My Super-powered Diary Chapter 32 Tests By Amethyst When Maddock Ainsley gets involved in a rescue operation with his unit things go horribly wrong and his life is forever changed. Can the newly minted Merida cope with being a girl and a teenage super hero?

Brooke’s interview with Dr. Edwards and Neuron was a huge relief for everyone involved. Not only did she not harbor any deep hidden desires to kill us all in our sleep or something like that, but Neuron had cleared her of any mental tampering, hypnotic suggestions, serious mental issues, or any evidence at all that anyone had played around in her head. She was exactly the person she seemed to be, which seemed to come as a big a relief to her as it did to the Headmistress. She had been relatively lucky that Code Pink hadn’t had a psychic, since we now knew that even though Brooke was invulnerable on the outside, she was vulnerable to, and probably could be harmed by, psychic attacks.

Brooke hadn’t been able to give them any real information on the Shadow Syndicate itself, but she had been able to give some good details about her former ‘teammates’. She had a general knowledge of all their powers, weaknesses, physical descriptions, as well as their given names and the location of the apartment in Albuquerque, New Mexico that they worked out of. As soon as they had gotten that dose of information, Neuron left us to get in contact with the HAA office and a super hero team based there to see if they could be apprehended, or at the very least get more information from that apartment.

With her fears about a risk to her students allayed, Dr. Edwards officially welcomed Brooke to the school and guided us all down to the school’s sublevels to do Brooke’s testing in one of the PDE rooms. The Headmistress began setting up a simulation while Shu opened up the dimension she called the changing room, which held our costumes and some rough benches to sit on, so Brooke and I could change clothes. As I changed into my costume and Brooke changed into the bodysuit with all the sensors built in for powers testing, she seemed eager, but nervous. “Wot’s the matter Brooke? Ya dinnae ‘ave tae worry aboot passin’ this tes’, they jus’ wan’ tae ge’ an idea o’ how powerful ya are an’ wot other powers ya may ‘ave.”

“I guess I’m just not used to all of this attention,” she admitted as she finished getting out of her clothes. “And now I’m kind of worried about the possibility of a telepath doing something to me to make me hurt people I care about, or do other things I wouldn’t normally do.”

“Dinnae worry aboot it, most o’ us face the same risks,” I attempted to reassure her as I finished shedding my own clothes and reached for the bodysuit of my costume. “Once ya ge’ issued a proper school ID bracelet ya should be safe from anythin’ like tha’. These things ‘ave a ton o’ useful features, an’ one is tha’ they’re magicked wit’ a spell tae preven’ mind readin’ on the wearer. I’ve been tol’ tha’ it should work fer up tae a Cat three telepath. There’s a lo’ o’ people wi’ secrets ‘ere who dinnae wan’ other students pokin’ aroun’ in their ‘eads, accidental or otherwise. E’en a Cat four or five would ‘ave tae intentionally probe tae get’ pas’ the mental barrier this provides. If someone tried tha’ wi’ any o’ us Tasha would catch on an’ the rest o’ us would be there tae ‘elp as soon as possible.”

“I guess that makes me feel a little better, why would Tasha know though?” she asked. She gave the bodysuit with its attached sensors a long look and then began shimmying into it.

I thought about my answer for a moment before speaking, finishing with the bodysuit and reaching for my boots to tug them on. “Tasha is no’ jus’ a teleporter. She’s a Cat four clairvoyant an’ she kin’ mentally speak wit’ anyone she’s familiar wi’ by formin’ a link wi’ them. It’s a sort o’ open line ‘tween her an’ anyone she’s linked with tha’ kin be used by either party whenever they wan’. She’s been developin’ it wi’ me, ma sisters, the Fairies, an’ Mom intae a sorto’ psychic conference call. Normally it’s on call waitin’, bu’ any o’ us kin speak through it when we need tae, an’ she kin still sense things through it, like if one o’ us is in trouble. She ‘as this theory tha’ wit’ all our minds connected a’ the time, e’en if it’s passive tha’ it’ll make it harder fer telepaths tae force their way intae one o’ our minds. Sort o’ a psychic interference through crowd noise.”

Brooke looked confused and paused in her dressing. “Wouldn’t the bracelets stop something like that if they’ve got a spell on them to prevent reading the wearer’s thoughts?”

“Aye, one would think, bu’ we’ve ‘ad no problems so far,” I replied with a shrug before tugging on my gloves. “Tasha thinks it could be ‘cause ‘er powers dinnae actually let her read minds an’ look intae mem’ries, jus’ communicate. It could also be tha’ the links were formed afore we started wearin’ the bracelets, so the connection was already active an’ consensual. She’ll wan’ tae form a link wi’ ya afore ya ge’ yuir official bracelet tae bring ya intae the loop I think, yuir one o’ us now an’ it ‘elps a lo’ durin’ fights. Dinnae worry, it doesnae hurt or anythin’. None o’ us e’en knew she could dae tha’, or tha’ the links were there, ‘til the first time she shouted in ma brain. Now she’s gotten better a’ formin’ the link consciously. Is there anythin’ else worryin’ ya?”

I could see her face flush in the ruddy light of the construct I had created so we could see what we were doing in the darkness of this dimension. “I… I’m a bit nervous about going back to school. It’s been like three years and the school in the commune was really small. This place is huge, and I’m going to be so far behind. I’m probably going to have to start as a freshman. And where am I going to live?”

“Aye,” I agreed sadly as I secured my cloak around my shoulders. “I’m a wee bi’ nervous aboot startin’ school maself. Trus’ me three years is no’ so long. ‘Sides that’d pu’ ya in the same grade as me an’ the members o’ 4-Ward, an’ tha’ wouldnae be so bad. Ya prob’ly dinnae have tae worry aboot bullies a’ leas’. Jus’ try an’ keep a low profile though, Mei, Hana, an’ I will be doin’ the same. Cat fives are rare an’ people may wan’ tae be yuir friends fer the wrong reasons. We’ll fin’ ya a place, tae live an’ no matter wot ya will still ‘ave yer dorm room. Some students live in the dorms year-round.”

The blonde girl seemed to consider what I was saying for a moment before nodding and breathing a sigh of relief. “Yeah, I don’t even want to think about what being bullied by kids with super powers is like. As for friends, I’ll be choosing mine more carefully now, I don’t want a repeat of Code Pink.” There was a grim look on her face as she said the last and zipped up the bodysuit.

“Aye, well let’s no’ stay ‘ere all day chattin’ when I promised ya a good fight,” I said with a grin as I led her back out of the dimension and into the control room for the PDE room.

We were In the middle of a large city and had been given roles for this test. I would be playing a crazed villain willing to destroy the city if necessary to draw out my nemesis and defeat her. Brooke would be playing as Safeguard, a hero whose job would be to protect innocents, played by holograms and magical constructs, and stop me if possible once we started fighting. The idea was for her to get a feel for keeping an eye out for civilians and preventing collateral damage if possible and for me to see how much her invulnerability could really take.

We had stepped through separate portals to appear in different parts of the city and I hadn’t found her yet, but I wasn’t about to go searching for her. I was the villain in this scenario so I just needed to bring her to me. I powered up my force field and flew toward the tallest building that I could find, creating a sphere construct around me and filled it with near white hot explosiveness as I expanded it. Then, reminding myself that this was a simulation so I wouldn’t feel too guilty I plummeted down to the base of the building, continuing to feed it power and increase it’s size. By the time I hit the side of the building at ground level the field around me was a seething sphere of pure explosive, near plasma hot energy a good thirty feet in diameter. I knew that I wasn’t anywhere near my limit and that I could have made a field a lot bigger, but I wasn’t sure how much damage this would do and I just wanted to bring the building down and I really wasn’t used to letting loose.

The resulting explosion did indeed bring the building down, and took almost half of the rest of the city with it. It was like a damn nuke going off and, once the smoke had cleared, I stared around in horror in the aftermath as I heard several voices gasp over my earpiece in a mix of awe and horror as Vanessa muttered, “Holy shit.” That was a lot powerful than I thought it was going to be, and only reinforced the thought that I really needed to get a handle on controlling my powers. Thank goodness this was a simulation.

I was a bit worried that I might have seriously hurt Brooke though, so I quickly got some altitude to take a good look around. Movement caught my eye and there, about two blocks away from ground zero, I saw something moving and I rushed toward it. A large piece of rubble shifted as Brooke strained to lift it over her head and toss it aside. “Ouch, okay that hurt a bit. Holy crap Merida, did you really have to drop a city on me?” she muttered as dusted herself off, looking more annoyed than injured. She was a little shaky as she got to her feet and I thought she had some abrasions or burns at first, though they seemed to quickly vanish so I thought that I may have imagined them.

“I was… umm tryin’ tae ge’ yuir attention,” I muttered self consciously. “I still dinnae really ken ma own limits. Thank goodness I didnae try tae use ma full power, aye?”

I could hear Dr. Edwards groaning over my earpiece. “You did all that and you were still holding back? I knew I should have tested more than just your fine control with those constructs. I’m going to have to have Kasumi work with you on figuring out just what your limits are. With your condition you could be a danger to everyone in the city if you can’t get proper control.”

I winced at that, far too aware of how dangerous I was as I looked down at my glowing red hands. This was why I was holding back though, I couldn’t risk going all out. Too many people could get hurt. “Aye,” I said with a guilty sigh.

“Well there goes protecting the innocents,” Brooke grumbled as she flew toward me. She wasn’t a very fast flyer, I could have easily dodged or outrun her but she had wanted a fight so she was going to get one. As soon as she was in range I delivered a full-strength punch to her jaw, my fist covered in a sphere of explosive energy just a little bigger than I had used when last we had fought. I was going to try and gradually increase the explosive output through bigger constructs and use my full field-enhanced strength until we could figure out her limits for taking damage.

Her reaction time and strength weren’t quite as fast as mine while I was wearing my force field, but she was close, maybe a high Cat two or a low Cat three for her strength and speed. My punch hit and she winced against the pain, rubbing her jaw and grinning at me. We traded punches for a while, but she didn’t have much fighting experience so I made a mental note to have her join our morning training sessions and teach her some strategy as well. I had managed to start hitting her hard enough to start leaving bruises, but not quite break bones or cause serious damage when I noticed that the bruise I had left on her right cheek was quickly fading. This time I knew that I wasn’t imagining it. “Yer a regen tae?”

“How am I supposed to know?” she asked as she launched a kick at my side. “Nobody has ever hurt me this much before. This is great! I can feel all of it!”

I flew off, keeping slow enough so she could keep me in sight, until I found what I was looking for. A school bus had been sent flying by the first explosion and had rolled into a mangled mess that only somewhat retained its original form. I grabbed it by the front end, knowing that it was really going to push the limits of my field-enhanced strength, and then I hefted it, groaning with the effort as I swung it at my oncoming opponent like a giant baseball bat.

I just managed to see Brooke’s eyes widen in surprise as she muttered, “Oh crap.” Then I connected with the bus, but rather than hurting her, just connecting caused the bus to rip in half from the blow. Brooke was still floating there without a mark on her and grinning at me. “You’ll have to do better than that.”

I did do better, I went straight back to hand to hand, using full strength and slowly increasing the size of explosive constructs and the explosive energy that they contained to get a better idea for what both her invulnerability and seeming regenerative abilities could handle. All too soon Dr. Edwards called a halt to the session when I managed to cause a painful sounding crack to Brooke’s ribs. A portal opened near us and the Headmistress’ voice came over our earpieces. “Okay girls, that’s enough for today. “I’ve gotten a good idea of what Brooke is capable of, so you can both get changed and then take Brooke for a checkup with Dr. Ainsley, the sensors said you broke two of her ribs. Her regeneration should take care of it, but better safe than sorry.”

We had changed back into regular clothes and Dr. Edwards warned us not to talk about what happened in the testing session with anyone. Then she shared her findings with us before sending Brooke back to the medical center with me, my sisters, and the Fairies. Brooke definitely had mid range Category Five invulnerability, which was pretty impressive on its own, but she also seemed to be on the borderline between Cat two and three in regeneration, speed, and strength. Her flight capabilities weren’t really all that impressive at Category one, but she was going to be able to take a lot of punishment and even give some back when in a fight.

Brooke’s ribs were mostly healed by the time we got there and there didn’t seem to be anything else wrong with her, but Mom wanted to run her through some of her various scanners as well. She had come up with a theory about what may be causing Brooke’s lack of feeling during lunch and she was hoping to confirm it. Once she had finished the scans she brought Brooke back into the waiting area so that we could all hear the results. “Okay girls, so I think tha’ I’ve figured out why Brooke can’t feel anythin’. She doesn’t jus’ have invulnerable skin, her whole body is invulnerable, inside an’ out, an’ she seems ta have a redundant regeneration factor too. The problem is tha’ wi’ her hole body bein’ invulnerable, tha’ includes her various mechanoreceptors. They can’t sense pressure, heat, cold or pain, because she’s effectively immune ta those sensations at a cellular level. Therefore they aren’t sendin’ the correspondin’ signals ta the postcentral gyrus o’ her brain.”

“Is there anything you can do for her Mom?” Tasha asked, her voice mirroring the concern that all of us were feeling.

“I have some ideas, an’ I’ll star’ workin’ on ‘em as soon as I get home tonight. I may be able to use an idea I had to help Toxin, since it won’t work for her. You know I’ll do everythin’ I can girls,” she told us all seriously. “For now though, Brooke will need help settlin’ in. I talked ta Andy and we’ve agreed tha’ she can stay wit’ us fer as long as she likes. Tara has sent me all the appropriate forms to ‘ave Brooke put in my custody an’ ta fast-track an adoption if tha’s what Brooke wants. I’ll need some information from ya ta fill them out Brooke, but it’s all ready ta go if ya decide you want to stay with us an’ be part o’ our crazy family. So what do ya say?”

We were all hoping that she’d say yes, I could see it on my sisters’ and the Fairies faces. Brooke looked at us all uncertainly before giving Mom a confused look. “I… ummm… why? You barely even know me.”

“Because you need us,” Shu said solemnly, “and you proved yourself by trying to protect us and do the right thing.”

“Yeah, we kinda owe you and I think you’d make a great big sister,” Mei quickly agreed.

“You know, we were all orphans before we met and Mom offered to take us in. We’ve been through hell together and you may be coming late to the party, but I think you deserve a loving family as much as any of us,” Vanessa put in.

“I could sense that you were a good person and that you belonged with us since you first gave that pathetic attempt at looking like you were attacking me,” Tasha added with a smirk. “You’ll accept, I know it. You can’t fool a clairvoyant.”

“Yuir a member o’ G-Force now, yuir wearin’ the ring an’ e’erythin’,” I told her with a grin once the others had said their piece. “G-Force is no’ jus’ a team, we’re a bloody fam’ly an’ ya bes’ be getting’ use tae tha’.”

Mom laughed. “See Brooke, my daughters are all good judges o’ character, and goin’ by wot they tol’ me I’m guessin’ tha’ yuir no’ so bad in tha’ department yuirself. I’m no’ gonna force ya, but ya have a family here if ya want it.”

Five Fairies rushed Brooke then latching onto her with hugs. She might not have been able to feel them, but she’d have to have been blind not to see the affection as their tiny voices all drilled her. “So... Whaddaya say... Are you in… We’ll have so much fun together… Please…”

Her mouth tipped upward in a smile. “Okay, I’m in. It’ll be nice to have a family again.”

‘ello agin e’eryone an’ welcome agin tae Merida’s Corner. Today I will be teachin’ all o’ ya aboot Elementals. Elementals are mutants who ‘ave abilities related tae one o’ the elements. There are the four basic elements o’ Earth, Air, Water, or Fire, but there are also related elements such as Metal, Electricity, Wood, Ice, an’ prob’ly others tha I dinnae e’en ken aboot. Puttin’ aside the elements themselves though, there are four types o’ Elementals; Kinetics, Morphs, Full Elementals, an’ Symbolic Elementals.

Kinetics are Elementals who kin control the element tha’ they’re aligned tae. They’re able tae form it intae shapes or move it aroun’ usin’ only the power o’ their minds, much like telekinetics kin manipulate objects, though they are limited only tae the element tha’ they control.

Morphs are sort o’ like limited Shifters. They are able tae change their human bodies intae the element tha’ they’re aligned tae. Some those are stuck in elemental forms permanen’ly or kin only change tae human few short periods o’ time.

Full Elementals are those who possess the abilities o’ both Kinetics an’ Morphs. They kin’ control their element an’ change intae a form comprised o’ tha’ element. Usually their control an’ power is increased when in their elemental form. Electro-Cute would be classified as a Full Elemental.

Finally we ‘ave Symbolic Elementals like ma sister ‘Nessa. Symbolic Elementals are a recently discovered an’ rare classification an’ are a lo’ like Full Elementals, ‘cept tha’ they dinnae change form intae their element itself. Upon Activatin’ they change intae a form tha’ they mentally associate wi’ their element, which is why Nessa is a Mermaid. Often, in addition tae their kinetic abilities, these elementals often ‘ave some limited Shifter abilities an’ body adaptations or powers specific tae their new forms an’ element.

Well, tha’s all tha’ I ‘ave tae say aboot Elementals today, so tha’s all fer now an’ I’ll see all o’ ya nex’ week tae talk aboot Enhanced. ‘til then, this is Merida signin’ off.