The Power of Cute Compels You!

Thursday, 15 February, 2007

It all started as a joke, a terrible groaner from the fashion undead of Whateley. Therefore, the whole situation was clearly his fault.

The weather was growing nicer, as it had been sunny the past few days and Jericho was enjoying standing there in the sun watching the effect his clothes had on lesser mortals and their gag reflex. He smirked and noticed two familiar faces heading his way. It was clear that something had to be said, “Hey everybody… Look!  It's the Cutesie Squad!  Hey Molly!  Lindsay!”

The two girls waved as they drew closer. Jericho’s partner in crime shrieked and hissed something back, prompting Jericho to shake his had sadly. “No Razorback, if Jade or Bunny were to join them the world would be doomed. There would be no salvation from the cute overload. We would all drown in the pepto pinkness of cute.”

Molly and Lindsay’s eyes narrowed as they overheard this. Jericho was being his usual dorky self and there was nothing they could do about it, as he really was a bit immune to most actions. They needed to come up with an idea, some way to get even with Jericho that would be worth it, but nothing came to mind. All they could do is endure the teasing and this was not a good place to be. The girls shared a look and walked on, each thinking about the problem.

Later that day, while Molly, Lindsay, and Jade were all sitting at a table talking about Hamtaro and Hello Kitty, Jericho walked walking past them in his typical radiantly bad attire that could induce eye bleeding. As they were talking, it was clear that he had overheard them and he yelled, “ACH!  My eyes!  I’ve gone blind!  The Cute!  The Horrible CUUUUUTE!”

The girls scowled as the blind devisor fled, giggling the whole time. Molly glared at his back and growled, “We really need to do something about him.”

Lindsay nodded, agreeing with her roommate about Jericho and his propensity for teasing them, “He gives us grief all the time over being cute and it’s getting really annoying. Sometimes we’re having serious conversations and he just yells about us like we have the Cute Plague or something.”

Jade looked thoughtful for a moment and then pondered aloud, “I wonder if we can find a disease like that…”

Lindsay giggled over that for a moment. That could be potentially really funny. Then it hit her. “You know… there is a way to do that.”

Molly and Jade both sat up, looking really interested at the possibility of the Cute Plague existing. “How?”

The answer was one word long but more than enough. “Jobe.”

The other two girls deflated at that. Molly sighed in frustration and lamented, “Well, it was a good idea.”

“No, wait. If I talk to Jadis, I bet she could get Jobe to do that, especially if she made it sound like it’s far too complicated for him to manage it,” countered Lindsay, aware of how good Jadis was in dealing with Jobe.

Jade looked thoughtful and then asked a very important question, “Is Jobe technically still a he?”

Lindsay shook her head. “Not really, but he… she… he isn’t really a girl either, despite what his body looks like. Belphy is more of a girl than he is and she started out as a mix of Jobe and Belphegor. So, that should tell you something.”

The other two looked nauseated by that image and loudly commented, “Ewwwwww…”

Molly shook herself to get rid of the image and then said, “If we can’t get the Cute Plague yet, then what we need is a team, a team of cute girls, maybe some boys because there are some boys into the Cute, so that we can fight Jericho and other non-cute infidels and… teach them the error of their ways. The forces of the anti-Cute must be stopped.”

The other two nodded in agreement, clearly excited by the idea and its potential. Molly grinned and looked momentarily evil. “I have an idea. Jade, go get Bunny and meet us in my room. Lindsay and I have a squirrel to catch.”

Soon five girls were sitting around in Molly and Lindsay’s room. Lindsay was handing out drinks and cookies while Molly scribbled frantically in her notebook. She looked up at everyone and grinned, “What we need to do is to form a team to get even with Jericho and other people who are Anti-Cute.”

“But Jericho’s nice,” complained Anna, nibbling on her White Chocolate Macadamia nut cookie, making occasional blissful sighs.

“We know that. I like him despite his clothes, but he’s constantly making all these jokes about us being overly cute and then gagging and running away. We need to show him that we won’t take that kind of teasing from anyone.”

Jade nodded, rallying around their leader, “So what’s the plan?”

“Well, I think we need to form a team, practice, and then fight Jericho, to teach him the error of his ways. We need to make him look cute rather than have to endure what he calls fashion. I swear that he does that on purpose. And maybe, when we get it, to infect him with the Cute Plague.”

“The WHAT?!” exclaimed Bunny and Anna, both shocked and intrigued.

“Lindsay’s idea. We’re not sure what it would be but I like it. So, we fight and that will teach him.”

“But five against one isn’t really all that fair,” stated Anna, her voice a bit worried.

“What if we faced all of the Outcasts all at once?” asked Jade. “I’ve done that.”

They nodded, as that had appeal. Lindsay murmured, “That just might work.”

Molly held up her notebook, as if it were the most important thing she had to wield. “So we need a team name, something to strike fear into our enemy. Suggestions?”

Bunny leapt in and said, “The Cutie Cabal?”

Molly wrote that one down.

“Team Cute? I mean it’s kind of boring, but it would work,” stated Lindsay.

Anna bit her bottom lip and said a bit hesitantly, “What about Wondercute? You know, because we are wonderful and cute and cute stuff is wonderful as well? Don’t you think that has a ‘team name’ sort of quality that covers what we like?”

Every one looked pleased by that suggestion. As Molly wrote it down, Bunny giggled, clearly amused by another idea. “You know, we can start each fight saying, ‘Wondercute powers activate!’”

The girls giggled over that.

Molly took back the reins of the meeting and said, “Now, something really important… our costumes. We should have similar costumes but still be really cute.”

That took the conversation all over the place as ideas were tossed about.

“Should we go with Pink? Or maybe Pastels?” asked Anna.

Jade shook her head, “In costume class she said we need to have colors that don’t hurt the eye too much and are not identical. We wouldn’t all look good in pink. Maybe some other colors?”

“Fighting skirts? I think that would look good. What about something like a Sailor Fuku like Sailor Moon?”

“Do we need pockets for holdouts? Or maybe a utility belt?”

Jade said, “If we really need special utility belts that can hold a lot, I know someone who can help us out.”

“Me too,” said Bunny.

“Me three,” said Lindsay.  Everyone giggled.

The girls worked on the costumes until it was time for Hannah Montana, and then they all took a much needed break to enjoy the show now that they had costumes sketched out. Jade giggled as she sketched a few more ideas. “This is going to be awesome.”

“When can we practice?” asked Lindsay. “I mean, we should be ready to fight as a group if we are going to do this. Right?”

“If everyone has Sim suits we can check those out and if we want to train in one of the Arenas then all we have to do is sign it out as well,” said Molly, looking through her copy of the Student Handbook. “That’s at least what the Handbook says.”

“So are we an Evil Team or a Good Team?” asked Anna a bit nervously. She didn’t want to be on an evil team.

The girls all looked at each other and a few bit their bottom lips in thought, as this was an important question. Bunny replied with, “Why choose? Let’s just be the Cute Team. Neither Good not Evil is Cute, so we can do our own thing.”

“Okay. Now that the important stuff is out of the way, maybe we should try to think up plans for vengeance against Jericho,” stated Jade, rubbing her hands together like a maniacal villain.

“Well… the Cute Plague might take a while to make, so we can’t really start with that. We need to ask Jobe, but maybe we can do other things to start,” replied Lindsay.

“Can we cast a spell or something to turn his clothes into something cute and less painful to the eye?” asked Anna, a bit nervously.

Everyone turned to Molly, the only spellcaster of the bunch. “I don’t think I can manage to do that with a spell. Fey might have the power to do that, but not me. But maybe Rythax can sneak into his room and leave something? Or switch outfits about?”

The girls pondered this. Jade asked, “Little white baskets filled with cute things? Replacing notebooks with cute ones? Things like that?”

The other girls nodded excitedly. This had tremendous potential. “We can do this.”

Lindsay was a bit nervous about doing this, but she knew that Jadis wouldn’t be mean to her. The fixer for the Bad Seeds was a really nice person, despite hanging around Nacht. She knocked on the door and Misty answered, “Hi Lindsay!”

“Hi Misty, is Jadis in?”

“Sure, come on in.” As Misty moved to the side to let Lindsay in, Jadis looked over at Lindsay with one eyebrow raised in question.

Lindsay wasted no time and jumped in straight to the point, “Jadis… do you know if Jobe can custom design a plague?”

Jadis blinked a few times in surprise, as that was clearly the last thing that Jadis was expecting Lindsay to ask. The girl usually knew better than to get involved with Jobe. Hell, everybody at the school knew better than to get involved with Jobe. “Excuse me?”

“Well, Jericho has been teasing Molly and me, as well as a couple of other girls, and we were wondering if Jobe could make a… well, a cute plague as a way to punish him.”

“A cute plague?” The degree of disbelief in Jadis’ voice was hard to measure.

Lindsay nodded.

“And what exactly would this plague do?” It was clear that Jadis was not sure if she wanted to know this information or not. There was just something disturbing about this conversation.

“Well, we were thinking that it could make him want to dress and act all cute. You know… for revenge.”

Jadis bowed her head and rubbed the bridge of her nose. She was amazed at how simply wrong this was. She knew her dad had his moments, but this was something that would scare her father. “So this is your idea for revenge?”

“Yes.”

Misty jumped in, saying, “That sounds so cool? I mean, those outfits he wears just hurt to look at so much that making him dress cute would be great. He might look nice in pink with lace ruffles.”

Jadis turned a very et tu Brute look on her roommate and sighed, clearly unable to get out of this. “I know he can tailor diseases for various things but I have no clue if he would be able to make something this… uh… different.”

Lindsay looked at Jadis and bit her bottom lip. The visual impact was fairly devastating. “Could you ask him for me?”

Jadis sighed and shook her head, unable to resist the sad and cute girl when so looked so pathetic. “Fine. I’ll ask. But let’s figure out what you want this plague to do first before I interrupt his highness.”

Lindsay smiled happily, as Jadis pulled out a notepad, looking ready to write but disturbed as well.  Dragonrider grinned and said, “Well, we were thinking…”

Molly was busy working on a paper for her Summoning class when Lindsay came in. She had been doing a report on her interactions with elementals and how they differed from classic reports of the Elements. It was making her just a little bit crazy. She looked up and over when her roommate walked in, “Well, how did it go?”

“Really good. Jadis is going to talk to Jobe for us, keeping our names out of it as much as possible,” replied Lindsay, putting her book bag on her desk.

“Cool. Oh… I figured we could have a sleepover tomorrow night so we could all talk about this and make better plans. You like?”

Lindsay grinned happily. “Yeah, that’ll be a lot of fun. We should email everyone and let them know what the plan is.”

Molly nodded. “Yeah. Let me open my email.”

While Molly was doing that, Lindsay sat down at her desk and asked, “So… I was thinking. I thought of someone else to invite.”

“Who?” asked Molly as she began entering names in the To field.

“I was thinking about Misty, Jadis’s roommate. She’s really great, and she likes unicorns and Disney and everything. Last weekend we went to Boston and I got to hang out with her a lot. I think she’ll really fit in with the rest of us.”

Molly shrugged. “If you think she’ll fit in, then okay. I trust you. Oh, what about, say, Clover or Deimos?”

“Deimos is scary.”

“No she’s not. I like her.”

“Well, that’s fine, but I don’t want to invite her, ‘cause she scares me and I don’t want Clover, as that would be too much like babysitting.”

“Okay. That’s a good point. So, what was Misty’s email?”

Lindsay smiled happily and then they began figuring out what to say in the email to everyone. Once it was sent off, they turned to figuring out what to do tomorrow night after they had finished talking about their new group. They wanted to have a plan for what to do, so that they wouldn’t have any party lulls. They ran down a few ideas before Molly realized that she needed to finish her paper since it was due in the morning and she wanted to keep her grades high.

Friday, February 16

Lindsay and Molly walked into breakfast, talking about the latest episodes of Hannah Montana they had seen yesterday, and were wondering what sort of stuff was in the works for Hannah and Lilly. They had enjoyed them and were wondering about what sort of shows were next, as they weren’t sure what else to watch. Jericho had come up behind them and proclaimed in an overly loud voice, “Behold good people of Whateley! The Cute Ones have arrived!”

The two girls spun and glared at Jericho, but the sight of what he was wearing made them turn back around clutching their eyes, whimpering from the sheer pain, “Day-glo… tie dye… Hawaiian….”

Jericho snickered and headed back over to Outcast Corner, where all of his friends were wearing sunglasses and thus having some measure of safety from his criminally offensive shirt. Molly growled quietly, “We’ll show that jerk not to mess with us.”

Lindsay nodded, equally pissed over this latest. “I’ll talk to Misty at lunch and you make sure everything is okay for the sleepover.”

“Sounds good. Ugh… my eyes hurt.”

Lindsay whimpered in similar pain.

Lindsay took her tray and made a beeline for where Jadis and Misty were sitting with a few of the other Bad Seeds. Acknowledgements were nodded and Lindsay smiled and started right in as she sat, “So Misty, do you want to come over to my room tonight for a sleep over?”

“Are you going to braid each other’s hair and do your nails and talk about boys?” asked Jobe snarkily, one corner of his lip curling derisively at the mere idea.

Lindsay glared at him and then snapped back, her mood shifting, “Maybe. Why did you want to come?”

Jobe thankfully shut up at that. He turned back to his meal and some paper he was reading on protein antagonism in cloned bodies, completely dismissing Lindsay from his world and ignoring the hissing Pern gave him. Misty smiled, ignoring the rest of the by-play, and said, “That sounds like fun.”

Nacht stared intently, somewhat disturbed by that sort of marshalling of forces. “Let me guess, secret bunny and rainbow and kitty discussions?”

Lindsay just smirked at her and replied with an upbeat, “Yep.”

Nacht glared at her, “I was just kidding.”

“I wasn’t.”

Molly meanwhile was talking to Winnie and Chou. “It’s not that I don’t like you or even want you there, but neither of you is really all that into cute stuff. This is for all of the girls into cute stuff that get grief from others.”

Chou shook her head, amused by Molly’s protest. “That’s fine sweetie. We can hang out tomorrow night instead. Are you going to be coming to the New Year’s Feast, Winnie?”

“I…I…I w…want t…to,” replied the girl nervously.

“Great. Well, Molly have your fun, and I will see you tomorrow.” Chou hugged and kissed her girlfriend before she headed off, as she had class to get to and needed to change into her gi.

“Are you okay Winnie? I didn’t want to make you feel left out, but I didn’t think you were a fan of the same sorts of cute stuff.” Molly really was worried about her teammate and really was concerned. Winnie was a nice person and Molly wanted to be her friend. She hoped this wasn’t being interpreted as pushing her away. She was just a bit afraid that this wasn’t up the girl’s alley.

“I…I’m f…f…fine. Th…th…thanks M…molly.” Winnie smiled at Molly, who grinned back.

“Okay. I just didn’t want to upset you, since you are my friend.”

Winnie grinned herself and said, “If Ch…chou isn’t g…going to b…be th…there, then I…I’m fine.”

Molly hugged her and then headed off to Summoning class, where she would have to turn in her paper. But first, before she did anything else, she had a special call to make.

During lab time, Molly made sure that she was not being overly observed by the teacher and she then summoned the Gate, reaching out to get a hold of Sun Wu Kong. She could feel her power reach something and then snap as she pulled. Molly winced and grabbed her head, which was smarting from the snap back of power. As she was rubbing her forehead, she heard a voice from behind her say, “Yes Molly?”

She turned and there stood the Monkey King, in his Monkey Princess form, her smile so cute it could melt the Necromancer’s heart. She excitedly squeaked, “Sun!”

Sun grinned happily at the girl. “What’s up?”

“I need some help,” asked Molly, going right to business, very aware that she didn’t have a lot of time to take care of this.

“How can I help Meimei’s Airen?”

“Well… my friends and I are being teased and we are going to fight back.”

“Good for you Molly. What can I do to help?” Sun sounded eager and she bounced slightly on her toes.

Molly bit her bottom lip in thought. “Well, you are the greatest Trickster I have ever heard of, so I figured getting your help would be nice. So I kind of want your help.”

Sun looked excited, thrilled at the possibility of smiting someone for the Handmaid’s Beloved. “Do you want me to do something to someone, because I totally can and will?”

With a shake of her head Molly replied, “No. We want to take care of it, but we could really use your advice.”

Sun sighed, deflating some from the ‘no’. “Well… okay… I guess I can help you. But it won’t be as much fun.”

Molly scoffed and shook her head, “Please. You tease Ayla all the time.”

“That’s because Ayla has a stick up her butt and I am trying to fix that. When she calms down Ayla is really good, but when she is all uptight she is a different person. I am tormenting her to make her a better person. When she chooses freely to share her food, I will leave it alone. Well, a couple of other things, but you get the idea. Besides I gave her tea and tarts last time.” rattled off Sun, explaining herself to the fifteen year old. “I like her.”

“Well, okay. But I need to let you know that we are going to wage war against the forces of the anti-Cute!” Molly looked very serious, as if through her intensity she could make the ever-mercurial Monkey King follow what she was saying.

Sun blinked a few times, registering what Molly was saying and letting it trickle into her head. Then she began to grin, a grin that grew larger and larger the more she thought about what Molly was proposing. Sun steepled her fingers and said in an exact Montgomery Burns imitation, “Excellent!”

Sun looked terrifyingly maniacal for a moment and this worried Molly. But the moment passed. She looked merely excited about the idea and said, “I would be honored to help you and your friends in this endeavor. Take this business card. When you need me, hold it with both hands and call my name. I will hasten right over to give you whatever assistance I can.”

Molly grinned happily and hugged Sun. This was the best support anybody at Whateley could ever want. “Thank you. I might get a hold of you tonight, be warned.”

“For you, anything.” With that, Sun Wu Kong vanished. Molly grinned; this was going to be great.

Instead of heading off to dinner, the girls headed for Molly and Lindsay’s room for this private meeting/ sleepover they had planned. The two hosts were planning on having some fun as well as getting this group together to plan their vengeance on Jericho and anyone else who teased them for being too cute. People would pay the price for their teasing, a price so horrific that none would dare tease them again.

The first to arrive was Aquerna, since she simply lived down the hall. She showed up with a blanket and pillow as well as a small bag. “Hi Molly, Lindsay.”

“Hey Anna, come on in. Have a seat. Want something to drink?” said Lindsay, trying to be a gracious hostess.

“No thanks.” Anna had a small stuffed Black Squirrel with her.

Lindsay and Molly both smiled and then gushed, “Your squirrel is so cute.”

Aquerna smiled, blushing slightly, “Thanks.”

“Did you get it for Christmas?” asked Molly, excited about the perfect stuffed animal for Anna.

Anna shook her head. Lindsay was about to say something when there was a knock at the door. Molly answered, and there were Jade and Bunny, both with backpacks. Bunny was wearing the rabbit ears that Chou had gotten her for Christmas and one of the ears was flopped over. Lindsay, who had never seen them before, squealed a little. “Oh My God! Those are so adorable! Where did you get those?”

“Aren’t they awesome? Chou got them for me,” proudly stated Bunny.

“Chou? Molly’s girlfriend Chou?  The one with the big magical sword?” asked Anna a bit surprised. She hadn’t heard that Bladedancer was that nice.

Bunny nodded, the ears going straight up. “Yeah. She is really nice, and this is easily the best present I got this year. The ears move with my emotions and stuff. Isn’t that neat?!”

Anna looked excited. This was the kind of present she could appreciate. “Where did she get them?  I mean, I never heard of anybody making something like that!”

“Apparently she asked one of my teachers to make them,” replied Bunny.

“Did you know about that?” asked Lindsay, looking right at her roommate.

Molly grinned. “Yep. I knew they would be perfect for Bunny.”

Bunny pouted slightly and mock scowled at the Summoner. “And you never told me… meanie.”

This got Molly giggling and the others joined in. A knock at the door stopped them and Lindsay went over to answer it. Misty was there looking excited, clutching her pillow with the unicorn pillowcase. “Am I on time?”

“Yep. People are just getting here, in fact you’re the last. Oh… Misty, let me make the introductions. This is Molly my roommate, Jade, Bunny, and Anna.” Lindsay made the introductions pointing at each one in turn.

“I love those ears. Where did you get them?”

While that conversation was busy getting repeated, Molly went over and got the pizza coupons. Ordering food sounded like the best use of their time right now and besides, she had made arrangements. “Hey, what do we want for pizza?”

Things then turned serious and the discussion got a bit crazy, especially with Jade trying to vote twice with the help of her cabbit, which distracted the proceedings as some of them had never seen the cabbit talk and thus had to play some before growling stomachs brought the topic back on track. While everyone thought the cabbit was cute, the fact that it wasn’t going to eat any pizza essentially removed its vote. Molly shook her head and stated, “We can get both the large Cheese Supreme and the Veggie Supreme because I have a coupon. That’ll be fine.”

This stopped that discussion and Molly called in the order, using the special code that she had gotten from Ayla. This was going to ensure that the pizza that she had ordered from the pizza place in New York City that Ayla had raved about before would be able to have a teleporter deliver it once it was done. Ayla had said she would cover the delivery charges, as a favor to Molly. Molly had thanked her profusely and had promised to try to fix things with Sun. Well, she had tried, hadn’t she?

Once the call was done, Molly turned to look at the others, put her hands on her hips and said, “I suppose you are all wondering why we called you over here today?”

“Nope,” replied Bunny. This got the others giggling.

Molly stuck her tongue out at Bunny and continued, “So, to make our team, we have to figure out a name, costumes, and how we are going to fight. Then we can come up with our plans against Jericho and his Evil Wardrobe of Pain.”

Jade pulled out a sketch pad from her backpack and flipped it open to a series of sketches. “I went with the basic Sailor Moon style Fuku, but with a bit more of a skirt, like those Atalanta running skirts. I also gave us boots, as heels aren’t always the best choice in combat. You could twist an ankle.”

Misty looked at the sketch and made appreciative noises. “Those look really cute but why do they all seem to be Hello Kitty themed?”

Jade blushed a little, “I like Hello Kitty.”

“Should we have masks, you know, like Sailor X did?” asked Lindsay, looking the sketch over.

Jade took out a pencil and drew in a domino mask with decent eye holes, similar to what Sailor Venus wore when she had been in England. “Like that?”

“Yeah. That looks pretty good.”

“I wonder if we can get Fey to do some sort of glamour on the masks so that they make us look cuter?” asked Bunny. “That would help hide our identities and make us look better.”

Several of the girls seemed to like that idea. Misty asked, “Does it have to be Hello Kitty? Why not unicorns or rainbows or butterflies or something like that, something less specific.”

Jade protested, “But I like Hello Kitty.”

“I’m not saying that Hello Kitty is bad, but since it has a copyright, won’t we get in trouble?” asked Misty, trying to solve the problem without hurting anyone’s feelings.

Jade frowned and then sighed, giving in. “I guess you’re right.” It wasn’t like she could ask Ayla to buy SanRio just so she could put Hello Kitty pictures on her costume…

She leaned down and fiddled with the sketches, erasing the Hello Kitty images and brushing the erased stuff off the picture. “What sort of stuff do we want?”

“Shouldn’t we come up with a name and see if that helps?” asked Anna.

“What names do we have planned already?” asked Misty, sort of at a loss.

“Cutie Cabal, Team Cute, Wondercute, that’s about it. We haven’t had any other ideas,” replied Lindsay, working from memory.

“Any others?” asked Molly of all the girls there.

“I like Wondercute. It sounds fun and not as, well… dorky as the others,” stated Misty.

“Besides, I still think yelling ‘Wondercute Powers Activate!’ at the start of a fight would be awesome,” commented Bunny, clearly hooked on that idea.

Misty smiled and nodded in agreement which made Bunny bounce happily in her seat.  Her bunny ears perked up too. Molly then asked, “All in favor of Wondercute?”

They all raised their hands, which made them giggle. Molly nodded and said, “Okay. Wondercute it is.”

“So what should we do with the costumes?” asked Jade, far more focused on drawing something cute than coming up with an official team name.

“We could color code them. No pictures but colored ribbons and trim, like in Sailor Moon,” offered Lindsay.

“But we could get cute pictures of kitties and unicorns and butterflies and rainbows on them.” Misty seemed a bit sad by the fact that they might have plain outfits and wanted to fix that.

Jade piped in with, “Can I have Hello Kitty on mine?”

“We just covered that.” said Bunny. “Copyright problems. But can I have a bunny on mine?”

“I want a unicorn,” stated Misty.

“I suppose I could have a cute dragon on mine,” mused Lindsay, looking over at Pern, who was looking all inscrutable.

“I think having butterflies on mine would look cute,” replied Molly. “Or maybe faeries.”

Bunny smiled. “I got an idea. Pern and Rythax need matching collars with you and Lindsay.”

The other girls oohed in excitement over the idea. Misty gushed, “That would look so cute.”

“Do you think Rythax will wear that?” asked Jade, somewhat familiar with the Shadowcat’s foibles.

Molly looked thoughtful. She doubted the success of this venture but said, “I suppose I could ask him.”

Misty looked thoughtful, as if she were pondering some very important issue. “Since you can summon things… I was wondering… can… can you summon a real unicorn?”

Molly bit her bottom lip in thought. “I’m sure I could, but I haven’t done that yet. I’m not sure I have the power to summon something like that at the moment.”

“Please! Please!! Could you try to do that for me?! Please! I’ll be your bestest friend forever,” begged Misty with her hands clasped in front of her and her eyes huge. There was even some quiver in her bottom lip.

Before Molly could answer, the phone rang and Molly answered it. “I’ll be right there. Pizza’s here.”

Molly took off with the cash they had set aside for the food. Misty looked over at Lindsay and asked quietly, “Is it weird living with her?”

Lindsay turned, with an eyebrow raised. “What do you mean?”

“Well, since she is in a threesome and everything.”

Bunny huffed, clearly annoyed with that question and the implications. “What does that have to do with anything?”

Misty looked a bit sorry for upsetting Bunny as she had been getting along so well with her to this point. “I… I just never met anybody in a threesome before. Isn’t it a bit weird?”

Lindsay shook her head and said, “Misty, we are all mutants with super powers going to a boarding school for mutants. What about that isn’t just a little weird?”

Misty thought about it for a few minutes and then had to concede, “Okay. You have a point there.”

Bunny settled down, and shortly Molly returned, carrying two very large boxes. The air filled with the wonderful scent of fresh, hot pizza. The girls gathered around the boxes and began to eat. Lindsay started her music and soon the girls were eating pizza and singing along to Hannah Montana. Once the pizza was finished, the boxes scoured clean of any food, they were put aside, and the topic of conversation changed yet again, “Since we aren’t that strong, what should we do in fights?”

Jade smiled, “Well, in Team Tactics class they’ve been asking us to think about that. As far as I can tell, Misty, Rythax and Pern would be our frontline fighters. Anna might be a good secondary fighter. The rest of us could be distractions and support. If we keep distracting opponents, keeping them from being able to focus on us or the attackers, I bet that we could defeat almost anyone.”

Anna looked surprised at that, as she had never really been told that she might be able to defeat anyone. “You really think so?”

“Oh sure. If we keep the opponents off balance it will be easier to win.” Jade was nodding, remembering everything that she had been learning in Team Tactics.

The girls all looked thoughtful at that. Bunny asked, “So we hit them from multiple angles and constantly do little things to mess with them? If that’s the idea then I think we can manage that.”

“Great. We can try that tomorrow. I got us some sim time in the morning from Gunny Bardue. We can do a sim run and see how we do,” replied Lindsay, smiling happily. “We can take our sketches and stuff and get everything entered. It will be great.”

Jade grinned. “The sims are so cool and so much fun. We can have a great time in there.”

Molly looked at the others and asked, “Any there any more issues we need to talk about or are we pretty much ready for tomorrow?”

Anna held up her fingers very tentatively, “Team name. Costumes. Tactics. That should be that, right? Oh… what are we going to do about Jericho?”

“Jericho?” asked Misty, clearly at a loss for a face to go with the name.

“Yeah. You know who he is even if you don’t recognize the name. He’s the blind guy who wears the most horrible clothing imaginable. He teases us all the time over being cute and it’s getting really annoying. We’re going to show him,” grumped Lindsay, pouting a little.

“Oh. Well, what should we do?”

“Since he wears the most horrible clothes in the world I figure we should do everything we can to make him look cute.” Several girls giggled after Molly said that. “And just to let you know… I got us an ally.”

“Who?” A few voices asked all at once, clearly curious as to who would side with them in this battle.

“Sun Wu Kong.” Molly sounded proud of having accomplished that.

“Who?” asked several of the girls. Bunny and Jade, however, looked a little green.

“The Monkey King. You know… that weird girl with the key attached to her tail that sits with Team Kimba off and on?” clarified Molly, grinning broadly.

Jade looked shocked and blurted out, “You called the Monkey King? On purpose?”

Molly nodded. “Yep. I figure we could use the help of the greatest trickster ever. I made it clear it was for advice only. No help, just advice. She pouted over that.”

Jade frowned, “Isn’t that asking for trouble?”

Molly shrugged. “I don’t think so. I mean, we aren’t the tricksters that Belle or Thorn are, and we aren’t in the league of some of the others. If we do this, we’re going to get caught. I just wanted a consultant who could help us out with ideas and implementation.”

Anna asked a bit worriedly. “Who is the Monkey King?”

Jade replied in a somewhat frustrated voice, “Do you remember last year, just after Halloween, when everybody was losing panties?”

The other girls nodded.

“That was the Monkey King. He fought the entire female half of Poe and basically won all by himself. He let himself get dog piled on and then stood up, dumping everyone off, when Chou had her sword to his throat.”

Anna squeaked in surprise, looking around the room worriedly. “Do you think he will do that to us?  I mean, I lost my favorite pajama panties that match my old nightie.”

Molly and Jade shrugged. Jade frowned, “Who knows with him? I still think he stole my Chococat panties.”

“And you think he will be a great ally?” asked Lindsay, a bit worried.

“Yes I do. He seemed pleased by the idea and pouted when I insisted that it was as a consultant only and that he was not allowed to do anything,” assured Molly. “I can call him and have him explain things if you want.”

“I don’t think I want a guy in my room,” replied Lindsay a bit worriedly.

“I am sure he will be in his Monkey Princess form when he shows up. Besides, he isn’t like other guys,” countered Molly.

Bunny jumped in and said, “Maybe we can do that later. Right now I want to watch a movie or play Katamari.”

The game system was turned on, and the girls took turns rolling. They even did a few challenges against each other, laughing the whole time especially when someone would collect the other on their katamari. Anna turned out to have a great knack for the game, and quickly established her dominance over everyone else. After defeating Misty she stood, hands on her hips, and proclaimed, “I am the Princess of Heaven!”

The others giggled over this and then tackled her onto one of the beds and the tickle fight began. There was a lot of giggling and rolling around and the squeals and their laughter got louder and louder. There was a knock at the door, which froze everyone in their tangled mess. Lindsay worked to get herself free, since she was closest to an edge, and headed over to the door, as others sat up, pulling skirts down and trying to pat their hair back into some semblance of order.

When Lindsay opened the door, the House Mother, Mrs. Nelson, stood there, looking slightly irate at the group of young ladies. Lindsay and Molly both blushed from the look the elder woman gave them and Anna eeped in surprise.

After a long moment, her gaze softened and she said in her soft burr, “Ladies, please try to keep it down. There are other girls who live in this hall as well, some of whom might be studying.”

Lindsay, Molly, and Anna all replied, “Sorry Mrs. Nelson.”

“Just please keep it down to a dull roar,” asked the House Mother.

“Yes Mrs. Nelson,” chorused all the girls.

When the door closed, the other girls giggled. Bunny replied, “At least Miss Horton isn’t that bad. She just usually says ‘Ahem’ and we shut up.”

Anna piped up in order to defend her, saying, “I like Mrs. Nelson. She’s really nice but she is no-nonsense sometimes.”

“Maybe we just need to do something less loud for a while?” pondered Misty.

“Like what?” asked Lindsay, unsure what her friend might have in mind.

Misty smiled mischievously, “Well, I had in mind something like asking Molly what it’s like being in a threesome.”

The other girls turned and faced the brightly blushing girl, looking at her with interest. This clearly appealed to the others. Molly tried to stammer out a protest but her voice failed her, “Uh… I…”

“Come on Molly. You gotta tell us what it’s like.” pleaded Misty. “How can I defend you if you don’t tell me why this is okay?”

Bunny and Lindsay looked at each other and shrugged. It seemed as if Misty wasn’t being mean, just openly curious. Bunny replied with, “I think I have to agree with her on this one.”

Molly looked around the room, fairly worried and unsure what to say, slight panic in her eyes. She tried to protest again, “Uh… I…”

“Do you kiss both of them?” asked Anna, jumping in with her question before Molly could say anything.

Molly numbly nodded. “Uh… I… I uh… I like kissing Chou more. Her lips are softer.”

“Have you done more than kiss?” asked Bunny, fairly sure of what the answer would be, since she was a bit more familiar with this sort of thing. Besides, she knew about the whole frolic thing that Toni teased Chou about all the time.

Again, Molly nodded. “With Chou.”

“What did you do?” asked Jade, her eyes wide with innocence. Clearly she was not helping out her friend in this situation.

“Uh… I’d rather not say,” stammered Molly, her blush deepening.

Bunny smirked and observed, “Wow… it had to have been pretty hot then.”

The blush was plenty of answer from the mousy, brown-haired girl. Lindsay, Misty and Anna were instantly begging for more information. Molly only got redder and redder as the questions continued. Jade and Bunny snickered at their friend, enjoying her discomfort just a little.

Molly finally stammered out, “How… how about we watch a movie or something instead of picking on me?”

 Misty pouted, clearly not content with the answers she had gotten. “You’re no fun.”

“What? I told you guys lots,” protested Molly, a bit indignant over the whole situation.

“No you didn’t. You said you kissed them and that you did more with Chou. I need more. Come on… what’s it like having a boyfriend and a girlfriend?” protested Misty, sticking out her bottom lip and quivering it slightly. This was clearly a secret weapon, because in short order Molly caved from the tremendous force of the pout.

“Well, I am still getting used to it. I love Chou and I have to admit that Dorjee is growing on me. He really is sweet. He was nice on Valentine’s Day and I do like it when he stands up for me. They also both hug really great.” Molly was looking at the floor, a bit too embarrassed to face anyone right now.

Bunny quipped, “Sounds like any other relationship.”

Lindsay nodded, “So it’s like regular dating but with more people?”

Molly nodded. “Well we gotta talk a lot, to make sure we are all on the same page, but that’s not any different with any other relationship from what I’ve heard.”

“So is this why you have all those sex and relationship books?” asked Lindsay.

Molly’s head snapped up, eyes wide in surprise. Her mouth opened and closed a few times like a fish. Lindsay had found her hidden book stash?

Misty turned to face Molly, “You have books on sex?”

Molly still had no voice, only managing to squeak softly. Lindsay however answered for her, “Yep. She has a bunch of lesbian sex books, but I guess a lot of that information works for us, so we can tell guys what they need to do. However, there are no books yet on what to do with guys. Did you have any of them ordered?”

Molly nodded, still at a loss for what to say. She was practically glowing red, as if she were some sort of Energizer.

Misty grinned a bit mischievously, “Can I borrow it when you’re done?”

Molly spun and buried her head under her pillow. The girls giggled and got a good laugh at the girl’s embarrassment. To distract everyone from her roommate, Lindsay said, “Let’s watch the new Potter film. I got it for Christmas.”

The girls shifted to better see the screen, dropping the topic for the moment. After the film started, Molly unburied herself and watched the film with the others. Popcorn was being handed around and they all seemed to enjoy the change of pace. As they were watching, a few people played with each other’s hair, doing braids and twists, playing with how the hairstyles might look on each other. It was nice and relaxing. Finally, after watching “Over the Hedge” and doing each others nails, the group passed out, falling blissfully asleep.

Saturday, February 17

Molly woke up in her bed with Bunny wrapped around her, as if she were a large teddy bear. This made her giggle and wonder if Bunny and Nikki had ever slept together. The image of Bunny wrapped around Nikki was a great one and made her giggle lightly. This was apparently enough to wake up Bunny. The girl was yawning when Molly said, “Morning, Bunny.”

“Morning.” Bunny was not as bouncy as she usually was, but that could easily be chalked up to just waking up. Usually Bunny had plenty of energy, like lots of other devisors or gadgeteers. Slowly, the other girls woke up and began getting ready to face the day, heading off to shower and change. Molly apologized to Bunny since their showers were not as nice as the ones in Poe and Bunny gave her a smirk of understanding. Soon the group trooped over to the dining hall for breakfast.

Jericho, upon seeing the whole group of them walking in, gasped, falling over some, reaching up with a trembling hand, croaking out, “Insulin! I need insulin!”

Razorback elbowed him, to get him to shut up but the girls had heard the blind boy and were growling softly to themselves. They split off to go eat with their usual friends, thoughts of a ribbon bedecked, pink and lace clothed Jericho dancing in their heads. Vengeance would be theirs. They would make that happen if it was the last thing they ever did.

When they went into the sim area after eating, Jade helped everyone walk through the set-up process, since she was familiar with it after working so hard with Ayla to cover her real powers. She also handed off sketches of the uniforms to everyone, so that their in-sim Avatars would have the correct outfits. The girls cooed happily, impressed by the art. They were all looking forward to seeing what they would look like in these costumes. There was a bit of an adventure finding sim suits for both Pern and Rythax in order to get them into the sims, but it was managed by utilizing some of the GSD equipment that they had on hand.

Before they separated into their individual rooms, Bunny asked Lindsay, “So how did you get this set up?”

“Jadis did it for me. She’s a great friend, and she’s really helpful.”

Bunny snickered, “That works.”

The girls headed off to the dressing rooms, and they got dressed in their sim suits. Jade looked a good bit better with her suit that fit so well, but no one really made an issue out of it.  Besides Jade helped the others get settled in their rooms, making sure they were all comfortable before she got settled in. Once they were all ready, the system kicked on and they found themselves standing in the quad looking at each other.

Their sailor suits were not exact replicas of the Sailor Scouts, but it was easy to see the source, with the colors and the bows in the back. Jade had green trim and bow, with a kitten on her chest as well as her Purse of Holding. Bunny had pink with a rabbit on her chest with one ear flopped over, as well as the rabbit ears that Chou had gotten her on her head. Her utility belt that she wore was in pink as well. Misty had blue trim and a rearing unicorn on her chest. Anna had yellow trim and a cute squirrel picture, with the squirrel raising one paw. Lindsay had a small dragon on hers with orange trim and bow. Pern was wearing an orange bow around his neck, clearly showing their connection. Molly was wearing red with a rainbow on her chest. Rythax was wearing a red bow in a similar manner to Pern and he seemed amused by this development but clearly not comfortable with how he appeared.

The girls scanned over each other and were excited by the way the costumes looked on each other. They then all yelled, “Wondercute powers activate!!”

There was a slight groan through their headsets and Sam Everhart came over the system. “Okay ladies. Move around some and get used to the suits. When you’re ready, we can run you through a practice simulation.”

Aquerna was running around, bouncing off trees, grinning excitedly. This was really neat. And when she chittered, a group of squirrels rushed up all yelling, “Big squirrel!”

Rythax merely stood and stretched his wings. “This is rather fascinating, but I must protest this outfit. I do not look dignified.”

“Sorry Rythax. I think you look cute,” offered up Gateway, hoping to ameliorate the Shadowcat’s suffering.

The Shadowcat Ambassador to the Five Fold Court rolled his cobalt eyes and sighed. The things he was finding himself doing in this new world. Didn’t people have any respect for an Ambassador any more?

Pern was flying around while Dragonrider was watching him happily. She seemed quite comfortable in what she was wearing. Generator and Bugs were just standing there chatting. Superchick was leaping around, giggling madly, twirling in the air like an insane ballerina. After a few minutes, Everhart asked, “Are you all ready for the intro Sim run?”

At their assent, the scene changed and Wondercute found themselves in a warehouse area. Sam said, “There is a team of six villains here that have fled this way after robbing a bank. They have no hostages and none of them are particularly well known. Good luck.”

Gateway snapped out, “Right. Rythax, you go hunting for them. Everyone else get ready. Bugs, I need you and Generator to distract them in order to set them up for Superchick, Pern and possibly Anna. Rythax knows to take targets of opportunity.”

The Shadowcat dove into a shadow and vanished. Gateway continued, “When I gate us there, Bugs you go first and make a lot of noise or something. Distract them in order to get us all through safely. Then just do like Generator planned, hit and fade. No standing toe to toe with anyone. No more than two or three hits before you move. I mean that, Superchick.”

The girls nodded, getting their game faces on, determined to make a good showing. Rythax dove out of the shadow and said, “They are in one of the far buildings. There are traps between here and there, so gating would be the best plan.”

Gateway nodded and summoned the gate, focusing its destination like she had been practicing. When she felt it lock she said, “Go.”

Bugs tossed three eggs through the gate, and then she followed them, tossing a few more things ahead of her. The rest of the girls rushed in and Gateway came through last, closing the gate and looking over things.

Superchick had already leapt into the fray, knocking one person across the room. Pern was nearly full sized and had smacked another person with a tail swipe. Strobes were firing, keeping the enemy disoriented, as Anna came and attacked one person with her kamas. It was a swirling mass of chaos that was tearing the enemy apart, and it made Gateway smile. As the Kitty Compact chased what seemed to be a devisor, Gateway called a dozen faeries to join in the tangle of combat, to further disorient the enemy. They were happy to oblige.

In very short order, the sim ended and their suits disengaged, with a computer voice stating, “Team Wondercute, you are the victors.”

The girls cheered excitedly and rushed into the halls to jump up and down, hugging each other in their success. Bunny gushed, “That was awesome!”

“We were great!” crowed Misty.

There seemed to be nothing that could make their grins any smaller. Bunny giggled and said, “Oh, when we change I have special communicators ready for everyone. This way we can stay in touch.”

Everhart shook her head sadly, as she watched the mass of giggles head back to the changing room. She was certain that little good could come of this. They had done well, fighting in a chaotic storm that she remembered and knew that one former marine would recognize as well. This had all the earmarks of a category five storm heading their way.

“Wow, just look at the amazing squirrelly cuteness there, and joined by the princess of Cute. Aren’t they just utterly adorable?”

Molly clenched and unclenched her fists, trying to keep from automatically attacking Jericho over his comments. When he wasn’t teasing them he was generally a nice guy, at least according to Chou and from what little she had seen. Molly just wanted to smack the smarmy smirk off his face and was doing her best to avoid that.

She got to the table, touched the privacy crystal, and began venting. Bunny listened to her and glared over at the blind boy. She was clearly irked by this whole situation when she declared, “Of course you know… this means war!”

Molly and Jade giggled. The other people at the table looked around in confusion, trying to figure out what had just happened and why no one had warned them. Meanwhile Bunny was talking quietly into her brand new communicator, organizing the retaliation against Jericho that was shortly to take place.

Soon, the girls got up from their tables and headed outside, where Jericho wouldn’t be able to notice them thanks to the way the walls of Crystal Hall blocked his ‘vision’. Lindsay asked, “So, how do we want to do this?”

Molly thought and then said, “I say we trip him and then do what we can to change his appearance. Does everyone have something with them that can do that?”

Jade grinned. “I have some dish detergent with pink dye in it that I can use. Also I have sparkles.”

Bunny grinned, “I have something that can burn a new pattern into his shirt. I have just the cute picture in mind.”

Molly bit her bottom lip, then nodded. “I can get a Tanuki to put pink bows in his hair.”

Misty smiled. “That sounds great. I can help with the tripping. I can use my powers to sort of hold him in place.”

Lindsay smiled, “Once we have taken down Jericho we can take out our other enemies, the forces of the Uncute.”

The group chorused, “Right!”

Everyone managed to get set up and in place, to be able to carry out their part of the attack on Jericho. Molly quickly summoned a Tanuki. When it saw her it paused, saying, “Greetings, Summoner.”

“Greetings Child of the Tanuki. I need you to put pink bows in a boy’s hair.”

The mischievous raccoon spirit nodded, “I think that can be managed, Summoner.”

“We are shortly going to trip him when he leaves that building and when he is down, strike.”

 “I will do this for you, Summoner.” With that, the Tanuki vanished from plain sight.

“Are you ready?” asked a quiet voice behind her.

Molly eeped and spun around, ready to strike with her extremely limited martial arts skills. She relaxed when she saw who it was and sighed in relief. She smacked Sun on the arm, chiding him, “Don’t scare me like that.”

Sun simply smiled, ignoring the blow. “So, are you ready?”

“Yep,” answered Molly, clearly proud of this current development. “Now we are just waiting for Jericho to come out and get ambushed.”

“I like the plan and can’t wait to see what you do with it,” commented Sun casually. “Perhaps I should have brought popcorn?”

They did not have to wait long. Jericho was walking out of the door to Crystal Hall, when all of a sudden there was a loud pop and people were looking somewhere else, distracted by the noise. Jericho tripped, and hit the ground, struggling some to get up, which confused him. He felt something hit him but wasn’t sure what, and his hair was slightly pulled, but only just. He struggled to his feet and then there was a bright flash of something that looked like light. When his vision cleared, he looked around a bit confused, as people were now laughing at him. He looked down at himself and couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary, so it was a bit confusing. Well, maybe something was different with his shirt. He did note that even Razorback couldn’t look him in the face, nor could any of the other Outcasts, because they were laughing so hard. This was a troubling development.

Other people saw Jericho in a cute pink t-shirt with a kitten on it, holding on to a branch with lettering reading, “Hang on!”

The fact that this new bit of clothing was not making people’s eyes bleed was drawing some laughter as well as some relief, as were the large number of little pink bows attached to his hair. There were sparkles on his skin, hair, and shirt. This was too much for a lot of people in the Crystal Hall, who had to see this. People were actually crowding to see what Jericho looked like, something that never happened.

As the group of girls were congratulating themselves, Deimos walked up to them. The Fury twin grinned at them all and commented blandly, “Nice job.”

“Uhm… what job?” Jade completely did not sell that question, sounding guilty all on her own, dragging in the others by association.

“Right. So, that was awesome and I wanted to congratulate all of you on that. But you should know that Jericho is a serious prankster. He may strike back when he figures out it was you. I can offer you some protection if you want.”

“What kind of protection?” asked Lindsay, looking closely at Deimos, as if trying to get a better read off her.

“I can almost guarantee that I will be able to keep the other Outcasts out of this particular issue. This… issue can be dealt with simply between you and Jericho. Does that work?”

The girls huddled and whispered intently before turning back to face the girl. Molly grinned, “We accept.”

Deimos’s grin made a few of them twitchy but didn’t even faze Molly, who was still smiling back. Deimos said, “Great. You all just keep going after him and I will do my part to help. Thanks for this.”

“No problem.”

Deimos took off, and the girls all looked at each other with satisfied grins on their faces. “We did really well.”

“The plan worked.  It really worked!” happily gushed Anna, giddy with their success despite having done nothing to achieve it.

“Today Jericho, tomorrow the Bullies and the Uncute!!” insisted Lindsay, dropping several of the others into giggle fits.

Molly looked at her watch and then said, “Oh, I gotta go. The party Chou is throwing is tonight and I need to get ready. Talk to you all later.”

Everyone split off to go about on their own, floating on their own highs for the rest of the day.

“Looking good there Pink Ranger.” called out some jerk that Jericho didn’t recognize. But his face was recorded and he made the list.

Jericho growled as he stomped his way back to his dorm. Caitlin was still snickering over things, as was Razorback. They were both clearly amused by this particular prank. Caitlin snickered and said, “I have to admit you do look kind of cute like that, with the bows in your hair.”

Razorback’s chirping laughter filled the air and he made a series of symbols with his hands, symbols that Jericho was looking at.

Jericho, for his part, simply flipped off his roommate.

“But Jericho, this look is great on you. I think you should stay with it. It has a certain… special something.”

More laughter erupted from the two of them.

Jericho stood proudly upright and vowed to the heavens, “When I catch whoever did this to me I will make them rue the day they messed with me!!”

~Rue the day? Rue the day?? Who the hell do you think you are, Scarlet O’Hara?~ Razorback’s hands spoke for him.

Jericho snarled, “I am not Pinkie O’Hara. Gah!!! I will find whoever did this to me and they will pay. They will pay dearly for this desecration. Oh yes, as God is my witness, I shall never be messed with again!!”

The End… for now

To the tune of "The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis and the News

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