Jem and the Holograms, and all related trademarks, are the property of Hasbro, and the creation of Christy Marx.

Chapter Nine

In all honesty, it could have been worse. After a long monologue that went one for almost an hour and a half, Pizzazz had finished, leaving the Misfits to more or less react in their own way.

Instead of crying, Stormer had simply laid back and stared up at the ceiling, a blank expression on her face. No doubt she was mulling over what she had just been told. Despite being the most sensitive of the three of them, she was still tough enough to handle anything the rest of them could, so any fears that what she had just been told might break her were probably unfounded...hopefully...

Instead of fleeing, Clash had stayed and listened intensely, seemingly interested in learning what she didn't know to add to what she already did. No doubt she seemed eager to start asking questions, but seemed to be holding back for the moment, possibly sensing it wasn't the right time to do so.

Instead of going...ah, hell, of course Roxy went nuclear. In the time they had known her, her band mates would jokingly rate the bass player's own emotional detonations the same way the explosive force of real nuclear blasts were. In this case, this was easily a 3-megaton detonation; the equivalent of 3 million tons of TNT going off at the same time.

As a matter of fact, the bass player - after cursing up a storm against Pizzazz - had stormed out of the room, and was wrecking the spare bedroom next door, destroying any object unfortunate enough to be her path, if the sounds of splintering wood and shattering glass were any indication.

Pizzazz knew the best thing to do when Roxy was like this was to let her rage on until she burned herself out, even though she knew it would probably cost her plenty to have everything replaced. But as long as she didn't lose Roxy as a band mate...as a friend...as a sister...it didn't matter.

"Um...is she going to be okay?"

Pizzazz glanced at Clash, who was still sitting at the makeup table, nervously glancing at the open door through which the sounds of Roxy's rampage were coming through, and shook her head.

"Yeah, just let her go on. She'll burn herself out, sooner or later." She sighed. "Besides, she has a right to be mad at me." She gestured at Stormer. "So does she."

This seem to break the blue-haired keytarist out of her reverie, as she suddenly sat up and looked at band leader, her expression unreadable.

"I'm not mad at you. It's just..." Words failed her for a moment. "It's...just...I don't how I feel about any of this. I mean...vampires are real, and now I'm one of them apparently." Her eyes began to water as she started to sob. The numbness she felt from the initial shock of the night's events were starting wear off, allowing the full gravity of the situation crash down on her. Words failed her as her sobbing became full on crying. "What the hell...what the hell..."

A wave of fresh guilt washed over Pizzazz. Oh, did she know how Stormer felt...

Once upon a time she had literally hated herself because of what she was. Abandoned by her birth mother, and essentially ignored by her father, young Phyllis Gabor teetered on the emotional brink, and was, truth be told, a bit suicidal, though every attempt ended in failure due to the fact she couldn't be killed by any conventional means. That is until, during one failed attempt, she met the woman she would come to call Mom, who would take her in and essentially adopt her as her own, giving her the first real love and affection she had ever received in her life.

Under Mom's tutelage she had learned that she shouldn't be afraid or disgusted of what she was; that she should embrace the fact that she was unique. Through her she also learned how to master her abilities, and find safe, ethical ways to sate her never ending hunger for blood, and thus brought her vampiric nature under control.

It was no exaggeration to say that Mom had saved her life, for who the hell knows what would have happened to her if they had never met.

Opening her eyes again, Pizzazz knew what she had to do. She would have to guide and teach her Misfits just as Mom had done with her, doing all that she could to help the women who were sisters to her now more than ever before.

And she would start with Stormer.