Sins of the Father by Domoviye

Tulsa, Oklahoma
1992

John waiting to wake up a woman, Katherine, but why? 9 months pregnant and he has to leave because some people have tracked him down who would harm Katherine and the child to get to him, arrgggh. A woman to take care of her for 2 months, Karedonia account, and a regular allowance, at least he isn't leaving them high and dry, just without a husband and father. And John went to Whateley or knows about it, the way he talks about their child he is probably a mutant and expects his kid to manifest as well. And ouch, all those things he says not to tell, this is rough. A shapeshifter, no wonder tracking him down was so hard along with changing his identity.

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Dartmouth General Hospital,
March 9th, 2005

A girl shows up in the ER in that shape, the nurse had the right response. Naked, covered in bruises, please say Katherine didn't hook up with a creep later who abused her poor daughter.

Looks to be eleven or twelve, being taken care of and not cold anymore, good start. Detective Tricia Hull talks to the girl and tries to get some answers. Says she doesn't know her name or who her parents are, what happened?

“There was a bright light. It really hurt. I woke up on the sidewalk. No one was around so I started walking. I don't remember anything else. I'm sorry.”

Almost sounds like an abduction by someone with powers but it failed due to the girl's own powers.

Philadelphia
January 2nd, 2002

Over 3 years in the past from the above incident Mille eating dinner and ignoring the other diners, he sure picked a heck of an identity to go by. Mr. Bradley calling in John's marker, oh boy. Matthew Fusco is the kind of scum who definitely deserves what is coming to him.

Halifax, Nova Scotia
April, 2005

Jane Fisher with foster parents now, a name chosen by her caseworker, ouch. Amanda and Nick, her foster parents, why do I have a bad feeling about this? A lot of temporary foster kids come through their home, they seem nice enough, so why does something feel off about them?

Halifax, Nova Scotia
Early August, 2007

Jane finished her homework, reading an interesting book, and her foster mom is Alice, did she get placed in a different foster home in just a few months?

She didn't have a bad reputation in the system, but she'd heard the adults talk about her, words like too creepy, too quiet, too unemotional, antisocial, and more, were commonly used. She tried her best, but she didn't know how to act her age. She couldn't even say what her real age was.

Wait a minute, something is off here. Is this John and Katherine's child or is this the former John aka Mille who has taken on a new form and suffering from amnesia? Because the latter seems like a strong possibility with his power.

All those things off about herself sure point to my theory above being right. Saying those things to herself 3 times a day, is this something someone with amnesia would do? Those sudden sensations, shifting her form and being able to control even part of her form that quickly, and thinks she just manifested. It feels more complex than that.

Philadelphia
January 6th, 2002

Mille went over the facts of his target, Mr. Fusco, a crime lord. Too bad about the family and kids, though with keeping his own kids sheltered from the world I have to wonder how much is caring for them and how much is preventing them from being used as pawns against them. *eyes bug out* Self-abuse to focus his thoughts, yikes.

Halifax, Nova Scotia
Early August, 2007

Mrs. MacDonald is Jane's caseworker, and a government agent, oh boy. And daily seizures that cause involuntary shifting, ouch. Felix Trembley from the Ministry of Supernatural Affairs, eep. Spontaneous shifting looks like that for her, dang. The third home in 2 years, double ouch.

Kings Academy just outside Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island.

A school for mutants, nice to learn of another one out there. Ah, being sent to Whateley due to her seizures, she will get the best of care. And I can see why they worry about her seizures, if they keep up or get worse this could affect her health adversely. Doesn't wish to go out of the country, but knows she doesn't have a choice. The way she is talking it sounds like she has had a rough 2 years.

Philadelphia
January 10th, 2002

Mille in disguise and in the home of a man named Richard, has proof of some shit he has done. Kink, do to people like him in prison, sounds like a pedo to me, but that is just a guess. Millicent Hart, Mille sure does have a lot of cover identities.

Whateley
Power Testing Lab,
August, 2007

Jane chose the codename of Just Me, I hope she can figure out a better one before she graduates. Dr. Polland wishes for her to try and become 6' tall, and it goes very badly. With broken legs and a broken arm from hitting the ground, her shifting has some severe limits. Off to Doyle for the poor girl.

Philadelphia
January 20th, 2002

Mille in as Millicent Hart and Matthew Fusco has bought it. Bought off the former nanny and I can see why the woman wished to leave this job. Mr. Fusco disgusts me already.

Whateley
August 2007

3 days to recover from broken legs and arm, wish we had access to such miracles. Changing her sex and picturing herself as male is easy, making me believe this is the father and not his child more and more. Good lord! From the previous incident we knew her shapeshifting had severe limits, but just shifting her physical sex causes this much pain, scary. And Jane feels right as a boy, the hints as to her true identity just keep piling up.

Worked over with a baseball bat, how does she know what that is like? A complete shift into male form and stable until he chooses to shift or has another seizure, good. Darn, want him to shift back to his base female form after some testing, just when he is finally comfortable.

No trouble on the treadmill, everything seems good to go.

“The fact you can shift your internal organs successfully, but experienced so much difficulty doing so, is worrying. The more data we have on your power, increases our chance on helping prevent the seizures.”

Hate it when logic gets in the way of avoiding pain. Another seizure, a lot of pain, and being wheeled down a hallway in Doyle while a girl once more, darn it.

Philadelphia
January 22nd, 2002

Millicent having to do 'things' with Matthew Fusco, this is the start of a lot of trauma that could lead to trying to mentally block out such memories in any way possible. And the dangers of being a shapeshifter, losing your original identity completely. Micheal and Jason, 4 and 6, are innocents caught up in the life their parents made.

Mr. Shivansh, the accountant, and Millicent is flirting with him, all to try and get ahold of the records she can use to destroy Mr. Fusco's entire criminal empire. Get the kids up at 8 and not any sooner, good grief, it is good for children to have a schedule but to stick to it strictly all the time is ridiculous.

Whateley
August, 2007

Everyone getting ready for the 1st day of school. Dickinson cottage is a nice choice. Good news from Dr. Polland, and they have a plan of action to limit her seizures, hooray.

“We can't stop them, the section of your brain that signals to your cells when to shift is abnormal and there is no way to fix it. However, we believe standard anti-seizure medication will help. You'll be taking two pills a day. Initially we'll need to monitor you to fine tune the dosage, once that's all done the seizures should occur less often, and not be quite so severe.”

I wonder why that section of her brain is abnormal. Darn it, no gender shifting or risk another grand mal seizure. At least all of this is a start to gaining some control back.

Halifax, Nova Scotia
April, 2005

Amanda checking to see if Jane is alright.

Amanda got into bed with her, placing an arm over her chest. “I've found with a lot of girls, that cuddling up like this really helps us bond.”

Oh crud, I was wrong about which one was the pedo earlier, this is extremely bad.

Philadelphia
January 23rd, 2002

Matthew Fusco up at 3 am and ask a guard to do a scan of the grounds because he has a bad feeling, rats. Knockout drug on the guard and "Fusco" has a USB drive to download a virus into the security system. Slipping out and back to Millicent form, and with a heavily modified Blackberry, she has control over the security system.

Dickenson Cottage, Whateley
August, 2007

Amber Ashton, Jane's new roommate, ask about her hair that Jane removed so she didn't need to dry it after a shower, just growing it back when she felt like it. Amber can shift into a foot-tall fairy-like girl, cool. Codename is Smile, and her spirit thinks she is the real tooth fairy.

*eyes bug out* What the hell, did Amber's parents try to sacrifice her for power or what? Her parents are serial killers and got away with her little brother, so no wonder she chose Smile as her codename with the reasoning she gave. Shifter class, those must be interesting, BMA is always fun to watch. Jane is taking Survival, aww.

Philadelphia
January 24th, 2002

Going to see Shivansh, Millicent puts on the vamp routine and has him hooked. A meeting with him later that night to 'chat'. And no feelings in her line of work, this is going to backfire on you.

Looped security cameras, nice trick. Dressed like that with wine flowing, I hope nothing happens Millicent doesn't want to happen. Shivansh's drink is drugged, of course, and the trap is sprung.

Dopped up, Shivansh tells Millicent the account number for Mr. Fusco's main account. Soon it will all come crumbling down.

Crystal Hall, Whateley
September, 2007

Jane shows up for supper with Shaun aka Incognito. Amber has her own friend there, Aella, a wizard who is embarrassed by her figure. Her real name and codename in one, whoa.

Shaun picked up the slack. “So you're a wizard, that's amazing. I'm just a gadgeteer three, I specialize in disguises.” He took a spray bottle out of his pocket and sprayed it on his hair, making it go from brown to black. “This is my first gadget, a type of hair dye that reacts to a special chemical to change colour.”

He could make a fortune selling to spies and in the special effects business in Hollywood.

“I've got a spirit that thinks she's the tooth fairy, that makes me an Avatar two, shifter five, and energizer two. Perfect teeth, I can shift into a fairy girl, and can make people go numb. And no I'm not going to show what I look like while a certain tiny fairy is around. But it made me smaller, everywhere,” Amber said, glancing very unhappily at her virtually non-existent chest.

Ouch, Amber has it rough in so many ways. 3 days without a seizure and Jane has one now, at least the meds are working. Shifter 4, is still pretty impressive.

She shrugged. “I'm an exemplar, just a two, wizard two, and manifestor three, I can blow out hot air.”

Jane and Shaun looked at her oddly.

“My body makes a lot of hot air. That's why I look so fat, it's stored in me until I blow it out. I hate my power.”

Ah, so that is her issue. I wonder if the stored hot air can keep her warm when it is cold. And even blowing out the hot air doesn't help, ouch.

London, Ontario in Canada, huh, didn't know that existed until now.

Aella gave the girl a sympathetic smile. “I'm from Springfield, Massachusetts, I know exactly what you mean. And I have never gone to school with Lisa, and there isn't a nuclear power plant.”

Good grief, you never know how lucky you are not to live in a place with a name like a famous place in a show. Aella has it rough as well, I knew a lot of kids at Whateley had troubles at home or worse, but never on this scale.

Halifax, Nova Scotia
June, 2005

Jane reacting that way to the teacher, says she watched a horror movie with her foster parents, yeah right. Nick picks her up and puts his hand on her thigh! These scumbags need to be taken out, imo.

Philadelphia
January 28th, 2002
Afternoon

Millicent packing up and leaving a resignation note for Mr. Fusco, hears a shot as Mr. Fusco shot Shivansh in the knee due to missing money, what a psycho. Tens of millions over 3 days and laundered so thoroughly that Fusco would never find it, good. And Millicent is ready to deal with Mr. Fusco finally, nice shifting to increase strength and durability.

2 guards were taken down quickly, shifting to deal with an injury more efficiently, handy. Blasting her way into the office she takes down 3 people, Shivansh and 2 guards, but no Fusco. Nooo! The tutor and the kids were taken out by a car bomb and Fusco got away in a black sports car, this couldn't have gone any worse.

Whateley
September, 2007

Shaun didn't escape in Survival from a probability warper, he shouldn't beat himself up over that. Jane likes to go jogging to help clear her mind.

“I'm trying to make an improved mask. The ones they have now are pretty good, but they're expensive, take a while to make, and if you sweat too much, have oily or really dry skin, too many whiskers, or GSD like scales, they don't work that well. I've figured out how to make them mold to a persons face more securely, but there's room for improvement, and I think I can use some different chemicals to make production cheaper and faster.”

This kid is going to be a boon to everyone who loves dressing up. Jane as a guinea pig to help test the mask on different skin types sounds like fun.

Philadelphia
January 30th, 2002

Mille at a diner meeting with Mr. Bradley once more.

“You got rid of his kids, now he knows what it feels like. And from what I've heard he's lost almost all his money.” The man gave a wane smile. “Thanks for the hundred thousand. I didn't know I had a long lost cousin in Europe.”

That wasn't part of the plan, those kids were innocent of their father's crimes, this is just sick. Retire in Florida and doesn't care if Fusco comes after him, ugh. And Mille injuries himself again, rage and self-loathing over killing those kids. He should have just taken out the father from the start instead of this long scheme.

Workshop, Whateley
October, 2007

Jane, Amber, and Aella, along with Shaun and his roommate Cooper at Shaun's workstation. Aella wants to be Ursula from the Little Mermaid, Amber as Ariel, Shaun shouldn't have mentioned extra padding with the seashell bra. Cooper as Prince Eric and Amber likes it, cute. Sounds like Jane wants to go as Lady Champion, and Shaun most likely is going as Dr. Amazing. This is going to be an interesting Halloween for sure.

Jane is friend zoning Shaun and telling him now so it won't go any further. And Jane is not-so-subtle in how she lets him know she is a lesbian, talk about guts. Upbeat from Melville, Shaun is introducing her so she knows another lesbian to talk to.

Seattle
November, 2004

Mille looking for a fight despite how he is dressed, just how more messed up has he become since the failed mission? Self-injury to avoid starting a fight and help concentrate, I wish he would find another means. He has only gotten worse mentally and emotionally since, dang. And suicidal as well, this is painful to watch.

A white van and a hit squad that Mille barely avoids by diving into a shop through a door. Changed his appearance completely by the time he gets to the backdoor of the place, and into an alley. Somehow the goggles these men are wearing can tell it is Mille no matter his appearance, this is bad. Badly injured, he takes out one of the gunmen and acquires a pair of goggles for himself. and ends up hiding in a dumpster amongst the rats. Desperate times and all that.

Halifax, Nova Scotia
June, 2005

Amanda asks Jane to set the table, these monsters making Jane think of ways to kill them. Darn it, she spared Amanda for now. These sickos need to be stopped.

Whateley,
October 31st, 2007

Halloween party, Amber and Cooper dancing, Aella's costume is popular and she is chatting with her Melville friends. Shaun is splitting time between workshop peers and Jane, I wonder what he could do with a big budget for costumes. Jane teaching Shaun how to dance is the perfect friend thing to do. Nice homework to be given, I wonder which girl Shaun will end up dancing with.

Paris, France
December, 2004

Taking the goggles to a gadgeteer named Geppetto to look over, smart move.

“Your aura. These lenses are kirlian cameras, they can detect light that is released by the electrified air surrounding an object. Usually you need to electrify an object or person to create the aura affect, but these are top of the line and can detect even minute amounts of light caused by electricity. And you my friend, produce far more electricity than a baseline.”

It figures, that it had been something linked to his physical form but not physical in nature. Change his aura with magic or a devise, don't tell me that is how this whole mess with Jane started. That is my guess on the matter still.

Whateley
Early afternoon,
Saturday, November 10th, 2007

A trip to Berlin and Pristine is their minder, please no adventure on their trip. Smile and Aella got detention, what happened? For defending themselves from a bully, Mrs. Carson is being stricter than usual. Jane just wants to get out of Whateley for a while, and Shaun going because Amber wants company, let's hope this is a quiet trip.

Boston
Midnight,

February, 2005

Hunted for months across Europe and America, Mille is having it rough, to say the least. Flash-bang to blind his pursuers and give him some breathing room while he escapes, killed that many and still 30 left of their numbers, someone really wants Mille dead. 20 bombs with a remote detonator to take them all out and himself in the process, how in the heck did Mille survive that?

Berlin
Mid-afternoon,
November 10th, 2007

Shaun had an overprotective mother, wait a minute. Don't tell me, his mother is Katherine and Shaun is her and John's child. Home for Christmas with Shaun, with no memories from before, this will get messy. Aww, worried Shaun's mom will hate her, Jane needs more confidence in herself. And now he wants her and Amber to come home with him for Christmas, noooo, the more Whateley students home together over a holiday vacation the higher the odds of an adventure happening.

2 large men show up and look at Jane, she tells Shaun they have to go now, hhm. Why did the customers start moving towards them, mind control perhaps? Jane fighting like that, being that brutal, yup, she is Mille in a new identity and form. Jane is on the ground and bleeding from her head, Shaun is hit, and the man picks up Shaun by the neck.

“We know who your father is. We know he's still alive. Tell Mille we want to meet him at the graves of the children. If we have to give you this message again, we will kill you.”

And Shaun has no idea of who they are talking about, the creeps knock him unconscious.

Halifax, Nova Scotia,
July, 2005

Jane with a screwdriver, limping down the basement. Played by their rules and yet they still abuse her. She did something to the furnace from the sounds of it, messing with the fittings.

Jane, dazed and half conscious, had phoned 911 when her foster parents hadn't woken up in the morning. As soon as the paramedics saw her symptoms they knew what had killed her foster parents, carbon monoxide. She'd been lucky to survive thanks to her window being open a little to get some fresh air.

Made it look like bad maintenance that killed them, they deserved it.

Doyle, Whateley
Late Evening,
November 10th, 2007

Jane sneaks into Shaun's room in Doyle, her room across the hall from his. Questions from security and Mrs. Carson while in bad shape, ouch. 2 weeks to full recovery even with all Doyle can do, these monsters need to be hunted down. At least Mrs. Carson knows about Mille, she can start to piece things together, hopefully.

Taking his hand in hers, Jane kissed it. “I'm sorry Shaun,” she whispered, “the sins of the father shouldn't pass onto the son. I'll make sure they can't hurt you again.”

You remembered this whole time and faked amnesia, I should have guessed soon with all the hints.

Halifax, Canada
March, 2005

Mille teleported to Eir's lab, rebuilt by nanites. She is a mad scientist and thinks his plan is insane, good lord, I was right with my guesses all along. A devise, so a devise to change his aura, I wondered which option he went with.

Halifax, Nova Scotia,
March 9th, 2005

20 million for this devise, whoa.

“You'll have a burnout that should ride the very edge of survivability, burning out your powers, locking you into whatever body you're currently in, and almost certainly changing your biosigns. Depending on the results I may be able to offer this as a way to help mutants with powers that are killing them.”

So it partially worked as he or she as Jane remanifested later on. He chose the form of Jane and went through with it, but losing his memories was never mentioned as part of what the devise did.

John waiting to wake up a woman, Katherine, but why? 9 months pregnant and he has to leave because some people have tracked him down who would harm Katherine and the child to get to him, arrgggh. A woman to take care of her for 2 months, Karedonia account, and a regular allowance, at least he isn't leaving them high and dry, just without a husband and father.

Mille may be a liar,a murderer, a monster, and severely screwed in the head, but he's not intentionally an asshole.

Jane Fisher with foster parents now, a name chosen by her caseworker, ouch. Amanda and Nick, her foster parents, why do I have a bad feeling about this? A lot of temporary foster kids come through their home, they seem nice enough, so why does something feel off about them?

I almost didn't keep this subplot, but I ultimately felt it was important to show that Jane and Mille don't react like a normal, sane individual. They don't ask for help not out of shame or stubbornness, but because it doesn't even come into their thinking. Their general reaction is ignore it and deal, or MURDER. It's a minor flaw in their thinking by this point.

Mille went over the facts of his target, Mr. Fusco, a crime lord. Too bad about the family and kids, though with keeping his own kids sheltered from the world I have to wonder how much is caring for them and how much is preventing them from being used as pawns against them. *eyes bug out* Self-abuse to focus his thoughts, yikes.

Let's just say a decade of working alone and not allowing himself to have a proper identity or life, has not been kind to Mille.

Kings Academy just outside Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island.

A school for mutants, nice to learn of another one out there.

Mutant schools are mentioned in Morgana's intro story, and in Tink: Beginnings with Fetch. But I believe this is the first one mentioned by name. They're for low level mutants with no GSD or minor ones that can be hidden without too much trouble. If someone isn't dangerous or not very dangerous, and has no unusual requirements they don't really need to go to Whateley.
Canada has four or five schools that are capable of dealing with mutants who have minor powers that make going to a public school problematic. Most of the students aren't mutants, but they're all friendly or at least neutral to mutants, and the teachers have special training, along with specialized courses.

Mille in disguise and in the home of a man named Richard, has proof of some shit he has done. Kink, do to people like him in prison, sounds like a pedo to me, but that is just a guess. Millicent Hart, Mille sure does have a lot of cover identities.

Richard is a nasty person you don't want near children.
Mille has quite a reputation for using and burning identities.

Worked over with a baseball bat, how does she know what that is like?

Most people would just assume Jane is using it as an example without knowing what it feels like.
Mille had it happen a few times. He could also tell people what it feels like to be hit by a car, blown up, curb stomped, tortured, shot, stabbed, nearly drowned, strangled, and violently assaulted as a man and a woman.
By 2002, he considered it just part of the job, and he had multiple black hat healers on multiple continents on speed dial.

Millicent having to do 'things' with Matthew Fusco, this is the start of a lot of trauma that could lead to trying to mentally block out such memories in any way possible. And the dangers of being a shapeshifter, losing your original identity completely.

Part of the job. He'd done it, and worse, before.
He purposefully gave away his identity. He couldn't let a slip up hurt Katherine or his unknown child.

I wonder why that section of her brain is abnormal.

Massive burnout, followed by the injured bit of brain matter healing after traumatic injury.

Amanda checking to see if Jane is alright.

Amanda got into bed with her, placing an arm over her chest. “I've found with a lot of girls, that cuddling up like this really helps us bond.”

Oh crud, I was wrong about which one was the pedo earlier, this is extremely bad.

I felt dirty writing this.

Amber Ashton, Jane's new roommate, ask about her hair that Jane removed so she didn't need to dry it after a shower, just growing it back when she felt like it. Amber can shift into a foot-tall fairy-like girl, cool. Codename is Smile, and her spirit thinks she is the real tooth fairy.

*eyes bug out* What the hell, did Amber's parents try to sacrifice her for power or what? Her parents are serial killers and got away with her little brother, so no wonder she chose Smile as her codename with the reasoning she gave.

Morpheus had a vague idea of a tooth fairy avatar. I took the idea and fleshed it out with a silly young childs image of a fairy. And then as I wrote up her backstory my daughters FNAF obsession came to the fore, I almost called Amber, Elizabeth. Instead I chose the name of a female voice actor from the game.

Looped security cameras, nice trick. Dressed like that with wine flowing, I hope nothing happens Millicent doesn't want to happen. Shivansh's drink is drugged, of course, and the trap is sprung.

Shivansh had a half hour of heaven, before the drug took affect. Mille doesn't really care about his own body or emotions at this point. He has a job, he will do it, everything else is a minor concern.

Jane shows up for supper with Shaun aka Incognito. Amber has her own friend there, Aella, a wizard who is embarrassed by her figure. Her real name and codename in one, whoa.

Shaun picked up the slack. “So you're a wizard, that's amazing. I'm just a gadgeteer three, I specialize in disguises.” He took a spray bottle out of his pocket and sprayed it on his hair, making it go from brown to black. “This is my first gadget, a type of hair dye that reacts to a special chemical to change colour.”

He could make a fortune selling to spies and in the special effects business in Hollywood.

I had a lot of trouble with Shaun. I wanted a power that connected with Mille, without making it completely obvious. After several hours of thought (usually I can make a character plus basic backstory in a few minutes to an hour), I hit upon gadgeteer who does disguises. Not very powerful, but very useful when properly applied.

Ouch, Amber has it rough in so many ways. 3 days without a seizure and Jane has one now, at least the meds are working. Shifter 4, is still pretty impressive.

That should be Shifter 5. She can add or decrease about 10lbs of matter safely, so she goes up by one. FAR weaker then Mille's shifting abilities, but still impressive.

She shrugged. “I'm an exemplar, just a two, wizard two, and manifestor three, I can blow out hot air.”

Jane and Shaun looked at her oddly.

“My body makes a lot of hot air. That's why I look so fat, it's stored in me until I blow it out. I hate my power.”

Ah, so that is her issue. I wonder if the stored hot air can keep her warm when it is cold. And even blowing out the hot air doesn't help, ouch.

I wanted unusual powers that weren't obvious power houses for these characters. As I was brainstorming ideas, I believe it was Dan who recommended someone that can blow hot air. Initially going to be a boy, I decided to shake things up and make her a girl and give her a weird but minor case of GSD, and then gave her magic so that she could get something nice out of her powers.

Aella has it rough as well, I knew a lot of kids at Whateley had troubles at home or worse, but never on this scale.

Aella has a nasty family, but they aren't nearly as bad as several characters like Darqueheart, or even Mary (Tink's roommate). Sure her parents pawned her off to her uncle, but at least they gave him money to support her, a fairly sizeable amount to since she's in Melville. She just chooses not to use her original name because she's (rightfully) pissed with her parents abandoning her.
It's not like they tried to kill her, or even hit her.

Shaun didn't escape in Survival from a probability warper, he shouldn't beat himself up over that. Jane likes to go jogging to help clear her mind.

“I'm trying to make an improved mask. The ones they have now are pretty good, but they're expensive, take a while to make, and if you sweat too much, have oily or really dry skin, too many whiskers, or GSD like scales, they don't work that well. I've figured out how to make them mold to a persons face more securely, but there's room for improvement, and I think I can use some different chemicals to make production cheaper and faster.”

This kid is going to be a boon to everyone who loves dressing up. Jane as a guinea pig to help test the mask on different skin types sounds like fun.

The survival comment came from an Imp story, A Teachers Tale Part 2, where she was subbing for Survival, and an unnamed student complained about tripping due to Jinx's power.
And the stuff about masks being expensive, taking time to make and not working with scales came from Imp an Imp-Perfect Tale, when she see's Ryan wearing a mask.

That wasn't part of the plan, those kids were innocent of their father's crimes, this is just sick. Retire in Florida and doesn't care if Fusco comes after him, ugh.

He's not retiring to Florida, he's going there to commit suicide.
He's going to rent a boat, fill it with alcohol, and go on one last fishing trip. When he said he'd save Fusco a seat, he meant he'll see him in hell.
He realizes that even though he got satisfaction, he is not in the right here.
No one gets a happy ending.

Jane, Amber, and Aella, along with Shaun and his roommate Cooper at Shaun's workstation. Aella wants to be Ursula from the Little Mermaid, Amber as Ariel, Shaun shouldn't have mentioned extra padding with the seashell bra. Cooper as Prince Eric and Amber likes it, cute. Sounds like Jane wants to go as Lady Champion, and Shaun most likely is going as Dr. Amazing. This is going to be an interesting Halloween for sure.

Jane is friend zoning Shaun and telling him now so it won't go any further. And Jane is not-so-subtle in how she lets him know she is a lesbian, talk about guts. Upbeat from Melville, Shaun is introducing her so she knows another lesbian to talk to.

I just really liked everything about this scene. It was fun to write after all the ugliness.
It also got Jane and Shaun interacting together in a nice way, and while Jane is a lesbian, she has another very good reason to friend zone Shaun, she just can't come out and say it.
Rose came up with the funny bit about Upbeat, and I just had to go with it.

Mille looking for a fight despite how he is dressed, just how more messed up has he become since the failed mission? Self-injury to avoid starting a fight and help concentrate, I wish he would find another means. He has only gotten worse mentally and emotionally since, dang. And suicidal as well, this is painful to watch.

Mille was hoping he'd be robbed or hassled, giving him an excuse to fight. He's got serious issues, but he's not quite at the point of jumping people just for a chance to cut loose or possibly die.

A white van and a hit squad that Mille barely avoids by diving into a shop through a door. Changed his appearance completely by the time he gets to the backdoor of the place, and into an alley. Somehow the goggles these men are wearing can tell it is Mille no matter his appearance, this is bad. Badly injured, he takes out one of the gunmen and acquires a pair of goggles for himself. and ends up hiding in a dumpster amongst the rats. Desperate times and all that.

This scene is actually how I first came up with Jane and Mille.
A shifter has to go DEEP underground when his enemies learn how to track him.

Amanda asks Jane to set the table, these monsters making Jane think of ways to kill them. Darn it, she spared Amanda for now. These sickos need to be stopped.

Another scene I felt dirty about writing.
The cuddling on the couch to watch a movie as a family activity made my skin crawl. Turning an innocent thing into that, ugh.
I wasn't going to write the abuse happening, but implying it, showing the way it affected Jane, that was all on the table.

Halloween party, Amber and Cooper dancing, Aella's costume is popular and she is chatting with her Melville friends. Shaun is splitting time between workshop peers and Jane, I wonder what he could do with a big budget for costumes. Jane teaching Shaun how to dance is the perfect friend thing to do. Nice homework to be given, I wonder which girl Shaun will end up dancing with.

Another fun scene, and it was written right after the previous one, so it was something of a palette cleanser.

A trip to Berlin and Pristine is their minder, please no adventure on their trip. Smile and Aella got detention, what happened? For defending themselves from a bully, Mrs. Carson is being stricter than usual.

A random teacher came by as Aella and Smile were going at it with a bully or two, they didn't see what the cause was, so punished all of them. Aella and Smile probably got a lesser punishment.

Shaun had an overprotective mother, wait a minute. Don't tell me, his mother is Katherine and Shaun is her and John's child. Home for Christmas with Shaun, with no memories from before, this will get messy. Aww, worried Shaun's mom will hate her, Jane needs more confidence in herself. And now he wants her and Amber to come home with him for Christmas, noooo, the more Whateley students home together over a holiday vacation the higher the odds of an adventure happening.

I have a plan to write a single big story for Jane and her friends each term, with one or two short stories for the holidays and/or combat finals.
The winter vacation short story is going to be interesting.

2 large men show up and look at Jane, she tells Shaun they have to go now, hhm. Why did the customers start moving towards them, mind control perhaps? Jane fighting like that, being that brutal, yup, she is Mille in a new identity and form.

The customers were other hired leg breakers.
They wanted to make sure Shaun couldn't escape, so they followed him into the cafe, slowly filled it up, made sure no one capable of helping was there, and the two men walking in signalled the start of the beat down. They were in and out in less than five minutes with a mostly clean operation.
Only Jane was unexpected, but she was unprepared and far from peek condition to deal with them.

Jane with a screwdriver, limping down the basement. Played by their rules and yet they still abuse her. She did something to the furnace from the sounds of it, messing with the fittings.

Jane, dazed and half conscious, had phoned 911 when her foster parents hadn't woken up in the morning. As soon as the paramedics saw her symptoms they knew what had killed her foster parents, carbon monoxide. She'd been lucky to survive thanks to her window being open a little to get some fresh air.

Made it look like bad maintenance that killed them, they deserved it.

They REALLY deserved it, and I couldn't wait to write this part.
Jane really did try to avoid murdering them. But they finally went too far, so she did the only thing she could think of, while remaining hidden.
Also she broke the water heater. Water heaters can release carbon monoxide if they aren't maintained, it was less likely to draw suspicion than a furnace in the summer. It's also why she went and had a long hot shower, so it would start heating up and release the gas while everyone slept.

Jane sneaks into Shaun's room in Doyle, her room across the hall from his. Questions from security and Mrs. Carson while in bad shape, ouch. 2 weeks to full recovery even with all Doyle can do, these monsters need to be hunted down. At least Mrs. Carson knows about Mille, she can start to piece things together, hopefully.

Taking his hand in hers, Jane kissed it. “I'm sorry Shaun,” she whispered, “the sins of the father shouldn't pass onto the son. I'll make sure they can't hurt you again.”

You remembered this whole time and faked amnesia, I should have guessed soon with all the hints.

Part two will reveal a little bit of how much she knew and when. It explains a lot of her actions. We'll also see how she thinks, it's not pretty. A psychologist could write a mountain of papers on her emotions and thought process.

Mille teleported to Eir's lab, rebuilt by nanites. She is a mad scientist and thinks his plan is insane, good lord, I was right with my guesses all along. A devise, so a devise to change his aura, I wondered which option he went with.

Having a mad scientist call him insane made me smile.

20 million for this devise, whoa.

“You'll have a burnout that should ride the very edge of survivability, burning out your powers, locking you into whatever body you're currently in, and almost certainly changing your biosigns. Depending on the results I may be able to offer this as a way to help mutants with powers that are killing them.”

So it partially worked as he or she as Jane remanifested later on. He chose the form of Jane and went through with it, but losing his memories was never mentioned as part of what the devise did.

She started the devise around mid to late December and had it done by the end of February. She also ensured Mille would be healed up after dealing with his little hitman problem. That 20 million was well earned.
And Jane never lost her memory. She just needed a reason for not having a family and appearing out of nowhere with bad hypothermia. Memory loss due to trauma would make the most sense to authorities, and being in a different country a few weeks after Mille died, who would connect the two?
If her brain hadn't healed, somewhat, from the burnout, and she basically manifested twice (Mille's shifting was extremely good and stable), she would have been able to live a quiet, relatively peaceful life. She wouldn't have been emotionally stable, but with a stable environment, a few few friends she would heal a bit. And her mask could keep the worst of it at bay.
Instead we will get a years long story of Jane dealing with various problems in her own unique, horribly violent and emotionally traumatizing for everyone involved, way.
ENJOY!

Doyle, Whateley
Early Evening
November 10th, 2007

Jane lied to Mrs. Carson, Delarose, and Louis Gentz about why Shaun was attacked. Mille's past has come back to haunt Jane and Mille's son, but Jane stubbornly won't go to the staff for help. Small recap of what has happened in Mille/Jane's life.

And calls up Katherine using their old voice, oh boy. Lies about being Mille, saying he died and was just a friend, tells her what happened to Shaun, and says Katherine has to go into hiding, and the plan, good grief this is a mess.

Headmistress Office, Whateley
Late Evening,

Delarose has a lead on who attacked Shaun but needs to confirm first. And he has almost all the information we do, Delarose is good. Darn it, Imp worked with him twice before he turned violent and even her information isn't useful. The backstory for who Shaun's father all made up and Delarose didn't buy it, and she is in a Syndicate safehouse now, huge tipoff.

Jane has been caught, they know about the call to Katherine and don't believe her lie about losing the phone, she isn't used to dealing with professionals on this level. She made herself too perfect of a student. History with Jane's foster families recapped, they know some of what we do now. Mr. Fusco is toast, being made an example for breaking Whateley's neutrality is never pretty.

Past
Survival Class, Whateley
Early Afternoon
September 4th, 2007

Observing people so much, trying to figure out how not to stick out, is exactly what makes you stick out at Whateley. And this is how Jane "met" Shaun, the old meet-cute bump-into-each-other bit. Why did she invite him to dinner with her and her roommate if she didn't really want it to happen?

Stealing Shaun's phone, and calling his mom to confirm who Shaun is, Jane has a lot to answer for. All those thoughts about being Jane now and her plans for her future, funny how fate likes to take our plans and laugh.

Whateley
Lunchtime
November 11th, 2007

Once more lying right to Delarose's face about knowing Mille, this is going to blow up in her face. Jane, you are too stubborn for your and anyone else's good. Amber, Cooper, and Aella waiting for her, tells them about Shaun's condition, and she lies about how she knows why Shaun was attacked to her friends.

Oof, no wonder they aren't news, this was the time of the attack on Absinthe, and the rumors about her working for the MCO started. And Aella with phone research thinks she knows who Mille is. Ah, just the basics about him and his abilities. And Jane spells out why they would go after Shaun even if Mille was dead, ouch. Jane is in rough shape after this conversation, at least Shaun's friends will be there for him. Shit, I don't like the mindset that Jane is in right now.

Whateley
Late Afternoon
November 12th, 2007

Avoiding the Imp and now going to see her for help, Jane is desperate at this point. *facepalms* Spelling it all out for Imp and it is too big a favor, too dangerous, for the marker. The information she can use in her attack on Fusco, digging that hole deeper and deeper. Rats, Imp didn't see through Jane to the Mille still in there.

Past
Workshop, Whateley
September 14th

A scan of Jane's face to make a mask to help make testing easier, Shaun is a great friend. That polymer could be used in place of skin grafts or for medical purposes, at least I hope it can. Yikes! Good reason for starting school a year late, but the poor kid having to go through that.

“Well, yeah. You always seem kind of distracted and not all there, like you're thinking about something really hard, or not sure what to do.”

Another thing that makes Jane stand out at Whateley. Alchemical is adorable, can't blame him for not knowing Jane is a shifter.

Tunnels, Whateley
November 13th

Ugh, Jane, why are you playing up flirting with Mobius just to get a discount? Poor boy didn't know what hit him, Mobius needs to get out of his workshop and interact with more girls more often to prevent this kind of situation. Now she is playing Bugs to get more gear, no shame at all.

Alchemical has come up with an interesting means of non-lethal self-defense with his newest creation. He follows the proper testing procedures, and now I'm really impressed with him. Yikes, Jane sure knows how to scare someone and Alchemical got a good read off her eyes.

Noticing all those changed details, trying to resist her charms, and especially noticing her eyes, he has incredible observation skills. All that and he sticks to following the rules, is strong-willed and principled, most impressive. That was a sexual assault by Jane, I wish the security cameras had caught it. Poor Alchemical, being subjected to all that, he might need therapy now.

Past
Whateley
September, 6th

Out for a walk, just wanting some peace, and Thud shows up to bug Jane. Bugging her for a date then shoving her to the ground, and calling her a dyke, Thud needs a lesson in manners. Slaps her and then insults her before leaving, Thud needs a close eye kept on him.

Whateley
Evening, November 14th

He keeps doing this shit to her and Jane never reports him to security. Thud needs to be stopped already. He picked the wrong day to mess with her, all that in moments and a knife in front of his eye. Jane gets him to admit he is a coward, figures. Jane is a psycho in this mindset, she should have reported Thud, but the threats she is making to him are too far. And Thud knows to never mess with Jane again, that was one of the scariest things I've read.

Jane in the Dickinson bathroom and trying to pull herself back together went too far back to who she used to be and almost didn't pull back in time. All that to shift back to Jane's default appearance including the eyes, never do that again, Jane.

Past
Dickinson Cottage,Whateley
October 28th, 2007

Amber is clearly upset and lying about it, and she is upset because she can't do Halloween back home with her family, aww. Glad to see Jane knows some of what it means to be a friend.

Doyle, Whateley
Late Afternoon
November 15th

Shaun is still in bad shape, but better than before and conscious at least. Shaun says he wants a new body, honestly, I would have the same response in his condition. Cooper, no trying to take over your dormmate's half of the dorm room while they are in Doyle. Amber knows the look on Jane's face having seen it on her parents the last time she saw them, dang.

Dunwich
Early evening

Jane is in a small cafe and plotting how to pull off her plan in a short amount of time. Oh good, the people she called know not to piss off Whateley. She thinks she is covering her tracks well this time, but after what Delarose and Fubar learned about Jane she might be tracked by Whateley-sent agents despite all her planning.

An anti-tank gun might not be enough to even hurt some of the students, they can be healed from the injuries, but poison is mainly used to kill, Jane. All this planning and she might have underestimated Whateley's security and intelligence.

Tunnels, Whateley
Weapons Fair
November 17th

Kid, never talk yourself out of a guaranteed sale to a customer like that. The customer likes what they like. And the plasma knife is more discrete, good for the kind of job needed.

“This was the only good thing you have. Everything else on this table is junk a mall ninja would buy trying to look cool. Professionals want simple, effective and deadly, not shit to hang on the walls and play with on the net.”

Kid, listen to her and you will have sales for years to come.

Airport, Philadelphia
Late evening,
November 19th, 2007

Emily Bogart, nice cover identity and not drawing attention to yourself. You drive in a big city, you have to expect congested streets. Kamikaze run, sounds like she doesn't plan on coming back from this.

Philadelphia
Morning,
November 20th, 2007

Observing the teen girl, how she is reacting, almost like she is jealous of the lives they lead. Henry Moyer, head accountant of Mr. Fusco. She took on his daughter's identity, this better not get the girl killed. "Carrie" makes up a lie to get her "father" to let her inside.

Ouch, painful disarm and disable him with improved pepper spray, but at least Henry will live. Henry knows she is Mille and believes they are there to kill him. Dang, Fusco thought ahead about preventing the same thing from being done to him again. And his security is jacked up, $50k a week, sounds like he hired some mutant muscle.

All that information kills Henry anyways with a poison made to look like a heart attack, ugh. Damocles and it is worth $50k a week, something high-tech for sure. Mille, I really hate you right now.

Rick, Jack, and Jerome, some security Fusco hired for himself. Oh, good grief, pretending to be a hooker hired for Fusco, Tiffany Sparkles. Cover story and everything, says she works for Venus Dolls. Poison on a fake wedding ring and Jake is done for. Now Rick puts up a fight and doesn't even notice a lethal wound until it is too late, brutal doesn't begin to cover this.

A drone sent to play with people, AI controlled, and 'tags' two humans and 4 dogs before playing hide and seek. Crap, it fired a missile and took out two more, simple AI that sees all this as a game as a child would. And designed for a kamikaze attack at the end, seesh.

Jane used the car to get to the entrance to the manor, her PFG keeping her protected from the hail of gunfire, wise purchases all. Plastic explosives to a window and enough distance from it before setting them off, a smoke grenade tossed into the opening, and a rough climb inside. Dealing with another guard with the plasma knife it melts kevra armor and cooks the guy from the inside, yikes.

Two more guards took down and more show up, her PFG can't keep up forever.

Deep under the house, Cora watched the chaos that was going on upstairs through her cybernetic eye that was connected to the security system.

So, is she a part of Damocles? A cyborg is just what we don't need. She sees her current employer beneath her, this is someone with issues.

Mr. Fusco's right-hand man is smart with common sense, and Fusco should listen to him. Rage-induced insanity, she has Fusco pegged. Cora doesn't believe it is Mille from what she has observed so far and wishes to question Jane before she kills her, talk about arrogance.

Michael the IT guy and his girlfriend Rae just want to get out of there alive, I hope they do. Darn, got outside but the other drone took them out, stupid machine.

Jane is getting beat up badly even with the PFG, only stopping high-speed impacts to save energy, ouch. Not sure how many she had killed, out of magazines for her pistol, this is bad. The tactile shotgun was taken from the downed guard with ammo, off to find more trouble. Ruby, the secretary. And Jane says she gets to live, if Ruby dies now I'm going to be ticked.

And a message for Fusco, a lie about who Jane really is and why the trail of Mille's led to her. Good grief, Jane, you promised her, you didn't need to pin her to the wall like that.

Cora watches through the cameras in the manor from the basement and watches Jane take down 3 more guards brutally. Fusco still can't understand how she took down so many. Great, Cora is a bigot who thinks mutants are genetic freaks of nature, taking pleasure in being able to kill one.

Jane barely has a break to get a drink before Cora attacks, and Jane dodges it. Cora questioning who Jane is and insults her at the same time, can't stand this woman. Yeow! Distracts Cora, but it isn't enough as she catches Jane by the wrist and breaks it. Eye lasers and the PFG absorbed most of the energy, and Jane is in for the toughest fight of her life. Darn it! There goes the PFG.

Cora uses her cybernetics to map out where Jane is, stalking her like she is a wild animal. Jane got a poisoned needle in, but how much was injected before the needle broke? Auto-healer cybernetics to neutralize the poison and fix some of the damage, arrgh. Fun, she thinks causing pain before killing someone is fun. Cora needs to die.

Being forced back by Cora's blade, Jane hits her with the enhanced pepper spray and stabs her right in the eye, yes! Time to lead Cora around by the nose.

At least one eye will take time to heal, Cora is at a big disadvantage now. She believes Jane is setting a regular booby trap, she is in for a surprise.

Great, a police officer has called in what is happening at the manor and the drone outside leaves him alone until he sets foot past the gate. Who the heck did she purchase these drones from?

Ah, the claymore mine set up to be triggered, Cora will regret underestimating Jane. Darn it! Cora used her energy cannon to blast up the place, ruining Jane's plan.

Ah, good, Cora took damage from the claymore mine. And this kind of maniac who is storming a fortress decided she needed one. Left knee out for now, good. And the computer in her head drives Cora to want to kill mutants, who the **** made that computer? Rats, so high a chance to take out Cora if her beam weapon hadn't hit the claymore mine.

Jane is in very bad shape, will she live through this? The plasma knife with a full charge hit Cora right and that will end her once and for all. Uncontrolled shift back into her true form, and Cora is shocked she is just a kid. 3 self-defense chemicals to get Cora off balance, then the plasma knife to her spine, and then skull jus tin case to finish her off. Finally, another monster is dead. Another stimulant, Jane is going to be in Doyle for a long time after all this.

Taking out more guards and breaking into the final room, Fusco is shot in the stomach several times and bleeding out, but sirens are approaching. Jane shifts into the form of an old woman before losing consciousness, will she live through all this, or were her wounds too much?

Amplify flying through the manor after taking out the drones outside, he is the point man for the operation so they know it is safe for when the police and medics are sent in. Jane in disguise taken out to medics outside before Amplify heads back inside. And the poor secretary delivers the message from Mille. Crud, he figured out Jane disguised herself as the old woman thanks to the secretary.

By the time he reaches the ambulance Jane is already gone, but no one was killed in her escape. Amplify flies up to try and spot her even if he thinks there is little hope.

Jane reaches the Golden Peaches Massage Parlour in a stolen car and says she needs to see Iaso. The best healer in town, and Jane spells out why she needs him, yikes. Ritual magic to heal, nice to see different types.

Late Evening

A room for Syndicate teleporters, Iaso must deal with a diverse clientele. More lies to cover for her actions and Jane just wishes to sleep, but can't yet.

Whately, Headmistress Office
Early Morning,
November 21st, 2007

Delarose confirms the attack on Shaun was done by Mr. Fusco and tells Carson no need to contact anyone. They know Fusco and all his men are dead, but not who did it nor why. All the information about the attacker has unfortunate implications for Jane that Mrs. Carson doesn't like.

And something that is very interesting. Two devises in the shape of colourful eggs were found. When they were broken, people were able to use their cell phones and radios again without listening to a song from My Little Pony.”

“And Jane is in Canada, meeting someone who may be a family member,” Carson said, frowning at the implications.

She blew it using Bugs' devises, too easy for Whateley to figure out a student used them. I like Delarose's reaction to what Jane did.

“ As soon as possible give me a list of anyone close to the late Mr. Fusco that still needs to learn Whateley is off limits. I'll pass on the word that the neutrality matter has largely been dealt with, ”

After this incident only a completely arrogant fool who believes they can deal with any threat would try anything.

Dickinson, Whateley
Suppertime

Jane traumatized herself with her actions, she might have nightmares from what she has done. Yes, make your own family. Jane crying like that in Amber's arms as they hug for that long says something, please let her never have to kill again.

Portland, Oregon,
That Evening

Trevor Sung studying a video from Cora, part of Project Damocles, one of the super cyborgs this man created. Oh crud, he knows about Jane and her uncontrolled shifting.

Better to sit back and wait for an opportunity to find out exactly how Jane Fisher was related to Mille. His vengeance could wait a little longer.

Great, a threat who is smarter about his vengeance than Fusco, this is bad.

Dickinson Cottage, Whateley
Late Night

Oh crud, Jane is confused about who and what she is. Thank you, she fought off the darker part of her mind and remained Jane Fisher.

This was an interesting story about identity and how we view ourselves. Mille has to deal with the issue so many shifters develop after a time, losing themselves to the appearances they take until they don't know who they are anymore. Having to give up life with his wife and son to keep them safe, to start over in a new form with a new identity, yet still having the baggage of the old in there.

Seeing Jane manifest, the foster homes she had to deal with, it was heartbreaking when she just wants an ordinary life. Then to end up at Whateley and find Mille's son, become his friend, and has to save his life from thugs sent for revenge. The sins of the father is a BS reason imo to target anyone, you have no control over who your parent is or what your parent does.

I'm glad Jane has made friends with Shaun, Amber, Aelle, and Copper, I hope she makes more friends and they help her hold onto her identity.

Fusco, I'm upset about what happened to his sons and others simply working for him beside the bodyguards, but he endangered their lives with his criminal empire as well. His seeking revenge on Mille cost the lives of so many including himself; if he had just let it go.

When Jane went blue-eyed and manipulated Mobius and others that was one of the creepiest scenes in the whole story. It was like another personality completely took control during that time, and I've seen what that is like with my own brother. I hope Alchemical will be okay after that encounter.

I kind of figured Mrs. Carson wouldn't punish Jane since she took care of their problem of Whateley's neutrality being broken, but I hope we see how they are keeping a closer eye on Jane in future stories. I hope to read more of Jane's adventures in the future.

And calls up Katherine using their old voice, oh boy. Lies about being Mille, saying he died and was just a friend, tells her what happened to Shaun, and says Katherine has to go into hiding, and the plan, good grief this is a mess.

The joys of having several characters who don't trust each other and don't have enough info to know they can and should work together. There are a couple of things she could have done to get Whateley help without admitting to her identity, but she doesn't realize just how strict Whateley is about its neutrality.

The backstory for who Shaun's father all made up and Delarose didn't buy it, and she is in a Syndicate safehouse now, huge tipoff.

Jane has been caught, they know about the call to Katherine and don't believe her lie about losing the phone, she isn't used to dealing with professionals on this level.

A consequence of underestimating Whateley, limited time, and limited resources. Katherine and Jane didn't realize how many resources Whateley would throw their way. And they both only had a short time to react.

Observing people so much, trying to figure out how not to stick out, is exactly what makes you stick out at Whateley. And this is how Jane "met" Shaun, the old meet-cute bump-into-each-other bit. Why did she invite him to dinner with her and her roommate if she didn't really want it to happen?

She was playing on her phone, and she's a good actress, so a few students would notice her watching, but most wouldn't.
And she asked Shaun to dinner spontaneously not giving herself a chance to think. Think of it as an unconscious desire to know more about Shaun.

Once more lying right to Delarose's face about knowing Mille, this is going to blow up in her face. Jane, you are too stubborn for your and anyone else's good.

It's one of her potentially fatal flaws.

Oof, no wonder they aren't news, this was the time of the attack on Absinthe, and the rumors about her working for the MCO started.

I hadn't picked the date intentionally, but when I realized it was set at the same time as Absinthe, I ran with it. It worked out perfectly, big showy Elf girl and the MCO, is far more interesting than two students one of whom spends most of his time in the Tunnels, and the other who intentionally moves in the background.

Jane is in rough shape after this conversation, at least Shaun's friends will be there for him. Shit, I don't like the mindset that Jane is in right now.

Yeah, the whole thing hit her hard. Old dangerous ways of thinking and reacting are coming to the fore. Like a gambling addict put in the middle of a casino with a bag full of chips, or a former alcoholic depressed with a bottle of vodka.

Avoiding the Imp and now going to see her for help, Jane is desperate at this point. *facepalms* Spelling it all out for Imp and it is too big a favor, too dangerous, for the marker. The information she can use in her attack on Fusco, digging that hole deeper and deeper. Rats, Imp didn't see through Jane to the Mille still in there.

What's more likely, a kid of a former assassin trying to lay low, or the assassin turning out to be the kid. Even for Whateley the first option is more likely.
And this is another of the calculated risks Jane has to take due to time and lack of resources. At least she's pretty confident Imp won't rat her out.

A scan of Jane's face to make a mask to help make testing easier, Shaun is a great friend. That polymer could be used in place of skin grafts or for medical purposes, at least I hope it can. Yikes! Good reason for starting school a year late, but the poor kid having to go through that.

The polymer is a type of plastic for masks. So you don't want to graft it onto a person. But to cover up scars and other things, it would be really good.
I needed a reason for a 15 year old to be a Freshman. Cancer was the best way to twist the knife on Jane, so we went with the guilt trip.

“Well, yeah. You always seem kind of distracted and not all there, like you're thinking about something really hard, or not sure what to do.”

Another thing that makes Jane stand out at Whateley. Alchemical is adorable, can't blame him for not knowing Jane is a shifter.

Her being lost does make her stick out a bit, but it also makes people ignore her. She's spacy, but in the quiet, shy type of way. Makes it easy for people to discount her and forget she's there.
Alchemical was originally going to work with poisons and make different kinds of injection systems, including a knife that could hold poisons. But it didn't feel right, so I went with a small boy who just wants to do things by the book and help people. Which led to the future horrifying scene.

Ugh, Jane, why are you playing up flirting with Mobius just to get a discount? Poor boy didn't know what hit him, Mobius needs to get out of his workshop and interact with more girls more often to prevent this kind of situation. Now she is playing Bugs to get more gear, no shame at all.

That's 100% Mille. She needed something fast, so she pulled out everything, looks, flirting and cash to get it. With Mille it worked because he usually only dealt with people under various disguises and once or twice.
Jane on the other hand... Yeah, have I mentioned she's self destructive when she's like this?

Yikes, Jane sure knows how to scare someone and Alchemical got a good read off her eyes.

Noticing all those changed details, trying to resist her charms, and especially noticing her eyes, he has incredible observation skills. All that and he sticks to following the rules, is strong-willed and principled, most impressive. That was a sexual assault by Jane, I wish the security cameras had caught it. Poor Alchemical, being subjected to all that, he might need therapy now.

Again this is 100% Mille, she's gone fully into her old personality and habits. So I ramped up the creepiness and threats.
I felt really bad for Alchemical here. And I felt dirty.
In fact I went and showed this to a fair number of people and asked if I'd gone too far. They said it was creepy and disturbing, but it didn't quite go over the line. Since it fit with the story and the character it stayed.

Thud needs to be stopped already. He picked the wrong day to mess with her, all that in moments and a knife in front of his eye. Jane gets him to admit he is a coward, figures. Jane is a psycho in this mindset, she should have reported Thud, but the threats she is making to him are too far. And Thud knows to never mess with Jane again, that was one of the scariest things I've read.

I went to a dark place with this scene and revelled in it.
This is the reason criminals and supervillains considered Mille too psychotic to hire by the end.

Jane in the Dickinson bathroom and trying to pull herself back together went too far back to who she used to be and almost didn't pull back in time. All that to shift back to Jane's default appearance including the eyes, never do that again, Jane.

I was really happy with this scene.
Seeing how Jane keeps changing her little speech to herself as the story progresses showed off her descent really well and I found it fairly tragic.
First she just wants a quiet life and a boring job. Then she'll do what she has to. Then she's a murderer.

Amber is clearly upset and lying about it, and she is upset because she can't do Halloween back home with her family, aww. Glad to see Jane knows some of what it means to be a friend.

Mille and Jane learned their sadistic and disturbing behaviour, they weren't born evil. It was a decades long descent into the abyss, and Jane has only tried to climb out of it for two years.
She knows what friends are supposed to do, she's just so out of the habit, and traumatized (often by her own actions) that it takes a conscious effort to act on this knowledge.

Amber knows the look on Jane's face having seen it on her parents the last time she saw them, dang.

Hadn't planned this scene originally. I wasn't sure where to go with it, then I realized having Amber being scared of Jane and seeing her serial killer parents, who are true psychopaths, in Janes expression showed Jane's descent perfectly.

Emily Bogart, nice cover identity and not drawing attention to yourself. You drive in a big city, you have to expect congested streets. Kamikaze run, sounds like she doesn't plan on coming back from this.

The Kamakaze run was only if EVERYTHING else failed. It's called the 'Gone To Hell plan' for a reason, there is virtually no hope of escape, all the other plans, including the impromptu plans have failed. So this is the last possible thing that could work either to escape, to succeed at all costs, or to take as many of the enemy with you as possible.
Her pretending to be injured at the end, was one version of the Gone to Hell plan. It was risky, could have backfired horribly, but it was the one chance she had to escape.

She took on his daughter's identity, this better not get the girl killed. "Carrie" makes up a lie to get her "father" to let her inside.

I decided early on that Jane was not going to risk a 'civilian' getting killed. That's why she waited for everyone to be out of the house, before tricking her way in.
It's also why she didn't hire an actual escort to be a distraction when she started her attack on Fusco's estate. It would have been safer and more efficient for her, but there was too much chance of the person getting hurt.
She was always planning on killing almost everyone, but they had to be guilty.
The father needed to die, the daughter was an innocent.

Ouch, painful disarm and disable him with improved pepper spray, but at least Henry will live.

All that information kills Henry anyways with a poison made to look like a heart attack, ugh. Damocles and it is worth $50k a week, something high-tech for sure. Mille, I really hate you right now.

She said "Mercy", not 'life'. She was very careful with her words so she didn't lie about that. And making it look like a heart attack with a relatively painless poison was her way of trying to be merciful. If things went well, his family would never know he was murdered, or that he was working with a major criminal.
But yeah, this shows how skewed her views are. And keeping his daughters appearance as he died was creepy to most people I showed it to, but in her brain she was being kind letting him see something he cared about as he died.
She's got problems.

And as Rose said, Damocles is from her story. Having Jane fight a cyborg made to destroy mutants was an opportunity I wasn't about to pass up.

Rick, Jack, and Jerome, some security Fusco hired for himself. Oh, good grief, pretending to be a hooker hired for Fusco, Tiffany Sparkles. Cover story and everything, says she works for Venus Dolls. Poison on a fake wedding ring and Jake is done for. Now Rick puts up a fight and doesn't even notice a lethal wound until it is too late, brutal doesn't begin to cover this.

Hit hard, use terror and brutality to throw everyone off balance. When people look over the crime scene, they're going to have second and third thoughts about going after Mille or his possible family in the future.
And with third degree burns, people don't feel the pain at first because the nerves are all dead. It just feels numb. Hurray for plasma knives.

A drone sent to play with people, AI controlled, and 'tags' two humans and 4 dogs before playing hide and seek. Crap, it fired a missile and took out two more, simple AI that sees all this as a game as a child would. And designed for a kamikaze attack at the end, seesh.

Don't ask me where I came up with this idea.
I did it late at night when I was working feverishly to finish this on time, and my brain kind of went off the rails here.

Mr. Fusco's right-hand man is smart with common sense, and Fusco should listen to him.

They're both not thinking straight.
Fusco mentions the phones are jammed, so they can't call out anyways. And to escape they'll have to go through Jane.
Cora has the best idea of her going out to deal with Jane, while she has guards to watch her back and help pin Jane down.

Michael the IT guy and his girlfriend Rae just want to get out of there alive, I hope they do. Darn, got outside but the other drone took them out, stupid machine.

If Jane had seen these two, she might have let both of them live. Rae would have lived, unless Jane killed her in the heat of the moment. But they didn't know that, so running away seemed like the best option. Unfortunately for them Jane didn't want anyone escaping.

Ruby, the secretary. And Jane says she gets to live, if Ruby dies now I'm going to be ticked.

And a message for Fusco, a lie about who Jane really is and why the trail of Mille's led to her. Good grief, Jane, you promised her, you didn't need to pin her to the wall like that.

She kept her word, Ruby lived.
This came down to the whole sending a message part. She needed to make sure the secretary was found to pass on the message and that she didn't try to escape and get killed by a drone. Also if the only survivor is found pinned to a wall, it sends a powerful message to anyone else that may want to get on her bad side.

Jane barely has a break to get a drink before Cora attacks, and Jane dodges it. Cora questioning who Jane is and insults her at the same time, can't stand this woman. Yeow! Distracts Cora, but it isn't enough as she catches Jane by the wrist and breaks it. Eye lasers and the PFG absorbed most of the energy, and Jane is in for the toughest fight of her life. Darn it! There goes the PFG.

At first I was going to do a big long fight between Jane and the guards, but it didn't feel right. So when Rose mentioned her Damocles Cyborgs, I realized I could have a big one on one fight where Jane is clearly in the weaker position.

Ah, the claymore mine set up to be triggered, Cora will regret underestimating Jane. Darn it! Cora used her energy cannon to blast up the place, ruining Jane's plan.

Ah, good, Cora took damage from the claymore mine. And this kind of maniac who is storming a fortress decided she needed one. Left knee out for now, good. And the computer in her head drives Cora to want to kill mutants, who the **** made that computer? Rats, so high a chance to take out Cora if her beam weapon hadn't hit the claymore mine.

I originally didn't know how I would use the claymore. I was thinking maybe an ambush or have it covering one of the exits, I just really wanted Jane to have a claymore.
Having Cora blow it up and create a big explosion in all directions was amusing. Having the insanely augmented cybernetic woman shouting about why someone would have a claymore made me laugh.

Uncontrolled shift back into her true form, and Cora is shocked she is just a kid. 3 self-defense chemicals to get Cora off balance, then the plasma knife to her spine, and then skull jus tin case to finish her off.

Always double tap the seemingly impervious opponent.
Having Jane's seizure 'help' her was something I really wanted to do. Not only to show that the stress was getting to her, but because even though it gave her the opening to kill Cora, it was a big clue to her identity to everyone who sees it, not just Whateley.

By the time he reaches the ambulance Jane is already gone, but no one was killed in her escape. Amplify flies up to try and spot her even if he thinks there is little hope.

Jane was trying to avoid seriously hurting anyone not involved with Fusco. A sore jaw and a dose of sleepy gas was about as much damage as she was willing to do without a very good reason.

Jane reaches the Golden Peaches Massage Parlour in a stolen car and says she needs to see Iaso. The best healer in town, and Jane spells out why she needs him, yikes. Ritual magic to heal, nice to see different types.

We have had too many back alley Devisor healers. It was time for a healing mage.
And having a supervillain doctor working out of a brothel seems like something they'd do.

She blew it using Bugs' devises, too easy for Whateley to figure out a student used them. I like Delarose's reaction to what Jane did.

“ As soon as possible give me a list of anyone close to the late Mr. Fusco that still needs to learn Whateley is off limits. I'll pass on the word that the neutrality matter has largely been dealt with, ”

After this incident only a completely arrogant fool who believes they can deal with any threat would try anything.

Again Jane doesn't realize how thorough Whateley is in this kind of situation.
Also Mille was all about getting in quietly, doing the job and then leaving, often in a big, bloody event. Covering his tracks wasn't very important to him, because by the time people realized what was going on, he'd be using a new name and face, half a continent or even an ocean away.
So that is one area where Jane is not nearly as good as she thinks she is.

Jane traumatized herself with her actions, she might have nightmares from what she has done. Yes, make your own family. Jane crying like that in Amber's arms as they hug for that long says something, please let her never have to kill again.

No promises.
Originally this was going to be the final scene, but early on in Part 2, I realized that while this is good, it wasn't quite right as the end.

Great, a threat who is smarter about his vengeance than Fusco, this is bad.

I've said it before, I'll say it again. I love smart bad guys.

Oh crud, Jane is confused about who and what she is. Thank you, she fought off the darker part of her mind and remained Jane Fisher.

I needed to show that despite all the trauma, and everything Jane has done, she is still fighting her dark side. She realizes she has serious problems, and is trying her best to become a better person.

This was an interesting story about identity and how we view ourselves. Mille has to deal with the issue so many shifters develop after a time, losing themselves to the appearances they take until they don't know who they are anymore. Having to give up life with his wife and son to keep them safe, to start over in a new form with a new identity, yet still having the baggage of the old in there.

Thank you.
Mille losing himself, is one reason why Jane keeps her base identity, even though it's rather plain. She lost herself once, she doesn't want to do it again.
And if she'd never met Shaun, she'd have had a much more boring life. Being able to ignore her old life, start with a mostly clean slate, it's tempting sometimes, especially when you've screwed up as much as she has. But once she saw Mille's family, she couldn't let it go.
The question is will it be an anchor around her neck or will it give her something to strive for?

The sins of the father is a BS reason imo to target anyone, you have no control over who your parent is or what your parent does.

I've never been a big supporter of the whole 'sins of the father' or 'original sin' idea. But I know some people are, and it worked with this story.

When Jane went blue-eyed and manipulated Mobius and others that was one of the creepiest scenes in the whole story. It was like another personality completely took control during that time, and I've seen what that is like with my own brother. I hope Alchemical will be okay after that encounter.

Yeah. I went to a nasty place writing that part. But the story wouldn't have worked without it.
And as I was thinking about it this weekend, Alchemical needs some closure. We'll see him in the next Just Me story.

I kind of figured Mrs. Carson wouldn't punish Jane since she took care of their problem of Whateley's neutrality being broken, but I hope we see how they are keeping a closer eye on Jane in future stories. I hope to read more of Jane's adventures in the future.

Don't worry they are going to be watching Shaun and Jane closely. And we'll see more of Jane and the rest. They won't get a lot of stories, but there will be a short story set around the combat final, and another one over Christmas. Then another big one set in the Spring term, and over the Summer break.
And they'll show up in Tink stories sometimes.