---

"Mark, over here!" George shouted. I looked over and he was totally open. I threw the ball just before someone slammed into me. I went down hard, with the other player landing on top of me. My head was ringing, but I heard cheering so I knew George made it!

Time was almost up, so all we had to do after that was keep the other team from scoring. They knew they didn't have a chance, so they didn't try very hard.

After the game our team mates were congratulating George and I for making the winning play, so it was hard to get away. All I wanted to do was get back home and relax. George saw the signs, so he helped me get out of there. "Thanks George." I said once the others were gone and we were on our way.

"No problem." George said noncommittally. Neither of us said anything about why I needed to get home so quickly, but we both knew I'd be Melissa as soon as I could. He wasn't comfortable with it, but he watched out for me anyway. I'd just come out to him a few weeks ago, so I was hopeful he'd come around. We'd been friends since high school and having him as a roommate was a big relief for me.

I'd tried really hard in high school to be the macho man type. I was trying to hide from myself, I guess. I ended up on the football team and turns out I'm pretty good at it. I enjoy the challenge, but I didn't like the atmosphere. Most of the other players were very hostile towards LGBT people.

I'd been thinking about quitting for a while now, but George talked me into finishing the season. I think he was trying to hold onto Mark, but I knew I was going to have to be Melissa full time before long just to stay sane.

As soon as we got home I rushed into my room and changed. I'd secretly been on hormones for a couple of months. I'd already started binding my chest so the guys on the team wouldn't see my budding breasts (They weren't really breasts, yet, but my chest didn't look like a guys, either). George knew what it was about, of course, but he didn't say anything. I told the other guys I'd bruised some ribs.

Once I'd unbound my chest I put on a bra and slipped the breast forms in. They'd cost me a lot, but I wanted to be as real as I could be when I dressed. I just threw on the first skirt and blouse I found that looked okay together, I was too tired to be picky. Then I slapped on some makeup and went back into the living room to watch some TV. George was already watching an action movie, so I sat down and watched it with him.

He glanced over at me and smiled wryly. "I still can't get over how our quarterback can look so natural in a skirt!" I smiled back hesitantly; he usually didn't say anything about how I was dressed. "It's okay, Mar…Melissa. I'm still not entirely comfortable with this, but I'm your friend." He said reassuringly. We silently watched the movie after that, but I felt like we'd made some progress.

After the movie I grabbed my backpack and pulled out the flyer I'd found earlier that day. "George, have you seen this?" I asked him, handing the flyer to him.

He took it and looked it over. "Someone's using that mutating stuff to help transsexuals?" he asked in amazement. I nodded. "It says here they've found a way to make sure any man they treat will come out of it a woman. I haven't heard anything about this."

"I hadn't either, but it sounds perfect!" I replied excitedly.

George frowned. "I don't know, this could be some kind of scam. What if they don't really have control of it? Besides, if you end up with a visible mutation you could be worse off then if you started living as Melissa openly."

"I guess that's true, but what if it works?!" I said, a little disappointed that George was arguing against it.

"Mark, sorry, Melissa, I'd be happy for you if it worked. Really. But if this is some kind of scam, you could get hurt. Bad. Let me do a little asking around, maybe I can find something out about it." He said worriedly.

I sighed, "Okay, I guess that makes sense." I admitted. I left the flyer with George, hoping he'd find out something to confirm what it said. I really hoped it was for real!

George didn't have any news the next day, or the next. He said he was asking around, but nobody seemed to know about it. I was getting depressed, and decided that a night out as Melissa would cheer me up. I asked George if he'd come out with me, but he said he was meeting with someone who claimed to know something about the flyer.

I was really careful with my appearance; I didn't want anybody reading me. Or worse, recognizing me! I wore my favorite dress and spent over an hour on my makeup. I looked myself over carefully in my full length mirror, but all I saw was Melissa! This would be my first outing en femme, and I couldn't be more excited!

I grabbed my purse and made sure I had everything in it I'd need. I was shaking when I opened the door and stepped out, part in fear and part in excitement.

Nobody paid any particular attention to me as I walked towards the mall. I tried to relax, with only some success. I did some window shopping at the mall and even went inside a couple of shops. I was really nervous about using the changing rooms, but I forced myself to go in. I did buy a couple of nice tops at the last store.

I was just about to leave the mall when I spotted some of my teammates walking in. They were laughing loudly and staggering around a little, so I guessed they were drunk. I gave them a wide birth, but that wasn't enough.

"Hey babe, have some fun with us!" one of them called out. I thought they were talking to someone else at first, until I saw them heading straight for me! I was so scared I stopped for a moment. When I realized I had, I hurried out of the mall as fast as I could without running.

Once I was outside of the mall, I thought I would be okay. No such luck. They followed me out! Now I knew I was in real trouble. I hurried towards home, but they were gaining. "Hey babe, don't be like that!" they called after me.

They had almost caught up with me and I was starting to panic. I tried to make a run for it, but I forgot I was wearing heals. On the fourth step I twisted my ankle badly and fell. I tried to get back up, but they were already surrounding me. "Let us help you!" one of them leered at me. I was terrified, but what could I do?

Then what I dreaded most happened. One of them took a close look at me and said, "Mark? Is that you, man?" I was shaking like a leaf, I was so scared now. The others took a closer look at me and agreed with the first. "So our quarterback likes to dress up like a chic, huh? We don't need any queers on our team!" he snarled.

The others voiced their agreement and they started kicking at me. I didn't have a chance of defending myself, so I just curled up into a ball and covered myself as best I could. I was battered from all sides for what seemed an eternity when it suddenly stopped. I whimpered in fear of what they might do next. I was in so much pain I couldn't think straight. All I knew was that I didn't want them touching me!

I felt a hand on my arm and I jerked back. The hand returned and I rolled away from it. When it returned again I totally freaked and started biting and clawing at it. "Melissa! Stop!" I heard George call out distantly. It took a moment for what I was hearing to sink in. I looked up and realized it was George I was attacking! "It's okay, they're gone." He said. He kneeled down next to me, oblivious of the blood covering his hand. "How badly are you hurt?" he asked worriedly.

I looked around in confusion. Had George somehow scared them all off? "I, I don't know." I said. Everything hurt. "What happened?"

"That lead I had was nothing. I was worried about you going out on your own, so I went looking for you. I saw those guys chasing you, so I called the police. When the police arrived those jerks took off. An ambulance is on the way, so just lay still until they get here, okay?" he asked. I nodded and he held my hand until the ambulance arrived and the paramedics waved him aside.

The paramedics secured my head in case of a neck injury and then hefted me up onto a gurney and into the ambulance. They let George come in with them and we were off. I must have passed out at some point, because the next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital.

I was really lucky, or so the doctor told me. I had no broken bones at all. My ankle was sprained and I had some bruised ribs, but otherwise nothing serious. I was released the next day, though I had to use crutches because of my ankle. Which was really painful with the bruised ribs.

George spent most of that time at the hospital keeping me company. None of my other friends showed up. George told me that word had gotten out quickly about me. "At least now there's nothing holding you back from being Melissa all the time." He said at one point. I could only nod in agreement, though I worried about my parents.

I took a week off from classes to recover. I probably didn't need that long, but I was nervous about going back as Melissa. I knew there was little point trying to go back to being Mark, but being Melissa brought its own problems.

When I did go back to classes I was the center of attention everywhere I went. And not in a good way. I was constantly being bumped into and pushed aside in the hallways and nobody had a kind word for me but George. They had plenty of unkind words, though.

After a week of this I was feeling like my life was over. I would never be able to live a normal life again. And sooner or later someone else would corner me and beat me to death. It seemed inevitable. Then I saw the flyer on George's desk. He hadn't found anything at all about it. Not one person who had any more information than what was on the flyer. It seemed unlikely to be legitimate when no one knows anything about it, but I didn't have anything to lose. I called up the number.

The man on the other end of the line told me that I'd need to be at their clinic for a month and that he didn't want me to tell anyone where it was, because he was worried about violence against his clients. After my experiences it didn't seem so far fetched, so I agreed. He made an appointment for me for the next day at eight o'clock. I didn't tell George what I was doing, I was sure he'd try to talk me out of it.

I arrived at the clinic the next day half an hour early. A nurse led me in to see the doctor I'd talked to on the phone. "Hello, I'm Dr. Smith. Let me tell you how things work here." He greeted me. He told me that I would be sleeping in a pool of contaminated salt water for ten hours. I'd be breathing through a mask that would keep me from drowning. They would sedate me for that entire time, and then move me to a bed. From there it would be much like any other hospital stay with regular blood tests and such. He asked if I was sure I wanted to do this, and I assured him I was. Then I asked about cost.

"Oh, there's no cost to you. This is part of a research program on the mutagen. We're learning how it works, but we get to help people directly while we're at it. It's not too often one gets an opportunity like that!" he answered. I was amazed that I wouldn't need any money, and it reassured me that this wasn't some kind of scam. After all, if it were a scam they'd be trying to get as much money from me as possible, right?

They didn't waste any time getting me in the tank and sedated. When I woke up after the sedative wore off I was in a hospital bed with an IV attached to my arm. It was a private room. The door was closed and the curtains drawn, so I couldn't see anything outside of the room. Before long a nurse came in and took a blood sample and checked my temperature and such. I was still pretty tired from the sedative, so I went back to sleep after that.

The routine was pretty boring for the first week. I was assured that everything was going fine, but I couldn't feel anything different. I ate a bowl of oatmeal in the morning, a sandwich for lunch, and some other bland hospital food for dinner. I walked laps around my bed just for something to do. I couldn't go any farther because of the IV, it wasn't mobile. Other than that, I spent a lot of time in bed.

Eventually I started getting sick and lost a lot of weight. My muscles disappeared (not that I minded), and I actually lost a few inches in height! I was ecstatic, because the nurses assured me that this was the way gender changes always went. I spent several days feeling miserable, physically, but very hopeful. I didn't gain any feminine characteristics in that time, unless you want to count all my hair falling out. And I do mean all!

One of the nurses told me that the body has to strip away all the extraneous tissue before it can start to build itself back up again. That certainly proved true for me. Not long after I stopped getting sick, I started getting ravenous! I was eating two or three times as much as before for three or four days before things started leveling off. By then I was completely female, and had started growing wings! One of the nurses told me that changes like that sometimes start, and then are reabsorbed by the body. Even if they remained, they probably wouldn't be large and strong enough to actually fly.

I don't know if I was happy or sad that they were wrong. My wings kept growing steadily. My hair and feathers both grew in silver, though my body hair never did come back. The mirror in the attached bathroom showed me that I would never have to worry about passing. In fact, my biggest worry would be guys making passes at me!

I was only a few days from being released when all hell broke loose.

It started one night with a cry of despair. I'd heard a few others and had been told it was from clients who did not mutate, and that they'd get another treatment and that should take care of it. This time it didn't end there. The primal scream that followed was unlike anything I'd ever heard. This was followed by the sounds of windows breaking and large objects hitting walls. People were screaming all around me and I was afraid I was going to die just when I'd finally gotten what I wanted more than anything.

I climbed off my bed and hid behind it as well as I could. With my wings as big as they were by then, that wasn't very well. The door suddenly opened and a small woman slipped in before closing it just as quickly. She ran across the room and ducked behind the bed, running right into me. "Sorry!" she whispered. "I came in here to hide. One of the unlucky ones has gone berserk!"

"Unlucky ones?" I whispered back.

"You're new?" she asked.

"I've been here almost a month." I replied.

"You don't know anything about what's going on here, do you." She said rather than asked. "They lied to all of us. Only fifty to sixty percent of all males who mutate become women. They knew that going in, and they don't have any special trick or therapy to improve those odds! Most that stay male are able to transition normally and are okay with that. Some, though, heal too fast and their own immune system kills off the estrogen before it can have any effect. Those are the unlucky ones. Most kill themselves."

I gasped, but her hand over my mouth muffled the sound. "Sorry! So it really is a scam then?" I whispered sadly.

She nodded. "Yeah, it is. They're using us as guinea pigs. They know they won't get many volunteers, so they use this scam to get the transgendered to come to them. We're desperate enough that we ignore the dangers, so we're perfect for them. Some never find out what's really happening here, and they leave after their month is over. But if you find out the truth, they won't let you leave! So don't let on that you know anything, or you'll be trapped here like me!"

"What about the one that's going berserk, what happened?" I whispered back.

She shook her head sadly. "She's one of the really unlucky ones. Her new form is so male she could never pass as female, ever! And her body completely destroys any form of estrogen they try to give her. She's a bull mutant, and she's really strong. She's been here a while, but the doctors have finally given up on helping her. When she heard that, she started tearing the place up. I think she's hoping someone will kill her."

I sat in stunned silence after that, trying to absorb everything she'd told me. The crashing sounds and screaming had slowed somewhat. I hoped that meant that she was tiring, but I was afraid it might mean something worse! Then the sounds started getting closer and closer. We both huddled behind the bed in terror, knowing our death might be coming through that door at any moment.

After yet more crashing sounds and screams, we heard the first object hit the door to my room. Then another hit the window and cracked it. And then the door was knocked right off its hinges and crashed into the bed, the body of a nurse lying on top of it. A man was standing in the doorway. He was huge! He must have been eight feet tall, at least. He bent over and came in the room and seemed to fill the room up all by himself. "Felicia!" the woman who had been hiding with me called out from the far side of the bed from where I hid. I never saw her move.

I realized then that this was the mutant that she'd been talking about. I could see why she could never pass as female. The other woman stepped a little closer and said, "Felicia, please clam down! It's me, Jasmine, your friend." She pleaded. Felicia didn't even hesitate. She swung one huge fist from where it was dragging on the floor because of her bent posture, and slammed it into Jasmine's face. Jasmine flew up and through the wall! A large hole was left behind starting at about head height. I realized that we were on an outside wall. Without thinking I ran out and jumped out the hole after Jasmine.

I saw Jasmine hit the ground below me and lie still. I flapped my wings with all the strength I could muster and managed to slow my fall enough that I wasn't really hurt when I landed. I ran over to Jasmine to see if she was still alive. She looked a mess, but when I checked for a pulse, I found one! I was amazed, especially since it seemed to be pretty strong. There was blood everywhere, but when I went looking for the wound I couldn't find it.

I heard sirens approaching and a police car came flying around the corner and pulled up near us. I waved at him and he came over to me. "What happened here?" he demanded.

I told him everything I knew, his eyes widening as I went. He ran back to his car to call for backup. A short while later a SWAT van drove up! An ambulance arrived about the same time and took Jasmine and I, so I didn't see anything else.

At the hospital the doctors were astounded by Jasmine. Especially when I told them what happened. It seemed that other than blood loss, she was fine! They took X-rays and everything, but she'd already healed. A little while later she woke up ravenous. After eating enough for three people she was finally full. "What happened?" she asked me.

I told her what I knew, which wasn't much. They'd put us both in beds in the same room, even though there really wasn't anything wrong with me. Jasmine turned on the TV and found the local news channel. It was showing pictures of the clinic where we'd been. 'Mutant Rampage!' was plastered all over the screen. They were talking like this was completely the fault of mutants and ignoring what the clinic had been doing! "How can they get away with that?" I asked in astonishment.

Jasmine shrugged. "We're mutants, we don't count. And we're transsexual mutants, that's even worse to them. I'd be surprised if what that clinic was doing ever made the news at all." She replied bitterly.

The one thing we did learn from the news broadcast was that Jasmine's friend Felicia was killed by the SWAT team, and that most if not all the doctors and nurses were killed. "Well, at least they won't be continuing the clinic." I said.

Jasmine laughed at that. "No, they won't. But someone else will. If they don't target transsexuals, they'll go after the poor. There's a lot of money to be made by whoever figures out how that stuff works. But at least some of us found some happiness out of it."

We were both released soon after that. I had to talk to the police because George had reported me missing. He met me down there and drove me back to the apartment. He kept glancing over at me as he drove and I was worried we'd have an accident. We did make it okay, though.

Inside the apartment he hugged me! He'd never done anything like that before! "I'm so glad you're okay, Melissa!" he finally said when he released me.

"Uh, thanks George." I replied uncertainly. "I'm sorry I worried you."

"I told you that thing was a scam." He said, shaking his head ruefully. "I should have known you'd go anyway. Especially after the time you were having."

"What did you hear about the place I was at?" I asked curiously.

"Not much. Most people are spending way more attention on the killer mutant than anything else." He replied.

I nodded, unsurprised. "I thought so. They were lying to people and holding anyone who found out the truth there against their will, but no one cares about that."

"Are you alright?" he asked.

I shrugged. "I'm okay. I'm sad about what happened, but I love my new body!"

"Wings and all?" he asked.

"Wings and all." I agreed with a smile.

"You've got just the problem I was worried about, though. It may not be possible for you to go back to your classes." He pointed out.

"I know, but I'm going to give it a try." I replied determinedly.

The next day, after modifying one of my tops so I could wear it, I went to the college to see about getting my records updated. I'd already changed my name, but I would need a new student ID card since I looked so different. I drew lots of attention as I walked to the office. I heard lots of muttered insults and a few shouted ones. Once again I was being shoved around, and one person plucked out a feather! That really hurt!

The woman at the desk in the office wouldn't even look at me and ignored every word I said. I kept trying for a while, but she wouldn't budge. Frustrated, I stomped out of there. I was met by one of the college's security officers just outside the office building. "You need to leave or I'll call the police." He told me menacingly.

"Why? I haven't done anything!" I protested.

"You don't belong here, now get out!" he yelled. I sighed and left. There goes getting an education!

When George got back from his classes I told him how things went. "I was afraid they'd do something like that." He replied angrily. "I wish there was something we could do."

"Thanks, George, but there's really nothing that can be done. I guess I'll have to go back to my parents and hope they'll let me stay with them until I figure out what I'll do." I said with a sigh. I never did tell them about transitioning, and now that I'm fully female with wings I was going to have to go begging for help. I could only hope they were in a good mood!

"I'll drive you down there. That way I can help you convince them of who you are." George suggested.

"Thanks, that would be a big help." I agreed.

He only had one class the next day, in the morning, so we agreed we'd drive down to my parents after his class. In the meantime, I started packing up everything I own. The bulk of my sword collection was still in my old room at home, but I had a few at the apartment that needed packing. Other than those, my computer, and clothes I didn't have much. I gave away most of my old male clothes, I wouldn't need them anymore! There were a few things I had use for and kept, and George got a lot of the rest.

Some of my female clothes didn't fit anymore, either, so I reluctantly gave them away. I'd need to get more clothes when I got home, but I had more than enough to get there.

I realized in the morning that my wings were even bigger, now. I tested them and found I could actually lift myself off the ground! That's about all I could manage, yet, but I was sure I'd be flying in time. After tiring myself out trying to fly I stacked my boxes up by the door and waited for George. When he got there we loaded up his car and left. It wasn't a very long drive, just an hour or so, and we were pulling up in front of the house I grew up in. We left my stuff in the car and walked up to the door.

I hesitated to press the door bell, took a deep breath, and pressed the button. We heard my parents moving around inside, then the door opened to reveal my dad. "Hi George, what are you doing here?" he asked.

"I'm bringing Melissa home." He replied, pointing at me.

"Hello, Melissa, where do you live?" My father asked, looking at me curiously.

"Um, here." I replied. "At least, I hope I can still live here."

"Melissa was at that clinic that's been on the news lately." George said. "She used to be Mark."

Dad stood there open mouthed for a moment, and then turned on me angrily. I shrunk back, but he grabbed my arms. "How could you worry us like that?! George told us you were missing, and what he suspected you might be doing. You could have been killed in that place!"

I was flabbergasted! He wasn't mad that I'm a girl now, but that I went to the clinic? "Uh, Dad, I'm confused." I said hesitantly.

"Come inside, I'll explain." Dad replied, and led me inside. His anger seemed to have disappeared, and his touch was gentle. He sat me down on the couch and then sat next to me. George sat in a chair facing the couch. "George was worried about you, especially when the police said they couldn't do anything. He told us you were talking about going to that clinic, though he wouldn't tell us why." He said, with a glare for George.

"Don't be mad at George, Dad, I made him promise not to tell anyone that I was transsexual." I said, my voice getting very small at the end.

"So you wanted to be a girl?" Dad asked with a surprised look. "How long have you felt that way?"

"All my life." I said while examining my shoes. I was sure he'd be disappointed that I hadn't trusted him sooner.

"I see. So why did you think you needed to mutate?" he asked.

"I…I didn't think I had anything to loose." I admitted softly.

Dad looked like he was about to ask for an explanation of that statement but George beat him to it. "She was beaten up pretty badly by some of the guys on the team when they found her out dressed as Melissa. By the time she went back to her classes everyone in school knew about her. She stopped pretending to be Mark, but everyone was treating her horribly."

"Oh, honey, you should have come to us then!" Dad said and pulled me into a hug. I was so startled I didn't react at first, and then I just melted into it.

When he pulled back I looked into his eyes and said, "So you're not mad, about me being a girl now?"

Dad laughed, "Of course not! So long as you're happy, we're happy. So how do you feel about having wings?"

I smiled shyly and said, "I think it's pretty cool, except for the being kicked off the school grounds part."

"What?! They kicked you out because of that?" he exclaimed angrily.

I nodded. "It's not that big of a deal, though, I couldn't have stayed there anyway. The students were treating me like I was lower than dirt. Sooner or later it would have gone beyond name calling and shoving." I said, realizing I was silly to think I could go back there in the first place.

Dad seemed to deflate at that. "I'm sorry you've had to deal with all that honey. Do you have any plans?" he asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know. It's not like I have a lot of options right now."

"Well, you're welcome here as long as you want to stay." Dad replied.

We spent the rest of the afternoon catching up. Then Mom got home. She walked in and said, "Hi George, I'm surprised to see you here. And who is this?" she asked, pointing at me.

"This," Dad answered, "is Melissa, our daughter."

"We don't have a…Mark, is that you?!" Mom exclaimed. I nodded and she rushed over and crushed me in a fierce hug. "Oh baby, we thought we'd lost you!"

"I'm sorry Mom." I said. She ignored that and pulled away to look me over.

"Well, you came out rather nice. I love that hair! And those wings! They remind me of a kestrel. Beautiful bird! How are you handling being a girl?" Mom asked worriedly.

I smiled widely as I replied, "I've always been a girl Mom."

"Huh?" she said in confusion.

"She went to that clinic to get mutated on purpose, hoping she'd become female." George explained.

"Oh. Wait, you were at that clinic in the news?!" she asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, they were claiming to be able to make sure that the mutation would leave us female, even though they had no way of doing that. I just got lucky."

"So you wanted to be a girl, and they targeted people like you? Why?" Mom asked.

"They were studying our mutations, trying to figure out how it works. They figured they'd have trouble finding volunteers to get mutated, so they targeted transsexuals." I replied.

"So you're okay?" Mom asked.

"I'm better than okay Mom!" I replied happily. Despite all the problems I'd had, the fact that I was completely female made me so happy I was almost giddy. Especially now that I knew my parents weren't going to freak about it!

Mom hugged me again. "I'm so glad! I knew you were depressed about something, but I didn't have any idea what. When you disappeared I was afraid you'd gone off somewhere and killed yourself!" she said with tears in her eyes. I hugged her back with tears in my own, as I'd considered just that.

We spent some more time catching up now that Mom was there. Mom kept thanking George for looking out for me. She got a strange look in her eye that I didn't like the looks of. She insisted that George stay for dinner. It didn't take much convincing to get him to agree.

George stayed longer than I expected, but eventually he said he had to leave. My parents said goodbye to him and then mysteriously had somewhere else to be and left us alone. I groaned, as I thought I knew what they were thinking. "My parents seem to think there's something going on between us." I said with a laugh.

George looked at me strangely and said, "I've got nothing going on after practice tomorrow, you want to go see a movie or something?"

I stared at him a minute as what he'd just said registered. "Are you asking me out on a date?!"

"Well, yeah." He replied.

"And you thought I'd say yes?!" I asked in shock.

He looked a little less certain, now. "Well, isn't that what you've been leading up to?" he asked.

Now I was really shocked. "What are you talking about?"

"You were the one who wanted to be roommates at college. Then you came out to me and wanted to wear women's clothes around the apartment all the time. What was I supposed to think?" he asked, annoyed.

"Oh, gee, I don't know; that you're my best friend and I thought I could trust you? That I thought I'd be safer with you than some strange guy I didn't know?" I replied, equally annoyed.

"So I'm safe, is that it?" he snapped at me.

"What is your problem? You know I've dated, and that I only dated girls. What makes you think I'd suddenly change my tune?" I asked perplexed.

"Because you're a girl now!" he replied angrily.

"So, haven't you heard of lesbians? I've always been a girl, and I've always been attracted only to girls. My body changing doesn't change that!" I said. "Look," I continued more calmly, "I'm sorry if you thought something was going on that wasn't. You're my best, and now only, friend. I don't want to lose you over this. But I'm not attracted to guys. At all! Can you accept that?"

George seemed to deflate at that. "Yeah, I guess so." He replied, turning to the door. "I'll see you around." He said and left before I could reply. I sighed and sat back down on the couch. Mom came out a few minutes later and sat on the couch next to me.

"You okay honey? You look kind of down." She asked.

"It's George." I replied. "He, and you guys, I guess from the way you disappeared earlier, thought I was interested in him. I'm not sure if he's going to want to be my friend anymore, but I'm just not into guys."

"Oops! You're right; we thought there was something going on there. It didn't occur to me that you might not be attracted to men. So you don't feel anything for George?" Mom said.

"As a friend, sure! As a brother, even! But as anything else? Eew!" I said with a shudder. I'd tried looking at guys that way in high school, thinking it would be easier to be gay, I guess, but I just couldn't muster any interest at all.

Mom laughed at my reaction. "Okay, I get it! I'm sure he'll be alright once he gets his head around the idea of you being a lesbian. Just give him some time." She suggested.

I nodded. I sat there and thought for a while after Mom left, thinking about my future. I'd basically lost everything except my parents. And maybe George. What was I going to do?

Mom and I went shopping the next day to expand my meager wardrobe. We had trouble finding tops I could wear with my wings and had to modify most of what we bought. At least I could wear skirts easily enough! We managed to find a few backless dresses, so they didn't need any adjustment.

There were a lot of hostile glares and muttered curses directed at me as we shopped, but Mom blithely ignored them. I tried to follow her example.

Weeks went by, and I was still no closer to figuring out what I was going to do with my life. I didn't want to mooch off my parents forever, but I couldn't find any employers who would even consider employing an obvious mutant. Not having a degree didn't help any. I even checked out some other colleges, but they were just as hostile. What was worse, was that every time I was out somewhere with my parents, people were getting to be as hostile towards them as they are to me! I was starting to worry that something would happen, but I wasn't prepared for what did!

I hadn't heard from George yet, which was kind of bumming me out. Other than Mom and Dad, I was completely on my own. Even my aunts and uncles didn't want anything to do with me! One Saturday I was in my old room, polishing my sword collection. I heard a crash downstairs followed by a scream. I ran downstairs, sword still in hand.

Mom was on the floor, whimpering in pain and holding her side. A man was standing over her with a gun in his hand. Three other men were just walking in, each carrying a gun. Dad came running down behind me. When he saw Mom he rushed over to her side, while I charged at the guy standing over her. In the time it took us to get to him and Mom he smiled at us and pulled the trigger, splattering Mom's brains all over the floor.

"NO!!" we both screamed. Dad fell to his knees next to Mom. I looked down at the sword in my hand and closed the remaining few feet between me and the gunman and took his head off with one swing. The smile was still stuck on his face as his head rolled across the room. I think we were all stunned by what had just happened. Dad was cradling Mom's body and sobbing, and I was staring at the headless corpse at my feet and Mom's lifeless body in turn. The other men were staring at the head rolling on the floor.

The spell was broken when I heard the floor creak under their feet. I turned towards them and ran at them without thinking, bringing the sword up as I ran. They were slow to react and only one of them got a shot off before I'd sliced one of them nearly in half. That shot hit me in the side, but I hardly even felt it. I just kept moving, bringing my sword up to attack the next nearest gunman.

That's when one of them yelled out, "Stop, or I'll shoot your father, freak!" I did stop, long enough to identify who was talking and charge at him, making sure my body was between him and my Dad. He fired, but the bullet hit me instead of Dad. It didn't even slow me down as I plunged my sword into his heart.

I turned on the last man and he shot me twice before he died. I made sure they were all down for the count and then turned towards my Dad. To my horror, he was lying on the floor with a bullet through his chest. I dropped my sword and ran over to him, but I couldn't find a pulse! I grabbed the phone and called the police. I needn't have bothered, as three police cars were already on their way and the first drove up as I was putting the phone down. An ambulance was right behind it. Paramedics checked my parents and said they were both dead. I don't remember anything after that until I woke up in the hospital, again.

George was sitting next to my bed when I woke up. "Hey Kestrel, I'm glad to see you awake." He said when he saw my eyes open.

"Kestrel?" I asked, confused.

"Well, that's what your Mom said your wings looked like. I thought it was a good name for you. I'll call you Melissa if you prefer." He replied.

"Mom, is she okay?" I asked, only half remembering what happened.

George looked sad and said, "I'm sorry, your parents were both killed. They're gone." He held my hand as I wept. I could hardly believe my parents were really gone!

When I'd run out of tears I looked at George and said, "Go ahead and call me Kestrel. It reminds me of Mom, she loved those birds." He nodded his understanding. "What happened with those guys that killed them?" I asked.

"They're dead. One of them survived for a little while, but died in the hospital. The others were already dead when the cops got there. Some people wanted you charged with their murders, but the evidence made it clear that you acted in self defense." He replied.

I thought back to what happened and remembered that I'd never seen Dad get shot. "How did they get Dad? I got in the way when the one guy was threatening to shoot him." I asked.

"From what I've heard, the bullet went right through you and into him." George replied.

"So I didn't do him any good at all." I said sadly.

"Hey, don't think that! You tried hard to save them! You nearly died yourself, and you took out all four of them with a sword, when they all had guns! I'd say you did some good." George replied forcefully.

"They're still dead." I said. I was all alone now, with nowhere to go. How could I possibly live?

George looked sad, but he also looked guilty. He looked at his watch and then back at me. "Look, I needed to talk to you, but I don't have a lot of time. I…I can't come back." He said.

"Huh?" I replied, confused.

"I've been getting threatening phone calls because of my association with you. I ignored them before, but now they're threatening my family. After what they did to your parents, I don't think I can ignore their threats anymore." He replied sadly, unable to maintain eye contact.

I felt a flush of anger, but it cooled quickly. I wouldn't want anything to happen to George's parents, they're good people. "I…understand." I said softly.

"I'm sorry I can't help you, I really am. I know I haven't called since the day I brought you back to your house, but I'm still your friend. As your friend, I'm telling you to leave. Fly away as far as you can. It's the only chance you have of having a life." He said. He stood up, took one last look at me, and walked out of my life forever.

I cried again when he left, and off and on the rest of the day. The hospital released me in the morning. They'd had to resuscitate me when I was brought to the hospital, and performed surgery on me, but my body had healed up well on it's own after that. I felt weak, but had no pain. At least, not physical pain.

I walked back to my parent's house. My aunt and uncle were already there, treating it like their own. They weren't happy to see me. I stayed one night, then left. I flew around for days, getting my strength up and trying to figure out what to do. I'd sneak in my old room at my parent's house at night to sleep, and then leave again without my aunt or uncle knowing I was there. With what few people I interacted with, I introduced myself as Kestrel, to remember my mother.

About a week after my parents' death I was flying over the city when I saw what I at first took to be an airplane. Then I saw the wings flap and realized it must be another mutant, like me! I flew over towards them and motioned for them to land on a nearby hilltop to talk. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be the famous/infamous Kittyhawk!

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 To Be Continued…in KittyHawk Part 7
 

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