Parallel 2: Interlaced (Parts 141-150)

By JulesM

Note for the reader: this is Interlaced, sequel to Parallels and featuring the continuing adventures of my OC Parallel. An ongoing serial, it's being released here in 10-part blocks for your convenience.

We resume the story as our heroine just got herself kidnapped by parties unknown. She's sticking with them, mostly from curiosity.

Part one hundred and forty one

When we get back to DARPA HQ, things aren’t looking as simple as we’d hoped. The government took my recommendation of what to tell the press and ran with it pretty much unchanged. They didn’t mention my conference, but maybe that’s all to the good, because the entire country is panicking like a kicked ant-hill. Several states have closed their borders and activated their national guard, with their governors declaring DC is “under alien influence” and no longer authoritative. Everyone in DARPA is glued to the screens watching the shitstorm blow in.

I end up watching too, while Mr Reilly makes calls. It’s GNN, which is evidently a Goodkind thing, and they’re milking it about as hard as could be expected. There’s an interview with a Herbert Goodkind, who suggests there may be ‘a powerful mutant’ at the base of this mysterious ‘influence’. They have speculation on what the actual influence is and does, complete with replayed scenes of glowing butterflies and phosphorescent tides, and on-location shots from the overgrown areas of DC today. And then, “This just in. A viewer has directed our attention to an obscure radio broadcast that went out last Saturday. It’s from a channel generally considered fictional, because it describes everyday, slice-of-life scenes in a high school for mutant children straight out of the X-Men comics. So we can’t consider this a reliable source, but it does describe something it calls influence, in very similar terms to today’s government press release, and ladies and gentlemen, it did this a week ago. We’ll let you judge for yourselves.”

They’ve found the WARS interview. Whee. They play the whole thing, but cut away when Zenith goes to open the lines to call-ins. Maybe because they don’t want to play the one where I told Jadis she wouldn’t end up being a slut?

I might be being unfair to them, but it’s certainly the tone Herbert Goodkind takes, when they fetch him back for a reaction. “Assuming that what just happened in DC is the same thing that this radio show talked about, then the political and military leadership of our nation, along with many other previously reliable men and women based in that city, may have been stripped of their very ability to care about decency and family values.” By which he means prudishness and bigotry. “I don’t know to what extent they are now acting according to the whims of this mutant child, who describes herself as a monster out of a H.P. Lovecraft story. But it does seem to support the stance of those governors who have decided to pull the plug on federal cooperation, at least until more is known. So I feel the question for the nation now is, who is this Miss Parallel, and what does she want with the government of the United States of America?”

“What indeed”, concurs the news anchor.

Mr Reilly puts an arm around me from behind. “Come on. You’ve had enough excitement for the day, I think. I’d like to get you home. But I’m a little worried in case the press gets your description, and somebody sees us leaving the building together. Can you disguise yourself?”

“Easily in several different ways. Or I can just be invisible.”

He thinks for a moment. “That may be the best way. Me driving home alone will draw no particular notice.”

I nod. “So we aren’t going to deal with the kidnappers today?”

He looks frustrated. “Sorry, no. Everyone’s busy with this crisis, it seems, and what interest I was able to scare up evaporated when I explained you’re also safely here. You said you could vanish the kidnapped body?”

“I can, but that leaves us in the dark as to their identity, motives, and operating location, and it lets them arrange a second bite at the apple at their convenience.”

He looks thoughtful. “We don’t have anyone trailing you, so we don’t know where you are.”

“I do, though. I’m tracking myself with gravity sense, cross referenced with a database of terrain elevations, and various maps. We’re on interstate 95, headed south. I could give you a grid reference.”

“Right into the biggest mess of states who aren’t talking to the federal government”, he sighs. “They’re always one jump ahead of us.”

“Precognitive advice, I think”, I say. “They’re headed someplace they know there won’t be cooperation. Same way they knew where we’d be, in the park. And they knew to expect this snafu.”

“Makes sense”, he says, sounding disgusted. “So you’re determined to stay out there?”

“Until I have something better to report than ‘we drove a lot, and nobody said anything’. That would be a bit of an anticlimax.”

“Alright. I respect your bravery, but don’t let yourself be harmed. Even if you can make the damage go away, it’s not so easy to vanish the trauma.”

“That, I know from experience”, I say.

In Whateley, dinnertime sees an excited Vamp happily recounting Hartford’s email, she’ll be registering as intersex, and as both a boy and a girl, and getting the culottes as soon as they come in. Tansy looks better after a short nap, and ready for her meeting after the meal. The Kimba section of the table is pretty empty, they’re all off doing the waitressing thing, except Hank. Paige amusedly relates the way she and Hartford have been tag-teaming to mess with the unfortunate Mr De Luca, who might now be in real trouble with the IRS. Erin is the one who brings up the national news. So then I have to tell them the stuff going on in Washington - well, the bits of it that weren’t told to me in confidence, anyhow. And that includes the kidnap.

Vamp looks around at everyone’s amused faces. “So why are you all treating this like a joke? She got kidnapped by a bunch of soldiers, fercrissake!”

Paige says, “You haven’t been here long, so you don’t know, but kidnapping Jules is like, I don’t know, kidnapping Lady Astarte or Champion or something. She can vanish the body any time she wants. Where she’s been once, she can teleport to again. She can come with an army in tow, like she did for me. And even just on her lonesome, she could really mess a base up.”

“You’d be leading the wolf right to your door”, agrees Erin.

“What bothers me is they’ve been smart about it so far”, I say. “They surely think they’ve got some clever-clever scheme to thwart me from just taking their base apart like so much Lego, but I don’t have a clue what it is.”

“Afterwards, let’s brainstorm that”, says Hank. “We can bring the others in too, once they’re back from the party. And we can have a talk with the team about how you did in the sims.”

I nod. “Seems like a plan.”

Vamp says, “I know I’m not in your training team, but can I sit in? I do have some experience being in a group of villains, I might have useful ideas.”

Hank nods. “Sure, good thought. You’re welcome to join us, and that goes for the Pack in general too. All of you are likely to have something to add.”

“I can’t, sorry”, Tansy says. “I’ve got my own thing right after this.”

“I’ll come with you for that, as well, if you want?”, I offer.

She smiles. “Thank you, love.”

Vamp looks between the two of us and grins. “Oh yeah and I totally forgot to say this, but, as of just earlier today, Jules is now my girlfriend! And I’m her enbyfriend, which is a word she made up, it stands for non-binary.”

“It’s true”, I grin. “Also I didn’t make that up, but it may be a bit out of its time.”

“Gotta collect ’em all”, says Hank, with a smirk.

“What? It’s just me and Sara and Tansy and Vamp, and well, I love Paige a lot too, and I think Erin likes me, and Petra is fun to play with over in Gothmog’s realm, and okay maybe I am collecting a bit of a polycule.”

Which makes everyone laugh.

Vamp says, “Oh and not to change the subject but that reminds me, Tara and I were full of ideas, is Jadis here?”

I look around for the Dunn Hall table the bad seeds have claimed, “Yeah, over there.”

“Can you introduce us? It feels like that would work better than me just wandering over and introducing myself.”

So I escort her over. Jadis looks curious. Jobe gives me a glance, and then goes back to eating. The others look us over. “Got a minute, Jadis?”

She nods. “Sure, what’s up?”

“I wanted to introduce Vamp, who is lovely if sometimes a bit intensely extroverted. She’s also someone who’d like your help with some business she has.”

“Alright, what is it?” Jadis sounds curious.

Vamp looks down a bit, but then up. “Um, hi. So, I’ve discovered someone who might have a talent really useful to the inventors, particularly the gadgeteers. I would like to get some introductions, so I can offer them my client’s services. Jules tells me you’re the person to go to.”

“She does, hmm? I am fairly well connected in that way. But my help comes with a matching price. Usually, a favour for a favour.”

“I can work with that”, Vamp agrees.

Jadis nods. “Tomorrow morning then. I’ll email you. Bring your client.”

Vamp smiles and does a fancy bow. “Much appreciated. Here’s to the beginning of an beautiful working relationship.”

“That remains to be seen”, Jadis says, with a smile.

Over with the weres, I’ve had an enjoyable day, mostly just puttering around helping with stuff, but I also got to do a bit of sparring with some of them. They’re very fast and I didn’t win much, but I think I impressed them with my martial progress. Ben, at least, sounded approving.

I’m about to head out, but I decide to bring Ben and Eli in on the brainstorming that I’m doing with the Kimbas. After I’ve explained how I got kidnapped and pointed out how it seems like the enemy has a brain this time, I reach the nub of the problem, “so what we need to figure out is how they might plan to put a leash on me. Which is normally pretty difficult, but I have to assume they’ve thought of something.”

“Speaking from experience, assholes like that usually take hostages”, Eli says. “If they’ve been paying attention to your powers, it will be someone you don’t yet know, and a one-way communication, so you can’t just throw them a link and then jump over to save them.”

Ben says, “Yeah, the ol’ push a button and watch the hostage squirm trick. You don’t want the hostage to suffer, so cooperate with my dastardly plans. The thing you need to understand about hostages, is that they’re already dead.”

Eli nods grimly. “Sometimes literally. The Necromancer used to have a thing for that. He’d torture the hostage to death beforehand, and then just use the playback as a hostage threat. Saved the risk of them getting rescued, and it gave him a nice little ‘it was all in vain’ to torment the hero with after.”

“Even if that ain’t so, though”, Ben adds, “That’s what you’ve got to treat it as. You can’t throw living people after dead ones. Especially yourself. If you can come save the hostage later, that’s all to the good. But you have to assume you can’t. In the end, between you and your enemies, it’s war, and good people die. You have to harden your heart to that.”

“God knows we’ve had to”, Eli agrees.

Part one hundred and forty two

I relay Ben and Eli’s idea idea to the council-of-war we’ve got going. That gets nods all round.

Paige says, “If they’ve been following your exploits, they’ll know you go after hostage takers. But they’ll also know you save the hostage first. Presenting you with a hostage you can’t save, they might think that would hold you.”

I say, “If they try, it’s you I’ll be asking to help trace the signal. Although I may have to figure out some way to access your powers in situ without having to make a whole obvious clone body to do it from. If you’re okay with that?”

She nods. “If it’s you, it’s okay. Keep me in the loop though.”

“Oh definitely. Not least because I’ll be asking you to remote drive the things.”

She laughs. “Life with you is never boring.”

Ayla asks, “So assume you’ve traced the signal, can you get there?”

I wince. “I don’t know. If I’ve traced it to a physical place, I can almost certainly recruit help, even if I have to do it the old fashioned way, by phoning the police. I have enough high level contacts to get taken seriously, I think, so that’s better than nothing. I don’t know whether I can follow a signal and jump myself over. On my own, I’d guess no. Borrowing Paige’s powers raises it to a maybe.”

“Something to try out, if you can get time before the trouble starts”, Hank says.

I nod. “Agreed. Okay, unless anyone’s got any other thoughts, lets move on from the unsavable hostage. What else might they try?”

“Appeal to reason?”, says Toni, only mostly sarcastically.

“They didn’t have to kidnap me to do that, I don’t think? Unless they think they have to show me a thing in person before I make a decision. Still, that’s a fair point. If it seems like they are acting with clumsily benevolent intent when I get wherever I’m going, then I’ll at least hear them out.”

That gets various dubious looks. Nikki says, “Aung agrees with me, that turning up with a squad of soldiers and pointing guns at you and dad, really rather suggests that they don’t have good intentions, clumsy or otherwise.”

“Sometimes orders get over-interpreted?”, I offer.

Hank shakes his head. “Modern soldiers are pros. If the orders aren’t clear, they’ll get them clarified. That’s assuming these are the real thing and not just some villain’s half-trained mercs. But their discipline in dealing with you does suggest it. Which means, I think, that if you get the whole ‘my orders were misinterpreted’ line from whoever’s at the other end, then they’re lying through their teeth and stringing you along.”

“There is such a thing as being too reasonable”, Toni agrees. “They pull that shit, tell them, next time send an email. And then just leave. You don’t owe them any civility that they haven’t shown you.”

I nod. “Okay, I can accept that. They need an excuse beyond ‘oops’, and it needs not to smell phony.”

“You can run it by one of us if you ain’t sure”, Toni suggests. “I’ll tell you if it stinks like a week old fish.”

“Okay, any other thoughts? How else can they stop me trashing their base?”

“They might try and trick you into a fool’s circle”, offers Nikki.

“Which I can think of at least two ways to get out of”, I say. “But fair point, they may not know that.”

“How?” She sounds curious.

“Make a new body outside it. Or cut the spell from inside.”

“I want to say that shouldn’t be possible, but well, I know you”, Nikki looks amused. “I’m tempted to ask you to try that.”

“Later, perhaps, but under supervision. I’m a little worried the spell would backlash.”

“Fair point”, she agrees.

I look around. No further suggestions. “Okay, anyone gets any bright ideas later, tell me. I guess that’s it?”

Hank says, “Kimbas, stick around, and I’ll go through how Jules did in the sims, and we can decide if we want to try her out in our team.”

Tansy and I make our way upstairs in Poe, headed for the senior floor common room. That’s where Zenith has arranged the meet-up. She looks a little nervous, but also determined. I put an arm around her reassuringly and hug her against me. It’s noisy, but the noise quiets as we step into the room.

Zenith takes the opportunity to get things started. “Alright, people, you all know what I wrote in the email I sent you, that circumstances have forced Tansy to change what she’s offering, and that she wants to only have to tell people once. So I’m going to hand you over to Tansy to give you the details.”

Tansy steps out into the middle of the room. But before she starts speaking, someone says “So have you come to tell us you’ve got cold feet?” It’s Sharisha.

“No. No cold feet.” Tansy smiles. “But the terms of the deal have changed, and I need to make you all aware.” she looks around, takes a breath, then, “I guess most of you were here, in school, for the pink light incident earlier today?”

Various voices say “Yeah”, “Yep”, and “Yeah and it was creepy as all hell”.

“I got a bit more of a ringside seat than you all did”, Tansy says. “I was sat opposite Jules here, on the train to Boston. And when the power blasted out of her uncontrollably in that train carriage, it all went to ground through me.”

“Sheee-it”, “How are you even still alive?” The crowd is hanging off her words.

“Jules’s power is as gentle as she is”, Tansy smiles at me, “I took no harm, but I did get rearranged a bit. Part of it you can already see.” She gestures at her top.

“No complaints here”, somebody I don’t know. Various snickering indicates amused agreement.

“And part not so much. This morning, I was all girl. Now, I’m still all girl, but I’ve got something extra. The same arrangement as Jules here, both a penis and a vulva. I have balls inside, nestled up beside my ovaries. Both parts work, although Jules has kindly given me a contraception and anti-STD spell. And so I needed to tell you all. I recognise some of you aren’t going to be into that, and I didn’t want to make you feel tricked.”

“Well, damn, you could say that”, Sharisha sounds grumpy. “Why did Jules give you a damn dick, as if there aren’t already enough boy-girls walking around?”

“It wasn’t deliberate”, Tansy defends me. “Sara tells me she thinks I’d already reshaped my BIT, and Jules just gave my body the power surplus to make a change in seconds, instead of months. But you need to understand that I’m not a boy-girl. Someone like Vamp is both, and happy to be that way, and that’s fine for her. Me, I’m still just a girl, but I now also have a penis, which I think is very pretty and feminine.”

Shrike says, “What it is right now, is abstract. I’d like to see a bit more of what’s on offer.”

Tansy looks around. “Does anyone object?”

Silence and head-shaking.

“Alright then.” Tansy starts to strip, handing me her clothes as she goes. I think everyone else is a little shocked how casual she is about it. Me not so much, after today. Soon enough she’s casually stepping out of panties and handing them to me. “See for yourself.” She puts her hands behind her head and steps her legs a little wider apart. I admit to bias, but she’s absolutely lovely.

“Bless the new rules”, someone says. And then “oh look, she’s getting hard, it’s sticking out like a strap, that is so cute.”

My cue, I think. I put her clothes over the back of a chair, snuggle up behind Tansy and give her a hug, step around and give a quick kiss on the lips, and then drop to a crouch. “I have the same arrangements, so I know how they work. Penis on top. Clitoris at its base”, I lift her erection so they can see, “The shaft forks and runs through both sides of labia majora. And under that she has a normal vulva”, I spread it out, and I can see from the corner of my eye Tansy is biting her lip, heh. “With the exception of no hole for the urethra. That runs through the penis, so yes, she can piss her name into a snow-bank if she wants.” Which makes several of them giggle. I grin up at Tansy. “Me, I think it’s beautiful. And if you want to play with her like she’s a regular girl, all the bits work the regular way. You have to get used to being patted on the forehead, and, well, you may have to wash your hair.”

I start to stand, but Shrike says, teasing, “No, stay, please, we don’t just want the narration, we want the demonstration.”

I have to snicker. “Normally that would be a completely cheeky request, but now seems like a good time as any to announce it - I’m going to be joining Tansy in offering sex to any girl, feminine intersex or androgynous person who asks. And so if nobody here objects? Including you, Tansy.” A pause, dead silence. “Then let’s play.”

It’s the first time I’ve kissed her down here, since the change. I tease her labia with my tongue and lips, and then caress a path upward to the place where they join, getting a gasp from her, and a little lingering taste of the bath bubbles from earlier. And then I set up a smooth rhythm stroking over her clit. I slip two fingers inside her, and curl to caress. I can hear her breath catching, and see her excitement in her life aura as she winds fingers in my hair and presses me close. It really doesn’t take long before she’s shuddering and I feel her penis twitch against my forehead. And warmth in my hair.

I move back a little to give her a moment, and say, “The other good thing about this arrangement? Notice she’s not getting soft. Little to no refractory period. Which means I can do this.” I move up just a little and the tip of her penis pops into my mouth. She tastes of semen and salt. I take my mouth off it with a pop. “Always remember to keep your Tansy hydrated, she spends water and electrolytes every time she squirts.” And I’m rewarded by the ripples of her giggling as I press forward again and take her deep in my throat. Convenient to not have to breathe, as I concentrate on being soft and warm and caressing around her. I look up at her and give her love-you eyes, and it’s enough to set her off again, pumping warmly into me. Mmm, Tansy-cream. And I feel the orgasm energy filling me up, too. I could make a habit of this. I let her pull out with a lingering kiss. “Sufficiently demonstrated?”

There’s a moment of silence, and then, “Shee-it” I guess Sharisha is more impressed than she expected to be. And then a little of the old mean in her tone creeps back, when she says, “If you’re gonna be giving out sex like Tansy, shouldn’t you be naked too?”

I laugh, “Sure, why not.” I vanish my clothes and stand up. Unsurprisingly, I’m erect too. “See, we match.” What, me, an exhibitionist?

“Yeah, except your tits are small.” Sharisha again.

“I thought you got to see her in the showers”, Shrike says.

To which Sharisha replies grumpily, “She moves too fast. Pop, naked and step inside, pop, shake off all the water, and pop again, clothed.”

“So ask, silly”, I tease. “Jules, may I ogle you naked? Why yes, Sharisha, you may.”

“Jules, may I kiss you and touch you all over and taste you?” Shrike offers, and it doesn’t sound as if she’s teasing.

“Why yes, Shrike, you may”, I grin.

“Call me Della”, she says, but I can’t reply, because her lips are over mine and her tongue in my mouth, caressing.

Part one hundred and forty three

20th January, 2007, Poe, night

Lying asleep in Poe, I reflect on an enjoyable evening. Della explained to me that she’s had the hots for me for awhile, but didn’t know how to ask. She doesn’t get romantic crushes, and doesn’t care for “that sappy stuff”. But she gets admiration crushes, and sexual crushes. She’s wanted to pin me down and fuck my brains out since pretty much the first time we met. But how do you tell someone that? Just tell them, I said. She’s shy, though, because romantic people tend to react like it’s an insult or something. Anyhow, no-strings sex is absolutely what Tansy and me are offering. So she can call me over and have her way with me any time the fancy strikes. If I’m busy, I’ll make a body just for her. It was wonderful to see the way her eyes lit up with happy lust at the thought.

Of course, everyone was getting into it by then, and the whole room was turning into a bit of an orgy. Sharisha was playing with Tansy, and I guess her horizons got expanded a little, or a lot. Tansy certainly enjoyed what looked like a gentle and sweet blowjob. Zenith went and got some luridly coloured sports drinks for the two of us. Which is good because Della had me cumming in her mouth over and over, until even my legs were a little wobbly. I think she must like the taste. Was Zenith flavouring me? Memo to try it for myself and see.

Also, I really like Della. And she thinks my small tits are cute.

I admit to a bit of sneaky amusement when Nikki got in range walking back over from Hawthorne, and practically had an orgasm on the spot. Evidently that much sex nearby is really overwhelming, and she was desperate to do something about it. I was able to tell her that Bunny was up there in the orgy waiting for her. That was enough to send her running upstairs. When she got into the room the two of them fell together like magnets.

Watching Nikki fuck is an experience. I think more than half the room ended up watching, and touching themselves. Nikki has completely lost her shyness in public. I’d lay good odds she knew exactly what she was doing, and was riding the empathic backwash as much as she was riding Bunny. Yay for more exhibitionists.

Over on the other side, I rode invisibly in Mr Reilly’s car while he took me home to his house, which is in a suburb, but not a distant one. When we got there, I met Troy briefly, but he was busy doing stuff in his room, and Mr Reilly didn’t press it. I grabbed a shower, switched over to pyjamas, dived into bed in the spare room, and was out like a light.

And on the other, other side, still driving. Every so often they park on the side of the road, switch up who’s behind the wheel, and the previous driver comes in back to sleep. As for me, I just let myself rest, and wait. I can stay alert for external stuff while sleeping, so it’s no risk.

Oh hey, a dream-peeking Sara, looking over my shoulder. I snuggle against her. “Hi, beloved.”

“Hi to you too”, she grins. “That vehicle looks grim.”

“Needs suspension. Also beds. And fluffy duvets. The company could do with improvement, as well. Although of course, there’s you.”

“There’s me”, she agrees. “Long and busy day, hmm? Although I did enjoy that orgy.” She was riding on my shoulder the whole time, soaking up the lust we were all generating.

“I think Tansy’s worries are assuaged”, I deadpan. “Looks like most lesbians still fancy a girl no matter what bits she has. And a penis is if anything, a curiosity toy. A lot of them wanted to play.”

“A sentiment I heartily agree with.” She grins. “Busy day coming up tomorrow too. I think our conference is going to need heavier security.”

I nod, “At least Washington’s governor’ is still listening to DC.”

“How do you reckon that mess is going to play out?”, she sounds curious.

“I feel like, it’ll get worse before it gets better”, I sigh. “As far as the enemy’s concerned, DC just went dark. So I can imagine they’ll be all for anything that weakens centralised federal authority. Even in the states that are still loyal, they’ll be pushing for go-slows and caution. And of course, demonising me.”

“And me, by association, although I start out from behind, on that.” She snuggles against me.

“My favourite demon”, I say, giving her a kiss. People should recognise what a sweetie she is.

“Daddy will be so disappointed to be number two”, she smirks. “Although he’s about to get a whole lot more famous. Maybe his cult can catch up to mine? That would be a nice consolation prize.”

I giggle. “I’ll tell him you said so.”

She snickers too. Then after a pause she says, “You know, after today, there’s no point keeping our conference a surprise. The press is going to track it down and swarm all over it, even if we try. Should we give them something to look at, and open the portal early?”

I consider that. “Get the panicking over a week and a half before we open, give the press early access tours? It could work, everything’s ready to go on Gothmog’s side. The main downside is a wider window of opportunity for fanatics with bombs. Let’s run it by our new security crew first.”

Sara nods to that. “Fair point. I’m looking forward to us meeting them tomorrow, I’m wondering what they’re like. I haven’t personally been involved, over there.”

“Going to do your new splitting trick?”

She thinks, then nods. “Yeah. Saves trouble with exeats, like you said.”

“Means we can have an all day snuggle over this side”, I grin. “Been too long since we did something like that.”

“I do plan to visit the pride show, you know”, she teases. “But I’m sure I can drag you along to that.”

“Hardly a fate worse than death”, I agree. And give her another kiss.

21st January, 2007, Poe, early morning

Surprisingly, the first thing that starts my day, is a link nudge from Della. “Hey, ya awake?”

“Fast asleep still, what’s up?”

She giggles. “I woke up horny.”

“And you want your sex toy, hmm?”

“I so do.”

“Zenith won’t mind?”

“She’s asleep.”

And I get a second nudge, and Zenith making a group with me and Della. “She’s also a telepath, dumbass”, Zenith says.

“Um, sorry”, Della doesn’t sound very sorry.

“Ah, whatever. Come on over. After last night, what’s another orgy?” Zenith sounds resigned and amused. “And I’ve got stuff I want to distract you with, while my room-mate treats you like a sexual chew toy.”

I giggle and flick a new body to them over the link. I consider going naked, but instead, it feels like a good time to try those capabilities Cecilia built into my super suit. And so I appear with both painted-on mode, and crotchless mode activated.

Which gets a whistle from Della. “You planning on starring in porn, with that thing?”

I smirk. “It does sound like fun. One of the many things I plan to enjoy after I graduate.”

Zenith laughs, “Why am I not surprised. Either by your shamelessness or by the way you’ve got your suit gimmicked.”

“Blame Cecilia Rogers for that”, I say. “One hundred percent her idea, although I absolutely love it.”

“I kinda like it too”, Della grins. “Come here, sit on the bed, I wanna see how it feels.”

And I realise Cecilia left me with another Easter egg. I find I can feel touches right through the suit, as if it was naked skin. I think Della likes the feel too, because she’s murmuring, “mmm, silky soft”.

As I’m luxuriating in caresses, Zenith says, “So, the distraction. What you did to Tansy, can you do it again?”

“The, um, exact same thing, no, too dangerous”, I say. “But did you want some subset of it?”

“I was born a boy, no big surprise given I’m here. But the difference between me and Della is that I still miss it. I really liked having a penis. Even if I’m getting used to the new equipment, it bothers me that I lost it.”

“Mmm, they’re nice to have. You want a both-ways arrangement like me and Tansy?”

She thinks a moment. “Yeah. That might work. Can you?”

I gasp, as Della’s fingers find my inside, and press in. “Mmmh, I think maybe? I can certainly tell your cells to do that. You have a BIT, right?”

“Yeah, frustratingly.”

“So, I don’t know if I can persuade that to change. Your body might just reabsorb the alterations. But I can try talking to Sara about it, she’s the expert.”

“If you could, it would be a favour. Payback for last night.”

Della’s looking up at me from between my legs, and she gives me a smouldering look as she takes my erection into her mouth. I arch, it feels so good. “Ah, I’ll try. Fuck. But there’s another thing. If I decide I can do it, we go to the Head together and ask her permission. And we do it under, ah, fuck Della, proper medical supervision. In Doyle.”

Zenith giggles as she watches my distraction. “Yeah, I get that. Go through channels. I can live with that. The Head already knows how I feel.”

“Then, ah, fuck, we have a deal”, I say. And shoot my first shot of the day onto Della’s caressing tongue.

We’re still going at it as I get ready to head over and do witch-herding. Della is a bit body-shy, I think because she recently completed her change, but after a couple mouthfuls from her new favourite binky, she gets up the courage to show me her own naked body, which is beautiful. Also tasty. And as I reach Kirby, she’s riding me cowgirl style, bouncing happily, and Zenith has given up the too-mature-for-that act and is masturbating along.

Speaking of tasty things, here’s Tansy, and here’s the three little witches busy as pint size chefs in a kitchen, making their next batch of fly pies.

Tansy greets me with a kiss. “You, sweetie, feel like sex.” Her life sense is getting sharper, I think.

I let her feel over links as I thrust up inside Della. “Having my first assignation. Shrike thinks I’m her new chew toy.”

She catches the edge of a table to steady herself. “Ass. And I saw how she was all over you last night. Congratulations on your first, we should get a cake or something.” She grins amused. “Does she wanna date you?”

I shake my head and explain the aromantic thing. Which gets a thoughtful look. “Makes sense. I was never able to get a hook on what her type was, back when I had spies. She had a lot of fast break-ups. I guess only one side of that ever saw them as break-ups?”

“It still hurt her to be rejected, I think”, I say. “She was worried I’d reject her last night. And I think, she’s pretty ecstatic I said yes.” As well as presently orgasmic, in a beautiful arch above me. Warm, squeezing Della.

“Are you two talking about sex stuff?” It’s Clover.

I nod. “Yeah.”

“Well quit it, and come join in”, Clover grins. “We’ve got a much larger batch to bake today. All hands on deck, no slackers.”

Of course, I give her a smart salute. “Yes ma’am.” Which sets all three of us giggling.

Part one hundred and forty four

It’s a weird but fun feeling to roll out of my lie-in and face the morning, while another me is getting fingerbanged and having a lovely time with Della, and another is baking fly pies with Tansy. But this me just woke up, and gets to have a leisurely stretch, an unexpected but very welcome morning kiss from Erin, and then head to the showers. Mmm, my life is nice. Well, except for the me that’s still driving, she has a sore butt from the hard seat. Sorry, that instance of me!

A few moments after I get into the showers and join the queue for the stalls, Nikki comes in, and then looks mortified at the chorus of whistles and applause which greets her. Thankfully Bunny is there to pull her into a reassuring hug, and say, “Hey guys, knock it off, you’re embarrassing her.”

“Ain’t nothing to feel embarrassed about”, Sharisha asserts. “We were all of us letting it hang out in public too, if you didn’t notice.”

“I was overwhelmed, I couldn’t help myself”, Nikki’s voice sounds quiet. “I don’t know what I’m turning into.”

“Lemme ask you a question then”, Sharisha says. “Did you do anything bad? Cheat? Put spells on people?”

“I fed off your lust, I could feel how you all felt, watching me. I was glorying in it. Leading it.”

“Like we weren’t all doing the same thing. All of us were showing off and soaking up the attention, I know I damn well was. And I saw you, you went straight for your girl, and you stuck to her. So I say you ain’t done nothing wrong.”

“It’s just, it feels like I ought to feel it’s wrong. If that makes any sense. I know it doesn’t.” Nikki sighs and covers her eyes. “I didn’t used to be a slut.”

“I didn’t used to like sucking a girl’s dick. I guess we all gotta live with the changes.”

Bunny says, “Sharisha’s right. You went straight to me, and I was so happy to see you. You did nothing wrong, love. And I figure, when you came in here today, everyone was clapping because they thought you were beautiful.”

“Fucking spectacular, is more like it”, Sharisha says. “Seriously girl, accept the compliment.”

Nikki looks down. “This is ridiculous, even Aunghadhail is agreeing with you. Okay, fine. I had sex in public, I can’t make myself feel ashamed of it, and everyone thinks I was spectacular. Can we close the subject, for now?”

Sharisha smirks. “I figure you can get the rest of the way on your own, so sure.”

“Far be it from me to break up this enthralling conversation”, that’s Ayla, “But I’ve got a little announcement. I’m going to be paying for an upgrade in the showers, here. A friend has agreed to help install them. Then she’s going to give a demo, here, after lunch, if anyone wants to be in on that.”

“New shower arrangements from you, lemme guess, mirrors in all the right places, glass see through doors…” Sharisha sounds amused.

“I won’t even be here myself for the demo, and no, they aren’t my design, so you don’t have to worry about all that stuff.” Ayla sounds a bit tired.

“Okay, I admit to curiosity, I’ll be there.”

And Nikki adds, “Thank you, Ayla”, which I think is only partially for the new showers.

I think Della’s finally done playing with me, as we snuggle, stickily, in her bed. “Wheee-ew. I think my fingers are cramping. I know my tongue is.” Della grins. “You are now my favouritest sex toy ever. And you’re sure you don’t mind that I see you like that?”

“Lemme count the unsubtle orgasms I was having”, I grin. “Silly, I am absolutely happy to be your sex toy. I’m not short of lovers or romance, I won’t feel short-changed.”

“I think if I was the sort to love people, I might love you. I definitely do like you a whole lot, you know.”

“And I might have fallen in love with you a little bit, but don’t worry, I’m cool with it being one sided. You’re very fun.”

“Most people think I’m a smart-ass bitch.”

“Well, it is a very smart ass, I know that from personal experience.”

She laughs. “Okay, I walked into that one. But, it’s just nice you don’t seem to mind my sharp edges.”

“I like them. They’re one of the things that makes you you-ish.”

“Good, I’ll carry on, then”, she grins.

“Admit it, you would’ve anyway.”

“I do say you’ve got that right”, she grins. “Okay, I gotta get up, what do we do to end these things?”

“Normally I’ll just vanish the body, saves clean-up, unless I have a particular reason to walk around showing off the fun I’ve been having.”

She snickers. “Tempting to ask you to, but no, I gotta do my thing and you gotta do yours. But later, definitely later, hmm?”

“I’ll look forward to it”, I give her a kiss, and then vanish the body.

A link nudge gets my attention, it’s from Billie and she’s grouped up all the Kimbas and Pack except Jade. “Heads up people, Jade just woke up. Mrs Horton gave me the call a few minutes ago. She’s in a fragile way, though. Don’t everyone swarm her. Jet, she knows you’re okay. But she’s having trouble handling the memories. Crying jags and vomiting. I’ve been there, and my suggestion is that she’d welcome something simple and distracting to do, if any of you have it?”

Ayla says, “I might have just the thing. Installing physical hardware, she can fetch and carry, and help assemble simple mechanical stuff. Pay at the usual rate. Tell her to give me a link call if she’s interested.”

“I’ll pass it on.”

“She’s going to be okay, though?” Jet sounds worried.

“You were, so I figure yes.”

“I kind of wasn’t, for a bit. I’ll come over, we can talk. I might be able to help.”

“I’ll check if she’s okay with that… she says yes. We’re still in Mrs Horton’s suite, for the privacy. I’ll let you in.”

“Thank you, on my way now!”

Morning in the Reilly household sees me heading downstairs in my nice silk pyjamas, to an assortment of delicious smells. Mr Reilly is up early and making coffee, and bacon. “Hey there, good morning. Are you okay with bacon? I can do pancakes if you’d prefer.”

“Bacon would be absolutely lovely. Can I help with anything?”

“You could roust Troy out of his bed? I think he was up on his computer ’til late, but that’s no excuse when we have guests.”

“On it”, I grin, and make a self to go upstairs and do that, while I’m admiring the coffee.

“You realise I’m only feeding one of you, right?” His grin makes it into a tease.

“Oh, poor starved second me, she will surely waste away, such tragedy”, I tease back. “Don’t worry, that body is just so I can do two things at once, she’s for the vanishing as soon as they’re done. Such a cruel taskmaster I am.”

He laughs. “Well, you can go turn on the TV news for me, and quit ogling the coffee pot, you’re gonna embarrass it. I’ll pour when it’s ready.”

Finding Troy’s room is pretty easy, it’s the one with a life-form in it. Currently registering as asleep. I decide the best solution is a small sorcery for refreshed wakefulness, which I whisper through his keyhole, and then when his life aura shifts, I knock. “Breakfast’s cooking.”

That gets a grunt. “Coming. Gimme a minute.”

Task done, I vanish that body. Other me finds the news channel on TV, and reports, “He says he’s coming.”

“He’ll fall back asleep”, Mr Reilly says.

“He won’t”, I grin.

“Oho. Magic tricks?”

“A small one.”

He nods, and we turn up the volume on the news. “…a summary of the headlines this morning. Nineteen states are currently rejecting federal rule, citing the so called influence on Washington DC. Vice President Dick Cheney is still missing, with the search being hampered by the breakdown in relations between federal agencies and the states. And in Washington DC, he’s not alone, over ten thousand people have either been referred for emergency psychiatric assistance, or outright gone missing, since the events of Saturday morning. Emergency services are overwhelmed, and the city has sent out an urgent call for assistance.”

Troy chooses that moment to come down stairs. “Morning all. Sounds like the damn apocalypse. Pardon my French.”

“Sounds like”, I agree - I’m presuming we’re keeping my identity secret, for now. “Apologies for being a bit useless last night when we met, I’d had a long day. I’m Jules, I’ll be staying with you for…”, and I realise that I have no clue how long, presumably everyone’s plans have been thrown out of whack.

“For a few days”, Mr Reilly helpfully picks up. “I’d have been able to give you an exact number, yesterday, but then this all blew in”, he gestures to the TV. “So it’s gonna take as long as it takes. Meantime I hope the two of you can get along, although Jules will be coming to work with me, so I don’t expect you’ll be in each other’s hair much. As you’re probably wondering why she’s staying with us, it’s because I’ve agreed to be her chaperone while she’s up here for business.”

“Government business, I figure, from what you carefully aren’t saying.”

Mr Reilly nods. “Government business. Jules, how do you take your coffee?”

“Milk, just the regular stuff, no sugar, thanks”, I say.

Troy says, “Well, miss government business, nice to meet you. The computer upstairs is mine, so is the gym kit in the garage. Don’t use ’em unless you ask me first, please. Other than that, knock yourself out.”

“Don’t need to worry, I have internet in my head”, I figure it’s pretty unsubtle that I’m a mutant, given my looks.

Mr Reilly looks surprised as he hands me my coffee. “You do?”

“You do too, although you don’t have the interfaces to use it. A feature of links, built for the Circuit Breaker, but I make use of it too.”

His raises eyebrow speaks volumes. “Un-tappable, un-blockable internet, for the Circuit Breaker.”

“She’s also learning to have multiple, non-physical minds, like me”, I tease. “Maybe she’ll learn to multi-body too?” It’s amusing to watch his face turn colours like that.

“If you two are finished talking past me”, says Troy sounding a bit grumpy, “I’ll be helping myself to some of that bacon.”

In Sara’s room, I tell her, “Just reminded myself, I need to learn how to copy Paige’s powers. Ideally as quickly as possible, and without dead giveaways like the pretty blue glow.”

Paige smirks from the bed between us, she’s lying over our laps like a cat. “You know you like the glow.”

“I love the glow, silly, because I love you, but it’s not exactly subtle.”

She nods. “Sadly true. Try and avoid the fur, too. It’s lovely and soft, but the hairballs, those I could do without.”

Sara reaches to pet Paige, her fingers enjoying the softness. “So, Jules, we talked about Paige’s power some, when you were making your flight pack, and I said there were secrets involved. It feels like now’s the right time to let the two of you in on that, but please be careful, it mustn’t go past this room, or I’m in trouble. So. They say nobody understands the genetics of powers. They’re mistaken, I do. I’m very, very good with genetics. And everyone drops DNA.” She shows a single hair of Paige-fur on her fingertip, then pops it in her mouth. “So I can teach you. And Paige lovely, I might be able to teach you a little too, now you’re a bit bigger up in here”, fingers petting Paige’s head. “You say ‘stop’ if it gets to big to fit inside, hmm?”

Paige giggles. “Don’t I always?”

Part one hundred and forty five

21st January, 2007, Sara’s room, after breakfast

Paige is helping me learn the new cyberpath structures I’ve built in my brain, I’m mostly watching while she drives via links, but she’s starting to hand over to me for bits. “Okay, so now I’m browsing a page on my laptop, from the phone, can you see the network connection? Just dive down it.”

I dive, and the computer at the other end opens up to my senses, one much larger than the small chip on the phone.

“Good, now can you find where the data’s going?”

The application that’s sending the data is a simple process built to serve up a templated web page. Its structure opens up to me, it helps that I actually do know programming.

“Nice, now can you go the other way, try finding where it’s physically located?” I know where it’s located, it’s on her lap, but the trick is to try and do it from the inside out.

I pose the question, and an answer comes back. Paige giggles. “Okay, you found the browser’s geolocation feature. That works, I suppose, if they’re stupid enough to leave that turned on. But let’s disable that for now, and try again.”

Another me has found the first aid class inside Doyle, it’s mostly students, but there’s a few adults, including one I recognise from security. The teacher is Doc Tenent, she of the long and prehensile hair. Which she is currently using to hand out goodie bags. A glance inside mine reveals the usual assortment of packaged bandages, mouth guards, ballpoint pen and paperwork.

“Can you all fill in the sheet with your details, please? Yes, we know who you are, but it’s for our records. While you’re doing that, I’ll begin. I’m Doctor Tenent, I’ll be your instructor today. For some of you, this is a refresher course, for some of you it’s your first time. Doesn’t matter, we’re covering the same syllabus regardless. Some of you have powers, some not. I’ll be talking with each of you about how your powers should and should not be used in the context of first aid. And when I say that, I don’t mean what you’re capable of, I mean what it’s safe and beneficial for you to do, without being a qualified doctor or surgeon. And even if you have powers, I will still be requiring you to learn how to do this the baseline way. Does someone know why?”

Various hands go up, it’s not a hard question. “Powers can fail?”

“They can fail, they can be blocked, or injured, or be unsafe to use, yes. And so we will be doing manual CPR too, even if you can put a hand on Rescusci Anne and start her mechanical heart with a wish.”

She pauses a moment and looks around. “This course is a strict superset of the standard Red Cross course, and you will receive a Red Cross certificate at the end of it. You will also receive a Whateley certificate, which while less well known, shows that you have covered additional topics such as mutant burnout, bullet injuries, plasma burns, damage from powers, and class X exposure. We do this in the usual Red Cross three days, which means we all have a busy schedule ahead of us. And so, let’s begin.”

In Gothmog’s lounge, Tansy and Vamp are both in awe of the small bump Junior is already making in my belly. Tansy says, “She’s what, eleven days old? How in the hell?”

“As of this morning, yeah. She seems to be going at a rate of around a week per day, relative to a human baby”, I say. “I think she’s trying to pull more of herself down into the physical. That’s what if feels like, when we dream together. She’s a very determined little thing, but not talkative yet.”

Vamp says, “And you’ve been hiding her away in here the whole time?”

“Sheltering”, I say. “This is the one body I can’t afford to risk, because I can’t vanish it without killing her. And bringing her back wouldn’t be as simple as with one of you. The soul needs its gradual introduction.”

“Which she’s rushing through”, Tansy counters.

I chuckle. “I have a sneaking suspicion she’s going to rush it until I’m as round as the moon, and then settle down and say ‘alright, now for the other eight months’. She seems the sort to like snuggling. But by then, I’m sure she’ll be on links, so you can ask her about it yourself.”

That thought leaves me pondering the idea of one-sided link setup for human mothers, while Sara, Gothmog and I walk over to the Big Portal as it exists on his side. Trouble is, in order to direct the link connection to the right person, I had to rely on the way souls pull toward each other when they agree to make an exchange. But if I can crack it, the one sided case will have uses. Not just introducing mothers to their unborn babies, but I could see it being useful to link up our hypothetical hostage.

Over here, the Big Portal arches high into the sky, two gigantic tapering tusks of pure elemental iron, rising out of the ground in the form of a weighted catenary arch, and touching at their tips. Kind of vaguely similar to the big arch they have in St Louis, except in my opinion, much more badass. Gothmog summoned it up out of the ground with his sorcery here, but it’s going to be on me to make the counterpart in Seattle.

Sara whistles. “Nice work, daddy.”

He grins. “Glad you like it, I rather do too.” He looks at me, “You know, Jules, I have been thinking about that portal you forced shut, yesterday. And about the spell that was sealing it. It does not seem reasonable to me that just hatching nearby should shred a spell that badly. Or that it would be on such a hair trigger that a little bit of physical flame would be enough to bring it down.”

Sara says, thoughtfully, “When I told Jules not to pull the trigger, I didn’t know why I said it. But I’ve gone back and back over those memories. I saw the seal was wavering in the hot wind from the pilot light. That was the clue, that was what made me say stop. But you’re right Daddy, why would it do that?”

I say, “You’re implying it wasn’t just blown off its moorings, then? It was sabotaged?”

Gothmog nods. “And set up as a trap, to release the occupant when you used the one tool that was routinely used to clean that place.”

Sara says, “That implies that whoever laid the trap knows a lot about Whateley. They knew the monster was there, they knew Jules would be on the maintenance crew, and they knew the crew made a habit of using fire. Assuming it was a trap laid for Jules, but I think we can assume that.”

“And it was done by somebody having considerable skill with mythos magic”, Gothmog adds. “It would have been careful, painstaking work, unpicking a spell like that, and doing it in a way that would not draw suspicion, without just tearing it all the way down. I do not think the creature behind the seal was intelligent enough to stand back and cooperate, it would have been pushing against its bars all the while. I would not like to do that work. And it would have to be done in person.”

I wince at the implications. “It isn’t proof, but when you take it together, it strongly suggests an enemy inside the school. One of the staff, or a student, or someone closely associated. A mythos magic user, and a subtle one, if Sara and I haven’t spotted them casting. Add into that, their ability to send a storm after me on Friday, since I have to presume it’s the same enemy. That was quite the display of magical brute force. And both incidents had the same callous attitude to bystanders.”

Sara nods. “The enemy is already within. Gypsy’s prophecy, the day after you hatched, Jules, you remember?”

“I do”, I say. “Trouble is, just like we thought at the time, that’s not much to work with.”

“Well, now we know ‘within’ what. Within the school, and that may let us focus our attention.”

“Or make us paranoid, jumping at shadows and interrogating our friends”, I counter.

Sara sighs, and nods. “Or that. I think we should at least raise it with the magic department. If the wards can be tuned to detect mythos casting on the grounds and nearby, that may give us an edge. Even if the enemy knows they are being monitored, it could at least limit what they can risk trying.”

I nod. “I’ll speak to Circe and see if anything can be done.”

We won’t be using the Big Portal to get to Seattle, so Gothmog summons up a door. Sara’s people have a place over there, and that’s what we’ll be connecting to. Then it should be a short journey to meet the Knights. Gothmog kisses us both au revoir, and we step through.

A long way from there, the jeep thing I’m in stops heading south, parallel to the coast, and makes a turn to the west.

And in DC, things inside DARPA seem to have calmed down. At least, people are going about their jobs and not hanging off the TV like Godzilla was invading. Mr Reilly is making phone calls. Me, I’m mostly supernumerary, except that I’ve been asked not to go walkabout outside, or anywhere near a window. I end up playfully doing Tai Chi sword forms in the empty canteen with a lit lightsaber, which I haven’t properly studied yet, but I did read in a book, and I think I can understand better now. I have to adjust the form a little, it doesn’t make as much sense to hold a saber alongside my arm as it would a metal blade, but still, it’s fun.

“That the lightsaber you killed the Necromancer’s goons with?” Mr Reilly is leaning on the door.

“Not the same one, but the same kind”, I say. I shut it off and toss it over to him.

He catches, and looks it over. “The decoration is somehow very you. Where’s the switch?”

“There isn’t one. I feed it matter and antimatter when I want it to run, I stop when I don’t. And the decoration is my way of saying I’m no Skywalker.”

“Neither Jedi nor Sith”, he nods. “Thank you for not chopping up our canteen chairs.”

“I’ll need one of those when it’s lunchtime”, I grin.

“Quite so”, he nods. “Or you would have, if you hadn’t been invited to meet the President, and have lunch with him.”

Way to drop a bombshell. “Ah. Yes. That may complicate things.” I giggle. “Please tell me that one of the uniforms I have in my patterns is smart enough. This may be a poor time to go shopping.”

“Your school uniform will do.” He grins. “However, I am going to have to drill you rather intensively on protocol, so it’s lucky we have a couple of hours before we have to leave.”

Sara’s cult base in Seattle turns out to be a very nice private house, modernist in design, but still homely, with soft thick carpets and leather furniture. The head honcho here is a very beautiful woman, she looks young, but as with Circe, that’s not what my life sense is telling me.

Sara says, “Jules, meet my head of operations in Seattle. This is Celestina Valocco, also known as Strega, and she is the one who has asked to meet you. Miss Valocco, this is Jules, codename Parallel.”

Miss Valocco smiles, and there’s something predatory behind it. “A true pleasure to meet you.”

Part one hundred and forty six

Sara and other me have already made our way onward to meet the Knights, but this me is staying behind to speak to Miss Valocco.

She gestures to the sofa, “Please, sit. Would you like anything? Coffee? Wine?”

I guess supervillains have different standards for letting kids near the hard stuff. “Coffee would be lovely, thank you. Milk, no sugar.”

She’s an interesting woman. Beautiful, with flowing dark hair and Mediterranean skin tone. Seemingly casually sexual in the way she moves and smiles, but I’d lay long odds that she knows precisely what she’s doing. And the house sets her off well, lots of warm pine, floor to ceiling glass, soft carpets, and overstuffed leather chairs. The windows overlook the garden, which is lush with evergreens even in the winter, and I notice, not the street. A house designed for private parties, then, and perhaps more. Upscale ones, going by the size of the place.

Also yes, she is totally flaunting her ass as she works the impressively complicated coffee machine. I’m not sure if she’s picked up I’m into girls, or is just always like that. She turns and comes back with a coffee for me, and a glass of wine for her. I think that eyebrow raise meant she caught my amused look. But she lets it pass, instead saying, “I was going to talk to you about influence, although I think events may have got ahead of both of us a little. Congratulations on DC, that was impressive.” Settling into the seat opposite me.

I swallow back my first thought of denying it, and actually spend a moment considering the answer to that, while I sip my coffee. “It is a coup, yes. One I didn’t consciously plan, one set into motion by unexpected travel and unplanned delays. One where I faced and fought a creature probably set on me by an enemy, and what happened in DC was just a side effect. And yet…”

“And yet, you managed to fully influence pretty much the entirety of the federal government, civilian and military, and all their aides and lobbyists too. Cutting perhaps months off the time it would take for them to reach that state unaided. You may have done more at a single stroke for feminism and the cause of equality than anyone in history, with that one ‘side effect’.”

I nod. “I am reminded to be humble, and that I am not the only one that plans.”

“I didn’t know you were religious.” A slight arched eyebrow.

“I’m not, really. Kinda Taoist, I think? But it’s more empirical than mystical. I have experience of me and the Tao moving together. This being a particularly glaring example.”

“And so our meeting today might be fated?” She looks amused at the idea.

“Might be part of any number of deeply laid plans, but I’ve found it best to let that stuff handle itself. So, why don’t you tell me what you wanted to see me about?”

She nods. “I want you to meet and talk to my son, Fino. Or rather, I say son, but I honestly believe I have a daughter, she’s just deep in denial about it. And resistant to my attempts to help. I’ve had to step back and take a light touch, but I’m worried.”

Hmm, interesting. “Why me? Because you used a powerful favour to get my attention, and I’m completely unqualified as a therapist.”

She laughs. “Undone at the first hurdle. Yes, I need something only you can do. I’d like you to fully influence her. Break through her denial.”

“That’s ‘break through’ in the sense of hurling her face first into it”, I say. “I won’t do that to anyone against their will, or without their knowledge. What happened yesterday was an accident, and not one I plan to repeat. In both DC and the school, there are reports of people having to be hospitalised with mental breaks.”

A frown. She sighs. “I can accept that as a principle. But how about if you offer, and she accepts voluntarily?”

“Then I would be willing. Still, I’m curious why you think that would be a good idea, rather than wait for ambient influence to lead her to the same place, over a longer time?”

“It’s the longer time that worries me. I fear the slow drip, drip will drive her deeper into denial and distress before it finally forces her to face herself. Considering she shares the genetics of two powerful beings, it would be very easy for her to burn out when she manifests, if her emotions run wild.”

I wince. I’ve been there. “If a burnout happens, call me immediately, I might be able to save her with a trick I’ve already used on myself. But yes, I understand that reasoning. Alright, I’ll meet her, and explain, and I’ll make the offer. When can we do that?”

“I can take you to meet her immediately, if you’re free?”

“I am.”

The roads are pretty crowded as Sara and I make our way towards the center of town, although according to the driver, it’s the weekend low. From a distance, it looks like any movie city skyline - gleaming skyscrapers one-upping each other, although in this case with the famous space needle jutting out above them. To life sense, it’s a bit overwhelming. So many people. And a lot of other life too, out of sight but busy about its business. As I am now, I can’t help feeling like I’m in the middle of an enormous ant-nest, except the ants are people and they build with glass.

The Knights HQ is not an exception. It gleams. It practically oozes technological future, in a way that feels a little amusing to me. For all that though, the one who steps out to meet us looks like something out of a fantasy movie. He’s barely more than half my height, although with a head that seems like someone added an extra six inches of brain. Bearded, with a staff and a robe with stars. I guess if you’ve got a theme, work it. “Good morning, I am Tome. Miss Waite, I recognise.”

“And this is Jules, no surname, codename Parallel”, Sara says. “My partner in this project.”

He nods. “Very good, then. Please come in, ladies.”

The fact that the glass door opens with a near perfect Star Trek swoosh is probably not an accident.

I’m in the little kitchenette attached to the training room in Doyle, sipping machine coffee. Not quite up to Seattle standards, but it’s warm and caffeinated. So far I’ve proved I do still know CPR, and it’s a lot less work if you’re an exemplar. I also got to show Doc Tenent how much control I had of her heart, and she advised me what would be safe to try. Destroying a clot would be good, for example, but cutting it loose would be bad. Never know where it might lodge next.

“Miss Parallel?” Someone I don’t know, a man in a doctor’s coat.

“That’s me.”

“Could you spare a copy body? I know you’re busy in this class, but I have somebody who’d like to meet you.”

I make the copy. “Sure, lead on.”

A short journey through medical corridors later, I’m shown into a room where a woman is waiting in a wheelchair. I recognise her, she’s the Palm drone I healed. She looks up, but doesn’t seem to recognise me - oh yeah, I was in a Paige body. So I make one, and her eyes light up. “You, you save me!”

I grin, and say from the Paige body, “I did, but I was only borrowing this body” and then from my original, “this is what I normally look like.”

“Many body, one person. I see how you make trick.” She smiles. “Thank you. Was bad time. Pain a lot. Memory stolen, body stolen. Stuck inside. You free me. Thank you.”

I can’t help but cry a little. “I’m glad I could. I hope I can save all the others, too.”

The doctor hands me a tissue per body, and says, “We, the medical staff here, were hoping you’d feel that way. We’ve been looking into what could be done with the others, but we haven’t been able to find a solution as elegant as yours. We have people who can teleport the devices out, but doing so from inside the body without implosion injury is hard. Others can heal, but regrowing a correctly wired brain in situ, fast enough to reconnect everything is, again, hard.”

“You want me to do the same thing I did, for all of them?”

“If you could.”

“I’ll have to clear it with the Head first, but I have no objection.”

The big meeting room at Knights HQ is large, arranged in tiered steps around a central pit, and quite full. I count five adults including our guide, five younger people, and what looks like an octopus in an encounter suit. Not kidding.

Tome says, “Miss Waite, Miss Parallel, meet the Seattle Knights, and also the Seattle Squires, our associated youth team, who may be working with us.”

I bow.

He continues, “Perhaps you can each introduce yourself with some words about what you do? We’ll go around, beginning with me. I’m Tome, I’m a wizard and a package deal psychic, and a member of the Knights. I mostly advise the team rather than participate in combat.”

The next person picks up, “I am Oxana, although my code name is Chyna Syndrome. I am devisor and telekinetic. I can fly. As name suggests, I am good with radiation.” She’s built like a wrestler, has bright green hair and a Russian accent.

“You can call me Curly. I’m a long range weapons specialist, or to put it less gently, a sniper.” He’s nearly as short as Tome, and very dark skinned.

“Mule, power suit jockey. I’m the close combat specialist.” He has visible scars, and his greying hair is buzzed military short.

A short burst of what sounds like wind rustling tree leaves, and the mechanical voice of the encounter suit says, “I am Fred. I am a Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. We are rare. I am a weapons devisor.”

The last of the adults says, “Tooth. Tracker.” He’s wearing buckskins, but I’m not sure of his ethnicity. Life sense picks him out as extremely old.

“Gladius, I’m in the Squires. I make a sword, shield and armour that I can use, and I’m exceptionally fast and strong.” Big guy, brown hair.

“Minerva, PDP, and I can accelerate healing.” Tall and brunette, wears glasses.

“El Fuego, speedster and pyrokinetic, as well as vehicle mechanic, at your service, ladies.”

“Gigas, I am just big and strong.” And also Italian, by the looks.

“And I’m Ratchet. Devisor and tinker.” She blows a gum bubble.

Tome picks up, “And now we are introduced, on to the business of the day. This was originally planned as a get to know you meeting, but now, I am informed our plans have been moved up?”

Sara nods. “Thank you, everyone. Yes. We had originally meant to open the portal on February the first, to coincide with the opening of the conference, and as a surprise to the world. But owing to events in far away places, it seems surprise is no longer on the table. So instead, I believe we should open the portal today, and get the shock and awe over with. Can you bring up the layout visualisation?”

Tome nods, and the center of the room fills with a holographic map of the currently unremarkable patch of road to nowhere that will be the conference entrance. I watch while Sara adds in the description of the portal itself over the end of the road, with its towering iron tusks.

But I’m distracted by a change in what my other body is feeling. The jeep thing, which until now had been rolling on smooth roads, has begun bumping its way along a much rougher track. I think we’re arriving.

Part one hundred and forty seven

21st January, 2007, the north of Georgia, late morning

I’ve finished copying the cyberpath edits into this body, which means I can feel the buzz of data and electricity as much as the crowding of lives, as we approach what feels like some sort of paramilitary camp. We’re in Georgia, but only barely, we’ve made our way into the tippy-toe of the Appalachian range. Life sense tells me we’re surrounded by forest, rather than fields. Where we’re at, here, is right off all the official maps. But that doesn’t mean I couldn’t give a grid reference if someone were to, perhaps, have a plan to come rescue me or something? Yes, I know I’m going to be fine, but a scary situation can’t help but be scary. I’ll update Mr Reilly, for all it helps.

Somehow, it’s reassuring to feel the ancient solidity of the mountain range around and underneath me.

The road goes smooth again as we pass inside the perimeter fence. We rumble on for a while, before (finally!) coming to a stop in front of what feels like a heavily reinforced building. Presumably the jail. Of course I’ve been recording coordinates the whole way, so the notion of locking me anywhere is silly. But let’s play along.

One of the geniuses puts a hood on me, and then I’m told to get out. About the only thing that stops me seeing is the view, as I’m shoved inside. Do these guys have something against forests? They push me into a bare room, and close the door. Did anybody offer me a bathroom break or a bottle of water? Did they heck. Thankfully I shut down my digestion a few hours ago, and I’ve figured out that if I destroy very small amounts of urine in my bladder, I can avoid creating cavitation (which otherwise stings). Create new water in my bloodstream, and Jules is your self-contained auntie. And so I settle down in lotus and chill.

Meanwhile, might as well fuck with them a little. A copy body 500 meters vertically up lets me get the lie of the land. We’re in a flat bit in a valley bottom, and surrounded for miles around by trees, a mix of evergreen and bare. Even in the winter, it’s not terribly cold, this far south (it’s colder inside, I think the jerks are deliberately running the AC). Vanish that body and put another on the roof, wave hi to the open mouthed guy with the machine gun nest, and take a long leap over to the neighbouring building. Oh hey, some minions clumping around in power armour. A short teleport takes me in font of them. “Hi, you guys busy? Only I just recently got kidnapped…”

I’m snickering and dodging bullets (with small gravitational nudges to make sure they go nowhere near me) and some sort of raid siren is going off, as someone finally bothers to come visit the room where I’ve been chilling all the while. The hood is snatched off my head. Old guy in a lab coat, plus more of the ubiquitous goons with guns.

“Will you stop pointing those useless things at me?” I decide to take the initiative. “So far I don’t think much of the accommodations.”

The older guy sighs, and motions the minions to back off, which they reluctantly do. “Very well, but will you… please.. stop running around this facility stirring up the security personnel?”

“Right now, honestly, I don’t feel inclined. Perhaps we ought to have a conversation first about what I’m even doing here?”

“You are here because you are curious, of course.” Good guess by the old guy. “I brought you here because I wished to speak with you. And the kidnapping was regrettably necessary to get you here. I am Doctor Emil Hammond. I hope we can move past the unpleasant beginning of our relationship, and have a conversation like civilised people?”

Oh hey, I know that name, from Ayla’s story. Guess he’s nicer when he doesn’t have his victim strapped to a lab table.

I lift up my handcuffs. I think it should be obvious to him by now how pointless they are. And indeed, he takes the heavy hint, and motions a minion to unlock them.

I smile, and let my teeth show sharp a bit. “Alright, now I could do with a bathroom break, a nice coffee, and we shall see about the conversation after that. But that has earned you a ceasefire on the pranking.”

After a moment’s smirk I add, “A conditional one, obviously.”

Sara (in her copy body), Paige and I have been having fun canoodling on her bed. Accompanied by snickers as the two of them watch me pranking the compound.

“Hammond, huh”, Paige says. “I wonder what he wants? Inviting you into his base pretty much amounts to sacrificing it. I’m sure he knows that.”

“Given all the electronics in the walls, maybe he thinks he’s investigating me?”

“Your range sucks”, Paige teases me. “Sneaky cyberpath is all very well, but it’s not much use if you can’t even reach their office PC.”

“He’ll probably lead me right past one if I give him enough rope.”

Sara smiles. “Let’s hope so. Alright, up, lazyboneses, and put slightly more clothes on. They’re going to be starting the Pride show, and I want to be there to see it.”

“Me too”, I agree. “But I wish they’d let us turn up naked. Makes for better snuggling.”

“Take it up with the Head”, Paige says, putting out a pretty blue tongue. “I should get even more right to do it, I have fur.”

“Mhm, very lovely fur”, Sara says. “But still, up, shoo.” She grins. “I think this is going to be fun.”

It’s good to see the happy tone of the crowd that has gathered around Laird, no sign of the ‘committee to restore normality’ nonsense from earlier in the week. Several people have big Pride flags that they’re wearing as capes, and I wonder how they got them for a moment, before I spot the boxes and their ‘free flags, get one here’ sign. Plus a small box for stick on cape clasps. I grab a trans flag, Paige picks out an intersex one, and Sara goes for the bi. We stick on our clasps, and voila, capes. Edna Mode would be so disappointed.

The big training hall where they’re doing the shows is crowded and noisy, with a currently empty catwalk down the middle. And, I notice, full clothes racks off to the side near the changing room entrances.

Someone’s walking onto the catwalk. I recognise Vox, from Poe, rocking a bi flag cape. “Alright people, hush. Quiet, please.” It doesn’t sound like she’s talking loudly, but everyone hears her clearly, and the room quiets. “Welcome to the first ever Whateley Pride fashion show and extravaganza. On this stage we’ll be seeing the school’s fashion club showing off their looks, we’ll also be letting you come up here and show off your own looks, so if you want to do that, join the line over there. To help with that, we’ve brought in various clothes you can borrow, in the racks over there - and return please, at the end of the day. I have to warn you that some of them were contributed by Jericho, so fair warning, if you make the room vomit, you’ll be the one pushing the mop. With that in mind though, let the party begin, and let’s all have fun!”

There’s a little nudge of mind control in that last command, but honestly, it feels like everyone wants to have fun anyhow. Music starts up - Britney’s ‘Toxic’ - and the show gets going. First down the catwalk is, unexpectedly, Vamp, in a very nice close fitting red suit with flared sleeves, black silk vest, and wide black hat. She vamps it up admirably, strutting and posing, playing the villain with disdainful looks, breaking character to give us a grin and a wave, before strutting back down the other side. We make our way over to meet her, and she runs up and throws herself at me for a hug.

I say, “Hey there cutie, looking hot.”

“Oh my god this is so fun and did you know they let me in Venus Inc? And I’m going to study fashion like, officially” She takes a breath. “Anyhow, it’s awesome!”

I grin and kiss her.

As we drive, Miss Valocco says to me, “I hope you understand, I’m trusting you a lot, by taking you to my house like this. I’m a wanted woman, and if the location leaks out, lives could be lost.” I figure she doesn’t mean hers.

I nod. “I don’t really buy into the whole heroes and villains shtick. If you aren’t actively being harmful, your secrets are yours, not mine.”

She smiles. “Yes, I was told that. I’m glad to hear it confirmed.”

The suburban house we draw up to looks unremarkable on the outside. Large, but in a street of large houses. Like the very ordinary Accord she drives, I figure it’s camouflage. She bips the garage door, and we roll in. Then she waits until the garage door has shut all the way before relaxing a little and getting out. We head in through the interior door, and she yells though, “Fino, I brought a visitor!”, and then motions me in. “Welcome to our home.”

It is, unsurprisingly, nicer on the inside. That said, everything looks rather new and un-lived-in. I wonder if the family moved to Seattle for the conference? The door we came in leads into the kitchen, and a few moments later a boy in his mid teens peeks in. I’m no judge of male beauty, but I’d say he was a little plain. He gives me an appraising glance.

Miss Valocco leads the introductions, “Fino, this is Jules. Jules, this is Fino, my son.”

I bow. “Pleasure to meet you.”

He smiles, but there’s a tension in it. “Pleasure to meet you too. Would you like anything? Juice, coffee, beer?”

I had coffee just earlier, so I say, “Juice would be lovely.”

As he’s fetching that, Miss Valocco says, “I’ll leave you young people to get to know each other.” And at a pointed look from Fino, she says “Don’t worry dear, I’m not throwing her at you.”

When she’s gone, Fino sighs, as he hands me a glass of juice. “Sorry. Mom has a tendency to try and matchmake, and she can be a bit crude about it.”

“If it helps you relax, I’m a lesbian”, I grin.

That gets a raised eyebrow. “You and mom?”

I manage to put down my drink before I spill it giggling. “Sorry to ruin your fantasies, but no. As of right now, I’m not dating adults. Also, hot as she is, we only just met.”

“That doesn’t generally stop people”, he says ruefully, but I think he’s warming to me a bit. “So, if it’s alright to ask, why are you here?”

“Well, your mom didn’t tell the complete truth. She is throwing me at you, just not as a date. If I can digress to help the explanation, have you been following the news?”

“Yeah. Fucked up situation.”

“Then you’ll have probably noticed they pulled the name ‘Miss Parallel’ off the radio show recording?” He nods. “Miss Parallel is me.”

“Weren’t you in DC?” I can see him calculating up the distances - it might take me quite some time to fly right across the country if I had to take planes.

“I still am” I make a second body. “Multiple independent bodies, many independent selves, one me.” Vanish it again. “One of me is currently in DC, this body is here.”

“How many of you are there?”

“Depends how you count. Bodies, currently seven. Selves, one billion, one thousand and six, but it fluctuates fast, and most of them are just background threads. Identities, one. All of me are me.”

For a moment, he’s looking at me like I grew six extra heads. Which I suppose I did, in a manner of speaking.

Part one hundred and forty eight

“Okay so, assuming you’re telling the truth, why is mom throwing the famous Miss Parallel at me?” Fino thinks for a moment. “Influence. She wants you to influence me.”

“She wanted me to, and I said no”, I say. “I don’t do that to people without their consent.”

“Unlike DC.”

“Unlike, yes. That was an accidental spill-over when I used a lot of power in one of my bodies. If I knew it was going to happen, I could have vanished the other bodies, but I didn’t know. I might like the result, but that wouldn’t make doing it deliberately an ethical thing.”

He sighs. “You have way more conscience then mom. So why does she wanna get me influenced?”

“She thinks you’re in denial about stuff.”

“The trans thing?” Fino sees my nod and looks disgusted. “Seriously. Look at my face. Is there any way that could pass as a girl, with lipstick and a haircut? My denial keeps me safe.”

“Little secret, I used to have the same problem. I actually did come out and transition, and I didn’t pass, because sometimes you’ve just gotta do what you’ve gotta do. But then I manifested, and I got the exemplar package.” I wave my hand at the looks I have now. “Not complaining about the result.”

“Don’t get me wrong here, but you look a little spooky for an exemplar. They’re usually, yanno, miss white bread with the boobs. Or studly Joe with muscles on his muscles.”

That makes me giggle, because I know the type. “Yeah. Well it fit itself to my ideal, and I was never one for convention. And I made some after-market customisations.” I grin and flash my photophores in pretty patterns. “Upside of being a life sorcerer, I can tinker with things.”

Fino nods thoughtfully. “I suppose that most folks just have kinda boring ideals.”

“Cut them some slack, they’re teens, and if they’re cis they don’t generally shift gender, so they’re dealing with the values that have been pounded into them by school and TV since they were babies. If they never thought about it too hard, what choice did they have?”

A pause. “And if they’re trans, they shift?”

“You get your ideal body. I’m guessing, yours isn’t to be studly Joe?”

Fino shudders. “You’d be right. God, I can’t imagine how weird that would be. But then we’re assuming I even will manifest. Right now, I’m just a squib.”

“If you want, I can scan your genetics and see?”

“How?”

“Just hold your hand. It’s life sorcery, so I don’t need to beam any radiations at you or jab you with needles, but you do need to let me through your magical defences. If it helps, I’d bet your mom is snooping this conversation and would totally jump me if I tried to do you harm.”

A laugh, “You’ve got her measure. Alright.”

I take Fino’s hand, and extend my life sense. I can feel some quite powerful wards reluctantly letting me through. Genetic information blossoms. “Oho. Yes, you are one, and you’ll probably have exemplar trait, as well as wizard and psi.” But that’s not all… I know that genetic pattern. Well well well. Secrets are secrets, but I feel a certain somebody and I are going to have a little talk about this. Later, obviously. Meanwhile, “You’re definitely not a squib. Given how finely balanced it is, I suspect if I do influence you, you’ll manifest. Otherwise it would trip off after some random thing or another, life is full of emotionally intense moments.”

“So what you’re saying is, either now, under controlled conditions, or later, when my life is in the middle of going to shit in one way or another? Because it does do that every so often, downside of having a villain for a mom.”

“Well, it might pop off on an extra happy occasion, but yeah, that seems like the way to bet.”

“And what else would being influenced get me?”

“It’ll make you not care about pointless taboos…”

Fino cuts over me, “Ha! I bet that’s mom’s secret plan. Get you to make me into a slut like her.”

Seems like a plausible guess. “Well, do you want to be?”

“Like I’ve ever had a chance to know.” Fino sighs. “Mom’s overbearing, you’ve probably already run into that. I’ve had to cut out a little space to be me, and one of the ways I’ve done it is by not jumping the bones of every chick she tosses my way.”

“Upside of being influenced is you’ll know what’s you, I think. Anything that isn’t, will just stop mattering. Several of my friends are slutty, I am, but that’s just us being ourselves. Other friends are asexual, and even if they aren’t fully influenced, the amount they’ve already picked up from just being around me has only made that stronger.” I think of Nikki, “Others are sexual but picky as to who. But the point is, they’re your limits and your desires, you don’t get stamped into a mould. It just blows away some of the dumber excuses not to do as you please.”

“Okay so, suppose you do that and I manifest and shift, will I be in bed for like, a month?”

“With your permission, I can probably speed-walk you through that. I can block pain, but it may be uncomfortable.” A thought. “Hmm, and I can give you regen trait. It’s not in your genetics, but I can copy it in from mine. Sounds like you’ll need it. I’ve done that before, for what it’s worth, so you wouldn’t be experimental.”

“Alright, do it.”

“In your room and on your bed, in case you thrash around. And naked, because I worry about your clothes constricting. Don’t worry, still a lesbian.”

A smirk. “And what if I change into a smoking hot chica?”

“Then I’ll get an eyeful, won’t I?” I grin, then pitch my voice louder. “Miss Valocco, can you come monitor?”

Over in DC, I’m dressed up in a fresh school uniform, Mr Reilly has helped me make everything look good enough to pass an inspection, and I’ve been drilled on protocol. Seems like the idea is that this is going to be an ‘informal, diplomatic’ lunch, and obviously, secret, so the level of pomp and circumstance will be low. But still, it’s the President, and I’m representing the human-friendly GOOs, so I can’t afford to be sloppy.

We’ve been on the phone to the cops in Georgia, but sadly, it’s one of the states that’s not taking federal orders, and the locals aren’t willing to send the cavalry to rescue ‘one mutant, who isn’t even in danger’. Assholes. So I guess I’m on my own. Mr Reilly is good at giving comforting hugs, which helps a little.

We head down to the parking level. The plan is to ride out to someplace covered with me invisible, and then pick up a limo from there. Hopefully the switcheroo will hide my connection to DARPA, in case someone is quick off the mark with a camera.

And in Seattle, the Knights are arguing over the advisability, and logistics, of opening the Big Portal early. Lots of personnel this, and permits that. I must have looked desperately bored, as Minerva offers a rescue. “Would you like to come over and see our Squires base? It’s not as fancy as this but…”

“Fewer old people, and dull but earnest topics of conversation?”

She giggles. “Something like that.”

“Count me in.”

Turns out Minerva drives. She and Gladius are coming with me. “Now we’re out of there, I’m Claire, he’s Max”, she says. “We’re actually family, brother and sister.”

“I’m Jules”, I say. “No surname because I lost my memory when I manifested.”

“You haven’t picked a new one?”, Max asks.

“I’ve gotten used to it. People tend to use my codename like it was a surname anyhow.”

“You’re going to find it hard to go incognito with that codename, after yesterday’s news”, Claire points out.

“I kind of don’t plan to”, I say.

The two look at each other. “An ‘always on’ life”, Max says. “Works for some, but you do realise you’re liable to get shot at?”

“Probably not an issue for me, for several reasons. I can sense bullets, block or redirect them, I’m regen six, and killing one of my bodies does me no harm.”

They’re quiet, contemplating that, as we enter an industrial area, and swing around the back of a dusty-looking office block labelled ‘ABC Strategic Consulting’. In back, there’s a loading dock and a garage. We head into the garage, which opens on its own, and then as soon as the door shuts, the fake wall in front of us lifts like a second door, and we roll into an open workspace.

Claire says, “Welcome to the Squires’ hideout. Unlike the Knights, we prefer to keep a low profile, and we haven’t go money to burn, but the place is still pretty well stocked. This level is a workspace for the tinkerers, and the gym. Above that, is our working area and medical wing, and above that, emergency dorms, for late nights or getting an early nap ahead of night ops.”

“And occasionally for sleeping off too much celebration, but I didn’t say that” Max sounds amused.

“And I didn’t hear it”, Claire says with a look of wry amusement. “Apologies, but I need to go and check up on our… associate, who is presently in a coma in the medical wing, so I’ll leave you with Max for a few minutes.”

“If you want, I could come along”, I offer. “I’m not yet medically qualified, but my life sorcery lets me scan into a living body and find any issues, and with permission, fix them.”

She looks at me thoughtfully. “You touch nothing, and do nothing to her, unless you’ve cleared it with me in explicit detail first. And you scrub up before going in, same way I do.”

“I can do that”, I say.

Claire nods. “Then I’ll permit it. But please be aware that you’ll be seeing her civilian identity unmasked.”

“I don’t tattle tales.”

“Then follow me.”

The woman in the medical bed is short, noticeably buxom, with foxy red hair that ends in lighter tips - and fox ears, and two tails. She’s wearing a medical gown and diaper, and is breathing on her own. The tube in her nose is presumably for food.

Claire checks her over for a few minutes, and then says, “Alright, why don’t you show me what you can do?”

“If you’d like to ride along, get a chair that can support your weight, and I can do that.”

She looks thoughtful, then wheels in a high backed office chair from the neighbouring room. “Will this do?”

I nod. “Okay, sit down, I’ll take your hand, and in we go.”

As my life sense reaches into the girl, I get a sense if sudden panic and worry, but not from her. From a spirit riding in her? A defensive angry feeling, like being hissed at by a cornered animal. I pause, and send calming thoughts towards it. “I won’t harm her, I’m just looking, I want to check and heal her.” There’s indecision in the spirit, it’s busy, it wants to drive me off, but it can’t spare the energy from what it’s doing, which seems to be micro-managing the girl’s healing.

Gradually I get a feeling between exhausted resignation and worried vigilance, but the hissing anger has subsided. And the girl’s body blooms into view. I’m filtering that down for Claire, but I sense fascination from her as my scan moves through the girl. I can see the marks of healed wounds. And, interestingly, of bodily change. Backtracking the signs, I figure she must have changed gender. Still is doing, by infinitesimal increments. But the good news is she’s not only nearly healed, she’s going to be waking up in the next day or two.

Pulling the two of us out of the scan, I grin. “Looks like I’ll get to meet her too, in person, and soon.”

Part one hundred and forty nine

“So I’m a slut, am I?” Miss Valocco sounds amused, as she joins us on our way up to Fino’s room.

Fino nearly misses a step, catches the banister. “Mom, I’m really sorry. I didn’t think. I don’t know why I used that word.”

“I have a guess”, I say.

Miss Valocco looks up the stairs at me. “I’m interested to hear this.”

“Did it, for a moment, feel neutral to you? Like in the way a gourmand is somebody who likes to eat, but the word isn’t rude?”

“For a moment, when I wasn’t thinking, yeah.”

“Influence”, I say. “Even though I haven’t done anything to either of you personally, yet, you’ve both still been drifting along at the same rate as everyone else. If you asked any of my friends back at school whether slut was an insult, they’d tell you no, it was neutral, or in some cases high praise.”

“And they have been much more influenced than the two of us, yes I see”, Miss Valocco sounds interested. “Fino, I am not insulted. I already think like Jules’s friends. In fact, one reason why I asked for her help is I worry about this half-way state. Here you are, thinking one way and then worrying the other. It is a recipe for tripping over your own feet.”

A pause, then, “I understand, mom.”

We continue upstairs.

Claire, Max and I are sat in comfy chairs around a table that’s currently projecting an inches-high hologram of the city.

“So she has a spirit?” Max sounds curious.

Claire looks daggers at him for a moment, then sighs. “Yes, she has. And I think we should level with Jules. This conversation is going to be too awkward, otherwise. She saw a lot, and probably more than she let me see.”

I say, "Not out of deception, I just get more detail than a human could handle. Genetics and its interpretation. Every separate cell’s functioning. Chi meridians reaching through the body. For example, I could see that her mutant gene was an implant, but reshaped, I think by the spirit.

Claire winces at that. Max nods. “It seems like it will be impossible to hide our secret from you, but I need to ask you to promise to keep it quiet. Miss Waite, I think, can know. The Squires already do, Tome does. But no further.”

“Unless it’s something awful or harmful, then I promise.”

That gets a dry chuckle out of Claire. “It’s not. No, that girl was our adoptive father. She was injured, and what you see is the result of about a month of regenerative healing. We haven’t decided on a cover story when she wakes up, but she’ll need one. All of her children are mutants, and not publicly out. And manifestation as a middle aged adult is unheard of.”

“She didn’t manifest”, I say. “It looks like she was implanted with a gene that wasn’t originally hers, and it probably would have just killed her, but she also picked up that spirit, and it wrenched that implant around to serving her, while it was also changing her body. Um, it feels like there already were some of the building blocks in place, that’s an odd thing. But I’m too new at this to say more than that.”

Max nods. “That fits what we saw, looking in from outside, but if you meet Anna, please don’t tell her. She was the donor, and she has enough guilt as it is.”

“Of course”, I agree… but then I notice something out of place. “Um, I’m picking up someone else approaching this room, there shouldn’t be anybody else here?”

The two look at each other. “There shouldn’t”, Max agrees, standing. Instantly he has a sort of blue-glowing hard light sword and shield in hand.

The door crashes open. Unexpectedly, it’s the girl from earlier, trailing tubes and dragging a drip stand along the floor.

“Connor?” Claire asks.

“He is not here”, the girl says. “My name is Siona. And that, which you are talking to, is not a human. You would do well to point your sword at her, not me. You are both in terrible danger.”

Hammond has been obedient so far - at least, he had some goons escort me to the bathroom, then I got to sit down in a nicely furnished room while a coffee percolator burbled (no poison, according to my scans). Oddly enough, still no computers in range. And now I’m sipping my coffee, he takes a seat opposite me. “So, I wanted to explain to you my plans, and why you’ve been taking the wrong side in all this.”

I don’t think he’s going to persuade me, but it can’t hurt to listen. “Sure, go ahead.”

“People mischaracterise me as anti-mutant. But in fact what I’m against is uncontrolled, unconstrained mutation, the kind that can make innocent people into bloodthirsty cannibal creatures, and arm criminals with the means to commit their crimes. I study mutation with the aim of controlling it.”

So far his life aura reads earnest, but deceptive. Like he’s telling the truth but means to manipulate me. Still, I’ll follow the rabbit hole. “You are thinking of a world where you get to choose the mutation, and the person?”

“Where the government does, and it is not sprung on families who thought their child was normal, and children who just wanted a human life.”

“I’ve met a lot of mutants by now, and I’d say the ratio skews heavily to good mutations, that any child would want.”

“It is survivorship bias. You have not met the bad ones, because they rampage, and they are dealt with. But I should also take issue with your characterisation of some mutations as good. They would be good in the hands of responsible adults. In the hands of volatile children, often they are misused. And manifestation universally strikes in childhood, before the higher functions of the brain are fully formed.”

“And your idea of a better world is one where mutation is in the hands of government to give out like candy to super-soldiers and super-cops, while the public is prevented from having any counterbalancing force?”

“That counterbalancing force is destabilising and anarchic”, a hint of anger there. “As often they prevent the authorities from doing their jobs, as help.”

“Stability is overrated”, I counter. “Life is always moving, living polities are always responsive, shaped more than anything by a shared dream. A polity that tries to hold itself together by force becomes a dead thing, lurching to central command, but with the lives of its citizens stifled. And, if I can pull the conversation back to an earlier point, you said you study mutation, you didn’t say the mutants you study agreed to be part of your work.”

“Some are reluctant, but…”

“I have a friend by the name of Ayla. But you may know him better as Trevor Goodkind. He was reluctant, yes. Which you did not care about, instead you were casually sadistic, torturing him because you could. I think you study mutation but with the intent to take it for yourself, that your talk of giving it to government is so much authoritarian waffle, and I think you give no fucks about the innocent children you hurt in your studies.”

Anger and guilt and hatred in his life aura. “I see you have been poisoned against me.”

“Might have thought of that consequence while you were drilling holes in him.”

“My only mistake was not to dispose of the garbage, but softer heads prevailed.” He sighs. “And since I see we must be enemies, I’ll reveal to you the purpose of this facility. It exists solely for the disposal of troublesome mutants. The guards here do not know the details, and they were chosen for incurious minds. For them, it is enough to know that mutants go in, and they do not come out. But I will show you how it is done. This is a recording. Yes, I have paid attention to your capabilities.”

The device looks like a tablet, and a moment’s scan with cyberpath abilities tells me it’s not online. He brings up a video on it. A girl in a hospital gown, flying along down a dark passage. She stops, as if in shock, and turns to retreat, but something moving with the flicker-speed of a frog’s tongue lashes out and grabs her. And the tongue-owner hoves into view. Oval, white, bulbous but flattened. Like a nudibranch perhaps, but massively larger, and borne on hundreds of constantly moving tube feet like a starfish. It reels her in, and there’s evidently a conversation. There’s no sound, and the picture quality isn’t great, but I think she was saying “I don’t want to die”. And then the thing extends a tentacle, and thrusts it down her throat, while she struggles and chokes, and a bulge moves up it, and into her. She convulses, and slumps in its grasp. And the video ends.

“She is still alive, down there, right now. You see, we made an alliance with one of your kind. It is content to help with our little problem, in return for living hosts for its brood. If you want to save her, you will do what I say.”

Fino’s laying down naked on the bed, Miss Valocco has pulled up a chair beside it. “I’d like you to do the both of us together. No more miscommunications between me and my child.”

“Alright”, I say. “But both of you need to be ready for anything you’re in denial about to come up suddenly, and you will have to face it, you won’t be able to sweep it under the rug any more. And Fino, if I don’t miss my guess, you’ll start manifesting immediately. I’ll help you through it, but by the time it’s done, you’re likely to be completely weak and starving hungry.”

“I can live with that, mom is a good cook”, Fino says, “just get it over with already before I get the jitters.”

“Okay, here we go.” And big me slides forward, grabs them both, and pulls.

No immediate outward sign, but then Fino is gasping - life scan shows her channels are rushing with power, and I widen them a little, then as her mutant gene switches on, I copy in the regen trait and nudge it with a flick of sorcery. Instantly her body starts shifting. Breath by breath, she’s becoming more and more a beautiful girl, by the looks a strong exemplar. Sweat is running off her as the regen takes care of the final touches, extending her hair out so it pools around her head on the pillow. And then it’s over.

“How do I look, mom?” Her voice is croaky, but feminine.

“My beautiful daughter.” Miss Valocco reaches down to stroke her head. “You look wonderful, but you also look like you could use a shower. Seraphina.”

That brings a chuckle from the girl. “Had the new name ready to go, huh. Well I’m sorry, but I can barely move a muscle, so if you want me in the shower, you’re going to have to carry me.”

“That can be arranged.” As she picks Fina up, there are tears running down her face.

“What’s wrong?” Fina asks.

“It’s just, I was remembering my husband, your father, dear. I was wishing I could show him his wonderful new daughter.”

A flicker of sped-up consultation with Sara, and the feeling of a nod from her. I say, “When you’re done showering, I may have some news for you about that.”

“Oh?” Miss Valocco, senior, looks to me with curiosity. “I have heard stories of your raising people from the dead. But I do not feel that would be the proper thing to do for him, even if it were possible. His life was as troubled as it was brilliant.”

I shake my head. “It’s simpler, and much more complicated than that.”

Part one hundred and fifty

“The kind of being I am is called a Great Old One”, I tell Siona. “You are right to be cautious of us, most of us are harmful. Some are various shades of neutral. And there are just three that I know of that are genuinely benevolent. Myself. Sara Waite, called the Kellith. And Gothmog, her father”, turning to the other two, “whose realm we plan to open a portal to, for the conference.”

Max says, “Both of you…?”

I nod. “Both of us. Although Sara was living as a human as recently as last September, and I was completely human a month ago.”

Siona hisses. “I should drive you from this place! Evil thing!” And she produces a very bright blue ball of fox fire over her hand. It’s lucky my eyes have good dynamic range, although oddly enough the humans don’t seem affected. Special anti-GOO fire? Life sense is showing a systemic drain on comatose Connor.

“Put the fire away, you’re overstraining the body”, I say. “Sit down, let Claire take the medical stuff out, and we’ll talk. I’ll explain what I am and what I want. And you can decide if I’m evil with a bit more evidence.”

“Why are you listening to her?” The spirit sounds anguished.

“Because she has a point”, Claire says. “If you mean Connor well, sit down. I have no idea how much damage you’ve done, dragging around a drip by the needle like that. Do you have no sense of pain?”

“Pain is temporary and damage can be repaired.” Siona sighs. “But you are not going to listen if I don’t comply, are you?”

“Who could, seeing their father used so carelessly?” Claire’s reply is cutting. “Sit.”

Siona sits. I resist the temptation to say “good girl.” Barely. Claire carefully takes out the IV needle, although she leaves the food tube in place.

And then it’s my turn. I explain to the three of them how I arrived at Whateley in an uncontrolled teleport after manifesting, my first burnout and transformation, my meeting with Sara, falling for her, my wish to be an ambassador between our kinds, her decision to spark me, and my consent. I describe learning life sorcery, and understanding the terrible gap in the laws. And I describe hatching, and remaking myself into a new life law to heal that gap. “This is who and what I am now. I already was that, before, but I bound myself to it. As much as I defined it, I’m defined by it. And so tell me, am I evil?”

“I still don’t trust you”, Siona says. “Every sense screams at me when you’re around.”

“Then I have a suggestion. How about I complete the healing work you were due to finish a week from now, right now? And then you and Connor can follow me around while we’re working on this conference, and see if I do anything nefarious. And if I prove to be good, you can learn the limits of those senses.”

“If we do that, she needs to wake up in her bed”, Claire says. “I’ll take care of that. Max, can you call the others?”

“I can, and I have a call of my own to make. She’ll need a cover identity, and I know who to ask.”

Siona looks between them, and gulps. “All right, I can see your minds are made up, and I can accept that. At least Connor and I can be close to keep an eye. And I will not have my hands full, the next time.”

Yes, I deliberately let her get the last word in.

Fina is laid out on the sofa downstairs, while her mom prepares food, and the delicious smell is making my stomach rumble too. I would be helping, but evidently I’m the guest, and it would be a violation of the laws of hospitality.

“So, you were going to tell me about my husband”, Miss Valocco says.

I think back to what Sara just told me. “To get us on the same page, let’s start with what we both know. Michael Waite was a genius on fire. You and Donna were the moths drawn to his light. The cult of Kellith married you, and the three of you had adventures together. But then after the incident that broke him, it was necessary to wipe his memory. He lived as a solitary recluse, but became famous as a horror writer, before his death.”

“Yes. I still mourn him, and the fact that I couldn’t be with him.”

“This is where the story takes a left turn into what-the-heck. When Michael Waite died, he didn’t stay dead. He hatched. His human form had always been a wrapper for the developing entity within. And when he hatched, he became, physically, a young girl. She adopted her mother’s name, Sara Waite. And later, when her father gave her a memory dump, she recognised herself to be the Kellith.”

There is a pause. Miss Valocco puts the frying pan carefully on the hob and turns the heat down. “I see. And you know of Donna.”

“Donna is my adoptive mother.”

She smiles, and the grin becomes a laugh, and for a few moments, she’s just belly laughing too hard to get a word out. Fina meanwhile, looks like her world just twisted through ninety degrees in at least four axes.

Miss Valocco takes a gasp of air, and gets her laughing under control. “So. I guess if I invite a life power who knows Miss Waite into my place, it will all unravel. Yes, I knew. Donna and I followed his progress before his death, of course. And Donna has been monitoring her closely since she hatched. Your adoptive mother, you say?”

“Yup. And since Sara sparked me, that makes her my mother too, in a manner of speaking.” I grin over at Fina. “Which makes us sisters, kinda sorta.”

Fina just looks at me. “This is a very weird dream and I like looking like this but I think I ought to wake up now.”

“It’s not a dream dear”, her mom says, and turns the heat back up under the pan. “Yes, you are one of the first hybrid children. Please try to keep it quiet. And I think I will enjoy reconnecting with Sara, now that she knows I know.” And she looks at me. “And welcome to the family, dear.”

Over on the other side of the country, we’re enjoying watching the fashions, when Sara suddenly tears up and then starts laugh-crying uncontrollably, hugging onto me for support. Paige, Vamp, and Tansy look to me to explain. But I have to say, “Not my secret to tell.”

“To her room?” Tansy suggests, and the rest of us nod, so we group around Sara and help her out of Laird and towards the tunnels, keeping curious onlookers away.

The limo I’m in has darkened windows, presumably to keep the press at bay. Doesn’t mean I can’t track my progress by g-sense, of course. Interestingly, we just went past the White House, which means the lunch is going to be held elsewhere. And indeed, we head to a larger, more blocky building. Looks kinda modernist by the outline. Google maps has it as ‘the Harry S. Truman building’. Cool. Also conveniently it has an underground garage. No getting photographed stepping out of the limo.

When I do step out of the limo, it’s onto red carpet - doesn’t look like it was put down specially, but this is clearly the diplomats’ entrance. A soldier in a smart uniform is waiting for us, and he leads Mr Reilly and me deeper into the building.

Far away in Doyle, I’m busy learning radioactive decontamination and first aid. Which might actually be useful some day, given my powers.

In Seattle, I’ve jumped a copy over to the Knights’ building, to check on Sara there. Good thing too, because everyone is looking worried at her sudden breakdown. I can at least explain that she’s had an emotional shock via telepathic contact. We’ll be headed back to her cult HQ, for a bit of a family reunion. Oh and before that, while I’m there, I should hand out links…

And in Hammond’s compound, he has led me into a large, plain room with a concrete floor, and a large, very heavy hydraulic door covering what - after it lifts - is revealed to be a hole in the floor.

“What I wish you to do is simple. Go into the hole. The girl is there, and you may attempt to save her.”

“You’re betting on the monster against me, then?”

“And you are betting you can save the hostage, as opposed to simply disappearing and leaving her behind. I assure you that if you do, and return later with an army, you will find this place abandoned. Except perhaps, I will leave her remains for you to find.”

I consider that. “I have a wise teacher, who told me, a hostage is already dead. But I prefer to take life’s side. I’ll risk your bet. And then when I win it, I’ll be back to collect from your hide, so don’t go anywhere.”

“So you say, so they all say”, he says. “It is there, go down.”

There are steps, concrete at first, then cut into stone. The place is unlit, but of course that doesn’t matter to me. As I step down, I can see the heavy door closing above me. Even for most bricks, that would be troublesome to lift. And as I reach the floor, a feeling I half-had solidifies - this place is a realm. Not a full, off-planet realm like the tunnel I drove the thing into, yesterday. But something has claimed this place. A test-poke… yeah, I can’t teleport out. Which Hammond may assume means I’m trapped. I’m obviously not, but, it might be tactically limiting. We’ll see.

Low light eyes active and photophores lit, the place looks almost day-bright as I make my way deeper. Soon I start seeing odd resinous stuff covering the walls. It’s translucent white, feels plasticky, not alive, but secreted by something alive. Where’s Ripley when you need her?

The similarity gets more acute when I find clothes and bones embedded in it a few steps further in. No obvious signs of being burst apart, but then, the movie alien did take the pointlessly hard way out. Old bones, no spirit hanging around them that I can detect. But I guess I can see how Hammond’s little oubliette works, now. And yes, it is making me angry. So many innocent lives lost.

Turning up my life scan, I make my way in quicker. If I can find anyone alive, maybe I can save them. Old bones, I’ll ignore. Those can be exhibits for the prosecution, later.

I find one! A boy. Barely alive. A deeper scan shows lots of organ damage, non fatal but barely, and a thing growing in his abdominal cavity. Sorry, thing. That gets flicked out into the middle of the floor, and replaced with saline, then I grow his organs back. Not going to waste time avoiding tainting this place, so I can be quick about it. And then pull him out of the wall with a short teleport. He gasps, and then vomits, although it’s dry heaves.

“Before you ask, it’s out, it’s there on the floor”, I point to the rapidly expiring amoeba-like blob, although he probably can’t see it. “You’re healed. But we’re still stuck down here and I’ll need your help. I’m Jules.”

“Mike”, he says. “I just wanna get out of here.”

“We can get out when I kill the monster, until then it’s blocking my teleports through the walls”, I say. “I plan to save everyone who’s alive and kill the beastie. I need the rest of you to group up and protect each other.”

“Okay”, he sounds unconvinced, and very scared.