Author's Note: there will be some mild swearing in this chapter, just the word "crap". Thought I'd better warn you.

Anke's POV

We've just gone outside onto the lawn when a light-blonde-haired woman comes up to us. She's dressed in a short-sleeved, knee-length blue dress with a white belt, white tights, and black pumps. I don't recognise her.

"Sorry, but are you Hermes?" she asks in a very stark New Zealand accent.

Hermes nods. "Yes, that's me."

"Oh, great." The woman holds out her hand. "My name is Jayne Walker, I've been in charge of training the BTs for the last seven years now."

Hermes shakes Jayne's hand. "This is my girlfriend, Anke."

I give Jayne a lukewarm smile. For some reason, I don't like her. Maybe it's the slightly distrusting look in her eye, or the fact that she has a stunner (a type of gun that shoots stun pellets only) strapped to her belt when none of the other staff do.

"Truth is, I could do with your help," Jayne says to Hermes.

I don't like the sound of this.

"You have the ability to levitate objects, correct?"

I really don't like the sound of this.

"Yes, that's right," Hermes replies.

"Well, I'm about to move my group of BTs onto the hundred foot climbing wall, the one with no harnesses or proper handholds. And some of my trainees are…shall we say…a bit too enthusiastic. I'm worried they might try to go too fast or too high when they're not ready, so I wanted to ask you if you could stand at the base of the wall and catch anyone who falls or help anyone who gets stuck. Would that be okay?"

I fold my arms and narrow my eyes. "And what exactly would you have done if Hermes didn't have this very convenient power?"

Jayne gives me a surprised look, as if she can't understand why I'm acting like this. Hermes nudges me perceptibly. "It's all right, Anke," he says pointedly. "I'll do it."

Jayne smiles. "Thank you. I believe the group of recruits also includes your nieces, Paige and Lokie."

"So it's the older group?"

"Yes, but not the oldest group, which your older sister Quinn would have been in. That group is graduating early next year. I don't know why Quinn decided not to join OWCA, but she was clearly quite skilled."

Hermes's POV

Why did Quinn choose not to join OWCA? Literally everybody else in my family is in OWCA, so why is she not?

I put the thought to the back of my mind and follow Jayne across the lawn. Anke trails moodily after me. I give her a look and say, "You know, I'm not as oblivious as Teddy was when he took ages to figure out that Piper has a crush on him. I know you don't like Jayne. Why? She's nice."

"She always has her eye on that stunner of hers," Anke replies sullenly. "And even when she was asking for your help—or rather, your powers' help—she had a distrusting, almost scared, look in her eye."

"What's new there?" I ask. "She's just being cautious."

"She's annoying the hell out of me," Anke grumbles. "I'm going to stay as far away as possible from her."

"You don't have to come," I point out. "She only asked for me."

Even as I say it, I realise that that's part of the problem. Anke is just as capable at stopping a falling BT as me, but Jayne asked only for me. Part of Anke's problem with Jayne is probably a kind of bitterness because the latter only asked for my help. I'm just glad Jayne is human, because I really do not need to constantly remind Anke that she is my girlfriend, and nobody else.

"I can't leave you alone with that woman."

"Anke, you barely know her. At least refrain judgement until you know her better."

"Fine."

We get to the climbing wall. There's a group of about a dozen BTs standing around the base. Straight away, I see a purple-furred platypus and light yellow-furred platypus standing together: Paige and Lokie. They're both six years old now, but neither of them have lost the personalities I saw in them when they were three. Paige is feisty and confident, and Lokie is cunning and mischievous, just like her namesake.

We watch as Jayne explains the task, and then Paige and Lokie and a dog BT line up at the base of the climbing wall.

Lokie's POV

As soon as Jayne shouts "go!" I set off.

I'm not as fast as Paige, who has already overtaken both me and Pedro the Dog, but I try my hardest. I'm not quite scared of heights, but I am scared of falling, so I try not to look down. It's the most obvious thing in the world for someone afraid of either heights or falling, but sometimes the simplest task is the hardest.

I look down.

I immediately look back up and catch the jeering glance of Pedro as he hangs onto a foothold about two metres up from me.

"Your uncle is a freak," he sneers.

"Hermes is not a freak!" I snap.

I know I shouldn't have risen to it, but I couldn't help it. I hate people who make fun of my friends or family, and I couldn't let an insult pass.

"Then how can he lift stuff using his mind?" jeers Pedro.

Paige has climbed back down. "Are you talking badly about Hermes?" she demands.

"Maybe," grins Pedro.

I continue climbing until I'm ever-so slightly ahead of Pedro. I hear Paige growl, "That's nothing to grin about."

"He's a freak." Pedro sounds jubilant. "Freaks have the ability to do things others can't. And I'll prove it."

Before either of us can react, Pedro digs his claws into my tail and tugs. Not only do I get a massive cut along my tail, but his pull tears my paws off the wall. I scream as I begin my fifty foot drop. Paige reaches out for me but my momentum pulls her off the wall too. We both scream, until we find ourselves hung in mid-air. I twist round and spot Hermes in the centre of the crowd of BTs. His arm and hand are outstretched towards us, and two of the fingers on his other hand are pressed to his temple. He's using his powers to save us, but all I can hear is the chant of, "Freak! Freak!" that's coming from the other BTs.

Hermes's POV

As soon as my nieces are safe, I storm off inside, followed closely by Anke, who's almost in tears.

"You saw that, right?" I snap at my girlfriend.

"Yes, Hermes, I saw."

I draw my fist back and hit the wall, unintentionally using my powers, so that a crater appears in the white plaster, but the wall does not fall.

"Lokie isn't even related to me by blood!" I snarl at the wall, which is standing there, mocking me with its insistence to not collapse. "She's my brother's mate's brother's daughter. She's still my niece but she isn't even related to me by blood and she's getting that crap already! God only knows what kind of crap my siblings are getting."

"Hermes, calm down," Anke pleads. "This isn't helping."

I take a deep breath but I can't stop tears of anger coming to my eyes. "I don't care that people hate or distrust me. That's to be expected. Powers like ours are very new and very frightening to other people, I get that. However, it is not acceptable when a relative who doesn't even have any powers of their own is picked on simply for being related to someone with powers! That's unacceptable!" I punch the wall again, creating a smaller crater beside the bigger one. "IT'S UNACCEPTABLE!"

Anke grabs my shoulders, forcibly turns me around, and brings me into a hug. "I know," she whispers. "I know it's horrible. But you just need to accept that this is going to happen and you can't change other people. However, you can make sure that you respond to this prejudice in the proper way, which means staying calm and being non-violent. Okay?"

I take another deep breath and my voice comes out as almost a croak. "Okay."

All of a sudden, a very out of breath hyena comes running up to us, breaking us apart. It's Parker. "You're gonna wanna see this," he pants. "Hazel's laid the egg, except it's not what you think."

Anke and I exchange a look, before we follow Parker across the lawn and towards our house. When we get in, we find Hazel lying on the sofa with a blanket over her. Teddy and Piper are also there. "Did you find Mom and Dad?" Teddy asks Parker.

"No, but I got Hermes," pants Parker. "Oh, and his girlfriend. Sorry, I don't know your name."

Before Anke can tell him her name, Parker runs back out again. "Is Hazel okay?" I ask.

"She's fine," replies Piper. "She's just sleeping. She had a tiring labour."

"So she's laid her egg?"

Teddy and Piper glance at each other. "Yes," replies Teddy slowly. "But...how about you two just go to the incubator and find out for yourselves."

I lead Anke upstairs to the spare room that Apollo and Artemis used to stay in, though they have long since moved out. Now that our family is massive, we have a whole room that houses four incubators. Two are in use, which confuses me. Hazel is the only one who has laid an egg recently. Then I realise as I stare at the two light yellow eggs.

"Twins!" I say aloud. "Hazel's going to have twins!"

So we finally get to see Lokie! Aaaand that probably wasn't the first appearance you were expecting, was it? Also, what's up with Jayne? Is she hiding something? Or is she just being wary like everyone else? ALSO also, HAZELS HAVING TWINS!