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Insert standard disclaimer here: The one that reminds everyone that this is a work of fiction. No one is real and any resemblance to someone who is real is purely coincidence, honest. This is also a Fan Fiction set in the Whateley Story Universe. No Canon characters were permanently harmed in the making of this story. I hope. :)

 

Note: *sigh* Sorry for the delay and I wish I could say the next chapter will be out sooner. Thanks go out to my beta-readers/editors/sanity checkers as well as djkauf for his magical editing.

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The tiramisu tasted pretty darn good and Mr. Giordano made a second stop at our table to make sure we were happy with our food. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I wasn’t Italian because he sounded ecstatic to have a visitor from his birth country in his restaurant and he gave us a big discount. Who was I to rain on his parade? Besides, it was fun speaking the language and making everyone wonder if I was talking about them.

We didn’t have room in the car to give Lisa and John a ride home, but they had other plans. Sensei Roger’s dojo was less than a mile away -- easy walking distance -- and they were getting a ride from Lisa’s dad when he was done teaching. I received another awesome, yet friendly goodbye hug from Lisa and a kind of awkward hug from John.

I know I just got home, well, not home yet, but I kinda wanted to hang out with my friends a little longer. “Umm, Mom, Dad, do you mind if I go with John and Lisa?”

The parental units glanced to each other before Mom reluctantly agreed. “Sure honey, just don’t stay out too late. Umm, be home by nine if you can and call if you’re going to be late or need a ride.”

The “honey” endearment, I could sort of handle, it was better than “sweety” or --shudder-- princess, but nine, on a Saturday night? Did they get stricter while I was away? My old curfew was ten and sometimes even eleven on a weekend night. Oh, it has been a few months and they probably missed me and wanted to have some ‘family’ bonding before bedtime. I hoped that was all because there was no way I would be happy with sharing a curfew with my baby sister.

Lisa distracted me from my mental grumbles by grabbing and squeezing my hand with excitement before turning to my mom. “It won’t be a problem Mrs. P. My dad finishes teaching at eight.”

I couldn’t help noticing how forlorn Lindsay looked. Ordinarily, I would’ve never considered her feelings on the matter. She was my baby, brat sister and why would she want to tag along with me, but now, I wasn’t so sure. I turned to Lisa and John. “Hey, do you think there would be room for Lindsay? I mean, if she wanted to come with and it was okay with the ‘rents?”

Lisa laughed and nodded. “Yep, my dad’s truck has plenty of room for us.”

I didn’t have to turn around to know what Lindsay thought about my crazy idea. “Can I, can I? Pleeaase?” She sounded way more desperate than I expected.

“Okay Lindsay, but I still expect you both home by nine.” My mom sternly crossed her arms.

“Yay!” Lindsay hugged Mom before racing to my side and hugged me. “I can’t believe you asked me to come!”

“Me either…” I smirked as I considered the truth of my statement.

“Heeeey, meanie!” Lindsay pretended to pout, but it took her less than a second before she broke character by happily giggling and giving me another quick hug.

I don’t know what happened to my sister while I was gone, but it was strange having her like and want to hang out with me. It almost felt like old times, before she turned on me and hated everything I did instead of pestering me to no end to play with her. I guess I’ve also changed a little since I was the one who asked.

The casual stroll to the dojo took us less than fifteen minutes, 14.728 minutes to be exact, and once again, no one attacked me. No ninjas, H1! idiots, MCO agents or aliens jumped out at us, but we did see a police car race past, lights and siren blaring away. Other than covering my ears, I didn’t react or try to hide because I knew exactly where the vehicle was going and why. Using Santa Fe’s own system, I had every active emergency vehicle tagged and tracked on a real-time map of the city. If the call went out to arrest a dangerous mutant, I’d be the second person to know about it.

The dojo and Sensei Rogers looked exactly the same and I felt a tad nostalgic visiting my old dojo. Sure, it had only been three months, but a lot can happen in a short span of time. We arrived about halfway through his last class and just in time to watch the students spar. This was the first time Lindsay had been to the dojo and it looked like she found it fascinating. Early on, I’d tried to get her to go, but she claimed it was too stinky and didn’t want to have anything to do with hitting other people.

Stinky, it was not. Sensei Rogers kept the place inspection ready clean. I didn’t bother debating the ‘hitting’ part with her then because I was actually glad she didn’t want to join me. It would have been mega-embarrassing if she was better than me and kicked my butt.

Lisa and I performed a quick, nearly automatic bow of respect to her dad as soon as we entered. John didn’t but, he wasn’t a student. He did firm up his posture a little. It was a little amusing to know how much he didn’t want to screw up and insult Lisa’s dad because he showed his own father far less respect. He wasn’t rude to his father, but he didn’t snap to attention either. As her first time here, Lindsay’s eyes were wide as saucers from trying to take in everything at once.

“Whoa, this is so cool!” Lindsay fiercely whispered as she grabbed my arm.

In the center of the dojo, there were three sparring matches going on under the supervision of Sensei Rogers plus three black belt student teachers. The front wall was a solid mirror, the wall facing the street had some photos and trophies from competitions while on the back wall were various weapons used during class. The dojo also had a few large punching bags as well as a few free standing human shaped punching dummies.

It was fun watching my old classmates spar with each other. I recognized everyone except for one guy and he looked like he knew what he was doing. Not a beginning student of the martial arts, but not a jiu jitsu expert either. I pegged him as twenty seven, tan, in very good shape, nice butt, not that I was looking, and based on his haircut and how he carried himself, he had a military background. My suspicion meter rose a few notches and that bothered me because not everyone I came across could be an MCO spy, right?

Craig, Joe and Mark, my old sparring buddies, were there and they looked pretty good, but I was kind of hoping they got worse during my absence. I guess I missed sparring with them more than I realized and now, they wouldn’t recognize me and it wouldn’t be fair for me to fight them. It might be fun to take them down a notch or two though. Joe was paired up with the unknown new guy and they both appeared to be having fun. Hmmm, maybe the new guy wasn’t a spy, but he was definitely military, perhaps a police officer?

Promptly at 2000 hours, Sensei Rogers called an end to the class. After the row of eight students bowed out and started filing out of the building, he turned his attention to us. “Lisa, get into your gi and take your friend with you. Give her a new gi from the supply closet.”

“What?” I gasped; shocked that he would want me to fight. I didn’t expect to have to spar anyone on my first day home and how did he know? There was no way he could’ve recognized me. Maybe he thought I was a new friend of Lisa’s and I needed a little self-defense training, but why put me in a gi? For simple self-defense moves, he normally allowed first time visitors to remain in their street clothes since it simulated what they would normally wear if they had to fight off an assailant.

We both rose to our feet, kind of automatically, because when you’re called on by Sensei Rogers, you move. Lisa stole a quick glance back to me before turning to her father with a confused expression. “Umm, are you sure, Dad? This is Brianna’s first time here.”

He nodded and narrowed his eyes as he thought things over. “Hmmm, you’re right. We wouldn’t want to embarrass her too much. We’ll wait until everyone is gone, but,” He turned to my two remaining sparring buddies and the new guy, “Craig, Joe and Jason, you stay.”

Craig and Joe grinned at each other with mild satisfaction for being asked to stay behind before turning a puzzled glance to me. “Okaay, Sensei.”

Those two, I could trust, but this Jason guy? Not a chance in heck. I guess I would just have to see where Sensei was going with this and play along. If he didn’t know who I was, maybe he just wanted to give his students some extra training on how to help a new, female student feel at ease in a class of mostly men. If he did know who I was, maybe he wanted me to pretend to be the typical, defenseless high school girl or maybe he wanted me to go all out and kick their butts or maybe he wanted me to take out the spy? There were too many variables and not enough data to figure out what I should do.

Instead of confusing myself further, I followed Lisa into the small women’s dressing room. She grabbed a new gi for me, along with a simple white belt to help keep everything together. While I was trying to figure out how to wear a gi without a bra, Lisa stripped out of her clothes and down to her cute thong style panties without a care in the world.

Oh my god, she was just as hot as I dreamed she was. Three months ago, I would’ve probably had an anime inspired nose bleed and promptly passed out on the floor with tears pouring out of my eyes, but now, she was just another girl. Okay, not ‘just’ another girl. She was Lisa, my best friend’s ultra-cool, smoking hot and kick ass girlfriend. She was also my friend and I shouldn’t be having any sexual thoughts about her. Did I just think her panties were cute? Nope, sexual thoughts about Lisa and her cute panties, deactivated.

Maybe she was an exemplar and didn’t know it?

“Umm, Bree, aren’t you going to get dressed?” Lisa paused in the process of pulling a sports bra over her head, giving me an excellent view of her breasts.

“Well…” I blushed and strived to cover my embarrassment by glancing down to my top with its built in support. Gis aren’t the most female friendly up top. One grab or throw and I could be showing the boys a lot more than I wanted. “I’m not wearing a bra...”

Lisa finished pulling her bra down and adjusted her breasts for comfort. “Why don’t you leave your top on and put the gi on over it?”

Oh, now there’s an excellent idea. Why didn’t I think of that? Oh, I know, because Lisa was mostly naked and I was distracted by her cute panties, or something. I decided to get my butt in gear because if I was busy getting dressed, I would be less likely to stare at her. I pulled off my boots, skirt and leggings, leaving my top to support the twins.

The heavy cotton gi fit nice and loose like it was supposed to. The idea behind wearing the gi was twofold. One, gis are built pretty sturdy and are hard to rip, much harder to rip than normal street clothes. Two, the cut of the gi top gave my opponent something to grab onto for bars, holds and throws. Okay, there was a third reason, but that was mostly psychological. The gi was a uniform and put the wearer into the proper frame of mind as well as making them look snappy.

I knotted my belt and adjusted my uniform. “Okay, so who is the new guy?”

“Jason? He’s a SEAL and on TDY ( Temporary Duty ) for a few weeks to train with my dad. Isn’t he a hunk?” Lisa giggled at me when I accidently nodded with agreement.

Well, she thought I was agreeing with her on the hunk designation, but honestly, I was only nodding my head about him being a SEAL because it made sense. More importantly though, I needed to stop her from thinking I might like the dude. “I mean, no, he’s not a hunk!”

I felt myself blushing uncontrollably as my traitorous emotions reminded me I noticed his butt. I needed to get past the dude’s cute butt though. Did he know about me? Was he here to protect me or was it just a happy coincidence?

Lisa took my forceful rejection, blush and silence as proof of my attraction for him. She closed her eyes and savored a memory. “I’ve seen him without his shirt. His chest is nice and oh my god, his abs are rock solid! I bet he would be great to snuggle up against at night.” She sighed with frustration. “It’s a shame he’s so old.”

I sighed as I recalled the memory of Lisa standing in front of me wearing only her panties. I was just another girl to her. It wasn’t fair that I still found her attractive and that made me feel like a perv for looking when she obviously trusted me. I needed to get back on track here because I didn’t want to think about other parts of the dude’s body. Girls aren’t supposed to admire other guys when they are dating a guy. Only men are supposed be horndogs, right? “What about John?”

Lisa smiled dreamily. “Oh, he’s fine, more than fine, but a girl can dream. I’m not dead ya know?”

Except for the snuggling part, she sounded like a guy. Was it normal for girls to ogle guys like guys ogle girls? I know I did and still do, but I was a guy. “Oh, I guess so, but umm, does Jason know about me?”

“Hmmm, good question. I don’t know. This is the first time Dad has trained a SEAL at our dojo, but he has flown to Virginia to consult a few times though.” Lisa dismissively shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe, but,” she laughed and grabbed my arm, gently pulling me out to the dojo proper, “let’s get out there and see what nefarious plot my dad has hatched.”

“Ahh, excellent!” Sensei Rogers smiled as we exited the changing room. “Lisa and Brianna, you two stand next to me.” He motioned for us to join him in the center of the dojo.

Hmmm, he knew my name, thus he knew who I was and maybe what some of my capabilities were. Wait, no, Lisa told him my name. Grrr, was I making this harder on myself? Probably, but I’m sure Captain Howards had called and spoke to Sensei and Lisa did say she told her Dad about me. He had to have known I was coming home. Which meant Jason also had to know about me, right?

Once we joined him, he turned to Jason, Craig and Joe. “Okay, Petty Officer Steinke, here’s the training scenario.”

I glanced apprehensively to Lisa. She was grinning with excitement, but looked a little unsure of the direction her father was going with this. Jason, correction, Petty Officer Steinke, stood at parade rest, his eyes laser focused on Sensei Rogers while Craig and Joe looked just as confused and mixed with excitement as Lisa did.

“I hope you two don’t mind lending a hand with a little ad hoc Navy training exercise?” Sensei Rogers glanced over to Craig and Joe, but not me or Lisa.

“No Sensei!” They both chorused with grins ear to ear.

“Great! Okay, two Targets of Opportunity have presented themselves. This is an urban, snatch and grab op. Three man team tasked to grab two female intelligence targets. Target One,” he nodded to Lisa, “is Lisa. A known martial artist, codename ‘Silk’. Second female target is Brianna, codename, ‘Whisper’. Command wants them both extracted due to their ties with a known high-value, terrorist leader. Your extraction assets will include a nondescript van conveniently located next to the targets.”

He glanced back over to the two of us and smirked. “Sorry girls.” He resumed the briefing. “Mission success will be to get both targets in the van in under thirty seconds.”

Yep, Sensei Rogers was definitely up to something and I was starting to think that this could be fun. I also liked Lisa’s codename. ‘Silk’, how cool was that? Did he make it up on the fly or did he already have a codename picked out for her? If the latter, why would he have a codename for his daughter? Was I over-thinking this?

Now, Craig and Joe looked a lot more excited. How many times has Sensei Rogers provided training sims for PO Steinke and have they worked with him before? I mean, did they know how to work together as a team? All three of them were sizing Lisa up and giving me only cursory appraisals. Judging by his actions, Steinke might not be in the loop about me or he was just very good at faking it. He is a SEAL after all, they have to be good at that kind of stuff, right? I decided to keep pretending to be a newbie. “Umm, Mr. Rogers, I’m not sure about this…”

Lisa reached over and patted my shoulder. “Don’t worry, Bree, I’ll keep you safe.”

I snuck a peek at John and Lindsay. They were both sitting on the edge of their seats in the bleachers and looked anxious to see what would happen. They weren’t the only ones because this was not on my list of things to do on my first night home, but it could be fun and I’m sure Sensei Rogers had a good training message to impart on the guys, probably on Lisa and myself as well. He liked to make training as useful as possible.

Sensei Rogers pointed to the small seam in the mats running down the center of the dojo. “Terrain is a city sidewalk. The line there is a building. The extraction vehicle will be parked right about there.” He gestured to a point about ten feet away and opposite the imaginary wall. “Your goal is to get both targets into the ‘van’. Average police response time is two minutes.” He pointed to the guys. “Okay you three, head to the locker room and plan your op. You have three minutes.”

>Mission parameters accepted...

>Assessing Enemy Target threat ratings...

>

>Termination of Unknown Targets Authorized.

>Primary Mission Success Factor=88.7%

*Buzz! Wrong answer, this is a training exercise.

>Termination Authorization rescinded. Non-Lethal force required.

>Assigning enemy target priority…

>

>Target One

>Petty Officer Jason Steinke

>Threat Rating: 8.9

>

Hmm, on a scale of one to ten, he was pretty high. Well, he was a Navy SEAL and he probably had a bunch of real-world experience with this kind of stuff. I debated trying to connect to the mil.net and look up his DD-214 service record, but I didn’t want to abuse my access. Okay, I didn’t want to get caught, not that they would, but it seemed like a large risk to take for something that probably wouldn’t matter. Heck, as a SEAL, his record was probably under lock and key anyways.

>Target Two

>Craig Wilson

>Threat Rating: 5.6

>

>Target Three

>Joe Hopper

>Threat Rating: 5.2

Since I had trained and fought with Craig and Joe, they landed about where I expected them. Pretty high for ‘civilians’, but Lisa and I should be able to handle them. It was Steinke I was worried about. He confidently led his two accomplices to the locker room for their ‘secret’ planning session as the pair sneaked a few excited and calculating glances back at Lisa and me.

Once they were out of sight, Sensei Rogers grabbed a roll of blue painters tape from his office and used it to mark out a box, approximately the size of a van. He put an ‘X’ mark a few feet away from the front and back walls and a line of tape opposite our position, next to the bleachers. I wasn’t sure what he was doing with those, but I guess he was setting some extra boundary markers and I was correct.

>Primary Mission Success Factor=68.7%

Oh, that’s pretty good and I guessed that my non-lethal order made things a little harder on us. As a result, I needed to increase the odds a bit. So, with the guys no longer in my line of sight, I decided to confuse things a little. “Lisa, look at me.” I turned her to face me as I studied her face, hair and outfit. “I’m guessing they will go for you first. Are you interested in a little ‘disguise’ to mess them up?”

Lisa’s eyes gleamed with excitement as she nodded. “Uh huh.”

“Okay, here it goes ‘Bree’. Try not to talk and give it away.” Her body shimmered for a second as I cast an illusion of myself over her and followed it up with an illusion of Lisa over me. I still found the entire magical special effect to be very cool to watch. It would be even cooler if I could get it to pixelate in like a computer graphic instead of a rippling mirage effect as it took hold. Oh well, something to work on over my summer vacation or next year.

Now, if my theory was correct, the guys would go for Lisa, as me, the easy target first, but then, I’d have two on me because they would think I was Lisa. Not sure if my idea was all that great now, but Sensei Roger and my system seemed to think so.

>Primary Mission Success Factor=89.9%

“Interesting…” Sensei Rogers nodded and smiled knowingly at me.

His reaction, or non-freak-out reaction was telling. Yep, he had definitely been briefed by Captain Howards or Admiral Jensen. I glanced over to John and Lindsay and gave them the ‘no giving it away’ signal. John’s eyes were pretty big, but Lindsay practically bounced in her seat with excitement before she nodded with agreement and settled down.

The guys returned and Sensei explained the additional tape lines. “The ‘X’ marks in the front and rear are the boundary zones. If one or both of the girls makes it past that point, they have escaped. The girls also cannot see past those points. Consider them to be the corner of a building for concealment purposes. They also cannot see into the ‘van’ until ‘door open’ is sounded. The line next to the bleachers is also out of bounds. If the girls make it to that point, they have escaped.”

“Any questions?” Sensei paused with a glare that boded ill for anyone who asked him to repeat his instructions.

To maintain our disguise, instead of speaking, Lisa and I both shook our heads from side to side. The scenario sounded a lot like what I heard Sensei Ito did for his Self Defense course, except without having to worry about fighting fellow super-powered students. That’s what I heard his class was like, but I didn’t have first-hand experience because I decided to take the Survival Course instead.

I based my decision on a few factors:

1. I thought I was already fairly good at defending myself.

2. I saw no reason to show other, potential enemies my powers and weaknesses.

3. I thought the Survival Course sounded more interesting.

I mean, who doesn’t like learning what bugs are safe to eat?!?!

Eating a live bug counted toward a whopping 20% of our final exam score and I could understand the reasoning behind the high percentage. In a survival situation, you had to do whatever it took and if eating a few bugs would keep you alive, then that is what you did. I think the instructor just wanted to gross people out. Mission Accomplished! Bleh, gimme some nuts and berries any day over some protein rich, wiggling little Huhu Grub specially imported from New Zealand for our class.

I did pass and no, bugs do not taste like chicken, try peanut butter. Well, that’s what I thought the gross, wiggling, pale white worm thing tasted like, but some people claimed they tasted like buttery chicken. I thought they were a little delusional. Chocolate covered ants, now those were rather tasty. They tasted like little crunchy lemon bits covered in heaven.

PO Steinke’s orders to his team brought me back from my thoughts on bug culinary techniques. “Joe, you ‘hide’ in the ‘van’. Craig, you hide around the corner of the ‘building’,” he pointed to the rear of the dojo, “and I’ll come from the front. Plan C.” He gave the majority of his plan away with the positioning of his helpers, but having a ‘plan C’ sounded a little ominous. What happened to A and B?

Oh well, I guess Lisa and I were supposed to pretend we didn’t know they were there. Just like we were supposed to pretend the seam in the mats was the wall of a building and the box of tape was a van.

I debated trying to do an illusionary terrain spell and turn the dojo into something like a holodeck, but I wasn’t sure if I could and I didn’t want to show off too much. Well, and it would’ve given PO Steinke and the boys a little bit of a warning. Instead of doing something as obvious as magic, I used my system to superimpose a semi-transparent facade over the boundaries to make it look almost real to me. I also tracked each person in the dojo and displayed their locations in a small mini-map overlay.

“So, Bree, what do you think of that dress?” I softly spoke in an attempt to disguise my voice as I pointed to an imaginary window in our imaginary building.

Lisa picked up on the plan right away. “Oh, nice!” She whispered as PO Steinke and Craig started their ‘attack’ run on us.

“Door Open!” Sensei Rogers barked, giving us the signal to officially realize we were about to be kidnapped.

“Bree, Run!” I yelled and turned, like Lisa probably would, to face both PO Steinke and Joe as he lunged out of the ‘van’.

I assumed a ready stance and focused most of my attention on my two targets as Lisa ran toward Craig. My perception effect kicked in, slowing everything to a crawl. Lisa was halfway to her target and judging by his posture, Craig was expecting an easy capture. Ha! I wished I could see his face when Lisa took him down, but first, I had to deal with PO Steinke.

He made the first move and it might have even worked on the real Lisa, but I had all the time in the world to step a few extra inches to the side as he attempted to perform a takedown move. Joe was a few beats behind Steinke, clueing me into the fact that they had never worked together as a team before. I grabbed Steinke’s right arm and used his own size and momentum to redirect and throw him toward Joe. I cheated a little more by adding some extra push.

Steinke hit Joe, causing him to fall, but Joe’s body stopped Steinke’s momentum just enough to allow him to recover and come at me again. His eyes were deadly serious and focused on the task of taking me down. I spent a few spare milliseconds to check on Lisa’s status. She had Craig on the mat and was in the process of putting him in an arm lock. I estimated it would only be another second or two before he tapped out, allowing her to come to my aid. Not that I planned on her having anything to do by that time, but it would be fun to make the boys look bad.

Hehe.

The hard part was doing that without making it look too easy or hurting them. Well, that’s what I thought because Steinke was a little better than I expected and I guess I shouldn’t have been so cocky. He managed to get a hand on my gi top and execute some cheaty non-jiu jitsu throw.

Deadeye’s pithy words of wisdom came to mind. “Whisper, my charming newbie, here’s some words to live by, free of charge: if yer not cheatin’, yer not trying hard enough!”

>Target Two...Neutralized

Lisa made quick work of Craig and was on her way back to support me. It was time for me to up my game.

If I let the physics play out as he planned, I’d end up on the floor with him in the perfect position to execute a submission hold. I changed the rules by using his own strength and his grip on my gi against him as I simultaneously kicked up with my feet while pulling and rotating my body around his. My legs came up, locked around his neck and using the combined torque of our two bodies, I twisted --careful to not break his neck-- throwing him in what had to look some impossibly cool move from a movie.

He flew through the air with the greatest of ease before landing flat on his back 4.17 feet away from me. Too bad there were no movie cameras here.

“Woof!” The air was knocked out of his lungs from the force of his awkward landing.

Where was Joe? I glanced over to his position just in time to see Lisa intercept him on his way to help his teammate deal with me. With Lisa covering my back, I wasted no time. Steinke needed to be taken out and fast. No holding back, before my target could get his wind back, I rolled forward, into a forward handspring with a half twist. I stuck the landing on his chest, my knees pinned as close as I could get to his shoulders. Hey, the dude had a pretty big chest and broad muscular shoulders peeking through his gi. Wow, Lisa was right. He was ripped.

Wait, focus Bree…

“Kiiii-Yaaa!” I punched his throat, but stopped at a touch and held it there for half a second to give him time to register the kill. I mean, point. Steinke acknowledged his defeat by going limp.

>Target One...Neutralized.

“Yame!” Sensei's order to stop rang loud and clear.

I canceled our disguise illusions as I rolled off of Steinke’s chest, toward Lisa.

I heard Lindsay clapping and cheering from the sidelines. “Way to go sis! Woo hoo!”

“What the?!?!” Joe gasped with surprise as our forms shimmered, causing Lisa and I to trade spots. “Hey, no fair!” Quickly followed by, “Whoa, she’s an elf!”

Well, his reaction was better than, “She’s a mutant! Buuuurn her!”, but it might have been smarter if I hadn’t forgotten to reapply my human illusion as my Lisa disguise faded. “Umm, hi?” I sheepishly grinned and waved at Joe. --Excellent recovery there Bree-- I mentally kicked myself for sounding so lame.

Lisa let out a joyful whoop and fiercely hugged me, lifting me off my feet. “That was freaking awesome Bree!” She set me down. “Oh my god, you should’ve seen Craig’s face when I took him down!” She glanced over at the object of her mirth. “Sorry dude, but ya have to admit that you were pretty surprised, right?”

“Yeah, I guess so...” Craig sheepishly ran his fingers through his hair and then, his resolution firmed and he looked Lisa in the eyes. “You won’t be so lucky next time.”

Speaking of time, it was now 2030 hours and Lindsay and I only had 30 minutes before our super strict curfew. Well, it was only a ten minute drive from the dojo to our house, so we should be okay and besides, Sensei was with us. I’m sure Mom and Dad would be okay if we were a few minutes late.

“That was pretty damn sneaky calling in a ringer like that, Chief!” PO Steinke chuckled as he stood, straightened his gi and acknowledged me with a respectful nod.

With his compliment, I felt pretty good about my performance, but Sensei was not so kind in his After Action Review. Well, he only kinda, sorta yelled at me for doing the impromptu leg thing. It was PO Steinke who received the worst of his wrath. Well, not fire and brimstone wrath, more like you-screwed-up-and-you-know-it wrath. “Steinke, as the team lead, what should you have done differently?”

Steinke sighed with resignation. “That’s easy, Chief; I shouldn’t have taken the targets at face value. It’s clear now that I should’ve been more suspicious of the setup, treated each target as equally dangerous and stressed that to my team during the planning session.”

It was definitely getting late and I didn’t want to get in trouble on my first day home. “Sensei, I’d love to stay and geek out over this, but we,” I gestured to Lindsay and myself, “need to be home by 2100.”

At ten till nine, John was in the front seat of Sensei’s truck and the girls, grumble, grumble, grumble were relegated to the back seat. His truck was a full-size Ford and we had plenty of room, but it was the principle of the idea. Lisa and Lindsay didn’t seem to mind or think anything of it, but I guess Sensei did it on purpose to keep John honest with his daughter. Not that John would ever think of being anything other than a gentleman with Lisa, especially in the presence of her dad.

I decided to call my mom because I wasn’t sure if we were going to make it in time and I did not want to get grounded. I calculated my grounding probability at less than five percent, but why take chances when Murphy’s Law likes messing with me?

Mom answered her phone in less than two rings. {“Bree, is something wrong?”}

Why did she immediately ask me that? Not, “Hey Bree, how’s it going?” or “Thanks for the call.” I know I’ve gotten into a few scrapes in the past, but come on. {“No Mom, nothing’s wrong. Just calling to let you know we are on the way. Sensei had a, umm, friend from the Navy at his dojo and he wanted to go over a few exercises.”}

{“Oh...”} She sounded very relieved and surprised. {“Well, if that was the case, you should’ve called sooner. I don’t think your father and I would’ve had a problem with you staying out a little longer.”}

Now she tells me! I sighed with frustration because it might have been fun to go over a few more things with Sensei. Of course, then I probably would’ve been tempted to show off some of my cool spells, but I guess it was for the better. No sense in showing folks all my tricks on the first night.

Lisa poked me in the side. “What’s wrong?”

“Oh, nothing. I talking to my mom and she just told me that we could’ve stayed out longer.” I returned my attention to the call with my mom. {“Now you tell me. Oh well, we should be home in ten minutes or less.”} I could’ve given her the exact ETA -- 9.82 minutes -- but I’ve learned that people look at you funny when you give them too much precision.

{“Thanks sweetie. See you in a few.”} She disconnected.

Lisa and Lindsay both looked at me like I was crazy with Lisa beating Lindsay to the punch. “Umm, okaay, and how did you ‘talk’ to your mom without a cell phone? Do you have telepathy? Can you read my mind?!?” She sounded a little worried about the last question.

“No, I don’t have telepathy. I have a built in commo suite inside my head.” I tapped my skull for emphasis. “Look, pull out your phone and I’ll send you a text.”

Lisa pulled her phone out of her purse as John turned to watch and Sensei kind of divided his attention between the road and the back seat. I sent her a text message.

{“printf("Hello World. How about a nice game of chess?");”}

*Ping!

Lisa gasped with surprise as she looked at her phone’s screen. “Wow, just wow. You’re still a geek, but how did you do that?”

I smirked at her as I sent her a follow up message.

{“I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you. :-P”}

*Ping!

“Ha, ha, very funny.” Lisa stuck her tongue out at me before she expectantly crossed her arms and waited for me to spill the beans.

Everyone in the truck was waiting for an answer and they were my friends. I could trust them, right? “Weell, it’s kinda Top Secret, but without getting into the details…I have a super radio built into my head and I can connect to just about any radio frequency, including cell phones.”

Sensei Rogers nodded his head with understanding. “You have a jitters? I didn’t realize they got that thing to work.”

I kinda forgot he was a SEAL. “Ahh, yes, but no, they didn’t get it to work. Well, not for everyone else anyway.”

“A jitters?” Lindsay asked with Lisa and John mirroring her confusion.

“JTRS, or Joint Tactical Radio System. It’s currently under-development as a way to replace all the radios the military uses with a single radio, but it’s not going well. I’m the only one who has gotten it to work and I’m not very ‘deployable’.”

We dropped John off first and I felt mildly surprised when Lisa let him part with only a quick hug and a chaste kiss. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that her Dad growling at them sped their normal makeout session considerably. Yes, I’ve had to wait on John once before and it took them a very long time to say goodnight to each other. Well, I waited for maybe five minutes before I decided to run home solo instead of be subjected to all the blatant tonsil wrestling. I’m pretty sure they didn’t stop for at least ten to twenty minutes after I left and worse, they probably didn’t even realize I had left.

Getting home, we were only ten minutes late and after Lisa gave me a goodbye hug, Sensei surprised me by asking her to stay in the truck as he escorted Lindsay and me to the door instead of driving off. The ‘rents were waiting for us and opened the door as we approached. “Sorry for keeping them out Mr. and Mrs. Peters. I have a buddy in town for some extra self-defense training and I needed Lisa’s and Bree’s assistance.”

My mom and dad chuckled, a good sign that I wasn’t in trouble. “It’s not a problem, Sensei Rogers and thanks for bringing them both home.” Mom smiled at Lindsay and me as she motioned us into the house.

“Night, Sensei.” I nodded to him as I ducked past my parents and into the house. Ahh, home sweet home.

“Umm, Mrs. Peters, do you mind if I ask you something in private?” Sensei surprised me with his question. What was he up to now?

“Sure, Sensei Rogers.” My mom said with a smile in her voice as she ducked outside and closed the door behind her, effectively blocking out their conversation to me. What were they talking about?

“Girls, up to your rooms and get ready for bed.” Dad, the disciplinarian, took charge; working with Mom to keep me from eavesdropping on what I felt sure was a conversation about me.

“Ahh, Daddy...do we have to?” I don’t know how we did it, but Lindsay and I whined in perfect stereo. Well, except, I didn’t call him ‘Daddy’, that was Lindsay. I stopped at ‘Dad’, honest, but our performance was like old times and the shocked expression on his face made us both giggle.

He groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose as he slowly shook his head. “I can tell this is going to be stressful summer... Now go, upstairs, both of you and not another word.”

The stairs and the upstairs hallway was the first thing I noticed as being different from what I remembered. Instead of the original and slightly rundown carpet, my parents had put in a hardwood floor. Not the fake laminate stuff, real hard wood. Oak to be exact and I’m not sure how I knew that it was Oak. I guess I can blame my Sidhe genes for that little bit of instinctual knowledge. I liked it because the wood floor somehow made me feel more at ease. Without the artificial carpet, the wood floor made the house feel more like a home.

My room looked very different from how I left it three months ago. The hardwood floor continued from the hallway, covering my floor. I rightly guessed that all the rooms had received a new floor make-over. My bed now sported a wooden headboard that matched the floor. Gone was my old, dark blue, boy themed comforter and in its place was my white, fluffy, down filled comforter. I loved having it the last time I was home, but now I wasn’t so sure about it. The weather was a smidge warmer and I doubted my parents would be willing to crank up the AC just so I could snuggle under my cloud.

With the hardwood floor makeover, I wasn’t surprised to find that my walls had been repainted, not pink, but a sage green and gone were my movie and game themed posters. What did surprise me was a new oak dresser and matching vanity. I’m not sure I needed a vanity, but I could see how it would be helpful to have in the morning.

We, my roommate and I, had a single, full sized mirror in our dorm room and it was sometimes a zone of contention as we both tried to get dressed in the morning. Dee, or Fractious, had Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and as such, she tended to obsess over the little things and spent a lot of time in front of the mirror. With my illusions, I didn’t need to use it as much as she did, but it was still nice to make sure I didn’t accidently get my ears wrong or give myself a third eye. Her OCD wasn’t all bad, she noticed the tiny things that most people overlook and she figured out I wasn’t human in less than a day. On the plus side, her attention to detail helped me perfect my illusionary disguise.

She was a total neat-freak and I think that was why I got her as my room-mate. I was her fourth in the school year, meaning she drove everyone else crazy. Surprisingly, I got along well with her, but I think the fact that I wasn’t your typical girl with all the typical girl clothes, makeup and social tastes in music, TV and movies helped a lot. With my VR room inside my head, I didn’t need to clutter up things and I kept my side of the room almost as clean and blank as she kept her side of the room.

As good as she was at noticing small things, I don’t think she ever figured out I hadn’t been born a girl. Well, she never told me anyway. Heck, before she left, she gave me a hug goodbye, told me I was the best roommate ever and hoped she got me again next fall. I think she would’ve liked my new room and thinking about it made me kind of miss her a little.

My clothes were already hung up in the closet or put away in the dresser. Mom must have a little OCD in her, but that’s okay. She had only been putting away my clothes for almost all my life. Okay, it probably wasn’t OCD. Dee was pretty bad and my mom was just doing what moms do since my clothes wouldn’t wash themselves.

I was still taking in the changes to my room when my mom and dad politely tapped my open door to get my attention and ask permission to enter. “Well, what do you think?” Mom asked with a trace of nervousness.

I glanced down and around. “It’s different, but…” I smiled. “Nice, I like it. Not sure about the vanity, but it could be handy.”

My mom sighed with relief as she held my dad’s hand. “Oh, good. We,” My dad nodded with agreement, “were a little worried, but we didn’t want to go too overboard or girly, because, well, you know…”

Her concern made me giggle. “Yep, it’s perfect, but I might need to put up some of my old posters…” I saw my mom’s pained and concerned expression. I rushed to reassure her. “Or, get some new ones this summer.”

The one thing my room was missing was a computer desk and associated rig, but I had my school laptop if I got bored enough to play GEO again and if not, the computer inside my head was way better. “I would say it’s missing a computer desk, but I don’t really need one anymore.”

My mom rushed forward and pulled me into a tight hug. “I’m so glad you’re home Bree!”

A hug from mom, I expected, but Dad, no. His hug was more gentle, but full of strength. “Glad yer home sport. The lawnmower missed you.”

On one hand, I was glad he didn’t call me something girly, like, princess, but on the other hand, surely he had to miss more than for the slave labor I provided?

Mom hit him for me. “John! Seriously, give her at least a day or two before you remind her about mowing the lawn.”

“I was only kidding, besides, Lindsay mowed it yesterday. So, she’s safe for at least a week!” Dad chuckled as he rubbed his arm, pretending to be injured from my mom’s light slap.

“Whut, whaat?!?! Lindsay mowed?” I was shocked by that info nugget because when I was a boy, mowing was considered a manly chore, like vacuuming the house was more of a girl chore. Not that I never had to vacuum the house, but as the oldest and a boy, mowing the yard was kind of expected of me.

Lindsay chose that moment to make her appearance. She had probably been just around the corner and eavesdropping the entire time. “Hey! It wasn’t that hard, but I’m glad my ‘big’ sister is home to take over.” She sighed dramatically and made a show of flexing her muscles. “I’m just not strong enough to do it all the time.”

Lindsay looked like she was in pretty good shape to me and I didn’t like how she sarcastically referred to me as her ‘big’ sister. While I was away, the stinker had grown another inch on me and she knew it. I dropped my human illusion and pointed to my ears. “Sorry, looks like you’re stuck with it. As you can see, I’m an elf.” I sniffed imperiously and crossed my arms. “Elves love nature and as such, it’s against our religion to harm a plant.”

Lindsay was about to say something when our mom stepped in. “Okay, that’s enough you two. Bree, it’s your turn to cut the grass next week, then Lindsay’s turn.” She glanced over to me as Lindsay sighed with defeat. “Now, why don’t you change out of your travel clothes, maybe take a quick shower and meet us downstairs. Your dad rented a couple of movies and I figured we could all enjoy spending some time together, you know, as a family.”

After the flight and the little fight in the dojo, I did feel a little grubby. Well, more from the flight because being crammed into a flying sardine can always left me feeling a little dirty. Okay, I flew first class and wasn’t exactly suffering. Taking a bath or a shower was a time honored tradition of surviving a long journey on the dusty trail.

Thankfully Mom lagged behind Lindsay and Dad. It looked like she had something to say and I felt very curious about Mom’s secret talk with Sensei Rogers. “Umm Mom, what did Sensei want?”

Mom dismissively shrugged her shoulders and turned, as if she was going to walk out of my room. “Oh, nothing much. Lisa just asked if you could join them on their annual camping trip next weekend and he wanted to make sure it was okay with us.”

“What?!?!” I couldn’t believe she would drop a bomb like that and pretend it was nothing special.

Sensei Rogers and Lisa went camping every summer and it was a big deal for the two of them. No one had ever been invited to tag along and Lisa had lamented that fact every year, but not many of Lisa’s girlfriends had any interest in roughing it for a few days, or at all. John was never a consideration because boyfriends and fathers don’t mix.

“Oh,” Mom smirked, “I didn’t think you’d be interested in getting your nails dirty or sleeping in a tent with all the wild animals and no electricity.”

“Ha, ha, very funny Mom.” I impatiently crossed my arms and glared expectantly up at her. “So, can I go?”

Mom pondered my request for a second. “I need to check with your father to make sure he didn’t have any plans with you next weekend, but I don’t think he had anything set in stone. So, it should be okay.”

I hugged her and cheered. “Thanks Mom! This is going to be sooo cool!”

Lisa always gushed about how much fun she had camping with her dad. They hiked in with almost nothing and lived off the land for the days by trapping small game and fishing. It sounded almost like my Survival course at Whateley and I had tons of fun doing in that class. I looked forward to taking Survival II in the fall. I heard the class trip is either to the arctic for winter survival or the amazon for jungle survival.

I sent Lisa a text as I gathered my PJs, a fresh pair of panties and headed to the bathroom. {“Mom needs to check with dad, but it looks like I can go! :)”}

Her reply came back while I was washing my hair. {“OMG! Can’t w8! :-D”}

I thought we were done, but Lisa sent a follow-up text message less than a minute later. {“y didn’t u txt me in school?”}

{“Umm, I didn’t know you texted?”} I totally lied, but in my previous life, I wasn’t cool enough to have a cell phone and I didn’t think she would want to text me. I sent John an occasional email and I’m pretty sure he told her what I said. That should count, right?

{“Liar! :-P what r u doing?”}

I debated telling her that I was just sitting in my room. {“Washing my hair, getting ready to condition. Why, is texting in the shower dangerous? :)”}

{“Seriously!?!? Th@s so cool!”}

I played dumb. {“What, you don’t wash your hair? Gross! :-P What are you doing?”} Notice I didn’t use text speak like she did, but then again, I wasn’t trying to create a message using the number keys on a cell phone. I did use emoticons, but those are easy and I thought Lisa was actually a pretty fast texter considering her manual, number pad, phone handicap.

I spent a little extra time in the shower, wasting hot water and texting with Lisa. By the time she signed off for the night, she had wrangled me into going shopping for camping gear with her this weekend. I tried to tell her malls and I didn’t get along, but she lol’ed me. I don’t think she realized just how bad my luck at shopping malls has been over the last few months.

Did it take me another thirty minutes to dry my hair? Nope, Cousin Nikki taught me a few handy utility spells, called cantrips and I felt only a smidge of guilt for using magic to instantly dry my body and hair. Yes, it was kind of cheating, but why should I punish myself by spending ten to thirty minutes blow drying and styling my hair? I also had cantrips that allowed me to mend and clean small stains from my cloths and wow, did those two cantrips come in handy. I was still working on a full blown, cleaning cantrip that would clean a full garment. A few more hours of practice and I would have it down, I hoped.

Cantrips and illusions were easy and Nikki tried to teach me some offensive spells, like a fireball or lightning bolt, but for some reason, the evocation and conjuration magics were hard for me to grasp, literally. With my mage-sight, I could touch and see elemental magic, but the elements were harder for me to manipulate and wrap up into a spell. They just didn’t want to be tied up into a pretty little spell like the illusionary magics did. It was frustrating because I could see what the magic structure of a fireball spell should look like, but the best I could do with an elemental fireball spell was cause an explosion along the scale of an illegal firecracker. My illusionary flash-bang grenade was way better, but I couldn’t exactly use an illusion to blow stuff up.

Illusions were nice and all, but I wanted more boom. I asked Nikki why the non-illusion spells were proving so difficult for me to use. She thought I just might need more time and practice, but Aunt Aunghadhail came forward, grabbing my complete and undivided attention. “My child, it could be that your natural affinity for illusionary magics is causing a block. It may be possible to overcome your block, but that will take focus, patience and practice.”

I sighed with frustration. “Great, so I’m stuck with harmless illusions for self-defense.”

Aunt Aung frowned and tsked me, clearly disappointed with my defeatist attitude. “There is nothing wrong with being an illusionist, Brianna. Illusions can be very powerful tools, but as you know, they depend on the strength of your target’s belief in what they see. If your target believes enough, the effects can be real to them and in rare cases, even cause death.”

I know she was trying to make me feel better, but being able to turn invisible and disguise myself isn’t all that helpful when the fit hits the shan. An illusionary shield won’t stop a bullet and an illusionary lightning bolt won’t stop someone from shooting me. Well, it might make them duck, but only if they didn’t know it was fake.

She paused for a second as she thoughtfully considered telling me more bad news. “However; there is a line of research you may wish to pursue. Scáth or Shadow Magic was a discipline that when used in conjunction with illusionary magic, gave illusionary constructs tangible effects, regardless of the target’s belief or disbelief. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you more.” She sighed regretfully. “Scáth Mages were a rare breed in my time and I am not certain their knowledge will be easily found as they were somewhat secretive about their abilities.”

Okay, it wasn’t bad news and her hint reminded me of GEO Whisper’s rogue abilities using shadows to hide. Once she mentioned this shadow magic stuff, it was like a slowly flickering light-bulb came to life. I had been focusing all of my energy into learning how to cast magic and I hadn’t been giving those GEO derived and less flashy spell-like abilities any attention. Maybe there was something from GEO I could use to find out more about Shadow Magic. Maybe there was something inside the game that could teach me?

I was still pretty gun shy about playing GEO. So, I hit the Whateley Library instead, but there wasn’t a lot of information available to me in the general magic section. I found one book, but it only had a few paragraphs under the section devoted to illusionary magic. What was available was dismissive toward the theory and seemed to imply it was something evil wizards used, but I didn’t see how using shadow and illusions together could be ‘evil’. Maybe the esteemed, baseline wizard author of the book was a little biased? My old D&D™ books back home had better information about Shadow Magic, but not enough detail and I wasn’t sure if there was a “Plane of Shadow” like the books said.

I needed to get access to the restricted section of the library, but to get access; I needed to finish Introduction to Magic. Much like I had to complete the firearms safety course before I could fire weapons in the ranges, they insisted all students complete the intro course before they could visit the restricted section and I didn’t finish that class until the last day of school. Sadly, further research into Shadow Magic would have to wait until the fall semester started in September.

Maybe I would have to try playing GEO again this summer. I’d just have to be extra careful and watch myself. Who knows, maybe I could find out more about this Shadow Magic stuff and who or what was behind GEO in the process.

With the start of a plan in place, I joined my family downstairs just as Dad finished popping a big batch of popcorn. Both Lindsay and my mom seemed a little surprised by my arrival, but Lindsay looked a little jealous of me for some reason. “Didn’t you wash your hair?”

Based on her tone of voice, she practically accused me of wasting hot water and not washing my hair. Sure, I could’ve told her my secret, but what fun would’ve that been? “Yes, and I even conditioned it. Why?”

“Oh yeah, I never heard you use the hair dryer. So, how did you dry it so fast, hmmm?” Lindsay reached over and ran her fingers through my hair.

I think she was expecting my hair to be greasy or something. The disappointed expression on her face was priceless. Dad pointedly ignored our antics. He had popcorn to burn, but Mom looked on with bemused interest. I think she had a few ideas and knew I wasn’t lying.

Time to let the cat out of the bag. I reached over and wetted my hand with the sink faucet.

“I did it like this.” I said, as I cast my dry cantrip, causing all the surface water on my hand to bead up and fall into the sink, leaving my hand nice and dry. The cantrip couldn’t just make the water disappear or turn it to steam. It had to go somewhere and converting the water into steam would’ve just burned me. Magic might be, well, magic, but it still had to follow a few basic laws of nature, most of the time.

“Wow! That’s too cool!” Lindsay grabbed my hand and inspected it before glancing back to me with her patented puppy dog, pleading expression. “Pleeaase, ple-, ple-, ple-, please, can you teach me how to do that?”

Shifting over to mage sight, I could tell she didn’t have a magic bone in her body. Not even a hint. There were plenty of baseline human wizards. So, she might be able to learn, but it would take her a long time and she would need some sort of magical essence battery to draw power from.

An enchanted item or device could work, but building her something like that was well beyond my current ability. It did give me more research ideas for next year though.

“Sorry,” I actually meant it because I understood how handy the cantrip was, “but I don’t think you use magic.” Her puppy dog eyes began to tear up. “Honest, I’d teach you, but I’m pretty new to magic myself and the way I use magic would be completely different from how you would need to use magic.”

I could tell that she didn’t like my answer and was about to whine. I rushed to stop her. “Hey, I know it’s not what you wanted to hear, but when I start back in the fall, I’ll see what I can do, okay?”

Lindsay excitedly hugged me. “Yay! Thanks sis!”

I still don’t understand how girls can go from happy, to sad and back to happy so fast. I’m a girl and I still can’t figure out what other girls are thinking. Heck, I sometimes have a hard time figuring out why I’m feeling the way I do. Maybe the simple answer is that there is no answer?

Now, all I had to do when I got back to school was learn how teach a muggle, err, non-magical person, how to do magic or better yet, maybe if I could make Lindsay a magic hair dryer instead. It should be a simple magic item, right? It’s not like I’m trying to make a +5 Vorpal Sword or something equally epic. On second thought, it could be hard to make magic items because if it was easy, wouldn’t there be a lot of these so called, ‘simple’ magic items for sale at the local super-store already?

Maybe no one ever thought about it? A girl could make a killing in the beauty products market with something simple like a instant hair dryer charm or better yet, what about an illusionary makeup kit with a few preset looks? Holy cow, I got goose bumps thinking about all the cool things I could do once I got back to school!

Maybe illusions and simple cantrips weren’t all bad?