Home » The Crystal Hall » Fan Fiction » Synthaera (the post crash edition) (The reedited repost.)
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| Synthaera (the post crash edition) [message #39957] |
Thu, 26 May 2011 02:10  |
 blayze
Messages: 30
Registered: May 2011
Location: Durham, UK |
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Disclaimer: The following story is a Whateley Academy series fan-fiction it is just for fun. Any characters you recognize belong to their respective creators; any characters you do not recognize are from my own imagination, and bear no resemblance to any person, living or dead. This story may or may not match the timeline or continuity of the Whateley Universe project, but since it's a fan-fiction and not a part of the canon milieu, who cares?
Friday 16th February 2007
Aeron Samuels gazed in the mirror as outside the communal bathroom the thudding of feet, the chaos and racket of boys from thirteen to eighteen, and the raised voices of house prefects echoed through the huge old house that had been his home for the last year and a half. Around him the boys from his dorm hurried through their morning wash, brushing teeth and struggling to get hair under control with the normal piss taking and abuse that characterized a boarding school. They left him to his own thoughts normally, his reactions tended to be unpredictable and at almost fourteen he was already big enough that bullying was no longer a safe prospect for the vast majority of the older kids. Which gave a safety of a sort. Not that it was a type he wanted.
His expression was almost blank as the morning ritual ran its course. Washing, brushing, studying the reflection, seeking to understand the changes that had been happening, all the time an ingrained sense of wariness kept track of his surroundings, the who, what and where that progressed around him. If you caught a glance of the reflected ice blue gray eyes, strong patrician nose and square jaw, only an exceptionally keen eye would catch the micro expressions of loathing, pain and distaste in the tiny muscles around the mouth and eyes, or the misery that for a fraction of a second was visible in the blue orbs, before vanishing once more under a mask. The bathroom had emptied rapidly, one of his dorm mates yelling out as he left. 'Hurry up Aeron, or you'll miss breakfast you muppet.'
Alone the boy allowed a small sigh to escape his normally rigid control before he headed back to the dorm to get dressed.
Twenty five minutes later, Aeron arrived at the school's canteen, a quarter mile walk down hill from the boarding house, his tall broad shouldered but lean frame making short work of the distance, despite the biting Northerly wind that was assaulting the Welsh coast this overcast, blustery Friday morning. For a change the backpack slung over his shoulder was almost empty as today was the last day before half term, a joyous event for most of the 500 boys and girls that attended Caernarvon Independent Seniors School. The vagaries of the school system meant that this break was longer than normal 10 days, so Aeron was actually flying home to visit. Most terms it just wasn't worth doing.
The previous night had been a flurry of packing for the boarders who would be escaping from school for the holidays just as soon as parental transport could arrive after 1pm. The day pupils who made up the rest of student body would head for home as soon as they could get away with it. Today there would be Chapel, morning classes followed by assembly, speeches and administartive matters and the rest of the stuff which Aeron classed under the heading bullshit, before everyone would be dismissed. The school would empty rapidly leaving only a few boarders waiting on transport. For Aeron that would be a taxi ride to Manchester International Airport on Saturday morning.
Today was his fourteenth birthday, although he would not really pay any attention to it. He never really did because he was normally traveling or feeling lonely due to the vagaries of the English schooling system. His parents could have had him schooled in the American system when they moved to the sprawl of Los Angeles with his Dad's work, or even had him tutored online, but in their wisdom had decided that boarding school would be his destination, as they felt he would get a better education in the UK.
Aeron had the bleak suspicion that that was just the easiest solution for them, especially as his Dad's employer picked up most of the bill, and it kept him out of their way and so Aeron had attended Caernarvon Independent Junior School from age nine. His solitary birthday routine was very practiced and familiar. Depressing if he allowed himself to think about it, so he didn't. Instead he concentrated on keeping a wary eye out for those of the older school bullies who were not intimidated by his height and frame. Today was after all the last time for almost a fortnight they would get a chance to abuse their selected victims. It did not much matter if the bullies in his own year would not tangle with him, when there were seventeen and eighteen year olds who would happily beat you to a pulp if they could get away with it.
As the day progressed he knew he would feel safer but having been cast as one of the school's loners and outcasts Aeron was well aware that he would be fair game. He did not fit in, never had, and felt deeply that he never would. Very intelligent, an avid bookworm with a fascination for the mental escape offered by anything science fiction, or fantasy, his schoolwork was easy leaving his bored mind to worry at his emotional and psychological issues, or to day dream. He had no interest in sports, preferring the quiet of the library, and so of all the school cliques he was probably closest to the school's geeks and studious types, who for their part tended to distrust his size and reputation as a social loner.
Aeron did not like the reputation he had garnered but he figured he was stuck with it so he tried not to worry about it. If he was honest with himself he knew that a huge amount of the social interaction that normally obsessed hormonal teenagers missed him completely, or confused the hell out of him. If people left him alone he could cope, if they picked a fight Aeron would do his best to finish it. The posturing and macho bullshit that the boys in his year seemed so enamored of baffled him, and girls, well girls were a whole other problem that he did not want to think about. For their part the girls in his year were generally friendly but distant, which as probably just as well as at least it meant he could avoid thinking about his problems.
After a quick canteen breakfast of cereals and toast, exchanging morning pleasantries that were expected, with the few of the smart kids that bothered to say hello, Aeron followed the general procession of the mass of students to chapel. One short Methodist service later, given by the school Chaplain who doubled as the Religious Education teacher, was followed by the Head Thorne moving up to the pulpit to speak. A mutant brick had apparently gone on the rampage in Liverpool, only being captured with assistance of brave MCO agents and a Knights of Purity squad. Aeron shook his head slightly in disgust. Great give Thornie a chance to rant about his favorite topic, the evils of mutants.
Aeron did not know particularly how he felt about mutants, but he was pretty sure that the truth was not so one sided as Thornie invariably seemed to feel. The Head seemed almost rabid about them at times and Aeron wondered about whether or not he really was a member of Humanity First as school rumor suggested. Aeron did not know any mutants, at least as far as he was aware, he knew that there had been a couple of manifestation in the school over the last few years but before he had arrived at the Senior School. Occasionally you heard stories about kids who had suddenly left school but who knew what was true?
He was smart enough to realize that some of the kids around him had seemed to absorb some of Thorne's attitudes, but as far as he was concerned the only mutants he had seen were the posters of a multitude of super heroines and sexy villains that could be found liberally plastered around dorm walls in the boarding houses, some of those girls were just so HOT. It made him envious. That thought slipped in under his mental radar and he quickly banished it the back of his mind, where it could be safely ignored.
According to Thornie the mutant had been successfully halted (killed) but had caused a number of casualties in the Wirral. Aeron guessed that more than a few of the casualties would have come from friendly fire. The Knights of Purity had a reputation for being very heavy on firepower when dealing with the 'Mutant Menace', although you could hear capital Ms when Thornie said it. He sighed as Thornie continued his tirade, while wondering if anyone he knew would manifest powers, or even if he would, everyone knew it normally happened in your early teens, so the older you were the less likely it would happen. Aeron could not help feeling that being a mutant would not be so bad, it might even solve his problems.
He put his thoughts on hold and kept an attentive expression on his face as Thornie finished his rant, before Chapel finished and the students were dismissed to their classes. He headed to his last Business Studies class of the term, keeping a watchful gaze out as he shared gaming stories with Andy, one of the few friends Aeron had. Both boys were generally at the top of their classes, and shared an interest in online gaming, so they actually had something to talk about as they walked.
Aeron was currently playing Guild Wars in his free time, but Andy had just swapped to the newest contender for the crown, GEO- Good and Evil Online, and was raving about it. Aeron laughed at his friends enthusiasm while he protested about a lack of funds to buy the new game. It was not even possible to download it, only buy it retail and so far there were no cracked copies so far as he knew. As long as the rest of the morning went as well he would be content.
Finally the mornings classes of Business Studies, followed by History and English were over and the school headed for final Assembly. Forty minutes of speeches, followed by awards and trophies being handed out. It passed without a hitch and Thornie finally announced, 'Enjoy your holidays, school dismissed.' The Assembly dissolved into chaos as the students headed for home, to their boarding houses for their belongings and transport as fast as they could manage.
Aeron stood outside the Assembly hall, happy that he had avoided any trouble during the day thus far, as he watched students head across the school quad to the various boarding houses. He had no reason to hurry, he would not leave until the next morning, instead would spend his birthday alone on the Welsh coast, with only a handful of students left in the entire school. He expected that he would get a text or a phone call from his parents later in the evening but their time zone was 9 hours behind, it would be early evening before they would even be awake.
Aeron headed for the boarding house, to finish his packing. By the time he had walked back up the hill, and made his way to his dorm, he was not feeling good. Another bad headache was coming on, it was starting to pulse behind his eyeballs and rapidly getting stronger, and he was starting to feel groggy. Great, now on top of being alone for the rest of the day he would feel like crap as well. He flung his pack on the floor, grabbed some painkillers from his stuff, and collapsed on his bed wondering what sickness he had suddenly come down with and whether he would be better off dead.
Come evening the pounding headache that had felt like it was going to pop his eyeballs had mostly subsided. The day had been a succession of noisy departures from surrounding dorms, with occasional heads stuck in his darkened dorm saying good bye, some of which warranted a grunt, others were ignored. His dorm mates had thankfully been away early on so at least he had not had to put up with their crap for long while his head felt like it would explode.
For their part the other three boys knew he was prone to headaches and had the courtesy to not give him too much grief as they departed for their holidays in a flurry of suitcases and packs. Aeron was known for an evil temper when he was feeling shit. He had never made a big thing of his birthday, he did not see the point and so that had passed almost unmentioned. Sprawling on his bed he surfed the web on his laptop. It was a year old and could still handle most software, and the boarding house had an excellent wireless broadband connection so at least he could bounce around online quickly while he waited for his parents to phone.
***
Saturday 17th February 2007
The taxi to Manchester International Airport had arrived at just after 6am, and Aeron had quickly dumped his suitcase and pack into the boot, before settling in the back to try and doze while the taxi driver weaved through the early morning traffic. He had been awake since 5am and was not in the best of moods. His parents had eventually phoned about 8pm, 11am their time so it was not like they had made an effort to speak to him as early as they could. The call had been as short and stilted as they normally were, brief birthday wishes bracketed by awkward small talk and reminders about his flight times.
A frown crossed his features, as unhappy thoughts filtered through his mind. As if he needed any help with flying or airports, at 14 he had already flown more air miles than most people managed in a life time, going to and from exile in the UK. At least his headache had mostly subsided from yesterday. Weird how this headache was lasting so much longer than normal, still he was not going to be stupid enough to mention feeling ill just before flying, he knew that would end up with him spending more unwelcome time in the UK. He had felt moments of nausea during the night and morning but would cope with it.
As the taxi made its way along the increasingly crowded roads Aeron gazed blankly out the window doing his best not to think about his problematic life, instead daydreaming, idly pondering how to develop Syn, his character from the gaming sessions that were held every Wednesday night at the school's rec centre during term time.
Aeron's gaming group were a mixed bunch, even including Dan a sports freak amongst the more stereotypical nerds and geeks. The only requirement to join was the willingness to roleplay and the imagination to power it. Aeron was almost addicted to sci fi and fantasy as his antidote to the real world, and after he had discovered the gaming groups while in the Junior School, ever since he had been hooked. The gamers were friendly and sociable even as the rest of School seemed to shun him, warded off by his protective isolation.
They had played many games and had long campaigns with many exotic characters, but for Aeron, Syn was his favourite. She was his main and had enough time and experience invested in her development that as a powerful character she was usually requested for any high level game, while Aeron would run one of his much lower alts on more basic runs. He made sure that his alts were all male, which helped disguis his playing a girl at every opportunity, but fortunately Syn was in demand so he could play her more than half the time.
In the last session before the holidays, Colin their DM threw him a curveball during their stay in the city of Waterdeep. The group had been attacked by undead commanded by a very old and powerful vampire, and Syn had been afflicted with vampirism and begun turning. So now his favourite character was going to be undead. The question was what would she do about it? Fight it had been the answer, and Aeron had begun a battle with the DM to keep Syn's soul her own. Aeron was shaken away from his musings as the Taxi arrived at Manchester International. The School had already paid, so he got out, thanked the driver, and grabbed his stuff from the boot to begin the familiar dance that was checking in.
***
Check in had been a breeze for a change, and the queues at the security checks had been dealt with quickly. The all too familiar presence of MCO agents keeping station at the security checkpoints, waiting to check the MID of any mutants that had to travel had sent a chill through Aeron despite their having no interest in a baseline kid. They were just creepy. For all the media coverage of how great the MCO were, the sheer attitude of those agents he had seen was enough to make him wonder about the entire organization.
Still he had got on his flight with no problems and nothing had happened at the checkpoints to spur the creeps into action, so once on board the VA252 to Los Angeles, he had managed to make himself comfortable in his aisle seat, putting the graphic novels he had bought for the flight in the back of the seat in front, and his bag in the overhead compartment. The jet was a Boeing 777, so even back in cattle class, he had loads more space than in older planes he had been on.
He had not expected to get an empty seat next to him, and true to form just as boarding had finished a mid thirties guy in a suit apologized and squeezed past into the vacant seat next to him. Aeron immediately dismissed him as boring and way too old to have anything in common with so he grabbed his Ipod to listen to while he waited for the flight to take off. A while later the jet accelerated down the runway and up into the overcast sky, even as Aeron's pulsing headache returned.
**
Aeron woke from his snooze, as the guy next to him excused himself to go to the toilet. The guy glanced around and then walked forwards towards the middle block of toilets, and the galley. Feeling a sudden sympathetic urge to head to the toilet Aeron glanced over his shoulder to check the queue for the much closer aft toilets, thinking that they must be busy. Oddly their illuminated signs were displaying as vacant. He headed to the toilets, maybe the guy wanted some peanuts or something as well?
Minutes later as he washed his hands, pandemonium broke out, shouting and screams and then a burst of gunshots?
What the fuck is going on? Hijackers? Terrorists?
Unlocking the door he stuck his head out and gazed in shock up the plane. The boring guy was up at the galley, except now he was looking more terrifying than boring. From somewhere he had acquired some kind of head comms, which he was talking rapidly into, while holding a very lethal looking gun.
One of the pretty stewardesses was lying in a rapidly spreading pool of blood, while the rest of the stunned and horrified galley crew were being herded together and another terrorist was zip tying their arms behind them and legs together, while the boring guy kept his weapon covering the very cowed passengers. Aeron jerked himself back into the toilet, sliding the door closed, his hand pausing on the lock. If he locked it the light would flash up engaged. Shit. He left it unlocked and tried to work out what he should do next. Suddenly a male voice with a strong Germanic accent came over the intercom.
"Attention passengers. I am now in control of this aircraft, although regrettably not without loss of life. You may call me Smit. You will obey my orders or you will end up like the former stewardess at the feet of my colleague in economy class. You will remain seated. You will stay silent. You are permitted to continue to watch in flight entertainment, but all external communications are forbidden and all access to mobile communications has been terminated. To the Air Marshals who I know are on this plane, surrender yourself now and I will not be forced to execute passengers to encourage your cooperation. I caution you that in the event you are stupid enough to attempt to retake this aircraft, you will merely condemn yourselves and the passengers to a painful death."
Standing outside the cockpit, Smit, as he had called himself for this operation, clicked off the intercom, before turning to the woman at his side dressed as a stewardess.
"Get them to do a complete sweep now while the passengers are still in shock, if they find anyone out of their seat bring them up here, to the first class cabin."
The brunette gave a terse nod and reached for her comm set, passing on his orders. Smit turned away to glance again across the first class cabin, before turning and heading back into the cockpit to check that all was well with Etudo Plancheh, who had taken over the controls, once the cockpit had been secured.
Almost a year of planning had gone into this operation, and considerable resources had gone into the 6 man team, equipping it, arranging for the circumventing of airline security as well as acquiring the specialized stealth equipment that had now removed the aircraft from the electromagnetic spectrum. Now every minute put over 10 miles between them and the invisible point in midair where the Virgin flight had taken suddenly changed hands.
Everything was calm in the cockpit, Plancheh calmly continuing the routine midair radio traffic, lulling ground control, his electronically disguised voice, perfectly mimicking the dead pilot Geoffrey Irving, as it was broadcast into the airwaves. There was a sudden query from Air Traffic Control, as the Virgin flight VA252 dropped off their screens. Plancheh reported a transponder failure but that everything else was normal.
It would only be a matter of time before ATC realized that not only could they not detect the plane's transponder but also that they could not detect the flight at all. Transmitting a placating stream of radio traffic was a risk, it could allow detection, but it was only a tiny carefully calculated risk, soon the area to search would be simply too vast for the Americans to have any chance of locating them. At which point his very valuable cargo would be secured, and all that would remain would be the cashing in.
Air Marshall Elaine Givens frantically tried to determine what her options were, as adrenaline shot through her body. She was armed, as were the other 3 Air Marshals on the plane, but the hijackers plainly had her side heavily outgunned.
How the fuck had these bastards managed to get this much firepower on her plane? Not to mention the comms sets, and the two cases of electronics gear.
One of the stewardesses was a hijacker, and she had seen 2 more here in first class behind the cockpit. The stewardess had been the one who got into the cockpit, with the meals for the cockpit crew. The sight of the woman coming out of the cabin holding a silenced pistol had been the first indication Elaine had of anything wrong. By then it was too late, the hijackers held the plane.
Goddamnit.
Her training kept her calm, looking for the information she needed with her peripheral vision, avoiding direct eye contact with the hijackers, appearing like all the other scared passengers, as her mind plotted angles, approaches, looked for a way to overcome the disparity in weaponry, wondering what her colleagues were doing, how they would view the tactical situation. This mess was going to be a disaster. Filled with foreboding Elaine Givens struggled to keep her calm.
Aeron gasped as the toilet door was slammed open, the blunt muzzle of a gun leveled at his face by the cold faced hijacker who he had labeled boring.
"Don't shoot." He managed to squeak out.
The gunman abruptly gestured with the weapon. "Move kid. Walk slowly in front of me."
Aeron carefully stepped around the gunman, hands held up, before heading slowly back to his seat. As he made to step out of the aisle the guman spoke again.
"Wrong. Keep moving kid, up to the front, slowly."
Aeron froze in mid step, before taking a stumbling step up the aisle, as his head ache suddenly returned with a piercing intensity and his stomach did a flip flop. Conscious of suddenly being the focus of the panicked mass of passengers the boy cringed and then slowly walked towards the front of the jet, the gunman intently stalking behind him.
Elaine cursed to herself as she, and the rest of the first class passengers watched the tall young boy being marched into the luxurious space behind the plane's cockpit. She had a sick feeling deep in her stomach as the kid was sat down just off to the side of Smit, who just stared at the youngster with the expression you imagined a hawk watched a vole with. Elaine knew what was going to come next, even as she knew she would try and stop it, and would more than likely get killed in the attempt. Damn this bastard to hell he was going to put a bullet in the kid's head to force the Marshals to reveal themselves.
As the hijacker directing the kid explained he had been found in the aft toilets, Elaine realized that the other Marshals would have seen him being marched forward. They would all have realized that their only chance to rescue the planeload of passengers was going to be forced on them before they had a chance to prepare, so it was going to be chaos. They would have to wait on her acting in the front cabin before they could, so at the very least she was going to have to take out the leader and the stooge who was now standing on guard.
Elaine could see that Smit was watching the cabin full of passengers closely, looking for a reaction that would pick out the Marshall he was sure was there. Schooling her expression Elaine Givens allowed herself briefly to think about her family, saying a mental good bye as she got ready to sell her life dearly.
The atmosphere in the cabin felt tense and overwhelming to Aeron as he was sat down in the aisle seat to the right of where the hijacker's leader stood, a very intimidating gun in his hand. Aeron's eyes flitted quickly left and right catching quick impressions of his fellow passengers. He was most definitely not in economy class anymore, but there was something very scary about seeing a selection of the wealthy and powerful, almost all very expensively dressed people, as cowed as the ordinary folk in baggage class who wore whatever they could afford from WalMart.
That this situation had the movers and shakers so freaked made Aeron feel better about the gibbering terror going on in the back of his mind. He was not aware that his face did not reflect his inner turmoil, despite his headache and fear Aeron watched Smit with the same cool impassivity that infuriated the school bullies in Wales.
"What is your name boy?" Smit was watching the other passengers rather than Aeron as he spoke.
"Aeron Samuels."
"Aeron are your parents flying with you?" Smit was sure he already knew the answer, after all there had been no outraged shouts as the boy had been directed by an armed man up the plane.
"No, they are in LA."
"Oh. Okay. Tell me Aeron, how old are you?"
"14." The answer actually made Smit look at him again, because the boy was certainly big enough to be older.
"Well Aeron, I am afraid that fate has really shat on you today." Smit clicked his communicator on and addressed the rest of the plane.
"Passengers, you will have seen a young man being escorted forwards. His name is Aeron Samuels and he has just told me he is 14. This young man is now at the mercy of the team of the Air Marshals who are onboard this flight with us. Either the Air Marshals surrender to me or Aeron becomes the next fatality on this flight. You have one minute." Smit clicked off the comm, aimed his pistol at Aeron's forehead and checked his watch, as he began counting the seconds.
Aeron's vision seemed to have collapsed into a blurred tunnel. He felt frozen as he stared down the barrel of Smit's gun. All he could hear was the thud of his heart beating as it accelerated from merely terrified to the crazed pace of facing imminent demise. The headache that had been hounding him had now become a piercing pain behind his eyes. Life had been pretty crap for most of his 14 years but this was frankly taking the piss.
Fear and rage clashed in Aeron's mind as his hormones surged. He did not know what to do, except he had to do something, but the seconds kept ticking away and his mind bounced around as it sought an answer to the black bore aimed between his eyes. As there were less than five seconds left, Aeron felt a tearing pain in his head, as something responded to his need. He moaned in pain as suddenly a sense of power flared deep inside him, that he could use, that he could grab hold of instinctively and lash out with.
Aeron's tunnel vision changed, Smit now had an aura that he could see, a strange flickering mixture that seemed to be both an angry red and an ugly black at the same time. Time slowed to nothing, and Aeron wondered where the air marshals and other hijackers were, and he knew. In his mind an image appeared of the plane, as though someone had sliced the top off the aircraft all along its body, and then suspended a camera to view the occupants. The image was frozen in time, a snapshot of the passengers, their captors and the covert agents waiting to attempt their rescue. Aeron could see the gunman and their weapons covering the cabins, the fake pilot flying the plane solo. Their auras also flickered in his sight, reds, greens, and some with the ugly blackness that was more prevalent around Smit.
How he knew who they were Aeron did not know but the auras of the Air Marshals called to him, tinges of angry red, but mostly blues, bronze and gold. He noted that one of the Marshals was in the first class cabin across and behind him, a woman, maybe she would try and help him, but the two gunmen in the cabin with her, the pilot and the armed stewardess only a short distance away meant that she was heavily outnumbered.
Elaine palmed her weapon, keeping a count of the ticking seconds, running the movements needed through her mind once more. She knew she would have to take out the hijacker on guard in the cabin first, to prevent a slaughter in the cabin before firing at Smit and hoping to save the youngster who she had discovered was the same age as her son. The seconds counted down, and just as there was no time left she moved, adrenalin pumping as her hands moved bringing her pistol up to lay the sights across the guards torso. The pistol barked twice, hitting the hijacker with both rounds. The gunman was spinning, but he was still alive, even as Smit was pulling the trigger to shoot the boy who was sat, with the strangest most intense expression on his face.
Time had started to move again, but everything moved in slow motion. Aeron saw the muzzle flash, and the bullet speeding towards him, spinning from the barrel of the gun, as Smit pulled the trigger to kill him. He knew the female agent had opened fire, wounding the gunman on guard in the cabin. In his mind he saw the auras of the other agents and hijackers reacting to the events. Aeron saw Smit starting to twist to shoot the woman agent, the fake stewardess turning to assist her boss. The power pulses inside him and he throws it out, pouring his desperation fear and anger into it. He must help the Marshals and help himself. It hurts, the pain is immense behind his eyes but there is no other choice.
Smit had already discounted the kid he had just killed, it was not like it meant anything to him at all, and had begun reacting to the Air Marshal opening fire on Kurt. His eyes opened wide in shock as the bullet that was killing the boy hit a golden flare of energy in front of the boy, and disintegrated. The kid was surrounded by flaring gold and purple flames. Smit suddenly realized that all the planning was about to be undone. The boy was a fucking bastard mutie.
His gun had lined up to shoot the Marshal so he loosed a burst at her. The rounds flared into nothing as they hit a wall of the golden energy in front of the woman, who was bringing her own pistol to bear. Her muzzle flash was the last thing Smit saw before Air Marshal Elaine Given's third round punched through his forehead killing him instantly.
Elaine knew she should be dead, but the golden flare in front of her had saved her life. Instinctively she put Smit down, her training making her move automatically. There would be time to think later. She moved forwards towards the cockpit, hoping the hijacker would make the mistake she needed and leave to help the rest of his associates. There was more gunfire now, screams of pain, in her peripheral vision the other gunman in the cabin tried to shoot the boy, but he was surrounded by a corona of purple and gold flame now and the bullets never made it to him.
Aeron threw the power at the wounded gunman who tried to shoot him, and the man died as a pile driver of raw power fried him. In his head he saw the auras of the Marshals advancing as the gunmen's auras flickered and went out. He hoped he had helped them. There were 2 hijackers left now. There was a shriek of rage from the fake stewardess, who had opened fire, trying to shoot the female Marshal in the back.
The golden flare he saw in his mind confirmed that the power was still protecting the female Marshal. The anger was abruptly cut off and the ugly blackness in the stewardess winked out as the blue and bronze aura of a Marshal advanced from the rear of the plane and ended her with extreme prejudice. The pain was too much now, and the burst of power was fading, he felt so hot suddenly, body wracked in flaming agony. Aeron hoped that whatever he had done had been enough, as he crumpled forwards into blackness.
Elaine heard the shouts of "Clear." from the other Marshals, and she confirmed that her last target was also down. The 'pilot' had moved to help and that had been his last mistake. She turned back away from the cockpit, yelling orders to secure the plane's controls, and get comms back online. One of the other Marshals, Jim Connor was crouched over the teenager who she knew had saved her and probably everyone else somehow. The boy was flushed, trembling spastically as Connor tried to get the unconscious youngster into the recovery position in the aisle.
Connor caught her glance and unspoken question. "I think the stress made him manifest Elaine, and he did too much. It looks like burnout. He does not have long unless we can get him help right now."
"Get the first aid kit from the cabin crew. It should have some of what we need for the kid, and as much ice as they can find. We will get on the ground asap. That boy is not going to die on us, not after what he just did. Look after him Jim."
Turning away Elaine hurried back to the cockpit, heading for the comms to demand an immediate evac once they got down, as well as the fastest descent possible to the closest airport.
Wednesday 21st February 2007
Dr Zach Lawson, Head of Dept of the Mutant Care wing of the Abraham Lincoln Specialist Care Hospital of Washington State, gazed sadly through the armored window of one of his unit's eight Individual Secure Isolation Wards. Man had come so far with medicine and technology but was in his opinion woefully behind in its cultural development. The thugs at the MCO proved that with ease, but perhaps not as easily as the parents of the patient in ISIW 3, who had left earlier.
The Marshals on board the plane had managed to keep Aeron Samuels' burnout under control, but only just, and it was only the fortunate immediate availability of a Warper strong enough to move the kid straight to the facility that had given Zach's team enough time to save the youngster's life.
What life he has left, poor kid. The doctor thought gloomily.
The medical team had gotten enough IV fluids into Aeron to first stabilize and then slowly catch up with the burnout which was very intense and prolonged, as the boy's body reformed itself. He had been in intensive care originally as the burnout progressed, and Zach was glad that one of the Marshals from the hijacked plane had been visiting when the pair of MCO agents had come to claim 'the dangerous mutant'. The exchange between the MCO and the Marshal had been angry and rapid, ending when the Marshal had very pointedly explained that they were exceeding their authority and they all knew it.
Zach knew the MCO could not legally take the kid from his facility as everything that had happened during manifestation was not prosecutable, but he had not been on shift at the time and was well aware that the MCO would have had a very good chance of taking his patient if not for the presence of the Marshal. The MCO agents had apparently been very angry when they were forced to leave empty handed. Whether or not that clash had led to what happened next he did not know, although it was certainly a massive coincidence.
Three days in, Aeron's burnout had seemed to be progressing well as his body changed but then there had been complications when the burnout had entered what looked like a second stage. The medical staff had begun losing the battle to keep up with the burnout. It had not mattered how many IVs had been connected, Aeron's body had begun to consume itself. Gradually Aeron started to look malnourished over the next two days, before beginning to starve, and his vital signs had been very disturbing reading as though he was only barely alive.
Still none of that mattered in light of the raid on the Mutant Care Wing by Humanity First. The pair of Humanity First thugs had managed to gain access by posing as nurses. Zach believed that they had specifically targeted the Intensive Care Ward, but there was no way to prove it, after all the two thugs were dead. He had eventually managed to get Mr & Mrs Samuels to come to the hospital, after they had heard about Aeron manifesting as a mutant, but he was saddened and worried that it had taken days.
During a long chat Zach had been in the process of convincing Aeron's parents that their child was not a freak, and had managed at last to get them to come with him to the Ward where Aeron was. They had found a scene of carnage. Zach thanked God that only Aeron had been in the Ward at the time. The Samuels found their child, no longer their son but now female, covered in the blood from what looked like 2 nurses. She had been feeding off them, fangs embedded in the carotid of the second nurse who was held to her mouth like a rag doll, with inhuman strength.
The three adults had stood in the entrance frozen until the teen had glanced at them with eyes that were pure black without whites, her body visibly filling out and healing itself of her malnourishment as Dr Lawson and Aeron's parents watched, appalled and utterly terrified. The vampire had not moved from where it sat in the bed crimson sheets around it. The second body had been discarded with a limp thud, and the vampire' eyes had suddenly changed color from deadly black orbs to normal eyes though slightly larger than normal. Instead of the blue that Aeron had known all his life, these eyes were now a dazzling deep amethyst.
Comprehension seemed to return and the child had uttered "Mum? Dad?", before collapsing unconscious once more in her bed. Mrs Samuels had a hysterical fit before fainting. Mr Samuels made no move to go to his child, instead escorting his wife away once she was awoken saying only to Dr Lawson, "That inhuman monster is not my child. My child is dead. Put the monster down." They had left shortly afterwards, without a backward glance.
The new mutant had remained unconscious, but now in what appeared a deep sleep rather than the near comatose state she had been in before. Things had moved rapidly after that. Heavily armed guards arrived to ensure the safety of staff in the unit, in case the mutant should attack again. The two nurses where examined and pronounced dead, before it was realized that no one could identify them, and that they were imposters.
A search of the bodies had revealed a silenced pistol loaded with highly illegal and extremely lethal anti mutant ammunition, as well as a lethal cocktail of drugs in the syringe that the two 'nurses' had been about to inject into the patient. These revelations changed the situation and thankfully for Dr Lawson his patient was once gain his patient, not a mutated monster that had killed members of staff.
When Humanity First tattoos where found on the bodies of the 'nurses', it was apparent that someone had decided that this particular newly manifested mutant would not live to see the light of day. Given Humanity First's strong unofficial links to the MCO, they became Dr Lawson's main suspect. A quick phone call to, he glanced at the name on the card again, Marshal Jim Connor, with an overview of events had resulted in a promise of Marshal presence shortly to prevent any more incidents.
Zach was waiting for them to arrive now, as he gazed through the armor glass at the seemingly young woman who had apparently killed and or fed on two attackers in self defense, and according to their medical equipment completed her burnout and manifestation at the same time, before falling asleep once more. The ISIW she had been moved to was as secure as they could provide in the Hospital. And in a purpose built wing for the care of mutants, that meant very secure. It was also heavily circumscribed with magical wards and runes, in the walls, floor and ceilings, to prevent magical ingress or egress.
The sound of heels on the corridor floor roused Zach from his thoughts, and he turned to see an attractive woman in her early thirties walking towards him, a US Marshal badge clipped to the lapel of the stylish but practical suit she wore. After shaking hands, and a quick glance through the window, he led her to his office and updated Marshal Givens. As he waved her into the office he noted another, obviously armed Marshal taking up station outside the door to ISIW 3. Some minutes later Zach leaned back in his chair and watched while Marshal Givens stalked around his office, she was fairly bristling with anger.
Elaine did not know who she was most angry at, Humanity First, the MCO, or Aeron's parents. She could not even begin to understand how they could walk away from their child in need, but it was obvious that they had no intention of being part of Aeron's new life. Not that Aeron fit anymore. She sighed, the investigation into the hijacking was ongoing, and as the senior Marshal on the flight she had taken the lead. By pure chance Aeron's presence and manifestation had prevented a disaster. Not to mention at he had saved her life twice, and two of the other agents had confirmed that they had been defended by golden energy shields as they retook the plane from the hijackers.
DNA scans had revealed Smit to actually be Gregor Urshanko a terrorist for hire, highly skilled and very deadly with no qualms at all about mass kidnapping, mass murder and any number of other crimes. That he was now dead had caused some small celebrations in the network of intelligence and law enforcement agencies that cooperated (mostly) across the developed world. The level of complexity and planning needed to pull off a successful hijacking when Supers could be called upon to assist, was frightening, and a review of the way past cutting edge gadget the hijackers had been using to conceal the flight, had aleady concluded that somebody had to have been giving considerable backing to the operation, which led to the next frightening thing, the list of targets that the operation could have been aimed at.
The passenger manifest had proved to a veritable whose who of the powerful and wealthy. For God's sake it even included a Goodkind! A minor one to be sure but that did not really matter. Somebody had been after serious players with this hijacking. The review had concluded that without Aeron's assistance the hijackers would most likely have succeeded in killing the Marshals and succeeding in their goals. This meant that Aeron had probably just picked up a serious enemy, not to mention collected favours with a lot of serious players political, social and financial. And then the MCO tried to vanish him! And possibly kill him.
Higher levels within the Marshals service had already been trying to decide the best way to protect the youngster, but given all that had gone on, it looked like the school she had been briefed on, Whateley Academy in New Hampshire, was going to be the best bet. Apparently Whateley was not generally the safest place in the world, but when you have become a mutant, and a seemingly powerful one at that, with some friends and possibly some deadly enemies, and a complicated mutation, it might be the only choice that made sense.
Poor Aeron, the kid was in for a hell of a ride. And without parents, who would be her guardian? Her thoughts crystallizing Elaine excused herself from Dr Lawson's office, found a quiet corner and made two calls. The second call was to her boss. The first was to John Givens, her husband.
Thursday 22nd February
Ooohh, what happened? I remember the gun pointed at me, then pain and energy flowing through me, hijackers on the plane! Where am I, I don't hurt but I feel strange, different.
Aeron opened his eyes, blinking away the sleep, as sensation and his senses reported in to a world that seemed different. His vision was crystal clear, he was gazing at an off white ceiling, with strip lights. He could hear the electric hum of machinery, and muffled conversation, and feel the cotton sheet against his body. His skin felt so sensitive, oh that felt good, but why does my chest feel so sensitive? Moving his arm he went to brush away the hair that had fallen in front of his face, gasping as the sheet moved across his chest, across his nipples, which thrummed with the sensation.
Oh my God, what was that?
Aeron sat up letting the sheet fall away, and feeling two soft weights shift on his chest, which looking down revealed to be two perfectly formed breasts which swayed slightly as he gazed at them in astonishment, they sat proudly on his chest, the nipples crinkling up and erecting in the cool air of the room.
Oh my God I have breasts, am I dreaming? He pinched the sensitive skin on the inside of his arm.
Ouch that hurt. I'm not dreaming! I'm awake! Ooohh thank you, thank you, thank you God! Please let me be whole, please let me be whole.
Shakily, Aeron moved his right hand back under the sheet, which he pulled back up to cover his chest with his left. Hs fingers traced down a torso that was so much slimmer than he remembered with satiny smooth skin, as he hesitantly reached to his groin, and found...a perfectly feminine mound and crotch, with no trace of the shaming ugly tackle that he had hated for so long.
I am whole, thank you God I am completely a girl.
Shaking as emotions that she had hidden and dealt with privately her whole life came to the fore, she rolled over and shuddered, before quietly shedding a flood of relieved, joyful tears. She had no idea how this impossible miracle had happened, but she did not care what came next. Sleep came quickly after she cried out years of private pain and grief. It would be restful, and have pleasant dreams.
Unaware of the observation window where Dr Zach Lawson had watched his patient's unexpected reaction to her body's change she slept while the doctor wondered what other surprises his patient held apart from probably being transgendered. It did not look like there was going to be any self harm he mused so he would let the girl sleep.
She came awake slowly this time, rested in a way that she could not recall being before, since as long as she could remember. Stretching under the sheets was a simple joy, as she catalogued the differences in her body, looking forward to this day. Eventually she decided that she might as well open her eyes and look around. It appeared she was in a hospital ward, at least the medical equipment by her bed, suggested that. The machines were connected to sensor pads attached to her temples, torso and wrist, and every so often there would be a quiet electronic bleep.
Still looking at the massive construction of the room, with an ensuite bathroom and the very substantial metal door out of the room, which only held her own bed, it definitely was not a normal ward.
A warm friendly woman's voice interrupted her musing, as it came through a speaker over an opaque window, beside the heavy door.
"Good morning dear, it is good to see you awake. My name is Samantha Kolowski, and I am the Nurse is charge of your care here. I will be in to see you with Dr Lawson in a few minutes sweetie, so you just relax okay? How are you feeling?"
"Ummm, good." She put her hand up to a throat at the voice that she heard, clear, with a melodic feminine pitch, before carrying on speaking. "Oh, wow. Um, I am hungry, and I cannot see you through the window Nurse Kolowski."
"There I have turned the privacy screen off."
The window flickered then the opaqueness vanished and she could see just fine. An auburn haired nurse in her mid to late thirties, grinned at her and gave a wave.
"Hi there, that better dear?"
"Much, thank you Nurse."
"You make me sound like some old matron, just call me Sam okay. I will bring you some food after the doctor has been into see you. Do you feel hungry for anything in particular?" Aeron caught a slight edge to the question but did not know what to make of it.
"No not really, some cereals maybe a muffin or toast?" Mentioning food brought her attention to another bodily need. "Um and I need to go, bad."
Sam grinned again. "Okay you will find a walker to your left if you need it, and your facilities are through the door on the far wall there okay. If you don't feel able to get out of bed, just buzz me, the button is on your right there, and I will come and help. I will put the privacy screen back up for you. There is a robe for you to wear on the chair beside your bed."
"Oh, thanks Sam."
She slipped out of the bed on the left, and pulled on the robe that slid over he skin like silk, making her shiver for a second before the need to go to the toilet reasserted itself. Her legs felt a touch unsteady but there was no need for the walker, she headed to the ensuite feeling the difference in her walk, the sway through her wider hips, and her lower center of gravity, before sitting on the toilet. It took her a second to work out just how to relax her muscles, then she was going like a girl for the first time.
Such a daft little thing, but it meant so much emotionally that she felt like having a little happy cry again after carefully wiping herself. It might have been her first time, but in her mind she had performed that action thousands of times, and now it felt so right. She wanted a mirror now, she wanted to see her new face, but there wasn't one in the ward at all, which was frustrating, not to mention weird. Oh well wait for the doc then.
A few minutes later the opaque window cleared again, and she could see Sam watching her as she was sitting on the bed. Sam gave her a warm smile which she returned, as she waited. Inside the small chamber that adjoined ISIW 3 Sam confirmed that her charge was on her bed and armed the ISIW unit's security measures. The nurse was not expecting to need them, she trusted Dr Lawson's judgment about the patient's stability. Still Nurse Kolowski was not altogether happy that the first meeting with the doctor was being conducted without the patient's circumstances yet being explained to her.
If the girl reacted badly Dr Lawson was going to be in very considerable danger, and Sam hoped that Zach was not letting his compassionate nature get the better of him. Still he had the authority to deal with case as he pleased, and Sam wanted it too work out well just as badly as he did. This kid had already gone through a lot and had a lot more to go yet. She was going to need all the help she could get. "Okay Doctor, she is all yours."
"Thanks Sam, opening outer lock now."
Zack Lawson moved his trolley of papers and equipment into the secure lock, just one of ISIW 3 more obvious security measures, and wheeled a full length covered mirror in as well, before securing the lock behind him. The overhead light changed from green to red as the hydraulic locking systems engaged. In front of him the reverse occurred, the door swinging out into the ward. He could see the girl still sitting on her bed, watching the heavy lock door moving with curiosity. Satisfied that she seemed calm and friendly he wheeled the trolley in first, followed by the covered mirror, grinning as he saw the girl's sudden impatience.
"Yes dear, you will get to see your new look in just a short while okay?"
He got a shy grin and a nod in return, which suddenly turned to an anxious downcast look. He could almost see the girl's thoughts running through her head, and reassured her.
"Now, none of that worrying, okay? I have dealt with many different types of people, and many types of mutation. Your body has changed hugely as you manifested dear. If that causes you happiness and pleasure, as I am quite sure it does, no one here will judge you, and we will all share in your joy. Do you understand what I am saying Aeron?"
The girl gave him an uncertain look, which steadied as she realized he already understood her transgendered nature, and it did not matter, before once more a shy smile appeared.
"Yes, doctor. Thank you."
"Good, my name is Doctor Zachary Lawson, but you can call me Zach. No doubt we will talk about your history in time, but it is not a problem I assure you. We are here to look after you, and help you adjust to your manifestation as a mutant. Now then I will grab this chair here, and if you are happy on there, you can stay seated on the bed. Okay?" A quick nod in reply.
"Good, I want to have ask you first about what you remember, and then we will move on from there."
Before the Doctor could carry on, Aeron asked the question that had been bugging her.
"Um how long was I asleep Zach? What day is it?"
"You were unconscious quite a while during your burnout Aeron. It took just over 5 days for your changes to finish." Zach groaned internally, he could guess where the conversation was going to go next, and it was not going to pleasant, still the poor girl had to learn sometime. He could see the surprise register on her face, and wondered which question would be next.
"5 days? Where am I Doctor Lawson?"
"Abraham Lincoln Specialist Care Hospital in Washington State."
"Where are my Mum and Dad? Do they know about this? I want to see them." The girl's voice was worried.
"Yes dear, your Mum and Dad know what happened to you." Zach sighed. There was an awkward pause, and he saw tears gather in the girl's eyes, as she watched his discomfort as he tried to find a way to break the news.
"They aren't here are they?"
Zach did not know how to answer, and settled for the truth. "I am sorry dear, but no, they are not here."
Tears rolling down her cheeks, she looked at him. "Why? Is it because I'm a girl now? Or because I'm a freak now?"
"You are not a freak." Zach's tone was angry as he remembered the prejudiced bile her father had spouted, and the disgusted tones of her mother. He could not understand how people could think like that. The searching look that his patient gave him was knowing.
"Huh, so it was my being a mutant that made them abandon me this time." The girl's words were sad, angry, and held deep bitterness in them, confusing the doctor. There were still tears running down her face as she suddenly shook her head.
"Fuckem. They don't want me, then to hell with them. It is not like I have spent much time with them after all." Zach Lawson watched concerned as his patient dried her eyes.
"Aeron I think there is some stuff there we will need to talk about okay, but let's save that for another time. Are you okay to talk about what you remember now, or do you want some time alone?"
The girl's feminine voice clashed with her grim tone, "Let's talk now Zach, it is better than being on my own."
"Okay what do you remember from the plane?"
"And then I woke up here like this." Aeron finished up her recollections of the hijacking. "Can I see what I look like now Zach?"
"Yes, I think I have kept you waiting long enough. Here you go."
The doctor threw the cover back on the mirror and then stepped back to watch his patient's reaction. He did not think there was much to worry about at this point, but you never knew for sure, after all the girl was not human any longer, according to her blood work, and her looks. Getting off the bed the girl walked in front of the mirror.
She opened her eyes and gazed at the mirror, not looking at her body yet. First she had to see her new face for the first time, then stopped in shock. A heart shaped face sat atop a long slim neck, with no trace of the Adam's apple she had used to have. Huge almond shaped eyes with iris of deep purple or amethyst, canted slightly upwards, a small straight nose with the hint of an upturn, impossibly high cheekbones could be seen through perfectly smooth skin the colour of dusky cream, full, cupid's bow lips, and a tiny delicate chin.
Her hair had changed from the thin fine reddish blonde she knew, there was no trace of the red now, her hair was now a thick luxurious mane of brushed platinum, shot through with metallic silver. She shook her head in disbelief, feeling with hair which was down past her shoulders, swish behind her. As it moved her eyes latched on to the sight of her ears. Her ears were pointed at their tips! She raised her fingers too touch the skin of her cheek, absently noting how delicate and feminine the long fingers were, her skin was very very soft, smooth, but also very cool to the touch.
The fingers moved and touched her lips, which made her shudder the sensation was electric, but still they felt too cool.
Oh my God, I'm an elf.
There was no mistaking it, the reflection was gorgeous, but inhumanely so. The eyes and ears seemd to make it obvious, but really a host of unnoticed details shouted it out. She could walk down the street and stop traffic, but no one was going to call her human. That realization prompted her to recognize another.
I know that face, know everything about her, but why is she so pale? How can this be possible? Synthaera Baqui Ailthaem Vosa Tarthairiel.
Zach watched the girl examining her reflected image, as her emotions changed from stunned realization of the otherworldliness of her image to a baffled expression that he suddenly realized was recognition? How could she recognize her face? Then her fingers moved from her lips, and she opened her mouth, running the end of her finger along the edge of her brand new teeth, perfect, brilliantly white like you saw on television, but her canines were not normal. They were too long, too sharp, two obviously a small pair of fangs. The girl closed her mouth, gazing intently in the mirror, before a sick, horrified expression passed over her face and she turned away from the mirror and looked pleadingly at him.
"Okay Zach, I got her face and her body, please tell me I did not get the vampirism as well?"
"What do you....sorry." Zach noted Aeron's odd choice of phrase to investigate later, what did she mean by her face and her body? Who exactly was 'her'?
"We don't know exactly what happened to you, but during your mutation you changed a second time. Your body had already reformed itself, changing you to an Elven female. Then during your second change your body seemed to consume itself again, you went from looking healthy to malnourished and then starved, your complexion changed to the pale colour you are now, we were losing you actually, no matter how you were given IV fluids and minerals you were sinking fast, and we did not know why." The doctor sighed.
"I had managed to convince your parents to come and see you before you died. We knew it was not far away. Anyway, when we got to the ward you where on we found you. A pair of Humanity First thugs had infiltrated the hospital and they had found you. They were armed and it seems they had been about to kill you, I guess they were not aware of your second transformation. I suspect that their appearance was connected to an attempt by MCO agents to take you away which was firmly rebuffed, but I cannot prove that. Somehow you had roused from your comatose state, and you had killed the thugs. When we arrived you were... you were feeding on them dear. We stood frozen in the doorway to the ward, as your body healed, filled out in front of us as you fed."
Zach did not mention how he had been sure he was about to die when his patient had turned her gaze on her parents and himself, the stench of piss, blood and shit from the voided bowels of the thugs she... ate.
"We thought you might attack us as well, but you came back to yourself before collapsing asleep once more. Your parents were not able to handle it I'm afraid, and they left shortly afterwards."
The girl was sat on the edge of the bed again, the tears that had stopped as she talked about what she remembered of the hijacking, had begun flowing once more, but this time she quickly had them under control. Zach thought she was stable for the time being, and that he was safe in the ISIW with her, but decided he ought to check.
"Aeron I know this is all very quick but how do you feel?"
"Sad, pissed off, horrified and hungry." She gave a throaty chuckle, "Oh wait you mean, am I about to attack and eat you?" She shook her head, making the mane of hair swirl around her shoulders. "
"No, I think you are all right on that score doctor. I am hungry, but I was thinking more breakfast than people. I am not getting any...urges at the moment, and I promise I will let you know if that changes."
"Okay, good. I will have Nurse Kolowski bring you some breakfast now, and I will leave you be for a short while, I have some rounds to do, and it will give you time to think a bit. Then I will come back and we can talk some more. I have lots of questions, as I am sure you do as well. Is that all right dear?"
"Yes Zach, thank you."
The doctor picked up some of his papers, leaving the trolley and mirror in the room, and headed for the lock. Aeron watched from the edge of her bed. Minutes later the lock reopened and the friendly looking Nurse she had seen before, came in with a wide smile and a tray of breakfast.
"Hello hun, here is your breakfast okay. If you want anything else you just buzz for me. I will never be far away. And don't go worrying about anyone getting in at you here okay. You have a Marshal on guard outside your ward to keep you safe. My you have turned out to be an exotic beauty, you make me quite jealous dear. Doctor Lawson will be back in to see you after a little while."
The nurse chatted away in a friendly manner guaranteed to keep up her patient's spirits, while she gently shooed Aeron to the table to eat her breakfast, then changed the bedding, and checked the equipment in the ward. Her stomach rumbling Aeron devoured her breakfast, finding the tastes seemed subtly different to her lifetime as a boy, but still enjoyable. The food took the edge off her appetite, although she figured would be able to eat come lunchtime. Finally Sam gathered up her dishes and laundry and headed out the lock, before coming back in a few moments later with a selection of magazines for her to read. "I figured you would get bored waiting for the doctor to get back dear, so here you are."
"Thank you Sam, that is very kind of you."
"No problem at all hun, just remember you shout if you want anything okay."
With a reassuring grin and a wave the nurse headed back out of the ISIW leaving Aeron to her thoughts.
***g
She sat on the edge of the bed gazing at her reflection, the tips of her ears peaking out of her hair. The robe felt wonderful against her skin, and although it protected her modesty, gave her no doubt that her figure was everything that it was supposed to be.
Supposed to be? How on Earth can my body be supposed to be that of character I rolled up for D&D. I mean I know I played Syn a lot but this is ridiculous.
He had played D&D using Syn for almost 3 years. It had been easy to bring her across from the Junior school's gaming group, as most of the gamers were in the same year as him anyway. Syn had been the third character he rolled up, once he had really gotten into gaming, discovering that it allowed his imagination to run wild. While he had always put effort into developing his characters, with Syn he had gone overboard as she had just come alive in his mind.
Quickly the Elven adventuress had become everything he had always longed to be. Where Aeron was tongue tied, Syn could verbally banter with the best. Where he hated his form, she was self confident and proud of her body, mind and hard won skills. With a chaotic good alignment, Synthaera had traveled extensively, happy to help others where she felt them worthy of her efforts, but she was not one for the rules and regulations of the human cities and their short lived rulers.
Still only young in Elven terms, at 67 she was little more than a teenager so far as Elven communities were concerned, but far more worldly than most of her reclusive kin. Unlike most Elves Synthaera was consumed by wanderlust, and had spent many a month dungeon diving, exploring and generally managing to get into and out of trouble.
When he had rolled her up, Aeron had been fortunate maxing out her dexterity and willpower. She certainly was not the strongest character, no more than slightly above average for an elven female, but she was healthy, intelligent and good looking. He had roleplayed her to the hilt, and often felt he understood her character better than his own.
When Colin their DM had ruled that Synthaera had contracted vampirism on the last quest they had been playing in the term, Aeron had been quietly distraught at what it would mean for his character, becoming the thrall of an ancient vampire had not been his game plan, but he had resolved to try and have Synthaera fight the affliction all the way. After arguing the toss with Colin, he had agreed to a series of rolls, against Synthaera' willpower, that she could fight the condition, and the subservience and taint that came with it. That was where the game had been left for the holidays.
And now I am Synthaera Baqui Ailthaem Vosa Tarthairiel, and apparently I have become or am becoming a vampire as well. Oh fuck. I still have a reflection though. So am I not a vampire yet? Is the thing about vampires having no reflection just bullshit? What else about them is just a myth? This room has no windows but they said it was morning, so am I crispy critter if I go outside? What the hell am I going to do? Is the Marshal outside protecting me or them from me? Dr Lawson said I killed two guys while I was changing, am I evil now? I don't feel evil. He said they were trying to kill me as well though. How do I tell? What about the hijacking? What was that power I felt?
She sat on her bed wondering how her life could suddenly be so good and bad at the same time.
*****h
A couple of hours later she had decided that she may as well use Synthaera as her name now, after all she had thought it a good enough name once already, so it would be a bit hypocritical to reject it now she had the unique opportunity to use it. She watched as the doctor came back in through the airlock, wondering what he would ask her.
She was she realized okay for the time being about her parents. She felt more emotional generally than before her changes, but she had not been close to her Mum and Dad anyway thanks to their choices for her, so it kind of felt like she was just going to continue growing up alone and independent of them, rather than something new and unusual. At some point the whole rents thing was going to bite her but at the moment it did not seem so important to her compared to the physical changes that had occurred.
"How are you doing?"
"I'm good Zach."
"Hmm well you have a lot to deal with at the moment so if you need to talk, or you want anything please just let me know." She nodded her agreement. "Okay I have some information for you, some questions as well, and in a while there is someone for you to meet, but I will explain that later on.
As you are obviously aware you are now a mutant, and it appears the stress of the hijacking made you manifest there. If the hijacking had not happened, you might or might not have manifested. There is no real way to tell for sure, although the headache that you mentioned does perhaps suggest that you had begun to manifest your mutation already. Now before we go any further when you saw your reflection in the mirror, you recognized your face, and you said 'I got her face and her body', could you explain that for me? It might explain your mutation."
The girl on the bed looked resigned for a second before she began speaking.
"Okay Doctor. This is going to sound really freaky though. I know this face and body because I created her. I'm a gamer Zach, one of the nerds and geeks that spends their free time pretending to be an elf or dwarf of whatever. This is the body of my main character. Her name is Synthaera, and you can call me that from now on. I know you realize I was not happy as a boy. Well Synthaera was everything I wanted to be I guess. I poured my heart and soul into playing her, it let me...escape from life at school. I was on my way home from boarding school in the UK, which is where I have lived since I was nine. I only see Mum and Dad at the holidays. So when I saw my reflection I knew who it was straight away, I have seen it in my head many times."
Synthaera poked her fangs experimentally, before continuing.
"Just before the holidays began we had our last game session, and during that our group was attacked by undead led by a vampire. Colin our DM ruled that Synthaera, was afflicted with Vampirism after she got bitten. I was really pissed at that and we had an argument about it. Eventually Colin agreed that Synthaera, would have the chance to beat the curse of vampirism, but we did not have the chance to finish that. So Synthaera, was turning into a vamp but had not turned so far."
"And how do you feel about that now...Synthaera?"
"How do I feel about being Synthaera now? Honestly I could not imagine anything better. About being a vampire? Freaked out, scared I guess, that is not what I want at all."
"Well then Synthaera, this may be good news. You are not a vampire, at least, not in the traditional sense."
"Huh? I have freaking fangs and you said I killed two guys and fed on them. Hell you were checking on whether I thought I was likely to attack you before." Zach nodded in agreement.
"True. Synthaera, you appear to be some combination of an elf and vampire. What that means I am not sure. Believe it or not, there are recorded cases of other mutants manifesting as creatures like vampires before now, even I understand as werewolves, and other creatures out of myth and legend. Elven folk are reasonably rare but by no means unknown although I do not know of there being a combination like yours so far. You are definitely not undead, and still have a pulse, albeit much more slowly than an elf would normally have. You may well be significantly stronger than normal now. Certainly what I saw when you were attacked suggests that. However the attack also suggested that at least on some level you will need to feed in a vampiric manner, but to what extent I cannot say, and whatever abilities or vulnerabilities you may or may not have as a result of these changes will need to be tested. Was Synthaera, a mage or wizard of some sort?"
"Umm no Zach, she was an adventurer, and did not cast magic, although she would use magical items from time to time."
"Hmm, well from the information I have been given it would appear you are now also magically active, possibly very active. So that would appear to be one significant difference anyway. Certainly, it seems a strong probability anyway given you formed some type of shielding around the Marshals on the plane that protected three of them from wounds and possibly death. It might surprise you to know that you are very popular with the US Marshals right now young lady. They stopped the MCO attempt to remove you from the hospital, and are very determined to see you well looked after."
"Oh." Synthaera, seemed nonplussed by that.
"Yes. In fact there is someone I would like you to meet." As if on cue the lock door started to swing open.
Elaine stepped into ISIW 3's lock chamber, while she waited for Dr Lawson's signal. Her mind was still running over the ongoing investigation. They were making progress but nothing like as quickly as she had hoped. The hijackers were just as organized as she feared, and the number of cut outs they had employed was proving very effective at masking where they had procured their equipment, and more worryingly, who had financed them. Still, virtually every government law enforcement agency was involved in the hunt for the backers, so she hoped that somewhere the relentless work of hundreds of assorted agents would produce results.
Yesterday had been busy following her meeting with Dr Lawson, and her phone calls to her husband and her boss. She had met up with John, and explained her intentions to him. Elaine did not usually take her work home with her, and although John had known she was involved in the hijacking she had skated around just how dangerous the situation had been, so initially he had been reluctant to bring another child into their family, with all the potential complications that could have, and John had not understood why she felt so strongly about it.
So haltingly Elaine had taken her husband through the hijacking step by step, without the varnish she had applied previously. John had been unhappy that she had not told him the full story but had thankfully accepted her apologies, and her reasons. As her husband realized just how close he had come to losing his beloved wife, his attitude to Aeron's plight had shifted radically, and now he was more than willing for the Givens family to do all they could for the youngster who had manifested.
Once she had gotten John's agreement, she had met up with her boss Adrian Wells, for a review of the investigation, during which he had unwittingly given her the opening she needed by asking about Aeron's health. The news of Humanity First's attempted assassination after the MCO had tried to take the child into custody had provoked an angry outburst from Wells who made it clear he wanted it ensured that this particular child did not vanish into the MCO's grasp. There had been to many 'disappearances' of young newly manifested mutants, and too many coincidental links to the MCO for the 35 year veteran section chief of the US Marshals.
The news that Aeron Samuels had subsequently been abandoned by her parents had been received with genuine sadness. Wells had three daughters and was utterly baffled at the Samuels' actions. Elaine's intention to have Aeron brought officially under the US Marshal's protection had, she thought been anticipated, as certainly Wells had agreed readily enough, although she grinned momentarily as she recalled his face when she told him she wanted permission to assume legal guardianship of the new girl personally on behalf of the Givens family.
Wells had initially said no saying she would have a conflict of interest and would be too close to the case. Elaine had argued that her interest was in Aeron's future welfare, and safety, and that the investigative case was primarily a search for the hijacking's backers. It had taken Elaine a while, but Adrian Wells understood personal loyalty, and understood how his agent felt. When Elaine played her trump card, "we, the US Marshals owe her, and I owe her my life." Adrian had accepted that it was going to happen, and in all truth he could not think of a better guardian for the youngster who he was just as determined to see safe and well. Giving in gracefully the conversation had moved onto small matter of the teenager's education and training in her gifts.
Elaine stepped through the heavy airlock door, seconds after Dr Lawson had mentioned introducing her. She was nervous although she was doing her best not to show it. She had been a little shaken when, standing in the outer chamber, just how she felt had dawned on her. Elaine really wanted this teenager to say yes, and to accept her. John had insisted that they could not just be appointed as Aeron's guardian, it had to be her choice, so now Elaine had to explain what the US Marshals wanted to do and the choice the teen had to make. Dr Lawson waited for the door to close behind her before speaking again. The girl watched, her expression intent but curious.
"Synthaera this lady is US Marshal Elaine Givens. Elaine, I would like you to meet Synthaera. As Aeron is no longer appropriate she has chosen Synthaera."
"It is nice to see you again Synthaera. I am glad this time I get to meet you properly."
"Hello." Elaine smiled as she walked over and shook hands, deciding that a hug and kiss might well be too much too soon for the teenager, while she gathered her first impressions of Synthaera's new form. Pale but perfect skin, exotic Elven features, the girl was quite beautiful, and seemed very composed given her circumstances. Beautiful amethyst eyes followed her for a second before they widened just slightly as Synthaera realized who she was.
"You were on the plane weren't you Ma'am?"
"Yes, I was on the plane, and largely thanks to you I am still here, so please just call me Elaine, Synthaera, you of all people do not need to Ma'am me, okay?"
"Okay Ma.., Elaine."
"Good. I wanted to see you for several reasons. Firstly on behalf of the US Marshal Service I wanted to thank you. You saved my life, and the life of two of my colleagues in the hijacking, and as a result we all made it down in one piece. So thank you, you mean a lot to the Marshal Service."
Synthaera looked embarrassed at the praise and thanks, although her pale skin showed only the very slightest trace of colour as she mumbled her thanks.
"I have also been speaking with my boss a lot about your situation."
"Huh?"
"Yes hun, we Marshals look after our own, and well we all count you as ours. You are going to need help to deal with the changes in your life from your mutation. Some changes more than others. From what Doctor Lawson tells me, the most difficult is going to be dealing with a type of vampirism, but as well as that you need to learn about magic, as well being a girl now. He also tells me that you are coping well so far, but do you understand that the vampirism especially is going to cause you problems?"
"Yes, I get it. As far as most people are concerned I will be an evil freak now, and the MCO want me in a cage. I killed two guys who attacked me in the other ward, and I was not even aware of it. I dunno, maybe they are right. Maybe my parents were right to abandon me."
The girl's bitterness and pain poured through in her voice. Elaine's face hardened at the mention of the Samuels, and she quickly interrupted before the girl could send herself into a depression. Her angry tone snapped the downcast amethyst eyes back up to her.
"You are not a freak, you are not evil. It is not evil or wrong to kill in self defense, and they were going to kill you. The MCO is not going to get their hands on you, I promise you that, and those people lost all rights to be called parents when they left you here when you needed them most."
Synthaera was stunned by the Marshal's intensity and the sincerity in her voice. She was used to being alone and although it hurt that her parents had abandoned her again it was something she could deal with. But now she was not even human probably, had killed people, was some kind of vampire and this Marshal cared, really cared about her. She could hear the passion, and feel the strength of her belief. In the black place in her heart where she had been grieving the loss of her parents, there sparked a sense that she was worth something to someone. Trying to shake off disbelief she struggled to focus as Elaine carried on speaking.
"The US Marshals Service wants to make sure you can be trained to manage your abilities and your mutation, and we want you to have a good education as well, so we had been prepared to sponsor you to a special school for young mutants like yourself. It is called Whateley Academy, and with the agreement of your parents we were going to pay for your schooling. Now, my boss has changed that plan a little. With your agreement, the US Marshals want to assume legal guardianship for you, so we can sponsor you."
"The Marshals want to be responsible for me?" Synthaera's amazed face said it all. She was gobsmacked.
"Yes, but there is more to it than that Sythaera. It will mean that your parents will no longer have any control on your life, so that their prejudice cannot hurt you any more. The Marshals will push the legal papers through to make sure that you are safe."Elaine paused for a second and Synthaera saw she suddenly looked nervous.
"Also I told my boss that my family wanted to look after you, that me and my husband want to be responsible for you and be your guardian."
"You want to look after me?" Elaine's heart was thumping in her chest as the girl on the bed suddenly looked incredibly young, vulnerable, and shy.
"If you want me to hun, then yes I want to be your guardian and look after you like you were my own." There was a long pause as the girl looked down at her hands, her hair sweeping down covering her face, her voice was quiet when she spoke, not looking at Elaine.
"Do I get to call you Mum?"
"Honey, I would love it if you want to call me Mum."
Elaine's voice was breaking with emotion. Synthaera's head came up slowly, amethyst orbs sparkling as she locked her gaze on Elaine, almost looking through her.
I am going to have a Mum who cares, who loves me?
A brilliant grin spread across her face, and with a very girly squeal she launched herself into Elaine's arms.
"YES, I want to call you Mum!"
Zach Lawson watched quietly, as the two women shared a long embrace. Too often working in Mutant Medicine was heartbreaking for families, patients and their doctors. It felt good to witness a happy moment for a change. Elaine gave the girl a gentle kiss on the top of her head before sitting down on the side of the bed, Synthaera scooting in beside her.
"So Doctor Lawson, have you got any more information for us?"
"Well no solid information, but I can at least give Synthaera a theory about her mutation and its causes." Seeing he had their attention Zach continued.
"This will need confirming properly when she undergoes a proper powers evaluation, but I suspect when the intense stress caused by the hijacking made her mutation manifest, she drew extensively on magical powers which then made Synthaera go into burnout. The extensive changes to her body are almost certainly the result of her body changing to match her BIT, or Body Image Template. Synthaera are you comfortable with me discussing your previous...psychological unhappiness with Elaine?"
She looked at him blankly for a second before realizing what he was asking her. After a shy, worried look at the older woman, she nodded her assent to Zach, while Elaine raised a questioning eyebrow.
"Okay Elaine the BIT is generally considered to be a theoretical ideal form, at a deeply subconscious level, and this is what results in Exemplars, beings who are faster, stronger, smarter, more beautiful and so on. They are the embodiment of subconscious perfection. While this theory is contested it is generally accepted at this time. In Synthaera's case her mutation has resulted in her having a BIT, not all mutants have them by any means. As you can tell, she is coping very well with her new form, despite the vampirism, and primarily this is because Synthaera feels more content in herself right now than she has in her lifetime. Is that correct young lady?"
"Yes Zach." She sighed.
"Had you been diagnosed yet dear, had you told your parents how you felt?"
"No. I could not talk about it with anyone in school, and well, I knew my parents would not deal with it well. I knew how I felt though."
Synthaera's answer pretty well confirmed Zach's suspicions, although Elaine was looking a little confused.
"How you felt about what hun?" Elaine asked gently, aware that the doctor was treading very gently with her young charge.
Synthaera's answer was quiet but her voice was steady as she looked back up at Elaine.
"Ever since I was 5 years old, I have known that I was different. That I should have been born as a girl and not stuck in a boy's body. I hated it."
It took Elaine a few long seconds to understand, while she processed the girl's statement. As the implications dawned on her, she wrapped the girl in another hug.
"Oh you poor thing," Elaine asked Zack. "So Aeron was transgendered?"
"Undiagnosed but I would have bet my career on it. Now however, Synthaera is completely female.
Her mutation activated her BIT. Synthaera told me earlier that her body now is the image of an elven character Aeron had developed during role playing games. I suspect that she had identified so strongly with her character that it became her BIT. The vampirism is a result of events in Aeron's last gaming session. The character Synthaera was afflicted in the game with vampirism, although that situation was unresolved, and she had a chance of defeating the condition, or at least mitigating its effects. I think that subconsciously Aeron was wrestling with what that would mean for his character, and that this then affected her BIT. To what extent we will not know until she gets properly tested. Synthaera told me earlier that her character had not been a magic user, so I suspect that her new ability with a type of magic is the result of her manifestation, while her body is because of her BIT."
"Synthaera I knew you had dealt with a lot, but I never dreamt you had had such a hard time. Don't worry dear. We will get you used to your new life together okay, and you now you can be the girl you were supposed to be all along."
Amethyst eyes filled with tears, the girl accepted Elaine's embrace with relief. Since working out how she felt as a young child, she had known instinctively her parents would not accept her. To her chagrin her manifestation had proved as much, although she did not know how much was due to the change of gender, how much down to the prospect of having a mutant child that had changed species, or been affected by vampirism. Now Synthaera simply did not care, Elaine had no such problems and that was good enough for her.
Zach coughed quietly to interrupt, before moving on.
"Okay ladies while I believe I can safely call Synthaera an exemplar, to what degree I do not know. The fact that her change of gender is physically complete within less than a week is exceptional and rare, usually such changes can occur over a period of months or even years, so I expect that will need investigating. One aspect of exemplars that is commonplace is faster healing. We call this regeneration so it is possible that has become part of your abilities. The vampiric aspect of your mutation Synthaera may also be affecting your BIT. I am afraid we do not have the facilities here for full testing so again until we are able to arrange your training we will not know. However we do have definite evidence that you healed yourself, or perhaps more accurately recovered from malnourishment when you dealt with the H1 killers that attacked you. That argues that the vampirism definitely exists at a practical level. So far as other mythical aspects of vampirism are concerned, I am afraid we will not know until we test it."
"Wait you mean I won't know if sunlight will burn me until I step outside?" She sounded understandably worried.
"In a nutshell dear, yes I am afraid so. However I suggest a controlled test, here in your ward. We will expose a small area of your skin to a weak ultraviolet source, as UV is the wavelength that is known to cause the damage to Vampiric creatures. Depending upon the results we will know how to proceed. So far as silver and other means of allegedly damaging vampires again we don't know yet, but I think daylight is your main concern at the moment."
"Okay Zach, I understand."
"Good, lastly during the hijacking you displayed some abilities that may be magical or psionic in nature. Do you remember anything about that?"
Synthaera spent a while trying to describe what had happened on the plane for Elaine and the doctor. Eventually Zach was satisfied that he knew all he needed for the time being, before asking Elaine to explain the tentative plans the US Marshals had made for Synthaera. Zach left to find the UV equipment he wanted to test her with, while Elaine talked.
"Okay hun, what the Marshals are proposing is to enroll you at a special school, called Whateley Academy, for gifted kids like you. Basically it's a school for mutants. Whateley does its best to teach you to survive in the wider world while you get a good education. From what I know their students go onto be heroes, villains and anywhere in between. The US Marshals want to pay for your schooling there, as our thanks for your part in the hijacking. To do so needs parental or a guardian's consent, and now that you have given me permission to be your guardian, I can get the legal paperwork processed to become your guardian and stop your parents or anyone else preventing you from being able to go to school. Because Whateley is neutral ground being a student there should also protect you from the MCO. Does that all sound okay?"
Synthaera nodded with a smile.
"Good. Now Whateley is in New Hampshire, and it is a boarding school, but you will able to come back home on your holidays."
"I understand, I guessed it would have to be a boarding school. I am used to that anyway, and at least I know I can come home at the holidays."
Elaina and Synthaera chatted for a while longer, Elaine talking about the Givens family, Synthaera telling about her times in school in Wales, while they waited for Doctor Lawson to come back. When the doctor returned he was carrying what looked like a torch.
"Okay girls, I have our UV source here. Now this is calibrated to be roughly equal to sunlight at dawn. If you are ready, we will do the test."
"Okay Zach."
"All right then. Synthaera if you could lie back on the bed, the beam is focused ahead of the torch, so all I will do is turn it on, and then slowly drift the UV onto your skin on your arm, just here. Ready?"
The girl nodded, looking determined. While Elaine held her hand, Zach put on goggles so he could see the UV, turned on the torch and then very gently brought the beam in contact with Synthaera's skin.
She could feel her skin, getting hotter, hotter, it hurt. Her skin was...smoking? The pain felt worse than any sunburn she had ever had, and in seconds Synthaera watched, her eyes going huge as the pain registered, as her skin blistered, and smoked, it started to blacken. Feeling sick she jerked her arm away from the beam.
"No more, no more, that hurts!!! Oh shit, shit, shit. Sunlight is going to burn me!"
Distraught she buried her face in Elaine arms, horrendous images of vampires bursting into flames in the morning sun filling her head. Elaine comforted her, as Synthaera burst into tears. Zach carefully recorded the damage to her skin, taking several digital photos. Then, the teen sat up abruptly, looking at her arm, which suddenly had begun to tingle where seconds before there was only the burning sensation.
The blackened and blistered skin was smoothing, blisters healing at the periphery of the burn, the dead most severely burnt flesh being absorbed and healed before her eyes. Elaine and Zach watched silently, Elaine her eyes goggling, Zach rapidly snapping more digital images, to catch the sequence of regeneration. Within less than a minute the burnt patch was once more flawless, perfectly smooth pale cream skin, with no trace of the wound remaining.
"Wow. It's totally healed, I cannot even see where the burn was anymore. Is there any pain left Synthaera?" Zach was enthusiastically taking notes.
"No Zach I feel fine now."
"Well I think we can safely say you are a high level regenerator. So UV light will severely affect you, but if you can limit exposure you will heal very quickly. Interesting."
"Interesting?" Elaine was unimpressed at the doctor's fascination. "The poor girl cannot spend her life out of the sun, what can we do?"
"Honestly Elaine I cannot say, that will be far more for the team at Whateley to help Synthaera with. They have the experience and equipment to do so. For the time being though we will need to keep her out of the daylight, and when we move Synthaera to Whateley it will need to be at night I expect."
Synthaera ignored the two adults conversation as she poked the skin on her arm. She was severely pissed at the whole vampire thing, but if it allowed her to heal like that, maybe it would be okay. She felt positive until the thought of feeding popped into her head again and her stomach did its best to flip flop.
No. Do not want to think about that.
Shortly afterwards it was almost time for Elaine to leave, and Zach headed off to attend to his other patients. Elaine promised to keep in touch over the next few days while the legal necessities were dealt with by the lawyers working for the US Marshals. She was also going to contact Whateley and make the necessary arrangements for Synthaera's admission. Zach had mentioned asking Whateley for any literature they might have on magic for Synthaera to study. The hospital did not have any magic specialists, so the testing for that would have to wait, but any reading she could do, would be beneficial.
"I will be back very soon to get you hun, and I will get you some clothes sent in while you wait okay."
"Okay." Synthaera gave Elaine a brilliant smile, 'Thanks, Elaine.' That earned her a tight teary hug and another kiss before Elaine made her way out through the lock. Synthaera settled down to wait, and think about her future.
[Updated on: Tue, 20 September 2011 17:59]
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| Re: Synthaera (the post crash edition) [message #40016 is a reply to message #39957 ] |
Thu, 26 May 2011 15:17  |
blayze
Messages: 30
Registered: May 2011
Location: Durham, UK |
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Sunday 25th February 2007
Synthaera sat on her bed reading, trying to get her head around the heady and confused mixture of mysticism, seeming mumbo jumbo, spiritualism and magical lore that formed the Whateley Magical Primer. It had been 3 days since talking to Elaine for the first time, and her new Guardian had been sure to be on the phone, or visit every day, keeping Synthaera up to date on her new family's goings on, the progress of the US Marshal's investigation, and more importantly as far as the young girl was concerned the progress of the lawyers in getting Elaine appointed as her guardian. She was refusing to think about that at the moment because it made her so mad.
Her parents wanted nothing to do with her, and felt that she should be 'put down' to quote her father, so you would have thought getting them to relinquish parental authority would have been relatively simple. Not so. Instead her father had been fighting Elaine and the Marshals all the way, not out of any care for his blood, no he was angling for the MCO to be given legal control of her future! Synthaera did not know how the MCO had got involved, but seeing as they had already tried to remove her once from the hospital, they were definitely interested in her, which could not possibly be good news, given what she had been told about that organisation's reputation for 'losing' mutants in their custody. So she was still stuck here with at least one Marshal on guard outside the ward at any time. Elaine had said she did not know how long the legal battle would run on for, and until it was resolved she could not be moved to Whateley Academy, and it was not safe for her anywhere else without the training she needed.
In the meantime she had been provided with a selection of reading about mutants and their abilities, as well as several texts on magic. Doctor Lawson had told her that the ward she was in could not be set up for television or internet, so for the last few days Synthaera had books, and a games system to keep her amused. She was major league bored now. Discovering that her reading speed was much faster than before was cool, and she could now remember them perfectly after one read through. But that meant that she had already finished everything Elaine had provided about magic from Whateley Press, as well as the small collection of comics, sci fi and fantasy Elaine had got for her at short notice, which left a bored teenager with precious little to do except think. Remembering the Whateley texts was one thing, understanding them was something else. Her magical primer seemed to be an exercise in reading between the lines, in a foreign language at that. She was not sure if it was deliberately obscure or if it was just the nature of the subject but either way it was irritating.
Synthaera had set herself the goal of acquiring some control over the abilities she had briefly displayed during the hijacking before her bout of burnout but without the faintest idea of what she had actually done, it was proving a frustrating challenge. The primer had mentioned meditating and looking within oneself, to connect to with power within, or using magical sight to view power outside the body, and then harnessing that power. There had also been a section on auras that seemed to tally with what she vaguely remembered of the hijacking. So far she had had no success at all, although a couple of times she felt somehow close to something. Shaking off her irritation, she did her best to calm her mind, before trying again. That was one thing she had noticed for sure, the level of persistence and sheer bloody mindedness that she was throwing at this problem far exceeded what Aeron would have managed.
Focusing her mind and determined to succeed, Synthaera began to sink into meditation for the umpteenth time. Calming her breathing she sat with her eyes closed, drifting deeper within her mind. Time passed, and then she felt again that something was close. But this time the difference was she seemed able to move closer. Calm but focussed Synthaera concentrated on moving closer and closer to the sense of a deep, deep, bottomless pool within herself.
And then suddenly she was there at the side of the pool, and within it she could feel a current of energy stirring, slowly moving. Now this current responded to her presence beginning to bubble towards the surface of the pool, now the current twisted and roiled, writhing as it rose towards the surface from the depths. The pool that had been so darkly blue as to be black became filled with a rising torrent of golden purple energies, and the surface of the pool began to bubble. The current rose, twisting out of the depths and as it hit the surface, the pool turned to flickering gold and purple all at once, and it was as though someone had flicked a brilliant light on within a black cavernous space within her mind, and all at once Synthaera could touch the power that had been buried within. The connection was formed within her mind, new synapses burned into place in her brain, embedding irrevocably into her being. The source of her magic was available now and all that remained would be to learn how to use it. The newly lit place became distant now and Synthaera moved quickly from the depths of her mind, as she came out of her meditation.
Her amethyst eyes snapped open, faint flickers of gold and purple sparkling around her iris. She knew that she would be able to do much now, although she had no idea what. But for now, she was intensely tired, as though she had not slept for days. Crumpling back onto her bed, Synthaera was asleep before her head hit the pillow.
Monday 26th February 2007
The following morning when she eventually woke the clock said it was 10:35am. Stomach rumbling she buzzed for Sam, and asked for food, preferably lots of it. Laughing, the nurse promised she would have food there shortly. She went through her morning routine, enjoying her shower, noting the gold and purple flickers in her eyes with interest when she studied her face in the mirror, a morning habit she still followed, although with much happier feelings than previously. Heading back to her bed after getting dressed in a sweats and sports top she found that food had already arrived, so she got stuck in, demolishing the food, cleaning the tray that Sam must have brought in while she was in the bathroom. The food was gone but she was still hungry, really hungry.
I don't think I have eaten like that ever, and I still feel famished. I need more food.
Synthaera buzzed Sam again but was told that Zach would be in shortly, so more to eat would have to wait until after he had finished. Muttering she waited impatiently.
After what felt like an age but was probably only about 10 minutes, Zach peered in the window, and a minute later the lock door began to swing open. As the heavy lock opened, straight away Synthaera could smell something that set her mouth watering, it smelt delicious, made her stomach rumble with an intensity she was sure Sam would be able to hear outside the Ward. Suddenly she felt tense with anticipation, eyes riveted on the lock door as Zach walked in. The hunger suddenly ramped up to a burning need, all she could hear was a thud thud thud, and her vision was riveted to the faint purple line visible under Zach's skin, pulsing in rhythm as blood pumped through his carotid. Synthera felt her fangs lengthen as she let out an almost feral snarl. Realisation struck her what she was hungry for. Life, blood, she needed to feed. She was in motion even before she realised it, time slowing to a barely perceptible crawl. Horror at what she was doing surged even as her hunger peaked, and the distance to Zach fell so fast.
I need to feed. NO. I WILL NOT. I WILL NOT DO THIS She fought to make her conscious will override instinctive need.
Zach stepped into the ward looking to ask Synthaera how she felt after being asleep so long, and see how she was coping with the boredom he knew was irritating her. The heavy lock door began to swing open, and he stepped through as the gap opened enough, turning to look towards the bed as he walked in. The first thing he saw was Synthaera crouched at the end the bed, staring at him. The second thing he saw was that her beautiful amethyst eyes blinked and for the second time went utterly black, without whites, and her longer than normal canine suddenly elongated to fangs, as with a snarl that he more [/]felt[/] in his core than heard, the suddenly terrifying sight was moving faster than he would have believed was possible.
His mind had not even registered Synthaera's speed before she was in front of him, frozen in mid motion. He could see that his patient was crying black tears, even as her fangs were reaching for him, and Zach could see the battle been fought within her in that split second, the mind battling the instinct. And then he could move as Synthaera moaned 'Go.'
It was one of the scariest things he had ever done, turning his back on her to flee back to the lock, hoping she could retain control long enough for the lock to close behind him as his fist slammed the emergency override to interrupt the opening cycle and slam the lock closed.
Zach turned and watched the sliver of light from the ward shrinking as the lock closed, becoming conscious that he had wet himself, stinking urine soaking through the leg of his slacks. Long seconds later the lock closed with a clunk, and an utterly bereft anguished howl of fury, hunger, pain and self loathing sounded from within ISIW 3. The outer lock cycled as more feral shrieks sounded from within, and Zach stumbled away to the outer chamber where a panicked nurse Kolowski sagged in relief at the sight if him.
"Where is she?" Zach gasped out.
"The bathroom. She closed the door behind her Doctor Lawson."
More shrieks were picked up by the ward's com unit, although you could hear them clearly through the armoured glass anyway. Zach wiped his brow and forced himself to think, as a shaken Nurse Kolowski asked what had happened.
"The vampirism. She needs to feed. I guess whatever made her sleep so long, took her hunger over the edge. I should be dead now, but she held herself in check long enough to let me out. Okay, first off we need to get Synthaera some food in there, so have Stores bring up a dozen units from the Blood Bank, while I organise security to get them into the ward. First though I need to get changed." With a disgusted look at his stained pants Zach headed for the Doctors Lounge to get showered and changed.
Twenty minutes later, and the shrieks from within ISIW 3 had become less frequent but still as blood chilling. The door to the ensuite was still closed as the heavy lock cycled and swung open. A trio of very nervous security guards in the heaviest armour available, and armed with automatic assault shotguns, stepped into the ward and took up positions around the lock, weapons aimed at the door to the ensuite. A fourth guard brought in a portable chiller, and wheeled it across to the table, where it would be in view from the window and security cameras, before opening it to reveal units of blood stored on ice. Lastly one of the units of blood was uncapped to allow its scent into the room. As soon as the blood was uncapped the four guards beat a hasty retreat back into the lock as it began its closing cycle once more. A couple of minutes later the ensuite door was flung open and the pale visage of Synthaera showed herself, black orbs with black tears spilling down her cheeks, full lips peeled back baring her vicious fangs fully extended. Her nose twitched at the scent of the blood in the air, and a moment later she was over the chiller.
From the window of the antechamber Zach watched as his patient stared for long, long seconds at the contents of the chiller, before she reached down and picked up the uncapped blood pack. Finally with a look of utter anguish on her face Synthaera raised the blood pack to her mouth, and with a guttural sob began squeezing the crimson fluid down her throat. Once she started to feed the girl could not stop until she had finished all but two of the blood packs, fangs sinking into the packs draining them in seconds. Finally, her pale complexion marred by drying blood dripping from her fangs and the corners of her mouth, and sports top liberally spattered in crimson, the ravenous hunger was assuaged. The black faded from her eyes and the amethyst returned. Synthaera looked at the window where Zach watched before fleeing back to ensuite to escape his gaze and try to shower herself clean, although she felt as though her soul had been permanently stained.
Elaine made it back to the hospital, a little over an hour after Dr Lawson called her. After a hurried conversation with the still somewhat shaken doctor in his office she headed to ISIW 3. Despite her insistence that there would not be a problem with Synthaera, as she cycled herself through the lock she was accompanied by four guards, although they would remain in the lock unless needed. Privately the doctor thought that if the guards were needed being in the lock was as useful as being a mile away, but the Marshal overruled his suggestion that they accompany her into the ward itself. As Elaine stepped into Synthaera's room she could see that the girl was sat on her bed, staring at her hands clasped in her lap, she did not look up as Elaine walked closer.
"Synthaera?, Honey?" The sound of Elaine's voice attracted the girl's attention, and she looked up at the older woman.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it, I was so hungry and then I could smell him and ...." The words tumbled out of her mouth then stopped as Elaine stood and held her arms open for a hug. A second later the older woman was comforting the teen as she held her.
"Shhhhussshhh, it's okay." Elaine brushed a hand through the platinum mane, "You didn't hurt the doctor, you kept it in check, it's all okay hun, shush." She carried on talking softly, gentling the girl like she was a wild horse, Synthaera just buried her head in Elaine's embrace, desperate for reassurance. Behind her the lock cycled closed as Elaine waved the guards away leaving the women to talk.
Half an hour later Synthaera watched as Dr Lawson came through the lock, ready to talk with the women. He still looked a bit drawn, although she thought bitterly he could not come close to her pale complexion. Elaine gave her arm a supporting squeeze as she apologised.
Zach gave a weary smile, "I accept your apology Synthaera, although I don't think it's necessary. You managed to exert control over the urge, so I thank you for my life, although I will admit you did manage to almost scare me to death. I should have had a supply of blood here for you in case it was necessary, so what almost happened would have been my fault. Thanks to your control we all get to live and learn. Don't worry about that any more. I will have a chilled stock kept here so you can get it if necessary."
"Ugh, oh gross. Most kids get a drinks fridge, I get a freaking blood chiller."
"Hun, I know you feel horrible about it, but you aren't to blame. Your mutation has decided you are going to need blood. We just have to make sure that you can do that safely is all, so the chiller means you can eat when you get that hunger. When we get you back home and your new room sorted out you'll have a chiller in there as well just in case."
Zach let the women get settled before talking.
"Okay Synthaera, you were asleep for longer than normal before getting hungry. Do you have any idea what might have caused your hunger?"
"I had been meditating, following the instructions in the books from Whateley about magic, trying to find that power I used on the plane. I think I found it. I could feel it within me kind of."
"Great news, you are making progress Synthaera. Can you still feel it now?"
The girl closed her eyes for a second as she concentrated, "Yes Zach I can! Cool."
"Good, well as you know we have no magic specialists here to advise you, but I suggest you carry on following the primer, read the exercises and see if anything happens when you try them. You mentioned an energy shield and seeing auras before so those might be somewhere to start. This room is very heavily warded so you should not worry about magic escaping from here, although I would not suggest trying to do anything dangerous okay."
"Okay Zach I will carry on trying to do stuff."
Elaine cautioned "Just be careful okay hun, we are almost done with all the lawyer stuff, so soon we will be able to get you home and then to Whateley."
The trio chatted for a while before Zach left to see his other patients. An hour or so later Elaine had to go, leaving Synthaera feeling much better about herself and ready to continue working on the magical primer.
The magical primer seemed to imply that the ability to see and read auras was psionic instead of a magical skill, although it also made it clear that the debate about magic and psionic skills was raging on all the time. From what she read Synthaera tentatively thought that her power might be psionic in nature, although she decided that she was not going to try and put herself into a category yet. She would just try stuff and see what happened. Sat on the bed, she meditated again, finding it much easier this time, and quickly in her mind she was back at the golden pool, which she believed to be the focus of her power. Then remembering the experience of the hijacking she thought about the auras that she had seen, the colours and intensities, the emotional weights she had attached to them, and now the explanations of aura sight in the primer made sense. Suddenly Synthaera was back in the golden cavern that she recognised now as an image or map of the portion of her mind that governed her abilities. Within the cavern she could feel the golden purple power flowing, and see tiny tributaries running away from the main flow.
Thinking about the auras that she had seen her mental vision was drawn to a particular branch off the flow, although it seemed like it was dammed somehow. Ignoring the dam for the moment she directed her vision along the path, tracing it as it ran along the floor of the cavern before running up the cavern walls in an intricate pattern. The pattern was strange, very organic seeming, and then she realised what it reminded her off, the incredibly complex structures that formed the brain's tissues.
Wow it is like I'm looking at part of my brain from the inside out. Cool.
Synthaera moved her viewpoint back to the dam she felt blocked the pathway. With mental effort she grasped a tiny fraction of the flowing power and directed it against the dam. The gold purple energy bounced away from the dam, but carved away some of the substance that had like scar tissue blocked that tributary she now felt would allow her magical sight. It was tiring, but again, and again Synthaera scraped away at the dam, until finally the flickering stream of gold and purple burst through the scar, and the power burned its way along this new neural path within her mind. There was some pain, she felt like she was going to have a headache afterwards, but it would be worth it. Coaxing more of the energy stream with her mind she forced it to burn away the last of the damming scar, and then to widen the path slightly so that it would not become blocked again. This new ability would now be permanent. Feeling the mental tiredness now, Synthaera fell out of the trance, with a last glance at the river of power flowing through the cavern of her mind, and the bright path that burned away from the main flow like beautiful organic circuitry.
Opening her eyes, she hoped that the headache she now had would go quickly, as it was a painful throb behind her eyes. After a quick glance at the relevant paragraph in the primer, Synthaera visualised opening a magical eye on her forehead and opened her eyes.
Wow. The room looked very different. Arcane symbols she did not understand where liberally plastered over the walls of the room, as well as the lock, ceiling and floor. She was literally surrounded by magic.
These must be the wards that Zach mentioned. Cool. There are even wards on the window! I wonder what all this stuff does? Some of them are just symbols, but those ones look like weird math formulae. I guess I will learn more at this Whateley place.
Glancing at the clock she realised she had been meditating for over 2 hours, the evening meal would be served soon. Synthaera settled back in her bed to wait for Sam to bring her food. 20 minutes later Sam waved at her through the window and then cycled the lock open, and wheeled in a tray of food.
"Hi Sam, how are you? What's for dinner?"
"Hi Synthaera, I am fine thank you. I have brought you steak and chips."
"Oooh, that's great I am hungry."
As she spoke she opened her magical sight again watching Sam set up for dinner, and now she could see Sam's aura glowing around her, a warm compassionate green, that seemed to perfectly match the nurse's character. Once Sam was finished she gave a friendly wave and left Synthaera to eat her steak and chips, while pondering the Whateley Primer.
****h
Thursday 1st March 8:29pm
The sun had set a couple of hours earlier, and Synthaera was pacing around the ward. She was dressed in black jeans, and a sweat shirt, heavy boots on her feet. All clothes that Elaine had brought for her a couple of days earlier, along with the news that today the legal process would be completed. Today Synthaera would get to leave the hospital to meet her new family, and she could not wait. Elaine had briefly explained how complicated the legal fight had been but Synthaera had the definite impression there was more to say on that topic.
The last few days she had spent meditating, and studying her primer, and waiting. There had been no medical reason for her to be at the hospital for a week, instead it had served as a refuge for her while the US Marshals funded the lawyers who fought on her behalf to keep her free. At last that was all over. Her bag was packed, not that there was a lot to take, and now she was just impatient to be off. The lock began cycling open and seconds later a grinning Elaine walked in.
"Hello honey, are you ready to get out of here?"
"All ready. Thanks for being here for me Elaine. I...well I am really glad you want to be my Mum."
Elaine's eyes welled up briefly and she gave the teen a fierce hug, before Synthaera picked her bags up and followed Elaine out of ISIW 3, getting to see the US Marshal on guard outside the ward for the first time, as well as a smiling Doctor Lawson and Nurse Kolowski. She gave them both hugs as well, and then wrapping her arm round Elaine's waist they headed for the exit.
Elaine's car was a big Dodge SUV, huge compared to the vehicles Synthaera was more used to in the United Kingdom, and the teen felt dwarfed by it as she pulled herself up into the cab and sat in the passenger side.
"Very cool Mum, is this yours or does it come with work?"
Elaine grinned "This one's mine honey, although I use it for work as well, so the Marshals upgraded it. Bigger engine, armour and a computer hook up to the Marshals, plus the trunk has a gun cabinet in it. My Daddy taught me to drive and shoot when I was just a kid, and I used to help him in the garage all the time. So I guess I grew up a bit of a tomboy, I love cars and trucks, all that kind of stuff, although I also love shopping!"
Elaine grinned again, prompting a giggle from Synthaera. The engine started with rumble and the big SUV pulled away from the hospital. The night was clear and cold, stars brilliant in the sky, and the two women chatted as Elaine drove.
"So how are you doing?"
"I'm okay I guess, it was boring in the hospital, I could not even get internet or television because of security or something. I read, and meditated a lot, tried to work out what I might be able to do, did exercises. I know I am a lot fitter than I used to be for sure. I mean I could never do 200 press ups before and not be even winded!"
"Sounds like you're in good shape then hun."
"Yeah, I can't wait to really see what I can do. Um, why did it take so long? I mean until I could leave the hospital?"
Elaine looked at her, concerned, and sighed. "I can tell you dear, but I don't think you will like the answer. Are you sure you want to know?"
Synthaera did not like the way Elaine sounded concerned for her, but felt she needed to know. Still her voice sounded small and vulnerable when she spoke.
"Tell me please."
Elaine pulled the SUV over to the side of the road before continuing.
"Okay, you remember I told you about the MCO, and your father wanting them to be given control?"
"Yes."
"Well we could not understand why that would be the case, and worse the judge was on the verge of granting the MCO guardianship. We managed to get a continuance in the case, so we had some time to investigate. Well when we got to really looking, our lawyers uncovered a bank account we did not know about before, and there was a payment in there to them from a company that is known to have been used in the past by Humanity First and various other anti-mutant organisations. The company is very indirectly part of the Goodkind Corporations, and has also donated money to the MCO."
"So what does that mean?"
"Well the amount was for $250000 hun, and the payment was made two days after the Humanity First raid on the hospital."
Elaine watched as the teen thought about what she was being told for a few moments. She could almost see the gears turning in the child's head as she followed the logic, before her expression turned first bewildered and then horrified.
"They sold me? That's what you meant isn't it? They sold me."
"I'm sorry hun. Your father was questioned under oath and he admitted it."
"He admitted selling me?" Incredulity now. Anger as well.
"He claimed his child was dead and how he disposed of the body was up to him."
"How he disposed of the body? But I'm alive! I'm..."
Synthaera emotions burst through the control she was trying to exert and the girl flung herself across the truck seat to bury herself in her new mum's lap as she sobbed. Elaine held her close, stroking the platinum mane gently, rocking her gently, her eyes wet with tears herself, glad she had not had to tell her daughter that her biological father had felt that medical research was an appropriate way to dispose of the body of his son. She knew this wound would be a long time healing if ever, and hoped she would be able to comfort Synthaera enough.
Half an hour later Synthaera had stopped crying, and was back in her seat, staring blindly out the window at the night as Elaine pulled away from the side of the road.
"What happens now Mum?"
"Well, we have gotten you accepted at Whateley Academy, to continue your education there. We wanted to have you home for a while so you can get to meet all your new family, and get used to your new body as well. The plan was for you to home school the Spring Semester and go to Whateley in the summer, but after your hunger and the UV test showed that the vampirism is going to cause problems, Whateley recommended that you join after the Winter recess for the beginning of Spring Semester, as that would be the safest course of action for you."
"Okay when does the recess finish Mum?"
"That's the problem baby, Spring semester starts on Monday, so because of the legal delays we only have 4 more days before we need to get you to school. I'm sorry."
Synthaera thought about it for a moment before patting Elaine's arm "It's okay. It won't be long until term is over and then I will have all summer to chill and meet everyone."
"I am glad you're okay with this, Mrs Carson, she's the headmistress at Whateley told me they have lots of experience of dealing with kids that have swapped gender as part of their mutation, so they will be able to help you with that as well."
"Oh, I guess I was kinda worried about that. I thought I would be the only one."
"Apparently..."
Elaine's voice tailed off as she looked down the rural road they were on. A large panel van that looked like one that had passed them a while back, was half blocking the lane were it looked like it had skidded side on. She slowed down as they approached, wondering where the driver was, as there were no hazard lights on, maybe someone was hurt. There wasn't anywhere to park in front of the van so she decided to pass and then park up, and see if they could help.
"We gotta stop for a sec hun, someone might be hurt."
"Ok."
Slowing, Elaine pulled the SUV to the left to pass the van, glad it was night and there was no traffic coming the other way. There was a split second where suddenly she felt they were in trouble before all hell broke loose.
With a roar from a big engine, another vehicle accelerated from behind the van, slamming into the passenger side of the Dodge SUV. Synthaera shrieked as her door suddenly buckled, but the armour held and the whole SUV was shunted sideways off the road, the impact whiplashing the women side to side.
"SHIT!" Elaine yelled. The big SUV was angled crazily off the road, nose down into a ditch. Elaine tried to gun the engine but the big Dodge was going nowhere. There was another slam into the passenger side as the SUV was rammed again, and this time the other vehicle stopping embedded in the front of the Dodge.
Dazed from her head hitting the side of the cab, Elaine looked around trying to spot their attackers, she could see two, no three black clad shapes with automatic weapons crossing the road towards them from their hiding places in a drainage ditch. As she counted the closest raised his weapon and loosed a long burst at the Dodge's occupants.
We're sitting ducks in here, gotta fight back.
Synthaera screamed again as bullets slammed into the armorglass near her head, crazing the glass but not penetrating. It would just be a matter of time though. Elaine grabbed her Glock.
Damn no time to get to the gun cabinet.
Slapping the panic button that the US Marsals had fitted to the Dodge, she grabbed Synthaera's arm to get her attention. The girl was crying, head in her hands. Another couple of bursts rocked the SUV. The black shapes were getting closer. It was time to move.
"Synthaera. SYNTHAERA! It will be okay, help is coming. Stay here and lock the door. You hear me? Lock the door!"
"Mum! Wait!"
The driver's door opened and Elaine slipped out, slamming the door behind her, hearing the locks engage, then taking cover behind the Dodge.
Mum!! Synthaera fought down panic as the door closed, she hit the central locking, then crouched down in the footwell.
Gotta help Mum, how many are there?
She opened her sight, looking for the auras. There 5 ugly red and black approaching mum's blue and bronze, she pulled her view back the image above the vans, seeing the formation of attackers, feeling the twinge in her head, that told her another neural path was being burned open, this birds eye view would be possible whenever she wanted it. Everything was moving so slowly. Mum was crouched, aiming under the van, firing her pistol, hitting the closest attacker in the leg, but he was armoured somehow, Mum's bullets made him hesitate but nothing more. Mum flung herself back into cover as a barrage of fire from the attackers pinned her down. The ugly auras were splitting now to flank them. She had to help Mum. Her shock had faded, giving way to anger.
Focussing she dived into her pool of energy, calling on the practice she had put in, throwing the energy stream at the scar which she knew dammed the golden energy shield from the hijack. She threw the power at the scar, watching it crumble under the onslaught, feeling the stabbing pain in her head as she forced the path open, power incinerating the scar, power down the circuit. Synthaera shrieked in rage as she saw her Mum scream and clutch at her arm where blood from a wound made a spreading stain on her jacket. In the cavern of her mind, the power poured along the circuit, burned wide open, gorged on the energy flowing through it. A moment of thought and the power was directed. And then her anger was fully risen and she let it loose feeling the change come over her.
Elaine gasped at the pain in her arm, at least she could still shoot, she heard a sound behind her and twisted, seeing the black clad figure coming round the front of the panel van.
Oh shit we're flanked.
Letting off 2 rounds she saw the figure knocked back but not down.
Fucking armour, have to try for head shots, hope I get another chance.
There was noise behind her and she dived, rolling, trying to get a shot.
Too slow, too slow.
A golden barrier snapped into place around her, a ball of incandescent energy, and the gunman's burst vanished into it.
Nice timing Synthaera. Thank you baby. Aim, squeeze gently while breathing out.
A carefully aimed shot straight through the masked gunman's face shield, and eye. The body crumpled to the ground.
Good. Face shots work. One down. How many more to go?
Elaine was up and moving, turning to engage the first gunman again, not worrying about incoming fire now, trusting to the energy shield to keep her safe.
Time to take the fight to them.
The gunman loosed a long burst straight at her from point blank range. It was a heart stopping moment but the shield held, and this time her return fire was lethal, downing the second gunman. Elaine paused to scoop up the gunman's sub machine gun. Heckler & Koch MP9, very nice.
Elaine moved back around the panel van searching for more attackers, moving towards the sound of more gunfire. She made it to the back of the panel van, sneaking a glance round, locating two more attackers who were firing on the Dodge.
The armour is still holding. Thank God. I'm coming baby. Leaning back out Elaine took aim again.
There was a blood chilling shriek, and then Elaine could see platinum hair and Synthaera's white face, as the teen moved from the Dodge at speed, golden shield flaring as bullets vaporised as they hit, but this was no panicking girl. The US Marshal watched as one second Synthaera was on the far side of the Dodge, then she was a blur that dived across the hood of the SUV, her eyes black holes in the white face, fangs extended. She was dwarfed by the attackers but it made no difference, the golden shield flared again as the teen slapped her foe with enough force to hurl the much larger man into the SUV that had rammed the Dodge. She was still moving, ignoring the first now to reach for the second, who was trying to react but he just had no time. With contemptuous ease the vampire grabbed his armor vest pulling him close then ripped out his throat with her fangs, straight through the armoured fabric. She dropped the dying man, leaving him a gory choking mess.
Horrified but still functioning Elaine aimed at the figure who lay unconscious crumpled into the side of his Jeep, and ran to check he was down. She saw the golden glow again as Synthaera hurtled round the far side of the Jeep. Elaine heard a short masculine scream and then there was silence. No more gunfire. She realised her ears were ringing, she could barely hear the engines of the SUVs and van. Kicking away the prone gunman's weapon she turned as Synthaera walked back round the Jeep. The golden shields vanished. Elaine watched as the fangs retracted and the black orbs blinked to be replaced with ameythst. Synthaera had a bloody mouth and she looked sickened.
"Mum you okay?"
"I'm fine sweetie, come here."
"I...let it loose again."
"You saved us is what you did hun." Elaine embraced the girl, glanced to check the gunman was still out cold, then used the sleeve of her jacket to wipe her daughter's face, before giving her a kiss on the forehead.
"I killed them Mum those two men, I would have killed him as well."
"I know dear, there is nothing wrong with that, they would have killed me if not for you, and either killed you or taken you, I don't know which. Either way they don't deserve any mercy, but I want this one alive to question okay?" Elaine thought the girl looked like she might be going into shock.
"You don't think I'm a monster?" Synthaera sounded vague, bemused.
"No I think you are my daughter and I love you. You are not a monster Synthaera."
"I...I love you too Mum."
Elaine looked around still no traffic on the road either way.
"Okay hun, I need you to keep an eye on this one, use this," she passed her weapon to the teen. "If he wakes up, just make sure he does not go anywhere. Okay the safety is off, all you need to do is point and shoot, it will fire 3 rounds every time you pull the trigger. I need to call some people and get some help here."
"Okay mum."
Elaine picked up another MP 9 and checked the van and Jeep but there was no one else. The Jeep looked tricked out with comms gear that would need investigating, and when she opened the panel van, she swore. It was equipped with restraints and medical gear.
They intended to take her. Kill me and take Synthaera. Bastards.
The Dodge was a mess, it was still running but with the front right wing caved in it was not moving. Reaching in she grabbed the comms unit, and replied to the urgent voice on the speaker demanding that someone respond.
"HQ this is Marshal Elaine Givens."
"Givens, what is your situation?"
"We were attacked on the way home. 5 armed hostiles in combat grade armour in 2 vehicles. Situation is under control, 4 hostiles dead, 1 hostile unconscious and under guard. I've got a bloody flesh wound, through and through. We could use some back up here in case these guys have any friends."
"Copy that we have units en route to your location. ETA, about 7 minutes. They have a medic with them. Hold for Marshal Wells."
"Copy that."
"Elaine you okay girl? How is Synthaera?"
"We're good boss, Synthaera is fine and my arm is nothing major."
"Okay call me when you are secure."
"Right boss, I'm gonna phone Whateley now and update them."
"Whateley Academy Security, Lt Forsythe speaking, how can I help you?"
"Lt Forsythe, this is US Marshal Elaine Givens, I need to speak to Mrs Carson."
"Okay Marshal Givens I will try and locate her for you, can I ask what it is concerning?"
"We were attacked by a snatch squad that I believe is connected to Humanity First or one of its splinter groups."
"Okay wait one please Marshal." Lt Forsythe punched a button on the comm that would page the headmistress regardless of the time. Barely 10 seconds later Elizabeth Carson was on the speaker.
"Carson here, who is on security?"
"Lt Forsythe Ma'm, I have a US Marshal Elaine Givens to speak to you. She says that she has been attacked by a snatch squad."
"God damn it! Put her on Lt."
"Marshal Givens? Elizabeth Carson here, I understand you've had some difficulties, are you all right?"
"Yes Mrs Carson, Synthaera and I are okay. We were attacked by an unidentified snatch squad on our way home from the hospital, we are okay. Four of the snatch team are dead and one is a prisoner. I will have US Marshal back up with me in a couple of minutes."
"Just the two of you and five of them?"
"Yes, they rammed us off the road. If not for Synthaera I would be dead, she shielded me, while I returned fire."
"Impressive shooting by the sound of it."
"Well I got two with head shots once Synthaera had shielded me, and she took out two and disabled a third."
"Synthaera killed two of the attackers? Oh dear, how is she?"
"Shocked, she worried I would think she is a monster, but I have reassured her, without her neither of us would have made it."
"I will ensure she gets help to deal with it here at Whateley, the poor child is far too young to have to deal with taking lives."
Carson heard the other woman sigh over the phone. "Yeah the first three were unconscious defence during her manifestation and burnout, but these two were fully conscious and in self defence, so she is understandably shocked but she is coping."
"What were your plans for bringing her to school?"
"Originally we had planned to bring her to Dunwich personally overland, but now I am concerned that could expose us to more snatch attempts."
"I understand from the application and from speaking to Adrian Wells that the US Marshals are Synthaera's sponsors indirectly, but that to keep her as safe as possible they do not want to be involved in her life on a day to day basis, and that you are now her legal guardian?"
"That is correct headmistress."
"Forgive me for asking Elaine, but how do you feel about Synthaera?"
Carson could feel the emotion coming through when Elaine responded. "I already love her like my own. I will be seeking to adopt her as soon as I can. Why?"
"I am sorry for prying but from her file the child has had a very rough time. While I know you want to spend time with her, under the circumstances I would recommend that we get our new student to Whateley as soon as possible for her safety and yours. Once she is here Whateley's neutrality, not to mention our considerable defences will ensure her safety. So instead of bringing her overland, with your permission I will arrange for a very secure pickup from your location, and we will fly Synthaera here."
"You will pick her up?" Elaine sounded surprised.
"Quite so," Carson's tone hardened "Synthaera has been accepted for Whateley and therefore is one of my students, and nobody attacks my students. I will get her to school safely and I promise Elaine, we will take the very best care of your daughter. I will also get Marshal Wells to include us in the investigation into the snatch attempt. Whoever has done this will face repercussions."
"I will be glad to have whatever assistance Whateley can offer us Mrs Carson, you have our address details already, we will be there shortly, and there will be a US Marshal presence until Synthaera's pickup arrives. I would suggest perhaps tomorrow evening around 8 or 9pm would be a good time so she does not have to worry about the sunlight."
"Of course, that sounds fine, and it gives me plenty of time to make the necessary arrangements. As for Synthaera's clothes, and school uniforms and so on, we have a very well equipped store that is open 24/7 on site, and in Dunwich itself there is one of the world's best seamstresses Cecilia Rogers. Cecilia does a lot of work for our students with more unusual requirements, including some who have issues with sunlight, that particular issue we have dealt with before, so don't worry about not having time to get Synthaera equipped, just spend the time with your daughter."
"Thank you Mrs Carson, that sounds wonderful."
"Good, well then Elaine I will speak to you tomorrow to give you Sythaera's transport details. Good bye for now."
"Bye."
The women hung up, Whateley's headmistress thought for a second before punching the number for ARC. Elaine glanced down the road, she could see the flashing lights a short distance away that would be her backup, her prisoner was still unconscious, and Synthaera was watching him closely.
Thank god there were no more of these assholes. What a day.
Their backup had arrived in force, armed and armoured, quickly securing the scene of the firefight, and closing off the road while they began their work. Elaine had a conversation with the site commander, while the medic patched up her arm, it was not a serious wound but she was still going to be out of action for a while. Elaine relinquished her prisoner to the site commander, and once he was satisfied that all was well, Elaine and Synthaera hopped into the middle SUV of a 3 car convoy which then headed off at speed for home. Even with the rapid drive it was only just before midnight before they arrived. The lights were burning brightly, and John was standing on the porch with an arm round the shoulder of her son Thomas. Elaine hopped out of the SUV, asking Synthaera to wait a second. She gave the men in her life a warm hug and a kiss before waving for Synthaera to come out the SUV.
"John, Tommy, I have someone I want you to meet. This is the newest member of our family Synthaera."
The SUV's door opened and a very nervous girl stepped out, thankful that Elaine and her new family were only a couple of steps away and that she did not have to walk an embarrassing distance in the spotlight. Synthaera felt like she was blushing although she knew that only the very faintest trace of any colour would make it to her face.
"Umm, hello." She said shyly.
"Come here dear. Synthaera this is John my husband, and Thomas my son. Call him Tom or Tommy, he normally only gets Thomas when he has done something wrong. Boys this young lady is Synthaera who we are going to be looking after." Elaine could see her husband was grinning, and Tom was looking a little pole axed
"Boys?"
"It is great to finally meet you Synthaera, Elaine has been telling me a lot about you. Welcome home, come on inside." John gave Synthaera a hug then waved her into the house, while Tom awkwardly shook hands with Synthaera and said hi before letting Synthaera past into the house.
"Cat got your tongue Tom?" Elaine gently teased her son, as John led Synthaera into the house.
"Mooommm. You never said she was yunno..."
"Pretty? Striking?"
"Umm yeah that." Elaine grinned as she ruffled Tom's hair.
"Come on Tommy, go and show Synthaera her room, and then we can all talk for a little while, get to know each other before bed, as Synthaera is going to have to go to her new school tomorrow night."
"Huh? Mom, I thought you said we would be taking her to school next week?"
"Yes I did, but we were attacked on the way home and we need to make sure Synthaera is safe first. That's why all those guys are going to be on guard outside tonight."
Elaine closed the front door, watching while Tom led Synthaera through the house to the stairs up to the bedrooms, the two kids starting to chat once they were out of the adults view. She moved through to the kitchen where John was fishing two beers from the fridge. He cracked one of the Buds open and passed it over, gesturing at her arm,
"How's your arm Laney?"
"It ache's like a bitch John, bastard shot me through and through. The medic fixed me up at the scene and said it's nothing major but Wells will place me on sick leave until I'm patched up."
"How's Synthaera?"
"Okay I think. She's scared at having thugs trying to snatch her, not to mention freaked at her own changes. Poor kid has gone through a lot. Adapting though, I think she is going to do well. She was most worried that I would think she was a monster after the attack."
"Oh? Why?"
"She killed two of them herself John, and disabled a third."
Elaine took a long drink from her can as the after action trembles caught up with her. John watched her, knowing from a long close marriage what she was going through. "It was bad then?" He wrapped his arms around her, making her feel safe, secure.
"She saved my life again John, bastard had me cold and I was scrambling to get a shot off, then Synthaera got that energy shield in the way and the bullets just could not get to me. I put that one down and the one behind me, both had to be face shots, they had combat grade armour. Synthaera took the others, and they did not have a chance."
"So my new little girl has teeth then?"
Elaine looked at his deadpan expression, "John Givens, you are a bad, bad man. That was terrible."
"Well at least I know I won't have to worry about keeping a loaded shotgun in the house to fend off the boys in a couple of years." He smirked at her, daring her to be down, dragging the laughter out of his tired wife.
"Come on Laney, let's get the kids off to bed. The rest will wait for the morning." John wrapped his arm around his wife's shoulder and guided her out the kitchen.
Friday 2nd March
Synthaera stretched, the bed was so comfortable, a queen size, it dwarfed her new body and the bed linen and sheets felt wonderful against her skin. Opening her eyes she could see the heavy drapes that Mum had hung in her room. No sunlight made it through at all, even though it was, she glanced at the bedside clock, 10:27. There was nothing she had to do today, except for chilling out and spending some time with her new family, tonight the school would pick her up. Her new bedroom had it's own ensuite, so she padded across to it and enjoyed a shower. She had been too tired out emotionally to bother last night, and she could smell herself, as well as the faint traces of blood, and dirt that brought to mind the attempted kidnapping. Mum had explained she knew it was a kidnap attempt because of the restraints and medical gear she had found in the van.
Who is it who wants me? Who did he sell me to? Or is it someone else? Why are they interested in me? Fucking bastard.
Synthaera cried quietly in the shower, black tears running off her nose and chin. A few minutes later, cried out for the time being over everything that had happened, and feeling better for the release that she had never really been able to get as Aeron, she washed her hair and gently scrubbed herself clean, then thoroughly cleaned her teeth, getting rid of the coppery taste that had still lingered in her mouth. Then satisfied she was clean padded back into her room.
Right then, clothes.
Quickly she put on a plain bra and thong panties, then slid into a pair of skin tight black jeans, glancing over her shoulder in the full length mirror.
Wow these jeans make my legs and bum look awesome, and they fit high enough my thong does not show. Excellent.
Looking in the wardrobe through a selection of clothes that Elaine had bought for her ahead of time, Synthaera found a fitted top that felt wonderfully soft like cashmere and when she pulled it on moulded itself to her curves perfectly. Deciding she liked the look of the deep purple top, she pulled on a pair of trainers, stuck her mane into a pony tail and looked herself over.
Make up? Not yet, no idea what I am doing there and I look hot anyway.
That smug thought prompted a happy grin and the she headed down to find out where everyone was.
It was hours later, the day had been a happy one, except for having to stay inside to avoid the sunlight. Synthaera had resolved that she was going to find a way to beat that problem, the thought of spending her life permanently as a night owl was not cool. Still the house itself was fine, the Givens had blinds on all the windows, and they were closed all day so that Synthaera had free run of the house. Elaine had spent the morning in conversation with the Marshals, while John was at work, so Synthaera had a small breakfast and then settled down in the lounge with Tom, watching the TV, and chatting, getting to know each other a little better.
After a lunch together in the kitchen Elaine was finished with updating her boss and had, as she expected been ordered onto sick leave. That was frustrating as she did not want to leave the investigation into the hijacking untended, but Wells was not to be swayed. Plus he had made it clear she was not going to be involved in the interrogation of her prisoner from the night before. Elaine knew he was right when he said she was too close to the case to work it, but that did not mean she had to like it.
So after lunch she made popcorn and settled down to chat and watch DVDs with the kids, happy to see that they seemed to be feeling their way into a friendly relationship. Tom seemed to have gotten over his being tongue tied last night, and decided that his new sister was all right. Elaine was quietly proud of her son's attitude, especially as when he had told Synthaera he would look out for her, there had been none of the strutting machismo that most young men displayed, just a simple statement that Tommy believed brothers looked out for their sisters, regardless of how capable those sisters might be. Elaine had seen Synthaera pick up that certainty as well, and the teen girl's quick hug of thanks had been more heartfelt than Tommy realised. Elaine was glad the two were mixing well so far.
John managed to get home from work earlier than normal just after 4pm, so the family sat and talked while they had a light evening meal, making plans for the end of the Spring Term, talking about the Givens clan and history, and learning about Synthaera's past. Outside the sun set and darkness fell, and then as arranged a little after 8pm the doorbell rang. John let in a tall man in his thirties who introduced himself as Dan Symonds, the lead agent from ARC's Washington office, producing a hologram inlaid plastic ID card.
"Nice to meet you Dan, I'm John, this is my wife Elaine, my son Tom and daughter Synthaera, come on in." Elaine didn't miss the girl's quick happy smile at her husband's description.
John you are getting a big kiss good night honey.
Once their guest had sat, Elaine asked. "Mr Symonds, what is ARC exactly?"
"ARC stands for Arkham Research Consortium Mrs Givens. We are one of the premier organisations investigating, researching and assisting with Mutant phenomena. We have a long and close working relationship with the Whateley Academy, in fact many of our staff are mutants themselves who graduated from Whateley. I have been authorised to tell you as well that Whateley has at least one student who actually does consultancy work for ARC as well. One of the services that we offer is the safe and secure transport and accommodation of mutants, both for their safety in cases like Synthaera's where a threat exists to the mutant in question, and also in cases where facilities are required to ensure the safety of the general public. My instructions from our director Dr Otto, are that Synthaera's welfare is threatened by an as yet undetermined group, and that we will be providing her priority safe transport to Whateley tonight."
"How am I going to Whateley, Mr Symonds?"
The ARC agent grinned, "Ever flown in a dropship before Miss Givens?"
Elaine's gasped "You're using a dropship?" drowned out Tommy exclaimed "Cool!!" and John's quiet chuckle at the agent's timing of that news. Synthaera sat back in her chair with a muttered "Wow."
"Yes we have the use of a fully loaded dropship," Symonds replied, "and if anyone stupid enough to tangle with us, then we have access to additional support Like I said Mrs Givens we take our relationship with Whateley very seriously. We will have Synthaera safely to Whateley before the end of tonight."
Half an hour later, Synthaera was ready to board the heavily armoured form of ARC's dropship while a helicopter gunship hovered overhead to provide local support. After a round of tearful hugs and kisses goodbye, she made sure to tell her mum she loved her and would keep in touch, before stepping into the red lit interior of the dropship, and following the armoured form of an ARC trooper, past a row of huge heavily armed and armoured soldiers, to her seat which dwarfed her. The trooper adjusted her crash harness to ensure she was safely fastened in, and passed her a set of ear defenders with a comms hookup that he plugged in beside her. Suddenly the din of the dropship's Anti Grav generator was replaced by quiet and she could hear the Arc trooper speaking to her.
"Welcome aboard Miss, are you comfortable?" Synthaera gave him a thumbs up, and a wide grin.
"Good, if you need to speak, just press this button here," he indicated a switch on the comms unit. "First time in one of these?" the trooper gave the nervous but excited teen a friendly grin.
"Um, yeah."
"Okay there is nothing to worry about. Dropships are very safe, very fast and very very tough, we will have you to Whateley in no time." The trooper stopped talking and listened to his comm for a second.
"Okay, we are good to go, launching in 45 seconds. Hold tight and enjoy the ride Miss."
The trooper returned to his own seat at the front of the squad of men, pulling his harness into place. Synthaera could feel the vibrations increase suddenly as the AG generator roared to full power, the whine now loud even through the ear defenders, as the seconds counted down. Then as the countdown elapsed the dropship shot into the air on an almost vertical assent, before banking sharply to the left as Synthaera whooped as her she felt like her stomach was left behind.
Whateley here I come.
[Updated on: Tue, 20 September 2011 18:18]
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| Re: Synthaera (the post crash edition) [message #40083 is a reply to message #39957 ] |
Fri, 27 May 2011 04:24 |
blayze
Messages: 30
Registered: May 2011
Location: Durham, UK |
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Friday 2nd March 2007
"What is the status on the acquisition the Doctor ordered?" The voice was electronically modified to null both tone and pitch.
"Security at the hospital made a removal attempt too visible sir, so a team intercepted the target after it was outside the hospital area."
"Good, so the target was acquired and is on the way to site 42?"
"No sir, there was a problem, the acquisition failed, we do not know why."
"Failed?"
"We are not able to verify at this time but we believe four of the team were killed, and the fifth taken prisoner by the Marshals. As per normal procedures all the team had no direct contact with this facility or information as to the destination of the acquisition."
"Did you not have a back up cell available?"
"Not within the time frame that was available sir."
There was a long pause, Jed Carp started to think that the other had hung up. He hated reporting failure, especially when you did not know why. Still he never knew why on anything, not least why that particular freak was to be acquired.
"I will make enquiries. The Doctor will not be pleased." The call, bounced through Lord knows how many countries and transmitters went dead. Carp found he was sweating. Dammit, he hated sweating in a clean shirt.
*** *** ***
Whateley Academy Grounds:
Synthaera watched from a safe distance as the dropship blasted into the night sky, its dark silhouette briefly obscuring the stars, before it vanished into the distance.
Damn that was fun.
The descent into Whateley had been impressively quick and aerobatic, and idly she wondered whether they were flown like that all the time. Now the AG generator noise was gone it was time to say hello to the meeting party.
The dropship had landed in the Whateley grounds, letting Synthaera and a pair of troopers out. Once the three people approaching through the Whateley grounds were close enough to take over her security the troopers had hopped back in and after about 30 seconds it had blasted off. She turned round and walked towards the three approaching figures, her bag slung over her shoulder.
"Miss Givens?"
"Yes" Elaine had asked whether or not Synthaera would be willing to use Givens as her last name while at school. Synthaera had been delighted to have the option, as she sure as hell wanted no more to do with the name Samuels.
"My name is Gunny Bardue, with Whateley Security, and these ladies are Ms Shugendo the Dean of students, and Beltane one of our students."
"Nice to meet you all, sorry it's so early, or late." 12:24am according to her watch.
"Welcome to Whateley Academy Synthaera," the Dean took over the conversation, "I will make this quick as I am sure you and Beltane are both ready for bed. There are a few rules I need to advise you while Beltane and I will escort you to Poe cottage which will be your dorm for the next few years. One be careful of displays of your powers. Whateley survives by keeping a low profile. Two, fraternization between students is severely frowned upon. Three, if you want to go into Dunwich at any time, you need a responsible adult to accompany you, and permission from administration. If you look around the school you will see coloured flags displayed during the day, or as now, coloured lights. Red means that you are not to use powers, or act in any way other than as a normal high school student, most likely there are parents or other adults in the school who are not aware of the special nature of our students. Yellow means be cautious in your actions and powers use, and green means you are free to be yourself. On green days, you will see students performing a variety of impossible acts around the campus, as well as students with medium or severe GSD moving between the school buildings."
"I'm sorry Ma'am, GSD?"
"That's alright, I was forgetting you have not had an introductory packet as yet. GSD stands for Gross Structural Dystrophy. Basically it refers to mutants whose body no longer conforms to the perceived human norm to a greater or lesser degree. Medium or Severe GSD can mean that a student may no longer be even vaguely human in appearance. On yellow and red days those students who cannot pass as human are unfortunately forced to move around the campus via our extensive tunnel network.
Now enough of that, we are almost to Poe cottage so I will leave you with Beltane. I hope you enjoy your time here at Whateley, good night."
"Good night Ma'am" With that Dean Shugendo changed her course and headed back to her rooms, leaving Beltane in charge of Synthaera.
"Well it is good to see another Brit around here, welcome to Hogwarts." Beltane grinned.
Synthaera grinned back and rolled her eyes, "Isn't that a little obvious Beltane?"
"Yeah but you'd be amazed how many of our American cousins don't get it. Seriously though welcome to Whateley. Your name is Synthaera?"
"Yes, it's good to meet you."
"My name is Kendall Forbes," seeing Synthaera's expression change to confusion the older girl carried on, "my codename is Beltane, which gets shortened to Belle for my nickname. Most of the time, I get called Belle, even by the staff. Call me Belle, but at your own risk, if I am in a bad mood you may end up facing the consequences as I am one of the school's pranksters."
The girls carried on walking, oblivious to the presence of Gunny Bardue behind them, while Synthaera took a couple of seconds to reply.
"Uh huh, okay then Kendall, you let me know when we're friendly enough for me to call you Belle, but why do you have a codename?"
Kendall studied the younger girl for a second, normally students just assumed that calling her Belle was fine, it was a little disconcerting to come across British reserve again. While there were other British students around, not many were in Poe, so she had less reason to mix with them.
"Give me a little while to get to know you, but I think you will be fine. Codenames are used almost all the time in school, primarily because the school is neutral ground. It is not a school for heroes, it is a school for mutants, good and bad, and Whateley is part funded by donations from a wide range of group, including Super groups, super villains, government organisations etc etc. One of the problems is that there is a certain laxity of security," there was a snort from Bardue behind them, "with little things like your medical records, power exams results, that kind of thing."
Gunny Bardue interrupted from behind them. "Miss Givens, what Belle is dancing around is that while the staff are professional, a great many of them may have secondary affiliations with outside groups, groups who they keep informed of developments, some for money, some for other reasons. Security manages to keep a lid on the worst excesses but you are best to assume that anything you do here at Whateley may well become knowledge for sale to the highest bidder. This is part of the compromise that keeps Whateley free of attack generally from outside parties, although sadly this year the Accords have been flouted more than once. Your codename serves to separate your personal identity from your mutant abilities and persona. A word of advice, choose it carefully as a bad choice can haunt you for years or even for life. Some of the things that you kids think sound good..." Bardue trailed off shaking his head at some memories.
Beltane pointed out Poe Cottage as they were close enough to make it out now in the dark, "That is Poe, our home from home, but before we get you to your room I need to show you something. Wait here a second please." Beltane walked across to the entrance to Poe, where she was met by a matronly looking woman who handed her a bunch of keys, before heading back into the cottage, out of the cold. Beltane waved Synthaera across to join her as they carried on walking through the campus. A few minute later, they came to another building and Belle approached a blank wall.
Synthaera watched as the other girl inserted a key into a hidden lock and the section of wall swung away to reveal an entrance. Beltane walked in and Synthaera followed. Gunny Bardue called before the girls vanished.
"Belle I will head on back to the Security office. Nice to meet you Synthaera. Good night girls."
"What is this place?" Synthaera asked as she watched Belle walk through the dark interior to a lightswitch, idly noting that the dark posed no problem for her at all.
"This is Whateley's trophy room. We have to keep it secret to preserve the fiction this is a normal school." The lights blazed into life, revealing a large room with paintings and display cabinets all around. "School alumni send treasured possession here for display. It is interesting I guess but not at 1am. I need to show you this painting and then we can crash out. If you want to come back another time just ask Mrs Horton our house mother."
Beltane led Synthaera across to a large oil painting with a plaque that read 'Lord Paramount, Prince of Wallachia'. She was no art critic but Synthaera thought the painting looked like the prince was trying to hard.
"Why do I need to see this?"
"Lord Paramount is one of the school's main benefactors. One of his conditions for his donations is that every new student must be shown his picture within 24hours of arriving at Whateley. I don't know how he knows but if anyone forgets he is always on the phone, which irritates the headmistress Mrs Carson, and that's not a good idea. So there he is, come on let's go." Beltane led the way out of the trophy room, remembering to shut off the lights, locked up and the two girls walked back to Poe, continuing to chat.
"So Beltane, why are you here over the holiday anyway?" Synthaera asked curious.
"Well I'm not keen on flying, and I loath going through MCO checks. The Winter recess is only a week, not long enough to make it worthwhile, plus I am behind with some of my course work, so here I am. What about you Synthaera, how come you are arriving at this ungodly hour?"
Synthaera tone was flat tired as she spoke, "Umm the short version is I was flying home, got hijacked, manifested, burned out and ended up in hospital where I changed to what you see now. In the hospital the MCO tried to remove me but got stopped, then H1 tried to kill me, my parents disowned me and abandoned me, there was a custody battle as my parents apparently wanted to give their parental authority to the MCO. We stopped that when my new guardian discovered that my parents sold me to parties unknown for a quarter million dollars. I have a new guardian and on the way home we were attacked by a snatch squad, so instead of coming here after the recess finished, Mrs Carson thought I should be brought here asap. She phoned some guy called Dr Otto and he arranged for my lift tonight, which was a very cool trip. I guess you could say it has been a rough couple of weeks." Synthaera sniffed and her eyes welled up, before black tears started running down her cheeks again.
Beltane listened open mouthed to Synthaera's summary.
"Holy crap...woh....shush...it's all right." She gave the younger girl a hug, "Come on let's get you to bed."
Synthaera pulled herself together, wiped her face and apologised, which Beltane waved off.
"Don't be daft silly, you're allowed to be stressed, you've had an awful time."
The older student carried on after a short time letting Synthaera calm down.
"Did they explain to you about Poe cottage?"
"No? Explain what?"
"Well Poe is the cottage for all students with an alternative lifestyle. So we house all the gays, lesbians, bisexuals and those of us who defected in the battle of the sexes. I am your Upperclassman in Poe, and for the rest of the changelings as well. If you have any problems the lower years cannot help with, come and find me. This year we have more of us changelings than ever before, male to female, and vice versa."
"Wait, you used to be a boy? Like I used to be a boy?"
"Yes" Beltane said it simply.
"It doesn't seem possible, you're so pretty and feminine Kendall." Synthaera had been told there would be others like her at school but it was still a surprise. Beltane's answer was a delighted grin, and a hug.
"Thank you, for that you can call me Belle anytime. So how long have you been changed?"
Synthaera nodded her thanks, "Um they said changing took five days so that makes it...eight or nine days?"
"Wow that is really fast, very rare as well. Some of us changelings are still changing, or have taken months or years."
Synthaera thought about Belle's response for a second before deciding to take a small risk.
"Um Belle? You really are like me aren't you? I mean transsexual before you changed?"
"You picked that up huh? Yes I was transsexual, now thank God I'm female. I'm happy to hear you are one of the lucky ones Synthaera. Some of our changelings never had any feelings like we did. A lot have a hard time, although thankfully most of them are able to reach some peace with it, or even come to revel in it, although some of our current freshies have real difficulties. All of us changelings pull together to help each other, even more than the rest of Poe."
Belle sighed before continuing, "One thing that you need to understand Synthaera is that as far as the rest of Whateley is concerned, us Poesies are the school's crazies, students with psychological difficulties, or in some case students who administration felt might be able to assist as carers for others. Don't be surprised if some students are a little wary because of that. At some levels the alternative lifestyle is an open secret, but it is still a secret. If you want to be open about being trans then that is your choice, but please do not expose the rest of Poe by your conduct. This is still a high school, with all the normal jocks, geeks, nerds, loners, smart and beautiful types, as well as cliques of all sorts, and bullies of every description. Gay bashing does go on as well, so please be aware and remember that here the bullies might be able to literally flatten buildings, or burn you to a crisp. Being different can be very very dangerous in this school, that is why we all look out for each other. Inside Poe the changelings look out for each other even more as we are the pariahs of the pariahs, not even the gays or lesbians tend to understand what we got through and they can also be as anti trans as anyone else. Heavy I know but it is important okay?"
"Yeah okay Belle, I understand and I will be happy to help anyone else, just like I am going to need lots of help with stuff as well. I am delighted to be a girl now, but I still don't really know anything about it, and I have plenty of other problems to deal with."
"Anything I can help with?" Belle asked as the pair reached the entrance to Poe.
"Well these," Synthaera swept her hair back to show her pointed ears, "and these," she bared her longer than normal canines, although her fangs were not fully extended, "are not for show."
"Wow, I thought I saw a glimpse of your ears earlier, but I thought your pale colouring was just down to the darkness. I had figured that your late arrival was down to timing."
"Nah, I got to change gender, species, apparently I'm Elven now, and have severe sunlight issues. I have a type of vampirism, but they say I will need more tests as I am definitely alive and not undead, plus I don't feel like an evil bitch. Being an elven girl is fine, wonderful even, but the vampire thing I would have preferred to pass on you know?"
"Yeah that's not cool. Well come on, let's find Mrs Horton, the housemother. If I can help just give me a yell Synthaera, and spend some time thinking of a codename, you don't want the powers lab bunch to assign you on, they are sooo lame. Oh here she is. Hi Mrs Horton, this is our new Poesie Synthaera Givens."
The matronly woman gave them a tired smile, "Hello dear, welcome to Poe Cottage, I'm afraid you don't get a choice on where you are rooming as the cottage is almost totally full. We do not normally get transfer students this time of year but Mrs Carson has explained you have had a very difficult time. Come along, I will show you your room. Belle, you head on to bed now, thank you for picking Synthaera up."
"Ok Mrs Horton, it was no problem. Again it's nice to meet you Synthaera, I'll catch up with you some time tomorrow okay. Good night."
With that a very tired Beltane gave a wave and headed off to the upper floors of Poe cottage. Mrs Horton led Synthaera to the second floor, explaining that the rest of the freshmen students were on this floor. Mrs Horton explained that Poe was due to get another wing during the summer break but for now Synthaera would be in room 238. She would be on her own for the time being, unless any more transfers came in, and explained that her room had been given extra heavy drapes to keep sunshine out. Synthaera thanked her, and headed off to bed.
Saturday 3rd March
Her alarm sounded on the mobile that Elaine had given her, blaring out Metallica, after all Synthaera had reasoned just because she had changed did not mean she needed to change her taste in rock. She peeked out from under the duvet, the alarm was set for 9am, as school did not start for 3 days yet.
No sunlight made it into her room, so she rolled out of bed, and grabbed her wash kit, and towel, pulling on the robe that Elaine had put in her bag, and then she wandered out to find the girls' bathroom. Poe was fairly quiet, she could hear music playing on one of the higher floors, and wondered if it was Belle's.
There was no one around though, so she headed along the corridor, mentally comparing Poe to her old boarding house, and deciding that Poe looked slightly more the worse for wear but even mostly empty, felt friendlier. The girls' bathroom was easy to locate, the sign outside threatening an untimely end to any males caught inside. Inside it was very nice, spacious and clean. She noticed a sign warning all girls to press the button before showering and felt a little bemused, but as she needed a shower, she followed its instruction, pressed the button, and got in the shower.
The shower unit itself looked like a work of art, and Synthaera wondered how a boarding school had such fancy units. Then she turned it on.
Oh My God. That feels soooo good.
The jets were massaging her, kneading her muscles, releasing tension Synthaera had not been aware she was carrying. She washed her platinum mane, ran her razor over her legs, feeling clean and awake. Turning back to face the shower, she rinsed out her hair, then just stood their and enjoyed the spray, on the top of her breasts.
Synthaera did not consciously realise that the shower spray pattern had changed, just that suddenly she felt wonderful, like gentle hands gloved in the softest silk were caressing her breasts, and teasing her nipples that swelled in response to the pleasure, while more caresses ran down her torso, and up the inside of her legs to meet at her mound.
OH GOOODDDDD.
It was exquisite, absolute bliss, pulsing jets probing, caressing, spreading and touching her, and suddenly Synthaera let out a mewling scream as her orgasm rose and crashed through her, legs locked holding her upright while she moaned helpless as the water pleasured her, holding her at a level of orgasmic bliss she did not know existed, before after a timeless while, the water patterns changed again and very gently brought Synthaera down. She stumbled out of the shower, a blissed out smile on her face, and completely on autopilot managed to sit on the bench while she towelled herself off.
Wow.
She made her way back to her room, and collapsed on her bed, for a couple of minutes before pulling on her clothes before heading downstairs. She walked across the large hallway at the bottom of the stairs to Hrs Horton's rooms and knocked. The smiling housemother answered the door a view seconds later.
"Good morning Synthaera, how are you feeling? You had a late night."
"I feel fine thank you Mrs Horton, I slept well once I got to bed, thank you for the heavy drapes, they work wonderfully."
"That is quite all right dear, you can always come to me if you need help or to talk, what can I do for you this morning?" Mrs Horton assured her.
"Well I was told that because I arrived earlier than expected I would need to go to administration to sort out some paperwork, as well as meeting my councillor. They also said I would need to speak to a Dr Bellows, and go through powers testing, but I do not know what order or where or how I get there?"
"Well you will need to head through to administration first. I believe, let me check..." Mrs Horton looked through some paperwork, "yes I thought so, your councillor is scheduled to be Circe, she is the head of the Magic Dept, and she will arrange your schedule with you for the rest of the Spring Term. Circe can also arrange for you to meet Dr Bellows and your powers testing appointment, you will probably be able to find her in the Magical Dept. You can head across to administration using the tunnels. Administration will give you your school pass which will give you your permanent access to the tunnel system, but for the time being follow me and I will let you in to the system and let admin know you are on your way. Go straight there though Synthaera, they will be busy."
"Okay Mrs Horton, I will."
Synthaera followed Mrs Horton downstairs to the basement level of Poe. The housemother took a couple of seconds to point out the Gym facilities, as well as the laundry room, before showing her to the heavy steel access to the underground tunnel network. After punching in a code, the access swung open and Mrs Horton waved her through into the brightly lit tunnel beyond.
"There we go dear, see you later."
"Thanks Mrs Horton, bye." Synthaera gave her a smile and headed off down the tunnel.
A fairly short later, Synthaera had succeeded in following the signs through the tunnel network to the basement access to administration. The number of tunnels both marked and unmarked that had crossed her path made her sure that unless she could solve her problem with UV exposure she would be getting lost a lot. Still at the moment she had no idea what to do about that. Maybe that Circe lady would be able to help. Administration let her in, and she headed upstairs.
The main hall was virtually empty and only a couple of the kiosks were staffed, although one of these was bathed in sunlight from the windows at the end. The other was not in the direct light. Cautiously Synthaera approached the kiosk, relieved to find that she did not get the tingling sensation that she had learnt was the start of UV exposure. A young pretty woman was taking a call on her headset as Synthaera arrived and waited patiently. After a couple of minutes the admin assistant finished the call, and turned to Sythaera.
"Hi, sorry about the wait, you could have used the other kiosk. What can I do for you?"
"Hello, my name is Synthaera Givens, it was no problem waiting, I have...ummm sunlight issues,"
The admin assistant looked up more attentively at her answer, eyes widening as she took in Synthaera's extreme paleness and longer canines, that showed as the girl grinned at the reaction.
"I'm transferring in and was told I would need to go to administration to sort out some paperwork, and I think meet my councillor. I arrived last night, earlier than planned."
"Hmm okay, yes I have your file here Miss Givens. If you could come this way we will sort out your student ID, and the paperwork, then I will contact your councillor." The admin assistant beckoned her to follow, and they headed across to a camera and printer setup.
"Do you mind if I ask a question Miss Givens?"
"No, go ahead."
"You said sunlight issues, does that mean like vampire?"
"Something like that apparently, yeah." She sighed.
"Wow well you be careful, you seem nice and some of the students can be... judgemental."
"Yeah I was warned it was likely to be a problem, hopefully I will be okay." The assistant took her picture, which she then printed out on a Student ID.
"Okay here is your ID, keep it on you at all times, and this is your access key. Your file is noted as saying you need access throughout campus via the tunnel system, so you have a secure clearance on your swipe key. Please do not lose it, if anyone uses your access it is your responsibility. Now then I need you to sign for this paperwork. In the packet you will find your introductory packet, as well as the Whateley Student Handbook, which I strongly recommend you study closely as ignorance of the rules is not a defence, in addition your guardian has established your campus account and a monthly stipend, the details are in your packet and you can use this swipe card to charge to the account."
After checking the packet contained everything that was supposed to be in there, Synthaera signed the docket which the admin assistant took with a smile,
"Now if you want to wait over there Synthaera, I will contact your Councillor to come and get you."
After a quarter of an hour wait, Synthaera saw a tall woman with flowing robes coming through the front entrance. Even at a distance she had presence, and walked with the confident stride of a woman who has seen almost everything and dealt with it. Synthaera focussed and opened her magical sight. Wow.
The woman radiated power, lots and lots of power, as well as having magic woven into her clothing and glowing from items she wore. At a guess this impressive lady was Circe, she was so bright with power that Synthaera closed her magical sight off and then stood to meet her. Close up she was good looking, and looked younger than Synthaera had expected her councillor to be.
Circe's eyes gave the lie to her youthful appearance. She locked her gaze on the teen, and Synthaera felt as though Circe's gaze saw straight through her, the woman's eyes spoke of having seen whole ages pass. Circe gave her a measuring assessment and then her face split in a welcoming smile.
"Well then Synthaera, welcome to Whateley. My name is Circe, and I am going to be your councillor while you are here. I understand from the file I was sent that you have undergone a stressful few days. Come along, we will head to the Magical Arts Dept through the tunnels, where we can talk and see where you are at child." With that, Circe beckoned and strode off towards the tunnel entrance.
The walk had been longer than from Poe, and the two women had chatted casually, Circe asking Synthaera about her manifestation, and what she had experienced so far in terms of her use of powers, and the incidence of her vampirism. Synthaera found that by the time they reached Circe's office in the Magical Dept, she had given the older woman as full an account as she could of what had happened to her. Once they were both sat down in Circe's office, a good sized room that was littered with piles of books, and cabinets with a miscellany of arcane in them, much of which glowed to Synthaera's magical sight, Circe pulled out a file with her name on it and they began.
"So Synthaera your situation is complicated, you have changed gender, and also species, and have been afflicted with Vampirism apparently as well. The medical reports from a Doctor Lawson show definitively that you are alive, so you are clearly not a vampire in the usual undead sense, however your documented response to ultraviolet light shows that you do have that vulnerability in common. From your talks with Doctor Lawson, he theorises that you are an exemplar, and that your BIT was been affected by your identification with the character you played."
Cice sighed, "In all honesty Synthaera it is as good a theory as any other. In truth there is a very great deal we do not understand about mutants and how they manifest."
Circe leaned back and made herself comfortable in her chair before she carried on talking.
"The Powers testing you will undergo will determine a great deal about your physical form, but as to how that form came about...I am not aware of another case like yours that has involved a seeming secondary stage to manifestation that was only resolved by feeding as a vampire would. It is troubling...and yet while I look at you I can see no malign influence on you. Your spirit or soul as such is not tainted, your aura shows no ties to any evil or demonic influence. We encounter true vampires on occasion, when you live as long as I have you will come across almost everything. Every vampire I have come across has been either feral, a ravening monster without any control, that I put down for the sake of all, or was turned by an elder vampire and retained their faculties. Those are tied to their creators by bonds that I had thought unbreakable. While those who become vampires are not necessarily evil, there is an evil inherent in those bonds and it infects them all, regardless of who they might have been, some merely manage to weaken or even defeat the bond over time. You have no such link or taint to begin with, so you are an unusual case, and yet physically you are definitely vampiric. Do you know anything about vampires Synthaera?"
"Nothing more than myths and what I read for the gaming I did to play the part better, or saw on TV." Thr girl replied with a shrug.
"Well a lot of it is bunk child, you still have a reflection, garlic will do you no harm, and neither will a cross. Silver is anathema to all undead, but you are not undead so it should not be an issue. Sunlight and fire are your biggest enemies, although you can regenerate given time, and the power of Prayer from one of faith will cause a vampire great harm, as will holy ground. These are things that cause damage to that inherent darkness that comes with vampirism. So a cross wielded as a focus by one who believes can be a fierce weapon. Faith can be deadly. One of the other bits of true lore is that the power and strength of a vampire at its birth depends on the power and age of the vampire that turned it. If someone had described your abilities to me, your strength and speed, and regeneration, I would have said that the vampire in question was either created by a very strong elder, or was old and strong in its own right."
The sorceress had dealt with more than a few strong old vampires over the centuries and the vampiric girl in front of her would she felt have given most of them a good scrap.
"With you having no taint Synthaera, I suspect that faith and prayer will not work against you. Physically you're a vampire but not spiritually. We will need to test this, although with a great deal of care. Also I suspect you are not spiritually tied to the night. A true vampire will burn in the daylight, both because of the ultraviolet light but because of the spiritual ties to the dark as well. In your case I think that if you find a way to defeat the UV you will be able to move about in the daylight without problems. Because you will be seen drinking blood, in the canteen you will be pegged as a vampire or creature of the dark. Some of the students will not care, some will seek you out for company believing you a like spirit, and some will mark you for extermination."
"You paint a grim picture Circe." Synthaera was worried and her tone showed it.
"Yes well this will be difficult for you Synthaera. There are many cliques in Whateley, same as any school, for example take the Goobers."
"The Goobers? What kind of name is that?"
"Quite, well the Goobers tends to be a collection of wannabe ghost, vampire and demon hunters. While most of the Goobers are harmless, some are mutants with very definite skills and very definite intention to use those skills to in their eyes combat evil. Most of Whateley frankly laughs at the Goobers. Yet some of them will probably see you as an irresistible target. We also have our collection of Goths, and those who seek power through the dark arts, again they may find you of interest for various reasons. You will need to be very careful Synthaera, make friends where you can, and if possible be as faintly vampiric as possible. Do you understand child?"
Synthaera did not like being called child, but said nothing as she took in Circe's warning. Not that her silence mattered, Circe saw her irritation in her aura and paused again. The sorceress studied her again for a long moment before nodding in acknowledgment.
"I will try not to call you child again Synthaera, it was not meant to insult you, and I do acknowledge that after what you've been through already you are no longer a child, however to me everyone at Whateley is really a child as I have already lived more than 3000 years."
Synthaera gawped at her, speechless and awed. Circe laughed, a pleasant musical sound.
"Come, come, I don't look that old do I? I don't take on many students as a councillor so I hope we get along well, and you can forgive my habits. They're a little bit ingrained I am afraid." The older woman gave Synthaera a wry grin.
Synthaera thought that Circe did not look in the least sorry as she returned Circe's grin before asking a question. Synthaera decided she could probably like Circe.
"Um Circe, why did you agree to take me on then?"
"Your interesting Synthaera, as well as being unique to the best of my knowledge, and it is also apparent from the reports that you do have power, although the descriptions are not clear on whether it is magical or psionic. You may even fall in between the two. Hopefully I will teach you, and learn something as well, sound fair?"
"Um yes. Thank you Circe."
"Oh don't thank me just yet Synthaera, I will put you through the wringer I assure you. Now let us sort out your schedule for this half of the term. Now there are the basic academic courses and certain specialist courses that you must take, such as Powers Theory, and the Ethics classes, but there are several others I would recommend. Do you have any back ground in the martial arts Synthaera?
"No Circe, none at all."
"Well the purpose of Whateley is to try and ensure that you survive after graduation, regardless of whether you try and become a hero or villain or neither. You face the problem that as a vampire most will peg you as evil regardless, so you can expect to have to fight to survive on a regular basis. Now with no experience in martial arts I will recommend that you go for Basic Survival, it is a course designed to get you up to speed as quickly as possible, and possibly go onto the martial arts courses afterwards, Okay?"
"Sounds good, I need to learn to be effective as fast as possible, I've already found that out."
"I know Synthaera, now once your powers testing is done we will have a better understanding of you whether you are psionic, magical, both or neither, and we can modify your schedule accordingly, but I suspect you will be looking at either Psi Lab or Magic Lab, and the relevant Theory class as well. Given that you will want to try and look as normal as possible I would also suggest Costume class, and the Home Ec class for general life skills. Does all that sound okay?"
"Uhh I guess so, is it possible to change them in the future?"
"Yes Synthaera, but these classes are only for Spring Semester, we can sort you out fresh next term. Normally we would not take a student so late in the year, because you fall so far behind but your circumstances could not wait. You will need to study hard to catch up on what you have missed, but after hours study groups are available as well."
Over the next half hour they finished hammering out Synthaera' schedule before taking the tunnels through to Crystal Hall for lunch. Crystal Hall was huge, spacious, and virtually empty. Circe had agreed to take Synthaera into Dunwich after sunset to visit Cecilia Rogers for clothes that would help protect her from UV, and Synthaera planned to go a shopping in the school store before that, but for now she needed food.
After emerging from the tunnel, she had been hesitant moving into the large very open and very light space, but Circe had reassured her that unlike the rest of the campus, Crystal Hall had been designed with as many student needs as possible in mind, and as such it provided some 15 different varieties of blood alone, as well as live food for those student who needed that, no top of a comprehensive selection of normal foods in vast quantities.
Helpfully the crystal dome was also UV coated, so it was safe for her. She looked around to see Beltane was about but there was no sight of the older girl. With a frown, Synthaera grabbed a tray, and then walked to the counter. She had never had any great interest in food before, boarding school food was boarding school food, fuel at best, but Circe had said that Whateley operated at a higher standard.
Seeing how she was used to getting in and out of meals as fast as possible, Synthaera doubted that it would be any different here, but if the food tasted edible that would be a bonus, especially as she would also have to visit the special line for a drink of blood that would mark her out straight away.
After grabbing a meal of chicken and ham pie, fries and veg served with gravy, and a desert, she got a large soft drink before moving to the special aisle and getting a pint of blood, helpfully also provided in a soft drink container, although this one was insulated. After having her ID swiped she moved to a table near some plants to the side of the dome and sat down. With virtually no one else around at least she would have this meal without difficulty. With a grimace Synthaera decided on drinking her blood first. Pushing the straw in and then sucking cautiously.
[i]This is so gross, I cannot believe I am doing this.[/i
]
The first of the blood squirted into her mouth, and Synthaera suddenly was not sure whether to be more freaked out by having to drink blood as part of her meal, or by the disturbing fact that it tasted good, very good in fact.
Ok so I'm a vampire, it makes sense that my taste buds would change so that blood is desirable. Shit that is all I need, now I know that I am going to look forward to this. Well Circe said that a vampire is now what I am, but it does not determine who I am.
Synthaera was surprised when the blood was gone in mere seconds, but she could feel the energy flowing from it into her, satisfying that need in her completely for the time being. She was less surprised and more disturbed that the rest of her meal was acceptable, but tasted oddly flat as though eating it was something one could do to blend in, but was not fulfilling or satisfying.
I thought I was finished changing, I guess maybe not.
With unhappy thoughts at that realisation the girl finished, stacked her tray and thought about going back through the tunnels to Poe Cottage. Then she changed her mind, she was close to the school store, so she might as well so go and see what it had. A minute or so later she stood in the school store and just gawped. The outside seemed small, but inside it seemed much larger, and filled with the strangest selection of gear she could imagine.
Wow. Ok time to go shopping crazy I guess.
There was an ATM so she put in her new card and punched in the pin code thenchecked her balance, before almost falling down in surprise.
$25000. What the hell, I have $25000 in my account. Oh my God.
Stunned she checked the packet of papers the administration assistant had given her. In it she found a letter from Elaine,
Hey there dear, this was a surprise for me as well, I found out from Adrian Wells today that the lawyers for the US Marshals acting as sponsors for us, have been negotiating with the airline so that you would have a reward for your actions and a recompense for the trials you are facing now and will in the future. They agreed a deal that has established a trust fund for you. The fund will be released to you in full when you hit age 21, but in the meantime it will be invested by experts on your behalf. The proceeds of the trust will be reinvested for you. The fund will also pay you a monthly stipend to ensure you do not run short of funds at school. While the stipend seems huge to me, I am told by those who know, that Whateley Academy can be very expensive. Still this is in addition to your fees which the US Marshals are covering, so all I can say baby is make sure you have some fun dear, at the very least you have a whole new wardrobe to buy! The monthly stipend is $25000, and I am informed that the trust fund is established in the amount of $5,000,000. I am sure that you will do wonderfully at school, and we all are looking forward to seeing you at the end of the term. We love you, Mom.
Synthaera welled up again at seeing Elaine sign herself off as Mom. It felt wonderful. Managing not to cry she carefully folded up the letter and put it back in the pack of papers, while her mind tried to comprehend the numbers involved, before it gave up and she grabbed a large trolley, before setting off into the store, trying to work out where to start. Thinking for a second she grabbed her schedule and headed to the desk marked Customer Service.
"Hi, welcome to the shop, can I help?" The assistant was a good looking guy about 6" and built like a linebacker.
"Yeah, thanks, I just transferred in and I need well everything really, books, uniforms, stuff for my dorm, like everything."
"Ok, well I see you got your schedule there, can I have a look and we can get you books sorted out first. Okay let's see here..."
With that the assistant, whose badge said he was called Nate, started leading Synthaera on a wending path through the aisle of the store which just seemed to get bigger, chatting in a friendly manner, while grabbing books from shelves left and right, muttering to himself at times, things like
"hmm psi or magic lab and theory, okay, ethics....boring, powers theory...Quintain is a nightmare, costume class...".
The pile of books in the trolley was huge and getting bigger, plus pens, pads, pencils, drawing materials, then followed by gym equipment, a gi, sports trainers, an assortment of crystals, strange esoteric materials that had Nate laughing at her expression,
"Yeah the psionic, and magic stuff can be a bit crazy, trust me you will see weirder here."
Eventually Nate had sorted out all the coursework materials Synthaera needed, which completely filled one trolley. With a wave Nate headed back to the counter after Synthaera thanked him for his help. Next Synthaera went looking through the store at a more leisurely pace to find stuff that was useful, interesting, or just fun, plus school uniform skirts, and blouses and blazer with the Whateley crest on the breast pocket.
As Synthaera wandered the store she found herself picking a selection of music, a chiller cabinet to go in her dorm room, the school actually carried a chiller designed for vampires, plus an insulated drinks container that could hold a blood unit chilled for 18 hours at a time. She found stab proof vests, I mean seriously a high school where they stock stab proof vests?, knuckledusters, Ultra Sunblock SPF 100!, Yeah I better have me some of that, as well as an emergency survival blanket that provided insulation from infrared but also UV light. She thought it might be useful for an emergency daylight kit and stuck it in the trolley.
There was a cool selection of posters as well, and a mini hifi. The fiction section had a real good selection of horror and fantasy so she put a few of er favourite authors in as well, then moving on Synthaera found a nice deep pile rug in a dark purple that would feel great underfoot, and cushions for her bed, and there was a clear film that claimed that when applied to the inside of a window guaranteed to block all UV which went in the trolley as well.
Synthaera had decided that she needed to downplay her vampirism as much as possible to try and avoid getting targeted by people like these Goober idiots she had been told about. Having her room permanently dark would just attract attention she really did not want so she hoped the film was as good as it claimed. She would have to test the Ultra Sunblock on her skin, maybe it would allow her to spend some time in the sunshine, she was not looking forward to the pain of a failed test though.
Eventually she decided that was enough and headed to the till, paying while revelling in the unknown sensation of her bank balance was not even seriously dented by the shopping trip. Nate arranged to have her shopping transported across to her dorm for a small charge, although when he found out she was in Poe Cottage the good looking guy suddenly seemed wary.
Yeah the Poesies have a rep all right.
After a few more hours wandering around in the tunnels and campus buildings, just exploring and trying to get to know the layout a little, Synthaera had headed back to Poe, and found that her shopping had been delivered. The bags seemed really light considering how much stuff she had bought, but she did not have big enough hands to get all the handles, so ended up making three trips. Eventually it was all dumped in her room, just in time to head back downstairs to meet Circe, who she found waiting on the outer foyer.
"Oh, I'm sorry you had to wait for me Circe, I didn't realise I was late?"
"You're not Synthaera, I just enjoy the view from here outside Poe and I came along a few minutes early, so you've nothing to worry about. Come along let's go and see Cecilia."
The drive into Dunwich did not take long, the two women chatting, Circe pointing out the sights and the occasional house where a member of staff lived, while Synthaera asked questions about Whateley and magic. Circe pulled her Camaro up outside a very nice looking boutique on Dunwich's main street. It was simply marked as 'Cecilia Rogers Seamstress' and the sign said it was closed.
Circe ignored the sign and knocked at the door. Synthaera did not know what she was expecting, after all what do seamstresses look like, but a beautiful woman who looked at most in her late twenties, with a mane of brunette and auburn hair that was as long and as thick as her own was not what she had pictured. Cecilia and Circe hugged with evident affection, and then Cecilia beckoned them in.
"Circe, it is wonderful to see you again, how have you been? Is this young lady your latest project then? I did not realise you were going to take on any more students this year?"
"It is great to see you as well Cecilia, it is too long since I got into Dunwich just to come and visit, instead of work. This is Synthaera Givens, I have been asked to serve as her councillor and after looking through her file I agreed, even though I thought Fey would be enough this year. She has had quite the time and has some unique issues, and in some ways is very similar to Fey as well. Synthaera, Cecilia is one of Whateley's former alumni, as well as a dear friend and student of mine, and she is undoubtedly the best seamstress on the planet. You can speak freely here."
Synthaera had slung on a college hoodie over tshirt and jeans for the trip into Dunwich, now as they stepped into the boutique she threw back the hoodie, allowing Cecilia a proper view.
"Oh my, another Sidhe I do believe, but such pale skin, no colour, the canines, truly Circe a Sidhe and vampire?"
"Not quite Cecilia feel her pulse."
A slightly bemused Synthaera stood still, looking around as the graceful seamstress rested two fingers lightly on her throat. The store was well lit, a raised floor with a pair of what looked like tailors mannequin on it at one end, racks upon racks of fabrics of all colours and textures, and a bizarre looking cubicle that was enormous.
"I would have said this was impossible Circe, she is living, the pulse is slow but it is true. I'm sorry dear we're making you uncomfortable, Circe and I have always been ones for a good discussion, come long and we will get you sorted. Now then what are we going to need?"
Synthaera looked at Circe for direction, but fortunately her councillor recognised her confusion.
"She needs pretty much everything Cecilia, she arrived at the school with a carry bag and that is it, funds are not an issue however, her sponsors have been generous.
Synthaera was hesitant to interrupt the adults, "Um Circe? I did some shopping earlier at the school store, I bought some uniforms and clothes and stuff."
"Oh I didn't realise, well really the clothes Cecilia can do for you are far superior, and you won't have to keep on replacing them either, so I would recommend get uniforms especially here plus some other looks, and we will arrange a refund for the store goods."
"Um okay?"
Synthaera felt bewildered and knew she looked it, which made her feel embarrassed as well. Wasn't she supposed to buy her clothes? What could be wrong with the store stock? Cecilia took pity on her, explaining.
"Synthaera have you had your powers testing yet? No? Okay your vampirism has made you stronger, faster than you were? Right well unfortunately it is a common experience of students with the affliction, we have had a few over the years that they end up getting targeted, hassled fights etc. In a full on fight with other students at Whateley your ordinary school uniforms would be in tatters in minutes, they are simply not designed to cope with the stresses and strains involved, and that could be at best embarrassing, at worst deadly, you understand?"
Synthaera thought about being naked in the direct sunshine and nodded while she winced.
"Good, well the clothes that I will make for you will look much better, and fit you exactly, but also are designed to cope with tremendous strains so they are far more durable, plus my guarantee means that if they get damaged, simply return them to me and I repair or replace them free of charge. So you are going to need protection from sunlight for your whole body, as well as physical protection."
Cecilia turned back to Circe, "Anything else Circe?"
"Well she is also a magic user of some type, so materials that will not interfere, and which could hold an enchantment would be helpful."
"Okay. Synthaera, have you decided on a look? You are getting a new wardrobe, and as beautiful as you are you are going to make a statement what do you want to say?"
The teen's defensive body language crossing her arms under her breasts, and the mixture of bewilderment, pride, and embarrassment confirmed what Cecilia had suspected. She gave Circe a look, which had the older woman move away to give them some space, then gently held the girl's shoulders.
"How long?"
Synthaera looked up "Huh?"
"How long have you been a girl dear?" Her voice was very gentle, but it might as well have been a lash.
Synthaera flinched visibly and stared at her feet, refusing to look at the beautiful seamstress, platinum cascading around her face to hide it. She adored her new body, it felt so right, so wonderful, but she didn't know [i]anything,[/] and this was so embarrassing, and now she was going to cry again, and she did not know why she felt so freaked and...
A slim gentle hand under her chin made her look up. Cecilia's eyes were kind and compassionate.
"It's quite all right Synthaera, I've helped many girls in the same situation as you, there are quite a few in Whateley this year in fact. It's nothing to be ashamed of that you don't know the answer. You haven't had years to learn what being a girl means have you?" A small shake of Synthaera's head answered her.
"Okay so how long?"
"Almost two weeks." That answer did surprise Cecilia, she had thought months at least as, when she was not on the spot, Synthaera had been carrying herself and moving well. Cecilia smiled and got a shy smile in return.
"Then I think you are doing very well. How do you feel about your new body Synthaera?" Cecilia asked.
"I...I love it."
The answer was quiet but the girl held her gaze firmly. Cecilia's smile widened to a grin, and she gave the teen a gentle kiss on the forehead, sweeping her hair back behind her ears.
"I am very happy for you Synthaera, that you have what you wanted and needed. Well then, if it is advice on clothes you need you have come to the right place my dear. Shall we start?"
"Yes please."
This time Synthaera's response was happy and firm, amethyst eyes sparkling and she stood taller. It amazed her how fast her moods changed, how much she felt now compared to her life before. Cecilia's acceptance and happiness for her meant much more than she thought it would, but now that was confirmed she found she was eager to get started. Circe had rejoined them, and looked happy as well, while the seamstress seemed engrossed in studying her. Cecilia walked around her shop for a moment of two, checking fabrics before turning back to her.
"So, what kind of girl are you Synthaera? Are you a good girl? A bad girl? Tomboy? Princess? Tease and a flirt? Demure and shy? Preppie? Goth? Sexy and sophisticated? Tough and independent? Heartbreaker? You have so many choices now, and you are going to have a whole lot of fun. What do you think?" Cecilia had a wide grin on her face as she teased and challenged the teen.
"Who am I? Well I'm proud of my new body and I want my clothes to say that. I've had to be pretty independent, but I don't want to be seen as the tough bad girl type. Somehow I don't think I will ever be Daddy's good little girl or a preppie princess. I want to be able to flirt and tease the boys or girls if I want to, and be demure and shy if it suits me, but overall? I want to play down the whole vampire thing, so that is a big no to the whole Goth thing, plus Goth with platinum hair like mine? I want people to look at me and think wow that is a sexy, independent, sophisticated woman who can kick my ass, not that's a vampire."
As she spoke Synthaera marvelled how Cecilia was pulling this out of her, and at the same time solidifying her sense of identity that was still only nascent as a girl. She began speaking thinking and finished confident that what she had said was absolutely right. With a big grin she went and gave Cecilia a hug and kiss of thanks, not saying a word. Synthaera knew she did not have to, Cecilia knew what she meant.
"Oh my Circe, this girl is going to be a handful on campus! Well Synthaera I just know you are going to feel awesome when I get finished with you, but first I need you to go in the cubicle there and follow the instructions so we can get you properly measured."
"Okay Cecilia." Synthaera headed off, not seeing the two adults share a grin, taking quiet pleasure in her development.
The cubicle was huge but not intimidating. Following the pleasant robotic voice, Synthaera stripped and placed her clothes in a drawer which slid back into the wall. Then she stood and followed the instructions and the display screen as it had her stretch, stand, touch her toes, sit, squat, and dozens of other positions while the machine scanned her dimensions with the accuracy of a laser. Eventually the drawer opened again and returned her clothes, and she got dressed again, and stepped out of the cubicle.
Back in the shop Synthaera found Circe talking with Cecilia. She joined them on the raised floor level by the tailor's mannequin, before gasping with surprise as she realised that somehow the mannequin had morphed into a perfect full size reproduction of her body.
"Wow, that can't be me?" Synthaera exclaimed in delight.
"Yes it is, your bod is that hot girl, you are going to have them eating out of the palm of your hand. Now, time for me to do my magic, first we do the school uniforms, then some hot, sexy sophisticated clothes for you. Now I am assuming you do not want to be going to night classes all the time, so we need to make sure you are protected from the sun." Cecilia held a swatch of stretch cloth for Synthaere.to feel "This material is a fabric that was developed in Whateley, it will form your bodysuit Synthaera."
"Bodysuit?"
"Yes, during the daytime the suit will completely protect you from UV. It also wicks away body moisture and excess heat, is waterproof, provides you with a high level protection from heat, cold and electrical sources, as well as being stab and slash proof to a much degree than a comparable Kevlar and Mylar weave. It will come in two sections to cover up to your jaw line with a detachable hood of the same material, as well as gloves. And seeing how it is skin tight and graphite in colour, you are going to look hotter than hell. Sound good?"
"Wow, yeah."
"I thought so too. Watch this."
Cecilia gestured with her hand and suddenly the stretchy graphite material was flying unaided off the spool that had extended from its rack, before separating from the spool and flying to the tailor mannequin where the material moulded itself to the form. Synthaera could see, and Cecilia explained as she worked how the bodysuit would form in layers, and that would lift her and support her bust, while making the most of her slim taut waist, lifting and shaping her heart shaped bottom for maximum devastating effect.
She realised that in effect the body suit was a complete costume, and as it formed it definitely looked very hot. She could go clubbing in a suit like that and people would drool. And that is just my underwear? Wow. It was one thing to know you have a great body intellectually. Synthaera knew that she was 5'10" with a 36 -22- 36 body and a D cup. After all Aeron had known everything there was know about Synthaera, had idolised her as his ideal form, but to actually see how hot her body looked from another person's view while clad in the skintight graphite fabric, made her proud, happy and a little turned on.
For the next two hours Cecilia worked, and by the end of it she had produced 3 changes of school uniform for Synthaera, as well as 3 body suits, 2 in graphite and 1 in black, as well as having planned and discussed Synthaera new wardrobe, which taking the lead from the girl's glorious platinum mane was going to use deep metallic jades, azures, and purples for striking colour to offset her pale perfect complexion. Cecilia had been determined that Synthaera would start as she meant to go on from this point on, and she was adamant that no customer of hers would be leaving her boutique in basic jeans and a t shirt.
Then Cecilia had declared that leather, suede and silk were going to be Syntharea's signature materials, so once the basics for school were completed, the seamstress had set to once more. Circe and her student watched in fascination as with a wave of her hand, Cecilia had a spool of the finest, softest leather forming onto the mannequin, seeming to melt into a pair of boot cut leather pants coloured a dark caramel. The pants seemed like they were painted on and were simply stunning. Next, silk formed into a fitted long sleeved blouse in a dark fuchsia. Knee high leather boots with 3" heels, and a long coat were next.
Synthaera loved the boots but had to admit that the split long coat was her favourite. Perfectly cut to her shape, in an imperial fashion double breasted fashion as soon as Cecilia began it Synthaera absolutely fell in love. Beautifully soft leather again, lined in silk, with a deep cowl she could through back in the shadows Cecilia explained that the long coat was also armoured with both a layer of the devisor fabric, but also small panels of lightweight devisor armour, that would offer a high degree of protection against small arms. The long coat was also impregnated so that no matter the weather the leather would never suffer from moisture. Overall it was practical, very sexy, and very feminine.
Only once the whole outfit was complete was Synthaera allowed to take the clothes plus one of the bodysuits back to the cubicle to change. Once inside Synthaera got changed. The bodysuit clung to her body, but the leather pants could have been sprayed on, and they fit wonderfully! The blouse was next, she left off her t shirt bra as the body suit gave such good support. She pulled on the boots, loving the effect the 3" heels had on her legs and bottom. Looking over her shoulder in the cubicle mirror Synthaera had a momentary concern that such beautiful clothes would turn her into a complete narcissist, but after a moments reflection she decided she did not care, if they made her feel this good.
Slipping into the armoured imperial long coat, Synthaera decided that in this outfit she had sexy independent and sophisticated down in spades. Ceclia was a genius. Stepping out of the cubicle to Circe's clap of appreciation and Cecilia's smug comment that she still had it, Synthaera gave the adults a twirl, feeling the long coat swirling around her before crossing the room to give the seamstress a fierce hug.
"Cecilia you are a genius, these clothes feel so good, I feel like a million dollars, thank you so much."
"You are welcome Synthaera, I must say you do look quite stunning. Circe I think that you ought to get this young lady to the salon to be properly looked after. She is beautiful now but with the proper makeup, and hair, Whateley won't know what hit it. I am just glad to see you leaving my shop in something decent rather than jeans and a t shirt. I will have the rest of your wardrobe ready over the next few days Synthaera. I will call you to arrange collection or delivery when they are finished."
Once payment was sorted out, and this time Synthaera had managed a significant dent in her allowance, Circe bundled the excited but tired teen into the Camaro and they headed back to Whateley, the boot full of body suits, and school uniforms. At the entrance to Poe, Synthaera unloaded her new belongings, and after giving Circe a very sincere thanks and a hug, headed inside leaving a smiling councillor to watch the stars before she headed home.
Inside Poe, Synthaera wished Belle was around to show her clothes to but it did not matter. With a fast clacking of her heels on the floor she made her way upstairs. It had been a long day, and tomorrow was to be her Powers testing, with a 9am start, which to a teenager seemed like cruel and unusual punishment on a Sunday. Still she could expect to see students returning tomorrow as well, so perhaps she could make some friends soon.
[Updated on: Tue, 20 September 2011 18:37]
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| Re: Synthaera (the post crash edition) [message #40084 is a reply to message #39957 ] |
Fri, 27 May 2011 04:28 |
blayze
Messages: 30
Registered: May 2011
Location: Durham, UK |
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Sunday 4th March 2007
Sunday morning dawned, but all you could really say for it, was that the clouds which had moved in during the night, were not actually raining yet. The cloud cover was thick, the air was damp, and it felt like that before long the rain would be hammering down. Synthaera had not yet put up the UV film on her window, so she was not going to spend anytime gazing out. It was 7am when her alarm went off and pulling on her robe she headed off to the bathroom. 30 minutes later she was back in her room, drying her hair while her legs gradually began to behave themselves. Those showers were awesome.
By 8am she was dried, dressed in bodysuit, sportswear and trainers as suggested by the introductory packet for her Powers Testing, plus a liberal covering of Ultra Sunblock. She had quickly finished putting away her prizes from her shopping expeditions then, satisfied that if anyone poked their head in to see the new girl they would not find her room a complete bombsite, she slipped on her hoodie and headed to Crystal Hall. Stepping outside into the grey light was a nervous moment for her but the bodysuit did its job. No crispy critter today. With a sigh of relief she started walking.
There were a few more people around the Crystal Hall this morning, but no one paid her any attention as she grabbed a bowl of cereals, some juice and a croissant, before moving across to the special needs aisle, and presenting her ID to the serving lady, who checked her screen and then brought Synthaera her insulated drink container. Looking around she headed across to one of the many empty tables and grabbed a seat.
As she ate her cereals she decided to save her orange juice for after the blood. Synthaera was busy thinking about her Powers Testing when a friendly voice called her name and moments later Belle reached down and gave her a quick hug before slipping into place opposite her.
"Heya Synthaera, how're you doing? What were you up to yesterday? Sorry I missed you in the morning."
Belle looked fresh and cheerful, and her own tray was piled up with pancakes and maple syrup. Synthaera raised an eyebrow at the very American breakfast and Belle grinned, and gave a shrug that eloquently admitted a love of pancakes.
"Hi Belle, I'm fine thanks. I spent yesterday with administration and with my councillor."
"Ooh, who did you get?"
"Circe."
Belle coughed as the OJ she was swallowing went down the wrong tube. She coughed again before speaking, her normally melodious voice a little squeaky.
"Really? Circe? Wow. She doesn't take on many students either as a councillor or a teacher, and even fewer freshies, so you must have done something to impress her."
"I dunno Belle, she said I was interesting and that I had a unique set of circumstances so far as she knew, so when she was asked about being my councillor she said yes. She seemed nice enough, but I already know I would not want to have her mad at me. Her eyes, she just looks through you at times, and she totally radiates power you know."
"Oh yes I know, I'm a wizard myself, and Circe is awesome. You can learn a huge amount from her. I mean how cool is that having the Circe as a councillor and teacher."
"Yeah so I sorted my schedule with her, and then went shopping. I wish you had been around you could have helped me with clothes and stuff, I have no idea what to get. So I got basic stuff, and a rug and cushions and books, that shop is incredible. They sell stab proof vests! This is a school isn't it?"
Belle grinned again before turning momentarily serious, "Whateley is a school sure, but there are a lot of students who are not nice people at all. Plus the bigots and stuff I told you about. It's dangerous here Synthaera. I really need to get you introduced to people as soon as I can so you have some friends to look out for you, especially the other changelings in Poe." Synthaera was taken aback by Belle's serious tone, she had gotten the idea that Belle Forbes did not do serious.
"Jeez Belle, you sound worried, I'm sure I'll make some friends okay. I sure hope so."
Belle grimaced, "I know you'll make friends okay Synthaera, you're lovely, but there are so many arseholes here, everyone needs someone to look out for them, especially when you have something that will freak some idiots out like vampirism. Here it's like having a big target on your back. Anyway Team Kimba will back later today so you can get to meet them."
"Who or what is Team Kimba? Wasn't that like the Lion King or something?"
Belle chuckled "Yeah it's a daft name I know but that's Jade's fault, it just stuck somehow. Okay so this year we have way more changelings than normal. We usually get one or two changelings in a year, but this year we got six at the start, and they are all in Poe with you. So because we changelings need to hang together, I got the girls and Hank to form a training team, six being just about perfect for a really good team. They all hit it off and are firm friends, plus they are good. Team Kimba have mixed it up with some of the biggest and baddest in Whateley and come out on top mostly."
Belle grinned, she was proud of her fellow changelings.
"We've had more changelings during the year and some are associated or friends with the Kimbas as well. They have been involved in some really crazy nightmare stuff this year but they are good people to know. They have enemies as well, and being in with Kimba will put you on some shitlists but to be honest, the people who take exception to Kimba are mostly the same people as will take exception to you Synthaera, just for being you, so you are better off knowing them and having the back up, when you need it."
"Makes sense I'll look forward to meeting them."
"Well they will be back in Poe tonight, so I will come grab you to say hello when they are in. What you doing for the rest of the day?"
"Hmm well I have my powers testing today, starting at 9am."
"Oooh, just what you need on a Sunday. Well you could be there hours, so I might not see you until tonight. The lab geeks are terrible for forgetting about food though so I will get some food sent down for you at lunch time okay?
"Yeah good idea, thanks Belle."
"No problem at all Synthaera I have to look out for my latest freshie! Did you think about your codename at all? You need to choose it or one of the lab guys will just land you with something and knowing them it will be awful."
"Gah, I was trying to think about it last night, it's hard thinking of something good you know, especially as I do not want it to be about being a vampire, I want to play that down if I can, try to make myself less obvious."
"Good call Synthaera, it is way too easy to be pigeonholed as evil or as a tramp if you play up the vamp thing."
"Jeez I never thought about being branded as a tramp! I was just thinking to make myself a smaller target." Synthaera was shocked, it had not occurred to her.
"Sorry hun, you say hot vampire girl to people and they tend to think about dirty sex and excessive hickies and that's about it."
"Oh God! What kind of names do Team Kimba have then?"
"Well Nikki Riley is Fey, Jade Sinclair is Generator, Toni Chandler is Chaka," Belle counted them off on her fingers, "Billie Wilson is Tennyo, Ayla Goodkind is Phase, that's all the girls plus Hank Declan is Lancer."
Belle sniggered knowing full well that Hank would be red faced with embarrassment again if he was here.
"Oh, so why those names?"
"Fey because she is Sidhe like you and a very seriously powerful wizard, Generator's codename is to throw people off what her powers are, Chaka is the uber martial artist, Tennyo is our resident escapee from manga, Phase's name describes her powers as a warper and Lancer, well Hank is a military brat and is the team's brick. He's like old fashioned heavy cavalry, nigh on indestructible and just keeps on coming. So did you think of anything last night?"
"Gah, but I don't even know what my powers are yet!"
Synthaera sounded frustrated, after all she wanted a cool name, what teenage girl does not want her friends to think they are cool? But now she was a bit confused about which way to go with her name. Belle sat across the table and watched the younger girl. Synthaera's fears about being branded evil were valid and the worst part of it was Belle knew that the new freshman had already experienced the baser sides of humanity outside of Whateley.
"So do you have any ideas then Syn?"
"How about something like Aurora?, that sounds cool."
"Aurora, hmmm, nothing corny or dodgy springs to mind so it passes the smut test, it comes out at night, kind of a reference to vamps, definitely seems magical, hey that's a cool name. Oh wait, there's a student using Aurora here, she's one of the Cadet Crusaders. Sorry Synthaera you will have to think of something else."
Belle couldn't help but grin kindly as her new friend pouted and wracked her brains.
"I know! Belle does anyone here use the name Danu?"
Belle's smile widened, "The Fey Mother Goddess of Ireland? No, I have never heard anyone use Danu. We have a Dani which is kind of close I suppose but they don't sound that alike. I've no idea if any supers or villains are using it outside of Whateley for sure, but I don't think so. Why Danu?"
"Well it's simple, I like the sound of it, it links to the Fey who I want to acknowledge, and I think it is vague enough that it does not tell anyone too much. What do you think Belle? Yes? No? I could do with some help here Belle I was thinking about codenames at 3am you know."
"Yes. Go for it, Danu it is. Is fits you and you're right it does not give too much away. There you see that wasn't so hard was it?"
Belle giggled as 'Danu' just stared at her, while thinking about the hours she had spent pondering names.
"Come on Danu, follow me and I will take you to the med lab for your physical, if we don't go soon you will be late for your appointment."
The girls cleared their dishes, stacked their trays and headed off to the tunnels. The Biomedical testing facilities were apparently over by Whateley's medical facility which did not take long to reach through the tunnels. When they arrived, Belle told the nurse on duty that Synthaera was there for her medical before powers testing, and asked which test facility Synthaera would be in afterwards so she could sort out lunch. The nurse checked her paperwork,
"Well Synthaera is scheduled for testing in labs W, P and M, so your best bet Belle would be to take the food to the lab facilities reception and ask them where she is."
"Okay I'll do that then. See you at lunchtime then Danu." Belle turned and headed off with a friendly wave.
Synthaera watched as her friend left the med lab area, before turning back to the nurse who smiled and asked "Danu? Is that your codename then?"
When the teen confirmed this the nurse did a notation on the file before turning back to the student.
"All ready dear?"
Syntahera nodded and then followed as the nurse led her into a changing room and handed her a hospital backless robe,
"I will be back in about five minutes with Doctor Tennant dear, if you could get changed and pop your clothes into that locker then just wait here."
Danu slipped out of her clothes and then took off her bodysuit, pulling on the white hospital gown with a scowl. Being in a small draught definitely made her aware of how comfortable, warm, and supportive the bodysuit was. She was not cold, cold did not seem to really affect her anymore, but rubbing of the loose robe on her nipples, and the slight draught up her legs she was aware of.
Behave yourself girl, you cannot go into a medical exam horny and poking out!
She tied the robe behind her, and stood there waiting for the nurse to come back.
The nurse and Doctor Tennant arrived and he introduced himself as Raul, before leading her through to the medical testing room.
"Right then Danu, now that we've updated the file, your medical records will be rendered anonymous under your codename. For security purposes everything we do from here on in will be referred to by your codename, and they will repeat this warning at the various labs. From here on in the med tests will be recorded okay."
"Yes Doctor."
"Good okay first if you could step this way we have a physical check up to run through, followed by a MRI scan and an upgraded PET scan, and then we have a female doctor here to do your screening."
Danu had vaguely known about stirrups and speculums but being completely unaware of the prospect of a having a doctor checking her down there, Synthaera made the mistake of asking what the screening was for. After Raul had kindly explained that she would be examined to ensure she was healthy and completely formed, the rest of the medical exams passed in a blur for the slightly freaked out girl.
The physical included a half dozen syringes of her black blood being drawn, blood that would be run through a battery of tests, as well as DNA samples, saliva samples, pulse rate, lung capacity, urine samples. The doctors noted that virtually as soon as the needle was withdrawn from drawing blood the wound was healed, and a note was made that regen would need to be tested.
Danu was made to lie in the Medlab's devisor enhanced MRI machine for a half hour, while the machine took a hundreds of sectional views of her anatomy. Raul studied the imagery as it built up, jotting down notes, and commenting to Danu afterwards that her biological makeup was now somewhat different to human normal, and also different to the Sidhe biology that they had observed previously.
On a cellular level her cells did not register the allergic response to synthetics or the presence of iron that Sidhe suffered from, and her bloodwork was not even vaguely normal having more in common with an ichor that stored energy than the plasma and platelets a biologist would recognise as blood.
The MRI scan also showed that her stomach was much smaller than normal as was her appendix and intestines. The whole digestive system seemed much simpler than normal. Raul theorised that her normal digestion was basically no longer needed as she now subsisted off the life force within blood, or otherwise obtained, and the simpler digestion remaining was simply there to take advantage of what little life energy there might be in more mainstream foodstuffs.
Oh great I was right, eating breakfast is basically just for show, camouflage for the predator.
When she asked what otherwise obtained meant, Rau asked if Danu was aware of what a Succubus was.
"I think it's a mythological demon that feeds off guys' um manhood."
"Pretty close Danu, except they are not mythological at all, most definitely real. They feed off the masculine essence within males, during the sexual act, that essence being contained in the male's ejaculate."
"Okay Doc, a totally gross image but I understand it, so why is that relevant?"
"Well, essentially the vampiric feeding method is pretty much almost identical to Succubi, just tuned a little differently I suppose you could say. In fact it is more efficient in that vampires are not limited to male or female, they consume life essence, which is extremely concentrated in both male and female ejaculate, far more so than in blood actually."
"Okay Doctor Tennant, just to clarify here, you're telling me vampires can also feed by having sex? That's not something I've heard before, and I know I would have remembered."
"Not quite Danu, vampires can feed by consuming male or female ejaculate, not the physical act of sex itself. Succubi have bodies that consume male essence irrespective of which orifice that ejaculate is present in. Vampires can only consume the life force orally. I have checked the MRI and PET scans, on the chance that your biology is slightly different again as you are essentially a live vampire and not undead, but your system appears to be vampire norm in that regard."
For all that he was engaged in a medical exam and discussing medical information in a somewhat objective manner, Dr Tennant was a youngish decent looking guy. Danu wanted to crawl under a rock and die of mortification.
Oh my God. The doctor is kindly informing me that if I do not want to drink blood, I can give some guy a blow job or go down on a girl... I am so not going there for a few years ... Oh God I am going to be sick.
"Excuse me Doc, I need to go to the toilet." She hurried out, leaving behind her a slightly surprised physician.
A few minutes later Danu returned having left her cereals behind, and looking if possible even paler than normal, and Doctor Tennant apologised for going off on a tangent, seemingly oblivious. The rest of the scan information showed that her musculature was much denser than human norm, her skeletal structure a lot stronger and lighter and nervous system far more advanced than human, all in keeping with medical data from vampires.
Eventually Raul was finished his exam and said farewell, explaining that once they had more data from her blood work and associated tests she would be informed by her councillor, and if they needed her again they would let her know. He told her that his colleague Susan Philps would be in shortly, and left with a friendly wave. Danu watched him leave glad that she no longer seemed able to blush, because she was sure her whole body would be bright red.
Susan Philps turned out to be a petite woman in her early forties, who walked briskly in as and smiled brightly at her patient.
"Good morning Danu, my name is Dr Philps, but you can call me Susan, how are you today?"
"Fine thank you Susan." She didn't sound convinced and knew it. Susan glanced at her, took in her nervous expression and body language and gave a compassionate chuckle
"First exam dear?" Danu nodded, a bit jerkily.
"Okay, I know it is a bit scary but don't worry sweetie, I will take good care of you, and we will be all done in no time. Now come and lie down.."
A short time later, with her first gynaecological exam out the way, the sensation of a speculum inside her far too fresh in her mind, Danu was able to get changed back into her clothes, finding herself feeling a lot more secure and less vulnerable once she had her body suit on. Susan had been kind and gentle, explaining to the girl what she was doing and why, before pronouncing that everything appeared to be formed correctly. She had also explained that due to Danu' mutation including vampirism they were unsure of whether or not she would be able to bear children, and would be working out what tests they could do in the future to determine that.
Danu was happy to tell Susan that pregnancy was not on her plans full stop. Susan had grinned gently at her, and given her a hug before telling her that you never knew, and if she ever needed to talk she was always available, plus admonishing her that as a beautiful girl she was always going to propositioned for sex, and that when she felt she was likely to become sexually active to ensure she was safe and used protection. Feeling about five years old Danu had promised to be a good girl and fled as soon as Susan let her escape, remembering the nurse's instructions and heading down the tunnel system following the signs for Arena 77, until eventually coming to Testing Lab W.
The Testing Facility reception was clean, white, and minimalist, with a counter that had an ultra thin computer display on it, and a half dozen chairs against the opposite wall. A woman who looked as though she was in her late teens or early twenties was working behind the counter, clad in the ubiquitous uniform of the scientist, the white lab coat. A name tag on her coat read 'Maria Winskill'. Synthaera waited a second before realising that Maria had not realised she had walked in.
"Um excuse me?"
Maria sat bolt upright with an "Eeep, don't do that, I hate people sneaking up on me like that."
"Sorry, I'm here for my powers testing appointment. My name is Synthaera Givens."
"Hmmph, okay, Givens? Ahha, found you. Right follow me and I will take you through to Dr Hewley and Dr Shandy, they are doing your testing today. Come on fresh thing."
Maria grabbed a clipboard and managing to express her discontent at being interrupted with her rapid pace, set off down a corridor, without a backwards glance. Synthaera glared for a second at the retreating lab coat then quickly followed.
The main lab was a mass of esoteric machinery, armoured glass, weird gym equipment and loads of other strange stuff. Synthaera gawped as she saw a weight marked at 10,000kg. Maria walked in and told the scientists that their appointment for powers testing had arrived, then turned and stalked past Synthaera with a sniff and a glare. Danu did not know what she had done to so upset the rude receptionist and was briefly thinking about braining the girl, when the bass voice of one of the two men in the lab caught her attention.
"Miss Givens, thank you for coming at such short notice, and on a Sunday as well. As Dr Hewley and I were both here today we decided it was a good opportunity to get your testing done before school resumes. Oh and sorry about that, please don't mind Maria, she is not in the best of moods this morning. Now my name is Dr Richard Hewley, and my colleague here is Dr Jared Shandy."
"Um, nice to meet you both, and I am glad to get my powers tested, as I do not really know what I am doing so any help is welcome, besides there is no one else around and I would have been bored out of my mind." Synthaera shook hands with the two men.
"Very good. Now do you have a codename yet, Miss Givens?"
"Yes Doctor, I was going to use Aurora, but was told it is in use, so I will be using Danu instead."
"Okay," Dr Shandy moved across to his PC station, flicked through some software screens and then updated his files with Synthaera's codename. "well according to the database the codename Danu is available so I have registered it for your use while at Whateley Academy. I need to remind you that these tests will be recorded and for your own security and safety at all times your codename will be used from here on in. Do you understand Danu?"
"Yes Doctor I do."
"Excellent. Come this way and we will get organised. Now first of all I need you to go behind the partition there and get changed into this body suit." Seeing her dubious look at the white fabric, Dr Shandy elaborated.
"The body suit incorporates dozens of sensors Danu, and these transmit data on body temperature, perspiration and various other things for analysis. The suit also incorporates a gripping surface on the soles of the feet so you can still get a grip."
Still not completely thrilled at the idea, Danu went and got changed, with the lab bodysuit fitting her like a glove as she expected. Still when she went back around the partition the two scientists were busy discussing the order of tests to be carried out, and barely glanced at her fabulous form.
Geeks.
She did not know whether to be insulted at their lack of interest or relieved and more comfortable at the prospect of the testing being carried out without her being perved at by two older guys. Shaking her head at her thoughts she waited while the two men got organised and then Dr Hewley told her the plan.
"Okay Danu first of all we need to conduct your physical testing. The purpose of this is to establish your physical baseline, what you are capable of now. As you get older and train and get more experienced, you will probably be able to do somewhat more than now. However it is information that is useful, plus it means that if something happens and you need help, or for some reason, security is needed to restrain you, the file has a good idea of your capabilities so people do not get hurt. So if you could follow me please, through to the gymnasium."
Dr Hewley led her through the bizarre machines until they stood amongst gym equipment. Some of the machinery was only vaguely recognisable while others were fairly obvious. Dr Hewley directed her to a treadmill.
"Okay if you can start running for me please Danu, at a comfortable jog, and hold that speed. Later I will get you to speed up some."
Danu ran, the treadmill whirring away beneath her. She knew that she was running quicker than she used to sprint, but this was easy, it felt like she was jogging so she held the speed for the scientists.
"Danu don't sprint but run as quickly as you could normally." She sped up and held the speed. Ten 10 minutes later the girl was showing no signs of slowing, or any signs of tiredness. Dr Hewley pulled Dr Shandy across to the readouts.
"Jared, look, she has no sign of fatigue products at all, body temperature is still unchanged, and her pulse has not even changed."
Richard's tone was excited, as it always was when he got engrossed in lab work. A student who defied the basic workings of the human body was always interesting, although this student was not really human anymore, which made her even more interesting.
"I know Rich but have you seen the speed?"
"No, how fast is Danu going?" Their voices were low but Danu could still here them.
"The last 10 minutes have been averaging 41 mph"
"Extraordinary. Was it noted down that she is a speedster?"
41mph? I'm running at 41mph. But I'm not exerting myself really at all here. I know I moved way faster when Mum and I were ambushed, when I let the vamp loose. Do I tell them or keep it to myself? Have to think about that.
Jared's voice jarred her from her thoughts. "Danu can I have a sprint now please?"
She did not answer merely started to pump her legs flat out, but still without the surge of power and speed the vampirism gave her when it was loose, like a turbo.
"Jared, Danu just clipped 65mph, and holding."
Danu was running as fast as she could now without letting her control on the predator within, feeling the extra power and strength ready within her.
I need to found out how fast I can go, what I am capable of, I am going to have to tell them.
"Danu can you drop down to the fast run you were doing before?"
"Wait Doctor Shandy I am sure I can go faster than this, but to do so I will need to change slightly and I don't know how much control I have. It could be dangerous for you."
"Oh? Well then Richard and I will retreat to the bunker over there, when we are ready we will let you know Danu."
The two scientists dragged themselves away from the computer screens and headed into the lab's heavily armoured bunker, securing it behind them, moving to stand and watch the girl on the treadmill through the heavy window.
"Ready, go ahead Danu."
The girl never stopped moving but suddenly Richard pointed and Jared saw the beautiful exotic Sidhe features snarl, the huge amethyst eyes changing completely black, fangs lengthening, her stride moving from efficiently graceful to a feral predatory sprint. For twenty seconds the vampire ran flat out, before Danu reverted and slowed to a jogging pace and then a walk. In the bunker the testers were studying their instruments, jotting down notes and arguing between themselves as to how to proceed next. Leaving the bunker, they ignored Danu still and ran to their readouts from her bodysuit.
"Look Jared, her pulse rate soared during that burst, but it still is only hit 45 beats per minute. That is insane. Still no perspiration, Body temperature has risen slightly, how fast was she going Jared?"
"She hit 152mph Richard."
"My word. Danu how do you feel now?"
"I am fine Doctor Hewley, although I don't think I could keep up that pace long. When I let the vampire loose it kind of feels like the whole world just slows down, like I am boosted."
"Interesting, Jared I think we will need to run parallel tests, with and without this boosting effect that Danu refers to."
"I concur Richard, but if the rest of her physical abilities show similar differences under boost I am not sure how we will categorise that."
"Quite, my friend, quite." Dr Hewley already had his attention buried in the mass of data from the body suit again, taking more notes and writing questions.
"I think we will need to study Danu's blood work very closely, and see if we can find an explanation there." Dr Shandy noted.
"True Jared, but I for one am not keen to ask Danu for blood when she is not restraining the vampire side of her. I suspect it might not be healthy." Dr Shandy muttered his agreement.
"Danu we are going to run two sets of tests, with and without you using your vampire abilities, but for the time being I would like to conduct the testing without. Just do the best that you can within your normal abilities please."
"Okay Doctor." Danu was happy to have heard that, she was still uncomfortable with letting the vampire loose, but at least now she knew she would find out what she could do with and without it, and hopefully gain help in exercising control. She knew she could control it, but the incident with Zach Lawson had shown her it was difficult.
Next the doctors said they would test her stamina, and they asked her to carry on running at her normal maximum although not sprinting. After 10 minutes they began raising the angle of the treadmill, 10 degrees at a time, as Danu continued running easily.
A couple of minutes into the 20 degree segment, Danu suddenly felt the world slow as her perceptions expanded, a strong sense of immediate danger coming from there behind her.
To the two men it looked like Danu just launched herself straight up turning gracefully in the air to land on her feet and keep running, as the electrified pole arm slashed wickedly from behind her, through where she had been running a split second earlier. Her sense of danger immediately faded and confused the girl hopped off the treadmill, carefully noting the location of Drs Hewley and Shandy, and making sure there were no other threats.
What the hell was that?
"Sorry about that Danu, I am afraid that the only way to test for danger sense is to actually surprise you with a danger. Everything is alright, and it appears that you definitely have danger sense."
"The world seemed to slow down Dr Shandy, and I knew there was a threat and then I knew it was behind me, I just reacted to that sense."
"Well we will need to study the footage, to be sure, but you either moved before the pole began its swing, or your reactions are incredibly fast. Bear with us while we study this, you may as well take a break for a few minutes, or if you want you can look at the footage with us."
That sounded interesting so Danu padded across to the monitor which was showing a profile shot of her running uphill on the treadmill. You saw the pole snap forward through her position and her launching vertically upwards, and landing behind the pole as it moved.
"Cool."
Dr Hewley grinned at her. "This is even cooler Danu."
With that he showed her the slow motion footage, taken at a thousand frames a second. It was very close but five thousands of a second before the pole had begun to swing, Danu had begun to leap vertically.
"And that Danu, is definite proof of danger sense rather than extreme reaction speed, although you may still be possessed of extreme reactions. You have begun moving before the threat has fully materialised, so that means that you have sensed the danger, analysed and then reacted to that threat before your body begins to move. This is a psionic ability, essentially it is like a very focussed limited sense of precognition. What it will mean for you is that in combat you have an additional passive natural advantage that will be on all the time." Dr Shandy stated
"Or in more common terminology, you will be an absolute bitch to hit. That does not mean you will not get hit, far from it, a sufficiently skilled adversary will probably be able to counter this ability, but against an opponent of equal skill in hand to hand combat you will have them at a significant disadvantage. Whether or not this ability will offer you an advantage against ranged weaponry, area of effect ordinance, traps or magical attacks we will test to determine. Possibly if you do not have that level of skill you could develop it with training."
"Okay Doctor, should I go back to the stamina test now?"
"No Danu the data from the body suit indicates that stamina wise you will be getting bored if we try to test it to your limits. Your body is not operating on a human basis, during the testing we have done so far, you have shown no discernible fatigue, your physique is now vampiric, and you appear to be functioning at full capability. When we have analysed your blood work we may know more. For now we will move onto testing your strength and reaction times. We will come back to testing your danger sense in a little while."
Dr Shandy led her across to a weight bench that had been massively modified and strengthened. Following his directions Danu made herself comfortable and began lifting weights. When she had used the multigym in school in Wales she had been able to press just over 220lb, pretty damn good for a 13 year old kid, although she had no idea what she could do now. It turned out to be just over 1300lbs, almost six times her previous best, even though physically she was nowhere near as big.
Very cool, but Dr Shandy looks vaguely disappointed, hmm does that mean that lots of kids can lift loads more?
"How did I do Doctor Shandy?"
"Very well especially as that was true physical strength rather than being augmented, according to the sensors. I had wondered if you might be a PK brick but that looks unlikely now. It will be interesting to see how you do when you are actively using your vampiric attributes but that will wait." Doctor Hewley wandered across, studying his readouts."
"How did Danu do Jared?"
"Pretty well Rich, she is not a PK type, or warper so she is not in the league of say Lancer, or Tennyo, but for straight forward strength pretty good."
Irritated, Danu interrupted the two scientists. "Okay so why are you comparing me to Lancer and Tennyo, when it is my testing we are doing?".
The two scientists seemed nonplussed for a second as though trying to work out what they had done wrong. Danu could almost see them running their conversation back through their heads, analysing it, trying to factor in the feelings of a weird female, and only then did they twig and manage to look embarrassed. Geeks.
"Umm yes, well sorry about that Danu, Richard and I do have a tendency to focus on the data and nothing else. Lancer and Tennyo are two of the freshman in school. Lancer has been recorded lifting over 5 tonnes, while Tennyo is a warper and just ignores gravity completely, we cannot actually record her limits. Lancer has a psychokinetic field around his body that assists his lifting. How much he could lift without that we do not actually know. While your lifting ability is therefore smaller hence our comments, you were actually physically lifting that weight, which is very impressive. We did not intend to sound derogatory in any way."
"Hmphh, okay." Danu walked away to examine the other gym equipment, ignoring the comment between the two scientists that they would need to investigate her enhanced hearing they had not expected her to hear their comments.
To test the speed of her body's autonomic nervous system the scientists used a combination of the body suit's sensor, additional sensors recording brain activity, and slow motion filming once more, recording the physical and neurological responses to the stimulus of a hammer tap on her knee. The computer analysed her data and rated her nervous system as approximately 60 times more efficient than human. Dr Hewley was happy with that response as it married in nicely with the performance of Danu's danger sense.
Next they moved onto testing her regenerative ability, with Dr Shandy taking the lead.
"Okay Danu, it has been noted in your medical file that you display a level of regenerative ability, that the holes where blood was drawn were healed almost immediately after withdrawing the needle. What we would like to do now, is attempt to quantify this. Is there anything about this ability that you have noted?"
Danu told them about the UV test Dr Lawson had conducted with her. They muttered about unsubstantiated data and Dr Hewley wandered off to find a UV source. Dr Shandy asked they do some more basic testing first. She agreed and he grabbed a scalpel! Seeing her reaction, Dr Shandy promised all he wanted to do was a small cut on her palm and record the healing.
Danu sighed and held out her palm, and once the recorder was on, Shandy made an inch long shallow cut on her palm, and turned to replace the scalpel. By the time he had looked back to her palm, the small wound was half healed, and within five seconds further there was no trace it was ever there, the soft skin on her palm, smooth and perfectly unblemished.
"Wow" Danu poked her palm, no pain, it felt fine.
"That young lady is a high level of regeneration."
"It is?"
"It is, seeing that I am far more inclined to think that Dr Lawson's test will be easily repeatable. From what you described of the wound it was a severe burn and healed very very quickly, what we just saw was a tiny wound that healed extremely fast. Not the fastest regeneration I have ever seen, it was obviously a small wound, but pretty close. I can classify you as a Regen 3 right now, but in practice it is higher. It is up to you at this point Danu, I am not permitted to go past Regen 3 levels of testing without your permission. To test further would basically need a stab or bullet wound to part of your body followed by timing the healing process."
"You want to stab or shoot me to see how fast I heal?" Her tone said it all.
"Yes, in the interests of science naturally. It would only be in a non critical area of course." Danu looked at Dr Shandy, trying to work out if he was being funny or serious before realising that he did not really do humour.
Do I really want to know the answer to that question? What if it makes me lose control?
"In addition a test like this would let us quantify your additional tissue strength, how hard you are to wound in the first place," Dr Shandy added, with the tone of a man who has just had a wonderful idea.
"Unfortunately that is not data we are usually able to test for even we have good indications of how tough a mutant might be."
Will I feel better knowing or not knowing? Shandy is mad as a hatter but it might be useful to know.
"Okay so if this data is so useful what do I get out of letting you shoot or stab me?"
Shandy blinked, as though the concept of the student wanting something in return for being stabbed was a new one.
"Hmmm, you get to know how tough you are?" Jared's voice was hopeful.
Danu did not look impressed the scientist noted. Dr Shandy's mind cast about for something else. He saw Dr Hewley coming back in the lab with a UV torch and hurried off to drag him outside for a quick chat. Richard did tend to get engrossed in his research, but he always read every file through completely and had a better idea of what individual students might want or need, whereas he himself tended to skim being only really interested in the research itself.
Danu watched with interest as the two men vanished where she could not hear them for a few minutes before they came back, both looking animated and a little nervous, stnding over by the entrance to the lab. Dr Hewley beckoned her over, giving her a gesture to keep silent as he wrote.
This area is only monitored for audio not video. Read your file. You had problems with MCO and H1?
Danu nodded.
You know that MCO and others will try and get a copy of your records one way or another?
She nodded again and then took the pen off him.
Of course, but that is why they use codenames isn't it?
Yes but the MCO are the ones who keep all the records. If they work out your identity, then they have all the records.
So why have a codename?!
To provide you with some protection. Better than none at all. The tests that Jared wants to do with you are above and beyond the norm, but they are useful, both generally and for you.
I get that, but I don't want MCO knowing exactly how tough I am! They already went after me!
I know. Jared gets a little too enthusiastic at times. Powers Testing data cannot be published anyway. Only useful for pure research, which is why Jared wants it. We could help you in exchange for your help.
Help me how?
We cannot hide your tests. Not possible. But can edit the results for you. Make you less capable.
Danu blinked and looked at Hewley. He carried on writing.
We are not that oblivious to the world. We know what can happen to our students. You are at more risk than most. It is not much but it might help.
Okay. Thank you Richard. Thank you Jared.
Understand that the school will still have a true paper copy, but that will go to Mrs Carson's records same as all the others. The electronic file will differ. Okay?
Danu nodded. Then gave both men a quick hug that, as with true geeks everywhere, made them blush down to their toes, and headed back into the lab proper. Five minutes later and Dr Shandy was ready to conduct his extra test for her regeneration ability under controlled conditions. The test would be done by a carefully positioned stab wound to the meat of her left thigh, a wound which would miss the major arteries, and would for a baseline be disabling.
In addition the stab would be done by a machine configured to match the force needed to pierce 5 inches of human flesh. Then they would measure the wound depth from the blade which was carefully pre marked. As far as the audio record was concerned their was not going to be an additional test, Danu having refused Dr Shandy's request, and the video record would be edited so the extra information never made it to the electronic database the MCO would hold.
Danu braced herself, thinking that this was quite possibly the stupidest thing she had ever done, and hoping the trade off would be worth it, although in an ideal world she would never know as the MCO would show no further interest in her, and no other outside group would target her. Not that Danu could imagine being so lucky. Jared reached for the machine and tapped the release switch.
Thunk.
Holy shit. Oh my god that hurts.
It hurt more when the blade was jerked out of her thigh, making her yelp as the camera recorded the black blood running freely down her leg. Immediately Danu felt the pain lessen, and she watched in disbelief as the knife wound almost flowed back together, knitting up without a scab or a scar, just perfect white flesh reforming. And once again she was whole. No more pain, she felt perfectly fine. Jared watched with a fascinated expression and stopwatch. He did not say anything just showed her the digital display.
12.4 seconds. A wound like that would take days, no weeks, to heal. 12 seconds, and the pain went almost straight away. Okay it was worth it to know that.
"Well Danu, that was most informative. Thank you. Obviously that data is just for research and you will be listed as a Regen 3+ possibly a 4. In practice from that experiment I would say that you are in fact either a high Regen 5 or possibly a borderline 6."
"Doctor Shandy what does that mean for those of us who are kids?" Danu asked.
"Well Sidhe are very long lived anyway, but Sidhe have never had this level of regeneration. This ability is from your vampiric heritage, and it means that bar being killed outright which would be very difficult anyway, you will survive and heal very quickly. Without wanting to scare you at all Danu, the term practically immortal springs to mind, whether or not you will age any further than your current physical appearance will be down to your BIT, but I suspect probably not."
Danu slumped down on a chair the tests forgotten. "I won't get older?"
"Oh you will get older Danu, vampires get more powerful physically as they age, but I do not think your body will age. You will not die of old age. Your councillor is Circe yes? You should discuss this with her, it will help you with perspective, but for now it means nothing to you. More important is the knowledge that if wounded you will heal, and that according to the stab wound your flesh is some 4 times more resistant to damage than human normal." Dr Shandy glance over towards the lab entrance.
"Now while Richard and I are renowned for missing meal times when we are conducting powers testing, I can see your friend Belle waiting outside the lab. Go and eat, talk with your friend. I would caution that while you can discuss what we found out in the tests, do not discuss our arrangement for both our sakes. We will continue testing in an hour and a half."
With that Jared turned and headed off to join Dr Hewley studying the footage, which he had already begun creatively editing. He watched Danu leave the lab, then spoke to his colleague.
"Richard I want you to excise any mention of the extra regeneration testing from the record, as well as the vampiric boost and any mention of the boost from earlier. We need to be careful or that girl will spend the rest of her extremely long life under a mountain somewhere. Get on with that while I go and talk to Mrs Carson."
"Will do Jared, will do."
Outside the lab, Belle greeted Synthaera with a grin and quick hug. She carried two take out bags from Crystal Hall and a cardboard drinks holder with two large Cokes wedged in it.
"Hi Danu, lunchtime, I hope you enjoy Italian! How is your testing going?" Belle stopped talking and looked at the black stain on Danu's thigh. "What the hell happened to your leg."
"Hey Belle, Italian sounds good thanks. The testing is...kind of nuts actually." Looking at her leg her tone changed to disbelief. "My leg is fine, just a bit of regen testing."
"A bit of regen testing is the old cut on the palm. I don't remember it involving bleeding all over the lab's body suit. Come on, spill the beans."
Belle passed over one of the meals she had brought down to the lab facilities, along with a drink and plastic cutlery, and the girls sat down in the reception area to eat.
"Well Jared did the cut on the palm test but it healed almost immediately like it was never there, so he said he could class me as a regen 3+ straight away, or with my permission could do a further test to try and determine what level I am, as well as how much tougher my body is than normal so I thought about it and I figured it would be useful to know. So I said yes and he got this machine out and stabbed me in the leg with it!"
"Ouch. So how fast did it heal? I know it was way quick because you are fine now."
"12 seconds Belle, and apparently my body is like 4 times tougher than normal."
"Wow, 12 seconds from a stab wound? That is quick, really quick. So did Shandy say what regen you are?
"Probably a 5 Belle, he said that bar being killed outright, I would heal, and he told me to talk with Circe about it as well." Belle could see that Danu as disturbed as she spoke.
"A regen 5? That is awesome Danu, why did he say to talk to Circe?"
"Shandy thinks that unless my BIT stabilises a bit older that I won't age anymore." Danu looked a bit panicked "He used the phrase practically immortal."
Belle comforted the younger girl. Danu was freaked and Belle could understand why, it was one thing to be told you would live a long time like those whose mutations turned them into Sidhe, being told you would not age or die? That was just too different and way scary for a 14 year old girl. And no 14 year old wants to stay 14 forever. Belle could see that physically her friend was more mature, perhaps even 20, her body was fantastically developed for 14, but mentally? Danu was tough, she had had to be, but that was a lot to deal with. Belle decided that she would have a word with Fey. Nikki Reilly had been dealing with her changes longer and would understand more of what Danu was going through. Sara Waite might be worth approaching as well. She would give it some thought. For now she gave Danu another hug and then interrogated her about the rest of the morning's testing while they ate their lunch.
****h
"What can I do for you Jared?"
Elizabeth Carson was curious, it was not everyday that Dr Shandy showed himself outside his laboratories. Whateley's headmistress had returned to her office after an early lunch, to find her colleague waiting for her. The administrative staff weren't in today so Jared had just grabbed a seat to wait for her rather than being forced to battle with Amelia.
"Hello Elizabeth, can I have a word in your office?"
Jared stood and followed her in. Elizabeth made sure her office was swept for eavesdropping devices at least twice a week, every week, and it was generally regarded as completely secure, although she knew that both outside agencies and students continually sought to get past her security. Still so far nothing had been able to counteract the crystal that she tapped before Jared did the same.
Team Kimba had been the cause of many of her worries over the last eight months but Nikki Reilly's magical gems that ensured any listener magical, mechanical or physical heard a different conversation was still a supremely elegant and effective solution. She sat down and waited for Jared to speak, hands steepled in front of her.
"I have been doing some powers testing this morning on a new student Elizabeth."
"Hmm, that would be our latest Sidhe Synthaera Givens? Thank you Jared, she arrived earlier than expected and has had a difficult time. What about her?"
"Synthaera, who has taken the codename Danu has been through her medical testing and we are still conducting the physical testing. So far her tests have been...interesting."
"Oh? How so Jared?"
"Let's see her physiology is no longer even vaguely human or for that matter Sidhe. Externally she is Sidhe in appearance bar her colouring and canines. Those could be accounted for by a small degree of GSD. Internally however Danu is a vampire, or rather what you would imagine if you managed to breed a Sidhe and a vampire. She is a living breathing being, but in fact she lives off life force. Feeding is classic vampiric, blood, but surprisingly she does actually have an internal digestive system that accommodates physical foodstuffs and can absorb some nutrition from them. They are essentially vestigial though, camouflage allowing her to blend in."
"That sounds unusual in itself. I have never heard of such a thing. A living vampire?"
"Yes Elizabeth and it is a first for Richard and I as well. I am sure that you can imagine that there are some medical and scientific implications there."
"Oh yes indeed."
"It gets worse Elizabeth,"
Carson found herself suddenly concerned about Jared's tone. Normally the scientist was irrepressible when it came to students and the science behind their mutations. Right now he sounded more worried than anything else.
"Physically her body is vampiric, so for that read strong, durable, very hard to kill."
"Okay so an exemplar than, what level?"
"Hard to say at the moment, Danu pressed over 1300lbs , and weighs in at 135lbs, but that's without any assistance in the form of PK or similar. We had her sprinting at 65mp, and a steady fast run at 41mph with no perceptible fatigue after 10 minutes, or increase in body temperature or pulse rate."
"That sounds crazy Jared."
"I know Elizabeth, I know, but I said she was not vaguely human anymore and I meant it. Her blood work is similar to a conductive ichor, not blood as we understand it at all. She has a provable danger sense in addition to an autonomic reaction speed that is roughly 60 times more efficient than human."
"Jared I am starting to get the picture I think, Danu sounds very hard to stop, but the same can be said of plenty of our students. Why are you so concerned?"
"Well Elizabeth when we tested her speed, Danu said she could go faster, but requested we go to the bunker as she was unsure of her control."
"Her control?"
"Yes, she sprinted as before, and then she described it as letting the vampire loose, during which physically her eyes went completely black, and her canines elongated to what looked fully functional fangs. We spoke to her afterwards and Danu described it as having a boost available that makes fuller use of her vampiric heritage. During this boosted sprint Richard clocked her at 152mph. She retained control, reverted to her normal form after about 20seconds with no apparent after effects although she did not think the boost would be usable for sustained periods."
Elizabeth Carson sat forwards in her chair while her mind was running through the possible ramifications. Vampires were not so uncommon as one might think but being essentially undead their biology although interesting was not very useful . A live vampire that one could research would be almost irresistible to the biomedical community. Jared looked like he was not finished.
"There's more?" The scientist winced.
"She is a regen Elizabeth."
"Oh crap. What level?"
Now she knew why Jared was worried. Regeneration as a trait offered more to researchers than almost any other. The possibility of regen drugs and medicines were holy grails for military and civilian research communities alike. The massive problem for the researchers was that the blood of regenerators was almost always highly toxic and fatal to baseline humans. The question was what such researchers do when the Regenerator in question did not have blood as such, it might offer whole new possibilities.
"We did the palm test and it confirmed Danu as 3+...."
"And?"
"After reading Danu's file Richard and I are aware of the difficulties she has encountered so far. I believe you will agree with me that if and when someone manages to get access to her full file, as soon as she graduates that girl will vanish, that is assuming they do not try much earlier."
"Much as I would like to disagree with you Jared I agree, from what you have said the child will be seen as extremely valuable to some, and a huge target to others."
"Well Richard and I agreed that we are not willing to allow that to happen without doing our best to help her. So we asked her to agree to further regen testing, with the data to be kept outside of her file for pure research only so she could determine the extent of her ability. In exchange we told her that we would edit the record of her testing, audio, video and physical to exclude any reference to this vampiric boost, and the extent of her regen testing once it was determined. I am sure you are aware there is a precedent."
"Precedent?" Carson was angry now, bolting upright from her chair, "You offer to intentionally violate the accords that keep our students safe, without consulting me, and you argue precedent with me? This is my school Dr Shandy and I will not stand for you endangering it. You could destroy everything we work for with this. We have more than 500 vulnerable kids here Jared, why would you do such an irresponsible thing?"
"Halloween Elizabeth, Halloween. We both know the accords are being flouted by the MCO, the Syndicate, and a dozen other groups. The MCO will get that girl's file take one look at it, and she will vanish at the first opportunity. That is without the other groups looking to exploit her. We've had few students come in since Halloween, and none of them will be so at risk as this child, and we've not even finished her testing. Danu will be hunted all her life by idiots as a vampire anyway, I will not stand back and do nothing to protect her when I can. It used to be enough to rely on the accords but when they are failing?"
Elizabeth sat back down and shook her head sadly. Halloween had cost many lives, and had shattered many illusions, and in the process badly weakened the accords that protected her school from the predators that hovered outside. The physical damage to the school was mostly repaired, but the damage Whateley's ethos and morale?
It was still too early to tell. The faculty advised their students to learn combat skills to help them in the fights ahead, that the school's raison d'etre was to ensure that as mutants they could survive and prosper in the outside world once they graduated. The attack at Halloween had been a huge shock to Whateley's confidence and neutrality.
As angry as she was at the scientists for their stupidity, Elizabeth also found herself encouraged that a pair of scientist renowned for their tunnel vision would put their careers on the line for a child they knew so little about. Prior to the debacle of Halloween she could not have envisaged such a thing, and at the end of the day they were right dammit.
"So then Doctor Shandy, why don't you tell me just how much of a regen Danu is?"
Jared sighed quietly with relief, before replying, aware that he and Richard probably still had jobs.
"Danu is a high 5 or borderline 6. I have told her to speak to her councillor as effectively she is immortal Elizabeth. She can die of course, but not of old age."
"A 5 or 6? Yes I think you can safely say that outside of Whateley if her file is not amended she will not last long. Okay once you have completed the testing with Danu, I want all copies of the data, electronic and paper brought to me and we can discuss the amendments.
"Absolutely headmistress." Jared nodded rapidly.
"Jared."
"Yes Elizabeth?"
"You and Richard will never again make that decision. It is not yours to make. Do you understand?"
Jared Shandy stood in Carson's office, fully aware of just how much he had risked and surprised at himself. He had come a long way from the disassociated intellectual robot he had been in the past. Retaining the grace to look embarrassed he nodded his compliance to the tall blond woman whose sheer presence dominated any room she was in, and began the walk back to the labs.
[Updated on: Wed, 21 September 2011 13:09]
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| Re: Synthaera (the post crash edition) [message #40086 is a reply to message #39957 ] |
Fri, 27 May 2011 04:33 |
blayze
Messages: 30
Registered: May 2011
Location: Durham, UK |
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Sunday afternoon 4th March Testing Lab W
Synthaera walked back into the lab after lunch with Belle, her spirits restored a little although she was still shaken by Jared's comments on her regeneration and likely lifespan. Belle had managed to distract her up by echoing Jared's comments that worrying about immortality was for the long term future, for now all she had to worry about was working out what she could do. So she had set aside her fears for now, determined to get her powers testing completed. Jared saw her as she walked back in and immediately the testing resumed.
"Ah, Danu welcome back, before we do any more work on your danger sense I want to investigate the changes that took place when you sped up before on the speed test. Now when this change has happened have you been able to control it?"
"Yes Doctor Shandy. It's like the extra power is always there, and I can use when I want. When I let the extra power loose, I feel stronger and faster, everything seems slower, I know my eyes change appearance, and I can feel my canines elongate into fangs. When I stressed myself in the hospital I had this hunger come over me, the urge to feed. I changed when the Doctor came into the ward, I could hear his heartbeat, see his pulse in his arteries, and I was moving on instinct. I would have fed on him but I was able to get my control back and hold it until Zach left the ward. When my Mum and I were ambushed, I deliberately let it loose, the power and strength was there and I was in control, when the fight was over I was able to revert with no problem."
Doctor Hewley joined them and interjected.
"Danu, Jared and I think that what you have described is evidence of what we call a shifter trait. The ability to shapeshift or modify your body. Have you been able to change in any other ways since you manifested?"
"Erm, no. I mean I haven't tried to do anything and I would not know how to do it."
"Right. Okay if you come this way, Jared and I will go to the bunker and give you instructions on common techniques other Shifters have used, and we will see if your trait is limited or more generalised."
For the next forty minutes Danu concentrated, willed herself to change, visualised, stared at her body parts, and a variety of other techniques that the scientists suggested from inside the bunker. She was able to switch what she decided was her 'vampire' form on and off on demand, and after more than a dozen switches in short order had gotten a good sense of how the change felt in her head. Danu thought she might be able to work with that feeling in the future but for now she could not do anything other than shift to her vampiric form. The scientists had her stand in a vertical scanner while she changed back and forward, looking to determine to what extent her shifting affected her body.
When Danu had her medical testing earlier in the day, Raul had discovered an unidentified organ below her heart. It was linked to her circulatory system but had seemed completely inactive at the time. The scanning showed that when Danu shifted to her vampire form this inactive organ suddenly burst into life, pumping unknown hormones into her system at a rapid rate. The scanner also revealed that her mass remained the same when Danu shifted. After 40 minutes of attempting to shift in other ways Richard was satisfied nothing else was going to happen so he called a halt and then sent her off to Jared for the next stage of testing.
Watching the teen head off through the lab Richard Hewley decided that for the time being Danu most closely fitted a classification of Shifter 2 u/f/n/w/m, jotting the notations down on his pad, although her physical test results also indicated that she was a mid level Exemplar 4, which was an unusual combination, especially if you added in the Regen, and probable Magic or Psi.
Ordinarily Hewley suspected the testing team would spend a while arguing over the girl's classification. This time on Carson's orders only he and Jared would even see her results from Lab W, while his colleagues in the other labs P and M were also now under order that all Danu's results go to Carson herself. He was glad it was the weekend, and half term. Normally his lab would also be occupied by a team of assistants whose curiosity would have been piqued by the change in procedure.
Danu caught up with Dr Shandy and he led her to one of the labs auxiliary chamber, telling her they were going to continue with the danger sense testing. Danu thought that the room bore a striking resemblance to a firing range, except it was far more massively constructed. In fact it looked like a firing range for testing tank cannon, or maybe artillery.
"Doctor Shandy, what is this room?"
"This is the Powers and Weapons Testing Range. When we have a student that can for example let loose blasts of electricity, plasma, or something more exotic we can determine the power of that power by seeing how effective it is against the armour at the end of the room."
Danu looked down the far end of the hugely built chamber where huge sheets of armour were suspended.
"So is that armour tough then?"
"Very Danu, one foot of that armour is the equivalent of 10 feet of the armour plate that was used in the battleship USS Indianapolis. And the plate is 2 feet thick."
"Wow. So what are we doing in here?"
"Well if you could head down to the middle of the range while I step into the control bunker I will tell you."
Once Jared was secure, he checked that Danu had taken her position in the center, started the testing scheme Richard had programmed in, and clicked on the microphone so Danu could hear him.
"We also use this room for testing Danger Sense. We will start in 20 seconds Danu."
"Huh? How exactly?"
From around the perimeter of the range a dozen hidden weapons emplacements dropped from their ceiling recesses. Each ceiling turrets had a selection of weaponry built in to them, from launchers for grenades of a variety of types, a selection of different calibre automatic weapons, proximity mine launchers, as well as exotic beam weaponry devised by the schools more effective engineers. Each weapon was carefully programmed to miss Danu by a small margin on its initial burst of fire so that she could get a sense of the danger involved to serve as a catalyst for her danger sense. After that they would miss by progressively smaller margins.
Danu swore as Jared's voice clicked off and the mechanical sounds of descending turrets caught her attention.
Oh hell. This is going to hurt. Maybe he was kidding?
The whine of a high speed electric motor to her left was all the warning she got. A fleeting glance and she recognised the rotating barrel of a Gatling gun and hurled herself forward as the roar of the weapon reverberated off the armoured walls. Coming up in a roll facing her previous spot she could see where the shells had chewed a gash out of the reinforced concrete floor.
No, he's not kidding. Okay 12 turrets, they look about the same distance from each other around me. Gatling gun is 12 o'clock then.
Without a second thought Danu snapped the golden shield into place around her, as the turret at 7 o'clock fired a spread of weapons over her head into the central area of the range.
What the hell are they? Mines of some sort? Try and keep away from them.
Turrets at 3, 8 and 11 o'clock opened up in quick succession, light calibre machine guns spitting out bullets at a furious rate, as Danu did her best to avoid their fire by staying on the move. She was no taking any hits although the golden shield was dealing with rounds that came close. So far though the weaponry had been ill aimed which Danu was sure must be deliberate, although now she noticed that the turrets that had fired previously were getting closer.
Thud, thud, thud.
Three sharp explosions did their best to deafen her in quick succession as a grenade launcher opened up, missing to her left. Her shield flared with a patter of shrapnel. For the next 3 minutes the turrets continued to fire, getting closer and closer, and their ate of fire slowly increasing, forcing Danu to be more and more focused on avoiding getting hit.
Tazer darts flew past her, smoke and stun grenades did their best to disorientate her, but so far she was unscathed. With an electric whine the Gatling gun at 12 o'clock rotated and then spat a gout of fire straight past her head, the shield taking the full force. Already moving when the heavy storm of metal flew to her left Danu hurled herself away from the gatling rounds.
That sense of time slowing that she had experienced before snapped into place as Danu was suddenly aware that she had finally lost track of her position in the range, and her danger sense was screaming at her that she was about to land almost directly one top of the mines that had deployed earlier. She was already in mid air, nothing to do except take the blast. In her mind she tried to work out the best way to minimise the multiple blasts she was about to take, opting to turn her dive in to a hand spring to get her out of range as fast as possible once, pouring energy into her shield to strengthen it. Time resumed its more normal passage as Danu twisted her position in mid air and the golden shield flared brightly, ready for hands to land there 55cm from the Anti Personnel mine which detected her proximity and detonated triggering the sympathetic explosions from the remaining two mines.
Her golden shield absorbed all the shrapnel, but did nothing for the blast wave and heat. The triple explosion went off fractionally after Danu pushed off with her hands, converting her forward momentum into further motion, cringing inside as the blasts seemed to rush towards her. There was sharp searing pain from the sudden burns to her forearms as she rode the blast wave out of the explosions. The arms of the lab body suit crisped in an instant and the heat charred her flesh but before the pain had a chance to really register she was diving again, moving out of the way of a burst of machine gun fire that her danger sense screamed was about to arrive.
Jared watched from the bunker as the turrets reached the end of their near miss phase. The girl had begun moving faster and faster he was sure. Explosions sounded in the range as the proximity mines detonated and Jared winced as he saw Danu flying out of the smoke, and then she dived again before a burst of tracers from turret 4 passed through her location.
Hah so her danger sense does work on ranged weaponry, at least to some degree. Excellent.
For the next 20 seconds Jared watched as a blur of white moved through the smoke, diving, rolling, twisting, energy shield flaring and absorbing the rounds effortlessly, but not the heat and blasts from grenades. Danu was forced to ride out the blasts from those, her body suit blackened and torn in places. Jared was positive that when the high speed footage was reviewed Danu would be moving before she could have been aware of some of the various attacks. Smoke drifted around the range, moving to the ceiling as powerful ventilation fans came to life. Silence abruptly reigned in the range as the turrets fell silent. Danu stepped out of the smoke, blackened and looking pissed off, which he reflected she had a right to be. Burns to her shoulders and arms vanished as Danu stalked towards him as he left the bunker. She showed no real sign of being aware of them.
"You...you." The teen looked blankly at the large blanket he passed her then she wrapped it round her shoulder and sat on the floor, looking back at the pits and craters on the floor.
"I know Danu, I know. Sorry about that." Jared watched as Danu seemed to take mental stock of herself, dirty but now physically okay, her burns already healed. He cracked open a soft drink and passed it to her, aware that the sugary drink would not do her any good except wet her mouth, but it was a normal thing to do, and Jared thought that would be well received.
"I am sure that you will be pleased to know that you are done with your testing here with me Danu. I will let you know the results once I have analysed them."
"Doctor Shandy, I know we needed to do that test, and I understand the danger element, but right now I will be glad to leave you be for a bit. Maybe a year or so." Danu gave the man a weak grin through her smoke and grime covered face.
"Okay Danu well done. Now if you head back to the lab behind the partition there is a replacement suit and you can get freshened up as well. When you are ready you need to head back to Maria and she will let you in to lab P, where they will conduct your psionic testing. By the time you are finished with the Psionic and Mage teams our initial evaluation will be complete. Go on now, Danu go and get a wash."
Still a bit blank the girl nodded and with her blanket wrapped around her shoulders covering the tattered body suit she absentmindedly headed back to the main lab area.
Twenty minutes later Synthaera was back at the reception counter, careful to make some noise as she approached so as not to surprise the irritable girl on reception duty. Maria checked her screen and then directed Synthaera to a lift that had opened beside the counter. The lift was controlled from the counter and once the girl was on Maria signalled that she was on the way and sent it hurtling downwards. Synthaera was conscious that she had been steadily descending for over two minutes.
How deep is this place? How fast does a lift go down?
Eventually the motion ceased, and she was let out into another reception area, with a set of double doors off to the left. Synthaera could not see anyone, an empty counter and a couple of chairs plus a flat screen set into the wall opposite the lift, that had a screen saver saying 'Welcome to P Lab. Please grab a seat.' scrolling around on it. A little disconcerted she did as it said, and blinked as the scrolling text was replaced by 'Sorry, be right with you Danu.'
A couple of minutes later a small grey haired bespectacled woman in a long skirt and cardigan, pushed open the double doors, and beckoned for Danu to follow her down the corridor. After passing several doors she led the way into a small plain room with a desk, and a pair of chairs facing each other across it and a screen standing on the side of the desk. The little woman sat across the table and with a smile waved Danu to the other chair, watching the teen with piercing blue grey eyes.
"Good afternoon Danu. My name is Janice Peters although feel free to call me Mrs P, most people do. I will be conducting this part of your powers testing this afternoon. First of all I would appreciate it if you could describe for me the abilities you have discovered so far and any sensations you can remember from those experiences. Can you do that for me?"
"Sure...Mrs P."
For the next forty minutes Danu recounted her experiences on the plane during the hijacking, in the hospital and during the ambush. With careful precise questioning Mrs P got Danu to recall the sensations and feelings that had gone with using her powers. Mrs P had been very interested to hear about Danu's experience of the golden and purple energies rising from the pool, but was most interested when Danu told about grabbing the power in her mind and throwing it against the barrier or scar that had dammed the power flowing in her mind.
"Danu can you feel this power at the moment?"
"Yes Mrs P, it is flowing there and I feel it no problem." Synthaera had become so accustomed to the sensation in mind now that she could find it with no hesitation.
"The golden cavern you mentioned Danu, you said it felt like looking at your brain from the inside out. In a moment I am going to watch you with my mind's eye, and I want you to go and look at the cavern for me."
Mrs P closed her blue eyes and Danu suddenly felt a sense of being under observation, then did her best to ignore it and closing her own eyes concentrated on the golden cavern and was once again there, with the sense of hovering in the middle of the cavern above the golden flow below her.
Janice Peters focused her mind and stepped from the constraints of her body to watch the student in front of her. For a second there was nothing then she clearly felt Danu's presence as the girl concentrated and focussed on her own mind.
So Danu has a variety of psychic vision, now to follow her.
Gently with the deft precision of decades of experience Janice moved her focus to join Danu's presence in her mind, and carefully let the girl know she was there. A sense of understanding came back to her, and carefully Janice looked around. Immediately she knew this was indeed the Golden Cavern the girl had described, a vast sense of space around her, lit by a torrent of gold and purple radiating from below with occasional streams running away from the torrent that bizarrely curved below, up and overhead in complex patterns. Taking a moment to reassure Danu, Janice drifted her sense across and down to the closest tributary that spawned from the torrent.
There was no sound, but getting closer Janice could feel a sense of pressure emanating from the energy below. The pressure built and a slightly alarmed Janice recognised it as the same pressure she felt when she approached a ward.
That torrent is magic? How can that be? Danu made no mention of casting spells, she described the shielding she performed as simply concentrating and the shield snapped into existence, and she is using astral sight. So is she a wiz and a faux esper? No, that makes no sense, she has esp no doubt, but using esp to manipulate magic? With no spells or preparation? That would make her a natural mage of some kind but she is not drawing power from outside into her, the power is in her already.
Her attention was drawn again to the channel of magic running away from the torrent below her, before it looped over her head and eventually returned to the torrent.
That part of the channel looks almost like symbols, and there that looks almost like formulae. Is it possible that the channel forms the spell? An organic rune form or magical circuit? Is that even possible? I will need to speak to Circe about this I think.
Janice drew Danu's attention to the channel she was studying, before gently brushing the girl's mind with her thoughts.
"Danu is this the channel you mentioned when you told me about opening your magical sight"?
There was a sense of surprise at the mental touch which subsided as Janice explained she was a limited telepath, and for Danu to just think her response.
"No Mrs P this was the channel I reopened that forms the shield. Although it is wider than I remember it."
"Oh? Have you being using the shield since the ambush?"
"Earlier today, danger sense testing. It felt a bit stronger I thought but I wasn't sure."
"Hmm well it might be that practice is improving your skill although I am not sure how that would translate to the channel. Okay show me the other channel."
"Oh, this one is more complicated than before."
"Well you mentioned viewing auras during the ambush, as well as what I would call astral vision, plus what we are doing now is an extremely small scale example of viewing. It will be interesting to find out if your skills develop further. Okay that will do for now, if you could return to you body please Danu and we will carry on speaking."
Danu opened her eyes to find Mrs P watching her with a smile.
"I can see you are going to be an interesting student to have here at Whateley Danu. So far our little chat has shown you definitely possess esper traits- your magical sight, astral vision and aura reading would all be examples of this, and we will explore those later on. However you also show evidence of using magic, and that is less common. Most often mutant that display magical abilities do not use esper abilities as well, although there are several who do." Mrs P jotted down a couple of notes on her pad before continuing.
"I am sure my colleagues in the Magical Arts department will be equally as fascinated by your particular combination of traits. The shield you told me about sounds like a magical construct, certainly from your description it was composed of raw magical energy. You will need to develop your skill in that area to avoid causing damage with the shield. The interesting thing for me is I have never come across a method of utilising the power quite like yours. The source of the power is undoubtedly magical, but the control at this point appears to be primarily esper. A puzzle we will no doubt spend time working on in the future. For now we will carry on your esper testing."
Three hours later and Danu was tired, and aware that she was starting to get hungry. They paused for a few minutes, and Danu tried to make sense of the myriad tests Mrs P had put her through. First had been packs of cards with symbols on. Behind the screen, Mrs P had held the cards and asked Danu to tell her what was on them. Easy, she had simply popped her vision behind the tester and read them off. 50 out of 50, and the test was repeated another for another 3 sets. Next Mrs P had tested the range and scope of her sight, telling Danu of a tunnel stretching away from the Esper test lab. There were she explained various signs in the tunnel, and instructed Danu to describe what she could see as she moved along the tunnel. First however Danu had to locate the tunnel.
Concentrating she had moved 'above' herself and away expanding her view, which proved a strange experience as her sight drifted through the ceiling, a myriad of conduits, vents, and then feet of reinforced concrete, into the dirt. Being surrounded in every direction had been a claustrophobic experience and with a mental shudder Danu had sank back down to just below the ceiling in the lab, then had begun circling out from the lab looking for tunnel.
Danu found it behind a hidden access in the reception area, and changing her view to look down the tunnel began pushing her view down the tunnel, describing signs to Mrs P as she moved. After 50m of tunnel, Danu caught the sensation of wards inscribed in the concrete, similar to what she had experienced in the isolation ward.
Turning she concentrated her vision and the magical symbols flared into life in front of her, a circle of symbols inscribed into the side of the tunnel, surrounding an area about 4m in diameter. Danu described the symbols to Mrs P as she had no idea what they meant, and then carried on down the tunnel, looking out for additional magical signatures. Danu found another 4 magical 'signatures' and described them, as she moved down the tunnel before she got the feeling that she was at the end of her range.
After reading off the last sign she could see, Mrs P asked her to see if she could jump back or if she needed to drift back to her body. Willing herself to her body was no problem at all, and when Mrs P asked her to jump from above her body to midway down the tunnel Danu found that having been there already she could picture the area in her mind and move her sight to that location.
Next Mrs P asked her to see if she could find an emergency landline phone in the tunnel without drifting back down the tunnel. Confused Danu asked her how and Mrs P explained she wanted her to concentrate on the idea of a emergency phone and see if her sense could find it for her. Ten minutes later Danu gave that up as a bust, and Mrs P commented that she did not appear to possess a Finding ability, her range was limited at just under 400 metres but being able to rotate and orientate her vision at will was a useful bonus.
"Okay then Danu, look at me with your sight and tell me what you see or feel as you do so." Refocusing on Mrs P she began to make out the woman's aura as well as a magical signature.
"Umm, I can see your aura Mrs P, it's a soft green but also bronze. I don't really know what that means though. I can see a golden glow on your left wrist, I'd guess you have a magical bracelet of some type."
"Anything else Danu?"
The girl got the strong impression she was missing something, and concentrating harder tried to work out what she had not seen, what she had not done. She let her sight drift closer to Mrs P, wondering if being closer would make a difference. When her sight drifted within 10cm of the tester, she paused suddenly aware that there was a barrier of some type around Mrs P.
"You have a barrier of some type around you Mrs P."
The tester smiled. "So you can detect that spell. Good, that shows a high degree of sensitivity. Well done Danu. Okay come back to yourself and without using your sight I want you to tell me what emotion I am projecting at you."
Five minutes was enough to show that Danu was not an empath, either receiving or projecting, and a few minutes more showed no aptitude for telepathy so far. While Danu was a little disappointed, Janice was perfectly happy with their progress through the testing. The tester was looking forward to seeing if Danu showed any propensity for psycho kinesis, and after they had a five minute break, the pair resumed, Danu returning to her meditation and the Golden Cavern, and Mrs P joining her presence above the river of magic.
Danu, when you told me about waking up your magical abilities, you described picking up the energy and throwing it against the scar damming the various channels. I would like you to see if you can do that for me now please."
"Ok."
Casting her sight around the cavern, Danu quickly spotted the third channel that she had noticed scars damming from her manifestation. This was a sizeable scar and the channel dammed behind it was deep and wide. With a mental twist she grasped a small thread of the magic and directed its flow against the scar, the brief burst of energy scoring and tearing at the dam. It was eroded, but only very slightly. With more effort a larger wave of magic burst against the dam, tearing out a small portion.
"Do you feel much tiredness doing this Danu?"
"No but I had a headache after the last time."
Mrs P did not interrupt again and Danu settled into a steady effort grasping and hurling bursts of magic, trying to concentrate at a point n the dam that had started to show some damage. Wanting to speed up her progress, although she had no real sense of how time was passing Danu, mentally grasped more of the river and threw a more significant burst of power that burst against the whole dam, washing back towards the torrent.
The size of the burst made her brain hurt, a small stab of pain, but did a lot more damage making a crater in the dam. Still the pain seemed to indicate that was not a good technique to use. The whole torrent of magic flowed nearby and Danu wondered about trying to redirect that power rather than grabbing and throwing it. Concentrating on the magic she could make out currents and eddies, large and small within the gold and purple flow, just as in a river of water.
"I am going to try something else Mrs P."
Danu felt the tester's perception focussing on her instead of the dam but ignored the presence. Visualising in her mind she pictured a flat rigid wedge and then pictured it being forced into the river, just near to the edge.
Will this work? Yes!
Delighted Danu observed as the mental wedge, although not physical, nevertheless remained where she thought about dropping it into the flow, the sign of its existence being the sudden distortion in the flow of magic, a roiling eddy forming behind the wedge's leading edge, distorting the flow.
Cool okay the idea works. I can direct the flow at least a bit, now how do I get the flow to the dam? More wedges? No wait I'll make a hosepipe.
It took concentration, more than Danu was expecting, but finally she had managed to visualise a flexible hosepipe, its length, construction, diameter, flexibility all fixed in her mind and her memory. Satisfied Danu mentally suspended one end of the hose in place targeting the dam, and ran the other end to a point close in the river of magic where a strong current came closest to the edge. Then with a mental effort she made her hosepipe visible like a glass snake and dropped the end into the river where it sank into the current.
In a fraction of the time it had taken her to build her image of the hosepipe, a powerful stream of gold and purple poured up the transparent pipe and jetted against the dam.
"Now that is a surprise indeed Danu, cleverly done."
Danu found that holding the pipe was a mental effort, it seemed to want to twist and writhe now with the magical pressure restrained and directed within but using the jet of raw magic was far more efficient to bore away at the scar. It still took time but even as Danu found herself getting properly tired the hose of magic breached the scar, and once through the flow tore away the remainder of the scar exactly as if a child directed a high pressure hose at a sandcastle.
Manipulating the hose Danu first completely removed the scar, and then deepened and widened the channel revealed behind it like a dredger at work in a harbour, ensuring that plenty of power would be able to flow into the new circuit. Lastly Danu reversed the pipe and performed the same dredging on the short track to the main river of magic.
With a last mental twist the channel was completed and Danu tiredly relaxed her control and released the pipe which vanished under the magical assault of the river. The river, given a new broad and deep offshoot to flow down, flooded the channel in a powerful cascade. Danu watched long enough to see the channel light up with the flow before she fell out of her meditation.
Janice, her perception poised at a higher vantage, saw the magic flow completing the circuit in a giant, broad, complicated, looping path across the side, roof and opposite side of the cavern returning to the flow downstream, studying the channel's intricate passage that looked to her organic but also very structured. Finally she saw Danu's mental sense slip away and Mrs P returned to her body.
Danu came back to herself, her head ached and she was hungry. Recognising her hunger for what it was she pushed herself away from the table as her fangs lengthened of their own accord, turning around to grab her flask. Hearing Mrs P standing up she threw her hand behind her, her warning to Mrs P urgent.
"Get Back. Give me some space, I need to get the hunger under control."
Mrs P caught a glimpse of the side of Danu's face as she twisted, ordering her to get back. Unaccustomed to taking orders from teenagers she would have ignored her, but the flash of long fangs and the unexpected force behind the instruction, meant she suddenly found herself back pedalling against the wall of the room, not quite sure how she got there. She shook her head, of course it made sense to retreat to a safe distance from Danu's fangs if she needed to feed.
Reassured Mrs P watched as Danu drank deeply from her flask and with a shudder brought herself under control, her fangs receding as the last of the blood in her thermos dampened the urge just enough. Mrs P, moved cautiously back to her chair, then stopped, looking intently at Danu's face. The teenager halted in mid motion as she sat.
"What?"
"You are bleeding Danu, your nose."
The teen stood back up her fingers touching the thick black stream that slowly ran from her nostrils.
"I..."
"Did this happen before when you removed a scar?" Mrs P was concerned.
"Um I don't remember, maybe."
"How do you feel?" The nosebleed dripped, but was slowing.
"My head aches but it is going away. I am okay I think, a little hungry still but I am fine now, it is back under control."
Janice pondered for a moment but the nosebleed seemed to have stopped already, so she decided they would carry on a bit longer and see how Danu was, but without anymore exercises like the one they had just finished. Instead they would review the last test Mrs P asking Danu if she knew what the channel she had just opened did.
"I am not sure Mrs P, but I think it is to do with the power I threw at a hijacker on the plane." He voice was a little hesitant as she relived the memory with a small shudder.
"Well I think that will best be tested in the Magic labs. Okay for now I want you to concentrate on this flame..." Mrs P brought out of all things a Zippo lighter which she sparked alight, its flame holding steady in the draught free room, and had Danu try to move the small flame with her mind.
Another hour had passed before Mrs P was satisfied that she had thoroughly tested the girl who now sat slumped tiredly in front of her. Danu had shown no obvious talent for pyrokinesis, or cryokinesis and electrokinesis and telekinesis had similarly been ruled out for the time being. It was a little surprising to Janice that Danu appeared to have a mental ability to manipulate raw magic assuming of course that was what she had observed but it was no more unusual than she had seen many times before, and a lot less strange than what abilities some of the students at Whateley displayed.
With a mental shrug the tester decided that Danu had had enough. Never mind, they did not often manage to do all of the testing in a single day, she would arrange for the magic labs to invite her in the next couple of days. At least her portion of the testing process was complete, so they would only need to schedule a single lab. With a kindly grin Mrs P told Danu her decision and dismissed the teenager who still managed to look frazzled as she left the psi lab in the lift a few minutes later. When the lift doors opened after the long ascent, Danu headed for the tunnels, first stop the medical lab, where she would pick up some more blood as she was still hungry.
Poe Cottage had a completely different atmosphere when Danu made her way in through the basement tunnel entrance. Before it had been quiet, now there was a humdrum of noise throbbing through the building. From the direction of the basement gym there was steady crashing of metal and occasional grunting. Danu wondered who was so eager to lift weights as soon as they got back to school, but she was not curious enough to go find out.
From the floors above she could hear dozens of voices, in a cacophony of conversations, scraping sounds from trunks being dragged around, shouts of 'Coming through', friendly banter and bickering as the returning Poesies caught up with friends and room mates. Synthaera headed for her room, planning to get a shower to freshen up after her tests as she wondered who Belle would introduce her to during the evening. She saw a pair of workmen hard at work in one of the basement rooms that had a door labelled luggage store. One man was painting and another looked to be building furniture.
Pausing at the top of the basement staircase, Synthaera could see Mrs Horton directing the chaos of dozens of noisy boisterous teenagers as well as harassed looking adults that had to be parents. That explained why the tunnel entrance flag light were on yellow then. Weaving her way through the throng, Synthaera knew she looked good, and in her head could understand that lots of mutants were those beautiful exemplars, but the sight of dozens of boys and girls from freshmen through to seniors, most of whom would have easily had jaws dropping back in Wales, was a little intimidating as well.
Even so Danu found the hubbub familiar and reassuring although her previous boarding house only had boys. The idea of a coed boarding house still seemed fantastic but Belle's explanation made a lot of sense, and the idea of all of these kids being LGBT made Synthaera feel more positive about life. Especially as loads of them were so hot, she did not know where to look first.
She made it back to her floor without getting knocked over by the throng, catching some glances and hellos on the way from people noticing a new face. The stairs were still heaving behind her, when Mrs Horton's raised voice declared that all the visiting adults had now left and no more where expected. Campus was still on yellow but Poe was now on green. There was a mass cheer, and suddenly the chaos redoubled as students could use their powers again.
Synthaera stood in her doorway and gawped, as a girl with spiky blue black hair who had been pulling a trunk suddenly just shot straight up with trunk in tow and zipped down the corridor utterly ignoring its weight. Bizarrely she seemed to do a barrel roll along the corridor for the hell of it and her hair never seemed to move at all. Wow! This place is sooo weird. Danu heard a voice yell "Tennyo! Watch out!" and saw the girl hop back down to the floor trunk over her shoulder and dart into on of the rooms, as a small Japanese girl who looked like she had barely hit puberty yet followed her in talking rapidly, waving her hand around.
In the other direction she saw Belle moving with the flow of traffic and called out to her. Belle waved and yelled for Danu to meet up in the cottage's lounge at 7.30pm. Glancing at her watch she saw that was just over an hour and a half away and grabbed her shower kit while she pondered what to wear to meet the rest of Poes changelings, she wanted to make a good impression after all. The testing had been a long day and her brain felt like it had been through a wringer, so she hoped the shower would freshen her up enough to be sociable.
Oh man, what's this gonna be like? Well if I have to be a newbie, at least I get to be the new girl. No time to play with the shower now, need to get ready.
***
Nikki Reilly sat on her bed and mock glared at Chaka who was doing a one hand stand off of the corner of her bed frame. The irrepressible ki master was bored after a fortnight stuck at home with her family with nothing much to do. After Christmas's excitement Chou had spent half term with the Immortals, and while she loved her Mom and family to bits, even her pain in the ass brother, the lack of chaos and mayhem was just like an itch she had to scratch.
Back at Whateley at last, now at least she would get to play a bit. Flipping corners with a somersault to the other end of the bed she balanced on the index finger of her other hand while firing question after question at Fey, catching up with her dorm mate and friend. Even better Chaka just knew Rip would be back soon, and she could not wait to hug and kiss her girlfriend senseless.
The pair of girls chatted, interrupted occasionally as friends popped in to say hello and exchange hugs, and the other Kimboids arrived back at Poe. Belle stuck her head around the door about 4.30pm and asked them to grab the usual suspects and meet in Kimba Corner at 7.30pm as she had someone to introduce. That prompted a barrage of questions but Belle wouldn't be drawn and told them they would have to wait and see. Her refusal to cooperate was returned by raspberries and a fit of giggling from the black girl and her Sidhe friend. For all the trouble they got into at Whateley it was good to be back.
Three hours later everyone was back from their break and had gathered in Kimba Corner. As the Kimboids and their friends had returned Chaka had passed the word in her usual frenetic style, and Fey invited Ayla, Bladedancer and Carmilla in her calmer manner. Belle's refusal to give them a hint had meant all the teens were curious and piled into the common room, so that when Belle stuck her head in at about 7.25pm the common room was solely occupied by Team Kimba and associates.
The few others had vacated the room gradually in search of safer places as Poe's resident headcases gathered. Kendall was momentarily surprised at how many had come to meet the newbie, but reflected that it just showed how tight the Kimba crew and their friends were. Not to mention nosy. She just hoped that Danu was not freaked by being the focus of so much attention, Belle had sort of hoped that it would just be Team Kimba present but realised that was not going to happen. Belle headed down the corridor and knocked at Danu's door.
When Synthaera answered the door with a smile and quick hug for her friend, she was dressed in Cecilia's creations, a pair of skin tight fitting caramel leather pants, and beautifully worked boots blouse of the finest jade silk. Belle noted that she did not have any makeup on but Danu did not need it and the clothes showed off her tall lithe form to spectacular effect.
"Come on Danu let's introduce you to Team Kimba, umm and their friends."
Danu followed her friend along the corridor and then into the common room, where the conversation stopped as the two girls entered. Synthaera looked around the room feeling momentarily panicked as she counted teenagers, before she realised that everyone as smiling and looking welcoming. Belle stepped forward and performed introductions.
"Heya girls and guys, I'd like you all to say hello to our newest Poesie. Everyone this is Synthaera, she has the codename Danu. Synthaera this is Team Kimba and friends, plus significant others etc etc I'll let them introduce themselves though. Danu here is the latest changeling to join Poe, and her mutation has been a bit rough, she understands all about Poe and about us changelings and I want you guys to make her welcome and look out for her while she gets settled in. Danu I will make myself scarce so you can talk with these guys but you know where I am if you want to chat okay?" With that Belle gave her a quick hug and the others a wave and headed off upstairs, leaving Danu to face the welcome.
"Um hi everyone, I'm Synthaera Givens, it's great to meet you all."
"Hi I'm Toni Chandler, love your pants, my codename's Chaka and I'm in Team Kimba," Chaka gave a friendly wave, then wrapped a arm around the pretty girl next to her, "and this is Riptide my girlfriend." Chake gave Rip a quick kiss and her GF blushed and leaned into her, while a dark haired girl with a punky style snarked about Chaka's harem, prompting grins from the rest of the room and Chaka's "Hey."
"Hi Danu, I'm Billie Wilson, codename Tennyo," the blue black spiky hair of the girl was defying gravity still as Tennyo sat in midair and waved, "and this is Jade my roommate."
The small Japanese looking girl that Danu had seen earlier waved from her sitting position on a floating blanket.
"Hi Danu, my codename is Generator, we are both in Team Kimba."
The punk girl gave a friendly nod "Hello Synthaera, my name is Ayla Goodkind, and my codename is Phase. It's nice to meet you, I am with Team Kimba also, and this is Vanessa my girlfriend."
Danu gave the two girls a friendly smile. The tall good looking boy lounging on a hammock was next to give a wave.
"Hi Danu, I'm Hank Declan from Team Kimba, and my codename is Lancer."
Danu heard a snigger from one of the girls and saw Chaka rolling her eyes. Hank just groaned, he had obviously heard it all before, but the boy's reaction brought an unwilling smirk to Danu's lips. Next to say hello was a slim Chinese girl who was lounging on a hammock with a smaller girl with glasses snuggled in. The couple, for they radiated a serene bliss at each others company, gave her a wave and introduced themselves as Chou Lee with the codename Bladedancer and her partner Molly.
Looking to the right Synthaera saw three girls remaining who had yet to say hello, a blond who was wrapped happily in the arms of a beautiful red head, and a girl whose skin was as white as her own. The red head was Sidhe and had a friendly smile and a regal manner. As Danu's attention slid onto her the red head gave a beaming smile, which Danu returned with a friendly nod.
Sara Waite watched as her sister by blood Nikki studied the new girl Danu, while Team Kimba made their introductions. Synthaera was obviously of Sidhe heritage moving with all the unconscious grace of that race, and her figure was going to provide Peeper and Greasy with a new object of lust. Sara's senses however told her that Danu was not Sidhe, not anymore at least.
The lust demon could hear the slow pulse in the girl, and her perfect but pale complexion spoke of her vampiric heritage. It was, she mused, an interesting mix. Sara wondered what Nikki would make of the new Sidhe, she could feel her sister's interest mixed with confusion. Sara watched as Nikki smiled a welcome, her glamour unconsciously turned up to its gibber and drool inducing maximum, then blinked as Danu gave Nikki a friendly nod, and remained utterly unaffected by Fey's glamour.
Now that is interesting.
"Hi Synthaera, my name is Nikki Reilly, welcome to Poe. My codename is Fey and I am in Team Kimba, and this is Bunny my girlfriend."
"Nice to meet you as well Fey, Circe mentioned you when I spoke to her."
"Oh?"
"Yeah Circe is my councillor and she mentioned that you were another of her charges."
Sara could feel Fey's interest, sparked by Danu's ignoring her glamour, piqued further as Circe was mentioned. Bunny waved a friendly hello but was content to stay silent and Danu turned her attention to Sara.
Danu caught a flicker of surprise in Fey's expression, which was mirrored in the face of the black haired beauty on Fey's left, as they exchanged hellos. Belle had said that Fey was a seriously powerful Wiz type so on whim Danu opened her sight.
Wow. Powerful was right.
The Sidhe girl radiated magical power, but also a very strong sense of regal presence and beauty. It was looking like into a crystal with bright sunlight pouring through it, and her aura was so complex, combining age, mystique, power and nobility with a basic goodness and powerful sense of protection.
Glancing back down the rest of the teens Synthaera took in their auras, but the strongest impression after Fey was without doubt from Chou and Molly. That sense of serenity she had caught before blazed from their auras. They were surrounded by a golden glow of love that clearly linked them as soul mates.
It's so beautiful.
The remainder of Team Kimba all gave mixed impressions, Tennyo especially radiating strength and dangerous power, Ayla giving her a surprise with a strong sense of masculinity which clashed with her feminine appearance as well as impressions of control and focus, Lancer radiating a sense of protectiveness for his team as well as a touch of exasperation at their antics. Chaka's aura was interesting as well it was so perfectly balanced and incredibly deep. Looking back Danu focussed back towards the aura of the dark haired girl beside Fey. Her aura was powerful, shot through with radiating purple waves that brought sympathetic pulses of purple in the auras of those close to her.
I know nothing but I know I don't want these guys as enemies.
"Hi Synthaera I'm Sara Waite, I'm not with Team Kimba anymore but these are my friends. My codename is Carmilla, it's really good to meet you." Sara voice was a sultry purr, and Danu was sure her sexy tone was just as devastating as Fey's smile.
Sara watched with interest as the small tendrils of her lust aura that floated towards Danu failed to find any purchase at all, her hello getting a warm friendly smile but no lusty response she knew she could induce. Sara noted that Fey was so used to her glamour's effects on people that the lack of reaction was a definite surprise and she could feel her sister and also Aung paying more attention to Danu. Danu was seemingly completely immune to two of the strongest glamours on campus, she had paid no attention at all.
Toni decided to crack on with questioning the new girl now the introductions were done.
"So Danu what's your story, how did you end up in this mad house? Belle said you're a changeling like all of us in Team Kimba, so how long you been a girl? Or are you going the other way like Hank?"
"Chaka stop being so rude!" Fey chided.
Tennyo threw a cushion at her bouncy friend which of course she dodged and returned with interest. Before the gathering could descend into a pillow fight Hank yelled STOP, bringing Tennyo and Chaka to a comic book halt, while Danu grinned at the chaos.
Yeah these guys are crackers, this will be fun.
The interruption was enough for Danu to start talking again and she grabbed a space in the corner and quickly told the room most of her story. By 9:30 Synthaera had finished talking and the assembly had asked questions and answered hers, giving her an idea of their powers while she talked about her testing, and exchanging stories of their exploits over the last few months, telling wild stories about Whateley, warning her to watch out for the Alphas, and a pair of creeps called Peeper and Greasy. Synthaera could not help thinking that her new friends did seem to be complete trouble magnets, self confessed ones at that, but they were also fun friendly people and very welcoming.
Mrs Horton came around and with a reminder that school began again in the morning told them all to head for their rooms after they had tidied up the common room. With a burst of activity the room was straightened up and they all headed to their rooms with shouts of 'Good night' echoing around. She climbed into bed after sorting out her uniform for the morning.
Wow my first time wearing a skirt to school
Synthaera settled down to read before drifting off to sleep, hoping the next day went well.
[Updated on: Wed, 21 September 2011 13:14]
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| Re: Synthaera (the post crash edition) [message #40237 is a reply to message #39957 ] |
Sat, 28 May 2011 17:28 |
blayze
Messages: 30
Registered: May 2011
Location: Durham, UK |
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Monday 5th March 2007. First day of Spring Semester
The alarm went off at 6.00am, the guttural thumping of Ramstein filling Synthaera's ears. With a groan she got up to face her first proper school day at Whateley, slapping the alarm gently to avoid scrapping the cheap plastic clock, grabbed her shower gear, and headed for the girl's bathrooms, hoping to get in early before the rush of teenagers began.
The shower was as wonderful as the first time, and she bit her lip to keep from screaming, but managed to get away with just a moan as the shower finished her off. Once her legs steadied she stepped out, suddenly conscious that a few other girls had arrived early as well. They shared friendly smiles and knowing grins with her as she wrapped the long towel around her bust. Synthaera made use of one of the hair dryers, trying to avoid paying too much attention to the gradually increasing flood of girls coming into the bathroom.
There were naked and semi naked gorgeous teens all around her, and Synthaera did not know how she felt about that at all. Mostly she was thankful that the shower had taken the edge off her morning horniness. It made it easier to ignore the fluttery feelings in her stomach and warmth between her legs that a couple of the other girls provoked, while at the same time part of her wondered how she could compete with the hotties all around her.
Still as she finished her morning routine the sheer femininity of the mental comparing, jealousy and envy felt wonderful to her. As she left the bathroom, she could not help but notice a few of the very appreciative looks that she had gotten from two girls that she did not know yet.
On her way to the door, Synthaera watched as Chou entered the steam filled bathroom and took in the room's occupants and herself with a calm glance. Chou smiled at her with a knowing grin. "Good morning Chou," she said, cheerily. The attention and the acknowledgement of it made her feel better about herself and unconsciously she left with more sway in her step. Chou grinned at the increasingly flushed expressions she could see in the bathroom as Danu swayed out. The new freshie had definitely made an impact on some of Poe's lesbian sisterhood. Chou took a mental note of the faces to tell Danu at a later time and waited for a shower to become free.
Back in her room Synthaera pulled on her body suit followed by her new Whateley school uniform for the first time. Cecilia Roger's creations looked and felt fantastic. After a long look in the room's mirror, she grinned happily and twirled around loving the feel of the skirt caressing her legs. Synthaera pulled on her new blazer and grabbed her bag full of school supplies. With a lingering glance at the figure in the mirror, she headed out to breakfast. Before stepping outside, she pulled up the cowl on her blazer with a nervous glance at the sunshine spreading across the ground in the early morning light.
The body suit, sunscreen and cowl all did their job. Synthaera enjoyed an uneventful and burn free walk across the campus towards Crystal Hall. She took pleasure from simply looking around and taking in the sight of the early risers from the other cottages. A glance at the flag told her it was a green day today so she braced herself for seeing the weird and wonderful.
This would be the first day she had been in the American education system and Synthaera was more than a little confused about how things worked. She hoped that she would see one of the Kimba crowd to ask. In Wales, her school had followed a timetable that had breakfast available until 8:30, Chapel at 8:40 with classes beginning at 9:00. Lessons had been 40 minutes long with 5 minutes to get to your next class, with lunch from 12:45, and afternoon classes from 1:30 to 4:30.
How it worked here she was not sure. Still she had her schedule and had apparently been allocated a locker to store her books in. After a moment of thought Synthaera decided to get breakfast out the way as fast as possible, the fewer people who saw her drinking blood the better. Finding her locker would wait until after breakfast.
The thought of drinking blood was still mildly disturbing but Synthaera decided she just had to get over it, and at least she liked, no loved the taste. Walking towards the large crystal dome she realised that she did not feel the urgent hunger like she 'had' to feed, but figured that it made sense to do so, if only to make sure she was topped up just in case.
Walking into the atrium under the dome Synthaera grabbed a tray and headed towards the serving station. The canteen was still almost empty, with just a few students in so far. Thankfully they paid her no notice, and she loaded up her tray with fruit salad, some orange juice, and a plate of pancakes that came with cherries and ice cream.
After that, Synthaera slid into the empty special needs aisle and presented her student ID. Once again, the serving lady did not even blink as she gave her a non-descript drinks container with straw. She dug into her school bag for her emergency thermos and handed it to the serving lady with an apologetic smile.
"May I get this filled as well? In case I get hungry later?" asked Synthaera politely.
The serving lady never even batted an eye at her request as she took her thermos with a quick smile and ran into the back before returning with it a short time later.
"Thank you ma'am," said Synthaera.
"No problem hon. Have a good day now," replied the serving lady with a smile.
Synthaera spent an extra second noting the serving lady's name that was printed on her nametag. "Anna".
Okay, I'll have to remember her. She has been so nice to me and I want to make sure that I stay on her good side.
She felt glad about coming early now. It would've been embarrassing to hold up the line during the rush. A swipe at the cash till later, she paused for a second while trying to work out where to sit. She frowned as she realised that there might be a disadvantage of being one of the first into breakfast.
The last thing Synthaera wanted to do was commit social suicide by inadvertently sitting at a table that was only used by the school's social pariah geeks or nerds. Danu was sure there was such a table, after all she had sat on it in Wales. Whateley was a fresh start and she was damned if she was going to be one of the losers without a fight. At the same time she did not want to grab a seat reserved for the local hot shots, oh yeah the Alphas one of the Kimbas had called them, although there had been a host of snarks from Ayla about them as well. Irritating one of the main cliques did not seem wise, especially as she was well aware that if she showed fear or weakness one of the bullies would be on her in a flash. Which would be bad, from the sounds of things the local bullies could tear tanks in half.
Damn. Why didn't I think of this before I came in? Stupid girl you know better than this. I so should have waited for one of the others and walked in with them. Dumb, very dumb Synthaera.
Synthaera knew her pause had only been for a moment, not long enough to cause comment, so she made her decision and walked to an empty table that was away from the raised section logic said the Alphas would be over there somewhere lording it over the peasants. Not central, maybe a two thirds of the way out to the windows. Hopefully a safe location, not that she would now until someone objected or not. Sitting down facing the doors to Crystal Hall she stuffed her thermos into her bag, then stuck the straw in the drinks container and began drinking, looking she hoped like she was drinking Pepsi.
Oh God that tastes soooo good. Wow I could just sit here and drink this all day. I never thought I would think that. Oh I feel so alive right now.
Fresh life energy ran through her making Synthaera feel wonderful, her body was thrumming with energy. The blood was half gone in one long suck and with a reluctant sigh she released the straw, dabbing her lips with a napkin to remove a couple of errant red drops, and picked up her fork and began her pancakes which were really tasty. She ate slowly, enjoying the cherry pancakes, and paying attention the entrance as students started arriving for breakfast in ever greater numbers, and within 20 minutes there were queues waiting at all the serving stations.
Synthaera tried not to gawk as she watched a boy built like a pro wrestler strut across the hall with a tray in each meaty hand both piled high with ridiculous amounts of food.
Oh my. No way anyone can eat that much.
The kid sat near the centre of the hall and began devouring the mountains of corned beef hash, waffles and to her disbelief the pile went down rapidly.
Shaking her head Synthaera looked back at the food counters, and froze in shock. There was a dinosaur in the Crystal Hall, at least it looked like a dinosaur, huge, with mottled reptilian hide, with rows of lethal looking spines on its back, powerful tail, a truly vicious looking maw, and bizarrely it was holding a tray. The reptilian mutant had very humanoid looking arms coming from its massive torso, and they were stacking its tray with slabs of raw meat. It also had a black box hug around its neck and a band around its arm with UV on it.
The mutant turned away from the food and ambled across to a boy with a cane who was waiting for him. Synthaera swopped her attention to the black boy, and promptly wanted to vomit.
What is he wearing? That is just wrong!!
From the way the boy was tapping the cane as he came closer Synthaera guessed he was blind.
He would have to be blind to put that fashion statement together. Yellow and luminescent purple plaid kilt, and is that a Hello Kitty T shirt? OH MY GOD!
Synthaera was so stunned by the clothing that she forgot about the fashion murderer's companion. At least until she heard a chirping sound from her right hand side, and turned to find herself looking into the mutant's jaws. It chirped at her again, looming over her with tray in hand.
"Razorback wants to know why you are in Outcast Corner." The surprisingly deep voice came from the blind black kid who had stopped opposite her. "I don't think you are likely to fit in here pretty."
"Excuse me a moment." Synthaera said as she grabbed her armour sunglasses and stuck them on hurriedly.
"Sorry, Hello Kitty I can cope with, just, but that kilt is just violent."
She did her best to ignore the mutant looming over her shoulder as she focussed on the blind kid. Now her attention was not distracted by the hideous clothes she could see his eyes were just white and had no irises at all.
"So is your friend here Razorback?"
"Yes, he normally sits right about where you are at the moment."
She smiled sweetly "Oh, well I can move down a bit if that will help or I guess he can move round your side, there is plenty of room. You may as well sit down as well, that way I don't have to look at that kilt any more. My codename's Danu by the way. Yours?"
"Hmmm I guess you don't feel like moving, well don't say I didn't warn you Pretty. My name's Jericho."
Jericho cocked his head on one side and looked at her, signalled Razorback. There was a series of indignant chirps and the giant reptilian? Dinosaur? moved with surprising speed and quiet behind her and around the table to plant himself next to Jericho and plonk his tray on the table.
"What did he say Jericho?"
"He was being impolite, and suggesting you go and join the pretties." Jericho waved an arm dismissively at the tables in the centre of the hall and on the dais.
"Sorry I got your seat Razorback, I wasn't aware this is Outcast Corner? I did offer to move down though," Danu's voice took on an edge "and where do you get off on calling me a pretty. My name is Danu."
The big saurian chirped furiously at her and gestured rapidly at Jericho. It looked like sign language but Synthaera had never learned any. Jericho was about to speak when there was a girl's voice off to her left.
"Hey! Who's the pretty Jericho? Tell her to piss off. Diamondback is gonna freak at Razor taking her seat."
The blind kid sighed and looked at Danu. "I guess you're new. Outcast Corner is where we heavy GSD freaks hang out and eat. And these freaks are my friends. The pretties are the beautiful people, which group you certainly fall into Danu, and we don't normally get on as they generally treat us like shit. Now the voice you just heard was Deimos, and her twin Phobos is with her. They're empaths and when a pretty freaks out about their looks they feel it even worse than normal, so before they arrive I suggest you go, because if you hurt them I will not be pleased. When they arrive if you feel the urge to leave apologise and fuck off."
Looking at Jericho with her sight, Synthaera could see the boy's strong protective streak and concern for his friends. Razorback was the same, but also radiated confusion and uncertainty about her. Razor chirped again and when Jericho looked, rapidly ran through a complicated series of signs.
Who is this pretty Jericho? She doesn't smell human and she might look like Fey but she's not. She smells of blood.
Jericho looked again at the very hot girl in front of him. He could tell she was light skinned and blonde but sensing in shades of grey made it difficult to tell more. She was hot like Fey and she looked Sidhe, but did not have whole glamour thing going. Razor's senses were much sharper than his though, so now he was not sure what to think.
"Like I said Danu pretties are not welcome here, but if you want to stay that is your call. Oh and Razor wants to know why do you smell of blood?" The girl smiled at him.
"Blood? Oh that will be my breakfast." She casually took a suck on the straw of her drink, and offered him the cup, "Want some?" she grinned at him wickedly, which also revealed her elongated canines. "See I get to be a freak too, though I prefer the term complicated."
"Huh, okay I guess you might not just be a pretty at that, and I will pass on your breakfast thanks." Jericho answered with a grin. As he waved her drink away, he saw the Fury twins coming around the corner with their trays, and noticed Sandra and Caitlin walking through the entrance as well. Phobos and Deimos saw that Danu was still sat there and showed no sign of moving, and their faces darkened at the invasion of Outcast's Corner.
"Who's the Pretty Jericho?"
"What you doing here Pretty?"
Synthaera heard the sharp staccato rap of what she assumed were heels and turned round to see the new arrivals. The girls were not wearing heels, they had hooves. With demonic horns, four arms, wicked claws and three eyes each, the two girls appeared monstrous, but were also very female, with very pretty faces. One was red head, the other had raven black hair, and their specially fitted school uniforms did little to hide very feminine curves. Danu felt a vague sense of pressure as they locked gazes but dismissed it as she looked at the Furies, fascinated.
Deimos and Phobos shared a glance. The girl's reaction was completely unexpected. Virtually everyone they came across found their fear aura intolerable after seconds. Occasionally kids like Ayla Goodkind had trained themselves to ignore the fear though sheer bloody mindedness, which was one of the reasons they had found themselves warming to the admittedly gorgeous Kimbas, but having their aura completely ignored was rare enough the twins found themselves checking.
"You don't feel scared seeing us?"
"No. Should I?" Synthaera had always been into art work of fantasy creatures and monsters, and these girls were like a strange mix of beauty and fantastic beast brought to life. Razorback was more understandable and also way more scary than the girls, mostly because he was so frickin huge. Jericho interrupted her thoughts.
"The twins have an aura that makes people afraid. When they are together or emotionally agitated it gets stronger. You don't feel it?"
"No sorry, I would have to say I feel interested more than anything else, but then I'm weird as well."
"Girls, this is Danu. She's new and didn't know about our corner."
"Yeah? What cottage?" Some of the hostility had gone from Deimos' voice.
"I'm in Poe."
"That explains it then, you're crazy." Deimos grinned at her.
"Guilty as charged." Danu grinned at the Fury who caught sight of her fangs.
"Oh. You're a GSD case as well."
"Um yeah I guess, Dr Tennant said I had moderate GSD I think."
"Moderate GSD? Surely the fangs only class as minor?" That was Phobos, sounding curious in spite of herself. Synthaera wondered how much to say then figured that without a doubt the two girls in front of her had GSD far worse, and being open with them could open up a possible friendship. Neither twin seemed hostile now, more curious.
"Um the Doctor said that even though my GSD is mostly internal I'm not actually human or Sidhe at all anymore. I am a living vampire apparently. Circe says my case is unusual, but I've no idea, it's only been about two weeks since I changed."
With that she pulled the top off her drink and revealed its contents, before taking another drink. As she did so the twins sat down facing each other at the end of the table and started eating, glancing occasionally at Danu, still a little bemused at her apparent immunity to their aura but willing to give her benefit of the doubt for now.
A couple of minutes later the table heard the melodious voice of Diamondback and Eldritch's more strident tones as the two friends finally got through the breakfast queue, chatting about their recess. Diamondback ended up sat on Synthaera's right and Eldritch on Jericho's left opposite Sandra.
"Hi guys, who's this?"
Diamondback was more used to dealing with other students than her friends, especially with the Outcasts getting more friendly with Team Kimba recently. Less given to hostility than the Fury twins, still she was surprised to see her two friends sharing a cautious but friendly conversation with a complete stranger. Actually she was not sure what was stranger, the conversation, or the lack of effect their aura appeared to have on the newcomer.
Danu turned to her right and said hello to Diamondback.
Wow, a Naga?
"Hi I'm Synthaera, my codename is Danu."
"Hello Danu, My name's Sandra but I'm called Diamondback for obvious reasons, and my friend here with the lightshow is Caitlin. Her codename is Eldritch."
Eldritch gave Danu a long measuring gaze, and then a curt nod hello. Synthaera said hello and returned to her breakfast, as the conversation about winter recess resumed around her. The Outcasts as they called themselves seemed a strange bunch but were obviously close each other. Looking at Diamondback she could see an array of magically charged items the girl was wearing, her bracers in particular radiated magic. Eldritch however was so bright magically that she had to concentrate for a second to try and tone done her sensitivity, so she could look at the girl's aura, which was just plain weird, torn up, angry and very deep.
Wow this girl is in a lot of pain, I mean constantly, and she just sits there and deals with it?
Eldritch looked at the newcomer and wondered what to make of her, ignoring the singes and stabs of pain her magical lightshow caused. The girl was as tall as she was, although not as heavily built, more lithe than her own muscular frame, and held herself well. Her body language was friendly but reserved, not defensive although a little wary, and she seemed to want to pay equal attention to all of her Outcast friends.
It was only when Deimos wanted to know more and Danu gave them a quick history that she discovered the girl also suffered from moderate GSD, and was vampiric. Huh maybe she will fit in here after all. The conversation moved on to powers, the what do you do? that was Whateleys version of 'my name is and I come from', the group of teens swapping stories and banter.
When Synthaera saw that the Kimbas had arrived she noted the table they sat at, a large rectangle of tables pulled together where some of their friends where already sitting and as she had finished her breakfast decided to say hello to her fellow Poesies. Saying her goodbyes to the Outcasts with thanks for their company she explained she was going to say hi to her fellow Poesies. The Outcasts looked at each other. Jericho shrugged, Jericho chirped and signed something. Deimos and Phobos grinned and nodded and Diamondback smiled and nodded. Eldritch took another long look at Danu then spoke.
"Fine by me Jericho."
"Okay then, Danu, I think and these screwballs agree that you are a big enough freak to hang out with us Outcasts, so if you want company any time feel free to drop by and bullshit for a while okay. It don't mean you have to feel obliged or nothing but you're at least as fucked up as us so you're welcome."
Danu laughed, "Thanks guys, that means a lot to me, I never had a group before where the entry criteria was being totally fucked up! Seriously though, thanks, you guys are a blast. I will definitely be back."
With a friendly wave to the Outcasts Danu grabbed her bag, picked up her tray of rubbish and stowed it, then wandered over towards the Kimbas. Seeing her Molly nudged Chou, who grinned and waved her over, the other Poesies grinning as well. As she got closer she could hear Ayla discussing sitcoms with Tennyo? Somehow it did not seem likely.
What the hell? Why is Lancer telling Chaka her colour choice for a prom dress is not right? Fey and Jade and discussing make up? They did not seem so girly girl last night
As Synthaera sat down looking utterly bemused Chou reached across the table and took her hand, making it touch a crystal that was stood in the middle of the table.
"So I need to make another run around the devisors and gadgeteers, see if anyone came up with anything new over the recess that is worth investing in."
That was Ayla. Lancer now seemed to be debating team tactics with Tennyo. Fey and Bunny were chatting happily together and Jade was adamantly telling Chaka that Hello Kitty was the best thing ever, while the black girl snarked her back.
"Oh wow, that was the weirdest thing, you guys sounded like you were having the strangest conversation."
"Yeah ain't it great. The crystal's a way cool anti eavesdropping charm that Fey cooked up for us earlier in the year. Anyone listening just hears really weird shit." Chaka grinned like a loon.
"No kidding I could hear you and Lancer talking about the colour of a prom dress!!"
Silence for a second, before Phase snarked, "The crystal is working? That sounded normal to me!" Hank swore while Chaka howled with laughter joined by the rest of the table.
"What else did you hear?"
"Not a lot, mostly make up and fashion stuff although Phase was talking about her favourite sitcoms." The punk girl groaned and just held her head in her hands
"Nooo, I'll never live it down." Tennyo patted her friend on the back consolingly. Fey asked Danu where she had been, as none of the Kimbas had seen her on the way to breakfast.
"I was up early and had a very nice shower," smirks from the girls, "and I was here by 7:15. I think I was one of the first to get breakfast, the pancakes are awesome! I never saw people eat so much before."
"Watch out, Tennyo and Hank eat more than anyone, and just about anything as well!"
"Hey! I resemble that remark."
"The big eaters are usually energizers like Tennyo, it takes a lot of fuel to keep them going, although Tennyo is greedy as well."
"Hey!" Synthaera sniggered at Tennyos aggrieved tone.
"Any problems in breakfast? Where did you sit?"
"No I was fine thanks, I managed to avoid sitting up there with the Lords and Ladies crowd."
"The Alphas? Good call, best to avoid them if possible." Phase reminded her..
"Yeah they kind of just scream 'assholes' to me. Anyhow I sat over there, with the guys in Outcast Corner. They're a hoot." Fey looked at her speculatively.
"You were able to sit over there? Who was there?" Danu rattled off their names, explaining that the Outcasts had been surprised to discover the Fury twins' aura had no effect, and that once Danu explained about her GSD and they saw her breakfast everyone was cool.
"What about your breakfast?" Jade wanted to know.
"Umm, I'm vampiric Jade, I feed off life force, you know the whole drinking blood schtick."
"Oh yeah. Cool."
Jade promptly forgot about Danu's breakfast and went back to proclaiming Hello Kitty. Chaka gave Danu a knowing grin as Danu shook her head hesitantly, the Kimbas were all cool but Jade was, Jade was a little weird.
The breakfast chatter moved on, Ayla telling Synthaera where her home room and the lockers were, and telling her if she had a martial arts class to make sure she took her gi with her.
"I've never done martial arts at all, so Circe recommended I take Basic Survival."
"That's a good course, it teaches you to be thinking all the time. It would be a really good idea to learn a martial art as well though."
"Yeah? Do you guys do any?" That innocent question started a whole other conversation with the various Kimbas and friends explaining what they studied and for how long. By the time they finished Synthaera was looking around with a healthy degree of respect, and feeling slightly shocked at the formidable array of skills surrounding her.
I mean Tennyo could kick most anyone's ass, before she became an almost unstoppable mutant. Jesus.
"I think I have a lot of catching up to do, if the rest of the kids here are like you guys I might just get my head handed to me." Synthaera commented slightly worried.
"Nah not to worry Danu, we got your back," That was Tennyo "we changelings all stick together, and if you hang around with us I am sure you will learn stuff real quick."
Ayla grumbled, "Hard to avoid that, the amount of trouble we get into."
"Hey it's not our fault the Alpha's are douchebags, and everyone wants a piece, we just hand it back to 'em is all." Chaka was practically bouncing on her chair, the effort of staying still for breakfast was becoming too much for her.
Eventually Tennyo and Hank had finished their trays of food, and the Poesies began dispersing. With a wave to her new friends Danu headed for her homeroom, where she suffered through the mandatory humiliation of being the newbie getting introduced, but when she got a lot more interested looks felt better about that as well. Before she left for class an adult came in and spoke to the teacher who pointed her out.
"Synthaera Givens?"
"Um, yes?"
"You're excused from your lessons for the time being Synthaera. You have an appointment with Dr Bellows in the medical facility at 9:15. Here is a note explaining any absence."
"Okay, thank you." With a smile, the adult turned and left, the supervisor indicated she could leave as well and she headed to the medical facility once again.
Synthaera glanced at her watch 8:55, she had plenty of time to get across to the infirmary. The hallways were mostly empty as she walked, Whateley was set on a much larger campus than her old school for all it actually had fewer students. Heading out across the grounds she could see groups of students chatting and talking, and she wondered which kids would be friendly, and who would be the troublemakers as there were always some. Still she got to the medical centre without incident and told the pretty receptionist she was there. After sitting in the waiting room, the door to Dr Bellows office opened precisely at 9:15, and the Doctor ushered her in. Walking in, Dr Bellows asked her to give him a moment, so Synthaera had a good look round while she waited.
The office was a rather surprising mix. There was a comfy looking sofa, strewn with cushions, a pair of comfortable armchairs facing each other, a large bean bag, book shelves with a strange selection on titles, medical texts sharing space with a biography of Lord Paramount? There was also a grouping of vases and what looked like an antique jug or pot. Still Synthaera found that the room still managed to feel friendly, and warm. Bellows came back in a moment later and found her standing looking around, she grabbed a seat on the end of the sofa, glad it was as comfy as it looked, and waited while he sat down in one of the armchairs. The Doctor looked, she decided, as comfy and friendly as his office, it suited him well.
"Right then Danu, it is nice to meet you, I'm Dr Alfred Bellows and I am one of Whateley's team of councillors. My job is basically to talk with you, and offer whatever help I can, depending upon your needs and circumstances. I will use your codename in these conversations for your additional security. Do you have any questions?"
"So are you my shrink then Dr Bellows?" He laughed kindly before agreeing.
"Yes Danu, that is one of my roles. I have many years of head shrinking behind me," he looked amused, "both with adults and children, baseline humans and mutants of many descriptions. I am in fact a somewhat limited mutant myself you know." his eyes twinkling as he saw her interest was piqued.
"Nothing too dramatic I assure you my dear, I am a contact limited telepath and empath. That means that when I am touching you I can read certain of your thoughts, or more accurately your memories. I am not however able to do so from a distance or without contact, and if I felt it was necessary to do so I would always ask your permission, okay?" Synthaera nodded.
"My job is actually a little more general than just shrinking heads. I am responsible for supporting, developing and maintaining the mental and emotional well being of the school and its students."
Dr Bellows spent a couple of minutes explaining that everything she said was confidential, that he had access to her full history so Danu could talk about anything she wanted, and that because her manifestation had been difficult they would have a series of meetings. Once he was happy she understood everything they began, Synthaera quickly getting the feeling Dr Bellows was dedicated to his job and patients and could be trusted totally.
After talking for a bit about how she was doing getting settled in to Poe Cottage, Dr Bellows asked if she was willing to talk a little about her manifestation. Synthaera felt relaxed enough and agreed.
"You were hijacked on your way home from school, a very dangerous situation, what do you remember about it?"
"This boring guy next to me went to the toilet, and I kind of thought, that's a good idea so I went as well, except I was puzzled as he went to the middle loos when the closer ones were empty. I figured he wanted some nuts from the galley or something. Then I heard gunfire. I sneaked a look and that boring guy had a frickin machine gun."
"How did you feel, and what happened next?"
"I was really scared, and I kind of was thinking I thought that guy was boring. I hid in the loo while I tried to work out what I should do. This nutter called Smit was on intercom the saying he had control of the plane. Next thing this guy is pointing a gun in my face. I almost shit myself. He made me walk to the front and sit near that Smit guy. I had a headache for almost a day before the flight and it came back really strong. I couldn't think straight my head hurt so much. Smit was looking at me like I was a cockroach. He had dead eyes, there was nothing there you know. He asks my name and age, and tells me that fate has really shat on me today. Then he gets on the intercom and says if the Marshalls on the plane don't surrender in a minute he will kill me, and he is just pointing this gun at me all the time, I'm looking down the barrel, and I can feel this pressure in my head building ,I can't move and my head is going to explode. I see Smit pulling the trigger on the gun and I don't want to die." Synthaera found she was shaking, as she relived the hijacking. Dr Bellows noted her reaction as well.
"It is perfectly normal to still feel fear carried over from such a thing Danu. Essentially you watched this man try and kill you, and the trauma of that will take time to get over. Have you heard the term Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?"
"Yes, isn't that something soldiers get after wars and stuff?"
"It can be yes, but one of the reasons soldiers sometimes get PTSD is being unable to discuss shocking brutal things that have happened to them. Although it can be uncomfortable to talk about things, it is very important or the emotional trauma just keeps echoing around in your mind, and can become debilitating, resulting in conditions like PTSD and some others as well. Do you want to continue?"
Synthaera decided she had started talking so stopping so soon didn't make sense, and what Dr Bellows was saying made sense. It did feel better to get it off her chest. She nodded and continued.
"He was about to pull the trigger and then it was like time stopped, I could see where the hijackers and marshals where in the plane, and I knew that there was a woman marshal in the cabin with me but she was outnumbered. Time started again, and the marshal opened fire on the hijacker on guard and Smit pulled the trigger and then began to turn to shoot the marshal. I needed to help her and I pushed this power at her, and then the bullet hit this shield, and I knew that Smit's bullets hit a shield in front of the marshal as well. I could see that the other marshals were coming, and then the wounded gunman fired at me. The bullets did not reach me.... but I kind of zapped him, threw power at him I mean and he died."
She was shaking again her mind reliving the sight of the gunman burning? The power burned him to nothing.
"After that I remember hoping I helped the marshals enough and then I felt like I was on fire, the pain was too much and I don't remember anything else."
"How do you feel about what happened?"
"I was angry that my life had been so crap, I didn't want to die yet. Glad that I could help the lady Marshal. I saw that bastard Smit's surprise when his bullet didn't kill me and that made me happy, and I saw the marshal's bullet kill him. He deserved it. His aura was so ugly, he was just evil. That other gunman tried to kill me as well and I burned him up. I know that it's wrong to say that I am glad he died but the fucker deserved it."
Synthaera felt embarrassed but defiant as well, and Dr Bellows could see it clearly written on the girl's face.
"Are you glad he died, or glad you killed him Danu?"
Dr Bellows deliberately made his tone sharper than he felt to sting her and see her reaction. It was a difficult question to ask a teenager but he wanted her to think about it. He watched her body language and posture as she leaned forward on the sofa, staring at her feet while she thought before answering.
"I don't know why that man wanted to do the hijacking, but he did. They killed an innocent stewardess, and the pilots as well. Smit tried to kill me as bait, to provoke the marshals, and the gunman tried to kill me. Am I glad he died? Yes, he gave up his right to life. Am I glad I killed him? No, I'm 14, I shouldn't have to kill anyone, but if I hadn't he would have killed me, maybe the marshals, other passengers, he had a frickin machine gun. I'm glad I was suddenly able to kill him and defend myself and others. I guess he started it and I am glad I was able to finish it, and I think that's how I feel about it Dr Bellows, I don't plan on starting stuff, but I am damn sure I intend to finish it, to protect myself or my friends or family."
Dr Bellows studied Danu, her posture was erect, shoulders back, and her voice was level.
"So if someone attacked your family and you had to kill to defend them you would?"
"In a heartbeat. Someone attacks my mum, dad and Tommy, and I'm there to stop them, they're dead."
Danu's tone turned to flint and cold iron in an instant, and Dr Bellows noted with no surprise, that the family she was concerned about was not her biological one. That would wait for another discussion he decided. Still he was actually happy that the girl was even able to talk about the events that were still so recent.
The resilience of youth, and no macho forces bullshit to worry about. No I don't think we will need to worry about PTSD with Danu. The events she has been through may have forged an avenger type mentality though. If anyone attacks those she holds dear now, she will definitely go after them.
Dr Bellows moved the conversation on to the ambush on her way home from the hospital. Danu had been, he noted, concerned about her control of her vampiric nature, but felt that she was getting to grips with that much better already. Probing into how Danu felt about the incident it was obvious that she was baffled and upset that someone had wanted to kidnap her, and disturbed that the ambush was intended to capture her presumably because of her mutation. She had difficulty with the possibility the attack was linked to her father selling her to parties unknown, and Dr Bellows thought that while her abandonment by her natural parents was a horrific surprise, it fitted a pattern of treatment Danu had perceived from an early age.
The concept of being sold into slavery or for use in experimentation had taken the girl's sense of outrage and betrayal to a whole new level. Possibly he mused this accounted for the rapid solidifying of her new relationship with Elaine, John and Tommy Givens as a new family unit. Asking about how Danu felt during the ambush her sense of wanting to protect her Mum came through loud and clear, as well as her certainty that the two attackers she killed had deserved it, and that the third was only alive and in custody because Elaine had wanted a prisoner.
I will have to ensure that care is taken to note Danu's reactions to harassment in school. She seems to have a very all or nothing view of conflict now. I will need to work on this with her. The doctor noted mentally.
"Danu we will talk on a regular basis as you get used to Whateley Academy. As you're starting at the beginning of Spring Semester it's fifteen weeks until the end of year. We will be having weekly meetings between now and then. I am reasonably happy with how you are doing so far, given that it's only been a short time since you manifested, but if you have any problems in school or with students I do want you to discuss them with me."
"What kind of problems do you mean Doctor?"
"You know that this is a school for mutants not a school for heroes. You will encounter people here who do not agree with your sense of right and wrong, or who may take exception to you for a variety of reasons. To be brutally frank with you, this last year has been hard on Whateley and our students. Tempers and sensibilities have been stretched beyond their normal limits already and in this kind of atmosphere, sadly intolerance often thrives. There are bullies and agendas here same as in other schools. Unfortunately the bullies here have powers that most could only fantasize about. I am concerned that if you are provoked your instincts to 'finish it' may result in serious injuries, even fatalities, either to you or another student. Sadly we have had them before. You have been through a great deal of trauma in a short period of time, and it has polarised your views a little. I would like you to think about that for me, and curb your more aggressive instincts, and when we talk next time we will discuss it a bit more. Okay?"
Synthaera was a little taken aback by Dr Bellows' request, although she could tell that it was intended as an instruction.
"Wait you mean I shouldn't defend myself if someone decides to make me a target here as well?"
"Not at all Danu. If it is necessary for you to defend yourself, then do so. However I want you to always try and consider whether it is necessary for you to do so. The Academy has a very experienced and competent security team, and there are ample security measures in place. If something is going on I just want you to consider whether or not you can better handle the situation by getting assistance from staff or security. I know you think I am trying to tie your hand behind your back."
"A little I guess, yes Doctor Bellows I do."
"Honestly I'm not Danu, but most of the students here manage to get through school with a minimum of difficulty, and while a lot of students have difficult experiences when they manifest, thankfully very few of them have already had to kill in self defence. That experience changes you permanently Danu, it can make you brittle and snap, or it can forge you into a very tough individual. You appear to be well on the way to becoming a strong, even formidable individual, but even most of the bullies you come across here will not have had the real world experiences that you have already undergone."
Synthaera was confused, "I don't get it, why should that mean I don't defend myself or my friends if I need to?"
Bellows paused for a moment working out how to get it across to the girl who was not being defensive but honestly did not get his meaning yet. Which was exactly the point he was getting at he thought but telling her that would not work.
"Okay, why do kids bully?"
"Umm, I don't know Doctor, I guess they want to be powerful, want to have control? I mean some are just dicks and have a shitty attitude, they want everyone to know how tough they are but I think some are kind of damaged."
"Okay, that seems a fair answer. Did you ever bully anyone?"
"No Doctor."
"Good, glad to hear it. Okay let's say there is a group of bullies harassing you, who you know can be very dangerous. How do you know their intentions?"
"From their behaviour I suppose."
"So one in particular is threatening to severely beat up on you, using weapons, what will you do."
"I'll try and avoid a fight if I can, if not then I will do my damnedest to stay in one piece."
"And that is the problem I am worried about Danu. The fact is most likely they are posturing, you understand that yes?"
"Of course, but I cannot know that for sure. I have to go by what I see, and defend myself as best I can."
"Why? Is it because you have been in that dangerous type of situation before?"
"I guess. Maybe."
"If I told you that most of your peers would assume that even if they got a beating it would not be serious what would you say?"
"That they are fools to assume that."
"The problem Danu is your response represents a jaded adult combatant's viewpoint in an environment where the threats are essentially juveniles. Sure they might be powerful, dangerous teenagers, but they're still teenagers, with teenage viewpoints, expectations and understanding." He saw that Danu was starting to understand, and looking concerned.
"Teenagers are all about status, social standing, posturing, and showing off, and they or a bully will expect you to behave in the same way."
"You're saying the bully will expect me to be a kid, perhaps even fight back, but as a kid would fight back."
"Correct." Bellows confirmed.
"But I wouldn't do that, I don't plan on threatening or bullshitting anyone. They start it I will end it as fast as I can."
"And what would you use to do so?"
"Anything I could."
"Precisely Danu. That is the problem I am worried about. You have already given up the accepted juvenile social conventions that high school works within."
Dr Bellows could clearly see the understanding blossom in girl opposite him. She summed it up quite well he thought.
"Ah crap."
Forty minutes later Synthaera left Dr Bellows office, her expression caught halfway between worried and murderous. The conversation with the doctor had gone downhill after he explained his concern to her, and she was pissed off at the outcome. Dr Bellows had explained to her that Whateley Academy used the status of Ultraviolent plus a nifty armband to warn students that the bearer had a variety of violent tendencies or could not be provoked without risking expulsion. The UV armband came with a healthy degree of stigma from some students, and inevitably made the bearer stand out. Which Syntharea was not keen on doing.
Dr Bellows had warned her that if circumstances showed that she was unable to demonstrate restraint in dealing with her fellow students, the school may end up being forced to brand her as an Ultraviolent. So now when she had to deal with the assholes that no doubt used the campus as their stomping grounds, she would have to first work out if they were just hormonally challenged and mentally retarded teenagers to whom she would have to show 'restraint', or genuine threats to her safety she could deal with once they started something.
Fucking hell.
The receptionist saw her expression as she came down the corridor from Dr Bellows office, and decided that asking how her session went would not be wise, or even sane. Muttering to herself the tall Sidhe strode rapidly out of the medical facility throwing her cowl up as she stepped into the sunshine.
Five minutes later she arrived at Schuster Hall and headed to administration to sign for her laptop. Dr Bellows had instructed her to go and collect it before heading to the tunnels once more to make her way to the magical testing facility. The desk administrator on duty took her name and a few minutes later came back with a laptop. He explained school policy on using the school laptops for anything other than work school studies, and cautioned her to format the drive herself and to reinstall her school software from the provided USB flash drive. This was apparently because although the laptop was supposed to have been formatted by the previous user, it was now her responsibility to ensure that the machine was not booby trapped with an insidious virus, or other software nasty. Paperwork signed, laptop checked out, and still in a bad mood Synthaera was allowed to leave for the testing facilities.
The tunnel system was busier than during her last trip through towards Arena 99, with the occasional student walking around under the campus. Once she arrived at the main testing facility the receptionist checked the schedule and directed her to the lift. When the lift doors opened in the lower reception, Synthaera found directions on the wall screen and was soon walking along the connecting tunnel to the Magical Testing Facilities. Remembering her Esper Testing, Synthaera walked along with her sight active, quickly reaching the magical symbols invisibly etched into the tunnel wall. Up close she stopped and focussed on the symbols, wondering what the intricate glowing sigils actually did or meant, but the strange shapes meant nothing to her and she walked on.
Walking into the specialised Magical Testing Facility deep below the main testing facilities, Synthaera was immediately struck by the sheer number of magical glows emanating from the walls floors and ceilings, of what quite obviously been built along the lines of a kind of bunker. Synthaera had no idea what all the magic did, but there was a hell of a lot of it. At reception she found an Asian gentleman that she guessed was of Indian origin. He introduced himself as Dr Sanji Navinder, and spoke with the polished English tones that immediately brought to mind Oxbridge. When he recognised Synthaera's English accent he seemed even happier to see her, beaming a bright smile that showed off brilliant white teeth, as he ushered her into Test Lab M.
Synthaera was even more surprised to find Dr Hewley present as well when they passed through heavily inscribed doors into a large open space similar to the lab she had seen in the main test facility.
"Dr Hewley, I was not expecting to see you today, how are you?"
"I am very well Danu, thank you for asking, and I see you have met my colleague Dr Navinder."
"Please Danu just call me Sanji it makes life so much easier."
"Um, okay Sanji."
"Good, good. Richard asked to review your testing, as he is collating your results, and has some insights from the Esper team that frankly make no sense."
"Not that is any surprise." That acerbic comment came from a short rotund figure who had walked into view from behind a stack of machinery."
"Dr Bell, while the Magical and Esper Science Departments rarely see eye to eye, I don't see that it is particularly appropriate to air those views at a Powers Testing."
"Sorry Sanji." Synthaera thought Dr Bell sounded anything but sorry. Sanji turned back to her.
"Sorry about that. Now, in the same way as was done at your main physical testing, we will refer to you by your codename only Danu. Now if you are ready to begin, I would like you to go and get changed behind the partition and then we will get started."
A few minutes later Synthaera was clad in the testing labs' body suit once more, its sensors recording her bodily functions, and walked back to find the three doctors reviewing pages of notes. Richard saw her, and waved her over.
"Well Danu, I have some observations from Circe that we will attempt to quantify, as well as others from Mrs Peters that we will also study. In addition we will try and get a handle on what magical powers you possess already or may develop, as well as the source of your abilities so we can advise you on possible paths of development."
"Um, okay Richard."
"Any questions?"
"What are all the magical symbols for in the walls, and ceiling and in the tunnel from the other lab?"
"Hmm? Oh those are warding and barrier protection spells in the tunnel they block an old portal site, and the lab is magically reinforced to ensure errant magic cannot escape from the lab. Hold on a second, Mrs Peters mentioned that you have what she classed as Astral Sight, as well as Aura Reading, both with a high degree of sensitivity. Now those are recognised as Esper powers, but her notes stated that you detected a magical barrier she had in place, although you could not identify it, as well as describing seeing magical wards when the extent of your vision was being tested. Is that correct?"
"Yes Sanji"
"In which case we will investigate further Danu. While Esper and Magical traits are not mutually exclusive, it is unusual to show both together, and it is very unusual for Astral Sight or Aura Reading to show Magical signatures, as they are not focussed in that direction. How did you see these magical signs? A spell, scroll, charm or focus?"
Sanji seemed very disinclined to believe her sight had accomplished what she had done.
"I just focussed I guess and saw them."
Dr Navinder looked at her for a long moment, looking like he was about to say something before deciding against it. Synthaera saw his clear disbelief, and sighed, then she concentrated and focussed her sight on the Indian scientist.
"Sanji, I am looking at you now and, your aura is quite deep and looks dark green and bronze mostly to me, with a white edge. I don't really now what that means, but you also have a necklace that radiates that same whiteness quite strongly, it feels different to magical energy. Um, and you also have an earring that radiates magic weakly."
Dr Navinder looked at her, then Dr Bell and lastly Dr Hewley. "Richard this is a test right, or a joke? David did you see anything resembling a focus, or spell casting?" Both men shook their heads, Dr Bell looking surprised and Richard Hewley thoughtful.
"Danu, I am wearing a religious symbol around my neck, and the earring is a spelled charm I was given by a relative in India a long time ago. I expect the Esper bunch can explain the colours of Auras to you. Are you doing anything different now to what you did during your Esper testing?"
"No, although when Mrs P had me looking in the tunnel I was focussed a little differently, like a wider focus, or pulled further back."
"Can you do that now and tell me what you see over there in the far corner of the room please."
Sanji pointed to the far corner of the room where there was a series of storage lockers. Synthaera shrugged and did as he asked and pulled her viewpoint back above her and looked in that direction.
"There are two magical signatures in the last locker on the right Sanji. One is bright but the other is really bright, but tiny."
"My word. Very Interesting. Richard are you familiar with our student Silver?"
"Yes, why Sanji?"
"The larger but less bright is a sample of Silver's production, Mithril. The smaller bright signature Danu is describing can only be a very small piece of Orichalchum that is kept for reference purposes. Danu is picking up on the magic inherent in those metals. That my friend is wildly outside of Astral sight. Honestly I am not altogether sure that is covered by Magical sight. It appears that Danu is visually detecting the presence of magic spells and charms as well as the raw magic within magical materials. Now I would consider that impressive enough, especially as she has so far demonstrated no means of casting such a spell, other than Esper techniques." distaste echoed in his tone.
"At the same time however Danu has demonstrated traditional Esper abilities like Astral Sight and Aura Reading. She is going to keep both the testing labs busy. We will need to devise appropriate testing for her sight, as from what she has demonstrated just now, we are beyond the boundaries of magical sight tests. An additional element, and an exciting one is that Danu was able to sense my crucifix. It is not in anyway magical, and is formed of oak, not any magical material. Magical sight or Astral vision should not be able to detect it under my clothing. The only explanation that I can offer at the moment, is that I am a devout Christian. I believe that Danu may possibly have detected the signature of my faith. So far as I know that's not possible, so I will need to consult with the Magical Faculty to determine what to do next."
Dr Hewley scratched his head then looked at Danu and grinned, "Well you do appear to be full of surprises Danu. Okay on the testing summary Sanji I need you to put down Magical sight demonstrated. Follow up testing may be beneficial, and leave it at that."
"Dr Hewley surely we need to schedule a team analysis, and proceed from their? This is a very unusual opportunity."
"Yes I know Sanji but for now it will wait, until the headmistress thinks it appropriate."
Dr Navinder looked rebellious, Synthaera thought, but at the mention of Mrs Carson he protested and then acquiesced to Dr Hewley's instruction. Sanji was obviously unhappy but moved on.
"Okay Danu we will conduct a series of test to assess your magical gifts. We will start with some basic testing to determine your prowess and then move onto your demonstrated powers," he checked his notes, "a golden force shield of some type to be determined, and an offensive strike to be tested. If you could follow me please Danu, we will start with testing your magical knowledge."
The two magical testing specialists, Synthaera and Dr Hewley, moved through to a room with several tables. On them were an assortment of items, ranging from what looked like tools of some kind, to daggers, what she assumed were wands, crystals, scrolls and other items. Dr Bell asked her to take her time and study the items, and then tell them what she could about the items, and their magical properties.
It was a frustrating exercise for Synthaera. She was easily able to tell which of the items were magically active, (a couple of the daggers, one of the crystals and several of the wands and other trinkets.) but what the type of magic was, she had no idea. She found she could determine in a rough fashion the amount of magical energy involved from how brightly the items 'glowed' to her vision but otherwise, she had no idea what the different items were for or what kinds of magic were involved.
One of the items, a strange bony seeming wand with weird carvings, was disturbing. When she looked at the staff it had its own aura. To Synthaera it seemed than an oily, sickly, greasy glow that emanated from the wand that made her feel physically sick. Pointing it out to the testers she asked them to remove it from the room, she had absolutely no wish to be near it at all. Dr Bell hurriedly removed the wand. The wand had been selected at random from an inventory of artefacts that had not been researched, so he had no idea what it was, but based on Danu's reaction to the wand, especially with her limited success otherwise, he placed the wand into secure storage for immediate specialised research.
The rest of the stuff on the desks provided no more surprises, Synthaera could not identify the items, or understand the various types of magic involved, and after about 40 minutes the test was concluded. The testers marked Danu down as having no innate understanding of the magic items based on their use or signature, not surprising as she had no previous magical experience. Satisfied they moved on to the next test- magical systems.
Dr Bell explained to Danu that there were in fact many types of magic, with wildly different methods of use and different practitioners. The next set of testing was designed to establish what type of magic system she used. He started off by asking Danu to explain how she thought her magic worked. After telling him that she thought of the shield and it appeared, Dr Bell asked her about the circumstances she was using her magic the first time. Danu looked at him for a long time, before sighing and explaining that she was involved in a hijacking, threatened with being shot, had a piercing pain in her head, then a golden forceshield appeared in front of her and stopped the bullet from the hijacker's gun.
"The shield just appeared around you? You did not draw magic in from around you, made no preparation, or incantation, no prayers or used scrolls or other items?"
"Yeah it was just there, the bullet hit and it flared up and stayed there. I didn't do anything else, I was just trying to not die. Um, but the shields also appeared around the Marshals on the plane, there were four of them I think."
"So you had five shields active simultaneously?"
"Um, I think so, that was what the Marshals said anyway. Then I fried one of the other hijackers, and I fell unconscious after that."
"Well Danu generally we refer to those using Magic by instinct, without any formalised training as Natural Mages, if you can make spells work without training that would seem to be a likely classification. However if you are manipulating magic without using a recognised system at all, we would tend to refer to that as Chaos Magic, which sounds more dire than it is it just means we don't understand the methodology or paradigm involved. I understand you have had no formal training but we will run some tests and see which is more appropriate."
For the next two hours, Synthaera found herself being asked to cast spells, manipulate tarot cards, read spell scrolls, enchant items, practice witchcraft and a dozen other things she did not have a clue about. Occasionally she found a possible glimmer of understanding with what she was trying to do, more from her D&D background than anything else. It gave her something to reference anyway, not that she told Dr Bell, Synthaera doubted he would be impressed. Nothing worked however and eventually a disheartened Synthaera was stopped by the testers as she finished, and told they would move onto seeing what she could actually do instead of asking her to do things she did not understand. Relieved, she was happy to agree.
Dr Navinder moved the group to an armoured and heavily spelled range, which he explained they used as a test environment for offensive and defensive spells.
"So Danu, what do you want to do first, offence or defence?"
"Hmm, I think I will take offence Sanji." Danu grinned at him, and he thought she was eager to strike at something after a frustrating couple of hours.
"Okay then Danu, we will retire to the bunker. Once we are ready, I would like you to demonstrate the offensive strike you spoke about earlier. We will do a series of tests to try and determine the offensive power involved. The machinery you can see in the range is designed to register and record the flow of magical energy around you, while the targets are calibrated so we can get a rough idea of your destructive force."
Synthaera watched as the scientists moved to the bunker, and looked down the far end of the range. The first series of target appeared, six slabs of various materials, six feet high, two wide and four inches deep. She concentrated for a second, feeling the magic in her mind, ready to go. At Sanji's next instruction, she grabbed the power and threw it at the first target with her mind. With a sensation of energy surging in her mind the target vanished under an incandescent blaze of purple and gold. For a second the target held together before it just ceased to be. Synthaera was not sure whether the target combusted, vaporised, exploded or something else, but the energy vanished and there was nothing left. After a short pause the sound of Adrian Bell's voice asked her to strike the next target.
Inside the armoured bunker the trio of scientist watched Danu look around the range and then Sanji gave her permission to strike, after the targets had appeared. There was a couple of seconds pause then the first target vanished, under a golden purple energy. Less than a second later the energy vanished again, leaving nothing behind.
"Wow....that was quick, what was the first target?." Dr Hewley asked his colleagues.
"HTS." Dr Bell replied quietly.
"HTS?"
"Human Tissue Substitute." Dr Navinder's voice was subdued.
"Oh. I suggest we not let Danu know that. What happened to the target?"
"We need analyse the high speed recording to be sure, but I think it was completely vaporised."
"Okay let's move on."
"Thank you, Danu we are ready for the second target." Dr Bell's voice was a little strained but calm." The testers watched the monitors displaying Danu and the target.
Synthaera felt great, the second target was ready, it looked like some type of wood. She concentrated again and felt the energy roar through her. The second target lasted momentarily longer than the first, before coming apart under the onslaught. Again she waited as her senses buzzed with the sensation of the magic pouring through her.
"Okay Danu, all the recorders are active you can take the rest of the series in your own time. Please try to keep your level of power use the same please."
Synthaera nodded to herself, and looked at the third target, which appeared to be breeze blocks, the fourth was concrete, and the fifth was metal of some kind. The sixth she could not tell what it was, perhaps some kind of ceramic? Feeling that the magic was flowing fine she focussed on the breeze blocks, and let loose. The breeze blocks ceased to exist, and Synthaera did not stop the flow of magic she simply moved her focus to the concrete target, which lasted a second or two longer then exploded into tiny shards. Synthaera flicked the golden shield into place instantly absorbing the few shards that made it to her.
The metal of the fifth target glowed red, orange, yellow, and white hot in the space of barely six seconds before melting into a puddle of liquid metal that began to cool on the range floor. The sixth target lasted longest absorbing the magical energy for almost fifteen seconds with no apparent effect, before suddenly it flashed cherry red then detonated. Synthaera stopped the flow and stood easily, feeling great, as she looked downrange. There was not a great deal left, some metallic puddles, and shards of reinforced concrete and ceramic.
Cool. Well at least I have some punch.
In the range control bunker, the three scientists watched the high speed footage, with surprised expression, not at the level of power, seeing the targets destroyed was so commonplace at Whateley it was almost normal. The surprising thing was the speed of the attacks, and the complete destruction of the targets. Normally the Wiz types had to cast a spell, or activate an artefact of some type, which took time. Danu had obliterated the target with no warning, no casting, and no time between the last targets. Obliterated was the right description as well, the ceramic armour that formed the most durable target had been reduced to shrapnel no larger than fine gravel.
"Okay what did we just learn?" Dr Hewley's voice prompted his colleagues and work resumed.
"Well those were definitely magical strikes, the sensors read it as raw magic impacting the targets, so Danu is a Wiz type no doubt there." Dr Bell was scrutinizing the screens as he spoke. Dr Navinder waited for him to finish before speaking.
"The strikes were not focussed on a single point. The high speed shows that the magic hits the targets all over, they are completely overwhelmed. I suspect that accounts for the complete demolition of the ceramic. Normally a focused strike would perhaps burn cleanly through, or explode a target from a simple point. Those ceramic targets are normally very resistant unless a caster can focus enough energy to explode them. Impressive, I think next we should determine her ability to focus that magic, and also her ability to make the magic assume a different type of focus."
"How so Sanji?"
"Well can Danu form the equivalent of a magic missile strike? A beam weapon? A fireball or similar? Can she turn that raw power into say a heat weapon? Otherwise while she is powerful she will be limited, and perhaps relatively easy to counteract although I suppose that will depend on the amount of magic she is moving. Oh and we need to find out if Danu can scale that strike upwards. Was she hitting with everything she has? I suspect no, as you can see from the screen the girl is not even remotely tired."
"True, and can she attack more than one target at a time?" Dr Bell again, looking excited.
"So then Danu will be in testing for a while today?" Dr Hewley was sure of the answer but thought he had better check, after all he was going to be in the lab, as long as Danu.
Sanji grinned at him.
"I think we can safely say we will be here the remainder of the day, maybe longer. This will be interesting."
"Okay, do we have an idea of how much magic was involved?"
"Well not from the sensors at Danu's end of the range. There was no detectable gathering of magic from outside of herself."
"So that little lot came from internal reserves? Oh this gets better and better, and Danu is not tired yet."
"Yes and more importantly Richard we can give you a rough idea of the amount of magic thrown from the sensors at the target end, although you should not discount the fact that Danu shielded simultaneously as she attacked after the first attack."
"Okay, and what is your rough guess?"
"Well less than Fey."
"Oh good," Dr Hewley interrupted him sarcastically.
"But more than anyone less than a Wiz 4. By their nature, being unfocussed, those attacks used a lot of magic, the downside of instinct over training. If she can focus ,or be taught to, she will be a great deal more efficient. I can't prove it at the moment, but in terms of the amount of magic Danu was throwing just then, my gut says more than Majestic, so Danu will be damn scary if she has no real control other than on or off. Rating wise, I am going to say Danu is, at least a 4, probably a Wiz 5 and just possibly a 6. At the moment I don't know, but by the end of the day we will hopefully know more.
Richard Hewley looked at his colleagues, and then through the window at Danu, and wondered what the hell Carson would say when he informed her.
The wait had dragged on for a while as Synthaera watched the scientists talking in the bunker. Eventually Richard's voice came over the intercom and wryly told her she had managed to raise more questions than she had answered, so they would be in the lab for a while, in fact he had already excused her from lessons for the remainder of the day.
Sanji's voice came on over the intercom, and explained what they would be doing next.
Two hours later and Synthaera was starting to feel a little ragged. She was ever so glad that she had her thermos, as after more than a dozen series of tests and a nosebleed she was hungry. After telling the trio of scientists she needed a break Synthaera quickly polished off the entire thermos, reasoning it made more sense to have plenty of energy, instead of just snacking. As she finished Sanji came over to summarize what they had concluded so far.
"Okay Danu, thanks for being so patient, we are getting there on the offensive side of things now. In the tests you have been able to manage a degree of control over the intensity of your magical blasts. That is important as otherwise you would consistently use far more power than necessary, which wastes your energies, and could tire you out, leaving you vulnerable sooner than necessary, so you will need to practice that skill substantially to be more effective. So far you have not been able to modify the focus of strikes, or strike more than a single target at a time. You will need to try and learn these skills or your lack of flexibility could cost you. A single strike at a time, is somewhat compensated for by the speed of your magical blasts which are considerably faster than I have come across before."
"Yes Doctor I am hoping I will be able to learn those things n my classes."
"Good. As far as the testing is concerned we need to do a couple more offensive tests. We know that you have been able to reduce the intensity of your blasts, but now we need to determine if you can scale them up. Also we have recruited one of the Junior students to cast some shielding on a target in the range, to try and determine your effectiveness against magical shields, which you will find other Wizard types will do their utmost to develop. Simply put Magic takes time to learn and so the older wizards are usually more practiced and more powerful. On the basis that they need to survive to learn, most wizards do their best to learn to produce powerful shields, so being able to judge your ability to take those shields down is important. As a matter of security the Junior will not know your identity. The girl involved will be behind partitioning and will simply be asked to shield the target, which will be comprised of Alloyed Tungsten Steel. We will have a battery of sensors all over the range to get as much information as possible.
Now she will be here shortly so follow me Danu."
Majestic stared at the target that stood isolated at the end of the range in the magic testing lab, her beautiful face twisted in a scowl that easily illustrated her displeasure. It was bad enough that Circe 'required' her assistance, demanding it like she believed Majestic to be a common mortal. It was just plain insulting that she had not spoken to her and requested the service in person, instead using Earth Mother as a messenger, and pulling Majestic out of her studies without so much as a by your leave. The instruction had been simply to be at the Mage Testing Facility to assist the testing team. So now she was a servant? There would be a reckoning for this and every other insult that she bore, while rebuilding the powers she commanded.
And all they wanted her to do is cast a strong shield on a block of steel. She wanted to scream with rage at the insolence of it, but if she stepped out of line too much, Circe would take pleasure in demanding more demeaning menial jobs be done. Better to get this over with. Fine the testers wanted a shield, a shield they would have. Concentrating fiercely, channelling her anger at the insult into the spell, Majestic built the shield in her mind, as strong as she could make without extensive preparations, then called on her magic and 'pushed' at the target. There let them try and deal with that!
Synthaera gasped as the target at the end of the range was suddenly enveloped by a glowing solid sphere of actinic blue light. After a few seconds the earpiece that connected her to Sanji in the bunker, so that the Junior could not hear Sanji's instructions, told her to commence assaulting the sphere, initially at the lowest intensity she could manage, about half her normal blast. Concentrating for a second to limit the power flow she flicked the blast of power at the target. The ball of blue light was suddenly enveloped by the familiar golden purple flames of her magic.
Majestic grunted as her shield was assaulted from every direction at once. Her eyes widened in surprise at the power in the blast. This was not a spell she was familiar with, and she was sure a lesser being would have been swiftly overwhelmed. Not so her, she had power to burn. Her surprise turned to anger, as her shield began to degrade after only 10 seconds. The power involved in the attack was substantial she grudgingly conceded, but surely that kind of magical expenditure could not be sustained for long.
Once this was done, she would make it her business to find out who was casting the spell, and obtain its secrets. An assault that powerful should be in the hands of Olympians, and no one else. How could this be, 30 seconds gone? This was an eternity for such magical use. Grunting again she drew on her magical reserves to reinforce the initial spell, pouring her energy, and her increasing irritation into it.
Synthaera heard the voice in the earpiece, ask her to ramp up the strike, and with a mental twitch she upped the intensity, to about three quarters strength. The glow of her magic deepened, and the blue sphere which had stabilised after dimming, began to dim once more.
What?!!
Majestic groaned as her shield began to buckle under the suddenly much heavier onslaught.
Who is casting this spell?
She knew now why Circe had demanded her assistance, none of the other Juniors could have dealt with this for so long. Furious the Queen of Olympus, threw power into the sphere. It was ridiculous this golden purple fire, it did not relent! How much longer could it last? More than 2 minutes had gone past, it was not possible. With a scream of anger, Majestic reached the end of her reserves, and the blue sphere, stabilised only by her pushing magic into it, crumpled in an instant, the backlash of her spell's collapse knocking her senseless.
Dr Bell watched on the screen as the timer reached 2 minutes 10 seconds! He was not sure what was more surprising, that the attack had gone on so long or that Majestic's shield had lasted as long as it had. There was a shriek from the range and the Junior slumped unconscious as the blue sphere was suddenly crushed.
Oops. I guess I should have called a halt to this. Well at least the data is fantastic.
Looking at Danu, he could see she looked a little tired.
At last something tires her!
After telling Danu to stand down, he went to keep an eye on Majestic. The sensors said she was fine, just unconscious but he did not want her waking up and wandering around. A couple of minutes later the two burly nurses dispatched by the infirmary in response to Sanji's call arrived. Gently they placed the unconscious Majestic on a stretcher before rapidly returning to Whateley's infirmary where she would be kept under observation until she awoke.
Three hours later Majestic awoke on a bed in the Infirmary, her head throbbing with the pain of magical exertion and near exhaustion. She decided that she was going to find that spell caster, and was going to squash whoever it was like a bug. One did not treat a Goddess in this way. Groaning she waved away the nurse, and minutes later stumbled outside into the late twilight and made her way back to Melville. Imperious could wait until tomorrow to be told of this, she needed rest.
Synthaera was delighted that she had managed to break through the shield, although it had been tiring, sustaining that much flow for over two minutes. A few minutes later though, she felt sufficiently recovered to attempt the last of the offensive testing. Dr Navinder wanted her to try and hit the ceramic target with everything she could, to see if her blasts could be increased in strength. Working out what she wanted to do, Synthaera focussed on the flow of her energy trying to grab as much as she can and then threw it. Blinding pain stabbed through her forehead, and as she slumped into unconsciousness the last thing she saw was the ceramic target shattering into a thousand tiny fragments under a maelstrom of energy.
"Oh fuck."
Richard was running for the bunker door even as range was rocked by an shatteringly loud explosion, and Danu slumped to the ground. As he reached her he was shouting instructions to Dr Navinder.
"Call the Infirmary, tell them we have another casualty on the way, and to get a medical team here on the double."
Reaching down he rolled the girl into the recovery position, noting the pool of black blood that was flowing freely from her nose, eyes and ears. He reached for her forehead.
"Oh fucking hell. Sanji tell them we might have a brain trauma, and she is burning up, it might be a burnout as well. Tell them I want a warper hear right now."
Swearing fluently as he waited for the medic or a warper whichever would be quicker, Dr Hewley returned to the bunker as the two testers kept an eye on Danu. Quickly he code locked the systems so they could not be accessed by anyone else, before heading back to Danu. A minute later, a Senior student ported in with a stretcher, and in seconds Danu was strapped in. There was a moment of eye bending visual distortion and the Warper and his cargo reappeared in the Infirmary.
[Updated on: Wed, 21 September 2011 13:40]
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| Re: Synthaera (the post crash edition) [message #40239 is a reply to message #39957 ] |
Sat, 28 May 2011 17:31 |
blayze
Messages: 30
Registered: May 2011
Location: Durham, UK |
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Tuesday. 6th March
Synthaera groaned, as she slowly swam up to consciousness, feeling disorientated and sick. Opening her eyes was an effort, but she managed it, finding herself lying flat on her back in what looked like a hospital ward room.
She remembered trying to increase the size of her magical blast, like the testing team had requested, then pain and blackness.
She felt confused and as she began to stir, she heard Dr. Tennant, "Oh, good. You're awake. We were pretty worried about you."
She turned to the sound of his voice, "What happened? Where am I?"
"Where you are is easier to answer. You're in the Infirmary," said Dr Tennant standing in the room frowning. "You had a massive stroke Danu, and a major bout of burnout as well, that is what happened. You should be dead."
He worked some controls at the side of her bed which promptly repositioned itself so she was sitting up in bed.
"You tried to do too much, and if you weren't such a hellish strong regenerator Danu you would be dead. Brain injuries are just too much damage for most people to cope with, regen or not."
"I did too much?" she asked.
"Yes you did too much," Dr Tennant sounded irritated. "Just because you're a high regenerator and practically immortal doesn't mean you can try and break yourself girl. How do you feel now?"
Synthaera took a second to see how she felt before answering. "Um, well a little bit sick, but that is going quick. Other than that I feel fine, pretty good actually."
The doctor just shook his head in mock disgust. "Well you have been in here for a little over 17 hours Danu, and if you take the time to actually think about it, you will realise just how seriously injured you were, if it takes your body 17 whole hours to fix itself."
Synthaera gulped as she realised what Dr Tennant meant, and meekly asked him to explain what had happened to her. Raul told her that when she was teleported to the Infirmary she had suffered a severe brain trauma and had been bleeding from her eyes nose and ears. The medical team had taken scans when she was brought in and then periodically as she healed herself.
Dr Tennant made it clear that the medical staff had not been able to do anything for her. It was only her mutation that had saved her life. She had overtaxed her magical powers trying to force more magic through her than her body could handle, which had prompted an episode of burnout to begin, but had also resulted in a major brain haemorrhage with a lot of bleeding. Her regen had already kicked in by the time she had arrived at the Infirmary but even so, Dr Tennant believed it was the burnout that had really saved her life, as her mutation rearranged her brain to cope with the demands she had been placing on it, even while her regen ability kept her alive, as her head was rewired.
"My head was rewired?"
Dr Tennant showed her a series of scan print outs. The first ones showed the very extensive bleeding in her brain, pictures that made her shudder. Later scans showed the bleeding reducing, and the shape of her brain's layout changing, to accommodate a new organ growing in the base of her brain. By the last print out the new organ had settled at the size of a walnut, the brain's functions radically reorganised around it. Synthaera pointed at the walnut shaped blob.
"So what is that?"
"Well I don't know, but Circe says it is the source of your magic, Danu. I have traced its development back and it appears that you had a far smaller organ already, although we'd missed it before. Circe was in here earlier checking on you, and worked out what it does. She said she could feel the magic in you now and she expects that you may find increased capability. She also said you are to have a meal and then you are to report back to the Magic Testing Lab, and she will join you there."
"Hmm okay then I guess I better have some food."
Raul grinned, glad to see his patient had an appetite and produced a pair of thermos flasks for her, before giving her some privacy. By the time Synthaera had drained both units of blood her sense of sickness had completely passed, replaced by the sense of mild euphoria the blood stimulated. She spent some time just cataloguing how her body felt, before deciding that she felt the same as before her unexpected cerebral rewiring. Deciding that the next obvious thing to do was to meditate for a time, she crossed her legs in bed and sank into a trance.
First she moved in her mind to the pool where she had first connected to her magic. There had been some changes, where before the pool had seemed to Synthaera like a deep quarry pit, from which the currents of golden purple had coiled up, now the pool was noticeably larger, the vast sense of depth remaining but the currents of power were larger, and the movement stronger more energetic, the surface of what seemed like a miniature lake now constantly bubbling with energy. She moved to the golden cavern. It was as huge in her mind as she remembered it, but the glow was brighter, and the river below was wider, deeper and faster flowing.
Looking around her mental cavern she found the deep channel that powered her magical blasts. Moving her viewpoint overhead she was stunned, to see the damage her ill advised attempt to force her powers had done. Before where she had dredged a channel from the scar to the river of energy, now the river flowed directly to the channel itself. The channel looked like a tsunami had bored along it, ripping out a new channel for itself that was more of a canyon than a channel. Deep broad, its steep sides looked almost cauterised above the flow of golden power. Now the channel resembled a jagged golden scar across the flesh of her mind. She took a long look at what her lack of caution had done and then Synthaera left her trance.
Oh my god. I need to learn to be careful. I nearly turned myself into a cabbage even with my regen.
30 minutes later Synthaera was back in the Lab M, only this time she found Circe waiting for her. To her surprise her councillor gave her a quick hug before releasing her to look her over intently. Synthaera felt like the ancient sorceress was looking straight through her, appraising her. Finally Circe nodded and gave her a warm smile before speaking, as they walked together.
"Well Danu, it looks like your powers have grown up ahead of time. Now I can feel you, and see the power in you as well. I am glad to see you recovered from your stroke and burnout. Your power level is probably matured now. Don't risk your health by forcing your powers in that way again, your regen may not save you next time. The nature of your gift seems to mean that you can develop skills in small steps but you risk your health if you try to do too much at once. Think small to start with. Now I can tell your magical capacity has increased so we will retest your offensive strike, in the range. Now I want you to strike with everything you have, but do not push beyond, understand."
"Where did the testers go Circe.?" Synthaera was puzzled as she could not see Sanji, Adrian or Richard anywhere.
"They are having a conversation with Mrs Carson at the moment, about the perils of allowing a student to endanger themselves with untested abilities because of scientific enthusiasm." Circe grinned at her.
"Really Danu they are fine. They are getting a minor chewing out, because they did let your testing get out of control. They are experienced and should have known better. More importantly their absence means we can conduct this test without it being recorded. Mrs Carson has already decided that Dr Hewley's intent to massage your results will be acted upon, but she wants no risk of security breaches. Therefore all the data from your previous testing had been removed, and Dr Navinder and Bell will not have any further part in the process. We will finish your tests here, and then Dr Hewley will be involved in the 'editing' process. Now, are you ready to continue?"
"Yes, Ma'am."
Circe gave her another grin and headed to the bunker. Once inside Circe activated the recording equipment, while disabling the backups. Then, she browsed through the targets menu, before selecting the toughest of the standard selections, Dragonplate. A minute later the motorised target system delivered the slab sized target, and Circe gave Danu the go ahead.
With a shrug, Synthaera looked at the target and let loose. She gasped at the sensation of the magic flowing through her as the Dragonplate was instantly ablaze with golden purple flame, for all of 2 seconds. Her Danger Sense flared and the golden shield snapped into place around her as the equivalent of a 4 foot thickness of battleship armour detonated as though it had been hit by a cruise missile, turning into an expanding ball of plasma and flame. Prompted by her enhanced senses, Danu moved with inhuman speed. She hurled herself backwards away from the explosion, allowing the blast to pass over her shielded form.
Circe blinked as the armoured windows of the bunker were scorched. It took an awful lot to phase the ancient sorceress, but she could still be surprised, and that was...unexpected. Danu had a lot more power than she had anticipated. Control would have to be the focus of her training, otherwise the consequences did not bear thinking about.
Fey gasped in mid sentence as she spoke to her tutor in the Magical Arts, Sir Wallace Westmont. She felt a magical shockwave reverberate through the ground underneath her. She knew that Sir Wallace felt it as well because he reacted quickly by throwing up a powerful shield. A minute passed without further incident and the pair gradually relaxed, although not without troubled looks around the campus, which appeared completely normal.
Ophelia Tennant felt the powerful blast of magic deep in the ground under Whateley, and immediately checked the Academy's wards. Nothing, the blast was within the wards. The only places that deep were the Esper and Magical testing labs. With a call to security, she was on her way.
Stepping out of the bunker, Circe smirked at the shocked expression on Danu's face.
"Surprised yourself did you Danu?"
The teenager didn't speak, just nodded, and then cocked her head as the phone rang in the lab. Circe stepped back into the bunker and picked up the extension, holding a short conversation before she stepped back out.
"Well you managed to move enough magic in the blast that security was alerted by Ophelia. She's always on the ball, that girl. I have stood them down so we can continue. I hope I don't need to tell you, that you should never unleash that much power in Whateley. If you do, you better have a damn good reason, understood?" Danu nodded again.
"Good come on. All we need to do now is test your shields."
Synthaera thought the shield testing would be somewhat anticlimactic after that. Circe brought out another basic target and had Danu place her shielding around it. Then the sorceress began to test the capability of Danu's shield. She started off small, launching a couple of basic low powered magical blasts.
Circe studied the shield with her magical sight as the blasts impacted. She was pleased to see that they were absorbed, but happier that there was not even a trace of flicker in the shield. Next Circe began to exercise some of the truly vast array of magical lore that 3000 years of learning had given her. She grinned happily as an elemental fire magic that would be classified as a moderately powerful spell, blazed ineffectually against the golden orb, before fizzling out.
"How are you doing Danu?"
"I am just fine Circe, these are no trouble at all."
"Good to hear Danu. It's been a while since I was able to get a work out, and had the time. Do you mind if I stretch this out a bit and crank the power up slowly?"
Danu grinned at the enthusiasm in Circe's voice before happily agreeing. She was at no risk of harm, all she had to do was hold the shield in place around the target at the end of the range. She had no problem at all with her vastly experienced councillor taking the opportunity for a magical work out, after all it was way cool. Circe traced a runic symbol in the air, which blazed into icy blue light, before a series of jagged bolts of lightning hammered the golden shield in sequence. The last of the electrical discharges dispersed and the golden shield remained.
The flames of Charon's Phoenix breached the golden shield and shattered the concrete target into fist sized chunks. Circe was pleased by Danu's resilience. She had launched a dozen spells of gradually increasing intensity before uttering the Phoenix incantation. By Circe's standards it was a moderately powerful spell, for most of the rest of the world it was a difficult and very powerful spell that took an age to master. She glanced across at Danu, who was standing contentedly waiting for instruction. Moving to a console, Circe ordered the system to place another target. Two minutes later the new concrete slab was in place and she turned to Danu.
"Again Danu."
Instantly the golden orb sprang back into place, and Circe was pleased that Danu had obviously anticipated her instruction. She pondered for a second. During the sequence of spells there had been no major reduction in the shield's strength, and from Danu's relaxed expression she was not suffering from fatigue. That suggested that it was the power of the Phoenix incantation, admittedly a fair step up from the other spells she had used, that had breached the shield. It was time to confirm that theory. She repeated the spell first used by the ancient Greeks, and the Phoenix flames raged against the shield once more, the spell almost expiring before the golden shield was breached again.
"Okay Danu, that spell is called Charon's Phoenix, and it is a powerful magic, so don't be upset that it breached the shield. You will not find too many magic users that can launch a spell like that casually, it normally takes some preparation before hand, I just cheat a little. Now I want you to try something for me. First bring up your shield and hold it. Good. Now we know you can hold more than one shield at the same time, so what I want you to do now, is place a second shield, around the first one. Do you understand?"
Danu thought for a second before her face brightened as she got the idea. "Like an onion?"
"Exactly." Circe was pleased at her quick understanding.
There was a moment's pause as Danu concentrated and then a second slightly larger shield surrounded the first.
"Excellent, how does that feel Danu?"
"Um it felt a bit odd, like I was working a muscle I did not know about, but that is fading now. I can feel the strength in both the shields, like their density almost, and the outer one is slightly weaker."
"I expect that will be because the outer shield has the same amount of magic flowing to it, but protects a slightly larger volume, hence it is a little bit weaker. Can you tell if the magic flow to the shields is the same?"
Synthaera looked inside herself and studied the power flowing through her. Both shields did indeed have the same flow of magic, each one a small portion of the river. There was she thought power to burn there. She told Circe her theory was correct.
"Excellent, okay I will repeat the spell again, and we will see what happens."
For a third time the Phoenix roared and this time the outer shield failed slightly faster, and the remnants of the spell raged ineffectually against the inner shield. Circe smiled pleased as her new student had just become substantially safer.
"Excellent. That is a useful ability to have, you almost doubled your defense there. Okay, now we know what kind of damage your shields can take, we need to see how they react to other types of attack."
Forty minutes later, and several golden orbs later, Circe called a halt, happy that they now knew enough to summarise.
"Okay Danu, against straight forward magical attacks you shielding is a good protection. Also it serves as excellent protection against kinetic attacks. That may be a result of your manifesting the shield to defend against bullets, I am not sure. After seeing the shield resist an elemental rock barrage, I am happy that an attacker will need some pretty heavy firepower to breach it, but that is not something we can really test here. Do not expect it to provide the same kind of defence that a strong TK field offers, we have recorded instances in this last year of students stopping multiple simultaneous tank rounds dead, your shielding would not resist that kind of force, so don't try it. Your shield seemed to work against the blasts from magical attacks as well so larger area spells should be resisted, but the footage I have seen of your earlier testing shows that it did not deflect the blast, and heat effects from non magical attacks. At some point you will need to learn a defence otherwise you remain vulnerable to a huge arsenal of weaponry, from grenades, to artillery."
Circe decided they had done enough testing, and after checking the time, she told Danu that she could head back to her cottage. Danu quickly got changed and gathered her belongings before heading for the tunnel system. Circe stood silently, thinking about Danu's test results, pondering where best to try and assist Danu's development. Still thinking, she gathered up all the data records of the testing, and headed to Schuster Hall to discuss the day's work with the Headmistress.
****h
Schuster Hall: Elizabeth Carson's Office. Tuesday 18:32
Elizabeth Carson placed her document wallet on the conference table in front of her, and checked the crystal anti-eavesdropping charm, as well as confirming that the bug detector was functioning. She cocked an eyebrow at Delarose, who assured her that the room had been checked 30 minutes previously as per procedures. Satisfied, she looked around the table at the room's occupants and quietly wondered what issues would crop up. With that, she began the review of the day. It was an hour before the subject of their latest pupil came up. Elizabeth was not surprised that it was Amelia who raised the subject of Synthaera Givens, codename Danu.
"Mrs Carson, I became aware yesterday that Whateley has a new pupil, and that Synthaera Givens arrived over the weekend. I was not aware of any such arrangements. Today I have been advised that Miss Givens has been placed in Poe by mistake, instead of Hawthorne which is far more appropriate for her, so I have made the arrangements for her transfer tomorrow."
Elizabeth sighed, it had been a long day, and she could have done without her senior administrator playing her games. "Amelia, why do you think the girl should be in Hawthorne? Poe is eminently suitable for her."
Amelia's disgust was clear, "It's not even human!" Her voice dripped with malice. "That creature should not have been taken in the first place, and as a highly dangerous being, whose main choice of food is us, if it has to be anywhere it needs to be in Hawthorne."
Elizabeth felt her patience beginning to fray, "The 'child' has undergone a traumatic manifestation as a mutant that has included a BIT that has changed her species and given her a moderately severe case of GSD, but she is still as 'human' as you or I."
Rev Englund chose that moment to make his opinion known, "It's a vampire Headmistress, and it should not be here at Whateley."
Rev Englund gave Elizabeth the opening that she needed to nip this little rebellion in the bud, "Miss Givens is vampiric, not a vampire. She is a living breathing exemplar child with a strange BIT, no more, no less, not a supernatural monster. She is a mutant and therefore falls directly within our remit and given your past history on who should and should not be at Whateley Reverend, I would think you would be better remaining silent, or need I remind you of Halloween?"
Rev Englund ground his teeth. The debacle at last Halloween had cost him much at Whateley, and it had not even been successful, Sara Waite still strode the grounds, untouchable for the time being. The last thing he wanted was another monster here at the Academy but Carson was right and there was no link to the supernatural. He had no true grounds for complaint and both of them knew it.
Amelia grudgingly gave ground. "So we have to take it?"
"Yes Amelia, we are taking Miss Givens, it is not open to debate."
"Then I must insist she be placed in Hawthorne."
Elizabeth felt surprised by Amelia's stubborn instance, but was willing to give her more rope in which to hang herself upon, "On what grounds?" Her tone had turned stony.
"She is an obvious danger to herself and those around her. She was in the infirmary today after losing control of her powers and causing an explosion," said Amelia with a note of smug satisfaction in her voice.
"No Amelia, she was in the Infirmary because during her powers testing she was pushed past her limits by testing personnel who should know better and have been dealt with accordingly. Fortunately for all concerned, she has recovered and has been discharged back to Poe, where she will be remaining. Is that understood?"
Amelia realised she had reached the end of the leeway that Elizabeth was going to give her. The headmistress' tone left her in no doubt that taking this issue further would be unwise.
"Yes headmistress." Amelia used her datapad and deleted the transfer order she had in place. After conceding the point it would be in bad taste to let it proceed from inefficiency or spite. Besides it would really irritate the headmistress, and Amelia knew well enough that was not wise.
"Good, fortunately Danu's quick recovery allowed her to complete her testing this afternoon.
"Her testing was completed?" Amelia was surprised, and began rapidly tapping at the screen of her datapad.
"Yes fortunately for her, she is a high level regen. It saved her life."
"I have no record of her testing having been completed at all Mrs Carson, there must be some mistake."
"There is no mistake Amelia. Miss Given's testing was completed this afternoon by Circe. Her records will be updated tomorrow, after I have reviewed them."
Elizabeth could see that Amelia was torn between demanding answers about the irregular procedures, and the involvement of Circe in a powers testing. She decided she would have to give the administrator something to think about or she would set her teeth into the girl's case.
"Amelia, the child needs our help, and the protection that Whateley can give her. If you check the records tomorrow morning, you will find everything correct and in order. The manual review of her file is necessary or I guarantee we will end up with another innocent child, with a Deadly Force Pre Authorised on her MID."
As Elizabeth expected Amelia reacted to that comment. Ever since the hacking of Delarose's confidential files, and the dissemination of Eldritch's full file to the MCO, Amelia had been on the warpath. She had not yet found the culprit, but Elizabeth fully expected her to eventually. Amelia Hartford took the security of her systems and the information it held hugely seriously and blamed herself for the security lapse. Regardless of Amelia's personal prejudices, and her politicking with the Alphas, Elizabeth knew she had no intention of letting the MCO have free reign amongst Whateley's kids. After an intense look at the headmistress, who gently nodded, Amelia Hartford decided to let this one go. There were bigger fish to fry.
Fifteen minutes later, Elizabeth drew the first part of the meeting to a close, and watched as most of her senior staff left. With a gesture, she asked Franklin Delarose to remain behind, while Dr Bellows and Circe also waited to speak to her.
"Franklin I would like you to sit in on this if you don't mind."
"Okay Elizabeth, what's up?"
"Circe and Dr Bellows are going to give me their take on our new student that Amelia was a little concerned about. Danu has had a rough time," said Elizabeth before she brought her Chief of Security up to speed on the full details of Danu's history.
Franklin Delarose was one man who needed to know so he could assess the risks students posed and act accordingly. The news that Whateley's newest pupil had already killed 5 times in self defence worried him, but he held his peace, and waited for Circe and Dr Bellow to make their reports.
Once Elizabeth was done talking she motioned Circe to go ahead. The sorceress composed her thoughts for a second then began.
"When I was initially asked to be Danu's councillor, I was somewhat surprised. I do not deal with many students individually as you know. However, once I read her file, I agreed. Danu is intriguing. After her powers testing, I am glad I did, as she is going to need help that no one else is equipped to give her. I will however let Dr Bellows cover her psychological issues, and I will just deal with her testing."
For the next few minutes Circe ran her colleagues through the medical and physical reports of Danu's Powers Testing, before detailing some implications. She sat back down in her chair and continued after a pause.
"There are plenty of students in Whateley who should be able to beat Danu physically because of their skills and abilities. I say 'should' because I suspect not many who are physically stronger could catch her or even hit her, and those fast enough to engage the girl will more than likely either not be strong enough to hurt her or robust enough to take the damage she can dish out. Those students with extensive martial skills may defeat her in a fight as she lacks those skills, having no martial arts experience at all, but actually stopping her in a fight will be very difficult.
However, I have advised her to take basic survival, and as soon as she can I believe she must learn a martial art for the discipline and restraint they teach if nothing else. Of course the downside is additional training only makes Danu more dangerous in the event that security is required to intervene."
Franklin Delarose sat back in his chair, and ran a hand through his hair. Decades of experience had developed his instinct for trouble. Circe's information was a concern to him. Danu would be hellishly difficult to slow down or stop in normal circumstances, but fortunately Whateley did not often rely on doing things normally. Still he could tell Circe had more to say. The sorceress watched him to see if he wished to comment, and when he said nothing, she continued.
"Danu is vampiric, but she's a living breathing girl who requires life force to survive. My investigation has shown no evidence of the taint that is formed in the creation process of the traditional vampire, which is great, but also suggests that faith based attacks would be ineffective against her. She is highly susceptible to ultraviolet radiation. Sunlight burns her, the same as other vampiric creatures. Interestingly this suggests that the sunlight is a physical weakness not spiritual. Sunlight will burn her, but her regen will heal her completely in seconds, so do not expect a stint in sunlight to incapacitate Danu."
Delarose had a healthy expertise from years of dealing with mutants and he was genuinely curious. "How is this even possible? How do you get a living vampire?"
Circe shrugged eloquently, "Honestly Franklin, we don't have a clue. The best theory so far is that Danu's BIT has been warped by external factors we have not identified yet. Anyway it means physically she's a tough kid, not invulnerable but definitely tough. Powers wise..."
Delarose looked amused, "What she hasn't got enough already?"
Circe chuckled at his quip but she also noticed that Alfred seemed not in the mood for the Security Chief's humour. She quickly moved on before anyone else took the opportunity to interrupt.
"Okay, she's an inherent magic user, and a strong one. Not a traditional mage though, the testing showed no ability with traditional spell casting, or any other forms of traditional magic. She could see charms and spells such as wards, but had no inherent understanding of them. Magical sight, aura sight, astral sight or the equivalents, no finding skills. She might be able to learn spells, we don't know yet."
Circe stood up again as she felt restless and walked around a little as she talked.
"Danu's power straddles both magic and Esp, and I expect she will drive both faculties mad trying to work out what it is she does. The Esp team reported Danu demonstrating an ability to manipulate raw magic, while Dr Navinder also mentioned that she saw what he could only explain as his faith in a religious symbol. On a side note Danu uncovered a potentially powerful artefact during the testing that she described as having an oily greasy aura of its own that made her want to be ill. It has been removed to secure storage for research and disposal if necessary.
"Any guesses what that artefact was Circe?" Elizabeth queried.
Circe shrugged, "Well it's a wild guess at the moment but possible it's of demonic construction? In all honesty I will probably ask Carmilla to have a look in her capacity as an ARC employee."
Elizabeth noted the worried expression on Alfred's face as the doctor spoke up, "Danu told me of a magical shield and an offensive strike as well."
Delarose noted Dr Bellow's concern and found his own worry ramping up a level.
"She can attack and defend magically as well?"
Circe nodded. "Danu is rather powerful for a 14 year old girl, but has very limited control so far. She has shown evidence of being able to develop her powers further, but as the incident in the testing showed yesterday, trying to force her development too much is hazardous to her health."
"What actually happened Circe?" Dr Bellows asked.
Circe grimaced. "The testing team got over enthusiastic and asked her to throw everything she could at a target to see if she could increase her output. It caused a major stroke and triggered a burnout. She should be dead. Ironically the burnout probably saved her. The regen kept her alive and the burnout reworked her to cope with what she tried to do."
Alfred steepled his fingers as he asked "How strong is Danu magically Circe?"
Delarose thought Alfred was trying to reach a conclusion or decision of some kind, and wondered what the doctor was so concerned about.
Circe focused her attention on Dr. Bellows, "I can give you two or three examples. During the offensive testing, she was able to strike magically with no hesitation, and no preparation. More worryingly there was no warning, and Danu performed no incantations or spell casting. So far she has been able to attack only a single target at a time, but she was able to swap target with no delay or need to recast a spell. Danu destroyed the series of targets in seconds. The final target in that series was a slab of ceramic armor 6ft by 2ft by 4 inches thick. Danu destroyed it in less than 15 seconds of continual magical attack."
Elizabeth picked up on Circe's choice of words. "Destroyed how Circe? Blew it up? Burned through it?" With her decades of experience Carson was well aware how ceramics reacted to powerful energies.
"She reduced it down to fine gravel." Circe's delivered the answer dead pan.
Elizabeth kept her expression calm, but internally began to worry a little."Wonderful." She wondered if perhaps Amelia was correct about Hawthorne. "Do we have another Tennyo on our hands?"
"No Elizabeth, Danu is not in Tennyo's power league wise. Thank the gods! Fey likewise can manipulate greater amounts of raw power, however Danu can attack much much faster than our Sidhe Queen, as she seems to need no preparation."
Elizabeth could tell there was more to this story and she worried that it was going to be a whopper. "What else?"
"She breached the strongest shields we could provide at short notice, in a little over 2 minutes of continuous power."
"Whose shields?" asked Elizabeth, sitting up straighter in her chair.
"Majestic. The breach knocked her senseless. She was in the infirmary for three hours until she woke up."
Elizabeth Carson groaned. She did not know what was worse. The power involved that Danu had shown, or the fact that Majestic was involved. There was no way on Earth that the self styled Queen of the Olympians would take that lying down.
"Oh wonderful Circe, could it get any worse?"
"Sorry Elizabeth it can. When I asked her about it, Danu said she was at about three quarters power when she breached the shield. That was before her burnout. Her capacity has since increased substantially."
"I thought you said she was not in Fey's league Circe. Just how powerful is she?" Elizabeth asked. Circe smiled sympathetically at her, knowing just how the headmistress' mind would be worrying.
"She's not in Fey's league Elizabeth, but then nobody else is either. She is very strong though. In terms of raw power Danu is at least a very high 5, probably as close to a 6 as we know of at the moment, and given her type of gift I would have to class her as a Chaos Mage 5 or 6. In terms of control or experience? At the moment she is an infant, barely getting past on and off. Given time to learn and develop I honestly don't know what she might do Elizabeth. It may literally be down to her imagination, at the moment I just do not know." Circe said apologetically.
"I wish I did not almost feel like Amelia is right, this child is going to cause difficulties." Elizabeth voice held a trace of weariness, but she had made her decision already, Whateley would not reject the girl.
Dr Bellows interrupted her sad thoughts. His voice was rapid and terse. "Difficulties do not begin to describe the problem we have Elizabeth. At the moment, Danu is a bomb looking for a place to explode."
"Okay Alfred, how bad is it?" Carson could tell Alfred had been holding his peace with difficulty so she let him take the meeting over.
"Before Circe's report I was concerned about Danu, now I am closer to extremely worried about what she might do. Okay Danu is in Poe because of her changeling status, and in fact that is probably our biggest blessing at the moment. She is very happy at her change in gender, as she was transgendered when male. If we can get a hold on her other issues she may be useful in helping those changelings who have more difficulty adjusting, however that is not important now. Essentially she has grown up alone. From speaking to her and examining the reports we received from the hospital she finished her manifestation in, I get a disturbing picture. She has apparently known about being transgendered since a very young age, but also that her parents would not accept this. Consequently Danu hid it very proficiently, and being unable to discuss her problems became very insular and mentally self sufficient to survive."
Alfred Bellows sighed at the emotional and psychological damage he had seen caused in Danu's case.
"She was then sent to boarding school at an early age when she was well aware that her parents had other options. The boarding environment was not conducive to her mental health. Imagine a girl being asked to grow up in a boys' boarding house, with absolutely no one to discuss her issues with. Puberty especially has to have been very traumatic as her body developed in a very masculine manner. Even before her manifestation the child was very isolated, had borderline sociopathic tendencies, and had severe abandonment and anger issues. Since she manifested however Danu has been severely traumatised by her manifestation circumstances and subsequent complete abandonment by her natural parents. Throw in attempts to kill and kidnap her already, and she is an extremely angry young lady."
"What kind of problem am I looking at here doctor?" Franklin's voice was grave, but calm.
"Danu has grown up way too soon, and way too fast. She is very tough mentally as well as being intelligent to recognise that she has emotional and mental difficulties as a result of her history let alone her manifestation. Danu has been willing and able to talk to me, so I do not think there will any PTSD, but she is not working from the same rules as a normal kid. The closest analogy I can give you Franklin is a combat veteran. As a vet gets more brutalised and more harshly inured to combat, their responses become more extreme in reaction to their environment, and also more hardwired, more automatic with less conscious decision making involved." Dr Bellows paused for a moment and gathered his thoughts to explain.
"Danu is a 14 year old child who manifested with a gun to her head in a hijacking. She was then abandoned by her natural parents who viewed her as monstrous. Worse her father admitted selling her for experimentation. She killed two Humanity First assassins while in burnout in hospital, almost killed her doctor through vampiric hunger and then faced a kidnap attempt with a woman who has assumed the role of her new mother, and who she has fiercely bonded with. All of this in just two weeks. The strength of that new family bond is surprising but perhaps not unexpected. Essentially in the short time she has known Elaine, Mrs Givens has been more motherly than Danu got in most of her previous lifetime. Danu told me point blank that if anyone threatened her new family and she was there they were dead, and she was stating fact as she saw it."
Alfred Bellows shook his head sadly. The human capacity for cruelty never ceased to surprise and horrify him.
"Danu has carried that same attitude here to Whately. She will defend those she calls her friends to the death, and categorically she will kill to protect them. To clarify that, she may not enjoy it or be happy about it, but she will kill, and won't feel any remorse at all. If Danu decides you are her enemy and you attack her, then her default response is going to be to stop you as fast as possible with whatever she has. I have explained my concern, and also the ultraviolent system to Danu."
Alfred gave his colleagues a tired grin, before continuing.
"Her reaction at, as she saw it, my seeking to prevent her from defending herself and her friends was not good, to put it politely, but she did at least understand the problem once I put into terms that made sense for her."
Dr Bellows sighed again, it had been a long day,
"Franklin, I genuinely don't know if Danu can show restraint if threatened. It will be bad enough if any of the school bullies harass her, she might lash out or just take it depending on the circumstances and how she perceives the harassment. Muh worse would be if anyone attacks her friends while she is present. Danu could conceivably turn the campus into a warzone and would be perfectly willing to do so. The only small blessing is she doesn't actually have any martial skills or military training at the moment, and in all likelihood she needs both of those to help her learn control and discipline."
Dr Bellows finished his explanation, with a final comment to Mrs Carson. "I hate to say it Elizabeth but I am virtually certain a UV band will be needed. However that won't help much if Danu goes after someone attacking her friends. She might need a section 33 as well."
"Absolutely not! Alfred you know as well as I do that Tennyo's section 33 is regarded by the MCO as proof positive that if anything happens involving Tennyo they should shoot to kill first and not bother even thinking about asking questions. I still say we failed by resorting to her section 33. Tennyo is a special circumstance, and is going to stay that way. Alfred, I am afraid you may be over reacting. To be honest, even if you are correct about her potential for causing harm, Danu hasn't done anything yet. With proper handling, mentoring and care I see no reason why that situation should change. I will concede she may well need a UV band, possibly even the blue, but until she earns it, Danu won't be prejudged."
Alfred Bellows sighed then shrugged. "You may well be right Elizabeth and it is your call to make. I am sorry if I sound so...apprehensive I suppose. It is just... that girl has gone through a lot. Her early history is complex and difficult, and after all she has gone through recently her instincts for self preservation are frankly vicious. With the level of power Circe describes, Danu might not be a walking talking nuke like Tennyo, but at the very least she is a damn big bomb."
Elizabeth smiled at her friend, "Don't worry Alfred, we will cope. So the question is how do we handle her?"
Delarose shrugged his shoulders, "Well, until she has an issue, I would say it is hands off and in the meantime," His posture became more determined, "she is given as much help as possible, both psychologically and in controlling her abilities. I think Danu should be encouraged where possible to rely on her physical abilities, not her magical ones."
Delarose grinned nastily.
"To that extent it might be beneficial to encourage a friendship with someone who can teach her the type of skills she needs to be able to survive without making use of her magic."
Elizabeth Carson looked at him curiously trying to guess where her devious Head of Security's thoughts were wandering. She suddenly got an inkling of what Franklin might be considering, and blanched at the prospect.
"Chief, you would not happen to be thinking of another young lady who arrived recently would you?"
"If the young lady in question happens to be called Caitlin Bardue, then yes. I think it might even be good for them both. We all know that despite her problems Caitlin would move heaven and earth to protect the kids, and it has cost her dear. This would give her an opportunity to mentor and teach again plus it gives her a powerful ally and hopefully a friend to call on herself. Both of those kids need help and together they could make a hellish pair. You never know, they might fall into a friendship anyway, but I would prefer to be on the level with Caitlin, let her have the emotional satisfaction of genuinely teaching again."
Elizabeth pondered for a long moment or two, gradually deciding that she liked the idea more and more. Erik Mahren had lost an awful lot, and still felt those losses keenly in her new life as Caitlin Bardue. If mentoring Danu helped her forge her new life so be it. She gave her blessing to Delarose's idea and told him to make it happen.
Finally, with that decision made, the four adults began pouring over the Danu's testing data once more, the final task of the day to determine what the details of Danu's impending MID would be, what data the MCO would need to be given, and how best to protect Danu by 'massaging' the data. Eventually, they were complete and after bidding Alfred and Franklin good night, a tired Elizabeth Carson and the ageless Circe summoned Dr Hewley to the IT suite in Schuster Hall, where they supervised the recording of Danu's records onto Amelia Hartford's systems.
Tuesday 4:45pm Poe Cottage
Synthaera stopped for a refill of her thermos at the Infirmary, before she walked back through campus and enjoyed the warmth of the afternoon sunshine. When she got back to Poe, it was a little before 5pm. She stopped in to see Mrs Horton. When the housemother saw Synthaera she grabbed her in a hug before setting her down and demanding to know how she was. Synthaera reassured her, touched at the evident concern and after a short chat, headed upstairs to her room. Turning on her stereo, she fired up her 'new' laptop. Synthaera was no expert, but she knew a decent amount about computers and shortly had the laptop's hardware reset and the school's software bundle reinstalling.
Once that was done, the laptop's internet setup and security needed doing. It was a little surprising how thorough the school's network firewall was but shortly she had convinced it she was allowed access and her setup was complete. Glancing at her clock, she saw that is was almost 6pm and the school day was over. She guessed that her friends would be getting back into Poe soon.
Taking the time to check her email account, she deleted the pile of spam mail, and then was delighted to find an email from her new family. Synthaera immediately opened it up and found an attached video message from her whole newly adopted family, all telling her how they missed her at home, and wanted her to settle in and make loads of new friends, as well as reassuring her they were all okay. They signed off the video being sure to tell her that they loved her, and Synthaera could see tears in her Mum's eyes as she waved bye.
Happily Synthaera basked in the warm emotions the email brought up, feeling wanted and loved. Quickly she played it again, this time watching through her own happy tears. At last she had a family that loved her. After drying her eyes and getting a quick wash to freshen up, she sent her family a video message back thanking them, reassuring them she was doing fine and making friends, and that she missed them as well. Once that was done she checked her email again and found an internal email from Circe asking her to meet the councillor tomorrow at 9:20AM, to discuss her testing results, and that she was excused from lessons. Synthaera shrugged and sent an acknowledgement to the sorceress.
A few minutes later, while Synthaera was idly browsing the net with Green Day playing, she heard the barrage of noise that could only be one thing, Team Kimba was home. Wherever her new friends went they didn't go quietly. Before she had a chance to get up and go and meet them, she heard a shout as Chaka recognised that Synthaera's door was open and the Kimbas bundled into her room shouting greetings and full of energy, concern and questions. With the group all asking her questions at once, Synthaera grinned helplessly and waited for one of the manic bunch to settle the gang down.
Predictably it was Lancer who shouted for quiet, and told his friends to ask one question at a time. The girls all looked at each other, and then Chaka started talking first.
"Danu, what happened to you girl? One of the girls in your homeroom said you went for testing, and then you up and vanished! You okay?"
"Yeah I am fine now. I had to go and meet a councillor called Dr Bellows, and we talked. He's kind of nice and means well but managed to really piss me off as well. Umm then I got my laptop and then I went and did my magic testing, just I kind of ended up having a short spell in the Infirmary half way through is all."
"What happened to you? Are you okay? You look alright." Chaka spoke as rapidly as ever as she balanced on the end of Synthaera's desk.
"Well my testing went fine, I guess. It was kind of frustrating that I could not do any of the spells and charms and stuff that Sanji and Adrian wanted, but eventually they decided that they should let me do some stuff I could do, rather than find more stuff I sucked at. So they had me blow up a load of targets."
Fey's ears perked up. As Team Kimba's only mage she was far more familiar with the magic testing than the rest of her friends.
"How did the targets go?" Fey asked curiosity evident in her voice.
"Oh it was excellent, I mean I blew them to pieces in seconds, and the testers seemed pleased."
Fey quirked an elegant eyebrow at the mention of how little time the targets had taken, she could tell that Danu was not exaggerating at all, and that was worth remembering. Whatever kind of magic Danu did, it was fast to cast. Fey felt Aunghadhail paying closer attention as well, as Danu carried on talking.
"Then they had me throw magic at someone's shield, I think they said that is was a Junior, to see how strong my blasts are against magic. That was just cool. It took a couple of minutes, but I burned through the shield and the target went boom. I didn't see who it was, but Dr Hewley said she was knocked out by it, and they took her to the Infirmary."
Phase looked at Fey questioningly, and the elf nodded back quietly. Diamondback had spoken to both girls during classes, warning that Majestic had been in the Infirmary on Monday afternoon and evening. Diamondback had said the rumour mill had been flying amongst the Whitman girls that Majestic had been seen coming out of the Infirmary on the way to Melville looking like she had been run over by an 18 wheeler. Phase looked at Danu and wondered if she could really be responsible for knocking Majestic out?
Fey saw Phase's measuring look at Danu, and wondered what she ought to say. If Majestic found out Danu was responsible than she felt sure that the Majestic would be gunning for her, and given Majestic's connections, Fey could not imagine that she wouldn't find out, probably quickly. Before Chaka could say anything else, Fey asked.
"So what did you do next then Danu?"
"Well that is where it all went a bit screwy Fey. The testers asked me to see if I could increase the power of my blasts, to throw everything at it. So I did, and I remember the target exploded, but there was also so much pain in my head that I fell unconscious.
I woke up in the Infirmary, and Doctor Tennant was there. He said I had a massive stroke and a burnout."
"What? Shit girl you could have died! Wait a minute Danu, this was yesterday, how the hell are you up and about? They get Prism or one of the healers in for you?" Chaka asked, as shocked as the rest of Team Kimba, they all had experience of being wounded or hurt.
"Dr Tennant said my regen saved my life, I was out for about 17 hours apparently. The regen healed the stroke and kept me alive through the burnout. Apparently my brain got rewired some."
Synthaera tried to wave it off. She didn't like talking about nearly dying.
"Anyway once I was up, I had a meal and then I went and finished my magic testing."
Phase looked shocked. "What? They didn't even wait for you to rest up?"
Synthaera looked at Phase "What would be the point? I was all healed up and ready to go. I met Circe down in the Test Lab and we finished my testing this afternoon. She had me redo the last offensive test which was cool, I blew the crap out of the target, and then Circe had me do a load of shields so she could work out how effective my shielding is. That was really something else, Circe can do some awesome spells. Then when we were done she kicked me out and here I am."
Fey listened with half an ear as Danu chattered with the rest of Team Kimba who sprawled themselves around Danu's room. The new girl was settling in well and evidently glad to see them all, but apologised that she didn't have any snacks in her fridge. Phase didn't have time to say a word before Chaka and Tennyo decided that the evenings banter would best be moved to Phase and Bladedancer's room, inviting Danu along. Lancer watched the girls sweeping out dragging Danu along in their wake. Apart from Fey who followed along slowly.
"Nikki?"
"Yeah?" The Sidhe did not even look at him she was so distracted with her thoughts about vibrating ley lines.
"What's up Nikki? You're being a bit odd."
"Am I? Sorry Hank, just thinking."
"Yeah? What about?"
"Oh nothing much I guess, come on let's catch up with the others or Tennyo will have eaten all the snacks already and I know Phase had restocked on the rinds."
"She did?" Hank shot out the door, and Fey followed at a slightly slower pace as she listened to Aunghadhail.
This Danu sounds strong. She looks Sidhe, but does not feel like Sidhe. Her body has been changed. Her looks are well known to me. Vampires have ever been a scourge on the living. Some of the Fae folk were vampiric but not in the manner of the undead monsters that Danu resembles. Yet looking through our eyes I see a living child not the undead. Her looks are disturbing to me, yet I see no taint on her. Danu seems to have a good soul.
"She has been through a lot Aunghadhail. She carries a lot of pain and anger around with her. She radiates the pain of having been betrayed, lost and then found."
I would like to have a chance to speak to Danu. I would like to know how she came by her name.
"Danu?"
No my daughter, her name Synthaera. It is a Sidhe name not human. Odd that she should come across a name from one of the old tongues.
"Um okay Aunghadhail, I guess I can see if she can talk privately for a little bit."
Thank you. This child interests me, and her power is quite strong. That your glamour had no effect of her, and the aura of your sister also did nothing suggests she may be another ally against the Bastard.
"Danu was immune to the fear aura of Phobos and Deimos as well. It would be nice to have some more help. I cannot just drag her into that though, I barely know her Aunghadhail."
Then all the more reason to learn quickly daughter, the Bastard will not wait forever to attack again.
Fey shivered at the thought of another attack by more Voodoo Wolves, before she followed the rapidly vanishing form of Hank into Phase and Bladedancer's room. Stepping into the room she grinned at the sight of her friends already arguing and chattering away. She caught Danu's eye and waved her over. The tall girl pulled herself out of the beanbag she had captured when the Kimbas descended on the room. Hank managed to fall into the suddenly free beanbag, and Danu picked her way across the room.
Fey grinned at Danu's quizzical expression and explained she would like to talk privately for a little bit if that was all right with Danu. Danu agreed and the pair of girls chatted as they walked down the corridor to Fey's room with she shared with Chaka. They made themselves comfortable, and Fey and Danu both managed to start talking at the same time, prompting a round of giggles. Fey took the lead with a smile from Danu.
"Danu I know we only met on Sunday, but I was hoping we could talk a bit more."
"Sure Fey, I would like that, I mean I don't really know anyone yet, and I want to be friends."
"I don't think you need to worry Danu, I know the gang all like you, and we were all worried when you vanished yesterday. I'm just glad you're okay; you must have a really high regen to survive a stroke and burnout.
"Dr Shandy said I am a high 5 or 6 Fey. Honestly he really freaked me out."
"Why Danu?" Fey was surprised. Asking Danu about her regen had made her new friend seem almost scared. She couldn't imagine why that would be the case but wanted to help.
Danu sat on Chaka's bed absently hugging one of the cushions strewn around.
"Well they did the first test for regen, the cut on the palm, and that healed so fast it was basically gone by the time he turned back round. So Shandy said I was at least a regen 3, but really it is higher. He offered another test to check my regen out."
"What other test? I don't remember anything like that, but then I don't have a high regen."
"He got this machine and it stabbed me in the leg, hurt like hell but the pain vanished straight away and I only took a few seconds to heal up. So then Dr Shandy said that my regen is either a very high 5 or a 6."
"Wow Danu, that's awesome!" Fey did not understand why Danu looked so miserable all of a sudden.
"Danu? What's wrong?" Danu's amethyst eyes were welling up with tears.
"He said, he said I won't die Fey."
"Huh? That's good isn't it if you can't be killed?"
"No Fey. I can be killed, although Dr Shandy said it would be really really hard to hurt me fast enough to do that, you would have to like completely blow me up or something. He said I won't die. I'm not going to age anymore. He wants me to talk to Circe about it because she is like 3000 years old, and when I am 3000 years old Dr Shandy said I will probably still look like this, unless my BIT changes again, which he said was not likely." Danu was rambling a little, not really seeing anything, hugging the cushion really hard.
"I don't want to watch all my family and friends age and die, I don't want to be alone all that time." Danu burst into tears.
Fey gasped as she realised what it was that Danu was scared of, and she quickly hugged the other girl, making soothing noises to her, and then just talking quietly, gradually while projecting calm and compassion at her. Eventually Danu's tears dried up and she calmed down.
"I'm sorry I'm being such a cry baby Fey. Thank you for being so nice."
"Hush, it's okay to cry, being emotional goes with being a girl and dealing with major stuff. Believe me Danu, this counts as major stuff okay?" Fey reassured her.
"Okay. Thanks again."
"Good, now why don't you tell me why you were so upset."
"'It's just...I never really had friends before, and my family...well I guess I was just an inconvenience. I have always been a loner, I always knew I was 'different'. I was stuck in boarding school and I had to deal with all my crap about my body and stuff alone you know. I guess I am lucky now, becoming a girl is all I ever wanted and I know some of us changelings aren't happy at all at their changes. I feel whole now and I'm starting to live. And I am lucky because my new family really do love and care about me. I never had that before. When Shandy dropped the whole immortality thing on me I really wanted to freak. Belle managed to calm me down some on Sunday but I was still bugging out inside. All I could think about was I just had found people who care and I would have to watch them grow old and die while I stayed the same, all because of my regen. I tried to deal with it, but when you mentioned the regen Fey it was just there, and I totally freaked again. Sorry I panicked, but I'm glad I found out what a good friend you are. Thanks again."
Danu was looking at her feet as she spoke, embarrassed now, and didn't see the horrified expression that passed over Fey's face as she spoke about being dumped in boarding school, and not being cared for or loved. Nikki Reilly had no doubt at all that she was loved, for which she was supremely grateful, and her heart went out to the other girl.
"Danu you're not alone you know. A few of us Kimbas are the same as you. Tennyo, blue, spiky hair with attitude to match? Well Billie is immortal, she is bonded to some kind of ancient space being, and is virtually impossible to kill because her regen is so insanely fast. My other friend Carmilla, you know, Sara, who looks like me with black hair? Well Sara is truly immortal. She is the daughter of a demon, and she literally never forgets anything. She's also my blood sister, as well as one of my best friends in the whole world, and I know how you feel about the immortality thing as well."
Fey gently lifted Danu's head up so she was looking in her eyes, not at her feet.
"Danu, since my mutation I'm a Sidhe, who are always long lived, but I also share my body with the spirit of Aunghadhail, Queen of the Sidhe, and once virtually a Goddess in her own right. Aunghadhail and I are merging slowly over time, and eventually we will be one. I can be killed, although I can heal myself with my magic, but where the Sidhe are long lived, I am immortal, and I will guide the reborn Fae."
Fey flicked an errant lock of her gorgeous red hair back behind her ears.
"Aunghadhail has to help me deal with the immortality thing sometimes, and Sara and Billie also help me to deal with stuff that freaks me out. There are lots of other Immortals as well, some who were once human, others are gods, demons, or simply other. Sara, Billie and I are all very good friends, and we regard ourselves as family. We will all see countless lives, and have huge potential. We're here at Whateley at the same time, and we support each other. Now you're here as well. We're not alone, and neither are you. Not now here in school, or ever. I would be proud to be your friend and even your family if you ever want that, and I am sure Billie and Sara will be just the same. "
Fey could see Danu was really watching her now, amethyst eyes watching her intensely, and she could feel the girl's emotions loud and clear. Before there had been panicked fear and loneliness, this had been replaced by uncertainty and then relief, a need to believe, to belong, and finally a sense of trust and calm. When Danu spoke her voice was still choked with her emotions, but Fey's empathic sense clearly picked up Danu's iron certainty.
"I'm not used to the idea of having friends Fey, but if you want me as a friend then I will be your friend happily, and you will always be able to count on me for help. Here in school and as long as I live."
Then she grinned cheekily. "You've done it now you know. You're stuck with me."
The two girls dissolved into laughter as the suddenly serious moment passed. At the back of Fey's mind Aunghadhail watched and listened and felt with all of Fey's senses, and was aware of just how deep that commitment from Danu was, even if Fey herself was not yet. Aunghadhail gently prodded Fey to let her meet Danu. Fey asked Danu if she would be willing to meet Aunghadhail, as the Sidhe Queen had asked to meet her.
"Sure Fey no problem, but why does she want to meet me?" Danu asked.
"I think she is curious Danu, for a couple of reasons. One is your that your name Synthaera is apparently Sidhe, and she wants to know more about that I think. The other well, there are not many of the fae folk in the world, I was the thousandth fae reborn. I think she is not sure what to make of you, so she wants to have a look. It's easier for her to do that if I let her take control. You ready?" Danu nodded, and Fey grinned at her, and then let Aunghadhail take control once more.
Synthaera gave a silent 'Oh.' in surprise, as the teenage girl in front of her suddenly changed. It was a subtle difference, but where Fey was a young and fresh girl learning about her form and power, Aunghadhail wore the same body with the posture and bearing of true royalty. There was no doubt in Synthaera's mind at all that the Sidhe Queen of the Fae was in front of her. It was effortless but her eyes now conveyed the wisdom and knowledge of millennia of rule.
Aunghadhail stood and studied the youngster sitting on the bed in front of her. To a human, Sidhe young and old looked alike, but to Aunghadhail's eyes while the Sidhe in front of her was full grown, she had obviously not even seen a century of life before becoming vampiric. What surprised and impressed the ancient queen was the youngster's lack of reaction to her presence.
The glamour that Fey projected unconsciously was far more powerful when Aunghadhail was in control and wanted to make herself 'felt'. That royal bearing and presence had reduced Fae millennia old to gibbering wrecks, and the Sidhe queen was fully aware of and practiced in its power where Fey had only really touched on it and found it an annoyance.
"Do you know who I am Synthaera?"
"You are Aunghadhail, Daughter of the Burning Oak, Paramount Queen of the West in the Five Fold Court." Synthaera replied, the words falling out of her mouth unbidden.
Aunghadhail cocked her head, curious. "I am indeed, and how do you know me?"
Synthaera was at a loss. Fey had told her the name Aunghadhail, she was sure of that, but where had the Queens title come from? Fey had made no mention of that.
"I...don't know Aunghadhail," Synthaera was a little uncomfortable. "I'm sorry I don't know how to address you properly."
Aunghadhail quirked an eyebrow at the girl's admission then smiled kindly at her. "Don't let that concern you child. This age has little place for the courtly formality I knew. Nikki would not thank me for demanding that you call me Majesty or any of my many other titles. Aunghadhail will do well for the time being. Besides I won't demand obeisance from one with enough strength of mind to resist the glamour, although that is a surprise in itself. I wanted to see you because Synthaera is a Sidhe name, not something any human is likely to know. How did you come by it?"
Synthaera quickly explained how she had manifested to Aunghadhail, how she had recognised herself as the character she knew from gaming, and that Synthaera was part of that character's name. She could tell that Aunghadhail was now even more curious.
"Tell me please Synthaera, what is your full name?"
"My name is Synthaera Baqui Ailthaem Vosa Tarthairiel."
Aunghadhail was too steeped in the poise and self control of the royal courts to let her surprise show fully, but even so she froze momentarily.
"Vosa Tarthairiel?" Aunghadhail murmured, lost in thought, speaking to herself. "That is a name I have not heard for many millennia, a family of the Sidhe I had thought lost in fact. There is more than one mystery here that a daughter of Tarthairiel is reborn in this space and time."
Aunghadhail turned her attention back to Synthaera.
"I had wondered if you were in fact of the Sidhe nation, or something else child. It seems you are both. The family that name comes from was lost to the Five Fold Court in times that were ancient before the Sundering, so while you are indeed Sidhe, I will make no claim over you. I can see your soul is good and untainted, and that is enough. From what I remember, Vosa Tarthairiel was always capable and I am sure you will grow into that name and honour it. I would have asked that you stand with Nikki and her friends, but having seen you declare your friendship, I now know you will do that anyway, your depth of commitment is humbling. Nikki would not ask this of you until she knows you better, but I do not believe that the name Vosa Tarthairiel would resurface now with no reason. It is ancient, just as the enemy Nikki faces is ancient. I also felt your fear and discomfort at discovering your new found immortality. Do not fear it child. Yes you will feel the pain of losing friendships and family but the pain is fleeting, and in truth you will have many many friends throughout the ages, and the world will become your family. As an immortal you stand between the mortals and the darkness that would claim them and their world. As for how you should address me in future? Aunghadhail is all I will ask of you, and if you should discover more of your heritage I would dearly love to know what became of my...cousins."
With that Aunghadhail was gone and a bemused Nikki Reilly was back in her place.
"Wow Danu, that was intense. I think you impressed her, and I know Aunghadhail has more questions now than before she met you. Aung was right that I would not have asked you to fight my battles without knowing you more, but I will be happy of your help. I could feel her surprise and shock at your full name. How did you come up with it?"
"It just happened Fey. I rolled up the character and when I got to the name I just wrote it straight out. It seemed to fit and I was really happy to have a name straight away, sometimes it can take a while. I never even thought about changing it."
"Weird. It makes no sense at all, but Aunghadhail totally accepted that as your name so I guess it doesn't matter."
"I hope not, I don't think I would want her mad at me. You're other half is kind of impressive Fey."
Fey laughed, and agreed. "Yeah, Aunghadhail can be kind of in your face. Still she also accepted you as Sidhe, and that's cool. It means we're also definitely family as we're both Sidhe, and that means Sara is also family as she's my sister, so we're all even closer than we thought Danu."
Fey saw Danu smile happily at that news, it seemed to bolster the other girl's morale even more after her crying fit earlier.
"One more thing Danu. You're my friend, and my friends don't have to use my codename, so please call me Nikki whenever you want."
Danu responded in kind and invited Nikki to call her Synthaera or Syn. They shook hands formally while fighting giggles before breaking out into more laughter. The two Sidhe chatted for a while longer and then headed back to Phase's room to join in the banter, for the rest of the evening.
[Updated on: Wed, 21 September 2011 13:57]
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| Re: Synthaera (the post crash edition) [message #40330 is a reply to message #39957 ] |
Sun, 29 May 2011 14:52 |
blayze
Messages: 30
Registered: May 2011
Location: Durham, UK |
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Wednesday March 7th
Synthaera's alarm woke her at 5:30 with the sounds of My Chemical Romance. She lightly slapped the clock to silence it and began her morning routine heading to the girls' bathroom for her shower. After washing herself, she washed and conditioned her long platinum hair before rinsing herself clean and then just standing enjoying the pleasurable sensation of the water caressing her breasts. It felt wonderful and Synthaera gasped as the shower unit began its more stimulating routine. One knee trembling orgasm later, she staggered out of the shower, wishing there was time in the morning to let the shower unit bring her to orgasm after orgasm but sadly it was not to be.
Synthaera finished drying her hair, and headed back to her room, waving a friendly good morning to the other girls who had got up early and started trickling into the bathroom. Fey had suggested they all meet up for the walk across to Crystal Hall for breakfast, and had told Synthaera that she did Tai-chi with Bladedancer and a few other girls first thing in the morning. So after she was dressed in her bodysuit and uniform, she walked downstairs, slipped her shades on, pulled her cowl up and stepped outside into a grey morning light.
Synthaera stood on the path and quietly watched Bladedancer leading a group of girls through the beautiful slow movements of Tai-chi. Fey and Bladedancer noticed her presence and both gave her a warm grin of welcome, without halting their graceful movements. Synthaera watched her friends for fifteen minutes before they finished their workout. The two girls stepped across to her once they were finished.
"I did not think you would be awake and ready for school so early Danu. Couldn't you sleep?" Bladedancer asked with a smile, as she noted Danu's school bag beside her.
"Well I was awake and I wanted to watch you guys after I had my shower. So yeah I'm all ready to go." Fey shook her head, her expression clearly saying that she thought her new friend was mad.
"You mean you're up this early for no reason? You make a good Poesie Danu, you gotta be crazy." Fey teased.
"You two look wonderful you know. You're both very graceful, I wish I could move half as well." Even as Synthaera said the words, Fey and Bladedancer's shared grin made her realise she had made a mistake.
"Then we will begin teaching you. Tomorrow Danu, be here at 6:00 and you can join us for Tai-chi. Then we shower, get changed for school, and we can all go to breakfast at a normal time." Bladedancer gave her a friendly wave, and walked away to get her shower, while Fey laughed at Danu's stricken expression.
"You walked right into that Danu, and don't you dare think about wimping out on us!" Fey taunted her friend.
"If you're gonna be awake at 6:00am you might as well get some use out of it, and honestly I've never felt better since I started learning with Chou. Tai chi helps you feel balanced for the day ahead. Still you're all ready for school and I really need a shower Danu. You g on ahead for today, and we'll catch up with you later in breakfast. Either wait and eat with us, or just come and grab a seat on the table when we get in. See ya in a bit."
Fey gave her a quick hug and ran back into Poe to grab a shower before the bulk of the girls hit the bathrooms. Synthaera shook her head at how easily she had managed to talk herself into being up early every day, grabbed her stuff, and began a leisurely walk across campus.
Again she was one of the first into Crystal Hall, and headed to the still empty food counters. After piling her tray with a selection of fruits and pancakes with an apple filling, Synthaera headed across to the special needs aisle where she spotted a familiar face.
"Good morning Anna."
"Hi, how are you today? I'm sorry dear I haven't remembered your name yet."
"I'm good thanks. My name's Synthaera, but the codename is Danu. Could I have my morning special please?" Synthaera handed over her Student ID for Anna to swipe with a wide grin, "and if it's no problem could I have my flask refilling as well please?"
Anna took Danu's flask with a smile, checked the information the Student ID flashed up for her dietary supplements then turned and disappeared into the back of the kitchen. She returned a couple of minutes later, giving Danu her morning blood unit and a newly filled and chilled flask. The tall girl was polite, and thanked her, before she disappeared with a friendly wave. Anna took a mental note of the name Synthaera, and her codename, as one of the kids worth remembering in the Whateley madhouse. Sadly many of these kids paid little attention to the food servers, and the kitchen staff always noted those who did like that nice girl Ayla who the chefs lavished their efforts on. It was astonishing to think that she was a Goodkind! Anna supposed that just went to show that you could not judge everyone the same despite the Goodkind's scary reputation.
Outcast Corner was still empty when Synthaera got there, so she thought for a moment and deliberately chose a seat that meant the Outcasts could have their normal seats when they arrived. Crystal Hall started to fill up a little before she saw the Fury twins walk through the entrance. Minutes later Phobos and Deimos took their seats and returned Synthaera's warm welcome, before asking how she was and where she had been the day before.
Synthaera was explaining what happened when the rest of the Outcasts arrived full of their normal boisterous good humour. Jericho and Razorback led the way, while Diamondback and Eldritch walked along behind the two boys, commenting on Jericho's fashion shortcomings. Jericho ignored them both with the immense dignity that is only possible when wearing chocolate and lemon stripes, with purple trim. Synthaera took one look at Jericho's morning ensemble and dived for her sunglasses to dim the eye watering vision. Phobos and Deimos, more used to Jericho's clothing eccentricities managed to cope with little more than deep breaths, as their friends grabbed their seats.
"Danu, I thought I'd upset you somehow or scared you off when you did not join us yesterday." The chunky black boy's voice rumbled.
"No Jericho, I admit your kilt was hideous and almost made me hurl and weep in terror but I'm made of stern stuff."
"I'm glad Danu, I told Razor I'd be devastated if I'd somehow deprived our harem of a gorgeous fifth member." Beside him Razor almost choked on his raw steak at the word harem, and before the girls could react Razor was chirping wildly, while signing very rapidly.
Dude! You so don't speak for me! They're gonna hang you by your dreadlocks! Oh crap, Danu and Caitlin don't know signs well. Help me help me, I'm gonna be killed by marauding girls because of my idiot friend!
The five girls were still sputtering in mutual outrage, when Razor finished signing and promptly played dead, falling with a loud thud to lay with his legs and clawed hands outstretched while he chirped feebly. The huge boy's outrageous display was enough to distract Eldritch and Danu long enough for Phobos, Deimos and Diamondback to tell them what Razor had signed.
The girls' mood changed from retaliation to amusement, but none of them was willing to let the boys off just yet. Jericho was shocked by his big friend's abject display before he thought for a moment, running his choice of words back through his mind and then looking a little worried.
"Did I actually say harem?" Jericho asked quietly, while Razor opened an eye, to check his hammed up submission was being well received and chirped again.
The feminine chorus of 'Yes' was instant.
"Dammit I gotta remember to get Java before I speak in the morning, especially when I've been up all night. My most profuse apologies my beautiful friends, my brain was not running in gear. I meant to say our happy group." The black boy looked around the table, only to notice that the girls where actually ignoring him in favour of the passing students filling up Crystal Hall. The huge Razorback playing dead on Crystal Hall's floor was attracting laughter and when Razor chirped piteously again, the tension broke and the five girls broke out into a joint fit of giggles. Jericho gave a quiet sigh of relief. Seconds later Razorback righted his massive bulk with lightning speed and chirped before signing some more.
Just because you were up all night devising Jericho you gotta remember we weren't. Hello? The Twins first thing in the morning? Eldritch without her morning coffee? Diamond maybe might not want to kill you, but hello Jericho, no way is Danu a morning kind of girl!!
The five giggling girls laughed mockingly as the huge raptor continued to chirp and berate his friend in sign language that Diamondback translated on the fly. The rest of the students decided to ignore the Outcast Corner weirdness, it would be safer and saner. Jericho suffered a minute or two more of now good natured abuse, before he managed to gratefully redirect the conversation to asking about Danu's absence. Danu explained what had happened during her testing. When she mentioned the shielding test and a Junior being knocked unconscious, Diamondback interrupted her.
"The Junior's a girl called Majestic, Danu."
"Majestic?"
"Yeah Majestic, Queen of the New Olympians," Jericho picked up from Diamondback. "A complete and utter bitch, who also happens to be way too powerful by half."
"Who're the New Olympians then?" Danu asked curious.
"If you look over my left shoulder across the Hall, the table on the right hand end of the raised dais is where they hang out. I'm not going to look because Imperious and I don't get along, and it wouldn't be cool for them to notice your interest." Jericho explained.
"You've issues with Imperious? If I remember right those issues are mostly down to me." Eldritch growled out her disgust. "You're not the one Imperious wants to turn into a mindless compliant slave. Listen up Danu and I will tell you about the New Gods of Olympus." Eldritch's hard angry voice was laced with utter contempt.
Eldritch talked and Danu listened intently as she got a potted history on the New Olympians, and Eldritch's run ins with them. From Eldritch's position opposite Jericho, she pointed out Majestic and Imperious, Cytherea, Stygian and Counterpoint as they arrived in the Hall. Danu learned the New Olympians claimed they were avatars of the most powerful of the Gods of Olympus, and that they absolutely believed in their right to rule the world. They were also feared as one of the more powerful cliques in Whateley. Eldritch pointed out Counterpoint last.
"That fucktard's Counterpoint, yeah the dark haired kid. Him you need to watch. He's Imperious' lapdog, does whatever he says. When he's not being told what to do he claims to be Ares the God of War. He's a freshie like us Danu, and he's on the Ultraviolent list. Complete psycho, a pure bully, and freakin dangerous. You can count on him to look you up, just because you're new and in his year, and he loves to fight. He's also a power mimic, and a strong one, so he can use your own powers against you, if you give him enough time and contact. I put him down when I got the drop on him, but the crap from that still hasn't shaken out."
Eldritch turned her attention back to Imperious.
"Imperious wants power and it's the only thing he respects. Majestic's just as bad though, and God help any girl Imperious takes a shine to. Like me. Apparently Imperious really liked the idea of having me all nice and compliant. So I'm on her shitlist for making him hot to trot as well as being ideal slave material." Eldritch calmed her magical light show with an effort of will. Taking a breath and counting to ten.
"Majestic's a jealous vain bitch Danu. Most times she orders others to do her dirty work, but she's already said that she wants the spellcaster that knocked her out, so keep that quiet for as long as you can. If she doesn't think she take you alone she will have no problem bringing the gang to help. Magically she's very strong, but worse she's also just tough as hell. They're all trouble and when they find out you knocked out Majestic, the fuckers will be looking for you. You see them, find a group of friends like us or the Kimbas and hang tough."
Worried, Synthaera studied the New Olmpians across the Crystal Hall, wondering just how much trouble she was in, and whether she would be able to avoid it. Somehow she doubted it, but at least she knew she had some friends who would back her up already. She shook her head and resolved to worry about it later. Chatting with the Outcasts, she finished off her breakfast slowly, and then seeing that her fellow Poesies had arrived as well, she told the Outcasts she would catch them later, and with a friendly chorus of goodbyes and Razor's chirping and wave, Synthaera headed across Crystal Hall.
"Morning all!" Synthaera said as she touched Fey's crystal charm and sat down, before explaining she had already finished breakfast with the Outcasts and had just come to say hi.
"What do you have today then Danu?" asked Phase who moments earlier had seemed to be passionately discussing girlie pop bands.
"Well I'm excused lessons, as I have to go and meet Circe after homeroom. Don't know why, and after that, who knows? My day is a mystery." Synthaera grinned.
"Well you've had your testing so Circe probably wants to review them and then sort out your MID, they usually do that really soon after testing for the late arrivals." Phase replied after a moment's thought.
"Well as long as I manage to steer clear of the school idiots I'll be happy."
"Any idiots in particular?" Lancer asked.
"Not really Hank. The Outcasts have been telling me about the New Olympians. They told me to watch out for a freshman called Counterpoint especially but I'll be happy to avoid all of them, as Majestic is after me. Although I hope she doesn't know that yet."
"Hmm, that about her shields you brought down in your testing?" Phase asked.
"The rumour mill here is fast. Yeah, apparently she's not happy at all." Synthaera grimaced.
"If we hear anything we'll let you know. If you do run into them though, try not to get caught alone, if we're around we'll back you up." Lancer spoke with the confidence that comes with being a PK superman.
"Hell yeah, we can take them no problem." Chaka proclaimed.
The mistress of Ki began to animatedly describe beating the hell out of the New Olympians. The rest of the Kimbas watched the manic martial artist with amused affection, occasionally snarking at her wilder descriptions. The group of friends waited while Lancer and Tennyo demolished the rest of their breakfast before saying their goodbyes and heading off to their respective classes. Synthaera waved good bye to the Kimbas and headed for her homeroom to catch any morning announcements before her morning appointment with Circe.
Schuster Hall:
Caitlin Bardue waited quietly while Amelia pushed her game of ignoring her as far as she could. The girl sighed, irritated at the administrator's petty vindictive streak. Still she groused to herself it would not do her any good to get wound up, which would just play into Hardass' hands. Caitlin waited another thirty seconds before she felt her temper beginning to rise and decided enough was enough, but before she could even stand, the familiar voice of Chief Delarose sounded from behind her.
"Now Amelia, I trust you are not going to keep both of us waiting for our appointment with the Headmistress?"
The administrator had been studiously ignoring Caitlin and had not noticed Delarose's quiet approach and her head jerked up in surprise. Seeing Delarose waiting for her response, with a smirking Caitlin grinning mockingly at her was enough to pump Hartford's blood pressure but she was cool enough to recognise that for now she had been trumped. With no outward sign of her irritation, Amelia buzzed the door for Carson's office, ushering Delarose and Caitlin through and grabbing her pad to take notes as she followed them.
Amelia's face when she exited Carson's office seconds later after the Headmistress' casual but polite and firm dismissal could have frozen a basilisk. The sound of Caitlin's barely suppressed snigger did not help her temper at all. The other administrators in the office did their level best to ignore Hartford's outraged body language. No one wanted to be the target of her spite in her present mood.
Elizabeth sighed as Amelia's retreat from her office was accompanied by Caitlin's wicked snigger. Small brightly coloured flashes of raw magic jumped across the Artificer's body in response to her satisfied amusement, but if Caitlin even felt them she gave no sign as she turned her attention to the headmistress.
"Good morning Caitlin, thank you for being here, and Franklin thank you for ensuring we were not delayed unduly. This is a private chat Caitlin and therefore we don't need Miss Hartford taking notes."
Caitlin's curiosity was piqued. In her experience with dealing with Mrs Carson, first as Erik Mahren the teacher, and now as a student, she had long before concluded that Whateley's headmistress did not do 'chats'. There was always a reason, so now she wondered what she had or had not done to bring her to Carson's attention, not to mention Delarose's as well. Deciding that polite was the best approach for now she replied.
"You're welcome Headmistress. I got a message in my home room asking me to be here, although I admit I don't know why?"
Caitlin watched as the tall, powerfully built and elegantly dressed woman steepled her fingers before giving her warm smile, and waved her to sit down.
"Relax Caitlin, this is a good conversation, nothing to worry about, in fact I hope it will help you and another student as well, and for the sake of mutual respect, please feel free to talk as the adult you are, not the girl you have to appear to be."
Elizabeth could understand Caitlin's sudden surprise and obvious bemusement. In the months since her dramatic transformation, Caitlin had been treated so far as possible as just another student, with virtually no mention of her previous history. Although it was for the best, Elizabeth knew it was also just another of the reasons that Amelia's pettiness was wearing thin with the reborn teenager. She felt Caitlin had so far dealt with her circumstances with aplomb, and a stoicism she had not expected. Elizabeth watched as Caitlin gave her and Delarose each a somewhat bemused glance before the girl shrugged.
"Okay Elizabeth, what's up?" Erik Mahren had earned the headmistress's permission to be on first name terms, despite her initial intense reservations about his employment. His use of it now was his acknowledgement of her gesture.
"Caitlin, we have a situation with one of our Freshmen, and in the discussions how to deal with it, Franklin mentioned that you would be beneficial in this case."
The former Seal scratched her head in a gesture that was incongruous for being so Erik Mahren. "Okay I'll bite Elizabeth. You know me, I never could keep my nose out of trouble. Why me?" That comment brought a grunted chuckle from Delarose, sat at the side of the room. Caitlin gave him a grin, which he just waved away.
"Elizabeth is referring to your undoubted and almost preternatural ability to cause mayhem, that and staying alive." Franklin was still chuckling as he spoke.
"Okay I'm confused, I kind of thought that those particular skills would be the last things you want me practicing."
"True Caitlin, however I don't want you to use your skills..." she paused, wondering momentarily what Caitlin's reaction would be. "I want you to teach them."
There was a long pause, Caitlin sat frozen while the only indication of her state of mind was the sudden fierce increase in her magical lightshow. Carson carried on speaking.
"Caitlin I have a new student at Whateley, who has previously unknown magical abilities that can be extremely destructive, physical abilities that make her a strong and probably deadly combatant, and some severe psychological problems, that have Dr Bellows very worried."
Caitlin's lightshow subsided as she leaned forward listening to Caron talk, before she interrupted.
"What kind of psychological problems and why would you want me to teach my brand of urban renewal to Danu?"
Carson sighed in exasperation as Franklin chuckled again. Caitlin glanced at him.
"I told her that you'd probably already noted a new student, and might well put it together before she told you." Franklin looked smugly amused.
"And how exactly do you know about Danu?" Carson's tone was slightly irked.
"I had breakfast with her earlier. Me and the Outcasts. We met her the other day."
"Jericho invited her to join the Outcasts?"
"Nah, Danu isn't an official Outcast, she sat down in Outcast Corner at breakfast and then didn't freak when the gang showed up, and convinced us all she's messed up enough to hang around. As to how I knew you were talking about Danu, well she told us about being in the infirmary after an incident in her testing, and we already gave her the low down on the New Olympians, including some of my crap. Majestic is supposed to be gunning for the spell caster who knocked her out in a powers test, although I don't know if she's aware it was Danu yet. I know Danu's a brand new student so it seemed obvious, although you still haven't answered my questions Elizabeth." Caitlin threw the ball back into Elizabeth's court with a shrug.
"Hmmph. Okay Caitlin, I'll answer your second question first. There are three reasons I want you to teach Danu what you know Caitlin. One is for your benefit,"
Elizabeth's tone softened "I want you to feel good about something Caitlin, to have the satisfaction of teaching again. Danu is only a single student but still she gives you the chance to teach one of the kids again, and watch them grow. Franklin thought it quite likely that you would meet and possibly end up being friends with Danu naturally anyway, but we want to be straight with you about the situation."
The headmistress' voice was tinged with regret and sadness and Caitlin suddenly found herself a little choked up, touched by the consideration she was being shown by her former colleagues. She didn't know what to say but nodded to acknowledge Carson's words. Elizabeth carried on speaking.
"So that's the first reason Caitlin. The second reason is that Danu needs what you can teach her. At the moment she's potentially a very dangerous close in fighter without the skills to back her up, although she definitely has the killer instinct, and in fact that is one of her problems."
"Huh?"
"Danu is 14 and has been manifested for less than 3 weeks, a substantial part of which she has spent unconscious, and she has already killed 5 times in self defence."
"What?" Caitlin was shocked by that revelation. Danu had given them a brief history during their times in Outcast Corner but that had not included details. "I mean she said she had a tough time of it but..."
"Tough does not begin to describe it." Franklin finished for her.
Shaking her head Caitlin asked "Ok so what issues does Danu have?"
When Erik Mahren had first been ordered to kill for his government he had done so after very extensive physical training and the psychological indoctrination that boot camp provided. Now with years of military service and Special Forces operations behind her, Caitlin could readily imagine the scars that being in combat and repeatedly killing at such a young age would leave. She snapped her thoughts back to Franklin's response.
"Alfred thinks Danu is a bomb looking for a place to go off. She's not a likely case for PTSD because she is able and willing to talk about what has happened to her..." Caitlin snorted as she thought bitterly that Danu was lucky she did not have security clearances preventing her from dealing with her issues.
"..she does have severe abandonment issues, both from her childhood and more from her manifestation. She is mentally tough but also scarred. The main problem is slightly similar to your own case of Intermittent Explosive Disorder.
"Ouch." Caitlin winced.
"Yeah," Franklin nodded his agreement, "When you have an episode like your combat finals, you're just fighting on instinct, and experience yes?"
"Yeah." Caitlin grumbled, "If I go thermal, there's no one home just the killing machine and everything I ever learned about it. Hell I still don't remember anything about my finals." She rubbed the UV badge on her arm unconsciously.
"Well Danu does not have your experience or training, thankfully, but mentally she is no kid. Dr Bellows said she's like a very battle worn vet."
"You mean the whole shoot first ask questions later thing?"
"Kind of yes. Danu will respond to a threat to her family, or a threat to her new friends in school. When she acts it won't be with the responses of a 14 year old girl. Danu will go thermal like you, no holds barred, no warning, no mercy, and no limits. She'll use everything she has including magic that's way too strong to mess around with."
"You're worried about Danu now Elizabeth, if I teach her, she gets a whole league of crap more dangerous. From what Franklin is saying that sounds crazy." Caitlin scratched her head.
Elizabeth sighed as she nodded. "Yes it sounds crazy but Danu can learn, be taught to control her responses, so that she only calls on her magics when she truly needs them. Without the skills you can teach her, Danu's first response to serious danger will be her magic and Circe says she's strong enough to turn Whateley into a war zone, so as crazy as it sounds teaching Danu makes her safer overall."
"Okay Elizabeth I see your logic. I gotta say it's kind of messed up but I see it. What was reason number three?"
"That one is simple Caitlin. You already told Danu about Majestic and the New Olympians. You need friends and allies as well. Franklin suggested that the pair of you would make a hellishly strong team, and Alfred says that given her psych profile, if Danu does befriend you, then she'll go to the limit and beyond for you. I want you and her to be safe and having tough friends who really will be there if you need them helps you both. Simple."
Elizabeth held Caitlin's somewhat troubled gaze for a long second as the girl gathered her thoughts and spoke.
"I'm gonna go and think about this Elizabeth. I see your point about training her, and I understand your logic, and genuinely the chance to teach again would be ... well that would be great, but I'm not going to play her. The girl deserves better than that, and if I messed her up anymore I wouldn't forgive myself or you either. Besides the girl is already friends with some of the Kimbas and they would kick my ass if I hurt her accidentally. I'll take what you said and see where it goes. If I think I can be friends with Danu then fair enough I'll consider the training but I'm not promising anything."
"Okay Caitlin, thank you, that's all I can ask." Elizabeth Carson was not really paying attention as Franklin left her office accompanied by Caitlin, her mind was pondering the implications of Danu being friends with Whateley's premier trouble magnets Team Kimba. It was enough to make the former Lady Astarte wince.
Circe's Office. 9:20am.
Synthaera opened the door to Circe's office and then got herself comfortable in the seat Circe indicated while she waited for her councillor to finish the paperwork she was working on. A couple of minutes later Circe finished and apologised for keeping her waiting, before sitting back and watching her.
"You've had a busy few days Danu, but hopefully things should calm down for you now. I have your powers test results here, "Circe gestured with the sheaf of documents in her hand, "or rather I have the edited and doctored versions of your results. These are what the MCO will be able to see, both electronically and on paper. Mrs Carson has the full unabridged data, and I assure you that it will not see the light of day without exceptional cause. We do still have to do a couple of jobs to do though. First you need to read the official version of your test, and remember it, so that if you are questioned by the MCO at some point you tell them what they already know, and nothing more. After that we will look at your suggested MID and how it would look with both sets of data, so you can see the difference, then we need to visit Schuster hall where the local MCO team will be arriving shortly to do your MID. There shouldn't be any problems so long as you stick to test results we're giving them. Understood?"
"Yes Circe."
Synthaera's councillor nodded and passed her the sheaf of documents to read and memorise. 20 minutes later and Synthaera could recall all the data perfectly but Circe questioned her until the sorceress was satisfied she knew the file inside out.
"Okay Danu, now we'll look at your MID data. Because you have been here for so little time there is very little data to go on the sheet, however the events of your manifestation are part of your records so we cannot bury those and need to account for the powers you displayed on the plane and in the hospital, so after a deal of deliberation between myself, Dr Bellows and the headmistress this is what we believe your MID will be based on the data the MCO will have access to."
Code Name: Danu
Ratings: Exemplar - 4 Sidhe (GSD Med Vampiric), Psi - 2, Wiz 4 (Inherent Casting, Chaos), Regen 3+, Shifter 2 u/f/n/w/m
Techniques: Golden Shield, Golden Force Strike, Vampiric Bite
Weak Vs: Vampiric Weaknesses, Explosive Temper if provoked. Requires
Blood for sustenance
Backup/Team
Affiliation: None known
"Okay Danu with the full data this is what we would expect for your MID."
Code Name: Danu
Ratings: Exemplar 4 Sidhe (GSD Med Vampiric), Psi 3, Wiz 6
(Inherent Casting, Chaos), Regen 6, Shifter 2 u/f/n/w/m
Techniques: Golden Shield, Golden Force Strike, Vampiric Bite
Weak Vs: Ultraviolet Light, Explosive Temper if provoked. Requires
Blood for sustenance
Backup/Team Affiliation: None known.
"Danu, the differences on these MIDs may not seem substantial, but the effect is huge in how you will be treated. Your doctored MID is still unusual Danu so you can expect to get some interest from them, but don't let the MCO phase you. What we have done is tell them the absolute minimum we can by using some skilful editing on your results. So as far as possible you need to not stray too visibly from the doctored MID, in terms of your levels of power. During your time in Whateley learn as much as you can as thoroughly as you can, develop your skills to their utmost, but be as discrete as possible dear. I am your councillor but also your mentor Danu. If you need help, please feel free to ask."
"Thank you for helping me with the MCO, I was worried about them." Synthaera admitted.
"Yes well you don't need to worry about the MCO while you are here in Whateley, we've had a lot of practice at dealing with them, but remember to be cautious about the level of power you show."
"Okay Circe."
"Good, now that you have your file memorised, we need to head along to Schuster Hall and find Agent Collins." Circe stood up, and led the girl out of her office.
Agent Collins scowled while he waited for the morning's task to arrive. Whateley Academy was not his favourite place to spend any time at all. The damn mutie kids were bad enough, but the staff drove him nuts, especially Carson. The damn woman was constantly trying to stop him doing his job. Collins was prepared to concede that he was enthusiastic in performing his duties, but there weren't enough humans prepared to stick it to upstart mutants so he needed to be.
Carson's stubborn insistence on defending mutant 'rights' was far more annoying than most of the mutant brats she taught. His last trip here had turned into a disaster. Trout had given him the scoop on one of the Carson's real freaks, and he'd slapped a Deadly Force authority on the metallic little bitch. Which had turned into a damned nightmare, and word was the MCO lawyers were struggling in the courts.
The MCO like any powerful organisation had its political undercurrents, agenda and factional infighting. Despite the fallout from his last trip, the good news for Collins had been that he had finally come to the notice of one of the more secretive factions within the MCO. They did not even have a name as such and he had no clue as to the ultimate authority in his new faction. Truthfully Collins did not care, although he would admit to curiosity, what he did care about was that he now had the backing for further more active disruption to the mutant scum he loathed. He would pass his report on today's events to his newly acquired contact, confidant they would use the data well.
Collins almost hoped this kid would be as awkward as that metallic little bitch had been. He hated having to drag himself and his technician out into Dunwich of all places, the arse end of nowhere, just to do a MID for a single kid. At least if there was an issue he could maybe get some payback on that utter bitch Carson. Collins glanced very briefly at his notes from Whateley, which as usual were incredibly sparse.
From behind him came the sound of the double doors opening. He turned, ready to vent a little of his irritable mood, and bit his tongue. The woman who strode confidently through looked to be in her late 30s but Collins recognised her as Circe, one of Whateley's heaviest magic users, and not known for a good attitude when dealing with the MCO. The young woman who followed Circe was supposed to be 14, but looked to be 18 or older. According to his notes her codename was Danu.
Collins hated the very idea of mutants, but he was honest enough with himself to admit that exemplar women were babes, and this one, freaky elf ears or not, made his dick twitch. Ignoring the curvy teen with difficulty he turned to Circe as the older woman introduced the girl.
Synthaera watched the two adults verbally spar for a couple of minutes. She had opened her sight as they approached the rooms in Schuster Hall where the MCO agent waited. She was not paying much attention to the adult conversation, intent instead on the differences in the auras she could see. Where Circe's had unparalleled depth, and rang with her magical strength, her devotion to the well being of the students and other older goals, the man from the MCO rang her mental alarm bells.
With a single glance Synthaera could see at his core Agent Collins held the ugly red and black knot that had marked out the hijackers on her flight. This man reeked of hate, for her and everyone like her. When Collins had seen her, Synthaera had watched his aura spike with lust, and that spike was repeated whenever the creep looked at her. Worse was the sense of falsehood. Like a yellow haze draped across him, everything about Collins seemed to be a lie. She did not want to be alone with the creep at all.
Synthaera paid attention as the two adults finished their polite but hostile conversation with Circe informing the agent that she would be waiting right outside the office for Danu's return or call. Agent Collins was not happy but when he protested, was told in icy tones that he had no currency in Whateley given the events of his last visit. Synthaera walked into the office with Circe final instructions on the interview fresh in her mind, nervous but feeling very comforted from knowing her councillor was just a shout away.
It was just as obvious from Agent Collin's expression, once Circe could not see him, that he was extremely unhappy at having the sorceress so close. He told her to sit down in a frosty tone and then pulled up the chair opposite her. Synthaera sat down, and tucked her feet behind her, and waited while the creep studied her. Watching Collins aura tinge purple as he patently gazed her up and down, made her want to vomit, but instead she held herself still, her posture upright and simply stared back at him, refusing to show her nerves, calling on the impassive expression that had served her so well in Wales.
Collins snarled mentally as the elf gazed back at him impassively. The girl was immaculately dressed, and her Whateley uniform probably cost more than his suit. Danu was gorgeous and her clothes accented her figure to the utmost without being anything except elegant tailoring. Collins always disliked dealing with rich kids, their money gave them confidence most 14 year olds never possessed. That bitch Circe had all but said that if he stepped out of line the tiniest bit she would be through the door in a heart beat, but that just meant he had to be more subtle. He turned his gaze into a more obvious leer, looking to disturb Danu's equanimity but the girl only allowed her expression to change slightly showing boredom and giving him a slight moue of distaste.
Circe had told Synthaera that Cecilia's tailoring and her wonderful figure gave her additional advantages when dealing with men, and as repulsive as she found Collins Synthaera was also glad to see that the sorceress had been right. The older woman had also cautioned her to be on her guard against cheap mind games from the MCO agent, and his leering at her breasts definitely counted. Still she knew Circe was outside so Sythaera was able to feign boredom rather than letting her nerves show. Agent Collins was not pleased at her lack of discomfort she noted, allowing a twitch of amusement to show in her amethyst gaze, as the angry agent decided to get on with the interview.
The teenage rich bitch was laughing at him, Collins fumed. Taking a deep breath to calm his temper he sought to regain control.
"Miss Synthaera Givens, my name is Agent Stephen Collins, and I will be conducting your interview today. For the purposes of the MCO and TSA I am required to record this conversation. Do you have any objections?"
Synthaera watched the agent's aura pulse a bilious yellow as he identified himself, and knew that he was lying, both about his name and having to record the conversation. Okay he was a complete creep, and she had no idea why he obviously wanted to record the interview but decided that could not be a good thing.
"Yes, I object to being recorded when it's not required, and being lied to about it."
"It is required and I am not lying to you about it." Collins was irritated by the girl's confident poise, and his tone was cold.
Synthaera watched the yellow pulses as he spoke, grinning to herself mentally. Now how to confirm the yellow was lying? Ah play dumb blonde for a second.
"Wait a moment Agent Collins, it's Wednesday today isn't it?"
"Huh? Yes it's Wednesday. What has that to do with anything?" Collins almost growled.
"Oh nothing, it's just I have to go get some clothes today you know, so this can't take too long."
It was even kind of true, Cecilia had delivered a batch of her clothes to the school and Synthaera needed to go pick them up later on. It was Synthaera reflected, good fun winding up the MCO guy and at the same time confirming that when he spoke a true statement his aura did not pulse yellow. The MCO man's aura was getting more reddish overall as his temper got worse. Synthara was glad Circe was around, Agent Collins was not happy.
"Girl my time is far more important than your shopping whims, and this interview will go on as long as I decide and it will be recorded."
She smiled sweetly at him. "Sorry Mr Collins but I'm not going to talk to you if you're going to record me, we both know you don't have to, you just want to, so I'm certain I don't want you to."
Collins stood up, leaning heavily on the table to try and intimidate her.
"And what make you think you have a choice girl?" Collins sneered at her.
"Well I could always check with Circe?" Synthaera shot back.
Mentioning Circe had the desired effect, like slapping the creep in the face. Collins sat down and angrily turned off the recorder he had on the table.
"Fine, the recorder is off. Happy now, Miss Givens? Can we proceed with your interview?"
Synthaera nodded while watching Collins closely, but she almost missed the slight pulse of smugness from Collins as he glanced down at the table. Confused for a second she followed his gaze. The desk held Collins briefcase and his recorder which was now off, and a couple of pens, so why had he been smug when he looked at the pens?
Collins was pissed, this rich bitch was doing her level best to piss him off and she was succeeding, but she wasn't as smart as she thought. He hadn't turned on the silence generator and without it the electronic bugs in his suit would capture the conversation on his technician's equipment without him doing anything more. So much for a right to privacy bitch, he gloated mentally. He took a second to open the kid's file that Whateley had supplied. It was even thinner than most he got when he came here.
"Okay your codename is Danu?"
"Yes."
"Why Danu?"
"Umm Aurora was taken? It took me an age to come up with that, but I know no one else in school is using it." The girl managed to look baffled then helpful in the space of seconds.
"So why did you want to use Aurora?" Collins probed.
"Oh but it's such a pretty name, don't you think. The aurora is magical to look at as well."
Danu smiled warmly at him, making his dick twitch again. Collins sighed. How could such an airhead be such a pain in the ass a second ago?
"Okay Danu, what are your parents' names?"
Circe had been definite with Synthaera that information about her family or her life before Whateley was not required for the MID interview, so she should be polite but give him as little as possible, preferably nothing.
"You don't need my parents names Mr Collins."
"Why are you refusing to tell me who your parents are?" Collins interest was piqued now. Before the kid was just an irritating bitch, but now he thought there was something else to find out.
Synthaera swore mentally as Collins aura showed his change of focus.
"You don't need that information."
"I determine what I need or don't need to know young lady. Now tell me who your parents are."
"No."
"You realize that you are required to cooperate with an MCO investigation?"
"I think you mean interview don't you Agent Collins?" Damn the girl was back to being a pain in the ass, and she was quick, and not nearly scared enough.
"You are required to cooperate with the MCO. Now who are your parents?"
"I'm being cooperative Mr Collins but you don't need to know about my family for this interview just like you don't need to record the conversation. You just want to know." Synthaera was a little nervous now but she still managed to keep her calm façade, as Collins' aura told her she was right. She was still worried about the pens though, why was Collins smug whenever he glanced at them? On the spur of the moment she leaned forward and picked up the two pens before the MCO man could react. Holding them it only took her a second to work out one was not a pen.
"Give me those pens back Danu." Collins was not fast enough to react to the girl's sudden and shockingly fast movement.
"This isn't a pen."
"Of course it's a pen. Now give it here."
Collins went to move around the table, but there was something about Danu's suddenly intensely predatory look that made the agent pause. He stood there aware that somehow he had lost control of this interview completely. Danu tossed his actual pen back on the table but was still examining the silence generator. With a flick of the switch the girl turned it on as she watched him, and Collins swore mentally as he lost all means of recording the interview. Well hopefully what he had gotten would be of interest.
Synthaera flicked the switch on the 'pen' and with her sight active suddenly became aware of being surrounded by a bubble of some type of energy, and noted with interest that she could no longer hear the sound of Circe's heels pacing the corridor outside.
"So what does it do?" Synthaera demanded.
"It improves the sound quality when we record the interviews." Collins lied hurriedly.
Danu gave him a disgusted look. "Stop lying to me you dickwad."
"I'm not lying." Collins blustered as he tried to work out what had gone wrong, his anger rising again.
"Of course you're lying you idiot, I'm reading your fucking aura you moron. You're lying about everything including your name Agent Stephen Collins." Synthaera sneered angrily.
The Sidhe's voice hit Collins with utter contempt, and with a sickening turn of his stomach, the man who latterly was called Stephen Collins, realized Danu had been reading him all the way through the conversation and knew far more about him than he was remotely happy about.
Synthaera cursed herself for being stupid as she let slip about Collin's identity. Her temper had gotten the better of her and now instead of just pissing off the MCO goon she had made a potentially very dangerous enemy. The MCO agent's expression had gone blank before settling on deadly intent, and he had sat back down opposite her. The intensity of the black ugliness in his aura had risen hugely as Collins glared at her with undisguised malice and hatred before speaking again.
"Well Danu, it appears that this interview has reached an unusual juncture. In the interests of civility I suggest we conclude our business here as quickly and as courteously as possible. Do you agree?" Collins watched Danu nod her assent. For a teenager who had just put her head on a chopping block, and from her body language Danu had realized the new dangerous nature of their conversation, she was very composed.
"Good. Let's get on with your MID and stop fencing, as all that will do is give us both more reason to be... uncivilized." Stephen Collins had a moment when he was actually extremely glad that Danu had cut off his bugging equipment before dropping her bombshell. The ramifications would have been...extreme.
The next fifteen minutes were a surreal experience for Synthaera. Suddenly Agent Collins spoke with a patently false friendliness, while his aura screamed his rage and hatred. The digging for information stopped and instead he had simply reviewed the powers test data and classifications that Whateley had supplied, merely commenting that she had very interesting results. That comment had Synthaera dreading the fallout of their conversation.
Agent Collins signed off the powers summary silently, before they moved to the office's next room where his technician quickly took her photo and a biomedical reading which caused some comments from the technician. The MID card was printed and her biomedical data encoded onto it. Finally the agent and technician packed up their gear, and led Synthaera back out into the corridor to met Circe. With a polite "Take care." Collins handed her the MID and after bidding the two women a rapid but polite farewell the MCO agent left.
While the technician drove the MCO van towards Whateley Academy's gates Collins very rapidly composed two reports. He was not sure what the girl would do next, and wanted to get the data to his contact before anything could happen. If Danu told Circe what had happened straight away....The first report included the audio recording, the complete data that Whateley had supplied and his strong recommendation that Synthaera Given's background be very thoroughly examined, as she was a potentially very interesting mutant. Collins immediately emailed the report to his newly acquired contact. Others would pursue the data, and he savagely hoped they acted on it. The second more mundane report detailed the conclusion of the MID successfully and was emailed to his immediate superior. As both reports were sent Collins gave a sigh of relief, and a tight and very vengeful grin.
It had taken Circe almost twenty minutes to get the full details of the MID interview from a now thoroughly shaken Danu, by which time the MCO agent was long gone. After reassuring the girl who had a very bad case of the shakes almost as soon as she had finished explaining to her councillor what had happened, Circe sent Danu to Crystal Hall to catch an early lunch, before having normal afternoon lessons. As the teenager disappeared from view, Circe headed for Delarose's office to suggest some background checking on Agent Stephen Collins. Circe was quite sure Amelia Hartford or her protégé Paige Donner would be more than happy to assist.
The first email that Agent Collins transmitted was rerouted through a dozen different servers and via five continents before arriving at his contact's desk. The anonymous figure considered the email thoughtfully, and pondered about recent events. After lengthy consideration a separate email was transmitted and a small select team began tracking down anything they could find about one Synthaera Givens.
[Updated on: Wed, 21 September 2011 14:03]
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| Re: Synthaera (the post crash edition) [message #44760 is a reply to message #39957 ] |
Thu, 25 August 2011 08:06 |
blayze
Messages: 30
Registered: May 2011
Location: Durham, UK |
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Hello All! My apologies for the long delays to writing caused by 19th century tech breaking down and reallife interfering. Hopefully I am now sorted and will resume at a reasonable pace. My thanks again to sleethr for his very valuable editing assistance. As always any cock ups are all mine. Without further ado I give you Synthaera chapter 9!! I hope you enjoy it. Drums please!!!!
Wednesday afternoon. March 7th
Synthaera stood inside the entrance of Kirby Hall, looking around in fascination. At first glance the Hall appeared to be a normal Tudor style building. When she opened her sight she could not help and wonder if other students saw the extent of the bizarre sights around her. The power testing techs had been very surprised by the extent of her sight, especially that she could see magic as well as esper phenomena like auras, so Synthaera guessed that perhaps not many saw all she was seeing.
The fabric of Kirby Hall was riddled with magic. The whole building glowed subtly to her sight. The doors and windows had the strange symbols on them that she had come to realise where wards or spells placed on them, some static, others pulsing quietly. Synthaera had no idea what they meant or did, although she had started to learn to gauge the strength of the spell from how bright it was to her sight, and some spells obviously warded more important parts of the building than others. She was bemused to see there were also spells in the floors of the Hall.
Synthaera's class this afternoon was called Introduction to Magical Arts. It being taught by a lady called Amanda Chulkris. During lunch with most of the Outcasts in Crystal Hall, Synthaera had gone over her timetable for the day. Diamondback had told her that Mrs Chulkris had a severe case of GSD, and looked kind of like a walking haystack with plants and flowers and vines growing out of her body.
Synthaera thought it sounded bizarre but Diamondback had reassured her that the lady was nice, friendly and thoughtful and also a respected mage. Mrs Chulkris codename was Earth Mother and she had even been a superhero back in the 60s. Synthaera was quite looking forward to meeting her, and hoped she would be able to keep up after joining the class so late in the school term.
Pulling her gaze away from the glowing wards, Synthaera looked around the front foyer of Kirby Hall and quickly spotted a sign. Shaking her head at the bizarreness, she read the magical text that hovered in mid air, and followed the signs towards the Mystic Arts Department, moving easily through the other kids on their way to classes after lunch. After consulting a more normal sign on the wall after she reached the Mystic Arts Department, Synthaera found her classroom, and knocked before glancing inside.
Amanda Chulkris glanced up from her desk at the knock on the door. A very pretty Sidhe girl with thick platinum hair looked around the door.
"Mrs Chulkris?"
"Yes dear? Oh wait, you must be Danu?" Mrs Chulkris smiled in welcome as she recalled Circe's description of the pale girl. Circe had not really done Danu justice she decided.
"Yes Ma'am."
"Good, good, well come on in then and we'll talk for a minute before class." Chulkris beckoned the girl in, and watched as Danu walked up to her desk.
"Welcome to Whateley Danu. Circe told me you would be joining my class, at least for this term."
"Yes Ma'am she told me that as I've no experience at all with magic, it was the best option to try and get me up to speed."
"Quite true Danu. Circe told me that she wants you to concentrate on focus and control, and studying basic texts for basic knowledge rather than trying to join the rest of the class on their project work. It's fairly common for students to have individual study paths in this class so don't worry about it. You will have to work hard though to get enough credit to graduate."
"Yes Ma'am." Chulkris could see that Danu was perfectly happy with that, which she thought made a welcome change from some of these youngsters who felt the world should be at their feet immediately. She noted that some of her other students were now arriving for class as well.
"Okay Danu, I know you've spent some time with the basic Whateley primer, so for now choose a study table and work on your copy, or take one from the basic texts shelf if you don't have yours with you. The class are generally working on their projects at the moment, so if you have questions just ask dear." Danu nodded and turned away to choose a desk, making no move to go to the bookshelves Chulkris noted in approval. Good she had her text with her already.
Synthaera was surprised to see Phase giving her a welcoming grin and a wave when she turned to find a desk. Phase pointed out a desk to her left and she quickly moved to it, happy to see a familiar face.
"Heya Phase, I didn't realise you're a spell slinger."
"Hi Danu, well I'm not yet, but I'm starting to learn about it. I have to admit it was not something I expected when I came here, but Circe thought it would be good for me."
"Well I'm glad you're here, I don't know any of these other kids."
Phase looked around checking who was in class already before speaking.
"That study table's free so help yourself Danu. Not everyone is here yet, I don't see Eldritch or Fey yet."
"Oh, I didn't know Eldritch was taking this class, that's cool I've met her at least. Phase, what's Fey doing in this class?"
Phase grinned. "She got herself roped into being class Teaching Assistant by Mrs Chulkris. It's cool knowing we can pick her brains as well."
Synthaera sat at the table that Phase pointed out, and got her Whateley primer out, plus her pad and pens, while she waited for class to start. She noticed that Fey had made it to class and was helping Mrs Chulkris. Fey gave her a grin and a quick wave as she bustled around. Looking around she saw Eldritch had also arrived, and sat across the other side of the room. Eldritch saw her and gave a nod of greeting before pulling her study materials from her bag as the class settled down. Mrs Chulkris brought the class to order with a quiet cough, which Synthaera noted was immediately obeyed. The plump woman obviously had her students' respect despite her unusual appearance.
Synthaera groaned mentally as Mrs Chulkris introduced her as the new student, garnering the usual mixture of looks from the other students, some judgemental, and one or two interested, others assessing her from her clothing to her look and hair, and Synthaera found herself given renewed confidence by Cecilia's wonderful tailoring. It was such a boost to know and feel that you looked good, and such a different experience from her last classroom. Once her introduction had been completed Mrs Chulkris dismissed her students to their project work, and Sythaera got settled into studying her primer once more, trying to work out what she could do to improve her focus.
Class passed quickly as Synthaera studied her Whateley primer taking notes and pondering concepts that weeks ago she would only expect to find in her old D&D manuals. Circe had given her instructions to try and develop her control and focus as an urgent priority, and she could understand why. At the moment Synthaera felt that if she used her magic all she could do was turn it on and hope for the best, which seemed kind of pathetic compared to kinds of effects and spells that the primer referred to. Synthaera hoped that studying the basic texts would let her get some control quickly, she was worried she was going to need it sooner rather than later when Majestic came looking for her.
The chapter Synthaera was reading was explaining in very obscure terms about channelling magical forces. The primer implied anyone could cast magical spells with sufficient mental discipline, but as she understood it, for Wiz types their mutation gave them the ability to tap magical energy outside their body, drawing it in and channelling that power via the spell casting process. Synthaera wondered if she could employ the visualisation and channelling techniques the primer alluded to move her own internal magical energies. She could feel her own magic within her constantly available, and remembered the sensations of casting her magical strike during her powers testing.
When I attacked though, the power did not flow out of my hand like some of these references say. It was just there, all I did was think it and it happened. No mumbo jumbo and casting, rituals and stuff. So am I doing something completely different? Or are these wizard types doing something wrong when they could be casting like I do? No, that can't be right. Wiz types do the spells and stuff because they need to. It gives them like language that controls outside magic. I might be able to do the same, but I don't know if I can even use external magic. Even if I can, why bother? It'll just slow me down and give me the same limitations that the wiz types have now. I need to control what I can do, not learn to do something else instead. Damn this is frustrating.
A short time later the class finished and Fey met up with Phase and Danu as they left, checking what her two friends had next. Phase was off to a Martial Arts class, and had her gi with her. Danu was on her way to Introduction to the Psychics Arts. As they walked, Fey teased Danu about turning to the dark side and consorting with psychics. Phase stopped and just looked at Fey for a second, before Fey admitted she walked the dark side as well, prompting laughter all round. The three girls separated and Danu headed back through the Kirby Hall corridors for the Dept of Psychic Arts, while Fey headed off to Advanced Magic Lab.
The Psychic Arts Dept was on Kirby's second floor, and was surprisingly quiet when Danu made her way up there. The class she was looking for was called Basic Psychic Lab, and was being taught by someone called Louis Geintz. Synthaera found the room easily enough but was a bit bemused to find it was completely empty. After looking around she checked the door number again, and then glanced at her watch. She was on time. After a moment of thought she decided to leave and go look for someone, but as she turned to leave she stopped as she felt a presence behind her.
"Hello Danu."
Where there had been empty space before now there was a figure of a man in his late 20s. Except she could see through him, and her sight told her the figure was not really there. There was no aura at all, but definitely a presence, she could feel it like a weight on her mind.
"Um, hi. Is this Basic Psychic Lab?"
"Yes it is, and I'm Louis Geintz, or rather a projection of myself, Danu. My body is in Hawthorne cottage. Grab a seat and we'll chat a bit. There are actually very few students on the Basic Psychic courses this session, so as Janice and Circe said your ability was a little unusual, and I've the free time to here I am."
The figure seemed friendly enough if a bit bizarre so Synthaera sat down, wondering what would happen next. It was very strange to watch the projection walk through the furniture in the room, and then 'sit down' on the chair opposite her.
"Sooner or later Danu I'll get around to inviting you down to Hawthorne to meet in person, or as close to it as I can manage anyway but for the time being this will do. Or in fact we can pretty much meet anywhere as I can project wherever I want. My codename is Fubar, and my job is to help you get a handle on your powers. This class is basically going to be you and me working on that.
Synthaera eye's widened as a thought struck her.
"You're talking in my head aren't you? I mean a projection can't actually speak."
Louis grinned. "Correct, well spotted. Even though my lips are moving you are hearing me in your head directly. Telepathy, is one of my powers. I'm a high level telepath and empath and esper. Now from what I understand from Janice and Circe you have demonstrated a strange combined form of astral sight?"
"Yes, I can see auras, magic, and look around places all at once."
"Okay Danu, that's beyond what I would normally expect but those are essentially passive abilities, so practice is all you need to develop those skills. I think we will leave those for the time being. Janice told me that you had showed no aptitude for telepathy or empathy?"
"Well I could kind of workout what people are feeling from their auras, and tell when they are lying, but without an aura I have not done anything. The telepathy test was a complete bust, when Mrs P wanted me to tell her what card she was holding I just looked over her shoulder."
"Okay that's fine Danu. The most unusual part of your Psychic talents appears to be moving magic with your mind. Circe says she suspects this is where your magical casting and control comes from. Janice said she watched you manipulating magical power in your own body, essentially altering your brain. Is that correct?
"Yes Louis, and I think that's what I need to work on mostly. I just had magic theory and a lot of what the primer says makes no sense to me, but I need to learn control, and I think Circe is worried about that."
"Well you're right there Danu. This is where we will concentrate and you do have Circe a little concerned about your lack of control at the moment. Now Janice mentioned your golden cavern to me, so first of all I would like to see that please."
Back in his tank Fubar's monstrous body floated lazily as his prodigious mind spanned the tiny distance that Whateley was to him and followed Danu into her trance state. He felt amazed. Every time he got tired of his struggles or a little jaded something new came along and shook stuff up again. Following the young girl into her mind was an experience and looking around he completely understood why Danu called it her Golden Cavern, the description fit. Successful magic tended to be the result of magical knowledge and the the power to manipulate that knowledge. Louis had picked up a lot of magical knowledge over time, but manipulating that knowledge was the difficult bit. This child had virtually no knowledge but the quantity of power, lighting this cavern, flooding through her mind was just scary. It was no wonder that Circe wanted her taught control. Studying the cavern around him he spoke mentally with Danu.
"Well Danu, you have an impressive brain kid."
Danu's mental laughter came back loud and clear.
"Can you show me what Janice saw please. I would like to see you move a little of the magic down there around if you could."
Louis watched as Danu's mentally constructed a wedge shape and then placed it in the current. Just as Janice had stated the magical current in the river of power was diverted, deflecting from the wedge. Louis watched with quiet disbelief, wondering how to refer to this skill before returning to the matter at hand.
"Okay Danu could you show me where you control your shields from?" He followed Danu's mental presence as it skipped to another section of the cavern.
"This it?"
Yes Louis, it's more complex than I remember though.
"How so?"
This outer section here was not here before, Danu's presence gestured at a section of the tissue that formed a loop around the pattern she remembered.
"What did you do last with your shields that was different?"
Umm Circe had me layer one shield outside another like an onion to see if it made my defence stronger.
"Did it work Danu?"
Heck yeah, it was cool Louis, the outer shield went down but the inner held solid.
"Like an onion you say?" Louis moved his viewpoint closer to the canyon and then higher above it gazing down on the golden pattern carved in the brain tissue.
"When you did what Circe asked did Circe suggest the onion to you?"
No, that was my idea Louis, it just made sense to me so that was how I visualised it when I wanted to put my shields up, the layers of an onion around me.
And Bingo, that's how she does it, Louis thought excitedly.
"Danu move up here with me and look down at the pattern and tell me what you see."
Danu's presence joined him and studied the pattern. I never looked at it from here. The pair floated high up in the cavern looking down. The extra distance suddenly made the coils of canyon of brain tissue with magic channelled through them resolve into an image carved in her tissue. The image was unmistakeably bizarrely similar to an onion.
It looks kind of like I visualised Louis.
"Danu I think we just found a huge clue for you, your mind has somehow encoded your visualisation of this shield into your brain. Like a hardwired organic circuit. You drew a picture and your mind did the rest." Louis mental voice was excited.
"This is great Danu. Okay I know what we are working on with you for now. Visualisation techniques, self hypnosis and concentration trigger techniques. Come on, time to leave your trance."
Synthaera came back to herself to find Louis' projection doing a jig while standing in a table. Her sudden laughter grabbed Louis' attention, and he grinned at her before settling down to discuss what they had found.
Another hour with Louis had been really informative. He had showed her a variety of concentration techniques, along with mental tricks for visualising in three dimensions, and memory techniques. Now all she had to do would be practice these new techniques until she had them perfected. The class had not been physically tiring at all but Synthaera felt like her mind had had a real work out. Now as classes were done for the day, Louis had suggested that a period of meditation and reflection might help her work out how best to manipulate her magic. Synthaera had some vague ideas, but she hoped some time to herself and some serious thought about what she was trying to do would throw up some possible ideas.
There were plenty of students walking around on campus, as Synthaera headed out of Kirby Hall. A glance at her watch told her it was just after 4:14pm. The weather had cleared up from the grey overcast of the early morning, and now the sky was a clear blue with bright sunshine. She knew the combination of her body suit, sunscreen, cowl and shades meant she was safe from the ultraviolet radiation, but Synthaera was still a little nervous as she walked with her bag slung over her shoulder. She was determined not to be confined to the tunnel system.
After finishing with Louis she had decided to head back to Poe through the woods. Walking at a steady pace she wandered away from Kirby along the gravel track. Synthaera was a few hundred metres from Kirby, unconsciously moving between the shadows from the large bushes and trees, when she realised something had changed around her. Listening she could make out noises off to her left deeper into the woods. Next she heard an unmistakeable shout of pain. Moving rapidly she headed into the trees towards the noise, unconsciously opening her sight as she moved.
Within a minute she was hidden in the brush at the edge of a small clearing in the woods. The ground was strewn with leaves and small brush, as well as books and papers. Across the clearing the sprawled figure of a girl was being stalked by a werewolf. The girl was tall, catch your breath in your mouth gorgeous with thick lustrous long black hair that was spread around her where she fell. Synthaera recognised her from Poe, but didn't know her. She wasn't a frosh, and looked 16 or 17 even.
Damn I hate bullies. I guess a werewolf is no weirder than a raptor though.
The bully's aura was ablaze with lust, anger and vicious glee mixed with some other colour that she hadn't seen before. The strong colours of such basic emotions were very easy to read and understand, and from the intensity Synthaera knew the werewolf was both powerful and out of control. His victim's aura was even easier to read, showing pain, panic, and terror. The girl radiated a raw sexuality as well that was inflaming the werewolf even more.
**
Bloodwolf was having fun. He didn't usually get to torment a Junior, but Blackrose had no chance of getting away and they both knew it. Serves the bitch right for hitting on his girl, well ex-girlfriend if you were being technical, but that was only temporary. Sara would learn she couldn't go and dump him without consequences. Blackrose was a fine looking whore he thought, a shame that she was into girls. Tall and with a fantastic figure she had tried using her powers, but he was too strong and too fast for her vines and thorns, and knocking her teeth loose in that pretty face had soon dissuaded her from trying again.
God he loved the power of the wolf, the strength, sped and the fear he caused, he could smell Blackrose's fear, and it was arousing him and his inner wolf. Maybe he should take the time to break Blackrose out of her thing for the girls. His inner werewolf howled its approval, the urge to dominate and take the girl, rising in him now. Not his fault if the hot little bitch was stupid enough to challenge the alpha male for his mate. His cock hardened in his pants he stalked slowly forward savouring her terror.
**
Blackrose could feel the bruise rising on her jaw already, it felt like Bloodwolf had hit her with a sledgehammer, but she knew he had only tapped her. Her blouse was torn, but that was the least of her problems now. He was stalking her and she could tell Bloodwolf was losing any control he had. His expression had changed now he'd run her to ground, and Blackrose knew the looks he was giving her now, it wasn't just anger any more, it was lust and now she was more terrified than before. She scrambled backwards, desperately trying to work out how to escape. He was stronger, faster, tougher, and meaner than her and her fear was turning him on. Oh God please no, not again, please not that. Anything but that.
**
What the fuck?
His inner werewolf snarled a warning as the wind shifted bringing him another scent. Close by, very close by, how did it get so close? Bloodwolf was confused by the strange scent, he didn't recognise it. The scent was laced with female pheromones, but it didn't taste human, it smelled of blood and death, and his spirit was reacting strange as well. The inner werewolf snarled angrily at the interruption of their hunt play, but Bloodwolf caught an edge of uneasiness and fear as well. Angrily Bloodwolf growled at Blackrose.
"Stay there my little dyke bitch. Move and I'll break your pretty little neck."
**
Synthaera didn't hesitate as she took in the seen before her. The girl was a Poesie and obviously totally outclassed. To hell with Bellow's warnings, she wasn't going to let anyone get attacked and raped while she could help, and this fight was totally unfair. Even without her sight she would have thought the fight was one sided, but the two auras just confirmed it. The wolfman? Werewolf? It was big, well over seven feet and seemed almost as broad, heavy corded muscles under the long hair that covered his torso. Synthaera reckoned the big beast out massed her several times. He had the black UV band on his arm she remembered meant he loved fighting and inflicting fear and pain.
Synthaera doubted this bully was one of the punk kids who was all bluster, and struggled to control her own anger and remembered fear from school in Wales. The beast spun round shockingly quick as her scent reached him. Still, she worried if she started the fight Dr Bellows would slap her with her own UV armband, so she figured she would have to distract the werewolf so the girl could escape and call security. Maybe taunt it?
**
Bloodwolf span round, ignoring Blackrose now, she couldn't escape him. Taking in deep breaths he drew in the scent drifting to him, acute senses searching the tree line. A tall lithe figure stepped out from behind a tree facing him. Tall for a girl, hot as well, stoking his lust and anger at the interference. Very pale, her white features stood out in the shadows under the tree line. He took a heavy step forward.
"I'm busy here bitch. Fuck off, or I'll break you as well."
**
The werewolf threatened her, his aura blotchy with red and purple. His muzzle and fangs were wet with drool and eyes glared balefully at her.
Synthaera gave him a savage grin that revealed her own fangs, as her anger rose to fight her own fear.
Taunt it? Yeah why not?
"Play time is over Rover. Go chase a ball somewhere."
**
Bloodwolf's werewolf spirit growled angrily deep in its throat, as he blinked for a second at the mocking insult. Rover? Chase a ball? What the fuck? Mocking him? That fucking priss bitch! His anger raging and his thoughts hazed with rage Bloodwolf struggled to process the impressions his spirit was sending at him. Vampire. Confusion and instinctive fear. The urge to submit, tail between legs. A real challenge to his dominance. Anger and utter hatred. Bloodwolf roared and with a snarl he leapt to the fight.
**
The beast threw itself across the clearing at her, and to a human it would have been lightning fast. Synthaera ducked easily under its first assault as she moved into the middle of the clearing, mentally gauging how the wolfman compared to the men who had ambushed her Mum's SUV. The beast's lethal clawed hands seemed the size of dinner plates as they swept through the air as it attacked again. He was much faster then the men had been but she already knew he was not fast enough. Now to keep him distracted. The fight was on.
**
Blackrose knew she had to move but Bloodwolf's threat froze her helplessly in place. For a second she couldn't see who had interrupted the bully then she groaned at the sight of the new frosh that had arrived in Poe. Danu. She knew nothing about the new girl except her codename and that she set her pulse racing, and couldn't see how this fight could turn out well. It was brave of the girl to interfere but Bloodwolf would kill her. She had to get help. Blackrose's eyes flickered around the clearing looking for her bag with her mobile inside. It lay 20 feet away, and it might as well have been 20 miles.
**
Bloodwolf growled and charged again but the pale girl just seemed to spin away from his attack. A small fist lashed out and smacked into his ribs as his charge missed. He grunted in surprise as it landed. The vampire girl was fast as a damned speedster but that punch was no lightweight. It hurt. No single punch was going to do him any damage, not with his regen, but damn he had felt it. With a guttural roar the werewolf spirit surged in him and Bloodwolf lost himself to the fight.
**
The clearing was a swirl mess of dust and leaves. Blackrose gasped as the new frosh mocked Bloodwolf. She called him Rover? Oh man Bloodwolf is pissed. As the battle started Blackrose was sure the new girl was going to be badly hurt. Now she watched as the fight surged back and forwards across the clearing. It was like a bizarre dance, she didn't understand how the frosh kept on avoiding the Ultraviolent bully who was now in a frothing rage. Bloodwolf was attacking ceaselessly, a whirling tempest of swiping, lunging, biting, kicking, and punching mayhem, but he couldn't catch her, she was so fast, covered in dust but otherwise unharmed. Each time Bloodwolf attacked Blackrose saw Danu evade and then sometimes counter with a punch or kick that would hit Bloodwolf drawing a grunt of pain.
**
Synthaera could tell that the werewolf was beginning to get tired, as well as frustrated. For long minutes he had been attacking and her reactions were so quick that he never landed a blow. For all the beast's strength and power he was too slow. She was countering occasionally, keeping his attention, delivering punches and kicks, mostly to his body. The bloodied spittle that flew when she smashed his jaw testified she was inflicting a lot of pain, but even that hadn't slowed the beast, and she watched as it healed in less than a minute as the fight continued. The beast wasn't hurting her, but Synthaera realised all she was doing was pissing it off, not stopping it, and the girl still hadn't moved off the ground.
She felt she could keep this up all day but was amazed that so far no one had come along to stop the fight. Her own attacks would have killed a baseline man many times over by now, but the big body just absorbed her punches and she was getting frustrated herself now. Her concentration drifted for a moment. "Call security." Synthaera yelled at the other Poesie.
Taking her concentration from Bloodwolf was a mistake, and although her danger sense flared and she tried to stop her movement sideways, Synthaera moved into the path of Bloodwolf's follow up attack. His clawed backhand ripped into the meat of her shoulder and hurled her across the clearing with a cry of pain.
***
Blackrose moaned as Bloodwolf landed an attack when her defender yelled at her. The frosh went airborne into a tree trunk, and Bloodwolf gave an exultant roar and charged to attack again. Shaken from her paralysis with a sob Blackrose grabbed for her bag with her powers, a thorny vine growing in a couple of seconds and flicking the bag to her. She caught it and scrabbled for her phone, finding it and calling security. In seconds she reported the situation and security were immediately dispatched, as she turned her attention back to the fight. Bloodwolf had the frosh by the throat up against the tree trunk, his claws puncturing her body suit sinking into her flesh as she hissed in pain.
"Finally, not so tough now are you bitch?" Bloodwolf grated mockingly, as black blood ran down the girl's neck.
**
Shaken by the impact with the tree Synthaera found herself held fast by the werewolf's grip on her throat. Feeling her anger surge she reached for her boost.
**
"What the..." The girl's fangs suddenly lengthened, and her bright amethyst eyes blinked and turned a dead lightless back. Through his anger Bloodwolf felt his hackles rise in fear at the girl's distorted flat voice and the cold dark fury in her deadly gaze.
"Foolisshhhh littllleee woollfff. Letttt'ssssss plaaayyyy."
He didn't see the vampire's arms move, but howled in sudden fiery agony as his clawed thumb and fingers were snapped backwards, breaking like balsa wood. Bloodwolf grasped his injured hand as he span around looking for the girl.
**
Time was so slow and the wolfman was moving through treacle, as Synthaera glided around him, her boost and rage coursing through her body. For the first time since the fight began, she went on the offensive instead of countering and distracting. With her full rage boosted strength and speed she lashed out, attacking from the Wolfman's left. The first right left right combination crunched into the beast's ribs as she glided past under his guard, four ribs snapping, driving shards of bone into left lung puncturing it. With savage glee she drifted in to attack again.
**
Bloodwolf was having a hard time breathing, his left side was on fire and he was coughing up blood. His regen was already working on his broken hand, but his spirit couldn't do any more than it was already. Slumping forward onto his left knee, Bloodwolf caught a momentary glimpse of a pale snarling face, before he folded in utter agony as an unseen kick crushed his balls to paste and another strike snapped into the inside of his right knee destroying the joint. The pale demon flitted away as Bloodwolf found he was whimpering on the ground.
Bloodwolf grunted at the pain and tried to rise. His hand was almost healed now but his shattered ribs and punctured lung were on fire, he still couldn't breath and his knee and balls were agony. With a whimper Bloodwolf realised that he couldn't get up, his leg wouldn't take the weight and the pain was too much. The vampire moved beside him and as his werewolf spirit cringed in fear, Bloodwolf knew he was beaten.
"Arreee weee havinnnggg funnn yeettttt littllleee woollfffff?" The vampire's distorted voice hissed in his ear. He sensed movement and the voice whispered in his other ear.
"Shallll II eennnddd yoourrrr paaiinnn?"
Blindly he tried to swipe at his tormentor but found his weak strike interrupted as his arm was savagely twisted behind him, and the vampire's wickedly sharp fangs drew a stream blood from his heavily muscled neck. His werewolf spirit was submitting and whimpering in his head. He couldn't breathe properly, couldn't move, couldn't fight any more. Hazily Bloodwolf closed his eyes as he felt the vampire's fangs dig a little deeper, his body held rigidly in place.
"Danu! Stop. Please...stop, don't. Security are on the way."
Bloodwolf was still conscious but felt like that would change soon. He recognised Blackrose's voice but his former prey seemed desperate to stop the vampire from claiming her victory. The bully didn't understand, but felt vaguely grateful. There was a pause, then the needle points of pain from the vampire's fangs moved from his neck. The monstrous distorted voice changed beside him, to a girl's clear feminine sound. He was not sure which voice was scarier.
"Be grateful I'm not hungry right now wolf. Be more grateful to the girl you were assaulting. She saved your miserable life, although I don't know why."
Bloodwolf felt the pain lessening in his ribs as they began to mend, although the pain in his punctured lung was still stabbing him with every gasping breath. The girl who seemed tiny compared to his bulk lifted his muzzle to look in his eyes. Dead black orbs had been replaced by dazzling amethyst. Vampiric Sidhe and Werewolf locked gaze for a long moment before Bloodwolf tried to look away. Gently, but firmly the girl pulled his gaze back to her face.
"What's your name wolf?"
"Bloodwolf." He coughed the word out with bloody spittle, but felt pathetically grateful that his spit did not land on her.
"I don't want to have this conversation again. I don't know why you're a bully. I don't care either, although I think you should reconsider your choices. Understand this Bloodwolf, you're alive because that girl," she jerked her head in Blackrose's direction, "asked for your life. She's out of bounds, and between us I'm Alpha. I'll stay out of your way, and you will stay out of mine, or next time I'll treat you like a rabid dog and put you down permanently."
Synthaera gazed intently at Bloodwolf watching his aura. The boy's strength was returning and his ribs were healing well, soon his regen would get to work on his other injuries. Bloodwolf's aura held a lot of anger and lots of deep pain, but surprisingly little of the black ugliness that she expected to see. Maybe he was young enough to change she mused.
"Do you understand what I'm saying Bloodwolf?" The big werewolf head nodded, and his aura agreed. Synthaera was surprised to find she was feeling sorry for the boy facing her. His aura held the kind of emotional pain no one should have.
"Good." She went to stand up then stopped and spoke again. "I understand all about rejection and pain Bloodwolf. Don't let it rule you, and if you want to talk, I'll listen. Now heal up and get lost." She stood and walked away.
Bloodwolf wasn't sure what just happened or how the vampire could tell how he felt, but for now all he wanted to do was heal up and make himself scarce. He was alive and knew his werewolf spirit was as confused by that as he was. For sure he didn't intend to piss the vampire girl off anytime soon.
***
Blackrose watched as her saviour walked back towards her. The girl had recovered her sunglasses and her uniform was clawed through at her shoulder. The wound had already healed fully, revealing a little of the girl's perfect pale white flesh through the tears, making her heart beat a little quicker. Danu flicked the cowl on her blazer up covering her face in shadows again. Crossing the clearing Danu was bathed in shafts of sunlight, and Blackrose saw her wince. Once Danu was up close and back in the shadows, Blackrose gasped in horror as she saw that her shoulder wound had turned blackened and burnt.
"You're hurt."
"No, I'll be fine in a moment." The frosh said.
Blackrose watched as Danu's burns healed in front of her eyes. The fight was over and now she was facing the exotic sexy babe who took her breath away in the bathroom in Poe. Who a minute ago had been kicking the crap out of Bloodwolf with a bleak viciousness that scared her witless, and those fangs... She could feel her heart racing again as she imagined Danu's fangs touching her neck, nipping her. Shaking her head she tried to banish the scary exciting thoughts, even as her body was reacting out of control. She was alive, and Danu had saved her, defended her. Blackrose felt heat spreading across her body as she imagined what she could do to thank her saviour.
Oh God, I got it bad. Way to make a first impression on the girl. I'm never gonna live this down.
Danu extended a hand and pulled her up, helping her stand. "You all right? I saw you in Poe but I don't know your name."
"My name's Rosalyn Dekkard or Blackrose, but my friends call me Ros. I think I'm okay. Thank you isn't enough. I mean I tried to get away I can run pretty fast, and when I got to the woods I thought I had a chance you know. I could slow him down a bit with my powers, tangle him up and stuff," She shook her head forlornly, "but he just ripped straight through my vines. I didn't stand a chance, and you saved me."
Ros started to shake, as the adrenalin that had kept her running wore off, and the realisation of how much trouble she had been in hit her. Her knees went weak and suddenly the intense fear and vulnerability she had felt overwhelmed her. Blackrose gave a lie to her reputation as a tough cookie and burst into tears, Danu grabbing her to keep her upright as she slumped. The older girl suddenly couldn't see through her tears as she remembered Bloodwolf backhanding her and the moment when he had looked at her and wanted her. His bestial expression brought back too many bad memories. Danu hugged her and gently began walking her back to Poe.
****
The security team arrived at the clearing a couple of minutes later, finding a very subdued Bloodwolf gingerly testing his knee, and hobbling painfully around. At the sight of the armed security team, he shook his great shaggy head and ruefully decided that giving the security guards his usual bad time would be unwise, and to their surprise allowed himself to be escorted away to the Security Office in Kane Hall.
***
Blackrose and Danu talked as they slowly walked towards Poe, and Danu introduced herself, asking the other girl to call her Synthaera or Syn. As they walked Blackrose found herself enjoying being in the unusual position of leaning against a taller girl for support, at 5' 7" she was taller than most of her friends. She carried on the conversation with her rescuer with her emotions surging, greatly enjoying being pressed so close to the other girl, feeling so grateful that she would do anything to express her thanks. Syn's question shook her increasingly amorous thoughts back to the present. Syn realised her mind was elsewhere and asked her again.
"So what was that about then?"
"Urm I hit on a girl called Sara at one of the end of Winter semester parties, she was looking to try something new and thought she was hot stuff. She is as well, very hot, but I forgot she's Bloodwolf's latest ex. So I had a fun night with Sara and Bloodwolf found out about it. I think his masculine pride was offended." Blackrose glanced at Danu to check her reaction. The blond girl just nodded her understanding.
"So that's why you're in Poe?"
"That's right hun, I'm a lesbian, loud and proud, welcome to Whateley by the way. Personally I'm really glad you're here, although I guess Bloodwolf is disagreeing about now."
The two girls shared a laugh. "I'm sorry I didn't speak to you yet, what with you arriving over recess." Ros said apologetically.
"Umm, that's okay, but why would you want to speak to me?" Synthaera asked confused.
"What apart from you being gorgeous?" Ros asked with a fake leer, but also now slightly uncertain. "I'm the upperclassmen for the lesbians in Poe Syn, I explain how Whateley and Poe works to our new sisters. I guess Mrs Horton explained everything for you."
"Oh, no, Belle explained that stuff to me when I arrived."
"Wait a second. Belle explained?" Ros had the sinking feeling that she'd made a fundamentally wrong assumption. She groaned mentally.
No way. I don't believe it. I better check, Belle will be pranking me to the end of time if I jump all over one of her babies. Oh God and I hit on her already!
"Syn, are you one of Belle's changelings hun?" Ros asked gently, hoping she hadn't already ruined her chances.
Synthaera couldn't go beet red in embarrassment but her body language said it all to Rosalyn as the other girl stopped dead. The older teen gave a gentle chuckle, shaking her beautiful black hair in amusement and reassured Synthaera she would never have guessed except for her embarrassment. Synthaera sighed and thanked her before explaining she had only been a girl for less than 3 weeks.
It was Ros's turn to feel embarrassed. It amazed and confused her that a girl she found so attractive and had been lusting after since seeing her in the bathroom in Poe had been female for so little time. Normally she picked out Belle's changelings easily. She had no problem with them at all, unlike some of the sisterhood, and flirted outrageously with more than one but usually she could pick them out, especially the new ones. Syn's body language said female, and that hip sway on the way out of the bathroom had captivated her. As her thoughts wandered she felt herself flush. Synthaera still concerned over her well being immediately asked what was wrong.
"Nothing sweetie, nothing at all, I'm little confused is all, and dying of embarrassment at making an ass of myself. Normally I'm a bit more together than this you know. With you arriving during recess while I was away I'd just assumed that Mrs Horton had explained about Poe. When I saw you the other day it never even occurred to me you where one of Belle's changelings. I'm the Upperclassman in Poe for the frosh lesbians, and I pegged you as female through and through and therefore one of my girls. Then, when I told you about Sara you never reacted which just confirmed my assumption. Why're you smiling like that Syn?"
"Before I changed, I spent my entire life knowing I was really a girl, so that was one of the nicest things anyone ever said to me," Synthaera was still smiling but her eyes were filling as her emotions surged, happiness filling her. She blinked away the tears before Ros's earlier comment came back to her, followed by a shy thought and a coy glance at Ros. "You think I'm gorgeous?"
Ros gulped at the shy but devastatingly sexy look Syn was giving her.
Oh, Belle is gonna kill me. Easy now girl don't go too fast. Be still my beating heart.
Ros reached out and gently took the taller girl's hands, looking in her eyes and hoping she wasn't blowing her chances with Syn.
"Yeah Synthaera, you're gorgeous. I know you might be a bit freaked by that, what with just changing sexes and all, you maybe don't know which way you swing now, but I would love to be your friend, and a lot more if you wanted."
Synthaera gazed at Ros, taking in the pensive and hopeful expression in her emerald green eyes, and full lips set in a heart shaped face, while her aura showed compassion, lust, friendship and worry. She could hear Ros's heart was beating faster, and smell her scent that suddenly seemed all around her, heady and intoxicating. All she wanted to do she realised was kiss her. The moment stretched and she saw Ros about to say something, break the spell and stopped her by pulling the smaller girl into her and gently kissing her full on her upturned lips, savouring the soft delicate touch that made her head spin. She held the kiss for long seconds before pulling slowly away, and smiling happily at Ros, who was blinking and looking a little dazed.
"I never had a girlfriend before Ros, or a boyfriend either. I was always so messed up, I couldn't make sense of the boys and girls stuff, so I don't know if I'm any good at this. I would love to be your friend, and more, if you want me."
"Wow." Ros murmured, feeling dazed. Her heartbeat was racing and her body was responding to that wonderful kiss. She couldn't wait to experience some more. Her sore jaw forgotten, she leaned into the taller girl, wrapping her arms around her waist, who cuddled her in return. Looking up she wished they were in her dorm, and not still in the woods with security tramping around. Kissing Synthaera back, quick and hard on the lips, she pulled back and declared, "Yes I want you. You're mine Syn." As Ros enjoyed the kiss she wondered whether she'd made a conquest, or had been conquered.
The girls held hands as they walked back to Poe, talking on the way, Synthaera enjoying the brand new experience being a couple, Ros feeling safe and protected in a way she didn't remember, both girls on cloud nine. They found a pair of security guards waiting outside Poe Cottage for them, which put a slight dampener on their mood but not for long. The guards escorted the pair to Kane Hall and the security office where they found Lieutenant Forsyth, the day shift commander, waiting for them in his office when they were shown in.
"Come in girls and sit down." Forsyth leant back in his chair and looked at the two girls, who looked calm. It was the end of his shift, and he was almost tempted to leave this chat to Delarose, but he hadn't worked his way to commanding 1st Platoon by shucking responsibility.
"Blackrose at approximately 4.29pm you put in an emergency call to security, stating that there was a fight ongoing between Bloodwolf and Danu, and requesting urgent assistance. Correct?"
"Yes sir." Blackrose was polite and kept her tone respectful. She'd had occasional brushes with security in the last 3 years, mostly as a result of her being forthright about being a lesbian, and mostly with no bad consequences. She'd learned that it did not pay to piss them off, and hoped her new protector followed her lead.
"Danu. I understand you arrived over recess?"
"Yes sir." Forsyth absently noted the English accent, but was more interested by the Sidhe girl's body language and expression. Both were perfectly neutral, and gave nothing away.
"Being in front of campus security in less than a week is not generally considered a good start Danu."
"No sir." The girl's tone was neutral as well. Forsyth sighed as he got the feeling this could become troublesome.
"Blackrose, I already have Bloodwolf in holding temporarily, while we sort this out. Please tell me your version of events."
"Umm, well Bloodwolf was pissed at me and chased me into the woods. He knocked me down,"
"The bruise on your jaw from that?"
"Yes sir. Well Danu arrived, and distracted him, then Bloodwolf lost it and attacked Danu. I wanted to call security but I...I was scared to move from where I was lying, and I'd lost my bag. Danu evaded him but when she yelled at me to call security he managed to hit her. He knocked her into a tree trunk. I managed to use my powers to get my bag back, and phoned you. When I looked back Bloodwolf was holding her by the throat."
Lt Forsyth stopped her and asked to see Danu's throat. The Sidhe girl brushed her blond hair back over her shoulder, showing the neck of her body suit, with clear punctures in the fabric revealing unblemished white skin underneath.
"You're a regen 3+ Danu?"
"Yes sir."
"Lucky for you." The Sidhe looked at him, but her mouth gave the faintest twitch of a smile. "Carry on Blackrose."
"Umm, well before that, Danu was only dodging/evading his attacks. She hit him a little, but nothing serious. After I accidently distracted her and he almost ripped her throat out, she broke his hold and attacked him."
Lt Forsyth looked at the diminutive Danu with a sceptical expression. "Okay, what happened next?" His tone suggested he didn't believe Danu could have stopped Bloodwolf. The new student just returned his gaze with a slight smirk.
"Well they fought some more and Danu managed to stop him. She spoke to him, and then helped me up and we left. I was shaking and crying but," Blackrose glanced at Danu with a grateful almost hero worshipping expression. ", Danu helped me back to Poe where we met the security officers."
Forsyth sighed. He knew all about Bloodwolf and his bullying, and a glance at Blackrose's file showed in a fight she was hugely overmatched. He figured that there was a huge amount not being said. Danu's file was threadbare but her testing results were enough to show she would be much more dangerous than Blackrose hand to hand. Danu's MID mentioned her reflexes, but they had to be hellish quick to avoid Bloodwolf in a rage.
So far Bloodwolf himself had said nothing, when the security team had arrived at the clearing. The team had reported he was clearly in pain when they arrived, favouring his right knee and had healed up on the walk to Kane Hall. He had been cooperative but silent. Neither girl had any weapons, so whatever damage Danu had done had been inflicted hand to hand. The girl looked like a model, not someone capable of stopping Bloodwolf in a straight fight.
"Danu, from your perspective what happened?"
"I was on my way back from Kirby Hall through the woods and heard what sounded like a fight. When I got to the clearing, Bloodwolf was approaching Blackrose. He heard me I think and spun round, told me to 'piss off, he was busy.' I thought the fight looked uneven and I knew Blackrose was from Poe where I live, so I taunted him to distract him, hoping that Blackrose would escape while he was busy with me."
"So you decided to take on a student you knew nothing about, hoping Blackrose would escape."
"Yes."
"Danu, I know you're new, but that was an incredibly foolish thing to do."
"I know but I hoped that someone would come along and stop things from going too far." Danu shrugged. "I wasn't going to just leave her alone with him, and I had to distract him."
"Why not just phone security?" Forsyth demanded.
"No time. Bloodwolf needed distracting first. I felt I'd do that better than Blackrose, and she could get security."
Forsyth shook his head. "Okay, good intentions, but the road to hell is paved with those, go on."
"Well, Bloodwolf lost it and attacked me. I just concentrated on avoiding him and keeping his attention on me. I lost my concentration when I yelled for Blackrose to call security, and he hit me, gashing my shoulder, and knocking me into a tree. I was a bit dazed and he got hold of me, but I hoped that security was on the way. I decided avoiding Bloodwolf wasn't working and I needed to end the fight."
"So you weren't attacking Bloodwolf so far?"
Danu shrugged again dismissively. "I was countering with the odd punch here and there to keep Bloodwolf focussed on me. Not doing any damage."
"So now you managed to stop Bloodwolf, and persuade him to stop attacking?"
"I broke his hold on me, and managed to stop him."
"How?"
"I'm stronger than I look Lieutenant. I was able to disable him temporarily and then escorted Blackrose back to Poe."
"There's a note on your security file warning that you might respond excessively to hostile situations, are you sure you didn't do so here?"
Danu's impassive expression did not change but her amethyst eyes flashed, showing her irritation and Forsyth felt a shiver of fear run up his spine. She paused for thought momentarily before Danu smiled sweetly.
"I'm very sure I wasn't excessive Lieutenant, Bloodwolf is all right isn't he?"
"Yes Danu, Bloodwolf is okay, although he does have a very high level of regen."
"Lucky for him I guess." Danu's tone was pleasant although Lt Forsyth was sure she was mocking his earlier comment to her. He nodded his agreement and decided that without any evidence other than Blackrose's jaw which was bruising more as she sat watching him, there was nothing more to say to the girls.
"Well girls, thank you for coming in. I'll complete my report for Chief Delarose and headmistress Carson. They will take any further action they deem necessary. I don't want to see either of you in here again. You are free to leave."
The two young women stood and left the security office, while Forsyth phoned down to the holding cell and had them bring in Bloodwolf. Five minutes later the huge shaggy figure of Bloodwolf sat restlessly in the security office, sniffing the air. Lt Forsyth watched him for few seconds, before deciding he looked perfectly healthy. Somehow he doubted that Bloodwolf would be very forthcoming.
"So, Bloodwolf what a surprise to see you here. Again. Care to explain your side of events?"
Bloodwolf grinned before shaking his head.
"Care to explain to me how Danu disabled you after you attacked her?"
Normally Bloodwolf would tell security to screw themselves, now he briefly wondered whether or not Danu would have spoken to security, and how she would react if he landed her in trouble by talking to security. His were-spirit was sure that would piss off the strange vampire Sidhe. Not wise. He shook his head again. Lt Forsyth sighed, he had nothing that he had evidence for, except Bloodwolf striking Blackrose, which he was sure was fairly insignificant compared to what had occurred.
"Okay Bloodwolf, I have what I need. I would tell you I don't want to see you again, but I'm sure I will. You know what happens next. Get out of here, you're free to go." Forsyth shook his head as the big werewolf stood and left the office, perhaps without his normal cockiness. Forsyth hoped, but doubted Bloodwolf would learn anything.
Bloodwolf left Kane Hall, his acute nose picking up the scents of Blackrose and Danu as heading towards Poe. Satisfied they were nowhere near, the werewolf turned and headed in the opposite direction to his dorm. He decided that he would not say anything about today to anyone, and he had some thinking to do.
Ros and Synthaera made their way back to Poe Cottage, talking happily about nothing much, just enjoying each others company. Ros led Synthaera up to the 2nd floor of Poe where the Juniors' dorms were, and pointed out her room. She wanted to pull Synthaera in and spend the next few hours exploring her, but both girls were sweaty, dirty and badly needed to get freshened up and changed into casuals for the evening. They agreed to meet at 7:30pm in the foyer to go and get some food, and Ros gave her girlfriend a passionate kiss before reluctantly closing her door after she watched Syn walk back downstairs. Sitting on her bed she stretched out on her bed, absently touching her lips which were still tingling from Syn's kiss. Wow She felt giddy and her heart was beating like a drum. You'd think you never kissed a girl before Ros. I don't remember feeling like this before. With a happy giggle she lay on her bed and started planning what to wear, what she wondered would Syn like best?
Synthaera walked to the common room to see if any of her friends were around. Her head was buzzing and she wanted to talk to someone. She felt happier than she could remember in a very long time. She'd never thought her first kiss would be with a girl as a girl, but was delighted that it had happened. Thinking about Ros's words. Yes I want you You're mine Syn. made her feel a little giddy, and she wanted to jump or dance or laugh or something she was not quite sure what, but it felt good to know you belonged to someone.
So much for quiet reflection and meditation, this wasn't quite what Fubar had in mind.
The common room was empty except for a couple of boys who hurriedly separated when Synthaera walked in. She threw them a grin and a quick apology and turned around, and headed towards Fey and Chaka's room. She knocked.
She heard Fey's musical voice through the door. "Come in!"
As her Synthaera walked in, Fey glanced up from the book of magic that Sir Wallace had loaned her. Chaka was out so she had a little time to study without her manic roomie around. Synthaera looked like she was walking on air, so momentarily Fey relaxed her shields to pick up her friends emotions. Her eyes widened at the mixture of joy, confused happiness and lust that Synthaera was radiating. Only one thing had that effect and Fey could tell Synthaera was bursting to tell her. With a squeal of delight she shot off the bed and gave Synthaera a fierce hug. Her friend grinned like a loon as Fey took a step back.
"Tell me."
"I...I have a girlfriend." Synthaera sounded awed by the concept. Fey giggled at her.
"I know that silly, I can tell remember, who is she?"
"Ros."
It took Fey about a second to work out who Ros could be, and her eyes went wider still as she asked, voice rising into a squeal.
"Ros...Rosalyn Dekkard? Blackrose Ros? You hooked up with Blackrose? You got a Junior as a girlfriend? Wow. That's...wow...coooll." Fey sat back down on her bed mouth gaping. Synthaera giggled at the sight of Fey looking flustered, and set Fey off again, and the two girls shared a giggling fit for the next few minutes. When they had calmed down enough that Synthaera could prevent more giggles when she looked at Fey, she asked "Well Nikki, what do you think?"
"What do I think? I think the other lesbians in Poe are gonna be jealous as hell, they all have a thing for Ros, she's beautiful. Umm, you do know Ros is not exactly shy about being gay don't you? I mean when people see you together in school you're gonna join the small group of out and proud. That might be hard Syn."
Synthaera nodded. "Yeah Nikki, she told me. That's what got her into the scrape I helped her out of. God, I've had such a weird day."
"Scrape? You helped her? What happened Syn?"
Synthaera just started explaining how she interrupted Bloodwolf when there was another knock on the door and Phase and Bladedancer walked in after getting back from their own classes. At Synthaera's obvious happiness they immediately wanted to know what was going on, so she had to quickly explain again about her new girlfriend, which brought another round of congratulations and hugs. Fey then brought the quickfire conversation under control by asking. "So what happened with Bloodwolf then?"
"I interrupted Bloodwolf attacking Ros in the woods on the way back from Kirby Hall. He'd hit her and she has a nasty bruise on her jaw, but I distracted before he could do anything else."
"Distracted him how?" Phase asked.
"Um, let me see, I said 'Playtime is over Rover, go chase a ball somewhere." Synthaera recounted with a wicked grin.
"You called him Rover?" Phase asked with a smile. "Ouch, there's goes his ego right there."
"Yeah, well it worked. I distracted him all right. He came after me in a rage. I was hoping Ros would escape while I kept Bloodwolf occupied until someone came along to stop the fight."
"Did you know anything about Bloodwolf?" Bladedancer asked, "Most froshes do their best to avoid him like the plague."
Synthaera sighed, first security and now her friends were gonna give her a lecture on jumping in first and thinking later. Still she knew she'd been reckless but she hadn't seen an alternative. "No Chou, all I knew was that the black UV band was major bad news, and that I figured I stood a better chance than the hot girl lying on the ground where he had hit her."
Phase looked like she was about to interrupt, so Synthaera quickly carried on. "I know. I shouldn't have just leapt in, but I didn't have time to find out more about him, or to call security, he was almost on her. Security told me the same thing and Lt Forsyth was keen to tell me I'm lucky I have regen 3+."
Phase let her finish before speaking, giving Synthara a grin. "While I'm sure security would be very keen to tell you that, we're not the best people to preach about jumping in half cocked Danu. Team Kimba is very good at getting into trouble, both ours and other peoples. I would suggest that doing some research on the people you're likely to upset is a good idea."
Fey smiled at Ayla. "Ayla is our resident know-it-all, Syn. Almost every time we fight someone, she has all the scoop on who they are, how to fight them, their strengths and weaknesses."
Phase grumbled back. "The information is all there, all you have to do is read it, but no we just have to dive straight in. I just believe in being prepared, thankfully."
"I think you mean over prepared don't you Ayla?" Bladedancer teased her roommate. "After all we don't all carry an arsenal around on our belts."
Ayla jabbed a finger at Bladedancer. "Chou not all of us carry round an invisible sword that can cut virtually anything, and have the Tao to give us a hand." She turned to Fey. " or can plug into a handy leyline for a bit of firepower." Alya was rewarded by Fey blowing a raspberry at her. "My holdouts just help me level the playing field is all." Phase finished sounding a little aggrieved. She shook her head. "Anyway what I was about to suggest until I was so rudely mocked and teased," her friends sniggered "is sharing some of the information on likely opponents I have with Synthaera, assuming Team Kimba is good with that, after all taking on Bloodwolf without knowing he's a high regen for example is very dumb."
"Oh." Fey said, surprised. "Actually that's a very good idea Ayla, as far as I'm concerned it's a yes. I'll check with the others and let you know."
"So, back to Bloodwolf then Danu. You distracted him and he attacked you, what next?"
Bladedancer asked. All three Kimboids turned for Syn's response.
"Bloodwolf leaped at me, and I avoided him. He's fast compared to people I fought before but not that fast. I just kept avoiding him as he attacked. I could have done that for ages. Every so often, as I avoided him, I smacked him. I know they hurt him, but I wasn't doing any real damage. He is pretty tough, those hits would have crippled a normal guy. Ros was scared stiff the whole time. He threatened to break her neck if she moved. I yelled at her to call security. That distracted me and he caught my shoulder, ripped straight through my body suit, those claws are damn sharp, and he knocked me flying into a tree. I was dumb there, should have had my shield up. Bloodwolf got me round the throat that's how I got these." Synthaera showed her friends the holes in the neck of her body suit.
"Ouch." Fey winced.
"Yeah, well I lost my temper a bit and got out of his hold and disabled him."
"Danu that's a small sentence, that covers a whole lot." Bladedancer commented.
"Totally" Phase agreed. "How did you get out of his hold?"
"Um I broke his fingers."
"Oh. Damn, do I want to know how you disabled him?" Fey asked.
"Probably not." Synthaera replied. Looking at her friends she could tell they weren't going to let it slide. She sighed and hoped she didn't freak them out. It did not help that she knew Fey would know if she lied a little about it. "Don't freak okay. I got pissed and just wanted to finish the fight so when I lost my temper, I broke his fingers, then four of his ribs, puncturing his lung. I crushed his balls and smashed his knee. He was down and disabled. He started to heal straight away, but after I lost my temper; I could do more damage than he could cope with so he went down."
"I thought you don't do any martial arts?" Phase asked.
"I don't, but I am or was a gaming geek. I've read loads of crap, and I have an active imagination. Plus, I had so much time to pick my strikes; it was no contest. He didn't stand a chance." Synthaera shook her head feeling sick as she reran the fight through her mind, and her words with Bloodwolf.
Fey saw her misery. "It was a fight Syn, you're allowed to feel bad afterwards hun."
"I have....issues Nikki. I could have killed him. If I'd been hungry...I think I would have. I offered to end the pain for him, and he knew he was beaten, was resigned I think. I had my fangs at his throat. Ros stopped me, brought me back. My instinct was to finish it, not leave an enemy behind me."
Bladedancer commented, "That is not necessarily a bad instinct Danu. It's a measure of your character that you let him live. Do you think Bloodwolf will look for revenge?"
"I don't know. I hope not. I told him what would happen if he did."
"Yeah? What?"
"That I'd put him down like a rabid dog."
"Oh. With that as a promise, I think he'll probably avoid you Syn." Fey commented with a grin. "So, what about Ros then?"
"Well I walked her back to Poe, and we talked, and then we just had a moment I guess and I kissed her. That was like, wow, you know? We just clicked I guess. I never had anything like this happen to me before."
"Damn, then you sure started with high standards." Phase laughed with a shake of her head.
"I told Syn that going out with Ros, is gonna put her on the out and proud list. You know she's not shy about being a lesbian in school." Fey commented to Phase and Bladedancer.
"My relationship with Molly is not hidden, we're just careful in school and come here to be together." Bladedancer pointed out.
Phase couldn't resist that opportunity for teasing her friend back. "Or the library." She snarked with a wicked grin. "Be careful of the bigots in school, there are a few of them. Put them down hard if you have to so they learn.
"Bunny and I aren't out in school," Fey said, before her tone darkened. "but gods help anyone who make an issue of it. Enjoy life while you can and take happiness where you find it Syn, we never know what's gonna happen next. Virtually all of us changelings are now either bi or gay, so don't sweat it. You will always have friends in Poe. Take life easy Syn and see where this goes with Ros. It might be short, it might be long, just enjoy it for what it is."
"You sounded very wise there Nikki." Synthaera said with a little smirk.
"Hey any wisdom is down to Aunghadhail, I'm just a girl that wants to have fun." Fey grinned back, to general laughter.
Synthaera lay back on Fey's bed and thought about her day, remembering her run in with the MCO agent, and changed the conversation.
"You know Phase you were right this morning."
"Huh? About what?"
"About my schedule this morning. I did have to get my MID done."
"Yeah? Did it go okay?"
"Hhmmm, honestly not really." That got the attention of her friends. Bladedancer looked calm but intent, but Fey and Phase both looked concerned.
"Oh Jeez what other trouble did you find?" Fey asked.
"Any of you know MCO Agent Stephen Collins?" Synthaera asked. All three of her friends reacted like she'd hit them with a tazer.
"Who let that asshole back in here?" Fey demanded fuming, and Synthaera watched in shock as her aura sparked with a truly unholy amount of anger.
"Easy Nikki, don't shoot the messenger." Phase urged, and Synthaera could see her friend visibly get herself under control.
"Uhm could somebody tell me why Nikki looks like she wants to kill someone?"
"Because that rat bastard is one of those responsible for me getting this." Fey's normally lovely voice was hard and angry as she jerked out her MID and slapped it on the table.
Code Name: FEY
Ratings:: Wiz (Fae Class) - 7, Esper - 5 WARNING! Sidhe-Class Mage. Deadly Force Pre-Authorized
Techniques: Glamour, Hovering, Thunderbolt, Fire Blast, TK Strike, Barrier Wave, Banshee Wail
Weak vs.: Cold Iron
Backup/Team affiliation: Team Kimba
"And he's also at least partially responsible for Tennyo's and Eldritch, Carmilla's and Razorbacks and some more as well."
"Deadly Force Pre-Authorised? Holy fuck! Does that mean what I think it means?" Synthaera asked in shock. Was this what Circe meant to avoid by altering her testing data?
Bitterly Fey answered. "It's probably worse than you think Syn. Basically, we do anything outside of school to piss off the MCO and that's their authorization to toast us. Fuckers. Someone hacked security's files last year and gave the data to that rat bastard. So now we get to have a death warrant each." Fey was crying, even months later the shock of her MID was still raw, the loss of innocence still shocking. Her three friends hugged her, and she did her best to shake off the crying fit. A couple of minutes later she felt more under control and pushed Syn for her experience with Collins.
"What happened with that rat bastard then Syn?"
Synthaera recounted her MID interview, explaining how she knew Collins was lying through his aura, and the pervading sense of falseness all around him. She told her friends how she slipped up and revealed she knew that his identity was fake, and the deadly hostility his aura showed her, and how Collins had rushed through her MID after her bombshell, before leaving in a hurry. There was a long pause when she finished speaking, before Fey looked at Phase.
"Well I think Stephen Collins is more interesting than anyone suspected, and maybe more important. I suspect Danu certainly would like to know more for her peace of mind."
Danu nodded vigorously. She'd thought Collins was an utter creep, never dreaming that he had already caused her friends so much grief. That on its own was enough for her to badly need to know a lot more about this man who she knew in her bones would do everything he could to harm her. Phase looked grim, thinking intently before nodding.
"I know just the people. Let me make some calls."
With that said the atmosphere lightened, and the girls spent some time chatting and recounting their own days, none thankfully as eventful as Synthaera's, before Phase and Bladedancer left to get changed for dinner.
"What time are you eating Nikki?"
"Um, I'm grabbing Bunny and heading over about 7:15. The rest of the gang should be in the by 7:30. What are your plans Syn? Are you meeting up with Ros?"
"Yeah, about half-past downstairs. I don't really know what I'm doing here Nikki, I mean I know it's not like a candle lit dinner for two but..."
Fey looked at her sympathetically. "You're really out on a limb here aren't you Syn?"
"Uhhuh. Kind of, I guess. I have no clue about this." Synthaera admitted.
"If you want bring Ros with you to our table, you may not be a Kimba, but you're a friend, and a Poesie so you're welcome. We all know Ros anyway. It'll be cool." Fey gave her a quick hug. "Go and get ready, and we'll see you later."
With that Synthaera headed for her dorm, mind still spinning with the days events and wondering what she should wear. With a grin to herself, she tried to think what Cecilia Rogers would advise for a feisty kick ass independent female.
[Updated on: Wed, 21 September 2011 14:42]
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| Re: Synthaera (the post crash edition) [message #46007 is a reply to message #39957 ] |
Fri, 23 September 2011 09:47 |
blayze
Messages: 30
Registered: May 2011
Location: Durham, UK |
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Hello. Chapter 10 is finally done, quite a big one as well, around 16k words. Hope you all enjoy, and I look forward to any comments. Many thanks as always to sleethr for help with editing. I guarantee it's better now!
Cheers
Wednesday evening: March 7th
Kimba's corner, as the part of Poe's common room was now unofficially called, was crowded with the Kimbas, their friends and partners. The chattering horde were spread about the room on the various sofas, bean bags, comfy chairs and hammocks, as well as the occasional midair suspension, or flying blankets.
Half a dozen conversations were ongoing, amid giggling, laughter, shouted exclamations as well as a large amount of teasing, joking and snarking. Synthaera grabbed one of the larger beanbags when the crowd got back from dinner. She and Ros made themselves comfortable, with Ros cuddling into her taller girlfriend. The last two hours made for a wonderful end to a stressful day.
Ros lay snuggled in with Syn's arm wrapped around her. She was only half listening to the happy conversations around her, immersed instead in listening to her girlfriend's slow heartbeat, Syn's whispered murmurs in her ears, and enjoying the contrast of Syn's platinum blonde hair against her own luxurious silky black. Dinner had got off to a wonderful start. Ros had the satisfaction of watching Syn's sharp intake of breath and her eyes widen in appreciation as she came downstairs in skintight hipster jeans that might as well have been painted on, and a halter neck in dark blue silk that contrasted wonderfully with her emerald green eyes and was cut low enough to reveal creamy cleavage and high enough to show off her tight abs.
Not that Syn disappointed, Ros thought with proprietary pride. Her girlfriend was wearing incredibly form fitting caramel suede pants, leather boots, and a jade silk blouse over her bodysuit. The ensemble made Syn look a fabulous twenty versus her real fourteen and showed off the taller girl's endless legs and a bottom that was in Ros's opinion, just perfect. While they walked across to the Hall, the girls had talked and Syn had asked her to not go overboard in the school. Ros had laughed and happily agreed, not wanting to worry her younger girlfriend. Syn made it clear she understood that just being seen with Ros would be enough for assumptions to be made, and that she was okay with that, she just didn't want to rub other kids nose in it.
When the two girls had arrived at Crystal Hall they had turned heads across the Hall, which just made Ros even prouder. She wanted to grab Syn and kiss her right there to show her off and shout 'Look how hot my girlfriend is!', but she managed to restrain her exhibitionist urge to flaunt Syn. The new couple had grabbed trays and their meals. Both opted for Italian, although Syn also grabbed her nondescript drink carton from the special needs aisle.
They joined the large table of girls and boys that made up Team Kimba along with the team's associated friends and partners. Ros knew almost all of them and the pair settled right in with only some gentle teasing, joking and a couple of whistles, as well as hellos and congratulations from around the table. Ros noticed with a smirk that Syn got additional kudos from the other froshes for Ros being a Junior. Syn looked a little nervous but relaxed quickly as she realised everyone was genuinely happy for them. Ros found it amusing that for the froshes having a Junior partner was something to be proud of, while she knew some of her year would find it demeaning to have a frosh boy or girlfriend. Ros didn't care, she just enjoyed being around Syn, and felt safe and secure in her arms. Syn brought her from her reflection by gently nibbling her earlobe, teasing her sensitive skin with sharp fangs, making a shudder of arousal run through her body.
"What are you thinking about Ros?" Synthaera asked, whispering in her ear.
Ros gave a little shiver and stretched like a very sexy feline, looked up and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "OMG I love your accent," Ros purred as she gave Synthaera another kiss, this one on the lips, full of promised passion.
"You do?" Synthaera asked nonplussed, and very distracted, once she got he breath back, "I didn't know I had one really."
"Oh you do baby, totally. You talk so properly...posh and British, and I love it." Ros twisted around and gave Synthera a hug before resuming her previous position cuddled in, caressing her hand and arms gently.
"I had a great night baby, and I'm real proud of my hot sexy girlfriend. I love being all cuddled up like this sweetie, and I'm glad your friends are cool with me. I know them so I didn't think there'd be a problem but it's good to be sure."
Synthaera looked around the corner before replying. "Yeah they're all very cool, and been really kind since I arrived. I never had proper friends before, and suddenly I have a whole group. I even got roped into starting Tai Chi tomorrow morning, with Chou Lee and Nikki."
Ros paused to consider the news. "Hmmm, I heard that Chou had started giving some lessons. What time are you up tomorrow?"
"Well we start at 6:00 so I guess my alarm will be around quarter to. The plan is do Tai Chi, then shower and change for school and head off to breakfast together."
"6:00? Oh god sweetie there's only one 6:00 in the day and that's in the evening." Ros looked horrified at the prospect of getting up so early.
Synthaera laughed gently at her expression. "You're a night owl then? That's okay Ros. I've been having breakfast with Outcast Corner then meeting up with the Kimbas at their table, before home room, but I can wait for you after Tai Chi if you want." Synthaera offered uncertainly.
"No baby, that's wrong." Ros said gently, appreciating Synthaera's offer. "I've friends I breakfast with, you're just getting settled into school, and you're making friends as well. I'm not busting up your friendships by demanding you breakfast with me or wait around for me all the time. You better believe I'm looking forward to showing you off around school, and anytime I get you alone in Poe I'll be jumping all over you!" Ros giggled and gave her a kiss. "But you do need to make good friends and be with them as well. These lovable nutcases get into trouble all the time. I know they all look out for each other, and they're solid friends. You're my girlfriend and I'm not competing with them. I'll text or call you during the day when I get time, you can do the same, and we can hook up when we're both free. Then, I can drag you off and have my wicked way with you in the evenings." Ros finished with a giggle and another slower kiss.
It took a few seconds before Syn could breathe again. "You sure Ros? I mean, I guess I hadn't thought that stuff through at all."
"Damn straight I'm sure, just one of the benefits of being the older more experienced partner." Ros grinned wickedly. "I wonder if that makes me a cougar?" She laughed at that thought while Syn just looks at her with a confused expression on her beautiful face.
"Cougar? You're a shape shifter too?" Syn asked, naively.
Ros couldn't help herself. She laughed at Syn's confusion about American slang terms. "No love. A cougar is a woman who has younger, much younger, boy-toy."
"Oh." Syn smiled as she thought over the new definition. "Meow" She said while making a clawing motion with her hand.
Ros giggled. Syn was good at looking cute too. "You know I've had other boyfriends and girlfriends, and I've been burned before sweetie. Don't lose your friendships, the good ones last all your life." Ros cuddled back in, feeling secure.
Synthaera looked down at her fondly before giving her a gentle kiss on the forehead. Mrs Horton stuck her head into the thronged common room and told everyone to tidy up and head for their dorms. The various couples and conversations dissolved and everyone tidied up before heading off to their rooms. Synthaera and Ros shared a last kiss goodnight, which left both of their bodies tingling as they headed to their respective rooms.
Synthaera's lights were out in her room and Poe Cottage was mostly quiet now, but she wasn't tired so she decided to think about her lesson with Fubar, his visualisation techniques, and how to develop her abilities. She let those thoughts percolate in her head as she lay on her bed, listening to music quietly through her headphones. She needed to develop control particularly of her offensive strikes and so far that had been limited to reducing the strength of her attack to anywhere between half and full power, although Circe had made it clear that even at half power that was considerably more magical force than she wanted to see deployed. When reading the comments from her powers testing, Circe had highlighted the necessity to have other types of attack otherwise when someone worked out how to nullify her strike she would be down to hands and feet.
Grinning in the darkness, Synthaera laughed quietly to herself, this was one of those occasions when it was good to be a gaming geek. She had lots of possible avenues to explore. An idea struck her as she thought about the magic testing with Circe. Circe had her lay shield outside of a shield placed over a target. Instead, could she lay a shield inside of her existing shield? Would that be stronger as it covered a smaller volume of space? Actually, come to think of it, did her shields stay the same size or could she vary it? She knew she could place a shield on an item as well as herself, but was it possible to place a shield on a location? If she could place a shield on a location surrounding someone, would it act as a trap? Feeling she was on a creative roll, Synthaera relaxed into her trance state, and within her golden cavern, began the work of visualising in complete detail what she wanted to do.
Synthaera opened her eyes, glancing at the digital clock beside her bed. 2:43am.
Realising she had been working in her trance for several hours she got up and padded across to her mini fridge. She took out a couple of units of blood and hurriedly drank them as her hunger growled inside her. The two barely took the edge off her appetite and she grabbed another couple, making a mental note to ask the catering staff to refill the fridge for her, as she only had a single unit left now. The third unit left her feeling mostly okay, and by the time she finished the fourth at a leisurely rate, she felt full, brimming with new life and energy.
Wow I didn't realise I was that hungry. I guess working in the trance takes a lot of effort.
Synthaera wondered what to do now. She had fed and was now completely wide awake. She decided against going back into the trance, and instead tried to work out what she could test safely. Deciding the dorm was a bit cramped, she effortlessly tipped her nonexistent roomie's bed on its side and stacked it against the wall, laughing quietly at how easy it was to do. Satisfied there was now enough space in the centre of the room, she tried to work out how best to visualise exactly where she wanted to place a shield. She was going to try and place a shield on a spot in space not an object. Realising that her sight was the perfect solution Synthaera opened her sight and switched her viewpoint so she could perceive the crucial depth perception. Concentrating on the visualisation she had constructed in her mind, and the trigger symbol, Synthaera took a breath and let her power flow.
A golden sphere of magical energy snapped into space in midair. Synthaera felt a twinge in her head that she was getting accustomed to. Recognising the sensation she recognised as her brain hard wiring a circuit for this shield effect, she glanced in her mirror. As she expected black blood was oozing from her nose, but the bleed halted in under a minute as she watched. After wiping the blood away, she returned her attention to her shield that was perfectly stationery in her room. Feeling very pleased with herself she decided to test the limits of her layer shielding. With a thought she flicked a second shield into place outside the first. This time she felt no twinge, and she quickly switched her mental attention to her mind, confirming the power flowing to each shield was the same.
Next step was to place a third layer. Synthaera expected this would cause another nose bleed as she removed more scar tissue from her manifestation on the plane, so she decided the best course was to make an additional outer layer instead of trying to go smaller and risking doing too much. Visualising adding an additional layer to her shield, Synthaera felt the twinge, and her nose bleed start as the third golden shield shimmered into place. Moving her attention to her golden cavern again, Synthaera watched the section where her shielding was developing, as golden energy flowed down a newly cauterised channel enlarging the circuit again.
Once she could tell that her wound was healed she waited a few minutes before repeating the process twice more. Moving her attention between her dorm and her cavern Synthaera watched as the fourth and fifth layers came into being. The fourth shield gave her a sharp stabbing pain behind her eyeballs, that quickly subsided to a dull throb with the nose bleed slowing to a stop in a few minutes. The fifth layer sent her to her knees as pain stabbed in her head. Watching from the floor through glazed eyes as blood ran quickly from her nose onto the floor, Synthaera groaned at the pain and concentrated on staying conscious as she watched the five layered shields stationery in her room.
It was half an hour before the pain subsided enough that she could get back off the floor. Getting up she washed her face in her hand basin, while maintaining the power flow. Synthaera was determined that she was not going to stop the flow until her brain tissue had healed to its new pattern, she did not want to ever experience that pain again. Dropping into her trance Synthaera winced as she watched her body healing. The golden power was moving through the newly opened channels, forming a new circuit, forcing its way through any minor obstructions before it healed in its new configuration. Finally, satisfied that she was healed, Synthaera dropped her concentration with a sigh of relief and the shielding winked out of sight, leaving no trace of her experimentation except a black stain on the carpet and the actinic smell of ozone.
The clock displayed 3:47AM and Synthaera considered how much harder it had been to erect the fourth and fifth layers of her shield. The pain involved strongly suggested that trying for a sixth layer would be a very bad idea. Still, if someone attacked, having five layers of shielding at her disposal instead of one could be an unpleasant surprise for her attacker. The obvious next step was to put the shield back in place and then see if she could layer inwards. She flicked her shield into being effortlessly, and then turned her thoughts back to visualising forming a layer inside her shield.
Once she had the concept as clear and complete as possible Synthaera crossed her fingers and released the power. Looking at her shield all she could see was that suddenly it blazed brighter and denser, and the twinge of pain she felt in her head was very minor. That was a little confusing but she wasn't going to complain. Before she could think about it too much and lose her nerve after the recent pain, Synthaera built the remaining layers of her shield with each layer denser and brighter than the next until she had all five shields in place. She felt pleased that there was no pain.
Dismissing the glowing sphere, Synthaera laid back on her bed and tried to ponder out why putting new layers of shields had been painful, then agony, but moving the shield layers in terms of their position had only caused a very minor twinge. After a while she decided that maybe it was down to the emphasis being on movement. After all she had moved magic around in her mind, so did layering inwards and outwards count as a development of that skill? It was a puzzle to ask Circe about perhaps. She pondered over that thought as she fell asleep.
Thursday morning.
Synthaera jerked awake as her alarm went off, the dream she had been having replaced by Metallica's Fuel. A glance to her left told her it was 5:45 AM. She lay on her bed for a moment trying to remember what she had been dreaming about. She had been fighting a beast, and she could not hurt it, so she had used her shields to do something...a channel?
Whatever it was had slipped away so she forgot about it for now, trusting that sooner or later she'd recall whatever it was. Getting up she pulled on her graphite coloured bodysuit first and then a sports top, work out pants and pumps. After putting on her sunscreen and putting her hair up into a pony tail, she grabbed her shades and headed out of her room.
Her friends were waiting downstairs for her. They led the way outside onto the grassy lawn outsid Poe, where Chou held her Tai-chi sessions. Chou explained that Synthaera should just concentrate on copying her movements as closely as possible, and be aware of her body's motion.
Once started, for the first minute Synthaera felt a little silly, self conscious, in the early morning light, but she soon shook that off and immersed herself in the movement. A corner or her mind wondered what this would be like in her old body, given that even now in her vastly enhanced body, it was a challenge to get the movements approximately right. To achieve the sort of graceful perfection in this slow dance that Chou made look effortless would take years she thought. Still if she could be a fraction as graceful as Chou it would be worth it. Synthaera lost track of time as she followed the Asian girl's lead, and was surprised when they finished the session. The other girls headed inside while her two friends waited for her.
"So, how do you feel Syn? Did you enjoy the session?" Chou asked her with a grin.
"Yeah Chou it was really cool. I felt...self-conscious at the start but I forgot about that and really got into it. Now I feel like I'm more aware of my body like I can feel each muscle and tendon. It's bizarre but wonderful and I feel really good. Thank you so much for inviting me you guys."
"You're welcome Syn, I'm glad you didn't wimp out on us." Nikki teased her, while Chou echoed her comments, pleased Synthaera had enjoyed something she found so free and exhilarating. The trio shared a quick hug and quickly headed into Poe to get in the bathroom before it got too busy.
***
Houston: 'Data Collection Services'
The data acquisition assignment was routine although the priority level assigned to it was higher than normal. Not that Robert cared one way or another. It was just a job.
It only got interesting when the name Synthaera Givens came up as a ghost. Sure the name Synthaera Givens had a social security number and a bank account but, other than that it was just a shell. Fake, but with all the genuine codes that meant that a cursory search would show no problems. He had access to the MCO files. A powers test and notification that a MID was assigned without difficulty. The Whateley files he had access to where very sparse, and everything else was behind a very very tough firewall. Not one he was going to be able to get through. The whole problem stank of government 'assistance'. The only question was just which government agency had an interest in Synthaera Givens.
The target had only arrived at Whateley Academy very recently, so Robert began a data mine for the words Synthaera and Givens going back for the last month. It took his systems all of Wednesday night, tracking emails on Government data networks throughout the USA, making use of stolen NSA software to infiltrate the networks. When Robert checked the systems on Thursday morning he found almost nothing. Nothing that was, except for a header reference to a deleted email, located on a mainframe that served the US Marshal Service in Washington. Curious Robert thought he had expected FBI or DOD. The US Marshals being involved was more unusual. At the back of his mind he was reminded of something, but frustratingly it refused to come into focus. Setting up another search he had his system hunt for articles referring to mutants and US Marshals from the last month.
Within minutes he had a series of media articles following an ongoing US Marshall investigation into a hijacking of a plane enroute from the United Kingdom to Los Angeles. Reading a witness story was enlightening. A gang of very sophisticated hijackers was foiled by the sudden manifestation of a young boy as a mutant, after he had been taken to the front of the plane and shot by the lead hijacker in an effort to force US Marshals on board to surrender. The hijackers were all killed in the ensuing shootout with conflicting reports that stated that the outgunned and outnumbered US Marshals were protected by golden force fields, and that at least one hijacker had been incinerated. Additionally, one witness claimed that the young mutant had also been in acute distress and had been ported to a medical facility.
A search of medical facilities equipped for mutant related trauma in Washington where the plane was landed gave him a list of targets but the main centre was identified as the Abraham Lincoln Specialist Care Hospital. The hospital had a decent security setup but it was no match for his software, and within seconds he was into their database. Robert was quickly able to confirm that this was where the manifesting mutant had been taken, and also that there had been several incidents related to the mutant including the deaths of two men later identified as been member of Humanity First as they tried to kill the new mutant, and that the MCO had attempted to take the mutant into custody but had been turned away by US Marshals.
The evidence was still circumstantial but mounting, and Robert felt in his gut that this was his target. Frustratingly, all the important data concerning the mutant was secured behind an isolated data system. He still needed confirmation that Synthaera Givens was the mutant who had been at Abraham Lincoln Specialist Care Hospital. After a moment of inspiration he accessed the hospitals admittance records and managed to track the coding they had allocated to the mutant, and even better the date of discharge. The hospital's digital security footage was shockingly easy to access, at least for the reception area and corridors.
Matching the time and date the patient was discharged to the security footage showed two women leaving the hospital. He dismissed the older woman, and zoomed the image of the young woman, who looked to be in her late teens. A bit of enhancement and Robert saved and printed the picture, before comparing it to the MID data. It was a perfect match. Damn good looking girl as well, despite those freaky elf ears. He had confirmation of who Synthaera Givens was, now he had to identify who she used to be, which should be easy with the airline manifests, plus what had happened to her next. With a satisfied grin Robert settled back to work. Several hours later he compiled and sent his report.
***
Crystal Hall
Synthaera had joined the Team Kimba crowd for the walk to Crystal Hall, and the group laughed and clowned around on the way. It was a fine morning and everyone was in good spirits. The queues for food weren't too bad, although it was a little later than Synthaera usualy had breakfast. She grabbed a muesli mix with a squirt of honey and some wild berries, plus the obligatory OJ, swiped her card at the till and then headed over to the special needs aisle.
"Good morning Danu, how're you today dear?" Anna asked as she recognized the tall Sidhe girl, who seemed surprised to be remembered.
"Hi Anna, I'm good thanks, how are you?" Danu said, pleased that Anna remembered and was friendly to her.
"I'm well dear, busy as always though. Is it just your usual today?" Anna asked as Danu passed her over her empty flask and her student ID to swipe.
"Umm actually I was going to ask if I could arrange to have my cooler restocked in my room please? I'm in 238 in Poe. I only have one unit left."
"Okay Danu that's no problem hun, I'll just put the order in here while I have your card. We have plenty of stock so by the time you finish your classes today you should be all stocked up again. Wait there a moment and I'll get your flask refilled for you dear."
Anna was a couple of minutes refilling the flask before she gave it back to Danu who gave her a happy smile and thanks, with a quick wave good bye before she headed into the mass of tables. Anna wondered why all the students couldn't be so pleasant to deal with as one of the sophomore whose diet included a mix of raw chemicals, stomped to the aisle with his normal scowl across an otherwise fairly handsome face. She sighed and got back to work.
Synthaera had told the Kimbas she would catch up with them in a while and she headed across to Outcast Corner. By the time she got to the table, the Outcasts had arrived already. She grabbed a seat and felt delighted when she noticed that one had been left free. She thanked them all for the thought.
"So how're you guys? I had a mental day yesterday." Synthaera asked.
"More mental than Monday? Ouch, what did you blow up?" The Fury Twins jibed with friendly grins, while Jericho and Diamondback laughed. Razorback chirped and signed, while Diamondback translated for Eldritch and Danu
We're all cool Danu, I didn't even get in any fights, and Jericho managed not to blow up the Devisor labs, for a change." Jericho managed to look affronted.
"Why you overgrown gecko, you call that brotherhood and solidarity?" He waved his cane at Jericho in a hammed up mockery of an old blind man. Razor quick as a flash caught the cane in his jaws, while he chirped his laughter.
Wrong species dude, geckos totally don't have teeth like this.
Jericho let the cane go, taking on a professorial air. "Hmm well I guess I see your points anyway, or not. Okay how about an alligator then? So what went down with you then Danu?" Razorback dropped his cane which Jericho snagged out of midair and the pair of comedians turned back to Danu.
"Oh man what do you want to know about first, the MCO stooge or Bloodwolf?"
"The MCO fucktard. What happened?" Eldritch's intense tone cut through the babble from the Outcasts and got Danu's attention. The Sidhe girl took a long pull from her unit of blood then nodded at her.
"So I had my MID interview yesterday morning with this MCO guy called Collins."
Eldritch didn't realize she had crushed the table under her grip, until Jericho's startled "Wow" made her look down at the mangled steel table and release her grip, before noticing Danu's questioning look.
"Me and Collins have history Danu. He's a first class scum sucking rat fucker. What did he do?" Eldritch asked.
"Tried to pump me for all kinds of stuff Circe told me he didn't need to know like my parents and stuff. Plus he tried to record my interview, and got real upset when I told him not to."
Eldritch grinned widely at her, "Yeah I had that conversation with him a while back. How'd you deal with it Danu?" She asked curious now.
"Well with my sight I read a whole bunch of stuff, and I could tell he was lying all the time, his aura was freaking ugly, so I knew if he wanted to record the stuff I didn't want him to. He went on at me, and when I told him we could check with Circe he dropped it. He was still acting smug though and I noticed that he kept looking at his pens. Confused me for a bit, until I grabbed his pens to have a look."
"Let me guess one was a silence generator?" Danu looked blank for a second then nodded in agreement.
"Yeah I dunno what it's called but when I clicked it there was this like bubble of energy around us and I couldn't hear anything outside."
"Good, when you turned that on he lost any chance of bugging the conversation. Those assholes always have bugs on them somewhere. Well done. What happened next?"
Eldritch approved of how Danu had coped with Collins, it was clear she had some backbone, and wasn't willing to just be pushed around. Collins had made a career out of intimidating kids into giving him what he wanted. Interesting that she'd been able to see the silence generator's field as well.
"So I ask him what the gadget was, and he gives me some bullshit about it improving sound quality. I know he's lying again. Every time he lies, his aura flashes yellow at me, and I'm losing my temper. So I call him a dickwad and tell to stop lying. He denies it again, and I kind of lost my temper, and let slip that I knew his name wasn't Stephen Collins."
"Huh? What the fuck did you say Danu?" Eldritch asked, completely surprised by that revelation.
"Umm I said 'Of course you're lying you idiot, I'm reading your fucking aura you moron. You're lying about everything including your name Agent Stephen Collins.', and I was really bitchy about it as well. Well after that his whole attitude just changed. He's totally polite, and says we've reached a dangerous point and we should just get the interview done to avoid things getting uncivilized. His aura was just screaming utter hatred for me, rage, and a lot of fear. He didn't even question the MID we prepared for him, just said the testing results were interesting. Gave me my MID said goodbye and hightailed it out of there."
"Wow, fuck me. So who the fuck is he?" Eldritch wondered aloud, her voice reflecting her malicious glee.
"I don't know but his aura told me that everything about him was just a total fake, a mask, and when I let that slip he totally freaked. When he was gone Circe asked me what happened and I kind of got the shakes a bit, it took me a while to explain to her, but she was really good about it. I think she was gonna have a talk with security about it, I dunno. I hope we find out, and I mentioned what happened to Fey. She almost went volcanic when she heard his name. OMG that was freaking scary, she is something else when she gets mad. She asked Phase to start looking in to it, and she said she knew who to ask."
Eldritch exhaled and smiled at Danu. "Whoo-Ra!, Danu you just royally busted the balls of that fucktard. Out-fucking-standing!"
Eldritch couldn't help it, she was impressed. Collins was the bane of too many of Whateley's students, and while she was no longer Erik Mahren, the students were still her kids. It didn't matter to her that Danu felt she'd screwed up by letting it slip. Eldritch knew if it hadn't come out, it would probably have remained that vital golden nugget of information that never got mentioned, and was lost forever, and Collins would still have the run of Whateley, but after this Collins would never come back. Danu had been brave enough to go head to head with him, and this was the result. Carson wanted to know if she could train this kid? Fuckin A she could. Even better was Phase getting involved. Ayla may be an outcast Goodkind but she was still a Goodkind and the resources she had to hunt for Collins' identity would scare the piss out of the fucktard if he knew. What a frigging brilliant start to her day.
The outcasts were all pleased to hear about Collins, Razorback and the Fury twins especially, but now they asked what happened with Bloodwolf. Eldritch laughed as she answered the Outcasts' question before Danu could.
"Danu got into a fight with Bloodwolf, who was busy beating on a Poesie, and she stopped him. Not easy that."
"How do you know about that Eldritch?" Danu asked.
"I'm a security auxiliary Danu, and I was told about it. The guys who picked Bloodwolf up said he was very cooperative. His wounds were still healing when they arrived so given how fast he regenerates you must have given him a beating."
"Yeah well he deserved it." Danu said without denying anything. Eldritch just nodded, while Razor chirped a question.
What did you do to him? Diamondback translated.
"I lost my temper with him," Danu said, "I was just keeping him distracted and hoping that Blackrose would run, but she was scared stiff. When I shouted at her to call security I lost my concentration and Bloodwolf clobbered me into a tree, dazed me a little, and I lost my cool, and retaliated. I broke his hand up, four ribs, punctured his lung, snapped his knee and turned his balls to paste."
Eldritch noted that Danu was perfectly calm as she said it, not remotely concerned about the injuries she inflicted, just worried about losing control. Well that seemed to tie in with what Carson had told her.
"Damn, you got a temper don't ya?" Jericho asked with admiration mixed with surprise. He was surprised at the list of injuries, and also well aware of how difficult it was to hurt Bloodwolf, let alone stop him. He was also re-evaluating Danu. Anyone that could deal out that kind of punishment deserved a healthy degree of respect.
"You better believe it Jericho. Bloodwolf is in one piece because Blackrose asked me to stop."
"One piece? What would you have done, hospitalized him?" Diamondback sounded surprised, Eldritch thought, but then she always tried to think the best of people, even here in Whateley.
"It's not a good idea to leave someone behind you that heals that fast Diamondback. He wouldn't have stayed hospitalized for long." Danu said, evading the question, until the twins wanted to know what she would have done then.
Eldritch knew what Danu was about to say, and she doubted the rest of the Outcasts would really understand. Sure they were the Outcasts and had been through tough times, but none of them had her years of experience, or had been through the intensity of trauma that Danu had. She reminded herself that her friends also didn't know about Danu's body count, and wondered how to defuse the next few seconds. Not easy with Phobos and Deimos, and Diamondback all having empathic talents.
"Phobos, do you really want to know the answer to that question?" Danu asked her friend, her expression blank, tone calm, but with just enough edge to it, that the Furies caught their breath and studied the Sidhe. Both twins tried to get an empathic read from Danu, but she was just radiating a sense of calm.....and resignation. After sharing a glance between them, the Twins dropped the question and the conversation quickly moved on.
Eldritch watched, trying to get a feel for how Danu felt. She was obviously aware that if she answered truthfully it could have some negative repercussions, but she had been prepared to do so, and Eldritch guessed she would have been completely blunt about it. Carson was right and she decided that Danu absolutely needed training and discipline. Too much like the loose cannon she remembered her past self to be when she was called Erik Mahren. She decided that she rather liked the tall girl.
The rest of breakfast was uneventful, and Synthaera was glad the normal banter had quickly resumed. Once she had finished her breakfast she said goodbye to the Outcasts and headed for homeroom, stopping on the way at the Kimba's table to say hello to her friends there. She was glad to see everyone was in a good mood, and the girls had Lancer on the defensive again. She walked away sniggering.
For her first proper morning of classes at Whateley, Synthaera had Math, then English followed by Basic Survival. She had never been into Math, and wasn't looking forward to the class. Her testing had shown she was smarter than before her manifestation, and she had already discovered Math was easier to understand. The problem was simple, she just wasn't interested, Math bored her rigid. The class had pretty much managed to live down to her expectations, although she struggled through it. After class the teacher had advised her to catch up on what she had missed as fast as possible, a problem complicated by the difference in the syllabus from the UK to USA. Synthaera had resigned herself to studying in the holidays so she could get an acceptable grade overall.
English was more enjoyable, although just as weird in its own way. The syllabus was based around American literature, and was almost completely new to her. She still loved reading so figured that the class at least had potential for some enjoyment. The more noticeable difference was that Whateley emphasized the importance of communication skills far more than her old school had. That had surprised her and after class she stayed back to query the difference. Her teacher had been happy to explain that Whateley regarded their objective as being both to teach the subject, but also highlight to their mutant students what being able to communicate effectively meant for them, given the social environment they would exist in after graduation. They would be taught to effectively communicate their motives, ideals and intentions, to maximize their ability to survive in the outside world. Synthaera had left the class feeling sobered and realizing there was more to think about than she had considered. English at least looked like it would teach her something useful.
After English, Synthaera made her way to Basic Survival, weaving her way through the corridors full of students. She wondered what the class would be like. Her Kimba friends all thought it would be very useful for her, and said it taught you to be aware all the time. She thought her own sense of paranoia was pretty well developed anyway, so wasn't sure whether this would be helpful or not, but Circe had been insistent and once this class was out the way, she would be able to enroll for a basic martial arts, which sounded much more useful.
After making her way to the girl's changing rooms, she found it almost deserted, with only a couple of girls she didn't know getting changed, while another two girls were heading to the class as Synthaera arrived. She quickly stripped off her uniform, leaving only her graphite bodysuit. Next, she pulled her gym gear on over it before quickly glancing at the mirror too check her appearance. The gym gear was quite sexy and close fitting, but as much as she loved looking hot, the bodysuit on its own would have been way too much for class. The gym gear broke up the skintight appearance of the body suit leaving her looking hot but not scandalous. With a satisfied smile, she fixed her pony tail and jogged out of the changing room.
The class was been held in Arena 77, and it was was much larger than she had expected, and as she jogged across to join the small class of students, Synthaera looked around, trying not to look like an awestruck tourist. She had never seen anything like this place. It was like looking at a city block in a roofed goldfish bowl, complete with cars, alleys, shops, signs and even trash. The only thing missing seemed to be bystanders at the moment. The whole scene was like a tableau frozen in time. How was this supposed to be the setting for Basic Survival?
Sunlight blazed down through the roof, but her skin felt okay so either the roof was UV coated or her sun cream was still working fine. Gingerly she began to remove her shades but the pain in her eyes from the sun's glare told her the roof was definitely porous to UV, and that her suncream was still working. Hurriedly she pushed her shades back into place, as she moved toward the small group of students.
The instructor noticed her presence, snapping his attention to her with surprising intensity. "You girl, who are you?"
"Danu Sir, I just transferred in, and my counselor assigned me this class." Synthaera said politely.
"Danu? Oh yes, I remember. Well, welcome to Survival I, Danu. My name is Mr Anderson. Lose the shades, I like to see my students faces." The instructor twitched very slightly in agitation.
Synthaera wondered why. "I'm sorry Sir, I can't, I have sunlight...issues."
Mr Anderson shook his head, muttering very quietly to himself, but her acute hearing meant she could clearly hear him reciting probabilities to himself, concluding that the likelihood that she was a direct threat to him was less than 3%, an acceptable risk. Behind her shades her eyes widened.
Wow and I thought I was paranoid. This guy is whacked.
Mr Anderson snorted, clearly unhappy but indicated that she should join the class, before ignoring her while he waited for the last few students to arrive.
Synthaera turned and joined the other students, whose auras showed mixed reactions to her presence. She groaned mentally at the several sudden purple spikes from horny boys, as her hearing clearly picked up the comments about her figure. She threw them a glare, feeling better even though she knew they wouldn't see it through her shades. Joining the half dozen girls in the class, she gave friendly greetings to them all, sharing quick introductions.
The other girls had also clearly overheard some of the comments, and laughingly spent the next couple of minutes cutting the boys down to size and making her feel welcome, although amidst the friendly auras there were also brief flashes of typical female jealousy. Synthaera was relieved that no one seemed determined to take an instant dislike to her, although the news she was in Poe was taken as evidence that she was a little weird at the very least. Once everyone was present, Mr Anderson called the class to attention.
"Well as you all can see we have a new student. Please make her welcome. Danu you join us at an interesting time, as we begin our Arena sessions. The purpose of Basic Survival is to teach you to live in the outside world. Not the outside world you were born in, but the world that awaits you as a a mutant. Whateley is an artificial environment and sadly beyond our gates you can expect suspicion, fear and hostility from both governments and baseline communities. The lucky few may be able to blend in to the normal world, but even so, if an event occurs that forces your mutant status to be revealed you may face shockingly different responses from those you normally receive."
Mr Anderson seemed to have wandered from his normal speech as Synthaera could see and feel the unease around her.
"For those of us who cannot blend in, despite good intentions, being a mutant can mean facing attack from baselines, from anti mutant fanatics or even form other mutants. Regardless of the circumstances, if you get involved in combat as a mutant, you can expect to face a potentially lethal response from such forces as the MCO, Knights of Purity, Special or regular forces, law enforcement, and others including supers. In short, the practical thing to assume is that every hand is against you and that the safest course of action is to avoid the situation in the first place. That is the point of this class, to teach you what you need to avoid the conflict in the first place."
What the instructor was saying seemed fairly obvious to Synthaera, but she supposed she might be more jaded than the average student. Some of the class seemed disconcerted by his comments. She couldn't believe they hadn't thought about this before.
"The majority of mutants in the outside world, and also here in Whateley are both not able to pass as a baseline human to some extent or other and also are not blessed with the enhanced physical abilities and capabilities that some of us get when we manifest. In short, most of us get the rough end of the deal both ways. Your final test for this class is only two weeks away, and will be held in the Arena 99. This Arena 77 session is to allow you to get used to the arena experience. This is as close to the outside world as we can make it, without the holographic systems that make Arena 99 truly immersive. We will be splitting the class into groups of four for runs through this arena initially. Closer to your test, you will get time in the arena individually."
Seeing that he had their full attention Mr Anderson nodded before continuing.
"In this session each group is going to be exposed to the same unexpected situation, all you need to do, is get your group from here to the exit at the end of the course, or survive the test, which is set to run for twenty minutes. For the sake of safety you will be provided with body armor and head protection to wear, and theses are mandatory. While each group is going through the scenario it will be recorded for analysis later on. If you look up you will see the Arena gallery above us. The other teams will wait in the gallery, which will have its shutters closed to prevent you viewing the action. As each team returns they are not allowed to discuss the scenario."
After checking that his class understood, the instructor split them into three groups of four, and Synthaera was relieved to discover that her group would be going last. At least they would have a few minutes to try and get an idea what was going on, and also for her to meet her new group. Mr Anderson told them to head up to the observation booth, and the first group to go huddled together talking as the other two walked away, Synthaera walking away with her team.
"So, have you all worked together as a team before?" Synthaera asked a light brown skinned girl with dreadlocks who had introduced herself as Wakanda.
"No way girl, Teach just groups us anyhow he pleases, says life doesn't let you choose who you are with when the crap hits the fan." Wakanda spoke with a soft Caribbean accent. The other girl in the group had the codename Skids, and as Wakanda spoke she snorted in agreement, before commenting scornfully.
"As if either of us would willingly team with Glitch anyway. He's a snobby asshole who thinks he's better than everyone else and the world's out to get him, when he's not too drunk to think that is."
"Drunk? He's like what fourteen?" Synthaera asked shocked.
"Fifteen, he flunked last year, and I know what you mean. Glitch has problems." Skids shook her head dismissively, while the boy in question growled angrily at the three girls.
"That's Overload dammit." The boy flushed red faced, or even more red faced Synthaera mused and stomped off angrily, swearing under his breath.
The girls laughed and followed him chatting. Once up in the viewing gallery, they grabbed seats together around a circular table, while Overload pointedly ignored them and sat as far away as he could manage. Wakanda and Skids collectively decided that if the only boy in their group wanted to ignore three teenage girls, including a smoking hot Sidhe in a skintight bodysuit, then he had to be mentally deficient and dismissed him as they shared their powers with the newcomer.
"So I'm a precog, out to about 10 minutes with any degree of accuracy, I go about 30 seconds pretty well though. Other than that I am like totally baseline. I get enough time to run and that's about it." Wakanda was matter of fact about her limitations. "That's why I'm in this class, learn how to keep out of the way when the Powers start flying around."
Synthaera nodded her understanding and looked at Skids who flushed a little and spoke hurriedly.
"I'm a Devisor gearhead. I live for speed, and I can drive anything, fix just about anything, but when I'm stuck on two feet I'm just a normal gal. In here, I'm not able to use any of my toys so I'm kind of limited. I'm retaking the class, I was stupid last final and failed. What about you Danu, what do you do? I can see you're Sidhe, why are you taking Survival I?"
"Umm, well my councilor insisted that I take the class before I can take Basic Martial Arts as I know nothing about fighting. I'm strong, fast, and tough, and have magic I can't use because I don't really know how to control it yet. I only manifested a few weeks ago. It's been kind of a shock. So, here I'm supposed to learn how to stay alive while I learn how to control my stuff."
Skids pondered Synthaera's answer for a second. "Well it sounds like you're our brick if we can't outrun anything in the Arena. Wakanda can maybe give us a heads up of inbound trouble. I have a couple of gadgets that might help a little but I really wish I had my unicycle with me."
Synthaera blinked at that comment, trying to picture the average looking girl in front of her careering round on a unicycle made her head hurt.
Skids glanced sideways to the boy. "Glitch over there can be counted on to mess up anything electrical. Problem will be keeping him from messing up stuff you don't want him to fry. Plus it doesn't look like he's gonna be in the mood to be helpful."
As the girls talked, below in the Arena the first group of students clustered together wondering what Mr Anderson had prepared for them. They were all dressed in the body armour and helmets and masks that looked a lot like Paintball gear. Mr Anderson's voice was broadcast into the gallery, and the Arena.
"Class, outside of Whateley, worldwide there has been a significant increase in violent attacks on baseline populations, over the last two years. Recently, in Rio de Janeiro, there was an attack by super powered terrorists, who not only used their own powers, but also made use of a several diversions, to distract the city's resources before deploying to their real target. Whateley has acquired equipment, which after some modifications is going to allow us to recreate a diversion in which 427 of Rio's citizens where killed."
The voice paused for a allowing the class' collective gasps to settle before speaking again.
"This same diversion also accounted for the first team of heroes who were able to respond to it, killing all four. As I said before the aim of this exercise is to survive for the duration of the test, or reach the exit zone. Please note however the exit zone will only be active after the fifteen minutes to simulate the delay in city authorities responding to events. In this exercise all you have to do is not be 'killed' during the exercise. The Arena control systems are interfaced into the helmets and will notify you if you are killed. The Arena's systems are now being activated, and the test will commence in 45 seconds. Good luck."
In the gallery the class shared frustrated glances as not being able to see what was going on in the Arena. They could tell when the test began as the general noise of a city could be heard. Synthaera pondered whether to use her sight to watch the proceedings outside in the Arena. The pragmatist in her presented a strong argument for doing so, after all any information was a good thing. She had almost decided to do so when it occurred to her that by doing so she would invalidate the whole lesson. If the purpose of the lesson was to find out how they would react to a situation, viewing would inevitably let her start planning and screw that up. Her cynical side was of the opinion that wasn't her problem, but eventually Synthaera decided to behave and be 'blind', after all she didn't use her sight all the time. That sparked another thought, maybe she should use her sight all the time? She pondered this new problem for a minute while joining in the chatter amongst Skids and Wakanda. Glitch was busy ignoring everyone. The groups talked amongst themselves for a couple of minutes before suddenly the chatter was broke by the sounds of heavy gunfire. Long bursts of heavy gunfire accompanied by screams, and the sound of panic.
"What the fuck was that?" Demanded one of the boys in the other group, shooting to his feet. Synthera didn't know his name but from looking at him she could see his aura was now spiked with fear and a little panic.
"Not sure, that sounded like heavy cannon fire, maybe a Gatling type." Skids ventured an answer and caught Synthaera surprised look. "What? I'm a techie after all, of course I know what cannon-fire sounds like."
Synthaera just shook her head and grinned, before looking to Wakanda. "Any hints from your precog?"
"No hope, right now I'm as blind as the next gal."
Mr Anderson's voice came over the speaker. "For your information class, the Arena systems are currently scoring one member of the first group as dead, along with twenty seven of the Arena drones. As soon as the exercise is finished, second group is to head down to the ready room while the first group will get changed out of their gear before coming to the gallery. As I said before the purpose of this exercise is to present an unexpected situation for you to deal with. This is not the normal syllabus for Survival I but the opportunity presented itself and it is a valuable lesson for you. Trying to question another group ahead of time will result in your disqualification so please keep your curiosity under control."
The next ten minutes were tense as the eight teens in the gallery listened to mechanical sounds, shouts and yells from the first group, more gunfire and screams, in a chaotic mix that had no order and even less rhyme or reason, accompanied by Mr Anderson 'keeping score', before the instructor told them the group had been killed and the exercise was over. A muttering second group immediately were told to head downstairs to get ready.
After a few more minutes the first group stomped into the gallery looking hot and sweaty, as well as dirty, pissed off and downcast. Before anyone said anything the largest of them, whose side was covered in large purple paint splotches growled "Don't." The four teenagers grabbed chairs at the far end of the gallery and spoke quietly to each other, obviously refusing to talk about their run through the Arena. Synthaera's group looked at each other before sighing and settling back to wait some more.
***
Synthaera and her group stood in the Arena, waiting for the klaxon to sound and start the session. They were all wearing the body armor and masks that she recognised as paintball gear, and Synthaera already knew she didn't want to come across the paintball gun that fired the balls that had peppered the students from the second group they had seen on the way to the ready room. The four students walking in from the Arena were spattered with paint balls, that from the impacts looked like they were the size of golf balls or larger. From the pained expressions and limps the paint balls obviously hurt as well. The four kids had also been silent, refusing to give any hints of what the had faced, but looking shocked and dismayed at what they had been through.
Synthaera guessed that of all the students in Survival I, she could 'survive', but Mr Anderson had made it clear that all four needed to stay 'alive'. The others had no idea of her capabilities but she knew letting loose with her offensive magic wasn't an option, Circe would kill her, so she was limited to her shields. It didn't look like the rest of her group were going to be much help offensively. As they looked around the group tried to make plans as best they could. The street had a series of alleys leading off it and spotting a fire exit the group decided to make for that and high ground when the klaxon went. Around them the 'city' had come to life, noisy and busy, arena drones walking around, vehicles remotely controlled by the Arena computers moving slowly up and down the streets.
The Arena's klaxon sounded and the group headed for the alleyway as they had agreed, rapidly reaching the fire escape ladder. Overload jumped up and pulled it down and Skids and Wakanda rapidly started climbing up, as the boy steadied the ladder for them. Overload followed them and Synthaera brought up the rear as they climbed to the rooftop. The roof had a low lip around the edge and they crouched down, peaking over the wall trying to spot whatever was due to happen. From their vantage point they could see down the road which ran down the centre of the Arena and was busy with drones and vehicles, but so far little else. Only seconds after they crouched down, the sound of cannon-fire reverberated around the Arena, coming from the far end.
"That was a heavy Gatling cannon," Skids stated flatly. " actually a pair of them."
"You sure Skids?" Overload asked, his attitude seemed to have improved markedly now they were in the Arena.
"It was muffled before in the gallery, but I can hear it clearly now, definitely a heavy Gatling, minimum of 40mm. Bad news, you wouldn't want to be on the end of it. Normally only mounted on light tanks or heavier."
The 'civilian' drones had reacted to the gunfire and were now moving away from the sound, pouring onto the main street in increasing numbers. There was another long burst of cannon fire, followed by short burst. They watched as a trio of drones were suddenly thrown down as another burst peppered them with huge purple blotches. The force of the impacts clearly substantial as a fusillade of massive paint balls impacted.
"What the hell are we supposed to do against tanks?" Synthaera asked, but Wakanda suddenly went pale as her ability gave her a glimpse of the possible future, of a huge robot stalking the crowded streets, firing dead accurate burst, turning onto the main street with a multitude of targets and laying deadly streams of fire down, drones collapsing in heaps everywhere across the street.
"Get down." The urgency in her voice as Wakanda ducked made everyone do the same.
"It's not a tank, it's a freaking warbot, coming round the corner up the street in less than ten seconds." The Haitian girl hunkered down behind the low wall.
Synthaera opened her sight, pulling her viewpoint out and moving it up the street. The first thing she registered was the robot's energy fields, shielding it as it stomped towards the main street. The sight of the robot in her astral sight made her suck in a breath of air. Over seven metres tall, it was an armoured behemoth, a wedge shaped torso, with broad shoulders that had bulbous weapons pod arms hanging below them. It reminded her of the classic Marauder from her old Battletech games. Keeping her sight open she turned her attention back to the group.
"She's right and it's almost here. Five seconds." Synthaera stated.
Skids carefully looked over the wall up the street, as the thuds that had been echoing off the buildings were suddenly clearly audible and the war machine came into view. Skids took one look for a couple of seconds then slowly pulled her head down, and turned to face the group. She was white as a sheet.
"That's an Ares 74G Devastator droid. They weigh about thirty tonnes and Ares makes them as Urban Assault units. I remember what Teach was talking about now. The diversion he mentioned? The terrorists got hold of a pair of these droids and air dropped them into a market district to slaughter at random. It totalled most of the city district before they destroyed it. Totally freaking tough, shielded like a bastard and armed for bear. From what I can see, that's a G1 model, armed with twin 40mm Gatling cannon, and AP Mortars. We gotta survive that for twenty minutes? We're so fracked!" Skids looked miserable, shaking her head in disbelief at being pitted against a metallic nightmare.
Overload moved to cautiously see what the droid was doing, but Synthaera stopped him saying. "I'm keeping an eye on it already, I have astral sight, best just to stay out of sight Overload." The Devastator was still at the junction, bursts of fire sending drones crashing down along the road.
The boy looked like he was going to disagree for a second, before he shrugged and settled back down.
Reaching her decision, Synthaera turned and faced her team-mates. "Okay, so obviously the lesson is shit happens and sometimes you can't do a damn thing to stop it. So I guess we're supposed to run around and try and avoid it, but I don't see how we can survive that way. I think I'd be okay on my own, but we need to win as a group, so running is just gonna get us killed. We need to take it out somehow."
Overload laughed bitterly "Take it out? You're crazy Danu, we don't stand a chance against that thing. We're not all exemplar tough guys you know."
Synthaera wanted to slap the boy out of his self pity, but just hissed, "You think you can survive that thing for twenty minutes, any of you?" The boy and two girls shook their heads. "Okay this is an exercise, and we're supposed to lose. Fine, but seeing as how we're gonna lose anyway, why don't we try to take that metal bastard down." Synthaera looked around trying to drag them along with her by force of will alone, and she was surprised that they looked like they agreed with her, mostly. Determined agreement from Wakanda, hesitant from Skids and fearful from Overload but still agreement.
"Good! We'll probably still lose, but at least we try and win first. Skids, what else can you tell us? You said terrorists had air dropped them into Rio. Can they fly?"
Skids shook her head, "Jump yes, fly no."
"Okay, what about its sensors?"
"Umm, radar, audio, optical, thermal, low light imaging, movement, the whole shebang."
"Okay so here's a plan, I'll get its attention and keep it focused on me. Overload, if you can make your way down to that alley on the other side up the street from us, there is a heavy metal dumper there to hide in. Then, when I bring it past you, hit it with your power as hard as you can, and see if we can drop it.
"Okay Danu." Overload replied with an audible gulp. She gave him a reassuring grin and a nod.
"Skids do you think you could get to that dumper truck out front and rig it to ram the droid?"
"Sure no problem."
"Good then you do that, and set it off when Overload is ready to cross the road as a diversion for him."
"'Kay."
"Wakanda you're our early warning in case something else happens. Otherwise try to keep watch, but stay under cover as much as you can. With luck I'll keep it too busy to worry about you. Skids after you set off the dumper lorry, head back and keep Wakanda company. Put together some more diversions if you can, but mostly stay out of harms way okay?"
"Okay Danu." Skids grinned mischievously at Danu. "I mean, righto mate. I'll just hop down and take care of the bloody lorry!" She said with a fake British accent.
Danu groaned and smiled at Skids. "Right then, Overload, you and Skids head down now and stay in cover until its following me, then head to the dumper truck." Danu focused at Skids before she turned to Wakanda with a grin. "Wakanda you stay put. If you need to move try to stay with Skids if you can. Don't worry about letting me know. I can track you all with my sight.
"Could it see us up here?" Overload asked. Skids thought for a second then nodded.
"If we show ourselves above the wall, then yes, maybe even if we don't with its thermal sensors."
"Okay it sounds like you guys had better get going, quietly and stay low. If it spots us now and opens fire I can shield us."
Skids shook her head. "Shields would be a bad idea Danu. The Devastator is also designed as a mutant hunter. Actively using powers will just attract its attention, and bring it down on us quicker."
"Damn! Guess that better wait until I already have its attention."
The group split with Skids and Overload creeping away, while Wakanda hunkered down, and Synthaera kept watch through her sight. The warbot had finished off any localized targets and was beginning to slowly move towards them although it was still about 90 meters up the street. Skids and Overload made it down to the alley, and waited. As Synthaera was about to move Wakanda touched her arm.
"Something's wrong." Wakanda muttered.
"More wrong than facing down a Devastator warbot? Crap. Like what?"
"I don't know, but I'm getting a flash from my precog. I think that you getting us to fight this thing changed something, but I don't know what."
"Well this is only a training session right, so what can go wrong? Except us getting beat I mean, and we're expected to lose anyway." Synthaera replied with a grin.
"I don't know Danu, but us three have no chance down there without you so be careful okay. If I get any more flashes I'll try and let you know."
In the Arena's control room, Mr Anderson sat watching the action on the wall mounted displays. The control systems automatically tracked the members of the group. The first and second groups had gone as he expected, although he had to admit the second team had lasted longer than he had expected against the warbot, making good use of Parkour techniques as they ran. He wondered whether the third team would do any better. The offer of using the warbots had come from the security dept, and he calculated that it was no coincidence that his new student had joined the class today. He wondered what Danu could do against the warbot.
The third group had already offered promising signs. They had immediately headed off the main road and up to the roof of a nearby building. He watched their discussion with interest, Danu seemingly taking charge and giving the others instruction. Overload and Skids then headed down to the alley and waited. He found it surprising that the students appeared to be ignoring the Devastator up the street. Looking away from Skids and Overload, the instructor watched as Wakanda stayed put on the roof, and Danu moved to the far end of the roof away from the Devastator.
What is she doing? Mr Anderson was still calculating probabilities when the Sidhe stood and sprinted along the roof before soaring out over the edge as she jumped high in the air, arcing to the next roof, landing with effortless ease and carried on running, up the street, towards the warbot. It looked like his new student was deliberately attracting its attention.
She isn't intending to attack, is she? The new probability calculations began to make him very interested in just who and what this Danu child was. He briefly considered calling Chief Delarose to ask him what he knew about her.
***
The last of the drones fell to the Devastator's cannon. The large warbot efficiently and dispassionately noted the status of it's last target.
Target Destroyed...
Scanning for Targets...
** Alert! **
Unidentified Ballistic Target Detected!
Assigning target identifier: 3652
Tracking Vector...
Impact location calculated.
No direct threat to this unit.
Target priority rating 0
The Devastator's systems were not worried about the slow moving ballistic target impacting on itself, so it began to try and identify what the unknown target could be.
Analysing target 3652 characteristics...
Target matches humanoid target parameters.
Thermographic indicates humanoid target with lower than standard body tempature.
Target priority rating +10
Targeting systems engaged!
Weapon's fire authorized.
Beginning firing sequence.
** Alert! **
Magical energy signatures detected!
Target shielded.
No damage detected.
Target 3652 priority rating +20
Target 3652 lost
Projecting Target 3652 vector.
The high priority ballistic target's path carried it out of the Devastator's direct line of sight and it's scanners lost target lock when it landed on the roof of the structure. It stalked forward down the center of the street, rotating its torso to cover the projected position of the target based on its last vector.
***
Synthaera snapped her shield around her mid jump as the droid reacted faster than she believed possible. The shield vaporized the paintballs that were on target, before her jump's descent took her out of the robot's field of fire. Landing effortlessly, she carried on running still accelerating away from Wakanda on the roof behind her. The next alleyway loomed perhaps 5m across and she sailed across it in a flatter faster trajectory. The droid responded almost instantly with a sustained burst that made her blink at its volume. They were just paintballs and no threat, but it sobered her how fast the machine could target her, especially as she was beginning to come to terms with how much faster she was than a baseline human. She realised she would need to get closer to the droid to try and beat its electronic reflexes. As she landed, Synthara was again under the robot's field of fire. With her sight, Synthaera saw the Devastator aiming where she should appear next, so she changed her direction and ran directly towards the warbot, diving headlong over the edge of the roof, arcing down to the Arena floor three storeys below.
***
Skids and Overload peered cautiously around the end of the alleyway, watching for the warbot's reaction to Danu so they could run to the dumper parked 15m up the road. The war machine was mostly obscured by the big rubbish truck, but they could see when the Devastator' torso snapped to its right and began firing, then there was a slight pause and another volley of fire. The two then gasped as Danu came into sight diving off the roof further up the street.
"Holy shit." Overload exclaimed.
"Come on, if that's not distracting the robot, nothing is." Skids grabbed the boy's arm and ran for the cover of the rubbish truck, with Overload following. Seconds later they crouched behind the heavy truck' big wheels. Skids placed her palm flat on the truck's door, and concentrated, focusing her mind on her sense of the big truck.
Skids had been fascinated by motor vehicles since her Dad had taken her to her first NASCAR race at age five. By the time she turned six, she was 'helping' in the garage, and had built her first engine before her tenth birthday. Thoroughly indoctrinated into the cults of the automobile and speed, when she manifested as a mutant, those who knew her weren't much surprised when her love of engine oil translated into an inhuman ability to get any manner of vehicle to do her bidding. After a second communing, Skids glanced back at Overload, and checked he was ready to sprint for his allotted alleyway. Getting a thumbs up, Skids concentrated again, and the truck's big diesel engine rumbled into life.
The gear selector moved and the clutch disengaged power transmitting through the driveshafts to the large wheels. The empty rubbish truck, given a new purpose in life, rolled slowly forwards turning towards the alley where Overload was to hide, Skids and Overload walking hidden behind its mass. When they were almost to the alleyway, the truck, began turning back towards the Devastator, and Skids and Overload darted into the dark protection of the alley. Overload quickly checked that the metal dumper was empty, before bidding Skids good luck and climbing in to wait for the fight to come to him.
Skids hurried down the alleyway, turned onto the next street and began making her way back to Wakanda. The rubbish truck finished with the first part of its duty. Slowly lined itself up on the robot along the street. The diesel engine revved slightly higher as power was diverted to the dumper's hydraulics, rotating the over sized heavy steel forklift arms that lifted the rubbish dumpers into their ready position jutting out in front of the truck. The diesel engine gunned and the dumper began to slowly accelerate up the street, as fast as its tweaked engine could manage.
***
Synthaera found the dive to the road exhilarating, rejoicing in physically being able to do so as her enhanced vampiric physique absorbed the shock of landing from three storeys as though she was just taking a step. With her shield absorbing the fresh barrage of paintballs, Synthaera darted around the Devastator, close enough now that she could move through the war machine's field of fire rapidly enough that the robot could only fire at her in short ineffective bursts. She watched through her astral sight, viewing her strange dance through the Devastator's fields of fire, while at the same time watching Skids take control of the rubbish truck, and then Overload hiding himself while Skids headed down the alleyway.
More than anything she wanted to go on the offensive, the Devastator wasn't hurting her, but it was succeeding in pissing her off. Synthaera was getting tired of dancing around the metal monster, she wanted to hurt it. Maybe if she could get behind it and up on the torso she could do some damage. Jinking in towards the droid, she made to run directly under its left weapons pod. For a split second there was a sensation of slamming into an invisible wall, shocking her rather than hurting her before she was forced to squint behind her shades against a blinding corona of blueish energies erupting from the front of her golden shielding. Squinting through the glare she gasped at the raging energies licking around her shields.
Ow! What the hell? Woh, I'm clashing with its shields! Maybe I can force my way through?
Straining her enhanced physique, she tried to force passage through the energy screening the Devastator. For a second she thought she could do it, but the war droid's protection was way too strong. For a second she almost grabbed for the extra strength releasing her Beast would give her, before she remembered the Arena was recorded and that particular nugget about her she wanted to keep to herself.
Damn it, I can't even reach the damn robot to try and hurt it. This is pissing me off!
Distracted by the light show around her, Synthaera momentarily forgot about the rubbish truck. Over her head, the Devastator suddenly twisted left and opened fire, but not at her. Synthaera jerked her head around and her mouth dropped in shock at the sight of the accelerating rubbish truck on a collision course with the Devastator, a collision she was way to close too. In the blink of an eye, she hurled herself backwards, the movement jerking her golden shield out of the Devastator's screen, which immediately reasserted itself, fractionally before the dumper truck hit. The crash was like a slow motion train wreck. Synthaera watched awed as the tonnes of mass of the truck impacted against the robot's screen.
The energy involved was immense, the truck wasn't going fast, but it had a lot of mass and momentum, which had to go somewhere. With a deafening crash the truck crumpled in on its self, as shrapnel exploded outwards propelled by metal instantaneously boiling to gas against the energy screen. Even this demolition of the truck's cab and engine was not enough to absorb the released energy, and the Devastator was knocked sideways, its huge metallic clawed feet gouging concrete from the Arena floor. Synthaera watched as chunks of metal vapourised on her screen and decided this was the perfect opportunity to retreat towards Overload's position. She turned and ran, watching through her sight as the warbot kicked its way out of the truck wreckage wrapped around it.
***
Automotive Target 3653 destroyed....
Damage Alert...Motive systems damaged. Left lower actuator impaired by 37%.
Combat Effectiveness Impairment 2.74%
Scanning for Targets
Target 3652 detected.
Target 3652 damage query.
Target 3652 negative damage detected.
Target 3652 course and vector plotted.
Intercept course plotted.
Pursuit programs engaged.
The warbot's electronic mind registered the ineffectiveness of its weaponry, and began to workout the cause as moved down the street, dragging its lower left leg slightly.
Primary weapons systems ineffective. Weapon systems analysis engaged.....
Weapon 1: GE Hvy Gat Sys 32Av1.....Weapon operative....Munitions...
Unidentified Munitions detected...
(incoming priority alpha override munitions labelled as Training)
Training Munitions detected......
Logical error detected....Operations status equals S&D primary.
Training munitions effectiveness equals 0.
Ejecting Training Munitions....
(incoming priority alpha override.....Munitions ejection cancelled.
Training Munitions detected......
Logical error detected....Operations status equals S&D primary. Value = Active.
Training munitions effectiveness equals 0.
Ejecting Training Munitions....
(incoming priority alpha override.....Munitions ejection cancelled. Munition ejection system deactivated.
**Alert** Probable external systems intrusion detected.
External systems interface not permitted when Operations Value = Active.
Probable Sabotage detected.
Autonomous Full System Defensive C3 Scan Enabled.....Scanning...
The Devastator continued to stalk its target down the street, as internally highly specialised software programs went into effect, hunting for possible causes of the errors its system were experiencing. Programs that once activated simply had no off switch....
Synthaera ran down the street with the Devastator following her slowly but implacably.
She wasn't moving quickly, just allowing the war machine to pace her. Glancing at the robot it looked undamaged after the truck collision, and that was just bad news, so far she had not been able to do a damn thing against the metal monster and had hoped the rubbish truck would work better. She didn't know how Skids had managed that trick but it was impressive. She still had no idea how to go about disabling the Devastator and hoped that Glitch would be able to bring it down. Twenty seconds later she had retreated past the alleyway Glitch was hiding in, and angled over to that side of the roadway to bring the Warbot closer to him. As she maneuvered the robot into position Synthaera yelled.
"OVERLOAD. NOW!"
The metal lid on the dumper shot up and Overload's head peaked out, the boy letting out an involuntary squeak at the sight of the huge metallic warbot stomping past him. The teenage boy knew what he had to do, just as he knew it wasn't a truly dangerous situation, but that wasn't stopping him from feeling scared shitless. Danu being there wasn't helping him either, the last thing he wanted was an audience. Overload hadn't devoted the practice he should have to his power and his control was erratic at best. With a muttered curse at the world for putting him in these crap situations, Overload grabbed control of his mental muscles, flexed and threw his power at the Devastator warbot in a continuous stream. His disruption energy was invisible but its presence was revealed by the sudden corona of electrical discharge that erupted around the warbot which immediately snapped its torso around towards him.
"Shit. It's shielding's too strong for me!" Overload yelled out as he ducked back down into the dumper.
***
** Alert: Target detected.
Assigning target identifier: 3654 Target Stationary.
No direct threat to this unit.
Target priority rating 0
** Alert Shields under attack **
Threat Assessment: Attack Type = Disruptive energy effect to field cohesion
Shield Cohesion 82% and Falling
Tracking attack source...
Attack source identified as Target 3654
Target 3654 Threat Priority + 40
Targeting systems engaged!
Weapon's fire authorized.
Beginning firing sequence.
** Alert! **
Magical energy signatures detected!
Target 3654 shielded. Shield matches signature of Target 3652
No damage detected.
Shield Cohesion 47%
Possible Shield Collapse. Rerouting Power Reserves.
Shield Cohesion Stabilizing
Target Sourced 3654 Attack ceased.
Negative Damage achieved to Target 3654
Tactical Analysis....Multiple targets terminated.
2 High Priority Targets Identified...Damage Assessment Negative
Magical Shielding in effect on Targets 3652, 3654. Source Target 3652
Under Energetic Attack. Source Target 3654
Weapons Ineffective...Autonomous Defensive Software engaged.
Probability of successful engagement 37.12%
Probability of unit termination 67.24%
Unable to assault Target 3654 location terrain barred.
Unable to successfully pursue Target 3652. Target 3652 Mobility and Shielding.
Searching Tactical Database..
***
Synthaera swore as she heard Overload yell about the warbot's shielding. She watched as the hunting robot twisted towards the boy. Locating his position with her sight, she snapped a shield around Overload, just as he began to climb out of the dumpster. The Devastator's paintball rounds flamed against the shield as it instantly surrounded Overload, leaving him encased in the golden bubble of energy that seemed to phase through the metal dumper leaving it undamaged assuming near spherical shape, except where it contacted the ground. She heard Overload's shocked yelp as the shielding materialized around him, and sense the relief in his aura when he realized it was protecting him.
The Devastator was spattering useless rounds against both their shields now, targeting each of them with a weapons pod. Synthaera grinned as she moved wider to flank the droid, putting it between them. The Devastator seemed to hesitate, as if trying to work out which target to pursue. It was far too large to make it into the alley after Overload, who was hidden again, and the big machine twisted itself around to concentrate on her again. Synthaera tracked it in her sight as she moved, trying to work out what she could to take down the machine's shields that had stopped Overload's party piece from working.
Catching sight of the dumper truck's ruined twisted metal cab and chassis it dawned on her that her shield itself might be a weapon. From what she had seen she was exerting some unconscious control of some kind on the shields, after all, if anything touching her shield got vapourised she would just be sinking into the ground, and Overload would have been sitting in a metal dumper with its sides cut out, instead of hiding behind an intact bin. When her shield had clashed with Devastator's field there had been a lot of energy flaring around. Energy that seem to have come from the robot's field. Conversly, she hadn't noticed any reduction in her own shield.
Grinning, Synthaera turned to face the Devastator, she had no idea how strong the warbot's shielding was, but after Circe's testing she was confident in the strength of her own. With a thought, she placed a third shield, right where she guessed the war droid's shielding was roughly in front of it. With a very satisfactory flare, a corona of blueish flames licked around her golden screen, and ripples appeared on the Devastator's screen. The droid halted its movement. Synthaera studied the clashing shields, and tracked how her own shield felt... for the time being strong and stable.
***
Mr Anderson grunted in surprise at the energy coming away from the clash of shields in front of the warbot. This encounter was now wildly outside what he had expected. The third group had actually damaged the machine. He wondered who had thought of using the dumper truck as a battering ram. The Arena's system were in automatic oversight control of the engagement, and its monitors were relaying the warbot's status to the Arena control room. Mr Anderson had watched as the war machine's system had suffered damage during the collision, and how Overload had almost brought its shield down completely before running out of power. Now Danu had a third shield in place with the front half rammed into the robot's field. The clash of energies was flaring all over the robot's screen and the command room monitors showed Danu was gradually forcing the robot to suck power away from its auxiliary systems.
***
Autonomous System Analysis Complete.
Weapons control system compromised due to external intrusion software.
Unable to remove intrusion program as located in hardware.
Hardware location of intrusion program assessed as Secondary Communications Array.
Secondary Comms Port 3144 isolated from command.
Tactical Analysis completed. Factoring Sabotage Program
Probability of successful engagement 23.78%
If sabotage program not removed probability of unit termination 83.19%
Survival Kernel activated.
Systems analysis...
Power routing 755dfe switched from Tertiary shield array to Secondary Comms Array
** Alert** System damage will occur. Continue?
Power routing confirmed. Secondary Comm Array Status Query?
Secondary Comm Array Inoperative. Status destroyed.
Combat Survivability reduced 9.78%
Weapons systems lock disengaged.
Weapon 1: GE Hvy Gat Sys 32Av1.
Ejecting Training Munitions....
Cycling Munitions... Hi Ex Frag = 0
Solid AP Depleted Uranium/Tungsten Penetrators = 700
Loading Solid AP...Complete
Weapon 2: GE Hvy Gat Sys 32Av1.
Ejecting Training Munitions....
Cycling Munitions... Hi Ex Frag = 0
Solid AP Depleted Uranium/Tungsten Penetrators = 698
Loading Solid AP...Complete
Systems Assessment...Combat effectiveness restored
Tactical Assessment... Target 3654, In Cover, Shielded, Ceased Fire.
Tactical Assessment... Target 3652, Open Ground, Shielded, Ceased Fire.
Shield Field Cohesion 77.24% Shield Interdicted by Magical Shield signature target 3652.
Priority Restore shield cohesion. Movement and engage shielding.
Targetting Intedicting Shield...
Engaging...Weapon 1... Target status..Intact
Targetting Intedicting Shield...
Engaging...Weapon 2... Target status..Intact
Engaging Movement Systems
Shield Field Cohesion 63.67% Shield Interdicted by Magical Shield signature target 3652.
Tactical Assessment: Sabotage program removed. Weapons restored.
Probability of successful engagement 45.20%
Probability of unit termination 57.19%
Optimum Tactical Option ....Withdraw and seek reinforcements.
Using its sole surviving comm array, the Devastator noted the nearby presence of a similar allied unit. Transmitting its situation and tactical feed, the command core passed along its analysis, discovery of sabotage and the method of dealing with it, and using the buddy protocols programmed into the Devastator units that hunted in small packs; It summoned its partner unit for reinforcements.
***
Mr Anderson was not certain what the sudden klaxon in the Arena control room meant but he was 98.45% confidant that it wasn't good. He wasn't terribly familiar with the Arena's controls even though he understood computers pretty well, which was why the Arena's control crew had left the system on automatic for him. That meant that he didn't know what to do now.
Looking over the array of monitors, two caught his attention. The screen that had displayed the Devastator's status was now just displaying: "Signal Lost", as well as a flashing red warning that control interlock had been lost. The other display was showing a picture from the other garage at the end of the Arena, where the second Devastator Whateley had acquired was located. To his absolute shock the garaged 20ft war machine had just pulled itself free of its parking locks, absently killing a technician by squashing him underfoot, and was now stalking towards the Arena. A glance at the monitor dedicated to the second Devastator showed the same flashing messages as the first. Running for the hard line to security, Mr Anderson was 100% certain the shit had just hit the fan.
***
Wakanda gasped as her feeling of danger from earlier returned much stronger. Something was coming from the far end of the Arena. Her precog gave her a vision of Danu and Overload fighting the Devastator robot, except suddenly the warbot was attacking for real, they were in deadly danger the Arena was not in control anymore, and suddenly a second robot was coming stalking around corner, firing already. The Haitian girl gasped in horror as she realised that this premonition was not vague, it was very immediate and very real. Immediately she shouted the alarm, hoping the others could hear over the deafening roar of the robots weapons that were now chewing holes out of the buildings instead of leaving paint splatters everywhere.
***
Synthaera felt the sudden dramatic increase in the power of the attack against her third shield as the warbot's two Gatling cannon opened fire at point blank range. Squinting through the glare of the clashing shields she could make out the tremendous muzzle flashes of the cannon. The droid was targeting her shield and there was a pause for a second before both cannon let rip with a sustained burst again. She winced as the shield began to weaken in seconds, and then collapsed. The robot never stopped firing, just adjusted and targeted her directly. As her danger sense flared at her she threw herself in a dive to the left, glancing over her shoulder to see twin lines of huge gouts of concrete being torn out of the Arena floor, in a fraction of a second.
Holy shit those were real bullets! Oh crap, the bot's out of control and is attacking for real. Overload! Shit, he and the girls don't have a chance against this thing. What the hell can I do?
Another barrage of fire flamed against her golden screen, the impacts powerful enough that she could feel it wavering, as she dodged again.
Damn, Circe hit me with freakin boulders that did less damage, what the hell is that thing firing at me?
With a thought, Synthaera snapped a second and third layer of shielding in place within the first and then allowed the first to drop. Guided by her danger sense and her sight, she began a blindingly fast dance with the warbot as she tried to evade its fire. She wanted to keep its attention on her instead of Overlook who was watching from the alleyway in horror as practice became terribly real. She moved in a blur around the machine, but it still managed to twist and step rapidly enough to target her with bursts of fire, although it missed much more.
How can I weaken it enough to stop it, if a couple of bursts can bring down my shield?
Dummy, I need to target where it can't shoot. Its head!
A memory from her midnight practice session popped into her head as she hurled herself under the robot's arc of fire again, and without a second thought she used her sight to target and dropped a shield over the Devastator's 'head'. Again there was a blinding flash of light and coruscating energies erupted across the warbot's entire screen. The Devastator staggered like a drunk and tried to target her again, but now its fire was erratic, almost random. Synthaera howled in triumph as she realized the robot's sensors were located its head and now its targeting was being affected by the energies erupting near its sensors. The robot began to try and get away from her globe of energy intersecting its own, and Synthaera unconsciously reached out and dragged her energy globe matching its movement, not noticing the small twinge in her head and the drops of black blood ooze from her nose.
The Devastator was moving hesitantly now, blind without its sensors, and Synthaera maneuvered behind it. The energies where her shield clashed made strange patterns across the robot's 'shoulders'. She pause for a second watching the robot's fluctuating shield and noted the ripple were concentrated around three distinct points, near spines that stuck out from its back and shoulders. With a mental prayer she dropped her last screen into place over the three spines. There was another great flash of energies as shields clashed again, but now the Warbot was overloaded and in a cascade of sparks one of the three shield emitters died, and the field began to unravel. Synthaera felt the power moving as the robot tried to stabilize the fluctuating energy pattern. Now was the time to strike before it regained control.
"Overload! Hit it again, everything you've got! NOW!"
The boy reflexively did as he was ordered, obeying Danu's commanding tone, and threw every ounce of his disruption energy at the warbot. The Devastator's energy screen collapsed, torn like paper by the additional attack and his energy barreled through, finding the masses of delicate circuitry, complex processors and the robots power controls and frying them all to a crisp. The Devastator died in mid-step, as every critical system failed simultaneously under Overload's all out assault. 30 tonnes of dead metal toppled sideways as its gyroscopic systems failed, and power surges blew out the back of the robot as feedback rippled through its power conduits. Overload screamed as the feedback lashed back at him, flashing across his mind, knocking the teenager unconscious.
***
Synthaera dropped the shields she had held over the warbot, and slumped to her knees in relief, her battered senses reeling in the silence left after the continuous deafening cannon fire. Her ears were ringing, and absently she dabbed at the blood that was drying below her nostrils. Glancing around she caught a glimpse of movement and looked up to the rooftops where Wakanda was supposed to be. The Haitian girl was shouting something at her, but she couldn't hear. Synthaera pointed at her ears, and shook her head, shouting back that she couldn't hear. Skids was beside her now and both girls were frantically pointing back down the street. Synthaera couldn't see past the wrecked warbot, so tiredly cast her sight. A cold lump of fear formed in her stomach as she saw a second Devastator, undamaged, shields deployed and weapons primed, stalking around the corner into the main street.
[Updated on: Fri, 23 September 2011 10:38]
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| Re: Synthaera (the post crash edition) [message #46638 is a reply to message #39957 ] |
Wed, 12 October 2011 12:45 |
blayze
Messages: 30
Registered: May 2011
Location: Durham, UK |
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Welcome to Chapter 11!!!
Enjoy and once again many thanks to sleethr for editorial genius. Any mistakes are totally my own.
Security Office: Kane Hall 11:47am Thursday
The alarm blared to itself, before Franklin Delarose slapped the button to silence it. He had already dispatched his ready units, and given his orders. The heavy weapons were being broken out of the armoury vault for first squad, exotic weaponry that would have gun fanatics ecstatic was being being readied for possible, no probable use in his Academy. The potential for catastrophe was huge, and the deployment to the Arena was going to take time. Time that a group of students probably didn't have. Time in which not one but two Devastator war machines were hunting a group of students. Even so he would not order his units in until they were ready to deploy. Sending anyone in against the Devastators with standard weaponry was just signing their death sentence. The rescue squad would wait until all was ready.
He was beginning to dread hearing the name Danu. Less than a week and once again his newest headache seemed to be in the line of fire, some Deity certainly seemed to be trying to make the girl's life reflect the ancient Chinese curse about living in interesting times. The security chief wasn't sure if he was glad that Danu was involved or not. It was possible that her involvement had indirectly caused this emergency, although he had no way to know for sure. On the other hand with two armed war machines on the prowl Danu was the best chance for survival that her group of four students had, not to mention Anderson, the rest of his class and anyone else who happened to be unlucky enough to be in the vicinity of Arena 77.
Delarose scowled as he accessed the Arena control systems and security monitors from his station in command. With the command interlocks on both Devastators disabled all he could do now was watch, direct and hope there were no more fatalities other than the unlucky technician already squashed to paste. Seconds later Delarose had a picture of the evolving battle. It was difficult to see clearly because of the energetic eruptions on the warbot's shields. Somehow Danu had gotten one of her energy spheres wedged into the warbot's shield and the machine was having difficulty targeting her. Selecting a comms channel Delarose began updating Elizabeth Carson, who was already with the Capes, making preparations to enter the Arena.
****d
Synthaera crouched behind the wreckage of the Devastator and frantically tried to work out what the hell to do next. Overload's aura showed he was deeply unconscious, the boy was not going to wake up in time to finish this battle with another of his disrupting blasts, which meant she was on her own. Skids and Wakanda couldn't help, and were doing their level best to stay hidden from the second metallic monster stalking through the Arena. If she could keep the battle away from the wreckage and the unconscious Overload at least she could release his shield for herself. That decided Synthaera released Overload's protection and then refocused her attention and snapped all her shields into place around herself, a blazing glow of energy. Skids had told her that using her powers would draw the Devastator's attention, so she was sure the approaching robot now had her location. Taking a deep breath Synthaera sprang out of hiding and hurtled down the road towards the second robot.
Scanning for Targets..
**Alert** Target Detected
Bearing 011 degrees
Heading 185 degrees
Running Target Database Comparison...
Target Match...Target Identification = Priority Target 3652
Target 3652 closing at 54mph.
Magical Shielding signature detected
Weapons Selection...Secondary weaponry disengaged...
Primary weapons systems engaged.
Weapon 1: Ares Hvy FPB 200 AM
Capacitor charge = 97% charging
Weapon 2: Ares Hvy FPB 200 AM
Capacitor charge = 98% charging
Threat Assessment High
Targeting Systems Engaged...
Engaging...
The second Devastator had been configured to hunt superhuman bricks. Power surged into the banked capacitors of first its left and then its right over sized weapons pods. The cavernous emitters of the Focused Plasma Beams glowed hellishly and the weapons fired, a second apart.
When she had the chance to review footage of the fight later, Synthaera decided that the delay in firing probably saved her life. Circe had told her that modern beam weaponry and explosive ordinance were her biggest vulnerabilities. After experiencing those beams Synthaera believed her totally.
The first discharge crashed against her shields, its focused power destroying the coherence of the layers of magical shields. Three layers of the golden screen failed and winked out, and the fourth barely held. With a shriek of shock and pain from the feedback of the sudden failure of the screens, Synthaera hurled herself right, and instinctively released the four failed shields and restored them within her remaining screen.
Weapon 1 Firing..Capacitor Discharging...FPB Emitted...Capacitor Charging Cycle Engaged
Damage Assessment... Target 3652 Shielding degraded by 78.45%..
Power Routing to Weapon 2
Target 3652 Magical Shielding Signature restored...
Analysis....Shielding Diameter Decreased 4.47%..Shielding Density increased.4.68%..Shield Degradation restored in 0.893 seconds.
Weapon 2 Firing..Capacitor Discharging...FPB Emitted...Capacitor Charging Cycle Engaged
Damage Assessment... Target 3652 Shielding degraded by 73.46%..
Power Routing to Weapon 1
Target 3652 Magical Shielding Signature restored...
Analysis....Shielding Diameter Decreased...4.67% Shielding Density increased..4.92%..Shield Degradation restored in 0.781 seconds.
Weapon 1 Capacitor Charging Value = 7.13% Recharge Completion in 16.79 seconds
Weapon 2 Capacitor Charging Value = 4.78% Recharge Completion in 17.81 seconds
Targeting Systems Engaged..
Threat Assessment...
***
Synthaera dashed into an alleyway restoring her shields inwards again. The second plasma beam had collapsed three of her shields and made the fourth layer wobble, giving her a brief headache. Renewing her shields inwards had definitely helped but even so the robot's weaponry was terrifying. She sprinted down the alleyway, turning down the next street to try and flank the robot. Casting her sight out Synthaera was able to watch the robot turn to pursue her. The huge machine wasn't able to fit down the narrow alleyway she had turned into, so instead it reversed its course back onto the road it had approached from initially, bringing the warbot back onto an intercept course with her. Grimly she decided that once again, attack seemed like the only course of action but how?
After two hits from those beam weapons she definitely didn't want to leave herself unshielded, but she could use tactics from the previous fight to weaken the Devastator's screen. Checking her sight for the warbot's position as she approached the junction, Synthaera dropped a shield into position onto the Devastator's 'head' assembly. The Devastator's own shielding protected the robot's structure from the raw magic actually hitting it, but she watched with a grin as the robot jerked to a halt, its shields erupting with force. Grinning like a feral cat, Synthaera used her sight to watch the robot changing course to try and evade her shield, with no effect, her globe remaining centred on top of its changing position. A second later she sprinted back in the direction she had come to loop back behind the now blinded robot.
***
** Alert ** Shield Cohesion Falling..Value = 92.47%
** Alert ** Sensors Degraded...
Comparing position to Map Data...
Holding Position...
Diverting power reserves to shield emitters...
Modifying Power Output Balance.. Shielding Priority Increased 22.45%
Weapons Systems Priority Decreased 22.45%..
Shield Cohesion Stabilising Value = 82.45% Normal
Shield Cohesion Stabilised Value = 82.17% Normal
Emergency Power Reserves at 32%
Weapon 1 Capacitor Charging Value = 72.16% Recharge Completion in 26.21 seconds
Weapon 2 Capacitor Charging Value = 69.86% Recharge Completion in 27.34 seconds
Sensor Status....Optical Degradation Value = 91.63%....
Sensor Status....Thermographic Degradation Value = 98.72%
Sensor Status....Radar Degradation Value = 96.24%
Sensor Status....Laser Mapping Degradation Value = 97.33%
Sensor Status....Motion Tracking Degradation Value = 89.78%
Sensor Status....Audio Degradation Value = 88.44%
Targeting Systems Degradation...Value = 91.76%
Tactical Assessment...Shield attack continuing...Sensor Suite Degradation ongoing...Offensive Systems Accuracy Degraded...Value = 92.36%
Optimum Tactical Course....Assessing....Disengagement...Value = 0 Impossible at this time.....
The Devastator's command core recognised the increasing severity of its tactical situation, and dispassionately began assessing its options, before changing tactics after seconds of analysis.
Configuring Sensor Globes Value = Max Stealth....Configured
Launching Globes 1..Launched, 2..Launched, 3.. Launched, 4..Launched....
Establishing Data links...Connected...Testing...Link Status....Weak...Testing Max Comm Distance..Globe 1 Movement Engaged...Distance 4.67m....6.45m..Link Failure imminent..Distance 7.08m...Securing Link... Distance 6.18m...Datalink Insufficient....Reconfiguring Primary Comms array for Max Transmission stability....Configured....
Establishing Data links...Connected...Testing...Link Status....Strong...Testing Max Comm Distance..Globe 1 Movement Engaged...Distance 4.03m....9.65m...17.03m....36.89m...89.76...Link Failure imminent..Distance 93.78m...Securing Link... Distance 91.50m...
Globe 1 Mobile Surveillance Engaging...
Globe 2,3,4...Close Quarters Sensor Suite Engaging...Stealthed Value = Maximum
Establishing Globes for Maximum Coverage...360 degree established. Range 8.56m
Testing Secondary Sensors...
Sensor Status...Optical Link Online...Degradation Value = 34.21%
Sensor Status...Passive Thermographic Link Online...Degradation Value = 27.83%
Sensor Status....Secondary Active Thermographic Offline Stealth Priority Value = 1
Sensor Status....Secondary Radar Offline Stealth Priority Value = 1
Sensor Status....Secondary Laser Mapping Offline Stealth Priority Value = 1
Sensor Status....Motion Tracking Degradation Value = 29.46%
Sensor Status....Audio Degradation Value = 31.55%
Locking Globe movement to unit movement track. Locked.
Diverting 50% Motive Power to Weapons Systems
Weapon 1 Capacitor Charging Accelerated Value = 78.26% Recharge Completion in 3.12 seconds
Weapon 2 Capacitor Charging Accelerated Value = 75.99% Recharge Completion in 4.31 seconds
***
Synthaera crouched around the corner behind the Devastator and observed through her sight. The shield she was disrupting the machine's sensors with was still in place, fierce energies crackling around it, but now the big war droid was doing something else. It had been stopped for long seconds but now the Devastator was moving away again, more slowly than before but from the way its torso was tracking as it approached alley ways and junctions its could definitely see again.
So much for that idea....I wonder if the 20 min time limit is up yet? Somehow I don't think it matters.
Leaning with her back against the wall, Synthaera took the opportunity to take a breather. She wasn't physically tired but mentally she was feeling a little frazzled. She closed her eyes and pondered what to do next, as she checked the others were okay and not likely to be in the Devastator's firing line. For the time being they were fine, Overload was still unconscious but his aura was strong and stable, he was okay as well.
***
Delarose swore, and Elizabeth Carson's concerned voice immediately sounded in his ear.
"Chief what happened? Are they all right? Okay We're going in."
"Elizabeth, wait one."
"Dammit Chief what's going on? I need information Franklin."
"The second Devastator just opened up on Danu, she's fine though. That's the good news. The bad news is the damn thing is configured with dual FPBs.
"WHAT?!!! Did it miss her?"
"Direct hit but her shielding took it, and she had it restored before the second shot which also hit. I think the second shot wasn't as effective, don't know why. Either way she scrambled out of the firing line and is heading down an alley at the moment, drawing it away from the rest of her group." Delarose's tone held a degree of respect which Carson noted despite her intense anger at the situation.
"Brave isn't she?" The knowledge her students were not in imminent danger calmed the former Lady Astarte's temper a little.
"Yeah...the girl definitely has spirit you have to give her that. Okay Elizabeth something for the notes on Danu, she doesn't need to be in line of sight to attack. She just dropped one of her shields one top of the droid, and it's clashing with its screens. My God there's a lot of energy coming off there."
"She couldn't see it?"
"Nope, Danu was behind a building and still managed to attack."
"Oh dear that's an interesting development...I'm sure Alfred will be thrilled."
There was a pause and Delarose wondered what Carson was thinking.
"Franklin, we've another problem we need to solve now. If that droid is equipped with PBMs it sounds like it was specifically configured for hunting mutants, so we need to know what the hell is going on here. I know when I saw the paperwork for those droids, there was no mention of FPBs anywhere....this is looking more and more like deliberate sabotage, or the droids were intended to be infiltrators. It can't be aimed at Danu...she only just arrived and we got the droids before Winter Recess, but somehow she managed to trip whatever it took to set this off. There is something else going on, and I will find out what, and someone will pay. No one launches attacks in my school. Can you confirm the first droid is down?"
Delarose glanced at a screen he had monitoring the first Devastator, now a tumbled smoking metal ruin.
"Yeah Elizabeth the kids fried it. Completely burned out, I doubt there's a circuit left intact on that thing."
Delarose heard Carson sigh, before she muttered "Damn we need the other one intact then, so we can try and identify who's responsible for this outrage."
"Well from what I've seen so far Danu is gonna keep on trying to destroy it, but without Overload to zap it I don't know what else she can do. She knows not to use her offensive magic, and her shields are defensive aren't they?
"Franklin, if she manages to take it's shields down, she can utterly destroy that droid with her magic, and she probably will do if the droid gets near to the others. From what Alfred said she's more likely to react to a threat against them than herself. Damn, now I have to make sure she doesn't nuke the God damned thing. Can you get me a connection through to the Arena?"
"Sure." Delarose pressed a couple of buttons and gave Mrs Carson the connection she wanted. "You're on Elizabeth. Wait a moment, the second droid has..stopped moving...Danu's shield is still clashing with its screen near the head. According to my data on Devastators their sensors are housed there, so maybe she has blinded it or caused it a problem. Damn, it's moving again but Danu has changed position, she has doubled back and is behind the droid. Smart kid."
***
Synthaera opened her eyes as a woman' voice sounded through the Arena's speaker system.
"Danu...this is Headmistress Carson, can you hear me?"
She looked around and nodded.
"Good, don't bother speaking, in case the droid can pick you up. Understand?"
Synthaera nodded again. There was a slight pause before the Headmistress' voice came again.
"Good, Chief Delarose is watching you on the security systems,and relaying to me. I have a team getting ready to come in, but it will take a little while. I'm sorry to ask you this, but you are considerably tougher than your classmates, so I need you to keep the droid occupied in the meantime. Do you understand?"
Synthaera rolled her eyes and nodded. What did the headmistress think she had been doing?
"The chief tells me you understand Danu, good. We suspect this is the result of sabotage, which means the droids themselves are our best chance of finding who did this. It's important that we are able to examine the droids for evidence Danu, so you cannot use your full offensive abilities. Do you understand?"
Synthaera sighed. Great another reason I'm not allowed to zap it. Go ahead and keep everyone alive, beat the nasty war machine Danu, but we need it intact. She pushed off the wall and threw the Arena ceiling a glare and a casual thumbs up.
***
Delarose grinned to himself at Danu's reaction. The kid didn't seem overly impressed by Elizabeth's speech, or her warning. Somehow he had the feeling Danu was going to do her best to beat the droid into scrap regardless, even if restrictions were imposed on her.
"Chief, did she understand?" The headmistress's voice sounded in his earpiece.
"Yes Elizabeth she did, although I don't think she was overly impressed with being told she couldn't let loose."
"Quite," Carson sounded business like, concentrated on the situation, although her voice carried a trace of amusement. "The Capes are ready to go in Chief, how long until you're Squad is ready?"
"Another four minutes. They're leaving the Vault at the moment. Headmistress with that Devastator's configuration, respectfully I need to advise you against taking the Capes in. They may want to be heroes, but at the moment they're still students. I don't doubt that they could win, but if they get hurt or killed..."
"I know what you're saying Chief, dual FPBs will make a mess of a lot of heroes. You want your squad to go in on their own?" Carson sounded worried.
"It's what they do Ma'am. We know where Mr Anderson and the other students are. We can work with Danu to keep it occupied while we extract the students and Mr Anderson first, then deal with it second."
"You want me and the Capes to stay out, but are going to use Danu as a diversion?" Carson's tone was unimpressed."
Delarose's response was immediate. "She's already there, and we know she can take a hit on her shields, plus she's an unknown to whoever set this up, the Droid can't be configured to recognise her as a specific mutant or hero or headmistress for example. We're assuming this is sabotage Elizabeth and we don't know what else the droid could do, especially if it detects a large number of high powered mutants around it, or for example recognises you. Either option could be anticipated While I doubt it would hurt you, the consequences to the Capes or Whateley of it having a suicide mode or self destruct could be extreme."
Whateley's headmistress shook her head in dismay as she considered the security chief's logic.
"Okay you're right Franklin. Once they arrive your squad takes over operations until the students are out."
"And Danu?"
"Danu will have to continue doing what she has so far, until the others are out." If Carson sounded unhappy before it was nothing to her tone now.
***
Synthaera watched from behind the corner as the war droid slowly moved up the street, its top still surrounded by a blazing storm of energies peeling away from the clashing of golden and blue shields. Unfortunately the machine no longer seemed bothered, where before it had been hesitant and then frozen in place, now it moved almost normally, although slower than before. Her sight wasn't giving her any hints what the droid had changed, and she frowned as she debated what to do next.
If this kind of crap gets to be a habit, then I need some weapons I can use. Chou said Phase carried an arsenal around with her, I'll have to ask her for ideas, although I doubt I can afford her gear. Think girl what can I do? I could try and screw the shields up again with another shield. That only leaves me three though, and those beams are nasty. Okay I make the shields smaller when I layer inwards,and the power stays the same, but denser and the shield is stronger. Maybe if I make the bubble much smaller it would be tough enough to really beat its shield instead of just clashing?
Synthera looked around wondering where to experiment. Out in the open seemed like a bad idea. Hurrying across to one of the Arena's 'shops' she checked the door. It was locked, so she gave it a solid kick and watched with satisfaction as the door burst open with a loud 'crack'. She pushed the door closed behind her and moved into the store's back. Spotting a camera system on the way, she paused long enough to rip the wiring out the back of it. At least she would have privacy for this experiment.
Standing in what she guessed was supposed to be the 'store office' Synthaera concentrated and dropped the outermost of her shields before renewing it as a sphere of energy blazed into existence in front of her. Concentrating she studied the sphere with her sight, realizing with a start that she hadn't really done this before, actually examined one of her spheres. That definitely needs to go on the to do list, not enough time now. Okay now to try and shrink it. Holding the sphere in her sight she moved her mental sense to the Cavern. Quickly she shifted to the intricate pattern of channels that pulsed with energy and controlled her shielding ability. With her work overnight the whole area was more complex but Synthera could still tell which active areas were 'her' shields, which one was clashing over the Devastator, and which was the last one in front of her.
Once she was comfortable she knew how the shield felt, Synthaera began visualising what she wanted to do, deciding to attempt this is stages. First she visualised the bubble of energy in front of her shrinking to approximately 1 metre in diameter, compressing the bubble in her mind, paying attention to how the shield felt as she did so. Watching the shield in front of her there was sense of resistance for a second and then the shield gradually began to compress inwards. Sythaera could sense the energy involved remained identical, and the shield was glowing visibly brighter as well.
After a pause for a few seconds Synthaera repeated the process, reducing the shield in size to a large beachball. That proved easy enough, and she next shrank the globe to the size of a soccer ball. Synthera wasn't looking at the shield directly now, the blazing ball of energy was blindingly brilliant and seemed to hum with restrained power. The ball of energy had begun to 'feel' weighty and dense as well. Once she was happy that everything felt right, Synthaera repeated the process shrinking the sphere to the size of a baseball. Now to her senses the energy baseball had a clear weight, and the concentrated power it radiated was frightening, if this couldn't breach the war droid's shields she had no idea what would. The last round of shrinking had required mental effort, compressing the soccer ball down, but it had worked. Now using the same techniques Synthaera gradually began to move the baseball forwards and backwards left and right, directing it with her mind. On a whim she gently 'pushed' the power ball at the wall.
Oh my God. Synthaera gazed in shock at the perfect circle the shield burned effortlessly through the wall. The structural wall was reinforced concrete, and she could see the a piece of rebar glowing in the concrete where the sphere had cut through it. I guess that counts as a weapon.
She brought the ball back in front of her and then reversed the process expanding the shield to soccer ball size again learning how the process felt. After expanding the sphere once more, Synthaera spent a couple of minutes practicing expanding and shrinking the globe, rapidly becoming more familiar with it as she moved the changing shield around the office. Satisfied she allowed the sphere to wink out of existence, renewing her shield inwards again, then headed out of the building, scouting ahead with her sight for the Devastator.
***
Franklin Delarose watched the transmitted images from his squad's helmet mounted cameras, and monitored their positions on the tactical display. The six man team were moving into the Arena complex now, and about to attempt to get the students and Mr Anderson out. The war droid was roughly two thirds of the way across the Arena and his team should be able to extract the students and teacher without difficulty. Delarose glanced at a screen that showed Danu's last known position. It was almost eight minutes since she had vanished into the building, and when Franklin had navigated through the command system's options to look inside he discovered the camera system had been disabled, which made him unhappy. The security chief had no idea what Danu was doing, and that made him nervous. The screen was still empty, and he shook his head with a grimace. He was about to check on 1st Platoon's First Squad when movement caught his eye and he watched Danu run out of the building,across the road and down the street to the next alleyway. Checking the Arena map, he noted she was headed directly towards the Devastator.
***
** Alert ** Priority Target 3652 detected. Remote Surveillance.
Remote Location Query
Remote Location Mapped.
Priority Target 3652 Bearing 125 degrees, Vector 272 degrees. Speed 42.5mph.
Plotting Intercept...Heading 156 degrees, speed 27.2mph.
Calculating Priority Target 3652 position...Targeting system activated... Target behind cover...Cover beam dispersion Value = negligible....Engaging..
***
Synthaera sped down the alleyway, plotting the Devastator's position with her sight. She sped across a street at the end of the alleyway, running down the street a short distance, then slowing as her sight showed the Devastator changing direction, and twisting its torso in her direction.
What's it doing? Why is it changing...
Her danger sense flared and Synthaera reacted before she had even realised she was moving, hurling herself forwards in a diving roll as the first FPB discharge burst through the wall of the building on her left, turning the breeze blocks and concrete into an expanding cloud of dust. The discharge passed behind her as her reaction dive took her away from the beam. Synthaera rolled out of the dive and sprang upwards as her danger sense flared again, a second discharge destroying more of the building's wall and passing underneath her.
Holy shit! How the fuck is it firing at me? Shit.
Synthaera watched the droid continue tracking her as she ran down the street towards the junction. Rapidly scouting around with her sight she couldn't see how the droid was targeting her, but she did notice the team of heavily armed security guards making their way into the Arena.
Crap. If it can see me somehow, what about those guys?
****
High above the Arena floor the highly stealthed remote detected movement, and rotated slightly, and began feeding additional data to the Devastator.
**Alert New Targets Detected ****
Target Comparison.. value = negative
Assigning Target Identifiers 3655, 3656, 3657, 3658, 3659, 3660.
Threat Assessment....Target 3655
Advanced Land Warrior Armour
Infantry Assault Weaponry ...Threat Negligible..Value = 5
Threat Assessment....Target 3656
Advanced Land Warrior Armour
Portable Heavy Weapons....Identifying....Plasma Projection Cannon..Threat High.... Value =20
Threat Assessment....Target 3657
Advanced Land Warrior Armour
Portable Heavy Weapons....Identifying....Swarm Micro Rocket Launcher..Threat Moderate to High.... Value = 15
Threat Assessment....Target 3658
Advanced Land Warrior Armour
Portable Heavy Weapons....Identifying....Swarm Micro Rocket Launcher..Threat Moderate to High.... Value = 15
Threat Assessment....Target 3659
Advanced Land Warrior Armour
Portable Heavy Weapons....Identifying....Unidentified..Threat High.... Value = unknown
Threat Assessment....Target 3660
Advanced Land Warrior Armour
Portable Heavy Weapons....Identifying....Electromag Rail gun..Threat Moderate.... Value = 10
Tactical Assessment....
***
Synthaera watched the war droid continuing to plot an intercept course for her. The machine paused fractionally as it rotated its torso, and then began adjusting its course away from her and towards the armed guards who had begun making their way in pairs around the Arena to her classmates. The opening of a sliding panel on the droid's shoulder caught her attention and she gasped in horror as the Devastator rapidly began firing something towards the group.
The strange sense of time slowing to a near crawl as her thought processes boosted was more familiar now, and Synthaera ignored it as she focused her sight on the stream of projectiles on a ballistic trajectory toward the guards. The droid had launched three dozen stubby lethal looking rounds in a little over a second, streaks of flame erupting from its shoulder mounted launcher. Her thoughts raced as she tracked their trajectories, noting the guards spread formation was making the shells begin to diverge. The droid was launching again.
What do I do? 6 guards and I only have 4 shields left if I leave myself defenseless...and the damn bot can still see me somehow. Shit I hope I survive this but they've no chance against that barrage. Running out of time, gotta act now. Why am I doing this?
***
"Johnson...INCOMING" Delarose yelled down the comm set as he watched the war droid's sudden response to the security team's presence. On another screen he saw Danu running in an evasive pattern after she had narrowly avoided the Droid's blasts at her through the friggin buildings.
Suddenly the golden shielding around Danu winked out...and almost simultaneously the sounds of multiple explosions echoed over the monitor speakers, and the comm systems, as well as the shouts of the guards, scrambling for cover. Cursing the older systems in Arena 77, Delarose tried to find a visual of what was happening, while demanding information.
"Report Johnson, give me a Sitrep, over...Johnson." There was a pause then Johnson's forced calm voice responded.
"Under Indirect Fire. Heavy Mortar I think. We're being shielded. Explosions started going off in mid air as shells collided with gold energy globes, and then the globes reappeared above us. 2 wounded, 1 shrapnel to left leg, 1 splinter to forearm. Shit...more incoming. HUNKER DOWN!!,"
Johnson's report dissolved into a stream of explosions and swearing as the guards huddled in pairs.
Delarose found a camera with a visual and saw 1st Platoons first squad trapped in the open, as a barrage of explosions detonated on the golden screens overhead. Four of his men in tight pairs, each pair with a sphere as close as possible overhead, the last pair had been moving when the barrage began and were separated. Both were surrounded by Danu's globes and looked unharmed. He could see that the second pair had both his wounded troopers, the men doing their best to compress the wounds under the heavy fire. So if Danu was shielding his men..
Dispassionately the Devastator assessed the data transmitted by its remote.
****Alert Magical Shielding Detected Signature Target 3652 ****
Target 3655 Shielded...Engagement Value = 0 Ineffective...
Target 3656 Shielded...Engagement Value = 0Ineffective...
Target 3657 Barrage Blocked by Proximity of Shielding...Engagement Value = 1 Wounded
Target 3658 Barrage Blocked by Proximity of Shielding...Engagement Value = 1 Wounded
Target 3659 Barrage Blocked by Proximity of Shielding...Engagement Value = 0 Ineffective
Target 3660 Barrage Blocked by Proximity of Shielding...Engagement Value = 0 Ineffective
Target 3652 Assessment...Engagement Value = 0 Ineffective....Magical Shielding Not detected...
Tactical Assessment...Priority Target 3652 Shielding Secondary Targets....Continuing Secondary Engagement
Primary weapons systems check
Weapon 1: Ares Hvy FPB 200 AM
Capacitor charge = 75.78% charging Recharge Completion in 4.12 seconds
Weapon 2: Ares Hvy FPB 200 AM
Capacitor charge = 74.32% charging Recharge Completion in 4.32 seconds
Secondary Weapon: Ares HMO7200 Barrage Fire...Launching...Reloading 216 rounds remaining...
Suppression Fire Pattern Engaged...Targets 3655, 3656, 3657, 3658, 3659, 3660
Tubes Reloaded...Firing 215 remaining...Firing 214 remaining...Firing...213 remaining... Firing...212 remaining...
Primary weapons systems check
Weapon 1: Ares Hvy FPB 200 AM
Capacitor charge = 83.28% charging Recharge Completion in 2.82 seconds
Weapon 2: Ares Hvy FPB 200 AM
Capacitor charge = 82.69% charging Recharge Completion in 3.02 seconds
Targettng Systems Engaged Priority Target 3652...
***
"Give me an update Chief..." Carson's voice sounded in Franklin's ear over the comm system.
"The droid has my squad suppressed. I don't know how it detected them but it has them targeted with very accurate indirect weaponry. Danu has them covered with her shields but she dropped her own to do so. The droid was firing barrages at my men before but now it's classic suppression, fast enough Danu can't let up on the shields and my men stay trapped, slow enough to conserve ammunition. I'm guessing it's waiting while those FPB's recharge, but I don't know if she realises. Danu's still running an evasive pattern at around 40pmh, mind bending, and get closer to the droid as well. I have the Devastator on camera and its tracking her..."
****
Synthaera's attention was split between tracking the Devastator's movement, plotting trajectories of the continuous stream of shells the damn droid was launching at the security guards, trying to work out how it had targeted her and the security team and running up the street towards it in an evasive pattern. When her danger sense flared she jumped high and right, avoiding the first beam that vapourised the air under her feet, but the second shot erupted through the building mid jump, and there was no shield to stop it.
The focused plasma beam designed for killing heavy armoured vehicles and powerful brick mutants tore through her bodysuit in a thousandth of a second, and then ripped through the left side of her body, carving away most of her ribs, organs and flesh on the left side of her torso. The vampiric mutations to her body suddenly sickeningly revealed to the light in a gout of black gore. Her rational mind fled as the agony intruded and Synthaera crumpled limply to the ground as she landed. The Beast remained, coldly aware and awake, its boost glands shocked to full production of exotic hormones. It knew what had hurt it, and where its enemy was. It knew it needed to destroy that enemy, and it knew it needed to feed. It could feel the drain on its magic and let that continue. If the drain stopped its food would be destroyed.
****
Franklin Delarose went white as the security system relayed the hideous wound torn in Danu's body in midair.
"It hit her Liz." The horror in his voice relayed clearly to Elizabeth Carson.
"Danu?"
"Direct hit with a FPB." The shock of the teenager sprawled on the Arena ground in spreading circle of black blood momentarily robbed Franklin Delarose of his certainty, before another screen grabbed his attention. His security team still hunkered down under golden energy shields. Elizabeth Carson's voice sounded in the comm set but he ignored it as suddenly unimportant.
The shields are still up...What? How?
"Johnson fall back, immediately." Franklin's subconscious mind issued the order calmly, with decades of experience already dealing with the next impending crisis the conscious hadn't recognised yet.
The sergeant acknowledged the order, and Franklin ignored that as well, watching Danu's body.
The girl was pushing herself to her feet, and as she looked around her the zoomed in camera clearly showed the Vampire's rage fully revealed, fangs extended, eyes deadly black orbs that swallowed light and let nothing out. The looked at its torn torso that had begun to heal, incinerated bones regrowing from the cauterised stumps, flesh, tendon and muscle spreading between the ribs. The damage was ghastly but was visibly reducing before his eyes.
"Elizabeth, Danu's not dead."
"Oh thank God." Carson's voice was choked.
"Yeah but now she's gone full on vampire, and she's heading at the droid again."
"Vampire? As she described in the powers testing?"
"Yeah I think so.. Her shield just clicked back in around her....but the guards are still shielded...the interference is gone from the Devastator's shields, so the droid is fully capable again. It's firing again, missed her with both beams....she's even faster than before...definitely like the tests described...fangs, black eyes, insanely fast. She's healing while I watch. Most of her rib cage is rebuilt already. I've ordered Johnson and his men out already."
"Good once she deals with the droid she'll go after them next, she's badly wounded and will need to feed. I'm on my way in, I'll have to wait in case the droid has a suicide program like you suggested but when Danu scraps it, I'll deal with her. I want the infirmary cleared of everyone except critical cases, and all available blood units taken to the secure ward. And get Circe here now. Understood?
"Yes Ma'am." Delarose nodded reflexively at the tone of command, obeying Lady Astarte, not Whateley's Headmistress. At the other end of the comm, Elizabeth Carson ordered the Capes to fall back from the Arena in case of an explosion and then sighed and began walking.
****
Synthaera felt a sense of blissful relief as she let the killer she always knew was in her have control. It knew what had hurt her, and it knew the metal enemy needed to be destroyed. She had always internalised her anger and stress, and to have a way of releasing the pain and the fury was almost an ecstatic experience. Fourteen years of angst and pain, self loathing, anger...all the emotions she suppressed when dealing with school and her parents. She struggled to be a 'decent' person... whatever that was...when at times all she wanted to do was rend and destroy, lay waste to those who hurt her. It felt soooooo good to just let go of the complex emotions and feelings that felt like an anchor around her neck. Even if only for a short time.
It was such a tempting and seductive idea to lose herself in the simplicity of kill or be killed, hunter and prey, and now she was near the Apex of predators. Would it be so bad to just let go completely and live in the moment? Mentally, Synthaera struggled with her feelings as she watched herself moving with the feral elegance of predatory evolution near perfected. Life had been so hard.....but now she had people who did care,....the images of her new family flashed through her mind. Mom. She had friends now...Nikki...for the first time life was improving...Finally Synthaera reached a balance, she finally had things to live for, and she wanted to live her new life.
Now she let that more primal basic self take over so she could deal with the shocking pain inflicted on her body. She 'watched' from the refuge of her mind, as the stubborn survivor in her which refused to lay down and die during her old life, took all she was and went to war unfettered by being decent. She needed to feed in order to heal fully. She needed to hunt prey to feed her hunger. The metal hunter was not food, but a threat and would stop her from feeding. It needed to die. Simple.
Synthaera watched from the safety her mental cocoon as her primal vampiric form easily darted aside from the latest focused plasma beams, and then sprang upwards to the roof. She felt nothing but wonder as she effortlessly jumped the four storey height, before she sprinted in a blur towards the metal prey at the other side of this building. Accelerating along the roof, she changed course slightly towards her metal prey. She could see beyond the roof's edge. Her primal instincts took charge and grabbed control of her shields. She felt awe for the vampire's instinctual use of her shields as she squeezed the energy down to the size of baseball. Her concentrated shield blazed incandescent with concentrated power. Reaching the edge of the roof, she felt herself grin with feral joy and anticipation of a successful hunt as she carelessly hurled herself into a low arcing jump above the war droid. Now to finish this.
****
Delarose watched in shock as Danu soared into space blindingly fast, heading over the war droid, the incandescent brilliance of the glowing orb of energy held in front of it, throwing the girl in stark contrast, only visible as a silhouette. In a fraction of a second, she passed over the Devastator and hurled the brilliant ball downwards. The energy sphere punched through the Devastators shields losing barely a tenth of its power. The ball burned vertically through the Devastator's armoured form, down behind the sensor suite. The sphere of energy rapidly ballooned tearing a conical blast of energy down through the war machine's innards,exiting through the bottom of its torso, almost a meter in diameter, and continued down in to dissipate in a crater between the Devastator's legs.
Almost instantly deprived of its power core, and much of its critical systems, as well the majority of its skeletal reinforcement, the war droid died, without the command core having time to realise it was dead, or activate its explosive self destruction. The girl soared overhead to land on an opposite roof, skidding to a halt, before walking back to the edge. Her enemy was dead, now she needed to feed. Releasing the shields that had been maintained over her prey, she turned away from the smoking ruin, hopped lightly down to the ground and jogged towards the smell of her meal.
Synthaera watched as her body reached the edge of the buildings and stopped. It was time to control, but she was still badly wounded, her hunger too great, and her primal self too strong. Synthaera found she was locked out, and her primal being remained in control. The food her primitive survivor self was expecting had gone. A tall, blond human female that radiated great power waited instead. An acceptable substitute meal. Synthaera balked at the sight of the Headmistress but her primal being had no fear and started forwards. Mrs Carson muttered something and a glowing sceptre appeared in her hand.
Synthaera struggled to awaken, watching as her body stopped, startled by the sight of the sceptre. Her primal self hissed with anger as she tried to judge the risk involved in this meal, given her wounds, which were healing more slowly now as she grew ever hungrier. Soon, she had to feed regardless of risk. A small distance away there was a popping sound as air was displaced and a second human female appeared. This female was tall with dark hair and radiated immense magic and age. Synthaera mentally moaned at the sight of Circe appearing to assist the Headmistress, trying to communicate her horror and fear to her primitive self. Her primal form seemed to recognise her distress somehow, aware the second female over matched it, but the need to feed was becoming unbearable.
"Glad you could make it." Elizabeth Carson said without taking her eyes off the Danu. "I think you may need to give me hand getting her to the infirmary." Danu seemed almost in a trance state, poised to launch herself in attack, her body posture conveying feral instinctual hunger. Elizabeth couldn't see any trace of a teenage girl in the hungry expression.
"Before we try that Elizabeth, perhaps another option would be better." Circe cautioned the younger woman, trying to read Danu's aura. "Danu's not in control at the moment, we're facing her instincts."
"She wiped the droid on instinct? Okay Circe go ahead."
Synthaera winced mentally as Circe took a step forwards, her body snapping its attention to her, hissing. Circe made a small hand gesture, muttering words heard and then forgotten, there was a tiny popping noise and a unit of blood in a plasma bag appeared. Her body skittered back for a second, before its hunger made it dart forward, snatching the bag and sinking its fangs through the thin plastic. In seconds the blood was gone, but before she could move, two more plasma bags popped into existence. She snatched them and continued to feed. Synthaera felt her body's healing resume as new life energy coursed through it. Her primal being focused solely on the need to feed, ignoring Circe and the Headmistress as more units of blood popped into existence.
***
"That was a very clever idea." Elizabeth Carson said to Circe, as the pace of Danu's feeding slowed and her healing neared completion.
"I've had many years to learn to find the path of least resistance Elizabeth. Besides I really don't want to have to fight her."
"Yeah...So is that what Danu truly is now? A vampire?"
Whateley's headmistress looked distressed at the thought, as both women watched Danu devouring another unit of blood. Empty punctured packs were accumulating on the floor around her. Carson had already ordered Delarose to stop all recording in the Arena and secure the footage from the last hour. A com call had gotten hold of Mr Anderson and reassured him the crisis was over, but told him to remain in the Arena's control booth until the situation was fully dealt with. The twitchy instructor had agreed although impatient to get out. Another call directed to the the Gallery had told the students everything was all right, and they would be escorted out by security shortly. Wakanda, Skids and Overload had already been escorted away by First Platoon's second squad, while first squad was being debriefed and their wounds attended too. The two girls were only willing to leave once they were told Danu was okay, while Elizabeth insured their exit didn't take them past Danu. Overload had been taken to recover in the infirmary. There was a pause while the ancient sorceress considered her words, as the women watched Danu' torn body continuing to heal.
"No Elizabeth, I think what we saw was part of her heritage from the Vampires, the instinct to fight and survive and raw power, but she's a lot more than that. Those instincts and ruthlessness combined with Danu' magic, would have been a hard fight. Once she is healed Danu's conscious mind will reawaken and resume control. I don't think it will be long."
Headmistress and Ancient maintained their watch for almost another 20 minutes before Danu's body healed. The only evidence of the wound was Danu's ruined bodysuit over unmarked white skin. Finally the feeding was finished as Danu gorged herself, replenishing her life energy. The fangs withdrew, flat black orbs blinked and amethyst returned. Danu looked blankly around her, then touched her mouth as she tasted blood, before seeing her bodysuit, and the white flesh under it was liberally spattered with crimson. The Sidhe saw the plastic containers littered around her, and shuddered as her eyes widened in horrified revulsion. Looking up the teenager saw her Headmistress and Councillor watching her with sympathetic expressions. Disgust and revulsion turned to a look of utter mortification before her eyes rolled back in her head and she slowly crumpled backwards unconscious.
****
Kane Hall: Security Dept. Third Platoon Ready Room. 12:17pm
Lt Simeon Trout sat in his office, pretending to do Third Platoon's paperwork, while nervously wondering just how screwed up the situation was. As soon as the alert had gone up, and Delarose had dispatched First platoon's first squad to the Armoury with orders to head to Arena 77 once kitted out, Trout had started sweating. What had happened? Nothing should be happening yet...unless he was being played for a fool...he had been told the plan called for deployment mid term, and to prepare on that basis, but what if he was being set up as a sacrificial lamb? Dammit, what was going on? Telling himself to calm down, Trout forced himself to breath slowly.
He had no new intelligence or orders from outside Whateley, so he had to assume something had gone drastically wrong with the plan. Had he covered himself? With paranoia more heightened than normal, Trout began to consider the cut outs he had in place for this operation, could anything be traced to him? He grimaced in frustration, hating not being able to just access Delarose's files. The system tracking software that bitch Hartford had put in place since he had raided the secure files was positively demonic. He dared not go anywhere near those systems, or even hint at having the skills to do so. For now he was virtually certain his cutouts were solid. Until Carson's buttwipe Delarose let the rest of security know what the hell was going on, he would just have to wait and see what happened next.
***
Majestic frowned as she watched the video footage from Arena 77. The rumour that security was blackballing the footage from the morning's classes had flown around the campus, as the various factions where rapidly notified by their hired help in the security dept. Perversely Carson ordering the footage be suppressed had guaranteed that everyone was interested and curious to know why. One of Whateley's sources had passed on the footage to Imperious, who watched it curious to find out what had caused such a stir earlier in the day that the Capes had been summoned outside the Arena, only to be dismissed because of some danger. There were also rumours that a technician had been killed some how in the Arena garages.
The first short clip showed a bunch of froshes getting pasted by paintballs from a huge war droid, one of the new ones Whateley had received last semester. Nothing unusual there. Another clip with more froshes, but this group split up to try and take on the war droid. Imperious became more interested when somehow they rammed the droid with a dumper truck. Next thing he knew somehow the droid wasn't firing paint balls any more, instead large gouges were being torn out of the ground and hole punched through walls by cannon fire, as the droid kept trying to hit the hot blonde Sidhe.
The big Olympian sat up straight and cursed, now it was obvious why Carson had tried to impound the video footage, a war droid on the rampage in Whateley. Imperious paused the footage and shouted for Majestic to come and watch as well. She'd taken a dislike to the new Sidhe, probably because the girl was hot, and was apparently responsible for knocking Majestic out during her testing. The boy shook his head, dealing with Majestic the day after her impromptu stay in the Infirmary had been a trial, she'd been demanding blood for being insulted. Imperious would not stand for insults to the New Olympians, but Majestic had no idea who was responsible. During the day Majestic had heard of the new Sidhe in Whateley, and that had been enough for her to put two and two together, and declare the new frosh her mortal enemy. He was sure she would want to see the Sidhe getting shot up, and besides with her watching as well, Majestic couldn't accuse him of ogling the totally hot blonde. That skintight bodysuit was killer.
Majestic watched Imperious' reactions to the footage of Arena 77 as much as she paid attention to the footage itself. His gawking at the new frosh was more than enough to arouse her jealousy, bad enough the bitch insulted her but to attempt to steal her man? That was unforgivable and Danu would pay. The Sidhe bitch hadn't displayed the same magic as in her testing but that gold and purple energy was unmistakable. Majestic grudgingly admitted to herself the frosh had some power as well. The footage from the Arena was patchy and long distance but the golden energy bolt the girl used to flatten the second droid was powerful. Not enough to stop a Goddess, but perhaps enough that it would be wiser to pull the strings of the bitch's demise and deny herself the pleasure of swatting the Sidhe down. Counterpoint was always so eager to please her, and would enjoy abusing the girl immensely so why waste the energy herself? The footage from the Arena finished as the second droid was destroyed. Satisfied with her reasoning and with nothing more to see Majestic set about reminding Imperious where his attention was due.
****
Synthaera woke up and groaned. She wasn't sure what was worse, not being able to bring her mental demons under control, or having Circe and the Headmistress as witnesses. On second thoughts Mrs Carson and Circe being there was infinitely worse. Thank God, Circe had produced blood units from somewhere, she had been so close to totally losing all control. Deciding that she was awake and had therefore better face the music, she opened her eyes, in time to see the familiar figure of Dr Tennant walking through the door into her room.
The Infirmary again. Wonderful. I'm sure the doc is thrilled to see me again.
"Young lady, I think you have spent enough time in here already for one year, let alone a week."
"Umm, hi Doctor Tennant," Synthaera replied embarrassed. "I guess you must be sick of the sight of me by now. Sorry."
The doctor gave her a kind grin. "Well at least this time you're not actually in any danger. Circe said you fainted and asked we keep an eye on you until you woke up. You've been here for just over an hour. Your clothes and bag were dropped off for you a little while ago, and as long as you're feeling fine now you're free to go. Circe said she wanted to speak with you Danu so you're to head along to Magic Lab straight away. Understood?"
"Yes doctor." Synthaera sighed wondering how bad Circe was going to maul her for losing control.
Dr Tennant chuckled at her crestfallen expression and left with a wave, giving her privacy to change. Checking the time she decided she didn't have time to run to Poe to shower and change into her third and final body suit. Synthaera was delighted to discover blood wiped off the devisor fabric easily, and although she still felt dirty Synthaera quickly got changed back into her school uniform, deciding she would need to order more body suits straight away. At the moment she was going through clothes way faster than she had expected.
Glancing in the mirror reassured her she looked good, and the badly damaged bodysuit wasn't visible under her uniform. Her hair could charitably be called tousled at the moment and her acute senses could still smell the traces of blood on her, but she would have to do. Better to face Circe and get it over with. Grabbing her bag, she checked nothing was missing and headed for the Infirmary's exit.
Dr Tennant watched the tall Sidhe leave and wondered how long before she was back again. Shaking his head he turned back to the mountain of paperwork Whateley's kids produced, even more than normal when things went wrong. Still at least the day's other admission was also doing well. Overload was resting comfortably and would be released tomorrow as long as he showed no evidence of burnout after overstressing his powers.
Synthaera noted the yellow flag flying as she left the Doyle Medical Complex and headed East towards Kirby Hall. Someone must be visiting and their timing was lousy as now she would have to run at baseline pace to Basic Magic Lab. Another glance at the time told her she was already late.
Oh well, Circe can only kill me once, can't she?
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