Dr. Hendricks, sat at his computer drinking straight from a bottle of something that was strong enough to strip paint, and had been made that morning by one of the newest devisors to enter the school. He would have been crying, except that there were no tears left in him. Wincing at his cut lip that despite being numbed by the alcohol, still hurt, along with the black eye and numerous bruises that covered his body, he thought about the day. He should have been in bed, he had to work in the morning, but he couldn't. The horror was still too intense.

**

“Dr. Hendricks, I'm sorry but there has been a change in the power testing schedule,” Admiral Everheart said, as she walked into the lab holding a doll in her hand.

“What? Why?” he asked, standing up so quickly he banged his head on the shelf over top his computer.

“This student, Tink, is showing unusual symptoms, irrationality, ADHD, forgetfulness and increased speed after consuming an entire box of a sugary cereal. The Chief decided it was essential to get her tested to avoid a recurrence.” She placed a fairy like girl wearing a bathing suit on an unoccupied desk.

The sight of her reminded him of the file he'd read a week ago when they were planning the testing schedule. “But her powers are relatively straightforward. Her GSD is unique but there is nothing that requires immediate attention. That's why she's scheduled for next week.”

Tink flew over to him, landing on his shoulder and kissed his cheek. “See! I'm perfectly fine, and don't need any of this. The Chief is just being overly protective. Can I go to class now, I really don't want to miss Japanese. And I have a fashion show right after lunch.”

Admiral Everheart gave her a look that would strike fear in seasoned soldiers. “Tink, after your actions this morning, you have at least ten faculty members lodging complaints against the bio devise that escaped containment. Ms. Chulkris was last seen preparing several counter spells if anyone attempted to declare her body their kingdom again. And we have five new training teams of students who have stated their desire to hunt down the crazy bird that attacked them. You need this.”

The tiny mutant looked at her feet and traced circles on Dr. Hendricks shoulder with her toe. “Oh. Sorry.”

Hendricks sighed, thinking how this would interfere with their carefully planned schedule. “Alright, let's get started. Tink we'll begin with a scan of your brain, please come with me.” She followed him to another room, where a devise that looked vaguely like a bare bones MRI sat in the middle of the room. Seeing that the girl was already in a bathing suit, he didn't bother having her strip and put on a gown.

“Lie down on the table with your head on the...” he looked at her small size. “With your body on the pillow. This will take about three minutes, and is completely painless.”

“Ok, Doc,” she said, jumping up onto the scanner.

As he began typing instructions into the terminal, he wondered what the problem was, she seemed obedient enough. After a minute, the screen lit up, Hendricks waited the few seconds it would take to show exactly what her brain activity was like.

“That's odd,” he said.

“What's odd?”

“There's nothing there,” he said punching some keys to increase the magnification.

“Are you saying I'm brainless,” an indignant voice demanded.

He looked up and saw Tink standing on top of the terminal, looking quite peeved. “What are you doing?”

“You said it would take three minutes.”

“Yes, I did. Now what are you doing out of the devise?”

“It's definitely been three minutes, so I got up.”

He looked at the clock. “No it's been just over two minutes. Please get back on the machine.”

Sighing, she flew back to the machine and laid on the pillow. Hendricks began typing in the commands again. Once more the image appeared.

Again there was nothing there.

He looked up and there was Tink, smiling contentedly. “What are you doing now?”

“It's been five minutes since I got into the machine. Are we done yet?” Tink asked.

“No,” he said slowly. “We have to start from the beginning again because you keep leaving the machine. Now please lie down and we can begin again. When I say starting, that is the beginning of the count down. Do you understand?”

“So we have to start all over again?”

“Yes.”

“Alright. Lets get this over with,” she said as if the weight of the world was on her shoulders.

He waited until she was lying down and began typing in the commands. When he was half done, he said loudly and clearly, “Starting.”

The image came onscreen. Rather than having a nice clear picture of her brain, it was a fuzzy bundle of colour. He'd never seen anything like it. With a heavy heart he looked at the devise, Tink was there writhing and bouncing on the bed like she was having a seizure, while singing quietly to herself.

“What are you doing?!” he asked.

“Dancing.”

He took a deep breath before speaking. “Why are you dancing?”

“I'm bored.”

“Do you realize you are suppose to stay still for this?”

“Oh, you didn't tell me. You should be more clear about what to do, Doc,” she said, lying still.

Once again he began typing in the instructions. The image came up, and he started to chuckle, there was nothing there. Without looking up, he asked, “Tink, why did you move off the table?”

From the top of the terminal a high pitched voice said, “Well it's been at least four minutes since you said starting. I thought we were done.”

“Nnnnoooo. We had to start over again, because you were dancing.”

“Why didn't you say so?” she asked.

Silently, he went to his desk, and after a quick search came back with something that would help. “Tink, for this test can you please wrap your wings around yourself, and hold still for thirty seconds?”

**

As Hendricks looked over the brain scan, he had to admit his subject was finally behaving. “Just another minute and we'll be done this part of the test,” he told her.

She mumbled something, unable to speak or move thanks to the strong medical tape that wrapped around her like a cocoon.

**

“Um, this is a problem,” Dr. Hendricks said, looking at the row of needles and the girl.

“What's wrong now?” she asked, scraping at the last of the tape on her wings.

“We need to do a blood test, but the needles are too big.”

Tink looked at him with huge eyes. “Can't we just skip this part?”

He shook his head. “ We really need to do test your blood, not just to know what your blood type is but to learn how your GSD has affected it.”

“Do you need a needle? I could just give myself a cut and let it drip into the bottle, couldn't I?”

“I suppose that would work,” he said uncertainly. Grabbing a scalpel he leaned in to cut her arm.

“OH HELL NO!” she screamed, jumping back. “I'm not letting a giant do any cutting on me, I do the cutting or it doesn't happen!”

“I can't let a student cut herself! What would people say!” he said, shocked at the very idea.

“You let some freakishly tall giant cut your arm and than you can do it to me. Until then, it's not happening. I don't want to be called Lefty for the rest of my life.”

Sighing he gave her the smallest scalpel and held the vial under her arm. Wincing, even before the steel touched her flesh, she cut herself. An almost invisible drop of blood fell into the vial.

“We're going to need more than that,” he said.

“Dammit!” she shouted.

**

They finally had barely enough blood to run the various tests. Pouring the blood into the testing equipment, Hendricks spared a glance at Tink. “How are you doing?”

“I'm... fine. Why... is the... the... the... room... spinning so much?” she asked, lying on her back and looking pale.

“You're a little low on blood.” He put some energy drink into a small cup beside her. “You're a regenerator just take a drink and wait a few minutes.

**

A full physical came next, after giving Tink a few more minutes to recover. That was fine since he had had to find a magnifying glass before he could do the most basic of things. The hardest part had been finding her a gown to wear for the final part of the exam. They'd resorted to using a tissue with a hole ripped in it. A nurse was there to help out and to make sure he acted professionally during the intimate procedure.

And then they ran into a problem.

“NO! NO! NO! NO!” Tink yelled. She was sitting on the highest shelf in the room with her legs crossed and her wings folded around her.

“But it's an essential part of studying how your GSD has affected your body,” Dr. Hendricks said, from down below.

“What part of NO, don't you understand! Those things are bigger than me and you want to stick them where?!”

He looked at the speculum and had to admit she had a point.

**

Finally they were able to begin testing her powers properly.

Dr. Hendricks watched patiently as Tink ran up an 80 degree slope using her her clawed hands and the rough sand paper like soles of her feet. She was running about as fast as a good sprinter, and didn't seem to be anywhere near tiring.

“You're not going to throw a tennis ball at me are you?” she asked.

“Of course not,” he assured her. He pressed a button and a ball made of a special foam, that was the size and consistency of a tennis ball shot out of a specially made ball thrower, that judged the strength and capabilities of a test subject to create a true threat without risking serious injury.

“A tennis ball is far too primitive for Whateley,” he said, as she hit the treadmill face first and went flying to the floor. “I see you have no danger sense.”

He looked up from his console as growling filled the air.

“What are you doing with that ball?” Hendricks asked nervously.

**

“We are now beginning the strength test,” Dr. Hendricks said, wiping a bit of foam from his lips. Taking a sip of ice cold water with lots of ice to get the foam down his throat, and another pain killer for his split lip, sore gums and teeth, he pressed the button which started the weight lifting machine.

“I can't lift more than four hundred pounds, remember.” Tink said, as she started pumping.

“I remember.” He slowly upped the weight until the magnetic weights reached four hundred. Then he went a little higher. She still acted as if it was a light workout. Slowing twisting the knob the weight went up, 403, 404, 405, 406...

“AAAHHHH!!!!!!” she screamed as the weight came crashing down.

“Huh, she can lift four hundred and eight pounds now. Interesting,” he said, writing it down. Looking at the kicking legs, he said, “I'll just be a second, Tink. Have to get these findings down while they're still fresh.”

There was the clang of metal, Hendricks looked up to see Tink glaring at him angrily, slapping the bar in her hands.

“PK field can increase in strength while angry. Wish I'd known that earlier,” he said, backing away from the girl.

**

“If you'll come this way please, Tink we'll start our next test,” Dr. Hendricks said, holding open a thick metal door for the girl.

Tink glared at him, clearly not trusting what was going to happen next. With good reason, as soon as she was inside, Hendricks slammed the door shut and locked it. Limping quickly to the control panel, he pressed a button to begin the agility test, muting the mics in the room so he didn't have to listen to the non-stop swearing.

He had to admit she was pretty good, possibly having some exemplar abilities. She dodged most of the balls until he upped the speed and then she was caught between two balls and a third sent her flying into a wall as she dropped.

The test ended and he opened the door.

“Sorry about that, Tink, but I assure you it is a stand- hey what are you doing?!” he shouted as she grabbed him.

**

“Lets see how you like it!” Tink shouted.

She turned on the volleyballs and watched as the doctor tried to dodge them. Taking a bag of microwave popcorn she'd heated up a minute before while listening to Dr. Hendricks hammering on the door, she sat back and watched the show.

**

Sitting with a groan, Dr. Hendricks held the ice pack to his knee and took another pain pill. “Let's do something easier and less painful now.”

“Ok!” Tink said, happily.

Dr. Hendricks took a moment to explain the initial rules of dis chess, and they started playing. She did ok and then five minutes later the rules changed.

“Hey that's cheating!” she said as he took one of her pieces.

“No it's not. It's the rules in phase two,” he told her.

“Really?”

He nodded.

“Ok.” She took a piece and had it hopscotch across the board jumping over three of his pieces. “King me.”

“That's not right!”

“It's the rules for phase 3. Now king me.”

“Phase 3 doesn't start for another three minutes. And it doesn't have a king,” he told her.

She looked at him like he was an idiot for several moments. “How can a chess game not have a king?”

“Well it does have a king, but not that type of king.”

“Not until Phase 3 at least,” she said slowly, like she was speaking to a small and none to bright child.

“Right. No! Even in Phase 3 there isn't a king.”

“But there is a king right there,” Tink said pointing at the king.

“He doesn't count. You have to checkmate him, you can't make him.”

“Not until Phase 3, when that move I made becomes totally legal,” she insisted.

“No, that was an illegal move!”

“Until Phase 3.”

“Whatever, you have to take it back now, because it's not Phase 3 yet.”

“Actually,” she said, dragging the word out as long as possible. “It's now Phase 3.” Tink pointed at the clock which showed it had been just over three minutes. “So king me.”

Dr. Hendricks began to cry.

**

“WHY AREN'T YOU BUILDING SOMETHING?!” Dr. Hendricks yelled at an apparently sleeping Tink.

She opened an eye. “Shush, I did build something and now I'm testing it. It's called a bed. It needs work but its the best I can do with the material.”

“That is not a bed,” he cried, looking at the pipe which was full of carefully braided plastic coated wire and paper she'd grabbed from around the room.

“Maybe not for you, you're way too big, but I'm quite comfortable. You said I had thirty minutes for the test, so I still have ten minutes, and the testing phase is VERY important. I'd appreciate it if you didn't disturb me.”

Hendricks went into a nice quiet room and screamed.

**

“Has it stopped yet?” Hendricks asked, picking himself up from the floor, his face covered in black soot.

“I think so,” Tink answered, peeking out from behind her wings which were also covered in dirty soot.

“Please remember Tink. When you see shiny, glowing crystals, they are NOT marbles, and you MUSTN'T bash them together!”

“Duly noted.”

**

It was the end of the day, and the testing was finally done. Hendricks handed a paper to Tink. “This will be sent to Dr. Quintain, but you should know what's on it. You are a PK 2, with separate fields around your hands and another one around your wings which help you fly. When angry or excited it moves up to PK 3. Esper 1, to account for your night vision, Regenerator 3 on the low side, and severe GSD, since your brain shouldn't work. I'm writing you up a very special diet to avoid anything like today from happening again. STICK TO IT!!!”

Tink smiled at him, hopped up and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Ok, thank you! I had a lot of fun today!”

Dr. Hendricks watched as she flew away as if nothing from the last 12 hours had happened. Limping back to his chair, he started to laugh, then the tears came.

He didn't know where the alcohol came from, only that he desperately needed it. Draining the last of it, he got up to find more, only to collapse on the floor whimpering in terror.