I DO NOT OWN STARGIRL. A BIG SHOUTOUT TO ANIMALCRUNCH12 FOR BEING MY BETA AND AN EQUALLY BIG SHOUTOUT TO EVERYONE REVIEWED THIS STORY. IT IS ALWAYS HEARTWARMING FOR A WRITER TO KNOW THAT HIS WORK IS APPRECIATED.

FACE CLAIM

DR. PETER LANKTON- MR. DOUG LAWRENCE

SECRETARY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA AT OMAHA-LINDSAY RECKIS.

Blue Valley High School. The Next Day.

As Zach got on the bus, he was grateful he'd been able to get through the morning without any abuse from his Uncle Bob. Aunt Tonya had told him that Bob had called out sick at work and gone to Omaha for the day. So, he probably wouldn't be back until supper, which pleased Zach immensely. His day would get even better when he'd gotten off the bus and saw Courtney and her friends were waiting for him.

"Hey, Zach," Courtney greeted cheerfully, and Zach couldn't help smiling. "How's it going?"

"I'm doing good, actually." That surprised everyone in the group, especially himself.

"Really?" Yolanda asked as the group began walking into school together. "Courtney had told us about how your aunt and uncle aren't accepting of your gender identity."

He waited for Yolanda to say more, but it seemed Courtney hadn't told her friends about the physical abuse, and Zach was thankful to know she didn't.

"They're not. But my uncle was gone this morning, so that made it bearable." Courtney smiled at that, reaching for Zach.

"That is good news," Rick said as Courtney gave Zach's hand a friendly squeeze.

Yolanda's brows furrowed with disgust, spatting out, "He sounds like a real pendejo."

"What's a pendejo?" Zach asked

Beth Chapel jumped at the opportunity to show off her wealth of knowledge. "It basically means penis head in Spanish."

"Dickhead is more like it," Rick challenged.

Beth gave him a look, sagging her shoulders. Her voice laced with disappointment. "I was trying to avoid swearing, Rick."

"Dick is not a swear word. You're thinking of cock," Rick replied, prompting Beth to roll her eyes.

Courtney ignored her friend's bickering, turning to Zach. "I'm just happy that there's some distance between you and your uncle Bob. You don't deserve to be treated like he does to you."

"Short of the Earth cracking open and swallowing up him, my Aunt Tonya and my cousin Jacob..." Zach paused, having accepted the truth of his family a long time ago. "I have to put up with their bullshit just as much."

"I'm so sorry," Courtney whispered, reaching and squeezing for Zach's hand again. This time, Zach squeezed back.

"Thank you."

They stayed quiet for a moment, letting the heaviness pass by. Their other friends were still mindless bickering when Courtney cleared her throat to ask: "Anyway, how is the breast binding going?"

"It's going pretty good," Zach grinned. "It was a little tight at first, but now it looks like I have a regular flat male chest. It's just so freeing."

"I'm happy for you," Courtney grinned just as big as his, placing her arm around Zach, following their pack of friends for another day of learning at Blue Valley High School.


The University of Nebraska at Omaha. Omaha, Nebraska.

While his nephew Zach enjoyed his friends' company, Bob Bogumill traveled to Omaha with a sample of Tenebris. Earlier in the morning, he'd called his friend Peter and set up an appointment to look at the goo to try determining what it was.

After driving for over an hour, Bob had finally arrived at the Omaha chapter of the University of Nebraska. As he made his way across the UNO campus, the inky sample moved around like crazy in the glass jar it was held in. Somehow, Bob had managed to take a piece of Tenebris out of the Tupperware container he initially caught it in and put it into a glass jar. He arrived at the biology building, walking up to the reception desk.

"How can I help you, sir?" She was a blonde with thin lips and cerulean eyes, who looked no older than her early twenties. Probably a student of UNO.

Bob cleared his throat. "Yes, I have a ten A.M. appointment with Dr. Lankton."

"Oh, yes," she smiled, standing up. "Follow me, please."

She led him down a couple of hallways until they'd reached an office at the end, knocking on the door.

"Yes?" A gruff voice asked from the other side of the door.

"Dr. Lankton, your ten A.M. is here," she informed.

The door opened to reveal Peter. Dressed in a cable knit sweater and slacks, he was a medium sized man with brown hair.

"Bob, it's been a while," Peter smiled as the two men shook hands.

"Indeed, it has."

"So, you said you had something to show me?" Dr. Lankton asked, closing the door behind them.

Bob nodded, taking out the glass jar. "I found this in my backyard last night. I was hoping that you could shed some light on it."

Dr. Lankton took the sample, examining it closely under a microscope. He spent ten minutes observing the goo, his brows furrowing with perplexion the entire time.

"This is something else," Peter marveled. "I've never seen anything like it."

"Really?" Bob watched as the goo tried to crawl back over to him before Peter had trapped it in a microscopic glass sheet.

"It seems to like you," Dr. Lankton noted. He broke away from the microscope, pressing his lips together, staring at Bob intently. "Don't let any of it get on you."

Bob balked. "Why not?"

"Upon my initial glancing, it appears to have characteristics of a symbiote."

"A what?"

"A parasite. Which means it needs to bond with a host to survive," Peter explained. "Sometimes, these things in nature, when they bind with another, they can be nearly impossible to remove."

"Wow," Bob gasped. He couldn't believe such weird goo could possibly be capable of what Peter was describing.

"There's another thing that's fascinating me." Peter gestured to the microscope holding the small sample of space goo. "Its cells resemble those of a plant."

"I thought plants couldn't move."

"They can, via stimuli. But not like this thing. This can move freely without any motive other than it wants to," Peter hypothesized. "Which leads me to consider another concern of mine. Despite it having plant cells, it appears not to be able to photosynthesize."

"It doesn't take pictures?"

Peter sighed in frustration. "No. Photosynthesis is the process of plants taking in sunlight and turning it into energy, much like what we humans do with food and drink. It's how they grow. Except this thing doesn't do that!"

"That sounds insane." Bob shook his head. "How does that thing not need energy to grow?"

"Oh, no!" Dr. Lankton frowned. "It needs energy. A lot of it...but it doesn't get it from sunlight!"

"Well, then where does it get energy from?"

"I don't know exactly." Peter stroked at the length of his short chin. "It's definitely feeding off of something, but I don't know what. I'll need more time to take a look at it to fully understand, or maybe I never will. Still, going off of my first observation, I believe this thing... it could be otherworldly."

IS BOB IN DANGER? REVIEWS NEEDED AND APPRECIATED.