The Morrow home, the next morning . . .

"MY LITTLE GIRL!"

Regina – who had managed to get back to her house well before either of her parents would have become too concerned for her – gasped on hearing her mother's gushing voice before she found herself swept up into the older woman's embrace. "MOM!" she yelped out before something within her pushed out . . . which sent poor Skye Morrow flying off her bed at least five feet to crash into a coffee table, wrecking it on impact. As soon as the just-woken teenager blinked on realising that she had just used her psychokinesis on her own mother, Regina screamed out again, "MOM!"

To Regina's surprise, Skye was laughing her heart out, even if her back was now ablaze with pain. "Oh, my God . . . my little baby . . .!" she moaned as one of the maids – Regina recognised her as Samara Wilson – came into the room . . .

. . . with a thin STICK in her hands!

Magical! the part of Regina's mind that had been born on another world instantly declared as her hand snapped out towards the maid, her mind reaching out . . .

. . . which then made Samara gasp as the stick was yanked out of her hand to land in the hand of her employers' younger child! "Hey!"

"Oh, Merlin . . .!"

Regina's eyes snapped over to focus on another maid with another stick in her hand. Before she could snare that, the burly form of her father quickly got in the way. "REGINA, STOP . . . WHOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Kurt screamed out as he was yanked off his feet to soar right at his daughter, who was now wide-eyed with shock.

"FREEZE!"

Kurt yelped as he literally stopped in MID-AIR not three feet from his daughter's bed. As the other maid – she also had joined the Morrows' personal staff at the same time Samara did – spun around, the smiling teenage man in the black uniform standing at the doorway winked. "Sorry! Didn't want to see people get hurt!" he declared.

Skye moaned as Samara came over to help her up. "Who . . .?" the former asked.

Regina sighed. "Mom! When did we start hiring MAGICALS?" she demanded.

Skye blinked before she sighed. "Ever since your father nearly got killed by a magical terrorist a year ago," she stated as Samara moved to brush off the back of her blouse and slacks. She then giggled. "My little girl's a witch . . .!"

"Um, excuse me, Mrs. Morrow, you have that wrong," Winston quickly cut in. "Your daughter is now a metahuman, not a magical. As am I." He then made a motion with his hand, which allowed Kurt Morrow to get back onto his feet beside his daughter's bed. "Sorry about this. Lucky thing I had wards around this place to keep an eye on Regina as she's adjusting to having her Gift forced on her like that." He then blinked as the other maid spun her wand around to point at his face. "Um, excuse me, but could you please point that somewhere else? It's kinda rude doing that to people."

Kurt sighed. "Put it down, Gretchen," he said.

Gretchen Dwyer blinked, and then she sighed as she lowered her wand. "'Metahuman?' That's not possible! There hasn't been any confirmed metahumans since World War Two!"

"That you know of," Winston provided as he walked inside, reaching out with his hand.

The wand in Regina's hand then drifted over to Samara. As the young witch blushed on noting the newcomer was allowing her to get back her primary means of defending herself, Skye then walked over to sit down on Regina's bed by her daughter's feet. "So how did you get whatever power you have?" she asked. "And how did Regina get this power? She was magically tested when we took Samara and Gretchen on staff. She tested out as normal. Not a magical . . . and certainly not a metahuman."

"Well, that state of affairs changed as of two nights ago for your daughter, ma'am," Winston stated. "Thanks to a girl even I didn't know was a meta: Molly Hecht."

Regina's parents blinked. "The girl that threw that party that Nicholas went to check out because of the drug rumors," Kurt stated. "What happened?"

A smirk. "That's a story, Mister Morrow."


Thirty minutes later . . .

"So you're saying that this young man in Japan that's been in the news media for the last three months because of this alien 'invasion' that the Japanese government was able to put a news blackout on for six months prior . . . was actually living on ANOTHER PLANET for TEN YEARS? ALL ALONE?" Skye recapped, displaying the righteous anger any self-respecting mother would show on hearing this type of story.

"Well, he really wasn't alone, ma'am," Winston stated. After Regina got the chance to get dressed and Winston used his powers to repair the wrecked coffee table, drinks and snacks were served so that Regina's parents and their two witch maids – both of whom were former hit-witches who had served in the American Department of Magic – could get the explanation. "For the first year he was there, the woman who brought him there lived with him. When she passed away, others of the Nameless – those are metas who don't take a line-name like 'Lightmage' for myself or 'Manacle' for your daughter – stayed with him as he adjusted to living by himself. By the time he was ten, Ataru was pretty self-sufficient when it came to living on his own. And in the meantime . . . "

"He was travelling to and from this Yiziba planet to help people like you get these 'gifts' from this Great Crystal of Power. Which is the planet's very CORE," Kurt finished. "Was he involved in making Regina into what she is now?"

"No. Ataru would have done it in a much different way than what actually happened to your daughter, sir," the Master of Techno-Magic answered. "If he had been there when Regina OD'd on that cocaine Buzz Jackson brought to Molly Hecht's party, he would have got her to one of the metahuman healers he knows of back on Yiziba among the Nameless to keep her alive and purge the poisons from her. Only THEN would he have given her the offer to get a Gift." He sighed. "The one who did this to your daughter is Molly Hecht. We now believe she's a heel-type calling herself the Dominatrix. She was probably intoxicated on some designer synthetic drugs that would have simulated her being stoned and drunk at that party but allow her to keep control over her powers."

"Why would she do that?" Skye asked.

"I think she does this because she still cares for those of her friends who are still hooked on that stuff, Mom," Regina stated. "She – and her friends; we think they're Gifted but we don't know who they are – probably does that to make it seem they're all still 'normal' to people like Justin Belson so they can help them when it's needed."

"And by their actions concerning Regina, they had it pretty nicely planned out," Winston finished for the newest member of the Boosters of Sweet Valley. "Except for the fact that they never clearly got Regina's permission to toss her into the Great Crystal. Where we all come from, that's wrong . . . even if it saved her life."

Silence.

More silence.

Still more silence.

And then . . .

"My baby . . .!" Skye moaned as she swamped her daughter with another hug.

Regina blushed as she returned that embrace, allowing Skye to hold her close. Watching this, Kurt then sighed before he smiled. "Well, by the looks of it, Regina doesn't seem to mind becoming a superheroine too much," he mused, exchanging a smile with his precious child. "And no doubt – even if she wasn't in her full right mind – Miss Hecht clearly didn't mean any true harm. So I supposed we can just accept it and get on with our lives. And be grateful that Regina is alive and well."

"I'm glad for that, sir. But Molly still has to be told," Winston stated.

Skye pulled away from Regina. "Why?" the former asked.

A sigh. "When he was Gifted himself, Ataru never had a choice as to what sort of line whose Gift he would accept. When Mistress Ayone took him to Yiziba, she presented him with a meson crystal that bore the Gift of Tuyuki – that's Ataru's proper line-name; he calls himself 'Coyote' in this incarnation because he's Terran – within it. So it wasn't like the day all of us went to Yiziba to go to the Cave of the Future to get our own Gifts. I myself had about eight separate lines to choose from before I became Lightmage. Regina had a half-dozen herself . . . but she didn't actually say 'yes' or 'no' to getting a Gift. It was pick her up and get her to Yiziba." He snapped his fingers in emphasis. "And everyone has to the right to say 'no' before touching the Crystal. If we stopped believing that, then the basic beliefs that have driven our past-selves on Yiziba over the last two thousand years means nothing."

Regina's parents both nodded to that. "I can agree to that," Gretchen said as she put some snacks down on the table. "I'm a normal-born witch; what old-style Europeans call 'muggleborn' . . . or 'mudblood' for the magical purists out there." As Winston shook his head in clear disgust at such overt racism, the dark-haired twenty-something then said, "It would have been nice to get a choice to be either normal or magical. But people like me and Samara are born to be witches, so we can't avoid going to Salem . . . or to Seven Hills if you're a man." As Winston smirked, she gazed at him. "Are you the one who set up that magical ward off to the west of the Valley?"

"That's me."

"Why'd you do that?"

"It's called a 'hellmouth.'"

Gretchen blinked before she turned VERY pale. "Sunnydale . . .?"

A nod. "Yeah. Vamp central for North America west of the Mississippi. Much that a vampire can't really hope to turn a Yizibajohei into one thanks to the meson in our blood stream, there are a load of normal people in this town. I don't want them to become vamp food. Neither do my friends." Winston then smirked. "So where the hell were you two when Regina's family was being held hostage by that nut Denson?"

Gretchen blushed. "Believe it or not, we were undergoing refresher hit-witch training at Salem because of that ward you made," she admitted as the elder Morrows laughed and Regina gaped. "You want to know how much trouble you've caused people because of it?"

"What do they want? A vampire plague all over southern California?"

Gretchen jolted. "Good point," Regina mused . . .


The Wakefield home, that moment . . .

"So what are you going to do, Liz?"

Elizabeth sighed as she sat at her desk. "I honestly don't know, Jess."

Jessica breathed out. After breakfast, the elder twin had gone back into her bedroom to sit down and relax; since it was a Saturday, there was no need to worry about school. The younger twin had come up to join her; their parents had been quite surprised to see Jessica up so early on a weekend. Right now, the bedroom door was closed and the special notice-me-not charms that Winston had once made for his friends were active to ensure that their parents wouldn't hear things they shouldn't. "It's wrong . . . but you have to admit, Molly had her heart in the right place," Jessica mused. "If I was in her position at that party, I might have done the same thing."

A smirk. "Yeah," Elizabeth mused as she began typing away at her computer. "I think we all would have done something similar. I don't look forward to telling Molly that she just THREW Regina into the Crystal without making her realise what was happening." She had got that confirmation from the woman who watched over the Great Crystal of Power, the Conservator, sometime before the Boosters had got together in her secret laboratory last night. "Lord knows what Ataru might do when he finds out."

Jessica winced. "Yeah . . . " She then laid down on the bed. "So what do you think Regina'll do now, Liz? You said that when she was Gifted, the Crystal fully fixed up her hearing. If a doctor sees that and knows about her being deaf before she went off to Switzerland, people are going to start asking some really hard questions."

"I'm sure those magicals who work on Mr. Morrow's staff will help keep it quiet," Elizabeth stated. "Since Winston took note of their presence, I'm sure Mr. and Mrs. Morrow won't be too shocked to find out their daughter's Gifted."

The other woman nodded. "What do you think of her, anyway?"

"Who?"

"Molly."

A sigh. "She's living in a one-parent home helping raise herself and her brother. Her father spends most of his time working in San Francisco; her parents mutually separated even if they're still legally married to avoid all the idiot court battles and child support questions. No doubt, she probably first saw drugs as a way to get an emotional release from all the pressures being in that sort of situation puts on people our age, Jess. Fortunately for her, Ataru came along one day and offered her a way out."

Jessica nodded. Despite the vast emotional differences between the Wakefield twins, they did share some things. One of the big similarities was the love they held for their parents. And it was clearly earned. Ned Wakefield was a hard-working lawyer, specialising in civil cases though he studied other venues when he could spare the time to hit the law books; it was from him that Elizabeth had got her own studying habits. Alice Wakefield was an interior decorator whose work had often taken her all over the Santa Barbara Coast and even to Los Angeles from time to time. And while the parents were often away from home during the weekdays and some weekends, they did their best to make sure they were there for their daughters when they needed that sort of support.

For even if Elizabeth and Jessica were Gifted and blessed with generations of memories of multiple past lives on Yiziba over the last two millennia, they were still seventeen year-old American teenagers with their own special needs and wants.

But Molly . . .

"You think she might want out of that house eventually?" Jessica asked.

"Maybe. But if she cares enough for those of her friends who are still normal, she clearly wants to make sure her brother is able to make a life for himself first."

The younger twin nodded . . .


The Hecht home . . .

"'Morning, Dad."

Cyrus Hecht perked on hearing that tired voice, and then he grunted as he turned back to gaze on his newspaper. "I heard there was a party here on Thursday."

"Yeah," Molly said as she glanced around the kitchen, and then moved to get to work making something for herself; her mother Corrine wasn't at home at this time. No doubt, she was out with whatever new boyfriend she had got for herself recently. Personally, Molly didn't care too much for what her mother did these days, much less whoever her father was seeing on the sly when he was living and working in San Francisco. That her parents hadn't bothered to get a divorce when they separated when Molly herself was a child still caused her discomfort deep in her heart. It was glaringly obvious to her that her father really didn't care for her as much as she believed he did back when she was a child. "Nothing too much."

"The police were here," he noted.

"They heard rumours that Buzz Jackson was going to come by," she stated. "Nick Morrow was worried about his sister, so he did what rich folks do when that happens. Buzz wasn't in the house and Regina was asleep in my bedroom; she passed out after drinking one beer." A smirk as she moved to start the coffee brewer. "No harm, no foul."

Cyrus gave his daughter a hard look. Even if he didn't spend as much time with his children these days as he did years before, he could still sense it when Molly wasn't telling him the whole truth. He couldn't accuse her of lying, though; Corrine made it clear that since he wasn't there for his children 24/7, he had no right to discipline Molly or Ty if they did something wrong. What was worse, Molly clearly didn't care too much for either of her parents these days; she was clearly marking time until she had graduated from high school before she left home and made a life for herself. Where she would do that, he had no idea; he hadn't seen her take any special classes at school. What sort of skill would she have to help support herself when she left home?

"You should still stay away from those people," he noted.

"They're my friends," she said, again not looking at him. "I got clean and I'll be there for them if they need it. That's what friends and family do for each other."

He didn't react when she added "and family" to that last statement, but the point had been made. You aren't here for me anymore, so don't bother me if I do something wrong! was clearly what Molly wanted to say to him, but she had the manners to not speak it aloud. Before he could muster up a comment, the doorbell rang. "Who's that?"

Without saying anything, Molly headed into the living room, glancing out through the window towards the front porch to see who was there. Quickly recognising who was standing there, she blinked before she moved to unlock and open the door. "Yeah?"

"Hey," Amy Sutton said as she gave the other girl a smile. One that didn't flash in her grey eyes, Molly was quick to notice. "You busy right now, Molly?"

"I was just having some breakfast," Molly answered, the experiences of thirty-one prior lifetimes quickly warning her that the other woman was here to instigate a fight scene. Well, that was nice; Molly wasn't in the mood to put up with her father – or mother whenever she got back home – so a fight scene would be a little cathartic.

Especially when it was with the bitch that had helped break Regina Morrow's heart.

"The football field at school," Amy then stated. "One hour."

And with that, the blonde headed off. Molly smirked, and then she closed the door. "Who was that?" Cyrus asked from the kitchen.

"Amy Sutton; she's the bitch that stole Regina Morrow's boyfriend from her," she said as she moved to watch over her coffee. "Wants me to meet with her."

"Why?"

A shrug. "Girl stuff."

He blinked, and then turned back to his newspaper . . .


Sweet Valley High School, an hour later . . .

Unlike most places of public education these days in the wake of shocking events like 9/11 and the Columbine High School shootings in 1999, the grounds of Sweet Valley High was never barred off to people who wanted to use of the football field or the baseball diamond to play with their friends even if the school building itself was locked up tighter than a drum. Sure enough, there were some people on the grounds.

Walking up the front drive, Molly was quick to spot members of the school's football team with their coach practicing scrimmage as girlfriends and other friends watched from the bleachers. As she made her way around the field, the silvery-blonde was quick to spot another familiar blonde standing near the bleachers, looking relaxed as she scanned the boys of the "Blackball Brigade" – the defensive line of the football team, the Sweet Valley Gladiators, had taken up that nickname in the wake of Robin Wilson being forbidden from joining from the local Pi Beta Alpha chapter (after she had undergone a strict weight-loss regime that transformed a chubby girl into an athletic beauty) – go through their routine. "Amy!" she called out, waving.

Amy perked on hearing Molly's voice, and then she moved to walk around the back of the bleachers. Noting that, the other girl could only smirk; she had seen Amy reach into her jeans pocket to pull out an old-style PAA. Moving this back to Yiziba, huh? the current incarnation of the Mistress of Pain and Pleasure mused to herself. Fine by me, bitch! With that, she pulled out her own PAA, and then keyed the meson crystal on the surface, allowing it to scan her thoughts to ascertain her intentions. Sure enough, a soft chime responded, telling Molly that her own device was now keyed into Amy's; this would allow her to follow the other girl wherever she ultimately wanted to go.

Walking around the bleachers, she was quick to see Amy standing nearby the small hut housing washrooms that could be used by anyone who didn't want to race to a nearby coffee shop to relieve themselves and the school itself was locked up. As soon as Molly was seen by the other girl, Amy turned and walked into the girl's room. As Molly herself moved to step inside, she spotted a quick flash of light emanating through the tinted window of the washroom doors. With that, she walked inside.

A second later, another flash of light indicated that another girl was now off Earth.


Three hundred light-years away . . .

As soon as she emerged onto a sandy outcropping of rock, Molly then smirked.

The Battlezone.

Perfect place to have a fight scene.

"Hecht."

She turned to look . . .

. . . and then smiled. "Sutton. Looks like Ataru got to you, too, huh?"

"He did," Amy said. She was now in the new-style battle-suits worn by many Terran-turned-Yizibajohei girls: A halter-top with a turtleneck collar that allowed the arms and shoulders to be bare, all atop form-fitting pants tucked into buccaneer boots. Given the brown shade of the uniform with black boots, black belt and the silver siege engine insignia on her upper chest, it was quite obvious who she was: The Shot-Put Siren of the South, Trebuchet. "Why the hell would he do that to a druggie like you?"

"Well, unlike certain selfish bitches who switch boyfriends at a drop of a hat, I happen to be a nice girl underneath it all," Molly said as she tapped her own wrist-bracelet, allowing her clothes to morph into her own battle-suit. Unlike most of her peers these days, the Dominatrix's battle-suit remained the same in this incarnation: Black form-fitting leather trousers with silver racing trim, white buccaneer boots, a silver belt around her waist, that under a black leather vest with stand collars that was tied down over naked cleavage with a silver chain. "After all, isn't that the way Ataru would see any of us deep down?" she asked as she tugged at her open vest before giving the other girl a knowing look. "What the fuck's this about?"

"What you did to Morrow," Amy said as she pointed at the other girl. "Guess what Liz found out when she contacted the Conservator last night?"

"What?"

The response was a large boulder that slammed into Molly, sending her off the cliff and flying through the air over a very deep valley where a river once flowed in colder and wetter times thousands of years before; the Battlezone was on the central continent in a Sahara-sized desert that was full of mountains, sand dunes and all sorts of desolate areas where people could fight each other and not risk damage to urban structures or rural pastures, not to mention harm anyone else. As Molly glanced down at the distant valley floor – which was racing up towards her – she smirked as she curled herself up into a ball, allowing the rock to press down on her as gravity took over.

The Dominatrix fell into the valley floor seconds later with the rock crushing down on her back a second after that. As her body was nearly flattened out by the blow, the massive waves of discomfort hitting her from all sides triggered a tsunami of raw adrenaline that flooded her muscles with strength, thus allowing her to flex herself . . . and shatter the boulder Trebuchet had just used to try to crush her. As Molly burst free from the small mountain of rubble she just created, she looked up . . . and smiled as another large boulder came soaring at her head. This one, she caught one-handed . . . and then, with a twirl of her body, sent it flying back up at the small speck in the sky which indicated that Amy was flying down to press her attack.

The other girl didn't react in time before the boulder clipped her hard, sending her careening into a nearby wall of rock. The impact shattered a good-sized section of limestone and granite over her head, allowing that to topple down towards the valley floor and Molly. Of course, the Mistress of Pain and Pleasure was already on the move, dodging the collapsing cliff wall as she moved to swing herself into a hover position some distance away from the dazed Amy. "You're winded already?" Molly teased. "I'm just getting warmed up, Sutton! C'mon! You wanted a fight scene, so give it to me!"

Amy smirked as she glared at the other woman. "Just like the heels you were in past lives, Hecht!" she said as she picked herself off the ledge her body had just made. "Always spoiling for a fight scene! Was that the reason you THREW Regina into the Crystal . . . WITHOUT EVEN ASKING HER IF SHE WANTED A GIFT IN THE FIRST PLACE?"

Silence.

More silence.

Still more silence.

And then . . .

"What the fuck did you just say?" Molly hissed out.

"You heard me!" Amy snapped back. "Liz got it from the Conservator herself! You just 'ported Regina into the Cave and threw her right into the Crystal without stopping to ask her if that was what she wanted! OR get her to a healer to heal her!" A smirk. "I don't think Ataru's going to be pretty impressed with you when he finds out!"

Molly blinked a couple of times as her mind rocked from those words, and then a look of pure rage crossed her face. "LIAR!" she screamed out as she lunged . . .


Nearby . . .

A flash of light allowed five people to appear on the flat plateau over the valley where two angry women were now battling it out. As both Kurt and Skye Morrow gasped on feeling the waves of dry heat slam into them once they were free of the materialiser beam that brought them down to Yiziba from the orbiting Discovery, the Wakefield twins and Regina – all in their battle-suits – quickly scanned around to ascertain where their schoolmates were. "Liz!" Jessica called out. "I don't see . . .!"

KK-KRACK!

A blur of blonde hair topping a brown uniform then shot up from the valley ahead of them, spiralling up into the sky. "My God!" Kurt cried out. "Who . . .?"

"AMY!" Jessica screamed out as she soared into the air after her friend.

As Elizabeth and Regina looked up to watch the current incarnation of the Charging Belle of the Heavens, Rampage, soar up to catch the Shot-Put Siren of the South, a bolt of silver-blonde over black soared up to come down hard on the plateau nearby, her whole body heaving with angry breaths as she glared murderously at the stunned Amy. An Amy that was now sporting a respectable shiner around her left eye and a cut lower lip, Elizabeth was quick to spot thanks to the magnification functions in her goggles.

Before she could do anything else, the incensed Molly then paused as her eyes focused on the two women nearby. "Liz? Regina? What are you doing HERE?" she demanded before her eyes focused on the silver mortarboard hat insignia on Elizabeth's dark blue jumpsuit top. "The Academician?" A chuckled. "Well, I'll be damned!"

A howl of wounded rage made Molly's head snap up . . .

. . . before her hand snapped up to catch Amy's fist in the palm, the sharp impact of the blow causing a sonic boom to lash out in all directions and nearly knock everyone else over; fortunately for Regina's parents, Elizabeth had thoughtfully provided self-defence force-field generators that were now fixed to their belts which could deflect the waves of ear-shattering noise and protect them from harm. As Elizabeth and Regina both staggered slightly from the blast-wave of sound that emanated from Molly catching Amy's punch with ease, the Mistress of Pain and Pleasure's other hand snapped over to grab her opponent's other arm, and then she flipped herself around.

KK-KRACK!

KK-KRACK!

KK-KRACK!

KK-KRACK!

The ground shook violently as Molly slammed Amy on her head several times, the rock at the former's feet slowly disintegrating from the harsh impacts the invulnerable body of the Shot-Put Siren was making on the once-solid limestone underneath it. As Regina winced on seeing how hard Molly was thrashing Amy, she then tensed as a flash of energy in the sky caught her attention. Looking up, she then gaped as a woman with dark brown hair soared down to come to a hover mode close to Molly, her hand reaching out.

Molly then screamed out as she and Amy were yanked apart as if by some invisible hand, and then the former found herself floating into the air as the latter collapsed into a semi-conscious heap on the ground. "HEY!" Molly screamed out before she turned to look, and then she snarled. "KASUGA! PUT ME DOWN, YOU AIRHEAD! I'M NOT . . .!"

A wave of the hand. "Ah, fuhgedaboutit!"

Molly then found herself unable to speak at all. "Ayumu?" Elizabeth called out to the newcomer from Tōkyō's Nakano Ward as Jessica came down to a landing close to the moaning Amy to help her back up. "What are YOU doing here?"

"Oh, I just got kinda curious as to what'cha doin' bringin' two normals here to Yiziba, Liz!" Kasuga Ayumu said in her accented English with its weird mix of New York Brooklyn and southern Texas. As she then floated down with the struggling Molly drifting down with her, the current incarnation of the Goddess Who Walks Amongst Men, Infinity, then gazed on the bruised and bleeding Amy. "Oh, man! Molly, what got you so mad at Amy?"

Molly pointed at her mouth as she seemed to say something with no noise coming out from between her lips. Ayumu then blinked before she waved her fingers to allow the other woman to speak. "Thank you!" the silver-blonde snarled as she landed close to the other girl before she pointed at Amy. "This dumb bimbo – after she had the fuckin' audacity to break Regina's heart by stealin' her boyfriend from her – has the damned guts to accuse ME of THROWING Regina into the Crystal without even ASKING her if she wanted a Gift or not! I WOULDN'T DO THAT SORT OF THING, ŌSAKA! YOU KNOW THAT!"

"Um, Molly . . . "

"What?" Molly snarled as she glared at Elizabeth.

The Great Sage of the Circle of Thought winced on sensing that huntsman's look arc her way, and then she sighed. "You did do that, Molly," she said. "I confirmed it with the Conservator herself. You just 'ported into the Cave and . . .!"

"NO! I WOULDN'T DO THAT, LIZ! DO YOU THINK AFTER ALL ATARU WENT THROUGH, I'D DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT TO SOMEONE ELSE? EVEN IF SHE WAS DYING ON ME?"

The elder Morrows and Regina winced on hearing that. Hearing that, Ayumu blinked before she gazed on Molly. "You nearly killed someone, Molly?" the Wakayama-born reality-warper then asked. "What happened? You're even more in control over yourself than Margo normally is!" She then blinked before she gazed at Regina, her brown-grey eyes then glowing slightly as the Goddess Who Walks Amongst Men's meta-sight clicked in to allow her to take a deep look at the other girl. After a moment, she moaned. "Oh, maaaaaaaaaaaaaaan . . .!" she groaned. "Ataru's gonna FREAK when he hears about this!"

Molly blinked – as it was normally not in Ayumu's nature to lie, the stark realisation that Elizabeth had been telling her the truth slammed into her like an avalanche – before her eyes teared. "No . . . I wouldn't do that, Ayumu . . .!"

"You didn't consciously do that, Molly."

She looked at Elizabeth as the latter approached her. "The Conservator was quick to sense how intoxicated you were two nights ago," she said as she reached up to gently squeeze the other girl's shoulder. "You take some sort of synthetic stimulants to help you appear more normal to your friends, right? Something based on what my past-selves made?" As Molly shakily nodded her head, Elizabeth sighed. "You have a sample?"

Molly reached into a pouch on her belt to pull out a vial of a dark reddish liquid. Elizabeth took that, and then drew out her personal omni-scanner to pass the sensor head over the vial. A moment later, as the readings flashed in the elder Wakefield twin's goggles, she winced. "Oh, my God . . . who on Earth MADE this kludge anyway?"

As Kurt grinned on hearing the classical computing term for a jury-rigged construct, Molly breathed out. "Jan did it." As Elizabeth gazed at her, the silver-blonde smirked. "She's Pentacle. Tina's Ruby Slippers. Both Shadow Realm girls."

Elizabeth nodded. "Well, I will admit that Jan did a good job modifying this to fit your power profile. A little TOO good, I have to note. You use this to keep your powers under wraps while still staying somewhat in control over yourself when you're with your friends, right?" As Molly nodded, Elizabeth smirked. "Well, if I'm right about this, it clearly hazed up your thinking when it came to determining what to do in case someone OD'd at one of your parties. Like Regina did on Thursday, right?"

Molly blinked several times before she sank down to her knees. "No . . .!"

As she began to cry, Regina immediately moved over to gently draw the other woman into her arms. Ayumu then sighed. "Here. Let's go get some tea."

And with a snap of her fingers, they vanished from the Battlezone . . .


Thousands of kilometres to the north-northwest, minutes later . . .

"Um, Liz . . . "

"Yes, Mrs. Morrow?"

"Does your friend allow you to just WALK into his house like this?"

Elizabeth smiled as she moved to pass a portable healing probe over Amy's bruised eye. "You've no doubt read all the stories about all the times Lum's done something to violate Ataru's privacy, right? Not to mention her so-called 'Stormtroopers' and the others in Tomobiki who like her so much." As Skye nodded, she waved around the rustic cabin everyone had been teleported into by Ayumu. "All of us who got our Gifts thanks to Ataru sooner or later come to this place to visit. Either before or after we go to the Cave to get our Gifts. As far as he's concerned, we have every right to visit here when we need to. Just don't bother with fight scenes, of course. He'd rather like his home to stay intact. After all, it's all he really has in the long term."

Skye nodded as she moved to look around the living room of the cabin where the current incarnation of the Trickster of the Show had lived for over nine years before he had been trapped in Tomobiki . . . though he would return to reside here as soon as it was safe and practicable for the people in Tomobiki, not to mention a certain Oni warlord's daughter. Much that Skye had been quick to notice the differences in decor and basic construction that indicated this was a place that could never have been built on Earth – not that the bluish-white sun in the southern sky didn't do enough to indicate she was on another PLANET – it was a very nice and cozy place to live. Certainly no bachelor pad like she had seen when she was younger; despite Ayone Katabarbe's actions when it came to forcing the Gift of Tuyuki on an unsuspecting Ataru, she had been a very good surrogate mother to him. "So how did this man seek all of you out?" Kurt asked as he took a chance to look around, noting there was nothing visible which could indicate how Moroboshi Ataru could have done what he was reported to have done.

"There's a scrying pool in the back yard," Jessica said as she thumbed up to the north. "A small vein of the Great Crystal leads up to the spring which provides the water for the pool up the mountain from here. Ever since he got his own Gift and decided to go on his quest to find pretty girls like all of us, he's used his own reality-warping powers and his telepathy to turn the pool into a special sensor mechanism that can pick out potential candidates to be brought here to Yiziba. Once he found someone, he used one of the old PAAs Liz's past-selves made to teleport to Earth to go meet the girl. When he came after Liz and me, though, he tripped on a rock and twisted his ankle."

"And when Jess was busy using her first aid lessons to help the 'nice boy' get his feet straightened around, I accidentally touched the PAA and teleported us all back here," Elizabeth added, which made the Morrows all laugh in amusement. "After we got the explanation as to what Ataru was doing and what he hoped we'd say 'yes' to, we went back to the Valley. Jess told all her friends like Lila and Mandy, I told people like Amy, Todd, Winston and Maria . . . and a week later, when Ataru came back . . . "

"We all said 'yes,'" the three Boosters present chanted as one.

Another outburst of laughter from the Morrows. "So when did you become Infinity?" Regina then asked as she waved at Ayumu, who relaxed on a sofa nearby.

"Oh, I'm the first one in the Book," the Kansai-born reality-warper announced.

"'The Book?'" Kurt and Skye asked.

"The Book of Pretty Girls!" Jessica, Ayumu and a groaning Amy all chanted.

More laughter. "So what does he write in it?" Kurt asked.

"It's just a general listing of each of us he's helped," Elizabeth explained. "Nothing too private or anything like that. Any person that we help in turn would be listed in the Annex to the Book. Todd Wilkins, Bill Chase and Winston Egbert are listed there."

"There are two boys who are in the main list," Jessica added.

"Who?" Regina demanded.

"Saotome Ranma and Harry Potter," Jessica explained.

Kurt and Skye gaped. "Harry? He's that famous English wizard who was said to have killed that dark lord that went crazy in England years ago!" the former said.

"Isn't Ranma that famous martial artist from some place in Tōkyō?" the latter asked.

"The same," Elizabeth stated. "Both are child abuse victims; Ataru has NO tolerance for that sort of thing, so he gladly broke his own rule about only helping girls when he went to help them get their own Gifts. Hence, their places in the Book."

"What about girls like Enid?" Regina asked. "She wasn't at the meeting last night."

"Enid – among others – are in the 'Pretty Girls to be Helped' list in the Book, Regina," Elizabeth said as Jessica and Amy both scowled on hearing the elder Wakefield twin mention Enid Rollins, whom both of them despised a lot. "Not Gifted – not yet – but will be helped if opportunity presents itself. Lynne Henry and Robin Wilson got their Gifts after spending some time on that list when Ataru got his memories back."

"Thanks to Caroline Pearce," Jessica added.

"So if Regina's put into the Book, she'll be listed as someone Molly helped, right?" Kurt then asked. "Despite some of the questionable ethics of this?"

"Yes," Elizabeth answered. Molly was currently asleep in the bedroom, having totally broken down on coming to Ataru's home. "As soon as I get the chance, I'll approach Jan and ask her what she did to modify what my past-self made in that drug Molly likes to use. If Molly and her friends intend to keep acting like they're normally seen by their group at school and elsewhere as doing, I want to make sure that no other accident like what just happened to Regina happens again. We were lucky this time."

"Luck doesn't last forever," Jessica noted . . .


Back on Earth in Sweet Valley, approaching lunchtime . . .

The rather loud motorcycle engines were enough to alert people something was up.

As the eyes of people now shopping on Main Street – the section of U.S. Highway 101 that went through the centre of town – turned to look, they gazed upon two stylish Harley-Davidson VRSCDX Night Rod Specials then coming up the street from the direction of the harbour and Santa Barbara Channel. The lead of the pair was almost jet-black overall; the normal silver metal on the machine was hued a dark gunmetal grey. Said machine had a classic pirate's skull-and-crossbones insignia on the gas tank aft of the handlebars. The rider herself – a young woman, as was her companion – was dressed properly in black motorcyclist leathers with the Stars and Stripes on her sleeves, a black helmet covering her face even if a small cascade of raven-black hair spilled out from the back of the head-cover. Gloves and zip-up boots finished the ensemble.

The other machine had the "Southern Cross" battle flag of the Confederate States of America on its gas tank; the radio aerial mounted aft of the driver's seat sported a replica of the battle flag of the 47th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment. While some of the citizens on the streets – even white folks – frowned at the sight of something that was clearly NOT politically correct in this day and age, people could also see that the rider was wearing the symbol of the United Daughters of the Confederacy on the back of her jacket, the "Stars and Bars" flag in the middle of the wreath over an intertwined "UDC" in gold above the year-dates of the War Between the States. She had a black helmet over her head and black hair also spilled out from behind her neck.

As soon as both machines came parallel to the front doors of the Dairi Burger, one of the most popular hangouts for the high school crowd in the valley, the lead rider turned to take up a clear parking spot beside a white Mercedes 550SL. As the other machine came to a stop beside it, both riders then dismounted – moving in almost perfect unison, many of the onlookers were quick to note – and then slipped off their helmets to reveal perfectly-shaped faces for girls in their late teens, framed with wavy raven-black hair. As those who attended Sweet Valley High seeing this were quick to realise these two riders were twin sisters like the well-known Wakefield twins, the unreality of the moment took a further step into the Twilight Zone as the new arrivals slipped off their sunglasses to reveal a matching set of stormy grey eyes.

"Oh, my GOD . . .!"

The rider who came on the motorcycle with the skull-and-crossbones on the gas tank didn't react on hearing the croaked shout from the daughter of Sweet Valley's second-richest family. "Lila. Cara," she said in a voice that was a weird mix of flat New York with the lilt of a belle from the Deep South. "How are you two?"

She and her sister turned to gaze on a pair of very white-faced girls. "M-m-Margo. N-n-Nora," Lila Fowler said, trying not to sputter at the thought of THEM being in Sweet Valley of all places. "Um . . . wh-what are you two doing here . . .?"

"Hey, Doc! Catch!"

Margo Black turned . . . and effortlessly caught the bottle of Gatorade that had been tossed her way by a smirking man who had just walked across the street from the local post office. As she grinned in amusement – and both Lila and Cara Walker gaped in shock on noting that WINSTON EGBERT of all people was actually FRIENDLY with the current incarnation of the Archangel of Mortality herself, Doctor Death – as she opened the sports drink to take a deep pull, Winston then pulled out another bottle of Gatorade to give to Margo's twin sister, Nora Chapelle. "Welcome to Sweet Valley, Miss Nora," he said with a very good Texas twang in his voice, that making the current incarnation of the Living Dynamo of Energy, Accretor, giggle as she took the offered bottle, and then she allowed him to kiss her hand. "I trust it was a pleasant trip."

"Oh, indeed it was, Mister Egbert," Nora stated; unlike her twin, her accident was pure Georgia Southern belle. "There were the rude fools and those who normally allow their glands to do their thinking for them, but Margo here – despite her near-total corruption by all those filthy Yankees my late stepmother forced her to endure for ten years before our mutual friend from Japan corrected the issue – was more than capable of dealing with the miscreants. The weather was nice for the whole journey."

"Wonderful! So, would you two care to sample the Dairi Burger?" Winston asked.

Margo hummed. "Business before pleasure, unfortunately," she then stated before leaning close to whisper to him in Yizibajohei, "«There are people who are rather upset at you thanks to this ward you put up to the west of town.»"

He smirked. "Vampires," he whispered in English.

She blinked. "Vampires?"

"A whole hellmouth's worth of them." A wink. "Save for ONE good one!"

A lethal smile. "Do tell me more," Margo purred like a lioness about to have a feast.

As Winston began, Lila and Cara exchanged concerned looks . . .

To be continued . . .


WRITER'S NOTES:

1) The Salem Witches' Institute (in the city of the same name in Massachusetts) was first mentioned in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Its all-men's equivalent, which I mentioned in The Icemaidens and the Philosopher's Stone, is the Seven Hills Wizards' Academy, located in the Blue Ridge Mountains close to Lynchburg in Virginia.

2) The person who held Regina and her family hostage that Winston mentioned, Phil Denson, appeared in novel #26, Hostage!

3) Given the emphasis by the ghost-writers in the Sweet Valley High series towards making the Wakefields the "model" American family, that Ned Wakefield was depicted as being able to practice various forms of law shouldn't really come as a surprise to fans of the series. I played up on that particular continuity problem by stating that Ned is a lawyer that specialises in civil cases, but does take interests in other types of legal practices whenever business doesn't take his attention away from work or family.

4) In the novel Outcast, the behaviour of Molly's parents towards her was – in my eyes – simple child abuse. For those who remember the story, Mr. Hecht (the given names to Molly's parents are my invention as such was never mentioned in the story) actually ORDERS Molly to go to school and take all the abuse that all her classmates were ready to heap over her in the wake of Regina's death. That Molly's parents didn't care for her own feelings is obvious; thus – given the continuity of this story, where Molly meets a man who clearly had RAISED HIMSELF since he was SIX YEARS OLD – her own attitudes towards her parents is evolving in the direction that is depicted here.

5) The nickname for the defensive line of the Sweet Valley Gladiators football team was first coined in novel #4, Power Play.

6) For those who don't know, a mortarboard hat is the flat-topped cap worn by university students when they are in formal gowns at graduation time.

7) Kasuga Ayumu's accent in English as depicted here is a joke based on how someone with an Ōsaka accent in Japanese anime and manga is depicted as in English-translated manga and dubbed anime. In the AzuDai manga, Ayumu is depicted as having a Brooklyn-like sound. In the AzuDai anime, Ayumu's voice actress used a southern Texas accent. And fans of the AzuDai manga should know the origins of the "fuhgedaboutit" joke.

8) The term kludge (derived from the German adjective klug, meaning "smart" or "witty") is said to have been first coined by Jackson W. Granholm's 1962 article "How to Design a Kludge," which first appeared in the computer magazine Datamation. I first learned of the term after reading Tom Clancy's The Hunt For Red October in 1989.

9) The flag most popularly associated with the Confederate States of America these days (as depicted on the roof of the General Lee in The Dukes of Hazzard) is actually a modernised variation of the second Confederate Navy jack (the flag flown at the bow of a ship) that was in service from 1863-65. The proper "battle flag" of Confederate States army regiments (as seen in movies like Gettysburg) was a square red flag with a white-trimmed dark blue saltire cross with thirteen white stars embossed on it (three on each arm and one in the middle). Typically, line regiments of the Confederacy emblazoned their battle honours and regimental titles on the red fields in gold. The Stars and Bars flag was the first national ensign of the Confederacy, which was flown from 1861-63. The flag depicted on the symbol of the United Daughters of the Confederacy has a seven-star Stars and Bars flag on it; the final version of the Stars and Bars depicted thirteen stars in the blue canton (this represented the eleven states that formally seceded from the Union in 1860 and 1861, plus Kentucky and Missouri).

10) The 47th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment was one of over sixty infantry battalions raised in the Peach State to fight on the Confederate side in the American Civil War. First raised in June 1861, the Regiment fought mostly in the Western Theatre of the war, being involved in the defence of Charleston in South Carolina (June 1862), the siege of Jackson in Mississippi (July 1863), fighting in the Chattanooga and Atlanta Campaigns throughout the rest of 1863 and leading into the summer of 1864, defended Savannah (where Company A of the Regiment was founded as the Mitchell Volunteer Guards) and then participated in the Carolinas Campaign of 1865. The Regiment surrendered to Major General William T. Sherman's forces on 26 April 1865.


The Book of Pretty Girls, Entry 533:

CYCLOTRON
The Living Nuclear Reaction

Generation: 29th
Age at Gifting: 11 years, 4 months

Real Name: Lila Rose FOWLER
Relatives: George Thomas FOWLER (father), Grace Maria FOWLER (née DORET) (mother)
Affiliation: Self, the Boosters of Sweet Valley, Coyote (see Entry 0)
Base of Operations: Town and Municipality of Sweet Valley, Santa Barbara County, State of California, United States of America
Alignment: Face/Neutral
Identity: On Yiziba, publicly known; on Earth, Lila is very well known thanks to her father and his wealth, but her being Yizibajohei is unknown to all save her friends.
Race/Culture of Birth: Terran/American
Place of Birth: Town and Municipality of Sweet Valley, Santa Barbara County, State of California, United States of America
Gender: Female
Height: 170 cm (5' 7")
Weight: 49.8 kg (110 lb)
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown

Gifts:
Thermonuclear Energy Control and Projection:
Cyclotron's body – thanks to her being able to absorb any form of light and allow a hyper-charged synergic reaction in each of her cells – can produce massive levels of energy that can be projected from any area of her skin; she normally fires such energy through her hands as a type of nuclear ki blast or via her eyes as a precision form of a cutting beam. The total energy she can fire out at any one time is equal to 2.1 exajoules of energy (equivalent to 500 megatons of TNT going off at once), though unleashing such levels of energy would exhaust her personal stores quite quickly. Her body automatically replenishes any energy she fires off from her person in a sort of "topping off" manoeuvre which ensures she can quickly get back into the fight scene if she is needed.
Energy Attack Invulnerability: Due to her powers, Cyclotron can resist most known forms of pure-energy attack, regardless of type, unleashed on her person. The maximum level of invulnerability she would possess in this sort of situation theoretically would be up to 2.1 exajoules of energy. Attacks based on magic or psionics when used in a pure-kinetic sense without a physical element to it would not affect Cyclotron. If the attack is physical, though – such as a rifle bullet – the kinetic energy of the attack would not hurt her even if the actual damage to her body would. In this situation, Cyclotron can be wounded or killed, but the damage to her body would be minimised to the actual point of impact upon her body.
Flight: Cyclotron has the ability to fly at hypersonic speeds in atmosphere. Unlike others, she cannot survive in hostile environments without some sort of life-support.
Energy Radiation Senses: As an extension of her energy powers, Cyclotron has the ability to sense out any form of energy by the "feel" of the radiation touching her skin. She could, with ease, tell what sort of energy is coming her way regardless of the distance involved. With concentration, she could detect any form of wireless communication – as such is a form of radiation – with this type of feel; she normally uses her eardrums to "listen" in to such broadcasts with the ease a radio can pick up a radio signal. To ensure she is not bombarded by too much sensory data, Cyclotron uses a strict form of self-discipline to ensure she can rest her mind when needed.

Personality:

Sweet Valley's wealthiest – and the most explosively powerful – metahuman resident!

And she will gladly let you know it every which way possible!

Lila Fowler is, in many ways, your atypical super-rich girl. The only daughter of a wealthy computer magnate, she was born literally with a silver spoon in her mouth, lives in a Spanish-style mansion overlooking the ocean, has servants willing to come to her aide whenever she needs it and gladly boasts of all the times she could jet off to all the exciting places she – and only she amongst her peers – could go to virtually at a whim. To others such as her best friend/rival Jessica Wakefield (Rampage, see Entry 532), Lila literally has it all . . . and she flaunts it any way possible.

Of course, there's also the downside of such a life.

Lila is also the only child of a single-parent home; due to his drive to make it rich, George effectively wrecked the life of Lila's mother Grace . . . and then literally ripped their newborn daughter from her mother's arms. And while George himself has often regretted such actions – Grace was the daughter of a family that the Fowlers never got along with – he has done his best to be a good father for Lila despite the odd problems such as the one time Lila began to shoplift as a way of getting her father's attention . . . even when she had a personal allowance that would allow her to buy the whole wardrobes of five of her schoolmates!

Which makes her becoming Cyclotron all the more curious.

On meeting the current Coyote for the first time, Lila was not impressed. Oh, yes, he was living on a planet three hundred light-years away and was on a quest to get as many pretty girls Gifted as quickly as possible to protect Earth. While that was certainly exciting – despite her wealth, Lila WAS eleven years old at the time she met Moroboshi Ataru – certain facts of life on Yiziba nearly made her say "no." The concept of money had faded out of existence on Yiziba two thousand years ago. There was no social hierarchy anywhere on the planet. And Ataru's living alone in a rustic cabin in the mountains north of Habitation One didn't appeal to a girl like Lila, who was used to big cities and people cleaning up after her. It was only peer pressure from people such as Jessica Wakefield that convinced Lila to go to Yiziba and take a Gift.

She didn't regret THAT . . . even if she didn't gain the invulnerability of people such as Rampage, the ability to warp reality like Infinity (see Entry 1), the powerful magical skills of Lightmage (see Annex Entry 532-A), the psionic powers of Pettegola (see Entry 541) or the unbelievable intelligence of the Academician (see Entry 531).

After all, when you have the power to unleash a virtual ATOMIC BOMB BLAST out of your very own hands, all the other neat powers one could have really don't matter anymore.

Or does it . . .?

Even if she is snobbish, even if she looks down on those less wealthy than she, even if she really can't see herself living a life like others do . . . Lila often wonders.

"Could I still be me . . .?"