"So, why the meeting?" asked Phil. He was still sitting in the chair by
the birds; his feet were propped up onto the coffee table.
"Just keep waiting," Michelle ordered. She sat on her piano's bench, plinking a few keys idly.
"Why?" asked Melissa, reaching for some more chips as she sat on the floor, "What're we waiting for?"
"Holly and Geordie are coming," answered Mike, "I told them to come by 3:45."
Mike sat on the couch nearest the windows. He tried to keep facing away from the others, as his eyes were bright pink from the pop that sprayed into them. Adam yawned and glanced at his watch.
"Why a full group meet?" Adam asked lazily. He was sitting on the couch with his hands behind his head.
"For a full group announcement," answered Michelle slowly. She was playing Fur Elise on the piano, and couldn't do much else than listen while making music. Doing three things at a time was a bit of a hassle to her.
"Why?" persisted Phil as he refilled his cup with more Pepsi.
"You wanted a meeting, Phil. I read your mind and you were going to request one," said Adam.
Michelle heard a car come into the driveway, and automatically closed the piano lid and ran to open the front door. Looking outside, she saw Holly and Geordie climb out of a van, and grab two bikes from the back. Faintly, she heard Holly say, "Thanks Dad," before following Geordie up the driveway.
"They're here?" popped up Adam from behind her.
"Yeah. Hey Humus!" Michelle called.
"Yo! Nutmeg!"
"Hi Geordie!" called Adam.
"Whatever," Geordie mumbled as he half-heartedly waved.
"He seems cheerier than usual," said Michelle quietly to Adam.
{Yeah. He actually almost waved,} agreed Adam in her head. Melissa pushed her way through Adam and Michelle and stepped outside.
"What're the bikes for?" Melissa asked.
"Holly's dad was our ride here, but he won't be able to drive us back home," answered Geordie.
"Yeah. Later we're biking back to my place and Geordie's folks'll pick him up there. They think we're doing a science project," grinned Holly.
"Hurry up," said Michelle, making a shooing motion with her hands towards the inside of the house, "You can leave your bikes 'round back."
Geordie came into the house and took a seat in a chair beside Phil. Holly came in and tried to sit down in the chair in front of Michelle's family's computer.
"Whoa!" she yelled as she jumped up.
"Whoa!" echoed Melissa.
"Wha.?" started Adam.
"Huh?" went Geordie.
"What happened?" asked Phil.
Holly turned and looked questioningly at the chair. The air around the chair shimmered, and suddenly Gordon appeared.
"Holly, I'm sure you remember Gordon," said Michelle calmly.
"You go invisible?" Geordie's voice went up a few tones.
"Yeah!" Gordon grinned broadly, nearly showing his molars.
"Hah! You pushed me at school, didn't you?" exclaimed Melissa.
"Well, yes. But it's not my fault! You stopped suddenly."
"Welcome to the Mutant's Club, also known as, The Group, Gordon," Phil greeted, shaking Gordon's hand, "You are our eighth official member."
"They're taking it calmly," Michelle said to Mike.
"Yeah. I'd expected more shock," agreed Mike.
"Well, since we all got mutations, other people's mutations are become a little more expected now," pointed out Adam.
"That's true," agreed Mike.
"Show 'em what else you can do," prompted Michelle.
Gordon immediately jumped up and touched the ceiling. His fingers stuck, and Gordon easily pulled up his feet, which were bare, as everyone noticed. He calmly crawled across the ceiling, like Spiderman, and crawled down a wall expertly headfirst.
"Not bad," commented Geordie, "I'm calling you Spiderman from now on, ok?"
"Sure, why not?"
"But now for our announcement," jumped in Melissa.
"Hey?" asked Michelle.
"Actually, it's more like announcements," corrected Phil.
"Right," said Melissa.
"What is it?" asked Adam.
"Come outside," said Holly, "We'll show you."
All eight friends stepped outside. They saw that while Holly and Geordie had put their bikes away, Holly had blown together three piles of dry grass clippings.
"Sorry," Holly said, "I thought there'd be just three of you to show this to."
Skilfully, she controlled the wind to blow some of the clippings from each pile for form a fourth one.
"Ok, the deal is," explained Melissa, "that during the grade 9 sleepover, we found out that mutations are sharable through me."
"Heh?" asked Mike.
"I think I get it," spoke up Adam, "You're a sort of.mutation conductor?"
"Exactly," said Melissa, "Through contact with me, Phil can teleport all of us, we ourselves can share Holly's weather control, they all could heal automatically, and each of us could control fire and ice like Geordie."
"Could I see?" jumped in Michelle. She latched onto Melissa's elbow, and added, "Geordie, could I try your mutation?"
"That's what Holly set out the grass clippings for," said Geordie, "When each of us tried my mutation, the fire and ice came out coloured differently. My fire was blood red, while Phil's fire was green, Melissa's fire was really sharp, light blue, and Holly's fire was orange. Also, my ice was nearly white ice blue, Holly's was pinkish, Phil's was slightly green, and Melissa had dark blue. Now we wanna know what colours you guys have."
"Cool, huh?" smiled Holly.
"Oh yeah!" agreed Michelle. Mike touched Melissa's other arm, Adam and Gordon touched her shoulders, and Geordie touched her head.
"I feel used," commented Melissa, and received two simultaneous pokes from both Adam and Michelle.
"Ok," said Phil, "Mike, aim at the pile furthest left; Michelle, you aim at the pile furthest right. Adam, you go after the one nearest Michelle's, and Gordon, you get that last one. First use fire to light the grass; then put the fires out with your ice."
Mike was first to try. His fire was a strange shade of purple, like a black light. Then Michelle let her fire go, and it turned out to be golden, like burning sunshine. Gordon's fire turned out to be dark blue, and Adam had the exact shade of fire as Michelle, golden.
"That's an interesting coincidence," said Holly to herself.
"Try the ice now," urged Geordie.
"Yeah. And quick, before my house burns down," added Michelle.
Four lines of frost appeared, almost synchronised. Mike had light blue ice; Gordon had an orange tinge to his frost. Once again, Michelle and Adam had the same colour frost; theirs was clear, that looked like water until it hit something, and then crystallised.
"Just some funky coincidence?" said Melissa.
Adam and Michelle both glanced at each other, then at their hands.
"Maybe not," said Geordie, "Since when did mutations make mistakes? It's the mutated that make the mistakes, and I know for a fact that you can't control you fire or ice's colours."
"I wonder if there's some hidden meaning," said Mike quietly. He looked at Michelle, then Adam. Holly, Phil, Gordon, Geordie and Melissa couldn't help but think that he seemed jealous.
"Our group has a love triangle," thought Phil to himself, "Great. Just what we don't need. This could get in the way of our investigation. Oh c%@*!"
"Our other thing!" Phil nearly yelled.
"That can sooooo be taken wrong," said Geordie.
"Oh! That's right!" exclaimed Melissa, then added, "Come on inside! Back to the living room."
The group rushed to the room, and each sat down. Michelle sat between Adam and Mike on the couch, Melissa sat on the floor nearest the chips, Phil and Geordie sat in their chairs, Gordon sat by the computer, and Holly sat on the piano bench.
"What is it?" asked Michelle. Phil took a deep breath.
"Ok," began Phil, "You know during the sleepover? Before the whole fire/ice thing, we were all on MSN. We were talking about our surveillance on Scott and Matt, and then Geordie and Holly mentioned something that seems important. Holly?"
"Geordie and I saw Scott walk to where we think is Matt's house to deliver a sack. Something in the sack moved, and we're pretty sure it's something alive."
"Wait, wait, wait," interrupted Adam, "Alive as in what? Plant or animal.or person?"
"Ok, it wasn't a plant, or a person. Scott was able to carry the sack in one hand, and what Holly here means to say, is that the movement was kind of like something trying to get out. We think it's an animal," finished Geordie.
"But why and animal?" asked Mike, "It could have been a gift or something."
"Sure," said Holly, "But explain the fact that Scott was.kinda shifty-eyed. He kept looking back as if to see if he was followed."
"He could have felt self conscious about the sack," offered Michelle.
"Or maybe he heard you guys following," added Gordon.
"No. Holly kept the wind flowing toward us, and made sure that a few dry leaves blew along the ground, so Scott couldn't have heard us. And we hid pretty well."
"Why do we need to know what it is again?" asked Adam.
"Hey. They were abusing their powers before, remember?" reminded Michelle, "And since we seem to be the only ones that know this, it's kind of our responsibility to make sure that they don't hurt anyone. And I'm curious, too."
"You're getting all this, right?" Mike asked Gordon.
"Yeah," Gordon nodded, "Michelle filled me in on this the morning after the sleepover."
"So, how do we get in there?" asked Holly. She looked expectantly at Geordie, Adam, and Phil, then added, "Come on. Strategic schemes seem to be one of the very few things that you three are good at."
"I resent that," said Geordie.
"Well, I could-" started Michelle.
"No! You will not go in there by yourself as the wind!" commanded Mike, "And Gordon, you are not going in there alone either. Let's make it a rule not to go into anything alone, or just two people. Three people minimum. That way, if someone messes up, someone else with different skills or a different gift can fill in for them to fix the problem. And you'll each be able to watch each other's backs."
"Will this mean that I'll have to go into every mission?" asked Melissa.
"Whoa! Hold on!" interrupted Adam, "Don't say mission! You make this seem huge! And from what we know, this could be just a wild goose chase."
"I don't think you'll need to go on every mission," said Michelle slowly, "Whenever Mike and I morph, whatever we're holding morphs with us. It's like, um, a sort of morph equivalent to what the person's really holding."
"So?" asked Holly.
"Well, I think that maybe if one of us morphers comes in contact with another person, the non-morpher would change as well. It works with everything else, so why not this?"
"Also, say Gordon and Melissa both go invisible. When Melissa makes herself visible again, but isn't touching him, then will she lose that invisibility quality?" asked Adam, "And what if Melissa, Gordon, and say, Holly all go invisible. If Gordon goes visible, will the others lose it too? And what about the conductor, Melissa? And with the fire/ice thing, if Geordie, Melissa, Gordon and Holly all come together, and all go invisible, and all let go, will the fire/ice control, as well as the healing and weather mutations still hold up, so long as there's the invisibility bond?"
Melissa got up and put her arms out for people to take.
"There's only one way to find out," she said, "Gordon, Holly, and Geordie, get over here."
"Try that last one with invisibility first," suggested Michelle, "That way, if it works, then we'll be able to test all the other questions too."
"I have a request," announced Gordon.
"What?" asked Phil.
"Could you do morphing instead of invisibility, and telepathy instead of fire and ice?" Gordon asked, "That way, we'd be able to see what's happening, and I'd be very afraid of the house burning down with random flames popping up everywhere."
"That's true," said Holly, then turned to the couch saying, "Adam, it'll have to be you of course, but Nutmeg and Mike, which morpher?"
"Um, I'm more practised," said Michelle, standing up, "So I'll go."
Michelle, Adam and Holly all touched Melissa's arms.
"So first we morph, huh?" asked Michelle.
"Roger," confirmed Holly.
Michelle took a deep breath, and then concentrated on morphing into a form she knew best; a grey kitten. The air around all four, linked friends shimmered, and soon four identical grey kittens appeared in a pile on the floor.
{Who's got their paw in my mouth?} growled Holly.
{Yeah? Well, who's chewing on my ear?} countered Melissa.
{That's not a paw! That's my tail!} corrected Adam.
The others saw one cat wriggle out of the pile before turning around and separating the other kittens will the ease of someone with much practice. It must have been Michelle.
{Ok, that's enough!} Michelle ordered, {Melissa, get off the table, and Adam and Holly, both of you stop trying to scratch each other's whiskers off!}
All three other kittens obediently sat down on the floor side-by-side across from the kitten that appeared to be Michelle.
"Kitty!" exclaimed Phil, and tried to pick up a kitten, only to be hissed at.
"How can you tell who's who?" asked Geordie.
"In the morph, you can just tell," answered Mike, shrugging, "I think it's the actual animal part of you when you're in its form."
{Now what?} asked Michelle, and she twitched her tail so it pointed towards Adam, {What should we test first?}
{Well, we're not in contact with each other, so lets try using each others mutations, but not our own. Telepathy's kind of pointless to test, but we could try Holly's.}
{Melissa, you jump onto the windowsill and make it rain on one specific spot,} said Michelle.
Melissa did so, and it worked; one square foot of grass was drenched.
{Mwahahahahaha! I am Morwen! Evil witch-cat of the storm!} Melissa cackled.
"Ok, so we know that we don't need to be in contact, so long as we have some sort of bond mutation-wise," affirmed Gordon, "Now what about if the conductor demorphs?"
Melissa jumped off the windowsill, and stood a bit away from the other cats.
{How do I do this?}
{Concentrate on the form that you wish to become. Think about your physical features,} said Michelle in her best 'meditation guru' voice, {Be the you!}
"What?" asked Mike.
{Nothing.}
Melissa easily demorphed, but wobbled a bit, as if she weren't used to just two legs anymore.
{You ok?} asked Holly.
Melissa nodded as she sat down on the floor. There were still three cats on the floor, looking none the worse.
"I have an idea," said Geordie, "Melissa, try to morph back."
Melissa concentrated, trying to change form, back into a cat.
"It's not working," she said, confused.
{Michelle, you demorph,} Adam suggested.
Michelle was a human again in a second, sitting on the floor as if nothing had happened. Adam and Holly, however.
"Whoa!" exclaimed Adam, trying to maintain his balance standing.
"I'm me again!" said Holly, swaying a little.
Holly forced herself back to the piano bench, while Adam stumbled around the coffee table and collapsed onto the couch.
"You ok?" asked Michelle.
"Did switching weight distribution from four feet to two seem hard to you at first?" Adam asked.
"Yeah. But I've had practice, so I'm used to it. Mike still needs a bit of work though," Michelle smiled, "He usually just morphs birds, since they have two legs."
"Couldn't you have warned us ahead of time?" gasped Holly.
"I forgot!"
"Ok, ok. Now we know that the whole bond thing is dependent on the person, who really has the 'bond mutation,' right?" asked Gordon.
"Right," said Adam, "So we can assume that if the bond is a morph, the morpher who started it all needs to remember that whatever form they take, everyone else will take, unless the other people have demorphed already."
"What about the 'mutation equivalent' thing," asked Phil, "We should test that out too."
"Why now?" asked Michelle, "Is it really so urgent?"
"We should know now, so that we can weave it into my plan if it works. It could come in handy," said Geordie.
"You're coming up with something?" asked Michelle excitedly.
"Yeah, but there are some details to work out," answered Geordie, "So test the 'equivalent' thingy now!"
"Ok, who wants to morph into something? It's the person's choice," added Michelle, standing up.
"Me!" said Phil. He put a hand on Michelle's arm, then said, "Go red tabby!"
Michelle concentrated on morphing them both, but the air only shimmered around her, and she ended up the only red tabby in the room.
"What went wrong?" asked Phil, disappointedly.
{I don't think there was enough physical contact,} answered Michelle. She demorphed, and took both Phil's wrists, but again, only she morphed into a cat.
{This is so depressing,} said Michelle, {I'm failing. I might have to hug you, Phil.}
"EEW!" he yelled, and sat down quickly, "Hug someone else. Hug Mike."
"But I can already morph," Mike pointed out.
"NO GIVES!" yelled Geordie.
"NO GIVES!" echoed Gordon.
"I'm done with morphing for now," said Melissa.
"Me too," agreed Holly, "My legs need to recuperate.
"Here, I'll try," said Adam, shakily standing up, "I'll be a blue budgie."
Michelle demorphed and helped him to the centre of the room. She gave him a hug,
and while holding him, concentrated on making them both blue budgies. The air slowly shimmered around them both, and eventually there were two identical budgies standing on the floor in the centre of the room, save for the colours of their beaks.
"Hey! It worked!" exclaimed Phil.
"Hey, what's up, Michelle?" asked Mike.
The female budgie on the floor was swaying a bit.
{Could.I.please.demorph.?} she said quietly.
{Sure,} said Adam.
Michelle and Adam appeared as humans again, but Michelle looked pale as she stood, slightly swaying.
"Nutmeg! Hey! What's wrong?" said Holly, worried.
"She doesn't look too good." said Gordon.
The room whirled around Michelle, and the floor seemed to tilt.
".Michelle?." came Adam's voice from a long way off.
".tired." Michelle forced out before everything went black.
"Just keep waiting," Michelle ordered. She sat on her piano's bench, plinking a few keys idly.
"Why?" asked Melissa, reaching for some more chips as she sat on the floor, "What're we waiting for?"
"Holly and Geordie are coming," answered Mike, "I told them to come by 3:45."
Mike sat on the couch nearest the windows. He tried to keep facing away from the others, as his eyes were bright pink from the pop that sprayed into them. Adam yawned and glanced at his watch.
"Why a full group meet?" Adam asked lazily. He was sitting on the couch with his hands behind his head.
"For a full group announcement," answered Michelle slowly. She was playing Fur Elise on the piano, and couldn't do much else than listen while making music. Doing three things at a time was a bit of a hassle to her.
"Why?" persisted Phil as he refilled his cup with more Pepsi.
"You wanted a meeting, Phil. I read your mind and you were going to request one," said Adam.
Michelle heard a car come into the driveway, and automatically closed the piano lid and ran to open the front door. Looking outside, she saw Holly and Geordie climb out of a van, and grab two bikes from the back. Faintly, she heard Holly say, "Thanks Dad," before following Geordie up the driveway.
"They're here?" popped up Adam from behind her.
"Yeah. Hey Humus!" Michelle called.
"Yo! Nutmeg!"
"Hi Geordie!" called Adam.
"Whatever," Geordie mumbled as he half-heartedly waved.
"He seems cheerier than usual," said Michelle quietly to Adam.
{Yeah. He actually almost waved,} agreed Adam in her head. Melissa pushed her way through Adam and Michelle and stepped outside.
"What're the bikes for?" Melissa asked.
"Holly's dad was our ride here, but he won't be able to drive us back home," answered Geordie.
"Yeah. Later we're biking back to my place and Geordie's folks'll pick him up there. They think we're doing a science project," grinned Holly.
"Hurry up," said Michelle, making a shooing motion with her hands towards the inside of the house, "You can leave your bikes 'round back."
Geordie came into the house and took a seat in a chair beside Phil. Holly came in and tried to sit down in the chair in front of Michelle's family's computer.
"Whoa!" she yelled as she jumped up.
"Whoa!" echoed Melissa.
"Wha.?" started Adam.
"Huh?" went Geordie.
"What happened?" asked Phil.
Holly turned and looked questioningly at the chair. The air around the chair shimmered, and suddenly Gordon appeared.
"Holly, I'm sure you remember Gordon," said Michelle calmly.
"You go invisible?" Geordie's voice went up a few tones.
"Yeah!" Gordon grinned broadly, nearly showing his molars.
"Hah! You pushed me at school, didn't you?" exclaimed Melissa.
"Well, yes. But it's not my fault! You stopped suddenly."
"Welcome to the Mutant's Club, also known as, The Group, Gordon," Phil greeted, shaking Gordon's hand, "You are our eighth official member."
"They're taking it calmly," Michelle said to Mike.
"Yeah. I'd expected more shock," agreed Mike.
"Well, since we all got mutations, other people's mutations are become a little more expected now," pointed out Adam.
"That's true," agreed Mike.
"Show 'em what else you can do," prompted Michelle.
Gordon immediately jumped up and touched the ceiling. His fingers stuck, and Gordon easily pulled up his feet, which were bare, as everyone noticed. He calmly crawled across the ceiling, like Spiderman, and crawled down a wall expertly headfirst.
"Not bad," commented Geordie, "I'm calling you Spiderman from now on, ok?"
"Sure, why not?"
"But now for our announcement," jumped in Melissa.
"Hey?" asked Michelle.
"Actually, it's more like announcements," corrected Phil.
"Right," said Melissa.
"What is it?" asked Adam.
"Come outside," said Holly, "We'll show you."
All eight friends stepped outside. They saw that while Holly and Geordie had put their bikes away, Holly had blown together three piles of dry grass clippings.
"Sorry," Holly said, "I thought there'd be just three of you to show this to."
Skilfully, she controlled the wind to blow some of the clippings from each pile for form a fourth one.
"Ok, the deal is," explained Melissa, "that during the grade 9 sleepover, we found out that mutations are sharable through me."
"Heh?" asked Mike.
"I think I get it," spoke up Adam, "You're a sort of.mutation conductor?"
"Exactly," said Melissa, "Through contact with me, Phil can teleport all of us, we ourselves can share Holly's weather control, they all could heal automatically, and each of us could control fire and ice like Geordie."
"Could I see?" jumped in Michelle. She latched onto Melissa's elbow, and added, "Geordie, could I try your mutation?"
"That's what Holly set out the grass clippings for," said Geordie, "When each of us tried my mutation, the fire and ice came out coloured differently. My fire was blood red, while Phil's fire was green, Melissa's fire was really sharp, light blue, and Holly's fire was orange. Also, my ice was nearly white ice blue, Holly's was pinkish, Phil's was slightly green, and Melissa had dark blue. Now we wanna know what colours you guys have."
"Cool, huh?" smiled Holly.
"Oh yeah!" agreed Michelle. Mike touched Melissa's other arm, Adam and Gordon touched her shoulders, and Geordie touched her head.
"I feel used," commented Melissa, and received two simultaneous pokes from both Adam and Michelle.
"Ok," said Phil, "Mike, aim at the pile furthest left; Michelle, you aim at the pile furthest right. Adam, you go after the one nearest Michelle's, and Gordon, you get that last one. First use fire to light the grass; then put the fires out with your ice."
Mike was first to try. His fire was a strange shade of purple, like a black light. Then Michelle let her fire go, and it turned out to be golden, like burning sunshine. Gordon's fire turned out to be dark blue, and Adam had the exact shade of fire as Michelle, golden.
"That's an interesting coincidence," said Holly to herself.
"Try the ice now," urged Geordie.
"Yeah. And quick, before my house burns down," added Michelle.
Four lines of frost appeared, almost synchronised. Mike had light blue ice; Gordon had an orange tinge to his frost. Once again, Michelle and Adam had the same colour frost; theirs was clear, that looked like water until it hit something, and then crystallised.
"Just some funky coincidence?" said Melissa.
Adam and Michelle both glanced at each other, then at their hands.
"Maybe not," said Geordie, "Since when did mutations make mistakes? It's the mutated that make the mistakes, and I know for a fact that you can't control you fire or ice's colours."
"I wonder if there's some hidden meaning," said Mike quietly. He looked at Michelle, then Adam. Holly, Phil, Gordon, Geordie and Melissa couldn't help but think that he seemed jealous.
"Our group has a love triangle," thought Phil to himself, "Great. Just what we don't need. This could get in the way of our investigation. Oh c%@*!"
"Our other thing!" Phil nearly yelled.
"That can sooooo be taken wrong," said Geordie.
"Oh! That's right!" exclaimed Melissa, then added, "Come on inside! Back to the living room."
The group rushed to the room, and each sat down. Michelle sat between Adam and Mike on the couch, Melissa sat on the floor nearest the chips, Phil and Geordie sat in their chairs, Gordon sat by the computer, and Holly sat on the piano bench.
"What is it?" asked Michelle. Phil took a deep breath.
"Ok," began Phil, "You know during the sleepover? Before the whole fire/ice thing, we were all on MSN. We were talking about our surveillance on Scott and Matt, and then Geordie and Holly mentioned something that seems important. Holly?"
"Geordie and I saw Scott walk to where we think is Matt's house to deliver a sack. Something in the sack moved, and we're pretty sure it's something alive."
"Wait, wait, wait," interrupted Adam, "Alive as in what? Plant or animal.or person?"
"Ok, it wasn't a plant, or a person. Scott was able to carry the sack in one hand, and what Holly here means to say, is that the movement was kind of like something trying to get out. We think it's an animal," finished Geordie.
"But why and animal?" asked Mike, "It could have been a gift or something."
"Sure," said Holly, "But explain the fact that Scott was.kinda shifty-eyed. He kept looking back as if to see if he was followed."
"He could have felt self conscious about the sack," offered Michelle.
"Or maybe he heard you guys following," added Gordon.
"No. Holly kept the wind flowing toward us, and made sure that a few dry leaves blew along the ground, so Scott couldn't have heard us. And we hid pretty well."
"Why do we need to know what it is again?" asked Adam.
"Hey. They were abusing their powers before, remember?" reminded Michelle, "And since we seem to be the only ones that know this, it's kind of our responsibility to make sure that they don't hurt anyone. And I'm curious, too."
"You're getting all this, right?" Mike asked Gordon.
"Yeah," Gordon nodded, "Michelle filled me in on this the morning after the sleepover."
"So, how do we get in there?" asked Holly. She looked expectantly at Geordie, Adam, and Phil, then added, "Come on. Strategic schemes seem to be one of the very few things that you three are good at."
"I resent that," said Geordie.
"Well, I could-" started Michelle.
"No! You will not go in there by yourself as the wind!" commanded Mike, "And Gordon, you are not going in there alone either. Let's make it a rule not to go into anything alone, or just two people. Three people minimum. That way, if someone messes up, someone else with different skills or a different gift can fill in for them to fix the problem. And you'll each be able to watch each other's backs."
"Will this mean that I'll have to go into every mission?" asked Melissa.
"Whoa! Hold on!" interrupted Adam, "Don't say mission! You make this seem huge! And from what we know, this could be just a wild goose chase."
"I don't think you'll need to go on every mission," said Michelle slowly, "Whenever Mike and I morph, whatever we're holding morphs with us. It's like, um, a sort of morph equivalent to what the person's really holding."
"So?" asked Holly.
"Well, I think that maybe if one of us morphers comes in contact with another person, the non-morpher would change as well. It works with everything else, so why not this?"
"Also, say Gordon and Melissa both go invisible. When Melissa makes herself visible again, but isn't touching him, then will she lose that invisibility quality?" asked Adam, "And what if Melissa, Gordon, and say, Holly all go invisible. If Gordon goes visible, will the others lose it too? And what about the conductor, Melissa? And with the fire/ice thing, if Geordie, Melissa, Gordon and Holly all come together, and all go invisible, and all let go, will the fire/ice control, as well as the healing and weather mutations still hold up, so long as there's the invisibility bond?"
Melissa got up and put her arms out for people to take.
"There's only one way to find out," she said, "Gordon, Holly, and Geordie, get over here."
"Try that last one with invisibility first," suggested Michelle, "That way, if it works, then we'll be able to test all the other questions too."
"I have a request," announced Gordon.
"What?" asked Phil.
"Could you do morphing instead of invisibility, and telepathy instead of fire and ice?" Gordon asked, "That way, we'd be able to see what's happening, and I'd be very afraid of the house burning down with random flames popping up everywhere."
"That's true," said Holly, then turned to the couch saying, "Adam, it'll have to be you of course, but Nutmeg and Mike, which morpher?"
"Um, I'm more practised," said Michelle, standing up, "So I'll go."
Michelle, Adam and Holly all touched Melissa's arms.
"So first we morph, huh?" asked Michelle.
"Roger," confirmed Holly.
Michelle took a deep breath, and then concentrated on morphing into a form she knew best; a grey kitten. The air around all four, linked friends shimmered, and soon four identical grey kittens appeared in a pile on the floor.
{Who's got their paw in my mouth?} growled Holly.
{Yeah? Well, who's chewing on my ear?} countered Melissa.
{That's not a paw! That's my tail!} corrected Adam.
The others saw one cat wriggle out of the pile before turning around and separating the other kittens will the ease of someone with much practice. It must have been Michelle.
{Ok, that's enough!} Michelle ordered, {Melissa, get off the table, and Adam and Holly, both of you stop trying to scratch each other's whiskers off!}
All three other kittens obediently sat down on the floor side-by-side across from the kitten that appeared to be Michelle.
"Kitty!" exclaimed Phil, and tried to pick up a kitten, only to be hissed at.
"How can you tell who's who?" asked Geordie.
"In the morph, you can just tell," answered Mike, shrugging, "I think it's the actual animal part of you when you're in its form."
{Now what?} asked Michelle, and she twitched her tail so it pointed towards Adam, {What should we test first?}
{Well, we're not in contact with each other, so lets try using each others mutations, but not our own. Telepathy's kind of pointless to test, but we could try Holly's.}
{Melissa, you jump onto the windowsill and make it rain on one specific spot,} said Michelle.
Melissa did so, and it worked; one square foot of grass was drenched.
{Mwahahahahaha! I am Morwen! Evil witch-cat of the storm!} Melissa cackled.
"Ok, so we know that we don't need to be in contact, so long as we have some sort of bond mutation-wise," affirmed Gordon, "Now what about if the conductor demorphs?"
Melissa jumped off the windowsill, and stood a bit away from the other cats.
{How do I do this?}
{Concentrate on the form that you wish to become. Think about your physical features,} said Michelle in her best 'meditation guru' voice, {Be the you!}
"What?" asked Mike.
{Nothing.}
Melissa easily demorphed, but wobbled a bit, as if she weren't used to just two legs anymore.
{You ok?} asked Holly.
Melissa nodded as she sat down on the floor. There were still three cats on the floor, looking none the worse.
"I have an idea," said Geordie, "Melissa, try to morph back."
Melissa concentrated, trying to change form, back into a cat.
"It's not working," she said, confused.
{Michelle, you demorph,} Adam suggested.
Michelle was a human again in a second, sitting on the floor as if nothing had happened. Adam and Holly, however.
"Whoa!" exclaimed Adam, trying to maintain his balance standing.
"I'm me again!" said Holly, swaying a little.
Holly forced herself back to the piano bench, while Adam stumbled around the coffee table and collapsed onto the couch.
"You ok?" asked Michelle.
"Did switching weight distribution from four feet to two seem hard to you at first?" Adam asked.
"Yeah. But I've had practice, so I'm used to it. Mike still needs a bit of work though," Michelle smiled, "He usually just morphs birds, since they have two legs."
"Couldn't you have warned us ahead of time?" gasped Holly.
"I forgot!"
"Ok, ok. Now we know that the whole bond thing is dependent on the person, who really has the 'bond mutation,' right?" asked Gordon.
"Right," said Adam, "So we can assume that if the bond is a morph, the morpher who started it all needs to remember that whatever form they take, everyone else will take, unless the other people have demorphed already."
"What about the 'mutation equivalent' thing," asked Phil, "We should test that out too."
"Why now?" asked Michelle, "Is it really so urgent?"
"We should know now, so that we can weave it into my plan if it works. It could come in handy," said Geordie.
"You're coming up with something?" asked Michelle excitedly.
"Yeah, but there are some details to work out," answered Geordie, "So test the 'equivalent' thingy now!"
"Ok, who wants to morph into something? It's the person's choice," added Michelle, standing up.
"Me!" said Phil. He put a hand on Michelle's arm, then said, "Go red tabby!"
Michelle concentrated on morphing them both, but the air only shimmered around her, and she ended up the only red tabby in the room.
"What went wrong?" asked Phil, disappointedly.
{I don't think there was enough physical contact,} answered Michelle. She demorphed, and took both Phil's wrists, but again, only she morphed into a cat.
{This is so depressing,} said Michelle, {I'm failing. I might have to hug you, Phil.}
"EEW!" he yelled, and sat down quickly, "Hug someone else. Hug Mike."
"But I can already morph," Mike pointed out.
"NO GIVES!" yelled Geordie.
"NO GIVES!" echoed Gordon.
"I'm done with morphing for now," said Melissa.
"Me too," agreed Holly, "My legs need to recuperate.
"Here, I'll try," said Adam, shakily standing up, "I'll be a blue budgie."
Michelle demorphed and helped him to the centre of the room. She gave him a hug,
and while holding him, concentrated on making them both blue budgies. The air slowly shimmered around them both, and eventually there were two identical budgies standing on the floor in the centre of the room, save for the colours of their beaks.
"Hey! It worked!" exclaimed Phil.
"Hey, what's up, Michelle?" asked Mike.
The female budgie on the floor was swaying a bit.
{Could.I.please.demorph.?} she said quietly.
{Sure,} said Adam.
Michelle and Adam appeared as humans again, but Michelle looked pale as she stood, slightly swaying.
"Nutmeg! Hey! What's wrong?" said Holly, worried.
"She doesn't look too good." said Gordon.
The room whirled around Michelle, and the floor seemed to tilt.
".Michelle?." came Adam's voice from a long way off.
".tired." Michelle forced out before everything went black.