A Darklight Burning Brightly

A Whateley Academy Fan Fic

by

Solus Nova

Part 4

Thinking about things from the benefit of hindsight I'm realizing the thing is I don't know how my story begins, with Mom's long career in supervillainy, or with me and my sister, or when I was attacked?

Well I'll try to hit the high points, my Mom's name was Amanda Cummings aka Darklight, she started off small in the 60's got busted a few times then wised up and started working with others like her. She must have been doing something right because she got a name as a solid player. Soon other villains were trying to recruit her, so she could start being picky about who she worked with and for.

I remember her telling us, well my sister Val really, some of her rules to live by;
'Cash up front it's hard to get the boss to sign paychecks if he's in jail'
'Never work for anyone crazier than you'
'Sleeping with the boss can be fun, and if you do it right you get to learn all the secret escape passages'
'If your orders from the boss bothers your conscience, it means he's not paying you enough'
'While evil wizard types can be good to work for, getting paid in rare, hard to fence items isn't'
'Always keep your escape insurance paid up'
'When the boss says in a fight that he's invincible, run'

I keep mentioning my big sister Val, short for Valerie. Well Val was a big part of my life until she died, in fact Val was my best friend. Growing up with a single parent that's a professional super villain, we learned to rely on each other. Mom when she was around tried to be a good parent, she mostly failed in that regard, I don't think she made one parent teacher conference, birthdays, Christmas and holidays where celebrated on a 'well here we all are' timetable. We rarely lived more than a year in one place but for all of that I never really felt like deprived of anything.

Then Val died. Sturmbannführer Arnold Faust, a WWII Nazi sorcerer that somehow was still alive and kicking kidnapped Val to force Mom to work for him. This Faust guy had kidnapped other loved ones of various heroes and villains, it turned into a big fight over some WWII occult weapon, a necromantic capacitor from a death camp, Mom said, that Faust was going to use to raise an occult 4th Reich or some such. The heroes and a few villains stopped Faust and got almost all the hostages out, Val wasn't one of them. We never even found her body for the funeral.

Her death nearly killed Mom, I didn't do to well either. One of results of that mess is Mom cut way back on the whole super-villain thing and tried to be a full time Mom to me. After six months of that we where both at our breaking point, less said about the almost massacre on Black Friday over the last copy of the collectors edition of 'Sex and City' the better, Mom just couldn't do normal. The compromise is that she went back to the life as a black mask, but working for reputable masterminds, I got a new home, and new identity with some very competent security types from the Syndicate. That was about the time I turned 14. The 'normal' life lasted for almost two years, I suppose that's were my story begins, when normal stopped.

Up until things went badly wrong I had been living a relatively normal life, Mom had rented a Syndicate safehouse for me and my bodyguards in a well off area of Virginia. I'm not going to say where it was other than it had a nice view of the ocean with private dock. Rich folks tend to mind their own business so no one payed any attention after the initial welcome to the neighbourhood, if people did ask all I would say is my mother worked for the government overseas auditing expenses. That was enough nine times out of ten, the other time my bodyguards would deal with it. I never knew their names, I just called them Abe, Bob, Chuck and Dave, and they went along with it, we were pretty relaxed about the whole thing, but out in public they would do the whole Men In Black look. They were a good bunch, Abe and Bob were like a combination of foster father and big brother to me, Chuck was the one that taught me how to make IED's which got me into model rocketry which was a blast, no pun intended. Dave and I never clicked but he wasn't a bad guy just too professional for my liking.

It was the end of April and I was in a bad mood, two, not one, but two pop quizzes had set the tone for the morning, lunch was ruined by a run in with the jock squad and I was calling the day on account of lack of interest. So I did what any self respecting teenager in my position would do, I cut class. Now the school I was going to boasted a secure campus, private security all that jazz. The school was for the lower end of the Washington elite, which meant in theory that the Spawns of Suburbia once locked into the zoo were supposed to not be able to get out until the parents or the parent's flunkies came and got them. In practice what it meant was Mr. George the security guard on the west entrance, would let a kid slip out for twenty dollars, call you a cab, and wipe the security footage. Heading downtown I figured I'd find something interesting to do. So what did I do, yup I went to the mall.

I'd been wandering for about an hour trying to find something that would spark my interest, the only thing that came close was Good and Evil Online, but once again I passed. Something about how everyone that played GEO would rave about it just made me rebel even harder against buying it, and how the game profiled you to tailor your experience just creeped me out, I really did not want my various neuroses and quirks dragged out and played with. Dammit those are mine to deal with, so I use repression and denial to deal with my problems so what? Doesn't every teenager?

As I was starting to notice my turn towards dark and depressing again I heard something that made me wish for some way to stop all my vital functions.

“HEY CARROT-TOP!!” Shouted a particularly identifiable voice. Wincing and turning to face the bane of my existence I noted that the gang was all here.

Jason, Tyler, Owen, Stephan (never Steve), Andrew and Randal. A more annoying collection of the hazards of letting the nouveaux-riche breed without some form of control on them I've never encountered. All of them hung out together, wore the same 'trendy' outfits and waved their parents money and status in everyone's face. They collectively thought of themselves as the big men on campus since they were part of the school's champion lacrosse team. Ordinarily I tried to steer clear of the village idiots, as individuals they'd be considered mostly harmless, but in a group they had a hive mind that increased their base cunning and intelligence to dangerous levels.

Jason in the lead moved quickly towards me with that friendly smile that showed off how much his parents had spent on dental work. From a distance and if you didn't know him you might be taken in, not me that smile was as fake as his mother's tits, and had all the warmth of...well something cold blooded and predatory but served no useful purpose.

They all crowded around me with Jason taking the lead, “So Carrot-top you are cutting class again?”

I could see the wheels turning, slowly but they turned, thinking 'how can I get Corey in trouble?' again. It was an old game that Jason only won because he cheated, if his gang didn't back him up word for word you could expect his mother to get involved screeching at the top of her voice that her darling Jason was the victim. It was depressing how well and often that it worked.

Jason knew how much I hated the nickname 'Carrot-top' and was waiting for a response, I was tempted to give him my best verbal counter attack but I didn't want to be waiting around with them until one of the brain dead idiots figured out what I had just said.

“Aren't you cutting as well?” Good, I thought, keep it simple and not too many words with more than three syllables and maybe they try to find someone else to bug.

“Naw,” Drawled Tyler, Jason must have needed to rest his brain. “Coach gave us a pass since there was a special afternoon assembly.”

This was news to me, “About what? Couldn't have been important or they'd make a big deal out of it.”

“It was some presentation from the MCO and the Knights of Purity about the mutant thing.” Jason answered, his brain must’ve recovered faster than normal.

His stupidity must be contagious because what he said just registered, “Wait the MCO and the KoP? Together? What the hell?” This was not good for my family, my heart sunk at the thought of having to move again.

Randall was almost bouncing up and down, “Yeah it's great the city is thinking of hiring the Knights to help with the mutant problem. BAM-BAM-BLAM,” he made gun motions with his hands as he spoke, “and it'll be raining mutie bits everywhere.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, “What mutant problem? Unless you are still trying to say that the Goths must be mutants because they look different!” Randall flushed with anger, the Goth thing still bothered him, just because one of the Goth girls in school had shot him down when he asked her out, he had tried to spread the mutant accusation around. THAT had backfired hugely when somehow Randall had confused 'looking different' with 'being a mutant' and by the time he was done shooting himself in the foot he'd somehow managed to offend everyone that was of a visible minority or just didn't look sufficiently WASP'ish.

“Uh, why are you sticking up for 'em, you a mutie lover?”, there was Tyler speaking up and dumbing down at the same time.

“Me? Yeah right, I'm just nervous about a bunch of guys running around with enough firepower to shred a building if they screw up. Sure the Knights have done some good work but I just don't like the idea of a private military running around.” Considering who my Mom was, I really didn't like the idea. “If the whole 'mutant problem',” Making air quotes as I said it, “Is as bad as Humanity First, the Knights, hell even the MCO say then why aren't the KoP and the Goodkinds selling the gear direct to the police, why aren't the police screaming for better gear, huh? Because the Goodkinds make more money keeping everyone scared so no one questions how much they charge for protection, just like the Mob.”

Tyler and Randall both tried to answer that with all the style they could manage, which was pretty much, 'Ugh you wrong, me right'. I needed to wrap this up fast before any of the stupid transferred to me, that was when Owen spoke up.

“Whoa check out that chick.” Pointing towards the escalators with all the grace he could manage, which meant he didn't drool on his shoes. Even among this bunch Owen was pretty far down the evolutionary ladder. His one barely acceptable trait is that he could always find the hottest girl anywhere, this was balanced by his ability to repulse any girl after talking to them for more than a few minutes. Still if he noticed a girl it was worth taking a look…

Whoa.

Ok that needs a second look. Whoa.

I've never been hung up on Asian girls like some of my classmates, but this girl was smoking hot. The first thing I noticed was her hair, silver with blue highlights I mean it was obviously a dye job but it was a damn good one, she wore mirrored wraparound sunglasses but what I could see of her face was a near perfect heart shape, her mouth was maybe a little too large but that could have been the makeup. The rest of her was shapely but not to shapely, not too much up top but not too little, she wore a school uniform, a dark blazer with a crest I couldn't make out, under the blazer a white blouse showed with the collar undone, a plaid skirt that was too short to be allowed at any school I knew of showed off her amazing legs, oddly she was wearing ballet flats. After a few seconds a few other details intruded, her head was bobbing to some tune she was listening to, and her hands were in the blazer's pockets.

I'll admit she was so hot that for few seconds I just stared, my brain had short circuited and my glands went into overdrive. She looked up as one of the other guys made some comment, gave a cheerful smile and a nod walking towards us, almost skipping. She took her hands out of her pockets, and a few seconds later the screaming started.

Before the screams began, I was thinking that the jacket she was wearing, the sleeves where too long because I couldn't see her hands, then out of the sleeves came a mass of flesh coloured tentacles, in the blink of an eye the tentacles stretched out over twenty feet and wrapped themselves around the heads of Jason and his crew and then ripped the flesh off of their faces, two them had enough left of the ruin of their faces to scream, this girl, she just frowned at the noise, the tentacles on her left arm wrapped around Jason's body and flung his screaming form out into the atrium as he arced down to the ground floor to hit about forty feet away. The tentacles from her right arm snapped forward the tips seeming to form needle like points as they impaled Owen and then tore his stomach open to spill his guts all over the dying bodies of his friends.

Now I'd like to tell you that I did something heroic and brave, or at least smart. I didn't, I just stood there frozen with fear, it was like my body was frozen while my brain was running at a thousand miles an hour screaming 'run', 'scream', 'attack' all at the same time. About the most I was able to accomplish was not pissing myself when those tentacles reached out and grabbed me, then pulled me towards her to be slung over her shoulder with those tentacles wrapping around my wrists and feet. Absently some part of my gibbering brain noted that she had a great ass.

Now other people in the mall had noticed and they were screaming and pointing. As if that was a signal she stepped out of her shoes and started to run, by the time she had taken a few steps it felt like I was moving at freeway speeds I couldn't see where we were going, but I could see the damage in our wake, whoever this girl was she moved in a straight line with no concern for little things like other people, more substantial obstacles she just leaped over without breaking stride, on the landing my gut was driven into her shoulder so hard it nearly broke me in half. As soon as I had that thought she jumped, hitting the glass frontage at the mall's main entrance, we went through it without slowing down, landing about fifty feet from the mall entrance on the roof of an SUV, I don't have any clear memories of the next few seconds the landing had driven all the air from my lungs. By the time I figured out how to breathe again this girl was throwing me into the back of a van. I landed on something that was both hard and soft with pointy bits sticking into me, it grunted and I rolled off to get a good look at whoever I landed on.

HOLY SHIT

I had managed to land on this hot busty blonde, even more shocking was what she was wearing, or maybe not wearing. Instead of some nice normal clothes all that this chick had on was a collection of bondage gear which did nothing to preserve her modesty, her legs had some kind of spiked leather bands that chained her calves to her thighs, a collection of straps and spikes wound around her torso, short chains locked her elbows to her waist, wide leather cuffs tied her wrists together, but wait that wasn't all she had a ball gag, and her eyes were covered by a leather blindfold. She wiggled around moaning something I couldn't make out. I was worried that I'd hurt her when I was tossed in the van.

The cute Asian tentacle monster had closed the van's door and had scrambled to the passenger seat up front and addressed the empty driver's seat, speaking for the first time. Her voice was one of those 'Tee-Hee' voices you hear in Japanese cartoons.

“Tina get back here with the boy.” For all the cuteness in her voice it had no emotional content like she was reading a script.

The van suddenly accelerated almost tossing me back on top of the bondage babe, the Asian looked over her shoulder at me and spoke in that flat tone, “I so look forward to meeting you face to face Mr. Cummings. Now do not move or try to escape and things will be...pleasant, yes pleasant.”

'Also turn over the GizTech panic button in your wallet.'

I didn't hear that with my ears the voice just echoed in my mind, oh crap, I thought, they’ve brought a mind reader with them, this is oh so not good. Maybe I can...

'Don't try to activate it when you take it out of your wallet.'

Dammit whoever this is they are reading my mind, just stay calm, the security guards back at home will figure out that you've been grabbed. Also with the bloody mess at the mall maybe the cops will call the KoP to deal with it...urk...when I thought that, all of a sudden I could feel the mind reader actively rummaging through my memories. Then the girl upfront twitched and muttered something I couldn't hear.

'SLEEP...'

“Ahhh!” With that I woke up from of one of the oddest dreams I've had. As I opened my eyes I saw that it wasn't a dream, I was in small strange room lying on what seemed to be a hospital bed. My school uniform was spotted with blood from the attack at the shopping mall. I jumped off the bed and went to the door and tried it, locked of course. Checking the room was useless other than the bed, and an empty closet and a door which led to small bathroom it was completely empty. Everything was painted an off white, no windows just small air vents in the ceiling. This was definitely not Club Ritz, and why was I here? You'd think as the child of a supervillain I'd be used to this, couldn't be further from the truth. Nearly everyone on both sides of the cape and cowl crowd follows the informal rule 'no family members', the ones that don't respect that rule tend to have accidents, fatal or otherwise. Which meant I was in the hands of a nutter, or someone who is so powerful that they think the rules don't apply to them, not a good situation either way.

After about an hour of being bored, the door unlocked, and in strolled a new face. He was about average in height, his hair was cut so close to his scalp that I couldn't tell the colour, his eyes were a pale grey. He was almost normal looking. What he was wearing threw me for second, military style combat stuff in black, the kind with all those pockets, and combat boots. Uneasily I noticed that most of the pockets had stuff in them and the stuff I could make out seemed to be medical equipment. What really set me off was the bio-hazard patches on the shoulders. With that I recognized him.

“Biowar.” That was his name, now at least I knew how much trouble I was in, which is to say a lot. Biowar was a nutter, a mad scientist type of the biological bent. He'd started out offering upgrades to other villain’s powers or giving the villain's mooks various abilities, usually some kind of super soldier upgrade. Then all of a sudden he popped up in Eastern Europe and the Middle East in the mid 90's. Everywhere he showed up something scary would happen, a rare disease outbreak, a sudden rampaging superhuman threat, or something even stranger. He was a superhuman bio-terrorist in the purest sense of terror, he seemingly had no agenda other than to cause havoc. He made global notice when he bio-bombed a town in Kosovo, in the next 48 hours everyone in that town developed synesthesia. Since then he'd been linked human trafficking for experimentation and several other crimes.

At the mention of his codename he scowled and spoke, “A name given to me by those who do not understand my work, those little minds so wrapped up in ethics and morals. What use are ethics, has anyone even seen an ethic? Or held one? Ethics are what those little people use to slow us, to hobble us while those little people scramble around trying in vain to understand our greatness. They will never understand what I am doing, but soon I will...” With effort showing on his face he stopped his tirade, “I digress, my apologies for my outburst I've been under a great deal of pressure with my work, my work, no my Magnum Opus.” With that he fixed a grin on his face that he probably thought was friendly and reassuring, it wasn't, that expression on his face would scare a shark out of the water.

Stay calm, I thought, and don't make eye contact, do not provoke the crazy mad scientist. “S-s-so what do I call you?” I noticed my voice had crept up an octave or two. A little voice in the back of my head suggested 'Mr. Biowar', the little voice was then dragged off, shot and buried in a shallow grave by my sense of self preservation.

The grin on Biowar's face disappeared, “You don't know? I thought a man of my greatness and stature would be known world wide.” A disturbing glint appeared in his eyes, “Those...those little minds, they took away my greatness, my recognition didn't they? Answer me! You must know me!”

Shit I'm dead, “Uh I'm not really into medical journals, I'm more of a space enthusiast, speaking of space what do you think about life under the ice of Europa? Most people don't think it's possible but those things in the ocean near underwater volcanoes are living, even thriving there so it's not impossible, right?” That stopped him, I could see the mental transmission behind his eyes shift gears. Pro tip on dealing with mad science types keep them thinking, it'll keep you alive and in one piece longer, or so I've been told. Well it worked this time, Biowar started talking about odd life forms and what kind of life could be in the solar system, after a few minutes it was all over my head. Time for step two.

“Uh I'm sorry you're losing me here. I'm not as knowledgeable in biology as you, oh you were going to tell me your name.” He stopped in mid lecture mode.

“I was? Right I knew that, Alexander Prince.”

“Would that be Doctor? Or Professor? Or are your titles just that not important to you?” Thank gawd I'd seen my Mom handle some of her teammates that where, um, quirky. Ok completely bugfuck nuts.

With that Biowar lit up, a smile that was less creepy showed, “Manners! Manners! And in one so young, oh yes, call me Professor Prince I insist.” In other words do it or else the dissection tools might appear I thought. “Now if only your mother had your manners we would have gotten along much better, did I tell you I met your mother?”

“Uh no, you didn't is she here now?” Please, please let this be one of Mom's jobs. I knew that hope was a long-shot, since Val died, Mom had only worked with her regulars, and there was no way, no how, she'd work for this guy, ok well maybe she would, but it would be for ALOT of money. Still if he knew who I was, Mom must've at least trusted him more than a little, maybe they'd worked together in the past, I could hope.

“No unfortunately, but you are and that is what I need. Did your mother mention how she got her abilities?” Biowar's attitude shifted from creepy to intense in a blink of an eye. “She must have, or you must have asked at one time? Where was your scientific curiosity young man?”

“Uh, well she'd got her powers in her late teens, and when she'd been arrested for the first time she was classified as a mutant...” That was as far as I got.

“Yes, yes, yes,” Biowar waved his hands dismissively, “That is what you'd expect, so you never look closer. Just like everyone else. But not me!” He looked at me, “Why for instance in the beginning of her life as Darklight did she think that her powers came from that ridiculous circlet she used to wear?”

I gave the rote response, “It's called the 'Dumbo Effect' the person in question believes an item gives the ability, so they lose the ability when they lose the item, a psychological crutch...” Again he cut me off.

“Yes, yes, yes, but there are those that transcend the 'Dumbo Effect' and overcome the limits of their own mind such as your mother, but what if they are wrong and that item did give them power, then changed them over time until the power was in them. My grand idea is that such items are the cause of the mutant Meta-Gene expression, once the Meta-Gene entered our biology from these items it was then bred throughout the population until we achieved a genetic critical mass. If we could understand how the process began we could control and direct the expression of the mutant gene complex and manifestation!” The look on his face was intense, almost hypnotic.

With that thought I realized something, I was paying too much attention to this guy, and I was too calm, something was wrong with me. I should be freaking out not calmly discussing this guy's grand theory of everything.

'You are more aware than most, and you are right.' Came that mental voice again. I jumped a little with that, the psychic must have been reading my mind and influencing my thoughts, keeping me calm and relaxed. A moment later Biowar frowned.

“Ah you are aware of my associate?”, He looked me over like he was studying a sample that just did something unexpected. “Oh well it was a bit of a longshot anyway. Still come with me and I'll get started.”

“No I'm not...gleep!” My body started moving on it's own like I'd been shoved aside, no matter how hard I struggled I just couldn't do anything about it. Dammit this was some serious power this psychic was tossing around.

'You have no idea, now stop trying to fight me or I'll get creative on you.'

With that threat hanging over me I stopped fighting, instead I started singing Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody in my head. When that failed to get a response I gave up. Besides looking around seemed more useful, I don't know how I could figure out to escape with someone reading my mind but you never know. Out side of my room was a narrow hallway. Every ten feet seemed to have a door identical to mine with a keypad/cardreader setup, the end of the hallway on both ends had a much more sturdy looking door with the same security setup. Biowar led the way to the end of the hallway, keyed and swiped a card and the door opened, really thick door I noticed. The door opened to a small room, very small about the size of an elevator, another security door arranged opposite the first was the only feature in the room. Some kind of airlock/security door I guessed. When the other door opened I got an idea how secure this place was. Pass the section I had been in, this area looked like a navy ship, grey narrow walls, pipes and stuff running overhead, and from what I could see instead of doors there where hatches like you see on ships. Not good. If I was on a ship, and had been sleeping until I woke up normally, we could be out to sea and in international waters. That would really screw things up even more.

'Don't worry about a rescue no one is even looking for you.'

Fuck you, I thought, I don't mean to brag but when Mom comes looking for me you'll be lucky if she kills you quickly, you don't pull this shit on family.

'Mommy's not coming for you boy, she's got a case of the deads.' No way I thought, she can't be. 'Oh yeah she's really dead, Darklight might have been this big tough bitch, but a little mind control and she was happy to slice her own throat for me once the boss was done with her.' No, I screamed back in my head, you're lying!

'Sorry but I don't lie, but if you don't believe me then here.'

With that I was suddenly in my Mom's head, I could feel her confusion, her rage and fear as she tried to resist the psychic control. I 'saw' Biowar and the bondage blonde from the van staring at me, no her, then Mom's hand reached for a scalpel and cut her own throat, slowly as she fought back with no success while Biowar watched, talking all the time. I could see the spray of blood, taste the blood in my mouth, no her mouth. I felt her fading away, her fear for me and her love. Her shame and regret that Mom hadn't been able to save Val when my daughter, no my sister, was kidnapped and died. Her regret that she had been a failure as a parent, her shame that she was a villain rather that someone her kids could be proud of. I could feel her fighting to hold on as I, no Mom, started to fade away, Mom just faded away...I could feel something at the end maybe surprise?

When it was over I was still walking behind Biowar, tears where running down my face. I wanted to touch my throat to see if it was still intact but I still had no control over my body.

'See I told you I don't lie. Aww little boy misses his mommy, don't worry once the boss is done with you I'll have my fun then kill you.' If rage could be used as a weapon this place I was in would be ground zero. I tried to use that rage to fight back against this voice but nothing worked. My body still wouldn't obey my commands.

I continued following Biowar, after a few turns we ended up in a large room that was set up as medical station, hospital beds, surgical gear and the like warred for pride of place with something out a lab you'd see in a movie, strange cabinets and lab gear with a workbench tried to take over what little space there was. I laid down on one of the beds and just stayed there while Biowar rummaged through various drawers, inside my head I was raging against the psychic that was keeping me prisoner in my own body, if I could just get free somehow.

'If somehow a weakling like you got free, so what? What could you do, mommy couldn't stop us and she was considered a powerhouse, you? You're a pathetic nobody, a lab rat.' I am not a lab rat I screamed back in my head.

Biowar turned from his lab gear and approached me with his hands full of what I could only assume were medical devices, that crazy grin on his face showing again, he stopped and looked closer at me, the grin fading away. He reached for my face peering into my eyes, then he placed his hand on my forehead, he then turned and grabbed a thermometer and stuffed it into my mouth. He kept checking my eyes, then he looked at the thermometer. The look on his face was equal mix of surprise and glee, the look of kid at Christmas that found more loot than expected. About that time all muscles seized up, I could feel my body arcing like bow being drawn back until only my heels and back of my head touched the bed, my jaw clamped shut so hard I swear my teeth were cracking. All of a sudden my body collapsed as my muscles relaxed to my relief, as I sagged on the bed, I could feel sweat pouring out of my pores, then my heart started to race, at the same time I couldn't catch my breath. It felt like something seemed to explode in my chest then everything went black.

****

I slowly woke up, as I became more aware, even before opening my eyes, that something was wrong, I could feel straps on my wrists and feet. Something was pinching me in both arms and there was something wrong with my crotch, I tried to shift in bed to get more comfortable and my chest moved in an odd way. My eyes shot open, what the hell was going on!

I was back in that same room I woke up in just after I was kidnapped. Now, however there was more medical gear, I could see two IV stands with various bags draining into tubes that must have been inserted into my arms. Monitor equipment beeped in the corner, the beeps coming faster as my heart rate sped up in fear of what I might find, as my memory of my body didn't seem to match what I was now feeling, Speaking of feeling there was something I was feeling coming from my right, like a warm light shinning on me but the light was accompanied by a 'sound' I didn't know what that was.

“Please don't hurt me.” Came a voice from the foot of my bed. A voice I recognized from the mall, and a shape moved into my line of sight, it was the cute tentacle monster from the mall, the one that had grabbed me. She was now wearing jeans and a long sleeved blouse, with short flesh coloured tentacles instead of hands, those tentacles just moved back and forth twisting and stretching. She no longer had those mirrored glasses and I could see her eyes, they were completely black, no whites showing at all.

“Don't hurt you, what about you hurting me?” I said, or tried to, my mouth was so dry all that came out was something between a rasp and gurgle.

“Wait! Don't try to talk, let me get you a drink first ok?” It was odd I noticed in the van she'd been monotone, like a robot, but now she sounded human, well in a perky bubbly kind of human way that just made me think she'd be hated by anyone who liked to sleep in. She didn't move, instead a bundle of tentacles that was her left hand stretched out and grabbed a pitcher of water, poured a glass and brought it over to me. At the same time with her other 'hand' she was undoing the restraints on my arms. Just before she finished undoing the straps on my arms she spoke again. “Just lie down and drink this first, then I'll try to explain what happened, and what is happening ok?” She offered the glass to me straw first.

The water was so good. My mouth was so dry I felt like I didn't swallow it, it was just absorbed by the tissues in my mouth. The second pull on the straw was almost as good as the first, the third went down the wrong pipe and I started coughing. I tried to bring my hands up to cover my mouth, note tried, my hands ran into something unexpected, well two somethings, and they were attached to my chest. I grabbed those things in disbelief, they couldn't be...they were...boobs!

I froze, my mind just wouldn't process what my body was telling it, I was a guy not a girl, this can't be right. The monitor gear just kept beeping faster and faster racing with my heart rate, this can't be, that thought was running around in my head on it's own little wheel picking up speed and going nowhere...

SPLASH.

The girl tossed the glass of water in my face, the shock of that, plus the sputtering from some of it going up my nose snapped me out of the panic attack that was developing. As soon as I got my breath back I asked in a reasonable fashion and tone for the situation I was in.

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME!” My voice had changed I noted, even considering that I was screeching like, I dunno, something that screeches really loud, it was higher pitched that it should be. My arms I noted continued the trend of looking more girly. I wanted to check down there to see if the change was 100% but I couldn't, it was like as long as I didn't check I could keep believing that I was still, you know, male, however the odd feelings from my crotch kept mocking me. My own personal waterboarder had retreated during my freakout, looking like she wanted to run really fast, which I supposed might have been amusing considering how much she scared me.

She held up her hands, well tentacles, in what might be taken as a calming gesture if that person had, well, hands. “I didn't do anything to you, please believe me, well I didn't do anything to you after I kinda kidnapped you, and uh, I guess hurt your friends...” She trailed off as she thought about what she said, and realized how unlikely it was to be helpful in calming me down. She looked around nervously then back at me. “Just please, I need you to calm down, I'll tell you what you want to know.”

“I AM CALM!” If anything my voice sounded higher, I thought I was about to pass out as my vision dimmed, then I noticed it was the lights in the room that were growing dim. The monitor I was still hooked up to gave a surprised 'Beeep-blat' tone and died.

“Please you have to calm down before something bad happens!” She was looking close to panic as she said that, edging against the wall towards the door.

I noticed then that my right hand was gripping the railing of the bed so hard that it had crumpled and half broke off, and wisps of some kind of blackish-purple haze had started to form around my fingertips. You'd think that would be lower on my list of priorities than changing sex but it derailed me for the moment from what had been done to me.

“Ok that's good just keep calm please, please, please.” I looked at the girl as she said that, I was starting to piece together why she was so worried. Then I nearly jumped out of my skin as the damn heart monitor started up with a series of warning tones and the lights in the room seemed to brighten. As I started to get up she rushed towards me with a look of concern on her face. “Don't try to sit up or get out of bed or just give me a few minutes.” At my questioning look she continued, “Umm you've been unconscious for a week and a half so we had to umm, wire you up, you know so you could eat and, uhmm,” She blushed and then in a smaller voice, “You know we had to down there...” As she glanced at my crotch and blushed some more. I'll spare you the details of catheter removal, suffice to say it was confirmed that yes, I was now completely female all over. Dammit.

By the time I had been fully 'unplugged' my fear and anger had been reduced to manageable levels, so the chance of me doing something violent had been reduced from levels of 'near certainty' to 'maybe in the future' level. I also found out that my roommate/nurse was named Norika, which sounded better than Cute Asian Tentacle Monster.

“So, uh, Corey when you where in the lab, you started to manifest and you weren't having an easy manifestation,” at my look she gulped and continued, “You had a burnout, that's when the...umm, body doesn't react well to the mutation, or when you stress your powers too much.” Seeing that I was following her tale, “So, umm, well, uhh, you died, a few times...”

I interrupted at that point, “I died! What?”

“A few times, uh, yeah a heart attack then,” Her face screwed up as she was remembering, “You had systemic organ failure, some kind of immune system thing were your immune system tried to kill you, you were lucky that this happened here, he saved you every time.”

“Biowar saved me? Why? How? Did he turn me into a girl?”

She got that nervous look on her face, like I would explode or something, “Yeah he did, I don't know why, maybe he saw it as a challenge. He gets like that, something happens that interferes with his plans or catches his interest, something triggers him and he's, like umm, obsessive. As for how, well umm, from what I've been told, you started attacking your own cells when you manifested, the Doc he figured out that you were 'healing' wrong, like your BIT was corrupted.” At my look she explained. “A BIT is a Body Image Template, sort of a blueprint for your mutation. So he found a way to 'clean' your body, somehow he changed your DNA and BIT into a new type that your mutation wouldn't try to attack.” The speech was delivered like she had been practising. “The thing is the DNA he used was your mother’s DNA to create the new DNA that wasn't under attack by your mutation.”

Shit. Mom, I'd forgotten about her, and how she was killed by these...people. My sense of self pity over being turned into a girl faded as my temper grew, again idly I noticed how the room got darker and the machines grew erratic before failing.

“Please stop, please. You have to stop!” She said again sounding even more desperate. “If you don't stop you'll kill us all!”

Now that stopped me, “What are you talking about? How am I going to kill you?” What was she talking about I wondered. Then I remembered, me crushing the bed's railings, the dark energy coming from my hand, the word 'manifested' and all. It all led in one direction, I was a mutant as well as a girl, the next leap came quickly, I had power, that meant I wasn't helpless anymore. Good. While this was running through my head she continued to speak.

“When you get worked up, or need to heal you seem to draw energy into you, that's dangerous for all of us onboard. You could damage the engines, or the reactor. In fact you nearly did do that several times when you had, umm, you know.” At my look she continued, “When you had your burnout attacks, you drained energy around you, each attack you drained more power, until you were draining direct from the reactor...”

What she said had sunk in, “Reactor! What reactor!” Was that the source of the that invisible sun thing I'd been feeling since I woke up?

Norika with an uneasy look at my outburst continued, “So, uh, the last time you nearly caused the reactor to melt down. That was a couple of days ago, I think it was when you stopped, uh, you know, changing, and the reactor is what's powering this sub.”

Sub? I was on a nuclear submarine? Crap that would make escaping alot harder if not impossible, but on those sub movies they always have escape stuff, maybe I could get to one of those, I mean how hard could it be, you just swim up, right.

“Before you think of trying to escape,” I tried to look innocent like the idea had never occurred to me. “Everyone on board has an implant Biowar designed to keep you from escaping,” Ok, new plan I thought, remove the implant then escape. “He implanted a biodegradable capsule that will dissolve in a certain amount of time unless you get a booster shot to repair the capsule's coating.” Her face took on a resigned look, “Inside the capsule is a tailored virus that will kill you, it's incurable, and infectious. If you escape the virus will kill you and many other people. You'll die slowly, but if you get back to Biowar fast enough he might cure you.”

Shit. Shit, shit, shit. That sounds clever and ruthless at the same time, just like Biowar's rep. Still if I could find someway to remove the capsule.

She continued speaking while I was thinking of elaborate plans to get out of here, “My best advice for you is just do what he says and try to keep out of his way, you don't want him seeing you and getting ideas for a new experiment.” She looked depressed as she said that, “Also keep, or try to keep out of Tina's way. She's the blonde that was wearing the kinky stuff in the back of the van, and the voice in your head. She's a massive bitch and loves to hurt people.”

“Shouldn't she be wearing dom gear then?”

“She would like to, but her powers only work when she's restrained, if she can't talk she can use telepathy, can't move she can use telekinesis, the more she's tied up and humiliated the more powerful she is. She can also do a few other things, scary things. Don't let her get into your head if you can.” Norika looked nervous when she said that. “She will love to hurt you, break you, basically anything that she finds amusing, the sicker the better.”

I quickly added two plus two and jumped to the obvious answer, “Let me guess, personal experience?”

Norika just looked at the floor, wrapping her tentacles around her, after a few seconds she nodded not even speaking. That scared me more than anything else, if just thinking about it freaked her out that much I could be in big trouble with the heads of the nuthouse. Speaking of which, “Where are those two? You'd think they'd be bragging about how helpless I am. Usually mad science types,” I noticed Norika wince at the 'mad science' comment, she really was on edge. “...never pass up a chance to brag about their work, and this Tina you'd mentioned, you'd think she'd be in my head gloating.”

“The Doc and Tina went ashore yesterday with some of the men, he's likely doing one of his experiments. I don't know where we are, but I'm guessing South America. Or maybe Africa. We have the run of the sub except for critical areas, the bridge, engineering, and weapons. Oh and stay out of the Doc's labs, he might think you are volunteering for his latest project if sees you in the labs.”

“Ok stay away from the labs, etc. How did a nutcase like Biowar get his hands on an armed nuclear sub, or the crew to run it? Is someone backing him?” How deep was the shit I was now in.

“He stole it from the Syndicate with most of the crew, it's an old transport sub I've been told.”

I boggled at that, Biowar was ripping off the Syndicate!? He's crazy, like death wish crazy. There is no way the Syndicate would take that, they'd hunt him down like a mad dog and make an example of him to discourage anyone else from even thinking about ripping off the Syndicate. Sure supervillains rip each other off all the time that's to be expected in the biz, at least from Mom's stories. But the Syndicate is well, needed, they do all the little and big things that black masks need to function, to have the Syndicate turn on you would mean, no reputable black market, no honest fences, no clearing house for henchmen, no escape insurance. How was this guy still alive?

While I was thinking this I realized that Norika had asked me something that I'd completely missed, “Sorry what did you say?”

She was looking at me with a slightly embarrassed look, “Uh I asked you if you wanted a shower, you know to get clean.”

With that I looked down at myself and took a sniff of my armpit, “I smell that bad? I didn't notice anything.”

“Well...we are on a sub with recycled air and smells. And I thought it'd would be good for you to well get to know the new you at the same time.”

I took the hint, besides some 'me' time with the new 'me' might be what I need to start getting a handle on things. Once I have a handle on things and it is securely attached I can then use the handle to beat Biowar and his pet psycho to death. I owe it to Mom to make sure that these freaks get what's coming to them, with interest.