Mary Sue Dubois: Strike Varga

It was a bright sunny day, perfect for fishing. Mary Sue Dubois was leaning back against the side of the boat as the little girl lay on the seat watching the two fishing poles sitting in sockets on the stern of the little boat. The six year old was looking forward to starting school in the first grade next week. Mary was content. The sun shining on her ebony skin felt good. She was wearing a simple pink one-piece bathing suit and her hair was in cornrows that went into little pigtails that had little pink bows on the ends. Some people would question the fact that she was going out fishing in the Gulf of Aztecia in a nine-foot rowboat. She would tell them that was all she needed and she would have a difficult time with a larger boat. The pole on the right started to bend and she quickly moved to grab it

"Got yah!" she said

After an eleven minute battle She grabbed a dip net and pulled in a nineteen inch grunt.

"Momma is going to make a good meal out of this one." She said with a smile as she put it in an aluminum box that was two-thirds full of water and had two smaller fish in it already.

Mary put the screened cover over the top of the aluminum box that served as her live well. Mary yawned a bit she looked over at the shoreline about seven miles to her right as she drifted with the current. It had taken her almost two hours to row her little boat out there but it was one of the best fishing spots in the area, a reef rising to within ten or fifteen feet of the surface. Now after the fight to bring in that last fish she was feeling a bit tired and decided a nap was in order. Mary put the fishing rod she had used to catch the fish in it's holder and brought in the line of the other one, she took a towel and folded it up and laid it on the end of the middle seat and after laying down used it for a pillow then took a second one and laid it over the top of her face covering her eyes and fell asleep.

A few hours later Mary woke up because the boat was rocking considerably. She noticed that the sky was overcast then saw to her dismay that she could no longer see the shore and because of the overcast she had no idea of the direction of the sun. The water was choppy and the wind had picked up considerably…She was lost and conditions were deteriorating rapidly. Mary was beginning to get scared now, it was dark, she was not sure where she was and a storm was coming in. The little girl looked around at the horizon fighting panic when she saw what looked like white water on the horizon to her left. White water meant waves hitting a shore. She quickly jumped onto the center seat grabbed the oars and pulled with all her might. The wind was pushing the tiny boat toward the shore of what was clearly an island. As she rapidly approached the island pushed by the rapidly quickening wind as well as her own frantic pulling at the oars she could see high waves breaking on the shore Then she realized that her tiny boat was coming in FAST! A huge wave picked the little boat and it's tiny sailor well up in the air where it came down with a crash hitting the rocky shore with enough force to break a hole in the right side of the bow and tossed her forward onto the rocks. She hit hard tumbling end over end banging her legs and arms and landing on her back.

"OW!" she cried out in pain as she landed.

She slowly and painfully sat up her smooth ebony skin scraped and cut up by the hard landing on the rough coral. She looked down at her legs in addition to all the scrapes and small cuts her right knee was swelling up rapidly. Mary slowly struggled to her feet.

"OW!" she cried out once again tears' welling up in her eyes as she hobbled over to her battered boat the sky was looking like it was going to open up any minute.

Mary looked up at the rapidly darkening sky then looked around at the cliff wall and saw a small cave opening. As fast as her throbbing knee would allow she grabbed a small wooden box with a handle on top and the two towels on the seat and limped to the mouth of the cave crawling in just as torrents of rain suddenly came down. Mary carefully crawled deeper into the small cave about twelve feet in she came to a wall. She stopped and opened the box she was carrying, digging through some pieces of old inner tubes she dug out a couple small mason jars and a candle holder She opened one of the mason jars and pulled out a candle and placed it in the candle holder then after putting the lid back on the jar she opened a different one and pulled out a Zippo lighter and used it to light the candle. The soft yellow glow of the candle dimly lit up the end of the little cave. She found a ledge to put the candle holder on and dug-out a second candle holder and another candle and lit it and placed it on another ledge the second candle added to the light in the cave that was going to be her bedroom for the night…and perhaps longer. She looked around her The cave she had taken shelter on was not very large barely twelve feet long three to four feet wide and about three feet high. The back end was formed into a sort of "T" shape, The left side was a jumble of loose rocks but the right side made a bit of a cubby hole with a smooth dirt floor and an almost cozy feel with a number of small ledges that would make good shelves. She moved the candle holders to shelves on either side of the little cubby hole and laid the larger of the towels on the floor there and smoothed it out she put the folded smaller towel at the open end she sat down and dug through her little supply box. She had one small bottle of Coke left she pulled it out and took out a peanut butter and jelly sandwich wrapped in wax paper also her last one. Mary sighed as she looked at her dinner for the night. But at least it was something She grabbed her bottle opener and popped the cap on the bottle of Coke barely getting her mouth over the top as it foamed over. Mary's mouth filled with the warm sweet foam. The foam settled down as the pressure dissipated as the gas cleared away. Once the pop had settled down she put the bottle on one of the ledges and unwrapped her sandwich and ate it washing it down with her Coke. After finishing her dinner such as it was Mary blew out the candles and lay down to sleep. Mary laid down and looked toward the mouth of the cave She could see the rain coming down hard in the dim light, but in spite of that she felt cozy in her little cubby hole and the soft pitter-patter of the rain at the other end of the cave she had taken shelter in soon lulled her to sleep.

A strong shaking and rumbling suddenly awakened her she immediately knew something was wrong…It was pitch dark in the cave now and the air was stuffy. She fumbled around for a minute until she felt the Zippo lighter and picking it up flipped the cap up and lit it. In the glow of the small flame she quickly found one of the candles and lit it flipping the cover of the lighter closed to extinguish the flame she looked around her little cave. The light from the candle revealed to her dismay that a rockslide had closed off the entrance to the cave…She was trapped! Fighting panic the little girl looked around the cave, then she saw that the rocks that had filled the other arm of the cave looked like they had shifted and revealed an opening in the end of the other arm of the cave. She slowly crawled over to the end and saw that the shift in the rocks had exposed a rock stairway going down past the glow of her candle. She crawled back to her cubby hole dug another candle out of her utility box and stuffed in the top of her swimsuit then did the same with the Zippo then crawled back to the opening of the cave at the top of the stairway. She winced as she moved her right knee hurting more, now swollen to double its normal size. She crawled back to the new hole and squeezed through it. Once on the other side she was able to stand again looking around to get her bearings she slowly limped down the stairs, as she went down the stairs she noticed there was light coming from the direction she was headed, getting brighter as she approached. She continued to limp down the stairs until the ended at the end of a long hallway with the lights getting brighter. Mary limped down the long hallway staring in awe at the walls and ceiling as she watched soon it opened up into a larger chamber. She paused at the entrance staring at a raised platform at the end that had something on it that was glowing brightly.

"Wow!" Mary Sue muttered as she stared at the glowing form.

"Do you seek power?" A voice from the large glowing object asked.

"Huh?" Mary responded as she backed up a step almost falling backwards because of her injured knee.

"Do you seek power?" The voice repeated.

Mary stood for several minutes staring at the glowing object that spoke to her trying to figure out what it meant.

"Yes I do." She finally answered.

"And what would you do if you had great power?" It asked again.

Mary stood for a moment thinking hard about the question.

"My world is being attacked by evil creatures called neuroi. They are mean and hurt a lot of people and destroy lots of stuff. I want to protect the people." She replied with a grim look on her face.

"Do you think that if you had the power you would do that?" she was asked.

"I would do my best" she answered.

There was silence for several minutes.

"You are worthy." The voice said. "You will be granted great power. Are you ready?"

Mary stood looking around at the chamber walls then at her own body with the various scrapes, cuts and bruises as well as her badly swollen knee.

"I am." She replied firmly.

"Once you get it you have it forever." The voice told her. "There will be no turning back. Are you prepared for that?"

"If I can protect people I am." Mary replied firmly.

"Very well then Mary Sue DuBois. You will become the Brain of the Varga." Came the reply. "This will hurt some at first."

She was surprised that it had addressed her by name since she had not told it her name. Her thoughts were cut off as it felt like her body had been set on fire her scream echoing thought the chamber before she passed out. She had a dream about a girl in her teens white with red hair that was fighting an enemy with the help of some kind of huge lizard type creature that she had bonded with. She woke up laying face down on the beach all the pain she felt after the crash was now gone. She looked at her arms and saw the scrapes and cuts were gone. As she started to move she realized that her bathing suit was also gone. Then she saw that she had something new…a tail! That could only mean one thing…She was now a witch! She was puzzled though because she had not actually met her new familiar and did not know exactly what it was which seemed odd to her since usually a witches familiar came up to her. Mary stood up and discovered that her knee no longer hurt. She looked down and saw they were the same size and all the scrapes and cuts were gone as well. She looked around then generated a shield. It had symbols like a standard witches shield and was quite large. The color seemed to be more green than the shields she has seen a couple of the 555th witches use. She thought for a minute wondering what her intrinsic ability was. She held up her hands and concentrated then watched as a large cone of intense flame erupted from them. Mary smiled, Firestorm was a strong power…then she looked around the small island she was trapped on and her broken boat.

"Yeah this will really help me get home now." She mused with a sigh.

"We can swim home Brain." A voice in her head replied

"Who are you?" Mary asked somewhat confused.

"I'm your Varga." Came the reply "You are my Brain."

"What does that mean," Mary asked puzzled by what he said.

"You provide the direction, I provide the body and power when required." He replied. "That is the bargain."

"You are my familiar?' She replied.

"Yes it's sort of like that.' He told her.

Mary Sue thought for a moment. She knew the basics about being a witch and what a familiar did.

"Yeah you help me do spells and stuff." Mary Sue said.

"Yes I do that too…but I also can do much more like heal your injuries and improve how your body works. You are much stronger now and your senses are better."

"What do you mean?" The little girl asked him.

"What time do you think it is?" he asked her.

Mary Sue looked around and she could see rather well.

"I guess around seven or eight in the morning." She told him.

"It's 1 am. It looks later because you can see in the dark now." He replied. You have more muscle too."

Mary looked down at her body looking more closely at it than after she had first woke up she looked at her chest and did not see her ribs any more. Then she looked at her belly and it looked like she had seen on some of the body builders on the beach. She looked down at her legs; some people had said they looked like peas on a tooth pick…now older men might call them sexy. She raised her right arm and flexed her bicep and was shocked to see how big it was. She walked over to a watermelon size rock that was on the beach and gave it a shove it moved easily. She grabbed it and picked it up surprised at how easy it was. She smiled.

"I'm really strong now." She announced "But I don't know how to get home…I don't even know where it's at."

"We just have to get a higher vantage point." The Varga responded.

"How do we do that?" she asked.

"I grow." Was the simple response.

"How do you do that?" she asked him.

"You tell me to." He said.

Mary Sue thought for a moment puzzled by the reply.

"Varga grow." She finally said.

Mary let out a screech as she suddenly found herself two hundred and fifty feet off the ground imbedded in the face of a monster her feet and butt stuck into it's face.

"W…What happened?" she stammered.

"I'm full size now." He said. "This is my normal form."

"WOW you're BIG!" she exclaimed looking around.

"Well Brain using the measurements of your world I'm about two hundred and fifty feet tall and weigh about one thousand and two hundred tons." He told her.

Mary Sue looked out from her new vantage point she could see about twenty five miles with her enhanced vision she could now see in the dark and much farther. As she looked around she spotted her house.

"I can see my house!" she exclaimed.

"Yes Brain we can easily swim there from here." The Varga told her "It's very close I can make it in less than and hour if I swim under water where it's less choppy."

Mary Sue struggled to free herself from the Vagea's face pulling on her legs and pushing up trying to get her butt free. She squirmed around trying to move.

"Why am I stuck on your face?" She asked him.

"That's part of the deal Brain." Varga told her. "When we are in my base form you are up here and when we are in your base form you have my tail. We are bonded together now Brain. We share one body now."

Mary Sue sat pondering what she had been told. She looked down at where her lower legs ended she could feel her feet so she knew she still had them but she could not see them as they were buried in the Varga's face. She looked down where her bottom was stuck in the Varga's forehead. She wiggled around as best she could her butt was firmly stuck and the way she was imbedded had kept her decent. She thought for a moment then had a disturbing thought.

"If I'm stuck on your have when you are underwater won't I drown?" Mary asked with some concern

"No Brain, you can breathe underwater like I do." Varga told her. "You can handle extremes of temperature and are resistant to impact damage as well."

"What does that mean?" she asked.

"You don't have to worry what the weather is you can take it. You could drop a rock like that one you have picked earlier on your foot and it would not hurt. You could take hot food out of a pan with your bare hand, Brain." He said.

"So I'm really tough and strong right?" she replied.

"Yes Brain as you were told you have great power now." Varga told her.

Mary sat and thought about what was happening. She remembered the conversation she had with the mysterious glowing form. She thought about her answer to what she would do if she had great power and the reply she got before she was bonded with her Varga. She had in effect made a promise to protect people and the being what ever it was decided she was worthy. The vision she had must have been from a predecessor who had been the previous Brain. She looked down at the huge face she was sitting in. She gently put her hand down on his forehead.

"I made a promise." She finally said. "I have to keep it. I'm more than just a witch."

"Yes you are Brain." The Varga said. "You have been granted great power very few have been given."

"Let's go home. I have to talk to my parents and let the CRAF know what I am now. I promised to help protect the world…I will keep that promise." Mary said with grim determination.

"Yes Brain, your parents have got to be worried. You and your boat have disappeared in a storm." Varga stated, "That does not normally have a good outcome."

Mary knew all too well about the bad outcomes. Too many bodies had washed on shore after storms…and some people never returned at all.

"Yeah my Mommy is probably crying right now." She finally said. "We need to get back home."

"As you wish Brain." Varga replied as he ran into the water and dived in.

Mary was caught by surprise by the speed they went underwater she was amazed by how well she could see now it was a couple minutes before she realized that she had no problem with breathing either. She could breath as easily underwater as she could on the surface and see almost as well. She looked around.

"This is so pretty!" she gushed.

"Yes Brain, the seas around your home are especially nice." He stated. "I'm going to like it here."

"Yeah I like it here too." Mary stated. "It's nice. That's why I want to protect it."

"Well Brain we will do that." The Varga told her. That is why we are a team now. We will protect this world."

"Yes we will." She agreed.

They talked a lot on the way to her home getting to know each other. The Varga was worried about her youth and lack of experience. His previous brains had been in their mid-teens and experienced fighters. Mary was only six and had no combat experience or training. But she also was determined to protect her world. The powers had made good choices in the past and he decided that he could trust them now. It took less than an hour to swim from the island to the mainland. When they were within a mile of shore Varga instructed Mary in using her tail to swim and shrunk down to her base form. She swam the last mile in and climbed on shore. As she climbed up on shore she realized she was still naked.

"I can't come home like this!" She exclaimed. "I'm naked. I'll get in trouble if I come in with-out any clothes on!"

"I can make you some clothes if you need some Bain." The Varga told her.

"Please I can't go in the house like this." Mary pleaded.

"As you wish" He said.

Mary found that she was suddenly wearing an armoured outfit. She had a grey metal breastplate with a similar plate covering her back a series of overlapping plates were coming off the shoulders covering her upper arms about halfway between her shoulders and elbows. There were arm guards covering her lower arms. A similar skirt of overlapping plates came down to mid thigh. She had guards of the same metal covering her lower legs and feet. Under the metal there was a soft material that resembled leather but was much softer. An emblem that resembled the Varga's head was the center of the chest plate. She looked over her new outfit.

"Why did you dress me like this?" she asked.

"This was my previous Brain's favorite outfit." He told her. "I thought you would like it. I can change it if you don't like it."

"Well I do like it." Mary said with a smile. "I'll keep it."

She could hear her mother crying with her enhanced hearing she rushed up to the house. She looked through the doorway and saw her mother standing with her father her face buried in his chest. She was crying

"I would do anything to see her again," she sobbed.

"Turn around." Mary said. "I'm still alive."

Mary's mother looked up and saw her standing there very much alive she rushed over to her. She picked up Mary and gave her a big hug. She was surprised to discover that Mary was wearing metal armour.

"Why are you wearing this?" She asked. "What happened to your bathing suit?"

"I sorta lost it." Mary told her.

Her mother put her down. And stepped back.

"Where did you get that armour from?" she asked.

"Varga made it for me." She told her.

"Who's Varga?" Her mother asked.

"Varga is my familiar." Mary told her. "I'm a witch."

"What's a Varga?" Her father asked.

"I'll show you." Mary said as she backed out the door.

Mary's parents followed her out the door puzzled by her actions. She turned as they followed her out and held up her hand.

"Stop there."She told them then trotted out toward the beach. "Varga grow!"

Suddenly the Varga grew to his full two hundred and fifty foot height with Mary sitting on his forehead.

"Mom, Dad, This is Varga." She announced. "Varga this is my Mom and Dad."

"Hello Mr. And Mrs. Dubois." Varga said, "I'm pleased to meet you."

To say that the Dubois were stunned would be an understatement. First a giant bipedal lizard appeared with their daughter in front of them then he greeted them by name. They stood and stared for several moments.

"…Uh…pleased to meet you to Varga." Her father finally said.

"N…Nice to meet you Mr. V..Varga" Her mother stammered.

"No need to be afraid. Your daughter is my Brain." He assured her. "She decides what I do, I can only do what she wants."

"I don't understand." Her father said.

"Your world is in extreme danger. Greater powers have decided that help is needed so I was sent to this world and bonded with your daughter." He told him "The greater powers send Vargas to worlds that are in great danger and bond them to a female of the dominant species. The female makes the decisions while I provide the power."

"But Mary is so young." Her mother stated. "She's only six."

"This is true most Brains are three times her age and experienced warriors." He pointed out but she did some things on the island that other Brains could not do."

"That's because I'm a witch." Mary said. "I have a shield and can make a firestorm."

"The greater powers are quite wise so I have faith that she will be a good Brain." The Varga added. "We will together for a long time."

"How long will that be?" her mother asked.

"As long as she lives." He replied. "And that will be a long time."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"When she was chosen as my Brain. She became stronger, tougher, and got better senses." Varga told her. She is much more powerful than before."

"Yeah I can see really good now, I can see underwater and in the dark," Mary told them. "And I was able to pick up a rock the size of a watermelon and it was easy."

"But why?" her mother asked. "Why you?"

"I don't know." Mary told her. "But now I can so now I must…No WE must protect this world from the Neuroi, We have been chosen so we must."

Mary had Varga get down on the ground and lay his head down on the ground so Mary was closer to her parents. They could now see the way her feet and butt were embedded in Varga's face. Her mother looked at Mary sitting between Varga's eyes.

"I want to hug you right now." Her mother said." But I can't"

"You can climb up to hug her if you want." Varga told her without opening his mouth.

"Yeah come on up." Mary invited.

Mary's mother gingerly started to climb up when Mary reached down and grabbing her mothers hand and easily pulled her up and hugged her.

"See Momma we can hug now." Mary said

Mrs. Dubois was surprised by how easily Mary had pulled her up not to mention that it felt strange to be sitting on the Varga's face that she found strange and a little frightening.

"I can't believe how easy you pulled me up." Mrs. Dubois told her. "It's a little frightening up here."

"Oh this is not bad." Mary replied. "Watch this."

Varga stood up. Mrs. Dubois let out a shriek, as they suddenly were two and fifty feet in the air. She squeezed Mary very hard only the armoured chest and back plates kept her from getting smothered.

"We can really see far from up here." Mary announced. "You look over there you can see the island I landed on."

"Y…Yeah you can see pretty far from up here." Mrs. Dubois agreed

"You can see the island my boat got wrecked on. " Mary told her as she pointed at the island.

"Yeah I see it." She replied.

"Hey you guys having a private meeting up there?" Mr. Dubois shouted up.

"Nah…I'm just showing Momma the island I landed on." Mary shouted down. "You want to see it?"

"Sure why not?" Mary replied then reached down and put her open hand by her father. "Climb on."

He gingerly climbed onto the hand and sat down on the palm. Mary brought the hand up to Varga's face and helped him climb up next to her. She pointed to where the island was.

"See, There it is." She told him. "You can see my boat "

"I can see the island." Mr. Dubois said.

"Do see my boat?" Mary asked, "It's near the north end of the island."

"I can barely see the island." He told "her I don't see the boat."

"I don't see it either." Mrs. Dubois added.

"Well Varga said I can see better." Mary said. "I guess that means I can see farther too."

Mr. Dubois looked at his daughters legs where from her ankles down her feet were imbedded in Varga's face and looking farther up he saw how her butt was also imbedded in his face. He pulled on her leg and could tell it was immovably planted.

"Can you get free from him or are you stuck here?" He asked his daughter

""When he is in his base form I'm up here." She told him. "And when I'm in my base form I have a tail now…and it don't go away."

"What about when you call in your magic?" he asked.

"Nope." She replied. "I think that my magic is always up like I am always strong and can see and hear better."

Mrs. Dubois still clung tightly to her daughter shaking slightly and staring at the ground. Mr. Dubois was much less nervous finding the view fascinating.

"Uh…you think you could put us down. I'm really scared up here." Mrs. Dubois finally asked.

"Sure." Mary said with a giggle.

Mary brought the Varga's hand up to his face. Her father clambered over to the giant hand And with some prodding managed to coax his wife over and Mary gentle lowered the to the ground where they climbed off. Mrs. Dubois doing so with a great sigh of relief…That Mary easily heard.

"Now Momma it's not that scary is it?" she asked with a little smirk.

"M…Mary I was terrified." She replied with a shaky voice.

Mary could hear the fear in her mother's voice and felt bad about scaring her She went down to her base form and hugged her mother.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you like that." She told her.

"That's okay" She said ass she hugged Mary back. "You have had a lot of changes and you are not used to them. It's also way past your bedtime young lady you may be super strong and powerful now…But I'm STILL your Momma."

"Momma. I don't care how big and powerful I get I'm still supposed to do what you and Poppa tell me to do." She said in a serious tone. "And Varga agrees."

Mary and her mother broke the hug and walked hand in hand back to the house with her father taking the other hand. Once they got inside Her parents went to the kitchen while Mary went to her bedroom to get ready for bed. She pulled off her armour and laid it on top of her dresser. She was just pulling on a pair of panties when her mother came and knocked on the door asking if she could come in. Mary opened the door to let her in. Her mother looked at her daughter who had been so skinny that you could count her ribs now she could see she had six pack abs and she could see the muscles in her chest and her arms and legs looked much more muscular as well. Mary could tell by the way her mother was staring at her that she had noticed her body.

"Aunt Marcy will be happy I put some meat on my bones." She said with a smile. "I'm not sure what she would say about my tail."

Mrs. Dubois looked at the tail that was as long as Mary was tall.

"I think she might have a problem with the tail." She said. "I'm going to be giving Susie a lot of clothes now…I won't be able to wear them any more".

Mary flicked her tail to punctuate her statement. Mrs. Dubois frowned."

"That is going to be a problem." She said with a sigh. "We don't have a lot of money."

Mary pulled a pink dress out of the closet.

"This is my favorite dress." She said.

A dress suddenly appeared on her that was identical except that it had a hole for her tail with a short sleeve on it to protect her modesty. Her mother looked at her stunned.

"Varga has that covered." She announced with a smile.

She took off the dress and put it in the closet next to the old one. She pulled a short nightgown out of her dresser and put it on It hung up a bit over her tail but hung down okay around her, though it might not be good to wear around company. She climbed into bed working her tail around to get it under her covers. Her mother tucked her in and gave her the usual good night kiss."

"Sleep well Mary." She told her.

Mary reached up and hugged her mother and kissed her.

"You sleep well too Momma." She said.

Mrs. Dubois left the room and closed the door behind her wondering what life was going to be like with a daughter who was not only a witch but also a special one.