could feel a surge of energy rushing through me...changing me. It was the same thing that had happened to me the first time I'd awoken the staff. I'd been turned into a chick again.

"I'll never get used to this," I muttered, noticing that my voice had changed into a woman's voice.

I looked down at myself and saw the nice round bulges pushing out of my chest again. The sight of tits on my own chest was damn surreal, even if I was only seeing them through my clothes. I quickly reached between my legs though already knew what I'd find. I really had changed into a chick again...just like the last time.

"Damn weird." I shook my head.

I spent the next minute looking myself over again, noticing while I did so that I was dressed exactly as I was the first time I'd changed. Right before I'd changed back to normal the last time, I'd taken off the tuxedo jacket and tossed it aside. But now the jacket was back on me. I shouldn't have been surprised, since the jacket had actually vanished off my floor at the same time I turned back into a guy.

Once I'd looked myself over a little, I turned my attention back to the staff. It was definitely awake and ready now. All three gems had a faint inner glow and the whole thing just somehow seemed brighter and more impressive. However, how it looked wasn't what I was interested in. I wanted to try out its power and see just what this thing could really do.

I've already used the staff to make things appear out of nowhere...even if they don't last. The best thing I can figure is that when I just make something appear like that it's not real. Maybe it's like an illusion or something. Some sort of solid illusion. That would explain why the cash I made was all blurry and why the TV wouldn't even work.

"Now it's time to try something else," I said. Of course that just left the question of what to try. I had been thinking about this for the last couple days though and had a few ideas.

Since Anabelle had been a stage magician and probably used the staff in her act, I thought that might make for a good start. I wanted to try something that a magician might use on stage...something fairly impressive. All I could really think of though was pulling a rabbit out of my ass, sawing a lady in half or maybe making some chick levitate.

"No ladies around here," I muttered in disappointment before glancing down at my knockers and sighing, "except for the obvious..."

However I did have an idea of what I wanted to try. I looked around the clearing for something I could use and my eyes locked onto a park bench. As could be expected of a park bench in a city park, it was carved up with countless initials and profanities as well as decorated with graffiti.

I bit my lip to keep from saying, "I wish..." I concentrated on what I wanted and then mentally ordered the staff to do it.

A surge of power came from the staff and then the park bench began to glow. It lifted up into the air and just hovered two feet above the ground. I'd rather levitate a hot chick, but this would have to do for the moment.

I could still feel the power from the staff just as I could somehow feel the park bench. I willed it to move the left and it did so. I willed it to move up higher and it did so. I was pretty sure that I could keep levitating the table and even moving it around for quite awhile and it would only count as one use of the staff. However the longer I did it the longer it would probably need to rest afterwards.

I moved the table around in the air for a minute or so before I got bored of that. It was time to do something else. I lifted the park bench up high into the air and then slammed it into the ground as hard as I could. It smashed to pieces in a satisfying crash and ceased to glow.

"Not bad," I chuckled appreciatively.

I leaned the staff up against the side of a garbage can to free my hands and then moved over to examine the wreckage of the park bench. It had left a really nice dent in the ground and pieces of it were scattered all about the clearing. I couldn't resist picking up a bolt which had come loose in the crash. It might make a decent souvenir.

Just then I heard a voice exclaim, "I think the noise came from over here..."

"What...?" I gasped, suddenly snapping around.

Four guys around my age or just a little younger came rushing down the sidewalk and into the clearing. They were all dressed like punks, which along with the knives two of them were holding told me exactly what they were. Muggers, probably sweeping the park and looking for easy cash and thrills. And here I was probably looking like the perfect target.

"Oh shit." I looked down at myself, realizing just how tempting a target I'd be right now. "Fuck."

I hated muggers. Those bastards fucking disgusted me, which was saying something because I'd actually tried it myself once a long time ago... before realizing that I didn't have what it took. It takes a certain disregard for other people...even a sadistic streak to mug someone. It's one thing to just take some cash and jewelry, and quite another to use violence and fear to totally victimize them.

The four men all stared at me in surprise and then one of them exclaimed, "Look at that shit she's wearing."

"You just come from a circus girlie?" another of them asked me with an evil looking grin.

I gulped, fighting back the impulse to look down at myself again. It was bad enough getting caught by guys like this and even worse looking like I did now. I silently cursed the damn staff as well as this stupid side effect from using it.

I've known several muggers and knew that they tended to come in two main types. There were the drug addicts who were so desperate for money to feed their habits that they would do anything to get it. Those guys were dangerous because they were desperate and unpredictable... not to mention usually fucked up in the head. And then there were the ones who weren't in it so much for the money, but for the thrills and feeling of power it gave them. Those kind tended to get nasty just because they could...because they got off on it. And unfortunately I had a horrible feeling that this group fell in with the latter.

"Ya gotta pay us to use our park," the biggest of the four said with a sneer. He was big all around, not so much with just fat or muscle, but just height and general bulk.

"I don't have any money," I said, keeping my voice calm since it would be worse than useless to show fear in front of guys like this. That only encourages them. Unfortunately, as soon as the words were out of my mouth, I realized that telling this would be worse than useless as well.

"That's okay," another of the punks grinned. This one had a lot of piercing on his ears and eyebrows. "We'll take something else instead..."

And with that all four punks started walking towards me, going slow enough to create fear. It was obvious that they wanted me to run and just as obvious that I wouldn't get very far if I did. This was just a game to them. A damn sadistic game that they fully intended to win.

I stepped back, growing increasingly afraid with every step they took towards me. I knew what I looked like at the moment and knew exactly what they intended. I silently cursed the staff again, knowing that I should never have to face this kind of a threat. No man should.

"The staff," I whispered to myself, suddenly remembering that it had the power to save me from these assholes. Unfortunately I'd left it leaning against the garbage can and there was no way I could get to it before they got to me. Damn, I wished I had that staff...

Just then the staff suddenly came flying straight at me from where it had been resting, snapping into place right in my hand almost as though I'll pulled it there with a bungee chord or something. It was almost the exact opposite of what had happened when I first awoke the staff. I was completely shocked at the staff coming to me like this, but not nearly as much as the punks were.

"Did you see that?" The big guy blurted out with a hint of fear in his voice, "she's some kind of developed..."

"Developed...?" I blinked in surprise.

I was certainly no developed and actually felt a little offended that they thought I was. Of course I guess I could understand their thinking that since the staff did fly to my hand and all. But the power was all in the staff...not in me. I didn't have any super powers, just a really cool walking stick. I mean, wasn't that like calling someone a developed just because they had a gun?

"I don't fucking think so," I spat out angrily, feeling a surge of new confidence now that I had my own personal Aladdin's lamp in hand.

I glared at the punks, pissed off that they'd try coming after me like this. I was even more pissed off when I thought about what they'd wanted to do do me. I looked like a hot chick at the moment, so it was pretty damn obvious what their intentions were.

I could feel the hum of power from the staff and it only gave me ideas. Then glancing down at the gems, I was startled to notice that two of them were still glowing a little. I don't know how or why the staff had come to me like that, but it hadn't counted as one of my three uses. There was time to think about that later though. Right now I had some assholes to wipe the floor with.

"I could use a guinea pig to test this out on," I grinned evilly as I concentrated and unleashed my next command to the staff.

The big guy suddenly began to glow and then let out a panicked scream right before he seemed to vanish right out of his clothes. The empty clothes all collapsed to the ground in a pile while the three remaining muggers stared at them and then me with expressions of pure terror. I couldn't resist letting out an evil laugh like some villain in a bad movie. That seemed to be all that was needed to send all three running as fast as they could.

"Fucking awesome," I laughed aloud, bursting with excitement over how powerful this staff really was. "That was pretty damn fun."

I was still laughing to myself as I walked over to the pile of clothes and gently nudged them with my foot. Something small squirmed within and a moment later a hairy rodent darted out of the pile. I just stared at the guinea pig and laughed even louder as he ran off as fast as his little legs could take him.

My first thought had been to turn the mugger into a frog since that was supposed to be the usual thing with magic, but as soon as I said I needed a guinea pig to test the staff on my thoughts turned to a slightly different direction. A pretty damn funny direction if I do say so myself though.

Though I felt no guilt in turning that asshole into a rodent, I only wished I'd done the same to his buddies. I was still pissed at them for fucking with me and planning to do that more than just figuratively. It was too bad he wouldn't be a guinea pig for very long either.

When I'd used the staff on the mugger I somehow sensed that I could actually control just how long he'd be like that before turning back to normal. However I figured that the longer he was a guinea pig the more magic it would have to use...and the longer it would have to rest. I had no intention of waiting until I was old and gray before using the staff again or that fucker would have been eating out of a pet dish for good.

I kicked at the empty pile of clothes again and then bent down to dig through them. I quickly found his wallet. Though there were no credit cards or ID, not that I was expecting to find either. Guys like that didn't usually have credit and I know I didn't carry any ID on me when I went out to work. However I did find almost a hundred bucks which I slipped into my pocket before tossing the wallet into the bushes.

"Fair is fair," I chuckled.

Now, I told myself with a sigh, the smart thing to do is to get out of here as fast as I could. Sure, I scared those guys away, but they could be back anytime with guns or reinforcements. I still had one use left on the staff, but I wasn't sure what the staff could do against a large group or guns and I didn't want to risk it.

I had to get home as fast as I could, but it would be a real pain in the ass doing it with this staff. I'd be way too obvious if those guys tried showing up again and following me. Damn, I just wished I was home already.

Then I suddenly felt the power of the staff flare to life again. Seconds later the entire world seemed to vanish around me in a swirl of purple and gold, reminding me a great deal of when I'd been pulled into the staff to meet Anabelle. But when the world returned, I wasn't in the staff with the weird purple room...but right in the living room of my own apartment.

"Holy shit," I exclaimed in surprise.

But as surprised as I was to suddenly go from being at the park to being home, that was nothing compared to the surprise I felt a minute later when I noticed that one of the gems was still glowing on the staff. I thought I'd accidentally used the last wish to go home, but for some reason it brought me home without even counting as a use.

"What the Hell is up with you?" I mused to myself, filled with questions about the staff.

Of course I could always ask Anabelle, though I wasn't sure how to get her out of the staff again, nor sure I wanted to talk to her. After all, she was a ghost or at least she claimed to be. Who knew what she'd do to me when she found out I'd robbed her. At the moment I thought it might be a better idea to figure this stuff out on my own.

"I have one wish left," I reminded myself, looking at the last glowing gem. I tried thinking about what to use it for, but kept drawing a blank. I'd already gotten a good idea that I could do damn near anything I imagined with it. The hard part was trying to decide which one I wanted to try.

I thought about making something disappear...like maybe my asshole neighbor's car. Or maybe I could try summoning a rabbit...seeing if I could do something alive. But with how well the other things worked when I made them appear I don't think I wanted to try that one.

After thinking about my last wish for a few minutes, I decided to just hold off for awhile. There was no urgency to use it after all. And though I didn't really want to think about it, I was getting curious about more than just how the staff worked.

I leaned the staff against the wall and then went to sit on my couch. I began reaching under my couch for my stash of weed, but then paused as I remembered I'd run out. With a grimace I briefly considered using my last use to summon some more weed, but then I remembered how bad the cash and TV had worked out.

"Damn," I muttered.

Since getting a little stoned was out of the question for the moment I went and got myself a beer before returning to my couch. I took several long drinks, then began to think about why I'd really decided to hold off on using the last wish.

I reached down and cupped the two prominent bulges on my chest, still stunned that I had my own pair of tits. Of course I could barely feel them beneath the clothes I was wearing, but that could easily be fixed. I took off the violet tuxedo jacket and set it to the side. I was about to start taking the rest of my clothes off for a better look at my strangely transformed body, but then I thought of something. I looked at the staff which was right where I left it against the wall.

"Ah shit," I grimaced, suddenly feeling self-conscious. I had no idea how much Anabelle could see from in there and didn't like the idea of her watching me feel myself up. "I can take care of that..."

A minute later the staff was in my closet and I was free to check myself out without some peeping Tom ghost. I poked at my breasts again and shook my head in amazement before I began to take the rest of my clothes off.

The fancy violet tuxedo came off and fell to the floor in no time at all, followed by everything else I was wearing. The clothes were definitely an old style and it struck me as kind of weird that a body as hot as this would be wearing granny underwear under it all. A body like this deserved a thong, though to be honest I'm kind of glad I wasn't wearing one.

It didn't take me long at all before I was standing there completely naked. I felt butterflies in my stomach as I looked down at myself, at the nice firm breasts, at the flat stomach, and at the long sexy legs which I now possessed. I had to admit it was a Hell of a body, though I felt pretty awkward to be wearing it.

"And just a little turned on," I had to admit.

I sat down on my couch and slowly ran my hands over my skin, somewhat amazed by how soft and smooth it felt. I ran my hands over my arms first, then over the most obvious parts...my breasts. The skin seemed particularly soft and smooth there and my nipples were rather sensitive.

"Nice rack," I mused, wishing I'd had a girlfriend with tits like this.

After just feeling up my tits for a minute or two I turned my attention to the big prize. I ran my hand down my stomach and to my crotch, then paused to just feel the empty space. A part of me just felt confused that my cock and balls were gone, even though I knew that they would be. I suppose it must be a little like that for an amputee who keeps feeling that his missing limb should be there, even though he knows it isn't.

"Damn weird," I thought aloud before slowly exploring my new genitals a bit with my finger. A shiver went through me as I did. "Wow..." That was even more sensitive than my nipples were.

As I fingered myself I half expected to start getting wet and turned on, but that didn't really happen. It was sensitive and I felt kind of strange doing this, but I wasn't getting turned on or anything, at least not physically. My mind was so blown by this that I think I was too stunned to get too excited mentally either, though I was certainly on the edge.

I continued playing with myself for a bit, but it was more curiosity and exploration than jacking off...or jilling off as the case may be. I was a little disappointed by that actually, but I guess this was all just a bit too weird to be sexy.

Since my intention of turning this opportunity into an erotic selfexploration had petered out, I ended that and turned on the TV. I grabbed another beer and sat back to lose myself in mindless programming, not bothering to change myself back to normal. This whole being a chick might be pretty damn weird and even kinky, but I had to admit it was definitely interesting too.

For the next couple hours I just watched TV, got a little drunk, and occasionally felt myself up a bit. It was still something of a buzz every time I poked my chest and felt it jiggle. My intention was to use my last wish and change back to normal before going to bed, but I ended up falling asleep on my couch with my last wish unwished.

"Caleb Brooks," I told myself with a grimace, "you've got to be out of your fucking mind."

I stood in the middle of my living room once again as a sexy dark haired babe in a purple tuxedo. It still amazed me that I could suddenly go from being a guy to being this, even having my clothes changed in the process. Every time I did this I was struck with amazement all over again.

"I'll never get used to this," I muttered to myself.

I'd used the staff to transform again just a few minutes ago, the first time I'd done so in several days. A few days ago I'd woken up as a babe and was a bit embarrassed to have stayed that way all night long. I'd quickly turned myself back to normal by using the last wish on the staff and that was the last time I'd really even touched the staff until a short time ago.

"This has got to be the most insane idea I've ever had," I thought aloud, feeling as though I was trying to talk myself out of what I had planned. Perhaps I was since I knew how stupid and dangerous it was.

There was a very specific reason that I'd used the staff to transform this time. I had a plan, something that was stupid and dangerous... but would be oh so satisfying if I was able to pull it off. I couldn't resist grinning evilly as I considered what I had in mind.

Some people might call me a low life thief for what I did for a living, but even low life thieves have bills they have to pay. I have rent to take care of and back when I had a car I still had to pay for that and insurance. One of the bills I have though is the protection money I'm forced to pay every month and unfortunately the guys who come to collect it had been leaning heavily on me and demanding more than usual.

"Fucking bastards," I grimaced.

It had never seemed right that Big Ed had made me and all the other small timers pay him for the 'right' to work in his territory. However he had ties to a lot of big timers and he had a lot of thugs who could enforce his 'right' to charge us protection money. I know guys who were late paying and ended up paying with broken bones instead. And there were rumors of some guys who'd refused to pay their protection money and disappeared instead.

"I can't afford that damn increase," I spat out angrily. "Fuck them..."

Just a few hours ago a couple of Big Ed's thugs had come over to collect on this month's protection money and to inform me that the amount they want had been doubled. Apparently some jack ass had given them the impression that I was hauling in a lot more than I actually was and he wanted his cut. Of course the truth didn't matter to him or his goons or even the fact that I didn't have that much money. What did matter was that I gave them what they wanted and that I had until tomorrow to do so.

"Fucking bastard," I cursed.

Of course I could go breaking into a few places tonight in a marathon session and get some more cash. However the goods would take a bit longer to fence properly and I'd be taking a lot more risk than I preferred. And normally, that's exactly what I would have done, but now... Now this staff gave me some options I could only dream about before.

"Let's see how that fucking bastard likes being ripped off," I grinned evilly.

I laughed as I thought about using this staff against Big Ed. He might have some dangerous guys working for him, but they were nothing compared to the power of the Staff of Isis. I could walk right into his place and not only fuck him up, but then walk out with the very money I'd end up paying him. And the best part was he wouldn't have any idea it was me. Thanks to this strange side effect of turning into a hot chick when I used the staff there was no way in the world he'd know who really did this.

"I never thought I'd be thankful for this weird ass side effect," I thought aloud as I looked down at my very feminine body. "There's no way he'll ever guess it's me."

But if I was going to do this there was one more thing I was going to need. If I was going to just bust into his place using magic powers like some kind of developed it only seemed appropriate that I dress the part. If I dressed up in some ridiculous costume it would throw him even further off my trail. He'd think I was some super villain moving in on his territory.

"Now for the costume," I mused, trying to picture the costume in my mind. I'd been thinking about this costume for a good hour or so while trying decide what I wanted to look like and thought that the final image would be pretty cool looking. I clutched the staff tight and gave it the command. "Presto chango..."

The staff grew warm in my hand and then my clothes began to glow and change. It only took seconds and I wasn't quite sure whether the tuxedo vanished and was replaced with the new outfit or if it just reformed and transformed into it, but moments later the glow vanished and I was now wearing the very clothes I had just been imagining.

"Holy shit," I gasped almost in spite of myself.

I looked down at my body and the new clothes I now wore, smiling in satisfaction at what I saw. I couldn't take it all in like this, but from what I could see it looked exactly like I imagined it and totally awesome to boot. Of course I just had to get a better look.

I leaned the staff against the wall and rushed to the bathroom mirror so I could see this new costume. I paused to gasp in amazement feeling even more impressed by the results of my last wish. This costume was exactly what I wanted.

"Perfect," I nodded in appreciation.

My new costume was mostly violet...the same shade as the tuxedo I'd been wearing before this. It seemed somewhat appropriate to keep the same color that Anabelle had used, though I can't say that I was doing it to honor her memory or anything. The truth was I just thought that color went well with this body.

I was wearing a pair of tight violet pants that were sort of like spandex and showed off just how great an ass I currently had. I also wore a pair of thigh length boots that were the same color of violet. They would have looked even better if they had stiletto heels, but the truth was I didn't want to break my ankle by trying to walk in something like that, so I only had a pretty small heel on them...just enough to make them look a bit sexier without being a problem.

The top was a violet shirt made of the same material as my pants, though it had a sort of corset built into the waist. It wasn't constricting like a real corset would be, but looked sexy and sort of suggested 'dominatrix'. The shirt even went down and turned into a pair of gloves covering all my fingers. Of course I left a deep section of fabric out at the top so I was showing a lot of cleavage. So I was a guy and liked looking at cleavage. Sue me.

There were other additions to my new costume as well. I wore a violet cape that was a couple shades darker than the rest of my outfit, pinned to my shirt with a pair of small gold broaches. I had a gold metal belt, small gold metal shoulder pads and a pair of gold metal wrist bracers as well. All in all this created a rather impressive look perfect for an evil super villain.

"I'm gonna make Big Ed fill his pants," I chuckled evilly. "And that bastard will have no idea I'm the one who did it."

I was grinning in malicious delight as I went and retrieved the staff. I clutched it firmly in my hand, feeling a new fondness for the gold treasure. I was coming to realize that even if it couldn't do everything I wanted, this thing was still the key to getting everything I ever wanted.

The first part of my plan was now complete. I had a flashy costume that would scream super villain to anyone who saw it. This would throw Big Ed off the trail and make him think I was just some rival moving in on his territory or something. Now it was time for part two...going to Big Ed's place and getting even with him for all the times his jerk off thugs ripped me off for the monthly payoff.

"I've only got two wishes left," I reminded myself, knowing that I'd have to use them carefully, but that should be okay because I had a few ideas in mind for some rather impressive uses.

I closed my eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. Once I was ready I opened my eyes again, clutched the staff tightly in my hand and ordered it to take me to Big Ed's house.

A moment later I suddenly appeared at my destination, the front yard of a large house that was nearly a small mansion. I'd never been inside of Big Ed's house, but I knew where it was and had gone past it a few times. An associate of mine had pointed it out once with the warning that I should never even think about robbing it. It was a warning that I was finally going to ignore.

Now that I was at Big Ed's house I became extremely aware, knowing that I was in a dangerous place. My usual style was to avoid direct conflict and weapons of any sort. That's why I always came when my victims were gone...and preferably dead. However I was willing to make an exception this one time due to my personal dislike of my target and the large advantage this staff gave me.

"Is there anyone here?" I called out loudly, already seeing movement coming from the front door.

Several armed men came running out the door, while another guy came around the side of the house. Two of them held hand guns, but one of them held an assault rifle that probably would have made anyone in the NRA drool. The sight of these guns actually made me extremely nervous... even a bit scared. However I tried hard not to let it show and instead just tried to look like a smug bad ass.

"Who the fuck are you?" a deep voice demanded.

I looked at the doorway again and saw a large figure step out. It was Big Ed. He wasn't actually all that tall, only about 5 foot 9. However he had a large frame which had once been heavily muscled, but which had softened a great deal over the years. Still I had no doubt he could kick most people's asses and that wasn't even taking into account his goons and their firepower.

"I'm Mystik," I announced, making up the name on the spot. I thought it sounded presumptuous enough that it would be believable for a villain. "And I'm here to prove a point."

With that I slammed the bottom of my staff on the ground in a dramatic move while mentally giving it the order. There was a flash of light and a faint glow over each of the guns the goons were pointing at me. An instant later their guns had all vanished right out of their hands... being teleported right into a dumpster I'd been thinking of, though they didn't know that. Now they were all unarmed while I still had a magic staff and one wish left.

The thugs were gasping in shock and staring at their empty hands and then at me with expressions of mixed anger, fear and nervousness. Big Ed was obviously feeling afraid as well, though he did a better job of hiding it.

"How the fuck did you do that?" Big Ed demanded, glaring at me suspiciously. Then he snarled, "You're one of those fucking developed..."

I wasn't really developed, but he didn't need to know that. "And I can make every one of you vanish the same way I did your guns." I gave an evil grin, "You don't want to piss me off..."

"No one tells me what to do," Big Ed snarled, growing more angry, "not in my own fuckin home..."

By this time his hired thugs had already turned and ran leaving him to face me alone. "Get out of my way unless you want to die," I told him coldly. Of course I wouldn't actually kill him, but he didn't know that.

"No fucking way," he snarled, reaching behind him and pulling out a knife. I scowled, having wished the guns to vanish, but not the knives. He started to come at me with a furious expression. "I ain't running from no bitch...developed or not."

Since I only had one wish left I needed to do something dramatic. I not only had to stop him, but had to make sure none of his thugs wanted to try coming at me. So I gave the staff another command and slammed the base on the ground again.

Suddenly the very air around me exploded outward in a wave of raw force. There was a deafening BOOM and Big Ed was thrown backward with such force that he left a smash into the front of his house and collapsed to the ground. All the windows in the front of his house shattered, blowing inward. Even the very ground around me showed signs of this explosive wave of raw force, with all the grass near me being torn up and thrown away. Now this was an awesome display of power.

"Fucking awesome," I chuckled to myself. Then I stepped towards the front door, ignoring Big Ed since he was moaning a bit and no longer moving much. "You've seen what I can do," I called out to anyone who might still be there waiting to ambush me. "I've gone easy so far, but if anyone attacks me again I'll destroy you completely..."

I stood there trying to look impressive as I made my bluff. I'd just used up my third and last wish for the day, so there was no way I was going to do anything. Fortunately no one else knew that. So with a smirk I walked into his house, bracing myself to order the staff to take me away if I did encounter any problems.

The large front room was a huge mess with shattered glass spread over the floor. I ignored this though as I walked through, trying to see the money I was sure Big Ed had around here. I went into the next room and saw one of Big Ed's men. He took one look at me and ran out the other door much to my relief.

I did a quick search of Big Ed's house, knowing that I didn't have much time before the staff would go dormant again. I found several guns and even some drugs before I entered a room that was exactly what I was looking for. There was cash piled on tables in lots of stacks. I grinned at the sight of it, feeling as though I'd just stepped into a bank vault.

"Jackpot," I chuckled to myself. "Good think he doesn't believe in banks..."

I picked up a stack of twenties which had to contain a thousand dollars. Then I grinned at the table which contained a dozen similar stacks. And that wasn't even counting the hundreds I saw a bit further back.

Since I didn't have time to waste I turned my attention back to the staff and ordered it to take me and all this money back to my apartment. Then I took one more quick look around me and laughed in an almost drunken glee as the room vanished around me.

A moment later I was standing back in the living room of my apartment, still laughing at my success. I couldn't believe how easy that had been. I'd been able to take out Big Ed and all his thugs in nothing flat. And after all the time I'd spent afraid of him and his guys that was especially exhilarating.

"I did it," I laughed aloud, "I fucking did it..."

Then I turned to look around at the money and paused to realize that it wasn't there. None of the money had come home with me...except for the stack of twenties that I still had in my hand. I gasped in horror as I realized that entire fortune had been left behind. The staff had left it all behind even after I'd told it to bring the money.

"No," I gasped, realizing that I didn't dare go back for it...if I even could. It was too late. I was almost out of time. "SHIT!"

A second later, almost as if on que, my body began to glow and quickly transformed back to normal. I was a guy again and the staff was dormant and out of juice. However I still had the stack of cash in my hand.

"At least it wasn't all for nothing," I grumbled as I tossed the money onto my coffee table. I shook my head in disappointment, having really wanted to rip Big Ed off and clean him out entirely. Instead it looked like I got just about enough to pay his guy tomorrow and not much more. "At least I got something..."

I shook my head and muttered a series of profanities as I leaned the staff against the wall and then plopped down onto my couch. I was definitely not happy at coming home nearly empty handed, but at least I got enough to keep Big Ed's guys off my back for another month.

"But the look on his face," I chuckled to myself as I remembered his expression.

I might not have gotten all the cash I'd been hoping for, but being able to kick Big Ed's ass that badly had made the whole thing worth it. I glanced back to the staff and chuckled to myself, thinking that I could probably get used to that kind of thing.

I sat on my couch leaning forward and silently starting at the staff which was laying across my coffee table. At the moment it had my full attention, thought the sight of it sitting in front of me like this only filled me with questions. Why would it let me move from place to place without counting as a wish? Why would it not let me bring any of Big Ed's money with me? There were other questions too...more of which formed every time I actually used the thing.

"There's only one way I'll get those answers," I reluctantly admitted to myself. "Anabelle."

Of course there were some good reasons that I hadn't already called Anabelle up to ask for the answers she'd promised me. First, I didn't exactly know how to do that, though that was hardly the main reason. I wasn't exactly thrilled with talking to a self proclaimed ghost especially one I'd robbed. I'd seen a few too many horror movies to be comfortable with that.

But as uncomfortable as I was with talking with Anabelle again, I realized that I'd have to do something soon. This staff was already occupying a lot of my time even when it was dormant and out of action. Even when I couldn't use it I couldn't help but thinking about it and all the questions it kept raising. Hell, I'd been neglecting my business quite a bit since finding this damn thing. I had a couple good leads for places to rip off, but just couldn't get motivated for that.

"Kind of pointless to just go in and rip off some house when I've got this baby," I mused. "Hell, with this thing I can do almost anything I can fucking imagine." My encounter with Big Ed and his guys had proven that beyond a shadow of a doubt.

After just staring at the staff for nearly an hour I decided that I had to do something about this. I felt like such a chicken shit for holding back like this. I knew who could answer my questions so all I needed was the balls to go ask.

"Or the balls to lose them," I chuckled.

With that I grabbed the staff and willed it to activate. Suddenly the staff came awake and flooded my body with energy. I could feel the wave of changes rushing through my body too fast to make sense of, though a few seconds later I could tell that I had indeed been transformed. Once again I was a hot babe in a violet tuxedo. Then again, scratch that tuxedo thing.

"What the Hell?" I gasped in surprise. I wasn't wearing the tuxedo this time, but the same sexy super villain costume that I'd been wearing the last time I used it. I looked down at myself and felt my cape, a little startled since every other time I found myself wearing that tux even after I'd taken it off the previous time. "Yet one more question about this thing..."

I held the staff for a moment and stared into the purple gem on the head, bracing myself to face a potentially vengeful ghost...assuming I could get her to answer. Then I took a deep breath and announced, "Okay Anabelle. I've got some questions I want to ask you..."

The purple gem began to glow and suddenly the world was torn away from me in a burst of like. Just like the first time I'd activated the staff I could feel my very soul being torn from my body and pulled down into the staff. The fact that this time I knew what was happening only made it more frightening.

"Holy shit," I blurted out as I suddenly found myself back in my normal male form and standing in the purple crystal room.

"Language please," Anabelle's voice said.

I looked up and saw Anabelle standing a short distance away, still in her Anabelle form, though this time wearing a sexy violet dress with sequins on it. She had a faint look of amusement on her face which was a relief for me. If she'd been standing there as the vengeful ghost I'd imagined I might have shit my pants.

"I was wondering when you'd come back," Anabelle said with a gentle smile.

"Um...hi again," I responded nervously.

Anabelle laughed, "There's no need to be nervous. Not around me at least. You see, I couldn't hurt you even if I wanted to. It's part and parcel of this job." She made quotation marks in the air with her fingers as she said the word 'job'.

"You can't?" I asked in surprise and a bit of relief.

Anabelle just shrugged. "Why don't you have a seat so we can talk..."

As soon as she said that I noticed a couch had appeared behind me. I sat down slowly, half afraid that the couch was some sort of illusion or might vanish from under me. However it was perfectly solid and real to my senses. Anabelle sat down as well and another couch appeared out of thin air right beneath her.

"So," she leaned forward and gave me a look of curiosity, "how long has it been since you left here anyway?"

"What?" I blinked. "Don't you have a clock in here?"

"Sure," Anabelle shrugged and then leaned back, "I could make a clock, but the truth is it wouldn't matter. Not in here. Time doesn't run the same way in here as it does out there. From my perspective you left here just a few minutes ago."

"Wow," I gasped. "Can't you just look out a window or something and see what's going on?"

"It doesn't work that way," Anabelle laughed. "It would be nice if it did. Unfortunately the only time I'm aware of outside the staff is when you actually use it to do something. I can get a sense of what you order the staff to do, but nothing more."

I nodded at that feeling a little relieved. If she was telling the truth and I had no reason to believe she wasn't then she couldn't spy on me through the staff. Or at least she couldn't spy on me when I wasn't actually making wishes.

"Since you've come back," Anabelle told me, her expression going more serious, "I assume you have more questions."

"That's an understatement," I muttered. Then I frowned and tried to decide which one I wanted first. "About this staff... Where does it come from? I mean, how can something like that even exist in real life?"

Anabelle nodded at that and then stared off into space with a thoughtful expression for a moment. "To be honest," she finally said, "I'm not completely sure, though I have heard two different stories. One of those may be the truth, but I can't really say which one."

"The first story I've heard," Anabelle told me with a slight frown, "is that the staff was originally a magic lamp with its own genie. A powerful wizard wanted the genie's powers for himself, so he used great magics...perhaps even the genie's own wishes to claim it. He reformed the genie's lamp into a staff and destroyed the genie since he wanted to control the power directly. However the magic was inextricably tied to the genie, so any attempt to use the magic would temporarily transform the user into the genie...at least physically."

"Damn," I responded, "and the other story?"

"The second story I've heard is that there was once a powerful sorceress." Anabelle leaned back and started with a thoughtful look as though trying to remember the details. "The story goes that she knew she was going to die soon, so transferred all her magic and power into her staff, so it could be passed on to her heir. But because this power was so tied to the sorceress the only way someone else could use it was to temporarily become her...hence the default form. Of course," Anabelle chuckled, "I've also heard that the sorceress really created the default form as a way of reminding her hair where the power really came from and who it really belongs so."

I just nodded at that. "That would certainly be one Hell of a reminder."

"Yes it would," Anabelle grinned. "Every one who ever used the staff would remember what she looked like." She gestured at herself since she was still in the default form the staff gave rather than in her original. "However I have heard one other theory about the sorceress..."

"Oh?" I asked curiously.

Anabelle leaned forward and continued, "The theory is that the sorceress wasn't trying to pass her powers on to her heir... She was trying to survive. She not only transferred her power into the staff, but her own soul as well. That way she could possess her heir's body and transform it into a duplicate of her own...allowing herself to live again while using someone else as a host. However something went wrong and she was never able to possess the body. And then when the host died her soul was released while the host's soul took her place in the staff." Then Anabelle gave me an evil grin. "Maybe someday I'll get a chance to possess your body and live again..." Then at my look of nervousness she burst out laughing, "Don't worry...I couldn't do that even if I wanted. It doesn't work that way and this whole thing is just one theory I've heard. I've never seen any proof."

"Great." I gave a wry smile. Then I asked, "So, which story do you think is the real one?"

"I'm not really sure," Anabelle responded after a moment of thoughtful silence. "There are obvious similarities between the staff and the old stories about genies who grant three wishes, but sometimes the staff behaves less like it's granting wishes and more like a huge catalog of magic spells which automatically casts whichever spell is closest to what you request." She shrugged at that. "Either could be true, but for all I know they could both be complete malarkey."

I just grinned at that, feeling much more relaxed. It was getting harder and harder to think of Anabelle as a vengeful ghost. In fact I kept forgetting that she actually was a ghost. Here inside the staff she seemed just as real and solid as I did.

"How did you get the staff anyway?" I asked, curious about this mysterious woman.

"It was nineteen fifty-seven," Anabelle started with a distant expression on her face. Suddenly she shimmered and changed, transforming into her pretty blonde self. She was no longer the Astonishing Anabelle, but was back to being her original Margarette. And at the moment she was now wearing a flashy looking costume with lots of sequins. "At the time I was working as a stage assistant for a magician called Maxamillion the Magnificent."

"Max was a pretty mediocre magician," Margarette told me in a conspiratorial tone. "But he was still pretty full of himself. He also had a thing for magic...real magic. He was always trying to find real magic he could use though he never seemed to have any luck...at least not until he learned about the Staff of Isis..."

I listened with interest and couldn't resist interrupting, "So this Max guy had the staff before you..."

"Not exactly," Margarette told me with a faint smile. "The woman who had it before me was a bank robber during the depression called Black Annie. With the staff she could make bank fault doors vanish in a puff of smoke and then get away before the cops even knew she was there. She was nearly unstoppable, but then one of her partners stabbed her in the back. Or maybe I should say he shot her in the back and took all the money for himself. He was sort of freaked out by the staff since he thought it was black magic, so he buried it with her in an unmarked grave." Margarette shook her head. "Somehow Max found this guy and got him to reveal where Black Annie was buried."

"Anyway," Margarette continued, "Max brought me with him when he dug up the staff. I didn't realize it until later, but he brought me just to be his guinea pig. He thought the staff might be booby trapped and had me grab it first...just in case. Fortunately for me he didn't know much about how the staff actually worked. He didn't know it would become bound to the next person who activated it or that they'd be the only one able to use it."

"Of course Max was pretty upset." Margarette grinned evilly, her body shimmering until she became Anabelle again. "But he thought he could still use the staff second hand." She scowled deeply at that. "I became his silent partner...being his assistant on stage, but also using the power of the staff to conjure flashy and spectacular stunts for the crowd. We started becoming pretty successful, though I worked all the true magic in the show while he took all the credit and glory."

I scowled as I saw the angry look on her face, imagining what it must be like playing second fiddle to someone who took credit for everything you did. And since she said he'd intended to use her to test for booby traps I'd imagine that would make things even worse.

"Over the next two years," Anabelle told me, "Max grew even more jealous. I knew he wanted the staff for himself, but I didn't realize how much until he tried killing me for it. Fortunately for me he hadn't planned it ahead of time. He tried to kill me when the staff was still active, so I was able to stop him and teach him not to come near me...ever again." She chuckled to herself and I wasn't sure I wanted to know what she'd done to him.

Anabelle leaned forward and smiled faintly, "After this I decided I didn't want or need a partner like Max. I'd learned a lot working for him so I was able to use that and the staff to start my own show. I took a more glamorous name and the Astonishing Anabelle was born."

At this Anabelle stood up and bowed dramatically. Her violet tuxedo reappeared along with a matching top hat. She pulled open her sleeves and several doves flew out, only to fly around her head twice before vanishing in a puff of smoke.

"I had a great show," she told me proudly. "I was one of the very few who actually used real magic, though I never told my audience this. It's much better to let them guess and imagine. I did pretty well through the sixties and early seventies...even if people had lost interest in old school magic shows for the most part. Then my audience pretty much faded away and I just lost my passion for it, so I decided to retire."

Anabelle sat back down with an expression that quickly grew darker. "Growing older is no picnic," she told me with a sigh. "But I was content with it since I could turn back into a young Anabelle when I wanted a break." She gestured down at herself. "But then I started developing alzheimers..." She shook her head sadly. "It's a horrible thing to lose your mind..."

"Damn," I whispered, feeling sympathetic. I knew it was kind of stupid to feel that way since she was dead now and that was probably even worse. "Couldn't you just wish it away?"

"Afraid not," she sighed and then shook her head. "Trust me...I thought of it, but one of the ironies of the staff is that I can't use it on myself that way." At my blank look she continued, "The only time I could use the staff is when I had this form." She gestured down at herself again. "This body didn't have alzheimers so I couldn't wish it away. When the staff wore off and I returned to my own form I was left with it again. But I did have a solution...one which worked wonderfully."

Anabelle paused for a moment so I asked, "What was that?" I didn't say it, but how good could her solution actually be? She was still as dead as a fucking doornails.

"I didn't change back." She winked at me, then gestured down at herself. "I used the staff to become young again and then put it away instead of using it. As long as I didn't use my three wishes I could be young and start over." She paused for a moment before adding, "Of course if I was going to start over again I thought I might as well make a few improvements. I used the staff to make myself a couple inches taller and a little bustier before I put the staff away."

That was a little surprising, but it also made sense and explained something. I'd already noticed that when I used the staff and turned into a chick I was a little bigger up top than Anabelle. I wanted to ask Anabelle a few questions about this, but held off for the moment as she was already continuing with her story.

"It was actually quite fun starting over again," Anabelle smiled. "I passed myself off as my own daughter and was doing quite well for several years, but then one night I woke up with my house on fire and had to use the staff to put it out. That was my second use. A few years later a child was horribly injured in a car crash in front of me and would have died had I not used the third use of the staff."

At this point Anabelle let out a sigh and sat there for nearly a minute in silence. She finally looked up at me and continued, "I expected the staff to recharge soon so I could change back again, but it seems I made a small mistake. When I improved myself...when I changed the default form it counted as a very major use of magic. It seems that anytime anyone changes the default form it takes a much greater amount of magic than the last time...as if each change has to completely overwhelm the previous with even more power...."

"You mean I could actually have the staff change the default if I wanted," I frowned thoughtfully. "But..."

"But it would take a VERY long time for the staff to recharge." Anabelle gave me a weak smile. "The changes I made were rather small, but it took years for the staff to recharge. You could probably change the default to look exactly like your normal self...but you probably wouldn't be able to use the staff again until you were old and gray...if then."

I scowled, not sure which annoyed me more...that I couldn't change the default to something a little less embarrassing for me...or that Anabelle had guessed exactly what I'd been thinking. The moment she mentioned the default form could be changed I thought of making a few more masculine improvements to myself, but now that was out the fucking window.

"Needless to say," Anabelle gave me a forced smile, "being back to my old self without the benefit of the staff left me to deal with my alzheimers again. It progressed pretty quickly and before long I barely ever even remembered the staff existed. Before I got too bad I put it in a safe place until it was recharged again, but by the time it was I was either already dead or so far gone I couldn't even sense it." She let out a sigh.

"Wow," I whispered, not sure what I could say to something like this.

Anabelle and I both sat in subdued silence for a minute before she finally looked up at me and shrugged, "But I guess that's all old history now. How about you? How did you get the staff?"

I hesitated at that and gulped. I'm not exactly the most honest guy in the world and my first instinct was to lie my ass off. However she'd just gotten done telling me her entire life story, so I couldn't help but feeling a bit sentimental. I blame that for what I said next.

"I...I stole it," I admitted quietly. I couldn't quite bring myself to look at her as I continued, "I broke into an old storage unit that no one touched in years...and I found it there along with all your old magic stuff."

"I see," Anabelle said slowly, staring at me silently for a moment. She looked off to the side and mused more to herself than to me, "I put my old props in storage after my house nearly burned down and now I remember leaving the staff there...with everything else from that part of my life." She turned her attention back to me and added, "Those final years are still a bit blurry to me..." She scowled at me for a few seconds more before saying, "I should be furious about that...but I'm not."

"What?" I blinked in surprise. "You're not?"

Anabelle shook her head slightly, looking a little disapproving, but not really mad. Then she even smiled faintly. "No... Those things were important to me when I was alive... They were momentos of my glory days as a grand magician, but I'm dead now and my perspective has changed somewhat." She gave me a wry smile. "It's not as though I was able to take any of it with me...not even the staff. Besides, Black Annie wasn't upset about my part in digging up her grave and I think that's much more personal than this."

I just nodded at that, not sure what I could possibly say. So I decided to change the subject instead. "I've got some questions about how the staff works..."

"I thought you might," Anabelle responded with a faint look of amusement at my obvious ploy. She shifted position and leaned back. "Go ahead."

I shifted position in my chair to get comfortable again and to give me a moment to think about how I was going to word my questions. I looked down at myself and noticed with some surprise that my clothes had changed. I was now wearing my favorite shirt and a worn pair of jeans with holes in the knees. I looked at Anabelle and she just seemed amused by my reaction.

"You're not here physically," Anabelle reminded me as she gestured around the room, "as a result, everything around here is subject to our whims." She shimmered and changed clothes so that she was now wearing a violet evening gown.

"Okay," I responded, trying to focus on my questions again. "When I changed... While I was changed I took off that tuxedo jacket that came with the default form. The next time I changed into the default form I was suddenly wearing it again. Then later I used the staff to wish my clothes would change... The next time I activated the staff I was wearing the new clothes I'd wished for..."

"And you're wondering why you didn't appear with the tuxedo again," Anabelle nodded, "and maybe why you were able to use the staff so soon when you'd changed something with the default."

"Something like that," I responded.

"Let's see," Anabelle mused. "Changing the default form at all requires a huge amount of energy and the smallest change is considered a major use of magic. The clothes don't follow those rules though. You can change your clothes temporarily, so they go back to the default the next time you change, or you can even change the clothing default, which is what you did. No matter how many times you use a wish to change your clothes, it never takes any more energy or any longer to recharge."

I nodded at that while trying to think of which question I was going to ask next. Then I remembered the strange way the staff had been teleporting me around without even counting that as one of the three uses.

"Actually, that's one of the best things about the staff," Anabelle grinned after I asked her about that. She snapped her fingers and was suddenly wearing her violet tuxedo again and was looking almost as though she was ready to perform a show for me. "And it was something I made extensive use of for my show..."

"And what is this?" I asked, trying to keep my patience and trying harder to keep from swearing, though both things were hard for me.

"The staff has several free powers," Anabelle leaned forward and told me with a grin. "Things you can do without it actually counting as one of your three uses. When the staff is fully charged you can sense it. You can also make it come to you...even when it's not active. It can levitate across the room to you or even suddenly appear in your hand, but once it's active...thats when it becomes interesting."

"That's when it teleported me across town," I said thoughtfully, thinking of my attack on Big Ed's house. I'd neglected to tell Anabelle about that or any details of how I'd been using the staff so far. Fortunately she hadn't really asked. After her forgiveness for robbing her shit I didn't want to push her understanding about my career.

"When the staff is awake and active," Anabelle continued, "you can order it to travel the same way it comes to you. And when you hold it...it can bring you along. You can hold the staff and disappear from one box, only to reappear in another one on the other side of the stage...or to go from one side of the world to the other just as easily. You can hold the staff and levitate in the air. As you can see, these make for marvelous stage tricks."

"Yeah," I agreed, knowing that would have to be pretty impressive. Between that and actually being able to use the wishes she must have had one Hell of a show back in the day.

"Of course," Anabelle shrugged, "you can't really bring anything with you when you do this. The staff will only take you, your clothes, and little else. Maybe something you can easily hold in one hand, but little more. Anything else requires you to use one of your three wishes."

"Great," I sighed. I was kind of happy to have an explanation why the cash at Big Ed's hadn't come with me, but I was kind of annoyed at the same time.

"The staff has a few other limitations," Anabelle told me, still looking excited. She'd obviously had a lot of fun with those free powers as she'd called them. I could easily see how.

"Let me guess," I interrupted, "you can't make people fall in love or bring people back from the dead."

"I don't know about the love part," Anabelle admitted, "I've never tried it myself and Black Annie never said a thing about it." Then she shrugged. "But you can raise the dead."

"Really?" I gasped in disbelief.

"Sure," Anabelle grinned, "you can raise zombies..." At my shudder of revulsion she added, "You can bring people back to life too... sometimes."

"Sometimes?" I asked.

"Yes," Anabelle sighed, "but it's a pretty big use of magic and you can only do it right after their death...before their soul actually leaves. If you wait too long all you do is heal their body, but leave it as a mindless vegetable." She shuddered. "Not good."

After this Anabelle and I spent a long time talking about what else the staff could do and what its other limitations were, though since she'd already covered all the important things this mostly consisted of her telling me about the various things she'd done with it and giving me a better understanding of its capabilities. The more I listened the more impressed I became and the more I began to consider the possibilities.

Eventually though I ran out of questions and Anabelle couldn't think of anything more that I needed to know about the staff. I actually felt a bit disappointed at that since I'd started to enjoy talking with her. It's not often a hot babe was willing to spend this much time around me without asking for some money in return.

"Then it would appear that we are done for now," Anabelle told me with a faint smile, looking just a bit disappointed herself. Maybe she was just lonely being stuck in the staff, all the time with no one to talk to but me. And I had no illusions that I was great company.

"Then I guess I'll see you around," I told her with a grin, "it's not like I can't come and visit you whenever I want..."

"Um...about that," Anabelle said carefully.

"What?" I asked, wondering what was up and feeling immediately suspicious.

"There is one thing that I haven't told you," Anabelle told me with a sigh and a faint shake of her head. She looked me in the eye and said, "You see, my soul isn't trapped in this staff forever. I'm only available for a limited time before I move on."

I stared at her for a moment. "How limited a time?"

"Well," she shrugged, "it's not actually time...but the number of times." At my blank look she explained, "Specifically three. I am bound to be summoned only three times. The first was automatic when you first activated the staff, so I could explain the rules. Then I could be summoned just two more times to answer any questions you have after using the staff for a time. You see, after this you can only summon me one more time...then I'll go to whatever fate awaits me and the staff will remain empty until you eventually take my place."

"Oh," I responded in disappointment, feeling just a bit betrayed as well. Just as I was starting to like her she suddenly told me that she was going to leave. I scowled, knowing that this was just the way things worked with the staff, but I still couldn't help but feeling as though she'd lied to me and led me on. "I'll see you later then," I said a bit harsher than I should have.

"Good luck." Anabelle gave me a faint smile. "Just remember I'm here if you really need me..."

I nodded at that, not bothering to say anything aloud. However I started at her for just a second before I willed myself out of the staff and back to reality.

A moment later I found my soul be pulled from the staff and thrown back into my body, though of course it wasn't actually my body at the moment. I gasped as I felt reality snap back into place and looked down at myself to see I was once again a sexy woman with a funky super villain costume.

"Damn," I whispered, feeling my tits and shaking my head. "I don't think I'll ever get used to suddenly having these things..."

With another shake of my head I sat down on my couch and let out a slow sigh. I could hardly believe all the weird shit that had been happening to me ever since I broke into that storage place and found this staff. Here I was sitting as a hot chick with a magic wishing staff...and I had no real idea of what to do with it all. I definitely needed to think this out more.

"But first," I stood up again, deciding to take a break and clear my head out a bit before I started making plans. "I need a drink..."

Of course I had beer in the fridge, but that wasn't what I had in mind. I wanted to go to a bar and get drunk in proper style. But as I thought of this an idea began to form. I looked down at myself and grinned. What would it be like to go there as a chick? Would I have all the guys hitting on me and buying me drinks?

"The girls always have it easy getting drinks," I chuckled to myself. Of course I remembered what happened when I was out at the park looking like this, but was sure I didn't have anything to worry about. Not when I could call the staff and use its powers to protect myself. "But first..."

I clutched the staff firmly in hand and used one of the three wishes, temporarily changing my super villain outfit into something a little more normal. My clothes shimmered and melted around me and a moment later I was wearing jeans, a red shirt that revealed just a touch of cleavage, and a nice pair of shoes...though certainly no high heeled stilettos.

"That should do it," I announced in approval once I'd looked myself over.

I hesitated just a moment before leaning the staff against the wall. I felt a lot more confident with that thing in my hand, but couldn't very well go out with it. It would attract way too much attention and at the moment I wasn't looking for that. If I was I would have given myself clothes and makeup to look like a total slut or something.

There was a small bar just down the street from my apartment, though it was less a bar and more a dive. However it was within easy walking distance and they had cheap beer which meant it filled all the important requirements.

When I arrived at the bar and stepped inside I was immediately hit with the smell of stale smoke, cheap beer, and some other things that hard to identify, but less pleasant. It was a familiar smell from all the other times I'd been here, but what wasn't familiar was the way a lot of the guys turned and looked at me when I'd entered. Those expressions of sharp interest were far different from the way I was usually just ignored.

I frowned, reminding myself that I'd wondered what kind of reactions I'd get looking like a hot chick and now I knew. I just wished it didn't give me the creeps. Then again, knowing the guys who hung around here this probably wasn't the best place to show up like this, but it was too late now. I wasn't about to turn tail and run just because some guys were looking at me.

"Shit," I muttered to myself as I made my way to the bar and ordered a beer.

I sat at the bar and sipped my beer, doing my best to ignore the looks the other guys were giving me. It wasn't easy, but I tried. Instead of thinking about the way I looked, I tried instead to think of Anabelle and what she'd told me. It was a lot to absorb. And though I still wasn't sure what I was going to do with the staff my talk with her had given me some good ideas.

Just then my thoughts were interrupted by the guy next to me...a skinny and bad smelling man in his mid-forties. "Hey hon," he grinned at me, "can I buy you a beer?"

"I've already got one." I held up the one I was drinking and then went back to ignoring him.

The man stared at me for a few seconds before he seemed to get the hint. He muttered something that I didn't quite catch before he turned and walked away...much to my relief.

I remained at the bar just long enough to finish my beer and wave off one other attempt to hit on me. That guy's pick up line was so cheesy that I couldn't resist laughing I waved him away. I had to make a mental note to get some better lines myself after being the target of a bad one.

"No wonder I got turned down," I chuckled as I remembered one or two of the bad ones I'd used. "At least that first guy was pretty straight forward..."

Once I finished my beer I left the bar, satisfied that I'd done my part in not wimping out. Next time I wanted to try going out in public as a chick I figured some lame ass mall would be a better pick. Next time I came here it was going to be as my normal male self. That way I could do the leering at hot chicks instead of being leered at.

When I stepped out of the bar I let out a sigh of relief, glad that I didn't have the guys all sneaking peaks at me again. I wouldn't have minded it so much if I hadn't known exactly the kind of thoughts they were having. They were exactly the same kind of thoughts I'd be having.

But then I noticed I wasn't quite alone. A skinny man was standing a few feet away from the door smoking a cigarette. It took me a moment to realize that he was the same guy who first hit on me in there.

"Hey hon," he grinned at me, though there was something about it I didn't like. It was more of a patronizing sneer. "You think you're too good for a guy like me?" At this point he dropped his cigarette and took a step towards me.

"Actually," I responded with a sneer of my own, "Yes."

"Fuck you bitch," he snarled, glaring at me with an angry look in his eye. Then he started to come towards me.

I had no idea if the guy had any intention of actually doing anything to me or if he was just trying to be macho and intimidating. I wasn't about to wait to find out either. With only a thought my staff suddenly appeared in my hand.

"Go away you dickless bastard," I spat at him, mentally commanding the staff to do my will.

The staff glowed and a moment later the man froze with a look of surprise on his face. He grabbed his crotch and gasped, "What the fuck...?"

I just gave him an evil grin, "Have fun..." And with that I mentally ordered the staff to teleport me back home.

I arrived back home on a flash of light, still laughing at the look on the man's face. I grinned evilly as I thought about how he'd react when he pulled down his pants and found that his cock and balls were gone. I'd ordered the staff to give him chick parts there instead. Of course I knew it was temporary...maybe only for a day or so...but he didn't know that.

"That was amazing," I exclaimed, filled with a sense of power over how easily I'd changed that man. He'd probably be shitting his pants until it wore off. "And the look on his face..."

The fact that I had no idea if the guy actually intended to do anything didn't really bother me at all. The fact that I could do something like that so easily...that I had the power of a god in my hands was absolutely incredible. In fact it was damn near orgasmic. I think my nipples were starting to get hard just thinking about the power I held in my hands.

For awhile now I'd been trying to think of what I could do with this staff...with the power it offered me. And after talking to Anabelle earlier I'd gotten some good ideas, but hadn't been all that sure. But now I was. Now I knew exactly what I could do with this kind of power.

"Anything I want," I laughed in delight, "anything I want."

Life is a strange thing offering opportunities where you'd never expect and to whom you'd never expect. All my life I'd been wanting things that others had though I never much had the ambition or opportunity to get them. Then all of a suddenly it's all thrown right at my feet.

Most people would say that someone like me doesn't deserve this kind of opportunity or power, but my answer to them is FUCK YOU. I don't believe in karma or any of that crap. Then again, maybe this was karma of a sort. I'd been poor and powerless for most of my life so suddenly being able to get it all did seem like some sort of balance to me.

At the moment I stood in front of the mirror admiring myself and posing to look more dramatic. I was in my sexy new babe body and dressed in my super villain costume. With the costume and the staff I was holding I definitely looked the part of some sort of developed villain.

"Damn," I muttered, feeling sort of nervous. I had butterflies in my stomach like I often did before pulling a job. But this time I knew was different. This time I was going to join the big leagues.

What I was about to do went against almost everything I'd ever believed as a criminal. I'd always been the kind to take the least amount of risk possible. I liked to sneak into empty houses when there was no one around then sneak out without anyone knowing who'd hit them. That was always they safe way to do things...the smart way to do things.

But now...now things were suddenly different. I had immense power clutched in my hands and I had to admit that it was making me a bit cocky. I felt like I could take on the world and I wanted to show off what I could do. Before this I'd always hated developed heroes and villains who went around doing anything they wanted and showing off just how powerful they were. But now...now I realized the truth. I hadn't been able to admit it to myself, but the truth is that I'd always envied them.

"Now it's my turn," I muttered, trying to gather my strength and focus.

My talk with Anabelle yesterday had been quite productive, not only giving me a lot of information about how I could use this staff, but also an idea of what I should do with it. Specifically, her story about Black Annie using the staff to rob banks had been quite an inspiration.

Now here I was, having rested during the night and having let the staff fully charge. I'd just transformed back into a woman again and had three charges ready to go in the staff. I had a goal in mind, I had a destination, and I had the power to do it all. Now was the time.

I slammed the staff into the floor and gave it the mental command. There was a flash of light and a moment later it had teleported me to where I'd instructed...right outside the biggest bank in the city.

Normally I probably would have just teleported into the middle of the bank vault in the middle of the night, grabbed all the cash and teleported right back out before anyone would have even known I was there. However I'd never seen the inside of the vault so couldn't teleport there without taking the risk of ending up inside a wall. Anabelle had warned me about that.

Of course I had another reason to come the way I was...in the middle of the day where a lot of people could see me. I had a lot of power now and I really wanted to show it off. For the first time in my life I finally understood those costumed nuts like never before.

My plan was simple. I would walk into the bank, freeze everyone in place, destroy the bank vault door if necessary, grab all the cash and teleport out with it. It would be quite easy and I didn't expect there to be any problems. After all, I'd be in and out before any cops had a chance of showing up.

However my thoughts were interrupted as I finally noticed my surroundings. There were no cars driving down the street at the moment and all the sidewalks nearby were cleared of people. There was a car that was half melted and still smoldering while other bits of damage in nearby vehicles and buildings were clearly visible.

It was then that I saw the woman standing in the middle of the street...if you could call it standing. The bottom of her feet looked to be several inches above the ground with absolutely nothing, but air between the two.

The woman was quite a spectacle...and was either naked with pure black skin or was covered with some sort of skin tight outfit that covered her entire body and face. Her long hair was a bright pink that seemed to defy gravity...floating around her almost as though she were under water. And then there were the symbols... Glowing pink symbols or runs were scattered all over her body and actually seemed to be slowly moving around.

"You must be with that fool I just sent flying," the woman exclaimed, turning to glare with me through pink eyes.

"What?" I blinked in surprise, then demanded, "Who the fuck are you?" I hated surprises when I was pulling a job.

"I am Rune Dancer," she announced, calling out loudly so as anyone nearby might hear. "And I shall be your death hero..."

"Hero?" I blurted out in surprise.

Rune Dancer touched her shoulder and the glowing rune on it suddenly came off and floated into the air in front of her, expanding in size a great deal as it did so until it went from being merely several inches across to several feet. Then it suddenly vanished and a blast of pink energy came right at me.

My first thought was to jump out of the way and my staff reacted to my thoughts, pulling me up into the air just an instant before the blast passed where I'd been. I floated in the air in amazement. I already knew the staff would let me levitate or even fly, but I hadn't practiced with that ability very much.

"You'll never stop me from taking this bank you fool," Rune Dancer snarled.

I dropped back to the ground and glared at her angrily, pissed that she would actually try shooting at me. "I'm not here to stop you you fucked up bitch," I spat at her, "I'm here to rob this place too..."

"What?" She gasped in surprise, then quickly recovered. "Well I was here first..."

I was about to suggest that we could easily share the cash, but got the feeling she wasn't the sharing sort. But then she looked to the side and I couldn't help, but turn to see what she was looking at.

A short distance away there was an armored man hovering in the air. His full body armor was mostly red, but with a bit of white over the body. His helmet though covered his entire head and had a flat featureless face with no eye slits or anything. He even had a red cape flapping behind him though it looked a bit tattered and singed.

"Beowulf," Rune Dancer exclaimed angrily, "I thought I'd gotten rid of you..."

"I sorely dislike fighting a lady," the armored man...Beowulf announced, "But you have surely demonstrated that you are no lady..." Then he looked at me, "So now you've brought an ally... Nevertheless, you shall not best me."

I just blinked, wondering why they each just jumped to the conclusion that I was with the other one. I was feeling a bit confused at coming in on the middle of this conflict though I was picking up the pieces quickly enough. Rune Dancer was the bad guy and Beowulf was one of those nosey heroes.

"Damn," I muttered. Running into a developed hero was about the last thing I wanted to do on this job.

Beowulf suddenly stared firing beams of red energy from his hands, firing at both Rune Dancer and me. I jumped out of the way while Rune Dancer pulled another of those runes from her body and held it in front of her...using it to block his attacks like it was some sort of force field.

I grimaced, feeling just a bit scared, though also angry. I usually went way out of my way to avoid conflicts yet here I was stuck in the middle of a battle between a hero and a villain...both of whom seemed to think I was the enemy.

Then as if to prove my point, Rune Dancer pulled another of those runes from her body and sent it flying through the air. It hit a car just a few feet away from me and suddenly the whole car imploded, turning into a ball of metal only a little bigger than a beach ball.

"HOLY SHIT!" I blurted out, realizing I'd be in deep shit if something like that hit me.

Fortunately Rune Dancer and Beowulf seemed more focused on each other than on me. But then actually picked up a car and threw it at Rune Dancer, hitting her straight on. She went down beneath the flying car with a burst of pink light. And then Beowulf turned his full attention on me.

"I know not who you are," Beowulf told me, "But I shall see you fall as well..."

"I'm Mystik," I announced, using the same name I'd come up with on the spot while messing with Big Ed. I'd tried coming up with something better, but the most obvious names I could think of were Golden Rod or the Staff and both of those sounded more appropriate for a male porn star. So I'd decided to stick with Mystik.

"Well Mystik," Beowulf gave me a slight bow which had me blinking in surprise, "Surrender now or I shall be forced to unleash my full might upon you."

"I don't think so," I snarled, knowing I could easily just order the staff to take me out of there and back home. But the matter of the fact was I didn't want to turn tail and run. I had all this power in my hand and I was damn well going to show this punk that he couldn't fuck with me. I didn't have to take this shit from anyone anymore. Then I grinned and said, "Rust..."

I gave my staff the mental command and unleashed the raw power of my first wish. There was a glow from the staff and then all the metal near me suddenly began to rust. A car just a short distance away had big patches of rust appear on it and spread. In mere seconds the entire car was covered with rust and actually disintegrating. Light poles, window frames and other metal objects nearby all rusted away to nearly nothing as I watched.

"Yes," I laughed in delight, then paused when I suddenly noticed that the rust hadn't even touched Beowulf. His armor looked completely spotless. I wasn't sure if it was because his armor wasn't made of anything that could actually rust or if maybe he had some protection from magic. Either way, I'd just wasted my first wish. "Oh no..."

"A sorceress," Beowulf called out angrily, "your foul magics are no match for me..."

Suddenly Beowulf launched himself at me, glowing red blades appearing from each of his wrists. These energy swords just barely missed me as I teleported myself a short distance away. One of the blades slashed through a car which had been just beyond the rage of my rust wish, cutting through the car as though it were soft butter. Then he launched himself at me again, flying straight at me with the blades extended.

"Oh shit," I gasped, flying into the air to avoid him. He followed me, seeming to move faster and with more experience in the air than I possessed. I just dropped out of the air and hit the ground in order to avoid him flying right through where I'd been moments before.

Beowulf stopped in the air and called out a battle cry, "Evil shall be vanquished..." Then he let loose with the energy blasts again, apparently deciding that if he couldn't get me with the energy blades he'd just take me out from a distance.

But before I could attack him back, there was a strange sound coming from where Rune Dancer had been buried by the car. The car levitated up into the air and Rune Dancer climbed out from beneath it. She was holding her hand out with a glowing pink rune floating just in front of her palm. And when she closed her hand the rune vanished and the car fell back to the ground with a loud crunch.

"You'll pay for that," Rune Dancer yelled at Beowulf. She touched her stomach and the rune in that place come off and floated in the air in front of her, growing to several feet in diameter. I remembered the energy blast she'd launched at me using the same kind of move and suddenly realized that I was standing right between her and Beowulf. "DIE!!!"

Rune Dancer's glowing rune vanished and exploded into a massive wave of energy that was at least ten times larger than what she'd sent at me earlier. It was more powerful than anything I'd seen her use so far. I just barely ordered my staff to create a force field around me right before the blast it. The energy hit my force field and flowed around me, leaving me untouched as it destroyed the ground and everything else in front of it.

"Crazy ass bitch," I muttered as the force field faded away.

I stood and looked around, seeing a lot of destruction caused by Rune Dancer's attack. Even Beowulf had taken some damage, though not nearly as much as I would have hoped. It seemed he had his own force field, a glowing red field which had appeared around his body. It blocked the bulk of Rune Dancer's blast, but not all of it as his armor was now badly scorched and even looked cracked.

"Your attack was for naught," Beowulf yelled, staggering just a little as he held his arms out. His palms began to glow red as he was preparing for another attack...one I had a feeling would be a lot more powerful than the ones he'd thrown before.

I was getting really tired of being caught between Rune Dancer and Beowulf and especially of them launching attacks at me. I'd used my second wish to survive her attack, but didn't want to keep running and hiding behind a wall. What the Hell good was having this kind of power if I just used it to hide behind a force field.

I barely even gave it much thought before I used my third and final wish of the day, yelling, "DIE!" as I unleashed its power.

This time I was the one to launch an attack...sending a ball of glowing energy right at Beowulf. It hit him straight in the chest and exploded in a massive burst of raw force. The explosion sent him flying back with small pieces of his armor flying in the air.

"I can't believe I did that," I whispered, a bit stunned by the violence of my own attack. He was on the ground a good distance away, but still moving...still alive. However he didn't seem to be in much shape to attack me again.

Then I remembered Rune Dancer and turned to look back at her. She was touching one of the glowing symbols on her arm, apparently more than ready to continue the battle with me. I'd just used the last of my three wishes and couldn't afford to continue this. However I was damn if I was going to just cut and run.

Even as I began to move I knew this was risky and dangerous. However at the moment I was far pissed and loaded with adrenaline to care. I charged straight at Rune Dancer and before she could finish summoning that rune I swung with my staff. The staff connected with the side of her head with a loud crack and a moment later she collapsed to the ground like a rag doll.

"Damn," I gasped for breath, "I can't believe I did that..."

I was filled with mixed emotions, excitement over having taken out two developed yet fear for just how close I'd come to getting myself killed. I took several deep breaths to calm myself down so I could decide what to do next.

But just then I heard the sound of someone clapping. I snapped around to see a man sitting on a severely damaged car, grinning at me with a cocky smile as he clapped.

"Bravo," the man announced, "very impressive..." And with that he hopped off the car and let me get a good look at him.

The man was tall, athletic and good looking with a handsome face that looked like he should be a movie star. He had long brown hair that was pulled back into a pony tail and he wore a costume. The costume was green and gray and included a matching jacket which had gold metal buttons.

"Who are you?" I demanded suspiciously.

"The name's Jack," he grinned, giving me a cocky smile. "And I'm here to make you an offer."

"Sure," Jack held up his hands to show they were empty and that he was unarmed, then he told me, "I represent a group known as the Black Guild. Maybe you've heard of us..." When I shook my head no, he just shrugged, "No matter. Let's just say we're an organization that doesn't exactly hold to the law..."

"I see," I responded carefully, trying to guess what he was up to.

"I came here to recruit Rune Dancer for a job," he told me pleasantly, almost as though he was talking about sports scores. "But now I've decided to ask you instead..." He winked at me. "Interested in a job?"

"A job?" I asked, curious, but also well aware of the time. I'd just used up all three of my wishes so didn't have much time left before I reverted to my normal male self and lost the use of the staff. I wanted to be well away from here before that happened. "What do you mean?" I asked impatiently.

"A job which could be quite useful to my organization," Jack told me with a slightly more serious expression, "and which could be profitable for you. This could also give you some very valuable opportunities..."

Just then, the sound of sirens filled the air as the cops finally decided to arrive. They'd probably been holding back until the action was done and over with. Jack looked in the direction the sound was coming from and frowned.
á¼
"I suppose we should leave," he commented absently. Then he held out a business card "If you're interested...meet me at this address tomorrow night at seven..."

"I'll think about it," I told him as I accepted the card.

Jack gave me another cocky grin and bowed. Then he winked, "I certainly hope to see a woman as lovely...and as powerful as you again."

Then Jack took several steps back and reached down to touch his watch. A moment later he glowed for a second and then vanished.

"Damn," I grimaced, knowing I should leave too.

I hated to just up and leave without getting what I'd come for, but I knew I didn't have any real choice. I'd used up all three wishes so couldn't get through the vault door or even get away with the money if I could. And then there was the fact I only had a couple minutes left before my real self was hanging out.

"Damn," I muttered again, holding up the business card Jack had given me. "At least I'm not going home completely empty handed..." I smiled faintly as I mused, "This could be my ticket to the big time..."

I glanced down the street where the cop cars were now well in view and then sighed. I looked to Rune Dancer and then to Beowulf, silently cursing both of them for ruining my score. Then I looked at my staff and ordered it to take me home.

The clock on the wall slowly ticked as the hands moved, providing a sort of soothing regularity. It was one of those old fashioned clocks that still had the hands rather than a digital display, definitely obsolete...especially since this one was several hours off at least. But I didn't keep it around to tell time with. It was just something my old girlfriend had hung on the wall for some reason and which I just never got around to getting rid of. I closed my eyes and listened to the faint ticking, feeling almost hypnotized by the quiet, but relaxing sound.

After a minute I opened my eyes and set down the bowl I'd just finished smoking. I wasn't exactly stoned at the moment, but I did have a nice little buzz. I might have gone for more, but I'd just used up the last of my weed.

I normally didn't touch the stuff before a job, preferring to work with a clear head so I had less chance of doing something stupid and getting caught. I'd always looked to Scuff as a good role model for what not to do during a break in. But at the moment, I needed to take the edge off as I considered my situation.

I'm just a small time criminal. I knew this and had always accepted it. I didn't do the big stuff, but didn't get the big pay either. But then things changed. I got my hands on this staff. It was like the most powerful weapon in the world...but only had three weapons. But three bullets or not, I'd thought it was my ticket to the big time. To the big score. But twice now I'd gone after the big payout and twice now I'd walked away with nothing. Big Ed still had his cash and I hadn't even made it through the door of the bank.

"Maybe I'm just not meant for the big leagues," I muttered to myself as I stared at the staff laying across my coffee table.

It was absolutely amazing since it could do nearly anything I wanted. But it could only do it three times a pop. Unfortunately, it didn't matter if you had the most powerful gun in the world if you could only fire it three times. In fact that's what cost me the cast during my two attempts. I'd run out of bullets both times.

"I'll have to be more careful next time," I told myself, hesitating a moment. "If there is a next time..."

Then I looked down at the business card which lay on the coffee table in front of me. It was the card that Jack guy had given me yesterday at the bank. He'd offered me a part in a big job...and though my instincts warned that this wasn't a good idea...I couldn't help, but thinking about it. After all, this just might be my real ticket to the big time.

"Just a couple big jobs and I could retire," I chuckled, liking the idea of getting rich and then getting out while I was ahead. The way I was going now that was never going to happen though.

The thing is, it was almost time to meet Jack if I was actually going to take the job he offered...and I still hadn't made up my mind. I'd spend a bit of time thinking that I'd do it and then I'd change my mind. This had been going on since yesterday when he'd made the offer.

I knew I could keep going round and round about this, but didn't have the time. I'd always listened to my instincts about this kind of thing before and they said to stay away.

"I'll do it," I grimaced, giving into the temptation for easy money and the big time.

Since I'd finally made my decision I got up and grabbed the staff. It only took a thought to activate it, but I still slammed the bottom of it onto the ground at the same time, more because it seemed appropriately dramatic than because it was necessary. Then I felt myself transform once again.

I just stood there for a moment getting used to the feel of my new body...getting used to the weight on my chest and the completely different center of balance. I shook my head, feeling the long hair brushing my shoulders. No matter how many times I went through this I knew I'd never get used to it.

Then I noticed something else. My buzz was gone. I scowled, not sure if that was a good thing or not. I hated to waste a good buzz, but it might be better having a clear head for this. After all, if I was going to try out for the big leagues I'd need a clear head more than ever.

"I guess this really is a completely different body," I muttered, remembering Anabelle's story about being free of her alzheimers.

Letting out a sigh, I reached over and picked up the business card again. I looked at where Jack said to meet him and frowned ever so slightly. I knew exactly where it was at...having gone there last night after the fiasco with the bank. I'd wanted to know exactly what I'd be walking into if I actually went as well as make it easier to travel there for the meeting. Unfortunately, that still told me nothing about the job Jack had planned. As uncomfortable as that made me, I was going to have to wait to find out.

"I hope I'm not making a big fucking mistake," I grimaced as I pictured my destination and ordered the staff to take me there.

A moment later reality twisted around me in a bright glow and I found myself standing exactly where I'd intended. I was standing in the middle of a large, but empty park, right next to the badly broken fountain in the middle of it.

I looked around and saw that the park had taken some serious damage at some point with the concrete paths being mostly shattered, the benches mangled, and with big craters all over the place. It must have been a real nice park at one point, but a battle between a couple developed here a few months ago had left it in ruins.

Since I didn't see Jack, I clutched my staff even tighter and ordered it to lift me into the air. I began to float upward, gaining just enough height where I could look around and see most of the park. I couldn't help, but smiling at how easy this was even as I was a bit uncomfortable of the height.

"I am NOT afraid of heights," I told myself, "No fucking way." However the idea of falling the equivalent of several stories was enough to make me at least a little nervous.

Just as I was beginning to take a good look around the park from my new vantage, I heard a man calling, "Hey Mystik..." It took me a moment to remember that was me. I quickly turned in the direction the voice was coming from and saw Jack standing there. "Come on down," he called to me..."

I flew to where Jack was standing and lowered myself to the ground in front of him. "I'm here," I said unnecessarily.

"What a coincidence," he gave me a cocky grin, "So am I."

"You said you had a job for me," I told him grimly.

"Of course" he responded more seriously. "If you'll come with me..."

I followed Jack across the park to a section which had once been a concrete amphitheater before it had been badly damaged. At the bottom of the amphitheater in what would have been the stage stood a small group of people in flashy costumes.

Jack stopped and gestured to the group, "I asked you to arrive a little later than the others. I wanted all the people I knew to get here first..."

"Who are they?" I asked, trying to sound in control, though I was very aware that I was anything but. It helped to remind myself that I could turn him into a frog with little more than a thought. "And what is this job?"

Jack just grinned, "We belong to an organization called the Black Guild. We started off as a pretty loose knit bunch...basically just a bunch of us who'd made a gentleman's agreement. You break me out of jail if I get caught and I break you out... But then the boss showed up and took over..." He paused at that. There was a strange expression on his face for just a moment before it was replaced with the cocky grin again. "He has plans and ambition. Got us all organized and put us into small units. Most of us don't know what he's got going on so we can't talk if we get caught."

"So what's the goal?" I asked, not sure I liked the direction this was going so far.

"Money and power," Jack laughed. "A couple months ago my group got hold of an old super robot that used to cause the Protectorate a bit of trouble. We let him loose in New York then waited for every hero to come running. While every hero for miles around was busy with the robot, we hit seven banks on the other side of the city"

"Wow," I exclaimed, impressed by the sheer scope of that operation.

"We got away with quite a haul," Jack grinned.

"So we're going after a bank now?" I asked curiously. After what happened yesterday I could use a success.

Jack just shook his head, "Not today. Today we have something else planned. I know it'll pay off big in the end, though I'm not told when or how." He gave me a steady look, "What we need for the job is someone who can kick out some serious magic damage and Rune Dancer was going to take care of that. But since you took her out and fit the bill with the magic power, I thought you'd make a good replacement."

"So it's not a cash paying job?" I asked him grimly.

"Oh, you'll be well paid," Jack quickly assured me. Then he grinned again, "Let me introduce you to the rest of our happy little group..."

"All right," I grumbled, not feeling very happy about this, but feeling like I'd already committed myself. Besides, this was my ticket to the big time so I couldn't turn my back on it. The thought of getting seven banks in one shot was pretty damn impressive and quite the motivator.

Jack and I moved a little closer before he stopped again and gestured, "You see the lady with the purple skin...?"

I nodded since there was no way I could miss her. The woman he was gesturing to was about 5 foot 9, had sickly colored purple skin that was a bit mottled...and she was completely bald. From where I was at it didn't even look as though she had eyebrows. However even more noticeable than that was her physique. She was built like a body builder...and not a female one. She was bulging with heavy muscle and the lack of sleeves on her purple and black costume gave a clear view of her very muscular arms. She was definitely NOT my type.

"That's Contusion," Jack told me with a cheerful smile. "She used to be a medical doctor until she stole an experimental strength enhancement formula and used it on herself. As you can see, it worked, but with a few unexpected side effects...like leaving her in almost constant pain. Now she'll do almost anything for the money to fund her research for a cure."

Then Jack gestured to a tall thin man with red hair standing off to the side. He was wearing a costume, but not the usual spandex type hero or villain costume. Instead, he looked more like an actor who'd just come off the set of some movie or play set in Victorian England. The man had red pants on, a white shirt, a red button up vest and a red bowler type cap. Then in his hand he held a tall staff that was red and white striped like a candy cane and had a red ball at the top.

"That's the Barber," Jack told me, "He's a useful fellow in a fight, but I wouldn't trust him behind me." Then in an almost conspiratorial tone he told me, "He's a true psychopath if I've ever met one." The scary thing was that Jack sounded almost admiring as he said that.

"And the lady with the cloak," Jack continued, this time gesturing to a woman wearing a dark green cloak. The hood was pulled back so I could see a pale skinned, but beautiful face that was framed by her white hair. Her eyes seemed to be nearly all black. The rest of her costume was a dark green and gray one piece outfit that covered her entire body from the neck down. There were a few touches of white such as a white skull shaped broach on her cloak and a skull shaped belt buckle. "She calls herself Ouiji," Jack chuckled, "but everyone else calls her the Ouiji Broad."

"Very politically correct," I commented wryly. That just seemed to amuse Jack even more as he gave me one of his cocky grins.

"Anyways," Jack shrugged, "she can summon ghosts to serve her. Rumor has it they're the ghosts of all the people she's killed."

Of course that left only one more member of the group clustered in the amphitheater. She was an athletic looking woman with long green and black streaked hair and a green and black costume that had some white trim as well.

"And last, but not least," Jack nodded towards the green haired woman, "is Toxic. She's strong, fast, and can kill with just a touch..." He grinned at that. "She's a real professional."

I just gulped, suddenly wondering what kind of people I'd gotten myself mixed up with. I'd always gone to great lengths to avoid getting mixed up with killers. Those kind were either likely to kill you themselves or get you killed somehow.

"And you?" I said carefully, trying to keep any of my nervousness from showing. "What can you do?"

"Why I'm Jack," he responded with a look of near surprise, as though that answered everything. But before I could ask anything more he grinned, "Come on...I'll introduce you to the others."

I followed behind Jack, careful not to let my reluctance show. With people like this any sign of weakness might mark me as prey and make them even more likely to mess with me. So I just scowled and tried to look dangerous. I silently reminded myself of the power I held in my hand, drawing comfort and confidence from it.

"Ladies and gentleman," Jack greeted the group, giving a bow and a grand flourish as he gestured to me, "May I introduce our newest crew member...Mystik."

They all stared at me for a moment, but it was Toxic who scowled, "What happened with Rune Dancer?"

"Yes my dear fellow," the Barber agreed. "I do believe we'd already established her invitation in this endeavor...and her necessity for its success."

"But alas," Jack gave me an apologetic shrug though he still grinned, "Rune Dancer is unable to attend. She and Mystic got into a rather violent disagreement over which would relieve a bank of its valuables. Sadly, Rune Dancer lost the argument and is unable to fulfill the function for which I was recruiting her. Fortunately," he gestured at me again, "Mystik's own abilities also fit the requirements."

"I don't like last minute changes," Contusion said, staring at me suspiciously.

"Nor do I," Toxic agreed.

"We don't have much choice," Jack snapped, glaring at each of them. "We need Mystik for the job. And as she's recently started launching a takeover of some protection rackets I think she can use some of the Black Guild's resources." At that he gave me a knowing glance.

I blinked at that, wondering how he'd heard about my attack on Big Ed...even if the details weren't exactly correct. I was simply trying to rip off Big Ed and get some revenge..not take over his business. The whole protection thing just wasn't my style.

"So what exactly is this job?" I asked again, still not having received any details.

"The boss wants us to retrieve something for him," Jack grinned again.

Toxic snorted, "There's something stored in a high security vault and we have to break in and grab it." She glared at Jack. "We haven't been told much more than that."

Jack just shrugged, "You know the way we operate. The boss didn't even tell me much more than that. You know he likes to play it close to the vest."

"I hate being kept in the dark," Contusion scowled. "But with as many Black Guild members who've been caught lately, you have to admit its pretty smart. The less we know the less we can be forced to tell. It protects the rest of us."

"Let's just get on with this," Ouiji said in a cold and slightly eerie tone.

"That's exactly what I was thinking," Jack grinned, reaching into his jacket and pulling out a metal disk. It was about an inch deep and about five inches across. "Everyone stand close."

The others all got close to Jack so I did the same. Once we were all close enough he pushed some button on the disk and suddenly the world began to tear away. I immediately recognized the effects of teleporting though it was a little different from when I did it with the staff.

When we arrived at our destination a moment later I immediately looked around, seeing reddish brown absolutely everywhere. We were in some sort of rocky desert, perhaps in Arizona or New Mexico. But to be honest, the whole outdoors thing wasn't my strong suit and I could only guess based off what I'd seen on TV.

"Here we are," Jack announced.

"We're in the middle of fucking nowhere," Toxic nearly growled. I nodded agreement since there wasn't anything around, but this desert wilderness in every direction.

"True," Jack agreed cheerfully. "But appearances can also be deceiving..."

With that, Jack began walking, gesturing for the rest of us to follow. We all grumbled, but did so. We hadn't gone more than fifteen yards before I saw something ahead of us...a swirling in the air. After a few more steps I could make out what seemed to be a bit wall of...soap bubble.

"We're just outside a massive force field dome that covers about the area of a football stadium," Jack explained with his annoyingly cocky grin. "It was made by Doctor Power to protect whats inside. It's pretty much impervious to any matter or energy and it even bends light so you have to be right on top of it before you can even see it."

"So why didn't we just teleport directly inside?" Contusion asked.

"Probably because we don't know exactly where we're teleporting into," I pointed out thoughtfully as I considered the dangers of using my own staff that way. "We might end up inside a rock or wall..."

"Very good," Jack agreed. "You're just as clever as you are beautiful. But there's another reason..." He gestured to the force field, "It won't let anything teleport through it either."

"So how do we get within?" the Barber asked, absently swirling his staff around as though it were a giant cheerleader baton or something.

"We already have that worked out," Jack grinned, nodding to Ouiji who merely nodded back. It seemed that out of all of us she was the only one who'd been briefed on this ahead of time. She went closer to the force field, apparently knowing exactly what she was doing. Then Jack told the rest of us, "There's a sort of ramp or entryway on the other side that they can use to open a hole in it...to let themselves out or others in."

"Nothing living can pass," Ouiji said in her eerie hollow voice. Then she smiled faintly, "Yet that is no obstacle to one such as me..."

Even as the words left her lips the air near her began to swirl. Five ghostly shapes that were in only vaguely humanoid form began to appear. They hovered well above the ground, looking pale white and completely transparent. They had gruesome faces that looked far more real than anything I'd ever seen in a horror movie. The very sight of them sent cold chills down my spine and caused me to clutch my staff all the tighter.

"Go my pets," Ouiji whispered.

Ouiji's ghosts floated right through the force field as though it weren't even there. Perhaps to them it wasn't. I frowned, feeling even more uncomfortable with this job. I mean having to deal with a force field created by Doctor Power...one of the most famous developed heroes around... This was definitely the big time all right, but I felt like I might be in a little over my head.

Less than a minute later there was a strange humming sound coming from the force field. A large metal box began to push out of the force field, looking almost as though someone was pushing a shipping crate through. Then it stopped and settled where it was, half outside the force field though the rest of it that I couldn't see remained within.

"Like a drawbridge over a moat," the Barber grinned.

"Exactly," Jack grinned back.

Then the end of the metal box opened and folded down into a ramp, revealing the passage way inside. I could see all the way through it though it was hard to make anything out at the other end. However Ouiji's ghosts came floating out of the opening and returned to her, hovering around her like some sort of honor guard.

Jack didn't say a word as he started walking through the opening that had been made in the shield. The rest of us quickly followed behind, ready for whatever was going to be on the other side.

When we reached the other end of the tunnel I climbed out and back onto the stone desert ground, seeing that there was actually a large setup to push the tube through the force field and retract it. It suddenly struck me that it looked a lot like those airport terminal ramps that would stretch out to the planes so the passengers could get on or off.

After looking at the way we'd come in I took a look around, feeling just a little surprised that I could actually see the entire force field from the inside. It was a large shimmering dome...about the size of a football stadium as Jack had said. I guessed the whole light bending thing to make it invisible only worked from the other side...like a one way mirror.

The inside of the dome was all flat open ground just like on the outside though there were lots of machines and such all around the base of the force field, probably part of what kept it going. Then in the very center was a large machine about the size of a garage that was shooting a beam of glowing orange light straight up to the very top center of the force field dome...probably also part of what made it.

"Damn," I whispered, feeling pretty impressed.

"Contusion," Jack turned to the muscular purple woman, "take care of the force field generator. We're gonna need it off when we leave. The rest of us will deal with the troops..."

"What troops...?" I started to ask, only to notice two groups of soldiers being raised to the surface from some underground freight elevator. Each group had a dozen metal soldiers, obviously robots and just as obviously armed with very large ray guns. "Oh...those troops..."

The moment the robot soldiers reached the surface they began to attack, opening fire with their ray guns. Beams of light shot out from the guns, looking quite nasty.

"Damn," I exclaimed, wondering what to do. I wanted to just create a force field of my own and hide behind it, but that wouldn't do. And I only had three uses of my power so I'd have to be very careful about how I used it against these things.

Jack was already in motion, moving surprisingly fast. He seemed incredibly agile and graceful as he jumped around, leaping over one of the robots with great ease then pulling a pair of guns out and firing. One robot went down with a hole through it's head and another took a shot through it's chest, but kept coming.

"You think you can take me," Jack laughed aloud, looking as though he was actually having fun. "I'm Jack the giant killer... No silly toys are going to stop me..."

Toxic was following Jack's example though she looked focused and deadly serious. Her fist glowed green as she punched one of those robots then swung around and tore the head right off another. As if that wasn't enough, she picked up the ray gun one had dropped and turned to use it on its fellow, though after a moment it became apparent that this was having no effect. The robots seemed to be immune to their own weapons. That didn't stop Toxic though as she merely dropped the weapon and went back to tearing them apart by hand.

I quickly looked at the other members of our group to see how they were doing. Contusion wasn't even messing with the robots except to throw them out of her way as she charged straight towards the large device that was feeding energy into the force field.

The Barber was fighting as well, spinning around and smacking robots with his staff, using it more like a bo staff than anything else. I couldn't help, but watch him in amazement, suddenly realizing that this might be something I should learn. I was powerless without my three wishes, but I did have a nearly indestructible staff. It might be a damn good idea to learn how to use it as a weapon so I wouldn't be completely unarmed or reliant on the wishes.

As amazed as I was by the Barber's skill with the staff, what happened next was even more unbelievable. He set the staff on the ground and stepped back while the staff just stood there going up and down...looking like a very tall and thin barber pole. Then the red stripe that went all the way down the staff began to unwind and stretch out. It became a white pole with a long red ribbon suddenly reaching out like a tentacle and grabbing one of the robots.

"No way," I blurted out, suddenly having to turn and whack a robot who'd gotten too close to me. I hit his head as hard as I could with my own staff, trying to take a tip from the Barber. It knocked the robot back, but before I could think to use my staff's real power...the robot suddenly sparked and exploded. "What the Hell...?"

A moment later a ghostly figure emerged from the robot's remains and floated away. I gasped and looked around, finally noticing that there were a lot of ghosts floating around now...more than just the five Ouiji had summoned earlier. They were attacking the robot's guns and occasionally the robots themselves. No wonder none of us had actually been hit even though there were two dozen robots. The ghosts were actually protecting us.

"I can not continue much longer," Ouiji called to Jack, "you know this is not the hour my powers are at their peak..."

"Gotcha," Jack called back, laughing in delight as he tore up another robot. "Don't worry.... It shouldn't be much longer."

I quickly looked back at the Barber to see how he was doing now that his staff was fighting on its own. His hands were starting to change as I watched, turning into a silvery metal and then melting into new shapes. Both of his hands changed all the way up to the elbows, stretching out and flattening in a matter of seconds so that from the elbows down he no longer had hands, but long and slightly curving blades.

The Barber just whistled to himself as he attacked the robots with his bladed arms, cutting into the metal bodies with ease. One robot went down and then another. He continued whistling as though this was some routine task.

Suddenly all the ghosts vanished at once and Toxic immediately called out, "Ouiji Broads been hit..."

I looked over the battle with a grimace, knowing that I had to contribute. I had to join the fight, but I didn't want to use all my wishes. I had a feeling that I'd need really need them after this. That meant making what I had count.

My first thought was that I had to do something big, something that would take care of all the robots at once if possible. Then I wouldn't have to use my second two wishes. An idea came to mind...one which would look impressive. I mentally gave the order to the staff, wishing that all the robots would disintegrate at once. However instead of glowing and granting my wish I felt a faint push back. The staff couldn't do it.

"DAMN," I growled. This was a Hell of a time to run into one of the staff's limitations. Since that wouldn't work I still knew of one standby which probably would. I slammed the base of the staff onto the ground and called out, "Rust..."

This time my staff responded to my command. It glowed and seconds later all the metal nearby began to rust. All the robots near me quickly froze and either stopped moving entirely or collapsed to the ground in rusted heaps. The robots that were further away still started to rust, though these ones were only slowed down a little. Still, I completely neutralized the six robots closest to me while the few remaining were easily picked off by the rest of the group.

"Impressive," Toxic grudgingly told me as she looked over the robots that had rusted solid, "but why the Hell didn't you do that sooner? You could have saved us some time."

"I didn't want to deprive you of your fun," I told her, trying to sound arrogant rather than out of my depth. And in this group, I thought arrogant would be fitting in a bit more.

Toxic snorted while the Barber commented, "Delightful trick..."

"I told you she'd be useful," Jack grinned, then casually tossed both of his own guns to the ground as they'd been caught in the effect of my power as well.

I just nodded at that and turned to look at Ouiji who was laying motionless on the ground. I felt a knot in my stomach at the sight, remembering why I'd always avoided any kind of conflict or confrontations in my jobs before.

Contusion came towards us saying, "The force field is down."

It wasn't until then that I noticed the glowing dome above us was entirely gone. I could look out and see the rest of the desert beyond it with nothing blocking my view. Then I glanced to the equipment that had been firing all the orange energy into the air and saw that it had been completely demolished. Contusion had made sure it wasn't going to be just turned back on.

But while I was thinking about this, Contusion went straight to Ouiji and knelt down beside her, feeling her pulse. "She's just unconscious," Contusion announced. "They were probably using stun beams."

"It figures those heroes wouldn't use lethal force," the Barber snorted in contempt. I noticed that one of his hands had turned back to normal and he was holding the staff in that hand again with the red stripe once again wrapped around it. However his other hand remained a nasty looking metal blade and didn't seem to have been effected by my power at all.

"Lucky for Ouiji Broad," Jack nodded, then asked Contusion, "How long before she's up?"

Contusion scowled thoughtfully, "Probably not for awhile. Those beams wouldn't be much good if most developed could just shake them off..."

"Then I'll take care of her," the Barber commented as he approached Ouiji with a nasty grin. "It wouldn't do having this one talk to the authorities..."

"Keep back you psycho," Contusion snapped. "We're taking her with us." And with that she picked up Ouiji and slung her over her shoulder as though the other woman didn't weigh a thing.

"She's right," Jack told the Barber. "Killing our own is bad precedence. Besides, the boss might need her again later on..."

The Barber nodded and tipped his hat. "As you wish."

"Now back to work," Jack said, already moving towards the lift where one group of robots had come up. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a metal disk that had somehow escaped my rusting wish. He placed it on the metal platform and then stepped back. There was a bright flash of light and suddenly half the metal platform was gone, leaving a gaping hole. "Follow me..."

Jack dropped down the hole and the rest of us started following. It was just a short drop to the room below and from there we could see several hallways going off in different directions. Now we were not only through the force field, but inside the hidden underground facility. With all this security I felt like I was inside Area 51. Then again, for all I knew I was.

I was just starting to look around the large room we found ourselves in when the Barber exclaimed, "Look here... It seems we're not alone..."

I quickly turned and saw two people, a man and a woman both wearing blue jump suits. Both of them were staring at us with looks of horror on their faces though the man had a gun pointing at us, waving it from one of us to another as though he couldn't decide which one he should shoot.

"So there are live people in here after all," Contusion scowled. "With all the robots above I wasn't sure."

"They're witnesses," Jack commented with a bored shrug.

"You can't be here," the woman gasped with terror in her eyes.

"You don't belong here," the man grimaced, then pointed the gun straight at Jack as though sensing he was our leader, "Get out NOW!"

"You know," the Barber told the man in a bored tone, sweeping his staff out and knocking the gun from the man's hand. "You're looking a little shaggy there." He stepped a little closer. "I think you could use a bit of a trim... How about a little off the top...?"

Suddenly the Barber swung his still bladed arm and sliced through the man's neck before I'd even realized what was happening. There was a large spray of blood and the man's head rolled across the floor. I could only stare at the scene in stunned horror.

"From the neck up should do," the Barber chuckled to himself, turning his attention to the woman.

Just then, Toxic grabbed the woman and the woman suddenly gasped and collapsed to the floor. Toxic pulled her glowing green hand away and scowled at us, "Enough with the fun. Let's get back to work..."

"She's right," Jack agreed with a sigh. "Work before pleasure. We have to get finished and out of here before any of those damn heroes show up. I'm sure they've already called for help..."

I grimaced and bit my tongue to keep from talking. I tried not to show how much it bothered me to see those two people murdered in cold blood like that. If these psychos knew then they'd see it as a sign of weakness and might come after me. There was good reason I'd avoided working with killers in the past. I just regretted that my ambition got me hooked up with them now.

"Damn," I muttered, wishing I could just turn and leave...that I could just teleport out of here and be done with this whole thing. I knew intellectually that I could, but somehow felt that it was too late. Whether I liked it or not I was involved now and any attempt to cut and run would cause them to come after me as a loose end. All I could do was grimace and try to get through this alive.

I gave a quick glance at the two dead bodies, feeling a surge of guilt which I tried to hide before I turned and followed after Jack and the others. Jack seemed to know where he was going as he led us down a hallway and then paused.

"More witnesses," Jack said, gesturing down a corridor. "I saw a woman duck around the corner..." He grinned. "Go find and take care of her...

"What about business before pleasure?" I asked, trying to keep my voice calm and bored sounding.

"Quieting witnesses is business," Jack chuckled. "The less anyone knows about who was here the better."

The Barber and Toxic were already starting down the corridor so I followed behind, glancing back and seeing that Contusion was staying back with Ouiji's still unconscious body and that Jack was busy talking with her.

There were several rooms off this corridor that the woman Jack saw could have gone into and we each split up to start checking them out. I just hoped that none of us found her because I didn't want any more blood on my hands. I shuddered at the memory of what the Barber and Toxic had done to those people.

"I hate this." I grimaced. "I never should have come..."

I looked into one room which was little more than a storage room and saw it was empty. Then I went and looked into the next room, an office of some sort. I was about to turn and leave when I heard a rustle from behind the desk.

"Damn," I muttered, stepping around the desk and seeing a woman cowering behind it with a look of fear in her eyes. She was staring at me in terror.

For a brief moment the two of us just stared at each other. I didn't know what to do. I knew that if I didn't turn her over to Jack and the others that Jack might have them go after me. He might seem like a cocky charmer at times, but I had no doubts now that he was a very dangerous man and I definitely didn't want to get on his bad side. But I couldn't just hand this woman over to be murdered either.

"If you scream they'll hear," I whispered to the woman, glancing to the door to make sure none of the others were coming in. "Stay behind the desk and don't make a sound." I stared at her for a moment longer before adding, "I never found you..."

With that I turned and left the room, letting out a sigh of relief. I might not be a good person, but I sure as Hell wasn't a murderer. Unfortunately, this was all I could do at the moment.

I just barely got into the corridor again when Toxic called out, "I found the bitch and killed her..." She gave an evil grin as she held up her hand which glowed green for a moment.

And with that I turned and left the room, letting out a sigh of relief. I might not be a good person, but I sure as Hell wasn't a murderer. Unfortunately, this was all I could do at the moment.

I blinked in confusion, a little tempted to just look back at the woman I'd left just a moment before. But there was no way Toxic could have found and killed her in that time, especially not without going through me. So either Toxic found another woman...or she was lying. But why?

I was a bit confused, but couldn't very well ask Toxic any questions without drawing suspicion. I grimaced, knowing that I'd have to go without answers because any attempt to get them would probably get me killed.

"Good," Jack responded, nodding absently. "Our target is this way..."

Jack led us to a heavy vault door then turned to Toxic. "The boss said they keep the room flooded with some sort of nerve gas that can take you down just by getting it on your skin..."

"That's why I was chosen for this mission." Toxic frowned for a moment. "I'm immune to all poisons..."

"That and you're so damn sexy." Jack gave her one of those cocky grins that made me think of him as the Tom Cruise of the super villain set. "There's a switch to turn off the gas inside."

Jack nodded to Contusion who just set Ouiji to the floor and grabbed the door. Her hands dug right into the metal as though it were made of clay and then she began to struggle with it. Her muscles all tensed up and seemed to bulge out even larger while her blotchy purple skin looked even more sickly. Then the door creaked horribly as she tore it right out of the wall and tossed it to the side.

"Holy shit," I whispered, noticing that the door was six inches thick and built like a bank vault.

"Stand back," Jack ordered everyone else while Toxic immediately charged through the opening.

Half a minute later, Toxic stepped back through the opening, "I turned off the gas and the ventilation sucked it all back up. It should be clear in just a few more seconds..."

Jack nodded and waited about ten seconds before stepping through the door. The Barber followed right behind him then came me with Contusion bringing Ouiji. The vault was quite large, though not quite what I'd expected. With the amount of security I'd expected Fort Knox with lots of treasure. Instead, the large room was largely empty except for a large stone block in the middle of the room.

As I looked closer I saw the block was teen feet tall, ten feet across and ten feet deep. It was made of some sort of sandy tan colored stone and had strange symbols carved all over it. However there were other symbols on the ground around it...glowing.

"Don't get any closer," Jack said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out what looked like a handful of metal marbles. "This is a bunch of magic security that the Face put in..."

"The Face?" Contusion scowled. "That sorcerer with Faction Zero?" She shook her head, "This must be quite a haul if they're bringing in Doctor Power and the Fact to guard it..."

"I'm sure it is," Jack nodded.

"I'm not sure I like this," Toxic scowled. "It feels wrong..."

Jack ignored her and gestured to the glowing symbols all over the floor around the stone box. "The boss said there's a sort of magic force field that won't let any magic through as long as those runes are still there."

"Magic," I scowled, staring at the runes. They were a little similar to the runes on Rune Dancer's body...but definitely not the same. "Is this why you brought me?"

"Yes and no," Jack smirked. "My dear lovely Mystik, those runes are here to stop people like you from doing what we need you to do. I'll take care of those nasty old runes for you..."

Then Jack rolled the metal marbles across the floor towards the stone box. As soon as the marbles got close to the runes they sort of exploded, turning into dust which spread out. And where the metal dust touched the runes the runes started to spark...then vanish as though they'd never been there.

"What the Hell were those?" Toxic demanded.

"Some sort of specially treated cold iron," Jack shrugged. "I didn't get the details, but it's anathema to magic... Really disrupts the stuff I guess. Now the runes are gone and our lovely Mystik can get to work."

"And what exactly do you need from me?" I demanded, looking at the stone block and clutching my staff tightly. "You never said."

"The runes prevented any magic from passing," Jack explained, gesturing to the block. "This blasted thing is invulnerable to anything, but magic..." He gave me a knowing look as he added, "Hit it with enough raw magic and it'll crumble. That's why I tried recruiting Rune Dancer and why I need you now..."

Jack was staring at me with a dark edge in his eyes that sent a chill down my spine. It was far too close to the look I saw in the Barber's eyes before he murdered that man. I had no doubt that if I tried backing out now he would not take it kindly. Even if I ran and hid using the staff, he'd make sure the Black Guild would find me. They didn't seem the sort to forgive someone for ruining a big job.

"Who needs her," the Barber snapped, turning and slashing at the stone with his bladed hand. "I'll cut through it in no time..." However his blade didn't even scratch the stone though he tried several more times.

"Let me," Contusion said, sounding more curious than anything. She punched the stone though it had no more effect than the Barber's attack had. She tried several more times then turned to look at me.

I have to admit that I was a bit afraid of Jack at the moment, but I was also curious. After all this, I wanted to know what was worth this kind of security. I wanted to know what all this trouble was for.

Though I knew this probably wasn't the smartest or wisest thing I've ever done, I turned my attention to the stone block and gave my staff the command. A blast of energy shot from my staff and hit the stone, causing the stone to immediately shatter into sand. A single blast was enough to destroy more than half the stone which was even more than I'd expected.

"This stuff really is vulnerable to magic," I muttered.

Then I turned my attention to what had been inside the stone block. The stone block had actually been a hollow box and inside of it there was a small pedestal with a strange looking orb sitting on it. The sphere was just over two feet in diameter and was black with tiny points of light moving all around it, reminding me a great deal of the night sky with the stars scattered across the dark.

"What is this?" Toxic asked before I could.

"I don't have a clue," Jack admitted reluctantly. "But the boss wants it real bad." Then he grinned to the rest of us. "And knowing the boss, this is our key to wealth and power..."

"Wealth and power sound good." The Barber grinned evilly while Contusion and Toxic nodded.

At this point, Jack reached into his jacket and pulled out the metal disk he'd used to teleport us all to this secure bunker. How all that metal inside his jacket survived my magic rust spell I had no idea. "Everyone stay close," he instructed before pushing the button.

All of reality seemed to twist around us as we teleported again, arriving a moment later not at the park where we'd started from, but on a slightly raised platform in an otherwise empty room.

"Ah, sweet home at last," the Barber mused. He took off his bowler hat with a hand that had reverted back to normal when I hadn't been looking and actually tipped it to me and then Contusion. "Ladies..." And with that he turned and left the room.

Contusion looked at Ouiji who was starting to stir again and unceremoniously dropped her to the floor. "You're on your own from here," she stated before following after the Barber.

Jack just gave me one of his obnoxiously cocky grins and announced, "You've passed your initiation...so welcome to the Black Guild..."

I just gulped, suddenly feeling like I had a lump of lead in my stomach. I'd always played it safe as a criminal, breaking in when no one was home and avoiding any unnecessary risks. I'd only joined Jack because my greed got the best of me. I'd wanted the big score. I'd wanted to get into the big time. Unfortunately, I hadn't realized until too late exactly what that meant.

Now I was part of an armed robbery. I was an accomplice to multiple murders. And I was involved in stealing who the Hell knows what. I had a feeling that what I'd just been involved in could send me to prison for the rest of my life. There was suddenly no doubt in my mind that I was in over my head...way over my head.

The Black Guild's secret headquarters was a very large, secure, and impressive facility that was at least three stories deep. It was hidden underground and had only two ways in or out...the teleportation room which I'd come through and which everyone else usually used to come and go...and a door to the outside which was guarded by a couple of very scary looking developed villains.

I felt very nervous as I walked down the hall beside Jack, getting the 'nickel tour' as he put it. However I didn't show any of what I was feeling and did my best to just look bored. It wasn't easy though as there were several dozen super villains in the base and some of them were not only powerful, but insane.

Jack grinned cheerfully as he continued showing me around, pointing out where everything was and introducing me to some of the villains as we passed. At the moment, he was going on about how great their security was, pointing out that even most of the people in the base had absolutely no idea where they were actually at...including him. Everyone came and went through the teleporter and no one was allowed through the main doors without permission.

"It's more secure that way," Jack told me. "No one can blab where we're at if they get caught..." He shrugged. "The Black Guild used to have nearly a dozen smaller bases like this.. The boss bought them in bulk..."

"Bought them in bulk?" I raised an eyebrow. Somehow, I couldn't imagine someone just going into a store and ordering a dozen secret underground lairs.

Jack just grinned at that. "There's this old school villain called the Tunneler who has the power to move rocks and dirt around. Back in the day, he'd tunnel under banks and break into them from below. Sometimes he'd even drop whole buildings into giant sink holes to get to them. Then on one job he got messed up pretty bad. It wasn't even some hero...just some security guard with a gun." Jack shrugged at that. "After that he decided to get out of the game. He got a couple other guys together and they started their own company making these underground based for whomever can pay. Rumor has it they've even made a few for the other side."

I nodded at that, thinking that sort of made sense. I'd always heard about these super heroes and villains who have hidden underground bases though I'd never thought to wonder where they came from before. I guess it's not like you can just go to some construction company and ask them to build you a secret base that you can conquer the world from.

"But like I was saying," Jack continued, "we used to have some other smaller based for our various units..." Jack shrugged again. "A lot of our guys got pinched while pulling jobs so the boss pulled everyone who was left back here to his main base..."

I scowled as I thought about what he was saying. "You mean guys get caught a lot working for you guys?" Being part of the Black Guild was sounding worse by the minute.

"The boss is great at planning," Jack told me with a shake of his head, "But we've had some bad luck on some of the missions lately. It doesn't matter too much though because the boss has already promised to break all our guys back out again. He's already organized one major prison break for us so he can do it again."

Just then I noticed a very large man blocking our path...if you could call him a man. He was bulky, eight feet tall and made of some sort of gray stone or clay. However it didn't look as though he was trying to block us since he wasn't even looking in our direction, just talking to two smaller versions of himself that were each about two feet tall.

"Pardon me your majesty," Jack called to the stone man, "but we need to pass."

The stone man turned and looked at us, seeming to notice us for the first time. I noticed he had a long beard made of the same stone as the rest of his body. His eyes however seemed green and shiny as if made of emeralds or some green crystal.

"Then pass you may," the stone man said, stepping slightly to the side enough so that Jack and I could get around him.

"Your majesty is most kind," Jack responded with a bow before gesturing for me to continue with him.

"Who was that?" I asked once we were past the stone man and out of hearing.

"He's called the Gnome King," Jack told me.

"Gnome King?" I blinked in surprise. "I thought gnomes were tiny with pointed hats..."

Jack chuckled at that. "Yeah, that's what I thought too when I first saw him. But I hear he's actually named from some character in the Wizard of Oz books."

"You were pretty polite with him," I pointed out, not having seen Jack be that polite with anyone other than me and a few 'other' ladies he was trying to impress.

Jack just grinned. "He's even stronger than he looks and is damn near impossible to kill. Not only that, but he creates these damn tough little clones of himself. He's a real bastard when he gets mad so it pays to humor him a little...for now."

I just shook my head, making a mental note not to piss off the Gnome King...or any of the other powerful and dangerous developed criminals that filled this headquarters. I was pretty damn powerful myself when I wanted to be, but at the moment I was well aware of the fact that I only had one more use left in my staff.

Suddenly Jack stopped and gestured to a hallway that had no doors going off to the side though it did have a closed metal door at the very end. It also had two guys standing guard with identical suits of red and black armor.

"Don't go down there," Jack told me, his expression turning serious for one of the few times since I'd met him. "There aren't a whole lot of rules around this place, but that's one of them. The boss isn't tolerant about that one..."

"Why?" I frowned, suddenly growing more curious about this hallway and the door at the end of it.

"The boss is keeping some valuables stored in that vault and doesn't want any of us touching them," Jack told me with a forced smile. "Hell, none of us could even get through that door if we tried..."

"The guards." I nodded my understanding.

However Jack snorted. "Hardly. A lot of us in this place could take them down... The problem is the door. The other side is a pocket dimension that's impossible to enter or leave any way other than through that door...and that's set so magic, advanced tech, or anyone with developed powers can't even get through. It's impossible....and I wouldn't recommend even trying. The last guy the boss caught doing that was given an autopsy...while still alive."

I winced at that and felt a cold chill go down my spine. "Damn."

Then Jack grinned again though this time there was an almost evil suggestion to it. "Come with me beautiful. I think it's time for you to meet the boss..."

I frowned, not at all liking the sound of that...especially after what I'd just heard. But instead of showing my fear I forced an evil grin of my own and told him, "Lead on... I've been wanting to see this mysterious boss you keep talking about."

Jack led me to a large gathering room which he'd shown me earlier. It was almost like a lounge area with several tables set up as well as a TV and pool table. A poker game was going on at one table and I saw that Toxic was one of the players. She was smoking a cigarette and drinking some neon green liquid from a glass. Then I noticed a jug of antifreeze at the foot of her chair and shook my head in disbelief.

A short distance away I saw Contusion setting up a chess board at another table while a thick cigar smoldered in an ashtray beside her. However there was no sign of who her chess opponent was going to be.

I looked around and took everything in, trying to guess which of these people might be the mysterious boss Jack had been going on about. However I quickly realized that this room wasn't our actual destination as Jack continued towards another door on the far end.

We came into an even larger room, one that was obviously meant for business rather than play. There were video screens on most of the walls showing news footage from different channels as well as images of all sorts of people and places I couldn't identify. There were also a lot of costumed criminals gathered around talking business. I could hear some talking about jobs they'd just finished pulling while a few others were going over plans for ones they were about to go on.

Then I finally noticed that on the other side of the room there was a raised platform with an honest to fucking God throne on it. There were video screens hovering in the air around the throne with the occupant looking at them intently.

The man sitting on the throne was wearing red and white armor that looked pretty intimidating. He had a long red cape on his back and wore a red helmet with white trim which covered his entire head except for the lower part of his face, revealing a caucasian man beneath, but few other details.

The man held a strange looking mace in one hand while his other hand was petting a black cat that sat on his cat contentedly. It was quite a strange sight with this armored and intimidating man who was just petting a cat. In fact I was damn tempted to ask if it was called Mister Bigglesworth, but I kept my mouth shut knowing now wasn't the time to be a smart ass.

"Here she is boss," Jack told the man on the throne. "Our new recruit...Mystik."

For a moment he just sat there looking down at me from his throne. Then he said, "Come Ebon... It is time for you to move..." It took me a moment to realize he was talking to the cat which he gently sat on the floor before standing up.

"I am called the Scepter," he told me in a deep voice. My eyes darted to his mace, which I now realized wasn't actually a mace, but a scepter. I couldn't see his eyes through the helmet though I felt them looking at me intently as he continued, "You are the one who defeated Rune Dancer before I could recruit her... You nearly undid my plans..."

I scowled, knowing that the best answer for a situation like this was bravado...but not too much. "We were both going for the same bank," I told him with a shrug. "I was willing to share, but she wasn't." I gave him a steady look, making no apology for my actions, but also making no threats.

The Scepter stared at me for a moment before laughing. "Very well," he said. "I think you shall fit in quite well here. You've already proven useful...and as you defeated both Rune Dancer and that annoyance Beowulf I think you can be of further benefit to us. If you continue to assist us then wealth and power shall be your rewards. Welcome to the Black Guild."

"Thank you," I told him with a slight nod of my head.

Then the Scepter dismissed me, returning to his seat and giving his attention back to one of the video screens floating in the air beside him. I felt a strange twinge of annoyance at this, but also a bit of relief.

I turned and started to walk away as well then paused as I noticed a strange figure floating towards me...his feet several inches above the floor. He was dressed in white with a long flowing white cloak and a hood that covered his face in shadow. As he got closer I could see pale skin and a face that looked like it would probably be considered handsome if not for the pale tone. Long black hair came down from inside the hood. Then he got closer to me and I noticed his eyes. They were a strange yellow and black color.

The floating man stopped in front of me and stared for a moment before bowing his head. "Black Annie..." he finally said in a quiet and almost hollow sounding voice, "it has been a long time since we last met..."

I blinked in surprise, remembering what Anabelle had told me about her own predecessor. I shook my head. "No... I'm not Black Annie..."

The floating man stared at me again for nearly half a minute before slowly saying, "I see... I lose track of the decades... There were so few of us back then... So few developed or magical beings who operated in the open..." He shook his head slightly then glanced at my staff before continuing, "You look much like her... You must be her daughter..."

"No," I started carefully, not sure how much I should tell him. I certainly wasn't going to give him any clue as to who I really was though.

"I see." He nodded again. "Her granddaughter..."

At that a costumed man nearby whom I didn't know turned and looked at me. "Wow," he exclaimed, "you're a real legacy then... Being on the dark side must run in your family or something..."

"Or something." I gave a wry smile, deciding suddenly that being thought of as Black Annie's granddaughter might give me a bit more legitimacy with this crowd. If they wanted to think that I wasn't going to correct them.

I turned my attention back to the floating man, but he seemed to have lost interest in me and was floating away...and fading away at the same time. His body became transparent and then even more so with every passing second until he was gone entirely.

"Who the Hell was that?" I asked, more to myself than anyone else.

"That was the Revenant," Jack answered as he came up beside me again. "Sort of an immortal ghost type...if there is such a thing." Then he gestured for me to follow him. "Come on...I'll show you to your room."

"Lead the way," I told him with a frown.

"So," Jack grinned as we walked, "you're Black Annie's granddaughter..."

"You've heard of her?" I asked in surprise. I'd never heard of Black Annie until Anabelle told me about her.

Jack nodded. "I'm probably one of the few here who has... You see, I have an interest in history. She's one of the first..."

"One of the first what?" I asked.

"One of the first super villains," Jack stopped and gave me his cocky grin. "And by super villain, I mean having powers, using an alias, and wearing when she committed crimes...even if her costume was just wearing black clothes. Rumor had it at the time she was a widow in mourning..." He gave me a questioning look as if waiting for me to confirm or deny that.

"I see," I responded carefully. I looked at my staff, amazed that me...a small time burglar could inherit the weapon of one of the first super villains. It was still hard to believe.

"Well," Jack said, pointing to a door, "here's your room. It's all yours since we don't share rooms here..." He grinned evilly. "Most of us aren't very good at sharing and this keeps us from killing each other in our sleep... You can set the combo on the keypad from the inside, but don't trust that to keep things secure. There are too many around here who can knock down doors or just walk through them..."

"I'd imagine security would be a problem around here," I responded wryly. With a bunch of developed criminals around I couldn't imagine much of anything being secure. Then again, it would probably be pretty risky robbing anyone since the retaliation could be a real bitch.

"Well," Jack winked at me, "I'll see you later beautiful... Maybe at dinnner...and breakfast."

I shook my head as Jack walked off, not sure whether to feel amused or disgusted by his flirting. It was pretty damn weird and made me uncomfortable, but I wasn't sure how to shut him down. After all, I suspected he wasn't the type to take rejection easily and that he could probably turn very nasty if angered.

Once Jack was done I went inside the room and looked around. It wasn't very big and had a queen sized bed, a dresser, a small private bathroom and very little else. I turned my attention back to the door and pushed the button beside it which caused the metal door to slide shut. There was a keypad along with the button so I played around with it and quickly figured out how to set my own door combination. That way I'd be able to lock the door when I left and unlock it again from the key pad on the outside.

However setting a combination for this door was only useful assuming that I was actually going to stay. I was fully aware of the fact that I didn't have to. The Black Guild was full of dangerous people... killers and psychos. I could very well be killed or worse by sticking around. Of course they'd probably come after me if I left, but that didn't have to be a problem either. I just had to turn back to normal and never go out in public as Mystik again.

"They have no idea who I am," I reminded myself aloud. "I could disappear without a problem..."

The Black Guild was dangerous and far out of my normal league. Leaving them and just going back to my old life would be the safe thing to do. It would be the smart thing to do. However there were other considerations too.

At the moment I felt like I was in way over my head, but I also had curiosity and ambition. I was curious about this Black Guild and what they were up to...and I couldn't help, but wondering what I could get from it all. If I could stick this out just a bit longer I might come out of it filthy rich. Jack told me they robbed seven banks in one shot. That was the kind of ambition that might get me set for life.

However there was one other consideration. The tingle of fear. These people were powerful and connected. They'd gained a lot of information about the security of that place we broke into well before we went. I had a sneaky suspicion that if I just disappeared back to my old life, they might very well find a way to track me down anyway.

I sat down on the bed with a sigh and stared at my staff. It was the key to getting everything I'd ever wanted and a way to escape this quicksand situation I found myself in. With it I could fulfill my every ambition or just try getting somewhere safe.

Of course if I was going to stay here for a bit longer...which I wasn't sure of...I couldn't very well do that with only one wish left in the staff. It was far too dangerous here for that. However I could use the staff to go home, use the last wish, then let them all recharge before coming back. Either that or just go home and use the last wish to change back to normal then just stay there.

"Either way," I muttered thoughtfully, "I'm going to have to go home and use the last wish..."

After a minute I stood up and sighed. I slowly looked around the room, making sure to take in every detail so I could order the staff to bring me back if I chose. Then I ordered the staff, "Take me home..." It had been a busy day and regardless of what I decided to do later I needed to get some rest.

I closed my eyes and moaned in delight as the hot shower water streamed over my skin, feeling especially good against my breasts. A faint smile curved my lips as I ran my hands over my breasts and rubbed my nipples. Damn this felt good.

"Too bad I can't stay in here all day," I purred, reaching down to tweak my twat.

I felt a tingle shoot up my spin and through my whole body. I slipped one finger up inside my body and let out another moan. Now I was really tempted to stay here and continue with this. However a sudden thought as to where I was cooled my excitement and made me hurry up with the rest of my shower without any more playing around.

"Damn," I grimaced as I climbed out of the shower and wrapped a towel around my body. I paused to look down at my nice figure and sighed. It was too bad I couldn't keep playing around with it at the moment, but that kind of thing probably wasn't a very good idea while I was in the Black Guild's base. I never knew when some super power pervert would use his developed powers to walk in on me through the wall...or peek with some X ray vision. "Damn," I muttered again, glancing around with a sudden surge of paranoia. "This definitely isn't the place for this..."

I stepped out of my bathroom and looked around the small, but private quarters I'd been assigned. At the moment I just regretted that I wasn't back in my own apartment where I'd have the privacy to do as I please. Of course even when I'd been home and had the privacy I hadn't taken full advantage of it. Playing around with my body when I was a sexy babe was exciting and kinky, but still a bit weird.

I dried myself off then looked down at my naked body again, hardly able to believe that I'd been like this for a full day. I'd been a hot and sexy babe for nearly twenty-four hours and had even slept like this. I had to admit though that spending so much time like this was getting me a bit more comfortable in this body.

"But what am I doing here?" I muttered, glancing around the room again.

Of course I already knew the answer. After I'd gotten my tour of the place and my official welcome from the Scepter, I'd gone home to think about whether to return or not. Needless to say, my greed and ambition had overruled my fear and I'd come back as soon as my staff had recharged. That had been yesterday and I've been hanging around since.

"Just another up and coming super villain," I told myself with a wry smile.

With a shrug, I went about drying my hair and brushing it...which all took a lot longer than I'd expected. I got impatient not only waiting for it to dry enough to brush it, but also with how long it took to get the tangles out.

"Now I understand why women take so long," I grumbled to myself. What really annoyed me though was the knowledge that I could just skip all of this and get ready in just a moment. However that would take one of my three wishes and I wasn't about to waste one of those.

Once I was finished getting dressed and I ready I paused to look myself over in the mirror. I looked every inch the super villainess that I was. Now I was ready to face this base full of killers and crazies.

I walked down the hallway with a frown, glancing down at myself and my revealing costume and then shaking my head. When I'd come up with this outfit I'd thought it was a great idea. It showed off my currently body pretty well and it looked appropriately dramatic. However if I'd realized just how much I'd actually be wearing it I probably would have made it a little less revealing and a bit more comfortable.

Then there was the staff I was currently clutching like a security blanket. It was a bit awkward to carry it around with me all the time, but it not only completed the look, but was also too powerful to just leave laying around. Of course I could hide it somewhere and just call to me when it was needed, but with all these developed criminals around here it made me a lot more comfortable to keep it ready for use at a moments notice.

I made my way towards the cafeteria, noticing as I did so that the whole place seemed kind of empty. There weren't nearly as many people walking around as there were the first time I'd come here. Some of them could be sleeping in late though I knew a lot of them were either out on missions or had left the base to do whatever it was they did when they weren't with the Black Guild.

"I should probably do that myself," I thought aloud. I didn't actually have to hang around here if I didn't want, or at least that was what I was seeing now. Both Ouiji and the Barber had left until they were called for their next job. I could do the same.

For the moment though I was hungry so went to the buffet that was set up and filled a plate with eggs and french toast. I normally didn't get any real breakfast foods for breakfast so even this cafeteria crap was something of a treat.

I looked around at the half dozen tables that were set up, seeing that half of them were completely empty while the others just barely had anyone there. The only one else I recognized in the cafeteria though was Contusion who also seemed to be the least crazy person I knew in this place.

After a moment of consideration I sat down at the table with Contusion before asking, "Do you mind if I sit here?"

Contusion just glanced at me with a scowl before gruffly responding, "Suit yourself."

We both ate in silence for a minute and I kept sneaking glances at her, finding her appearance very odd. After all, bald women and sickly purple skin weren't exactly normal much less a woman who was more muscular than any guy I knew.

The silence was a little awkward so I tried breaking it. "I heard you were a doctor."

"Yeah," she grunted, glancing at me again before returning to her breakfast.

"What kind?" I asked.

Contusion paused to actually give me a good look this time. From her expression, I guessed she was trying to decide if I was teasing her or actually wanted to know. After a moment she shrugged. "General practitioner. I had my own office and everything..."

I nodded at that then carefully asked, "If you don't mind... How did you to get to be...here."

"You mean how did I get like this." She gestured at herself and scowled.

"Something like that," I responded with a faint smile.

Contusion scowled and looked as though she were trying to decide how much to tell me. "It's no secret," she grimaced. "I had a bit of a rivalry with a roommate back in medical school. I went on to become a medical doctor while she went on to do medical researcher. I ran into her years later and she was bragging about her career and this new strength enhancement formula she and her partners were working on." She shook her head as she continued, "I got jealous and wanted to show her up for once. I figured it was only a matter of time before she used it on herself and then started showing off her new strength. I figured I'd get the jump on her with that so stole the formula and tried it myself." Then Contusion snorted, "I just didn't expect the side effects..."

"The purple skin," I nodded my understanding.

"That," Contusion agreed grimly, "losing all my body hair, and feeling like I'm constantly bruised from head to toe."

"Ouch," I winced.

"It gets even better," Contusion told me with a nasty looking smile. "I found out afterwards that they hadn't done any human testing yet and were looking for a subject. She specifically pushed my buttons knowing I'd always wanted to be stronger and more athletic. This way they could test the formula without having to deal with the legal problems."

I gave a sympathetic wince. "Damn..."

Contusion nodded at that. "Then the bitch ran off and fixed the formula before using it on herself. Now she's even stronger than me and without any of the side effects..." Contusion scowled and her eyes gleamed with anger. "When I get my hands on her..."

I just nodded again, unsure of what I could possibly say to this. "That's rough..."

Contusion just nodded again then gave me a steady look. "What about you? Rumor has it you're a legacy."

"Something like that," I told her with a forced smile. "The truth is, a month ago I'd never even heard of Black Annie. Then I suddenly inherited her magic and powers..."

"So you were an honest law abiding citizen until you discovered your dark family legacy," Contusion said, looking more relaxed now that the topic had been changed.

"Hardly," I burst out laughing. "I've been in acquisitions for awhile now. The magic just let me move up to the big leagues."

Then to change the subject again since it was a bit awkward talking about myself, I asked, "What about this Scepter guy... I've never heard of him before."

"Not many have," Contusion answered thoughtfully. "I don't know much about him except his powers seem to come from his scepter and that about ten years ago he fought the Protectorate and was supposedly killed during the fight. Everyone thought he was dead until one day he showed up and took over the Black Guild using a mixture of bribery, blackmail and brute force. Apparently he'd spent all that time making detailed plans and only came out of hiding because he saw the Black Guild as a way to carry them out. He's been moving us all around like chess pieces since."

"What's he having us do?" I asked with a scowl. "Is he trying to do the world domination thing or just make us all obscenely wealthy." I could understand wanting unlimited wealth, but I'd never able to get my head around the world domination thing. That just seemed kind of fanatical.

Contusion hesitated for a moment then in a quiet voice told me, "I honestly don't know what his end game is. I don't think anyone does. Scepter doesn't tell anyone what his plans are except a small group of squad captains that lead the actual missions. I think the only reason he trusts them with even that much is because he has some kind of leverage on them." Then she gave me a warning look and added, "It's not smart to ask those questions too loudly. The Scepter can be vicious if he suspects you're up to something."

I gulped and shook my head. "I'm just trying to figure out what I got myself into." Then I sighed. "I signed up for a single job with high pay...and somehow ended up here." I gestured around us. "And I still haven't been paid."

Contusion laughed at that. "Don't Worry. The Scepter makes sure we all see enough cash that we don't desert or turn on him."

"Good," I nodded in relief.

I leaned back in my chair and looked at my plate, having finished eating most of my breakfast during our conversation. Contusion had already finished her own breakfast, but was looking as though she was about done with the conversation as well. She got up and started to step away from the table, not even bothering to bring her tray.

Just then, I noticed two men in blue jumpsuits cleaning up a table on the other side of the cafeteria. "Who are they?" I asked Contusion before she got too far away. I went over to where she was and gestured to the two men.

"Cleaners," she responded wryly.

"Cleaners?" I blinked in surprise.

She gave me a look and probably would have raised an eyebrow if she'd still had them. "Of course... Can you think of a single developed criminal who'd bother sweeping a floor or scrubbing a toilet? Someone has to take care of the crap work..."

"Of course," I responded, feeling like an idiot. Of course someone would have to take care of that kind of thing. I'd just never thought about super villains having that kind of support staff. It just seemed so...corporate.

I continued walking to the door with Contusion before she paused and gestured back at our table. "You forgot your staff..."

I quickly looked back at the table and my staff was leaning against one of the chairs where I'd left it. I smiled faintly and the staff suddenly flew across the room to my hand.

"Thank you." I smiled pleasantly. "It wouldn't do to leave something this dangerous laying around... I never know when it might decide to just up and kill someone..."

Contusion stared at me for a moment before shaking her head. I thought I'd even caught a slightly nervous look in her eye. That kind of reaction wasn't a bad thing to cultivate around a place like this.

We'd just barely stepped out of the cafeteria door when Contusion suddenly threw up her arm and stopped me. I was about to ask her what the Hell she was doing when I noticed she wasn't even looking at me. Instead, she was watching a black cat walking past us in the hallway.

"I've heard it's bad luck having a black cat cross your path," I told Contusion wryly as I stepped back so she was no longer touching me. "But don't you think that's overreacting a bit..."

Contusion waited until the cat was gone then turned and gave me a flat look. "The Scepter is VERY protective of his cat. I've seen him kill someone for accidentally stepping on its tail..."

"Oh," I responded in surprise.

Then in a quieter voice that was almost a whisper, she added, "And there's a rumor Ebon actually spies on us for his master..."

Before I could fully absorb this much less think of more questions to ask, Contusion turned and walked away. This time it was obvious that our conversation really was done and over.

I stared after Contusion for a minute thinking about everything she'd told me before I started off in my own direction. I'd definitely learned a few things about how things worked here though I wasn't sure how useful any of it could actually be to me. In fact the one thing I'd learned most was that even Contusion was afraid of the Scepter. That was something definitely worth keeping in mind.

I stepped into the lounge room and slowly looked around, seeing that there were only four people in there beside myself. Toxic was playing pool with a costumed man I didn't know. He was dressed all in red and scarlet with a red mask that covered his entire head and hid all his facial features. Around his waist he had a belt with a set of white heavy looking old fashioned keys hanging on his belt. He was bent over trying to make a shot while she stood back and glared at him with a dark look in her eyes.

"Talk about competitive," I muttered to myself. I remembered the way she killed that unarmed woman on our job together and made a mental note not to play pool with her. She probably wouldn't be a very good loser.

Then I turned my attention to the other two who were sitting down and just talking while sipping coffee. It was a strange sight as one of the men had a head that just looked like a gleaming white skull with glowing red eyes. His costume was mostly black with some white trim and he even had a white cape which was held on with a pair of broaches that looked like small skulls. He was one of the guys Jack had introduced me to when I first arrived though it took me a few seconds to remember his name.

"Skull Face," I muttered as I remembered his name. It took a few more seconds to remember that he had the power to look someone in the eyes and then make them see hallucinations of their greatest fears. "Scary."

The man with Skull Face looked a little less intimidating and a lot more ludicrous. He was wearing what seemed to be a black spandex outfit, but with a lot of armor pieces on it that looked like they were made of glowing pink light. The glowing pink pieces covered his shoulders, chest, forearms, lower legs and belt area and were somewhat transparent so I could see through them a bit. His head was completely uncovered giving a good look at his short brown hair and his face, though the small black domino mask he wore helped obscure his identity...a little bit.

From where I was at I could easily overhear what Skull Face and the man with the pink armor was saying. Skull Face shook his head as he complained, "That job last night was a fucking nightmare. Lightning Lash never even showed up...so he couldn't do his part and everything went to hell..."

"I heard Master Mime got caught." The man in the pink armor nodded sympathetically.

"Yeah," Skull Face responded. Though his face couldn't show any expressions I had the distinct feeling he was smirking as he added, "Though you'll never hear him complain about it..."

Pink armor guy laughed. "Yeah. It does suck though losing another one..."

Then Skull Face turned and called over to the pool table, "Hey Key... Did you hear that? You're gonna have to go pull Master Mime out of the clink..."

The man in red whom I assumed was the Key that Skull Face meant turned and looked back at him. I couldn't see his expression through his mask, but the tone in his voice was filled with contempt. "His capture," the Key said carefully, "is not my concern until the Scepter orders me to free him. Until then he can wait."

Skull Face turned his attention back to the man with the pink armor and told him, "I told Master Mime he should pay the Key's insurance policy, but he didn't want to spend the money..." Then he shrugged.

"Have you seen found out why Lightning Lash never showed yet?" the man in the pink armor asked.

Skull Face shook his head. "No... We were looking for him after we got back, but couldn't find him..."

Pink armor guy shrugged before saying, "You know he's a serial rapist... The fucker probably tried messing with the wrong chick around here..."

"You might be right," Skull Face responded, glancing back to Toxic. "The chicks around this place aren't ones you want to mess with..."

At that, I decided I'd had enough of eavesdropping. I slowly walked over the pool table to watch the game. I didn't know Toxic very well and didn't like what I did know...but she was the only one in this room I actually knew at all.

I watched them play for several minutes before Toxic sunk her last ball and won. "I win again," she stated with a sneer.

"Why do you always take beating me so personally?" the Key asked her. "You're never this vicious with anyone else..." He paused for a moment, then lightly joked, "Remember, I'm the one who broke you out of prison..."

"Don't worry," Toxic gave him a smile that seemed just a bit forced, "I remember your role in that breakout...just like I remember it was the Scepter who ordered you to do it."

"No one gives me any respect anymore," the Key sighed before he turned and left the room.

I watched the Key leave feeling a bit confused. Then I turned to Toxic and asked, "What's the deal with him?"

"That's the Key," Toxic responded with a grimace.

"He's our insurance policy," Skull Face called over to me having overheard my question.

"More like the insurance agent most of the time," the pink armored man added with a chuckle.

At my blank look Toxic snorted almost contemptuously, "You really are a rookie..."

"Nearly everyone in this business has heard of him," the Black Skull explained. "He's some sort of teleporter and runs a business using his power to bust people out of jail."

"It costs though," the pink armored guy nodded agreement.

"Then the Scepter put a leash on him," Toxic explained with a sneer. "Now he only breaks people out when the Scepter tells him to." She paused for a moment with a strange look in her eyes as she added, "Most of my last crew got caught awhile back and he still hasn't gotten them back out."

"With his power he'd be really useful pulling jobs," Skull Face told me. I couldn't make out any expressions since he had no skin, but I had the feeling he was scowling. "He could teleport in, grab whatever the Scepter wants, then teleport out again before anyone knew. It would be a Hell of a lot easier than sending a whole crew to fight our way in..."

"The Key isn't sent on the missions with everyone else," Toxic scowled. "The Scepter doesn't want to risk him. He's too valuable as an insurance policy."

"Yeah," Skull Face reluctantly agreed. "Most guys here wouldn't be as willing to do what the Scepter wants if he didn't have the Key ready to break them out if they got caught."

I stood there and learned a bit more about the Key and his role as the Black Guild's official jail break expert before everyone lost interest. Skull Face went back to his conversation with the man in the pink armor while Toxic left the lounge entirely.

After a few more minutes of having nothing to do myself I ended up leaving the lounge myself. I didn't have anything specific to do so I just stared to wandering around the base, familiarizing myself with it a bit more and trying to see what Jack had missed on his tour.

I couldn't help, but thinking about the time I'd spent talking to Contusion and then the guys in the lounge. They'd said a lot about just how dangerous it could be being a member of the Black Guild, but I was actually less scared because of it.

It was a little strange, but the more time I spent around these super villains the more I realized they weren't really all that different from the normal criminals I knew. Some were desperate, some were crazy, some were professional, and some were just pushed into the life by circumstances. Sure most of them had powers and could be dangerous as hell, but I was starting to understand them and this gave me a lot more confidence.

One thing I'd learned this morning that kind of surprised me was that this place was pretty damn boring most of the time. Sure, it was filled with killers and crazies and had some pretty fucking weird shit going on, but most of the time everyone seemed to be killing time playing cards or hanging out like it was some kind of bar. It was no wonder so many had left the base until they were called.

"Which is exactly what I'm going to do." I grinned, feeling relieved that I didn't actually have to stick around all the time. In fact I could probably get away with not having anything to do with them again unless they happened to need me for something. However I still hadn't been paid and I wasn't going to just give up on the big leagues that easily. "I'll just have to find my own way to do it..."

I was just about to go home to spend some time as myself when I noticed that I happened to be next to what I'd come to think of as the forbidden hallway. It was the same hallway Jack had warned me away from. I couldn't resist looking down there and wondering what was behind the sealed door. The two armored guards who were still standing watch beside it served as a warning not to get any closer.

Just as I was turning to continue on my way I noticed the door sliding open. I quickly turned back and watched in surprise as a single man dressed in a blue jumpsuit came out of the door, pushing a small cart. The two guards only glanced at the cleaner as he walked past them with his cart.

"The janitor gets in and out," I whispered in realization before noticing that the two guards were still looking at me. I gave a faint nod then turned and continued on my way.

Wheels began turning in my mind as my curiosity about what was behind that door came back even stronger than before. It must be quite a treasure for the Scepter to protect it so heavily. Yet the cleaners could still get through...

I couldn't resist a faint smile as a thought came to me...a very dangerous thought. I'd originally gotten mixed up with Jack and the Black Guild because I wanted into the big leagues. I'd come back yesterday mostly to prove to myself that I had what it took to be in the big leagues. And this door... This door and whatever was behind it was definitely big league.

"But not too big league for me," I thought aloud. I wasn't actually sure of that, but I made a decision right there to take it as a personal challenge. This would be difficult and it would be dangerous, but I could...I would do it. I would break into that vault and prove to myself that I was definite big league material. "I guess I'm not going home after all..."

Invisibility was an amazing power and more than a little exciting. There was a certain thrill to walking down the hall or listening in on other's conversations without them having any idea you were there. And thanks to the power of my staff this was a childhood fantasy that I could finally experience.

However unlike my childhood fantasy of being able to walk into the girl's locker room at school, I was using my current state of invisibility to do research for my latest job. Breaking into the forbidden doorway wasn't something that I could just do on a whim so I'd spent the last two days learning everything I could about it and the cleaners who were able to come and go.

One thing I'd learned was that there was a small section of the base reserved almost exclusively for the cleaners. There were more than a dozen of these guys in blue jump suits who not only cleaned the place, but also did the cooking and took care of all the day to day work that no one thought of. And since they all stayed out of sight as much as possible most of the villains here didn't even notice them. They were effectively the invisible work force, like elves from some old fairy tale who cleaned up your house when no one was looking.

The cleaners weren't just a bunch of innocent janitors or cooks who'd been duped into working for a group of nefarious super villains. Instead, they were mostly small time crooks who'd been recruited as they got out of jail and had been offered a lot of money and a place on the bottom floor of an up and coming organization. All that was asked was that they perform some grunt work, don't ask too many questions, and that they not care about such things as minor legalities. Some of them had already made contacts that would make them future henchmen for one villain or another.

It was kind of strange watching them like this, knowing that I would fit right in with this crowd. After all, I was a small time crook and exactly the kind of guy they might hire. It was almost scary to think that if circumstances had been just a little different I'd be a cleaner rather than a villain.

At the moment I was invisible and standing in the corner of the cleaner's lounge area, carefully listening to them talk. Since no one noticed them they tended to pick up on a lot of things going on around the Black Guild and I'd been getting a lot of that gossip by eavesdropping. I'd learned a few useful things by spying on these cleaners, but I still hadn't learned exactly what was in that vault.

I glanced to the clock on the wall and frowned, knowing that every minute I remained invisible the more of a strain it put on my magic. As it was, I'd been invisible for over an hour and that meant a long recharge for my staff. However I needed to learn everything I could before I made my attempt on the vault. There was no way I was going to get caught...not after Jack told me what would happen.

Of course I was nervous and afraid of even trying for the vault, but that was the very thing that motivated me. I had all this power in my hands and I wanted that to mean something. I didn't want to keep basing my decisions off of fear of being caught when I could now do so much.

With a shake of my head I decided that I'd learned as much as I could. I took one more glance at the clock and then turned and left the cleaner's lounge. I hurried through the hallway towards the privacy of my quarters, paying close attention to who I passed in the hall. Some people in the base would be able to see me even if I was invisible. Fortunately for me, the base was nearly empty at the moment so I didn't have to worry about that too much.

Just as I reached my own room I noticed something from the corner of my eye. It was just a flicker of motion if anything, but it was enough to make me turn and see a ghostly image of a man coming out of another room and walking down the corridor away from me. He was completely transparent and looked more like a ghost than anything so I couldn't make out much other than that he had on some sort of trench coat and hat.

"Weird," I muttered with a shake of my head.

I quickly went into my quarters and once I was safely inside with the door closed I immediately released my invisibility. The drain of energy from my staff suddenly stopped and my hand went from the strange ghostly image that I had been seeing back to solid flesh and blood. I quickly glanced down at myself and verified that I was indeed visible again.

"Thank God," I muttered in relief. I'd been using the invisibility for such a long time that I was sure the staff was going to need a long recharge after this. Still, whatever was hidden in the Scepter's vault would probably be worth it. "Good thing Anabelle told me about turning invisible in her act or I might not have thought of it..."

Just then a thought suddenly occurred to me, more of a passing realization than any deep consideration. When I was invisible I could still see myself...albeit as only a ghost. But when I'd been like that, I looked just as ghostly as the man I'd seen in the hallway. I wondered who he was since I hadn't seen him around here before, though that hardly meant anything since there were lots of Black Guild members coming and going whom I'd never met.

After a moment I got back down to business. I took the bundle of clothes I'd been carrying and set them on my bed before sitting down next to them while I thought about my next step. I already knew what I was going to do. I just needed to gather my courage for it.

"It's risky," I grimaced. I hated taking any more risks than absolutely necessary in my jobs, but reminded myself that this one was necessary if I was going to get inside.

With that I looked at my staff, reminding myself that I only had one wish left at the moment. I'd used it this morning to turn invisible for a short time so I could try sneaking through the forbidden door behind one of the cleaners. Unfortunately, even though the door was open it had been like walking straight into an invisible wall. I just couldn't walk through. That had convinced me that Jack hadn't been full of shit when he told me the door would block any developed, magic, or advanced technology from entering.

"That would have made it so easy too," I sighed, thinking about how convenient it would have been if I'd been able to just walk through the door that way. "Now I have to get trickier..."

I closed my eyes for a moment to gather my determination then I used the third and final wish on my staff. I said, "Show me," even though it was unnecessary and there was no one around to be dramatic for.

Suddenly the air in front of me shimmered and I was looking at the forbidden door and the two armored guards who were standing beside it. Of course I was still in my quarters and only looking at them through a strange window in the air. It was almost like a TV screen which let me spy on them. I silently ordered the staff to show me the other side of the door, but it didn't work. I hadn't expected it to either. That would have been too easy.

"Show me the Scepter," I ordered and the image changed to show the Scepter's throne room There were only a half dozen people in it at the moment including the Scepter.

The Scepter stood up in front of his throne looking furious at two men in costumes who stood in front of him. One of the men was the guy with the glowing pink armor whose name I still didn't know and the other was some guy in green and yellow spandex whom I'd never seen before. Toxic, Jack, and some woman I only vaguely recognized seeing around stood towards the back watching.

"You failed me," the Scepter snarled at the two men. "You failed the Black Guild..." His cat Ebon circled his feet and then paused to hiss at the men as well.

"It wasn't my fault," the man with the green and yellow costume argued, "It was like they knew we were coming..."

"You lost most of your team," the Scepter said in a cold voice. "You abandoned your team and ran away...which would not have been a problem had you at least brought what I sent you for. You had it in your hand...the only known sample of Grendel's blood. With that we could have created a clone under our control. But you let the Protectorate take it from you... Now the only way to get Grendel's blood is to take it from the creature ourselves...if we could find it."

The Scepter raised his arm and pointed his scepter at the man in the green and yellow spandex and an instant later the man was sent flying back across the room where he smashed violently against the wall. I could hear the crunching of broken bones even through this magic window.

"Holy shit," the man in the pink armor gasped in horror.

He immediately turned and started to shoot some sort of pink energy beam at the Scepter from his hand, but the Scepter merely gestured at him with his scepter and pink armor guy suddenly exploded with his insides and armor flying everywhere.

"Holy shit," I exclaimed, echoing the final words of the doomed man. I winced and ordered the magic window to turn off. "Damn..."

I'd known the Scepter was vicious, but seeing it with my own eyes...or more less...was still quite shocking. It made what I was about to do all the more difficult. I'd just used up my third and final wish and had only a short time left where I could use my staff to teleport before it shut down. There was a large part of me that wanted to do just that since it wasn't safe hanging around a place like this without anything to protect myself, but I ignored that and forced myself to be patient.

A short time later my staff went dormant again in order to recharge and I was automatically returned to normal. I felt the familiar sensations as my body was rapidly transformed back into my usual male one. Then I let out a sigh of relief, thankful to be me again...even if I wasn't very thankful about my staff being useless.

"Weird," I muttered as I ran a hand over my now flat chest. After several days of having my own tits I'd kind of gotten used to them and even missed them a tiny bit. Of course my happiness at having my dick back more than compensated for that.

After taking a minute to make sure all my parts were back in their proper place, I settled down to consider my current situation. My staff was dormant and probably wouldn't be recharged and ready to go again for several days at least. I was currently my normal self while inside the Black Guild's secret base...surrounded by a lot of very dangerous people. And of course this was exactly what I had in mind when I'd used my last wish.

I wasn't very worried about Jack or anyone else noticing I was gone. Jack had told me they'd need me for a mission they were planning in five days, but until then I was free to do what I wanted. So as far as Jack or anyone else was concerned, Mystik had gone home to take care of personal business...like taking over some small time protection rackets.

"I just hope it's recharged before then," I muttered, looking at the staff and not being completely sure how much time I'd burned with that long bit of invisibility.

Then I turned my attention to the clothes I'd stolen from a storage room earlier. It was a rolled up blue jumpsuit, the exact same kind all the cleaners wore. I didn't waste any time putting it on and a minute later I looked just like one of the cleaners.

"All this to be a janitor," I sighed.

Of course being a cleaner certainly wasn't what I really had in mind. The cleaners were the only ones who were able to get through the forbidden door and see what was on the other side. I've already seen first hand that I couldn't get through as Mystik so it was time to try a different tactic.

I carefully hid my staff in the frame under my bed though I wished I had a more secure place to leave it. The last thing I wanted was for someone to find it and start wondering why Mystik's staff was here when she wasn't.

Once I was ready, I left my quarters feeling even more nervous as I did so. I was now walking among the lions without so much as a whip to drive them back. It was so much nicer when I was one of those lions myself.

A couple minutes later I was right back where I'd started from, in the recreation room for the cleaners section of the base. There were currently only a couple guys there and neither of them really gave me more than a quick glance.

I paused to look them over quickly. The first was a little shorter than me and was a skinny nervous guy who reminded me a bit of Scuff. However I was pretty sure that this one wasn't on anything...though only because the Black Guild didn't recruit addicts to be cleaners. Even the bad guys wanted their cleaning staff to be reliable.

The other guy was a little overweight and had a few black ink prison tattoos visible on his neck and the back of his hands. I couldn't make out how many more he might have due to the jump suit.

"Hey," I greeted them noncommittally to get their attention. Both of them just looked at me and grunted. "I'm kind of new here so was wondering what the fuck I'm supposed to be doing."

The skinny guy looked at me and scowled, "Didn't they tell you?"

"No," I shook my head. "Skinny lady with red hair and a gray suit called Ms. Divine told me she had a job for me if I was interested..."

Both of them nodded knowingly at that. One of the things I'd overheard earlier was a conversation among several of the cleaners about how they'd been recruited for the job in the same way...by a woman called Ms. Divine who seemed to run most of the Black Guild's support staff.

"She brought me here," I continued with a shrug, "then she got some important phone call and had to run off before telling me jack shit."

"Not much to tell," the skinny guy told me. "We clean shit up and if you know your way around a kitchen you might get chosen to help out there."

"Scrubbing toilets and sweeping floors ain't exactly the kind of lucrative job you might be looking for," the guy with the tattoos told me. "But if you're careful you can make some nice connections... I've already got a job lined up as part of Hellmaster's crew..." He shrugged. "Of course I'll have to wear some kind of devil costume when I'm with his crew...but I hear he somehow gets a lot of his guys powers of their own." He smirked. "I can't wait to become developed..."

"There are opportunities," the skinny guy chuckled, somehow making me think of a weasel as he did so. Then he abruptly announced, "I wanna see your resume..."

"Resume...?" I blinked in surprise. I hadn't heard anything about needing a resume before.

Skinny led me to a strange looking computer console in the corner and told me to put my hand on the screen. I hesitated a moment before doing so, wondering what the Hell was going on. However a moment later a picture of me suddenly appeared on the screen. It was my mugshot.

"Caleb Brooks," Skinny read my name from the file which I now recognized as my police record. "So you're a burglar..."

"Yeah," I snorted, "what of it?"

I glanced at my record on the screen, suddenly glad for the very first time that I had a record. My rap sheet wasn't very large since I was good at not getting caught, but having one now gave me some legitimacy. However I couldn't help, but wondering how they were able to tap into it all so easily.

"Cool," Tattoo shrugged. "I've got some armed robbery on my record and assaults."

"Armed robbery," Skinny grinned. "And a couple burglaries."

After this things took on a much more familiar tone as they accepted me as one of them and we compared 'accomplishments'. The truth was we did have a lot in common and this wasn't really any different than the other times I'd run into guys on the outs with the law.

We talked for a short while and I picked up a little more gossip as well as a lot of suggestions about working here as a cleaner. The biggest suggestion was to avoid being seen or standing out as much as possible though I didn't see how that really worked with the idea of trying to make contacts as well.

"You don't want a lot off these guys to notice you," Skinny pointed out to me after Tattoo had left. "Take Hellmaster. I hear he gives powers to some of his guys, but a lot of them end up dead. Apparently he's into human sacrifice and stuff." He shook his head, "And don't get me started on some of the others. I hear that Toxic bitch killed Lightning Lash because he tried getting a little rough with her... Killed him with just one touch... And if she can do that to one of them just imagine what she could do to someone like us..."

I nodded at that, wondering what kind of rumors were going around about me. What were the cleaners saying about Mystik? I was curious, but knew better than to ask. Showing that kind of interest as a newcomer could attract too much suspicion. I'd just have to play dumb and catch what I could for now.

Before long Skinny and Tattoo were ready to go back to work and I went along with them. By this time I'd learned their real names though I still just thought of them as Skinny and Tattoo. I had no intention of getting too attached to them or anyone else in this place. That kind of thing could be dangerous.

I spent the next several hours doing the typical grunt work of an ordinary janitor. Sweeping floors and cleaning bathrooms were definitely not glamorous or at all satisfying, but it would get me a step closer to finding out what was hidden behind the forbidden door. I was just thankful I wasn't part of the crew cleaning up the mess in the Scepter's throne room.

Once we were finished with our share of the cleaning Skinny had me wait while he went into one of the back rooms, coming out pushing a large cart. It was a big gray box with roll up doors on both sides though they were shut so I couldn't see what was in the cart.

"C'mon," Skinny told me, pushing the cart down the hall while I followed behind. To my surprise he started down the hallway with the forbidden door. "You'll have to wait here," he told me, gesturing to the guards. "They'll only let one of us through at a time."

I stared at Skinny for a moment before asking, "What is on the other side?"

Skinny stared back for a few seconds before shrugging, "Why don't you go see for yourself?" He gestured to the cart. "You can take it while I wait out here. I don't like this fucking job anyway..."

"Really?" I asked in amazement.

Skinny nodded told the guards. "This is Caleb... He's new here..." The guards both nodded, but didn't say a thing.

"So what am I supposed to do?" I asked, suddenly imagine some very nasty jobs on the other side of the forbidden door. For all I knew I was supposed to dust and mop a stockpile of uranium.

"You'll figure it out," Skinny smirked, gesturing to the door.

I gulped, hardly able to believe the luck I was having. I'd gone undercover as a cleaner just so I could find a way inside this forbidden door. I just hadn't expected the opportunity to come nearly so soon or to have it handed to me on a silver platter.

One of the guards pushed entered something on the keypad next to the door and it slid open. I hesitated a moment then pushed the cart through. I half expected to be stopped by the invisible wall the way I was earlier today, but there was no interference at all. I walked through without a problem though I suspected it wouldn't have let me if I'd been carrying my still dormant staff.

When I stepped through the other side of the door I looked around in stunned amazement. This wasn't anything at all like what I'd expected. This didn't look anything at all like a bank vault or a place to store treasure. Instead, it looked more like...a hotel.

There were eight people of various ages scattered around the large round room which was set up almost like some sort of living room. There were chairs, couches, a TV and a table large enough for all of them to sit around. There were four alcoves off each side of the room, making eight of them total. Each of them that I could see had a narrow bed in it, but not room for much more. There were no doors on any these alcoves, but there were curtains on them which could be pulled shut to provide some privacy for anyone sleeping inside.

Straight across from me, directly opposite the forbidden door was another doorway. I could see through it into what looked like a public bathroom on the other side with bathroom stalls and who knew what else. If this was a living area like it seemed then there was probably a shower or something in there as well.

I blinked in surprise then looked at the people. The youngest was a little girl of about seven years old while the oldest was an old woman in her sixties with gray hair. Every one of these people were looking at me and most didn't look happy to see me.

Then one of them, a very pretty blonde girl about my own age, stepped forward. "I haven't seen you here before," she said, her tone hostile.

"I'm new," I told her with a forced smile. "I just started today..." Then I gestured to the room. "What is all this?"

"You don't know?" she asked, sounding more than a little skeptical.

I shook my head. "No... All I was told was that I had to bring this cart in here... They didn't even tell me whats in it..."

The blonde snorted then came closer. She gave me a suspicious look and didn't take her eyes off me as she opened the roll up door on one side of the cart and pulled out a tray full of food. She didn't say a word before handing it to the little girl. She took out another and handed it to a young man who'd come forward as well. In moments all eight of them had trays of food and were moving to the table to eat.

"You really don't know who we are or why we're all here?" The woman continued to glare at me suspiciously. When I shook my head she spat out, "We're hostages... We were kidnapped and now we're prisoners." She spat at me before turning and walking away with her tray of food.

I stared at her and then the other people...the other hostages... feeling as though I had a led weight in my stomach. This was definitely not what I'd been expecting on this side of the forbidden door. Instead of treasure there were a bunch of kidnap victims.

"Oh shit," I muttered as I turned and pushed the cart back out of the room, wondering yet again what I'd gotten myself into. Of course I wasn't surprised that the Black Guild was capable of kidnapping considering what else I'd seen these people do. But that still left the question WHY?

As I considered this I couldn't help, but feeling disappointed. I'd gone through a lot of trouble and personal risk to get through the forbidden door so I could steal the treasure I thought was hidden on the other side. I'd trapped myself without any magic in the middle of the Black Guild's headquarters, among people who might very well kill me on a whim, and even worse, I'd crossed the Scepter even after seeing what happened to people who pissed him off. And now it was all for nothing.

"Damn," I grimaced, knowing that I'd not only walk away with nothing from this, but that I'd still have to stay here playing the role of cleaner until my staff finally recharged. "But at least now I know what's on the other side if not why...not that it does me any damn good."

I slowly pushed my cart down the hallway, keeping my head down as I passed by Toxic. I gave her a wide berth, trying hard not to be noticed and thinking about how easily she'd killed that woman during our assault on the underground base. Fortunately she barely even gave me a glance.

"Cleaners really are invisible," I muttered to myself in relief. None of the Black Guild members seemed to pay us any attention at all, making me wonder how any of the cleaners ever made their contacts.

I didn't give that much thought though as I turned down the hallway with the forbidden door. I paused and nodded to the guards who opened the door without a word. This was my third trip through the forbidden door during the last two days so they were starting to get familiar with me.

A moment later I stepped into the prison cell and looked around, still amazed at the place. It was pretty damn nice for a prison cell, but that didn't change what it was. I still had no idea why these people were all here, but I'd gotten the impression that they'd been here for months. I couldn't help, but feeling sorry for them, especially for the little girl.

"Lunch time," I called out, trying to give my best cheerful smile though not succeeding very well.

"Lunch time," the little girl exclaimed as she came running towards me, far more interested in the contents of my cart than in me.

The little girl was nearly to me and the cart when she tripped and fell face first onto the floor. She whimpered and looked like she was about to cry, tugging on my heart strings. I'd never been much for kids, but couldn't help, but feeling for the kid...especially considering what she's been through being locked up here.

"Are you okay?" I asked her, bending down and helping her back to her feet.

"Thank you," the girl responded, wiping a tear from her eyes and looking a bit embarrassed.

"No problem," I told her, this time with a genuine smile. "Let's see what we've got for lunch today..." I pulled out a tray and looked over it. "Oooh... Chocolate pudding..." I gave her an almost conspiratorial look and told her. "You know, this is actually better than what they feed me and the other guys who work here..."

"Really?" she asked in surprise.

I nodded, wishing that I'd been exaggerating. Apparently Ms. Divine didn't believe in wasting too much unnecessary expense on feeding the hired help. The food wasn't too much better than prison food.

"I'm Karen," the girl introduced herself, holding out her hand for me to shake. "What's your name?"

"I'm Caleb," I told her with a gentle smile.

"Thank you Caleb," Karen told me before turning around and rushing off with her tray of food.

After this the other hostages came up for their lunch. The pretty blonde who'd been giving me the stink eye every time I came in was the last. She paused to stare at me for a moment, not quite as hostile as before.

"That was kind of nice of you," she told me, gesturing to Karen.

I shrugged. "She seems like a nice kid. I just feel kind of sorry for her being stuck here..."

"Then why are you helping keep us all here?" she demanded.

"I'm not," I told her defensively. "I just took a job as a janitor, hoping for some opportunities... And now, I'm almost as stuck here as you all are..."

"Yeah right," she snorted. "I know you're all criminals."

"Yeah, I'm a thief," I admitted. "I break into empty houses and steal shit. But I've never hurt anyone. I came here looking for an opportunity that didn't work out and now I'm stuck. If I make one wrong step..." I made a motion with my finger over my throat to indicate it being cut. "And they don't exactly like people who want to quit..."

"Ouch," she winced, suddenly looking sympathetic for a moment though it quickly passed.

"So what are you all being held here for?" I asked, imagining that they must be family members of influential politicians or business men.

The woman hesitated a moment as if trying to decide if she should tell me or not. Then she finally let out a breath and said, "We're here because we're all close to...them."

"Them?" I asked blankly.

"Super villains," she spat out. "We're all close to members of the Black Guild..."

I nearly choked at that. "What...? Why...?"

"To keep them under control," the woman grimaced. "Their leader doesn't trust them so kidnapped us for leverage...to make sure they don't betray him. We're all related to or close to his team leaders."

"Damn," I gasped, staring at the woman with new interest as I tried guessing who she was related to and how.

"Doug over there," she gestured to somewhat nerdy looking man at the table. "He's engaged to marry one of them. Ellen..." she gestured to a middle aged black woman, "is married to one of them..."

"And you?" I asked carefully, hoping I didn't offend her by the question.

She hesitated a moment and then sat down on the back of the couch and let out a loud sigh. "I didn't even know my dad was a criminal until they kidnapped me... I mean, he left me and my mom when I was just a girl. Now it turns out that he left us because he was in some kind of accident that turned him invisible. I didn't even know if he was still alive or not, but now it turns out he's some kind of industrial spy and saboteur called the Griffin..."

"Damn," I nodded sympathetically. "That's harsh."

She shrugged then asked, "How about you? How did you get into all this? Why did you become a burglar?"

I hesitated a moment, not really wanting to talk about that kind of personal stuff with someone who was a virtual stranger. But then again, she had told me about her dad so it was only fair.

"Not really much to tell," I answered carefully. "I had a bad situation growing up and just sort of fell into it... It's not like one day I just chose robbing houses as a career option. It's just one thing led to another... One day I was nicking candy bars from the store and before long I was nicking DVD players from a house... I'm not proud of it, but I need to pay the bills..."

"I'm sure the people you rob don't mind helping you pay your bills," she snorted sarcastically.

I sighed, feeling embarrassed and even a little ashamed. "I usually hit places after the owners die," I said defensively, though it didn't really sound that much better to my own ears. "It's a little too late for me to change now..." Then to lighten things up I joked, "You know, once you start down the dark path....forever shall it dominate your destiny."

She snorted, though I could see her fighting back a smile. "Well, there is still good in you... I sense it." Then she gave me a steady look and added, "It's never too late to change your mind..."

"The real world doesn't work like that," I told her with a sigh.

The woman stared at me for a moment then picked up her tray and started to walk away. She paused to turn and give me one more look saying, "Hey Caleb... Just so you know...my name is Lauren." Then she continued walking to the table and the rest of the hostages.

I stared at the woman...at Lauren for a moment and then shook my head. I had to remind myself that she wasn't some chick I'd met at the bar or something. She was not only a hostage, but also the daughter of a super villain. Add to that the fact that the Scepter had an interest in her and the idea of messing around with her in any way shape or form was a bad one.

"Off limits," I told myself with a sigh as I grabbed the cart and left the room. Still, I couldn't help, but wondering if we'd be able to talk again the next time I came in.

The Scepter's throne room which doubled as an operations room for the Black Guild was large, impressive, and currently nearly empty. Even the Scepter himself was currently absent, taking care of some other business. Other than the three cleaners including myself, the only other living thing present was the Scepter's cat Ebon who sat on his throne both napping and giving us the occasional suspicious look as cats tend to do.

At the moment two other cleaners and I were busy cleaning up the mess all over the floor. I had no idea what this guy had done to piss off the Scepter, but he'd been left in three distinct pieces. I had to fight back the urge to throw up as we cleaned up the mess.

I'd been here working as a cleaner for several days and this was actually the second body I'd participated in cleaning up. Last night the Scepter had killed one of the cleaners...which didn't exactly improve morale among the staff. From what people were saying there didn't seem to be any real reason for it either except perhaps that the guy had earlier been joking about some of the sadistic things he used to do to cats. There were no indications that he'd tried anything with the Scepter's cat, but that didn't seem to have mattered.

"This ain't exactly what I thought I was signing up for," one guy muttered. The other guy nodded agreement though he didn't say anything. He didn't have to since I could see the look of nervous fear on his face as he wondered if he might be next.

I nodded as well, wondering if Tattoo was enjoying his new career. Yesterday Tattoo had left the ranks of the cleaners as well as the base. He'd officially joined the Hellmaster's crew, but before taking off with his new boss he'd come by to show the cleaners his new 'uniform'...which looked like some sort of Halloween devil costume...including a pitch fork. I thought it looked ridiculous as had the other cleaners, but no one wanted to laugh too loudly in case Hellmaster heard about it.

In a way I kind of envied Tattoo for getting out of here though not for where he went. I was still here dealing with this kind of disgusting mess and fearing that I might be next. I'd spent the last four days as a cleaner, working hard and trying just as hard to avoid Ms. Divine since she'd immediately know I wasn't one of the people she recruited. And unfortunately, the Staff of Isis had yet to recharge so I couldn't get out of this yet.

When we'd finally finished cleaning up the mess left by the Scepter, one of the cleaners I was working with suggested we go sit down for a game of poker. The other guy immediately agreed.

"I can't," I told them with a sigh. "I've got to go take care of the vault."

The other two nodded knowingly at that. The vault I'd learned was the nickname that the cleaners used when referring to the room with the hostages. Cleaning the vault and taking care of the hostages within was a job that none of the cleaners wanted...and as the new guy I'd been stuck doing it for the last four days...though I didn't actually mind too much.

Some of the other guys I'd talked to hated being glared at and insulted by the hostages who they were strictly forbidden from touching. Others actually felt a bit guilty for their part in keeping them prisoner. But there was another reason no one was eager to go into the vault and deal with the hostages. Fear. They feared what might happen to them if one of the villains learned they had a part in holding a family member hostage...or knew where they were and didn't tell them. And even more, every one of them feared what the Scepter would do if they said a word. As a result most of the cleaners wanted to stay as far away from the vault as possible.

"Better you than me," one of the cleaners told me.

"Fuck that," the other one said with a shake of his head before walking off.

"Fuck you," I muttered to myself as I went to go get what I needed to take care of the vault.

Ten minutes later I was pushing a cart down the short hallway to the forbidden door. By this time the guards were quite familiar with me and let me through without a problem. I took a deep breath before stepping through the forbidden doorway, not quite sure what kind of reception I could expect. Sometimes the people stuck inside were a little hostile towards me and sometimes not.

This time Lauren saw me and gave me a deadpan look as she exclaimed, "Oh...you're back."

"Yeah," I gestured to the mop and bucket attached to the cart. "Someone figured your trays from breakfast needed to be collected and your bathroom cleaned..."

"I'm just glad you're the one who has to do it," Lauren chuckled. "It's nice actually watching a guy do all the cleaning for once. And the good thing about being kidnapped is that I'm not expected to do any work." She stuck her tongue out at me.

I chuckled. "Lucky you."

Just then the little girl Karen came up to me. "Hello Mister Caleb."

"Hey Karen." I gave her a weak smile. It always made me feel lousy when I saw the kid trapped in this place. I mean, I'm not the one who kidnapped her or anything, but I still couldn't help, but feeling like shit. I smiled a little more. "I've got something for you..."

I reached into my cart and pulled out the present from where I'd stuffed it. I carefully handed Karen a little doll which had taken me some effort to find. It wasn't like I could just leave the base and go shopping so I'd actually had to find one inside. Fortunately, the nut job villain called the Toymeister kept ripping off toy stores and bringing lots of toys back for himself to play with. A few of them like this doll had accidentally been dropped on the trip between the teleporter room and his quarters.

"Thank you," Karen exclaimed as she clutched the doll tightly and gave it a firm hug. After a few seconds though she looked up at me with sad eyes. "When can I go home... I miss my daddy..."

"I wish I knew," I told her quietly, feeling another surge of guilt.

"I want to know when we can go too," another voice said. I turned to look at Mrs. Horner, a little old lady with thick glasses. "My poor son must be absolutely worried about where I am... The poor boy... He's been so broken up since his sister passed away and must be absolutely devastated to not have me either..."

"Have you heard anything?" Lauren asked with a hopeful look in her eyes. "Do you know anything about when they might let us go?"

"I'm afraid not." I shook my head with a sigh. "They don't tell me anything like that..." I hesitated a moment before adding, "This base is full of super villains and most of them don't even know you're here... The Scepter keeps it top secret and kills anyone who might tell..."

"Do you think you could deliver a message for me?" Lauren asked hopefully.

I shook my head sadly. "No... They'd kill me if they even thought I was thinking about it..." I shuddered as I thought about the cleaner who'd been killed last night. "The Black Guild members can come and go as they like, but the janitors are stuck here and aren't allowed to leave. We're prisoners almost as much as you except we have to work and they won't hesitate to kill us if we cross them..."

"Then why did you go to work for them?" Lauren demanded with a scowl.

"Because I was stupid," I admitted with a grimace. I sighed and shook my head. "Every instinct I had said to keep away from the Black Guild. I've always avoided organizations and killers. I never wanted anything to do with those kind of guys." I shook my head again and quietly added, "But I got greedy. I saw an opportunity and couldn't turn it down...though now I wish I did. That's how I ended up with the Black Guild and here as a janitor. Now I'm kind of stuck for now..."

Of course Lauren wasn't sympathetic, but I hadn't expected her to be. After all, how could she be sympathetic to my problems when she had more than enough of her own. I was stuck, but it was only temporary and it was due to my own choices...not because someone else forced me to be here.

"If it means anything," I told her quietly as I started to pick up the trays, "I'd open that door and let you walk out if I could. As it is, you guys are protected and probably the safest people in this place..."

After this I went to work while Lauren stood back and didn't say anything. I thought she must be pretty pissed at me, but couldn't be sure. But to my surprise she came over a few minutes later while I was mopping the floor and began talking to me, keeping the topic light and casual while I continued working. Maybe she just wanted someone to talk to other than the same people she'd been locked up with for months, but I was happy for the conversation.

"So," I asked Lauren after awhile, "what do you do...I mean...what did you do before this? I gestured towards the room.

Lauren scowled for a moment before answering. "I'm a sales clerk at an electronics store...but I've been taking online classes to earn my degree." She let out a sigh. "But I've probably lost my job for good being here..."

I nodded at that, feeling guilty yet again. "I'm sorry," I responded quietly. Then on an impulse I told her, "If I can find a way to help you all...without getting myself killed that is...I'll try to do it."

"Thank you," she gave me a faint smile, obviously not getting her hopes up. I didn't blame her since I'd already made it pretty clear previously that there wasn't a lot I could do. Then she chuckled. "You know, you're not such a bad guy...for a criminal."

"Thanks," I grinned back, "but I'm not exactly a good guy either or I wouldn't be here."

"Probably not," Lauren agreed. "But at least you're not as big an asshole as most of the other guys who've been coming in here."

I just grinned at that as I finished up my work. I wouldn't mind hanging around to continue talking with Lauren, but knew that wouldn't be a good idea. It would actually be a very bad idea to spend too much time here in the vault. Doing so could draw too much attention and could very well get me killed.

When I was finished up and about to leave, Lauren said, "Caleb..." Then to my surprise she came up and kissed me on the cheek. "Be careful...and don't get yourself killed."

"I'll try not to." I grinned at her, giving a wink before I exited through the forbidden door.

I was in a pretty good mood as I walked past the guards, happy about the surprise kiss and not just because it was my first real female contact...besides with myself...that I'd had in months. I hadn't felt like this since well before my last bitch of a girlfriend split...if ever. I really liked Lauren and not just for her body...which was admittedly pretty damn nice.

Then I suddenly became aware of something else which felt just as good as that kiss had...if not better. I could feel my staff telling me that it was now fully charged and ready to go again. I couldn't resist grinning to myself as I hurried to go find some privacy.

It was good to hold the staff in my hands again, to feel the smooth metal beneath my fingers and to admire the inner fire of the jewels which adorned it. And of course there was a great comfort to having that much power in my hands again just waiting to be used.

At the moment I was once again in the sexy form of Mystik, all dressed up in my costume and looking appropriately impressive. It felt a little strange being back in this body after several days. There was an odd mixture of strangeness and the familiar. Awkwardness and ease. All in all it felt pretty good to be back in this body. There was something comforting about it...though that might just be the fact that I once again had the full use of my staff.

However I couldn't help, but thinking of Lauren and Karen and wondering how they were doing. Yesterday, as soon as I'd felt my staff recharge I'd gone to switch back into Mystik so I could get out of being a cleaner. I hadn't thought about it until afterwards, but this meant I couldn't check in on them again. I didn't really trust most of the cleaners around them though I at least knew they wouldn't do anything for fear of the Scepter. I also couldn't just use up my three wishes and go check on them again because I didn't think my staff would be ready again in time for the mission Jack had told me about.

With that thought I turned my attention to the room around me. I was currently in the middle of the Black Guild's teleport room waiting for the mission to start. Normally the Black Guild used to operate with each smaller unit meeting up in separate bases or in remote locations...such as the park where I'd first met them. This had been for security reasons...to keep the other Black Guild members from knowing what was going on. But apparently the Scepter had recently decided that it was safer to just operate from their main base as there was less chance for the heroes to interfere.

Jack, Toxic, Contusion and the Barber were already present though Ouiji was a notable absence from our previous team. Apparently she'd hooked up with the Revenant and a few days ago they left the Black Guild together. The Scepter had already sent assassins after them, not wanting anyone else to get ideas about deserting.

In spite of Ouiji being absent we actually had more members this time than the last. Two other Black Guild members had been tasked to join us in our upcoming mission.

The first was pretty young woman with raven black hair who looked to be about my age. She was wearing a one piece red and dark gray costume that covered her body from the neck down. There were gold metal shoulder pads, a gold metal belt and a pair of gold metal wrist bracers included. She was called the Fallen.

The Fallen had the power to create some sort of golden energy force fields which she could use in a variety of ways. She could make wings of golden energy appear on her back and then use them to fly, though whether the wings were actually necessary for the flight or just cosmetic I didn't know. What I did know was that she could create swords and other weapons from this golden energy as well as do a few other things with it.

This was the first time I'd actually met the Fallen though I'd heard rumors about her among the cleaners. Apparently she'd once been a super hero called the Golden Angel and had been involved in a romantic triangle. Then one day during an argument with her romantic rival she got a bit carried away and ended up killing the other woman. The man they'd been fighting over had been horrified as had the group she'd belonged to. From what I heard, she'd gone on the run and had nowhere to go until the Scepter took her in.

Once I was done looking over the Fallen I looked to the other newcomer. He certainly didn't look like anything special, but I wasn't going to underestimate him. As I well knew, things weren't always what they appeared. The Trojan was a skinny black guy with thick glasses and ordinary looking clothes that looked more appropriate for an office full of computer programmers than for a super villain lair. I didn't know much about him other than that he supposedly had some sort of technology based powers.

There was a lot of talk going on as everyone waited to get started. The Barber was talking to Trojan and laughing, "I hear a group just went after the Seven...that the Scepter sent them as retaliation for interfering in one of his plans..."

Trojan nodded. "I was with the group..." The Barber didn't look surprised by that. In fact he probably knew which was why he was trying to get more details from Trojan. "I neutralized their security and we were able to destroy their headquarters as planned. Unfortunately, Toymeister and Silverlight were both captured in the process while Gravestone was killed."

"Really?" the Barber asked with a look of amusement. "I didn't think those chaps had it in them...."

"The White Knight shattered his body into approximately thirty-seven pieces," Trojan stated.

"You call that approximate?" The Barber blinked in surprise. Then he looked over to the Fallen and smirked, "Hey girlie... You used to be with the Seven...didn't you?"

The Fallen turned to glare at the Barber. "That was a long time ago."

"Not that long," the Barber chuckled. "Not even six months. You on that little mission? I guess your knowing their headquarters would be pretty useful..."

"She was involved in planning the mission, but was not present for the assault," Trojan explained. "The Scepter feared her previous relationship with the Seven might present a possible conflict of interest."

"They turned on me," the Fallen spat, her eyes narrowing dangerously. "There's no conflict."

I nodded in understanding. The guy she'd been fighting over must be a member of the Seven and there were certain emotions involved there. I couldn't help, but thinking about the old saying about 'hell hath no fury like a woman scorned'....even if she was scorned for something like murder.

Just then Jack came over, smiling cheerfully as he reached over and took my hand and kissed it. I was so surprised by this that he was already done before I'd absorbed the fact or I would have yanked it away well in advance. Then he quickly did the same to the Fallen.

"Ladies," Jack said in a charming tone that continued just a bit of snake oil.

Jack turned to Contusion who glared at him. "Don't even think about it..." He shrugged and glanced at Toxic, but apparently decided it wasn't a good idea to kiss the hand of a woman who could kill with just a touch.

"Gentlemen." Jack nodded to the Barber and Trojan.

"So what's the mission," Contusion demanded. "You've had us waiting nearly a week."

"The boss wanted to wait until a few more things were in place," Jack shrugged. "Like that attack on the Seven. We're going into their territory and don't want them interfering."

"All their communication equipment is gone," the Fallen mused thoughtfully. "They probably won't even know about us until we're done..."

"Precisely." Jack gave her his patented cocky grin.

"So what are we doing?" Toxic asked.

Jack just grinned even more broadly if that were possible. "We're finishing up what we started the last time." Nearly everyone gave him a blank look and he explained. "The item we acquired in our last venture is a form of treasure chest...or so I have been informed. What we are after this time is the key to unlock it."

"A treasure chest," I mused, suddenly having images of a pirate chest full of gold coins. I couldn't resist smiling faintly. It looked like this might finally start to be profitable. I could see a few other nods from the group as the others liked the idea of finally being paid as well.

"So what exactly are we walking into?" Contusion asked. "And what's the plan?"

"We're attacking a holding facility with armed guards," Jack explained, his expression going serious for a moment. "We take out the guards and Trojan gets us through security."

"The Black Spot," the Fallen stated suddenly, looking grim.

Jack stared at her for a moment before grinning. "As sharp as you are beautiful..."

"What the Hell is that?" Toxic demanded.

"It's where the sun doesn't shine," the Fallen said with a grim smile. "At least that's what the Seven used to call the place..." Then she slowly looked around. "The Black Spot used to be a prison for developed back before Mount Prometheus was built. It was originally made to hold the Crucien...a group of reverse vampires that drew their power from sunlight. Exposure to sunlight could make them nearly unstoppable...so they were literally locked up where the sun doesn't shine. Later it was used to hold anyone they didn't want to see the light of day before eventually ending up as a storage depot."

"A storage depot?" the Barber asked. "And just what exactly is stored here?"

"Weapons," the Fallen answered. "Things made by people like us...and heroes like Doctor Power. It's one of the places the heroes use to store high tech devices after they confiscate them...and weapons they make themselves and don't want to fall into the wrong hands."

"Just the high tech devices?" I asked, glancing to the staff in my hand.

"There are different storage depots," the Fallen shrugged. "Some are designed to deal with magic items and some with alien. This one holds some of the high tech. I can't see how it will be useful going to this one though. Whatever we need there won't be easy to find."

"What do you mean?" Contusion asked.

"For extra security." The Fallen gave a wry smile. "Just about all the dangerous devices kept in the Black Spot are broken down into smaller components which are then stored in different places. I don't know what system is used to identify which pieces even go together much less how to find them."

Jack just gave her his patented cocky grin and said, "You let me worry about that..." Then he added, "Okay, it's time to get going..."

Less than a minute later we had all gotten onto the transport platform and were sent to our destination. I felt the now familiar sensation of reality being torn away from me as we were transported through space and then suddenly everything snapped back into place.

I quickly looked around my new location and immediately saw that it wasn't a desert like the last mission. Instead, I seemed to be in the middle of some mountains with a gray stone cliff in front of me and evergreen trees everywhere. It wasn't raining, but the sky was all gray and I could feel a cold dampness in the air.

Then I noticed the cave opening at the base of the cliff. It was dark on its own and with the mountain blocking the sunlight from hitting it the opening looked even darker. So this was the Black Spot the Fallen had told us about.

It was also quite obvious that we weren't in the middle of the wilderness far away from any civilization. The security around the Black Spot hadn't been hidden nearly as well as the desert base...nor had they really attempted to do so. Not only was there a dirt road leading to the cave mouth, but there were several guard towers and a fence. I turned to look behind us and saw a gate across the road. This time we'd teleported past the gate and straight into the courtyard.

"At least that's some improvement," I muttered.

"So where the bloody Hell are we?" the Barber asked with a scowl.

"Washington State," the Fallen stated grimly. "The Seven are currently based out of Seattle and even wit their communication systems down they might still hear about this."

"She's right," Jack grinned. "If they do hear about this it won't take long for them to get here. Let's hurry..."

Then almost as if on cue there was a loud boom of a gunshot. Jack dropped to his needs and grabbed his arm, muttering several profanities before exclaiming, "I've been shot..."

I noticed then that the guard towers weren't empty and that the shooter was in one of them. But before I could think of what to do I noticed more guards coming out of the mouth of the cave. There were a dozen of them...then two...then three. All of them looked almost like military with automatic rifles though the uniforms weren't any standard military I'd ever heard of. They were all black with faint white trim.

"Guards," Toxic exclaimed.

"Good." The Barber grinned as his arm turned into a metal blade. "It's playtime..."

The Fallen held out her left hand and a golden energy shield formed from her palm to protect her from the gunfire. A pair of golden energy wings then appeared on her back and she exclaimed, "There shouldn't be this many guards..." She cursed then launched herself into the air with an energy sword appearing in her right hand.

"The Black Guild have assaulted numerous locations such as this," Trojan commented as he moved to stand behind Contusion in order to use her as a shield. "It makes sense they would increase security."

"Damn," I exclaimed, immediately realizing just how outgunned we were. We might have incredible powers, but a normal bullet could still kill most of us if we got hit.

The Barber laughed in delight, seeming to actually be looking forward to the bloodshed to come. He charged towards the nearest soldier while Jack got up and drew both his guns, looking almost amused as well...in spite of having already been shot.

"A bit of a challenge." Jack grinned with an almost maniacal look of his own. "I love a good challenge..."

I felt a lump of lead in my stomach as I realized there was about to be a blood bath. The guards could tear most of us to pieces and I had no doubt that some of our guys would leave a pile of bodies behind. Jack, the Barber, and Toxic all seemed to be looking forward to it.

"Fuck no." I grimaced, knowing that I had to do something. Then it came to me. I clenched my staff tightly and exclaimed, "Sleep..."

The gem on the head of my staff began to glow and then a wave of golden light swept out from my staff in a wide cone. I caught nearly all of the guards in the wave of my power and a second later each and every one of them collapsed to the ground unconscious.

"There," I mused, feeling a bit smug. "That should stop the killing..."

"Why'd you ruin my fun girlie?" the Barber demanded, looking as though he was about to start killing the now sleeping guards.

"I thought we were in a hurry," I pointed out, meeting his glare.

"She's right," Jack said reluctantly. "The boss would kill us all if we failed our mission because we got distracted."

It turned out that there were two guards I'd missed though Toxic took care of one of them. She saw him take cover and charged forward with her hand glowing green. Before he could even get a shot off she'd grabbed hold of him and he collapsed motionless to the ground. Jack just turned and absently fired off a single shot which got the guard who'd shot him from the tower.

"Damn," I grimaced, once again reminded of why I wanted to get away from these people. They were cold blooded killers. At least these two hadn't been unarmed and helpless like the ones in the last mission.

We continued down towards the cave, finding that it went down into the ground at a steep angle though there was a concrete ramp that made it easy for us to walk down into. We couldn't go very far though before the entire cave was blocked with a heavy concrete wall and a heavy metal door.

"You know," Jack absently commented to Toxic, "it would have been a lot easier out there if we'd had Lightning Lash. His electric whips could have electrocuted a dozen guards at once..."

Toxic just shorted. "The fucking prick grabbed me What about my name made that moron think that trying to rape me would be a good idea?"

"He wasn't exactly the brightest," Jack admitted, then turned his attention to the door in front of us.

"I'll take care of this," Contusion said, flexing her thick muscles and then stepping towards the door.

"If you will allow me," Trojan told her, gently stepping in front of her and going to the door himself. "This is my purpose on this mission."

Trojan looked at the door and the electronic access pad beside it for a moment. Suddenly his eyes began to glow green and then glowing green lines began to appear all over his skin almost as though he had some sort of circuitry in his skin. He touched the access pad for a moment and suddenly the door slid open.

"This door has been bypassed," Trojan commented as the green glowing eyes and lines faded, "though I am unable to seize control of the main security system from this location."

We went through the wide door and had to walk down yet more of the cave tunnel before we came to another door like the first. Trojan got us through this one the same way he did the last and then we were able to enter the main compound.

The inside of the Black Spot looked very much like the prison it was originally designed to be. There was a lot of old gray concrete everywhere as the walls, floor and ceiling was made of the stuff. There were some heavy metal doors as well though they were old metal doors rather than the high tech ones which had been blocking our path. These doors were meant for keeping prisoners inside and as there was no longer a need for that these doors were all left open.

"The old prison cells are used as vaults for the stuff stored here," the Fallen told us, gesturing down a wide hall with a half dozen heavy doors on each side.

"Not very big for a prison," Toxic mused almost to herself as she looked over the cells. She didn't seem at all impressed.

"No," the Fallen responded darkly. "It was originally designed for the sole purpose of holding the Crucien though later they used it to hold some of the less dangerous developed prisoners from this area."

"And now it's a warehouse for doomsday weapons," I commented wryly.

"Not exactly." The Fallen shrugged, giving Jack a look of curiosity. "That kind of thing is usually destroyed rather than put in storage."

"So which cell is our target in?" the Barber asked as he looked at the various cell doors.

"None of them," Jack answered, turning and walking away from the cells and to another high tech door that was locked shut. "We're not here to steal anything from the vault..." He gave a cocky grin as he added, "We're here to steal the security system."

"What?" almost all of us asked simultaneously. Trojan was the only one who didn't look surprised.

Jack didn't answer other than to gesture to the new locked door. Trojan nodded and his eyes glowed green and the green circuit lines appeared on his skin again. He touched the security console next to the door for a moment before pulling his hand back.

"The entrance requires biometric verification which I am unable to bypass," Trojan stated though he didn't look bothered by this. "I must use an alternate method of ingress. This was not unexpected."

Trojan's glowing green eyes and the glowing circuit lines on his skin didn't fade as they had the other times he'd pulled his hand away from the console. Instead, a green glow started to form around his entire and them began to take on other colors and shapes. A moment later Trojan had been replaced by a pretty blonde woman wearing a military uniform similar to what the soldiers outside had been wearing.

"This approach should be sufficient for the biometric scanners," Trojan said, now sounding like a woman as well. He stood in front of the door and touched the console again for a moment before stating, "Visual appearance is a match. Weight is a match. Fingerprints are a match. Voice is a match. The door is now unlocked."

When the door slid open Trojan walked through without changing back to his previous appearance. I stared after him for a moment, suddenly realizing that there was a lot about Trojan I didn't know. I couldn't help, but wondering if the skinny black nerd look he had going before was the real him or just something to make everyone underestimate him. I made a mental note to not take him at face value.

Jack started to step through the doorway then paused to look at us. "You all start busting open these calls and messing everything up. We'll take some stuff with us to keep anyone from realizing what we were really here for." Then he turned and went through the doorway after Trojan.

The others wasted no time in busting open cell doors to see what was inside. Contusion busted one door down while the Barber turned his arm into a blade and sliced right through it. The Fallen got into the act too as she created a sword of golden energy and cut through one of the doors.

Like me, Toxic stood back and watched with a faint look of disapproval on her face though it was quickly replaced with a cold sneer when she noticed me looking at her. Then she snorted and asked me, "Why aren't you blasting down doors too?"

"I prefer not to waste my power opening doors," I told her, trying to put an arrogant tone in my voice.

I heard crunching and smashing from within the cells as my team members ransacked the vaults. The Fallen stepped out of one of them holding a red metal gauntlet and smiling as she put it on her hand.

"What's that?" I gestured to the gauntlet.

"It came from the armor of a villain called the Ladybug," the Fallen stated with a smirk. "I always wanted to keep a souvenir after I took her down, but they wouldn't let me..."

Jack returned a couple minutes later with Trojan following close behind him...back in his previous male appearance. Jack was grinning as he held up his prize...a black crystal that was the size of a softball.

"What's that?" Toxic asked.

"Somehow," Contusion commented wryly, "I didn't think we'd be going through all this for a jewelry heist....and especially not for just one piece."

Jack just laughed. "Oh, this is a little more useful than the usual trinket. I don't know where it originally came from, but they used to call it a shadow stone. Just put a little electricity in it and it neutralizes all solar energy and light frequencies nearby. It was part of what they used to keep the Crucien under control since it could make sure there was absolutely nothing for them to get power from. It was also why this place really got the name the Black Spot..."

I scowled, not at all sure why Jack was after this shadow stone or what the Scepter could use it for. Jack had said we were coming here for a key to unlock a treasure chest and that certainly didn't look like any key I'd ever seen. Then again, that strange black sphere we stole hadn't looked like a treasure chest. I could see that I wasn't the only one who was unhappy with this, but none of us bothered to complain.

"Damn cave interferes with the teleporter," Jack explained as he put the shadow stone into his jacket pocket and started leading us back out the way we'd come. "We have to get clear before we can go..."

When we were back out of the cave I took another look around at the mountain scenery and then paused with the feeling that something was wrong. It took me a moment to place what it was though.

"The guards," I exclaimed, gesturing to the ground around us. "They're gone..."

"What?" Jack asked, looking around for a moment before he too saw that the guards we'd left scattered about sleeping were now all missing. Jack continued looking around with a suspicious expression as he pulled the teleport disk from his packet and said, "Let's get back to base..."

Suddenly there was a flash of blue and the disk was gone from Jack's hand. Then I saw her, a red headed young woman dressed in a blue and white spandex costume standing a short distance away and holding the disk in her hand.

"Landspeed," the Fallen said grimly.

"Jessica," the blue clad woman responded just as grimly. The two of them just glared at each other for a few seconds before the newcomer whom I assumed was called Landspeed spoke again. "It'll go better for you if you surrender now... You know you can't beat us...and after what you did to Michelle..."

It was then that I noticed the others appearing. An Asian man with a long white cloak that seemed to move as if in some breeze I couldn't detect appeared out of nowhere and a moment later five more costumed people appeared as well, seeming to step right out of his cloak.

"The Seven," Jack said with a scowl, looking more annoyed than anything.

"It's a trap," Contusion growled as she looked around. "They got the guards away while we were still inside then waited for us..."

"They probably just wanted to see what we came for," Jack chuckled though it sounded just a little forced. His eyes narrowed dangerously. "Since they took away our means of escape...ATTACK!"

Suddenly everyone was in motion and I couldn't even keep up with everyone. I saw a dark haired woman with a violet and black costume making gestures with her hands and having rocks fly around. She gestured to the Barber and he was sent flying back away from her.

Contusion was fighting with a tall muscular man in a white costume with gold trim. White energy armor started to appear around parts of his body while he tried grabbing hold of her. Then a sword of glowing white energy appeared in his hand though that didn't seem to bother Contusion who grabbed his cape and used it to swing him and throw him into one of his team mates.

Jack was fighting with a man who was dressed in a black suit and who was using an umbrella of all things to fight with. Jack opened fire with his guns, but the man used his umbrella like a shield to block the bullets. Then he held the umbrella up in the air and actually started to float up into the sky like Mary Poppins.

Toxic was busy chasing after Landspeed, jumping at her and punching with her glowing green hands, but she was unable to lay a hand on the hero. Landspeed was running circles around Toxic...literally. She was moving with super speed that kept my own team mate from being able to touch her.

At the same time the Fallen was in the air and looking like an angel...or fallen angel with her glowing golden wings. She was swinging her sword at a man in a red, white, and blue patriotic looking costume. He was flying away from her and throwing something at her though she kept blocking with her energy shield. It wasn't until one of the things he was throwing landed near me that I saw it was some sort of throwing start that had been painted white. I couldn't hear what either of them were saying, but from the furious looks on their faces I imagined that this was the man she'd been involved with.

A man with a red and black costume stood back with a strange looking white bow and was shooting arrows made out of energy at the Fallen. She was blocking those while trying to deal with her patriotic themed opponent and not doing so well fighting two people at once.

"Don't kill her Hellshot," the telekinetic woman in the black and violet costume called to him. "I know she murdered Michelle, but we don't kill..."

Trojan stood back to the side and watched the battle with no sign that he was about to join in. I watched in stunned disbelief and even horror as I saw several of my team were doing everything they could to actually kill the heroes. The Barber was throwing himself at the telekinetic with a look of fierce determination and glee on his face.

Suddenly, Contusion grabbed her white costumed opponent with the energy armor again and this time threw him straight at the patriotic themed guy that the Fallen was fighting. The patriotic guy yelled and fell to the ground, hitting hard. A moment later, the Fallen dropped down and landed right on top of him before driving her glowing sword straight into his chest.

"I'm sorry Matt," the Fallen called out, tears running down her cheeks as she impaled her former team mate. "I'm so sorry for everything..."

The members of the Seven were all shocked and horrified, fighting us with even more determination. I just felt sick to my stomach that another person had just been killed right in front of me and I hadn't done anything to stop it. At the moment I just wanted out of here...as far away as I could get. But if I left then even more people might be killed anyway. The Barber had the telekinetic woman tied up with the ribbon from his staff and was about to slice into her with his bladed arm.

Just then, I noticed the man with the white cloak coming straight towards me with a cold angry look on his face. It probably wasn't anything personal towards me, but after seeing one of his people get taken down that way he wanted to hurt someone.

"No more," I whispered, then exclaimed, "AWAY!"

My staff immediately responded to my command and an instant later I felt the reality tearing effects of teleportation. Before I'd even let out the breath I'd been holding I suddenly found myself in the middle of the Black Guild's teleporter room with my entire team scattered around me looking confused.

"How the bloody Hell did we get back here?" the Barber demanded, looking around angrily. "I was just about to fillet that bitch..."

"That would be me," I stated, glaring at him and trying to look dangerous enough that he wouldn't decide to take his disappointment out on me. I looked at Jack and added, "I didn't see any point in staying there. We have what we came for."

Jack scowled then reluctantly nodded. He pulled the shadow stone from his pocket and muttered, "Good idea... The boss wouldn't like it if we lost this to them..."

Toxic gave me a strange look, somehow looking almost relieved yet bothered at the same time. However her expression quickly darkened back to a more familiar scowl.

"Are you alright?" Contusion asked the Fallen who was still crying.

The Fallen snapped at her, "Fuck off..." Then she turned and stormed off without another word.

Now that we were back at the base the rest of the group quickly disbanded as well. Jack clutched the shadow stone then hurried off to deliver it to the Scepter. I just shook my head, relieved to have gotten out of that battle, but feeling absolutely disgusted with myself.

"Why didn't I do anything?" I asked myself quietly. I hadn't done anything to help my own side during the fight...other than to get us out of there. And I hadn't done a damn thing to stop the patriotic guy from being killed. "All this killing..."

The Black Guild was bad news and I knew it...yet I kept finding excuses to stay. Greed. Pride. Fear. I wanted wealth. I wanted to prove myself. I was terrified that they would kill me if I ran. But no more. I knew without a doubt that if I stayed even more people would be killed...and I would be a part of it. I might even be one of the victims anyway. There was no doubt that I had to get my ass out of here now.

However there was one thing that kept me from just immediately teleporting away and hiding. It was the thought of what would happen to Lauren, Karen, and the other people locked up in that room. I hated the idea of leaving them behind with the Black Guild. Who knew what the Scepter would do to them when he no longer needed them. After seeing what he'd done to his own people I shuddered to think of what he might do to the hostages.

"They're not my problem," I tried telling myself weakly though it did no good. My head might believe that, but my emotions sure as Hell didn't. I felt responsible. I had to help them...somehow.

I closed my eyes and took several deep breaths. When I opened them up again I still didn't know how I was going to help the hostages, but I knew for an absolute fact that I would. For perhaps the first time in my life I was determined to help someone other than myself. And with that, I clenched my staff tightly and went to go make a plan.

I felt a lump of cold lead in my stomach as I considered what I was about to do. I was going to do something extremely dangerous and risky...again. I hated doing dangerous and risky and preferred being careful and cautious. Unfortunately, I couldn't think of much that was more dangerous or risky than crossing the Scepter.

I took several deep breaths and reminded myself that I'd done this before. I'd crossed him before by sneaking through the forbidden doorway with the intention of stealing whatever valuables had been hidden inside. This was really no different. Of course the last time I'd been motivated by greed, curiosity, and a stubborn need to prove myself. This time I was motivated by... Well, I wasn't completely sure what my motivations were this time. I just knew I had to do this.

At the moment I was about as ready as I could possibly be. The Staff of Isis was fully charged and hidden in a safe place until I called for it. I was still in my normal male form though and dressed in the blue jumpsuit of a cleaner. And certain preparations had already been made.

I closed my eyes for several seconds and mentally prepared myself for what I was about to do, wishing at the same time that I was back home with a cold beer and some good weed. However that could wait until later. Right now I had business to attend to.

A minute later I was walking down the hallway looking just like any other cleaner. I walked past several people in the hallway including the Fallen though I kept my head down and hurried on my way as though I had an important task.

But then I ran into Skinny and that tactic didn't work. "Caleb," he exclaimed when he saw me. "Where the fuck have you been man? I haven't seen you in a couple days..."

"I've been tied up," I told him with a wry smile, holding my hands out as though they were handcuffed and adding, "Literally."

"What the Hell are you talking about?" Skinny demanded.

"I kind of hooked up with one of those costumed babes if you know what I mean," I gave him a lecherous smirk. "Damn she was kinky... Didn't even let me go until a little bit ago..."

"Fuck," Skinny stared at me with a look that was part pity and part envy. "So who was it? Contusion? That metal chick?"

"I'm not the kind to kiss and tell," I said in a chivalrous tone. Then in a more conspiratorial manner I leaned forward and quietly added, "She said she'd make me disappear for good if I talked about what she was into..."

Skinny shook his head at that. "Damn..." Then he grinned and in his own conspiratorial tone said, "You can trust me not to tell..."

"Yeah right," I snorted, grinning back at him. "If I told you any more it would be all over the place..." Then I gave an exaggerated shudder. "Trust me.. There is no way in Hell I'm gonna fuck with her..." I made sure to look around almost as though I were paranoid. "Hell, I half think she might kill me anyway..."

"Was it Toxic?" he smirked. "The Fallen? Mystik...?" I nearly laughed at that last one, but managed to keep a straight face. When he saw I wasn't going to answer, he laughed. "I hope she was worth it..." He seemed more amused by my made up situation than anything else.

I just winced. "Yeah, well I've got work to catch up on... I'll talk to you later..." Then I walked off, making sure to give a bit of a limp as I did so since it might add some more flavor to the story.

Once I was well away from Skinny I finally burst out laughing as I imagined what he had to be thinking and the stories he'd be spreading. Not only had my little story given me a good excuse for where I've been...it had also given me a good explanation about what happened to me when I suddenly disappeared for good. Skinny and the other cleaners would just think that my supposed Black Guild lover had killed me.

I quickly arrived at the forbidden hallway and let out a sigh of relief when I saw the guards standing by the door were the same two who'd been there yesterday. If there had been different guards than the ones who were usually on duty at this time I would have had to absorb my plan.

Both guards knew me on sight, but since this wasn't one of the scheduled times for a cleaner to visit and I didn't have a cart with me, both of them were watching me carefully. I made sure to move slowly, showing my hands so they could see I was unarmed and not any kind of threat.

"Hey guys," I greeted them with a forced smile before saying, "Abracadabra."

Suddenly both mens expressions went slack and their eyes glazed over. They were both standing there, but for all practical purposes they were now unconscious and wouldn't even remember anything that had happened in the last half hour...such as my coming down the hallway and saying the magic word.

"Thank God," I muttered, relieved that it had worked. I had been pretty sure, but not absolutely positive it would. For a moment I just stood there feeling proud of myself, feeling as though I'd just worked magic without even using my staff...though that was hardly the case.

Yesterday after returning from the mission to the Black Spot I used the last of my three wishes to magically hypnotize these two guards. I'd given them each a hypnotic suggestion...a command that when they heard the code word they'd slip into an unconscious state and forget everything that had happened in the last half hour.

The hypnosis was another trick I'd learned from Anabelle who'd told me she used to do this all the time during her shows. She could hypnotize a small group of people and have them do whatever she wanted for a short time. According to her, these hypnotic commands could usually only remain for a few days at most, but that was all I needed.

With the guards neutralized I reached around one of them and touched the panel that controlled the forbidden door. The metal door slid open and I stared at the shimmering air that marked the boundary and the force field that prevented magic and developed from passing through. I couldn't see the room through the shimmering curtain, but I knew that I could easily walk through it as long as I wasn't transformed and didn't have my staff with me.

"Good thing they don't have some sort of combo lock or key for this thing," I muttered, feeling greatly relieved about that at the moment. Then again, they must have assumed that the other guards present and the door blocking most of the Black Guild members from even being able to enter was security enough.

I took a deep breath and then stepped through the door. The forbidden room was exactly as it was the last time I'd seen it. Several of the hostages were sitting at the table playing cards, several were watching TV, and a couple were even in their private alcoves napping though they hadn't bothered closing the privacy curtains.

"Lauren," I called to her when I saw her on the other side of the room.

"Caleb," she exclaimed as she rushed towards me with a look of relief on her face. "Are you okay? When you didn't come back for a couple days..." She looked worried for a moment and then a bit angry.

"Sorry," I told her, actually feeling sort of pleased that she'd been worried about me. "Some things happened..." I paused and shook my head then said, "I figured out how to get you out of here..."

"What?" She blinked in surprise.

I looked around the room and called out to everyone, "I can get you all out of here...but you have to come now... We don't have very much time..."

"Are you kidding me?" Doug snorted skeptically. "If my fiancée couldn't get me out of here how in the world could a janitor?"

I hesitated a moment before answering, "I have some developed help..." That seemed to improve his confidence in the idea as his expression turned more hopefull. "Now everyone hurry..."

Lauren stared at me for a moment and gasped, "You're not joking..." She looked skeptical for a moment. "But I thought you said there was nothing you could do..."

"I didn't think there was," I admitted. Then I gestured to Karen before giving Lauren a determined look. "But there's no way in Hell I'm going to leave you all with these psychos...especially not a little kid."

"So how are we getting out?" Lauren asked. The other hostages were asking questions too.

"What about the guards?" Mrs. Horner asked. "They'd never let us even get through the door..."

"The guards have been taken care of," I explained loud enough for everyone to hear. "Everyone wait one minute, then go through the door. I have someone waiting who can get you all away from this place..."

Then with that I turned and left through the door myself. I took a deep breath and then called my staff to me, letting out the breath when it appeared in my hand. I clutched it firmly for a moment before willing it to activate. A moment later I felt the wave of transformation rush through my body as I was once again transformed into my feminine and sexy other form...into Mystik.

I heard a sudden gasp from behind me and snapped around to see Lauren standing there with a look of shock on her face. She must have come through the door right behind me rather than waiting a minute like I'd asked. That meant she'd seen everything.

I felt a cold lump settle into my stomach again as I stared at her, seeing a look of betrayal on her face. "Caleb?" she whispered in disbelief.

I wasn't sure what to say to her or what to even think. This was the very first time anyone else had seen me change...that anyone other than Anabelle even knew about my dual identities. I was shaken by this and suddenly feeling extremely self-conscious.

"Yeah," I responded with a gulp, embarrassed at being seen like this...especially by her. I couldn't think of a good lie so started to tell the truth. "I have a magic staff." I held it up for her to get a better look at and then continued, "It changes me into this whenever I use it..." This time I gestured down at myself, giving her an apologetic look. I felt guilty and ashamed as I said, "I told you I was stupid and got mixed up with the Black Guild...I just didn't say how mixed up."

Before Lauren could say anything, Doug stepped through the doorway followed by several others. The last of the hostages to come out where Mrs. Horner and Karen who was clutching the doll I'd given her.

There were nervous looks at the still dazed guards, but I said, "Don't worry about them." I knew that they'd remain out of it for a little longer. However that didn't ease the nervous looks they were giving me.

"And who are you?" Mrs. Horner demanded suspiciously.

"This is...," Lauren started, then paused to give me a questioning look.

"I'm called Mystik," I answered.

Karen looked up at me with a hopeful expression and asked, "Can I go see my daddy now?"

"I don't know who your daddy is," I told her gently. "But I'm going to get you out of here and try getting you back to him..."

I glanced down the hallway to make sure no one was there. If any of the Black Guild or even any of the cleaners happened to come past and see us gathered in the hall then the game would be up. I took a deep breath and then looked at both Lauren and Karen before giving my staff the command.

The world twisted around us and I heard several gasps of surprise as we teleported and suddenly appeared in the middle of a crowded mall. There were people everywhere which would make it easy for Lauren and the others to blend in and disappear.

"You're free," I exclaimed. "You can all call your families to pick you up or the police... They can probably help you get back home..."

"I know my daddy's phone number," Karen said brightly. "I can call him to come get me..."

"Good," I gave her a gentle smile.

"I'll look after her until she can get home," Lauren said, putting a reassuring hand on Karen's shoulder, then giving me a strange look that seemed to be part gratitude and part suspicion. I didn't blame her since I'd been lying to her and was part of the group that had kidnapped her.

"Now I can call my son Jack to pick me up," Mrs. Horner exclaimed. "Where can I find a pay phone...?"

"Jack?" I asked in surprise. "Jack's your son?"

"You know my Jack?" Mrs. Horner asked in delight. "Little Jack is such a good boy... They tried telling me he killed his sister Jill, but I wouldn't hear it... It's absolute rubbish... She was his twin and he absolutely adored her. Jack is such a good boy, but you know him so I don't have to tell you..."

I just stared at Mrs. Horner for a moment, realizing that she really didn't know her son very well. I've seen Jack in action and he was certainly no 'good boy'. Then I realized something else. The old nursery rhyme 'little Jack Horner sat in the corner...' started to run through my mind. With a name like that it was no wonder Jack was a bit messed up.

Karen abruptly came up and hugged my waist, exclaiming, "Thank you miss hero lady..."

I blinked in surprise at that then gave her a self-conscious smile. "Thank you, but I'm no hero..."

"Well you saved us and that's good enough for me," one of the hostages said. "But what do we do now?"

"You go back home to your families and try to keep safe," I answered.

"And what about you?" Lauren asked me carefully.

"I'm going back," I said grimly. "Someone has to cover your escape so they don't realize you're gone and come looking for you again..."

Lauren stared at me with an expression of disbelief and worry. Then she said, "Good luck...and don't get yourself killed...Mystik." She gave me a faint smile when she said my name.

"I'll try not to," I forced a smile back. "All of you be careful too..." And with that I teleported again.

I arrived back in the Black Guild base, though my aim was a little off and instead of arriving in the forbidden hallway as I intended I accidentally appeared in the hallway that intersected it. This was probably caused by my being distracted as I considered what I was planning.

So far I'd successfully broken Lauren and the rest of the hostages out of the vault and got them away from the Black Guild. However that wasn't quite good enough, since the Scepter could send people after them again once he realized they were gone.

There was another problem I had to deal with as well. If I just left now he'd know I was behind the disappearing hostages, which would guarantee assassins would be sent after me...as if deserting alone wouldn't get that. I could probably avoid being found by not turning into Mystik again, but there was always the possibility of some magic user who could track down the real me anyway.

My plan to deal with both these problems was a fairly simple one, but I hoped it would work. I was going to use my second wish to summon a clone of myself. The staff couldn't create a duplicate that could actually impersonate me and fool people, but it could create an apparent dead body that looked just like me.

The next part of my plan was to use my third and final wish to completely destroy the forbidden door. I'd been told that it was the only entrance to a pocket dimension and if something happened to the door then the pocket dimension would collapse...either killing everyone within or trapping them forever.

If everything worked the way I hoped then after I was done it would look like I'd tried breaking down the forbidden door to steal whatever was inside...and that the backlash had killed me. With me believed to be dead and the hostages lost for good there would be no reason to look for any of us.

I was about to get to work when I suddenly heard someone calling my name. I looked up and saw Contusion coming down the hallway towards me looking rather grim...as usual.

"Didn't you hear?" Contusion scowled. "The Scepter wants EVERYONE in the throne room NOW..."

"What?" I gasped in surprise. "What for?"

"How the Hell should I know?" She shook her head. "No one tells me anything."

"Yeah," I forced a smile. "They do treat us like mushrooms here..." At her blank look I grinned, "They keep us in the dark and feed us shit."

Contusion laughed at that. "True."

Contusion and I quickly went to the throne room and were among the last to arrive. The Scepter sat on his throne with his cat Ebon curled in his lap, absently petting the cat while he waited for everyone to finish arriving.

I looked around seeing there were only about two dozen costumed villains present and none of the cleaners, though that wasn't unexpected. They weren't considered part of the Black Guild and were barely even noticed. Most of the cleaners actually preferred it this way as being noticed could be dangerous. I listened to the people around me talking and none of them seemed to have any idea of why we'd been called in either.

Jack stood a short distance away, showing no sign that he'd ever been shot in our last mission. In fact I remembered that he'd recovered pretty fast right after being hit. I wondered if his powers included some sort of healing factor.

One of the men standing near me caught my eye. It looked like he had a black velvet body stocking that covered his entire body including his head. His face was covered, so I couldn't see any of his features, but his eyes were glowing green and he had glowing green lines all over his body that looked like some sort of circuitry. In fact he reminded me a great deal of Trojan when he was using his powers, so I couldn't help but wondering if this was Trojan with a different appearance.

I didn't have a chance to question this possible Trojan or verify my suspicions as the Scepter decided it was time to start. The cat jumped off his lap and then he stood up to glare at us all. After a few dramatic seconds he exclaimed, "We have a traitor in our midst."

I gulped and clutched my staff even tighter, suddenly having a very bad feeling about this. They'd found out the hostages were gone and they'd done it a LOT faster than I'd been expecting. I didn't even have a chance to clean up after myself, but then I quickly realized that the Scepter didn't know I was the one behind it yet. If he did then he probably would have killed me rather than call everyone together like this. However I braced myself to either defend myself or teleport out at a moments notice...just in case.

The Scepter looked down over the crowd from his platform, scanning the group of costumed criminals. "For months," he said grimly, "the Black Guild has suffered inexplicable failures. Simple missions became... complicated. Heroes would seem to know our teams were coming and be waiting for us. Many of our people were captured when they should not have been...and when we have attempted to release them...we find they have been quietly moved to new secure locations."

I stared at the Scepter, not sure whether to be more relieved or nervous at this. This had absolutely nothing to do with the freed hostages, so they may not have been discovered yet. On the other hand, if he did find out about them and that I was responsible, then he might blame me for the other things as well. But even if he didn't connect me to any of that, he was obviously pissed at the moment and that was always very bad for someone.

"But I have found our traitor," the Scepter exclaimed, suddenly pointing his scepter into the ground and exclaiming, "TOXIC!"

Suddenly everyone near Toxic backed away so as not to get caught in the crossfire of the Scepter's wrath. He continued pointing at her with his scepter while she just stood there with her arms crossed scowling.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" she demanded angrily.

"Do not bother to deny it," the Scepter said in a cold voice. "Lightning Lash discovered your betrayal which is why you killed him... You see, he left...insurance." Then he added, "And of course I detected the radio signals when you contacted the outside..." At that his cat jumped onto his throne arched its back and hissed at Toxic.

Toxic snarled and suddenly leapt into motion, charging at the Scepter with her hands both glowing green almost faster than I could follow. However she wasn't fast enough as the Scepter just gestured at her and she was thrown into the air just a few feet short of him. He held her there, floating in mid air while savoring her helplessness.

"I'm going to take you down," Toxic snarled angrily. "You're going to pay for what you did to me and so many innocents."

I blinked at that, surprised to hear her talking about innocents after the ones I'd seen her kill. I gulped, feeling sick to my stomach as I knew what was going to come and just how helpless I was to prevent it.

But just then there was a sudden flash of light and suddenly a large metal crate appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the room. A man stood atop the crate holding one of the Black Guild's teleport disks in his hand.

The man was dressed in black with a gray trenchcoat and fedora. He wore black gloves over his hands and I couldn't see his face because of the golden metal mask which covered the entire thing. Somehow though he seemed familiar.

"We have some unfinished business," the man in gray called to the Scepter. "I believe now is a good time to settle it."

"Griffin," the Scepter snarled back. "You traitorous dog... Surrender yourself to me now or your daughter shall pay the price..."

"Ah, but my daughter is no longer within your power," the Griffin exclaimed. "She has escaped along with the rest of your hostages. You no longer have any leverage over me."

There were several gasps of surprise at that as well as a few looks of relief. Even Jack gave a smile of relief for a moment, though it was quickly replaced with his usual cocky grin.

I stared at the newcomer in disbelief, realizing now who this was. This was the Griffin...Lauren's dad. She'd told me he could turn invisible which only made me realize where I'd seen him before. He was the ghostly man I'd seen back when I'd been wandering the halls while invisible. My being invisible must have somehow allowed me to see him while he was too.

"Oh shit," I gasped. Being invisible, there was no telling how long he'd been walking around the base spying on everyone. Then I realized one other thing. "Everyone knows about the escape..." My plan to hide it was completely ruined. But on the other hand, they'd probably blame the Griffin now instead of me.

"I'm nimble. I'm quick. I'm the giant killer," Jack grinned, pulling out a pair of large knives and looking towards the Scepter with an almost hungry expression. "Now boss it's time to give my resignation and add another title to my list. I'm gonna be the ripper..."

The Griffin jumped off the crate and a moment later the sides all popped away to reveal a large and bulky humanoid figure inside. It was ten feet tall, shaped somewhat like a man, and was made of some sort of smooth black metal that had a faint rainbow sheen like that seen in a puddle of oil. It didn't move at all, but that didn't seem to matter to most of those present, as nearly every villain gasped in shock and stepped back.

"It's Jabberwock," one of them exclaimed, sounding terrified.

"Jabberwock?" I scowled, thinking the name sounded familiar. Then it came to me. I remembered news reports about a large metal monster named Jabberwock who was nearly unstoppable and had killed several super heroes who'd been trying to stop it. "Oh shit."

Suddenly the metal man...Jabberwock's back opened up and a bunch of metal tentacles came out grabbing for everything nearby. One grabbed around a villain who then turned intangible and escaped. The other villains either started to fight the tentacles or tried to get out of their reach.

Jack took advantage of the Scepter's distraction to charge straight at him. But then one of the tentacles suddenly wrapped around Jack's ankle and started pulling him towards the monster. He started slashing at the metal tentacles with his knives though it did little good. He dropped the knives and pulled his guns from the shoulder holsters hidden in his jacket, firing several shots at Jabberwock, though that had no more effect than the knives had.

The whole room burst into raw chaos and I stood nearly frozen as I watched, trying make sense of everything going on around me. There was so much going on that I didn't know whether to jump in and help fight the tentacles or take the opportunity to escape.

The Scepter was so distracted by Jabberwock's sudden appearance that he seemed to forget about Toxic completely. She suddenly fell from the air and hit the ground, landing gracefully and looking around as though trying to decide the best path of escape.

The Griffin suddenly appeared beside Toxic, having turned invisible right after releasing Jabberwock. "You remember Jabberwock I'm sure," he greeted Toxic who nodded while watching him carefully. "You know the old saying about the enemy of my enemy...?"

Toxic stared at him for a moment longer before nodding. "Agreed."

"Good." The Griffin held out the teleport disk he'd arrived with. "Then let us depart before Jabberwock acquires his host..."

Then I saw the Barber rushing towards Toxic with a malicious grin on his face and one of his hands turned into a blade. "Watch out," I called a warning, though it was too late.

The Barber slammed his blade into Toxic's back so that it came bursting right out of her chest. She gasped in shock and spat out blood. The Griffin jumped backwards, pulling a pistol from his trench coat and firing several shots at the Barber before pushing the button on his teleport disk and vanishing.

"That was kind of a disappointment," the Barber said as he pulled his bladed arm back out of Toxic's body. "I was expecting a bit more of a fight from you girlie..."

He glanced down at the bullet holes in his chest and winced as a silver liquid came out of them instead of blood. He had a look of concentration on his face and a moment later the silver liquid pulled back inside of him and the holes sealed up behind, leaving no sign of his having been shot.

Toxic collapsed to her knees and coughed up blood. She glared up at the Barber and spat out, "My...blood...poison..."

The Barber just laughed at that and held up his metal arm. "If you hadn't noticed girlie...I ain't precisely human anymore." He winked at her. "It won't hurt me none, but thanks for your concern anyways..."

Toxic winced in pain as the blood poured from her wounds, then grimaced. She slowly reached to her belt and pushed the buckle then gave the Barber a vicious grin. "Not...the...first...time..." She winced in pain and added, "Just...called...cavalry..." before she collapsed to the floor completely motionless.

"No," I gasped in horror as I witnessed yet another vicious murder. I clenched my staff, determined that I was going to use my next wish to turn the Barber into a cockroach...then step on him.

Just then I heard a yell of panic from the direction of Jabberwock and turned to see Jack was now entirely wrapped up in the metal cables. I grimaced, deciding that I'd better help him before anything else since I didn't want to see another death. But before I could do anything he was pulled inside the opening in Jabberwock's back. The rest of the metal coils pulled in behind him and then the back closed back up so there was no sign of any opening.

Suddenly there was the sond of groaning metal and Jabberwock started to move. It stood up to his full height and shifted position then its eyes began to glow with a malevolent red color. There were now screams of panic not just from Jack, but from several of the villains close to Jabberwock. Without warning it swung its arm and hit one of the villains who was nearly invulnerable, sending him flying back with the crunching sound of broken bones.

Several of the villains began attacking Jabberwock with a renewed ferocity, no longer just trying to fight off the tentacles. However none of the attacks did any good at all or seemed to even be noticed.

A group of small men made out of stone threw themselves at Jabberwock while their master, the Gnome King, stood back commanding them. He was very large and physically powerful himself, but still didn't want to fight Jabberwock other than through his proxies. Jabberwock just swung an arm and shattered one of the small stone men into gravel then stepped on another destroying that one as well.

The throne room was in complete chaos and seemed to be on the verge of turning into a massacre as well. Jabberwock seemed to be indestructible and was tearing through everyone in its path. I grimaced, trying to decide what I could do to stop it. Maybe I could teleport it to Antarctica or the middle of the ocean...

Just then I felt something from my staff...a slight tugging. It felt as though it was trying to direct my attention towards the corner. I looked and saw a glowing red portal appearing in the air right before a man stepped out of it.

This newcomer was dressed all in blue with a blue overcoat and fedora as well as a gold metal mask on his face. I felt a sense of deja-vu as I noticed that his fashion sense bore some similarity to that of the Griffin. It took me several seconds longer to recognize who this was. This was the Face...the sorcerer super hero who'd created the magic vault I'd helped break into during my first mission with the Black Guild.

Other people started to step through the portal right behind the Face. The first was a teenage girl with violet hair who was dressed in a blue and violet witch costume. After her stepped a seven foot tall and muscular looking woman in a red and gold costume. The name Mega came to mind, though I couldn't quite remember much about her other than that she was big and strong.

Then came a figure whom I immediately recognized...Vigil. Vigil was a black man wearing a black and blue costume with a blue mask that covered part of his upper face. He had a long red cape which was held to his costume by a pair of white metal broaches in the shape of starts. A white metal belt and wrist bands finished off his patriotic themed costume. Vigil was famous as the leader of the Protectorate... one of the most powerful and well known groups of super heroes there was.

More heroes continued to come through the portal, though I only recognized a few of them from TV. A dozen heroes appeared before the portal abruptly vanished and though I didn't know who half of them even were, from the ones I did know this had to be the combined membership of the Protectorate and a group called Faction Zero.

"Oh shit," I exclaimed, not sure wether to be afraid that the 'cops' were here or relieved that they might help stop Jabberwock.

"It's Jabberwock," Vigil exclaimed, pointing at the massive metal monster that was going through the Black Guild members like they weren't even there.

"But where's the infiltrator we were sent to help?" the Face asked as he looked around.

The combined heroes started to attack Jabberwock, nearly ignoring the Black Guild members in the process except to occasionally pull one of them away to safety. Then I noticed the Face and the witch girl standing back while the girl was chanting something in what sounded like pig latin.

"The heroes are here," I told myself, realizing that I no longer had a reason to stay. The hostages were free, the Griffin was getting the blame, and after this I didn't think the Scepter would be in any position to hung me down for deserting. "I should get my ass out of here..." However I couldn't resist watching what was happening.

Suddenly there was a loud popping sound as Jack appeared in midair... then fell several feet to the ground. His costume looked a bit torn and he was bleeding in several places. But more telling than that was the way he looked pale and sick with an expression of shock and fear on his face. I'd never seen him that shaken...not even after being shot.

Then amazon hero Mega stood over Jack with a satisfied smirk on her face. "Oh, Jack fell down and broke his crown," she exclaimed, looking as though she was about to give him a swift kick though she held off. "Maybe you remember me Jack... I'm Mega...and you murdered my boyfriend..."

It took me several more seconds to realize that Jabberwock was no longer moving. It was frozen solid just like it had been at first, seeming almost to be little more than a metal statue. However after seeing what it could do once it had a person trapped inside of it I knew better than to ever think of it as some mere statue.

Then almost without a word the heroes turned and began going after the Black Guild members...most of whom were already worn out or injured from fighting Jabberwock. The Scepter just laughed and pushed something on his wrist. Suddenly there was a flash of light and he was gone...along with the six Black Guild members who'd been closest to him.

"He teleported," I gasped, realizing that he must have one of those teleport devices built right into his armor. I bet every other Black Guild member who'd been left behind wished that they had one too.

"He's escaped," Vigil called out angrily. "Get the rest of them..."

I grimaced, knowing that this was my last call and that I had to get my ass out of here immediately. As far as these heroes knew I was a loyal Black Guild member and they'd have no problem trying to take me down along with the rest.

Then I looked down at Toxic and felt sick to my stomach yet again. She may have been a murdering psychopathic bitch with her own agenda, but even she didn't deserve this. But more than that, I couldn't bear to see another person get killed in front of me without even trying to do anything about it.

"It's too late for her," I told myself, knowing that I should just leave.

However I couldn't help but suddenly remember what Anabelle had told me about the staff being able to sometimes bring people back to life. It had to be right away... The damage couldn't be too bad... And most importantly, the soul couldn't have departed yet... Every rational part of my brain said that I had to escape while I still could...but I just couldn't. Not without at least trying.

I walked over to Toxic and stared down at her body laying in a pool of blood. I wanted to bend over and check her pulse, but knew better than that. Her power was to be lethally poisonous, so any contact with her or her blood might very well prove fatal. In fact they'd probably need people in hazmat suits to clean up this mess. I didn't really think there was any need to check her pulse though as she was completely motionless and didn't even look like she was breathing.

"Damn," I grimaced, closing my eyes and issuing a silent command to my staff. I could feel the surge of power coming from it as it attempted to do as I asked. I only hoped it wasn't too late.

I opened my eyes again and looked over Toxic, almost immediately seeing improvement. Her chest started to rise and fall again as she resumed breathing. Her skin became a little less pale. Then the wound from the Barber's blade began to seal up and fade away, almost as though it had never been there...though the hole in her costume and the blood remained as reminders. Then finally her fingers began to twitch and even her eye lids began to flutter.

"I did it," I gasped in relief.

But before I could celebrate my success I was grabbed from behind and spun around, only to see one of the costumed heroes I didn't recognize standing there. She was very athletic, well tanned, had black hair and wore a gray spandex costume that had no sleeves, though she had a crimson sash around her waist and red ribbons around her arms. I barely got a look at her though before she punched in the face and knocked me back.

I regained my balance only to see the Face joining her and putting a hand on her shoulder. "Enough Alleycat.." He turned to look at me with that featureless and faceless golden mask he wore. "You monsters have already murdered her... I will not allow you to desecrate her corpse as well..."

Then the Face held up his hand with the palm facing me and muttered something in a strange language I didn't recognize. There was a flash of light from his hand and then everything suddenly went dark.

My prison cell was a small cramped space that gave me a feeling of claustrophobia, containing just a wall mounted cot, a toilet, and nothing else. To add to the dismal feel, the floor, walls, and ceiling were all made of some dull gray metal that seemed a bit overkill.

I woke up in this cell yesterday after who knows how long I'd been unconscious, having been stripped of my old clothes and left in a bright orange jumpsuit. My ribs were all sore and bruised as well indicating that someone had probably given me a good swift kick while I'd been out.

I sat on the edge of my cot just staring at the door. My cell didn't come with bars, but instead had a metal door with no window openings. The trays with my food were slid through a slot that would open at the bottom. In the day that I'd been awake, I'd only seen that door open once and that was when a guard had come to tell me that I would be getting a trial, but that he didn't think that I or any of the other Black Guild 'slimeballs' deserved one.

Since I had nothing to do I closed my eyes and concentrated, trying to summon my staff to me. I wasn't surprised when this had no effect. I'd tried calling my staff countless times since waking up in this cell, but it had yet to appear. The only reason I could figure was that the metal walls must be made of the same metal Jack had used during our first break in...that specially treated iron that disrupts magic. It was the only explanation I could think of and one that made perfect sense. That would be the perfect way to lock up someone with magic powers.

"Damn," I grimaced, cursing the boredom and claustrophobia I felt. I was trapped here with absolutely nothing to do and no one to talk to. All I had were my own thoughts and at the moment those weren't very pleasant either.

I couldn't help but thinking about the people I'd watched die...the people I hadn't even tried to save. I could see their faces when I closed my eyes...especially the man that the Barber had beheaded. I might have brought Toxic back to life, but that did nothing for the people she'd killed.

There was no doubt I felt guilty for what I'd done...and for what I hadn't done. I brought a murderer back to life, but hadn't even tried with the innocent people who'd been killed. I hadn't even thought of using the staff when those deaths had happened.

"Did I make a mistake?" I asked, wondering if I should have left Toxic as she was. I didn't know what her own personal agenda was, but from what I'd seen she'd more than earned her death. I'd brought her back though more for my own sake than hers. Unfortunately any further people she killed would be on my conscience as a result.

I continued thinking these thoughts for a while longer when I suddenly heard a humming sound come from the door. I looked at the door and saw a shimmering orange glow right in front of it. I'd seen that happen once before, right before the guard had opened the door. They were turning on some kind of force field to keep me from getting out even though the door was about to open. Seconds later the door slid open just as I'd expected.

To my complete shock the person standing on the other side of the force field barrier wasn't one of the guards...it was Toxic. I got to my feet and stared at her for a moment, not sure what to expect. Since she'd turned on the force field barrier before opening the metal door I was pretty sure this wasn't a breakout.

"Mystik," she greeted me, staring at me with a curious expression.

I stared back, noticing several things that didn't seem quite right. Her expression seemed a bit off... She didn't have her usual sneer or the dangerous glare that seemed to say she wished everyone would just die. Instead she seemed more casual and relaxed than I'd ever seen her.

"I understand you saved my life," she told me.

I nodded at that, deciding that it would be best not to tell her that I hadn't gotten to her until after she'd lost it. The less people who knew I could bring people back from the dead the better.

"Thank you," she said with a nod. She gave me a steady look before saying, "You're probably wondering why I'm out here while you're still in there..."

"That thought had crossed my mind," I answered with a scowl.

"I shouldn't tell you, but my cover has already been blown," she said grimly. "And of course I'm now believed to be dead. A number of witnesses saw the Barber kill me, so you're one of the few who know otherwise." She frowned for a moment before saying, "I'm an agent of the Developed Affairs Department, a government agency that deals with the developed. I was sent undercover to infiltrate the Black Guild."

"Bullshit," I responded, glaring at her. "I've seen you murder people... You belong behind bars even more than I do."

"You saw what I wanted you to see," Toxic told me. She held up one hand in a fist. "I had tasers built into my gloves so I could knock people unconscious and create the illusion of using my neurotoxic touch on them."

"Of course," I snorted my skepticism, finding it hard to believe that the psycho I'd worked beside was really an undercover agent for a government law enforcement agency. "And Lightning Lash?"

"Him I killed," she admitted, not sounding exactly pleased about it. "Circumstances left me no choice." Then she shifted position and stared at me again before saying, "I just wanted you to know that I appreciate what you did for me and will make sure it's taken into account at your trial."

Then with that the door slid shut again, leaving me once again all alone in my cell. I sighed and sat back down on my cot, shaking my head in disbelief as I thought of the psychotic Toxic I knew actually being an undercover cop. It was hard to wrap my head around.

In a way I felt as though I'd been lied to and betrayed which must have been how Lauren felt when she found out about Mystik. But on the other hand, I couldn't help but feeling a strange sense of relief. If what Toxic said was true, then the people I'd seen her kill were actually still alive and well. That felt like a huge weight off my chest.

As I sat there trying to summon my staff yet again, I suddenly realized another problem with my situation...other than being locked up in jail that is. Since I couldn't summon my staff I couldn't make my last wish.

"Oh shit," I exclaimed, looking down at myself and the two weights that were still present on my chest.

If I couldn't use my last wish then I'd be stuck as a woman until I could... Who knew how many years I might be locked away without being able to summon the staff. Who knew how many years I might be stuck as a woman before I even had the chance to change back...if ever. I wouldn't be surprised if they made sure I could never get my hands on my staff again.

It wasn't that I minded being a woman. Normally I didn't mind at all. In fact I found a certain strange comfort in this body anymore. But that was partly because I was confident that I could change back just by making a couple wishes. Being a chick had been sort of a costume for me...sort of a strange adventure...but it hadn't been permanent. Not until now.

"Shit," I muttered with a sigh, definitely not liking the idea of being stuck like this permanently.

I sat like this for another two hours before I abruptly heard a noise coming from the door again. It wasn't the hum of the force field coming on, but the door was opening anyway. I stood up, expecting either a guard or Toxic again, but to my surprise it was neither. A thin man dressed in a red costume stood in the doorway instead though he was a man I recognized. It was the Key...the Scepter's 'insurance'.

"Mystik," the Key greeted me with a nod, gesturing for me to come out of the cell.

I hesitated only half a second as I imagined being shot while trying to escape. "Did the Scepter send you to break everyone out?" I asked him.

I stepped out of the cell and looked down the wide hallway, seeing a number of heavy metal doors lining each side. I suspected that these contained the other Black Guild members who'd been caught.

"No," the Key told me in a grim voice. "I am only here for you..."

"Just me?" I blinked in surprise.

"The Scepter did not send me," he said bitterly. I couldn't see his face through the red mask that covered his entire head, but I got the impression he was scowling. "I am a professional and only worked for the Scepter because he...coerced me." He paused a moment then in a much calmer voice told me, "I am here for you because I owe you a favor."

"A favor?" I asked curiously.

The Key nodded, then explained, "You freed my daughter Karen."

I stared at the Key for a moment in surprise. "You're Karen's father?"

The Key nodded again. "Yes. The Scepter kidnapped her and locked her in a place where even I could not go in order to ensure my service."

"I didn't know she was your daughter," I told him. "I just didn't want to see a kid stuck there like that..."

"I appreciate that which is why I came to free you," he told me. "Now come..." He gestured to a portal of glowing red light which appeared in the air a few feet away.

"What about the others?" I asked, gesturing to the other cells.

The Key shrugged. "They are on their own. This will remind them next time to pay their insurance policies instead of relying on the Scepter's promises."

I nodded at that, then looked at the cell I'd just come out of. I called to my staff again and was half surprised when it suddenly appeared in my hand. Then I grinned in relief as I clutched it, realizing that they must have locked me up in the magic disrupting metal, but hadn't thought of doing it to my staff as well. That was very fortunate for me.

"I have my own way out of here now," I told the Key with a smile. "But thank you for getting me out of there."

"Very well," the Key told me with a nod. "We are now even." And with that he stepped through the red portal and vanished with it vanishing right behind him.

I looked down the hall at the other cell doors, knowing that with my last wish I could easily open all the doors and release the Black Guild prisoners. But I wasn't going to do that. I felt no loyalty to these people. Some of them were complete psychos who would happily kill more people...me included. There was absolutely no way I was going to have more deaths on my head.

After a moment I turned and took one more look at my cell, feeling a cold chill as I did so. I had been so close to years...maybe even life in prison. I had been that close to spending a very long time trapped in this female body. This had been the last bit of proof I needed to know that my career as a super villain had been a spectacular failure.

I was a small time crook...not a big time villain. It was time to leave that career while I still could...before I was irrevocably trapped in that world. I knew now that when I got home I would use up my last wish, put the staff away somewhere safe, and then hang up my cape. Mystik was retiring for good. And with that I ordered my staff to take me home.

I sat on my couch with my feet up on the coffee table, taking a swing of beer and wishing I still had some weed left. I sighed, trying to think of something to do or get some motivation. However it had been hard to get motivated about much of anything lately.

It had been just over two weeks since the Key helped me escape from jail and in that time I hadn't even gone back to work. I had the classified ads from several newspapers sitting on my coffee table with entries circled for estate sales and other possible targets for jobs. However none of them really felt right.

I looked at the newspapers again and scowled, knowing that there was really nothing wrong with the targets I'd circled. Some of them were ones I normally would have considered perfect cash making opportunities, but I kept finding reasons not to go after each and every one of them. I was going to have to get some money soon though or I'd be out on the street.

With that I looked towards the closet where I'd placed the staff. I hadn't used it in two weeks, not since changing back to normal and putting it there for safe keeping. It had finally recharged two days ago, having been drained quite a bit due to my stunt with Toxic, but I had yet to even look at it.

I wasn't quite sure when the staff had ceased being an opportunity for wealth or bigger and better things and had become something else to me. I still wasn't quite sure what that something was...only that it felt...heavy.

I still found it hard to believe that under the right circumstances I had the power to bring the dead back to life. The full implications of that had taken awhile to really come to me. That kind of power should have made me feel godlike, but instead it make me feel worried.

"Damn, I need another beer," I muttered, looking at my TV as I stood up to get one.

There was a special news report on the TV that I hadn't noticed since I'd been distracted. I was about to shrug it off and continue towards my kitchen, but they suddenly did a close-up shot on someone I recognized... the Barber.

"Oh shit," I exclaimed, sitting back down and turning up the volume.

I watched with intense interest as the news report explained that an airplane was about to take off when it was stopped and hijacked right there in the middle of the runway by a small group of super villains. They did close-up to the group of three hijackers, all of whom I recognized as Black Guild members who'd escaped with the Scepter.

"Oh shit," I said again, nearly shaking as I watched the recorded footage of them stopping the plane.

One of the hijackers was the Barber who was now standing on top of the plane calling out warnings to the authorities not to even attempt interfering until their demands were met. However the news report gave no indication of what those demands were.

One of the other hijackers was the Gnome King who stood on the ground near the open plane hatch while a full dozen of his miniature stone duplicates were positioned around the plane as guards. And according to the report, three more of those duplicates had gone inside the plane to control the hostages.

The last of the three villains was a man I recognized from my time in the Black Guild, but was not a person I'd ever talked to. He was an athletic man with a dark blue and dark gray costume that had a few white bits of trim on it, such as the shoulder pads and belt. This was Kobalt who could generate large amounts of energy in the form of explosions or energy blasts. Unfortunately he was also inside the plane with the hostages...which kept anyone from getting too close.

Then the news report showed footage of the super heroes who were gathered nearby, unable to get closer for fear that the hostages would be killed. The famous Ms. Miracle stood there with a deep scowl on her beautiful face while her team of heroes the Miracle Men all stood beside her looking just as pissed off by the situation and their own helplessness.

"Damn," I grimaced, clenching my fists in frustration.

I stared at the TV screen, at the footage of the plane and the super villains holding it hostage. There was something wrong..something very wrong. I scowled as I thought about this. I'd been with the Black Guild long enough to know that this wasn't how they operated. They didn't just grab people at random and make demands. They went in and grabbed what they wanted, then left. So what did they want? And why hadn't they left yet?

"Maybe they're trying to get the rest of the Black Guild released from prison," I thought aloud. If they no longer had the Key to break their members out for them they might be forced to resort to other methods to get their manpower back up, but I didn't really buy it. "And where are the rest? The Scepter got away with six guys..."

Then it suddenly dawned on me. This was just a diversion...a big flashy distraction to draw the attention of all the super heroes and cops in the area. I knew enough about the Scepter to know that he loved using diversions. He'd summon a giant monster to distract everyone while his people robbed the banks on the other side of town. He'd launch an attack on the Seven's headquarters to keep them distracted from the real attack on the Black Spot. This was a diversion while his people did something else, but what?

I started to flip through the TV channels while looking for an idea of what the Scepter was up to and it didn't take me long to find it. One channel was covering a parade that was taking place in the city near where the airport hostage situation was occurring.

"The parade," I whispered, not seeing why the Scepter would be interested in a parade. If anything, I'd imagine he would have used that as the distraction.

Just as I was about to switch channels again the camera swept past a group of people walking among the floats. I froze and stared with my mouth open as the Scepter led a small group of three other Black Guild members through the parade. Since there were a lot of people running around in weird costumes no one seemed to be giving the Black Guild members a second look.

"Oh shit," I gulped, not sure what the Scepter was up to, but knowing that it wasn't good. It couldn't possibly be good news. "But it's not responsibility..."

I stared at the TV screen with a grimace, my heart racing as I saw that something bad was going to happen soon. It wasn't my responsibility. I wanted absolutely nothing to do with the Black Guild or even with being Mystik anymore, but I still felt that cold lump in my stomach and the fear that more deaths were going to be occurring very soon. The hostages on the plane... The people at the parade... Something very bad was probably going to happen to all of them.

"No," I whispered, not sure what to do. "The heroes can help them..."

But I knew that they couldn't. The Barber and his crew were keeping the heroes well away from them with the hostages and the heroes didn't even know about the Scepter. I'd call the Protectorate and give them an anonymous tip if I could, but I had absolutely no idea of how to get to them.

I was confused and frustrated, feeling responsible, yet knowing I couldn't get involved. I needed someone to talk to... Someone to get advice from. Unfortunately I didn't have any close friends...none that I'd trust to even tell about the staff much less get advice from.

Of course I realized that there was one person whom I could talk to. I got up and went to the closet to retrieve the staff. I took a deep breath, then willed it to awaken. A moment later my body transformed into the feminine body of Mystik again.

"I kind of missed you," I muttered as I ran a hand over my newly returned breasts. Then I turned my attention back to the business at hand. "Anabelle... I need to talk to you..."

A moment later I was torn from my body and my soul pulled into the staff just like twice before. I was dizzy for a moment when I once again found myself standing in the purple crystal room within the staff.

"Welcome back," Anabelle said, dressed in her violet magician costume.

I stared at Anabelle for a moment with mixed feelings. I was happier to see her again than I'd expected to be, but I felt a little sad knowing that this would be the last time. After this her soul would be free to go and would pass on to wherever the dead go and the staff would remain empty until I eventually died and took her place.

"I see that you've become comfortable with using the staff," Anabelle said with an amused smile. "How long has it been since you last called to me?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

Anabelle just smiled and gestured to me. I looked down, not sure what she was referring to at first until it dawned on me that I was still in my female body, looking like Anabelle's sexier twin sister. The other two times I'd come to this place I'd looked like my normal male self.

"You've become comfortable enough in that body to wear it in this place," Anabelle told me with a chuckle.

I felt a moment of embarrassment at that and concentrated on looking like my normal self. I felt a tingling and looked back down at myself and I was back to my normal male body. Or at least looking like my normal male self since I didn't actually have a real body here.

"That was quite a costume," Anabelle told me. "Very flattering. I take it that you've gone into show business as well."

"Not exactly," I admitted quietly, sitting down in a chair that appeared at my mental command. Anabelle nodded then sat down on a love seat which appeared right beneath her.

I began to tell Anabelle nearly everything that I'd done since the last time we talked. I took my time as I did so, knowing that time didn't pass in this place. I could spend hours or even days here, but only seconds would pass out in the real world.

"I screwed up," I told Anabelle with a sigh. "I don't know what to do..."

"You've followed Black Annie's path," she mused almost to herself, giving me an odd look. "I guess it's easy to do when you have that kind of power..."

"Those people," I grimaced, feeling frustrated as I thought of the hostages and whatever it was the Scepter was up to. "I don't want anyone else to get hurt..." Then I shook my head. "But I'm no hero..."

"Neither am I," Anabelle sighed. "I might not have used the staff to rob banks, but I didn't use it to help anyone other than myself either." She shrugged. "I used it to become famous and successful. I used it to improve my own life. I don't think there's any shame in that. Not everyone is meant to be a hero."

"But what can I do?" I asked in desperation. "I don't want those people to get hurt..."

Anabelle stared at me with a strange expression before slowly asking, "What do you want to do? If you had no limits...what would you do?"

"I think... I think I'd help them if I could," I said quietly.

"Then why don't you?" Anabelle asked me. "You already know how to use the staff's power. You already know what you can do with it."

"But I'm not a hero," I told her, feeling guilty for the things I'd already been part of.

Anabelle just shrugged. "Maybe you are and you just don't know it yet..."

I just snorted at that. "Yeah right."

Anabelle stood up and then bent over to put a hand on my shoulder. "What you do with the staff's power is entirely up to you. I know you want me to tell you what to do...but I can't. This isn't a matter of telling you what the staff can do. This is a matter of YOU deciding who you want to be. No one can help you with that."

"But-" I started.

But Anabelle shut me up by surprising me with a kiss on my lips. Then she pulled back and put a gentle hand on my cheek. "I like you Caleb and am very happy to have met you." She smiled at me. "You don't need me anymore... You know everything you need to know. All you need is to decide how you want to use it...and the will to do so."

Then Anabelle began to shimmer and fade away, becoming a ghostly image just as she was the first time I'd seen her. The room around us faded as well and I felt a pulling sensation as my soul was drawn back to my own body.

The last thing I heard was Anabelle's voice calling to me from a distance, "Good-bye Caleb...and good luck."

A moment later I found myself back in my own body, though not my own form...or at least not in my original form. I was once again a sexy woman and holding the staff tightly in my hand.

I just stared into the purple crystal on the head of the staff and whispered, "Good-bye Anabelle..." I'd only met her three times, but I felt a kinship with her and knew I was going to miss her. "And good luck..."

I stood there for a minute just mourning the loss of Anabelle, even though I'd never known her very well. Then I remembered why I'd called to her this third and last time. I looked back to theTV and scowled, clenching my staff even more tightly.

Anabelle hadn't given me what I'd gone to her for, advice on whether to get involved or not. On whether I should cross the Scepter yet again or do the smart thing and stay out of it. But on the other hand, her words echoed in my head. This was a matter of me deciding who I wanted to be and then having the will to act on it.

I closed my eyes for a moment before exclaiming, "Damn..."

With that I looked at them TV again, staring at it with the same determination I felt when I'd decided to free Lauren and the hostages. I grimaced and gave my staff the command.

Reality twisted around me and I suddenly arrived at my destination, floating in the air above the airplane. I had to mentally catch myself in order to float there rather than fall. I looked around, seeing the Ms. Miracle and the Miracle Men a distance away, backed up with a lot of cops and emergency personnel. Then I turned my attention to the man standing on top of the plane.

"Barber," I said, landing on top of the plane a short distance away from him. I stared at him grimly.

"Why if it isn't Mystik," the Barber grinned at me, spinning his staff and then tipping his bowler hat and bowing. "So you decided to join our little party I see..."

"This is just a distraction isn't it," I said, looking over the edge of the plane and seeing the large Gnome King on the ground along with a number of his miniature duplicates. "The Scepter has something big planned..."

"The biggest," the Barber gave a cruel laugh. "It's going to be complete and total chaos..."

I stared at the Barber grimly, feeling not the cold knot of fear in my stomach, but a surge of grim determination. "And the people on the place?" I gestured down.

"We'll kill them when we're done," the Barber shrugged. "Kobalt is inside with orders to blow the whole thing to kingdom come if those heroes try interfering..."

"No," I shook my head. "I can't allow that to happen..."

"What?" The Barber stared at me in surprise though his expression quickly turned into a sneer of disgust. "What's the matter? Got a weak stomach or something? Figures...just like a bloody chick..."

"Maybe," I glared at him, taking a deep breath and bracing myself. "But I am going to let these people go..."

The Barber laughed, "You've lost your bloody mind girlie..."

Then he suddenly lunged at me, using his staff to swing at me. I used my staff to block his attack, though he swung his again. We fought staff to staff for a few seconds before he used his far superior skill to know my staff from my hands. It went over the edge and landed on the wing.

I jumped down to the wing to get my staff, though the Barber jumped down as well, landing right between me and my staff. He gave me a cold psychotic grin as he casually tossed his own staff to the side.

"Just to make this fair," he chuckled, "I'll get rid of my staff too..." Then he held out his hands and both of them stretched out into the metal blades.

"You call that fair?" I grimaced.

The Barber just shrugged. "Maybe not...but it is more fun." He chuckled, "Now I'll gut you the way I did that bitch Toxic..." Then he began to take several slow steps towards me, obviously enjoying this game and thinking that he'd play with me for awhile. "Time to give you a little trim..."

I stared at the Barber with grim determination, knowing that I wasn't going to let him scare me. Then I grinned back at him and held out my hand...calling my staff to me. Suddenly my staff flew straight towards my hand...with the Barber standing right between us. My staff smacked him hard in the back of his head, knocking him to the ground with a loud cracking sound.

"That looks like it hurt," I taunted him as my staff flew into my hand.

Then I noticed that when the Barber had been knocked down he'd dropped something. One of those Black Guild teleport disks was on the plane wing just a couple feet away from me. I swung my staff and hit it hard, causing it to smash in and spark for a moment before going dead. Their escape route had just been cut off.

"You'll pay for that girlie," the Barber snarled as he stood back up. He glared at me with his eyes narrowing dangerously. "You really think you can beat me? You really think you can beat all three of us?"

I stared back at him for a moment before smiling. "I don't have to beat you," I told him, gesturing to the group of heroes who stood back just waiting for a chance to go after the Barber and the other two. "They will."

And with that I slammed the base of my staff into the plane wing in a dramatic manner and exclaimed, "Away..."

An instant later I felt a massive surge of power coming from my staff. Reality twisted and a moment later the scenery around me had changed. I was still standing on the airplane wing, but the airplane was no longer on the airport runway. Instead the airplane and everyone inside had been teleported to a mall parking lot. Well, not everyone inside. I'd intentionally left behind all the Black Guild members who were sure to be shocked to hit the ground without any airplane beneath them anymore...or any hostages to keep the heroes away.

"One wish down," I exclaimed, knowing that Ms. Miracle and her people would take care of the hijackers. I'd gotten the hostages to safety and that was the most important thing. Then I gave my staff the order to take me to my next destination.

I arrived at the location of the parade I'd seen on TV and quickly looked around to try finding the Scepter, though it wasn't hard. The Scepter and his people had ceased being subtle or trying to fit in and had instead created a spectacle. The Scepter stood atop a parade float with a metal crate that went up to his waist. His people were running around near the float actively scaring the crowd away.

Contusion had torn a lamp post from the ground and was swinging it over the crowd, apparently not trying to actually hit anyone, but doing a great job of scaring them away. She laughed, "Go on...get your scared butts out of here..."

A short distance away stood Trojan in his super villain costume with the black body suit and the glowing green circuit lines all over. He wasn't trying to scare the crowd away too hard though, since he was just standing there. However his very presence was having that effect anyway.

The last member of the Black Guild present was a tall and athletic woman with golden metallic skin and hair who was dressed in a black dominatrix outfit that included thigh length stiletto heeled boots, long gloves that went past her elbows, and a corset. And in her hand she held a whip, though everything other than the handle was sparking and looking almost as though it were made of electricity. I'd encountered Lethal Lady once in the base, but she didn't have the whip then. I assumed she must have acquired it from Lightning Lash after his death.

At the moment Lethal Lady was snapping the whip and hitting several people in the crowd as they attempted to flee, laughing cruelly when they'd spasm and fall to the ground dead of electrocution. Then, when one man had gotten out of the reach of her whip, she just glared at him and a beam of red energy shot out of her eyes and hit him...turning him into a pile of ash.

By this time the crowd had largely cleared out or had at least spread far enough away from the Scepter that he had a clearing without any interruption. I couldn't help but wondering why he'd come to this parade if he was just going to chase everyone away. All I could figure was that he'd intentionally wanted to create a huge spectacle.

I glared at Lethal Lady with a cold rage over the murders she'd just committed, but she was far enough away from anyone else that she wasn't a danger to the crowd at the moment. I still wanted to charge at her with the full power of my staff, but forced myself to turn my attention to the real threat...the Scepter.

The Scepter had opened the metal crate and revealed the contents, a beach ball sized black sphere that was covered with sparkles of light that made it look something like a night sky. I'd seen this sphere before, since it was the very object I'd helped steal during my first mission with the Black Guild.

Then the Scepter held up the shadow stone we'd taken from the Black spot, though it was now attached to some sort of small device with a few cables linking them. The Scepter pushed a button on the device and suddenly his entire hand was covered in a shadow of pure darkness...a cloud of pitch black. He then attached the shadow stone and device to the sphere and it turned pitch black instead and looked far more like a black hole then a night sky.

I grimaced, not sure what was going on, much less how to stop it. I floated in the air and moved towards the Scepter, hoping that once I got a better look I'd also have a better idea.

"Mystik," Contusion called out when she saw me.

"I thought she got caught," Lethal Lady exclaimed.

"I escaped," I responded in a grim voice, gesturing to the black sphere in front of the Scepter. "What's going on?"

"Don't you dare question me," the Scepter snarled, gesturing at me with his scepter. A moment later I was sent flying back, dropping my staff in the process. I slammed into the side of a building hard enough to leave a good bruise, but not hard enough to break anything. This was meant to be a lesson, not an execution.

"Damn," I winced as I got back to my feet and willed my staff to return to me. If I got this kind of reaction just for asking him what he was doing I could only imagine what he'd do once he realized I intended to stop him. I guess I'd find out for sure soon enough.

The Scepter wasn't even looking at me and was instead focused on the black orb. "It is time to teach the world a lesson in what comes of crossing me," he announced. "It will be a very painful lesson for them to learn, but shall serve them well in the future."

I knew it was stupid even as I did it, but I couldn't resist taunting the Scepter. "I'm not here to question you," I called out to him. "I'm here to stop you."

The Scepter didn't even turn to look at me as he was focused on the black sphere. He just called out, "Destroy her..."

I flew up into the air, just barely avoiding the crack of an electric whip hitting right where I'd been standing. Lethal Lady then fired beams of red energy at me from her eyes, but I teleported and suddenly appeared on the other side of the street from where I'd been.

"The sphere," I told myself, looking at the Scepter. That was the target. Whatever he was planning involved that sphere and the shadow stone he'd attached to it. Then my best move would have to be tearing the shadow stone back off the sphere.

"I'm sorry to do this," Contusion called out, throwing a street lamp right at me. I easily flew out of the way to avoid it. "I kind of liked you..."

Contusion threw several more things at me including a car, though I was able to fly or teleport out of the way for each of them. I was beginning to get the impression that she wasn't trying very hard to actually hit me. Lethal Lady on the other hand was getting angry and taking it person that I kept dodging her attacks.

"Come down here so I can kill you," Lethal Lady exclaimed, snapping her whip.

I quickly glanced at Trojan to see if he was going to try attacking as well, but he made no move to do so. Instead he just stood there watching me. I'd never seen him get involved in any actually fight before and he showed no signs of doing so now.

Then after a minute of dodging these attacks, I realized that I'd have to get more aggressive. I had no idea how much longer I'd have before it was too late. I concentrated and ordered the staff to take me to the float right beside the sphere...but also right beside the Scepter. If I could tear the shadow stone off before he realized it...

I arrived exactly as I'd planned, though immediately saw the flaw in my plan. The sphere was a mass of pure darkness and I couldn't even see the shadow stone inside of it. My hesitation was all the Scepter needed to backhand me and knock me off the float and right onto the ground in front of Lethal Lady. She snapped her whip and looked as though she was really going to enjoy using it on me.

"Fuck," I exclaimed, knowing that I was going to have to use one of my wishes. I had a strong feeling that I was going to really need both of them.

I was just about to turn Lethal Lady into stone when I noticed a red glow from the corner of my eye. She must have noticed it as well as she turned to look at the source at the same time I did. I gasped to see the Face stepping out of a glowing red portal in the air with the rest of Faction Zero coming right behind him.

I took advantage of Lethal Lady's distraction to teleport a short distance away to a slightly safer spot. Then I looked at the group of heroes who'd arrived and who now outnumbered the Black Guild members.

The Scepter didn't seem at all bothered by their arrival or their numbers, though he did call out, "I wasn't expecting your sort for another two minutes."

"We were warned you like to use diversions," the Face exclaimed. "We were told the airplane hijacking had to be one...so we kept an eye out for what you were really up to."

"He doesn't seem that surprised to see us," the amazon Mega said, suddenly swelling in size, so that instead of being seven feet tall she was now ten...towering over everyone else even more.

"Of course I'm not surprised," the Scepter responded coldly. "Had I wished to do this without interruption I would have done it in an empty warehouse. A lesson does little good if the people receiving it do not know who is delivering it or why. I merely wished to delay the arrival of your sort until it was ready..."

I quickly looked over at the heroes, seeing the violet haired girl in the blue and violet witch costume, now knowing that her name was Witch Girl...something I hadn't known when the Protectorate and Faction Zero attacked the Black Guild base. But since then I'd made sure to learn a little more about these people, such as the fact that Witch girl was the daughter of an old hero named Ms. Witch and was the younger sister of the Black Guild member Ms. Bitch. I'd never met Ms. Bitch though, since she'd been caught before I joined.

Mega, the amazon had apparently been dating a member of the Protectorate called the Titan, a man who was murdered by Jack just so he could call himself Jack the Giant Killer. That also explained her reaction to Jack after he'd been pulled out of Jabberwock.

The woman in the gray and crimson costume who'd sucker punched me after I saved Toxic was called Alleycat. I couldn't find out much about her other than that she was apparently the twin sister of another Faction Zero member called Wildcat who'd been killed.

Shiver was a man with a white and blue costume that included a white 'Robin Hood' type hood and a dark blue mask over the bottom half of his face. He had a quiver of arrows attached to his back and held a white bow clutched firmly in his hand. I don't remember seeing him at the Black Guild base, but knew he could turn regular arrows into some sort of energy arrow that freezes what it hits.

The next Faction Zero member was the team leader Icarus, an athletic man with a white and black costume and a pair of big white wings on his back. He had a gold metal belt and wrist bands which were actually some sort of weapons that could create small shields and energy blades to fight with. I vaguely remembered him from the Black Guild base.

The last member of Faction Zero was called Circuit, who I was pretty sure hadn't been at the raid. She was tall, had a statuesque build, and looked as though she was made entirely out of metal...which seemed appropriate since she was supposedly some sort of android. Her body was all dark blue, white and silver, with her face being all dark blue and with features that made her look like she might be a black chick. The fact that her 'hair' was all a bunch of silver metal coils added to this impression, since they bore a resemblance to dreadlocks.

Just then a strange humming sound started coming from the Scepter. No, I realized, not from the Scepter. It was coming from the pure black sphere in front of him. Then as I watched the blackness all faded and a moment later the shadow stone and the device attached to it both crumbled to dust.

"Oh no," the Face exclaimed in shock, "it can't be..."

"Ah, but it is," the Scepter responded with a cold laugh. "And the force field imprisoning it has just been drained..."

The sphere began to warp and stretch, looking less like a sphere and more like an egg. Then it stretched even more, sort of melting or flowing into a whole new shape. A moment later the new shape began to resemble that of a human woman, though it was still all black with the small dots of light that looked like stars in the night sky.

"It's Entropy," the Face exclaimed with the fear clear in his voice.

"Who's Entropy?" Witch Girl and I both exclaimed at nearly the same time.

To my surprise it was Trojan who answered me from a few feet away. I hadn't even noticed him getting that close. "Entropy is an extradimensional being," he explained. "Her very presence breaks down matter and even most energy nearby...pushing it into a state of entropy. The more she destroys the larger and more powerful she becomes." Trojan actually sounded afraid as he added, "Left unchecked... she can destroy the world in less than a day."

"WHAT?" I gasped in shock. I looked to the strange being who was shaped like a woman. "SHE is a doomsday weapon?"

"Affirmative," Trojan answered quietly before adding, "I was unaware of her presence..."

"When she first appeared in our dimension years ago," the Face was explaining to Witch Girl, having just explained the same thing Trojan had to me, "we just barely managed to defeat her. Doctor Power was able to drain her energy and capture her in a special energy containment field. We locked her up and hid her away..."

Alleycat snarled at the Scepter, "How the fuck is destroying the world supposed to teach a lesson...?"

"I won't allow her to destroy all of it," the Scepter said as he moved away from Entropy. "Just enough to prove a point..."

Alleycat snarled and jumped right at him with her fingers extended like claws. However the Scepter gestured at her and she was thrown back a good distance, though luckily for her he didn't slam her against a wall.

I looked at Entropy again and noticed that the entire float had crumbled away to dust. She started walking down the street, paying no attention to us. The ground cracked and crumbled around her and I noticed that she seemed to be growing. She reached out and touched another float and it crumbled away while she grew several inches taller.

"Entropy," Contusion exclaimed, staring at the strange being then at the Scepter. "Are you insane? I never signed up for this..." Then she turned and ran in the opposite direction. Everyone was so focused on the Scepter and Entropy that no one bothered stopping her.

By this point Entropy was over seven feet tall and continuing to grow larger. Mega started to move towards her, but the Face stopped her.

"Don't touch her," Icarus called out to everyone. "Anything she touches is destroyed...."

Several members of Faction Zero started to follow after Entropy, keeping their distance as they tried figuring out how to stop her. Several others remained keeping an eye on the Scepter and me.

The Scepter watched Entropy for a moment before reaching for his wrist, about to escape the way he had before. I grimaced and teleported right beside him, swinging down with my staff as hard as I could and hitting his wrist. He snarled and hit me with his fist sending me flying back in pain.

"He's trying to escape again," Witch Girl called out.

To my surprise it was Alleycat who grabbed me and pulled me back before the Scepter could turn his full attention on me. "How the Hell did you get out of prison?" Alleycat demanded as she did so.

"Wouldn't you like to know," I grinned.

She just snorted, "Damn Key..."

I quickly looked at Entropy again, noticing that she was now over fifteen feet tall. The Face, Icarus, and Shiver were all focused on her, each of them trying to attack her in their own way. Icarus flew over her head, keeping his distance since he couldn't get close enough to really attack her.

Shiver was pulling arrows out of his quiver and transforming them into some sort of white energy before he shot them at Entropy. His arrows seemed to have no effect at all on her though when one of his arrows missed her and hit a building the wall began coating with ice.

The Face was shooting beams of golden energy at Entropy from his mask, though when that didn't work he started to stand there calling out something in a strange language. I knew he must be casting some sort of spell, but I had absolutely no idea of what sort.

Since Mega couldn't get near Entropy she was focusing instead on stopping Lethal Lady. Lethal Lady was alternately attacking her with the electric whip or the blasts of energy from her eyes, neither of which seemed to do much good against Mega other than to make her angry.

"That stings," Mega snarled, growing yet another foot taller in response. "That looks just like one of Lightning Lash's whips... I hate that obnoxious jerk..."

"Why won't you die?" Lethal Lady demanded viciously.

Mega just laughed, "Sorry, I'm not about to do you any favors... especially not that one. And don't bother trying to punch me either. I know you're a lot stronger than a normal person, but you're nowhere near my level..."

Lethal Lady looked at Mega with a mixture of fury and desperation as she obviously realized she couldn't beat the immense hero. Then Lethal Lady started to grin coldly and ran towards Entropy, stopping just short of the twenty foot tall being.

"You're on our side," Lethal Lady called up to Entropy. "The Scepter freed you... He controls you... Save me from this woman... I order you to destroy her..."

Entropy shifted positions, though it didn't seem to have anything to do with Lethal Lady. In fact she didn't seem to even notice Lethal Lady and only barely seemed aware of the heroes attacking her. She stepped closer to Lethal Lady and suddenly Lethal Lady screamed in pain. Her golden metal skin immediately dulled and began to crack. She dropped to her knees and small pieces of her metallic skin started to flake off. Then Entropy stepped even closer and Lethal Lady collapsed to the ground, her body already beginning to disintegrate...and without even having directly touched the powerful being.

I stared at Lethal Lady's remains in shock, hardly able to believe she'd been killed that fast and easily...without Entropy even seeming to notice her. All the heroes were backing away, but were looking even more panicked than before.

"YOU DID THIS," I snarled at the Scepter, furious that he would unleash something like Entropy on the world. I felt a knot of cold anger at myself as well for my part in it. If I hadn't helped steal both Entropy and the shadow stone that freed her...

"Perhaps I can be of assistance," Trojan said, coming up behind Circuit and placing a hand on her shoulder. "Entropy is a threat to my own continued existence as well."

"A logical conclusion," Circuit agreed, then paused to suddenly shove Trojan away from her with an angry expression. "You are attempting to access my programming... This will NOT be tolerated..."

Then Witch Girl exclaimed, "Watch out!"

I turned to see the Scepter pointing his scepter straight at me just a moment before I was suddenly picked up and held in the air. Witch Girl yelled out, "Eltmay," and then his scepter began to melt and turn into a puddle of goo. I immediately dropped back to the ground, released from his power.

Circuit held up her hand and fired a beam of blue energy at the Scepter, hitting him right in the chest and causing his armor to suddenly start sparking in a few places. "A focused electromagnetic pulse," she exclaimed in a cold and mechanical voice. "His escape apparatus and armor have been neutralized. The source of his powers have been destroyed. The Scepter is no longer a threat."

"No longer a threat?" the Scepter snarled angrily. "You are a fool machine..." He gestured at her with his hand and suddenly Circuit was lifted into the air. "My power doesn't come from my scepter..." Then he gestured and she was suddenly sent flying straight at Entropy.

Circuit slammed into the thirty foot tall Entropy before I could even think about doing anything. Her metal body suddenly dulled and cracked. She let out a loud shrieking electronic scream that seemed a horrific mesh of artificial and human before her entire body crumbled away to nothing.

"You idiots," the Scepter snarled, catching Alleycat in mid-air as she was leaping straight at him. "With my armor and teleporter destroyed I have no means of accessing my fail safe... I have no way of controlling Entropy as I had intended..."

Witch Girl was starting to say something in pig latin again, but was suddenly thrown up into the air as well, held there by the Scepter. It looked like she was trying to cast her spell, but his power was preventing her from even speaking.

"I would have allowed Entropy to destroy merely half a continent at most," the Scepter exclaimed. "Now she will destroy the entire world..."

The Scepter snarled and was about to kill the two super heroes, but there was absolutely no way in Hell I was going to let that happen. I grimaced and made my move, firing a massive blast of magical energy right at the Scepter. It hit him straight in the chest and sent him flying back with massive force, causing him to release Alleycat and Witch Girl.

The Scepter was thrown back near where Entropy was currently destroying the wall of a building, though he didn't land near enough for her power to destroy him. However when he tried to get back to his feet his armor was so badly shattered that it almost looked like she'd already gotten to him. My attack had obviously hurt him a great deal as he couldn't even get back to his feet before he collapsed back to the ground, barely able to even get to his knees.

"You saved us," Witch Girl gasped, staring at me in surprise.

I just grunted and pointed at Entropy with my staff. "We still have to stop Bitchzilla there..."

"I think I like Broadzilla better," Witch Girl snickered, though the look in her eyes was a lot more serious. "Yours reminds me too much of my sister."

Entropy was now forty feet tall and unbelievably powerful. She placed a hand on the side of a building and the whole site started to crumble away. Everything near her was falling within the sphere of destruction, whether she touched it or not. The entire street was gone, though she continued walking where it had been, hovering in the air just a little. The heroes couldn't get anywhere near her now and the larger she grew the further back they were pushed.

"We have to stop her," Icarus called out. "Face...come up with something..."

"I'm trying," the Face exclaimed in frustration. "Nothing I try is working... We just don't have the right tools to trap her like we did the last time..." He turned to look at me. "The machine Doctor Power used to contain her last time was stored in the Black Spot just in case something like this ever happened...but half the pieces were destroyed..."

"Oh shit," I winced, feeling guilty for yet one more thing even though I hadn't destroyed anything during our break in.

"The bitch killed Circuit," Shiver snarled. "We can't let her kill anyone else..."

I stepped beside the Face and grimly agreed, "No, we can't..."

The Face turned and looked at me again, and though I couldn't see his face through the mask I could imagine a look of surprise on it. "You..."

"Can help," I responded, not taking my eyes off the still growing Entropy. "Is there anything that can stop her? Can't we just send her back to wherever she came from?"

"No," the Face shook his head. "We tried that after we defeated her the last time. The barrier to her dimension can't be broken from our side..."

I grimaced, clenching my staff tightly and knowing that we had to do something before it was too late. Then I turned to the Face. "What about locking her in a pocket dimension?"

I thought about the forbidden room that the Scepter had locked his hostages in and just how effective it had been. No one could come or go from the room other than through that door and once that door was gone the room either sealed up forever with no way in or out...or just imploded destroying everything within. I never got a clear explanation as to which it was, but thought that either might be a good solution for Entropy.

"That might work if we had a way to create one," the Face told me grimly. "Unfortunately that isn't something I could do even if I was at full power...which I most certainly am not."

I just nodded at that and looked at Entropy, not knowing if I could possibly do something like that, but knowing that I had to try. Sometimes it paid to not know your limitations. Sometimes your preconceived notions about what they are can stop you from even trying.

I concentrated on exactly what I wanted, a pocket dimension like the forbidden room, a place that could hold Entropy forever, and a place that could not be escaped from. Then I ordered my staff to make it so.

A moment later the violet crystal on the head of my staff began to glow and I could feel the raw power flowing through it. A mass of golden energy began swirling in the air near Entropy and then formed into a portal similar to the ones I'd seen created by both the Face and the Key...though much larger. This glowing portal was about fifteen feet across which was still very small for the now fifty foot Entropy.

"It's working," I grimaced in amazement, not having been at all sure the staff could do something like this.

Unlike the portals that the Face and Key had created, mine was more of a spinning vortex that seemed to be pulling things in. Small amounts of rubble and lots of the dust left behind by Entropy were being pulled inside. I couldn't help but making a mental observation that it reminded me just a little of a flushing toilet.

A large bubble of the black stuff with the shiny star sparkles broke off Entropy's leg and flew into the vortex, followed by another and then another. More and more of Entropy's body was pulled off and sucked into the vortex like a slowly increasing stream of water. Her body was quickly shrinking down as she lost the stuff she was made of.

Entropy fought to keep from being pulled in, grabbing desperately at a building to use it as support. The side of the building of course crumbled and disintegrated at her touch, leaving her with nothing to hold on to. She felt to the ground, the entire lower half of her body being little more than a stream of bubbles that were being pulled into the vortex. She frantically grabbed at the ground for support, but that too crumbled under her grasp.

Suddenly the Scepter charged at me, leaping into the air and hovering there for a moment before diving right at me. He slammed into me, knocking me back with a painful impact, then standing above me with my own staff in his hand.

"You stole my weapon," the Scepter snarled. "Now I shall steal yours..."

Then he gestured at me and I was lifted into the air again. I gasped in pain as it felt like an invisible hand was beginning to squeeze me tighter and tighter. I couldn't breath...

"Oh no you don't," Mega exclaimed, charging forward and punching the Scepter.

The Scepter was sent flying back towards Entropy, still clutching my staff in his hand. He landed right next to the vortex, dropping my staff when he hit. He started to get back up again, the remains of his armor falling off him. However he suddenly began sliding backwards... towards the vortex.

"NO!" the Scepter screamed out as he was pulled from the ground and flew right into the vortex alongside Entropy...followed by my staff.

"My staff," I gasped in horror, only to see the last bit of Entropy flowing into the vortex.

I got back to my feet, though I felt as though half my body was one solid bruise. I started staggering towards the vortex desperate to get my staff back, not thinking about how dangerous it would be to get too close to it. But the vortex was already shrinking and before I'd taken five steps it had closed up and vanished entirely.

"My staff," I winced, calling it to me...willing it to appear in my hand. However there was no response. It was the same way as when I was locked inside the prison. I was cut off from it. "It's gone..."

"We did it," Witch Girl exclaimed excitedly. "We got rid of Entropy..."

"SHE did it," Alleycat pointed out, scowling at me.

Shiver looked to where Circuit had died or been destroyed...whichever was the appropriate word. Then he shook his head sadly and whispered, "Circuit..."

"A very high price," the Face added quietly.

I winced and struggled to stand up straight, looking around me at the heroes who were now turning their attention to me. It was then that I remembered that I was a known super villain who'd escaped from jail and they were a group of super heroes. They badly outnumbered me and I was now without my powers as well. There was absolutely nothing I could do.

Then Icarus swooped down and landed in front of me, giving me a cold look as he said, "I appreciate what you just did...but Entropy wouldn't have gotten free without your help." He stared at me for a moment longer before saying, "We have to take you in."

I stared back for several seconds before lowering my eyes to the ground in shame and muttering, "I know..."

Mega put a very firm hand on my shoulder so I couldn't escape and I didn't even offer any resistance. By this point I knew it was pointless. There was absolutely nothing I could do...except go to prison for a very long time. I knew I probably deserved it too.

Just then a voice called out, "Not just yet..."

I turned to see who it was and was a little startled to see a man and a woman walking straight towards us. The man was in his mid to late forties with dark hair that was graying. He wore a gray suit and looked very serious. Something about him screamed 'cop' to me. The woman coming beside him had black shoulder length hair, had a pair of glasses on and was wearing a black suit. And like the man, she looked very serious though not quite as coplike.

The man held out a batch for everyone to see and announced, "I'm Agent Donald Rice with DAD...the Developed Affairs Department." He gestured to the woman beside him, "My associate is Agent Briggs."

"Agent Rice," Icarus greeted him cautiously.

"It's nice to see you again Icarus," Agent Rice said. "I just wish it were under better circumstances."

"You know him?" Alleycat scowled at Icarus.

Icarus nodded. "He's my contact in DAD...the one who gave us the information about where the Black Guild's headquarters and their informant."

I just looked at Agent Briggs, thinking that she seemed very familiar. Then I gasped as it suddenly came to me. Her hair had been dyed black and she was wearing the glasses...but there was no doubt who this was.

"Toxic," I gasped in surprise.

Agent Briggs...Toxic quickly glared at me and scowled. "Toxic was a super villain who was recently murdered by the Barber." She gave me a very intense look to make sure I understood.

I just nodded. "Sorry...my mistake."

Agent Rice looked at Icarus and said, "The Miracle Men just captured the Black Guild hijackers at the airport a few minutes ago. I'll take care of this one." He looked to me.

"You're in real trouble now," Alleycat smirked. "I kind of feel sorry for you after you saved my life and all..."

Toxic...Agent Briggs since that's what she wanted to be called right now...opened a manilla folder and pulled out a photo that she held up. It was an old looking black and white photo of a woman who looked almost exactly like Anabelle...or me at the moment. However instead of the magician costume Anabelle wore this one was wearing a black dress... thoughs he still held the Staff of Isis in her hand.

"Black Annie," I said in realization.

"Mystik here is the grand-daughter of the depression erra bank robber known as Black Annie," Agent Briggs said. Then she pulled out another photo, one that was an advertisement flyer for the Astonishing Anabelle. "We believe a stage magician named Anabelle was her mother." She gave me a steady look. "It seems being a magic user runs in the family."

"It would seem that way," I responded.

"As well as being a criminal." Shiver glared at me.

Agent Briggs glared at him, then said, "I've put together a file on Mystik's own activities." She pulled out another paper from the folder. "She took down an organized crime figure who ran an extortion ring over most of a city. She defeated the criminal Rune Dancer and prevented a bank robbery."

"What?" Mega asked in surprise.

"We have a witness from a Black Guild raid," Agent Briggs stated, looking at me with a strange expression. "She said that Mystik hid her and protected her from the other Black Guild members. Mystik stopped the Barber from murdering a member of the Seven. Several witnesses have come forward claiming that they were kidnapped by the Black Guild and held for months...and that Mystik broke them out and freed them." She paused to look around at the Faction Zero members. "She also just defeated Entropy and saved the world..."

"She did all THAT?" Witch Girl gasped in surprise.

Agent Briggs just nodded. "And she saved the life of someone very important to me at great risk to herself."

"Her actions seem less like those of a member of the Black Guild," Agent Rice grimaced, looking at Agent Briggs who just gave him a steady look. He sighed. "And more like those of someone trying to infiltrate them." Then he gave me a very cold look and added, "Mystik's resume is either that of a very bad super villain...or a passably decent hero."

I just stared at him and Agent Briggs in surprise, hardly able to believe what I was hearing. Everything she'd said was true...though there were important things left out such as why I'd really taken down Big Ed and Rune Dancer.

"Agent Briggs," Agent Rice said carefully, "has convinced me that no charges should be pressed against Mystik at this time." His eyes narrowed as he stared at me. "Contingent on future activities."

I let out a sigh of relief, not sure that I'd heard what I thought I'd heard. I wasn't going to go to prison after all. I gulped and met his stare before telling him, "I'm retiring..." At his skeptical look I added, "I lost my magic when I lost my staff..." I gestured to where the vortex had been.

Agent Rice nodded at that. "Then you should probably get going..."

I looked at the Faction Zero members, all of whom were staring at me with strange expressions. I wasn't sure any of them bought what Agent Briggs had told them, but none of them looked as though they were going to really protest. So I turned and hurried away.

"Thank God," I gasped in immense relief, hardly able to believe that Toxic of all people had saved my ass and kept me from going to prison.

Then I noticed a young woman standing a short distance away watching everyone. For a brief moment her eyes started to glow green, then she turned and hurried off in the opposite direction.

"Trojan," I muttered in realization. He was making his own escape from this place.

I glanced back to Faction Zero and the DAD agents, wondering if they were going to try looking for him and Contusion. At least I didn't have to feel guilty about Trojan getting away since like me, Trojan was a thief...not a killer. Every time there had been a fight he stood to the side and avoided participating.

"If only more super villains were pacifists instead of psychos," I chuckled.

Then I looked to my wrist, wishing I was wearing a watch so I could see the time. It had been only about fifteen minutes since I'd finished using my last wish...just enough time so that normally my change would wear off and I'd turn back to normal. But with my staff now lost to me forever, I had no idea if I'd still change back or not.

I felt a surge of worry at that though I knew I'd just escaped a fate far worse. I liked being a chick for awhile, but sure as Hell didn't want to be one for the rest of my life. But being a chick for the rest of my life was a LOT better than being in prison for it.

Just then I heard a voice call out, "Hey Caleb..."

"What?" I blinked in surprise that anyone would know my real name and looked around for the source. I immediately saw her standing there a short distance away. "Lauren...?"

"Or should I call you Mystik?" Lauren asked as she came over to me. "I'm not up on the whole code name rules..."

I just stared at Lauren and confusion and disbelief, hardly able to believe she was actually here. "What are you doing here?" I gasped. "How...?"

"My dad," Lauren said, holding up a Black Guild teleport disk. She gave me a wry smile. "We've been talking...for the first time in years. I haven't seen him since before the accident that turned him invisible..." She shook her head. then smiled nervously. "He said that you might need me and gave me this... He said it only has enough battery power for one or two more uses..."

"Wow," I gasped, not sure what I could say to that. "The Griffin really is your dad..."

She just nodded at that. "Yeah... It's kind of weird. I just thought he was a deadbeat, but it turns out he's some kind of corporate spy and saboteur." She gave me a wry smile adding, "That's so much better."

"I'd imagine." I laughed weakly.

Lauren stared at me for a moment. "It's kind of weird talking to you when you're like this..."

"I know what you mean," I told her grimly. "It's weird talking to you when you know who I am. No one else does..."

"I'm pretty sure my dad does," Lauren said quietly.

Suddenly I felt a familiar wave of transformation wash over my body. In just a moment my sexy body, my lovely breasts, and even my fancy costume were all gone...replaced with my normal male body. I just let out a sigh of relief.

"I lost my staff," I told Lauren quietly. "I lost all my magic powers..."

I frowned, realizing that I'd not only lost everything I could do with the staff...but the body that came with it. Without the staff I could never turn into a woman like that again. I might not want to be stuck like that for the rest of my life, but I knew that I'd miss being able to spend time like that.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Lauren told me, sounding sincere. "I can't imagine what it's like to have something like that, then lose it..."

I just smiled. "I'll survive..."

Lauren put a hand on my cheek and looked me in my eyes. I felt my heart race a little at her close presence. "You do realize that you just saved the world," she told me with a twinkle in her eyes. "If that's not a hero...I don't know what is."

"But..." I started to disagree.

However Lauren silenced me with a kiss...one that took me by surprise, but also filled me with delight. When she pulled away a minute later I was a little disappointed since I wanted more of that.

"Let's go home," Lauren said, holding up the teleport disk and smiling. "Then we can go out for coffee and get to know each other better..."

"I'd like that," I told her with a grin. "I'd definitely like that..."

I looked back the way I'd come, knowing that three people had just died there...if Circuit could really be described as a person. I felt horrible for their deaths...even for that of the Scepter, but things could have been much MUCH worse. I'd come out of it not only with my freedom, but with a second chance...one that I never thought I'd get. I looked at Lauren and knew that this time I wasn't going to waste it. Then the familiar sense of teleportation hit me and took me away.

I let out a loud yawn as I returned home to my apartment, tiring after spending a lot of time and effort on my last job. But this wasn't my old sense of the word. This was a real job...a straight and honest job.

It had been just over two months since I'd lost my magic staff and my ability to become Mystik. I'd definitely be lying if I said I didn't miss it. I missed the rush of the power and the ability to do almost anything I wanted. And I even missed being able to turn into a hot chick, though of course I'd never admit that to anyone...especially not my girlfriend.

Things have changed a great deal for me in the last two months. Lauren and I tried dating and found that we really hit it off. In fact two weeks ago we even moved in together which was a bit of an adjustment. I wasn't quite sure that I'd say she was my soul mate or anything, but I definitely cared a great deal about her...more than I have for any other woman I'd ever met.

Of course the improvement in my love life was hardly the biggest change that had happened. I hadn't pulled a single job in my old sense of the word. In fact I'd gone completely straight and narrow. I had a real job now working as a handyman for an apartment building. It took a lot more time and work than I was used to, not to mention paid less than robbing people, but I didn't have to feel guilty afterwards either.

I had a second job as well now, though it would hardly qualify as a job, since it was more like self imposed community service. I offered my services helping people burglar proof their homes. Basically I'd show them what I'd do if I was breaking in and then offer my suggestions about how they could keep people like me out or even from going after their homes in the first place. I didn't charge anything for this, but a couple people have actually started giving me some pretty nice tips anyway. It was Lauren who'd originally suggested I use my burglary experience this way and I have to admit that I was really getting a kick out of it.

I sat down on my couch and let out a sigh of relief at finally being home. I could barely believe everything I'd been up to lately or just how different my life was. I had two jobs, a girlfriend, and then the classes I'd been taking.

Lauren had been taking a lot of online classes to get a good degree, but I'd been taking lessons of a different sort entirely. Back when I'd been Mystik, I'd been pretty frustrated at my limitations. I had incredible power, but unless I wanted to fly, teleport, or use one of my wishes, I was pretty helpless. I might not have any of that anymore, but I was still inspired to learn how to take care of myself a little better...so I started taking martial arts classes.

One aspect that I was especially interested in learning was how to fight using a bo staff. Back when I'd been Mystik, the one thing I always had even when I was out of wishes was my staff. The Barber might have been a complete and total psycho, but he knew how to handle his staff and got me thinking that I should learn to do so too. Sure, I didn't have the staff anymore, but that wasn't the point.

Of course there were a few new complications that I'd been dealing with as well. The big one was Lauren's dad...the costumed criminal called the Griffin. I'd only run into him once over the last couple months and he didn't say anything about my having been Mystik, though I was pretty sure he knew from his time spying on everyone in the base while invisible. I was pretty sure he must have seen me change at some point.

But even though I've only seen the Griffin once over the last two months, that didn't mean he wasn't around. I had a feeling that he'd been showing up every once in awhile to check on Lauren though I couldn't be sure. Still the knowledge that he could be there watching always made me a little more careful...just in case. I really didn't want my girlfriend's invisible super villain dad to get pissed at me.

"Let's see," I sighed, putting my feet up on the coffee table and thinking that I had time to watch a little TV before Lauren got home from work.

I absently flipped through the channels, not paying too much attention, since there wasn't anything that looked good. Then I saw a news broadcast and stopped for a moment to watch. Some super villain had just unleashed a small army of robots on Miami...though they didn't really say why.

"At least I know it's not the Black Guild," I mused. With the Scepter gone and most of the members having been captured, I couldn't imagine the Black Guild still being any kind of threat.

I watched the news footage for a moment, wincing as dozens of robots marched through the streets, shooting beams of energy from their eyes and destroying everything in their paths. I grimaced and turned the TV off, not wanting to watch that kind of destruction. I'd seen more than my share of that with Entropy. I still had the occasional nightmare of that thing destroying the world.

"Damn," I muttered, getting up to go get myself a beer.

I was just opening the fridge when I suddenly felt something... something I hadn't felt in months. I stood up straight and gasped at the sensation of the Staff of Isis calling to me to tell me that it was recharged and ready to use. It was faint...and felt like it was far away...but I could still feel it.

"It can't be," I gasped, my eyes going wide in disbelief. The staff had been lost for good...probably even destroyed, but I could still feel it calling to me.

I hesitated only a moment before calling it to me, willing it to return to me. It didn't respond at first and I had to mentally call it even harder, but then I felt it responding...right before it suddenly appeared in my hand.

"No fucking way," I blurted out, staring at the staff in stunned amazement.

My staff looked exactly the way I remembered it, without so much as a blemish or a scratch on it's metal surface. It had spent two months in a pocket dimension with Entropy, yet it still looked as good as new.

For nearly a minute I just stared at my staff, looking it over for any damage or signs of what it had gone through, but finding none. Only then did I get my courage up enough to do what I'd been wanting to do for two months. I slammed the base of it onto the ground and willed it to activate.

"Yes," I exclaimed as the wave of transformation once again washed over my body, transforming it from my normal male form to that of the sexy Mystik.

I couldn't resist grinning rather stupidly as I looked over myself, seeing that my female body was exactly as I remembered it all the way down to my costume. I cupped my breasts and licked my lips, feeling excited as I did so. It was damn nice having them back.

"Wait until I tell Lauren," I whispered.

Then my excitement dimmed a little as I realized what the return of my staff meant. It meant that somehow...some day...Entropy might eventually be able escape that pocket dimension as well. If my staff could get out...

There were other considerations as well, ones that had more to do with the responsibility that I now had sitting on my shoulders again. I've had a long time to think of what I'd do if I ever got the staff back and I knew without a doubt that I wasn't going to do the same things as before.

"I sucked as a villain," I admitted. Agent Rice had been completely right when he'd told me that. It no longer bothered me to realize that I just didn't have what it took to be a major league criminal. In fact there was now a certain relief in knowing that I didn't.

In the last two months I'd come to realize that having all that power had been extremely exciting...but ultimately...it hadn't felt all that satisfying. There had been only a few times when I'd actually felt real satisfaction from using that power. When I'd freed Lauren and the others from the Scepter's prison. When I'd brought Toxic back to life. When I'd gotten the people on the airplane to safety. And of course when I got rid of Entropy.

"This time is going to be different," I promised myself.

I hadn't been a very good villain and I wasn't sure I could make a very good hero. I was a bit selfish, generally lazy, and I had a criminal background that probably wouldn't look very good on the resume of any hero. But I had to try.

Of course I wasn't willing to give up Lauren, my new job, or everything I'd build in my life lately in order to be a full time hero...but I was sure I didn't have to. My powers didn't exactly lend themselves to being a full time hero. I could only use the full power of my staff only three times a day at most, so I was better suited to helping out occasionally and when the situation really needed someone like me.

At the moment though I could definitely think of one situation that could benefit by having the help of someone with powers like mine. Unless things had drastically changed in the last two minutes an army of robots was still attacking Miami.

Then I turned my attention to the TV and carefully pictured the place they'd been showing in Miami. I took a deep breath and build my courage, then ordered my staff to take me there. It was time to get to work.

A slender black man with thick glasses stood at the front door to a large secluded house, staring at the front door. The door was locked tight and protected with a security system which was far more advanced than any normally used for a private residence. However even this security system took him only moments to bypass.

He stepped inside the house, only to immediately find himself with a gun pointed straight at his forehead. A black woman in her mid to late fifties stood there with a grim expression on her face and an energy rifle in her hands.

"Don't you dare move," the woman threatened.

"Doctor Fredricks," the man greeted her calmly, seemingly unbothered by the weapon pointed at him.

Doctor Fredricks lowered her weapon and stared at the intruder for a moment. "Trojan," she said in recognition.

"Affirmative," Trojan responded as his eyes began to glow green and the green circuit lines appeared over his body.

A moment later Trojan's body began to blur and change. His clothes, skin color, and all features all faded away into an indistinct black male shape, though the glowing green eyes and circuit lines remained.

"You have completed it," he stated.

Doctor Fredricks hesitated a moment before responding, "Yes. This way."

Doctor Fredricks led Trojan down a hallway and into a large room that was filled with tools and advanced technical equipment. Computers, later cutters, and numerous devices with purposes that were not immediately identifiable all filled the walls and corners. However Trojan ignored all of this, to focus instead on the humanoid figure standing in the middle of the room.

The figure was definitely female in shape, but entirely made of metal. The body was silver, white and dark blue, with the entire face being dark blue and with features that gave it an African American appearance, which was augmented by the silver metal cables which served as hair and resembled dreadlocks.

"Circuit's new body," Doctor Fredricks announced proudly. She approached the metal body and examined it with a smile. "Circuit was my greatest creation...the culmination of decades working in cybernetics. She was almost like a daughter to me..."

"You created her artificial intelligence with decision making loci patterned after your own," Trojan stated.

Doctor Fredricks nodded at that, looking at the metal body with an expression of hope. "I was devastated when I heard about her death... but then you showed up saying you'd downloaded a copy of her mind just minutes before then... I was quite happy to go through the efforts of constructing a new body for her."

Trojan just looked at Circuit's new body and asked, "Have you added the upgrades I requested?"

"Yes," Doctor Fredricks responded thoughtfully. "Those should make her more difficult to destroy the next time...thought they still won't stand up to something like that Entropy being..."

Trojan nodded faintly, then turned and placed his hand against Circuit's new body. Suddenly the glowing green lines began to spread from his hands and over her body. When her body was covered with the same glowing green circuit lines that covered his, the lines on his body began to fade. A moment later his eyes ceased glowing as well and his body collapsed motionless to the floor, now entirely black with no sign of any green glow.

Then Circuit's eyes began to glow green and she turned her head to look at Doctor Fredricks. She shifted position and held up her hands to look at them, then she slowly looked down over her own body.

"Circuit?" Doctor Fredricks asked in confusion.

"Negative," Trojan responded from his new body.

"Trojan," Doctor Fredricks gasped. "You said you were going to upload a copy of Circuit's mind..."

"That was...falsehood," Trojan responded without emotion other than the faint curiosity he demonstrated over his new body. "I linked with Circuit minutes before her destruction. She deflected my attempt before I could access her core programming, but not before I could access most of her memory files. This is how I knew you were her creator."

"You lied to me," Doctor Fredricks gasped in horror, turning to reach for the energy rifle she'd set on a counter upon entering the room.

"Testing offensive capabilities," Trojan stated, then turned and fired a beam of blue energy from his hand. The beam hid Doctor Fredricks in her back and went right through her. She collapsed to the ground... dead before she'd even had time to scream. "Impressive..." Trojan held up his hand and examined it again.

Trojan was quite satisfied with his new body and what it was capable of. It was far more powerful than his previous body, which had no offensive capabilities at all and only an extremely limited amount of defensive ones. This new body though could manipulate electromagnetic waves in a variety of ways such as to fly, fire beams of destructive energy, fire focused electromagnetic pulses as well as perform several other useful functions. The upgrades he'd insisted Doctor Fredricks make to the body only augmented those powers as well as supported his own capabilities.

"My next steps," Trojan stated, speaking to himself since Doctor Fredricks was no longer alive. "Impersonate Circuit. Infiltrate Faction Zero. Access the hero support network to acquire sealed information. Total information control equates to total power." Then Trojan held up his hand and fired another beam of blue energy at a piece of equipment lining the wall before adding, "Eliminate all obstacles."

Then the glowing green circuit lines covering Trojan's new body faded along with the glow in his eyes. He now looked exactly like Circuit, which was exactly what he'd intended when he'd approached Doctor Fredricks about 'ressurecting' her.

A moment later Trojan left Doctor Fredricks' house to go find his new 'teammates' in Faction Zero, knowing that they would believe his cover story. After all Circuit having a back-up copy of herself hidden was quite plausible and this body was physical evidence to back up the story. It was time to get to work.

A black cat quietly slipped down the alleyway behind a restaurant, gracefully leaping to the top of the garbage can and sniffing disdainfully before leaping back to the ground. He looked around suspiciously before continuing down the alley.

Just then a large dog came charging at the cat, snarling and barking loudly. The cat arched his back and hissed menacingly at the dog just seconds before the dog was suddenly thrown up into the air as if by an invisible hand. The dog hovered there for just a moment, letting out a loud whine of pain as every bone in its body was suddenly crushed. Only then did the dog fall back to the ground in a whimper of agony.

Ebon watched the dog with a dark satisfaction, deciding not to end its suffering. After all Ebon hated canines nearly as much as he hated those wretched humans. Those humans seemed to always be in his way... especially his former master.

The only human Ebon had ever respected or feared...which were the same thing to his mind was his former master. The master had been a man of great power who knew how to wield fear as a lethal weapon. Of course that hadn't stopped Ebon from escaping his master when the opportunity presented itself, but that was long ago and it had been many years since he'd last seen his one time master Baron Nevermore.

Ever since Ebon had gained his freedom from Baron Nevermore he had been focused on his own ambitions...on gaining his own power. He'd even spent years carefully building his base of power and especially in cultivating his puppet.

Those foolish humans were so easy to distract, seeing what they wanted to see. Did they not realize that a scepter had absolutely no power? A scepter was merely a symbol of power...a tool in the hand of the one with the power. But when they looked at the Scepter they saw nothing beyond him...and certainly not the 'innocent' cat who was the true power on the throne.

It had taken Ebon a great deal of time and effort to properly train his chosen pawn, to psychically slip into his mind and twist it...to reprogram it and turn him into the perfect puppet. But Ebon had done so, transforming a meet school teacher into the Scepter...into Ebon's proxy for the world.

Unfortunately those humans had turned Ebon's plans to ruins... dismantling the Black Guild and destroying his Scepter. And without the Scepter to act as his proxy he had little means of rebuilding his power base or accomplishing his dreams of conquest.

Ebon knew that his next step was to find a new pawn...a new proxy...a new Scepter. Perhaps this time he would choose a developed with powers of their own to become his pawn instead of one who merely channeled Ebon's. It amused him to think that he might possess a pawn with powers to rival those of his one time master Baron Nevermore.

Then, after taking one more look at the dog, Ebon turned to continue his search for a new pawn. He had a lot of work ahead of him to both find and train a new Scepter so he didn't want to delay. It was time to get to work.