*** Author’s Note: Unless specifically noted, Italicized text are thoughts, Italicized text inside parentheses is from Athena’s answer thingy. ***

The wolf slowly got up, pulling her tail away from her muzzle without dumping snow on her nose. She shook the rest of the snow from her fur and tasted the air. She smelled the remains of the elk she’d brought down earlier. The wolf took a deep breath, loving the cold, especially here in the mountains. She stretched. A good run is what she needed, she decided. Still feeling stuffed from all of the elk she ate before, a run to the lakeshore and then back to the stone would be perfect.

The breeze picked up, causing swirls of powdery snow to spin in the air. The wolf bounded off through the woods towards the lake, her tail wagging with joy.

***

I woke up cold, but then I was laying on top of a water bed that’s been without power for weeks. Cold! I was stiff and a little sore. Getting up, I stretched. It was dim but enough light filtered in from the hallway’s windows to see in the room. It was surreal. My old familiar bedroom, but it all felt different. Smaller. This is so cool! I grabbed my ankles and looked back through the gap in my legs at the back wall of my room, upside down. Never could do that before. I put getting a yoga disc on my mental to-do list. Maybe one of the more aggressive ones, like the one that ex-pro wrestler made.

I straightened up, twisting from side to side. I felt good. The soreness was going away along with the stiffness. It just felt so good to move around. I went to my old closet and grabbed my largest shirt. It hung below my knees, but it was warm. I went to my desk, sat down and grabbed a notepad and pen.

Okay. I’m home. I was on the ladder, half way to the hatch, get dizzy, freak out let go and then I’m here. I caught my reflection in the mirror. My face had changed again. Still red hair and blue eyes. Pale skin and a light dusting of freckles. Sigh. At least I’m still pretty? Like girl next door cute. I wish my face would figure out what I’m going to look like and stick.

I shook my head, and for a moment reveled in the feel of my hair moving. Girl!

It couldn’t have been the Doc’s spell. That’s how I got to the Bunker. And, the blue thread was gone after I got there.

I hoped the little guy was okay. I’d be dead or worse if not for him. If it wasn’t the Doc, how did I get here? My toes were tapping. I felt so good. I needed to just move, y’know? I got up. I knew what I needed and where to do it.

Heading down the stairs, I got to the window which looked out on the backyard. The same backyard that was behind the restoration shop.

The same restoration shop that was now crawling with DMA agents and Indianapolis Police officers. With the window film, they couldn’t see in. I didn’t take any chances though. I watched from the side of the window. It had to be something like mid-morning. (9:47)

For the first time, it seemed, I really heard the answer thingy. It doesn’t sound like me in my head. I mean, it’s me. But not me. Where’s Burt Ward to say, “Holy Split Personalities!” when you need him?

So, I’ve got telekinesis, a mysterious answer-thingy and teleportation. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it had to be teleportation. Shiny! I slipped through the house as quiet as possible. I didn’t want to give any potential listener the idea someone was home. The nice agents next door might want to see my I.D. Which is almost six hundred miles away and has a completely different me in the picture.

I got down to the basement. It was divided up into four parts. Pap’s gym and sauna (a meta-rated bowflex machine and a one man sauna), storage (where we put stuff that needs to stay in the house), the walk-in pantry (pretty much empty since we donated most of what we had stocked since we didn’t know when exactly we’d be back), and Pap’s armory (an old style vault a friend of his helped him get down here). Hey, don’t blame me, that’s what Pap called it. That’s where he keeps his guns and a few other things.

“Time for me to find out some things about this new body of mine.”

***

The wolf made it to the stone before mid day. With a moment of will, her fur and form flowed leaving behind a young human woman. Even with the temperature at near freezing, the naked girl didn’t seem to care. She moved the stone and retrieved her bracelet. The bracelet was made from heavy silver decorated in celtic knot work and odd runes, with a large emerald in an orange metal setting. After fitting it back on her wrist, she ran her finger around the orange metal setting and said a word of power. The green gem dissolved into a small cloud of green bubbles. The bubbles flowed slowly and smoothly into a ring about three feet across, hanging in mid-air. The girl waited, then the space inside the ring turned a featureless gray. She crouched and stepped through.

She felt too warm for a moment as the temperature change struck her. Abruptly going from a mile high in the Canadian Rockies to her quarters was a momentary shock. She pulled on a pair of panties, and a sports bra that she had left lying on the bed before she had went north. Her quarters were very simply furnished. A bed, dresser and a desk with a laptop on it. She laid the heavy bracelet down next to the laptop. One corner of the room had a standing torch lamp. Opening a drawer in the dresser she pulled out a pair of loose fitting sweatpants. While putting those on, she noticed the note by the door to her quarters.

Picking it up, it read: Hey D. Hope you had fun. The Lady has a job for you asap. ~J.

Deirdre exhaled hard from her nose. Not quite a sigh, not quite a snort. She opened the door and headed off to see Lady Urza.

***

I need a shower. I need a few sports bras. Scratch that, I just really need a completely new wardrobe. I also need a triple cheeseburger with everything, or a real steakburger from Harry & Izzy’s with a cup of their tomato basil bisque and one of their Downtown Special thin crust pizzas. Oh god that sounds sooooo good right now! I can’t remember the last time I felt this hungry.

Working out had left me drenched in sweat. I loved it. I’d spent a couple of hours on the bowflex, trying to see what my physical limits were now. I can bench press over four hundred pounds. Awesome! I’m not Dame Power, but not bad at all. I don’t get tired that easy either. At least not with the physical stuff. I thought about experimenting with my new powers. But I was pretty certain that it might not be the best idea. Behind the house is our little back yard. It’s fenced in, but there’s a good locked gate between it and the storage yard for the shop. That’s where we kept project cars, and other such stuff. Old soda pop machines, gas pumps. Mostly bare now. Over there in the storage yard is where the DMA agents and IPD were still going over the bunker. I’m waiting until they leave before trying anything.

I used a few bottles of water and gave myself a quick bath with a washcloth. My hair was disgusting, even though I used an entire bottle of water rinsing it. I had a plan, it would have to wait until later tonight, but I think it will work. I put on another pair of Pap’s Corps sweats.

I ran back upstairs, taking them two at a time with ease. Grabbed the leather bag and went back downstairs. I curled up in the old leather recliner Pap had given me last year for Christmas. I opened the bag and pulled out Great-Gran’s journals and three cans of mini ravioli. As I read through them (while slurping through all three cans of pasta), I found out a few things. One, I can speed-read. Nice! Two, there wasn’t much of anything in them. Oh don’t get me wrong, there were tons of entries. But there wasn’t any emotional in them. It seemed more of just a logbook than a journal or a diary. The last entry in them was for the day before she disappeared the first time. She was gone for almost a year. When she came back, she had an infant child with her. Pap.

Sighing softly, I sat there. Not for the first time I looked at the computer on my desk that had no power. If I could connect safely to the internet, I could start setting things up. Waiting for nighttime was driving me crazy. I put the last of Great-Gran’s journals down. I went over to the bed and dumped everything out of the bag again. There it was. The crystal orb. I took a fountain pen from the bag and tapped the orb. No reaction.

I took the old pistol in hand. It was an old Savage sliver gun. These things were outlawed after World War II. I was pretty familiar with them, Pap owned two of them. Taught me to shoot them. Just in case. Pap’s are single shot models. This had the spray option, that fired a cloud of sharper than razor flechettes. Brutal. It took me a few moments, but I got the block of polymer out of it and set the weapon aside. I unloaded the plastic Remington pistol and set it aside as well. Same with the sets of manacles. They didn’t look special. I took my tablet and set it aside. I rolled the orb over next to my tablet. There were three wine bottles. 1927 Bollinger Special Cuvee. I think James Bond drank Bollinger in the books. I put those gently aside. I bet those might be worth something.

I looked back to the orb. The last time I touched it, I almost died. What doesn’t make sense is why great-gran would keep something like it in her magic bag. That’s assuming that the orb would affect everyone the way it affected me. I don’t think she’d keep something like that loose in the bag. I could see keeping it in a box, or some sort of container. Also, there’s no mention of it in her journal or case notes. That makes me think it’s something that belonged to her, not something from a case or adventure.

Part of me really wants to pick it up. Just to see what happens. The sane part of me thinks that’s stupid since I almost died the last time I held it in my hand. Sunset can’t get here soon enough.

***

Deirdre walked into the Lady’s room and waited. She didn’t like it in here. She didn’t like the way the Lady smelled. It didn’t matter though. Duty.

“Your services I require once more, my wolf.” The melodic baritone voice didn’t seem to faze Deirdre. “In the city they call Indianapolis, there is a psychic of power.” Lady Urza walked over to one of the bookshelves lining the walls of her office, and began running her fingers down the leather spines of the books. “I want her, of course. Take Phulia and Jack. Bring her here.” The Lady moved over to Deirdre, “I know you, my wolf. Yes. Indeed, I know you.” Moving around her in a circle now, “I know that you loathe her, my demented little Phulia. You may need her to disable my prize. I want her with as little damage as possible. You know this.” She continued to circle Deirdre. “Jack will handle Phulia and her… manner. I would not ask that of you, no.” Lady Urza stepped closer to Deirdre, their faces inches apart. She reached out and slowly caressed Deirdre’s cheek with the back of her hand. “My beautiful, noble wolf.” There was a slight frown on the Lady’s face at the complete lack of reaction to her touch. “Find her.” She turned and went to the desk, putting a hand onto the desk, gently caressing the wood before saying back over her shoulder, “That will be all.”

***

The day had dragged by, I spent it reading books. I love speed reading! Peter David’s Psi-Man, Bailey Summers’ Rook, New Jedi Order, and Roald Dahl’s Matilda. It gave me a ton of ideas to try with my TK. I’d repacked the bag. I went back down to the basement. I had been thinking about this off and on all day, I didn’t want to do it. But it’s the only way I can restart my life. I went over to Pap’s vault. I opened the door. I ignored the guns. I did grab a few of the blocks of ballistic polymer and a few replacement cavorite firing points from the ammo stores. I opened the strongbox. It was full of money. There was about fifteen thousand dollars in mostly hundreds. I looked at it for a long while, then put it in the bag. Underneath all of that, there was a thick envelope. I opened it and found a bound stack of thousand dollar bills Canadian. That’s almost a quarter million dollars here in the States. I had no idea Pap had that kind of money. I held the envelope in my hand. I thought about Pap helping hold me down while they shot that crud into me. I thought about all those dead people in Washington. The fires on the Mall. I put the envelope into the bag. I locked everything back up then took a look around. I stuffed a bunch of my web auction stuff into the bag as well. I bought and resold leather goods. Made a little money on the side up until a year ago specializing in steampunk stuff.

I had found an old pair of sneakers of mine. With a couple extra pairs of socks they kinda fit. Sorta. Okay, not really. I packed in some knickknacks and stuff from my room. Favorite books that hadn’t made the trip to D.C., my stuffed dog (I couldn’t take it on the trip, teenage boys don’t need stuffies), pillows and my favorite old comforter. Pillows are important. Besides I wouldn’t be coming back here. The bag weighed more now. Slightly. (Operations Bag near capacity) Whoa. Okay. That is… just… so weird!

I peeked out the window and saw the lights were off over at the restoration shop. Time to go. I went to the garage and checked out the old military Can Am bike. Pap had me put stabilizer in all the gas tanks before we left. I loved the bike. It was one of the first restoration projects I’d done on my own. I never had the heart to sell it. I’d always hoped I’d be able to ride it some day. Here we go. I opened the side door to the garage and pushed the bike out. I closed the door and locked it. Hid the key under the mat, and then pushed the bike down into the street.

It took a couple of tries, but the bike started up and then I took off.

A new me, a new life, it all starts now.