It had been two weeks since Rhonda's metamorphosis. Life was starting to settle down into a pattern; first breakfast, then down to the lab for tests. So far, the lab's scientists had their hands full just figuring out her new body worked. X-rays were iffy at best, since she was now extremely resistant to radiation. With stethoscopes, they had managed to determine that she now had two hearts, and by sticking a needle in her palm (one of the few parts of her body that wasn't protected by scales), they were able to get a sample of the greenish-blue blood her hearts pumped. Other than that, all they had to go on were bits of hair, skin, feathers, and nails, and anything else they could use without cutting her open.
After the tests, she'd have lunch, then log on to her computer and work on the assignments that Mr. Packenham sent every day via e-mail, to make sure she didn't fall behind. Rhonda wondered if she'd ever be able to attend real classes again, then marveled at the fact that she actually missed having to go to school.
Her evenings were free, and were mostly spent availing herself of the institute's DVD player and Playstation 2, or reading whatever she could get her hands on. She'd never been much of a bookworm before, though she'd kept up a respectable GPA. But now, her mind sought out every bit of information it could. Since her change, Rhonda found that she could easily recall anything she read perfectly. Currently, she was working on volume 12 of the encyclopedia.
At this very moment, though, she was reading something a lot less interesting.
"X... G... H... Z... N... A... V... Q... P... T...."
"Unbelievable. That's perfect. Nobody EVER gets the lowest line right."
"Hey, you've never had a patient with three eyes before."
"Okay, now, follow the pen. Left, right, up, down..."
This is amazing, thought Dr. Metcalfe, staff ophthalmologist, as he watched Rhonda's eyes track the pen. Trinocular vision. 20/20/20. I could write BOOKS on this girl.
"Just make sure you get my good side, okay, Doc?"
"...good side?"
"Yeah, for my photo. In your book."
"But I didn't... I thought it, but..."
And so, Rhonda discovered that she was telepathic the same way she would eventually discover most of her other abilities... completely by accident.
***
News of Rhonda's telepathic abilities spread through the Institute quickly. Pretty soon, every doctor in the place wanted a chance to see for him- or herself. For her part, Rhonda was enjoying the chance to show off. She especially liked the expression on their faces when she would pull a little-known fact out of their minds.
"OK, Dr. Rousse, let's see... you're from New York originally. And your favorite thing to do while you lived there was walk halfway across the Brooklyn Bridge and watch the sun go down. Oh, and your childhood nickname, which you hated, was 'Booger.'"
"Amazing. Simply amazing."
"That's exactly what Dr. Adeoye told me when I told her she had a crush on The Rock. Show some originality!" she teased.
The doctor chuckled. "Now then, what nu—"
"Three hundred and twenty-six."
"And what col—"
"Chartreuse." She yawned. "Can I go yet? I'm getting bored, and I have to meet my mom for lunch."
"Very well.... but notify us immediately in the event of any other new developments."
"Will do!"
***
"Hello, darling. How did the tests go this morning?"
"Pretty good. I'm telepathic."
"Oh." Brooke tried to digest this information. "Does... that hurt?"
"No, mom. There's nothing painful about reading minds, unless you tap some vein of childhood trauma." Rhonda grinned. "It's pretty cool, actually."
"Well, that's good. I must say, you've taken this whole metamorphosis thing rather well." A little too well, thought Brooke. I've seen you throw tantrums when you get a pimple. Yet, when you turn purple and grow a tail, everything's fine in a couple of days? It doesn't make any sense.
If Rhonda had heard that particular thought, she didn't indicate it. She just shrugged and said "Yeah."
Brooke decided to change the subject. "So, have you spoken to that friend of yours yet?"
"Nadine? Um, well, I was just waiting for a good time. Like, say... graduation?"
"You shouldn't avoid her. She probably misses you a lot."
"Look, I'd love to talk to her, but I don't know how she'd react to all this."
"If it was her, would you want her to call you?"
A pause. "Yeah, I definitely would. I just don't know how I'm going to broach the whole species-change thing."
"You don't have to, if you don't want. I'm sure just hearing your voice will be nice."
***
A bored Nadine Harris watched her pet ladybug, Gladys, flit around her cage. Gladys had been the only insect in her collection that Rhonda could stand. "Now, there's an insect with some fashion sense. Polka dots are so in," she'd said at the time.
She missed her so much.
It had been nearly three weeks since Rhonda's collapse in the middle of class. Paramedics had carried her off, and that was that last she'd seen of her; a day later, she'd found out that Rhonda had been moved to some sort of advanced care facility upstate. Nobody would tell her anything else.
She wondered if she'd ever see her again.
Ring.
Was she sick? Was she dying?
Ring.
Would her last memory of her best friend be watching her collapse?
Ri—
"Nadine, it's for you!"
"Mom, I'm really not in the mood to talk to anyb-"
"It's Rhonda!"
Rhonda? Rhonda's awake and talking and calling me?
She ran down the hall as fast as she could, snatching up the receiver waiting in her mother's hand.
"Hello?"
"Nadine? Is that you?"
It was her! "Yeah, it's me! Are you okay? I was getting really worried!"
"Yeah... look, I'm sorry I didn't call earlier, but my condition's kinda... well, I'm probably gonna be all right eventually, but I'm not getting out of here any time soon."
"Oh... that's terrible."
"It's not so bad. The people here are pretty nice, and I've got access to just about anything I could want."
"Well, that's good. Hey! Why don't I come up this weekend?"
"Uh... I'm not sure that it's such a good idea, Nadine."
"Why not? Is your condition very contagious or something?"
"Yeah! Contagious! I'm very contagious! So, um... let's stick to phone and e-mail, okay?"
She's lying. "Okay, sure..."
"Bye!"
click
Rhonda was definitely trying to hide something. It sounded like she was almost... embarrassed to be seen.
That was it!
Whatever condition she has, it must have caused some kind of disfigurement. And Rhonda had always been concerned, to the point of obsession, with her looks. She's probably afraid that I'd think she was ugly or something.
As if I cared about that!
Maybe I should drop in on her anyway, show her that I'll be her friend no matter what. But then, what if she gets all mad and tells me she never wants to see me again? This whole thing's a minefield.
I need some advice.
***
"...so, what should I do, Arnold?"
"I think you already know, Nadine. I think you've already decided."
"Yeah. The problem is, I have no idea where she is other than 'upstate.'"
"Well... maybe Mr. Packenham knows. He's been sending her homework assignments."
"Think he'd tell me?"
"There's only one way to find out, isn't there?"
***
"I'm sorry, Nadine, but that's really not information I'm at liberty to give you."
"Aw, c'mon! I'm her best friend! You can trust ME not to give out that information, right?"
"Sorry, but it's really out of my hands."
"What if it was your best friend who had a disfiguring illness, and I knew where to find him? Wouldn't you want me to give you the information?"
The fifth-grade teacher looked torn for a moment. Finally, he sighed.
"Look, I shouldn't even be telling you this, but I have her direct e-mail address. It's rwlloyd@claremont.org. Find the organization associated with that domain, and you've found her."
Nadine practically hugged him to death. "Thank you! Thank you so much!"
"Don't mention it. Really. Don't say a word about it, I could be in huge trouble."
"Right. Mum's the word!" Nadine replied as she skipped out of the classroom.
***
"...so, any further progress?" asked Dr. Martinez as he idly cleaned his glasses.
"Well, in addition to the telepathy, she's displayed telekinesis and pyrokinesis," responded Dr. Rousse.
"And I've found that she can see in complete darkness," added Dr. Metcalfe. "No light at all. I thought reading the lowest line on the chart was impressive, but that..."
"We've been testing her strength," said Dr. Adeoye. "We were able to gauge her upper limit. She can bench about forty-five..."
"That doesn't sound too impressive. I suspect that forty-five pounds is around normal for a girl of her age, build, and conditioning."
Adeoye shook her head. "Not pounds, Javier. Tons. Forty-five tons."
Dr. Chapel let out a low whistle
"And that's at ten years old," continued Adeoye. "Imagine how strong she'll be when she reaches adulthood. It's a good thing she's been cooperative, because I seriously doubt we could hold her if she wasn't."
"What about her wings?" Chapel inquired. "Have you had the opportunity to see how well they work?"
"Not yet," replied Rousse. "We just don't have enough room inside the Institute, and if we conducted a test outside..."
"...she might be seen and cause a panic," finished Chapel. "You know and I know that she's a perfectly well-behaved girl and virtually harmless, but Joe Six-Pack's only going to see the scales, and the claws, and the barbed tail. Unfortunately, we don't have a cure for human stupidity yet."
"Gentlemen, ladies," interrupted Martinez, "This is all very important, but are we any closer to finding out why this happened?"
All the doctors shook their heads at that.
"Look, finding out what she can do is nice, but what we're really here to do is find the cause, and ideally, a cure. So, I want that to be ou-" Ring. "Excuse me."
He picked up the receiver. "Hello, Claremont Institute, Dr. Martinez speaking, can I help you?"
"Yes, yes, you can. My name is Brother Justin. It is very important I speak to the Chose-"
Oh great, some religious nut. "Sorry, I gave at the office. Bye now."
Click.
"Now, as I was saying, finding out the cause of Rhonda's transformation should be our top priority. I bet that if we just get one bump in the right direction, we can unravel this mystery."
***
"I must admit that I was rather surprised when you called. We don't ordinarily speak much."
"Yeah, well, I need a computer expert and you're the best in the school." Nadine replied as she entered Phoebe's media room.
The bespectacled girl blushed. "Well, I do possess something of a gift. In what way may I be of assistance? Did your hard drive crash? Do you wish my help in installing a new video card, perhaps?"
"No, nothing like that. What I was wondering was, if I gave you an e-mail address, could you pinpoint the physical place it came from?"
"Hmmm... a difficult task, to be sure."
"Oh... well, thanks anyway."
"I said difficult, not impossible. What's the address?"
"Claremont.org."
"Okay, then." Phoebe went to work. "Oftentimes, the simplest solution is the correct one. Let's see if there's a website associated with that domain." She entered the URL into the address bar in her web browser, and was rewarded with an "ACCESS DENIED. RESTRICTED SITE" message. "And, other times, the simplest solution is completely ineffective and the real solution's a pain in the neck. But, again..." she said as she started up her hacking programs, "...not impossible."
As she worked, Phoebe decided to satisfy her curiosity. "So... is this sudden interest in computer-related issues connected with Rhonda's mystery illness?"
Nadine nodded. "Rhonda called two nights ago. She sounded okay, but when I asked if I could come over, she got all evasive and said she was contagious. And I could tell right away she was lying."
"And, let me guess... you want to drop in uninvited."
"Y'huh. See, what I think is that she's scared the disease destroyed her looks. I wanna show her that I don't care about that sort of thing."
"Understandable. Were Helga in such a position, I daresay I would make the same effort. Rhonda is quite lucky to have a friend as go—Yes! I am IN! Boo-yah!" Phoebe shouted in trumph as she went into a victory dance. "Who da girl? Who da girl?"
"You da girl."
"Darn right. Here we are... The Claremont Institute. Located in Summer Valley, upstate. They specialize in... oh my... human genetics."
"Uh oh... that must mean that whatever Rhonda has, it's so rare that they need a crack team of doctors to figure out what to do."
"Perhaps it's a sign that you should stay away."
"Yeah, maybe. By the way, could you do me one more –"
"Bus schedule to Summer Valley? Already on it."
"Thanks, Pheebs!" gushed Nadine, hugging her. "You're the best!"
"So people keep telling me," said Phoebe with a grin.
***
"...and we will continue to root out our nation's enemies, by any means necessary!"
The president's address met with thunderous applause. Today, he had laid out his plan to conduct a series of "surgical strikes" on the rogue nation of Al Qaraysh. His approval ratings, already high thanks to the numerous successful previous strikes against the enemy (and never mind that ten civilians had died for every terrorist; can't make an omelet, right?), were now expected to go through the roof. Middle America loved nothing more than a guy who kicked butt and took names.
And so, the applause continued as he left the podium and returned to the White House.
The Attorney General was waiting for him as he entered the Oval Office. "Excellent speech, Mr. President," he said. "The crowd loves you."
"Well, gosh... I guess I'm just likeable."
The AG chuckled. "You sure are. I wonder what they'd think if they knew that you've actually been dead since before you even declared your candidacy."
The president, or rather, the well-preserved corpse currently posing as the president, returned the AG's chuckle. "That would be quite a pickle, wouldn't it."
"Then again... considering that my goal is to plunge the world into never-ending chaos, I guess a bit of hue and cry would be a good thing right?" He paused. "This human form is chafing a bit. Mind if I slip into something more comfortable? Of course you don't, you're my mindless zombie slave."
If the President had actually had a mind, he would've instantly been driven insane the moment the AG shed his outer skin and revealed his true form.
"Muuuuch better," said The Dark One. "Now then, it seems that our schedule's about to be accelerated. She has awakened."
"The Chosen One, you mean."
"The Chosen One, the Champion, the Child of Light and
Darkness, She Who Will Vanquish the Beast, yes, that's the one."
"Surely, this child cannot defeat you."
"But she can, my deceased friend. The Chosen One commands enough power to destroy me forever. We do have one distinct advantage, though." A twisted grin crossed what passed for the Dark One's face. "She's... get this... only ten years old. She's nowhere near full power, and has no experience using what she does have. So, if we strike against her now, she'll be, pardon the pun, child's play to defeat. Laugh with me, slave."
And the two laughed, long into the night.