Mercy Chapter 15.

Faith arrived at the flying building, and nervously went in. Once inside, she saw Vantier practicing her flying. After watching for a while, she approached Vantier, and took her back outside to where there was a couch that had been turned into a swing, and the two of them sat and looked at the stars for a while.

Then Faith began talking about Donavan, how he had made her feel, and then the discovery he was manipulating her. Somehow in the re-telling, the image of her confrontation with him with Fido at her side became funny, and she giggled while describing the fear in Donavan’s eyes when he realized the door back out was gone.

Vantier smiled, and then asked, “What do you think Mrs. Carson will do to him?”

“I don’t know,” Faith replied, “But I hope it’s enough to teach him a lesson.”

Vantier smiled, and said, “Once more, you make me proud, Faith. I believe you handled the situation correctly.”

Faith blushed, but said nothing.

The two girls bathed in the starlight a while longer, and then Faith said, “I better go rest a bit. Back to class tomorrow.”

The next day, Faith entered the class she had shared with Donovan with some nervousness.

That nervousness only got worse when she saw Donovan standing by the teacher’s desk.

But a moment later, she relaxed a bit, when she realized two things. First, he was still wearing the bracelet that nullified his charm power, and the guilt and shame he was feeling radiated off him, reassuring her that whatever punishment he had received, it had been effective.

Once everyone else had gotten to their seats, the teacher said, “Class, Mr. Ryder has a special presentation to give.”

Donovan stepped forward, and began to speak.

“As you all know, this class is about more than just learning how to control our powers, but also learning to use those powers ethically and responsibly. That is something that I have failed to do. None of you knew, but besides my obvious physical gifts, I am actually part incubus - a creature of magic designed to have sex with women. Now, I didn’t know the source of my charm with girls, but I knew the effect - that I could make myself all but irresistible to any girl I wanted. Now, you girls don’t have to worry. This bracelet blocks that ability so I will never again take advantage of anybody. I also want to say to anyone who I hurt with this gift that I will do anything I can to make up for my behavior. One of the reasons why I wanted to make this a public statement was as a warning to anyone else. Use your abilities responsibly, and consider the ethics of what you’re doing before you do it. If you don’t, you may end up like me, and one day look at yourself and hate the person you’ve turned into. Thank you.”

After Donovan finished, he sat down beside Faith, and the teacher got the class working on their projects.

“I’m glad you’ve seen the error of your ways.” Faith said to Donovan.

Mrs. Carson showed me what I had done - from the point of view of the girls I took advantage of. I ... don’t want to be that person anymore.”

“As long as that is your goal, I believe you can do it. I’ll help, if I can.”

“You ... you’d help me?”

“My code name is Mercy. If I refused to help ... I’d have to change the name.”

Faith smiled, and the two of them went to work on their assignment.

Once the class was over, Faith left and went to her next class, feeling very optimistic about things. In fact her good mood became contagious, and students and teachers began feeling better just by being near her.

Faith’s last class of the day was her self-defence class, so she went over to the dojo, only to be met by her Sensi. He asked, “I’d like you to show some staff sparring with one of the seniors, a girl named Jane Knox, who is using the code name Tarzanna. Are you up to it?”

She replied, “I’m fine.”

The Sensi said, “All right, when you’re both ready, take your places on the center mat.”

Faith nodded, and went and changed into her Gi. Once ready, she came out, manifested her staff, and took her place on the mat.

A minute later, her opponent appeared, and Faith was momentarily taken aback. The girl was almost seven feet high, very muscular, and carried a quarter-staff that looked like she had ripped out a tree trunk.

Faith steadied herself, bowed, and the Sensi said “Begin!”

At first, the fight was pretty even. The other girl was stronger, but Faith was quicker and thus able to avoid or block Jane’s attacks.

But then, something changed.

Suddenly, Jane said, “Kill you!” and began attacking with even more ferocity, causing Faith to have to retreat and spend all her energy just dodging blows, since each one would probably have crippled her if they had landed.

The Sensi called out for Jane to stop, but the girl ignored him, and lunged after Faith swinging her staff.

When one of her blows hit the floor and caused massive damage, the impact alone knocked Faith off her feet, and she rolled desperately away from another strike. Jane kicked Faith’s staff out of her hand, and readied a killing blow, but just before she could deliver it, the Sensi kicked Jane in the head with enough force to cause her to miss. Not pausing for a second, the Sensi came forward and delivered a couple of blinding punches that knocked the wind out of Jane and caused her to sink to her knees.

Suddenly, the rage was gone from Jane’s face, and she looked in shock at the damage she had caused.

“What did I do? Did I kill her?” she wailed, and then collapsed.

“All right. Let’s take these two to the infirmary.” Sensi said.

“I’m fine, just shaken up.” Faith said.

“Look at your arm, Faith.” Sensi said.

Faith looked, and realized her arm was broken. Then she fainted.

When Faith woke up, she was in the infirmary, and her arm was encased in a cast. In the bed next to her, Jane was curled up into a fetal position crying.

Something about Jane’s attitude tweaked a memory in Faith, and she used her telepathy to look into the girl’s mind.

“Oh, dear God ...” She said.

The healer on duty ran over to Faith, and asked, “What is it?”

“Please get Mrs. Carson down here right away. That girl isn’t responsible for the attack on me. Someone took control of her. And I know who.”

“Who?” Asked the healer.

“Mrs. Carson will understand. It’s Brand. Brand is back.”

To be continued ...