Her heart palpitating anxiously, Mrs. Crosswire tried her best to keep up with the speeding ambulance that bore her daughter Muffy, or at least to stay within sight of the emergency vehicle. In the seat next to her sat C.V., who wrung his hands and muttered dire predictions of Muffy's fate.
"She's gonna end up just like my dad," worried the bespectacled owl boy. "He couldn't work anymore after what I did to him."
Distracted by concern over her daughter's health, Mrs. Crosswire didn't answer.
When the pair reached the hospital room to which Muffy had been taken, they discovered to their relief that the girl was moving her head and looking about, apparently no longer in a catatonic state. "She regained consciousness in the ambulance," one of the paramedics notified her mother.
Mrs. Crosswire rushed to the side of the bed where Muffy was laid. "M-Mom?" whimpered the monkey girl, who then screamed and recoiled in terror upon the sight of C.V.'s face.
"She's...she's okay," marveled the overweight boy.
"Keep away from me!" shrieked Muffy, pulling a blanket over her head.
Seeing that his presence was frightening her, C.V. backed away until he was standing in the hospital corridor.
"I'm here, Muffy," cooed Mrs. Crosswire as she uncovered her daughter and laid arms around her.
"C.V. did it, Mom," Muffy ranted feverishly. "He used some sort of psychic attack on me. He has evil powers."
"My powers aren't evil!" retorted C.V., who had overheard the remark.
"His mom lied," Muffy went on. "She said she can't have babies, but I think she can. I think she's afraid her babies will have evil powers."
Muffy's insult to his mother's integrity angered C.V., but a part of him suspected there might be truth in the girl's ramblings. Ever since the incident with his father years ago, his parents had assured him that he would someday be a great hero, and use his special gifts for good. Could it be they were merely putting up a front, and were actually afraid of him?
Another part of him was relieved that Muffy's condition hadn't proven much more serious. Emotionally crippling a fellow student at age eleven wouldn't look good on a superhero's resume--not to mention the dreadful punishment his parents would mete out.
He stepped slowly into the hospital room, hoping Muffy wouldn't panic and jump out a window. "I'm sorry for what I did," he told the terror-struck girl. "I was mad because my mom didn't get to adopt the baby."
"That wasn't my fault," Muffy insisted.
"I'm just glad you're okay," said C.V. contritely. "I've never used my powers at such a high level before. I could have killed you."
"What powers are you talking about?" asked Mrs. Crosswire.
"For as long as I can remember," C.V. explained, "I've been able to make people afraid. When people make fun of me, I just look at them and concentrate, and they shut up and start shaking all over. If I concentrate harder, I can make them run away screaming. And if I get really mad and concentrate really hard"--his tone became somber--"that's what happened to my dad."
Muffy shook her head in disbelief as she tried to wrap her imagination around what C.V. had admitted. "I still say your powers are evil," she said accusingly. "They're only good for hurting people."
"And striking terror into the hearts of evildoers," C.V. boasted.
"Shut up!" bellowed Muffy, her eyes livid. "You're not a superhero! If you're anything at all, you're a supervillain!"
No choice of bitter words could have shocked C.V. more...
----
Desert, desert, desert. Odette craned her neck this way and that, but all she could see through the sun-scorched windows of the airport terminal was endless, flat, empty desert. Not even a clump of sagebrush was visible. Who would want to live in such an unwelcoming place? she wondered.
Half an hour remained before their flight was scheduled to depart. Mrs. Cooper, her mother, sat peacefully in a plastic chair, reading the local newspaper. THREE MORE MUTANT JACKRABBITS FOUND, read the headline. A few seats from her Augusta Winslow had twisted herself into a lotus position, apparently in a state of meditation. Odette had walked back and forth past the bookstore, the souvenir shop (with its allegedly genuine fragments of atomic shell casings), and the few fast-food joints several times, but had seen nothing remotely interesting.
Maybe this was a good time, she thought. Ever since leaving Elwood City she had been intrigued by Augusta's claims to (and demonstrations of) magical powers. Her mother had shrugged it off as mere parlor tricks, which perhaps it was, yet they were the kind of exciting tricks she would love to perform if she only had a parlor.
She seated herself next to the blond rabbit woman and cleared her throat. "Hey, Augusta, I was wondering..."
She didn't get to finish her sentence, as Augusta's cell phone suddenly rang.
"Hello? Oh, hi, Rick." Augusta's face lit up. Odette had heard her speak much about Rick Portinari, the handsome and personable psychiatrist with whom she was enjoying a passionate relationship. Rumors had circulated that the man was a space alien in human guise--if so, then a perfect companion for the eccentric Augusta, thought Odette.
"They had sealed off April's cell for what they claimed were reasons of national security," Augusta blathered into the phone. "But I exerted a little bit of my girlish charm, and they were like hot butter in my hands. Uh, I mean putty."
Odette noticed that the rabbit woman didn't unfold her legs while talking on the cell phone. She knew she had to be really bored to notice such things.
A split second later, she was anything but bored.
A ripple of electricity spread through the swan girl's body and up through her neck, causing the feathers on the back of her head to stick out. She had scarcely noticed this oddity when a sudden, intense, noiseless burst of light surrounded Augusta. It lasted only a moment, and then her magical friend was gone, cell phone and all.
Odette screamed involuntarily.
Mrs. Cooper whirled about in her chair. "Odette! What...?"
"A...A...Aug..." the astonished girl stammered.
Augusta had vanished completely, and in mid-sentence. Odette frantically waved her neck in all directions, scanning the small terminal for the woman, but in vain.
Where had she gone?
