ABBERANT WEIRDER STUFF: TRACING THE GOLDEN PATH

[Jeane]

Spoiler

This little stand alone novel was produced between Justin and I during one of AWS's lulls a month or so ago, and with a little alteration, still works today. Happy Posting all. 

Time: 12 Hours after the Quantum Battle of Canada

Place: A Basement storeroom in Irregular Solutions HQ

Jeane grunted as she shoved the heavy wooden crate across the floor, putting her full strength into shifting the container away from what was going to be her main practice area here and into what might become her indoor parkour course. With a final exhalation, she straightened and dusted her hands off, smirking as splinters that had tried to take root in her palms flecked off without so much as a pink indentation to their credit. Her PAM suit was back in the red-and-white configuration she had managed to wrangle into for the fight sans the scarf.

None of her other clothing fit.

There wasn't a mirror in this room, but she had spent enough time staring at the one in her quarters, at the blonde, looming Viking looking back at her from her reflection to be distracted anyway. Huffing in irritation, she slapped each cheek twice and got back to work shifting boxes. Sooner she did that, the sooner she could get to *actually* training. Stop the thinking about all of the headspinning revelations today by being too busy to think.

With her attention on what she was doing, Jeane failed to notice Abel's arrival. It wasn't until she'd nearly finished moving things around that he spoke. "I see you're not content to sit idle any longer. You're setting up an obstacle course of sorts, an enclosed training area. I thought perhaps you might want to test yourself against someone."

He wasn't quite used to looking up, but it was easy enough, not like she'd grown a foot and changed genders like Sean had. "Everyone else is occupied or resting, so it'll be just us." He was standing there in his own PAM suit, mostly black but with dark green and steel grey accents. He also had a belt, which seemed almost like Batman's utility belt with two cylinders hanging off of it, one to either side.

He looked so short. That was wrong, but she couldn't help but think it anyway.

"Sure. Can't know what I don't know until I test myself," she answered after a pause to collect herself, stretching out kinks more imagined than real, "How do want to start? Powers? No powers? Dos and don'ts? Key life balance tips? You're the teacher here."

"Well we can go slow to start, simple hand to hand, I want you to get used to the changes in your body some before you go running around and misjudge a height because you're not used to thinking through movements with your increased stature."

To emphasize his point he dropped into a lower guard position, Have already assessed her body, how it would move and could move, Of course he took some knowledge that enhancement might come into play, but he was more than certain in his own abilities.

"I want to see what you think you know, so we can find the best starting point."

Jeane nodded and settled into a fighting stance, protecting her face before moving to attack.

Her 'style' was dirty, street brawler, a lot of closed fist blows aimed at the body and the odd feint at the face. The quantum singing through her muscles was compensating for the gross difference in her size, but the way she moved telegraphed how used she was to being the physical underdog in a fight, having to fight inside an opponent's reach and sticking there long enough to get them down on the ground for a boot to the ribs. 

This was not that fight. And Abel was not that opponent...

"So you're a brawler," Abel was more a martial artist, but he'd studied many styles now, and gleaned the memories of people with countless others, looking to perfect his own fighting ability. He could see every one of her blows coming and moved out of the way of the blows, or in some instances simply bat her fist aside. Never did she see his calm waver, he was totally in control, even as he fought against her. He didn't go on the offensive, simply letting her try every attack she could think of, his defenses absolutely perfect. If anything, it really did let her see how her new body fought. "You're doing well enough, but you're still thinking like you're smaller than me. At this size regarding human opponents, you won't be smaller than anyone, you need to grow past that way of thinking, of fighting. Use your inherent reach advantage. You know from experience that letting someone smaller than you as close in as you've let me. Surely you realize how many times I could have countered you. Think about how you should be fighting me as you are now, not as you were."

Jeane stepped back and stopped attacking but kept her guard up, eyes working furiously, "Yeah. I'd have been bleeding on the ground if you were serious. Annnnd if normal limits applied to Keys... Kyle blasted me through a tree, and I wasn't hurt. And that leaves out every thing else that happened. Intensely weird as it is, my size is, like, the smallest problem I'm having right now..."

She nodded, squared up her shoulders, and stepped back into the fray.

The blonde daredevil tried to turn Abel's advise to practice, throwing in more of the moves she considered 'finishers': kicks, sweeps, and straight jabs that'd get her punched to the skull and out of the fight against anyone bigger. Took more risks, used more movement, now that she could try and hit him without being in immediate range of being hit. A frown danced on her lips, trying to maintain the gap that let her do that.

She was still telegraphing all her moves, but at least she was fighting outside her normal method. "That's better, but there's a lot of room for improvement, Jeane. You just don't seem all that comfortable," He frowned, "You can't fly, so you have to feel perfectly at ease in your body, just as you did before. Practice will certainly help with that, but you need to go beyond. You aren't who you were before you became a key, and now, you're so much more than when you'd first become enhanced. Think about that, push yourself to the limit. Hit as hard as you can as fast as you can, as often as you can. Come at me with everything you have."

"'Kay," Jeane exhaled, trying and not quite succeeding to shed the frustration at hitting anything but her target, "I've never seen, let alone fought, anyone half as fast as you are except for Apollo and I barely counted as there with Lilly playing sheepdog the whole time. But I'll try. That's what all this is about, the trying, right?"

She threw herself into the spar a third time, faster, harder, more aggressive. She could tank an exploding tree? So she'd sacrifice a bit of defense until Abel showed that he could hit harder than that. Hitting nothing but air? Push herself faster. Unarmed techniques just screaming how wrong everything felt and how she'd be stumbling all over herself without her powers on? Well, double down on the powers then. He'd all but told her too, right?

At the end of a flurry of fruitless blows, Jeane threw one more swing even as she fell back, too long even for her reach to connect. That arm was engulfed in red sparks and birthed a crackling pipe mid swing, fully materializing in time for a potential hit on Abel's ribs.

"I've been a key for almost three years now, Jeane, I have had plenty of time to develop my way of fighting, and finding my own way. Unfortunately I can't guarantee you that luxury in full, but I do promise to do all I can to help you.” He couldn't evade the attack, so he'd simply brought up his personal field, and he smiled. "That's better, but I can do something similar." Almost by magic, so fast was his hand, one of the cylinders form his hip appeared in his hand, and with a familiar sound, he ignited his own lightsaber, set on its weakest setting, so it wouldn't cause lasting injury.

Abel spun away, and held his saber in a high guard. "Come my young Padawan, show me what you can really do."

No way. Her powers on a stick? How was that even fair?! She vaguely recalled seeing that during the big fight but between everything else going on she had disregarded it.

Jeane scowled even a she dismissed the concept of fairness. Six months vs three years. Much as she'd like to, she was here to try and learn, not win. Not against an Irregular, not yet anyway.

"Uh huh. So reach is even more important with weapons than fists. Or am I wrong?"

She came in against Abel, crackling quantum pipe vs. Key-Tech miracle. The brawler in her style shown even more clearly with a weapon in hand, tempered with the hint of caution someone whose been tagged with a blade or three learns. Red lightning flared and crackled with each swing or thrust. A smile began to sneak it's way back onto her face even as she continued to hit air, executed a spinning retreat at the end of her latest flurry. 

"It can be, but with weapons you can get inside their reach depending on the type of weapon, and once an opponent is inside your defenses, it's usually over." He moved again and again, and seemingly breached her defense effortlessly. Then he withdrew, avoiding her flailing pipe. "Is that the only sort of weapon you can make? what about a chain? Still a melee weapon, but it gives you so many more options."

He smiled, "Look, I can feel your frustration, I don't need my powers for that. I should explain. Sean and I have always been nerds... so when another Irregular, Alec, actually had the power to create weapons of light, well, of course we studied it. Using is abilities and mine as the basis for research, we created weapons that could duplicate the effects reliably. You may meet him eventually, he was our original teleporter, and is currently at John Hopkins helping with medical research and healing those who go there."

On the ground bleeding again if Abel had been serious with that weapon. No, wrong. Near misses like that were even harder to pull off, and to do it so often... She sucked in a breath at how scary that level of control was, stepped back and settled down.

"Probably? When I reach for a weapon, the ones I'm most familiar with are 'closest'. I saved a friend's life with a non-sparky version of this pipe," the looming blonde mused, looking down at her weapon, "So it's only a row or two in whatever I'm looking for, but there are way more weapons I can 'See' than I can really describe. Sorry. Not smart, but maybe..."

She let the pipe disperse and looked inward, browsing through the well-nigh infinite array of killing implements at her disposal. It felt like half an hour before she found what she was after, but in real time, only a few heartbeats passed before a chain with a meat hook at one end appeared in her hands, "Something like this? Had to dig through a lot of stuff to find it. So many rocks..."

"It's a good choice in a situation like this, where you aren't that enclosed and have lots of open room. Do you know how to truly use it though?" His movements were almost like a dance, as he retreat then pressed the attack, The chain did give more options, it was just not something she was used to thinking about, so she had little practice.

"I can help you find the best weapons for you, I can show you how they're all used, and help you gain experience using them, so you can really feel what it's like. It's important to have many options. Certainly, you specialize in favorites, but with an entire quantum arsenal at your disposal, you should use more of it. It will keep your enemies guessing, which is always a good thing."

Jeane retreated in a circular motion away from Abel, getting the business end of the chain up to speed, every jangling motion engulfing her in red sparks.

"I'll." A skipping retreat. Getting her guard pierced anyway.

"Think." Swing and a miss from her and another of those 'it would be a hit if I wanted it to be' feints from the elder Key.

"About..." Building up speed again.

"It!" she shouted as she cut loose with an overhead swing that scoured the floor but failed to connect with her target at all. This was getting old, sweeping fog at it's finest.

She huffed bent over, out of emotion rather than any measure of exhaustion, gathering up the chain again, "I will, okay? Each and every one of them and whatever else my magic tumor gives me. I'll work my ass off with what's coming.”

"...When do I get my phonecall? The Airforce has to have magiked one to the colony by now, right?"

"To my knowledge, it won't be for a bit, yet. I promise though, when Prior gives the all clear, you'll get your call, and if I can arrange it you can even go see them, though you might want to prepare for that a bit."

"Don't call your node that. It's something everyone has, just few have the right coding for it to be unlocked. I know things have changed for you, and it's definitely going to take you some time, but don't focus on the negative. I do believe it to be important to enjoy the things you can do."

Her hands clenched to fists on her chain.

"Yeah, sure. I'll deal with them when I'm ready" she promised, unconsciously straightening to her full height and glaring down at Abel, tone very much 'street' as she forgot her physical helplessness before him for a few seconds of complicated anger.

The moment ended, and she relaxed, letting the chain flow between her fingers, "...Right. Positive focus. Lily dropped the node bomb on me yesterday, and I can't quite get the image of how Kyle's node fucked him up. Plus the screwed up thing Apollo did to the bear... That can't happen to natural Keys, right? Our powers hurting us?"

"No it isn't natural, but I want you to consider this. For a couple years, my only ability beyond an enhanced intellect was telepathy, and it was always on." He let her chew on what it was like to be in high school and knowing the thoughts of everyone around you.

"I've mastered the ability now, and it doesn't work that way, but I just want you to understand our abilities are our own. Both Sean and I can fight this way, but we both have different styles, and see our power somewhat differently. My ability to project a protective shield is different than Alec's. While we can generalize on some things, the quantum expression of our abilities are different."

"Kyle is a special case, as is Sarah, considering what they've been through. Don't worry about your family, All our families are together, so everything is fine."

"Fuck. Way to make me feel petty, but I'll hold you to that."

She forced herself to laugh once, pulling her chain taut once, twice, thrice to a crackle of sparks each time, "Right. So pushing my node smartly should make my powers better safely. Using more weapons will make me, duh, more flexible in a fight. And this key stuff is basically one of kind per key, so I should focus on doing me and improving that, wherever it takes me. No big."

"So, back to tag then? I got you once, but you've gotten me back once or twice through puuuuure luck," she drawled, bullshiting through her smile and not bothering to hide the fact.

He arched an eyebrow and then returned to his cool almost vacant expression, and then came in moving so fast she couldn't even follow it, literally batting away her weapon, even while holding his hand, his fingers like a blade to her throat.
"You are not petty, Jeane, you only know what you know. I have the benefit of experience and powers that let me know what others know. "

Jeane locked in place. There was a moment of total and complete animal vulnerability in her eyes, the freeze part of the survival triangle dominating every muscle as she tried to process just how stupidly fast that attack was. And failed acutely as she flashbacked to the burning insanity that had been the Apollo fight. How helpless she'd been then and was now.

She gulped once, not daring to move more than her lips to whisper, "...Sorry. Not coping too well with all this everything. A little angry with you for showing up and burning down my world, too."

"That wasn't my intention when I showed up." He left out how he'd given her a choice to walk, and she'd chosen to stay with them, "Still, I am glad you are here with us. Your actions prevented an entire town in Canada, if not more, worth of people from dying, that's a win in any book."

He withdrew back out to a normal distance, "Seriously, you have so much potential, and if I'm being honest, this isn't really testing all your abilities. I'd like to be able to do so, but we simply don't have that capability right now, so we work with what we have."

"I was going to keep doing what I did on weekends since unlocking, katas and drills and pushing my powers until I felt tired enough to stop at the end of the day, just ya know, *more often*. Like any other kind of exercise. Cuz that's what I know."

She paused, "What *would* we need to test my powers? Maybe James and I can make a run to wherever. In and out and fresh air somewhere new?"

"Well I have a place for us to do that, it just depends, mostly on what your abilities actually turn out to be. If the ability to grow to 90 feet tall is indeed one of your new powers, then we'd need a big area for you to practice in."

He shrugged, "Though if you do want to keep abilities secret, you can, we all have our secrets, I certainly won't begrudge anyone theirs."

Jeane had to snort at that mental image, smiling behind one hand, "It would be so Pete of Pete to leave me that kind of gift to go with all this. No secrets yet. I'm going to need all the help I can get mastering my node. No point in crippling my own learning this early."

Her chain evaporated into quantum lightning behind her with a boom, making her frown, "Ooops. Forgot about that. So where do we pick up from here?"

"I have a fairly good feel for how you fight, so we can stop with that for now, Perhaps you'd like to run the course you've made here, do something you actually enjoy. Run it a bit as you are then if you're up for it, I can throw in some new variables for you to try to deal with."  He gave her a knowing smile. "I bet I can add some things that you have never tried, but I'd like to see you run things normally first."

Jeane's grin was an answer in itself. She hadn't rolled with the codename 'Traceuse' because she happened to be French on her Dad's side and wanted to go there someday. Okay. That was true, but it wasn't the *only* reason.

"I'm really worried my form will be complete garbage when I damp my powers down," Jeane confessed as she took up a sprinter's pose aimed at the 'entrance' to her course, "Gymnasts get screwed up by three inches over a summer. But amped up? I got this. Totally cheating through it all."

She put word to deed, exploding into a run at the first obstacle, vaulting over the boxes on two hands without losing speed. She bounced off a wall after one, two, three steps on the vertical surface. The blonde daredevil lost a chunk of her momentum as she slid under a trio of boxes stacked to leave a gap for just that purpose. Eyes blazing with happiness, she came out of that in an upward lunge back into a sprint. A series of thinner boxes groaned slightly under her weight as she jumped on them like railings, beat for beat, joy in motion, a mistress of the air. And so on and so forth, quantum humming through her limbs as she surged and spun through the course.

But there was only so much area for boxes to be laid out, and with Abel waiting, Jeane resisted the surging emotions demanding she do the course nine more times just to be sure it all worked. She finished her run with a forward flip from one last ramp of boxes, coming down in the classic arms-up 'Y' dismount.

"I'm gonna need a camera for in here. I'm pretty sure I nearly screwed up a few times that run..," she thought aloud.

He nodded. I'll get you a few, so that you can see how you do things. I'm not a freerunner, so I didn't see any mistakes. Don't let my presence stop you though, keep running it, once you feel comfortable, then we can change it up."

A teenage girl played and was happy.

It didn't matter that she was suddenly 6'8, superhuman by most standards, and pulling off 'play' that would take years of practice to execute safely if at all but, Jeane was happy, stowing her worries away as she moved through the course again and again. The second run was slower than the first correcting for perceived errors from that run. Runs three, four, and five were faster, growing familiarity with the course enabling her to cut golden seconds from her completions, not that she needed a watch to feel the difference.

It was around this point that she remembered she had a silent, ever so perceptive audience for the first time as Key in her art, and with a laugh, Jeane got a little more flashy, sacrificing a touch of performance for the flare of flips and rolls and twirls that had her hair spinning out like a golden halo.

Abel watched her intently, studying how she moved, her facial expressions, everything that went into her running the course. When she finally started moving to her limit he smiled. "You can do so much more than you're used to.  Do you wish to continue, and maybe up the difficulty?"

"If you're done we can head to the mess hall, I imagine you're hungry after all that running. I know early on I ate like a horse thanks to my increased metabolism."

Jeane laughed, shaking her head, barely a sign of sweat making it's way past her bandana. A hundred-watt smile danced on her lips, "Nah. I'm good. Haven't needed to eat or sleep or breath with my powers on since the beginning. Would have freaked me out if my node didn't come with a mental instruction manual. How does that work, by the way? How does my power know more about weapons and how to use them than I do? Or used to. Whatever. It's weird.”

She waved her hand at the course, "Go ahead. Amp it up. Just put it all back when we're done, okay? Big, metal boxes are still heavy for me."

Abel reached out with his powers and began holding various things aloft, changing the course based on the movement she'd shown herself capable of, and then some of them began to move back and forth, and even spin at different speeds and along different axis. "As you wish."

Then he considered her question, "All our bodies know how to use our powers, intuitively. I haven't done too much research into it, but it holds true for all Keys, whether they know how to deal with the powers or not, that's more on them. There can be much deeper sources for our powers, I've seen some striking evidence of this, but at the same time, Sometimes they're just things we always wanted."

Jeane was quiet a minute, watching the course rearrange itself, mapping out a way through, thinking deeply on that and so many other things.

"Okay, now that's weird *and* scary," she confessed, uncrossing her arms, and dropping into the sprinter's pose again, "Don't like what that says about me if so many of my powers are about hurting people and people not hurting me. I was never in a fight that someone else didn't start. Dad would have my hide if I did."

"And I never really wanted to do some of thing things I can and have done, but so long as we have the powers, we should use them responsibly, and when possible innovate on their usage. Just doing this, with so many objects at once, in motion is more taxing on me than I'd care to admit normally, but we are both training here."

He got a laugh out of her for that comment as she braced for the sprint,, “So you DO have limits. Okay. I'm going on three, two...”

Just the Beginning

[Jeane]

Spoiler

Sean was kind enough to help me make a part 2 to this project, and I decided to the not clutter up the forum with a bunch of one shots.

 

Tracing the Golden Path II: Trace Harder

 

Time: Two weeks after the Quantum Battle of Canada

Location: Shelly, Montana

The sun hadn't peeked it's way over the horizon yet and she was going to be heading out alone, but that suited the newest Irregular just fine. She more than safe enough, and a good run was company enough. She bent over to make sure that her new shoes were securely laced up, tugged on her ponytail to double check it wasn't going to fall apart on her, and smiled in satisfaction at the wooded hills surrounding Irregular Solutions HQ.

Shelly itself was kind of... boring if she was honest in her heart of hearts, not that she would ever say it out loud to the rest of the team or anyone who lived here. If it wasn't for James and his portals, she might go a little stir crazy eventually, and no matter how much he said he enjoyed taking her to new places, Jeane felt guilt about tying him down.

But enough brooding. Shelly may have lacked a real free-running scene worth the name, but fellrunning was close enough to scratch her itch, and thanks to the infinite wisdom of Granby High School's principal, she was free of public education until the government came up with a solution it liked to educating her very select peer group. A final tug on her also brand-new hoodie as she straightened, and Jeane was off down the front steps of the HQ towards a small gate in the fence. She waved at a doo-dad that did God knows how many things as she approached and with a faint click, the gate unlocked.

The shadow of trees soon engulfed the tall blonde Key as she pounded along the path, letting the night sounds envelop her. Jeane never listened to music while she ran. Sure it had it's place in a dance studio or the shower, but out here? The world and her own heartbeat had all the pop artists of the world outclassed without a fight. She thrilled to her own footfalls, the faint exhalation of her breath, and the quantum singing through her veins, long strides devouring the distance towards the turn in the trail when her run would really begin.

The trail took a sharp left. Jeane kept going straight.

She vaulted over a fallen log, feeling lighter and stronger than she had ever felt in her life, leaves crunching when she hit the ground again. A feral grin lit up her face as she kept up her pace, over, under, around obstacles. A mountain stream forced the canopy to open and reveal the last of the fading star, wide and deep enough to force her to deal with it as a serious threat to the cleanliness of her acutely limited wardrobe. Jeane only grinned wider and quadrupled her speed in a burst of red lighting, a 6'8 tesla coil in motion.

The river may as well have been a sidewalk for all the trouble it gave her as she crossed it in one, two, three steps, sprays of sparks and splash marking each touch. She aimed for a treetrunk coming off the water, bouncing off it and off another to reorient her course south towards her destination for the morning. The quantum thunder ended, and she was merely very fast again, throwing herself at and over anything vaguely in her path. Jeane crested a rocky hill and slowed to a halt, shading her eyes against the first light of the sun, judging the miles and miles separating her from Shelly. Miles and miles of possiblites, that is, the best kind.

She closed her eyes and spun in place with a laugh, arms extended, counting down from 5 loudly to herself, stopping at '1'. Blue eyes locked along her left arm, pointing, ooooh, south by south-west? Didn't matter. She'd run until she hit the highway and then make it a sprint into town paralleling the road. Jeane Hebert didn't need to hide anyway, so she wasn't going to hide anymore. It was that simple and that wonderful.

A tragically short odyssey of adrenaline later, Jeane still was bathing in the afterglow of her morning run, sitting on the steps outside of the Shelby Public Library, eyes closed and leaning against a wall. She could hear the murmurs of a few inevitable gawkers, the occasional click of phone cameras. If they were up this early, this long before the library opened, she was inclined to let them be, even open her eyes and smile for a tourist or two. She didn't give a shit, glad they weren't scared of the giant Key even. Free country and all that, better than the snipers with rocket launchers she had expected two weeks ago...

Chuckling to herself, Jeane almost missed the clack of footstep coming towards her, a frown contorting her lips as she cracked first one, then another eye open, taking the guy in. late 20s. Black hair, short cut. Clean-shaven. Recognized enough of what he was wearing to see the money involved, but he didn't look over dressed for 7:02 am downtown Shelby. Fit.

“I don't do interviews. You want some clever sound bytes, call IS,” Jeane warned preemptively with a new smile, her 'I'm harmless, really' grin of lazy good-humor. She'd put a lot of work into that smile recently.

“Oh, I'm not here for an interview, Miss Hebert. Though I do want to ask you a few questions. My card,” he countered smoothly, pulling out his wallet and producing a card which he offered to her.

Jeane took it, read it, and looked back up at one Colin Wallis, Nike PR Department, tone dry, “I see. How can I help you?”

“It's cliché, Miss Hebert, but it's more how we can help each other. You're a new, or newly public, Key with, shall we say... a flare for athletics. My employers sell athletic shoes and apparel. They'd be stupid not to jump at the chance to work with you.”

The frown came back, blue eyes narrowing, “Why me? Basically anyone else on the team would be better at something like this. I'd like to think different but in all...”

Mr. Wallis cut her off with an upheld palm and a shake of his head, “I disagree. Some of the others have good looks that would make half of Hollywood murder the other half to acquire. But you have something almost all of them lack: freshness. Fluidity. A blank canvas. Their reputations are set, their myth in the public arena already carved. I can work with you to shape that lasting, important perception, Miss Hebert. A golden opportunity to...”

The frown deepened and Jeane levered herself to her feet to loom over the man, “I don't really care about that, and it sounds like you're insulting my friends, so if you could get to a point...”

“They're prepared to offer you a great deal of money, Miss Hebert, in exchange for very little of your time and you basically being yourself.”

The frown softened a little. Jeane was tired of having to turn around and ask the other Irregulars for money whenever she wanted to buy anything, “...Okay. How much money and how much time? I have things I need to do and people I need to be available to help.”

“The last thing Nike would want to do is curtail that, Miss Hebert. I can't give you exact figures here and now, but rest assured that it will be well worth your time. In fact I have a small something to demonstrate their gratitude just for you talking to me. Something a bit old fashioned for your generation, but something that makes a point, I'd like to think.”

Confusion slipped across Jeane's face as he took out his wallet again and pulled out a check inscribed with her name and handed it to her. $2,000. Just like that. Her college saving accounts fed by every birthday and holiday money gift that she received wasn't much larger than that.

“So you're just... giving me this? What if I say no and don't want to deal with you anymore?” Jeane was sure there had to be a hook there, a trick, a play at her expense much as she couldn't see it...

He laughed at her confusion, before stepping back and raising his hands, “The money is yours. All we want is a meeting at your convenience, Miss Hebert, to discuss further terms. You have my card. Call me when you've made a decision one way or the other.”

Jeane looked away and nodded her head slowly, taking in the gradually increasing foot traffic, “...Okay, Mr. Wallis. I should go. The team starts wondering where I am about now.”

“Go. I'll look forward to your call.”

She didn't need anything more than that, thoughts whirling as she pocketed the check and the card and broke into a jog for the outskirts of the town. Part of her was 'Ha! Take that, Mom! I do have marketable skills!', and the other was 'Oh shit. I'm not ready for this.'. But she knew people who were much smarter than her. A name absolutely flashed in her mind. Well, two main names actually, but she had been bothering Abel too much lately. And Sean had been pretty cool in helping her get a new wardrobe together once she was sick of living in her PAM suit all the time.

Jeane chuckled to herself and kicked up the pace back towards HQ. Hopefully Sean would have time this morning...

Jeane jogged back into the IS building, the short, squarish woman manning the front desk giving her a tolerant smile. After a few weeks, the towering blonde was a common feature about the innovation and consulting company headquarters.

"Good morning, Ms. Hebert. Have a good run, I take it?" Pam Rowland, the head office manager asked.

"Um, yeah, yes, I did, P- uh, Mrs. Rowland, thanks," Jeane said awkwardly. Pam Rowland was a pleasant woman, if you didn't get on her bad side, but she was a stickler for addressing people properly when on the job and Jeane wasn't sure if she ever seen not at Irregular Solutions. "Do you know if Sean - Savant - I mean, Ms. Cassidy is in already?"

Mrs. Rowland pursed her lips, faintly amused at Jeane stammering over names. "I believe Ms. Cassidy is in machine shop two, working on a personal project." Her grin widened as she craned her neck way up and caught the questioning widening of Jeane's eyes. "It's that way dear. Go straight, take a left, then..."

Being new, the Irregular Solutions Campus wasn't huge yet, but it was growing and Jeane repeated the directions under her breath as she walked. The place had the sleek, high-tech polish of Abrams' Enterprise or an Apple store, but it also held an industrial, workman-like aesthetic that made the place seem more approachable and functional rather than a set production. Tasteful plant-life and wood accents softened the edges.

Approaching the door to machine shop II, Jeane just making out whirring of tools under the blaring punk rock tunes of The Offspring. After a moment of hesitation about interrupting the improbably gorgeous super-genius, Jeane tentatively knocked on the door, then remembered an pressed the buzzer on the panel nearby, that flashed a light inside that could be seen when heavy tool use prevented hearing.

Then she almost slapped her forehead. Of course Sean would have heard the knock. She probably heard my footsteps from halfway across the campus. She had just started knocking when the music was turned down. A moment later, the door slid open with a soft hiss, retracting into the wall.

Sean was standing there and slipped out before Jeane had much of a chance to see anything over her head. Sean was dressed casually in relax-fit black jeans and a fitted olive tee with the Triforce symbol on it distorted by her dramatic curves. Her multi-colored hair tied back in a pinned up french-braid and she was cleaning her hands on a stained cloth. She made casual look really good.

"I'm surprised to see you so early, Jeane," Sean remarked idly. She knew Jeane's habits, but they didn't tend to cross paths this early in the day. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah..." Jeane muttered, giving the door and the door and what was behind it a sidelong glance. "What crazy, high-tech are you working on now?"

Sean chuckled, the glorious sound a warm, heady thing. "Nothing like that." Her lips quirk in a musing half-grin. "Well, not entirely true. Just a little something I'm working on for myself and as a surprise for Sara, something I want to take the time to build with my own hands. Don't worry about it," she urged, not unkindly. "Maybe I'll show you when I'm about done. But come now, you didn't come to see me at this time for no reason, or just to grab breakfast. What's up, Jeane?"

The idea of having breakfast had completely fled her mind after receiving the offer this morning. That bothered her, violation of a promise to remember the important things, the little anchors of the day. She was already

skimping on the sleep with everything she needed to catch up on... Press on. Focus on why she was here.

"I ran into someone after my run today in Shelly. Actually, he came looking for me, and had someone following twitter or whatever to see where I ended up. I *do* try to vary where I end my runs just in case," Jeane started out, crossing her arms over her chest as she rambled, "He worked for Nike, said they wanted a meeting and gave me 2,000 bucks just for talking to him. About PR and, I think, endorsement kind of stuff, lots of money, very little of my time bargain. That feels like slippery slope, deal with the devil, kind of stuff to me. Seen at least three or four friends get sucked in and drop off the free running scene that way, one favor at a time."

"I need the money though. Can't ask my parents for an allowance with having sent them to another planet and all. Don't want to keep owing you guys more and more for spending money *and* the roof over my head. Not right."

She fished out the business card and check, offering it to the elder Key, "I know your project in there is important, but could you help me figure if he wasn't lying to me somehow, what I should do, what not to do? I'd like to think this is honest, that this could get me things I need without taking too much from my training, but... No one's just walked up to me and given me that much money before..."

Sean chuckled and waved a dismissive hand. "What I'm working on in there isn't particularly important, except to me. Just meant for a surprise and for fun. Think of it as playing with Legos."

She accepted the card and nodded up at the taller girl. "I don't mind taking some time to help you figure things out with this, Jeane. Mind if we walk and talk? Most of the female Irregulars don't need to eat unless they want to, but I still do."

"No, no, of course not," Jeane said quickly. "I skipped breakfast this morning, I should eat something too."

Sean gave her a wry glance. They both knew it was a polite fiction. She started leading Jeane towards the parking, taking a glance at the business card, then pulling out the thin rectangular block of black glass that functioned as a smartphone and so much more.

She'd have provided Jeane with the funds to support herself of course, but she understood the need and desire to earn your way. To make it on your own merits and value, than on the largess of those you knew.

"First thing I'll say, people really will give you money just to be with you, to be associated with you, Jeane." She smirked wryly up at Jeane. "You're a very rare commodity. Despite what the media would have you believe, there still aren't many Keys, and even among us, you stand out in your own way, as long as you aren't at a WNBA game."

Sean was one to talk. She'd stand out unmistakably in a crowd of ten million. But it was true, Jeane stood head and shoulders over most women. "You ever get a... proposal like this?"

"Exactly like this? No, but similar, too many times. Some far more insistent, and crass. Marriage proposals and shocking amounts just for the night." Sean's lips tightened. It had been funny, in a shocking way, the first time. Not so much anymore, but recognizing the intent now, she could quell an offer like that with a glance.

"Modeling, shoes, cosmetics, fragrances, all the stuff offered to actresses and models. Microsoft and Apple both made offers. So did a small, boutique computer company. I'd be interested, if I wasn't involved in developing quantum computers." She glanced from her phone to arch a brow at the tall blonde. "I've been considering the offer from Playboy, just for the hell of it."

She nodded back at her phone. "Now glancing at his LinkedIn page, and other social media accounts, looks like Colin Wallis is on the up and up. His other clients seem to be doing well and haven't found any untoward negative comments or lawsuits filed against him."

She sighed and slipped her device back into a pocket. "The slope is as slippery as you allow it, Jeane. It's a balancing act on both your parts. You want money, maybe prestige. They want you to boost their image and push sales, but they don't - or shouldn't -want to alienate you either, but slaving you to a bad contract.

It won't hurt meeting with them, as long as you keep in mind that you can always walk away at that point. Consider how much time you're willing to allocate to this, and what you are willing to do. Are you fine with modeling swimsuits for beach volleyball and having the pics displayed on billboards and on the internet? Just an example, because y'know, your height.

They'll probably lowball at first, since you're new and not already famous, beyond being a Key. I'd strongly suggest you insist on a short contract to start, six months or a year, to see how it suits you - and them, I suppose - and then you can renegotiate. And also insist on a clause that'll give you an out. They'll put one in on their side, in case anything you get involved in might hurt their brand."

They reached Sean's car, a black, custom-made hybrid of a Jeep Cherokee and Dodge Challenger. Surprisingly, it was only a bit low for Jeane, but she had plenty of leg room. Maybe not so surprisingly, considering though seven inches taller, Sean's legs were about as long as hers. Sean started driving them towards Bunnee's.

"Now, if you want my advice on whether you should do this or not, well, it's entirely up to you. But from what I can see, it looks all legit. Just don't let them push you around, read everything they want you to sign, and

have someone else read it first too." She shrugged gracefully. "I'll do it, if you like, until you find a lawyer or agent for yourself."

Jeane rested her chin in one hand and looked out the window as they drove, thinking and trying to commit the flood of helpful information to memory before shaking her head, "Thanks for offering, but nah. I want to do

this meeting on my own now that I have an idea what to expect. Well, alone except for a good lawyer willing to work with a minor with only 2000 dollars to her name. Know any names you'd trust? The minor thing

wouldn't be a problem, would it?"

She chuckled and ran her free hand through her hair, "I *do* want some recognition for what I can do, what I am, far from any kind of wall flower. Heck, before Sam ruined everything... And please don't tell the others

this... I spent about two years learning ballet before the umpteenth move and the fights with Mom and the bullies and learning how to throw myself around buildings at full speed."

The tall blonde didn't quite know why she told Sean this, looking away as they skirted into Shelly proper.

"So most of you guys grew up here. It's really not what comes to mind when you think 'home of world saving heroes', much as there's a guy who sells t-shirts to that effect on 3rd and main street. Super tempted to buy some."

Parking at Bunnee's, Sean raised her brows in surprise at Jeane's admission of learning ballet, but not for the reason she believe. "Why would you be ashamed at admitting to practicing ballet? It's harsh, intense training,

but helps immensely with footwork and movement. Many professional football players - American and what the rest of the world calls football - take lessons. Own it." She climbed out of her vehicle and grinned at Jeane

over the roof, as the tall blonde exited on the far side. "That'll certainly raise eyebrows, someone closer to seven feet than six practicing ballet."

The two women crossed the parking lot, drawing every eye, if not to the exclusion of everything else. They were seen frequently about town, and one could grow accustomed to seeing a young woman as tall as Jeane or a woman as devastatingly attractive as Sean. Well, to some degree.

"As for a lawyer for your particular situation, I don't know one off hand, but let me make a few calls, 'kay? Being a minor..." Sean suck in a breath with a musical inhalation. "Technically, you would need your guardian's signature and permission. But there are ways to accommodate that... if you are willing. We could look into your emancipation or having a guardian ad litem assigned to you, for this specific circumstance. A guardian ad litem is someone assigned to you to look after your best interests."

Sean opened the door for Jeane, waving in the slightly younger woman with a mischievous grin and a slight bow, then followed her in, directing her to the Irregulars' regular booth. Sean  gave Jeane some time to peruse the menu. When Bunnee came around to get their order, Sean ordered a coffee and a plate heavy with eggs, sausages, and homefries., with toast.

After Jeane ordered, Sean leaned back, spreading her arms along the top of the booth and looked around the diner with a wistful smile. "Yeah, Shelly is home for most of us and it might be weird, but where would you suspect world-saving, world-changing heroes - if it's not conceited to call yourself one - come from? The Shire and the Lord of the Rings. The Two Rivers and the Wheel of Time. Hawkins, Indiana and Stranger Things. Tatooine and Star Wars. Big characters have come out of small places. Seems to me Shelly might fit in just fine."

"Haven't read or watched most of those so I'll have to take your word for it," she cheerfully confessed, giving the dinner a once over as well, "James has been showing me a lot of new places, introduced me to a lot of

people happy to say hi to a vistor. Most of them are less... used to Keys even if they're much bigger. Backwards from what I was expecting."

"I'll mention the ballet thing at the meeting once we sort out the lawyers. I'm no prima, but it was a great precursor to freerunning in general, Parkour in particular. And I don't have to work so hard to meet other people's definition of 'cool' now, do I? I loved my old friends, but sometimes they were really exhausting. I haven't tried talking to them since the Bear or checking the messages on my old phone. Freerunning's about doing your best alone *and* in a group and... I was kind of handicapping myself for six months, afraid of being alone, of them rejecting me if they knew how easy I could find our runs when I amped up."

"How did you handle it? The friends before and after?" 

"I was fortunate," Sean admitted as she stirred sugar and milk into her coffee with a soft clink of metal on porcelain. She took a sip and sighed. For a local diner, Bunnee's had decent coffee. "When I was unlocked as a Key, so were most of my closest friends. We had each other to talk to and share the experience with."

She glanced out the window, watching the ebb and flow of Shelly as she sipped at her coffee. She waved at a few passerby who waved at her, and even struck a smile and a pose for a photo. She turned back to Jeane. "As for the rest of my friends... well, things were different then. Very few knew about Keys and Portals and what all."

She pursed her lips with wry wistfulness and shrugged in a way that drew attention to her dramatic figure. "When I unlocked, I changed a great deal, physically, as I'm sure you're aware."

"I, um, kinda figured that," Jeane said awkwardly, faint blush on her cheeks. "I mean, if you had looked even a fraction so good more than a year ago, you'd have already been everywhere on the 'net and magazines and whatever."

Sean arched a perfect brow in mild surprise, her mouth quirking in amusement. "My changes were far more... extensive then suddenly being a hundred on a one-to-ten scale."

Jeane stared wide-eyed. If anything, she thought Sean was massively understating her ranking on the one-to-ten scale, but that wasn't why she stared. She licked her lips. "I... heard rumours, but.. but..." Her large hands rose up outlining an exaggerated hourglass figure that wasn't that much of an exaggeration in Sean's case. "There's no way they could be true."

Sean chuckled, a heartwarming, glorious sound. "Oh, they're true. I was boy until the day I was unlocked as a Key."

The booth creaked when Jeane leaned forward, mouth agape. Aside for looking like a particularly horny teenaged boy had dreamed her up, there was nothing masculine about Sean, besides an interest in STEM studies and video games, and those were hardly solely in the purview of boy and men anymore. Everything about Sean, from her unmistakable voice to her movements and gestures and expressions screamed woman.

"How? You have to be joking!" Jeane stammered.

"No joke."

Sean pulled out her custom smartphone and laid on the table. A long finger danced along the surface like a figure skater and a moment later, a small holographic image of Sean as she was now hovered above the phone. Then a second image joined the first.

Short and slim, Jeane at first thought it was also a girl, perhaps Sean's eleven or twelve year old sister... except her youngest sister, Laurie, had just turned sixteen. But a closer look revealed the figure was in fact a boy, if undeveloped and rather effeminate.

The turquoise eyes were the same, if far more lustrous and enticingly intense now. The delicate facial structure suggested they could have grown into those Sean possessed with several years maturity, if the figure had been a nascent quantum goddess instead of a boy.

"How?" Jeane repeated.

Sean shrugged, waving a hand over her phone and dismissing the holographic images. "I have a few hypotheses, but no definite answers. Before, I had a number of hormonal issues. Unlocking may have overcompensated in resolving those issues. Maybe in a fit of pique at being bullied and mocked for how I looked - and sounded for that matter - I wanted to rub it in their faces. Maybe a subconscious part of me thought it would be easier - better- if I was as female as I looked. Or it could have been an idle thought made real. Suffice it to say, it happened, and the metamorphosis was thorough."

She finished her coffee and set the mug aside to be refilled. "I don't regret the shift. Despite all that came after the change, or maybe because of it. Admittedly, the change included knowing everything I needed to know about being a girl, as though I had grown up one, though I still had to get used to being seen and treated like one.

I do regret some of what I did afterward however. Keys weren't known at large, and we couldn't exactly explain such a drastic and suddenly sex change. So we pretended I was my own cousin from out of state, that just so happened to have the same name."

Sean laughed again, shaking her head. "It was ludicrous, of course, but the fiction wasn't meant to last. People accepted it because anything else was 'crazy'. I met people I already knew for the first time again, and that changed the dynamics. I wish I had insisted on my honest in the first place.

How people reacted and interacted with me changed of course. When I revealed the truth, some were pissed, some understood. How your friends treat you will evolve, Jeane, it's inevitable. Some will be jealous of the personal power you now possess, some will be intimidated - or envious - of your new height. And some will be happy for circumstances, while others will barely treat you different at all."

Sean fell silent as their food was delivered and set on the table. They spent a few moments arranging their plates, adding condiments and seasoning, tasting a few things to make sure everything was satisfactory.

"If your are asking for my advice, I'd suggest you visit your old friends, unless you are set on cutting those ties and looking for something completely new." Sean frowned briefly, recalling accompanying another to visit old friends, which she believed had done him well. "Change isn't bad in itself, and depending on your friends, you might find out things haven't changed as much as you believe, in some cases. In others, well, you're tall and more than fit - expect people asking you to help them move and when and if you become famous, they'll start asking you for money. It'll be up to you how you respond to all that."

Jeane had to laugh to herself at the thought of helping people move being one of her problems, still reeling a little at the bombshell Sean dropped in her lap. How fortunate that there was a burger in front of her to keep her from putting her foot in her mouth again today.

Still Not the End.