---

After the town, Laura decided to stay away from civilization for a while. She followed the coast as she continued north. The coast was slowly sloping towards the east, so she thought she was getting closer to Central America.

On the third day after visiting the town she spotted another city up ahead, right on the coast. If she was to keep the ocean in sight she'd have to fly right over it. Well, I should be okay if I stay up high enough, right? she thought. Reluctantly, she continued on her way. She kept her eyes peeled for any activity below her, in case another gang or something decided to take pot shots at her. She knew any bullet fired at this range would have no chance of penetrating whatever armor she had underneath her skin, but the impact could cause her to lose control and crash. She didn't have a lot of confidence in her flying skills yet.

Her tension grew as she flew over the city. A lot of people noticed her, and there were a few shots fired. None of them came close. She was debating veering off and avoiding the rest of the city entirely, when she saw a commotion ahead that had nothing to do with her. What's that? she wondered. Without thinking she slowed her wings, shedding altitude so she could get a better look. A few blocks ahead she saw three men beating on a woman. There were several people yelling nearby, and they didn't seem to be with the men, but they weren't stopping them, either.

The beating looked vicious, so Laura powered down as fast as she could. Coming in as fast as she was, she landed very clumsily and nearly fell on her face. By the time she'd recovered the men had stopped hitting the woman and turned angrily towards her. The people that had been yelling at them pulled back fearfully, but didn't run. The woman wasn't moving anymore.

Not wanting to get into a fight if she could help it, Laura tried to go to the woman. The three men blocked her and yelled at her, but she couldn't understand what they were saying. "I don't want to fight you guys, but I'm going to check on that woman." Laura said, hoping at least one of them understood English. She folded her wings as tightly as she could and pushed the men out of her way when they continued to block her. When she checked she found the woman was still breathing, but she looked pretty bad. She also had floppy black dog ears.

"Look out!" a woman screamed, just before something slammed into Laura's head. She was knocked several feet away but managed to catch herself. Shaking her head, she looked up in time to see a foot heading for her face. She would have been sent sprawling by the blow, except that her wings caught her and put her back on her feet. All three men were advancing on her, one of whom was carrying a piece of wood about four feet long.

The other people on the street were yelling again; some in English. Laura recognized the voice of one of the women as the one who had warned her. Well, at least not everybody hates mutants around here. she thought as she blocked a punch from one of the men. Another kicked at her, but she managed to dodge it. The third swung his makeshift club at her head. She caught it and wrenched it out of his hand before slugging him. The force of the punch knocked him back several feet.

Now that she was armed and they weren't, and they'd seen an example of her strength, the other two men weren't quite so eager to fight. Especially since the third man seemed to be unconscious. Laura swung the board around a few times. "Well?" she asked, grinning. She was beginning to enjoy being so strong and tough.

After glancing at each other the men decided they didn't want to fight after all and went over to pick up their friend before running off. Laura sighed in relief and tossed the piece of wood aside. She returned to the injured woman's side and knelt down to see how badly she was hurt. "Is it safe to move her?" she wondered aloud, as she thought that she should probably take her to a hospital.

"I don't think you should. She'll be okay now, I'll make sure she gets to a hospital." the woman who'd warned Laura said, kneeling down beside her.

"Thanks for warning me." Laura said.

The woman beside her chuckled, "For whatever good it did! You still got hit, not that it seemed to hurt you any. It's too bad my niece isn't as tough as you." She tenderly stroked the injured woman's hair as she spoke, before looking up at Laura. "Thank you for saving her. None of the others were brave enough to get involved, and you're obviously a foreigner."

Laura shrugged, "I couldn't just let them keep beating on her like that. Are you sure she's going to be okay? I could carry her to a hospital if it's safe to move her."

She shook her head, "No need. I've already called for help. And you shouldn't be here when they arrive. Those men are likely to claim that you attacked them."

"What?!" Laura exclaimed. "But everyone here saw them attack me!"

"I know." she agreed sadly. "But you are a mutant. People here are not very friendly towards mutants, especially the police. Please, go. And thank you."

Laura reluctantly took to the air and continued her journey. As she flew she wondered if she'd encounter the same reception when she got home. Even her certainty that her parents would accept her was diminishing. Why do people hate mutants so much? she thought.

---

Dammit Spike! Why'd you have to go and do that?! Dragon thought when he saw Bull below him, easily keeping up now that he had a motorcycle. Spike was right behind him. He'd found a couple of motorcycles in the first town they came to and suggested they steal them. Now I'll never get away from these idiots!

Based on what little information the doctor had given them Dragon had decided to go north, figuring the kid would be going towards home. Assuming she even knew which direction to go. Turns out she did, because he caught sight of her on the second day in the air. He'd been playing with the idea of teaming up with the kid, but Spike's acquiring a motorcycle for Bull changed his plans. He knew he couldn't take Bull. Maybe the kid could, but they'd still have Succubus and Spike to deal with. He didn't like the odds.

Unless... he thought, looking speculatively at Succubus.

---

Why am I not getting tired? Laura thought as she continued to fly three hours after the incident with the dog mutant. The sky was darkening but she felt no fatigue from all the flying she'd done. She had taken breaks her first couple of days in the air, but she found it was almost effortless now.

While she could see almost as well at night as during the day, she decided to find something to eat and then get some sleep.

In the morning she found a stream to drink from and ate some flowers before taking to the air. Thirty minutes into her flight she heard something behind her. She stopped and hovered in the air so she could turn and see the source of the sound. It turned out to be two mutants! She waited for them to catch up with her, but one of them seemed to have trouble with hovering and kept flying in circles around them.

"Do you mind landing? My friend can't hover like this." the man with the insect like wings said. Laura nodded and landed in the first clearing she saw. The others joined her a moment later, landing much more gracefully than she did.

"Hi, people call me Dragon, as in dragonfly. Because of my wings." the man said. He gestured at his friend and said, "My friend here calls herself Succubus. What's your name?"

"Laura." she replied, wondering at the odd names. Are they super heroes or something, using names like that? she thought.

"Don't you have a mutant name?" Dragon asked curiously.

"Mutant name? What's that?" Laura said.

"Most of us choose a name, usually something having to do with our powers or appearance, to use after our mutation. We save our real names for close friends and family, if we use them at all." Dragon replied.

"Oh. No, I don't have one of those." Laura said.

"Well, you might want to consider choosing one. Especially looking like you do. Someone's liable to give you a name if you don't choose one for yourself." Dragon said.

"I'll think about it. So, what are you doing out here?" Laura said.

"Hunting." Succubus said with a nervous smile. Laura noticed she kept glancing around like she expected someone to come by at any moment.

Laura looked curiously at Succubus and asked, "Hunting? For what?"

Dragon cleared his throat awkwardly and said, "Well, don't freak out here, but...you."

"Me?!" Laura exclaimed. She suddenly remembered those other mutants in the cells on the ship and wondered if some of them ended up working for the people who kidnapped her.

She had just spread her wings to get away when Dragon hurriedly said, "Wait! We were sent to bring you back, dead or alive. But that's not what we want to do! We were thinking that, if we worked together, we could all get free!"

Laura frowned, "But aren't you already free?"

Dragon shook his head, "No, not really. There are two more of us, and they'll be arriving any minute. Bull is stronger than me, and Spike is faster. Between the two of them they could take Succubus and me out. We need your help."

"Why not just fly away?" Laura asked.

"I tried that on the first mission we were sent on." Dragon said. "Bull threw a rock the size of my head at me and hit me when I was over a hundred feet up. The fall nearly killed me."

"But you could just fly away at night or something, couldn't you?" Laura asked.

"Not really. Bull is a really good tracker, and I have to land sometime. Between him and Spike, there's no real chance of me getting away. And Succubus is a slower flyer than I, so she has even less chance." Dragon replied.

"What do you expect me to do?" Laura asked warily.

"Fight. I hear you're really tough, and pretty damn strong, too. Together we could defeat them." Dragon said.

"And then what?" Laura said.

Dragon shrugged, "If they're still alive afterward, we'll tie them up. By the time they get free we'll be long gone."

"We're not killing them!" Laura exclaimed.

Dragon held his hands up, "Okay, okay! If you insist, we'll try to make sure they're not seriously hurt. But you gotta understand, Bull is a nasty bastard. He likes hurting people, that's why he doesn't mind working for those slime at Genarm that mutated most of us. I don't know what Spike's deal is, but he seems to like it there almost as much as Bull."

"I still don't want to kill them." Laura said stubbornly.

"Hey, I said we'd try! We can't guarantee anything, though. But we'll do our best." Dragon said.

"...okay." Laura reluctantly agreed.

"They're here!" Succubus exclaimed, jumping into the air. She struggled to gain altitude and pointed out the direction they were coming from.

"Damn! I was hoping we'd have some time to decide where to do this, but I guess here it is. We'll have a better chance from the air." Dragon said, following Succubus into the sky. Laura took off after them, looking down to where Succubus had pointed to try and see her other pursuers.

It was easy to identify Spike. He was running towards them faster than any human ever could and he had quills sticking out of his arms. Bull, as she assumed him to be, was lumbering through the brush at a much slower speed. Upon seeing her he stopped and picked up a rock. Remembering what Dragon said, she dodged to the side just in time.

"Traitor!" Bull screamed when he saw Dragon slam into Spike with Succubus right behind him. Laura trusted them to keep him out of the fight and dived for Bull. "Yeah, come to me, you little pixie freak!" he growled, bracing himself.

At the last moment Laura veered to the side, lashing out with her foot as she flew by. It felt like kicking a rock, but he went flying into the trunk of a tree with enough force to shake loose dozens of leaves.

Laura was surprised she pulled it off, and managed to land fairly neatly, but turned her attention to the brute who was already charging at her again. She tried to dodge his punch, but got hit square in the chest, throwing her back several feet. "Ouch, that hurt!" she said as she picked herself back up. Bull was already on top of her again, but she managed to catch his fist this time.

"What?!" he exclaimed in shock as she absorbed the force of his punch and pushed him backwards. He dug his heels in and tried to push back, but she was clearly stronger. "How the hell are you so strong, bitch?!"

"Hey, just calm down, okay?! I don't want to fight you. I don't want to fight anybody!" Laura said, catching his other fist when he tried to punch her. She pushed him back until he was up against a tree. "Stop fighting me!"

Bull started to say something but stopped, sniffing the air. A strange look crossed his face and he relaxed. Laura almost fell forward at the sudden loss of resistance and jumped back expecting another attack. None came.

"What did you do to him?" Dragon asked in amazement. Bull slumped down to sit against the tree with a strange faraway look on his face. "He looks like he's stoned!"

"Nothing! I just pushed him back against the tree and tried to calm him down. I don't know why he's like that." Laura replied.

"Hmm, I've never seen him so relaxed!" Succubus purred.

"Where's Spike?" Laura asked. Succubus pointed and Laura saw him tied to a tree with some vines.

"Well, whatever you did, I think we'd better tie him up and put as much distance between us as we can." Dragon said. With that they gathered up some vines and used them to tie Bull up to the tree he was leaning against.

"Will these really hold?" Laura asked.

"With their arms tied behind them like we did, they should hold for a while. Long enough, I hope, for us to be far enough away that our trail will get cold." Dragon replied.

"Okay. Well, thanks for your help." Laura said.

Dragon shrugged, "We were helping ourselves as much as you. Thanks for giving us a chance. Good luck!" With that Dragon and Succubus jumped into the air and flew off.

"Guess I should go, too." Laura said, glancing at the tied up mutants. Spike was out cold and Bull still looked stoned. With a shrug she took off and flew towards home.

---

Dragon insisted on flying well into the night to put as much distance between them and Bull and Spike as possible. When they finally landed Succubus was exhausted and Dragon wasn't much better off. "I'm still surprised you went along with this Succubus. You seemed pretty happy at Genarm." he said as they made a nest for themselves for the night.

Succubus wrapped her arms around him and said, "I like fucking. And I got to do a lot of that at Genarm. But I didn't like what they were doing. Besides, I like you. You're braver and have more scruples than the others."

"I don't know about the scruples or bravery." Dragon said. "And you know they're going to keep coming after us. Losing Bull and Spike doesn't mean we're safe."

"I seem to recall hearing about a certain island near that Bubble place where all mutants are welcome. And don't argue with a woman when she compliments you. You're braver and more moral than you think you are." Succubus said. When Dragon tried to protest that she put her finger over his lips, "Shh. No arguing. Now fuck me and we can head to the island in the morning." Dragon didn't argue anymore.

---

Laura had flown almost all night before exhaustion finally overtook her. She woke to bright sunlight coming from almost directly overhead.

I wonder if Dragon was right about the name thing. she thought as she went about gathering breakfast. It still seemed a little weird to her to have a salad of flowers for a meal, but they tasted too good to argue with it. And she didn't even want to think about trying to hunt down an animal and eat it.

I guess it makes sense. I'm pretty unique and stand out a lot. Hard to miss the violet and pink butterfly girl. I guess that's what they'd probably call me if I didn't come up with a name for myself first; Butterfly Girl. I can do without that. Laura thought as she ate. She tried to remember what she knew about butterflies, thinking she might get a name from that.

After eating she continued flying north while she thought about it. Her thoughts were interrupted about half an hour later when she saw that the backside of the beautiful green hill she was flying by was scoured bare for a mine. There wasn't much heavy equipment around, though, which she thought odd. She flew a little closer and saw that there was a long line of people hammering away at the rock with pick axes and sledge hammers.

As she got closer she realized that most, if not all, of the people were mutants. And they were chained together at the ankles. Looks like a chain gang from old TV shows. That thought was reinforced by the men with shotguns that walked up and down the line, occasionally kicking or shoving one of the mutants. One thing that didn't fit into that image for her, though, were the children. Almost a third of the mutants were teenagers or younger.

This doesn't look right. I think I'll go see what this is about. Laura thought. She landed just out of sight of the mine and walked the rest of the way. She had a feeling things could get ugly, and she was right.

As soon as they saw her the guards pointed their guns at her. "Hey, why are you pointing those thing at me?! What is this place?" she asked.

"Filth like you don't need to talk. Get over here and get to work with the others and maybe I won't cut out your tongue!" one of the guards sneered. He had a strong accent, but wasn't too hard to understand.

"What did they do? Or me, for that matter!" Laura said.

One of the guards got impatient and shot her. The blast knocked her on her back. Two of the guards started forward but jumped back when she got back up. "We need to get rid of all these guns!" Laura growled. She knew that, if they were legitimate police or correctional officers, they wouldn't have shot her like that. Unless the government had decided mutants weren't people, in which case she didn't feel the need to abide by the rules.

They took aim to fire and she jumped over them with a little help from her wings. Turning, she grabbed the guns of the two nearest guards and yanked them out of their hands. Then she brained the guards with their own shotguns and tossed the guns away. Two shotgun blasts caught her, then, tossing her back to the ground.

"Ow!" she complained as she stood back up. The guards looked at each other in surprise before firing again. This time she managed to brace herself and shrugged them off. It hurt, and cut into her skin, but didn't cause her any serious harm. Thankfully they were standard shotgun shells, not solid slugs. She wasn't sure how much it would take to penetrate her armor, and she didn't want to find out.

They shot her again and she leaned into the blasts. She was really starting to get ticked off, especially as what clothing she had was gone. She grabbed the shotgun out of the hand of the nearest guard and decked him. The blow launched him into another guard a few feet away and they fell in a tangle of limbs. The others looked worried, one going so far as to drop his gun and back away.

"Why are you doing this to these people?" she said angrily. Another two guards dropped their guns and ran for it. Soon it was a total rout and all the guards had fled. Am I really that scary? Laura wondered.

Once she was sure it was safe, she turned and started freeing the other mutants. The guards probably had the keys, so she used her sharp fingernails to cut through the locks on the chains. It took her thirty minutes to free all the mutants. Fortunately, a couple of them spoke good English. "Thank you!" one young woman said as they all gathered together.

"You're welcome. Why were they keeping you all chained up like that?" Laura asked.

An older man answered that, "We're just animals to them. Beasts of burden. So they put us to work. Thank you for freeing us, but what will we do now?"

"Uh, I don't know?" Laura said. "Can't you go home?"

The woman shook her head, "No, and I don't think the others can, either. It was my own family that turned me over to those animals. I have no where to go." A brief conversation revealed they were all in the same situation. "Can we come with you?" she asked hopefully.

"Um, I don't know if that will work. I'm going to the US, and I'm sure they'd stop us at the border. I'll have to fly over it as it is, since I don't have any identification and don't look like I used to anyway." Laura said.

"Perhaps we could travel with you anyway, until we've found a safe place to settle?" the man asked.

"Okay, that makes sense." Laura agreed, though she was worried about the delay this would cause.

"First, let's find you some clothes." the woman said. It turned out there were extra clothes in the cells where the mutants were kept. There were a couple of winged mutants in the group who donated some of their clothes and Laura was finally able to be fully clothed.

They searched the area for anything of use to them and packed it up in a few bags they found. Then they started heading north. In all, there were thirty six mutants. Of those, eight were young enough that they couldn't keep up well, so progress was slow. They also had to take time to forage for food and water for the group.

They stayed away from civilization as much as they could. With Laura and the other flyers it was easy enough to find the best path. They still had to skirt small villages and towns on occasion and it was always tense. They figured the only reason they weren't attacked was their numbers.

Their numbers grew further as they encountered a few other mutants who had been driven from their homes and hid in the wilderness. Finding food for everyone was always a problem, though the others were amazed that Laura could get by with just flowers.

After a couple of weeks they found themselves in a more densely populated area and had more trouble avoiding people. After a few tense confrontations the group let Laura deal with anyone they encountered as she seemed to have a lot better luck calming people down. In fact, after Laura talked to them, many people who were hostile at first ended up helping them.

One of those people had some information for them that one of the women translated for Laura, "He says that Costa Rica is very friendly to mutants. Many go there from all over the area. If he's right, then we may find a home there, too."

"Hey, that's great! How far is Costa Rica?" Laura said.

The translator talked with the man a little longer and turned back to Laura, "He says it is about two hundred miles to the north. It will probably take us a month to go that far."

The others were thrilled with the news, though not so happy about how long it would take to get there. Laura chafed at the delay herself, but she couldn't leave all these people until she was sure they'd be okay.

They'd picked up a couple more mutants by the time they got out of that area. These two were twin girls that couldn't be more than ten years old. They didn't slow them down any, though. They were horse mutants, the first Laura or the others had seen that actually had four legs. Between that, the tails, and their long main-like hair, they made perfect cute little centaurs. Some of the smaller children were even able to rest on their backs so the group could keep moving at times as they were very strong for their size.

The next day after finding the centaur girls some military helicopters started following them. Laura was afraid she'd have to try and fight them off, but they never did more than follow.

Laura watched for the helicopters the next day but didn't see them. She did hear them, however, along with the sound of many land vehicles. They sounded heavy, too. She wasn't the only one to hear them. The others were starting to get worried, so Laura took to the air to find out what all the noise was about.

When she saw she nearly fell out of the sky in surprise. Behind and to either side of her group were a mass of military looking vehicles, including the helicopters and a few tanks!

She quickly returned to the group and told them what she saw. "Why would they be following us, or is it just a coincidence?" she wondered.

Several of the others shook their heads and one man said, "No, they're here for us. They are probably afraid at so many mutants being in one place. If we're lucky they're just making sure we leave the country."

Without any better ideas, they continued. The sound never diminished, if anything getting louder as if more vehicles had joined the pursuit. A few hours later a helicopter flew overhead and landed in front of them. Several soldiers jumped out, aiming their guns at their group. They stayed close to the helicopter, though, while another man flanked by two more soldiers got out and walked towards them.

All of the mutants huddled together away from the armed men except for Laura. She found herself standing alone several feet in front of the group, so started walking towards the man. The soldiers with him pulled their weapons up to track her movement so she stopped and waited, hoping that would calm them.

When he finally arrived in front of her the man started speaking in Spanish. When Laura clearly couldn't understand he switched to English, "What are you mutants doing out here?" he demanded. He spit the word mutant out as if it were something unbearably disgusting.

"We're just passing through to Costa Rica." Lauara replied, trying her best to project calm at the clearly military man. She had found that generally made a difference, though she didn't understand why.

To her relief it worked once again. Although he still clearly hated mutants, he calmed considerably. Glancing at the group behind her he nodded once and said, "Alright, but keep moving. We'll be following you until you leave our country."

Laura felt that was as close to friendly as he was likely to get so thanked him and returned to her group. He did the same; the chopper taking off as soon as everyone was back on board.

"Looks like you were right, they just want to make sure we leave." she said as she rejoined the group.

He nodded, "Yes, but only because you calmed him. I've heard of this man before, his hatred of mutants is already becoming legendary. If you had not been here he would have killed us all." Several of the others nodded in agreement.

"How could I have made that much difference?" Laura asked.

The man shrugged, and a woman said, "You've done so many times already. You have some kind of power. You make other people feel what you do, or what you want them to. Did you not know this?"

Laura gaped at the woman silently for a moment before shaking her head, "No way! I'm not some kind of empath, or anything!"

Several others chimed in with similar sentiments, but Laura couldn't believe it. It was just coincidence or something, right? she thought.

The military vehicles were still approaching, the noise of their approach becoming louder as they talked, so they ended their discussion and got moving as quickly as they could.

Laura stewed over their words as they continued. She could kind of see what the others were saying; people had reacted oddly to her on several occasions since her transformation. But she couldn't figure out how that could possibly work. There had been no mention of mental or magical powers among mutants. Only abilities that various animals or insects had.

They were all relieved a few hours later when they crossed the border and the military vehicles stopped. They stayed on the border for some time, though, until their group was out of sight. "I hope that guy was right about Costa Rica." Laura said. The others agreed.

---

To Be Continued...