My Super-powered Diary Chapter 34 Soul Train 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?

Mom’s eyes widened at Jordyn’s hushed comment? “Yuir certain Jordyn?”

The four-armed girl nodded very slowly. “My Mom is a Contractor Medium too, so she and Woodwynd, the nature spirit that she’s contracted to, were able to give me a good handle on my Medium abilities before I came here. We may not be Souldancers, but we can sense and manipulate spirit energy to a small degree, and see when someone else is doing the same. It actually makes sense and explains a few things about both Mei and the Fairies.” She looked at me and Peaches for a moment. “I’m guessing that when she created Peaches that she wasn’t the one who passed out, but Merida?” It was a question, but she seemed pretty sure of the answer.

“Aye, bu’ how dae ya ken tha’?” I replied, not quite sure what all of this talk about Souldancers was about.

“Every soul I’ve seen since I Activated has had a unique feel to it, a different flavor I guess. I was wondering why all of the Fairies seem to have the same flavor, I mean there are slight differences between them all, but mostly their souls feel a lot like Mei’s,” she explained. “Fawn feels like hers too, but there’s this really strong connection to Merida that I can’t really explain that makes her feel like a blending of the two. Peaches feels more like Merida, with slight differences, but I don’t sense any of Mei’s flavor.”

“Well Fawn an’ Merida are quantum entangled, so that might explain that,” Mom offered with a thoughtful expression. “I was actually hopin’ to get a sensitive Medium to watch Mei usin’ her powers, since we ‘ave yet to discover a way of accurately sensing spirit energy manipulation, an’ I didn’t want to rule tha’ out. So what else does tha’ explain about Mei? Ya said there were a few things.”

“Yeah, the other thing was when she healed Lindsey. I could sense that Lindsey’s soul was weakening and ready to leave her body while Mei was trying to heal the damage, we almost lost her twice. It was like Mei forced her soul to stay in place and infused it with ambient spirit energy to strengthen it. I thought it was some sort of magic based healing ability or spell.”

“So what do you think is making Mei pass out when she’s creating permanent creatures anchored to our reality? And why did Merida pass out instead when she created Peaches?” Vanessa asked in concern.

The young Medium looked thoughtful for a long moment. “I think that when she’s temporarily summoning creatures that she’s using ambient spirit energy to create temporary artificial souls for the bodies she creates. It’s really not much different than a Souldancer placing ambient spirit energy in an inanimate object and controlling it, except she’s giving them a degree of free-will. Ambient spirit energy is easy to change since its very nature is change, but it wouldn’t stay in that form long for that same reason, unless she’s focussing on keeping it that way. It wouldn’t work for permanent living creatures, so I think that she’s using fragments of her own soul to create them and that would be really taxing on both body and soul, since they’re intertwined. Her soul needs time to heal after that. Merida, was she touching you when she created the egg that Peaches was in?”

I thought back, trying to remember and then quickly nodded. “Aye she was. Fawn tol’ me when I woke tha’ Mei didnae mean fer me tae pass out, bu’ she was tryin’ tae link Peaches tae jus’ me instead o’ her.”

“Then she must have used a shard of your soul to create Peaches,” Jordyn said with a nod. “I don’t even think she’s conscious of how she’s doing what she’s doing.”

“She’s giving out pieces of her soul, and Merida’s? Won’t that be a problem for them?” Andy asked with a look of concern on his face.

“Not really, at least I don’t think so,” the Medium replied after a moment’s thought. “Souls grow stronger as the person lives, they start off small, like the piece she just gave to create Vidia. It may be a shock to the system, but souls are kind of like a spiritual muscle, sure there’s short term discomfort when you strain them, but they can heal and grow stronger after being strained, though not many people get a chance to exercise their soul. I’d guess that Mei is going to feel less strained each time she does this.”

“The data does seem t indicate tha’ so far, she’s been unconscious less an’ less time wit’ each occurrence,” Mom agreed. “Yuir probably right about her no’ realizin’ what she’s doin’ either. Wi’ wildcards it’s often several different abilities workin’ together to make one new ability, bu’ they often can’t use those abilities separately. Or need to be trained to. Mei is usin’ her abilities instinctively, bu’ maybe you can help her learn to sense the spirit energy an’ souls like you do. If she really is a Souldancer then she should be able to sense as well as manipulate.”

“I can try Dr. Ainsley maybe I can work with her a bit over the long weekend before school starts,” Jordyn offered with a smile. “I need to practice anyway, but I am still a beginner myself.”

At least it didn’t sound like there were any serious long term effects from our soul transfusions, and we knew a little more about how Mei was doing what she was. Still, I wanted to be as informed as possible and asked, “Wot exactly kin ya tell us aboot Souldancers Jordyn? I think tha’ I go’ the gen’ral idea, bu’ I dinnae really ken much aboot Mediums, an’ tha’ could be bad if’n we e’er need to fight one or sumthin’ supernatural.”

Jordyn gave us a quick guide on Mediums. Whereas most people aren’t very sensitive to spirit energy or souls, Mediums can sense them and choose to host spirits in their bodies. Channelers can only do this for a short time and it isn’t much more than communication and giving the spirit a short-term place to stay in the world of the living. They’re sort of like a hotel for ghosts. Contractors like Jordyn are a little bit more sensitive and can host spirits permanently by making a contract with them and gaining some of that spirit’s powers, though they have to be careful when making the contract.

Souldancers like Mei though are even more resistant to possession than normal humans, who can only be possessed if their souls are weakened for some reason. They can also sense and easily manipulate souls and spirit energy more naturally than other Mediums. It’s a pretty scary power actually. They can move souls from one body to another, absorb spirit energy, and some can even send it into non-living objects to bring them to life. This was sort of what Mei was doing, although she was also creating living bodies for them with the Generator aspects of her power.

She had just finished her lesson when Brooke, Shu, and the Fairies came out of the lab, with Vidia now dressed and sitting upon Brooke’s shoulder. The newest Fairy had her dark violet hair in a ponytail and was wearing a purple vest with pink feathers, purple pants, and black ballet flats. Mom quickly reminded Brooke of their busy schedule tomorrow and that now they’d not only send the adoption papers to Tara, but now also ask Tara about an identity for Vidia while they were doing that. The idea was that Vidia could have been another college student-turned-fairy created by the Matriarch for another girl who didn’t Activate or survive the experiments. There was enough truth in that, since there were a lot of girls who hadn’t survived the Zeta Bomb.

Mom called Dr. Edwards to make sure that she would have school ID bracelets for both Brooke and Vidia in the morning. They would start their day the next morning with picking those up and then go see Sam Jackson and Tiny about the weapons safety and certification class for the pair. That would be followed by a visit to Toxin for some tests and to work out their class schedules and dorm assignment and a visit to the Taylors for a new wardrobe. When all that was finally done they would head downtown to go to the bank, get Brooke a phone, and to go get the pair their licenses for hero work and carry permits from City Hall, the last of which they would need to do in costume.

Mom would be getting up extra early though, both to see me off before I went to meet with Hana and the others, and to call Tara on the east coast to get the adoption papers for Brooke fast-tracked and an identity for Vidia. Mom had already filled out, signed, and faxed the adoption papers to her not long after getting home and getting the details about Brooke’s parents, birthdate, and place of birth. She had also warned Tara of the possibility of a new Fairy when she had talked to her earlier in the day and apparently the HPP official had mentioned preparing an identity for one, in case Brooke should accept the adoption and a new Fairy should appear. As soon as the details were worked out in the morning, Tara would have the document packages couriered to our home.

Since we had such busy days planned tomorrow we didn’t stay up too late. Jordyn hung out for a while and she seemed to hit it off with Brooke and Vidia as well as she had with the rest of us, though with Vidia it was a bit hard to tell. We talked about the upcoming long weekend, the barbeque at Hana’s place, and the upcoming school year as we played a game of Monopoly. Since Mei was out cold, Tink offered to team up with Jordyn and the Fairies moved the pieces along the board while we humans rolled the dice. Around ten o’clock Andy gave Jordyn a ride home while the rest of us prepared for bed.

I was Maddock again, in my stone cell and trying to open the thick steel door, but try as I might the door wouldn’t budge. I called out over my radio, “Can anyone read me? Grizzly? Hammer? Tank? Spitfire? Reaper?”

I opened my eyes to see them all, a whole city of dead people surrounding me and shuffling closer. They were all there; strangers, family, and friends. The accusation in their eyes, the anger and fear as they came for me. I could feel their hands on me and I screamed.

I awoke screaming as once again my power lashed out, only being contained by the energy shield that Mom had built into the frame of my bed. I’m not quite sure how long I laid there, curled up in a ball, shaking, and sobbing as Fawn tried to comfort me, but when she had finally managed to calm me down I saw that the alarm clock’s display said 4:11 am. I wiped away the tears and took a deep breath to calm myself and took Peaches from her basket, holding both her and Fawn close like a pair of stuffed animals. I didn’t plan on going back to sleep, since I had planned on being up soon anyway, but I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t have been able to sleep again anytime soon, even if I had been willing to try.

As we laid there, all huddled together under my blanket, Fawn asked, “Another bad one huh Merida?”

“Aye,” I replied, not wanting to go into anymore detail than that. My two companions didn’t need to know the content of those dreams to comfort me, and Fawn knew that recalling them sometimes only made it harder for me to shake them off. It was bad enough having to recall them well enough to write them all down in the dream journal that Toxin was making me keep for our counselling sessions. I had seen her twice already since moving to Costa Verde, but I was due to see her again on the first day of classes as well. I wasn’t really sure I wanted to show her that journal, since the dreams seemed to be getting worse rather than better. It was like my trauma and all my worst fears were conspiring against me.

When the alarm went off at four thirty I reluctantly climbed out of bed, wrote down the dream in my journal, and then Fawn and I started to get ready for our day. There wasn’t really much to do once we were showered, had our hair done, and had gotten dressed. I had already packed bags and they and all of our gear for the trip were packed in my portable pocket dimension. I was bringing all the training stuff for Peaches, extra clothes, the camping gear that I had bought, my surfboard, hiking gear, my bikini, the Mythrilex sleeping bags, and the tent with the built in energy shield that Mom had made for the occasion. All I really needed to do was put all the food and drinks that I had bought, with some ice, into the coolers inside the portable portal.

Mom was up to see us off, reminding us to be careful and not get into any trouble, as she helped me load the coolers. Once that was all done and Fawn, and I double checked that we had all of our supplies and gear, I picked up Peaches and we flew over to Paul Bunyan’s Pancake House to meet the others for a quick breakfast. Well, since I was eating, it wasn’t as quick as we may have liked, but once we had all finished Hana’s parents wished us all a good trip, hugged us all, and sent us on our way. Then, once we had stuffed all their gear in my portable pocket dimension and Fawn had dusted Michelle and Lindsey, we all took to the skies and followed Michelle as she led us to the private little cove up past Coral Bay and far away from the city. It was going to be a trip that none of us would ever forget.

‘ello agin e’eryone an’ welcome agin tae Merida’s Corner. Today I will be teachin’ all o’ ya aboot Wildcards. There’s no’ really much tha’ I kin say aboot Wildcards, ‘cept tha’ they’re basically anyone whose powers dinnae fit intae the other types or whose powers work in ways tha’ cannae be easily deciphered.

Wildcards are usually mutants who ‘ave a power that’ cannae be easily categorized. Usually this is ‘cause they ‘ave one or more diff’ren’ abilities from separate classes tha’ are workin’ in conjunction tae create a power tha’ is diff’ren from anythin’ seen afore. Mei is a good example o’ this. Mei kin gather magic energy like a Mystic, she’s a versatile Generator able tae create livin’ matter, and she’s a Souldancer Medium, able tae control an’ manipulate spirit energy an’ souls. She doesnae really ken ‘ow tae dae any o’ those individually though, instead instinctively usin’ them t’gther tae heal or create livin’ creatures. She kin probably learn tae use the abilities separately, bu’ it will take trainin’ an’ time. Fer now, her powers combined are versatile enough tha’ she could be a force tae be reckoned wit’ if she really tried.

Well, tha’s all tha’ I ‘ave tae say aboot Wildcards today, so tha’s all fer now an’ I’ll see all o’ ya nex’ week when I’ll start answerin’ questions from the readers.