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Author's Note: Here's chapter 2 of Syryn's Song. Thank you as always to all my readers for the comments, kudos, and thinking that my work is worth reading. Also thanks to the Big Closet team who work tirelessly to give us all a wonderfully supportive venue to read and post TG fiction ~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 2: New Beginning

Three days after our big outing Dr. Park sat down with us for lunch and said, “Okay everyone I’ve got some news to share.” Once she was sure that she had our undivided attention she gave Twilight and me a sad look and continued on to add, “Leslie and Candice will be leaving us today.” We all stared at her eyes wide and my breath caught in my throat. “Leslie turns eighteen in three weeks and Candice does in August. Neither of them has medical needs to keep them here any longer. I have contacts in New York who have offered to pick the girls up, help them get settled in New York City, and see that they get the training they both need.”

“Well I guess if we’re going to try to break into the music industry that’s a pretty good place to start,” I put in.

“New York City?! That’s awesome, we’re gonna have so much fun there,” Twilight added with a grin. “Wait! You said were leaving today?”

Dr. Park nodded, “After lunch you’ll have half an hour to get packed and say your goodbyes as they’ll be here at one thirty. All of your paperwork is done and I have high school diplomas for you both. She handed us each an envelope and I found that the diploma inside was made out to Candice Lynn Graham and was certified by Hill Regional Career High School. She must have seen the confused look on my face because she gave me a reassuring smile and said, “The exams I had you both taking were from that school. I have had other long term patients like you do the same before. It’s not all that unusual for this hospital to have long term patients study privately and take equivalency exams through them and they know I work with the Children’s Hospital. Since you both did so well on all your exams they had no problems with issuing the diplomas.”

“Thanks Dr. Park, I’m going to miss you all,” Twilight said with teary eyes,

I nodded in agreement, “Me too, you’ve been great Dr. Park. You said they’ll be here at one thirty?” When she nodded I asked in a concerned tone, “That’s barely enough time to pack, will we have time to put on my disguise?”

She shook her head, “You needn’t worry about it. You won’t be out in public except in the elevator. My friends will be coming here to pick you up and they assure me that they will have a means to disguise you when you get where you’re going.”

Twilight and I finished our meals quickly and went to our rooms to pack what little we had in the two large suitcases that Dr. Park had brought for us. I finished pretty quickly and was saying my goodbyes to Smog, Taser, and Armor when Twilight came out with her own suitcase and the case containing her keyboard and stand. “You guys behave yourselves,” she said as she joined us. “We’ll send emails to you all once we’re settled. Smog has his laptop so at least we can stay in touch that way.”

We were both giving Dr. Park a hug goodbye when the intercom to the security door buzzed. “That will be your escort girls. Keep in touch; it won’t be the same without you here.” She let us go and we took one last look around, grabbed our baggage, and walked with Dr. Park to the door. She pressed the button by the door and said, “Hello.”

“Hi Maddie, we’re here to pick up our potential house guests,” came a friendly and very female voice. Dr. Park opened up the door and nothing could have prepared me for the two people standing on the other side. The first of the pair was a man who was six foot six and dressed from head to toe in black. Seriously, he was dressed like a ninja but even his eyes were covered in the black material of his costume. The woman I would have had to be completely ignorant of the news and internet and have lived the last five years of my life locked in a box to not know. She had long red hair and green eyes and wore a blue mask and a blue bodysuit with white stars along the outer arms and legs with a red leotard, boots, and a utility belt over top.

“Liberty,” I said in awe. Aside from Paragon she was probably the best known super hero in the whole country and she was the leader of Aegis.

The red, white, and blue heroine chuckled and said, “It’s nice to meet you. You must be Candice and Leslie, or would you rather I called you Syryn and Twilight?” she asked with a wink and I could feel myself blushing a deep purple as she continued speaking. “This is my teammate Blackout of course. Most people know that he can cancel out another mutant’s powers by touching them. What most people don’t know is that he detects powers as well and can accurately measure them.”

The large man nodded, “You were right Madison, these girls are going to need training.” He gestured to Twilight. “She’s got category two regeneration, some sort of darkness related ability I would rate at category two as well, category three speed, and strength somewhere between category three and four. She’s nearly as strong as Liberty is.”

Liberty’s eyes widened a bit at that. “That’s impressive; I’m surprised she hasn’t destroyed something yet.”

Twilight blushed, “I did destroy a MRI scanner accidentally in a panic attack when I was first being tested but I’ve been working really hard the last six months at limiting how hard I grip things and how fast I move.”

“It’s good that you’ve learned that kind of control but you will need to push your limits as well to find out exactly what you’re capable of. You never know when you’ll need to use your powers, so if you don’t develop them to their fullest it could be just as dangerous as not developing them at all,” he explained before turning to me. He was quiet for a moment before saying, “You mentioned the interesting changes in Syryn’s physiology Madison and those alone would likely make her a noteworthy candidate for the project but you failed to mention how powerful she is. She has category three projective empathy and category five telekinesis. If she doesn’t train both of those properly someone is going to get hurt.”

“Well, I have only been studying her for a week,” Dr. Park countered, “And her telekinetic abilities have been growing stronger each day since she was activated so it has been hard to get an accurate measure.”

I was only vaguely aware of her speaking though as what Blackout had said had me concerned. If they were rating powers like hurricanes then that meant I was a damn powerful telekinetic. And then there was the other thing he said that concerned me. “Excuse me, but what is the project?” I asked nervously, wondering if they wanted to dissect me or something.

“Aegis has done a lot of good since we formed five years ago,” Liberty began to explain. “Now we have decided that we want to start training a secondary team of five or six young people that can serve as reserve members of Aegis, a backup team if something else comes up when we’re on a mission, or to take on assignments we’re incapable of doing. From what Blackout and Madison have said and based on Madison’s psychological assessment of you both I would like you two to consider being the first two members of that team.”

“So you’re offering us a job?” I asked uncertainly.

“Right now all we’re offering is an opportunity, it’s up to you whether you decide to take it,” Blackout replied. “If you both do decide that you want to join the program we’d be glad to have you and you’ll get equipment, training sessions with us and the other members of the team, whatever help you need getting set up in your civilian identities, and a place to live as part of the deal. If you decide not to take the opportunity then we will still help you how we can but I would suggest that you seriously think about taking it. With powers like yours, a little control is sometimes worse than none at all.”

“I don’t know,” Twilight said uncertainly. “This is a great offer and all but we kind of have our hearts set on starting a band and trying to get into the music industry.”

Liberty smiled warmly at us both. “Madison mentioned that on the phone. Whatever civilian career you choose to pursue is of course up to you and we won’t prevent you from doing that. We all have civilian identities and some form of employment and we will try to fit training sessions into your schedule if you do start a civilian career. For the first six months all you would be doing is training unless you have a unique skill that we need on a mission.”

I wasn’t too keen on the idea of running around in spandex fighting people who would in all likelihood try to kill me but practically speaking we would be getting a lot out of the deal and learning to control our powers. Besides, would you flat out refuse such an offer from one of the most respected superheroes in the country? Finally I nodded. “I do need to learn to control my powers so I guess I don’t mind giving this a try as long as it won’t interfere with my goals.”

“If Syryn is in then I guess I’ll give it a shot too,” Twilight added.

“It’s decided then,” Liberty said with a smile. “Welcome to the family. I will ask you to make sure that anything we show you and the location of our headquarters be kept secret. We have no official ties to the government and keeping our secrets keeps us all safer.” Then she turned to Dr. Park and hugged her, “It’s been good seeing you again Maddie. Make sure you take some vacation time this summer and come visit us all.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” she laughed before hugging me and Twilight in turn. “Good luck out there girls, remember us little people when you make it big.”

“I don’t think either of us will ever forget you Dr. Park, thanks for everything,” Twilight said for us both. I would have said something too but I didn’t want everyone all sad and nervous if I couldn’t control my subsonics. So I merely nodded and waved as we turned and followed the costumed pair.

When we arrived at the roof the first thing I saw was the large sliver craft on the helipad. It had an aerodynamic shape and was roughly the size of a city bus with no visible entrance and sat on six legs. “This is the Ladybug, a Tinker friend of ours designed and built her for us; you’ll meet him when we get home,” Liberty said as she took out some kind of remote control from a pouch on her belt. It did have the general shape of a ladybug and resembled one even more when the top part of the rear three quarters of the ship seemed to separate from the ship and spread out into large aerodynamic wings with powerful looking propellers aimed toward the ground. “This baby has a maximum speed of mach three in atmosphere, VTOL capabilities, a cloaking device, and is both submersible and space flight capable.”

A platform had descended from the ship’s undercarriage and as we walked toward it Liberty continued to explain. “Once we’re in flight the legs retract into the ship, and if we need to go into space or under water the wings will return to their resting place and the manoeuvring thrusters will emerge. The main booster engine on this baby has a lot of thrust.” I was in awe as we stepped onto the platform and it rose into the craft and I thought I heard Twilight whistle.

Once inside we were directed to place our baggage in a storage container and to sit in one of the dozen seats in the passenger area while Liberty and Blackout went to the cockpit to get us in the air. The flight was all too short and I watched the scenery below speed by out the window beside me. I kept watching until I could see New York City spread out beneath us getting closer and Liberty came out of the cockpit. “We’re going to land in the East River near Mill Rock Island and submerge, there’s less water traffic there. Then we’ll make our way to a tunnel that we’ll travel to get to our headquarters. We’ll show you the ways in and out once we have a quiet day to teach you to pilot the Ladybug.”

Soon we had traversed the underwater tunnel and a platform raised the ship out of the water to a large hangar type room. Once we had disembarked Blackout explained, “There are three sub-levels that make up our base. This is the hangar level and above it is the training level where the pool, gymnasium, obstacle course, and shooting range are. On the level above that are the situation room, recreation room, laboratory, and underground parking. We will need to make you both key cards, both those and fingerprint identification are required to get to these lower levels by the elevator or into the garage from the outside.”

Twilight and I both nodded and I asked, “If these are the sub-levels what’s above that?”

“Above that is the apartment complex where we all live. Senator Dixon bought the land and deeded it to my civilian identity a few years back,” Liberty said. “The building is on East 88th facing Carl Schurz Park.”

“I thought you said we had no ties to the government,” Twilight said with a confused look.

“Not officially we don’t,” she replied, “But I saved his son’s life and he wanted to help us to continue to work without government interference. We work better when we don’t have to cut through a bunch of red tape to get anything done.”

“Why are you trusting us with all this?” I wondered aloud, “You barely know us.”

“Because Maddie thinks that you both are trustworthy girls with a strong moral compass and that you have the potential to be a great asset to us. I would trust Maddie with all of our lives, any member of my team would. She has helped every one of us turn our lives around at some point.” I could hear the conviction in Liberty’s voice and see it in her eyes as she spoke.

“I guess we all have a lot in common then,” I said.

She smiled and nodded in agreement as she gestured to the elevator. “Let’s get you girls to the recreation room and introduce everyone, and then we can help you get settled in. Do you two still want to share an apartment, or would you rather have your own? Most of the apartments in the building are two bedrooms and with just us living here we have ten apartments sitting empty right now.”

I‘d still like to share one if it’s okay with Twilight,” I said. “I don’t really like the thought of living in a place on my own.”

My friend grinned at me. “Good, because I feel the same way.”

As we rode the elevator up Blackout said, “I hope you don’t get upset with Madison but she informed us of your unusual situation Syryn. She figured that you’re going to need help getting documentation for your new identity. We have Silver Spirit and Blake working on that, hopefully they’ll have some good news for you.” When he saw the uncertainty on my face he was quick to try to reassure me. “None of us care who or what you were before. We all have pasts, and it’s who we are now that’s important.”

“In fact,” Liberty added, “We all decided that if you did join us that since we know so much about you and Twilight that it’s only fair that we tell you a little bit about ourselves too.”

We entered the recreation room and I took a moment to take in the large room. It had a fridge, a small kitchen, a pool table, and three large sofas in a U shape in front of what was quite possibly the largest TV I had ever seen. There were four people already seated and waiting for us and at Liberty’s encouragement Twilight and I took a seat on the one unoccupied sofa. while the two we came in with sat beside a boy who looked maybe fifteen years old on the center couch. What surprised me the most was that none of them were in costume. I was even more surprised when both Blackout and Liberty removed their own masks.

Liberty was very pretty under that mask and I noticed that she had freckles that had been hidden by her mask as she began to speak. “So, we’ve all been briefed on you and we all know one another so I guess I’ll start by introducing myself. My civilian name is Lisa Leeds. Ten years ago I enlisted in the army and their medical tests showed that I had dormant H Chromosomes. They placed me in a unit with a bunch of others like me and put us on the front lines in Afghanistan. Then they spiked our water rations with a drug to make us agitated hoping that they could trigger our H Chromosomes to create a unit of super soldiers. Only three of us survived the hell that ensued and had our powers activated, I was the only one who came out anywhere close to sane. I tried to end it all but being invulnerable that proved difficult. After I got discharged Maddie helped me to get my head straight and my life together.”

Blackout was the next to speak. He was an African American man with short cropped hair and a thin mustache, and his eyes seemed to hold so much sorrow. “I’m Nick Tanner and I used to work for a government organization that shall remain nameless. I didn’t much care who they were so long as there was a paycheck. They paid me to find other Hypers to work for them but I found out that they were experimenting on them when one escaped. We broke the rest out, but I was in pretty bad shape after and one of them brought me to Madison.”

The young man on the couch with them smiled at us. He had shaggy brown hair and green eyes and was dressed in a red t-shirt and jeans. “I’m not really a member of the team, but I make all the team’s gear, including the Ladybug. My name’s Blake Dixon, I’m fifteen and my dad is Senator Ronald Dixon. A couple years back my Tinker powers manifested when I was kidnapped. They were going to kill me as soon as they got the ransom money but Lisa came in and saved me. My dad bought this place and I fixed it up. When he deeded the place to Lisa my dad asked that I be allowed to stay here under a new identity so I’m not in the public eye so much. It’s great, I’m independent and I get to invent all sorts of cool gear for all of you.”

“I’m Jason Jackson and my codename is Phantasm,” a wiry blond man with bright blue eyes dressed in a plaid shirt and worn out jeans said. “I was the mutant who escaped from the government agency Nick mentioned. When the experiments started damn was I glad I had only told them about my illusion powers and not my intangibility. I helped Nick break the others out and Madison introduced us to Lisa when the mess was over with. Together we founded Aegis.”

The next to introduce himself was a Native American man with long black hair who wore a dark grey suit. “Hi girls, I’m Travis Truman but I’m better known as the Silver Spirit. Last year I found a strange device on my Grandfather’s ranch in New Mexico. The device turned out to be a nano-tech bodysuit with an on-board AI that I call Phil, he says hi too by the way. Phil used to belong to the sole surviving alien of the crash outside Roswell in the fifties. The alien was badly wounded and after he escaped the government’s detection he died when flying over the ranch. Phil’s permanently bonded to me but I’m okay with that because we get along and he allows me to fly, turn invisible, and fire energy blasts. He can also hack any computer on the planet and has a pretty durable armor mode. Madison helped solve a compatibility problem with the neural interface when I was mistakenly thought to be a Hyper and sent to her for treatment.”

The last person was almost as unusual looking as I was. She wore a green dress and had long silver hair, amber eyes, and her ears were pointed like my own. “I am Tessily,” she stated simply, “Eight centuries ago I fell victim to a betrayal most foul. I was a princess among my people, soon to be a queen, but my own sister turned me to stone and cursed me to remain a statue until touched by a human pure of heart. I was found in a cave in Ireland nearly a century ago and passed through the hands of various collectors until fortune smiled on me and I found myself in the home of a collector in this city. His young daughter touched me and broke the curse. This fellowship of heroes introduced me to Madison and she is attempting to discover what has become of my people.”

“Tessily is extremely agile, has better senses than a human, and is a crack shot with a bow,” Liberty explained. “She also has some small magical ability that she uses to cast enchantments on her arrows.”

Tessily nodded and turned to smile at me. “I believe that this telekinesis Madison spoke of, is very much like magic as it relies solely on your mind and willpower. I will teach you some meditation techniques that my people use to improve concentration and mental imagery. Before you master your gifts you must master your mind.”

“So I’ll be leaving your training in Tess’ hands Candice, while I’ll be helping Leslie to push her limits. Eventually we’ll all do group sessions with you both though to help with teamwork and strategy and such,” Liberty said to us. “Get used to calling us all by code names when we’re in uniform and by our civilian names when we’re not so there are no slip ups. Leslie, I’ll help you to choose an apartment while Blake and Travis commandeer Candice for a bit. Everyone else can get back to whatever they were doing before we arrived.”

With that everyone split up and Blake and Travis led me to the laboratory where Blake had some devices for me to look at. “When Dr. Park told me about your appearance I began to think about a more effective disguise for you that won’t take a lot of time to put on and remove. Sometimes you need to get into costume fast, and taking off a burdensome disguise would take far too long. So for that I created this.” He pointed to a silver heart pendant on a silver chain.

“It’s very pretty,” I said, “So what does it do?”

“Once you put it on, the pendant will be coded to your DNA. After that it will only work for you and whenever you wear it the pendant will generate a photon field along the surface of your skin that will cause it to appear a light colored flesh tone. I also programmed it so that your eyebrows should appear blonde and your eyes blue, and to warp the way light reflects off of the pointed tips of your ears to make them appear more normal. I call it the second skin.”

“Neat,” I said as I put it on and I gasped in a mix of pleasure and surprise as my skin suddenly appeared normal. “What’s that?” I asked pointing to something that looked like a flesh colored swimming cap with thousands of tiny black dots.

“I call that the hair net,” he said with a grin. “Like the second skin and most other devices I make for you it will be coded to your DNA so nobody else can use it. The hair net is worn over your own hair and when you put it on it will fasten securely to your head until you press the small mole behind the left ear to release it. Each of those dots is a tiny three dimensional image projector that will project a solid light hologram of a blonde human hair approximately two feet in length. It looks and feels just like human hair, is effected by gravity, and can be styled any way you like, though it is only light so don’t try to get it cut unless you want to freak out your hairdresser.”

I laughed at the picture that caused in my mind, as I piled my hair on top of my head and he helped me to put the device over my hair. “Don’t give me any ideas.” I could feel it tighten on my head and a moment later there was a curtain of blonde hair in my eyes. I brushed it aside and it did feel very real. “That should cover my disguise, so what’s this third device?” I asked pointing to a black belt with silver wires running through it and a black metal clasp. It also had some black pouches on it.

“It’s a utility belt,” the boy genius replied. “The pouches are for whatever you might need to have with you and are removable but the belt itself has another use completely aside from handy storage. Put it on and fasten the clasp.” I did as he asked and once I had it on he said, “The buckle is a specialized touch pad, give it a tap.”

Again I did as instructed and found myself hovering a foot above the ground. “Holy crap, I’m flying!”

He chuckled at that, “Technically you’re floating actually, it’s an anti-gravity device. Flying devices are feasible but it’s hard to control the direction and speed without a lot of additions that would make it impractical to wear. I’ve heard of only three other TKs category three or above. They can all fly, but it’s like ten times more taxing on them then it needs to be because, not only are they moving in whatever direction they want to go but they’re pushing against the earth’s gravity to keep themselves in the air as well. It’s like trying to hold a push up, the longer you do the more your arms, or in your case your brain, hurts and the more effort you need to use. If you don’t have to fight gravity then even a category one TK could fly. In your case you’re free to fly and have more power to spare for other things, like rescuing people. You’re the only category five TK I’ve ever heard of and having to use less power to fly will give you a lot of extra power to spare.”

“So I just tap the buckle whenever I want to turn it on or off?” I asked to be certain.

“Yup, I tried to make it as easy as possible for you,” he responded. “You need to be wearing it for it to work though, and it will only respond to your bio-electric signature now that you've used it.”

I tapped the buckle and dropped to the floor. “Thanks Blake, you’re amazing with this stuff. I can’t wait to use this properly.”

“No problem Candice,” he said with a grin. “I love a good challenge and the problem you presented really made me have to use my brain. Just let me know if you need anything else or when you have an idea what you want your costume to look like. I’m working on some great new materials.”

Travis chuckled beside me. “Now that Blake is done showing off your goodies and getting your disguise on I believe he has something for me as well before I drag you downtown to the office.”

Blake picked up an envelope from his desk and handed it to Travis. “Here you go, Dad had it sent by courier first thing this morning.”

“Great Blake, now we can do all this legally. Come on Candice we have someone to go see,” Travis said as he led me to the underground parking. We both climbed into his black Lexus and he drove me downtown to the Department of Justice building on Chambers Street. It was weird and a little exciting to be driving through the streets of New York City with a real live superhero, and it was getting me a little excited. By the time we arrived his suit had morphed into a black and silver armored costume that covered him completely from head to toe. “Just act casual,” he told me as we got off the elevator on the third floor and made our way down the hallway, “If anyone official-looking asks I’m here to protect you at Senator Dixon’s request.”

Finally we entered an office that said ‘Tara Miller: HPP’. A brunette woman with her hair tied back in a ponytail sat behind the desk looking bored. She immediately perked up as we entered though, and she stood to greet us. “Spirit! Senator Dixon mentioned that you’d be bringing me another case, please both of you have a seat.”

“Tara, this is Candice, Candice this is Tara,” Travis offered as we all sat down and he let his face plate dissolve. Then he explained to me as he pushed the envelope he carried over to the woman on the other side of the desk, “Tara is our contact with the Hyper Protection Program, an offshoot of the federal witness protection program. It’s for Hypers with no criminal records that face potential life threatening violence or need to change their identity for some reason. She helped create identities for both Blake and Tess and is one of the few non team members that knows our real identities.”

Tara nodded as she opened the envelope and read the signed document inside. “Yup this is an official request from Senator Dixon’s office, so I guess we can get down to business. I usually don’t get much work sent my way because we’re not exactly in the yellow pages and government/Hyper relations aren’t really that great right now. So why don’t you tell me why you need a new identity? You look pretty normal to me but sometimes even the most normal looking mutants are victims of violence and threats.” At my look of uncertainty she quickly assured me, “This is all kept completely confidential, only those of us in this room will be privy to anything you tell me. I’m a Hyper myself so I know how important it is to keep secrets.”

I told her everything, from my change in the hospital and my mom declaring me dead to the peculiarities of my appearance. “So you see since I wasn’t even female before this and I look completely different now. Nobody will ever believe I’m my old self.”

She shook her head sadly. “Sometimes our Archetypes decide to really throw us for a loop. Blake is a real genius, that’s a damn fine disguise. The first thing we’re going to do is change all records of Ken Graham to deceased since just changing that information would still make it possible for people to connect you to your old self. Then I will take some pictures of you with your disguise on and we’ll come up with an entirely new identity for Candice Lynn Graham, who was born and raised in New York City. To make things easier we’ll say that your parents died when you were young and you grew up in various foster homes. Shall we make Lisa your current foster parent like we did with Blake until you’re eighteen?”

“That’s probably a good idea,” I agreed. Then she took out a camera like the kind they use for drivers licence and passport photos and took several pictures of me. By the time she was finished I had a completely fabricated history including singing lessons, in opera of all things. She accessed all of the proper databases and created new birth and medical records, social security information, school records and a diploma, a driver’s licence, and even foster care records from a reputable foster care agency. I think the most shocking thing was that she managed to print out official looking copies of all the documents and identification while we waited and she drilled me on my fictitious past.

“Damn you’re quick, but isn’t changing the records like that a little illegal?” I asked. “I don’t want anyone getting in trouble on my account.”

Tara shook her head, “It’s all legal for me to do it so long as I have a signed and verified written request from some level of government or a government agency. Travis and Phil could have probably made the changes easily but it’s better to get it done through me by request so it’s legal.”

Travis nodded in agreement “Phil and I could do a lot of damage if we cared to but we just aren’t like that,” he assured me. “There is nothing on earth that can trace a hack by Phil even if they did discover the changes, which they wouldn’t, but I would still rather go through the proper channels.”

“Thanks a lot Tara, I was a little worried about having proper ID and stuff and this is a load off my mind,” I said as she handed me the packet with all my new documents and identification.

“It was my pleasure,” she replied with a smile, “You have enough on your plate right now without that to worry about as well, so I’m glad I was able to help. Oh and before I forget, here’s a check made out to your new identity for getting yourself settled into your new life. It’s not a lot, but it should help.”

“You’re giving me money too? Why?” I asked a bit confused as I looked at the check in my hand.

“It’s basically to cover start-up costs and expenses, witness protection does it for all people needing to start over, and so do we,” she explained.

The next few days were extremely busy. Lisa took us on a tour of New York City and helped us to get all the necessities we would need for ourselves and our apartment. The apartment came furnished but we still needed things like dishes, bedclothes, groceries, and more clothes than what we had. We both enjoyed the time with Lisa immensely, especially when going to tourist sites like the Statue of Liberty and Times Square. It was nice for Leslie to be able to be out in the sun and for me to be able to blend in somewhat. The disguise that Blake had invented was working flawlessly, I still did get looks but only because I was… so hot. As pretty as both Lisa and Leslie were, I still managed to take attention away from them.

It will probably kill any remaining male pride I have left to admit it, but I really enjoyed shopping as well. We had to make several trips but we got everything; we got a good start on our new wardrobes, what we needed for the apartment and enough groceries to last at least a week. It wasn’t so much the shopping and buying things that was fun but the company and the talk as we suggested different items of clothing for one another, asked opinions, and just generally enjoyed one another’s company. Leslie also bought a Hammond portable organ and a pair of laptops for us with music recording and editing software in preparation for our musical aspirations, which thrilled me to no end.

In the evenings we both donned simple black bodysuits, then Leslie became Twilight to have her workout sessions with Liberty, while I had my sessions as Syryn with Tessily. I think the elven warrior princess felt some sort of kinship to me because of my appearance and abilities. Not only did we spend hours in meditation and focusing exercises each night but she also took me to the gymnasium to begin teaching me the fighting style of her people. They didn’t rely on strength and force of arms to win fights but rather intelligence, agility, speed, and using the terrain to their advantage. My new form was in really good shape for a human and I had a lot of stamina so she thought that I would be able to take well to it. She was even teaching me to fight with a sword.

Tessily had had some other ideas as well. She had me working on the concentration and focusing exercises while holding my breath underwater. I had progressed to where I could hold my breath for fifty-seven minutes and I was already starting to get better control of my telekinetic abilities from the exercises with her. As long as I visualized what I wanted to do properly in my mind rather than trying to brute force things I was able to move several large objects at once or create a telekinetic bubble around myself to block attacks. She also had me practice singing while constantly switching my empathic voice on and off and the constant switching was really helping me develop my control over it. The idea was that through constant use I would become more at home using my abilities. She had me using that same theory to develop my skills with my telekinesis as well. She was hoping that soon it would be second nature to me if we kept it up and that I would be able to expand my abilities and control.

We had been in our new home for over two weeks and it was on a Saturday evening, although we were both worn out from training sessions earlier that afternoon,that we finally had time to practice and discuss forming a band. Leslie had just finished cutting my hair to a shorter style just above my shoulders, which would be easier to manage. “So what do you think we should do to find band members? Take an ad out in the newspaper?” I asked my friend and roommate as I used my telekinesis and the anti-gravity belt to move myself around the apartment. Tessily had suggested I do it whenever I was in the building.

She had taken a seat on the couch with her laptop in front of her and I casually floated in front of her and turned myself upside down and facing her. I wasn’t wearing my disguise because it gets itchy after a while and I was getting comfortable enough with myself that I just wanted to be me when we were at home. “I don’t know. The problem is we’re going to be spending a lot of time with these people if we form a band and I think they might find something like that a little unusual,” she said pointing at my current position with a sigh.

“True, if we ever make it big we’re likely going to be living with our band mates while on tour and right now we both need to practice with our powers so we’re not giving ourselves away. If we were looking for other Hypers it wouldn’t be a problem but…” I stopped speaking as her jaw dropped and she stared at me. “What?”

“You are brilliant Candy!” she exclaimed. “I’d hug you but that would be really awkward in the position you’re in right now.”

“You’ll have to explain, it might be all the blood rushing to my head but I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Turn yourself right side up then silly,” she laughed. As I did so and floated myself into a sitting position beside her on the couch she asked, “Why don’t we look for other mutants with a love of music?”

“News flash Leslie, most mutants don’t want other people to know they’re mutants,” I retorted, “Or have you forgotten that that is our current dilemma?”

“Didn’t Lisa suggest earlier that we start looking for other Hypers to be part of the project?” Leslie pointed out. Liberty had indeed suggested that. She had a meeting with us both after our afternoon training sessions to tell us how happy that she and Tessily were with our progress. In fact she was putting the entire team project in our hands and wanted me in particular to play a leading role, though she had suggested a possible place to start looking.

“Yeah she did, I don’t’ know why she’s put me in charge of that though, aren’t you her protégé?” I asked. “I thought that she’d be training you to lead this team like she does Aegis.”

“She is teaching me some leadership stuff but Dr. Park thinks you’ll make a good team leader. I’m too impulsive whereas you think things through and plan better than I do, and you’re really responsible. Now that you’re not so down about your looks and being a girl and you’re making progress with your powers, Lisa thinks you’ll do well at it. We talked a bit about it during our practice session since she didn’t want my feelings hurt and wanted to know my opinion on it,” she explained. “So let’s go talk to Blake like she suggested and maybe kill two birds with one stone.”

I shrugged and replied, “Okay, we’ll ask Blake, but I’ doubt he’ll be able to help much, I don’t think he gets out a lot.”

She nodded, got up, and headed toward the door and I followed her via telekinesis. Soon we were outside Blake’s apartment knocking on the door. Blake answered after a moment wearing his usual black t-shirt and jeans and grinned at us. “Hi Candy, hey Leslie, is there something I can help you with? Do you need me to build something?”

I chuckled as I shook my head. Blake was always eager to help us both since we arrived, probably because we were both attractive and only two years or so older than him. “Lisa suggested we talk to you about finding places that young Hypers gather locally. We’re looking to recruit for the project and we were also thinking that we wouldn’t have to hide as much from our future band if they were mutants too.”

He thought about it for a moment and then seemed to have an idea. “You need to talk to Starbright.”

“Starbright?” I repeated questioningly.

“I first met her on a Hyper discussion forum online,” the inventor explained. “She knows a lot of local mutants since she’s the social type and a bit of a party girl. She’s also as crazy about music as the two of you are. I’ve lost count of how many music threads she has started on the forum. She plays bass and has light-based powers but I couldn’t tell you for sure if she’s in a band or not. She has mentioned that she does get together with some of the local mutants who love music to jam sometimes. So you might want to meet her just because of your common interest.”

“That sounds interesting,” I agreed. “Do you know where we can find her?”

“Tonight she’ll probably be at the freak show. It’s a weekly party for Hypers only, and the location changes every week,” he supplied casually.

My eyebrows rose. “I’m not sure if I like the idea of going to an all mutant party, especially one with a name like ‘the freak show’. How do you even know about something like that?”

He laughed at that. “What did you think I don’t get out much? I’ve gone before, so I’m on the email list that gives the party’s weekly location and time. It’s not as bad as it sounds, it’s just a party with music and dancing where mutants can be themselves and show off a little if they like. I was thinking about going tonight if you must know. If you want I can bring you both as guests and help you find Starbright.”

“Is there anything we need to know about this party?” Leslie asked.

“There are some rules,” Blake advised. “”The first rule is never talk about the freak show to non-Hypers. Rule two is no real names, code names only, so you’ll need to call me Prodigy while we’re there. Rule three is no fighting and/or destruction of property inside the party location. Oh and the doorman will use a scanner to confirm you’re a Hyper and take your email addresses to add you to the mailing list. I advise using a dummy email address that you can access but that is not connected to your civilian identity in any way.”

An hour later Leslie and I had both created dummy email accounts that were easy to remember, and were dressed for a party. Leslie was wearing a red silk sleeveless halter top with short black skirt and black heels. She had somehow convinced me to wear a black strapless mini dress with my black knee high leather boots and had painted my nails pink to match my hair. She also suggested that I wear my spare anti-gravity belt as an accessory since Blake had designed it to look like a girl’s belt to be worn with a variety of outfits. I was wearing the second skin pendant and the hair net as well, but as soon as we got to the party those would be going into my purse.

We returned to Blake’s apartment and he grinned as he opened the door and saw us. “There’s going to be some jealous guys there when they see me show up with the two of you.”

“So how are we getting there anyway?” I asked. “Leslie and I don’t have a car and I don’t know if I would want to take the Ladybug for something like this. Aegis might need it tonight if something comes up.”

“The party tonight is being held at an empty warehouse on the waterfront, and don’t worry about the transportation because I have just the thing. I’ve wanted to take them for a test drive anyway,” he answered with a teasing grin.

“You’re not going to tell us anything until we see whatever they are first hand, are you?” I replied with a shake of my head. I had found that Blake liked to keep his inventions quiet until he was ready for a dramatic reveal.

“Would I do that?” he responded with a chuckle as he closed his apartment door. Then he led us downstairs to the garage where, in addition to everyone’s civilian vehicles, there was a large tarp covering something. He guided us over to the tarp and pulled it away to reveal absolutely nothing. I was in the middle of giving him a dirty look when he said, “Disengage cloak,” and six vehicles that looked like a cross between motorbikes and jet skis suddenly came into view. “I call them Sky-bikes,” he said with another of his grins.

“I assume the name means that they fly,” Leslie responded. “How do they work?”

I was looking one of them over and I saw that the setup of the hand levers and foot pedals was basically the same as a motorbike. It also had a panel with a GPS system, power gauge, speedometer, and what looked like an altimeter. At Leslie’s question I turned to see how Blake would reply. “The right foot pedal controls the altitude and the left halts the main booster engine and kicks in maneuvering thrusters to stop you in a hover. As for the hand levers, the right increases your speed and the left will slowly ease off on the speed. To turn it’s just like riding a motorbike, turn the handlebars and lean into the turn and it will tilt the forward altitude thruster to turn the bike. There is a safety belt so that you don’t fall off and the cloaking device and the engine are both voice activated and will only respond to the user whose voice has been programmed into it.”

After re-programming the black and hot pink sky-bike with my voice and the black and silver one with Leslie’s he gave us a list of the basic voice commands, which we went over a few times to make sure we had them before buckling ourselves into the seats, making sure we were cloaked, and leaving the garage. As soon as we were free of the garage we took to the air and set the coordinates for the autopilot as we had been instructed. I had been worried about using that feature but Blake assured us that the bikes had sonar emitters as part of an impact prevention system as well as a pilot ejection system if somehow a crash was likely to occur. The helmets connected to each bike would relay voice commands, allow us to see through the cloak, let us communicate with one another, and extend the cloak to our bodies as well.

I missed my old motorbike since we had come to New York but this was just as good if not better. There was something thrilling about racing through the night sky, even if I wasn’t currently in control of our course. Soon the bike came to a hover and I slowly eased off on the altitude pedal to land on top of the warehouse. Then I unfastened my safety belt, removed my helmet, and stepped off the bike saying, “Engine off.” Blake was already standing there waiting and a moment later Leslie emerged from seemingly nothing ten feet away.

Remembering that we were only to use code names from this point on I said, “Prodigy, you are awesome.”

“I thought you might like them,” he said, looking very pleased with himself. “You can take your disguise off now, and I’ll need you to fly Twilight and I down to the ground so we can get inside.”

“What, you don’t have rocket boots or something?” I teased as I reached behind my left ear to disengage the hair net and then placed both it and my pendant in my purse. Twilight and I followed him to the edge of the roof and I turned on my anti-gravity belt. “Okay, let’s get down there and party.” I reached out with my mind to lift Twilight off of the roof and into the air with me and when I was sure I had a good telekinetic grip on her I reached out to lift Prodigy as well. Then, as I brought us all down to ground level I silently thanked Tessily for working me so hard on the concentration techniques.

I could feel when the feet of both my companions touched the ground and let go of them both, turned off the anti-gravity belt, and eased myself to the ground as well. “You’re really improving,” Twilight said as she wrapped me in a hug, “All that hard work is really paying off.”

“Yeah,” I admitted as we followed Prodigy, “Tessily has been a great teacher.”

There was a large muscular man leaning against the wall and he touched some sort of wand like device with a display screen and keypad at the other end to each of our hands. A solid green light appeared when it touched Prodigy, while for us the green light flashed. “Welcome back Prodigy,” he said, “Your guests both check out as having H Chromosomes so we’ll get them registered and you can all go in.” He scanned me again but this time he asked my codename and email address which he entered via the tiny keyboard. Once the process had been repeated with Twilight he smiled at us both, “I’m Guardian, welcome to the freak show ladies and have fun.”

Inside the music was loud, people were dancing, and there was the most amazing light show I had ever seen. Colored globes of lights danced in the air while light blue colored lasers erupted from the center of the dance floor. Whenever a laser struck a globe it would explode into a display of multicolored fireworks and more colored globes would appear from the symphony of light. “Wow,” I said.

Prodigy chuckled beside me, “Well at least we know Starbright is here.”

“A person is making all of that?” Twilight asked with a wide-eyed look on her face.

“Yeah, Starbright can create various different light constructs, fireworks, and she can probably do a lot more if she put her mind to it,” he replied. “I’ve only ever met two category five mutants, one is standing beside me and the other is putting on that light show. That’s one of the reasons I suggested her. Even if she’s already in a band she might be a good candidate for the project, and she knows people.”

We made our way over to the dance floor, both of us dancing with Prodigy while slowly making our way toward the source of the light show. There were some envious glances directed toward the inventor while lustful or jealous ones were focused on Twilight and me. We mostly ignored them and just enjoyed ourselves for the moment. That is we were enjoying ourselves, until two guys shoved Prodigy aside and cut in. One was over seven feet tall and had dark blue skin and hair with spikes jutting out from his back, shoulders and arms. The other was a skinny Latino with gold eyes. “Hey there gorgeous,” said the big blue one, “I haven’t seen you here before, I’m Ogre and you look like you were made for me. My friend here is Scanner.”

“No you haven’t, and I’m not interested and neither is my friend,” I practically growled as I looked to make sure Prodigy was okay. He was getting up and gave me a thumbs up as he moved toward a pretty Asian girl in a white mini dress.

“Do you have any idea who you’re talking to? I’m more than a match for any mutant here. I have category three strength and invulnerability. So if you’re trolling for guys I’m the best catch here,” the behemoth said grabbing my wrist. “Scanner, see what these two do besides look pretty.”

Scanner reached out to grab Twilight’s hand and swallowed, “Ogre this girl is stronger than you are and she doesn’t have your invulnerability but she does have category two regeneration, category three speed, and some other ability.” He backed away from Twilight and touched me and his eyes went wide. “Uhm… Ogre you might want to let the girl go, she’s a psychic and one of her abilities is a category five.” There were several sharp intakes of breath from those who had gathered to watch what was going on.

“Let go of me before I get really mad,” I said to the pair very slowly as I held back my empathy. The blue behemoth didn’t move fast enough for my liking so I added, “You have to the count of five. One…” I telekinetically pried his baby finger off my wrist. “Two…” I began to do the same with the next finger when he quickly removed his hand. “Get lost and leave us alone before my friend and I decide to take you both outside and see how tough you really aren’t.”

The two made tracks through the crowd and there was a smattering of applause as Twilight and I made our way over to join Prodigy. He and the girl he was with led us back to the entrance so we could talk without having to shout over the music. Once we were outside Prodigy grinned at me. “Nice going Syryn, I knew you could handle that jerk.” Then he gestured to the girl in the white dress who now that I got a closer look was probably Japanese and in her late teens or very early twenties. “Girls this is Starbright. Star, this is Syryn and Twilight.”

I smiled at the girl and said, “Starlight, Starbright, first star I see tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might, have a word with you tonight.”

“So I’ve heard,” she said with a big smile. “Prodigy tells me that you’re into music.”

I nodded. “I was in a band before I activated and now Twilight and I are looking to form a new one. Preferably with other mutants so we don’t have to hide who we are from them.”

“Boy do I know how that feels,” the light user replied. “What instruments do you play and what style of music are you thinking of?”

“I play the organ and keyboard,” Twilight put in.

“I’m a singer,” I added, “I’ve been training since I was a kid. We’re thinking of doing a mix of rock, Gothic rock, alternative rock, and electronic rock. I figure that we’ll need a backup singer, a bass player, a guitarist, and a drummer.”

She looked pensive for a moment before nodding. “I do know some people, including myself, who would be down with that. Do you want to do auditions? Or are you willing to trust my judgement?”

I shrugged as I replied, “Prodigy says you know the local mutants who are into music better than anyone. If he trusts your judgement so do I, though I do prefer people who aren’t glory hounds or assholes. I had enough of the one in my last band. I want a band that’s going to be able to stand one another’s company on and off the stage.”

“I can understand that,” she agreed. “I can play bass and sing backup and for drums I would suggest Decibel, he’s a good guy and a good drummer. And if at all possible we have to have Riff for the guitar. He has an ear for music and has studied guitar, bass, piano, violin, and drums. He’s a fun guy too especially with his talent.”

“Do you know anything about their mutant abilities?” I asked.

She nodded. “Decibel’s is pretty self-explanatory, mostly he amplifies sounds but he also has a sonar sense and can emit a high pitched sonic shout. You better cover your ears when he does that last one though. Riff has a personal force field and he mimics any sound or voice he has heard before and can mix and match multiple sounds at once. The guy is a walking band by himself.”

“I would like to meet them both and then maybe we can have a jam session to make sure we can work well together. It would be nice to be able to get to know one another and make sure there’s no personality conflicts too,” I suggested.

“We’ll need to sort out a place to practice,” she pointed out. “But if you want to meet them both I could text them. They’re both here and I could have them come out to join us.” Twilight and I both nodded eagerly so she took her cell phone out of her purse and began rapid texting. About five minutes later a young African American man around the same age as Starbright with short cropped black hair and brown eyes left the warehouse and headed toward us. He was followed by a taller Caucasian guy of about the same age with long brown hair and brown eyes and both were dressed in a t-shirt and jeans combo.

The first of the pair walked up to Starbright and kissed her on the cheek and said, “I was wondering where you disappeared to sweetie. So what is the big news you just had to tell us now?”

The second saw me and laughed, “This should be interesting. The blue girl is the one who sent Ogre running off.” He smiled at me and added, “That was cool, Ogre is a jerk and a bully and he deserved it. You got him to back off and nobody got hurt, I like your style. I’m Riff by the way.”

“I’m… ummm… ahhh… Syryn,” I replied stumbling over the words. Why was I having such trouble speaking? Just because he was cute doesn’t mean I have to yammer like an idiot. Wait did I just think he was cute? My cheeks turned lavender and I looked at my suddenly fascinating boots.

“Now that you’ve met Riff, this is my boyfriend Decibel,” Starbright provided. “Guys, this is Prodigy and the girls are Syryn and Twilight. Syryn and Twilight are looking to form a band.”

“We were… ummm… thinking that it would be easier to just find other mutants who loved music to join us rather than having to hide my appearance and our powers and activities from people we would likely be spending a lot of time with,” I clarified, glad of the change in topic.

“Yeah I bet it’s not easy being blue, and hiding powers can be a pain, especially when you don’t have good control of them,” Riff agreed. “I would have joined a band by now but my powers would make spending that much time with normal people difficult. I have a personal force field that Scanner rated at nearly category four but I have trouble turning it on and off and it’s not like powers come with an instruction manual. When it’s on I get this green glow around me and it’s pretty noticeable. I can control my other ability really well but it has very little practical use aside from pranks. Did I hear Scanner say you’re a category five?”

I nodded slowly. “Yeah that’s what Blackout tells me but that’s only my telekinesis, I’m a projective empath too but it’s not as powerful and I need to be speaking or singing to use it.”

Starbright gave me a sympathetic look, “Having people know you’re a Category five really sucks. They expect you to be the next Paragon or something. We didn’t ask for it, we don’t want to have people watching us wondering when we’re going to do something amazing, and we have to live with knowing that we have way too much power to control easily and that people around us can still get hurt if we lose control.”

I nodded sadly in agreement. “When I was activated in the hospital I sent my mom flying across the room. I’ll never forget the look of horror on her face. She called me an abomination and I haven’t seen her since, I’m dead to her now. She was the only family I had.” I almost let control of my empathy slip but I caught myself as Twilight put her arm around me.

Starbright winced, and shook her head as she looked at the ground. “Yeah that’s pretty harsh. I lost most of my family when I was activated too. I was fourteen and we were holding a New Year’s Eve party. My older brother had just been accepted to Harvard and my parents had to brag about it to all their business associates and guests that we were introduced to. I was introduced as an afterthought. I just wanted to enjoy the fireworks and the dancing. I was so tired of being dragged along and living in my brother’s shadow. My powers came in a big way; the flash of light permanently blinded over twenty people who happened to be looking at me at the time, including my brother. They sent me away to live with my grandparents in Japan and I didn’t come back to the states until I graduated two years ago.”

And I thought I had it bad. “They shipped you off to Japan? That must have been rough.”

The Japanese Hyper just shrugged. “It wasn’t so bad; it helped me get more in touch with my roots and the traditions of my people. I actually really enjoyed myself there and my grandparents weren’t intimidated by my powers. I probably would have been sent to live with my aunt and uncle in Canada if they were still alive but they died in a car accident ten years ago. They had a daughter named Sakura who would be about fourteen or fifteen by now.”

“She died in the accident too? It’s always so sad when kids die young,” Twilight said with a sigh.

“Actually nobody is really sure what happened with her,” she replied with a sigh. “The family wasn’t told that she died and she sort of disappeared into the system before they could send anyone to claim her. It’s a shame because if she was living with my grandparents I would have had a little sister of sorts. If I could afford it I’d go up there and try to find out what happened with her. She’s still a kid if she’s alive, and she should have family to protect her. Maybe she got lucky and was adopted, I’d like to find out though.”

Decibel gave her a reassuring hug and a kiss and as he pulled away I saw his eyes widen. “Hey guys, us getting to know one another is great and all but I think we might need to table this discussion for later.” I turned to see him pointing to the entrance of the warehouse where the two idiots I had scared off earlier were standing, and it would seem that they had brought along some friends.