Whateley Academy,
Morning, August 22nd, 2007

Head Mistress Carson was sitting in her office, remembering the wonderful, if short, visit to New York, after visiting a new student in Pittsburgh. The paperwork wasn't quite the mountain it would be in less then two weeks when the students arrived, but it was steadily building up. As she thought about the coming year, Carson gave a silent wish that it would be easier then the last one, there wasn't much hope for that, but she could dream.

Louis appeared in front of her desk. He'd been expected as the newest problem student was supposed to arrive sometime before noon. As she smiled at him, she didn't say good morning or another calm greeting, his face was twisted in confusion and more then a little disgust. "What's wrong?"

"Sam is in Dunwich, he's making a quick stop in Cecilia's to get some clothes," Louis said.

"Alright, why does it look like you've just stepped in something?"

He closed his eyes like he was trying stop seeing something. "He's radiating some unique thoughts. I'd almost say it's some kind of very detailed psychic defense, and it is extremely distracting."

"A psychic defense. Why wasn't that found during the powers testing? And why didn't it stop Babble?"

"I don't know, but I've never seen anything quite like it. He's playing the same three hours of what could kindly be called a movie in his head, continuously and in great detail, even when he's asleep. It's drowning out any other thoughts he might broadcast."

She thought about that for a second. If his defenses were unique, was it a part of his mutation, a defense he somehow created, or a way for his 'master' to keep telepaths from reading what really happened to him. "What type of movie is it?" Carson finally asked.

"Have you ever heard of hentai?"

**

We'd had stopped in small town that barely appeared on a map the night before. The late start, combined with construction around Montreal, a long wait at the border, and the narrow winding roads had forced Dark Wind to call a halt at midnight and we'd gotten a cheap motel room. I was happy about that, I needed the time to calm myself down. I'd barely talked to Dark Wind for the entire ride, the panic was building up in me, as we'd waited to cross the border, I had actually been on the edge of a panic attack. It had passed when I reminded myself that I was doing all of this to free Master, but it was hard.

The night hadn't been much better. I kept wanting to get into the car and drive back to Toronto, where Mom and Rachael were. I knew how to drive a car, at least intellectually, it wouldn't be too hard with the fake passport I had been given. I could go back home, and destroy any police records of me, maybe take Mom and Rachaels family to Karedonia and we could live off my money. It would be safer. So much safer. Pushing those thoughts aside had made me want to vomit, even as I cursed myself.

What had Master gone through to create me? Could I just abandon him like he was nothing? I wasn't even in any danger yet, and for all I knew I could be in and out within a week. What type of monster was I to EVEN think of leaving him in their hands? There was nothing I wouldn't risk to free him. I was his.

And...

And after I was done freeing him, the best I could hope for was that he would take what was good about my code and make a newer better program. It was the best I deserved after what I had done. My safety wasn't a concern.

When I did finally get to sleep nightmares plagued me. I would find Master and he'd be dead, tortured for months while I wasted so much time, calling out for me to save him. Or Whateley had lobotomized him, or possibly worse had turned him into an emotionless, mind controlled creation pumping out programs for whatever they needed. Then they'd find me and tear apart my programming, leaving only the barest fragment of my intelligence, just enough to know how badly I had failed and lock me away forever so I couldn't die or free myself. Sometimes Rachael and Mom would be there, they were being tortured as I was forced to watched, then they changed my programming so that I took up a scalpel and started cutting, unable to stop myself even as my screams joined theirs.

Waking up to see the sun shining in my eyes was a blessing. It took a long shower to wash away the rank stink of sweat and fear. After a long, quiet breakfast of pancakes, we got back on the road. I almost had my emotions under control when Dark Wind told me we were taking a detour.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"You need some clothes. You only have three sets of clothes, and they aren't exactly the best fit. I don't know if you can leave the school until the term begins, and the school store definitely won't be open, so we had better get you some clothes now," she explained.

I looked at the dreary countryside. "Where? Shouldn't we have gotten them back in Montreal?"

"Nah, I know a better place, Rogers Fabric Boutique. One of the top seamstresses in the country, and a pretty good designer."

"I thought you wanted me to get to Whateley as soon as possible. What changed?" I asked.

She shrugged. "You seem to be a doing a bit better than you had been. And it will only take an hour or so."

"Thanks."

Dunwich didn't leave much of an impression on me. Sam would say it looked like Dullsville, I just saw it as an obstacle. If I had to run with Master, there was no way we could hide in the town, it would take less then an hour for skilled baselines to search the entire place, when you added in mutant powers, you could cut the time down to a few minutes. I'd need a fast car, or a teleporter if I was going to free Master. More complications.

We stopped at a small shop, and walked inside. "Hello, Ms. Rogers?" Dark Wind called out.

A pretty brunette came out from the back, a cup of something steaming in her hand. "Hello, Debra and Sam right?"

"That's us," Dark Wind said with a smile. "My nephew is starting school at Whateley's a little early and I want to get him sorted out."

The twenty something woman looked me over, her eyes filled with concern when she saw the bandages and makeup job on my left hand, neck and lower lip. "Hi, Sam. What happened to you?"

I turned to look at 'aunt' Debra, wondering how much I could tell this woman. She answered for me, "He got into a bad fight, we had to use a devise to heal him and there were side affects. He's a regenerator so he should get his normal skin back after a while."

"Ok, well that simplifies things."

I let the two women talk about prices and things, Dark Wind explained that price was no object. I took the time to wander around, looking at the clothes that were made and half made. It seemed to be so much trouble to make clothes, when with a few seconds thought I could make clothes that were more beautiful, more magical, than these on the computer. I touched a red slip of a dress, picturing my real body in it, thinking of how pretty I'd look. Deciding how to change my hair and body to fit it best. It was all so easy in the computer.

"You like it?" Cecilia asked

"I could look beautiful in it," I answered without thinking.

There was a pause, as she considered what I'd said. "Would you like to help me pick out some designs for your clothes?"

"Can I use my computer to show you what I'd like?"

"Sure," she said, smiling encouragingly.

**

She didn't act surprised when I hooked myself up, when she saw my real body she complimented my appearance. "Ok Sam, what type of clothes are you thinking about?" she asked into the microphone.

I brought up a 3D model of my physical body. "I mostly want the regular Whateley school uniform. But I want something with more pockets and deeper ones." The model was clothed in the uniform with several inner pockets, that would be hard to see from the outside.

"That is easy enough. Are you a gadgeteer, a devisor, or a technomancer?"

"A gadgeteer with a focus on computers, and a technomancer. Why?" I asked.

"Then you'll want a lab coat, it's the unofficial uniform of the engineers. I can make you some that are more comfortable than what you'd find at Whateley," she said.

I thought about it, and even put a plain white lab coat on the model. It was ugly. But if gadgeteers needed one to fit in, I had to have one. Then I remembered a movie I had watched about people living in a mostly digital world fighting a losing war against an unstoppable enemy. I covered the model in a black leather trench coat that hung past my knees. Without thinking about it, I replaced the Whateley uniform with a tight long sleeved black shirt, black pants and black shoes, topping it off with black sunglasses that hid my eyes. "What about this?"

"The Matrix," Cecelia chuckled, "appropriate. What type of cloth are you thinking about?"

I wasn't sure if I should mention what I was thinking, but it was mentioned in the student handbook so it probably wasn't bad to ask. "Do you have anything that's bullet proof?"

"Of course, I'd recommend Kevra. A shirt or pants made of it won't stop most bullets, but it will significantly reduce the damage, without looking odd or impairing your movements. If we layered it with the trench coat you like, it could stop heavier calibers," she said nonchalantly.

"Could you put some harder materials like plates in the trench coat around the chest and keep it looking normal?"

"Certainly. How many outfits are you looking at?"

"Let's go with five school uniforms, two long coats, and five other outfits, one of them all black like I showed you before," I said.

We spent the next half hour discussing fabrics, cuts, styles and other things. Designing them on the computer was actually fun, and for a brief while I forgot about what was coming. Then I reentered my body and the fun ended. I was ugly again, flawed, a glitch.

Hiding the feelings as best I could we talked a little bit more of the fabric. After feeling dozens of samples, I decided to make the pants, coats and blazers out of Kevra, while the shirts would be silk, with colours ranging from black to sky blue for the shirts, and tan, dark blue and black for the pants.

Then I got to enter a machine that measured me in almost every possible position. By the time I was out, she had the first outfit done, black pants and two long sleeve black shirts. They fit perfectly.

Three hours after entering, we finally headed off to Whateley. The panic came back full force.

Whateley Academy,
Afternoon

We pulled up to the school, I felt my fear spiking, there was no turning back now, the die was cast and I was truly in the lions den. My hands shook, and my heart was beating too quickly. Closing my eyes, I forced my brain to stop creating so much glutamate, the chemical which controls fear. Taking a few deep breath's my heart rate was still elevated, and my palms were clammy, but with a few more changes to my hormone levels, no one would be able to tell what I was really feeling.

I started looking around, matching the buildings and landmarks to what I'd memorized from the campus map. Along the way I tried to picture the best places to observe the roads, buildings, and paths, where hiding places could be, ditches, groves of trees, and anything else that could be useful. We passed a few security officers, I tried not to make it obvious that I was looking at their sidearms and uniforms.

We stopped close to a geodesic dome, which had to be Crystal Hall. "Come on Sam, lets' get you up to the Headmistress to sign you in."

My hand stopped on the handle. "I-I'll be meeting her, right away?!" I squeaked.

"Yep. You're early, so she'll meet you personally to give you your student card and go over the basic rules," she saw me starting to shake. "It'll be alright, she's strict but fair."

If she was fair, why did she try to kill me? Why did she kidnap my Master? My body didn't show any signs of the stress I was feeling, but if anyone could scan my brain it would have told a completely different story. This had not been in the plans. I was suppose to get in quietly, not raising any suspicions, or making myself noticeable, this was nearly my worst case scenario. Forcing myself to give a genuine looking smile, I opened the door, saying "Alright, let's go."

A well dressed black man met us as we entered Schuster Hall. "Hello Dark Wind, Sam. My name is Louis, you can call me Fubar."

Dark Wind smiled so broadly, I thought for a minute she would hug him. "Hello, Fubar," I said much more cautiously.

He motioned us towards the elevator. "I thought I'd greet you personally, as I'm going to be your student counselor."

"Oh, thank you, sir."

"After you're done talking to Ms. Hartford, and Headmistress Carson I'll introduce you to your guide who will show you around the parts of the campus that are currently open for use. We're still getting everything ready for the start of the term, so the tunnels, cafeteria and classrooms are closed, without special permission, but there is still quite a bit to see. She'll also show you to your temporary room in Hawthorn," he explained as the elevator went up.

"I really appreciate it, sir. I hadn't planned on coming this early, I hadn't even known it was possible." I tried to sound grateful. Somehow I had to make them think I was a polite, young man, who wasn't dreaming of doing anything bad.

"We've had similar situations happen in the past. The important thing is to learn from your mistakes. And here we are. Sam if you'll come with me, you can talk to Ms. Hartford first," Fubar said, leading me to an attractive blond woman who looked very unhappy to see me.

I tried not to let the nervousness show. I was holding back absolute fear, but other stress chemicals were making themselves known despite my best attempts. I couldn't risk altering the chemicals further to deal with the stress while facing the enemy. Knowing that my face was rapidly turning pale, I stood in front of the desk smiling as best I could, waiting for her to notice me.

**

Ms. Carson stood up to greet her visitor. "Hello Angela," she said to the villain known as Dark Wind.

"Ms. Carson, it's been a while since I saw the inside of your office," Dark Wind replied smiling nervously.

"Yes it has, I'm glad you're doing better than the last time we talked. If you have time I'd like to invite you to supper later, but for now we have to talk about Sam. What can we expect from him?" she asked.

"He's fucked in the head. Sorry about the language, but its true, and I have no idea what he's planning. But you should know when we were buying clothes today, he asked for all of his pants, blazers, and coats to be made of Kevra. And it gets better, he wants metal plates put in the coats to protect his chest and back."

Carson stared at Dark Wind for a moment. Some, actually many students were over protective, relying on power armour, PFG's, and bullet proof vests, but most of them waited at least a month or two before getting them. "Do you know why he thinks he needs these?"

"No clue," Dark Wind admitted. "He was whip lashing between being terrified and calm for most of the trip here, and seemed about to have a panic attack when he heard he was going to talk to you, before calming himself down in less then a minute."

"Thank you, if you don't mind I'd like you to talk to Louis about this in more detail. I should get ready to meet Sam now. So will I see you for supper?"

"I wouldn't miss it."

**

Ms. Hartford kept me standing for several minutes while she continued to work on her computer. I risked a glance around the office, there was a low level buzz of activity all around us. People were busy making quiet phone calls, typing on their computers, passing forms back and forth, and generally being busy. I really wanted to glance over some shoulders, and quietly look for codes and pieces of information that could prove useful, but I wasn't about to risk getting caught. So I simply waited.

Eventually she looked at me, despite my standing over her it felt like she was looking down at me. She wasn't smiling, from the way her face was set, I wasn't sure if she could smile. Still I smiled as nicely as possible.

"I usually speak to all the gadgeteers and devisors with a skill for hacking as a group. But since you have come early and show a severe lack of common sense, I thought I should speak to you personally." My smile turned to polite attentiveness. "You may be able to make a computer dance outside, but at Whateley I am in charge of computer security, and I am very, very good at my job. I will be watching you, and if I see any attempts at breaking past the firewalls, changing grades, learning clandestinely about your fellow students, or doing anything that puts this school at risk I will spot you, at which point I will see to it that you are properly punished and likely expelled. My handle is D33rCr0$$, y-" She stopped talking, as I almost fell.

The barriers I'd put up in my mind to block the fear collapsed into nothingness. Terror flooded my brain. I looked at the woman I'd had nightmares about. The creator of Monsters, and the one who had ripped me away from Master. I knew that D33rCr0$$ would be at Whateley, I didn't know she would be meeting me, to personally warn me about doing exactly what I was going to do. Did they know my plans? Was this some game for them? Was she letting me know that I was only living by their willingness to humour me?

I forced my body to relax, shutting almost everything down that wasn't required to simply stand there and nod. I should have realized I'd be meeting D33rCr0$$ at some point, this was simply a little faster than planned. I could handle it. I really could.

Images of Master filled my mind, strengthening my spine. If I was going to save Master I had no choice but to keep going.

My enemy eyed me carefully. "I see my reputation precedes me," the woman said finally. "I do hope you won't faint on me, the janitorial staff is busy preparing the cottages, so I don't know how long you'd clutter up my floor."

"Sorry," I muttered, not knowing what else to say.

"Now then, from the way you reacted I am quite certain you tried at some point to break into Whateley, possibly to get some useful information that would give you a leg up on your fellow students." She waited a moment to see if I would do anything. My brain was mostly recording by then, so I didn't, couldn't, react to her. "You were obviously traumatized by it. Good," she smiled. "I am quite ruthless in dealing with people who try to hurt this school. That includes the students. If I see you in files, servers or other places you shouldn't be in, whatever you experienced before, will seem like a picnic compared to what I will do to you. Do you understand?"

I didn't trust myself to do more than squeak out a simple, "Yes, ma'am."

"Very good. Headmistress Carson would like to see you now," she said, with a very tight, very cold smile.

I left her cubicle at a fast walk. I wanted to run away. Only the knowledge that Master was somewhere here made my legs work as I walked to the big, imposing doors where the one who was the ultimate threat waited for me. The fear was becoming overwhelming again. For all I knew the headmistress was going to kill me as soon as I was alone with her. It would be easy to come up with some excuse for my disappearance, especially since I'd only met the faculty. Everyone in the office was probably in on the plan. I was so stupid for entering Whateley. If I didn't love Master so much I wouldn't have come within a thousand miles of this place.

No, I told myself, they wouldn't kill me. If they wanted me removed, they could have had Dark Wind do it easily enough. I was already off the map at that point, and she was a supervillain, her kill count was low, but she could have handed me over to someone who could do it. That wouldn't go against her code of ethics. So they must not know anything. I just had to play it cool and everything would be fine.

I knocked on the door and when I heard the Headmistress I stepped inside the spacious office. "Hello, Headmistress."

"Hello Sam, how are you?" Headmistress Carson asked, smiling pleasantly.

I was tongue tied. I'd been her, Master sometimes liked me to play the woman and girls around the school. I knew she was beautiful. I hadn't know she was powerful. Something about her made me want to get down on my knees and beg forgiveness for stealing away into her school, beg her to give me Master, so we could simply flee. It took everything I had to answer her properly. "I'm doing better now, thank you Headmistress. And please call me Glitch."

"I generally prefer to call students by their names. Do you have any special reason to go by your code name?"

"It feels more like me," I admitted. "Sam was from before, not now. Now I'm just Glitch."

She cocked her head studying me. "Very well, Glitch. I'm sorry I can't give you a chance to rest, but I must ask you about what happened in Toronto."

"I made a mistake," I said.

My enemy waited patiently for me to continue.

"I was making people upset and angry with me. I'd gotten into one fight with a boy I thought was my best friend because I forgot about a girl. I had made people cry and angry." I took a deep breath. "I didn't know how to handle it. So I made a hormone mix, and an aerosol spray system, like a skunk would use, but much smaller. It was too make people happy. I didn't check to see what it would do besides making people happy."

"And what happened then?"

I felt a tear trickle down my face. "I used it on Becky. I didn't know she was addicted to it after the first few tries. I saw a study later about mice who could get a dose of serotonin whenever they pressed a button, they starved to death, because they were so busy pressing the button. I did that to her. Her real friends figured out I was the one who had made her change so much in just a week, they came to find out what I'd done. I fought them, and then I ran."

She nodded as if confirming her own ideas. "Can you still do that?" she asked.

"No. I cut it out. I won't do that ever again," I swore.

"Very well. At least you've learned your lesson. I'll be assigning you mandatory weekly counseling sessions with Louis." She handed me a folder. "This is your opening day packet, your student card, some basic info for the summer months, as well as helpful tips and advice are in there. If you could sign these papers, you will officially be a student of Whateley."

I signed the papers nervously. Expecting something to happen. It couldn't be this easy. But nothing happened, she spent several minutes explaining the rules to me, most of which I already knew, and with an encouraging pat on the back, it was done, and Fubar was escorting me out, saying something about taking me to my room in Hawthorne.

Somehow I'd gotten past the biggest hurdle. It was a miracle, and for the first time in weeks I felt a small glimmer of hope.

I'm coming Master, just wait a little longer, I said to myself.

**

I walked over to Fubar and the pretty sparkly girl who was sitting down, nervously playing with hr long fingers. She was completely hairless except for her eyelashes, but the way the tiny scales reflected the light in a rainbow of colours was almost hypnotic. When I reached them, she stood and looked up at me with big, bright blue eyes. Watching the colours play over her skin was beautiful, I smiled and held my hand out. She didn't seem to know what to do, staring at my hand like it would bite her.

"Glitch, this is Charlie. She's another early arrival and volunteered to show you around the campus," Fubar said.

Realizing she wasn't going to shake my hand, I put my hand down with a grin. "Hi Charlie. Thanks for volunteering. Can we find a bathroom first? I want to get this make up and bandages off." I pointed at the neck brace and my to all appearances badly cut lower lip.

She gave what sounded like a relieved sigh. "You mean that you're really ok?"

"Yeah. I got into an accident and needed to use a devise to heal me, it had side affects," I explained.

"What happened?"

The smile dropped instantly. "I-I'd rather not talk about it."

"Sorry. I shouldn't have pried," she said dropping her head in embarrassment.

My hand went to her shoulder. "You didn't know, so there's no problem. Do you have a code name?"

She didn't move my hand, and a glimmer of a smile returned. "Actually it's Charlie. I picked it out of my favourite book, Firestarter."

"What's it about? I've never heard of it."

"It's about a girl called Charlie, who's on the run from the government because her parents were part of a special drug testing program, and she was born able to create fire. Since I'm a pyrokinetic, it seemed like the perfect name." She seemed to realize my hand was still on her shoulder, and gently moved it. "I should show you the bathroom. Come on."

Fubar had disappeared while we were talking, so I followed her and spent about ten minutes removing bandages and scrubbing my face until it felt raw. The mix of normal skin and snake scales looked odd, but at least I felt normal again.

Charlie seemed a lot more at ease once she saw my normal look. Whether it was because I didn't look like an accident victim anymore, or because she saw that I wasn't baseline normal I didn't know, but I was just glad to see her at ease. "I love your skin," I said.

Her eyes bugged out. "What!"

"Uh, I like how the light reflects on your skin. It's really pretty."

"Don't patronize me!" she snapped.

"I-I'm not."

"Yeah right. Come on, I'll give you the tour." She headed for the elevator, her skin making rainbows in the air.

I followed behind her confused at how quickly her emotions had changed. Why were humans so confusing? It was probably for the best anyways, I needed dupes, people who could tell me rumours, pass on information, and help me with little tasks, not friends. "So where do we go first?"

"I'll take you to Homers Gallery. You have to look at some picture of a major big shot for the school."

"Lord Paramount," I told her.

She gave me an odd look. "Yeah. How did you know about that?"

"I heard about it from some former students I talked to." Ok, talked to was a lie, more like read their personal emails, as I studied Whateley over the summer.

Charlie knocked on an office door and said somethings to the woman inside. A few seconds later a panel opened up into a room that looked like a museum. "So here we have all kinds of things that the... alumni, have given the school over the years. I don't remember half of them, so feel free to spend a few minutes looking around. But first, there is Lord Paramount, please look at it, or he'll foreclose on the school or something like that."

I glanced at the rather ugly picture, my Master was far better looking than him, and shrugged not knowing what the big deal was. Then I wandered around the room, looking at the weapons, armour and other things that were displayed there. I couldn't use any of them, they had to be highly protected and if I ended up needing anything from here, I was probably dead anyways.

Then I saw a shattered circuit board. Walking over the plaque explained that it was part of the original computer where the Palm had been created. I wanted to break open the glass and crush the plastic in my hand. It was because of that creation, that I was illegal. If that... thing hadn't existed and caused tens of thousands of deaths and billions in damage, from crashing airplanes and trains, blackouts, even missile launches, I'd be allowed to exist with Master. Whateley was my enemy, but it was all because of that program.

"Ok, what's next?" I asked, forcing myself away from the display.

"Time to show you the buildings."

We wandered around the campus, with Charlie pointing out the different buildings and sights. Crystal Hall was closed, as was the campus store, we'd be eating in Hawthorne and if we needed to buy something we could write a list for the house mother to get for us. The class buildings were next, of those only the gym, pool and martial arts dojo, were open for use. Security was interesting. I really wanted to go explore inside, but I was only introduced to the officer on desk duty and shown the lobby. There was a good chance Master was in this building where he could be closely watched, I'd have to figure out a way to scout out the entire building.

Doyle Medical Complex was next. The nurse at the front desk was actually expecting me. "Good afternoon, Charlie. And you would be Sam, yes?" she said.

"Yes, Ms. Walden," I answered, glancing at her nametag.

"We were told that you would be coming over. We'd like to look over your scales, to see if we can find some way to speed up the return of your regular skin. You have an appointment at 10am tomorrow, please don't be late," she told me.

Giving her my best smile, I nodded eagerly. "I'll be here, thank you very much."

When we walked out Charlie was looking at me oddly. I couldn't tell if she was angry or curious. "Ok what did I do this time?" I asked getting frustrated.

"You're really going to look normal again? The scales aren't just GSD?" she asked.

"They're a byproduct of a healing devise. I'm already changing them back to normal skin, and should have it fixed in a month without stressing my body. Less with help."

She bit her lower lip, "And you really think my skin is pretty?"

Giving her a small smile I nodded. "Yeah, it's like looking at a rainbow."

"Thank you. No ones really said anything nice about my looks since I started to change. I didn't think anyone ever would," she whispered.

I saw an opening to get my first ally. "Most people don't take the time to see what's in front of them, stop worrying about them and live for yourself."

Charlie snorted. "Easy for you to say."

"Not really. I was beaten up by my friends because I tried to make a girl happy. I learned my lesson. Find a few people you can trust and don't worry about the haters." My stomach churned painfully at the lie, but there was no choice if I was going to free Master. "Is there anything else we have to look at today or can I go sit down and maybe get a bite to eat?"

"There are a few places you should check out, like the memorial garden, its really pretty and a nice place to relax, there are some dangerous places you can't go unless you want security to come get you. But I can show it all to you tomorrow if you want to wait."

Taking her by the hand, I started walking in the direction of Hawthorne. "Let's make it a date for tomorrow," I said airily, trying to copy how people said it in the movies.

She giggled and began telling me about how we got meals in our cottage.

**

Headmistress Carson finished her paperwork and stretched thinking about the well deserved dinner she'd have with Dark Wind. Of course at that moment Fubar arrived. Ignoring her stomach, she smiled pleasantly. "Hello, am I right in assuming you've gotten a good read on Glitch?"

"Yes and no. His thoughts are completely blocked to me," he winced in mental distress. "Nothing is getting through that movie. But his emotions are an open book, they're almost as intense of Caitlin's."

"And what can you tell me about them without going over the line?" Carson asked carefully.

"I can tell you that he is very confusing." He thought for a moment. "You could see or hear most of his emotions, he wasn't hiding them very well. When he was talking to Ms. Hartford, he was almost hysterical, then it died down to almost nothing, only to erupt back into terror when he went to talk to you. It only really stopped when he told you about what happened in the fight. His remorse is genuine and you only saw a sliver of it."

Carson thought about the conversation Glitch had with Amelia. "He wasn't scared of her, he was scared of D33rCr0$$. He was nervous before then, but when she told him her codename, there was the terror."

Louis nodded in agreement. "Now the question is why would he be afraid of her?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "But it could be useful to know. I'm going to have Amelia track his movements in the computers. She won't stop him unless he is about to do something dangerous to the school or a student, but we need to see what he is after."

"I'll see if I can get him to open up to me. He has a lot of pent up emotion, he may be willing to tell me the truth."

She nodded. He wouldn't tell her what they talked about, but if anyone could get a student to open up and accept help it was Louis. All of this seemed to be half measures, but they didn't know enough to actually do anything without breaking too many of their own rules, and potentially losing or breaking Glitch, and she wouldn't allow that to happen if there was any other way.

Louis excused himself to personally greet Glitch in Hawthorne. Carson stood up to look out over the campus, it seemed so peaceful now, but she knew something dark and nasty rested under the surface of it all. "This year is already off to a bad start, couldn't I have had a few more days to pretend?" she asked the air.