Madam Marvelous: Chapter One -- BADGE POWER TRAINING 101 (Collaborative, if any new heroes want join in for testing purposes)

Catalyst leaned over the lab table and rested his chin on the back of his crossed arms as he studied the unusual black box found by Madam Marvelous in the arboretum. The exterior casing of the box was sealed and x-ray and Nth Dimensional scans revealed nothing of what was hidden within its interior. Even using his new Echo technology, where he used ultra-sonic waves to get a sound-scape picture of his target revealed very little. The material of the box was too dense to get a usable reading.

He was left with one option, and it wasn't a true scientists first choice, or their second. He needed to try to pierce the metal somehow and create an opening for him to investigate through. He stepped over to his toolbox and removed a sonic screwdriver, deciding to use it to make a sonic lance to cut into the metal's ultra-thick surface.

"What inside of you, little box?" Catalyst asked. "I not want to hurt you, so make it easy for me, OK?"

As expected, the box said nothing.

Having encountered the Avatar of Tech during his efforts to determine the capabilities of the heroes of the world, Catalyst couldn't help but think this device had a connection to the master of technology. But why would the Avatars leave things behind after the unknown military organization that kidnapped them? Was the box a clue to finding them or a trap left to deter the heroes efforts?

BADGE wouldn't know the answer until he did something. He prepared the sonic lance, using it to create a micron-thick blade to use to cut into the housing. Bringing the device within inches of the box, Catalyst paused and then turned off the lance.

"Maybe a few more tests, just in case..."

I went to the training area I was instructed to meet Gar in. It was a large room with hoops mounted to the ceiling at different heights, creating an aerial course. Gar was already in the air swooping through the obstacles like a pro-athlete.

"Come up. Join me," Gar said as he passed over me.

"OK," I said and then changed into a snowy owl. Spreading out my wide wings, I launched into the air and joined him.

"Follow me. We will take it slowly at first until you learn the course. Then, you will need to work on improving your speed each time." He dove through the first obstacle. I followed behind him as we worked our way through an elaborate path that forced changes in elevation and tested my ability to turn while flying. Flying looks easy to most people from the ground because you rarely see accidents happen. Trust me when I say misjudging a turn while flying can be far more painful than tripping and falling on a track.

The falling isn't actually that hurts. Falling can be fun. Colliding with the ground at 9.8 meters per second squared is not fun. Or however the equation goes. My dad tried to explain it to me once for a math problem from school. I try not to think of the math while in the air. I don't need the distractions.

After doing it a few times as an owl, I shifted to faster and faster birds. Eagles and hawks are both nice, but my all time favorite is a Peregrine Falcon. The course became even more challenging at the speeds I could move at while in that shape, but my smaller relative size gave me an advantage to Gar's wide wingspan.

I completed what I thought was a very difficult lap and started what I expected to be my last one when Gar shouted at me as he led me back to the start. "Let's take this up a notch."

The rings started moving and shifting in position.

Who said training would be fair?

    Futurina knocked on the door to the lab that Catalyst was using.  She knew he needed help.  She could provide.  He need only accept.  Krystal had directed her here.  Catalyst was incredibly intelligent, but also cautious.  That was with good reason.  She waited for him to answer.

    "Enter," Catalyst said still looking at the box.  "Hello, Futurina, how may I help you?"

    "Marcus, I'm here to help you," Futurina stated.  "You hesitate to try to open that box with good reason.  I am here to offer another way to find out who placed the box and possibly what it is there for."

    "How can you do that?" Catalyst asked.  He set the box down gently.  He looked at the elf woman with a critical eye.

    "With psychometry," Futurina explained.  "I would ask you to monitor what I see the same way you monitored myself, Astra and Fiona earlier this year when we did the Gestalt."

    "How will this help?" he questioned.

    "You will not be able to touch me once I begin my psychometric reading," she explained.  "That would disrupt what I see.  You would be able to see what I see at the same time by monitoring.  This would keep my personal feelings from coloring what I tell you."

     He thought for a moment.  "Agreed," He confirmed.  "I set it up in a few minutes."  He began to set up the equipment.

    After a quick set up with the equipment he placed the box in front of Futurina.  She picked up the box and activated her power of psychometry.  Her ice blue eyes began to glow.    

Gar finally landed and gave me an opportunity to rest. I gently set down on the floor next to him as a Peregrine Falcon and returned to my golden-haired girl form, still breathing hard from the final trip around the obstacle course. He didn't seem the least bit winded by the effort.

"Whew, sir. That was INTENSE." I said. "I've never flown as hard as that before."

"When situations are bad enough, it is important to know what limits we have, in mind and in body," Gar said. "There is what we think we can do and what our bodies are capable of doing. They are not always the same."

I nodded quietly.

"According to the space station security feeds, you were observed transforming out of my shape." Gar turned and faced me full on. "Why did you make yourself into a copy of me?"

I was shocked he knew. Was he mad? Did I hurt his feelings? "I'm sorry. I didn't think before I did that."

"It was strange to see myself walking in a hallway I wasn't walking in, but I am not upset. It is an interesting power you have. What was it like, being able to be different than you were created?"

What an odd question. I'd never thought of any one shape as being ME singly. "I don't know how to describe it. I think I've always known I could take different forms, so I don't think of any form being different for me. They are all me, I guess. Being you was really special, though. I could feel so much strength inside of you."

"Father gave it to me," Gar said with a hint of sadness to his voice.

"My father is pretty cool too," I didn't know much about Gar, but there were stories about him all over the internet, so I didn't know what was true or what was just idle talk. The sadness to his tone made me not want to ask more about the subject, so I decided to switch the conversation up. "What are we going to try out now?"

"I thought we could practice fighting, but I can't think of an animal that could be tough enough to not be harmed in a fight with me, and it would be weird to fight myself." Gar crossed his arms and set into deep thought. "Can you merge forms? Become part one thing and part another?"

"Not very well. Changing into things I can picture clearly is easy, but putting a, well..., for example a person and a squirrel together is hard." I frowned, frustrated by my inability to do just as he asked.

"Show me. It is another limit that may be in your mind and not in your body."

The thought was already in my head, so I pictured adding elements of a squirrel to my current body.



"Please don't judge me. I'll get better," I said. I could feel that this body wouldn't work right. The tail was too big and weighed me down. It took effort to stand and my face. Well, my face felt like I was made from a hard plastic mask. I did like my hair, although it lost most of its curl.

"We can keep practicing." Gar said.

I had to give him credit. He didn't laugh at me like I expected him to.

MMMMMMMMMM

Futurina saw a laboratory. The Avatar of Tech was restrained in a room by powerful magnets, a being entirely made from energy. Different components zapped and drew power from him. Components that lead to large computers connected to 3D printers. They created different items within the lab. Weapons. Armor. Devices with no obvious purpose. And the box before her.

It was a box. She could feel that it contained something, but since she couldn't touch it or see it, it didn't give her much to delve information from. She could sense danger from it.

She closed her eyes and concentrated, pushing for more information.

Death.

Destruction.

A trap. It was left as a trap. Opening it would spell only doom for all aboard the space station.

She opened her eyes and smiled, pleased she could garner useful information with her abilities.

My session with Gar ended after dinner began. He wasn't a shapeshifter, but it didn't matter. Something about talking with him left me feeling free to fail. His non-judgemental nature kept my from falling victim to my own doubts about my self-imposed sense of perfection.

"I've made many mistakes since awakening," Gar told me. "And my friends have too. This one friend, Quark, sometimes his powers don't work the way he wants them to at first. I have seen ducks of every color because of him." Gar laughed, and his light-hearted mirth made me laugh too.

"I wish you didn't have to go, Gar," I said to him. I didn't feel the need to call him Agent Gar or Sir, or be formal like I did with most adults. In a way, I felt like I was in the room with a kid like me, but one with a bit more insight into having powers and super-hero life. Over time, I hoped we would become friends. "This has been one of the best training classes I've been to."

"Really? I'm not a shapeshifter like you. I didn't think I was training you in anything. We were just talking and you were using your powers," He said. "I didn't do that much."

I smiled at him warmly. "Yes you did. I'm going to give you 5-stars in my Yelp review."

"Wow. 5-stars." Gar smiled. "What is Yelp?"

    Futurina turned to Catalyst.  "It's a trap.  Some sort of destructive device that will activate when opened," she explained.  "We need to disable and dispose of it."

    "We need to inform Director Nova," he stated and agreed.  "How do we disarm?"

    This puzzled Futurina.  This was technology she had never seen before.  She didn't know how it worked or how to disarm it.  She thought for a moment.  She had an idea.  She could use her power of psi-dar a psionic form of radar to map the inside of the box and use auto-draw to give a blue print to Catalyst.  This would give him the information on how to proceed.

    "May I have a pen and paper?" She asked.  Catalyst handed her both.  He was a bit confused.

    "What you need for?" He wondered.  "Putting a note on the box will not stop everyone."

    "That's not what I'm doing," she let out a small giggle at the thought.  "I'm going to use psi-dar and auto-draw to give you a blueprint.  You are far superior with technology than I am.  Maybe you can figure out how to disarm it."

The cafeteria was buzzing with activity. Everyone seemed thrilled for Japanese Hibachi night. I do have to admit, BADGE knows how to make the last night of their training seminars feel like a party. A DJ played music in a conference room across the main entrance and the music crept in just as the scintillating scents must have been heading in the opposite direction. I didn't see many of the other students who came up for the same reasons I did, but I wasn't surprised. Being younger than most of them sort of put me on the outside of their grouping.

I hoped I might run into Astra, Doug, and her mother while the evening went on, but I knew they would likely be busy as well. I was surprised I hadn't heard anything more from Ms. Fae, but she most likely was busy, busy, busy.

"It is a good thing you didn't try to open that box you found." A twenty-or-so year old young man sat down next to me. I recognized him from my mother's magazines. Alan Marcus, or Catalyst, of the Star Force. He nodded politely to the chef preparing the grill for our dinner. "I'm Catalyst.'

"Kitt'n," I replied and politely held out my hand. "Why is that?"

"Bad things would have happened. Let's leave it at that until BADGE sends out a formal report," he said. "Do you mind if I join you at your table here for dinner?"

"No. Please do," I said. He was nearly as famous as Ms. Fae. My mom talked about watching him grow up on TV interviews after his mother disappeared on a space mission. "We all have to eat, don't we?"

"I suppose you are right," he said and began to open a pack of chopsticks.

I stared at the fork in my hand. I'd never tried chopsticks, but if it was the way you were supposed to eat Japanese food, I probably wanted to learn instead of embarrassing myself with Alan next to me. I set the fork beside my plate and opened my chopsticks as well. I watched him closely as he put them in his fingers. My attempt to copy him was not as skilled.

"Have you used chopsticks before?" he asked.

"No," I said. "Mom says she has a hard enough time teaching me to eat with a fork. She said I would just hold my plate up to my face and Hoover everything in so I could go outside and keep playing."

He smiled. "I can teach you, if you would like."

"Please."

With that, he began giving me a lesson in physics and how to create a fulcrum point and apply pressure with my fingers to correctly to create a pincher. He was very detailed. A few minutes into his lecture, I looked around the room, really, REALLY hoping someone else would join us.
 

    Futurina walked into the mess hall.  She hadn't been there before but she knew the place like the back of her hand.  Her psionic powers made finding places and people very easy.  She was looking for Catalyst.  She had finished the blueprint.  She found him sitting with a young human woman.  She walked calmly over to them.
   
    "There you are, Catalyst," Futurina stated, "I've been searching for you."  She placed the blueprint upside down beside him.  she sat down beside him and turned her attention to Madam Marvelous sitting across from him.  She could feel a lot from her, empathy was strong, but emotions flow from youthful humans freely even if they block their thoughts.

    "Hello, I am Futurina," She introduced herself.  "Who might you be?" she asked though she knew the answer.  She did not wish to be rude.

    "I'm Madam Marvelous, but you can call me Kitt'n," Kitt'n replied.  "You're Astra's mom?  You don't look anything alike."

    "I adopted Keri," Futurina giggled, "she needed a new home and help adapting to her new form.  I'm glad I can assist her."  She could feel Kitt'n staring at her pointed ears and elven features.  "Yes, I am an elf.  I just don't have magic."

    "I didn't mean to stare," Kitt'n confessed.  "I've just never met a real elf."

    "Oh, you probably have," Futurina corrected, "They're all over the place, they just hide."

Krystal had approached the table quietly, and so far unnoticed... one did not always have to teleport to appear suddenly from seemingly nowhere.

Krystal said, "There are indeed Elves in the most unexpected places... Hello, Kitt'n... Hello, Theressolae...", then she both said and signed (ASL) "Good afternoon, Marcus..."

"Kitt'n, I have delivered my evaluation to Dr. Henderson... I was able to complete my evaluation of your transformative abilities from accessing the security tapes, and I find it to be quite adequate to allow your status to be upgraded to probationary field agent.", continued Krystal.

"Dr. Henderson and I agree that at some point in the future, we should get more in-depth with regards to your genetic variations."

"Have a pleasant flight back to the surface, and I'll see you again soon, I'm sure...", she concluded.

"Theressolae, you were speaking of the device to Marcus? Perhaps the three of us should make a report sooner rather than later...", she said, turning to Futurina and Marcus.

********************

As Kitt'n boarded the shuttle to return to the surface, she was slightly sad that she hadn't seen Gem again.

The un-docking sequence began, and she watched avidly through the viewport.

Kitt'n noticed something reflected in the surface of the thick glass. Gem's reflection was waving to her.

She turned quickly, but there was no one to see for at least 3 rows fore and aft.

"Bye, Gem...", she thought strongly, "... see you again sometime... I hope."

Probationary Field Agent. I couldn't believe it. While there were still long lists of precautions, obligations, and oversight to my journey as a BADGE agent, I couldn't help but to be thrilled at the news Ms. Fae shared with me.

As the shuttle slid into the Earth's atmosphere, I couldn't help but to wonder what would be next for me. My session with Gar helped me immensely, even though I knew there was much more practice to be done before I could develop my powers. Developing my ability to fully picture my alternate shapes would be an important part of that. I took out my databook and brought up a drawing app. I tinkered with it for most of my flight home.

Maybe if I took some art classes at school this year, I could better visualize the forms I wanted to become. Mom would love it if I studied something more creative. She didn't need to know why, of course. It could be a useful fringe benefit if I could make her a nice Christmas or Mother's Day card, as well as shape-changing effectively into a purple rhinoceros with two heads and a skunks tail. Wouldn't it?

Maybe I could get a tutor? I bet there were some art instructors at the local community center where I played ping pong.

And then there was League War 9 fast approaching. I couldn't wait to take part in that, if I could get my parents to sign the permission slip...