----------=A Blast from the Past!=----------

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Image Credit: Luce3.
 
Author's Note: To get this started I’d like to thank Lilith Langtree for her suggestions for needed changes and for helping me out with the image in this one.
 
Admin Note: Originally published on BigCloset TopShelf on Tuesday 07-20-2010 at 08:11:53 am, this amazing Fan-Fiction story was pulled out of the closet, and re-presented for our newer readers.~Sephrena
 

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Chapter Seven

After being sick I cleaned myself up and just sat in my room until random little thoughts started to trickle back into my brain. What I’d done earlier in training was something I didn’t want to think about at all just then, let alone face the possibility that I might have to do something just like that in real life.

Wiping someone out of existence. Would they make me do something that terrible? Would I be able to do it at all, even if friends or loved ones were in danger and that was the only way to save them? I just didn’t know, and didn’t want to either.

But that had happened to me in a way already, hadn’t it? Evan Houston was gone, period, and the person I used to be would never come back. But who was the person I’d become? A sometimes snarky in a teasing way girl and a very pretty one at that, with hair that conveniently handed her things, and tended to wave in the air like I was in a high wind if I didn’t consciously stop it at times. And let’s not forget the real whammy here, a sixteen year old girl with the power to potentially destroy everything around her. With nothing more than a thought.

I had moved from my chair and was surprised to find that I’d gone to the communal bathroom down the hall and had already stripped off my clothing and was getting into one of the shower stalls.

“Gone, all gone.” I whispered as the water started and I just sank into a huddled ball of misery on the floor. “Everything, everyone I used to know — gone.

I HATE THIS!” I screamed at the top of my lungs and things just went black.

“Is she stable now?” An unfamiliar voice questioned someone.

“Finally.” Kris answered that other one. “Thank god Sean got to her before she really went off the deep end.”

“I’m right here you know.” My voice sounded weak and opening my eyes was just too much trouble at the moment.

“Make damned sure she is before you let her out of here.” The other, a male voice ordered as if I’d said nothing at all.

“Yes, sir.” Kris responded a little tightly. “You know I will.”

“Good job, overall, on your contingency and containment plan.” The guy softened his voice a bit. “You kids did good with her.”

“Thank you, Colonel.”

“Well, I have repairs to oversee Ms. Keys. Keep me posted on her progress.”

“Kris?” I didn’t know if I was really talking or just thinking I was until I felt someone sit on the bed beside me and take my hand.

“Hey, Luce. How you feeling?”

“Lousy.”

“You should, you tried to change yourself and almost killed yourself doing it.” She told me while I finally managed to open my eyes. “Even you don’t have the power to alter one of us that way, at least we know that now.”

“I didn’t — didn’t…”

“No you didn’t hurt anyone but yourself, sweetie.” She assured me while giving my hand a squeeze. “But I think my record for messing the place up has just been topped. Girl you had walls disappearing then coming back as some of the weirdest things, and no one could even get close enough to do anything to help until Sean got there.”

“That bad, huh?” I questioned. “What did he do to get me to stop?”

“He had to take you over for awhile, just to shut you down, honey. You were screaming, your hair was thrashing around like it wanted to keep everything and everyone away from you, and I couldn’t taser you because of all the water around.”

“Is he…”

“He’s fine.” She answered with a tiny smile. “But I think he cried harder than you were doing once we got you into the bunker. He really hates possessing anyone.”

“I know.” A yawn stopped me from saying much else but. “Sleepy.”

“You rest, hon.” She told me.

“Don’t leave me alone, please.” I managed to get out past the fog of sleep overcoming me.

“We won’t, hon.”

“Hey there sleepy head.” I turned my head to see Dr. Tipps, one of the staff psychologists seated in a chair beside my bed. “Feeling better?”

“A little.” I answered then stared at the water pitcher on the bedside table. But reaching it was something I just didn’t feel up to just then. “Could you…”

“Sure, honey.” She answered while pouring some into a glass that already had a straw in it and held it so I could take a sip. Once I finished she set the glass back out of the way and leaned forward a bit more. “You had quite a night awhile back, didn’t you?”

“Yes, from what I’ve heard it was kind of — spectacular.” I answered then grimaced. “At least I didn’t hurt anyone.”

“No, just yourself.” She softly told me as she gently wiped my forehead with a cool, damp cloth. “I won’t make you go into all the nasty details today, Lucinda, but you and I are scheduled for more than a few talks, I’m afraid.”

‘It was just, just too much for me I guess.” My answer to that was slow, but it felt good finally saying even that much out loud. “Everything, losing my family, my old friends, my whole life, basically, then being a girl with a power so awful I’m afraid to really use it. I just couldn’t take it any longer is all. Something inside just went away for awhile and I wanted things to end.”

“How do you feel about all that now?” Her eyes, blue held a softness and concern, real concern that I didn’t really wish to think about just then.

“I don’t really know what to think.” I was looking down so I couldn’t see her face.

“Do you still want kill yourself?”

That question, so bluntly put had my head snapping up to really look at her again. “Kill myself? No, that wouldn’t solve anything at all, would it?”

“Good to hear you say that.” Tipps gave a smile and patted my hand. “We’ll work through all this trust me. It’s my job and I’m pretty good at it, too.”

“I noticed.” The halfway snarky comeback brought another smile to her face as she nodded.

“Sorry about that, I know it had to be kind of jolting.” She apologized.

“It’s okay.” I shrugged. “That’s what I tried to do and it has to be said.”

“Well, you didn’t quite manage it, which is good for you and a few other people around here, Miss Xiang. There are more than a few of us who really do care for and about you. Think about that if you start feeling that badly again and talk to someone, all right?”

“Sure.” I nodded and she used a tissue to dab at the tears streaming down my cheeks. “I will.”

“Good enough.” Giving me another hand pat she arose and started for the door. “I think there are a few people waiting outside who are getting a little impatient. Feel like having guests right now?”

“Oh, yeah.” I nodded.

“I’ll tell them to come on in, then.” She told me as she was leaving.

Kristyn and Dani were the first ones in and both hugged me tightly before Dani gave me a really stern look. “You scared us, Luce. Don’t ever do that again, please.”

“Scare you?” I was being deliberately dense about what it was she was talking about. “I’ll try but you know me, big scary hair girl, and…”

“Never mind.” Kristyn interrupted before I could burst into tears as I was suddenly threatening to do. “You know what we’re talking about, and we know you’re still hurting, just talk to Dr. Tipps or any of us if it gets too bad, okay? Please?”

“I will.” I answered with a sniffle. At times this crying thing was a real pain. “I — I’m sorry.”

“No, hon, I’m sorry.” Kris softly told me. “I was pushing you too hard, making you think about things you weren’t ready to think about. The kind of things no sane person really wants to think about and never has too if they’re lucky. We’ll go slower from now on.”

“Kay.” I answered quietly. “But it wasn’t just that thing in the sims, you know.”

“We know, sweetie.” Danny smoothed a hair off my forehead and I felt a wave of peace wash over me. “You just get well, and we’ll work through it with you. If you want us, that is.”

“Of course I still want you, all of you, around me.” I told her then sighed. “Look, I did a stupid thing and now I’m on suicide watch, I know that. I won’t try that again, trust me and I’ll take all the help I can get.”

“We’ll hold you to that, you know.” Kris gave me a wicked grin.

“I’m counting on it.”

“But girl, let me tell you,” Dani laughed and shook her head, “when you do a meltdown you really don’t mess around.”

“Nope, no half-measures with me.” I grinned back, actually starting to feel better about everything, well, almost everything, than I had for awhile. “So how long have I been in here? Feels like weeks.”

“Four days so far.” Kris said as she let go of my hand. “The docs don’t want us tiring you out and there a few more people who want to see you before sleepy time hits you again. We’ll be back though, count on it.”

“Okay. And thanks.”

Heather bounced into the room next and I almost winced. After several months I still couldn’t figure out how she managed that in those heels. “Hey! Girl you do put on a show. No one’s going to forget the disappearing walls and the fountain that used to be a bathroom for a long time.”

“Thanks.” I blushed in embarrassment. “Did I really make that much of a mess?”

“Let me think.” Heather grinned then put on a mock ‘serious thought’ expression including the finger on her chin and narrowed eyes for a moment, grinned and nodded. “Yes. Four days and they’re still putting things back together and in this place that’s really saying something.”

“Oh, great.” I moaned. “The colonel is probably going to take that out of my pay, whenever I start getting paid, that is. I’ll be making payments until the moon falls out of the sky.”

“Part of the deal, sweetie.” She told me as she sat down beside me. “Teenagers, rampant hormones, super type powers, rampant hormones…”

“You said that one already.” I pointed out.

“Don’t stop me when I’m rolling here!” Heather gave her white hair a flip and gently patted my shoulder. “The most damage was that we thought we’d lost you, Luce. Everything but that can be fixed and since we didn’t lose you, I think your problems can be kinda fixed, too.”

“Well, gotta go, hon.” She jumped up gave me a quick but tight hug and smiled. “Got someone else I literally had to drag over here and I don’t want them to run while I’m in here. Get well and come back to us, okay?”

“Okay.” I answered to her back and an airy wave as she left the room.

The next visitor shuffled in as if he was heading for his own execution.

“Hi, Sean.” I gave him a smile and waited for a response. “Don’t act like you’re going to a funeral, the patient will live, promise.”

“I thought I was going to have to go to one there for awhile.” He answered quietly, still not coming all that close to my bed.

“Well it’s not going to happen anytime soon. At least not with me as the guest of honor, okay?”

“Good.”

“Now come and sit down beside me, I don’t want to put the head of the bed up any more right now. Gives me a headache if I sit up too much.” I told him.

“I wasn’t sure if you’d even want to see me again after…” He trailed off and looked so hopelessly desolate I almost cried from just looking at him. “After what I did.”

“Oh, and just what is it that you did to make you think I wouldn’t want to see you again?”

“I — I took you over, made you do some things, I — violated you.” He answered with what he felt was the truth.

“I thought you had to have a willing subject for that to work.” I gave him a curious look.

“You let me in, Luce.” His answer was pained and he looked as if he was ready to cry. “Even with all the screaming, thrashing around, changing things and your hair flying every which way, you quieted down enough to let me in. I didn’t have a choice, I had to do it. I’m sorry.”

“For what?” I quietly answered and there I went with the crying thing again. “For saving my life? For stopping me from wrecking more of the only home I have now? For giving me one bright spot in all that dark I was lost in to focus on?”

“But I…”

“You did what you had to, Sean.” I said while weakly patting the bed beside me. “You did good, thank you.”

“But…” Man, was I this dense as a guy? Umm, probably.

“No buts, Sean Hunter.” I stopped him and gave the spot beside me a significant look. “I LET you in, remember? You didn’t violate me you big dummy, I allowed you to do the one thing that could have kept me alive and stop the damage I was doing to everything else.”

“You don’t hate me?” His expression was almost priceless it was so ‘puppy thinking it’s going to get a beating to discover a brand new rawhide bone in its dish’ that I couldn’t help but giggle. Wait. Giggle? Never mind, other things to worry about at the moment.

“No, Sean.” I said softly but still clearly enough that he couldn’t miss hearing it. “I’ll never hate you for what you did the other day. I’ll probably be thanking you for that when we’re both old and in some nursing home for the weird old people.”

He finally sat beside me and hesitantly took my hand in his. “You really aren’t mad at me?”

“If you were this slow when you were a girl, it’s a wonder you didn’t end up pregnant before you were twelve.” I teased him and gave enough of a pull on his hand to get his face down to where I could reach it without getting dizzy. “Now come here and don’t fight this.”

The kiss was tentative for awhile, I’d never kissed a boy before and honestly hadn’t really wanted to. The idea had actually sort of grossed me out up until very recently.

But this one didn’t. And it didn’t stay tentative for long.

Anything else you want to know is — well — none of your business other than my telling you I actually had a boyfriend now and really felt damned good about that.

The colonel didn’t take things out of my pay, the pay I wasn’t getting anyway. Oh no, he did worse than that. I had to help fix the damage I’d caused. Without using my power.

“Waving a hand and making things so is all well and good, Ms. Xiang.” He calmly informed me once he personally told me what my penance was to be. “But I want to make very certain that you truly comprehend the damage you are capable of doing.”

I wasn’t about to argue with that. Especially after seeing the aftermath of my little breakdown.

“Well, we’ve learned something else about your power.” Kris informed me, which startled me enough to jump up and bang my head on the counter I was working underneath.

“Nice to see you too, Kris.” I grumbled while rubbing the sore spot on my head. “So what did you find out?”

Wetting a finger and wiping away some plaster dust on my chin she grinned almost wickedly before going on. “You have a range limitation.”

“I had noticed that the damage was kind of localized.” I answered while looking at the counter I’d been helping sand down.

“Yes, it seems that the effect starts to fade at about a hundred yards, then stops completely at a hundred and fifty of so. Give or take a few feet either way. At least that’s what the damage pattern tells us.”

“Huh.” I shook my head. “Well at least I know I’m not going to end the world by accident now.”

Kris chuckled and waved down the hallway. “At least not all of it, anyway. Now come on, you look like you could use a shower and something cold to drink. Plus I do think the lesson has been learned hasn’t it?”

“Oh yeah.” I stretched my aching muscles and grimaced. “Playing general gofer and ‘holder of things so people who know what they’re really doing can work’ has given me a really good idea of just how much damage I could do, even it’s just localized.”

“Good, now go get that shower, something to eat, and relax for awhile. You have your next appointment with Dr. Tipps in two hours.”

I didn’t argue. I was too tired for that kind of thing and besides, I never had been much good at carpentry even as a guy. As I girl I was worse with it. Hopeless Klutz was one of the nicer things I heard the repair crew saying about me through the past week.

“So I hear you’ve been released from your punishment detail.” Dr. Tipps grinned at me as I settled into a comfortable chair with a little groan.

“Yes, I think the crew was tired of all the bent nails and stuff.”

“That’s likely.” She nodded and offered me a cold drink, which I happily accepted before she said anything else. “You look as if you’re feeling pretty good about things now, though.”

“I’ve had a lot of help there.” I nodded after taking a sip of the green tea.

“Still afraid of what you can do with your power?” She questioned gently.

“I’ll always be afraid of what I could do with that.” I answered honestly. “But that will keep me from using it just to make things easier, and to hold down the collateral damage from my actions to a minimum.”

“You aren’t the world destroying monster you thought you were, Luce.” Tipps told me.

“I know, I know, and I’m getting a lot better control now that I can bear to use the power again.” I sighed.

“How are handling everything else?”

“You always ask that question.” I gave her a mock glare and shrugged. “I’m alive, I have some really good friends, and people who I care for that care for me, too. I know that now, and won’t go ballistic over things again. At least not without trying to talk it out with someone.”

“Good.” She made a few entries on her computer and gave me a smile. “Okay, I want to see you again in two weeks, but if you start having problems you call me no matter what time it is. Got that?”

“Yes, ma’am.” I nodded then gave her a quick look. “You mean I’m done with the daily soul searching and stuff?”

“Yup.” She smiled. “With me, anyway, but don’t stay a stranger, drop by off and on even if it’s just to say hi.”

“Sure thing.” I gave her a sunny smile before I stood up. “Thanks.”

“It’s what I do, Luce, it’s what I do.”

That is true, but somewhere during all those hours of my physical recovery and the ongoing sessions about my mental stability, Dr. Tipps had become a friend.

“Uh oh.” I looked at the hole in wall that hadn’t been there a few seconds before and grimaced. “I’ll get the plaster.”

My training had gone from all VR to actual manipulations but my fine control still needed some work. And one of the rules was that if it didn’t involve wiring or plumbing, I had to fix what I broke.

I gave the inoffensive concrete block I’d almost obliterated a glare then moved to make sure the hole behind it wasn’t deep enough to require more than plaster to repair.

“You’re getting pretty handy with that stuff.” Kris observed as I performed the final smoothing on the fix and stood back.

“I’ve had lots of practice.” I grumbled.

She only laughed. Did I mention that she really can be evil at times?

A short while later I participated in my first pick up. It felt very odd leaving the Center, especially to do basically what Kristyn and Dani had with me that awful day my powers had started kicking in.

I looked at the rest of the team, yes team, I was part of for this pickup anyway. Kristyn was along as team leader, then there was Dani with her eyes closed and obviously concentrating, and Liz — Elizabeth Keys, who insisted on calling Kristyn, who was no older than she was, Mom. That was because the pair had been in very close contact during Liz’s change and they’d bonded. A little weird, but they were very much like mother and daughter. Liz was a healer, and a good one.

None of the guys were along this time and we were driving through what looked like pretty rough country along the northern stretch of the Appalachian trail. All I knew for sure was that were looking for a couple of boys who were on a hiking trip and Dani had caught a glimpse of one of them Changing out here on the trail. None of us were sure how that would go for them or for anyone around them.

“Anything, Dani?” Kris questioned.

“Nothing yet.” Our precog shook her head. “I hope Lara has something when we reach her.”

Lara Williams was what is called a pathfinder. Imagine the best tracker you ever heard of, either in an urban or wilderness setting, then multiplying that by at least a factor of 100. Lara could find, follow, or track just about anyone or anything that didn’t have wings. She had gone in ahead with several others to find the kids, hopefully.

“This doesn’t feel quite right.” Kris got out her phone and speed dialed Lara.

Following a brief conversation, she replaced the phone with a slight frown. “Lara found them and is only half a mile behind them. The one is starting to show signs of changing, but someone else is following them too. This could get kind of nasty from the sound of it.

I’m sorry, Luce.” She told me with a shrug. “I thought this one would go down without complications.”

“Hey, aren’t you the one who has been telling me for weeks that no mission we go on is guaranteed to be easy? What you need, I’ll do, okay?” I answered calmly enough I thought, though the fluttering in my stomach felt like a ton of butterflies were trying to get out of it. Using my navel as a door.

After talking with Lara for a few minutes, Kris looked up the trial to where the two we were after were. “Okay, Ray, Luce, Dani, you’re with me. Kara and the rest hang back until we make the pickup or need you for backup. We have two groups of people, working together and angling in on our targets, they’re armed, and have at least one person with powers along, too. Some kind of psychic blocker, that’s why you haven’t been able to see anything, Dani. We’re supposed to be hikers, too so being quiet isn’t critical for the moment. Got it?”

We all nodded, and I joined her and Ray to start walking the trail. Oh, Ray. He’s got green hair and is a photographic skills mimic. Anything he sees done, he can do and just as well as the person who was doing it for him to watch. He had a cap pulled over his hair and I’d seen him put a pair of nasty looking pistols in his pack. He noticed me watching and gave me a reassuring nod and wink. “Just in case, don’t worry about them, concentrate on what you need to do here and you’ll be fine.”

Fine, sure. All I had to do was approach the pair, a single girl hiking with an obvious couple and strike up a conversation with the guys while Kris sized them up and Ray kept lookout for the others stalking the pair. I managed a halfway decent grin and nodded in response. “Yeah, I know, but this isn’t like the training runs, it’s the real thing. I’m a little nervous at the moment.”

“You’ll be fine.” He assured me again with a confidence I wish I’d felt.

We caught up with the guys a few minutes later, making sure we were talking and laughing like the friends we were who were actually out the hike and enjoy the wonders of mother nature. I gave them a quick smile then lowered my eyes a little before looking back up. “Hi.”

“Hey.” One of the pair, a fairly tall guy with sandy brown hair and grey eyes nodded as his friend, shorter by a few inches and with a wispy little mustache I thought was kind of cute in a funny way waved.

Dani looked at them, smiled, and nodded as Ray introduced her and Kris, then himself and me. A subtle hand movement told us all it was guy trying to grow the stache who was going to be one of us. I inanely thought it was too bad that he was going to be pissed about losing the mustache.

“Mind if we share the trail with you guys for a while?” Kris asked with an innocence I didn’t think she had in her any longer and gave the two a wide smile.

“Why not?” The bigger one nodded while giving me a long looking over that would have had me in a screaming fit several months before. I had to exert conscious control to keep my hair from hiding my breasts and face as it was with the way he was looking at me. “I’m Chris, this is Jimmy.”

“So you do much hiking?” Chris asked me as we walked together down the trial. He’d paired up with me almost right away even with the ‘not interested vibe’ I was trying to project.

“Not really.” I answered. “Kris and Ray kind of dragged me along this weekend because my boyfriend had to be away.

“Lucky guy.” He nodded. “Your boyfriend. For being your boyfriend, I mean”

“Thanks.” I looked up and smiled before getting the subject back to more comfortable topics. “Do you hike a lot?”

“Yeah. Me and Jimmy have been buds since we were little, and he isn’t so good with the social thing, so I grab him and we go hiking, camping, or something at least once a month. Otherwise he’d be sitting at home in front of the television or some video game.”

“I heard that.” Jimmy sounded amused and a little annoyed as his voice came from behind us where he was walking with Dani. “You just need a break from all that jock stuff and want to enjoy the beauty of nature off and on. If I didn’t drag you off for these outings you’d be banging your head up against some other jock in a pickup basketball game or sandlot football.”

Just a pair of regular guys, long time friends, out for a weekend with each other. I thought that was nice and was about to say so when Dani shouted a warning from behind us. “Get down!”

Ingrained training kicked in at that warning, and I ducked to the side, pulling Chris with me though I had to use my hair to trip him up a little to get that done.

I heard shots fired, and Chris jerked in my grasp while something whipped through the air beside my head. By the time we were behind a log I could see that worrying about Chris was not going to be a priority for the time being. He was bleeding from a wound in his temple and didn’t seem to be breathing at all.

A quick look around showed Kris throwing her electrical bolts into a clump of underbrush that exploded into a shower of sparks and flames while Ray had Jimmy, who looked terrified behind another fallen log and had his own weapons out searching for a target.

Dani was behind a boulder and waved that she was all right, so I started searching for someone, anyone to take out my fear and grief for Chris — an innocent who had been so callously killed — on someone. Anyone.

My hair reacted before I did at the snap of a twig behind me, reaching out to slap a stun rifle out of a man’s grasp then tripping him so he fell into a tangle of thorny brush off to the side. I had to really exert control to keep from wiping him out, literally, but managed to do that, settling for making sure he was unconscious and would stay that way for more than a short while.

Kris was still throwing her lightning, though more carefully, Ray was firing into the woods, Dani had reached Jimmy who had started to glow and lift off the ground. Great, a levitator of some sort and he just had to start doing it now, I thought when a pop, followed by a spreading net arching towards the guy showed me where another bad guy was. I used my power on the net, making it miss then turned to find the one who had shot it when things just went fuzzy, unnaturally quiet, and my head filled with roaring and an angry sounding buzz just before I lost consciousness.

I woke up with the second worst headache I’d ever had in my life. I was going to groan but unfamiliar voices around me and the feel of being in a moving vehicle stopped that. My hands were tied behind my back, my feet were numb but I could feel heavy rope around my ankles, and something tight was over my head. It was tight because all my hair had been pushed up into it by the way. Worse, I couldn’t reach my power. Not at all.

This was SO not good.

“Why’d we grab hair girl here?” A male voice questioned while nudging me none too gently with a foot. “She didn’t look all that great in action to me.”

“Something made you miss our target one with that net.” A hard edged female voice responded. “From six feet away. Jess thinks she might be more than just a weird variation on a telekinetic. We need to study her for one thing, and we might be able to turn her, with that animated hair, she could be pretty useful. Even if it’s only for information. That bunch she was with have messed up grabs for us before.”

“She damn near killed me.” Another male voice growled.

“Don’t be a such a wuss, Rossi.” The woman answered with contempt clear in her voice. “You’re the one who let a cute little girl get the best of you out there. Serves you right if you’re picking thorns out of your carcass for another week.”

“Just sayin’” Rossi answered almost tiredly. “Not complaining, the look on her face was pure murder when she looked at me there before I went under, and I think she caused that, too.”

“We all botched the grab, Amanda.” A soft boyish voice entered the conversation as I was lightly nudged by a foot. “At least we got this one to bring in, and she’s awake now, by the way.”

“Is that so?” The Rossi voice got closer and I felt hands probe my chest. “You awake, little girl? I sure hope you don’t want to cooperate cause you and I have some business to settle, if you know what I mean.”

“Not now, Rossi.” The woman’s voice cracked with authority. “If she doesn’t feel cooperative you can play your sick little games with her but until we finds out what the bosses want to do with her, keep your perverted claws off her.”

He touched me again and I was about ready to try kicking out at him when he let out a grunt and landed heavily beside me before slowly getting back up.

“Touch her again,” that soft, young voice sounded very dangerous at that moment, “before you get the go ahead and I’ll blank your mind so much you’ll forget to breathe, Rossi.

Now I’m taking the hood off you, girl.” That voice told me. “No tricks with your hair or I’ll damp your brain so hard you’ll never be able to count past ten without taking your shoes off again, got it?”

I nodded as best I was able.

There was more than a little tugging, and I heard things unsnapping before the horrible thing was pulled away none too gently. I found myself looking into a young face, probably no more than a year older than I was if that much. A shock of unruly black hair gave that even featured, nicely squared off face a pleasant boyish look. Until you looked in his eyes.

Those were a sapphire blue so intense they almost froze you just by seeing them, and there was no friendliness in them at all. In fact, those were the cruelest eyes I’ve ever seen in my life. “Your friends are dead, girl, and if you don’t behave you will be joining them very shortly. Do you understand that?”

“Dead?” I looked at him in disbelief.

“Dead.” He repeated. “All three of them, and the kid we were supposed to grab. So there’s no one to help you at all right now.

Rossi here,” he waved to a pasty faced man with bad teeth, “likes to get his jollies with little girls like you — sexually — before he kills them. If you don’t cooperate, I might let him play with you for a little while. Now I have some questions you’re going to answer, you aren’t going to lie because I’ll know if you do that, and I’ll hurt you. Then let Rossi have a little fun.”

I just stared at him, scared out of my mind but getting angrier by the second.

“That’s enough, Douglas.” The woman, slender to the point of being emaciated was pointing some kind of weapon at the boy and her expression plainly told she wouldn’t mind using it at all. On, him, me, or anyone else.

Douglas gave her a long stare, but didn’t move away from me.

“You think I give a damn about her, or Rossi?” She softly asked him. “I feel the least bit fuzzy around the edges and I’ll blow your damned head off, so what if the girl dies too? I’ll just blame you for it at HQ.

If you just happen to get in the way of the blast,” she informed the child molester with a shrug, “well, I figure I’ll have done society in general a favor.”

I could feel Douglas probing at my mind, trying to dull it, and fought that enough that he gave me a nasty little smile and backed away to take a seat on a bench beside him. But the probe stopped. These were definitely not the kind of people I wanted to hang out with, ever. And if they’d killed Kris and the others…

But that was lie. I knew it. Lara and the rest would have at least tried to get to us before everyone was killed, and Kris was — well, Kris — if they’d really managed to kill her I was more screwed than it seemed I was already.

My power was there, but I couldn’t quite reach it. Evidently Douglas’ jamming, or whatever it was he did to me during the attack had scrambled my brain enough to make that inaccessible. But it was coming back, if slowly. I just needed to bide my time and hope it got back before this bunch got me to where they were going.

“Who do you work for, girlie?” Douglas questioned almost idly.

“Homeland Security.” I told him. Lying about it could be painful and there was no real point in hiding that part of things anyway.

“Where are you based?”

“The Center.”

“The Center.” He nodded. “Where exactly is this Center?”

“I don’t know.” I told him while staring into those beautiful, soulless eyes. “Whenever I go outside it’s in a closed van. We don’t go into any towns, or on picnics or to lakes, so I really don’t know where the place is.”

I’d had my hair carefully working into the locks of the handcuffs and finally felt those release. Happily, the hair in the works eliminated the click that would have normally sounded. I kept my hands behind me and held the cuffs on though. Even with hands free and my hair’s unusual talents, I couldn’t handle all three of these people and the driver until I got my power back. So I played the scared little girl they thought I was.

Truthfully, it wasn’t much of an act at all.

My tears were real enough. If they really had managed to Kill Kris, Dani, and Ray I had a lot of revenge to get, but grief gave me something to focus on, along with the growing anger that brought on, other than my truly uncomfortable predicament.

“What’s your name little girl?” Douglas asked and I was really starting to get irritated with his attitude even if I was their prisoner.

“Luce.” I answered shortly while giving him a glare.

He let out a soft laugh and shook his head. “Ahh, you do have some spirit left, that’s good. By the way, Luce, the people we work for pay very, very well. You could make more money in a week with us than you’d get all year with Homeland Sec.”

“Not interested.” I spat out.

“Hey, your friends are dead, tough break.” He grinned and leaned back but was still watching me. “That’s how things are out here in the nasty, dirty, real world you know. The money you could make working with us would go a long way towards making that better, though.”

“You really need to work on your recruiting technique, you know.” I said with a little frown.

“Offer beats dying, doesn’t it?” He grinned then looked towards Rossi who was still eyeing me with an intensity and desire that made me feel absolutely filthy. “Or playing with him?”

“That is a point.” I nodded.

“Good girl.” He smiled and patted my head like I was a damned dog. “Working with us might not be so bad when you consider the other options in this mix, don’t you think?”

I thought all three of these people needed killing. Badly. But I just nodded to keep gaining time.

“Oh, I know you’re just playing along right now.” He shrugged. “Waiting for just that right moment to get loose and try to hurt us all, but give that one up. I’ll damp your brain down to moron level the second you try that, and Amanda would probably shoot you with that little grenade launcher she’s still pointing at us — she really doesn’t like Rossi or me all that much, you know, so killing us won’t bother her a bit. Just stay where you are, behave, and we’ll all get out of this alive.”

At that particular time I really didn’t have much choice. I glared at him then gave Rossi a look that would have fried the meat off his bones if my power was functioning, and nodded.

The headache had faded, finally after another hour, and I could feel the beginnings of that indefinable sense, or at least it’s hard to describe feeling, of my power trickling back from wherever it had been. My arms were cramping from the position I was still forced to hold them in so I wouldn’t let my captors know I was really free of the handcuffs, and it had been over an hour since I’d felt even a tingle from my feet.

I knew how long it had been because there was actually a digital clock that I could see from where I was on the floor.

I had curled up a bit so my hair could reach the tightly wrapped rope around my ankles and start working the knots loose over an hour ago, but it had been slow going. The stubborn knots finally let go and I breathed a sigh of relief as pain from returning circulation hit my brain from my poor deprived feet. But again I didn’t completely loosen the ropes. That my captors hadn’t cared to loosen them one bit also gave me the clue that they probably didn’t intend for me to survive this adventure. Well, when the time came there would be someone dying, I promised myself, but it sure as hell wasn’t going to be me if I could help it.

My current problems were that first off, Douglas could literally shut someone’s brain functions down enough to kill them that way. Second, Amanda was still alert in her seat with that weird damn weapon at the ready. Third, Rossi was idly polishing a wicked looking knife that I recognized as a K-bar — military issue and really nasty — from my time at the Center while giving me dreamy looks.

I’d never hit more than one person at a time in my training sims, just hit them fast enough to move on to the next one before they could really react or made something happen to distract them so I could take them down.

The one at a time thing sure wasn’t going to work here, and my real power was still fuzzy enough that I wasn’t all that sure I could manage something to pull all three of their attention away from me for those critical split seconds I’d need.

But if they got me to their destination, I knew, just knew, that I wasn’t going to survive the visit.

So I reached out and changed the SUV’s engine into a solid block of metal.

Okay, looking back I have to admit that probably wasn’t the best idea I’ve ever had. A tire blowing out would have worked. So sue me, I still wasn’t thinking all that clearly and I was frigging scared out of my mind.

The first thing that happened was the transmission, still turning, was connected to a mass of scrap iron, so it buckled and bucked. It came up through the floor boards and took care of the problems the driver and Amanda posed. It was messy though, really messy.

Rossi, and Douglas were both thrown towards the front of the vehicle and managed to collide with the front seats with some of the most satisfying thumps and oofs I’ve ever heard.

Problem here. See it yet? I got thrown forward too. Like I said, not the best idea I’ve ever had.

My hair managed to save me the from hitting the console at that speed we’d been traveling, but let me tell you that hurt from the ends all the way down to my roots and then some.

Douglas was shaking his head, but coming out of the impact so fast it scared me. So I reached out and made his head collapse inward. Don’t, please don’t ever, ever ask me to describe that.

Rossi was watching me with a terrified expression on his face and I nodded at him while showing a rather evil grin. “Like playing with little girls, do you?”

I reached out and just twisted him. Now understand here, I didn’t kill him, just twisted. His body shrunk, his hair grew out, and in moments there was a very stunned little girl, probably about six years old trapped in the clothes he had been wearing. “Now you’ll be able to play with other little girls all the time. Oh, you’re all sweetness and light, too. Really girly and so submissive it will probably hurt once you grow up again. But YOU’LL never hurt anyone again.”

She started crying as I managed to keep the SUV from impacting into a rock wall but I mostly ignored her.

Screeching tires and shouts let me know that this vehicle wasn’t the only one in the bunch, so I opened the back, or more accurately ripped it away from the one I was in and stepped out to see what was going on.

There were men rushing towards me with drawn weapons and a teen aged girl who I knew just from looking had powers getting ready to hit me with something. I shut her down with a thought and sent her somewhere else. No I didn’t kill her, just made sure she was unconscious and sent her to the containment cell at the Center I’d been in a couple of times.

The guys with guns? Well I just sent them away. No idea where they landed, and at that point I really didn’t care.

The chatter of an automatic weapon alerted me that not all the bad guys had been taken care of but I changed the rounds they’d fired into feathers then crumpled the SUVs enough to make sure they couldn’t either shoot at anyone again or get out with a lot of help.

Walking through a storm of feathers is an experience, let me tell you. I checked first one, then the other SUV and said loudly enough for the survivors in both to hear. “You guys messed with the wrong little girl this time. I know who you are, so if you come at me or mine again I’ll just kill you and be done with it. Understand?”

I heard agreement from inside both, and grinned. I had no idea who those yahoos were and so long as they weren’t trying to kill me could care less. “I’ll call 911 as soon as I find my phone so someone can come get you guys out. Just don’t fuck with me again, okay?”

I didn’t even listen to what they said. It didn’t matter if they agreed or not to me. They weren’t going anywhere anytime soon.

Two more black SUVS Screeched to a halt after the curve we had just gone around when I pulled my engine to scrap metal thing and I got ready to fight more people. “Don’t you idiots ever give up?”

But when the doors flew open, Kris, Dani, and the others swarmed out ready to take on grizzly bears or worse, then just stopped when they saw me and the mayhem I’d managed to create.

“Hi guys.”

Kris walked up and gave me a really tight hug. “I’m not even going to ask right now. But that damper they had was bad news. He put me, Ray, and Dani down hard. If it hadn’t been for Lara and the others moving up while you had him occupied they’d have gotten us too.”

“Well, he’s not going to be a problem ever again.” I answered tiredly then shook my head. “Don’t ask, just take my word for it, please.

There was another one with them too.” I told her tiredly. “I hope she’s in that really tight containment room back at the Center ‘cause that’s where I tried to send her.”

“She got there.” Kris answered with a shake of her head. “Lucky the automatic containment protocols kicked in. She’s one hell of a strong pyrokinetic.”

“Now I’m really glad I didn’t give her time to throw something at me. Can we go home now, please?”

“Sure hon.” Giving me another hug, she helped me stand up and led me towards one of our SUVs.

“I need a bath, a ton of ice cream — Rocky Road — and some sleep.”

Then I started bawling my eyes out.

“You did what needed to be done.” The colonel told me though I was still goggled by the fact the he was in Kristen’s office and had been there waiting for me to arrive for a scheduled meeting with her. “You made good decisions in a very bad situation and as a result we have enough information to shut down a really nasty organized crime operation that was taking and either terrorizing or brainwashing other ‘gifted children’ into working for them.

Not to mention that your team, and another newly emerged one of you survived the first engagement because of you and your actions. Making that web gun miss had the opposition scrambling to find who had managed to do that given it had been fired from such a short range.” He went on. “Which drew their attention away from your pickup, and other team members long enough to allow help to arrive.”

“But I was just trying to make sense of things out there, sir.”

“Let me finish Ms, Xiang.” He gave me a look that plainly said I’d better or else. “And once you’d been captured, you accurately assessed the situation then took the necessary steps to get yourself out of trouble, eliminate a very real danger to your team who were already following you, and did so without an excessive amount of attention being drawn to all of it until it was finished and our cleanup crews could arrive and make the evidence a bit more palatable for the normal people who arrived on scene later.”

“I was making it up as I went along, sir.” I muttered, but he heard that and chuckled.

“And did it very well, dear girl.” He acknowledged. “You’ve shown you have the instincts of a leader, and the will to use those when needed. So now you finally get a job you’ll really get paid for.”

“What?”

“Master Sergeant Xiang.” He gave me a stolid, stern look. “Until apprised otherwise you are officially Warrant Officer Keys’ immediate subordinate and will be answering to only her, myself and some other people not on site that you might meet later.”

“Me?” I so wasn’t ready for this.

“You, Master Sergeant.” He answered while handing me a name tag that had my name following the rank. “Rank insignia for formal occasions will be ready for you tomorrow. Congratulations Master Sergeant Xiang.”

“Now what do I do?” I asked Kris once he’d left.

“Your job, just like I do.” She grinned at me.

“But I don’t know the first thing about doing something like that.”

“Funny you should mention that.” She gave me an evil grin while producing several large books and files from a drawer in her desk. “I just happen to have your job description right here with some helpful information on how to do it.”

“If I didn’t like you so much, I’d kill you.” I grumbled.

“Life is hard, isn’t it Master Sergeant?”

“Oh, shut up.” I shot back.

“That would be, ‘oh shut up, sir.” She responded with a wicked grin.

“You know, you really are an evil bitch.” I told her.

“You too. Welcome to the party, dear.”

“Hey Luce!” Heather hollered across the cafeteria, “Hurry up! I want you to meet someone here!”

I’d dumped the manuals and other paperwork Kris had so cheerfully given me in my room and headed to get something to eat, but was still pretty gobsmacked over what the colonel had just done to me so was a little slow getting there. I so didn’t need a really happy, bouncy person — even if she was one of my best friends — trying to introduce me to some newbie just now.

“This is Ashley Willows.” Heather told me as I looked at a willowy redhead with some of prettiest blue eyes I’d ever seen. “Ashley, Lucinda Xiang.”

The girl had been watching me with eyes even wider than hers should normally be until I got there then shyly looked down for a second before looking back up into my eyes. “Hi, I just wanted to thank you for saving me.”

“Saving…” Then it clicked and I gave her a grin. “Jimmy?”

“I used to be.” She sighed.

“Weird as this sounds, you’ll get used to it.” I assured her.

The girl almost tackled me with a hug I thought was going to choke me to death before I managed to loosen it up. “I have a boyfriend you know.”

“They told me girls can hug anyway.” She answered with a grin.

Well, she had me there. I hugged her back. What else could I do? “Good point.”

Turns out she was not only a levitator but could make things within twenty yards of her so light they floated.

This was NOT going to be fun.

The Pryo I’d sent here had been ranting, raving, and blasting since she arrived. For some reason it was my job to take care of that now. Oh yeah, I break something, I fix it. Damn it.

I entered the containment room and carefully made sure the door was shut and locked before turning to look at her. I’d never really seen her up close, just in vids so far. “Hi.”

The answer I got was a really big, very hot stream of flame meant to turn me into a crispy critter right on the spot. I deflected that to a place it wouldn’t hurt anyone or anything, then did it again, and again, and… Never mind.

Losing patience I slapped her where it really hurt, in her power. I didn’t take it away, that ability was well beyond anything I could do, but I did make it so she couldn’t use it on me for awhile. “Now that we’re through all that, how about we just talk for awhile?”

“You’re HER!” She screeched and tried to burn me again.

“Won’t work right now, you know.” I calmly told her and seated myself on a charred chair as if I did this kind of thing every day. “Now calm down and talk to me.”

“When Douglas finds us…”

“Stop right there.” I told her. “The only people Douglas is going to find are in what I truly hope is the worst Hell in existence. He isn’t coming here. Ever.”

“He’ll come.” She told me then shuddered. “He always does.”

“Not this time.” I told her then got hold of my roiling guts and went on. “He’s dead.”

“No one can kill him.” She countered.

“I did.”

“No one, he’s too strong…”

“Watch this then, if you won’t take my word for it.” I sighed and pulled a small TV with a built in DVD player I’d been protecting from behind me. “They were recording my humiliation in that car, you know. It caught what I did. Just watch.”

I almost puked again when I saw Douglas’ head implode, but fiercely held my own reactions in check. “He’s dead. So is Amanda Strong, and Jeff Rossi. I killed them all.”

“You’re lying!” She was wanting to believe it but refused to do so.

“Am I?” I flatly questioned then waved at myself. “Kill me and prove that. Do that and you walk free, to find Douglas and the others. My word on it.”

“You people will never let me go!” She screamed. “I know what the government does with people like me!”

She sent wave after wave after wave of flame hot enough to shame the sun at me and I sent all of it elsewhere until she wore herself out.

I was almost ashamed of myself when she finally collapsed into a huddle of crying, desolate girl. She was soo tiny, and so beautiful. I found myself wishing I could kill Douglas and his cronies another few times when I saw that.

“Hush now, dear.” I whispered while I cradled her, hugged her and kissed her forehead. “You’re safe now. They won’t ever bother you again. You’re safe now. Safe. I won’t let anyone hurt you that way again, I promise.”

It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Douglass had whammied her mind or that Rossi had played with her more than once. God, about then I really, really wished I could kill the damper again, and that I hadn’t been quite so merciful with the child molester.

“They’re really dead?” She finally whispered to me as if she still didn’t want to believe it.

“Really dead, honey. And God help me, I wish I could kill them again.” I answered.

Her name was Ariel, she was twelve years old. And had the beauty of a mythical elven princess and the physical fragility of an ice sculpture left outside in the middle of summer.

Her age caused quite a stir at the Center. All of us were supposed to be sixteen or at least close to that age. Not a tender twelve. Which told any of us with half a brain that either some of that contaminated water had not been caught during the recall, or worse that someone had figured out how to produce the same results. That was something that would need looking into and soon.

But not just now.

Ariel was also a pyro-kenetic every bit as powerful in her way as Kris was in hers.

And so devoted to me it was almost embarrassing once she got out into the general student body.

“So tell, me,” Doc Tipps questioned almost idly. “are you feeling better about killing people these days?”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I asked, sitting back and glaring at her. “How could you even think about asking me that kind of question? Of course I don’t feel good about killing someone. The thought makes me sick when it even tries crossing my mind.”

“I’m asking because you’ve done it now, seen the elephant as they say, and don’t seem all that bothered about it.” She countered.

“Oh, I’m bothered.” I shot back. “A lot. But the ones I killed, except maybe their driver, needed to be put out of the way and the only way that was going to happen and let me survive was what I did. Do I like what I did? No. Would I do it again if it came to the life of someone I cared for, or myself? Yes.”

“And?” She asked.

“God, I hate myself for it.” I broke down and started crying.

“But Ariel is free now because of what you did, sweetie.” She soothed once she had taken me into a fierce hug. “What you did wasn’t pleasant, or something anyone would want to dwell on too much. But you did what was needed. Don’t hate yourself for that. You did what was right, even if you don’t like what it was.”

“But…”

“No buts allowed here honey.” She firmly interrupted me though she was still holding me tightly. “Some things the protectors of decent society have to do aren’t pleasant. You just found that out.”

She was right. If I didn’t go on, people like Douglas and Rossi would keep victimizing people like Ariel and that was something I just couldn’t allow to happen. Wouldn’t if I could prevent it.

But I still cried until I was sick. With my hair gently offering tissues all through it.

Losing your innocence, really losing it like I had, sucks a big one, let me tell you.

But you know what? I’d be damned if anyone else who didn’t absolutely have to do that would be forced into it.

So that’s where I am now.

And that’s where I’ll stay and what I’ll be doing for as long as I am able to do it.

End