After David is caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, his entire life changes in ways he never could have expected. This is a fan fiction taking place in the Whateley Universe.

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I’ve always hated long car trips. Spending too much time in the car always made me feel a little claustrophobic and cooped up. Of course, I probably wouldn’t feel so antsy at the moment if I hadn’t made Jackie stop off at Starbucks so I could get a large mocha.

Jackie had been driving for the last two hours while I sat in the passenger seat, feeling alternately excited, nervous, and bored out of my mind. It turned out that the doctor she got me an appointment to see was in the next state over. And since Jackie had already transported me across state lines after our escape from the MCO, this meant that in the past three days, I’d been in as many states.

We’d spent the last hour talking about Whateley Academy and what it had been like when Jackie went there. It sounded really interesting, but I was pretty sure she was pulling my leg more than a few times. After all, a famous super hero like Lady Astarte probably had much better things to do than play high school principal, and it wasn’t like Circe from the old Greek myths was a real person, much less a teacher there. Jackie had to think I was pretty gullible to believe that.

“Can we stop for some more coffee?” I asked Jackie, looking at my empty cup of go juice and sighing.

“Aren’t you a little young to be a coffee addict?” Jackie asked with a grin.

I shrugged at that, then lied, “My parents let me drink it anytime I want.” As soon as that was out of my mouth, I winced, realizing that I’d come off sounding like a little kid or something.

Jackie gave me a slightly skeptical look, then pointed out, “Well, it’s not like it can hurt you. Hell, being a regenerator, you’ll burn off most of the caffeine before it can even affect you. In fact, you’ll probably build up an immunity to it pretty fast, if you haven’t already.”

“What?” I gasped in horror, staring at my empty cup of go juice and feeling betrayed. What good was coffee if the caffeine didn’t even affect me anymore? After a moment, I let out a sigh and asked, “Any more downsides about being a mutant I should know about?”

“Well, you can’t really get drunk, “Jackie responded with a smirk. “Hair starts growing in funny places.” Then she looked at my chest and added, “And you may get unexpected swelling…”

In spite of how self-conscious I was about my new body, I couldn’t help laughing at that. Unfortunately, it came out sounding much more like a girlish giggle.

“We’re almost there,” Jackie told me. “Another ten minutes and we’ll be able to stretch our legs.”

A few minutes later, we pulled into a downtown parking garage that was a near some local department stores. I was a little curious about where we were going since Jackie hadn’t given me many details, but I followed behind her without saying a word. I had a feeling that she was just waiting for me to ask, so I avoided giving her the satisfaction. We ended up going to the lowest floor of the parking garage and then to a maintenance door which had a flyer for a band named ‘The Sword of Damocles’ taped to it.

“We’re here,” Jackie said, waving to a security camera which was pointed right at the door. There was a clicking sound as the door unlocked, then we opened it and went through. “People in my line of work can’t exactly go to a normal doctor, so we have a few specialists we use instead. Unfortunately, medical experts who are both qualified and willing to deal with mutant criminals tend to be…expensive.”

On the other side of the door, there was a large room filled with all sorts of strange equipment. There was even something that looked like some kind of science fiction ‘death ray’, which was pointed right at the door. However, Jackie didn’t even seem concerned about it so I only gave it a wary glance and then looked around the rest of the room.

Then I noticed the man who was walking towards us. He was tall, about six and a half feet, and he was also very well-muscled with rugged but fairly handsome looks. Though his hair was pure white, his features made me think that he was in his forties at most. I suddenly wondered if maybe he was an exemplar.

“Pinball,” the large man greeted Jackie, though she wasn’t wearing her costume at the moment. “You’re late.”

“By less than five minutes,” Jackie pointed out pleasantly. “There was a bad traffic jam.” Then she turned to me and said, “This is Damocles, the doctor who’s going to test your powers.”

“You’re a doctor?” I blurted out, staring at the large man in surprise. He looked more like a professional wrestler than a doctor.

“No,” he responded with a deep scowl. “I don’t have a medical degree or any official certification.” His eyes flashed with anger and he snarled, “Those fools on the medical board were jealous of my brilliance…”

Suddenly, a massive sword made of glowing red energy appeared in his hand. I gasped in fear and took an instinctive step back while Jackie just stood there with an expression of annoyance.

“Damocles,” Jackie snapped.

The large man blinked several times, then his energy sword vanished. “Sorry about that,” Damocles apologized. “It seems my Diedricks Syndrome is acting up.” Then he turned his attention to me and said, “But regardless of official certification, I am a high level devisor and gadgeteer with full medical qualifications. And of more immediate relevance, I have a great deal of experience with power testing.”

“I wouldn’t have brought you here if he wasn’t good at what he did,” Jackie assured me, which helped me relax.

“To begin with,” Damocles started, looking at Jackie. “Is this going to be an official powers testing for MID purposes, or do you wish to keep this quiet?”

“MID?” I asked curiously.

“A Mutant Identification card,” Jackie explained. “It goes on your official record with the government and MCO and is absolutely necessary if you want to be legitimate. It’s a little early for you to commit to my career path, so I recommend you get one. Besides, not having one gives the MCO a legal excuse to arrest you.”

After I nodded my agreement, Damocles asked, “Do you have a codename picked out yet?”

I was a little startled at that. “Why do I need a codename?”

“Your MID and test results are filed under your codename,” Jackie told me. “It helps to protect your privacy, so most mutants have one, even if they don’t wear spandex.”

“You don’t need to decide immediately,” Damocles told me. “Just as long as I have it before I submit the paperwork. Just keep it in mind while we perform your testing because once you have a better idea of what your powers are, you might come up with something suitable.”

Damocles went to a desk in the corner and gestured for me to have a seat next to it. Then he called out, “Salt. Pepper.”

Seconds later, two people came rushing into the room from another door, one man and one woman. They were both in their early twenties and looked extremely similar to each other, though the man had black hair and the woman had white hair that was pulled back into a pony tail. From the way they looked so much alike, I guessed they were probably twins.

“Get everything prepped for testing,” Damocles instructed and the twins immediately ran off again. He looked to Jackie and commented, “My new interns.” Then he turned back to me and said, “Tell me everything you can about your powers.”

I wasn’t sure where to start so Jackie started off for me. “First off, she appears to be an exemplar, and over the last couple days she transformed to look almost exactly as I did at that age. She has regeneration like mine, and she’s even able to create force fields the way I do, although she has a few tricks with them that I don’t.”

Once Jackie finished telling him about my abilities, doing an even better job than I could have, I said, “There is something else…” I suddenly felt self-conscious since I hadn’t told Jackie about this part yet. “I have chronic headaches…or at least I did. I haven’t had any since I started manifesting… Anyway, my headaches always started with a weird pressure in my head, and even though I haven’t had the headaches, I’ve still been feeling the pressure… It always happens when I’m close to a mutant and goes away when I’m not near them anymore.”

“Interesting,” Damocles mused, giving me a thoughtful look.

We continued the interview for a few more minutes as he asked me more questions about my headaches, the pressure I felt when I was near another mutant, and even about my physical changes. Then, Damocles announced it was time to begin the actual testing and he took me to a strange looking machine that reminded me a little of one of those transporter platforms from Star Trek.

“This is a device of my own creation,” Damocles explained. “It will help me determine the full range of your abilities, so stand on the platform and do not move until I tell you to.”

As soon as I stood on the platform, there was a humming sound from the machine and some odd lights. I felt a little tingling sensation through my body, but it didn’t hurt so I remained where I was and let the machine do its thing. I ended up standing there for over ten minutes before Damocles was finished.

“Staying in here all the time must get boring,” Jackie told Damocles while he worked. “Especially considering your old reputation. Why don’t you come out and do a job with me sometime…?”

“You know I gave up that kind of work after that fight with Champion cost me my arm,” Damocles told her with a chuckle. “It took me months to clone a replacement.” Then he shook his head muttering, “Antimatter weapons are NOT a good idea…” After a moment, he grinned and added, “Besides, I make more money doing this than I ever did robbing banks.”

“You can step off now,” Damocles told me a few seconds later. “We’re ready for the next test.”

Damocles took me to another room and showed me a table with a bunch of random machine parts on it and asked me to reassemble the machine, even though I had no idea what it had even been. “Come on,” I urged him. “Just a hint? I mean, even Legos come with some instructions…”

After fifteen minutes with no progress, he had had me look at some fancy machine and try to determine what it was for and how to operate it. Several similar tests followed, including one where I was shown a table covered with all sorts of random objects, which ranged from painted stones to books that were written in odd languages.

“No apparent magical affinity,” Damocles mused to himself, “And no indications of gadgeteer or devisor traits.”

Damocles put me through a long series of tests, with his interns Salt and Pepper sometimes helping. I spent about an hour trying to see if I could read their minds or project my own thoughts and emotions to them. All the tests for psychic and precognitive abilities proved that I had no talent at all in those particular areas.

Eventually, we broke for lunch and Damocles told Jackie and me, “Please return in an hour so we can continue with the more physical tests.”

“I noticed some restaurants nearby,” Jackie told me as we left the hidden facility. “Some of them looked interesting.”

I nodded in enthusiastic agreement, already feeling pretty hungry. Ever since I’d manifested as a mutant, my appetite had been through the roof. I just hoped I wasn’t permanently stuck having to eat this much or I might have to start robbing banks as well, just to keep myself fed.

Jackie and I went to an Indian buffet where we loaded our plates up as much as possible. I’d never had Indian food before and was pleasantly surprised at how good it was, even the vegetarian stuff. Jackie just wolfed hers down and then went back for seconds.

“You should probably load up,” she told me as she began digging into her second plate. “You’re going to need the extra energy this afternoon.”

When we returned to the testing lab, I changed into some exercise clothes that Jackie had brought. I had shorts and a T-shirt, and to my surprise and embarrassment, a sports bra.

“You’re going to need this,” she insisted with a smirk. “Trust me on that.”

I wanted to protest that I didn’t have any idea of how to put on a bra, much less any desire to wear one. However, I had to admit that my new body probably needed one. So with some degree of reluctance, and some loud complaints that I felt obligated to give, I went into the bathroom and changed.

“I can’t believe I’m wearing this thing,” I muttered when I came out, squirming uncomfortably in the sports bra. I was just as uncomfortable with the fact that the label said it was a D cup, and that it fit perfectly.

Damocles started my afternoon testing off by taking a blood sample and then cutting my finger with a scalpel. My cut stopped bleeding in seconds, then sealed up and healed as I watched it. He nodded at that and wrote something down in his notes, though he didn’t tell me what.

The next series of tests were much more straightforward, though not exactly pleasant. Damocles had me get on a treadmill and run while he measured my speed, respiration, and heartbeat, but then halfway through, he abruptly threw a tennis ball at my head. I glared at him but he didn’t seem to notice since he was busy writing something in his notes.

We tested my strength by having me use some kind of high tech bench press machine that didn’t really have any weights I could see. Damocles muttered something about it being a device that measured gravitational field resistance, but that didn’t make any sense to me. I just did my best to lift the weight while he pushed some buttons and slowly made it heavier.

When I was finished, Salt, the girl with the white hair, commented, “Twelve hundred pounds. Fairly impressive.”

“Twelve hundred,” I blurted out in surprise. “That’s over half a ton…”

I could hardly believe that I’d lifted that much, but Jackie smugly told me, “I can lift just over a ton.” Then she let out a sigh and admitted, “But honestly, I could barely make a thousand when I was your age.”

After several more tests, including one where Damocles tested my reflexes by putting me into a room that was like an automatic dodge ball machine, we finally got to the point where I could show off my force field. This was the part I was actually excited about since I actually had a real power to work with, and one that I could have fun showing off.

Damocles used some weird scanners on me while he tried breaking through my force field, using a variety of tools and weapons. I nearly shit myself when he fired some kind of ray gun at me, though by the time he used the flamethrower I was a little more confident. Then I got to demonstrate my control, raising my sphere up into the air and then creating a smaller one and making it float around the room.

Eventually, we ended up back at the desk while Damocles looked over his notes and some information on his computer. He made a few odd noises while I tried to be patient. Finally, he stared at me for a moment without saying anything.

“Geez,” I said in annoyance, “I know I’m cute, but you can stop staring.” Jackie burst out laughing, as did Salt before she quickly left the room with her brother.

“My initial scan helped determine the true nature of your mutant abilities,” Damocles finally said. “The remaining tests helped confirm this.”

“Let me guess,” Jackie said, giving me a quick glance. “She’s either an exemplar or some kind of shape shifter, not to mention an energizer and regenerator.”

“Not quite,” Damocles stated, giving me a steady look. “She’s a power mimic.”

“A power mimic?” Jackie repeated with a look of surprise.

“Probably a level five,” Damocles added, looking fairly impressed.

“What does all that mean?” I asked.

Damocles scratched his jaw then explained, “A power mimic, as the name suggests, is someone who can mimic the abilities of another. In your case, your power imprinted on Pinball and you are mimicking her abilities, including her BIT, hence your current appearance.”

“So you’re a power mimic,” Jackie said, giving me a curious look. “That certainly explains a few things.” Then she looked at Damocles and pointed out, “But she can do some things I can’t…”

“It doesn’t appear to be an exact duplication of your abilities,” Damocles agreed. “Or your appearance, as the age, eye color, and blonde streak in the hair prove. It seems that she not only duplicated your abilities, but improved upon them as well. As you noted earlier, she is stronger than you were at that age, her regeneration appears to be slightly stronger than yours, and then there is her greater versatility with the force fields.”

Jackie stared at me for a moment, then mused, “I thought most power mimics got weaker versions of the powers they copied…not stronger.”

“Most,” Damocles agreed. “But not all.”

“So,” I said carefully, trying to think through what Damocles had just told me. “When I feel that pressure around mutants, that’s part of this power mimic thing?”

Damocles nodded agreement. “Correct. I believe those headaches you described were due to this as well. Your power sensed when mutants were near and instinctively tried to copy their abilities. You said that your headache ceased the moment you had physical contact with Pinball, so you probably require physical contact to use your mimic abilities. It seems that when your powers couldn’t get what they wanted, they became more insistent and desperate…hence increasing headaches.”

“And now that I’m copying her powers,” I said, gesturing to Jackie, “my powers aren’t getting all desperate so I’m not getting the headaches anymore.”

“Correct,” Damocles agreed.

I sat there for a moment, silently thinking about what Damocles had told me. “You said I look like her because I’m copying her powers,” I said, gesturing to Jackie.

“Specifically,” Damocles stated, “You copied her BIT along with her powers…and your copied exemplar traits and regeneration have rebuilt your body to the specifications of that BIT.”

“Then if I stopped copying her,” I thought aloud, “would I change back to normal?”

Damocles stared at me for a moment with a thoughtful expression before carefully saying, “I doubt it. You have no BIT of your own, nor any exemplar or regeneration abilities. If you lost the BIT and powers you gained from Pinball, your body would likely remain as it currently is as…just without the enhanced abilities.”

“But if she then copied another exemplar,” Jackie mused. “A male exemplar…”

“I don’t have enough information yet on how her powers work,” Damocles pointed out.

“But you said I’m some kind of power mimic,” I responded, feeling a little confused. After all those tests, he certainly seemed to know what my powers were.

“Precisely,” Damocles quickly said. “You are SOME kind of power mimic. However, that still doesn’t tell us how your powers work. Mutants who have similar appearing powers don’t necessarily have their powers work the same way. Someone who has the ability to start fires may get their ability from pyrokinesis, being a fire manifestor, an energizer who releases heat, or even do to using magical energies to manipulate the elements. On the surface, their powers may appear the same, but the nature of those powers are quite different.”

“So, this means more testing,” Jackie said with a thoughtful look.

“Come back in an hour,” Damocles instructed us. “We will continue the testing at that time.”

After that, I went to the bathroom and changed back into my previous clothes, then Jackie and I went out for dinner. I was ravenous and ate even more than I had at lunch, but I barely paid attention to what I ate or what Jackie was saying. Instead, I kept thinking about how my powers really worked, and how I might be able to turn them off.

From what Damocles and Jackie had said, even if I got rid of Jackie’s powers, I still might not be able to turn back to normal. However, Jackie had suggested that even if this was the case, I might be able to copy the powers of a male exemplar and at least turn into a guy again. The idea of intentionally making myself look like some other guy just felt a little creepy to me, but on the other hand, Jackie said that exemplar guys tended to be really good looking, which would definitely help me with the ladies.

When Jackie and I returned to the hidden facility, Damocles was already set to continue the testing. We started off by testing my ability to sense other mutants and trying to determine what kind of range it had. I was put in a room by myself with a blindfold on, then Damocles, Salt, or Pepper would slowly move closer to me until I could feel the pressure in my head. Once we’d determined that my range was less than fifteen yards, we tried to see if I could tell what kind of powers they actually had. There was no luck with that though.

“Perhaps once you have more experience with your abilities,” Damocles told me before moving onto the next test. He held his hand out to me and said, “Attempt to mimic my powers.”

I wasn’t sure what I was doing, but as soon as I touched his hand, I felt a faint tingling run through my body. I blinked, but it had all faded away a moment later. The only thing I noticed that was different was that I no longer felt the same pressure in his presence. I could still sense him much the way I could Jackie, but it was much weaker and actually took a bit of concentration to notice it.

“Now confirm whether or not you still possess Pinball’s abilities,” Damocles told me. I willed a glowing force field bubble about the size of a beach ball to appear in the air in front of me. After a few seconds, I let it vanish again. “Good. Now we’re going to see if you’ve successfully copied my abilities.”

We went back to the table full of machine parts and this time they all made sense to me. Just by looking at the parts, I somehow ‘knew’ how they all went together. I began assembling the pieces, almost feeling compelled to do so, as though leaving everything broken down like this somehow offended something inside of me. But when I was halfway through, it all suddenly vanished.

“Um,” I started, staring down at a half assembled machine and having absolutely no idea what it did or what to do next. “I think it wore off…”

Damocles and I repeated this experiment again, and for the next fifteen minutes, the various machines and devices he showed me all made a lot more sense. But after about fifteen minutes, it wore off and I was back to normal and had no idea of how to operate the machines, much less build them. The he had me copy his power one more time.

“Now attempt to duplicate this,” Damocles stated. He held out his hand and suddenly that massive red energy sword that I’d seen earlier appeared. He swung it through the air a few times, then the sword vanished again.

“Okay,” I said, though I had absolutely no idea of how to do it. I spent the next fifteen minutes trying everything I could think of to try making it appear, but nothing happened. When his power faded away, I shook my head, “I couldn’t do it.”

“I’m not surprised,” Damocles told me with a faint smile. “My sword isn’t one of my powers. It’s actually a device that I keep stored in subspace until I need it. I wanted to see if you were duplicating just my abilities, or if you were capable of copying the effects of my device as well.”

Next, Damocles brought in Pepper, who stared at me without saying a word. Ever since I’d arrived, I hadn’t heard him speak even once. He held out his hand and I cautiously touched it, feeling the tingle as I got his powers, whatever they were. A minute later, I found out that he was an external gravity warper who could either reduce or increase the effects of gravity on anything he touched, and then I proceeded to test this ability out for myself.

Once Pepper’s powers faded away, I tried it again with Salt’s abilities. She was what Damocles called a package deal psychic, so for the next fifteen minutes, I found I could telekinetically move small objects around just by willing it, and if I focused hard, I could sort of hear what Jackie was thinking. However, I couldn’t get much, just enough to know that she was worried for some reason.

The next stage of testing was more of the same thing, though this time I tried copying multiple powers at once. However, I soon found that if I was copying Pepper’s abilities, I couldn’t copy Salt’s at the same time, not until his wore off. After several more attempts, I’d confirmed that I could only copy one other person’s powers at a time. This struck me as odd, and then made me realize what Jackie had been thinking about when I’d caught some of her thoughts.

“How come I can only copy your powers for fifteen minutes?” I asked Damocles, gesturing to Jackie. “I’ve had her powers for a couple days…” Then I gulped and whispered, “And they’re not wearing off like everyone else’s has…”

“Have a seat,” Damocles told me, directing me back to his desk. “I believe I have enough information to provide my findings.”

I went and sat down, feeling very nervous about this. I had a bad feeling that I wasn’t going to like what I heard, though I was trying to remain positive. Jackie stood beside me, putting a comforting hand on my shoulder. Damocles didn’t join us right away but went into some back room and came back a minute later with some random objects that he placed on his desk.

“As I told you earlier, your primary power is that you are a power mimic,” Damocles stated. “You aren’t in Mimeo’s class, but you are a fairly powerful mimic. However, the nature of your powers also limit you a great deal.”

“What do you mean?” I asked suspiciously. “And why do I still have these powers?”

“You’ve imprinted on Pinball’s powers,” Damocles explained patiently. “When you copied her powers, you did so thoroughly and at a very high level. Her power signature appears to have been fully embedded within your own. In other words, you copied all of her powers permanently.”

“What?” I gasped, the word coming out as a squeak.

“I believe that with the way your powers work,” Damocles continued, seeming to either not notice or care that I was staring at him with a look of stunned disbelief. “You would have most likely imprinted in this fashion on the first mutant you came into physical contact with. Being able to permanently duplicate another mutant’s powers in this way is a very powerful ability, but it appears you can only use it once.”

I took a deep breath, trying to stay calm and pay attention to what he was saying. I knew that this was extremely important in understanding my new abilities, and what they would mean for the rest of my life. “Only once?” I asked curiously. “But I’ve already copied your powers too…”

Damocles reached for an empty glass that he’d put on his desk a short time ago and set it in front of me. “This glass represents your ability to hold other mutant’s abilities.” He grabbed a metal can that was full of what looked like metal ball bearings, each about the size of a marble. “These represent Pinball’s powers.” With that, he poured the ball bearings, though they might have been pinballs, into the glass until it was nearly full. “When you imprinted on Pinball’s powers, this used up most of your capacity to hold other powers. Now imagine if these bearings were glued to each other and the sides of the glass as well so they couldn’t be removed.”

“Since she copied my powers, she doesn’t have the ability to copy anyone else’s the same way,” Pinball said, earning a nod from Damocles.

Damocles opened a bottle of water and began pouring it into the glass. “There is still room to hold some powers,” he told me. “But you can’t hold very much and they must work around what is already present. Because of this, you can only hold one other person’s abilities at a time, for only a very short time, and at a much lesser degree than what the original owner’s possess.”

“What if I copied another exemplar?” I asked grimly. “What if I copied someone else’s BIT…and kept copying it?”

“You wouldn’t be able to copy anyone else’s powers deeply enough to get their BIT,” Damocles explained. “Even if you could, Pinball’s powers and BIT would take precedence so the new one wouldn’t be able to have any effect.”

Jackie gave me a sympathetic look, then asked Damocles, “So, what are her official MID ratings?”

“Power mimic five,” Damocles answered professionally. “Limited. This limitation means that she is effectively a power mimic two for all powers but yours. And as your abilities have been permanently duplicated, she is also an exemplar four, regen three, and energizer three.”

“Those are some pretty respectable ratings,” Jackie told me with a somewhat smug look, obviously thinking about her own contributions to my power ratings.

“Now then,” Damocles said, giving me an expectant look. “Have you decided on a codename? As I said earlier, it’s not strictly required, but it will help protect your privacy.”

I’d been so caught up in the testing results and what they meant that I hadn’t given the matter of a codename any real thought. I hesitantly suggested, “Mimic?”

“Copyrighted,” Damocles responded.

“Copycat?” I asked.

“Copyrighted,” Damocles repeated.

We repeated this several more times with Damocles even pulling up some sort of computer database that listed all codenames that were copyrighted or in use. All the names I could think of which were related to my power mimic abilities were either really lame or already in use.

“How about Goldeneyes,” I suggested in exasperation, referring to my odd eye color.

“That sounds like a James Bond movie,” Jackie pointed out with a chuckle. “But since you seem to be stuck…I mean blessed with my abilities, maybe something related to those. Maybe Cannonball…”

“Copyrighted,” Damocles said.

“Hardball?” I asked.

“Copyrighted,” Damocles said yet again.

“How about Powerball?” Jackie offered with a grin that suggested she wasn’t being too serious.

“That sounds like a lottery,” I responded with a faint chuckle.

“And it’s already in use,” Damocles added.

Jackie jokingly offered a few more, which I suspected may have been nicknames that people teased her with in the past. I absolutely shuddered when she suggested, “Bubbles.”

To my relief, and even amusement, Damocles responded, “Copyrighted.”

I just leaned back and summoned one of the force field bubbles, making the smallest one I could, which was about the size of a softball. The glowing sphere floated in the air in front of me and I stared at it intently, trying to draw some inspiration.

“How about Sphere?” I finally asked.

There was a pause while Damocles looked through the database before announcing, “Sphere is available.”

“Then it looks like you have a codename,” Jackie told me with a faint smile and an amused look. “Unless you want to keep looking for something better.”

“I think I’ll stick with that,” I said, looking to Damocles. It wasn’t a great codename, but it was one I could live with…and it was available.

Damocles nodded at that and then typed something into the computer. A minute later, an odd looking printer spat out what looked like a driver’s license. “This is your MID,” he stated as he handed it to me.

“It’s official,” Jackie told me with a grin. “The only thing you need now is a costume.” I glared at her and she chuckled for a moment. Then her expression darkened a little and she gave me a sympathetic look. “I know you didn’t find out how to change back like you were hoping for, but you did get some good information about how your powers really work. I just hope you can get used to this.”

“I’ll try,” I promised her quietly, though I had no idea how I could possibly get used to being a girl. Still, the last couple days had been really weird, but not too bad.

“I’m getting hungry again,” Jackie abruptly said. Then she put an arm over my shoulder and grinned. “Come on, let’s go find something to eat…Sphere.”