Cass sighed. "Well, yes, it is that way," she said. "It's understandable, in a way. But there's a difference between there being a logical reason for something and there being a good reason for something. Even people we don't like deserve basic human respect. Or if they don't, it takes a lot worse than simply being a jerk to people to annull that."
Matt shrugged noncommittally as he sat down. Cass frowned; for all his protestations of neutrality, that had sure sounded like he was saying she deserved it. She thought for a moment that "Sider" might share in the classic mad-science persecution complex, but no. This was just part of the teenage emotional drama that came with high school, she supposed. But...sometimes it felt like all the strangeness of the sun-changes tended to magnify it all beyond its normal scope. Certainly things could get that way with her "aura" ability, though she did her best to keep that toned down in class. Still, they were teenagers, all of them. Like most anyone else, they were bound to mature at least a bit as they got older.
There was an I-have-an-opinion-to-state kind of cough from the corner of the classroom, and Sarah stood up. "Eh," she said, "I get where you're coming from, and...yeah, Tiffany's been kind of a jerk more than a few times. But for what it's worth, she totally wasn't herself for that first change. I've probably been around her more than anybody, and I know something wasn't right. Even now she's still snapping out of...whatever it was. Cut her some slack, okay?"
One of the other students snorted. "Seemed more like she just lost any pretense of not being an asshole," she said. "Besides, like you're one to talk? You and Biff, and Tiffany...you only ever started acting decent when you started being on the butt-end of this, y'know."
Sarah scowled, a vein in her neck standing out a bit as her brain tried to clench fists she no longer had. "Leave Biff out of this!" she said, her voice quavering. "He's...he's got enough problems..." She almost cracked at the end of that sentence; she could still think back to how she'd felt when...when she'd seen her boyfriend, changed into a little girl...a little girl who no longer had the same feelings for her, but who plainly still held an emotional attachment, and who understood that there was something missing between them...he was a person too, dammit!
The harpy took a breath and squared her shoulders, trying to pull herself together. "Besides," she said, "I...yeah, maybe it took more than it should've for me to start being nicer," she said. "But you know what? Now I have been on the receiving end...but I'm not holding a grudge. Maybe you shouldn't!"
"Hey, calm down, both of you," Cass said. "Save it for after class...if you have to."
Tetra led Jenny and her friend away from the school grounds. Whatever was going on, she didn't want anybody caught in the crossfire...or any unnecessary observers. She still didn't feel entirely comfortable with letting this "Artemis" along, but she did seem to be more than an ordinary transformed child, and it sounded like she was already clued in to some extent. The cat-girl didn't really know why she felt like this kind of thing should be kept a secret...she could think of some reasons, like the problem it would be if word got out and everybody started prying into her protegé's life...but she felt like maybe her true motives were less rational and more instinctual. Maybe it was just her feline independent streak...
"There you are!"
Tetra whirled around, tail poofed, to see Muriel standing before them. She was panting heavily and trembling slightly, and frowning at her. "Ah, oh," the cat-girl stammered, "I was just getting Jenny..."
Muriel held up a hand while she caught her breath. "Yeah, that...that wasn't hard to figure out," she said. "Cats...you're not nearly as subtle as you think you are, you know. What's going on? Artemis, honey, you should go back to the school..."
The moon-girl shook her head. "Nope!" she said cheerily. "I'll be okay, don't worry! I wanna see what's goin' on!"
Tetra frowned. "Look," she said, "something's...something's coming, again. It's a lot bigger than that..d-dog...in the mall. I wanted to get Jenny away so that this wouldn't happen by the school..."
Muriel nodded. As much as she was peeved at the cat-thing's over-secretiveness, that was fair enough. "Good idea," she said. "This thing, what is it? What can we do about it?"
The cat-girl shrugged. "I don't know yet," she said. "It isn't close enou-oh no..." She flinched, her tiny muscles visibly tensing.
"What is it? 're you okay!?" Jenny asked. This was the first time she'd seen her mentor act like this...
"I'm...I'm okay," Tetra said. "But...I can feel it, it's closer...I think it's an opposite."
Muriel frowned. "An opposite? Of what?"
"Of Jenny," she replied. "They want to...to cancel her out. Oh, this is not good..."
"Cancel her out?" the policewoman asked. "How does that work? What will that do?"
The cat-girl looked over at the two little girls, then motioned to Muriel to pick her up. The policewoman grabbed her and swung her up onto her shoulder; it took a moment for her to establish a foothold on the chitin plating.
"What it will do," she whispered... She paused. "It...best case," she said, feeling nauseous at the idea that this could even be described as a "best case," "best case is that...they cancel each other out. The opposite's gone, and Jenny's...gone. D-dead." She shuddered, and Muriel, feeling a little sympathy, and no small amount of her own concern for Jenny, gently rubbed the cat-girl's shoulders. "And if not that?" she asked.
Tetra sighed. "If not that," she said, "then...it works like matter and antimatter..."
Muriel's eyes went wide. "We're talking like on Star Trek, the giant-explosion kind of thing?" she asked. Tetra nodded. "Well, shouldn't we get further away?" she asked.
The cat-girl shook her head. "It wouldn't matter...if it works like that...even if they weren't magical, that kind of reaction would be more powerful than a nuclear bomb...look, whatever happens, they cannot touch. We just have to make sure of that, however it goes, no matter what."
Muriel nodded. She had her pistol...if she had to use it, she had to use it. Whatever slavering monstrosity could be the "opposite" of her little girl, whatever cosmic nightmare was headed their way, she would see it stopped. She was ready for anything...she hoped. "Is...is this just one of those things you know?" she asked. "I mean, that didn't really...?"
Tetra shrugged. "I guess they must have tried this, in some other time or place," she said. "But...what happened? I don't know..." She gauged her jump, and leapt to the ground, walking back over to her partner.
"Jenny?" she said. The girl nodded. "This thing that's coming," she said, "it wants to get to you, to touch you and react with you, so that it can..." She almost choked. "So that it can...can kill you, Jenny. This isn't like that d-dog thing, it's not just lost and hungry. It exists to kill you. We need to stop it, and we need to do that without it ever touching you. And...and I think the only way for us to do that...is to kill it."
Jenny stared at her. "I...I don't wanna kill anythin', Tetra!"
The cat-girl nodded. "I know, but...I think you might have to, Jenny. I'm sorry..."
"You're sure there isn't another way?" Muriel asked. She wasn't inclined to show any mercy towards anything that would threaten her child, and she was more than ready to do it herself, but if she couldn't manage it...Jenny should never have been dragged into this, not a sweet little child like her...even for her to witness this...
Tetra sighed. "I don't know," she said. "Maybe if we could figure out how to...how to remove its...its 'opposite' nature, but...I don't know how to do that! I don't even know if it's possible! And the more time we spend trying to do something like that, the more chance it has to get to her..."
Jon sighed as she slid towards the cafeteria. It sure was getting dark early. It looked to be dusk out already; that was early even for this time of year - even if showering after P.E. had taken longer than she'd expected. That had been as strange an experience as the entire rest of it; she'd felt amazed chiefly by her lack of amazement, just as she had while getting dressed beforehand. Everyone was so unthinkingly casual about it (barring a few of the other girls who were simply very shy) that it just didn't seem as unusual as she'd expected it would, and somehow that seemed unusual to her.
That, and cleaning up in this body was a bit of a pain in any circumstances. She didn't do much with her slug half beyond brushing off any accreted dirt (most of whatever was underneath her remained where it was, on the bottom side of her slime trail, but little bits would get caught up between the loose fringe and the main surface of her foot,) but it took her longer to shower as a girl, partly because she was still a little tentative and not entirely comfortable handling herself, even after almost six weeks, and partly because it was just more work. At least her hair wasn't too long...it'd be even more of a pain if she had it halfway down her back like Karyn did. She'd look kind of silly with hair that long, anyway.
She felt a brief chill as she looked out the window at the darkening sky, and shivered, then shook it off. This was just how it went, she supposed. She just hoped she'd be all right as it got further into winter; the waning daylight she could live with, but she wondered how her body would cope with the cold. After all, a good two-thirds of her body mass was covered with a layer of watery mucus; she'd gotten a bit cold just walking through the refrigerated section at the grocery store!
Still, not much point in worrying too much about what couldn't be helped. If she couldn't be out for long, she couldn't be out for long, and she'd just have to make sure to stay inside. At least the family van had a good heater, it usually warmed up within a minute of ignition. She supposed if it came to it, she could start driving to school on a regular basis.
Jon got herself some lunch and found the corner table where Brittany was sitting. The ghost-girl looked pensive for some reason as the slug-girl sat across from her. "Hey, Brittany," she said. "What's up?"
The Celtic girl snapped to attention, apparently a bit startled. "Ah, Jon," she said. "It's good to see you well."
She shrugged, smiling. "Uh, thanks. Is something up? You looked a little...distracted, or something."
Brittany raised an eyebrow. "Can you not feel it? Something is afoot, something dangerous."
Jon shook her head. "Uh, I didn't really feel anything...any idea what?"
"No," she murmured. "It's not here, but neither is it very far from here...but I don't think it seeks us. Nevertheless, it is dangerous."
The slug-girl sighed. "Is this something we can help with?" She lowered her voice. "If...if it comes to it...we could use the stone, and figure something else out later..." She didn't like the idea at all, but it wouldn't be good to be so dogmatic about saving the stone to fix the sun that she couldn't bring herself to use it for some more pressing need.
Brittany shook her head. "I think...that the matter already rests in capable hands. It is merely the feeling that remains with me..." She straightened up a bit and looked Jon in the eye. "Lady Jon," she said, "I think we ought to-oh, good day, Karyn."
The cecaelia-girl smiled as she wheeled up to the table. "Hi, Brittany. Don't mind me."
She nodded. "I think we ought to discuss the forming of your circle," she said.
Jon frowned. "My 'circle?'"
"Of advisors and aides, yes. You have been given a mighty gift, but also a great responsibility; and while I do not doubt your fitness for the role-"
The slug-girl stifled a laugh. "That's okay," she said. "I do. But go on..."
Brittany nodded, smiling slightly. "I do believe that you are suited for this role," she said. "But it would be well for you to have other counsel than just myself. These changes of the sun have brought a great many things into the world, and some of the changed have been gifted with their own powers. I do know of a girl who has been given a kind of true-sight, and perhaps there are others with their own gifts who may be able to help. Even some without special abilities might be trustworthy aides to you."
Karyn nodded thoughtfully. "The key word there being 'trust?'"
"Exactly," Brittany said. "I know that the two of you already understand the importance of caution, yet you came to me after all and told me the whole truth. We will want to be certain that we can trust them, but if we can find people to help us, we will be far better prepared for whatever may come."
Jon frowned. "Yeah...uh, what may come? Is there something going on in...in this whole mess?"
The ancient girl shrugged. "I have spoken of darker forces to you...it's possible that they are awaking, the same as the gods are. They may seek to take our world for themselves, to mold it into what they desire it to be...it would not be their first attempt."
Karyn raised an eyebrow. "An invasion, sort of? How was it stopped before?"
"I do not know all the stories," Brittany said. "But this world, this universe, has a way of bringing protection for itself into being, often through the intervention of those who wield the elemental forces. Perhaps the sun has already brought forth the protectors of this age."
"What...what are they like?" Jon asked. "Is there some way to recognize them?" She paused. "...I didn't...didn't allow this in, with magic, did I?"
Brittany shook her head. "Jon, if these forces are at work, their plans were laid long before you were born - perhaps even before my time. If anything, your wish may have restored to our world its ability to raise up a defense for itself...however unknowingly you made it."
The slug-girl sighed in relief. It was bad enough to think of being responsible for the disruption of so many people's lives - if she'd had to live with the knowledge that she'd put the universe itself in peril...
"But I do not know how we will know them," she continued. "It's said that it is different every time...that they are brought into the world in forms suited to the age. I have even heard the theory that the gods themselves were the first to defend this universe, long before the birth of humanity...but that is only a theory."
Jon gave a low whistle. "I see. I guess we just keep an eye out, then..."
Brittany nodded, and was about to say something further when she heard someone approach. Jon smiled. "Oh, hey, Tim!"
The dark-elf boy nodded, smiling. "Hey. Mind if I join you?"
"Not at all," Jon said.
Robert was breathing a bit heavily. She'd always been rather sedentary, and while her new body was generally in better shape than her old one, it was still hardly a powerhouse. And her breasts were still stinging as they jostled on her chest...but she couldn't stop now. She didn't know what the girl was up to, but it wouldn't be good for her to be all by herself. This wasn't a bad neighborhood at all, but still...she had to find her, and help her find her parents, or whoever took care of her.
...which would be a lot simpler if she hadn't lost track of the girl when she'd tripped. She'd just kept going in the direction she was last following the girl, but unless she continued in a straight line, Robert wasn't sure that was going to get her anywhere near where the girl had gone.
"Lord, give me guidance..." she whispered...
