Well I was going to do a bit where Teri went to a anime convention, and met up with an H1 mob but the humour seemed a little too rough and mean spirited for the story. So to heck with it, I'm keeping to like it was originally done. Enjoy.

Disclaimer:
"This is fan fiction for the Whateley Academy series. It may or may not match the timeline, characters, and continuity, but it's fan fiction so I hope it's forgivable."

It was the middle of summer and the production crew of Little Movies, was looking over their options for their first online film, Fantasy Gamers.

“Special effects are killing us, practically all our budget is going into making the monsters that look like cardboard cutouts, or crappy monsters from the '60's,” Tim said.

“Can we get a bit more money with some more endorsements?” Sarah asked looking over the budget.

Tim shook his head. “Not a chance. We're lucky we got as much as we did.”

“What is the worst scene for us?” the Paul asked.

“The goblins are no problem. We have enough green make up for all of them. The necromancer... works, but I don't want to see what happens once we get all the energy flashing around. Unicorn, skeletons, and orcs could use some work, but I think we can manage it. The flying monkey scene is the killer, everything we've got makes Wizard of Oz look like cutting edge graphics,” Tim complained.

Sarah threw the budget down in frustration. “Can we just cut the scene?”

“No way,” Paul insisted. “As the director I say we NEED that scene to really show the heroes what they're up against. We have to have it and it has to look good.”

“Do they need to be monkeys?” Arthur asked, looking up from his laptop.

“Well no,” Paul admitted. “But they need to be monstrous and they have to fly.”

Arthur flipped the laptop around, showing photo's of a small fairy wearing a mouse skin posing with a cat woman. “Can we make them a horde of blood thirsty fairies?”

“She's real?” Sarah asked.

“Oh yeah. She's done a bunch of photo shoots since the middle of May for anime and fantasy websites, and I saw her at an anime convention two weeks ago,” Arthur explained.

“Wait, wait, wait. You want us to use a mutant?” Tim asked. “The actors union will hate us.”

Arthur shrugged. “Have we signed a contract with them? Are we planning on using them in the future? I thought this was all about forging a new way to make movies in the digital age. We are on the cutting edge and not letting anything stop us. Who cares what some stuck up bigots say? I don't. They want to blacklist us, great, lets us it. Lets tell H1 what we're doing so that they spread our films name all around the country. We'll have people clicking on our site and going to Youtube, watching our movie just to see why people are calling us the devils. You can't buy that type of publicity.”

They thought about his proposal for a minute. They knew Arthur's sister was a mutant, so it wasn't exactly an unbiased reason to use a mutant, but it made sense.

“Screw it,” Paul said, “let's do it. Can we find any other ugly mutants who can be movie monsters?”

**

Teri looked around the movie set nervously. She thought she'd been prepared for it but this seemed at least an order of magnitude greater. She wasn't getting paid nearly as much for her work either, only two hundred bucks for two days worth of work, but meals were free, and she could use it in her portfolio.

Amazingly she found she liked being in front of the camera. People stared at her, but it was for a good reason, not because she was so strange looking, or a GSD case as Glow Worm explained to her. And the compliments she got from fans outweighed the negative ones from bigots.

Mouser was with her of course, acting as her guardian and agent. But mostly the woman just wanted to see what a movie set was like, and if she could score with any handsome actors or beautiful actresses.

The director walked up, he looked young, despite his rapidly thinning brown hair. “Alright, Butterfly, I love the mouse dresses you brought, they're perfect for the scene. Now you are a bloodthirsty, evil fairy, who wants to stab the hero and his companions with your poison spear. You HATE them. You WANT them to DIE! Can you do that?”

“Yeah sure,” she said.

“Great. Now remember when you don't actually want to hit them, just make it look good, and try not to get hit by their swords. You're a regenerator right?”

“Um, yeah.”

“Great! Let's get to work!”

She looked at her fake spear made out of balsa wood and modeling clay, then the prop weapons the other actors had, which were real metal, or hard plastic. “Wings don't fail me now,” she whispered.

Flying into position, she waited for her moment. The director made sure everything was in place, once satisfied he yelled action.

She flew down her mouth open in a silent yell, her spear in front of her. Dodging past the swinging swords like they'd done in the hour of rehearsals earlier, she struck with her spear, making sure the hero had enough time to dodge. The other actors were flinching and swinging their swords as if there was a horde of fairies attacking them.

A dulled blade came within an inch of striking her face, and she veered straight up. Spinning in midair, she dived back down, trying to look as blood thirsty as possible. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the director smiling, as the love interest screamed in pain and fell to the ground clutching her arm, which broke a blood bag coating her arm in red liquid.

The second of inattention proved her undoing and a sword caught her in the side. She went flying, as the director yelled to keep going.

Landing in some bushes, she laid on her back, “I'm alright,” she gasped. “I'm alright.”

**

“That was excellent work, Butterfly!” the director said, as she took a drink from her thimble of water.

“I hope so, my ribs still hurt. And my names Teri,” she said.

The director kept talking. “So now we need some close ups of you. Like you are now, and with make up.”

Teri listened as he explained what she had to do. She wondered if she should have demanded danger pay.

**

She glared at the camera, with her blood smeared face. Her white mouse dress was covered in easily
cleaned grease and dirt, and she was holding a spear that was three times as long as she was this time.

“Action!” the director shouted.

Screaming loudly, she flew through the air, with the green screen at her back, swinging her spear and jabbing at imaginary enemies. This went on for three minutes, when a foam hammer hit her in the back sending her to a padded mat on the ground.

**

“Action!”

Her skin and hair were pitch black, they simply made her roll around in some black makeup, naked, and then had her put on her dress. She did her flying routine using a long, wicked looking plastic dagger from a toy set.

She flinched when the flat of a sword, padded on the side where the camera couldn't see it, caught her in the face.

“You flinched too soon, Butterfly! Get back in position.”

“Ow!”

**

“Action!”

With a blue hand print on her face, Teri screamed evil sounding gibberish at the camera, spinning like a top through the air with a small axe. She made sure not to look at the large hand that swatted her off screen, into the waiting pillow held by an assistant.

At least that was the plan. He hit her a little too soon, and she went flying into a table covered in drinks for the crew.

Spitting out a mix of lemonade, herbal tea, soda and water, she laid there trying to ignore the pain. It wasn't too bad actually, it only hurt when she breathed. “There has to be a better way to make a living.”

**

“Great work Butterfly. You're going to make Fantasy Gamers famous. And we'll keep you in mind for our next movie, Fantasy Gamers: The Return!” the director raved.

“Yeah. I'll definitely think about it,” Teri said from her car seat. She was clutching her little coin purse which was clipped to a little bracelet on her wrist, and held her MID, bank card and the check for two hundred dollars. She had definitely earned the cash after everything she had done. Even with regeneration she felt battered. “Let me know when the films released, I'll make sure all my friends watch it.”

With a final good bye, Mouser put the truck into gear and took off. “That was so much fun!” she exclaimed.

“Yeah, it was interesting. I just wish they didn't ask me to die twenty times.”

“Well that didn't look like fun, but behind the scenes was definitely where the fun was,” Mouser began to purr, probably remembering the after work party.

Teri edged away from the woman a little. Laying down on the seat she went to sleep, she deserved it after the beating she'd taken.

**

“Wake up Butterfly! Time to work!” Mouser said.

“What?” Teri asked still half asleep in the car seat.

The woman gave her a toothy grin. “While you were asleep I got a call, apparently there is a huge rat problem and only I, meaning we, can take care of it. Don't worry I packed your uniform and weapons when we left.”

Bowing her head in resignation, Teri went to the back seat and unlocked the little box under the seat. Putting her coin purse and clothes on one side of the box, she put on the specially made padded suit that had a weave of metal wires on the outside, with an aluminum backpack attached to protect her wings, a tiny helmet, and short spear just a bit longer than her arm.

Jumping to the window, Mouser put Teri in her shoulder and walked towards the old decrepit house that looked perfect for a horror movie. “We're killing rats here?”

“Yep. They're paying us double for a rush job.”

“I need a raise.”

“Hey,” Mouser protested, “I'm getting you all those modeling jobs. You're lucky I'm not charging you room and board.”

“Isn't this child labour? I thought that was against the law,” Teri complained.

“Just think of it as helping pad out your resume. What other teenage girl can say she was a model, an actress, a child entertainer and an exterminator? Now big smile for the client, and remember if the rat looks healthy, try not to mangle it too much. I want to make my special goulash this week.”

“Yeah. I think I'll just order pizza and Chinese food for the next few days.”

The door was opened by an old man as they stepped onto the porch. “Thank you for coming so quickly. I wouldn't have called, except that the rats have started to nibble at my collection of antique books.”

“We're happy to help, sir. If you can show us to where you've seen them, we can get started right away, as soon as you sign these papers,” Mouser said.

A few minutes later they were in the library, which was immaculate compared to the rest of the old house. Teri saw the rat hole immediately. With a sigh she jumped down and got on with her job of flushing out the rat, while Mouser set up traps, and spread her scent around the house. When most rats got a whiff of her odour, they usually hightailed it away from large cat. Teri was mostly there to show a couple of trapped rats, or carcasses to the home owner so they thought they were getting their moneys worth.

“Here rat. Here rat, rat, rat,” she called out softly, looking around with her night vision. She really couldn't wait to enter Whateley so she'd never have to think about being an exterminator ever again.

There was scratching from up ahead. Holding her spear in front of her, she edged forward, scuffling her feet so that the thing would hear her. Rats were territorial, and while they wouldn't usually fight to the death, if she could get it posturing, she could take it out with a quick stab to the heart.

The rat came towards her. It was large, but not the largest one she'd ever seen. Then she saw its human like face and hands. “Oh boy!”

The rat thing ran towards her, she took off running, following the string she'd been unrolling as she went along.

**

Mouser was looking around the library, putting a few traps beside the gnawed books, and looking for less obvious holes. There were some really strange statues and pictures that looked ancient, and made her eyes water a bit. When she looked really closely at them, she saw strange rat like things, mushroom like insects, fish men and more, that almost seemed to be moving whenever she blinked. Her stomach rumbled, “I need to pick up some tuna fish on the way home.” An obscenely ugly, eldritch tentacled statue stroked her arm only to become motionless when she looked at it. “And calamari would be nice to. I wonder what breaded rat and calamari would taste like?”

As she admired the decor, wondering how anyone could concentrate with so many things that reminded her of food, her ears twitched. She stopped breathing and listened intently. The sound of high pitched screaming and cursing came from the wall. Frowning, Mouser decided she had to talk to her young ward about what was appropriate language while on a job.

Going to the hole, she waited claws at the ready. Butterfly came out at a dead run that would have impressed an Olympic runner, right on her tail was the ugliest rat she'd ever seen. With a smooth, easy gesture, she caught the thing, snapped its spine and was about ready to dig in for a snack, when she saw its face.

“Wow, this thing is more messed up then the frog monster I dealt with last year. Great job Butterfly. Did you hear any others while you were in there?” she asked.

“No!” the girl squeaked. “I think I need the bathroom. And a shower. And some clean armour.”

She sniffed the air. “Woof, what have you been eating, girl? Don't worry I have some wet wipes and a bottle of water in the truck.”

They walked into the living room where the old man was reading a book with a lot of weird squiggles in it. She thought it might be Greek. “Mr. Winkler, we got the problem rat. I've set up some traps around your books in case it has any partners, but I couldn't smell any more, and my partner didn't see anything except this one in the wall.”

“Y-y-you killed it?” the man said, staring at the rat with tears in his eyes.

“Yeah, you said we could. If you wanted us to capture it alive, we could have but it was a lot easier this way.”

“You were able to see it and stay sane?”

“Well my partner got a little freaked, but she wears mouse fur dresses that she makes herself and she's fast on her feet. As for me, well, if I got scared by a little rat, I'd have to hand in my whiskers.”

“No gibbering, unnatural feelings, a need to fill the void in your soul with darkness? Nothing?” he asked almost desperately.

“Well my partner voided something, which is why she's not sitting on my shoulder, but she'll be fine. And I'm feeling a need to fill the void in my stomach, those pictures of yours made me hungry. I'd have eaten already but this rat doesn't look healthy,” she admitted.

“Can we please go now? I really want to change my pants!” Butterfly shouted.

“Just a moment sir.” Mouser bent down and took the backpack off of her assistants back, so she could fly into the truck. “You know where the wet wipes are, I left the window rolled down a little for you. Now let me finish discussing things please.”

Turning back to the client, she gave him her best grin. “So, I'll just drop by in a week if the traps don't catch any rats to pick them up. If you have any further problems don't hesitate to phone, repeat customers get a discount. Do you want to keep the rat, or shall I? I'm thinking of having it mounted.”

“I'll keep him. He... he deserves it,” the man said, he started to cry softly when he took the rat from her.

“I understand completely. If you want I can give you a good recipe for rat goulash, its an old family recipe,” she offered.

The old man didn't seem to hear her, he was too busy cooing over the rat. Shrugging her shoulders, she let herself out without another word, since they'd already been paid.

“Well Butterfly,” she said once they were back on the road, “that went really well. I think you deserve a party.”

“Really!”

“Yep. I got a call while you were playing actress, we have a six year old girls birthday party tomorrow. They're paying top dollar for-” she slammed on the brakes, and jumped out before the car had stopped moving. “HEY! What did I say about flying out of a moving vehicle!”

**

Teri looked at the crowd of children who were looking at her and Mouser with awe, their hands already twitching ready to grab her and feel her hair, play with her wings and throw her in the air to see her fly.

Smoothing her ornate pink princess dress, trying her hardest to smile, she whispered in Mousers ear, “I really hate you right now.”

Mouser did a little dance, making the bells of her jester costume jingle to keep her answer from being overheard. “Just keep smiling and think of the money.”

Taking flight she headed over to the birthday girl, alighting on her shoulder and giving the astonished girl a kiss on the cheek. “Happy Birthday!”

She never saw the boy who grabbed her from behind and threw her high into the air.

**

Teri closed her suitcase, which was actually a jewelry roll that her clothes fit into almost perfectly. A small MP3 player was crammed into one of the compartments, and while it was longer then she was, it was easy enough to move. Her coin purse was attached to her wrist as usual. She'd said goodbye to Glow Worm and the LFS the day before at a little party, and now she was ready to head off to school.

It felt strange leaving the place she had called home for the last three months. Even if Mouser could be insane and infuriating, she had been a big help. The crazy woman had helped her get a fair amount of spending money for school, and making her so busy she didn't have time to worry or get sad. She wasn't sure if she should strangle the woman or hug her.

“So are you ready to go?” Mouser asked.

“Yep. I want to thank you for everything you've done. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't caught me,” Teri said, looking at her feet, fighting to hold back the tears.

“Aw! How sweet!” Mouser swept her up in a hug, “I'll miss you to! But I'll be there for Parents Day! And we don't have to say good bye yet, Butterfly.”

Teri tried to push herself up, so she could breathe. Finally she could talk without a mouthful of fur. “What? The plane leaves in five hours, we need to get going.”

“Didn't I tell you? The plane said you could only go if you traveled in a carrier like a cat because of your size. I won't let anyone treat you like that. I'm going to drive you to Boston, you can get on the train there!”

“WHAT!”

“It will only take about a day of driving to get there. And you were going to stay at a hotel in Boston overnight before getting on the train anyways, so we can get there on time. It will be easy.”

Teri grabbed Mouser by the throat.

“Silly Butterfly, you can't strangle me, your hands are way too sm-!”

**

They stopped on the outskirts of Lincoln to fill up on gas and snacks. Mouser wasn't saying much, and headed straight for the slushee machine to help ease the swelling on her throat. Teri, waited in the truck while the attendant filled it up and washed the windows.

She hopped to the dashboard, to get a better look at the worker, he seemed a little old to be doing the job. He walked right past her at first, and took the pump out. She jumped onto the open window and waved at him. “Hi Marcus. Do you remember me? I'm really sorry about what happened at the grocery store. I didn't mean to cause any problems.”

“It's, it's, it's you!” he stammered, turning white

“Yeah. I hope you're doing ok,” she said.

At that moment, Mouser came out. She saw Marcus and ran over waving the bag of snacks and drinks at him. “Marcus! I'm so happy to see you! How have you been?!”

He didn't answer, instead he screamed, wet his pants and ran away far faster than seemed possible.

“Was it something I said?” Mouser asked, watching him go.

“Is he a mutant? I don't think normal people can run that fast,” Teri asked, amazed at how easily Marcus dodged around cars, while still screaming.

**

They pulled into the Boston train station barely on time the next morning. The formerly blue pick up truck was black with burns and soot, the side mirrors were hastily taped back on, the windshield was cracked, and black smoke rose from the engine, a couple of empty parachute bags were still strapped to the roof.

“We made it alive. That has to count for something,” Mouser said, scratching a patch of burned fur.

“I thought we agreed to never talk about it,” Teri said, stripping out of her torn, oily and smoke stained clothes now that they had safely arrived.

“I said I was sorry!”

“Don't say anything. I just want to get to the train safely and give you a hug for all the help you gave me, BEFORE this road trip.” She put her damaged clothes on the seat, and slipped on a pair of tight shorts with a pretty blue dress going on top of them. “Please burn these clothes when you get the chance,” she said.

“Sure thing. Now lets get you on the train.”

“Yes, lets,” she said, combing the knots out of her hair. “And remember, only speak when spoken to, and not everyone likes your sense of humour.”

“Yes, yes. And you remember anything you can walk away from is a win.”

Teri grabbed her things and flew out the window, circling patiently while Mouser locked the truck up, which took longer then normal when the door threatened to fall off. Landing on the furry shoulder they made their way through the station, flashing her ticket and ignoring the onlookers. Mouser went all the way to the train with her. It was already boarding, but they had another minute or two.

Teri gave the cat woman a hug. “Try to make it back home safely, please. I really do want to see you on parents day.”

“Don't worry,” Mouser said, starting to sob, “I've still got five or six lives. You take care of yourself and don't let them push you around just because your small.”

“I won't.”

With a final hug she flew onto the train much to the shock and surprise of her fellow passengers.