Synergy (A MORFS Universe Story)

 by: Shrike 

Part 8

I woke up with the birds singing, I groaned, “Keep it down, I want to sleep.”
But the sleep was gone now. I might as well get up now. I intended to swing my legs outside like normal and stand up, but already the swinging part made me realize that I would have to pay dearly for my victory yesterday. I had muscle aches big time. I made my way moaning and groaning to the sink to splash some water on my face.

The door opened softly, Mom stuck her face inside, “Oh you’re up already?”

With a sigh I answered, “Yeah Mom, what’s up?”

“I just want to show you something. Look, you made the papers.”

She handed me the morning paper, where I saw a picture of me dancing with Lance. The headline said, “Young dance couple takes prize in contest.” I read the whole article, which even mentioned our names and Mom’s name as our dance instructor.

Now I really was worried. “Mom, don’t you think we have a problem now? I mean, Dad reads newspapers. He can find us easily now.”  I might have all this power available, but still, facing my angry Dad? Besides, I was on probation, as Gavin had told me.

Mom sat down on the bed, “I realized it already, honey. But we can’t be afraid of him forever. This is good publicity for my dance school and I’m really happy that you won yesterday. So we’ll just have to see what comes from this, okay?”
                                                                                                                                                                                    
I nodded in agreement, as I sat down next to her.

“So, any muscle aches?”

“You have to ask Mom? Of course I do. I feel like I can lie down for a week.”

“Well, how about going to a spa? You can get a massage, a rubdown and in general, a pampering.”

“Mom, isn’t that expensive? Can we afford that?”

“Well you can, there is a voucher for it in the envelope you got yesterday.”

‘Oh the envelope, I forgot. Wait,, Mom opened it?’ “Mom, did you open the envelope?”

“It wasn’t sealed, so I peeked. Sorry.”

“It’s okay, Mom, so what’s inside?”

Mom gave me the envelope and I shook out the contents. There was a voucher for a Spa all right, and a check with quite an amount of money. My eyes glimmered in anticipation when I saw it.

“Now Maren, that money is for your college fund, not for other things.”

Inwardly I cursed, I should have kept more of a poker face, so she wouldn’t guess. Oh well, she is right of course. The money will give my college fund a boost. Though there were some things that I would like to buy.

There was another paper in the envelope. I opened it. It was an invitation for me and my dance partner to enter a very prestigious dance contest in the first part of the New Year. I looked forward to us going there, and matching ourselves against the best dancers of the country.

“Mom, there is one thing I don’t understand. They said the best rookie couple was Cynthia & Adam. I thought we were a rookie couple as well.”

“You two were not considered a rookie couple anymore, Honey. Because you took third place in the previous contest, you were already registered.”

Now I understood, stupid me that I didn’t consider that. I’d made myself worried for nothing.  “So what now? Are we going to the spa today?”

Mom got to her feet, “I’ll check where it is and what time. Why don’t you shower and get dressed.”

With that she left my room. I sighed before going to the bathroom. My muscles still ached a lot, but the movement seemed to lessen the pains. I took my time in the shower, especially washing my hair. There was some residue from the stuff Lea put in it, so I washed and rinsed it a few times. I blow dried it in my room and put on a skirt with a sweater.

As I went to the kitchen for some breakfast, Mom was just putting down the telephone. “Bad news, Honey. All the spa’s around here are either booked or closed for the holidays.”

As I pouted in disappointment, Mom put her arm around me, “Hey cheer up. We’ll do it another time.”

“I know, Mom, but I was looking forward to some pampering.”

She was about to say something when the doorbell rang. It was Shane at the door. He stepped in and came directly to me. “Congratulations on your first place, Maren. I’m sorry to have missed it. I was on duty last night.”

I hugged him, “Thanks Shane, aren’t you tired after a long shift? I thought you would go home and sleep.”

Shane laughed out loud. “We don’t just sit around. We can nap a little there. Besides, I’m here to invite you two to the Christmas celebration at the Fire brigade.”

Mom responded, “Sure we’ll come. Don’t you think it will be fun Maren?”

I just nodded, but inside thought, ‘A bunch of adults talking and drinking? What is the fun in that?’

I let the two of them alone, taking Sammi for a walk. This time I didn’t go to our usual park, but went a little further away and Sammi was enthusiastic, sniffing all kinds of new scents. In quite a large park, I let him go off by himself for a while, but kept my eye on him.

Suddenly someone put hands in front of my eyes scaring the hell out of me. I was about to power up and give a big electrical shock to however it was when a familiar voice said, “Guess who?”

I recognized Mandy’s voice and stopped gathering my power.

I turned to her, “Don’t ever do that again Mandy. I almost zapped you with my power.”

Mandy and Denise sat down with me, “Why would you do something like that?, I was just playing a harmless prank on you?”

‘Sometimes Mandy can be such an airhead.’ “Don’t you remember the attempt to kidnap me?”

Now Mandy paled. “Oh, I’m sorry, Maren I didn’t think. How stupid am I. Please hit me over the head now.”

I tapped the back of her head. “Airhead, don’t do stuff like that to me. Now what are you two doing here?”

Denise spoke up, “We saw you going here with that thing.” She pointed at Sammi. “So we decided to follow and talk to you.”

“Denise, it is not a thing. That is my pet, a squog. He is part dog and part squirrel.” Then I yelled , “Sammi come here.”

Sammi quickly bounced over towards us and jumped into my arms. The girls came closer and started petting and admiring Sammi. Mandy said, “He is adorable, Maren. Why didn’t you show him to us sooner?”

I shrugged, “It just never came up. I just forgot to show him to you.”

Denise looked up from petting Sammi, “So how is our first prize winner. Why didn’t you tell us that Miss Landers is your Mom?”

I looked down, “Sorry girls. It’s not that I don’t trust you, but I don’t want everyone to know. I thought that you might slip up, so I kept quiet.”

Mandy hugged me, “Hey, we forgive you. Just invite us to your home once, ok? Now, how do you feel?”

“What do you think? My muscles hurt all over, and I’m still tired. It’s a good thing that we have the holidays coming.”

As the girls laughed, I laughed with them. Sammi felt the mood and jumped happily around us. We made some plans for later that week and said our goodbyes before heading to our respective homes.

Back home Shane was still there. Mom disappeared into the kitchen to fix some food, which I found suspicious. Shane asked me to sit with him. That made me feel even more on edge.

“What is going on, Shane? Why are you two being so secretive?”

Shane hesitated before saying, “I want to ask your Mom to marry me. How do you feel about that, Maren?”

I turned away because I just didn’t know what to say. ‘I should have seen this coming. Should I object? Would they take that in consideration? I want Mom to be happy, and if she is happy with Shane, should I stand in her way?’

Mom came back with some cookies, “Maren?”

I hugged her tightly, “I want you to be happy, Mom. But I don’t know what to think of it yet.”

Shane spoke up, “We’re not in any hurry, Maren. Would you think about it please? We don’t want to force anything on you.”

I hugged Shane next, “Thanks Shane, I will think about it, but don’t expect me to call you Daddy.”

“Hey, I never said that you had to do that.” We all laughed, and made it a nice evening.

Days later we did have a wonderful time at the Christmas celebration with the fire brigade. Of course some were on duty and got called away to a fire. But I did enjoy myself with some of the other children of the firemen. The day was over before I knew it.

We got home in a good mood and I could tell Mom was tempted to ask Shane in for a nightcap. I noticed her hesitation and knew what she wanted.  I leaned over to Mom and whispered, “Just ask him in, I’ll be in my room.”

The next day I was put to work, Mom opened the dance school between Christmas and New Years. Some people wanted a few extra lessons before the dancing at a New Years Eve ball. I was busy showing an elder couple the right steps, while Mom was supposed to be doing the books. Well, I saw Shane sneaking in there earlier. And since the office shades were closed I suspected that they were doing something else entirely.

Suddenly the door from the stairs opened. I didn’t pay attention, since it was Mom’s job to handle new potential customers. Then two little girls ran up to me yelling, “There she is. She is our angel,” interrupting my teaching. Mom came out of her office with Shane in tow to see what the ruckus was all about. The sight of Melissa and Carrie stunned me. Their parents were in the doorway and Mom went over to them. I apologized to the couple but they said that they understood and bent down to hug both girls.

We all went over to the parents and heard their Mom, Penny say, “Hi I’m Penny Berkhof. This is my husband Ron and those are our two girls Melissa and Carrie. But you already know that, of course.”

She saw us coming towards them and told me, “The girls recognized your picture in the papers. We want to thank you in person for saving our daughters.”

I was elated, but uncomfortable as well.  Now I really knew it was a mistake to win the contest. Now everyone, including Dad, could find out where we lived. Besides, though I was proud to have saved the kids, it was just something that I’d had to do. There was nothing heroic about that.  Shane noticed my apprehension and asked us all to come into the office. As we all found a seat, the girls still clinging to me, Ron looked at Shane.

“Don’t I know you? Aren’t you the fire chief? Did you know about Miss Johns’ feat?”

Shane appeased Ron, “Yes I did find out a little later. But at the insistence of Maren and her Mom, I kept quiet.”

Penny turned to me, “Why would you not take credit for rescuing our girls.”

I smiled wryly, “My Mom had a bad divorce, and my Dad is still after us, so I wanted to keep us out of the papers.”

Ron put in, “Well you didn’t do a very good job then, what with winning the dance contest and all.”

“I didn’t expect to win, especially after I saw the competition. Some of them were professionals.”

Mom put in her two cents, “I knew that Maren had a chance of winning, and that she would end up in the papers. But it would be good publicity for my dance school. I really do need that. And I think that we have been afraid  long enough now.”

Penny sighed, “I do understand now, but I really want to thank you for saving Melissa & Carrie. So how did you do that?”

Melissa said, “She’s an angel, Mommy.”

I was a bit hesitant to speak up, ‘How would they react to me being a MORFS survivor and hybrid? I guess there is nothing to do but find out’ “Um, I don’t know how to say it, so I’ll just say it. I’m a hybrid, and have a power after I Morfed. I can change energy into other energy. That is how I can blow out a fire. Sorry, Melissa I’m not an Angel, just a girl who can help people.”

Melissa showed a little disappointment on her face. But then she smiled brightly, “You’re still my Angel.”

Ron spoke up, “So you are her Mother, Miss Landers?”

Mom answered him, “Yes, I went back to my maiden name, but Maren still uses her Father’s name. It is more convenient for us at Maren’s school. I teach PE there.”

Both Ron and Penny had lots of other questions, but got interrupted by the elder couple. I’d forgotten all about them. They said that they would stop by later and that they understood the circumstances. Mom offered them an extra free lesson, but they declined. Ron and Penny apologized both to the couple and us.

Later when the couple already had left, Ron and Penny invited us to a dinner with all of them. We couldn’t find a reasonable excuse to decline, so we all went out to dinner. We talked for a long time during dinner and afterward. The Berkhofs still wanted to express their gratitude to me, but we made an agreement after I spent some time thinking about it. They did invite us over to their house on occasions like for New Years. And they didn’t want to hear a ‘no’ for an answer.

We came home late that night and I felt a little tipsy because of the wine that I’d drunk. I wanted to go straight to bed, but couldn’t sleep yet, so I booted up my computer instead. I checked my email and there was a video-message from someone new. The sender’s address said Happygirl@sister.com. Now who was this email from? I opened the message and the video window opened.

~~~~~~
At first there was only a newspaper visible. I was startled, for it was a report of me winning the dance-contest.
Then the paper was lowered and Isabel’s smiling face appeared.

“Hi Sis,” she said, still smiling.

“Don’t worry about the message, I’m recording this at the library so Dad won’t see any of it.”
She pointed to the paper. “Congrats on your first place at the dance contest. I knew you could do it.”
She put the paper down, “I managed to keep that page of the paper from Dad, so he won’t see the article here.”
Then she leaned into the camera, “You should be more careful, though, Dad might see the article somewhere else.”

Isabel sat upright again and her face showed a sad expression, “I miss Mom a lot and just wish you hadn’t caught MORFS. Then we could all be together.”  Her expression cleared again and she smiled, “Anyway, I’m still doing okay, and please give my regards to Mom. And to both of you, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New-year.”

She motioned a handkiss, “Love from Isa.”
~~~~~~

I saved the message for Mom and after a little more surfing went to bed again. I slept quite a while and when I finally woke up, it was because Sammi was making a ruckus. He wanted to get out of his cage. Yawning I got up, and after putting on some sweats, took Sammi for a walk. He was enjoying himself immensely, while I still wanted to go back to sleep. Finally he allowed me to go back home, Sammi can be such a bother sometimes, but I love him. Back home I didn’t find Mom.  ‘Did she go out?’

Then I saw a note on the table, “Maren. I already went to the dance school. You can just laze around today. Have fun. Mom.”

‘Okay, then I’ll do just that.’ I took my time showering and picking out an outfit for the day. I was a bit doubtful if I should go for just comfortable or look good.  Then I realized, ‘Look good? I’m getting more girly every time.’

I went over to Snake’s house.  I arrived there just as he came out the door. “Hi Maren, what’s up?”

“Nothing much, just wanted to see if you wanted to do something?”

Snake looked a bit uncomfortable, “We can ask Leo and Batman to go shopping later and maybe a movie? But not right now. I’ve got to go to the hospital first.”

I gave him a worried look, “There is nothing wrong with you, is there?”

He smiled back, “Nope, I have to donate something. Why don’t you come with me? It won’t take long.”

I accepted, so we went to the hospital. There he gave his name and was directed to a special ward for research. Now I was really curious. It turned out that Snake regularly got milked for his snake venom. He had to bite with his usually retracted fangs into a latex covered cup. His venom was vital for research into cancer cures and in some cases, to produce anti-venin for people that got bitten by a snake. This was the first time I’d seen Snake show and use his fangs. It didn’t take too long, but it reminded me again that he was quite the exotic hybrid. Later we did go shopping later with Leo and Batman. I wanted a new dress to wear for the New Years dinner. But I couldn’t find one that I liked. And having the boys there didn’t help..

The next day I called Mandy. She and Denise came right over and we set out for some shopping. We looked at several choices before I found the perfect little black dress to wear on such an occasion. I knew Mom would raise an eyebrow, but I didn’t care. I wanted to look good at that dinner, and with this dress I would look sensational. Well I did get the result I wanted. The day of the dinner, I put on my makeup myself, and though Mom didn’t quite agree, I thought it was very sexy. I think Shane even admired the young woman I had become that evening.

                                                                                                                         
School was a bit boring after the holidays, but the first day in the New Year was still good. That was of course because Cynthia had to apologize to me in front of everyone. I was at the school quite early, but not early enough. Cynthia was already waiting. She scowled at me and pulled me to a secluded spot.

“I’ll apologize as we agreed, but just that, and no more.” Cynthia spat it in a low voice to me.

“Fine. Why are you so hostile? What did I ever do to you?”

“I just don’t like your kind.” Cynthia screwed her eyes at me.

“Why Cynthia? Isn’t your father a hybrid? I thought he looked like a hidden hybrid.”

Cynthia brought her face close to mine and whispered, “If you ever say anything like that to anyone I’ll kill you.”

I wasn’t afraid and kept calm. With a cool tone I said, “Fine. If that is how you want it. But if you so much as breathe a word about who my Mom is, I’ll shout your secret to the whole world. And don’t think I’m afraid of you. I can take care of myself very well.”

This signaled the end of our little meeting and we both went separately to the courtyard, where Cynthia publicly apologized to me in front of a whole lot of fellow students. Some snickered, while the cheerleader gang scowled at it. All in all, it was pretty gratifying for me, but I wasn’t happy with all of it. Though I liked having put Cynthia in her place, I should have made a friend out of her. But I guess it just was not to be so.

Later that week Mom had us playing soccer on a dredged field, getting us dirty but also making our wet uniforms very revealing. The boys were busy with baseball practice, but I think most of them had more eyes for us than for their own game.

Suddenly a baseball landed near me. Mandy was close and started to come closer to pick it up. I beat her to it and picked it up before she could. The boys were yelling to throw it back if I could. One of them already started walking towards us. I got a little peeved that they always stereotyped thought that girls can’t throw. ‘Well mostly we can’t, so why should I blame them.’ Well I’ll show them anyway.

I started to throw the ball in the awkward way that girls do, I think it’s because else I would hit my breast with the throw. But I drew in some heat and other ambient energy and released it as kinetic energy to the ball as I threw it. It flew in a slightly curved line with quite some speed to the waiting pitcher. He didn’t expect it and just barely caught it, and even then was surprised at the impact the ball made. The whole playing field of baseball players just stood there with open mouths, looking alternately at the pitcher and then at me. I didn’t think anything more about it, and just wanted to get back playing soccer, but coach Mosely came over to Mom and asked her some questions. They looked towards me repeatedly and though I tried not to pay special attention, I did notice their attention.

Mom pulled me aside, “Coach Mosely wants to know how you can throw that hard, and if you can do it again?”

A little apprehensive I looked back at them, “I can do it again, but I cheat. I’m using my energy power to throw it that hard. So I could never use it in a game.”

Coach Mosely interrupted, “That is okay, Maren. I just want to ask you to train with us sometimes for batting practice. I think you can be a valuable addition in that regard.”

Now I was speechless. ‘They want me to pitch batting practice?’ I stammered, “Sure Coach, if you really think I can throw well enough.”

That’s how I got recruited for even more sports in my already crowded agenda. The other girls looked up to me, a girl that threw hard enough against boys? Mandy immediately asked me later in the showers to put in a good word for her with the players. She hoped to get some good dates out of it. I told her that I might give it some thought. ‘What’s with her and dates? Though I’m well on my way to becoming an all out girl, ready for dating some boy, I still don’t really want to date someone of my previous gender.’

The rest of the week was quiet and uneventful. But the week after that I had house chores to do, I was all alone at home. Well not totally alone, Sammi was still there. But Mom was on a trip for school to get some replacements equipment. I was elated that Mom finally found me mature enough to stay home by myself without supervision. Well, I think she asked Shane to come over a few times, but I hadn’t seen him yet, so maybe he would be discrete and not check too closely on me. On Friday evening I opened my mail and saw a priority message waiting. It was already a several days old. It was from Happygirl@sister.com so I opened it in a hesitant mood. ‘What does my sister want now?’

It was another Video message, but I recognized her room this time. ‘Why does she send it from home? Is Dad standing there just out of sight? Is this a trap to get me?’ The picture showed only Isabel, but I got a fright seeing her. She looked pale, and just awful.

Hurriedly she began to talk, “Please help me, I think I just caught MORFS. Dad is freaking out and says things like making an example of me.” She looked away for a moment, “Oh no, he’s back. I’ve got to go, Help me, please!”

Stunned, I sat before the computer screen, afraid for both Isabel and myself. ‘What should I do? Rush over to get her away from my screwed up Dad? Or is this an elaborate hoax and an attempt to catch me and maybe Mom?’ I really was indecisive now. ‘Why did Mom pick such a bad time not to be home?’ I decided to call Snake. His Mom answered and transferred me to him.

“Hi Snake, can you come over for a moment? I need your advice urgently.”

Snake acknowledged, and since I had never before asked him like this, he knew that it was something really serious. He got to my place in record time and I showed him the video message. Snake shared my concerns that it might be a plot to get to me. But he also saw that this could be real, as well. Isabel really looked sick in the video. He suggested calling Batman for a second opinion. Lance was elated to be called to my place, and soon all three of us were there. We talked it over and came to the conclusion that it should be checked out.

“Snake, Batman, I know I don’t have any right to ask this from you, but would you go with me to Birmingham Alabama? We can do it on the weekend, and be back before Mom gets home.”

Both boys said that they would have to clear it with their parents.

Batman huffed a little. “How are we going to pull that off? We can’t just say that we are going to rescue your sister. My Dad will say that it is a matter for the police.”

“How about saying that we are going to a science fair for school purposes?”

They left for home in a hurry and soon, first Snake and then Batman called to tell me that their cover story had been accepted and that both would help me to see if my sister really needed rescuing, and help me do it if necessary. Very early the next morning we gathered at my place to make plans. We would go in quietly and watch out for any signs of a trap. I would go into the house first, with Snake and Batman as reserve and backup. But you know how it goes with the best laid plans, something always comes along that completely screws it up.

After a long trip on the high speed train and other transportation we were close to where my Dad and sister now lived. I had looked up their residence on the Internet phone directory. We also had another little problem. I didn’t know how long we would be gone, so I brought Sammi along for the trip. Fortunately Sammi was behaving very well. I think he understood that we were on serious business. As we exited the bus near the street, Batman suddenly exclaimed, “Hey, look at this. I think we don’t need to go to the house.”

I quickly turned to him and saw him looking at a flyer he had picked up. I went to him and started reading the flyer. It said, ‘Come see the freak on her first and final performance. She will be an example of what should be done with her kind.’ Beneath it, was written in fine print, that the spectacle would be held at 1:00 pm in  Lane Park. We didn’t have much time anymore, as it was already 11.45 am.

I wanted to go straight there, but the boys held me back. Snake told me, “I know how much you want to get your sister away from your father, but we need a plan for her rescue.”

That did make sense, so while we started walking towards the park, we tried to come up with a new plan. We had lots of ideas, but basically, I would mingle with the crowd, hiding my tail as a belt under my coat and wearing my sunglasses. I would try to get as close to Isabel as I could, while Snake would stay out of sight with Sammi. He would be acting as our backup since he can’t hide his features as a hybrid very well. Batman would be on the other side of the crowd, keeping an eye on me.

I asked him, “Batman, you said you had some sonic powers. Can you make a sound that will make the people unconscious?”

Lance thought hard, “I’m not sure that I can do that. But I can make a sound that will make them disoriented, and a bit dizzy. What’s on your mind, Synergy?”

“When I start into action, I will give you a signal to start that sound. It will give me an edge reaching Isabel and getting her out without people trying to stop me. And I can convert the sound waves around me into some other energy to protect me and Isabel.”

Snake made a few objections to the plan, because he didn’t like his low-key participation. And he didn’t like it that I would put myself into danger. Batman shared some of his objections, especially where I was involved. But I was adamant in taking the primary role in this rescue. It was my sister, after all.

As we continued to the park my mind kept thinking what if things went horribly wrong. ‘I really hope nothing goes wrong. I haven’t told Mom about any of this, and I will be in enough trouble already as is.’ I was having doubts about this whole operation as we got closer to the park. Already a crowd was forming ahead of us where the spectacle would take place.

I think my nervous showed. Snake put his arm around me. “Synergy, it will be okay. Everything will work out as planned. Just have faith in your abilities.”

I leaned into him. “Thanks Snake, for trying to make me feel better. But there are so many things that can go wrong. I don’t know. I’ve just got this creepy feeling inside.”

I disguised myself and proceeded alone further into the crowd, while Batman walked on towards the front and to my left side. I couldn’t see Snake anymore, but I knew he was there, giving me moral support and ready to jump in if I needed help. As I came closer to a stage that had been set up in the park, I saw my Dad standing there waiting to start something. There was something like a pile of brown and white, with red and blue clothes or fabric, with lots of golden threads on top of it lying next to him. As I came closer, the pile moved and suddenly I realized that it wasn’t fabric or something, but a living being. In fact, the golden threads were lots of blond hair, and I was now fairly certain that it was my sister Isabel lying in a heap on the floor of the stage.

I almost screamed out, “Isabel” right there and then, but I kept my mouth shut and just kept on picking my way closer to the stage. My hover board, which I also carried with me, was now a bit of a hindrance. It was bulky and kept getting in the way. But I might have a need for it later to let me rise above the crowd and make a quick getaway if I needed it.  Just as I came close enough to see clearly that it really was Isabel up on the stage, our Dad grabbed her long blond hair and pulled her up to her feet. Isabel yelped from the pain in her scalp and quickly stood up in her full height. I was stunned for a moment to see what MORFS had changed her into. She was now an equine hybrid. Her head was that of a pony, or horse except the muzzle was shorter. Her ears were still on the side, but long, and pointed upwards. She had a big long mane of golden blond hair extending as a mane on her back. As for her body, she had a white and brown coat of short fur, which would keep her warm. Maybe that is why she wore only a short top and even shorter red skirt. She was barefoot, and had a sort of hoof instead of toes. On her hands, she had only three fingers and a thumb now. The most striking feature was her bushy long golden blonde horse tail.

As I stood there gaping at Isabel, she looked around to the crowd with a very frightened look on her facial features. Then her gaze locked on me and she gave a recognizing little smile. I quickly brought my finger to my mouth cautioning her to keep quiet.

Fortunately, Dad was far too busy to see it, as he grabbed a bullhorn to shout to the gathered crowd. “Thank you for coming here today. I know you all despise those freaks that show up everywhere nowadays. I’m especially cursed, as both my children went down with this infliction.”

 Dad paused for a moment to let his words sink into the crowd Before he continued, “Unfortunately my firstborn was abducted by my deluded and estranged ex-wife, so I can’t get to him anymore. I do however, have my daughter here, and she will make a good example of what should be done with her kind.” He pushed Isabel to the front and let everyone take a good look at her. I looked around me at that time and saw several of my Dad’s acquaintances, some other Pures that I recognized, and even some police officers. Why didn’t they interfere or stop this horrid exhibition/ I looked at one of them and saw the hatred on his face towards my sister. ‘He is a Pure. Are all of his colleagues here Pures?’

That put a kink into my plans. Maybe I could legally be arrested for disturbing this show from hell. Well I wouldn’t have to worry about going to court. They would never let me go that far.

“As you can see, my daughter turned into a real abomination. It would be my duty to put an end to her misery and slay her. But we can do better than that. No one has to lay a hand on her to kill her. She is sensitive to our thoughts. We can just think her to death.” I was shocked to hear my Dad rant like that, and even more shocked to hear that Isabel had a power. ‘She’s an empath?’

Dad continued, “Just think how much and how you want to kill her. That should do it.”

Now I had to hurry and send some nice thoughts to Isabel. She was already straining under the combined evil thoughts that she picked up from the crowd. I hoped that Snake and Batman had heard my Dad’s words. If they could send some nice thoughts to Isabel as well, it would help. I concentrated, and thought back to when she was a nice little girl. I’d loved her back then, and remembered how well we got along.

It was quiet for a while till my Dad spoke up again. “Sorry people, this just isn’t working well enough. Either our thoughts are not strong enough, or she isn’t as perceptive as I initially thought. We’ll try this the old fashioned way then.”

I looked up from my concentration and saw Isabel on all fours, shaking off the effects of the emotional bombardment. However, she wasn’t fast enough ,, as I saw that our Dad had picked up a big axe and held it above his head ready to swing it down to cut off her head. I wasn’t about to let that happen, and as he swung it down, I reached out for the axe with my hand and gathered enough energy into me to pull the axe towards me with an electromagnetic force. This worked quite well, and the axe got pulled to front so much that it missed Isabel, sinking onto the stage at least 2 feet in front of her. Even more, it caused Dad to lose his balance and he almost fell from the stage. The axe was buried so deep into the wood of the stage it would take some time to get it out again.

Some of the people around me suspected that I had something to do with what happened on stage and turned towards me with hostile stares. I pointed one hand straight up and shot a flash of light up, signaling Batman to start his Sonics. He was paying attention, thank God. Soon, everyone near me was squinting or closing their eyes in an attempt not to hear or be affected by that sound. I felt it too, but soaked the sound waves up to power myself up again. I stepped onto my hover board and rose from the ground towards the stage. Even there, they were too busy trying to block the sound to notice my approach. With a short hop, I jumped from my board onto the stage and knelt next to Isabel. Being close to her, I absorbed the sonic sound waves around her and she looked up to me.

“Maren? You came for me?” Isabel could only speak softly with a coarse voice. The emotional bombardment and the sound attack must have taken its toll on her.

“Sure, Isabel, I would never leave you alone.” Then I couldn’t feel the sound waves from Batman anymore. I looked up and saw that he was discovered. A few men from the crowd were holding him and keeping his mouth shut. As I had feared, the people were not hindered by the sound attack anymore and went back to noticing their surroundings.

An angry voice behind my growled, “And who in damnation are you, freak girl? What do you want from my daughter? This is family business, and you’re not invited.”

I turned to face my Dad, “So this is a family thing?”

He nodded and made a motion that I should get away. Well I wouldn’t like anything more than to get away, but not without my sister. I took my coat and sunglasses off and showed my true hybrid self to him.

He took one look and said, “I was right, you truly are a freak. If this wasn’t a family thing I would gladly finish you off as well.”

I smiled an evil smile, “So what is stopping you? Since this is a family gathering, I’m right where I belong. Do you really think I would abandon my sister, Dad?”

Now he really was totally flabbergasted. He tried to speak but stammered, “You… but… how?”

“Gee, is that all you can say Daddy?” I sneered with as much contempt as I could.

“So you were Brent?” He finally managed to utter.

I posed for him, “Yeah, your little sick boy changed into a healthy beautiful girl. Aren’t I a nice sight?”

“NO!, You can’t be my child. Neither of you can be my child,” exclaimed my Dad. “My blood runs pure. Not diseased like you freaks.”

“Pure?” I asked incredulously, “You mean pure like the Cystic Fibrosis that you passed on to me?”

He sputtered, “That was your mother…”

I interrupted, “It takes two, Dad! I got that genetic flaw from both of you. But you know what? I’m glad that I caught MORFS. Because it cleaned the disease out of my body. My children will be healthy and can look forward to a future. As I do now! I never had something to look forward to when I was still your little boy.”

 Dad really was speechless now. But someone in the crowd wasn’t. “I’ll show you, you freak. You may have magnetized that axe to fly towards you, but bullets are not made from a magnetic metal.”

I turned around and saw a policeman pointing his gun at me. I felt a cold sliver run across my back. ‘Is he really going to shoot me?’ Far behind the crowd I heard a voice cry out, “Noo, don’t hurt her. Watch out, Synergy.”
That would be Snake, trying to rescue me. Well I knew he wouldn’t get here in time.

Before anyone could say or do anything more, the policeman fired four rounds in quick succession at me. I did the only thing I could do. I put my hand in front of me, like that would shield me and tried my best to absorb the kinetic energy from the bullets.

To my surprise, it worked like a charm. The bullets lost momentum within a few centimeters in front of me and came to a dead stop just as they touched my arm. I felt energized again and needed to release it soon. From the corner of my eye , I saw a motion and  turned my head slightly. My dad came up to me with a murderous glare in his eyes. He was going to hit me with his bare fist. I could have absorbed it, but I still had to release the energy from the bullets, so I just gave him a jolt of electricity and he went down like he’d been hit with a taser.

Now I really had the attention of the whole crowd. They must have been thinking ‘This girl manages to stop bullets and incapacitate someone?’ I saw fear in their some people’s eyes . I didn’t like that very much, but maybe now they would treat MORF victims better. Then again, maybe they would only hate them more.

As I pondered what to do now, a few men I had not seen before came to the front of the stage, and several police men approached the crowd from all sides. The men in front flashed some badges and said, “This is the FBI! This meeting is unlawful, and you will disperse now. As for any law enforcement officer present, you will stay put and surrender your sidearms.”

I was a bit flustered. ‘The FBI is here to save us? How did they find out, and why do they care about this?’ Well I wasn’t going to protest. I hoped they would throw my Dad and the cop who’d shot at me in a jail and throw away the key. I knelt down at Isabel. “How are you feeling, little sister?”

She looked up at me, “Better now. You’re a sight for sore eyes, Sis. I hoped you would be here in time, but I was beginning to doubt that you would make it. Thank you so much.” She started to cry, and I let her lean into me.

The aftermath was a bit anti-climactic. The policemen there with the pures were arrested and some of the others as well, including my Dad, who stared at Isabel and me with unfettered hatred. He was still twitching and limping from the jolt that I had given him.

One of the FBI men came to us and said, “Hi there. You must be Maren Zoë Johns and Isabel Johns.”

Isabel looked at me, “You have a middle name now?”

I smiled, “Yeah, Mom always wanted us to have two names. She gave me one of her grandmother’s names as well.”

The man cleared his throat, “Ahem, as I was saying.”

I interrupted, “Yes, Mr. We are the sisters Johns.”

“Ok Miss Johns. Now I would like for you to be debriefed later. You can have that done at your MORFS center with your case officer.” He looked at a palmtop, “A certain Gavin Benson?”

I just nodded. He continued, “Ok, you and your friends will be debriefed in Savannah. But I would like to take your sister Isabel with us for a post-MORFS examination and debriefing. Don’t worry, she’ll be back with you and your Mom tomorrow afternoon, or we will contact you if there is a delay.”

I just nodded again. Then I turned to Isabel, “Are you OK with this Sis?” She nodded an agreement.

The man added, “Also, I will be in contact with your case officer for a more private conversation with you, Miss Maren Johns. I cannot go into details now, but you will understand later.”

After that they put Isabel in a car and went on their way. I watched after her till they moved out of sight past a curve. Then I got on my hover board and went over to Snake and Batman. Batman had been released unharmed by the pure sympathizers when the police came close to them.

Snake and Batman were waiting at a hill top and started coming towards me as they saw me coming. Sammi was even pulling on the leash to get to me faster. We were almost alone in the park now as the police, the crowd and the FBI men had left. Suddenly Sammi stopped and began hissing. Immediately I was on my guard. I recognized that sound, he had made it before. It was the same as when I’d been attacked at the park at home.
                                                                                                                                                                           
As I looked around me, several men armed with strange guns came forward from between the trees. Snake and Batman were very surprised and froze, not knowing what to do. I had a little warning, so I shot into action. It was a good thing I did, too, because the man closest to me fired his weird looking weapon at me. I managed to dodge the glob of goop coming at me, though it caused me to fall from my hover board. I did fire a jolt of electricity into the driving thruster of my board causing it to jump ahead and crash into the stomach of that attacker. I managed a roll and stood up again, ready to defend myself against these attackers.

Snake and Batman prepared themselves as well. Batman opened his mouth and screamed, sending a sonic wave toward the group of the men. They put their hands on their ears, and cowered in pain. Another man, who was outside the sonic wave influence, pointed a gun at Batman and squeezed the trigger. A particle beam shot towards Batman, followed by an arc of electricity. Batman screamed and went down before twitching for a few seconds and lying still.
Snake saw it all to his dismay and suddenly spat a stream of fluid at that man. ‘I didn’t know Snake could do that. Is that poison?’ The man was protected, as all the attackers were wearing goggles and a high-tech black battle suit. But I guess some skin was exposed, as he started screaming and then began rolling on the ground in agony.

Meanwhile, I gathered light and sound inside me to power myself. I shot an arc of lightning towards a man, but it veered off course into a tree. Silently I cursed inside myself. ‘Why did it work in a straight line for them?’

Another man shot a beam at Snake, but Sammi was furious with all the fighting going on and pulled on his leash. This saved Snake from getting shot as Sammi pulled him out of the way of the shot. But it promptly hit me. I felt the maser and the electricity. Now I got it, they used a maser beam on a specific frequency to make a conduit for the electricity. I had that frequency now as well. It was time to try it myself. With one finger I shot a maser at the man, and a fraction later, shot the electricity from the other fingers. He went down like a log.

‘Woohoo, that went well.’ But I had lost sight of the rest of the men. Another man took aim and shot Snake with a maser-taser.
Snake went down to his knees, but still held on to Sammi’s leash of and got back up to move on towards the man that had shot him. Snake must be very resilient. The man saw Snake still coming and took a normal gun out of a holster on his hip. Snake was furious and didn’t back down, so the man shot him in the gut. Snake fell down from the pain while I ran towards him. Snake was still moving, but Sammi got loose. He was raging mad that his master and friends had been attacked and shot. He jumped towards the man that had shot Snake. The man saw the animal with fierce blickering teeth coming and panicked. He fired three rounds in quick succession at Sammi, and they literally shredded my poor Sammi.

I was mortified, and screamed out in anguish, “Sammi, Nooooo.” I wanted to go to him, but the men were still charging at me. I charged at the man that killed my poor Squog, and though he fired his gun at me in panic, I just absorbed the kinetic energy of the bullets, making them harmless. I reached him in a heartbeat and put my hand on his chest, drawing out all his bio-energy and releasing it back into him in the form of microwaves. His body quickly lost color and within seconds he lay dead at my feet, because I had cooked his heart with the microwaves. Snarling in my rage I turned to the other men. But it was too late. Another glob of goop landed on me encasing me in a sort of sticky netting. Before I could do anything to free myself, something hard hit the back of my head and I was out like a light.
                                                                                                                                           
*************************

The Federal law officers, who actually weren’t really FBI, but operated under that name for the moment, were traveling with Isabel Johns and had their radio tuned into the local police channel. They were already 5 minutes underway, when dispatch called, “All cars, we have several reports of shots fired in Lane Park.”

The driver said, “Didn’t we just come from there?”

Isabel heard it all and spoke frantically, “Is my sister all right? Is she being attacked again?”

The men said that they didn’t know but were going to find out. They made a quick U-turn and sped back towards the Park. On the way, several other police cars joined them. The cars sped across the grass to the area of the stage. As nothing was seen there, they continued across the grass towards the other side and just below a hill saw several bodies lying on the ground. A few were moving, but most were not, lying there in an eerie quiet post-battlefield situation. Isabel was shocked into silence by the gruesome sight. She looked frantically for her sister, but couldn’t find her. The FBI men got out of the car and told Isabel to stay inside the car. Isabel wanted to look for her sister, but stayed in the car anyway. It wasn’t like she had a choice, the child’s lock on the back doors had been engaged.

The ‘FBI’ men and some police officers fanned out to search the field. Meanwhile the others made sure the place was sealed off to spectators and called for rescue services. First they went over to the civilian casualties. They were easy to spot, as the attackers were clothed in black battle suits. Snake was still moving slightly as an ‘FBI’ man and a regular police man approached.

He looked up at them in pain, “I think I need an ambulance. My friend Lance there needs one too. My other friend Maren Johns is the one they were after. They took her away.” He paused for a moment, wincing from the pain in his abdomen. “Can we put the remains of my friend’s pet into a body-bag as well? I want to give him a decent burial, else there will be hell to pay when Maren gets back.”

Lance Thorsson got checked out by a few other men. He was still unconscious and would have to be put under surveillance in the hospital for nerve damage. Next the attackers were checked. One of them was twitching and apparently alive. The police men approached him cautiously, as they feared that he would try to attack them. However as they got closer, the man managed to control his muscles enough to press a button on his wrist communicator. With a muffled explosion, his chest erupted in a geyser of blood and small pieces of organs. Apparently the attackers had an explosive device buried in their bodies. Another attacker lay quiet in a distorted pose. He had claw marks all over his exposed skin from his own fingernails. It looked as if he had died from poison. The third attacker had met with an even more gruesome fate. His skin was ash gray and the look on his face showed that he had died a sudden and very ghastly death.

Soon the boys were taken to a hospital and put into an ICU ward while the battle scene was processed by forensic scientists to ascertain what precisely had occurred. The attackers didn’t have any identifying marks and didn’t show up on their fingerprint database, so they were just put into body-bags and shipped to the morgue as John Doe’s. But they were handled carefully, because of the potential explosives inside them. The ‘FBI’ men told Isabel that her sister Maren had been kidnapped, and that there was no trace of her anywhere.  Isabel was distraught by the news and didn’t even notice that she was taken to a MORFS center for her post-MORFS examination.

*************************

I woke up with a splitting headache, groaned, and tried to touch my head. But I couldn’t move my hands. ‘I’m tied to a bed or something. Better make that something., This is too hard to be a bed.’ I tried to open my eyes, but something was holding them shut. ‘Why did someone tape my eyes shut? What is going on here?’ Then I remembered, ‘I was attacked by some people in battle suits. They must have kidnapped me’. And I remembered something else. ‘One of them killed my Sammi’. I felt sorrow and was more than a little stricken with grief.’

A high pitched shrill voice, that made me sick just hearing it said, “Welcome back to the world of the living. Don’t try to get up or do something we don’t like you to do. You’ve been secured to the testing bench. You should be comfortable enough for the time being. Now I know you’ve got lots of questions and I’m only going to indulge you this once by answering a few of them.”

“Why am I here and what are you going to do to me?” I tried to make my voice sound authoritative, as if I was in charge, or should be. But my voice sounded more like a frightened girl.

“You are going to be our new emergency generator and light source. As to what we plan to do to you? Well, we already made sure that you can do nothing more than be compliant with what we want.”

Now my mind was working overtime. ‘They intend me to be their slave? What did they do to me? What are they going to do to me?’ I noticed something, I didn’t feel any clothes or fabric. ‘Am I naked now?’ I tried to feel my body with my tail, but it too was tied down. I couldn’t even wiggle it a little.

The unpleasant woman’s voice, yes I already recognized it as  a woman’s, chuckled and said, “Yes, your tail is secured as well. Maybe I should cut it off, you won’t need it here, and we took off all your clothes for a better absorption of sunlight.”

Then apparently to another she said, “Open the conduits.” I felt concentrated sunlight hit my body and wanted to deny my body from absorbing it. However there was some pressure in the back of my head and I needed, even wanted desperately, to absorb the light and warmth. Then I proceeded to convert it into electric energy and fed it through my hands and feet, which were connected via leads to a power station and power grid. I didn’t want to do that, but I didn’t have a choice. I was compelled to do it. The woman even applauded, saying that I was very efficient converting the energy at 95% efficiency.

I tried to convert some light into heat, but failed miserably again. Something in my head applied some pressure and I just couldn’t convert any energy to heat, only to electric power. I think someone noticed my attempts, because suddenly a manly voice whispered next to me, “Just forget to try making something other than electric energy. The controller we inserted into your head will not let you do it.”

I winced at the sudden voice that I heard, and instinctively tried to shoot more power out of me to stun him. Again I failed to do that. The controller apparently didn’t allow me to overload the system too. ‘How about letting it drain me.  I would rather be dead then continue like this.’ I slowly fed more and more power into the system. It let me do it, till I got rather low on internal power and fed more power than I absorbed from the sunlight. I was already rooting for it to let me die, when the controller just shut me down a lot. I couldn’t feed more power into the system than a trickle compared to what I had been giving.

The voice was there again, “No use trying to overload or drain your self. You’re going to be a nice little drone, and our living backup generator.” I was becoming very upset. I didn’t want to end up as a mindless Borg-drone. Next, I next tried to suck up all the heat in the room to make it so cold that I would get sick, but again the controller made it impossible for me to do it. ‘How long have I been here already?, How long have I been busy trying to do things?.’

They had put an intravenous feeding tube into my arm and another tube leaked some water into my mouth for me to drink. But it wasn’t giving me enough water to drown in. As this went on I lost all sense of time. I might have been here only a few hours, but I could also have been here for weeks, maybe even months. Several times I just let go of my waste, and it got automatically taken away somehow. I didn’t even know how many times I had done that.

After some time I got another idea. I tried to store my energy like a battery. I had done it before for a short time, maybe I could do it for a longer period.  I built it up very slowly and it worked at first. I felt that I had more energy available that I could use. But as soon as I had quite a measurable quantity, the controller intervened and drained the stored energy out of me. Dejected, I tried to cry, nothing seemed to work. Now my taped eyes intervened. I couldn’t even cry well enough. I got more and more depressed. They, who ever they were, were well on their way to breaking me, and make me their compliant little slave drone.

I continued to function as they expected and wanted. Well, I didn’t have any choice, did I? The controller literally controlled all my output, and what type of power I put out. They even programmed it, and me with it to produce a little heat when they felt chilly. I was happy to comply with the commands of the controller. I was on my way to be a good little slave drone.

At first I got a reprieve from producing power at nights, but then they told me that I needed to produce even at nights. They told me to tap into the gravitational energy. ‘I can tap into gravity? ’I tried to feel it, much encouraged to do so by the controller. I could feel it, and soon found that I could absorb the energy. It made my body much lighter as the gravity lessened where I absorbed it. Soon I could produce energy at all times. It confused my sense of time even more. Sometimes I thought it should already be daylight, but no sunlight was admitted to my body. I felt less and less like a human being. I felt dirty as well, laying there all naked. And my nose told me that I in fact really was dirty, as well. I think someone noticed that as well and issued an order to have me cleaned. The first time someone gave me a sponge bath, but the second time the one doing the washing was lazy. He or she just opened a hydrant and viciously hosed me clean.

My mind felt numb now. I feared that I was losing my mind totally. I just kept on hoping someone would come for me and rescue me. But I didn’t have a clue about who that someone might turn out to be. One thing still kept me going. I had a loving Mom, sister, and good friends. They wouldn’t give up, so neither should I,so I kept hanging on, defying them to break of my will, still trying to defeat that blasted controller.

One day, I know it was daytime, as I just had been fed sunlight before, I was dirty enough again to receive a washing. This person was the gentle one, he gave me a sponge bath. Yes, I was certain that it was a male person. But when I was clean and he dried me somewhat, he didn’t stop rubbing me. In fact he continued rubbing me in certain places. Now I got scared. I was still a virgin, and didn’t even know how to react to sexual stimuli. He was good, and an expert at it. Soon I found myself panting with pleasure, and between my legs I felt warm and moist. He was lying on top of me already, and I think he frantically tore at his clothes to get them out of the way.

As he was doing this, he didn’t make any sound. Then I heard a muffled explosion and I was covered with a sticky warm and wet liquid. His body lay heavily and motionless on top of me and I started screaming. I could only guess what had happened, but I think he got found out and someone killed him.

As I screamed the horror and anguish out of me, I received a few slaps on my cheeks. The shrill woman’s voice said to me, “Shut up, slave. He’s already dead. I don’t think anybody will try to rape you anymore. But just to be on the safe side, I think I’ll operate on you. I’ll remove your ovaries and womb. That way you’ll never have to worry about a period or getting pregnant, ever again. And while I’m at it, I’ll remove that useless tail of yours as well.”

She gave some orders to a person outside the chamber I was held in and then came back into my chamber. “Oh, by the way, if you feel lonely, then rest assured that soon we will provide you with some company. My operatives are tracking someone very useful in Eastern Canada. He is an electrical Elemental, so much better for being a generator. You’ll just have to be a backup and a portable source for light, heat and electrical power.”

With that, she probably went away, as it became quiet again. Well, not for long. Some people came in and pulled the dead body from me and it fell to the floor with a sickening thud. Then I was rudely hosed down again and  left to dry on my own. I couldn’t even speed the drying up by producing some heat. As I lay there on my own again, I became more and more upset. ‘She is going to operate soon on me? And they will do the same to another person?’ I shuddered at the prospect. I knew I definitely had to find a way to get out of there. I couldn’t wait any longer for a rescuer that might or might not come. But I had already tried so many things to defeat the controller. Nothing seemed to work before the controller noticed it and clamped down on my brain to control my converter power. I could feel the wires that they’d put inside my head. There wasn’t really a control chip or something inside my head. The wires were just embedded in the areas that were instrumental for me to control my power.

I was desperately searching my brain for a solution and felt more desperate each minute that went by. Nothing that I could think of would work, as I had already tried it. Then suddenly I had an epiphany. Why hadn’t I thought of that before?

I remembered something from a lesson from my physics teacher Mr. Brands. We had a lecture on the different kinds of energy that were involved in the world. He talked about electromagnetic fields, the weak force and the strong force. He told us about the distance the forces could work. The weak force only worked for a very short distance, something in the order of 10 to the power of minus 15, if I remember correctly. But that wasn’t important. The fact that this power was in the order of 10 to the power of 28 bigger than the electromagnetic force might be important. If I could tap into this force, then I might be able to change or destroy matter, and have so much power that I might overload the controller before it shut me off.

I searched out one of the wires inside my head and concentrated on it to see if I could find the forces between the molecules and the atoms of the wire. Soon I got something, and absorbed the power. My internal power spiked, and though I shed a lot of it in electricity, the controller went nuts. It tried to clamp down on me, but I had already destroyed the connection in that wire and the controller couldn’t get the correct signal trough to my brain. It wasn’t getting all the right signals back, as well. I did have a hard time concentrating because of the attempts of the controller to keep me under control, but I kept trying my best to destroy the other wires as well.

Seconds later I had a nasty headache and more power available than I had ever had before. I managed to annihilate all the wires they had put inside my head. Now I was ready for the next part of my revenge. I spiked the energy net and overloaded every electrical system in the base. As all the doors were electrically operated, they were locked shut. Only with a lot of difficulty could they be opened by hand, so in effect, everyone inside was now a prisoner.

Now that I finally was free of the controller, I kept on drawing energy. I drew in gravitational energy, sound, heat, light from the emergency lamps that hadn’t burned out after my overload, and everything else that I could think of. But those were not my main source of power anymore. I drew in the most power by destroying matter, turning it into energy and absorbing that. I think I literally became a black hole.

It seemed to last for hours on end, me drawing in all that energy, but my guess of time was already screwed up, so maybe it was just seconds. Though I had more power at my disposal than ever before, I still drew in more and more. It was so invigorating and pleasurable. A voice inside me said, ‘More, more power. There is never enough.’

Another voice inside me said, ‘No. It is too much. Release your energy slowly.’

Yet a third voice said, ‘Release it all, now!’ I reveled in this wealth of energy and power, I was intoxicated with it. I wanted more of it. Then I thought, ‘If I go too far, I really will become a black hole. I can swallow the state, the country maybe the whole Earth? What about Mom, Isabel, Snake, Batman and everyone else? What have I done? I can’t continue with this. I need to release it.’ As I floated in my holding and torture chamber,  I still absorbed the gravitational energy fully. I felt the kinetic energy of bullets coming my way and absorbed it. The bullets just lost momentum and floated near my body, completely inert.

 ‘They are still here? They are still trying to e keep me as their slave?’ I felt my burning hot rage rise again. I felt like a goddess, and a vengeful one at that. They had no idea of the power levels I had inside me now. Well, they and everyone else would find out. In one big blast I released all the energy I had inside me.

*************************

At a test site for the new space ship launch, a gravitational disruptor by the name of Jaron David prepared for a test launch. The objective was to start a new ship up with a linear motor, and then Jaron would use his power to counter the gravitational force. The ship would reach almost orbit before Jaron would stop his disruption of gravity and the ship would later make a scheduled landing at Edwards airbase. As the ship was exiting from the linear motor, Jaron disrupted the gravity to almost zero, but suddenly screamed in agony. He lost consciousness and the spaceship had to make an emergency landing at the airfield near the launch facility. Later Jaron said, as did several other gravitational disruptors, “I felt a big disturbance in the earth’s gravity field. It was like a big gravitational pulse had been fired.”

All over the world the seismic measuring equipment recorded a very large pulse that couldn’t be connected to any natural or unnatural earthquake effect. The scientists near the Yellowstone National Park were especially concerned. Their seismometers went crazy because of the pulse. But strangely enough after the pulse subsided the suspected reaction of the volcanic activity beneath the park didn’t happen. Even more the area seemed even more stable than before. They did notice that the origin of the pulse was closeby with the help of all the other measurements they traced the source to the rugged terrain somewhere along the border of Idaho and Montana, in the outskirts of the Bitterroot National park.

The Kerguelen isle volcano had been inactive for many years. The island is located in the middle of the Indian Ocean and almost opposite on the globe relative to the explosion in Idaho. It is somewhere between Madagascar and Antarctica. Suddenly and inexplicably, the volcano came back to life because of the gravitational pulse and erupted violently. There was practically no warning beforehand. The scientists living on the island, lived not very near the erupting mountain, so they managed to escape the brunt of the eruption. However two men were killed, and some others injured. The wildlife was off much worse. The wild cat population would take years to recover. Other animals made a quick getaway, but also they suffered losses. The years before installed Tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean gave out a warning, and with the help of several water elementals the effects were sufficiently countered so there wouldn’t be casualties on the shores. Several other volcano’s around that area also showed much increased activity, and some even had small eruptions. Strangely the volcano’s near the explosion and the origin of the gravitational pulse didn’t show any increased activity.

The inhabitants of the cities Darby, Salmon and several other small towns in Montana and Idaho witnessed a big explosion.  It seemed like a small atom bomb had gone off, complete with mushroom cloud and all. Only the heat wave wasn’t very visible. There was a lot more dust though, as if it had been an underground explosion, or inside a mountain. Fortunately the explosion was far enough from any populated areas to cause little harm. A few campers in the mountains got hit with small rocks and dust. Fortunately nobody got hit by big rocks and no one got seriously hurt. Some animals in the mountains were not so lucky. The vultures wouldn’t go hungry for a long time.

Several planes and other vehicles in the vicinity shut down completely or had problems with their electronics. Luck was with them as nobody got killed or seriously wounded. Two planes managed with difficulty to make an emergency landing while others still made it to their destination, but had lots of problems getting there. One plane taking off from the Lemhi airfield in Salmon crashed right after take off. But the pilot only suffered a fractured leg, although the plane blocked the runway. All the satellites above the US in the vicinity of the position where the explosion took place were knocked out of commission and had to be rebooted or considered a loss.

Every agency and military force in the US was put on high alert. Lots of people feared that there had been a terrorist attempt with a nuclear bomb. But the explosion occurred in the middle of nowhere, and there seemed to be no radioactive radiation as of yet. No nuclear explosion could also explain the gravitational pulse, or the lack of radiation. Still, the pressure was on to go out there and inspect the blast site. But people were instructed to wait for 24 hours for the area to cool off and to let the dust in the atmosphere settle.

End of part eight, to be continued

To be continued...

The entire MORFS  Universe can be found at http://morfs.nowhere2go.org/

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