Hiddenville

January 20, 2014

Sitting in the dark shadows of an abandoned factory, Max nervously fidgets as the six recruiters of the Cult of the Dark Horse circle him reviewing his attempts to join up with dozens of other supervillains. Unremarkable attempts and failed plans litter his past, sparking laughter and ridicule from his peers. As he sees his dreams of becoming a supervillain fade into the shadows around him. A man dressed like he escaped from a BDSM club signals the others to stop as his patience with his obvious failures has reached his breaking point.

"Enough! Do you want to join us? Do you really think you can become a supervillain like any of us here? Well, I'm going to help you this one time. Failure means no one will ever ask you to join their evil teams…ever. Your problem is that you are inexorably connected to the good. If you truly sever your connections with the forces of good, then you can unlock your evil potential. Problem is that the best villains are not known for being villains. Each of us has been living a life of crime, while living unhindered in our true identities. You live in secrecy with your alter ego, while the wolf walks freely among the sheep. To join us you must permanently sever all your bonds with your twin. It is not enough to sever them through indifference, but you must inflict a level of mental and physical harm upon her that she will never pursue a life of crime-fighting. You will always live in her shadow if she becomes a hero like your parents, keeping you from achieving greatness. You must do this without revealing your true identity or drawing any suspicion to your work. Thunder Girl must not become The Oracle. You will never have an opportunity like this ever again…Dark Sun."

With his heart beating madly, he nods in resignation. He understood how his sister was a powerful hero, and saved his ass too many times he wanted to admit. Recognizing the truth when splashed against his face, he stands. "I'll do it."

Laughing, they push him back into the chair. "Not so fast sonny. It's not that easy. You will write your plans into…" He extracts a black leather-bound book tucked in his sleeve and hands it to Max. "…this book. This way we know that YOUR plans went accordingly, and not by total chance or misfortune. This is a test of your planning and organizational skills, as much as action and result. What you write in here, I will see it wherever I'm at. Her devastation must be known and mostly public, and this journal will ensure you didn't screw it up. Bonus points if it's recorded for our pleasure. You have two weeks to plan, and one month afterwards to execute. And remember: No one must ever know Max Thunderman is responsible in any way shape or form for her demise. If anything blame it on your new name. He will be feared and pursued, and your fame will grow exponentially, while Max lives out his life as a wanna-be, and never once is suspected of any real crime."

The week marched on without Max making any real progress in the book. Keeping it out of sight even from Colosso, he knew that even Colosso could give away his plans if coerced, and understood how everything could be unraveled with a loose tongue. On the third day, a package mysteriously arrives on his porch with his name on it. Wrapped in plain brown paper he takes it into his lair and notices a small horse stamped on the corner. Recognizing it as the symbol of the cult, he waits until Colosso's cage is covered and put to bed before opening it. In it are dark robes and an outfit with a black sun raging fire on his chest. His size, he knows that he must find a way to secure a perfect alibi, and still execute his plan. Opening the book, he begins to write furiously all night.

By a small miracle, he was granted an extension to his plan until the first week of May, when he saw the school was having a 2-day field trip to the planetarium 250 miles away, putting him under extreme monitoring during the trip. Boasting, he plans to use the trip as a way of getting important data so he can blow up the moon, his latest greatest evil plan, he knows that his every movement will be closely watched and recorded. Having spent a month making a flawless duplication potion, he knew that was the same weekend Phoebe was to patrol the streets of Hiddenville on her own. It was too perfect, and he had to move fast. With his plans set in motion, he adds the final entry in the journal. "It begins."

Striding down the street, Phoebe couldn't fight the feeling she was being watched. With Max safely over two hundred miles away with a super overseeing the trip, she still couldn't fight the raw sense that she was in serious trouble, despite no one obviously following her. After stopping two muggings and one guy who was about to do an unmentionable crime to a small girl, she proudly considered herself a real hero of the city. After hearing a small girl's scream, she notice a dark shape duck into an alley carrying what appeared like a small child in his arms. Anger seethed in her soul, and she ignores the danger her body warns her of. Catapulting into alley she sees a dark shape hovering over the shape of a small girl, about Nora's age. Picking up a brick stacked neatly in a pile with her mind, she prepares to hurl it when suddenly the alley comes to life with electricity. As she tries to scream out, her voice is seized and she stands shaking stuck in an electricity trap. After ten seconds, the electricity shuts off, and Phoebe collapses unconscious. Tossing the full-size doll into an open trash bin, Dark Sun strides to his sister and confirms the effectiveness of his stun field. Tossing all the evidence of his stunners into his backpack, he lifts her using his telekinesis and tosses her down the open sewer shaft. Covering the hole as he joins her, he levitates her to a waiting wagon and puts the superpower nullification band around her ankle. Using some zip-ties, he handcuffs her ankles and wrists together and begins dragging the cart along.

Phoebe wakes with every muscle in her body radiating pain. Groaning she finds herself naked and tied to a metal examination table. As she tries to move her arms, she fights back the tears of pain as her wrists refuse to budge and the restraints cut into her soft flesh. Looking herself over, she feels a wetness spilling out from between her legs. Shaking off the icky-ness she seethes when a masked man steps out from the shadows gloating. Using a voice scrambler to disguise his voice, he laughs as he speaks. "I'm sorry, but we couldn't wait until you woke up to have my fun with you. You've been out for five hours now, and the boys got out of hand after the first hour. They only just got tired of you half an hour ago, and went in the back room to nap. They'll be back out later. Before I let them back in, I just wanted to wake you up for the second round. It looks like they broke something inside of you."

Confused, Phoebe looks down between her thighs, and notices the reddish creamy goo covering her inner thighs. She begins crying uncontrollably as she realizes why her belly and crotch hurt intensely. Dark Sun continues with a maniacal laugh. "You slept through it all, but don't worry, I make a copy of everything we do so you to watch when you get home. I'll be sending this to your parents and the news so that everyone can see how you aren't a real hero at all. Before I let my boys back in, I wanted one last shot at you. I already had you in one hole now I want you in the other."

Using the remote, she is pulled down towards the bottom of the table until her knees are hanging off the lower edge. Sneering, he flips her over onto her stomach and resumes lowering her until her legs are held strait down towards the floor. With her ass hanging over the edge of the table, he raises the table so it is in line with his crotch. By moving another switch on the remote, her legs mechanically spread apart until it looks like they are almost going to pop out of her pelvic sockets. Screaming painfully, she begs and pleads for mercy, saying she's hasn't turned sixteen yet. Dropping his pants, he spits on her asshole and lines up his erect member. With the tip lubricated with his spittle, he laughs in a chiding voice. "Neither have I."

In a powerful lunge, he thrusts with reckless abandon making his dear sister bawl like he hadn't heard her do since she was eight. Laughing as he remembers calling her a baby then, he cannot resist. "God, you're such a baby Phoebe! Take it like a real hero."

Her screams echo uselessly in his fortified sewer lair, and she endures another ten minutes of his agonizing penetration. Finally, after emptying his remaining load deep in her bowels, he roughly yanks his blood-covered penis out from her and washes up. Returning ten minutes later to find her crying in low miserable sobs, he takes a garden hose and shoves it up her ass. With a special head to allow the water to exit, he lets the water fill her up before opening the valve. Semen and blood explode out from inside of her, and he lets the water go, until its running clear. Satisfied she has no more forensic evidence left inside of her there, he rams the hose up her vagina and holds it there until it too is running clear. As she sobs, cries and moans, he laughs despite the tears running down his cheeks hidden by his mask. Satisfied, he leaves to take a nap. Though he lied about letting them fill her holes, he was the one who pumped her full of cum, the lie had the desired effect.

After seven hours, he wakes in his lair, and turns on the television. Unsurprising, a massive search is underway to find the missing hero, last seen on the other side of the city. All his preparation seemed to have paid off for once, and he was gloating how they were looking in the wrong part of the city. After eating a bowl of cereal, he stretches and finds her passed out on the table where he left her. Though he kept the room temperature at a balmy ninety degrees to prevent hypothermia, he knew he couldn't keep it there. Dropping the temperature down to a crisp sixty degrees using his powers, he laughs to himself watching her naked body explode with goosebumps. Releasing the slack on the table, he flips her onto her back before tightening the restraints once again. Leaving her ass hanging on the edge, he spreads her legs further apart until she wakes screaming in pain. With renewed laughter, he begins raping her wildly while groping and slapping her small developing breasts. Taking a nipple in his mouth, he nearly tears it off with his teeth as he rams insanely in his twin sister's warm pussy. With an anger driving him onwards, he makes sure he tells her how much of a failure she is as a hero and a woman having been so easily captured by a simple stun trap. He continues to humiliate her by saying how fat and ugly she is, and that only a sick pervert like himself could be excited by a woman like her especially with as small of breasts that she has. Pulling out a small Taser, he begins shocking each of her breasts as he fucks her wildly. Having emptied his load five minutes prior, he keeps his erection hard by slowing his pace and relish the torturous treatment he's giving her. After an hour, and with his penis beginning to ache from the constant stimulation, he tires of her screams and pulls away satiated. Getting a bucket, he fills it with water, and brings it back to Phoebe. Dumping it onto her, she screams in agony from the cold water. Shivering uncontrollably, she'd lost all of her anger and rage. Sneering under the mask, he reaches out as slaps his sister across the face; not to hurt, but with a more humiliating affect. Affixing her Thunder Girl mask back over her eyes, he slaps her left breast once more to make her squeal in pain.

"Well, my little slut. I'm bored with you. That's your new name: Little Slut. Say it!"

With renewed tears, Phoebe gurgles out incoherently. Angered, he screams at her again making her jump in terror. "Little Slut! My name is Little Slut!" Crying she tries to restrain her sobs but fails horribly.

Driven by power, he continues. "Say you want to fuck my boys in the back! And you better sound convincing or I'll get mister Taser out again."

Crying out, she does her best to sound slutty like a desperate whore. "I want you to let the boys fuck me! Please! I need to have them inside of me again!"

Laughing, Max nods. "As you wish Thunder Girl."

Lowering the table down to knee height, he turns to the back and unlatches the door. Striding out with gusto, a large German Sheppard and Labrador rush towards the table. The Labrador, easily over a hundred pounds of pure muscle, reaches Phoebe first. Max makes sure every hour of her violation is caught on camera for posterity sake. It took him far longer than he planned to make two polymorph elixirs. Knowing it would take him months if not years to train dogs to do what he wanted them to do, it was far easier to transform a pair of horny homeless guys. Having a real dog rape his sister was low even in his book; but to make her believe she was raped by two horny dogs was priceless.

Max finishes cleaning her out with the hose for the forth time that weekend. After one full day and night, he knew her spirit was destroyed. She could barely walk or stand from the bruises inside and outside her crotch. Max lost count how many times her took her ass, but knew she would never become a super hero ever again. After letting the huge Labrador take her once in the ass, and the Sheppard take her missionary style, he didn't bother cleaning her out. The humiliation of getting rescued with dog cum leaking out of her would stay with her for an eternity. With the recordings in his pocket, he led her out blindfolded with earplugs out of his lair and had her sit on the wagon. Dragging her around for an hour, sometimes in a circle, he deposits her at the train depot. With hundreds trains in and out of the area, he knew she wouldn't be able to follow what direction he escapes in, and the actual boarding station was two hundred yards away.

As he removes the anklet nullifier, he tells her to get going. "Get going Phebe, before I let the dogs have another crack at her filthy holes!"

Shivering in disgust feeling the dog semen dripping out of her, she begins walking. Only to hesitate and turn around in sudden realization. "Max?"

Taken back, he is rendered speechless, confirming her suspicions. "HOW COULD YOU! You're my brother! Why?"

In seconds, the entire ordeal is suddenly put into perspective. Sobbing uncontrollably she immediately turns and begins running when Max takes off his mask and begins to move towards her. Humiliation and embarrassment overwhelm her, and she begins running blindly towards the high speed train tracks. Though most of the trains stop at the town, there was the red-eye which bypassed the city twice a night. With max twenty feet behind her, she ducks into the fenced-off lines of the red-eye and freezes the gate shut. Running, she runs up the stairs leading up into the overhead tracks. Max tries to make the fast turn, but manages to only slip and fall, knocking himself out for a minute. Phoebe, blinded by tears of humiliation and confusion, runs senselessly down the tracks over the city. Max comes to as he sees her run into the covered bridge. Losing sight of her as she enters, he screams her name as he sees the 10:40 enter in the opposite end doing over ninety miles an hour. From where Phoebe stood ten seconds prior, a cloud of red mist and debris explodes bringing the train to an emergency stop. Leaving nothing behind in its wake, Max doesn't bother to check if she survived, knowing all too well what he would find. Affixing his mask back into place, he returns to his hiding place, and waits for his doppelganger to return from the field trip and to fill his head with everything that occurred while he was at the planetarium.

"Her death has been officially declared a suicide, though it was obvious she was running from Dark Sun. Her death was so violent, that there was practically no forensic evidence to investigate as it was spread out over such a large area. The contamination was so complete that they are just using the video evidence they found from half a mile away. You were seen on one security camera…fortunately with your mask on. They are keeping your presence a secret, but the Thundermans know you were the reason she's dead. Congratulations on a job well done. It is above and beyond what we wanted, which proves you're ready to join us. Keep up your alias and know that you are one of us. You're in a special cadre of villains now, even I raped and murdered my own sister. Blamed it on my younger brother who was getting too close to what I was doing. My father wound up killing him in anger. You have earned a special place in my book by using the dogs…err homeless guys." Laughing hysterically, he dismisses Max and rest assures that without the great Oracle in the world, their operations will go unhindered now and forever.

Liberty City

August 2032

Woken from her sleep horrible alarm claxons which hadn't been used since the building was constructed, Domino quickly dresses into her grey and pink bodysuit and grabs her communication gear. As she finishes tightening her boots, a hammering at her door startles her. Unlocking the door, she sees her old friend and companion Mirage desperately encouraging her to join her. Sharing similar abilities like teleportation, and super vision, the pair were an unstoppable force together. Taking her hand, Mirage activates her power teleports the pair away. Summoned to the great council chambers of the League of Super Heroes, they rematerialize in the sacred chamber of their early warning and crime defense system. With the great seer Oracle, all major crime had practically been eliminated and prevented. Thwarting every super who tries to commit crime in the surrounding area, the Oracle was the greatest asset the league possessed. Dozens of supers and normal people work feverishly trying to manage the chaos as hundreds of alarms are going off simultaneously. With a wave of a hand, Mirage leads Domino past a dozen armed guards expecting trouble around every corner. Stepping down into an inner recessed chamber below the ground level, she is stopped by the Minister of Slaughter, a powerful super possibly greater than the great Thunderman himself. Nodding, he motions for the pair to hurry towards the center of the room. No one but an elite core group were ever allowed to venture close to the Oracle and her inner sanctum, except Mirage. Domino never knew why she had the honor, but knew it was an honor which wasn't handed out frivolously. Arriving at the center stage, the great Oracle laid spread out shaking uncontrollably on the floor. With the acclaimed healer Angel holding the Oracle's head in her lap, her healing tears drip nearly continuously onto her forehead. Crying, she whispers comfort and peace into the Oracle's fading aura. As if sensing their presence, Oracle motions with her eyes to join her.

"Domino, you and only you, go and save me. Take a 2B-35 Espionage Kit and stop my death."

As she begins to explode in tears and confusion, a strong hand whips her around and has her put on a heavy backpack. As she stutters out questions, she is rushed to a point on the floor. Poles extend around her and the system begins to energize. As she looks around, she notices the Oracle remove her mask as the vibrations and tremors in her body become intense. Over the din, she hears the Oracle beckon Mirage to her side. "Chloe! It's almost upon me! I'm sorry I can't help anyone anymore. The temporal event is only moments away, how could anyone hide a time shift from me?"

Holding her tightly, Chloe cries uncontrollably as she speaks. "Tachyons, we think. They have enveloped themselves in a vortex generator for months while they constructed the device. The vortex generates Tachyons which disrupt Chronoton signatures and kept us from seeing what they were doing. I'm sorry I failed you big sister."

As The Oracle shakes and convulses, she hears Mirage yell. "Domino! Save Thunder Girl at all costs! Promise me!"

The circle comes to full power; and as Domino fades into the past, she witnesses the great and powerful Oracle explode into a bloody cloud of flesh and guts, killing everyone close to her. Domino blinks out of time and space as the universe she once inhabited simply ceases to exist. In a bright flash, she finds she's sitting in a forest alone except for the chorus of chirping birds. Looking herself over, she is grateful that she is still clothed and has the pack on her back, having remembered horror stories from movies of time travel. Standing, she wanders the strange park until she finds a paved running path and finds a child's play park. Noticing a man toss a newspaper into the trash, Domino rushes over pulls it out. She gasps uncontrollably. "Fucking April 2015! What am I supposed to do now?"

It took her three weeks just to locate Thunder Girl, as she was rarely out patrolling like most young heroes do. When she did run into her, a powerful brick of a man was always too close for her to talk to her. Finally, she scored a hit on her tracker and followed her back to her home. Bugging her entire house was no small feat, but it paid off when she discovered the times and dates she would be patrolling the streets alone. During one family outing, she recovered an essential piece of DNA from her brush and was able to grow an appropriately aged clone in just three days. Following a set script of protocols, she ensures she has two clones ready to go. The first, designed to replace her should she become too injured to recover, was her primary plan and she had the gear to transfer her consciousness to it. The second clone was designed to be used to replace critical organs should she become too injured and surgery was an option.

With her second patrol coming up in three days, she felt this was the day. She couldn't understand her gut belief, but her time around Mirage, guided her to trust it above all data. At nine pm, like every time before, Phoebe Thunderman in her Thunder Girl guise leaves the house and hits the streets. Domino wisely tails her knowing not to give anything away. Though she was itching to intercede on several instances, she knew not to get too close. With the last criminal tucked safely in the back of a squad car, Domino sits back impressed with the capabilities of the junior hero. As gets up to follow Thunder Girl as she moves to a new area, her instincts call her to roll for cover as a series of silenced bullets spray the area she had just been standing. Scrambling for cover, she pulls out her pistol and tries to get his position. A shower of bullets drives her to dive off the edge of the building for better cover, and she lands in a dumpster. Hearing the splatter of bullets around her, she finally gets a glimpse of her assassin: Black Blade. Known for slicing the throats of his targets, he was not beyond immobilizing his target with any number of tools to include bullets. Slipping her pistol out, she lays a counter spray of bullets at his location, allowing her to jump out and get into a better position. He drives her north away from Thunder Girl, and Domino becomes angry and frustrated.

Determined to keep their battle secret, Domino struggles to remember the city layout from when she a tween. A spark lights in the back of her mind and she bolts towards the Hiddenville park. The great forest in the western edge of the city, was a favorite hangout of the Masked Avenger. Once a brutal vigilante, he would tell how he took on some of the greatest villains without any back up the recognized heroes of the day. Especially hateful of sexual predators and rapists, he had no mercy for those who victimized women and children. Though he later joined with the League of Heroes, he used to sit around and brag about his favorite places to hide and wait for trouble. It takes her ten minutes, but she finally arrived at the park, and quickly put back on her civilian attire. Like clockwork, Black Blade was on a couple of minutes behind her and wasn't fooled by her clothes change.

As she runs towards Round Rock Hollow, a crater-like depression which was popular for both young couples and muggers alike, and one of the favorite hangouts of the once vigilante Masked Avenger. As she runs, she yells and screams for help, putting on her best damsel in distress voice. Making it to the rock, she trips (intentionally) on a rick and lands harder than she intended. Winded, she pushes up only to have Black Blade land four feet behind her.

"Please I'll do whatever you want, just don't kill me!" Unbuttoning her shirt revealing her sports bra, she begs further. "I'll do what you asked now, I'll let you fuck me. Just don't kill me!"

Taken by surprise, he realizes she is trying to throw him off and sneers as he closes with her to slice her throat. A loud crunch hits the back of his head and he stumbles forward and spins haphazardly around to face his attacker. Wavering weakly, he tries to lift his knife up to attack the unknown, only to have a baseball bat strike him across the side of head, killing him. As Domino pushes up from the ground, she buttons up her shirt and sprints away hoping to retrace Thunder Girl's path, leaving the hero standing over the body of the unknown assassin. Running at her top speed, she finds the pack she dropped and teleports back to the rooftop she was on when she lost sight of Thunder Girl.

Using her senses, she picks up the trace scent of Thunder Girls' perfume, lingering in the alley. Scouring the alley, she curses endlessly trying to discover the direction she went, only to find it end somewhere in the alley. Finding the hidden manhole cover, she discovers its recent use and pulls it off. She nearly screams when she discovers it is impossible to follow her perfume anymore. With time ticking away, she retreats to her secret lair in an abandoned factory. Emptying her espionage pack, she sifts through all the gear and begins developing a means of detecting the young girl's location.

In less than eighteen hours, Domino had the detector calibrated to actively search out Thunder Girl's unique scent. As the sun sets on the next night, Domino struggles to remain coherent with only an hour of sleep. Using the device as a guide, she winds up in the train yard more confused by the readings. Walking the lines, she discovers a good lookout on the express train lines. As she narrows the search to the rear lines, the detector screams out to her location. Sprinting, she carefully finds Thunder Girl yelling at a man and hunkers down into a shadow. Having missed the conversation, her eyes widen as she sees the teen begin running away from the other boy. Staring intently, she notices he's her brother and she is running in terror, oblivious to the danger she's heading towards. As she ducks into the tunnel, Domino gets an idea. It wasn't planned, but it was highly feasible. Teleporting back to her hideout and back into the tunnel Thunder Girl ran, she places the catatonic clone in the path of the train. Concentrating on Thunder Girl's clothes, she manages to teleport the clothes off her to the zombie-like clone. Expecting resistance from Phoebe, she's mortified to find the teen nearly as catatonic as the clone standing in the middle of the tracks. Scooping her up in her arms, she teleports them away as the express train hits the clone, sending fake Phoebe body parts and fluids in every direction and churning and crushing the remains to smaller and smaller pieces.

Arriving in her secret hiding spot, she lays the sobbing and crying child in her cot, and tries to plan her next step. Though technically Thunder Girl died, she managed to save her also. Holding Phoebe until she cried herself to sleep, Domino sets her head down and lets her sleep while she teleports away. Returning with a tall woman she looks Phoebe over and lays her soft hands on the broken teen. After a minute, she pulls them away and shakes her head. Leaving Phoebe to sleep, she corrals Domino to a corner of the room to whisper.

"Her body has internal scars which will never heal fully, and the mental scars will eventually drive her to take her own life. You should have left her to die in that tunnel."

Frustrated, Domino pulls her gun out and points it at the woman's face.

"I made a promise to carry out my orders, and I do not accept failure." Looking at the back of the room under a tarp in a tub, the second clone lays idly in the cloning chamber. As a thought brews in the back of her mind, she opens a digital manual and reads how to use the consciousness transferring device. After the woman hands Domino a cell phone, she takes her back and returns moments later to finish reading the manual.

Phoebe wakes as if she'd been asleep for weeks. Rising in an ornate bed, she stretches and looks around to find a young woman in her mid-twenties sleeping uncomfortably in a large Victorian-style chair. With a cute bob haircut, Phoebe is suddenly overwhelmed with a recurring image of her being struck by a train; tears flow uncontrollably and she recalls yelling at her brother. Pain suddenly comes back in flashes, but devoid of images or sounds. As she sits quietly in bed, the woman in the chair wakes and sends a text.

"Hi Phoebe. I'm Madeline. I'm the one who rescued you from…well do you remember who it was?"

As she shakes her head no, she is suddenly overwhelmed by another blast of emotion, and the thought of her brother Max violating her strikes her. Coughing out a cry, she nods. "Max…it was Max. I don't understand."

Nodding as well, Domino continues. "Yes. He was recruited by a powerful villain group, and I was sent to protect you. Unfortunately, they sent back someone to stop me, and Max got to you first. I'm sorry. We brought you back from the brink, but it came with a high cost. We knew if we returned you back to your family, it would be only a matter of time until someone killed you. If not Max, it would be someone else. I have friends who are able to help heroes like you, but you need to decide if this is your path. If not, then you will not live to see your eighteenth birthday."

Crying, she covers her face as snippets of her violation drift across her mind's eye. "I can't remember every exact thing he did to me, but I remember enough."

Rising, Madeline joins Phoebe on the bed and takes a hold of the teen's hand. Adjusting a short raven lock of hair in her face, she rubs Phoebe's hand consoling her. "I'm not going to say I understand what you've been through or that it will all be better tomorrow, because it won't. I will say that I will stand beside you, helping you walk that path. I promise that I will not leave your side until you dismiss me, and that I will never judge you on your past. We all have pain and sorrow in our histories, and that's what defines the person we will become."

After Phoebe nods in agreement, Madeline continues. "I replaced your body with a new one, untarnished and unbroken. Unfortunately, I can't fix your mind and the scars up there will only heal if you confront and define your suffering with who you will become. You have no scars outside or in, but the mental scars cannot be ignored. I will be here to lead you through that valley and back, and only death can separate us now."

Phoebe nods once more and suddenly pulls Madeleine into a tight embrace. Holding the embrace for what seems a blissful eternity, they finally part and resume to holding hands until Duchess Marion Ross enters to give Phoebe a thorough physical and begin her training in her new super identity as the Oracle.