Jade 6 – DREAMS and AWAKENINGS

33: In the dragon’s lair

Whateley Academy, Twain Cottage basement

November 15, Wednesday evening, 4:15 PM

They’d been summoned to meet Thuban in his place of power.  Jade had no idea what Thuban was up to, but she wasn’t about to ignore the request.  He might have information from the secret surveillance on Don Sebastiano.  The Alphas had given them far too much grief already.  She couldn’t ignore a possible warning.

Or maybe it was a job offer.  Thuban was rich.  For a moment, Jade entertained fantasies of getting some high-paying errand job.  She wouldn’t turn her nose up at that.  It would be nice to earn enough to buy Christmas presents.  But the way her luck ran, she’d probably have to find some cheap but “creative” solution to the Christmas present problem.

What had worried her was the strict instruction that both she and Jinn were to come, and that they should make sure to keep the meeting secret.  That brought to mind countless bad murder mysteries.

She’d left a note of explanation under her covers.  She hoped that if Thuban tried to pull something wicked and kidnap her, her friends would find the note.  Meanwhile, she’d taken what other precautions she could.  She had her gun back, and it was clipped at the small of her back, covered by her school uniform’s blazer.  She had her kitty compact, barrettes, and other gear.  Jann-sensei was charged into her clothes and gizmos.  That meant that Jann could talk to her, or drop everything and take off in the compact, or whatever they needed.  She had maximum freedom of movement.  And with a subtle finger gesture, Jade could signal her spirit-sensei to initiate telepathic contact.  Jann would poke a spiritual “finger” into Jade’s head, and they could link minds.  That gave her twice as much thinking power, the warning that came from being able to see in every direction, and even an escape in case she was gassed or knocked unconscious – Jann could grab her clothes and fly her away.

It also helped to have Jinn, dressed as Shroud, floating beside her.  Shroud was ready for a fight, with her bear-trap face, Harry’s latest combat arm modules, and the sledge hammers and spikes ready to spin up.

Despite all these preparations, she still didn’t feel very safe.  Jade tried to control her anxiety as they finished the trek through the creepy cavern, lit by lights from deep under the cave pools.  In the center of the cavern was a grand silk pavilion tent.  The blue silk was patterned with Chinese ideograms and astrological signs.

She wondered whether to knock or call out as they approached the front, but the door smoothly pulled itself aside.  Inside, seated in the geometrical center of the tent, was the half-man, half-reptile, Thuban.  He was perched on top of a mass of gold and silver coins, stacked and welded into the shape of a crude throne.

“Excellent response time,” he began.  “I appreciate that.”

Jade hung back, letting her “sister” move forward to take the brunt of the conversation.

“We’re here,” Shroud said.  She’d left off the spooky effect, and spoke with Jinn’s normal seventeen-year-old voice.  “What do you want?”

“Indulge me for a moment,” Thuban requested.  He was dressed like a Mandarin, in deep red robes with gold embroidery.  He even wore a matching skullcap.  With his sleeves pressed together, he looked almost human.  He still had slitted eyes, pebbled skin, and a horse-shaped face, but his body seemed human.  When he raised a hand to gesture, it was disconcerting to see the scaled and taloned hand that was concealed inside the sleeve.

At his gesture, two chairs slid forward from the far corners of the tent.

Shroud shook her head, declining.  “Thank you, but I have no need for a chair.”  She folded her legs into a full lotus, and sat levitating in mid-air, her night-black cloak hanging down to just brush the ground.

Jade had no such excuse.  She would have preferred to stand – sitting made her more vulnerable.  It was harder to move or react from a seated position, and reaching for her gun would be slower.  She compromised by perching nervously on the edge of the seat, smoothing her skirt so that it wouldn’t bunch up and get in the way if she had to go for her gun.

Thuban began abruptly.  “Montana has been doing much better since the conclusion of the Tansy Walcutt affair.”

Jade shuddered at the memory.  Montana was a blond sasquatch, nearly twice her height and four times her weight.  Her most vivid images of Monty were from the fight with Toni, when Monty took a cheap shot at Toni’s back after the match ended.  It hadn’t helped that just as she herself had finally won free of Tansy’s possession (or should it have been vice-versa?), Thuban had used an underling to possess Tansy’s body, forcing the girl to fulfill all the sexual promises she’d once made to Monty.  Jade had barely escaped sharing that fate.

Jade had spoken to Monty once or twice since then, but he remained a giant hairy brute that she associated with backstabbing and sexual assault.

“He has yet to redeem his honor over the match against your friend, but I have faith that he will, in time, atone for that.  The important part is that the black despair that had claimed him has vanished.  The Tansy … incident … seems to have permanently broken the hold that her mistreatment left on him.  Although he’s far from recovered, he now shows the capacity to recover.  Every day he seems to be doing a bit better.  He’s truly a changed man.”

“I’m so thrilled,” Shroud said, flatly.

“I find it hard to believe you would sympathize with Tansy Walcutt, after the many ways she has done you wrong.”

“Hardly,” Shroud said.  “She was already pimping herself out to Sebastiano, and I’ll bet she spread herself for anyone else who could help her, long before your thing with Monty.  As for me – she wanted to drink my soul.  She wanted to kill me, and steal my powers.”

Jade was a bit shocked to hear herself speaking like that, but they had decided that sometimes her older self needed to use language that was a bit more appropriate for an angry teenager.

“Indeed,” the dragon-man agreed, sagely.  “I believe that Miss Walcutt could do with further lessons in respect.  However it seems that the world has decided her to offer her an appropriate payback.  Perhaps no action will be needed on my part.

“But let’s focus upon Montana.  As I watched his growth and recovery, I realized that he held a lesson for all of Faction Three—”

“I beg your pardon?” Shroud interrupted.  “Faction Three?”

“Yes, a name of my own devising.  I assume you know of the movie The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.  So much of Whateley focuses upon the epic battle between good and evil.  It’s the same in the wider world – look at that new game Good and Evil Online.  People see a face-off, two sides squaring off against one another in epic battle.  Lost in the drama is the plight of many victims: the weak, the different, and in fact, everyone who doesn’t fall directly into one of the two main camps.

“The ‘different’ ones are people like Montana.  People who, through no fault of their own, have been reduced to the status of mere things, or worse.  People whose minds and spirit are ignored, because they are seen as brutes, beasts, and monsters.  People who, perhaps, don’t fall into a simple slot like ‘good’ or ‘evil.’  Poor confused Monty is certainly a poster child for that.  Society will never accept him as being noble or heroic, and, without Miss Walcutt’s potent influence, he wouldn’t have been half so nasty.  Monty is hardly alone; there are more like him than you suspect.  They won’t be allowed to be good.  They might gain marginal acceptance as villains, or particularly the lackeys of villains.  Most end up as victims.  These are the people whom I have begun calling Faction Three.”

Jade tried to reconcile this with the “middle path” described by Robert Shih.  That middle path (as she saw it) was to do what was right and work for good, but to be ready to bend the rules of legality when necessary.  “Faction Three” seemed to be an entirely different idea.

“So, which side will Faction Three ultimately follow?” Shroud asked.  “The good guys?  You aren’t another faction of goons, are you?  I don’t want to hear that!”

Thuban shook his head sadly.  “It amazes me that otherwise intelligent people are unable to understand that the world might possibly hold more flavors than chocolate and vanilla.”

While Jade puzzled over that, he continued, speaking more plainly.  “Faction Three will not be part of either side.  We are an independent faction, primarily out for our own interests.  The criminal elements would callously use us and throw us away.  Conversely, your ‘good’ side legalizes most discrimination.  It institutionalizes rule by attractive leaders that appeal to the common masses.  As soon as someone pretty or popular got upset, the ‘good’ people happily condone an old-fashioned lynching.  That always seems to comfort the masses.  Meanwhile, the authorities and other forces for ‘good’ will discretely look the other way.”

“It… it isn’t really that bad, is it?”

Even to Jade, the comeback sounded weak.  She’d done enough research on the Day of Remembrance to know that the dragon-man was right.  It was a risk that every transgendered person had to live with.  Once a TG was exposed, it was impossible to predict how friends and companions would react.  Some were puzzled, or accepting, or supportive.  Others lashed out with a hatred that bordered on the psychotic.  And society had no interest in either protecting the innocent TG or punishing the guilty straight.  Society wanted the problem to go away.  If murder made the problem “go away,” that seemed acceptable to many people.

She wondered, How much worse is it for people that look like monsters?

Thuban’s voice was cold.  “It is as bad as you can possibly imagine.  If there was anyone out there with even an inkling of our situation, I would think it would be a student from Poe!  You should be a natural ally.”

Her apprehension increased.  Was he hinting that he knew about Poe?  Did he know about her?

He waved a hand in dismissal.  “You look so surprised.  ‘How could he possibly know the big secret of Poe?  Is it my fault?’  Please.  I’ve known about Poe since my first quarter here.  Far from exposing your deviant little cottage, I’ve done everything in my power to preserve and guard the secret.  There’s no reason why Faction Three shouldn’t be inclusive.  But we’re getting off the topic.  Or perhaps not, since we’ve wandered into the topic of sexuality.”

Thuban leaned forward, now speaking with a burning intensity.  His emotions flickered with repressed feelings as well, including longing and lust.  “High school is a crucial period for psychological development.  You finish adolescence, you learn social interaction.  Your place in society is established.  It determines who and what you are for the rest of your life.  Will you be a leader or a lackey?  Will you become a kind, helpful hero … or an abusive, manipulative tyrant?  Will you become a strapping example of manhood, and all that implies?”  He turned to stare directly at her.  “Or perhaps you would prefer to become a delicate flower, the soft and gentle epitome of all the feminine virtues?”

Jade’s teeth began to chatter so hard that she almost missed his next statement.

“That was Montana’s problem.  At this delicate stage in his development, Tansy Walcutt stepped in and destroyed his self-image.  She utterly shattered it when she publicly humiliated him.  And that was my realization.  The rest of Faction Three is in the same position!  We aren’t all challenged with a Tansy Walcutt, but the entire group suffers from a lack of opportunities, a lack of confidence, and ultimately, the fear of rejection.  All of us face public humiliation, just by going to class.  The situation is even worse here at Whateley, where so many of the students are physically perfect, Olympian ideals.  Can you imagine how hard it is to approach a girl, to risk making small talk with her, when you look like a giant hairy ape, or a human turtle, or something worse?

“This past month, I’ve paid for construction down in the underground.  I’ve had a theater put in – the Faction Three Theater.  It’s a lounge and media center all in one.  We meet every Tuesday and Thursday after dinner, and I’ve invited all of us, well, all of the appropriate members, from Whitmore, Hawthorne, and Twain.  But it hasn’t been enough.  I can’t get them to break out of their shells, to risk talking to other people.  All of them have been hurt too badly, too often.”

Shroud drifted up and down slightly in mid-air.  “What do you want of me?  You want me to invite Poe?”

Thin, reptilian lips drew back from Thuban’s pointed teeth.  “Not exactly.”

He withdrew a hand from his sleeve.  In his hand was a small white stuffed toy.  He tossed it to Jade.

“A small gift for you.  I had some difficulty constructing it:  bulletproof, fireproof, and resistant to corrosives and acids.  It’s doubly hard to do it in plush.  That’s got a Zylor-Titanium weave, with Nomex flocking for heat resistance.  It should stand up to the type of abuse you seem to run into.  It’s yours, provided that you bring it to life, here and now.  Make it run around the room.”

Jade had instinctively caught the throw.  The toy felt similar to her stuffed toy lion.  But this lion was white.  With round ears that had a black band at the top.  Not merely a white lion, it was the Kimba of Osamu Tezuka.  The Kimba, the Jungle Emperor.  The one created in Japan, nearly half a century earlier.  The icon that her team had taken for their mascot and name.  She couldn’t help petting the toy.  It was soft and plush and perfect. 

Having held it, she didn’t want to give it back.  And he wasn’t asking for much, was he?

She looked at Shroud plaintively.  “Please?”

Her “sister” sighed.  “Oh, for Pete’s sake.  Alright.  Give me a second.”

As Shroud drifted toward her, her body seemed to undergo convolutions.  A moment later, Shroud’s costume, skin, and cloak imploded inward, folding inside-out to vanish into a thick-walled metal safe contained in her torso.  As the last shred of fabric flew into the door, the safe clicked shut, and settled to the ground beside Jade.

Jinn flooded back into her mind, and she felt the resentment and irritation at breaking security for the sake of gaining this stupid toy.  But then, as she continued petting it, she considered both lines of thought.

It’s worth it, she decided.

A moment later, the toy in her hand stirred and came to life.  Kimba stood up on her palm and roared a squeaky roar.  Then he jumped nimbly to the ground, raced around the inside perimeter of the tent, and approached Thuban.

“Is this what you had in mind, oh mighty dragon?” the toy demanded.

Thuban’s eyes were wide, and through her link with Jann, Jade could see his emotions crest in need and vindication.

“Amazing!”  He practically whispered it.  “Just a toy, and yet, so lifelike.”

As Kimba trotted back to Jade, Thuban continued to speak.  “Now I begin to believe that my plan might actually work.”

“What plan?”

The toy lion jumped up onto the metal locker.  Jade touched toy and locker, recharging Shroud.  A moment later, the locker opened, exploding in a reverse transformation.  The toy vanished, safely locked away.  Clothes, hair, and chalk-white skin exploded outward, then condensed into Shroud once more.

Thuban smiled, but his eyes were tight with anxiety.  “Like the vaunted Dr. Frankenstein, I intend to make a bride.  Or rather, a girlfriend.  Not real, not genuine competition for any of the girls in Faction Three.  And at the same time, someone safe, whose very purpose is not to reject the clumsy and inexperienced, and especially, the unattractive.  Everybody’s sweetheart, if you will.  She will be an ice-breaker.  Relationship training wheels.  A striking and distinctive female, obviously appropriate to Faction Three, but presented as a ‘construct’ and a cunning fake from the very start.”

“You want me,” Shroud said, figuring it out.  “I don’t know how to break it to you, but I’m hardly the life of the party.  You want Toni.  Or maybe Nikki.”

“I need someone who won’t make the other girls in Faction Three feel like ugly freaks.  Someone who is as grotesque as they are, and yet, could be seen as attractive, even desirable, given the proper perspective.  Don’t you understand?  Faction Three is a refuge from you beauty queens and film stars.  It is a place where we can allow ourselves to be what we are, out of the spotlight.”  He shook his large head.  “Besides, I didn’t go to all this work to create a Team Kimba auxiliary branch.”

“There’s Sara,” Jade suggested.  “She’s not exactly normal.  And Tennyo…”

“As I may have hinted, I intend to assume leadership of Faction Three.  Albeit, from behind the scenes.  Placing your demon princess in a pivotal role would hardly be wise.  Nor do I wish to enter any direct conflicts with Kellith.  As for your roommate – anyone who wasn’t deeply intimidated by her would be quite the fool.  But perhaps you are unaware of some of her secrets.”

Jade glared at him.  How dare he taunt her with her friend’s secrets!  He was probably just lying, anyway.  How could he possibly know more about them than she did?

“They’re good people!” she insisted, loyally.  “I don’t care what fake secrets you pretend to know.”

He gave a cold smile.

“You’d be surprised at what I know.  Secrets that you’ve probably never even admitted to each other.”

The smile widened with the appreciation of a trap that has been sprung.

“For example, have your friends ever heard the name ‘Jared Reilley’ ?”

34: Heart’s desire

November 15, Wednesday evening, 4:43 PM

At the mention of her real name, it felt like the blood in her veins turned to ice water.  Jade found herself simultaneously icy cold and sweating.  Under Jann-sensei’s urgent prodding, she tried to control her face and body language, but she knew she’d given away her shock.

Thuban began to speak again, in his dry, whispery voice.  “The last time we met face-to-face, you rather surprised me.  I like to know who I’m dealing with.  I took the liberty of learning everything I could about you.  Everything.  My methods and sources are … extensive.  You’ll be pleased to know that the records on the Whateley end were quite secure.  I had to finally trace things backward from the Kansas end.  I took the liberty of ensuring that those records were permanently lost.”

“So,” Shroud’s voice was as cold as the grave, “you think you can blackmail my sister into doing your work?”

“No.  I engage in blackmail for punishment, not motivation.  Besides, with the gift I offer, you will do my work quite willingly.”  He gave a laugh that was surprisingly warm.  “And don’t think to lead me astray, either.  Your ‘sister’?  Please.  That whole tale about being the re-animated spirit of her dead sister, or even the backup tale about you being a Ghulah are just that – tales.  Cover stories that weren’t invented until you’d already been here a month.  We all know that you are simply a splinter-self, flaked off from the whole.  A temporary psyche that somehow telekinetically charges your body image template.”

Jade and Shroud were both silent, as they digested this.  Was there anything about them that he didn’t know?  And how could they get out of this without destroying everything they’d achieved at Whateley?

Jade realized that she had little to lose at this point.  “If you’re so smart,” she asked, in a subdued voice, “why am I stuck like this?”

Thuban’s lip curled slightly in triumph, as he relaxed back into his hard throne.  “I collect information.  That doesn’t mean I know everything.  Often, there are no final answers.  The best you can do is to search for a workable solution.  Sometimes I am able to suggest possibilities.  For a price.  After all, that is my specialty.”

“What are you talking about?” Shroud demanded.  “What price?”

“All in good time.  Perhaps you’d like to see the reward, first?”

The robed lizard-man gestured at the area ahead of him, and a holographic image snapped to life.  It showed two girls climbing into a strange device, while a trio of teenagers in lab coats bustled around them.

“You’re already familiar with Eleanor Ruskin, better known as Jello,” the reptilian man stated.  “Here she is, getting into the BIT-Shifter.”

The holographic image showed a figure who looked more like a half-melted wax mannequin, stepping up into a platform.  On the other side of the platform, another girl was stepping up.  The second girl was a stunning blonde that Jade recognized from the fight in Boston.

“The ‘donor’ is a girl named Heartbreaker.  One of Ruskin’s few friends.  Watch closely.”

With both girls strapped in, another girl, a technician, connected a maze of electrodes and wires all over their nearly naked bodies.  The technician stepped away, then the platform began to spin, faster and faster.  Finally, there was a strobe-like effect, and a blue corona became visible over most of the wires.  In the strobe’s flash, Jade saw first Jello, then the beautiful girl, then Jello again, as the machine spun round and round.  A blue corona began to surround the spinning stage.

“Now the process truly begins.”

The strobed images had seemed to be first one, then the other.  Now they blurred, so that the image presented was both girls, somehow melting together.

“The ‘slicer’ is measuring the fields that corresponds to Heartbreaker’s Body Image Template,” Thuban explained.  “It is forcing those same signals into Jello; actually superimposing them over Jello’s own template.  Watch.”

The blurred half-and-half image began to change.  While the half-seen image of Heartbreaker remained unchanged, there was also a superimposed image of another shape.  This other shape expanded, contracted, altered, and then seemed to slowly vanish.  Soon, the only visible image was that of Heartbreaker.  Now the operator pulled a switch and the blue fire faded; the spinning stage slowed.  Inside, there were two copies of Heartbreaker.  The technicians removed the probes and electrodes (some, it seemed from rather personal places).  One of the Heartbreakers stumbled forward, as if exhausted.  The other seemed enchanted by her own body.

“As you can see, Heartbreaker’s BIT was copied and successfully superimposed over Jello’s BIT.  Jello lost none of her mind or memories, but the tests we ran confirm that her body was a near-exact duplicate for Heartbreaker’s body.  The inventors were able to filter out several values.  Jello’s blood type wasn’t changed.  Nor were her fingerprints.  As I mentioned, her mind and memories were unchanged.  And – in theory, at least – her ova retained her original genetic code.  We weren’t able to test.”

Thuban leaned back on his throne, hiding his clawed hands within his sleeves once more.  “I commissioned and funded the development of the BIT-slicer.  I hoped that it might be a tool to assist members of Faction Three.”  He sighed.  “It may not be as promising as I had hoped.  It only works on exemplars and shapeshifters.  Furthermore, Ruskin – Jello – was unable to retain her shape.  It looked like a perfect success, but twenty minutes later, Ruskin began to melt.  Her BIT – whether her own or this newly imposed copy – is perpetually in flux.  We might imagine giving her a booster dose every twenty minutes, but that’s impractical until we can create a BIT recorder.  For now, her BIT is too fluid for this to be useful.”

“She had the same problem with self-hypnosis,” Jade mused.  “Too suggestible.  New ideas quickly replace any post-hypnotic suggestions.”

“I will continue development, of course, but I had cause to wonder: What would it do to someone whose BIT seemed to be stuck?”

Jade gulped, as a shiver ran down her spine.

“What if there was someone who wanted, more than anything, to be a real girl?  Could she, perhaps, find a ‘donor’ to supply a body template that could be imposed over her own stuck, male form?”

Jade couldn’t help herself.  “Whatever the price – I accept!”

35: Costs

November 15, Wednesday evening, 5:10 PM

“I accept!”

At that exact moment, she felt the telepathic contact of Jann, and heard Jinn’s voice ring out: “I do not accept!”

Jann and Jinn seemed to have been thinking along the same lines (not unexpectedly), for Jann’s thinking matched Jinn’s verbal conditions.

“First, I want proof that this isn’t some new attempt to mess with Team Kimba!”

Thuban rested his head against a taloned hand, gently massaging one temple.  “I could care less about your precious ‘Team Kimba.’  None of those perfect beauty queens hold the least interest for me.  And it’s not because of their ‘alternate sexuality’ – either the gay students or the gender-changers.  Don’t think that all the students in either of those categories live in Poe.  Only the pretty ones.”

He closed his eyes and said quietly, “To those of us in Faction Three, the ‘dilemma’ of being turned into an attractive and popular member of the opposite sex seems like a dream come true.  What you call a problem, we call wallowing in vanity and self-indulgence.”

“But proof of my good intentions?  That would be a challenge.  I’m not going to require you to do anything onerous.  You won’t be serving in a combat role.  If I need fighters, your acquaintance Montana is the least of my resources.  Lackeys and servants can also be obtained in abundance.  I won’t even require you to directly obey me.  You are merely to serve a role.  Provided that you do that to the best of your ability, I will consider our bargain well met.”

“Then explain,” Shroud insisted.  “What’s the nature of your ‘price’?”

Thuban’s slitted eyes glittered coldly.  “Interesting.  The body disagrees with the spirit.  How common in life, yet sublime to see played out in this fashion.  Naturally the passions,” he nodded to Jade “drive forward, while it seems the intellect” now he nodded to Jinn “pauses to consider.  But can the spirit also hold emotions and passion?  That is essential for my plan.”

Jade thought of a laughing cabbit toy.  She had an image of Jinn shaking with terror, as they left the far end of the sewer line, and she remembered the whiplash of emotions during the Tansy affair.  Jann, temporarily taking Jinn’s place, had been as emotional as she was.

“She can be plenty emotional,” Jade insisted.  “Shroud is supposed to be cold and spooky, but Jinn isn’t always like that!  She may not have hormones and stuff, but she still feels plenty!”  It still sometimes felt odd to speak of herself in the third person like that, but she was getting used to it.

“Good.  If there is one absolute requirement I have on this project, it is sincerity.”  He rose from his throne while gesturing negligently to Shroud.  “Fold yourself up or do whatever it is you do.  I have a new body for you to inhabit.”

With two strides, the Mandarin-robed lizard-man strode to the rear of his pavilion.  He jerked aside the curtain to display a body lying on a stone slab of a table.  A body that wasn’t so much corpse-like, but instead seemed to be a statue carved from semi-precious stone.

The figure was medium height, perhaps five-foot-six.  She was very definitely female, with the black leather halter and miniskirt emphasizing rather than concealing her figure.  Her skin was the deep blue of some precious stone, but veined throughout with purest gold.  The gold was repeated at her nails, lips, and hair.  Not a blonde-gold, but a metallic gold.  As Jade moved closer, she realized that the immobile figure didn’t have fingernails, she had talons.  The entire tip of each finger was a sparkling gold spike.  And she had horns!  Blue stone protuberances lengthened the plane of her face, giving her what seemed to be a widow’s peak.

“This is Lazuli.  Step inside,” Thuban urged, gesturing to the body on the slab.  “Try her on, see how she fits.  Bring her to life the way you brought the toy to life.”

Shroud floated over the body, passing her hand over it, and examining the form.  “If this is some kind of trick…”

“Spare me your empty threats.  Besides, I need a willing volunteer.”

Once again, Shroud collapsed down into the simple armored box that was her locker.  Jade felt the memories settle into place, and then stepped forward to touch the statue on the slab.  As always, there was no flash or visible effect.  But a moment later, the statue took a shuddering breath.

Jinn settled into her new body, examining it and feeling it, inside and out.

Oh, that’s a bit of a surprise.

She found herself breathing, or at least, mimicking the motions that a breathing person would make.  Likewise, she blinked, even though she didn’t actually see out of the glassy spheres that looked like eyes.  There was an electronic device in her throat.  It wasn’t exactly Bunny’s design, but she quickly recognized the intention.  The craftsman had even thoughtfully labeled the controls: speech, rumble, growl, purr.  Fortunately, she didn’t need light to read the raised markings.

She pressed the speech button and vibrated the film in the “microphone” end.  “How do I sound?”

“Lower,” Jade said, beside her.  “Sort of husky, or maybe throaty.”

Jinn didn’t really need that evaluation; she could hear herself just fine.  She wondered how to maneuver the thick tail.  Switching quickly to object mode, she moved the tail, then switched back to girl mode to coordinate the rest of her body.  In this fashion, she flicked the tail to the side to help her pivot around and then stand.

“You’ve got a tail!” Jade observed, a bit late.

“Obviously,” Jinn agreed, in her throaty voice.  She wondered how she should play her new persona.  “If I didn’t know better, I would think that scale-boy there modeled me after himself.  Well, parts of me.”  She stood on the ground balancing awkwardly on her ill-formed feet.

“Stand on your toes,” Thuban instructed.  “You should walk like a cat.  Your weight should never come down onto your heels.  You’ll need your tail for balance.”

Jinn noticed that his tone was level, but his skin positively glowed with a rich banquet of emotions.  There was joy and triumph, some greed, and a healthy dose of … lust?  She stood on her toes and tried to look like she was moving her tail appropriately.  It was difficult, since  she had to keep flipping over into object mode.

“And what’s with the black leather cape?  It’s a little heavy for cape material, isn’t it?  Even if she could be a Cape Squad type, which she isn’t.”

Jinn faced her more naïve younger self.  “It isn’t a cape, sister.  These are my wings.”  With that, she unhooked her wing ‘thumbs’ from where they clasped, at the hollow of her neck.  With one tremendous flap, she unfurled her large wings.  Fortunately, the wingspan was just inside her telekinetic reach.  She flapped again, pulling herself aloft.  Of course, it wasn’t actually the wing lift that raised her, it was all telekinesis.  But she could provide the illusion of flying.  She flapped out of the pavilion, flapping through a quick spin around the cavern.  It had been poorly lit when she’d looked at it in her body, but none of that mattered to her in this form, with her unique method of sight.  When she returned, she saw that she and Thuban had moved out of the tent to watch her.  She landed gracefully, moving close to Thuban.

“Like what you see?” she taunted.  She pressed the purr button at the end.

His face gave an even stronger flash of lust and need, but nothing in his expression revealed that.

“We’ll start with you just playing a part,” he said, calmly.  “We will admit up front that Lazuli isn’t real.  You’re a fake, an illusion, although the exact nature of that illusion won’t be revealed.  You are to give the men confidence, and give the women no genuine competition.”

“A bit conflicted, aren’t we?  Besides, if you want me not to scare off the other girls, why’d you burden me with the oversized chest?”  She tugged at her leather halter, as if peering down the front of her own top.  “This whole body’s just some huge stroke fantasy, isn’t it?”

For once, Thuban seemed to be fumbling with his words.  “Not at all!  Your measurements are appropriate for an exemplar three.  There are plenty of girls with more impressive figures.”

“Uh huh.  Stroke fantasy.  I guess it’s up to me to figure out how to make it up to the other girls.”

“You’ll want to practice before the meeting next Tuesday.  ”  He handed a DVD to Jade.  “Lazuli is based on a TV series.  Study the disk to learn how you should move, and the mannerisms to duplicate.”

“What about the BIT-slicer machine?” Jade demanded.

“Find a donor for the template you’ll copy,” Thuban advised.  “We may be able to manage a session as early as next Monday.”

36: Body shopping

November 15, Wednesday evening, 6:15 PM

Jade sat quietly through dinner.  Her mind seethed with turmoil from her meeting with Thuban.  She had accepted an acting role with a twist that was uniquely Whateley, but what occupied her mind with the stunning revelation of the BIT-slicer.  Find yourself a donor, Thuban had said.  Pointed questions had revealed that she could retain her own face, hair, and other details, but the majority of her body image would be derived from her ‘donor’ template.

But who?

Nikki caught the eye first.  She had long, graceful legs.  Her hands and feet were both dainty and delicate, which Jade appreciated.  Nikki had the largest bust at the table, being a C-cup even though she was only fourteen.  Jade wondered how big the poor girl would eventually get.  Her large bust combined with her tiny waist gave her easily the best figure at the table.  Her gorgeous, exotic face and wild red hair topped it off for a truly stunning package.  Jade stared at her in bemusement, imagining herself with that body.  She’d never even dared imagine herself as a C-cup.  That would make people notice her!  What would it be like to straining the seams of her blouse every time she inhaled, or to have all the boys staring at her?  Unless… would she prefer to have all the girls staring at her?

Either prospect was intriguing, and frightening.  It was nice to fantasize, but she figured that even after the change, she might bind herself down so that her changes weren’t so fast or so obvious.  That made her grin in goofy delight.  The idea of strapping herself down because her breasts were too big…!

But what if she also picked up Nikki’s allergies?  Jade certainly couldn’t afford Nikki’s wardrobe.  And then she remembered that Nikki wasn’t an exemplar.  In fact, she wasn’t an avatar either.  The doctors seemed a little puzzled by Nikki, which made plenty of sense given how she puzzled everyone else, too.  No, Nikki wouldn’t be able to provide a template for the BIT-slicer, so she was out.

Well then, how about Toni?  She was slimmer in the waist and hips than Nikki, which suited Jade fine.  Toni was a B-cup, which was also less frightening.  And Toni’s bust on her sleek body gave her a figure that was as dramatic as Nikki’s.  Best of all, Toni was definitely an exemplar, which the process required.

But… Toni wasn’t quite finished transitioning.  There was something about cracking her hips or something, Jinn was fuzzy on the details, but she thought she’d better not take the body of anyone who wasn’t ready for childbirth.  She thought that Toni was having periods, but Jinn wanted a body that could bear children, even if she decided to wait for quite a few years.

Her main problem was that Toni was black.  She thought they could probably “filter” for skin color (whatever that meant).  Heck, if they could leave her blood type unaltered, they could probably fix the skin.  But Jade realized with a bit of shame that she wasn’t as free of prejudice as she hoped.  She loved and respected her sempai, but she didn’t want to be black herself.  She wanted to change her gender, not her race.  And while she admired Toni’s figure, she didn’t want to stop being Japanese.  She wasn’t sure that race mattered, once you dropped below the surface of the skin, but that didn’t change her feelings.

She realized that, because of her own prejudice, she’d only be comfortable taking a template from one of the Asian girls.

Chou had a substantial figure that was also trim and athletic.  But Billie…!

She’d done her roommate’s laundry enough to know that Billie took a 32-B bra.  She was close enough to Jinn’s seventeen-year-old dimensions for them to share bras (she’d tried once, as a joke) – although Jinn was a small B, where as Billie was an ample B.  She knew what the other girl looked like, clothed and naked, happy, sad, sweaty, and freshly bathed.  And there was a connection there.  There was no one in the school she was closer to.  Come to that, there was no one in the world (still living) that she was closer to.

She thought of the countless times she had watched Billie in secret jealousy.  She’d never imagined that one day that body might be hers.  She tried to suppress a giggle, as she stared at Billie, imagining her naked.  That could be me!  I could walk like that, move like that!  I could have that flare in my skirt, those long, perfect legs.  That could be me, squeezed into a tight sweater and filling it so attractively.

She would never have Billie’s beautiful face or amazing eyes or devilish smile.  But she would have a womb.  A real womb nestled in the bowl of her hips.  She would have children one day, growing inside her body.  Billie had been having periods for months now, and her hips certainly seemed wide enough for easy childbirth.

“—I said, HELLO!” Toni yelled in her ear.

Riptide waxed poetic.  “Look at that vacant gaze, that goofy grin, the subtle line of drool – our little girl’s become a dyke.  I’m so proud!”

That partially snapped Jade out of her daze.  “Huh?  What?”

“So she was staring at me!” Billie yelled.  “Big deal!”

Trying to look inconspicuous, Jade focused her attention on her casserole.

“Naw, face it, Tennyo,” Rip said, “she wants your body.”

Jade almost swallowed her spoon.  “How did you—?”  Then she realized what the water-worker was talking about.  “WHAT?  Ewww, no way!  That’s like incest, isn’t it?”

“Uh, Jade, it’s only incest if we’re related,” Billie explained.  Then seeing everyone’s eyes on her, she began to panic, too.  “Wait, that came out wrong!  I didn’t mean it would be okay … Jade!  You know what I meant!  Help me!”

But Jade’s mind had already moved to imagining what it would be like to have a body that was a near copy of Billie’s.  Then they would be related, even closer than sisters.  More like half-twins or something.

Only… now that she had embarrassed the heck out of Billie, how was she going to ask for such a huge favor?

November 16, Thursday evening, 6:40 PM

“Come on!” Billie bellowed, “you guys aren’t going to miss the dance, are you?”

Nikki blushed.  It was a skill the redhead excelled at, and the girls watched as the pink tinge first coated the elven girl’s face, then traveled down her neck and well into her cleavage.  “I was going to help Bunny … study.”

Toni was looking heavenward.  “Thank you, God, for giving me a decent skin color.”

“How far down does that blush go?” Chou asked.

“Come on,” Toni protested.  “You must have noticed in the showers.”

“I’ve… uh… I’ve been trying not to ogle the other girls in the showers.”  The Asian teenager gave her own blush, which was partially concealed by a more forgiving skin tone.

“Christ almighty,” Ayla let out.  “This is Poe!  Every single one of those girls is either a lesbo checking you out, or a T-girl, peeking to see how far along your transition is.  Are you telling me that you never look?”

“Well,” the admission was almost a whisper, “I’ve been trying not to.”  Then Chou seemed to realize something about her roommate.  “Besides, who are you to make accusations like that?  It’s not like you’re studying the view either!  You zoom in and out like it’s some sort of race!”

“Yeah, well,” the punk girl defended, “you have any idea how hard it is to do anything in the girl’s bathroom without getting a raging hard-on?  It has been pointed out to me on more than one occasion that the compliment is not appreciated.”

“They aren’t really checking us all out like that, are they?” Jade asked with some trepidation.

“Don’t worry,” Billie comforted.  “It’s not like you’ve got any worries along that line.  I don’t think any of them care about kiddie porn, and even if you haven’t finished transitioning, it’s obvious you’re a girl.”

Ayla rolled her eyes.  “She’s saying that since you haven’t even got the first wisp of a bush, it’s pretty plain to everyone that your dingle doesn’t dangle.”  Everyone just stared at her.  “She’s got a slot, not a pole, okay?”

Privately, Jade was mortified.  They were checking her out!  If it wasn’t for her telekinetic tuck, they would have tagged her as a phony long ago.  Her “female” anatomy was achieved by taking the extra flesh of her boy-sack and then using her powers to tuck, pull, stretch, and fake what she should have looked like, if she hadn’t been born into this freakish male body.

But soon!  As soon as she could get up the nerve to ask Billie.  How would she do it?  Excuse me, Billie, but you’re my closest friend and I really love you and I was wondering if you’d let some people connect you up to some really gross machine so that I could steal your body and then we’d be just like twins and we could be like friends and sisters forever.

Hmmm, maybe that wasn’t quite right.  Besides, they wouldn’t be twins if she didn’t have Billie’s face.  And she doubted that she’d be getting any of Billie’s powers.  She didn’t think it worked that way for Jello.  So, maybe not twins, but a big-sister, little-sister thing?

She wondered if she’d pick up Billie’s scent.  The taller girl always smelled really good: a sort of peach and ozone, with just a hint of girl-musk.

“…I might show up later,” Toni was saying.  “It all depends.  I’ve got a hot date tonight, and he said he wanted to surprise me.”

Fortunately, Riptide wasn’t around to hear that comment.

“I’m definitely going,” Chou said.

Billie gave the Chinese girl a wide-toothed grin.  “Going to rendezvous with your little snuggle-bunny Molly?”

“No, she’s busy – HEY!  That’s none of your business!”

Jade knew she should practice with the equipment Thuban had given her.  “I need to do some studying, but I don’t want to miss the dance.  I think I’ll stay, but Jinn will go.”  And if she stuck close to Billie, maybe she’d get a chance to ask her.

“Let me shower and change and we’ll take off,” Billie decided.

Back in the room, Jade couldn’t seem to keep her eyes off her roommate.  Billie was odd.  Sometimes, she would get so overcome with modesty that she’d completely cover up.  But when she wasn’t thinking about it, she’d strut around in the nude as if she was the most confident person in the universe.  As if she, in the buff, was tough enough to take on any threat that might appear.  As if she was woman enough to out-vamp any other girl in the state.  Maybe any other girl in the world.  As if she was lover enough to … Jade wasn’t sure.  Lover enough to capture whoever or whatever she wanted, and make them hers forever.  The details were fuzzy for Jade, but the astounding confidence and utter magnetism of the taller girl were undeniable.  Even if she got the body, she’d never have the personality.  But that was okay, she was happy to be herself.  Besides, the world only needed one Tennyo.

Right now, Billie was fresh out of the shower, stark naked, and swaying and dancing as she moved around the room, impossibly light on her feet.  Her legs were long and athletic and smooth.  The stretch of muscle didn’t need heels to bring out the beauty in the lines of her calves and the back of her thighs.  Billie’s backside was an inverted heart, rounded but curving smoothly inward to a tight waist.  The girl’s back displayed trim muscles and the shifting outlines of ribs, spine, and shoulder blades, but it had enough flesh to soften the lines.  Her neck was long and slender, and that took you to Billie’s improbable head, with her peculiar out-jutting ears and the spiky cascade of silken hair that was unique to her.

Her naked roommate bent, searching through her panty drawer, flashing Jade just a hint of her feminine secrets.  Billie stepped into a lacy pair of sky blue high-cut panties and then pulled them up snugly.  She rooted through her brassieres for a moment, before snorting and abandoning the effort.  Instead, she slipped into a camisole, and put a satiny blue-green leotard over that.  She didn’t actually jiggle that much, but the two prominent points made it clear what she wasn’t wearing.

I wonder what that feels like? Jade wondered in awe.  Would I dare to go braless?  She loved wearing camisoles.  What would it feel like to wear one properly, with breasts of her own inside to give it a proper shape?  What would her cotton camisole feel like against the soft swell of her own breasts?  What if she bought a silk camisole, or satin?

“You okay, Jade?  You going to get ready?”

“Right!” the younger girl nodded eagerly.

Jade’s closet was much less interesting than her roommate’s.  It was hung with a bare half-dozen outfits (not including assorted sizes of school uniforms), and a grisly collection of flayed human skins.  Or that’s what they appeared to be.  They were actually rubbery plastic “pours” of false skin that she’d made in costuming workshop.  She picked out a full-body suit and charged herself into it.

As always, it was a thrill to come alive as Jinn.  She settled into her skin and then had a second thought.  She reached for the metal locker and then held it out to her kid-self.  “Better have the full package,” she advised herself.

Jade reached out and charged her again, incorporating the locker full of tools and weapons.

The full-body skin only had a few seams.  Her scalp pulled up from the back of her head where hair covered the seam.  After she “swallowed” her other supplies, the seam was sealed closed on the inside using a modern miracle binding known as Velcro.

Jinn picked out a black polyester halter, a miniskirt, and a matching set of cuffed gloves and ankle boots.

“The black two-piece outfit again?” her roommate chided.  “You always wear that.  Or something close.  And what’s with all the black?”

Jinn flicked her fingers up as she counted.  “First, I’m seventeen.  And while I have a certain fondness for Hello Kitty, you have all made it quite clear that it’s barely tolerable for an eleven-year-old, and completely unacceptable for an older teenager.”

“Yeah, unless you’re making an ironic statement, which you can’t carry off worth a damn.”

“Two, black coordinates well.  Three, it’s got a sort of ‘see, I’m Shroud, too’ thing going.  Lastly, I’m running out of ways to use the same five pieces of wardrobe.  You know, if it wasn’t for school uniforms, I wouldn’t have had anything to wear to class after the first week.”

Jade watched them getting dressed, herself and her roommate.  Billie looked so pretty as she finished her outfit.  The under layer was a teal body stocking, with a high collar and billowing sleeves.  The color complimented her hair perfectly.  Over that, she had a pink vest with a matching full skirt.  The vest served primarily to draw attention to her bust, while the skirt billowed and wrapped around her legs as she moved.  Finally, a high, wide, black belt cinched just under her chest, further emphasizing her ample bosom.  The high-waisted outfit would have been out of place on most girls, but Billie had longer legs and a shorter torso than most girls, and this outfit took advantage of that.

The older girl noticed her gaze and explained.  “I’ve been dying to wear this somewhere,” she admitted.  “I picked it up back in Boston, but I never had the nerve to put it on.  What do you think?”  She did a pirouette in mid-air, forgetting to drop back to the ground when she finished.

I think you’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen, and I am so happy and so jealous and I wish I could be you, Jade thought.  Aloud, all she whispered was, “It’s really, really nice.  It’s … it’s beautiful!”  She blushed, realizing that she was going too far, so she quickly corrected with, “I’m a little surprised the colors work, but they do.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah.  It’s perfect with your hair!  And I especially like the vest.  It’s like it hides the fact that you aren’t wearing… you know.  But if any of the boys peek in at the side, I’ll bet you’ll really tease them.”

Billie pulled out the fabric of her top.  “Is it bad?  Should I wear a bra?”

“That look is way sexy!  Is that what you want?  Or are bras really that bad?”  She had a personal reason for asking.

“Well, I guess they’re not so bad, it’s mostly just the principle of it.  And I admit, it sometimes feels like I’m getting rope burn or something when I slide around inside my blouse.  The camisole helps.”  She reached under her vest to rub the tip of one breast.  “But it’s a little more comfortable without a bra.  If I do a lot of dancing, I sometimes sweat in the band.  It’s much cooler to do without, so I think I’ll skip it.”

“How about me?” Jinn asked.  She launched into the air as well, spreading her arms wide in a spin.  She also neglected to return to the ground.

“You’re good,” Billie said, without much enthusiasm.

“But?”

“Well…” the admission reluctantly came “…polyester?  That same outfit would be really hot if you did it in black leather.  Or maybe even denim.  You can’t use the money argument all the time, because I know you’ve gotten some good paychecks recently.”

“True,” Jinn confessed.  “But it was either clothes or guns.  And… and…”

Jade remembered the other good news.  “And Bunny said she would finished my ‘egg-splosive’ missiles by the end of the week!”  It was exciting enough to get her mind – momentarily – off the prospect of achieving her dream.  “Once I buy the factory unit, I’ll only have to pay for raw materials.  Her ‘factory’ egg will hatch out as many missiles as I need!  Ha ha ha ha!”

Billie narrowed her eyes at the deranged child.  “You had the money for clothes and you used it to buy weapons instead?”

Jinn took up the conversation with a supercilious air.  “Look, I’m sure that mega-destructive plasma blasts are all very nice and all, but it’s not my fault that you can’t appreciate the beauty and elegance of multi-purpose ordinance with a self-guided missile delivery system.”

“What ‘self-guided missile’?  You told me you were just going to charge Jann into tiny bombs and fly them down your opponent’s throat!  What kind of—” her eyes narrowed in realization.  “Wait a minute… you haven’t been watching Project A-Ko again, have you?”

“Uh, well, it was playing in the lounge.  There isn’t very much lesbian comedy animé around, so the other girls keep putting it on.  And if I’m passing through, I maybe stop to watch a couple of minutes.”

“Uh huh.  Come on, Jinn.  Let’s see if Chou is ready.”

Before she left, Jade took her roommate’s hand.  “Uh… Billie?  Tennyo-san?”

“Yeah?  What’s wrong?”

“I…” she was suddenly too shy to ask.  “I just wanted you to have a good time.”

“Oh.  Thanks.”

The three of them were fairly cheerful as they made their way toward Emerson, but Jinn could see emotions.  There was no way for the other two girls to hide their apprehension.

“So, you’re feeling it too?” she asked, broaching the taboo subject.

“Pretty hard not to,” Chou said quietly.  “Halloween was supposed to be just a dance, like this.  Instead…”

Billie was typically gruff.  “I refuse to be traumatized, just because some bastards thought a dance would be a good time to catch us off guard.  I’m going to have a good time!  And if anyone tries anything this time…!”  She held up a fist that glowed with disturbing power.

Chou recoiled immediately.  Even to Jinn, the energies that swirled around Billie’s fist seemed almost like a blasphemy on the face of creation.  It was a feeling that was almost reminiscent of the terror she’d felt at the farthest end of the sewer tunnels.  And that had definitely fallen under the classification of “blasphemy.”  That had been like a gaping, pustulent wound in the fabric of reality.

“Stop that!” Chou shouted in desperation.

“Sorry.”  Billie’s hand went back to normal.

“Do you have any idea what that was?”

“Some idea, yeah.  If I hit someone with that, they’re dead.  I mean, really dead.”

“You hit them with that,” the Taoist girl pronounced, “and death with be the least of their worries.  I think I’d rather feed them to Sara.”

“Guys, guys!”  Jinn quickly floated in between the two girls.  “We’re here for the dance, remember?  Fun and good times!”

“Yeah,” Chou agreed.  “Maybe you’re right, Tennyo.  If anyone’s dumb enough to hit us twice in a row, they deserve some serious pain.”

“You know,” Jinn realized, “I think this is the first time that just the three of us have been out.”

“So?” Billie asked bluntly.

“Well, I mean, we’re the three Asian girls, right?  That’s got to be good for something.”

“I suppose,” Chou allowed.  “I guess I never quite thought of it, not originally being Chinese.  And people have certainly been treating me different, but it’s sometimes hard to tell whether it’s because I’m Chinese, or because I’m a girl.”  She considered it.  “I suppose we have a bit in common.  We all do martial arts.”

“Some of us better than others,” Jinn said with a touch of jealousy, looking at Chou.

“We all use swords,” Billie suggested.  “Though you’ll pardon me if I don’t bring mine out.  I still sometimes have trouble putting it back away again.”

“I’ve heard,” Chou said, dryly.  “Wait a minute.  Since when did you use a sword, Jinn?”

Billie smirked.  “Show her.”

Jinn sighed.  “On our way to the dance?  Well…”  She held her right hand out.  “You know Harry Wolfe, Billie’s friend?  He helped me with a little surprise.”  With a deadly sounding –CHANG– a foot-long blade shot forward out of her hand.

Chou’s eyes bugged out at the sudden appearance of the double-edged blade.  She couldn’t help giving a slight backwards leap and settling into a stance.  By the time she thought to look more closely, Jinn’s gloves had vanished away somewhere, so that now the girl appeared to have normal fleshy arms, black fabric wrist bands, and blades instead of hands.  They weren’t quite short swords, but they were a lot longer than daggers.

“Sorry,” Jinn said, chuckling.  “I only train with them when I’m up against an invulnerable sparring partner.  And you haven’t been around for sparring, not since you started all that sword training.”  As she spoke, the blades slowly withdrew back inside her arms.  A moment later, her gloves seemed to unfold from somewhere inside the wrist area.  The wrist bands rotated for a moment, then her gloved hands resumed their normal appearance.

“So anyway,” Jinn said, still amused, “I guess this applies to both of you.  How do you do it?  Sword combat, I mean.  Isn’t it pretty hard to fight someone without it turning really serious?  I mean, like deadly maiming lethal bloody serious?  How do you fight that way?”

“I haven’t used my sword on any people,” Billie admitted.  “Ugg.  There’d be nothing left but well-cooked chunks.”

“I’ve fought some against demons,” Chou said.  “That’s not the same thing.  I don’t feel any guilt over slicing one of them up.  People… so far I’ve fought mainly to disarm and pin.  That’s really more of a sword-versus-sword style.  You’re not fighting the person, so much as their sword.  I suppose I should watch for that, since I might overlook a crippling or lethal shot in a real fight.  Also, most of the time I leave Destiny’s Wave in her sheath.”

So, as girls are prone to do, the three Asian-looking girls bonded a little closer while discussing those topics that are closest to a young girl’s heart: proper slashing techniques, when to take a life, and how to clean bloodstains out of silk.

37: I want your body!

November 15, Wednesday evening, 6:35 PM

After making sure no one was up to anything in the hall outside, Jade opened her laptop and connected a set of headphones.  Sliding Thuban’s disk in, she selected “play.”  She was the only one of her that could do this, since she needed to be in her physical body to see a computer screen.  Fortunately, the laptop could double as a DVD player.

That same screen cleared a moment later, and as the show began, a logo appeared: “Gargoyles.”

From the headphones, a narration began.  “It was an age of darkness…”

The party became evident as they reached the stretch of parkway between Emerson and Twain.  Normally, the brick path that wound between the cottages was an empty trail with overhanging oaks, occasional clearings, and benches convenient for either picnicking or warm-weather study.  Now, that space was transformed.

As they passed Emerson, they noticed that nearly every window was open, and in every open window, there was a stereo speaker.  The wall of sound was impressive, but not as impressive as the speaker towers in the central clearing.

“It’s WARS,” Billie realized.

“What?” Chou sounded concerned.

“Whateley Academy Radio Station.  They must be doing DJ duty, so everyone can pick it up on FM.”

Jinn gave a humorless grin.  “I guess this means that we won’t be able to squash Greasy and Peeper if we see them at the dance.  Too many witnesses.”

“I’ll bet they volunteered,” Billie speculated. “Those guys must be desperate for a little support about now.”

The beat became more powerful as they approached the “stomp stage.”  Early in the school’s history it had been discovered that too many ultra-heavy types dancing in unison would create vibrations powerful enough to collapse any tunnel or building nearby.  The solution, used ever since, was the “stomp stage”: an elevated platform designed to damp the vibrations it transmitted down the support legs.  At the same time, the stage acted as a sort of giant tympanic surface, becoming the world’s largest drum.  When the heavies could get their act together, they made an unbelievable rhythm.  The girls were still several hundred feet away, and Jinn could already feel the waves of sound pulsing through her body.

“Wanna do some groupie dances around the stomp stage?” she asked them.

“No, I’m going to check out the kata dancers,” Chou said.  “I got an informal invite from a couple of the Dragons yesterday.  I think I might give them a chance.  Besides, I want to see if I recognize anyone’s moves.  How about you guys?  You’re both as good as any of the freshman Dragons.  Why not come on by?”

“I think I’ve got the urge to fly,” Billie confessed.  “How about you, Jinn?”

“Can we join the pattern around the Stomp Stage?”

Billie rolled her eyes.  “Do we have to?  I want to go wider.”

With a wave, the two of them split from Chou and headed toward the illumination stand.  When they got there, they saw a second booth set up next to it.  The second booth had a tall black boy (at least, Jinn assumed he was black, based on his dreadlocks, the sunglasses he hid behind, and the patter he spoke).  Next to him was a girl – Jinn got the mild impression she was white, with her hair in a thick braid.

“You, you flyer types, check it out.  Prototypes to show off your flyin’ skillz.  Free samples, you hear what I’m sayin?”

Billie sauntered up.  “What have you got?”

“Yo, the name’s ‘Dredz.’  Got somethin’ new for you sky dancers, hear?  Vital equipment.”

“Cut to the chase,” Billie advised him.

The boy sighed and let a bit of his accent lapse.  “Yeah, so there I was, working on my laser shield.  Piece o’ crap that don’t work worth shit.  Then along comes the Red Lensman here,” he gestured to the girl, “and she’s, like, all over me, offerin’ to help out.  When we’re done it still won’t stop spit, but it puts out one fine glow.  Leaves a little trail of sparkles, you know, that Tinker Bell shit.  Just the thing for a flyer to be wearin’ at a dance like this one.  Once we get the last bugs out, we’re goin’ to start renting ‘em out, maybe pick up a few Benjamins, hear?”

The girl next to him was apparently trying to massage away a migraine.  She translated, “Next dance we’ll be renting them out, but since these are prototypes, we’re just offering them as samples and to see if there’s anything we still need to adjust.  Hi, I’m Loophole, by the way.”

Billie nodded.  “Tennyo.  Pleased to meet you.”

“Whoa, hold up there, chika!”  Dredz snatched back the slim backpack.  “My homie told me all about this one!  No offense, Babezilla, but you attract a bit too much property damage for our expensive little prototype, hear me?”

Billie’s face started to cloud up, when Dredz put up his hand in protest.  “No, no, don’t get me wrong.  Got nothing but respect for you.  Deep respect.  You got the power, you got the moves, you the slayer.”

“Star Stalker, actually,” Billie muttered under her breath.

“Ain’t got nothing but respect.  But our poor little hardware isn’t quite ready for major damage.  You followin’ me?”

Billie made a rude noise.  “Let’s get some sparklers, Jinn.”

“Yo, don’t have to go away mad!  The ghost girl’s fine by me, I’d be happy to slide her my package, hear?”

“Uh, I’m with her,” Jinn said, following Billie.

Loophole slumped down, rubbing her head once more.  She glared at her partner.  “Word,” she muttered.  “Dirty word.”

Jade was engrossed in the show.  Thuban had sent her home with a cartoon!  It wasn’t any animé she’d seen before, though something about the style was reminiscent.  She understood why Thuban liked it, though.  It would be perfect for his Faction Three.  Each of the heroes were members of a race of monsters, called “gargoyles.”  No two of them looked alike, and they were shunned and feared by humans.  But each of them was a heroic warrior.  Each of them had their own personality and dreams and foibles.  Despite their hideous appearance, they were all wonderful people.

And they were totally loyal to each other.

She wondered whether this show had been chosen to help Faction Three, or whether the show had been the inspiration for Faction Three.

The big trick would be to convince mutated humans to behave with the nobility and confidence that the gargoyles in the cartoon had shown.  Thuban clearly wanted the members of Faction Three to look at each other the same way the gargoyles saw each other:  not as a bewildering array of monsters, but as members of a broader family – each different, but with their own strengths.

She snorted, as a realization came together.  With Lazuli’s blue-stone body, the form Thuban had given her was plainly intended to be a gargoyle.  That explained what he meant by, “playing a part” and “we’ll admit that you aren’t real.”  And she was certain that the dragon-man would be showing the cartoon series at his meetings – probably as a sort of episodic thing.  As the token gargoyle, she would represent all the values Thuban wanted to express through that show.

Or to put it in the harshest terms, if the school freaks were going to learn to accept each other, to love and trust their fellows, she would have to teach them.  She would have to become their example.

And she hadn’t even been able to accept Toni-sempai for her BIT-donor, because of her skin color.

Gosh, thanks so much, Thuban.

With a sigh, she started the next episode.

“Slow down!” Jinn called to Billie, as the Cyan-haired girl shot up in the sky.  Jinn was decent as a flier, but she sure couldn’t match her roommate.

They rose up to about 80 feet, then she noticed what Billie was looking at.  Ahead of them, soaring in an elegant glide, was the white-winged form of Mary Goodhope.  Mary carried a pair of flickering sparklers, one in each hand.

Billie already had hers out, and Jinn quickly grabbed two from her locker.

Billie called ahead.  “Hey Mary, got a light?”

As Mary spread her wings wide for a smooth glide, Billie flipped over on her back, then slid in under the winged girl.  They came together until they were face to face, close enough to kiss.  Mary held her arms straight ahead and Billie matched the pose, lighting her sparklers off of Mary’s.  Once Billie’s sparklers caught, she peeled off, doing a couple of quick loops around the winged girl, her sparklers blazing like twin comets.

Jinn flipped over on her back, and performed the same maneuver.

Unlike most light sources, Jinn could actually tell when her sparklers were lit since small flecks were ejected as it burned.  She couldn’t see the light, couldn’t feel the heat, but she could see the flecks as they sputtered off.  She could also hear the telltale hiss.

She was the slowest flier of the three, but she was more maneuverable than Angel.  Billie was both fast and maneuverable.  For the three of them to keep together, Angel had to slow down a bit, and allow the other girls to perform more complex maneuvers around her as she swooped and glided.  She and Billie tried a few sky dances, the spiral, the ring belt, but when the song ended they waved to Mary and went their own way.

“Billie?” Jinn asked tentatively.

“Yeah?”

“You don’t mind me following you, do you?”  It was uncharacteristically timid for her.  As Jinn, she was usually much more confident.

“Naw, I don’t mind.  It’s more fun to be in a group.  Although… if I see any cute guy fliers, I’m dumping you.”

Jinn laughed back, as they burned up their sparklers, racing across the sky, weaving in and around the other sky dancers.

After a few more dances, Billie swooped down for some of the punch.  Jinn followed, though she didn’t need a drink, and couldn’t consume it in any case.

Billie immediately began to attract a crowd, but she rocketed up to treetop level to drink her punch.

“This is what Halloween should have been like,” the spiky-haired girl decided.

“You going to try dancing with any of the guys?”

Billie took another sip to hide her face, even though Jade could see the color of embarrassment clearly lighting up her skin.  “Uh, guys.  Well, yeah, probably.  Maybe in another couple of dances.”  She sighed wistfully.  “You ever feel like you know what your body is telling you, but your spirit isn’t quite ready for it?”

She looked at Jinn then suddenly glowed with regret.  “Oops, sorry.  I didn’t mean it like that.”

“That’s okay—” Jinn began.

“No, I’m really sorry.  Anyway, I don’t mean to say that we’re in the same boat at all.  I … like … being a girl.  I mean, a lot.  But sometimes, I’m not sure that I’m ready for all the stuff that comes with it, you know?  Like how Toni is always kissing and stuff, and just how many people is she going out with, anyway?  I’m not sure I’m cut out for that, you know?”

Jinn nodded seriously.  She’d had similar thoughts herself.  Was this her opportunity to ask?

“And Nikki,” Billie continued, “I mean, for all her protests, she sure jumped in with both feet, didn’t she?”

“You’re always hanging off Hank,” Jinn pointed out.

“Well, sure.  Because he’s safe.  I mean, I know he’s not seriously interested in me, so I can play around with stuff, without worrying about it getting serious or hurting anyone.  That’s why I’m glad he’s seeing Wall Flower, although I’m not convinced the girl is good enough for him.”

“Billie?”  Jinn thought this might be her best chance to ask.

“After all, what do we really know about that girl?”

“Billie?”

“She comes out of nowhere.  Did you know that security arrested her on like her first day on campus?  Does that sound like the kind of girl Hank needs?”

“Can I ask a … favor?”

“And he’s part of Team Kimba, right?  Not some junior Star League or whatever.”  She humphed.  Then, “What kind of favor?”

Jinn took a metaphorical breath.  “Well, I’m doing a job for Thuban (and I can’t tell you what that is because it’s secret, but it doesn’t affect any of us) and the way he bribed me was by showing me this new devisor invention called a ‘BIT-slicer’ that copies the Body Image Template from one person and transfers it to another only they can adjust it so that my face would be the same and other stuff like fingerprints but if it works I could become, you know, my dream would finally come true and I really, really want that only I need someone to be the ‘donor’ for the body part of the template and I looked at everyone but you’re the person who’s closest to me and I was hoping that you felt like I did that we really getting close like if we’d been born sisters or something and I really like you and this isn’t just because you look so incredibly beautiful, although who would mind having your figure, you know? And I’m afraid you won’t because you have to be naked when they connect you up to the machine and it looked super embarrassing but I really need someone and more than anyone else I was hoping it would be you even though you don’t have to if you don’t want to, and I’ll understand, but if you would I’d be grateful forever.”  Having finally got it out, she just stared at Billie, waiting for the other girl’s reaction.

Billie blinked once.  “Uh, was there a question in there?”

Jinn nodded.  When she was Jinn and not Jade she tried so hard to act like she was really seventeen, but sometimes the mask slipped.  She thought that maybe it had just slipped pretty severely.  “Do you think… maybe… you could help me?”

Billie scratched behind one ear in embarrassment.  “Well, the thing is, my blood is kind of … different.  Remember the Boston Brawl?  I blew myself out of that ice cube by letting some blood out, and it’s sometimes kind of explosive.  I don’t think you’d survive.”

Jinn nodded, trying not to show how crushed she was.  “I understand.  Hey, how come you don’t blow up or whatever whenever you get cut?  You’ve taken some pretty bad wounds.”

“Has to be under special circumstances,” Billie explained.  “Normally my blood just sort of steams and evaporates.”

“But they said they had to filter out the blood changes anyway.  I think they normally do that.  Even a little thing like changing your blood type might kill you.”

Billie looked worried.  “What if I hurt you?  I couldn’t stand it, if it was my fault.”

Jinn smiled.  “It wouldn’t be you hurting me, it would be my responsibility.  And I’m more than willing to take the chance.”

The other girl frowned.  “I don’t know.  Hey, did you say ‘naked’?  And just how embarrassing are we talking, here?”

“Uh, it looked a little worse than a pelvic exam.”

“WORSE?” Billie thundered.  “Worse than a pelvic exam?”

Jinn nodded, cringing.

Billie floated in a sitting position, scowling sightlessly out at the dance below.  “I hope you know that I wouldn’t do this for ANYone else!”

Jinn looked up, barely able to believe what she was hearing.

“And they’d better do a DAMN good job of convincing me this will be safe for you!”

Jinn flung her arms around her roommate.  “Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you!”

Two shows gave her an idea of what this person should act like.  Now she needed to try it on her own.  Jade charged up a Jamie (Jamie Bond, the SpySpeck), who circled the perimeter of the room, looking for peepers, observers, cameras, or anything else.

It’s too bad my spirit-form can’t see electronic signals, she thought.  That would make it a lot easier to check for bugs and stuff.

Instead, she activated Bunny’s “anti-nano” egg.  Several weeks back, a devisor down on the guy’s end of the hall had discovered nano-sized spies infesting the dorm.  Several of the girls had taken up the task of stopping the intrusions.  One of the guys had created a multi-purpose jamming device, with a signal strong enough to overpower any nano or micro transmitters that weren’t shielded.  Shielded nano-bugs were no longer microscopic, so they could be searched out the old-fashioned way.  Bunny had cranked out a few copies of the invention, which she called “anti-nano” eggs.

Satisfied with her precautions, Jade took Jamie back.  She pulled a small white box the size of a pack of cigarettes from her purse.  She charged it, and waited while the box floated in mid-air.  Abruptly, the box vanished.

“Cloaking’s good,” she told herself.  “It’s not quite invisible – I can still see the outline, but it’s pretty good.  Try doing some sort of stealthy sneaking along the floor or wall.”

The nearly invisible box complied, flying into a corner and then moving along the wall.  If she hadn’t been looking, she would have missed it completely.

“Great,” she said.  “Come on out.”

The box became plain-white visible again, then the top flipped open.  And then the impossible happened.  A hand reached out of the opening.  The hand was larger than the opening, larger than the entire box.  It was as if the mouth of the box contained some sort of magnifying glass, enlarging everything that passed through, making it nearly a dozen times larger.

First a hand and arm came out of the opening.  It wasn’t human, it was a deep blue veined with gold.  Then came a gold-haired horned head, followed by a black-winged body.  In moments, a tall, blue-skinned demon-girl stood in the room.  She grabbed the floating box and briskly slid it into a small pocket on the side of her leather miniskirt.

“Look?”  The demoness asked.  Jade tended to skip a lot of words when she talked to herself.  She was asking, How do I look?

“Fine,” Jade answered.  “Or as Toni-sempai would say, ‘fiiiine.’  How’s it feel?”

The demoness stretched her black, leathery wings wide.  She gave a few tentative flaps, then settled them around her shoulders like a black cape.  “Feels like our Shroud-cloak.  Needs some adapting.  Not too bad.”  She softly touched her ample bosom.  “I feel it here, when I flap.”

“Well, duh,” Jade agreed.  “That’s why birds have such a prominent breast bone.”

“Not like I’m using muscle,” the tall blue girl protested.  “Let’s try some tail exercises.”

Lazuli began to swing her tail from side to side, practicing her walk as she did so.

“Not quite natural.  You need to swing in sync with your gait.  And with hips that wide, you ought to have a bit more sway when you walk.  Heck, since you’re always standing on your toes, it’s practically like you’re in invisible high-heels, isn’t it?  Think high heels, and try the walk again.”

Jinn held the hips of the boy in front of her, as he walked up the side of the cottage.  Billie had finally taken off to try her courage dancing with some boys.  Jinn had gleefully waved her off, still buoyed by the joy and anticipation from Billie’s agreement.  So she joined the wall-crawler’s conga line as they danced up the side of Emerson, and across the peak of the roof.  Afterward, someone started a line dance, and the fliers started a second and then a third layer up in the air.  It was a lot like the Halloween party, but with less death and explosions.

Singing through her all the while was exultation at the knowledge that Billie would do it for her.  She would have her chance to be a real girl.

Truthfully, dancing was more fun when you had a physical body.  But she had never had a better time.

38: Bring back my body to me

November 18, Saturday afternoon, 2:23 PM

Toni munched a carrot stick as she sprawled over her bed.  “So what’s the problem?  You told her you’d do it, right?  You still worried about the danger?”

Billie crossed her arms under her chest and frowned.  It wasn’t a scowl, but she was obviously exasperated.  “The problem is that I want my life back!  Lately, Jade’s gotten really clingy.  Half the time she’s staring at me and you’ve seen that look of hers!  It’s practically drooling.”

Toni snorted.  “You mean, the one where she’s the rabbi and you’re the world’s last uncircumcised boy?”

Billie rolled her eyes.  “Where do you come up with these?  And can we skip the whole circumcision thing?  It’s a bit too close.”

“Okay, the look where she’s Mad Max, and you’re the last gas for 500 miles.”

“Better.”  Billie sighed.  “In a way, I guess it’s not so bad.  I’m glad to help her, and I’m really hoping that we can make this thing safe.  And I know how much she’s been wanting this.”

“I’m waiting for the ‘but…’.”

“Well, she’s started watching me and it’s getting sort of… possessive.  Like if she lets me out of her sight, she might lose the golden ticket or whatever.”

“Uh huh.”

“And even that wouldn’t be so bad – if it was just Jade.  But there’s like five of her!  And they’re all doing the same thing!  Circling like vultures!”

Toni had picked up a textbook.  The way a someone else might spin a basketball on their fingertip, Toni spun the textbook.  “Five?  That’s a bit of an exaggeration, isn’t it?”

“Well… only a little.  There’s Jade, there’s Jinn or Shroud, depending on whether she’s dressing like a ghost.  Lately, she’s been being Kimba the lion, just sort of hanging around my desk or watching me work.  Have you seen it?  Her new lion toy?”

“That’s still only three of her.”

“Feels like four, since Jinn is sometimes Shroud, or vice versa.  At night, it’s almost crowded.  Shroud’s getting ready to do something, visit Sara or whatever, her textbooks and homework are doing themselves, and half the time there’s a toy or compact or dirt speck or something zipping around the room doing something.”  She lowered her voice confidentially.  “It’s the toys that make me the most jumpy.  Last night, I thought I had the room to myself.  And you know I’ve got that toy cabbit?”

Toni nodded.  “Hard to forget chasing it around the cottage, our first day.”

“So I’m doing my algebra, sort of distracted, just thinking about stuff.  I’m zoning out, and suddenly the cabbit squeaks up and says, ‘You forgot to carry the one.’  I swear, I fell out of my seat!”

“Ow.” Toni winced sympathetically.  “Hard landing?”

Billie looked at her in puzzlement.  “On the floor, you mean?  No, I fell up.”  As she spoke, she seemed unaware of the fact that she was actually floating a few inches off the ground.  “It wasn’t the fall.  The problem was that I almost blew out the side of the room!  And now,” she looked around furtively, “I’m suddenly paranoid of all the toys.  And I’m afraid that if I tell anyone, they’ll just laugh at me.  I can just picture telling one of the counselors.  ‘Pardon me, but you know how stuffed animals have those beady little eyes?  I think they’re watching me!’  Oh, sure, that’ll go over well.  Half those headshrinkers already want to lock me up.”

Toni obliged, by laughing at her.  “Just look at it as a good opportunity for training!  Develop your ki senses or something.”

“I don’t have any ki senses.”

“Well you must have something.  Feel it out, try to figure out when she’s lurking in toy ambush.  Heck, maybe I should convince her to pull ambushes on all of us.  Nikki could use a couple of good wake up calls.  Have you seen that girl when she concentrates?  Talk about the ‘dead zone.’  You could stick a sword right through her and she’d probably never notice until she was done with her mystic philosophizing.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Billie agreed, without much enthusiasm.  “I’d fault you for realism if that same exact thing hadn’t happened to Sara.”

“Is Jade really getting on your nerves?  I though you liked her as your roommate.”

Billie frowned.  Her strange cat-eyes and small fangs gave her an alien-looking scowl that was quite intimidating.  “It’s not that.  I do like them.  A lot.  Particularly since she’s starting to treat me more like a big sister than a mother.”

Toni raised an eyebrow at that, but she’d made it a point not to poke too deeply into the strangely close relationship.  “Okay.  I’m definitely getting an odd vibe here.  What’s the real problem?”

Billie’s face and features could look angry, or dangerous, or sexy, or mischievous, or any combination of those.  They weren’t made for looking vulnerable.  But just for an instant, the mask cracked, and the sometimes insecure person inside peeked out.  It was only a moment, but Toni saw a look of heart-wrenching anguish.

“What if something goes wrong?” Billie whispered.  “She wants this so much!  What if I wreck it for her?  If she gets hurt, how could I ever forgive myself?”

There wasn’t a thing Toni could say to that.

There weren’t many places that Jade could practice without being spied on.  The maintenance workshop under the library was old, ugly, and had unpleasant aromas, but it was very private.  After pulling extra shifts to clean up after Halloween, Morrie and Stan were taking a few weekends off.  Which meant that Jade had the workshop to herself.  She had to stay clear of the armory locker.  Her TK could probably trick it open, but she knew it was wired to security.  There were a few other secured lockers, but most of the large space was set aside for clothing, fairly ordinary plumbing supplies, and similar boring equipment.  That made it the perfect place to experiment with Lazuli.

She charged the invisible cigarette box, then lost sight of it as it flew away from her.  After a moment, she linked with Jann-sensei, who had no problem tracking the invisible box.  Its camouflage only worked for the visible spectrum, it couldn’t hide from her spirit-vision.

Watching Lazuli come out of the box was definitely weird.  The movement was far quicker, this time, as if the gargoyle was stepping out of a hole in space.

“Pretty good,” Jade judged.  “The question is, can you do it inside the hollow stone shell?”

“The trick will be the wings,” her gargoyle self decided.

“We’ll practice.  Do the walk, first.”

“Slave driver,” Lazuli told herself.  But she folded up her wings and did the tip-toe catwalk from one end of the room to the other.  She’d been practicing.  It was similar to a high-heel strut, but not exactly the same.

“Not bad,” Jade decided, impartially.  “That tail flip is sexy.  And the little wing flutter is pretty good, too.  I wonder if he deliberately made your skirt match your wings?”

“You think anything Thuban does is accidental?” Lazuli asked.

“Good point.”

They both knew the practice list, and they worked through the movements, trying to get them natural.  Jade let her attention to threats and ambushes lapse.  For once, she delegated that entirely to Jann-sensei, while she concentrated totally on watching her gargoyle body move, trying to see it the way the guys and girls would when movie night finally arrived.

After an hour of hard coaching, Jade decided it was time for a break.  She’d practiced normal movements to death.  Even something as simple as sitting was a new discovery, once you had to contend with a tail.  There were a variety of gargoyle motions that were pretty unique, including work with her wings and a sort of four-legged panther gait.  But she’d practiced everything, critiqued it, and readjusted until it looked smooth and flowing.  She wasn’t learning to coordinate physical muscles, but to simulate what they looked like through her telekinesis.  But after practice, the movement seemed to “lock in” so that she could simply react naturally, without thinking of each little movement as “simulated” or “fake.”  It took work to reach that point, and while Lazuli might not get tired, she did.

“I’m starting to feel pretty good about this.  Even the wings and gliding are looking good,” Jade-physical decided.

“Then let’s break for a bit.  I want you to look at some stuff with real vision.”

Jade knew what was coming, but it was still a bit freaky to have the large blue gargoyle approach her, then lift up her halter.

Jade reached out to the breasts, feeling them, hefting them, touching the nipples.  “How’s that feel?”

The gargoyle shrugged.  “You know me.  Pressure, not pleasure.”

“Then why is your nipple getting stiff?” Jade wanted to know.

“Don’t you get it?” Jinn asked.  “A few more days and we might be feeling this for real.”

“Mmmm.”  Jade did her own fantasizing.  “Right.  Got it.”

“Okay,” Jinn-as-Lazuli said.  “Here’s something else to check out.”  She spread her legs wide and reached behind her.

Jade had already guessed what she was talking about.  “How are you supposed to get the skirt off?”

“Uh… there’s snaps in back, on each side of my tail.”

The skirt-and-panties were a single unit that came off in one piece.  While Lazuli removed her skirt, Jade knelt down to look.  She felt no embarrassment, this was her own body she was looking at, after all.

“Uh huh,” Jade reported.  “Gold, almost metallic gold, same as our nipples.  Figures that Thuban would put gold there.  I guess I hadn’t expected this body to be so… accurate.”  Another thought hit her.  “Hey, do we have an inside, too?”  Without thinking, she stuck her finger forward to stroke her other self in a very intimate region.

“Hey!  If you weren’t me, I’d be tearing your face off right now!”

“Right,” Jade agreed absently.  She was surprised to notice that, despite the other girl’s stony skin, this part of her was quite soft.  Abruptly, as her finger slid backward along the other girl’s channel, her finger slid into a small depression.  “Hey, you’re wet!”

“Uh huh,” Lazuli agreed.

“And… slippery!”  Jade pulled her finger out and touched it to her tongue.  “Kind of musky, but not too bad.”  She returned her finger, trying to find out just how deep in she could feel.  She was surprised at how soft and warm it felt, and then was doubly surprised at her other self, when she felt the girl’s tunnel beginning to gently and rhythmically squeeze around her finger.

“Remember how we’re only supposed to drink pure water?  The stomach reservoir can pump it to the bladder, or down there where it mixes with some sort of lubricant powder.  You know… it’s definitely weird to feel you doing that.”

“I wish I could really feel it,” Jade muttered, more to herself than to the other girl.  “I’ll bet Bunny could teach me how to do this right.”

Lazuli’s tail had wrapped around Jade, pulling her in closer.  “Uh huh.  You know, this is kinda interesting the way it is.  I’m not sure if I could handle it, if we had real feeling.”

Jade gave in to her curiosity, bent forward, and carefully licked the other girl up the length of her cleft.

“Oh, okay.  THAT was definitely interesting.  How do we feel about licking girls?  ‘Cause I can tell you, it’s pretty interesting from up here!”

“I don’t know,” Jade admitted.  “I think I was more interested in testing that I really was a girl.  The sex stuff itself… I don’t know.  Playing around with myself is one thing.  I can’t really imagine doing something like that with someone else.”  She moved back and stood up.  “Hey, your nipples got all popped-out again.”

“That’s odd.  Must have been subconscious.”

“So how’s it like from that side?”

“Interesting,” Lazuli instantly answered.  “Like you said, it would be different if I wasn’t just touching myself.”  In the midst of pulling her skirt back on, she suddenly straightened.  “Oh no.”

“What?”

“Let me put it this way: Do you think that Thuban accidentally made this body so functional?”

“Nothing Thuban does is… Damn.  He’d better not expect…!”

“Agreed,” Lazuli said.

39: Bitches

November 18, Saturday evening, 5:12 PM

The walk back from the library was routine.  Shroud was out and in full defense mode.  Jann-sensei was using her senses to peer in every direction looking for life, movement, activity, or ambush.  Jade was seemingly absorbed in her thoughts, but as always, a part of her mind and attention was alert – spotting likely danger points, seeking out lines of defense or retreat.

This had become ordinary procedure.  Ever since Halloween, most of the group tried to be in pairs or trios when they had to go anywhere.  Jade and Nikki had upped their paranoia a month earlier, when the Alpha ambushes had occurred.  Fortunately for Jade, she could become her own trio, so the extra precautions were easier on her.

She’d also been acting as her own personal trainer for about six weeks now.  The coaching was beginning to pay off.  Even when her mind was busy with other topics, she retained a fair awareness of her surroundings.  When she was caught by surprise, her reactions were becoming both swift and useful.

That wasn’t as comforting as it might have been.  Aside from Jinn and her other selves, Jade had no powers of her own.  She was utterly human and completely normal.  Despite her training, she embodied the devastating threat potential of a normal strength eleven-year-old girl.

The Halloween attack, on the other hand, had been aimed at Sara.  Sara was so close to invulnerable that one time she hadn’t noticed being staked in the back.  In a different incident, she’d been decapitated and had only noticed later, when she came across the severed head during a cleaning binge.  Sara was setting the standards for the upper end of what “radical regeneration” meant.  Of course, Sara was a demon princess followed by a cult of thousands, with magic abilities that could be so terrifying that they threatened people’s sanity.  It was definitely better to have her as a friend than an enemy.

That hadn’t stopped the attackers.  Perhaps that was why they’d attacked.  Still, if they could come so close to neutralizing Sara (and a good chunk of campus, at the same time), even three of Jade would barely slow them down.

It was easier on Jade – she’d accepted how vulnerable she was.  She’d faced this crisis back when Tansy Walcutt had “killed” her.  Others on campus were having a tougher time.  Some of the bricks and “unbeatable” types were still going through counseling about the disaster.  Some of them had spent years learning how invulnerable they were, only to have their illusions stripped away in one brutal night.

When the attack did come, it was inside the front doors of Poe.  Jade was caught by surprise, both by the location, and by the fact that this threat was verbal.

Shroud had reconfigured into pink-skinned Jinn, and she and Jade came through the hall side-by-side.  That was when they found their path blocked.

“Oh, look, it’s the ghost girl and her stupid little boy-toy.”  The speaker was a slightly chubby black girl by the name of Sharisha Kincaid.

Jade quailed.  She knew it was a bad habit, but Jinn was there, Jinn dealt with this stuff better than she did, and Jinn was a real girl.  So she just cringed, and tried to slip unobtrusively in behind her taller and more confident other self.

“Oh, I think you scared him!”  The sneering sarcasm came from one of the two sophomores standing behind Sharisha.  Jade didn’t know the names of either of the two older girls, but she’d seen them around.

The first sophomore, with close-cropped curly black hair and a rather large nose, added her comments in.  “What’s a boy doing wearing skirts like that?&nbs