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July 2015
The encounter with the orc gang changed everything for me. Suddenly I wasn't helpless anymore. Okay, maybe I never was. But I didn't feel helpless anymore. I had power. It wasn't as impressive as Erin's or Tessa's but it was enough to protect myself with.

Perhaps the best part was losing all that anger. Beth didn't agree.

"I'm worried about this sudden change." she said a couple days later at my place. She had been visiting almost everyday since I arrived. I'd asked her if she didn't have other people who needed her help more but she said I wasn't just a client; I was a friend. I still found it hard to believe sometimes that I seemed to have suddenly collected so many friends.

I'm fine." I protested.

Beth stared at me a moment before saying, "You look well, I'll admit. But it's not normal to have such a sudden change. It's not healthy to suppress all that anger."

"I'm not suppressing anything!" I replied, rolling my eyes. "You're an empath. Am I feeling any anger?"

"Well, no, other than some frustration with me. But it is possible to suppress it to a point where I can't detect it." she said.

I shrugged, "I can't explain why my anger went away. It just did after using my powers. Maybe it's part of how my power works?"

She looked thoughtful, "Hmm, I suppose that's possible. That would even explain why your power didn't manifest before. You were too closed down to really get angry so there was nothing to trigger it. Can you activate your power now?"

I shrugged, so we went outside to give it a try. I really didn't have a clue how I'd activated my powers in the first place. I tried to will them to but nothing happened.

"Try thinking about something that makes you angry." Beth suggested.

That wasn't difficult. The hardest part was choosing what to focus on, there were so many things that made me angry. My father. My brother. Being enslaved for being Wyld. The list goes on. It amazed me how much I'd changed since I got to Hawaii. Shrugging that off for now, I focused on the man with the sharp teeth. That was enough to make me angry without getting too upset. Then I focused on trying to get my power to work again. Only a moment later I felt calmer as a shock wave shot out from me, nearly knocking Beth down despite being over ten feet away.

"Are you okay?" I asked, surprised that the effect hit her so hard.

She smiled weakly, "I'm fine. It looks like being angry is the key, alright. You looked about ready to murder somebody until that shock wave. Now you seem completely calm."

I realized she was right. I didn't feel the least bit angry. The heat around me was not as intense as the first time but otherwise my powers seemed to work like before. I wondered if getting angrier would make the heat stronger so started thinking about Jerry. Suddenly there was another shock that did knock Beth down this time. There was also a sharp sound at my feet. When I looked down I found the concrete had cracked.

Before I could say anything Beth waved me back, "I'm fine, relax. I felt a spike of anger from you just before that happened but it disappeared almost immediately. It's almost like your power feeds on your anger..."

"Does that mean I have to be angry to use my powers?" I wondered.

Beth shrugged, "Maybe. Or maybe you just need some practice to learn to use them without getting angry. Either way you seem to have a built in relief valve for your anger. That should come in handy but I suggest you not rely on it too much."

"You mean become dependent on it." I guessed.

She nodded, "Yes, that would be just as bad as being angry all the time. Why don't you see if you can turn your powers off now?"

"Okay." I agreed, willing them to turn off. It hardly took any effort. In fact, it was more like ceasing to exert effort even though I hadn't been aware of exerting myself at all. Beth walked up and held her hand near my arm for a moment before touching me cautiously.

"You cool fast." she said, seeming uninjured.

"That's good but why don't my clothes burn?" I asked. "Not that I'm complaining." I hurried to add.

She shook her head, "Who knows? How do any of our powers work?"

That was the first of many experiments. At Beth's insistence I never did them alone so she, Erin or Tessa were always there. Paige even showed up once while she was visiting and wanted to see what I could do. Not that my powers are very impressive. They're not bad for defense but that's about it. I did learn that I seem to heal a lot faster when I use them, though. I had cut myself while chopping vegetables at work. The cut was pretty deep but healing up nicely until I had another bout of practice with my powers. Then it was like I was never cut at all.

Erin visited me at work one day with Joe in tow. "What's up Erin?" I asked, surprised to see her there. She seemed inclined to avoid the place now that she didn't have to work there anymore. I never did figure out what she disliked about it so much.

"This lug heard about your power experiments and seems to think you'd be a good addition to his team." she replied.

"Team? What team?" I asked. I'd thought Joe just worked with refugees and stuff but this sounded like something different.

Joe looked a little uncomfortable, glancing at Erin for support but not getting it. "Um, you see we don't just help new Wyld settle in here. We're also sort of the Wyld police. When a Wyld goes rogue we're the ones who go after them and bring them in. Most of the regular police force either aren't Wyld or don't have combat related powers. So those of us who do capture the rogues. We also help out the military when the islands are attacked."

I just gaped at him for a moment before blurting, "You want me to join the military?!"

"Um, well, we're not really the military. We're sort of an independent group of problem solvers. We do work for the government but we're not part of any other department." he said.

I glanced incredulously at Erin. "Don't look at me. He's been trying to recruit me for a few years now. He's not very good at taking 'no' for an answer. You saw how he got me to help them out when you arrived." she grumbled.

"So you work with him now?" I asked.

"Not likely." she growled. "That was a one time thing."

"Now Erin, you know you could do a lot of good..." Joe started, only to get cut off by Erin punching him in the shoulder. Hard.

"Forget it." Erin almost snarled. "I'm not playing soldier and hunting down my own kind. I saw enough of that in Calivada."

"Hey," Joe said with more force, "we're not like that and you know it!"

Erin relented a little, "Sorry, I know you're not. But I don't trust the government, any government, enough to start working for them. Find another flyer."

Joe sighed, this was obviously a long running argument between them, "You know Hawaii isn't like Calivada but I can see you're not in any mood to talk about it. Anyway, Anna, I was hoping you would consider giving us a chance. Your powers could come in handy."

I frowned, "How? They're purely defensive."

He nodded, "Sure, but that's still good for defending yourself when things get bumpy. Most of the messes we get into are defensive anyway. Like when you arrived. We didn't attack the battleship full on, we just disabled their weapons long enough for you to escape."

I considered his offer briefly as he filled me in on some more details but ultimately my initial reaction still held. I didn't want to fight. I'd seen enough death already. Helping people like Beth did was a lot more appealing. Or maybe teaching like Tessa. I wasn't decided yet on my career path but I was sure that Joe's path wasn't mine.

Joe didn't give up but he backed off for a while. I noticed a few days later he was trying to sell Erin on it again. The guy is definitely stubborn. If they weren't such good friends I think Erin would have taken him up ten thousand feet and let him go she looked so frustrated.

She was visiting with Tessa a couple of days later so I asked her why she was so against it.

"Why, are you thinking about joining up after all?" she asked, sounding disappointed.

Tessa bumped her shoulder into Erin's, "Don't be so negative, dear. Just because you don't want to work for the government doesn't mean it isn't right for other people. I work for the government, in case you've forgotten."

"Well, yeah, " Erin admitted defensively, "but you teach kids! Not hunt down Wyld!"

"I don't want to hunt down anybody. I'm just curious." I said, leaning back in surprise at how angry she seemed.

Tessa grabbed her hand and she took a few deep breaths to relax. "Sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you." she said. She glanced at Janet, their daughter, but she was sound asleep. Janet's a cute little thing. I was holding her as we talked, as I often did whenever they were around. Nobody could resist Janet's charms. Not even Paige and she's pretty jaded.

"Does it have something to do with Calivada?" I asked, remembering her comment about it at the diner.

"How much do you know about Calivada?" Tessa asked.

I shrugged, "Not much. I know it's not a good place to be Wyld. Even worse than Texas by all accounts. And it's really religious."

Erin snorted but Tessa continued, "Religion is mostly an excuse for Calivada to take total control. And to persecute Wyld any way they can. Confederate Wyld are automatically the slaves of their families or the state, though there is a chance to become free if they look human. Texas Wyld are just slaves of the state, as you know. There are, officially, no Calivada Wyld."

"Huh?" I asked intelligently. "How can that be?"

"Some are able to hide because they look normal. Some are useful. The others..." Tessa trailed off, looking worriedly at her wife.

"What about the others? There are others, aren't there? I mean, everybody goes Wyld!" I said.

"The others are killed." Erin said darkly.

"What?!" I nearly screamed. Janet started fussing so I took a moment to rock her back to sleep while staring in shock at Erin.

Erin nodded without looking at any of us, "Sometimes the government gets them. Police, secret police, military or whatever. Spooks they're generally called. I had trouble trusting Joe at first because he looked kind of like a Spook but he doesn't act like them. Anyway, the government only gets the ones whose family doesn't beat them to it. Or their neighbors, coworkers, or whatever."

She stopped there. I waited but she seemed lost in her own thoughts. Tessa placed her hand on Erin's and spoke for her, "Erin didn't know a lot of this herself when she first arrived. She thought it had stopped. But her family tried to kill her when he went Wyld."

I gasped, "No!" Tessa nodded sadly. A tear streaked down Erin's face but she seemed unaware of it.

But it wasn't long before she shook it off and angrily wiped the tear away, "A lot of governments still treat Wyld like dirt. Or weapons. I don't trust governments, so I don't work for them. End of story."

I started saying something about Hawaii being different but Tessa shook her head so I shut up. I guess Erin has her issues, too. It was a surprising revelation since Erin is usually so confident. A little taciturn sometimes, but confident. But maybe that has as much to do with her being so powerful as anything.

The rest of their visit was rather strained but things returned to normal after that. I stuck with my decision not to join the 'Wyld Core' as Joe called it. They didn't seem to have an official title, at least that I knew of, but he liked to call them that. Erin seemed to get annoyed whenever he said it, though, so he usually had the sense not to when she was around.

Another thing I noticed was that those closest to Erin tended to get pronouns wrong with her. She never seemed to react to them, though. I decided it must be because of how short she keeps her hair and how she never wears anything the least bit feminine. It's not like she tries to look like a guy, though. She's just not very feminine. Maybe that's why she and Tessa work so well. Tessa's plenty feminine for the both of them.

Eventually my six months were over. I had started working with Beth and taking some classes, mostly psychology, so I ended up moving in with her. She said I was the best roommate she ever had because whenever she started getting on my nerves I just had to go outside and 'rage out', as she called it, and everything was cool. Not that I got angry with her often. She's far too nice to be mad at for long.

It amazed me how much misery the refugees who came to Hawaii had experienced. Some of their experiences made my life seem like paradise. My powers came in handy as I listened to their stories. I was still prone to anger after everything I'd been through and hearing these horrors really brought it out. Beth was always close enough to give me a little telepathic nudge when I was getting too angry to let me know I needed to blow off some steam. I think I confused a few people when I'd suddenly pause our meetings so I could go outside and use my powers. Beth wanted me to find a better way to work with my anger but felt it was better to rely on my powers for now than to take my anger out on refugees who had already suffered enough.

Working with Beth is really rewarding, though. I get to help people without having to fight anybody. Although there have been a couple of times when somebody went ballistic and I had to use my powers to defend myself. The resulting fires were a pain but the shock wave was usually enough to cool people down. But most of the time we just talk. I've got a long way to go before I can be even half as effective as Beth with her powers but at least I am helping. And I've got a lot of good friends who help to remind me of that when I'm feeling down.

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The End…?