Leni set down the box next to the table and wiped her forehead. Manual labor was not much a strong suit for the girl, but it's a little more manageable with her slightly enhanced strength.

She looked back at the others following her, setting much of the same boxes of supplies and donations on the ground.

Leni had never been in this school before, barely heard of it outside of football game rivalries. The Exposed Generator Gathering Center was really just this school gymnasium, as well as some cleared out classrooms across the hall. The classrooms were repurposed as makeshift medical checkup rooms, and the culinary classroom was nearby, while the gym had folding tables set up like a cafeteria. Two old TVs were set up on carts at opposite corners of the room, one for the news, and the other for donated movies. Leni could tell it was old, because half the movies provided were on black, plastic cassette tapes. The other half DVDs.

They've had a lot of business here in the EGG Center. Unfortunately, instead of gathering those trying to come to terms with their powers or appearances, they ended up becoming more or less homeless shelters. Services were still provided, but for every one empowered person Leni saw, five more normal people cropped up around them.

"Alright, guys," Lori took charge. "I want everyone keeping busy. No layabouts! Leni, we're checking on our older guests, making sure everyone has everything they need. Blankets, extra clothes, food, the works. Luna, Luan, and Lynn, we still got donations out front. Big them in and stack them nice and neat. Lisa, the doctors said they want your expertise on some of the patients they have. Lucy, Lola, Lana, and Lincoln, I want you guys to keep an eye on the kids over there. There should be plenty of toys to play with, and some movies to put on. We also got story books and coloring books. I don't want any of them wondering off."

"And, you know, because I'm crippled, the kids are more likely to obey me," Lincoln added, "like… an air of guilt."

"Correct," Lori agreed. Lucy let a small smile slip while Lynn gave a cringe. Dark humor doesn't land with everybody. "You all have your jobs. Hop to it!"

Leni was happy to let Lori take the lead. She was happy to be doing something more than throwing punches. Making sure people get through a particularly cold day was one of them.

Of course, that sense of peace didn't last too long.

"Hey man, ease up!"

Leni looked up to see an older man shove away a teenager.

"Table's right over there!" the old man shouted. "Ain't no reason to take my food!"

"Whoa, whoa, hey!" Lori called out.

Leni ran between them, using her normal, teenage girl speed to close the distance.

"Like, is there something wrong?" Leni nervously prompted.

"This kid's trying to steal my food!" the older man accused.

Leni turned to the younger man. At first she thought he was wearing fur, but she soon realized that it was part of him. He wore a gray shirt with a faded logo, and cargo shorts, aside from that, he was barefoot. His body was covered in long light brown fur, grown and hanging low off his arms. The boy's hands had claw tips at the end of them extending their already impressive reach. His head was round with wide brown eyes. He looked like a sloth.

"I saw you, old man!" he answered with another accusation. "You tried sticking your hand in my pocket first!"

"The hell I did!" He put his hands up. "You try'na start somethin'?"

"I got claws old dude," the sloth noted. "What'chu got?"

"Alright!" Lori shouted over both of them. "That's enough! No fighting, or you're both out!"

She started to gently pull the older gentleman away, leaving Leni with the other. The two sisters shared eye contact and nodded in understanding.

Leni turned to the boy.

"What's your name?"

"…Sloan," he answered.

"Are you hungry?"

The boy held his stomach. "Freaking starving."

"Okay then."

Leni took his arm and led him to a mostly empty table on the other side of the room. The people sitting there saw them coming and cleared away from them, giving them the table to themselves.

Leni heard Luan muttering to Luna somewhere in the room.

"Boy," she said, "Who knew the EGG center was covered in eggshells?"

"Stop," Luna audibly shook her head. "Just stop."

Leni disappeared, cheating with her powers a little bit to go get some food from the other room. She returned with a paper bowl of reheated stew and set it down. Sloan started to dig in, almost forgetting the spoon she left in the bowl. He had wide shoulders, and Leni got the impression that if he was still human, he'd be… well, thicker around the middle.

"Don't get it," he muttered, after coming up to breathe. "You ain't scared of me?"

Leni shrugged. "You're people too. It's not your fault you got hurt."

"Hm." He grunted. "Didn't get hurt, though."

"Huh?" Leni tilted her head and knit her eyebrows together. "What do you mean?"

"I started looking like this a couple of days ago," he spoke without much care or worry.

"You… you weren't exposed to the generator explosion?" Leni wondered.

"Nope," Sloan took another bite of stew.

"Then… how?" Leni fought to understand. "How did you end up…?"

"Don't know," he shrugged. "I was watching TV, then I got furry, then I got kicked out. Not that they were great parents anyways, but still…"

"Watching TV?" Leni wondered.

"Yeah," he nodded. "watching the super-slut get the crap kicked out of her by that lion guy. It was fun to watch."

Leni didn't answer. People are getting transformed, without the crystals the generator spread throughout the city?

This was going from bad to worse.

The news was turned up on a nearby television set. More trouble, a man-sized bullfrog was attacking a jewelry store. His black business suit was only slightly scuffed up. His wide head had red eyes on the side of his head. He exhaled, and opened his wide mouth, causing rushing winds to break the windows of the jewelry store and suck up the gold inside. When the gold and jewels were gone from the store front, he snapped his mouth shut, with a bulge in his throat, and sprang away on two long legs.

"Oh no," Leni sighed. She stood up. Lori saw the screen and made eye contact with her.

"I have to go find an officer," Leni excused herself. "Maybe there's one nearby."

She ran out of the gymnasium and into the bathroom. Away from prying eyes, she was able to change and fly out into the city where the villain was wreaking havoc.

"This was supposed to be a good day…" She muttered to herself.


Lana watched the screen, seeing the man attack buildings for their golden goods. Then Leni appeared, stomping him into the ground to stop his assault.

"Surrender now," her voice was covered in static from the old television. "And I'll see that you're treated fairly."

The amphibious fiend lashed out a tongue at her. She ducked and retaliated. Lana looked over from the tv to Lori, who ducked out of the room. Presumably, she was going to offer some kind of help to the superhero.

Lana watched, with her arms crossed on her knees, as Leni and the Frog man went back and forth. Leni caught the tongue as he tried to lash it out at her again.

You'll never look like that. Like any of them.

Lana watched, with her arms crossed on her knees, as Leni and the Frog man went back and forth. Leni caught the tongue as he tried to lash it out at her again. She yanked him off the car he was perched on.

"This scene is happening live at the shopping district in downtown Royal City," the reporter said. "Our hero Sky Girl has faced many battles, and never lost once."

How can someone as ugly as you ever look like that?

The screen was minimized to the corner of the screen.

"However," the reporter continued, "more of these criminals seem to revolve around animal like characteristics. Are these new empowered bigger threats than the old empowered? Eyewitnesses have claimed that a spike of these bizarre individuals have been on the rise since the initial attack of the now captured criminal and terrorist known as King. Now locked away in the newly built Victorious Penitentiary, sponsored by Victoria Grace, CEO of Victorious Industries."

They showed a clip of King roaring into the camera, followed shortly by him being locked into the back of a police van.

The reporter droned on, but Lana didn't hear any of it. There was a ringing in her ears. She didn't like it when they played the video of King. The villain was scary.

And it always made her feel sick to her stomach.

She clutched her stomach and stood up. She trotted to the bathroom, but it didn't feel anything like that this time.

Her skin felt hot. She felt a stabbing pain in her hands and feet, like a hundred hot needles poking her palms. Even her mouth started to ache.

This had never happened before!

She fell to the tiled floor of the bathroom. Something was… happening to her. She was changing. The seven-year-old knew it was coming, and she dreaded it.

The best you can hope for is to be useful. You have to stand tall and take what you want!

"Please…" she silently begged. "No…"


The frog man leapt into the air, and planted its feet down on Leni's chest, slamming her into a car.

As Leni groaned, the criminal hopped off of her and jumped away. Leni got up and looked around, but he was no where to be seen.

She warily stood up and took to the sky. She scanned the streets, then moved to the rooftops.

"Dang it," Leni sighed. "He got away."

She flew in a random direction, listening for any clues, but she couldn't hear anything.

You can hear a scream from miles away, but you can't hear a criminal on the run?

She sighed. This arbitrary hearing power isn't going to catch the bad guys today.

"Leni?" Lori called over the com. "You okay?"

"Yeah," she answered. "I'm fine, but he got away."

"Okay." Lori seemed to hesitate. "Can you come back to the EGG Center? We got this lady freaking out, and… You might have better luck with her than I'm having right now. Some of the staff are trying to calm her down, but…"

"Wait. As Leni, or Sky Girl?"

"…Both. Either. Up to you. Just hurry."

Leni made her way back to the school gym, dropping down in full costume.

Maybe Sky Girl can calm things down?

She walked into the building and the crowd of people stopped and stared at her. They seemed to be huddled into even tighter groups. She gave a reassuring wave as everyone tried to make sense of her. She even spotted Lincoln paused from his reading with other kids. She walked up to one of the staff, a teenager with a team shirt.

"Someone called for me?" She explained. "About a panicking woman?"

The boy nodded, too shocked for words. He escorted her to one of the classrooms nearby, where some of the volunteers were sitting and standing with a homeless woman. Her eyes brightened up when Leni walked into the room.

"You!" She lunged forward.

Leni grabbed her gloved hands and held them up. The poor woman looked like she didn't know what to do with them.

"Hi," She smiled at the poor woman. She looked beyond tired. "How can I help you?"

"The toilet," she stammered. "I- I mean, the restroom. I thought I heard someone… y'know, moaning. And then she was screaming, and… she sounded like a kid or something? I opened the door and… it looked like a lizard, or something, y'know? And I just… it just…"

"It's okay," Leni did her best to settle her, "I'll handle it. Can you tell me where she went?"

"She… she went into the vents, I think?"

"Okay," Leni set the woman's hands down. "I'll take care of it. You stay here and rest."

"Yeah." The woman nodded, returning to her seat. "O-okay."

Leni turned to the door, meeting Lori.

As Sky Girl.

Surrounded by strangers.

Keep it together.

Leni coughed into her fist. "Is something wrong?"

"Er, right," Lori awkwardly led. "Over here."

A few paces later, Lori carried on.

"I've done a head count," she told Leni under her breath. "Literally eight times now. I thought it was because Lily was with Mom and Dad, but we're missing Lana."

"What?"

"Someone said she went into the bathroom," Lori further explained. "The older girls and I have been calling up and down this school for a while now. We don't know where she is."

Her eyes were brimming. Leni was too. A seven-year-old girl is missing.

One of their sisters is missing.

They turned a corner to see Lola had wandered out of the gymnasium. She looked wide eyed and scared; a look that did not belong on her scheming little face.

"Where's Lana?" she asked in too small a voice.

Leni got down on her knee.

"I'll find her," Leni took her hands. "I promise."

...Though she had no idea where to start.

She looked to the hall, spotting the restrooms nearby.

"Lana went in there," Lori pointed out. "At least, that's what I was told."

Leni braced herself and entered the bathroom.

"Wrong one, Le-… Ma'am," Lori helpfully offered.

Leni, red faced, hoped nobody saw that.

She looked into the lady's room and scanned the stalls. A bright color caught her eye in the last stall. She walked over and saw it was a bright red hat. The floor tiles were covered in little bits of… dandruff? Flakes? Maybe it was plaster?

"Oh god," Lori spoke behind her.

Lana loved this hat. She had a Hey, Arnold! doll a couple years ago. And when she saw the hat in a store, she had to have it. Lola didn't quite kick up such a fuss compared to Lana. Lana hadn't really cared for any other clothes since. It was all they could do just to get her to take a bath. The doll is still in her room somewhere, but she kept the hat with her through thick and thin.

"The vents…" Lori pointed out.

Leni looked up and saw the open square that went up into the ventilation system. No sign of where the vent was. Tufts of dusty debris occasionally drifted through the open hole.

Leni subconsciously laced the hat in her belt loop.

"I'm going to check it out," she declared.

"Okay," Lori relented as Leni poked her head through the vent. "Just… be careful."

With that, Leni looked down both corridors, and spotted something at the end of one. The space was cramped, but she could fit with her shoulders scrapping the sides. Her flight made moving through the vents easy enough, but she took it slow. Dust was undoubtedly accumulating on her clothes.

She reached the object she spotted. It was dry, like a leaf in the fall. It crinkled and rustled in the wind passing through the vents. Leni struggled to get her arm in front of her and picked up the white leaf.

"More flakes?" she wondered.

"S-SKY GIRL!"

Leni jumped in the vent, making her hit the roof, and then falling to the bottom in short succession.

Now she was covered in dust.

She managed to climb her way out of the vent (flying backwards was such a chore) and drop down to see a new face waiting for her.

"Uh-um," the volunteer pointed. "I think that missing girl is outside."

Without another word, Leni dashed out of the room and out into the street. She saw her siblings jumping up and down and waving their arms.

"Lana!" Lynn called out with all her lungs.

"Lana, get down from there!" Lori ordered.

"Lana!" Lola cried out desperately.

Leni followed their gazes, up to the rooftops of the opposite building. At the roof of the apartment complex, Leni could just make out a head of loose blonde hair before it turned away from them.

"I'll get her," Leni promised.

She flew up above the rooftops and spotted the girl. She was blonde like Lana, but she didn't look anything like her. For one thing, she wasn't wearing any clothes. For another, she was covered in scales, and had a long tail curled up behind her. The closest thing she had to covering herself up was a layer of the same flaking material over her shoulder and legs.

That couldn't be Lana.

But she was running towards the opposite edge of the building!

"Don't!" Leni shouted.

The little creature leapt through the air, practically soaring up to Leni's height. She cleared the gap between the buildings and landed on the roof of the adjacent apartment building.

"Whoa," Leni heard herself say.

She chased the runaway across the building, and then another. And now this next one was three stories higher than the rest.

"Stop!" Leni warned as she lowered herself. This girl was awfully small… "It's too high up!"

She leapt to the building without another thought. She latched onto the sides, using the claws on her fingers and toes, and started scaling the wall effortlessly.

Leni watched in awe as the little girl climbed over the ledge. She looked back at the floating teen before running away again. Her face was covered in a mask of that same flaking substance Leni found earlier.

"Get away from me!" she called out.

"Wait!" Leni pleaded. "We can talk this out!"

She didn't listen and made her way to the construction site nearby. The building looked half finished, and a lot of windows had yet to be installed.

No use in trying to talk her down anymore. Just bring her in, and then calm her down.

Leni flew up and tackled the girl as her feet left the ledge. She wrapped her arms around the little girl. She was tall for her age; surely this couldn't be Lana.

The lizard tailed girl thrashed in her grip.

"No, no!" she tried to wriggle out of Leni's arms. Her claws started to dig into her. "Let me go!"

"Calm down!" Leni shouted. "I'm not going to hurt you!"

"Let. Me. Go!"

She swiped at Leni, slashing her across the face. Leni yelped and let go, letting her fall and catch herself onto the construction site. Her mask fell to the floor next to the lizard girl, before she disappeared inside.

Leni drifted down and picked up her mask. She felt the marks on her face, but they were already healing. With her mask fixated on her face, she stepped inside.

"Leni?" Lori called in. "Did you find her?"

"No," Leni answered. "I'm not sure its Lana."

"It has to be," Lori pressed. "We all saw her. She… Something's wrong, Leni. She dumped her clothes on the roof of the school."

She paused before restating, "Something's wrong."

Leni, not sure how to answer, moved on inside. Due to the sun now setting in the horizon, the beams of sunlight were hitting the windowless structure sideways, illuminating the floor they were on. The floor also had a wide open floor, and few walls. Still places for her to hide.

"Lana…?" Leni cautiously called out. Then, with more force, "Lana!"

There was no answer, but there was a shadow stretching out across the floor. Leni floated over to the wall, she wasn't trying to sneak up on her, but it hadn't occurred to her to make noise.

She rounded the corner and saw the girl trying to listen out for her. Half of the "mask" that covered her face was missing, exposing the scaly face underneath. She gasped when she saw Leni and turned to run.

"Lana, wait-"

The girl's tail lashed out, cracking like a whip and striking Leni's cheek. Leni turned her head and set her feet down on the ground. The side of her face stung, arguably more than being slashed earlier. Leni looked back to the girl, who was paused, stunned, and staring back at Leni.

"Lana," Leni spoke, her voice a little more forceful. She took another step forward.

"No!" Lana twisted her body around, extending the tail she had, and hitting Leni like a truck. Leni was slammed into the wall, and it cracked behind her with the force of the impact. Leni collapsed to the floor; the wind effectively knocked out of her.

"Never look like you," Leni heard the girl say. "I've never looked like any of you!"

Leni looked up to see a tail whip around the corner of the wall.

"And now I never will!"

Leni coughed and got back up.

"Lana," she called after her. "Lana, wait!"

She rounded the corner and saw that she disappeared again.

"How are you doing that?" Leni wondered out loud.

"Leave me alone!" her voice echoed around the building. "He wants to eat you!"

"Who does?" Leni walked around, trying to pinpoint the voice. "Tell me what's wrong."

"The Lion!" Lana answered. "He wants…" She sounded like she was sobbing. "He wants me to kill you…"

"Lana," Leni called out again. The words chilled her to the core. It was impossible to tell who was more scared at the moment. "Let's go home, Lana. Let's get you looked at."

"No!"

Something slammed into Leni out of thin air, knocking her to the ground. In a desperate bid to retaliate, she grabbed the foreign object and held tight. When Leni looked to see what she was grabbing, it looked like thin air.

"Let me go, let me go!"

"Lana," Leni demanded. "Stop this right now!"

The tail went lax in her grip. The air under her hands started to shimmer, and reveal the scaled nature of the hidden attacker. Leni followed the trail until she saw Lana: naked, sobbing, and covered in scales in a green diamond pattern all over her body. Her eyes were still grey, but now the whites of her eyes were yellow. The scales seemed to blend under and with her hairline.

She gave an ugly sniff.

"I just…" she wiped her face with her arm, "I didn't want to look like this…"

Leni went over and scooped up the seven-year-old, holding her to her chest as she shushed her sobbing. Her lizard tail wrapped around her midsection.

"It's okay, it's okay," she promised. "I got you now."

Lana bawled into her shirt. Letting out bitter tears that Leni couldn't even guess how long she'd been holding.

After a few minutes, she asked her, "Tell me what happened."

"I-I…" She sobbed between words. "I was w-watching tv. A-and the lion guy came on, a-and I didn't feel good. A-and then I tur-urned into this."

She went back into Leni's shoulder, fresher tears flowing. Leni felt like joining her.

"Shhhh," Leni cooed. "It's okay… It's okay. We're going to get this fixed up, okay?"

Lana nodded into her shoulder. Before she forgot, Leni pulled off the hat on her belt and tucked it onto her head.

"Got your hat," she offered. "Now your not naked anymore."

She got half a giggle in response, but it went back to being somber. It was something. All hope isn't lost yet.

"Lana," Leni told her, "I don't know if what you said is... how you really feel, but I want you to know something. I don't want you to look like me. You're not me, and you're never going to be like me. You're going to grow up one day, and you're going to be beautiful. In the way that only the amazing Lana Loud can be beautiful, okay?"

Lana squeezed her older sister tighter. She answered with a nod in her shoulder.

"Okay," Leni took a breath. "Let's go home."

Leni, holding her tight, took off from the building, and into the night sky.

It was going to be a long night at home.


Mom didn't take it well at first.

All the sobbing and crying started all over again when Rita saw what happened to Lana. She was a tough lady, but it was like she was mourning over the girl hugging her back. It took a minute to convince her to let go of Lana long enough for Lisa to work.

"Based on what the both of you have told me," Lisa rubbed her eyes under her glasses. She really needed rest more than any of them. "I can guess that the villain King is directly responsible for Lana's condition."

"How?" Luan spoke for the room. "How could he…?"

"His call, over the television. The networks have been playing your victory over him nonstop over the past few months. Several other patients have explained largely the same trigger as Lana did. The more they hear that footage, the more they start mutating."

Lori walked out of the room, dialing on her phone. Was she calling Hobbs?

"I can also guess that he's somehow controlling them, or at least instructing them with some sort of… organic communication method. Without the usage of wires or radio signals."

"You can say telepathy," Lincoln noted. "We won't judge."

"I would judge," Lisa quipped back. "Anyways. I subjected Lana to my Brain Scrambler. I designed it to help me generate new ideas for inventions, but it was a failure. Fortunately, it has a new use for blocking out any…"

As she struggled with the words, Lincoln leaned over in his chair.

"Telepathic signals," he filled in.

"Not calling it that," she muttered under her breath. She sighed and settled on "External influence."

"Lana, sweetie?" Lynn Sr got down to one knee. "How do you feel, honey?"

"I think I'm okay," Lana looked down at herself. She was now wearing a loose nightgown and some ill-fitting shorts that Leni would have to redesign later. "I'm kind of hungry, though."

"Not for rats, I hope," Luna cringed in the doorway.

"Nah," she shrugged. "But I kind of want pizza."

Dad sighed, shaking his head.

"Okay," he decided. "I'll go get some late-night pizza."

"Are you going to be okay going to sleep tonight?" Rita fretted. "Do you want me to stay with you?"

"Um," Lana shrunk in her seat. "I dunno."

"I'll sleep with you, honey," Rita volunteered. "Just in case."

Everyone shuffled out of the room and in different directions. This new development was… hard to swallow.

Leni blinked. How is Lola taking all of this?

The thought seemed to occur to everyone now in the hallway, as the twins faced each other in front of their room. Leni realized with a start that they were the same height. They couldn't have grown up that much, could they?

Lola's face was unreadable. She didn't move for a minute.

"Lola, honey," Rita stood over them, "do you want to-"

Lola left and walked downstairs in her nightgown. Lana lowered her head, and started sniffing and suppressing tears.

"Oh, Lana, baby," Rita got down and hugged her daughter. "Don't worry. She's just trying to wrap her head around it. This is a big change for all of us, and we're all going through it, right with you."

"I know, but-"

Lana didn't finish. Leni looked to Lori, asking a silent question. She shook her head in response. Nothing could be done.

Then, everyone paused as Lola came stomping back up the stairs. Her little arms were filled with blankets from the closet downstairs. Everyone stared at her.

"I read somewhere that snakes like warm spots," Lola explained. "Like in boxes and stuff. So, I thought you'd need more of these."

Lana, with eyes tearing up, knocked the blankets out of her twins hand and wrapped her arms around her neck in a loving embrace. A few more tears were shed around the room.

"Ack!" Lola complained. "Okay, okay! Don't get all mushy on me!"