After David is caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, his entire life changes in ways he never could have expected. This is a fan fiction taking place in the Whateley Universe.

I originally began reading the Whateley stories when they were first being posted on Sapphire's place, but when that site stopped updating, I stopped reading the new stories in the series. About six months ago, I decided to start catching up on what I'd missed in that universe and have become inspired with a few character and story ideas of my own. I had been planning on writing my next Legacy Universe story next, but my muse decided that I should dip my toe in the Whateley waters first.

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Round and Round
By Morpheus

I was curled up on my bed with tears running down my cheeks as my head pounded in agony. This wasn’t a normal headache or even just a migraine, it was a super migraine. Or worse, it was Migrainezilla.

“It’s going to be all right David,” Mom told me as she put a gentle hand on my shoulder and tried to comfort me. “It’s going to be fine honey…”

At any other time, I would have been offended at my Mom treating me like this, as if I was some kind of a little kid who needed to be babied. After all, I was fifteen years old, hardly a little kid anymore. However, this ungodly pressure in my head was enough to make me grateful for any little relief I could get, even if it was only emotional.

Mom stayed with me for a few more minutes, making soft and comforting noises that I didn’t really pay much attention to. Instead, I just kept my eyes closed since the light only made my head hurt even worse. And though it hurt to even think, I couldn’t help but wondering if this was what a hangover felt like. Last New Years, Dad had complained about having a really bad hangover, saying that it was like being sick to your stomach and having the headache from hell at the same time. That was a lot like how I felt at that moment. Eventually, Mom got up and left my room, turning off the light as she did so.

“Is David sick again?” I heard my little sister Becky exclaim from the hallway. I winced at her loud voice, which was painful at the moment.

“Yes Becky,” Mom answered in a quieter voice. “Now let’s be quiet and let your brother rest…”

After that, everything went quiet, for which I was grateful. Sitting in the dark with no noise except for the faint hum of the ceiling fan was not only relaxing, but exactly what I needed at the moment. I knew from past experience, that this was the best way to get the pounding in my head to go away. Half an hour later, Migrainezilla had receded enough so that it was back to the level of a normal headache and it continued to fade away further.

I finally got up and left my room, then went to the bathroom to take a leak. Afterwards, I splashed some cold water on my face and looked into the bathroom mirror. I winced at the image, deciding that I looked like crap. In fact, I probably looked about as bad as Dad did whenever he came home from work after a sixteen hour shift.

Normally, I didn’t look too bad, or at least not compared to any other boy my age. I was a skinny blonde kid with ears that were just a little too large and with a scar across my chin due to an old childhood accident on the playground. I would have preferred to see a little more muscle in the mirror, but what boy wouldn’t.

When I went to the living room, Mom gave me a smile and asked, “Are you feeling better?”

“For now,” I responded bitterly.

My headaches had started about two months ago, first coming every couple days for no apparent reason. They hadn’t been too strong at first either, no more than any normal headache. But then about a month ago, they became more painful as well as more frequent. Now I was suffering from chronic migraines which usually hit me for an hour or so every day. It was agonizing and frustrating since even the prescription medication didn’t do much for them. All I could do was wait for them to go away on their own.

“We have another appointment with the doctor next week,” Mom reminded me, though I doubted it would do much good. During my last visit, I’d gone through an MRI but they hadn’t found anything. The only good thing that had come from it was the confirmation that I didn’t have a brain tumor, which had actually been one of our worries. “Hopefully, the doctors will find something with this round of tests.”

I nodded at that, though not very enthusiastically. My optimism that the doctors would find out what was wrong with me had faded just a little bit with each new migraine. Now, I just dreaded the thought that I’d spend the rest of my life dealing with them. These chronic migraines had already made things pretty difficult on me and had even cost me my position on the school track team. After all, collapsing in pain in the middle of a track meet didn’t exactly make for a good showing.

I was feeling pretty ragged, which wasn’t normal for me, or at least it hadn’t been before these headaches started. I went to the kitchen and began to fix myself an espresso from the fancy machine Dad had bought a couple months ago, but Mom snatched the coffee beans right out of my hand and shook her head ‘no’.

“No caffeine for you,” Mom reminded me with a faint smile. “Have some orange juice instead. It will be better for you.”

“But Mom,” I protested, giving my best whiney voice, though I knew it wouldn’t do much good. This was something of an old exchange and I knew exactly what her response would be.

“You know good and well you’re not allowed to drink this stuff,” Mom pointed out with a sigh. “The last thing I need is to have you bouncing off the walls again. You’re hyper enough without the caffeine.”

I grinned at that and went to pour myself a glass of juice, knowing that once Mom wasn’t paying attention anymore I’d make myself an espresso. By the time I actually sat down with my orange juice and a cookie, I was feeling much better. My headache had receded completely and my energy level was starting to recover, though of course, some caffeine would definitely help speed up the process.

“Good, you’re up,” Becky exclaimed when she saw me sitting there. Then without waiting for an invitation, she snatched one of my cookies and made a show of eating it right in front of me. “Now I don’t have to be quiet.”

Becky stood there with a smug look on her face, making me wonder what she was up to. I had a feeling that she was thinking of ways to get even with me for making her be quiet while I was dealing with my migraine. The fact that I’d already suffered enough probably never even occurred to her. After all, she was only six years old and a bit…precocious. At least, that was what Mom called her. I just called her a brat, though Mom always laughed at that and said she was just like I was at that age.

“Come on,” Becky announced, as though the decision had already been made. “You’re playing tea party with me.”

I gave Becky a suspicious look, knowing that she wasn’t the kind of girl who usually got into tea parties. In fact, she was more of a tomboy than she was a girlie girl, and the last time someone had given her a doll, she’d promptly cut its hair to give it a Mohawk and then used a permanent marker to give it tattoos as well. The doll hadn’t lasted long beyond that before it was dismembered and scattered throughout the house.

After a moment, I shrugged and said, “Sure, why not?” Honestly, I was curious about what my little sister had in mind. If nothing else, she was never boring.

I soon found that when Becky said tea party, she really meant T party…as in Mister T. She had several dolls and stuffed animals which the two of us proceeded to give mohawks to, then we sat around talking like Mister T. It was actually pretty funny, especially when Becky ‘borrowed’ all of Mom’s necklaces, then started going around the house exclaiming, “I pity the fool…”

The look on Dad’s face when he came home was hilarious, especially when he shook his head and muttered, “That’s it… No more A team reruns…”

Dad was a heavyset man, in no small part because of his career as a professional cook. He owned his own restaurant, a small diner that served breakfast and lunch but wasn’t open for dinner. During the summer and weekends, I frequently worked there washing dishes, cleaning tables, and generally doing anything that needed done. Fortunately, Dad did pay me for my work, which was a good thing since I didn’t get an allowance and that was the only way for me to earn money.

“Too bad about those pesky child labor laws,” Dad joked, giving me a broad grin. “Otherwise I’d be able to keep you two out of trouble by putting you to work full time.”

Dad said the same thing fairly often, though I knew he didn’t mean it. Sure, he liked to put me to work to ‘keep me out of trouble’, as he usually put it, but he also believed that kids needed time to be kids. At fifteen, I certainly didn’t consider myself a kid anymore, but this was one of the occasions when I didn’t argue the point. If I did, Dad might decide to increase my work hours and responsibilities.

“So, do you want me coming in with you tomorrow?” I asked Dad nervously.

Dad hesitated just a moment and then glanced to Mom before responding, “Of course.”

Tomorrow was Saturday, one of the busiest days at the diner and I knew Dad would need all the help he could get. Normally, he wanted me there to work, but he was a bit worried about my headaches and didn’t want to put too much stress on me.

Less than an hour later, we were sitting down for dinner, which consisted of a couple pizzas. After Dad spent most of the day cooking, he usually wasn’t in the mood to do even more of it once he got home, which meant that he often got lazy about dinner and either left it for Mom or ordered out. And as we ate, we turned to our normal topic of dinner conversation, what we did during the day.

“I got into a fight at school,” Becky stated proudly. “That meanie Bobby tried pushing me so I hit him.”

“Young ladies don’t get into fights,” Mom told her, though Becky just shrugged it off as she usually did.

“Then I bet he won’t push you again,” I said, encouraging Becky, who just grinned at that. Mom rolled her eyes and Dad chuckled.

Becky nodded enthusiastically, then said, “If Bobby pushes me again, I’ll hit him so hard his head falls off…”

“BECKY,” Mom gasped while Dad and I just tried to keep from laughing.

“I had something weird happen today,” Dad said a minute later. “A mutant came into the restaurant.” There was a clear note of disapproval in his voice.

“A mutant?” Mom asked in surprise.

“Well, he had pointed ears and solid green eyes,” Dad said with a scowl. “And he ate three whole meals…so I’m pretty sure he was a mutant.”

“What did you do?” Mom asked, looking worried.

Dad snorted at that. “I fed him and got him out of there as quickly as I could. I would have kicked him out but I didn’t know what he would have done if he got angry…”

“You should have called the MCO,” Mom stated. “You know how dangerous those mutants are…”

Suddenly, Becky asked, “What’s a mutant?”

Mom and Dad both paused at that to look at Becky. Then Dad carefully answered, “A mutant is someone who is very sick…”

“Like David?” she asked, looking at me and making me wince.

“Absolutely not,” Dad responded firmly. “Mutants have bad DNA…sort of like cancer. It makes them sick…and dangerous to everyone around them.”

“I think it’s all the pollution,” Mom stated. “We never had all these mutants until we started polluting everything. If we cleaned up the environment and everyone took care of their diet, then I’m sure the mutant problem would just go away…”

I rolled my eyes and ate in silence while Mom and Dad complained about the mutant ‘problem’. It was annoying, but I knew from past experience that they’d soon get bored of this subject and move onto something else.

“So, Becky,” I said, deciding to take an active role in changing the subject. “Didn’t you have a new song you wanted to show Mom and Dad?”

Becky grinned at that and immediately began singing, right there at the dinner table. It was an annoying little song and I saw our parents quickly wince, though they struggled to hold fake smiles filled with false appreciation. My sister’s off tune singing hurt my ears as well, but the looks on Mom and Dad’s faces was enough to make up for it. I just wondered how much more effective this would be if I gave Becky an energy drink. Maybe it was time to introduce her to espresso.

After David is caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, his entire life changes in ways he never could have expected. This is a fan fiction taking place in the Whateley Universe.

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I grimaced as I began removing the hot and steaming dishes from the dishwasher, knowing that I had to be quick about it since I had another load that needed to go in. The diner was always busy during the lunch rush, which meant that it was the time of day when I was needed most but least wanted to be here. I much preferred the quieter periods where Dad and his cook Henri would sometimes take the time to give me cooking lessons.

Once I’d finished reloading the commercial dish washer, I leaned against the edge of the sink and let out a sigh. I wiped the sweat from my forehead, looked down at my wet shirt, and was thankful that I’d brought a change of clothes. I just wished that we had a shower here at the restaurant because I felt like I needed one even more than I did after gym class in school.

“David,” Henri called out to me, giving me a flat look. The big hairy man could be pretty intimidating when he wanted to be, especially with his arms all tattooed up. However, I knew that underneath that rough exterior, he was actually as soft and cuddly as a grizzly bear. “If you’ve got time to lean, you’ve got time to clean.”

“Yes sir, mister bossman sir,” I responded, giving him a salute, and intentionally doing a very poor job of it. Henri used to be in the Navy and I liked to mess with him about it a little, though I knew better than to argue and was already moving to do what he told me.

“Smartass,” Henri muttered.

By the time the lunch rush was ending, I was tired and eager to get out of here. However, I didn’t bother complaining since my six hour shift was nothing compared to the hours that Dad worked. In fact, I hadn’t even seen him take a break the entire time I was here. He just kept moving around the kitchen like a man possessed, putting out hamburgers, omelets, and bowls of his spicy chili, as well as numerous other items from the menu.

“I’ve got a job for you,” Dad told me.

I let out a sigh and asked, “Am I gonna need a mop for this one?”

“No,” Dad responded with a chuckle. “Just your feet. I need you to drop the check from that catering job off at the bank on your way home.”

I grinned at that, immediately catching the implication that I was done for the day. I went into the back room and changed into my clean clothes, then came out and poured myself a cup of coffee into a ‘to go’ cup, adding a good amount of cream into the mix. Once I was ready, I grabbed the check and deposit slip from Dad and hurried out the door.

Dad’s diner was downtown, just three blocks away from the bank he used. It wouldn’t be a problem to walk to the bank, and from there I could catch a bus back to our apartment. With my coffee in hand, I began my walk.

The bank was located on the intersection of Main street and Third, occupying the entire bottom floor of a seven story building. I had no idea what other businesses filled the rest of the building, nor did I really care. All I had to do was deposit Dad’s check, then I was done for the day.

As soon as I stepped into the bank lobby, I suddenly felt a pressure forming in my head, one which made me wince at what I knew was coming. This headache wasn’t bad yet, but that was going to change very soon. There was no mistaking the beginnings of one of my migraines.

“Just great,” I muttered in frustration.

While I stood in line, waiting for my turn and silently wishing it would go faster so I could get out of there before my migraine fully formed, I slowly looked around at everyone else present. There was the bored looking security guard who stood near the doors, an obnoxious woman who was loudly complaining to a man who I assumed was her husband, and an overweight guy who was taking his time with the teller. Of course, there were other people as well, some customers and some employees, but none of them really stood out to me.

When I got to the front of the line, I silently handed the teller the check and deposit slip. My headache was really starting to hurt now so I wasn’t in the mood to talk or be friendly. I just wanted to get out of here and back home as fast as I could.

Suddenly, a woman’s voice yelled, “Nobody move!”

I snapped around to see the source of the yelling, as did everyone else in the bank. There was a woman standing at the entrance, one who would have immediately drawn my attention even if she hadn’t said a word.

The woman was about six feet tall with long red hair and a body that was sexy and athletic. The term ‘statuesque’ immediately came to mind. But even more noticeable than all that was the fact that she was wearing a spandex costume that left very little to the imagination. Her costume was red with white trim and covered her entire body from the neck down. The only skin that was visible was on her face, though even that was half covered by the red mask around her eyes.

A moment later, the security guard began to react, but she grabbed him and lifted him off the ground using only one arm. She didn’t even look like she was straining. In the process, the security guard dropped the gun that he’d been in the process of pulling from his holster.

“You can call me Pinball,” the costumed woman exclaimed, casually tossing the security guard towards the center of the lobby, well away from his gun. “This is a robbery. If everyone cooperates, no one will get hurt. I’m only interested in the money, not in any of you. So if everyone will calmly sit down on the floor and remain there without causing any trouble, I’ll get my money and be gone in no time.”

My eyes widened at the realization that the bank was being robbed by some kind of super villain, but strangely enough, I didn’t really feel afraid. My headache had become even worse and had entered into the migraine level, but I wasn’t the least bit scared…or much of anything else.

“I think we should all do what she says,” another woman said.

The new speaker looked like she was in her late twenties and was wearing a gray suit and skirt. She had shoulder length brown hair and a pair of glasses that made me think ‘librarian’.

“I don’t want to get hurt,” the librarian said, sitting down on the floor.

“Everyone sit over there,” Pinball instructed, gesturing to the area around the librarian. Then she turned to one of the tellers and said, “Not you… I want you to load up a bag with money. If there are any dye packs in there, I won’t be happy, and if I’m not happy, you won’t be either. And remember, this isn’t your money and the insurance will recoup the loss.”

I sat down on the floor along with everyone else, wincing as my head pounded worse and worse. I looked around, feeling vaguely surprised at how calm and relaxed everyone seemed. Not a single person looked afraid, much less like they were about to freak out and panic. I’d never been in this kind of situation before, but I would have thought that at least one person would have freaked out.

A minute later, the sound of police sirens could be heard from outside the bank, though the loud noise made my migraine even worse, if that was even possible. Migrainezilla had come back, even worse than it had ever been before. Tears began flowing due to the pain.

“They’re here a little sooner than I expected,” Pinball mused aloud. Then she looked around and said, “Everyone stay where you are and you’ll be safe.”

Pinball went to the glass doors, and for a moment, she was suddenly standing in the middle of what looked like a giant soap bubble. The bubble shimmered and then vanished again, though my headache surged worse and I actually cried out in pain. My head felt like it was about to explode. In fact, my entire body felt like it was on fire, which was something new.

Pinball snapped around and stared at me for a moment, then she abruptly gestured to me and exclaimed, “That’s what you get for staring at me.” She looked around at the other hostages and said, “I warned you all not to cause trouble, now it looks like I’m going to have to teach this kid a lesson.”

With that, Pinball grabbed my arm and lifted me to my feet, then drug me out of the lobby and to some office next door. I was hurting too much to fight her or resist, not that it would have done me any good. I’d seen from how she treated the security guard and how easily she’d lifted me that she was pretty strong.

Once we were in the office, Pinball set me down in a chair with a surprising gentleness, then asked, “Are you all right kid?”

“What did you do to me?” I asked, though it came out weak and shaky.

“I didn’t do anything to you,” Pinball answered, staring at me for a moment before abruptly asking, “What color are your eyes?”

I was surprised by the question, and also having a difficult time focusing because of the pain. I grabbed the sides of my head, as though I could push my migraine back down, or at least keep my head from exploding.

“What color are your eyes?” Pinball repeated.

“Gray,” I finally answered, though I was having a hard time focusing enough to even answer such a simple question as that.

“No they aren’t,” Pinball told me. “And unless I miss my guess, you’re in the middle of manifesting…”

It took half a minute for those words to sink in, and even then I was still feeling confused. “Manifesting?”

“As a mutant,” Pinball responded, giving me a rather gentle smile.

I gasped at that, then protested weakly, “I’m not a mutant…”

“Your eyes are definitely NOT gray,” Pinball told me gently. “And you were starting to glow out there in the lobby. Stressful situations can sometimes trigger a mutant’s manifestation, and I think a bank robbery qualifies. I figured that I’d better get you out of there before anyone realized that you were a mutant. If they did, they’d probably assume you were with me, and I didn’t want that.”

I was trying hard to listen to her words, but I was having a difficult time absorbing them at the moment. My entire body still hurt and my head felt like it was going to explode. Tears were coming down my cheeks and all I wanted to do was curl up and make the rest of the world go away.

“You really don’t look good,” Pinball told me, actually sounding worried. “Damn, I hope you’re not going through a burnout…”

With that, Pinball took off her glove and reached out to feel my forehead. As soon as she touched me, I felt as though I’d been shocked, starting on my forehead and then shooting down all the way to my toes. I let out a scream and would have collapsed to the floor if I hadn’t been sitting in the chair.

“What was that?” Pinball exclaimed, yanking her hand back and staring at it. She scowled and gave me an odd look, saying, “At least you don’t seem to have a temperature, so I don’t think you’re having a burnout.”

I just sat there, feeling dazed but oddly pain free. It was as though that odd shock had somehow released all the pressure in my head, making my headache vanish instantly. I didn’t understand how that was even possible, but I certainly wasn’t about to complain.

“You stay here kid,” Pinball told me. “Out of sight and out of trouble. Once I’m gone, you can tell the cops I roughed you up or something.”

With that, Pinball put her glove back on and left the office. I just watched her leave, feeling confused because that certainly wasn’t how I’d expected a super villain to behave. She’d almost been…nice.

I remained where I was, feeling worried and confused. I didn’t know why I’d felt so calm and unafraid out in the lobby when I was being taken hostage, but that was now gone. It wasn’t Pinball who frightened me at that moment, but it was what she’d said. She thought I was a mutant.

My migraine was completely gone, vanishing faster and more completely than it had ever done before. However, I still didn’t feel right, though I couldn’t quite explain it. All I knew was that I had a strange certainty that something was different.

“My eyes,” I suddenly blurted out in realization. “She said something about my eyes…”

And then, I remembered that Pinball had also said something about me glowing. I looked down at myself and saw no sign of any glowing, much to my relief. Maybe Pinball had imagined it. Or maybe, she was just trying to mess with me for some reason. After all, she was a bank robber and super villain so she didn’t exactly have a lot of credibility.

After a few minutes, I hesitantly got up out of the chair, a little nervous that Pinball would come back and catch me. She had told me to sit there after all. But then again, she hadn’t really seemed worried about leaving me alone.

I looked around the office, smiling when I saw a coffee pot sitting in the corner. I grabbed a paper cup from a stack that was sitting next to the coffee maker, then helped myself to some of the go juice.

“Being a hostage isn’t really that bad,” I mused as I took a drink. I just wondered if it was safe to come out of the office now, though it would probably be best to remain here until the cops came.

Then as I looked around the office, I noticed a purse sitting on the floor next to the desk. I wouldn’t have given it much thought, but I saw a makeup compact sitting right on top. That reminded me again of what Pinball had said about my eyes not being gray.

“She’s full of it,” I told myself, though I reached for the makeup compact anyway. After all, there was only one way to know for sure.

I popped open the compact and looked into the small mirror that I knew would be inside. I couldn’t make out much, but it was enough to see my eyes clearly. And to my surprise, Pinball had been telling the truth. My eyes weren’t gray anymore.

“No way,” I blurted out, adjusting the mirror and trying to get a better look at my eyes.

My eyes...the irises were no longer gray in color. They were golden and almost seemed to glow faintly. I was absolutely stunned by the sight, feeling worried and even more confused.

“I’m not a mutant,” I whispered, my voice shaking. “I can’t be…”

In spite of what my parents thought, I didn’t think that mutants were diseased freaks who were a threat to the human race. After all, there was a girl at school who I’d really liked who was a mutant, not that I’d ever told Mom and Dad that. However, the idea of ME being a mutant… The idea seemed ludicrous.

When Pinball came back into the office a short time later, she musing almost to herself, “There are a LOT more cops out there than I’d expected, and this whole thing has taken longer than I’d planned. I guess getting out is going to be just a little more challenging…”

“What did you do to me?” I demanded, suddenly feeling angry and glaring at her as though this was entirely her fault. In fact, it was her fault. If she hadn’t robbed the bank, none of this would have happened. “What did you do to me? What did you do to my eyes?”

“Like I told you earlier, I didn’t do anything to you,” she told me in an almost gentle tone. “Sorry kid, but you can blame your own DNA for those eyes…and whatever else your body is doing.”

“But I’m not a mutant,” I protested, swinging from angry to terrified again. All I could think of was what Mom and Dad would say if I was. “I can’t be…”

Pinball just stood there for a moment before shaking her head sympathetically. “Sorry kid, but it doesn’t work like that. Whether you like it or not, I’d say you’re probably a mutant…unless you got exposed to alien radiation or something like that.” She chuckled at that. “Either way, it probably isn’t a good idea for you to stick around here.”

My entire body was shaking and I wanted to scream and deny that I could possibly be a mutant. But instead, I picked up my half-finished cup of lukewarm coffee and took a careful sip, trying to act as though I was calm and in control, when the truth was that I was anything but.

“What do you mean?” I asked quietly.

“You’re starting to glow again,” Pinball pointed out. I stared down at my hands and was startled to see that there was a faint golden glow around them, though it stopped a moment later. “Between that and your eyes, it really isn’t safe for you here…”

I gulped at that, remembering what she’d said after she brought me into the office. “You said they might think I was with you…”

“A definite possibility,” Pinball agreed. “And when it comes to mutants, the cops tend to shoot first and ask questions later. However, I think we’ll have worse problems than the cops.”

“Like my parents?” I responded with a weak smile. “Yeah, if they think I’m involved in your robbery, I’ll wish the cops got me first…”

Pinball chuckled at that, then said, “Actually, I’ve been here way too long. It won’t be long before either some super heroes arrive, or worse…the MCO. If it’s the heroes, they may get a little rough with you at first, but you’ll probably be all right. But if it’s the MCO…” She paused at that, her expression turning grim. “Well, if they don’t shoot you on sight, they’ll probably make you disappear.”

I gasped at that, then protested, “But the MCO wouldn’t do that… They’re the good guys…” At least, that TV show about the MCO protecting the public from dangerous mutants always showed them to be the good guys. However, I had heard a few stories and rumors that they tended to get a little…overenthusiastic about taking down mutants.

Pinball just snorted and said, “Trust me kid, you do NOT want to find out what bastards they really are. I’m getting you out of here before that happens. As far as anyone else will know, you’re just some unknown hostage.”

A few seconds later, Pinball left the office and told me to follow her. I didn’t really to go with her, especially since my super power of common sense said that going anywhere with a super villain and bank robber was a very bad idea. However, her talk about my being shot by the cops or MCO had me worried, especially when I thought about my eyes and the way I’d been glowing a minute earlier. After several painful seconds of indecision, I started after her.

“Everyone remain where you are,” Pinball called out to the hostages in the lobby. “The police haven’t come in yet because they’re afraid of you getting hurt, but that won’t last much longer. Don’t worry, I’m going to leave before that happens, but stay there on the floor until the cops come in and you’ll stay safe.”

A moment later, Pinball slung a large backpack full of money onto her back, then grabbed me and made a show of taking me as a hostage. She pulled me, not towards the main entrance like I’d expected, but to an elevator off to the side. Once we were inside the elevator with the doors closed, she let go of me.

“Don’t worry kid,” she told me with a grin. “I’m gonna get you out of here safe and sound.”

I snorted at that and responded, “I might believe that a little more if it wasn’t coming from a bank robber who just took me hostage.”

Pinball chuckled at that and said, “Trust me.”

“As I just said,” I commented, earning another chuckle.

It was strange riding in the elevator with a super villain who had who knows how much stolen money slung over her shoulder. I knew that I should be terrified, and I was, just not of her. Instead, I was afraid of the cops, the MCO, and of what my Mom and Dad would say when they found out about this.

“I am so dead,” I muttered to myself.

“You know kid, you’re being pretty brave about this,” Pinball said when we reached the top floor.

“My name isn’t kid,” I said in annoyance, wishing that she’d stop calling me that. “I’m David. David Michaels.”

“Well…David,” she said with an amused smile. “It’s a good thing you’re coming with me.” She reached out and touched my hair and added, “Your hair is starting to change color…”

“What?” I gasped in surprise, reaching up to touch my hair, though it felt the same.

We got out of the elevator and then Pinball went to the stairway and continued going up, ending up on the roof. I followed behind her, wondering if she was expecting a helicopter to pick her up. Then again, she was a mutant with powers, so she was probably planning to fly out of there.

“Come on,” Pinball urged me, going to the edge of the building and looking over the edge. “Definitely a lot of cops down there.”

I hesitantly looked over the edge and gulped, deciding that it was a long way down, especially without any railings to keep me from falling. However, I did notice that Pinball was right. There were a lot of cops down there. There had to be a dozen cop cars, police vans, and even fire engines surrounding the bank. And that didn’t even take into account the helicopter that hovered in the distance.

“Trust me,” Pinball said, putting her arm around my waist and pulling me close. “And hold on tight.”

With that, Pinball jumped off the building, taking me with her. I let out a scream of terror as we rapidly fell towards the ground, probably sounding like a little girl but not really caring at the moment. I closed my eyes before impact, but then we suddenly stopped…but not the way I’d expected. There was no sudden stop that ended in death, or even any jarring. It was as though we’d simply stopped falling and ignored the laws of physics and inertia.

When I opened my eyes, I saw that we were on the ground right outside the bank. Cops were all over the place and were staring at us in surprise before they began pointing their weapons at us. Then I noticed a shimmering in the air all around us, as though we were both within the middle of a giant soap bubble.

“My force field absorbed the kinetic energy from the fall,” Pinball told me proudly. “And it can do the same to their bullets. They can shoot all they want and it only makes my force field stronger.”

I wanted to blurt out an ‘oh shit’, but my heart was racing too hard and I was too shaken to even speak. It was all I could do to just remain standing and breathing.

“Keep holding onto me kid…David,” Pinball instructed. “Now I’m going to show you why I’m called Pinball.”

A moment later, Pinball and I began moving forward, though neither of us had actually moved. I gasped as I realized that force field bubble we were inside of was actually rolling down the street like a giant ball, though from inside the bubble it didn’t feel like we were moving at all.

“Are you sure you’re not called Hamster Ball?” I joked weakly as I remembered the plastic hamster ball that Becky’s old pet used to roll around the house with.

“Smartass,” Pinball responded.

“And shouldn’t we be tumbling around inside here?” I asked nervously.

Pinball didn’t answer me and instead seemed to be focusing on all the cops and police cars which surrounded us. She grinned and then we suddenly began rolling forward even faster, completely ignoring the fact that the police were shooting at us.

“Oh shit,” I finally blurted out as we went straight for a cop car.

We didn’t slow down or change directions at all, and instead, we continued going faster until we smashed right into the side of the cop car…and kept going. I hadn’t felt any impact when we hit, realizing that it must be more of whatever effects protected us from falling or kept us from tumbling around while we moved.

Just seconds after we’d smashed through the first cop car, we hit a police van and then bounced off, ricocheting and hitting the side of a building before bouncing off again.

“We’re gonna die,” I cried out in terror, though Pinball actually seemed to be enjoying herself.

The force field bubble shot back and forth across the street, bouncing around like we were inside a giant pinball machine while smashing into walls and vehicles as cops jumped out of the way. In half a minute, we’d hit nearly every police car in the vicinity and then changed direction and began rolling down the street at a high speed.

“When I was about your age and first chose my codename,” Pinball said in a casual tone. “I couldn’t really direct my force field and tended to bounce off everything without control. Fortunately, that isn’t the case anymore.”

She proved that by suddenly making a right turn at an intersection and continuing down the street, rolling between cars and even over a few. When there was a large truck in our path, the force field bubble we were inside of actually leapt over the obstacle before hitting the ground and continuing down the road.

“I love my power,” Pinball commented as we bounced over another vehicle in our path. “Its offense, defense, and transportation…all rolled into one.”

I nodded at that, then joked, “It sounds like a well-rounded power.”

Pinball chuckled at that. “It’s been awhile since I heard that one. You really are a smartass.”

“Better than being a dumbass,” I responded, which earned another chuckle.

“I can’t disagree with that,” she told me. “Now that we got away, I’ll drop you off somewhere safe and then I’ll be on my way. I’ll make sure to create enough of a disturbance that they’ll follow me until I can lose them again.”

A minute later, we went into a parking garage and came to a stop. Once we did, the force field bubble vanished and I was once again standing on normal ground. I felt an odd mixture of relief at that, but also disappointment since that ride had actually been pretty fun, once I’d gotten over my terror that is.

“That was the best carnival ride ever,” I joked, trying to cover my nervousness. “You should go work for Six Flags…”

“I’ll think about it,” Pinball told me with an amused look. Then her expression turned serious and she stared at me for a moment before saying, “Be careful kid. Your body is obviously going through some changes, though I have no idea what kind. Just try to keep it as quiet as you can, and avoid the attention of Humanity First or those MCO assholes. Trust me, you don’t want to be outed as a mutant if you can help it, and you especially don’t want those kind of people to notice you.”

“Um…thanks,” I told her awkwardly. “I think.”

“Being a mutant can be really rough,” Pinball told me sadly. “But a lot of good things can come from it too, if you have an open mind. Anyway, I’ve got to get going. Good luck.”

And with that, the force field bubble appeared around Pinball again. She nodded to me, then rolled right back out of the parking garage and down the street to lead any pursuit away from me.

I stood there for a minute, feeling confused about everything that was going on. If it hadn’t just happened to me, I probably would have thought it was the plot from some movie or comic book. I also didn’t know what to think of Pinball. On one hand, she was a super villain and bank robber, but on the other, she’d actually been pretty nice to me.

“My friends are never going to believe I went joy riding with a super villain,” I told myself with a chuckle.

However, that thought also reminded me of one major problem that I still had to deal with. What in the world was I going to tell Mom and Dad?

After David is caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, his entire life changes in ways he never could have expected. This is a fan fiction taking place in the Whateley Universe.

--------------------

“This isn’t fair,” I exclaimed bitterly as I paced back and forth across my small bedroom.

I was feeling cooped up, a little claustrophobic, and very frustrated as I plopped down my bed and let out a loud sigh. With the way Mom and Dad were treating me, you’d think that I was the one who robbed the bank yesterday, not that I was one of the hostages. I felt like I was locked up in jail, though at least in jail I might have had someone else to talk to.

When I’d returned home yesterday, Mom and Dad had been worried, having heard that there was a bank robbery at the Goodkind Bank branch where I’d gone to drop off the check. However, Mom’s next reaction was to demand to know what I’d done with my hair…and then my eyes. And when I’d reluctantly admitted that I might be a mutant, they both stared at me in horror…as though I’d suddenly caught cancer and had become extremely contagious as well. I’d been immediately sent to my room and hadn’t been allowed to come out since, except to use the bathroom. Mom and Dad didn’t even let me come out for dinner or breakfast and had instead brought my food to me, not even coming into my room when they did so.

“This isn’t jail,” I spat out bitterly. “It’s quarantine.” I snorted at that. I didn’t know a lot about mutants and what made them into mutants, but even I knew that they weren’t contagious.

From out in the hallway, I heard Becky exclaim, “But I wanna play with David. I’m BORED…” She emphasized the word ‘bored’ in the way that only little kids could.

“Stay away from David,” Mom told her firmly. “David is sick now…”

“He’s always sick,” Becky protested.

“But this is different,” Mom insisted. “David is dangerous now…to himself and everyone else. I don’t want him to accidentally hurt you…”

There was a long moment of silence before Becky asked, “Is David going to get better?”

“I don’t think he will,” Mom answered her sadly. “But I’ve called some experts to take care of him.”

I let out a gasp at that, wondering what kind of experts Mom meant. Had she called some doctors to come take a look at me, maybe confirm whether or not I really was a mutant? If so, maybe they could help me figure out these weird changes to my body…and tell me if I actually had some powers besides glowing like a night light.

As I’d already discovered at the bank, my eyes and turned into an odd golden color that definitely wasn’t normal. After I’d gotten home, I found that my hair had begun changing color as well. Instead of being blonde like I normally was, my hair was turning red…and growing longer. Since yesterday, almost all of my hair had turned red and had grown at least four inches. I suppose that as far as changes went, that wasn’t really too bad, but I had a feeling there was more to it than that. My entire body felt just a little odd, and every once in awhile I’d feel a strange tingling sensation in one place or another.

At the moment, I felt one of those odd tingles along my arms, and when I scratched at my arms, I was startled to realize that my arm hair was missing. I didn’t have a lot of arm hair, and what I did have was normally light colored and not very visible, but now it was gone entirely.

“I sure hope those doctors can help me,” I said, feeling worried.

A short time later, I heard Mom out in the hallway, saying, “He’s in here…”

“You’re doing the right thing ma’am,” an unknown man responded. “Now stay back and let us handle this. Mutants can be extremely dangerous…”

“What the…?” I gasped in surprise, jumping to my feet and wondering what was going on.

A moment later, my door burst open and an armed man in SWAT gear rushed in, pointing a large weapon straight at me. Two more men who were similarly dressed and armed came in right behind then.

“Don’t move,” the first man yelled. “Hold out your hands mutant…”

I was confused and absolutely terrified, and when I suddenly noticed their uniforms said MCO, I became even more so. I suddenly remembered Pinball’s warnings about what might happen if the MCO knew I was a mutant and nearly shit my pants. I quickly raised my hands so they wouldn’t shoot me, then realized that I was starting to glow with a golden light again, just like I’d done at the bank.

Suddenly, one of the men shot me with some kind of taser which sent a surge of pain through my entire body. I screamed while having some kind of seizure before all my muscles seemed to turn to jello and I collapsed to the ground like a rag doll, unable to even move.

“Damn mutant freak,” one of them exclaimed as he kicked me in the face. There was an explosion of pain in my nose and lip and I immediately tasted blood. “Don’t even think of trying to use your powers on us…”

The other two men gave me swift kicks as well, catching me in my stomach and side. I would have tried curling up into a ball to protect myself, but my muscles still weren’t responding so all I could do was lay there sobbing as they kicked me and then roughly cuffed my hands behind my back. Then they each gave me one more kick before dragging me to my feet.

“It’s always good to get them early,” one of the men told the others. “They don’t know their own powers and are a lot easier to take into custody.”

With that, the three men proceeded to drag me out of my room and down the hall. I couldn’t move enough to resist at all, much less actually put up a fight. I had little doubt that even if I had been able to move, it wouldn’t have done any good. These men had real weapons as well as the taser and I suspected they wouldn’t hesitate to use them.

“David,” Becky cried out in the living room, crying and trying to get to me though Mom held her firmly back. “David…”

“These men are making sure David won’t be able to accidentally hurt anyone,” Mom told my sister sadly. She actually had tears running down her cheeks as she stared at me, saying, “I’m sorry David…but this is for the best.”

I wanted to scream and cry out at this betrayal, of my own Mom turning me over to these people like this. However, I still couldn’t move or do anything except gurgle incomprehensively while tears ran down my cheeks. Mom turned away so she didn’t have to look at me, taking a bawling Becky out of the room with her. That sight was enough to hurt me even more than the kicks had.

Dad wasn’t there at the moment, having gone to work at the diner the same as every other Sunday. The fact that his only son had turned into a mutant wasn’t a good enough reason for him to stay home from work. As Mom turned her back on me, I desperately wondered what Dad would have done if he’d been here. Would he have defended me from these MCO guys, or would he have let them take me the same way Mom had? Since I knew that he felt the same way about mutants that she did, he’d probably been part of the decision to call them in the first place.

“Thanks for helping us get this dangerous mutant off the streets before he can hurt anyone,” one of the MCO agents told Mom as they hauled me out the door. “We’ll make sure to take good care of him.”

“Come on kid,” one of the other men told me in a mocking tone. “We’re gonna take you to a nice comfy resort…” All three of the men laughed at that.

Just then, another apartment door opened and Mister Harris stepped out into the hallway, scowling and looking pissed. He was a grumpy guy who never seemed to like anyone else, but he was a neighbor whom I’d known for more than a year. As soon as I saw him, I felt a pressure in my head, similar to the one I felt right before my headaches started, though this time it was different…more mild. This also suddenly made me realize just how often my headaches started when going to or from the apartment, and while I was walking down this very hallway.

“What the hell is going on out here?” Mr. Harris demanded angrily. “You’re making a damn racket…”

“We’re dealing with a threat to public safety,” one of the men told Mr. Harris. “Everything is fine now…”

However, instead of looking relieved, Mr. Harris stared at them with a sudden look of fear on his face. “MCO,” he gasped, his expression turning into one of near panic as he yelled, “Fucking bastards…” With that, my neighbor’s eyes began to glow and a ball of fire appeared in his hands.

“He’s a mutant,” one of the MCO agents exclaimed, opening fire and shooting Mr. Harris. However, it was immediately obvious that he wasn’t using a taser this time since Mr. Harris was thrown back with big bloody holes all through him. The ball of fire vanished from his hand and he lay on the hallway floor, no longer moving.

“Two mutants in the same place,” the MCO agent who’d talked to Mom said, sounding grim. “Who knows how many more there are hiding here. We’ll have to let headquarters know to keep an eye on this place…just in case.”

I was shocked to discover that Mr. Harris was a mutant, or at least to have found out like this. At the same time, I was horrified at the way he’d just been gunned down in front of me, and I couldn’t help but feeling guilty. The MCO was here because of me, so if I hadn’t started manifesting as a mutant, Mr. Harris never would have been killed. If I hadn’t already been crying before, this would have been enough to make me do so.

A couple minutes late, the MCO agents took me out to the parking lot and threw me into the back of an armored truck. I was able to move again, at least enough to wiggle my fingers and toes but not much else. However, I was recovering quickly, not that it would do me much good. They actually put metal shackles on my wrists, ankles, and waist, then chained me to the sides and floor of the armored truck. Even after everything they’d done to me, I was shocked to be given such treatment, as though I was some dangerous serial killer or super villain.

Once I was secured, the MCO agent who’d shot Mr. Harris stood in front of me with a satisfied look on his face. “It was one of your kind who killed my sister,” he told me in an almost casual tone. “At least you’re one mutant who will never have the chance to hurt innocent humans.”

Then he punched me twice, once in my face and once in my stomach. I grunted in pain and doubled over while my kidnapper stepped out of the armored car and closed the metal door behind him. A pair of small lights on the ceiling kept me from being left in the dark.

It didn’t take long before the armored care began to move, and I knew that it wasn’t traveling alone. Before they’d shoved me in the back, I’d seen a car that had been parked beside it, one that had MCO markings on the door, the same as what had been painted on the side of the armored car.

Physically, I was extremely uncomfortable, hurting from the punches and kicks and feeling chafed from the manacles that bound me. But as much as my body hurt, that was absolutely nothing compared to how I felt inside. I sobbed like a baby, remembering the look on Mom’s face as they took me away.

“Why?” I pleaded aloud. “What did I do wrong?”

It wasn’t my fault that I was a mutant…that my body was changing like this. It scared the hell out of me, but instead of helping me when I needed them most, my parents had turned me over to these thugs. I didn’t know what the MCO intended for me, but I was certain that it wasn’t anything good.

There were no windows in the back of the truck and I had nothing to help me tell where I was going or exactly how long I’d been chained up back there. My body didn’t really hurt anymore, though I did grow even more uncomfortable as I desperately wanted to stretch out and move.

I cried for the first half hour or so, then my tears seemed to run out and I just sat there feeling numb and hopeless. I was in shock, hardly able to believe what was happening to me, and I kept thinking that any minute I’d wake up screaming, only to discover this had all been a bad dream. Unfortunately, I knew full well that wasn’t going to happen.

I’d been in the back of the truck for what I’d guessed was between two to three hours when there was suddenly a massive jarring sensation. I couldn’t see what was going on, but it was obvious that something had hit the truck. Seconds later, it came to a sudden stop and I would have been thrown around if I hadn’t been chained in place.

Since I had no other choice, I remained where I was, burning with curiosity about what was going on. Then after several minutes, the door opened and a familiar figure stood there.

“Hey kid,” Pinball greeted me with a smile. “Are you ready to get out of here?”

I stared at her in surprise and a little confusion before nodding enthusiastically. Pinball stared at me for a moment with an odd look before coming into the truck and unlocking my shackles. She must have gotten the key from the MCO agents, but I couldn’t imagine that they’d give it up easily.

“Come on,” Pinball told me, helping me up and out of the truck.

Once I was out of the truck, I noticed the MCO car a short distance away, sitting upside down with the side smashed in. It looked like they’d taken a direct hit from Pinball, and I really wished I could have seen that.

“Stand and deliver,” a man exclaimed.

I snapped around in fear, only to see someone who was obviously not one of the MCO agents. He was wearing some kind of really old fashioned white trenchcoat with a high collar that obscured the lower half of his face, and he wore a white tricorner hat which helped to hide the rest of his features. In each hand, he held what looked like some kind of ray gun.

The man in white was so distracting that it took me a moment to realize that one of the MCO agents was on his knees in front of him, obviously having been taken captive. Another MCO agent was on the ground a short distance away, barely moving at all.

“Thank you for your assistance, Highwayman,” Pinball told the man in white. “I knew this kind of thing was right up your alley.”

“It is always my pleasure to assist a beautiful woman,” Highwayman responded, removing his hat and giving a bow.

“I’m sure the money I’m paying you doesn’t hurt either,” Pinball said wryly.

“Money does provide a certain motivation,” Highwayman agreed. “But I would almost have helped you against these MCO dogs for free.”

Pinball chuckled at that and pointed out, “Almost.”

Highwayman turned his attention to me, staring at me for a moment before saying, “Rescues are not within my normal repertoire, but I am happy to have made an exception for today.”

“Um…thank you,” I told him. “And thank you,” I said to Pinball, feeling a strange mixture of relief, nervousness, and confusion. After all, she was a super villain and she’d just rescued me from the people I’d always thought of as the ‘good guys’.

“Until next we meet,” Highwayman told Pinball, giving her another bow and adding, “And if you should ever need my services again…”

“I know where to send the payment,” she responded.

With that, Highwayman climbed onto a strange looking motorcycle that was painted all white. It was one of those crotch rocket types of bikes, at least in basic design, but it didn’t look like any bike I’d ever seen before. For one thing, it looked extremely high tech. But before I could get more than a quick look at the bike, Highwayman rode off.

“Now let’s get out of here,” Pinball announced.

Suddenly, there was a loud gunshot, followed instantly by massive pain in my shoulder. I let out a loud scream and dropped to my knees, grabbing my shoulder which hurt like hell and was sticky with blood.

Then I saw the source of my pain, an MCO agent who’d climbed out of the upturned car, though he was still on the ground with a handgun pointed straight at me. He was the same one who’d killed Mr. Harris…and who’d hit again once I was chained up inside the armored car.

“I won’t let you get away,” the MCO agent exclaimed with a look of grim determination.

“No,” I cried out, clenching my eyes shut and bracing for the shots that were sure to come. I heard two more gunshots, but didn’t feel any of them hitting me. I hesitantly opened my eyes and gasped in surprise. “What the…?”

There was a golden colored haze surrounding me in every direction, though a moment later, I realized that it was a force field bubble exactly like the one Pinball had used to get us away from the bank. There was one major difference, that one had been completely transparent and a little shimmery, looking like a soap bubble. The one surrounding me now was transparent, but definitely had a golden color. A moment later, the bubble vanished.

“Asshole,” Pinball exclaimed, holding the MCO agent up with one hand and glaring at him furiously. “And you people call me a villain.” And with that, she tossed him into the back of the armored truck, hard enough that he was going to have some good bruises and possibly even a broken bone or two. Then she locked the door on him and spat out, “MCO…”

I held onto my bloody and aching shoulder, feeling weak and dizzy as I stood back up again. “Thank you for saving me again,” I told Pinball.

“That one wasn’t me, kid,” she responded, staring at me with a look of surprise.

I stared back at her for a moment, feeling confused and wondering what she meant. Then I collapsed to the ground and everything went dark.

After David is caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, his entire life changes in ways he never could have expected. This is a fan fiction taking place in the Whateley Universe.

--------------------

When I woke up, I was lying in bed, though it obviously wasn’t a hospital bed, just as I was clearly not in a hospital room. The room was only a little bigger than my bedroom and there was a dresser in the corner, but no other furniture or decorations. It struck me that this looked like a guest bedroom.

I slowly sat up in bed, feeling confused and worried. The twinge of discomfort from my shoulder reminded me that I’d been shot, right after being rescued by a super villain. If it hadn’t been for the pain in my shoulder, I might have thought it had all been a nightmare.

After a moment, I hesitantly reached up to my shoulder, which had a bandage on it but it didn’t hurt nearly as much as I would have expected. Instead of a sharp pain, it was more of a dull ache, and not even a really bad one.

I tossed the rest of the covers aside and saw that I was wearing my underwear and nothing else. Of course, a doctor would have had to take off my shirt to look at my wound, and my pants might just have gotten blood on them. Or maybe it was just more convenient to remove them before putting me in bed.

“Where am I?” I muttered, absently brushing my hair back out of my face. Then I paused in surprise, realizing that my hair had grown even longer.

After a minute, I slowly climbed out of bed, feeling extremely odd. Something was definitely off with my body, even more than before the MCO had taken me. I looked around for my clothes so I could get dressed, and though I didn’t see any sign of them, I did see a bathroom that was attached to the room. Since I definitely needed to empty my bladder, I decided that this should be my first priority.

I staggered into the bathroom and went to take a piss, but when I pulled down my underwear I was caught my surprise. Little David, which I’d always thought of as being a little bigger than average, though that may have just been hopeful thinking, was noticeably smaller than normal. In fact, it was only half as big as it normally was.

“What the hell?” I blurted out in shock.

Was this part of the way my body had already been changing, or was this something else? Having my eyes and hair change color was one thing, but this was going too far. There was no way in hell I was going to accept this. If the guys in the school locker room saw me like this, I’d be stuck with the humiliating nickname of Tiny Dick.

In spite of my equipment somehow having been shrunk in the wash, I still finished taking my piss. It was then that I began looking over the rest of my body to see if anything else had changed. Unfortunately, it was clear that my body had indeed changed more while I was out of it, though it was difficult to put my finger on anything specific. It was just that my skin somehow seemed softer and smoother, and my body shape just seemed…off.

“This isn’t good,” I whispered, my voice shaking and sounding a little odd to my ears.

I poked my chest, which was not only softer than normal but somewhat puffy as well. Was I putting on weight? I didn’t seem quite as skinny as normal, though I certainly didn’t look like I was getting fat either, at least not anywhere else.

After I’d finished looking myself over, I turned to wash my hands in the sink and then paused to gasp again. When I’d been looking over my body for changes, I hadn’t thought to check my face.

The face that stared back from the mirror was my face, but at the same time, it wasn’t. My eyes were still the same golden color as they’d been before the MCO took me, but other details just seemed a little off. My ears no longer seemed too large and my nose appeared to have become a little smaller as well. In fact, most of my face just didn’t seem quite right, though I had a hard time pointing any other specifics.

I’d already known that my hair had changed color and had grown longer, so I wasn’t surprised to see that my hair was now shoulder length and had turned almost entirely red. It wasn’t bright red like a fire engine or the orange color hair that a lot of people called red, but it was a deeper and richer red…almost the exact same color that Pinball had. The only exception was that I had a single lock of hair in the front that remained blonde, but even that had changed color. Instead of my normal dull blonde, that lock of hair had become a golden blond.

“No way is that me,” I whispered.

With my hair like that, it almost looked like a girl was staring back at me from the mirror. In fact, it looked a lot like a girl was staring back at me, one who could have almost been cute.

I turned away from the mirror, feeling angry, scared and confused. I reminded myself that as weird as this was, I still had bigger problems. When I remembered the way my Mom had turned me over to the MCO, I even began crying again.

“I can’t go back,” I whispered in realization. How could I possibly go home after my Mom had done that? I’d actually escaped from the MCO, and I had no doubt that they’d want me back. Pinball and Highwayman might have been the ones who actually broke me out, but my escape would have to be an embarrassment to them nonetheless. “Oh shit. I am so screwed…”

After I left the bathroom, I found my pants and sitting on the floor next to the foot of the bed, but there was no sign of my shirt. I wasn’t surprised at that since it must have been pretty messy with all the blood. I shuddered at that, suddenly wondering why my shoulder didn’t hurt more.

When I put my pants on, I was a little surprised to find that they didn’t fit quite right. They’d been a perfect fit before, but now they felt too loose in my crotch and too tight in other places. My shoes were about the same, pinching my feet as though they’d suddenly shrunk a size.

A minute later, the door opened and a woman stepped inside. She was tall, athletic, and stacked…having a totally killer body. And though Pinball was wearing jeans and a T-shirt instead of her costume, there was absolutely no mistaking who this was…mask or no mask.

“How are you feeling, kid?” she asked me carefully.

“I have a name,” I protested in annoyance.

“Okay…David,” she responded with an amused look. “Now, how are you feeling?”

“Weird,” I admitted, feeling self-conscious about how my body was changing. “And a little sore…” I touched my shoulder.

Pinball nodded at that, then said, “I’d expect no less, considering the circumstances. She stared at me for a moment with an odd expression, probably because of how much I’d been changing in such a short time. Then she came over and said, “Let me check your wound…”

After Pinball removed the bandages, I stared at my shoulder and was surprised to see that there wasn’t a hole where I’d been shot, only a scar. I gasped and felt it, finding that it was a bit tender but otherwise healed.

“How…?” I started in surprise, then looked at Pinball. “Did you do this…?”

“No,” she answered with a faint smile. “You did. I was taking you to get some medical attention when I realized your wound was healing on its own. Congratulations, it looks like you’re a regenerator.”

“A regenerator?” I asked blankly.

“It means you regenerate from injuries,” she explained patiently. “You heal extremely fast. Regeneration is one of my powers too and its saved my life more times than I can count.”

“No way,” I exclaimed, feeling my shoulder again and suddenly thinking that maybe being a mutant wasn’t all bad.

“At the rate you’re healing,” Pinball continued, “in a few more hours, you won’t even have a scar.” Then she reached out and hesitantly touched my hair. “And from the way you’re changing, I’d guess you’re probably an exemplar as well.”

I gave her another blank look and asked, “Okay, and what does that mean?”

Pinball let out a sigh and gave me a sympathetic look. Then she smiled again, though it seemed just a little forced. I wasn’t sure I liked the look of that.

“Being an exemplar is a fairly common mutant ability,” Pinball explained patiently. “It means you have a BIT…a Body Image Template. Think of it as a blueprint for your body. A lot of times your BIT is created by your subconscious as an idealized version of yourself, but sometimes, it seems a lot more random than that. A lot of exemplars end up looking almost impossibly beautiful, like photo touched supermodels…or better.”

There was a note of pride in her voice, so I said, “Let me guess…you’re an exemplar.” She was certainly beautiful enough to fit that description. She looked something like an idealized aerobics instructor or fitness model.

“An exemplar four,” Pinball answered with a grin. “Most exemplars get some degree of enhanced strength and stamina along with the looks, sometimes even enhanced mental abilities. I’m stronger than I look.”

I nodded at that, remembering how she’d lifted the security guard at the bank up with one hand, and she hadn’t even looked like it had taken much effort. And then she’d easily manhandled…womanhandled the MCO agent who’d shot me.

“After you were injured,” Pinball told me with a serious look, “your body started changing more quickly. I’m pretty sure your regen is healing your body according to your new BIT, which is fairly common for exemplars with regen abilities.”

I was feeling a little overwhelmed at the moment and wasn’t sure what to think. All this talk about exemplars and regeneration sounded kind of interesting, but it was difficult to believe that either applied to me.

“Does that mean I’m gonna be handsome with big muscles?” I asked with a nervous smile.

Pinball gave me a sympathetic look, then became evasive as she answered, “I’m not sure that’s the direction your BIT is taking you.” Before I could ask what she meant, she quickly continued, “How about I get you a new shirt, then we get something to eat.”

It wasn’t until she mentioned getting something to eat that I realized how hungry I was. As if agreeing with Pinball, my stomach chose that very moment to rumble.

I stared at Pinball, suddenly realizing that I was standing in front of this gorgeous woman without having a shirt on. I felt extremely self-conscious as well as confused. After all, she was a super villain…but she’d saved me.

“Um…thank you for saving me, Miss Pinball,” I said, still not sure why she’d done it.

“I don’t exactly hear that very often,” she responded with a chuckle. Then she added, “And you can call me Jackie when I’m out of costume.

“Jackie?” I repeated, surprised that she’d give me her name like that. She barely knew me.

“I do have a real name you know,” Pinball…Jackie told me with another chuckle. “Jaqueline Martin. My parents didn’t name me Pinball when I was born…”

“But aren’t you afraid I’d tell someone?” I asked suspiciously. “I mean, the whole secret identity thing…”

Jackie stared at me for a moment and then burst out laughing. “The police already have my real name on record, so don’t worry, this isn’t one of these things where I can’t let you leave because you know too much.”

Admittedly, I did feel a little relieved at that assurance. Jackie left the room and came back a minute later with a sweater I could wear. I was pretty sure it was actually hers, but since it wasn’t pink or some other girlie color, I didn’t complain.

We went down the hallway to the dining room, where I found another woman there, setting a large plate full of pancakes onto the table. She was in her late twenties, had shoulder length brown hair, and wore a pair of glasses. There was also something familiar about her, though it took me several seconds before I remembered where I’d seen her before.

“You were at the bank,” I exclaimed, recognizing her as the woman who’d told all the hostages to cooperate with Pinball, the one who’d made me think ‘librarian’.

“As were you,” she responded in a pleasant voice. “Though you look different…”

“I think the kid is an exemplar,” Jackie said. Then she gave me an amused look and said, “I think DAVID is an exemplar. We’ve already confirmed that he’s a regenerator.”

“Both would be useful,” the woman commented, giving me a curious look.

Jackie gestured to the woman and said, “This is my partner Emily.” From the way the two of them looked at each other, I didn’t think she meant just ‘business’ partners.

All three of us sat down at the table, though I eyed the enormous amount of food that was already sitting on the table. There were enough pancakes for a dozen people, as well as more sausages than three people could possibly eat. I was surprised when Jackie began loading up her plate until it was nearly overflowing with food.

Jackie noticed me looking and explained, “I’m an energizer as well as an exemplar, and most energizers have enormous appetites.”

I didn’t bother asking her what an energizer was. If being an exemplar was what made her beautiful and strong, I assumed that being an energizer had something to do with her force field.

To my surprise, I found myself eating a lot more than normal as well. Jackie noticed my embarrassment as I helped myself to more food, then said that it was probably because my body needed more energy to fuel both my healing and my physical changes.

“From what Jackie says, that was quite an injury,” Emily said in her calm and quiet voice. “It’s a good thing you have regeneration or you might have lost the arm or bled to death.”

I nodded at that, then in my best English accent, which was still pretty bad, I joked, “Tis just a scratch.”

Emily had a faint smile while Jackie actually chuckled at that. “Monty Python references are always appreciated.”

I couldn’t resist chuckling as well, thinking that this had to be the most surreal meal of my life. Here I was, eating pancakes for dinner with a gorgeous super villain, who was surprisingly normal.

Then I looked to Emily, who seemed nice, quiet, and completely normal. However, since she seemed to be the girlfriend of a super villain, there was obviously more to her than met the eye.

As I watched Emily, I realized that I could feel the faint pressure in my head, the same one that had always preceded my headaches, or at least a milder form of that pressure. Ever since that explosive migraine at the bank, the pressure had come several times, but it hadn’t gone any further than this.

I frowned as I remembered the pressure coming when I saw Mr. Harris, though it quickly faded away after his death. I’d felt it again when I saw the Highwayman, though it had vanished almost as soon as he had. And now, I was feeling it again.

“Are you a mutant too?” I abruptly asked Emily.

“Yes,” she admitted pleasantly, acting as though it wasn’t an unusual question at all. From the tone of her voice, I might as well have asked her if she owned a car. “I’m a projective empath. I can make people feel certain emotions.”

I stared at her for a moment as something clicked in my mind. “Like making them feel calm and cooperative when they should be pissing their pants?”

Emily smiled at Jackie and said, “He’s a sharp one.”

“Are you a super villain too?” I asked her, feeling a little nervous. Since she’d obviously helped with the bank robbery by providing crowd control, I thought the answer was obvious.

“No,” Emily responded with a faint smile as she adjusted her glasses. “I’m a paralegal. But I do sometimes try to make things go smoother so no one gets hurt.”

“And please don’t call me a villain,” Jackie added, looking a little annoyed. “Admittedly, the law and I are not exactly on speaking terms, but I have never once gone on a killing spree or tried taking over the world.”

“She might be a criminal,” Emily told me, “but that doesn’t necessarily mean she’s a villain.”

I just nodded at that, not bothering to argue with them. As far as I knew, using a costume and super powers to commit crimes was the definition of a super villain, but it would be rude to correct my hosts, especially after Jackie had saved my life.

“Why did you come save me?” I finally asked Jackie. “I mean, you told me why you helped me in the bank, but why did you save me from the MCO?”

Jackie was silent for a moment before answering. “Because I’m partly responsible for you being there… If I hadn’t come to that bank, you probably wouldn’t have manifested right then and there. After we left, I realized that the video cameras probably caught your glowing act…and anyone watching might have realized that I wasn’t the cause. I didn’t want them coming after you, so I kept an eye on you to make sure you really were safe.” She paused at that and gave me a wry smile. “I couldn’t let the MCO make you disappear. I’ve seen them get away with that crap too many times.”

“Thanks again for saving me,” I said quietly, trying not to think about how I’d gotten into the MCO’s custody. That was too painful to think about. Then I grinned at Jackie and told her, “The way you put that force field around me so I couldn’t get shot again was pretty awesome…”

“That was pretty awesome,” Jackie agreed with an odd smile. “But I didn’t have anything to do with that one. That one was all you.”

“What?” I asked in surprise.

“Exemplar packages, regeneration, force fields, and you even have the same hair color,” Emily pointed out thoughtfully. “It seems you two have a lot in common.”

Jackie stared at me intently for several very long seconds before she carefully said, “You’re right… That is a LOT of coincidence.”

After David is caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, his entire life changes in ways he never could have expected. This is a fan fiction taking place in the Whateley Universe.

--------------------

I woke up in Jackie’s guest bedroom for the second time, though this time I’d actually stayed the night there rather than just napping for a few hours. I was still trying to wrap my head around the idea that I was staying as the guest of a mutant super villain, and that instead of some kind of secret lair, she had a very nice house in the suburbs.

Emotionally, I was a bit of a mess. I alternated between feeling numb, confused and scared, about being a mutant, about what my own Mom had done to me, and about what kind of future I could possibly have. In the blink of an eye, everything had changed and I didn’t even know who I was anymore.

I tried not to think about any of that stuff as I went to the bathroom to relieve myself. However, when I went to take a piss, I was suddenly confronted with the other thing I’d been trying very hard not to think about…my physical changes.

“No,” I cried out, grabbing hold of Little David, though there wasn’t much to grab anymore. My equipment had shrunk yesterday but now it was even smaller. There was just a small nub left of my once proud penis. “I’m the size of a toddler…”

For several minutes, I just stood there with my hand on my junk, feeling as though I was about to start hyperventilating at any moment. And my penis wasn’t the only thing that had changed down there. My testicles felt…empty, like all I had was an empty sack of skin with nothing left inside.

“No freaking way,” I snarled, using anger to push my fear and confusion back a little. “I thought exemplars were supposed to be better looking…”

I finished peeing as fast as I could, though I couldn’t really aim very well and ended up spraying a little off to the side. I used a wad of toilet paper to clean it up, muttering a few profanities as I did so. This whole mutant thing was getting worse and worse.

“What next?” I demanded to whatever god was messing with me. “Am I going to go bald and get a pot belly too?”

However, I realized the irony of that since my changes seemed to be going in the opposite direction. If anything, my hair had grown a few more inches during the night, and my waist, which had always been thin, was still flat but seemed to have become more firm and toned.

Then I turned to wash my hands in the sink but froze to gape at my reflection in the mirror. My eyes went wide at the sight of a girl staring back at me. A girl with red hair and golden eyes.

“No way,” I gasped, grabbing hold of the edges of the counter to keep from falling over.

Yesterday, I’d noticed my face was changing and I’d even though I was starting to look a bit girlie, though I’d tried very hard not to think about that afterwards. Denial and avoidance were powerful tools when it came to dealing with something that was both frightening and confusing. Unfortunately, they were tools that could only work for so long before I was forced to confront the truth.

“I’m turning into a girl,” I said, my voice shaking and sounding odd to my own ears.

There was even less of my own face present than before, and then I had to really look for it. Instead, I looked like a pretty girl who was only a tiny bit boyish.

My chest was now swollen with soft tissue pushing out a bit on both sides. Now that I knew what to look for, it was obvious that I actually had a small pair of breasts, maybe A cups. Even my nipples looked bigger.

“No,” I whispered as I looked myself over, realizing that all of the changes in my body were now pointing to the same thing. I was looking softer and more feminine, developing the curves and body shape of a girl. Even my skin had gotten into the act, becoming soft and smooth. “I can’t be turning into a girl…”

I staggered out of the bathroom and plopped back down on the bed, feeling badly shaken by the realization of how I was changing. Before I’d even realized it, I’d curled up into a ball and was crying.

A few minutes later, the bedroom door opened and Jackie came in, announcing, “Good morning…” Then she froze at the door and abruptly called out, “Emily…”

“What is it?” Emily asked as she came into the room. Then she took one look at me and gasped, “Oh…”

Suddenly, all that fear and confusion faded away and I found myself feeling calm and relaxed instead. I slowly sat up and looked at Emily, who was obviously using her power on me.

Once again, I felt that faint pressure in my head, the same one I felt every time I got close to Emily. In fact, ever since the bank, I felt that pressure anytime I got close to any mutant, except for Jackie. But now that I was thinking about it, I realized that I did feel something similar when I was near Jackie, but it was much fainter.

“Are you okay, kid?” Jackie asked me, looking a little worried. “David.”

“No,” I responded after a moment, finding it odd to feel so calm when I knew I should be in the middle of freaking out. “I’m turning into a girl…”

Jackie and Emily shared a look that suggested they already knew this. Of course, they must have recognized the signs yesterday, well before I had. That would certainly explain why Jackie had been so evasive when I’d asked if I was turning into some kind of Adonis.

My sense of calm vanished and my other emotions quickly returned, but that short break from them had snapped me out of the funk I was in for the moment. I was scared and confused, but I wasn’t freaking out anymore, at least not too badly.

“You knew,” I accused them, my voice shaking and sounding odd to my ears. In fact, my voice sounded almost like a girl’s voice.

“I suspected,” Jackie admitted after a moment, giving me a sympathetic look. “I’ve seen the process before…of an exemplar turning from a guy to a girl, though that time it took a couple months to change this much.”

“Was that…you?” I asked curiously.

Jackie chuckled at that, then told me, “No, I’ve always been female. But before my mutation manifested, I was short, fat, had heavy freckles, and curly orange hair I couldn’t do anything with.”

“You’re a changeling,” Emily said, giving me a sympathetic look. “We had a couple changelings in our dormitory back when we were going to school.”

I stared at Jackie, trying to imagine her looking like she described but failing. I couldn’t imagine her looking any different than she did now.

“You said that most exemplars become idealized versions of themselves,” I pointed out, feeling as though she lied to me.

“A lot of exemplars do,” Jackie said with a sigh. “But not all. Are you sure you aren’t a transsexual?” At my glare, she shrugged. “No one understands it completely, but a lot of exemplars seem to create their BIT off some subconscious ideal, but sometimes your BIT makes no sense at all.”

“How do I stop this?” I demanded, anger and fear creeping into my voice. “How do I turn this exemplar thing off and change back?”

“You can’t,” Emily said quietly. “If anyone knew how to do that, a lot of mutants with GSD would be lining up for the cure.”

I didn’t bother asking what GSD was, nor did I fully believe her answer. Still, Jackie was nodding agreement so the two of them both seemed to think that there was no way of undoing this. I wasn’t accepting that yet and was going to have to ask an expert, if I could find one. The truth was, I had absolutely no idea where I could find a doctor who knew about mutants.

“I know you don’t want to hear this,” Jackie told me, “but you’ll probably finish changing in just a day or two. Most exemplars wouldn’t change this fast, not unless they’re a high level exemplar or have regeneration to speed the process.”

“Lucky me,” I responded bitterly, feeling the tears come again.

“For now,” Emily said carefully. “I suggest we get something to eat, and then we can talk about what comes next.”

“And maybe afterwards, we can try figuring out your powers a little more,” Jackie added thoughtfully, giving me an odd look. “That force field you threw up has me curious.”

Breakfast was much like dinner had been last night, with Jackie eating an enormous amount of food. All I could do was watch in amazement as she consumed almost twice what my entire family would in one meal. And as with last night, my own appetite surprised me as well.

“I’m an energizer,” Jackie told me when she noticed me watching her pile up a third plate of food. “And from what I saw yesterday, you might be too.”

“Needless to say, we have a VERY large food bill,” Emily pointed out, sticking her tongue out at Jackie. Jackie just grinned, stuck her own tongue out back, then went back to eating.

“Is that…is that why you rob banks?” I asked Jackie quietly.

Jackie was silent for a moment, her expression turning grim. “One reason,” Jackie answered carefully. “I do have a lot of expenses and I can’t earn the money to pay them legally. If it helps, I’m not a killer and I always try to avoid hurting anyone.”

“I usually avoid getting involved in her work,” Emily said with a faint smile. “But occasionally I will, just to minimize the chance of anyone getting hurt by accident.”

“I’m certainly no saint,” Jackie continued, “but I usually only hit people who deserve it.”

“The bank deserved it?” I asked, more than a little skeptical of that. I snorted my clear doubt.

“The people who work there probably didn’t,” Jackie admitted, “but the bank is owned by the Goodkind family. They’re notorious mutant haters and huge supporters of the MCO. I don’t feel the least bit guilty for going after their money and reputation.”

I just nodded at that, still feeling pretty skeptical. It was obvious that Jackie was using my recent experience with the MCO to try coloring my vision about her activities, but maybe she did have a point anyway. I used to think the MCO were the good guys, but now I wasn’t so sure. Maybe the guys who took me weren’t following the rules. Maybe the rest of the MCO really was like that TV show and these guys had just been exceptions…the bad apples that make everyone else look bad. The truth was, I wasn’t really sure what to think anymore.

“If you’re up for it,” Jackie said, “I think we should try testing your powers so we get a better idea of what you can do. Of course, you’re going to need some real power testing soon, but it helps to go into it with at least some idea of where to start.”

I nodded again, feeling a little overwhelmed with everything that was going on, though I was trying not to show it. I was especially trying hard not to think about how my body was changing and how freaked out it made me.

“I do have something that might count,” I said carefully, getting Jackie and Emily’s full attention. “I have a special sense that most people don’t…”

“Really?” Emily asked curiously. “If you have some form of psychic ability as well, then I might be able to help you with that.”

I leaned forward, and in a conspiratorial voice, I half whispered, “It’s called common sense. Most people just don’t have that ability…”

Emily stared at me with a blank look for a moment while Jackie burst out laughing. “You’re right,” she said a moment later. “Most people don’t have it.” Emily began snickering as well.

“And right now,” I pointed out, “my common sense is telling me that it might not be very safe hanging around with a bank robber.”

I immediately felt guilty for saying that since Jackie had been nothing but nice to me. She’d gotten me out of the bank when she could have left me behind to take the blame as her accomplice. She could have left me to the MCO instead of coming in to rescue me, and apparently paying Highwayman for his help in doing so. She’d brought me to her own house, put me in her own guest room, and she’d been doing everything she could to help me.

“I’m sorry,” I said quietly.

“You’re right,” Jackie admitted with a sad smile. “Hanging out with me isn’t completely safe, but at the moment, you don’t have many other options. You can’t go home because the MCO will probably be watching your family for that. And at least here, no one knows where you are and I can protect you.”

I was beginning to tear up again at the reminder that I couldn’t go home, though I was pretty sure Jackie wasn’t trying to rub it in or hurt me. She was just laying the situation out like it was, and she was completely right.

“I know you’re right,” I told her with a weak smile. “And I do appreciate everything you’ve been doing for me...”

“Whateley,” Emily abruptly said.

“What?” I asked.

“Whateley Academy,” Jackie said with a thoughtful look. “It’s a school for mutants…” She looked at Emily and added, “You’re right…she would be safe there.”

“Wait a moment,” I exclaimed, bothered by the fact that she’d referred to me as ‘she’ but trying to stay focused. “You mean there’s a school for super villains?”

“It’s a school for mutants,” Emily explained with a faint smile. “They don’t really care what you do after you graduate, though they try teaching you how to survive doing it. Admittedly, some graduates do turn to a life of crime…” She gave Jackie a flat look. “Some become heroes, and others like me just try to stay below the radar and live as normal a life as possible. Whateley is pretty well known among the mutant population, but we try to keep its existence quiet so anti-mutant groups don’t show up at the front gates.”

“Considering the fact that you’re a changeling,” Jackie mused, staring at me with a thoughtful look. “You’d probably end up in Poe. That’s the dormitory where Emily and I first met when we were roommates.”

“We’ll have to keep Whateley in mind as a possibility,” Emily said. “But for now, I think we have more immediate issues to deal with.”

“Like getting a handle on your powers so you don’t accidentally hurt yourself or anyone else,” Jackie told me. “We’ll do some testing ourselves today and see about getting you an appointment for some real powers testing later. And though you probably don’t want to deal with it right now…” She paused and gave me a sympathetic look before adding, “Your new body is going to require some dealing with, which means new clothes among other things.”

I winced at that, wishing I could scream and lash out about this, but I didn’t dare act like that in front of Jackie and Emily. I was embarrassed enough at the way they’d caught me freaking out earlier and I didn’t want them to think I was some kind of wimp or little kid, so I did my best to act tough and pretend that it didn’t bother me. Then, I noticed that Emily was staring at me with a strange expression, though she quickly looked away. I knew she could make other people feel whatever emotion she wanted, but I wondered if she could feel theirs as well.

After breakfast, I helped clean up the mess in the kitchen, figuring that it was only fair since they did all the cooking. And it wasn’t like I didn’t already have a lot of experience washing dishes. But as I washed dishes, I began to notice the way my nipples were rubbing against the fabric of my borrowed sweater, making them feel…weird. I grimaced at that and did my best to ignore the odd sensations and focus on my work.

As soon as dishes were done, Jackie told me, “Come on. I don’t want to risk testing your powers here in my house. I don’t think my insurance would cover any damage.” She chuckled at that, making me smile as well.

To my surprise, instead of pulling up her hamster ball force field, Jackie led me to her garage and a dark blue SUV instead. I was a little startled that she’d drive such a normal car, but then again I shouldn’t have been. After all, she lived in a very normal looking house, and when she wasn’t in costume, she actually seemed pretty normal as well, or at least as normal as she could be while looking as hot as she did.

“I’m very careful not to be seen in costume or using my powers around here,” Jackie explained to me as we drove away from her house. “I REALLY don’t want to have to move and leave everything behind again. As the saying goes, don’t shit in your own backyard. That’s an important lesson, whether you’re a hero, criminal, or just trying to avoid unwanted attention.”

“You aren’t what I thought a super villain would be like,” I admitted to her, frowning as I remembered too late that she really didn’t like being called a villain.

Jackie smiled at that, then asked, “Do you want to hear my evil villain laugh?” Before I could answer, she exclaimed, “Bwa ha ha ha ha!”

I snickered at that, then told her, “I think I could do better than that…” But when I tried, my voice cracked and I couldn’t finish.

“Your voice is changing,” Jackie told me gently. “Along with everything else. You look and sound more like a girl now than you do a boy.”

“Please don’t remind me,” I said quietly, trying to fight back the tears.

Without saying a word, Jackie reached out and a hand on mine and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Everything is going to be fine,” she told me gently. “I know you’re scared and confused right now, but you’ll get past it.”

“Why do you keep being so nice to me?” I asked her suspiciously. “You aren’t trying to make me into your sidekick or something, are you?”

Jackie laughed at that. “Heroes have sidekicks,” she told me in an amused tone. “Criminals have henchmen. And no, that isn’t it at all. Honestly, you remind me a little bit of my kid brother. I haven’t seen him or any of my family in years, not since shortly after I started my…career.” She let out a sigh, looking sad. “Contact with them wouldn’t be safe, for them or me.”

“I’m sorry,” I said quietly, suddenly feeling like I understood her just a little better. Even after Mom had turned me over to the MCO, I still wanted to go home and see her again. “I have a little sister and I’m worried I might not be able to see her again…”

“I’m sorry,” Jackie told me with a sympathetic look. Then she abruptly changed the topic and said, “I know the idea of being a mutant must be pretty strange to you. I’m probably the first mutant you’ve ever actually met, or at least the first who was honest about it.”

“My neighbor was a mutant,” I said with a sigh. Mr. Harris had always been grumpy and a bit paranoid so no one in the apartment had really liked him, though now I understood that he had good reasons for being that way. “But I didn’t know he was until the MCO came for me…” I closed my eyes, remembering the look on his face as the bullets ripped through his body. “They killed him.”

We were both silent for the next few minutes before I finally said, “There was a girl at school… She was a mutant, but no one knew…”

I’d never told this to Mom and Dad since I knew their views on mutants and knew what they would have said. But Amanda Conner had been very pretty and I’d really liked her. We’d actually been friends, but I’d wanted to go further and had asked her to go out on a date with me. She’d turned me down and had then begun to avoid me after that, as though I made her uncomfortable. At the time, I’d been confused and hurt by her reaction, but now I understood it better.

“I guess she was afraid of anyone finding out,” I continued sadly. “Then one day, she and her best friend got into an argument and then her friend blurted out that she was a mutant in front of the whole class. Amanda started to freak out and her eyes started glowing, then the fire sprinklers all started going off. Amanda ran out of there as fast as she could and never came back. I found out later, her entire family had picked up and moved away that night.”

I frowned, remembering the look of fear and betrayal on Amanda’s face when Kimberly had blurted out her secret. I imagined that it was a great deal like the look on my own face when Mom had turned me over to the MCO. At the time, I’d been shocked at finding out that Amanda was a mutant, and I even felt a little betrayed since she’d lied to me and everyone else about it. But later on, all I could think about was how nice Amanda had always been to everyone else…and how much I missed her. I’d decided that in spite of what my parents always said, if Amanda was a mutant, then mutants couldn’t be that bad.

“Being outed as a mutant is never easy,” Jackie said grimly. “And it’s even worse when it’s done to you by someone you trust.”

I stared at Jackie for a moment, realizing that there was some kind of story there. However, I didn’t know her well enough to ask about what was obviously a personal issue. Instead, I remained quiet and the two of us continued our trip in near silence.

After driving for over half an hour, we arrived at an industrial area with several old warehouses. Most of the ones I saw seemed to be empty and in severe disrepair. Jackie seemed to know exactly where we were going because she drove up to one warehouse and got out.

“The company that owns these warehouses went bankrupt several years ago,” Jackie explained. “All the property got caught up in a legal dispute that doesn’t appear to be ending anytime soon, so I’ve made use of this one to store a couple things I might need in the future.”

With that, Jackie removed a padlock from a side door and let us inside. She flipped a switch and the lights came on, surprising me since I would have thought that abandoned property like this would have had the power disconnected.

Jackie seemed to guess what I was thinking because she commented, “I have a generator and some batteries hooked up to supply power. This place wouldn’t do me much good if I couldn’t even see in here. Just don’t expect cable TV or running water.”

I looked around the inside of the warehouse, which was mostly empty. In one corner, there were several stacks of boxes as well as a few things that were covered with tarps, one of which was in the shape of a car.

“In my line of work,” Jackie explained, gesturing to the stuff in the corner, “It pays to have a safe house you can go to in an emergency, not to mention a place to store emergency supplies. An apartment or rental storage unit would probably work, but this is cheaper and more private.”

“So this is your evil lair,” I joked as I looked around. “I was expecting something a little more impressive…”

Jackie gave me a look of amusement and said, “I’m afraid all the henchmen are out on strike and my order of sharks with laser beams on their heads got caught up in customs.”

I snickered at that, then asked, “So, what do you call this place? The Pinball Machine?”

“I’ll have to remember that one,” Jackie responded with a chuckle. Then she gestured to the far end of the warehouse, the opposite end from where her stuff was stored. “We’ll work with your powers over there…where we can’t accidentally damage my emergency supplies. Go on, I’ll catch up with you in a minute.”

I went to the far end of the warehouse, which was empty except for all spider webs in the corners and the dirt on the floor. Jackie went to the corner with all her stuff and joined me a few minutes later, now dressed up in her costume.

“It feels more appropriate to do this while dressed properly,” Jackie…Pinball told me.

“So what now?” I asked nervously.

A large part of me really didn’t want anything to do with these powers I supposedly had and seemed to think that ignoring them might make them go away. This same part of me also had the same strategy for dealing with my physical changes. However, at the same time, I also wondered at what I might be able to do. That part was slowly getting stronger.

“We’ve already seen your regen in action,” Pinball told me, “and I don’t think there’s any reason to test it further. At least not here.”

“That’s good to hear,” I said, pretty sure that there was no good way to test how fast I’d heal from an injury.

“What I really wanted to focus on was that force field you called up yesterday,” Pinball said. “I want you to try calling it up again.”

“Okay,” I agreed, then paused before asking, “But how?”

Pinball stood back and said, “Watch me…” Suddenly, the air around her shimmered and formed into her transparent force field bubble. She rolled back and forth across the warehouse floor, which was odd to watch since her feet weren’t moving at all. After doing this for about ten seconds, her force field vanished. “Now you try.”

“I’ll try,” I said without much confidence, still having no idea of what to do.

When nothing happened, Pinball mused, “I’ve noticed that you tend to glow a little when stressed…like you’re on the verge of activating your power. I have an idea.”

With that, Pinball slowly walked away from me, then she abruptly turned around and started running right at me with a loud yell and her fist raised as if to punch me. I yelped in surprise and even a little fear, then right before she reached me, everything around me had a golden haze. The golden force field bubble that had saved me from being shot a second time had reappeared.

Pinball stopped and grinned. “I thought that might do it.”

“I did this?” I asked in amazement.

The bubble around me looked much like the one Pinball had, but where hers was clear but with a faint sheen, mine was transparent but with a golden color. As I relaxed, the bubble vanished again.

“Now try that again,” Pinball instructed. “Preferably without my having to scare you into it.”

I nodded and thought about the strange feeling I had in my body when the force field had formed around me, then I tried to will that feeling to return. It was surprisingly easy this time and the bubble reappeared around me, much to my delight.

“I did it,” I exclaimed excitedly.

“Now try to keep it up,” Pinball urged.

I did as Pinball asked and tried to keep the bubble from vanishing this time. It took a little concentration, but I was able to do it. After I’d had it up for a full minute, I was starting to feel confident in my ability to control it. That was when Pinball decided to step up the game.

Pinball gave me an almost evil grin, then she abruptly punched my bubble. I felt a little pressure from where she hit the bubble, but I didn’t lose control over it so it stayed up. I stuck my tongue out at her so she punched it a few more times until I finally lost control and the bubble vanished.

“You’ll get better at holding it with practice,” Pinball told me, looking rather pleased. “I just can’t believe how similar your powers are to my own. Let’s try it again and see if you can move your bubble…”

Once again, I willed the force field bubble to appear around me. Now that I knew what to do, it was getting easier to summon it each time. After it was in place, I tried getting it to move the way Pinball did hers. It took more than a minute of trying before I finally got it to move forward.

“I did it,” I exclaimed again.

I spent the next half hour rolling back and forth across the warehouse while Pinball advised and directed me. She seemed just as excited by my being able to do this as I was.

“You have better control than I did at your age,” she admitted to me with a grin. “When I first got my powers, once I got moving I had a hard time stopping, and if I went too fast, I tended to bounce off things uncontrollably. Then again, you’ve been moving fairly slow here so it might not be as easy for you once you get a chance to cut loose.”

“This is pretty cool,” I admitted, hardly able to believe that I was actually able to do the same thing she could. After seeing what she could do with her force field bubble while escaping the bank, I’d developed a healthy respect for her power.

“Let’s play a little bumper cars,” Pinball suggested, forming her own force field.

The two of us rolled around the warehouse, playing an odd game of tag as we tried to ram into each other. Neither of us went too fast, but Pinball definitely had the advantage of speed and control over along with her much greater experience.

Pinball got well away from me, then as I was trying to maneuver enough to go after her, she abruptly changed direction and came straight at me at a much faster speed than what we’d been practicing at. Her sphere hit mine and suddenly I was thrown back. I was so startled that my force field dropped and I was without any protection when I slammed into the warehouse wall.

The impact was hard enough that the wind was immediately knocked out of me. My whole body hurt and I collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath and sure that I must have broken half the bones in my body.

“David,” Pinball exclaimed, running to my side. “Are you okay, kid?”

I groaned, suddenly wondering what the hell I’d been thinking to play that kind of game with Pinball. After all, she was a super villain with who knew how much experience controlling her force field. But when she bent over me, I didn’t see a villain…I saw a friend who looked worried.

“I don’t know,” I answered after a moment. I took several deep breaths and sat up with her help. Now that I’d caught my breath, I didn’t think that I’d actually broken anything, though I’d probably be bruised over half my body. Then I grinned faintly and said, “I want a rematch…”

“Yeah, you’re definitely an exemplar,” Pinball commented with a chuckle. “And trust me, you’re going to be very thankful for that regeneration.”

After I’d rested for a few minutes, I brought my force field bubble up again and began another round of bumper car tag with Pinball. This time, she moved more quickly, apparently deciding not to hold back as much as she had been. She lunged at me time and time again, bumping me a few times and generally directing me towards one of the corners.

“I’ve got you now,” Pinball called out, coming straight at me while I had nowhere to escape to.

Then on a sudden impulse, I tried to escape, not going left or right where she’d be able to intercept me, but straight up. My sphere quickly rose into the air while she passed right through where I’d been, then abruptly stopped.

“Holy shit,” I blurted out, realizing that I was actually floating in the air, held aloft by my force field.

“Holy shit,” Pinball exclaimed, dropping her force field and staring up at me with a look of surprise. “I can’t do that.”

I was startled by what I’d done and lost control, letting my force field vanish so I fell back to the ground where I hit painfully hard. If I hadn’t bruised every inch of my body earlier, that was sure to take care of the rest.

“That was…,” Pinball said, still looking surprised. “I can make jumps in my force field, but I can’t levitate it like that.”

“Should I try that again?” I asked her, wincing from all the bruises.

Pinball hesitated for a moment, then shook her head. “No, I think we’re done for the day. I don’t want to push you too far and trigger a burnout.”

I felt a little relieved that we were done since I was hurting pretty badly and just wanted to rest for a bit and recover. But on the other hand, actually having super powers like that was unbelievably exciting and I wanted to try them out some more.

“Come on,” Pinball said, putting her arm around my shoulder and grinning. “Let’s go get something to eat. I’m starving.”

My stomach grumbled full agreement and I realized that I was really hungry as well. I remembered Pinball’s eating habits and joked, “Do you know any good all you can eat places?”

“Of course,” she responded cheerfully. “And since you seem to be an energizer too, you’re probably going to be getting very familiar with some as well.”

After David is caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, his entire life changes in ways he never could have expected. This is a fan fiction taking place in the Whateley Universe.

--------------------

I stared into the bathroom mirror with a cold knot in my stomach. I wasn’t surprised by what I was seeing since I’d been expecting it, ever since yesterday morning when I’d realized that I was turning into a girl. And all day yesterday, my body had slowly continued to change, especially when I’d healed from all the bruising I’d received at the warehouse. By the time I went to bed last night, the swellings on my chest had grown into B cups.

“This is crazy,” I whispered, grabbing the two mounds on my chest which had grown into C cup size overnight.

Then with a gulp, I reached between my legs, finding no sign of my normal equipment there. Little David was gone and there was a slit in his place. Every inch of my body now looked female, though I was somehow sure that my changes weren’t completely finished just yet. They were close, but some odd sensations from inside my guts convinced me that my internal plumbing was still being hooked up. However, at the rate I’d been changing, even those final details would probably be complete within a few hours.

In spite of wanting to scream or cry, I tried remaining calm and looked into the mirror again, silently telling myself that I was going to have to get used to this reflection. If Jackie and Emily were correct, and I had no reason to believe they weren’t, there was no way to reverse this. According to them, you just couldn’t fight your BIT.

The face that stared back from the mirror was definitely that of a girl, a very beautiful girl at that. Of course, her golden eyes gave her a somewhat exotic appearance as well. There was also something oddly familiar about her, though I couldn’t quite place why. What I did know was that I didn’t have even the faintest resemblance to the way I used to look, as if every last trace of my old face and body had been erased.

I ran a hand through my hair, which was now deep red and went down to the middle of my back. I still had that lock of golden blonde hair growing from the front, which along with my eye color, helped to make me appear exotic and exciting. Of course, with my new body, I didn’t really need the help. I had an absolutely killer body with great muscle tone that was better than I’d had as a guy. As a guy, I’d been pretty plain looking, but now…

“If I’m stuck as a girl,” I told myself with a forced smile, “at least I’m a hot one.”

Of course, I didn’t want to be a girl at all, but at least being a good looking one seemed to mollify my ego a little. I could only imagine how much worse I’d feel if I’d changed from being a guy into an ugly girl. A large part of me still wanted to either lash out in anger or just curl up and start crying again, but I was keeping that part in check for the moment.

I turned away from the mirror with a shake of my head, thinking about yesterday and how my emotions had been bouncing around like a yo-yo. I’d freaked out about turning into a girl, got excited about having super powers, got depressed about the possibility of never seeing my family again, and I’d even been giddy at spending some much time with a hot babe like Jackie. After yesterday’s emotional roller coaster ride, it was no wonder I was able to stay calm this morning. I was just too tired to do it again.

A few minutes later, I was looking over some of the clothes that Jackie and Emily had provided me yesterday afternoon. Between the two of them, they’d scraped through their closets for a few things that would fit my changing body, and which I might actually be willing to wear. Fortunately, neither of them had provided me with anything too girlie. After careful consideration of my very limited options, I settled for a simple pair of pants and a T-shirt.

When I went into the living room, I found Jackie and Emily were both there, already dressed and watching the news on TV. I stood there and watched for a moment, seeing that the news anchor was doing a story about a super villain named Doctor Diabolik, who had apparently just launched some kind of raid against Toronto.

“Are you looking for employment opportunities?” I asked Jackie, trying to keep my tone light and joking rather than accusatory.

“Not at the moment,” Jackie responded in a casual tone. “I have occasionally done some mercenary work, but not for anyone like that. I have a strict policy of not working for either crazed killers or anyone with too much ambition, like Diabolik. Sure, I’ll help rob a museum or keep a super hero group distracted, but leave me out of any world conquest stuff. It’s much safer that way.”

“Oh yes,” Emily added in a wry tone. “Jackie is very responsible in her illegal activities.”

“Bite me,” Jackie responded, sticking her tongue out at Emily.

Emily just smirked and asked, “Is that an invitation?”

The two of them giggled like teenage girls and then kissed each other. I wasn’t sure I should look away in embarrassment or continue watching. After all, it wasn’t every day that a guy got a chance to watch a couple hot lesbians making out.

Once they’d settled down, Jackie looked me over and carefully said, “You’re looking very nice…”

She was obviously being nice and trying not to offend me at the same time. I would have liked to deny it, but it would only have been false modesty to say I wasn’t. The idea of being a hot looking girl still sort of freaked me out, though I tried not to show it and only smiled faintly.

Emily was watching me with a strange look, one that I’d seen from her several times yesterday. She finally turned to Jackie and demanded, “You really don’t see it, do you?”

“See what?” Jackie asked.

“I’d almost think you were blonde,” Emily muttered as she got up and left the living room. She came back a minute later with a photo album, then removed a picture and silently handed it to Jackie.

Jackie’s eyes went wide and blurted out, “No way…” She snapped around to stare at me with a strange expression, then gasped, “Impossible… How did I not…?”

“What?” I demanded suspiciously, suddenly feeling very self-conscious and worried about the way they were both staring at me.

Without saying another word, I grabbed the picture out of Jackie’s hands so I could see what it was that made her stare at me like that. It was a picture of two teenage girls, about the same age as me. The girl on the right side of the picture was wearing a leather jacket and had short and spikey green hair. However, it was the girl on the left hand side of the picture that immediately caught my attention. She was definitely the taller of the two, and she also happened to be the same girl I’d just been staring at in the mirror.

“What the…?” I started in confusion, staring at the girl in the picture more closely.

The girl in the mirror looked almost exactly the same as I now did, though she was missing the golden streak in her red hair and had green eyes instead of gold. But other than those small details, we appeared to be identical. Without the distraction of my odd eye color and the blonde lock, I suddenly realized why this girl seemed so familiar. I stared at Jackie in confusion.

“”She looks almost exactly like you did when you were her age,” Emily told Jackie.

“How in the world did I miss that?” Jackie exclaimed, still staring at me with a look of disbelief.

“What did you do to me?” I demanded, feeling confused and worried again.

“Why do you keep asking me that?” Jackie responded with a shake of her head. “I didn’t have anything to do with you looking like that…or at least I don’t think I did.”

Emily adjusted her glasses and stared at me with a thoughtful look. “Yesterday, I thought you looked extremely familiar, but now that you’ve finished changing, I could see why.” She looked at Jackie and added, “You’ve probably never seen yourself from this perspective so it’s no wonder you wouldn’t recognize your own reflection. She looks like a younger version of you.”

“How is that…?” Jackie started, then paused. “Shape shifting…” She grinned at me and explained, “If you’re a shape shifter, you might be able to change back to your old look.”

“Really?” I asked with an intense sense of hope and relief. “How do I do that?”

“I don’t have a clue,” she admitted.

“You never did,” Emily added with a faint smirk, only to get a mock glare from Jackie.

“First you have my powers,” Jackie told me with an amused expression. “Now you’ve got my look. I guess they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”

I rolled my eyes at that, feeling almost giddy at the idea of being able to change back to normal. I just hoped I wouldn’t have to give up these powers when I did because I was just starting to enjoy them.

“What now?” I asked eagerly. “I mean, how do I figure out how to change back?”

“Power testing, to start with,” Emily pointed out thoughtfully. “The first thing we have to do is find out if you really are a shape shifter, or if this is something else.”

“More bumper cars?” I asked Jackie with a grin.

“Nope,” she responded with a grin of her own. “Real power testing. I’ve already got an appointment for you later today. But for now, we need to focus on something even more important. Breakfast.”

I just grinned at that, nearly drooling in anticipation of breakfast. I was eager to get to the power testing appointment and find out more about my mutant abilities, especially if I was a shape shifter and would be able to change back to normal. However, I was also very hungry and felt like I could eat a horse. After I’d nearly been able to keep up with Jackie during lunch and dinner yesterday, that might not be much of an exaggeration.

“I’ll cook,” I volunteered, knowing that neither Jackie or Emily were particularly good cooks.

“You know how to cook?” Jackie asked me skeptically. “Okay, prove it.”

I went to the kitchen and the first thing I did was pour myself a cup of coffee with some cream, then I looked through the fridge and cupboards. I quickly found an electric skillet and two electric griddles and plugged them in on the counter, then I got out a few pans and the ingredients I needed. Emily and Jackie both stood back, watching me curiously, probably wondering how badly the food would taste. I just grinned and continued with my preparations the way Dad and Henri had taught me at the diner.

Though I wanted to make some fancy French toast and impress them, they didn’t have any good quality bread in the kitchen, nor was I patient enough at the moment. I was feeling ravenous, which I’d been told was probably a combination of being an energizer and my body needing all the extra energy for the healing and physical changes. I wanted food NOW. Still, I was somehow able to control myself.

Jackie and Emily had definitely stocked up on eggs and bacon, which was good because I pulled out three cartons of eggs and went to work. I cooked the bacon in the electric skillet while I used both griddles to do the eggs and a couple pans on the stove as well. I could have just made a big mass of scrambled eggs, and I was doing that in one of the pans, but that would have been too easy. So in addition to the scrambled eggs, I also cooked a bunch of them over easy and even made some omelets at the same time. I just grinned as I worked, feeling almost like I was a cook back at the diner. Dad and Henri would be proud of me.

I was in a good mood after finding out I ‘might’ be able to get back to my own body, and I was having a lot of fun in the kitchen as well. Since I felt like I was actually a real cook, I began humming the theme music from my favorite TV chef. My humming slowly got louder as I got a little carried away and finally blurted out, “Bjork bjork bjork.” Jackie burst out laughing.

As soon as the first batch of food was ready, Emily helped herself to an omelet, a couple slices of bacon, and a slice of toast. Jackie grabbed just about everything else. When the second batch was ready, I saved a bit for myself and ate while I finished cooking the rest. By the time we were done, we’d all had enough to eat, even Jackie, though admittedly, I’d eaten almost as much as she had.

“That was pretty good,” Jackie told me happily. “Especially the omelets…”

“My Dad owns a diner,” I explained, my mood dampening as I considered the fact that I might never get to go there again. “I work there…worked there part time helping out.”

Emily reached out for my hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze while Jackie just mused, “I think I know who gets to cook dinner tonight…”

I smiled weakly and looked back and forth at Emily and Jackie, still amazed at how much they were trying to help me out when they barely even knew me. What does it say about the world when a super villain is nice to me and my own family treats me like crap?

Then I asked Emily, “Do you have some kind of codename too?”

Emily seemed a little startled by the question but answered, “Yes I do, though I haven’t actually used it since high school. Officially, my codename is Soothe.”

“That seems pretty appropriate,” I told her. Then I stared at her for a moment before asking, “The other girl in that picture was you, wasn’t it?”

Emily looked a little embarrassed as she nodded. “I was going through a rebellious stage back then. I fancied myself an anarchist and even thought about becoming a super villain after graduating. I had a lot of anger, and with my power, I could share it with others…starting riots and causing all kinds of chaos and destruction.” Then she let out a sigh and shook her head.

“She used to call herself Riot Act,” Jackie volunteered with a smirk.

“Only until my sophomore year,” Emily pointed out.

“What happened?” I asked curiously. The Emily I knew seemed more like a librarian or teacher than some kind of punk rock anarchist.

“I grew up,” Emily answered with an amused look. “I realized I wasn’t the badass I thought I was and I got a first-hand look at what happens when a mob of people become angry and get out of hand. After that, I decided I never wanted to get caught up in something like that again, much less cause it.”

I looked at Jackie and asked, “Were you two planning on being partners or something? I mean, doing the whole Bonnie and Clyde thing?”

“Not exactly,” Jackie muttered.

“Back then,” Emily told me with a chuckle. “I was the bad girl who was always getting in trouble and Jackie was miss goody-two-shoes.”

“Really?” I asked, giving Jackie a look of surprise.

“Things change,” Jackie said grimly. “And sometimes life doesn’t go as planned.”

I nodded sympathetically at that, knowing exactly what she meant. I didn’t know what had happened to her, but my life had suddenly changed and was going in directions I’d never even considered. In fact, I felt like I was driving blind and had no idea which direction I was even heading.

Once breakfast was over, Emily and Jackie went to work on the dishes while I sat back in the living room, trying to keep myself occupied. At first, I just sat there watching the news and feeling bored, then I found myself staring down at the large bumps pushing out from my chest. I poked at them a few times, finding them soft and feeling a bit odd. It was hard to believe that these were actually part of my body.

“But not for much longer,” I reminded myself. “Hopefully at least.”

I didn’t want Emily and Jackie to come in on me while I was feeling myself up like that so I forced my hands away from my new breasts. I turned my thoughts back to the practice session that I’d had yesterday with Jackie, thinking about that force field bubble I’d been able to summon.

I could feel it inside of me, the mental switch that I could flip to call it up again. After all that practice, I knew that I could make that force field bubble appear without any effort at all. However, I didn’t think Jackie would appreciate me doing that in her house when I might make a mess.

Since I couldn’t call up my bubble in the house, I decided to experiment a little and try something different. I willed the force field bubble to appear, but I focused on it being much smaller. A moment later, a transparent golden sphere about the size of a softball appeared in the air in front of me.

“Got it,” I said with a grin.

With the large bubble, I’d been able to make it move around just by concentrating on where I wanted it to move. I tried doing the same with this sphere and found that I could do the same thing fairly easily.

I was in the middle of playing with my ball by making it move back and forth when Jackie and Emily finished with the dishes and returned to the living room. Jackie froze and stared at me with a look of surprise before blurting out, “How are you doing that?”

“I was just experimenting,” I said, feeling guilty at being caught like that. She’d told me that she was careful not to let anyone in this area see her using her powers, so she was probably afraid that someone might see me doing that through the window. I immediately let the sphere vanish.

“No, bring it back,” Jackie told me, coming closer and saying, “I can’t do that…”

“You can’t?” I asked in surprise.

“I can only form my force field around myself,” Jackie told me. “I can make it jump a bit, but I can’t make it levitate the way you can either.”

“So she’s only had her powers for a couple days, and she’s already better with them than you are,” Emily teased Jackie, who looked a little annoyed.

“Okay, I’m a little jealous,” Jackie admitted. She stared at me for a moment and said, “Obviously, your powers don’t work the same as mine, in spite of how similar they are.”

At Jackie’s urging, I made the sphere reappear in front of me and practiced at moving it around the living room. It was kind of fun, sort of like having one of those remote control helicopters.

“Now make a second one,” Jackie told me.

“You just want to watch me play with my balls,” I joked, earning a look of surprise from Jackie and then she burst out laughing.

“That’s not quite how I’d put it,” she commented while Emily just shook her head.

I willed a second force field bubble to appear in front of me, but as soon as it did so, the first one vanished. I tried it again, but once again the previous sphere vanished. After a few more attempts, it became clear that I could only have one bubble out at a time.

“We can experiment with this again later on,” Jackie told me. “Right now, we have to get going if we want to make your appointment in time.”

“Before you leave the house,” Emily said, pointing at my chest. “You might want to put on either a bra or a sweater…”

I looked down, wondering what she was talking about and then I noticed it. Since I was only wearing a T-shirt, my nipples were clearly visible against the fabric. I immediately turned bright red, which only made Jackie snicker.

“Oh, I can see that this is going to be fun,” Jackie teased me. “Come on little sister, let’s get you something to hide those before we go.”

After David is caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, his entire life changes in ways he never could have expected. This is a fan fiction taking place in the Whateley Universe.

--------------------

I’ve always hated long car trips. Spending too much time in the car always made me feel a little claustrophobic and cooped up. Of course, I probably wouldn’t feel so antsy at the moment if I hadn’t made Jackie stop off at Starbucks so I could get a large mocha.

Jackie had been driving for the last two hours while I sat in the passenger seat, feeling alternately excited, nervous, and bored out of my mind. It turned out that the doctor she got me an appointment to see was in the next state over. And since Jackie had already transported me across state lines after our escape from the MCO, this meant that in the past three days, I’d been in as many states.

We’d spent the last hour talking about Whateley Academy and what it had been like when Jackie went there. It sounded really interesting, but I was pretty sure she was pulling my leg more than a few times. After all, a famous super hero like Lady Astarte probably had much better things to do than play high school principal, and it wasn’t like Circe from the old Greek myths was a real person, much less a teacher there. Jackie had to think I was pretty gullible to believe that.

“Can we stop for some more coffee?” I asked Jackie, looking at my empty cup of go juice and sighing.

“Aren’t you a little young to be a coffee addict?” Jackie asked with a grin.

I shrugged at that, then lied, “My parents let me drink it anytime I want.” As soon as that was out of my mouth, I winced, realizing that I’d come off sounding like a little kid or something.

Jackie gave me a slightly skeptical look, then pointed out, “Well, it’s not like it can hurt you. Hell, being a regenerator, you’ll burn off most of the caffeine before it can even affect you. In fact, you’ll probably build up an immunity to it pretty fast, if you haven’t already.”

“What?” I gasped in horror, staring at my empty cup of go juice and feeling betrayed. What good was coffee if the caffeine didn’t even affect me anymore? After a moment, I let out a sigh and asked, “Any more downsides about being a mutant I should know about?”

“Well, you can’t really get drunk, “Jackie responded with a smirk. “Hair starts growing in funny places.” Then she looked at my chest and added, “And you may get unexpected swelling…”

In spite of how self-conscious I was about my new body, I couldn’t help laughing at that. Unfortunately, it came out sounding much more like a girlish giggle.

“We’re almost there,” Jackie told me. “Another ten minutes and we’ll be able to stretch our legs.”

A few minutes later, we pulled into a downtown parking garage that was a near some local department stores. I was a little curious about where we were going since Jackie hadn’t given me many details, but I followed behind her without saying a word. I had a feeling that she was just waiting for me to ask, so I avoided giving her the satisfaction. We ended up going to the lowest floor of the parking garage and then to a maintenance door which had a flyer for a band named ‘The Sword of Damocles’ taped to it.

“We’re here,” Jackie said, waving to a security camera which was pointed right at the door. There was a clicking sound as the door unlocked, then we opened it and went through. “People in my line of work can’t exactly go to a normal doctor, so we have a few specialists we use instead. Unfortunately, medical experts who are both qualified and willing to deal with mutant criminals tend to be…expensive.”

On the other side of the door, there was a large room filled with all sorts of strange equipment. There was even something that looked like some kind of science fiction ‘death ray’, which was pointed right at the door. However, Jackie didn’t even seem concerned about it so I only gave it a wary glance and then looked around the rest of the room.

Then I noticed the man who was walking towards us. He was tall, about six and a half feet, and he was also very well-muscled with rugged but fairly handsome looks. Though his hair was pure white, his features made me think that he was in his forties at most. I suddenly wondered if maybe he was an exemplar.

“Pinball,” the large man greeted Jackie, though she wasn’t wearing her costume at the moment. “You’re late.”

“By less than five minutes,” Jackie pointed out pleasantly. “There was a bad traffic jam.” Then she turned to me and said, “This is Damocles, the doctor who’s going to test your powers.”

“You’re a doctor?” I blurted out, staring at the large man in surprise. He looked more like a professional wrestler than a doctor.

“No,” he responded with a deep scowl. “I don’t have a medical degree or any official certification.” His eyes flashed with anger and he snarled, “Those fools on the medical board were jealous of my brilliance…”

Suddenly, a massive sword made of glowing red energy appeared in his hand. I gasped in fear and took an instinctive step back while Jackie just stood there with an expression of annoyance.

“Damocles,” Jackie snapped.

The large man blinked several times, then his energy sword vanished. “Sorry about that,” Damocles apologized. “It seems my Diedricks Syndrome is acting up.” Then he turned his attention to me and said, “But regardless of official certification, I am a high level devisor and gadgeteer with full medical qualifications. And of more immediate relevance, I have a great deal of experience with power testing.”

“I wouldn’t have brought you here if he wasn’t good at what he did,” Jackie assured me, which helped me relax.

“To begin with,” Damocles started, looking at Jackie. “Is this going to be an official powers testing for MID purposes, or do you wish to keep this quiet?”

“MID?” I asked curiously.

“A Mutant Identification card,” Jackie explained. “It goes on your official record with the government and MCO and is absolutely necessary if you want to be legitimate. It’s a little early for you to commit to my career path, so I recommend you get one. Besides, not having one gives the MCO a legal excuse to arrest you.”

After I nodded my agreement, Damocles asked, “Do you have a codename picked out yet?”

I was a little startled at that. “Why do I need a codename?”

“Your MID and test results are filed under your codename,” Jackie told me. “It helps to protect your privacy, so most mutants have one, even if they don’t wear spandex.”

“You don’t need to decide immediately,” Damocles told me. “Just as long as I have it before I submit the paperwork. Just keep it in mind while we perform your testing because once you have a better idea of what your powers are, you might come up with something suitable.”

Damocles went to a desk in the corner and gestured for me to have a seat next to it. Then he called out, “Salt. Pepper.”

Seconds later, two people came rushing into the room from another door, one man and one woman. They were both in their early twenties and looked extremely similar to each other, though the man had black hair and the woman had white hair that was pulled back into a pony tail. From the way they looked so much alike, I guessed they were probably twins.

“Get everything prepped for testing,” Damocles instructed and the twins immediately ran off again. He looked to Jackie and commented, “My new interns.” Then he turned back to me and said, “Tell me everything you can about your powers.”

I wasn’t sure where to start so Jackie started off for me. “First off, she appears to be an exemplar, and over the last couple days she transformed to look almost exactly as I did at that age. She has regeneration like mine, and she’s even able to create force fields the way I do, although she has a few tricks with them that I don’t.”

Once Jackie finished telling him about my abilities, doing an even better job than I could have, I said, “There is something else…” I suddenly felt self-conscious since I hadn’t told Jackie about this part yet. “I have chronic headaches…or at least I did. I haven’t had any since I started manifesting… Anyway, my headaches always started with a weird pressure in my head, and even though I haven’t had the headaches, I’ve still been feeling the pressure… It always happens when I’m close to a mutant and goes away when I’m not near them anymore.”

“Interesting,” Damocles mused, giving me a thoughtful look.

We continued the interview for a few more minutes as he asked me more questions about my headaches, the pressure I felt when I was near another mutant, and even about my physical changes. Then, Damocles announced it was time to begin the actual testing and he took me to a strange looking machine that reminded me a little of one of those transporter platforms from Star Trek.

“This is a device of my own creation,” Damocles explained. “It will help me determine the full range of your abilities, so stand on the platform and do not move until I tell you to.”

As soon as I stood on the platform, there was a humming sound from the machine and some odd lights. I felt a little tingling sensation through my body, but it didn’t hurt so I remained where I was and let the machine do its thing. I ended up standing there for over ten minutes before Damocles was finished.

“Staying in here all the time must get boring,” Jackie told Damocles while he worked. “Especially considering your old reputation. Why don’t you come out and do a job with me sometime…?”

“You know I gave up that kind of work after that fight with Champion cost me my arm,” Damocles told her with a chuckle. “It took me months to clone a replacement.” Then he shook his head muttering, “Antimatter weapons are NOT a good idea…” After a moment, he grinned and added, “Besides, I make more money doing this than I ever did robbing banks.”

“You can step off now,” Damocles told me a few seconds later. “We’re ready for the next test.”

Damocles took me to another room and showed me a table with a bunch of random machine parts on it and asked me to reassemble the machine, even though I had no idea what it had even been. “Come on,” I urged him. “Just a hint? I mean, even Legos come with some instructions…”

After fifteen minutes with no progress, he had had me look at some fancy machine and try to determine what it was for and how to operate it. Several similar tests followed, including one where I was shown a table covered with all sorts of random objects, which ranged from painted stones to books that were written in odd languages.

“No apparent magical affinity,” Damocles mused to himself, “And no indications of gadgeteer or devisor traits.”

Damocles put me through a long series of tests, with his interns Salt and Pepper sometimes helping. I spent about an hour trying to see if I could read their minds or project my own thoughts and emotions to them. All the tests for psychic and precognitive abilities proved that I had no talent at all in those particular areas.

Eventually, we broke for lunch and Damocles told Jackie and me, “Please return in an hour so we can continue with the more physical tests.”

“I noticed some restaurants nearby,” Jackie told me as we left the hidden facility. “Some of them looked interesting.”

I nodded in enthusiastic agreement, already feeling pretty hungry. Ever since I’d manifested as a mutant, my appetite had been through the roof. I just hoped I wasn’t permanently stuck having to eat this much or I might have to start robbing banks as well, just to keep myself fed.

Jackie and I went to an Indian buffet where we loaded our plates up as much as possible. I’d never had Indian food before and was pleasantly surprised at how good it was, even the vegetarian stuff. Jackie just wolfed hers down and then went back for seconds.

“You should probably load up,” she told me as she began digging into her second plate. “You’re going to need the extra energy this afternoon.”

When we returned to the testing lab, I changed into some exercise clothes that Jackie had brought. I had shorts and a T-shirt, and to my surprise and embarrassment, a sports bra.

“You’re going to need this,” she insisted with a smirk. “Trust me on that.”

I wanted to protest that I didn’t have any idea of how to put on a bra, much less any desire to wear one. However, I had to admit that my new body probably needed one. So with some degree of reluctance, and some loud complaints that I felt obligated to give, I went into the bathroom and changed.

“I can’t believe I’m wearing this thing,” I muttered when I came out, squirming uncomfortably in the sports bra. I was just as uncomfortable with the fact that the label said it was a D cup, and that it fit perfectly.

Damocles started my afternoon testing off by taking a blood sample and then cutting my finger with a scalpel. My cut stopped bleeding in seconds, then sealed up and healed as I watched it. He nodded at that and wrote something down in his notes, though he didn’t tell me what.

The next series of tests were much more straightforward, though not exactly pleasant. Damocles had me get on a treadmill and run while he measured my speed, respiration, and heartbeat, but then halfway through, he abruptly threw a tennis ball at my head. I glared at him but he didn’t seem to notice since he was busy writing something in his notes.

We tested my strength by having me use some kind of high tech bench press machine that didn’t really have any weights I could see. Damocles muttered something about it being a device that measured gravitational field resistance, but that didn’t make any sense to me. I just did my best to lift the weight while he pushed some buttons and slowly made it heavier.

When I was finished, Salt, the girl with the white hair, commented, “Twelve hundred pounds. Fairly impressive.”

“Twelve hundred,” I blurted out in surprise. “That’s over half a ton…”

I could hardly believe that I’d lifted that much, but Jackie smugly told me, “I can lift just over a ton.” Then she let out a sigh and admitted, “But honestly, I could barely make a thousand when I was your age.”

After several more tests, including one where Damocles tested my reflexes by putting me into a room that was like an automatic dodge ball machine, we finally got to the point where I could show off my force field. This was the part I was actually excited about since I actually had a real power to work with, and one that I could have fun showing off.

Damocles used some weird scanners on me while he tried breaking through my force field, using a variety of tools and weapons. I nearly shit myself when he fired some kind of ray gun at me, though by the time he used the flamethrower I was a little more confident. Then I got to demonstrate my control, raising my sphere up into the air and then creating a smaller one and making it float around the room.

Eventually, we ended up back at the desk while Damocles looked over his notes and some information on his computer. He made a few odd noises while I tried to be patient. Finally, he stared at me for a moment without saying anything.

“Geez,” I said in annoyance, “I know I’m cute, but you can stop staring.” Jackie burst out laughing, as did Salt before she quickly left the room with her brother.

“My initial scan helped determine the true nature of your mutant abilities,” Damocles finally said. “The remaining tests helped confirm this.”

“Let me guess,” Jackie said, giving me a quick glance. “She’s either an exemplar or some kind of shape shifter, not to mention an energizer and regenerator.”

“Not quite,” Damocles stated, giving me a steady look. “She’s a power mimic.”

“A power mimic?” Jackie repeated with a look of surprise.

“Probably a level five,” Damocles added, looking fairly impressed.

“What does all that mean?” I asked.

Damocles scratched his jaw then explained, “A power mimic, as the name suggests, is someone who can mimic the abilities of another. In your case, your power imprinted on Pinball and you are mimicking her abilities, including her BIT, hence your current appearance.”

“So you’re a power mimic,” Jackie said, giving me a curious look. “That certainly explains a few things.” Then she looked at Damocles and pointed out, “But she can do some things I can’t…”

“It doesn’t appear to be an exact duplication of your abilities,” Damocles agreed. “Or your appearance, as the age, eye color, and blonde streak in the hair prove. It seems that she not only duplicated your abilities, but improved upon them as well. As you noted earlier, she is stronger than you were at that age, her regeneration appears to be slightly stronger than yours, and then there is her greater versatility with the force fields.”

Jackie stared at me for a moment, then mused, “I thought most power mimics got weaker versions of the powers they copied…not stronger.”

“Most,” Damocles agreed. “But not all.”

“So,” I said carefully, trying to think through what Damocles had just told me. “When I feel that pressure around mutants, that’s part of this power mimic thing?”

Damocles nodded agreement. “Correct. I believe those headaches you described were due to this as well. Your power sensed when mutants were near and instinctively tried to copy their abilities. You said that your headache ceased the moment you had physical contact with Pinball, so you probably require physical contact to use your mimic abilities. It seems that when your powers couldn’t get what they wanted, they became more insistent and desperate…hence increasing headaches.”

“And now that I’m copying her powers,” I said, gesturing to Jackie, “my powers aren’t getting all desperate so I’m not getting the headaches anymore.”

“Correct,” Damocles agreed.

I sat there for a moment, silently thinking about what Damocles had told me. “You said I look like her because I’m copying her powers,” I said, gesturing to Jackie.

“Specifically,” Damocles stated, “You copied her BIT along with her powers…and your copied exemplar traits and regeneration have rebuilt your body to the specifications of that BIT.”

“Then if I stopped copying her,” I thought aloud, “would I change back to normal?”

Damocles stared at me for a moment with a thoughtful expression before carefully saying, “I doubt it. You have no BIT of your own, nor any exemplar or regeneration abilities. If you lost the BIT and powers you gained from Pinball, your body would likely remain as it currently is as…just without the enhanced abilities.”

“But if she then copied another exemplar,” Jackie mused. “A male exemplar…”

“I don’t have enough information yet on how her powers work,” Damocles pointed out.

“But you said I’m some kind of power mimic,” I responded, feeling a little confused. After all those tests, he certainly seemed to know what my powers were.

“Precisely,” Damocles quickly said. “You are SOME kind of power mimic. However, that still doesn’t tell us how your powers work. Mutants who have similar appearing powers don’t necessarily have their powers work the same way. Someone who has the ability to start fires may get their ability from pyrokinesis, being a fire manifestor, an energizer who releases heat, or even do to using magical energies to manipulate the elements. On the surface, their powers may appear the same, but the nature of those powers are quite different.”

“So, this means more testing,” Jackie said with a thoughtful look.

“Come back in an hour,” Damocles instructed us. “We will continue the testing at that time.”

After that, I went to the bathroom and changed back into my previous clothes, then Jackie and I went out for dinner. I was ravenous and ate even more than I had at lunch, but I barely paid attention to what I ate or what Jackie was saying. Instead, I kept thinking about how my powers really worked, and how I might be able to turn them off.

From what Damocles and Jackie had said, even if I got rid of Jackie’s powers, I still might not be able to turn back to normal. However, Jackie had suggested that even if this was the case, I might be able to copy the powers of a male exemplar and at least turn into a guy again. The idea of intentionally making myself look like some other guy just felt a little creepy to me, but on the other hand, Jackie said that exemplar guys tended to be really good looking, which would definitely help me with the ladies.

When Jackie and I returned to the hidden facility, Damocles was already set to continue the testing. We started off by testing my ability to sense other mutants and trying to determine what kind of range it had. I was put in a room by myself with a blindfold on, then Damocles, Salt, or Pepper would slowly move closer to me until I could feel the pressure in my head. Once we’d determined that my range was less than fifteen yards, we tried to see if I could tell what kind of powers they actually had. There was no luck with that though.

“Perhaps once you have more experience with your abilities,” Damocles told me before moving onto the next test. He held his hand out to me and said, “Attempt to mimic my powers.”

I wasn’t sure what I was doing, but as soon as I touched his hand, I felt a faint tingling run through my body. I blinked, but it had all faded away a moment later. The only thing I noticed that was different was that I no longer felt the same pressure in his presence. I could still sense him much the way I could Jackie, but it was much weaker and actually took a bit of concentration to notice it.

“Now confirm whether or not you still possess Pinball’s abilities,” Damocles told me. I willed a glowing force field bubble about the size of a beach ball to appear in the air in front of me. After a few seconds, I let it vanish again. “Good. Now we’re going to see if you’ve successfully copied my abilities.”

We went back to the table full of machine parts and this time they all made sense to me. Just by looking at the parts, I somehow ‘knew’ how they all went together. I began assembling the pieces, almost feeling compelled to do so, as though leaving everything broken down like this somehow offended something inside of me. But when I was halfway through, it all suddenly vanished.

“Um,” I started, staring down at a half assembled machine and having absolutely no idea what it did or what to do next. “I think it wore off…”

Damocles and I repeated this experiment again, and for the next fifteen minutes, the various machines and devices he showed me all made a lot more sense. But after about fifteen minutes, it wore off and I was back to normal and had no idea of how to operate the machines, much less build them. The he had me copy his power one more time.

“Now attempt to duplicate this,” Damocles stated. He held out his hand and suddenly that massive red energy sword that I’d seen earlier appeared. He swung it through the air a few times, then the sword vanished again.

“Okay,” I said, though I had absolutely no idea of how to do it. I spent the next fifteen minutes trying everything I could think of to try making it appear, but nothing happened. When his power faded away, I shook my head, “I couldn’t do it.”

“I’m not surprised,” Damocles told me with a faint smile. “My sword isn’t one of my powers. It’s actually a device that I keep stored in subspace until I need it. I wanted to see if you were duplicating just my abilities, or if you were capable of copying the effects of my device as well.”

Next, Damocles brought in Pepper, who stared at me without saying a word. Ever since I’d arrived, I hadn’t heard him speak even once. He held out his hand and I cautiously touched it, feeling the tingle as I got his powers, whatever they were. A minute later, I found out that he was an external gravity warper who could either reduce or increase the effects of gravity on anything he touched, and then I proceeded to test this ability out for myself.

Once Pepper’s powers faded away, I tried it again with Salt’s abilities. She was what Damocles called a package deal psychic, so for the next fifteen minutes, I found I could telekinetically move small objects around just by willing it, and if I focused hard, I could sort of hear what Jackie was thinking. However, I couldn’t get much, just enough to know that she was worried for some reason.

The next stage of testing was more of the same thing, though this time I tried copying multiple powers at once. However, I soon found that if I was copying Pepper’s abilities, I couldn’t copy Salt’s at the same time, not until his wore off. After several more attempts, I’d confirmed that I could only copy one other person’s powers at a time. This struck me as odd, and then made me realize what Jackie had been thinking about when I’d caught some of her thoughts.

“How come I can only copy your powers for fifteen minutes?” I asked Damocles, gesturing to Jackie. “I’ve had her powers for a couple days…” Then I gulped and whispered, “And they’re not wearing off like everyone else’s has…”

“Have a seat,” Damocles told me, directing me back to his desk. “I believe I have enough information to provide my findings.”

I went and sat down, feeling very nervous about this. I had a bad feeling that I wasn’t going to like what I heard, though I was trying to remain positive. Jackie stood beside me, putting a comforting hand on my shoulder. Damocles didn’t join us right away but went into some back room and came back a minute later with some random objects that he placed on his desk.

“As I told you earlier, your primary power is that you are a power mimic,” Damocles stated. “You aren’t in Mimeo’s class, but you are a fairly powerful mimic. However, the nature of your powers also limit you a great deal.”

“What do you mean?” I asked suspiciously. “And why do I still have these powers?”

“You’ve imprinted on Pinball’s powers,” Damocles explained patiently. “When you copied her powers, you did so thoroughly and at a very high level. Her power signature appears to have been fully embedded within your own. In other words, you copied all of her powers permanently.”

“What?” I gasped, the word coming out as a squeak.

“I believe that with the way your powers work,” Damocles continued, seeming to either not notice or care that I was staring at him with a look of stunned disbelief. “You would have most likely imprinted in this fashion on the first mutant you came into physical contact with. Being able to permanently duplicate another mutant’s powers in this way is a very powerful ability, but it appears you can only use it once.”

I took a deep breath, trying to stay calm and pay attention to what he was saying. I knew that this was extremely important in understanding my new abilities, and what they would mean for the rest of my life. “Only once?” I asked curiously. “But I’ve already copied your powers too…”

Damocles reached for an empty glass that he’d put on his desk a short time ago and set it in front of me. “This glass represents your ability to hold other mutant’s abilities.” He grabbed a metal can that was full of what looked like metal ball bearings, each about the size of a marble. “These represent Pinball’s powers.” With that, he poured the ball bearings, though they might have been pinballs, into the glass until it was nearly full. “When you imprinted on Pinball’s powers, this used up most of your capacity to hold other powers. Now imagine if these bearings were glued to each other and the sides of the glass as well so they couldn’t be removed.”

“Since she copied my powers, she doesn’t have the ability to copy anyone else’s the same way,” Pinball said, earning a nod from Damocles.

Damocles opened a bottle of water and began pouring it into the glass. “There is still room to hold some powers,” he told me. “But you can’t hold very much and they must work around what is already present. Because of this, you can only hold one other person’s abilities at a time, for only a very short time, and at a much lesser degree than what the original owner’s possess.”

“What if I copied another exemplar?” I asked grimly. “What if I copied someone else’s BIT…and kept copying it?”

“You wouldn’t be able to copy anyone else’s powers deeply enough to get their BIT,” Damocles explained. “Even if you could, Pinball’s powers and BIT would take precedence so the new one wouldn’t be able to have any effect.”

Jackie gave me a sympathetic look, then asked Damocles, “So, what are her official MID ratings?”

“Power mimic five,” Damocles answered professionally. “Limited. This limitation means that she is effectively a power mimic two for all powers but yours. And as your abilities have been permanently duplicated, she is also an exemplar four, regen three, and energizer three.”

“Those are some pretty respectable ratings,” Jackie told me with a somewhat smug look, obviously thinking about her own contributions to my power ratings.

“Now then,” Damocles said, giving me an expectant look. “Have you decided on a codename? As I said earlier, it’s not strictly required, but it will help protect your privacy.”

I’d been so caught up in the testing results and what they meant that I hadn’t given the matter of a codename any real thought. I hesitantly suggested, “Mimic?”

“Copyrighted,” Damocles responded.

“Copycat?” I asked.

“Copyrighted,” Damocles repeated.

We repeated this several more times with Damocles even pulling up some sort of computer database that listed all codenames that were copyrighted or in use. All the names I could think of which were related to my power mimic abilities were either really lame or already in use.

“How about Goldeneyes,” I suggested in exasperation, referring to my odd eye color.

“That sounds like a James Bond movie,” Jackie pointed out with a chuckle. “But since you seem to be stuck…I mean blessed with my abilities, maybe something related to those. Maybe Cannonball…”

“Copyrighted,” Damocles said.

“Hardball?” I asked.

“Copyrighted,” Damocles said yet again.

“How about Powerball?” Jackie offered with a grin that suggested she wasn’t being too serious.

“That sounds like a lottery,” I responded with a faint chuckle.

“And it’s already in use,” Damocles added.

Jackie jokingly offered a few more, which I suspected may have been nicknames that people teased her with in the past. I absolutely shuddered when she suggested, “Bubbles.”

To my relief, and even amusement, Damocles responded, “Copyrighted.”

I just leaned back and summoned one of the force field bubbles, making the smallest one I could, which was about the size of a softball. The glowing sphere floated in the air in front of me and I stared at it intently, trying to draw some inspiration.

“How about Sphere?” I finally asked.

There was a pause while Damocles looked through the database before announcing, “Sphere is available.”

“Then it looks like you have a codename,” Jackie told me with a faint smile and an amused look. “Unless you want to keep looking for something better.”

“I think I’ll stick with that,” I said, looking to Damocles. It wasn’t a great codename, but it was one I could live with…and it was available.

Damocles nodded at that and then typed something into the computer. A minute later, an odd looking printer spat out what looked like a driver’s license. “This is your MID,” he stated as he handed it to me.

“It’s official,” Jackie told me with a grin. “The only thing you need now is a costume.” I glared at her and she chuckled for a moment. Then her expression darkened a little and she gave me a sympathetic look. “I know you didn’t find out how to change back like you were hoping for, but you did get some good information about how your powers really work. I just hope you can get used to this.”

“I’ll try,” I promised her quietly, though I had no idea how I could possibly get used to being a girl. Still, the last couple days had been really weird, but not too bad.

“I’m getting hungry again,” Jackie abruptly said. Then she put an arm over my shoulder and grinned. “Come on, let’s go find something to eat…Sphere.”

After David is caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, his entire life changes in ways he never could have expected. This is a fan fiction taking place in the Whateley Universe.

--------------------

Jackie and I were at breakfast, having found a diner that offered ‘all you can eat’ pancakes during a two hour period. I couldn’t help but feeling sorry for the owners since the two of us were definitely going to take full advantage of that offer. By the time we were done, they’d probably be out of pancakes and might even have to file for bankruptcy. That might have been a bit of an exaggeration, but I had no doubt that the diner was going to lose money on us because of how much we ate.

I was still stunned and amazed at how much food I’ve been eating lately, finding it hard to believe that I could eat two full plates and still feel hungry. I wondered how I could possibly fit all this in my stomach, but Jackie said it was due to having an energizer metabolism which converted all the food to energy at an extremely rapid rate.

After I’d started on my third stack of pancakes, I said, “If I keep eating like this, I’m going to be so fat…”

“Not a problem,” Jackie told me, pouring a ridiculous amount of syrup on her fourth stack of pancakes. “It’s very rare that you’ll see a fat energizer. We burn up the calories too quickly. And the only time you see a fat exemplar, it’s because being fat is part of their BIT.” Then she grinned at me and added, “Being able to eat all the junk food you want without getting fat is one of the advantages of being a mutant…or at least of being an exemplar and energizer combo.”

I chuckled at that, though I couldn’t help but thinking of all the disadvantages too. For one thing, I was getting hungry so much more easily, and then there was the amount of food I had to eat in order to satisfy my increased appetite. With food bills that high, it was no wonder Jackie had turned to a life of crime. Of course, these were just the minor disadvantages of being a mutant, well behind the fact that I had the MCO after me, couldn’t go home, and had spontaneously turned into a girl. At the moment, I was trying very hard not to think about those problems.

Yesterday, Damocles had made it very clear that I wasn’t going to be changing back to normal, that I’d be stuck looking like a younger version of Jackie for the rest of my life. I certainly wasn’t happy about that, but it was actually a relief to know what the situation was instead of having to guess.

I just wished that Damocles had at least pretended that he was sympathetic instead of acting like he really didn’t care. Then again, he worked with super villains for a living and had apparently been one himself, so I shouldn’t have been surprised. I guess hanging out with Jackie may have given me a distorted view of the profession, or at least made me briefly forget that they were the bad guys.

“The bad guys aren’t who they used to be,” I muttered to myself, thinking about the MCO. I used to think they were the good guys, that they protected baselines from dangerous mutants, but now I realized that from the mutant perspective, they were the bad guys. They hadn’t cared at all that I was just manifesting, that I was scared, confused and hadn’t done anything wrong. They just assumed that because I was a mutant, I was a monster and a threat. “Just like Mom.”

When we’d both finished eating, I looked to the waitress, who was cleaning plates from our table with a look of horror. I had a feeling that she was less than thrilled by the fact that she’d been serving us plate after plate of food for the last hour, and we were going to walk out of here with a bill of only twenty bucks. That wouldn’t leave her with much of a tip after all the work she’d done serving us.

“So what now?” I asked Jackie. “Time for the road trip back to your house?”

Last night, we’d finished with the power testing a bit later than Jackie had expected, so instead of spending two hours driving back, we went to a motel and stayed the night. We shared a room with two beds, which I’d found rather exciting in an odd way. After all, I’d never expected to share a room with such a hot babe, much less one who didn’t seem to care much about getting undressed in front of me. However, the fact that I looked like a younger version of her pretty much guaranteed that she had no interest in me.

“We need to get you some new clothes,” Jackie said after a moment of consideration. “There are some good shopping locations in the area, and since you’ve stopped changing, we can finally get you some things that fit properly.”

I nodded at that, knowing she was right. I definitely needed clothes that would fit my new body since I was tired of wearing things that were too tight in some places or too loose in others. And from the way I was now built, I was fully aware of the fact that boy clothes were out of the question.

As we got up to leave the diner, I noticed Jackie left a hundred dollar bill to pay our tab with. My eyes widened at that, especially since we only owed twenty for the meal. I quickly glanced to the exhausted waitress on the other side of the diner, knowing that a tip of this size would probably improve her mood a great deal.

Jackie and I walked down the busy sidewalk, further away from the parking garage where her car was still parked. After we’d finished our business with Damocles last night, Jackie had just left her car where it was rather than trying to find another parking spot. As she’d pointed out at the time, the motel was only half a block away and everything else was within easy walking distance as well.

“We’ll start with the important things first,” Jackie told me, pulling me towards a lingerie shop. “You need the basics, especially since you’re a little too obvious in that shirt…”

I looked down at the shirt I was wearing, wondering what was wrong with it. It took me several seconds before I noticed that the shape of my nipples were clearly visible poking out. I blushed at that, suddenly feeling self-conscious and admitting, “That might be a good idea.”

I felt just a little nervous as I stepped into the lingerie store, but a quickly glance around revealed that there were a couple of very hot looking women present. I smiled faintly at that, especially when I saw one woman coming out of a changing room with a lacy bra on but nothing else on top.

“Try not to be so obvious,” Jackie whispered to me with an amused look, making me blush brightly.

After half a minute, one of the women I’d been admiring started towards us. She was one of the sales clerks and had a name badge on that said her name was Jessica. Jessica gave us a pleasant smile and asked, “May I help you?”

“Yes,” Jackie responded just as pleasantly. “My sister just went through a growth spurt so we’re going to need a measurement and some new undergarments.”

“That won’t be a problem,” Jessica started, then as she turned to give me a closer look, her eyes widened in surprise and perhaps a little fear. “Your eyes…”

“Those contacts are just too much,” Jackie quickly said, letting out an exaggerated sigh of exasperation. “I told her she doesn’t need those to stand out, but apparently it’s the latest fad at school…”

“Hey, these are cool,” I protested, playing along to help cover for my odd eyes. Then I grinned and proudly told her, “I’ve got another pair at home that are totally awesome… I mean, they’re green and glow in the dark… They’re totally awesome for the rave…”

“I’ve told you before,” Jackie said in a stern tone. “You’re too young to go to those places…”

I snorted dismissively and responded, “You’re not my Mom…”

By this point, Jessica was chuckling at our antics and no longer seemed nervous. “Those contacts are very interesting,” she finally told me. “So, what’s your name?”

“Da…,” I started to answer before remembering how I looked and correcting myself. “Na… Dana.”

“That’s a very nice name,” Jessica said pleasantly.

“Yes it is,” Jackie added with a look of amusement.

We chatted politely for another minute, or at least Jackie and Jessica talked about what kind of things I’d need. Once Jessica hurried away, Jackie told me, “I think we might need to get you a pair of sunglasses. Your eyes are a little…”

“Freakish?” I supplied.

“Distinct,” she corrected me.

A few minutes later, Jessica took me and Jackie in the back, then had me take off my top so she could measure me. Jackie watched the whole process with obvious amusement, probably at the idea of a guy getting measured for a bra. If I knew one of the guys at school had gone through something like this, I would have teased him mercilessly.

“You should have put the sports bra back on this morning,” Jackie commented. “It would have done until we finished here…”

“Bite me,” I responded almost cheerfully, which seemed to amuse her even more.

Once Jessica was done measuring me, she ran off to get some bras for me to try on to make sure they fit. I didn’t bother protesting the need for one, knowing that any girl my age would be required to wear a bra, especially one as big as I was. At fifteen years old, a D cup was a bit larger than the average, and I was also fully aware of the fact that Jackie was three inches taller than me and a few cup sizes larger, which meant that I would have a bit more growing to do as well.

Getting measured for bra size and then trying them on should have been totally humiliating, but it wasn’t as bad as I’d feared. Jessica treated the whole thing so matter-of-factly, acting as though it was completely normal and nothing to be embarrassed about in the least. Jackie seemed amused by my situation, but she didn’t make too big a deal about it, much to my relief.

By the time we left, I had four bras, one of which I wore out, and a bunch of panties. When I saw the bill for all that, I nearly choked, surprised by just how expensive it all was. My whole dresser full of boy underwear and socks didn’t add up to what a single bra cost.

“I can’t believe you spent that much on me,” I protested to Jackie as we left.

“I guess I am getting low on funds,” Jackie teased me, gesturing to a bank across the street and saying, “How about I go make a withdrawal?”

“NOW?” I gasped in horror, though Jackie just burst out laughing.

“No,” she responded, still grinning. “I wouldn’t pull something this close to Damocles’ place. It would draw too much attention here and make him unhappy with me. And trust me, you do NOT want Damocles angry at you. Besides, I have a policy that the only banks I go after are Goodkind Bank branches.” Then she gestured to a nearby jewelry store and mused, “Now that store on the other hand… The owner is a pretty vocal Humanity First supporter, and if it wasn’t for Damocles living just down the street…”

I snorted and said, “You almost make it sound like being a bank robber is a good thing…”

“Well, I do donate a lot to charity,” Jackie told me with a grin. “Mostly my own, but some of it does go to mutant support groups.”

Jackie and I started going into a clothing store so I could pick up some real clothes, and I suddenly wondered just how much this would cost. “Why are you doing all this for me?” I asked Jackie. “I mean, you went out of your way to save me from the MCO, and I know you probably paid that Highwayman guy a lot to help you. I doubt Damocles did all that power testing stuff for free. And now you’re buying me all these clothes…”

“You needed help,” she told me with a shrug. “So I helped.”

“If you were all about helping people,” I pointed out, “then why are you a criminal instead of a hero?” Then I paused, suddenly feeling guilty for pressing her like that, especially after everything she’d done for me. “Sorry, I don’t mean to be rude or anything. I mean, I’m really grateful for everything you’re doing, but it just seems like so much…”

“It’s okay,” she assured me with a faint smile. “Honestly, I’d probably question my motives too. I’m not exactly in a line of work that garners a lot of trust.” She let out a sigh and actually looked sort of sad for a moment.

“I’m sorry,” I said again.

“Don’t apologize for being curious,” Jackie told me. “As for the why, I already told you that I felt responsible for your situation. And like I told you, you do remind me a lot of my little brother. He was always a smartass too.” Then she grinned at me before her expression turned serious again and she continued, “Both of those reasons are completely true. But the truth is, you kind of remind me of myself as well. Between that and your…situation…I guess I’ve started thinking of you like a little sister.”

I stared at Jackie, a little surprised at that revelation, especially since it hadn’t even been a full week since we first met. But in spite of having met because she robbed a bank and took me hostage, she’d been very good towards me. Even while she was in the middle of a bank robbery, she’d tried to protect and look out for me. She’d rescued me from the MCO, took care of me when I was injured, gave me a place to stay, and she’d been acting as my mentor with my powers and all things mutant related. And along with all that, she even seemed to enjoy teasing me. It startled me to realize that she really had been acting a lot like a big sister.

After several long seconds, I gave Jackie a nervous smile and admitted, “I’ve always wanted a big sister.” Of course, that wasn’t completely true. I’d always wanted a big brother, but I saw no reason to tell her that.

Jackie smiled, seeming rather happy about that. Then she put her arm over my shoulder and announced, “Then I guess we need a sisterly shopping trip, complete with mani-pedis and a makeover…”

I groaned at that, then joked, “I should have kept my mouth shut…”

“Too late for that…Dana,” Jackie said with a grin.

I let out a sigh, wondering if I could have come up with a better name but suspecting it was too late. “You know,” I told Jackie with my best innocent look, “Little sisters have a God given obligation to be an enormous pain in the butt…”

“Then you’re already doing a good job,” she responded with a smirk.

Jackie and I continued to talk while we looked at clothes, picking out a few outfits that would work for me. I had to try some of the clothes on to make sure they fit, but we didn’t get carried away. I might have a killer body now, but I wasn’t comfortable with the idea of dressing all sexy, and Jackie didn’t push me.

We ended up finding some clothes that were nice and even a bit feminine, but without being too sexy or revealing. I could handle wearing tight jeans and a blouse, just so long as it didn’t reveal too much cleavage.

Once Jackie and I were finished getting my new clothes, we started back towards the car with our hands full of bags. I wasn’t sure if Jackie intended to start heading back to her house, or if she wanted to just drop the bags off so we could go to lunch.

We were almost back to the parking garage when Jackie suddenly froze and hissed, “Torment.”

“What?” I asked in confusion. Then I noticed that Jackie was staring at a large man who was wearing a trenchcoat and hat. He had on a pair of sunglasses, and what little I could see of his face looked brutish and ugly.

“That man,” Jackie said carefully. “His name is Torment, and you do NOT want him to notice you. In fact, if you ever see him again, get away from him as quickly as you can.”

I stared at Torment, who went into the parking garage, obviously intending to go visit Damocles. Between his name, destination, and Jackie’s reaction to him, it was pretty clear that he was in the super villain business as well.

“I take it he’s in your line of work,” I said carefully, fishing for more information.

Jackie scowled at that, reminding me of her dislike of being referred to as a ‘villain’. “He’s a mercenary and hitman, but his hobby is doing unspeakable things to women. I had to work with him on a job once. Never again.”

I gulped, deciding that in this situation, I would definitely take Jackie’s advice and avoid the man. If he could make her this uncomfortable, I didn’t want anything to do with him.

Suddenly, a voice called out, “Pinball!”

“Shit,” Jackie spat out, glaring at the source of the exclamation.

The woman was beautiful, blonde, and stacked…not to mention floating in the air a short distance away. She wore a blue and white spandex costume that covered her entire body from the neck down and included a stylized star symbol that covered most of her chest and a blue mask around her eyes.

“Super Star,” Jackie said in contempt.

The flying blonde, who seemed to be called Super Star, continued to hover in the air, looking imperious as she put her hands on her hips and stared down at Jackie, as though she was a mother who was scolding a wayward child. Something about her body language and expression immediately made me dislike her.

“Pinball,” Super Star repeated. “I was following Torment to discover what he was up to, but I didn’t expect you to be involved. I knew you’d gone bad, but even I never suspected you’d go so far as to work with a monster like him. Fortunately, I saw you before you could meet up with him. Now you’re going to tell me what he has planned.”

“I have nothing to do with Torment,” Jackie exclaimed. “Now fly your ass out of here Holly, because I have better things to do than deal with you.”

“You really think I’m going to believe that,” Super Star exclaimed, looking offended. “I caught you and your lackey going right to him…”

“Lackey?” I blurted out, now getting angry myself.

“This is my sister,” Jackie stated grimly. “And we were simply out shopping.” She held up the bags she was carrying.

“She may look like you,” Super Star said, “but I know good and well you don’t have a sister. And even if everything you said was true, it still doesn’t change anything. I heard that you kidnapped a boy, and I’m going to make you tell me where he is…”

With that, Super Star suddenly flew straight at Jackie, who merely formed her force field bubble. The apparent hero punched the force field, though it didn’t seem to do any good. However, Jackie dropped the force field, along with her bags, and before Super Star could react, Jackie grabbed her and threw her right into the middle of traffic where a car smashed into her.

“Oh shit,” I exclaimed.

“Don’t worry about Super Star,” Jackie told me grimly. “That Cape Squad nitwit is a PK Supergirl. It will take a lot more than a car to stop her.”

Then as if to confirm what Jackie said, Super Star got to her feet and shoved the smashed car to the side. She glared at Jackie with a pissed off look then started walking towards us with a determined expression.

“Damn,” Jackie muttered. “Take our bags to the car and wait for me there. I’ll deal with her and catch up as soon as I can.”

I wanted to protest that I had powers now too and could help, but the truth was, I knew good and well that I had almost no training. And even if I did know what I was doing, I didn’t think I wanted to fight a super hero.

“Just don’t get sent to jail,” I told her as I began picking up all the bags. “You’re my ride after all.”

“Such concern for my safety,” she told me with a faint smirk. “Now go…”

I hurried off with the bags, turning back just in time to see Jackie rolling off down the street with Super Star flying after her. I winced slightly as Jackie lunged into the middle of the street and bounced off a car, then I shook my head and hurried into the parking garage and the car.

“I just hope I don’t run into that Torment guy,” I muttered, suddenly feeling very nervous.

Fortunately, I made it to the car without any sign of Torment. Of course, I’d been going up a floor while he’d probably gone down to the lowest one so he could see Damocles. After I’d dropped all the bags off in the car, I couldn’t resist going to see how Jackie was doing.

When I stepped out of the parking garage, I couldn’t see any signs of Jackie or Super Star. It looked like they’d taken their fight out of range, much to my disappointment. I’d actually been looking forward to watching it.

I returned to the car where I sat and waited for another fifteen minutes. Jackie finally returned, walking up as though nothing unusual had happened. However, she was wearing sunglasses, a new jacket, and a baseball cap.

“Did you beat her?” I asked curiously, both excited and worried at the same time.

“I barely even fought her,” Jackie responded with a grin. “This time, that is. I gave her a red herring, made her think I ran into a building to get away from her, then slipped away and came back here.”

I nodded at that, then hesitantly said, “It sounded like you two have a history.”

“You could say that,” Jackie replied, climbing into the car and starting the engine. “We used to go to school together, back at Whateley, but we didn’t exactly get along well even back then. She was really into some guy, but he was interested in me instead. She accused me of trying to steal her boyfriend and I accused her of being a stupid bitch. At the time, I couldn’t exactly come out and tell them I only liked girls, so the whole thing came off like some cheesy drama.”

I blinked at that. “You mean, that whole thing was about some high school love triangle?”

“That’s how it started,” Jackie admitted with a sigh. As we pulled out of the parking garage and began driving off, she explained, “A couple years later, I became at odds with the law and she saw it as a chance to settle an old grudge while claiming moral superiority. She came after me and we’ve tangled a number of times since then.”

“So she’s your…arch enemy?” I asked.

Jackie just snorted at that. “More of a high school rival who never let go.” Then her expression darkened a bit more and she said, “But the last time I went to visit my family, Super Star attacked me. She’d been watching my parents, keeping them under surveillance so she could catch me when I showed up. She’s the reason I haven’t seen any of my family in years.”

“That really sucks,” I said, feeling sorry for Jackie.

I reached out and grabbed her hand, giving me a gentle squeeze and trying to be comforting. She’d done so much to help me and I really wished I could do something to return the favor.

After David is caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, his entire life changes in ways he never could have expected. This is a fan fiction taking place in the Whateley Universe.

--------------------

I stared into my half-empty cup of coffee, letting out a faint sigh. Mom had never liked to let me drink coffee, saying that it made me too hyper. Jackie and Emily didn’t care and let me drink as much as I wanted. This was actually my third cup today, but I still didn’t feel it. My go juice no longer provided any go.

“Stupid regeneration,” I muttered in annoyance. I’d already built up an immunity to caffeine, and even if I hadn’t, my power would have wiped it out of my system too fast to get much effect.

I was sitting in the living room and feeling depressed, but it had nothing to do with the coffee. In fact, it wasn’t even because of my gender change, as awkward as that was.

It had been four days since Damocles had told me that my change was permanent, that I’d be stuck looking like Jackie for the rest of my life. I wasn’t happy about that, but at least I knew what the situation was and didn’t have to go chasing after some false hope of turning back to normal. In a strange way, knowing that I couldn’t undo this was freeing.

Even though I wasn’t thrilled about being turned into a girl, I had to admit that it wasn’t really that bad. Sure, I still felt a bit weird, but I was starting to get more comfortable in my new body. And it wasn’t like losing the ability to pee standing up was a huge loss, especially when I considered all the powers I’d gained in exchange.

Over the last few days, I’d been trying not to cry or complain about my sudden sex change. Instead, I was just trying to get used to the idea and deal with it the best I could. After all, whether I liked it or not, this was who I was now. I just had to get used to it.

What was bothering me and had made me mope around for the last couple days was the thought of my family. In spite of what my Mom had done, and the fact that my parents hated mutants, I still loved them. The thought of never being able to see them again, of never being able to see Becky again… It felt like I had a knot in my stomach from thinking about that.

Jackie came into the living room and sat down with her laptop. I watched her typing for a minute before I asked, “What are you up to?”

“I’m just reviewing a couple job offers,” Jackie responded with an amused smile.

“Job offers?” I asked in surprise.

“Sure,” she agreed pleasantly. “I have one offer from an organization that is looking for some supers to keep the West Coast Wonders occupied and distracted so they won’t be able to interfere in a robbery. That one is a possibility.”

I took a sip of my coffee, then encouraged her to continue. “You said offers…as in plural.”

“Well, it seems like someone is also trying to put a group together,” Jackie continued. “This one looks like a revenge attack on some hero they haven’t identified. That one is out. For one thing, I’m not a killer and won’t be part of an assassination attempt. For another, revenge missions are unprofessional and tend to get messy.”

“And there is one more offer,” Jackie added, looking at her laptop again. “Someone is just putting some feelers out, looking for someone to recover an artifact of power from some heroes… That one is a possibility, but breaking into the headquarters of some hero group sounds just a little too risky.”

“So, are you going to take any of those jobs?” I asked.

Jackie thought about it for a moment, then said, “Maybe the first one. I’ll have to get some more details before I make a decision.”

“You know, listening to you talk about your work is pretty interesting,” I told Jackie, then before she got the wrong idea, I quickly added, “But don’t expect me to follow in your footsteps.”

Jackie gave me an amused look, then admitted, “Actually, I’d prefer if you didn’t go into this line of work. The work conditions are lousy, the union dues are too high, and the retirement plan really sucks.”

“Then why do you do it?” I asked. “Why not get a real job, like Emily?”

There was a long pause before Jackie carefully said, “Not everyone has that option.”

With that, Jackie closed her laptop and then got up and left the room. I watched her go, feeling guilty for bringing something up that obviously bothered her. However, a couple minutes later she came back into the living room, holding a duffel bag which I knew contained her costume.

“Come on, Dana,” she told me with a grin. “We’re going to go work on your powers a little more.”

I grinned at that, thankful for the distraction from all my worries and the pouting I’d been doing off and on for the last couple says. I was also glad for the chance to get out and do something. After all, living with a bank robber might sound exciting, but most of the time it was pretty normal and even a little boring.

After we climbed into her SUV, it didn’t take me long to realize that we weren’t going to the warehouse like I’d expected. Instead, we were heading in another direction entirely, though Jackie refused to say where our new destination was.

“Are we there yet?” I finally asked.

“Not yet,” Jackie told me.

I waited just another minute, then repeated, “Are we there yet?”

“Another ten minutes,” she told me.

I just smiled and gave her my best innocent look before asking, “Are we there yet?”

Jackie gave me a mock glare and asked, “Are you going to keep asking me that the entire way?”

“Maybe,” I responded with a cheerful smile. “By the way…are we there yet?”

We eventually arrived at a very large and open field, and when Jackie parked the SUV, my first thought was that she needed a potty break. But when she grabbed the duffel bag with her costume, I realized what she must have in mind.

“This isn’t quite as private as the warehouse,” Jackie told me as she opened the duffel bag and pulled out not only her costume, but also a bright red jogging suit, which she tossed to me. “But it’s a lot more open so we can cut loose more…”

Jackie began changing into her costume so I sighed and put in the jogging suit she’d brought for me. Obviously, she’d picked it because the color matched her costume, though at least she hadn’t brought me spandex. After looking at Jackie, I had to admit that I’d probably look awesome in spandex, but I still wasn’t sure I liked the idea of wearing something that revealing.

A few minutes later, Jackie and I began my training, which actually consisted of another game of racing each other, playing tag, and playing bumper cars. We both called up our force field bubbles and rolled around in the open field, giving me practice with moving and maneuvering at the higher speeds.

“Stay on the ground,” Jackie told me after I’d levitated my sphere into the air in order to avoid being hit by her. “We’ll work on that later.”

After practicing for over an hour, we paused to take a break. I was tired of keeping my force field up and definitely needed the rest. I also needed the power bars and energy drinks that Jackie had brought for us to snack on.

While we ate, Jackie mused, “I’m going to have to find a place where you can practice smashing into things and controlling your ricochets.”

“The inside of your warehouse won’t do?” I asked with a smirk.

“Not if I want to keep the place intact,” she responded with a chuckle, then quickly adding, “And I do. Of course, we could practice in one of the other warehouses there, but if anyone ever checked on the properties and found the buildings damaged, it would increase the odds of them searching and finding the one I’ve claimed for myself.”

When Jackie and I were finished with our break, we went back to work training. This time, she helped me practice with some of the things that I could do which she couldn’t. Specifically, I practiced flying around inside of my sphere, doing many of the same things I’d previously done on the ground. And then, we brainstormed to try figuring out some other tricks I might be able to perform.

By the time we finished, I was exhausted and no longer had the energy to summon even a grape fruit sized bubble. However, it had been a very productive training session and Jackie promised that we’d stop for ice cream to celebrate.

Several hours later, we were back at the house and getting ready for dinner. Emily had been late getting home for work so Jackie was giving her a back massage while I worked on the food.

The oven was full with over a dozen breaded pork chops while a large pot boiled potatoes on the stovetop. I was chopping up some broccoli to go with the meal, even though I didn’t really care for the stuff. Still, that was the veggie Emily had stocked the fridge with so that was what I prepared.

Cooking like this made me feel useful, like I was actually earning my keep here rather than being a mooch. It was kind of funny since I’d never had that concern when I was back home and had looked for any excuse to get out of what meager chores I had.

At the same time, cooking reminded me of my Dad, who’d taught me almost everything I knew. The depression returned as I thought about him and what he had to think of me now. Dad hated mutants which meant that he must be horrified that his own kid had turned into one.

Since I was a mutant, I knew there was probably a good chance that Becky would end up being one too. I shuddered at the thought of my little sister having to go through the same thing I had. Would Mom and Dad call the MCO on her too? I really hoped that she wasn’t a mutant, just so she’d never have to find out.

I was still thinking about my family and feeling depressed as we ate dinner. I barely contributed anything to the conversation as Jackie and Emily talked about a frequent topic, Whateley Academy. For the most part, the two of them reminisced about their days attending the school for mutants, though they also discussed the possibility of sending me there.

“What better place is there for her to learn how to control her powers?” Jackie pointed out. Then she grinned and added, “Besides with me that is.”

“But it’s also expensive,” Emily pointed out. “And then there’s the small matter of the legalities, specifically, the fact that we aren’t her legal guardians and have no legal authority to enroll her…”

“Details,” Jackie said dismissively. Then she teased, “For someone who used to be an anarchist, you sure are picky about the rules…”

Emily merely smiled at that and responded, “And for someone who used to be a straight arrow, you sure are eager to break them.”

“Rules are meant to be broken,” Jackie responded cheerfully, taking another pork chop from the plate.

Emily turned to me and gave me a concerned look. “Are you okay? You’ve been pretty quiet tonight.”

“I’m fine,” I lied, giving her a reassuring smile.

Emily reached out and took my hand, giving it a comforting squeeze. I felt the tingling sensation that told me I’d accidentally copied her powers.

Suddenly, Emily and Jackie both froze and began to scowl. Emily yanked her hand back and stared at me in surprise.

“You most certainly aren’t,” she stated firmly. “You’re projecting your emotions…”

“I didn’t realize you were having such a hard time,” Jackie exclaimed, giving me a sympathetic look. “You haven’t been complaining about being a girl, so I thought you were adjusting…”

“It’s not that,” I responded self-consciously, feeling exposed and vulnerable at having them knowing my innermost emotions so intimately. “At least not mostly…”

Jackie stared at me for a moment more. “Your family,” she said in understanding. I nodded at that, feeling guilty for making her worry.

“It’s okay,” Emily told me gently, giving my hand another gentle squeeze. “You have a right to be unhappy about this…”

“The whole situation stinks,” Jackie agreed sympathetically. “What happened with your family and turning into a girl…no matter how gorgeous. I know it can’t be easy for a boy to go through that.”

Emily nodded at that, then joked, “Though after this, I might have to give you some lessons on controlling my powers too. You don’t want to copy a psychic’s powers and then unintentionally broadcast all your thoughts and feelings to everyone around you.”

At the same time, Jackie had a grim expression on her face as she got up from the table. She grabbed her cell phone, an odd looking thing that was a dull black color and a little larger than most current phones on the market.

“It’s a divisor phone,” Jackie told me with a wry smile. “Encoded, untraceable, and VERY expensive. It’s also a necessity in my line of work.”

“Who are you calling?” I asked, wondering why she’d gotten up to make a call without any warning.

Jackie dialed a number, and a few seconds later, she announced, “Hello, I’m a friend of David’s.”

“What?” I gasped in surprise.

“He is safe,” Jackie continued, “and in good health. However, his appearance has been drastically altered due to his mutation and you would no longer recognize him.”

“Jackie,” I started, but Emily put a hand on my shoulder.

“Wait,” she told me, giving Jackie a curious look.

There was a long pause while Jackie appeared to be listening, then she said, “No, I will not put him on to talk to you, not right now. No, this is not a threat or ransom demand. I’m not interested in your money. My intention here is simple. I want to help David.” Jackie paused again, scowling as she did so. “The truth is, David was turned over to the MCO, who beat him, shot him, and intended to do far worse. He’s afraid to return home…for good reason.”

“What are you doing?” Emily asked Jackie, looking worried.

“Is that my Mom?” I asked nervously, feeling hopeful and afraid at the same time. “My Dad?”

“I can arrange a meeting,” Jackie finally said. “IF David agrees. No, your home is out of the question. Any meeting will be at a place of my choosing, somewhere I can keep David safe.” She paused again and nodded a few times. “I’ll discuss this with David, and if he agrees, I’ll provide you with the time and place.”

“Well,” Emily urged once Jackie hung up the phone.

“That was your Dad,” Jackie told me with a grim expression. “If you want to talk to your parents, we can do it in a safe place. Maybe you can reconcile with them…” The tone in her voice suggested that she was a little skeptical of that. “Or at the very least, find out where things stand once and for all.”

“Of course I want to see them,” I blurted out, though the truth was, I was terrified of doing so. But as Jackie had just pointed out, there were some things I needed to find out for certain.

After David is caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, his entire life changes in ways he never could have expected. This is a fan fiction taking place in the Whateley Universe.

--------------------

The place Jackie had chosen for the meeting was the Silver Lake Overlook, a restaurant with a large back patio that looked out over the lake. The two of us had arrived an hour early, partly so Jackie could keep an eye out for suspicious activity and partly so we could have lunch before the actual meeting.

I had my hair pulled back into a pony tail and was wearing a pair of sunglasses to hide my eyes. Jackie was wearing a pair of sunglasses as well, though hers were less about hiding her eyes than about fashion.

I ate my lunch in silence, feeling a mixture of excitement and nervousness. Ever since Jackie had made that call last night, I hadn’t been able to focus on anything else. Would my parents apologize and say they wanted me back, or would they tell me I was a monster they never wanted to see again? Part of me wanted to just go find a place to hide so I wouldn’t have to get the bad news, but I reminded myself that whether the results were good or bad, this was something I had to do.

“What if they changed their minds?” I asked Jackie nervously. “What if they don’t show up?”

“But what if they do?” she reminded me pleasantly.

However, I knew Jackie well enough to know that she wasn’t quite as optimistic as she pretended. For one thing, she was watching our surroundings very carefully, even if it was difficult to tell through her sunglasses. And for another, this meeting place was at least an hour
drive for my parents, and had been even more than that for her.

Eventually, my Dad arrived in the patio seating area, and though I started to get up the moment I saw him, Jackie put a hand on my arm and indicated that I should stay. We remained where we were for several minutes, watching as Dad sat down at a table and then looked around nervously. There was no sign of Mom or Becky.

“You stay here for now,” Jackie told me quietly. “I’ll indicate when you can come over.”

With that, Jackie stood up and walked around the patio before sitting down across from my Dad. “Hello Mister Michaels,” Jackie greeted Dad pleasantly. “Or may I call you Gerald?”

“You’re the one who called me,” Dad said, staring at Jackie with a nervous look.

“I am,” she agreed, her expression serious.

“Where’s David?” Dad demanded.

Jackie just smiled as she responded, “Nearby. He’s very nervous about seeing you like this, especially since he’s changed.”

“What do you mean by changed?” Dad demanded.

“As I told you last night,” Jackie explained patiently, “David’s mutation caused his body to change. He’s very self-conscious about that, especially as far as you and your wife are concerned. After being turned over to the MCO merely for having odd colored eyes, he’s afraid of what your reaction might be to this…”

Dad looked shaken at that, and for a moment, I thought he was going to get up and leave. Instead, he gave Jackie a firm look and said, “I want to see my son.”

“All right,” Jackie agreed. “I just wanted to prepare you first.” Then she gestured to me.

I took a deep breath, then stood up and went over to Dad’s table. Dad stared at me with a look of confusion, though I just smiled nervously as I removed my glasses and sat down.

“Hi Dad,” I said quietly.

“David?” he blurted out with a look of stunned disbelief.

All I could do was nod at that and stare down at myself in embarrassment. “I’m going by Dana,” I finally said, not able to bring myself to look him in the eyes. “It seemed more appropriate.”

“What?” he gasped. “How?” Then he stared at Jackie and I could see the flash of recognition and then suspicion. “You look like her…”

“It’s my mutation,” I tried to explain, not sure how much I could tell him. “I sort of imprinted on her when I manifested, which is why I look so much like her. If I’d run into a different mutant, I probably would have ended up looking like them instead.” Of course, that only would have happened if the other mutant was an exemplar too, but I thought that might be a bit too much information at the moment.

“We’ve already talked to an expert,” Jackie said. “Her new appearance is permanent and can’t be reversed…”

Dad just stared at me, making me extremely uncomfortable. I thought he was going to yell that I wasn’t David and that this was just some kind of trick. Instead, he quietly said, “Your eyes… They’re the same as they were the night before you left…”

“I didn’t…leave,” I spat out bitterly. “The MCO came in, beat the crap out of me, murdered Mister Harris, and then chained me up like I was some kind of monster...” I gestured to Jackie and added, “She was the one who rescued me.”

Dad stared at me with a look of disbelief, then protested, “You must have misunderstood. The MCO don’t do that kind of thing…”

“The SHOT me,” I yelled, gesturing to my shoulder which had long since healed without a trace. “They tried to kill me...”

Dad gasped at that, staring at me for a few more seconds. Then he looked at Jackie with a suspicious look. “You’re that super villain, aren’t you? You’re the one who robbed that bank.”

“Yes,” Jackie answered without any shame or embarrassment. “My name is Pinball.”

“Pinball,” Dad repeated, saying the name almost as though it was a profanity. “So you’ve kidnapped David and now you’re trying to brainwash him into being a super villain?”

“She didn’t kidnap me,” I snapped at Dad, angry at that accusation. “She saved my life…”

“Actually,” Jackie told Dad, giving him a flat look. “Between how Dana was treated by the MCO and her own family, she was already being pushed to that. My intention is to keep her safe and give her options…”

“Like I’d really believe that of some mutant super villain,” Dad spat out.

Jackie removed her glasses and glared at Dad for a moment, but she made no threatening moves. I knew full well that if she meant Dad harm, there was nothing he could do. Dad seemed to realize that as well, but he didn’t look like he was going to back down.

“Do you really think this is the life I wanted?” Jackie finally asked, keeping her voice low and steady, but I could hear the strong emotions in it. “Do you think I wanted to be a criminal…unable to live a normal life or even see my own family? I didn’t. I wanted to be an architect. I was even going to college for it.”

“Jackie,” I said, giving her a worried look.

Jackie had told me a lot about her time at Whateley Academy, and she’d told me a few stories about her time as a criminal. However, she’d never said a word about what happened in between, about why she’d become a criminal.

“I’d confided that I was a mutant to one of my friends,” Jackie continued grimly. “Someone I trusted. But she outed me, told everyone I was a mutant. Then a bunch of Humanity First supporters decided to set my house on fire…while I was sleeping. I woke up in time to get out, but I lost my home and everything I owned.”

“Oh shit,” I whispered, not sure which was worse, the betrayal of her friend or the attempt to burn her to death.

“Afterwards, the police refused to do anything,” Jackie said with a deep scowl. “Even though I saw a couple of the people involved. Since I was a mutant, they accused me of starting the fire with my powers. My insurance company went with that story and accused me of insurance fraud. The college kicked me out, saying that because I was a mutant, I was a danger to all the other students. And then, the MCO came to arrest me…”

I stared at Jackie in sympathy, realizing that as bad as I’d had it with the MCO, she’d gone through much worse. Because of that friend’s betrayal, she’d lost everything.

Jackie went silent for several seconds before she continued her story. “After I escaped from the MCO, I realized I had to take matters into my own hands. Since the police refused to do anything, I went after the people who’d tried killing me on my own. They destroyed my home, so I destroyed theirs. And while I was doing this, I found out the police chief was with Humanity First as well. The damn bastard was covering for his buddies, so I went after his house and car too. By the time it was done, I was officially declared a super villain.”

“That’s…horrible,” Dad said, now giving Jackie a look of sympathy as well.

“The law is a social contract,” Jackie told him with a scowl. “It says that if you follow the rules, you will be protected. I followed the rules but I wasn’t protected. I was told that because I was a mutant, I didn’t have any rights and the law didn’t have to protect me. Since the law doesn’t apply to me, why should I obey it? Why should I follow the rules?”

“Miss Pinball,” Dad started, looking awkward and even a little guilty.

Dad wasn’t an official member of Humanity First, but I knew that he’d always sympathized with them and their goals of protecting humans from dangerous mutants. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to care about protecting mutants from dangerous humans.

Jackie shook her head, then reached out and took my hand, giving me a reassuring smile. “When mutants aren’t allowed to live within the law, they have no choice but to live outside it. I’m trying to help Dana avoid that.”

“Thank you,” I told her with a nervous smile. “I don’t know what I would have done if you weren’t there for me.”

Jackie smiled faintly at that, then said, “I’ll give you two some privacy.” With that, she got up and walked away.

“David,” Dad said carefully, giving me an odd look. Then he forced a faint smile. “Dana… Becky really misses you…”

“I miss her,” I admitted, then joked, “Even if she is a brat.”

“You do know she’s just following your example,” he pointed out with a chuckle. “She really looks up to you.”

I smiled at that. In spite of the way that Becky was often a pain in my ass, I loved her and had always tried to be a good big brother. Of course, being a big brother meant that I had certain obligations which included but weren’t limited to noogies and teasing.

“That villain,” Dad abruptly said, his eyes darting in the direction where Jackie had gone.

“Pinball,” I corrected Dad, feeling annoyed at him for calling Jackie a villain, especially after what she’d just told us.

“Pinball,” Dad responded with a faint smile. “Is she taking good care of you?”

“She’s been great,” I told him honestly. “She saved me when she didn’t have to. She’s been helping me learn to control my powers…and adjust to all this.” I gestured down at myself. “She’s sort of like the big sister I never had.”

“That’s good,” Dad said, looking a little relieved. “But is she getting you in trouble at all?”

I shook my head at that. “No, she’s been keeping me out of it. She was telling the truth when she said she wasn’t teaching me to be a criminal or anything.”

Dad and I talked for a little longer, with him telling me about what had been going on at home and at the diner since I’d left. I told him a little bit about what I’d been doing, though I didn’t mention Emily and I kept a lot of details vague. There were certain things that he was probably better off not knowing.

Finally, Dad said, “I know I’ve never been very fond of mutants.” Then he paused and stared at me for a moment before adding, “But you’re still my son… Or at least, I’m still your father. This isn’t easy for me to wrap my head around, but I’ll try.”

“Thank you,” I said as tears began running down my cheeks. On an impulse, I gave Dad a hug, feeling better for doing so.

“Does that mean I can come home?” I asked him hesitantly.

“I want you to come home,” Dad told me, though I could hear the silent ‘but’ in that statement.

I scowled as I thought about it, then said, “But the MCO will probably be watching for me…”

Dad nodded at that, looking unhappy. “And your mother,” he finally said, grimacing. “She…”

“She doesn’t like mutants either,” I stated, remembering the look on her face when the MCO took me away.

Dad nodded again and gave me a guilty look. “She honestly thinks you’re dangerous and is worried that you’ll hurt Becky… She does love you, but I think she’s forgotten that at the moment…”

I couldn’t think of anything to say to that, so I wiped my tears away, though new ones were coming to replace them. However, these new ones weren’t tears of happiness like the previous ones.

“I don’t think it would be safe for you back home,” Dad admitted, looking almost like it was painful for him to say that. “Not right now.”

Then Dad looked to Jackie, who was sitting down at table where we’d eaten, and he called to her, “You’d better take good care of him…her…or powers or no powers…”

“I will,” Jackie agreed, getting up and coming over. “I’ll look after her like she was my own sister.”

Dad nodded at that, looking just a little worried but also seeming satisfied. Then he turned to me and said, “I’ll work on your mother, but for now…” He shook his head and let out a sigh before adding, “Just try to keep in contact. Maybe email me on my private account…”

“I will,” I promised him, giving him an honest smile. My Mom might still dislike me for being a mutant, but at least I had my Dad back. And who knows, maybe he’d be able to get Mom to change her opinion…though I doubted it.

Just then, there was a lot of noise coming from a short distance away. I quickly turned to look, then gasped in horror at the sight of men in MCO uniforms. Three men in the SWAT type uniforms I’d previously seen rushed onto the restaurant patio, and a short distance behind them were two more men in powder blue colored power armor.

“Agent Owens of the Mutant Commission Office,” one of the men in SWAT gear yelled out. “Surrender immediately.

I stared at the man who was speaking, shocked to realize that he was the very same man who’d murdered Mr. Harris…and who’d shot me. I recognized one of the other SWAT uniformed men from my previous encounter with the MCO as well.

“MCO,” Jackie cried out angrily.

“I didn’t bring them,” Dad blurted out, looking as surprised as I was.

“Then they must have followed you,” Jackie said grimly, her force field bubble appearing around her.

I just looked at Dad and asked, “Does Mom know you were coming here to see me?”

Dad’s eyes widened with a look of realization which answered my question. Either the MCO had followed Dad here or Mom had tipped them off. Whichever it was, they were here now and they obviously didn’t mean me well.

A moment later, they opened fire, barely giving anyone else on the patio a chance to get away. Their shots bounced off Jackie’s force field while I grabbed Dad and willed my own to form.

“I’ve got you,” I told Dad, who stared in surprise at the golden bubble which surrounded us.

“What the hell is this?” Dad demanded, looking afraid and confused.

“A force field,” I told him with a self-conscious grin. “It’s my power…”

“Pinball,” Owens called out, “You’re under arrest for bank robbery, kidnapping, attacking agents of the MCO and…”

“Shut up already,” Jackie exclaimed with a look of cold anger on her face. Then she looked to me and nodded. “Sphere, get him out of here. I’ll deal with these idiots.”

“Sphere?” Dad asked in confusion.

“My codename,” I answered grimly. “Apparently there’s some kind of government rule where every mutant has to have one.”

“That sounds like government regulations,” Dad muttered. “But how are we going to..?”

“I’ve got it,” I told Dad, willing my sphere to lift into the air. Dad gasped at that, as did the MCO agents. I began flying us away, trying to get out of range of the MCO.

The guys in SWAT gear opened fire at me while one of the ones in power armor actually launched himself up into the air and straight at me. He fired some sort of missiles that hit me hard and caused my bubble to get knocked back.

“Oh shit,” I exclaimed in fear, suddenly realizing that I couldn’t count on my force field to protect me from everything. Jackie and I had practiced controlling my powers, but I didn’t know how to fight, much less for real.

When the man in power armor flew right at me, I willed my bubble to go straight down, slamming into the ground. Then I dropped the force field, shoving Dad to the side and yelling, “Go… They’re not after you…”

“DAVID,” Dad cried out as I ran away from him, forming my force field again just in time to avoid being hit by a missile.

I looked around and saw Jackie rolling around in her bubble, smashing right through the group of MCO agents and slamming right into her power armored opponent. She was dealing with the bulk of the MCO agents, leaving me with only the one guy in power armor. I grimaced, silently hoping I could deal with him until she was able to help.

My power armored opponent hovered in the air, opening fire on me again. He didn’t seem to care that his attacks were destroying the restaurant and putting everyone else in danger. He just seemed determined to get me.

“Take down these mutants fast,” Agent Owens yelled to his people. “We can’t let them hurt anymore innocent humans…

“Big talk for someone who did all the damage,” I yelled at him angrily.

The man in power armor opened fire on me again and I could feel the pressure against my force field. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep it up for long at this rate and knew I had to do something.

“Time to play catch,” I muttered as I had an idea.

After seeing the way Jackie had run right through the group of agents and slammed right into her power armored opponent, I’d decided to try the same thing. However, I had an option that she didn’t. I willed my sphere to fly up into the air and straight at the agent who was attacking me. I slammed into him as hard as I could and a moment later, his armor dropped from the air and slammed into the ground.

“Gotcha,” I exclaimed triumphantly. Then as he began to stand up again, doing so very slowly and awkwardly, I flung myself at him again, slamming into him for a second time and driving him right into the ground. “Too bad the name Cannonball was taken…”

“You lunatics,” Dad screamed at the MCO, charging right towards Owens.

“Damn mutant loving traitor,” Owens yelled at Dad, turning his rifle on him.

“NO,” I screamed, knowing I couldn’t let him kill Dad.

On an impulse, I tried something new with my powers, dropping my bubble and forming a new one…right around Owens. He shot at Dad, but it didn’t get through the glowing sphere he was now trapped within. I’d turned my sphere from a protective force field for myself into a cage for him.

“Let me out,” Owen screamed, shooting at the force field and trying to break out. Fortunately, my bubble held.

“You asshole,” I yelled, willing the bubble to move. It flew straight out over the lake with Owens held within, then when it reached the limits of my range, the bubble vanished, dropping the MCO agent right into the middle of the lake.

“Get out of here,” Jackie yelled at me as she rolled right into her power armored opponent again. I wanted to help her, but I couldn’t let my Dad get hurt because of me.

“Come on,” I told Dad, running up to him and forming my sphere around the two of us. Then I lifted us up into the air and flew us a short distance away, landing when I thought we were out of range.

“I can’t believe that,” Dad blurted out, looking shaken. “What you did…”

“Jackie’s been teaching me to control my new powers,” I told him awkwardly. “So I can defend myself…”

“Those people,” Dad exclaimed furiously. “We were just talking and they attacked…”

A moment later, a new voice announced, “So, you’re one of the mutants the MCO is after…”

I snapped around and saw that the newcomer was a cop, staring at me with an odd expression. He glanced to Dad, who stepped between us as though to protect me from the cop.

“I didn’t do anything,” I protested, afraid of having to fight a cop as well as the MCO.

“He…she’s telling the truth,” Dad insisted.

“There’s no law against being a mutant,” the cop stated, moving his hands away from his holstered gun to show that he wasn’t threatening me. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re free to go.”

“I wished the MCO thought that way,” Dad said, visibly relaxing now that he saw the cop wasn’t trying to arrest me.

“They’re overzealous idiots,” the cop said with a deep scowl. “Most of the people who join the MCO do it because they don’t like mutants, so having them in charge of regulating mutants is like putting the KKK in charge of enforcing civil rights laws.”

“Is there anything you can do to help?” Dad asked the cop.

The cop shook his head, scowling as he did so. He definitely didn’t look happy. “Being a mutant may not be illegal,” he pointed out grimly. “But bank robbery is.”

I winced at that, knowing that the cop was right. Even if the MCO weren’t complete assholes, Jackie was still a wanted criminal and the regular cops wouldn’t ignore that. I was just lucky this cop wasn’t trying to arrest me as some kind of accomplice.

“You haven’t done anything that I know of so I can overlook seeing you,” the cop told me with a scowl. “But your friend…”

I nodded, then asked, “Can you keep my Dad safe?”

The cop gave Dad a look of surprise, then nodded. “Sure.”

Dad gave me a look of surprise, then demanded, “What are you going to do? You’re not going to go back there…”

“No,” I responded with a sigh. I wished I could go back there, but the truth was that Jackie didn’t need my help. What she did need was for me to head back to her SUV where we’d agreed to meet up if we got separated for any reason. “But I can’t stay here, because of those guys find me again…”

“I understand,” Dad said reluctantly. Then he shook his head and had a look of disgust on his face as he muttered, “And your mother actually gave you to those people. When I get home, I’m going to have a talk with her…”

Tears were beginning to run down my cheeks again, though I wasn’t sure if these ones were happy or not. I was so confused at the moment that I wasn’t sure what I was thinking, except that I was glad Dad hadn’t turned me away.

I grabbed my Dad and gave him a hug, not knowing when I’d get a chance to do this again. He grunted and exclaimed, “Not so hard…”

“Sorry,” I said as I backed away. I’d forgotten that I was a bit stronger than I used to be.

Dad gave me a look of surprise, then he smiled. “Take care and stay safe,” he told me. “And don’t let that Pinball woman get you in any trouble.”

I nodded at that, then told him, “I will.” Then I grinned and added, “And tell Becky I miss her…”

“I will,” he responded, looking like he was about to cry himself.

I stepped back away from him and the cop and willed my force field to form again. Both of them stared at me with a look of amazement as I floated up into the air and began heading towards where we’d left the SUV a couple blocks away.

When I landed again a minute later, I joked, “I feel like Glinda, the Good Witch.”

Since I didn’t want anyone to follow me to the SUV, I’d landed in an alley a short distance away and then ran the rest of the way to the car. Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait long before Jackie returned, rolling up in her force field.

“Good, you got away,” she said when her force field vanished. “How’s your Dad?”

“He’s good,” I told her with a smile. “A cop is keeping him safe.”

Jackie seemed a little surprised at that. “A cop? And he didn’t arrest you?”

“Being a mutant isn’t a crime,” I reminded her with a faint smile. Then before we got into the SUV to leave, I grabbed her in a firm hug and told, “Thank you. Thank you for giving me back my Dad.”

After David is caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, his entire life changes in ways he never could have expected. This is a fan fiction taking place in the Whateley Universe.

--------------------

I took a long sip of my hazelnut mocha as I stared at the small stack of paperwork that was spread out in front of me. Emily had given this to me just a minute earlier, and though I had some questions, most of the answers were obvious when I thought about them. But in spite of that, I still found myself almost compelled to ask anyway.

“What’s this?” I asked, looking at Emily and Jackie.

“An application form to Whateley Academy,” Jackie answered, giving me a reassuring smile. “Emily and I talked it over, and we think this the safest place for you to be right now.”

It had been three days since the MCO had interrupted the reunion with my Dad, and even though we’d escaped them, Jackie had become increasingly concerned. We hadn’t gone out and done any real training in the last few days since she didn’t want to take any chances with us being spotted and drawing attention. She told me that she frequently had to ‘lay low’ after a job, and that this was no different.

“I’ve been talking to some of my contacts,” Jackie told me with a scowl. “Apparently, the MCO examined the video footage at the bank and they noticed you were starting to glow on your own. And unfortunately, my attempts to get you out of there before anyone else noticed sort of backfired. They decided that you were my accomplice and put out a warrant for the arrest of David Michaels.”

“What?” I gasped in surprise.

“Ironic,” Emily commented wryly. “And they completely missed the real accomplice.”

“You are good at avoiding notice when you want to,” Jackie told her with an amused look. “And also getting it…”

Jackie and Emily both paused and began to kiss while I sat back and waited patiently for them to finish. Fortunately, it didn’t take them long to remember that I was there, though that might have been because I commented, “Get a room already…”

“Back to the matter at hand,” Jackie said, looking rather smug.

“I think you had something else in hand a moment ago,” I pointed out, pleased to see Jackie turn bright red.

“Are you two sure you aren’t really sisters?” Emily asked with a chuckle. “You certainly act like it.” Jackie and I responded by simultaneously turning and sticking our tongues out at her.

“Now as I was saying,” Jackie continued with a grin. “After the bank and our encounter with the MCO a few days ago, the MCO and FBI have stepped up their search for me. They’re also looking for you, or at least for the David version of you. They can’t seem to make up their minds because they’re alternately accusing you of being an accomplice and me of being a kidnapper. The MCO is taking the fact that I helped you escaped their custody as a personal insult from both of us, so they’re after David just as much as they are me…hence the ambush at the restaurant.”

“It’s nice to be wanted,” I joked weakly, trying to hide just how nervous that information made me.

“Fortunately,” Jackie continued, “they don’t seem to have realized that Dana and David are really the same person. As it is, the MCO is keeping an eye out for Dana, though they don’t seem to know much about you except that you’re a mutant who fought one of their teams and helped embarrass them. The MCO appears to be taking that personally too, but I’m getting most of the blame for that one. Dana doesn’t seem to be on the FBI’s radar at all.”

I stared at Jackie for a moment, thinking about what they’d said. “So,” I said carefully, “the FBI and MCO are both after me, but they don’t know I changed and don’t look like that anymore.”

“It’s only a matter of time before they figure it out,” Emily pointed out grimly. “That’s why we want to get you off to Whateley where you’ll be safe…before they actually know what to look for.”

“And to complicate things even more,” Jackie added with a grimace. “The FBI called in a relatively local group of supers…the Liberty League.”

“The Liberty League?” I asked with a smirk. “Really? That name is an annoyingly awful act of alliteration.”

Emily groaned at that while Jackie grinned. “Absolutely abominable alliteration at that.”

“So,” I asked after I’d stopped laughing. “Who are these lesser legion of Liberty League losers?”

“Tis a true tragedy,” Jackie said with a look of mock innocence. “Your tongue will get terribly twisted trying to…”

“ENOUGH,” Emily exclaimed in exasperation, causing Jackie and I to both start giggling.

“Needless to say,” Jackie said, her expression turning serious again. “With the FBI, MCO, and the Liberty League involved, we need to get you to Whateley as quickly and safely as possible.”

“But if this Liberty League are the heroes,” I asked, “can’t we just tell them I didn’t rob the bank with you?” Jackie gave me a look that suggested I’d just said something stupid. Then when I thought about it, I realized that I probably had. “You’re a wanted criminal,” I said with a sigh. “Why would they believe you?”

“Precisely,” Jackie agreed. “And from my experience, most of those so called hero types tend to be self-righteous hypocrites. You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve gotten into fights with some, and after they cause just as much property damage as I have, they blame the whole thing on me.”

“You do tend to be destructive,” I pointed out wryly as I remembered her escape from the bank and the way she’d smashed into all those walls and vehicles.

“She does have you there,” Emily pointed out with a chuckle.

Jackie stuck her tongue out at Emily, then said, “Anyway, we’re going to try keeping anyone from realizing that David and Dana are the same person. This way, everyone will be looking for a skinny blonde boy…not a gorgeous young woman. This should help you slip past them more easily.”

With that, Jackie set a manila envelope down in front of me, right on top of the Whateley application forms. I opened the envelope and was surprised to see a school ID, social security card, and even a birth certificate, all made out to Dana Evalynn Martin.

“As far as anyone else will know, you’re my younger sister,” Jackie told me with a smile. “This will explain our similarities in appearance and powers, as well as give you a legitimate reason to be seen in my presence which has nothing to do with criminal activities.”

Emily nodded at that and explained, “And establishing an identity for Dana will also help to hide your real identity.” Then she paused before adding, “I’ve also been taking care of a few legalities. Whateley security is pretty good and I seriously doubt they’d be fooled by this for long. More importantly, it’s a good idea to be completely up front with them. Because of that, yesterday I went to visit your father.”

“What?” I asked in surprise. “But the MCO…”

“The MCO may be watching your parents,” Emily pointed out with a faint smirk, but they’re looking for David or Pinball…not me. I met your father in his restaurant and had him sign a few forms that give you permission to attend Whateley, and which authorizes me to act in loco parentis…to act as your legal guardian in certain instances when he isn’t available.”

I stared at Emily in surprise. “Dad actually did that?”

“He did once I explained it was for your safety,” she told me. “He also asked me to give you this…”

Emily gave me an envelope which contained a ‘get well’ card, which was signed by Becky. She’d even written, “I hope you come home soon,” inside. I began to tear up as soon as I read it, so Jackie put her arm around me and gave me a gentle hug.

Once I’d calmed down again, I looked at the Whateley application and commented, “I thought you said this place was really expensive…”

“It is,” Jackie agreed pleasantly. “But don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of that.”

“But,” I started to protest.

“Yes, I have a very nice one,” she responded with a smirk which made me chuckle

“Won’t they have a problem with me being sent there by a known criminal?” I asked. I’d almost said, “by a known super villain,” but I knew how much Jackie disliked being called that.

Jackie just shook her head at that. “They won’t care in the least.”

Emily smiled at that and explained, “Whateley is the premier school for mutants in this country and they have a reputation for being strictly neutral. Heroes and villains both send their kids there.”

“Heroes and villains?” I repeated in surprise. “What kind of school is that?”

“A very good one,” Jackie told me with a smug look. “You’ll learn things there that you won’t be able to learn anywhere else. And just imagine the connections you can make. I mean, you just might end up rooming with the daughter of Champion…or even Doctor Diabolik.”

I blinked at that, half sure she was joking…but only halfway. “Is the current Champion even old enough to have a kid my age?”

Jackie just shrugged at that. “No idea.”

I let out a sigh, then turned my attention back to the application forms. As I looked through it, some of the questions surprised me. One of the questions asked about sexual preferences and even gave a check box option for going through a gender change. Did enough people go through this that they actually needed a check box for it? What kind of school was this?

“Unfortunately, we can’t just put you on a plane,” Jackie told me with a sigh. “The MCO might not be looking for Dana as much as they are for David, but after what happened a few days ago, they are on the lookout for you and would probably grab you. We’re going to have to take the scenic route to New Hampshire, starting tomorrow morning.”

“It looks like we’re going to have a road trip,” Emily said with a chuckle.

“Not you,” Jackie told Emily, who looked surprised. “This isn’t like the bank where you can stand in the background without being noticed. If anyone so much as sees you with us, that could blow your cover and destroy your career. Even worse, if they found out that we were together…they might go after you too.” She stared at Emily with a worried look. “I couldn’t live with myself if that happened.”

Emily scowled at that, looking just a little hurt. “I’d be willing to risk getting outed if it meant keeping you two safe. Besides, even if they saw me with you, what are the odds that they’d be able to find out who I am?”

“Super Star is with the Liberty League,” Jackie pointed out grimly. “There’s a real good chance she’d recognize you.”

“Damn,” Emily muttered in annoyance. “You’re right. We had enough classes together that Holly is bound to recognize me.” Then she hesitated a moment before adding, “Still, you can’t deal with the MCO or Liberty League by yourself, even with Dana’s help. I could help distract anyone you run into…”

“You’re right,” Jackie admitted. “I can’t beat the Liberty League by myself, or even a full squad of MCO power suits. I do need backup, but I won’t risk you.” With that, Jackie pulled out her odd looking cell phone and made a call. “Hey, I need to call in that favor you owe me…”

After David is caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, his entire life changes in ways he never could have expected. This is a fan fiction taking place in the Whateley Universe.

--------------------

“What is it with you and coffee?” Jackie asked me with an amused look. The fact that she was holding her own cup of steaming caffeinated goodness only made me chuckle.

“I like it,” I answered with a grin, taking a sip from my caramel macchiato. It was the largest size they had at Starbucks and I’d even asked for a couple extra shots, so even with my regeneration I was starting to feel a slight buzz. Then I licked my lips in an exaggerated manner and said, “Yummy.”

Jackie and I had only been our road trip to New Hampshire for a couple hours and this was our second stop for espresso. Of course, the first one had been before we’d even left town so I wasn’t sure that one even counted. I’d also had a cup of regular coffee with cream and sugar for breakfast, but that wasn’t espresso so it didn’t count either.

“It’s a good thing you’re a mutant,” Jackie told me quietly, glancing around the Starbucks to make sure no one overheard that comment. “If it wasn’t for your regeneration and exemplar stamina, that much caffeine and sugar would give you a heart attack…or make you bounce off the walls.”

I grinned at that and responded, “Boing boing boing.” Then I added, “Why do you think my Mom never let me drink the stuff?”

Jackie let out a sigh, then pointed out, “You told me your parents let you drink as much as you wanted.”

I just smiled cheerfully as I told her, “I lied.”

“Someone has definitely been a bad influence on you,” she said with a shake of her head.

“Gee,” I mused with my best innocent look. “I wonder who that could be.”

As I took another sip of my drink, I thought about the fact that I’d originally started drinking go juice so I could be more grown-up and mature, or at least pretend that I was. However, it hadn’t taken long before I’d really developed a taste for the stuff, much to my Mom’s frequent complaints. Dad had never seemed to mind and would even buy me a mocha every once in awhile, though he did make sure to get me the smaller sized cups. Or at least, he used to.

We were about to leave the coffee shop when I took one more look around and realized that nearly everyone present was watching us, especially all the guys. Most of the attention was on Jackie since she was older and better built, but I was getting my share of the attention as well. There was one guy in his twenties who was sitting in the corner, watching me intently.

At the moment, I was wearing a pair of sunglasses to hide my odd colored eyes, and I suddenly wondered what would happen if I took them off. Would everyone stare at my eyes instead of my chest, or would they still be so caught up with my chest that they wouldn’t even notice? It occurred to me that I just might have to try that experiment someday…just not right now.

Jackie smiled faintly and commented, “I think he likes you.”

“Ewww,” I responded with a shudder of disgust, which seemed to amuse her.

“I know exactly what you mean,” she told me. “Now that cute barista… If I wasn’t with Emily, I’d probably ask her out.”

“I did notice her looking at you,” I admitted with a faint smile, trying very hard not to look at the guy who was staring at me.

Ever since Damocles confirmed that I’d be a girl for the rest of my life, I’d been doing my best to accept the fact and deal with it. The physical adjustments were probably the easiest since taking care of long hair, wearing a bra, and even sitting down to pee were annoying, but not really that big of a deal. And even though my body still felt a bit weird to me, especially with the way my chest pushed out and was so sensitive, I was like this twenty-four seven so was starting to get used to it. However, it was the other aspects of my change that still made me uncomfortable.

I was still caught by surprise whenever I looked into a mirror and saw a hot looking girl staring back at me. In spite of what I looked like physically, that still wasn’t how I pictured myself in my mind. And then there was the way that other people treated me whenever I was out in public. Having spent more than fifteen years of my life as a guy, I could completely understand why guys were staring at me, but that didn’t mean I really liked it. It made me feel self-conscious, like maybe I’d left my zipper down or was having a wardrobe malfunction.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to guys staring at me like that,” I told Jackie, thankful that I was with her since she tended to draw a lot of the attention away from me.

Jackie nodded in understanding, then said, “It helps if you think of the attention as being a compliment.”

“I can do without that kind of compliment,” I responded with a chuckle, feeling like a hypocrite as I did so. After all, I’d done my share of staring at hot girls, and for that matter, I still did.

“Then think of it this way,” Jackie pointed out with a grin. “If guys think that you’re hot enough to stare at, then so will some of the girls.”

Jackie and I returned to the car, and I was climbing into the passenger seat when I felt the now familiar pressure in my head. It wasn’t strong which suggested that the mutant was near the edge of my range. I slowly looked around, trying to see the source of my current pressure. Then I noticed a man who was climbing out of his truck. He looked perfectly normal to me, but as I’d learned, looks could be deceiving.

With a shrug, I climbed into Jackie’s car, the one that had previously been stored in the warehouse, and absently wondering what kind of powers that man might have. It didn’t matter, but I was a little curious. A minute later, Jackie and I were on our way again, though something kept nagging at the back of my mind, and it wasn’t the question of that man’s possible powers. It took a little longer but I finally realized exactly what it was.

“If the MCO and these Liberty League guys are mostly looking for you,” I said thoughtfully, “wouldn’t it have been safer for Emily to drive me to Whateley instead? I mean, if they don’t know about her, they wouldn’t be on the lookout for her…and I could wear a blonde wig or something.”

Jackie was silent for a moment, then admitted, “The MCO might be a little more interested in you than I indicated. They don’t know who you are, but they aren’t happy that a teenage girl took out two of their operatives…with one of them in power armor. In a way, you embarrassed them even more than I did because I’m a known threat with training and experience.”

“And I’m a complete rookie who got lucky,” I added.

“They are looking for you,” Jackie continued. “And being with me definitely increases the chance of them finding you. However, my presence also greatly increases your chance of being able escape them. If you were with Emily when they found you, she wouldn’t have been able to help you very much and probably would have been more of a liability than an asset.”

“And she would have been in even more danger,” I said in understanding.

“In spite of what Emily would have you believe,” Jackie told me with a chuckle. “She does have a criminal record, though it’s all been sealed up in her juvenile records. However, if the MCO caught her and had even a hint of criminal intent, they’d be able to get her records unsealed and use that to ‘prove’ that she’s a dangerous threat.” She snorted at that and added, “There is no way I’m going to let that happen to Emily. She’s worked too long and hard to build up a legitimate life. It’s bad enough that she insists on doing crowd control for some of my jobs.”

“Do you really think this is going to be that dangerous?” I asked her, suddenly getting worried. Of course, the MCO, FBI, and even a group of super heroes were involved, so that was probably a dumb question.

“Possibly,” she responded grimly. “It depends entirely on whether or not anyone is able to find us. The truth is, none of the people who are after us have any idea of where we are, which is to our advantage. My biggest concern is that someone might use magic to do just that.”

“Magic?” I asked in surprise. “Magic is real?”

“The MCO isn’t above using baseline mages…or even the occasional mutant,” Jackie continued. “And I know for certain that the Liberty League has a magic user. It’s hard to predict what a magic user can or can’t do, so it’s a good idea to expect the unexpected.”

“Oh shit,” I gasped.

Jackie gave me a reassuring smile and added, “But we might get lucky and have a peaceful trip all the way to New Hampshire. Still, it’s better to be safe than sorry, which is why I’ve made some preparations. Do you have that list I gave you?”

“Sure,” I responded with a smirk. “I had it tattooed on my butt so I wouldn’t lose it.”

“Then how are you going to read it?” Jackie asked with a chuckle.

After this, Jackie told me a little more about Whateley, obviously trying to build my excitement about going there. She didn’t really need to do that though as I was already excited, just as I was also nervous and even a bit afraid.

Who wouldn’t want to go to a school where they taught martial arts, students built death rays, and everyone had super powers? It sounded like something straight out of the comic book, which made me wonder if maybe Professor Xavier was secretly running the place.

On the other hand, it was a school for mutants, and even though I didn’t have my Mom’s views about them, I had no doubts that some mutants could indeed be very dangerous. Every school had bullies, so I’d imagine the ones at Whateley would have to be on another level from the ones I was used to dealing with.

And then there was the fact that I was leaving all my friends and family behind and going to a strange place where I didn’t know anyone at all. I was already having a hard time dealing with my family situation, but now I wouldn’t even have my new surrogate family either.

Jackie seemed to guess what I was thinking because she told me, “Don’t worry. You’ll love it there, and you’ll make new friends in no time.”

I just grunted non-committedly at that. I was a little skeptical about that, but wasn’t about to rule anything out. After all, not that long ago, I would have laughed my ass off if someone told me that my closest friend would be a mutant super villain.

In spite of Jackie’s concerns that the FBI and MCO were after us, we continued traveling for the rest of the day without seeing a single black helicopter or van with MCO markings. Just after lunch, I did catch sight of someone actually flying off in the distance, but that could have just been a bird and my own overactive imagination.

Later that evening, after traveling a lot of miles and making more than a couple stops for food and coffee, we decided that it was time to get some sleep. We pulled into a motel parking lot and got out of the car. I was thankful for the chance to stretch my legs again, especially after spending all day cooped up like that. I wasn’t looking forward to continuing the drive tomorrow.

“I always thought road trips were supposed to be more fun,” I grumbled as I bent over and began stretching my body. “I mean, we didn’t stop to see the world’s largest ball of twine or any other kind of tourist trap.”

“Doesn’t this count?” Jackie asked me as she gestured to the motel.

“I said tourist trap, not roach trap,” I pointed out with a chuckle. “I wonder if there’s a coffee shop nearby…”

Jackie rolled her eyes at that, then said, “You might want to put your glasses on before we go inside.”

I nodded at that and put on my sunglasses, feeling just a little ridiculous since the sun had already set. Fortunately, the parking lot was fairly well lit so I didn’t have to worry about not being able to see where I was going. That old song ‘Sunglasses at Night’ ran through my head and I began humming it as we went to the front office to check in.

The motel lobby was grungy and a bit dirty, which didn’t make me feel very optimistic about the rooms. The man working the front desk was a perfect match for the lobby, looking a bit greasy and staring at Jackie and me with an odd smirk. He kept looking back and forth at us, and I was sure that he was going to lick his lips at any moment. He made me so uncomfortable that I almost missed the faint pressure in my head, the pressure I was sure was caused by him. Mister Greasy here was a mutant.

“Can I help you ladies?” Mister Greasy asked, staring right at Jackie’s breasts.

Jackie acted as though she didn’t notice the attention and merely replied, “I’d like a room with two beds for me and my sister.”

“Sure thing,” he agreed, still looking Jackie’s breasts while he did the paperwork.

When Mister Greasy finally held out the room key, I reached out and grabbed it before Jackie could, making sure that I touched his hand in the process. I didn’t really want to touch him, but I was definitely curious what his power was. As soon as I felt the tingle that told me I’d copied his powers, I yanked my hand back. Jackie gave me a curious look but didn’t say anything.

As we left the office and went back outside so we could find our room, I noticed that my vision had changed. Everything I looked at had an odd tint and texture to it. In fact, some of the cars actually seemed slightly transparent, as though they weren’t quite real. I was so distracted by this that I tripped and fell flat on my face.

“Are you okay?” Jackie asked me, not really concerned since even if I’d skinned a knee or bruised myself, I’d heal up pretty quickly.

“I just bruised my pride is all,” I responded as I got back to my feet, noticing that I had a faint golden glow around myself. I immediately willed it to fade again.

This was the first time that I’d begun to glow like that in several days, or at least the first time I glowed when I wasn’t used my force field powers. Ever since Jackie had begun teaching me to control my powers, that unconscious glow thing didn’t happen nearly as much. Of course, it still came out a little when I was surprised, as though my force field was on the verge of activating, but I was definitely getting better at preventing that.

The whole golden glow thing was a little odd though, and I knew it was part of my primary power, not the one I’d copied from Jackie. Or at least, I assumed that was the case since I’d begun glowing at the bank before I’d ever copied her powers. Of course, Jackie had also told me that she didn’t glow like that, not even when she’d first gained her powers and hadn’t yet learned to control them.

“Maybe I should have chosen Nightlight as my codename,” I joked.

“I used to know someone with that name,” Jackie mused with a chuckle. “An Underdog who glowed non-stop and couldn’t turn it off. Nice girl but a bit skittish.”

“I think I would be too if I was a constant target,” I commented.

Just then, I realized that someone was watching us. A middle-aged and overweight woman was standing outside of one of the motel room doors, smoking a cigarette and staring straight at us. As soon as she realized that I’d noticed her, she dropped the cigarette and hurried inside the room, almost slamming the door behind her.

“I think we’ve scared enough locals for tonight,” Jackie told me with a smirk. “Come on. I want to get up and on the road early.”

A minute later, we’d located our room and brought our bags inside. I looked around, relieved that the inside of the room wasn’t nearly as bad as the lobby had made me fear. It wasn’t nice, but it wasn’t a total rathole either.

But as I looked around, I couldn’t help but noticing that everything still looked odd and slightly transparent. When I stared at the wall, it became even more transparent, until I was seeing through it as easily as if it had been made of clear glass.

“Cool,” I exclaimed. “X ray vision.”

“What’s that?” Jackie asked me curiously.

“The power I got from the guy at the front desk,” I explained, feeling a little smug at knowing something she didn’t. “Didn’t you know he was a mutant?”

Then I slowly looked around, staring through all the walls and feeling excited by this new ability. However, when I looked into the room beside ours, I saw that Mister Greasy was standing there, staring right at us through the wall with an eager grin on his face. I gasped, suddenly realizing exactly why he’d been smirking while staring at Jackie and me in the lobby, and I was NOT happy about it.

“Hey pervert,” I exclaimed loud enough to be heard through the thin wall, while glaring at the surprised Mister Greasy and flipping him the bird.

Mister Greasy went pale as his eyes went wide. Then he turned and ran away, as though expecting me to burst through the wall and attack him. Then again, since I was able to see him, for all he knew I might have been able to. I just hoped he didn’t decide to come back and start spying on us again because his powers were already starting to fade, and if he came back, I’d never know it.

“What was that?” Jackie asked me with a curious look.

“Just scaring off a cockroach,” I answered cheerfully.

I was feeling pretty pleased with myself for the way I’d scared off Mister Greasy, but then I realized a very uncomfortable truth. If I had that power permanently, I didn’t think that I’d be able to resist the temptation to use it the same way. That thought was an unpleasant one, and as I got ready for bed, I couldn’t help but feeling just a little guilty.

After David is caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, his entire life changes in ways he never could have expected. This is a fan fiction taking place in the Whateley Universe.

--------------------

I’ve always hated having to get up early in the morning and that was one of the things that hadn’t changed. Of course, what had changed was that when I woke up, I was almost immediately wide awake and full of energy. I wasn’t sure if that was due to my being an exemplar, a regenerator, or some combination of the two, but what I did know was that Jackie was the same way.

Jackie was a bit of a morning person, so I hated her for about ten minutes or so just out of general principal. How could anyone wake up at 5 AM and still be that cheerful?

“I wanted to get an early start,” Jackie told me as she got dressed in her costume, then began putting normal clothes on over the top of it.

“Bite me,” I grumbled as I got dressed as well. It felt wrong to be up this early and having this much energy without the assistance of caffeine. “I was having great dream too…”

Jackie just laughed at that, then asked, “From the way you were nipping out a minute ago, I’m assuming it was a good one.”

I blushed bright red at that which only seemed to amuse her more. I actually had been having a pretty nice dream, one that involved me and my old crush Amanda. Having that dream interrupted might have had something to do with my bad mood.

“We’ll stop for coffee and donuts on the way out of town,” Jackie promised me. “Once we get a few miles behind us, we’ll grab some real breakfast.”

“You say the sweetest things,” I told her

Just then, a car alarm began going off in the parking lot. Jackie pushed over the curtains and peaked out, then suddenly blurted out, “Oh shit…”

“What?” I gasped, definitely not liking that reaction.

“Take a peak,” she told me grimly. “A quick one. And do NOT open the curtain or be seen…”

“I don’t like the sound of that,” I told her.

“And I don’t like the look of it,” she said, stepping back from the window and taking her civilian clothes back off.

I peeked out the window, doing as Jackie said and only barely moving the curtain aside. A moment later, I repeated her, ‘Oh shit.”

The MCO had found us. The parking lot was full of MCO agents, about a dozen of them in total. Most of them were wearing SWAT type gear while four of them were wearing powder blue power armor. They were still spreading out and getting into position, and obviously one of them had accidentally set off the car alarm.

“Thank God for obnoxious car alarms,” Jackie said, slipping on her gloves and mask so that she was now in full costume. “Without that warning, they would have caught us by surprise.”

“There’s like a whole army out there,” I blurted out, more than a little worried.

“This is going to be dangerous,” Jackie warned me, her expression grim and focused. “As soon as we get out there, keep your force field up and move as fast as you can. We can’t reach the car through them so we’re going to have to make a run for it. Grab your bug out bag and leave everything else.”

I nodded at that and grabbed the backpack I’d brought with me into the motel room and slung it over my shoulder. Jackie had insisted that I keep some essentials in a ‘bug out bag’, and keep it close to me in case of an emergency. Suddenly, I was thankful that I’d stuffed a few extra pairs of underwear in there.

“We need to move before they’re all in position,” she told me as strapped her own ‘bug out bag’ onto her back. “On the count of three.”

Seconds later, Jackie threw open the door and ran out, forming her force field bubble immediately. She gave me enough cover to come out and form my force field as well, then she was in motion.

Jackie rolled forward, right through where two of the MCO agents were standing, causing them to leap aside to avoid being run over. Then she slammed straight into one of the power suits, slamming him right into the side of a car and smashing the car in the process.

“I knew it was them,” a familiar voice yelled out. ”

I immediately spotted Agent Owens, standing back in SWAT gear and glaring at me furiously. Since his attention was on me, rather than on Jackie who was actually doing some damage, I guessed that he took that bath I gave him rather personally. He opened fire on me with the obvious intention to kill, but the gunfire bounced right off my force field. I had yet to learn that trick of absorbing incoming kinetic energy in order to strengthen my force field, but my field was still more than strong enough to protect against that.

Owens continued yelling to one of the other MCO agents, his voice filled with a tone that screamed ‘I told you so’. “When our informant called with news of two exemplar redheads that fit the description of our targets…with one of them being confirmed as a mutant, I knew we had them.”

“Yeah, you were right,” the other MCO agent snapped back at Owens in obvious annoyance. “I’ll pay you that fifty when we get back, so shut your yammering and get those freaks before they hurt anymore innocent humans.”

At this point, Jackie was bouncing around the parking lot like a pinball, smashing into cars and making MCO agents jump out of her way. She’d taken out of one of the power armor suits, but the other three were now flying in the air and out of her reach. Still, that didn’t stop her from keeping all the ground based MCO agents occupied and on the run.

“And to think,” Jackie said when she came back towards me. “I was worried about them using magic to find us but completely overlooked the obvious.”

“I bet it was that woman who saw me glowing,” I told her grimly. Mister Greasy had probably realized that I was a mutant after the way I’d caught him spying on us, but I seriously doubted that he was their informant, not with him being a mutant too. “Not that it matters.”

Until then, I’d been so caught up in watching everything that I almost forgot that I was actually a part of this. When Owens opened fire on me again, I finally snapped out of it and followed Jackie’s example. I rolled right at him, making him jump out of the way. However, one of the flying power suits began firing at me as well, using some sort of energy blast that hit me and sent me flying back with a lot of force. I smashed into the side of the motel, creating a hole and causing a nearby window to shatter. My force field had protected me from the blow, then immediately vanished and dropped me to the ground.

“Oh shit,” I gasped, feeling a little dazed.

The power suit opened fire on me again and I just barely got my force field back up in time, though the blast slammed me right back into the wall. This time, I was braced enough that my force field didn’t automatically drop, but I knew I couldn’t take that kind of hit many more times.

After a moment of consideration, I willed a force field bubble to appear around my attacker, even though it meant my own protection vanished at the same time. Then I forced my sphere to fly towards the nearest other power suit as fast as I could make it, and at the last second I let the bubble vanish. The power suit I’d been moving slammed hard into his own teammate, causing both of them to fall from the sky. And as soon as they hit the ground, Jackie slammed into both of them.

“Good job, Sphere,” Jackie called out to me, looking rather proud. “Now let’s get out of here.”

I nodded at that, deciding that before we ran away, I wanted to try something new, or at least something that Jackie had suggested to me during our last practice session. I formed a golden sphere about the size of a grapefruit in the air in front of me, then with a little concentration, it suddenly went flying straight at Agent Owens, who was aiming his weapon at me again. My sphere hit him in the chest like a cannonball, sending him flying back and into the side of a car. I was pretty sure that I hadn’t sent the sphere hard enough to do any serious damage, especially when he was wearing that protective gear. The fact that he was still moving and struggling to get back up a few seconds later confirmed that.

“Too bad the name Hardball was taken,” I commented with a grin, reforming the force field around myself just as several of the MCO agents opened fire on me again.

I rolled along the ground to join Jackie, but one of the power suits was still up in the air and firing energy blasts at her. She was handling them better than I had, but I didn’t see any reason for her to deal with them alone. A moment later, I sent my own bubble up into the air and right at him, slamming into the power armor which promptly fell out of the air.

“It looks like you’re starting to get the hang of this,” Jackie called out to me with a laugh, right before she took off rolling down the street. I followed floating just a short distance behind her. After a few minutes, Jackie came to a stop and said, “I think we lost them for now, but I wouldn’t count on it remaining that way for too long. I want to get a little further away, then look for some less conspicuous transportation.”

I stopped beside her and dropped my force field, feeling a bit shaky from all the excitement and the realization of just how close I’d come to being hurt…or worse. Those MCO guys weren’t kidding around. They were actually trying to kill me. I’d already seen first-hand that they weren’t the good guys I’d always believed them to be, but this just reinforced that.

“You did good back there,” Jackie assured me, putting a hand on my shoulder. She gave me a concerned look, obviously seeing that I was still a bit shaken from the experience. Then she grinned and added, “Keep this up and we’ll have to get you a costume of your own.”

“I think I can do without the spandex,” I responded with a faint grin.

Since I had Jackie as an example, I could imagine exactly how I’d look with that kind of outfit, and it was actually pretty good. However, the idea of wearing something that showed off every curve of my body like that… That was a bit more than I was comfortable with at the moment.

Then I joked, “Or the mask.”

“They’re terribly comfortable,” Jackie responded with a smirk. “I think everyone will be wearing them in the future.”

I rolled my eyes at that and added, “At least you’re ready for trick-or-treating at a moment’s notice.”

“True,” she agreed with another chuckle. “But as well as being highly fashionable, a costume does serve several practical purposes. It makes a statement, has built in athletic support, is very easy to move around in, and since mine is made of devisor fabric, it’s also got built in shock absorbtion and bullet resistance qualities that make it into lightweight and flexible body armor.”

“Body armor?” I asked skeptically as I looked her over.

“You have got to take costume shop when you get to Whateley,” Jackie told me. Then she looked around and pointed out, “We need to get going again…”

I nodded at that, then said, “I was thinking that maybe I should do the transportation for awhile.” She gave me a curious look, obviously waiting for me to explain what I meant. I gave her a nervous smile, then said, “I mean, if I fly us out of here, we can avoid the roads and not leave as much of a trail.”

Jackie stared at me for a moment before nodding agreement. “That makes sense. I can avoid leaving a trail of witnesses and broken cars, and they’ll have a harder time following.”

I couldn’t help but grinning at the fact that Jackie liked my idea. She stood close to me and I willed my bubble to appear around us, then I lifted us up into the air. This was actually the first time I’d ever done this with a passenger, but it wasn’t any different than traveling by myself, except that I had to share my limited space.

“This is the first time I’ve ever done this without being in control,” Jackie commented as we began flying away, keeping fairly low so we wouldn’t be tracked as easily from a distance. “Being a passenger is actually kind of nice.” Then she paused for a few seconds before joking, “Once around the block, Jeeves,”

A short time later, I landed in the alleyway behind a large building and let my force field fade. Without a word, Jackie opened her ‘bug out bag’ and pulled out a set of clothes that she quickly put on over her costume. Once the clothes were on and her mask and gloves were off, she was able to walk through a crowd without drawing any more attention than a beautiful woman normally would.

“I thought you had some kind of ace up your sleeve,” I finally said, thinking about how badly the MCO had outnumbered us at the motel. “Why didn’t you use it?”

“I didn’t want to waste it just yet,” Jackie pointed out with a faint smile. “Besides, we got out of there all right...”

“Yeah, but you lost your car,” I pointed out. I didn’t bother mentioning the fact that I’d been forced to leave behind all of my new clothes, some of which I hadn’t even worn yet. Then I realized that I was actually upset about losing clothes and shook my head in annoyance. “I really am turning into a girl.”

“And quite a lovely one you are,” Jackie agreed with an amused look. “Now come on kid, we’ve got a car to steal.”

“Steal?” I blurted out in surprise.

“How else am I going to get a new car?” she asked with a roll of her eyes.

“But,” I started to protest that stealing someone’s car would be wrong.

“Fine, I’ll go and buy a new car,” Jackie responded with an even more obvious roll of her eyes. Then she gave me an evil grin and said, “But first, I need to stop off at a bank to make a withdrawal…”

I groaned, realizing that I was beaten. As much as I disliked the idea of stealing, we needed to get away from the MCO and we didn’t exactly have a lot of cash on us. And as I’d seen first-hand, Jackie’s method of getting more cash would draw a bit too much attention, not to mention making grand theft auto look like nothing more than shoplifting.

Fifteen minutes later, Jackie and I were walking through a parking lot, looking over our options for a new ride. “How about this one?” I asked, pointing to a red convertible. I figured, if we were going to steal a car, we might as well go for a good one.

“I like your style,” Jackie told me with a grin. “But the idea is to avoid attention.”

“And you’re so good at that,” I pointed out sarcastically.

“Smartass,” Jackie responded as she turned to a ten year old gray sedan. “I think this is what we’re looking for.”

Jackie pulled a few tools out of her own ‘bug out bag’ and quickly changed the license plate with that of another car, then she popped open the door and hotwired the car. Less than five minutes after stepping into the parking lot, we were driving away with a new car. I couldn’t help but feeling a strange mixture of guilt and excitement.

“Now that we’ve had our morning exercise,” Jackie said cheerfully, “what do you say about stopping somewhere for coffee and breakfast? I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.”

After David is caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, his entire life changes in ways he never could have expected. This is a fan fiction taking place in the Whateley Universe.

--------------------

Jackie and I had just finished eating dinner a short time ago, and in spite of getting my fill, I was still in a bad mood. In fact, I’d been in a bad mood ever since our narrow escape from the MCO earlier that morning. If it hadn’t been for the fact that one MCO agent happened to accidentally bump up against a car with an over-sensitive alarm, we would have been caught by surprise and either killed or captured. And considering how the MCO had treated me previously, I wasn’t sure which of those would have been worse.

Of course, I wasn’t the only one who wasn’t her normal cheerful self. Jackie had been rather subdued today as well. She’d been keeping a close eye out for any signs of the MCO, and at any other time, I probably would have called her paranoid. However, the fact that I knew they really were after us changed her actions from being paranoid to being reasonably cautious.

“They found us this morning because someone from Humanity First reported us,” Jackie told me we parked our stolen car at a gas station to fill up. “Now they know we’re on the move, that we’re traveling together, and which general direction we were heading. That will make it a lot easier for them to find us again. We’re going to have to be careful not to do anything to draw extra attention.”

“Like you could avoid getting attention,” I responded with a snort. “Every guy in miles has his eye on you…”

Jackie smiled faintly at that, then pointed out, “You’re getting the same attention…miss jailbait.”

I scowled at that, definitely having mixed feelings about the attention I was getting with my new body. It certainly made me a little uncomfortable, but at the same time, it was kind of nice to be noticed for once. I just wished it was girls who were staring at me like that instead of the guys.

“People barely notice me when you’re around,” I reminded her with a faint smirk. “I mean, I’m below the legal limit and they know they’d have to throw me back. You on the other hand are a keeper…”

Jackie chuckled at that, then she climbed out of the car and slowly looked around, searching for any MCO vans or indications that someone might be following us. I wondered if this was what it was like for her all the time, having to be on the lookout for police or super heroes who were trying to catch her. I just couldn’t imagine living my life like that, always looking over my shoulder. The only thing that made this bearable was the knowledge that once I was at Whateley, I’d be safe and not even the MCO would touch me.

“Come on, miss grumpy pants,” Jackie told me with a faint smile as she started for the convenience store to pay for the gas. “I think you can use a coffee refill.”

The thought of coffee improved my mood a little bit, but not much. After all, even a caramel mocha with extra whip couldn’t make the MCO go away, especially when the caffeine didn’t even do much for me anymore. Still, coffee was coffee.

Jackie and I began gathering up the road trip necessities, which consisted of coffee, pop, and a lot of snacks. After looking at the pile of junk food we were getting, I was suddenly very thankful that I didn’t have to worry about getting fat anymore. And with my increased appetite, I suspected that we’d be finished with half of this before we even stopped for the night.

Suddenly, a voice yelled, “Nobody fucking move…”

I jumped at that and snapped around in fear at the thought that the MCO had found us again, but then I saw the speaker and actually let out a faint sigh of relief. He was dressed in normal street clothes and had a bandanna over the lower half of his face. From the skin that was visible on the top half and his hair, it looked like he was either Hispanic or a dark haired Caucasian. He had a gun in his hand, pointing it straight at the cashier, but the fact that he clearly wasn’t with the MCO made him somehow seem far less dangerous.

“Give me everything in your register,” the robber demanded of the cashier, waving the gun around back and forth between the cashier and the customers in the store.

“Just great,” Jackie muttered with a look of annoyance. “Just what I needed.”

I stared at the robber for a moment, having a bad sense of deja-vu at being caught in the middle of another robbery. Then I realized there was another guy with a bandanna around his face standing at the door, holding it open and apparently acting as a lookout. Both of them seemed pretty jumpy.

I glanced to Jackie and quietly asked, “Are you going to do something about them?”

“I wasn’t planning on it,” she answered grimly. “It would be kind of hypocritical of me.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” the robber demanded, pointing the gun straight at Jackie and me. Then he stared for a moment and called out to his partner, “I think we found us a couple dates for tonight…”

The robber came closer us, holding his gun in a cocky fashion. I couldn’t see his face beneath the bandana, but I could imagine he was smirking or even licking his lips eagerly. He pointed his gun straight at me while staring at Jackie’s breasts.

“Do NOT point that gun at her,” Jackie ordered him in a cold voice.

“Or what?” the robber demanded, moving the gun to point it at her instead.

Without saying a word, Jackie suddenly reached out, moving at a speed I hadn’t realized she was capable of. She grabbed the robber by his wrist and twisted, clearly breaking his arm. He screamed and dropped his gun, which she casually kicked aside, right before throwing him halfway across the store and into one of the display cases. He slumped to the floor, holding his arm and crying out while his partner suddenly ran out of the store.

“Stupid, sloppy, and unprofessional,” Jackie said with a sigh as she went over to the robber. “You really should find a new line of work. You really aren’t very good at this one.”

“Oh my God,” the cashier exclaimed, staring at Jackie in amazement. “You stopped him so easily. Are you a super hero?”

“Hardly,” Jackie responded with a loud laugh, acting as though that was one of the funniest things she’d ever heard. Then she bent down over the cowering robber and took the wallet out of his pocket. She pulled all the cash out, then tossed the empty wallet aside. “I think this should cover our purchases,” she told the cashier, dropping all the money from the robber’s wallet right onto the counter.

“That was…interesting,” I commented as Jackie and I hurried out of the store. Then I teased her, “So, what’s it like being a hero?”

“Don’t ask me,” she responded with a wry smile. “I just hope I don’t get kicked out of the union for this.”

“Come on,” I urged her, feeling just a little better than I had earlier. “It could be a whole new career for you…”

Then Jackie and I both froze as we saw the robber’s partner driving away…in our stolen car. Without a word, Jackie began running after him, forming her bubble and rolling towards the car at high speed and then slamming into it before it was even out of the parking lot. The car slid from the impact and came to a complete stop.

“You can keep the car,” Jackie told the shocked and terrified robber as she yanked open one of the doors and retrieved our backpacks. She came back and tossed my backpack to me, then said, “We’d better get out of here before the cops arrive.”

“I guess we’re looking for another new car,” I said with a sigh while slinging the backpack over my shoulder.

Jackie and I hurried away as quickly as we could on foot, and we were only half a block away when the police finally arrived. They didn’t see us and we continued to slip away, being careful not to use our powers since that would draw even more unwanted attention. A short time later, we found a parking lot behind a decent looking restaurant. From the grin on Jackie’s face, I knew we were about to do a little more car shopping.

Just a few minutes later, Jackie had picked out another plain looking car and had switched the plates again. As she unlocked the door and began to hotwire it, I hesitantly asked, “Can I try some of the driving this time?”

“Do you have a license?” she asked me curiously.

“I’m only fifteen,” I reminded her with a sigh.

“How about a learner’s permit?” she asked.

“Not yet,” I reluctantly admitted.

Jackie gave me a faint smirk and pointed out, “Well, it’s illegal to drive without a license.”

I just stared at her for a moment before responding “And NOW you care about the law?”

“Climb on in, sis,” Jackie told me, gesturing to the passenger side door and making it clear that she wasn’t going to let me drive. “And don’t forget your seatbelt.”

“You’re almost as bossy as my other sister,” I commented, thinking about Becky and letting out a sigh. She might only be six, but she certainly had a lot of attitude. I figured that Mom and Dad were really going to have their hands full once she became a teenager.

Jackie chuckled at that, then turned and stared at me for a moment, her expression becoming serious. “Dana,” she finally said. “I’m sorry things aren’t going as smooth as I’d hoped. In fact, everything has kind of turned to a cluster fuck.”

“Two counts of grand theft auto in one day,” I pointed out, holding up two of my fingers. I gave a forced smile and weakly joked, “That is NOT going to look good on my college application.”

“I don’t know,” Jackie joked with a forced smile of her own. “They tend to like ambition and real life experience.” She let her expression turn serious again. “That’s all on me, and I’ll make sure the cops know that. With my record, I don’t think they’ll have any problem with me taking all the blame. Hell, if necessary, I’ll just tell them that I kidnapped you and forced you to come with me. You’re a good kid and you don’t deserve any of this crap that’s happened to you, but I’m proud of the way you’ve been dealing with it. Things may not be going as planned, but trust me when I say that I’m going to keep you safe.”

“I do trust you,” I told her, starting to tear up as I did so.

Ever since I’d turned into a girl, I found that I tended to get a little more emotional than before. I wasn’t completely sure if it was the new hormones, or if it just felt more acceptable to show my emotions now. What I did know was that I was suddenly very grateful that Jackie had been there for me. If it hadn’t been for her, I have no idea how I would have dealt with all the changes to my body and life, much less actually survived them.

With that, I suddenly bent over and gave Jackie a hug. “Thank you for everything you’ve done for me,” I told her, the tears beginning to flow freely. “You’re the best big sister a former guy could have.”

Jackie stared at me with an odd smile, looking as though she was starting to tear up as well. “Thank you,” she told me, seeming quite happy. Then she joked, “But I’m still not letting you drive.

“Darn,” I responded with an exaggerated sigh, giggling as I wiped the tears from my eye.

“But since we lost most of our food back there,” Jackie said, gesturing in the direction of the gas station where we’d dropped almost everything while running. “How about I make it up to you by stopping for coffee?”

I just grinned at that and responded, “Do you really need to ask?

After David is caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, his entire life changes in ways he never could have expected. This is a fan fiction taking place in the Whateley Universe.

--------------------

The diner where Jackie and I were having breakfast reminded me a great deal of the one my Dad owned. It was a little larger and better decorated, though the food wasn’t quite as good. Still, being here made me feel just a bit like I’d come home.

In spite of being in a comfortable place and having a full belly, I still felt out of sorts. I guessed all the stress from everything that was going on had finally caught up with me.

“Are you okay?” Jackie asked me with a look of concern.

“Yeah,” I responded, giving her a reassuring smile that was just a little forced. “I don’t know. I’m just…” I shrugged, not sure how to explain it.

“It’s been a pretty rough couple of days,” Jackie told me gently. “You aren’t used to this kind of thing.”

“How do you get used to it?” I asked her.

Jackie was silent for a moment before answering, “My time at Whateley helped me a lot. I learned most of the skills I need to survive and I gained a lot of…unconventional experience. After four years of that craziness, everything else seems almost tame in comparison.”

My eyes widened at that and I blurted out, “And that’s where you’re sending me?”

“Trust me,” she assured me with a laugh. “You’ll be fine there. It’s a bit strange at first, but well worth attending.”

I nodded at that, knowing that she and Emily both seemed to think that their time there had been worth it. Of course, that was where they’d first met up and I was sure that had something to do with it.

“Before we get going again,” I told Jackie with a sigh. “I need to go empty my bladder.”

“Don’t fall in,” she warned me with a smile as she pulled out the cash to pay our bill.

I got up and went to the bathroom, pausing at the two doors before going into the one marked for ‘ladies’. It said something that I still had to stop and think about it for a moment, but I suspected that it would be a long time before I automatically thought of myself as female. Fifteen years of being a guy couldn’t be forgotten that easily.

When I went into the bathroom, I still felt that faint awkwardness, that vague fear that someone would point out that I was walking into the wrong one or call me a pervert. Intellectually, I knew that was absolutely ridiculous because I definitely looked female, in fact, my entire body was undoubtedly female. However, telling that to my emotions and slowly fading sense of male identity was something else.

I glanced at my reflection in the mirror and absently ran my fingers through my hair to straighten it up a little. Then I stared at my very distinct eyes, knowing that they immediately gave away the fact that I was a mutant. A pair of sunglasses hid them when I was outside, but I couldn’t always do that while inside. I would just have to be careful to avoid eye contact with people.

A few seconds later, I went into one of the two stalls and dropped my pants. However, as I sat down, I suddenly realized that my panties were wet, and it wasn’t because I’d pissed myself.

“Oh shit,” I blurted out, shocked by the sight of blood in my panties. There wasn’t a lot of it, but it was definitely there.

For a brief moment, I just sat on the toilet, feeling terrified as I thought about the fight with the MCO yesterday morning and thinking that I must have been hurt without even realizing it. But then my rational mind kicked in again and I realized that wasn’t it at all. Even if I had been injured, which I hadn’t been, my regeneration would have taken care of it by now. No, this was something far worse.

I tried to remain calm and practical as I emptied my bladder and then used a wad of toilet paper to line my panties. After all, it wasn’t like I hadn’t known this was coming at some point. I was a woman now and had known that sooner or later I’d have to get my monthly visitor, though I’d actually avoided thinking about that fact quite well until now.

After a few more minutes, I left the bathroom and returned to the table where Jackie was waiting for me. I must have had a bad look on my face because she immediately gave me a worried look.

“What’s wrong?” Jackie asked me, her eyes darting around as though expecting the MCO to charge in at any moment.

“I think that depends on your perspective,” I responded, trying to keep the bitterness from my voice.

Jackie gave me a curious look. “Okay,” she encouraged me to explain.

“I think…I think we need to stop for some supplies,” I told her, blushing brightly and unable to meet her eyes. When she still didn’t get it, I stared at the floor and muttered, “I’m bleeding…”

“Don’t worry about it,” Jackie told me. “Your regen will take care of it in no time. What happened?”

“Not that kind of bleeding,” I told her with a wince. Then I took a deep breath, feeling even more embarrassed as I added, “The monthly kind.”

Jackie’s eyes widened at that, and for a brief moment, I thought she was going to burst out laughing. However, she refrained from doing that, though I could tell it took a bit of effort. Instead, she gave me a sympathetic look.

“I should have expected that,” Jackie finally said, giving me a faint smile. “I’ve got some supplies in my bug out bad. Wait here and I’ll go get them.”

Jackie hurried out to the car, then came back with pads, tampons, and a pair of clean panties from my own bag. The two of us went back into the bathroom, then to my embarrassment, she proceeded to describe how to use them, as though I was too stupid to figure that out myself. Still, as long as she was helping me rather than teasing me, I could be patient and pay attention.

It was with more than a little discomfort and disgust that I stuffed the tampon up my yoo hoo. The very act of doing so felt completely unnatural and wrong, but I reminded myself that I was just going to have to suck it up and get used to it.

“Man up and deal with it,” I quietly told myself. “Or is that woman up?”

Once I’d finished up and left the bathroom, Jackie gave me a gentle smile and said, “I guess this explains why you’ve been so moody.”

“Bite me,” I responded, which seemed to amuse her.

“Dana,” Jackie said, putting her arm around my shoulder. “Trust me, I know that you’re not exactly happy about this, but it is part of being a woman. In fact, having your first period is a rite of passage for women, so I think this calls for a celebration.”

“I don’t exactly feel like celebrating,” I admitted self-consciously.

“Most of us don’t,” she agreed.

A minute later, Jackie and I left the diner and returned to the car, but just as we reached it, I suddenly felt the now familiar pressure in my head. I paused to look around for the source, then realized that there was more than one source. I could feel the pressure coming from several different directions at once.

“Oh shit,” I blurted out, looking to Jackie and exclaiming, “I think we’re in trouble.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, suddenly looking alert.

Just then, a voice called out, “Halt evildoers.”

Jackie and I both looked up at Super Star, who was floating in the air a short distance away. Jackie glared at her in annoyance and asked, “Evildoers? Really?”

The other mutants I’d sensed appeared as well. One was a man in some sort very old fashioned green suit that included a long coat and wide brimmed hat. He leaned on a gold metal cane, looking distinguished and very confident.

“The Gentleman,” I muttered, recognizing him from the files that Jackie had given me on the Liberty League before we’d left. She said it would be a good idea to know who we might run into and what they were capable of. From what the file said, he was some kind of magic user.

Standing a short distance away from the Gentleman was an auburn haired woman in a long purple dress, which looked like it might have come right out of the Victorian era. However, there were odd bits of bronze metal all over her outfit and she held a very odd looking bronze rifle in her hands. Her file said that she was called the Bronze Lady and was a divisor with a steampunk obsession. It also mentioned that she was married to the Gentleman.

The next member of the Liberty League was Adonis, a six and a half foot tall man with bulging muscles and the square jawed good looks that you’d expect of someone with that name. Jackie’s file said that he was a brick, an exemplar six who was very strong and tough. The file also said something else about him, but I couldn’t remember quite what.

Force Majeure was a black man in a black and gray costume with silver metallic trim. His file said he was some sort of avatar…whatever that was, and that he was the strategist of the team.

And according to the files that Jackie had shown me, the Liberty League should have had one more member on their team, a size warper called Ginormous. I didn’t see her, but there was a petite Asian girl in a black and gold costume instead. Since the files didn’t mention this girl, it was obvious that they weren’t completely up to date.

”My common sense is tingling,” I told Jackie as I nervously looked at the super heroes who surrounded us. “It says we should get our butts out of here.”

“I agree,” she responded grimly.

“So you’re Pinball,” Force Majeure stated. “Super Star has told us all about you.”

“And I’m sure she was completely unbiased,” Jackie responded sarcastically.

“We’ve got you now, Pinhead,” Super Star exclaimed smugly. “It’s just like you to steal a car that the owner had LoJacked.”

Jackie glanced to the car and scowled, obviously cursing her pick in stolen cars. I was just cursing my general luck, especially my luck today.

“Surrender now and this won’t have to get difficult,” Force Majeure told us.

“Please do surrender,” the Gentleman commented pleasantly. “I really dislike having to fight ladies such as yourselves, but I will if my hands are forced.”

Jackie snarled, then glanced to me. “Only if you let my sister go. She has nothing to do with my activities.”

“You don’t have a sister,” Super Star blurted out accusingly.

At the same time, Force Majeure responded, “That isn’t for us to decide. We’re taking you both into custody.”

“You know what to do if we get separated,” Jackie told me, obviously not about to surrender. I nodded in understanding and a moment later, both of us formed our force field bubbles.

Jackie rolled right through where the Gentleman and Bronze Lady were standing, removing her civilian clothes in the process and revealing the costume she wore beneath them. In just seconds, she was fully costumed up and in full Pinball mode.

The Bronze Lady and Gentleman both dove to the side to avoid being smashed by a giant force field sphere. The Bronze Lady opened fire with her odd looking bronze rifle, firing energy blasts at Jackie to no effect.

Super Star flew straight at Jackie, punching at her force field, though Jackie didn’t stay still long enough to make this easy. Jackie rolled through the parking lot while Super Star chased after her.

While Jackie was doing that, I tried to fly away, but I hadn’t escaped the attention of the Liberty League. The Asian woman gestured and suddenly a blast of green energy shot straight towards me. I saw it coming in time to dodge aside. But to my surprise, her energy blast actually changed direction in mid-air and slammed right into me, or at least into my force field.

“I’m called Twist,” the Asian woman introduced herself, firing another green energy blast.

“Sphere,” I responded in order to be polite.

I avoided Twist’s energy blast again, but it changed direction in the air and continued coming at me. I flew away from it, dodging it several more times but it continued to change course and follow me until it hit me again, knocking me back. And while I was trying to think about what I was going to do, another blast of hers hit me, this time from above. It actually forced me back down towards the ground.

“I’ve got you, pretty lady,” Adonis exclaimed, jumping up and actually catching my force field sphere…and then spiking it straight into the ground with me inside.

My force field absorbed the impact and kept me from taking some serious damage, but I lost concentration after the impact and it vanished. Adonis stood over me with a confident grin, looking quite pleased with himself.

“I really don’t like having to fight with such a pretty young thing,” Adonis said, reaching out with his hand to help me up. “Instead, why don’t we just…talk.”

I just stared at Adonis, suddenly feeling very warm, flushed, and excited. He was so big, and strong, and handsome, and…perfect. In fact, he was the most beautiful person I’d ever seen and I wanted him. I wanted him to kiss me…to make love to me. I wanted him to make me into a real woman. Without even thinking about it, I reached out and accepted his hand and let him help me to my feet.

As soon as I touched Adonis’ bare skin, I felt the tingle that told me that I’d just copied his powers. That sparked something in the back of my mind, reminding me of exactly what his powers were. Not only was Adonis an exemplar six, he also had some kind of psychic power that only worked on women.

I was suddenly filled with anger and disgust at what I was feeling…and the fact that he was doing that to me. I wasn’t sure if it was just the knowledge that this was his power affecting me or if copying his powers had given me some degree of resistance to them, but I was no longer under his influence. Instead, I was PISSED.

I screamed in rage, which seemed to surprise Adonis, but not nearly as much as when I kicked him between the legs as hard as I could. He was a lot stronger and tougher than me, but I was still pretty strong and my kick was enough to immediately drop him to the ground. However, that wasn’t enough and I gave him another swift kick as well.

“You fucking bastard,” I screamed, feeling completely violated.

I was about to kick Adonis for a third time but Force Majeure came charging towards me. For a brief moment, there was the ghostly image of a cougar around him, then he suddenly leapt at me with his hands extended like claws. I barely got my force field up in time to block his attack.

“Surrender villain,” Force Majeure demanded.

“VILLAIN?” I screamed in anger. “I haven’t done anything wrong, but your buddy there just gave me a psychic roofie. What kind of sick bastards are you?”

While this was going on, I finally noticed that Jackie was still dealing with her own opponents. The Gentleman did something, and her force field vanished, much to Jackie’s obvious surprise.

“I’ve got you now,” Super Star exclaimed, flying straight at Jackie. “And I remember full well Pinball, that if I’m close enough to you, you can’t keep me away with your force field.”

As soon as Super Star grabbed Jackie, Jackie grabbed her arm and twisted, sending the hero straight into the pavement. Super Star immediately jumped back to her feet, apparently unharmed. However, Jackie suddenly lashed out with her foot, kicking Super Star in the stomach and knocking her back.

Jackie’s force field popped back up and she exclaimed, “It’s times like this that I’m actually grateful for everything that evil midget put me through in class.”

I didn’t have time to continue watching Jackie’s fight though as I still had my own to deal with. Force Majeure lunged at me again, moving with incredible speed and agility. He kept trying to slash at my force field with his hands, though it wasn’t doing much good.

Suddenly, Force Majeure had the ghostly image of a grizzly bear surrounding him, though it faded after only a moment. Still, the hero was now standing with different body language than he’d had before. He suddenly lashed out at my force field again, but instead of trying to claw through it, he hit it with an immense amount of force, enough to knock me back and slam me into the side of a car.

“Oh shit,” I exclaimed, dropping my force field and forming a small bubble in front of me, then sending it flying straight at Force Majeure.

“I think not,” Force Majeure stated, jumping to the side and avoiding my attack.

For a brief moment, I was afraid of what he was going to do to me, but then I realized something. I grinned and decided to learn from Twist’s previous tactic, willing my sphere to change direction and come right back at him, hitting him from behind.

“You little bitch,” Adonis snarled as he got back to his feet, looking pissed.

Without saying a word, I formed a bubble around Adonis, then sent him flying straight up as high as I could until my bubble was out of reach and vanished. As he plummeted back towards the ground, I reformed my own bubble, just in time to avoid being blasted by Twist.

“I’ve got it,” I heard Jackie yell out, drawing my attention to her.

To my surprise, Jackie was at our stolen car with her backpack in hand. She pulled something out that was a metal sphere about the size of a volleyball.

“I’ve got my secret weapon,” Jackie exclaimed. “The ace I’ve been keeping up my sleeve just in case of such an event…”

Jackie’s opponents all hesitated for a moment, looking momentarily worried. But when nothing happened, they started coming at her again. Jackie quickly rolled away, or at least tried to because the Bronze Lady threw some sort of bronze colored sphere which exploded and formed a metal net that pinned Jackie down, though only for a few seconds.

“I don’t think so,” Jackie said, scowling in concentration until her bubble tore loose from the net.

“That was a marvelous idea, my dear,” the Gentleman told his wife before pointing his cane at Jackie. “But I believe I may be able to improve upon it.”

Suddenly, tendrils of energy burst out of the ground and wrapped around Jackie’s bubble. She was obviously trying to escape these bonds the same way she had the Bronze Lady’s net, but she wasn’t having nearly the success.

I was worried for Jackie, and as I was about to try helping her, Twist fired another blast of energy at me. Then she stood outside my bubble, grinning at me almost evilly. Suddenly, there was a swirl of green light next me, and then Twist was standing right beside me inside of my sphere.

“Surprise,” she exclaimed as she punched me. “I’m a teleporter.”

Twist hit pretty hard, but I was stronger and tougher than I used to be and she didn’t seem to be any stronger than a normal person. I punched her back, saying, “Surprise, I’m an exemplar.”

Twist blocked my punch and hit me back several times in rapid succession. I might stronger and a bit tougher than her, but her punches still hurt and were going to leave bruises, at least until my regeneration could take care of them. I tried punching her a few more times, but it quickly became obvious that I was outmatched. I might be stronger, but she was definitely a better fighter.

My fight against Twist was definitely not going well, and after several minutes I was hurting pretty good. I suspected that she was taking it easy on me at this point, at least a little. I also suspected that she was just showing off and trying to make me see just how outmatched I was.

Then I grinned, feeling the powers I’d gained from Adonis wear of, not that they’d done me much good. I couldn’t copy his exemplar powers at a strong enough level to overwrite the ones I already had, so I hadn’t even gotten his exemplar abilities. And though I’d probably gotten a weak version of his psychic power, the idea of using that on Twist just made me feel dirty.

“Surprise,” I exclaimed, suddenly teleporting a short distance away, courtesy of the powers I’d copied while punching her. “I’m a power mimic.”

With that, I tried using Twist’s other power and fired a blast of gold energy in her general direction, though it would have missed her even if she hadn’t teleported in a swirl of green energy. I willed the blast to change direction the way I did my sphere, and it cooperated hitting Adonis just as he was starting to get back to his feet again.

“And stay down,” I called out to him.

I was a bit surprised by how powerful that energy blast had been since when I copied someone else’s powers, or at least anyone beside Jackie, I got a much weaker version of them. Damocles had told me that I’d only get a level 1 or 2 version of their power, but that blast had seemed about as powerful as the ones Twist had fired.

Force Majeure charged straight at me again, but when I tried to summon my force field, it didn’t come. I gasped in surprise as he hit me, sending me flying back to where I hit the pavement.

My whole body felt bruised and I was scared, almost as scared of these so called heroes as I was of the MCO. I didn’t want them to kill me while thinking I was some kind of villain, or nearly as bad, sending me to prison for the rest of my life.

I struggled to get back to my feet desperate to get away. But then I glanced to Jackie, knowing that I couldn’t just run away and leave her. She’d saved me too many times for me to abandon her to these people.

With that, I willed my force field bubble to form again, but there was a heavy resistance for a moment, then it suddenly popped back into place. I let out a sigh of relief at that, then realized that Twist’s powers were gone. This was the first time I’d ever lost my own powers when I’d copied someone else’s, and the first time I’d ever been able to end that copy early.

Just then, the metal ball that Jackie was holding began to beep. I stared at her, seeing a look of intense relief on her face. Then, she dropped her force field and jumped out from the cage of energy tendrils that the Gentleman had been using to keep her locked in place.

“It’s gonna blow,” Jackie called out, throwing the sphere and then ducking for cover. I followed her example and ducked down while inside my sphere.

When nothing seemed to happen after several seconds, I hesitantly raised my head and looked around. Then I cautiously asked, “Where’s the Earth shattering kaboom?”

I didn’t know what Jackie was up to with that secret weapon, but there hadn’t been any sign of an explosion or much of anything else. However, a moment later a familiar voice called out, “Stand and deliver.”

After David is caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, his entire life changes in ways he never could have expected. This is a fan fiction taking place in the Whateley Universe.

--------------------

The Highwayman stood atop the wreckage of a car that had been damaged during the fight, looking exactly as he had the last time I’d seen him. Though he wasn’t wearing a mask, his face was still obscured by both his tricornered hat and the collar of his long white overcoat. Each of his hands gripped an odd looking weapon that looked like some kind of ray gun.

“Stand and deliver,” Highwayman had called out a few seconds earlier, the same thing he’d said while helping to rescue me from the MCO. He looked to Jackie and commented, “Another rescue mission. I certainly hope this doesn’t get to be a habit.”

“Well, I do appreciate you coming,” Jackie responded with a chuckle. “Even with your rates.”

Highwayman chuckled at that, then looked at me. “I see that you’ve changed a great deal since last we met. You are quite the lovely young lady.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere,” Jackie told him with a grin.

Then I looked to the other newcomers who’d arrived with Highwayman. There was a huge man in metal dark gray armor who looked like some kind of high tech knight. It was only the massive glowing red energy sword in his hand which identified him as Damocles. Of course, the fact that Salt and Pepper were standing behind him didn’t hurt either.

The last member of the group was a woman with dark gray skin and glowing green eyes. She wore a costume that was mostly black, though she had a dark green cloak on as well.

“Pinball,” the gray skinned woman said, her voice cold and raspy. “With this assistance, my debt to you is paid.”

“Agreed, Hexfire” Jackie responded.

“What is this?” Super Star demanded as she and the rest of the Liberty League stared at the newcomers with suspicion and obvious hostility.

“Just a little ace I had up my sleeve,” Jackie commented with a grin. “In case I ran into more trouble than Sphere and I could handle on our own.”

“This isn’t an ace up your sleeve,” I blurted out. “It’s a full house.”

“Retreat now,” Damocles ordered the heroes. “This doesn’t need to escalate any further than it already has.”

The gray skinned woman whom Jackie had called Hexfire snorted in distain. “Speak for yourself, engineer. I will not waste my time merely coming here to pose and preen.”

I wasn’t sure who made the first move, wither it was the Liberty League or these newcomers who’d suddenly appeared, but suddenly everyone was in motion. Jackie and I immediately called up our force fields, just to avoid getting caught in the crossfire if nothing else.

Salt and Pepper were both holding energy rifles of some sort and firing them while the Bronze Lady fired back with one of her own. The Gentleman pointed his cane at Hexfire and a ball of fire shot out towards the gray skinned woman, but then a disk of blackness appeared between them and blocked the fireball.

“A fellow practitioner,” Hexfire commented with a scary smile. “Yes, one to test my skill against. This venture may prove interesting after all.”

Force Majeure suddenly had a ghostly image around him that looked like a samurai, complete with full armor. Then as the samurai’s image vanished, a glowing katana appeared in his hands. The hero charged right at Damocles, who blocked his attack using his own massive sword.

Jackie flung herself at Super Star again, slamming into the hero and sending her flying back. Of course, Super Star was immediately back on her feet, then flying at Jackie and punching the force field to try breaking through.

Highwayman opened fire with his ray guns, firing blasts of red energy at Adonis from each of them. The blasts didn’t seem to hurt Adonis, who slowly moved closer and closer to the mercenary.

“We can’t have that,” Highwayman commented, dropping one of his ray guns and reaching onto a pocket. A moment later, he threw a gold metal ball at Adonis, which then stuck to the hero’s chest. When Adonis tried removing the ball, it exploded, severely damaging his costume but not seeming to have done much to him. “Well,” Highwayman added a moment later. “That was disappointing.”

Twist turned her attention back to me, and once again she teleported inside of my force field and delivered a series of punches that caused me to drop my force field. I swung at her, no longer feeling the least bit guilty about trying to hit a girl. Not only was I a girl now myself, but she was REALLY starting to piss me off.

“Go away,” I snarled at Twist, forming a bubble around her and sending her flying back. However, she teleported out of the bubble and reappeared a short distance away. From the look on her face, she was starting to get tired. I wondered if that teleporting thing took more effort than she was trying to let on.

“Turn yourself in, Sphere,” Twist ordered me. “If you do, we’ll go easy on you.”

“Yeah right,” I spat out. “That’s what the MCO said before they beat the crap out of me and tried to make me disappear.”

I was sore and getting tired, but I couldn’t quit now. I formed a small force field bubble in front of me and sent it flying at Twist. She jumped aside but I turned my bubble around in mid-air and had it come right at her back. Turnabout was fair play.

“I don’t think so,” Twist said as she jumped out of the way.

A moment later, Twist fired a blast of green energy at me, and though I could have called up my force field, I jumped aside instead. While I was doing that, I had my own bubble change direction and go at her again. The two of us spent a minute just dodging and redirecting our own attacks. She wasn’t teleporting very much now which reinforced my suspicion that she was running out of steam.

Twist and I both paused, taking a brief break by unspoken agreement. I watched her, wondering why my powers had behaved different when I’d copied hers. Then again, my force field had never been a perfect copy of Jackie’s either.

I may have gained a permanent copy of Jackie’s powers, but mine were definitely a little different from hers. For one thing, my force fields were golden rather than looking like soap bubbles, and for another, I could do a few more things than she could. And whenever I copied someone else’s powers, I usually kept my force field ability and only gained a weak version of the other person’s powers.

“Why would Twist be different?” I muttered to myself.

Then it dawned on me. Twist was an energizer as well, and until now, Jackie had been the only energizer I’d duplicated. My exemplar and regeneration abilities were almost a perfect match for Jackie’s, but my energizer powers weren’t. Maybe it had something to do with my own energizer abilities.

I suddenly had an idea, though I didn’t really have any evidence for it. What if my natural power wasn’t just being a power mimic? What if I’d actually had some energizer ability of my own as well, and when I copied Jackie’s powers, it interacted with what I would have been able to do already? After all, I’d been glowing with that golden energy before I’d ever imprinted on Jackie.

“That’s it,” I said, feeling excited and becoming sure that my guess was right.

If that was the case, when I copied Twist, my energizer powers were able to interact with hers, giving me energy blasts that were about as powerful as hers were rather than a much weaker version. Of course, that seemed to have diverted those energies away from the force fields, at least briefly.

However, I couldn’t think about this anymore because Twist had apparently decided that our momentary truce was over and suddenly launched herself at me again. I formed my force field and lifted myself up into the air above her. She responded by firing another blast of energy, which followed me as I attempted to dodge it, then slammed into me, sending me flying back. I was barely able to keep my force field up.

While my bubble was floating in the air, I looked around for Twist and any other threats. From a short distance away, I saw Super Star, who looked like she was about ready to dive bomb Jackie. I changed directions and flung my force field right into Super Star.

“I hate these stupid bubbles,” Super Star snarled, turning around and punching my force field with an immense amount of force. She knocked me back, then flew above me and slammed the top of my fore field with an even stronger hit, sending me smashing right into the ground. After my force field absorbed most of the impact, it vanished. Super Star landed beside me and picked me up. “I’ve got you now…”

“And I’ve got you,” I said, grabbing her face with my bare hand and trying to mimic her powers. But to my surprise, I didn’t feel anything. My powers weren’t working on her. Maybe it had something to do with her being a PK Supergirl, however that worked, but I wasn’t able to make contact enough to copy her abilities. “Oh shit…”

“Oh no you don’t,” Jackie exclaimed, running up and grabbing Super Star by the arm, then throwing her right into Adonis. “Don’t you dare touch her…”

“Thanks,” I said, shaking badly. I was sore, tired, and not sure how much longer I could do this.

“You have to get out of here,” Jackie told me firmly. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll catch up with you later.”

“But I can’t leave you,” I protested, offended that she’d even ask me to do that. After everything she’d done for me, I couldn’t just leave her like this.

Jackie just smiled at that and gave me a hug. “Remember the plan. I’ll meet you at rendezvous C.”

With that, Jackie formed her force field and threw herself right through Super Star and into Adonis. She bounced right of Adonis and ran right through Force Majeure, who was still in the middle of a sword fight with Damocles.

“None shall defeat the mighty Damocles,” the armored man yelled out, no longer seeming like the calm and controlled man who’d done my power testing. Instead, he was more like he’d been the first time I met him, when he’d been ranting about not being a doctor. At the time, he’d said it was his Diedricks Syndrome acting up. “You will fall before my unbeatable sword.”

“Damocles,” Force Majeure exclaimed in realization. “I should have known…”

“Of course,” Damocles exclaimed with a laugh. “All should know the mighty Damocles…”

“I also know you used to be quite active in mercenary circles,” Force Majeure responded. “Before you disintegrated your own arm while trying to take out Champion… Or was that before you accidentally had a death ray blow up and nearly kill you?”

“I’ve heard of him,” Super Star added. “He used to have a real reputation for always getting away…”

“Of course,” The Bronze Lady exclaimed in an English accent. I was pretty sure her file said that she was actually born and raised in Oklahoma. “They say he used a teleportation device so whenever he was caught or defeated, he would automatically teleport away.”

“That explains how they got here,” I muttered, just in time to move out of the way from one of Twist’s attacks.

“According to what I’ve heard,” The Bronze Lady continued, “Damocles uses a beacon device to hold him at the location he is teleporting to. When the beacon is destroyed, he was automatically snapped back to his starting location…”

“Oh shit,” Jackie muttered as the heroes finally figured out what her secret weapon really was.

A moment later, Adonis grabbed the metal sphere from where it had been resting on the ground and crushed it between his hands. As soon as he did so, Damocles, the Highwayman, Salt, Pepper, and Hexfire all vanished. Once again, Jackie and I were alone against the Liberty League.

“RUN,” Jackie yelled at me in desperation, even as she began rolling at the heroes one after another, playing a game of pinball in the parking lot and trying to keep them occupied.

I was scared and desperate so did what Jackie instructed and started to fly off, though I felt guilty for leaving her like that. Suddenly, Twist was within my fore field again, hitting me in the solar plexus. I let out a grunt of pain and dropped my force field, leaving me and Twist to both fall to the ground.

“You’re not going anywhere,” Twist said, jumping on top of me and pinning me to the ground. I was strong enough that I could have thrown her off, but she held a hand to my face, warning, “One move and I blast you.”

“Just leave me alone,” I demanded, though I was afraid of this hero, who only seemed a few years older than me. I doubted that she was even twenty yet. “I didn’t do anything…”

“I know Pinball kidnapped a boy,” Twist snarled. “Where is he? What did she do with him?”

I was surprised by this sudden demand and gasped, “What?”

“David Michaels,” Twist demanded. “What did Pinball do with him? Where is he?”

I glared at Twist defiantly, but when her hand began to glow, I blurted out in anger and fear, “He’s right in front of you.”

Twist looked confused by that and I took advantage of her distraction to knock her off of me. I got to my feet but I was weak and unsteady, not to mention being an emotional mess.

“Pinball never kidnaped me,” I spat at Twist. “She saved me… When I manifested in the bank, she got me out of there so the MCO wouldn’t blame me. When my Mom gave me to the MCO for being a mutant, she was the one who rescued me from them.”

“YOU’RE David?” Twist gasped in surprise.

“I WAS,” I snarled at her. “Not anymore… And don’t you dare blame this on Pinball… She’s the one who took me in and protected me time and time again, not you so called heroes and your psychic roofies…”

As I stood there glaring at Twist, I knew that I didn’t have the energy to keep fighting back. First my period, then being attacked by the Liberty League, followed by Adonis’ psychic roofie and the disturbing things he’d made me feel, and now I was about to be arrested as an accomplice to kidnapping myself. Today absolutely SUCKED.

“At least it can’t get any worse,” I muttered bitterly.

Just then, a familiar voice called out, “This is Agent Owens with the MCO. You’re all under arrest.”

After David is caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, his entire life changes in ways he never could have expected. This is a fan fiction taking place in the Whateley Universe.

--------------------

I slowly looked around, feeling a cold knot forming in my stomach. It had been bad enough when Jackie and I had just needed to escape from the Liberty League, but now we were completely surrounded by the MCO as well. Agent Owens stood there with his SWAT gear, along with another eight agents who were similarly dressed and heavily armed. However, on top of that, there were six more MCO agents in their power armor, two of which were in different models of armor than what I’d seen before. These two power suits were about twice the size of the other ones and looked much more heavily armed and dangerous.

“Surrender now,” Owens called out on a bullhorn. “You are all under arrest. Get down on the ground with your hands behind your heads.”

“We have the situation under control,” Force Majeure called out to them, obviously angry at the MCO’s intrusion. “We were just taking Pinball and her associate into custody…”

“Get down on the ground, mutants” Owens repeated firmly. “You are ALL under arrest. We will not allow you to further endanger human lives. This is your last warning.”

“Stand down,” Force Majeure yelled at Owens. “We’re operating under the authority of the FBI. You don’t have the authority to interfere in this operation.”

One of the MCO agents who was standing beside Owen smirked and said, “It looks to me like the mutants are resisting arrest.”

“Oh shit,” I gasped in realization. “This is NOT good…”

“You can say that again,” Twist commented from a short distance away.

“Oh shit,” I repeated with a forced smile, trying to cover my fear with a joke. “This is NOT good.”

Owens looked over everyone present with a cold firm look in his eyes. When his gaze settled on me, he sneered faintly, showing that his dislike of me had definitely become personal. A moment later, he called out, “Take them into custody.”

At that, most of the MCO agents began to approach, weapons drawn and pointed at the heroes as much as at Pinball and me. Jackie and I both formed our force fields and started to take off but the MCO agents opened fire.

“Oh no you don’t,” Twist exclaimed, teleporting inside my force field and grabbing hold of me again.

Jackie slammed into one MCO suit of power armor and then ricocheted off to slam into one of the larger ones. I ended up dropping my shield as I traded punches with Twist and got my butt kicked again. I didn’t know where she learned to fight, but she definitely knew how to do so a LOT better than I did.

“Just leave me alone,” I yelled as I managed to shove Twist off of me again. I staggered back to my feet, barely getting my force field back up in time to protect me from MCO gunfire. I gasped and muttered, “All I want to do is get to Whateley so I don’t have to deal with this crap anymore…”

Twist got back to her feet a short distance away from me and stared at me with a look of surprise. She looked like she was about to come at me again when she noticed one of the MCO power suits approaching. With a scowl, she turned and fired a blast of energy at the power suit and was quickly caught up in the fight with the MCO, giving me the opening I needed to escape.

I was about to make another run for it when I saw one of the MCO agents taking aim right at the Bronze Lady’s back. With a grimace, I formed a force field around her, just in time to keep her from being shot from behind. She snapped around in surprise and confusion, though I dropped the force field a moment later so she could shoot back at her attacker. I created a new shield around one of the power suits and used it to fling him right at one of the other power suits.

“Chester, come here,” the Bronze Lady called out.

A moment later, a bronze clockwork spider that was nearly four feet tall scampered up to her and then it crouched down. The metal spider’s back opened up and the Bronze Lady reached within, pulling out a new weapon. It looked sort of like a steampunk version of a grenade launcher.

“Thank you Chester,” she told the spider. “That will be all for now.” And with that, the spider scampered away, at least until one of the power suits opened fire on it and blew it up. The Bronze Lady suddenly looked very angry. “You horrid brute…”

The Bronze Lady opened fire with her antiquated looking weapon, firing some kind of sphere at the power suit which exploded into metallic netting that wrapped around him. She then began opening fire on the MCO agents in SWAT gear, taking out each one she hit.

At the same time, Adonis was fighting hand to hand with one of the large power armors and Force Majeure was trying to take out one of the smaller power armors. Super Star was flying in the air, going hand to hand with one of the smaller power suits, then she slammed it back towards the ground.

“You fools,” the Gentleman cried out angrily. “We had the villains contained…”

He pointed his cane at the other large suit of power armor and called out something in a language that didn’t sound the least bit familiar. Suddenly, the armor shell began to crack and crumble away, revealing the baseline human MCO agent who’d been piloting it from within.

Jackie bounced around the battlefield, hitting one power suit, knocking over several men in SWAT gear, and rolling over a car and briefly going airborne, only to land on the head of another power suit. I watched her with a sense of amazement and pride, determined that I was going to follow her example. With that, I summoned one of my smaller spheres and sent if flying at the MCO agents, hitting one, then bouncing it off and sending it flying at another. My single sphere bounced all around the battlefield under my control, smacking into nearly every MCO agent present. I missed about half of the time, proving that I still needed a lot of work on my control, but I hit enough of them that I felt like I was actually contributing to the fight.

I was a little confused at the realization that Jackie and I were actually fighting right alongside the same heroes that we ourselves had been fighting just a few minutes ago, but the MCO had proven themselves to be our common enemy. The MCO didn’t seem to care that the Liberty League was working with the FBI, only that they were mutants. I suddenly wondered how I ever could have bought into that their propaganda or believed their TV show was actually how things really worked. One thing I’d definitely learned lately was that the good guys and the bad guys weren’t necessarily who I’d previously thought.

Suddenly, there was a flash of red light and Adonis screamed and fell to the ground with a large hole right through his chest. A second blast of red light caught Jackie, sending her flying back where she smashed through several cars with her force field vanishing before she came to a final stop.

I stared at Jackie in desperate fear, then quickly looked around for the source of this attack. Several of the MCO agents were operating some sort of energy cannon that was set up on a tripod. They were aiming at Jackie for another blast, one that was certain to kill her if she didn’t have her bubble up.

“No,” I cried out, throwing a bubble around Jackie, just in time to prevent her from behind hit by the blast, though a single shot was enough to knock my bubble out.

Then I felt a burning pain through my thigh and dropped to the ground with a scream. I grimaced, already knowing that I’d been shot. It felt the same way as when I’d been shot in the shoulder, and when I looked around, I saw that it came from the same source. Agent Owens had a gun pointed right at me and he was taking aim for another shot.

“Oh no you don’t,” Jackie yelled, staggering towards me with one arm hanging limp and her face being covered with blood. When Owens fired, she jumped between us, taking the bullet instead.

“Jackie,” I cried out, trying to get back to my feet.

“I’m fine,” she told me with a wince and a forced smile. “Bulletproof uniform…” Then after a moment, she admitted, “But not bruise proof. And I think that hit back there broke a rib or two…”

“I don’t think so,” Super Star cried out, suddenly landing next to the energy cannon just as they were about to take another shot at Jackie. Super Star grabbed the cannon and threw it right at the back of one of the MCO power suits. “You aren’t killing anyone else…”

Twist suddenly appeared beside Owens, tearing the gun out of his hand and then punching him in the face. He snarled and punched back, but she was obviously a better fighter and easily blocked his attack.

“Hitting an agent of the MCO in the course of his duties,” Owens started, looking almost pleased, probably at having another excuse to be able to go after mutants legally.

“No,” Force Majeure exclaimed as he grabbed Owens. “You’re under arrest for the murder of Adonis, interfering with an FBI sanctioned operation, and several more counts of attempted murder…”

Owens just gave him a look of disdain, then said, “Don’t pretend for a moment that he was an innocent, or that any of you are. You mutants are a danger…a threat to real humans. I know all about those sexual assault charges your friend managed to slip out of last year. You can all pretend to be heroes all you want, but I know better.”

“I think it’s time for us to go,” Jackie told me with a grim look. “Before they remember we’re here.”

“But you’re hurt,” I reminded her, wincing at the pain in my own leg.

“Tis but a scratch,” she joked, wincing as she did so. “Besides, I’ll heal. We just need to get away from here first, and I can’t bring up my shield again yet…”

I nodded at that, not sure that I had enough energy to bring my force field back either, though I was damn sure going to try. With a bit of effort, Jackie and I were surrounded in my golden bubble and then we began to take off.

“They’re escaping,” the Bronze Lady called out in warning, firing a short at my force field though it bounced off without harming us.

I flew Jackie and me away from the parking lot as fast as I could but Super Star called out, “I’ll get them,” and flew right after us.

“Take her out,” Jackie told me. “I’ve got an idea.”

With that, Jackie had a look of concentration and I suddenly realized that she’d formed her own force field bubble right inside of mine. I understood what she was doing so dropped my bubble and formed a new one around Super Star, caging her in place. Without my bubble holding us up, Jackie and I fell to the ground, but her bubble absorbed the impact and we continued racing down the street like a couple hamsters in a ball.

“That won’t last long,” I reminded Jackie. “Once I’m out of range…”

“We don’t need long,” Jackie told me. “We just need an opening.”

Jackie pulled us off the street and into an alley where she dropped her bubble. She dropped to her knees with a wince, obviously in a lot of pain. I could certainly sympathize because my leg hurt like hell and I wasn’t sure I could really stand on it much less run.

“Stay hidden for now,” Jackie told me firmly. “Once it’s safe, make it to the rendezvous and I’ll meet up with you there.”

“What?” I asked in surprise, feeling just a little hurt. I suddenly remembered my Mom’s expression when she turned me over to the MCO and couldn’t help but feeling that sense of abandonment again. “You’re leaving me?”

Jackie put a hand on my shoulder and looked me in the eyes. “No, I’m leading them away from you. I’ll meet up with you again once I’ve lost all pursuit…”

I stared at her, suddenly feeling more worried for her than for me. “But you’re hurt,” I protested. “You’ll never get away from all them…”

Jackie chuckled at that, then gave me a grin. “I’ve been doing this for a few years now and know a couple tricks to help me get away. Trust me, I’ve still got an ace…or at least a jack or two up my sleeves.”

“But,” I started to protest again, though I wasn’t sure I even had a specific argument. “I don’t want them to catch you,” I told her, grabbing her in a hug.

“Don’t worry about me, kid,” Jackie told me gently. “You saved my life back and got hurt because of it. I’m not about to risk you any more than I absolutely have to. I’ll take the danger on this bit by myself, but you have to stay safe.” Then she gave me a smile and said, “You’re my little sister now. It’s the least I can do.”

I reluctantly nodded at that, then asked, “You promise you’ll be back?”

“I promise,” she agreed.

I suddenly thought of Becky and how she never trusted a promise unless it was properly sealed. I grinned and asked, “Pinkie promise?”

Jackie chuckled at that, “Okay. Pinkie promise.”

We crossed fingers to seal the promise, then Jackie moved back and reformed her force field. “Be careful, sis,” I called out to her. “If you don’t meet me there, I’ll tell Emily you were staring at that blonde waitress back at the diner.”

“Anything but that,” Jackie joked as she began rolling away. “She’ll never forgive me for not bringing her pictures…”

With that, Jackie was gone, leaving me bleeding and alone in an alleyway. I winced in pain, knowing that I’d heal from the gunshot, but that there was still a chance I’d bleed out. I tore my shirt to make a bandage, focusing on my problems one at a time. Bandage my leg so I didn’t bleed to death. Get to safety so I had a chance to heal without getting caught. Find food since I was starving and was really going to need the calories and nutrition for my healing. And of course, I’d have to find my way to the rendezvous point to meet up with Jackie.

Just then, Super Star’s voice called out, “Now where did that Pinhead go…”

“It shouldn’t be difficult following her trail,” Twist responded as she appeared at the opening to the alley.

My heart stopped as Twist turned and looked down the alley…and straight at me. I was too hurt and drained to fight her anymore, but it appeared that I didn’t have much of a choice. Her expression was grim and she just stared at me for a moment before nodding slightly.

“She obviously went his way,” Twist said, pointing down the street where Jackie had gone. “See the trail of dented cars?”

Twist and Superstar hurried after Jackie, leaving me stunned and confused. Twist had definitely seen me, but instead of trying to take me in, she’d actually let me go.

“I’m just a little fish,” I reminded myself with a grunt of pain as I slowly got back to my feet. “She threw me back and is going after the big one.”

After bracing myself to deal with the pain in my leg, I began hobbling my way down the alley, away from where Twist and Super Star had just gone past. Twist might have chosen to throw me back into the lake for now, but I didn’t want to take a chance that she’d change her mind and come back.

After David is caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, his entire life changes in ways he never could have expected. This is a fan fiction taking place in the Whateley Universe.

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The stench from the alley was strong enough that it would have been enough to knock me off my feet if I hadn’t already been sitting down. There was a large dumpster a short distance away from me, filled with the garbage from a Chinese restaurant and smelling as though it hadn’t been emptied in about a week.

I was sitting in alley that was about two blocks from where I’d last seen Jackie, just a little over an hour ago. When I got here, my leg was hurting too much for me to go any further, at least not without using one of my force field bubbles to transport me. And since I was trying to avoid the kind of attention that would bring, I’d settled down here to heal.

My wound had stopped bleeding a long time ago, and though it still hurt, I no longer had to worry about it reopening either. However, I was also feeling the effects of using my power so much during that fight and then having to heal myself. I was very tired but also extremely hungry. In fact, I felt like I was starving, so much so that I’d even been tempted to look in that dumpster for any food that was still edible. Jackie had warned me that when I healed myself, my body would need extra energy and nutrition or it might start cannibalizing itself. That was a problem I was going to have to deal with very soon.

I looked down at myself, specifically, at my torn and filthy clothes. My pants were soaked in blood, which was bound to draw unwanted attention. I’d had a spare set of clothes in my ‘bug out bag’ along with some energy bars that would have helped with the food issue. Unfortunately, I’d been forced to leave my backpack behind, just like I’d previously lost the rest of my luggage.

“Good thing Jackie was prepared,” I muttered with a sigh, knowing that I never would have thought about preparing for this kind of situation.

With that, I lifted the leg of my pants and revealed a Velcro wallet that was strapped around my ankle. I reached in and pulled out two hundred dollars, all in twenties, along with a folded up sheet of paper. The paper was a list of possible rendezvous sites where Jackie and I could meet in case we ended up getting separated. The plan was that we’d be able to meet up again at the closest one at the list.

“Food, clothes, and meeting,” I said, reminding myself of my goals.

The first thing I needed to do was get something to eat. Since I was no longer in danger of bleeding to death, I got up and left the alley, then went to the first fast food place I saw. I bought a dozen burgers, then found an out of the way spot to scarf them down. That definitely took the edge off my hunger, though I knew that I’d need more to eat before long. Still, it gave me enough breathing room to take care of my other needs.

I found a nearby thrift store and went inside, pausing as the sales woman and two customers all turned to stare at me in shock. I made sure to stare at the floor so that none of them got a good look at my eyes. “Um…my boyfriend beat me up,” I said awkwardly. It was the only thing I could think of at the moment that would explain my ragged state and blood soaked pants.

“You poor thing,” the sales woman exclaimed as she rushed over to me with a look of horror on her face

I suddenly realized that I’d just made a big mistake with that story since the police or an ambulance were bound to be called. “It’s not as bad as it look,” I said with a forced smile. “He was getting a bit rough so I broke his nose and he bled all over me…”

“Good for you,” one of the customers, a middle-aged woman stated with a nod of approval.

“I just need some clothes so I don’t scare my Mom when I go home,” I said, feeling a little more pleased by the explanation.

The sales woman wanted to help me more, but I spent a minute assuring her that I’d be fine on my own. It was difficult to do when I didn’t dare look her in the eyes. Fortunately, she seemed to think that I was just embarrassed, which finally convinced her to give me some space.

I quickly looked through the used clothing, finding several items that would fit me, even if I wasn’t particularly thrilled with the style. The only shirt I found that was even halfway suitable had pictures of kittens on the front. Fortunately, they did have a jacket in my size so I grabbed that and a baseball cap as well. The sales woman let me change into my new clothes in their bathroom, which also gave me the opportunity to wash up in a little in the sink.

While I was washing up and getting changed, I was reminded of unfortunate fact that my gunshot wound wasn’t the only place where I was bleeding. And as much as the idea disgusted me, I obviously had to replace my tampon which meant buying some more. I shuddered at the very thought.

A short time later, I was fully dressed and walking into the coffee shop across the street. After grabbing a large caramel mocha and a couple snack pastries, I braced myself and then went to my next stop…the convenience store. Walking to the checkout with a box of tampons and some sanitary napkins was a humiliating experience and I was blushing bright red as I hurried out of the store as quickly as I could.

“I can’t believe this,” I muttered to myself as I went into a McDonald’s in order to use their restroom to change out my tampon. “Disgusting. I’ll never tease a girl about her period again…” I shuddered at that, suddenly feeling guilty for all the jokes I’d ever made on the subject. “NEVER again.”

Changing out my tampon was absolutely disgusting, though at least when I was done, I was able to grab some burgers from the restaurant before leaving. At this point, I decided that it was time to start heading to the rendezvous point. I had no idea when Jackie might be able to meet me there, but I wanted to get there as soon as possible anyway.

Rendezvous C, as Jackie had it listed on the sheet of paper she’d given me, was a freeway rest stop. It was also far enough away that there was no way I could walk there, at least not without a couple days of extra time. Fortunately, I had the funds available for a little bus ride.

“Please let her be all right,” I muttered to myself, still worried about Jackie. I really hoped she’d be able to get away from the Liberty League because I didn’t know what I’d do if she got caught. I had no delusions about my ability to break into their secret headquarters, wherever that was, and take them all down to rescue her.

I had to walk around for awhile before I found the bus station, and by then, the pain in my thigh was starting to fade. In just a few more hours, there’d be no indication that I’d ever been shot. Yet again, I was suddenly very thankful for my regeneration power. It was quickly proving to be my favorite power. As much as I liked flying through the air in my glowing bubble, I liked being able to stay alive even better.

There were no busses that happened to go straight to the rest stop, but that wasn’t a problem. I just needed to get fairly close and I’d be able to hand the rest of the transportation by myself. By then, my powers should have rested and recovered enough to be usable again. After buying my ticket, I sat down on a bench to wait for my bus, thankful for the chance to get off my feet. My leg might have been healing ridiculously fast, but walking around town with a bullet hole through it still wasn’t a lot of fun.

While sitting there, I sipped on a cup of cheap bus station coffee and careful looked around to see if there were any signs of the MCO or the Liberty League. I’d tucked my long hair down the back of my jacket and wore a baseball cap to hide my distinctive hair, and a pair of cheap sunglasses kept anyone from noticing my eyes. Still, after everything that had happened lately, I’d learned to be a little paranoid.

When a guy who was about eighteen or nineteen sat down on the bench beside me, I immediately stiffened. I watched him carefully from the corner of my eye while trying to appear as though I wasn’t. He had been staring at me with a smirk that I really didn’t like so I had a feeling that he was biding his time in order to hit on me. The very thought made me feel a little nauseous.

“Hey,” he finally said. “What’s a cute thing like you doing in a place like this?’

I rolled my eyes at that, having expected something like that. However, I’d also come up with a cover story for whenever he finally did talk to me. “I’m waiting for my Dad. He should be here any time.”

“Cool,” the guy said, a faint hint of suspicion in his voice. “What’s he do for a living?”

I could have said ‘cop’ or ‘lawyer’ to try scaring him away, but those answers would have been too obvious and suspicious. Instead, I answered, “Sanitation engineer.”

I tried putting a note of pride in my voice as I told him that my Dad was a garbage man. A garbage man might not seem like a very threatening job, but I bet they really knew how to make bodies disappear. Apparently, my seat companion was thinking along the same lines because he didn’t bother me again for several more minutes.

My seat companion kept making looks at my chest, making me glad that I’d bought the jacket since it helped cover things up a little more than the kitten shirt would have. After several minutes, he finally introduced himself. “I’m Chaz.” He gave me a speculative look that was clearly sizing me up. The barely contained sneer sent warning bells off in my head.

“I’m not interested,” I told him coldly.

“Let me guess,” he continued to speak anyway. “Dressed the way you are, I’m guessing…homeless. A runaway. I bet things were really bad at home. I can help you, if you give me a chance.”

His comment about my being a runaway because things were bad at home did hit a little too close, but I kept my expression as calm as I could. I might be pretty new to the whole girl thing, but I wasn’t born yesterday, nor was I as gullible as Chaz seemed to think. I wasn’t sure what he wanted specifically, but I had a few ideas and none of them were good.

“My common sense is tingling,” I muttered to myself, getting a blank look from Chaz. Then I gave him a cold glare, which he couldn’t really see through my sunglasses, and said, “Like I said, I’m not interested.”

With that, I got up and started for the restroom, deciding that I might as well empty my bladder before my bus arrived. And when I was done, I’d go find another seat well away from Chaz and whatever game he was playing. I wasn’t sure if he just wanted to get into my pants or if it was something worse, but I didn’t intend to stick around and find out.

After I’d gone into the restroom, I let out a faint sigh of relief, glad to have gotten away from that creep. However, that sense of relief vanished when I looked around and saw how dirty the restroom actually looked. I probably wouldn’t have cared much if the boy’s restroom had been this messy, but the fact that that I could no longer stand up to do my business changed everything. There was no way I wanted to sit on one of those seats.

I was just about to turn around and leave, when I saw Chaz walk in with a determined look on his face. Since this was the girl’s restroom, he was either too dumb to read, or even see the obvious stick figures that had been on the door, or he was up to some serious no good. I would have put down a twenty that it was the latter.

“You didn’t tell me your name,” Chaz said with a smirk. “That was extremely rude of you.”

“I’ll tell you what,” I responded with a sneer. “I’ll make it up to you by letting you have first go at the stalls…”

“That’s not how you’re going to make it up to me,” he said, suddenly grabbing me by the shoulder and bending in to give me a kiss.

I was caught completely by surprise, then I was horrified and disgusted. I felt…violated, much the same way I had after Adonis had used his powers on me. And then, I was pissed, though Chaz didn’t seem to realize it.

“This is your lucky day,” he told with a smirk, having a firm grip on my shoulder.

Chaz tried to push me back into a wall, but instead, I grabbed his shirt and lifted him off the ground with one hand, much the way I’d seen Jackie do to the security guard at the bank. Chaz gasped in surprise and confusion while I used my free hand to remove my sunglasses so he could get a good look at my golden eyes.

“I’ve had a VERY bad day,” I snarled at him coldly, staring right into his eyes and seeing the look of fear as he realized I wasn’t exactly the helpless victim he’d thought. “I started my period, fought the Liberty League, practically got raped by a super hero, got SHOT by the MCO, and now while I’m going to meet up with my super villain big sister, some asshole decides to mess with me.”

“Oh shit,” Chaz blurted out as he obviously realized the huge mistake he’d made in coming after me.

“I’ve had a VERY shitty day,” I told Chaz with an evil grin. “But not as much as yours is about to be…”

I suddenly caught the scent of fresh urine as Chaz pissed himself, though that was only the start of things. He began screaming before I ever got him close to the filthy toilet and he continued doing so throughout the swirlie.

When I left the bathroom a few minutes later, I was actually feeling just a little better. Something about being able to let out all my frustrations like that had been rather satisfying. For the first time, I could really understand the allure of being a super villain, of being free to take your anger out on someone who deserves it. And at that moment, I think I understood Jackie a lot better.

My bus had arrived while I’d been busy in the bathroom so I didn’t have to wait long before I was on the road again. Riding on the bus may have given me more legroom than when I traveled in the car with Jackie, but the company wasn’t nearly as enjoyable, especially with the creepy old guy who kept staring at me.

It took me over an hour and a half to reach my stop, a small town that was just a small hop to the rest area where I was supposed to meet up with Jackie. Once off the bus, I made a quick stop at the KFC across from where I’d been let off, then I found a place behind some buildings where I wouldn’t be seen and formed my force field. A moment later, I was going up into the air and heading to the rest stop as quickly as I could.

I arrived at the rest area a short time later without any difficulties. I’d flown low and tried using trees as cover to prevent many people from seeing me, especially once I got close to my destination. Once I arrived, I sat back and ate my chicken while waiting for Jackie.

I was just starting on my second bucket of chicken when Jackie arrived, driving a beat up old pickup truck. She climbed out of the truck, dressed almost like a cowgirl, which included the hat. Then she slowly looked around the rest area, obviously looking not only for me but for any indications of trouble.

“Want some chicken?” I asked her from where I sat on top of a picnic table.

“Absolutely,” she agreed, coming over and limping slightly. She was clearly favoring one of her arms as well, which had yet to fully heal from being broken earlier. However, she was in much better shape than the last time I’d seen her and she happily helped herself to a drumstick. “Finger licking good.”

Jackie gave me a grin and a careful hug, then sat down beside me on the picnic table. The two of us ate in near silence for several minutes, until the bucket was empty of everything but bones.

“Did you have any trouble getting here?” Jackie finally asked me.

“Nothing I couldn’t handle,” I responded, thinking of Chaz and his dunking. He had definitely chosen the wrong girl and the wrong day to be such an ass. “How about you?”

“The same,” Jackie told me with a mischievious grin that made me wonder what had really happened. However, all she said was, “I stopped at the supermarket and picked up a few things on my way through, and I left Super Star with egg on her face too...among other things.”

“So, what now?” I asked Jackie, relieved that she’d made it out of there in one piece. When I’d left her with Super Star and Twist chasing after her, I’d been pretty worried. “Back on the road to Whateley?”

There was a long pause as Jackie just stared off into the distance, then she answered, “Yeah, but we’re going to make a detour first. After that fight, we need to lay low and rest up for a couple days. And…” She paused again with a strange look on her face as she added, “There’s something I have to do.”

After David is caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, his entire life changes in ways he never could have expected. This is a fan fiction taking place in the Whateley Universe.

--------------------

I stared out the car window, feeling incredibly bored. Sure, Jackie was great company and she had some exciting stories about various jobs she’d pulled, but the fact was that being cooped up in a car for days on end was enough to drive me insane. Of course, I knew that part of my moodiness was due to my period and the cramps I was feeling, but that didn’t make me any less bored.

It had been two days since the fight with the Liberty League and MCO, and in that time we’d changed course and had gone completely off our planned route. Because of that, none of our preplanned rendezvous points would be useful if we got separated again. Fortunately, we’d been able to avoid any more trouble since then, or at least any kind involving the MCO or super heroes.

Yesterday evening, Jackie had decided to ditch her stolen truck and get a new car. This time, she carefully explained what she was doing and actually gave me a lesson in how to hotwire a car. And though I had no ambitions of following in her footsteps as a criminal, I’d learned that sometimes you didn’t get much choice and that this kind of thing could be a useful survival skill.

Jackie still hadn’t told me where we were going or why we were taking this detour, which annoyed me a little. I finally decided to deal with that annoyance and my boredom at the same time.

“A million bottles of beer on the wall,” I began singing cheerfully, “a million bottles of beer…”

I went through several rounds of this while Jackie merely chuckled. I had hoped to annoy her a little more than that, but I figured that after a few dozen rounds she’d be at her limit and would finally crack.

However, what I didn’t expect was that Jackie began singing, “I am Henry the Eighth I am, Henry the Eighth I am I am…”

Jackie and I continued with our individual singing for the next half hour, each of us pretending that we didn’t notice the other. Finally, we both gave in and called a truce, then burst out laughing. I couldn’t help but grinning as I watched her, thinking that she really was like my big sister, almost as much as if we’d been born siblings.

It was a little strange to realize that I looked up to a super villain and was beginning to use her as a role model. Mom would of course be horrified, saying that this was just proof that being a mutant made me unstable and dangerous. Fortunately, Dad had proven to be a bit more open minded than I’d previously thought, much to my immense relief. And then there was Becky, who I was sure would get along great with Jackie.

I frowned as I thought of my family and my chances of ever seeing them again. Dad seemed pretty willing, but I seriously doubted that Mom would ever let me see Becky again. Of course, she’d keep me away from Becky for my sister’s own good, so she couldn’t accidentally get hurt from the ‘dangerous’ mutant. I wondered if Mom would even consider the fact that since I was a mutant, there was a decent chance that Becky might be one as well.

“Are you okay?” Jackie asked me with a concerned look.

I hesitated a moment, then admitted, “Just feeling a little overwhelmed.”

Jackie gave me a knowing look and nodded at that. “How about we stop for some of that overpriced coffee you like so much? That might help.”

“Well, it couldn’t hurt,” I responded with a faint smile. Then, just on general principal, I asked, “Are we there yet?”

“Not yet,” she told me.

I just smiled, waiting another minute before repeating, “Are we there yet?”

“Yep,” she answered cheerfully.

“Really?” I asked in surprise.

Jackie just grinned and responded, “Nope.” Then she stuck her tongue out at me and we both burst into giggles. I guess I really was starting to get pretty girly lately, but I blamed it on the hormones.

A few minutes later, we pulled off the freeway and got some go juice. But instead of getting right back on the freeway like I’d expected, Jackie instead drove through the town, going into a cul-de-sac and then parking in the driveway of a nice looking house. I gave Jackie a curious look, but she just sat there with a strange look on her face before she finally got out of the car.

“We’re here,” she finally said as she started for the front door.

“But I thought you said we weren’t there yet,” I reminded her, feeling a little confused about what she was up to.

Jackie just gave me a nervous grin and told me, “I lied.”

After Jackie rang the doorbell, we had to wait half a minute before the door opened and revealed a short and stocky woman who appeared to be in her fifties. She had shoulder length hair that that was orange and curly, as well as being liberally streaked with gray. For a moment, she just stood there with a look of surprise on her face.

“Hello, Mom,” Jackie greeted her nervously.

I just stared at Jackie in surprise while her Mom grabbed her in a firm hug. Jackie just hugged her back, looking more than a little misty eyed. A few seconds later, her Mom exclaimed, “Jaqueline Elizabeth Martin, you get your butt in the house right this instant.”

Then Jackie’s Mom paused, seeming to notice me for the first time. Her eyes went wide again in obvious recognition, then she gave Jackie a curious look, obviously wanting an answer.

“This is Dana,” Jackie introduced me with a grin. “She’s my sister.”

Her Mom stared at me for a moment before wryly responding, “I think I’d know if I had another daughter…”

“I sort of adopted her,” Jackie explained. “You know I’ve always wanted a little sister, and since you and Dad weren’t cooperating…”

Jackie’s Mom nodded at that and continued to stare at me, obviously having a lot of questions about my appearance. However, she gestured for both Jackie and me to come inside.

“Thom,” Jackie’s Mom yelled out as we went inside. “Gary. Get in here, we have company.”

A minute later, two men came into the room. The first and older one was tall, slender, and almost completely bald, having only a small bit of hair around the side and back. From the way he immediately grabbed Jackie in a hug, I knew that this had to be her Dad. The other guy was about eighteen or nineteen with curly orange hair and a lot of freckles on his face. This had to be Jackie’s brother.

“I haven’t seen you in…,” her Dad started. “Well, it’s been far too long…”

“I’m sorry I didn’t come back sooner,” Jackie apologized, looking a little self-conscious. “I didn’t think it was safe, especially not after what happened last time…”

“I really did like that car,” her Dad mused with a sigh and a shake of his head. “Too bad my insurance company had an act of mutant clause in my policy.”

“Sorry,” Jackie said with a wince.

“Don’t worry about it,” he told her with a chuckle. “It was that other girl who trashed it, not you.”

“I can’t stay long,” Jackie said apologetically. “I’m afraid that if I do, someone will track me down here and cause you more trouble.”

After this and several more hugs, Jackie’s Dad and brother both turned to stare at me, making feel self-conscious with the attention. They both had looks of recognition on their faces, as well as of surprise.

“What’s the story with Mini Me?” her brother finally asked, gesturing to me.

“Who are you calling mini?” I asked him. “I’m taller than you are.” Admittedly, it was only by an inch or two, but I was happy to use that. Then I turned to Jackie and said, “You never told me you were a Weasley. Is this Ron?”

Jackie burst out laughing like that while her Dad tried to cover a grin. Her Mom rolled her eyes while her brother looked annoyed and protested, “My name is Gary. And no, I haven’t heard that a thousand times already.”

“This is my daughter Dana,” Jackie told Gary with a mischievious grin. “Her mutation makes her age a lot faster than normal.”

“I’m this many,” I said in my best childish voice, holding up four fingers.

Gary stared at me in shock, his Dad was barely containing his laughter, while Jackie’s Mom just rolled her eyes. She really was starting to remind me of Molly Weasley.

“Actually,” Jackie said, her expression going serious. “I’ve sort of adopted Dana as my little sister. I’m sure you can see the resemblance.”

“It is rather…surprising,” Jackie’s Mom said carefully.

Jackie nodded at that, then explained, “Honestly, she’s a large part of the reason I came here. After what she’s been through lately, it reminded me how lucky I was to have a family who accepted me…in spite of…everything.” She gave a slightly pained smile and was obviously tearing up. “And I wanted you to meet her.”

I got even more curious looks from Jackie’s family, which made me feel a little uncomfortable. “Why don’t we sit down in the living room to talk,” Jackie’s Mom said pleasantly. “I’m sure we all have questions.” Again, her eyes darting to me. “I’ll go get some coffee. Would you like some hot cocoa, Dana?”

“If you don’t mind, I’ll have some of the coffee,” I said, ignoring the fact that I still had a half-finished mocha sitting in the car.

“You might as well bring her the whole pot,” Jackie added wryly.

Once everyone was settled down with a cup of coffee and some cookies to snack on, Jackie told her family a little bit about what she’d been up to for the last few years, though she glossed over most details relating to her career. It was obvious from the scowls and comments that her family disapproved of her career choice, but just as clear that they still loved and accepted her anyway. I couldn’t help but feeling a little jealous of Jackie.

“And what about Mini Me?” Gary asked.

“Zip it, Ron,” I commented, earning a snicker from Jackie and a mock glare from Gary.

“If you can believe it,” Jackie commented in an almost casual tone. “I met her during a bank robbery…” That suddenly had everyone’s full attention.

Jackie began telling them about me, about how we’d met in the bank and how she’d gotten me out of there before the MCO showed up and decided to come after me as well. So far, she’d neglected to make any mention of my previous gender. Then when she told them about how my Mom had turned me over to the MCO, every one of them stared at me with looks of horror and sympathy.

“You poor thing,” Jackie’s Mom exclaimed, giving me a reassuring hug. “How could any mother do such a thing to her own child?”

“I kind of asked the same thing,” I admitted with a forced smile to hide how much it still hurt. That just got me another hug.

“After I rescued her from the MCO and got her to safety,” Jackie continued, “her injuries healed on their own and she started to show some of my other powers. She even started changing until she looked like this…like…me.”

Gary stared at me for a moment and asked, “How in the world is that even possible?”

“I’m a power mimic,” I answered self-consciously. “The first time we met, I was in the middle of manifesting and accidentally imprinted on her. Because of that, I’ve permanently got all her powers and even her BIT. Hence…this.” I gestured down at myself.

After this, the conversation continued but I took a greater role in telling about how Jackie had taken me in, had brought me and my Dad back together, and how she’d protected me time and again from both the MCO and the Liberty League. Jackie’s family listened in fascination, even giving Jackie looks of pride. I didn’t tell them that I used to be a boy, but I did tell them nearly everything else.

When I was finished, I admitted, “After everything she’s done for me, I guess I really have started to think of her as the big sister I never had.”

“Big sisters are overrated,” Gary told me with a grin.

Jackie stuck her tongue out at him and joked, “Shut up, Ron.”

“Then does that make you George or Fred?” Gary asked her with a look of mock innocence. Jackie stuck her tongue out at him again while he grinned and then looked at me. “Well, any sister of Jackie’s is a sister of mine.” Then before I could say anything else, he added, “And I guess that would make you Ginny.”

“Dana,” Jackie’s Mom said, giving me a pleasant smile. “You’ve given my daughter a reason to come home again and I greatly appreciate that.”

“I didn’t have any idea we were coming here,” I admitted awkwardly.

“Jackie never did like sharing her plans,” her Dad commented with some amusement. He looked to Jackie’s Mom and added, “Maureen here is the same way.”

Jackie’s Mom gave her husband a mock glare, then turned back to me with another smile. “Since Jackie seems to have adopted you, I guess that makes you part of the family too.”

“Um…thank you,” I said politely, still not sure what to make of all this or how quickly they were accepting me.

“You know,” Gary told me, “When I was younger, I always wished that Jackie was younger than me so I could pick on her for a change.” He gave me a mischievious look and added, “Thanks for helping me fulfill that lifelong fantasy.”

Jackie snickered at that, then pointed out, “Just remember, Dana can bench press over half a ton, and just the other day, she went head to head with the Liberty League. You might want to think twice about picking on her.”

“Then what’s the point of having a new little sister if I can’t pick on her?” Gary asked in mock exasperation that made me laugh.

“Well, I always did want a big brother,” I responded wryly.

“Speaking of plans,” Jackie’s Mom said, looking at Jackie. “What are your plans?”

“We can’t stay here long,” Jackie admitted thoughtfully. “Maybe only a day or two at most, and that’s probably pushing it. After that, we have to get going again so I can get Dana to Whateley, which is probably the best place for her right now.”

“That makes sense,” Jackie’s Dad agreed. “From what you said, it sounds like she needs a safe environment where she can finish her education and learn to control her powers.”

Jackie nodded at that. “From here, the best course is to just catch the train to Berlin and then over to Dunwich.”

“And what are your plans while you are here?” Jackie’s Mom asked her curiously.

“Rest, relax, and catch up,” Jackie answered with an amused look. Then she gestured to me and added, “And get Dana some replacement clothes and supplies she’ll need for Whateley.”

Her Mom nodded approvingly at that. Then she looked at me with a thoughtful expression before adding, “We can probably help with some of that. In fact, I believe we still have some of your old clothes packed away in the basement. Considering that Dana is almost your spitting image, I’m imagining that they’d fit her perfectly.”

“I thought you would have thrown all that out by now,” Jackie said, looking just a little self-conscious. “After what happened the last time I was here…”

“What?” Gary asked with a smirk. “You thought we’d disown you because you’re an evil super villain?” He snorted at that, then leaned forward, and in an almost conspiratorial voice added, “As far as I’m concerned, you’ve always been a villain.”

“Gee, thanks,” Jackie responded with a chuckle.

With that, Jackie’s Mom let out a sigh and announced, “I suppose I’ll need to go shopping for food.” She gave Jackie a knowing look and said, “I remember the way you eat, and we don’t have nearly enough food in the house for dinner.”

“And it’s worse than you realize,” Jackie pointed out with a smirk. She gestured to me and added, “Dana has my appetite too.”

Her parents both stared at me for a moment and their eyes went wide, probably in dread as they considered the grocery bill. It was Gary who gasped in mock horror and exclaimed, “Another bottomless pit. Oh the humanity.”

When Jackie’s parents got up to go grocery shopping, I looked at Gary and then Jackie. “So,” I started, feeling a little curious. “I thought you said your brother was a baseline.”

“I am,” Gary responded, sounding proud of it though he gave Jackie a somewhat envious glance.

I just stared back at him, fully aware of the now familiar pressure as I shook my head and responded, “No you aren’t.” Jackie and Gary both just stared at me in surprise.

After David is caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, his entire life changes in ways he never could have expected. This is a fan fiction taking place in the Whateley Universe.

--------------------

Gary’s laptop was sitting in front of me, thanks to his generosity in letting me use it to get online. This was the first time that I’d been able to check my e-mail since Jackie and I had started this road trip, so I was eager to see if anyone had contacted me, not that I’d had contact with any of my friends since my manifestation.

For one thing, even if my old friends had e-mailed me, I wouldn’t have the faintest idea of what I could tell them. I was pretty sure that no one in school could possibly understand my situation, as proven by the general reaction when Amanda had been forcibly outed.

When I looked through my e-mail box, I was delighted to see that I had one from Dad, though I was a little nervous as well. After several seconds of hesitation, I opened it up.

‘Hey Dana, I just wanted to drop you a line to see how you were doing. I hope your new friends are treating you well and that you’ve made it to this mysterious school safely. It’s a little strange trying to get used to your new name, but I imagine that it’s even more so from your end.’

“No shit,” I muttered at that, looking down at myself and sighing. “I can’t even see my toes through my tits anymore.” That was a bit of an exaggeration, but I figured that by the time I finished filling out and reached the same size as Jackie, it just might be true.

‘Becky is really worried about you and keeps asking when you’re going to be home. I’ve told her that it won’t be for awhile, and that you don’t look like you used to. She doesn’t really understand yet, so if you could send me a picture it would help. I’d like to show her what her new big sister looks like.’

I leaned back for a moment, wondering what Becky would think about my new appearance. Knowing my sister, she’d probably be happy that I was now a girl. Fortunately, she was a tomboy so wouldn’t expect me to do hair and makeup with her. I shuddered at the very idea, thankful that my new estrogen laden hormones hadn’t suddenly made me interested in that stuff.

“But maybe,” I mused with a sigh. “Maybe by the time Becky is old enough, I’ll actually know about that stuff and can teach her.” I let out another sigh at that, not sure if that would be a good thing or bad.

‘I’ve been working on your Mom, and though I have made a little headway, I wouldn’t expect any big changes in her attitude too soon. Still, things have gotten a little better. We had a few…vocal discussions about her treatment of you. To my shame, not long ago, I probably would have agreed with her. But it’s one thing to say that mutants are dangerous and that you have to protect your family from them, and it’s another thing entirely when the mutant is your family. It really makes you stop and think about what you really believe…and what’s really important. I miss you and hope to see you again soon, maybe so I can get a chance to know the new you. Please keep in contact and let me know how you’re doing. Love Dad. PS, Henri said to tell you that he has a cousin who’s a mutant.’

By the time I finished reading Dad’s e-mail, I was actually sobbing and getting tears on the keyboard. That kind of thing had been happening to me a lot more often since my change, and even more so since my period had started. I quickly glanced around to make sure no one was watching me and then wiped the tears away as best I could.

“Stupid girl hormones,” I muttered. Fortunately, my period was finally ending, at least until next month. I shuddered at the idea of having to go through this again every single month. “Gross.”

After a few minutes, I wrote a reply to Dad, telling him that there had been a few unexpected delays in my trip, but not giving him any details. There was no need to worry him any more than necessary, and even though Dad was turning out to be more open minded than I’d thought, I didn’t want to push it by telling him that I’d been fighting the MCO and a group of super heroes.

When I was finished, I logged off and then went to find Gary. “Thanks for letting me use your computer,” I told him.

“No problem,” he told me with a grin. “I usually only use it for porn and my college course work. Speaking of which, I hope I remembered to wipe off the keyboard after last night…”

“Ewwww,” I responded, thinking about what he could have gotten on the keyboard. Then I grinned and asked, “So, do you have any good bookmarks?”

Gary gave me a smug look and told me, “I doubt you’d be very interested in my collection. It’s all hot girls and girl on girl stuff.” He was obviously trying to shock me with that, which made me chuckle.

“That’s perfectly fine with me,” I told him with a lecherous grin of my own.

Gary blinked in surprise at that, then shook his head. “I guess you’re even more like my sister than I thought.”

“She’s been corrupting my innocent mind with her evil influence,” I told him cheerfully.

“Yeah, that sounds like her,” he said with a broad grin.

After that, I left Gary and went to the kitchen where I found Jackie’s Mom, or Maureen as she’d asked me to call her. I’d been at their house for two days, and it still amazed me how well they’d accepted me. They were treating me like a lost cousin that they were welcoming back into the fold.

“Would you like something to eat?” Maureen asked me with a knowing look, already pulling out a plate full of cookies. “I know you’ll want a snack before you and Jackie leave.”

I nodded at that, happily accepting both the cookies and the offered glass of milk. As I began eating the cookies, I watched Maureen, wondering what it was like for her to have me here. After all, I looked like a younger version of her own daughter, so that must be really weird for her. Fortunately for me, she didn’t act weirded out at all. I guess that with Jackie for a daughter, she must have gotten used to a bit of weirdness.

I was definitely glad that Jackie had made the detour to come here and visit her family. It was nice to meet them and get to know more about her and where she’d come from. And best of all, Gary had been happy to tell me some embarrassing stories and give me a bit of blackmail material.

“I’m glad to have an ally against my villainous big sister,” Gary had told me with a great deal of amusement. “And now, I’m not the youngest one in the family.”

The whole family had been great and they’d all been really helpful. Yesterday, Maureen had even taken me out shopping at some of the local stores while Jackie stayed behind. I knew that Jackie would have liked to come along as well, but she’d actually been worried that the MCO might have some contacts in town who’d recognize her and report her to them.

“I still can’t believe that Gary might be a mutant too,” Maureen told me while I ate. “I mean, at his age…”

“I don’t know what his power is,” I admitted to her with a shrug. “All I know is that I can sense mutants, and my power tells me that he is one.”

“I don’t doubt you dear,” Maureen quickly assured me. “But I would have thought that he would have shown some powers…”

I nodded at that, thinking about yesterday. Jackie and I had worked with Gary for several hours, trying to determine what powers he had if any. She gave him something of the homestyle version of the power testing that Damocles had put me through, however, we hadn’t found even the slightest hint of a mutant power.

“Well, he does have that appointment for power testing this afternoon,” Maureen mused.

“And I wish I could be there for it,” Jackie said as she came into the room. “Unfortunately, it’s being done by a hero so I doubt I’d receive a warm welcome.”

“I don’t know,” Gary said as he joined us. “I think flamethrowers are pretty warm.”

Jackie snatched a cookie from my plate, then asked me, “Are all your things packed?”

I nodded at that, thinking of the clothes Maureen and I had shopped for yesterday, as well as Jackie’s old ‘hand-me-down’ clothes from when she was my age. After seeing that basement, it had looked like her parents had never thrown out anything that might be useful again, including tons of clothes that Jackie had outgrown while growing up.

“Ready to go whenever you are,” I told her.

“You just got here, dear,” Maureen told Jackie with a look of disappointment. “I don’t want you to leave already.”

“I don’t have much choice,” Jackie reminded her Mom. “Even if I didn’t have to get Dana to Whateley. It isn’t safe for me to be here like this. Not for any of us.”

“I know, sis,” Gary said, looking disappointed as well. “But it still sucks.”

Jackie’s Dad, or Thom as he’d asked me to call him, came in and gave Jackie a hug. “You’d better come back and visit when you do get a chance,” he told her firmly. “And you’d better keep in contact. We do have a phone you know…and e-mail.”

“Okay, Dad,” Jackie told him with a smile. “I promise I’ll stay in contact. Maybe if I got you two a divisor phone…”

The actual goodbye’s lasted for another half hour and consisted of several rounds of hugging, of which I was included. It was a little embarrassing, but also very nice. I actually felt as though I was part of their family.

“Thank you for having me over,” I told Maureen and Thom. “It was really nice meeting you all.” Then I turned to Gary and said, “See you later Ron. Make sure you take good care of Scabbers.”

“Bite me, Mini Me,” Gary responded with a grin of his own.

Then as Jackie and I finally left, she called out to Gary, “And don’t forget to call me as soon as you find out the results from your power testing.”

Once Jackie and I were on the road again, I told her, “You have a really nice family. Thanks for bringing me.”

“I’m glad I could,” she told me with a broad grin, obviously in a good mood. “I figured that if you’re going to be my little sister, you should at least know the rest of the family. Besides, you have no idea how good it was to see everyone again after all this time.”

“I think I might,” I said quietly, thinking of Becky and my Mom.

The train station was just under an hour away, and once we arrived, Jackie carefully parked our stolen car at the back of the parking lot, then we went to go buy our tickets. I was excited since I’d never ridden on a train before, but I was also a little worried that something else would go wrong. After all, bad luck seemed to have been trailing us for most of our road trip.

I wore my sunglasses and baseball cap as we walked through the train station, trying to avoid any more attention than necessary. However, the fact was that no matter how much I covered up, Jackie and I were both very attractive and that automatically drew another kind of unwanted attention.

“Don’t worry,” Jackie told me, trying to act calm and casual, though I saw the way her eyes were darting around the train station. “We’re perfectly safe here.”

“We were perfectly safe at that diner too,” I pointed out wryly. “And that motel.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she responded.

“And that restaurant where we met my Dad,” I couldn’t resist adding.

“Don’t worry,” she told me again. “Everything is…oh shit.”

“Oh shit doesn’t sound good,” I pointed out, feeling a little worried as I looked around. It only took me a couple seconds to see what Jackie had. “Oh shit.”

There was a small group of protestors standing right in the middle of the train station, half of which were holding signs. A single glance was enough to tell me that they were with Humanity First. Most of them wore pins with Humanity First logos, and several of the signs proudly proclaimed them to be with that group.

The signs said various things like, ‘Mutants are a danger to our children’ or ‘Help keep humans safe’. However, it wasn’t the fact that they carried signs that made me nervous. It was because they’d positioned themselves to intercept anyone who was actually trying to get to the train platform.

“You look like a reasonable and respectable person,” one of the protestors said as he stepped in front of a man and blocked his path. “Does it make sense to you, that dangerous mutants are actually allowed in school with our children?”

A woman with dark sunglasses was trying to walk around the protestors, only to have several of them block her path. They were smiling, but there was definitely an unspoken threat in their body language.

“Can you please remove your glasses,” one of the protestors asked the woman. “We’re trying to make sure no mutants sneak onto the train and blow it up.”

“The security at this station is almost non-existent,” another protestor stated. “We’re trying to draw attention to that dangerous mistake and are volunteering our time to help protect the passengers until they increase the security.”

Jackie and I stood back for a minute and just watched as the protestors passed out pamphlets, tried recruiting, and generally harassed passengers who were merely trying to get through. The pamphlets and recruiting attempts might have been annoying, but it was the fact that they were trying to search anyone for signs that they might be a mutant which made them a problem for us. Specifically, they were a problem for me. My eyes would instantly mark me as a mutant to them.

“This is…problematic,” Jackie said carefully. “We’re trying to avoid attention, so we can’t exactly push our way through those idiots.”

Suddenly, a voice yelled out, “Oh my God, that protestor’s eyes were just glowing. He’s a mutant spy.”

Every protestor instantly froze for a moment, then they snapped around and began staring at each other with clear looks of hostility and suspicion. For several seconds, the tension among the group seemed to grow and grow until it was nearly radiating off of them. All I could do was stare, sensing that something was about to happen.

“I knew you couldn’t get a girl that hot without using some kind of mutant power,” one man yelled at another, right before punching him. That was immediately followed by a female protestor accusing another, “I KNEW you stole that promotion from me…”

“Holy shit,” I blurted out as the accusations started flying like crazy, followed almost immediately by physical attacks. The entire group of protestors had suddenly turned on each other with a vengeance. They were punching, kicking, and generally forming into a brawl. Jackie just stood beside me, laughing. “What the…”

Then I saw the person who’d called out the initial accusation about there being a mutant spy among the Humanity First protestors, and she was walking straight towards us. “About time you two got here,” Emily said with an amused look.

“Emily,” Jackie exclaimed, giving her a hug and then a kiss. “What are you doing here?”

“I heard about the trouble you two got into,” Emily answered with a smug look. “You know, if you’d let me come with you in the first place, I would have been able to diffuse a lot of your problems before they happened.”

“So that was you?” I commented, gesturing to the massive fight that had broken out among the protestors.

Emily smiled as she absently adjusted her glasses. “Paranoia, suspicion, and hostility can be a rather potent mix.”

“Very impressive,” I told her honestly.

Up until now, I’d only seen Emily using her powers to keep people calm and relaxed, though I remembered that her original code name had been Riot Act. I suddenly had a much better picture of just how dangerous she could have been if she’d chosen to follow her original career path and become a villain herself. In fact, I suspected that it was a very good thing that she’d decided to go mostly legitimate instead.

“Oh yes,” Emily said, gesturing to the luggage cart that she’d been pulling behind her. “I believe you left this behind.”

I took a closer look at the luggage and was startled to realize that this was the stuff Jackie and I had left behind at the motel when the MCO had caught up to us. I stared at her, but she just had an amused look on her face, though it became smug when Jackie gave her a look of surprise.

“Let’s just get out of here before the police show up,” Jackie suggested. “Though admittedly, it would be fun to watch them arrest these idiots.”

By this point, the Humanity First protestors were completely distracted by each other, so we walked right past them without a problem. Still, I couldn’t resist watching as a middle-aged woman screamed profanities at a young guy, who was curled up on the ground while she kicked him mercilessly. I shuddered, deciding that these people definitely deserved each other.

Once we were past the protestors, Jackie finally turned to Emily and asked, “Okay, how did you know we were going to be here?”

“I do have a few resources of my own,” Emily reminded her, still looking rather smug. “Maybe next time you’ll think twice about leaving me behind like that. My powers might not be physical, but I’m not exactly helpless.”

“You can say that again,” Jackie responded with a chuckle, gesturing back to the fight that was still going on.

I just bit my tongue to keep from saying anything. Jackie had just given the perfect setup for a smart-ass comment, but it wasn’t my place to use that one. Fortunately, Emily seized the opportunity and repeated, “My powers might not be physical, but I’m not exactly helpless.” Then we all started giggling.

After David is caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, his entire life changes in ways he never could have expected. This is a fan fiction taking place in the Whateley Universe.

--------------------

This was the first time that I’d ever ridden on a train, but it hadn’t taken me long to decide that traveling like this was way better than going by car. Sure, it was still long and boring, but at least I could get up to stretch my legs, go to the bathroom, and even get something to eat in the dining car. And to my delight, they even served espresso. The only real downside was that I had to keep wearing my sunglasses whenever I was outside of our private compartment.

I was sitting in the dining area with Jackie and Emily, finishing off my caramel mocha and seriously thinking about ordering another one. I also would have liked to order another meal, but unfortunately, Jackie and I had to hold back so we wouldn’t make anyone suspicious. Instead, a normal meal was almost like a snack to us and we’d have to rely on the energy bars that Emily brought in order to finish satisfying our appetites.

“The downside of being an energizer,” Jackie said with a sigh, knowing exactly what I was thinking. Her eyes kept going towards other people’s food.

“At least it won’t be a problem at Whateley,” Emily pointed out.

“That’s right,” Jackie agreed with a grin. She licked her lips in an exaggerated manner, then told me, “The cafeteria is all you can eat…every meal. And since they’re all used to odd appetites, no one cares of you go back for seconds…”

“Or eighths,” Emily added with a faint smirk while looking at Jackie.

Just then, a man came and stood next to our table and announced, “Hello ladies.” He smiled pleasantly, though his eyes remained locked on Jackie. Emily frowned while a look of jealousy and annoyance passed through her eyes. I had to stifle a giggle as I knew what was about to come.

“I’m sorry, but we’re in a middle of a private conversation,” Jackie said politely.

The man suddenly deflated as he lost all of his self-confidence and suddenly became painfully shy. “Sorry for bothering you,” he said meekly before he hurried away. Once he was gone, all three of us burst into giggles.

“That was number three,” Jackie said, referring to the other two men who’d previously tried to hit on her. Actually, one of them had been giving me a bit more attention than I was comfortable with as well, but Emily had taken care of all three of them in much the same way.

I nodded and slowly looked around at the other people in the dining car with us. Whenever the people at other tables took just a little too much interest in us, they’d quickly become bored and apathetic, courtesy of Emily. This trip was doing wonders to convince me of just how useful her abilities could actually be.

“Can I try that?” I asked Emily hopefully.

Emily considered that for a moment before shaking her head. “It wouldn’t be a good idea here. It takes a lot of practice to project the emotion you want and sustain it. It would be too easy to accidentally start a fight or make everyone burst into tears, and that kind of attention wouldn’t be good right now.”

“Okay,” I responded with a sigh, feeling a little disappointed.

Then Emily smiled faintly and added, “But maybe when we switch trains in Berlin.”

After that, Jackie and I grabbed a few snacks and hurried back to our compartment where we could eat in peace. We just barely made it there when Jackie’s cell phone began to ring. This was a cheap disposable phone that she’d picked up while we’d been staying with her parents, so there were only a couple people who actually had the number.

“Hello,” Jackie said as she answered the phone. She talked for about two minutes, though it was hard making out much of anything just from listening to her side of the call. When she was done, she turned to me and Emily and grinned. “That was Gary. It turns out my little brother is a low level avatar.”

Emily gave her a look of surprise. “But I thought Gary was a baseline.”

“We did too,” Jackie responded, gesturing to me. “Until our power mimic pointed out otherwise. But Gary hasn’t bonded with a spirit yet, which is why we never knew he was a mutant.”

“An avatar,” I said, having heard the term before.

I’d never watched very many episodes of that MCO TV show since I wasn’t into crime dramas, but I had watched a few. In one of the episodes I’d seen, the MCO agents were chasing after a mutant who was an avatar, and who according to that show, had been possessed by the spirit of Jack the Ripper and was now continuing his work. The show made avatars sound dangerous and sort of scary, but I’d since learned that most of that show was propaganda and BS.

“I don’t know much about avatars,” I said carefully.

“It’s a kind of power that lets you host a spirit,” Emily explained. “They can form a sort of…symbiotic relationship. I’m not sure what all the spirit gains from it, but the avatar gets to use the spirit’s powers.”

“Champion is an avatar,” Jackie told me, naming the world famous super hero…or line of super heroes. By now, I think there had been like six or seven different Champions. “And so is Lady Astarte.”

We spent the rest of that train ride talking about avatars, with Jackie and Emily telling me about the different kinds of spirits that they’ve seen avatars have. I burst out laughing and had a hard time stopping when they told me a girl they’d gone to school with whose code name was Bunny. Apparently, she’d had some kind of rabbit spirit and it made her grow a pair of rabbit ears out of the top of her head and a fluffy bunny tail, leaving her looking like some kind of Playboy bunny.

“I kind of have mixed feelings about Gary,” Jackie admitted. “He is my little brother so I kind of hope he gets a decent spirit with some nice powers…but on the other hand…he’s my little brother. If he gets something really silly or embarrassing, it will give me some great new material to tease him with…”

When we arrived at Berlin New Hampshire, we got off the train so we could switch over to another one that was heading to Dunwich, right outside of Whateley. But while we were in the Berlin train station, Emily silently held out her hand and let me copy her powers. And though my empathic abilities weren’t nearly as strong as hers, I did have some fun trying them out briefly.

The rest of the ride to Dunwich was relatively short and painless, and though I kept expecting the MCO or Liberty League to board the train, the trip was completely uneventful. When we finally got off in Dunwich and unloaded my luggage, I let out a long sigh of relief. We were finally in the home stretch.

“We’re a couple days later than planned,” Jackie told me as we gathered my luggage. “Otherwise, they’d probably have someone out here to meet you. As it is, I think we’ll need to find a car.”

“Not again,” I complained with a roll of my eyes. I didn’t think that stealing a car from the local town would be a good start at my new school.

Emily smirked at that, then said, “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of the car.”

“Let me guess,” I said carefully. “You’re going to make someone suddenly feel really generous…?”

“No,” she responded with an amused smile. “I’m going to rent a car from that place across the street. Now come on you two, we don’t have all day.”

“Maybe you should have let her drive me to Whateley,” I teased Jackie. “Think of all the trouble we could have avoided.”

“Bite me,” she responded with a grin.

A short time later, we were driving up a scenic road until we finally came to a stop at the front gates of Whateley Academy. The large iron gates were pretty impressive looking, almost exactly what I would have expected at the front of some prestigious private school. That just made me feel a little out of place since I’d never thought of myself as the kind of person to attend an expensive private school. I was more of a public school kind of guy…girl.

Security stopped us there and confirmed that we were expected, then they had us wait until a tall Asian woman arrived. She introduced herself as Mrs. Shugendo, the Dean of Students.

“Dana Martin,” Mrs. Shugendo greeted me professionally. “We were expecting you two days ago.”

I noticed that Mrs. Shugendo called me by Jackie’s last name, which made me glace to Jackie. Of course, I knew that they’d enrolled me under that name, but they’d also told them who I really was. I just wasn’t sure how many people knew that detail.

“I’m afraid that there were some unexpected delays,” Jackie told her.

“Yes,” Mrs. Shugendo responded with a wry look. “Security informed me of the nature of these delays.” Jackie suddenly looked a little chagrinned. Then Mrs. Shugendo turned back to me and said, “You have been assigned to Poe Cottage, so we’ll get you over there so you can settle in.” Jackie and Emily grinned and silently gave each other a fist bump.

“There’s no need to show her the way to Poe,” Emily told Mrs. Shugendo politely. “The two of us are quite familiar with where it’s located.”

“Then I will leave you to it,” Mrs. Shugendo said, giving me a faint nod and saying, “Welcome to Whateley.”

Jackie and Emily showed me the way to Poe Cottage while I brought all my luggage with me. There was actually a surprising amount of clothing and other things, especially since I hadn’t been a girl for all that long. However, this was largely thanks to Emily returning my lost luggage to me after I’d already bought some replacements, not to mention the fact that I’d also been given some of Jackie’s ‘hand-me-downs’. Fortunately, I didn’t have to carry all this luggage by hand since I’d formed a force field bubble around it all, and now it was floating a short distance behind me, following me almost like a pet.

We walked past one girl, who gave me sphere a curious look. I couldn’t resist smiling and saying, “This is my pet bubble. I named her bubbles.”

The girl paused, then said, “I don’t think I’ve seen you around before…”

“I’m new,” I explained, gesturing to my luggage. “I just got here a few minutes ago.”

“Cool,” she responded, then asked, “So, where are they putting you?”

I just gave her a friendly smile, thankful that she wasn’t freaking out over my being a mutant. Then again, since she was a student here, she was obviously a mutant as well. After a moment, I told her, “We’re on our way to Poe.”

The girl nodded at that, suddenly giving me a smile that was just a little forced. “Figures,” she said, before politely backing off.

I blinked in confusion, wondering if I’d just broken some rule in the girl code. After all, I’d already broken the first and most important rule in the guy code, which is, ‘be a guy’. “Did I do something wrong?” I asked Jackie, feeling a little worried.

“No,” Jackie assured me, putting an arm around my shoulder. “But you see, most of the students think that Poe is the dorm where they put the students with...”

“Issues,” Emily finished for her. “Mental issues.”

“What?” I asked in surprise. “You mean, she thought I was crazy.”

“Aren’t you?” Jackie asked me with a faint smirk. “I mean, you did run away with a wanted bank robber…”

Emily chuckled at that, then pointed out, “I still don’t understand why the students believe that story. After all, if it was where they housed the people with mental issues, then half the student population would be there.”

“Just great,” I muttered with an exaggerated sigh. “Now people are going to think I’m a loonie…”

“We prefer the term poesie,” Jackie responded cheerfully.

Poe Cottage was a large brick building, which looked pretty much like the other dorms I could see in the distance. When we got to the main entrance, I was met by a matronly looking woman who had a look in her eyes that told me she wasn’t someone to be messed with.

“Hello,” she greeted me pleasantly. “You must be Miss Martin, our new resident. Mrs. Shugendo told you were on your way here. I am Mrs. Horton, the house mother here at Poe Cottage.” Then she turned to look at Jackie and Emily, smiling faintly as she did so. “It’s nice to see you two again.”

“I never expected to be back here,” Emily admitted pleasantly. “But it is nice to see you again too.”

“I just wanted to make sure my little sister got settled in all right,” Jackie said, putting a hand on my shoulder.

Mrs. Horton nodded at that and turned her attention to me. “As your sister may already have told you, Poe Cottage is here as a sanctuary for students with various gender issues or alternate sexualities. For the safety and privacy of the students who live here, this is a closely guarded secret that is NOT to be shared with your fellow students.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I responded, making an effort to be polite and respectful to make a good first impression. I was pretty sure that I’d have plenty of chances to be a pain in her butt, but this obviously wasn’t the time.

“I recently received a call from a former resident of Poe,” Mrs. Horton told me. “She requested that I pass on a message to you.”

“What?” I asked in confusion, glancing to Jackie and Emily. They were the only people I knew who’d gone to Whateley. “Who in the world would want to give me a message?”

“That would be Twist,” Mrs. Horton told me with a faintly amused look.

“Twist?” Jackie and I blurted out at once.

“Twist is a changeling, like you,” Mrs. Horton explained. “She’s a fairly recent graduate and some of our seniors and juniors will undoubtedly remember her.” Mrs. Horton let that sink in a little, then continued, “She asked me to tell you welcome to Whateley, and that she hopes you stay out of trouble.”

I just stood there, feeling a little stunned that Twist, my Liberty League opponent, was actually a changeling like me. I turned to Jackie and explained, “She let me go after that fight. I thought it was just because she was more interested in catching you, but now…” I shook my head, remembering her reaction when I told her who I was.

“Back to the matter at hand,” Mrs. Horton said, getting my attention again. “Let’s get you situated in a room.”

Mrs. Horton led us inside and down a hall, stopping in front of a closed door. Without a word, she unlocked the door and then handed me the key.

“I wonder who has our old room,” Jackie commented, gesturing down the hallway.

“We usually prefer to pair changelings together as roommates,” Mrs. Horton told me. “But all of our other changelings are currently paired up, and since we don’t want to leave two singles, you’ll be sharing with Jinx for the time being.”

“Jinx?” I asked.

“She’s a nice young woman,” Mrs. Horton said with a faint smile. “I hope the two of you will get along. When she gets back, I’ll ask her to explain the cottage rules and show you around campus.”

With that, Mrs. Horton turned and left. I hesitated a moment, then pushed open the door and went into my new dorm room. It was obviously already occupied, as the stuffed animals on one bed demonstrated.

“At least she has good taste,” I mused, staring at a poster on the wall of a beautiful model who was dressed only in scanty lingerie.

Since this was Poe Cottage and my new roommate was not a changeling, then that meant she was either a normal transgendered girl, or she was a lesbian. From the poster, I was thinking the latter. I couldn’t help but grinning at that. I just hoped she was cute.

“Not bad,” Jackie commented as she and Emily helped bring my luggage into the room. “It definitely brings back memories though.”

“It certainly does,” Emily agreed.

Jackie and Emily helped me unpack and load my clothes into the empty dresser and closet, then they both stood there a little awkwardly. I felt a little sad, knowing that they were about to leave. I was about to be left here at a strange new school, not knowing anyone else on campus.

“Before we go, I have something for you,” Jackie told me.

She handed me an envelope, and when I opened it up, I was startled to see that it was filled with money. There were twenties, fifties, and even some hundred dollar bills. There had to be a thousand dollars there.

“For school uniforms and other expenses,” she explained.

“Holy shit,” I blurted out in surprise. Then I gave her a suspicious look and said, “I thought you told me you didn’t have the money to buy a replacement car…”

“I lied,” she responded with a cheerful smile, not showing the least bit of guilt. “I rob banks for a living, so what did you expect?”

“See,” Emily told me with a roll of her eyes. “This is what I have to put up with.”

I giggled at that, though my mood quickly sank. “I’m gonna miss you,” I told Jackie, then looked to Emily to let her know that she was included in that. Overall, I hadn’t known them for very long, but they’d both become my new family and I cared for them a great deal.

“Hey, I’m not going to just dump you off here and then forget about you,” Jackie told me, giving me a hug. “You’re my sister now and that means I’ll keep in contact.”

“You didn’t keep in touch with Gary,” I pointed out a little petulantly.

“And you have no idea how much I regret that,” she told me quietly. Then she stared at me for a moment before smiling gently. “Actually, I guess you do.”

“It’s not like you’ll never see us again,” Emily said with an amused look. “We’ll e-mail you, maybe visit occasionally, and if you haven’t resolved things with your parents by summer vacation, you are MORE than welcome to stay with us.”

Jackie nodded at that, then said, “Actually, I’d prefer it. There are a few things I wanted to do with my new sister that we haven’t had time for.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” I told them, starting to cry.

We said our goodbyes for another ten minutes, hugging a few more times before Jackie and Emily left. Once they were gone, I sat down on my new bed and wiped the tears from my eyes. It wasn’t right to start off at my new school by crying about it.

A short time later, there was a hesitant knocking on the door, then it opened and a girl came in. She was a little shorter than me, with shoulder length blonde hair, and she was very pretty, but not quite in an exemplar way. As soon as I saw her, I stood up and stared, my mouth dropping open.

“Mrs. Horton said you’re my new roommate,” she said with a nervous smile. “Hi. I’m Jinx…because I’m a probability warper. You know, I can manipulate luck and stuff…at least most of the time. I sometimes have really weird luck though…and odd coincidences happen around me.”

“I’m Dana,” I said, my voice shaking as I stared at her. “But I’m called Sphere because…” I held out my hand and formed a force field bubble to demonstrate.

My new roommate stared back at me, turning a little red. “I guess I should tell you my real name,” she exclaimed in a rush. “I’m…”

“Amanda,” I blurted out, hardly able to believe it. “Amanda Conner.”

All I could do was stare at Amanda, the girl I went to school with…who I’d been friends with…who I’d even had a big crush on. After she’d been outed as a mutant and had moved away, I’d been sure I’d never see her again.

“How do you know my name?” she asked in surprise. Then she gave me a suspicious look and asked, “Are you a telepath?”

“I’m sorry about what happened with Kimberly,” I quietly told her, making her gasp again.

After she’d moved away, I’d promised that if I ever saw her again, I’d apologize for how poorly I’d taken the revelation that she was a mutant. I hadn’t yelled at her or called her a monster like some of our classmates had, but I had thought poorly of her. Instead of trying to understand her, at least at first, I’d just felt betrayed. The truth was, she was the one who’d been betrayed, not only by Kimberly, but by all of her friends who’d failed to stand beside her. Myself included.

“That was really crappy of her,” I continued. “You really didn’t deserve that. You didn’t deserve the way that anyone in class treated you.”

“How do you know that?” Amanda demanded, this time a little more forcefully.

I hesitated a moment before answering, “Because I was there.” I stared down at the floor, unable to meet her eyes. “I think this is one of those weird coincidences you mentioned…”

Amanda stared at me for a moment, looking surprised and even a little confused before cautiously asking, “Who are you?”

“I’m Dana Martin now,” I told her, giving her a nervous smile though I was incredibly embarrassed. “But I used to be David Michaels.”

“DAVID?” Amanda exclaimed, staring at me in stunned disbelief.

“As you can see,” I joked with a bit of a grin, gesturing down at myself in the process. “I kind of had a makeover.”

“No way,” she gasped. “Oh my God…” She continued staring at me for several more long seconds before finally asking, “How…?”

“It’s a long story,” I admitted wryly.

Amanda giggled at that, then pointed out, “We’re roommates now. We have plenty of time for it.”

“Good point,” I agreed with a nervous chuckle.

“And all this,” I said, gesturing around the room. “I had no idea where you went after you disappeared. I never thought I’d see you again. I mean, here I am waiting to meet my new roommate and then you walk in…”

“I warned you I have weird luck,” she told me, looking almost proud of that fact. Then she suddenly turned self-conscious and said, “When you asked me out before and I kind of freaked out on you… Well, I guess by now you know I’m into girls.”

“I kind of figured that part out,” I responded wryly, gesturing to the poster on the wall, which made her blush more.

The girl I used to have a huge crush on had turned me down for a date because she was interested in girls rather than guys. Now here I was, not only having turned into a hot looking girl, but also ending up as her roommate. In a weird and twisted way, this was sort of like a dream come true.

“Well,” Amanda said awkwardly, giving me a look that seemed appreciative. “I did promise Mrs. Horton that I’d show you around campus. We can catch up while we walk.”

“That sounds good to me,” I told her with a nervous grin of my own.

“Then we can stop off at Crystal Hall for dinner,” she continued, which immediately caught my attention. I was already feeling hungry, and Jackie had told me that Whateley’s cafeteria was set up to handle appetites like mine.

“That sounds great,” I agreed happily. “And do you know if they serve espresso…?”

With that, Amanda and I left our room to begin my tour of the school campus. I was still a little nervous about going to school here, but with a start like this, life at Whateley was definitely bound to be interesting.

THE END?