---

Author Note: Please email me at AngelJediGirl (at) gmail (dot) com before posting this story to any other site. Posting to a pay site is prohibited.

Comments and suggestions are also welcome at the above email address.

This was the first story that I ever published on the Internet. I've learned so much since writing it, and I'm sure that it shows. However, this second edition of A Flower's Bloom remains true to the original. The only difference between the original and this one are spelling and grammatical changes because I had the opportunity to pass it through the excellent editor that first contacted me because of this story. I wouldn't be nearly the writer I am today without his immense help and support. Thank you J.

This first part isn't much more than an introduction, but I'm posting it today because I wanted some "meat" to post tomorrow. I hope you enjoy.

*  *  *

Foreword

I started writing this story a couple of years ago. It was originally supposed to be a short story that I could use to help my mom understand how I feel, but it continued to grow and grow. While I still plan to use it in that capacity, it took so long to write that she already has a basic understanding from other avenues.

This story is semi-autobiographical. The events are obviously not real, but many of the people, even if their names have been changed, are real people and play a role in my life. I wrote it this way to help show her how I feel in a way she can relate to my life. I hope that nothing I wrote has been too specific that it detracts from the story.

It took a while, but I was finally able to finish it. While it is not quite the story I set out to write, the basic ideas I had in mind survived. This story in itself is a complete story, but it does leave room for more if I can get around to writing it, and readers want to see it. I also have some other ideas that I want to get out of my head, so it may be a little while before I come back to this story.

I also wanted to conduct an experiment while writing this. The stories that I have enjoyed reading most have been the ones that I can put myself in the shoes of the main character. Hence, this story is in First Person, as are most of the stories I plan to write. To help accomplish the goal of letting others jump into the main characters shoes, I tried to describe the scenes in a general feel. I wanted to see if I could provide enough information to describe the scene, but leave it vague enough that the reader could visualize the scene the way they want. For instance, I may describe someone’s hair as blonde, but leave the tone and shade to the reader’s imagination.

There are a lot of references to pop culture and things that I enjoy in the story. If you catch one, I hope you enjoy it.

Finally, this is the first story I have ever really written. I've written short things for school before, but I've never really put together a full book before.

Thank you again for taking the time to read this story. I hope that I can provide you with an entertaining story that you will enjoy to the last page.

*  *  *

Chapter 1 - The Test

My name is Brett Campbell, and I have hated tests my entire life. This midterm was going to be the worst. Advanced Biology, what am I even doing in this class? It wasn’t even required.

Mr. Bailey was a great teacher, but I don't think even he could prepare us for this test properly.

From day one in his class, he had warned us about this test. This test could be more important than the final, yet he had not given us any idea of what was going to be on it.

As he began to pass out the test, one thing in particular stood out in my mind. It was only one page! The tension in the class noticeably lifted. As he placed the test on my desk, I noticed it didn't even take up the whole page. A gasp came from somewhere in the front of the classroom.

As the rest of the class finished reading what was written on the paper, we turned to look at our teacher for confirmation.

Moving back to the front of the classroom, Mr. Bailey finally spoke. "This is a rare opportunity, and it's one that I am privileged to be able to teach."

"Does this mean we don't have to take a real test today?" asked a girl in the front.

"A question and answer test, no," he said. "But if you want to participate in the DNA study section of this class using your own DNA, we will be providing samples today.

"The forensics lab is very busy, and only one class a year is given this opportunity," he continued. "To participate, just fill out the release form and turn it in. If you do not want to use a sample of your own, an example set of results will be provided for the study."

Relieved, I quickly filled out the release form and turned it in. Those of us who had signed the release forms were then taken to another room where DNA samples were taken.

*  *  *

Chapter 2 - The Results

A week later, we got the results back. Learning about DNA with your own as an example was quite different than how they taught it in high school! The course material was unique to me, and I thought that was what made it so interesting.

The most interesting part, however, came about two weeks after we started the study.

Walking into class, I noticed a man and a woman who looked out of place. They were dressed neatly, and looked very professional. They were talking to Mr. Bailey who, upon seeing me, waved me over to his desk. Upon reaching his desk, he introduced me to the man and woman.

"Brett, this is Agent Harris and this is Agent Johnson," he said, motioning to the man and woman respectively.

"Agents, this is Brett Campbell."

"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Campbell," Agent Johnson said while extending her hand. "If you'll come with us, we can get started."

"Get started?" I asked, looking to Mr. Bailey for clarification.

"Go with them and they will explain everything," he said while walking us to the door.

I followed the two agents out the door and down the hall. They opened the door to an unused classroom and ushered me in. Inside the room there were two other students from my biology class.

Nikki was a very beautiful blonde girl whom I had often wished I had the willpower to actually talk to. I'd gone to school with her since elementary school, but I never was able to get to know her. Justin was the other student, and I didn't know him at all.

After the agents introduced themselves and gave us the chance to do the same, they pulled out three binders; each binder had one of our names on the front.

As Agent Harris passed the binders out to us, Agent Johnson began to explain, "The three of you are here today because of the results of your DNA tests. Agent Harris and I represent an organization that can offer you a great opportunity. If you choose to accept our proposal, you will be guaranteed a job with a six figure income after your training has been completed."

Wow, I thought, this must be my lucky day.

"Doing what?" Nikki asked.

"Working for the Agency," Agent Harris responded.

"As a spy?" I asked excitedly.

"Well, yes," said Agent Johnson.

"Cool, where do I sign up?"

"It's not quite that simple, there are conditions to this proposal. For one, you will be 'enhanced' to become a super agent. This enhancement, however, is experimental."

"So we are going to be guinea pigs," Justin spoke for the first time.

"This procedure is experimental, but it has been used successfully before. Nobody has been killed or handicapped in any way.

"The binders we have given to you contain more information about the procedure. What we are asking is for you to thoroughly read the binders and make a decision. We will be back tomorrow for an answer. Until then, we ask that you keep an open mind. Thank you for your time."

With that, the two agents left us alone in the room. I looked over at Nikki and Justin. Nikki appeared to be as excited as I was, but Justin had a weird gleam in his eye that I did not know what it meant.

"Do you think it's real?" I asked, finally getting the nerve to talk to Nikki.

"I don't know, but it sounds exciting," she answered. "Anyway, I'd love to stay and chat, but we’d better get back to class."

I groaned. "I guess so."

The two of us grabbed our binders and headed back to Mr. Bailey's classroom, leaving Justin behind to his own thoughts.

*  *  *

Chapter 3 - The Decision

When I finally got home from classes that night, I immediately sat down and opened the binder. The first part of the binder contained the DNA results that I had been given in class. But the second and third sections really caught my eye.

Section 2 contained a detailed lab report from someone. I assumed that it must have come from the Agency lab because it had many notes relating the results of the DNA test to some kind of procedure that was not specifically mentioned in the document. Not being able to make sense of the notes, I skipped through the pages until I reached the end of Section 2.

On the last page was a summary of my DNA results and how they matched up with the procedure. The final paragraph caught my eye:

Subject Rating: 98%
Subject Summary: The subject has the highest match rating that we have seen yet. In fact, the subject would have been given a 100% rating if not for one small genetic anomaly on chromosome [restricted]. If the subject agrees to undergo the procedure, there is a 99.9% chance of success if the anomaly is corrected. However, if the anomaly is not corrected during the procedure, the success rate drops dramatically to 65%. We would encourage doing whatever is possible to persuade this subject to enter the program. We believe that the subject could gain nearly 100% of the enhancements that the procedure can grant. We also suggest fixing the anomaly on chromosome [restricted]. Fixing the anomaly would not be hard, and the benefits gained from doing so would greatly improve the program.

Wow, that wasn’t what I was expecting to read! The Agency thought I was special! Although, learning that I had an anomaly of some kind brought down some of the excitement.

Turning the page, I came to Section 3. It was all about the procedure.

It was obviously written by a scientist who had helped develop it. It was boring to read. However, since I might be undergoing the procedure, I forced myself to read about it.
Essentially, the procedure was nothing more than an injection. A specially created retro-virus was injected into the body. This retro-virus then proceeded to 'optimize' the person’s DNA. It rewrote the DNA to bring out the best in the person’s genes.

The scientists still were not 100% certain how the virus worked, but they had proved that it is safe, for certain people. The retro-virus tended to react badly for people with certain DNA.

Any person who was to undergo the procedure was given a rating before the procedure was administered. Anything above an 80% was considered acceptable. The binder also showed the success rates of the procedure.

So far, the success rate had been 100%; nobody had died. However, the amount of 'enhancement' varied between subjects.

Most subjects saw an increase in strength and dexterity. They were faster and stronger. Some individuals had seen 'other' enhancements, but the binder didn't go into detail on what those enhancements were.

This whole thing seemed like a dream. I not only was going to become stronger and faster, and better looking, but I also was getting a job with a six figure income. I couldn't see a downside.

However, even with my mind pretty much made up, I called my mother to tell her about it. She was very wary of me undergoing the procedure, and told me that she wanted to see the binder when she got home.

When she arrived home, she told me to grab the binder while she made dinner. While dinner was cooking, she took the time to read through the binder. She was impressed that I had made an impression on the Agency, but she was very worried about the consequences if I accepted their offer. We were still talking about it when my dad and the rest of my family made it home for dinner. We mentioned the offer I was given over dinner, but my sister was the only one of my siblings who showed any real interest in the offer.

After dinner, my mom, my dad, my sister, and I thoroughly studied the contents of the binder. After discussing all the good and bad points that we knew of, my family and I concluded that this could be a great benefit to me. I didn't have all the answers that I needed to have. There were definitely some questions that I would need to ask the agents tomorrow. With that thought in mind, I headed for bed.

*  *  *

Chapter 4 - Acceptance

The next day, I was once again called out of class to meet with the agents. When we were all in the room, Agent Johnson spoke first.

"Any questions before you make your final decisions?" she asked.

Nikki was the first to ask a question that I think we all wanted an answer to. "What will happen to us if we do decide to undergo the procedure?"

"If you choose to undergo the procedure," Agent Johnson stated, "you will be moved to a military installation within the next week to begin preparations.

"You will still have full contact with your families by means of telephone and Internet," she continued, "but you will not be able to leave the base until after the procedure has been completed."

"How long will that take?" Justin asked.

"The procedure itself takes 4-5 days to complete its work, depending on the individual, and the amount of work that the procedure is required to perform," Agent Johnson explained. "Including the testing and preparation time, I would expect you three to be back in school two weeks from now."

"That's it?" I asked. "I thought we would be out longer, maybe for training or something."

"Because we value education at the Agency, the three of you will finish out the last few weeks of the school year before we start the regular training," Agent Harris replied. "This will give you a chance to adapt to any changes that you may go through during the procedure."

Why was he staring at me when he said that?

"Changes?" I had to ask.

"Some people undergo small physical transformations during the procedure, such as bigger muscles or weight loss. Nikki and Justin both fit into this category according to their profiles," Agent Johnson explained.

"You, on the other hand, are in for some bigger changes," she continued. "It would be beneficial for you to get used to the changes before we start the training."

"Are you talking about the anomaly?"

"Yes."

"I wanted to ask about that too. What is it?" I asked.

"I can't go into specifics about it at this meeting."

"Why not?"

She hesitated slightly before answering, "It's personal. I don't think you want to discuss it right now. We can talk about it after this meeting."

The two agents went on to answer all of the other questions we had. Finally it seemed that they were ready to discuss items other than questions.

"Now," Agent Johnson said, "if there aren't any more questions, how about some answers? Justin, do you want to go through the procedure?"

"Yes."

"Nikki, what about you?"

"Yes, I do."

"Alright then, that just leaves you, Brett. Do you want to go through the procedure?"

"I don't know," I replied truthfully. "I'm still worried about the anomaly. I don't know what it means well enough to make a decision."

"Brett," Agent Johnson said while sitting down next to me and taking my hands in hers. "If you decide to go through with the procedure, I have been tasked to be your handler for the time being. Your case is special, as you know, and we want to provide you with the best care possible.

"I have seen your records and I have seen your profile. This anomaly, if corrected, will change your life drastically. But, I think you will be happy with the results. I cannot tell you more about the anomaly unless you agree to undergo the procedure, but everything I've read about you and everything I've learned since meeting you leads me to believe that it will be best for you."

I stared into her eyes. I thought maybe she was just trying to persuade me to join the program at any cost, but her eyes told me differently. It looked like she genuinely meant what she said.

"All right, I guess I'll do it."

The smile on her face was so big when I said that, I just knew I had made the right decision.

"Great!" she beamed while standing up. "Because all three of you are 18, we will not need to get your parents to sign anything.

"So," she said as she moved back to her briefcase at the front of the room. "I have your agency contracts here. You can read and sign them here if you like, or you can take them with you, look over them with your family or a lawyer, and then bring them with you when we leave for the base."

She then handed each of us a small stack of paper. After reading through it, I decided to sign it there. In essence it was just an employment contract. Everything from specifying an income of $300,000 a year (that was very surprising) to confidentiality agreements was included. Justin and Nikki also signed their agreements.

When that was finished, Agent Harris gave us all a second packet. "This is your introduction packet. It includes everything you need to know about the agency as well as instructions for what to bring with you on Monday."

"On Monday," he continued, "we would like to meet here at nine o'clock. We will then head out to the base where the procedure will take place. See you all then."

With that, we were sent back to class for the remainder of the day.

*  *  *

Chapter 5 - A Final Goodbye?

I spent the weekend with my family. My parents and my sister were worried about what would happen to me, but my brothers just thought that it was cool that I was going to be trained to be a super spy. The possibility of gaining "powers" of some sort was also exciting to them. Frankly, it scared me more than it excited me.

Monday morning seemed to come way too fast. I was very nervous while getting ready for school.

What if something went wrong? Could I die? Would the "changes" be more than I could handle?

The binder said that no one had been harmed or killed during the procedure. The scientists in charge seemed to be very careful when it came to finding the right candidates, and were even more careful when performing the procedure, but it was still a scary proposition.

After giving my family hugs and saying goodbye, my mom drove me to school. Since it was still another hour before we were supposed to meet with the agents, she reluctantly dropped me off so I could go to my first period class. I had to promise to call her every night before she would let me get out of the car.

I didn't really know what the lesson was about during class. I was too busy thinking about all the possibilities of what could happen over the next week.

As the bell rang and class was dismissed, I nervously headed to the classroom where I was to meet the agents. When I opened the door I found that I was the last to arrive.

"Okay," Agent Harris said, "Are you all ready to go?"

"I guess so," Nikki replied.

The agents led us outside to a black car. We piled our small overnight bags into the trunk and then got in. After a short drive, we pulled into a hangar at a small airport. Inside the hangar was a small corporate jet.

Up until this point I hadn't thought about where the military base would be. I thought that we would be heading to a local base somewhere here in Utah. It came as a shock to me that we were going to be traveling far enough to require a jet! I had a sudden feeling that I was going to get homesick.

Soon we grabbed our bags and boarded the plane. While we were being seated the engines came to life and soon we were on our way to our destination.

*  *  *

---

Author Note: Please email me at AngelJediGirl (at) gmail (dot) com before posting this story to any other site. Posting to a pay site is prohibited.

Comments and suggestions are also welcome at the above email address.

*  *  *
Chapter 6 - Genesis

The plane ride was actually quite short, only about 15 minutes. I guessed that the plane was used only to expedite the trip. I felt better knowing that we were either still in Utah or else not far from it.

As we got off the plane, I noticed that we were at a small base in the middle of the mountains. The canyon was surrounded on three sides by high mountain walls. The other side appeared to have a man-made wall running the width between the sides.

The canyon was fairly long, long enough for a full size runway at least, and our plane had taxied to a stop at the deep end of the runway. A large building stood before us, with a few cars parked off to the side. Other than the building, the runway, and the far off wall on the other side of the canyon, there wasn't a single man-made structure in sight.

The building looked like a large ski lodge. Built with a lot of wood and natural looking materials, it looked almost like a large cabin. Agent Johnson started leading us toward a set of doors in the center.

"Welcome to Project Genesis," she said. "During your procedure and during your employment with the Agency, this place will act as your base of operations and a home away from home. There are three other bases around the nation, but this is the Alpha Complex. It is from here that Project Genesis is headquartered.

"After you have recovered from the procedure, we will give you a full tour and introduce you to the rest of the crew. For now, we will show you to the rooms you will be staying in, give you a chance to unpack, and then we'll get started on the preparations for the Procedure. Follow me."

The agents led us into the building. Just inside the doors was a nicely furnished lobby that would have been right at home in a five star hotel! From here we were led down a hallway off to the side that appeared to contain hotel rooms. I guessed that this was the dormitory.

"Here we are," Agent Harris said as we stopped about half way down the hall. "Brett, you will be in room 112, Nikki, you will be right next door here in room 110. Justin, you will be across the hall in room 111. Here are your room keys.

She gave each of us a keycard as she continued. "Each room contains a small kitchenette, a lounge area, a bedroom, and a full size bath. You can all go in and have a look around. Once you've had a chance to settle in and unpack, we'll be back to get you started on preparations for the procedure. See you all in about half an hour."

With those words, Agents Harris and Johnson headed back down the hallway we came in. All of us just watched them walk away for a bit before we turned toward our doors.

I wasn't sure what I was expecting to find behind the door, but it certainly wasn't what was there. When I opened my door I knew that they must have put me in the wrong room.

The walls were a pale pink. A darker pink was used occasionally around the room to help offset the color. The room I was in appeared to be the lounge. Off to the side of the room was a small kitchen area. Two doors at the back of the room lead to the bathroom and the bedroom. There was a third door on one of the walls that was locked without any apparent way to open it.

The lounge and the kitchen were very well furnished: state of the art appliances in the kitchen area, a nice love seat and recliner combo in the lounge, and a large TV hanging on the wall next to the door.

After looking around briefly, I headed into the bedroom. It was furnished nearly the same way. The pink theme carried into this room as well. The bed was a queen size, and was made up in what appeared to be a pale pink bed spread over some darker pink satin sheets. The bedspread and the sheets both had white lace trimming the edges. Next to the bed was a white desk that was under a large window looking out on a small lake that I assumed must be at the rear of the building. There was also a white vanity in the room, fitting with the girly theme. Next to the vanity was another door.

I walked over and opened it to find a small walk in closet. The closet was empty except for a pale pink robe and a pink track suit. There were a number of drawers on one wall of the closet making up a dresser, but a quick inspection showed them to be empty as well.

I dropped my bag on the bed and headed out to look into the bathroom. It was predominately white, but it also had pink highlights to continue the theme. A large Jacuzzi tub and a separate shower stall filled up one wall, while the sink and toilet filled up the wall adjoining it. The wall that contained the door had a large floor length mirror on it that complimented the smaller one over the sink.

I was still trying to comprehend how feminine the place was when I heard a knock on the outer door.

Opening it revealed Nikki who said, "Can you believe these rooms? Oh wow, your room is beautiful!"

"It's really feminine," I replied.

"Yeah, it is. You don't like it?"

"That's just it. I do like it. It would be perfect if I was a girl, but..."

"Hmm. Well, my room is the same way. It's almost like they read my mind and created an apartment that I would love. Mine looks like it's pretty much the same as yours, but in purple instead of pink."

"Well, I guess I can live with this for a week," I said.

At that moment Justin opened his door. "Whoa," he said as he joined us at the entrance to my door. "What's with all the pink?"

"I don't know, I think they must have made some kind of mistake." I replied.

"Well, my room is perfect, I'm glad they didn't screw it up like they did yours. See what I mean?" He said as he motioned us to look in his room.

His room was the exact opposite of mine. While my room was very feminine, his room screamed "I am male. Hear me roar." I swear, I heard it.

I couldn't believe that they could make a mistake like this on my room, when they appeared to get the other two rooms perfect for their occupants!

I was still reeling in those thoughts when Agent Johnson spoke up from behind us. "Are you guys ready to get started?"

"I guess so, but I think you made a mistake with my room," I said.

"Oh? Well, we can talk about that later. Right now, we need you all to go change into the track suits you will find in your closets. Once you've done that, meet back out here."

"But..."

"No buts, Brett. We can sort everything out later. Right now, we are on a time schedule."

"Fine."

I resigned myself to my fate while walking back into my suite and into my bedroom.

I pulled the track suit out of my closet and laid it on the bed. The color was beautiful, but I didn't want other people to know that pink was my favorite color. It just wasn't manly.

The track suit was pink, but had white stripes up the legs. Along with the pants there was a white tank top. It was very feminine though, because it was cut to allow for cleavage, and was trimmed in a very beautiful lace. There was also a matching jacket to go with the pants. I was surprised that there wasn’t a pair of panties or a sports bra with the set.

After debating with myself for a second, I realized that I didn’t really have a choice in the matter. I stripped down to my boxers and decided I’d better put the suit on. I started with the pants. They fit quite snug, especially over my boxers, but they didn’t look wrong or anything. Next, I put on the tank top. It was definitely different than any tank top I had ever worn before. It was quite snug, even in the chest, surprisingly. The lace around the collar hid the little hair that I had on my chest. I put the jacket on to help cover the lace. I was pretty sure that Justin was going to tease me about this to no end.

Surprisingly, I felt really comfortable in the track suit. I went into the bathroom to look at myself in the full length mirror. I was expecting to see a boy in girl’s clothes, but surprisingly, it didn’t look that way.

Granted, I definitely didn’t look like a girl, but for some reason, the clothes just looked right somehow. I guess I kind of looked androgynous.

Opening my outside door I found that I was the last one to make it back into the hall.

Immediately I had an urge to run back into my room and take off the suit when I saw the look of surprise on Justin's face. It didn’t take him long to burst out laughing.

"Wow," he said, "You really got screwed."

"Don’t listen to him," Nikki whispered in my ear as he started laughing again. "I think you look good."

Both Nikki and Justin were wearing something similar to me. Nikki appeared to have the exact same outfit, except she had on a white sports bra instead of the tank top I wore. Justin had a tank top on under his jacket, but his whole suit was just totally different in the way it was cut. Standing next to him made it quite obvious that my track suit was designed for a girl.

Once Justin was able to control his laughter, Agent Harris spoke.

"Alright, follow me. We are going to head down to the labs for the initial test work that will be required before the procedure. You will be given a small break at noon for lunch, and then we will move on to the physical benchmark this afternoon."

With that he started walking back up the hall the way we came, expecting us to follow.

*  *  *
Chapter 7 - Pain Before Pleasure

When we reached the lobby, I was surprised to see someone sitting in one of the chairs. Up until now, I hadn’t seen anyone other than the plane crew outside of our little group.

As we approached, he stood up. He was pretty impressive. I’d guess that he was probably a couple of years older than us, maybe 6' tall and 235 lbs. or so, but he looked as solid as a brick. His dark brown hair had some lighter highlights that looked completely natural. His eyes, on the other hand, were the most amazing blue I had ever seen.

"Guys," Agent Harris said, "This is Ice. He will be your team leader once you have finished going through the procedure."

"Nice to meet you all, you can call me Jay," he said. "You must be Justin," he continued while offering his hand to Justin.

"Finally, a real man on the team with me," Justin replied while shaking his hand.

That hurt.

Ice just ignored the comment as he turned to Nikki. "Welcome to the team, Nikki."

"Thank you," she replied with a smile while shaking his hand.

"And you must be our new prodigy," he said while offering me his hand. "It will be very interesting to see how the procedure affects you."

I shook his hand without speaking. For some reason, his comment and the look he was giving me made me very nervous.

"Well," Ice continued, "I just wanted to introduce myself. I'll see you all again after the procedure has been started. See you all later."

He gave a small wave and then headed down another hall off of the lobby area.

Agent Harris led us over to a bank of elevators and pushed the down button. "The labs are quite large and are built underground to help keep the natural look of things above. We also have a number of recreational facilities down here that you will be able to use."

The elevator doors opened and I noticed that there was only one floor listed below the main level. Agent Harris pressed the button for the level and the elevator began to move.

When the doors opened, we all gasped in surprise. We stepped out of the elevator into a large courtyard! There were plants and fountains all over! All along the walls of the courtyard were glass sliding doors that led to different departments, or sections! The whole place looked like a very opulent mall!

The other thing that caught our attention were the people. The majority of the people walking around appeared to be in white lab coats, or some other type of laboratory garb. Agent Harris informed us that the population of Alpha Complex was primarily scientists and their families.

When the agents were finally able to get our attention back, they led us toward the glass doors that had the words 'Medical' on them. Once inside we were led past a waiting room area and directly into a conference room. Inside there were a man and a woman–who looked to be in their late sixties–waiting for us to arrive. As we entered, they stood and greeted us.

"Welcome to Project Genesis," the man said. "I am Dr. Eugene Young, and this is my wife, Dr. Grace Young. We are physicians and the chief scientists here at Alpha Complex and we will be in charge of your procedures."

We shook hands with both of them and were ushered into seats around the conference table.

"Now, before we start, do you have any questions?" the doctor asked.

When none of us could really come up with a good question the doctor continued.

"Okay, the schedule for today is as follows. After we are finished here, each of you will be taken to an exam room where a full physical will be performed. The information and samples that we get from you during the exam will be used to create the retrovirus for the procedure. That should take up the remainder of the time before lunch.

"After lunch you will meet with your handlers for the Pre-Procedural briefing. That will take about an hour.

'After that we will do the physical benchmark testing. This testing will give us an idea of what you are capable of physically. This information will then be compared to the Post-Procedural benchmark testing to help us understand the changes that the procedure will perform on you.

"If all goes as planned, you should be free around five or five-thirty for dinner, and then free time after that until bed.

"Tomorrow morning, we will meet again around eight. The Procedure will be started at about eight-thirty."

After referencing some papers he continued. "Each of you will be kept in Medical for a while to make sure the Procedure is working correctly. After that is confirmed, you will be able to return to your suites. Justin and Nikki, you will probably be released around noon. Brett will be here a bit longer to make sure his anomaly is being corrected.

"For the next week or so after that, you will have very light schedules. You won't necessarily be bedridden or confined to your rooms, but the Procedure does a good job of wiping out your energy levels.

"Once the Procedure has been completed, we will repeat what happens today, and then provide some basic training before you return home to finish the school year. Any questions about the schedule?"

"Not really, sir," Nikki replied, "I guess we are all just a little nervous."

"That’s understandable, dear," the female Dr. Young replied. "Your handlers are also trained therapists and can help you through any issues you may have. They are solely dedicated to your team, so they should be available at any time. Brett and Nikki, your handler will be Agent Johnson. Justin, Agent Harris will act as your handler. They are here for you. Talk to them if you need to."

"Okay," we all replied.

"Now," the male doctor said. "If you would follow me we will get started."

We were led out of the conference room and then down a short hall to some examination rooms. We were then split up and taken into separate exam rooms.

Once inside, I was introduced to another doctor who introduced herself to me as Nina. Nina was probably in her late thirties, and she told me she had been a doctor for nearly 15 years.

"Now," she said, "We are going to start with some samples. To start, please take off your jacket."

I was a little hesitant to do so because it would expose more of the lace, and she apparently caught on quickly.

"Don’t worry, honey," she said. "I have been tasked to be your medical officer for the foreseeable future. I know about the anomaly and how it affects you. There are things you do not know yet, but that you will be very grateful for later. Hopefully you will consider me one of them. We will be working very closely with each other, so you don’t need to be ashamed about anything. I won’t laugh at you, and I certainly will not breach our confidentiality about you to others."

I hesitated a little longer, and then unzipped the jacket to reveal the tank top.

"See," she said, "There's nothing to worry about. And, by the way, that tank top is really nice."

I could feel myself blushing and when I looked over at her I could see a quirky little smile on her face. That just made me start laughing and she was quick to join in.

Nina was really good at putting my uneasiness to rest while she performed the needed tests. She took all kinds of samples from blood to urine and even a semen sample. Next she gave me a full physical. It was a little awkward when she had me turn my head and cough, but somehow she was able to keep me relaxed and at ease the whole time. When she finished, it was nearly twelve-thirty.

"All right," Nina said, "I will be here for the start of the Procedure, and then I will be checking in on you for the rest of the week. For now, you can head back out to the conference room. Once all of you are done being tested you will be shown to the cafeteria for lunch."

"Thank you, Nina," I said sincerely, "I’m glad that I’ve got such a great doctor on my case."

"Oh, sweetie," she said while giving me a motherly hug, "We haven’t even started the best part yet. Now go enjoy your lunch, I will see you again in the morning."

"Bye, Nina, see you tomorrow." I said as I walked out the door.

Justin was in the conference room when I got back. He gave me a small scowl and kept to himself while we waited for Nikki to finish.

Five minutes later Nikki came in with Agent Johnson.

"Finally," Justin said. "You two took forever."

"Maybe, but girls are just more concerned about their health." Nikki replied.

"That doesn't explain why he took nearly as long as you," he quipped while pointing at me.

"Oh, I thought you were talking about us," Nikki said while motioning between her and Agent Johnson.

"Whatever, can we get some lunch now?" Justin asked.

"Yes, come on and I'll show you where the cafeteria is."

Agent Johnson led us out of the Medical section and down the courtyard to a door aptly named 'Cafeteria.'

Inside was just that - a large cafeteria. Scattered around the many tables was an assortment of scientists and families. But at one table there was a group of 5 people who were eyeing us closely as we headed toward the line. I noticed that Jay was one of them, which made me think that they must be another team that had gone through the Procedure.

The selection was quite extensive and a little while later we all had a tray of food and were looking for a place to sit when Jay waved us over to his table.

As we approached, Jay stood up and started to introduce us. "Everyone, this is Justin, Nikki, and of course Brett," he said while indicating who each of us was.

When he was done introducing us, he turned to the group sitting at the table. Other than Jay, there were two other guys and two girls. All four of them appeared to be in their mid twenties and they all appeared to be in excellent shape. "And this is the other team that is currently stationed at Alpha Complex."

Pointing to the tall red-headed girl, Jay said, "This is Fire."

"You can call me Theresa. Fire is just my codename," she said.

"Sitting next to her," Jay continued, "is Tom."

Tom was a huge black man. I’d say he was probably close to 7 feet tall, and all his muscles alone probably weighed close to 300 pounds. He had a shaved head that added to the fearsome look. "Hello, most people call me the Rock," he said in a deep voice.

"The other two are the twins, Lary and Cary."

"Pleased to meet you," Lary said. He and his sister definitely looked like twins. Both looked to be about 5 1/2 feet tall. Both were very slim, probably weighing in around 130 a piece. Both also had long dark hair that fell around their shoulders. They might have been identical, if it wasn’t for the very full beard that Lary sported.

"Hello," Cary added and Lary gave a small wave.

Lunch was really nice. We managed to get to know the other team, and Jay, quite well. I felt that the 8 of us could all be friends easily, despite the small age difference.

It was apparent to me that the 5 Post-Procs, as they called themselves, knew something about me that I didn’t even know. All throughout lunch I caught them giving me a knowing look, but they refused to explain when I asked them about it.

*  *  *
Chapter 8 - It's A Wonderful Life

After we were finished eating, Agent Johnson led us back to the Medical section. She asked Nikki and me to wait in a conference room while she led Justin to find Agent Harris. When she got back, she closed and locked the door behind her.

"Now," she said, "This meeting is called the Pre-Procedural briefing. Now is the time to talk about what will happen tomorrow. Here is where we lay everything on the table so that you can get a full picture of what is happening. We will also discuss Brett's anomaly and how it affects the two of you."

Finally, I thought.

"Okay," she continued, "Since we are going to be spending a lot of time together, I want you to call me Jill. We are all members of Genesis A2, but we are also going to be a smaller close knit group inside of the larger team. But we will get to that in a bit. Okay so far?"

"Yes,” we both replied.

"We are going to start with Brett's anomaly, because it will affect most of what we are going to discuss."

"What does anomaly mean?" Nikki asked.

"Regarding the Procedure, an anomaly means that one of the chromosomes in the body does not conform to the score ranking of the others. This chromosome is usually enough to throw out the DNA set it is attached to. In other words, an anomaly is a chromosome that fails the DNA profiling test while every other chromosome passes. If the anomaly didn’t exist, the person would be an ideal candidate for the Procedure.

"Fortunately, most anomalies can be corrected during the procedure, like Brett's can."

"So what exactly is my anomaly?" I asked.

"Your anomaly is a little different than most. Most anomalies are minor, and fixing them usually does not require any changes that the host will see or feel. Your anomaly, however, is going to be a big change.

"Your anomaly is located on the 23rd chromosome. Do you know what that means?"

My biology classes came rushing back to me, and combined with my room and clothes, it became painfully obvious.

"Oh!" I exclaimed as my eyes opened wide in shock. "Are you serious?"

"Yes," Jill replied.

I sat there stunned! This was like a dream come true! Jill must have seen it in my eyes, and here grin grew to match the size of mine.

"What are you two talking about?" Nikki asked while staring at the two of us like we were leaving her out of an inside joke.

I just kind of sat there in a happy daze as Jill explained it to Nikki.

"The 23rd chromosome," she said, "Is the chromosome that controls gender. You know, the whole XX/XY thing?"

Nikki nodded with understanding. "So Brett is going to become a girl?"

"Yes," I replied.

"Well, that certainly explains the clothes and room." Her eyes suddenly got wider. "So that’s why everyone is treating you like a girl."

"They have?" I asked. Other than the clothes and the room, I couldn’t think of another thing that would indicate what she said was true.

"Unfortunately, yes," Jill said. "We were trying to keep the details of your anomaly a secret until after you had undergone the procedure, but it was too easy to guess that this was going to happen."

"What do you mean?"

"Up until a couple of days ago, few people knew. However, as the information about the candidates for A2 - that’s you guys - was released to the departments so that they could start to prepare for your arrival, it was obvious that it was going to happen.

"Each Genesis team is made up of two men and two women. That alone was probably enough to give it away, but the fact that you were assigned to room 112 just confirmed it."

"How?" Nikki asked.

"The dormitory is basically divided in half, with girls on one side of the hall, and boys on the other. When you were assigned to a girl’s room, it was obvious that you were not going to be a boy for long. After that, the rumor mill started. Gender morphing, as many of the scientists call it, was always considered to be a possibility using the procedure. It has been accomplished using lab mice, but you are going to be the first human to undergo this change. Once the scientists learned about it, it became the talk of the day."

"Oh great, everyone is going to know about me," I moaned. I didn’t want to be treated any differently than the other girls if I was going to go through with this.

"Don’t worry," Jill said. "The majority of the people in the Project will not care one way or the other if you are female. They will react to the person you will become because they won’t know any difference. They may know that you used to be male, but they won’t see anything but a teenage girl blossoming into womanhood. Those people who will know both sides of you, such as Agent Harris and me, and even Nina, were hand selected because it will not be a problem for us."

"What about Jay?" I asked.

"Jay wasn’t supposed to know beforehand, but he appears to be handling it well. In fact, after we sat with them during lunch, I got the impression that all of them will accept the change easily. It might have something to do with the fact that they all went through changes as well."

"So," Nikki interrupted us, "if everyone else is handling it so well, why are you, Brett?"

I was terrified that someone was going to ask that! Before I had a chance to come up with an answer, Jill spoke.

"In most cases," she said, "If the anomaly was going to change the gender of the host when corrected, we probably would not select the host to undergo the procedure, especially if they were going from male to female. Brett, on the other hand, has two things going for him that made us accept him as a candidate. One, if the anomaly is corrected during the procedure, Brett will end up with the highest DNA rating we've ever come across. And two," she paused for a second to look at me. I stared at her, and when I nodded, she continued. "This is what he wants."

There it was! The most beautiful girl in my school now knew my deepest and darkest secret! Instead of the revulsion I expected to see coming from her, she actually lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Really?" she said while looking at me. When I nodded slightly, she jumped up and gave me a big hug!

"This whole time I was afraid that I was going to be the only girl my age here. Even when I learned that you were going to become a girl, I figured you would fight it, and I would still basically be the only girl. Now, if you truly want to be a girl, it won’t be like that at all!"

All I could do was stand there and hug her back. It was then that I realized I was crying.

"What’s wrong?" Nikki asked when she noticed.

"Nothing," I replied with tears in my eyes. "I’m just so happy! I only wish that my mom and my sister could be here."

"Well, you can call them later tonight and give them the good news," Jill said as she joined us in our embrace. "Right now we need to continue the briefing so that we can finish getting you ready for tomorrow."

I couldn’t argue with that.

After we all settled down and took or seats again, Jill continued with the briefing.

"Now that we've gotten past the hard part, we can move on to some fun stuff. Brett, from this point on, you are officially female as far as the government is concerned. We will update all of your records to conform. The only thing we need from you is a name and a few signatures."

"Ooh, a new name!" Nikki exclaimed. "We'll make sure to come up with a great one for you. Let's see, you could probably make a good Ashley..."

"Actually, Nikki," I interrupted, "I’ve already got a name picked out."

"Oh," she said dejectedly. "I guess you’ve had time to think about this." Just as quickly though, she smiled again. "So, what is it?"

"Jasmine Rose Campbell," I replied with a huge smile on my face. I still couldn’t believe this was happening!

"That is so beautiful," she said while giving me another hug.

Jill also gave me a big smile as she finished writing something on some papers in front of her. "I just need you to sign these forms and it will be official."

She showed me the forms and walked me through what each one meant before I signed them. Once they were signed she shook my hand as she spoke. "Congratulations, Jasmine."

"Thanks," I replied, "but you can call me Jaz for short."

Everybody seemed to be in an upbeat mood as we continued the briefing. Jill told us everything we wanted to know, and some we didn’t, about the Procedure. Apparently there were some unsanitary parts that we would need to go through. She didn’t give us the specifics, because they wouldn’t be known until the retrovirus has been created. She said we would get the specifics in the morning.

*  *  *
Chapter 9 - Pain...and Pleasure?

The briefing concluded a little after one o’clock, and Jill led us out of the Medical wing and down the courtyard to a set of double doors with the words 'Gymnasium' on it. Inside the doors was another small lobby with three doors on the back wall. Nobody was currently there. The glass door in the middle of the wall was labeled 'Office' and clearly led to an office. On the two opposite ends of the room, in the corners, were the two other doors. The one on the right was labeled 'Men' and the one on the left was labeled 'Women.'

Before I even had a chance to do anything, Jill grabbed my hand and started pulling me toward the women's locker room.

"Jill..." I hissed.

"Jaz," she said after stopping and turning. "You are a young woman now. You have every right to be in here. Besides, we've closed down the gym for your benchmark tests, so no one else will be in there."

I was still scared to death as she dragged me toward the locker room, but I didn’t really resist after that. I did notice that Nikki stayed behind me in case I tried to bolt.

Once we were inside the locker room, it was evident that Jill wasn’t lying. The locker room was large, but it was completely deserted. Jill led us over to some lockers.

"You will be issued permanent lockers later, but for now you can use these guest lockers." As she said this, she opened two lockers and I couldn’t help but notice that there was a ladies one piece swimsuit, a sports bra, and a pair of gym shorts in both lockers.

Jill was quick to speak before I could say anything. "The first part of the test will require the use of the gym outfit. Don’t worry, Jaz, we will make sure that you are presentable. There will be a second part in the pool, and we will come back to change into the suits. So, Nikki you can go and get dressed around the corner if you don’t feel comfortable being around Jaz before the Procedure. Jaz, follow me over here to the showers. We need to get rid of some hair and hide some things before you can get dressed."

She grabbed a small bag out of my locker and then started pulling me again. We went around a corner into a shower area.

"Take off your clothes," she said while rummaging around in the bag. When I just stood there, she continued. "Come on, we're both girls here. We don’t have time to waste."

I reluctantly started to strip. I had never been naked in front of a girl before! I stopped when I was down to my boxers, but a glare from Jill soon had them on the ground as well.

"Wow," she said while passing me a bottle, "You could probably pass without much help. Here, spread this all over."

"What is it?" I asked.

"It's a fast acting depilatory. Spread it on and you’ll be hair-free in minutes," she replied.

"Oh," I said as I started spreading it on my legs.

"Once the procedure has been finished you’ll have the same hair patterns as any girl your age, but for now, we'll have to work with it. Once you finish putting it on, stand here and wait for me to get back. I’m going to check on Nikki."

She left as I continued to spread the goo up my legs, arms, and torso. When she finally came back she told me to go wash it off under one of the showers. I didn’t have a lot of hair on my upper body, but it was really weird to see my legs hairless. Running my hands down my hairless body was exhilarating, and I turned beet red when Jill noticed the semi-erection that the feeling had given me.

"Don’t worry," she said with a sly smile. "That won’t be a problem for much longer."

I thought she was talking about the procedure, but as I was drying off she pulled a fleshy colored pair of panties out of the bag and handed them to me.

"This will keep the bad boys from ruining your figure. Pull them up your legs and I'll show you."

I pulled them up my legs, but before I had them all the way up, she showed me how to push my testicles up into my body and then tuck my penis between my legs. When the tight panties were pulled up the rest of the way I looked as flat as a girl between my legs!

"Wow, when I tried this before, I could never get it this comfortable."

"I thought you might have had a little practice. Come on, let's get you dressed."

Walking back to the lockers was weird. I thought that it was going to be uncomfortable, but it was actually quite comfortable. Not having anything hanging between my legs was odd, but at the same time, it felt right as well.

When we reached the lockers, Nikki was sitting there in her gym clothes.

"Wow, it’s amazing how such a little change can make you look so feminine," she said.

I just stuck my tongue out at her and grabbed a second set of panties and a pair of shorts that Jill was holding for me. The second pair of panties would help hide the tight ones I had already put on.

They were pink of course. Pink had been my favorite color since I was a little kid. It looks like the powers that be knew that and were supplying me with it in bundles.

After I had the shorts on, Jill handed me the sports bra. It was white but had a small pink band around the edges.

"We won’t worry about breast forms during the tests, but it is lightly padded and should give the appearance of a small bust," Jill said.

It felt kind of weird after I put it on, but I concluded that it wouldn’t distract me while I was exercising or anything.

"Let's see," Jill said as she started doing something to my hair. "There isn’t really anything we can do with this, but we can make it look better. Here, take a look."

She dragged me over to a mirror and placed me in front.

"Wow!" I exclaimed. While I didn’t really look like a girl, I did look very feminine! My hair was way too short, but somehow it looked girly.

"Come on you two, we are already late. Doctor Weir won’t be very happy."

Jill led us to the other side of the locker room, where there was a short hallway around a corner that led into the gymnasium.

The gymnasium was a huge room that contained just about every workout machine ever made. There was also a track running around the outside of the exercise equipment on the right and an Olympic sized swimming pool set up to do laps on the left side of the room. There was also a second pool that contained a couple of diving boards and a few slides. A small kiddy pool and a hot tub were close to the locker room entrances.

Agent Harris and Justin were sitting on a bench between the two locker room entrances, waiting for us. Both of them looked really bored.

"Finally," I heard Justin say as we approached them. Once he saw me, however, his mood worsened. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Huh?" I replied.

"You’re still a guy! Why the hell are you letting them do this to you? You should be fighting all of this, you pansy!"

I was shocked! Everyone had been so supportive up until this point. I didn’t know how to react. Nikki was glaring at him, and was about to say something when Jill spoke.

"Jasmine," she said while glaring at him, "is legally and in my opinion, mentally female. You will show her the respect that you would show any other girl."

"Whatever," he said. "I should have known you weren’t a real man. No real man would allow this to happen to him."

Jill looked like she was ready to hit him, so I spoke up to keep her from doing something stupid. "You’re right, Justin," I said. "I’m not a real man. I never was. I didn’t know that until today, but it makes so much sense now. You can hate me all you want, but my life is being fixed, and your words and attitudes cannot take that away from me."

He just stared at me. Before anything else could happen, Agent Harris spoke to him. "Come on, Justin, let it go. We talked about this. You saw the data. Her brain is female. Of course she is going to accept this. You are going to need to learn to live with the fact that she is, and always will be, a girl."

"Whatever," he repeated, and then turned his back on me.

"Come on," Agent Harris said. "The doctors are waiting and we are already late. We can talk about this later."

"That just proves he isn’t a boy, he already takes so long getting ready, he is making us late," Justin said.

"Her!" Jill said menacingly.

"Whatever," Justin retorted as he turned to follow Agent Harris toward the middle of the gym. I noticed that Jill and Nikki were seething as we walked. I felt that way myself, as well.

There were a number of doctors waiting for us and as we approached, and one of them stepped forward to greet us. He looked like he could be my grandfather. His hair was almost completely white, with a few streaks of gray. Despite his apparent age, he did not seem frail.

"Welcome to the Benchmark tests," he said. "My name is Dr. Weir. Today we will find out what you are made of.

"Now, the test is split into three parts. Part one consists of running a mile around the track. Part two will involve the weight and endurance machines, and part three will be in the pool. Let's get started."

They really wore us out. After attaching a number of wireless sensors to us they had us do just about everything you could think of.

The mile was grueling. I’ve never been able to run very well and it showed as I came in a couple minutes behind the others.

As I was lying down trying to catch my breath, I heard Justin yell, "You even run like a girl."

I just ignored the comment. In fact, it kind of sounded like a compliment to me. But I heard a loud slap, which made me look up to see what had happened.

Justin had his hand on his left cheek, and Nikki was being pulled away from him. I didn’t want to get involved so I just laid my head back down.

About five minutes later, the doctors were ready for us to continue. They led Nikki and me over to one set of equipment and kept Justin away from us on another set.

These tests were nearly as bad as the running. If it didn’t involve weights, it involved endurance. Either way, I was ready to collapse when they called part two as finished.

Jill led us back into the locker room and to the lockers. I just collapsed on the bench.

I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew, Nikki was shaking me.

"Come on, Jaz," she said, "the faster we can get through this, the faster we can eat. Get dressed."

I sat up and noticed that she had already changed into her swimsuit. The purple one piece clung to her like a second skin, and she looked amazing.

"Wow!" I said, "I hope I look as good as you in a swimsuit when this is all over."

She smiled. "You will, sweetie, I promise."

I stood up and opened my locker. Sure enough, there was an identical pink swimsuit. It was a very beautiful pink, and the white stripes up the sides added a little bit of flare.

I stripped off my gym clothes and was standing there with only the flesh colored panties on, admiring the swimsuit. This was like a dream come true.

"Hurry!" Nikki complained again.

I sighed and pulled the suit up my legs. Once I had the suit on, there was no way I could keep myself from smiling. I moved over to the mirror to take a look.

I still didn’t really look like a girl, but the lack of a bulge between my legs would certainly give someone pause if they were trying to make the determination. The lack of breasts, however, didn’t help. I didn’t even have the small padding from the sports bra anymore. It really surprised me when that thought made me feel a little bit depressed.

"You really are a girl. You take longer to get ready than me," Nikki said from behind me.

The thought made me giggle. Giggle? I’d never done that before!

"See," Nikki said with a laugh, "You are going to have no problem with this."

"Thank you," I said while giving her a hug.

When we walked back out of the locker room, we found Jill, Agent Harris, and Justin waiting for us on the benches again.

When Justin saw me, his eyes nearly bulged out of his head.

"Wow," he said. "You really are a girl. You might have been acting like a boy, but where it counts, you are all girl." He couldn’t seem to take his eyes away from my crotch.

I just shrugged, which seemed to be enough of an answer to satisfy him. I knew he wasn’t dumb enough to believe what he had just said, but if thinking that way helped him to accept me, I wasn’t going to complain.

We headed over to the pool where the doctors were setting up more equipment. The swimming tests weren’t nearly as bad as the running, but I felt exhausted again when we were done. Swimming in a one piece was certainly different, but after a while, it just felt normal.

After the tests were complete and the doctors dismissed us, we headed back to the locker rooms. Before we went in, Jill stopped us and explained what was going to happen during the rest of the evening.

"It's already seven-thirty," she said. I was surprised! "The testing took longer than expected, so we will head to the cafeteria for dinner, and then we will take you back to your rooms. Lights out will be at nine, but you will be free to do what you want until then."

*  *  *
Chapter 10 - Pretty in Pink

Back in the locker room, Nikki and I were undressing when I brought up showering.

"Do you want me to wait until you are done?" I asked.

"Umm..." was her only response.

I could see that she was struggling with that decision. I knew that she wanted to support me, but I was still technically male.

"It's alright," I said. "I'll wait here. I may be legally female, but we both know I won’t be complete for a few days. Waiting is not going to hurt my feelings."

She looked relieved. "Okay," she said as she grabbed her towel and headed for the showers.

I took off all of my clothes and wrapped a towel around my waist. Then with a sly smile, I realized it should be around my chest, and changed it accordingly.

I sat down on the bench to wait for Nikki to finish, and thought about how I was going to tell my family. Mom and Dad knew that I felt that I should have been born female, but I didn’t think that anyone else knew. I wanted to tell my sister Cami so many times, but I could never get the courage to do it.

My brothers, on the other hand, were going to freak. Adam was very homophobic, and I didn’t have any idea how he was going to react. Ben might accept the changes, but then again, he might not. I had no idea what would happen with those two. Nevertheless, this was a dream come true and I wasn’t going to let them spoil it for me.

I heard Nikki approaching, so I stepped around the corner, heading for the showers.

"All yours," she said with a smile.

I smiled back and continued on to the showers. I kept it as short as possible, because I was really hungry, and even as nervous as I was, I also wanted to call home.

As I wrapped my towel around me after drying off and turned to leave the showers, I saw another pair of the flesh colored panties sitting on the bench waiting for me. After putting them on, I headed back to the lockers.

"Oh my gosh, she is going to love it!" I heard Nikki say as I approached.

"Shh, she's coming," I heard Jill whisper.

As I walked around the corner, they both squealed and hid something behind their backs.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing," was Jill's response. "Just put on what is in that bag first."

Inside the bag was a beautiful bra and panty set, pink of course. I had never seen any that looked as beautiful! It looked like they were made of lace.

The panties were cut in a low-rise bikini style. As I pulled them up my legs and settled them into place, I was amazed at how good they felt! The bra was the same way. I think I surprised the two of them when I was able to hook the bra behind my back.

Once I had the bra on, I turned to the two of them and asked, "Now what?"

Jill brought two boxes from behind her back and placed them on the bench. Opening one of the boxes revealed two breast forms.

"These are only on loan to you for the evening," Jill said as she pulled one out of the box. "We'll have another pair for you tomorrow until you grow your own."

The smile on my face must have been really big, because it brightened both of their faces. "I can’t wait!"

"Well," Jill said while inserting the forms into my bra. "These certainly seem to fit you really well. Just the right size."

"These things feel huge, how big are they?" I asked.

"These are a C-cup."

"Now for the fun part," Nikki squealed again. "This is so exciting. I can’t wait to take you shopping after the Procedure."

I was somewhat shocked when the idea of shopping sounded fun to me too.

Nikki opened the box that she had been hiding behind her back. Inside was a skirt and top. They were just as beautiful as everything else I had worn.

The skirt was a pleated A-line. It was white with pink lace trimming the hem and an attached belt seemed to be made of the same lace. The top was the same shade of pink that seems to have invaded my life recently. It was pretty much the opposite of the skirt, as it had a small band of white lace around the neckline.

Together, the two looked like they could be one of my favorite outfits, if I was a normal high school girl. Once I had them on, I decided that it was my favorite outfit. The fact that it was the only one I had was beside the fact.

"One more surprise and we can go eat," Jill informed me.

Opening the last box revealed a shoulder length blonde wig. It was beautiful as well. Jill placed it on my head and stepped back to take a look at me. "This is right," she said. "You really should have been born female."

She looked at me a little longer before she turned to Nikki. "Go finish getting ready. I'll do her makeup. We all want to eat."

Nikki looked like she really wanted to help, but the thought of food was too much and she took off toward the mirrors.

"Sit down and let me do this quickly. After the Procedure is completed we'll show you how to do it yourself."

I sat down and let her go at it. Applying makeup was never something that I had tried, so this was a new experience to me. She didn’t really do a whole lot, a little blusher, some eye liner, mascara, and lip gloss seemed to be enough to give her the result she wanted.

"Come on," she said as she put everything away and pulled me to my feet. "Let's take a look in the mirror."

All day long I had been getting progressively more feminine in appearance, but I was still shocked when I looked in the mirror.

Staring back at me was a girl. For the first time today, I actually looked like a girl!

"You look amazing!" Nikki said while giving me a hug. We almost looked like sisters now, I realized while looking into the mirror.

"I don’t know about you two, but I’m starving," Jill said while pulling me away from the mirror. "Let's go eat."

The guys were already waiting for us when we walked out of the locker room. It put a smile on my face when I saw both of their jaws drop slightly.

"Oh my gosh," was all Justin could say while he looked me over. I couldn’t really tell what he was thinking anymore. "I can’t believe that’s you."

That didn’t really sound like the Justin I’d been listening to all morning. I didn’t know if he was genuinely changing his attitude, or if he was being told to be nice.

"Well, let's hurry and get some dinner," Agent Harris said.

Walking in a skirt was a lot different than anything I was used to. It just felt open and less restrictive. I liked it. It really made me feel like a girl. There were a lot of people in the courtyard this time. Now that work was finished for the day, it looked like the courtyard became a place to hang out and talk with friends. Many of the people seemed to be waiting for someone to show up, before they headed into one of the recreational sections. I was a little nervous that someone would point at me and laugh, but either they thought I was a girl, or they knew of my plight. For the most part, I didn’t think many people even noticed me.

The cafeteria was pretty much empty at this time of night though, and the selection was quite limited. But after a full day’s workout, it was pure bliss. The five of us ate together, making small talk and trying to put everything out of our minds for a little bit.

The only disconcerting thing about supper was Justin. He wouldn’t stop looking at me. I wasn’t sure if he was getting over his issues with me being a boy or not, but it sure seemed that he was beginning to take an interest in me that a boy doesn’t normally show to another boy. I haven’t even started the Procedure yet, and boys were already chasing me!

*  *  *
Chapter 11 - Family Love

When we finished eating we headed back to our rooms. When we reached the elevators, I was surprised to see only a few people waiting for one to arrive. With all the activity down here, I thought they would be in bigger demand. It wasn’t until I looked around while we were waiting that I found out why. The two closest sections to the elevator were labeled as 'Residential A' and 'Residential B.' Most of the people working here probably lived in underground apartments. We must have been really special to the project to warrant above-ground rooms.

When the elevator opened into the lobby, we found Jay and the A1 team sitting and waiting for us.

"Wow, Jaz," Jay said. "You look great!"

"Thanks," I said. I could feel myself blushing, so I lowered my head a little.

"Jeez," Rock said. "That looked so feminine the way you hid your face behind your hair, are you sure you aren’t really a girl?"

I hadn’t meant to do anything like that! The wig just kind of fell around my face!

"I think she is," I heard Justin say. "You should have seen her in her swimsuit. If she's really male, then something is seriously wrong."

I was still blushing when Jay spoke again.

"Well, it looks like you will be able to fit right in after the Procedure," he said. "You already seem to have the instincts and mannerisms already."

That compliment really made me feel good. Nikki and Jill had both said the same thing, but I didn’t know if they were being truthful or not. I wasn’t consciously doing anything different, but maybe I was doing it subconsciously? I didn’t know. I just couldn’t wait for the next week to be over.

"Anyway," Jay continued. "There's still about an hour before you need to be in bed. Do you guys want to go to the small dance club we have here?"

"I'll go," Justin said. "I’m not ready for bed yet."

"Great, what about you girls?"

"I can’t," I said. "I really need to call home tonight."

"Oh, Okay," Jay sounded disappointed. "Nikki?"

"I’m sorry, Jay," she replied. "I’m too exhausted after all of those tests. I promise Jaz and I will take you up on your offer after the Procedure."

"Alright," he said with a little smile. "I’m looking forward to it."

"Just make sure he gets to sleep before nine," Agent Harris told Jay while pointing at Justin. "And no alcohol. We need to start the procedure in the morning."

"Yes sir, we'll take care of him." Jay promised.

Justin, Jay, and the rest of A1 got in the elevators and headed back down. The rest of us headed down the hallway toward the rooms.

"Remember," Jill said as we reached our rooms. "You need a full nights sleep. The more sleep you get tonight, the better off you will be in the morning when we start the procedure. If you need anything, you can find us in the next set of rooms back down the hall. Good night, and good luck, Jaz."

"Thanks," I said. "I hope I won’t need it."

"Do you want some support while you call them?" Nikki said.

"Don’t you want to call home?" I asked.

"Yeah, but I can stay with you if you need it."

"Um, well how about you go and call home, and maybe just check on me when you are done. I should be okay," I said.

"Alright, I'll see you in a bit."

We both went into our rooms, but we were a little surprised when we found that the doors that were locked before were open. It turned out to be a doorway between our two rooms.

"I’m leaving this open." Nikki said in a matter-of-fact way. I just shrugged and looked for the phone.

The phone was a cordless one that was sitting in a charger on a small table just outside the door to the bedroom. I picked it up and dialed as I walked into my bedroom and laid on my stomach on the bed. It rang a few times before my sister picked up the phone.

"Hello?" she said.

"Hi, Cami," I replied.

"Brett! Mom's been waiting for your call forever."

"I bet, but this is the first chance I’ve had to call today."

"Let me grab her - one sec."

I heard her place her hand over the receiver and then heard a muffled yell telling my mom to pick up the phone. A few seconds later I heard another receiver being picked up.

"Hello?" I heard Mom say.

"Hi, Mom," I replied.

"It's about time you called. I was getting worried."

"I’m sorry, but this is the first chance I’ve had all day."

"Well, I’m glad you finally called. Did you start the procedure today?" my mom asked.

"No," I replied. "Today was filled with tests to prepare for the Procedure. We don’t start until tomorrow morning."

"What kind of tests?" my sister asked.

"Mostly just a physical checkup, and then what they called a benchmark test, which basically measures a lot of stuff. Once the Procedure is finished, they will run the same tests again and compare the results to help understand how I have changed."

"Sounds boring," my sister said.

"Tiring more than anything. I’m exhausted."

"We miss you already," Mom said. "We can’t wait for you to get back."

"Mom," I said with a little hesitation. "I won’t be coming back, at least not in the way you remember me."

"What do you mean?" The concern in her voice was very evident.

"I learned some things today, things that are going to change my life. The anomaly, well, fixing it is easy they say, but it's going to change me."

"What do you mean?" Cami asked. I had forgotten she was still on the phone.

"Oh, I forgot you were still on the phone." Her still listening made me even more nervous.

"Come on, Brett, you can still tell me," she said. "I love you, and nothing can change that."

"Is anyone else listening?" I asked.

"No, Dad, Ben, and Adam are all watching a hockey game downstairs," my sister replied.

"Just tell us," my mom said. "I can’t take it anymore."

"Okay, but you have to promise not to tell the boys, at least not yet."

"I promise," Cami replied.

"Why?" Mom asked.

"Because, Mom," I said, "I don’t know how they are going to react. Please promise me you won’t tell them yet!"

"I promise then," she said. "Just tell me before I have a heart attack."

"Okay..." I started, "The anomaly is on the 23rd chromosome. That is the chromosome that controls gender, you know, XY stuff."

"Yeah," my sister said.

"Well, to fix the anomaly, they are going to change my Y to an X. The procedure is going to turn me into a girl." There, I finally said it!

The relief I felt to get that out in the open was amazing. I actually felt better than I had all day!

Both of them were very quiet for a few seconds while they tried to grasp what I just said.

"That is so cool!" my sister finally screamed into the phone.

"Shh," I said trying to stop her yelling. "Be quiet, I don’t want the boys to know yet."

"Oh, right," she replied in a whisper. "It's just that I’ve always wanted a sister!"

"Well, don’t tell anybody yet. Jill told me that it will probably be easier to accept if they see me first. Otherwise, they may not believe in what I’m doing and they will start to get defensive."

"Okay, I won’t tell anyone yet, I promise," Cami said. "Who's Jill?"

"Jill is my handler," I replied. "She is also my therapist to help me adjust to all of this."

"Oh," she replied.

"Are you okay, Mom?" I asked. "You haven’t said anything."

"Are you sure that this is what you want?" she finally said. "I mean, this is more than just wearing different clothes and stuff."

"Ooh, we have to go shopping together!" my sister interrupted.

Ignoring her comment for the time being, I answered my mom.

"You know it is, Mom," I said. "I’ve wanted this since I was a little kid. You know that."

"You have?" Cami said.

"Yes," I replied.

"Is that why pink used to be your favorite color? You always had pink stuff."

"Pink is still my favorite color, it always has been. I just hid that fact when people started making fun of me."

"Oh," she said.

"You should see my room here. It's mainly pink, and one of the most beautiful shades I've ever seen."

"Brett," my mom interrupted before my sister could respond. "Are you really sure? Have you put any thought into what this means for your future?"

"Yes, Mom," I said with a sigh. I know she was just worried about me, but I just wanted her to understand that I’ve had a lifetime to think about this. The events of today hadn’t done anything to change that.

"I’ve had years to think about this," I continued. "Some day I hope to get married and have a little girl of my own to worry about. The doctors have told me that will be possible after the Procedure."

"I just don’t want you to go through with this, and then find out six months from now that it was a mistake," she argued. "I don’t think you will be happy after it's done."

"Mom," I said, "You have to trust me. I’ve wanted this for a long time. I’ve thought about this for a long time. I’ve thought about what it would mean to me if it happened. I will be happy, that’s the one thing I can promise you right now."

"I had no idea you felt this way," my sister interrupted again.

"That’s because I’ve been hiding it from everyone," I replied.

"I still think you might be making a mistake," Mom said, concern evident in her voice.

"Mom," I said. I could feel tears running down my cheeks now. "Maybe I am then, but it would be MY mistake to make. In my heart I feel this is the right decision to make. I don’t think it is a mistake. If it turns out to be a mistake, then I will have to live with the consequences of it for the rest of my life. But, and this is a big but, I have spent years making this decision. This is not something I decided to do today."

I saw Nikki come into my bedroom then. She had a concerned look on her face, which eased when I gave her a small smile. She tapped her watch, indicating that it was getting late and we needed to get to sleep.

"Listen, Mom," I said. "I need to go now, because they want us to get to sleep as early as possible to make it easier on our bodies. This is something I’m going to do. If it means repercussions in the future, then I will deal with them when they come. I can’t ignore what my heart and my brain are telling me. You need some time to think about this, so I'll call you again tomorrow night. We can talk about any concerns you might have then, okay?"

"Alright, honey," she said. "Just remember that I love you and only want you to be happy."

"I love you, too," my sister added.

"I love both of you so much. Whether you believe it or not, Mom, this has been one of the happiest days of my life. It can only get better from here. I have to go now, but I will talk to you again tomorrow."

"Bye, Brett," Cami said, "I love you."

"Bye, honey," my mom said. "We'll talk tomorrow."

"Bye," I said.

I waited for them to hang up before I turned off my own phone. After that the flood works started. Nikki came over and wrapped me in a hug and just let me get it all out.

After the tears dried up she helped me get undressed and into a nightgown I hadn’t noticed before. Then she led me to the bathroom and removed my makeup. I just kind of zoned out during the whole thing.

Fifteen seconds after she led me back to my bed and pulled the covers over me, I was out like a light.

*  *  *

---

Author Note: Please email me at AngelJediGirl (at) gmail (dot) com before posting this story to any other site. Posting to a pay site is prohibited.

Comments and suggestions are also welcome at the above email address.

*  *  *
Chapter 12 - The Beginning

I woke up to somebody shaking me. I really didn't feel like getting up and wanted to sleep for a few more hours.

'Come on, Jaz," I heard Nikki say.

I groaned.

"Finally! I thought you were never going to wake up.”

I groaned again.

"Come on," she said. "We've been trying to wake you up for half an hour. Get up, we need to go."

I groaned a third time. I hadn’t been in this much pain in quite a while. Yesterday’s workout was really catching up with me. Despite the pain, I did manage to get up this time.

"Here," Nikki said, "Put this on."

It turned out to be yesterday’s track suit, or at least an identical one. Once I had it on, Nikki started to pull me toward the front door of my suite.

"Come on," she said forcefully, "we're going to be late."

"Bathroom first," I argued, and veered toward the bathroom door.

Once inside I closed the door and turned toward the toilet. I hesitated before lifting the toilet seat. My first instincts were to go to the bathroom sitting down, which kind of surprised me. However, I realized that this might be the last time that I could go to the bathroom while standing up, so I wanted to take advantage of it. Once I was done, I flushed the toilet, washed my hands and opened the door.

"That didn’t sound very ladylike," Nikki said.

"Yeah? Well it could be my last time, so sue me," I said while sticking my tongue out at her.

"Whatever, let's just get moving."

We found the others waiting for us in the hallway.

"Oh, it's you," Justin sneered.

I didn’t really expect that after last night, but he might just be less accepting because I looked like my old male self this morning, instead of the new female me he saw yesterday. If he was just reacting to my looks, then hopefully he would accept me as who I would be after the Procedure.

"What took you so long?" Jill asked. "We're late."

"Sorry," Nikki replied. "I couldn’t get her to wake up!"

"I’m sorry too," I apologized, "I’m not usually a heavy sleeper. I think I’m just worn out from all the exertion yesterday."

"Well, you’re awake now, at least," Jill replied. "Come on, let’s go get started."

Jill led us back down to the Medical section’s conference room, where both Dr. Youngs were waiting. I noticed the male doctor check his watch when we walked in.

"Not too late," he said to his wife. "This shouldn’t affect the timetable."

Turning to us, he spoke again. "Good morning," he said. "Welcome to the first day of your new lives. Have a seat and we will go over what you can expect over the next few days."

After we all sat down, he spoke.

"The Procedure is broken into four stages: general size/skeletal changes, internal changes, external changes, and power awakenings.

"Okay," he continued. "Now a little more information on what you can expect during Stage 1.

"Stage 1, or general skeletal changes, is probably the most intense stage. This is primarily because it involves changes to your bone structure. Stage 1 will be completed entirely in the lab to make sure that nothing goes wrong. Don’t worry, though, nothing ever has in the 25 times we've performed the Procedure.

"You will be asleep for the majority of Stage 1. The retrovirus will actually make you sleep to help make the large changes it needs to make. Once the changes are complete, you will wake up and after a few shorts tests you will be released from the lab. Any questions so far?"

"Will it hurt?" I asked.

"This stage? No. You may have some minor aches or pains later this evening, but some Tylenol should be enough to alleviate the pain. Part of the reason you will be asleep for Stage 1 is to prevent any pain. There may be some minor pains during the other stages, but it usually isn’t too serious. If it does become a problem, come in and we can give you something stronger to help. Any other questions?"

"So by the end of the day, I could be taller?" Justin asked.

Justin was somewhat short, at only 5' 6" tall. Nikki was about the same height, but I stood a full 3 inches taller. Maybe that was adding to his reluctance to accept me. By the end of the day, our heights could be reversed.

"By our calculations, you most likely will be," the doctor said. "Nikki will probably stay relatively the same height, and Bre... er Jaz will most likely become shorter."

"I like the sound of that!" Justin said while glaring at me.

I just shrugged at that, because being shorter would bring me into the norm for most girls.

"How long will Stage 1 last?" Nikki asked.

"That varies depending on the changes that the retrovirus needs to make. The least amount of time we've seen is three hours, and the most has been six. We are expecting to set a new length record today with Jasmine's changes.

"Let's see here," he said while shuffling through some papers until he found what he was looking for. "We estimated that it would take Nikki about 3 hours, Justin about 4 1/2 hours, and Jaz about 8 or 9 hours."

"Wow," I said.

"Yes," he continued, "You will be undergoing the most Stage 1 changes we've seen to date."

"What changes will actually be made?" I asked.

"Well, for all of you, the bone structure will be hardened significantly. That's about all that will happen to Nikki. Justin, you will also be growing taller, which accounts for the extra time you will be under.

"Jaz, you will be getting shorter, but your whole bone structure will be changing. All of your bones will be getting smaller, and in some places will be completely changed, such as your hips and pelvic bones. Once Stage 1 is complete, you should have the bone structure of an 18 year old girl." He sounded more excited than I would have preferred. I guessed a gender change was the biggest thing that will have happened around here in a while.

"It's almost nine now, so we are a little behind schedule. If we start quickly, we should be able to meet again between six and seven tonight to talk about the rest of the stages. Any more questions, or are you ready to get started?"

"I guess we're ready," Nikki said when none of us spoke up.

"Alright then, please follow me," he said while rising from his chair. "We are going to start with Jaz first, since hers will take the longest. Justin will be next, and then Nikki last.”

He led us down the hall a little further until we reached a door labeled 'Procedure Room 1.'

"Jaz in here," he said while opening the door. "Take off all of your clothes and we will be in to get you started shortly. Nikki, you will be in Room 2, and Justin in Room 3."

As I entered Room 1, I couldn’t help but feel an adrenaline rush. This was it! This was the beginning of something I had been waiting my entire life for!

The inside of the room was very spartan. The first thing I noticed was a big clear tub in the middle of the room. A number of pipes seemed to surround it. In one corner was a little area where one could change behind those small partitions. The opposite corner had a computer station and a number of monitors, most likely used to monitor the patient and control whatever the tub did. There was also a small area with two chairs off to one side. Other than that, it was completely utilitarian. The floor, walls, and even the ceiling were covered in white tile, and there didn’t appear to be any decorations anywhere.

I stood there looking around for a little bit when I heard a knock on the door.

"Can I come in?" I heard.

"Yeah," I replied.

The door opened and Nina walked in.

"Hi, Nina," I said excitedly. "It's good to see you again."

"It's good to see you too, honey," she said while giving me a small hug. "Come on, you have an appointment with destiny, and we need to get you ready."

That brought a smile to my face.

"You need to take your clothes off first. You can either do it behind the screen, or here, but either way, you need to be naked for this part of the procedure."

"Do I get a robe or something?" I asked.

"Not for this part, sweetie," she replied. "Get undressed and we'll get you hooked up in the tub."

"Okay," I said. "What is the tub for, anyway?" I asked as I headed for the screen. As I was undressing, she answered my question.

"The tub will contain a nutrient mix that will help your body as it changes. It will also wipe away the secretions that your body will make."

"Secretions?" I had to ask. It sounded really gross.

"Um," she hesitated. "When your body shrinks, the extra mass needs to go somewhere. During the procedure, the extra mass is secreted through your pores in a very nasty looking goo. I'll be honest - it grosses me out every time. You should be happy that it will all be washed away before you wake up.

"Are you ready yet?" she asked.

"I guess so," I replied.

"Okay then, just come out and hop in the tub."

I did as she asked, blushing the whole time I walked across the room.

"Just sit tight for a second. Dr. Young will be here shortly to start the procedure."

The bathtub was clear, so I couldn’t really hide anything while sitting there. To make matters worse, I was getting a little excited at the thought of fulfilling my dreams. I just wanted it to be over with so that I could get on with my life in the way it should be.

After a short wait, Dr. Young came into the room.

"Are you ready, Jaz?" he asked.

"I’ve been waiting for this moment my entire life," I replied.

"Good," he smiled. "Let's get started then. In a moment we will give you a shot, which will introduce the retrovirus into your body. We will then fill the tub with a nutrient that your body can use to help fuel the changes. Before the tub is full, you should be asleep. Next thing you know, you’ll be looking forward to Stage 2."

He opened a briefcase that he had brought in with him and pulled out a large hypodermic needle. Stepping toward me, I almost freaked at the sight.

"Don’t like needles?" he guessed.

"Not at all," I replied with a nervous laugh.

"Well this one is going to help you become the real you, so think about that person; it might help you get past any pain it might cause. Now, please kneel down in the tub, this shot needs to be administered in the buttocks."

I couldn’t help it. I started giggling. Hearing someone his age say that just seemed funny to me for some reason.

Anyway, I did as he requested, leaning my head over the side. I tried to think about what kind of girl I would become, but I really didn’t have any idea.

His suggestion didn’t work anyway. I cried out when he inserted the needle, and again when he depressed the stopper. I hated shots with a passion, and this one was no different.

"See," he said. "That wasn’t so bad."

I hadn’t even noticed that he had pulled it out! It still felt like it was in there!

"The burning sensation will go away in a second or two. In the meantime we are going to start filling the tub."

I turned around and sat down in the tub. The next thing I knew an amber liquid was pouring into the tub. It was warm and felt quite inviting. It was thicker than water, but I found that I could still move around easily in it. When the tub was about half full, I started to feel drowsy. The last thing I remembered before falling asleep was Dr. Young speaking.

"Sweet dreams, Jaz, we'll see you on the other side."

*  *  *
Chapter 13 - Great Things, Small Packages

It was quiet when I woke up. I just laid there looking at the ceiling for a while.

"Are you awake?" I heard someone ask.

"Yeah," I said. "How long was I out?"

"About 9 hours, it's about 6:15 in the evening."

"Oh," I said while finally lifting my head up. It turned out to be Nina I was talking too.

"How do you feel?" she asked.

"I feel great, actually. A little weak, but I feel like I’ve been sleeping for months."

"Well, you have been asleep for a while. You should start to feel more strength shortly. It looks like the Procedure is progressing perfectly," she said while walking over to me.

I noticed then that I was no longer in the room with the tub. The room I was in looked like a hospital room. They must have moved me to some sort of recovery room.

"Are you ready to see the changes?" she asked.

"I guess so," I said nervously.

She came over and helped me sit up in the bed. She then pulled back the sheets and helped me pull off the hospital gown I was wearing, which gave me a chance to see myself.

"Oh my gosh!" I exclaimed.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing! I was tiny! My arms, my legs, even my chest and waist had all lost circumference. I was skinny. That was about the best I could describe it. My whole body was very thin looking, but in a healthy way.

And I had curves! There was no way to deny it. I had the figure of a woman! My hips were wider, and my waist was narrower! I didn’t know what my measurements were, but I bet they were around what a lot of people would consider ideal.

"Come on, I’ll help you to a mirror," she said while helping me move my legs off the side of the bed.

"On three we stand, okay?" she asked.

"Okay," I replied.

"One," she started counting. "Two, three."

I tried to stand, but I would have fallen straight to the floor if Nina hadn’t been holding me up.

"You alright?" she asked.

"Yeah," I replied. "I was just expecting the floor a lot sooner!"

She laughed. "You’ve lost nearly nine inches in height. I guess that’s to be expected."

"Nine inches?" Wow, that was a lot!

"Yes, you’re a tiny little thing now," she said. "You’re only 5'0" tall, and weigh about 95 pounds."

"I guess that explains why everything seems so big," I said, as she helped me get on my feet.

"Whoa," I said when I looked at her. "This is really weird." She looked like an Amazon.

"Don’t worry," she said. "You’ll get used to it. You’re small, even for a woman, but you’re still you."

She helped me walk over to a mirror next to the door. I could tell that I walked differently. It seemed like there was more of a sway to my walk. I knew I walked like a girl, and it made me happy.

"What?" Nina asked when she saw the grin on my face.

"I just can’t believe this is happening," I said. "I’ve wanted this for so long, and now it’s happening. I look like a girl, and now I’m moving like one too!"

"Well, you have a long way to go. But this is a start."

Once I got in front of the mirror, my ego was deflated a bit. Standing in front of me wasn’t the beautiful girl I had seen in my head.

I certainly was going to be gorgeous, that was easy to see, but I had a long way to go.

I was tiny, there was no denying that. It was also a girl’s body, because the curves were too pronounced to be found on a male. But I didn’t really look like a girl.

My penis was probably the biggest giveaway. It was still unchanged, and looked out of place between my wide hips and narrow thighs.

The lack of breasts was a dead giveaway, also. It looked strange to see a male set of nipples and a flat chest between the tiny shoulders and the small waist.

My face also looked wrong on my body. It was a lot more femininely shaped, but it still looked male. It was sort of like somebody took a male face and put it over top of a female skull.

Perhaps that was an accurate analogy. The doctors said the skeletal structure changed during Stage 1, but the external changes wouldn’t occur until Stage 3.

"At least I don’t look weird like this," I thought out loud.

"Don’t worry, sweetie," Nina said. "The rest of you will catch up in a couple of days."

I just gave her a quick smile. "I can’t wait," I said truthfully.

"Well, if you’re up to it, the doctors want everyone in the conference room in a few minutes to go over what will happen tomorrow. Do you want to get dressed and go?"

"Yes, I’m feeling a lot stronger now. I wouldn’t mind seeing how the others are doing too."

"I’m sure they would like to see you too," she said. "None of them have had a chance since you were pulled out of the tub. I think they are going to have some food there too."

"Good," I said, "Because I’m starving!"

"Put these on then. Jill went and got them for you, so they should fit."

She handed me a bag. Inside the bag was a pair of white shorts, a pink and white striped tank top, a lacy white bra and panty set, a pair of the flesh colored panties, some breast forms that were a little smaller, and the wig from the other night.

Once I had everything on, I couldn’t keep myself from staring in the mirror. The clothes made me look hot. It was obvious that I had the kind of body that the clothes were designed for.

The shorts fit me like a glove and ended a couple inches past my crotch, short but without looking slutty. If I wasn’t wearing the flesh panties I would probably have a very telling bulge. The tank top hugged my waist and my breasts tightly, but in an 'I know I’m attractive, but I’ve got morals' kind of way. The hair framed my face just like it did the other day, but it was a lot longer now, ending about half way down my back. It was just as blonde as before, and just as beautiful.

Nina handed me a pair of flip-flops that she had been holding. They were white, but had pink straps and a pink sole. They matched the outfit perfectly. She then added a little makeup to complete the look.

It was perfect. I looked like I could be in a fashion magazine. The makeup seemed to hide the male flaws that I still had while enhancing the feminine ones I had gained.

"Come on," Nina said while lightly pulling on my arm.

She led me out of the room and down a hall to the conference room.

As we approached I could here people talking. It sounded like small talk. When we entered the room I noticed that the doctors and the rest of my team, including Jay, were eating pizza while they talked.

I think Justin saw me first, because he pretty much spit out what he was drinking and just stared at me. The others looked at him for a second before their eyes followed his toward me.

"Oh my gosh!" Nikki shrieked as she jumped up from her chair and ran toward me.

"You look amazing," she continued while wrapping me in a hug. "And you’re so tiny!"

"It's good to see you too," I said while returning the hug. She was definitely a lot bigger than me. "I hear you guys have food."

"Oh," Nikki said while pulling me back toward her seat. "Sit over by me. We can talk while we eat."

"Okay," I said.

I sat down next to her and grabbed a slice of pizza.

"What’s it like?" she asked.

"What’s what like?" I had to reply.

"You know, the changes, and shrinking so much.”

"Well, it's kind of weird," I said. "Everything is so big. I also move differently now, but it feels natural to me, probably because it is with this body. Other than that, it's pretty much just life as usual."

We talked a little bit more while we ate, but it was pretty much just small talk. I tried to ignore the stares I was getting from Justin and Jay. I knew I looked attractive, but I didn’t think they would just keep staring. That was just rude.

After we were finished eating, Dr. Young quieted us down for the meeting.

"Alright," he said, "It looks like all of you made it through Stage 1 okay, now we are going to look forward to the 3 other stages.

"Stage 2 will begin sometime tomorrow. The retrovirus is designed to give the body some downtime to recuperate before it starts. A good estimate is usually about 24 hours after the time Stage 1 began.

"Unlike Stage 1," he continued, "There isn’t a whole lot to monitor. You will not have to stay here in Medical, but do not do any kind of physical workout, as that will just tax the body unnecessarily. I would suggest making use of some of our recreation facilities like the movie theater where you can sit down and have fun without much effort.

"You will be required to come in for a checkup at noon, and again at five in the evening. If you start to feel sick or are in pain, please come in so that we can make sure nothing is wrong. Any questions?"

"What exactly will happen to us during Stage 2?" I asked.

"Oh, I guess that is information you would want to know," he said with a smirk.

"Stage 2 consists of all the internal changes that are made," he continued. "All three of you will undergo a strengthening of the immune system as the primary change. All of your organs will be strengthened and healed as well. There isn’t really anything physical that you can see during this stage, but by the end of the day you will feel better than you ever have before, because you will be.

"This is also the stage where Jasmine's new internal reproductive organs will form."

That made me blush really badly. The guys didn’t need to know that. But despite my embarrassment, the doctor continued.

"We aren’t quite sure if the testicles will be used to create the ovaries or not," he said while addressing me, "but by the end of the day you should have a uterus, ovaries and fallopian tubes. We expect your cervix will meet up with your vagina when it grows sometime the next day."

I was ready to die! Both of the boys had a disgusted look on their face, and I didn’t really want them thinking about my girl parts.

"Dr. Young!" I heard Jill growl, "That is inappropriate, please stop!"

"What?" he asked, clearly not understanding.

"Can’t you see how bad you are embarrassing her?" Jill continued. "It's not very polite to talk about a girl’s privates like that, especially with boys around."

Great, now the two boys were chuckling. Somebody just shoot me.

"Oh," the doctor said sheepishly. "I didn’t realize. I’m sorry, Jaz, I was trying to talk about the medical side of the Procedure, I guess I didn’t think about how that would affect you emotionally. I apologize."

I just put my head down on the table. I didn’t want them to see me laughing. It didn’t work though, because Nikki was able to tell.

"She's fine," Nikki stated with a small laugh. "She's laughing her head off now."

The others chuckled a little bit, and eventually I lifted my head.

"You okay?" Nikki asked.

"Yeah," I said.

"Again, I’m sorry, Jaz," Dr. Young said.

"It's okay," I replied. "I’m just not used to talking about this stuff."

"Well, I think we went through most of what I wanted to say. How about we meet again tomorrow night around the same time? That will give us enough time to finish the checkups, and still give you guys enough time to eat afterward."

We all agreed and the doctors got up to go.

"See you all tomorrow," Dr. Young said as he walked out the door.

"Jaz," Nina said to me before she left. "If you have any problems whatsoever, come see me."

"Okay," I said, "I will."

Only the team was left in the conference room.

"Well," Jay said. "It's only about seven, how about a game of bowling? We could try boys against girls."

"You guys have a bowling alley here?” I asked.

"Yeah," he said, "this place has quite a bit to keep you entertained. Genesis Alpha is a small city, and it has all the conveniences of such."

"Well," I said, "I’m up for anything as long as I make it back to my room in time to call my mom tonight."

"You won’t need to go to bed quite so early tonight," Agent Harris, or Rob as he'd asked us to call him, said. "The hard part is over already."

"Let's go then."

The bowling was actually a lot of fun, and it allowed us to get to know each other a lot better. The three boys beat the three of us girls in both games we played, but the second game was really close.

We got back to our rooms at about nine thirty. Jay wanted us to go to a movie in the morning to help pass the time, so after we all agreed to meet in the hall at nine in the morning, we headed into our rooms.

I noticed that Jay's room was the fourth one in our set of doors, across the hall from Nikki and next to Justin's. I guess it made sense to keep us together as a team, but I had never seen him come in or out.

Once I was inside my room, I grabbed my phone and sat in the recliner in my front room.

My youngest brother, Ben, was the one who answered when I dialed home.

"Hello?" he answered.

"Hi Ben," I replied. I was kind of nervous talking to him. I had this strange feeling he would be able to tell I was changing.

"Hi Brett, how’s the vacation?"

"Pretty good, actually," I said, "This place is amazing. We actually just got done bowling not too long ago. You wouldn’t think that this was a government lab because of all the fun things they have to keep us occupied."

"That’s cool," he said. I was pretty sure he didn’t really care. "Do you want to talk to Mom?"

"Yes please," I said.

I heard him yell for my mom, and a little while later I heard her get on.

"Hello?" she asked, not sure of who was on the line.

"Hi, Mom," I said.

"Hi sweetie, how are you doing?" she asked.

"I’m doing great," I waited for the click that would denote my brother hanging up. It never came. "Ben?"

After a short pause, he finally spoke up, "Yeah?"

"Can you give us a few minutes?"

"Yeah," he said, and I heard him hang up. I waited to make sure he wasn’t going to try to pick it back up while we were talking, before continuing.

"How are you doing, Mom?" I asked.

"I’m doing better," she replied. "It's just a lot to take in. I mean, you won’t be the same when you come home. I don’t know how to handle that."

"I know, Mom," I tried to comfort her. "We can deal with it when I get home. I don’t think you will be able to come to terms with anything until you see me."

We continued to talk about things for a while. It was clear that Mom was going to accept the change, but it was going to take some time for her to do so. She told me that she wasn’t ready to hear about my changes yet, and that she would deal with them when I got home.

Eventually, I heard someone pick up the phone. Before I could say anything, my sister was already talking. "Brett?"

"Yeah, it's me," I said. "What’s up?"

"I was going to ask you that!" she said.

I just giggled, which was probably the wrong thing to do.

"Oh my gosh!" she said. "You’re already acting like a girl."

"Of course I am," I said. "I’m already part way there."

My mom was quick to interrupt. I knew she wasn’t ready to hear this. "I'll let the two of you talk, I love you, Brett. I'll talk to you later."

"Okay, Mom," I replied. "I love you, bye."

"Bye, honey," she said before hanging up.

"So," Cami launched right back into the conversion. "What happened today?"

"Well, I slept most of the day, about nine hours I think. During that time my bone structure was changed into a girl’s. I shrunk, big time."

"Shrunk," she asked with a little bit of skepticism. "Like got smaller?"

"Yeah, I’m tiny!" I said. "I’m only five feet tall now, and I only weigh 95 pounds."

"No way!"

"Way! But even better, I’ve got curves! My hips are now shaped like a girl’s and my waist is really small!"

"You aren’t better looking than me, are you?" Her pout was evident through the phone.

"Not yet, Cami, but from what I’ve seen so far, I think I’m going to be beautiful."

"Well, it will be fun to have a sister either way," she said. "So what else has happened?"

"Nothing, so far. Other than the skeletal changes, nothing else has happened. Tomorrow is supposed to be internal changes, and then the day after that will be the big changes, like growing breasts and my vagina."

"That was really weird to hear you say," she giggled. "I guess this is really true."

"Yeah, this is like a dream come true," I said.

"Have you thought about a name yet?" she asked.

"Yes, in fact I am legally a girl, and my name is no longer Brett. One of the things we did yesterday was change all of my documents to match who I am."

"So..."

"Jasmine Rose Campbell," I said. I still loved the sound of it.

"Jasmine..." she repeated. "I like it, it's beautiful."

"Thank you," I said.

We talked for a while longer about other things. We had never really talked like this before. I guess we both really felt comfortable being sisters.

"You promise?" she asked as our conversation was winding down.

"I promise," I replied. "I’m going to need a whole new wardrobe and I'll need to redecorate my room. I promise we can go shopping together. I’ve got to go to bed now before I fall asleep on the phone."

"Are you going to call again tomorrow night?" she asked.

"It depends on what is going on tomorrow. I will if we aren’t doing anything, otherwise I will just wait until after the changes are complete on Friday."

"Alright," she said a little sadly. "I guess I'll talk to you then. I love you."

"I love you too, good night."

"Good night, Jasmine," she said, bringing a smile to my face.

After hanging up the phone, I went into the bathroom to get ready for bed. Makeup certainly added to the time needed to get ready, for bed and for the day, but it wasn’t a burden. It made me feel like a real girl.

After a stop at the toilet, where I sat down this time, I was off to the bedroom. I changed into a short nightgown and was in bed not long afterward, ready for more changes tomorrow.

*  *  *

---

Author Note: Please email me at AngelJediGirl (at) gmail (dot) com before posting this story to any other site. Posting to a pay site is prohibited.

Comments and suggestions are also welcome at the above email address.

*  *  *
Chapter 14 - The Pains of Womanhood

Nikki woke me up around 7:30. I knew she was trying to help me learn that it takes longer for women to get ready, so I didn’t say anything.

"No complaints?" she asked incredulously.

"Not that I’m going to voice," I replied. "I know why I’m awake so early."

"Get showered and dressed then. They left some clothes outside the door for you to wear. I'll be back to help you with your makeup when I’m ready."

"Okay," I said as she walked back to her room to get ready.

I got up and walked to my door. Opening it revealed a bag which I brought back inside to my bedroom. Inside was another pair of the flesh panties, another bra and panty set, a pair of tennis shoes, some socks, a white belt, a pair of jeans, a white camisole and a light pink tank top. There was also a white purse.

Leaving the clothes there for the time being, I headed into the bathroom and started the shower. One of these days I was going to try the bath. It looked really inviting.

After getting out of the shower and drying off, I headed back into my bedroom. I slipped on the flesh panties and picked up the bra and panty set. I slipped on the panties. It still amazed me how much better they fit since yesterday. I then put on the bra and slipped in the breast forms.

I looked in the mirror and admired myself for a moment. I had taken the wig off to sleep in, so I now looked like a girl with a boy’s haircut, but I at least looked like a girl! I couldn’t wait for my reflection to show me the real girl I was becoming.

I pulled myself away from the mirror and picked up the jeans. They looked really small. Everything else that I had been given was the correct size, so I had to assume they would fit.

I started to pull the jeans on, and found that it was easier said than done. It took a little more effort than I was used to, but they certainly fit well when they were on. They were a lot tighter than what I was used to, but not uncomfortably so. And they looked spectacular when I looked in the mirror. I certainly had a nice figure to show off now.

I put on the belt before picking up the camisole next. It looked like it was designed for layering. It was a little tight over my bust, but it hugged my curves like a second skin. The tank top was just as tight, but was a little smaller, letting the edges of the camisole peek out. I thought it looked really good.

I put the wig on and then the socks and shoes. When I looked in the mirror I was very pleased. I didn’t think anyone would mistake me for a boy now, because the skeletal changes were too great.

"Oh good," Nikki said, making me jump a mile. "You’re ready."

"You scared me to death!" I said. I hadn’t even heard her approach.

"Sorry," she apologized. "Are you ready for makeup?"

"Yeah. Do we have enough time that you could start to teach me?" I asked.

"Yes, actually, that was my plan."

Nikki was a very good teacher. She never touched my face, but demonstrated how to do it while doing her own makeup. We both had to start over a couple of times, but by 8:50 I had done a reasonably good job. Nikki felt it was at least good enough to make me presentable in public. She grabbed the purse from my bedroom and dumped a bunch of the cosmetics inside before handing it to me.

"You know," I said before we went out into the hallway. "I feel like they are dressing us up like twins.

"Yeah," she agreed. "I can’t wait until we can do our own shopping"

Once again Nikki and I were dressed in identical outfits, except her tank top was purple. The doctors said that we could pick out some of our own clothes from the stores here in the complex once we had finished changing.

As we stepped out into the hall, it was apparent that the guys had been waiting for us again. Neither of them said anything, but they clearly were irritated.

"Oh come on," I said. "It's not even 9:00 yet. You can’t get mad at us if we're early."

Justin not only looked upset, but a little queasy as well. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he said. "The doctor said it was normal. My stomach feels like it's turning inside out, but apparently that’s what it's supposed to do."

"Come on," Jay interjected. "Let's get something to eat, and then we can go see what’s playing."

On the way down to the cafeteria, it was obvious that Nikki was starting to feel it too, but she didn’t look nearly as bad.

"You okay?" I asked her a little concerned.

"Yeah," she replied. “I think it's the same thing Justin is feeling. I just want to know how you got so lucky."

"What do you mean?" I had to ask.

"Well, you were the first to begin the Procedure, you should have been feeling this way before Justin. I guess not feeling it makes you lucky."

"I don’t feel much of anything right now," I said. "I feel fine."

"Like I said, lucky."

In the cafeteria I got a couple of pancakes, some bacon, and some milk for breakfast. Breakfast was my favorite meal, and the Procedure wasn’t going to deny it for me.

"You know you are going to need to start watching what you eat," Nikki said in a sort of motherly voice. "You don’t want to lose that wonderful figure."

I had thought about that before, but it was Jay who put me at ease.

"Actually," he stated, "The Procedure changes the body’s metabolism. For the most part, we can eat what we want without worry. Our bodies use up just about everything, or they get rid of what can’t be used."

"That’s good to hear," I said with a smile on my face. Nikki was beaming like it was the best news she had ever heard.

After we finished eating we followed Jay down the courtyard toward the movie theater. There weren’t too many people out today; it was mostly women and small children. Perhaps most people were either working or in school. It still amazed me that they had a small city here, nestled in the mountains.

When we arrived at the movie theater, we checked to see what was playing. They had two screens, and it looked like we had a choice between an older romantic comedy, or a superhero movie.

"I guess you two want to see ‘Love is Real’, don’t you?" Justin asked.

"I wouldn’t mind seeing it," Nikki said, and then everyone turned to me.

"I don’t really care which we see," I said. "I’m beginning to feel sick anyway."

"The nausea?" Nikki asked.

"No, this is something else. It feels like my organs are being moved around."

"Well, they probably are," Nikki stated. "They need to make room for," she looked at the boys, "um, stuff."

I think the boys knew what she was going to say, because they both looked uncomfortable.

"Sorry," Nikki said sincerely.

"It's okay," I said, "They're just boys, they will get over it." I got a giggle from her when I stuck my tongue out at them, but the boys just rolled their eyes.

"Come on," Jay said, "let's go see what ‘Major Victory’ is up to."

"Aww," Nikki exclaimed. "I wanted to see ‘Love is Real’."

"It's okay," I comforted her, "we can go see it ourselves later."

The movie was actually pretty good. I had never heard of ‘Major Victory’ before, but the writers had done the show in a comedic way that made it quite entertaining.

It was about half way through that the pain really started. It was centered in my crotch, and it got worse as the movie went on. I thought I was going to need to walk out when I felt a pop and screamed.

*  *  *

I woke up in someone's arms. At least the pain was gone. I struggled for a second trying to figure out where I was and what had happened. It looked like we were still in the theater, and there were quite a few people looking at me. Looking behind me, I noticed that it was Justin who was holding me, which was weird.

"What happened?" I asked as I struggled to stand up.

"I don’t know," Justin said. He seemed to be really shaken up for some reason. "You screamed and then collapsed. You scared me, er, us to death."

I stood up and looked around. The movie was still going, and it looked like some of the people were mad at me for interrupting the movie. I didn’t mean to do it.

"Are you okay?" Nikki asked with concern on her face.

"Yeah," I said. "I just had the most horrible pain in my um, well, and then I don’t remember what happened. It seems to be gone now."

"Shhhh." I was not sure who it was, but they didn’t sound happy at all.

"Let’s just finish the movie," I said as I sat down in my seat.

"Are you sure you’re okay?" Nikki asked as she sat down too.

"Yeah, the pain seems to be gone. The movie is almost over and we have checkups afterward anyway. I'll be fine."

Eventually we all managed to get back to watching the movie. We hadn’t missed much of it, so it was easy to get back into it.

Nikki saw me holding my stomach a little while later and asked me if I was really okay.

"Yeah," I whispered back to her. "This is something different. My stomach is cramping now."

"Oh," she whispered back, "It isn’t, you know, is it?"

"I don’t know, I have no idea what that’s like, but I don’t see how it could be this soon."

The movie ended a few minutes later. As we were getting up to leave, a lady approached us. She appeared to be in her late forties, and she didn’t look very happy.

"Young lady," she said while addressing me. "That was very rude. We were trying to watch the movie." She indicated a young man in his mid-twenties who was standing behind her. "I don’t get to see my son much, and he really wanted to see this movie."

I looked over her shoulder. Her son seemed to be really embarrassed. I don’t think he felt the same way his mother did.

"I’m sorry," I said. "I didn’t mean to interrupt your movie. I’m still not sure what happened."

Justin stepped forward. I feared he was going to say something rude or stupid, so I grabbed his arm. That seemed to be enough to stop him, and he stepped back.

"You should be more considerate of others," she said to me in a patronizing tone.

"Excuse me, ma'am," Jay spoke up. "It was not her intention to disrupt the movie. We apologize for the interruption."

"And who are you?" she said while glaring at him. "Can’t she take responsibility for her own actions?"

"My name is Jay Johnson," Jay stated. "I am the team leader for A2, and this is my team. They are currently in the middle of going through the Procedure. There are things that can cause severe pain. I know it was not her intent to disturb anyone."

The woman's demeanor changed a bit. She obviously understood who we were and what we were going through, but she still looked upset.

"Don’t let it happen again," she said as she turned and walked away.

Justin was fuming. It looked like he really wanted to lay into her.

"Are you okay?" I asked him.

"No!" he replied angrily. "I hate people like that! Something could have been really wrong with you, and all she cared about was the movie!"

"It's okay, Justin," I tried to calm him. "Just forget about her."

"No, it's not okay! You were really hurt!" He looked like he was ready to cry. "You scared me to death."

"I," I didn’t know what to say. He was showing more emotion than I’d ever seen from him before. It was almost like...

NO! We were not going there! He knew all about me, for goodness sake! He wasn’t looking at me while I thought this through, but Nikki was. I could tell she had seen it when I realized what was going on. I knew she was going to make me talk to her about it later.

"Come on," Jay said to bring us back to our senses. "Let's get you guys to Medical."

We left the theater and headed toward Medical. When we arrived, we were taken to separate exam rooms. When I walked into the one I was directed to, I found Nina waiting for me.

"Hi, Jaz," she said as I walked in. "How are you feeling today?"

"I’m feeling okay right now," I said. "But I’ve had some stomach cramps all morning, and I blacked out because of pain while we were at a movie."

"What kind of pain?" she asked.

"It started out as a dull ache in my, um, crotch," I said a little embarrassed. "It kept getting worse. I was about to walk out of the movie when I felt the worst pain I’ve ever felt. After I woke up, the pain was gone."

"Has it come back at all?" she asked.

"No, but it wasn’t long after that the cramping started."

"Okay, let’s see if we can find out what’s happening. Please take off all your clothes and we can get started."

"Again?" I asked.

"I’m afraid so," she replied.

I stripped out of my clothes and hopped up onto the exam table. Nina started out with a normal physical first. It wasn’t until we got to the coughing part again that we found the first sign of changes.

"Well, I’m guessing that this was the cause of the blackout," she said.

"What?" I asked. I looked between my legs, and the change was pretty evident. "Oh, I guess that’s why the panties seemed to fit a little better."

My scrotum was completely empty! According to Nina, the pain that had knocked me out was probably when my testicles had ascended up into my body.

"Let's take a look on the inside," she suggested.

"Okay," I choked out. As I said it my voice caught in my throat. "Okay," I repeated. When I spoke the second time, it came out crystal clear, but it wasn’t my voice, it was a higher, more feminine voice. "Wow, I sound totally different!" I had to smile, my new voice was perfect!

"That does suit you well. I think that’s the first time someone's voice has changed while they were talking to me," she said while chuckling.

"Now," she continued while pulling a cart over to the exam bed. "We are going to do an ultrasound to see what’s happening inside."

She grabbed the ultrasound thing (I didn’t know what it was called), and squirted some jelly on it.

"This is going to be a little cold at first, but it will warm up," Nina said.

She wasn’t joking, either. I shrieked when she placed it on my stomach. It sounded so girly though!

A few minutes later she was showing me something that was going to change my life forever, and I couldn’t stop smiling!

"These are where your testicles ended up," she said, pointing to two round objects. "They appear to be ovaries now. These faint lines here are the edges of the fallopian tubes." I’ve never smiled so widely in my life! "And this," she continued as she followed the lines to another blob, "Is your new uterus. The cramping you were feeling was probably the compression of the surrounding tissue while these formed."

I was so happy! I’d wanted this for a long time. Being fertile was something I never imagined would be possible with today's technology.

Nina pronounced me okay after that and I changed back into my clothes. I gave Nina a hug as I headed out of the exam room. "Thanks, Nina," I said.

"You’re welcome, sweetie," she replied. "I'll see you this evening."

When I got back to the waiting room, I found that I was the last one to finish, again.

"Sorry, have you been waiting long?" I asked.

"Oh my gosh!" Nikki said. "That voice is so perfect for you! When did that happen?"

"It happened during my exam. I was talking to Nina, and I kind of choked. When I could speak again I sounded like this."

"Is everything okay?" Justin asked. He looked really concerned.

"Yeah," I replied. "I’ve been given a clean bill of health.

"Did you find out what caused..." he asked.

"Yes," I interrupted. I did not want to talk about this with him.

"What was it?" he continued to dig. He seemed awfully interested for some reason.

"It was...personal." I stated. He wasn’t going to get much more from me on this subject.

He seemed a little dejected that I wouldn’t tell him. "But you’re alright?" he asked.

"Yes," I replied coldly. "The doctors say I’m doing great."

He relaxed somewhat, but he really got on my nerves. Fortunately, it appeared that Jay was able to pick up on the tension. If he had, then I think he would make a great commander. If not, then he was lucky, because I didn’t know how much longer I could keep from screaming at Justin.

"Are you guys hungry?" Jay asked. His question was aptly timed to break up any hostilities. I couldn’t believe how mad I felt! Justin didn’t really do anything wrong, did he?

Suddenly, something was wrong with me. A second ago I was ready to kill Justin, now I was crying my eyes out! Nikki was trying to comfort me, but nothing she did seemed to help.

"Are you okay, Jaz?" she asked.

"No," I replied between sobs. "I don’t know what’s wrong."

Jay sent Justin to go find Nina. When they came back, Nina rushed over toward where I had slumped to the floor.

"Jaz, what’s wrong?" she asked.

"I don’t know," I replied. "I can’t stop crying!"

"Come on, let’s get you back to an exam room. Nikki, Help me lift her up."

Nikki and Nina managed to move me back to an exam room where they laid me on the bed.

Nina grabbed some tool out of a cabinet and came back over to me. "This will hurt a little bit," she said before placing the tip near my arm.

I felt a small prick that made me cry out a little bit. Nina pulled the device away from my arm and looked at a small screen attached to the device.

"I thought so," she said while examining the data.

"What?" Nikki asked while holding my hands.

"Her body is being flooded with female hormones," Nina explained. "The retrovirus is trying to bring her hormone levels up to female norms. She is experiencing very violent mood swings."

"That’s an understatement," Nikki mentioned. "Is there anything you can do for her?"

"No, not really. This is probably like PMS on steroids for her right now, but she should stabilize in a few minutes. Until then, the best thing we can do is try to comfort her."

It was another 15-20 minutes before I stopped crying. Once I did, however, I felt great.

"Wow," I said. "I actually feel a lot better."

"A good cry can do that for you," Nina said, "And this was similar, if not what the saying means. You should be over the worst of it, but you will probably be quite emotional for the rest of the day, maybe a little longer."

"Okay," I said. "I really need something to eat now."

"You should be good to go," Nina said. "I'll see you again this evening if nothing else comes up."

"Thanks, Nina, you make this seem so easy," I said.

"Don’t worry, sweetie, this will be over soon and you will have a wonderful life ahead of you. Now, go get some food."

I gave her a small smile as we left the exam room.

"Come on," Nikki said as she pulled me into the women's room down the hall. "You need to fix your makeup."

She walked me through reapplying it. I could tell that I was getting better, but I still had a long way to go.

All fixed up, we headed back to the waiting room. Jay and Justin were waiting for us, looking worried. They stood up as we approached.

"Are you okay?" Jay asked. Justin looked very agitated. It looked like he wanted to say something, but a glance from Jay made him stop.

"Yeah," I said. "I’m sorry. Nina said that my body was trying to bring my hormone levels to a normal level for a girl. Nina said my body is going through a super PMS kind of thing, and I’m going to be very emotional for a while. I didn’t mean to take it out on you guys."

"It's okay, Jaz," Jay reassured me. "Going through the Procedure is hard, and you are going through things we can’t imagine. Don’t worry about it. Just concentrate on getting through it."

He had a smile on his face that I duplicated. "Thank you," I said. "It's hard, but it's worth it."

"Come on," he said. "I’m starved."

*  *  *

It was about 1:30 when we finally made it to the cafeteria. There weren’t too many people eating, and we were able to get our food and a table relatively quickly. We talked through lunch, but Jay made sure we kept it neutral, and we never really discussed us or the Procedure.

When lunch was over, we were discussing what we should do.

"I wouldn’t mind going for a swim sometime today," Justin said.

"Ooh, that sound like fun," Nikki said. "What about you Jaz, want to go swimming?"

"That does sound like fun," I said. "But I’m exhausted right now. I wouldn’t mind taking a short nap first."

"I think that would be a good idea," Jay stated. "It's been a long emotional morning. How about we head back to the rooms and rest until 3:00, and then we can meet in the hallway to head down to the pool. The changes should be done by then, so it would be easier on your bodies also."

"Sounds good to me," Nikki said while the rest of us nodded our heads.

"All right, let’s go."

We headed back to the rooms, and we split up to enter our own. I went into my bedroom and laid on the bed. It wasn’t long afterward that I was asleep.

*  *  *
Chapter 15 - Wet and Exhausted

I woke up at about 2:30. I was going to knock on the door between mine and Nikki's room to see if she knew where to get a swimsuit, but I found a bag on the bar that had a note attached. The note was from Nikki. She had taken the liberty of talking to Jill and getting the two of us swimsuits.

Looking in the bag I found a one-piece that was identical to the one I had worn the other day, only smaller. Much smaller, to be exact. There was also a pink cover-up to wear down to the pool.

Before I had a chance to do anything with it, there was a knock on the door between mine and Nikki's room. I found Nikki and Jill on the other side when I opened it.

"I thought I heard you moving around," Nikki said. "If we are going to go swimming, we need to attach these," she poked my breasts, "to your chest."

"Why?" I asked. I wasn’t quite sure what that would accomplish.

"Because," Jill said, "If you don’t they might swim right out of your suit."

"Oh…" That would be embarrassing.

"Also, the bathing suit we got you is going to show a little bit of cleavage. It's going to look really weird if your boobs aren’t attached to your chest."

I giggled at that, it was a funny picture. "So how do we attach them?" I asked.

"Come on, into the bathroom," Jill said while guiding me toward the door. "Take off everything but the flesh panties."

I did as I was told, and a couple of minutes later she was pressing one of the breast forms to my chest. She had spread some sort of adhesive on both my chest and the breast form. When she removed her hand, the form stayed in place on my chest. She repeated the process with the other one, and I was left with a weight on my chest that was unfamiliar, but strangely comforting.

"Wow, that’s...different," I said. I didn’t know what else to say.

"This is nothing," Nikki said. "Just wait until tomorrow when they are real."

"I can’t wait," I said with a big smile.

Looking down, I noticed something that wasn’t going to work. "What about..." I said while pointing to the edge of one of the forms.

"We need to blend it in using this," Jill said, holding up a second bottle.

The second bottle contained another adhesive, but this one was flesh colored. When they used it around the edge of the forms, it blended in perfectly. It was almost impossible to tell they weren’t real.

When I looked in the mirror, I shrieked with delight. I knew they weren’t real yet, but they certainly looked that way. Jill also used the adhesive to anchor the wig before her cell phone rang, and she headed out of the bathroom to answer it.

"Come on, Jaz," Nikki said while tugging me away from the mirror a few minutes later. "You are giving us a bad name by making us late all the time. You really are a girl, you know that?"

"Fine," I sighed. "Ruin the best moments of my life then."

She looked at me with a guilty look. "Jaz, I," I couldn’t hold it in any longer. I started laughing. "You jerk! I thought you were serious!" She started laughing too.

"Are you two okay?" Jill asked as she stuck her head back in the bathroom.

"Yeah," Nikki said. "Just pulling Jaz away from the mirror again."

"Well, I need to run to a meeting. You two have fun and I'll see you later."

"Okay, Jill," Nikki said. "Thanks for all the help."

When she had left, Nikki turned back to me. "Put your suit on. Because you don’t look complete down there," she pointed down, "We won’t be changing in the locker room."

Like before, the swimsuit covered the flesh panties, but it looked so much better this time. My new curves were accentuated in the suit, and the breast forms left no doubt that I was a woman. Even the cleavage looked perfect.

Nikki just rolled her eyes and pulled me away from the mirror again. She handed me the cover-up and I slipped it on over the swimsuit. I grabbed a towel as she pulled me out of the bathroom.

"We still have five minutes," I said after looking at the clock on the wall.

"For once, you are not going to make me late," she said.

I grabbed my purse and we headed out into the hall. Nikki had better be happy, I thought, because the boys weren’t there yet. We sat down on the floor to wait. At five after they still weren’t out and Nikki was getting antsy. She stood up and knocked on Justin's door. A second later he opened the door, and it was obvious the two of them had been watching TV.

“Are you guys still coming swimming?" she asked.

"Yeah," Justin responded. "We just didn’t think you would be ready yet."

"We've been waiting for 10 minutes," she said, quite upset.

"Oh, let me grab my stuff and we can go." he said. He didn’t even notice her irritation.

It was another five minutes before they were ready. It was apparent that they hadn’t done anything to prepare before we knocked on the door.

We eventually made our way down to the gym. We split off in the lobby and headed into the women's locker room.

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but inside was just a normal locker room. We had been in here before, so I knew the layout, but seeing women walking around was quite different. Strangely, I didn’t really feel aroused when I saw them in various stages of undress. It was just normal.

We found a pair of lockers together and took off our cover-ups and stowed them and our purses.

"Wow," I said when I saw Nikki in her suit. "You look great in that."

"Thanks," she said. "The skeletal changes really helped give me a nice figure."

Nikki was wearing a purple bikini that was trimmed with a small band of white. It looked really good on her. I hoped that I would look that good when I was done changing.

"We have to come back in a day or two and see what you look like in a bikini," she said, practically reading my mind.

"I think I would like that," I said.

We closed the lockers and headed toward the door to the gym. We walked into the gym but could not see the boys. That didn’t really surprise me since they were going to change here.

While we were waiting, I looked around the gym. It was a little different today because there were other people here. Most of the people were on the exercise machines. There were a couple of small kids running around the kiddy pool, and a couple of mothers, but for the most part the pools were empty. It was probably too early for the school kids and the workers to be swimming.

Nikki pulled her hair into a ponytail and secured it with a band.

"Want yours in a ponytail too?" she asked.

"Can I do that with the wig?" I asked.

"Oh," she said. "Probably not."

"Next time then," I said.

Eventually the boys came out, and I think their eyes almost bulged out of their heads.

Justin couldn’t stop staring at me, and Jay seemed to be staring at Nikki.

"You two look great," Justin said, but I don’t think he had looked at Nikki yet.

"Thanks," we both said together.

We had a great time swimming. We put all our worries and issues aside and just had fun.

We had the pool to ourselves for about 45 minutes before a group of teenagers about our age showed up. We were taking a break and sitting in the hot tub. I guess school had been let out, and some of them decided to go swimming.

They seemed surprised to see us. In such a small community they probably knew everybody their age in the complex, but they didn’t know us.

There were five of them, two girls and three guys. As they approached, they seemed to recognize Jay.

"Hey, Jay," one of the guys said. "Who are your friends?"

"Hey, Bill," Jay said. "These three are the new members of A2.”

"Oh," Bill said, "I heard the team was forming, but didn’t realize you guys were already here."

"Guys," Jay said turning to us. "This is Bill, Frank, Jermaine, Suzanne, and Billie," he pointed out each of them as he said their names.

He then pointed to us and said, "This is Justin, Nikki, and Jasmine."

"Pleased to meet you," I said, which was followed by a chorus of similar responses.

We continued swimming for another half an hour before we had to leave for our checkups. The other kids our age made it a lot more fun, and we were disappointed that we had to leave. The only downside to the afternoon was all the attention I was getting. I was used to Justin staring at me by now, but each of the other boys seemed to be checking me out as well. I knew it was something I needed to get used to, but it was still disconcerting.

"What are you guys doing tonight?" Bill asked as we were drying off before heading for the locker rooms.

"I don’t think we have anything planned," Jay answered for us.

"Do you guys want to go to the club or something?" Bill asked.

"I’m too exhausted," I said. "I may just go back to my room and fall asleep after the checkup." I really was too. I didn’t know if it was because of the Procedure or my new size, but I was ready to fall over.

"Come on, Jaz," Justin said," You promised you would go."

"And I will," I said irritably, "But right now my body is telling me to sleep. I don’t know if it’s the Procedure or not, but I can hardly stand."

"She does look wiped out," Nikki said, and I heard the other two girls agree. "Perhaps it's best if she doesn’t come tonight. The rest of us will come."

Nikki and I headed toward the locker room.

"Nikki," I said as we approached, "I’m not going to make it!"

The last thing I remember as I fell forward was Nikki screaming my name while she tried to catch me.

*  *  *

---

Author Note: Please email me at AngelJediGirl (at) gmail (dot) com before posting this story to any other site. Posting to a pay site is prohibited.

Comments and suggestions are also welcome at the above email address.

*  *  *
Chapter 16 - Dreams Come True

It was dark when I awoke. The room appeared to be a hospital room, and the lights were dim. I was wearing a hospital gown, which made me worry a little bit.

There wasn’t anyone in the room, so I got up off the bed and looked out the door. There was a small nurses’ station on the other side of the hall. It looked like a nurse had her head on the desk.

I crossed the hall and when I approached the desk I could hear light snoring.

"Excuse me?" I said. The nurse didn’t budge. I walked around the desk and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Excuse me?" I repeated.

She jumped, and I shrieked in response.

"Oh my gosh," she said. "Don’t DO that!"

"I’m sorry," I said. "I didn’t mean to scare you."

"It's okay," she said. "I can’t believe I fell asleep. How long have you been awake?"

"Um, not very long. Where am I?"

"You’re in the medical ward here at Alpha Complex. You didn’t know?"

"No," I replied. "The last thing I remember is walking toward our lockers in the locker room. What happened to me? Where is everybody?"

"Dr. Patrick said your body was exhausted. She said the swimming just taxed the low energy levels it had, and it knocked you out to finish the changes. Everybody went to bed when they found out you were stable."

"Oh," I said. "What time is it?"

She looked at her watch. "It's about 5:00," she said.

"In the morning?" I asked.

"Yes; you’ve been out all night, which is why I’m here. We don’t usually have patients spend the night."

"I’m sorry," I apologized.

"It's not your fault, honey. The Procedure can be taxing on the body. Most patients would have been fine doing what you did. But because of your extensive changes, your body wasn't up to the exertion."

"What happens now?" I asked.

"I can wake up Dr. Patrick if you want," she said, "but she recommended you try to go back to sleep if you woke up before she came in."

"Who's Dr. Patrick?" I asked.

"Nina?" she responded. She looked a little confused that I wouldn’t know my own doctor.

"Oh!" I said. "I don’t think she ever told me her last name."

"Anyway," the nurse continued. "What do you want to do?"

"I guess I'll try to get some more sleep," I said.

"Okay," she said, "I'll be out here if you need me."

"Okay. What’s your name?"

"My name is Brooklyn," she said.

"Thanks for watching over me, Brooklyn," I said as I walked back into my room.

"You’re welcome, sweetie," she said before I was out of sight.

I went into the adjoining bathroom to relieve myself. I knew they had done it, but seeing myself without the wig and breast forms was the last thing I wanted to do. The only plus was that I would have my own by the end of the day.

After relieving myself I climbed back into bed. I thought it was going to be hard to get back to sleep after 12 hours, but I was asleep within half an hour.

*  *  *

"Jaz," the voice said, "Wake up."

I groaned. I could sleep for another hour or two.

"Jaz, I heard that." It was Nikki. There was no mistaking her enthusiasm.

"Want more sleep," I said.

"You’ve been asleep for 15 hours. You’re missing the best part! Changes are happening, missy!"

"What do you mean?" I said while sitting up. I was wide awake now!

I knew right away what she was talking about. A cascade of blonde locks fell around my face! I shrieked in excitement and ran for the bathroom.

It was beautiful! It was long! It was perfect!

The most beautiful color of blonde flowed all the way down to the small of my back! I was giddy and couldn’t stop jumping up and down. The whole time my hair was bouncing with me and I was amazed at how heavy it was.

It also framed the most gorgeous face I had ever seen! My lips were fuller and my eyes looked bigger! My nose was perfect and my cheekbones were more pronounced! I could still see me in there, but it was me as a beautiful girl!

I looked back at my hair, it was very straight, and oddly enough, it appeared to be styled. It was perfectly how I would want it to look!

"Did you style it while I was asleep?" I asked Nikki.

"No, a second ago it was all wild and crazy like it had been slept on. I don’t know how it looks like that now." She seemed surprised when she looked at it.

"Well, it's beautiful." I admired it for another minute or two before I started looking over my body. "That seems to be the only change so far," I said after peeking in my robe.

"Yeah, we haven’t seen anything else really change, not even on Justin or myself," she said. "The doctors expect that for the most part my changes and Justin's changes will be small cosmetic things. He doesn’t think we will change that much.

"You, on the other hand," she continued, "are going to have the best day of your life! Wait here. I'll go get Nina and Jill."

Nina and Jill came into the bathroom with Nikki a few moments later. They both had smiles on their faces as they looked at my hair.

"Wow," Jill said. "You two did a good job styling it."

"That’s just it," Nikki said. "We didn’t touch it. It changed by itself."

"Are you sure?" Nina asked. She sounded intrigued.

"Yeah," Nikki replied," When she jumped up and ran for the bathroom it was still unkempt, but it looked like this when I reached the bathroom behind her."

"Jaz," Nina said while pulling out a clipboard, "What were you thinking about when you were heading to the bathroom?"

"I don’t know," I said. After a moment’s thought I continued. "I was imagining what it would look like."

"Okay, she said, "What do you think you would look like if your hair was curly?"

I thought about it, but was interrupted when they all gasped.

"What?" I asked as I turned back toward the mirror. My hair was now curly. It fell in nice waves down my back. But the scary part was that it was exactly how I had imagined it!

"That is so cool!" Nikki said.

"Yes," Nina agreed. "I think this is probably the first power manifestation of you three. Because it is showing up at the time the physical changes appeared, it's probably safe to assume this is a minor power."

"It's way cool though," I said while running my hands through another style I had thought up.

"Did you paint your nails?" Jill asked me.

"No," I said looking at my nails. They were painted a light pink that was very pretty. I had a sudden thought, and imagined them bright red.

"It's not just my hair," I said as I held my hand out to show them my nails changing color.

"If you can change your nail color, can you change your hair color as well?" Nina asked while writing again.

I turned back to the mirror and imagined myself as a brunette. It was amazing to watch my hair change color. It was a quick change, but I could definitely see the new color start at my scalp and continue to the end.

"Wow," Nikki said, "Your skin tone changed slightly to make it look better."

"Actually," Nina said while writing more things down on her clipboard. "I bet Jaz felt the different skin tone better suited the hair color. Jaz, what if you had a tan, what would it look like?"

"I don’t know," I said again, but tried to imagine it. My skin darkened a little bit. "Wow," I said.

"What if you were black?" Nina asked.

"Like African-American black?" I asked.

"Yes," she clarified.

I tried to picture myself with a browner skin tone, and my skin darkened a little bit, but not to what I was picturing. It still just looked like a tan.

"So no racial changes then," she said after seeing my reaction. "I wonder if that’s a physical or mental limitation." She wrote some more on her clipboard.

"If I can change my looks like this, how do I know who is me?" I asked.

"You mean, how you look without modification?" Jill asked. She almost sounded like a therapist, which reminded me of her job. I hope I could cope with this.

"Yeah," I said. I wanted to know me, not these other girls.

"Well," Nina interrupted. "You are still you. These changes appear to be superficial only. Your face and physical structure have not changed at all. The only real change has been in coloring and the style of your hair."

I understood what she meant and looked back at the mirror. She was right. The beautiful face I had seen when I first walked into the bathroom was still there. I concentrated on trying to change it, but nothing happened.

"Can’t change it?" Nina asked. I shook my head. "I doubt you will ever be able to change the structure. Usually small powers like this can be developed during the first 3 stages. They usually are easy to control, like this one, and never really grow beyond."

"But what do I really look like?" I asked.

"Your original look, the one you saw when you entered the bathroom, is you. It didn’t change until you consciously made it change," Nina said.

"But my hair changed," I said. I actually had tears in my eyes now.

"Jaz," Nikki said in a comforting tone. "I saw you before you even woke up. The only thing that changed between when you ran for the bathroom and when I got there was the neatness of it. When I woke you up it was already in that straight style, it just looked like you had been sleeping on it." She gave me a hug and helped me let it out.

"I just want to be me," I said into her shoulder.

"You are," she said and turned me toward the mirror. "See?"

She was right, of course. The beautiful blonde I had seen originally was looking back at me again. Somehow I knew that she was me, which made me feel much better.

"This is going to take some getting used to," I said while drying my eyes. "I’m sorry, I just felt horrible. I can't believe I’m crying so much."

"It's okay, Jaz, your body is still adjusting to your hormones," Nina said. "Any strong feelings you have are probably going to get amplified."

"Thank you all, I don’t know what I would do without you." I said sincerely.

"Come on," Nikki said pulling me out of the bathroom. "You need some food."

"Wait!" I said while pulling back. "I need to use the restroom."

"Okay," she said and let me go. The others stepped past me to give me some privacy.

I closed the door and turned back to the mirror. I was beautiful. I still couldn’t get over it! I pulled the robe off and looked at the rest of my body. I still didn’t see any other changes so I sat down and relieved myself. After wiping I stood up, washed my hands, put on the hospital robe and exited the restroom.

Nikki was still in the room when I came out. She had a tray of food that looked like it came from the cafeteria, and a very comfortable looking pink robe.

"I’m not getting out of here anytime soon, am I?" I asked her.

"I’m afraid not," she said, "Nina is worried you’ll overdo it again. But don’t worry, I'll keep you company."

"Grreeaatt," I said sarcastically.

She just stuck her tongue out at me and carried the tray over to a table in the corner.

"Here," she said handing me the robe. "This will be better than that hospital gown." I took it from her, pulled off the hospital gown and then wrapped it around me. It was very soft.

"Not hungry?" I asked her as I sat down next to her.

"Hello," she said, "It's 10:30. I ate hours ago while you were sleeping."

"Oh," was all I could say to that.

*  *  *

I wasn’t quite sure how it started, I think I interrupted her story with a catty remark or something. All I know is that one minute we were sitting on my bed sharing stories of growing up, and the next I was doubled over in pain.

Nikki just kept telling me how sorry she was over and over as I tried to recover. I could still see her weapon of choice, an overstuffed pillow, lying next to her on the bed.

"Are you okay?" Nikki finally asked after I seemed to get my breath back. Nina was also there. She must have come running when I screamed.

"Yeah," I eventually said. "I just wasn’t expecting so much pain."

"What happened?" Nina asked.

"I hit her with a pillow," Nikki replied. "It wasn’t even that hard."

"Where does it hurt?" Nina asked me.

"My chest felt like it was on fire," I replied.

"Let’s have a look. Can you take off the robe?"

I did as she asked and stared at my chest. I was ecstatic to see that my nipples were larger, and there appeared to be some puffiness around them.

Nina saw my smile and returned it with one of her own. "This is a big day in every girl's life, Jaz. Congratulations." She gave me a hug which I returned. Nikki did the same, and soon I was crying again.

"Thank you guys so much," I said while wiping away tears. "I’m so happy right now!"

"Well Jaz, I’d also like to take a look down below, if that’s okay."

"Sure," I said and started to take off the panties I was wearing.

"Do you want me to leave?" Nikki asked quickly.

"That’s up to you," I replied. "I don’t mind if you stay."

"Okay," she said with a smile on her face.

I pulled my panties down my legs and then stepped out of them. What I found between my legs made me smile even more.

"Lie on the bed and spread your legs for me please," Nina said.

I climbed onto the bed and spread my legs as best I could. It was a little embarrassing since I was still male down there, but I knew it wouldn’t last.

Between my legs I could still see my penis, but it was smaller than it used to be. Not by much, but enough to be obvious to me. But the thing that really caught my eye was how flat the rest of my crotch was. My scrotum was completely gone, leaving smooth skin all the way between my penis and my anus.

"It looks like you are well on the way," Nina said while examining me. "This is interesting," she continued when she lifted my penis up."

"What is," I asked, trying to see what she was talking about.

At the base of my penis was a hole. I knew enough about female anatomy to know that it was too small and too high up to be the vaginal canal, so I looked closer.

"It looks like urinary function has been rerouted already," Nina said.

"Oh," I said understanding. My new urethra had already formed! It looked wrong being alone like that. "What about my penis? It wasn't like that when I peed earlier," I asked while looking at the tip. It was smooth skin, and there was no sign of the opening. "That looks kinda freaky."

"It would appear that your penis is now nothing more than an oversized clitoris as far as function goes," Nina explained. "You obviously won’t be able to use it to urinate or have sex. I expect it will only be a few hours before this stage is complete."

"I can’t wait!" I said with a huge smile on my face. "Dreams really can come true."

*  *  *

Nina finished her exam and told me to call her if any changes occurred. I put the robe back on and Nikki went to get us some food.

We tried to find something good to watch on TV while we waited, but the only thing that was really on were talk shows or soap operas, and we weren’t really interested in either.

Around 12:45, I felt a small throb coming from my chest. I took the robe off to see and was surprised to find that I had breasts!

I was very excited as I told Nikki, "I think they’re growing!"

They weren’t really much bigger than before, but they had definition now!

"I'll get Nina," Nikki said as she got up and headed out the door.

I looked back down at my breasts. They were probably a AAA cup. Looking closely, I could actually see them growing! It was very slow, but I could see it happening! I didn’t really feel anything different. Every once in a while I felt a small throb like I had originally, but not much more beyond normal.

Nikki came back in with Nina, who wanted to do another checkup.

She felt around my chest and confirmed that they were growing continuously. She then asked me to take my panties off again.

My penis had gotten smaller, but nothing else had changed. It was about 2 inches long now. I had felt it shrinking since this morning, but I hadn’t looked at it in about half an hour.

As she was examining it, I felt a throb like I had felt on my chest, and we could actually see my penis shrink. As we watched, the speed of the shrinking increased, and within five minutes, I no longer had a penis!

It had shrunken into a small nub above where my urethra had formed. I knew that I now had a clitoris, but the thought was staggering to me! I couldn’t really feel the emotions anymore I was so happy.

From an early age I had realized that I should have been born female. When I was old enough to learn the differences between boys and girls I had begun to despise my penis. I didn’t want one between my legs unless it was attached to a lover!

For the first time in my life, I was starting to feel complete! I did not have a vagina yet, but I no longer had a penis, and my breasts were growing!

I gave Nikki and Nina a hug. I was so happy, and I was glad that they were there with me.

I got up and went into the bathroom to look at myself in the full length mirror that was in there. What I saw just made me smile even more. Without a penis between my legs, I looked every inch a girl. My breasts were now about a AA, and there was no denying that they belonged on my body.

After looking myself over for a few minutes, I slipped my robe back on, sans panties, and went back into the room. Nikki was still there, smiling about as big as I was.

"Do you mind if I call my sister?” I asked.

"Not at all," she said. "Do you want me to leave?"

"No," I said. "You don’t have to. It might be nice to have the company anyway."

"Good," she said, "Because I don’t have anything else to do!"

We both laughed at that, and then I gave her another hug. "Thank you, Nikki. I’m glad I’ve got a friend like you."

"I’m glad that I’m your friend too," she said. "So what’s your sister like?"

"She's cool. Other than Jill, Nina, and you, she's the only one who’s really accepted me so far."

"I think Justin would accept you all the way to the altar," she commented with a sly smile.

"I’m not ready for that yet," I replied. "We are NOT going there."

"You’ll have to face him at some point," she said.

"I know. I just can’t believe the turn around he made when I dressed up. Anyway, I need to call my sister before her study period is over."

"Alright,' she said.

I picked the phone up and dialed my sister's cell phone. Lying on the bed, I waited for her to answer.

"Hello?" I heard her ask after a few rings.

"Hi, Cami," I said.

"Hi," she said. "Um, who is this?"

"It's Jaz, your beautiful older sister," I replied. I knew she wouldn’t recognize my new voice.

"Jaz!" she exclaimed. "Wow, you don’t sound anything like you used to!"

"I know, this has been the best week of my life so far!" I said.

"So you really are happy with this?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"Good, because I don’t want to lose you before I even get to meet you."

"You won’t, I promise," I said.

"So how are you? Have you changed all the way?" she asked.

"I’m doing great. Today has been so awesome. I’m still changing, but I’m getting really close," I replied.

"How close?"

"Really close. My breasts are growing, and I no longer have any male parts. I’m just kinda waiting for the female parts to show up."

"So are you like flat down there or something?" she asked confused.

"No, not really," I said. "I, um, I’ve got a clitoris and a urethra down there now, but the rest of the skin is smooth. I don’t have any labia or an actual vagina yet."

"Oh," she said. She sounded disgusted by that.

"Hey, you asked!" I said and started laughing. She joined in as well.

"It’ll be nice to have a sister," she said. "I just wish we could have grown up this way."

"Me too," I said with a sigh.

"Oh, hey," I continued, “I learned about one of my powers today too."

"Seriously? I thought you said they wouldn’t show up until tomorrow."

"That’s what I thought too, but this morning while I was looking at my new face, and my new hair I found out I can change things," I said.

"Like what?" she asked.

"Like my hair style, the color of my hair and nails, and even my skin color to an extent," I explained.

"Wow, that’s pretty cool, that will save tons of time on getting ready. You’re making me jealous."

I heard a bell ring through the phone.

"Sorry, Jaz, I’ve got to go to my next class. Talk to you tonight?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'll call you tonight. Thanks, Cami," I said.

"For what?" she asked.

"For being such a great sister," I replied.

"Oh, Jaz," she said a little teary. "I can’t wait to say the same about you."

"I can’t wait to come home. Hopefully the next few days will go by quickly."

"I hope so," she said. "I’m outside my class now. I'll talk to you tonight. I love you."

"I love you too, Cami," I said. "Good bye."

"Bye," she said before hanging up.

I hung up the phone and slumped back on the bed.

"That was quick," Nikki said.

"Yeah," I replied. "She had to go into class."

"Any more changes?" Nikki asked.

"I don’t know," I said while untying my robe. "I can still feel the throbbing."

My breasts were bigger, about a full A cup now. I could actually feel them bouncing around when I moved.

Down below was still the same though.

"Just bigger boobs," I said while giggling. "This is boring."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Well, this is one of the best days of my life, but I’m stuck here waiting for something to happen."

There was a knock on the door to the room. I guessed something was going to happen. I quickly closed my robe as Nikki walked to the door. She made sure I was decent before opening it.

Justin and Jay were outside, and asked if they could come in.

"Sure, one sec," I said when Nikki looked toward me for an answer. She closed the door and I grabbed my panties and pulled them on. After nodding to her that it was okay, she let them in.

"Both of them gaped at me as they walked in. I knew I was a knockout now, but their undisguised staring was unsettling. I pouted, and they seemed to be drawn back to the real world.

"Wow," Justin said. "You really changed. You’re beautiful."

"Thanks," I said. His comment left me feeling awkward. This is something I did not want to deal with right now.

"Are the changes done?" Jay asked.

"Not yet," I said.

"How far are they?" Justin asked.

"That’s...personal." I responded coldly.

"I’m sorry," he apologized. "I didn’t mean it like that. Hey," he said, trying to deflect my ire. "I heard you have a power already."

"Yeah," I said a little more excitedly. "I can do this!" I changed from my normal blonde to a raven haired beauty. At least I was in my mind.

"Oh my gosh!" Justin exclaimed. This was obviously his first time seeing a power. "That is awesome! Do it again!"

It was easy to impress him I guess. I tried a couple of different looks before eventually changing back to myself. It was different than the other changes, it almost felt like a relief when I changed back, and I realized that it must take some kind of concentration or something to hold the changes.

We were still talking 5 minutes later when I felt a sharp pain between my legs. It made me yelp, and everybody stopped talking. Nikki could see the pain on my face, and she quickly took charge.

"I think you guys need to go now," she said.

"But..." Justin started.

"NOW!" Nikki said louder. "We need to check things out that are for girls’ eyes only. Please leave. You can come back later."

"Come on, Justin," Jay said, pulling him toward the door. "We'll check on you girls later."

"Okay, tell Nina to come in," Nikki said as she closed the door behind them.

Once the door was closed, I pulled off the robe and dropped my panties.

I had a small cleft between my legs now! At the bottom nearest to my anus was a small split between the two sides of skin. I was pretty sure that is what caused the initial sharp pain. As we watched, we could see it slowly extending upward, which accounted for the continuing pain.

I was so excited! I wanted to scream out in joy, but only pain came out instead. Nikki held my hand to help comfort me, and if I hadn’t been in pain, I would have given her a hug.

Nina came in a minute later, I’m sure she heard my pain and concern was in her voice as she spoke.

"Are you okay, Jaz?" she asked as she walked from the door to where I was on the bed.

"Yeah," I said. "I can’t complain about the pain when it’s giving me what I’ve wanted for so long."

She set her clipboard down and started to examine the changes. "Well the cause of the pain is pretty evident," she said after a quick examination. "It looks like you’re forming the labia lips at the same time. My best estimate is that you will have the external genitalia of a female in a few minutes. The only thing left after that would be the actual vagina itself, and the finishing of your breasts."

"I haven’t felt the throbbing on my chest lately. Do you think they are done?" I asked.

"Let’s see," she said. "If you are, then they stopped at a perfect size for your frame. It looks like you are about a B cup now. With your small body, that is probably about average."

"They look perfect, Jaz," Nikki said. "Mine are too small for me."

"They look fine to me," I reassured her.

"Yeah, but I’m only a B cup as well. I think a C cup would look better on my taller body."

"Maybe they will grow today," I said, trying to cheer her up a little.

"I hope so."

"Either way," Nina interrupted, "All we can do now is wait."

The pain was annoying, but manageable. I sat there entranced as I watched my vagina forming. My biggest dream in life was coming true right before my eyes!

My new slit continued its trek up my crotch. When it reached my urethra, the skin around it and my clitoris sunk inward a little, and began to change to look more like the rest of my inner labia. The pain doubled for a brief moment as the split started around both sides of my urethra and worked upward again, until they met just above my clitoris.

It was everything I had ever dreamed it would be! The inner labia lips were not really much larger than the outer ones. When I closed my legs experimentally, the inner labia was completely hidden inside the outer lips. It was exactly how I pictured my vagina whenever I fantasized about having one.

I was crying again! I could only hope that my emotional state would stabilize soon! I gave Nina and Nikki another hug and thanked them both for all the support they were giving me.

"The only thing that could make this day better," I said, "Would be if my mom and my sister were here."

"I'm sorry they couldn’t be here, Jaz," Nikki said. "But you’ll see them soon enough."

"Yeah, I guess so, but right now I need to use the restroom," I said while standing up. I hadn’t gone most of the day, and all of a sudden the pressure was intense.

I walked into the restroom, still naked. When I looked in the mirror, I couldn’t see anything but a beautiful girl. There were no bulges or lack of parts marring the image now. I admired myself in the mirror for a few moments before turning to the toilet. This was the first time in my life that I would be required to sit.

I sat down and spread my legs. I was curious to see how this worked. I was worried about not being able to control it in some way, but as soon as I tried to let it go, it came out naturally.

It certainly felt different than what I had been used to. It was less directional, seemingly spraying everywhere. It was weird to see and feel the stream coming from just above my new vagina, but like everything else that had happened today, it made me happy.

After I was finished, I wiped and stood up. I thought that the act of peeing in this new body would be weird, but it actually felt natural. I wondered if the Procedure made it feel that way.

I washed my hands and walked out of the bathroom and found Nina waiting for me.

"Everything work okay?" she asked.

"Yeah," I replied. "It felt kind of weird at first, but by the time I was done, it felt natural."

She was writing on her clipboard again. "Any trouble starting or stopping the stream?" she asked.

That was kind of an embarrassing question, and I turned red as I replied. "No."

"Sorry, Jaz, these are questions I need to ask."

I sighed.

"Any burning sensation?" she continued.

"No, everything was normal," I said, a little irritated.

"Okay, okay," she said raising her arms in surrender. "Just tell me if something feels wrong, alright?"

"Alright, I promise." I said.

"We're going to need to do a full exam when you're finished changing, including an internal," she said.

"What’s that?" I asked.

"It's one of the worst parts about being a girl," Nikki said.

"It's an important part of a woman's health," Nina said to help keep me from being discouraged. "Basically we just peek inside your vagina to make sure everything is okay."

"That doesn’t sound too bad," I said.

"It's different for every woman. Anyway, I’ve got some things I need to attend to. Just call me if you have any problems, or the changes continue," Nina said.

"Okay," I replied. "See you later."

"Bye, Nina," Nikki said.

"Bye," Nina said while picking up her clipboard and heading out the door.

"Bored again," Nikki stated.

"Yeah," I agreed, and slumped back on the bed.

*  *  *

It was about 2:00 when the next change occurred. We were still sitting there bored when Nikki got a surprised look on her face, and her hands reached for her breasts.

"My boobs are throbbing!" she said excitedly. "Maybe they’re growing!"

She pulled her top off and unhooked her bra. I knew we were both girls now, but the act surprised me. Other than my own and a few glimpses in the locker room, I had never seen breasts in person before.

She seemed unfazed by my startled reaction as she examined her breasts. I couldn’t tell from where I was sitting whether they were growing or not, but she seemed positive that they were.

Nina showed up shortly thereafter. We must have been making enough noise to alert her.

"Everything okay?" she asked while taking in the situation.

"I think my boobs are growing!" Nikki said excitedly.

"Oh," Nina said. She sounded somewhat surprised. "I thought maybe Jaz was finishing up."

"Not yet," I said.

"Well, let me have a look then," Nina said.

She was able to confirm that Nikki's breasts were growing. She was about as happy as I had been today. It was nice to see someone else getting something they wanted out of this deal.

They grew pretty quickly, and about 15 minutes after they started, her breasts stopped growing. Nina pulled out a tape measure, and Nikki was ecstatic when she learned she had grown a full cup size and now sported C cups. I must admit, they did look good on her.

I was beginning to wish this day would just get over with when I felt it. "Uh," I said. It was a pressure at the bottom of my new vulva. It was also pretty easy to understand what was happening.

"Nina," I said. She was finishing up with Nikki so this was a good time, I guess. "It's happening."

"Lie on the bed," she said. "This probably won’t take very long."

She was right, as usual. It took about 20 minutes. The whole time I could feel the pressure growing deeper. It didn’t hurt at all, for which I was grateful.

At one point I decided to stick my finger inside. I’d never been this close to a vagina before, so I had nothing to compare it too. My finger only went in to about the second knuckle before hitting the wall where it was still growing inward, but it was amazing. I have never felt anything quite like the penetration I felt now.

There was a slight pain at the end, but then the feeling stopped.

"Nina," I said with a big smile on my face." I think it's over!"

"Let's check," she said and pulled out an instrument that looked like a diabetes tester.

"What’s that?" I asked.

"This will tell us if you’re finished with the stage," She said. "Hold out your arm and we will know in no time."

I held out my arm as I asked, "Why didn’t you check the other stages like this?"

"We did, you were just asleep when we did it," she explained.

There was a small sharp pain where she had put the tip of the device, but it was a lot less painful than I was expecting. She then removed the device from my arm when a red light lit up.

"Congratulations, Jaz!" she said while giving me a hug. "The red light means you’re done changing. You’re a full girl now!"

I was crying again when Nikki came and joined the hug a second later. "Grats, Jaz," she exclaimed.

Now I really wished my mom and sister were here.

*  *  *

---

Author Note: Please email me at AngelJediGirl (at) gmail (dot) com before posting this story to any other site. Posting to a pay site is prohibited.

Comments and suggestions are also welcome at the above email address.

*  *  *
Chapter 17 - Exams, Conferences, and Shopping?

Nina ran the test on Nikki as well. It looked like we were both done changing.

Nikki looked a little disappointed. Other than her breast enlargement, she hadn’t changed at all. I thought she was already beautiful though, and she didn’t really need to change. At least everybody she knew would recognize her!

"We had the checkups scheduled for five o’clock again," Nina said, "But we can do them now if you want."

"What time is it?" I asked.

"Its almost three," she replied after looking at her watch.

"Okay," I said.

"It will give us time to do something tonight," Nikki added.

"Alright," Nina said, "I'll contact Stacy and let her know. We'll be ready for you in the exam rooms in about five minutes."

"Who’s Stacy?" I asked.

"She's my doctor," Nikki said. I hadn’t realized that she had a different doctor up until then.

"Oh," I said. Then a thought struck me. "Um, do I get any clothes to wear?" I asked.

"Yes," Nina said. "Nikki, show her how to order some, and we'll have it delivered by the time the exams are done.”

"Okay," Nikki said. "What computer can we use?"

"You can use the one at the nurses’ station. She should be pretty close to yesterday, so the measurements should come up pretty close. We can measure again at the beginning of the exam to make sure. The only thing that’s really changed is her chest, order for a 32B and you should be safe."

"Okay," Nikki said. "What about me?"

Nina looked quizzical for a second before she realized what Nikki was asking. "Oh, you are a 36C now."

All three of us walked out of the room together. Nina headed down the hall and Nikki and I walked over to the computer at the empty nurses’ station.

"Okay, this website allows us to order some clothes. These clothes are provided by the project. We will need to go shopping for our own later, but we can get you an outfit for the day here."

"Okay," I said. I had never shopped for women's clothes before, so I was glad Nikki was here. We ended up ordering a light pink tank top that had a picture of a jasmine flower on it (her idea), a white denim skirt, a pair of sandals, and a beautiful bra and panty set. Nikki had to order another bra and top herself. The top she was wearing was a little too tight now.

"Ready for your first Gyn exam?" Nikki asked as we walked down the hall.

"I doubt it," I said. Apparently that was funny because Nikki burst out laughing.

We reached the exam rooms quickly and were ushered into separate rooms.

Nina started out by taking my measurements. When she read them off to me, I was amazed. I had a great figure. She then proceeded to give me a full physical, minus the dreaded coughing part.

Instead, she had me lie back on the exam bed while she pulled stirrups out of the end near my feet. I may not have been born female, but it was pretty obvious what was coming next.

"Now, Jaz," Nina started. "I’m a woman, so I know how you are going to feel during this part of the exam. I remember I was scared to death the first time. That’s okay, it's a natural response. I just want you to know that all women go through this, and I promise that you will be well taken care of."

That really didn’t do a lot to help my nervousness. "Now," she continued. "I would ask you when your last period was, but I guess that would be a pointless question for the time being."

I hadn't even thought about periods until she mentioned that, but the thought actually gave me a warm glow inside. I had heard many girls talk about how much they hated their periods, but I was looking forward to the confirmation of my fertility it would signal. Nina waited for me to finish my daydream before she continued.

"The first thing I’m going to do is called a pap smear. Basically I rub the tip of this Q-tip," she held up an unnaturally large Q-tip, "against your cervix to collect a cell culture sample."

That didn’t sound so bad in theory, but in practice it was quite different. The speculum was cold when she inserted it, and the feeling of an object inside of me was completely weird. How do women do this?

I just gritted my teeth and blanked out the rest of it. "That wasn’t so bad, just one more thing and we'll be done," she eventually said. She removed the speculum, which was a big relief, but it didn’t last long. She actually inserted a finger or two down there! That was almost worse than the speculum.

The feeling was like nothing I had ever felt before, not even with the speculum, but it didn’t arouse me like I thought it would. Every once in a while she would touch or rub or do something that would send a small feeling of pleasure to my brain, but for the most part I was too worked up to feel anything. I wasn’t quite sure what she was doing, but eventually she seemed satisfied and pulled her fingers out.

"Barring any abnormalities on the pap smear, it appears that you are a healthy young woman. I don’t see anything wrong at all.”

I smiled, but I still wasn’t certain if it was for the good news, or the fact that she seemed to be finished down there.

She helped me remove my feet from the stirrups and then stowed the stirrups in the table.

"Let me see if your clothes are here yet. I'll be right back," she said while walking out the door. I felt exposed so I walked over to the chair where I had left my robe and put it on.

About five minutes later she finally came back. I had started to wonder what was taking so long.

"Sorry," she said after closing the door. She handed me a bag as she spoke. "Here are your clothes. Get dressed and meet us in the conference room. We're going to have the briefing now as well so that you don’t have to come back later tonight."

"Okay," I said while taking the bag from her. "Thanks."

"You’re welcome. See you in a few." She left me alone to get dressed.

The clothes looked even better in person. The white jasmine on the light pink tank top looked spectacular in the way it blended between the picture and the color of the tank top. It may not have been my idea to put it there, but it certainly looked beautiful.

Just like me, I thought with a small chuckle.

I started with the bra and panty set. They were light pink, and had darker pink pattern of flowers that almost looked like they were growing. I pulled the panties on and was amazed at how much better they felt to wear now that I was female down there! I had worn panties after my penis shrunk completely, but for some reason they just seemed to fit better now.

Next I put the bra on. It was a lot different when the breasts were now my own! I had to be more delicate, because they are a little more sensitive than the forms. The bra fit perfectly and it brought a smile to my face when I realized I actually needed one now! My young breasts were still perky and didn’t sag at all, but the extra support from the bra just increased the comfort that much more.

The white denim skirt fell to about 3 inches above my knees. Short, but modest enough that I hoped Mom wouldn’t complain. It hugged my new curves like a second skin, and I loved the way it looked! The tank top was the same way. There was no denying that I had breasts and a small waist. The straps of the tank top didn’t completely cover the straps of my bra, which I felt just added to the allure. I felt pretty sure that I was going to get plenty of male attention in the future.

The strappy sandals that Nikki insisted I get with the outfit had a small heel. I was worried about being able to walk in them, but Nikki stated that I would have to get used to it sooner or later. After putting them on I experimentally took a few steps, and I was surprised at the ease in which I walked in them. Learning to move and act like a girl seemed to be a little too easy for me.

One thing that we didn’t order, but that was included with the clothes, was a purse. It was the same light pink as my top and also sported a picture of a jasmine on it. I picked it up and looked inside. Sure enough, it had some cosmetics inside that I figured I should probably make use of.

I walked over to the mirror above the small sink in the room and looked at myself. I looked beautiful. My hair was a little disheveled but I quickly fixed it. A second later my nails were also a light shade of pink.

I pulled the cosmetics out of my purse and was about to start working on my face when I had a sudden thought: if I could change my nail color, could I do cosmetics as well?

Yes! A quick concentration of what I wanted and I soon had a face made up to look like a young woman out for the afternoon. I tried to see how the power accomplished the look, but apparently it just changed the color of my skin. It wasn’t really cosmetics, it looked more like it was tattooed on, but you could only tell up close.

If nothing else, this power would make me a master of disguise.

After checking myself over one last time, I exited the exam room and headed down the hall.

Nina, both Doctors Young, and two other doctors were waiting. I didn’t see Nikki or Justin yet.

"Wow!" Nina said. "That was quick. Where did you learn to do makeup so fast?"

"I didn’t," I replied. "I can do cosmetics as well, I just thought of how I wanted it to look."

"Interesting," was her only response as she started writing on her clipboard again.

We sat in silence for a few minutes before Nikki showed up. "Wow!" she said. "You look amazing! Did anyone help you with your makeup?"

"No, I’m not actually wearing any," I replied.

"Huh?" she said. It wasn’t really a dignified response.

"My power lets me do makeup too." I explained.

"Oh my gosh, that is so unfair!" she said, sounding a little jealous.

It took Justin a little bit longer to join us. He had been back in his room so he had to be called down for the exam.

"Oh, wow," I said when he walked in. He looked great. He didn’t really look all that different than before, just a lot more toned. It looked like he had been working out for years.

"Wow to you, too," he said with a gleam in his eye that made me feel uncomfortable. "You look fantastic."

"Thanks," I said as he took a seat across the table from me. Thankfully, it wasn’t next to me, but it gave him the ability to stare at me all he wanted. That may be a bad thing.

Jay came in next and took the seat next to him. It looked like he was eyeing Nikki and me, but he didn’t say anything.

"Let's get started," Dr. Young began when we were all seated. "First off, I want to congratulate all off you on successfully completing the first three stages. The physical transformations can be taxing for some people." He was looking at me while he said it.

"But now," he continued, "We get to the fun part. Tomorrow will be a lot like your first day here, minus the medical checkups that we did tonight.

"We'll start tomorrow morning at about 8:00. You will all go through the benchmark tests again. After that, you will have a short lunch break before we head down to the Powers lab, where we will try to determine what you are capable of. Hopefully, Stage 4 will be completed by mid afternoon and we will be able to get results."

"So we will have all of our powers by tomorrow?" Justin asked.

"Not necessarily," the doctor replied. "The majority of the powers should be developed tomorrow, but there is always the potential for new ones. We have no way to tell for sure what you will develop, and when. We've had agents develop powers years after the Procedure, but we don’t have long term data yet. The Procedure has only been used for 5 years."

"This is going to be so cool!" Nikki said.

"Yeah," Justin agreed. I felt the same way, but just nodded my head.

"The procedure should be finished by tomorrow evening. Saturday will be a rest day. You can make use of the facilities at the complex and have a good time. Sunday morning you will all be flown home, and we will see you again after the school year ends. Does anyone have any questions?" Dr. Young asked.

"Is developing the powers dangerous?" I asked. I’d hate to see someone catch on fire or something like that.

"Yes and no," Dr. Young replied. "It has never been a cause for concern as far as you guys go. The body seems to adapt very well to the power. None of the people who underwent the Procedure have been directly injured by it. It is possible, however, to harm others and even yourself indirectly."

"What does that mean?" Justin asked quickly.

"We have had a couple of incidents where a power has harmed other people when it was used for the first time, and one agent managed to burn herself when she lit the rug on fire, but fortunately there were no major injuries," Doctor Young said.

"Does it hurt?" Nikki asked.

"No more than the rest of the Procedure. Some of the powers may be painful to use, or leave you feeling a little drained, but it shouldn’t hurt in the way you are asking. Anything else you would like to know?"

"Why aren’t we heading home on Saturday if the Procedure is finished by then?" I asked. I really wanted to see my family.

"Saturday is more of a buffer day than anything else," Doctor Young said. "The procedure isn’t always finished in four days. Saturday allows us to have that extra day if the Procedure is still active, or it gives us a chance to make sure nothing new develops after it is not."

"What if the Procedure is still active after Saturday?" I asked.

"That hasn’t happened so far," he replied. "Our longest Procedure has been 4 1/2 days. If that happens however, we will probably keep that person an extra day, and send them home on Monday." I hope that didn’t happen to me.

I was certain we all had many other things we wanted to know, but none of us seemed to know how to ask to get the info. We sat in silence for a brief moment before Dr. Young spoke again. "If that’s the case, we will see you in the morning. Please be down here and ready by 8:00 so that we can begin on time. The rest of the evening is free for you to do whatever you would like."

After the doctors had left the conference room, Jay spoke. "What do you guys want to do tonight?"

"Jaz and I are going shopping," Nikki stated quickly. "At least for the time before dinner," she added when both of the guys’ expressions turned grim.

I hadn’t realized that she had planned that, but it sounded like fun. I also had plans though. "I really need to call home sometime tonight."

"Again?" Justin said. He seemed upset I would even suggest doing that.

"Yeah again," I said in a very irritated voice. "My family is really important to me, and this has been one of the biggest days of my life. I think I have the right to call them and talk about it, don’t you? "

He looked a bit chastised, but it appeared that he was really upset at something else. "You promised," he started. "You promised," he repeated again. It looked like he was struggling to say something. "You promised," he started again, but very meekly, "that you would go dancing at the club with me, uh, us!"

Finally the truth came out. He wanted to dance with me. I had promised to go sometime this week, though.

"Well, how about I call right after dinner, and then we can go after that," I said. "That should still be plenty of time."

He seemed to really cheer up when I said that. But I knew he was going to make this hard for me. I knew that I was attractive to boys now (the Procedure seemed to make sure of that), but I wasn’t sure if I was ready to take that step yet. To make matters worse, he was starting to look cute too.

"That sounds like a plan then," Jay stated. "How about we meet up for dinner in the cafeteria at 5:00, and then Jaz can make her call afterward. A1 wants to meet the new A2 so we're going to eat with them."

It wasn’t an order, but it seemed obvious that we didn’t have a choice in the matter. Frankly, I didn’t think it mattered anyway. We needed to eat, and the members of A1 were nice people.

"Sounds good to me," I said. The others agreed as well.

"Great, see you all at 5," he said as he got up and walked out the door.

Justin was still sitting there looking at us when I had a great idea.

"Want to come shopping with us?" I asked innocently. I knew that I had achieved the desired effect when he got a horrified look on his face and he rushed out the door yelling for Jay to wait for him.

Nikki and I burst out laughing. "That was awesome!" Nikki said a few minutes later when we were able to catch our breath. "I thought he was going to have a heart attack."

"It certainly was fun to watch," I agreed.

"Come on," she said while dragging me out the door. "This will be fun."

"You’re saying that like I think otherwise," I replied.

"Ah, good point. You are a girl, after all."

*  *  *

Even though I was looking forward to it, I was actually having more fun than I thought I would. Alpha Complex had a mini mall off the courtyard that contained five or six different stores. I was kind of disappointed when there wasn’t a Victoria's Secret (I always wanted to shop there), but I figured that it could wait until I got to a real mall at home.

The only store that seemed to be of importance to Nikki and me today was American Eagle. It was the only store that catered to people our age.

"Okay," Nikki said when we entered. "We need to hurry, because we've only got about half an hour. You are going to need underwear, four outfits to last through Monday, and a bikini. We can go shopping Monday night for the rest."

"Only if my sister is coming." I told her. "I promised her I’d go shopping with her."

"Oh," she sounded a little deflated. "I guess you probably want to go alone with her."

"You can come too. I’m sure she won’t mind." That seemed to cheer her up again, and she was back to her animated self. Girls, I was learning, are very sensitive, and that included me now.

A salesgirl who looked about my age headed over our way, but stopped when Nikki told her she already knew what she needed.

"We might as well start with the underwear," Nikki said while pulling me toward the intimates. There were so many to choose from I could have been there all day trying to decide. I feared that was going to be the case for everything we bought tonight. We finally ended up with 6 matching bra and panty sets in various colors, all beautiful.

She then pulled me over to the jeans. "Okay," she said. I had a feeling she already had my wardrobe planned out and I wouldn’t have a lot of say in my clothes. "We are going to get you a pair of jeans, a pair of shorts, and 2 more skirts." I decided I would just let her go with what she wanted. I could always get what I wanted later.

She handed me a pair of jeans. They were tiny. Even as small as I was, I didn’t know how I was going to fit into them. "Hold these," she said. "They will be perfect on you." She also pulled out a denim mini skirt and a pair of white denim shorts. She loaded them all into my arms and we headed over toward the tops.

The tops were just as beautiful as everything else in the store, but once again I didn’t have a chance to pick anything out.

"You already have everything picked out, don’t you?" I asked after she had piled a number of layering items in my arms and started with a few tops and tanks.

"Yeah," she said. "I hope you don’t mind, we don’t have enough time before dinner to really shop. That’s why I figured we could do some real shopping Monday night when we get back home."

"That’s okay with me. Everything you’ve grabbed has been so beautiful so far."

"Good," she said, "Because it's almost five already. We need to get your bikini and get out of here. Come on, let’s take these to the counter so that she can start ringing it up."

"How am I supposed to pay for all of this?" I asked. I just realized I didn’t have any money on me.

"You aren’t paying for it. It is being billed to the project. They have given each of us a stipend to get a new wardrobe after the changes. I just wish my stipend was as big as yours."

"Oh, okay," I said while placing the clothes down on the sales counter.

"I wish we had more time so that you could try these on before we bought them, but everything else has fit you perfectly so far, so these should too."

"Is this where all the other clothes came from?" I asked.

"Yeah," she replied. "Now come on, we need to get your bikini."

We walked over to the swimwear and Nikki started looking around. "I hope they have one," she said.

"A bikini?" I asked incredulously. How could she miss them? We were surrounded by them!

"A particular one I saw online. It would be perfect for you."

She went through a rack or two before she found it. "Here it is!" she said excitedly while holding up the suit.

"Wow, that does look nice." It was white, but it had a strand of flowers going up both cups of the halter style top. There was also a small bouquet on the front left side of the string bikini bottoms. Full panels all around made it a beautiful swimsuit, but also a modest one. "Can I try it on?" I asked excitedly.

"No," she said sadly. "We don’t have time if we are going to make it to dinner."

I pouted, but that only caused her to laugh. "You really are a girl, you know that?" she said.

"Yeah," I said while giggling.

"I guess I can wear it tomorrow for the tests," I said hopefully.

"You won’t want to wear a bikini for that. The one pieces they gave us will provide better support for the actual testing."

My face must have shown my displeasure, because she laughed again before giving me some hope. "Don’t worry, Jaz, we'll go swimming on Saturday and you can wear it then.

I think I pouted again, which only made her laugh harder.

*  *  *
Chapter 18 - The Flower Blooms

Once we had the bags in hand, we raced to the cafeteria. It was about 5 after when we arrived. We found everyone sitting at a table, but none of them had food.

"Finally," Justin nearly shouted. "I thought I was going to starve."

"Sorry, everyone," Nikki said as we put our bags down and took a seat. "We only had half an hour to get what she needed for the rest of the weekend."

"That's okay," Theresa said as she glared at Justin.

"Can we eat now?" Justin asked. It was obvious he was irritated.

"Yeah," Jay said as he stood up. The other guys got up as well and headed for the line.

"Don’t worry about them," Theresa said. "They’ll forget about it once they get food in their stomachs."

"I’m sorry," I said. "I didn’t mean to make us late. We were so pressed for time I didn’t even try anything on."

"Like I said," Theresa repeated. "Don’t worry about it. Five minutes isn’t going to kill anyone. Come on, let's get some food."

"Is it safe to leave the bags here?" Nikki asked.

"Yeah," Theresa replied. "We usually sit at this table. Nobody will try to take it."

*  *  *

When we got back to the table with our food, the boys were already chowing down. We took a seat and started eating as well. The conversation was light for the most part. It wasn’t until the end of dinner that it started shifting toward "work" related topics.

"Have you guys thought about codenames yet?" Lary asked.

"You can’t come up with a code name without knowing their powers," Rock stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Sure you can," Cary added. "We got the name 'Twins' way before the Procedure finished.

"That’s different," he argued.

"How?" Cary shot back. Rock didn’t seem to have an answer to that one. He shrugged and leaned back into his chair, deflated.

"I want to be called Titan," Justin said.

Everyone kind of looked at him for a bit. He didn’t really look like a titan.

"Why Titan?" I asked.

"Because it's cool," he replied as if that was reason enough.

"Okay," Jay said. "Titan it is, at least for now. You may want to change it when you learn your powers." He turned to Nikki. "What about you?" he asked her.

"I don’t know, I think I'll wait until I know what my powers are." she replied.

"What about you, Jaz?" Theresa asked.

"I think I’m with Nikki, I'll wait for my powers." I replied between bites.

"No you won’t," Nikki said. "You’ve already got a codename, you just don’t know it."

"I do?" I asked warily. I had barely started to get to know Nikki, but I was beginning to learn how her mind worked. If she already had a codename for me, there was a good chance it was going to stick.

"Yeah, between your name..." she said.

"My name?" I asked for clarification, but she didn’t give any.

"And your wardrobe," she continued.

"Which you picked out," I pointed out.

"It's obvious what your codename should be." We all stared at her, because nobody seemed to make any connection.

"Flower," she finally said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

The rest of us gave an "ah" of understanding when we connected the dots, but no one spoke.

Seconds later I realized that I really liked the name, and looking at the others, I could tell it had already stuck.

*  *  *
Chapter 19 - Family Dance

We finished eating and agreed to meet in the upstairs lobby in forty-five minutes. That would give me plenty of time to call home and then get ready to go to the club. It was a casual dress club, so I could just wear what I was wearing now.

The guys headed off toward an arcade to waste the time while the girls headed back toward the rooms. I did learn that A1 stayed in rooms 101-104. Apparently 105-108 were reserved for the two sets of team handlers, and then our rooms were after that. Theresa informed us that there were enough rooms in our hall to hold 2 more teams and their handlers, but we were the only two teams currently stationed at the complex.

Once inside my room I managed to stow the clothes I had bought earlier into my closet and dresser. Then I picked up the phone and stretched out on my couch. I dialed my parents’ number and waited for someone to pick up.

"Hello?" It was Ben. I was hoping Cami would pick up so that I didn’t need to talk to anyone else yet.

"Hi," I said. I figured anonymity would be a good way to handle this. "Is Cami there?"

"Let me check." I heard him say before apparently covering up the headset and yelling for her. I vaguely heard my mom say that she wasn’t here, and then ask who it was. "May I ask who’s calling?" he asked a second later."

"Um," was all I could come up with. I didn’t really want to do this yet, but finally I responded. "This is Jasmine."

I heard him cover the receiver and repeat my name to my mom. What I didn’t expect was the excitement I heard in Mom’s voice when she told him she would take the call upstairs. Cami must have told her my new name.

A short time later I heard another receiver being picked up, and then Mom spoke. "Jasmine?"

"Hi, Mrs. Campbell," I said. I didn’t want Ben to find out about me yet. Calling her “Mom” would be a dead giveaway.

To my mom's credit, she was smart enough to play along. "How are you doing? We haven’t heard from you in a while."

Thankfully Ben finally hung up, letting us speak freely. "I’m doing fine, Mom. The physical changes are done, and I'll be home in a couple of days."

"You sound so different, I can hardly recognize you."

"I AM different, Mom, completely different."

"I know, sweetie. This will take some time to get used to, but it will be nice to have another daughter around."

I smiled, and I’m sure it was evident in my voice when I spoke. "Thanks, Mom, I love you."

"I love you too, honey. Now tell me all about the new you."

*  *  *

I spent nearly half an hour talking to my mom. She seemed to be a lot more accepting this time, which really made me happy.

I told her about everything that had happened to me this week, and we talked about what the future would bring. Eventually I had to hang up to make it to the lobby in time, but not before promising to call again tomorrow. I asked her to tell Cami that I was sorry I missed her, and that I would call her later tonight after the dancing.

After hanging up the phone I had just enough time to use the restroom and check my makeup (which obviously looked fine since it wasn’t applied), before heading out to the lobby.

I was the last one to reach the lobby apparently, because everyone stood up when they saw me coming down the hall.

"Sorry," I apologized as I approached. I didn’t think I was late, but I hadn’t checked the clock in my room, and I wasn’t wearing a watch. As a matter of fact, I didn’t have any accessories on. I was going to have to remedy that.

"It's okay," Jay said. "You aren’t actually late yet." He motioned toward the elevators. "Come on, let’s go."

We got into the elevators and headed down to one of the recreation sections. I had never been in this one before, but everyone else seemed to know where to go.

Inside there was a small lobby with three doors, much like the gymnasium. The middle door appeared to lead to some kind of restaurant named Brick Oven. The left door led to a bar, and the door on the right led to a club named Molten Core. This is the door we headed to.

The inside was not what I expected. There was another small lobby here that led to 2 doors. Apparently one was a club for people age 21 and over, and the other was for those under 21. The lobby was designed to look like the inside of a volcano. The room was lit by lamps along the wall that were pretty convincing in looking like fire. The lighting was bright enough to see clearly but dim enough to give the impression that we were in some sort of cave.

The others headed for the under 21 door, so I followed behind them. Inside was a large room that had a number of tables surrounding a dance floor that looked like molten lava. The floor appeared to be made of some kind of transparent material, and a waterfall on the far side of the room, lit with red lights to give the impression of lava, fell into a small slow moving stream that flowed toward the dance floor. Next to the door was a small bar that I was certain only stocked non-alcoholic drinks. The only thing that did not fit the theme was the temperature. It was very cool in here, for which I was grateful.

"Wow," I yelled over the loud music. "This place is cool."

"It used to be really dull," Jay explained. "Then they hired some guy who completely changed it, and now it's one of the hot spots in the complex."

"I bet."

"Come on," he said to all of us. "Let's get a table."

He led us over to a large table near the waterfall. I could feel a small mist coming from the waterfall when we sat down, which just added to the décor.

"Can I get you girls a drink?" Rock asked while turning to Theresa and Cary. He hadn’t sat down yet.

"Just some water, please," Theresa said.

"I'll have some 7-Up," Cary said.

"And for you two?" Rock said while turning to Nikki and me.

"I, uh," I was caught off guard. I hadn’t really thought of myself as being included in the "girls" category, but that was something I was going to need to get used to. "I'll have some Fresca if they have it," I finally stammered.

"Water for me please," Nikki added her order.

The boys all headed for the bar. I hadn’t noticed, but none of them had sat down.

"You ready for this, Jaz?" Nikki asked me when they were out of earshot.

"Ready for what?" I asked, confused by her question.

"You know he is going to ask you to dance." she explained.

"Oh, that." I didn’t think I was ready, but it was too late now. "I guess so."

"It's not that bad," Theresa tried to calm my nerves. "Dancing with guys can be fun."

"It's not dancing with guys that I’m worried about," I explained. "But I get the feeling he wants to do more than just dance. I’m pretty sure I’m not ready for that yet."

"Just do what you feel is right," Cary added to the conversation. "If you get in over your head, we'll be here to help."

"Thanks," I said as the boys returned with the drinks.

Rock passed out the drinks while the other boys sat down. Thankfully, all of the girls had sat down on one side of the table, and I had managed to sit between Nikki and Cara. Justin looked longingly my way as he sat across from me, but I tried to pretend I didn’t see it.

We talked for a little bit about what life was like at the complex before Jay got up and asked Theresa to dance. I cringed inside because I knew it was only a matter of time before Justin did the same.

I was right. Almost immediately he jumped up. I think he must have just been waiting for someone to break the ice.

"Come on, Jaz," he said while walking around the table quickly. "Let’s dance."

I figured there was no way to get out of this, so I started to stand. Unfortunately, Justin picked that same time to try helping me up by pulling my seat out for me. Instead, all it did was put me off balance, and I fell straight back onto my behind.

"Ow," I said reflexively. It didn’t really hurt. It also didn’t endear me to Justin, either.

"Oh my gosh!" he practically screamed, turning many of the heads of the teenagers in the tables around us. "Are you okay?"

I just sat there. My pride hurt more than anything else, but the least he could do was help me up! Instead he just stood there with a look of horror on his face.

"Help her up, stupid!" Nikki yelled. She wasn’t impressed with his response either.

"Oh, right," Justin said as he reached out and actually lifted me by putting his hands under my armpits as if I was a toddler!

"Oh my gosh!" I heard Nikki say. She sounded like she couldn’t believe he had just done that! Frankly, I felt the same way. A simple hand was all I needed. I could have gotten up on my own, for crying out loud!

To make matters worse, he just held me with my feet in the air for I don’t know how long before he finally realized that he should put me down. It was a good thing my back was to him, because I was becoming very irritated and I'm sure my face was showing it.

When my feet were finally on the ground, I turned to Nikki and asked politely, "Is there a restroom in here?"

"Yeah," she said while glaring at Justin. "Come on."

The two of us walked away from the table, and I still had not even looked at Justin.

*  *  *

"How stupid can he be?" I asked when we were in the restroom. "I mean, jeez!"

"He's definitely got a crush on you, if nothing else." Nikki said. "I’ve never seen him act like that before. He’s usually all calm and collected, but tonight he was as nervous as I’ve ever seen him. Still, he showed almost no common sense!”

Before I could respond to that, Cary and Theresa came through the door.

"Are you okay, Jaz?" Cary asked.

"Yeah, the only thing hurt is my pride. How’s Justin?"

"He was actually crying when we came in. I don’t think he meant to do that." Cary said.

"Yeah, I don’t think he meant to either," I said. "I’ve just never seen him act like that before. I don’t know how to handle this yet. I mean, I haven’t even been a girl for a day! Three days ago, he hated my guts for being girly, and now he's got a crush on me."

"Boys are stupid, Jaz," Nikki said. "You’ll learn that eventually."

That got us all laughing, which lightened the mood considerably.

"Somebody go see if he's composed himself. I don’t want to embarrass him more by walking back when he's vulnerable. Tell him I’m fixing my makeup," I said.

"But you aren’t wearing any," Nikki pointed out.

"He doesn’t know that," I exclaimed.

"Oh," Nikki said as she was walking out the door. "I'll be right back."

The other girls went with her, and I stood alone in the restroom for a few minutes before she finally came back.

"I think he's ready now. Be gentle on him, Jaz, he's taking this hard for some reason."

"Okay," I replied as we walked out of the restroom and back to the table. As we approached the table, it was obvious that he had been crying.

"Ready to dance?" I asked him before he had a chance to say anything.

He looked surprised for a second before he responded. "Yeah," was his excited reply.

I let him take my hand and lead me out onto the dance floor. I was never much of a dancer before. I was so nervous that I was going to make a fool of myself.

It was a fast song. Thank heaven for that! I didn’t think I would have been able to handle a slow dance with him. He started to move with the music. Apparently he knew what he was doing. I tried to follow his lead and surprisingly, I wasn’t doing too badly.

We danced for a couple of songs before we headed back to the table for a breather.

Lary and Cary were the only ones at the table when we returned. Looking back out to the dance floor I noticed that Theresa was dancing with Jay, and Nikki was dancing with Rock.

I thought I was going to be out of breath from all the quick moves, but I was quite surprised to find that I wasn’t even winded. Apparently, the improvements from the Procedure counted for something.

*  *  *

We were still there a couple of hours later. I had danced with all of the members of the two teams, as well as a couple of other guys my age who were wandering around the club. I had managed to miss the slow dances throughout the night, and I could tell that Justin was getting frustrated because of that. It was obvious that the dancing was winding down for us when the DJ started playing another slow song.

"Come on, Jaz," Justin said while gently tugging my hand. "Just one more dance."

I knew he was using it as an excuse to slow dance with me, but he had been a perfect gentleman since he dropped me so I felt it was the least I could do.

"Okay," I said as I stood up and let him lead me to the dance floor. It was obvious we were both nervous, because we were both moving a little awkwardly and not quite sure what to do.

I started to follow his lead and it wasn’t long before we started to move with the music. We still kept our distance from each other, I didn’t lay my head on his chest or anything, but we did start to have a good time.

"I’m sorry about earlier," he said when we had both calmed down a little bit.

"Don’t worry about it," I told him with a smile. It was still a little awkward and that didn’t change until the song ended and we headed back to the table.

Everybody was sitting down this time, talking about what to do for the rest of the evening.

"Do you guys want to go to a movie?" Lary asked. That sounded like fun. "Or swimming?" Ooh, bikini!

"Actually…" Theresa said. Because she was the leader of A1 we all stopped to listen. "I think if we are going to be entertaining them this weekend, I think it would be best if we let them rest tonight before the tests tomorrow." There were a couple of groans. I think most of us wanted to do something else tonight. "I think we should see a movie tomorrow night, because they will be worn out from the testing. And Saturday would be a good day to go swimming."

"That sounds fine to me," Jay said.

"Besides," Theresa added. "I really want to take a bubble bath."

"Oooh," Nikki and I said at the same time, which then turned into laughter.

"Now that sounds like fun," Nikki said.

"Yeah," Justin agreed with a silly smile on his face. I think everyone realized that he wasn’t talking about taking one himself, which just made me blush because he was staring at me.

"For those of you who don’t want to take a bath," Jay said. "You can come to my room and watch the baseball game." That just made me want to take a bath more.

*  *  *

I need a tub like this at home, I thought!

I doubt that I had taken a bubble bath since I was a little kid, and I finally realized I had been missing out. The bath oils and the bubble bath Nikki told me to use before leaving for her own bath were lavender scented, and I thought they smelled great.

I had brought my phone in with me, and after soaking for a while I decided to call my sister.

"Hello?" she answered after I called her cell phone.

"Hi, Cami."

"Hi, Jaz, sorry I missed you earlier."

"No problem, it gave me a chance to talk to Mom for a while."

"So it's over now?" she asked.

"Physically it is. I’m all girl now," I replied.

"That’s awesome! How do you feel?"

"I feel great," I said with a huge smile on my face. "I feel complete for the first time in my life."

"That’s great to hear. I can’t wait for you to get home. I miss you."

"I miss you too. I'll be home on Sunday, but it won’t be soon enough," I said.

"I know what you mean. So what are you up to then, if the changes are over?" she asked.

"We went dancing tonight, which was kind of fun. But right now I’m just relaxing in a nice bubble bath."

"Oooh," she said. She also sounded a little jealous. "I haven’t had a nice bath in a while."

"I haven’t had one in like forever. I didn’t realize what I was missing. And the tub I’ve got in my room is to die for. It's big and the jets are very relaxing."

"Stop it," she said with a slight giggle in her voice. "You are making me jealous."

"So what are you up to tonight?" I asked her.

"I’m out with some friends right now. We're going over to Chad's place for a while. I’m not sure what we are going to do though, probably hang out and watch a movie or something."

"Sounds like fun." I said. "I’m just going to go to bed. It's going to be a long day tomorrow."

"What’s tomorrow?" she asked, but then remembered before I could say anything. "Oh yeah, powers and stuff."

I heard someone talking to her through the phone, but I couldn’t make out the words. "My sister," I heard her reply. I hope whoever she told could be trusted.

I couldn’t make out much more of the conversation, just a couple of things like "I do now," and "You'll have to meet her."

A short time later she addressed me again. "I’ve got to go, Jaz, talk to you tomorrow?"

"Okay," I replied. "Just be careful who you tell about me."

"It's just Jacqueline," she said as if it didn’t matter that she knew. I realized a second later that Cami was right. I knew Jacqueline, and I knew I could trust her.

"Oh, okay," Was how I replied. "I'll call again tomorrow then, good night."

"Night, Jaz," she said before hanging up.

It was another few minutes before I was able to pull myself out of the tub and get ready for bed.

*  *  *

---

Author Note: Please email me at AngelJediGirl (at) gmail (dot) com before posting this story to any other site. Posting to a pay site is prohibited.

Comments and suggestions are also welcome at the above email address.

*  *  *
Chapter 20 - A Drop of Dew

I woke up the next morning around 6:30 am. Getting ready as a girl for the first time was different, but I’d been going through the same motions each morning for the last two days. It was starting to feel normal. At least I was able to save some time by skipping makeup.

I got up and walked into the bathroom, pulling off my nightgown in the process. I dumped it and my panties in a small hamper just inside the bathroom door.

I started the shower to warm up while I sat down to relieve myself. It was still a bit odd to pee this way, but I was slowly getting used to it. I wiped myself and jumped in the shower.

I immediately jumped right back out!

I had no idea that my new boobs would be that sensitive, and it scared me half to death when the shower stream hit them for the first time.

I eased myself into the stream this time, and it wasn’t nearly as bad. It wasn’t like the water hurt, but I could just feel it more acutely.

Washing was also a completely new feeling. My skin was more sensitive, and certain new places I didn’t have yesterday were even more so.

I managed to wash my body without too much trouble, but had to stop when I got to "down there." I really hadn’t taken much time to get to know the new me, so I took some time to learn. Some of the feelings I received while exploring were very different from what I was used to, but I was hesitant to really do anything of a sexual nature. In the end, I knew that the feelings my body was capable of would be great, but I kept myself from going there for the time being.

I eventually turned my attention to my hair. I had never even come close to having this much hair in my life, and I loved it. I later realized that I shouldn’t have tried to wash it at this point. It took me way too long to do, and I was scared about being late if it took as long to dry. I finally finished, but then I had to turn to another hair issue. My legs and underarms had a little bit of stubble that I had to remove before I finally shut off the water and grabbed my towel.

I quickly dried off and then took a peek at myself in the mirror. My hair was a sopping mess! I tried everything I could think of to use my power to dry it, but it didn’t seem to work. The styles came out, but the hair was still soaked, making some of them look funny.

I eventually dried it the best I could and then pulled my long locks into a high ponytail. It still managed to reach most of the way down my back.

I wrapped my robe around me and headed back to my room. It wasn’t until I opened my closet that I realized that I didn’t have anything to wear for the testing.

I fretted for a little bit before I realized that Nikki would know what we were supposed to wear. I headed toward the shared door, but a knock from my outside door had me veering toward it.

A quick check through the peephole showed Jill on the other side holding a gym bag.

When she got a look at me after I opened the door, she spoke with amazement.

"Wow, Jaz!" she exclaimed. "They said you were beautiful, but I never imagined this!" She had a big smile on her face as I let her in.

She set the bag down on the couch and then spoke again.

"Sorry I wasn’t around yesterday. Agent Harris and I were called off base for a meeting."

"It's okay," I said with a smile. "I had plenty of people to watch over me."

She smiled too. "Well I’m glad everything worked out okay. How are you feeling?"

"I’m feeling great actually. I’ve never felt better in my life."

"That’s good to hear," she said with a little chuckle. "I just brought by a track suit and swimming suit you can use today. They are yours to keep now that you have stopped changing."

"Okay," I said. I couldn’t argue with free clothes.

"Finish getting ready, and we will all meet out in the lobby." She said while handing me the gym bag. "See you in a few."

After giving me a small hug, she left to let me get changed. I opened the gym bag to find a track suit and a one piece identical to the ones I wore during the first set of tests, but she had also included a white sports bra instead of the tank top.

I picked up the bag and carried it into my bedroom where I placed it on the bed before pulling a pair of cotton panties out of my dresser. I pulled off my robe and slipped the panties on and up my legs. It still amazed me too see just how flat the panties were against my crotch.

I then pulled the sports bra out of the gym bag. It was white, but it was lined around the edges with a small pink band. It also had a small rose over the left breast. With the addition of the pink track pants and jacket, I looked spectacular.

I added a little makeup before putting on my trainers and grabbing an outfit for later. I put the outfit in the gym bag along with the swimsuit and headed for the lobby.

Justin was there waiting with Jill and Agent Harris when I arrived. I sat down on one of the couches and ignored Justin's stares as we waited for Nikki.

When she arrived a few minutes later, it was obvious that we looked like twins again. Her clothes were a perfect match to mine, except purple. The only difference was the lack of a rose on her sports bra.

"Sorry I’m late," she said as she approached.

"It's okay," Jill said. "We do need to get going though, because you three have a long day ahead of you."

She led us over to the elevators, and after a quick breakfast, we were soon on our way to the tests.

*  *  *
Chapter 21 - Not Another Test

The locker room was empty again. Instead of heading toward the guest lockers, Jill led us over to a set of lockers that looked to be twice the size of the other ones.

"These are the Alpha team lockers," she said. "Now that you have finished changing, we can encode them to your fingerprints.

"Nikki," she said while pointing to a locker labeled A2-3. "This is your locker. Please place your thumb here." She indicated a small touch pad next to the locker.

Nikki put her thumb against the small pad, and we heard a beep.

"It's now encoded to your fingerprint. Press your thumb to it again and it will open."

Nikki had the locker open in no time, and Jill had me repeat the procedure on locker A2-4 right next to Nikki's.

"Stow your bags and let's go. We have a lot to do today," Jill said with a gleam in her eye. "Power days are always fun and exciting.”

We quickly stowed our gym bags in the lockers and followed Jill toward the gym door. Once we were on the other side, we found Justin and the doctors waiting for us.

"We'll meet you three after the testing," Jill said. "We can get some lunch and then head over to the Powers Lab."

"Okay, see you then," I said as they headed out of the gym. We then turned toward the doctors.

"Good morning," Dr. Weir said as we approached. "Everyone is here, so let's begin, shall we?" He had an enthusiasm that was not shared by the three of us.

We were led over to the track first again. I really didn’t feel like running today, but I knew I didn’t have a choice.

They started out by wiring us up again. As the technicians were placing the sensors on us, Dr. Weir was explaining what was going to happen today.

"Today will be much like Monday," he said. "There will be a few small differences, but we will still be breaking the tests up into three parts.

"Today's tests have a two-fold purpose, however. Not only will we be testing you physically, but we will also give you a chance to see what you are now capable of. You may be surprised."

He then had us line up on the starting line for the mile. "This run is going to be a little different," he said when we were ready to begin. "I want all of you to run as fast as you can for as long as you can. Don’t let up. We want to see how far you can go. You can stop when you can’t run anymore, or when you complete a mile."

That didn’t sound like a whole lot of fun to me. I had a feeling I was going to hate today.

When he rang the bell, we all took off in a sprint. After the first lap, none of us had slowed down. Justin had a nice lead, and Nikki wasn’t too far in front of me, but it was still obvious I was the slowest.

After the second lap, we were still going as fast as we could, and I didn’t even feel winded. I was truly impressed.

I ended up finishing the mile about 15 seconds behind Nikki, but a 4:03 mile is nothing to complain about. Justin's 3:30 was really impressive though. The fact that we were barely winded was even more amazing to me.

"You still run like a girl," Justin said to me as we walked around to cool down, but the grin on his face showed that it wasn’t a put down like before. His face positively lit up when I grinned back and giggled a little.

He opened his mouth to say something else (which probably would have ruined the good moment) when Dr. Weir spoke up first.

"Not quite what you expected, was it?" Dr. Weir said with a small chuckle. We all just nodded.

"Let's move on to Part 2," he continued. "The sooner we finish here, the sooner we can move on to the fun stuff."

"Fun stuff?" Nikki asked.

"The Powers lab," he explained in an excited tone.

I guess his enthusiasm was contagious this time, because we were all smiling.

*  *  *

Part 2 was pretty uneventful. Learning that I could bench press 300 lbs. was kind of cool though. Watching a 95 lb. teenage girl bench press that much must have looked pretty funny too.

For the most part, it was tedious. They had us lift weights and perform a number of endurance tests. We lifted more and lasted longer on every single one, and we didn’t even feel tired or exhausted.

The last test they had us do was rather interesting though. Not the test itself, but what happened.

They had us on treadmills. I would have thought that a mile would be enough, but I was wrong. They didn’t really explain what they were testing at this point, so I figured they were going to do something different.

They had us going at a jog for the first few minutes. I was jogging along with the speed easily and I let my mind wander.

A thought jumped to the forefront of my mind, and the next thing I knew I had face planted into the treadmill track.

I heard Nikki scream and she was already crouched next to me as I finished rolling off the back of the treadmill.

"Jaz!" she practically shouted while helping me to get up. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," I said. The doctors and Justin had joined us, and I felt deeply embarrassed. "For some reason I thought the treadmill had sped up, and tried to compensate, but I guess it hadn’t."

"Had you raised the speed yet, Joan?" Dr Weir asked one of the other doctors.

"Not yet," she replied. "I was just about to when she took her tumble."

"Interesting, we may need to investigate this later this afternoon."

"You think it's a power?" I asked him. The way he was writing on his clipboard made this seem like more than just a tumble.

"Possibly," he said as he continued writing. When he finished writing, he turned back to us. "This test has pretty much been compromised now. It was designed to test your ability to handle the sudden change of speed without prior notice. We'll skip it for now, but we may want to do something similar in the future.”

"For now, go change into your swimsuits and we will finish in the pool."

"Okay," we all agreed as some of the doctors removed the sensors. We then headed for the locker room.

*  *  *

"That looks fantastic on you!"

I agreed. Nikki and I were standing in front of the mirror next to our new lockers. Both of us were wearing the one pieces we had been given, and I had to admit, we both looked amazing.

The suit felt completely different than the one I wore on Monday. It even felt different from the time I wore this exact one on Wednesday. It was probably because it fit correctly now. I no longer was tucked down below, and I had real breasts.

The suit hugged my new curves to perfection. It was almost like it was designed for my new body.

My hair was pulled back in a french braid to keep it out of my eyes as we swam. That was pretty cool to watch happen. I had imagined it and then watched it fall apart immediately. It had taken me a few minutes to be able to control my power to hold the style long enough to allow me to put a band at the bottom to prevent it from coming undone.

"You look fantastic as well," I finally said, but I was still staring at myself.

Nikki just rolled her eyes and grabbed me by the wrist. "Come on, you can stare at yourself later." She then began to pull me toward the gym.

"Alright already," I said while pulling my wrist free of her grasp and grabbing my towel off the bench next to us. "I’m still getting used to this, you know. I can’t help admiring my dreams."

"Yeah, yeah, but your dreams are making us late again."

Justin seemed to like my dreams too. At least it appeared that way since he couldn’t stop staring at me as we walked out of the locker room and toward the pool. Maybe the one piece was a good idea. I couldn’t help but think the stares I would get with my bikini would be ten times worse.

The swimming test was better than I expected. We had to swim some laps and then he had us go under water and hold our breath. Fifteen minutes made me the clear winner over Nikki's twelve and Justin's nine. I couldn't believe that was even possible with the human body!

After the swimming test we made our way back into the locker rooms where we changed back into our track suits.

*  *  *

The lunch crowd was a lot larger today.

We had met our handlers and Jay in front of the locker rooms and headed for the cafeteria. We talked about the tests while we ate, and before long we were headed out of the cafeteria.

*  *  *
Chapter 22 - Flower Power

Rob took the lead and led us to the far end of the courtyard, opposite the elevators. There was another set of elevators here, two on each side of the corridor. They were marked as emergency exits.

The middle of the end wall mirrored the lobby outside the gym. There were men’s and women’s locker rooms on either side of the lobby, and a hallway in the middle that led to some offices and a large door at the end.

We were led down the hallway toward the door. The door looked like it was armored. It was made out of some kind of metal, and was completely smooth. Next to the door was a small pad with a place for someone to place their hand.

We stopped next to the door and Agent Harris turned to speak to us.

"Welcome to the Powers Lab," he said. "This place was designed to help you learn and improve the use of your powers. It is built to withstand a nuclear blast, so the rest of the facility will be untouched if something happens in here.

"Moreover, it is a safe place where you can learn to use your abilities without the worry of collateral damage.

"Now," he said while turning back to the hand pad. "This place requires security clearance that all of you will be given after you return in the summer. Until then, you will need to be accompanied by someone with clearance to use the facilities."

He then placed his hand on the pad. A beep was heard shortly thereafter, and the door started to slide into the wall.

On the other side was a giant room. It appeared to be the same size as the rest of the complex combined!

It was also broken into a number of smaller sections. There appeared to be an urban area with a number of different buildings to the left, a small outdoor looking area on the far side complete with a small lake, and an area to our right that looked like it could be set up any way that someone wanted it.

Dr. Weir and the other doctors from the earlier tests were waiting for us. I also noticed that Nina was there with the two other doctors.

"Excellent," Dr. Weir said as we approached. "Now the fun part begins." He was excited, and we were too.

"The first thing we want to do is a completion test," he continued. "Then we will move on to some basic strategies for learning about your powers. Your physicians will get you started."

Nina walked over to me with a smile on her face. "How are you doing?" she asked.

"I'm doing great," I said while returning her smile.

"Good. I wouldn’t want my number one patient not at her best," she said while giving me a small wink. That just made me blush and giggle a little bit.

"I'll be here the whole time," she continued while pressing the same device she had used yesterday against my arm. "If you feel any discomfort or pain, please tell me."

"Okay," I said.

A second later the green light lit up on the tester. "It looks like your powers are still coming in. Good luck." Nina smiled and then walked over to a table and started working on a laptop.

"Okay," Dr. Weir pulled our attention back to him. "None of you are finished with Stage 4 yet, but we will get started and see if we can start cataloging your powers."

He led us over to a section that was laid out like a shooting range.

"The first thing we are going to try is a "shooting" test. It will allow us to see if you can shoot beams, or projectiles, or somehow affect remote objects." He motioned each of us to stand in one of the lanes. The lane walls only came up to my waist, so it was easy to see what the others were doing.

"What I would like you to do is to concentrate on one of the targets at the far end. Then, I want you to try to push with your arm toward it. Jay, will you demonstrate?"

"Yeah," Jay said as he stepped into a lane next to us.

"Concentrate on the target," he said while demonstrating. He stood with his left shoulder facing the targets and brought his right hand up level to his shoulder. "Then push like this."

He pushed his arm forward, and a streak of ice went flying down the lane, where it knocked one of his targets over. "You may get results like that," he said with a smile.

"SWEET!" Justin yelled with a wide eyed stare on his face. "Let me try!"

He followed Jay's steps with an intense look on his face, but nothing happened. We watched him for about five minutes without any results before Dr. Weir spoke.

"Let's give the girls a chance to try," he said while turning to Nikki. "Give it a try, Nikki."

"Okay," she replied as she lined up to try. She pulled her hand back, and then pushed forward as hard as she could.

"Oww," I screamed as I covered my eyes. It was like staring into the sun.

"I did it!" I heard Nikki scream excitedly. I opened my eyes, but all I could see were splotches of light all throughout my vision. "Are you guys okay?" she asked a second later, concern in her voice.

"Aren’t you blind?" I had to ask. I still couldn’t see much. "That was like looking into the sun."

My eyes started to revert to normal, and I could see the concern on her face as she looked at me.

"No, I feel fine. Did you see me knock the target down?" she asked, excited once again when she saw me recovering.

Blinking, I looked down the lane and noticed one of her targets was down. "Wow!" I said. "First try too." I was impressed.

Looking around, I noticed everyone but our team still seemed dazed and confused. "Is everyone okay?" I asked. It was my turn to be concerned.

"We will be," Dr. Weir said from where he was wobbling somewhat on his feet. "Our eyes aren’t going to recover as quickly as your enhanced eyes. In the meantime, there is a locker near the door that contains some sunglasses. Jaz, can you grab them and bring them over?"

"Sure," I said and headed for the locker. It was easy to find and I was quickly walking back toward the others. The doctors appeared to be doing better as I handed everyone a pair of sunglasses. Putting mine on, I turned to Nikki. "Do it again."

"Okay," she said and turned toward the targets.

"Wait!" Dr Weir interrupted quickly. He obviously didn’t want to relive what had just happened. "That was great work, Nikki. Not many do it on the first try." She was beaming. "This time, don’t push so hard. See if you can control the energy. Less can be just as effective."

"Okay," she said. Her second attempt was pretty cool to watch. When she pushed toward the target, a bright ray of light went flying down range, knocking down another target. This time it wasn’t nearly so bright, and it was impressive to see just how much control she had to be able to hit the target so accurately.

"Great work," Dr. Weir said. He helped her learn how to control her new power for a few minutes. Each time she shot at a target was an impressive site. Eventually she started to tire a little bit from the exertion, and the doctor decided she could use a break.

"Let me try again," Justin quickly said before the Doctor could move on. "I can do it now."

"Let's give Jaz a chance to try first," he said. "Then you can try again."

"Fine," Justin replied. He actually sounded like a petulant little boy.

"Give it a try, Jaz," Dr. Weir said. He looked excited again. It was then that I remembered I was supposed to be some kind of prodigy. Great.

I stepped up to the shooting area and looked down the range. There were three targets in my lane. Each one appeared to be made of wood, and when hit, would fall backward out of sight.

I concentrated on the middle target. Looking right at it, I brought my right hand up to my left shoulder. Concentrate.

Push.

I felt something. I really did. It didn’t knock the target down, or even hit it, but there was something there.

"Nice try, Jaz," I heard Nikki say, but she sounded a little distant. "Try again."

I did.

I still felt something there, but I couldn’t get it to work. It felt stronger the second time, but the target was still standing.

"I can feel it," I said to whomever was listening. "I just can’t seem to get it to work."

"It's okay," Dr. Weir said. "Try again."

After five more tries, I still didn’t have the target down, but I could feel whatever "it" was getting stronger.

Lining up again, I decided to try something different, I closed my eyes. I tried to picture the target in my mind, and I was immediately assaulted by numerous images and feelings in my head.

"Whoa," I said as I felt myself falling. I must have gone into some kind of sensory overload, or something. The next thing I knew, I was lying on the floor.

"You okay, Jaz?" Nina asked from above.

"Yeah," I replied while struggling to stand up. Nina was kind enough to help me. "I wasn’t expecting so much input."

"What happened?" she asked. I noticed everyone else was looking at me, wanting to know the answer to that question.

"I don’t know exactly," I tried to explain. I wasn’t sure how to describe it. "I closed my eyes and tried to visualize the target. Instead, I had this sudden knowledge about everything in the room. It was like I could "feel" everything. I don’t really know how to explain it better."

"Interesting," was all Dr. Weir said as he started writing on a clipboard. "Try again."

Nodding, I turned back to the range and brought my right hand up to my shoulder again. I closed my eyes and tried to visualize the target again. This time, I was ready. The feelings were odd, but it gave me a clear view of the whole area. I could feel everything in the room, like it was all connected to me somehow.

Concentrating on the feeling of the target, I pushed. It wasn’t so much that I shot the target, it was more like I told the target to be hit.

Cheering erupted around me, and I opened my eyes to see the target was gone. I reveled in the moment until Dr. Weir spoke.

"Telekinesis, amazing."

*  *  *

I was able to duplicate the results a number of times before I started to feel a little worn out. It was easier every time, and by the end, I could do it with my eyes open.

Justin wasn’t having the same good fortune, though. He was given another chance after I was done. By the time he gave up, he was very frustrated. I think he really wanted to be able to shoot something.

Dr. Weir led us over to another area that had a large mat. Motioning Jay to get on the mat, he explained our next drill.

"This will test your ability to reach higher places." He pointed up. "Attached to the roof is a flag. Your goal is to get the flag back down. Jay, can you demonstrate?"

"Yeah," Jay replied, and positioned himself in the middle of the mat. He looked up toward the roof and jumped. Propelled upward by a column of ice, he managed to go all the way to the ceiling, about 5 stories up! He grabbed the flag and the ice started to evaporate beneath him. He was quickly back on the mat.

Nikki started clapping and the rest of us joined in. "That was cool," she said.

Once they replaced the flag, Nikki started us off. She climbed up on the mat and looked up at the flag. "I can do this," I heard her say quietly.

"Try a smaller jump first," Dr. Weir instructed her. "First get the technique down, then go for the high jump."

"Oh, okay," Nikki said. I could tell she was relieved a little bit at not having to go all out.

A look of concentration came over her face and then the flash of light that indicated she was using her powers. The light seemed to come from both her hands and her feet. She only went up about ten feet before she fell back down on the mat, but her smile showed her excitement.

"Good job," Dr. Weir told her as she was standing back up. "This time, try to slow your fall as you come back down. You'll need to know how for the higher jumps."

"Okay," she replied. Her second attempt was much like the first, but this time, her hands and feet started to glow as she came down, and she landed softly on her feet.

"That was easy," was all she said as she launched herself higher. After a couple more tries to make sure she knew what she was doing, she was ready for the big jump.

With a little trepidation, she lined up for her jump and with a bright flash she rocketed up. Her aim was dead on. As she reached the roof, it was clear that her jump was nearly perfect. The height was just enough to allow her to grab the flag without slamming her head into the ceiling. I hadn’t even considered that possibility.

As she was slowly descending the fifty or so feet, I had a weird feeling come over me. I could tell she was happy. I could feel it. It was kind of like feeling the target earlier, but a lot more complex.

"She's really happy," I told Dr. Weir.

"I bet," he said with a grin on his face.

"No, I know she is. I can feel it."

"Feel it?" he asked, turning his attention toward me. "Feel it how?"

"I don’t know, it's kind of like how I could feel the target earlier, but different. I can just "feel" her happiness."

"Interesting. That may tie in with the precognitive abilities you displayed during the tests. We may want to try to test those abilities later this evening. These exercises won’t touch on them too much."

"Okay," I said as we watched Nikki land on the mat. She jumped down off the mat where I was waiting to give her a hug.

"Great job," I told her. I was just as happy as she was, probably because I could feel it just about as intensely as she could.

"Okay you two," Dr. Weir broke up the celebration. "We've got a lot to do today. Jaz, why don’t you give it a try."

I felt a spike of anger that nearly floored me with its intensity.

"When do I get a turn to use a power?" Justin said angrily from behind me.

I turned to look at him, and it was obvious that the anger I felt was coming from him. It was also souring my mood.

As I climbed up onto the mat, Dr. Weir tried to placate him. "You will get your chance. We are taking turns."

I blocked out the rest of their conversation and concentrated on the flag above. Just like the target, I could "feel" it up there, which gave me an idea.

"I'm ready," I said to get Dr. Weir's attention away from Justin, who was still arguing.

"Take it easy at first, like Nikki did," he said. He was relieved to get away from Justin. I could feel it. Justin was still seething though.

"It's okay," I said. "I can get it down now." His relief turned to worry, but before he could say anything, I "grabbed" the flag and pulled it toward me. It landed directly in my hand, and I turned to the doctor.

I could feel amusement coming from him. He chuckled before speaking. "Good work, Jaz, I admire your ingenuity. However, the purpose of the exercise is to get you UP there, instead of the flag down here."

"Oh," I said with disappointment. I thought my solution was great.

"Whoa," the doctor said. He looked a little disoriented. "I guess you're disappointed. I think you are projecting it on me. We're going to need to learn how to control that." He stopped for a second to get his bearings. "Like I said, that was great thinking. You should be proud of that. Now, let's move on to getting you up there."

I was surprised to hear I was affecting him. He looked relieved when I tried to stop, so apparently I succeeded.

I then turned my thoughts to how I could get up to the flag. I decided that jumping was about the only option I had. I could probably push myself up enough to do so. Pushing at the ground on the way down should slow me enough to land safely as well.

I decided to try my theory. I closed my eyes and concentrated on myself. I could "feel" me just like I could "feel" the target and the flag.

I jumped, and I gave myself a push as I did.

And then I screamed.

And hit the mat.

Hard.

I just laid there. It hurt at first, but there was no lingering pain, thank heavens. What did I do wrong?

"Jaz, Jaz, answer me!" I finally realized Nikki was over top of me and she was crying.

"Oww," I said. There wasn’t really anything else to say.

"Oh thank heavens!" she said while squeezing me in a hug. "Don’t do that again!"

"Sorry," I replied. "I didn’t mean to. What happened, anyway?"

"You went up like two stories and then fell like a brick!"

"Oh," was all I could come up with.

"What happened, Jaz?" Dr. Weir asked.

"Well," I started while sitting up. "I visualized myself like I did with the target and the flag. It felt exactly the same, so I figured I could just boost my jump a little bit. I pushed harder though, thinking that I would need to because I'm bigger than the target was. I didn’t need to."

"Ah," he said in understanding. "Size matters not."

"I guess not."

"Ready to try again?" the doctor asked.

"Yes," I replied. I stood up and prepared to try again.

This time, I pushed about the same amount, but I expected the higher distance. On the way down, I pushed against the ground, which slowed me to a manageable fall, and I landed lightly on my feet.

Smiling, I repeated the effort a few times to make sure I had the hang of it before attempting the big jump.

"I’m ready," I finally told the doctor.

"Alright, just be careful," he replied.

I took a deep breath to help steady my nerves. I closed my eyes and visualized the flag. Doing so helped me judge how much force I would need.

Finally, I jumped. It was exhilarating to rocket up in the air like that. I watched as the distance between me and the flag narrowed quickly. I had jumped too high. I had to push against the ceiling to slow down my ascent, and I ended up at the perfect height when I was finally able to grab the flag.

I was ecstatic as I fell back toward the mat. I landed softly and jumped off the mat to hand the flag to the doctor, smiling the whole way.

"Here you go," I said as I handed it to him.

"Good work, Jaz," he said with a grin and a small chuckle. "Take a break while Justin gets a try."

"Okay," I said and joined Nikki and Jill on a bench off to the side. Both of them gave me a smile as we turned to see what Justin could do.

Justin was eager to do something. It was obvious in his body language that he was irritated that two girls were outperforming him so far. His male ego was going to get him killed, and not in an accidental way.

"Okay, Justin," the doctor instructed him. "Because we don’t know what your powers are yet, just try to jump. Hopefully something will point us in the right direction."

I felt an anger spike!

"He's pissed off," I whispered to Nikki and Jill. "I hope he doesn’t do anything stupid."

I should have known better, though.

With a murderous gleam in his eye (I knew it was murderous because I could feel it!) he jumped. He didn’t start off easy, either.

I watched awestruck as he went flying upward. He easily grabbed the flag and started to fall. It wasn’t until he was halfway down that he started to scream. I could feel his terror. He hadn’t planned a safe landing and now he didn’t know what to do.

"Jaz, stop him!" I heard someone scream. I immediately closed my eyes and started to visualize the area, but I knew already it was too late. I wasn’t able to stop him, but I was pretty sure I slowed him down. The sheets of ice from Jay helped too, but in the end, it wasn’t enough.

Justin slammed into the mat hard, and a big cloud of dust went flying around him. A big shockwave sent me flying backward. Before I landed, I was hit with another force, but this one wasn’t physical. Whatever it was, it knocked me out before I hit the ground.

*  *  *

---

Author Note: Please email me at AngelJediGirl (at) gmail (dot) com before posting this story to any other site. Posting to a pay site is prohibited.

Comments and suggestions are also welcome at the above email address.

*  *  *
Chapter 23 - Double the Power, Double the Fun

I woke up in the medical clinic. Again. I still ached all over, but it was a different kind of ache. It wasn’t really physical, but I didn’t know how to explain it.

"How are you feeling?" Nina asked, startling me enough to make me jump. I hadn’t even realized anyone else was there.

"Sorry," she apologized before I could catch my breath and answer her question. "I didn’t mean to startle you."

"It's okay," I was finally able to say. "I didn’t realize anyone else was here."

I looked around, and realized that I wasn’t in one of the hospital rooms like I thought. Instead, I had been lying on one of the examination tables. The two of us were alone.

"What happened?" I asked. The weird pain was starting to go away now, which was a big relief.

"When Justin hit the ground, a small shockwave sent everything around him flying, you included."

"I remember that," I said while interrupting her. "But then something else happened. Something else hit me."

"According to Jill, who is a minor empath by the way, Justin pretty much screamed out his emotions after hitting the ground. Dr. Weir and I believe it overloaded your budding new empathic ability, and knocked you out."

"Oh," I said. "Is he alright?"

"Surprisingly, yes," she said. "Justin has the ability to change the density of his body. He made himself lighter when he jumped, and on his way down, he subconsciously made himself denser. It saved his life, allowing him to take the force of the fall."

"Wow, that’s pretty cool."

"Yeah, but you should see the size of the crater."

"Crater?" I asked.

"It's about 10 feet around. That’s pretty impressive considering he landed on the mat."

I couldn’t believe he could leave a crater that big after landing on the mat! It must have hurt.

Nina continued to check a few readouts before turning back to me.

"Ready to get back to the lab?" she asked.

"Um, yeah, I guess," I answered. "How long was I out?" I asked.

"It's been about an hour," she said while helping me down from the table. "I’m sure Dr. Weir will be happy to get you back in the testing."

"I'm anxious to get back too," I said with a smile as we headed out of the exam room.

*  *  *

The rest of the afternoon was spent working on our powers. Dr. Weir had us do everything from breaking our way through walls to using our powers to hide from others.

Around 4:00, the doctor led us to the urban section of the lab. It was here where the real fun began.

"This is the most dangerous part of the power tests," he said to get our attention. "We are going to simulate a mission into an enemy-occupied building."

That sounded like fun to me, and the others appeared to agree when I could feel their excitement.

"This is not going to be easy," the doctor continued. "Your objective is to find and retrieve a flag hidden somewhere inside the building. The flag is guarded by a number of enemy soldiers. Real soldiers. Harming them is not an option. You may incapacitate them in any way that you would like, but if you send any of them to Medical, the operation will be considered a failure."

Wow, strict rules. Although the rules were probably in place to prevent us from harming the soldiers, more than anything else.

"Also, try to keep the building intact as much as possible. Collateral damage is not something we strive for at the Agency."

"Before we start," Nina interrupted the doctor. "Can we get a reading?"

"Yes," he responded, "Of course."

Nina came over to me as the other doctors approached their charges. She had one of those diabetic testers with her again.

"Just like before," she said, and I stuck my arm out. She took the reading, and it came back red.

"It looks like you are done," she said with a smile. That was a relief. It meant that I could go home on time.

Nikki and Justin were also done with the procedure, and within five minutes, we were ready to begin the last power test.

"Each of you will have three tries at this, if you need it," Dr. Weir told us as he led us over to three tables of equipment. "If you can’t retrieve the flag, we will call it a night.

"This is standard operational gear," he continued while pointing to the equipment. "You can take as much or as little as you would like."

I had a "feeling" that choosing our equipment was another test.

"Justin," the doctor continued, "You get to start us off. You may select your gear from table one. There is a small changing booth over there if you want to put on one of the tactical suits. All of the ammunition is a small electrically charged bullet. Getting hit by one will have the same effect as being hit with a taser."

Justin walked over to the table and looked at the different tactical suits. He chose one and then changed into it in the changing booth. Once he exited the booth, he started to strap himself down with every piece of weaponry on the table. When he was finished, he looked like a walking gun catalog.

"Ready," he finally told the doctor.

"Alright," the doctor replied grimly. "The flag is in the large building there in the center. There are three floors and a basement. You need to find a way to gain entry, find the flag, and get out, preferably without raising the alarm."

"Okay," he said and looked toward the building.

"You can go when you are ready," the doctor told him.

Justin took a deep breath and then started walking toward the building. The doctor walked over to a bank of monitors facing away from us.

"You two wait there," he said pointing to Nikki and me. "You need to be as unaware of what’s inside as he is."

Nikki and I sat on a bench facing the building Justin was walking toward.

When he reached the building, he started to run and plowed right through the side, leaving a large hole in the wall. An alarm started sounding immediately.

"Stupid," Nikki said beside me.

"Yeah," I agreed.

We sat there watching and waiting for about five minutes before the alarm turned off. Two minutes later, Justin was carried out of the building on a stretcher, knocked out or worse. As they approached, another group started to fix the wall Justin had knocked down.

"Your turn, Nikki," the doctor said as he approached us.

I sat and watched as Nikki changed into a Tac suit and chose her equipment. She looked more professional when she was done. She didn’t take any guns with here, but she did have a couple of gadgets that I couldn’t identify.

When she was ready, the doctor told her she could begin.

Nikki quickly made her way down to the building, where she worked her way to a window within her reach. She pulled something out of a pocket, and used it to open the window. She snuck in, closing the window behind her.

I sat around bored for 15 or 20 minutes before Justin sat down next to me.

"Hi," he said in a downcast tone.

"Hi," I replied. "You okay?"

"Yeah, it just wasn’t what I expected."

"What was it like?" I asked. Any information I could get would be helpful.

"I can’t tell you," he said, and then slumped back and looked at the building. I just shrugged and looked myself.

It wasn’t very long after that we saw a flash of light through the second floor windows, and an alarm soon followed. Two minutes later Nikki was brought out on a stretcher of her own. This was going to be really tough.

"Your turn, Jaz," the doctor said to me and pointed to where I could get my equipment.

I walked over to my table to see what I had to work with. It looked like everything was labeled with a name and a short description of what it did and how it worked.

I started with the Tac suits. There were two different suits to choose from. The first one was a standard armored suit. It boasted being able to stop most ammunition. I recognized it as the suit that both Justin and Nikki had selected.

The second was more to my liking. It was called a Chameleon suit. The wearer had the ability to change the color of the suit upon command, via some kind of interface that the suit had. Since I had already decided that stealth was going to be my MO, I picked it up and headed for the changing booth.

Once I had it on and stepped out of the booth, I was amazed to find that I could control it with a thought. It amazed me even more when the doctor tried to explain to me how the controls worked. I could actually control the suit without the interface. I wasn’t quite sure how, but the doctor thought it had something to do with my minor appearance power.

Once I got the hang of the suit, which hugged me like a second skin, I pulled my hair into another french braid and headed back to the equipment table.

I carefully studied the different items, but most seemed to be too bulky for me, or of little tactical value in my mind. But I did notice that there were a few more Chameleon pieces that I felt were tailor-made for me.

I picked up one of the Chameleon guns. It was a small pistol that was perfectly shaped and weighted for my hand. It had an identical twin still lying on the table. I was beginning to think that there was a "right" and "wrong" set of equipment on the table, and I had to decide which was which.

I strapped the small guns and their holster around my waist, and grabbed a few clips that were also coated in the Chameleon material. There were a few other items on the table that were in the Chameleon family, but I left them behind, feeling that my powers could accomplish the same goal.

The only other piece of equipment I picked up was a pair of thin shades. When I put them on, a small Heads Up display appeared, showing me all kinds of information I would not normally have access to. The doctor and I were both surprised to find out that I could manipulate the small computer system without using the small glove that usually acted as the interface.

The doctor finally concluded that I must have some kind of ability that allowed me to tap into computer systems, which also provided a better explanation of my power over the Chameleon suit.

Wearing an all white Chameleon suit, with a pair of white shades that had a pink tint to the lenses (but only on the outside, because I could see normally through them) I told the doctor I was ready.

"Good luck, Jaz," he said before setting me about my mission. "I think you have a good chance at doing this."

I smiled and then started walking toward the building. As I approached, I started to "feel" around me, trying to gather as much information as I could. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I could tell exactly where everyone was in the building. I could tell that the majority of the people were on the first two levels, but there was only a single cluster of three people in a room on the third floor.

I felt that room would be a good place to start, and that a top-down approach would probably be best.

When I reached the building, I jumped, landing lightly on the roof. Just as I hoped, there was a hatch that led to the floor below.

I walked over to the hatch, and reached for the release, but a sudden image of a blaring alarm made me pull my hand back. The hatch was alarmed.

I changed the view on my shades, and was happy to find a view that allowed me to see electrical currents and devices. The alarm itself was a small contact just near the hatch release, on the inside. Somehow, I could tell that the alarm would not go off as long as the two pieces of metal were touching.

This would be easy. I "reached" out and held the two pieces together, mentally unscrewing the piece from the hatch. When it was no longer secured, I opened the hatch and slipped inside, screwing the piece back in place as soon as the hatch was closed. It was then that I realized there was a man patrolling below me, and I was lucky he was out of range when I entered. I would need to be more careful.

I dropped from the ladder that led up to the hatch I came through, landing quietly on the floor below.

There was a camera pointed directly at me. Berating myself for not thinking about it being there, I quickly changed my camouflage to match my surroundings. The hallway was dark, lit only by emergency lights, so I changed my Chameleon equipment to black. My hair followed suit, and I also darkened my skin to as dark of a tan as I could get it.

I quickly jumped into the shadows and hurried down the hallway until I was under the camera. If I could control the Chameleon suit with only a touch, could I access the camera somehow?

Unfortunately, I couldn't reach the camera from where I was standing, I was way too short. There wasn’t anything to stand on either.

What about the wire? The camera had a wire that entered the wall at a socket just above the mounting bracket. If the wire went down the wall, I might be able to get close enough.

I switched my shades to the electronics view. Perfect. The wire ran right down the wall to the floor below.

I placed my hand over the line I could see in my shades. I could feel the connection to the data in the wire, but I couldn’t understand it. It was choppy, like I was only getting pieces of the information.

I stretched out, trying to get the rest of the information. Immediately I had success. I could see exactly what the camera was seeing. I could even see what the other cameras were seeing.

I was starting to learn how to control the different cameras when I had a flash of something hit me. Almost like seeing something happen, I had just enough time to realize it was another precognition vision when the patrolling guard came around the corner looking right at me.

He was surprised, but his hesitation became his undoing. Somehow, I was able to instinctively shut the camera off with my left hand still against the wall. At the same time, I drew my gun from my right holster and shot him before he had even registered what was happening.

Another second later, I had holstered my gun and was "pulling" him toward me, out of the camera's view. Once he was safely where no one watching could see him, I turned the camera back on, hoping no one had seen the short downtime.

The guard was out cold. Doctor Weir had said that the taser rounds would leave a person unconscious for about 45 minutes, way longer than the mission should take. But that also meant I wouldn’t be getting any information from him either.

I turned my attention back to the link with the camera. Nobody appeared to be scrambling about, so I took that as a sign that no one else had been alerted to my presence.

Finding the flag was relatively easy. Whoever was watching through the cameras had labeled one of them "Flag Room." It was being guarded by three people, but they appeared to be more interested in their card game than the flag.

Getting the flag would be tough. It was inside of a clear case, in the middle of their card table. I couldn’t think of a way to get it without taking out all three guards.

The other problem I had was that I did not know where the flag room was. I could access all the data from the cameras, but they appeared to be on a closed system. The computer on the other end was rudimentary, and appeared only to serve as a recording point, and a splitting point where the data was split to be shown on several different monitors. It surprised me to learn that I could figure out all of this from a simple wire.

I was still assuming that the flag room was the one on the third floor. As far as I could "feel," it was still the only room that contained three people.

I continued down the hallway, dancing through the shadows to avoid the cameras as much as possible. It didn’t take me long to reach the room. There was a camera on the wall opposite the door. It was pointed directly at the door which would complicate opening it.

Standing out of sight under the camera (I had checked to make sure), I studied the door, trying to figure out how to get in.

I was relieved to learn that getting in would be easy. The door had a very simple lock, often found on a bedroom door. I could simply open it with my powers.

Taking out the guards was my only concern. If I managed to catch them by surprise, I could probably get them all with the taser shots before they could fire back. It was my only option at this point.

I took a deep breath and drew my guns. I shut down the camera and then I quietly unlocked the door, and pushed it open with my powers.

I was surprised at how slow they were moving. In fact, it seemed like everything was moving slower than normal. It had started the moment I entered the room.

The door swung open, and immediately the guards were reaching for their guns, but they were too slow.

I pointed each of my guns at a different guard. Two quick shots and they were slumping in their chairs. The third one managed to bring his weapon up, but he took my third shot to the chest before he had it trained on me.

With all three guards slumped on the table, I holstered my left gun and approached them. A quick glance over the table showed that I had interrupted a game of Hearts. With a sly smile, I replaced the flag with the queen of spades and quickly left the room.

I retraced my steps, avoiding the cameras as much as possible, and was soon back on the roof.

I changed my Chameleon suit back to what I had now set as the default settings, white with a little bit of pink striping in various places. My shades also had pink lenses again. It looked great with my long blonde hair.

I jumped off the roof and made my way back up to the doctor.

"Nice work, Jaz," he said while taking the flag from me.

I returned his infectious smile.

*  *  *
Chapter 24 - A Debrief Evening

Nikki was able to get the flag on her third try, barely. The guards were shooting at her as she ran from the building.

Justin wasn’t nearly as lucky. It was clear that he wasn’t cut out for stealth work.

The doctor gave us thirty minutes to change, and told us to meet him in the conference room back in Medical.

After we had gathered around the conference table, the doctor started the debriefing.

"Congratulations to all of you," he said. "Each one of you did very well today, and we are pleased with the results."

"Yeah, right," Justin commented sourly.

"We are pleased, Justin. With all three of you."

"Maybe with the girls, but I didn't even get the flag."

The doctor chuckled before responding. "Getting the flag was not the objective of the exercise, Justin. While we did want to see how you used your powers to try to get the flag, we use this exercise as a classification system.

"The real value was to see what strengths you have, and what role you can bring to the group."

The doctor smiled as he looked at me. "Take Jaz for instance. She excelled at this mission because her talents and powers are suited well for stealth operations. After she entered the building, we completely lost track of her until she entered the flag room. Even then, she was in and out so fast that we weren't even sure what had happened until we re-watched the tape from the one camera she thankfully left operational while she was in the room."

Bummer! I thought that I had taken care of all of them.

"Despite her many stealth capabilities," he continued. "She still was able to take out all three guards in under a second before grabbing the flag and heading out."

Under a second? It seemed like so much longer to me! I noticed the doctor was smiling at my shocked expression before turning toward Nikki.

"Nikki," he said. "You appear to be an 'all around' agent. You were able to adapt to situations quickly. The downside comes from how bright your powers are. They certainly don't tend to be stealthy. Good work."

"Justin," he continued as he turned toward him. "You are definitely a man of brute force. You may not have the stealth ability of the girls, but you did have the highest kill count. You almost even made it to the flag room before reinforcements arrived. That can be just as helpful of a talent as being stealthy."

"Hmmpf," was his only reply to the compliment.

The doctor shrugged and continued. "Anyway, like I said, we are pleased with the results. We believe that the three of you have a wide variety of talents and powers that will make your team very flexible and capable."

"So what's next?" Nikki asked.

"Next you finish high school," the doctor replied. All three of us groaned.

"Once you have finished your finals and graduate, we will bring you back here to begin your formal training. Until then, please use your powers wisely. Try not to let others know that they exist. We don't want the knowledge of them becoming public knowledge.

"You are free to do whatever you want here in the complex until Sunday morning's flight home. Jaz, we want to see you again early tomorrow morning to see if we can learn any more about the precog powers you displayed earlier. How about around 7:30?"

"Okay," I replied.

"Well, in that case," the doctor said while standing up. "Congratulations to all of you and welcome to the team."

All the doctors shook our hands, and I even got a hug from Nina.

*  *  *

We met up with the members of A1 in the cafeteria. After eating we decided to take Theresa's advice from last night and see a movie. I was glad it didn't involve anything more than sitting. I was feeling somewhat drained.

The theater was still playing the same two movies, so the rest of the girls and I were happy to finally get a chance to see ‘Love is Real’. The boys just wanted something to do. I guess suffering through the movie was enough as long as we were there.

By the time we got back to our rooms, I was ready to flop into bed, but I wanted to call my sister first.

After getting ready for bed, I grabbed the phone and climbed under the covers. Because it was late, I decided I better call her cell phone instead of waking up my parents at home.

"Hi, Cami," I said when she answered.

"Hi, Jaz," she replied. "How did it go today?"

"It was awesome," I told her. I then continued on to tell her all about the days events and my new powers. We also chatted for a while before I told her I needed to get to sleep.

"So I'll see you on Sunday?" she asked as we were wrapping up our conversation.

"Yeah," I replied. "The doctors said that we will all be headed home Sunday morning."

"I can't wait to finally see you."

"I can't wait to show you," I said with a giggle. "It won't be long now."

"I love you, Jaz," she said.

"I love you too, Cami," I replied. "Good night."

"Good night."

The day’s events were catching up to me, and I was extremely exhausted, but I had a wonderful feeling in my heart as I fell asleep.

*  *  *

---

Author Note: Please email me at AngelJediGirl (at) gmail (dot) com before posting this story to any other site. Posting to a pay site is prohibited.

Comments and suggestions are also welcome at the above email address.

*  *  *
Chapter 25 - Can You See The Future?

I woke up just before six o'clock. I'd almost forgotten to set my alarm the night before, and as tired as I felt this morning, I didn't think I would have been able to wake up without it.

After dragging myself out of bed, I managed to get through my new morning routine with enough time to grab some breakfast before my meeting with Dr. Weir.

Wearing the white jean shorts and a light pink baby doll tee (what can I say? I'd become a pinkaholic), I slipped into a pair of white strappy sandals that had a small heel and opened my door.

It surprised me when I realized I was nervous. This was the first time that I would be out on my own in public. I'd had Nikki with me every other time.

With a deep breath to help calm my nerves, I headed down the hallway to the lobby. The ride down the elevator was too quick, and I was soon stepping off into the courtyard by myself.

There were a number of people walking around the courtyard. As I made my way toward the cafeteria, many gave me a short nod and a friendly smile. Others wished me a good morning, and I realized that they were treating me like they would anyone else they might meet early on a Saturday morning.

With my confidence boosted, I entered the cafeteria and got my food. I had a slight moment of panic wondering where I should sit to minimize my social interactions (I still wasn't quite ready to face the world alone), when I saw Rock waving me over to his table.

"Good morning," he said as I was sitting down at the otherwise vacant table.

"Morning," I replied with a small smile. "I'm glad there's at least someone here I know. I'm not ready to be out on my own yet, I guess."

He smiled back. "I can imagine it could take some getting used to with all the changes you've gone through recently."

"So what are you doing up so early on a Saturday morning?" I asked around bites of my french toast.

"I'm a morning person, can't stand to sleep in. You?"

"Dr. Weir wants to try to learn more about a possible power I might have displayed yesterday."

"Well," he said while eating his own breakfast. "Dr. Weir is a morning person too. He likes to schedule meetings like this all the time unless you give him a better time."

"I'll have to remember that in the future," I said, mentally thanking him for the tip.

"Wow!" he said. "That's some powerful empathic abilities you have there. Is that what the two of you are working on this morning?"

I'd forgotten about my ability to pass my emotions on to others! "Sorry," I apologized. "I'm still trying to learn to control it, but that's only part of what we'll be working on."

"That's cool," he said showing he was okay with it. "What's the other part?"

"Some sort of precog ability. Almost like a Spidey sense."

He chuckled out loud at that and gave me a friendly smile.

*  *  *

Despite his intimidating size, Rock really was good at making people feel nice and relaxed. By the time we had finished breakfast and I was on my way to Medical, I knew he would be a good friend.

I met Dr. Weir in the Medical lobby, and he escorted me back to a lab room. There wasn't much in the room, just a comfortable looking chair and some machinery along the walls.

"Have a seat, Jaz," he said while motioning to the chair. "This room allows us to perform a number of different tests, and hopefully we can get a better read on your precog powers."

"Okay," I replied.

Once I was seated, he wheeled a small cart over near me, and then moved a small arm from the cart near my head. The end of the arm had a U-shaped extension that he placed around my head, surrounding it on all sides but the front.

"This thing," the doctor started, "among other uses, can be used to test hearing. We are going to use it to play a tone in your ears. I want you to raise your left hand if you hear it in your left ear, and raise your right hand if you hear it in your right ear. Got it?"

"Yeah, sounds easy enough," I replied.

The doctor then started the test. Left, right, right, left. It was easy to hear the tone and raise my hand. But eventually, I realized that I was starting to raise my hand before I heard the tone.

"That's good, Jaz. You're starting to feel it. Act instead of react."

I smiled at that. It was weird to know what was going to happen before it did. It was only a few seconds beforehand, but it could be a life saver at the right time.

The rest of the morning was spent doing much the same. One of the tests that I really enjoyed was when the doctor blindfolded me and had some of the nurses throwing nerf balls at me. It was fun to learn to block and catch them without being able to see them. It was even more fun to throw them back.

The doctor finally felt satisfied that we both understood the power well enough, and he let me go around 11:40.

I was wondering what I should do next. I wanted to find Nikki, but I wasn't sure where I should look. I decided to check the rooms first and started heading for the elevators.

I was surprised when I "felt" her presence as I was walking by the shopping section. I changed course and wandered between the shops until I found her with Theresa and Cary coming out of American Eagle.

"There you are," Nikki said as I approached. "We've been looking for you all morning!"

"I've been with Dr. Weir all morning," I replied.

"That was like four hours ago," she said. "What were you doing for so long?"

"He was running some tests and teaching me how to use some of my powers."

"Well, anyway, we've been looking for you, but gave up and did a little shopping. What are you doing here? Were you going to shop without me?" she said with a mock frown.

I laughed, but responded with the truth. "No, I was looking for you and "felt" you were in here."

"Felt?" she asked quizzically.

"Yeah," I replied. "My empath powers kind of pointed you out. Kind of like your emotions were unique like your voice or something."

"That's so cool," Cary said.

"Yeah," Nikki agreed. "Anyway, now that you're here, you can join us."

"Actually," Theresa interrupted. "If we're going to get some food before we meet up with the boys for swimming, we better go now."

Nikki groaned. I think she wanted to dress me up some more. On the other hand, I'd finally have a chance to try on my bikini.

"When are we going swimming?" I asked excitedly.

"Oh," Nikki said. That look was in her eye again. "We have the best day planned. You're going to love it."

I was a little apprehensive to learn more, but I felt better when I noticed Theresa and Cary were nodding their heads.

"Like what?" I asked, still with some apprehension.

"Well," Nikki started after taking a deep breath. "We're going to start with lunch at Brick Oven, and then we are going to meet the boys for some pool time around 12:30. After that, we have reservations at the spa at 3:00. After being pampered for a couple of hours, we'll catch a bite to eat and then head out for a night on the town."

She was beaming a smile at me, but I had to ask the only question that came to my mind.

"A night on the town?" As far as I knew, we were confined to the complex.

"Well, figuratively speaking," she clarified. "The boys want to go to a movie and then do some more dancing, and end the night at some lounge for a show or something."

"Oh," was my only reply.

"Don't worry, though," she said while reaching into one of the bags she was carrying. "I bought you the perfect dress."

I just rolled my eyes at her. Someday I would get to pick out my own clothes. I had to admit though, she did have good taste. She had bought me my first 'Little Black Dress.'

I couldn't wait to try it on, but Theresa made her put it back in the bag and led the way to the restaurant.

*  *  *
Chapter 26 - All Flowers Need Watering

Lunch with the girls was great. I didn't eat much, just a Caesar's salad and some garlic bread, which was to die for. But the conversation was unlike any conversation I’d ever had before.

This was my first experience with 'girl talk,' and it surprised me. We talked about everything from the latest fashion to even boys!

I surprised myself by how active I was in the conversation, especially the boys part. It was during lunch that I realized I truly was a girl now.

As if I didn't know before.

*  *  *

Once we left the restaurant, we headed back to the rooms to get our bathing suits.

I got my beautiful bikini out of the drawer I had put it in, and placed it in a beach bag Nikki had picked up for me. I added a towel and headed out the door to meet the other girls in the lobby.

Once we were all ready, we headed back down the elevators and toward the Gym.

We found the boys waiting for us in the lobby outside the locker rooms. They looked semi-bored, but perked up when we entered through the glass doors.

"We were beginning to wonder if you four were going to show up," Lary said as we approached.

We just smiled and headed toward our respective locker rooms.

It felt odd to enter the locker room again. This was the fourth time that I had entered, but it had been different every time. The first time I had been a boy pretending to be the girl I would eventually become. I was worried sick even though the locker room had been empty.

The second time, I had looked like a girl, but I wasn't, and we didn't do much but pass through. I hadn't even seen much of it on the way out.

The third time, I belonged there because I was a girl, but the locker room was empty.

Today was different. Since it was a Saturday, the locker room was fairly crowded. There were girls in here who were still in diapers and others who looked like they could be my grandmother. And there were girls and women from all ages in between.

But the best part was that I belonged! Not a single one of them could look at me and think otherwise.

Some of them watched us as we walked past to our lockers. I think some of them realized that Nikki and I were the new members of A2 and were curious about us.

As I reached my locker I noticed two girls around our age who were using the lockers across from us.

"Hi, Theresa," the brunette said as we approached. "Hi, Cary."

"Hi, Billie," Theresa said. Cary waved. "Have you met Nikki and Jasmine yet?"

"Yeah," Billie replied. "We met them here a couple of days ago."

"Are you feeling better, Jaz?" the blonde asked me.

I thought it was a weird question at first, until I recognized them as the girls we were swimming with the other day. They were both there when I passed out.

"Yeah," I replied. "I wasn't quite done with that stage of the procedure and overtaxed my limits."

"Well, you certainly look a lot better now," she said with a wink that made me blush.

"Thanks," I replied to the implied compliment.

"Are you guys working out?" Billie asked.

"We were going to go for a swim," Cary replied while opening her locker.

"Cool," Billie said as she took her bra off, which surprisingly didn't affect me like I thought it would. "Maybe we can join you?"

"It's fine with me," Theresa said. "But the boys will be here too."

"All the better," Suzanne said with a lustful grin that scared me.

Small talk continued as I opened my own locker and began to change. As I stripped off my bra, I started to feel vulnerable and embarrassed, but it passed quickly when the other girls did or said nothing.

I reverently pulled the bikini top out of my bag and started to put it on. I could see a knowing smile on the faces of the other team members, but Billie and Suzanne seemed oblivious to the heaven I was floating around in as I tied the strings behind my back.

I did the same with the bikini bottoms and then pulled my hair back into a ponytail.

"Wow," Nikki said in awe as I closed my locker and turned toward her. "I told you that bikini was designed for you."

That made the others look, and they all agreed, showering me with compliments that made me blush.

I walked over to the full length mirror near our lockers.

They were right, of course. I looked amazing! Once again Nikki had to pull me away from the mirror so that we could actually make it to the pool.

As we were heading out, I had to stop. "I can't go out there," I said.

"Why not?" Nikki asked.

"I don't think I can deal with him like this."

Nikki just rolled her eyes at me. "Girl, deal with it. He isn't going to go away. You have to deal with him, or you'll be running from boys all your life."

"Not all boys," I retorted. "Just him."

She rolled her eyes again and started tugging on my arm again. "Come on!"

I eventually gave in and decided to walk out with dignity.

*  *  *

I really wished I hadn't.

He was there, and he was staring harder than ever. So hard, in fact, that it was making me mad. I could tell the other girls felt the same way.

Once again, Nikki did what I could not. She slapped him.

For a second, I thought he was going to hit her back, but he finally showed some restraint.

"What the heck was that for?" he said staring at someone other than me for once.

"What do you think it was for, you idiot!" Nikki yelled.

"You really need to learn how to treat girls better," Cary snarled as she and the other girls pulled me past him and toward the pool area.

We placed our towels on the lounge chairs near the pool with the slides. I sat down on the chair and looked back toward the locker rooms.

Jay and the other boys were talking to Justin, but it didn't seem to be helping. He was pissed off. It didn't take my empathic abilities to notice that. The other 3 boys "felt" exasperated. Nothing they said seemed to be getting through to him.

Eventually, Justin shrugged them off and started walking toward us. He really wanted to hurt Nikki. I had never felt the kind of malice I felt coming from him in my entire life. I knew this could get ugly really quickly.

We just sat there, watching him approach. The other girls didn't know what was coming. They were hoping he would apologize. I knew better.

When he was about 10 feet away from us, I stopped him. A subtle telekinetic push was all it took. I made sure that I gave no outward sign of what I was doing.

"What the hell?" he screamed when he realized he couldn't get any closer to us. He was too angry to connect the dots, but the other team members seemed to catch on to what I was doing. Jay and Rock even seemed relieved as they approached him from behind.

"Calm down," I heard Jay say. "Making emotional decisions like this can lead to unintended consequences."

"I don't care!" he screamed while glaring at Nikki. "This bitch needs to learn to stay out of what isn't her business."

"My best friend's well being IS my business!" Nikki screamed back. It made me smile to realize that we had become such good friends in less than a week. I just wished I knew why Justin's attitude had flip-flopped again. He had been so nice yesterday.

Justin tried to move toward her again, but I pushed back.

"Arrgh!" he screamed, trying harder. "What the hell is going on!"

Agent Harris came running up to the boys then. He looked a little winded.

"Justin," he said, laying a hand on his shoulder. "How about we go talk about this in my office."

"Hell no!" Justin replied. "Not until I take care of her!"

"Fine," Agent Harris said. I then watched awestruck as Justin's eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he slumped to the ground.

Rock then picked up Justin, and Agent Harris and Rock walked back out of the gym.

"Thanks, Jaz," Jay said once they were out of sight. "I didn't know how we were going to be able to stop him from getting to Nikki before Rob could get here."

"What happened to him?" I asked in response.

It was Theresa who responded. "Agent Harris has the ability to overload the synaptic pathways in the brain. Effectively, it knocks the person out for a short time."

"Oh," I said. "What's going to happen to him now?"

"They'll take him down to Medical and see if there is anything they can do to help him control his mood swings," Jay answered. "He should be fine in a couple of hours."

"Now I see why Jaz was so scared to leave the locker room," Billie said. "I mean, she has a right to be scared of that guy."

"See," I said with a giggle as I turned to Nikki. "I told you I shouldn't have come out."

"Oh whatever," she said with mock seriousness. "You would have eventually. You've got too much exhibitionist in you not to show off that suit."

That just made me laugh, and served to break up the somber mood we had fallen into.

Despite the rough start, we actually had a fun time swimming. Billie and Suzanne's friends showed up a little bit later and added to the fun we had.

Despite being a mix of late teens and early twenties, we laughed and played like little kids. Time flew by, and we eventually all ended up lying on the lounge chairs, exhausted, but feeling rested at the same time.

*  *  *
Chapter 27 - Just Relax

Back in the locker room I took off my bikini and headed for the showers. Nikki and the other girls were right behind.

Part of me felt weird to be showering with girls, but there was a larger part of me that felt it was only natural now. I also wasn't getting aroused at the sight of their bodies either. It was once again apparent to me that I was no longer attracted to girls.

I saw Theresa watching me, but when I didn't show any signs of arousal or undue attention, she seemed to relax and accept me.

"So, what do you guys want to do until our appointment?" Theresa asked after we got back to the lockers.

"Where are you guys going?" Billie asked.

"We have spa appointments this afternoon," Nikki said with a big smile.

"Aww," Billie and Suzanne both said at the same time. "Lucky."

"We could always see if there's more room if you want to come," Theresa said.

"We can't today," Billie said with regret.

"Rain check then," Cary added. "It gives us another excuse to go back."

"Sounds like a plan."

"I need a suitcase," I said, bringing us back to the original topic. "Is there anywhere to get one?"

"Suitcase?" Nikki asked.

"Yeah, for all the new clothes I want to take home."

"I was just going to leave mine here until we came back. The rooms are ours." Nikki replied.

"That works for you," I said. "But I don't have any clothes at home to hold me over until then."

"Good point," she said.

"There is a store that sells luggage in the mall," Cary said. "We could stop by before the appointment."

"Okay," Theresa said.

We finished getting ready, and were on our way.

*  *  *

Thirty minutes later we were standing in the reception area for the spa. I'd managed to get a small suitcase that would suffice, and we had just enough time to drop it in my room before making our way down to the spa.

"Okay, girls," the receptionist said confirming our appointment. "We have you down for the full body massage followed by hair and nails."

Full body massage? That sounded good. Girls were always talking about how nice it is to get their hair and nails done too. It might be fun.

"Wait a second," I said as a thought popped into my head. "Do I even need to get my hair and nails done?"

I changed my hair and nail color a few times to emphasize my point, which caused the receptionist to gasp in astonishment.

"Jaz," Nikki said. "It doesn't matter if you need it or not. It's about the experience. Besides, you can't control anything but the color anyway. It will do you good."

"Trust us," Cary added. "It'll be worth it."

That was how I found myself in another locker room. This time we changed into very comfortable robes before being escorted into a room with five massage beds. We were instructed to remove our robes and lie on one of the tables.

Once we were all lying face down on the tables, with nothing but a small towel covering my posterior, I started to relax a little.

"Don't freak, Jaz. It'll be worth it," I heard from my left, but I couldn't tell which one of them said it.

"What?" I said while raising my head to see who spoke.

Instead I caught sight of the four masseurs who were coming through the door.

"Oh my gosh," I said and buried my head back into the table. "You could have warned me!"

All I could hear was laughter until one of the incredibly toned men spoke. "Hello, ladies, I take it we have a virgin here today?"

I swear I could even hear his sex appeal! I also couldn't stop laughing. But I did yelp when he placed a hand on my back.

"And this must be her."

I looked up and glanced at him. Bad idea! He was smiling down at me with that magnificent head topped with dark brown hair. I quickly buried my head again, but I couldn't stop giggling. All the other girls were giggling too.

"Well," my Greek god spoke. "Just lie there and relax. This will help rejuvenate your body and your mind."

He was right, too. I had never had a massage before, so I couldn't really compare it to anything. But when it ended, I did not want to get up.

Eventually, we managed to drag ourselves to our feet and were able to don our robes. We were then led down the hall to a salon.

The hair and nail work felt almost as good. I only let the stylist trim my hair, because I loved the length too much. After prompting from Nikki, I did let her style it. It felt pointless since I could easily have done the same thing myself with my power, but it did feel rather nice and it looked great when she was done. I ended up letting the nail and makeup artist have free reign also. My powers were not going to be used for tonight’s events.

With still an hour left to get ready, we headed back to our rooms to get dressed.

*  *  *
Chapter 28 - An Evening on the Town

Standing in front of the mirror, I was amazed at how beautiful I looked!

The ‘Little Black Dress’ that Nikki had purchased for me hugged my curves and displayed my new femininity like nothing else I had worn since my change.

The neckline showed a little cleavage, which was also a new experience. But Nikki, thankfully, opted for a less revealing dress than what she was wearing. My dress had spaghetti straps over the shoulders and an asymmetrical skirt that ended below the knee on my right, and just above on the left.

Nikki had also purchased a pair of 3-inch open toed pumps that showed off my red-tipped toes to perfection.

Combined with the smoky eyes and bright red glossy lips the makeup artist had given me, I was hot.

"Come on," Nikki said while pulling my arm again. "Put these on."

She handed me a small box that contained some jewelry. I finally had some accessories!

I put on a couple of small silver bracelets and a small necklace that had a silver rose on it. The matching earrings replaced the studs I had received earlier today when I had my ears pierced at the spa. The holes had already apparently healed. Nina had said that any healing my body would need to do over the weekend would be quick, because the retrovirus was still in my system.

She had to pull me away from the mirror again, but we eventually made it out to the lobby to meet the others.

We were going to treat tonight like an informal date night. I was afraid at first that I would end up being paired with Justin, so I was more than happy to learn that we were being paired with members of the opposite team.

I was paired with Lary, which was a significant improvement. I felt really bad for Cary, though, because she got stuck with Justin.

The others were pretty happy though. Apparently Theresa and Jay had a thing, so they got paired together. Fire and Ice, it must be some “opposites attract” thing. Nikki didn't seem too happy to learn that. I could also tell she was a bit apprehensive about going with Rock, but didn't seem adverse to it.

I could tell that Justin was VERY unhappy as we rode down in the elevator. He was glaring at me with hatred, almost as if he believed this pairing was my fault.

I tried my best to ignore him. At the same time, I tried to apologize mentally to Cary for having to be stuck with him. She must have felt it, because she squeezed my arm reassuringly and gave me a smile to let me know it was not my fault.

Once we stepped off the elevator, Theresa and Jay led us to The Garden. The Garden was in another enclave of the compound and was one of the few places that filtered in natural light for complete lighting.

During the day, its many flowers and trees made it a soothing place to relax. At night, it made a great dining experience with the candlelit tables and soft classical music that was being played. Our waiter led us to a table in a private grove of trees.
It was an amazing dinner. We talked and got to know each other better. I felt that I could call every one of these new teammates a friend.

All except for Justin. He sat there silently for most of the meal. He seemed to be glaring at every single one of us, and he was angry. I could feel his anger radiating from him. But I couldn’t pinpoint why he felt that way.

After dinner, the boys took us to the movie theater. They started showing a new romantic comedy earlier that day that even the boys were able to enjoy.

We ended up back in the Molten Core for a light snack and some more dancing afterward. That's when things really started to get crazy.

*  *  *
Chapter 29 - The Devil Within

We managed to get another table right off the dance floor, and the boys, except Justin, went to get us drinks. The rest of us just sat there in awkward silence as Justin glared at all four of us.

"Are you okay, Justin?" Theresa asked him after a bit.

"No," he replied and then continued glaring.

After another short awkward spell, Theresa asked another question. "What can we do to help?"

"Nothing."

The other boys eventually returned and there was a little normality as we sat and talked for a bit. Everyone was aware that Justin was in a bad mood.

"Would you like to dance, Jaz?" Lary asked me after the conversation died down a little.

Ignoring the spike of anger, or perhaps even hatred I felt coming from Justin, I smiled at Lary. "Sure."

I felt sorry for Cary again as I danced with Lary. Everyone was out on the dance floor except for her and Justin. She smiled when I caught her eye, but I could tell she wasn't having much fun.

After a couple of dances, I convinced Lary to give Cary a chance to have some fun. We headed back to the table.

I sat down as far away from Justin as possible and watched the twins head back out to the dance floor. Dancing with your brother might not be much, but it would be better than sitting with Justin.

I avoided even looking at him as I watched the others dancing. What was wrong with him anyway?

He had actually been normal earlier in the week, but now he seemed insane.

"Want to dance?" he asked.

Did I? "No," I found myself saying before I even realized it.

His anger spiked big time. It freaked me out it was so strong.

"No, Jaz," he said with more calm than I knew he was feeling. He stood up and walked around the table, standing in front of me. "You WILL dance with me."

That blew my mind! What made him think I was going to do what he said?

"No, Justin, I won't. You need to learn how to treat people better if you want them to do something for you."

His anger spiked even higher, and I realized I had gone too far. He freaked me out even more when he grabbed my neck with his right arm, and lifted me up!

I heard gasps all around me as I realized he was dangling me in mid-air by the neck. But I wasn't choking. I had unconsciously "pushed" myself up so that I wasn't hanging. The only problem breathing I had was coming from the crushing force of his hand. That wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. I had managed to push back telekinetically there too, preventing any lasting damage.

"Don't argue with me!" he screamed at me. "You are my girl from now on, and you will do as I say!"

"No, Justin," I calmly stated, delighted at seeing his surprise at my ability to answer him. "Are you mental? I don't belong to you or anybody else."

He squeezed tighter, but it did no good, because my telekinesis was stronger.

"You don't scare me," I continued. "And you can't hurt me. Put me down before you get into too much trouble."

Unfortunately, instead of putting me down like I hoped he would, he raised his left fist and swung at my head. He really had gone insane!

He didn't connect. I had managed to create a wall of force between us, and his hand hit it like it was a brick wall.

Luckily, he didn't get a second chance. As he was shaking his hand in pain, he was broadsided by a bear. Or to be more exact, Rock.

Justin let go of my throat as he fell, preventing me from going with them. Instead, I hung in mid-air for a second before softly dropping to the ground.

It looked like Justin was out cold. Rock was holding him down, just in case, but either way, Justin wasn’t getting up.

"Are you okay, Jaz?" Nikki asked while wrapping me in a hug. "I was so scared when he was holding you like that!"

"I'm fine," I said, rubbing my neck but feeling no pain. "But something is definitely wrong with Justin."

"We're going to take him down to Medical again. You guys wait here," Jay said. He and Rock then left the club carrying Justin between them.

*  *  *

Nina and a couple of security guys showed up a short time later. She was concerned about my neck, but finally decided I was okay.

The security guys wanted to know if I wanted to press charges. I hadn't really thought about that, but declined to do so.

He hadn't scared me or caused me any lasting physical harm. I just wanted to see him get the help he obviously needed.

We eventually managed to calm down. When Jay and Rock returned, they told us that Justin would be all right. Dr. Weir was running some tests, and would keep him overnight for observation.

Not wanting to end the night on such a low note, we decided to continue with the planned evening.

We danced for a little while longer before Jay showed us the way to the Bolero's Lounge.

The Bolero's Lounge was well furnished and gave a trendy feel to the Latin music that was playing.

The Dueling Piano show with Steve and Rick started shortly after we found seats, and it was a blast.

The two musicians knew the songs and lyrics to hundreds of rock songs, and rocked us out with the pianos well into the morning.

By the time we made it back to the rooms we were all beat, but we felt a lot better after the earlier incident.

I called my sister before getting ready for bed. She didn't answer, and was probably sleeping, but I left her a message about when I would be home.

After that I quickly got ready for bed, anticipating the trip home.

*  *  *
Chapter 30 - Home Blossoms

The next morning was hectic. We were supposed to have a short meeting at nine before we left at nine-thirty.

I managed to get up early enough to take a nice shower, get ready for the day, and even pack my suitcase before heading down to breakfast.

Justin wasn't at breakfast, but everyone else was. Apparently the doctors were running some more tests this morning. It was beginning to look like he wouldn't be heading home with us this morning.

It was a little somber as we ate, and the mood continued into the conference room.

Both teams, including Justin, and our handlers were there. Jill smiled at me as I sat down, and I smiled back.

"Well," Agent Harris started. "Congratulations for getting this far. It looks like A2 is going to be a great team. The powers and abilities that you have received complement each other and will lend to great teamwork in the future.

"Now," he continued. "You have a little time to get used to the changes as you finish the school year."

"What about Justin?" Nikki asked. Justin just sneered back at her.

"The procedure changed his brain chemistry slightly, but the doctors have him on some medication that will help. He'll be able to finish out the school year as well."

Jill then gave the three of us a small portfolio. "These are things we would like you to do while you are back at home. They are exercises to help you develop your body, mind, and powers. In general, try not to show anyone your powers.

"You've all changed, and that will be hard to hide, but the less people know, the better for you and for your families. Understand?"

We all nodded.

"Good. Are you ready to go home?"

We all enthusiastically said yes.

"All right then," Agent Harris said. "Grab your things, and let's head up to the plane."

A quick stop by my room for my luggage and I was outside next to the plane. Everyone was there, and I was surprised at how emotional I was.

I'd known these people for less than a week, but it already felt like I was leaving family, especially the girls!

After many tearful goodbye hugs, Nikki and I boarded the plane to join Justin who was already on board.

"About time," he said impatiently. He had just said goodbye and boarded the plane.

Once Jill and Agent Harris were on board, we were on our way.

*  *  *

We were flying over a small city when Justin surprised us.

"You are all going to pay for denying me what is mine!" he screamed and grabbed me over my seat in headlock.

I screamed, and had the weirdest sensation that I was sinking through the seat. I screamed harder when I realized that I was sinking!

Justin was pulling me out of the bottom of the plane!

"Justin, stop!" someone yelled from the front of the plane as I finally had the sense of mind to fight back.

I 'pushed' against Justin as hard as I could, feeling myself break free from his grip and go flying hard into the ceiling of the plane.

I landed with a thud on the floor, but immediately looked for Justin. Everyone else was staring out the windows.

Looking out myself, I caught a glimpse of Justin slowly falling toward the ground.

"It looks like he's gained control of his powers," Agent Harris said as Jill and Nikki turned toward me.

"Are you okay?" Nikki asked.

"Yeah," I replied. "What happened?"

Agent Harris expressed all of our fears when he spoke. "I think Justin has gone rogue."

*  *  *

---

Author Note: Please email me at AngelJediGirl (at) gmail (dot) com before posting this story to any other site. Posting to a pay site is prohibited.

Comments and suggestions are also welcome at the above email address.

This story has been a long time in the making. I apologize to everyone that has been patiently waiting. This story started out as a semi-autobiographical story. Over the years that fact has made this story harder to write. There will be more after this, but I'm not sure how long it will take to write. I'm afraid that Sarah Carerra takes up most of my time, but I'll try to write more of this for those who want it.

I have broken this piece of the story into two parts. Together these two parts make up the first half of Book 2. I have the second half planned out, but I haven't started writing it yet. I promise to finish this at some point.

Enjoy,
Megan

*  *  *
Prologue

We were flying over a small city when Justin surprised us.

"You are all going to pay for denying me what is mine!" he screamed and grabbed me over my seat in a headlock.

I screamed, and had the weirdest sensation that I was sinking through the seat. I screamed harder when I realized that I was!

Justin was pulling me out of the bottom of the plane!

"Justin stop!" someone yelled from the front of the plane as I finally had the sense of mind to fight back.

I 'pushed' against Justin as hard as I could, feeling myself break free from my grip and go flying hard into the ceiling of the plane.

I landed with a thud on the floor, but immediately looked for Justin. Everyone else was staring out the windows.

Looking out myself, I caught a glimpse of Justin slowly falling toward the ground.

"It looks like he's gained control of his powers," Agent Harris said as Jill and Nikki turned toward me.

"Are you okay?" Nikki asked.

"Yeah," I replied. "What happened?"

Agent Harris expressed all of our fears when he spoke. "I think Justin has gone rogue."

*  *  *
Chapter 1 - Homecoming

"What do we do now?" Nikki asked when Justin was out of sight, as we sat in our seats again. Agent Harris was already on his cell phone, and Jill was looking at us, making sure that we were okay.

"We take you home," she said with a slightly somber tone. "A team will be dispatched to look for Justin, but there isn't anything we can do for the time being."

"What if he can't be found?" I asked.

"I don't know," she responded. "We've never had anything like this happen before. I'm sure that the Agency will put every effort into bringing him in to help him with the issues he is having, but it could be a while until he's better."

"What kind of issues?" Nikki asked warily; they hadn't given us much information.

"Like we mentioned in the meeting this morning, the Procedure changed his brain chemistry slightly, and the doctors gave him some medication to help him cope with the changes. However, it looks like the changes may be greater than they thought. I don't really know much more than that."

She grimaced at us before continuing.

"In the short term, you'll probably be getting a new team member to replace him." I was surprised at the relief I felt at hearing him say that, and I heard Nikki sigh in relief as well.

"Is there anything we can do?" Nikki asked.

"Not right now," she replied. "In your portfolio is a number that you can use to contact me while you are at home. Rob and I will be staying in an apartment nearby if there are any problems. If you see Justin, contact us immediately. Don't try to confront him or stop him, because he isn't thinking rationally right now and we don't fully know what he is capable of doing."

Nikki and I both looked at each other nervously, but there wasn't anything else we could do.

*  *  *

We landed shortly afterward, but the exuberance we expected to feel on returning home was stifled by the events on the plane. I think Nikki and I were still excited, but the events with Justin were still weighing heavily on our minds as we disembarked from the plane and climbed into the waiting car.

Agent Harris sat in the front seat with the driver and Jill joined us in the back. They of course made me sit in the middle because I was the tiny one. Grrr - I was not a happy camper at that moment.

"Just take it one day at a time," Jill said as we arrived at Nikki's house. "Remember, we're staying here in town and our numbers are in your portfolios. Call us if you need anything."

"I will," Nikki said while accepting a hug from Jill. She then turned to me and gave me a hug. "Call me later and tell me how it goes, okay?"

"Ok," I replied, hugging her back. "See you at school tomorrow."

"Bye," she waved as she got out of the car and headed for her front door.

Once she was inside the house and the car was moving again, I looked at Jill. "How is school going to work? I can't really tell them the truth about why I'm a girl now."

"I know," she replied. "We've enrolled you as a new student. It's uncommon to start a new school with only two weeks left, but it'll work out. Your schedule will still be the same. I'll meet you at the school tomorrow morning to make sure everything is sorted correctly."

"Ok," I said as I felt my trepidation rising. We were pulling up to my house.

"Do you want me to wait?" Jill asked.

I thought for a few seconds. "No," I finally answered. "My family is probably still at church. I'll call you if I need anything."

"Okay, Jaz," she said while giving me a hug. "I'll see you in the morning then."

I got out of the car and retrieved my suitcase from the trunk. I waved at Jill and Agent Harris as I walked up the driveway to our front door. Sure enough, the door was locked, and after opening it with my key I confirmed that nobody was home.

"Good," I said when I closed the front door behind me. I would have time to get prepared to meet them.

My parents’ house had two bedrooms on the main floor, plus the master bedroom, and two bedrooms in the basement. My room was downstairs because I was the oldest, but as I descended the stairs I began to wonder if I should switch with my youngest brother and move back up by my sister.

I walked down the hall in our basement and opened the door to my room. It wasn't “home” anymore. The walls were white and had a couple of Star Wars posters on them, but the room was otherwise undecorated. Nevertheless, this room did not fit me anymore. It was too masculine. There were little things that stood out, things that made me feel less at home since my change, and I realized that I would be throwing away the majority of the things in this room. Oddly enough, that thought didn't really trouble me.

Dropping my suitcase on the floor, I laid down on my bed, happy to be home. I looked at the alarm clock I kept on the stand next to the bed. My family should be home from church any minute.

I still wasn't sure how I was going to handle this. I knew my mom and my sister were okay with the changes I had gone through, but I didn't know how my brothers would take it. That thought also helped spur my decision to switch rooms with my little brother. Both rooms were the same size, and he had wanted to move down here for a long time. If nothing else, it would keep me further from them and I'd be sharing a bathroom with my sister.

I heard the door to the garage open upstairs.

"Jaz?" my sister yelled through the house. I then heard her footsteps heading away from the stairs. It was time to go up there and meet them.

Stepping out of my room, I literally walked right into my brother Adam. He was coming down to his room to change out of his church clothes, but he was left with a puzzled look on his face when I quickly muttered "Hi" and headed for the stairs.

"Jaz?" I heard my sister yell again as I was ascending.

"Who's Jaz?" my brother Ben asked from another room.

"Nobody," my sister said, entering the kitchen. Her excitement appeared to have died down when I didn't respond to her.

I stood waiting at the top of the stairs as she entered. Turning from where she had been talking to my brother, she gasped.

"Jaz?!" she practically screamed the question, already knowing the answer.

"Hi, Cami," I said with a broad smile I genuinely felt.

"Jaz!" she screamed again, not a question this time. She ran the length of the kitchen and threw her arms around me in a hug. I'd never felt small around my sister before, but I noticed that she was a good five inches taller than me. "You're so beautiful! And small! Welcome Home!"

I returned her hug, happy to be home with the people I loved. My family started to gather in the kitchen. Adam had apparently followed me up the stairs, no doubt wondering who I was. Ben, my youngest brother, walked into the kitchen after my sister, and I saw my mom and dad joining us behind him.

Mom smiled at me as she came to replace Cami in a hug. Dad had an astonished look on his face, and I reckoned my mom must have just told him what had happened to me. My brothers stood there looking confused.

"Who are you?" Adam asked from behind me. His accusatory tone made it seem like I shouldn't be here.

"Um," was all I could say before I was interrupted by Cami.

"This is Jasmine," she said directly to Adam. "Your new sister."

"What?" he said incredulously. He stared at me for a second before turning back to Cami for a longer explanation.

Cami looked at me, which caused everyone to also look at me.

"Um," I started again. I had been dreading this moment, and now that it had arrived, I still wasn't sure how to explain what had happened to me. "I became a bit more than just a special agent last week."

"Brett?" Ben asked a second later. He didn't seem to believe the assumption he had just voiced.

"Yeah, it's me," I said while dropping my gaze to the floor. "Except my name is Jasmine now, like Cami said."

It was quiet for a moment or two. Nobody seemed to be able to voice anything. Dad came over and wrapped me in another hug.

"I'm just glad you're safe," he said, generating a smile from me. I looked into his eyes as we separated, and I knew that he still loved me just as much now as he had before I had left over a week ago. He returned my smile while stepping back again.

"You let them do this to you?" Adam asked. His voice was raised, and he was turning slightly red or green depending on the angle. He looked sick, disgusted, and angry all at once, and I felt my worst fears about this moment returning. I looked at Ben; he seemed to be slightly disgusted, but at least he didn't look angry.

"Yes, I did," I said while turning back to Adam. "And I'm happy I did too."

"No guy in his right mind would ever let someone do that to them!" he yelled.

"You’re right. Maybe I'm not a guy then," I responded.

He sneered at me for a second before turning around and heading back downstairs. "Whatever."

I could still feel his hostility as he headed for his bedroom to change. I had feared that violence would occur during this conversation, so I was really happy that it hadn't come to that. I would have to watch myself around him, though.

I turned back toward Ben, who hadn't said a thing since he had found out I used to be his brother. "Are you okay?" I asked him. I felt his confusion, and he did feel disgusted at the thought of me being a girl, but at least he didn't feel hostile.

"I guess," he said.

"Can I have a hug?" I asked. I didn't want to push him too far, but I still loved him and was happy to see him again after a week away.

I guess," he repeated, but made no attempt to move. Instead, I walked over to him and wrapped my arms around him. Even though he was the youngest, he was already taller than Cami and I had to stand on my tippy-toes to properly hug him.

"It's going to be alright," I said while giving him a hug. I augmented it by sending my love toward him, trying to let him know that I was still “family” and I still loved him. When I let go of him and stepped back he had a smile on his face.

"Besides," I said with a sly grin. "Now you can have that basement room you always wanted."

He lit up like a Christmas tree. "Really?"

"Really."

This time it was his turn to hug me. Stepping forward he wrapped his arms around me and actually lifted me off my feet.

"Awesome!" he said in an excited voice. "Wow, you're so small!"

"Yeah," I said with a small giggle as he set me back down on my feet. "I noticed."

"Let's start moving," he said immediately, heading for the stairs.

"After lunch," Mom quickly interrupted his plans, earning a groan from him.

I just smiled. I was happy to be home.

*  *  *
Chapter 2 - Family Times

After everyone had changed out of their church clothes, we met back in the dining room, where I had been waiting for them. Mom made grilled cheese sandwiches while we sat around the dining table. Adam, glaring at me as he passed, only came upstairs long enough to get his food before departing back to his dungeon.

Everyone wanted to know how my week had been, and I filled them in on as many details as I could. I left out most of the changes that I had gone through, because I didn't really want to talk about changing sex in front of my dad and my brother. The Agency had apparently come by the house while I was gone and had my family sign confidentiality agreements, which allowed me to even talk about my powers with them.

"Show us," Cami said after I mentioned some of what I could do.

I thought I'd start with the most visually appealing power I had, and I sat there and watched their jaws drop as my hair went from the beautiful blonde I loved to a raven black. "I can do the same with my finger nails too," I said while holding up my hand. I made the nails switch colors quickly and it was like a small light show in, well, the palm of my hand so to speak.

"Can somebody pass the chips?" I asked casually while I brought my hand back down. Before anybody could reach for them, however, I lifted the bag up with my mind and smiled as they watched it float through the air toward me.

"That is so cool!" Ben exclaimed a moment later, grinning like a mad man.

The rest of lunch really made me realize how much I had missed my family. I was starting to feel nervous about what would happen after I graduated. How often would I get to see them? We had not discussed this topic while I had been at the Alpha Complex.

"I love you guys," I found myself saying as we got up to help Mom wash the dishes. I felt myself beaming as they returned the sentiment, and the feelings I got from them amplified my good mood.

*  *  *

I stood in my old room; we were in the middle of moving me out and my brother in. I was trying to decide what I wanted to keep. I left my clothes in the closet; my brothers could fight over what they wanted and could dispose of the rest however they felt like. My computer was definitely going upstairs, and the bed. Definitely the bed. I wasn't going to switch my queen for my brother’s twin. Being the oldest still had its perks!

Other than those two items, which would be identical in either a boy’s or a girl’s room, I couldn’t think of anything else that I wanted to take. I'd packed up a small box of mementos I wanted to keep, but most of them were still from another life and I doubted that I would be putting them on display in my new room.

"Just the computer and the bed, I guess," I told my brother. "You can decide what to do with the rest."

"That's it?" he asked, not believing that I didn't want to take more.

"Yeah," I said confidently. "Nothing else really belongs to me now. It's from a different life."

He just shook his head and started boxing up stuff he didn't want in the room. "Give me a sec and we can move the bed then."

"Don’t worry about it," I said while reaching out with my mind again. "I can get it."

We'd removed the sheets and pillows already. My brother’s jaw dropped open and he nearly swore when the mattress started lifting itself off the box springs and turned on end to move out of the doorway. I followed behind it as it moved through our basement to the stairs, ignoring Adam's startled gaze as I passed by the couch he was watching TV on.

"What the..." I heard him exclaim. I wasn't really in the mood for talking to him, and left him staring behind me as the mattress turned the corner and headed up the stairs in front of me. I repeated the same steps with my box springs and computer, and then brought Ben's bed down for him. Adam just stared the whole time, but didn't say anything else.

I helped Ben box up or bag all of the things I didn't want any more to allow us to donate them to a local thrift store. My sister came down to help us, and we quickly got the room cleared out.

"I can't believe you don't want anything anymore," she said. I doubted she would even be helping us if she didn't want to spend time with me.

"I know, but like I told Ben, this is all from another life. It isn't ME anymore."

We then helped Ben move everything from upstairs down to his new room. Just before dinner Cami and I were laying on my newly made bed, in a barren room, getting to know each other properly for the first time in my life.

"I definitely need to get some new furniture," I said while looking at the shabby dresser that Ben had been using. "But at least the closet up here is bigger."

"Yeah, but you definitely need more clothes to fill it with," Cami mentioned, pointing to the open closet. There were quite a few outfits in the closet that I had picked up over the course of last week, but there was still much more empty space in the closet than there was filled space.

"We'll take care of that tomorrow," I reminded her, and she smiled in return. "I told Nikki she could come with us, if that's okay."

"Yeah," she said, but sounded down about it.

"I'm sorry, but she seems to want to go shopping with me nearly as much as you do. She's already kind of become my best friend, and she's the only girl my age I really know at the complex."

"It's okay," she said, sounding more upbeat. "I'd like to meet her anyway. You said such nice things about her on the phone."

"Dinner's ready!" I heard my mom yell from the kitchen.

"I'm glad you're here, Jaz," Cami said when we got off the bed.

"I am too," I replied, happy to be back with my family. I gave her a hug and then we walked together to the kitchen.

*  *  *

The rest of the night went by quickly. Mom was an excellent cook, and after we had all been filled with some great home cooking, we helped clear the dining table and spent the rest of the evening playing games together. I couldn't remember the last time we had done this, but we were having a blast.

I was glad that Ben seemed to be okay with my change. I knew that he was still queasy about it, and probably preferred that it had never happened, but he was kind to me and didn't offer any degrading remarks about the new me.

Adam, on the other hand, still refused to join us and stayed downstairs watching TV all night, something that was starting to become a regular occurrence with him. He'd been spending more and more time down there alone even before I had left for the Complex.

Around 10:00 that evening, I found myself back in my room looking at the outfits in my closet.

"Trying to figure out what to wear?" I heard Cami ask from the doorway.

"Yeah," I responded with a smile as she approached the closet. "I really wish I had a nice summer dress to wear, but all I have are separates."

"You want to start that girly, huh?" she said with a big smile.

"Yeah," I said with a small laugh. I pulled out a white pleated skirt and a pink top that had a rather deep v-neck and a number of flowers "growing" up the left side toward the letters AE above the left breast. "I was thinking about wearing this."

"That will look good," Cami agreed. "But why do you have so many flowers on your clothes?"

I laughed at that before I was able to answer. "Nikki picked all of these out while I was still recovering from the changes. She thought that flowers really suited me well because 'Flower' is my codename."

"Oh," she said with a slight smirk. "That's an odd codename for a secret agent."

"True, but it stuck way too easily. I hope to get some clothes tomorrow evening that don't have flowers on them. I'd also like to pick my own out for once too."

She laughed at my statement while I hung the outfit back up. We talked for a while before she said she needed to get ready for bed. After she left I changed into my nightgown, and climbed into my own bed.

*  *  *
Chapter 3 - Back to School

When the next morning arrived, I was very apprehensive about returning to school as a girl. I was supposed to be a new student, which meant I wouldn't be able to acknowledge the friendships I had. Since I only had 2 classes with Nikki, it would probably be a long day.

I got out of bed and headed for the bathroom. Unfortunately, my sister was already in there doing her makeup. "Sorry," I said. "I was going to take a shower."

"That's okay," she said while giving me a smile. "We're going to have to learn how to share the bathroom from now on, I guess. Do you want me to leave?"

"No, you don't have to; we're both girls after all." I smiled back at her while closing the door behind me.

She stopped doing her makeup and watched me as I started to undress. It was unnerving, but I could understand her curiosity. I removed my nightgown, and standing there with only my panties on in front of my sister, I felt...justified. There was no reason to be ashamed of being naked in front of her. She continued watching me as I opened the door to the shower and turned on the water before turning back to her and removing my panties.

"What do you think?" I asked after I had placed both my nightgown and panties in the hamper and turned toward her. "Am I enough of a girl?"

She seemed amazed at my body, and I understood why. The Procedure was designed to give me a well-built body, and it had done just that.

"Wow!" Cami finally found her voice. "You look amazing! I guess you truly are a girl, huh?"

"In every way that counts," I replied with a smile, and then stepped into the shower.

I showered quickly, wanting to have plenty of time to get ready before my first day of school. Trying to keep my hair from getting wet was really hard because it was so long, but I was able to gather it into a loose braid around my head to keep it out of the stream.

Cami was no longer in the bathroom when I got out of the shower and started drying off. Once dry, I wrapped the towel around my torso and opened the door, where Adam was passing by on his way to our parents’ room. He seemed shocked to see me like that, looking so feminine with the towel wrapped around me like that, and he quickly bolted for the relative safety of my parents’ room. I quickly sprinted across the hall to my door and practically slammed it shut.

It took me a second to come down from the adrenaline high that moment had caused me, and I opened my dresser and pulled out a nice light pink lacy bra and panty set. I knew that not all girls wore matching bras and panties, but this was all Nikki had purchased for me.

With a shrug, I slipped the panties on, clasped my bra around my breasts, and turned toward my closet. I removed the skirt, the v-neck, and a white camisole that had a nice lacy neckline. I stepped into the skirt and pulled it up my legs. I was suddenly washed away with the feeling of the feminine garment, and caught myself twirling around in front of the full length mirror attached to one of the closet doors. The skirt fit perfectly, hugging my tiny waist at the top and ending about an inch above my knees. It would flare out a bit when I spun.

I found myself giggling like a small girl for a second before turning back to my bed and picking up the cami. I slipped it on followed by the v-neck and gazed at myself in the mirror again. The lace from the camisole peeking out around the v-neck was beautiful, and helped to hide some of the cleavage that I wanted to suggest, but didn't want to show off while at school. Smiling, I turned to my hair and gathered it up into a ponytail that kept the hair off my neck. I thought it looked beautiful, and I was still amazed that my hair fell way down my back.

Smiling at myself in the mirror, I added some slight makeup to enhance my eyes and lips, and turned toward the door. I realized that my backpack would no longer work for me; it was just too masculine. Since all of my books were still at school, I grabbed my purse with the white jasmine on it, and headed for the kitchen.

"You look beautiful," Mom said after I entered the kitchen. She came over to me and kissed my cheek before turning back to the pancakes she was making. "I made pancakes and bacon for you."

"Thanks, Mom," I said while grabbing a plate and loading it with food. Adam sneered at me as I sat down across from him at the dining table. I ignored him and began eating my own food.

Cami and Ben had already caught the bus to the junior high, and Adam and I usually rode in together. Turning toward him, it was obvious that this was going to be a problem. I had bought an old Audi A4 with the earnings I had made at the local grocery store, but he didn't have a car.

"Are you coming with me?" I asked him.

"No," he said in a tone that seemed to indicate it was well beneath him to even consider the idea. "Reese is going to give me a ride."

"Okay," I replied, and turned back to my breakfast. I heard a horn blow out front, and he got up and walked out the door without another word.

"He'll come around," my mom said after he had left. "He just needs time."

"I don't know about that," I said while getting up and walking to the sink to clean my dishes. "I think it's too much for him, and he probably resents me for liking it."

"Give him time."

I finished cleaning my dishes and headed for the bathroom to brush my teeth. Then I returned to the kitchen, picked up my purse and gave Mom a kiss on the cheek. "Bye, Mom, see you this afternoon."

"Bye, honey, have a great first day."

I smiled back at her while heading for the front door.

*  *  *

Despite being a "new" student, my car still had a parking permit, for which I was thankful. Jill had told me to meet her in the main office when I arrived at school, and I headed straight there.

"How are you doing?" Jill asked when I walked into the office.

"I'm doing great!" I said with a big smile.

"Everything okay with the family?" the concern in her voice was quite evident.

"Generally yes," I answered truthfully. "Adam won't talk to me, but we haven't had any fights or anything."

"Good," she replied, and then she turned toward the desk where a secretary was sitting.

"Sherry here knows all about Nikki and you, and she has helped get everything transferred over to your new identity. You have pretty much the same schedule and the same locker. Here."

"Good," I said with relief, taking my new schedule from her. "All of my books and stuff are still in there.

"We just need you to sign these two forms," Sherry said and indicated two forms on the desk.

"You look really pretty, Jaz," Sherry said as I took a seat to sign the forms.

"Thank you," I said, blushing. I was just happy that she was okay with what had happened to me. I signed the two forms and smiled as she took the forms.

"Have a good day," Sherry said with a big smile on her face. I smiled back at her while Jill and I headed out of the office.

"You have my cell number in case you need anything, right?" she asked me in the hallway.

"Yeah," I replied as the first bell rang.

"Do you need anything? Do you have P.E. today?"

P.E.? Geez, I hadn't even thought about P.E.! "Um," I said.

"Alright," Jill interrupted before I could answer. "I'll go get you some clothes; when does it start?"

"I have it right before lunch," I replied, trying to remember at what time the class actually started. "I think it starts at 10:30."

"Okay, I'll meet you outside the doors to the gym then. Have a good time in class." She gave me a quick hug and then walked out the doors.

The second bell rang while I was on my way to my locker. My school had an A/B schedule, 4 classes a day, 8 classes total. I picked up the books I needed for my first class, and headed that way.

*  *  *

"You're late, young lady," Mr. Compton said when I opened the door to the Math class.

"I'm sorry," I replied. The whole class was watching us closely. "I was in the office."

"That's no excuse," he said. He wasn't really the most likeable teacher. "And who are you?"

"Jasmine Campbell, I'm new to the school," I said, quickly glancing at my classmates. None of them seemed to make a jump to the obvious, and I didn't "feel" anything that would make me think they had guessed who I used to be.

"Ah, right," he grumbled while picking up the class roll. "It's not often new students show up with only two weeks left."

"It wasn't really my idea," I explained.

"Well," he said with an uncharacteristic smile. "Welcome to the class, I hope you were taught well wherever you came from. You can sit in that empty seat there."

He was pointing to my old seat on the third row, and I mumbled a thank you while quickly taking my familiar seat.

I quickly looked around the classroom. Many of my classmates were watching me, especially the boys. I could also feel some emotions heading my way from those boys - emotions that I didn't want to think about yet.

Mr. Compton was writing on the board, which gave the girl next to me time to lean over and introduce herself.

"Hi, I'm Susan," she said with a smile that I knew she didn't mean.

"Jasmine," I replied, returning the smile. Susan wasn't exactly the type of girl I wanted to get involved with. She was the head cheerleader at the school, and acted like she was the queen. Some girls followed her around like an entourage, but most just tried to ignore her.

"Have you ever been a cheerleader?" she asked. I wondered why for a second until I realized how good I looked. She was obviously trying to gauge what kind of an impact I would have on her popularity. I didn't think it would matter with only two weeks left until graduation. Go figure.

"No," I replied sincerely. I didn't really have a desire to be one either.

"You should sit with us at lunch. I could introduce you to the important people at this school," she said in a way that made it seem like I should not disagree with her.

"Thanks," I said. Disagreeing with her was exactly what I was going to do. "But I'm probably going to be sitting with my friend Nikki."

"Nikki Fox?" she asked, incredulous at my refusal.

"Yeah," I said brightly, obviously not sharing her thoughts about Nikki.

"Okay class," Mr. Compton said, thankfully interrupting our conversation and starting the lesson for the day. Susan was still giving me a cold look when she turned to pay attention.

Throughout class I found it interesting to see how my learning techniques had changed with the Procedure. I knew that I had a photographic memory now- many post-Procs did - but actually applying that to my schooling was a new experience. I was remembering things that I had long forgotten before the Procedure, and the new things that Mr. Compton talked about during the lesson could be recalled at any time. I was really happy to realize that I could actually remember all of the math formulas that I had learned over the years. That would come in handy.

The rest of the math class was spent learning and working on our assignments, and I was starting to think that finishing school was not as exciting as I thought it would be while at the Complex.

Once the bell rang, I returned my math books to my locker and headed for the gym. If nothing else, P.E. would be a unique experience today.

As I approached the gym, I found Jill waiting for me just like she said she would. She smiled at me while handing me a bag emblazoned with the Under Armour logo.

"I spent a bit more than normal on these, but they'll come in handy when you return to the Complex for training after you graduate. Besides, your wardrobe funds cover it."

"Thanks," I said while taking the bag from her and briefly looking inside. She'd even provided a pair of shoes and socks.

"Sorry I couldn't get it all in pink," she said with a small smile.

I laughed before replying. "Not EVERYTHING has to be pink."

"Give me a call if you need anything else."

"Thanks, Jill," I said while opening the door to the girls locker room.

"You're welcome, Jaz."

After being in the women's locker room back at the Complex, I felt that I would be able to handle what awaited me beyond that door. I wasn't nearly as nervous as I thought I would be, and I was glad that I had already gone through this experience.

I stopped at the office just inside the door, where Coach Jones was sitting at her desk. I'd had Coach Jones for P.E. last year. She was known for her tough workouts, but she was fair to her students and I was fortunate to be put in her girls’ class instead of staying with Coach Johnson, who was a mean man who liked to pick on the students in his class.

"Hi," I said when she looked up from what she was doing.

"Hi," she responded with a reassuring smile. "What can I do for you?"

"I'm new today, and I don't have a locker."

"Jasmine?" she asked after consulting a piece of paper on her desk. I nodded. "Welcome to the class, here is your locker assignment. Be dressed and ready to go five minutes after the bell rings."

She handed me a small piece of paper that contained a locker number and a combination. "Thank you," I said and started down the hall toward the lockers.

I got more than one stare while I walked toward my locker. Nikki was supposed to be in this class with me, and I was happy to note that our lockers were across the bench from each other.

"Hi," I said, setting my bag down on the bench between us.

"Hi, Jaz, how are you?" She was beaming at me, and I realized that I had forgotten to call her last night.

"I'm doing well," I said, her infectious smile spreading to my face. "Sorry about not calling last night; I got caught up with my family."

"That's okay," she said. "I did too. Everything go alright?"

I glanced at the other girls sharing our changing space. It was obvious that they were listening to Nikki and me, probably trying to learn more about the new girl.

"Yep, no issues," was all I said, hoping that it would be enough until we could talk in a more private setting.

"What's in the bag?" she asked me.

"Oh, I forgot to get some gym clothes. Jill went out this morning to pick them up for me. She said I could use them for training later."

I turned to my locker while Nikki, who was already dressed, started rummaging around in the bag. "Geez, she went all out. This stuff isn't cheap."

She rummaged through the bag some more before coming up with the receipt. "She spent $220 dollars on this stuff!"

That floored me! I was not expecting that much to be spent on my school gym clothes! "Are you serious?"

"Yeah look," she handed me the receipt. Sure enough, the exact amount was $224.96.

"Great," I said with a frown. "That's definitely not the type of first impression I want to make. People are going to think I'm spoiled or something."

"Don't worry about it," Nikki said while stripping tags off the items in the bag. The bell rang. "Hurry and get dressed though."

I turned back to my locker and started undressing. Jill had purchased a pink sports bra that I placed across my chest. She had also purchased a pair of black bikini style panties. I switched out my lacy pink ones quickly. She had also purchased a pair of shorts that fell to about 4 inches above my knee. Thankfully they weren't skin tight. They were loose, but still clung closely to my legs. To cover my sports bra she had purchased a black tee that looked snug when I put it on, but felt very loose. I was happy that it had a pink design along the left side of the shirt, preventing a totally black ensemble. The outfit was rounded out with a pair of pink, gray, and white trainers and matching socks.

"I feel overdressed for high school P.E." I told Nikki, who was still waiting for me. One of the girls who had been changing next to us laughed at the comment and gave us a smile.

"It's only for a short time, don't worry about it," Nikki said while I finished lacing up my shoes.

We walked out of the locker room and into the gym. The boys and girls classes were split up, one on either side of the basketball court. I followed Nikki over to where the other girls were milling about waiting for Coach Jones.

"Get in your lines, girls," the coach said shortly afterward. I followed Nikki and soon we were arranged in three lines across the court.

Coach Jones took roll call and then led us through a warm up stretch. I was once again amazed at how limber and flexible my new body was. I saw a couple of girls staring at Nikki and me in near awe a couple of times when we stretched much more comfortably than they could.

"Good news," Coach Jones said when we finished stretching. "Coach Johnson and I want to give you a day of fun for once." There was some chuckling from the students.

"Today, we are going to be playing dodge ball." Cheers erupted throughout the gym.

"To start," Coach Jones continued. "We are going to have a battle of the sexes, us versus the boys. Let's show them what we're made of!"

The other girls' enthusiasm for dodge ball died down with that announcement. Nikki looked at me and grinned, and I grinned back. This would be fun.

The game was confined to one half of the gym, width-wise. Coach Jones had us line up on one wall, Coach Johnson had the boys lined up on the other. Red balls were on the line in the middle.

"Everyone ready?" Coach Johnson yelled. Without waiting for a reply, he blew his whistle to start the game.

Usually when playing dodge ball, I would hang back and wait for the initial rush to happen before getting into the game. That's why I was surprised to find myself sprinting toward the balls, and I had to mentally pull myself back before I ran too fast and gave away my special abilities. I still managed to get my hands on a ball and started to back up when my main advantage started to kick in.

I ducked and moved to the left, just in time to avoid the two balls that were heading my way. My own ball had already left my hands, and one of my attackers took it straight in the chest.

I quickly felt another ball heading my way, and I managed to get my hands out and caught it.

I couldn't feel anything else coming my way, and realized that I was reacting to the throws, instead of trying to anticipate them. I slowly made my way to the back of the girls’ side, and opened up my mind.

Immediately I could feel everyone around me. Jonothon was preparing to throw a ball at Jennifer. Katie was dodging one ball only to step into the path of a second. Jack caught a soft lob that Amy had attempted to hit him with. I could feel it all happening, and it was an amazing feeling!

Jason and Brady were both aiming for me. I had been standing still too long while I explored this aspect of my abilities. I watched both of them, from opposite directions, pull their arms back and release their ball. I somersaulted forward, cleanly missing both, and threw the ball with both hands at Brady, and immediately side-stepped a third flying at my head.

Exhilarated, I realized that the chance I was going to be hit was very small, because I knew where and when each ball was coming.

I scooped another ball off the ground and sent it flying at another boy, watching him scream out loud at being hit while ducking another ball.

The game continued this way for another five minutes, with boys trying to hit me while I was returning the favor. Eventually, Nikki and I appeared to be the only two girls standing, and there was a small pause in the game as the four boys left stopped to catch their breath.

Nikki and I hadn't even broken a sweat.

Almost in unison, Nikki and I let loose on the remaining boys. Two of them were hit immediately because they were not ready for the game to continue. The other two boys were quicker on the uptake, and both Nikki and I had balls heading our way. I dove for the ground, grabbed a ball and was back on my feet within an instant, as my attacker’s ball missed me by inches. I knew before it happened that Nikki had not been as lucky. A moment later she cried out in frustration when the ball hit her in the back. I was quick with the ball I had in my arms, and her attacker never saw it coming before it hit him in the side of the head.

I quickly grabbed another ball off the ground and turned toward the last boy standing.

"You better not lose to a girl, Williams," I heard Coach Johnson yell from the sideline. Mark Williams was a starting tight end for our school’s football team. He was also a fairly good quarterback on the off chance our first and second string quarterbacks were not able to play. Suffice it to say that Mark Williams was fast, maneuverable, and had an arm.

But he hadn't gone through the Procedure.

"Finish him off, Jaz!" I heard Nikki scream from behind me, but my eyes focused on Mark. We both stood, waiting for the other to make a move. He didn't know it, but I had the advantage here. I'd know the second he was ready to make his move, and I'd be ready for it.

He started to pace back and forth, but I didn't follow. I was content to stand right where I was in the middle of the girls’ side.

Faster than I thought possible, he threw his ball at me. It was easy to dodge. He had scooped up a second ball almost immediately, and that was the one that was supposed to be my undoing. I spun to my left as the second ball passed in front of my face, and continued the spin until I was facing Mark again. He had already started celebrating and the look of surprise on his face when the ball in my right hand came flying right at him was priceless, and I would remember it forever.

It connected with the bottom of his chin, throwing his head back and bringing his body with it. As he fell to the ground, I heard a loud girlish roar behind me and turned in time to catch Nikki as she wrapped her arms around me in a hug.

"That was amazing!" I heard her say in my ear over the noise of the girls who had mobbed me. It was a simple game of dodge ball, but it had turned out to give me one of the best feelings I'd ever had while playing sports.

Eventually the girls were able to give me a high five or give me a short hug, anything to show how happy they were to beat the boys. When I got out of the mob, I saw Coach Johnson screaming at Mark. Coach Johnson was also the football coach, and he didn't tolerate failure from his players. Apparently he considered a loss to the girls to be a big failure on the part of his class, and he was taking it out on Mark personally. Not wanting to get involved, I headed over to the line that had formed for the drinking fountain.

A moment later it became apparent that dodge ball was over for the boys. Coach Johnson was screaming at them, and they were heading for the far door that led out to the track and the football field. I had a feeling that my win was going to cause them to run laps. I hoped they didn't blame me for it.

Coach Jones, however, was elated with our performance, and she let us finish the day with more dodge ball. She started by splitting us into teams, and then let us go at it. I was having fun, but I didn't want to be the last one standing for each game, and I decided to let some of the girls hit me instead of dodging their throws.

"Yes, I got her!" I heard one of the girls scream while taking her shot on my back. I grinned, I may have lost this game, but I had just made her day.

Coach Jones came over and sat next to me on the bleachers while I waited for the next game to start.

"That was very impressive," she told me with a big grin on her face. "I haven't seen Coach Johnson that upset since football season ended when we were blown out."

I smiled back. "Thanks."

"It's too bad you weren't here during some of the sports seasons, because you have excellent athletic ability, and you seemed to be very aware of what was happening. I don't know how you dodged some of those shots."

"I just tried my best," I responded, but she gave me a look that said she knew more than she was letting on.

"And thank you for letting some of these girls get you out. I didn't think their morale would be any higher after that win, but you certainly have made their day for a couple of them." She winked at me before standing up and walking away.

*  *  *

The rest of the period went by quickly, and it was a very tired, but very happy group of girls that were heading for the locker room. The boys were filing into the gym behind us, and they did not look happy. A couple of them glared at us when they passed on the way to their own locker room, and I felt a small twinge of guilt over the trouble I had caused them. But it was a very small twinge.

Once back at my locker, I started undressing, and decided that I had worked up enough of a sweat that I didn't want to put my clothes back on without a shower. Nikki followed me while I walked down the short hallway to the showers, pinning my hair to the top of my head with a pin that Nikki had loaned me.

"I think that's the most fun I've ever had in P.E." she said. I nodded in agreement while stepping under the stream.

"I can't believe you dodged that last ball Mark threw. I don't think I would have seen it coming." I just smiled back at her with a wink, and a look of understanding washed over her face. "Ohhhhh, I got ya. Still, very impressive."

We finished up in the showers, grabbed a towel and headed back to our lockers.

"You've learned to use them well, I see," Nikki said while we were drying off. The other girls who had been changing near us had already left, but we still wanted to be careful about how much information we gave away in our conversation.

"Dr. Young had some of the nurses throwing balls at me Saturday morning during those extra tests he ran. I'd already had some practice." Nikki just shook her head and turned to get dressed. I did the same.

"I just wish I could practice as easily as you can. Nobody even knows what you are doing. Everyone around would know if I used mine."

"I'm sorry Nik, I know that must be tough," I said trying to help her feel better. "Maybe we can find some place after school to give you a chance to do some practicing."

"Maybe," she said with a little smile, which grew larger before she spoke again. "But there probably won't be any time with all the shopping we have to do tonight."

There was no doubt about it, she was enthusiastic about shopping! I just hoped I didn't dampen her spirits when I refused to let her pick everything out for me.

We finished getting dressed in our regular clothes, and headed for the door.

"Come on," Nikki said, "I'm hungry."

*  *  *
Chapter 4 - From Whence Come These Feelings?

Mark Williams was sitting on a bench outside the locker rooms when we exited. Up close, I realized just how much bigger than me he was. And, boy, he was attractive! I hadn't noticed when I was trying to hit him with the ball, but his mussed up dark hair and strong handsome face were giving me chills that I had never felt about a boy before. He smiled at me, and I nearly lost it right there.

"Jaz?" he questioned me while standing up, obviously unsure of the new girl’s name. "Wow, you're tiny, no wonder it was so hard to hit you."

Any negative feelings I might have felt about my new size were drained straight out of me when he smiled at me. I couldn't help it. He was making me feel all warm and gooey inside. I had never really had this feeling before, not even before the Procedure.

"I'll save you a seat in the cafeteria," Nikki said from behind me and quickly ran off. I almost didn't even notice.

"I'm Mark Williams," he said while extending his hand for a handshake.

I placed my hand in his, and was amazed at the size difference. In fact, he was huge! I knew that Mark was 6'2" tall from my days before the Procedure. Fourteen inches and all of that muscle made me very aware of my new 5' stature, and he could probably bench press me with one hand. I decided to forget about the fact that I could probably bench press him for the time being.

"Jasmine Campbell," I said, staring into those gorgeous brown eyes.

"Are you related to Brett?" he asked the worst question he could have. I inwardly cringed, hoping that if he learned the truth he wouldn't run away from me.

"Yeah," I finally said, but left it at that. The less he knew the better for now.

"Cool, he's a nice guy." That was good to hear. At least he didn't hate who I had been before the Procedure. I noticed that we had started walking down the hallway together. With all the extra-sensory abilities I had gained from the Procedure, Mark seemed to be subverting all of them; something that had been impossible for him to do earlier.

"I'm sorry if I made you guys run laps," I said, remembering our earlier encounter with a smile. "And for making Coach Johnson chew you out."

"That's okay," he said with a reassuring smile that lit up the hallway. "I'm used to his ranting now, and doing laps for P.E. will help keep me in shape for the football camp I'm attending this summer. But those were some sweet moves you made today. I thought for sure I had you with that second ball. How did you dodge it?"

"Let's just say I'm very good at knowing my surroundings," I replied, trying to give a plausible answer that didn't involve my powers. "I saw you stop next to that ball, and had a good idea that it was following the first."

That seemed to be a good enough answer for him. "I must admit, I never expected that ball to come flying my way. It totally caught me off guard."

I let out a short, sweet laugh and smiled back at him. I was nearly at a loss for words, and didn't know quite how to respond to a boy in this position.

"Listen," he said, stopping in front of the doorway to the cafeteria and turning toward me. "I know this may be a bit forward, since we just met and all, but would you be willing to get a bite to eat with me tomorrow night?"

He was nervous; I could feel it pouring off him. Mark Williams, who was over a foot taller than me and probably more than twice my weight, was nervous about asking me out. Heck, even I was nervous about him asking me out. I had never really dated before the Procedure and never with someone whom I, well, felt this way about. I had never even felt this way about another person and I hadn't even really known him for more than the five minutes it took us to walk from the gym to the cafeteria.

"Yes," I found myself saying without even realizing it. "That sounds great."

"Great!" he repeated. His relief was profound, and then the nervousness was back quickly. "I, uh, I'll talk to you tomorrow to set up the details, okay?"

"Okay." Now it was my turn to repeat his last word. I just smiled at him as he turned toward the cafeteria. "I have to run home for lunch, but it was nice meeting you, Jaz."

He gave me a smile and then turned and walked to the exit doors next to the entrance to the cafeteria. I was still standing there mesmerized when he looked over his shoulder at me, smiled, and then was gone out the door.

"Earth to Jaz," I finally realized Nikki was standing next to me.

"Oh," I said, slightly startled. "Hi."

"Wow, he got you good. You're really out of your head right now." I just smiled at her, which caused her to roll her eyes.

"Come on," she said while pulling me into the cafeteria. "I need some food."

*  *  *

I followed Nikki through the lunch line, not really paying attention to what I put on my tray.

"Are you okay?" she asked when we had taken a seat at an empty table.

"Yeah," I replied, absently eating the food on my tray. "I've just never felt this way before."

"Awww, my little girl is having her first crush," Nikki said, smiling at me over her food.

"Maybe," I said, blushing slightly. "But I've had crushes before, and they never felt like this."

She smiled, before continuing. "Well, he is cute, and you definitely picked a winner."

"I didn't pick him," I replied with a frown. "I just hope that if he learns the truth about me, he'll be okay with it."

"Wow," she said, surprise filling her expression. "You really are thinking long term. I wouldn't worry about that for now, Jaz. If this goes somewhere, and he can't handle it, then he isn't worth it."

"Logically that makes sense," I agreed. "But my heart tells me otherwise."

Nikki just rolled her eyes and continued eating.

*  *  *

After lunch Nikki and I had Biology with Mr. Bailey. It wasn't one of my favorite classes, but I was worried about it for two other reasons. First, Mr. Bailey was aware of the arrangement The Agency had with those who had taken the test. He might not have known specifics about what occurred there, but I was concerned that he could figure it out.

The second reason...Mark Williams was in the class with us. It was the only class I shared with him, and I was worried about being able to pay attention to what was being taught.

Naturally, Nikki just laughed at me when I told her of my concerns.

"First," she said after we had retrieved our books from our lockers and were walking to the classroom. "Mr. Bailey may know about you, but I'm guessing that he won't say anything. If he does, he would be outing the whole Project, and I'm sure they must have had him sign a non-disclosure agreement or something.

"Second, you're going to have to learn how to handle Mark Williams on your own. If you really do like him the way you say you do, then you'll have plenty of time to get to know him in the future. Try to put that aside while we are in class, and then talk to him afterwards."

"Easier said than done," was the only thing I could say.

There weren't many students in the class when we arrived. Mr. Bailey stood up from his desk at the front of the class when he saw us enter and approached us.

"Nikki, it's wonderful to see you again. I hope everything went well last week?"

"Yes," she replied to him. "I'm totally glad that we took that test."

He nodded, and turned toward me. "And you must be Jasmine."

It wasn't a question, but I answered anyway. "Yes."

"Well, they sure did a number on you, didn't they," he said with a smile. "Is everything okay?"

"Everything is perfect, Mr. Bailey," I said, glancing around the room. The other students were eyeing the way we were talking with Mr. Bailey suspiciously. I didn't really want to provide them with the information that would lead them to make the connection with my former life.

"Good, good," he said, smiling the whole time. "Nikki, you know your seat, Jaz, you can sit in that seat there. That spot is vacant."

He was pointing to a desk, but I didn't need to see which one. I knew already he was talking about my old seat. How was I going to get through two weeks of school without anyone making the connection? I was becoming scared to death the whole school would know before the end of the first day!

I took my seat and pulled out my biology book, briefly skimming over the material that they had covered while we were gone. I knew immediately when Mark entered the classroom. I could actually feel a difference in the air around me when he came in. Briefly I realized that it was a strong emotion coming from him, one that I shared.

I turned toward the door. He had stopped in the doorway, blocking a couple of kids trying to get past him. He was just watching me, and when our eyes met, he smiled.

My insides melted again, and as the bell rang I was desperately wishing that our desks were closer together. Instead, we were nearly on opposite sides of the room because Mr. Bailey made his seating chart alphabetically.

I was so lost in my feelings that I missed the wad of paper Nikki had thrown at me. It hit me on the side of the head, jolting me back to reality. I glared at her, which just made her burst out in laughter that was contagious. I noticed when turning back to Mark, who had taken his seat, that he was laughing with us.

I gave him a shy smile as I turned my attention to Mr. Bailey, who was calling the class to order.

"Jaz," he said after completing the roll call. "Since you weren't here when we did the genetic testing, you'll have to use this genetic sample for class."

He handed me a booklet much like the first one I had received before my life took such a twist. I opened it and started looking through it as he explained what we were going to be talking about for the day. I was fascinated by the information the packet contained. It seemed so familiar, but I couldn't pinpoint why. It took me nearly until the end of class to understand what I was seeing.

He hadn't given me a generic sample; that was just a show for the class. The name on the sample was Jane Doe, but I knew without a doubt that it was really my DNA! My new DNA! It was definitely the DNA of a female, but I started to see the similarities with my pre-Procedure set. I didn't have my original booklet with me, but I could easily recall the gene sets in my mind.

It was fascinating to see where the changes occurred, and to try to understand why this set was different than my previous one. I was so engrossed with these changes that I was surprised when the bell rang, and then slightly disappointed with myself when I realized that I hadn't even thought about Mark throughout nearly the whole class period.

That didn't seem to bother him too much, though. He was standing just inside the door while I picked up my books and Nikki and I walked toward him.

"I'll see you after school, Jaz," Nikki said before smiling at me and rushing out of the classroom.

"Hi," I said shyly to Mark. I couldn't believe how different he could make me feel!

"Hi," he responded more confidently. I found myself gazing into those eyes again, and I was starting to get lost when he brought me back to reality. "What's your next class?"

"Um," I said, my brain actually started working for once around him and I looked at my schedule, hoping to keep up the pretense that I was a new student. "History in Room 225."

"Can I walk you to class then? My class is across the hall."

"I would like that," I replied while we stepped out the door and turned in the opposite direction of Nikki. "But I need to stop at my locker and get my book."

"Okay," he responded with another smile.

Most students were hurrying because there were only five minutes between classes. But Mark and I were slowly walking down the hall. At this pace we were both going to be late for class. I didn't really care at that moment.

We didn't really say anything while walking to my locker. I think both of us were confused about these new feelings that we were having, and didn't know how to express them. Just being in each other’s presence seemed to be enough for the time being.

"Wasn't this Brett's locker?" he asked when I stopped and started opening the locker I had been using all year.

"I don't know, maybe," I replied. I really felt bad about lying to him. It sort of felt like a knife was being stabbed into my chest; I didn't want to keep any secrets from him. "They practically gave me his whole schedule, and his books and everything. They probably gave me his locker too."

He just paused at my words, not saying anything. I dreaded that he would jump to the conclusion that I desperately hoped he wouldn't learn - at least not until I was sure he could handle it.

"How are you two related?" He finally spoke, but it was one of the worst questions that he could have asked! I felt dread enter my body, and I tried to keep my emotions bottled up to keep him from feeling them. The last thing I needed now was to project my fear on him!

"It's complicated," was all I could come up with. He didn't seem satisfied with that answer, but we both jumped slightly when the bell rang. It seemed to break us out of whatever dimension we were in together, and we quickly started walking down the hall toward our classes.

"You're an odd mystery, Jaz," he told me outside of my classroom. I didn't know how to respond to that, and before I got a chance he turned and walked across the hall, opening the door on the other side. With a backwards glance and smile, he walked into his class.

I opened the door to my history class, and Mrs. Wagner was already taking roll.

"Welcome to class. Are you Jasmine Campbell?" I nodded at her and she checked something off on her roll. "There's no seating chart here, find an empty seat, and try to make it on time to class next time."

"Sorry," I replied, matching the smile she was giving me. "I'm still getting to know where all my classes are."

I heard a snort from one of the girls in the back row, and I heard more than one person whisper Mark's name. I guess our...relationship, or whatever we had developed in such a short amount of time, was already starting to be common knowledge around the school.

The ‘hot new girl hooking up with the most eligible bachelor on the football team during her first day’ is probably good gossip.

I quickly sat in the first empty seat I arrived at and then tried to ignore the giggling that had started on the back row.

*  *  *
Chapter 5 - Light Shopping

Nikki was waiting for me when I got to my car after class.

"Are you excited?" she asked. I saw that familiar gleam in her eye.

"Yeah," I said with a wry smile. "It will be nice to be able to pick out my own clothes for once."

She mock frowned, but couldn't hold it for long before she started laughing. "I'm sorry. I guess I have been a bit overbearing."

"It's okay," I told her. "You've got good style. I just would like to have some input too."

We soon arrived at my house, where Cami was waiting for us.

"Finally," she said when we walked inside. "I thought you two left without me."

"We came straight home from school," I told her. "We would never leave without you."

She smiled at me and gave me a hug. "I'm sorry. I just didn't want to be left out."

"You won't, Cami," I told her. "I promise. Come on, let's get going. We've got a lot to do."

*  *  *

I became nervous when we entered the local mall, even though I'd been here many times before. I had this overwhelming feeling that somebody was going to recognize me. I couldn't explain it. I hadn't been this nervous when I went to school earlier today.

Perhaps it was because I was going to be taking off my clothes here.

Sure, I would be in a private changing room, but something about undressing where strangers could possibly see me left me feeling odd. Even at school, I at least knew most of the girls in the dressing room during PE. It just felt natural there.

But the dread wouldn't go away as we stepped through the doors and into 'Girl Alley'.

'Girl Alley' was the nickname that many of the kids my age gave to a stretch of the mall that only contained shops that catered to young women or women in general. Victoria's Secret, Sephora, Shade, Bath and Body Works, and similar stores would sometimes see a male client, but were dominated by the fairer sex.

I had never spent any time in this section of the mall before. Now, it was our major destination for the first half of the trip.

I was immediately pulled into Victoria's Secret. I had confessed my desire to shop there to Nikki last week when we were picking up my limited wardrobe. Now, she wanted to make that desire come true.

Inside the store, I immediately felt overwhelmed and in awe. I'd never been in Victoria's Secret before. I'd always yearned to enter, but always felt out of place.

I stopped just inside the door. I couldn't believe that I was here! I couldn't believe that my life had taken such a drastic turn! I couldn't believe how happy I was! What a great day it had been - first I met Mark, and now I was living a dream. What more could I ask for?

The next four hours were amazing. We started with the intimates in Victoria's Secret, before moving on to a few other stores to pick up underwear and layering items. Then we hit department stores, and other shops to round out my wardrobe.

I was nervous when I entered the first few changing rooms. But after the first couple of stores, it became routine and I started to feel better. By the time we were done, I was having no problem stepping into one of the rooms and undressing.

Eventually, we took the last of the bags out to the car before heading to the food court to get something to eat.

"That was fun," I sighed as I sat down with my food.

Both Nikki and Cami laughed.

"That makes it official then," Cami said. "You really are my sister now. No guy would want to shop like that."

I smiled back at her. I was lucky to have a family that seemed to be so accepting of me.

We sat and talked while we ate. Cami and Nikki seemed to be hitting it off, for which I was very glad. Having my sister and my best friend become friends would definitely make my life easier.

"Uh oh," - I "felt" something just before Nikki had spoken the words. Someone was looking at us, and they didn't have very good intentions. "Don't look now, but those guys are staring at us."

Unfortunately, I had to look. Sure enough, there was a group of about five guys sitting at a table not too far away. All of them were leering at the three of us.

"Come on," I said immediately. I could feel the lust that was pouring off of that table. It was not a feeling I wanted to be around. "Let's go."

Nikki and Cami nodded and stood up. We grabbed our purses and started heading for the exit of the mall.

Fortunately, the guys didn't follow.

*  *  *

When we got home, we unloaded the many bags of clothes into my closet. Then I pulled the two of them into the backyard.

"What are we doing out here?" Cami asked. Nikki looked like she was wondering the same thing.

"How dim can you make your powers?" I asked Nikki. She smiled immediately. She then held up her arm and I watched as it started to glow. Under the light of the late evening sky, it wasn't nearly as bright as it had been back at the Complex.

"Wow," Cami said in awe as she saw Nikki's powers for the first time. "What else can you do?"

Nikki turned, looking around the yard. She found what she was looking for and pointed her arm, palm out, toward a large rock at the far end of the yard. Without warning, she shot a blast of light that flashed through the air and hit the rock. A small pit formed. From the dimness of the blast and the fact that I wasn't blinded, I guessed that it was a low-powered shot.

"Cool!" Cami exclaimed. Nikki then proceeded to release all the frustrations she had at not being able to use her powers in public. She fired at a number of other objects around the backyard.

None of the shots were powerful enough to cause damage, but the relief and happiness on her face was certainly worth a small knick in a rock or tree stump.

Eventually, I started moving rocks around in the air and let her try to hit them. I started by leaving them in a single place, and then let her graduate to slow moving targets before finally trying to make the rocks avoid her blasts entirely.

She was starting to hit the targets almost every time when Ben came outside.

"What are you doing?" he asked curiously. I was nearly sure that he'd seen us practicing before he came out.

Unfortunately, he shocked Nikki. She was just about to shoot another rock, but instead she yelped, and her entire arm turned black. That's when she screamed.

"Jaz! Make it stop!" she yelled, staring in horror at her totally black arm. It was almost as if the whole arm was absorbing the light around it.

She was hysterical, and I immediately started sending calm emotions her way. As she started to calm down, her arm began to revert to normal. With tears in her eyes, she turned to me and wrapped her arms around me.

"Thank you," she sobbed into my shoulder. I hadn't really done anything other than help her calm down.

"What happened?" I asked. She lifted her head from my shoulder and let go of the hug. She still looked scared, but she looked calm enough to discuss it.

"I was about to shoot, and then HE came out," she started before glaring at Ben. Suddenly she stopped talking, and I realized that Nikki didn't want to talk about this around him.

"It's alright," I told her. "Nikki, this is Ben, my brother. Ben, this is Nikki. He's signed a non-disclosure document. We can talk about our powers with him around."

Nikki nodded before continuing her explanation. "I was about to shoot. I could feel the energy starting to leave me. When he spoke, I tried to pull the shot back. I didn't want him to see my powers. I felt the energy come back, and then more energy started coming too!"

She looked frustrated for a moment as she tried to find the right words. Finally, she spoke again. "It was like I was pulling the energy in instead of shooting it out."

"Do you want to try again?" I knew that this was a new manifestation of her powers. It was definitely something we should try and explore. I was certain Jill and Rob would tell us not to experiment alone, but this was too exciting to not continue.

"I...I guess," she said, but she looked very nervous and unsure of herself.

"Remember what they taught us in training - start small," I told her with a smile. She returned my grin with a small smile.

"Ok," she said before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. She then held out her arm, and we watched entranced as the area in the middle of her palm started to turn black. She opened her eyes and looked in amazement at the small, black area. It was almost like looking at nothing. It was such a pitch black that there didn't appear to be any definition to it at all.

After a moment she got a look of concentration on her face, and I watched as the small black area expanded, slowly inching its way across her skin and around to the back of her hand and fingers. Soon, it encompassed and surrounded her whole hand. She wiggled her fingers, and the blackness moved along with her.

"It tingles," she said. She then looked back at the rock she had originally shot. I immediately got a bad feeling. I could feel the energy on the tips of her fingers, and I knew what she was planning to do.

"Wait!" I screamed, but it was too late. She was already shooting at the rock! Without even realizing what I was doing, I shut my eyes as hard as I could and reached out for Cami and Ben, turning them away from Nikki with my powers.

Even with my eyes closed, I could see a bright orange haze filtering through my eyelids. Then I heard the explosion. It wasn't a huge fireball, but rock shards went flying everywhere. Fortunately, none of us were standing in the debris zone. Those shards probably would have done some serious damage if we had been in their path.

"Whoa!" I heard Nikki exclaim, and I lifted one eyelid, peering out to make sure I wasn't going to be blinded by a second shot. She was standing there, mouth agape at the rock. I opened my eyes completely and turned to look myself.

Instead of a rock, there was now a small crater. I was trying to figure out if Dad would be mad or not. He had tried to remove that rock a few years ago, but had given up and left it in place. But he sure wouldn't be too happy about the new crater.

"Everyone okay?" I asked, turning back around to look at the others. Cami and Ben were pulling themselves off the ground. I grimaced. I must have been more forceful in turning them than I thought.

"Yeah," Cami replied. "But that spun me around really hard." I noticed that she had a small scrape on her palm where she had placed her hand down to catch her fall. Ben just nodded, but he was staring at the crater with wide eyes.

"Sorry," I told the two of them. "I was just trying to turn you away from Nikki. Her powers are really bright, and I didn't want you two to be blinded."

I then turned back to Nikki. She was staring at her hand now. Thankfully, it was completely flesh-toned. "Are you okay?" I asked her.

"Yes," she replied softly. "But I think I'm done for the day. I'm not ready to mess with that again."

I nodded. We learned a lesson - this was a good example of why we shouldn't be experimenting alone. But our new powers were amazing, and the desire to understand them was very strong.

"I don't know what happened," she said. "I was only trying to use a small portion of the energy, like I'd been doing the whole time."

"Nikki," I whispered truthfully. "I think you did."

*  *  *

"Sorry about your rock, Mr. Campbell," Nikki apologized again.

"That's okay, Nikki," he replied with a small laugh. "I really, really hated that rock."

I laughed with him. He really did hate that rock. He'd mentioned many times that he'd like to blow the thing up. He was probably jealous that he hadn't been there when it happened.

"I'll be back in a bit," I told my parents, and Nikki and I stepped out of the house.

"Bye, Nikki," Cami said from behind me.

"Bye, Cami," she replied with a look and a quick wave over her shoulder. I pulled the door closed, and the two of us walked to my car and got in.

"That was exciting," I quipped while backing out of my driveway.

Nikki laughed lightly. She was finally starting to come out of the shock she had felt at her new-found ability. Before I'd let her stop for the evening, I made sure that she practiced releasing the energy safely. She'd already shown that she could accomplish such a task when I'd had to calm her down after her whole arm turned black. She just needed to practice in case it happened again.

"Thanks, Jaz," she responded a moment later. "I'm not sure what would have happened if you weren't there to help me calm down. I was so scared that first time."

"You're welcome, Nikki. That's what friends are for."

"I know, but I don't think a normal friend would have been able to help me like you did," she replied. "Your ability to project emotions at a person is a powerful thing. It’s almost as powerful as that black energy."

I thought about that for a moment. That was probably the truth. Playing with another's emotions certainly had proven to have a big impact.

"Do you know what it is?" I asked her. "The black energy?"

"I don't think it's really black energy," she explained. "It felt more like I was absorbing all of the light around my hand and concentrating it. That blast was way more powerful than anything I had felt before."

"Just be careful," I told her, the concern obvious in my voice.

"I will," she promised. "I'm going to call Jill and tell her what happened. Hopefully she can help me figure out what to do next."

"Okay," I replied, happy with her plan. Jill would know what to do.

I pulled into her driveway. It had been a good day, and I was happy that I could call Nikki my friend.

"Are you going to pick me up in the morning?" she asked while opening her door.

I smiled. "Sure, I'll see you in the morning."

"Good night, Jaz," she said while stepping out of my car.

"Good night, Nikki," I replied.

*  *  *
Chapter 6 - Le Cauchemar Vivant

The following morning was pretty routine, as far as my new life was concerned. I picked up Nikki and we headed to school for my second day.

"What did Jill say?" I asked her while we were in the car.

"I couldn't reach her," Nikki replied. "But Rob wasn't very happy that we experimented with a new power on our own. He said we should have called him over first."

I shrugged my shoulders. I knew that was going to be their response. But I thought we had taken enough precautions to keep ourselves from getting into trouble.

"He said he'd come over to my house tonight and help me learn more about it," she said.

"That's good," I replied. I was slightly disappointed I wouldn't be there to help, but just picturing Mark was enough to overcome that disappointment. I definitely preferred to go on my date!

The rest of the morning went smoothly. I had English and Photography. In both classes I was introduced as a new student, and there seemed to be no recognition from my classmates that I was anything else. My worries about being recognized as Brett seemed to be unfounded.

Lunch was depressing. I had hoped that I would be able to eat lunch with Mark, but he was nowhere to be found. I had been looking for him all morning, but I hadn't seen him. I wished I had more classes with him.

"Get over it," Nikki finally said. "I mean, I know you're in love or you think you are, but you can't be yearning for him all the time."

"I know," I replied truthfully. I knew that I was more obsessed with him than I should be, but I couldn't help my feelings. "But he said he would talk to me to set up our date."

Then I had the most horrible feeling overcome me! "You don't think he's trying to back out, do you?" I asked Nikki in a worried tone. He wouldn't do that - we had made a connection!

"I doubt it," she replied, scowling like she didn't believe for an instant what I had suggested. "I bet he's just busy or something. Give him time."

"Okay," I replied, but it still hurt.

By the end of lunch, I still hadn't found him, and I had to go to my French class. Halfway through the class, Mrs. Swenson was teaching us the nuance of some particular conjugation when I felt something that chilled me to the bone.

The door to the classroom creaked open. I instantly ducked even before I heard the gunshot. I felt the bullet pass over my head before it embedded itself in the concrete wall next to where I was sitting! Everyone was screaming as I looked toward the door to the classroom. Justin was there, and he had a gun. Another shot rang out, but this one hit the ceiling, and I realized I had forced his arm upward without even thinking about it.

My concern turned toward the other students in the classroom. It was apparent that Justin didn't care about them, and I was worried that he might turn the gun on one of them next.

I yanked on the gun, but his grip was strong. My second pull had the gun flying across the room, clattering against the wall opposite the door. Another scream rang out as it landed in front of a girl crouched there next to the wall.

I tried to send out a feeling of calm to everyone in the classroom, to keep them from panicking. The excitement level in the classroom died down slightly, but the spike of anger from the door was increasing.

"You're dead, Jasmine!" he screamed, before striding forward a step. "I gave you a chance to be at my side, but your refusal comes with a price! Death is that price!"

In all of the confrontations I'd had with him since the Procedure finished, I had never felt him as angry as he was then! Thinking quickly, I stopped him from continuing any further into the room. This only made him angrier, and he started pushing against my invisible hold.

He was stronger now, stronger than when I stopped him next to the pool. But he was still not strong enough. I found myself wishing Nikki was here. It was taking too much concentration to keep him from advancing to be able to get out my phone and call Jill. I didn't know what to do to help him. I didn't know what to do to even stop him. His gaze on me was so intense I was certain that he wasn't going to stop until he had his hands on me.

"Justin," I said, hoping to help calm him. Instead it just seemed to increase his anger.

"Don't talk to me!" he spat at me. "You no longer get that privilege!"

Now my anger was starting to rise. He was drawing too much attention to us. I was starting to realize that my life was not currently in danger, but he could tell everyone about the powers that Nikki and I had! Mine were not visible, but people might ask why a muscular teenager was unable to move forward. Nikki's powers, on the other hand, would be very noticeable if she were to show up.

"Justin," I started again. "You need help. Let them take you back; they can help you."

"NO!" He screamed. "They don't understand! There's nothing they can do to help me!"

I didn't know what else to say or do. My skill set as a negotiator was very lacking. We stood there facing one another for the next 5 minutes, with me concentrating on preventing him from getting farther into the classroom, and he trying to find a way past my invisible wall.

That's when we heard the sirens. While I was not able to use my own cell phone, I realized that a number of the students in the classroom were on the phone. Thank goodness!

Suddenly, Justin seemed to realize that the police were coming, and sneered at the sound. "This isn't over, Jasmine. You’d better watch your back!" With that he turned and fled down the hall. I rushed to the door, but he was already exiting the doors at the far end; he was fast.

I could feel him continuing to run long after he was out of sight. Once I felt the immediate danger was removed, I turned back to the classroom.

"Is everyone alright?" I asked. The other students and Mrs. Swenson were starting to get up from where they had been hiding behind their desks or against the wall. They all looked shaken, but nobody seemed to be harmed in any way. Everyone was nodding their head or responding positively.

I placed my back against the wall and slid down to the floor. With Justin gone, I didn't know what to do next. I was surprised to realize that tears were coming to my eyes, and the next thing I knew, I was a sobbing mess. Nikki and Agent Harris found me there. Nikki crouched down next to me and enveloped me in a hug that only caused me to cry harder.

"It's okay, Jaz," she soothed. "He's gone."

*  *  *

If my classmates and teachers hadn't guessed my true identity already, I was beginning to feel it was only a matter of time, despite my thoughts to the contrary earlier that morning. I had already proven that I knew Nikki. I was finishing all of the classes that Brett was taking. Heck, I even had the same last name! Now I had been attacked by the third student who had gone with Brett and Nikki, and they had seen me with Agent Harris. Nobody had come out and asked me yet if I was Brett, or if I had been Brett, but I knew it was going to happen soon.

Nikki helped me up so I could sit in a chair. As I sat there in the classroom waiting for my turn to give the police my statement, all of these thoughts were running through my head. Some of my classmates who were still in the classroom were giving me funny looks. Because they suspected who I was, because Nikki was still doting on me, and because I was the target of the attack they had just participated in, it didn't matter. I couldn't wait for the school year to be over! I felt an urgent need to get out of here.

Agent Harris had taken charge the minute he came in. He was with the police obtaining statements from my classmates. Once they provided their statements they were allowed to leave. The rest of the school had already been released for the day.

As soon as the last student had been released, Agent Harris and the police walked over to where Nikki and I were sitting.

"Are you okay?" he asked me. I noticed then how much he was like Jill. I didn't really know him as well, but I still felt at ease with him.

"Yes," I sighed in reply. I was ready to go home or do anything other than stay here in this classroom.

A shadow fell across the door to the classroom at that moment, and I flinched slightly at the thought that Justin might be back. Instead, when I looked at the door, my heart fluttered.

Mark Williams was standing there, looking shocked at the scene inside the classroom, and at me.

"Are you okay?" he asked, staring into my eyes. I just nodded. He came over to me then, lifted me up, and wrapped me in a hug, pulling me hard into his chest. The love and support he was giving me caused me to burst into tears again, and I found myself trying to cradle myself in his arms.

He stood there holding me, supporting me while I cried myself dry for the second time that day. I didn't want him to let go. I had finally found a place where I felt safe, where I felt Justin had no way to get to me. Where there was no way for him to try to hurt me again. I looked up into Mark's eyes, clearing the tears out of my own with my hands.

"Thank you," I told him, and his smile wrapped me in a warmth that made all my worries disappear.

"You're welcome, Jaz," he returned my smile with one that lit up the room. "I'm here for you."

"I'm sorry to interrupt you two," Agent Harris broke in. I could have killed him right then. "But I need to talk to Mark privately for a minute. Is that okay?"

Mark looked at me, and I nodded my head. I couldn't believe I had fallen for a boy so quickly after returning home! Nikki stayed with me while Mark and Agent Harris went into the hall.

"I guess he does feel the same way about you," Nikki said, squeezing my hand in reassurance.

We gave our statements to the police officer while waiting for the two of them to return. When they did, Mark had a big smile on his face, and Agent Harris' was nearly as big.

"Jasmine," Mark said, taking my hand from Nikki. "I have to go with Agent Harris for a bit, but if you're still up for it, I'd still like to take you to dinner this evening."

"I'd like that," I said, returning the infectious smile that he was giving me, driving away all of the bad again.

"Great," he said, squeezing my hand gently. "How about I pick you up at six?"

"I'll be ready."

Agent Harris and Mark left, and Nikki and I grabbed our things and started for home.

*  *  *

Nikki wanted to come over to my house and help me get ready for my date. After the events of this afternoon, the thought of going on a date did not sound appealing. If it had been with anyone other than Mark, I probably would have cancelled.

It was nearly five by the time we got home. Mark hadn't left me with much time to get ready, especially since he had told me to dress nicely.

"The little black dress?" I asked Nikki, pulling the dress she had purchased for me at the Complex out of my closet.

"Sure, that will work," she responded.

I laid the dress out on my bed and turned to my dresser. A lacy black bra and panty soon joined it.

"Stockings or hose?"

"Neither," Nikki replied. "I think bare legs will be okay for tonight, unless you need to shave them."

"I don't think I need to," I said, but I was not certain because my jeans were still on. Once I had them off, I knew I was still okay. "Just shaved last night, they still feel smooth."

"Alright, hurry and get dressed then, I need to use the restroom."

While Nikki went across the hall to the bathroom, I finished undressing and replaced my underwear with the lingerie I had set out. There was no way to call the bra and panty anything else.

I quickly slid the dress over my head and once again, Nikki found me staring at myself in the mirror.

"Gosh, Jaz!" she exclaimed frantically when she found me. "Do you ever stop staring at yourself?"

"Not yet," I replied with a small laugh. "It's still feels like a dream."

I saw her roll her eyes while I finished a similar look to the one I had last Saturday during our night on the town. With smoky eyes, light pink lipstick and my blonde hair framing my face, I felt like a supermodel.

"I still envy how quickly you can get ready," Nikki said while frowning at me. "It would take me another half an hour to do my hair and makeup."

I smiled. "I still need to learn how to do both. It's not like I can use my powers in public if I need to change my hair or makeup."

"Good point," she said. "I can teach you some time if you want."

"I'd like that."

I grabbed the matching 3-inch pumps from my closet and slipped them on.

"Plenty of time left," I said, checking the time on my alarm clock. "I've still got fifteen minutes."

"Where's Cami?" Nikki said, changing the subject. "She'll be mad if you don't show her before you leave."

"I don't know. I haven't seen her all day."

I walked out of my room and looked into hers. Empty.

"Jaz?" I heard my mom ask from the kitchen. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah," I said when she poked her head into the hallway. "What do you think?"

I gave her a twirl and when I made it back around, her mouth was agape.

"Wow!" she eventually said. "You are beautiful!"

I smiled and gave her a hug. That's the best thing I could have heard from her! She truly was accepting me for who I really am.

"Where's Cami?" I asked.

"I'm not sure; she said she'd be at a friend’s house."

"Oh," I said, disappointed.

"WHAT THE HECK!"

I was jolted by the emotional impact that felt like it was boring a hole in my brain. Adam was standing behind Mom, and he looked furious. Oddly, after what I had gone through earlier, he didn't really scare me.

"What are you doing?" he demanded, glaring at me in a way that I was sure he meant to be intimidating.

"What do you mean?" I calmly asked, trying to project an aura of calm his way. Unfortunately, manipulating his emotions did not seem to be working.

"Why are you dressed like that?" he practically spat. The disgust on his face evidence enough of the feelings he'd kept bottled up since I returned home.

"I have a date tonight," I told him, trying again to project some calm his way. It still didn't seem to be working.

"With who?" he screamed. "A boy?"

This was it. He could take me turning into a girl, maybe. But liking boys? He must have felt that it was the same thing as being gay, even if I was no longer a boy myself. He'd always had a negative reaction to gays and lesbians.

"Yes, Adam," I said calmly. He needed to hear this. "A boy. Get this through your head - I'm not a boy anymore. I might not have ever been a boy."

He glared at me, fury on his face. But he didn't do anything. He stared like he was trying to figure out who I was. Finally, I felt more than saw the change in his eyes.

"Whatever," he said roughly, and turned and walked back down the stairs. I grinned slightly.

*  *  *
Chapter 7 - Love is in the Air

Ten minutes later the doorbell rang. Nikki refused to let me answer the door, but I was still standing close by when she opened it.

"Hi, Mark," Nikki said with a big smile.

"Hi," he replied back. He broke into a big smile when he saw me. He was wearing a black sport coat and pants over a white button up shirt, which was left open at the top without a tie.

"Wow!" was all he could say as he stared at me. My smile was just as big as his. "You look absolutely amazing!"

"Thank you," I said with a slight blush. "You clean up pretty well yourself."

I felt lost staring into those chocolate brown eyes for a moment.

"Shall we go?" he asked while extending his hand toward me.

"Yes," I said while taking it. I saw Nikki roll her eyes in my peripheral vision, but mine stayed locked on Mark while he escorted me out the door to his car.

Mark normally drove a black Toyota Tacoma truck that had an impressive lift on it. But tonight there was a black BMW waiting for us in the driveway. He walked me to the passenger door and opened it for me. I slid in and watched him close the door and walk around to the driver’s side.

"My dad let me borrow his car," he said by way of explanation when he got in. "I thought it would be easier for you to get into than my truck."

I smiled at him while he started the car and began driving down the road. I had heard that it could be difficult to get into high vehicles while wearing a dress, and I was glad that I was not going to add it to my experiences just yet.

We engaged in some small talk while he drove us to an unknown destination. While I hadn't known him well before the Procedure, I had always thought he was a nice guy. He was certainly living up to those expectations now.

After a few minutes of driving we pulled up in front of an Italian restaurant that I had never been to before. He parked and then rushed around to my door to help me out.

He offered me his elbow, and with my arm in his we walked into the restaurant.

"Reservation for Williams," he told the hostess when we walked in.

"This way please," she said and passed us off to a cute young woman to lead us to our table.

We were led to a table in a small alcove off a dimly lit room. The lighting made it feel almost as if the room was lit by candles, and set a very romantic mood. I was worried for a second that Mark was expecting much more of me than I was willing to give, but as I slid onto the bench on my side of the table, he gave me a smile that melted my will and reassured me at the same time that he respected me. He wouldn't force me into anything I wasn't ready for.

"This place is amazing," I told him after we were told that our waiter would be right with us. "I didn't even know this place existed."

"My dad is a part owner," Mark said, but he said it as an explanation rather than trying to boast. "I grew up eating here for birthdays and family gatherings. They try to keep it low-key so that it doesn't get very crowded."

"I like it," I said, smiling at him again.

"I'm glad," he said, returning my smile and taking my hand in his on top of the table. "I wanted tonight to be special."

I blushed at that and lowered my eyes to the table. I had never felt this way about someone before, especially not a boy. But it felt so right, and I never wanted this feeling to end.

"Jasmine," he said softly, prompting me to look into his eyes. "There's something I need to tell you."

I gazed into his loving face, waiting for him to continue. But before he could we were interrupted by a young man who stepped closer to our table. Disappointed, I turned toward him.

"Good evening," he said, oblivious to what he had just interrupted. "My name is Trevor and I will be your waiter this evening."

He smiled at us, but I could feel the boredom that he was truly feeling. He didn't really enjoy his job, and fortunately my pity for him held back the words that were ready to come out because of the bad timing on his part.

"Can I start you with some drinks?"

"I'll have a root beer," Mark said to him. I could feel his irritation at being interrupted, but he didn't let the waiter see it. "Jaz?"

"I'll have a root beer also."

The waiter quickly left us, and Mark turned back to me.

"Jaz," he started again. "I've never felt this way about someone before. When I saw you, when I truly saw you for the first time after the dodge ball game, my heart skipped a beat. There's something magical about you."

"I know what you mean, Mark. When I first saw you standing there outside the locker rooms, well, I've never felt my insides melt like that before. I don't know what this means, but I don't want the feelings to end."

Before either of us could continue, Trevor was back with our drinks, irritating both of us even more. I was ready to strangle him!

"Here you go," he said placing two root beers down between us. "Have you had a chance to look at our menu?"

"No," Mark said, and Trevor left to give us a few more minutes to decide what we wanted to eat.

Instead of continuing our conversation, we opened our menus to decide what we wanted to eat. By the time Trevor had returned, I had decided on a Caesars salad.

"I'll have the chicken alfredo," Mark told Trevor.

"And for the lady?" Trevor asked, turning towards me.

"I'll have a Caesars salad," I replied while handing him my menu.

"We'll also take an order of garlic bread," Mark told the waiter while giving me a smile. "It's spectacular."

I smiled back at him. I had wanted to try the garlic bread, which was one of my favorite foods, but I didn't want to have bad breath. Mark seemed to have read my mind.

"Great, I'll be back with your order shortly," Trevor said and left us alone again.

I found myself staring into Mark's eyes again, and my hand was in his.

"Jaz," he started for the third time this evening. He was radiating affection for me, and I loved bathing myself in the emotions that he was emitting. "I talked with Rob this afternoon, and he told me some things."

I panicked immediately, and I saw Mark wince with the emotions that I must have been projecting on him. What had Agent Harris told him? He wouldn't divulge my original identity, would he? He had no right!

"It's okay," Mark said, taking my hand again. I hadn't realized that I had jerked it out of his. "It's okay."

How could it be okay? Once he found out the truth, he would leave me! I could feel the tears welling up, but before they could come Mark caught my eyes with his.

"It's okay," he repeated, and smiled. That smile nearly broke my heart. I couldn't lose this, whatever this was. I couldn't.

"He told me everything, and it doesn't matter to me. I don't care who you were before. You mean everything to me now."

This time the tears did come. But instead of the tears of despair that were welling up just moments before, these were of relief, of happiness, of...love?

I'd skirted the thought in my head before, but now I had dived into the deep end. I loved Mark Williams. How could this be happening? I'd only been a girl for less than two weeks and I was already in love!

"Wow!" he exclaimed with the most blissful look on his face. "This is an amazing feeling! Rob said you could share your emotions with others, but it's something completely different to FEEL it. You scared me to death with that stab of fear; I thought I had lost you. But now, well, now I know you truly feel the same way about me that I feel about you."

He smiled at me again, rubbing the back of my hand with his thumb. We stared at each other for a few minutes. We didn't need words to express what we were communicating.

Once again, however, we were interrupted by Trevor. This time I couldn't stop the emotional pain his appearance caused, and he involuntarily took a step back from the table, quickly sidestepping to keep the tray with our orders from falling.

"Whoa," he said. He had a perplexed look on his face while he regained his balance. "Sorry about that."

He was not apologizing for interrupting us, no matter how much I wanted him to. He was clueless about that. He was apologizing about the odd misstep he had taken which almost caused him to drop our orders.

"Chicken alfredo for you," he said placing a large bowl in front of Mark. Then picking up the other bowl he placed it down in front of me. "And a Caesar salad for the lady."

He then placed a basket of garlic bread between us and quickly retreated from the table, his embarrassment over nearly dumping an order hastening his speed. I felt only slightly guilty about that. I didn't realize until now quite how much of an effect the emotions that I project could have on other people. Once again I reminded myself that I needed to be careful.

"What was that?" Mark asked me with a sly grin on his face.

"Oh," I said with a slight blush. "I accidently focused my irritation on him when he interrupted us."

"You truly are amazing," he said, then took a bite from his dinner.

I smiled back and took a bite of my own food. It was definitely worth the price.

"Why would he tell you?" I asked Mark a few moments later, continuing our conversation. "I mean, what right did he have?"

"Jaz," Mark said, slightly guarded. "Don't blame Rob for this. He didn't want to tell me, especially after he learned of our, um, involvement.

"Look," he said, setting down his fork and looking me straight in the eye. "The truth is, most of the students know that something odd is going on with Nikki and you, and now Justin. I mean Nikki and Brett go away for a week after talking to unknown government-looking agents. Then Nikki comes back with a girl who has the same last name as Brett's, and she is taking all of his classes. Who starts a new school with two weeks remaining in the school year?"

I just looked at him. My worst fears about finishing the school year were about others learning who I used to be, and Mark confirmed that everyone had suspicions. This was not good! Tears started to well in my eyes again.

"I think the only reason nobody has said anything about it is because you are so tiny," he continued. "There's no way you could be Brett, because you're way too small. I don't know what the others are thinking after this afternoon."

I really didn't like hearing my old name coming from him. It just seemed wrong, and he seemed to feel the same way, cringing when he had to say it. But he had a point. My return to school wasn't exactly low key.

Before I had a chance to respond, and after he took another bite of food, he continued.

"When Rob asked to talk to me earlier today , I thought he was going to try to keep me from seeing you. With the moves that Nikki and you showed in dodge ball, moves she didn't have before, it was clear that you two were special in some way. Having a government agent show up right after the shooting this afternoon only helped to clarify it for me."

He frowned slightly and took another mouthful of food. I did the same, giving him the time he needed to collect his thoughts. He obviously needed to tell me these things.

"I was ready to tell him that there was no way I was going to stay away from you," he said after swallowing. "But he didn't say anything about you, at least not at first. He said that he had a job offer for me and asked me to come with him to talk about it."

A job offer? What kind of job? My heart started to beat faster as he continued his explanation.

"After saying goodbye to you we headed to an empty classroom, where he handed me a binder."

I couldn't help it - I gasped!

"A binder?" I asked him, not believing what I was hearing.

"Yes," he said with another large smile. "Apparently Agent Harris was already at the school waiting for me to get out of class. He didn't even know we were involved in any way until I showed up outside the classroom after, well, you know."

I nodded, not wanting to dwell on the events of this afternoon.

"He told me about the Procedure, about the job I would have afterward, and asked me if I was willing to join. I hesitated at first, but he used ‘dirty tricks’ to convince me."

"You joined?" I asked with glee readily apparent in my voice.

"How could I not, when he told me that we could be together more often if we worked together?"

I was staring at him in shock now. "Working together?"

"That's what he said. I will admit that the idea of being some kind of secret agent was exciting, and the limited details they give you about the Procedure before you sign were intriguing. But the thought of being able to spend more time with you was the clincher.

"After I had signed my contract, he told me about Justin. He told me that there were risks involved in the Procedure, and that Justin had been affected by the Procedure, altering his brain chemistry. They needed a replacement for him to fill out the new team that Nikki and you were on."

I was beaming at him now! I hadn't even considered what would happen when I had to go back to the Complex after graduation, how I would have to leave him behind. The realization that I wouldn't have to leave him was overwhelming!

"But why you?" I asked, wondering if there was a reason.

"Coincidence mostly," he said. "My recruitment had nothing to do with you if that's what you were wondering. Rob said that I had the next highest rating after Nikki, Justin, and you. I was the next logical choice."

"Wow!" I stammered. Having Mark on the team instead of Justin would be a big upgrade! I pondered it for a few seconds and then said, "That still doesn't explain why Agent Harris told you about me."

"Like I said earlier," Mark explained with a slight grimace. "He didn't want to. He did tell me who was on the team, but he didn't go into details. I asked about you."

"Why?"

"Well, I had feelings for you, and the answer to the mystery of who you are was staring me straight in the face. I asked if you had been Brett. Agent Harris flinched immediately. By that time he knew we were involved, and I think he was afraid that the information of who you used to be would drive a wedge between us, causing us to not mesh together as a team. He reluctantly admitted the truth, sure that I would be trying to break my contract."

"But you didn't, right?" I asked him. I was truly afraid to lose what I didn't even know I had hours earlier.

"Of course not. I told you that I don't care. I have never truly believed in love at first sight, but you already mean so much to me, and I just met you yesterday. Rob was relieved when he finally understood that your previous identity didn't matter to me."

He was smiling at me again, and I was melting once more. I couldn't believe how great my life had become in such a short amount of time! I wanted to hug him right then and there!

"What happens now?" I asked him.

"Now, we finish our date." I chuckled at his obvious answer. "I'll be flying back with you and Nikki after graduation and will go through the Procedure then. He wanted me to go this week so we could start training immediately, but there isn't enough time before finals."

"Finals," I grumbled at the reminder. I still hated tests.

"Yeah, ‘finals’ was the excuse I gave him, but there was a bigger reason."

I wasn't sure what he was talking about, and my quizzical expression made him laugh lightly.

"Jaz," he said while taking both of my hands in his and staring straight into my eyes. "You know what this Saturday is, right?"

Saturday. Saturday. I drew a blank. I couldn't think of anything that was happening on Saturday.

"The Gala?" he suggested, trying to jog my memory.

Understanding lit my face. The biggest dance of the year for most high schools is the prom. And while the prom was still big at my school, it didn't hold a candle to the End of Year Gala. I hadn't planned on attending before the Procedure, and I hadn't even thought about it since returning from the Complex. A big smile spread across my entire face.

"Will you go with me?" Mark asked when he realized I understood.

"Of course," I told him, already thinking about what I would have to do to get ready. I truly was a girl, I thought while quickly considering where I would get a dress, what to do with my hair, etc.

"Jaz," Mark said a few moments later, pulling me out of the zone I had fallen into in my head. "I'm really glad you came into my life."

*  *  *

I was so glad that I wasn't wearing any makeup. Standing in front of the mirror in the restroom, I realized just how bad my face would look if the color on my face wasn't a part of my powers. I'd done enough crying over dinner to wash most of it away if it had been applied, but other than a slight puffiness under my eyes, there was no indication that I had been crying.

Dinner had been amazing, I thought while exiting the restroom. Mark was there and offered me his arm, which I readily latched onto.

Walking arm in arm out of the restaurant, I thought back to how much of an emotional roller coaster this day had been. The events of this afternoon, and the despair I had felt then, had turned into love and understanding. A friendship had been born, and I felt certain that this friendship was going to last a long time. I did not know why I was attracted to Mark the way I was. I did not know why we hit it off so well together. I did know, now, that I was in love with him.

The thought still felt slightly funny to me. The events over the past week and a half had definitely proved to me that I truly was a young woman, and emotionally I felt that way. Intellectually, being in love with a young man still had a negative stigma to it. I'd spent 18 years of my life as a male, and these feelings were taught to be wrong to me. Thankfully, that part of my life, and the thoughts that came with it, were retreating rapidly.

I never wanted to lose the feelings I had for Mark.

Mark led me back to his car and opened my door for me. After I was in he closed my door and walked around to his side and got in. With another one of those heart-melting smiles, he started the car and we were heading out of the parking lot.

It was already eight o'clock. We'd been talking for quite a while before we felt it was time to leave. Because June was quickly approaching, the sun was still quite high in the sky and I knew that we had at least another hour before the sun would set.

I didn't know where Mark was taking me, other than it obviously was not my house. But I didn't care. At that moment I would have followed him anywhere.

He started driving up the canyon, and eventually turned onto a private road that led to a small cabin which had a brilliant view over the town and the lake on the other side.

"Where are we?" I asked when the car had come to a stop in the cabin's driveway. A better look at it showed me that it wasn't a cabin, but a house with log siding, giving it a cabinesque feel.

"This is my house," he told me with a large grin before opening his door and getting out of the car. I was left stunned for a minute wondering what it would be like to live up here. It only took us ten minutes to get here from the city, but it still felt like a mountain retreat.

"You live here?" leapt from my mouth when he opened my door and offered his hand to help me out.

"No," he said while leading me closer to the overlook. "At least, not yet. I still live in my parents’ house because it's closer to school. But my dad has been teaching me about the real estate business, and this is the first piece of property I was able to purchase with the money I have made with his help."

"Wow!" I stammered. I hadn't realized he was already working in real estate.

"Yeah, it's pretty impressive. I hope to move into it someday with my wife at my side." He gave me a look that made me blush. We'd just expressed our love for each other for the first time, but he was already hinting at marriage!

I wasn't sure where this relationship was going yet. For all intents and purposes, we just met yesterday. But the thought that it might come to that conclusion sometime in the future was surprisingly reassuring. Granted, it would be a long time in the future. I still needed to learn more about myself before I dove that far into a relationship.

"Sorry," he said while watching the feelings displayed on my face. I hoped I wasn't conveying my emotions to him. "That's too much too soon."

"It's okay," I told him. "The idea isn't unappealing. But I just need to learn more about myself and who I am now before I can commit to a relationship like that."

"I understand," he said while wrapping me in a hug. "I'm not going to rush you. I love you, Jasmine Campbell, and I don't want to jeopardize that."

I squeezed him back while luxuriating in his warmth and the smell of the cologne he was wearing. How lucky could I be?

"I thought we could watch the sunset together, and then I would take you home," he said after we had released the hug. I nodded at him to show I liked the idea. "But first, you have to show me these powers that Rob spoke of."

I couldn't help it, and he laughed at the large smile that spread across my face.

"Oh really," I said coyly to him, pressing my index finger into his chest. "I'm tonight's entertainment then?"

He let out an even louder laugh at that point. We seemed to be on the same wavelength, and it was quite obvious to him how playful this attitude was.

"So," I said to him while taking a small step backwards. "What's your preference? Brunette? Black? Hot pink?"

He gasped at me when my hair, which had been framing my face and lying across my shoulders and down my back loosely this evening, started to change colors to match my descriptions.

"Perhaps you prefer my hair up?" I asked him, and saw him watching in wonder as my hair lifted itself up onto my head in an elegant style while returning to its original blonde.

"That is amazing!" he exclaimed, staring at me with awe. "How do you do that?"

"This little thing?" I asked with a wave of dismissal while returning to my original hairstyle of the evening. "It's nothing, only a minor power."

"A minor power?" he asked, obviously not believing it was very minor.

"Yeah," I said before giving him a sly grin. "This is what you would call a major power."

I started floating up in front of him, spinning slowly in a circle. Now he was in total shock at what I was doing.

"You can fly?" he asked in a voice that showed he totally couldn't believe what was happening.

"Fly?" That was an interesting thought. Could I fly?

Landing back in front of him and giving it some thought I said "No, I can't fly, but I can definitely float. Exerting this power costs me some amount of energy. I can feel it kind of get used up. I might be able to soar for a short amount of time, but I don't think I could sustain holding myself in the air for very long. It seems to recharge pretty quickly when I don't use it, but not that quickly."

"Wow!" was all Mark could say. He looked like a young kid in a candy store. "That's still amazing!"

"Yeah," I agreed with him. "I'm telekinetic. I can move things around with my mind, like pushing myself off the ground, or other things." I had a sly smile on my face.

He let out an uncharacteristic gasp of fright when he realized his legs were no longer on the ground. I nearly dropped him back quickly because I didn't want to frighten him, but his startled expression turned into one of wonder as I slowly moved him around the small grassy area.

"And I thought you couldn't get any more amazing." He grinned at me, and my heart melted again.

"Is this how you won dodge ball?" he asked suddenly, eliciting a short laugh from me.

"No," I said still chuckling. "I never did anything to change the trajectory of the balls. But I do have some kind of precognition ability. I knew you were going to be throwing two balls at me at about the same moment you did."

"Like a spidey-sense" he said, not quite a question.

"That's a close description," I replied.

"What else can you do?" He asked with genuine excitement. I think that if he was reluctant about joining the team earlier, he probably didn't have quite the same feelings now.

"I can interface with computers somehow. Holding my hand close to a wire or other electronic device seems to let me manipulate it, but I haven't really had much of a chance to explore that one yet. That's pretty much it."

"Still," he said while wrapping his arms around my waist and gazing down into my eyes. "You're an amazing woman, and I'll be honored to be by your side."

We played around with my powers for nearly 45 minutes before I started feeling drained, after which he led me over to a bench near the edge of the overlook. Sitting down, I laid my head on his shoulder and he wrapped his arm around mine. We watched the sun set across the valley, not speaking but just enjoying each other’s company.

"Nearly as beautiful as you?" Mark said when the sun had sunk behind the mountains on the far side and the shadows started to bathe us in darkness.

I smiled and looked up into his eyes. Without realizing it, our mouths met and for the first time in my life, I was kissing a boy! It was wonderful, it was more than I could have imagined, and it was short.

It wasn't a peck on the lips by any means, but Mark pulled back a bit sooner than I would have liked, leaving both of us wanting more. I was about to object, but then I realized that he didn't want to rush our relationship too quickly.

Mark was a perfect gentleman. After our shared kiss he drove me home and walked me to the door. Despite my desire to repeat what had happened earlier, he only gave my hand a kiss before he allowed me to enter my house.

Mom and Cami made me relate everything that had happened before they would let me go to bed, and I left them while they were still talking about what had happened. I was in such a blissful state that I was quickly asleep, even though it was hours earlier than I normally went to bed.

*  *  *
Chapter 8 - Where Art Thou, Justin

The next morning was completely different.

It started out okay. I had awakened feeling more refreshed than I had in a long time. I picked out a sundress to wear to school today. It was a nice shade of yellow that seemed to offset the color of my hair. Despite my love for pink, it felt oddly liberating to be wearing something that did not contain one iota of that color.

Everybody had left for the day already, and I was sitting at the kitchen table eating a bowl of cereal when there was a knock on my front door.

When I looked through the peephole I saw Jill and Nikki on my front steps. After I had opened the front door, it was obvious that Nikki desperately wanted to talk about my date, but she waited for Jill to speak first.

"Good morning, Jaz," Jill said and gave me a reassuring smile. But her emotions hinted at something that I felt I didn't want to hear.

"What is it?" I asked her warily. Her smile dropped slightly.

"First, I want to apologize for not being there yesterday," she said with regret. "It was the first day off I've had since the week before you two started the Procedure. I was at home with my family and nobody informed me of what had happened until I returned last night."

"It's okay," I said, trying to keep her from feeling so regretful. "There were many people around to help me get through what Justin did, especially Mark."

Her smile returned at my mention of Mark's name. "I'm glad you're accepting your womanhood so easily. It'll be good to help you adjust."

It was my turn to smile now.

"Unfortunately," Jill continued, removing the smile from my face. "We will need to wait until later to discuss it. Right now A2 is being assigned a mission, and I need you to come with us."

I nodded at her. "I need five minutes to clean up my breakfast."

"Alright," she allowed. "I'll be in the car." She gestured at the black SUV in my driveway.

I stepped back inside the house and held the door open for Nikki, whom I knew wasn't going to drop the subject of last night's date so easily.

"So?" she asked while we walked back toward the kitchen.

"It was amazing!" I said, eliciting a small squeal from her. I quickly cleaned up from my breakfast and placed my dishes in the dishwasher while relating the evening once again. It seemed just as magical now as it was last night when I described it for my mom and Cami.

"He's joining the team?" Nikki asked in an incredulous tone as we stepped out the front door and headed for the SUV.

"That's what he said."

"You are so lucky, you know that! I'm going to be the only girl there without a boyfriend," she pouted.

"Don't forget Cary," I said, eliciting a small laugh from her.

We settled into the back seat of the SUV. Rob was driving and Jill was sitting in the passenger seat. We pulled out of my driveway and headed down the street. Jill and Rob were discussing something up front which left Nikki and I to continue our discussion.

We pulled up to another house about five minutes later and Rob got out and walked to the front door.

"Nikki, you stay in the middle," Jill said while turning to face us. "We need to teach these two how to be separated."

She chuckled, but when I saw Mark coming out with Rob, I was ready to push Nikki out of the way. She wouldn't let me though, and I watched helplessly as Mark got into the opposite door, leaving Nikki between us.

"Hi," he said. He obviously wasn't expecting to see me so early in the morning, and his face showed surprise.

"Hi," I returned. I was already melting because he was giving me that smile again.

"Please, get a room," Nikki said, laughing. Mark and I joined in and I even saw Jill give a chuckle.

There was a lot that I wanted to say to Mark, but it felt awkward with the others in the car, and we mostly sat in silence while Rob drove us to a small office complex. We pulled up in front of a building that looked abandoned and we parked next to three identical SUVs.

"Welcome to the command center," Jill said to us while we exited the car. "This is where we've been working while you three finish school. Now it will also serve as the central hub for the operation."

Inside, the building was much more modern, and far cleaner, than I expected it to be. We followed our two handlers inside and down a short hall to a conference room. I was surprised to see A1, the other team based at the Alpha Complex, and eight other people waiting for us in the conference room. Four of the people looked like another team, and the last four looked like they could be the other two sets of handlers. Jill, Nikki, Mark and I took seats next to Jay, our team leader who had already graduated and was living at the Alpha complex. He nodded at us while we took our seats, and I made sure I was sitting next to Mark this time. Rob stood at the front of the table.

"Welcome, everyone," he said with a smile. "I'm glad all of you could be here this morning. We don't want to waste time, so I will get right to the business of the day.”

He pressed a button on a remote that he was holding, and a screen behind him lit up. A picture of Justin was displayed.

"This is Justin Holmes," he explained. "Last week he went through the Procedure, which altered his brain chemistry. Dr. Young believes that the alterations can be handled with medication, but it has become apparent that Justin has not been taking this medication during the week."

I grimaced. We had been told that they had him on medication. I wondered how effective it would have been. Would he still be on the team if he had been taking it?

That led to another thought that made me feel guilty. I was happy he was no longer on the team, and I felt his replacement (who was sitting right next to me) was a much better team member. I squeezed his arm and he smiled back down at me.

"Consequently," Rob continued. "He is not thinking straight, and he has gone rogue."

"Are you serious?" a young Asian man said from the far end of the table. His black hair reached to the bottom of his neck and was streaked with strips of red. "Why?"

"We don't know for sure, Jonathon," Rob replied, providing a name to the new face. "What we do know is that he is in the city. Our goal is to find him, capture him by any means necessary, and return him to the Alpha Complex where Doctor Young's team can work with him to help him cope with the changes he has gone through."

"Capture only?" asked one of the handlers whom I didn't know. She looked like the thought of harming one of our own was very repulsive.

"Yes, capture only. Deadly force is not authorized on this mission. Justin is one of us. We want to keep him unharmed if at all possible. But we MUST capture him." Rob grimaced at that thought before continuing. "A2 is only available to help today, which makes today our best chance at finding him."

The young Asian spoke up again. "I still don't think A2 should be helping on this mission. They have not received any training. We have no idea how they will react."

Rob glared at him and then raised his hand in our direction. "Jay has undergone full training, and the other members of A2 will follow his lead. With the exception of Mark who is here only as an observer today, they have all gone through the skills labs, and they all have passed the psych exams with flying colors. They will perform their jobs."

"I still don't like it," Jonathon said while ignoring us completely.

"I understand," Rob said with a slight frown. "But they are here because they spent a week with Justin, and they know better than any of us how he thinks."

How he thinks? I definitely thought Rob got that one wrong. I didn't think anyone knew how Justin thought.

"More to the point," Rob said while gesturing at me this time. "A2 is here because we want Jaz to be here."

The handler sitting next to Jonathon snorted derisively at that statement. He was older than the rest of us if the streaks of gray in his black hair were any indication.

"Of course," he said. "We want to throw a mission at the prodigy as quickly as possible. She'll make it easy."

I was shocked at and resented his statement! Everyone I had met who was involved with Project Genesis had been very kind and courteous to me. I did not know what I had done to earn his disapproval. Mark also stiffened next to me and I had to give his arm another squeeze to prevent him from doing anything he would regret.

Jill stood up immediately to address him. "Jaz's involvement in this operation has nothing to do with her being a prodigy."

"Sure it does," the man countered. "You and Harris caught the lucky draw and now you want to show it off."

His use of 'it' to describe me was very degrading, and I felt myself become agitated.

Rob quickly spoke, trying to pull the meeting back into some form of order. "Like Agent Johnson said, Jasmine's skills in this operation are not the primary reason she is being included. Justin is fixated on her. Many times over the course of last week he showed romantic interest in her. On more than one occasion he had to be physically removed from her presence because of his actions toward her. He even tried to pull her out of the plane with him when he went rogue. Yesterday afternoon, he tried to kill her while she was attending school. Her presence alone in that classroom combined with her abilities prevented Justin from harming any other student or the teacher until reinforcements arrived.

"Jasmine's presence here is to help us reel him in. We believe he is here in the city for the sole purpose of killing or harming Jasmine in some way, like he attempted to do yesterday. Her presence will give us our best chance at finding him."

The handler seemed mollified at Rob's explanation and sat back in his seat. But I was agitated at the prospect of being the bait in this operation.

"Are there any other questions?" Rob asked. When no one ventured anything more he spoke again. "Good. Everyone will find their gear down the hall in the two changing rooms. Once everyone is geared we will meet back in here for the tactical briefing."

The handlers remained seated, and everyone else except Mark stood up and headed down the hall. I gave him a smile before exiting the room behind Nikki. He gave me a smile of encouragement and turned back toward Rob for his instructions for the operation.

Down the hall there were two rooms. The guys broke off and entered one of the rooms and I followed Nikki and the girls into the other. It turned out to be a makeshift locker room. There were a number of chairs scattered around the wall of the room, each with a large black container with one of our names printed on top. There was even a small shower stall and a toilet through a curtained partition on one wall of the room.

"How are you doing?" Theresa, a tall redhead who went by the codename of Fire, asked me when I found the container with my name on it between Nikki and her. Theresa was the team leader for A1.

"Fine," I replied with a smile that I didn't completely feel. "Searching for Justin is definitely the last thing I wanted to do today."

Theresa gave me a grim smile. It was obvious that she agreed with me. "It'll be okay, Jaz. Once we find him and get him back to the Complex the doctors will help stabilize him. He won't be trying to kill you anymore."

I returned her grim smile. I didn't think it would be that easy. I was happy that I had found Mark. I felt safe with him; even though I knew he would be defenseless against Justin until he completed the Procedure.

"The new guy is cute though," Theresa said, trying to change the subject and improve the mood of the room.

Without meaning to, the pang of jealousy that I felt slipped out into the room.

"Oh," Theresa exclaimed with understanding. "Sorry, Jaz, I didn't know he was taken. Besides, I still have Jay."

"What was that?" asked a brunette who was sitting on the other side of the room. Other than me, she was the shortest girl in the room. Like the rest of us, she was also gorgeous.

"Sorry," I told her apologetically. "I can project my feelings onto others and I'm still trying to learn to control it."

"Oh," she responded. "I remember how hard it can be the first couple of weeks. Don't worry. You'll get the hang of it."

She walked over to me and stuck out her hand. "My name is Stephanie, I'm on B2."

"Jasmine," I responded with a smile. Pointing at Nikki I continued the introductions. "This is Nikki."

Nikki stopped removing items from her container long enough to give her a small wave.

"It's nice to meet you, Jasmine. I've heard a lot about you, and it will be an honor to see you in action." She pointed at the other member of her team in the room. "That's Heather."

Heather looked up at her unexpected introduction, but instead of waving she gave me a malicious scowl that surprised me.

"You'll have to forgive her and the rest of my team," Stephanie explained. "Michael, our handler, is not exactly a fan of Agent Harris. My team members can't seem to get past his discrimination of you to see that you’re just another agent."

"I must admit, I don't like being considered a prodigy," I said truthfully. "I want to earn my praises, not get them because of some rating on a piece of paper."

Stephanie smiled at that and then turned back to Heather. "See, she's not a stuck-up bitch."

"Whatever," Heather replied, and continued to get ready.

"You two better get ready," Theresa interjected. She was the only team leader in the room, and I knew it would be a good idea to follow her advice. Stephanie nodded at her and returned to her container.

I looked at my own container. It was smooth all around, and there was no visible means of opening it. On the top was a picture of a hand, and experimentally pressing my hand to the picture caused the lid to pop open.

Inside was everything that I had picked out when we were doing the capture the flag exercise last week. I pulled out the white and pink Chameleon Tactical suit and set it on the chair. I then removed my dress and hung it on the hangar that was provided next to the chair. Not being prepared for this unexpected change in plans, I was grateful to find a sports bra in the container, so I replaced the lacy yellow one I was wearing before I stepped into the Tac suit. The accompanying boots soon followed.

Next I pulled out two smaller cases and a belt harness. I strapped the currently white harness around my waist and then turned my attention to the two smaller cases. They required my thumbprint to open, but inside each case were a small pistol and three ammo clips coated in the same material that gave my Chameleon suit its signature ability to change color.

Pulling the first gun out of its case I gave it an admiring glance before pulling out a clip and locking it into place. Once it was in my belt harness I took the two extra clips and slipped them into their designated area on the harness. I then repeated the steps with the second gun.

I pulled my hair back into a ponytail and turned to pull out the last piece of equipment from my container. The small eyeglass case opened to reveal the same thin pair of shades I had used last week, white with pink lenses. Slipping them over my eyes caused the now familiar HUD to become visible. I oddly felt happy about being back in what would become my regular combat uniform.

Then I placed the small cases back into the large container and closed it. Turning back to the others I noticed that they were all still strapping tools and weapons to their Tac suits. I hadn't realized how minimalistic I was with nothing more than my suit and two weapons.

Heather was the first to finish, and oddly enough she started laughing when she saw me for the first time. The others paused to see what she was laughing at.

"A Chameleon suit?" she asked and gave another small laugh.

"Yeah," I said in an irritated tone. "You have a problem with it?"

She laughed again at my response and then shook her head. "No, no, don't get me wrong. I'm sure you want to look pretty while you're out there, but that thing won't help you once the enemy sees you."

"And what makes you think that they will see me?" I asked her with a smug expression. She obviously didn't know what my powers were, just like I didn't know hers.

"How could they not with such a crazy color scheme. White and pink? Why don't you just shout at them?"

It clearly was an unorthodox color combination for combat armor, but it was just the default setting. It could be any color I wanted. I knew that the standard Tac suits that everyone else was wearing came in three different colors: black, green camouflage and a gray urban camouflage. Each of them was wearing black suits for this operation.

I just smiled at Heather before saying, "Well, this is only a default scheme. I'm very versatile."

I then switched the suit through a number of color combinations including some different camouflages before turning the suit entirely black.

"Is this better?" I asked her while changing my hair color to a deep black for emphasis. I saw her inhale sharply at that move through my black shades, and felt her surprise.

"Jaz is a stealth expert," Theresa stated.

"And she's really good at what she does," Nikki added.

"Whatever," Heather stated again before marching out of the room.

Stephanie laughed at her antics once she was out the door. "Wow Jaz, I haven't seen her that pissed off in a long time! You really showed her. Impressive power by the way."

"Thanks," I said with a smile while letting my hair change back to blonde. I decided to leave the suit black to match the others, and pulled my shades off my eyes and rested them on the top of my head.

The other girls finished getting ready and together we walked back to the conference room.

The guys were already in their seats when we entered, and I marveled at how it could take us longer than them to put on the same uniform. Was it just human nature that girls took so long to get ready?

I noticed that Jonathon, the other boy from B2, and Michael their handler smirked slightly when they saw me. Whether they had the same reaction as Heather about my Chameleon suit or if she had told them about it, I didn't know. I was the only one in the room wearing one.

I took my seat next to Mark and he leaned over to me.

"You look hot," he whispered into my ear, causing me to turn a shade of red that I didn't really want the members of B2 to see. But the compliment from him was worth the embarrassment.

"Wow, Rob," Michael started when we had taken our seats. "You certainly believe in her abilities, don't you? I can't believe you would force her into a stealth suit."

I glared at him. This was not the way I wanted to spend my first operation, having half the people battle over how superior or inferior I was. I wanted to reach out and slap him!

"No, Michael," Rob said from the seat he had taken at the head of the table. "She picked the suit herself and she proved that she could use it effectively. You keep talking about how much confidence I have in her. Well, I'll tell you why I do. She managed to get the flag in the Urban scenario during her powers lab on the first try.

"And," he continued, "She managed to do it without us capturing any of her movements on video except for a short two second window when she was in the flag room. So yes, I do have extreme confidence in her stealth abilities."

Michael's face had turned red, but not with embarrassment as mine had. I didn't know what kind of bad blood was going on between these two, but I didn't want to be in the middle of it. I sat quietly in my chair, watching the argument unfold with everyone else.

"Look," Rob said, once again trying to calm the mood that was developing in the room before Michael could say anything else. "You and I have a bad history, but my team does not need to pay for what happened between us. They are a good team and deserve respect, just as your team does. We were assigned to work together on this operation, and I sincerely hope we can put our differences aside at least long enough to accomplish our goal."

Michael was just as angry as his face implied, but he seemed to grudgingly accept that their argument was not helping us on the operation and he gave Rob a curt nod to indicate his willingness to continue.

"Okay then, shall we get started with the briefing?" Everyone was nodding their heads in readiness, and Rob turned back to the screen on the wall behind him.

"Like I said before, Justin has gone rogue and it is our mission to return him to Alpha Complex for medical treatment."

The screen changed from a picture of Justin to a satellite picture of the city. Two red squares outlined two different sections of the city map, a small one and a much larger one.

"We were able to track him to this warehouse district after his attack on the school yesterday," Rob said and the map zoomed in on the larger square. "We believe that he is living or staying in this area and A1 and B2 will start their search here."

The map then zoomed out before zooming in on the smaller red square, which turned out to be a single house. "A2 will start at this location. This is Justin's parents’ house where he was staying before he underwent the Procedure. I talked to his parents on Monday and they said he had not returned home. We do have a search warrant to allow us access to the house to make sure that is still the case. We don't expect him to be at his parents’ house and A2 will join the other teams at the warehouse after their search.

"Everyone's ammunition has been loaded with taser rounds for this operation. Use them if you can. Use whatever powers you deem necessary if they don't work. Remember that we are trying to keep a low profile here, so try not to let civilians see you using your powers and try to prevent collateral damage."

"What are his powers?" Michael asked.

"Powers," Rob repeated and the screen changed from the map to a file on Justin's information. "Justin can change the density of his body. He can make himself or parts of himself very dense, absorbing bullet impacts or providing a lot of force to a punch or kick. He can also lighten his body, allowing him to jump quite high. He also apparently has the ability to make his body intangible because he managed to leave the plane we were returning in by sinking through the floor and then floating lightly to the ground. Anything else he exhibits was not documented before he left the Complex."

"He's stronger now," I said.

"Stronger?" Rob asked, looking for more clarification.

"Yes," I replied. "It was much harder to hold him in place yesterday than it was when he confronted us at the pool last week. It was quite easy to hold him back from reaching Nikki at the pool. Yesterday it required enough of my concentration that I couldn't do anything else."

"He's stronger," Rob repeated to everyone in the room. "From that description I'm going to assume that it's physical, so be aware of that."

Rob looked down at his notes before continuing. "When he's been subdued, try to get him to the airport. We have a plane standing by to get him to Alpha Complex as quickly as we can. Any other questions?"

When nobody voiced a question Rob stood up. "Great, let's get to work. The sooner we get him back to Alpha Complex, the better. Tactical updates will be available through your HUD interfaces."

The rest of us stood up. I turned to Mark and saw the concern in his eyes.

"Jaz," he said before wrapping me in a big hug. "I just met you and I don't want to lose you. Be careful, okay?"

"I will," I replied while returning his hug.

"Rob said each of you has a camera in your glasses. I'll be watching."

I smiled at the thought that even if he couldn't be out there with us yet, at least he could see what was happening.

"Come on, Jaz," I heard Nikki say with urgency from the door. "We don't have all day to let you say goodbye."

"See you when we get back," I said to Mark and turned to follow Nikki and Jay out the door.

"I'll be here."

*  *  *

Justin's parents’ house turned out to be a nice-sized home located in a well-to-do neighborhood. Jay pulled the black SUV into the driveway.

"Anything?" he asked while turning toward where I was sitting in the backseat. He was aware of my ability to feel when people I know were around me. Each person’s feelings seemed to have their own “flavor” to them. Spending enough time around a person allowed me to start to recognize that person’s flavor, and after a while I could pick them out of a crowd without even seeing them. I had used this ability last Saturday when I was trying to find Nikki in the mall.

"No, I don't feel him," I said while frowning. "But I might not recognize him anymore."

"Well, it was worth a shot," he replied.

Jay then handed Nikki and me a small item that looked like a passport. "These are your identifications for this operation. Don't lose them."

I opened it up and found an official looking badge and ID card with my name on it. Both the card and the badge were emblazoned with "Department of Homeland Security."

At our confused looks Jay elaborated. "While we aren't technically agents, we do have identifications for each of the major government agencies: CIA, FBI, you get the idea. They are official and will hold up under investigation."

That was surprising, and Nikki and I gave each other a confused look as Jay exited the car. Nikki and I joined him and we walked to the front door. Jay had the warrant in his hand in case Justin's family did not co-operate.

I pulled my shades down over my eyes while we waited for someone to respond to the doorbell. Nikki had done the same but Jay left his own on his head to provide a more personal feeling to whoever opened the door.

After a short wait the door opened and a small girl around seven or eight was standing there looking at us. She bore a stark resemblance to Justin, and I felt myself tremble slightly at the thought of what he would do to us if anything happened to his family. We would need to be very careful if he was here.

"Hi," Jay said to her. She was apparently lost for words at the sight of us. We must have been intimidating. "Is your mommy or your daddy home?"

The little girl nodded her head shyly, sending her dark curly tresses bouncing. She turned and ran down a hall, leaving the door open in her wake.

"Mommy," I heard her say after she turned a corner. "There are people at the door for you."

The little girl returned a moment later, following a woman who must have been Justin's mom. She smiled at us while she approached, but I could feel her apprehension. I wanted to inform Jay, but there was no time before she opened the door fully and gave us a smile that she didn't really mean.

"Hi," she said cheerily. "How can I help you?"

"Ms. Holmes?" Jay asked. At her nod he continued. "My name is Agent Johnson and these are Agents Fox and Campbell."

She eyed us and the badge that Jay was showing her warily before speaking. "What can I do for you?"

"Is your son Justin home?" Jay said bluntly. The shot of fear she felt from the question didn't require my abilities to notice.

"No," she finally said. I was surprised to recognize that she was telling the truth. I wasn't quite sure how I knew, but she was. Something in the feelings she was portraying seemed to tell me so.

"All the same," Jay continued, clearly not fazed by the answer he expected to receive. "Would you mind if we had a look around to make sure?"

"Is he in some kind of trouble?" she asked.

"Ms. Holmes," Jay said without answering her question. "Have you seen your son since he left last week?"

"No," she repeated, but this time it was a lie. Whatever part of my power was telling me this, I felt it completely. Justin had been home.

"I'm sorry," Justin's mom said while taking a step back. She seemed frantic now. "But I don't have time for these questions right now."

She started to close the door, but Jay had his armored boot in the way. "I'm afraid that we have a warrant to search the premises," he said while showing her the new document. She nodded and opened the door, but her face had lost all of its color.

"Who else is in the home right now, Ms. Holmes?" Jay asked her while stepping into the house. Justin's mom retreated a few steps when we entered and hugged the little girl to her.

"Just my daughter and me," she replied. Her voice was very shaky and she looked very scared.

Jay nodded at her. "Please step outside with her and wait for us out front. We'll make this as quick as possible."

She nodded at him again and the two of them stepped outside and sat down on a chair on the porch.

Jay turned back to us, pulling his shades over his eyes. "Nikki, take upstairs, I'll check this floor. Jaz, you find the basement."

He pulled out his gun and turned to start the search.

"He's been here," I said, stopping Jay and Nikki in their tracks.

"How do you know?" Nikki asked.

"I'm not sure, but I am certain she was lying when she said she hadn't seen him. She did seem to be telling the truth about him not being here now though."

Jay nodded. "Okay. Move out, we'll ask her about it after we're done in here. Stay alert and radio the rest of us if you find anything."

Nikki and I both nodded at him and Nikki turned toward the staircase to our right that led up to the top floor, pulling out her own gun in the process.

I pulled one of mine out of its holster and followed Jay down the short hallway to the first door. Most of the houses in this area had a basement, but the way down was not visible from the main entrance.

Justin and I cleared out much of the first floor before we found the kitchen, where a set of stairs led down. Jay pointed at them and I broke off and headed down.

It was dark at the bottom. I flipped the switch at the bottom of the staircase, and it lit up a hall that ran the length of the basement. There were three doors off to each side.

I opened myself up to my surroundings, but I couldn't feel anyone else down here with me. Cautiously I started down the hall, with my gun leading the way. Even though I had no formal training in the use of the weapon, I had seen enough cop shows to know how to clear an area. The Urban exercise during powers lab also gave me the confidence to know that I could use it.

The first two doors I encountered were facing each other across the hall. I did not want to leave my back exposed to one of them, but I had no choice. Opening the door on the right I reached out with my mind. I knew it was a bathroom before I mentally grasped the light switch and turned on the light. It was empty. A quick glance around the small room proved that.

The door on the other side of the hall led to a den that seemed to run most of the length of the basement. The room was well furnished but just as empty as the bathroom had been.

The next pair of doors also faced each other across the hall. I knew the one on the left led back into the den I had already checked. The other door led to a small office that was also well appointed, but also empty of anything significant to my search.

The last two doors in the hallway were once again facing each other. The door on the right led into a bedroom. The yellow walls and frilly bedspread along with the vanity on one wall and the dirty clothes strewn about were enough to indicate that it belonged to a young girl, possibly even the one we had already met. However, she seemed too young to have a room in the basement, and I wondered how many siblings Justin had.

Turning my attention to the last door, I turned the knob and pushed the door open. I heard a small click. Nothing happened immediately and I stepped into the room. It was Justin's bedroom. I recognized many items in the room that seemed to indicate it was his. Lying on the bed were the clothes he had worn when he jumped out of the plane. It was also empty like the other rooms.

But something was different. The click I had heard wasn't natural. Looking back at the door I saw a small wire running down from the faceplate to the floor. Following it with my eyes, it led half way around the room to a computer, which was powered up. The computer beeped.

Walking over to it I placed my hand on the mouse and moved it. The dark screen leapt into life, asking for a password.

I reached out, trying to use the computer skills that I had only begun to develop. I was able to bypass the login and see the information stored on the computer, but I was not entirely sure how I did it. It took me nearly five minutes to find and understand what had happened. Amazed at my ability to operate and get information from the computer without even logging in, I found the small program that had started when I opened the door to Justin's room. I had set off a silent alarm, and it had relayed the message to a cell phone. A search of the records on the phone company's files showed me that it was Justin's!

He knew we were here!

Quickly accessing my HUD controls I opened the communications menu and found Jay and Nikki.

"He knows we're here," I said, not sure if my message would go through.

"How do you know?" Jay responded, answering my question in the process.

"I set off a silent alarm when I opened his bedroom door."

"Okay," Jay responded. "Everyone meet back at the front door."

Before I even had a chance to respond I heard a loud crash from upstairs. Stepping out of Justin's room I turned toward the stairs, but he was already racing down them.

"Jaz!" he roared as he rounded the corner at the bottom and stared down the hall at me. His anger was washing over me in intense waves.

He didn't give me a chance to respond; he just started racing toward me, with an evil look in his eye.

I didn't hesitate. Before he had taken two steps I raised my arm.

The recoil of my gun seemed to have an extra kick this time.

*  *  *

---

Author Note: Please email me at AngelJediGirl (at) gmail (dot) com before posting this story to any other site. Posting to a pay site is prohibited.

Comments and suggestions are also welcome at the above email address.

Chapter 10 of this story contains an homage to Mass Effect, created by Bioware. Part of a backstory includes pieces similar to those written by their plot writers. I want to give them full credit for the ideas, as they are not mine, and thank them for making a wonderful game. No intent to harm or take credit for their work is intended here.

*  *  *
Chapter 9 - A Broken Stem

Two bullets struck Justin directly in the chest. But he was still coming straight at me. The taser rounds didn't seem to have any effect on him.

Scared to death at his oncoming rush, I did the only thing I could think of. I gathered all the strength I felt I could muster, and I pushed my telekinetic power at him.

Immediately, his direction changed. Instead of barreling toward me he was flying back down the hall the other way, arms and legs flailing, trying to catch himself. The shock on his face matched my own.

Justin slammed into the wall at the far end of the hallway, breaking through the drywall and smashing through most of the concrete foundation behind it.

I heard him groan, but before he had a chance to get back up Jay was there and blasted him with a spray of ice, freezing Justin in place in the wall.

"Whoa!" Nikki screamed when she entered the hall behind Jay. She then looked down the hall toward me, a look of shock and awe on her face.

I crossed the distance in the hall and joined Jay and Nikki in looking down at Justin. He was struggling, trying to get out of the ice that he was encased in.

When he saw me looking down at him, he stopped his struggle and smiled evilly at me.

"Impressive strength, Jaz," he sneered. "You would have been an excellent companion. It's really too bad that you have to die."

A vision sprang into my mind of Justin breaking the ice. Instinctively I stepped back just before his foot came smashing through the ice, passing directly through where I had just been standing!

But I was in shock at his ability to break out of the cage Jay had put him in. This shock prevented me from moving the second time, when his leg extended further, and he caught my right leg halfway between my knee and my foot.

The pain was immediate and excruciating! It felt like my leg had been hit by a truck. The crack that accompanied the hit left no doubt that he had broken my leg. I was in agony!

I heard Nikki's screams accompany my own while I fell to the floor. I'd never broken a bone before, and at the moment I was not able to imagine a worse pain.

Justin wasn't ready to stop there. Another kick and a few punches had him shattering the ice like it was paper. Even through the pain I realized that his hit on me and his shattering of the ice were the result of his greater density ability. He had only pretended to struggle until I got close.

He jumped up and took a step toward me, not even thinking about Jay or Nikki to his side. He lifted his foot and prepared to bring it down on my chest. I had no doubt that he would be able to crush all my vital organs in one blow.

Even through the pain I felt his tremendous hatred, and the great pleasure he felt when he started to bring his foot down on my chest.

In utter desperation I pushed back with everything I could, but it felt so weak. I was able to slow his foot but it still hit me with enough force to crack a rib, adding more to the excruciating pain I was already in.

A bright flash nearly blinded me; my shades had fallen off in the scuffle. But Nikki's blast had pushed Justin off of me and farther down the hall, something I would be forever grateful for.

"This isn't over," Justin sneered and I had to strain to see him from where he landed down the hall. He then jumped straight through the ceiling and I felt his presence moving away from the house.

"Watch her!" Jay screamed at Nikki and then took off up the stairs. I heard him pounding through the house and then he was out the front door.

"Are you okay?" Nikki cried frantically while dropping to her knees next to me.

"No!" I cried. Tears were streaming down my face now. "It hurts really bad!"

"Jaz, I'm so sorry! I should have blasted him earlier! I thought he was going to crush you when he stomped on your chest!" Tears were streaming out of her eyes too. She took my left hand in hers and held it. I pushed through the pain and tried to open my mind. I tried to feel my injuries in my chest, and it didn't feel like there was any bleeding. I knew I had a cracked rib.

"It's okay," I managed to reassure her through the pain. "I was able to stop his foot from doing any permanent damage, but he cracked a rib. My leg is killing me though."

"Oh Jaz," she sobbed, looking down at my leg. "It's broken!"

"I know," I whispered back.

Jay returned a few moments later.

"He just left," he was telling someone over the radio. "He was heading in the direction of the warehouse district. You might want to warn the other teams."

He was silent for a moment, listening to whoever was on the other end. "Jaz was injured," he eventually said.

After another quiet moment he continued. "Broken leg for sure. He also stomped on her chest when he was using his greater density power. I don't know how much damage that did."

He looked at me with worry while listening to the other end. I wish I still had my shades, because then I would know what was being said. I didn't know if the shades had the mic and the earphones or whatever allowed me to communicate with them, but it was the interface to listening in on the right channel.

"All right, we'll be waiting," he said and then ended the conversation. "Are you okay, Jaz?"

"Just a lot of pain," I said, gritting my teeth while trying to sit up.

"Don't get up!" he said frantically and tried to force me back down. "You could aggravate any internal injuries."

I laid back down at his insistence, but explained to him what I knew. "I think he just cracked a rib. I was able to slow his foot down quite a bit before he stomped on me. It's not nearly as painful as my leg."

He grimaced. "Nevertheless, lay here until the ambulance arrives. Let them check you out before moving, just in case."

I nodded slightly at him. I didn't have the strength to argue. Jay left us again to wait for the ambulance, leaving Nikki holding my hand and crying.

"It's okay, Nikki," I told her, but that just started her crying more.

We stayed there for nearly five minutes before I heard the sounds of an ambulance pulling up in front of the house. Shortly after that two EMTs appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

"Agent Campbell?" one of them asked me while kneeling down and taking a quick look at my leg. When he looked back up at my face I nodded at him. "Are you okay?" I nodded again. He returned his attention to my leg while his partner placed her bag down beside me and turned her attention toward my chest.

"I can't see anything with this suit on," the first medic said after a moment. "We're going to have to cut it off."

"No," I moaned at that thought. This was only the second time I had been given the chance to wear it, but I had already garnered an attachment to my suit. "I'm okay, really, no need to cut it off."

He frowned at me, obviously not agreeing with my statement. "We don't have a choice. They said you could have some internal injuries and we'll need to check for problems."

"I'm in pain, but I am okay," I stated again. "I'm pretty sure he only cracked one of my ribs. It's my leg that should be the priority."

He opened his mouth to argue with me but Jay took the opportunity to interject. "The suit is very resistant to cutting and tearing. You won't be able to cut it."

"Can we get it off?" the medic asked Jay.

"Yes, but we'll have to move her to undo it."

The medic sat back on his heels and sighed. He obviously didn't like that option with the injuries that I could have.

"Jay," I said in an even tone. He looked me straight in the eye. I tried to project as much confidence at him as I could when I spoke. "I'm okay."

He nodded at me, hearing my words for the first time.

"All right," he said while turning to the medic. "She'll be fine until we get her to the hospital. Can you get a gurney down here for her?"

"She's NOT fine, sir," the medic told him. I saw the same thought in the face of the woman at my side. She obviously agreed with her partner.

"Yes she is," Jay repeated. "Because I have confidence in her understanding of her injuries. I will assume responsibility for anything that happens by moving her. Please get a gurney."

The medic stared at Jay for a moment trying to decide if he could risk moving me. Finally he decided that it was better to get the gurney, and he went back up the stairs.

"Are you sure you're okay?" the other medic spoke for the first time. Her tone was skeptical, but I felt her feelings improve when I grinned slightly at her and nodded my head.

The first medic arrived with the gurney, pulled a brace off the top and knelt beside me again. Without a word he managed to wrap my leg in the brace, keeping it straight. He then slid an orange plastic board under me, moving me as little as he could. He and his partner then lifted me up and placed me on the gurney, pulling the board out from under me when I was in place.

"Alright," he said. "I'm trusting you, but I don't like it."

"I appreciate that," Jay said and then stepped aside to allow them to wheel me to the end of the hall where they lifted the gurney up the stairs. I was then wheeled back through the house to the front door and out onto the front porch.

As I was wheeled through the door, I noticed that it had been smashed to pieces. Outside Justin's mom was sobbing hard, holding her daughter tightly to her chest. The little girl was crying too. When she saw me another wave of sobs racked her before she stood up and stepped toward me.

"Are you alright?" she asked, the mascara running down her face told me just how much crying she had been doing.

"I'll be fine," I told her with a slight smile.

"I'm sorry," she said and I could feel that she really meant it. "I don't know what's wrong with him. He's been acting so strangely since he came home from that place."

"I know," I told her and reached out to take her hand. The medics stopped pushing the gurney and looked impatiently at me. "The Procedure altered his brain slightly; nothing that some medication can't help with. We just need to find some way to convince him of that."

She continued sobbing while nodding her head at me. I felt so sorry for her at that moment. I didn't know what Justin was like before the Procedure, but his actions since he returned would have been hard for any parent to endure.

"He'll be fine," I told her with a smile. She squeezed my hand and then let go. The medics continued pushing me down the drive and loaded me into the back of the ambulance.

*  *  *

"Female, approximately 20, broken leg and possible internal injuries in the abdomen."

The medic passed me off to a doctor in the ER.

"Cracked rib, broken leg," I stated to the doctor. She actually looked a lot like my mom, which made me feel better in her care. Her brown hair and caring eyes looked down at me, but she seemed skeptical of my diagnosis, just like the EMT had been.

"So she says," the medic said with a sigh. "She's your problem now. Good luck."

He gave us both a small smile and then exited the ER. The doctor turned her attention back to me. Nikki and Jay were forced to take the SUV here. I was desperately wishing they would arrive, because I didn't know what to do or say.

"All the same," the doctor said to me. "We need to get some x-rays done to be sure."

I nodded at her and she turned her attention to my injuries. "We're going to have to cut this suit off to get a look at the injuries. You work in law enforcement?"

I sighed, not knowing how much information I could give away. I couldn't deny my activities; the two guns still strapped around my waist were a dead giveaway. Where was Jay? They were supposed to be right behind me! My leg hurt a lot, and now I didn’t know what to tell the doctor.

"Yes," I finally replied. She looked nervous when I reached up to the small pouch on my belt and pulled out the badge Jay had given me earlier. I gave it to her.

She opened it and looked surprised at the information within. "Agent Jasmine Campbell, of the Department of Homeland Security. What exactly do you do, Agent Campbell?"

"Um…" I could kill Jay about now! Why would he send me off alone without any instructions? Surely he knew they would be asking questions. "It's classified?" I hadn't meant it to, but the last bit sounded more like a question than a statement.

"Jaz!" I heard Nikki say from behind me, and I saw her and Jay entering the ER. Thank heavens!

"Doctor?" Jay said to get her attention. She looked uncomfortable almost immediately when she realized that they were both wearing tactical suits and their own guns. Jay stretched out his hand. "My name is Jay Johnson. I'm Jaz's commanding officer."

She shook his hand before speaking. "Dr. Amanda Wright - pleased to meet you. We need to get her out of this suit to get some x-rays."

He nodded. "The suit can't be cut. We're going to have to take it off. I also spoke with one of our medical officers on the way here. She'll be here shortly to oversee her care. In the meantime she asked that you set the bone in the leg, but don't worry about pinning it."

"I'm more worried about the possibility of internal injuries," the doctor stated. She clearly wasn’t happy at the thought that someone else would be overseeing her work.

"You're sure it's only a cracked rib?" Jay asked me.

I nodded. "I checked."

That was enough for him to understand how I knew. He knew of my ability to see my surroundings through whatever power helped me use my telekinesis. It was possible that I couldn't detect the damage, or didn't know what to look for, but I didn't think that was the case.

He nodded back to me and then turned to the doctor. "If you show us to a private room, Agent Fox can help her out of the suit. She'll need a hospital gown or something else to wear."

The doctor was distinctly unhappy now. Her job was to diagnose my injuries, but we were telling her exactly what they were. She didn't like that. "We still need to check for other injuries."

"Yes," Jay agreed. "But she is stable enough to take off the suit. Once it is off and safely stored you can run any tests that you want."

The doctor looked more satisfied with Jay’s agreement. She probably thought that the suit was quite expensive and we didn't want it to get damaged. When she saw the situation in that way she could understand it.

"Ok, follow me." She started pushing the gurney I was on down a short hall and into an exam room. She then pulled the blinds closed while Nikki and Jay followed us in. "You can change in here. I'll go get a gown."

She stepped back outside and closed the door behind her.

"Nikki," Jay said. I looked at Nikki and saw that she was still crying. Clearly she blamed herself for my chest injuries, and nothing I had told her seemed to help her think otherwise. She looked up at Jay.

"Nikki," Jay said again. "It's not your fault. Jaz is going to be fine."

She nodded at him, but I could still feel the pain and agony that she felt inside. She did feel responsible. I reached out to her and tried to impress upon her my thanks and happiness. Once she felt this she quickly turned back to me and tensed up.

"Don't you dare mess with my feelings, Jaz!" she said to me sternly.

"Then listen to us," I responded, taking her hand in mine. "I'm not fine but I am alive. You saved my life by knocking him off of me. For that I will always be in your debt. Thank you."

Her emotions took a jolt at my words. She seemed to consider for the first time since it had happened that I would be okay. An understanding that she wasn't to blame crept into her. She just nodded at me, but her tears stopped.

"Nikki," Jay said one more time. "Help her get out of the Tac suit. Jill will be here shortly with the storage box and we need to get her leg set."

Nikki nodded at him and he smiled at the two of us and then left the room to give me my privacy.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Nikki asked me when he had closed the door.

"Yes," I told her, trying to keep the smile on my face. The pain in my leg was still very intense and it was hard to keep it calm for her sake.

"Okay." Nikki seemed to accept my answer and started helping me take off the suit.

She unbuckled my holster and removed it. After she had placed it carefully on a chair she turned back to me and helped me sit up. I only winced slightly. The suit had a zipper in the back under a small flap of the Chameleon material, and she was able to unzip it down to the bottom of my back. She then helped me pull my arms out of the suit and we pulled it off the top of my body.

This next part was going to be painful, and we both knew it. Nikki hesitated, not quite sure how to pull my leg out of the suit without causing me more pain or further injuring my leg.

"It's okay," I told her. "I think I can hold my leg together with my powers while you pull the suit off."

She nodded and then started pulling the suit down my back. I pushed myself up with my arms to allow her to pull the suit down past my bottom and then she walked to the end of the gurney.

"Are you ready?" she asked me. I answered with a nod and gritted my teeth.

Reaching out through the pain I held my leg telekinetically and tried to help keep it in the same position it was currently in. Nikki removed the brace and then started pulling on my suit. It hurt, but Nikki had the suit off quickly and I was left laying there in only my underwear, exhausted with the effort I had exerted.

A knock on the door signaled Dr. Wright's return. Nikki let her in and the first thing she did was replace the brace. She then helped Nikki wrap me in the hospital gown she had brought. I was happy to see it was pink.

Over the next couple of hours the doctor took x-rays, ran some tests, and eventually set my leg before returning me to a recovery room where Nikki, Jay, and Jill were waiting for me.

"You were right," Dr. Wright told me when I had been moved to the bed. "You have one cracked rib, another bruised rib, and a clean break of the tibia. The fibula seems to still be intact. Our surgeon wants to put a pin in the leg and get it in a cast, but Agent Johnson thinks that isn't necessary."

If looks could kill, the look Dr. Wright was giving to Jill would have done the job. But Jill did not want Dr. Wright to perform the medical procedures she normally performed, and I didn’t know why.

"I'll be back shortly and we can decide on the next step," she said before exiting the room and closing the door.

"How are you feeling, Jaz?" Jill asked me almost immediately.

"Okay," I replied.

"Good," she told me with a smile. "Ready to fix these bones?"

"Huh?" I asked, not understanding what she meant.

Jay answered my question. "Like Rob, Jill has an ability. She can heal with her touch."

I was awestruck at that information! "Then why am I in the emergency room?"

"I'm not a doctor," Jill told me. "I needed to know what your injuries were before I could heal them, and we needed them to line up your leg bone. Shall we get started?"

I just nodded. She then stepped over to my leg and placed her hand right over the break. I winced at the pain that it caused, but then I saw a small green glow coming from her hand, and the pain eased almost immediately.

When she removed her hand the pain was nearly gone, and my leg almost felt normal! Jill smiled at my wide eyes and then pulled my gown up over my chest, causing Jay to stiffen and turn away from me quickly.

"Sorry," I heard him say while Jill placed her hand over where my injured ribs were. I felt the same pain and then the wonderful feeling as the pain disappeared.

"There," Jill said while pulling my robe back down to protect my modesty. "Good as new. Your leg will probably ache for the next couple of days, but you should be okay to walk, or even dance on it."

Her grin lit up my face when I thought of dancing. I had forgotten that the End of Year Gala was on Saturday! The thought of the Gala led me to an even more urgent need.

"Where's Mark?" I asked expectantly.

Jill's smile grew even wider when she realized I knew what she was talking about. Apparently she approved of our relationship.

"Rob made him stay back at Headquarters," Jill told me. "He felt the last thing you needed right now was a hysterical boyfriend. Once we get you discharged we'll head over there so you can see him."

"Let's go then," the urgency in my voice made her laugh. It was pretty obvious how stricken I was with him and I felt that Nikki and Jill were going to tease me endlessly about it.

"Alright," Jill said. "Step one is to get you on your feet and into some clothes then. Jay?"

Jay turned to her and a knowing look crossed his face as he nodded. "Right, I'll be outside."

After he had exited the room Jill pulled out my sundress, sandals, and the bra I had left behind when we changed for the operation. I smiled at the familiar clothing.

I sat up from the bed and gingerly lifted my right leg. It was slightly sore, but the excruciating pain I had felt before was non-existent. It was absolutely amazing how fast the pain had disappeared!

I slowly swung my legs off the bed and stood up. The pain was very small and I took a few experimental steps to increase my confidence that the leg could support my weight. Nikki and Jill stood by smiling at me until I was ready for the next step.

Nikki handed me my bra and I pulled off the hospital gown and the sports bra I had been wearing and replaced it with the lacy number that matched my panties.

I then slipped the dress Jill was holding over my head and felt happy to be back in my own clothes.

"Ready to go?" Jill asked me.

"Yes," I told her, hardly able to keep her from seeing my anxiousness to see Mark again. He would have been watching us through the cameras and would have seen everything. I was pretty sure he must be in agony right now.

"Alright," Jill said while starting for the door. "Let's find Dr. Wright and get your release papers processed then."

She opened the door, and our search was complete. Dr. Wright had been about to knock.

"What are you doing standing!" she practically screamed when she saw me. "Get back on the bed!"

Jill tried to calm her down. "Don't worry - her leg has been healed. We're ready to sign her release papers."

The doctor just looked at Jill like she was crazy, obviously not buying for a minute the explanation that my leg had been repaired. But I was standing on it with no apparent pain, and that was something that would not have been possible if my leg was still broken.

"How?" she asked, understanding for the first time that we weren't exactly normal government agents.

"I would like to tell you, but I'm afraid that information is classified," Jill told her with regret.

Dr. Wright nodded, but it was obvious she wanted more information than we could give her. "Alright, follow me then."

She led us over to a nursing station where she helped us fill out the forms that were required to release me from the hospital. Within ten minutes we were on our way back to see Mark.

*  *  *
Chapter 10 - A Prick of the Thorn

When we pulled into the parking lot at the temporary headquarters I was surprised to see the other SUV's already there.

"Did they get him?" I asked anyone in the car.

"No," Jay said in a frustrated tone. "He got away."

I felt like crying. I just wanted this Justin business to be over. I wanted my life to continue without the threat that he brought to it.

Nikki reached over and gave me a hug.

"It'll be okay," she said. I didn't know if I had accidently projected my feelings or if she just knew me that well, but it was exactly what I needed at the time.

Her hug was quickly replaced by another when I finally exited the vehicle. I didn't even see Mark before he had me wrapped up in a bear of a hug.

"I'm so glad your okay," he whispered into my ear while he held me. "I was so worried."

"I'm okay," was all I managed to reply before I found myself sobbing in his arms.

I vaguely remembered Jill saying something about coming in for a debriefing, and I did my best to reign in my tears. But I knew my eyes were still red and puffy and there was no doubt that I had been crying when we entered the briefing room and took a seat.

I noticed that nearly every member of B2 was smirking at my condition. Only Stephanie had a concerned look on her face while she watched Mark pull my chair out for me.

"Well," Rob said after Mark had taken his own seat. "Not exactly the best start to the operation. You're okay, Jaz?"

I wasn't really happy about being put on the spot, especially when it was obvious that I had been crying. I just nodded my head.

"Despite two encounters, Justin remains at large," Rob's face looked grim at this announcement. I did not know that he had been engaged a second time. Rob turned to Jay, "What happened at his parents' house?"

"Justin had rigged his room with a silent alarm." Jay responded. "When Jaz opened the door it sent him a message, and he came quickly. Jaz had barely told us that she had tripped the alarm before he came barreling in the front door and after her."

"The alarm had been going for about five minutes when I realized what it was," I interrupted with a grim look.

"How do you know?" Jay asked me. He didn't look happy about learning this new bit of information.

"When I opened the door, I heard a click. It took me about five minutes to track the wire coming from the door to the computer and then access the computer to find out what it was doing."

"You should have mentioned the click over the comm immediately," Rob told me sternly.

"I know," I said while dropping my head in shame.

"So your stealth expert gets caught by the first silent alarm she encountered," Michael said from the other end of the table. He chuckled at my misfortune and all the other members of B2, other than Stephanie, smiled.

Whether it was because I was tired, because of everything I had gone through, or because I had just had enough of his demeaning attitude toward me, I totally lost it.

"Look!" I practically screamed at him while standing up. I knew that my rage was being projected throughout the room and I saw a number of people recoil from me. "I'm not experienced! I know I need training! I'm sick of you using me to put down, Agent Harris! I'm not a prodigy! I'm just a new recruit who needs training! Any score I've been given on paper has nothing to do with my abilities until I receive that training! Lay off your ‘holier than thou’ attitude and try to work with us as a team!"

I backed down on projecting my rage, but I immediately felt his rage coming my way. Before he had a chance to say anything, Jonothon was on his feet. His rage was turning his face about the same color as the tips of his hair.

"Don't you dare talk that way to us!" he screamed while lifting his arm toward me. Instantly I "felt" he was going to shoot me with something, and the second I saw some kind of projectile leave his hand I pushed it back at him with all the force I could muster. It smashed into his chest and he went flying backwards into the wall, his Tac suit stopping any major damage but not able to completely absorb the impact of the small object I had hurled back at him.

"Stop it!" Rob yelled. He was standing up and glaring at me when I turned to look at him. I knew I was in big trouble, but I didn't care.

Jonothon jumped back up; even while clutching his chest it was apparent he wanted to continue the fight. Perhaps the only reason he didn't attack again was because of the hand Michael laid on his shoulder.

"You've gone too far, Agent Campbell!" Michael yelled at me with a dark, sinister look.

"By protecting myself from his attack?" I screamed back.

"Jaz, sit down!" Rob yelled at me and Mark actually pulled me back down into my chair.

"I'm reporting this incident, Rob," Michael told him. "She'll be out of the program in no time."

"Good!" Rob replied. "Go ahead and report the incident. I think most of the individuals in this room saw your own team leader attack first. We'll see who gets kicked out of the program."

Michael looked around the table. It was obvious through the eyes of the A1 and A2 teams, and even in Stephanie's, that he would not win this battle.

"We're done," he said while standing up. "B2, let's go."

Everyone in the room looked shocked at that announcement, but Jonothon, Heather, and the other guy from B2 I had not been introduced to got up and followed him out of the room.

"I'm sorry," Stephanie said while standing up herself. "I wish I could stay and help."

"It's okay, Stephanie," Jill said to her softly. "It's not your fault."

Stephanie gave us a quick smile and then followed after her teammates.

After we heard their SUV take off Rob turned on me again.

"What were you thinking?" I had never seen him look so mad.

I felt myself sobbing again when I replied. "I'm sorry, but I don't have any training yet. I wasn't even thinking about stealth when I opened that door."

"You still should never confront another team's handler that way!" he continued to yell at me.

"I said I was sorry!" My sobbing wasn't dying down at all. "I was just so sick of him comparing me to my Procedure rating! I'm not a prodigy and I was sick of him treating me that way!"

"That still gave you no right..."

"Quit yelling at her, Rob!" Jill interrupted him with a silencing glare. "We had a major injury on our team today! Our emotions are going to be running high. Don't take it out on her!"

Rob stared at Jill, then nodded and sat back down in his seat.

"I'm sorry," he stated in a much softer tone. "We never should have agreed to work with B2. There's too much bad blood there."

"What happened between you two?" Theresa asked him. Everyone was looking for that answer.

"I can't give all of the specifics," Rob said as he frowned. "We were working together on a mission to capture a VIP who was taking cover in an oil refinery. We split up and then suddenly the whole refinery was being blown to bits. Michael blamed me for blowing his cover which he said required him to blow the refinery."

"Did you?" Rock asked him.

"No," Rob said. "But the blast killed a lot of innocent people. Michael is all about getting the mission completed. How he accomplishes the goal is often not the best way for those around him."

"What do we do now?" Jay asked, bringing us back to the subject at hand.

"There's not much we can do," Rob said. "We have both the warehouse and Justin's parents’ house under surveillance, but it's unlikely he will return to either. A1 will be on call in case we spot him, and we may have you try and sweep the city tomorrow. A2 is off duty until after you graduate. Jaz is right. You need training before we give you another assignment."

"I can still help with the search," Jay told Rob, who nodded.

"Agreed - you've had the training and we could use the help." He looked slightly happier now. "In the meantime I think everyone can use some rest. It's been an emotion-filled day for all of us. Nikki, if you want to change out of your Tac suit we can give Jaz, Mark, and you a ride home."

Nikki nodded and stood up before walking out the door and down the hall to the changing room.

*  *  *

After being dropped off in front of my house, I realized that I wanted nothing more than to crash on my bed. I felt like I could sleep for days.

Unfortunately, Mom was home and she did not look pleased with me.

"The school called," she said when I walked in the front door. I sighed knowing where this was probably going. "They said you missed classes today."

My mom got this call from the school often, but it was almost always because of my brothers.

"I'm sorry," I told her. "Jill came by this morning. She had a mission for us."

The explanation mollified her slightly, but she seemed even more apprehensive about my absence. "A mission? Doing what?"

"Looking for Justin."

She seemed to relax at that thought. I realized then that she was worried about me. I was still her child and she probably didn't like the idea of the harm my new job could put me in.

"Did you find him?" she asked.

"It was more like he found us," I said grimly. Something in the way I said it seemed to shoot warning signals her way, and her concern truly grew.

"What happened?" she asked softly, though she seemed hesitant to know the answer.

I couldn't help it - I started crying again. This whole day had been so emotionally charged that I couldn't escape it any more than I could the previous times.

"Oh!" Mom was startled at my reaction, but immediately wrapped me in a loving hug. "It's okay, you're fine now."

Her words made me cry even harder. She couldn't possibly know how fine I was not.

"I'm not fine, Mom." I told her while sobbing. "He wants me dead. He broke my leg and he broke one of my ribs when he stomped on my chest today."

I had not wanted to tell her that information and I was surprised that I had blurted it. I felt my mother’s horror at what had happened to me.

"But..." she started, not understanding what I had just told her. "You seem fine."

"Physically I’m fine," I said. My crying was starting to wane but my mom still held me in her comforting hug. "Jill was able to heal the damage."

"Is there anything I can do?" she asked me.

"No," was the only thing I could say.

Despite my answer she did do something for me, something that I desperately needed from her at that moment. She held me in that hug.

"It'll be okay, honey," she whispered in my ear while rocking me back and forth slightly. I loved my mom so much at that moment, and I didn't want her to ever let go of me.

Eventually she did though. She looked me in my eyes, and I realized that for the first time in my life she truly saw me. She finally understood why I went through what I did. She gave me a bright, understanding smile for the first time since I had come home.

"Why don't you go lie down for a while. I'll make dinner."

"Ok," I replied and turned toward my room. Within a minute of lying down on my bed, I was asleep, exhausted after the day's events.

*  *  *
Chapter 11 - A Weed in the Garden

Mom awakened me around seven o'clock that evening. My family was eating a late dinner and she wanted to know if I wanted to join them.

I agreed and got out of bed to follow her, pausing shortly in front of my mirror to check my hair and makeup, which of course were perfect because of my power.

My family was already eating when I walked into the kitchen. I got a plate and filled it up before joining them at the dining room table.

Mom and Dad stared at me while I took my seat, and I saw the sadness in their eyes. They were realizing that they could no longer protect me the way they used to because of my new powers and what I was going to be doing for a living.

"Are you doing okay?" my dad asked me, the concern very evident in his voice.

"I will be," I replied softly. I didn't really want to talk about the issue anymore.

Ben sat oblivious to this change, but Cami immediately sat up as she realized that something was wrong.

"What's wrong?" she asked while dropping her fork, showing more concern and worry than my parents had.

"Nothing," I told her. I was afraid that talking about it would cause me to cry again. But the response was obviously not what she wanted to hear.

"Don't you dare start leaving me out of your life! We just got to know each other!"

It was too much - the feelings I had struggled with all day, combined with the sadness I felt about not confiding in my sister. Tears streamed down my face again while I struggled to eat the food hanging on my fork.

"I'm so sorry," my sister said immediately. She got up and walked around the table to give me a hug. The hug definitely felt better, but it also made me cry even more because of the love and support that my family had shown me since I came home.

"I love you guys!" I cried, returning my sister's hug. She squeezed me tighter to let me know she felt the same way.

After I had cried myself out again we returned to eating, and nobody mentioned what had happened today or what was wrong. I was soon back in my room after getting ready for bed early, and wearing a short, lacy pink nightie I drifted off to sleep once again.

*  *  *

A loud crash awoke me. It was still dark outside and a quick glance at my alarm clock showed me it was two in the morning.

Despite the tiredness I had felt after the events during the day I was wide awake because of adrenaline pumping through my system. Someone was in the house!

I immediately jumped out of my bed and I swung open my bedroom door, where I found my dad coming out of his room.

"Stay in your room!" he loudly whispered to me.

But that was something I couldn't do. I shook my head, and he seemed to understand that I was better equipped to handle whoever had come through the plate glass door from the back patio.

Running down the hall I rounded the corner into the kitchen. The dining room on the far side is where the door to the patio was located. Shards of glass were all over the floor, and my worst nightmare was crouched right in the middle of them.

The gleam in his eyes had a malevolent tinge to it. He slowly raised himself from the crouch he had been in, glaring at me with a murderous intent I did not want to deal with when my family was nearby.

"Dad," I said softly but clearly, knowing that he was standing directly behind me. "Get my phone and call Jill. Tell her that Justin's here."

Justin's mouth broke into a nefarious grin at my words, and the hint of teeth behind the smile made him look more sinister than I had ever seen before. He laughed loudly.

"They can't help you, Jaz," he told me. "You and your family will be dead before any of them can arrive."

The fear I felt at having him here in my home, in the one place I thought was safe, was compounded by the fear I felt at his threat to my family. My fear intensified tenfold when I saw my brother Adam slowly ascending the stairs behind Justin. I knew my brother, and I knew that he was going to try to take Justin down. That was something that I could NOT let happen! Adam would never stand a chance against him!

Justin saw me look away, and he spun around at the same time Adam leaped for him.

Although I gasped, I was already in motion. Instead of stepping straight into the high kick that Justin was in the middle of, Adam slammed into the wall behind where he had been standing. I felt bad about pushing him out of the way so roughly, but I couldn't let him be a part of this fight.

Justin then went flying back out the shattered door and onto our patio. I didn't want him causing any more damage inside the house.

I quickly ran to the patio door, bypassing the sharded glass to the best of my ability. Justin was getting back up when I stepped out onto the patio. His fury had only increased with my attempts to fight back.

"This is your own fault, Jaz!" he screamed at me. "Your family would have lived through this if you had not visited mine! They have nothing to do with this!"

"We were only looking for you, Justin!" I yelled back at him. I was hoping that I could talk some sense into him but I doubted he would listen. "It doesn't have to be this way. We can help you."

He just screamed and charged straight at me. I knew that if I stepped to the side he would be running back into the house, and directly toward my family, who had gathered behind me. I could not permit that!

Instead of allowing him to run right through me I was able to "push" him at the last second with my powers, turning him slightly to the side. His surprise at the new trajectory prevented him from seeing the kick I placed straight into his chest.

I was afraid that my kick would feel like I was hitting a concrete wall if he had increased the density of his body. To help counter his power I enhanced my kick with as much telekinetic energy that I could create.

My short nighty rose while I twirled into the kick. But despite any embarrassment I felt at flashing my panties to my family, I landed the kick solidly on his chest. He had increased the density of his body, but the telekinetic energy surrounding my leg absorbed the extra impact, protecting my leg from breaking and extending the power of my kick.

I heard my family gasp behind me when Justin fell backward, clutching his chest. He was having difficulty breathing. I hoped that I had cracked a rib to make up for what he had done to me this morning, but I didn't think I would be that lucky.

"Don't do this, Justin!" I yelled at him while he struggled to catch his breath. I took a step toward him, ready to do anything needed to protect my family.

He struggled to his knees, gasping the entire time.

"You'll pay for that!" he wheezed. Clearly he wasn't going to back down. He stared up at me, obviously trying to figure out what to try next while struggling to get enough air into his lungs to attempt whatever he came up with.

For the first time during our encounters I felt a different emotion from him. He was concerned! He was starting to realize that I wasn't the weakling that he believed me to be. I could fight back.

I decided to try a new tactic. Maybe I could calm him down enough to reason with him. I opened up to Justin, and I tried to send him soothing and calming feelings. It even looked like it was working.

"I can help you, Justin," I told him softly, adding a small bit of love to the emotional cocktail I was sending his way.

That was a mistake. Justin had been calming down, and the tactic seemed to be working. But once he felt love from me, he became enraged. With a loud roar he jumped to his feet, quickly narrowing the gap between us and swinging at me with a punch.

I felt time slow down around me like it had when I entered the flag room back at the Complex. I was receiving so much sensory input from my new powers that I could analyze everything so fast that it seemed like slow motion.

It was easy to dodge right to avoid his first punch, and my own fist enhanced with my own telekinetic abilities swung around and caught him on his right cheek.

Although I was physically weaker than either Nikki or Justin, I still had a lot of power to my punches. Between my enhanced body and my telekinetic powers, my punch was strong enough to cause Justin to step back, hand to his bloody mouth.

He raged even more at the sight of his own blood and doubled his efforts. Despite the power I was able to put into my punches, I knew they were no match for Justin's punches. One shot from him could kill me.

We melded into a fluid fight. I did my best to avoid his fists, and he did his best to land them. I knew that we both could keep this up for a while and that I wasn't going to be able to tire him out easily. But I hoped to buy enough time for the others to arrive and help me.

I was doing well. I'd managed to punch or kick him back a couple of times, but they were generally ineffective. He'd fall back slightly but then come on harder because of the slight pain I had inflicted. We'd been circling each other for nearly five minutes before it happened.

I saw an opening, and felt that I should take it. As I brought my leg around to land the kick, I sensed the trap I had fallen into. I immediately knew that his leg was coming around, and that I needed to get out of the way. But I was off center. My leg was in the air and I had no way to step away from it.

I braced myself, trying to push against his leg to slow the kick much like I had when he stomped on me earlier that morning. I could only hope that I had slowed it enough.

His kick connected with my side. This time it was not strong enough to break a rib, but the pain was nearly as excruciating.

I collapsed to my knees, clutching my side. But Justin wasn't finished. I knew that a second kick was coming straight for my head.

"Jaz!" Mom screamed from behind me. Her worry made me realize that they would be next if I let Justin get the upper hand!

I knew that I would not be able to stop his kick, and it was probably too late to try to slow it down. But I had another option. I pushed out with my mind, and I heard Justin swear when his other leg went flying out from underneath him. It wasn't enough to stop the kick, but his loss of balance meant that I significantly reduced the power of his kick, and I was able to absorb the impact with my shoulder instead of taking a direct hit to my head.

He did not cause any permanent damage to me when his foot connected with my shoulder, but he seemed to twist his other ankle when he came crashing down on top of me.

I pushed him off of me, struggling to get up to meet any more attacks. But he was struggling nearly as much as I was. Attempting to stand on his hurt ankle nearly caused him to collapse again, and instead of turning back toward me for a second attack he turned and hobbled through our back fence. He was slowly retreating, but it was a retreat. My family was safe for the time being.

"Jaz!" I heard someone scream a second before I was wrapped in a tight hug that shot pain throughout my shoulder.

I winced, and I moaned slightly, because my sister let go immediately. "I'm sorry!"

I smiled at her before returning her hug. "It's okay - it just surprised me."

Mom and Dad were next, wrapping me in hugs while trying to prevent squeezing my shoulder. They now knew that they could no longer protect me, and the dangers I faced were immense. I returned their hugs, projecting how much I loved and cared for them. I didn't want them to worry as much as they were.

"You need to go change," Mom whispered to me when she let go of her hug. I had forgotten that I was still in my nightie. As I looked down I saw that it had been torn on the right side, and from a certain angle my bare breast was visible through the tear.

I turned red immediately, and hoped that my dad and my brothers hadn't seen anything I didn't want them to see.

I nodded to my mom. While clutching the tear closed I headed for the steps back into the house. I could still feel Justin slowly moving away, and I was pretty sure we were safe for the time being.

My brothers were staring at me when I passed back into the house, and I was suddenly nervous that they had seen through the tear.

"That was awesome!" Ben said to me while I stepped back around the shards of glass. "You're like a ninja!"

I just smiled at him. If my brothers had seen my breast, it wasn't what they were focused on. Adam smiled at me, nodding agreement with Ben. He looked disappointed that he didn't get to help, but it appeared he realized now that it wasn't a fight he was going to win.

"Well," I heard Adam say while I closed the door to my room. "I think that proves that she really is a girl."

I blushed furiously when I heard Ben laugh.

*  *  *

Rob, Jill, Jay, the A1 team and Nikki had all arrived while I was changing into black yoga pants and a pink tee. My family was filling them in on what had happened when I walked into the living room.

"She was amazing!" I heard my sister saying. She blushed when she realized that I had heard her. She was also beaming with pride at what I had done. I just smiled at her.

"Are you okay, Jaz?" Nikki asked me. She stood up from where she had been sitting and gave me a quick hug.

"Yeah," I replied after she had let go. I took a seat between her and Cami on one of the couches. "I've got a bruise on my shoulder and side, but nothing like this morning."

Cami and my parents winced at the reminder of what I had gone through yesterday. Mom must have filled Cami in after I had gone to bed.

"I can take care of the bruising if you'd like," Jill told me, and I nodded at her.

"Before we separate," Rob interrupted before we could stand up. He looked at me and my parents when he spoke. "I just wanted to let you know that we will be watching your house round the clock. If Justin returns, there will be at least one of us here to confront him, even if Jaz is not home."

"Thank you," I told him. I didn't need my powers to explain to him just how grateful I was. I knew that he could see it in my eyes.

Rob started talking to my parents about the details while Jill, Nikki, and my sister followed me back to my room.

"How are you doing, Jaz?" Jill asked when we were alone. I knew that she was asking as my therapist now.

"I'm tired but fine," I told her weakly. "I just never thought he would show up here."

"We should have anticipated this move, especially after this morning. I'm sorry we weren't able to get here faster."

I smiled at her to alleviate the guilt that she was feeling. "It wasn't your fault, and I'm glad that I learned I can hold him off, for the most part."

She smiled back at me. I felt some of her guilt dissipate, but it didn't go away completely. "Take off your shirt and let's see what we can do about those bruises."

I pulled my shirt over my head. Even after nearly two weeks I still felt slightly uncomfortable standing there in front of them while only wearing a bra. I wondered if I would ever get used to doing so, but then realized that most women probably have the same apprehension.

"It doesn't look too bad," Jill said after examining my shoulder and side. She then placed one of her hands over both locations and the green glow was washing over my wounds once again.

"Wow!" my sister gasped when Jill had removed her hands. The bruises had still been forming, but they had been visible. Now I had clear skin. I could understand her amazement at seeing Jill's powers at work.

"Thank you, Jill," I told her while putting my shirt back on.

She smiled. "You're welcome. I think you guys need to get some sleep if you’re going to do well on your finals."

Finals - just great. If I hadn't had enough to worry about already, I now had to start my finals. Did I ever mention how much I hate tests?

*  *  *
Chapter 12 - Finals Bloom

When my alarm went off the next morning, I really, really wanted to hit the snooze button. I wasn't ready for the first day of finals, but they were waiting for me anyway.

I managed to drag myself out of bed and get ready for the morning. Wearing dark jeans and a beautiful red top, I walked into the kitchen where my mom had made french toast for breakfast.

It was odd to see the plastic tarp covering the area where the sliding glass door to the patio had been, but at least the glass had been cleaned up. It also reinforced the point that I would have to be alert at all times until Justin was caught.

"Morning, honey," Mom said while putting two slices of french toast on a plate for me. "Sleep well?"

I chuckled in response, and the smile on her face was enough to let me know that she was trying to cheer me up. It worked.

"I'm sorry about last night, Mom," I said. "I never thought that going through this would put you guys at risk."

"It's not your fault, honey," she replied. "We don't blame you for last night."

I was happy to hear her say that, and I took a seat and enjoyed the wonderful breakfast she had made.

Once I had finished eating and walked out the front door I found Theresa climbing out of a van on the other side of the cul-de-sac from my house. She smiled at me while we both approached my car that was parked on the road.

"How are you doing?" she asked.

"Good," I replied. "Your turn for watch duty?"

She nodded, making her red hair look like it was on fire. "I'm on until noon."

"Thank you for doing this. I didn't think that going through the Procedure would put my family in a situation like this."

She frowned before she replied. "I know what you mean. I would hate to have my family targeted like yours was last night."

"I'm just glad I was able to hold him off."

She nodded her head again. "You're much more powerful than you think you are, Jaz. I wouldn't want to get into a fight with you. When you’ve completed your training and your powers are fully developed, you will be a formidable opponent."

I smiled slightly, even if I totally didn't believe her. "Thanks," I told her.

"Anyway," she said. "I just wanted to wish you luck on your finals."

"Ugh," I sighed. "I just wish they were over."

She smiled at my distress and let me get in the car. I waved at her while backing out and driving away.

*  *  *

Nikki felt about the same way I did - she was not looking forward to any of her finals. I had picked her up on the way into school, and we both were wishing we could drive somewhere else.

"I'll see you at lunch," she told me when we had walked in the doors. I nodded to her and started walking down the hall to my first class.

The school spread the finals across four days. Each day was a half-day class for one of the four periods usually held that day. Today I had to take my math and biology finals. Tomorrow I would take my English and French finals, Monday I would have my P.E. and history finals, and Tuesday I would finish with my photography and computer science finals.

I was worried about how to explain my presence in the computer science class. I no longer looked like the typical student who took those types of classes, but I had been taking them since my sophomore year. It was the one class that I had not yet attended. We never went to our final period because of Justin's attack at school on Tuesday. Now I would be showing up for the first time to take the final.

I didn't know it when I walked into Mr. Compton's math class, but I was going to learn another lesson about being a girl.

Immediately I could feel the hatred and jealousy in the room, and it was directed straight at me. I nearly panicked, but a quick check revealed that Justin was not in the room.

Instead, I realized that these feelings were coming from Susan. Just great, the last thing I wanted to do was piss off the head cheerleader and have to worry about it for the last week of school.

Susan was staring daggers at me while I crossed the room toward my desk. I didn't know what she was so mad about, but there was no denying that she was very, very upset with me. Maybe I had messed up the status quo in same way. I had heard that can be a very bad thing for a high school girl to do. But I couldn't think of anything that I had done.

She wasn't in my French class, so she probably wasn't mad about Justin barging in there. She was probably glad to get out of school early. In fact, nobody seemed to be blaming me for the incident. I realized that this was my first time back to school since then, but nobody was looking at me any differently. Granted, I hadn't seen anyone from my French class yet though.

"Hi," I said to her with a smile while sliding into my seat next to her. I even tried to send her positive emotions, but it didn't seem to phase her mood. She continued to glare at me while I sat there. I think she was trying to intimidate me with her look, but it was more annoying than anything else.

"Something wrong?" I asked her innocently. Her scowl only deepened.

"Oh, you know what you did. Don't try to play innocent with me." Her statement just confused me even more. What could I have possibly done?

We now had a small audience watching what was happening. Mr. Compton had not yet entered the classroom, and everyone could feel the tension in the air.

I gave her a slight frown, "I'm sorry, but I honestly don't know what I did to make you mad at me." Her face turned red, and her anger spiked even higher. That was obviously the wrong thing to say.

"I know you're new here, Jaz," she said in a calm voice that belied her true feelings. "But you can't just move into a new territory and expect to take someone's guy without a fight."

Ohhhh! She was mad about Mark and me! As I began to think about it, I realized that there were rumors around school before I left for the Procedure that she was hoping to get Mark to ask her to the Gala. I had inadvertently put myself into a very dicey situation.

"Well, I'm not going to apologize for that." I was on a roll, because that was also the wrong thing to say, even if it was the truth. She stood up, and she was going to do something about it, but Mr. Compton entered, and Susan stopped immediately. I knew she wouldn't want to risk any type of detention. That would be bad for her reputation.

"This isn't over," she said to me while sitting back into her seat, and I knew she meant it.

Mr. Compton, oblivious to the tension the rest of us were feeling, got us all settled and ready for our final.

Fortunately as finals go, this first one was quite easy. Because I had access to all of the memories and information that I needed to understand how to solve the problems, it was just ‘busy work’ after that. If the rest of my classes were like this, I had a good shot at finishing the year strong.

I finished much earlier than my classmates, and Mr. Compton looked at me strangely when I walked up to his desk to hand him my test packet.

"Are you sure you don't want more time to go over your answers?" he asked me.

Shaking my head slightly I said, "No, I already double checked them. I don't think there's much more I can do with it."

I realized while walking back to my desk that I may have finished too early. While I knew that I didn't cheat, being able to answer the questions and double check the answers in the timeframe that I had done it in would be hard for a normal person to do. The only benefit I had on my side was that Mr. Compton did not have other scores upon which to base my performance. I hoped that I didn't cause any problems for myself, but I did feel that I could prove my ability if they questioned it.

After I returned to my desk, I pulled my biology book and notes out of my bag and reviewed them for my next final after lunch.

When the bell rang I calmly replaced my book and notes back in my bag and stood up to leave. I was worried about Susan, but she rushed out of the room quickly. Whatever she planned to do, it would be outside of the classroom. Once out the door I was even more relieved to see that she was nowhere in sight.

*  *  *

Nikki and I were sitting together in the cafeteria. Her history final was much like my math final had been. She also had a photographic memory, and answers to questions popped into her head before she even finished reading the question. She was worried that her teachers would think she was cheating because of her increased ability, just as I was concerned.

We were sitting there discussing our mornings when a shadow fell over us. At first I flinched slightly because I thought that Susan may be finally making her move. However, I was more than happy to spot Mark standing above me.

With a broad smile he asked, "Is this seat taken?"

"Not at all," I replied, returning his smile while he sat down next to me. He leaned over and gave me a kiss, which I was hoping would last longer than etiquette would allow for a lunch-time cafeteria.

He quickly joined us in our conversation, and it was apparent that he wasn't having quite the success at his finals as we had been.

"I wish I'd already gone through the Procedure," he mentioned when he learned how easy our finals had been. "I struggled through my Spanish class. I couldn't seem to remember anything."

The advantage with having a Precog power, I realized moments later, was that reliance on it could sometimes be detrimental to those around me. Without even realizing what I had done, I found myself leaning into Mark quite a bit. If I hadn't done so, I probably would have been wearing the large piece of Jello that went flying past my shoulder, nearly hitting a shocked Nikki, and landing on a football player sitting at the next table.

Shocked, we all turned to see where it had come from. Two tables away sat Susan with a number of other cheerleaders. The rage on her face at missing me almost immediately turned to embarrassment when she realized the miss had caused her to hit Dave Larsen, the starting quarterback for the football team. He did not look pleased.

Susan rushed up to him with a couple of napkins, and tried to help him clean up the mess she had made.

"I'm so sorry!" she said over and over. Hitting the new girl was one thing, but hitting Dave Larsen was a blow to her reputation.

"What were you doing?!" he screamed back at her. Dave's family was pretty well off, and it looked like the clothes he was wearing were expensive.

"I'm sorry," she began to explain. "I was aiming for Jasmine," she glared at me. "But she moved at the last second!"

"Why were you throwing food at anyone?!" he screamed even louder.

"Because she..." Susan started, but it was apparent her answer would only seem catty to everyone looking on. "Just because!"

"Not good enough!" Dave retorted. "You better have a good excuse for causing me this dry cleaning bill!"

He stood there glaring at Susan. Susan was apparently at war with herself. It was obvious that her reputation was damaged more than she wanted, and telling Dave the real reason would only increase that. But not answering Dave could cause other problems for her.

"Well?" Dave asked after her silence continued for a number of seconds. "I'm waiting!"

"It's just that," Susan started before pausing again. "It's, well...she stole Mark from me!"

I actually heard Mark choke on his breath next to me before he was able to respond.

"What?!?" he said, clearly not agreeing with her.

"You were supposed to ask me to the Gala!" Susan turned on him. "Not this new tramp!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Mark said while standing up and placing his arms on my shoulder protectively. "Jaz is definitely not a tramp! And, why would you think I would ask you?"

The look on Susan's face at that moment was priceless, but being able to feel the emotions running through her at the same time truly made me feel sorry for her. She was clearly a jerk, but no one should have to feel embarrassed that way.

Without another word Susan turned on her heels and ran out of the cafeteria, leaving her fellow cheerleaders behind in shock.

I wanted to go find Susan and apologize to her. Nikki couldn't understand why I would want to go looking for her, and even after explaining what I had felt she still didn't quite understand. She refused to let me go look for her though, claiming that my own increasing reputation would be damaged. I didn't believe it would, and frankly I didn't care, but I relented. Nevertheless, I planned to stop by her house later.

The events during lunch did have a positive impact though. It reminded me that I still had to go shopping for a Gala dress, and Nikki was more than happy to accompany me later that evening.

I was happy to have Mark at my side throughout lunch and when he walked with Nikki and me to our biology final. I felt safe when he was around, even though I knew I could protect him more than he could protect me at the current time. It was a feeling that I had never felt before. But he felt so right I couldn't deny the attraction that we had for each other.

Thankfully - according to Nikki - we weren't acting like love-struck teenagers anymore. While our attraction was just as strong, she seemed to be happy that we didn't fall over each other every time we saw each other. I hadn't realized that we had been doing that.

We took our seats and Mr. Bailey started handing out the finals. As I sat there waiting for my copy of the exam, I remembered so clearly that the entire chain of events, including this whole ordeal with Justin, began because of a test in this class. I was now coming to the end. Hopefully the rest of the school year would go well and I could continue on with a normal life, albeit as a young woman now.

The good thing about this biology final was that Mr. Bailey knew all about us. He wouldn't be suspicious of our good grades like the other teachers might have been. He knew of our improved abilities, and perhaps he would vouch for us if problems arose.

Just like the math final this morning, I had no problem with the biology test. Everything I had learned before the Procedure was just as clear as the material I had reviewed this morning. My goal was to beat Nikki, and I managed to turn in my final five minutes before she was finished. I saw her frown when I stood up, and I could feel her defeat while I walked up to Mr. Bailey. Obviously, she'd had the same idea.

Mr. Bailey just smiled as I approached his desk. He seemed surprised that I had finished as quickly as I had, but he didn't seem to be as wary as my math teacher had been. He didn't say anything to me when I handed him my paper and returned to my seat.

I glanced over at Mark. He was struggling through his test. I knew that he was a smart guy, but he had confided to me that he hated taking tests. The added stress always seemed to make him forget things.

I sent soothing feelings his way, and I watched his face go from the contorted struggle I'd originally seen, to a more serene, thoughtful gaze. He glanced at me, and I smiled at him. He smiled back before his pencil started filling in the bubbles quickly. It was the least I could do for him.

I then pulled my book out of my bag and settled in to read for the rest of the school day. I had plenty of time.

*  *  *

"Thank you," Mark said just before he kissed me again. "I wish I could take you to all of my classes. That was the best test I've ever taken!"

"No problem," I said, laughing. "You looked so frustrated that I had to do something."

"I love you, Jaz," he said with a gleam in his eye.

I smiled. It wasn't the first time he'd said the words, but it still made my heart flutter. "I love you too, Mark."

"Please," Nikki interrupted us. "Get a room."

We chuckled, but more importantly, for her at least, we turned and continued to walk toward the parking lot.

"What are your plans for tonight?" I asked Mark. I'd love to hang out with him some more.

"I'm going with my dad to work on some real estate stuff," he replied, but he sounded sad about it now. He realized that I was offering him the chance to hang out more, and he would rather hang out with me than with his dad.

"Oh," I replied in a downcast tone.

"That's okay," Nikki interrupted. "We need to go dress shopping, remember?"

"Oh! I forgot about that!" I said again, but this one had a positive beat to it. Shopping for a dress would be fun.

Mark laughed at my renewed excitement. "I guess you'll be fine without me," he said. "I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Okay," I replied, just before he gave me another kiss.

*  *  *
Chapter 13 - Adornments

"What about this one?" Nikki asked me while holding a dress in front of herself. The dress was light pink, and it was very pretty, but...

"My mom would never let me wear that," I told her. I might be new to being a girl, but I'd seen what Mom would let Cami wear, and this was definitely out.

"Why?" she asked.

"It's strapless!" I replied. "Even if my mom would let me wear something like that, I doubt I would even be prepared for it."

"But you like it," she said, reading my expression.

"Yeah," I said before smiling broadly. I did like the dress.

"Try it on," she said while pushing the dress at me.

"Nooooo!!" I immediately replied. No matter how much I liked the dress, I...I just couldn't wear it yet.

"Come on," she whined, trying to shove the dress into my arms again.

"No!" I stated firmly.

*  *  *

"Wow," Nikki said nearly an hour later. "I think that's the one."

"I think you're right," I told her. I was staring in awe at my image in the mirror just outside of the dressing room.

I was wearing a white dress. I had only put it on to humor Nikki, but now I was in love with it. I'd originally thought that it looked too much like something I would wear on my wedding day, but somehow it didn't look the same way once I had it on. The dress was fitted from the waist up, but hung loose from there down to just below my knees, showing off my new legs. It looked light and airy, but still managed to cover everything that shouldn't be on display.

There was only one way to describe it. It looked angelic.

However, the price tag was a completely different story. This dress was going to clean out the rest of the wardrobe fund that I had been given.

"It's expensive," I voiced my concern to Nikki. She grabbed the tag that was hanging near my left shoulder and looked at it.

"Wow!" she said. "Would your wardrobe funds cover it?"

"Just barely," I replied. The dress was beautiful, but I still didn't know if it was worth the cost.

"Get it," she said without any other thought. "You'll be grateful that you did later."

"Are you sure?" I wasn't completely convinced that spending that much money on one dress would ever be worth it.

"Yes," she replied before turning me around and pushing me back into the dressing room.

*  *  *

"What are we doing here?" Nikki asked incredulously when I arrived in front of Susan's house. I hadn't told Nikki about my plan to come by and make sure Susan was okay.

"I'm going to check on Susan," I told her while turning off the car and reaching for the door handle. "Are you going to come with me?"

"Jaz, no! She's a jerk, and she deserves this."

"No she doesn't, Nikki," I told her. "Nobody should ever feel the despair that she was feeling at lunch. Granted, it was probably about the wrong things, and she shouldn't care that much about her image, but nobody should ever feel that way. I won't let her suffer through that alone, not after I felt how much it hurt her."

"Please don't," she tried again, but she knew I wouldn't back down.

"I HAVE to do this, Nikki," I said. She looked at me for a moment before nodding and reaching for her own door.

Susan lived in a nice house. It wasn't luxurious by any means, but it was well-maintained and cared for. It was a lot like my own house. We climbed up the few stairs to her porch and I rang the doorbell.

I still wasn't sure what I was going to tell her, but I knew that I needed to do something.

The door opened, and a young girl peered up at us. She could have been seven or eight years old.

"Hi," I said when she just stared at us. "Is Susan home?"

The girl nodded before turning to run up the staircase that was next to the door. Nikki and I waited outside the front door. I assumed that she was going to get Susan, and I didn't want to invite myself in. I was already on her bad side. I didn't need to make it worse by coming in uninvited.

I "felt" the scowl on Susan's face before I ever saw her descending the stairs. I knew she wasn't going to be happy to see me.

"What do you want?" she said coldly when she reached our level. She stepped toward the door, and I knew it wouldn't take much for her to close it on us.

"I wanted to apologize," I told her. She recoiled slightly at those words. Her surprise was apparent on her face. She didn't expect me to apologize. I really didn't think I had done anything wrong, but I wanted to be the better person.

"Why?" she asked warily. I could feel her mistrust of me.

"Because," I replied. "I know how you feel, and nobody should ever have to feel that way. I'm sorry about Mark. I didn't plan to get involved with anyone."

She snorted. It seemed like she believed I had planned the whole thing from the beginning.

"Look," Nikki interrupted. "I don't like you, Susan. All I know is that Jaz feels bad about what happened at lunch. But she definitely didn't plan on falling in love with anyone. I've known her long enough to know that."

"Whatever," Susan said and stepped closer. She now had her hand on the door, and it looked like she was ready to close it.

"I'm sorry," I said again to stop her. "I've never felt this way about somebody before. I didn't mean to steal him from you - it just kind of happened."

Susan grimaced. "Thank you for stopping by," she said, and some of the hatred I had been feeling seemed to evaporate from around her. "I appreciate the attempt, but perhaps it would be best if we stayed away from each other until the end of the school year."

"If that's what you want," I told her.

"It is," she stated. "I'll let you have Mark, but please, stay away from me."

"Okay," I replied. I smiled at her. "I'm sorry, Susan. If there's anything I can do to help, let me know."

"There isn't anything you can do," she said. "Please just go."

"Bye, Susan," I said, and she closed the door on us. I turned around and started heading back to my car.

"That went well," Nikki stated when we had pulled away from the curb.

"Yeah, it did," I replied sincerely.

"I was being sarcastic, Jaz," she smirked.

"I know," I said. "But it really did go well. She might not have shown it, but she was happy I came by. She doesn't hate me anymore. She doesn’t like me either, but I couldn't have asked for a better result."

"If you say so," Nikki said. Obviously, she hadn't been able to feel the shift in Susan's feelings.

*  *  *

"You went dress shopping without me?!" Cami exclaimed when she saw me carrying in the dress bag from my car. She'd been sitting in our front room, apparently waiting for me to come home.

"Um…" I replied. I seemed to be making everyone mad at me today. "Yes?"

My questioning response didn't go over very well with her. She was upset, and I knew why. She wanted to be a part of my life, and I hadn't included her. But the truth was she couldn't be a part of my life all the time. I needed her support, but I needed to be able to do things on my own too.

"I'm sorry, Cami," I told her. "We just stopped at the mall on the way home."

"Whatever," she said, before storming out of the room and down the hall toward her own room. I knew that she was crying before she ever got there.

I sighed. I'd dropped Nikki off at home not too long ago, but now I wished she was here. I was new to this girl thing, and I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do now. I felt that I should go talk to Cami about this, but once again I didn't know what to say.

I walked down the hall to my own room, and dropped the dress, wrapped in a protective sleeve, on my bed. Then I stepped back out and took the two steps required to reach Cami's door. I could hear her sobbing on the other side. I knocked lightly.

"Go away!" she screamed through the door. I sighed once again. This was the last thing I wanted to do to my sister.

I tried the doorknob, but she had locked the door. But it wasn't going to stop me. I "reached" out and unlocked the door with my powers. I hoped she wouldn't hate me for this.

"Cami?" I asked quietly after opening her door.

"I said go away!" she yelled back at me, and then threw a pillow at my head. I caught it and stepped over to where she had sunk down on her bed, and replaced the pillow where it belonged.

"I'm sorry," I told her again. I'd been saying that a lot lately, it seemed. "I was hoping to go out with Mark tonight, but he was busy. Nikki pulled me to the mall to take my mind off him. I..." I almost told her I had forgotten about her. That would have been the wrong thing to say, even if it was the truth.

"I didn't mean to leave you out," I said instead. That was also the truth. If I had remembered, I definitely would have invited her along.

"You promised you wouldn't leave me out!" she yelled at me, and softly hit me a couple of times. I let her vent her frustrations. She needed to let out the pent up emotions that she had been building while she waited for me to get home.

"I'm sorry," I told her again when she stopped and sunk back down onto her bed. I also wrapped her in a hug. "It won't ever happen again."

We sat there for a few more minutes. I poured love her way, letting her know that I cared for her while she worked to dry her tears. I'd made a big mistake, and I knew it. But I didn't want her to suffer for it.

Eventually, she sat up and looked at me. "I'm sorry," she said this time. "I know that I can't always go. I know that you won't be around a lot. But I really wanted to help you pick out your Gala dress."

"I know, Cami," I told her. "I wasn't thinking straight. Mark has my brain all scrambled, and I completely forgot to call you first."

"You've really fallen for him, huh?" she asked.

"Yeah," I sighed and sank down next to her on her bed. "I never expected to fall in love with someone so soon. But, he completes me somehow. The only time I feel safe anymore is when he's there. I know he couldn't do anything to protect me from Justin, but...I don't know. I've never felt this way before."

"Oh, Jaz," Cami said while she sank down next to me. "I wish I had someone like that."

"You'll find somebody, Cami," I told her. "I promise."

"Thanks, Jaz," she smiled back at me.

I was so happy to have my sister in my life.

*  *  *
Chapter 14 - Family Time

The following morning brought on another day of final exams. It started with an English final that was just like the other finals I had taken. I had never been able to remember all of the grammar rules before the Procedure. Now however, it was all second nature to me.

After the final, I was able to spend lunch with Mark. Nikki was there too, of course, but Mark was my main focus. I knew Nikki was upset with me for not paying as much attention to her, but I didn't care.

"Do you want to come over to my house this afternoon?" Mark asked me while he walked me to my French class. He was feeling nervous, and I guessed that either his family was asking about me, or he really wanted to introduce me to them.

"Sure," I said smiling, as I looked at him. He returned my smile with one of his own.

"My mom really wants to meet you," he explained, but he looked embarrassed about it.

"I'd like to meet your family," I smiled back, removing his unease.

"Thank you," he said. I just nodded.

When we reached my French class, I stopped suddenly outside the door. The last time I had been in that classroom, Justin had attacked me. I had no idea if the other students in my class would be upset if I went in.

"It's okay," Mark said. He knew me too well already. "It won't happen again."

"Maybe," I partially agreed. "But I still don't know what to tell the others."

"Don't tell them anything," he said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "It really isn't any of their business."

"Mark!" I exclaimed. "Justin showed up with a gun and tried to kill me! I don't think they're going to be very happy about that!"

"Well," he said with a wry smile. "I'm sure you'll think of something then."

I laughed and hit him softly on the shoulder. He seemed to have a way of putting me at ease.

"I'll see you after school, okay?" he asked.

"Alright," I replied before turning and stepping into the classroom.

The wonderful feelings in the air instantly ended when I walked into the classroom. From the anticipation and love I felt from Mark, I promptly felt nervousness and fear as I entered my French class.

Most people were staring at me, and most of them weren't happy to see me. I doubted anyone blamed me for what happened, but it was obvious that they knew Justin had come for me. Apparently, some of them harbored ill feelings to the part I played in the scare that befell the class earlier in the week. I was a reminder of the terror they felt that day.

I decided to ignore the elephant in the room, and walked over to my desk and sat down. Nobody said anything to me and after the bell rang the teacher passed out our exams and the rest of the day was spent in silence.

*  *  *

"The sundress," Cami replied when I asked her if I should wear a white sundress with a pink floral design or jeans and a top over to meet Mark's family. I was nervous at the prospect of meeting his family, and I wanted to make a good impression.

"Are you sure?" I asked her. I honestly didn't have any idea what would be appropriate.

"Yes, definitely," she replied. "Hurry! Get changed."

"Yes, mistress," I teased her and stuck my tongue out before going back to my room and putting on the dress. She just laughed and went back to the show she was watching.

I'd told Mark that I needed to go home and change. He then agreed to pick me up, because I wanted to reciprocate the favor and introduce him to my own family. I didn't have much time before he would arrive.

I glanced into the mirror and changed my makeup slightly to better compliment the dress. Before I could do anything else, the doorbell rang.

I rushed out of my room, narrowly beating Cami to the front door. When I opened it, Mark was standing there, and my heart swooned again.

"Hi," I told him, giving him a large smile in the process.

"Hi," he replied, returning my smile.

"Come on in," I told him and stepped back to let him enter the door. He stepped inside and I turned toward the hallway leading out of the front room.

"Mom!" I yelled. "Mark is here!"

"Oh!" I heard a muffled reply from the kitchen, and then sounds of cookware moving around before she appeared in the doorway. Mark and I had left too quickly on Wednesday night for him to meet my mom, and she was excited to meet the boy who had captured my heart.

She walked into the room with a large smile on her face.

"Mom, this is Mark. Mark, my mom," I introduced them.

"Pleased to meet you, Mrs. Campbell," Mark said.

"Oh the pleasure is all mine," Mom replied, her smile turned into a sly grin as she wrapped her arms around him and gave him a hug. "I've heard so many good things. It's nice to finally meet you."

I didn't think it could happen, but Mark actually blushed at my mom's words! I smiled at his reaction.

"Your daughter is amazing," he was finally able to reply after a moment, but he turned and smiled at me the whole time.

Cami cleared her throat, and I turned toward her. "And this is my sister, Cami," I told him.

"Hi, Cami," Mark replied with another smile.

"Do I get a hug too?" she asked. The smile on her face was big, but I knew she was messing with him.

"Sure," Mark replied and then surprised her with a big bear hug. Her smile was even wider when he let her go, and I detected a bit of jealousy in her eyes when he let go.

Nobody else was home, but we talked for a bit to let everyone get to know each other better. Then we left to do the same thing at Mark's house, which would be followed by dinner. This time Mark was driving his truck, so I just lifted myself up with my powers so I didn’t have to worry about how to stay decent while climbing into the tall vehicle. Mark laughed at my move, but he still seemed impressed with my powers so he didn't say anything else.

I was nervous when we pulled into his driveway. I knew that his dad was angry at him, because Mark decided to undergo the Procedure instead of going to football camp and accepting a scholarship at a university that had expressed interest in him. His dad had been a football player in college and even played in the pros for a few years, and he had the same aspirations for Mark. I also knew that his dad was aware that I had been an influence in that decision, and I was afraid of what he would think about me.

"There's nothing to worry about," he told me as I awkwardly climbed down from his truck. Some of his neighbors were out in their yards so I couldn't use my powers to get down. "They'll love you as much as I do."

"I hope so," I replied as he took my hand and led me up the front porch to the door. His parents' house was much larger than my family's. Perhaps that was expected of someone who spent his entire day working with real estate, but it only served to intimidate me more.

Mark opened the door to reveal a spacious great room. Hardwood flooring ran the length of the small entryway to the kitchen that set off to the far left. A small dining area was immediately to our left and a large TV flanked by some very soft looking couches sat to our right. Further back was another small sitting area with some bookshelves, a stairway leading up to the second floor, and a hallway that led further into the house.

All activity in the room stopped as we entered. Mark's mom was cooking in the kitchen. A sister was helping her. Two younger boys, perhaps 12 and 10 years old, were playing video games in the small den area. Even Mark's father appeared from somewhere down the hall. It was immediately apparent that they had been expecting me.

They all quickly approached the entrance to the house, where I was nervously waiting for something to happen. They were all staring, and the emotions that were floating around in the air showed some of the shock and delight his family had at seeing me for the first time.

"Everyone," Mark finally spoke. "This is Jasmine. Jasmine, this is my family."

"Hello," I said and gave them a small wave.

"That's my mom, Laura," Mark pointed at his mother. "My sister, Katherine, my brothers Peter and Trent, and my dad, Christopher."

"She's so small!" the youngest brother, Trent said. His comment broke the ice and all of us began laughing. Sadly, it was true too. I knew I was small, but the fact that Mark's youngest brother was just as tall as me was somewhat annoying. Being small would certainly help me be stealthier, but I sometimes felt like my 5' stature was a disadvantage.

"She needs a stepladder just to kiss him," Katherine said, which kept us laughing. Despite the fact that their comments could be demeaning by themselves, I knew they weren't trying to be mean. I also knew that they had already signed their own confidentiality agreements, so I could do what I did next.

"Who needs a ladder?" I asked. The laughter quickly turned into gasps as I rose off the ground and planted a kiss on Mark's cheek. I knew I had made my point as I slowly lowered myself until my feet were back on the floor.

With the ice broken, I quickly learned that Mark had a wonderful family. His mother had been a model when she was younger, and still had the looks that had given her the opportunity. But she was very down to earth and had a wicked sense of humor that kept all of us laughing all night. It had obviously been passed down to her children, as they were just as quick to reciprocate. Katherine was a spitting image of her mother, and already had aspirations to follow in her footsteps. The two boys were already accomplished in more than one sport, just like Mark and their father. It appeared that they were as in love with me as Mark was. Mark's father was a very distinguished looking man. His dark hair had a hint of gray to it that showed his authority in the house, but it was apparent that he rarely had to ask his children to do anything that wasn't already expected of them. My own family was nowhere near as well-mannered as Mark's was.

Each of them gave me a warm welcome. Mark's father was a bit distant at first, and I could feel some resentment from him. But as the night wore on he started to warm up to me, and it seemed he realized why his son had given up the chance to play football. Even if he still felt like Mark was only doing this for a girl, it began to dawn on him how interesting the idea of gaining powers could be for anyone. They all certainly expressed an interest in having their own powers when I demonstrated some of what I could do.

After dinner we talked a lot about the Procedure. All of them were worried about what it meant for Mark, and I was happy to provide them with information about nearly everything I had undergone. By the time Mark and I left for the drive back to my home, they all seemed more at ease with Mark's decision to undergo the Procedure.

"You have a wonderful family," I told Mark as we stood outside the front door of my house, his truck idling in the driveway.

"I know," he replied smugly. "But yours isn't too shabby either."

I laughed and hit him softly on the chest. He retaliated by pulling me close and kissing me.

I didn't complain.

*  *  *
Chapter 15 - Flower Dance

Nikki and Cami were determined to give me the whole experience for the only school dance I would ever attend after the Procedure. Unbeknownst to me they had enlisted Jill, who seemed to have way too many contacts! The result was that we spent the morning getting what the three of them called "The Treatment" at a local beauty spa: hair, makeup, manicure, and pedicure. If it was offered then we had it done.

I still questioned the need to have my hair and makeup done, since I could easily recreate something spectacular using my powers. I knew I wasn't looking forward to the extra time it would take to remove the makeup and nail polish later this evening. But Nikki insisted that I needed to know how 'mere mortals' lived, and I was glad she did. By the time I returned to my house to finish getting ready I truly felt pampered.

Nikki had conveniently been asked to go to the End of Year Gala by one of Mark's friends, so we turned it into a double date. Nikki had returned to her house to finish getting dressed, because her mom insisted on being able to help her and take pictures. That left Cami and Mom to help me.

I had never expected to have an experience like this in my life! As the two of them finished helping me get into my dress, all I felt was their love and excitement. I couldn't help but return the feelings, and I felt myself tear up more than once. The school year was coming to an end too quickly, and with it came the approaching date of our return to the Alpha Complex. Jill had assured me that I would still be able to see my family often, but I knew that it wouldn't be often enough. I wanted to cherish moments like this.

When the doorbell rang my nervousness shot through the roof! Even though I fully trusted Mark I was nervous about what this night would have in store for me.

I knew that my dad was there to answer the door, and I hoped he went easy on Mark. Mom and Cami made me wait in the room for far too long, so that my dad got to know Mark before they would let me join him in the front room. But when I saw Mark's smile for the first time all of my nervousness evaporated.

"Hi Mark," I said after he couldn't find any words. "You clean up pretty well."

"Wow! You look like an angel," he finally found his voice. I smiled warmly and he came over and took my hand. "Are you ready to go?"

"Yes," I replied, unable to remove my gaze from his eyes. They were pulling me in just like they had all week.

"Not before pictures!" Mom interrupted quickly. She emphasized her point by snapping a photo. The flash broke me out of wherever I had been and I turned to pose with Mark for a bit. She took picture after picture so that I was beginning to wonder if I would ever make it out of the house. Then, when we finally made it outside and Mom saw that Nikki and her date were waiting in the limo, we had to start in on the group shots.

Eventually I was able to climb into the limo and it pulled away from my house.

"I'm exhausted!" I claimed, which caused the rest of them to laugh. Mom had certainly been more enthusiastic than any other time I had gone to a dance. I knew it had to do with everything that had happened to me over the last few weeks. She had only snapped a few shots of Adam and his date when they left this evening, but she had gone all out for me.

Before we went to the Gala we went to Mark's family restaurant for dinner. With four of us the setting was less romantic than the night I had been here alone with Mark, but the extra attention from Nikki and her date, George, didn't detract from the evening at all. In fact George turned out to be a great guy who could have easily been someone I could see myself with if Mark wasn't the focus of my existence.

After dinner, we returned to the limousine which whisked us away to the Gala, which was being held in the school gym. Yet it was hard to recognize the gym; so many decorations had been used to convert it into what could almost pass for an elegant ballroom. Somehow they had even hung some fake chandeliers from the ceiling to give it an air of opulence.

A hush spread around us as we arrived. As we moved through the crowd to find a table where we could place our purses and sit, everyone else looked at us silently and with a mixture of awe and apprehension. I felt bits and pieces of amazement and fear from everyone’s emotions, which confused me. It was apparent that the four of us looked really good together, but something had them on edge. I feared that Justin was around, but a quick glance around proved that we were safe from him for the time being.

It wasn't until after we had been dancing for a while and we returned to our table that I understood why everyone was afraid. I had just taken a seat when I felt her presence coming toward us.

"Hello Susan," I greeted her as she approached from behind me. I felt her mild shock that I was able to identify her without even turning around. Nevertheless she continued forward until she was standing next to me.

"That dress looks amazing on you, Jasmine," she said when I had turned around and stood up to confront her, which caused a mild shock of my own. I certainly hadn't been expecting a compliment from her! But her tone and her feelings told me that it truly was a compliment.

"Thank you," I replied, taking in what she was wearing. She too looked splendid in a red dress that bordered on being too sexy without crossing the line. I reckoned that Susan had a future as a model if she wanted it, based on how amazing she looked. I could even feel Mark and George "appreciating" her look too, much to my chagrin. "Wow, you look...wow!" The words escaped my lips, but the smile that spread across her face told me that she understood what I meant.

"I wanted to apologize," she continued, surprising me once more. "I was overly harsh when I found out that Mark had asked you to the Gala. I did some things that I regret. But I was really impressed with how much you cared about me. I got to thinking after you left my house the other day, and while I'm not entirely sure I can call you a friend, I want you to know that I have no ill will toward you anymore."

I stood there, mouth agape for a moment! I didn’t know how to respond to her genuine statements! I had known Susan for a long time, even if she still thought I was the new girl in the school. I had never seen her do anything like this before! The 'Queen' was not acting like herself!

I nodded, which seemed to be enough of a communication for her, and her smile actually widened. "Have a good evening," she said, before she grabbed the hand of the star basketball player and let him lead her back toward the dance floor. She looked back once more and smiled, and I returned my own smile just as genuinely.

The fear that had been wafting around the gymnasium all evening cleared up almost instantly as news of our reconciliation spread throughout the Gala. The confrontation that everyone had expected had not led to a cat fight or altercation, and everyone resumed enjoying the evening once more. I smiled to myself, grabbed Mark by the hand, and pulled him toward the dance floor.

*  *  *

The night was starting to wind down when I finally realized that I was tiring out Mark. The Procedure had left me with stamina much greater than his, but he was trying to keep up with me. Without a word I patted him on the shoulder and felt the gratitude that he returned as we started to make our way back toward the table, where Nikki and George were sitting. It had been a magical night. It felt like a Disney movie. Everything had been so perfect all night, and I couldn't imagine anything greater than spending the night in the arms of Mark. I cuddled into him as we walked, not wanting to leave the warmth of his embrace.

"Going somewhere, Jaz?" The question cut through everything I had been feeling and froze my heart immediately! I stopped walking instantly, and fear spread throughout the room like wildfire, no doubt spurred on by my own powers as I struggled to contain what I was feeling.

"Justin," I stated before I had even turned around. Slowly I turned in place until I was looking at the center of the room. The music abruptly stopped and the multitude of couples quickly retreated from the area, revealing the one person who epitomized my hatred in this world. Somehow, the area around him seemed to be lit better than the rest of the gym, highlighting his scowling features and letting everyone know that he shouldn't be messed with.

I took a step toward him. Mark held on, trying to prevent me from getting any closer.

"I see you've found a lover boy already," Justin stated, stabbing me with the fear that he would make a move against the defenseless Mark. I felt my jaw clench, as I promised myself that no harm would come to Mark or anyone else in this room tonight. I knew Nikki would already be on the phone with Jill, and I knew it was only a matter of time before reinforcements arrived. Theresa and Jay were waiting outside in case something like this happened, but it would still take them a few minutes before they would be able to provide any assistance. A lot could happen before they could help.

"Leave him alone," I growled at Justin, which only caused him to cackle.

"Oh, I assure you that I will do nothing of the sort," Justin said, with a glint in his eye which told me he was telling me the truth. "In fact, I think that I'll let you watch him die before I kill you."

I took another step forward. Mark tugged on my arm to prevent me from going once again. I broke free of his grip and pushed him back with my powers; Mark was sliding back toward the table and Nikki's safety while I continued to confront Justin. I didn't need Mark’s presence complicating things.

"Mark Williams," Justin commented as I approached him. "I must admit, I never saw that coming. Who would have thought that you would be so in love two weeks after you became a girl."

The horror I felt at his words shocked the onlookers and dampened the mood in the gymnasium even further. One of my worst fears was that my fellow students would find out the truth about me, and now Justin had told them! I took a step forward, but a hand on my shoulder stopped me once again. I didn't have to take my gaze away from Justin to know that Mark had rushed back toward me the moment I had stopped pushing him toward the table.

"That's right, Mark," Justin informed him. "You are dating Brett Campbell. You are dating another boy."

"You're wrong, Justin," Mark replied. "Jasmine is not a boy. She never was."

Confusion crossed Justin's face for a brief moment. It was obvious that he had expected Mark to recoil from me at finding out the truth. But Justin didn’t know that Mark already knew and didn't care. Nevertheless, the shock I felt from the other attendees of the Gala proved that the secret was out now. There was no way I could hide it anymore. Enough people had suspected, and now it had been confirmed!

"Mark," Justin continued. "I'm surprised. I never would have figured you had a thing for boys. I always thought that you were a jock." Justin pointed at me. "I guess that just goes to show that anyone can be corrupted by his influence now."

Blood rushed to my head. I knew I was turning red with rage, but I didn't care.

"I!" I screamed at him! "AM!" I yelled while balling my hands into fists! "A!" I shouted as I focused all of my willpower on Justin. "GIRL!"

The fear that engulfed Justin's face as I took hold of him with my telekinesis and threw him into the air gave me a pleasure that perhaps I shouldn't relish in. As he went up I could feel his weight lighten as he decreased his density, and I knew that he was worried about what I was going to do with him. But it was in vain.

I slammed Justin down head first into the middle of the basketball court, and even his own power wasn't enough to overcome the force of my power from knocking him out. A shockwave went flying throughout the room, followed by splinters and chunks of debris that had been kicked up by the crater that formed where Justin struck.

Anger and rage were still pouring from me when I noticed Theresa and Jay reach the edge of the crater. They looked at me with fear and awe for a moment before they turned their attention to securing the unconscious Justin to prevent him from escaping again. Their presence near him was the only thing that kept me from picking him up and slamming him down again; this time, with his power inactive, I would have likely killed him.

Only Mark's embrace was enough to break the rage I felt and bring me back to normal. Tears started to stream down my face as he hugged me tighter than he ever had before. I was a sobbing mess when I realized it was over. Justin was in custody. Mark was safe. No one else was hurt. True happiness started to creep in for the first time since the end of the Procedure. It was over.

But that happiness was short-lived as I realized that I now had to contend with my classmates knowing the truth about me. As I glanced around the room, I saw fear, revulsion, curiosity, and even hatred on the eyes of some of the other students and faculty in the room. I also felt these emotions pouring out of them.

Not even Mark's embrace was enough to keep the chill from engulfing my heart.

*  *  *

---

Editor Note: The images used for this story were purchased and used under royalty-free license* from Istockphoto.com . ~Sephrena