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Cress

Cress fiddled nervously with a lock of hair as she looked up at the Council of the Rampions seated in front of her. The Council of the Rampions! These were some of the most powerful and famous prodigies on the planet and they were sitting here, right in front of her! If it wasn't for the fact that she was completely terrified, Cress would probably be crying out of pure awe and amazement. As it was, she was more preoccupied praying to the skies that she wasn't about to be thrown in Placen.

"So you said your name was Cress, correct?" The Emperor asked her.

"Um, my full name is Crescent Moon Darnel. Cress is just an abbreviation."

General Thunder leaned forward on his chair, eyes narrowed. "And I take it you're a prodigy?"
"Yes General. My alias is 1-0."

"Rather inappropriate isn't it?" Crown Jewel sniffed derisively, "Given your superpower is turning into electricity."

Cress gulped. "A-actually my superpower is the ability to dissolve my DNA into code. Essentially, I become a collection of ones and zeros."

Crown Jewel glared at Cress, obviously not happy with being corrected, though the other Councillors seemed (Cress hoped) impressed.

"That is the most advanced form of cyberpathy I've ever heard of!" Crime Minister murmured.

"But when you first arrived here, you were just a mass of lightning!" President Star protested. "I'm pretty sure that's not what code looks like."

Despite her situation, Cress found herself lifting her chin with pride. Truth be told, she'd wanted to tell someone about her escape programme since the moment she discovered it, but she'd never dreamed of being able to tell the Council themselves about it!

"That chip you found contained a programme that, when merged with my own coding, would temporarily alter my powers to turn me into electricity, allowing me to escape the confines of the chip and re-form." She allowed herself a small smile. "Sort of like bioengineering, but with code."

Primal raised his eyebrows. "Very impressive!"

Cress felt her smile grow wider.

"Why is the alteration of your powers only temporary?" Asked Crime Minister. She actually sounded fascinated.

"Code I merge with while inside devices doesn't stay with me after I exit the device. I think it's like an immune system. Outside code is seen by my body as a virus so it ends up dismantling the code when I re-form so it doesn't affect my body processes. The code I used to alter my powers only lasted as long as it did because I added aspects of my own code to it temporarily confusing my systems. If that makes sense."

It clearly didn't, not to the Councillors at least, but they nodded anyway.

Crime Minister frowned down at Cress thoughtfully. "You've talked a lot about your own personal biology during this interrogation, but when you reformed last time, you were wearing clothing as well. Can you do that with any clothing or…"

Cress felt her face grown warm. "N-no, this suit I'm wearing has just been specifically designed to reform and dissolve with me. It has advanced software programmed into it so that it doesn't mix with my code and the fabric is dyed with, um, with my blood. To imbibe it with my DNA."

"And the blue lights one the suit?" Crown Jewel asked, seemingly unaffected by the news that Cress's clothes had her blood on them.

"I'm not sure to be honest." Cress said studying the markings in question. "They used to be just metal wires connecting the different data storage beads sewn into the fabric. They've never glowed before."

"Hazard a guess then as to why they're glowing now."

Cress bit her lip, scrounging her mind for a reason. "Maybe… it's just left-over code from the programme I used to alter my powers? My DNA usually allows the suit to expel the excess code but since this programme was a near match of my own code it might have managed to bypass the suits defences. Maybe."

"Can we please stop talking about this girl's fashion and acknowledge the elephant in the room here?" President Star asked exasperatedly, "That chip had been provided by the Lunars! This girl could be a Lunar spy!"

Cress squeaked and shrank into her long hair. And things were just going well! "I'm not a spy, I swear!"

"Then how come you were in that chip?"

"I-I was a member of the Lunar's before." Cress stammered out, "But I'm not loyal to them at all! I hate what they're doing! I-I want to stop them, not spy for them!"

Crown Jewel snorted. "If you hate them so much why did you join them in the first place?"
"I had no choice! During the Blood Moon Time, the Lunars went around looking for prodigy-hating parents who had prodigy children they didn't want. I was one of those children. I've been with the Lunars ever since I was a baby!"

General Thunder looked at his fellow Councillors, his brow creased with doubt. "Being a member of an organisation for the entirety of one's childhood usually makes them extremely loyal to the organisation."

"Not when they lock you away from pretty much any human contact and force you to hack into secret government files so they can hurt people!" Cress screamed back at them.

The Council stared at her, shock written all over their faces. At her outburst, or at the revelation that she'd hacked into their secret documents? Cress didn't know, and at that moment she didn't care. Scared tears tracked down her cheeks as she thought of what life would be like, staying in a prison cell in a building full of hostile prodigies.

Her tears started pooling faster.

The Emperor got up from his seat and walked over to Cress, kneeling so that he was eye-level with her. "Calm down, we won't hurt you."

His tone was so soft and gentle and, and fatherly that Cress stopped crying out of shock.

"You said that you were a hacker for the Lunars, yes?"

"Th-their best one." Rather than pride, her voice dripped with shame as she said this.

The Emperor smiled. "Well that's a stroke of luck isn't it?"

Cress cocked her head with confusion.

"By escaping from them, you did the Lunars a real blow. They will have much more trouble accessing all of our data now. And you know, the Rampions could always use another hacker."

Cress's eyes widened. Was he…? He couldn't be…?

"Emperor, I must advise against this course of action." Crown Jewel said sharply.

The Emperor waved his hand dismissively. "Oh, she'll be under very close surveillance the whole time, don't worry. Besides, you heard Crime Minister: She is the most powerful cyberpath that we know of, probably in the world! I'd much rather have an ability like that working with us instead of festering in a prison cell."

Crown Jewel's lips thinned with annoyance, but she said nothing.

The Emperor stood and addressed his fellow Councillors. "Are there any other objections to letting 1-0 join the Rampions?"

Though President Star scowled with distrust, there were none.

Relieved laughter bubbled out of Cress's mouth. She wasn't going to Placen! And she was a Rampion! Finally, finally she'd be able to use her powers to help people! This was what she'd dreamed of since she was seven years old and had been sent to her prison of computers. And, Cress realised, a blush forming on her cheeks, she'd get to be close to Carswell Thorne…

A/N: AT LAST, WE KNOW WHAT CRESS'S POWER IS! Also, sciency talk. So much sciency talk…

Cress has officially joined the Rampions, meaning (Cresswell lovers rejoice!) lots more Cress/Thorne interactions! But how will the Lunar's react to her disappearance? Will the Council ever trust her? How many more chapters will I force you to wait for any real Cresswell?

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