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Author's Note: Here's chapter 1 of Syryn's Song. Thank you as always to all my readers for the comments, kudos, and thinking that my work is worth reading. Also thanks to the Big Closet team who work tirelessly to give us all a wonderfully supportive venue to read and post TG fiction ~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 1: Suffering

I was late. I was supposed to meet the guys at the Jumping Bean over twenty minutes ago but I was sure they would forgive me once I shared the good news with them. I raced through the streets of New Haven to the coffee shop in question and once I had parked my beat up old motorbike and took off my helmet I stepped inside to find Lenny, Peter, George, and Alex all sitting at a table in the back talking over coffee. I made my way over to the table and said, “Sorry I’m late guys, my mom needed help with something.”

“Dude, you’re seventeen years old, you’re practically an adult, grow some balls and tell your mom no once in a while,” Alex said with a groan.

“Yeah Ken, you’re the one who wanted us all to meet and then you’re fucking late, so are you going to tell us why we’re here or not?” Lenny put in.

I sighed and replied, “Look guys, I said I’m sorry, you don’t need to be assholes. I just thought that you all might want to know that Red Prophesy has a gig the night of Friday May 31st at Club Tartarus.” Red Prophesy was the name of our band and we had been together for the past two years except for Alex who joined us recently when we decided we needed backup vocals and a second guitar. We played a mix of death metal, grunge, and punk. I was lead vocals in the band. I didn’t play an instrument but I had been learning and practicing my singing since I was old enough to hold a microphone, and not to be vain but I was pretty damn good.

“Are you fucking serious?!” George asked, his eyes wide. “That’s where the Deadends got discovered. Please tell me you’re not screwing with us.”

I shook my head and couldn’t hide my grin. “Honest guys, I called you to meet here right after getting off the phone with the club manager. This could be our chance to break into the music industry instead of just playing parties and stuff all the time.”

“You are the Man,” Peter said as he reached over to slap me on the back. “This is so freaking awesome! We need to get some practice in, that’s only two weeks away.”

“Fuck practice,” Alex retorted. “With news like this we need to celebrate. My cousin works at a liquor store not far from here, I think I can convince him to sell us a few six packs to celebrate with.”

I was against the idea of drinking but the rest of the guys agreed with Alex so I was dragged along with them to celebrate in a spot well hidden by trees in Farnam Memorial Gardens. I bought a can of Pepsi and only drank that while the others drank three six packs between them with Alex drinking the most. I mostly just kept an eye out for trouble while I thought about graduation next month and where our band was going. This could be our big break and after a few months of having Alex in the band I still wasn’t sure if it was a good idea. I had originally protested having him join us because I didn’t feel he was a good fit, but I had been outvoted three to one.

Lenny, George, Peter, and I were all geeks and our band was the only thing that set us apart and gave us something to look forward to each day. Alex Collins, on the other hand, had a reputation for causing trouble. He was a good singer and he played the guitar well enough but the more time that my other band mates spent with him the more he seemed to rub off on them. This celebration was a prime example of that, three months ago the guys would have never considered drinking underage in a public place. Alex was also a glory hound and I had caught him several times in school telling people about ‘his’ band.

I thought that perhaps I was just jealous; after all he was popular, fairly athletic, and good looking. He was tall with long blond hair, blue eyes, and clear skin and a goatee that gave him a pretty cool look. I on the other hand was a little below average at five foot ten, skinny, and had dull brown hair and eyes. Sometimes I wished that I could stand out a little more but I knew better than to follow Alex’s lead. Peter, George, and Lenny though were drawn to his popularity and rebellious nature like moths to a flame and I worried that we would all be caught in the middle of whatever trouble eventually came his way.

It was soon past midnight and we were all standing by Alex’s truck when Alex decided the party was over and he was going to go home. He began to fumble in his pocket for his keys but we could all see that he was in no condition to drive. “Alex, you’re hammered, you should not be driving,” I said in concern.

“Fuck you Ken, I’m fine,” he replied, slurring his words as he tried to get his key into the door lock.

“You’re smashed and I am not letting you drive. If you want I’ll drive you home and take a cab back here to pick up my bike before going home.” I grabbed his hand to try to take his keys.

“Get yer hand off me you faggot!” He took a swing at me and I stumbled back to try to avoid it but bumped against the side of the truck. I can never be sure if it was intentional or if that extra bit of distance and the fact that he was off balance caused his punch to miss my face but it didn’t really matter because the result was the same; his fist hit me hard in the throat. I fell to the ground clutching my throat in pain as I began coughing. I don’t know how long I was there on my knees but the coughing wouldn’t stop, I couldn’t breathe, I could taste blood, and my vision began to get blurry from the lack of air. Finally though, fate showed me some kindness and I blacked out.

Unsurprisingly I awoke in a hospital room. I could hear the beeping of the machines and I opened my eyes to find a dimly lit sterile room with some flowers sitting on the bedside table and two empty chairs on the other side of the bed. A look outside the window showed that the sky was painted in reds, oranges, and yellows which meant that it was either dawn or dusk. I was distracted from my appraisal of the time and my current accommodations by my discomfort though. Damn but my throat hurt, it felt like I had swallowed sandpaper and a couple dozen thumbtacks and washed it down with a gallon of acid. I reached up to rub it and found it covered in bandages.

As I laid there and gingerly touched the bandages a nurse stepped into the room. She looked to be a Native American in her mid-twenties and she had a very nice smile. “Oh, you’re awake, good morning; I’m Janet, one of the nurses here. You’re at New Haven Children’s Hospital.” I was about to reply but she shook her head and said, “Please don’t try to speak yet, I’m going to go get Dr. Lewis.”

She dashed off and returned several minutes later with a slightly overweight man who looked to be in his fifties with a thick mustache and a full head of silver hair. He was dressed in a light grey suit with a lab coat over top. He adjusted his glasses as he looked at the clipboard he held and approached the end of the bed as Janet came and adjusted the bed to a sitting position. “Hello, I’m Dr. Lewis, and you Ken Graham are a very lucky young man. The paramedics managed to get to you before you stopped breathing or you would likely be dead.” He paused a moment to let that sink in before continuing. “I’m afraid though that that is the extent of the good news. You received severe trauma to your larynx and we had to perform surgery so you wouldn’t drown in your own blood. We’ve kept you sedated for the past week so you could heal properly; today is Saturday May 26th.”

I had been here for a week? I was going to ask how bad it was but no words came out of my mouth, there was only a harsh sounding rasp. Both my hands flew to my throat and my eyes locked on Dr. Lewis hoping that he could give me some assurance that this was not permanent. Sadly that was not forthcoming. He sat on the bed beside me and placed a hand on my shoulder. “I’m afraid that the damage was too severe. You’ll never be able to speak again and you’ll probably have troubles even swallowing, or breathing for the time being if you push yourself too rigorously. Due to the damage you’re getting less oxygen when you breathe so if you push yourself too hard you might find yourself getting light headed.”

I just sat there stunned as he talked. The only thing I had ever wanted to be in my entire life was a rock star. Sure every kid dreams of it at some time or another but it was different with me, music and singing was in my bones. I had even convinced my mom to get me singing lessons to help me pursue my dream. Now it was all gone, there was no chance of it ever happening. I slumped back feeling utterly crushed. Dr. Lewis gave me a sympathetic look as he told me, “If you’re up for it I will allow you to have visitors today and the police will want a written statement of your side of what happened. I’ll have Janet here fetch you a pad of paper and some pens so you can communicate. I must be getting to my rounds now but I’ll come in and check on you again later today.”

Dr. Lewis and Janet left the room but Janet came back soon with some pens, a Yale University notepad and a glass of water. She cautioned me not to drink too quickly because I might have trouble swallowing at first. It seemed that I was going to be stuck on a liquid diet for a while until everything was fully healed. Once I had finished my drink she told me that if I needed anything to press the button on the side of the bed and left me to my thoughts.

My first visitor of the day arrived just after ten in the morning. There was a knock on the door and I looked up to see one of New Haven’s finest standing there. The uniformed officer looked to be in his early thirties and was clean shaven with short cropped black hair. “Do you mind if I come in?” he asked.

I couldn’t exactly answer so I merely shrugged and pointed to one of the chairs beside the bed. The officer came in and sat down in the chair I had indicated and said, “Hi you’re Ken Graham right?” When I nodded he continued on to say, “I’m Sergeant Tompkins I was one of the first to arrive on the scene. Do you think you can write out in your own words what happened on the night you were injured?” I nodded but I had to wonder who else’s words he thought I might write it in as I began to carefully write down everything that I remembered from the time we left the coffee shop to the time I blacked out. When I finished he asked me to sign it before he began looking it over.

A look of disgust spread across his features as he got to the end and he shook his head. “I figured that something like that was the case. The doctors confirmed that you had no alcohol in your system when you were brought in and those four boys were so drunk they could barely walk. I would suggest you try to press charges when you feel up to it but you’re probably looking at a legal battle if it comes to that,” he said with a sigh. “Mr. Collins claims that you attacked him and he hit you in self-defense and the only three witnesses corroborate his story.”

That son of a bitch, I thought as I tightly clenched my fists. He took everything from me and now he’s going to walk away Scott free.

Sergeant Tomkins shook his head again sadly when he saw the look on my face. “Look kid, they were all drunk and you weren’t so their story won’t hold much water legally and I’ll do what I can and see if I can find any holes in their statements. Collins didn’t have a mark on him and he was quick to get legal representation, but without any witnesses to confirm your side of things there’s not much else we can do at the moment. You were extremely lucky that one of those boys used his cell phone to call 911 or you’d probably dead.”

Oh yeah, I‘m so fucking lucky, instead of just dying now I get to live out the rest of my life with no hope of ever doing the one thing I’ve always wanted to, I thought bitterly.

“I’m glad you pulled through kid, when I got there they weren’t sure if you were going to make it,” the policeman offered. “I wish you a speedy recovery. Get some rest and you should talk with your parents about getting a lawyer; a good one will be able to prove that he attacked you, possibly with malicious intent.” Then he left me alone again to think on that and to get some rest.

Janet came to check on me several times and turned on the television in the room so I wouldn’t be too bored from sitting there. I wasn’t expecting any more visitors until my mom got off work later that afternoon. Janet had told me that she usually came by to check on me every day after work and had spent a good portion of the day on Sunday here after church had let out. You may be wondering where my dad was through all this, but for as long as I could remember it had just been me and my mom. When I was two my dad had climbed into a whiskey bottle and never came out, and then he died when I was three while driving drunk.

I was slipping in and out of sleep after lunch, what passes for it on a liquid diet anyway, when I heard something in my room. I opened my eyes to see George standing in the doorway to my room. “It looks like he’s still asleep guys; maybe we should come back later.” My eyes were fully open now and I levelled a glare at the traitor. I could hear him swallow the lump in his throat from across the room as he noticed my look and said, “Uhhh… hi Ken… we… ummm... heard they would be waking you up today.”

The others took that as their cue and all four members of Red Prophesy entered the room. If this is going to be an apology it had better be a damn good one, I thought angrily as the four approached the end of the bed with Alex in the lead.

“It’s good to see you awake again,” Alex began. “I thought I should come by to tell you that I don’t hold what happened against you and I’m not going to press charges.” I just stared at him. Was this asshole for real? He fucking ruined my life and now he came into my hospital room making like I’m the bad guy? I pressed the button at the side of the bed as he continued speaking. “Also we took a vote and decided unanimously that you’re out of the band. You don’t play an instrument and now you can’t sing so you’re dead weight dude.” I stared at him in complete shock and when I turned my gaze on George, Peter, and Lenny none of them would even look at me.

“Get out!” I tried to scream, but nothing would come out.

It was then that Janet came back into the room and noticed how upset I was. “Look, I don’t know who you are but you’re upsetting my patient. Get out of here before I call security.”

Peter, George, and Lenny took off like a bat out of hell but Alex just couldn’t seem to resist getting in the last word. “Give us a call when you get out and we can talk things out. If you’re out by Friday maybe you can come see us play at Club Tartarus.” Then he left me alone in the room with Janet trying to calm me down.

“It’s okay Ken, they’re gone now and they sure won’t be coming back. I’ll talk to the front desk and security and let them know about those four. I’m going to give you something to help you relax okay? You are still recovering and you need your rest.” She injected something into my IV and soon I was feeling calmer and very sleepy. I drifted off to sleep not long after she left the room.

When I awoke this time I felt well rested and my mom was sitting in the chair beside my bed. The moment I opened my eyes she sat up straight, “Oh it is so good to see you awake Kenny, I have been praying for you all week. How are you feeling?”

What kind of question is that to ask someone in a hospital bed? I grabbed a pen and my notepad and wrote. “I feel like hell.”

“You’ll be all better soon baby, the whole congregation is praying for your recovery,” she replied with a forced smile.

“Praying won’t get my voice back,” I wrote, adding several exclamation marks.

She shook her head. “I know you’ve been saying how you want to be a singer but sometimes God places things in our paths so we can go in the direction that He has ordained for us. Maybe this is God’s way of telling you that you need to set more realistic goals for your future. I wasn’t sure about this ‘rock star’ dream of yours anyway, they all become drug addicts and alcoholics, is that really what you want? Do you want to be like your father?”

That was a low blow and we both knew it. She didn’t understand at all. I think the sedative must have worn off because all of the stress that had been building up since I had woke up that morning seemed to boil to the surface and I felt like I was going to burst. I could feel tears coming to my eyes and I tried to hold back all the emotion that threatened to run over me as I wrote out, “You don’t understand.”

I needed to be alone again so I put my pen and paper down and pressed the bedside button as my mom stood up beside the bed to take my free hand. “I understand you’re upset Kenny but you’re still young you’ll find something to do with your life. Maybe this is a sign that you should devote your life to God and His teachings.”

That was it, I started crying. She didn’t understand, nobody could understand. I could feel the pain, the anguish and something I couldn’t define boiling up inside me. The only thing I had ever wanted from life was stolen from me and the guy that did it came into my hospital room to gloat about it. And now I was crying like a girl, and I couldn’t communicate how I felt. I wanted a voice, I wanted to be able to make people know how I felt, I wanted to be able to breathe without struggling for air, but most of all I wanted my mother to back off.

It all seemed to happen at once. Janet was entering the room and I couldn’t breathe, I was gasping for air in what I was later told was an anxiety attack; My mother, my IV drip, blankets, and anything close to the bedside was sent flying away to hit the nearest walls and I started burning up, it felt like my whole body was on fire. My throat, my flesh, my very bones all felt like they were being rearranged. Wisps of something pink seemed to cover my eyes as my body contorted in agony and I was vaguely aware of my mother screaming.

Then it was all over and I could breathe again, not in the raspy struggle for air as I had since waking up that morning but normally. I brushed aside the pink stuff in my face and tried to ignore the odd weight I felt on my chest as I turned my attention to my mom who was backing toward the door with a look of horror on her face. Janet fad fallen to the floor but she seemed okay when she got up and asked, “Ken, are you okay?”

I nodded, which only caused the pink stuff to fall back onto my face. I brushed it away in time to see my mother shaking her head, “No… that thing… that abomination is not Kenny!” Then she ran out of the room as fast as she could.

“What…” I started to say. It was a second before it hit me, I had spoken. “What the hell is going on?” I asked and smiled, I really had spoken. It hadn’t sounded at all like my voice though, it was softer, lighter, almost musical in itself, and it was almost definitely a contralto rather than my usual alto. I reached up again to brush away the persistent pink stuff when I noticed it. My hand was smaller with long slender fingers, but more importantly it was blue. I decided that that was probably a pretty good time to faint.

It was still light when I awoke for what seemed like the millionth time that day. Someone had covered me with something soft, lifted me up, and was placing me in what felt like another bed. I heard Dr. Lewis say, “Thank you Tony, we’ll take it from here.”

I opened my eyes to find Janet looking at me in concern. “How long…” I began to ask before the strange sound of my voice stopped me.

“You’ve only been out for about ten minutes, you fainted. How are you feeling? We had to place you in a new bed and we’re moving you to another room. You made a bit of a mess in this one and we’ll need to clean it up,” the nurse offered.

“I feel weird,” I replied uncertainly. It was odd; I felt perfectly healthy, but my whole body felt different and strange. There was that strange weight on my chest and pulling at my head and yet I felt lighter somehow. My throat didn’t hurt at all and there was that strange voice I had which kept bringing my attention to the fact that even my mouth and teeth felt strangely different. “What happened?” I asked.

“You seem to be a Hyper,” Dr. Lewis said, “But I’m afraid that is not my area of expertise so since you seem to be healthy enough we’re going to move you to another ward. Dr. Park is our resident expert in Hypers so we’re going to move you to her special cases ward. There you can receive special care, counseling, and whatever testing is needed.”

“I’m a mutant?” I asked with an ache in my heart. That explained my getting a new voice and the blue skin, I was a freak. It also explained my mother’s reaction. Her religious group, the Church of the Purity of Adam, taught that mutants were the spawn of the devil. I had never believed that, I just thought that they were people who were different but I never thought that I could be one. “No wonder my mom freaked out.”

“Well you did send anything not bolted down within ten feet of you flying when your body started changing,” Janet pointed out, “Including your IV, catheter, and monitors. Your hospital gown was destroyed too; we had to cover you with a blanket before getting Tony to move you onto the bed. But that’s no excuse for what she said, you’re her child.”

“How… how much have I changed?” I asked as they wheeled my bed out into the hallway. The look of my hand, my voice and the weight on my chest all seemed to add up to something I didn’t even want to consider.

“It’s probably best that you wait to ask any questions until your see Dr. Park, she’s our expert on Hypers and she will probably be able to explain things better than I can,” Dr. Lewis advised. “All I can tell you is that your physiology has changed quite a bit.”

“Okay,” I replied, though I was really getting worried. I risked lifting my head to try and get a better look at my blanket wrapped form and was not reassured at all by what I saw. There were definitely two definitive lumps on my chest. I tore my eyes away and kept my eyes on Janet from that point on.

We stopped by the nurses’ station and he had had us wait while he called ahead. “Hello Madison it’s Gordon, we just discovered the hard way that one of my patients is a Hyper. He came in last week with severe trauma to the larynx and when he became upset his powers activated for the first time. Yes, I would definitely say there are physiological changes. For one thing his larynx was damaged so badly that he should never be able to speak again but the patient is speaking fine now, you’ll see for yourself the other changes when we arrive. I’m heading down there with the patient and his file now.”

Once he had hung up the phone we took the elevator down from the third floor to the basement level. Then we wound our way down several hallways to a security door with an intercom and a card reader. Dr. Lewis pressed the buzzer and after a moment a woman’s voice said, “Is that you Gordon?”

“It is, and I have your new patient here with me,” he replied. The door opened to reveal an Asian woman in her late twenties with shoulder length hair dressed in a blue top, black leggings and a lab coat. Dr. Lewis handed her a folder and said, “Madison, this is Ken Graham your new patient. Ken this is Dr. Madison Park our resident expert on Hypers, she’ll take good care of you. Now if you’ll both excuse us we need to be getting back to our patients on the third floor.”

Dr. Park and I both greeted one another and thanked Dr. Lewis and Janet, and then she wheeled my bed into a hallway with a dozen doors where she moved me into the first room on the right. “This is our examination and intake room for new patients. I understand that your Hyper Chromosomes were activated in your hospital room. Usually we only take in Hypers who have medical needs as a result of their mutations but since you were already a patient here I’m more than happy to have you with us until you’re ready to leave. Please give me a moment to look over your file and then we can have a chat.”

The room was large but looked like a standard hospital exam room with an examination table, all the various instruments to check a patient’s vitals, storage cabinets, a computer, and a good number of high-tech looking instruments and devices that I had never seen before. Dr. Park flipped through the folder with my name on it and finally said, “It says here you’ll be eighteen in August, you’re a bit of a late bloomer. I’ve heard of some being activated as late as their forties though and many go their whole lives without realizing that they have dormant H Chromosomes. So tell me Ken, what do you know about Hypers?”

I shook my head sadly, “Only that my mom and her church say that we’re the spawn of Satan and that now I apparently am one.”

She raised an eyebrow at that, “Do you believe that?”

I shook my head again. “No but then I can hardly throw stones now can I?”

She smiled at that, “It’s good to see that that kind of thinking didn’t rub off on you. I’m going to tell you all about why you are now the way you are and give you a full examination but first I want you to tell me everything that happened leading up to your change and your powers being triggered. Don’t leave anything out. The more I know the better I can help to determine why you are as you now are and what abilities you might have.”

“Umm before I go through all that I was wondering… am I a girl now?” I needed to know for sure if what I was already suspecting was true.

She reached forward to squeeze my hand. “Since I haven’t done a physical exam yet and I can’t rule out possible shape shifting abilities yet either all I can tell you is that from a cursory glance you do appear female. That’s one of the mysteries I’m hoping we can solve once you tell me everything so you can’t leave anything out, even if you don’t think it important.”

So I ended up telling Dr. Park everything I could remember from the moment Alex had hit me. She only ever stopped me if she wanted clarification on something or wanted to know my emotions and thoughts at the time. At the end I was feeling pretty depressed by my mother’s reaction and something felt off about my voice but I couldn’t put my finger on what it might be. I guessed that my story was pretty sad because Dr. Park was looking pretty depressed too by that time. Finally she sighed and began to explain why people become Hypers while I sat there and listened and her mood seemed to improve.

Normal humans have twenty three chromosome pairs for a total of forty six but mutants have an extra pair that remains dormant, sometimes for a person’s entire life. During periods of heightened stress of the mind and/or body these Hyper Chromosomes activate, and since puberty is such a stressful time on a person’s life they often activate then. In my case, losing my voice and all the added stress after that caused mine to activate. A Hyper’s abilities are largely influenced by the conditions under which they activate, strong desires, and possibly by genetics as some second generation mutants tend to have powers similar to their parent(s).

Every mutant’s H Chromosomes also have a unique Archetype or blueprint of what their body should be that is created when their latent Hyper Chromosomes are activated. These Archetypes are influenced by the mutant’s mental state, preconceived notions, conscious and subconscious desires and often by their new powers as well. People satisfied with their appearance may look the same after being activated or have only negligible physical changes, many have an ideal look in their subconscious, some are determined by what they are thinking of when activating, some are heavily influenced by their powers, and many are a mix of these.

“I believe that your form and powers were heavily influenced by your strong desires and thoughts when you activated,” Dr. Park finally said, “And possibly a subconscious desire to be noticed.”

“Are you saying that I wanted to be a girl?” I asked somewhat confused.

She shook her head, “Not precisely. Your larynx was irreparably damaged so to give you a physical voice some physiological changes were necessary. You were feeling emotional at the time and from what you’ve said you believe that that is not acceptable for boys and that probably conflicted with your desire to have people know what you were feeling. So since you feel that it’s acceptable for girls to show their emotions it defaulted to female. Your subconscious desire to be noticed took that and ran with it. That’s probably why you’re so pretty and have such odd coloring. You’re going to have a lot of trouble not being noticed now and for our kind that can be a problem.”

I could feel my eyebrows rise at that despite my distress at the possibility that I really was female. I shoved that aside with the hope that I might be a shape shifter as I asked, “Our kind?”

Dr. Park nodded. “Yes, I activated when I was fourteen and I’m one of the fortunate ones with an average human appearance. I had dyslexia and I was having a hard time in high school. When I activated things changed, not only was my dyslexia gone, but could I clearly recall everything I read and had the intelligence and intuition to quickly put the skills I read about into practice. I now have Doctorates from three different Universities in Medicine, Psychology, Genetics, Physics and Applied Science.”

My eyes widened in surprise. “Wow, okay so you’re the brain, so what do you think my powers are?” Please say shape shifting, I thought.

“No, the Brain lives up north,” she said with a smile. “As for you though, from the way everything in your room went flying and the fact that you seem to be projecting your emotions somehow I would say your powers are of a psychic nature. I do want to do a full analysis of your new physiology though, as it may have inherent abilities that don’t count as powers. So with that in mind I want you to get out of that bed and hop up on the examining table so we can begin.”

What followed, after I was dressed in a paper hospital gown, was indeed a full analysis. I was still the same height, tallish for a girl at five foot ten and I was in good health. As I feared, I no longer had my old familiar friend between my legs and in its place there was something I had always wanted to get access to, just not on my own damn body. And of course she had to examine that fully too. She tried to warm the metal monstrosity she placed in there but it was still damn cold, not to mention uncomfortable on so many levels. She even did some sort of ultrasound test down there. Once she finished she handed me a sturdier cloth hospital gown and had me put it on and sit up once again.

“Well Ken, the good news and the bad news is that you appear to be a fully functional and perfectly healthy seventeen year old girl, though we won’t know for sure until you have your first period.” My heart fell at that and I could see my own sadness reflected on her own face. “I would like to run some physical fitness tests though to see what your new physiology is capable of.”

“So that’s it then? I’m stuck like this?” I asked. I was clenching my hands and on the verge of crying.

“Ken, I know this is hard for you but it’s okay to show your emotions. In fact until you learn to control this empathic projection of yours, people will know how you’re feeling regardless. They may not realize it’s you and not them feeling that way, but you can still let it show. Crying when you’re upset is natural, it’s a pressure valve for all that pent up emotion and it’s unhealthy to not relieve that pressure once in a while. This is going to be a big adjustment for you, but there are some good things about this. You’re healthy and you can use your voice again. Focusing on the good rather than the bad will make the adjustment easier for you.”

I did cry; I don’t know for how long but I just let it all out and it felt good to be able to do so without being judged. When I finally collected myself, Dr. Park stood me up and pulled me by the hand to the closed door and the full length mirror that I had thus far carefully avoided looking at. “This is you now. Tell me what you see.”

I was tempted to say ‘a freak’ without even looking, but instead I did look. The girl in the mirror was gorgeous even if she did look strange, but that just made her an exotic beauty. As weird as it was, the first thing I noticed wasn’t the light blue skin or the long bright pink hair but those eyes. I had the most amazing turquoise colored eyes. The rest of my face was extremely pretty too with the small upturned nose, full lips, high cheekbones, and when I used a hand to brush the pink hair out of my face I discovered that my ears were pointed. Instead of just making me look more alien they looked like they belonged and added to the inhumanly good looks. A look downward showed that her breasts were a bit larger than average and even in the hospital gown I could tell that she was slender. Not in the anorexic way, but that healthy physically fit way that most professional models dream of.

Finally I said, “Wow, is that really me?” I guess being attractive could be a good thing, and I did have a voice again but what about the rest of it? “I don’t know anything about being a girl though,” I complained. “And it’s not like I can go out in public like this.”

“I’ll try to help you with all of that or find someone who can. It’s almost dinner time now though, so let’s go introduce you to the other patients and I’ll take care of dinner after. I would suggest if you don’t want them knowing that you haven’t always been a girl that you come up with a more feminine name. Maybe something similar to Ken so it’s easy to remember. Kendra maybe?” she suggested.

“No thanks,” I said with a frown, “There’s a Kendra at my high school and she’s a bitch.” I brushed my hair out of my face again, it was starting to get annoying, it was like someone kept shoving cotton candy in my face. Then it hit me, “Um how about Candy?”

Dr. Park nodded and smiled and I think she figured out what prompted the suggestion. “You could use the name Candice and go by Candy for a nickname.” With that she guided me down the hall to a small common room with a table and eight chairs where four teenagers were playing cards. The only girl in the group, a girl with intense green eyes and long black hair, looked up as we entered and smiled, “Hi Dr. Park.” Her eyes settled on me in sudden interest as the three boys looked up as well.

“Hi kids,” the doctor said with genuine affection in her voice. “We have a new patient as you can see. This is Candice Graham she was in the hospital for other reasons and the stress of the situation caused her to activate. Why don’t you all introduce yourselves, tell a little bit about yourselves, and make her feel at home while I go and get something special for dinner to celebrate the new member of our little family.” Then she left me there with the four teens. I was a little nervous since they all seemed to be dressed normally while I was stark naked under my hospital gown but the girl seemed to sense that and gave me a smile.

“Come have a seat, we don’t bite,” the girl invited, patting the free chair beside her. On her other side was a boy in a wheelchair, but for now the girl had my attention as she was very pretty. “I’m turning eighteen next month and my name is Leslie but everyone calls me Twilight for obvious reasons. I’ve got super speed and strength, a minor regenerative ability, and I can move through shadows. The problem is that my powers developed at night and I seem to have gotten a severe allergy to sunlight. Dr. Park thinks my fascination with horror movies might have been responsible for it or something to do with my regeneration. I’m here undergoing gradual phototherapy in a specialized tanning bed until I can stand being in the sunlight or until one of her colleagues can come up with a sunblock or something that will work for me. I assure you that I’m not dead though, nor do I drink blood or sparkle,” she added as a joke.

The younger boy across the table was staring at me but I couldn’t really blame him, I had seen what I looked like now. As for him he was an African American youth and he had a pair of plastic tubes up his nose attached to what looked like an oxygen tank. He looked down at the table as he said, “I’m Marcus and I’m fourteen, everyone calls me Smog though. We all like to give each other names that suit our mutations since we have plenty of time and not much to do. I was on the verge of dying from carbon monoxide poisoning when I activated last week.” He patted the tank on the chair beside him. “Now I can only breathe carbon monoxide, I suffocate if I try to breathe only normal air.”

“Show her what you do Smog,” one of the other boys prodded.

“Okay, okay, just nobody breathe it in.” He stood up and took his tank across the room to put some distance between himself and the table. Then he smiled at us all and let out a large belch. A good sized cloud of black smoke erupted from his mouth and he waited for it to clear before returning to his seat with his tank. “Dr. Park did some tests and the stuff only looks bad, it’s some sort of relatively harmless knockout gas.”

“Cool,” I said, “That’s a pretty good defense mechanism.”

“I think mine’s cooler though,” the brown haired boy beside him said. “I’m fourteen too and my name is Eric but my nickname is Taser. I shock people on contact, not enough to be deadly but it’s about the same power as a Taser gun. I’m having trouble turning it off though, and it’s playing havoc with my electrolyte levels.”

“My name is Jeff but everyone calls me Armor,” said the last one. As I craned my neck around Twilight to see what he looked like it was my turn to stare, as his fair hair and skin both turned a metallic silver color. “When I’m like this my skin is invulnerable so when I discovered it I did what any stupid sixteen year old boy with near invulnerability would, I decided to test it. I found out the hard way that my skin may be invulnerable but my bones aren’t. I broke both my legs so I’m here while I heal up and learn how to turn my power on and off.”

Suddenly everyone was looking at me and I guessed that it was my turn, so swallowing my nervousness I said, “I’m… umm… Candice, or Candy for short. I’m seventeen and I only just learned that I’m a mutant. We think my powers are psychic, maybe some kind of telekinesis and empathic ability. I’m still trying to get used to looking like this. I was a singer in a band before but my larynx was damaged and I lost my voice and I was pretty bummed out about it, it was the only thing I ever wanted to do. Then my former band showed up to throw me to the curb and my mom couldn’t understand how I felt and I just snapped. Everything in the room went flying and I turned into this.” I gestured to myself sadly.

“I think you’re beautiful,” Smog supplied and the others quickly agreed. “To hell with your old band, and to any who can’t accept you as you are now. Besides you have a voice again so you can sing right?”

“I… uh… haven’t really tried yet,” I admitted, “Everything has been happening so fast.”

“So try now,” Twilight suggested.

I looked at everyone; they were all watching me expectantly so I tried to think of a song that I knew that would work for a contralto. I still had all my training and practice and as the first lines of the Gothic rock song left my lips I found that my voice flowed like liquid honey. I found as the song progressed that I didn’t need to breathe as deeply or as much and that I could hold notes for much longer than I could before which really helped to add to the performance. It was a sad song and I was sad so since I didn’t have any control over my abilities it wasn’t surprising that when I finished there were tears in all of their eyes.

Twilight wiped at her eyes and sniffled as she said, “I think I found your name, I don’t know about anyone else but I’m calling you Siren.”

The others nodded quietly and Armor added, “But I think it should be spelled S-Y-R-Y-N. That sounds like a rock star’s name.”

I just sat there silently for a moment as it hit me… I sang. Not only that but I had an even better voice now than I ever did before. If I could somehow hide my differences then maybe my dream could still come true. “Syryn it is then,” I agreed.

The first week in the Hyper care unit passed quickly and a lot happened during that time. Firstly, Dr. Park tried on several occasions to contact my mother to explain to her what happened and that I would need her love and support. To say she was resistant would have been a gross exaggeration. She wanted nothing to do with me and had even gone so far as to hold a memorial service for my former male self. Dr. Park assured me that she couldn’t declare me legally dead without a coroner’s report and a death certificate but it would seem that all the same I was dead to her.

Still there were legal issues. For one, the situation brought up the question of where I was going to live now but Dr. Park said she was going to contact some friends for possible assistance in that area. Another issue was that I now couldn’t pursue any legal action against Alex. Between my changes and my mom pronouncing me dead in the newspaper when she announced the memorial service nobody would ever believe that I was Ken Graham. At some point I would also have to somehow change all my legal documents.

Then there was the testing. Not only did Dr. Park have me doing all sorts of fitness tests in the rehabilitation center but she also had me taking exams to get my high school diploma. I passed the latter with flying colors since I had always been a pretty good student and it was so close to the end of the school year. As to the former I was as strong and fast as any other seventeen year old girl in good physical fitness though I didn’t get winded much at all even when running hard. It seemed that my new physiology processed oxygen much more efficiently than normal so I don’t need to breathe as deeply or as often for my body to be properly oxygenated. We tested it in the rehab center pool and I was able to hold my breath for forty three minutes before I came up for air. Dr. Park thought that with practice I could probably hold it twice as long if I took a deep enough breath.

Trying to get a handle on my powers took up a lot of time too, though we had made some discoveries there as well. It was determined that I was indeed a telekinetic and a projective empath. The first was a source of irritation because I had to concentrate to move a pencil with my mind but when I got angry or frustrated everything in the room would start flying around. As for the second, I was working at being able to turn the ability on and off with some practice, but we discovered that it only seemed to work when I was touching someone or speaking. Dr. Park ran some sound tests and discovered a subsonic in my voice when I was using the ability.

Her theory was that I had a secondary set of vocal flaps that resonate to produce a sound humans can’t hear that acts as a carrier wave for the empathy. It doesn’t seem to work very well with voice or video recordings because I need to be physically present and actively using my voice power within two hundred yards or so and the person needs to actually hear my voice. Without both those conditions the motions I am projecting aren’t transmitted but people show a mild sensitivity to emotions. It does work at full power with a microphone but it won’t work past that two hundred yard range and the effect is less pronounced the farther away the person is.

When I wasn’t jumping through whatever hoops Dr. Park had devised I was relaxing with the others. They made me feel like a normal teenager and there was no pressure to act any certain way, though Twilight seemed to want to do girl stuff with me and I felt bad not being the kind of female friend she seemed to need. I was having trouble adapting to the whole being a girl thing as everything seemed different. I peed different, my center of gravity was different, I got aroused differently, I walked differently, and my new breasts felt huge and impossible to keep out of the way.

It was the end of that first week while I was alone in my room that Twilight came to cheer me up. Despite the others treating me like a normal teenager, I was slowly sinking into a depression since the final aborted attempt to reconcile with my mother, and as I was still getting the hang of controlling my subsonics, everyone would feel that way if I spoke to them, so I was alone in my room staying quiet. She entered the room, took one look at me and said, “Come on Syryn, why so blue?” Then as she thought about what she said her face fell, “Oh my God, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I know you’ve been down about your differences and I didn’t mean to rub it in your face.”

I looked up and shrugged, “it’s okay, it was kind of funny actually. It’s not just about my skin color, there’s a lot on my mind. You know I haven’t always looked like this.”

“I kind of figured that, most people aren’t born with your distinctive features,” she said looking a bit confused.

I shook my head, “No that’s not what I meant. I know that when I showed up you were hoping to have someone to do girl stuff with but before I turned into this,” I gestured at my body, “My name wasn’t Candice, it was Ken.”

The confused look stayed on her face a moment before what I said sunk in. “You were a guy?”

I nodded sadly. “Yeah, so not only do I have to look like this, adjust to crazy powers I can’t control, and deal with my mom writing me off as dead, but I have to deal with being a girl too.”

“I just thought you weren’t into the girly stuff. You sure don’t look like a guy.”

“Well I’m not anymore; Dr. Park says I’m one hundred percent female now, right down to the double X chromosome. So yeah, I have a lot on my mind.” It wasn’t easy controlling my subsonics in the mood I was in, but I really didn’t want her depressed as well so I was working extra hard at it.

Twilight came and sat on my bed beside me to put her arm around my shoulder, “We all have to deal with crazy powers but you’ll get the hang of them. As for adjusting to being female I can help you with that if you want, I might be able to help you look more normal too with the right makeup.”

“But I don’t know anything about being a girl and I have nowhere to go when I leave here,” I whined.

I was feeling helpless and very frustrated and I knew my control had slipped when she cupped my chin in her hand and turned my face to her. “And you’re not going to know anything about being a girl if you keep that attitude. So I’m going to teach you and you’re going to learn. And do you really think you’re the only one who has nowhere to go? The only family I had is dead!”

We both realized at the same time what she had said and I suddenly felt guilty for letting my control slip and for thinking only of myself. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know and my control slipped so I think you were picking up on my frustration.”

I tried to turn my face away but she held it there. “It doesn’t matter, frustrated or not I shouldn’t have snapped at you. I’ve been here over six months now, ever since the fire. A week after my powers kicked in a concerned ‘friend’ came over to see why I wasn’t coming to school. I confided in her about my powers and my condition. She told the whole school and we started getting threatening phone calls. Then one night I came home from an appointment with Dr. Park to find our house on fire. My parents were both dead when I got to them. I guess I’m lucky though, you have practically nothing but at least I have the insurance money and the money I got when I sold my car.”

I thought about it for a moment, but shook my head as I replied,” I had a savings account, but they’ll never believe I’m Ken Graham even if we do make me look somewhat normal. I don’t even have any clothes to wear except for the underclothes, track suit, and bathing suit Dr. Park got me for our tests.”

Suddenly her eyes lit up, “Why don’t we move in together when we can both leave? I haven’t even touched the insurance money yet, the settlement for the fire damage and my parents life insurance policies came out to almost six hundred thousand, that’s plenty for us to get a small place and everything we need to get set up on our own. And if we live together I’ll be able to give you all the help you need with learning to be a girl.”

I really wanted to take her up on that offer but I wasn’t too sure that it was a good idea. ”I really don’t want to be mooching off you, and I don’t want to live here in New Haven. Plus I’m afraid my powers would be a bother until I learn to control them.”

“You’re the only other mutant girl I know, at least if we live together we won’t have to pretend to be normal for our roommates, we can just be ourselves. I don’t really want to stay in New Haven either, I have too many bad memories here, not to mention enemies,” she admitted with a frown. “Where were you thinking about going?”

“I have no idea,” I replied with a shrug. “Somewhere with a good music scene I guess. I’ll need to find other musicians if I’m going to start a new band and maybe learn an instrument myself if I can find the time.”

“I play the organ,” my friend laughingly offered. “My mom used to play for her church and she taught me to play while I was growing up. I can play the keyboard too, it’s not that much different.”

It was my turn to have my eyes light up. “Really? I was kind of thinking of doing a mixture of rock, Gothic rock, and maybe some alternative or electronic rock and having someone who could play the organ and keyboard would be perfect for that.”

“I would want to buy a good portable organ and a keyboard, but I would love to be in your band if you think I’m good enough. I’m tempted to go shopping for them right now but I have no place to put an organ, even a portable one,” she lamented.

“A keyboard wouldn’t take up much space but we can’t exactly go shopping right now anyway, I look like this and it’s three in the afternoon so your allergy would be a problem,” I pointed out.

“Oh! That’s what I came in here to tell you,” she said slapping her forehead at her absentmindedness. “You know how Dr. Park has been gradually increasing the UV output and duration of my phototherapy sessions?”

I nodded an affirmative. “Yeah she’s been leaving you cooking while we’ve been running my tests in the afternoon. Usually you’re still recovering from the rash when I get back. Didn’t you have one today? You usually have your sessions after lunch but your skin looks as pale as it usually is.”

Her head bobbed up and down as she nodded eagerly. “I did, but Dr. Park decided to try something different today. She figured out that the areas that I had been burned when I went into the fire to find my parents didn’t seem to be affected by my allergy; I wasn’t even tanning in those areas. Apparently UV radiation at normal levels was burning my skin enough to be irritating to my skin but it wasn’t intense enough to warrant regeneration of the skin cells. But areas that have already been burned more severely are somewhat burn resistant after they heal. So she decided to give me a quick burst of the UV lights at full intensity. It burned like hell but my regeneration kicked in almost immediately.”

My eyebrows lifted in interest. “So does Dr. Park think this will work as a cure for your allergy?”

“She believes that I shouldn’t have any more problems, but she wants to keep me around for another day or two and have me go outside and walk in the sunshine for a bit to make sure it’s working. If it doesn’t we’ll come back inside right away,” my friend answered.

“We?” I asked uncertainly. “Girls with blue skin and pink hair tend to get a lot of attention, and so far from my experience it hasn’t been the good kind.” It was true that besides my mother and the others in the Hyper care unit only the people at the rehabilitation center had seen me, but I hadn’t liked the looks that they had been giving me each day one bit. I was always glad when our testing sessions for the day were over.

“Dr. Park thought it would be a good idea for you to get out a bit too so she has some stuff waiting for us in her lab. So let’s go so we can get out of here for a bit,” She grabbed me by the hand and half dragged me out of my room and toward Dr. Park’s lab.

“Hey some of us here don’t have super strength you know, or super speed,” I complained.

“The strength and speed I’m using right now are well within the human norm, I should know since I’ve been working hard for six months to get to the point where right now I wouldn’t be crushing your hand, ripping your arm out of its socket or pulling you fast enough that your feet wouldn’t be touching the ground,” she retorted as we stopped outside the door.

“Well that’s good, because I like having a hand and an arm an awful lot.” We entered the lab where our doctor was looking over some reports and I sighed. “Dr. Park, could you please relieve Twilight of this silly notion that we can get me to pass as normal.”

“I’m pretty sure we can’t get you looking normal, you’re far too pretty for that but we can get you looking human at least.” With that Dr. Park had me strip down while they got to work. They pinned up my hair and had me close my eyes while Dr. Park used an air brush to apply a light flesh-toned paint over my whole body while explaining, “This is specialized body paint. It will take a few minutes to set but when it does it won’t smudge or rub off for six hours, though it will wash off with a special cleaning solution.”

Once they were done with my skin and the paint was set they had me sit still while Twilight painted my nails black and Dr. Park secured a long and curly black wig over my hair and put some blue colored contacts in my eyes. The finishing touches were done with makeup: Mascara on my eyelashes and to darken my eyebrows, black eyeliner and lipstick, and a very subtle addition of blush to my cheeks. Then I was able to put on the panties and sports bra and the outer clothes which consisted of a black t-shirt with a faded skull pattern on it, tight black jeans, and a pair of black leather knee high boots. Finally they let me face a mirror.

I still looked like my female self but with the wig, contacts, and body paint I looked human and it caused me to gasp. “Holy crap.”

The pair smiled at me and Dr. Park said, “See, you can pass as human this way, as long as you keep your ears covered. Now you girls go out and enjoy the sunshine for a bit but remember to be back before visiting hours are over so someone can let you back in. So you have until eight o’clock at the latest. And please stick to calling one another Candice and Leslie.”

For the first time since my transformation I was truly enjoying myself. I could fit in with other people. Sure I was getting some stares but those were because I was a good looking girl and my happiness didn’t really mesh with the Goth look I was sporting. I couldn’t get over the thought that I could still sing and that with some effort I could look normal. With those two things I thought that maybe I could adjust to being a girl after all.

Of course Twilight sensed my good mood; she probably would have even without my powers. She was pretty happy herself as well because thus far in the hour that we had been walking around town with her quietly giving me tips on how to act or walk she had yet to have any reaction at all to the sunlight, usually even only a few minutes exposure made her skin red and blotchy. After having an early dinner at an open air café, we eventually decided to go into a nearby mall that was open until nine o’clock. Twilight said it had some great clothing stores and a decent music store. She teased me that if I was a good student while we shopped for clothes, we could go look at the music store after.

Over the next two hours, Twilight bought me five outfits and a few for her as well while she taught me about all the different articles of clothing, colors, and what would look best on me. She also introduced me to make-up. I was doing my best to commit everything to memory and for my clothes I had mostly chosen jeans and various tops that my friend had thought looked good when I tried them on. She did insist on one skirt, to get me used to the idea of wearing them. I think though that the underwear was the most embarrassing. She took me into Victoria’s Secret for that and they had to measure me; I was a 34 D according to the saleswoman.

It was a good thing I was painted or I was sure my cheeks would have been lavender from my blushing. As it was I felt really awkward with some of the daring panty and bra sets that Twilight and the saleswoman, Judy, had proposed. My friend explained, “Candy has always been a tomboy and now that she’s blossomed she’s decided to try to come out of her shell.”

Judy smiled. “Don’t be shy dear, I was a late bloomer myself, and trust me with your body, you have nothing to be embarrassed about.”

“I’m still kind of getting used to all this,” I said looking down at my breasts. “One minute I’m pretty unspectacular and these things weren’t there, and the next I look like this.”

“It does seem like that sometimes doesn’t it,” the saleswoman laughed.

Finally we chose two sets in black, another two in white, and one in pink. It was then that Twilight decided that we were done getting me some necessities and that we could go to check out The Beat. The music store had a pretty good selection and a room where you could try out instruments before you bought them. I was looking at a really nice wireless microphone when Twilight dragged me toward the sound room. “They don’t have any Hammond portable organs but they do have the newest model of Hammond keyboard. It’s got pre-programmed ‘voices’ for Hi-Def Acoustic Grand, Rhodes, Wurli, and FM Pianos. It also has Clavinet, Harpsichord, Accordion, Wind, Brass, Synth, Tuned Percussion, and four different types of Organ voices, including a pipe organ. I want you to hear me play while I test one.”

We went into the soundproof testing room and finding it empty, she guided me over to the keyboard and began playing a haunting and sad melody with the pipe organ setting. It was beautiful and heart wrenching and I didn’t recognize it so I asked, “What was that? It was beautiful and I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard it before.”

She shook her head, “It’s something I composed after my mom and dad died, it doesn’t have any lyrics or anything.”

I shook my head, “It has lyrics, or it will as soon as I find paper and a pen.” Now that I heard that song it was like the words wanted to erupt from me. We both needed closure from our parents, she had the song she had composed, but my closure, my acceptance of myself, was in the words and they ached to be sung. Once she had provided a notepad and pen from her purse I began hurriedly jotting down the words that kept running through my mind. Ten minutes later I asked, “Can you play that again?”

She began to play the haunting melody and I waited until just the right moment to break into the lyrics of the first verse I had written. I remembered the look on my mother’s face when I had changed and I poured all of that sorrow and pain into the words.

It looks like my secret is finally out
Of this I have no doubt
There’s no way that your love will last
My heart breaks like glass
I retreat to the shadows of my mind
Hoping that I might find
A little darkness where I can go hide
And put reality aside

I tried not to cry and to gather myself as I wait out the short break in the music I had left between the first verse and the chorus. I reassured myself that I will get through this and that maybe there are some people who can accept me as I launch into the chorus.

Take me or leave me, I come as I am
Whether you accept me, I don’t give a damn
This book has a cover that blatantly lied
A hidden treasure awaits you inside
You just need to reach out, and if you hold my hand
To set aside our differences, then you‘ll understand
Because there is a light that nobody knows
Down deep in the shadows

I take the brief pause before the second verse to collect myself and get a mouthful of air before closing my eyes and singing again.

Your lips are moving, but there’s no sound
My heart drops to the ground
And I just cannot hear what you’re saying
But I start crying
One look at your face, tells me everything
And I stop breathing
You claimed to love me, where’s that love now?
Did you disavow?

I carried the last note for several long second as Twilight played on. The love of my mother was lost to me and I mourned that but I needed to move on and so I broke again into the chorus.

Take me or leave me, I come as I am
Whether you accept me, I don’t give a damn
This book has a cover that blatantly lied
A hidden treasure awaits you inside
You just need to reach out, and if you hold my hand
To set aside our differences, then you’ll understand
Because there is a light that nobody knows
Down deep in the shadows

I could feel tears stinging my eyes through the next break and as I began to sing the last verse I hoped that I wasn’t messing up my body paint or makeup. I had been told both were waterproof but you never know.

I may look different but it’s you who’s changed
Loyalties rearranged
I don’t fit in the box you set up for me
Oh why can’t you see
Whether our skin is black, white, or blue
What’s inside is true
And if you can’t take all that is me
Please just leave me be

I needed this so much, to get all of this out in a way that would help me to let go of everything that had happened since my world had changed. Another short breather and I decided that I needed to let go of my past and accept my situation now. After all, how could others accept me if I couldn’t even accept myself? Ken Graham was dead, I was Syryn now. I poured that thought and the determination that came with it into the chorus.

Take me or leave me, I come as I am
Whether you believe me, I don’t give a damn
This book has a cover that blatantly lied
A hidden treasure awaits you inside
You just need to reach out, and if you hold my hand
To set aside our differences, then you’ll understand
Because there is a light that nobody knows
Down deep in the shadows

As the music began to fade I softly repeated, “Deep down in the shadows,” one more time slowly and softly letting it carry until the music ended.

Twilight was wiping tears from her eyes once her hands left the keyboard. “That was amazing. If we ever get anywhere with this, that is going on our first album.”

“Well I thought that it suited the music you composed, you’re really good. So are you going to get the keyboard?” I asked.

“Hell yeah,” she supplied with a grin. “It’s got everything I want, so I’ll get it and a fold-up stand for it. Oh and we’ll need that mic you were looking at too. So let’s grab the stuff and get going, it’s almost seven thirty.”

We took a cab and made it back to the hospital and the Hyper care ward with a few minutes to spare. When Dr. Park opened the security door for us she smiled. “You cut it pretty close there girls. How did it go?”

Twilight smiled back as she responded, “It went great, the sun didn’t bother me at all and Syryn didn’t get any looks other than those that guys usually reserve for pretty girls.“

I put my share of the shopping bags down as I nodded in agreement. “I learned a lot too. And I think I might be able to live with being a girl. I can sing and with a little help I can look human enough to blend in so I can still pursue my dream of being a rock star.”

We told Dr. Park about our decision to live together and to start a band somewhere other than New Haven and she seemed happy with the decision. “I was worrying about both of you since it looks like neither of you needs to be here anymore. At least this way I know you’ll be watching out for one another. What concerns me though is that both of you still need to train with your powers. Let me call some friends of mine in New York tonight and maybe I can work something out to help you with that. You girls have a good night. Dr. Howe is on duty now so I’ll see you tomorrow at lunch.”

Dr. Park was the head of the Hyper care ward and usually worked from lunch time until eight in the evening. The other two doctors, Dr. Howe and Dr. Winters were both nice enough but it was really just a job to them while Dr. Park treated us as if we were her own kids most of the time. Of the two of them Dr. Howe was the nicer one. It might have been just a job to him but he took it seriously enough and our needs were always his top priority when he was on duty.

Twilight and I put our things away in our rooms and went to Dr. Park’s lab to remove my disguise and the body paint. It took nearly an hour but we got me all cleaned up and into a white cotton nightgown that Twilight had bought with the rest of my clothes. Then we went to the common room to play cards with the guys before turning in for the night. I didn’t speak much while we played, mostly because I didn’t want to give my hands away with my projected emotions but it was fun nonetheless. I went to sleep that night feeling the best that I had since my activation.