Legend tells us that there is more to our world than meets the average eye. Those gifted with the Sight, few adults and most children, are able to clearly see little things in the trees, riding on the breeze, or dancing in the moonlight after sundown. Some incredibly tiny, others as tall as the mountains, others purely mischevous, some entirely playful. Some who appear entirely magical, others that could pass as human. But all born of the mystical, and not the mundane. But cross-overs do happen. Fairies will drift into the human world to play with the young children, and those young children will accidentally lose themselves in the mystic. Those few adults gifted with the Sight learn much from the Fey, and pass them on in legends and stories that become exaggerated and become known, in today's terms, as fairytales.
Some legends say that, without the Sight, it is impossible to spot the mystical. Others say that the mystical can be seen in a pure reflection, since the reflection is that of the soul, and not the body. Stories on how to trap fairies, to gain their magic, vary just as the legends to see them. All legends have been written off as make-believe, the things of a child's immagination.
But just because it's inside a child's imagination, does not mean it isn't real. After all, ideas are born from imagination.
Horace Diaz, Chief Medical Examiner at Mighty Med Hospital for Superheroes, was one of the few adults gifted with the Sight. For whatever reason, fairies really liked his hospital, and he saw at least a flock of small ones, no bigger than his index finger, flying around in one day. He wondered why they liked the establishment once, but gave up after a few seconds. Apparently, fairies could understand human languages, but humans couldn't understand the languages of the Fey. Attempting conversation was a futile thing, and they never caused the hospital, staff, or patients any trouble, so Horace was content to let them be. Most of them were very pretty, anywho. He was very sad when his nephew, Alan, lost the Sight once he left childhood behind and entered into his teenage years. Seeing his nephew play with the fairies that were in the hospital always brought a smile to his face, and Alan was always happy to share his adventures to his uncle, who was always happy to listen.
But there was something very peculiar about the two Normo boys he'd employed to work at the hospital, Kaz Clark and Oliver Todd. The best of friends who had impressed him when they had saved the Crusher and Tecton, all in one day. It seemed that they could see the fairies around the hospital, but never paid them any mind. Horace decided to find out, and asked the boys to stay behind so he could talk with them. Oliver looked frightened, but Horace quickly assured him that they weren't in trouble and he was just curious about something, and directed them to meet him in his office after their shift was over.
"Ah, boys. Please have a seat." Horace motioned at the two chairs sitting opposite his desk, and Horace plopped down on the desk while Oliver and Kaz sat in the chairs.
"What's up, Horace?" Kaz asked easily.
"Lots of things. The ceiling, the sky, the stars at night, then the great space beyond." Horace answered with a shrug. Kaz and Oliver gave him odd looks, and Horace jolted with realization. "Oh, you meant what's up with me!" He exclaimed. "Well, gentlemen, I'll get right to the point. Can you see the fairies?"
Kaz and Oliver blinked in shock. "What?" Oliver asked hesitantly.
"The fairies. For whatever reason, they really like it here. I've never chased them out because they don't cause trouble for the hospital." Horace explained. "I've always been able to see them. Can you see them too?"
"Umm..." Kaz hesitated, sharing a weary look with his best friend. Horace blinked as a little twinkling light flew right in front of them, paused in front of Kaz's nose, and then flew off. But Horace hadn't watched the fairy. He'd watched the boys.
Kaz had gone cross-eyed and Oliver had watched with curiousity, both staring directly at the fairy. "You can see them." Horace stated matter-of-factly.
Kaz and Oliver nodded sheepishly. "We've always been able to see them." Kaz admitted. "My big brothers always picked on me."
"Mom just always told me to stop pretending." Oliver confessed.
"I see." Horace nodded seriously. "I thought you might be able to see them, but I wasn't sure. You both have the Sight." With Horace's curiousity sated, the boys were dismissed, and the topic was never breached again. But Horace had to laugh when Kaz had to bat a stubborn pixie away from his ear as he was writing up a patient report a few months later.
But then, there was something very odd about the boys once again as they neared the age of sixteen. Most fairies, if not all, give off a certain glow, the evidence of the magic they hold inside. The fairies with great magic are constantly surrounded by a luminescent aura, while the faires with very little magic had only a slight shimmer to their skin. Kaz and Oliver had a slight, inhuman shine to their skin. Not a shimmer, and not a full-blown glow, but a slight shine. Horace was genuinely puzzled. They weren't Fey, because they had passed by multiple mirrors in front of Horace and their reflections remained completely human, and they were still completely visible to Alan, who continued to mock them for being Normos.
However, the shine didn't appear to be harmful to the boys, and they didn't appear to notice it at all, even with their gift of Sight, so Horace resolved to let it alone.
Then came the mess with Bridget and the Arcturion, and while the boys and Skylar left to capture her, Horace had stayed behind inside Mighty Med. Horace smiled as he watched the fairies dance above the bed of Spark, and she smiled up at them happily.
TR
"I can't believe you're making us do this." Kaz groaned loudly, his arms laden with many different shopping bags. Oliver and Chase grumbled in agreement, but Bree and Skylar resolved to ignore them. Skylar let out a curious hum and wandered into a small store located in the Centium City Mall named True Glass, and Oliver and Kaz shared a hesitant look. It was a shop of mirrors.
"Chase, you got this." Oliver patted the bionic boy on the shoulder awkwardly. Chase gave him an odd look.
"Yeah, me and Oliver are gonna sit this one out." Kaz agreed, backing away.
"Nope." Bree shook her head in denial and grabbed ahold of Kaz's arm, yanking him inside the shop and eliciting a yelp from him.
"Bree!"
"Skylar!" Oliver cried when the alien girl did the same to him. The pair of superteen boys glanced around at the grand amount of mirrors, some lined up on racks, others decorating the walls. Some simple rectangles, others large ovals with ornate frames.
Towards the back was a small counter with a computer and a cash register, and behind it, a withering old woman with long white hair, large blue eyes, and a wrinkled face. She was dressed in a white sweater and a long silk pink shawl. She blinked at the five teens and smiled, revealing herself to be toothless. "Oh, hello children!" She greeted, her voice croaky with age. "Come to buy a mirror or two?"
"We're just looking ma'am." Bree answered politely.
The woman nodded, and then spotted Oliver and Kaz shuffling and eyeing the mirrors with apprehension. "You two boys!" She snapped, startling the pair and waving a long wooden cane at them. "You stay away from my mirrors on the left side wall of my shop! Can't have you clumsy young ones breaking them!" Kaz and Oliver glanced at each other in confusion, then understood once they spotted the twinkle in her blue orbs. They potrayed their thanks in their own and she winked subtly at them. Kaz and Oliver relaxed and let Skylar and Bree peruse the shop, leaning against a bare nook on the right side wall and fiddling with their phones. "Ready to check out, dears?" The woman asked, gaining Kaz and Oliver's attention. Skylar and Bree had picked out a mirror each. Skylar's was a simple oval mirror with a sky blue frame, but Bree's own was a large rectangular one with a ornate metal frame, and it looked ancient.
"Help me carry it, Kaz." Bree commanded, passing the old looking glass to the fire-weilder before he could object.
Just as his fingertips touched the glass, it began to shimmer and shine brilliantly, and Kaz yelped as the glow spread up his arms and covered his entire body. "Kaz!" Oliver yelled, every instinct telling him to run to his best friend's aid but his better judgment commanding him to stay put. His sea blue eyes were wide with horror as the glow grew brighter and brighter until Kaz was a bright white beacon, and the beacon shot into the mirror, which clattered to the floor.
"Ow! Oh, crap!" Kaz's voice yelled out from the mirror.
"Oh, dear." The woman behind the counter sighed.
"What the heck just happened?!" Chase hollered as Bree and Skylar hurriedly scooped up the mirror and placed it on the counter. "What the heck!" He shouted once again once the glass cleared itself of the shine, and the reflection was visible.
Only it wasn't a reflection. Peering out worriedly with his hands pressed against the glass was Kaz, only Kaz looked very, very different.
His entire body shone with firelight, a soft but warm glow that extended out from his skin, which took on a more caramel tint than normal. His jet black hair was now tipped with the reds and oranges of a burning fire, and seemed to waft and crackle as if made up of flames. His deep brown eyes now housed individual flames that flickered in and out. His clothing had transformed from his jeans and t-shirt to a scarlet silk vest with a sparkling golden trim that appeared like roaring flames, scarlet trousers with the same trim at the hems, and a pair of knee-high leather boots with the legs of his pants pulled over them. Encircling his wrists were a pair of leather cuffs that were decorated with glittering sunstones.
But the most shocking difference was the pair of flamescent wings protruding from his back and fluttering powefully behind him, colored with glimmering scarlet red and sparkling gold. "Oliver!" Kaz shouted, his voice as clear as if he weren't inside a mirror.
"I'm right here, Kaz." Oliver stepped into Kaz's line of sight but kept his distance from the mirror.
"Get me out of here!" Kaz yelled, banging on the inside with his fists.
"You might not want to do that, young man. If you break that mirror, you'll be lost." The owner of the shop warned him. Kaz immediately ceased his actions. "We'll get you out, just be patient. This has actually happened quite a few times. Wait here." She slid off her stool that she had been sitting on and hobbled behind a beaded doorway, disappearing from sight.
"You okay?" Oliver asked Kaz.
"Why don't you touch the stupid glass and just see how I'm doing?!" Kaz spat at him, crossing his arms and glaring at Oliver angrily. His wings quivered behind him. Oliver just rolled his eyes.
"Does someone want to explain what is going on here?" Bree exclaimed. "Why is Kaz inside a mirror, and why does he look like that?"
"I'm in here because you handed the stupid thing to me before I could say no!" Kaz hissed at her.
"You'll have to ignore him. Trapping a Fey can irritate them tremendously." Oliver apologized. "Especially if it's a fire fairy."
"Fairies?!" Chase sputtered.
"Yup." Oliver agreed. "Kaz and I are beings of Fey." Kaz huffed and crossed his arms over his chest.
"Should be obvious, look at me!" Kaz grumbled, furiously gesturing to himself.
"Oh, hush you." Oliver scolded. He had to stop himself from rapping on the glass. One, because it would trap him inside also, and two, because Kaz would be beyond pissed. And a pissed off fire fairy was the last thing they wanted. "You forget who we're talking to. An alien girl, and two bionic humans who are masters of skeptisism." Oliver reminded him. Kaz rolled his eyes but fell silent. "Ugh, how do I start this?" Oliver groaned, rubbing his eyes irrately. "Since the beginning of the Earth there have always been two planes of existance; mystical and mundane." Oliver began. "Humans took residence here, in the mundane world, and the second race living on Earth took the mystical. The Fey. But over time the fairies found ways to cross over from their world and into this one, and special people, almost all children and few adults, that were gifted with the Sight could see the fairies as they crossed back and forth. Sometimes humans would accidentally cross into the mystical plane through small cracks or tears, but it was rare. This was where stories about people with wings or magic always came from, though everyone always thought the kids were just pretending and the adults were crazy, but the stories were still passed on. Some fairies, very few, liked the world of the mundane and took up residence here, and that's where Kaz and I come in."
"Your parents were fairies?" Bree asked uncertainly.
"Nah. But we share an ancestor about twenty generations back that was Fey." Oliver shrugged. "His blood went down from generation to generation, never active until now. It wasn't supposed to be active in us, but then we made indirect contact with the Arcturion and it turned us into Fey."
"So, what's with the mirror?" Skylar asked, gesturing to the glass.
"Sometimes fairies would divulge secrets about their race to those with the Sight, like how to spot a fairy without Sight or how to trap them even. They turned into legends and have been severely distorted over time, but every once in a while a legend will hold true." Oliver shrugged again. "One way to spot a fairy is with a 'true reflection'. If a mirror is made with the right componets you don't need the Sight in order to See. Take it a step farther and you can capture a fairy and make them use their magic for your own desires." Oliver glared icily at the bionic girl. "Nice work, Bree! Out of all the mirrors in this shop you found the one that can work as a fairy trap." Oliver snarked. Kaz spat something at the bionic girl in an unknown language-unknown, but strangely beautiful-and Oliver winced. "Really?" He demanded, raising an eyebrow at him. Kaz just harrumphed.
"What was that?" Skylar asked curiously.
"The language of the Fey. Humans have their multiple languages and dialects, but the Fey only have the one." Oliver explained.
"What did he say?" Bree asked.
Oliver winced again. "Trust me, you do not want to know." He replied. Oliver turned and spoke to Kaz in the fairy tongue-it seemed like he was scolding the boy trapped in the mirror-and Kaz argued back in kind.
Bree blinked, as if just then realizing something, then shouted. "Tinkerbell!"
Kaz and Oliver stopped arguing and looked at her like she'd lost her mind. "What?" They asked in unison, both thier brows furrowed in confusion.
"You know, Tinkerbell, from Peter Pan?" Bree asked. "Does this mean that the Peter Pan story was real?"
"Hardly, Bree." Oliver snorted. "Like I said, cross-overs happen all the time. Peter Pan was probably just a kid that got lost over in the mystical realm for a bit too long, and 'Tinkerbell' was just the fairy that found him and guided him back over."
"So no 'faith, trust, and pixie dust'?" Chase demanded mockingly. Oliver hesitated. "Wait, you just said Peter Pan was a myth!"
"And most of them are!" Oliver yelped. "Almost all of them are either fake or have been so added onto that they lost the true version of events. Cinderella for example! What actually happened was a fairy helped a little girl run away from an abusive stepmother, and that little girl ended up marrying a wealthy nobleman later on in her life. There was no prince or ball, or even a fairy godmother with a magic pumpkin and mice that turned into horses! Some fairies just took it upon themselves to help those in need. Fairy Godmothers and Good Fairies. But 'faith, trust, and pixie dust'? More or less true." Oliver shrugged.
"What do you mean by more or less?" Chase demanded.
Oliver pinched the bridge of his nose. "How do I explain this? Umm..Pixie dust does exist, see the glow around Kaz?" Chase, Bree, and Skylar nodded. "That's just a visible form of his magic. That's all pixie dust is. Not only visible, but a physical manifestation of a fairy's magic, and it can be used for just about anything."
"To fly?" Bree asked.
Oliver shrugged. "Guess so. Never really tried it before, never really needed to. Mainly, for the ones that didn't originally posess the Sight, it was used to allow them Sight for a short period of time. Couple hours at the most I think. The 'faith' and 'trust' part is because unless the person using the dust doesn't truly believe in the magic that it holds, it won't work." Oliver shrugged again. He was doing that a lot today.
"So, you could use it on us and we'd be able to see fairies?" Skylar asked.
"Well, sort of." Oliver answered hesitantly. "The dust doesn't just allow you to See. It has a bit of a side affect to it."
"What kind of side affect?" Chase asked suspiciously.
"Nothing too bad." Oliver shook his head. "What do you think of when you think faith and trust?" Chase, Bree, and Skylar shared confused glances, and Oliver rolled his eyes. "Who else has the Sight besides certain adults?"
"Kids." Bree replied easily.
"Exactly. Most, if not all, children are born with the Sight, and most lose it when they leave childhood and grow into teenagers, save for a select few. Your stepbrother is one." Oliver informed them.
"Leo?" Chase demanded in shock. "Leo has the Sight?"
"Yeah." Oliver nodded, then snickered. "When you get the chance, ask him about that pixie that's been following him around. Anyway, a child has a strong sense of faith and belief in the impossible, in the magical. You tell a little kid that a tree can talk and it'll find a tree to have a conversation with. In order for the dust to work, a strong sense of faith and belief in it's magic has to be in play. A faith like a child's. In a sense, you have to think like a kid in order for it to work, and that's what the side affect of the dust is. The dust gives you a child's innocence and mentality." When Oliver recieved confused stares, he rolled his eyes. "Better to just show you." He grumbled, then gripped his hand into a fist and shook it a few times. When he opened it, sitting inside his hand was a glittering silver powder. "Anyone gonna volunteer?" Oliver asked.
Bree, Chase, and Skylar all shared unsure glances, then Bree huffed and stepped forward. "I'm curious; I'll do it." She announced.
"Remember, you have to really believe." Oliver commanded.
Chase snorted. "Well, isn't that childish?"
"Kinda the point, Robot Boy." Kaz bit back.
"Okay. Do it." Bree allowed, her eyes shut. Oliver put the dust up to his lips and blew forcefully, the dust flying into Bree's face. Bree froze as Oliver smacked his palms, ridding himself of the remainder of the powder.
"Bree?" Skylar asked.
Bree opened her eyes, which were a happily glowing deep brown, and erupted in a fit of giggles. Oliver grinned, and the corners of Kaz's mouth twitched upward. Bree gasped, her mouth dropping open with awe and wonder and her eyes shining with the same as they caught sight of Oliver. "Owiver, you're so pretty!" Bree breathed, her voice full of a childlike innocence and completely starstruck at the sight of her friend and teammate.
Oliver bowed with an exaggerated flourish of his arms, making the bionic girl giggle once again. "Why, thank you."
Bree raised her hand, then pulled it back quickly. Oliver smirked and turned his back to her. Bree gasped excitedly, and Chase and Skylar's eyes widened at the sight of Bree gently running her hand down a surface that wasn't there. "They're cold!" Bree exclaimed, giggling again and wriggling around excitedly.
"She's touching my wings." Oliver explained to the thouroughly confused Skylar and Chase. "This is what happens when someone who doesn't have the Sight gets a dosage of the dust. It litterally gives them the mentality and thought pattern of a child, and that allows them to See." Oliver turned around and Bree pouted at the lost contact with Oliver's wings, but wasn't left to be dissappointed for long. Oliver waved a glowing hand in front of her eyes and Bree blinked with a shake of her head. "You okay?"
"Yeah." Bree nodded, her voice back to normal. "That was really weird."
"You just think it's weird because you have an adult mentality again." Oliver countered with a disappointed headshake. "People these days. Believing is considered weird and seeing is craziness!" He grumbled to himself.
Kaz snorted. "Careful,...," The woman was back, and she carried a large velvet sheet with her, along with a huge wooden bowl of glittering dust. "Or you'll start sounding like the ..." She warned Oliver.
"What did she call you?" Chase demanded. He couldn't have repeated it even if he wanted to.
Oliver chuckled. "..." Oliver repeated. "Basically the slang term for a water fairy. She was warning me that I would start sounding like my elders if I wasn't careful." He explained.
"How old do fairies get?" Bree wondered aloud. Oliver and Kaz fidgeted uncomfortably.
"Oh, tell them." The woman chastised, adding some odd-looking ingredients to the bowl of powder. "They know just about everything else."
"You guys aren't immortal." Chase laughed. Oliver and Kaz shared a look. "Wait, are you?"
"Not completely. We can still be killed. We can still be fatally injured or catch a deadly illness." Oliver shook his head. "We're not invulnerable."
"But if neither happens.." Bree trailed off.
"Still not completely immortal, but we will live for a lot longer than humans our age." Oliver confessed.
"How much is a 'lot longer'?" Chase demanded. Oliver mumbled something about 'three or four', and Chase's hazel eyes bugged out of his head. "Three or four centuries longer than normal?" He sputtered.
"No." Oliver answered sheepishly. "Three or four millenia." Skylar, Bree, and Chase's jaws dropped in total astonishment. "And if Kaz and I are very careful, we could live on for five or six." Oliver added, shuffling from foot to foot.
"Well, does that make the Force important in the grand scheme of things?" Chase muttered.
"Yeah, it does, actually." Oliver agreed, fixing Chase with a pointed look.
"No more talking!" The shopkeeper commanded, sprinkling the powdered mixture onto the violet sheet. "I'm going to put this over the mirror, and when I do, ..., jump!" She ordered Kaz, who nodded. "..., you'll have to catch him!" She told Oliver. The fairy not trapped positioned himself in front of the glass and held out his arms. The woman quickly draped the sheet over the mirror, and a large body suddenly fell into Oliver's arms.
"Gah! Kaz, you gotta lay off the Cheetoes!" Oliver grunted, putting the body on the ground and Kaz yanked the sheet off of himself. He appeared like any other teenager, no fairy outfit or wings. Kaz snapped something at Oliver in the fairy tongue and smacked him.
"I don't think I want this mirrror anymore." Bree informed the woman, pushing it back over the counter. "How about this one?" She suggested, picking up a grand circular looking glass with an intricately designed silver frame. Oliver glanced at his reflection over her shoulder, and let out a shriek, a thick beam of white light shooting from the glass and hitting Oliver square in the chest. Oliver began to glow brilliant white, and suddenly, standing in the water fairy's place was a beautiful marble statue of a young adult with large wings. There was a look of alarm on his face, and Bree gulped and put the mirror down.
Kaz turned to the woman. "Do you have something?" He asked her, gesturing to the statue.
She nodded. "One moment, and dear?" The shopkeeper began, looking at Bree. "Maybe you should go wait outside."
Apparently this came from the same dark corner of my mind where Mamma Mia was born. Idk.