I woke up, all sweaty and sticky. Fifth time that night. Recollections of what had happened two days earlier were haunting my sleep. I rubbed my face with a heavy sigh. Those nightmares were really starting to get on my nerves. I stared blankly at the ceiling for a while. Then I grabbed my cell phone and turned it on. There was a message from Phoebe, asking whether any of us was still awake. I was about to reply but it had been sent one hour and a half earlier already. I didn't want to risk waking her up if she had finally found a peaceful sleep.

I sat up and looked around. All was silent in the house. I stood up and stared at the street through my window. And suddenly I opened it. If I was going to have a sleepless night, I might as well make it worthwhile. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and muttered the formula, 'Mercury Power, Make-Up!'. Once, twice, and then over and over again. I was definitely transforming again that night. I had to find how I could do that in the first place. I had to be in control, just like I was on the uneven bars. I tried my best to focus, to discard the sound of the crickets and the chilly wind blowing on my face and the clouds occasionally concealing the waning moon from my mind – but after ten, perhaps fifteen minutes of concentration, I had to admit defeat.

I punched my pillow. Prince Erlan had told us our powers were triggered by specific formulae – but what if said formulae wouldn't do anything? And still, it had done something earlier that day. I couldn't transform but I had controlled gravity. For just a very short period of time, but it had definitely worked. So what? Obviously, there was a difference between my current approach, and what I had been trying to do in Sophie's barn, but I just couldn't nail it. On the first time, my life was in danger – and as Abiona had pointed out, if we were unable to find a safer method, it would make for hazardous training.

But I had no better idea at that time.

I pulled myself up onto the window's ledge and brought my toes on the brink of it. I stared down. I was just on the first floor, and though I could get harmed if I did jump, I also knew how to handle it so I could minimize the damage, down to some mere bruising. It just made it so that I wasn't feeling endangered at all. I was not going to jump if I could help it, but I wasn't afraid of the possibility either. I was too much of a monkey to be afraid of heights.

Then I heard hisses above my head. Cats fighting on the roof – great for concentration. And suddenly, either adversary dropped right on me, madly scratching at my face and hair. I tried to ward it off, but its sudden attack threw me off balance. Despite our long-term friendship, gravity was claiming my body while it was unprepared for her. This was going to hurt.

Some part of my brain still had the wit to call out the formula.

'MERCURY POWER, MAKE-UP!'

I landed on all four. I stared at the cat in utter surprise, realizing that my body had somehow found the same instinct as it. Also, I felt this overwhelming power flowing through me, like I had just awoken from a lifetime slumber. I took a look at my hands. My fingernails were silvery and shiny, pretty much like small blades of energy. I waved them at the cat and it instantly fled. I jumped after it. Turned out I was quite as fast. It ran off even more wildly, probably wondering what kind of a monster was chasing it. But I just couldn't help it. This sense of absolute freedom, to feel how strong and nimble I had grown in the blink of an eye – I just couldn't resist the urge to test it to the limit. How high could I jump to go after the cat? Well, two storeys. How fast was I able to run? At full speed, I would blow the cat's record, which I later got to know was about 30 mph. How many backflips was I able to chain up in a single leap? Three to five, depending on how hard I would try. And I was pretty sure I would be able to do even more with training.

I eventually decided to settle down in order to catch my breath. Yes, I was out of breath, but that was after deploying more effort than humanly possible in the first place, and I suspect it was more about the excitement than the effort anyway. I saw a train in the distance. I was able to see it in thorough detail, even though it was maybe a mile away. My hearing was incredibly sharp too. The Pegasian genetic engineering would enhance not only our performances, but also our senses. No wonder I would feel exhausted after spending a while in this state.

The train was traveling north, in the direction of Sophie's. This gave me an idea. I ran home to get the cube, and hurried towards the farm. Since I could move as fast as the bus, I would bring the Pegasian artifact to safety right away, as Abiona had suggested. I rushed through the town, running at an insane speed along the desert streets, jumping over the parked cars, leaping from one roof to another. When I think back of it, I have to admit, this was a rather careless thing to do, but I just couldn't help it. Fortunately, Shadows seemed to be sleeping tight that night, and no one saw me.

It took me only about fifteen minutes to get to the Bloom farm. There was a faint glow coming out of Sophie's window. She had to be still awake, just like me. I leaped silently onto the house's roof – which was like piece of cake at this point – and gently extended my arm to the window in order to knock at it. But before my hand had a chance to come in contact with the glass, a terrified shriek came from the inside.

Sophie! Calm down, for God's sake! It's me, Annabel!

There was a moment of silence. Then, light went on in Sophie's room. With my hearing enhanced, I was able to make out her mom's voice, asking what was going on. Sophie decided to go for the classical excuse of nightmares and all went dark and silent one again. A few moments later, the window opened quietly. I nimbly came inside and stood before my classmate, who was staring with eyes wide open.

'Annabel?' she mumbled. 'Y-y-you're-'

What?

'You look so… different!'

She grabbed her phone and turned on the camera. She took a few pictures, and then started recording a video. She led me to the mirror, and I was finally able to see my transformed self properly – not like the quick glance I had been able to take a few days earlier.

And, how right she was.

I could barely recognize myself. My hair was shiny silver, like metal, and I was wearing some sort of ballet dress – no, rather, a kind of sailor uniform. And I was glowing. My eyes, my temples, my fingernails, every last part of me seemed to be glowing, just like my normal self was an idle computer that had suddenly been turned on. I wasn't sure I had what it would take to be a super-heroin, but if anything, the looks were already perfect.

'You're buzzing,' Sophie noticed when she came closer to me. 'It's like you're… filled with electricity or something…'

That's about how I feel, to be honest.

'How do you do that?'

Do what?

I frowned at Sophie in bewilderment. I really had no idea what she was talking about.

'The mind speech. You're doing it- just like Prince Erlan did.'

Am I?

I realized she was right at the same time I was asking. I had been using mind speech all along, without even thinking about it. My lips had not moved an inch.

I don't know. It's just come to me naturally. I hope no one apart from you can hear me-

'I don't think so,' Sophie immediately said in a reassuring tone, 'Prince Erlan said he could talk to us privately. If you can use mind speech as naturally as you do, I suppose only the intended people can hear you too.'

I brought the cube, I suddenly remembered.

'Good, I'll take care of it early tomorrow.'

I suddenly felt terribly weak. My legs dropped and Sophie caught me right in time.

'Are you okay?'

'Y… Yes… don't worry… about me...'

Those were my first spoken words. And also my last.