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Change of Power pt 4

Now, onto the boring stuff

-------------------------

DISCLAIMERS

-------------------------

This story contains scenes of an erotic and/or controversial nature, and is
not intended for the perusal of minors.  Further if perusal of such
material is considered illegal in your area or immoral by your religion or
personal beliefs, you should likewise bypass this story.

This story remains the property of the author.  Permission is granted to
download, photocopy, copy and repost so long as any such action contains
these disclaimers, and no attempt is made to profit from this story.

All characters in this story are the creation of the author, and any
resemblance to real persons, alive or dead, are purely coincidental.

This story may contain aspects of fantastic science or magic.  The
parameters of what this science/magic can accomplish are completely at the
discretion of me, the author, and, as such, I make no apologies for any
rules of "real" physics, chemistry, biology, or magic that may be broken
within the story.

-------------------------

Now onto the fun stuff

-------------------------

CHANGE OF POWER pt 4

Excerpt from the journal of Miss Jacqui Donovan, Vol. II

Day 2

Oh, Goddess!  I don't know whether to cry or jump for joy.  I was waken
early this morning by a lady about my age.  "Good morning," she says with a
cheeriness I definitely didn't feel.  "I'm to be your escort today."

"I don't suppose you could escort me in about an hour, and let me get some
more sleep?"  I asked.

"Feeling a little groggy?  That's transition lag.  Kind of like
metaphysical jet lag from arriving here."  She then reached into her belt
and pulled out a dagger.  I must've gone bug-eyed, because she just smiled
and said, "Relax."  She then pricked her own finger.  She waved her hand a
bit, and sung.  The blood on her fingertip became a mist that flowed
towards me.  I backed up a bit, but when I breathed it in, all my
exhaustion dissipated.

I got up and thanked her.  After we left my room, I asked what the blood
and song was for.  "They're my foci," she said.

When I asked her what that meant, she said, "Oh, I forgot.  You're an Orphan."

"Orphan?"

"Somebody who didn't awaken due to the training of one of the Traditions.
You see, each Tradition takes promising Sleepers who might understand the
universe from their viewpoint and trains them, hoping they'll Awaken to
their higher potential.  But there are a few, more and more these days, who
Awaken without any prompting from the higher orders, an Orphan.  And a
focus is a casting aid to help control the universe around you.  As you
follow the path to Ascension, you're able to shed more and more of those
aids.  As an Orphan, you either have your own foci or no need at all.  Me?
I use the foci of my own Tradition, the Verbena."

"The Verbena?"

"One of the groups I'm to introduce you to today.  The Verbena are the
modern day descendants of the Pagans and Druids of the Pre-civilized world.
I use things like blood, song, dance, herbs, and such as foci.  Verbena are
the masters of Life magicks."

She then took me to her section of the base, showing me some of the rites
and rituals of the Verbena.  Some of it, like the chanting and singing were
like what mom had taught me as one of the Sisterhood.  But some of it, like
the blood magic, was kind of creepy.

The next group she introduced me to was the Celestial Chorus, masters of
Prime.  These people focus through things like prayers, fasting, sacrifice.
They believe that their magick is actually a gift from the Supreme Creator.

The next group were the Dreamspeakers, masters of the sphere of Spirit, the
modern-day descendants of the shamans of old.  They get their power through
beseeching the spirit world.

Then she introduced me to the Cult of Ecstasy, masters of the Time Sphere.
How do I describe the Cultists?  You know when people who experienced the
drugs of the 60's say that they experienced new worlds and mind-expanding
vistas?  For the Cultists it was true.  I suppose that's not an entirely
fair assessment, but it was the impression they left me.  For them, their
foci are anything that provides sensation.  Drugs, sex, even pain.
Definitely not for me.

The next group was the Akashics, or more formally, the Akashic Brotherhood
(although from what I understand, more and more the word "Brotherhood" is
being dropped when referring to these folks), masters of Mind.  This was
when I discovered who my strange rescuer had been.  The Akashics are
descendants of Oriental mages who focus their power through discipline and
their martial art.

Next I was shown the Order of Hermes, masters of Forces.  The oldest
formally established order (although the Verbena and the Akashics both can
trace their lineage back much further, the Hermetics are the first to
formally unify most of their groups under a single ruling body).  When you
think of mages from most fantasy stories, sitting in their towers apart
from the world, writing new spells and doing fancy rituals, that's these
guys.

I don't think I'll be joining these guys, for two reasons.  One, they're a
little too... anal for my tastes.  Two, if arrogance were power, these guys
would already rule the world.  And that's saying something, considering the
rest of these mages' attitude.

This was when I asked Morrigan, my escort, if any of the mages lived in the
twentieth century.  That was when she brought me to meet the Sons of Ether,
masters of Matter.  These guys are like the mad scientists from old pulp
novels of the 20's and 30's.  Fancy gadgets based on obscure scientific
principles, most of which have been disproven, are their foci.

Then she introduced me to the Virtual Adepts.  Now these are guys I could
really get behind.  They're computer mages.  Their foci?  Computers,
programs, virtual reality gear.  These guys really impressed me.

That was when it happened.  Morrigan took me to meet the last official
group.  The Euthanatos.  Death mages.  Masters of the Sphere of Entropy.
Just walking into their area kind of creeped me out.  We went in when a
class was in session.  A bunch of apprentices were being trained by a
Master in the use of a knife.

Then I saw him.  At first, I thought my eyes, my heart was deceiving me.  I
thought that his visage was the result of the combination an overactive
imagination and the potential I had seen.  I saw...  Marcus.  The man I
loved, the father of my child.  Morrigan was saying something to me, but I
didn't even hear her.  I called out to him.  His head turned and then I saw
it was true.  It was my Marcus!

I ran to him and threw my arms around him.  I felt his arms encircle me,
but it was cold, perfunctory.  After far too short a time, Marcus broke the
embrace.  He looked at me, and asked, "You are well?"

I said yes, and tried to restore our embrace.  But Marcus locked up his
arms, and kept me at a distance.  He said, "I need to get back to my
class," and turned back to his class.

I stepped away, wondering what was wrong, when Morrigan asked me what was
going on.  I told her about my relationship with Marcus, and explained how
I lost him, to which, she just said, "I'm so sorry."

When I pressed her for details, she explained.  "Your lover is now one of
the Euthanatos.  The Euthanatos, in an effort to understand death, allow
themselves to experience death.  They go beyond the Veil and return.  From
the sounds of it, Marcus's Awakening experience was his dying."

"But if his Magick kept him from dying-"

"No, not kept him from dying.  Brought him back from death.  That...
changes a man.  The Marcus you see out there is not the same Marcus you
last knew."

I was stunned.  Marcus... no longer loves me?  I begged off any further
tour, and returned to my room.  Goddess, I think I will cry.

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

Bronwyn, early the next day, went into Laurie's kitchen, where the younger
woman was having a morning cup of coffee.  "Morning, Bronwyn, shouldn't you
be looking after Lani?"

"Lani is fine.  She's at the sitter's.  I figured we needed to talk about
this Jack problem."

"There's no problem."

"Laurie."

"No, Bron.  This is my decision."

Bronwyn remained silent for a few seconds before saying, "I scanned him
last night."

"BRONWYN!"

"I'm sorry, love, but I can't just stand by and do nothing."

Laurie grumbled a bit.  "I just hope you haven't provoked anything by doing
it."  They both sat in silence for a few seconds before Laurie said, "Well,
since it's already done, what did you find out?"

Bronwyn smiled.  "Honestly, not much.  His shields are... incredible.
Nothing I did could allow me to slip past even one of them.  But it was the
strangest thing."

"What?"

"When I was there, especially when I touched his shields, I got this
feeling of... familiarity.  Like I knew him."

"Is he someone you know?"

"No.  At least not someone I've known recently."

They heard feet on the steps and Bronwyn placed her fingers to her lips in
a silencing motion.  When he came into the room, Laurie said, "Good
morning,... Jack."

"Good morning, mother-darling."

Bronwyn got up, saying, "I guess I'd better go."

Jack said, "Sit down, Bronson."

Bronwyn froze in place.  "What did you call me?"

"Bronson.  Your pre-Transformation name.  I thought it'd hold enough impact
to get through to you."  Jack pointed to the chair which Bronwyn was barely
out of, and she sat back down.  "Now, where do I begin?  Let's start with
that pathetic intrusion attempt you made last night.  Now you didn't really
know, so let me explain something.  My specialty is not imitating other
people.  My specialty is combat.  And the first type of combat I mastered
was mental combat.  So while you were clumsily banging your head,
metaphorically speaking, on my shields, I went through some of your mind to
find some personal data about you.

"Now, at first, I figured I'd get some data, come down this morning, use it
to prove I had been inside your head, then make some nasty threats."
Bronwyn and Laurie got suspicious (and a little frightened) looks on their
faces.  "Relax.  I dismissed that early on.  I realized that if I
threatened you, it'd probably only provoke you.  And I don't want to fight
you."  He looked Bronwyn in the eye and said, "Either of you," in a tone
that made it clear that if he had to fight, he'd find fighting her much
easier than he cared to admit.

He continued, "Let me explain something.  There is nothing you can do, that
I cannot counter, undo, or just plain ignore.  But you can hassle me to the
point where I decide to up and leave.  But if you drive me away, know this,
I can rebuild Jack's life anywhere on the planet.  You drive me away, and
the day after, she," he pointed to Laurie, "starts finding letters of
acceptance to colleges across the country, maybe around the world, for Jack
Donovan.  Then when Jacqui gets finished with her apprenticeship, she comes
back knowing that you were unwilling to give her a decent chance at a life
as Jack, and with a great life somewhere else.  Get the point?"

Bronwyn and Laurie nodded.  Jack said, "Good.  Now I've got an early class
today, and if my senses aren't betraying me, I think we're going to have a
pop-quiz today."

After Jack left, Laurie slugged Bronwyn in the arm, and gave her a dirty
look.  "If you blow this for me, Bronwyn, I will never forgive you.  And if
you lose my daughter for me, I will never speak to you again."

Laurie stormed out of the room.  After she was gone, Bronwyn whispered,
"But I can't just sit by and do nothing."

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

Excerpt from the journal of Miss Jacqui Donovan, Vol. II

Day 3

I cried myself to sleep last night.  Then had dreams of dancing with
Marcus, like on our prom.  I woke up this morning and broke down in tears
again.  How am I going to manage this?  Knowing Marcus is just in another
part of the base, and doesn't want to be with me is just too much.

Anyways, Morrigan introduced me to the last group, the semi-official one.
They call themselves the Hollow Ones.  They're Generation X mages.  Kind of
fatalistic, but with a sense of hidden hope inside them.

There's a small group of unaffiliated mages, the Orphans.  I'm not sure
which group, if any I'm going to join.

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

Bronwyn sat in her home, trying to think of a way to, at least, keep an eye
on the Jack look-alike.  There was no way she could discuss this with
Laurie.  Not that Bronwyn blamed her lover.  If Bronwyn had been made to
choose between her child and the Sisterhood, she'd've made the same choice.
But it just wasn't in her nature to sit back and do nothing.

Most of her options just didn't seem to be of any use to her.  Whoever this
man was, he was just too powerful to be confronted directly, either with
subtlety or blatant action.  So that left only indirect action.
Shape-shifting and illusions seemed out, too.  There was no way a mage of
his power wasn't going to notice the presence of magic.  He may not have
been able to see through them (although that seemed unlikely), but he'd
definitely notice the presence.

Which pretty much left the Transformation spell.  Which had dangers of its
own.  If something happened she'd be stuck like this forever, so she had to
pick her form carefully.  He had already admitted that he had scanned
Jacqui's mind, so she couldn't look anything like herself or Bonnie.  She
thought about it for a while then cast her spell.  When she was finished,
the cute little redhead looking back at her from the mirror was exactly
like she wanted.  Sexy, without being too sexy, but also cute and pretty.

Luckily, it was still early enough in the term that a transfer student
wouldn't be too strange.  And she could choose a schedule that she wanted.
Only one or two classes with "Jack" would be necessary, and she could grab
the electives, or maybe even a computer class or two.  One thing she had
learned from Jacqui was that the Sisterhood was woefully inept in modern
technologies.  But whatever it was, she wouldn't be able to use mental
scanning to get her through the rough spots.

She'd cast the spells later that night to create the official records of...
What would her name be?  She finally decided on Nita.  But she'd create the
official records of Nita tonight, so she could get some sleep before
starting her watch the next day.

************
------------

He walked into the base and into the lab.  "I got it," he told the
scientist working there.

The scientist replied, "Are you sure you want to use this?  The Sisterhood
knows you've got it.  They may have developed counter-measures to it."

"Please.  The most effective counter-measures would've been destroying all
traces of the virus before they left the base.  But the bitches were so
concerned about their whelp that they totally overlooked making sure that
all back-ups were destroyed when they destroyed the computers.  No.  We
will do this, if only to avenge my brother's death."

"But your brother isn't dead."

The man turned on the scientist!  "Transformed into a girl?!  He might as
well be dead!!!"

The scientist cringed, "Yes, sir, Mr. Lancaster."

After Lancaster left, the scientist resumed his regular stature.  He took
the computer disk with the virus on it and smiled.  "Fanatics are so easy
to manipulate," he thought.  He stuck the computer disk into the drive.
It'd take some work to make it into a sufficient tool for his uses, but
when he finished he'd show those fools in the Brotherhood what worshiping a
Dark One really meant.

------------
************

"Nita" walked into the cafeteria.  She had checked a bit, and found out
that right after practice, a few members of the team, including Jack,
usually went to the cafeteria and had some sodas and snacks.  She had
arranged it so that her next class would be with the look-alike.  If it was
possible, she'd get him to walk her to class.

She sat down at an empty table and waited.  It was only about 15 minutes
before Jack and four other guys came in, laughing and joking.  They sat at
a table across the room from her, and continued to laugh and joke.  She was
trying to figure out a way to get Jack to notice her, when she noticed that
a couple guys were pointing at her and whispering.  She was tempted to use
her magics to amplify her hearing, but she really couldn't take the chance.

Then it finally sunk in.  Bronwyn a.k.a. Nita realized that she had become
far too reliant on her magics, but, if she was to pull this off, she'd have
to do everything she needed without recourse to even the simplest of spells.

The boys seemed to be discussing something, and from the sideways glances,
and subtle pointing, she guessed it had something to do with her.  Finally,
one of Jack's friends got up and came over to her.  "Hi, my name is Bob,"
he said, introducing himself, and extending his hand to her.

Nita placed her hand in his, and he took it and kissed it.  "My name is
Nita," she said.

"Enchanted.  Are you new around here?"

"Transferred in today."

"Need somebody to show you around?"

"Well, no, I think I've pretty much got it down.  Thanks."

"Could I perhaps entreat you to share your phone number with me?"

"Sorry, no phone number yet.  Just moved into town, remember?"

"Perhaps I could take you out next Friday so that we could get to know each
other?"

"Sorry.  Until I can get caught up, I'm going to have to devote my free
time to study.  But I will keep you in mind for the next time I've got some
free time on my hands."

Hearing that he wasn't going to get anywhere, Bob kissed her hand and
departed back to the rest of the group.  Judging by the way he was being
treated when he got there, Nita guessed that he was being razzed for
failing to score with the new girl.  She thought about it.  If she wasn't
able to make friends with "Jack", she just might be able to stay close by
getting close to his friend.  He seemed a nice enough fella, and kind of
cute.  She could do worse.

It was then that a guy, uninvited, sat beside her.  He took her hand and
said, "Hey, baby, new in town?"

She yanked her hand out of his and said, "Obviously."  She tried to make it
clear from the tone of her voice that she wasn't interested, but, like so
often happened with intrusive asses like this, he didn't get the hint.

"So what's a hottie like you doing sitting alone here?"

Turning away from him, she said, "Trying to get in some studying between
classes."

He started to get way too close to her.  "Aw, what's a babe like you
worrying about studying for?  You can land a rich guy for a husband just by
smiling and flirting a lot."

Normally by this time, she'd've sent this guy packing with a mental
suggestion or two, but restrained as she was, she could only push away from
him, saying, "Look, I'm not interested, so why don't you get lost?"

He got so close to her that she could smell what he had eaten for lunch.
"Aw, come on.  You're a girl.  I'm a guy.  I can tell you're interested."

She tried to push herself free of his grasping arms.  "No, I'm not."

Nita heard the slap of hand on fabric.  She saw a hand on the jerk's
shoulder, and followed it up to the face of, of all people, Jack.  "Lady
said she wasn't interested.  A gentleman would take the hint and leave."

The jerk looked up at him, and said, "Beat it, ball boy, find your own girl."

He turned back to Nita, but Jack said, "First off, the girl isn't yours,
and she's trying to make it clear that she isn't interested in becoming
yours.  Second, as a guy, your asinine, childish behavior is an insult to
real men everywhere.  So why don't you back off and go find some airhead
bimbo to insult?"

The jerk let go of Nita and stood up.  "Why don't I just beat me up a jock
instead?"

Jack made a face that left the impression that he was considering it then
said, "I suppose that's always something you could try."  He turned back to
his friends.  In a game show MC's voice, he said, "Bob, what's the standard
prize for a man who takes a swing at one of the team?"

Putting his hand to his ear like he had a pair of headphones on, Bob
imitated the voice of the prize announcer on The Price is Right, saying,
"Well, Jack, the standard award for someone stupid enough to take a swing
at a team mate in front of the rest of the team is a serious ass whooppin'."

"Is that all, Bob?"

"No, sir, Jack.  The offending idiot would also get the eternal enmity of
the entire sports department as well as possible suspension and criminal
charges for daring to start a fight."

"Thank you, Bob."

"You're very welcome, Jack."

Jack turned back to the jerk and, in a more serious tone, said, "Now you
can take that swing if you want, but you will get hurt.  So why don't you
do the smart thing and just go on your way?"

The man looked from Jack to the team, one of whom took the opportunity to
break a pencil in an act of symbolic promised violence, and back to Jack.
He then said, "This isn't over," and started to walk away.

As he passed by Jack, Jack said, "It is if you're smart."  After he was out
of earshot, Jack said, "Which probably means it's not over."  Jack turned
to Nita, tipped his hand to his forehead in a salute, and said, "There you
go.  One damsel in distress de-distressed."

As he walked back to the team, Nita stuffed her books in her bag and ran
over to them.  "Excuse me, could I get one of you to walk me to my next
class?  I'd rather not risk running into that guy, or someone like him,
again."

Bob asked, "What's your next class?"

"Intro to Sociology."

Jack said, "That's my next class.  It looks like you've got an escort."

Bob said, "Lucky dog," and punched Jack in the arm.

Jack just smiled and extended his elbow in a gentlemanly way.  Nita slipped
her arm through his.  He escorted her to the lockers to grab his books and
they went together to the class.  He made sure she was comfortably situated
and then took a seat a row over and two seats back.  After class, she
managed to catch him before he left.  "Can you... walk me home?" she asked.
"I guess I'm still a little freaked by that close encounter with whoever he
was."

"Sure.  That was my last class."

Jack walked her home, and, at the door, she said, "Maybe I'm being a little
forward, but transferring in late has got me flustered and a little behind.
You seemed to have your stuff together in class.  Could we get together
this weekend?  Just to study, I mean."

"Sure.  How about Saturday in the campus center?"

"That'd be great.  See you there."

After Jack left, Nita thought to herself, "This could be easier than I
thought."


----------

All comments, suggestions, etc. may be sent to me at jrdss@micronet.net



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