Sarah felt about as awkward as she could when she said the… passcode to her friend, and to her dismay, her brother was holding his mouth like he was trying to stop the laughter from coming out.

It was odd though, she could have sworn she saw Meghan on the verge of tears just before her body started convulsing into giggles.

“That really was bad, wasn’t it?”

Her brother burst into laughter, “you were like a shipwreck victim coming home to your wife after ten years on an island!”

“I-It wasn’t that bad was it?”

Sarah turned to her friend, who betrayed her by looking at her with a mix of pity and levity.

“Sorry Sarah, it really was.”

In a bout of dramatic flair, she held her head as she got down to her knees.

“The Cringe… so much…”

She dropped head first to the floor, morphing into a blob as she did.

Want to laugh at my expense, take this!

With an exaggerated motion, Sarah spewed the contents of her inventory into the empty area next to the piles of junk her brother just deposited.

The horror on her friend’s face made it worth it as she shifted back into Chimera.

It was strange, she started to associate her child persona with her ‘default’ form as opposed to her old look.

It wasn’t odd to think why, she hadn’t needed to change back into Sarah Bockman.

Hell, she didn’t even need to have Chimera’s form while she was with her brother and Meg.

Yet… it was right in a way.

After the horror and surprise left the two, Chimera turned to face them both with her arms outstretched.

“I bring gifts, tech from our old employers in a secret shady lab of theirs under the New Terra City Zoo. Enjoy!”

Meghan’s jaw hit the floor, and her brother’s eyes lit up in mischief.

“Nice to know you stuck it too them Sarah, but, why even risk it?”

Sarah took a seat on a ratty looking chair that probably existed on the street before it made it’s way inside the lab. She grinned as her body started picking up all sorts of DNA.

Seems rats and a few birds made this chair a home before.

She grimaced for a moment as she realized she didn’t have enough of the bird’s DNA to fashion wings for herself, but grabbing a pigeon off the street wouldn’t be too difficult.

Once she got comfortable, she explained the reason for her trek, and the new life she made under Chimera.

She also explained the reason for the tech, and the unfortunate truth that their old employers were supervillains.

“I ran into one of Dr. Pox’s death children. You might not know about them, Aden, but one of them was responsible for our parent’s death… along with Pox himself.”

Her brother grew silent at that.

“I remember sis.”

Sarah turned to him as he spoke.

“A green haired freak with gold eyes, I couldn’t forget it if I wanted to.”

Not Monica then.

She turned to Meghan.

“This tech didn’t have much of a security suite to protect it Meghan, but I think I would still feel better if you took a look at it.”

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

Meghan’s eyes turned to the pile of computer tech, and a hungry gaze seemed to overtake her.

“Old tech from Chemtech is still leagues better then what your brother would find in the garbage dump. Gimme.”

Her friend tore into the pile within moments, and a lightshow of different tools made their way over the tech.

It didn’t stop with the computers either, soon the junk that apparently her brother had dropped off was absorbed into the mess,

Sarah sat back in her chair as she took in her friend’s tech tornado.

Fifteen minutes later, Sarah was staring at what appeared to be a server bank with a multitude of screens, several keyboards, and a strapped up air conditioner that was, she guessed, a cooling system for the monstrosity in front of her.

The junk seemed to be connecting the rest of the parts, and despite its less than appealing look, it all seemed to function somehow.

She could make out lights as the thing booted up. It roared for a second, then ran silent as the grave once the rest of the systems finished.

“My baby, thank you so much Sarah! Gosh, with this I might just be able to run Craft Miners at full specs. Probably should take care of the spyware first though. It's a damn good thing we have no internet here… yet!”

Sarah saw her friend swivel over to her in a chair, her hands running over the keys as she seemed to magic the systems into obeying her.

“Also Sarah, I’m starting to believe that the changes that you made affected my mind in a certain way? It’s the strangest thing. I seem to have this… itch to make stuff out of junk? It’s so odd, I mean, I did love tinkering back home with my pops when my mother wasn’t home to spy on us so, maybe that had something to do with it? Either way…”

After several minutes of explaining her new thoughts and gifts, Sarah compiled it all and came to a specific conclusion.

“I got nothing.”

“W-What?”

“Look Meghan, I tried to help my brother and control it in a certain way, and now he’s probably able to bench press a tank. You already have a well developed mind, so my best guess is that whatever I did to both of you… goes where it needs to.”

“Oh! That would make sense! Your brother was sick and his muscles were atrophying from lack of exercise, so if his body deemed that an area to fix, your gifts might have just been placed there to assist his body. That would mean that your power is passive in its changes when you're not directly controlling it.”

If that’s the case… maybe I could use that in my transformations!

Thoughts for later!

“Well, either way, what’s that you got over there?”

Sarah noticed a piece of what she could only describe as poop sitting in the middle of a place where a microscope would likely have been.

“O-Oh, right! Actually, it is a good thing you came, Sarah, because I was wondering if I could integrate this into my body.”

Sarah turned to the poop, “you want that inside you?”

Meghan saw her disgusted face, her own face turning bright red, “I-It’s not anything gross! It’s a supervillain's pinky flesh!”

“Meghan, news flash, that is super gross.”

“You ate fat and dead skin cells!”

“Yeah, and I'm an amalgamation of bio organic matter. I need to eat that stuff to live, what's your excuse?”

She saw her friend squirm for a bit, “Corp-Taser… could… Shoot lightning from his hands.”

“Wha?”

“He could shoot lightning from his hands! Like one of those space knights you read about! I want that ability too!”

Sarah smiled wide, “you are a huge nerd Meghan.”

Her friend puffed out her cheeks as she fumed, and Sarah couldn't help but chuckle at the hilarity in front of her.

It was a good five minutes before she decided to acquiesce to her friend’s demands, if only so she could placate the woman’s space wizard obsession.

…

Gideon was sipping water from a straw as he stared at the ceiling.

His thoughts were a mess, the guilt in his heart kept him glued to the hospital bed, and all he could think about was why he did those horrible things.

One thing of his remained though, and that was a burning hatred for the monster girl that put him here.

He was shackled to the hospital bed after a report was sent about his allegiances, and apparently the evil villain doctor he spoke to thought it would be funny to leave a recording of their conversation for his hated teammates.

…that wasn’t true, he actually liked most of them, maybe less with Bullet but it was hard to hate Glow.

Damnit!

He growled in frustration as his endorphins flooded his mind at the thought of spending time with them again.

“Damnable monster, when I fix this and get out of this damnable place, I will smear you across the sidewalk like a bloody skid mark!”

“Good, it’s reassuring to know that you're still you in there, baby brother.”

Gideon froze, his head slowly turning to the door to his room.

Green hair, golden eyes, a smirk with just a bit of condescension.

“Crysa…”