A Darklight Burning Brightly

A Whateley Academy Fan Fic

by

Solus Nova

Part 6

NOW.

It was at this point in my story that I had to take a break, my throat was dry from all the talking I did, so I went in the kitchen to get a drink. It had nothing to do with the fact that I didn't want to cry in front of Agent Bane. I didn't even want to cry in front of myself dammit.

When I could trust my voice again I spoke, “Did you want anything.” I called from the kitchen, just to buy a little more time to get myself under control.

“No, thank you.” Was Agent Bane's response. Dammit time to face the music I thought.

As I returned to the main room I noticed that Bane was still in the same place he'd been since we'd started this whole conversation. That was kinda freaky, he was so still like he was a robot or a statue or something, he caught me looking at him as I was thinking that. A corner of his mouth twitched in what might have been a grin on anyone else, and he shifted slightly.

“No Kory I'm not a robot, and I'm just as human as you, perhaps more or less depending on what scale you use.”

I'll admit I jumped a bit at that, what the hell, how did he know what I was thinking? Crap he's a mind reader...

“Also I don't read minds so no need to worry about that.” I opened my mouth to speak but he continued, “All I am is just very good at noticing things and seeing patterns, and using that to anticipate and predict behaviour and actions. The answer to your next question is 'no', I'm not a mutant. Just highly talented and trained.”

I'll admit that so far he was right, that was going to be my next question. After a few seconds I unfroze and went back to the couch I had been sitting on. I just looked at Bane my mind buzzing with questions, “Ok thanks for sharing I guess, but...” He interrupted.

“Why did I tell you Kory? Trust. You needed to trust me more than you already do, so I told you something of myself to encourage you to continue to open up. The next part of your story will likely involve things you don't want to talk about, for personal reasons as well as you've been brought up to regard myself and any member of Law Enforcement as a threat.” He might have smiled at that, but his eyes never left my face. “If I had been raised as you and your sister had been I'd have the same reaction.” He paused, “That was me expressing empathy for your situation, again to make you more comfortable opening up to me about your recent events. Why am I telling you this? You are smart and wary, you would reach the conclusion that I manipulated you likely after I left but before you went to sleep tonight, that would have damaged our relationship, making more difficult for you to trust me. Which will be important later.”

I just sat there staring at Bane. This was really unnerving, like a stage magician telling you how the trick was done, but you still couldn't figure it out. “So what am I going to do next smart guy?” I'll admit I was feeling very exposed and defensive. This Bane guy didn't even acknowledge my attitude, it was like it never mattered to him, he just responded with the same tone and expression.

“That is your choice, no matter how much you want someone to make that choice for you I'll not influence your action no more than I already have. However I will answer questions and provide information so you can make an informed choice. So to set your mind at ease anything about your arrangements in Karedonia will not be reported to my superiors unless such information pertains to an active case, or an upcoming crime that involves significant damage or loss of life. Or if in the course of informing me I believe lack of action on my part could result in significant harm to yourself.” As I was thinking about what he said he continued, “I do have degrees in Criminal Law and Psychology, normal and abnormal. That was your next line of inquiry, and no you cannot retain my services to invoke client or patient confidentiality.”

This was bloody freaky, I would have felt more comfortable if he had been a robot or a mutant. But still he had been honest with me rather than hiding all this...wait a minute. “Ok what aren't you telling me!?”

“A great many things, which are not relevant at this moment in time.” He shifted slightly, I noticed that he was back in the same position he was when I went into the kitchen. Had he even blinked I wondered, I was almost certain he did but...Ok time to go back to my ever so great origin story, it was less disturbing than this conversation. Just change a few names and things around to protect the guilty.


THEN


When people talk about Karedonia depending on who they are various images pop up in your head. Massive engineering project and Wonder of the Modern Age, shining example of how a supervillain can turn over a new leaf, hellhole of human rights abuses, the place to do cutting edge research, newest resort hot spot in the world, wretched hive of scum and villainy, the money laundering capital of the world (a fact much in dispute among other tax havens), pioneer in deep earth mining, a brave social experiment...etc etc. Basically Karedonia is a bit of everything to everyone. What they don't talk about is how to find it. Most people don't need to worry about that bit, they just board a plane and it's the pilot's problem, or a boat and it's the captain's problem, or have their minions take care of it. You get the idea.

My problem was a bit different, gawd that sounds like my new theme for my life, I didn't know where I was. The ocean doesn't have street signs, or clearly labelled highway markers. When I stopped running and took the time to look around all I could see was, water, sky and clouds. I found the sun, but without knowing if it's coming up or going down I couldn't figure if I was facing east or west. Now I was somewhere warm, so the poles are out, and it's unlikely I'm in the Pacific. Which was as far as I could get. My next thought was get some altitude so I could see farther, find a landmass I could recognize and work from there.

So I started climbing, as I was doing that my brain was ticking over trying to remember what I had read about navigation, while I could recall those books they all had one thing in common, tools and charts which I didn't have. I suppose I could just pick a direction and set off, but with my luck I'd end up in Iceland before I found Karedonia.

So I was climbing past the clouds and looking around when I saw something on the horizon that might be land, so I started heading that way. That's when I saw something, a wake from a ship, that's even better I thought. A short time later I'd caught up with the ship, which turned out to be a cargo ship of some kind. My luck was changing I thought, not only did the most of the crew speak English but after bit of conversation which involved me telling them over and over again that I wasn't going to attack them, rob them, and the like they gave me some good news. That thing I saw on the horizon, it was land, Puerto Rico in fact. Which meant that Karedonia was THAT way, and not half way around the world. A quick 'thank you' and I was on my way.

Since Karedonia is one of the larger islands in the Caribbean, yay for Gizmatic's ego compensation, I imagined I'd have an easy time hitting it. All I needed to do was fly in a straight line until I saw land, how hard can that be? Go ahead laugh, get it out of your system, at least I didn't end up on Iceland. I'd been flying for a few minutes when it hit me, I'd broken the guy code, I'd stopped and asked for directions! This girl thing is insidious.

Also the flying in a straight line thing is harder than it looks, mostly because there is nothing to do, it's like being on a long car trip with no music, games, and no distractions. I have no idea how long I flew but I soon saw a mountain rising which I hoped was Mt. Wilkins, again yay for Gizmatic compensating for something, as I drew closer the rest of the island appeared and I began to make out signs of buildings. I was really tempted to pour on the speed but good manners and a healthy sense of self preservation caused me to slow down.

Good manners are important, especially when dealing with supervillains, while most supervillains think nothing of robbery, murder, kidnapping and jaywalking, those same supervillains will always call ahead when visiting each other or make some kind of arrangement like only flying in such a way and such a pattern. Why you ask? Well if you do burst in on Lord Darkity-Dark all unexpected you have only yourself to blame when the defences blow a you-shaped hole in reality and the sad truth is most supervillains have the trigger discipline of a ferret on meth. So...be polite.

Once I thought I was close enough to the island I stopped flying forwards and just hovered there waiting. I didn't have to wait long, something that looked like the bigger, nastier version of those Hunter-Killer drones from the Terminator movies flew up and pointed a very large collection of weaponry at me, to my amusement I noticed after a few seconds it had a very stylish paint job, white, blue, black, with the crest of Karedonia on the nose of the drone, on the sides neatly lettered were the words 'Royal Karedonian Coast Guard'. I started laughing, only Gizmatic would put enough weapons on his Coast Guard to re-fight the Battle of the Pacific...

*****

It should come as no surprise that Karedonia has one of the best health systems in the Caribbean, or at least the most efficient, I mean it has robot cops, why not have robotic health professionals? As soon as I was escorted to the local police station to explain what I was doing, and got as far as explaining about the bio-weapon implant, I was then quickly hauled to a local hospital, poked, prodded, scanned and had the implant removed by a cross between a robotic surgical team and a bomb disposal unit overseen by several human doctors. I have to say they seemed almost bored by the whole thing, like it was something they'd done so many times before that it was routine to them. It wasn't boring for me, I was awake the whole time they cracked open my chest to pull Biowar's implant out of my lung. It seems that absorbing energy to heal really fast when I'm unconscious is a bad thing when robot doctors are working on you. Something to worry about for the future.

I'd fully healed up by the time they wheeled me out the door, someone had thoughtfully installed a huge battery in the wheelchair I was being driven around in, so my post-op recovery was all of ten minutes. I was in and out so fast even with finishing my statement to the cops, that I never got to try the hospital food. Which was too bad, I've heard the robo-chefs at Wilkins' Royal Hospital are amazing. So I'm standing on the street corner wondering what to do now when a big official looking car pulls up and asks me, by name, to get inside. Yes the car asked, robo-drivers of course. I've been to Karedonia twice before, I've always liked it, as a bit of a science nerd myself it's nice to see someone using tech to make things better, rather than stuff their pockets, not that Gizmatic doesn't make a fair bit of coin while being a nice tyrant.

Clean streets, clean buildings, tasteful graffiti that was painted on officially allowed walls, people walking around with a purpose and a smile, a Dalek cop on every street corner, Karedonia might not be paradise, but it tries damn hard. Just don't go looking too deep and find the human experiment labs, open air blackest of black markets, the cutting edge drug refineries etc. Which to be fair you can find in any country in the world if you look hard enough, however in Karedonia you can find those businesses in the phone book, is that corrupt or honest? I don't know but it is useful at times.

The car whisked me to my destination efficiently, I could have really used more, well alot more time to just deal with what had happened. I'd been going on pure survival mode, now that I was safe, I could just feel everything that I'd been refusing to deal with trying to claw it's way out of me. I really, really could use...a friend, but I'd abandoned her back on that sub, that was on me. I really wanted to, I dunno do something, scream, cry, hit something, I was so aware of how much on the edge I was. It seems I could do crisis just fine, it was the tranquil times that I couldn't handle.

“Miss we have arrived, please exit the vehicle please.” The car spoke. “Someone will meet you inside.”

I had been so lost in thought that I hadn't noticed that the car had been stopped for a few minutes. Startled and grateful for the interruption of my oncoming mental breakdown, I got out and looked around. The building was huge by the local standards and severe looking, concrete and steel, with small windows and a heavy security presence. As I stood wondering what to do a small mountain walked up to me.

This person was HUGE, I had to look way up to see his face, he was easily nine feet tall and almost as wide, hugely muscled, his darkly colored face had a collection of tribal tattoos that added to the intimidating look, on seeing me he gave me a close lipped smile that was intended to be friendly. He was dressed in business casual style adjusted for the Caribbean, which meant that his case the suit had enough material to make several sails out of.

“Ah Miss Cummings I presume?” I had to blink at the sound of his voice, James Earl Jones would be jealous of this guy’s voice, he had an accent that I couldn't place.

“Um yes.” I answered weakly. Damm this guy had presence in spades.

“My name is William Copper, I represent the Syndicate in this matter.” The name rang a faint bell but I couldn't place it. He stopped and looked down at me, effectively placing me in the shade of his huge mass.

“Uh, pleased to meet you.” I held my hand, and his huge mitt engulfed mine, he was aware of his strength and gave my hand a gentle shake.

“And I you as well my dear,” Damm his voice was amazing, the smile faded from his face as he continued to speak, “If you are who you claim to be, then this shall be over quickly. I must warn you, that if this is some sort of confidence scheme, it will not end well for yourself.” With that he smiled showing his mouthful of teeth, teeth that had more than a passing resemblance to a shark's teeth.

I stepped back at the smile, it really was unnerving, once the shock had faded I remembered just who this guy was. With that I hovered up to his eye level, “I am Amanda Cummings' child, her...” I stumbled over the next bit almost saying 'son', “...daughter and only living heir,” I paused certain in my guess of his identity, “So let's proceed King Carnivore.”

He blinked when I said his name, and the smile became more natural, much less of a threat. King Carnivore was a nasty supervillain back in the 80s, he worked in the South Pacific as a pirate lord. Very strong and tough, claws, teeth, breathe water, but what made him a bite above the rest was his connection to a shark god of some-kind, he could use that connection to feed on parts of the soul of his defeated enemies and gain some of their power. He also would feed on his victim's bodies sometimes. He was supposed to have been killed by a team of Japanese heroes when he went all eco-warrior and attacked a Japanese whaling fleet.

He laughed, a big rolling laugh, “I haven't heard that name in almost twenty years, but let us continue this discussion inside, over refreshments or a lite lunch if you...” My stomach reacted at the word 'lunch' loudly announcing it's intention to massacre anything food-like, I blushed in embarrassment. “...ah, a hearty lunch it is then. No need to take care of legal matters on an empty stomach.” He led me inside the building and to a fancy cafeteria where I tried to match his appetite, I failed badly. At least the table was intact after we both finished.

Over the remains of a table full of food we engaged in some small talk, he told me after healing from his last public fight he changed jobs. Got a law degree and found that defeating his enemies in a courtroom was almost as satisfying as tearing off a limb and eating it, and his spiritual patron considered winning a fight in a court to count as defeating his enemies, so he got to eat part of their souls and gain some of their power, which he went on to explain gave his legal skills quite the boost. That was how he rose to the level of Syndicate Assistant Legal Attache to the realm of Karedonia so fast, he also confided that he made an obscene amount of money, much more than he ever made as a black mask.

The subtext of the conversation was obvious, King Carnivore was no more, William Copper was a company man who enjoyed his job for the Syndicate, and made enough money that he couldn't be bribed. So this upcoming business concerning my Mom's inheritance was going to be completely above board, or else I might end up being a snack for this lawyer. A point that was driven home when Mr. Copper, with an apologetic look to me, began to dislodge some remnants of the meal that had been stuck in his teeth by using a steak-knife as a toothpick, the steak-knife lost badly. Once he was finished he gestured for me to follow him to deal with business.

I was just following along when I realized this was it, Mom was dead, not only in my head but to the rest of the world. She'd just be a footnote in some file and forgotten, a life of forty years as a supervillain, two kids, everything she was, gone. Here I was just treating this as a chore to be done, I hadn't even said goodbye to her, not even in my own mind. What the hell was wrong with me?

Mr. Copper looked over his shoulder when he noticed I had stopped following, I can't imagine what he saw on my face but he understood and hustled me to a nearby washroom. I hit the door running, scaring a woman in front of the mirror as I bolted for a stall. I just sat there for I don't know how long, tears running down my face, shaking as all the stuff that happened to me just tried to spill out. After a bit someone tapped on the door and spoke.

“Hey, kid you going to be all right?” The voice was soft, with an Aussie accent, and sounded concerned.

I snuffled a bit, then blew my nose, “Umm, y-yes.” I nearly came apart again, I could handle being attacked, kidnapped and the like, but some sympathy nearly makes me fall apart, how screwed up am I?

“Bullshit.” The concern was still there but with more than a touch of disbelief, the voice continued. “Look I don't what happened but...”

I interrupted, “My Mom died, and I have to do her will.”

“Shit, I mean crap. A...Look I'm sorry, I just, well look kid...”

“Name's Corey.” I interrupted again.

“Ann. Listen kid...Corey, I'd like to say I know what your feeling, but that's bullshit, no one does but you. How you deal with loss isn't important, as long as you deal with it. You have to find your own method, if it's bottling everything up until you're all alone to break down, that's good. If you go out and party your ass off, drink until you can't remember who died and how that guy got in your bed the next day, it's ok.” That last bit was dealt with bone dry wit, so much so that a small chuckle escaped. On the heels of the chuckle came a half sob. The voice, Ann, continued to speak, “Whatever you do, do it as long as you really feel better in the end. Don't play a part that you think you are supposed to play, in the end it's you that matters not everyone else around you.”

“Voice of experience?” I replied when she'd finished.

“Yeah, and remember that experience is what you get after you really need it. All I'll say is that I wish someone had given me this advice 10 years and a 100 bad choices ago.”

I giggled at that, I wish I could have said laughed or chuckled but it sounded like a giggle. I wiped my face one last time and slowly left the stall. Ann the person I'd been talking to was a tough looking woman, short blonde hair wearing combats and body armour. She gave a half smile when she saw me and spoke, “Pleased ta meet ya. You look like shit.” She dragged me over to the sink, “Get yourself cleaned up and face the world Kory.” With that I started to clean my face off, blowing my nose and that. Ann continued to speak, “Your lucky you're so young, if I went on a crying jag like you did, I'd be fixing this old face up with so much war paint that it could stop small calibre bullets.” When she saw my weak grin she continued, “There we go, feeling better?”

I thought about it and realized that I did feel better, more like something that could handle the shit coming my way. I gave a nod and a smile, she just motioned to the door and said, “You first, you've got a lawyer waiting, never keep a lawyer waiting they have friends in low and infernal places.”

Taking her advice I left before the lawyer in question sent a strike team to find me. Mr Copper was waiting outside patiently, and a quick look at my face seemed to satisfy him and we proceeded to his office. Which was impressive, since it was sized for him, the marble desk could have been used as a foundation for a small home and the chair was equally large, built to his size and weight, and out of chromed I-beams. Law books covered one wall, on his desk was a high end PC with huge keyboard made out of more shiny metal, and a few newspapers. Slightly unnerving was the wall behind him, it being a floor to ceiling fish tank with a few sharks swimming in it and looking at me with disturbing intentness and intelligence, at least they had no frickin' laser beams attached to their heads I was glad to see.

“Miss Cummings?” His voice grabbed my attention. “I'm sorry for your loss, I should have said something sooner, but working for the Syndicate hardens one to loss, and we expect others to share that viewpoint.” I just nodded, I didn't trust my voice right now. “I've read the statement you gave the police when you arrived, I don't need much more from you to start the process of turning over Darklight's, aka Amanda Cummings, estate to yourself, at least the parts held in trust by the Syndicate.” He looked right at me all of a sudden very serious, “However Darklight made no mention of a daughter named Corey, she did mention a son named Corey in her documents. Could you clear that up?”

I froze.

He waited, looking at me.

I opened my mouth, but I couldn't say anything. How the hell could I have thought this would be easy, how could I tell someone what Biowar did to me?

“I...”, the shakes started as I spoke, “was changed by Biowar...” Stop shaking I screamed at myself, suck it up Mom wouldn't be scared and freaking out like this! You have to be as tough as her! “He did something to me that made me into...” I stopped, I couldn't go any farther.

“I know it's hard Corey but you need to say it, I can tell you that you are not the only person who has experienced such a radical change. I know of at least two people who are in your exact situation.” Mr. Copper looked at me with a neutral expression, “However unless you explain what happened to you, on the record I can't proceed. We need to confirm you are Darklight's... daughter. And yes I'm aware of how ridiculous it is that a criminal organization has to do this above board. In fact with all the 'missing and presumed dead', 'dead but came back to life', and all the other insanity that happens around the 'cape and cowl' crowd that I've seen over the years I'm surprised the Syndicate's identity procedures in this are so relaxed.”

I was grateful for his long winded explanation, it gave me time to get myself back under control. Once I was sure I could continue, “Biowar had my mother killed, he then used her DNA to save me when I had a burnout.” Deep breath, keep going. “Because he used her DNA it made me...” I could feel the shakes starting, how would Copper react, revulsion, sympathy. I think I could handle anything but sympathy. “...it gave me, changed me into a girl as well as gave me powers like Mom's.” I couldn't tell what he was thinking.

“I see, thank you for telling me Corey. Now we just need to verify your claim and we can start the process of turning over to you your mother's assets the Syndicate has access to.”

“Verify? How can I do that?” This was not what I was expecting. “Do you want her password or something?”

“Hmm,” Mr. Copper gave me one of those shark tooth smiles, “That would be ideal, as I said our ID checks are relaxed.”

“Ok then, the password is swordfish, wait!” I interrupted as he started to type, “It's all one word.”

He resumed typing, then raised his eyebrow at me. “It's invalid.” His smile had vanished.

What the hell, that was her password, I know it is, what is... Dammit! “Uh did you type in just 'swordfish'?”

Copper looked at his screen, nodded at me. Out of the corner of my eye I swear the sharks in the tank started to look hopeful that the next meal might be early. “Wait, wait, type in 'the password is swordfish' as one word, no spaces, the entire phrase. No caps, no funny symbols.” That got an odd look on his face, he started typing again. This time he smiled.

“It seems that it worked much better this time around. My apology for scaring you.” He chuckled, “Very clever and quite easy to remember.”

I swallowed my nerves still jumping, “Yeah, Mom had a thing for John Travolta ever since Pulp Fiction, and she loved movies where the bad guy wins.”

Copper let out a rich laugh at that, “I do as well, in fact I'd wager alot of us black mask types do,” He winked at me in an exaggerated manner, “I'll admit 'The Usual Suspects' to be one of my guilty pleasures.” The computer dinged drawing his attention to it. “Well it seems that Ms Cummings had quite a few assets entrusted to us. I'll let you examine the accounts in private, if you have any questions I'll be outside.” With that he motioned to his computer, and left me in private.

I wasted no time in checking the details showing, most of it was just normal Syndicate frontpage stuff that you'd see with any other investment company, if you ignored the details about shell companies, blackmarket stocks and bonds, exchange rates on narcotics and the like, used and overstock gear was always good for a laugh in the past, I mean 'low body count used death ray for sale' makes you wonder.

Not this time though, this time was...I froze up again, just staring at the screen. No matter how I did things from here on in my life was over as I knew it. It had been over ever since Biowar kidnapped me, but now it was like really real. No more Corey just trying to stay unnoticed and mark time until I graduated, no more goofing off. No more chilling with my bodyguards back home at the safe house, or bugging them to drive me to some meeting about whatever I was interested in, no more trying to bribe them into buying some beer for me to try. I hadn't even given them one thought what had happened to them? Where they looking for me or more likely trying to find a deep hole to hide in imagining how Mom would react to my being kidnapped.

A quick search turned up several newspaper articles about my kidnapping, I was surprised to see that Jason was listed as alive but in critical condition, the attack at the mall was being blamed on mutant terrorists since several of the parents of the kids attacked had high level jobs. Nothing about me I noticed, in fact nothing about a kidnapping at all. That was all kinds of wrong, that meant that someone was keeping quiet about the one kid that was grabbed, Mom had gotten good fake IDs for us, but how good? Did the cops figure out who I was, and then figure out who Mom was? If the local cops had found THAT out the Feds and the MCO wouldn't be far behind.

'Home Invasion Turns Tragic' was the next article I read, it seems some gang broke into my house and killed everyone in it, 5 bodies found. Shit. Abe, Bob, Chuck, Dave, my bodyguards but who was the fifth? Oh crap, Jamie our part time housekeeper...shit she must have shown up early or something and...shit she had family and kids! Dammit! Why do the good people always end up dying, why is it the fuckers responsible get away with it? I just kinda curled up in the huge chair for few minutes trying not to react or even act. One more bit of crap in this shit sandwich that's my life.

Eventually I started going through Mom's records, there was alot more than I thought there would be, Mom had always bitched and moaned about the price of everything and she was a damn mercenary. I don't know what I expected, but what I got was an eye opener. Mom was rich, not rich-rich, but certainly in the retire and live comfortably bracket. This made no sense, Mom had issues with balancing a checkbook, what the hell was she doing with multiple bank accounts and investments? Why didn't I know about any of this stuff? Then there was a section called 'physical assets' with a bunch of ID numbers. This was getting way over my head.

Fortunately I had a lawyer outside the door that would help...wait a minute why does he want to help? I could feel Mom's mercenary gene kick in, how much money will his help cost me, and can I afford the price? No one does anything out of the goodness of their heart unless they have one hand on your wallet and the other hand with a knife ready to stab you. With that firmly in mind it was now time to call for help.

Help arrived, in the form of some aggressive negotiation we, meaning me, settled for Mr. Copper helping me for the paltry sum of $1000 an hour, plus additional fees as needed if blah-blah-blah, honestly my eyes started to glaze over and my brain went somewhere else by that point. Mostly what I was thinking was, 'One grand per hour! Why don't more villains become lawyers if they want to make a killing?' maybe it says something about the legal business that supervillains find being a lawyer distasteful?

Anyways most of the afternoon was spent transferring access from various accounts to me, well not me, it was pointed out I had no legal identity right now, but to a company that I owned all the stock to, but was controlled by one William Copper, Esq. Until my legal identity was fixed of course, but leaving Mr. Copper running everything for an exchange of a percentage of the profit the company and it's assets...ghaa!! My brain just starts to haze out at this point.

Mr. Copper did have a few good suggestions such as for a small fee, he could broker a deal to get me a real fake ID. He suggested just using my real name, but change the spelling to 'Kory', then his guy would do some computer magic and make 'Kory' real and 'Corey' fake. That way most of the paper trail would be real, so that would make the fake real ID really real, I think. I just nodded at the appropriate time and place, most of the talk about making false identities was over my head. My contributions were more personal, I asked Mr. Copper to create a fake life insurance policy for my former housekeeper Jamie's family. It was only money after all. Funny I never thought much about all the other fake IDs I'd lived with in the past, it was just 'let's move, here is your new ID' usually the move would be in the middle of the night with just a couple of backpacks packed type of move.

This ID would be me, from now on until...well whatever. Mr Copper's idea for using 'Kory' instead of 'Corey' made sense if anything went wrong I could just say that somewhere someone made a mistake with how my name was spelled. I briefly considered keeping 'Ryan' for my middle name but changed that to 'Renee'. I made a few changes to Kory Renee Cummings past mostly attending several private schools that had most of their students existing only on paper, the schools and stuff like that existed just for the purpose of making fake histories real. I was told that 90 percent of the new ID would be done inside of a week.

Late afternoon I was starting to suffer from writer’s cramp from signing so much paperwork, my brain and my eyes had stopped speaking to each other due to excessive legal document overload. I was so relieved to have Mr Copper call an end to the torture only to be told that more paperwork would be forthcoming in the next few weeks. Even more good news was that I had money now, a temporary bank card in my name so I could buy stuff. Like a hotel room, a private hotel room, and real clothes not this skin tight sportswear stuff, a real bed to sleep in...

****

I just couldn't do it. It was sometime after midnight and I wasn't in the arms of Morpheus, I wasn't even in my fancy hotel room I was lurking near a beach bar listening to the lousy music and looking at the people just having fun. I couldn't sleep, every time I tried I'd just lurch awake in a panic at something.

After nearly waking up screaming several times I just gave up. I tried watching TV but that was a bust as well, as there was nothing on TV that I could watch without freaking out about. It was like all my normal reactions weren't there anymore, everything that affected me was too much or not at all. I gave up trying to read I just couldn't relax by myself, every noise, or something at the corner of my eye just freaked me out. With people around me I could keep it together but even then I was so aware of them, it was like I had all my mental defences up in public, I could cope in public. By myself with just myself, I couldn't keep my cool, all the shit that happened to me and my family just overwhelmed me.

What was I going to do? I was a mess, unfortunately I was a hot looking mess. I was so glad right now I was in Karedonia, anywhere else looking like I did I would have been hit on constantly but not here, a hot girl looking like me tells a guy to leave her alone so she can mope and be all depressed, they leave her alone. The fact that I was sitting on a public bench 10 feet from a Dalek robocop might have helped get my message across. Death rays promote politeness I guess.

I needed help was the depressing conclusion I had reached sometime in the early morning but I had no one I could turn to, everyone was dead that could help me, or a captive of Biowar. I had no friends that I could turn to...wait a second I had no friends that could help me...but maybe just maybe, Mom, Darklight had some friends that I could turn to. It was the start of May, so maybe just maybe I did have someone I could turn to. A quick email back at the hotel from Mom's Syndicate account to another Syndicate account confirmed what I hoped. The Four Furies were using the villa that Mom had a timeshare in. I quickly sent an email to the leader of the Four Furies that I was in trouble and I needed to stop by at the villa and that alot of shit had happened.

I quickly ordered a robocab to drive to the villa. It was a bit of drive but I was able to keep myself under control for the trip out there. Mostly by worrying what the hell I was going to say when I got there, and if I could talk fast enough to keep from getting killed when a girl showed up rather than the old me. I think I've mentioned that supervillains do not like surprises. This was going to be a surprise to everyone involved, I just worried about living through the next hour.

Which is where I ended up, at the villa which we stayed at a few times back in happier times. Mom had gotten a sweetheart deal and referral on the place in her more active days as Darklight, it wasn't one of the big high end villas that you might see on Karedonia, it only had 2 and a half floors, beach access, completely furnished, gym/spa thing, fourteen foot high reinforced concrete fence, automatic defence systems you know the usual. The high end villas had better defences more room and separate cabins for minions. This was really just a getaway retreat for people in the biz to seriously relax. I, Mom and I, hadn't been back since Val died. Val had loved it here, the only way you get her out of the ocean and off the beach was with explosives, and even then she'd whine for week after. When I went through Mom's accounts at the lawyer's I been surprised to see she'd still been keeping up with payments on the place.

One of the groups that Mom was into the timeshare with was a group called the Four Furies, a bunch of supervillainesses, or would that be female supervillains, that had a standing offer to Mom to make the team the 'Five Furies', I know Mom was seriously thinking about it before Val, well you know. In fact Mom trusted them enough to leave us kids with them while she pulled a few jobs, or had to run hard and fast from the law. So if she could trust them with her kids lives, it follows I should be able to trust them to help me right? Besides if worse came to worse I had money now so bribery was always an option.

The downside was that I looked nothing like the brat that they had agreed to watch four years ago, and I doubted I could prove it fast enough that if it devolved into suspicion and violence. The upside is that the leader of the bunch was 'HeadCase' and she had some mind powers, I really did not want someone in my head again, EVER, but I might just have to let her read my mind to prove my identity. So that was the plan and here I was, just standing around instead of doing something. Dammit why couldn't I be more like Mom or Val? I meant in attitude not in the whole girl thing. I was doing it again wasn't I? Just freaking out and getting nothing done, I could cut and run, find some nice hole in the ground with all the comforts I needed and only stick my head outside every now and then.

Or I could do what Mom would do which is man up and move forward at high speed and get this shit done. With that I rang the bell. Don't be scared I kept telling myself. It wasn't really working, I started to shake from nerves as I waited. The sun was just starting to rise so I hoped they wouldn't be too pissed off at this total stranger waking them up this early. It was just then that I noticed something. That something was a cold edge pressed against my throat, the knife was trembling like it was trying to slice my neck but whoever was holding it was keeping the blade in check.

Well this was not going good, but the good news is that I knew the person holding the knife. Only one of the Four Furies had a thing for knives and slashy pointy things so while I was feeling nervous, okay, near panicked, but again it was like with my life in danger I felt better than I did at rest, best of all I knew I was going to be safe in a few minutes.

“Relax Warbride, I just need to talk to HeadCase.” I tried to keep the panic out of my voice. “She can help me explain what's going on ok?”

“Who is Warbride?” A voice I did not know replied, the voice was a girl's, sounding quite amused.

Shit. Oh shit.