Name: Ronald Sutherland
Aliases: [redacted]
Code name: [FF used for reference purposes]
Ratings: [unknown]
Techniques: none
Weak vs.: unknown
Backup/ Team affiliation: none

FF01 First Step

He carefully pushed open the basement door and felt for the first step.

The boxes in his arms swayed a bit as he approached the bottom of the stairs. As he walked over to the table something seemed not quite right. He set down the boxes and gave the table an odd look. It looked shorter.

He glanced down at the floor and stared in shock at the six inch gap between his feet and the floor. And then stumbled as he fell those six inches.

He couldn't have been standing on air. Could he?

But when he fell it felt just like the jolt when he'd gotten to the bottom of the stairs and found out he was still one step up...

---

FF02 Discoveries

A while later, Ron was in his room with the door closed. He raised his foot gingerly, like someone about to step onto something they weren't sure would hold their weight.

Then he shifted his weight slowly. And raised the other foot, until he was standing on air.

This time, he wasn't startled enough to fall. He walked around a bit, then tried a few things. First he climbed up more invisible stairs. He couldn't go too far as the ceiling in his room wasn't that high.

Then he tried walking down. Soon he was able to treat whatever it was more like a ramp than a set of stairs.

He walked back up until he was a foot above his bed and after a moment of thought dropped to the bed.

He started to get off, but then tried to crawl up onto a ledge in the air. That worked too. He was lying down a foot above the bed. Not bad.

He thought about the way it felt when he walked or lifted himself onto a chunk of air. He couldn't exactly describe it. Then he felt an odd sensation. And felt the bedspread under him.

"Hmm. I didn't fall. I guess I sort of floated down," he thought.

He got off the bed and walked on air again until he was a couple feet up. Then he tried to re-create the feeling. He knew when he had it because he started to sink slowly to the floor.

It hadn't taken any effort. In fact he felt sort of tingly. He repeated it a few more times from higher in the air. His muscles felt much like they would if he'd been going up real stairs. But when he "floated" down, he got more of that tingle.

Floating down had felt sort of like releasing something. A sort of tension. Yeah, that was it. Sort of like letting go of something you'd been pushing on. Like a spring or something.

He tried "pushing" back. And started to rise into the air. Cool!

Just staying there didn't seem to take any real effort. Well, there was a sort of feeling of pressure or something, but it wasn't exactly an effort to maintain it.

Hmm. He pushed that way and went up. What if he pushed this way?

He drifted sideways.

"Omigod. I can fly!"

Late that night, he snuck out and tried it away from the houses.

Flying sideways was easy. Going up was harder. Going down was no effort at all, though control was harder.

By the end of the week, he was moving as fast as his bike. Maybe faster.

He noticed that gliding down gave him that tingle. Flying up seemed to drain it. And he was pretty hungry after doing a lot of flying unless he did more down than up. Living at the top of a several hundred foot hill, he could do that. If he wanted to walk back up.

Even doing a lot of flying over the valley took something out of him. Just not as much as flying up did.

After a month or so, he was flying fast enough to feel the air moving past. Felt sort of like sticking his hand out the car window on the freeway. He'd also found that it was easier to "push" while riding his bike than it was to pedal. He still pedaled, so it wouldn't be obvious.

He even managed to drag his bike along while flying a few times in the daytime. He'd ride it to someplace where he didn't think anyone would see and then fly it along below the treetops.

It wasn't easy, but it was easier than pedaling the same distance.

The wind was getting to be a pain. And hitting bugs was no fun either. It was really hard flying fast as a car. Then he had a thought. Could he "push" the wind away from him?

He kept trying and one day it "clicked" in his head. It suddenly got a lot easier to fly. He could not only feel the "pressure" of maintaining altitude and the "push" of flying, he could feel a sort of pressure against a sort of second skin.

The wind was gone. But he could feel the air pushing on that skin. He could feel it as a sort of rounded bubble around him. Sort of a teardrop shape.

He tried flying through some tall grass slowly at first, and then faster. He could see it pushed out of the way by the bubble. Neat.

He tried several more passes through the grass, faster and faster. It was really odd feeling the grass whipping across the bubble. He could feel the impacts, but it didn't hurt or anything.

There was a sudden jolt and it felt like something a lot bigger and harder had whacked into part of the bubble. It slowed him down and angled his path up and to one side.

He slowed down and circled back.

He'd hit an old fencepost hidden in the grass. A steel pipe several inches across, set in concrete.

He stared at it. The post was bent sharply and the concrete was pulled partway out of the ground.

He landed and got rid of the bubble.

"Unh!" Good grief. He couldn't even budge the post. And he almost ripped his hand trying.

"Wait a minute..." It was a crazy idea, but why not?

He tried to get the bubble back. And wound up floating a foot or so off the ground. He could feel it as a sphere around him.

"Okay, so far so good." Now he tried to reshape it. To pull it back to his skin. He could feel it trying to shift and then it suddenly snapped into place. It felt weird, but he could move and it moved with him.

He got back on the ground and tried to shift the pipe. No luck, but at least it wasn't messing up his hands.

It was definitely really strong, well. actually "tough" was more like it. He stopped.

Or maybe strong was the word. After all, that pipe looked like it'd been hit by a truck. And it wasn't anything more than his .... force field or whatever it was. And his "pushing".

But if it was that strong, and moved with him...

It took a few tries, but he got the skin-field to not just move with him, but to reinforce his movements. Sort of like powered armor without the armor. Just like in some of the stories he'd read.

The pipe creaked as he braced against the base and pulled. And it straightened out.

He stared at his hand. Other than the effort in his head of making the field reinforce his movements it hadn't even been all that hard.

He reached out one hand and with a bit of (mental) effort, ripped it out of the ground.

He said, "Wow. Just like Superman."

And promptly fell over from all that unsupported weight at the end of his arm.

He was startled and grabbed the pipe harder as he went over. Then he noticed that he'd crushed the end of the pipe. "Oops. Gotta be careful."

He scratched his head trying to figure out why he fell over. Well, ok. It was obvious that the chunk of pipe and concrete weighed more than he did. By a fair bit.

But if that was the case, why hadn't he just pulled himself off the ground when he tried to pull it out of the ground?

He tried to pick it up again. As it came up, he realized he was "bracing" himself somehow.

He let it drop and stood a foot off the ground and tried again. He could feel the bracing and a sort of increase in the pressure that he felt from standing on air.

(This should have been the first Glimpses. Oops.)

Spotted in flight

Date: [redacted]
Time: 0135 PDT
Location: [redacted]

"Ding!"

The bored radar tech looked at the display to see what the automated system was upset about this time. One glance and his boredom vanished.

"Holy shit!"

He slapped a large red button on the console and as a klaxon sounded, he spoke rapidly into his mike.

"Security alert! Our mystery bogie is back..."

The display showed something that was performing low level aerobatics over open countryside. And doing so in cheerful disregard of not only flight regs, but several physical laws.

"Yessir. Just like before. No IR signature. Radar return says it's really small or stealthy as hell..."

"Well, if it isn't stealthed it's smaller than an ultralight, sir. But ultralights don't maneuver like that."

Half to himself the tech muttered "Hell, nothing maneuvers like that"

Meanwhile fighters were scrambling and security teams were deploying on the ground to pre-plotted locations. The bogie had popped up a number of times over the last year. And it seemed to favor certain locations. The ground teams were deploying to surround the ones where it looked like there'd been a landing.

Team 7 was well hidden in the brush around a large clearing in the forest. While there'd never been any evidence of whatever it was when they'd searched after previous occurrences, it was still thought to be landing site since the target had been lost in the ground clutter only to reappear at the same spot later the same night.

"OK, HQ says it looks like we're the target. Get ready."

Weapons, cameras and other instruments were readied.

It was a moonless night and in the countryside the night vision gear didn't help as much as it might. They were afraid to use IR in case it could be detected.

A small dark shape suddenly came into view against the sky and drifted down. Just as it reached ground level, the team leader spoke "Go!"

Several jets screamed overhead as the clearing was lit brighter than day and an amplified voice roared "Don't Move!"

For a moment those on one side of the clearing had a clear view of a very scared looking young girl in a Supergirl outfit hovering just above the ground. And of a young boy in her arms.

Then the boy grabbed her hand and the clearing was empty.

The team leader swore. "Not mutants again! Why can't it ever be aliens..."

Name: [redacted]
Aliases: [redacted]
Code name: Blip
Ratings: [unknown]
Techniques: none
Weak vs.: unknown
Backup/ Team affiliation: none

Hi, my code name is Blip. Not terribly imaginative, but at least it's not taken. It's even kinda descriptive.

Powers testing has me classed as a warper, but they still aren't really sure what I do. Well, that's not true. What I do is pretty obvious. It's how I do it that they aren't sure about.

I teleport. And a few other things but it's my "blipping" that's the biggie.

That's what I called it as a kid. Yeah, yeah. I'm one of the mutants who manifested as a kid.

They say that's not unusual when you've got really strong abilities. That must by why my girlfriend, Flying Fox manifested early too. Though neither of us found out about the other's powers until we'd had them for a few years.

Oh. I guess I forgot to mention that. We've known each other since we were four or so. We lived across the street from each other.

Anyway, my first blip was when I was 9 or so.

Most teleporters do it the first time because they are trying to get away from something. Not me. I was trying to get to something.

I'd gone riding my bike into the woods. We lived at the edge of town and there were miles of trails. I suddenly realized it was getting late and I was a lot farther from home than I probably should have been. I wasn't scared. Except maybe of the trouble I'd be in when I got home.

I was tired too. I got off the trail to sit down for a minute. I didn't know what to do. I was sitting on a log and wishing I was home in my room.

Being tired I was a bit spacey or something. Anyway, suddenly I could sort of see my room, only it wasn't exactly seeing it. I still wished I was there and then I did something I can't really describe. And then I was sitting on my bed instead of the log beside the trail.

Surprised the heck out of me. I'm glad I didn't yell or anything, because the next thing I realized was that I was naked!

I scrambled off the bed and got dressed in something fast. Before I could think about things much, one of my folks heard me and called me to dinner. Luckily they didn't ask when or how I'd gotten home.

After dinner I checked and my bike wasn't in the garage. So I figured I really had left it (and my clothes) out in the woods. Waited until mom and dad were asleep before I did anything but think about it. And I didn't think too hard, because that's how I'd gotten in this mess in the first place.

I grabbed my flashlight and was about to see if I could get back to the bike. Then I stopped and wondered what I'd do if the flashlight didn't go with me. To say nothing of what I was wearing.

So I quietly moved a chair across my room and then sat on the bed and tried to think of myself in the chair. Took me a few minutes, but I could "see" it the way I'd seen the bedroom.

It was kinda weird because my eyes showed the room from one direction and my head "showed" it facing the other direction. Anyway, once I had that I tried to recreate whatever it was I'd done before. I knew what it felt like, but it's like trying to explain how you know how a vaulting dismount will go before you do it. You know what it feels like, you know your body is going to do it, but you can't explain it to someone who's never done a vault.

I fumbled a bit and then I got it. I was in the chair. And the moonlight coming in the window showed my PJs hanging in the air for a split second before they fell to the bed.

So. I knew I could do it. I just had to figure out how to take my clothes with me. I knew it had to be possible because there were a few teleporters even I had heard of and they could do it.

Now, I know that the fact that someone else's abilities let them do it didn't mean mine would let me. Especially given that my first two tries hadn't taken my clothes with me. Which they tell me is really unusual for a teleporter. As if anything about my powers is that normal. Even for a mutant. But back then I didn't know all that.

I thought about trying to practice carrying the flashlight, but watching my clothes fall told me that was a really bad idea. So I looked around for something that'd fall quietly if I dropped it. I grabbed a pillow off my bed, sat down in the chair and tried to blip back. to the bed.

This time I got the "image" immediately. And blipped almost as soon as I got it. But the pillow went "floomp" to the seat of the chair.

Took about a dozen tries before I was able to carry the pillow with me. There was a knack to "holding on" to it.

After an hour I was able to blip with my clothes. Or even with just some of them and not others. But once I'd gotten the knack, it was actually harder to leave something behind than take it with me.

After porting a couple times with the flashlight and a small knapsack, I tried for where I'd blipped from the woods. I got there OK, but it was quite a surprise. You see, it wasn't until I arrived in the dark under the trees that I realized whatever I was "seeing" as target, it didn't involve light. I'd been able to see my target, but not that it was dark. For that matter, as I found out when I turned on the flashlight, I hadn't been able to "see" or "feel" or whatever the skunk that'd been examining my clothes!

Fortunately, while I and the light startled it, it decided to leave rather than spray. That was a close one.

I brushed off and shook out the clothes I'd left behind on my very first blip. Then I stuffed them into the knapsack. Then I wondered what I was going to do about the bike.

I walked down the trail a ways and tried getting an image of the spot. I thought I had it and blipped back and forth between it and the bike a few times.

OK, now to try moving the bike. I grabbed it with my hands, and then tried to grab it with my head the way I had the clothes and the knapsack. Something didn't feel right.

I tried blipping down the trial. It wasn't working. I "pushed". And found myself standing there without the bike. I blipped back.

I really didn't want to leave the bike there. Even if I could blip back out to it in the morning, it'd take forever to ride it home. And I might need it tomorrow.

Hmm. Maybe if I picked it up?

Yep. That worked.

OK. I decided I'd better blip to the garage and make sure there was room for the bike. I wrapped the t-shirt I'd been wearing that afternoon around the flashlight to dim the light.

A quick look around showed me the best spot to blip in with the bike. So I went back, got it and blipped back to my room. A quick change into my PJs and I was back in bed trying to figure out what to do now that I was a mutant.

I decided I'd just better be careful. I was trying to figure out if I should tell my best friend when I feel asleep.

We zipped off over the scrub lands at insane speeds and Connie was doing all sorts of weird maneuvers. It was neat. I wasn't sure, but I thought I saw water ahead of us. I knew I'd seen mountains below us. We must have been most of the way across the state.

We slowed down and I could see a meadow surrounded by woods below us. We were heading right for it.

We'd slowed almost to a stop and couldn't have been more than a few feet up when these blinding lights came on and a loudspeaker or something thundered out "Don't Move!"

Connie was frozen, with me still in her arms. I grabbed one of her hands and hoped it'd work. And blipped us to that spot in the woods where I'd first blipped.

Connie was still going "Wha?" when I managed to get her attention.

"Connie? I'm a mutant too..."

Name: Dorothy Gayle
Aliases: D'artagnan "Art" Gayle
Code name: Blip
Ratings: [unknown]
Techniques:none
Weak vs.: [unknown]
Backup/ Team affiliation: none

Name: Ronald Sutherland
Aliases: Constance "Connie" Sutherland
Coden name: Flying Fox
Ratings: [unknown]
Techniques:none
Weak vs.: [unknown]
Backup/ Team affiliation: none

When I woke up I wasn't sure if it was a weird dream or something. Blipping out to where I'd left the bike the day before proved it wasn't a dream.

I took care of my chores and went across the street to Ron's. We were supposed to go out to the Renn Faire this afternoon, and I didn't want to miss it. If it hadn't been for that, I'd have spent the day trying to figure out what I could do with my newfound gift.

Ron had his stuff too, and we looked through some of his comics while we waited for our ride. Neither of our parents were into the Faire, but fortunately some friends of theirs that they trusted with us were into it.

I think our folks mostly let us hang out with House Blue Frog because it kept us out of their hair. I think somebody told us once that our folks used to be really into fandom, and the SCA and stuff like that. That's when they were part of the Frogs.

They'd gotten more into their jobs and stuff (Gerard once said they'd "gotten all boring") but their friends in the House had babysat us and stuff since before we could remember. So we got to go to neat stuff and our folks didn't pay a lot of attention.

We spent a lot of weekends at tourneys, the Faire or even cons sometimes. And during the week we got to "help out" (read get free lessons) with some of the classes folks in the House taught. Ron and I both like gymnastics and fencing. There were other things Ron liked and I didn't, and vice versa.

Our folks didn't mind because they didn't have to pay for it and we were learning stuff. Of course, sometimes we were a little misleading about who was doing what, but never mind.

Anyway, we were going to the Faire. We each had outfits and stuff, but as usual, we wore our mundane clothes to and from. We had good reasons and everybody in the House knew.

The ride was a lot of talking about all kinds of stuff interspersed with music and folks dropping out of the conversations into books (fiction, stuff for projects, all sorts of things. What do you except from geeks? :-)

At last we were there. We did some fetching and carrying while the House set up. Then we ducked into the back of Gwen's booth and changed into our outfits.

Ron and I traded clothes bags. That was one of the things the folks didn't know. At the Faire and some other events, I didn't have to be Dot. I could be young D'artagnan! And Ron could be Lady Constance.

What can I say, we really liked that old version of The Three Musketeers.

Our folks put up with me being a tomboy. Connie. I mean Ron (yes, he picked the name partly because it sounded like Ronnie, which his folks call him a lot, so it was easier to answer to) had it harder.

While his folks didn't pay a lot of attention, he couldn't get away with dolls or girl clothes. Luckily we're the same size. So I've loaned him a lot of the frilly stuff mom keeps pushing on me. And I've been known to "forget" a doll or two at his place.

Mostly, when we are at home we manage by spending a lot of time playing with each other. I can put up with dolls so he can play with them, and he'll put up with army men and stuff for me. We just have to fake liking/not liking if the folks are around.

There are a lot of "different" folks in the House. Our folks aren't against folks like that. Not exactly for them either. But we were pretty sure they'd not react well to their own kids being "like that". So were the folks in the House when they caught us a few years ago.

They had a long talk with us and finally decided that they wouldn't stop us as long as we were careful. And they wouldn't tell our parents either. But they wouldn't lie either. I think a lot of the House just figured that if they let us alone, we'd get bored soon enough. I think a few suspected the truth.

Anyway that's why we both had blue feathers we couldn't wear. A gift from some of the Clan Blue Feather folks in the House (Clan Blue Feather is a sort of unofficial GLBT group in the SCA. Wearing a blue feather signifies that you are GLBT).

Anyway, in very little time, I was dressed as a (very) young swashbuckler, and Connie was wearing a wench outfit. I was almost jealous in that Connie could use that outfit all day. I could only use mine to show off a bit or if they had some kid fencing stuff. Otherwise, I'd have to change into a page outfit or an apprentice outfit for most stuff.

Still, Connie often changed several times anyway.

We had fun. I did some boffer fighting. We both ran errands and helped some of the House folks who had booths with things. That got us some spending money. Not a lot, but most of the "work" was stuff we liked doing anyway.

As usual, we switched back the last hour. I spent it working on some embroidery. Ron spent it helping a smith. Earlier in the day, it'd been the other way around. This way, though we could each honestly say we'd worked on some of the stuff we brought home but had to leave at the other's house.

And it's not like I loathed embroidery. Or Ron loathed working with the smith. Ditto for a lot of other things. I didn't loathe girly stuff. I was even sort of adequate at cooking and sewing and all that. And Ron was OK with a lot of guy stuff. But we each really preferred the stuff the other was "supposed" to be doing.

I did make one experiment that day. I'd bought something I was afraid might get damaged in the van, so I ducked into a biffy and chanced blipping home to my room. I stuck it in the closet and only then did I realize what a risk I'd taken. It wasn't just that the folks might have caught me. It was that not only would they have caught me, but they'd have caught me in a boy's outfit. I can get away with that in mundanes, but I know better than to try it with other stuff (let's just forget about my asking to wear a pirate outfit the Halloween before, OK That did not go well)

So I blipped back to the biffy, and made a promise to be a lot more careful in the future. I almost forgot about the other reason I'd tried. It wasn't until we were home that I realized that I'd blipped something like 30 miles with no more effort than it'd taken for the few miles between home and that bit of woods the day before.

I'd already been fairly sure I could blip to places I'd already been to before I made that first trip. The garage seemed to prove that. Some experimenting the next several nights proved that. I could get to a lot of places. But I needed to have a fairly strong memory it seemed. And it didn't always work.

Well, if I could get to someplace it always seemed to work. It was just that I couldn't get to some places that I thought I should be able to. Like the classroom I'd had at school last year. Spent lots of time there. So why couldn't I go there?

I'd been sticking to local stuff for the tests. Then I got a major clue. I decided to blip to the biffy I'd used at the Faire. I blipped and listened carefully. Then I cautiously opened the door. Only to find that I wasn't at the Faire! I was at a construction site somewhere!

I walked over to the fence, took a good look at the ground on the other side and blipped. Much easier than trying to climb it. Then I went looking for a street sign. Once I found it, I memorized it and blipped home.

I wrote down the intersection and tried to find it the next day. Finally had to use Google. It wasn't in town. It was in a small town on the other side of the Faire.

That worried me. At first I was worried that I could have wound up anywhere. But no, I had arrived in a biffy. Come to think of it, there were a couple of bits of graffiti I remembered from the Faire. So it was the same biffy.

OK, I'd blipped to the biffy, not to where it had been. That was sorta reassuring. But at the same time, it meant I had to be a lot more careful, because I might not wind up where I expected if I picked something that could be moved as a target.

Then it hit me. They were remodeling some of the classrooms. Maybe that was why I couldn't blip to my old one. They'd changed something enough that it didn't match what I remembered.

That did turn out to be the case when school opened. But it wasn't until a lot later that I realized something I should have about this sort of thing.

I was cautiously exploring more places I remembered (and my memory seemed to be getting better). I managed a beach on the coast we'd been to once or twice. And a park in Vancouver BC I remembered from another vacation. Both were 300 or so miles.

The real biggies were the Statue of Liberty, a park in the Bronx, and a couple places in Washington DC, all places I remembered from a trip when I was 4. That raised my range to 3000 miles!

I also discovered that while vacation photos helped for places I'd been to, photos of places I'd never been didn't.

A pair of binoculars let me blip to places, I could see, if I could see them "well enough". Ronnie's telescope worked a couple of times, but it was hard to find places I could see well enough when I dared try.

I tried some web-cam sites, but they didn't work. I guess it's not enough to see the spot, I need to "know" where it is with respect to me or something.

So, for several years, I spent some of my spare time on my bike (I'd finally found that if I was careful, I could port it while riding it. But I definitely had to be moving, and the landings were a bit rough sometimes) riding away from spots I'd been trying to learn new spots so I could start from them next time.

I could do that in broad daylight a lot of the time, because I'd pick spots that were off the road as the end spot on a trip. That way I could walk back onto the road and if anybody was driving by, the wouldn't wonder how I got there. I could have done 10, 20, even 30 miles a day just by riding. But a lot of times, the roads would be clear far enough that I could get a good look ahead with binoculars and blip a mile or two.

Even so, there were a lot of places I wanted to see, and it was gonna take forever to get to them all.

All that changed one night when Ronnie asked me to meet out in the woods.

When I got there, he was wearing the Supergirl outfit I'd had to wear the last Halloween. She looked nice in it, but really nervous too.

"Art?" (when it was just us, or folks who understood, she called me Art. It sort of came from D'artagnan)

"Art? I need to tell you something. It's kinda strange and I hope it won't mess things up between us..."

It couldn't be stranger than my weird stuff. At least that's what I thought.

"I... I'm a mutant." My jaw dropped. I'd been trying to figure out how to tell her, and it turns out that she's one too?!

She mistook astonishment for something else and started to tear up. I quickly hugged her and tried to reassure her. But I decided to let her finish telling me before I dropped my bombshell.

"So what's different? And why are you wearing this silly costume?"

She smiled at me. and, then, to my surprise, she picked me up in her arms like I didn't weigh anything!

And then we were flying!

She started low and slow, zipping between the trees until we got to the rim of the valley. Then we swooped down into. it. I should have been scared. But I trusted her.

All of a sudden the wind in my face cut off, and we were moving even faster, judging by the few lights and things I could see.

"I've got some kind of forcefield thing. It cuts the wind and streamlines things."

All I could do was say "oh wow".

We were really zooming along following the river but still not too high. I checked a map later, we must have been a hundred miles downstream when she zoomed straight up. I'd have been scared, but I couldn't feel us moving., everything was rock steady.

We zipped off over the scrub lands at insane speeds and Connie was doing all sorts of weird maneuvers. It was neat. I wasn't sure, but I thought I saw water ahead of us. I knew I'd seen mountains below us. We must have been most of the way across the state.

We slowed down and I could see a meadow surrounded by woods below us. We were heading right for it.

We'd slowed almost to a stop and couldn't have been more than a few feet up when these blinding lights came on and a loudspeaker or something thundered out "Don't Move!"

Connie was frozen, with me still in her arms. I grabbed one of her hands and hoped it'd work. And blipped us to that spot in the woods where I'd first blipped.

Connie was still going "Wha?" when I managed to get her attention.

"Connie? I'm a mutant too..."

We both sort of fell apart for a while. After we pulled ourselves back together, we told each other about our powers. And we both apologized for taking so long to tell.

We were both pretty rattled by whatever had happened. I blipped us back home and Connie borrowed some of my clothes. We retrieved her stuff from the woods later after deciding that if we left it there, somebody might find it and that'd lead folks to us. It was scary sneaking up to where we started, half expecting to find someone waiting for us.

She was afraid to fly for days. But we finally decided that she'd used that spot too much. And figured that she'd been picked up on radar. Which meant that we were probably safe since she'd never flown above the valley rim until she was a long ways off. Mostly because she'd been afraid of running into planes from the airport or the "local" (20 miles away) airbase.

We found that as long as she was flying, even hovering, I could blip both of us. So her practice sessions had me blipping us somewhere before she did much of anything. And us keeping an eye out for things.

We hid the Supergirl outfit and the outfit I'd been wearing that night in a cache near one of my more isolated blipping sites. Later, we set up a stash that was really in the middle of nowhere by having her fly me (sticking really close to the ground) to a spot.

So we'd blip out, change, blip somewhere else, then fly around.

Several times we got buzzed by planes that we were pretty sure were fighters. We both wore masks, so even if they got pictures it wouldn't matter much.

We'd usually blip out after getting spotted. We'd try to get low to the ground and slow, but a couple of times we were high and fast. The first time that happened I was scared we'd come out of the blip moving that fast. But we didn't.

I was happy about that but I wished I understood what was going on.

Connie said she'd been noticing an odd feeling sometimes. And when she did, a lot of times the planes showed up.

I wondered if it had something to do with radar. Just a wild guess, but with the tingles and "pushing" she'd already told me about, being able to somehow "feel" radar wasn't that weird.

A few nights later, we'd decided to try a spot near Washington DC. I had only agreed because I could blip us out pretty fast, and Connie had convinced me her forcefield was really tough.

Sure enough, almost as soon as we were in the air, Connie complained of the itch again. I And a plane zipped by only minutes later. Connie complained that it was worse.

I think I said something like "Well, find a way to scratch it. Or push it away or something."

She said "I wish I could" and started dodging around, just to try to avoid the plane.

All of a sudden she made a zig and said "Ahh. That feels better."

I saw the plane fly by a ways off. A lot farther than they normally did once they showed up. Pretty soon it was obvious he couldn't find us.

Well, whatever she did seemed to stick. She never felt that "itch" again. And after not getting buzzed for a month she insisted on trying to get noticed. I finally agreed that she seemed to have it down after she scared me half to death by flying back and forth over an airbase (not the local one! I talked her out of that!) without getting noticed.

Once that was behind us, we made a great team. She could fly us places, and I could memorize the spots to blip back to. A GPS unit used up a lot of our savings, but let us go pretty much anywhere.

We've been to a lot of odd places on earth. And set up "clubhouses" in a few of them.

Name: Ronald Sutherland
Aliases: Constance (Connie) Sutherland
Coden name: Flying Fox
Ratings: flying, strength, PK (contact?) levels uncertain
Techniques: none
Weak vs.: [unknown]
Backup/ Team affiliation: family

"OK, we need you to change into this gown for the medical tests."

Connie reluctantly went behind the screen and took off her hat and the dress." "What about my underwear?"

"You can leave that on for now, but it'll have to come off for a few things."

She shyly stepped from behind the screen. The first thing they noticed were the fox ears that had been hidden under her hat. As she stepped away from the screen, they noticed her bushy tail sticking out from the gap in the back of the exam gown.

Being Whateley, Dr. Tennant merely raised an eyebrow.

"When did you grow the ears and the tail?"

"Umm. I didn't exactly grow them...." Connie swallowed then went on in a rush. "You said anything weird from the exam would be confidential, right.?"

"That's right. We may have to tell your brother some things because he's your legal guardian. But otherwise it's locked down."

"O-okay. Don knows about this stuff anyway."

"So tell me about the ears and tail?"

The body parts under discussion twitched. "Well, it started out as a way to hide my identity in case I got spotted..."

Connie explained about how she and Blip had almost gotten caught by some people.

"We figured that they didn't get a very good look at us, and we were a long ways from home anyway. But it got me thinking. The masks on the costumes we came up with were good, but I wanted something that'd really send them off on a wild goose chase. Then i saw a foxgirl at a con and decided I liked the look."

"By then I'd discovered that my 'skin' field could hold things and shape them some. I was already using that to hold the mask and cape. And for some other things... " she blushed.

"Anyway I could hold the ears and tail in place that way. With some practice I could move them some. Now I don't really have to think about it, I just do it. I can even sorta feel with them."

"That's a new one. So they're a disguise?"

"Yeah, except these days it feels more like taking them off is the disguise. It really bugs me to have them off."

"Well, in that case, let's keep them on right now. I'll want to examine you without them, but we'll make that as brief as we can."

There was no problem with checking Connie's eyes ears, nose or throat. Dr. Tennant stuck a disposable thermometer strip under Connie's tongue and had her cross her legs. Then Dr. Tennant tried the reflex test with the little rubber hammer.

Connie's leg barely twitched. Dr. Tennant made a note. Then she took the strip out of Connie's mouth and wrote down the temperature.

"Your reflexes seem a bit off. Your leg barely twitched when I tested it.."

"Well, you barely touched it..."

Dr. Tennant raised an eyebrow. "I hit it as hard as I'm supposed to for the test."

Connie suddenly got an "Oops" look.

"Uh, try it now."

Dr. Tennant tried it again and this time got a normal response.

"What did you do?"

"I had my field up. It sort of affects how I feel things. I still feel things, but I don't get bruises or stuff."

After this Dr. Tennant wasn't surprised to run into trouble when she tried to get Connie's blood pressure. Once the girl "dropped the field" on her arm the readings were normal.

"OK, Now I need to take off your underwear for the breast exam and gyno work-up"

Connie froze for a moment and then went behind the screen and came out in a few minutes with just her exam gown on.

"Please sit on the table and drop your top."

Blushing Connie did so.

The doctor noted that the girl's breasts looked a bit odd. Something about the shape. Ah, There didn't seem to be any sag. Though there was something about the nipple...

A thought struck Dr. Tennant. "Please drop the field you are using on your breasts, Connie."

Connie hung her head and her breasts sagged a bit. Much to Dr. Tennant's surprise they seemed to deflate a tiny bit as well.

"Ah, you were enhancing them a bit with your powers. Well, don't worry, some girls just take a bit longer to develop."

Connie just kept her head down and sniffled a little.

"There, there. It's OK. I need to fell them now. Pay attention to how I do this. You need to be able to give yourself a self-exam every so often."

Dr. Tennant kept control of her face as her fingers told her that these weren't normal breasts. She couldn't find the structures she expected. It was almost like a boy's chest except for the amount of tissue.

"OK, you can put your top back up."

As Connie pulled the top of the gown back up Dr. Tennant checked Connie's file. Ah. it had sex listed as complicated. That might explain things. She decided to finish the exam before asking more questions. She'd likely have a better idea of what questions to ask then.

"OK, now turn sideways and scoot towards this end of the table."

Seeing how nervous the girl was, Dr. Tennant said "You've never had a gynecological exam before, have you?"

Connie shook her head.

"It's alright, I'll take it slow and be gentle."

Dr. Tennant helped the girl get onto the stirrups. Once Connie was positioned properly, Dr. Tennant raised the hem of the gown.

At first glance, everything looked OK, but when she started to gently probe, she met a lot of resistance. And the girl flinched.

"Connie, I'm not going to hurt you. Please trust me. And let go or whatever it is you do. I need to see whatever's really down here." She paused. "Or would you rather have a male doctor?

"Oh god, no. Please, no!"

Dr. Tennant moved so she could hug the girl. "Easy, it's OK. I think I know what you've got down there and it's OK. I just had to ask you about another doctor."

She held the girl until she seemed calmer.

"OK, I know you don't like this much, but can I look at you down there now?"

Reluctantly, Connie nodded her head.

When Dr. Tennant got to the foot of the exam table, this time she could see the folds that had been there before had been created by carefully arranged folds of Connie's scrotum. Her penis was starting to poke out a bit as well.

With a gloved hand she gently stretched the penis out. It seemed about normal for a boy just starting puberty. Small, but unlikely to be an enlarged clitoris. Especially with a urethra in the normal position for a male.

Moving slowly and carefully, she palpated the pubic mound. Yes, there were a pair of lumps where she half expected to find them.

"You pushed your testicles up inside, didn't you?"

Connie whimpered "Y-yes."

"It's alright, but I need to examine them. It shouldn't hurt much to get them back down, not anymore than it does when you push them up. How long has it been, dear?"

"A-a couple of days. The ... the stuff on the web said I shouldn't leave them up inside for more than a few days at a time..." Connie said it a small voice.

"Can you do it, or should I?"

"I.. I can do it."

With that, much to Dr. Tennant's surprise, the skin on Connie's pubic mound developed a couple of dimples and she could see the testicles pop back into their normal location.

She bent down for a closer look as she gently felt them. 'That's odd," she thought, "after a couple of days, that tucked skin should be sweaty". Instead it was clean and dry, She bent closer and sniffed. Not a hint of odor either. Hmm.

She helped Connie out of the stirrups, and had her go through the "bend over and cough" check as well as a prostate exam..

"Connie, you were born a boy, weren't you?"

Connie hung her head again, "Yes, ma'am"

"It's OK. You aren't the first transgendered student we've had here. Now, I have to ask Is this more of that disguise stuff like the ears and tail, or is it something more?"

"I.. I want to be a girl. I can kinda shape things right, but I wish I was right."

Dr. Tennant gave the girl a hug.

"Think you can handle my looking at your ears now?"

Connie nodded. The fox ears were really quite good. If it wasn't for there not actually being an opening into the head they'd have been perfect. And the hair around them hid that fairly well.

"I need to look at the skin under them. What do you need to do so I can?"

"I just need to let go of them. Then you can just pull them off. Be care not to set them down on anything dirty. It gets itchy if I get anything stuck under them."

"OK, any time you re ready." Dr. Tenant had gently grabbed the tips of the ears, one in each hand. They twitched when she touched them.

"Are you sure these are fake?" she exclaimed.

Connie smiled. "Yeah they're fake. But I can sorta feel them, and I've been practicing for years.."

"That's right you manifested early didn't you?"

"Yep. You can pull them off now."

With that the ears went limp and with a gentle tug they came off.

Dr. Tennant carefully examined the bare spots on the girls scalp that appeared when the ears were gone.

"Do you shave the hair here? It's a very good job. "

"Huh, oh no. I used to, but the hair just doesn't grow there anymore."

That got another raised eyebrow. And much closer look at the bare spots. Which seemed to be mildly indented. Hmm.

"Does this hurt?" Dr. Tennant asked as she carefully probed at the bare spot.

"No, but it sort of tickles."

There was a definite depression, but it wasn't soft. Or rather there was some soft tissue there, but the bone underneath was firm.

"There's something a bit odd here. Not wrong, just unusual. I think we'll need a few X-rays."

"Well, OK, I guess. Can I have my ears back?"

Dr. Tennant smiled. "I think that'll be fine."

She picked the ears back up, and as she moved them into place, it was almost like a magnet as they got close to the right spot they lined themselves up and twitched.

"That was odd. Do they always do that?"

"Oh yeah, I can feel where they need to be."

The doctor made a few notes.

"OK, now I really want to look at your tail. Let's see. How about you bend over the table again?"

Connie sighed. "OK" She slid her feet to the floor and assumed the position.

Dr. Tennant noted that the gown which should have spread open in that position was still covering the girl's buttocks.

"Are you holding on to the gown, dear?"

"Oh, yeah, I do that with skirts and stuff so I don't accidentally flash guys. "

The doctor couldn't resist joking. "As opposed to deliberately flashing them?"

Connie giggled, then replied "Good girls don't flash boys."

"Um-hum" was all the reply Dr. Tennant gave that.

"Well. I need to look at the base of your tail, so if you'd let me get at it..."

To her surprise, instead of falling away the way the gown normally would, it spread itself.

"My, that must be handy in the bathroom" she commented as she examined the base of the girl's tail.

It looked natural. A small patch of fur, thin on the edges and getting thicker as it became the base of the tail.

Some probing around the base showed that it seemed to attach to the base of the spine. And that the coccyx was aligned with the tail rather than pointing down like it normally did in humans. That was odd.

She gently grasped the tail. Hmm. It felt like there were bones in there. Muscles too from the feel as it twitched.

"OK, can you let go of the tail now?"

As she asked she felt it go limp and come loose in her hand.

To her surprise, only the center of the patch of fur came with it. The skin exposed was clean & dry. No feel of adhesive or anything. It felt rather thin over the bone. And was apparently very ticklish.

As she went to replace the tail she asked "What did you make these from anyway, they're quite realistic?"

"Oh, just some plastic and fake fur."

"It must have been very hard making the bones in the tail."

"Huh, what bones? It's just fake fur!"

That stopped the doctor. She felt the tail again. Yep, there was still some structure in there that felt like bones and tissue under the fur.

"Connie. Sit up."

When the bewildered girl had turned around and sat down, the doctor hand her the tail.

"Here. Take your tail in your hand and feel it."

Connie started feeling and got a surprised look. "But it was just fur.."

"It's more now. You've also got a small patch of matching fur around where it attaches. And there's something odd about the way the bone there goes too. I think we need to schedule more tests to check this out."

"I... Is something wrong with me?"

"Hopefully not. But some mutants who use their powers to alter their forms sometimes wind up making their real forms match the changes. I can't say that's what's happening here. It's not usual for it to happen with your sort of powers, but it bears checking out."

Connie looked thoughtful. "Would that mean I might get real girl parts too?"

"Maybe. If you are changing to match this disguise of yours it could happen. But we really don't know what's going on or even if anything is going on."

"Well, I want to be a girl. And having the ears and tail is OK, even if it messes up being able to hide by taking them off. So I guess I can live with that if it happens."

"My you are just full of surprises, aren't you. I think you'll want to think that over some. We'll have someone you can talk all of that over with."

"Go ahead and get dressed, then we'll go get you some blood tests and those X-rays. And if there's time a couple other things."

The blood draw was interesting, The tech bent the needle before Dr. Tennant thought to ask Connie to drop her field. After that it went OK She noticed that there was no bleeding after the needle was withdrawn and made a note that they'd need to check the girl's healing rate.

The skull X-ray was a surprise. Connie's head showed up as 100% opaque to X-rays.

Connie looked at it and said. "Oh. I bet that goes with not getting sunburns..."

"I can see a lot more tests in your future, young lady. Do you think you can turn it off so he can get X-rays?"

It took a couple of tries, but soon there were several X-rays of her skull and the base of her spine.

"Drat. I can't quite get enough detail. We'll have to schedule you for an MRI or CAT scan later. Well, hopefully an ultrasound will go quicker."

Indeed, the ultrasound wasn't a problem. But while getting the images was easy, interpreting them was going to be a bit more difficult.

***

"Connie? I want to get the scans before we talk about your results from yesterday."

"OK, I guess."

There were the expected problems with the CAT scan until Connie let her skin field pass the X-rays.

The real surprises were the MRI and the PET scan.

First try at the MRI Connie noted a slight resistance as she walked up to the machine. She didn't think anything of it. But when the magnets switched to full power the loud clunk startled her. And she startled the tech as she popped out of the machine at a very high speed.

She was able to stop before she hit the wall. Barely.

After some arguing, she convinced them that she hadn't flown out. She'd just brought up her field.

Eventually they figured out that when she strengthened her field she'd forced out the magnetic field from the machine. And that had pushed her out of the machine.

The PET scan was where thing got weird. They had her drink the custom radioisotope mix.

"Okay, what did you do? You have to drink the stuff or we can't get a reading!"

"But I did drink it!"

She lowered her skin field. Still no readings.

After some discussion, they decided it would be safe to give her a dose of a different mix that was used for a different type of imaging study.

They checked the mix with a Geiger counter. And as she drank it the count rate dropped.

Much consternation.

They finally tried placing her in a well shielded room and taking readings as they X-rayed her with a portable unit. The X-rays went through, proving her field was down. But they got no radiation count from her. Not even the normal background count.

Name: Dorothy Gayle
Aliases: D'artagnan "Art" Gayle
Code name: Blip
Ratings: warper (teleportation) level unknown
Techniques:none
Weak vs.: [unknown]
Backup/ Team affiliation: family

Art wasn't really thrilled with the medical tests. Not that they were all that bad.

The physical exam was no fun at all, but he'd known there was no way around it.

They didn't like his low body fat, but when he'd explained why he was doing it, they agreed to let him continue until they could get results from some pysch stuff. But he was warned to come into the clinic immediately if any of a long list of things happened.

Powers testing made up for it though.

Well the written stuff at the start was kinda boring. Except when the questions were too hard.

The physical tests were a pain for the most part. He was strong and fast, but only a bit more than most folks. The dodgeball had been kinda fun at first. But eventually there were too many to dodge.

Testing his teleportation was more fun. They had him blip to different places in the lab and then to a few places on campus.

"Okay, that's pretty good. Now we need to try for range..."

"I sorta thought you might so I had Connie help me with a little trip after we found out where Whateley was. Got a phone number I can call you at?"

Someone dug out a business card with the school's number on it and wrote the extension on it.

"Do you have a GPS or something that won't get too freaked out by getting moved a long ways? Even after the mods we made, Connie's still takes a few minutes to resynch after a long blip."

A tech handed Art a box.

"Great, I'll call you in a minute...."

With that, Art vanished.

"Wait, we didn't set up a location..."

A few minutes later the phone rang. A tech answered it. She listened for a moment and turned with a weird expression on her face.

"Dr. Shandy? It's the main switchboard. They've got a collect phone call for you...."

The doctor got up to go to the phone just as the tech finished. ".. from Australia."

Several voices chimed in "Australia!?"

Dr. Shandy took the phone from the tech. " This is Dr. Shandy. ... Yes. Where in Australia? Perth? And the caller is... Blip? Yes, I'll accept the call."

Someone slid a laptop with a map of Australia showing on the screen onto the desk.

"You really shouldn't have done that without clearing it with us... What? ... Yes, if it's synched up you can jump back..."

As the doctor was speaking, Art appeared in the room holding the GPS.

"Sorry, I figured it'd save a lot of time."

"Well, I suppose it did. You couldn't jump much farther away, could you?"

"Actually, no. Not unless I want to get really wet. And actually, I can't exactly get a "fix" on a chunk of ocean."

At the puzzled looks, Art explained. "I worked it out on the maps Perth is the only decent sized city anywhere close to the opposite side of the world. I could have gone about 25 miles away to the SW tip of Australia, but that wasn't worth the trouble. No phones, anyway. And the actual 'other side of the world' is over 300 miles out to sea from there."

"Max range of over twelve thousand miles...." that was one of the techs.

"No. Only around eight thousand, I rather doubt that he's following the surface of the earth on these blips of his."

After this they decided range testing was kind of pointless. Which was what Art had hoped for.

Name: Ronald Sutherland
Aliases: Constance (Connie) Sutherland
Coden name: Flying Fox
Ratings: flying, strength, PK (contact?), gadgeteer(?) levels uncertain
Techniques: none
Weak vs.: [unknown]
Backup/ Team affiliation: family

"OK, let me go over the test results the State Patrol sent us. You can fly, you've got super strength and some sort of force field. And you're good with equipment."

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Well, what can you tell me about the flying? Any idea what your maximum speed is?"

Flying Fox hesitated this was one of the things she didn't want to let them know everything about.

"I'm not really sure."

"Well, can you give me any sort of guess? 20 miles an hour? 50? 100?"

"No. I mean I'm not sure I have a top speed. The farther I go the faster I go."

He wrote down "Constant acceleration?"

"OK, that's a bit unusual. How about some info on a long trip?"

"Sure. I have a track file for the flight here saved on my GPS!" With that she dug her much modified GPS out of a belt pouch.

It took a few minutes to get software and protocols sorted. While a tech was dealing with that Dr. Hewley asked her about the trip.

"Well, it took about 15 minutes to get from Spokane to New Hampshire, then I had to wait for Don to call to let folks know we were here. A couple minutes after that we were landing in the quad."

Dr. Hewley looked boggled. "Wait a second. Spokane? Isn't that in Washington state?"

"Yeah over near the Idaho border."

"And it took you 15 minutes..."

"Well, we weren't in that much of a hurry. So I didn't 'push'."

"Push?"

"Yeah, it's kinda hard to describe, but if I 'push harder' I build up speed faster. "

Looking a bit dazed he said "You weren't pushing hard and you flew 3000 miles in 15 minutes."

"Oh no. It's only twenty-two, twenty-three-hundred miles. Twenty-five-hundred, tops!"

He dug out a calculator. "That's 9000 miles an hour!"

"Well, yeah, that's the average. I was doing a lot more than that at the halfway point when I had to start slowing down."

"Oh, of course you'd have to start slowing down halfway.." He drew several underlines under the note about constant acceleration.

Then something else caught his attention. "You said 'we' and something about 'Don calling'?"

"Yeah, I was flying my boyfriend and my brother Don here so we could take care of stuff like the testing."

"How did you protect them during the flight?"

"Oh, they were inside the field so they were fine."

"Oh that force field of yours? How's that work?"

"I'm not really sure. It's just that when I was learning to fly early on, the wind kept bugging me and running into bugs... Ick!"

"Anyway, one day something sort of clicked and I had this 'bubble' around me. It was a lot easier to fly. It changes shape to minimize air resistance. I can carry stuff inside it too. It does something with things like air and stuff so I can breathe and don't get too hot or cold."

He wrote a note asking for Security's records of her approach and handed it off to another tech. The first one had the flight track from the GPS downloaded and handed it back to the girl.

"That sounds useful. We'll have to come up with some tests on that. I guess we won't be testing the limits of your flight abilities in the lab."

Connie gave him a "Duh!" look

"How did you start flying?"

"Well, I didn't start flying. I was carrying a big box down some stairs and missed a step. I got across the room and discovered I'd been walking about six inches off the floor. I did the walking on air thing for a few weeks before I started to fly. Well, At first I sort of glided down. Learning move up without walking up imaginary stairs or something was hard."

Another note, "atypical development of flight powers".

"I got real tired doing that at first. Especially if I flew fast. And I was hungry all the time. "

"That's fairly normal for a lot of
energy intensive powers. But you said 'At first'?"

"Yeah, One day it just got easier
Sort of like getting a second wind."

More notes.

"Sometimes when I'm flying really fast or working really hard I get a sort of 'third wind'..."

"You're just full of surprises, aren't you?"

---

Yes, I've been told that her speed violates the rules for the Whateleyverse. I didn't know that when I originally wrote it, and I kinda need it for some things planned for the future. So just consider this a more alternate than usual alternate Whateley.

Name: Constance (Connie) Sutherland
Code name: Flying Fox
Ratings: flying, strength, PK (contact?), radiation shielding? levels uncertain
Techniques: none
Weak vs.: [unknown]
Backup/ Team affiliation: family

The less said about most of the powers testing the better.

The written stuff was just boring. So were the card guessing things. The surprise attack bit (Xavier test, I think they called it) startled me, but I'm really glad I pretty much keep the skin field up all the time. That would have hurt if I hadn't been protected.

Then there was the dodgeball from hell. They wouldn't let me just stand there and let the balls bounce off. And I couldn't dodge all that well. But I finally figured the trick of bracing myself so I wouldn't move and batting them out of the way with my hands and arms.

***

"OK, let's see how much weight you can lift"

Connie bent over and picked up a large barbell. She lifted it easily, with no hint of strain.

"Got anything heavier?"

A short while later, after running out of free weights (they only went up to four tons) they had her working with a cross between a Nautilus machine and a mad scientist's idea of a heavy duty press.

They had her rest, and she couldn't lift the weights she'd just lifted. That surprised everyone, including her. But she was able to work back up to it.

The next time they had her rest, they were surprised again when she was able to easily lift a weight she'd strained to lift just before.

"What did you do differently?"

"I'm not sure. The first time I thought we were done, so I relaxed. This time I..." she paused searching for words, "it's hard to describe. It's like when I go down, I can sort of feel something building. Or when I've been pushing hard to fly. There's something like a pressure or a tingle or something. But it's different for when I float down and when I'm flying or lifting..."

"And this applies to what just happened how?"

"Oh, sorry I got distracted thinking about it. Anyway, this time since I knew there was more lifting coming I just let it? Made it? keep building."

More weight lifting ensued.

Connie had gotten what she called her "second wind" early on and now there were alarming creaks coming from the unit.

"Please stop, Flying Fox. We need to come up with a different way to test things to find your actual limit."

Another tech spoke up. "It looks like as long as you expect that you'll have to do more work you just keep getting stronger."

"No, it's more like her power just keeps building when she's using it or expecting to use it. But if she 'relaxes' it drops back to zero fairly quickly."

Connie looked thoughtful. "That might explain some stuff... So if I can just learn to keep my power up, I'll be stronger?"

"Could be. But until we do some more testing and get a handle on where your power is coming from, you should be careful. There might be side effects."

"Yeah, and there's something really weird about her power curve..." muttered someone.

"Well, we need to test your force field now. Apparently it stops x-rays?"

They started by trying to x-ray her hand. And wound up in the med labs with a completely underexposed patch that perfectly matched her hand.

Next they tried having her use the "bubble" form of the field. That was awkward. Finally they had her floating in midair in the classic superman flight pose with one arm stretched out in front.

The bubble was opaque to x-rays as well.

"Great. That means we can test more things without worrying so much about you, because we can just aim so stuff that makes it through the field will go past you."

It was quickly determined using a devise that could create coherent beams of various radiations that her bubble stopped everything from ultraviolet on up through high energy gamma rays. Completely.

"Where's it going? There's no scatter, it just hits the field and goes away!"

They tried upping the power. No effect.

Someone suggested that as long as they had thing set up, they might as well try going up in wavelength.

The first pass through the visible and IR bands showed new effects. The light went through as if the field wasn't there. The IR disappeared.

This prompted someone to dig out an IR camera. And discover that the field was blocking IR. When it was up, it was a black spot on the image. When it was down, the girl glowed in IR just like a normal human.

Then they tried cranking up the power on the laser. As expected, the field still absorbed the IR wavelengths. Then they hit the visible wavelengths.

Surprised yells from one of the techs drew everyone's attention. There was a bright spot on the sensor the beam was aimed at. It stayed there even as the beam power went up. But the spot stayed the same brightness. About as bright as sunlight someone figured.

That led to someone wondering about radio frequencies. About the time it occurred to someone to just hand the girl an RF meter and move in a transmitter, some else had thought to check the data Security had given them.

"Hey! She didn't show up on radar when she flew here!"

Connie blushed. "Um, yeah. I don't do that anymore. I had a really bad experience when I was younger. Almost got caught by somebody. I don't know what I did, but I quit showing up on radar after that."

Lots of questions.

"No, I don't know. I just sort of 'learned' or something. Just like when I got sunburned the first time I flew really high."

More questions. Most of which Connie answered with "I don't know."

They finally went for the more normal tests for force fields. Her field was very tough. But some of the readings were odd.

As Connie walked towards Crystal Hall she heard a sneering voice call out "Hey, It's the fox bitch again!"

She'd already been having a bad day. Her classes were a lot harder than at her last school, and she had more power testing coming up after lunch.

The testing worried her. There were things she didn't want them to find out...

She was jerked out of her thoughts as someone grabbed her tail and yanked.

"Hey, bitch! Look at me when I'm talking to you."

It didn't really hurt, just startled her a bit. But it was the last straw.

She spun around and glared at the boy. It was one of the ones that'd been harassing her all week.

She decided she'd had enough. She'd already checked and it was a green flag day. So she didn't need to worry about anybody seeing anything.

"Listen, idiot. I've had about enough of you and your buddies. Why won't you go bother somebody else?"

"Awww. Is the bitch on the rag?" taunted another of the boys.

She flinched. He didn't realize just what a sore spot he'd hit. Connie wanted to cry at the reminder of what she'd never be.

Her flinch drew laughter and more taunts. Like sharks smelling blood in the water, the predators circled for the kill. Only these predators didn't realize what they'd gotten themselves into.

Her fox ears went flat on top of her head and her tail stood straight out and bottled as the fur stood on end.

She fought the impulse to lash out at them. She took a breath and reached out to a watermelon sized chunk of granite next to the path. She put one hand on top of it, flexed her fingers a bit and lifted it as if it was so much styrofoam.

Bringing it up to waist height she took it between her hands and squeezed. Still with no visible effort she looked straight at the ringleader and said in a flat voice "I'm not a bitch. I'm a vixen."

As she spoke she was sort of rolling the chunk of rock between her hands and with some alarming cracking noises it got smaller and smaller.

"You don't want to make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry."

With that she turned and tossed the now grapefruit sized and glowing rock over her shoulder. The concrete of the path cracked as it impacted.

She walked off towards the dining hall again as the smoking sphere of something that used to be rock cooled. Her ears were back up and her tall swished from side to side as she sauntered away.

The boys were stunned for a moment. Then one started to reach down to poke at the sphere.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you".

The boy turned to see someone from Whateley Security looking amused.

"Why not?" asked the boy.

"Well, I don't recall you being invulnerable or a regen, so if you're fond of your fingers, you might want to poke it with a stick or something else you won't mind losing."

The boy stepped back looking nervous. The security man picked up a fallen branch from under a tree and poked the sphere. Smoke and flame erupted as the wood contacted it.

"See what I mean?"

He pushed harder with the stick and barely managed to get the sphere to rock a bit in the depression it'd made in the walkway. He nodded to himself and keyed the mike on his radio.

"Security? Evans here. I need someone from the labs to do a hazmat pickup. One of the freshmen. Flying Fox, just turned a quarter ton of granite into a lump the size of a grapefruit. And it's hot enough to glow yellow...."

"Yeah, it's sitting on the path about halfway between Poe and Crystal Hall."

***

The hazmat team quickly scanned the sphere sitting on the cracked concrete walkway.

"No radiation hazard..."

"Surface temp 1000 C and dropping..."

"No magic signature..."

"Okay, looks safe to move."

The guard watched as they used a couple of crowbars to lever it into a heavily insulated box sitting on its side. Once the sphere was inside they carefully tipped the box upright and closed the lid. A small front loader rolled up and chains from the bucket were attached to lifting lugs on the box.

The head of the team turned to the guard. "They want this down in the lab, pronto. They also want you to write up what you saw.."

With a sigh the guard followed them to the lab. Paperwork...

***

The powers testing boffins were poring over the reports.

"Elemental composition looks about right for something that started out as a chunk of the local granite. But the molecular structure is pretty weird."

"Yes, but allowing for the pressure and heat, you'd expect that."

"Why's it so hot?"

"Compression, friction, pretty much what you'd expect from forcing normal rock into a hyper-dense state like that"

"How dense is it, anyway?"

"About 140 grams per cubic centimeter. More than 6 times as dense as platinum"

"Good grief. The earth's core isn't that dense!"

"The pressures involved...."

"We're still trying to figure out what sort of pressures were involved. But as you can see, this means her powers have still more aspects we hadn't expected."

"OK, we need a list of things that need to be investigated based on this incident. And we need to see how much of it can be worked into her testing after lunch..."

"I think Medical should check out the bit about how her ears and tail reacted."

"Why, well, supposedly they are props. But from this, it sounds like they are part of her."

"OK, send that along to them. And be sure we get an examination of her hands as soon as she gets to testing. I want to know if there's any sign of damage from the heat."

"Right".

"Next, the report says she picked up that boulder by putting her hand on the top and grabbing it. Even with super strength she shouldn't have been able to get a grip on it that'd work. Not unless she sank her fingers into it. And that'd have caused a lot of cracking and spalling, right?"

Heads nodded.

"Then she brought it up to waist height and started using both hands to squeeze it. And how did the guard put it? 'Rolled it between her hands like a lump of clay'. That shouldn't be possible It'd shatter under the pressure long before it started compressing."

"Maybe it's another aspect of her force fields? That'd explain how it wound up spherical, too".

"OK, list that as tentative explanation and figure out how to test it."

"Uh, boss? I just realized we overlooked something."

"What?"

"You said it was a granite boulder about yea big, right?" He held his hands out to indicate the size.

"Yeah?"

"And we figure it weighed about the same as the sphere does, right? A quarter ton or so?"

Someone chimed in "257 kilos".

"Right. How much does she weigh? 40, 50 kilos?"

"Yes..."

"Ever see a crane try to pick up something that weighs more than it does? Unless it's properly braced, it falls over. She just stood there and didn't fall over even with a rock weighing five times what she does at the end of one arm."

Much frantic discussion ensued as the subject of their discussion ate lunch.

***

Connie decided to indulge herself a bit. She was attempting to devour a bacon-mushroom cheeseburger and onion rings in a "delicate" manner. Well, at least somewhat more ladylike than some of the other bricks.

Between sips of her chocolate shake she wondered what they had in mind for this round of powers testing. She was interrupted by her boyfriend appearing next to the table.

Poor Art. He was looking longingly at her burger. He had a salad. And she knew his drink was likely a diet soda. They both knew why he was being so careful with his diet. Maybe the doctors here could help him some. At least now that Don was their guardian, they had a chance. Not like either set of parents...

She took his mind off the food by telling him about her latest attempt to discourage the idiots who were bothering her.

"Well, if they don't get the hint from that..." was his comment once he quit laughing.

"Yeah, well, I hope you don't have to go as far as that knife trick you came up with. That's a bit dangerous."

"Still better than a blip with the knife into them"

She nodded.

"Not like they can bother you much. They'd have to be able to catch you."

"Connie, you know as well as I do, that if it looks like I'm running away, it'll get worse."

"OK, OK. I get the point."

"Have those idiots from the school radio station gone after you yet?:

"No, I think Alice unnerved them a bit, and since I'm the older sister, lord only knows what they'd think I'd do."

Just then, as if summoned by the mention of her name, Alice came up with her tray and a wicker basket.

She was a cute girl who looked about 12. The gingham dress she was wearing only emphasized it.

"Not the Dorothy outfit again!" complained Art.

"I told you not to give it to her." said Connie. "And where'd you dig up the wig?"

"Oh, Don got it for me." replied Alice.

Art snickered. "You know your brother gives her anything she wants."

"Like he's got a choice!" Connie shot back.

Alice just ignored them and started to eat her lunch. She noticed a few boys watching. She smiled sweetly and caught the eye of one at a nearby table as she peeled a banana. Maintaining eye contact, she slowly pushed it into her mouth. Then she let it out again. All the while looking ever so sweet and innocent. Like she had no idea what it looked like..

Art and Connie just ignored her. They'd seen it before.

But all the boys (and a few of the girls) at nearby tables were transfixed watching this sweet innocent girl ever so innocently do something frankly obscene to the fruit.

Once she was sure she had the full attention of enough boys, she let the banana out again, licked the end, and then still smiling innocently, bit the end off. All the boys cringed.

Alice continued eating as if she hadn't noticed any of it.

Art commented, "I'd say that was going to get you in trouble on of these days, if I didn't know how many times it has already."

Alice smiled. "It's only trouble if you can't get out of it."

Connie shook her head. "Sometimes sister, you freak me out."

Alice shrugged.

Art asked "So, did you and Don come up with code-names yet?"

Alice nodded.

"So what are they?"

Alice smiled. "Oh, I'm Lolicon, and Don is Bishounen."

She'd timed it perfectly. Both Art and Connie had their mouths full. The spray was impressive.

---

I'm putting these at the end now otherwise they'd take over the teaser.

Name: Constance (Connie) Sutherland
Aliases: Ronald Sutherland
Code name: Flying Fox
Ratings: flying, strength, PK (contact?), radiation shielding? levels uncertain
Techniques: none
Weak vs.: [unknown]
Backup/ Team affiliation: family

Name: D'artagnan "Art" Gayle
Aliases: Dorothy Gayle
Code name: Blip
Ratings: warper (teleportation) level unknown
Techniques:none
Weak vs.: [unknown]
Backup/ Team affiliation: family

Name: Allison "Alice" Sutherland
Aliases: none
Code name: Lolicon
Ratings: [redacted]
Techniques: Lolita, age inappropiate behavior, kawaii, [censored], [censored],[censored], [redacted]
Weak vs.: normal human vulnerabilities
Backup/ Team affiliation: family, [redacted]

Ok, things are going to slow down for a bit. Most of what I've been posting was already written and only needed editing/rearranging.

Now I'm getting to new stuff (or at least newly completed/expanded) and things are likely going to be more spaced out.

Also, my muse decided that now was the time to take the note (and a couple paragraphs of actual story) I had for Don & Alice and go with them.

Don and Alice are *different*. VERY different.

I suspect that many people aren't going to like their background a lot. Alas, they are what they are. And their background, interests, etc are a big part of how they wind up at Whateley as well as how & why they have their abilities.

Also, I still remember what it was like growing up with similar interests & inclinations. Showing that it's not the end of the world if you are weird in ways that may make others uncomfortable, but aren't affecting them may help somebody.

But this does mean that there are going to be some dark spots in their story. I'll use the appropriate cautions when those bits come up.

Then again, you already know that they *survive* those spots.

Please bear with me.

Warning. This chapter and following chapters in its "thread" will contain some sexual situations, BDSM and other "kink". Nothing that outrageous, but there will be some.

***

He found it while exploring the woods one day.

He thought he heard voices. Between that and the twinges he was getting from his bondage he decided it was best to get off the trail.

He'd decided to try getting closer to the foot of the cliff. He couldn't be sure through the trees, but it looked like there wasn't a talus slope here.

It was odd, he'd have sworn there wasn't a place like that around here. He'd been digging through the local woods for years and surely he'd have noticed?

To his amazement, he suddenly stepped into a cleared area. Just some moss on the ground, then a bunch of waist high stones in a arc from the cliff. It was odd. Not only wasn't there a talus slope, but the stones weren't the basalt that all the local rock was.

He was just noticing the stones inside the arc and the large opening in the cliff when he heard the voices again.

"I'm sure I saw someone! And they were naked!"

Oh hell, he'd gotten spotted. In a panic he ran through the arc of stones and ducked into the opening in the cliff, praying that they wouldn't look there.

As soon as he crossed the arc of stones, his panic vanished. He still ducked into the cave or whatever it was. He was catching his breath as a feeling of safety came over him. He was still worried, but it was distant.

He still kept looking out to the woods frequently, but he felt safe enough to look around. He could see that the arc of stones continued into the cave. It seemed to be an oval.

Looking closer he could see shapes carved into the stones. Maybe some sort of writing? It didn't look like anything he'd seen before.

The shape of the cave was weird too. It was a smooth arc. Sort of like a quarter of a sphere, except stretched a bit to follow the oval.

There were several yards clearance between the stones and the wall. About the same as the clearance between them and the underbrush outside. Weird.

Then his attention was drawn to the elephant in the room. Well, not an elephant, but something that should have been just as obvious. But he'd only noticed them after entering the cave.

There were a number of roughly humanoid statues(?) carved out of the same stone. As well as some large low blocks of stone (his mind thought of them as altars) and some stone chairs. More like thrones.

Before he could take a closer look at anything he heard the voices again. He ducked behind one of the altars and peeked over the top. Only a moment later several people came out of the woods.

Oh, this was bad, he recognized a couple from school. Damn. If they spotted him, his life would be hell.

But to his surprise, they just looked around blankly. They didn't seem to see the clearing and stones!

One said, "Well, nothing here but a bunch of fallen rocks from the cliffs. If you weren't seeing things, he must have slipped by us."

And with that they turned around and walked away.

He slumped to the ground in relief. He didn't know how or why, but they'd missed him.

The feeling of safety swept over him again. Somehow he knew it was connected to what had happened. So he tried to send back a "thank you".

The safe feeling surged. Then there was a pause. And he had an urge? No, not that more of an impulse, Like he was thinking about something but with no pressure to decide one way or the other.

Without really knowing why, he unwound the painful bindings on his genitals. The returning circulation was only a bit more painful. Then he took a deep breath, then started rebinding things. But tighter. So tight it almost took his breath away. Tighter than he'd ever done before.

He had to breathe deeply for a couple minutes as he adjusted to the pain. It was still a "good" pain though.

Then he moved carefully to the top of the altar block he'd been hiding behind. He was not surprised to see that the top had a hollow shaped like a human carved into it. He worked himself into place so he was laying flat in it.

To his surprise, it was actually comfortable. Yet at the same time the pain seemed to intensify. Normally he'd have expected it to be decreasing as things got a bit numb. But it wasn't. It kept on throbbing through him.

He was getting aroused. Which just made things worse, given how tightly he was bound. He just laid there and endured it. Soon he was floating from the endorphins. Without thinking about it, his hands moved to his chest and started tweaking his nipples. Softly at first, then harder.

He kept switching from soft to hard and back again. His arousal grew, and finally as he squeezed and twisted as hard as he could, he orgasmed,

Bound as he was, this caused a new and quite intense pain.

He wasn't sure how long he laid there overwhelmed by the combination of pleasure and pain.

At last, he felt a sort of nudge and carefully sat up and worked his way off the altar stone.

Without knowing why, he walked to the back of the cave, where an idol that was both male and female at the same time stood. There were basins of water to either side of it. Water seemed to be bubbling up into them and then flowing off to the ground. Part of his mind went "so that's why there's moss."

He stood in front of one of them, and slowly unwrapped the bindings once more. He could see traces of blood where skin had gotten pinched between the windings. Once they were free, he dropped the bindings into the water without knowing why he did.

Then he reached out and took a handful of the water and wiped it over his body. It was very cold, but refreshing at the same time. As he got to where he'd been bound, he could see that not only the sweat and blood washed off, but the pain went away. And when he checked, he couldn't find anyplace where the blood had come from.

When he looked at the cord he'd used for binding, it looked different. He reached into the basin and lifted it out. It was clean. Not only of the blood but the dirt as well. And it looked like new.

He knew he should have been freaked by all this, but he just accepted it. And he could swear that there was a sort of thankfulness mixed in with the feelings of safety.

He wanted to explore this place further, but from the look of the shadows outside, it'd been an hour or more. Regretfully he tied the cord around his waist (easiest way to carry it and still have his hands free) and started back towards the woods and the trail.

He hesitated a long time before stepping into the woods. Every sense was alert. He didn't want to run into anybody. One close call was enough.

He worked his way back to the trail, and then after looking carefully both ways, he headed down it to where his clothes were hidden.

He ducked into the brush several times, but they were all false alarms. Soon enough he was dressed and headed for home.

When he got there, his brother Ronnie and Ronnie's friend, Dot were there. Playing with Ronnie's GI Joes again.

He felt sorry for both of them. He knew about their gender problems and had helped cover with the folks a few times.

He was a bit envious as well. At least they could pass. He'd managed to get a few things that fit, but he was obviously a guy in them. Puberty had sucked. Mind you it wasn't that he didn't want to be a boy. It was just that sometimes he wanted to be a girl for a while.

He'd not told the kids because he figured they wouldn't understand. It was pretty clear to everyone but their folks that the kids were 100% the opposite of the sex they were "supposed" to be.

Besides not understanding, he didn't want to remind either of them of what would probably happen when puberty hit. It'd be painful enough then.

He shook off the unpleasant thoughts and went to put the cord away with his stash of "toys". He stopped when he set it next to the other lengths that'd been cut from the same piece. It was clean and looking brand new next to the other pieces. But that was impossible.

He hid the stash and sat down in front of his computer to think. The whole thing was impossible, Wasn't it?

He thought some more about the strangeness of the stones and the cave. Y'know, it'd looked like they'd been there before basalt flows that made up the cliffs.

He fired up the computer and did some searching. Then sat back appalled. The Columbia River flood basalt formations were hundreds of thousands of years old!

---

Name: Donald "Don" Sutherland
Aliases: none
Code name: none
Ratings: normal human
Techniques: none
Weak vs.: normal human vulnerabilities
Backup/ Team affiliation: none

He's Ronald Sutherland (aka "Connie")'s older brother.

Note that things will probably get a bit more explicit in later installments of this branch of the stories.

I will note that this is not being done gratuitously, there are reasons why their is sex & BDSM involved in this story. And not necessarily the ones you think.

A bonus post.

For some reason, a lot of folks have a problem with Peeper & Greasy. And some of them do something about it.

Alice vs Peeper & Greasy

"Peeper! Peeper!"

"What is it Greasy?"

"I finally got a camera into Poe!"

"What? I thought you said they weren't working."

"I know, but I started getting a signal from one of the microcams. I think it got caught on something and just started working when someone jolted it loose onto something else."

"Well, let's see the signal...."

Greasy called up an image showing part of a dorm room. A girl's dorm room if the clothes visible on the bed were any indication.

Peeper was about to say something when a figure moved into view. A girl in a yellow bathrobe and her hair wrapped in a towel.

From their viewpoint all they could see was her back.

They stared as the robe was tossed onto the bed revealing a completely naked body. the girl bent down to grab something off the bed. Her head went out of the frame, but from the side there was no doubt that it was a girl.

Her breasts were small, but definitely there. She turned as she bent further. They had an excellent view of her backside and between her legs before she straightened and pulled up a lacy pair of black panties.

She got something else from the bed and turned again. Her head went out of the frame, but they had an excellent view of a pair of A cup breasts as she put on a sexy black bra.

Her breasts jiggled as (they guessed) she did something with the towel in her hair.

She stretched deliciously and reached over to the bed. Then she stepped back and her face was in the frame, just above a printed sign.

HI BOYS.

I HOPE YOU'VE ENJOYED THE SHOW.

JUST ONE THING...

She flipped the sign just as both recognized her.

I'M 12.

CAN YOU SAY CHILD PORNOGRAPHY?

HOPE YOU ENJOY JAIL.

Greasy was going "Oh shit! Oh shit!" as Peeper screamed at him to delete the files.

Just then there was a knock on the door.

"This is security, open up."

Back in her room, Alice and Connie were laughing themselves silly.

"Wonder how long it'll take them to find out that's a recorder attached to their door?" asked Connie.

***

A few days later...

"What are you doing Alice?"

"I'm getting ready to send Peeper and Greasy some more pictures"

"Not like the last set!"

"Oh no! These are just me and Teddy."

"Where did you get a teddy bear with a ... Never mind, I don't want to know!"

***

Still later...

"Hello Peeper, I'm Alice's big brother, Don."

"Eep!"

"Oh don't worry, I don't interfere with her private life...."

"whew".

"Just thought I'd let you know that I think you're cute too."

This is a timeline for the Glimpses characters. It'll have other info as well, at least until & unless it becomes necessary to split things.

Note that info will be "as revealed so far".

Significant events

Sat, April 1, 1989	Donald Sutherland born
Fri, June 11, 1993	Ronald Sutherland born
Tue, September 21, 1993	Dorothy Gayle born
Thu, February 28, 2002	Flying Fox powers manifest
Fri, June 28, 2002	Blip powers manifest
Sat, June 21, 2003	Donald finds stone circle
Sat, August 7, 2004	Don & Alice origin event
Fri, September 7, 2007	Connie, Art, Don & Alice start at Whateley?

---

Name: D'artagnan "Art" Gayle
Aliases: Dorothy "Dot" Gayle
Code name: Blip
Ratings: warper (teleportation)
ESP (clairvoyance?) level unknown, [redacted]
Techniques: fencing, gymnastics
Weak vs.: normal human vulnerabilities
Backup/ Team affiliation: family

Costume: Zorro outfit, with mask, without hat

Teleportation to anywhere he's been or can see. Cameras & photos don't work, Binoculars & telescopes can work. Has to know where target is relative to him to use "seen but not visited" teleport.

Has ability to "see" target area. Not normal eyesight. Some sort of ESP?

[redacted]

---

Name: Constance (Connie) Sutherland
Aliases: Ronald Sutherland
Code name: Flying Fox
Ratings: flying, strength, PK (contact?), force fields (contact & centered) levels uncertain, [redacted]
Techniques: fencing, gymnasticss
Weak vs.: unknown
Backup/ Team affiliation: family

Costume: Zorro outfit, with mask, without hat, in russet brown that matches her hair & fur.

"powered armor" effect is force field based. Logarithmic response.

[redacted]

---

Name: Donald "Don" Sutherland
Aliases: none
Code name: Bishounen
Ratings: EX-1?, ESP-2, [redacted]
Techniques: none
Weak vs.: normal human vulnerabilities
Backup/ Team affiliation: family, [redacted]

Name: Allison "Alice" Sutherland
Aliases: none
Code name: Lolicon
Ratings: EX-2?, ESP-2, [redacted]
Techniques: Lolita, age inappropiate behavior, kawaii, goth, [censored], [censored], [censored], [redacted]
Weak vs.: normal human vulnerabilities
Backup/ Team affiliation: family, [redacted]
Age: [redacted]

Costume: varies. Alice in Wonderland, Dorothy, Magical Girl, Wednesday Addams, etc.

The ESP-2 is that they can duplicate physical "skills" after seeing them once. This doesn't mean they can learn a martial art from one move. It does mean that they can duplicate a kata (adjusted for their body size & shape) after seeing it once. Ditto for dances, and some sleight of hand (they have to be able to actually see the motions).

More properly, they will know how to move to duplicate the kata, gymnastics, routine or whatever. But they are still subject to their body's limitations on strength & flexibility. If they aren't strong or flexible enough they'll know without trying. But they'll also know the optimum way to "train up" to the required strength & flexibility.

They've actually gained a lot of strength from duplicating some mime routines (floating in freefall for example).

This ability was actually intended to [redacted], but turned out to be of much greater application.

Early on they picked up dance moves, some combat skills and gymnastics from watching Dot & Ron. Since then, they've made a point of watching gymnastics videos and dance videos. They've picked up some martial arts stuff, but it's pretty scattered and random. Ito will not be impressed. But they'll pick up anything they get shown in class.

This helps a little with sex, massage, etc. But only a little because you need to learn to "feel" not just what your body is doing, but what their body is doing. It still helps quite a bit.

[redacted]