~o~O~o~

~o~O~o~

 

Insert standard disclaimer here: The one that reminds everyone that this is a work of fiction. No one is real and any resemblance to someone who is real is purely coincidence, honest. This is also a Fan Fiction set in the Whateley Story Universe. No Canon characters were permanently harmed in the making of this story. I hope. :)

 

Note: Ya all made me do it. It's all your fault. I have zero idea when chapter two will be ready, so don't read this if you're impatient. I'm planning on working on Reality Storm, but it depends on what my muse wants to write. Thanks go out to my beta-readers/editors/sanity checkers as well as djkauf for his magical editing.

~o~O~o~

 

[0900 hrs - Saturday 9-Jun-2007 - Manchester-Boston Regional Airport ]

The ninth grade is done! Stick a fork in it. I survived three months at the crazy place that is called Whateley Academy and it was time to catch my flight home for the summer. Hoorah!

The school’s van kindly dropped off me and a bunch of my classmates right in front of the terminal and I didn’t even make it to the doors before I caught a few people rubbernecking me. I guess I couldn’t blame them because when a van pulls up and lets off a bunch of high school age kids, people tend to look. Especially, when there are a couple of exemplar guys and gals in the group. You know, the type of people who look so darn attractive everyone checks them out to see if they recognize them from a movie, TV show or dirty magazine.

I wasn’t friends with any of my fellow students in the van, but I also wasn’t enemies with any of them either. I kind of knew and was friendly with Dominique, aka Demona because we were both in Whitman cottage and she was in one of my classes, but we didn’t hang out or do anything together. We did sit next to each other in the van, but other than a slight welcoming smile when I joined her; we said nothing to each other during the entire ride.

Thanks to my system and their MID cards, I knew all of my fellow student names, what their MID said their powers were and had automatically cross referenced the information against my own threats database to help fill out their information with more factual data because knowing their information could save my life. Like Gunny and Sam are fond of telling the newbies at the gun range, ‘it was always the details that killed you’ and the little detail where Demona turned into a gargoyle at night could prove useful if aliens invaded and we ended up trapped in the airport together.

You think I’m kidding, but it could happen!

Yes, I had developed a fair amount of healthy paranoia over the past few months, but I preferred to think of it as maintaining a high situational awareness. Other than Dominique, I think only one of my fellow ‘evacuees’ knew my name and that was exactly the way I liked it. As a result, there are no tearful good-byes to muddle through and attract even more attention from the ‘norms’. I patiently waited my turn to exit the van, received my luggage from the friendly van driver and made my way into the terminal.

In an effort to avoid trouble, my systems were running on full alert. I had gotten into the habit of scanning all of the non-encrypted radio traffic as well as some of the easier to decrypt encrypted channels. If having the MCO hating your guts isn’t enough to make a person paranoid, then dealing with your fellow students at Whateley will. All clear, no transmissions have made it past my content filters by mentioning ‘Whisper’, ‘Brianna’ or ‘Mutant’. I also didn’t detect any activity on the military or MCO frequencies either. Of course, I’ve only just arrived and the day is young. Murphy just loves messing with me.

There is also my pesky glamour to take into account. With some help and training from Nikki, I’ve been able to dampen it, but, for some reason, it likes to flare up every now and then. Like, right now. It seems to have a mind of its own and loves to slip the reins during potentially awkward social situations.

“Look mom, it’s a fairy princess!” I heard a little girl cry as I entered the terminal.  I glanced over and wow, she was so adorably cute! I stumbled a little as I caught myself thinking like a girl. 

Murphy strikes again. Sigh.

I turned to her with a smile and placed my finger over my lips as a signal for her to keep it a secret.  She giggled at me and before her mom could stop her, she rushed over to me. “Hi, I’m Heather. You’re so pretty! Are you really a fairy princess?”

Dang glamour!  Down glamour! Down!

I crouched to appear less threatening and look her in the eyes. She was pretty darn cute and her eyes were wide as saucers. There was no way I could be mean to her. “Shh, we can’t let it get out or the Queen will be upset with me.”

I was kidding because I felt pretty sure Aunt Aung would’ve probably find my current situation and my reference to her more amusing than upsetting, but still.

Looking embarrassed and concerned that her daughter would accost a stranger, Heather’s mom walked up behind and gently held her daughter by her shoulders. “Heather, leave the poor girl alone.”

“But Mom, she’s a real fairy princess!” Heather tried to whisper, but she was a little too excited and it came out more like a yell. Her yell attack did some collateral damage when a slightly older girl entered the terminal, overheard Heather and was instantly drawn to me.

No, I wasn’t wearing a fairy princess costume or any costume, geez. I wore my favorite skirt and leggings outfit. The same one Aunt Julie got me. I know, it wasn’t jeans and a t-shirt like I would’ve worn in my past life, but it was comfortable, looked nice with my boots and it was kind of a tradition for me to wear when traveling. Okay, so I only traveled once with it, but I like it. It’s also black and has been modified by the costume wizards at Whateley. It’s now flame, acid and bullet resistant, and if my friends are correct, it should also be able to absorb a hit from one of the MCO’s plasma cannons, once, maybe. Thus, it’s not only fashionable, but very practical and a tactically good choice if bad things started happening.

“If you’re a fairy princess, why aren’t you wearing a fairy princess gown or a crown and where are your wings?” The second girl challenged me.

She was a little more cynical than Heather. I turned to her and my glamour hit her full strength, causing her to gasp with surprise. “I’m trying to keep it a secret because if everyone knew, I wouldn’t be able to make it through the airport without tons of people trying to take my picture or get my autograph.”

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry!” Her eyes teared up as she clutched her hands to her chest. “I didn’t mean to sound so mean.”

Ah, crap. Now I felt like a meanie. This was going to hurt me more than it would them, but I had a girly girl idea.  No thanks to my girlfriends at Whateley, I received an education on most of the classic fairy princess movies.  More like forced indoctrination, but hey, the action scenes were good. Lesson learned: When asked how much you loved “Beauty and the Beast” or “The Little Mermaid”, do not let your female interrogators know you haven’t watched them, or any Disney princess movie, ever!

“Oh, it’s okay sweetie.” I glanced around to see how many people were watching and shifted my vision into the magical range to hunt for magical detection wards.  Only the kid’s parents were really paying attention and there were wards, but they were poorly maintained and focused on the entrance instead of inside the check in area. I motioned for the two girls to step closer to me and when they did, I cast a simple illusion of a tiny winged pixie.

The girls gasped with surprise when my pixie materialized in my hand.

“Shhh…” The pixie giggled at the girls before she fluttered her wings and rose a few inches above my hand. “I’m Princess Brianna’s guardian pixie, Sara. Pleased to meet you!”

I know, Sara, but I couldn’t think of a better name. My pixie even looks a little like her.  Petal or Blossom might have been a better choice, but I was in a rush.

“Wow!” Heather and the other girl huddled even closer, helping block other people from noticing. I hope.

Sara turned to the older, more cynical girl and pointed to Heather. “I know that she’s Princess Heather, but what’s your name?”

The cynical girl gulped. “Umm, I’m Olivia.”

“Oh, Princess Olivia! What a pretty name.” I glanced up at the parents to see if they were freaking out, but they seemed to be more amused than concerned. They probably thought my illusionary pixie was just a doll or something. Adults can be so skeptical sometimes, but it can work in my favor too.

“But, I’m not a Princess…” Olivia protested while Heather clapped and bounced up and down with barely restrained glee.

Sara twittered with amusement. She looked so cute as a pixie. “Oh, but you are now! As holders of Princess Brianna’s secret identity, you both have been hereby appointed as Princesses.” I made my Sara pixie sprinkle some sparkling pixie dust on them. “There, now it’s official. Princess Heather and Princess Olivia, welcome and remember, real princesses always behave and listen to their parents, right?”

They both energetically nodded their heads with agreement as their parental units smiled with approval.

“Great! I have to go now, but it was nice meeting fellow Princesses!” I stood and dismissed my pixie Sara illusion because there wasn’t any reason to draw extra eyeballs to the scene. 

Heather gave me a quick hug before returning to her mom and they both departed with Heather sneaking a peek or two behind before they disappeared into the crowd.

“Go ahead dear, I’ll catch up.” Olivia’s mom hung back as her husband gently pulled his glowingly happy daughter behind him. 

Rut roh!

Mrs. Olivia waited until they get a few meters away and just out of earshot. “I saw what you did with the doll.” She surprised me with a quick hug. “It was amazing and thanks! Liv is very afraid of flying, but I think you may have helped brighten her day.” She blushed and glanced over to her patiently waiting husband and smiling daughter. “Well, umm, thanks Princess Brianna, your secret is safe with us.”

Well, I guess Murphy didn’t hate me, but now Olivia’s mom reminded me that this was my first time flying by myself and I wasn’t looking forward to getting through security. I heard so many horror stories from my fellow classmates about how nasty the MCO screeners could be. The TSA screeners were a piece of cake compared to the mutant passenger screening because as soon as you showed your MID, you were directed to the special MCO run screening line.

Knowing my luck and how much the MCO hated me, it was probably a good thing I got to the airport three hours before my flight.  I hoped it was enough time because I didn’t want to miss my flight home. Summer vacation had a whole new importance for me now. Before my ‘little’ change and Whateley school experience, summer vacation was simply time off from school and while cool, my previous summer breaks didn’t seem to mean as much. Okay, summer vacation was something I looked forward to each year, but I just don’t know how to put my feelings into words because I think I’m feeling extremely homesick right now.  I guess that was the main difference, I wasn’t home.

Instead of simply getting off the school bus and walking the short distance to my house, I was in a small, regional airport dragging far more luggage than any girl should be capable of dragging. What’s worse, I don’t know why I have so many darn clothes or why I should care about them. Okay, there are a few outfits I really like and I need my school and team uniforms, but why do I have 22 pairs of panties, 15 bras and 30 different pairs of socks?

Out of all those undergarments, barely half were white. Why did I have to have so many different colors and why did they have to match? Okay, I know, I know, silly question. I had to admit, I did need more bras because there appeared to be some unwritten rule about not wearing the same bra twice and washing those puppies was a real pain because you can’t just toss them in the washer. Oh no, you had to use a special mesh bag to keep them from getting wrecked.  It had to be a conspiracy or something to make women buy more bras.

I didn’t even want to go into all the special washing instructions. Why did a random half of my wardrobe have to be delicate or dry clean only? What happened to the simple, colors and whites pile my mom made me sort my dirty clothes into?

Sigh

I got off track.  So many things happened to me over the past few months. Okay, homesick. Yes, I felt homesick and couldn’t wait to see my family, even my little pain in the butt sister. She better not have grown any because the inch or two she had on me was bad enough!

Dang it, I did it again.  Homesick, check. I think I have established that emotion. Oh wait; I also missed my best friend, John and his BGFE, Lisa.

Groan

I think I’ve been hanging around too many girls because I cannot believe I just used that acronym for Lisa. Best Girlfriend For Ever, what the hell?  I totally need this vacation to detoxify my brain. I’ll hang with John; we’ll blow crap up on the Xbox, watch some good testosterone filled action movies where stuff blows up and just hang. No talking about hair, makeup, clothes or boys. Especially no boys, not even the cute ones.

Yes, I’ve discovered I like boys. Wait for it...and girls and I’m totally okay with the last one because girls are so much more attractive to me than boys are, but there was one boy in my class who kind of made my insides turn to jelly, I think. I mean, I caught a glimpse of mister tall, dark and handsome without his shirt on and wow, was he cut. It took all of my willpower to not run over and touch his rock hard abs or do something embarrassing like get caught staring at him. I have a photographic memory for a reason, don’t you know? Isn’t it amazing how many things could happen and what random thoughts could run through my head in the short trip from the drop off point to the airline ticket counter?

“Miss? I can take you over here.” I heard a woman’s voice off to my right.

Oh, hey, it was the airline ticket lady and wow, she was beautiful. Not exemplar babe beautiful, but beautiful enough to be a model and I caught myself wondering if she was wearing heels. I wore my mostly sensible wedge heel boots, but I wouldn’t want to try running a marathon in them. I’ve practiced in them enough; they shouldn’t slow me down if I have to fight. Not that I would ever plan on getting into a fight in the freaking airport.  That’s crazy talk.

Speaking of silly shoes, I wore some four and a half inch stiletto style heels during the dance last month. Yes, I danced with a boy and it didn’t kill me. Steve, aka Mechano-Man, the boy with the rock hard abs I mentioned earlier. I’m almost ashamed to admit it, but I kinda liked being held in his strong arms and breathing in the subtle scent of his cologne. Where was I? Oh yeah, high heels, those weren’t so bad and it was nice to be tall again, but I certainly wouldn’t want to have to wear those kind of shoes all day.

I pulled my two large rolling bags plus my carry on and laptop backpack over to her counter. No purse, I used my laptop backpack to hold my wallet. I pretended to struggle a little with my bags as I set them on the scales. The scales registered 122.5 lbs. This is going to cost me. Well, cost Uncle Sam because they are paying for the flight. Her eyes momentarily widened with surprise when I handed her my spiffy military ID card plus my Military Mutant ID card.

“Did anyone unknown to you pack your bags or have they left your sight since they have been packed?” She asked me the standard question.

Really? Do people let unknown people pack their bags? “Hey, random street person, can you come here and pack my bag for me?”  Yeah, right.

“No, ma’am.” I politely replied.

She seemed a little taken aback and surprised by my address, or maybe insulted because ‘ma’am’ is also code for ‘old person’. “Okay, umm, the excess baggage fee will be $100. How would you like to pay for it?”

“With this, please.” I handed her my government issued credit card.

After she tagged and struggled to get my bags on the conveyor belt, the nice lady handed me my boarding pass and I was free to run the MCO’s ‘enhanced’ security gauntlet. I wasn’t sure if my nanites would set off the metal detectors, but if they did, I had a note from my doctor. If they decided to try running me through the full body scanner, I had a note for that too.  Under no circumstances was anyone authorized to scan my body with one of those things.  If they tried to detain me, I have a note for that too, but if things got that far, it probably wouldn’t help.

However; I knew my rights and the most they could legally detain me without charges was one hour. Of course, the MCO wasn’t known to follow the rules, but I had a contingency plan, just in case. Before I placed my laptop and carry-on bag onto the conveyor, I pulled out a manila folder containing my weapons of red tape.

Expecting red lights to flash and sirens to blare, I nervously slotted my MMID into the MCO’s card reader and surprisingly, the light quickly turned green and the machine beeped at me. The MCO inspector impatiently motioned for me to proceed through the metal detector. I made it through the metal detector without a single beep.

“Miss, I’m sorry.” The MCO inspector’s voice dripped with insincerity as he undressed me with his eyes. “But, for security purposes, I’m going to have to ask you to step into the scanner over there.” He pointed to the full body scanner.  The perv probably wanted to get with his buddy operating the scanner to look at my nudie picture after his shift, or maybe right away. Who knew?

I confused him when I opened my folder and hand him a Department of Defense document. I also displayed my Military MID card as well as my Military ID card. “I’m sorry sir, but I am not authorized to comply with your request.”

He motioned one of his co-workers over and showed him the document. The other man shrugged his shoulders. “I guess we can’t, but that means ‘we’ will have to do a full body pat down.”

His buddy used the ‘royal we’ there, causing the man’s eyes to light up with glee. I got a perv vibe from him and I was pretty sure I knew what he was thinking. “Oh goodie, I can legally grope this little girl.”

“Well, then young lady, I’m afraid I’m going to have to perform a full body pat down search.” Mr. Perv’s voice dripped with insincerity.

I confused him once again by happily smiling at him as I shook my head no. “I’m sorry sir, but as a minor and unaccompanied female, I must decline to allow you to do that. However; per regulation A.23-1, I am willing to allow a female agent to perform the requested pat down.”

I was pretty sure they didn’t have a female agent on duty and he wanted to do some inappropriate touches because he got a tad upset with me. “Listen here, young lady. You might think you know your rights, but this is the MCO and if we think you are a danger to the safe operation of an airline, we are authorized to do whatever we need to insure the public’s safety!” He took a step toward me.

>U.S.Army/RA/SSGT/E-6/Anthony/Brian/Kramer/xxx-xx-xxxx/O+/FALSE

>U.S.Army/RA/SGT/E-5/Phillip/Jonathan/Williams/xxx-xx-xxxx/B-/FALSE

Ahh, good, my plan D was here. I took half a step back and pointed behind him.  His co-worker was trying to get his attention because there were two uniformed and armed military policemen standing behind him.

“Sir, you’re not planning on causing a breach in the MCO Force Authorization Treaty by attempting to detain Cadet Peterson while she is on official orders from the Unites States Department of Defense, are you?” SSgt Kramer asked.

>Alert!

>MCO Armored Reaction Force power signatures detected!

>Localizing…

>Signatures of two MCO Powered Assault Armor Model MCO-MA1-B detected.

>ETA 20 seconds

Just when I thought everything was good to go, it was time for Murphy to pop up. On the plus side, it’s the MA1-B model, but I knew I should’ve been worried when their scanner accepted my MMID badge so quickly. Time for me to implement Plan E, connect with the DOD’s servers and bring General Evans into the loop. I also needed to come up with a Go-To-Hell Plan and the armor model gave me an idea.

>Initiating connection…Link Established.

>Combat, Command and Control systems...online.

“Incoming…” I sighed and motioned for the MP’s to take cover. They reacted instantly while the MCO agents just looked lost and confused because there is nothing on their screens that would give away the fact that they had two of their most dangerous toys barreling down on us right now.

{“Whisper, what’s the situation?”}

{“Uploading the data now sir, but it appears like the MCO is still upset with me. I detected the power signatures of two MCO Powered Assault suits incoming. Sgt Williams and SSgt Kramer are here with me.”}

>ETA 5 seconds

The lights in the area finally started flashing red as blast barriers dropped into place to protect the public from harm, or keep me from escaping. My link to General Evans temporarily dropped when the MCO kicked in some military grade jammers in an attempt to limit my ability to call for help. It took me less than a second to bypass and resume communication with General Evans. The jammers were pretty darn powerful and I figured the FAA was probably going to be pissed at the MCO.

{“Sorry sir, they attempted to jam our communications. I had to reroute. They are probably messing up air traffic control right now.”}

Blast doors slid open with a whoosh, revealing the expected suits of powered assault armor. The two men confidently stepped out and I watched as their weapons tried to lock on to me, and failed.

Phew!

They were determined enough to try manually aiming their electrified capture-net stun gun cannons at me. At that point, I wasn’t worried because I could read everything they and their system was trying to do. They pressed the triggers, but their friend or foe system wouldn’t let them activate their weapon with me in the cross hairs. Thanks to the MCO’s paranoia, their system also wouldn’t allow them to override it without command authorization.

Ha! I wasn’t sure if what I did in Arena 99 with the Grunts would work in real life.

The two of them were a little confused. {“Control, this is Grumman. Our weapons are inop. Please advise.”}

Someone in their chain of command replied almost immediately and they sounded a little stressed out. {“Holy fucking shit!  Grumman and Legman, stand down! Please tell me you didn’t fire on her!”}

Just to add to the confusion, I gave the pair my friendliest, most innocent smile. “I’m glad you guys aren’t all trigger happy because I think the Secretary of Defense and maybe even the President is really pissed off at your boss right now.”

~o~O~o~

[1600hrs Thursday, 17-May-2007 - Arena 99 - Whateley Academy]

I stood next to Gunny Bardue in the well-equipped Arena 99 briefing room. Arena 99 isn’t a holodeck, but it’s the next best thing to one.  The inside of the arena is the size of two football fields, in each direction. So, I guess it could be said it is really four football fields.

The floor is broken into ten by ten foot squares. Below the squares are a series of hydraulic lifts that can be raised to a height of a five story building. The blocks are used to create city streets or any other terrain the Arena 99 programmers wish to simulate. Once raised, the blocks are wrapped with a force field to give it 'solidness'. The force field is then painted with projected holograms for visual effects. The arena is then further 'dressed' with plants, signs and other props to complete the illusion.

A city isn’t a city without people and Arena 99 has that covered too. Robotic characters, called ANTS bots, are used to fill a scenario.  The ANTS bots are programmed to act as bystanders, victims, or enemy combatants.

This was my first time in the Arena briefing room. So, all the technology kind of distracted me until the Grunts started to file into the room. Breaker, their current leader was first, followed by Deadeye, Bomber, Mule, Slapdash and the only female member, Bunker.

I wore my custom designed, black “Special Ops” uniform and carried a matched pair of FNX™ -45’s in shoulder holsters. I wanted to go with the movie Beretta’s I used in my simulator, but I was talked into trying the 45’s by Sam Everheart. She claimed they had more stopping power. The stopping power thing sounded good, but instead of asking her what it meant and looking like a noob, I had to look the term up. Summary, more stopping power equals good!

It made me glad Whateley had such a large arsenal to choose from and was willing to allow students to train with all kinds of different weapons. My old public school would’ve had a cow if a student was playing around and used their fingers to mime pointing a firearm at someone. 

Of course, the ‘experts’ viewed my carrying of two pistols as ‘noobish’ at best or outright criminally stupid because it wasn’t practical to fire two pistols at the same time. It was showboating and stuff like that only happened in the movies. Gunny held a similar low opinion of my choice, until he tried to prove to me how stupid it was to even consider wielding twin pistols. My private demonstration left him speechless and he never said another word to me about it. I think he was secretly waiting for one of the other Grunts to challenge me to a shooting match.

“Gunny, why is the FN-, umm, Whisper here?” Bunker surprised me by asking the question I’m sure everyone else was thinking.

Unofficially, I knew a lot more about her and the rest of the team than I was probably allowed to, but there was no need to piss her off by dropping her name when she viewed me with disdain and referred to me as a FNG or Fucking New Guy.  Andrea Elsner, aka Bunker-Buster, Bunker for short. Besides me, she’s the most junior member of the JROTC squad. She’s shorter than me by an inch and I put her solidly in the cute category. Not in the super-model category like the exemplar babes, but outside of Whateley, I think she would turn a few heads.  She likes blowing stuff up with rocket launchers. Not the way I would go about handling things, but effective.

Of all of them, only Deadeye seemed happy to see me, but he’s the only one who has even bothered giving me the time of the day or offering his assistance on the range. I think it’s because he’s their sniper and he views me as a kindred soul, but I could be wrong because I’m most definitely not cold enough to be a sniper.

Gunny glanced to Breaker, the current leader of the Grunts.  “Whisper is here because the people who pay your scholarships want her to be here, she needs the experience and while she will not be taking part in your combat finals this year; she will be a full member next year. Any other stupid questions?”

They grumbled a little amongst themselves, but settled down, and then Sara walked into the room and their tension levels rose immediately into the red zone.  I guessed they didn’t like Sara for some reason.  It took all my willpower to not smile or react to her presence. After all, she’s an evil demon and everyone knows that, but all I really wanted to do was run over and give her a quick hug.

“Oh, goodie, fresh meat.” Sara licked her lips and smiled at me before turned her attention to Gunny Bardue. “Hi, Gunny, are your little cupcakes ready for the oven?”

“God damn it! What in the fuck is she doing here?!?” Bunker scowled at Sara and gripped her rocket launcher tightly.

“Stow it, Bunker!” Gunny glared at her using his best drill sergeant expression. “Because if that is all it takes to get your head out of the game, then you can sit this exercise out, got it?!?”

I have to admit, for a baseline human, the man was extremely effective at being intimidating. Bunker stiffened to attention. “Sir, aye sir!”

“Sara is here as an observer only. She has not had any input into the design of this scenario. So, you all can relax on that front, but don’t think it’s going to be a walk in the park either!” Gunny smiled a Cheshire cat grin causing them all to blanch a little.

Gunny left my side and walked over to the map projected on the huge LED TV. “This is the OP zone.”  A decent sized city appeared as if viewed from 10,000 feet. He touched the screen and the map zoomed in on an industrial area. “A hostile force has managed to take over an MCO weapons dump and are currently loading an MCO heavy lift shuttle with the intent to sell the MCO hardware on the black market. Your team is the closest available and you mission is simple. Prevent the scumbags from taking off for ten minutes so that the MCO’s own fast reaction force can stop them.  You have five minutes to plan and four of them are already gone!”

I felt a little miffed, but not at all surprised when the Grunts ignored me as they formulated their plans. Instead of pouting about the expected outcome, I studied the map, added the Grunts to my Command, Control and Communications system. We all wore the same helmet with an attached heads-up display and low-light vision system integrated to the comm system.  Maybe they would add me to their network so I could help them take advantage of my C³ capabilities to help them keep track of each other and the enemy.

It was up to Breaker to allow me to join their network, but he ignored the ping request from my system. I could see their data, but I couldn’t help them coordinate their tactical data. It was pointless for me try and call out the stupidity of ignoring a possible asset. The Fucking New Guy wasn’t supposed to know enough to argue with a superior officer.

I shrugged, connected my system to Gunny’s system and downloaded all of the known tactical data as well as the inventory data for the supply dump. They had a lot of heavy weaponry on the list, but I expected there would be a few “off-list” items. I hated surprises and I figured there could be a lot of nasty ones hidden there. Next, I looked up the specs on all of the expected hardware, arms and equipment I found in the MCO’s inventory. 

There were 18 known hostiles and in addition to a lot of heavy weapons, the base had 6 of the MCO’s specially designed model: MCO-MA1-B Powered Assault Suits. The MCO suits were designed specifically to take down mutants and from my adventure in the mall, I knew those suits where pretty locked down and needed a biometric based password to access them.  The person wearing the suit also needed to be trained. You couldn’t simply step into a suit and start blasting stuff without falling flat on your armored ass.

The Grunts seemed to know that also because they dismissed the suits and concentrated on the non-powered armor and heavy duty anti-mutant weapons as being the primary threats.  They only needed to disable the shuttle and prevent the hostiles from escaping.

With one minute left before we were “dropped” into the frying pan, I snuck a glance at Sara.  She winked and gave me one of her patented smirks before turning her attention back to the Grunts and their plans. No one else saw her, but if they had, they probably would’ve assumed she was trying to freak me out instead of give me a much needed dose of encouragement. It made me feel a little better about things because this was the closest I had been able to be to her since my arrival at Whateley.

She visited me once or twice a week in my VR space, but it wasn’t the same.  I hated having to pretend to have the heebie-jeebies for her like all of the other kids at school, but based on everyone else’s reactions to her; I guess it was for the better.  Okay, I will admit that she did make me gasp with horror the first time I watched her “eat” a puppy in the cafeteria, but I think she only did it for the shock value and as a preemptive strike against people who might think about taking her on.

I followed the Grunts out of the briefing room and into a square box attached to a crane system that was designed to simulate a helicopter.  The holograms activated and the effect was very realistic. It looked, felt and sounded like we were really about to be inserted into the town by a helicopter. “Whisper, your job is simple. I have you on mute to prevent any distractions. Stay back and keep out of the way, got it?” Breaker stared into my eyes.

I nodded acceptance. “Got it.”

Hey, even if I didn’t do anything, it beat watching the action from the control room. I might even learn something.  I still didn’t trust Gunny to not have a nasty surprise for us. He made it sound far too easy, but I’m just the FNG; what do I know? It would have been nice if they had at least made an effort to ask what I could do. They only knew the public information about my powers.  Officially, I was still only Wizard level 1 rated, Gadgeteer level 2 without any gadgets and some unknown and untrained Empathetic level 3 rating, but with an Exemplar 4 rating; I would expect them to at least try and use me for something. Admittedly, I looked pretty lame on paper because my real ratings were Top Secret, but since I’m supposed to work with them, I’m pretty sure I was authorized to tell them most of the top secret stuff.

Oh well.

Bomber jumped out and provided a distraction to allow Deadeye to be dropped off on a rooftop with a good line of sight to the shuttle. As soon as he rappelled down to the rooftop, our ‘pilot’ dropped down in the middle of an intersection and the rest of us rappelled out of the ‘helicopter’.  It was only 4.4 meters to the street below. I contemplated jumping down, but decided to follow everyone else’s lead. No point in showboating when Mule, Slapdash and Breaker probably could have jumped themselves.

My system automatically cataloged and tracked the enemy using the data from Bomber’s mad flight over their position.  There were 5 enemy combatants wearing unpowered armor and carrying miniature plasma guns moving to engage us.  Using Bomber’s data, I spotted two enemy snipers, but Bomber only reported the one he saw with his own eyeballs. Deadeye took out the first sniper, but the second sniper took out Deadeye.

Deadeye’s removal pissed off Bomber. He used his own initiative to fly up and take out the second sniper.  It was a good thing he flew fast and was mostly immune to plasma bolts because he took a lot of counter fire by the bad guys. It worked out because his distraction allowed the rest of the team to quickly eliminate the 5 guys shooting at him.

Since I wasn’t part of the plan, I decided to use the distraction provided by the Grunts to go invisible and scout ahead, far ahead because I didn’t want to accidently be caught by one of Bunker’s rockets. I had been practicing the invisibility spell a lot and used it to get around campus. It was kind of fun to dodge people, but also kind of a pain sometimes, literally, because having a speedster run into you hurt. After the speedster accident, I decided to go with simple illusions to modify my features just enough to make it more difficult for people to recognize me and guess my movement patterns.

As a result of all my practice, I was able to maintain invisibility pretty much as long as I wanted, until I attacked someone, then it would drop on it’s own. I needed to work on that little weakness because being able to stay invisible while attacking someone could be very decisive. I had also done a lot of testing and found my invisibility worked for all spectrums of light. Sonar or radar was a weakness, but not many people used sonar and for radar, I could probably get some stealth clothes, or something. 

I quickly found the remaining 11 bad guys. Against all odds, five of them were wearing the MCO-MA1-B suits and they appeared to be in full control of them. They were arranged in position to ambush the Grunts while the remaining 6 hostiles feverishly worked to finish loading the shuttle.

I marked them all, highlighted the suits and I could’ve overridden Breaker’s mute on my channel, but it was a learning experience.  Maybe they had a plan for how to deal with these guys and if so, I’m sure it would be interesting to watch.  The enemy’s ambush instantly took out Bunker and Slapdash. Bomber fell a few seconds later, but he managed to take down one of the two suits targeting him. Mule and Breaker lasted a few minutes longer, but while they were slugging it out with the remaining 4 suits; I decided to ignore the rules and help out.

>New mission parameters accepted...

>Assessing Enemy Target Threat Ratings...

>Assigning Enemy Target Priority...

The six guys loading the shuttle proved to be ridiculously easy to take down. They weren’t wearing any armor and their hands were full with heavy boxes of arms, ammo and equipment. I simply dropped my invisibility and ‘serviced my targets’. I had to admit, the military lingo and euphemisms were kind of amusing. Time slowed to a crawl for me as I lined up each target in order. One shot, one kill and the shuttle was secured by me in 0.6841 seconds. Of course, I knew the people I just killed were really robots, but the ease at which I eliminated them from up close and personal range made me wonder why I had a problem with sniping.

Now, all I had to do was watch Mule and Breaker duke it out with the suits. After Mule got webbed and disabled, I suspected things wouldn’t go their way. I touched one of the unused suits and was a little surprised to discover it was a real suit, not a prop. Where in the heck did Whateley get a hold of real MCO suits?

Oh well, it should make the hairball plan I was considering a little more likely to succeed. With that in mind, I copied its RFID number. Theoretically, I would now appear as a friend on the other guy’s targeting system and based on how paranoid the MCO was, they wouldn’t be able to fire at me.

I opened up a box of electromagnetic anti-tank mines and extracted four. Each mine was 12 inches in diameter, three inches thick and weighed a solid 20 pounds.

Breaker destroyed another suit and I put one mine back in the box.  I recast my invisibility and ran toward the battle with three mines in hand. It was a good thing I was stronger than I looked because 60 pounds of high explosive frisbees was heavy.  My invisibility broke when I slapped a mine on the first suit. Attaching the mine also made a loud clanging noise, but I managed to slap a mine onto the back of a second suit before the ANTS controlled MCO suits realized I was there.  Breaker looked like he was on his last legs and when the third suit stopped slugging it out with him to turn to fire at me; he was too exhausted to do more than stumble forward in an attempt to stop it.

Hey, at least he tried to look out for me. The suit’s massive cannon was pointed right at me, but it didn’t fire. I dared to stick my tongue out at it as I slid to home between his legs, popped up behind him and attached the mine to his back with a solid thunk sound.  At this point, all of the guys in the suits were desperately trying to reach behind their backs and pull off the mines. Their antics were kind of comical and made me giggle.

“Hit the deck!” I yelled as I jumped into the open window of a nearby building and activated the mines.

KaBoom!

Well, Kaboom is what I was expecting, but I guess the suits were expensive because instead of the earth shattering kaboom, the suits froze and all of the lights in the arena flooded to life.

“Well, that was a clusterfuck.” Gunny Bardue’s voice announced over the PA system. “Exercise complete, return to the briefing room.”

“Bummer, well, that was fun and I bet they’re pissed at me now.” I muttered under my breath as I followed Breaker and the rest of the Grunts for the After Action Review/Ass Chewing.

After the Grunts, minus Deadeye, and I trudged back into the briefing room, Deadeye surprised me and everyone else by rushing forward and lifting me off my feet with an enthusiastic hug. “Holy fucking shit Whisper, that was fucktastically amazing!”

Gunny cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention. “Yes, that was one fucktastically tragic clusterfuck! Where did you all screw the pooch?”

Bomber raised his hand. “It was my fault sir. I missed the second sniper. It all kinda went downhill after that.”

Gunny nodded. “Nice of you to notice, but nope, that wasn’t it.” He glanced at the rest of the team, pausing at each of them, but his eyes slid past me without a pause.

“Anyone?”

“I screwed up by running into an ambush by the powered suits. I should’ve expected the possibility that the enemy might be able to use them.” Breaker grudgingly admitted.

Gunny and Sara laughed while Deadeye snuck a glance at me and winked. I’m guessing that since Deadeye “died” first, he had been able to make it back and watch the rest of the battle from the control room.

“Shut the fuck up bitch.” Bunker scowled at Sara. “You’re the last creature that has the right to laugh at us.”

Oh yeah, Bunker really didn’t like Sara.

“Can it Bunker!” Gunny yelled, slamming his clipboard down on a nearby desk with a bang that got everyone’s attention. “It’s that attitude plus the rest of the team’s attitude toward the ‘FNG’ as you like to euphemistically refer to her that caused this little amateur hour disaster.”

Now the Grunts were all looking at me like I was the one who made them to fail, even though we technically won. If I had ignored Breaker’s order and forced the data onto the team, none of this would’ve happened. “Umm, well, it was probably my fault. I guess I should’ve stood up for myself a little more?”

Sara giggled, drawing everyone’s attention away from me. Phew. “Isn’t little Whisper so delightfully fresh and innocent?  She just makes me wanna eat her up!” She stood and excitedly clapped her hands together as if she was actually considering the idea.

Bunker surprised me by edging herself protectively between me and Sara, but I knew better. Sara really meant she wanted to give me a hug, I hope. I also needed to look up the records on the history between Sara and the Grunts because Bunker really hated her guts for some reason. 

Sara caught Bunker’s gesture and smirked with satisfaction before she turned back and started the replay of the mission. She paused it when Bomber flew over the enemy’s position. Both of the snipers were clearly visible in the targeting system here.

“Shit! It was pretty obvious there, but I swear, I never saw the bastard!” Bomber raised his hands with disgust.

Sara turned back to him. “No, you didn’t, but Whisper did.”

Once again, they all looked at me, their eyes accusing me of not speaking up.

“Damn it!” Gunny yelled, gaining their attention again. “Don’t you all fucking get it? It’s plain as fucking day for anyone with half a brain!” 

Deadeye glanced back at me. “Sir, it was-”

“Not you…” Gunny interrupted him and glared at Breaker for a second before he motioned for Sara to continue the replay.

This time, he let it play all the way to the end. “Okay, now, does anyone besides Deadeye and Whisper know exactly when and how you all fucked up?”

“Oh, I do, I do!” Sara gleefully taunted the Grunts.  She really was evil, but geez, I missed her.

“Breaker?” Gunny asked, expectantly.

Breaker gulped, glanced back at me, hesitantly nodded and sighed with defeat. “Yes sir, it was during the briefing when I ignored her request to join our network as a peer, and then it was compounded when I muted her line.”

Gunny’s pleased smile hinted at more pain to come for the Grunts. “Yes, that was probably the biggest set of mistakes, but why in the hell didn’t you even try to include Whisper in the op-plan?!?”

Slapdash jumped to his leader’s defense. “But, we’ve all looked at her MID. Sure, she’s an EX-4 with some other minor powers, but she’s nothing special. Sorry, but maybe if she was more than a WIZ-1? The rest is stamped “Classified”. How could we have known?”

“Oh, only a Wizard 1!?” Gunny smirked. “Who in the hell has been tutoring her and who is her magic studies mentor?”

“Fey and Sir Wallace?” Breaker asked, hesitantly answering the question.

“Do you really think either of those two would waste their time with a Wiz-1?”

“No…” Half of the team mumbled.

Gunny turned to me. “Whisper, what’s your real rating?”

“Umm…” I glanced helplessly to Sara for a second.

“Don’t worry, none of the Grunts will blab, right?” Gunny glared at them as they readily agreed with him.

“Wizard 4, maybe a 5. Fey thinks it might go that high with more training,” All of their jaws dropped with shock. “But, I seem to be limited to mostly illusion based spells.” I tried to make it sound like it wasn’t all that great.

Gunny simply smirked at my dissemination attempt. “Yeah, because invisible units on the battlefield aren’t useful at all…”

Gunny Bardue proceeded to dissect the rest of the action with laser precision. I didn’t escape unscathed. He yelled at me for trusting the MCO’s Friend or Foe system as much as I did, but praised me for taking the chance. My C³ and signals systems became known to the Grunts. They saw how useful it might be to have a mobile C³ system with them on missions, but they really thought my Hollywood ability to target and fire two weapons independently of each other was the best.  I guess I got off lucky and it felt kind of nice when the Grunts asked me to join them at their table for lunch the next day.

~o~O~o~

[1034 hrs - Saturday 9-Jun-2007 - Manchester-Boston Regional Airport ]

I wasn’t sure if the President got involved, but it still took an hour of negotiations between folks very high up on the food chain before the MCO apologized for the ‘glitch’ in their system, yeah right, and released me and my two MPs from lockdown. I received a lot of curious glances and a few hostile stares as I exited the MCO Containment area followed by my two MPs.

The Power Armor equipped MCO guys stayed behind, but four plain clothes MCO agents paced a discrete distance behind. Not very subtle if you asked me, but I think the MCO leadership was feeling a little nervous. Things had not been going well for them the last couple of months and except for the lives lost, I didn’t have an ounce of sympathy for them.

Good news, even with the MCO’s hour plus delay, I didn’t miss my flight. Bad news, the MCO’s jammers screwed everyone up and I had to wait at the gate for an extra two hours. More good news, the gate attendant upgraded me to an unbooked first class seat and I got to board first. I think she saw all my ‘fans’ and just wanted to keep me away from the other the passengers.

I felt pretty happy and optimistic about finally getting home, but Murphy has other ideas because who did I see enter the cabin and lock onto me almost immediately? Was it another MCO dude in power armor coming to shoot me?

“Princess Brianna!”  Everyone in the first class section, the flight attendants and the passengers trying to board turned to look at me.

No, it was worse. It was ‘Princess’ Olivia.  What were the odds?

~o~O~o~

~o~O~o~

~o~O~o~

 

Insert standard disclaimer here: The one that reminds everyone that this is a work of fiction. No one is real and any resemblance to someone who is real is purely coincidence, honest. This is also a Fan Fiction set in the Whateley Story Universe. No Canon characters were permanently harmed in the making of this story. I hope. :)

 

Note: Sorry it took so long to get this one out. The holidays were kinda busy. Special thanks to Warren over at TCH for not getting mad at me ( I think ) and giving me some insight and feedback into his character. Any deviations from Whateley Canon are all my fault. Thanks go out to my beta-readers/editors/sanity checkers as well as djkauf for his magical editing.

~o~O~o~

 

I watched as Olivia’s eyes widened with alarm when she realized she had just yelled out my ‘secret’ and everyone had heard her. “Oh no…” She gasped, and started to cry.

As much as I would like to claim to be a tough girl, there is no way I can let her cry. I got up and grabbed her hand. “It’s okay, Princess Olivia. You were just surprised and so was I, but I’m glad you’re on the plane with me.”

The line was beginning to back up and people were starting to look a little impatient. “Y, you are?” Olivia sniffled.

“Of course! I feel so much safer knowing you’re here to help protect me.” Now, let’s go find your seat, shall we?” I pulled her gently along. “What seat are you in?”

Olivia glanced back at her mom and dad. “Umm…”

“20C, the window.” Her mom answered after a quick glance at their ticket stubs.

I helped Olivia to her seat, but when I tried to return to mine, I got trapped by her cuteness and the horde of passengers trying to get to their own seats. “Don’t leave me, please…” She begged me.

“I have to get back to my seat, but after we take off, maybe I can come back and visit you?”

“I’m scared!” Olivia whispered as her eyes pleaded for me to stay.

The poor girl. She had the puppy dog eyes look down pat; I could learn from her. “Hey, can I tell you a secret?”

Olivia nodded with agreement as I leaned down and whispered in her ear. “Well, don’t tell anyone, but Sara, my Guardian Pixie, is afraid of flying.”

“What!?” Olivia gasped and covered her mouth, her eyes wide with surprise. “But, she flies. She’s a pixie!”

“I know, I know.” I helplessly shrugged my shoulders and grinned. “But she doesn’t like human airplanes. She says that if humans were meant to fly, they would have been born with wings! She’s very grumpy about it, but she’s glad you’re here because she would like you to protect her from the human’s infernal winged contraption.” I glanced at my shoulder, pretending like Sara was sitting there. “Shhh...not so loud.” I whispered.

Olivia giggled and addressed Sara the Pixie as if she really was invisibly sitting on my shoulder. “It’s okay Sara, I’ll help you.” She held out her hand for Sara to jump onto.

I couldn’t resist. I used my body to block Olivia’s parent’s view of her hand and cast my Sara Pixie illusion. There was a brief glow as Sara materialized. Olivia gasped with delight when Sara giggled and snuggled herself into her hand before fading out of sight. I frowned as if worried about her abandoning me. “Traitor.” I sighed with mock frustration. “Well, it looks like she wants to stay with you instead of me. Do you mind?”

It took me a lot of apologies during my upstream return my seat, but it was worth it because it seemed to help Olivia. Heck, maybe ‘Princess Olivia’smistake was for the best because the people in first class looked at me like I was a movie star or someone famous instead of a dangerous mutant.

Once we reached our cruising altitude and the captain turned off the seat belts sign, Olivia’s mom came up. “Thank you so much! It was amazing how much your invisible friend Sara was able to help Liv with her fear of flying.”

I wasn’t used to dealing with a parent praising me for how I treated their child. Heck, children in general were a big scary mystery to me. “Oh, it’s not a problem, ma’am. I’m glad I was able to help her. How’s she doing now?”

“She’s asleep.” Olivia’s mom smiled contently. “For the first time ever, she fell asleep on the plane.” She giggled. “Of course, the take off was interesting. Instead of crying and hugging me, she spent the entire time talking to her hand and reassuring ‘Sara’ that everything was okay.”

I had to laugh at the idea of cute little Olivia talking to an invisible Sara. She proudly returned Sara to me just before landing and I couldn’t resist her cuteness, I had to hug her. Being a girl and expressing my emotions a little more openly alarmed me sometimes, but Olivia was just so darn cute and her imagination, amazing. Her parents thought she was just pretending, but I decided she deserved a little something extra. Probably while we were in baggage claim versus on the plane because it would be bad if I freaked the pilot or the crew out with what I had in mind.

I was pleasantly surprised when I exited the plane in New Mexico and there were no armored MCO troops waiting to take me into custody. I wanted to wait for Olivia, but I quickly spotted a matching pair of plain clothes MCO agents hanging out and I didn’t want her to get involved if they tried something stupid. I really didn’t know why the MCO seemed to have such a hard-on for--

Excuse me, my time hanging out with the military folks at Whateley had given me a slightly larger vocabulary and it snuck out sometimes, but I didn’t understand exactly why Special Agent Lainer from Virginia was gunning for me. Apparently, he was still a little upset about my H1! adventure and hated the fact that he wasn’t able to bring me to justice. I suspect his idea of justice was a little wonky since I had clearly acted in self-defense. Maybe the trial next month would clear everything up.

Mom, Dad and Lindsay ambushed me in baggage claim. Well, I let them, because it was kind of hard for me to not notice my alien, screaming with joy sister as she ran for me. I didn’t understand why she was so happy to see me because when I was her brother, she never wanted to have anything to do with me. Mom and Dad were much more reserved in their public display of affection. They simply hugged me and told me how glad they were to see me.

“Welcome home, Princess.” Dear old Dad timed his address perfectly. First my sister and now my Dad giving me the same pet name he sometimes used for Lindsay. Well, ‘Princess Olivia’ and her family caught up with us and if she wasn’t convinced enough before, she was now because she ambushed me with a hug from behind.

“Princess Brianna, Princess Brianna! Thank you so much for letting Sara stay with me during the flight!”

Lindsay snickered while my mom and dad looked at each other with confusion. “Princess Brianna?” They mouthed.

I crouched down and faced Olivia. “Oh, hey, Princess Olivia. Sara told me she was hoping to run into you before we left.” I glanced around and we had a good amount of concealment with my parents and Olivia’s parents crowding around. Lindsay was clearly amused by all this and was struggling to contain herself, but she was nice and didn’t ruin it for Olivia.

I cast my Pixie Sara illusion and this time, Olivia’s parents got a ringside seat to the show. I heard their intake of breath and Lindsay crouched down to get a better view of my illusionary pixie; further helping to block any outside observation. “Thank you so, so much Princess Olivia! You helped me a lot with the nasty old human plane.” Sara giggled and flew up, kissed Olivia on her cheek and vanished, leaving behind a rapidly fading cloud of sparkles.

“Wow, that was so cool!” Lindsay gasped, her eyes wide as saucers as she looked at me with something that looked suspiciously like adoration. It felt strange because she hadn’t looked at me like that since she turned 10.

Olivia rewarded me with a hug before she spun to face her parents, her arms crossed and her face scowling. “See, I told you Princess Brianna’s Guardian Pixie Sara was real!”

Her parents took a few seconds before they could form a cognizant reply. Her father took his cues from his wife and relaxed when she smiled at Olivia and crouched down. “I’m so sorry sweetie. I should’ve known that a real pixie wouldn’t show herself to an adult.” She looked up at me and my parents standing anxiously at my side.

Thankfully, it didn’t appear like the MCO agents had seen my little impromptu magic trick, but if Olivia’s mom freaked out, things could go very wrong, very fast. Expecting the worst, because no good deed goes unpunished, I was pleasantly surprised when she smiled and reached out to grab my hand. “Thank you so much for letting your Guardian Pixie stay with Olivia during the flight.” She even sounded grateful about it instead of scared and trying to cover up her real feelings to protect her daughter.

I glanced back to my mom and she was relaxed and smiling. So, I knew things were probably going to be okay. “Not a problem ma’am. I knew Sara didn’t really like flying and I figured Princess Olivia was probably the best little person for the job.”

The lights started to flash and a warning buzzer sounded for our luggage carousel. Lindsay surprised me with a ninja hug as Olivia’s father and my dad stepped over to the carousel together. “Hey, I can get it Dad.”

He turned back to me and grinned. “It’s okay, Princess’s shouldn’t have to get their own luggage.”

Grrrr.

“Hehe, I can tell this summer is going to be the best evah!” Lindsay giggled, giving me a quick and sneaky side hug.

Double, Grrrr.

Olivia stayed by my side as her mom and my mom began to chat. I found out her name was Kathy, her husband’s name was Tony and they lived in Albuquerque, but were planning on going to their vacation cabin in Taos for a few weeks during the summer. Phone numbers were exchanged and my services as a babysitter for Olivia were volunteered if they were ever in Santa Fe and needed a few hours to themselves. Me, a babysitter, what about Lindsay? She had a lot more experience with this girl stuff.

Triple, Grrrr.

The conversation between the Moms continued all the way to the parking garage. My dad took it upon himself to drag my luggage to the car and as part of my possible role as a babysitter, I somehow managed to gain the job of holding Olivia’s hand as we crossed the street. On the plus side, I was invited to join them for a day or two at their cabin, if I wanted. Well, maybe being a babysitter for Olivia wasn’t ‘that’ bad a deal. Taos was pretty darn nice and if they had a cabin there, I might be invited to visit it during the winter break, during ski season.

“Well, that was certainly nice. Kathy and Tony are great people and Liv is such a dear, isn’t she Bree?” My mom turned back to me as we pulled out of the parking ramp.

“Oh yeah, she’s kinda cute, but did you have to volunteer me as a babysitter?” I had to complain about something, right?

Before she even spoke, Mom gave herself away with a nod of agreement. “Well, she certainly liked you and it wouldn’t hurt for you to have some responsibility during the summer. Kathy said she would pay you.”

“And you turned her down…”

My mom frowned at my reminder. “Well, yes, but you were invited to their cabin.”

“As a babysitter...” I didn’t approve. Cabins in expensive resorts are for fun, not work.

“I’m sure it will still be fun and babysitting isn’t that hard, right Lindsay?”

Lindsay smirked at me before turning to mom and with a completely honest, butter doesn’t melt on my tongue expression, she agreed with mom. “Oh no, babysitting is actually pretty easy. You just hang out with the kids and make sure they don’t get into trouble.”

She was lying out her butt. I knew perfectly well how much she hated sitting for Mr. and Mrs. Latimer because their eight year old son was a little spoiled brat. “Liar! You know full well that’s not true. I still don’t know how you can lie to mom-”

“I did not!” Lindsay huffed and glared at me.

“Girls! Please! Don’t make me pull this car over.” Dad yelled.

How could they not know and why couldn’t he have said ‘kids’ or ‘hey, you two’ like he used to when I was a boy? “But-”

“No buts and no fighting! I didn’t expect you two to start fighting so soon. It’s almost like it was before…” Dad trailed off without finishing his thought because he caught Mom’s warning glance.

“David.” Mom primly reprimanded Dad before turning to Lindsay. “Lindsay, you should know better. Now, apologize to your sister.”

Lindsay nodded, sighed and turned to me. “Sorry Bree, I was just trying to get back at you for all the times you grumbled at me for how easy it was for me to earn money babysitting.”

Now I felt like a meanie. “It’s okay Linds,” I sorta, accidentally used my old, affectionate nickname for her, causing her eyes to tighten like she was going to cry or something. “I was just surprised about being asked to be a babysitter for Liv.” I shrugged apologetically. “I never considered myself as babysitter qualified since,” I glanced down at my breasts like I was still surprised to see them sitting there. “You know...”

Lindsay giggled and leaned over, giving me a quick hug. “I’m so glad you’re home now big, little sister!”

Again, Grrrr.

I debated threatening to turn her into a frog, but Mom preempted me. “Well, Bree and Lindsay, now that that’s resolved, riight?” She focused her attention on me.

Dang empathy power of hers!

“Uh, huh…” We both quickly nodded with agreement.

Mom graciously smiled at me. “Bree, since it’s your favorite place, we’re planning at stopping for dinner at the Pizza Palace. Sound good?”

I enthusiastically nodded my agreement. “Heck ya, thanks Mom!”

John and I ate there every chance we got. I loved their pizzas. Especially their Pizza Royale, but the Royale was also what we called a ‘garbage’ pizza. Not because it tasted bad, but because it had a lot of everything. A lot of cheese, three different meats ( bacon, sausage and pepperoni ) and the token vegetables for color. It was totally awesome, but now I wasn’t so sure about it. I guessed I could just order my own personal sized veggie pizza while everyone else ate the good one.

Of course, Mom picked up on my change in enthusiasm levels. “It’ll be okay. John and Lisa are planning on meeting us.”

“Cool!” Well, there was a plus. It would be nice to see the two of them.

Mom spun back around and glanced over at Dad. “Can you turn the radio on?”

Ordinarily he would’ve just told her that the button was right there, but this time he simply reached over and hit it for her. “Sure dear.”

The local top 40 station came to life playing some song about a chick stealing another girl’s boyfriend. I had heard it far too many times already and I kinda tuned it out as Lindsay danced in her seat and lip synced all the words.

At the end of the song, the news came on.

“This just in, the FAA and the FCC are investigating the MCO for the use of powerful communication jammers in the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport this morning. The MCO claims it was just a glitch in their software and that they need the jammers to prevent and limit the communications of a mutant terrorist group during an attack. The FAA and FCC are both reported to be considering levying massive fines for disrupting and endangering air traffic in and around the airport at the time of the glitch. In related news, As more allegations of abuse against U.S. citizens continue to surface, Democratic Senator Josh Lindstrom’s resolution calling to modify the MCO’s Force Authorization Treaty is gaining support in the House and the Senate. He and his supporters propose to restrict the use of military weapons by the MCO inside the U.S. and limit the organization to an advisor role. MCO Spokesman Ron Hokst made a prepared statement, refuting all allegations made against the MCO. He stated that while no large organization is incapable of making mistakes, all of the claims of abuses were all without merit or made by mutants whose only goal is to weaken the security provided by the MCO. The United States would be foolish to even consider such limits.”

Next up was a short blurb about some local politician getting caught cheating on his wife, followed by the weather. Compared to the weather in New Hampshire, it was going to be hot, darn hot. The bit about the MCO kind of surprised me. I didn’t expect my little flight home adventure to make the news. Ordinarily, the MCO just made the ‘Eek! It was a filthy mutant! Run for your lives!’ claim and no one said Jack, umm, Poop about it.

After that bit of news, I visually checked our six to see if we were being followed because I expected the MCO would be even more pissed at me now, but I didn’t spot anything suspicious. Well, no black SUVs or other stereotypically MCO full sized vehicles. I also performed an extra scan of the frequencies to see if there were any suspicious radio communications going on. Again, nada.

Hmm, maybe the MCO had learned their lesson?

Once I felt relatively secure that we weren’t being followed, I turned back around to find my mom looking back at me with a questioning glare. She reached over and turned off the radio. “So, Brianna, is there something you want to tell us about the MCO and your little flight delay?”

“Umm, no, not really?” I shrugged my shoulders and hoped she would let it go. I mean, it was hours and hours ago.

Clearly, my parents weren’t on the same wavelength as me. “Bree…” They both impatiently chorused.

I sighed with frustration. Thank god the MCO hasn’t hired my mom. “Fine, like the news said, the MCO had a ‘glitch’ with their threat identification system. Somehow, they had me flagged as a level 4 super-villain and they reacted by locking down the airport and siccing a pair of their powered assault troopers on me.”

“What?!?” My mom yelped.

“Whoa, cool.” Lindsay grinned, briefly drawing Mom’s impatient glare to her, before she returned her full attention back to me.

“It wasn’t a big deal, really. We were ready for the MCO to try something. General Evans had a pair of military police waiting for me and I was streaming the situation back to him at Langley. As soon as the MCO went postal, he called the Sec Def and I’m not sure what was said after that, but I was let go an hour later.” I shrugged apologetically and smiled. “See, no big deal.”

My mom didn’t look convinced. She grabbed my dad’s arm for reassurance causing him to quickly glance over his shoulder with concern before returning his attention to the road. “There’s nothing we can do about it now, Honey, and it sounds like it’s been handled. Do you want to call Mr. Reilly, see if he has any additional information or recommendations?”

“I dunno, Dave…” Mom sighed. “It’s Saturday and a little late. If nothing else happens this weekend,” She directed her voice in my direction. “I’ll call him on Monday.”

“Sounds good to me dear. I’m sure everything is okay, but if it will make you feel better; maybe you could call and leave him a message instead?”

I nodded with agreement and smiled encouragingly at my mom when she glanced back to look at me again.

“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea. I’ll wait until we get to the restaurant. I think I need some time to think about it before I call.” She sighed with worry before turning the radio back on.

Fortunately, music was playing and it helped distract the ‘rents from my little MCO problem, but after the third or fourth song and no conversation into our expected hour long trip to Santa Fe, Mom turned off the radio again. “So, Bree, every time you called home, you seemed to be a little vague about your new school and friends. Is there a reason for that and should we be concerned?”

“Umm, yes and no?” Mom glanced anxiously over to Dad. After the MCO thing, I needed to fix this fast. “I mean, it’s complicated because the place is kind of crazy, but cool at the same time.” I could see I wasn’t helping make my case. “Well, I mean, all the students there have super powers and some more super than others. So, there were some, umm, issues, but I dodged most of them and there isn’t much for me to say.”

Mom was not so easily put off. “Brianna Nicole Peters, you’ve been gone for three months and I barely know what your grades or classes were. I expect a little more candor now that you’re here, in the car with us. Got it, young lady?”

Ah, man. If she found out everything, she probably wouldn’t let me go back in the fall, but maybe I could tell her about some of my classes. Those were pretty safe. “Yes, Mom. Umm, well, I have my report card here.” I reached into my laptop bag, extracted a manila envelope and handed it to her.

She gave me a suspicious glance before she opened it. “Is there anything in here I need to be warned about, like anything less than a C?”

“No Mom. Since I got there kinda late, they had me take a lot of core catch up classes. I got four A’s, well, three A’s in AP Physics, Chemistry, Pre-Calculus, an A minus in Biology and a B in Intro to Magical Arts. I wanted to take Survival and Principles of Spacecraft engineering, but because of the JROTC thing, I had to take the Basic Firearms Safety course and move on to the Combat Pistol class so I can eventually get my Federal Conceal and Carry Permit. I got A’s in those too, but I did run into some issues when I met my instructor in the Combat Pistol class.”

“What, Combat Pistol, Carry Permit?! You’re not?” My mom looked alarmed and confused.

“Really?!?! Cool! Can I see?” Lindsay gushed with anticipation.

I could see my Mom started to panic at the thought I might have brought my pistols home with me. “No Mom, I left my 45’s locked in the arms locker at school. I still have a few additional required classes to take before I can legally carry and I didn’t wanna make you worried about having weapons in the house.” I said, attempting to reassure her before she got worked up.

Whateley definitely was not a public school and my plan to distract my mom appeared to be working since the Combat Pistol class kind of gave me a relatively safe story to tell my ‘rents and keep them from finding out about the nearly world ending GOO invasion. I didn’t actually see it, but there is no way, no how I’m going to tell them about that little adventure! Not right now, because being whisked away to Italy for dinner with Uncle Gothmog and then, getting stranded by him while all the fun was happening at Whateley was not cool.

~o~O~o~

[1300hrs Monday, 09-April-2007 - Range 02 - Whateley Academy]

After being bored to tears in the Basic Firearms Safety course, I looked forward to firing a real pistol again, but for fun and not at people. Right after I finished lunch, I navigated myself to Range Two and checked in with Gunny Bardue. I’d heard a lot about him and didn’t want to piss him off.

So, I arrived a full ten minutes early and patiently waited for the rest of the students to arrive. He pretended to glare at me a few times and I pretended to be suitably impressed. It was part of the military game. Act how they expect you to act and they won’t pay extra attention to you. Well, that is how I hoped it worked and so far, it appeared to be true because he had to look at the sign-in clipboard to get my name.

“Brianna Peters?” He scowled at me.

“Yes, si-Sergeant?” I almost screwed the, umm, messed up and called him “sir”. Oh yeah, that wouldn’t have gone over well.

A ghost of a smile touched his lips as he nodded with approval over my correction. “What’s your code name girl?”

I straightened up in my seat. “Whisper, Sergeant.”

His eyes snapped up to my face as he appeared to recognize my name. “Whisper, huh?” He nodded as he gave me a closer inspection. “You’re the one the Grunts are all moaning and groaning about. Well, you don’t look like much.” He shook his head and chuckled. “But, that could be said for just about every student here.”

I didn’t have anything to say about his statement because it was true. The Grunts still called me an ‘FNG’ and it was starting to get annoying. Additionally, it was true about what he said about the other students. There were students who looked like monsters, but were the nicest folks you could know, there were the ones who looked like runway models who were downright nasty and there were others who didn’t fit either stereotype. At Whateley, not only was it was hard to judge a book by its cover; it could be downright risky.

“Okay, Whisper, follow me. Since yer early, I’m going to go ahead and have you check out a weapon.” Gunny Bardue motioned for me to follow him.

The weapons locker was a few meters down the hall from the classroom. He knocked on the top half of a split armored door.

A muffled, “Coming!” came from the other side a few seconds before it sounded like some bolts were undone and the top part of the door swung open. “Sergeant Bardue, how may I help you?”

“Corporal Kline, this young lady needs to check out a firearm for today’s class. Take care of her while I go ‘counsel’ the stragglers.” Gunny Bardue grinned as he joyfully looked forward to counseling the other students.

“Yes, Sergeant. Not a problem.” Cpl Kline nodded as Gunny Bardue performed an about face and returned to the Range proper. With Gunny Bardue gone, Kline turned his attention to me. “Name?”

“Whisper.”

“Any preferences?” Kline asked, bored and not expecting a reply.

“Beretta 92FS, please.” Again, I got the curious expression as a response. “What? Is something wrong with that one?”

“No, not really. I just didn’t expect a greenhorn to actually have a preference.” Kline shrugged. “But, we don’t have one of those, how about the 93R instead?” He asked, apparently testing me.

>Manufacturer: Beretta

>Model: 93r

>Caliber: 9x19mm

>Capacity: 20

>Fire Modes: Semi-automatic, 3-Round Burst

>Modifications: Compensator

>Maximum Effective Range: 50 m

>Available Accessories: Detachable, folding shoulder stock

Well, it was the same caliber and it could hold 5 more rounds in its magazine. “Hmmm, burst fire sounds interesting. Is that with the 20 round mag?” I did some studying on the clip versus magazine thing. I did not want to sound like a total newbie and call it a clip, oh no.

I earned a second appraisal from him. “Yes, would you like the stock?”

“No thanks, I don’t plan on using the burst mode, but it could be fun some other time.”

Kline smiled at me as he turned to retrieve the Beretta. I guess I passed the test. He set a padded pistol case on the small counter built into the door. After he opened the case and I verified it contained everything it should, two empty magazines with the pistol. I signed for the weapon, closed the case and he handed me a box containing fifty rounds of 9mm for my weapon. I very carefully returned to the small classroom attached to the range. I knew the ammo probably wouldn’t explode if I dropped it, but I didn’t want to take any chances. Seated behind the tables were the same four students I had with me in the Firearms Safety class.

Gunny Bardue stood front and center. He nodded at me as I took an open seat in the rear. Once I sat, he pointed to the large, very new-looking sign bolted to the wall next to the door leading to the range. Based on his slightly pained expression, I guessed the sign had been recently changed.

“For those who may have used the ranges in the past, we have a few new range rules.” Gunny Bardue sighed with contempt. “Apparently, we’ve had a few individuals who lacked what we view as simple, common sense.” His posture straightened as his eyes bored into each and every student in the room. “Now, is everyone able to read and understand this sign?!” He barked in a tone of voice that would make even a drill sergeant pay attention.

1. ALWAYS keep muzzle pointed DOWN RANGE!

2. ALWAYS keep finger off of trigger until ready to shoot.

3. ALWAYS keep your firearm unloaded until ready to use.

4. NO CROSS RANGE SHOOTING!

5. DO NOT shoot the walls, ceiling or floors!

6. Unload all firearms before leaving range.

There were a few mumbles of assent, but at the risk of breaking my ‘no attention is good attention’ rule, there was no way I was going to earn his attention by going along with the herd this time. “Yes, Gunnery Sergeant Bardue!” I made sure my voice was loud and clear.

Gunny Bardue grinned and of course, I earned a few ‘brown noser’ expressions from the other students. “Apparently, we only have one student in the room who will be paying attention! Now, my hearing is a little weak and I didn’t hear the rest of you bottom dwelling, mud-sucking filter feeders clearly. So, I’ll ask one more time, is everyone able to read and understand this sign?!?!”

This time, all but one student enthusiastically yelled. “Yes, Gunnery Sergeant Bardue!”

The one student who was slumped down in his desk and didn’t reach the proper enthusiasm levels earned Gunny Bardue’s undivided attention. The student was huge and looked like he was used to intimidating everyone else, but not Gunny. He jumped in the student’s face, his nose almost touching the student’s nose. “DO YOU HAVE A PROBLEM FOLLOWING SIMPLE INSTRUCTIONS MR. KELLOGG?!?! IF YOU THINK I’M GOING TO LET YOU PULL SOME DUMBASS MISTAKE IN MY RANGE, YOU’VE GOT ANOTHER THING COMING! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?!?!”

Joey, aka Tanker, aka ‘The Student” straightened up with panicked expression. “Yes, sir! Sorry, Sir!”

Gunny Bardue sighed and shook his head with disgust. “SIR?!? DOES GUNNERY SERGEANT BARDUE SOUND LIKE AN OFFICER’S RANK? NO! I DIDN’T SPEND 23 YEARS IN THE MARINES TO BE INSULTED BY A SNOT NOSED PUNK. I WORK FOR A LIVING! IT’S GUNNERY SERGEANT OR SERGEANT BARDUE.” He glared at the rest of the students for a second before relaxing and getting rid of his drill sergeant face. He smiled pleasantly at us all. “Now, that I have got yer undivided attention. Breaking rule number one is grounds for being booted and possibly banned from the range. All of our instructors are authorized to take whatever means necessary to prevent the unsafe use of a firearm. If that takes breaking your arm and slamming you onto the floor, then that is what will happen. Are there any questions?”

“No, Gunnery Sergeant Bardue!” Everyone in the class sang like perfect little military recruits.

He smiled and nodded his head. “Excellent, now rule number two and three are pretty self explanatory. Rule four simply means, shoot at your own damn targets and ONLY your own targets. No ‘helping’ your neighbor, got it?”

“Yes, Gunnery Sergeant Bardue!”

“Excellent, now the rest of you, see Corporal Kline in the arms room, check out a firearm and report to the range.” Gunny Bardue glanced to me. “Whisper, you’re with me.”

I felt a little nervous with having Gunny Bardue as my instructor, but I guessed it was my ‘reward’ for being early. Next time, I needed to time my entrance to be a little less noticeable. He led me to lane one and instructed me to remove my firearm from its case. He watched me like a hawk as I carefully removed it and set it on the small bench with its barrel pointed down range.

He handed me a box of ammunition. “Good, now load one magazine.”

After I loaded the magazine, he donned his hearing protection and I followed suit by sticking some unfashionable cotton balls in my ears and instructing my ears to ignore sounds above 85 dB. I noticed him looking a little skeptical about my choice in hearing protection. “I’m allergic to plastic and I told my ears to ignore the gunshot sounds.”

“Oookay...” Gunny Bardue shrugged his shoulders, but accepted my explanation. “Insert your magazine.”

>Weapon Detected...

>IFSFCS Activated

>Searching IFSFCS Weapons DB for match...

>Match found.

>

>Manufacturer: Beretta

>Model: 93R

>Caliber: 9x19mm

>Capacity: 20

>Fire Modes: Semi-automatic, 3-Round Burst

>Modifications: Compensator Fitted

>Maximum Effective Range: 50 m

>

>Weapon 1 Searching for IFSFCS Smart Link...

>Weapon 1 IFSFCS Smart Link Not Found

>Weapon 1 Creating Simulated IFSFCS Smart Link

>Weapon 1 IFSFCS Smart Link: Enabled

>Weapon 1 Ammunition Status: 20 Rounds

>Weapon 1 Warning...Weapon 1 not zeroed.

Oh yeah, “Weapon not zeroed” was the same thing happened to me when I used Agent Hoffman’s weapon back in Virginia. It should zero itself after I’ve fired it a couple of times, I hope. In the mean time, I kept my weapon pointed safely down range and waited for Gunny Bardue to give me the go ahead.

“Ready?” He asked.

He sort of surprised me because I expected him to give me some more instructions. I carefully selected the Semi-Automatic mode, racked the slide to chamber a round and aimed it down range. “Ready.” I said, glancing over my shoulder at him before I returned my attention to the empty range.

>Alert!

>Target detected!

>Range 20 meters.

The nifty status and target warning popped up as a large 20 centimeter diameter aiming circle overlaid the human target silhouette. I aimed for the center of the target.

[CRACK!]

>Weapon 1 Ammunition Status: 19 Rounds

I completely missed, but my IFSFCS system made an adjustment and my large circle shrank into a small 2-5 centimeter diameter aiming circle.

[CRACK!]

>Weapon 1 Ammunition Status: 18 Rounds

This time, the target dropped as my round impacted almost dead center and my small aiming circle turned into a tiny little dot.

>Weapon 1 zeroed!

>Alert!

>Target detected!

>Range 10 meters.

[CRACK!]

>Weapon 1 Ammunition Status: 17 Rounds

It dropped with a round right between where its eyes might have been if it was real, but 10 meters was pretty easy. A third target popped up, but this one was at 25 meters. I dropped it without any problems. The fourth target was the 50 meter target and while a little extreme, I managed to drop it without any problems. My round’s trajectory was a little off, but my system simply added the info into its database for next time.

>Weapon 1 Ammunition Status: 15 Rounds

“Impressive…” Gunny Bardue grinned as he entered a command into my lane’s control pad.

For the second round of fun, the targets popped up much faster. I assumed they would drop on their own if I missed or took too long to hit one, but I hit them all on the first shot.

>Weapon 1 Ammunition Status: 10 Rounds

“Okay, let’s see how you do in the threat identification mode.” Gunny Bardue grinned mischievously as he entered a command on the control pad.

This time, when the target popped up, it was with a man holding a weapon. I shot him, figuring he represented a ‘threat’. The second target was of a little girl in a frilly dress. I elected to not shoot her. I shot all three of the ‘bad guy’ targets and ignored the ‘friendly’ targets, scoring a perfect 5 out of 5. It was pretty easy and fun at the same time because while my simulator was very good, firing a real weapon was even better. My mom didn’t look pleased with my admission.

>Weapon 1 Ammunition Status: 7 Rounds

Gunny Bardue hid it well, but I think he looked a little impressed with me. “Hmm, it looks like you’ve had some experience shooting. How many rounds do you have remaining?”

His question sounded like a test to me, but with my system keeping track of the data; it seemed like a no brainer to answer him without delay. “Seven, Sergeant Bardue. Should I reload?”

He nodded with approval. “No, but since it looks like you’ve got your head screwed on right, I think I’m going to make this a little more complicated this next round.” He entered another command into the control pad.

This time, the targets popped up, but the bad guy was holding the little girl in the dress hostage with only his face exposed. I couldn’t help it, the “sucks to be the hostage.” line ran through my head as I shot the bad guy right between the eyes.

[CRACK!]

>Weapon 1 Ammunition Status: 6 Rounds

I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to shoot the hostage target at all, but the bad guy portion of the target fell, leaving the hostage. I guessed I was allowed to shoot them. Including the one I shot, a total of nine targets popped up during the scenario and exactly seven of them were bad guys or combinations of good guys and bad guys mixed together. It was a good thing my pattern recognition system was so good. It made identifying the correct target trivial and I didn’t even need to dip into slow motion mode.

[CRACK!]

>Weapon 1 Ammunition Status: 0 Rounds

My weapon’s slide locked open and I pushed the button to eject the empty magazine. I carefully set my unloaded weapon down on the table with the barrel facing down range. “Should I reload now Sergeant Bardue?” I held up my empty magazine.

From start to finish, my shooting took 4.349 minutes and my fellow students were starting to file into the range. Gunny Bardue glanced over to them and grimaced with distaste. “No, I think I need to send you over to Range One.” He reached for his radio. “Everhart, I have a student needing some extra firearms assessments. Are you available?”

{“Yes.”}

Yes, his radio was encrypted and he was using one of those spiffy, Secret Service style earpieces, but he was standing right next to me and I had cracked campus security’s radio encryption the first time I had a security officer walk past me. I easily heard a woman’s voice reply and it surprised me that this Everhart person was a woman, but I guess should have been the last person to be surprised by something like that. I mean, I’m a girl now. Why should I be surprised by having a female firearms instructor?
 

I accessed the Whateley Network and using a little backdoor Paige showed me; I found an image of her official Whateley ID Card and her public stats.

>Everheart, Samantha

>Whateley Security Officer

>Rank: Lieutenant

>Height: 5'7"

>Weight: 120 lbs

There were links to more data, like military service record, U.S. Marshal record, Concealed Weapons Permit, etc, but I didn’t wanna take a chance digging into the more secure parts of the system. If I really wanted to find out more about her, I could try looking her up using my Mil.net access, but that had its own risks since Dr. Edmundson restricted my access to only allow read-only access to the servers in the Los Alamos lab for continued testing and monitoring. Thanks to Paige’s tutoring, I had ways around it, but I just didn’t think it was a good idea to try it right now.

None the less, based on her picture, I thought she was pretty, but ID pictures can be a little off. I’m sure she was even more attractive when in civilian clothes and not posing for a mug shot.

“Good, can you meet a student, call-sign, Whisper in Range One?”

{“Whisper? Yes, Gunny. On the way, Everhart out.”}

I heard a note of recognition in her voice. Did she somehow know me? I guess she probably knew the Grunts, but I really needed to work on keeping a lower profile if someone I’ve never run into knew my name. Especially, from someone who works for Whateley Security.

“Okay, Whisper. Meet Officer Everheart in Range One. Take your weapon and ammo with you.” Gunny lazily gestured toward my Beretta and weapon case.

“Yes, Gunny. Thanks?” I wasn’t sure if going to Range One was a good thing or not because it looked like I may have shown-off a little more than I should have.

Range One was connected to Range Two via the Arms Locker and range admin office. I carefully packed my assigned Beretta in its case, grabbed my remaining ammo and made my way to Range One.

I beat Officer Everheart by one point eight four minutes and I was feeling reasonably optimistic about things, and then, she walked through the door. I thought she was rather attractive, but I also got an immediate ‘she’s a badass and don’t mess with her’ vibe. I still thought she looked too young, but it’s hard to tell at Whateley.

“Hi, you must be Whisper.” Officer Everheart’s smile seemed friendly enough.

She had a healthy glow surrounding her, but I’d never seen anyone else with the glow or any glow - unless they actually glowed. Her glow was more like those aura things my magic teacher talked about and the closer she got to me, the more attracted to her I felt. She looked so beautiful I couldn’t stop myself from staring.

“Let’s go grab a firing lane and see what Bardue thinks I might be able to help you with.” She casually reached out and touched my shoulder to help point me in the right direction.

>Everheart Network detected…

Everything came to a screeching halt. I found myself floating in the middle of a pitch black space. Not a room, just space. I was wearing my Selena catsuit with my twin Beretta’s in their holsters, but also with my GEO Whisper’s daggers held in my hands in the ready position. I felt trapped and I didn’t like the feeling at all.

I got a lot pissed and a little scared. “What in the hell happened?!?!” My voice sounded hollow in this null space I seemed to be stuck in. It was kind of like it was when I first woke up inside my head in the lab, except worse because there was nothing to orientate myself to.

“Show me my external view screen!” I yelled, but nothing happened. No LED monitor popped up and no error messages, nada.

“Okay, Bree, breathe, or something…” I found my reminder to calm down somewhat humorous for some reason because did I need to breathe in space? “In space, no one can hear you scream.” I giggled at myself because I found the Alien reference funny.

“Focus…” I calmly exhaled and I thought I saw some tiny flashes of light as my heart rate began to drop.

“And, inhale…” The tiny flashes of light became millions of tiny stars and they were all around me. It really was like I was floating in space. “So, cool!” I felt excited.

I reached for a star.

>Access denied!

“Oh no she didn’t!” I pushed harder and the star turned into an access node for one of the tiny nanites in my body.

“This could take awhile…” I muttered as I regained full control of the single nanite.

I reached for a cluster of stars.

>Access-

I cut that nonsense off before it could even complete the warning code. I now had twenty two of my own nanite buddies under my control. “Yeah, this won’t work.”

I spun around in a circle like a little ballerina and focused on all of the stars. “Stars, get in ma’ belly!”

The lights came back on. I was once again in control of my own systems and I was now in a room that looked exactly like Sensei Roger’s dojo back home. Across the room, I spotted my attacker. It was Officer Everheart. How in the hell she got inside my virtual head I didn’t know and didn’t care. She wasn’t Sara and she wasn’t invited. Since she had just attacked and imprisoned me without breaking a sweat, she was obviously very strong. I needed an advantage and a pearl of wisdom from my homework Sun Tzu reading assignment from Sensei Rogers sprang to mind.

In any battle the element of surprise can provide an overwhelming advantage...

 

“Get out!” I attacked and boy was she surprised. It was only after I teleported right in front of her and tried to use my daggers that I wondered why I hadn’t tried to shoot her instead. I used the rest of the old dead Chinese dude’s advice and feinted with my daggers to her face to draw her arms up and out of position or just make her take a step back.

My perception of time slowed to a crawl as her arms started their slow rise to protect and guard her face. I jumped up and pumped my knees into her chest, kick boxer style. Time sped back up to normal for a fraction of a second as my knees slammed into her chest and rocked her body from side to side.

Time stop again. She moved in slow motion compared to me. I felt like I had all the time in the world to plan my attacks as her arms reflexively dropped to protect her upper body. With her arms down, I decided to ‘unequip’ my daggers in mid-attack.

I guess I could have actually used the daggers to maybe kill her, but I wasn’t thinking that way. I just wanted her gone and hurting too much to come back. With a thought, my daggers disappeared from hand hands and reappeared in their sheaths. I was glad I had the time distortion effect working for me because I thought my dagger trick was pretty cool.

Without my daggers, I followed through with a pair of left-right elbow strikes to her temples. Now, it was time to finish her and with that in mind, as soon as my feet touched the dojo floor, I planted myself while she took a couple steps back from my blows.

“I said, OUT!” I used all my strength and performed a textbook sidekick. Sensei Rogers would have been proud of me as Officer Everheart, or whoever she was, went flying backwards. It looked like one of those cheesy martial arts movies where the monks all jump up into the air and do all those impossible attacks because she flew twenty feet straight back and I felt pretty darn surprised by the effect of my kick.

She slammed into the dojo wall and she looked suitably shaken, not stirred. I was thinking about continuing my attack when the wall behind her opened up like a giant sink drain, sucking her into it. Damn it! She was escaping! Or, something...

I jumped in after her. Okay, so it probably wasn’t the best choice, but I was mad.

I found myself in another of those black, null space places, except this time the stars were already out and there were billions and billions of them. “Wow, pretty…” I had to have them.

I reached out to grab one and after a few seconds of concentrating, I was able to grab onto a single nanite star. I could tell it was communicating with its fellow nanite buddies, but I couldn’t understand how it was doing it. The way it ‘spoke’ looked like a completely different language to me, but I thought I might be able to understand it if I had some time. Unfortunately, it slipped away before I could get a good look at it.

“What in tha’ heck!?!”

I wanted to look at it longer, but the next thing I knew, I was standing on the deck of a massive U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier. How in the beep did I get there? I sure in hell didn’t make an aircraft carrier in my head. Was this Officer Everheart’s virtual creation?

If so, I had to admit, it was kind of cool, yet spooky at the same time because the deck was completely empty. No planes or sailors wearing colorful vests to be seen anywhere, completely deserted. I had a bad feeling about this scenario.

Adding to the general spooky feeling was the lack of a breeze or wind, but it felt like I was moving. There was a slight up and down motion and I could feel the ship’s power plant pulsing away below decks. I’m not sure how I knew, but I somehow knew there was something different about this carrier’s power plant. Instead of a nuclear power plant, this one was using fusion. When did the Navy get fusion power?

“Where am I!?” I yelled.

[beep]

Officer Everheart appeared in front of me and this time she was wearing a Navy officer’s uniform with Rear Admiral’s rank insignia and a chest full of awards and medals. She didn’t look happy to see me and I recognized one of the awards on her uniform. Like Admiral Jensen, she had the Special Warfare Insignia on her uniform and only SEALS could wear that award. Of course, only men could be Navy SEALS, but something told me she earned both the rank and the SEAL Budweiser. “What did you do?” She asked.

[beep]

I shrugged, but I didn’t know why she was upset. She started it. “I dunno? Why did you attack me?”

I kept my eyes on her as I shifted slightly to the side in case she decided to attack me this time. A glowing, pyramid shaped object appeared next to her. It flashed once, causing me to blink and in its place stood a giant white rabbit wearing a Sherlock Holmes outfit and smoking a pipe.

“Interesting, very interesting…” The rabbit took a pull from his pipe and nodded to Admiral Everheart.

[beep][beep]

The beeping was starting to get annoying. What in the heck was it?

>Medical Alert!

>Host: Whisper

>Symptoms matching Burnout detected.

Oh, that’s not good. I needed to get this over with fast. “If you’re not going to attack me, I think I need you to go now.”

“Go where?” Admiral Everheart glanced around. “This is my ship.”

I didn’t do what I think I might have, did I? I gasped as I realized I must be inside of her body. “How…”

Behind me a big steel plate rose up from the deck. I looked down and my feet were in some sort of block attached to a track. Steam started to hiss and rise from the track. “Oh crap.” I glanced over to Admiral Everheart and the strange rabbit.

Everheart looked simultaneously alarmed and mischievously pleased with herself. The trippy rabbit, I couldn’t tell, but I think he looked curious. Ahead of me, was the bow of the ship and a big giant swirling vortex. I glanced back down to my feet before returning my gaze to Admiral Everheart. “You know, you could just make a door or something…”

“Not as fast an exit.” She grinned and chopped her arm, signaling the carrier’s catapult system to launch me.

[Wham!]

“Ahhhhhh!” I shot across the deck and it probably would’ve been fun, if I was an airplane. At the end of the track, my feet were released and I flew into the vortex. Not my best exit, for sure.

I opened my eyes and immediately regretted it. I was lying on the floor and the lights in the ceiling were far too bright. What happened to my built in flare compensation? My head hurt and I felt like I was running a fever, but I felt fine just before…

“Oh, crap.” I looked over and spotted Officer Everheart working herself up and into a sitting position from beside me. The other personnel working in the range office was heading toward us.

How long was I out? Nothing. No annoying down to the faction of a second time display.

>System Start Sequence Initiated...

>Performing Memory Test…

>Physical Memory Total: 2,684,354,560 kb

>Physical Memory Available: 2,039,252,619 kb

>Initializing Boot Image…Do Not Turn Off Computer

>Initializing Kernel...complete

>Init Run Level 3

>Applying User Settings from /etc/config.ini

Well, that’s somewhat reassuring. Not only was I not feeling all loopy, but my memory available number was a little lower. It looked like I’d learned a few things since the last time I had this reboot happen.

>Medical Alert!

>Host: Whisper

>Symptoms matching Burnout detected.

Oh yeah, you sort of mentioned that already, but what does it mean?

>Core temp 104⁰F

>Diagnosis: Burnout, Sev 2

>Hospitalization not required.

>Initiating treatment...Please wait.

How long?

>ETC 55 seconds…

Oh, that’s not too bad a wait.

“Whisper, I’m so sorry. Are you okay?” Officer Everheart kneeled at my side, but didn’t touch me.

“Umm, just something called burnout, but it’s getting better. Estimated time of completion is, umm, 45 seconds now.”

“Holy shit!” One of the other security dudes yelled with alarm before grabbing his radio. “Medical, we have a student with Burnout, please advise.”

I didn’t feel like paying attention to the conversation and I figured it was probably better to not push myself right now. Besides, I felt my fever starting to drop and I watched my handy little display change from 104 to 103. A few seconds later, 102. The drop slowed a little, but within a minute or 54.2932 seconds for those who must know, my temp was back to normal.

>Sev 2 Burnout treatment...Complete.

I was good to go and starting to sit up just as a pair of EMTs rushed into the room pushing a gurney.

I started to stand. “I’m fine.”

They didn’t believe me and insisted on loading me onto the gurney and taking me to the infirmary for a full evaluation. Instead of a full sized ambulance, the school had a cool six-wheeled ATV thing with two seats in the front, a rack for gurney in the front and a small cargo bed in the back.

{“Heading to the infirmary with student, Whisper. Over.”} Officer Everheart transmitted to her bosses as she anxiously stood at the side of the ATV thing as the EMTs lifted me on board.

{“Affirmative. Control, Over.”}

I felt the passenger EMT attach a spiffy, high tech, blood pressure monitor to my wrist. I reflexively examined the device and found nothing alarming about it. My own systems were tons better and more accurate. I glanced over at the EMT. “I’m fine now, honest.”

With a slightly patronizing smile and nod of his head, he pretended to agree with me. “Sorry, miss, but we have to take you in for evaluation.”

It was a two minute ride and, as I expected, Mr. EMT didn’t find anything wrong with me. After they dumped me in an exam room in the Whateley Infirmary. For an exam room, I thought the place was pretty darn high tech. It almost looked like the room could be turned into a full blown operating room. They even had the machines that went, ‘bing!’. Making the place even nicer was the attractive female nurse who came in and took my blood pressure and temperature. She found me operating in normal ranges and looking a little frustrated, she left to get the doctor.

Everheart joined me at the side of my bed. “Sorry about that kid, I didn’t realize what was happening when I touched you.”

She still had an attractive glow surrounding her, and now that I knew what it was, I found her even more attractive. “I’m sorry, too. I didn’t know what was going on there either. I was trapped in some black space and I guess I sort of panicked a little.”

“Where’s the Burnout patient!?” Our little conversation was interrupted by the arrival of a harried looking male doctor. His name tag read, Dr. Quintain. I’d heard of him, he taught the Introduction to Superpowers class and everyone warned me his class was very boring. The subject should have been fascinating, but the man tended to talk in a boring monotone that put everyone to sleep. It was almost like he had a super power. He was also the man responsible for coming up with the powers ranking levels as well as the leading researcher into the causes of Burnout.

After realizing I wasn’t in danger of exploding, the doctor quickly composed himself while looking a little disappointed at the same time. “Hello, I’m Dr. Quintain.” He glanced down at some sort of high tech computer screen he carried in his hands like it was a clipboard. “Hmm, I was told you thought you were suffering from Burnout?” He sounded a little skeptical, but his eyes brimmed with energy and he sounded excited to see me, confusing me because he wasn’t supposed to be this energetic.

The device in his hands was pretty cool. It was a portable touchscreen computer with my chart loaded onto it. I think the doctor was a little confused by the fact that my temperature was back to normal levels. “Oh, I was. Severity level two according to, umm, well…” There was no way I could tell him about my systems. I doubted he was cleared for that information.

I glanced over to Officer Everheart for a second because I’m pretty sure she knew. “I had a fever?” I lamely finished.

“Hmm…” Dr. Quintain tapped the screen of his device. “Regen level two could have had something to do with a rapid recovery, but that doesn’t seem right.” He muttered more to himself than to me.

I glanced back to Everheart and she gave me a reassuring smile. Yep, she knew.

“I wonder if…” He tapped on the MMID portion of my record. “Classified?!”

He turned his attention back to me and held up the device with my MMID displayed on it. “Young lady, can you tell me why all of this is classified?”

“Umm, sorry sir, but that’s classified.” It was a little bit of a struggle to not smirk at him as his face clouded with frustration. After all, he was a doctor and he was only trying to help me.

“The damn military and their secrets.” He sighed. “Okay, can tell me how you knew it was severity level two burnout and why you were able to recover faster than someone with regen level two should have been able to?”

I kind of hated to disappoint him. “Sorry sir, but that’s classified too.” I decided to try and help him a little. “But, Dr. Edmundson at the DARPA research lab in Los Alamos might be able to authorize you for more information?”

My admission reminded me I was going to have to upload my medical logs to him ASAP. This little incident was probably something he would want to know about. If Dr. Edmundson did feel like helping Dr. Quintain, maybe the logs would be useful. I gave him Dr. Edmundson’s number and after a cursory exam, he cleared me to return to class.

I still had fifteen minutes before my next class started and I felt pretty sure it would be a waste of time to return to the range. That reminded me about something kind of important. I turned to Officer Everheart. “My weapon!”

Officer Everheart nodded with a pleased smile. “I’m impressed, but it’s already been taken care of.”

“Oh, phew! I didn’t want to lose it or get Corporal Kline mad at me.” I nervously glanced away. I found her nanite glow to be very distracting for me, but I was sure we had a few things that needed to be discussed. “So, what now Officer Everheart?”

She held up her hand as a signal for me to wait. {“Everheart here. Whisper checked out okay. Taking a smoke break.”}

I heard her voice over the radio, but I didn’t see her speak. Impressive.

{“Roger.”}

Everheart turned back to me. “I’m guessing you heard that.”

I nodded once.

“Well, I’m on break. Just call me Sam, okay?”

I nodded with agreement. “Okay, I’m Bree.”

I still found myself captivated by her glow and embarrassed by it at the same time because I wanted to try touching her again.

“Okay, Bree.” Sam smiled and motioned for me to follow her. “You’ve got a few minutes before your next class. Let’s head to my apartment. I think we have a few things we need to discuss.”

~o~O~o~

“Brianna Nicole Peters! What were you thinking?!?” My mom was not happy.

I got the full name treatment again, but I couldn’t believe my mom was upset about me going to a strange woman’s apartment. “What? She had a nice apartment.”

My mom groaned with frustration. “Not that, young lady. Why didn’t you call? My poor baby could’ve died.”

Oh, it was the infirmary thing; not even a visit to a real hospital. “It was just a little burnout, nothing serious.”

“Nothing serious!?!?” My mom turned back to my dad. “Oh my god, Dave. Did you hear her?”

Since my dad was driving and trying not to get us in an accident, he was a little distracted. “Yes, dear, but she’s fine now, right?”

Yep, my mom was on a roll, but at least she wasn’t freaking out about my using firearms or my out of body experience. Just the little burnout part of that experience. I glanced over to my sister and she just grinned and shrugged as if to say, “I don’t get it.”

Yep, parents are weird.

My mom was silent for a few minutes and I thought everything was good. “What did you two talk about?”

“What?” Judging by my mom’s expression, I could tell she wasn’t fooled by my little attempt to play dumb. “Oh, you mean what did Sam and I talk about!” I chuckled as I feverously worked out a way to explain our ‘little’ talk. “Well, like I said, she has a real nice apartment. It’s very feng shui and natural looking. I liked it.”

“Bree…” My mom growled impatiently.

“Umm, it’s kinda technical.” I could tell my mom would not be so easily dissuaded and worse, my dad’s ears perked up by my admission. “Okay, Sam, or Officer Everheart, or Rear Admiral Everheart, retired, kind of had the same thing happen to her that happened to me, except her nanites were this big artificially intelligent Hive thing. There was some sort of accident at the lab she worked at as a janitor.” My parents looked confused. “Don’t ask, beats me. So, she was infected and went from being a 50’ish man to his dead daughter.”

I shuddered at the thought because if I thought I had it rough, Sam had it way worse. “Anyway, during testing, she met this alien the government has hidden in some secret lab, that was the white bunny, I think. The two talked, exchanged some ideas, like how to make a fusion power plant. That was last year and we should have them by now, but I’m sure the big oil companies are stopping that. You know, gas and oil profits over the environment.”

This time Dad growled impatiently. “Bree…”

“Oh, yeah, so, we talked about nanites and she showed me a few tricks. She had a few suggestions and she said I should join the Navy when I get out. She’s friends with Admiral Jensen and he asked her to help keep an eye on me and maybe help me out if she could.” I shrugged my shoulders like everything was no big deal. “So, there ya go. Nothing much.”

“Bree.” Dad and Mom sighed in stereo with Dad taking over. “Methinks your idea of ‘nothing much’ and everyone else’s idea of ‘nothing much’ are a tad different.” He chuckled and turned to my mom. “See, honey, everything’s fine.”

Mom was not happy, but she let it go.

We spent the rest of the ride mostly talking about the plans for the summer and the trip back to Virginia for the H1! trial in a few weeks. Aunt Julie and Uncle Jim already told my mom we could stay with them. Yeah, it was kind of weird that we still thought of them as family, but cool at the same time because their house was very nice.

I could be his favorite niece Chloe and she had her driver’s license. Maybe Uncle Jim will let me drive his BMW this time?

~o~O~o~

~o~O~o~

~o~O~o~

 

Insert standard disclaimer here: The one that reminds everyone that this is a work of fiction. No one is real and any resemblance to someone who is real is purely coincidence, honest. This is also a Fan Fiction set in the Whateley Story Universe. No Canon characters were permanently harmed in the making of this story. I hope. :)

 

Note: Well, this took way long and it ended up long at 12k words. I hope it was worth the wait. Thanks go out to my beta-readers/editors/sanity checkers as well as djkauf for his magical editing.

~o~O~o~

 

As we drove into town, I reapplied my human illusion.  It wasn’t really much of an illusion; just a simple ear rounding and eye tweak to make myself look normal.

“Whoa!” Lindsay gasped and spun around to study my face. “That was so flippin cool!  How did you do that?  Are you a shape shifter?”

“No, it’s just an illusion. They’re still there.” I smirked as I leaned a little closer to her. “Go ahead, get it out of your system and touch them.”

I felt her fingertips gently tracing the points of my ears above where it looked like my ears ended. Needless to say, she was amazed. “What else can you do with your illusions? Can you make yourself look like a movie star?”

I grinned and glanced toward the front passenger seat. My mom started to shake her head with a mildly panicked expression. “Weeelll, I made Mom look like a Japanese school girl.”

Mom groaned and blushed while both my dad and Lindsay chorused, “What?!?”

“Yeah, it was-” I started to explain before Mom interrupted.

“Brianna...there are a lot of chores for you to catch up on young lady, but I’m sure we can work something out, right?” Her voice full of fake sweetness as she strongly hinted that the story wasn’t something she wanted told right now, or maybe, ever.

I gulped and nodded with agreement, causing Lindsay to sigh and sit back in her seat with disappointment over not getting the dirt on Mom. Dad was less reluctant to let it go. “Hon, you’re going to tell me about this tonight, after the kids go to bed, right?”

Maybe it would help Dad see what she looked like if I changed her before I went to bed. “Do you want me to-”

“No! Don’t you dare.” Mom turned back and glared at me before turning back to Dad with a sigh. “Yes Dear, I’ll tell you about it tonight.”

Lindsay reached over and grabbed my hand with an excited grin that told me she wasn’t going to give up until I told her all about it.  Mom didn’t say I couldn’t tell Lindsay and I didn’t understand why she was so upset. It was months ago and Aunt Julie was happy to have her disguise, Uncle Jim too.  Oh well, there was nothing I could do about it and I was pretty sure Lindsay was going to want a demonstration sometime very soon.

The Pizza Palace looked pretty busy, but I expected it would be.  It was a Saturday evening and, like me, all the kids were out of school. As soon as Dad gave our name to the hostess, she pointed out a waving John and Lisa. The two of them had already grabbed a table large enough to seat our party.

During the walk back to our table, my targeting system tagged and marked all the people inside as potentially hostile, low threat targets. Since I was used to targeting spam, I mostly ignored it, until it spotted the two sheriff deputies eating pizza. For those gentlemen, it pinged me with an alert and highlighted them in yellow as medium threat targets due to their weapons.  I overrode the alert level and changed them to friendly, but instructed it to alert me if they headed toward my position. I also made sure my frequency scanners and filters were up to date in case they received an alert about me.

Was I being too paranoid?  Not really. It was pretty common for the local law folks to work hand in hand with the MCO and I wouldn’t put anything past the MCO bullies. I heard a rumor that the majority of MCO agents weren’t mutant haters, but I had never met one and as a result, the haters were bringing the rest of the organization down. The MCO simply couldn’t be trusted to not be idiots in regards to mutants and especially me. It wasn’t uncommon for the MCO to tip-off the local law enforcement and inflate the danger about a mutant living or visiting a town just to make things difficult for that person.

I also spotted a few guys I recognized from my old school. None from Whateley, but I didn’t expect to see any fellow Whateley classmates  because that would’ve been a little alarming to me since none of my fellow students had listed Santa Fe as their official home address. Yes, I had “unofficially” checked the records for other students I might know.

There was one previous classmate who drew my attention, the real Chloe. She     was                              eating pizza and laughing with her friends. Seeing her sent a tiny shiver down my spine. It was a little like seeing a ghost.

“What’s wrong, honey?” Mom asked, touching my shoulder reassuringly.

I glanced back at her. “Oh, nothing. I just spotted Chloe...”

“Oh.” Mom nodded and smiled at me as she followed my gaze. “Yeah, that’s a little strange seeing her sitting there with you standing next to me.”

Of course, Lindsay overheard our little conversation and looked even more curious about what happened while I was in Virginia being chased and shot at by the CIA, MCO and a bunch of other “concerned” law enforcement types.

>Alert!
>Hostile target incoming!

What the?!?!

“Oh. My. Gawd. Bree!” Lisa gushed with way more enthusiasm than I was expecting as she rushed toward me.

Oops. I forgot to mark Lisa and John as friendlies. I fixed that mistake just in time to receive an attack hug.

“Uff!” She knocked the wind out of me. “Hey Lisa. It’s good to see you!” I returned her hug.

Where were these kind of hugs when I was still a dude? Disengaging from her, I glanced over to John. He anxiously stood behind and slightly to the side of Lisa wearing a button up, collared shirt with khaki dress pants instead of the usual t-shirt and jeans. Why did he dress up?

“Hey bro. Looking good!” I gave Lisa a little pat of reassurance, just in case she thought I might try to horn in on her man. It was very weird to even have that as a possible issue for me, but the last three months had been a crash course in female interpersonal relationships.

I turned to him and decided to make sure our friendship was strictly based on our past best-bud’s relationship. “How’s it been without having me around to kick your butt in Call of Duty?” I made a show of inspecting his clothes. “Whoa, I’m guessing Lisa used that time to clean up your image?” 

I giggled as she gasped with amusement when John blushed.  I felt a little bad putting him on the spot, but it was what friends do to each other sometimes, right?  To help compensate, I pulled Lisa and John together and gave them both a big hug. “Thanks for being here. I missed you guys so much!”

I spotted Lindsay out of the corner of my eye looking a little left out. So, I pulled her into the group hug. “You too, sis.” 

It was a simple, fleeting hug, lasting only a few seconds, but my tummy chose a lull in the volume to grumble and remind me how hungry I was.  Of course, Lisa, John and Lindsay all heard it and laughed at me. I mean, with me. I tried to play it cool. “Wow, the stomach has spoken. Enough with the mushy stuff, let’s get some foood!”

We broke up the hug and somehow, I ended up sitting between Lisa and Lindsay, with John and my parents on the other side of the table. Once we were all seated, the waitress took our orders and after she left to get our drinks, Lisa turned to me. “So, umm, what happened to your cool Vulcan ears?”

“Oh, nothing, they’re still there, you just can’t see them.” I reached up and touched the tip of my ear and to her, it looked like I was simply hovering an inch above the top of my ear.  “Go ahead, try touching where my finger is.”

Lisa gingerly reached over and gasped with astonishment when her finger felt the tip of my ear while her eyes reported something different. “That’s so cool! But, why are you hiding them?”

“Oh…” I glanced over to the police officers and she caught my meaning. “Just to keep from drawing attention. The MCO has not been playing nice with me. Hell, they don’t play nice with anyone, but for me, they seem to kinda not like me.”

John looked startled. “What? The MCO are the good guys. They only go after the dangerous mutants.”

Instead of setting him straight, my parents stayed silent, but Lisa laughed at him. “John, you can’t honestly think that, can you?”

“Well, yeah. I’ve seen them on TV. That “Real MCO” show where they show how they take down the dangerous super-villains.” John defensively crossed his arms as he glanced to my parents for support.

Lisa was about to rip into him, but I put my hand on her arm to get her attention and stop her. “John...” I frowned and sadly nodded my head. “Four months ago, I would’ve totally agreed with you. The MCO are our friends who help protect us from the ‘dangerous mutant threat’.” I gave him the sarcastic air quotes before continuing. “The main problem is that they think ‘all’ mutants are a threat to humanity. I didn’t do a thing wrong except defend my mom against some Humanity First jerks and for that, they tried to arrest me, when that failed, they tricked the CIA into kidnapping me, when that failed, they had a crew follow an Air Force drop ship because they thought I was onboard. They’ve sent agents to school to try and interrogate me and a few weeks ago, they tried to kidnap me again when I went shopping at a mall with some classmates. Finally, they tried to arrest me at the airport today by sending a pair of their powered assault troopers after me.”

“No, way!” John looked shocked, but he didn’t call me a liar or dispute my claims point by point like we would if he didn’t believe me.

“Yes, way.” I sing-songed back to him with a brief smile. “But seriously, there isn’t a single person at school who hasn’t had a problem with the MCO or knows of someone who the MCO has harassed.  Even worse, there’s a strong rumor that says the MCO is behind a bunch of missing person reports and based on what I’ve seen, I totally believe them. The MCO is rotten to the core.”

John didn’t look happy to learn his heroes weren’t as shiny as he thought. “Hmmm, those a-holes better not try anything with you while you’re here. The Sheriff is a friend of my Dad’s. I’ll make sure he knows about the MCO.”

John’s support surprised me a little, but he’s my best bud and buds stick together. The ‘rents did not like my extra bit of MCO news either. My mom looked very concerned, but she should be since she’s now an official card carrying member of the mutant club. “Brianna, we are going to have a long talk about this when we get home,” she smiled at everyone, “now, can we talk about something other than the MCO?”

John nodded. “Sure Mrs. P, umm, so, Bree...how was the new school? Was it like being at the X Mansion?” He grinned excitedly as everyone at the table turned to me for some dirt.

“Weeeellll.” I slowly nodded with agreement as I worked out the best way to explain the chaos that is Whateley. “It’s kinda complicated and not at all what I was expecting, but it’s also better and worse than I was expecting.” 

Of course, my captive audience was a little confused. “How about if I explain a little bit about how the school works?”

I started off with explaining how the school is set up as neutral ground because it gets its funding from hero groups, super-villains, the government and alumni. “So, it’s a safer place for all mutants since no one wants to break the truce and risk their children. It also gives the children of super-villains a way to break free from their parents, or at least, make friends with enough people to help encourage them to not follow in their parent’s footsteps.”

“Do you know any super-villains?” John asked, causing my parents to look concerned.

“Not personally, but one of my friends is sort of friends with Dr. Diabolik’s daughter.” Judging by the glance my parents gave each other, I could tell they didn’t enjoy that bit of news. “But, I’ve never really met her and she’s not in my cottage, err dorm.” 

They relaxed a little, but I could tell it was probably time to move on. “Anyway, in addition to the normal reading, writing and math, the school has some pretty cool classes, like Introduction to Magic, Self-Defense, Survival, a Flight School that even goes into space, costume design and tons of different high-tech labs for making cool gadgets.  There’s also firing ranges with cool weapons and a couple of ‘danger room’ style simulators where we can practice using our powers without worrying about hurting people.”

Our server and one of her co-workers made their appearance loaded down with food. “Okay, we got a veggie pizza…”

“Here!” I raised my hand, causing the server to glance at me with confusion. The pizza was a medium and I don’t think she expected little ‘ole me to claim it.  She set it down in the middle of the table and closer to the girls with some extra plates for everyone to share, but I had no plans on sharing with anyone.

“And, a Special.” She set a large garbage pizza down closer to John and my dad. What was she trying to say? That only guys liked to eat those kinds of pizzas or was I reading too much into it?

I decided to let it go. I was back home, eating at my favorite pizza place with my friends and family and my empty stomach was probably making me grumpy.  I pulled my pizza to me and started to dig in while Dad and John began passing out slices of the garbage pizza to everyone else.  It looked so good, but when I helped pass a plate to Lindsay, my meat sensitive nose picked up the scent of the delicious looking bacon and gave me a reminder that the gateway meat drug and bane of wanna-be vegetarians was not my friend anymore.

“Are you really going to eat all of that?” Dad asked, skeptically looking at me, along with everyone else. 

Mom wasn’t surprised, but I guessed Dad never got the memo about my new and improved teenager appetite. I glanced down at my pizza and nodded. “Yep, but I might be able to spare a piece if we are going to stop for ice cream on the way home.”  I grinned as his eyes widened with panic as it looked like he rapidly started to consider the extra cost of groceries if I ate like this much all the time. 

“What?!?” Lisa gasped. “Please tell me that you don’t eat that much all the time?”

“Mmmm, hmmm.” I nodded as I rapidly finished chewing a bite. “Not every meal, but most of the time I eat this much.”

Lisa glanced down to her slice of pizza like it was an enemy. “How do you ‘not’  gain weight?!?”
 

“I’m a low-level energizer.”

“A what?” Lisa inquisitively canted her head.

“An energizer. I generate a little extra electrical energy to help power all my, umm, stuff.” I had learned a few things over the past month and I wanted to show them an impressive electrical effect I had learned, but having a spark of electricity jump from one hand to another would probably be a tad too noticeable in a crowded restaurant. “In a pinch, I can tase a person, but one of the side effects is that I need more calories to help with the extra load.”

Our server made another appearance to check on our drinks and ask the standard, “How’s everything tasting?” question.  Dad took the initiative to order another pizza. Our server seemed a little surprised, but happily took the order. Conversation crawled to a slow walk as we all ate. I may need to eat more, but I couldn’t magically eat faster. As a result, I was reduced to simple yes and no’s as I concentrated on devouring my pizza while everyone else took a more leisurely approach to eating their food.

I learned that Lindsay was doing well in school, but she had also been the target of some extra teasing and bullying due to the rumors of her brother turning into a mutant and disappearing from high school. The rumors ranged from me being a horribly disfigured mutant who was rounded up by the MCO before I could become an evil villain to one of the newest super-boy heroes fighting alongside one of the big superhero groups.  There wasn’t a lot of support for the former and how Lindsay managed to keep my gender change a secret, I’ll never know. Well, I hoped she kept it a secret, but I guessed that I would find out soon now that I was back home.

As for my friends, John and Lisa didn’t escape the attention of the Humanity First wannabes in my old school. The wannabes along with their ‘concerned’ and bigoted parents tried to petition the school board to not only expel the known mutants -- all two of them --, but their siblings and to even consider the friends of known mutants as dangers to the student body.  According to John, everything died down pretty fast after Lisa came to the defense and kicked the asses of the three Humanity First wannabes who tried to beat up one of the two known mutants with baseball bats.

Her Dad and the majority of the other students were pretty proud of her, but the school officials were less than thrilled. It was a public relations nightmare and the so-called ‘zero tolerance’ policy for violence reared its ugly head, almost getting Lisa expelled, but it was a clear case of self-defense against armed assailants with tons of witnesses and two teachers willing to back her up. I thought she was pretty damn brave.

Further discussion was interrupted when Mr. Giordano, the owner, hand delivered our third pizza. I think our server tipped him off about me eating one all by myself or maybe he just wanted to get out of the kitchen.  It wasn’t uncommon for him to check with his guests about the food and he was pretty darn friendly.  The only problem he had was with other people understanding him. While he immigrated from Italy thirty plus years ago, his English was still a little hard to understand.

“Here’a isa your pizza pie, fresco from the oven! I hoppa you like.” He beamed a smile at us as he set the pizza down.

“Thanks Mr. Giordano.” Mom returned his smile. “Your pizzas are always the best!”

He bowed to her. “Ah, you’re too kind Signora Peters.” He turned his attention to me and his eyes widened with surprise as he noticed the almost finished pizza in front of little ‘ole me. “Oh mio, how isa your pizza, signorina?”

Of course, I had to show off and reply to him in Italian. “E 'molto buono, grazie!”

My simple, little compliment caused him to break out into rapid fire Italian as he asked me where I learned Italian. I confused my parents and friends even more when I replied in Italian, which then made him ask what part of town in Florence I lived in. Apparently, he thought I was a foreign exchange student who was staying with my parents. Who knew that spending two days stuck in Italy by Uncle Gothmog would make me sound like a native?

He was so delighted to have someone from Italy compliment his pizza that he gave me a hug, kissed me European style on the cheeks and bustled back to the kitchen to fetch us some free tiramisu.  He seemed so happy, I didn’t have the heart to tell him I wasn’t from Italy.

The reactions from everyone at the table were mixed. Dad didn’t know what to say and Mom simply shook her head with resignation while Lindsay, Lisa and John looked excited by the free dessert. “Okay young lady, what just happened?”

Maybe if I stuck to the truth and nothing but the truth, she wouldn’t ask for more details. “Umm, I spoke to him in Italian and he was happy?”

She was buying it. “And when did you learn to speak Italian?”

“Oh, about two months ago…” I tried to end this line of questioning by taking another bite of my pizza.

It didn’t work, my mom was on to me. “Okay, and why did he feel like you were someone he knew?” 

Oh, dang. Even though she couldn’t understand a word we said, she was able to feel his emotions and now my panic as I tried to figure out how to get out of telling her about my little jaunt to Italy.  “Umm, because I spoke Italian with a Fiorenzian accent?”

“Brianna Nicole Peters, you have two seconds to tell us what you’re hiding about this sudden fluency with Italian.” Mom broke out the full name treatment, again.

I sighed with defeat. “Fine, it wasn’t anything dangerous or anything.  Uncle Gothmog wanted to get to know me, so he took me to Italy for dinner and kind of, accidently left me there when he got called away on a family emergency of some sort.” I smiled and shrugged my shoulders. “See, nothing bad.”

Of course, I kind of glossed over the ‘family emergency’ bit. It really was a family emergency, but when your school is under attack by something from Uncle Gothmog’s family tree; things are more than a little dangerous.  Even though I wasn’t very happy to be stranded, once I learned what happened, I was actually kind of glad I wasn’t around for the GOO attack on Whateley.

“He flew you to Italy!?” Mom’s eyes popped open with surprise. “Okay, and just who is this ‘Uncle Gothmog’?”

This was going to be a little tricky to explain. “Umm, well, no, we didn’t fly. He teleported us and Uncle Gothmog is Sara’s dad, he’s a Great Older One,” judging by their blank expressions, I could tell they didn’t know what a GOO was, “which means he’s kind of a god and Sara is, well, she’s Nikki’s blood sister and since Nikki and Aunt Aunghadhail sort of adopted me, now Sara is also my cousin and she’s not really a demon, but more of a goddess in training. See, nothing bad happened, I’m safe and I learned a foreign language.”  I laughed and grabbed my last slice of pizza because I really wanted to try the tiramisu.

Due to our past, geek fantasy RPG days, I think John was the only one who understood what a GOO was, but it took him a few seconds to connect the dots. His eyes got a little wide when things clicked, but I can’t blame him since Uncle Gothmog isn’t nearly as well known as his crazy brother Cthulhu.  Of whom, I am very glad I have never met and most certainly do not have on my list of things to do.

Thankfully, my mom’s super empathy didn’t pick up on John’s reaction. Instead, she focused on her parental concerns regarding ‘stranger danger’. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Backup. How did you meet this ‘God-Uncle’ of yours and why did he take you to Italy for dinner?”

The rest of the spectators at the table looked like they were watching a tennis match. With each volley, their heads all swiveled to look at Mom, then back to me.  I decided that the easiest way out of this pickle was to just tell her the story from the beginning.

~o~O~o~

> 13-APR-2007 11:30 AM EST

Yes, it was Friday the 13th and a red flag day, but it was pizza day at the Crystal Hall and I was looking forward to eating lunch. I was not paraskevidekatriaphobic at all and even considered the day a ‘lucky’ day.  Besides, the sun was shining, the temps were in the low 40’s and most of the snow was melted.  What could go wrong?  I know, I know, I was tempting fate, but I refused to be paranoid about one date over another.  If any date in the U.S. should be feared, it’s the 4th of July because random people blowing stuff up in the name of independence is not the safest idea.

Instead of a skirt, I wore the uniform pants because the skirts, even with leggings, were a little too drafty for my liking.  How some of the Alpha chicks could handle skirts and bare legs in the middle of winter was beyond my understanding. Well, not the middle, maybe more early spring, but compared to New Mexico, it was freaking cold.

I looked up and double-checked the flag status. Still red, which meant no one could show off and all the noticeable mutants had to take the tunnels. I guessed the school had some visitors on campus today and they didn’t want to spook the norms or maybe the admins had paraskevidekatriaphobia. I didn’t mind because it made navigating the school grounds easier without as many people clogging the paths.

Red flag days also made me feel a little safer because there were fewer potential hostile targets for me track. Other than that everyone has super-powers thing, Whateley was just like public school with the cliques, the bullying and the animosity each clique had for the other.  Except, the kids at Whateley could take things to a very dangerous level if they took a dislike to you.

Everything was going well until I was within striking distance of the Crystal Hall.  There was a large man wearing what appeared to be an expensive silk suit exiting the lunch hall. We had a lot of large and very large students, thus his appearance wasn’t an unusual occurrence, except I had never seen anyone wearing a silk suit before and even more puzzling was that no one seemed to notice him. People in his path simply moved out of his way without seeming to realize they had done so. What elevated the puzzling to downright mystifying was the way he was focused on me.

I wasn’t sure how to handle this threat. He was smiling instead of scowling. He clearly wasn’t a student and unless he was a new hire, he probably wasn’t staff either. I stopped in my tracks and simply waited to see how this would play out.

“Brianna! How’s my favorite niece?!?” His booming voice, joyous expression and proclamation of relationship confused me even more.

“Daddy, please stop! You’re scaring her.” Sara rushed past him and to my side. 

I wasn’t exactly scared of him. Yes, I wasn’t sure why he thought I was his niece but, at that moment, I was more worried about people noticing how friendly Sara was with me because I had spent the past month pretending to not know her and even dislike her a little.  However, there seemed to be some sort of invisible bubble of do-not-notice-me surrounding us as students came and went without ever appearing to see or hear us.

“Sara, what’s going on? Why aren’t people looking at us and…” I kind of lost focus when his arms wrapped around and hugged us both. I was able to filter out and compartmentalize the strange, tingling sensations of desire that Sara’s physical presence caused, but his presence added on top of Sara’s was something else. 

I decided to gloss over the rather intense sexual feelings with my friends and parents. They didn’t really need to know exactly how strong my desire was to rip off Sara’s clothes and have sex in the middle of the sidewalk. Well, try to anyway because I was so consumed that I collapsed when my knees buckled when an intense feeling of warmth washed over me. I’m pretty sure I had an orgasm and worse, it felt like I had peed my panties a little.  Talk about feeling embarrassed.

“Daaaddy, you need to be a little more gentle with Bree!” Sara helped pull me back up as my emotions stabilized, leaving me feeling relieved and a little disappointed. “She’s pretty strong, but she’s only mortal.”

I glanced around and my embarrassment faded a little when it looked like no one had noticed my little show. Even though it was busy and the middle of the afternoon, all the other students continued to flow around us like we were part of the landscape, but if Peeper and Greasy managed to get it on camera, I was going to have to hit them where it hurt, their electronics.

Sara’s dad looked a little chagrined as he took a half-step back to give me some breathing room. “Sorry about that, but when Sara told me about you, I just had to meet you right away.” He took a step forward and gave me a hug. This time there was only an easily ignored, mild tingle of lust. “I’ve never had a niece before and I find the experience absolutely fascinating!”

Sara had warned me --well teased me-- about her Dad and now, ready or not, it looked like the moment had come.“Umm, thanks, Uncle Gothmog-”

I would’ve continued, but Uncle Gothmog pulled me into  another hug and it felt like his entire body was hugging me. I’m guessing he had some of those tentacle things like Sara. I thought I saw some strange looking temple in the middle of a vast, alien landscape, but just as it was coming into focus, he pushed me away with an audible slurping sound. Yes, definitely tentacles or something, but for some reason it didn’t freak me out in the slightest. I thought the temple was kind of cool looking. Was there anything valuable in there?

He turned me to face Sara and hugged me like a normal person, with his arm. “She called me Uncle Gothmog!” His face lit up with joy. “You’re right my daughter, she is an amazing treasure and I can’t wait to get to know her better!”

“Daddy, what are you thinking?” Sara looked a little alarmed.

He gave me a quick, reassuring squeeze and mischievously grinned at Sara. “Oh nothing major Kellith dear, I just want to take her out to lunch. Is that so bad?”

Sara grabbed my arm and pulled me away from him. “No, absolutely not. She’s not ready for that yet.”

Uncle Gothmog pulled me back. “Not there!” He turned to me. “What are you hungry for my dear, delightful niece?”

What was this ‘there’ place he mentioned? I glanced with longing to the Crystal Hall before turning back to him. “Well, I was looking forward to getting some pizza, umm, sir?”

My reply seemed to fill him with even more joy and he gave me an excited squeeze. “Did you hear her Kellith? She called me ‘sir’. You could learn a lot from your cousin!”

Sara rolled her eyes. “Daaaddy, please.”

“So, what do you think Brianna, how about some Italian?” Uncle Gothmog glanced back to Sara with a smirk.

Alarmed, Sara reached out to try and pull me away from him. “No, don’t-”

Her voice cut off as I was pulled into Uncle Gothmog’s body. I was briefly surrounded by smoky black tentacles before they faded and light returned. Wherever I was now, it was a lot warmer than New Hampshire and the buildings, streets, cars and people looked European. It was pretty obvious that he had teleported me.

“Ahh, here we are my dear.” Uncle Gothmog let go of me and pointed to a little corner restaurant half a block away.

Knock me down with a feather. Flashback’s ‘little’ teleport from Low Earth Orbit to Whateley was nothing compared to getting whisked halfway around the world. “Whoa, are we in Italy!?”

He chuckled and nodded his head. “Of course my dear. Nothing but the best for my niece!”

I decided that teleporting was a way cooler power than being able to do some simple illusions.  There was one teensy problem though. “Umm, I’m pretty sure that Mrs. Carson is going to miss me.”

“Nonsense my dear, I’ll have you back there in no time! You were on your lunch break, no?” Uncle Gothmog dismissively waved away my concern.

I couldn’t help feeling that something would go wrong with this and maybe there was something about this Friday the 13th, but he was a god and he had to know what he was doing, right? “Well, yes and I guess as long as I don’t miss my next class, everything will be good.”

He chuckled as he held the door to the restaurant open for me to enter first.  His chivalry made me feel important.

“Signore Dominguez! è un piacere rivederti!” A smiling and pretty hostess greeted Uncle Gothmog and naturally, I didn’t understand a word she said.

I think she said something like Mister Dominguez, but I wasn’t sure and the rest was a blur of Italian.  Regardless, she sounded happy to see him, but I was a little distracted by her looks because I thought she was very pretty. She had jet black hair accented by a few dark purple streaks combined with a light olive complexion and a naturally beautiful, heart-shaped face and bright green eyes. I wasn’t sure how common green eyes were for Italians, but maybe she dyed her hair?  Regardless, she was beautiful and smiling and I liked her a lot.

Uncle Gothmog bowed and kissed her hand. “Ahh, Signora Sophia! It is a delight to see you once again. Please excuse my use of English, but I brought my niece, Brianna.” He glanced back to me. “She’s from America and doesn’t understand Italian.”

Sophia blushed and surprised me with a quick curtsy. “It is a pleasure to meet you Signorina Brianna.”

Her English was pretty good and she had a delightfully charming accent. I felt myself getting a little flustered by the attention and decided I needed to learn Italian ASAP, when in Rome and all that. Plus, I hated not knowing what people were saying.  Not because I was nosey, but because it helped with situational awareness. I didn’t expect to be attacked here, but it couldn’t hurt to know the lingo.

Sophia turned back to Uncle Gothmog. “Would you care for your normal table, Signore Dominguez?”

I guess Dominguez sounded a little more normal than Gothmog.  Uncle Gothmog or Uncle Dominguez motioned for me to precede him. I followed Sophia and couldn't help noticing that she walked with a sway to her hips that accidently attracted my eyes. She had nice legs and her short black skirt attracted my eyes as it swished back and forth.

I tried to distract myself from her shapely rear by scanning the interior of the restaurant for dangers as well as marking possible exit and entry points. My tactic didn’t work because I got a little distracted when I spotted a woman disappear under the table as the man she was with pulled the table cloth over until it blocked the view of his legs.

“Eeek!” My eyes snapped back to Sophia’s pleasing backside. Double eeek.

“Here is your table Signore Dominguez.” She smiled and gestured to a table situated near the rear of the restaurant and with a commanding view of almost the entire place.

I moved to the side when he reached past me and took her hand. “Ahh, wonderful. Thank you Sophia. It’s always a pleasure to have you serve me.” He bowed and kissed the knuckles of her hand.

Her face flushed and her knees wobbled a little before he released her hand. “Oh mio mio…” Sophia gasped as she absently brushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “Umm, perdonatemi, ti porterò il vostro vino subito, umm,” she apologized to me with a subtle nod while maintaining eye contact with Uncle Dominguez, “sorry,  I mean, I’ll bring your wine and a pair of glasses right away.”

He beamed Sophia a smile that caused her to knees to tremble again. “Ahh, yes, wine would be most welcome. Thank you, Sophia!”

Sophia departed and I moved to take a seat, but Uncle G stopped me by gallantly pulling out my chair and motioning for me to sit. Since I didn’t get a chance to order a soda, or something, I wondered what I was going to drink. I was only fifteen, but we were in Europe and didn’t most European countries allow people under twenty-one to drink? My parents had allowed me to have a small, very small amount of wine during last year’s Thanksgiving dinner, but I wasn’t sure if he meant for me to drink wine in public and I didn’t want to get Sophia in trouble.

Alone, with my new Uncle and in a foreign country where everyone spoke, well, not English. I felt a little overwhelmed. “So, umm, Uncle Dominguez?” I wasn’t sure how it wanted me to address him.

He smiled at me with a fond twinkle in his eye. “Sorry, my dear favorite niece, but my guise among the mortals is Antonio Marques Dominguez, but you may call me what you wish.” He sighed. “However, I must admit that it gave me an unexpected thrill to have you call me ‘Uncle Gothmog’”

“Ummm, okay Uncle Gothmog it is then.” I glanced around the restaurant again and accidently caught sight of the man with his missing female companion clutching the table. I felt the blood rushing to my cheeks and I’m sure I turned a bright shade of red as I hastily averted my eyes. Italians appeared to be a tad more open about sex, but maybe Uncle Gothmog had something to do with it.

“I see you noticed the young couple enjoying themselves.” He gestured back to the pair.

I refused to turn back, but nodded to acknowledge him. “Uh huh.”

“They have been dating for six months now. He’s very traditional. No sex before marriage.” Uncle Gothmog sighed with disappointment. “Damn Christians and their guilt. I would complain, but it makes them very easy to ‘encourage’.” He chuckled. “Suppressing human nature is foolish. I’ve gained more followers from the ‘Christian’ tribes than any other.”

I couldn’t resist, I had to sneak a glance back at the couple.  She demurely sat by his side and took a sip of wine as the man slumped bonelessly in his seat, adoration written clearly in his eyes.  Yes, based on his skin temperature and pupil dilation, I’d have to say he was definitely feeling a little ‘drained’ from the experience. I slowly nodded and turned back to him.

“See, my dear niece, there is nothing better than forbidden and public sex to express one's desire for another. The ancient Romans really knew how to have an orgy. Oh, how I miss those days.” He grinned and sighed with fond remembrance as he glanced around the restaurant.

I didn’t know how to respond. This topic wasn’t something that had ever come up before. Now, my parents weren’t prudes by any means and both Lindsay and I knew what it meant when they had a ‘date night’, but to have the topic spoken so openly. I have never had an adult speak to me so casually about sex. That reminded me of my earlier introduction to Uncle G because my panties were very, umm, uncomfortable. “Umm, okay. I guess I can sort of see that, but I sorta need to go to the bathroom.”

Methinks I will need to have a little chat with my lovable, evil cousin when I get back.  She’s a bad influence, but is that really a bad thing?  Oh, I felt very confused.  Speaking of confused, the bathroom doors didn’t have the handy male/female icons, just “Donne” and “Maschi”. Which one was I supposed to use?  I really needed to learn Italian and fast!

I picked the Donne door, but only because Maschi sounded like it could be Macho.  It proved to be the correct guess. No urinals, but who knows what the Italian men use?  I took the opportunity to relieve myself and dry up down there.  My panties were embarrassingly damp and I debated taking them off, rinsing them and, well, my mind kinda shut down after that because it would’ve made them worse and there is no way in heck I’m going commando. No sirree bub.

Well, if my nanites could clean blood off my clothes, they should be able to take care of a little excess moisture, right?  I cautiously instructed them to take care of it, but specifically instructed them to not destroy the fabric like they did with my blood back in Virginia.  Amanda helped me pick out this set and they were my favorite. I can’t believe I have a ‘favorite’ pair of panties. Favorite geek slogan t-shirts, comfy jeans or cool shoes is okay, but panties?!?!  I sighed with resignation as my panties appeared to auto-magically clean themselves.  Well, score one for me, but just in case, I added a panty liner to the mix.

As I washed my hands, I scanned the local TV stations for anything I could use to speed learn Italian. Nothing jumped out at me, but they did have a handy closed captioning option. “Hmmm, maybe…”

There was a local wi-fi connection available, but it was secured. Paige’s handy dandy hacking training came in handy and I was inside the router in less than a second. It’s amazing what you can find on the torrent sites!  I grabbed a copy of an English-slash-Italian dictionary and even better, started the download of a pirated version of an expensive Learn Italian language program.  While the program was downloading, I set the dictionary to start matching the subtitles of every TV program I received and set that process to run in the background. I started a third sub-process to try and match any spoken words in the restaurant with the matched words from the TV shows.

It took a little CPU, but nothing I couldn’t do without while eating dinner. If stuff happened, I could simply pause the process.  It worked pretty well because when I exited the bathroom and turned around to make sure no one was laughing at me for using the wrong restroom, “Women” showed up as a subtitle for the “Donne” sign on the door. Augmented Reality was kind of handy, but it was kind of a shame I wasn’t going to be here long enough to really make good progress with cracking the language.

The couple was gone and their meal was half eaten.  I guessed they were in a hurry to get someplace, but I stopped my imagination from continuing down that path. I didn’t want to have to run the bathroom to change liners. Unfortunately, there were other couples who appeared to be under Uncle G’s influence. There were a lot of men and women with elevated respiration and higher than normal skin temperatures, but I didn’t spot any ‘strategically placed’ tablecloths. So, maybe he was toning things down a little?

Sophia looked a little busy delivering wine to the tables and the place seemed a little more busy than it was when we arrived. Was she the only waitress? Oh well, I rejoined Uncle G at the table and found a glass of white wine waiting for me and a bottle of sparkling water.  I guess they don’t do simple glasses of water here, but maybe there is a reason. I would hate to return home with Montezuma’s Revenge, err, Hannibal’s Revenge from drinking the water.

“Ahh, there you are!” Uncle G beamed me a warm smile as he got up and once again, helped me get seated.

I could get used to being treated like royalty, but I started to feel another warm tingle in my stomach and I quickly changed mental gears before I further embarrassed myself. Geez! He was my Uncle for goodness sake. Well, sorta since before today I had never met him and I wasn’t really related to Sara.

I decided shift gears and try the wine. Not like I was an expert or anything on how wine should taste, but it made me feel all grown up.  It tasted good and left a nice warm afterglow as it traveled down my throat. Better than the stuff my parents let me try, but nanites eliminated the alcohol molecules before they made it two centimeters into my bloodstream. 

Instead of Sophia taking our order, the owner or head chef, not sure which, came to our table. My translation, subtitle program caught about 50% of what he and Uncle G said, but it was enough to know that Uncle G ordered some sort of spinach dish with fresh fish for me. How did he know I didn’t like red meat? Oh yeah, he’s a god, err, GOO or maybe he just asked Sara? He ordered a prosciutto and pasta dish with a tomato sauce. Mmmm, sort of bacon. Man, I missed bacon! Dang sidhe genes.

We chatted about school, my family, and friends and even a little about Sara, err, Kellith as he called her. It was kind of a normal, everyday conversation a person might have with their Uncle during the getting to know you phase. He had a wicked sense of humor, I liked it and everything was going well until about halfway through our meal. Uncle G suddenly put his fork down and frowned. “Oh, that’s not good.” He glanced back to me. “Stay here, I’ll be right back.”

Did he dash from the restaurant like a normal person would in an emergency? Nope, he disappeared with a smokey black, shrinking tentacle black-hole kind of special effect and in a flash, I was alone. I sure hoped he got back fast because if not, how was I going to pay the bill or make it back in time for my next class?

I decided to call Sara and let her know that I might be a few minutes late. Maybe she could explain to Mrs. Carson that it wasn’t my fault.  It took a few extra seconds to establish a connection using the Italian cell phone company’s network, but it didn’t help because her phone went straight to voicemail.  She must have had her phone turned off due to class interruption.

Pretty much all of the students I knew would be in the same situation because having your cell phone confiscated by your teacher was a pain. Well, it was in public school, but I guessed things could be different at Whateley. With my built in commo suite, it wasn’t something I paid attention to though.

I decided to wait a little longer before calling the big guns. I still had thirty minutes before my next class started and Uncle G only disappeared a few minutes ago. I was hardly in danger. Instead, I sent her and Nikki an email. I expected to be back in school before they read it. It probably end up being one of those funny topics we could all laugh about later.

<Mail delivery error: Unknown host>

“What tha?” I sat up and verified their email addresses.  Nope, they are correct.  I tried resending, but a minute later, I got the same bounce message.  Maybe the school was having problems with their network. I decided to try again in fifteen minutes if Uncle G was still AWOL. 

Sophia stopped by and checked on me, but didn’t say anything about Uncle G. She was pretty busy. Maybe she thought he was in the bathroom or something because I doubted she would think he just teleported away.

I finished my lunch-slash-dinner and still no Uncle G. My pirated learn Italian program was ready to install. So, I decided to amuse myself by taking it apart, check it for nasty viruses or other malware. That took a whopping five minutes. Hey, it was kind of a complex program due to the speech recognition module.  I tried sending another email and calling Sara. Same results. 

“Hmmm…” Now I was getting a little worried. Time was getting a little close and there would be no way I could make it back in time if I had to walk from Italy. Okay, somehow buy a ticket and get back to the U.S. without a passport or any record of leaving. If the Italian authorities didn’t have a cow over my little visit, I’m sure the MCO and Customs would have a little something to say about it.  If I left right this second, I might be able to make it back to school by Monday, but probably not with my luck.

So much for the easy way out. It was time to face the music and explain things to Mrs. Carson. I sighed with resignation as I dialed the number for the front office.

“All circuits are busy. Your call cannot be completed as dialed. Please check your number and dial again.”

Say what?  How was something like that possible?  A busy signal on a single line I could understand, but an all circuits message?  I tried Nikki’s cell phone, same thing. It was a Friday, maybe people were making a lot of calls during lunch to get ready for the weekend? Maybe it was something wrong with my systems.

I tried my home phone and that got through. No one answered and I didn’t expect anyone to be home, but I left a message. “Hey Mom, it’s me. Just calling to say hi during my lunch break. Love ya, Ciao!”

Okay, it wasn’t me.

Sophia made another run at my table and she forgot I didn’t speak Italian, but fortunately my translator system was working pretty well now. {“Did Signore Dominguez leave?”} Her eyes focused on his half-eaten plate of food, causing her to frown. {“Oh no, was he infelice with his meal?”}

I didn’t get the infelice word, but based on context, I assumed it meant unhappy. “Oh no, he liked it, but he got called away on something. He said he’d be right back, but that was thirty minutes ago...” I sighed as I tried to figure out how I was going to pay the bill.

I only had twenty dollars and I doubted it would cover the meal. If they would accept it U.S. money over whatever they used here. Was it the Euro? My credit card might work, but I wasn’t sure.  It was an U.S. government issued card and I bet they blocked foreign transactions.  I wondered how many dishes I would have to wash. I dug into my book bag for my wallet and pulled out my credit card. “Do you all take these?”

Sophia laughed and waved it away. {“Oh, your Uncle is an old friend of my papa. You don’t have to pay. He has a tab.”}

I sighed with relief as I put my card away. “Oh, that’s good, but I wish he would get back soon. I’m late for school now.”

She smirked mischievously for a second before her pretty green eyes narrowed with sudden suspicion. {“Hey, I thought you didn’t speak Italian! How are you understanding me?”}

I smiled apologetically. “Umm, I don’t speak it, but I guess I can understand you a little better now?” If I stayed here much longer I would need to be able to speak Italian too.  I devoted a little extra processing capacity to disassembling the language program’s speech module and figuring out how use it to help me speak Italian too.

Following Uncle G’s instructions, I stayed at the table, but I did move over to take his seat. It had a better view of the restaurant.  Without anything else to do, I poured all my effort into the Italian program.  Its dictionary was much better than the one I downloaded earlier. So, I swapped it out and got it going on all the TV shows to help build my vocabulary. The grammar and language rules built into the program helped a ton more and when Sophia came back to check on me fifteen minutes later I was ready to try speaking.

{“Hey...Sophia...my...uncle...still….hasn’t...returned. How...is...my...Italian?”} I know I probably sounded a little mechanical, but it had to be better than nothing.

She winced as she reached over and poured me a little more wine. {“Your pronunciation is good, but painfully slow and without passion. How did you learn so quickly?”} 

I applied another 20% of CPU to the speech module. {“It’s a little...hard to explain...but, I don’t...know what I...will do if...he doesn’t return...soon.”}

{“That was a little better.  Keep practicing?”} Sophia smiled and gave me an encouraging thumbs up before glancing around the restaurant. {“I think the dinner rush is over. You can stay as long as you need or until we close at 9pm.”}

As soon as she meandered away to serve another customer, I tried reaching Sara and the school again. No luck at all. There was only one person I could call now who might be able to help. I debated which number to try first. His cell phone or work number. I didn’t want to be rude and interrupt him with his cell phone if he was in a meeting.

His assistant picked up the phone on the first ring. “Deputy Director Reilly’s office. Susan speaking, how may I help you sir or ma’am?”

I had never spoken to her before, but judging by how she answered, I was pretty sure she had a military background. “Hi ma’am. This is Brianna Peters, umm, Whisper calling. I’m kind of in a jam and Mr. Reilly was the only person I could think of who might be able to help.  Is he there?”

“Whisper huh?” She lightly chuckled, followed by an amused sigh. “It had to be on this Friday. I’ll patch you in. Please hold.”

The line chirped and some on-hold music started playing. What the hey?!? I wanted to ask her what she meant by that. This is the first time I’ve called him since Virginia and it was only a big coincidence that it was Friday the 13th.  It took a few seconds before his phone started ringing.

“Please tell me you’re not in trouble.” Mr. Reilly begged.

Why would he think I only call him when I’m in trouble. I’m in Italy. Hmmm, maybe he doesn’t need to know that right this second. “No...not right now, but I’m having trouble getting a hold of Whateley. It’s like everything is down there. Nothing works. No phones, email or web.”

The line was quiet for a few seconds. Was he trying to call the school? I thought I lost him. “Okaaay, and what do you mean by ‘there’, you’re there, aren’t you?”

He was definitely one of those suspicious of everything kinda folks. A lot like my mom. “Weeelll, not exactly. I’m kind of in Italy-”

“WHAT?!?!?” Mr. Reilly sounded more than a little surprised. He sighed heavily as I pictured him leaning back in his chair and rubbing his temples with frustration. “Please tell me you’re joking.”

“Sorry sir. I’m in Florence, Italy,” it was time to try distracting him by the real problem, “but I’m more worried about Whateley and missing my class.”

Mr. Reilly didn’t agree with me. “Let’s not worry about that right this second. Dare I ask, how did you get to Italy?”

He sounded a little frustrated and his voice stress meter was solidly in the yellow band. “Uncle Gothmog, he’s Sara’s Dad, was visiting and it’s pizza day. Well, he decided to take me out to get some Italian food for lunch, except it’s not really lunch time here. Anyway, I was pretty surprised when he somehow teleported me here and everything was going good until he said something about something not being good and for me to stay here before he disappeared on me.  So, I’m kinda stuck and late for class by a lot and I can’t reach anyone.”

“Hmmm…” Mr. Reilly was silent for a few seconds. “Okay, are you in a safe place?”

“Uh, huh.” I nodded my head as I looked around the restaurant. It seemed pretty safe and armed robberies weren’t very common in Italy or restaurants, right?

“Good, here is what I want you to do. Stay there. Don’t move and whatever you do, don’t get into trouble.”

“Okay, but-” I tried to tell him it wasn’t my fault.

“I know, I know...it wasn’t your fault.” Mr. Reilly sighed with resignation. “I’ll make some calls and call you back as soon as I know something. Okay?”

I nodded with agreement. “Yes, sir.”

“Good, if you don’t hear from me in an hour, call me back.”

“Yes, sir.” I glanced around the restaurant. It was starting to get busy again and Sophia was looking a little harried. “Umm, do you want me to send you my current location?”

“Yes, that would probably be a good idea and…” Mr. Reilly briefly chuckled. “Any updates when something happens.”

I sighed with defeat. “Yes sir. I will.”

“I know you don’t try to get in trouble, but it seems to have a way of finding you.” His tone softened and dare I say, he sounded almost affectionate. “Now, I have some calls to make. Stay safe.”

“Yes sir.” After he disconnected, I stood and waved to get Sophia’s attention. I needed something to do while I waited.

{“It looks like I...might be here for...awhile. Do you want...some help?”} I think my Italian was getting a little better as more and more language data flowed in and was processed.

She blew a stray lock of hair away from her eyes and dubiously studied me for a second. {“Do you have any experience?”}

{“No.”} I slowly nodded my head from side to side as I pointed to a table with dirty dishes and glassware. {“But I can bus your...tables for you and...maybe help refill drinks?”}

{“Okay, come.”} She gave me a cursory inspection and then, motioned for me to follow her. {“You cannot wear that. It might get stained. I have a spare uniform in the back.”}

I changed into her skirt and white blouse combo in the small back office, but decided to tweak my disguise a little because as pale as my skin was, I doubted I would pass as an Italian. After I darkened my complexion, I also tweaked my hair to look longer and match Sophia’s style.  Maybe people would think we were sisters or something. 

When I stepped out of the office, Sophia’s eyes widened with surprise, before settling on pleased satisfaction. {“Ah ha! I knew it!”} She waved for me to follow her into the kitchen where she introduced me to her father.

Mr. De Luca enthusiastically hugged and kissed me on both cheeks. {“Thank you Signorina Dominguez. You’re too kind! It is an honor to have you and your Uncle grace my humble restaurant!”}  He hugged and kissed me again as I turned head to toe red with embarrassment.

{“Bree, or Brianna is fine sir. I...just met my Uncle and Sophia...looked a little busy out...there.”} Yep, my Italian was getting smoother and using Sophia’s pronunciation and inflection, I was starting to add some native accent to my words.

The food smelled good and I was already starting to feel a little hungry again, but the orders were piling up and Sophia needed help. I ventured into the lion's den armed with a dish pan and cleaning rag.  I spotted her near the front speaking with two large, 6 foot tall men dressing in dark, indeterminate clothing. I needed to ask her where I should start.

*Beeeeep!

>Alert! Concealed weapons detected!

My system highlighted both men in red and second, smaller targeting bracket focused on their side and highlighted the shape of a hidden pistol.

Oh crap, what do I do now? Did the MCO find me already? Well, if they did, running away would only draw their attention to me. Maybe they were simply customers waiting to be seated, but if not and Sophia needed help, I would be there and if they were after me, I’d somehow deal with them. It wasn’t until I got closer that I noticed the collars of their shirts. Phew, they were priests, but no priest I knew packed a concealed firearm.

One of the priests desperately grabbed Sophia’s arm. {“Signorina Esposito, your immortal soul is in grave peril. Tell us where the vile creature is!”}

The second priest’s eyes tracked me as I approached their position. These guys weren’t normal priests. Heck, they might not even be priests. I was about to jump in, but Sophia quickly pulled her arm out of his grasp and dismissively laughed at him. {“Hmmmpph! Inquisitor Rossi, we both know that Signore Dominguez left over an hour ago and he is not a ‘vile creature’. He’s a nice gentleman and so was his niece.”}

Holy cow, an Inquisitor with a capital ‘I?  I didn’t know those were still around. If I was surprised by that little info nugget, their reaction to Uncle G having a niece was worth the price of admission.

{“It has a niece!?”} Both of the Inquisitor’s faces drained of blood as they gasped, took a step back and performed the sign of the cross. I never had anyone react to me that way before and it took all my willpower not to giggle or run up and yell ‘boo!’. Instead, I played it cool by ignoring them and working on a table in obvious need of cleaning. The skirt Sophia gave me was a little short and without tights, I had to be careful as I bent over.  I didn’t want to give the Inquisition dudes any fan service.

{“What was its name?”} Inquisitor Rossi recovered his earlier zeal.

Hey! I’m not an ‘it’ you jerk!  I almost said that out loud, but that probably would’ve been bad.

Sophia crossed her arms and pretended to ponder over my name. {“Hmmm, her name started with a ‘B’ and was a pretty name. I don’t remember exactly, but if I heard it again…”}

The second Inquisitor gestured to me as I finished loading the dirty dishes. {“You there, did you see the foul creature or its niece?”}

{“Creature? Here?”} I paused for a second as I glanced to Sophia and used the time to build up a buffer of speech because I needed to sound like a native Italian. {“I just started my shift Signore.”}

The man looked disappointed and it looked like he was about to ask me further questions, but Sophia interrupted him.

{“Bianca, can you take care of table eleven while I deal with these ‘gentlemen’?”} Sophia turned  and rolled her eyes with frustration for the men as she pointed to a table with two guests in need of a beverage refill.

{“Okay!”} I nodded and acted a little more enthusiastic than I felt. I kind of liked Bianca as a name. It sounded more Italian than Brianna or Bree. Let’s see, how many different names had I had over the last couple of months, three or four?

Having the Italian Inquisition after me was bad, but I felt like I could probably take these two if I had too. Sophia seemed to know them. So, maybe things would turn out okay, but now I was more worried about dealing with customers. Taking on people with guns seemed easy compared to messing up someone’s food order and driving away a customer with bad service.

I’ve never once considered being a waiter or waitress before and I had no clue what to do. I still had the tub of dirty dishes in hand and debated running to the kitchen first, but I swung by and asked the couple if they needed anything. It seemed like the thing a real waitress would do.

The couple sat side-by-side and kissing each other. I felt a little embarrassed about interrupting their moment, but they seemed unconcerned about their public display of affection.

{“Hi, I’m Bianca. Sorry for the wait, but I need to drop this off.”} I dipped the tub of dishes to show why I wasn’t ready. {“Can I get you two some more wine and take your orders after that?”}

I hoped they agreed because I didn’t even know what was on the menu. 

The woman giggled and snuggled into the man’s side causing him to smile fondly at her before he took charge and turned back to me. {“Yes, that will be fine.”}

They seemed pretty happy with my plan, but it looked like they were more interested in getting to know each other over eating. Oh well. I dropped the tub of dirty dishes next to the dishwasher, grabbed a bottle of wine and scanned the menu so I would know what they wanted. Thankfully, it was a simple, single page menu. 

As I took the couple’s order, I couldn’t help being a little distracted by how touchy-feely and freshly in love they appeared to be. They looked like they were in their twenties. I thought adults weren’t supposed to act like teenagers? Was there something in the air or did Uncle G ‘adopting’ me give me an additional, weird super power?  Gosh, I hoped not because growing a bunch of tentacles would be kind of hard to explain.

The time flew and before I knew it, it was time to try getting a hold of Mr. Reilly again, past time actually. That was not a good sign. He was normally very punctual. I dialed his office number again and Susan promptly answered, giving me her standard greeting.

{“Hey Ms. Susan. It’s Bianca.”} I blushed with embarrassment when I realized what I said and felt grateful she couldn’t see me. {“I mean Bree, umm, Whisper. Is everything okay?”}

{“Oh, hi Bree. I’m glad you called. Mr. Reilly is pretty busy right now, but he wanted me to tell you that he’s working on it and strange as it sounds, he’s glad you’re in Italy right now.”}

{“He is?”} That didn’t sound good. {“What’s going on?”}

{“We don’t know, but everything is down in the Whateley area. The President, Air Force, National Guard, State Police and even the MCO are all involved.”}

{“Oh, that’s not good...”} What in the heck was I going to do now?

{“Nope. So-”} Susan was interrupted by Mr. Reilly.

“If that’s Whisper, tell her to stay there. Get her a hotel room and I’ll arrange for a flight home as soon as possible.”

“Yes, sir!” Susan’s voice was a little muffled. She must have put her hand over the receiver.  “Okay, Bree.” Her voice returned to full volume. “You heard the boss, right?”

{“Yes.”}

{“Good, I’ll hunt down a hotel for you and call with the details, okay?”}

{“Umm, sounds good.”} Actually, I was more amazed that I wasn’t in trouble, but I also wondered what the heck was going on at school.  Did Uncle G know something bad was going to happen? Is that why he took me to Italy?

Sophia still needed some help, but things were finally starting to slow down. I had a pizza to deliver and it smelled very good. My stomach grumbled and papa De Luca overheard it. “You need some more food Bianca! I’ll make you both a pizza. You take a break when it’s ready!”

Pizza? Real, Italian Pizza with a capital ‘P’?! I didn’t need to be told twice. We -- funny how I thought of the restaurant -- were down to only one customer. Sophia and I grabbed a table and Papa De Luca brought out a pair of matching pizza’s for us.  Unfortunately, I forgot to request a veggie pizza and had to pick off, what I’m sure was some really good Italian sausage, but other than the meat, it was a good pizza. To be polite, I tried the sausage, but it tasted bad to me. On the other hand, the crust and the cheese were the best I ever had.

Finally, I had a chance to ask Sophia about the Inquisitor, priest dudes. I was a little worried about getting Sophia and Papa De Luca in trouble. “So, the guys who asked about Uncle Dominguez were priests or something?  Are you all going to be in trouble with the Church?”

She giggled and dismissively waved away my concern. “The Church has people keeping an eye on us.  They know when Signore Dominguez visits almost as soon as we do, but they always wait until they are sure he is gone before they ‘visit’ and try to ‘save’ everyone’s souls.”

It made no sense to me, because if they were so worried, why didn’t they send in an assault team to take out Uncle G.  Well, I guess they could try because I doubted anyone could hurt him.

Sophia must have noticed my confusion. “When I was one or two years old, they tried to capture your Uncle. Papa said that they sent a huge team with lots of big guns. They never made it in the doors.”

“Oh, what happened?”

Sophia laughed. “Instead of shooting up the restaurant, they started a big orgy in the middle of the street. After that, they were too embarrassed to even think about messing with him, but every time he visits, they go through the motions because they have to.” She shrugged her shoulders dismissively. “Idiots, but oh well. Now our restaurant is famous and everyone brings their dates here.” 

“Okay, I guess that kinda makes sense now, but when I heard you call them Inquisitors, I got a little worried and that line from the Monty Python show flashed through my head.”

Sophia stood and forcefully proclaimed. “Because nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!”

We both broke into giggles afterwards because it was too funny. I didn’t realize Monty Python was so popular.

~o~O~o~

I decided to end it there because the rest of my surprise visit to Italy was pretty boring. Well, boring, as in no one shot at me or tried to kidnap me boring, not boring boring because I did partake in some educational side-trips. Like, I went to the Stibbert Museum, it was pretty cool seeing all those old weapons and armor, and just to see if I could still enter a church without spontaneously combusting, I visited the Florence Cathedral. It was very pretty by the way and not even a little singing or surprise attacks by Inquisition commandos.

“So, that was pretty much it. Uncle Gothmog never returned and it took Mr. Reilly a day to get things worked out which let me hang out in Florence. No, I didn’t get into any trouble and I took the train to Aviano AFB for a flight back to the States. I made it back to Whateley Monday morning and I didn’t get in trouble for skipping school either. Mrs. Carson was very understanding about the whole thing.” I grinned and shrugged my shoulders. “See, no big deal.”

Mom looked a little dubious. “What happened to umm, Uncle Gothmog?”

Thank god she didn’t ask about what happened at Whately. “Oh, he showed a few days later and apologized for leaving me. He wants to take me to Germany for dinner during the break, but other than the Autobahn, I’m not so sure because Germans aren’t known for eating their veggies.” 

~o~O~o~

~o~O~o~

 

Insert standard disclaimer here: The one that reminds everyone that this is a work of fiction. No one is real and any resemblance to someone who is real is purely coincidence, honest. This is also a Fan Fiction set in the Whateley Story Universe. No Canon characters were permanently harmed in the making of this story. I hope. :)

 

Note: *sigh* Sorry for the delay and I wish I could say the next chapter will be out sooner. Thanks go out to my beta-readers/editors/sanity checkers as well as djkauf for his magical editing.

~o~O~o~

 

The tiramisu tasted pretty darn good and Mr. Giordano made a second stop at our table to make sure we were happy with our food. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I wasn’t Italian because he sounded ecstatic to have a visitor from his birth country in his restaurant and he gave us a big discount. Who was I to rain on his parade? Besides, it was fun speaking the language and making everyone wonder if I was talking about them.

We didn’t have room in the car to give Lisa and John a ride home, but they had other plans. Sensei Roger’s dojo was less than a mile away -- easy walking distance -- and they were getting a ride from Lisa’s dad when he was done teaching. I received another awesome, yet friendly goodbye hug from Lisa and a kind of awkward hug from John.

I know I just got home, well, not home yet, but I kinda wanted to hang out with my friends a little longer. “Umm, Mom, Dad, do you mind if I go with John and Lisa?”

The parental units glanced to each other before Mom reluctantly agreed. “Sure honey, just don’t stay out too late. Umm, be home by nine if you can and call if you’re going to be late or need a ride.”

The “honey” endearment, I could sort of handle, it was better than “sweety” or --shudder-- princess, but nine, on a Saturday night? Did they get stricter while I was away? My old curfew was ten and sometimes even eleven on a weekend night. Oh, it has been a few months and they probably missed me and wanted to have some ‘family’ bonding before bedtime. I hoped that was all because there was no way I would be happy with sharing a curfew with my baby sister.

Lisa distracted me from my mental grumbles by grabbing and squeezing my hand with excitement before turning to my mom. “It won’t be a problem Mrs. P. My dad finishes teaching at eight.”

I couldn’t help noticing how forlorn Lindsay looked. Ordinarily, I would’ve never considered her feelings on the matter. She was my baby, brat sister and why would she want to tag along with me, but now, I wasn’t so sure. I turned to Lisa and John. “Hey, do you think there would be room for Lindsay? I mean, if she wanted to come with and it was okay with the ‘rents?”

Lisa laughed and nodded. “Yep, my dad’s truck has plenty of room for us.”

I didn’t have to turn around to know what Lindsay thought about my crazy idea. “Can I, can I? Pleeaase?” She sounded way more desperate than I expected.

“Okay Lindsay, but I still expect you both home by nine.” My mom sternly crossed her arms.

“Yay!” Lindsay hugged Mom before racing to my side and hugged me. “I can’t believe you asked me to come!”

“Me either…” I smirked as I considered the truth of my statement.

“Heeeey, meanie!” Lindsay pretended to pout, but it took her less than a second before she broke character by happily giggling and giving me another quick hug.

I don’t know what happened to my sister while I was gone, but it was strange having her like and want to hang out with me. It almost felt like old times, before she turned on me and hated everything I did instead of pestering me to no end to play with her. I guess I’ve also changed a little since I was the one who asked.

The casual stroll to the dojo took us less than fifteen minutes, 14.728 minutes to be exact, and once again, no one attacked me. No ninjas, H1! idiots, MCO agents or aliens jumped out at us, but we did see a police car race past, lights and siren blaring away. Other than covering my ears, I didn’t react or try to hide because I knew exactly where the vehicle was going and why. Using Santa Fe’s own system, I had every active emergency vehicle tagged and tracked on a real-time map of the city. If the call went out to arrest a dangerous mutant, I’d be the second person to know about it.

The dojo and Sensei Rogers looked exactly the same and I felt a tad nostalgic visiting my old dojo. Sure, it had only been three months, but a lot can happen in a short span of time. We arrived about halfway through his last class and just in time to watch the students spar. This was the first time Lindsay had been to the dojo and it looked like she found it fascinating. Early on, I’d tried to get her to go, but she claimed it was too stinky and didn’t want to have anything to do with hitting other people.

Stinky, it was not. Sensei Rogers kept the place inspection ready clean. I didn’t bother debating the ‘hitting’ part with her then because I was actually glad she didn’t want to join me. It would have been mega-embarrassing if she was better than me and kicked my butt.

Lisa and I performed a quick, nearly automatic bow of respect to her dad as soon as we entered. John didn’t but, he wasn’t a student. He did firm up his posture a little. It was a little amusing to know how much he didn’t want to screw up and insult Lisa’s dad because he showed his own father far less respect. He wasn’t rude to his father, but he didn’t snap to attention either. As her first time here, Lindsay’s eyes were wide as saucers from trying to take in everything at once.

“Whoa, this is so cool!” Lindsay fiercely whispered as she grabbed my arm.

In the center of the dojo, there were three sparring matches going on under the supervision of Sensei Rogers plus three black belt student teachers. The front wall was a solid mirror, the wall facing the street had some photos and trophies from competitions while on the back wall were various weapons used during class. The dojo also had a few large punching bags as well as a few free standing human shaped punching dummies.

It was fun watching my old classmates spar with each other. I recognized everyone except for one guy and he looked like he knew what he was doing. Not a beginning student of the martial arts, but not a jiu jitsu expert either. I pegged him as twenty seven, tan, in very good shape, nice butt, not that I was looking, and based on his haircut and how he carried himself, he had a military background. My suspicion meter rose a few notches and that bothered me because not everyone I came across could be an MCO spy, right?

Craig, Joe and Mark, my old sparring buddies, were there and they looked pretty good, but I was kind of hoping they got worse during my absence. I guess I missed sparring with them more than I realized and now, they wouldn’t recognize me and it wouldn’t be fair for me to fight them. It might be fun to take them down a notch or two though. Joe was paired up with the unknown new guy and they both appeared to be having fun. Hmmm, maybe the new guy wasn’t a spy, but he was definitely military, perhaps a police officer?

Promptly at 2000 hours, Sensei Rogers called an end to the class. After the row of eight students bowed out and started filing out of the building, he turned his attention to us. “Lisa, get into your gi and take your friend with you. Give her a new gi from the supply closet.”

“What?” I gasped; shocked that he would want me to fight. I didn’t expect to have to spar anyone on my first day home and how did he know? There was no way he could’ve recognized me. Maybe he thought I was a new friend of Lisa’s and I needed a little self-defense training, but why put me in a gi? For simple self-defense moves, he normally allowed first time visitors to remain in their street clothes since it simulated what they would normally wear if they had to fight off an assailant.

We both rose to our feet, kind of automatically, because when you’re called on by Sensei Rogers, you move. Lisa stole a quick glance back to me before turning to her father with a confused expression. “Umm, are you sure, Dad? This is Brianna’s first time here.”

He nodded and narrowed his eyes as he thought things over. “Hmmm, you’re right. We wouldn’t want to embarrass her too much. We’ll wait until everyone is gone, but,” He turned to my two remaining sparring buddies and the new guy, “Craig, Joe and Jason, you stay.”

Craig and Joe grinned at each other with mild satisfaction for being asked to stay behind before turning a puzzled glance to me. “Okaay, Sensei.”

Those two, I could trust, but this Jason guy? Not a chance in heck. I guess I would just have to see where Sensei was going with this and play along. If he didn’t know who I was, maybe he just wanted to give his students some extra training on how to help a new, female student feel at ease in a class of mostly men. If he did know who I was, maybe he wanted me to pretend to be the typical, defenseless high school girl or maybe he wanted me to go all out and kick their butts or maybe he wanted me to take out the spy? There were too many variables and not enough data to figure out what I should do.

Instead of confusing myself further, I followed Lisa into the small women’s dressing room. She grabbed a new gi for me, along with a simple white belt to help keep everything together. While I was trying to figure out how to wear a gi without a bra, Lisa stripped out of her clothes and down to her cute thong style panties without a care in the world.

Oh my god, she was just as hot as I dreamed she was. Three months ago, I would’ve probably had an anime inspired nose bleed and promptly passed out on the floor with tears pouring out of my eyes, but now, she was just another girl. Okay, not ‘just’ another girl. She was Lisa, my best friend’s ultra-cool, smoking hot and kick ass girlfriend. She was also my friend and I shouldn’t be having any sexual thoughts about her. Did I just think her panties were cute? Nope, sexual thoughts about Lisa and her cute panties, deactivated.

Maybe she was an exemplar and didn’t know it?

“Umm, Bree, aren’t you going to get dressed?” Lisa paused in the process of pulling a sports bra over her head, giving me an excellent view of her breasts.

“Well…” I blushed and strived to cover my embarrassment by glancing down to my top with its built in support. Gis aren’t the most female friendly up top. One grab or throw and I could be showing the boys a lot more than I wanted. “I’m not wearing a bra...”

Lisa finished pulling her bra down and adjusted her breasts for comfort. “Why don’t you leave your top on and put the gi on over it?”

Oh, now there’s an excellent idea. Why didn’t I think of that? Oh, I know, because Lisa was mostly naked and I was distracted by her cute panties, or something. I decided to get my butt in gear because if I was busy getting dressed, I would be less likely to stare at her. I pulled off my boots, skirt and leggings, leaving my top to support the twins.

The heavy cotton gi fit nice and loose like it was supposed to. The idea behind wearing the gi was twofold. One, gis are built pretty sturdy and are hard to rip, much harder to rip than normal street clothes. Two, the cut of the gi top gave my opponent something to grab onto for bars, holds and throws. Okay, there was a third reason, but that was mostly psychological. The gi was a uniform and put the wearer into the proper frame of mind as well as making them look snappy.

I knotted my belt and adjusted my uniform. “Okay, so who is the new guy?”

“Jason? He’s a SEAL and on TDY ( Temporary Duty ) for a few weeks to train with my dad. Isn’t he a hunk?” Lisa giggled at me when I accidently nodded with agreement.

Well, she thought I was agreeing with her on the hunk designation, but honestly, I was only nodding my head about him being a SEAL because it made sense. More importantly though, I needed to stop her from thinking I might like the dude. “I mean, no, he’s not a hunk!”

I felt myself blushing uncontrollably as my traitorous emotions reminded me I noticed his butt. I needed to get past the dude’s cute butt though. Did he know about me? Was he here to protect me or was it just a happy coincidence?

Lisa took my forceful rejection, blush and silence as proof of my attraction for him. She closed her eyes and savored a memory. “I’ve seen him without his shirt. His chest is nice and oh my god, his abs are rock solid! I bet he would be great to snuggle up against at night.” She sighed with frustration. “It’s a shame he’s so old.”

I sighed as I recalled the memory of Lisa standing in front of me wearing only her panties. I was just another girl to her. It wasn’t fair that I still found her attractive and that made me feel like a perv for looking when she obviously trusted me. I needed to get back on track here because I didn’t want to think about other parts of the dude’s body. Girls aren’t supposed to admire other guys when they are dating a guy. Only men are supposed be horndogs, right? “What about John?”

Lisa smiled dreamily. “Oh, he’s fine, more than fine, but a girl can dream. I’m not dead ya know?”

Except for the snuggling part, she sounded like a guy. Was it normal for girls to ogle guys like guys ogle girls? I know I did and still do, but I was a guy. “Oh, I guess so, but umm, does Jason know about me?”

“Hmmm, good question. I don’t know. This is the first time Dad has trained a SEAL at our dojo, but he has flown to Virginia to consult a few times though.” Lisa dismissively shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe, but,” she laughed and grabbed my arm, gently pulling me out to the dojo proper, “let’s get out there and see what nefarious plot my dad has hatched.”

“Ahh, excellent!” Sensei Rogers smiled as we exited the changing room. “Lisa and Brianna, you two stand next to me.” He motioned for us to join him in the center of the dojo.

Hmmm, he knew my name, thus he knew who I was and maybe what some of my capabilities were. Wait, no, Lisa told him my name. Grrr, was I making this harder on myself? Probably, but I’m sure Captain Howards had called and spoke to Sensei and Lisa did say she told her Dad about me. He had to have known I was coming home. Which meant Jason also had to know about me, right?

Once we joined him, he turned to Jason, Craig and Joe. “Okay, Petty Officer Steinke, here’s the training scenario.”

I glanced apprehensively to Lisa. She was grinning with excitement, but looked a little unsure of the direction her father was going with this. Jason, correction, Petty Officer Steinke, stood at parade rest, his eyes laser focused on Sensei Rogers while Craig and Joe looked just as confused and mixed with excitement as Lisa did.

“I hope you two don’t mind lending a hand with a little ad hoc Navy training exercise?” Sensei Rogers glanced over to Craig and Joe, but not me or Lisa.

“No Sensei!” They both chorused with grins ear to ear.

“Great! Okay, two Targets of Opportunity have presented themselves. This is an urban, snatch and grab op. Three man team tasked to grab two female intelligence targets. Target One,” he nodded to Lisa, “is Lisa. A known martial artist, codename ‘Silk’. Second female target is Brianna, codename, ‘Whisper’. Command wants them both extracted due to their ties with a known high-value, terrorist leader. Your extraction assets will include a nondescript van conveniently located next to the targets.”

He glanced back over to the two of us and smirked. “Sorry girls.” He resumed the briefing. “Mission success will be to get both targets in the van in under thirty seconds.”

Yep, Sensei Rogers was definitely up to something and I was starting to think that this could be fun. I also liked Lisa’s codename. ‘Silk’, how cool was that? Did he make it up on the fly or did he already have a codename picked out for her? If the latter, why would he have a codename for his daughter? Was I over-thinking this?

Now, Craig and Joe looked a lot more excited. How many times has Sensei Rogers provided training sims for PO Steinke and have they worked with him before? I mean, did they know how to work together as a team? All three of them were sizing Lisa up and giving me only cursory appraisals. Judging by his actions, Steinke might not be in the loop about me or he was just very good at faking it. He is a SEAL after all, they have to be good at that kind of stuff, right? I decided to keep pretending to be a newbie. “Umm, Mr. Rogers, I’m not sure about this…”

Lisa reached over and patted my shoulder. “Don’t worry, Bree, I’ll keep you safe.”

I snuck a peek at John and Lindsay. They were both sitting on the edge of their seats in the bleachers and looked anxious to see what would happen. They weren’t the only ones because this was not on my list of things to do on my first night home, but it could be fun and I’m sure Sensei Rogers had a good training message to impart on the guys, probably on Lisa and myself as well. He liked to make training as useful as possible.

Sensei Rogers pointed to the small seam in the mats running down the center of the dojo. “Terrain is a city sidewalk. The line there is a building. The extraction vehicle will be parked right about there.” He gestured to a point about ten feet away and opposite the imaginary wall. “Your goal is to get both targets into the ‘van’. Average police response time is two minutes.” He pointed to the guys. “Okay you three, head to the locker room and plan your op. You have three minutes.”

>Mission parameters accepted...

>Assessing Enemy Target threat ratings...

>

>Termination of Unknown Targets Authorized.

>Primary Mission Success Factor=88.7%

*Buzz! Wrong answer, this is a training exercise.

>Termination Authorization rescinded. Non-Lethal force required.

>Assigning enemy target priority…

>

>Target One

>Petty Officer Jason Steinke

>Threat Rating: 8.9

>

Hmm, on a scale of one to ten, he was pretty high. Well, he was a Navy SEAL and he probably had a bunch of real-world experience with this kind of stuff. I debated trying to connect to the mil.net and look up his DD-214 service record, but I didn’t want to abuse my access. Okay, I didn’t want to get caught, not that they would, but it seemed like a large risk to take for something that probably wouldn’t matter. Heck, as a SEAL, his record was probably under lock and key anyways.

>Target Two

>Craig Wilson

>Threat Rating: 5.6

>

>Target Three

>Joe Hopper

>Threat Rating: 5.2

Since I had trained and fought with Craig and Joe, they landed about where I expected them. Pretty high for ‘civilians’, but Lisa and I should be able to handle them. It was Steinke I was worried about. He confidently led his two accomplices to the locker room for their ‘secret’ planning session as the pair sneaked a few excited and calculating glances back at Lisa and me.

Once they were out of sight, Sensei Rogers grabbed a roll of blue painters tape from his office and used it to mark out a box, approximately the size of a van. He put an ‘X’ mark a few feet away from the front and back walls and a line of tape opposite our position, next to the bleachers. I wasn’t sure what he was doing with those, but I guess he was setting some extra boundary markers and I was correct.

>Primary Mission Success Factor=68.7%

Oh, that’s pretty good and I guessed that my non-lethal order made things a little harder on us. As a result, I needed to increase the odds a bit. So, with the guys no longer in my line of sight, I decided to confuse things a little. “Lisa, look at me.” I turned her to face me as I studied her face, hair and outfit. “I’m guessing they will go for you first. Are you interested in a little ‘disguise’ to mess them up?”

Lisa’s eyes gleamed with excitement as she nodded. “Uh huh.”

“Okay, here it goes ‘Bree’. Try not to talk and give it away.” Her body shimmered for a second as I cast an illusion of myself over her and followed it up with an illusion of Lisa over me. I still found the entire magical special effect to be very cool to watch. It would be even cooler if I could get it to pixelate in like a computer graphic instead of a rippling mirage effect as it took hold. Oh well, something to work on over my summer vacation or next year.

Now, if my theory was correct, the guys would go for Lisa, as me, the easy target first, but then, I’d have two on me because they would think I was Lisa. Not sure if my idea was all that great now, but Sensei Roger and my system seemed to think so.

>Primary Mission Success Factor=89.9%

“Interesting…” Sensei Rogers nodded and smiled knowingly at me.

His reaction, or non-freak-out reaction was telling. Yep, he had definitely been briefed by Captain Howards or Admiral Jensen. I glanced over to John and Lindsay and gave them the ‘no giving it away’ signal. John’s eyes were pretty big, but Lindsay practically bounced in her seat with excitement before she nodded with agreement and settled down.

The guys returned and Sensei explained the additional tape lines. “The ‘X’ marks in the front and rear are the boundary zones. If one or both of the girls makes it past that point, they have escaped. The girls also cannot see past those points. Consider them to be the corner of a building for concealment purposes. They also cannot see into the ‘van’ until ‘door open’ is sounded. The line next to the bleachers is also out of bounds. If the girls make it to that point, they have escaped.”

“Any questions?” Sensei paused with a glare that boded ill for anyone who asked him to repeat his instructions.

To maintain our disguise, instead of speaking, Lisa and I both shook our heads from side to side. The scenario sounded a lot like what I heard Sensei Ito did for his Self Defense course, except without having to worry about fighting fellow super-powered students. That’s what I heard his class was like, but I didn’t have first-hand experience because I decided to take the Survival Course instead.

I based my decision on a few factors:

1. I thought I was already fairly good at defending myself.

2. I saw no reason to show other, potential enemies my powers and weaknesses.

3. I thought the Survival Course sounded more interesting.

I mean, who doesn’t like learning what bugs are safe to eat?!?!

Eating a live bug counted toward a whopping 20% of our final exam score and I could understand the reasoning behind the high percentage. In a survival situation, you had to do whatever it took and if eating a few bugs would keep you alive, then that is what you did. I think the instructor just wanted to gross people out. Mission Accomplished! Bleh, gimme some nuts and berries any day over some protein rich, wiggling little Huhu Grub specially imported from New Zealand for our class.

I did pass and no, bugs do not taste like chicken, try peanut butter. Well, that’s what I thought the gross, wiggling, pale white worm thing tasted like, but some people claimed they tasted like buttery chicken. I thought they were a little delusional. Chocolate covered ants, now those were rather tasty. They tasted like little crunchy lemon bits covered in heaven.

PO Steinke’s orders to his team brought me back from my thoughts on bug culinary techniques. “Joe, you ‘hide’ in the ‘van’. Craig, you hide around the corner of the ‘building’,” he pointed to the rear of the dojo, “and I’ll come from the front. Plan C.” He gave the majority of his plan away with the positioning of his helpers, but having a ‘plan C’ sounded a little ominous. What happened to A and B?

Oh well, I guess Lisa and I were supposed to pretend we didn’t know they were there. Just like we were supposed to pretend the seam in the mats was the wall of a building and the box of tape was a van.

I debated trying to do an illusionary terrain spell and turn the dojo into something like a holodeck, but I wasn’t sure if I could and I didn’t want to show off too much. Well, and it would’ve given PO Steinke and the boys a little bit of a warning. Instead of doing something as obvious as magic, I used my system to superimpose a semi-transparent facade over the boundaries to make it look almost real to me. I also tracked each person in the dojo and displayed their locations in a small mini-map overlay.

“So, Bree, what do you think of that dress?” I softly spoke in an attempt to disguise my voice as I pointed to an imaginary window in our imaginary building.

Lisa picked up on the plan right away. “Oh, nice!” She whispered as PO Steinke and Craig started their ‘attack’ run on us.

“Door Open!” Sensei Rogers barked, giving us the signal to officially realize we were about to be kidnapped.

“Bree, Run!” I yelled and turned, like Lisa probably would, to face both PO Steinke and Joe as he lunged out of the ‘van’.

I assumed a ready stance and focused most of my attention on my two targets as Lisa ran toward Craig. My perception effect kicked in, slowing everything to a crawl. Lisa was halfway to her target and judging by his posture, Craig was expecting an easy capture. Ha! I wished I could see his face when Lisa took him down, but first, I had to deal with PO Steinke.

He made the first move and it might have even worked on the real Lisa, but I had all the time in the world to step a few extra inches to the side as he attempted to perform a takedown move. Joe was a few beats behind Steinke, clueing me into the fact that they had never worked together as a team before. I grabbed Steinke’s right arm and used his own size and momentum to redirect and throw him toward Joe. I cheated a little more by adding some extra push.

Steinke hit Joe, causing him to fall, but Joe’s body stopped Steinke’s momentum just enough to allow him to recover and come at me again. His eyes were deadly serious and focused on the task of taking me down. I spent a few spare milliseconds to check on Lisa’s status. She had Craig on the mat and was in the process of putting him in an arm lock. I estimated it would only be another second or two before he tapped out, allowing her to come to my aid. Not that I planned on her having anything to do by that time, but it would be fun to make the boys look bad.

Hehe.

The hard part was doing that without making it look too easy or hurting them. Well, that’s what I thought because Steinke was a little better than I expected and I guess I shouldn’t have been so cocky. He managed to get a hand on my gi top and execute some cheaty non-jiu jitsu throw.

Deadeye’s pithy words of wisdom came to mind. “Whisper, my charming newbie, here’s some words to live by, free of charge: if yer not cheatin’, yer not trying hard enough!”

>Target Two...Neutralized

Lisa made quick work of Craig and was on her way back to support me. It was time for me to up my game.

If I let the physics play out as he planned, I’d end up on the floor with him in the perfect position to execute a submission hold. I changed the rules by using his own strength and his grip on my gi against him as I simultaneously kicked up with my feet while pulling and rotating my body around his. My legs came up, locked around his neck and using the combined torque of our two bodies, I twisted --careful to not break his neck-- throwing him in what had to look some impossibly cool move from a movie.

He flew through the air with the greatest of ease before landing flat on his back 4.17 feet away from me. Too bad there were no movie cameras here.

“Woof!” The air was knocked out of his lungs from the force of his awkward landing.

Where was Joe? I glanced over to his position just in time to see Lisa intercept him on his way to help his teammate deal with me. With Lisa covering my back, I wasted no time. Steinke needed to be taken out and fast. No holding back, before my target could get his wind back, I rolled forward, into a forward handspring with a half twist. I stuck the landing on his chest, my knees pinned as close as I could get to his shoulders. Hey, the dude had a pretty big chest and broad muscular shoulders peeking through his gi. Wow, Lisa was right. He was ripped.

Wait, focus Bree…

“Kiiii-Yaaa!” I punched his throat, but stopped at a touch and held it there for half a second to give him time to register the kill. I mean, point. Steinke acknowledged his defeat by going limp.

>Target One...Neutralized.

“Yame!” Sensei's order to stop rang loud and clear.

I canceled our disguise illusions as I rolled off of Steinke’s chest, toward Lisa.

I heard Lindsay clapping and cheering from the sidelines. “Way to go sis! Woo hoo!”

“What the?!?!” Joe gasped with surprise as our forms shimmered, causing Lisa and I to trade spots. “Hey, no fair!” Quickly followed by, “Whoa, she’s an elf!”

Well, his reaction was better than, “She’s a mutant! Buuuurn her!”, but it might have been smarter if I hadn’t forgotten to reapply my human illusion as my Lisa disguise faded. “Umm, hi?” I sheepishly grinned and waved at Joe. --Excellent recovery there Bree-- I mentally kicked myself for sounding so lame.

Lisa let out a joyful whoop and fiercely hugged me, lifting me off my feet. “That was freaking awesome Bree!” She set me down. “Oh my god, you should’ve seen Craig’s face when I took him down!” She glanced over at the object of her mirth. “Sorry dude, but ya have to admit that you were pretty surprised, right?”

“Yeah, I guess so...” Craig sheepishly ran his fingers through his hair and then, his resolution firmed and he looked Lisa in the eyes. “You won’t be so lucky next time.”

Speaking of time, it was now 2030 hours and Lindsay and I only had 30 minutes before our super strict curfew. Well, it was only a ten minute drive from the dojo to our house, so we should be okay and besides, Sensei was with us. I’m sure Mom and Dad would be okay if we were a few minutes late.

“That was pretty damn sneaky calling in a ringer like that, Chief!” PO Steinke chuckled as he stood, straightened his gi and acknowledged me with a respectful nod.

With his compliment, I felt pretty good about my performance, but Sensei was not so kind in his After Action Review. Well, he only kinda, sorta yelled at me for doing the impromptu leg thing. It was PO Steinke who received the worst of his wrath. Well, not fire and brimstone wrath, more like you-screwed-up-and-you-know-it wrath. “Steinke, as the team lead, what should you have done differently?”

Steinke sighed with resignation. “That’s easy, Chief; I shouldn’t have taken the targets at face value. It’s clear now that I should’ve been more suspicious of the setup, treated each target as equally dangerous and stressed that to my team during the planning session.”

It was definitely getting late and I didn’t want to get in trouble on my first day home. “Sensei, I’d love to stay and geek out over this, but we,” I gestured to Lindsay and myself, “need to be home by 2100.”

At ten till nine, John was in the front seat of Sensei’s truck and the girls, grumble, grumble, grumble were relegated to the back seat. His truck was a full-size Ford and we had plenty of room, but it was the principle of the idea. Lisa and Lindsay didn’t seem to mind or think anything of it, but I guess Sensei did it on purpose to keep John honest with his daughter. Not that John would ever think of being anything other than a gentleman with Lisa, especially in the presence of her dad.

I decided to call my mom because I wasn’t sure if we were going to make it in time and I did not want to get grounded. I calculated my grounding probability at less than five percent, but why take chances when Murphy’s Law likes messing with me?

Mom answered her phone in less than two rings. {“Bree, is something wrong?”}

Why did she immediately ask me that? Not, “Hey Bree, how’s it going?” or “Thanks for the call.” I know I’ve gotten into a few scrapes in the past, but come on. {“No Mom, nothing’s wrong. Just calling to let you know we are on the way. Sensei had a, umm, friend from the Navy at his dojo and he wanted to go over a few exercises.”}

{“Oh...”} She sounded very relieved and surprised. {“Well, if that was the case, you should’ve called sooner. I don’t think your father and I would’ve had a problem with you staying out a little longer.”}

Now she tells me! I sighed with frustration because it might have been fun to go over a few more things with Sensei. Of course, then I probably would’ve been tempted to show off some of my cool spells, but I guess it was for the better. No sense in showing folks all my tricks on the first night.

Lisa poked me in the side. “What’s wrong?”

“Oh, nothing. I talking to my mom and she just told me that we could’ve stayed out longer.” I returned my attention to the call with my mom. {“Now you tell me. Oh well, we should be home in ten minutes or less.”} I could’ve given her the exact ETA -- 9.82 minutes -- but I’ve learned that people look at you funny when you give them too much precision.

{“Thanks sweetie. See you in a few.”} She disconnected.

Lisa and Lindsay both looked at me like I was crazy with Lisa beating Lindsay to the punch. “Umm, okaay, and how did you ‘talk’ to your mom without a cell phone? Do you have telepathy? Can you read my mind?!?” She sounded a little worried about the last question.

“No, I don’t have telepathy. I have a built in commo suite inside my head.” I tapped my skull for emphasis. “Look, pull out your phone and I’ll send you a text.”

Lisa pulled her phone out of her purse as John turned to watch and Sensei kind of divided his attention between the road and the back seat. I sent her a text message.

{“printf("Hello World. How about a nice game of chess?");”}

*Ping!

Lisa gasped with surprise as she looked at her phone’s screen. “Wow, just wow. You’re still a geek, but how did you do that?”

I smirked at her as I sent her a follow up message.

{“I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you. :-P”}

*Ping!

“Ha, ha, very funny.” Lisa stuck her tongue out at me before she expectantly crossed her arms and waited for me to spill the beans.

Everyone in the truck was waiting for an answer and they were my friends. I could trust them, right? “Weell, it’s kinda Top Secret, but without getting into the details…I have a super radio built into my head and I can connect to just about any radio frequency, including cell phones.”

Sensei Rogers nodded his head with understanding. “You have a jitters? I didn’t realize they got that thing to work.”

I kinda forgot he was a SEAL. “Ahh, yes, but no, they didn’t get it to work. Well, not for everyone else anyway.”

“A jitters?” Lindsay asked with Lisa and John mirroring her confusion.

“JTRS, or Joint Tactical Radio System. It’s currently under-development as a way to replace all the radios the military uses with a single radio, but it’s not going well. I’m the only one who has gotten it to work and I’m not very ‘deployable’.”

We dropped John off first and I felt mildly surprised when Lisa let him part with only a quick hug and a chaste kiss. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that her Dad growling at them sped their normal makeout session considerably. Yes, I’ve had to wait on John once before and it took them a very long time to say goodnight to each other. Well, I waited for maybe five minutes before I decided to run home solo instead of be subjected to all the blatant tonsil wrestling. I’m pretty sure they didn’t stop for at least ten to twenty minutes after I left and worse, they probably didn’t even realize I had left.

Getting home, we were only ten minutes late and after Lisa gave me a goodbye hug, Sensei surprised me by asking her to stay in the truck as he escorted Lindsay and me to the door instead of driving off. The ‘rents were waiting for us and opened the door as we approached. “Sorry for keeping them out Mr. and Mrs. Peters. I have a buddy in town for some extra self-defense training and I needed Lisa’s and Bree’s assistance.”

My mom and dad chuckled, a good sign that I wasn’t in trouble. “It’s not a problem, Sensei Rogers and thanks for bringing them both home.” Mom smiled at Lindsay and me as she motioned us into the house.

“Night, Sensei.” I nodded to him as I ducked past my parents and into the house. Ahh, home sweet home.

“Umm, Mrs. Peters, do you mind if I ask you something in private?” Sensei surprised me with his question. What was he up to now?

“Sure, Sensei Rogers.” My mom said with a smile in her voice as she ducked outside and closed the door behind her, effectively blocking out their conversation to me. What were they talking about?

“Girls, up to your rooms and get ready for bed.” Dad, the disciplinarian, took charge; working with Mom to keep me from eavesdropping on what I felt sure was a conversation about me.

“Ahh, Daddy...do we have to?” I don’t know how we did it, but Lindsay and I whined in perfect stereo. Well, except, I didn’t call him ‘Daddy’, that was Lindsay. I stopped at ‘Dad’, honest, but our performance was like old times and the shocked expression on his face made us both giggle.

He groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose as he slowly shook his head. “I can tell this is going to be stressful summer... Now go, upstairs, both of you and not another word.”

The stairs and the upstairs hallway was the first thing I noticed as being different from what I remembered. Instead of the original and slightly rundown carpet, my parents had put in a hardwood floor. Not the fake laminate stuff, real hard wood. Oak to be exact and I’m not sure how I knew that it was Oak. I guess I can blame my Sidhe genes for that little bit of instinctual knowledge. I liked it because the wood floor somehow made me feel more at ease. Without the artificial carpet, the wood floor made the house feel more like a home.

My room looked very different from how I left it three months ago. The hardwood floor continued from the hallway, covering my floor. I rightly guessed that all the rooms had received a new floor make-over. My bed now sported a wooden headboard that matched the floor. Gone was my old, dark blue, boy themed comforter and in its place was my white, fluffy, down filled comforter. I loved having it the last time I was home, but now I wasn’t so sure about it. The weather was a smidge warmer and I doubted my parents would be willing to crank up the AC just so I could snuggle under my cloud.

With the hardwood floor makeover, I wasn’t surprised to find that my walls had been repainted, not pink, but a sage green and gone were my movie and game themed posters. What did surprise me was a new oak dresser and matching vanity. I’m not sure I needed a vanity, but I could see how it would be helpful to have in the morning.

We, my roommate and I, had a single, full sized mirror in our dorm room and it was sometimes a zone of contention as we both tried to get dressed in the morning. Dee, or Fractious, had Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and as such, she tended to obsess over the little things and spent a lot of time in front of the mirror. With my illusions, I didn’t need to use it as much as she did, but it was still nice to make sure I didn’t accidently get my ears wrong or give myself a third eye. Her OCD wasn’t all bad, she noticed the tiny things that most people overlook and she figured out I wasn’t human in less than a day. On the plus side, her attention to detail helped me perfect my illusionary disguise.

She was a total neat-freak and I think that was why I got her as my room-mate. I was her fourth in the school year, meaning she drove everyone else crazy. Surprisingly, I got along well with her, but I think the fact that I wasn’t your typical girl with all the typical girl clothes, makeup and social tastes in music, TV and movies helped a lot. With my VR room inside my head, I didn’t need to clutter up things and I kept my side of the room almost as clean and blank as she kept her side of the room.

As good as she was at noticing small things, I don’t think she ever figured out I hadn’t been born a girl. Well, she never told me anyway. Heck, before she left, she gave me a hug goodbye, told me I was the best roommate ever and hoped she got me again next fall. I think she would’ve liked my new room and thinking about it made me kind of miss her a little.

My clothes were already hung up in the closet or put away in the dresser. Mom must have a little OCD in her, but that’s okay. She had only been putting away my clothes for almost all my life. Okay, it probably wasn’t OCD. Dee was pretty bad and my mom was just doing what moms do since my clothes wouldn’t wash themselves.

I was still taking in the changes to my room when my mom and dad politely tapped my open door to get my attention and ask permission to enter. “Well, what do you think?” Mom asked with a trace of nervousness.

I glanced down and around. “It’s different, but…” I smiled. “Nice, I like it. Not sure about the vanity, but it could be handy.”

My mom sighed with relief as she held my dad’s hand. “Oh, good. We,” My dad nodded with agreement, “were a little worried, but we didn’t want to go too overboard or girly, because, well, you know…”

Her concern made me giggle. “Yep, it’s perfect, but I might need to put up some of my old posters…” I saw my mom’s pained and concerned expression. I rushed to reassure her. “Or, get some new ones this summer.”

The one thing my room was missing was a computer desk and associated rig, but I had my school laptop if I got bored enough to play GEO again and if not, the computer inside my head was way better. “I would say it’s missing a computer desk, but I don’t really need one anymore.”

My mom rushed forward and pulled me into a tight hug. “I’m so glad you’re home Bree!”

A hug from mom, I expected, but Dad, no. His hug was more gentle, but full of strength. “Glad yer home sport. The lawnmower missed you.”

On one hand, I was glad he didn’t call me something girly, like, princess, but on the other hand, surely he had to miss more than for the slave labor I provided?

Mom hit him for me. “John! Seriously, give her at least a day or two before you remind her about mowing the lawn.”

“I was only kidding, besides, Lindsay mowed it yesterday. So, she’s safe for at least a week!” Dad chuckled as he rubbed his arm, pretending to be injured from my mom’s light slap.

“Whut, whaat?!?! Lindsay mowed?” I was shocked by that info nugget because when I was a boy, mowing was considered a manly chore, like vacuuming the house was more of a girl chore. Not that I never had to vacuum the house, but as the oldest and a boy, mowing the yard was kind of expected of me.

Lindsay chose that moment to make her appearance. She had probably been just around the corner and eavesdropping the entire time. “Hey! It wasn’t that hard, but I’m glad my ‘big’ sister is home to take over.” She sighed dramatically and made a show of flexing her muscles. “I’m just not strong enough to do it all the time.”

Lindsay looked like she was in pretty good shape to me and I didn’t like how she sarcastically referred to me as her ‘big’ sister. While I was away, the stinker had grown another inch on me and she knew it. I dropped my human illusion and pointed to my ears. “Sorry, looks like you’re stuck with it. As you can see, I’m an elf.” I sniffed imperiously and crossed my arms. “Elves love nature and as such, it’s against our religion to harm a plant.”

Lindsay was about to say something when our mom stepped in. “Okay, that’s enough you two. Bree, it’s your turn to cut the grass next week, then Lindsay’s turn.” She glanced over to me as Lindsay sighed with defeat. “Now, why don’t you change out of your travel clothes, maybe take a quick shower and meet us downstairs. Your dad rented a couple of movies and I figured we could all enjoy spending some time together, you know, as a family.”

After the flight and the little fight in the dojo, I did feel a little grubby. Well, more from the flight because being crammed into a flying sardine can always left me feeling a little dirty. Okay, I flew first class and wasn’t exactly suffering. Taking a bath or a shower was a time honored tradition of surviving a long journey on the dusty trail.

Thankfully Mom lagged behind Lindsay and Dad. It looked like she had something to say and I felt very curious about Mom’s secret talk with Sensei Rogers. “Umm Mom, what did Sensei want?”

Mom dismissively shrugged her shoulders and turned, as if she was going to walk out of my room. “Oh, nothing much. Lisa just asked if you could join them on their annual camping trip next weekend and he wanted to make sure it was okay with us.”

“What?!?!” I couldn’t believe she would drop a bomb like that and pretend it was nothing special.

Sensei Rogers and Lisa went camping every summer and it was a big deal for the two of them. No one had ever been invited to tag along and Lisa had lamented that fact every year, but not many of Lisa’s girlfriends had any interest in roughing it for a few days, or at all. John was never a consideration because boyfriends and fathers don’t mix.

“Oh,” Mom smirked, “I didn’t think you’d be interested in getting your nails dirty or sleeping in a tent with all the wild animals and no electricity.”

“Ha, ha, very funny Mom.” I impatiently crossed my arms and glared expectantly up at her. “So, can I go?”

Mom pondered my request for a second. “I need to check with your father to make sure he didn’t have any plans with you next weekend, but I don’t think he had anything set in stone. So, it should be okay.”

I hugged her and cheered. “Thanks Mom! This is going to be sooo cool!”

Lisa always gushed about how much fun she had camping with her dad. They hiked in with almost nothing and lived off the land for the days by trapping small game and fishing. It sounded almost like my Survival course at Whateley and I had tons of fun doing in that class. I looked forward to taking Survival II in the fall. I heard the class trip is either to the arctic for winter survival or the amazon for jungle survival.

I sent Lisa a text as I gathered my PJs, a fresh pair of panties and headed to the bathroom. {“Mom needs to check with dad, but it looks like I can go! :)”}

Her reply came back while I was washing my hair. {“OMG! Can’t w8! :-D”}

I thought we were done, but Lisa sent a follow-up text message less than a minute later. {“y didn’t u txt me in school?”}

{“Umm, I didn’t know you texted?”} I totally lied, but in my previous life, I wasn’t cool enough to have a cell phone and I didn’t think she would want to text me. I sent John an occasional email and I’m pretty sure he told her what I said. That should count, right?

{“Liar! :-P what r u doing?”}

I debated telling her that I was just sitting in my room. {“Washing my hair, getting ready to condition. Why, is texting in the shower dangerous? :)”}

{“Seriously!?!? Th@s so cool!”}

I played dumb. {“What, you don’t wash your hair? Gross! :-P What are you doing?”} Notice I didn’t use text speak like she did, but then again, I wasn’t trying to create a message using the number keys on a cell phone. I did use emoticons, but those are easy and I thought Lisa was actually a pretty fast texter considering her manual, number pad, phone handicap.

I spent a little extra time in the shower, wasting hot water and texting with Lisa. By the time she signed off for the night, she had wrangled me into going shopping for camping gear with her this weekend. I tried to tell her malls and I didn’t get along, but she lol’ed me. I don’t think she realized just how bad my luck at shopping malls has been over the last few months.

Did it take me another thirty minutes to dry my hair? Nope, Cousin Nikki taught me a few handy utility spells, called cantrips and I felt only a smidge of guilt for using magic to instantly dry my body and hair. Yes, it was kind of cheating, but why should I punish myself by spending ten to thirty minutes blow drying and styling my hair? I also had cantrips that allowed me to mend and clean small stains from my cloths and wow, did those two cantrips come in handy. I was still working on a full blown, cleaning cantrip that would clean a full garment. A few more hours of practice and I would have it down, I hoped.

Cantrips and illusions were easy and Nikki tried to teach me some offensive spells, like a fireball or lightning bolt, but for some reason, the evocation and conjuration magics were hard for me to grasp, literally. With my mage-sight, I could touch and see elemental magic, but the elements were harder for me to manipulate and wrap up into a spell. They just didn’t want to be tied up into a pretty little spell like the illusionary magics did. It was frustrating because I could see what the magic structure of a fireball spell should look like, but the best I could do with an elemental fireball spell was cause an explosion along the scale of an illegal firecracker. My illusionary flash-bang grenade was way better, but I couldn’t exactly use an illusion to blow stuff up.

Illusions were nice and all, but I wanted more boom. I asked Nikki why the non-illusion spells were proving so difficult for me to use. She thought I just might need more time and practice, but Aunt Aunghadhail came forward, grabbing my complete and undivided attention. “My child, it could be that your natural affinity for illusionary magics is causing a block. It may be possible to overcome your block, but that will take focus, patience and practice.”

I sighed with frustration. “Great, so I’m stuck with harmless illusions for self-defense.”

Aunt Aung frowned and tsked me, clearly disappointed with my defeatist attitude. “There is nothing wrong with being an illusionist, Brianna. Illusions can be very powerful tools, but as you know, they depend on the strength of your target’s belief in what they see. If your target believes enough, the effects can be real to them and in rare cases, even cause death.”

I know she was trying to make me feel better, but being able to turn invisible and disguise myself isn’t all that helpful when the fit hits the shan. An illusionary shield won’t stop a bullet and an illusionary lightning bolt won’t stop someone from shooting me. Well, it might make them duck, but only if they didn’t know it was fake.

She paused for a second as she thoughtfully considered telling me more bad news. “However; there is a line of research you may wish to pursue. Scáth or Shadow Magic was a discipline that when used in conjunction with illusionary magic, gave illusionary constructs tangible effects, regardless of the target’s belief or disbelief. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you more.” She sighed regretfully. “Scáth Mages were a rare breed in my time and I am not certain their knowledge will be easily found as they were somewhat secretive about their abilities.”

Okay, it wasn’t bad news and her hint reminded me of GEO Whisper’s rogue abilities using shadows to hide. Once she mentioned this shadow magic stuff, it was like a slowly flickering light-bulb came to life. I had been focusing all of my energy into learning how to cast magic and I hadn’t been giving those GEO derived and less flashy spell-like abilities any attention. Maybe there was something from GEO I could use to find out more about Shadow Magic. Maybe there was something inside the game that could teach me?

I was still pretty gun shy about playing GEO. So, I hit the Whateley Library instead, but there wasn’t a lot of information available to me in the general magic section. I found one book, but it only had a few paragraphs under the section devoted to illusionary magic. What was available was dismissive toward the theory and seemed to imply it was something evil wizards used, but I didn’t see how using shadow and illusions together could be ‘evil’. Maybe the esteemed, baseline wizard author of the book was a little biased? My old D&D™ books back home had better information about Shadow Magic, but not enough detail and I wasn’t sure if there was a “Plane of Shadow” like the books said.

I needed to get access to the restricted section of the library, but to get access; I needed to finish Introduction to Magic. Much like I had to complete the firearms safety course before I could fire weapons in the ranges, they insisted all students complete the intro course before they could visit the restricted section and I didn’t finish that class until the last day of school. Sadly, further research into Shadow Magic would have to wait until the fall semester started in September.

Maybe I would have to try playing GEO again this summer. I’d just have to be extra careful and watch myself. Who knows, maybe I could find out more about this Shadow Magic stuff and who or what was behind GEO in the process.

With the start of a plan in place, I joined my family downstairs just as Dad finished popping a big batch of popcorn. Both Lindsay and my mom seemed a little surprised by my arrival, but Lindsay looked a little jealous of me for some reason. “Didn’t you wash your hair?”

Based on her tone of voice, she practically accused me of wasting hot water and not washing my hair. Sure, I could’ve told her my secret, but what fun would’ve that been? “Yes, and I even conditioned it. Why?”

“Oh yeah, I never heard you use the hair dryer. So, how did you dry it so fast, hmmm?” Lindsay reached over and ran her fingers through my hair.

I think she was expecting my hair to be greasy or something. The disappointed expression on her face was priceless. Dad pointedly ignored our antics. He had popcorn to burn, but Mom looked on with bemused interest. I think she had a few ideas and knew I wasn’t lying.

Time to let the cat out of the bag. I reached over and wetted my hand with the sink faucet.

“I did it like this.” I said, as I cast my dry cantrip, causing all the surface water on my hand to bead up and fall into the sink, leaving my hand nice and dry. The cantrip couldn’t just make the water disappear or turn it to steam. It had to go somewhere and converting the water into steam would’ve just burned me. Magic might be, well, magic, but it still had to follow a few basic laws of nature, most of the time.

“Wow! That’s too cool!” Lindsay grabbed my hand and inspected it before glancing back to me with her patented puppy dog, pleading expression. “Pleeaase, ple-, ple-, ple-, please, can you teach me how to do that?”

Shifting over to mage sight, I could tell she didn’t have a magic bone in her body. Not even a hint. There were plenty of baseline human wizards. So, she might be able to learn, but it would take her a long time and she would need some sort of magical essence battery to draw power from.

An enchanted item or device could work, but building her something like that was well beyond my current ability. It did give me more research ideas for next year though.

“Sorry,” I actually meant it because I understood how handy the cantrip was, “but I don’t think you use magic.” Her puppy dog eyes began to tear up. “Honest, I’d teach you, but I’m pretty new to magic myself and the way I use magic would be completely different from how you would need to use magic.”

I could tell that she didn’t like my answer and was about to whine. I rushed to stop her. “Hey, I know it’s not what you wanted to hear, but when I start back in the fall, I’ll see what I can do, okay?”

Lindsay excitedly hugged me. “Yay! Thanks sis!”

I still don’t understand how girls can go from happy, to sad and back to happy so fast. I’m a girl and I still can’t figure out what other girls are thinking. Heck, I sometimes have a hard time figuring out why I’m feeling the way I do. Maybe the simple answer is that there is no answer?

Now, all I had to do when I got back to school was learn how teach a muggle, err, non-magical person, how to do magic or better yet, maybe if I could make Lindsay a magic hair dryer instead. It should be a simple magic item, right? It’s not like I’m trying to make a +5 Vorpal Sword or something equally epic. On second thought, it could be hard to make magic items because if it was easy, wouldn’t there be a lot of these so called, ‘simple’ magic items for sale at the local super-store already?

Maybe no one ever thought about it? A girl could make a killing in the beauty products market with something simple like a instant hair dryer charm or better yet, what about an illusionary makeup kit with a few preset looks? Holy cow, I got goose bumps thinking about all the cool things I could do once I got back to school!

Maybe illusions and simple cantrips weren’t all bad?