This is fan fiction for the Whateley Academy series. It may or may not match the timeline, characters, and continuity.

If you would like background information on the canon characters, see:
http://crystalhall.wikia.com/wiki/Table_of_Contents

For a copy of the campus map I am using, see:
http://crystalhall.wikia.com/wiki/Campus_Map
(Note the link has been edited since some users were only seeing a thumbnail)

Beginnings

Have you ever noticed that life is a steady monotonous routine occasionally interrupted by short periods of intense activity. This is what I found to be, more or less, the case after we left the office of Chief Delarose; and believe me, after the hectic 48 hours I had had since waking up as a girl, this was a welcome relief.

However, the 'more or less' qualifier is important.

Gunny Bardue quickly got us signed up for JROTC. Also, since the Praetorians weren't currently affiliated with a national military, he issued them with the, (US surplus,) BDU's they were expected to wear to meetings and lectures. (I was expected to wear my security uniform.) Because Whateley JROTC was 'officially' an arm of the UN, we were also issued with the UN blue beret, although I had to get mine specially made by Cecilia.

With that completed, we retired to my office for a few minutes so I could file paper copies of my report along with Sam's sign-off on the emergency dormitory. Sam had an amused twinkle in her eye when she saw the wide eyed stares of my friends as they realised I really did have an office, a desk and a name-plate in the Kane hall security annex.

Dr Hartford, had emailed me to say our passes were waiting for us in Schuster hall. So, leaving Sam to take care of a few things, we traipsed over in a group, and, since we were already there, I took the opportunity to top up my student account. While it wasn't completely empty, it had taken a hefty hit, and I had more purchases to make in the campus store. Once that was all taken care of, we were ready to visit the Rodger's Fabric Boutique.

Sam; Starlance, our driver for the trip, and Startech and Starfury, who were to act as point men with Cecilia on the power armour project, were waiting outside for us with a security mini-bus. Driving directly to Cecilia's, my initial reaction to the ongoing subdued silence from my friends, was: 'Welcome to my crazy mixed up world.'; but they were my friends, and I felt I had to do something to try to take the edge off the shock.

Thinking about what mum had told me about the Dream world, I realised that, while I had had a bit of training in basic unarmed combat against super-powered adversaries, this was not the case with my friends. Coughing to get their attention, I open up with: “Do you know how I managed to put the Good O'l Boy'z down so quickly?”

The looks they gave me in reply stated clearly: 'What a dumb question? You're a hero who can do anything.', was more than enough confirmation. Before they could put the thoughts into words, I quickly went on: “It was training, every opponent has a weakness, and if you can find it then you win. Mutants often tend to rely on their powers to the exclusion of brains, so that makes their weaknesses easy to identify and, as a consequence, easy to beat.”

Sam was nodding in agreement as I continued: “For example, exemplars are tough. A high level exemplar like Fantastico is more or less immune to bullets and knives, but that doesn't really protect the hinged joint's like his knees or arms. That's a weakness you can exploit.”

Seeing I had their attention, I told them: “A speedster like Roadrunner is super fast, occasionally blindingly fast, but break a couple of bones in their feet and you have taken away their power. An energiser like the Vengeance psycho is really dangerous at longer ranges, get in close and give him something else to think about, and he won't be firing off many energy blasts.”

Looking across at Tim. I smiled as I told them: “A TK-Brick has shell that responds to kinetic energy, push slowly with steady pressure and it can be penetrated by a knife. Gently close a hand round a joint like a finger, leg or arm and it can be easily dislocated.”

Turning to Cassie, I told her: “A high level regenerator can heal potentially lethal wounds in seconds, but some wounds take longer than other's to heal. If you know what they are, you can exploit this. It is brutal, but dislocated joints and bones with compound fractures twisted into unnatural angles are very difficult for a regenerator to heal. Bizarrely, a high level regenerator who can heal an amputated limb in moments can be stopped by a leg that has been broken by someone who knows how to fight mutants.”

Without really paying attention, and feeling on a roll, I barely gave them time to let what I said sink in, before suggesting: “One of my powers is to be able to bring people into my dream world. Blackstar squad are all Whateley graduates who went on to make careers in the military. They each have decades of real world combat experience, if you like, I can bring you into my dream and have them teach you some basic unarmed combat techniques. We can also use the dream as a secure area to plan our strategy against the Good O'l Boy'z and develop and practice basic tactical formations.”

Tim and Achmed, who, like most brick/tanks were natural brawlers, were giving me what I took to be incredulous looks, and, almost laughing, I replied: “You know tactical formations like the Greek phalanx, they really work. The Romans legions would organise in three or more ranks and trained to rotate the front rank every five minutes without interrupting the fighting. This why military people talk about 'Rank and File', the second rank would file through the front rank, which would file to the back to become the rear rank. The tactic was so strong, variations survived into the nineteenth century and professional soldiers still practice the drill for parade manoeuvres.”

Without thinking about what I was saying, I continued: “Because of this tactic, the legions under Caesar were able to fight from dawn to dusk and wear down much larger armies. At their largest, Caesar's legions had a paper strength of 60,000, but, because of illness and injury, they were usually 10 or 15% under strength. After ten years of fighting, it is estimated they had killed in excess of 3 million enemy. In the battle of Alesia, some contemporary accounts estimated that 50,000 legionnaires fought and destroyed a combined Gaulish army of over 500,000 men. Whatever the real numbers, when Caesar finally crossed the Rubicon to march on Rome, the loss of man-power in Gaul due to his ten year campaign lead to a population crash so severe it came close rivalling the Black Death.”

Heading off potential objections that we weren't fighting large armies, I hit them with: “Today modern armies worry about artillery, machine guns and aircraft, and have developed generic formations to deal with them. These threats are the equivalent of mutant energisers and blasters. As a whole, tactical formations vary to meet the requirements of the objective balanced against the expected threat. In the French Foreign Legion, the basic unit structure is the triad. A typical formation they use is to spread out in a reverse phalanx with two in front and one behind. When they encounter opposition they have several tactical options; for example, the two in front might engage and hold the enemy while the one at the back works his way into a position to attack from the flank or rear. It's a tactical formation that has worked well in the African bush, the jungles of South East Asia and in urban combat.”

Stopping to catch to my breath, I realised everybody, including Sam, was staring at me in open mouthed astonishment.

Cassie put what they were all thinking into words by asking: “Luna, how do you know all this?”

Pole-axed, I blinked!

Mumbling: “I always liked history and military things...”, I realised, even allowing for my basic training in unarmed combat with the Baron, I had never been good enough at it to put down the Good O'l Boy'z the way I had. This, the lecture on mutant weaknesses, the follow up lecture on tactics and formations I had just given.....

Mum broke into my thoughts and explained: <It's the magic, you're a weapon remember. The magic is taking all the little snippets of information that you have heard or read and integrating them. It is also giving you the skills to be able to utilise what you have learned to it's best advantage. You still need training though. The more the magic has to work with, the more powerful the effect will be.>

Relaying this to the others, a recovering Sam replied thoughtfully: “I think it's more than just magic, there is a bit of the real you in there as well. When you developed the plan to escape from the Baron, you hadn't merged with Selene and didn't have the magic helping you. That was a good plan worthy of a professional”

Blushing at the compliment, I heard mum say: <She's right you know. Why do you think I chose you.>

Being 'a maiden of modest disposition', I kept that bit to myself.

Anyway, by the time we got to Cecilia's we had agreed to train in my Dream world.

Seeing how Cecilia worked left my team goggle eyed, but they were definitely pleased with the results. Cassie's costume was much like mine. The main difference being, because Cassie didn't have wings, Cecilia was able to make hers a two-piece crop top and skirt, (along with the chainmail fringe and fur trimming of course.) The boys costume's were modelled after a Roman officer, and had a cotton smock underlay, with a pleated kilt, and breast plate with fur trimming.

Because of arena rules, we needed masks. Apparently, the close up video feeds for the arena audiences were frequently hacked and re-transmitted by the same underground broadcasters who would hijack the security clip of my fight against the Good O'l Boy'z.

So, since the rest of the gang didn't have cute little horns, she was able to fashion them the typical Roman officer helmet with a short red crest and thonged cheek flaps. To complete the disguise, she was going to fashion raccoon eye mask's, but Startech pointed out the secure communications' system he was working on was going to have built into it a HUD with networked day night vision cameras and IFF. This got me thinking about a possible enchantment I needed to ask mum about. Distracted, I barely heard Sam say we would need the raccoon eye masks for our MID photo's.

Needless to say, everything that Cecilia made, (except the smocks and eye masks,) was made from the same laminated layers of thin leather and silk.

To finish off the costumes, along with arm bracers, Cecilia made each of them a belt for either utility pouches or holsters, and a chainmail baldric with a fringe of six crystal fobs to hold dimensional folds for baseball bats, swords, rifles and other long weapons.

Their sandals were basically the same as mine, although the boy's version didn't have stiletto heels. Since Cassie and Justice didn't have the exemplar package, I was a bit worried how they would handle the extra weight, but Cecilia was a master of her craft and had made slight adjustments to the weave to compensate. They still had that extra oomph though.

All in all, everything went quite well and I got my sky blue UN bonnet. Cecilia was more than interested when we told her about the test results, and found the fact that Sam had shot me amusing. Saying: “Well, it's good advertising. If we're going to go into business selling these, you would have had to do a live fire test anyway.”

The actual business negotiations itself were the stuff for lawyers, my guardian and my board of directors, but the general principle that we should form a joint venture to explore the possibilities of magical armour were quickly agreed. She also broadly agreed with Sam's pricing estimates, which, on hearing, made my team even more goggle eyed. In the end, they only accepted the armour because of a combined effort, by me, Sam and Cecilia to convince them they were doing me a big favour.

Having said that, once they accepted this, getting them out of the armour proved difficult. Cassie in particular loved the look. As you may have guessed, her parents took a dim view of girls fashions that were even moderately risqué, and most her clothes were of a conservative nature. The only reason we finally got her out of it was Sam telling her straight out that, since the families of the new fresher were on campus, it was a red flag day, and, if she strolled around in costume she could very likely find herself joining the Good O'l Boy'z cleaning the Hawthorns toilets.

This was the second or third time I had heard this suggested as being the ultimate deterrent and curiously asked: “What does that mean: 'Cleaning Hawthorn's toilets.'”

Cecilia, a Whateley graduate herself, went white faced and shuddered, as if from a very unpleasant memory. Sam snickered and asked: “You read Stan and Morrie's security report about the sewers?”

When I nodded, she told me straight faced: “The toilets in Hawthorn are worse, they are probably one of the most toxic environment’s on the planet. One of them is even inhabited by ghosts.”

We were about to object we weren't little kids scared of ghost stories, but a glance at an ashen faced Cecilia, who was shuddering and violently nodding in agreement, made us reconsider.

Discreetly handing Cecilia my credit card, which she equally discreetly returned along with the receipt, we were soon ready to leave.

On the drive back to Whateley, Sam came up with an interesting suggestion. Apparently, the previous year Fey, the sidhe student Vamp had mentioned, had developed a spell to let her team do a quick costume change. Sam, having no magical knowledge, didn't know the details, but thought just knowing about its existence might help me figure it out. Mum said the idea had possibilities, and withdrew further inside to mull it over.

Starfury also had an interesting idea, one that made all of us, including Sam, grin evilly. Apparently, as part of his normal role in Blackstar squad, he kept in his pack the makings of a number of non-lethal charms which could, depending on the arena scenario, prove very useful. Pointing out that under arena rules a student could buy technical equipment, but normally, (except in the case of charms a student was known to carry at all times,) had to craft their own offensive spells, he asked me if I would like to learn the spells he had in mind. Needless to say, I quickly agreed.

Dinner

After we were dropped off at Poe, we passed the common room on our way upstairs and got a few really filthy looks from the fresh young Posies currently present. Evidently word had spread about my confrontation with the Good O'l Boy'z and the team challenge. From the muttering, the consensus opinion appeared to be: We were the 'Luna-tics' who had delusions about being another team Kimba.

There also seemed to be little doubt we were going to be richly and deservedly creamed. In a fit of defiance; and pointing out the benefits of psychological warfare, when the gang went to drop their costumes in their rooms, I suggested they change into their JROTC uniforms.

Meeting up in my room shortly afterwards, I told them straight out: “Since you elected me your Commander and it was me that challenged the Good O'l Boy'z. It is my responsibility to make sure that we have the equipment necessary to win.”

Trying to imitate Sam in her gruffest and most fierce Admiral persona, I continued with a gesture: “So, when I make the purchases I have in mind: 'ZIP IT'!”.

Getting the gang back down stairs, with all of us wearing our sky blue berets; them all nicely decked out in their BDU's and me in my security uniform, Lieutenant bars and combat jewellery, we made quite am imposing sight. It was quite gratifying the way the murmured comments, along with the hostile stares, faded in the face of our cold, indifferent attitude. Which, by the way, forcefully stated: 'We don't give a shit what you think.'.

In order to cast the necessary enchantments, I had to ask permission to take the Praetorians out after curfew. Stopping off to see Mrs Horton, she was very complimentary about the way we looked, and after promising that we wouldn't take all night, and their would be no dancing naked or demonic pacts, she agreed that we could use a small artificial woodland clearing in front of Poe.

Getting up to the campus store, I had a very definite list of what we needed and the actually shopping didn't take long. The gang were a bit surprised at the size of the store and the wide range of what it sold, but four of us were exemplars who wanted to eat and they quickly got over it. Grabbing three trolleys, the first stop was rucksacks where we got four NATO surplus NI patrol packs; basically, a 38 litre military rucksack very popular with outdoor people who were serious about their hobby.

Stopping off at the armoury, Justice, explaining materials science was his talent, helped me to choose a recurve hunting bow with two dozen arrows, and a high powered hunting catapult. I didn't really know how to use them yet, but Sam had said she intended to get me the required training; and anyway, it was all part of the psychological warfare. Getting all of us Cobra 400 linear accelerator pistols, which hold nine rounds in three selectable three-round magazines and came with a clip on belt holster. I also got the others the Cobra 1500 linear accelerator rifles, which held 18 rounds in the same three-round magazine arrangement as the Cobra 400. The main advantages of the rifle was it doubled the range and was more accurate. The rounds we chose were equally divided between taser, tangleweb and pepper.

Since there were a few eavesdroppers surreptitiously gathering close by, I directed a quick glance in their direction and launched the first wave of our PSY-OP gambit. Telling the Praetorians in a loud voice: “I have a theory about pepper and mid level regenerators I want to test out on Fantastico.”

Having the attention of our eavesdropper, I continued: “Basically, the pepper is an ongoing irritant, that will continue to incapacitate a regenerator until they build up an immunity. This might take a few hours of constant exposure.”

With the gang nodding in enthusiastic approval, I told them: “For an exemplar/blaster like Fantastico who has heat vision, I suspect pepper will really ruin his day. Especially the 'Jobe strain' in the Gizmatic rounds I've got on special order.”

As an aside, thinking of Gizmatic and Jobe, made we wonder if the well known Gizmatic Jobe, who I had credited with the fictional strain of pepper, was the same Jobe who lead the Drow collective. Curiosity getting the better of me, I resolved to find out.

Moving onto baseball bats, Justice suggested in an equally loud voice: “For Achmed, Luna and Tim to really take advantage of their strength, one made out of devisor forged Damascus steel with a lead cored head would be more appropriate than the wooden version.”

Achmed, Tim and I eagerly agreed, Tim excitedly pointing out: “Remember what Luna told us guy's. Exemplars and regenerators are highly resistant to battle damage, but even baselines find it easy to shatter a mid level exemplar's knee or elbow with a good hickory baseball bat. That kind of damage takes time for even a high level regenerator to heal.”

Justice then announced: “As soon as I get into Startech's workshop I will see about the fabrication of special bats for our bricks.”

When he dropped three hickory bats for himself Cassie and Jules in the trolley, Jules returned his to the rack, and, with a glancing blush at me, told Justice: “I'm an exemplar too, and pretty strong. I think I could handle one of your special bats.”

Nodding, with a pleased smile that Jules was starting to come out of his shell, Justice asked: “What do you think about a lead caestus?”

This, I thought, was a really good idea and quickly shouted: “Ooh.... I want one of those.”

When Cassie, Jules and Tim queried: “Caestus?” Achmed explained: “In Roman boxing the caestus would be shaped to fit over the knuckles and first finger joints. Giving extra weight to a punch, it also helps protect the hand.”

Taking the opportunity presented, I warned them: “Many brawlers and people with little fighting skill wrap there fingers around their thumb thinking it makes a more solid punch. This is nonsense, and very dangerous. When you throw a punch like that, the fingers compresses back onto the thumb causing it to dislocate.”

Since it was important and added to our reputation for savagery, I went on: “If you want to deliver a solid punch and you don't have a caestus, use the base of the open hand so that the force is transmitted directly from your forearm. Delivered from the side, you can easily dislocate a jaw or even break an exemplar's nose; and believe me, breaking someone’s nose really makes their eyes water. Effectively, it temporarily blinds them.”

Raising my voice slightly: “Fantastico is the most resilient to battle damage of the Good O'l Boy'z . If you clap your hand's hard together over even his ears, you are guaranteed to burst his eardrums. One of the weakest bones in the human body is the collar bone, in a baseline it can be broken with a finger. Use a caestus to punch down on Fantastico's collar bone and it will shatter immobilising his arm.”

It is a testament to the savagery of the Praetorians that they all wanted a caestus.

Selecting six good quality, high carbon steel Ka-Bar Fighting knives, Justice explained: “High carbon steel takes a better edge than inox and is less brittle: Inox ends to shatter if used to block a blow from a hard object.”

For effect, I took one of the knives, and, while demonstrating a few knife fighting forms, I told our audience: “Against Nantuko, Roadrunner and the Vengeance loon, knives are quite sufficient. The fiction writers always get it wrong about knife fighting. All this crap about holding the knife low and what not is just that. Crap!... You hold the knife in your hand with the blade pointed back up your arm. Then, if your opponent tries to grab your knife arm, he cuts off his fingers. At the same time, you can use the full mobility of your wrist, elbow and shoulder to instantly point the blade in any direction.”

With a fixed, maniacal grin of pitiless savagery, I demonstrated further. Telling what was becoming quite a large crowd: “You can deliver punching/slashing attacks to any of the veins and arteries in the neck, arm or legs that are near the surface. Because of the multiple axis rotation of wrist, elbow and shoulder, you can instantly deliver stabbing blows in any direction. Forward, backward sideways, they are all good. Any part of the enemy’s anatomy is reachable: Upwards into the lower chest; or groin; downward into the base of the neck; sideways into the armpit or kidneys. All easily done if you hold the knife the way I'm showing you. Holding it like this you can stab an opponent in the back if he tries to grapple you from the front, or even a second opponent in their kidney if they try to take from the rear. ”

Then as final finishing touch, I topped my display off with: “Don't worry, Blackstar squad know all this and more. By the end of the week you will be the meanest, dirtiest knife fighters ever to hit Whateley. I can guarantee it!”

Just to give the gossips something to talk about, we also got six short, dagger like 'compact stun-guns' and six anti-gang aerosols of the French CS design. These both came with a suitable belt pouches.

Heading off to the jewellery section, we got six more of the brooches I had used for the invisibility charms. The reason we needed six was because I wanted to cast the ward of keeping and guarding on the armour and brooch as a whole. As you may have guessed Cassie didn't mind having an extra charm for when she was in civvies. On Starfury's advice, I also took the opportunity to buy a couple of dozen packets each of black and red plastic beads.

The last thing we needed in the jewellery section were charm bracelets for the Praetorians. Luckily, Cassie found copper bracelets that had been inset with 10 lapis lazuli panels that were sufficiently masculine the boys didn't object too badly at having to wear them.

On the way to the checkout, we stopped at the snacks section to load up with suitable snacks and other munchables, a coffee machine and microwave.

Paying for everything, I had to give everyone another of Sam's Admiral glares to silence the incipient complaints about the amount of money I was spending. On the other hand with three gentleman exemplars, it was no problem getting the gear back to Poe, where, because we were getting hungrier by the minute, we just dropped everything in my room for later disbursement.

Quickly making our way to Crystal hall, we found quite a few more students than at lunch and there was a small queue. What with our uniforms, we were easily identifiable as the Luna-tics, and the comments about how badly we were going to get pasted were quite audible. We just returned frosty superior looks in reply. Laying claim to our original table by the checkout, we entertained the people in the queue by re-telling the story about how easily I had put down the Good O'l Boy'z, and coming up with a succession of progressively more evil suggestions about what exactly we were going to do to Fantastico and his goons by way of revenge for fondling my boobs.

It was all good psychological warfare, and, when we decamped, (after collecting thirds,) to the Bad Seeds table with Jadis, Vamp, Jobe and the Drow collective, people were definitely starting to look at us like we might just be Whateley's newest bad-boyz.

Sitting on the upper terrace gave my team a chance to see what we were playing for, and they were impressed. Okay, if we won, we would still be on the terrace below, but it was still better than being stuck on the ground floor.

As it turned out, I didn't need to ask if Jobe was related to Gizmatic. He, (or more likely Jadis,) had already heard on the grapevine about the fictional pepper strain and playing along, Jobe announced in a loud voice: “I've got the strain of pepper you asked for under forced cultivation Luna, it should be ready tomorrow. It's quite an improvement on the original. I've decided to skip the whole plant thing and transplanted the gene directly into bacteria; in the process, I tweaked it to maximise the production of pure capsaicin. I've also tweaked the gene to increase the dermal absorption rate by a factor of 500. With a rating of 16,000,000 Scoville units, the Good O'l Boy'z will probably wish you had used a flame-thrower.”

Jadis's brother, Malachi, (or Techno-Devil,) followed up with: “And I've already got a devise set up to load Jobe's new pepper strain into Cobra rounds. As soon as Jobe finishes cleaning out the residual bacteria, it will be good to go.”

Jadis, giving me a wink, asked: “By the way Jobe, what bacteria did you transplant the pepper gene into?”

Grinning, Jobe replied: “Well, for the high skin absorption rate Luna wanted, I gene-spliced the two 'spirochaete' bacteria that cause syphilis and yaws. Then, in order to get the 'persistence effect' she specified, I used genes from the amoebae 'Entamoeba histolytica' that causes dysentery. Finally, I spliced in the gene to produce the pure capsaicin ingredient of pepper.”

Laughing like a maniac, she continued: “When I tested the bacteria in the lab, the results were quite spectacular. It will be interesting to see the results of the purified pepper field trial on the Good O'l Boy'z ....”

Pausing for thought, she wandered off into geek land, telling us: “You know Luna I really must thank you, this project has opened up some very interesting lines of research....”

While Jobe entertained the gathering crowd, I took the chance to admire the stunned looks of horror on the faces of our eavesdroppers. By the time we headed off to see Blackstar squad, the murmurs coming from students we passed weren't just saying the Luna-tics were bad, they were saying we were certifiable insane.

Personally, I felt like shouting: 'My revolution is not dead. Vive la Révolution!'

Poe

Once we arrived at the Blackstar barrack, Startech held up his hand for silence and started to scan us with a small, wand like devise, the LED's of which switched from green to flashing red. While the rest of the squad babbled nonsense, Startech collected quite a pile of electronic bugs from our clothes and Starport wrote on a whiteboard: 'We found our barrack had been bugged when we got back from dinner. Do you want to play at misinformation?'

Taking another board, while babbling equal nonsense, I wrote: 'Pay attention guy's! Don't talk about any plans unless we are in my dream or a secure area. Talk garbage and babble like crazies.'

After holding the board for the others to see, I asked: “Startech, have you had a chance to build the nausea inducing electro-magnetic pulse cannon yet.”

Startech, catching on immediately, replied: “Well, I have a bench prototype. We could test it on Starstrike if you like, he's a brick and likes to think he's invulnerable.”

Starstrike, also catching on, started to babble in fear as he moved to the table, picked up the bugs, and crushed them into powder. Starfury then swept us, and the room, again to make sure we were clean, before shaking his head in disgust, telling us: “It was probably the Spy-Kids. When I was a member, if we had mounted an operation as sloppy as this, our faculty sponsor would have thrown us to the wolves as a lesson.”

When he suggested that we take counter measures, after giving it a few minutes thought, I agreed telling everyone: “It would be nice to be able to hold off on that until after the match, but we've got a lot of preparation to do and it would cause too many complications.”

Seeing the stunned looks on the Praetorians, Starstrike told them: “Welcome to Whateley, the next four years are going to be more interesting than you ever imagined. It's a really crazy place, and a bit like jumping into cold water on a hot day. Once the shock wears off, it's really a lot of fun.”

Then, with a wave of his hand to take in the other members of Blackstar squad, he finished with: “We all really enjoyed our time here. As the cliché goes: 'It was one of the best times of our lives.'”

Filling in my bondsmen on the plan for training the Praetorians in the dream, their intelligence gathering role, and all the rest of the stuff we had planned, I told them that tonight I would concentrate on finding the Praetorians dreams and we would start the real training the next night. Giving the Spy-kids some more thought, I suggested that we should report the incident to Chief Delarose, Blackstar squad agreed. It probably wouldn't solve the problem, but it would give the Spy-Kids something else to worry about rather bugging me and my friends.

Telling me he would make a few more ECM devises for both Blackstar squad and the Praetorian Guard, Startech gave Justice the one he used when we first entered. Justice of course was really interested and he and Startech really hit it off. Startech agreed to get Justice into what was now his underground lab in the security annexe, and suggested that Justice's compulsory work study should be as his assistant. As the putative employer and the one who would probably end up paying the bill, I had no objection and Startech said he would make the arrangements with Sam.

With that all taken care of, and telling Starfury to meet us after it got dark in the small glade outside of Poe, we left to head back to our rooms.

Entering Poe, the looks we received from our fellow freshers as we passed the common room were, while still hostile, now tinged with fear. Although unfortunate, it was a largely unavoidable side effect of the psychological war we had launched. It was also very satisfying, and infinitely preferable to earlier when there was a universal consensus we were going to be pounded into the arena floor.

Getting back to my room, we found it had been searched. Apart from the fact that our shopping had been moved and the contents of my wardrobe and desk had been disturbed, the really obvious clue was Cassie's P-3AT had been hastily dropped in the middle of floor. The Praetorians had learned quickly, and, while Justice carried out an ECM sweep, we babbled a few really quite horrific ideas about improvised weapons. If Justice, in particular, hadn't been on my side, I would have been thinking about leaving Whateley.

After Justice dumped the collection of bugs on my desk, before destroying them, I took the opportunity to send a message. Saying into the collection: “We are going to be looking for a little magpie with a badly burned fingers, when we find him, (or her,).... Well, I enjoy surprises. Do you enjoy surprises?.”

Then, as an encore, I told our eavesdroppers: “You might be able to hide a burned hand, but, if you don't back off and respect our privacy, the next time I will turn your skin a bright fluorescent green.”

After destroying the bugs in the rooms of my friends, on Achmed's suggestion, we checked out the toilet blocks. Finding they too had been bugged was actually a bit more serious, and, given how badly freaked students who witnessed our search were, we really had no choice but to report our findings to Mrs Horton.

Long story short, for the next couple of hours Poe was absolute pandemonium as security turned the place upside down. The really disgusting thing about the whole incident was: In their desire to blame me and the Praetorian, the fact a Poe resident was an accessory to, not only spying on other Posies, but planting bugs in the toilet block, was completely lost to many of our fellow freshers. The logic of our accusers being: If the Luna-tics hadn't gone out and picked a fight with a bunch of seniors, none of this would have happened. Go figure!

Sam also turned up with the security team, though in her case she wanted a quite tête-à-tête with me and the gang. Getting us alone in my room she immediately demanded: “There are some very disquieting rumours floating on the grapevine about you lot. I want to know what is going on?”

When I told the gang and her the full plan, they all broke out in very evil grins. Sam actually cackled. Telling us: “That is the most fiendishly diabolical plan I have ever heard, I actually feel sorry for the Good O'l Boy'z.”

Then realising something, she asked sharply: “Did Jadis dream this up?”

Pointing out that I had had no chance to coordinate this with the Bad Seeds and their unexpected cooperation during dinner was just pure luck, I, in honest innocence, asked: “What makes you think the plan was Jadis's?”

After learning that Jobe was Gizmatic's daughter, hearing Jadis was the daughter of Dr Diabolik was no great surprise for any of us and we took it in our stride. Then, before leaving, and noticing our firearms purchases, Sam reminded us to bring them with us to the first JROTC class tomorrow so they could be registered with security.

Spell Crafting

By the time all the hullabaloo died down and things had returned to a semblance of normality, we were ready to go and cast the enchantments. Starfury and Startech were waiting for us in the clearing, and, given how practical the idea was, it was no surprise to find Starfury had a similar portable spell casting setup to mine. Though in his case, he used a PVC fabric whiteboard.

After quickly mastering the ward of Keeping and Guarding, he was able to share the work of warding our armour, knives bangles and firearms, along with the two baseball bats for Cassie and Justice. In the same vein, he was soon helping me cast the Hush and Invisibility charms. The Invisibility charm was attached to the armour's brooch, and the Hush charm to the first of the lapis lazuli inlays on the bangle.

Weirdly, the gang could all feel the difference and identify the particular inlay by touch. I say weirdly, since as far as I knew, none of the gang had any magical ability. However mum explained that, since we had cast a ward of Keeping and Guarding, they and their respective bangles were now attuned. In the long run this was a good thing since I intended to load other charms onto the bangles.

Anyway, when I told Starfury I expected him to cast these charms into similar bangles and brooches for Blackstar squad as insignia. Both he and Startech immediately grinned, slapped their fist to their heart, and exclaimed in unison: “The Anla-shok live for the one. We die for the one.”

Using Cassie's hickory baseball bat to fix the dimensions in my mind, I cast a dimensional fold scabbard into the first fob on her baldric. Explaining to her she just had to feel the weave on the fob and think forcefully about withdrawing her weapon, she took her baldric and slung it over shoulder. The expression of amazement on her and the gangs faces as she found she really could reach into the fold and withdraw the bat made by day, and, incidentally, brought smiles of amusement from Starfury and Startech.

Suggesting it was probably because of a bit of feedback through the bond from me to him, Starfury had no difficulty with this spell either and we had soon cast scabbards into the first fob of the rest of the baldrics along with a second fold in the next fob for the Cobra 1500 rifles. I, of course, took the opportunity, to create suitably placed folds in my belt for my bow, arrows, Ka-Bar knife [without sheath], hunting catapult, anti-gang CS gas, Cobra 400 pistol and the Damascus steel bat which Justice was going to provide later.

Since ultimately, a lot depended on Starfury mastering the enchantment to create magical armour, it was something of a relief to find that Starfury could cast it, although he did want me to demonstrate the spell three times to make sure he understood it properly. In order to become really familiar with the spell, Starfury cast the last two armour enchantments on his own. This gave me a chance to relax and gather my thoughts for the biggie. The quick change spell which mum had come up with.

As mum initially explained it, the spell was two of my dimensional pockets linked by the intention to change clothes. Given her enthusiastic nature, it is probably no surprise that Cassie volunteered to be the guinea pig. Taking a deep breath and offering a silent prayer to any watching Gods, I quickly inscribed the symbolism into the pentagram along with the invocation 'veste mutata' at the point closest to the inlays that would hold the pockets. Sweating at having to weave two separate weaves at once, when I inverted the construct, it was with some relief I saw it settle into place without releasing a crowd of hobgoblins.

Handing the bracelet back to Cassie, I told her: “Pack your costume into one of the pockets and always keep the other empty. When you wish to make a costume change, touch both the inlays that hold the pockets and think directly at the charm 'veste mutata'.”

Quickly packing the costume away, she immediately touched the two inlays and muttered: “Veste mutata!”, there was a slight shimmer and she was standing in her costume.

You may Imagine my surprise when my startled: “It worked!” was echoed by mum's amazed: <It worked!>

Getting over my shock, I spoke an incredulous: “What do you bloody mean: 'It worked!'”

Laughing in evident pleasure at my discombobulatude, she told me: <I will have to explain how I designed the spell?>.

Having already heard her lectures on the laws of magic and how they were represented by the symbolism I inscribed into the pentagrams, and knowing how mums lectures tended to be both esoteric and repetitive. I braced myself for a cerebral overload.

Apologising to my friends for the interruption, and explaining to them I was about to get a lecture on magic. I told mum I was all ears, and she began: <I started with the 'Law of Precedent' which states what happened before, will happen again. Since Fey had already worked a similar spell, I used this as a basis to say the spell 'must' exists and 'will' be repeated.>

Okay that sounded reasonable. When I agreed, she continued: <The Law of Cyclicality states that things work in cycles. I combined this with the Law of Threes, which states that things don’t come alone, events run in a sequence of at least three. In this case you take your old clothes off, you put them away and then you put your new clothes on, which closes the circle and ends the cycle.>

I definitely had no objection to that, so mum hit me with the mind-bender: <The Law of Definition states that the universe is what we say it is. Since the law of precedence states the spell exists and the law of cyclicality, along with the law of three, says this is how it works. By casting the spell you invoked the law of definition and told the universe this is the way it is, thus making the spell a fact. It was the 'fact of its existence' that caused the enchantment to take effect.>

Spluttering in indignation, I spoke aloud: “That means I could have woven any jumble of weaves and the spell would have worked”

Starfury, who had almost certainly been faced with the same lecture, snickered. Then quickly apologising, told me: “Sorry Mam, but I take it your mum was explaining the laws of precedence and definition?”

When I gave him my best 'We are not amused.' look, he told me even more apologetically: “I'm not trying to be offensive Mam, it's just every mage faces this paradox, and they all react the same way. Precedence and Definition are why it is very, very difficult to craft original spells. Even though I suspect your mum tricked you, being able to cast an original spell means you have the ability. You will need training and education to bring it out, but it is there inside you all the same.”

Mum added: <He is correct Fiona, listen to what he says. It was you who crafted the enchantment of invisibility remember.>

When I mentally shouted back: <Oh shut-up!>, she wisely withdrew to leave me to stew at being tricked.

Starfury though, added respectfully: “Any jumble of weaves wouldn't have worked Mam, another mage who doesn't visualise the magic as weaves, might use chanting or singing to achieve the same effect. For example, I see what you calling weaving like sculpting and shaping clay or plasticine. Some mages study school's of thought that formalise the process in a very rigid style. However, no matter how a mage visualises the process, at the end of the day it all amounts to the same thing: There is a shape to the pattern of what you weave, which, along with the meter, scansion and rhythm of the process, gives meaning to the definition.”

When he saw I was following what he was saying, he continued: “It is a Spell Crafter's genius to be able to see what shape or form a spell should be given in order to give the desired meaning and definition. Your mum couldn't have given you that shape since the exact process is different for everyone. However, because of the law of precedence, now that I have seen how you do it, I can cast the same spell using my own process of visualisation.”

To prove his point, he took Tim's bracelet and quickly repeated the weave. Having seen Starfury cast the enchantment, I could no longer deny it worked and we cast the quick change enchantments for Justice Achmed and me. As an aside, for me, as a bonus, the original two pockets I had made to hold my costume and spare clothes were now free to use as general purpose storage. Anyway, testing the quick change enchantments, we found they worked perfectly. In fact they worked too perfectly.

The enchantment worked only on articles of clothing so things like jewellery and backpacks weren't affected. The problem was it worked on 'all' articles of clothing, and, unlike mine and Cassie's, the boy's costumes didn't include built in briefs. In other words, in good Scot's tradition, the boys didn't have anything under their kilts. Well, they had things under their kilts, it was just they were things most people would rather not see.

Cassie and I found this hilarious. Startech and Starfury found it mildly amusing but sympathised. The boys thought I had done it deliberately. It was only Starfury pointing out the law of unintended consequences that saved us from a display of macho huffiness.

Now that we had taken care of the armour and equipment, it was Starfury turn to demonstrate the enchantments I hoped to use against the Good O'l Boy'z

The main attack enchantment was one I intended to be permanent, and had decided to weave the defensive charm directly into one of my bracelet sapphires and an inlay on the gangs bangles. Once Starfury showed me the defensive spell and I had repeated it to satisfy arena rules, both of us were able to cast the defence for the rest of the gang. Handing me a small 5cm tall jade statue, he then explained how the attack spell worked and how to cast it.

Working quickly, I inscribed the pentagram along with the invocation, and, as was becoming my habit, inverted the weave as it settled on the statue. Believe me, outside of the shielded area of the arena, there was no way of testing it while anywhere near campus, but Starfury was confident I had woven the enchantment correctly. Dropping the statue into one my newly liberated pouches, I was ready to turn to part two of our attack plan.

This second spell was a use once enchantment. So, taking six of the red beads we had bought, I got the gang to thread them onto lengths of string to make crude necklaces. Then under Starfury's guidance, again to satisfy arena rules to prove I could do it, I cast the first defensive charm and Starfury helped me finish the rest. Luckily, because even with Starfury's help, I was beginning to get tired, I was able to cast the attack charm itself, along with its invocation, directly into the packets of red beads as a whole. Since we didn't need to be directly protected from Starfury's final enchantment, without further ado, I was able to cast it and its invocation directly into the packets of black beads.

I tell you know lies, by the time I had finished and packed all my gear into my belt, I felt as if I had been stretched out on a rack and left to dry in the sun for day's.

The Grove

Telling the gang I had to pick up some things from my friend the Grove and it was important they were asleep by the time I got back, I gave Cassie a level look. To which she giggled in reply, but promised to at least try. With that done, I warned security I was making an aerial patrol of campus, and invoking my invisibility charm, headed off for Emerson and Twain.

Like I told you, I was exhausted and was hoping the essence being radiated would help clear my head. With all the new freshers that had arrived, the essence was quite a bit stronger, and, for about half an hour. I flew in leisurely figures of eight letting the nectar wash away my fatigue.

The Grove was good to its word and had asked the squirrels and birds to weave dried, scented grasses and herbs into 30 or 40 small balls each a few centimetres in diameter. Mum had suggested that I buy a few packets of wild bird seed, nuts and raisins when I was in the campus store. Scattering the bounty about my glade in little piles, 'It' told me that, since winter was coming on, my gift would be well received.

After packing the pot-pourri into the spare pocket and telling the Grove thankyou, I took off for another flight around Emerson and Twain. No, I wasn't becoming insatiable, all the earlier spell casting really had left me feeling rung out like a wet dish-rag. On this second therapeutic flight, I took the opportunity to ask mum about the enchantment I had thought about while listening to Startech's description of his COM system.

Basically, what I was thinking about was a kind of magical system of scrying a battlefield that would let me follow the movements of friendly and enemy forces. You know, like a magical version of real-time satellite imagery. The idea was, when combined with Startech's COMS, I would have a powerful TACCS, (Tactical Command and Control System.)

This was when I was reminded how infuriating mothers can be. She thought it was a brilliant idea, and suggested that I should go ahead and design the enchantment as an exercise.

Slightly miffed at her less than helpful attitude, I continued my second flight around the boys dormitories in silence.

Dream-world

Once back to Poe, I checked out of the security net, and, since Cassie was asleep, managed to get ready for bed without interruption. Like many things mystical in nature, how you see the dream world is largely a matter of visualisation. Once I entered my own dream-shard, mum showed me how to leave and enter the larger dream-scape where the dreams of others resided. For me, I saw it as a large star-field of twinkling lights.

Explaining that once I mastered the art, I would be able to quickly find, and look in on, the dreams of both enemies and friends. She warned me: “It is very unethical to spy on a friends dream, and spying on the dream of a powerful enemy with magical resources is extremely dangerous. To use the dream world to spy on the enemy, it is best to choose the dreams of their low level functionaries.”

Noting what she said, I turned my attention to the star-field. Through the bond, I could easily sense the dreams of Blackstar squad and noticed the stars which represented their dreams had a detectable resonance. Once I got the feel for this, mum suggested that, since the Praetorians now all had the charms I had created, there would be a similar, though weaker, resonance in their dreams.

Using this resonance, I was quickly able to find the dreams of my friends, and, with a kind of hooking gesture, bring them into my dream-shard.

Every home owner takes pride in showing off their home and I was no exception. The shard was basically the same mediterranean island that mum had first shown me, with the colonnaded, open roofed building on a slight rise overlooking a moonlit sandy beached cove. They were still a bit sceptical that they really were in my dream, and not some fantasy dream of their own, but agreed, for the moment, to give me the benefit of the doubt.

Heading down to the beach, I created a beach barbecue complete with soft-drinks, sardines, crisps and bread. Then we got down to business.

The first thing on the agenda was power sets. After explaining what I knew of my powers, I asked the others to share what they felt comfortable telling us.

Achmed and Justice had had their powers tested by the UN, and were officially a part of a UN military aid program to try to redirect newly manifested mutants away from terrorist groups. Since they were both orphans, they had been made wards of the same program. In practice, this meant they had been issued with MMIDs and their powers were classified. Having said that, they didn't mind giving us a run-down on the basics.

++ Achmed was rated as level 6 exemplar, level 4 coercive telepath and level 4 regenerator. With the full exemplar package of strength, stamina speed and intelligence, he had an eidetic memory, could bench press over two tonnes, was impervious to low calibre small arms fire, and, with a ground speed of 90mph was technically a speedster. His telepathic talent was highly biased to coercivity, and this enabled him to completely dominate someone’s mind. The ideas opponents thought, the emotions they felt and what their senses perceived were all vulnerable. Luckily for baselines and mutants with no telepathic ability, Achmed was a highly moral person, and, after he had left a couple of Jihadists as basket cases, he resolved, unless pushed, to stick to breaking bones.

++ Justice, in addition to being rated as a level 5 gadgeteer and level 4 devisor, was also rated a Wizard 2. As yet, he had no magical knowledge and didn't now how to use his weak mage trait. While he was good at improvising mechanical and electrical systems, his real talent was in materials science. Just by touching a substance, he could sense its structure strengths and weaknesses. Probably more importantly, he could combine different materials into composites with the properties he was looking for. (This was the reason he could offer us Damascus steel baseball bats: He could forge the naturally occurring carbon of HCS steel into long nano-tube fibres.) During his bush war, he had been able to laminate different types of wood with scrap plastic and steel. Then, using the resulting composites, along with powerful explosives he had made from mineral deposits, household chemicals and the detritus of civilisation, he had created devastating booby traps and weapons.

Neither Tim Jules nor Cassie had yet had opportunity for formal power testing, and had been required to use a loophole in Federal law to enable them to travel to Whateley.

++ The doctors who had examined Tim, called his mutation the TK-Superman package. They suspected he was also a mid level exemplar and had guessed his regen at around 3 or 4. From stand-offs with H1, he knew he was impervious to low to mid calibre rifle fire, and, although he currently had very poor directional control, could fly. He had no idea of his real weight limit, but had bench pressed 5 tonnes, and, during the H1 chase, had thrown a family sized car with ease. While hiding in the forest with Jules, he had gone toe-to-toe with a grizzly bear and decked it with a single punch, hence the name K'áplac.

++ Jules had been told he was a high level manifestor and mid level exemplar, with a suspected regen of 5. When he first realised he had the ability to manifest things, he had used it to create extremely intricate fractal jewellery which could survive for about a day. He knew he had extremely fine control of what he manifested, and suspected it extended to at least the molecular level. During their time in the forest, he had used his talent to manifest gill and mist nets for fish, birds and other animals. Which was why he chose the name Teqè’s.

++ Cassie, told us she was a powerful healer with her own regen, but was very reluctant to talk about her power and how she realised she was a mutant. At first all she would say was: “When the minister found out I was a healer, he wanted to use me in faith healing services. It didn't matter how close to death they were or what was wrong with them. I didn't even need to touch them, I could stand beside the alter and heal them at the back of the church.”

When she broke down into tears, I put my arm around her as she told us: “The minister used to go into a rage all the time because of my 'boyfriends'. He was always shouting at me. Telling me that healing was a gift from God, and I should be pure and virginal like the Angel in Hells Kitchen....”

Finally, she sobbed again and admitted: “I can heal animals, plants and soil too.”

“????”

Recovering first, Justice asked for all of us: “How do you heal soil?”

Sighing, she reluctantly explained: “If you look at healthy soil, it is full of life. There are tiny organisms, worms, beetles, tiny insects....Lots and lots of things. In soil that is unhealthy all these little critters are dead or dying. Sometimes they are dying because of a parasite or disease, sometimes because the soil is poisoned. If I fix the bit that is killing the good stuff, I can heal the critters...”

Looking up she broke into one of her mischievous grins and told us: “With the tiny little micro-beasties, if I heal them enough, they become all frisky and start to make baby beasties real quick. This makes the soil all better.”

With our power set taken care of, I reminded them what we knew of the Good O'l Boy'z. Which was:

++ Fantastico: An exemplar 6 and energiser 3 with heat vision.

++ Vengeance Dingbat: An energiser who could fire high frequency X-rays from his hands.

++ Roadrunner: A speedster who was not rated as being either fast or intelligent.

++ Nantuko: A mid level mage

We didn't have an energy blaster on our side which meant they would have the advantage in any ranged conflict that didn't involve penalties for civilian casualties, and, based on information supplied by Jadis, Gunny Bardue was a maliciously evil son-of-a-bitch who did not believe in throwing anybody any favours.

When Sam had demanded to know what was going on, I had pointed out to the gang: “If he lives up to his reputation, then, since we're the upstart challengers, he will choose the scenario that favour's the blasters.”

Brainstorming the blaster problem, Jules laughed and suggested: “What about a cloud of tiny mirrors?”

Thinking about it, Justice replied: “You would need to get the correct reflectivity for infra-red. I've got a few journal articles on it, but the big problem is going to be the X-rays. It is possible to make mirrors for them, but the grazing angle is pretty small. There are way's to get around this that use laminated micro-film composites to increase the grazing angle, but you would still need a cloud of billions to make it work?”

Jules retorted: “Yeah, but they don't need to be big. They just need to be the size of specks of dust.”

Laughing, Justice conceded: “That would work! In fact, if they were that small, the heat from the energy blasts would keep them in the air and electro-static repulsion would prevent them from clumping.”

With Justice agreeing to work with Jules on the structure of clouds of microscopic mirrors, stage two of our battle plan was under-way. This meant the gang could spend the rest of the time in my dream playing on the beach, swimming in the moonlit cove and generally relaxing.

Breakfast

I had my daily report to write, and, after getting the Praetorians back to their own natural dreams, I got up and activated my Hush charm before heading for my morning shower. Sitting at my desk wrapped in the terri-cloth bathrobe with a towel around my hair, (I had quickly found this was the best way to dry it,) I logged onto my security laptop. Reading the daily security update, I found that a student called 'Razorback' had been brought in late last night by military drop-ship.

Okay, I strongly believe in privacy, but this sounded just too interesting to let go. Apart from that, if his return was important enough to make the security bulletin, then I had a duty to make sure I was fully informed. Using the search bar on the laptop's browser, it didn't take long to find out I had access to redacted security files on students. Although personal information, along with detailed power testing reports were unavailable, I was able to access basic biographic data along with their MID.

Razorback's file was an eye-opener. Apart from being a 'Class-3 Rager', as his photo made clear, he also had a severe case of GSD. He honestly appeared to be a real live velociraptor from Jurassic park. Mum took one look ans exclaimed: <Oh mon Dieu!...>

Don't ask me why she chose to speak in French, I was much more interested in what she said next, which was: <It's a Pack Stalker.>

Curious, I asked: <What's a Pack Stalker?>

Pulling herself together, she told me: <The most powerful of the Five Fold Courts was the Court of the Centre,which was ruled by the Being humans call Gaea. Her warrior were the truth behind the human expression: 'Nature red in tooth and claw.' Unless I am very much mistaken, Razorback is one of them.>

Hoping for another story about Atlantis, I asked: <Are they dangerous?>

She took a moment to think about her answer, before replying: <Yes, very much so, but not as bad as some of the other Courts claimed. At the time of the Sundering, I had been stationed near one of their outposts and we worked together quite frequently. Providing you didn't go out of your way to provoke them, they were a lot of fun.>

Then, with tones of great sadness, she added: <When the world was broken by the Sundering, the forces of Gaea were among the hardest hit. Many of the survivors from the other courts were driven insane, including my sisters. The Court of the Centre however, went berserk, falling on each other in an unstoppable rage that continued until virtually none were left.>

Not wanting to question my mum further on a subject that was obviously still very painful, I finished off my summary and emailed it to Sam.

Although I had never been a great coffee drinker and caffeine no longer had any affect on me, I still think getting the coffee machine was one of my better ideas. After getting ready, it was very relaxing to sit back and savour the taste of a good cup of coffee in preparation for the day to come.

It wasn't long after this that Cassie's alarm clock went off and I was able to supply her with a surprise coffee in bed. Then, when she went to get her shower, I went to knock on the doors of the boys.

Once everyone was up and ready, we met in my room in preparation to leave for breakfast. Partly because of the psychological campaign against the Good O'l Boy'z, and partly because we didn't yet have concealed carry permits, we agreed we should keep our weapons out in open. The nice thing about this was, since Sam had specifically ordered us to bring them to the first JROTC class, we had to take them to breakfast

We were sitting in crystal hall eating breakfast at 'our' table beside the checkout. The presence of the weapons we had purchased, our military/security uniforms and the ongoing results of our PSY-OP, made the continuing stares and background noise about our being the Luna-tics unavoidable. Fantastico and his team saw us from the queue, and, while they tried to put on a show of bravado, their blanched white faces, along with the way they hurried upstairs, showed quite clearly the pre-match tactical campaign was hitting the bull's-eye.

We were gossiping and wondering what the course work for rushing JROTC would be like. The campus radio was playing canned 'soothing' morning wake up music over the speaker system. When, without warning, the broadcast was interrupted by a new announcer: “Goooood morning freshers!!! and of course all of you returning beautiful, scantily clad young ladies. Since Dr. Goodvibes and Bert the Robot haven't yet returned to bring you their 'help you back to sleep lullaby’s'....”

He was interrupted by a synthetic voice complaining: “I am still here, I never get to go....”

Unperturbed, the announcer continued: “Shutup Tin-Man go plug yourself into an electric socket. As I was saying, since the good old Dr Good-feel isn't here, Greasy and me, say hello Greasy... that's enough no need to hog the limelight, now as I was saying we have volunteered to bring you an unscheduled broadcast of 'The Peeper and Greasy Show'...”

Cue 6 or 7 seconds of heraldic fanfare music

“Before we get into our usual program of morning jollification, we have an urgent announcement to make. It has come to our attention that the latest addition to Poe cottage's line up of Nightingale Nighties has an even more daring choice of battle-dress lingerie than last years favourites the delectable Kimbettes. We are making an urgent appeal to anyone who managed to record the arrival of Luna on their cell-phones to share this treasure with the rest of the male student body. We are also offering a $100 dollar reward and a free copy of our best selling Fey poster as a further inducement to cough up the treasure.”

Pausing for dramatic effect, Peeper went on: “Well what do you think Greasy?... Yes. I know a $100 dollars is a lot of money, but you can afford it. You were just telling me about the $100 birthday check from your grandmother. Anyway, as I was saying: Get this fellow hormonally challenged teenagers, our impeccable sources tell us that this girl is not just a girl with great taste in bedroom wear, but a 'succubus' who likes to fly around Emerson and Twain naked while hunting 'lunch'. This could be your big chance to work out all those little issue.... What the..... ARGH!....”

To the accompanying hiss of radio static, I buried my head in the table. I didn't even need to look up to see every head in Crystal hall turn to stare at me. The upper terraces were even crowding the railing looking down toward where we sat near the checkout.

The hiss and crackle of radio static was broken by what could only be Starstrike saying: “Go on! Tell it 'exactly' the way we told you to say it”

A very frightened sounding Peeper came back on air, and, after further prompting from Starstrike, announced in a shaken voice: “A six man team from security, accompanied by Chief Delarose, has just teleported upstairs to WARS to tell us that sub-Leftenant McCloud is a commissioned officer in Whateley security who heads her own security team. Any further attack on her character will be viewed as an attack upon the character of Whateley security as a whole. Chief Delarose also told me to remind you: Members of Whateley security are deputised Federal agents, physically attacking, planting listening devices, or otherwise interfering with a member of security may carry Federal charges.”

Looking up to God and raising my hands in supplication, I asked: “Why me?”

Meanwhile Peeper announced: “I'm sorry folks, I'm not feeling well, here is some canned music while I go back to bed. … Why do you do that Greasy, you're always getting me into trouble...”

“OW!. Peeper that hurt, I warned you about....”

Whatever Greasy was going to say was lost when there was a: “CLICK” followed by a return to canned, soothing, morning wakeup music.

The freshers, except for the Praetorians, all looked dumbfounded. For the rest, the male student's wore speculative looks, while the female students, who had obviously had previous experience of Peeper, broke out in a spontaneous round of applause.

To be continued, comments are always welcome.

Teaser
The next chapter, called 'Truth', will be the final one in this 'first' part of the Luna story arc. The chapter will resolve all the little clues, (clues I have been scattering since chapter one,) about Luna's true nature. While a discerning reader will have picked up a hint of what this nature may be, I can absolutely guarantee the full truth will come as a shock!

Irvine